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What industry secret are you aware of that most people aren't?
  • I've been using a password manager for years, and.I'd be lost without it, but honestly I think this is a temporary solution. What I want to see is a no password future, and just use the code given by your MFA app. Forget having a password at all. Interestingly Microsoft has been pushing for this and you can already drop passwords for personal 365 stuff I think.

  • What industry secret are you aware of that most people aren't?
  • Yeah, no. Computers don't care if a password is complex or not. It can't read "words". That complexity stuff was introduced because humans think like humans, and wanted to force people to use words not easily found in a dictionary. Security is about password length, so +@#£h&1g/?!:h&£( is equally as vulnerable to a brute force attack as abcdefgh1234567 because of how modern encryption works, it I length that counts.

    It is good advice to use a formula to build memorable passwords. I like a simple sentence you can type them without thinking about, as this also won't appear in a dictionary (avoid famous movie quotes, use something meaningful to you).

    Fact is complex passwords created a new security risk; the written down password. Also, frequent forced password changes made it worse. Most businesses only ask staff to change passwords every 3 to 6 months these days. And web sites.never asks you to change your password.

    The dirty (not so secret) secret is that, the biggest risk to security is not how complex your password is, but how easy it is to trick people into just giving away access to their accounts.

    These days MFA is what makes logon credentials safer and passkeys are slowly proving that passwords themselves are not worth it for most systems.

    tl;dr - complex passwords are a throwback and not better than long memorable ones like 1Verycrappycode!

  • How do I change the default login screen?
  • It is blank right now. I'm looking at xrandr right now, but a basic check into sddm.conf suggests I can't set resolution in there, but can't call scripts. Might come back to this though.

  • How do I change the default login screen?
  • (Edited for clarity) This was interesting. It gave me arandr to generate a script which is great for lazy me. That script "works" in that it doesn't give any errors when I test it, but it actually doesn't have any effect on the login screen. In fact with more digging i discovered that xrandr just doesn't work at all. I tried setting the display to a lower resolution (default is 3440x1440 so I used 1920x1080) in the control panel to test the xrandr command but xrandr tells me the mode (3440x1440) is not found. I looked again in xrandr and saw that any resolution higher 1920x1080 is not listed any more. I reset the resolution back to 3440x1440 in the control panel then looked in xrandr again and all the expected resolutions are listed again.

    xrandr errors when I try to set my display to anything other than the setting it is currently using. Either I'm don't something stupid with the syntax (99.999% confident I'm doing it right), or xrandr is broken with my setup. Maybe kde plasma 6 and wayland is giving me grief here? My PC has an AMD 7900XT GPU, so maybe it just doesn't like my GPU for some reason.

    Here is the output from xrandr for my current settings:

    DP-1 connected primary 3440x1440+0+1080 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 800mm x 330mm
    HDMI-A-1 connected 1920x1080+758+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 520mm x 290mm
    

    Here are the commands I'm using in the Xsetup script.

    xrandr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 758x0 --rotate normal
    xrandr --output DP-1 --primary --mode 3440x1440 --pos 0x1080 --rotate normal
    
  • How do I change the default login screen?

    I have 2 screens attached to my EndeavourOS (KDE Wayland) PC. The secondary is HDMI the primary is Display Port. The boot menu and boot messages all appear on the primary display, but once the login appears the password entry defaults to the secondary. How do I force it to default to the primary?

    12
    What's the dumbest blockbuster movie you have seen that somehow received high praise?
  • Did you watch the one with Decker's voiceover, or without?

    Apparently the common experience is watching it without voiceover first makes it harder to watch. But watching it with voiceover first makes rewatching it without, more interesting. Or something like that.

  • What Era was the best and why was it the 90s?
  • The music. The early 90s saw the rise of independent record labels which then gave rise to bands who wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise, aka Indie Music. After the 60s, the 90s is by far the best era for modern music ever.

  • Oh tell me again how it loads faster and takes up less resources
  • I have the same problem the other way around. When I use chrome it feels like I'm using a kids browser. Slightly cutesy with too many curvy bits. Sort of like the difference between Duplo (chrome) and Lego (Firefox). Basically the same thing, but also not.

  • am I depleting my embedded notebook's battery by leaving the power cord constantly plugged in?
  • My son has a gaming laptop that is plugged in constantly. I vaguely remember reading that all modern laptops protect the battery to some degree, though not sure how. I'm guessing it is by using the mains while charging. Not sure what the damage is to a battery that is constantly fully charged.

  • What do you wear for work?
  • I'm confused why men still wear suits. They look like school uniforms to me, and make men look like overgrown school kids.

    Women have far more choice, and the equivalent clothing items on when would be considered too casual. Time this shit changed.

  • Things I want to be functional in Linux

    I've been trying various Linux flavours every year for 10 years or so. The last year I tried Arch, then EndeavourOS, which has been my most successful Linux exploration I've ever had, and given me huge hope. However, there are still a few things preventing me switching it to my default OS.

    I'll put aside Games that need Anti Cheat, as I doubt that will ever be fully fixed, unless Governments force game devs to support more than just Windows.

    Here is what doesn't work for me:

    1. Streaming services like NowTV. (Works in Windows in browser only)
    2. DRM proected VST's for use with Reaper (not via Wine)
    3. Roblox (Using Waydroid was not very successful)
    4. Office 365 (I like Libreoffice and OnlyOffice but fact is Word and Excel are just required for some stuff)
    23
    What happened to glibc-widevine ?

    I watch the F1 on NowTV. In windows this works fine in Firefox but not in Linux. My research turned up various posts linking to the "widevine" package that depends on "glibc-widevine" but that seems to have disappeared. What happened to it? did it work? where can I get it? is there an alternative?

    7
    Example - Here is a reusable systemd timer template that will run a script on a schedule under a specific user id

    I recently moved to Arch (EndeavourOS) from Mint. Arch doesn't have cron installed as it uses systemd timers instead, and while I could have just installed cron that felt like a lazy answer.

    Systemd timers are easy enough to use and I got it working straight away, but I bumped into a comment in the Arch wiki about using a template for the timer so it can be re-used. I'm a bit slow, so I spent a hours trying to work this out, but I couldn't find a good example. Anyway, I now have it working so I thought it would be useful for someone in the future for easy reference .

    This is how you create a timer template that can be reused to run a oneshot service under a specific user. In this example it will run on the hour every hour.

    Create the timer file.

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/everyhour@.timer

    Paste the following into that file, save and close.

    ``` [Unit] Description=Run %i every hour

    [Timer] OnCalendar=--* *:00:00 Persistent=true Unit=%i.service

    [Install] WantedBy=timers.target ```

    Create the service file for the script or command you want to run. (using "myscript" in this example)

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myscript.service

    Paste the following into that file, save and close.

    ``` [Unit] Description=My Script

    [Service] User=username group=username Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/command -parameters ```

    Now enable and start the timer

    sudo systemctl enable everyhour@myscript.timer sudo systemctl start everyhour@myscript.timer

    1
    Hey Linux devs - Build a GUI or gtfo

    Not everything actually requires a GUI, obviously. But anything that requires configuration, especially for controlling a hardware device, should have a fully functional GUI. I know Linux is all about being in control, and users should not be afraid to use the command line, but if you have to learn another bespoke command syntax and the location and structure of the related configuration files just to get something basic to work then the developer has frankly half arsed it. Developers need to provide GUI's so that their software can be used by as many people as possible. GUI's use a common language that everyone understands (is something on or off, what numeric values are allowed, what do the options mean).

    Every 12 to 18 months I make an effort to switch to Linux. Right now I'm using Archlinux, and it has been a successful trip so far, except my audio is screwed, I can't use my capture card at all, I had issues with my dual displays at the start, and the is no easy way to configure my AMD graphics card for over clocking or well anything basic at all.

    I'm not looking for a windows clone, I love that I can choose different desktop environments and theme many of them to death. I even like the fact there are so many distros. Choice is a big part of linux, but there is clearly a desire to get more people moving away from Windows and until that path is 95% seamless most people just won't. Right now I think Linux is 75% to 85% seamless depending on the use case and distro but adding more GUI front ends would, imho, push that well into the 90% zone.

    GUI is not a dirty word, it is what makes using a new OS possible for more people.

    EDIT: Good conversation all. This is genuinely not intended to be a troll post, I just feel it is good to share experiences especially on the frustations that arise from move between OSes.

    118
    Distorted audio from Focusrite 2i2

    Using KDE plasma, Archlinux, Pipewire, Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen

    Audio from built-in audio and via GPU into display speakers all works fine but audio through my Focusrite is badly distorted, like it is running at super-low quality.

    I've spent most of today trying to work out how to make pipewire use the right bit/sample rates. It. This should be a basic GUI feature, and certainly shouldn't need to sudo edit cryptic files to configure this stuff. I use Reaper and I'll need to change bit / sample rates from time to time, so having to make with config files is just nuts. This should be a basic function available in the control panel (Like windows has had for decades). / rant

    Anyway, I genuinely want to fix this problem and would really like a GUI tool for it, but a working config edit will do at this point. I can' also make a script to tweak it on demand I suppose.

    There is a video that suggests building a new kernel driver for it, which is even more nuts for something so basic.

    13
    Multi-monitor and Adaptive sync issues hold me back from making the switch to Linux

    System spec - Ryzen 3700X CPU - AMD RX 7900 XT GPU

    I got an AMD GPU specifically because I wanted to switch to Linux. I've done a bunch of testing over the last year while I still had an nVidia card. Now I've got an AMD GPU I feel ready but it has not gone well.

    When I use multiple monitors I get a range of odd behaviours, including a white screen, lock ups, failure to display anything on second screen. I've unplugged the second screen for now and all is OK except that adaptive sync does not work properly.

    When I set adaptive sync to "Always" in the settings the screen sort of flickers when I move the mouse. To be more precise the screen gets a bit brighter when the mouse is moved, then returns to previous slightly dimmer brightness when the mouse is stopped. There are no errors that I've found.

    Both of those issues happen in fresh Fedora 38 and Arch Linux installs. I'm running KDE-plasma (using Wayland not X) so it seems like a KDE issue. Though I'm about to test it with a Fedora and gnome install next, though I doubt it will be any different.

    EDIT: Small update. Running Arch/KDE. I have found I can get it sort of working. I boot the PC with a single monitor (my 165Hz ultrawide) and set it to 60Hz, then turn on the second (1080p 60Hz) monitor. At this point I can set the then changing the ultrawide to 165Hz and set adaptive sync to automatic, but I have to do this process everytime I turn my PC on. Also, if it goes to sleep or I want to shutdown/reboot it goes mad again and things lock up. I have to turn off the second monitor off before I reboot/shutdown, or before I goes to sleep. Then I have to go through the whole process again. Obviosuly not ideal.

    EDIT2: Turns out it was the old LCD I was using as a second display. It has been around a very long time, and while it always worked OK it clearly doesn't like something about how Linux talks to it. Anyway it is working now. Though Adaptive sync on the desktop is still flickery.

    12
    homelab @lemmy.ml mub @lemmy.ml
    Worlds cutest mini server and comms rack

    Server

    • Lenovo M700 Tiny Mini PC i7 6700t / 16GB RAM / 256GB M.2 + 1TB SSD
    • OS - Linux Mint
    • Hosting - Plex, qbittorrent, SMB, Minecraft, Terraria

    "Core" Switch

    • TP-Link 5 Port Gigabit Switch

    WIFI and Internet Router / Firewall

    • Ubiquity Unifi Dream Machine
    0
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)MU
    mub @lemmy.ml
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