Hi,

I've recently installed FreeNginx[^FN]

I would like to use the geoip_module to have some "Stats" about my visitors..\

on the documentation we can read:

... using the precompiled MaxMind databases ...

.
.
.

But on the MaxMind website I'm facing a wall:

Sorry, we were not able to create your account. Please ensure that you are using an email that is not disposable, and that you are not connecting via a proxy or VPN.

So not working... And anyway I'm not a fan of using something compiled and more over not open source...

So do you know another solution to get GeoIP data with FreeNginx ?

Thanks.

[^FN]: https://freenginx.org/
https://programming.dev/post/12566209?sort=Old

I hate how capcut has gotten to. Ive tried davcihi resolve but i find it isint as easy as capcut. I want to try a open source video editor for my linux mint laptop that is really free and so easy even a child could learn it.

Im up for suggestions or a change of my mindset.

My first hurdle is understanding that i need to add a boot sequence and navigate to the EFI file in my mounted pen drive.

second hurdle is understanding i need to disable secure boot so that the dell bios doesnt think something is wrong and always run the bios repair program.

third is understanding that i need to disable Intel rapid storage for the full install (luckily linux mint tells us this)

and honestly the hardest thing was installing fastfetch cuz theres a lot of outdated information out there on how to install it on Mint.

the process took about 4 hours, i consider it very lucky that i was able to do it so fast.

resources that helped me:

https://devicetests.com/boot-usb-uefi-mode-dell-inspiron-workaround

https://youtu.be/FY-OSdd1ByQ

Hello, i have problem because i can't make it work for like a week. I tried a lot of different configurations and every time i try refind with encryption when refind starts there is no menu entry for encryptred disk, but with no encryption everything works fine. I looked a lot on arch wiki, some install scripts on github and i do what they do and it doesn't work. Maybe anyone could help?

Script i actually use:

execute_refind() {

BLKID1=$(blkid -s UUID -o value $ROOT)
BLKID2=$(blkid -s UUID -o value $CRYPT)

    refind-install --usedefault "$ESP" --alldrivers
    touch /boot/refind_linux.conf

    if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "yes" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" == "btrfs" ]
    then
        cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF 
"Boot with minimal options"   "rd.luks.name=$BLKID2=artix root=UUID=$BLKID2 rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM  rw add_efi_memmap quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET" 
EOF
    fi

    if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "no" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" == "btrfs" ]
    then
        cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF 
"Boot with minimal options"   "rootflags=subvol=/@ root=UUID=$BLKID1 rw add_efi_memmap rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM initrd=@\boot\booster-$KERNEL.img quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET" 
EOF
    fi

    if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "yes" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" != "btrfs" ]
    then
        cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF 
"Boot with minimal options"   "rd.luks.name=$BLKID2=artix root=UUID=$BLKID2 rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM rw add_efi_memmap quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET" 
EOF
    fi

    if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "no" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" != "btrfs" ]
    then
        cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF 
"Boot with minimal options"   "root=UUID=$BLKID1 rw add_efi_memmap rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET" 
EOF
    fi

        execute_modules
}

Linux users who have Secure Boot enabled on their systems knowingly or unknowingly rely on a key from Microsoft that is set to expire in September. After that point, Microsoft will no longer use that key to sign the shim first-stage UEFI bootloader that is used by Linux distributions to boot the kernel with Secure Boot. But the replacement key, which has been available since 2023, may not be installed on many systems; worse yet, it may require the hardware vendor to issue an update for the system firmware, which may or may not happen. It seems that the vast majority of systems will not be lost in the shuffle, but it may require extra work from distributors and users.

On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).

The affected malicious packages are:

• librewolf-fix-bin
• firefox-patch-bin
• zen-browser-patched-bin

The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.

We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.

Follow up

There are more packages with this malware found.

• minecraft-cracked
• ttf-ms-fonts-all
• vesktop-bin-patched
• ttf-all-ms-fonts

What to do

If you installed any of these packages, check your running processes for one named systemd-initd (this is the RAT).

The suspicious packages have a patch from this now-inaccessible Codeberg repo: https://codeberg.org/arch_lover3/browser-patch

The Arch maintainers have been informed of all this already and are investigating.

Coming about three weeks after DXVK 2.6.2, the DXVK 2.7 release adds support for the VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer Vulkan extension by default on newer AMD and NVIDIA GPUs to significantly reduce CPU overhead in games like Final Fantasy XIV, God of War, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Watch Dogs 2, and others.

Source

trixie (aka debian 13) is about to get released with plasma 6.3. it seems that finally x11 is being left behind, which is good, but it worried me a little bit because

1. my nvidia graphics card is old: the 470 driver is the latest version that supports it (so no wayland support from nvidia proprietary drivers ever)

2. on bookworm (debian 12, the current stable version), nouveau works pretty well, but it crashed more or less daily when i tried to daily drive it at work

x11 is still very well supported by plasma 6, but the near future has no place to it and i worry i would eventually get stuck without updates to my system as the newer versions lose x11 support. i decided to try wayland+nouveau again on trixie to see if i had better luck this time

it all worked way better than i expected. performance is seemingly on par with the proprietary driver, i've had no crashes so far and i've been using it for a week and even screensharing, one of the most problematic aspects of the experience last time i tried, worked well. the one problem i had was with the slack flatpak, which didn't support wayland for some reason, so it had to run on xwayland. screen sharing wayland applications from x11 apps is possible through the xwaylandvideobridge, which kinda works, but it crashed xwayland entirely at one point, killing both x11 applications i had running. i won't blame that on the system itself and installing the slack deb package fixed the problem anyway

all in all, it seems like i can safely switch to plasma 6+wayland+nouveau at work

Back again haha, I asked a little while ago about making the switch from Windows to Linux and general consensus was maybe don't, as I use my PC for work doing voice acting, music production, and digital art.

Anyway, my PC has been crashing lately so I may be at the point soon of re-installing my OS, so I may as well bite the bullet if/when that happens. Right now I'm making some backups, making a list of Linux programs I'll need, and just trying to get my ducks in a row so I'm not scrambling if I wake up one morning and have to do the thing. Which brings me to Distros.

I've done some research into it but already but there are a bunch of options (thinking maybe Bazzite or Fedora?), and I'd rather know what I'm going with if my PC dies so I don't have to waste time trying to figure it out then. My PC specs are:

Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11400F @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Obviously the priority is to get up and running but I'd really like to use a distro that I can learn some as well. I've installed Mint on an old laptop (recommended for being similar to Windows) but ideally I'd like a distro that's a bit more Linux-y. I'm ok taking some extra time getting up and running, though I'm not at a point for something like Arch yet haha.

EDIT: Wow, lots of comments, thanks! I think I've been overthinking it overall based on these responses. I have Mint on my old laptop and it works well, but had issues on my main laptop (Samsung Book3 Ultra) which I've read has to do with Samsung in general. I also had some issues with Nvidia on it but that may have been a Samsung issue more than anything else. My main PC uses Nvidia so I was under the impression that some distros just don't play well with it and wanted to make sure I used one that worked well with that graphics card.

Bottom line, I've been looking into Linux over the past few weeks and there's still distros mentioned here that I've never heard of haha. It seems really intimidating (hence why I asked) but I'm getting the impression that, at least for now, I'll just go Fedora to start when I bite the bullet. Arch looks really interesting but again, seems intimidating coming from Windows.

Like the window thumbnails gnome extension? Prob the main thing keeping me on gnome right now.

How accurate are the dates for upcoming releases typically?

Extending the vote to here since well it is Linux. I probably should have posted here first but oh well. Let me know which genre of Tux game you would want made first.

This is a story all about how... one sad old sack finally “got” Linux distros.

I've been a very casual Linux user over 20-odd years, mostly on secondary PCs and generally sticking with noob-friendly distros, but only in the last few months I’ve become serious and started to learn the how and why of Linux.

Like many others, this year is my own personal year of Linux on the desktop. My server, media box and laptops are all now running Fedora, only my primary PC remains left behind on Win10 because of critical software keeping me tied to Windows - but from next week that is no longer needed and the shackles are off! I've sampled several different Distros this year to find the perfect fit for this very moment, but this search reminded me how the sheer number of distros annoyed me.

I've always seen the vast number of Distros as wasteful. Effort that could be put into pushing Linux forward rather than creating another fork sideways. I'm not sure now what I thought a distro actually was but I've now come to realise the genius of this (not to say there isn't any replication and waste between Distros).

I had settled on KDE Fedora as my distro of choice some time ago. Then, when I found the idea of an immutable distro, this appealed (to help prevent my dumb-arse breaking things), so I pivoted to Kinoite to give me exactly what I wanted. All I needed was to work out how to get Steam running. Many of you can probably already see where this is going.

In a moment of Picard-level face-palming, I started exploring Bazzite thinking this would give me an idea of what's required. The distro itself looked good and when I went digging deeper, I found an Immutable, Fedora base in either KDE or Gnome. Bazzite is basically Atomic Fedora, pre-configured for gaming! Face-smack. Maybe I thought Bazzite was based on Arch which is why I hadn't looked at it before, but now I better understood the genius of Linux distros. The Bazzite team could take the core of what they want, then tweak it for a specific use-case and release it, thinking others might like it too. They're not reinventing the wheel as I first believed, they were building upon previous work. One of the greatest strengths of open source. I probably already knew this but somehow, I hadn't quite put the pieces together in one place.

TL;DR: I’m a numpty

Tune in tomorrow when I argue that no one should recommend Arch to anyone - and why that's a good thing...

(Also extends to people who refuse to use Linux too!)

Every unique Linux Desktop setup tells a story, about the user's journey and their trials. I feel like every decision, ranging from theming to functional choices, is a direct reflection of who we are on the inside.

An open-ended question for the Linux users here: Why do you use what you do? What are the choices you've had to make when planning it out?

I'll go first: I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with the Niri Scrolling Compositor(Rofi, Alacritty and Waybar), recently switched from CosmicDE

I run this setup because I keep coming back to use shiny new-ish software on a daily basis.

I prefer this over arch(which I used for 2 years in the covid arc), because it's quite a bit more stable despite being a rolling release distro.

I chose niri because I miss having a dual monitor on the go, and tiling windows isn't good enough for me. Scrolling feels smooth, fancy and just right. The overview menu is very addicting, and I may not be able to go back to Windows after this!

This was my first standalone WM/Compositor setup, so there were many little pains, but no regrets.

Would love to hear more thoughts, perspectives and experiences!

I've got some great Linux swag from Ubuntu Korea, but I've been looking to buy new clothes lately and would love to rock more FOSS.

I see a couple websites that sell FOSS branded clothing, but does anyone have good experience buying high quality hats/tshirts/sweaters/active wear from any of these online retailers? Bonus points if the retailers donate proceeds to development

Clickbaity title on the original article, but I think this is the most important point to consider from it:

After getting to 1% in approximately 2011, it took about a decade to double that to 2%. The jump from 2% to 3% took just over two years, and 3% to 4% took less than a year.

Get the picture? The Linux desktop is growing, and it's growing fast.

The device in question is the USB dongle for my 2.4 GHz wireless headset. Everything works fine except for volume control, so it is stuck at max volume, regardless of where the volume slider in pavucontrol is. Volume controls within individual websites and programs work, but it seems that the system volume control is delegated to the USB device, which itself has no concept of volume control. This is the case with both pulseaudio and pipewire. Is there a way to limit the system-wide volume before it reaches the dongle?