September 2025 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

finding referbished cellphones?
by Karen Lewellen 01 Oct '25

01 Oct '25

Hi everyone, I intend asking a question in Evan's journey thread too..finding this process quite interesting. We talked about cell phone hunting a bit back..the 3g network remains, but not for much longer. After doing research with the gari database, www.gari.info I am hoping to locate an LG Wine..challenge is where? Perhaps eBay? Searching is a bit of a dance. anyone have positive kijiji stories, or Facebook marketplace? I am not on Facebook, but will staff someone to manage it if there is a firm option. The data is recent enough that hopefully finding the phone will resonate. It seems my xp3 plus hope is a bit dashed. when updating the phone, the ability to hear things like text and menu options privately was removed..speech blasts out the back of the phone. Cheers, Karen

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power adapter: best place for a replacement?
by Karen Lewellen 01 Oct '25

01 Oct '25

Sorry to be a bug..but everyone is so resourceful. last move in June went rather uniquely. Including it seems the power adapters for my two cordless vacuums being removed from the box. I could spend another few light years hunting them, or I can take the cordless part with me, they recharge, and find a new one. I seriously need to vacuum the carpet here so..leaning towards the latter. I must do this in person, and do not want to spend a great deal. so..where? hidden adapter surplus? best vv for adapters? Would like to find it in the next couple of days if possible. Thanks for suggestions, Karen

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Voyage to Omarcy: Lessons learned
by Evan Leibovitch 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Since at least a few people here indicated interest in my investigation into Hyprland and Omarchy, I've discovered quite a few new things about Linux, and even a few about myself. While my discoveries are far from over -- I have barely scratched the surface of what I've found, let alone make the best of it -- I offer a small reflection on having passed a milestone in having broadly determined what works for me and what doesn't. (Implied in this, of course, is that your use case will invariably differ from mine, but some of what I found may surely have interest broader than my own.) *1. Hyprland is nice, but not for me* Giles, of course, is absolutely right. There is nothing new about tiling window managers. The current spike of interest in Hyprland (and Sway, another newish tiling WM) appears to come from a new generation of coders and enthusiasts who like the extensibility and theming without a GUI, using new and powerful tools. In these travels I've learned that the use of "rice" as a verb has found its way from car enthusiasts into modern Linux lingo, in a way that makes me feel old. *2. Arch Linux is even less for me* Arch is clearly the distro-du-jour for coders in the way that CachyOS is for gamers. It has extensive documentation, but that's because even experienced users have to RTFM. If an update renders your system unusable (and even the biggest fans on YouTube admit that happens more often than I'd find comfortable), it's more than likely your own damned fault for having missed some small print in the release notes. Rolling releases means next to no testing on how package updates may affect other packages, so enter this world at your own risk. The AUR mega-repository is touted as this great feature, but I see nothing there that isn't in Ubuntu PPAs or Fedora COPR. *3. It's all so ... retro* Watching Arch install demos (and I watched many) takes me back to the days of Linux Installfests, when local enthusiasts were *necessary* to help people through the activity of getting Linux on their PC. There was this DIY attitude, that you couldn't understand Linux (and in the eyes of some you shouldn't be using it) without knowing how it worked under the hood. Arch is very much a throwback to those days, but in 2025 it comes across almost as a backlash against Linux For The Masses. Running Arch seems less a software installation and more a rite of passage, something you graduate to after Ubuntu or Mint to demonstrate your coder cred. The joy in finally making your audio work after weeks of frustration is something I am very happy to have left behind in Kubuntu and Fedora, yet remains very much a thing among Arch users. I've lived through that kind of time-suck too many times, I'm not going to volunteer for it again if I don't have to. I see Hyprland and the various app/config packages (of which Omarchy is the slickest and most popular) as just an extension of this retro vibe, right down to the psychedelic but very 8-bit Omarchy screensaver <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClZW_c_rLKQ>. *4. Wayland is a non-issue* Except for Discord, for some reason that's still a sore point. Everything else just works for me exactly as it did under X11, and that's not a Hyprland thing. Staying with my trusty Fedora KDE still keeps me on Weyland -- and Plasma made the transition very, very well. *5. There's still some great stuff to hang onto* Despite losing the faith in what I originally called a new holy trinity, I come away from this exploration with much new that I am installing and learning as I return to the desktop I started with. In their retro quest to do as much with the keyboard and as little with the mouse as possible, the new enthusiasts have identified to me tools that are going to make desktop life far more enjoyable and productive. Many are drop-in replacements for existing commands, much like the fish shell that Ron has demonstrated at a recent GTALUG meeting. Maybe you already know these, if not give them a look. I have installed or will be installing soon: - First and foremost, the *ghostty* terminal emulator. It's a remarkable improvement over the stock KDE or GNOME terminal app that many of us use. Also available for MacOS; - *yazi*, a text-based file manager that will display graphic thumbnails under ghostty and kitty; - *neovim*, a modern update of the traditional Unix text edito*r* - *fd* which does what find does but faster and easier; - *fastfetch* for a quick and useful system snapshot; - you'd never think that someone could improve on `cd` but *zoxide* is exactly that - and finally *fzf*, a "fuzzy" file finder Maybe none of these are new to folks here. But I'm just discovering them now, and encourage others to have a look. There may be other software yet to impress me, I'd love to know what others have discovered. *6. The politics I can do without.* Two of the first comments received about Omarchy were not about the quality of the software, but the character of the project founder. I find this quite disturbing and to the detriment of the open source movement. If I was going to shun every every software project led by an arrogant, self-righteous asshole with politics I found abhorrent I probably would never have started using Linux because I wouldn't be able to use gcc way back when. Richard Stallman has repeatedly repulsed me in-person, yet I can still admire him for the software he created and the community he built. Building inclusive communities does not just mean diversity of geographies, skin tones and various forms of self-identification; it also means including people with whose views outside the git repository you don't share. We need more connections, not fewer. The only thing that should matter among coders is the quality of the work and the ability to work with others civilly. So long as one doesn't actually force their politics within their peer group or on their users I see no reason to exclude them, let alone boycott their code. I get it. The FOSS community, from its inception, leans left, It practically has to; the core concept of "use what you need, contribute what you can" is straight out of Marx. But there needs to be slack cut; not forgiveness, but at least tolerance, especially if they keep their politics out of the developers peer group Plus, consider that projects such as Omarchy now have communities of contributors, in the dozens if not hundreds. Are they all to be tarred with the sins of the founder? Is heavy-handed guilt-by-association really a useful tactic? For heaven's sake; if recent events in the US have taught us anything it's that *the heat must come down*. Everywhere. Comments welcome. -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56

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Evan's amazing mini PC
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 28 Sep '25

28 Sep '25

I think Evan's GMKtec EVO-X2 is very interesting. Not quite interesting enough for me to spend US$2k. So I've been looking around for similar things. Mostly day-dreaming. The processor is the Strix Halo: the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 The RAM is 128G. This video explains what's new and special about this processor <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maH6KZ0YkXU> I think that the coming generation of Intel and AMD processors will be similar. The key advantages over lesser AMD chips: - a lot more RAM can be made available to the iGPU; enough for fairly large LLMs. Nothing this price can touch it. - a really powerful GPU (think: gamers) Other than these kinds of uses, one step down saves you a lot of money. I found this useful article late in composing this message: <https://www.ultrabookreview.com/70442-amd-strix-halo-laptops/> GMKtec EVO-X2: US$1999 (sale price) <https://www.gmktec.com/products/amd-ryzen%E2%84%A2-ai-max-395-evo-x2-ai-min…> You can get US$200 off if you are on their mailing list. Corsair AI Workstation: C$3218.99 https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/gaming-computers/cs-9080003-na/corsair-ai-w…> Xiaomi "Star Core Super AI Computer": China-only <https://xiaomitoday.com/xiaomi-launches-strix-halo-mini-pc-with-ryzen-ai-ma…> Bosgame M5: C$2369 <https://www.notebookcheck.net/Best-mini-PC-of-the-year-AMD-Strix-Halo-128-G…> <https://www.bosgamepc.com/products/bosgame-m5-ai-mini-desktop-ryzen-ai-max-…> Frame.work desktop: C$3072 as I configured it. <https://frame.work/ca/en/desktop> Minisforum MS-S1 Max US$3269.71 (pre-order sale) The price looks like C$ but on balance, I think that it is US$. <https://store.minisforum.com/en-ca/products/minisforum-ms-s1-max-mini-pc> Obvious nice features: 2x10G ethernet, PCIe x16 Expansion, WiFi 7. Lenovo LCFC H02 (only in China?) <https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-subsidiary-LCFC-quietly-launches-new-A…> I didn't include gamer-oriented notebooks with this processor and RAM. There may be others. Bosgame is the price leader. I haven't checked the expansion capabilities. That all hinges on which optional features each of the two USB C 4.0 ports support. And then there is the cooling architecture.

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wireshark for dummies needed
by CAREY SCHUG 27 Sep '25

27 Sep '25

I got a notice from Comcast that I was nearing my internet monthly limit. June-July-August, I used almost exactly 200 GB consistently So far in September, I am up to a terabyte. I do not watch streaming videos, other than occasional short YouTube. I am not doing anything different this month. If anything, missing more online Zoom-type sessions than back in June. So I assume I have picked up a bot of some kind, most likely on one of my Windows computers I use for Zoom sessions, because the Windows Zoom client is better than the Linux one. For the moment, I have disconnected all the computers in the room where Windows runs. Network traffic on my desktop displays as negligible, but perhaps if it were infected, that would be hidden from the system monitor. A complication is that I run my Linux desktop from a general user that does NOT have sudo privileges. I su to the userid that has sudo rights, then sudo apt install packages figuring this was going to be essentially a one-time usage, I installed Wireshark without creating a Wireshark group, perhaps I need to uninstall and do that. Will it solve my problem so that the powerless desktop ID can capture packets? I think I need to capture packets for a period of time, then take that file and analyze it? A real-time monitor would be nicer, in case the infection is only intermittently active. Web search/AI says to navigate on the GUI and capture packets, I presume, then I can analyze them on the general id. 1. i can bring up the Wireshark GUI from the authority-less desktop ID 2, I cannot bring up Wireshark GUI from a sudoer or even a root terminal: root@OptiPlex-7050:~# wireshark ** (wireshark:886012) 08:10:00.286024 [GUI WARNING] -- could not connect to display ** (wireshark:886012) 08:10:00.286157 [GUI ERROR] -- This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc, wayland-egl, wayland, wayland-xcomposite-egl, wayland-xcomposite-glx, xcb. Aborted (core dumped) Is there an option I can put on the command line invocation to connect to gui? That might be easiest? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- attempting to get around, I guess i'm back to newbie status, what have i lost to senility? careyschug@OptiPlex-7050:~$ ls -altr root total 8 drwxrwxr-- 25 careyschug careyschug 4096 Sep 23 09:12 .. drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096 Sep 23 09:19 . careyschug@OptiPlex-7050:~$ sudo tshark -i enp0s31f6 -w /home/careyschug/root/wireshark Running as user "root" and group "root". This could be dangerous. Capturing on 'enp0s31f6' tshark: The file to which the capture would be saved ("/home/careyschug/root/wireshark") could not be opened: Permission denied. careyschug@OptiPlex-7050:~$ sudo touch /home/careyschug/root/wireshark careyschug@OptiPlex-7050:~$ ls -altr root total 8 drwxrwxr-- 25 careyschug careyschug 4096 Sep 23 09:12 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep 23 09:25 wireshark drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4096 Sep 23 09:25 . ---------------------------------------- I was able to start a console log and run tshark displaying to console, accumulating about 10 MB. I cannot find a way to read that into wireshark, but maybe there are other scripts to just analyze that outside of wireshark? for starters, I want to see which local computers have this presumeably excess traffic (unless the extra is not all the time and thus is not captured in my console). as a starter, I can just erase and re=image that computer since there is nothing to be saved (well i save the message logs from zoom sessions to usb disks, easily cleared off). Carey

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A new holy trinity? (Arch/Hyprland/Omarchy)
by Evan Leibovitch 27 Sep '25

27 Sep '25

Hi all, I've never considered myself much of a distribution-hopper. Traditionally I would stick with a single distribution for many years until it either folded (Caldera, Mandriva) or made a major decision that drove me away (Mint dropping KDE, Ubuntu inventing snaps). I have almost never gone TO a distribution that was unique in having something that I (think that) I want. I'm on Fedora now because it's safe and stable while being more current in its software than Ubuntu (and by extension Ubuntu-based distros). When I first mentioned Hyprland in August. Ron mentioned (correctly) that its default config is pretty basic, and unlike current GUI tools its configurations are generaly done by editing files under the ~/.config directory. I've been playing with Hyprland under Fedora (with a login-time choice between it and KDE Plasma) and installed some complementary launchers, status bars, etc. To ease the use of Hyprland, a number of people have come forward with instal scripts that would install a list of complementary apps and then install a set of Hyprland config files that would bring these components together into a nice looking system, nearly but not quite a Linux desktop that could replace GNOME, KDE or Cinnamon. And then I came across Omarchy <https://omarchy.org/>. Wow. It's not only a set of FOSS supporting apps and configuration scripts. It builds on top of Weyland and Hyprland to provide the first truly new desktop paradigm I've come across in ages. Far less mouse-dependent, makes heavy use of the "Super" key (which is either ⌘ or ⊞ depending on whether you're on a Mac or PC), very compete and very fast. Plus, its defaults can be easily changed in the config files but wow, what a reference point to start from. I encourage readers here to at least have a look at it, described in loving detail by its creator in this YouTube video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcHY0AEd2Uw>. Problem is.... it only really works well under Arch as it's closely tied to the pacman package manager and other Arch-isms. No other distros are supported. If Omarchy is the killer app that I think it is, I might just try it, which means leaving Fedora after less than a year. So after all that preamble ... my question is here, for anyone who has ever run Arch: Outside of the software-release and installation systems, is there anything significant that I would need to consider if switching? Going from Ubuntu to Fedora was utterly painless, I wonder if Fedora to Arch would be too... Any experiences with Arch, Hyprland or Omarchy are greatly appreciated. - Evan

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Wayland and my old ThinkPad x61 tablet
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 26 Sep '25

26 Sep '25

Note: this is a sort of lab-book entry. This is unlikely to be useful to you I bought this computer in 2008: <https://lenovo.fandom.com/wiki/X61_Tablet> I pulled it out of a closet and booted it. I wanted use it for the stylus. I don't have any modern Linux device with a stylus. (I've been using a ThinkPad ChromeBook C13 when I need a stylus. I've found ChromeOS's PDF thing to be useful for filling out PDF forms. I'd like Linux to be as good or better.) Fedora 24 still worked fine on the X61t. There were a few bubbles in the screen lamination, but other than that the computer worked. Oh, there are hints that the "CMOS battery" may be dead. The stylus worked in the installed Fedora 24 but not with my live USB version of Fedora 42. clue 1: the stylus is a "Wacom Serial Tablet PC Stylus" (according to the lenovo.fandom.com page) clue 2: "Note that as of version 1.0, the xf86-input-wacom driver no longer supports serial devices." <https://github-wiki-see.page/m/linuxwacom/xf86-input-wacom/wiki/How-Wacom-t…> Clue 3: Fedora 42 is using Wayland. So I'm guessing that this stylus will never be supported. I don't know how hard to work at this problem. I haven't otherwise needed the computer for about 5 years. I guess it is still viable: - it has an OK screen: 1400x1050 but a bit dim - it is convertible to a tablet. But no touch input and heavy. - 4G of RAM is enough. Apparently it could be updated to 8G - it has the original 115G SSD. Any old 2.5" SATA drive could upgrade it - the processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor - no USB 3 port - the fan seems to be constantly running. I don't remember for sure but I think that that may be normal

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A new Raspberry Pi out...
by Colin McGregor 25 Sep '25

25 Sep '25

Today the Raspberry Pi people released the Raspberry Pi 500+ an upgraded version of the Raspberry Pi 500 (which was in turn a modified version of the Raspberry Pi 5). This is all shades of the Commodore 64 / Atari 800 / Apple II / etc., namely a computer in a keyboard. With the 500+ the Raspberry Pi people have upgraded the 500 with - More memory (16 GB RAM on the 500+ vs 8GB on the 500) - Better keyboard (clicky keyboard with user replaceable keys) - Individually addressable / programmable multi-coloured LEDs under the keys - An M.2 memory spot (comes with a 256GB M.2 module) - Cost seems to be in the $250-$280 ballpark Except for the chip used to control the LEDs, the CPU / IO / etc. is effectively the same on the model 500 and model 5. Cute, I like the look, but I currently expect I will take a pass on this one. I do have a Raspberry Pi 500 which I seldom use and this doesn't offer enough "new" to be worth what they are charging... Also, at some point there will be a new Raspberry PI model <<whatever>>, if I pay for a premium keyboard I will want to be able to move it easily to a new machine (ie: unplug /replug for wired keyboards or reconfigure for Bluetooth keyboards). I don't want a premium keyboard that gets tossed when the computer.inside becomes totally obsolete. Anyone looking for more info. can go to the usual sources : https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-500-plus/?variant=500-plu… https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-500-plus.html https://www.pishop.ca/product/raspberry-pi-500-us-unit-only/

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(audio) My audio is no longer stereo
by William Park 24 Sep '25

24 Sep '25

My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it stopped working in stereo. Depending on headphones, - only 1 side has sound, or - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on both side). Anyone experienced this? How long before the whole motherboard dies?

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Re: (audio) My audio is no longer stereo
by William Park 22 Sep '25

22 Sep '25

I first noticed when viewing YouTube. So, I tried "audio test" from System Setting (KDE here). You get a popup, with "front left" and "front right" buttons. And, sure enough, depending on headphone, only mono was coming out, left side only, right side only, or to both sides. On 2025-09-21 23:46, Karen Lewellen wrote: > William > May I ask what is providing the audio for you? > Before suggesting some possible causes, I would appreciate a better > picture of your setup. > Karen > > > > On Sun, 21 Sep 2025, William Park via Talk wrote: > >> I'm using 3.5mm jack, not USB. I don't think any internal contact is >> broken, because it's the same via front "headphone" or rear "line-out". >> >> On 2025-09-21 22:14, Don Tai wrote: >>> Do you use an audio jack or USB? If an audio jack, it is possible >>> that the >>> contacts are dirty and need cleaning. You can try a little electrical >>> contact cleaner. But this should not affect the stereo/mono settings. >>> >>> On Sun, 21 Sept 2025 at 22:11, William Park via Talk >>> <talk(a)lists.gtalug.org> wrote: >>> >>> My audio used to work properly in stereo. All of sudden, it >>> stopped >>> working in stereo. Depending on headphones, >>> - only 1 side has sound, or >>> - both sides have sound, but it's mono (ie. same sound on >>> both side). >>> >>> Anyone experienced this? >>> How long before the whole motherboard dies? >>> ------------------------------------ >>> Description: GTALUG Talk >>> Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe(a)lists.gtalug.org >>> Start a new thread: talk(a)lists.gtalug.org >>> This message archived at >>> https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/2IYO2Y… >>> >>

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