Rant, but not at you.

Well I would use Debian, but the last two systems I tried to install it on hung at some point in the install process. I tried multiple times, multiple downloads, multiple versions (across multiple months!), and these are two separate machines from two different vendors.

Debian is fine on my server boxes, but fuck me it’s dogshit in a consumer environment. One of those laptops has - and is an absolute necessity to have working - WWAN. I tried over a dozen distros, from ‘easy and popular’ to ‘obscure and edge-case’. Ubuntu (actually Kubuntu, I like KDE) was literally the only distro to 1) boot, 2) install, and 3) have working WWAN (after fucking with the fcc-unlock shit and filling my carrier details). Nothing, literally nothing else could do this simple task.

Linux is great, they say. It’s easy. It’s simple to install and use. It puts you in control. These are ideas that the Linux community wants to believe, that I want to believe, but it’s just not. Given the right circumstances, with the right hardware, and the right use-case, it’s good. Stray anywhere off the beaten path and unless you’re a veteran *nix sysadmin who values their time as $0, sometimes you’re just fucked. I would know, I’ve been using various distros on and off for 20 years. It’s still bad. I don’t understand how, but here we are.

I don’t like Ubuntu for a few reasons, but in my experience, the situation sucks the least when you use it. Sometimes - see above WWAN bullshit - it’s the only thing that works.

And that’s fucking bullshit, but it’s a fact. And even interested users, who like to tinker, have a limit to what they will put up with before throwing in the towel and using what works.

I’ve been subbed to the newsletter basically since it started a year+ ago. It’s nice to get a glance at what’s new/updated, but I especially use it for the “breaking changes” info as I have setup my system to basically be hands-off, if-i-get-hit-by-a-bus-it-keeps-going, except if the docker config change. I have watchtower set to run every week, a day after the newsletter, so I’ve got time to check the email and make changes if needed.

I thought “oh, I’ll just be notified through github of new releases” and went through, setting that notification up, one by one, set to be put in a specific folder in my inbox so it’s right there, no external stuff needed… I’ve never looked at that folder, except for “holy fuck there’s a ton of mail in here” and then closing thunderbird, lol. So the newsletter is essential.

Might reevaluate the “instant” part, then.

(I’ve been using docker for 7 years or so, and it’s always some bullshit like undocumented environment variables or bullshit password limitations or broken smtp implementations or the repo just assuming you are the actual dev and giving no fucking instructions at all or the container shitting itself for no motherfucking reason at random times and you try to fix it and it goes well and then you wake up and it’s restarted several times through the night…)

(eyes bulging, hyperventilating)

Open hb, edit the affected backup plan, change nothing, okay/save. Happens when you set up a service to be backed up and then uninstall the service.

Quick deploy and poking, in order: nicer UI; supposedly compatable (sync) but I couldn’t get it working; and no idea never heard of it.

The .env for the compose file is confusing and it slowed my deployment way down, but other than that, it’s pretty painless. The variable names are… not clear. Just delete all the sso stuff unless you use it, set a secret and a db password (no special chars, nothing beyond 100 chars, in my testing/struggle; at least for the db), change the url to your fqdn otherwise it will go to localhost when you log out, and disable registration after you have done it yourself. Import/export from linkding to linkwarden (and I assume vice versa) is fine.

puts it in my butt

thumbs up

I’m all in, as long as the hookers are guys. And gay. And free. And furries. And hung. And kinky. And…

I’m sorry, what were we talking about?

It’s okay, it happens to all guys at that age

Superintendent! Uhh, I was just uh stretching my USB cable on the windowsill!

moans

locates webserver hosting it, lights it on fire

You drive a gold '93 Corolla in base configuration, don’t you?

95 it is then

I literally was up until 5a this morning helping a friend try to search and distrohop because Mint, Ubuntu, and Fedora all had issues with returning to desktop mode after being put in tablet/slate mode. Keyboard and touchpad just never reenabled. It goes into tablet mode just fine, but refuses to come out. Tons of threads about disabling the keyboard and touchpad because they don’t disable for users, almost none for enabling when put back into laptop form.

It’s their first experience with Linux and I’m super frustrated.

A bit of ranting about this machine:

This is my first TP machine (X13 Gen 2, Intel) and while it is fine as a very-overpriced business unit (seriously, it should cost half the asking price - and then I paid for 5y of top tier warranty and support on top of that, as it’s my first TP and I don’t trust past praise to equal future quality), I was surprised, annoyed, to find that there is absolutely no Linux support for it. Like yeah, it shipped with win 10 pro, but several similar machines have at least Ubuntu and something else officially supported, can’t remember off the top of my head. My suspicion is that it’s due to the (lack) of cell modems in those units. I don’t think Lenovo wants these units with, I guess ‘potential liability’, getting unlocked and used in non-Windows environments. That might be all bullshit but they sure as fuck aren’t going to give an honest answer about it.

I went with the TP because it was offered through my cell carrier, so compatability was guaranteed, and because everyone is like ‘woo ThinkPad!’ but… it’s fine, but it’s not this steamrolling, ass-kicking, blazing machine and experience that I was foretold. Hell, the battery has had to be replaced just 6 months into ownership, it would last 30 minutes full to empty with mere web browsing. The replacement, now a year later, is reporting like 88% life. I use this machine suuuuper lightly, as a glorified hotspot and web browser when I’m away at conventions and stuff. If they’ve cheaper out brutally hard on something as obvious as the battery, what else have they cheapest out on?

Anyway lol. Just venting.

I tried a slew of distros - some recognize the modem, but nothing more, most don’t even see/interact with it. It took hours of combing through outdated forums, mailing lists, wiki, etc to find commands that would not only see the modem, but unlock it and connect successfully. This was found on the Debian unstable wiki, and the system would install but fail to boot on stable, so I have no idea if the instructions work for Debian. Kubuntu however, boots successfully on that machine (a ThinkPad) and the modem “works” (is seen) ootb and can be unlocked + used successfully with the rest of the commands in that wiki page.

The fact that I tried nearly a dozen distros, and I tinkerer with it for a literal month, I’m not touching shit. I didn’t want to go Ubuntu for this machine, but cell connectivity (and hotspot hosting) is a 100% requirement, so I’m using what works.

I’m a moderate nix user but fuck packaging my own drivers and figuring out what software packages are needed to enable the modem. 20 years ago, sure. Now, fuck no, it should “just work”. PTSD from wifi not working, requiring windows drivers in a wrapper, etc. I’m not diving into that again, nope nope nope.

Vista*

As a Debian user (for two servers) and a Kubuntu user (because literally nothing else that ships with KDE supports my machine’s 5G modem), I’m sorry but I’m going to have to kill you. Nothing personal, you see, but we’ve had a vote and well, it was quite strongly in favor for your demise due to the statements you’ve made.

Terribly sorry about this. bang

Debian. Vista. And somewhere around Snow Leopard, though I stopped getting upgrades around that time so fuck you apple.

These are the selections of the peak power user, and they shall not be questioned, as the punishment is using Windows 8 for a month, followed by death, which will be merciful after that month.

Nexus 6P / 5X all the way to Pixel 5 had it.

While I miss the rear scanner, I have had no issues with the under-display type in the 6/7/8. I see people online every time this topic comes up, screaming that it’s awful, but… cannot reproduce, ticket closed.