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Q&A

General Q&A about Linux and Unix-like operating systems

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60%
+1 −0
Lynis says my /etc/issue is weak - how to strengthen?

When hardening my system with Lynis I had information about /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net being found weak. Lynis redirects me to Enterprise, which is a paid product and a bit overkill for my home...

1 answer  ·  posted 18d ago by LAFK‭  ·  last activity 17d ago by LAFK‭

50%
+0 −0
How do you eval SSH agent output in fish?

SSH agent prints some envar commands for sourcing in a shell. However, these are bash-style, and I use fish. Fish barfs at the bash syntax. How can I fix it?

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

77%
+5 −0
How can I restrict filename characters?

Suppose I want to limit what characters are allowed in filenames. For example, I want file creation to fail if there is a \n in the name. Is there a way to enforce this? If it matters, I prefer a...

2 answers  ·  posted 1mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by Basile Starynkevitch‭

66%
+2 −0
How to change the keyboard layout with Gnome and Arch linux?

My goal is to use a french AZERTY keyboard layout with Arch linux and Gnome desktop environment but use US English as "OS language". Note that I am also open to a "working" solution on any other d...

2 answers  ·  posted 4mo ago by zetyty‭  ·  edited 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

50%
+0 −0
Run command with Key Combination in Gnome

Is there a way in Ubuntu (22.04) to run a given bash command for a given Key combination in Gnome (42.9)? This Ubuntu is running in Hyper-V on a Win10 host. (I would like to run the setxkbmap us a...

1 answer  ·  posted 1mo ago by Arpad Horvath‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
Ergonomic way to search man pages

You often have to read man pages to use Linux/Unix software. However, many man pages are not easy to read. They are very long, not always conveniently arranged, and man does not appear to have any ...

3 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by alx‭

66%
+2 −0
How to install mysql-server on Debian?

With Debian 12, it seems that mysql-server is not available in the "default" package distribution and thus, cannot be installed with sudo apt install mysql-server or sudo apt-get... (I know that ma...

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by zetyty‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

66%
+2 −0
How do I tweak the start parameters of GUI apps?

There are many GUI apps on my computer that show up as eg. items in the start menu. When I launch these, what if I want to control how exactly they are launched, such as setting environment variabl...

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

50%
+0 −0
In i3wm, how do I tell which screen is which workspace?

I have multiple screens and I often connect and disconnect monitors while the system is running. i3 assigns a workspace to each monitor, but does so unpredictably. Both workspaces are highlighted a...

0 answers  ·  posted 15m ago by matthewsnyder‭

66%
+2 −0
How to see all header fields of an email in mutt?

Neomutt (and probably Mutt too, but I didn't try) seems to be hiding header fields from email, such as the Message-ID field, and fields that are added by SMTP servers when they receive the message....

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by alx‭  ·  edited 2mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

66%
+2 −0
What does the "Valid" column mean in the output of "faillock"?

I was looking into unlocking my login after too many incorrect password attempts. I found this post about it. Doing faillock -user $(whoami) --reset did indeed unlock the login. However, what exac...

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  edited 4mo ago by AdminBee‭

66%
+2 −0
How to get a new IP address from DHCP?

How do I make my computer request a new IP from DHCP? I am using Arch with NetworkManager.

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How to fix the dark mode after the Gnome 1:44 update?

I recently updated Gnome to 1:44.0 and since the update my dark mode settings seem to be ignored for Gnome applications. When setting the dark style in Settings > Appearance, the desktop backgr...

1 answer  ·  posted 1mo ago by mr Tsjolder‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by mr Tsjolder‭

50%
+0 −0
In i3wm, how to create affinity between screens and workspaces?

I have multiple screens and I often connect and disconnect monitors while the system is running. i3 assigns a workspace to each monitor, but does so unpredictably. Sometimes my main monitor is work...

0 answers  ·  posted 10m ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How do I find files?

How can I search for files on my system? Ideally, I would like to search by various criteria, like date, name, extension, etc.

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

71%
+3 −0
How do you troubleshoot bwrap/wine sandboxes for Windows games?

I use Wine to play Windows games. As is well known: Wine is not a sandbox Windows games are proprietary blobs and can contain malware Windows malware can potentially harm Linux through Wine ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by r~~‭

50%
+0 −0
Do you still need to update archlinux-keyring before pacman -Syu?

For some time pacman used to have a problem where: Occasionally Arch maintainers introduce new GPG keys They start signing packages with the keys Your local pacman doesn't receive these until ...

0 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How to tile multiple small page PDFs on a single standard size PDF?

Suppose I have a PDF which is 2x3 in. I want to create a PDF with a single page, which has multiple copies of this. For example, if the small pieces are in landscape, and the large page is in portr...

0 answers  ·  posted 2mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

pdf
71%
+3 −0
Can I enter raw strings in fish to avoid escaping regexes for sed?

When running sed through fish, I often encounter a problem with regexes. Many commonly used regex control characters like []{}().+ need to be escaped, even if I type the regex in a single quoted st...

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by terdon‭

75%
+4 −0
Documentation for double asterisk glob expansion

Where can I find documentation on double asterisk in glob expansion? It is discussed in the .gitignore section of Pro Git. It works in ls **/* to list all terminal files. It is supported by py...

2 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by mcp‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭

50%
+0 −0
How to get a mailto: URI out of abook(1)

I store my address book with abook(1). https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/abook/abook.1.en.html Let's say I want to introduce some contact in some field that accepts the usual name <email&gt...

1 answer  ·  posted 2mo ago by alx‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by alx‭

60%
+1 −0
Run a command *later*

How can I run a command later? I'm looking for a CLI way to schedule a command to be run later. I know that I could create a systemd timer, install it, activate it... That is too much work. I want...

2 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by Canina‭

50%
+0 −0
Low impact trial installation of Guix to test hardware compatibility

I like how Guix sounds based on what I've read, and I want to try it. However, my partitioning scheme is a bit complicated. With Guix it appears like my biggest concern is hardware (I will regretta...

0 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

66%
+2 −0
How to change the default app for opening directories in Gnome?

I somehow managed to unknowingly change the default app for opening directories on my laptop. E.g. when I use the option open containing folder in a program like Evince, my editor (vscode) opens u...

2 answers  ·  posted 4mo ago by mr Tsjolder‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

62%
+3 −1
Simplest way of stripping leading/trailing whitespace from file or program output

What is the simplest shell idiom for stripping leading and trailing whitespace from a file or program output? Ideally I am looking for the equivalent of trim or strip methods in some languages. Th...

3 answers  ·  posted 5mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by AdminBee‭

60%
+1 −0
Rename multiple files which have a variable suffix

I compressed some JPEGs with curtail it messed up the filenames. It was supposed to only add -min at the end but ended up adding a random string after the extension 😠: prs@PC:/DOWNLOADS/Pictures$ ...

3 answers  ·  posted 2mo ago by Pr. Sunflower‭  ·  edited 1mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
Do I have to update Guix frequently like Arch?

Guix is a rolling release distro. Another well known rolling release distro is Arch Linux. In Arch, you are expected to frequently do system updates. Partial updates are not supported. In my exper...

0 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  edited 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

50%
+0 −0
How to securely erase data from a thumb (solid state) drive

How do you securely erase data from a thumb (USB/flash) drive? With traditional (magnetic/spinny) hard drives, it used to be that you could use various tools to simply overwrite with random data, ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  edited 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How to prevent keyboard layout modifications from affecting external keyboards

Using For the console: /etc/vconsole.conf ---- KEYMAP=dvorak For X Session: .xinitrc ---- setxkbmap -layout us -variant dvorak & Problem For the console, it applies the dvorak lay...

0 answers  ·  posted 28d ago by mcp‭  ·  edited 28d ago by mcp‭

60%
+1 −0
How to identify and separate standalone applications from libraries in Linux package lists?

I want to generate a list of trending Arch/AUR packages that focuses on user-facing applications rather than background libraries and dependencies. I wrote a script that uses the data from pkgstat...

1 answer  ·  posted 2mo ago by ShadowsRanger‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by alx‭

50%
+0 −0
How to see VRAM with inxi?

What switches do I need to add to see my video RAM (VRAM) with inxi? inxi -G shows my video card model and other info, but not video RAM.

1 answer  ·  posted 1mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 18d ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
Static IP on wired LAN

I have an Arch Linux machine connected to a LAN by ethernet. The router runs OpenWRT. DHCP assigns IPs to this machine like 192.168.1.* - quite typical. I want the IP to always be 192.168.1.10. I...

2 answers  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How to create ed25519 subkey in GPG?

At the moment GPG only offers the following options when generating a new subkey the with the addkey command: gpg> addkey Please select what kind of key you want: (3) DSA (sign only) (...

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by Iizuki‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Iizuki‭

60%
+1 −0
How to open a port in firewalld?

How to open a port when using firewalld as the system firewall?

1 answer  ·  posted 1mo ago by Iizuki‭  ·  last activity 1mo ago by Iizuki‭

80%
+6 −0
What are the correct permissions for `~/.ssh/config`?

I got this message: Bad owner or permissions on /Users/rbiaa065/.ssh/config What should the permissions be to make ssh happy?

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by wassied‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by r~~‭

ssh
66%
+2 −0
How do I set up my own DNS on my LAN, with delegation of public domains?

I want to have a local DNS server on my home LAN, say at 192.168.1.123. All of my machines will use 192.168.1.123 as their only DNS server when connected to my home network. By default, my DNS ser...

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Canina‭

dns
50%
+1 −1
How to change resolution of virtual terminal?

How can I rescale the Linux virtual terminals (ctrl + alt + {f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6}), so that a high-resolution display doesn't make the letters too small? I'd like to use 1080 or even 720 resolu...

2 answers  ·  posted 22d ago by alx‭  ·  last activity 22d ago by Canina‭

83%
+8 −0
Are there any legitimate uses for newlines in filenames?

Unix is very permissive with filenames, and this can sometimes lead to a bunch of annoying corner cases when printing files. A well known example is when you put a newline in a filename, and it bre...

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by terdon‭

60%
+1 −0
How to create systemd unit that depends on a website being up?

I'm going to write some systemd services. All of these can only be run if a certain website is up. I thought I could create a ~/.config/systemd/user/website.service this: [Unit] Description=Confi...

1 answer  ·  posted 4mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by Iizuki‭

50%
+0 −0
Why does $XDG_DATA_HOME default to ~/.local/share?

Why does XDG_DATA_HOME default to ~/.local/share? Why not something less cryptic, like ~/.data? Why did they decide use that path?

1 answer  ·  posted 2mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by r~~‭

xdg
77%
+5 −0
How to convert Flac to Mp3 with FFmpeg?

I have a directory filled with Flac audio files and I would like to convert them all to Mp3. How do I go about this using FFmpeg? I am using the git FFmpeg and Slackware -current.

2 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by andrew.46‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

60%
+1 −0
How do I fix a "FrankenDebian"?

I'm trying to help fix a Debian installation that has ended up with a mix of Debian release repositories, aka a "FrankenDebian". This one has the bullseye and unstable repositories listed in /etc/a...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by much‭  ·  edited 6mo ago by much‭

71%
+3 −0
What are the concrete security risks of forcibly terminating a process?

I'm using the Gnome System Monitor in Linux Mint. Whenever I attempt to "End" or "Kill" a process, I am given this warning via a modal dialog (emphasis mine): Killing a process may destroy data,...

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 3mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

66%
+2 −0
Alternating 2 keyboard layouts with Key Combination

Sorry it was a typo, _ instead of -, that caused the problem. I want to have a key combination to alter the keymaps. It worked with one for us and one for hu, but now I want to use one key combina...

1 answer  ·  posted 23d ago by Arpad Horvath‭  ·  edited 22d ago by Arpad Horvath‭

71%
+3 −0
How to invert command exit code?

How to apply a logical not to a shell command, e.g. in a Bash script? So if the command exited with 0 (success) I would like it to be changed to a non-zero value, and if it exited with a non-zero ...

1 answer  ·  posted 30d ago by Iizuki‭  ·  last activity 30d ago by Iizuki‭

60%
+1 −0
How to bypass SSH destination host key fingerprint check?

When you first connect to a host, ssh asks you about saving its fingerprint. If you do, on subsequent connections it will check the fingerprint and refuse to connect if it changed. I get that this...

1 answer  ·  posted 2mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by Canina‭

ssh
75%
+4 −0
How to RTFM well to get a CLI command

I've met with the phrase RTFM often. I recognize it's value. However the manual pages are often hard to understand and written by people who know so much about the topic at hand, that they don't ev...

1 answer  ·  posted 19d ago by LAFK‭  ·  last activity 18d ago by alx‭

66%
+2 −0
Getting a Module Error When Running Pytest Even Though the Module is Installed in the Current Virtual Environment

Hello everyone, I am encountering an issue when running pytest in my virtual environment. Although I have installed the required modules in my virtual environment using pip, I am still getting a M...

0 answers  ·  posted 5mo ago by ShadowsRanger‭  ·  edited 5mo ago by ShadowsRanger‭

71%
+3 −0
Debug NetworkManager with GDB

I'd like to debug NetworkManager by stepping through it using GDB. I assume I'll have to compile NetworkManager from source to get debug symbols since file /usr/bin/NetworkManager indicates that th...

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by Matthias Braun‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by Matthias Braun‭

75%
+4 −0
How can I use SIGUSR1 or SIGUSR2 without risk of terminating the process?

SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2 are user-defined signals. Imagine there is a tool designed to do something useful upon receiving one or the other. The problem is the default action for these signals is Term (...

1 answer  ·  posted 5mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by Kamil Maciorowski‭