• 2 Posts
  • 183 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 16th, 2023

help-circle
  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldtoLinux@lemmy.mlTimeshift
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Looking at your error it’s because Rsync is erroring.

    I’d starr by testing Rsync with an individual text file saving to /dev/dm-0 and see what error is returned.

    Timeshift is good but it basically is just a tool to use Rsync to save a copy of your system folders (or other folders if you wish).

    Rsync needs to be able to read the source and write to the destination, so I’d start with testing that Rsync is able to do that.

    Given you’re using an encrypted partition it’s possible you’re trying to read/write to the wrong locations. You’ve provided device UUIDs but you’d probably actually need to be backing up the mounted decrypted locations? I.e. the root file system / will actually be a mounted location in your Linux set up, probably under /run, with symlinka pointing to it for all the different system folder. Similar for /home/ if you want to back up personal files.

    The device UUID would point to the filesystem containing the encrypted file (managed by LUKS) which will have very limited read/write permissions, rather than directly to the decryoted contents / or /home partitions as you’d expect in a normal system. In particular if /dev/dm-0 (looks to be an nvme drive) is an encrypted destination then really you also want to be pointing directly to it’s decrypted mounted location to write your files into, not the whole device.

    Edit: think of it like this, you don’t want to back up the encrypted container with Timeshift, you want to back up the decryoted contents (your filesystem) into amother location in your filesystem (encrypted or decrypted). If the destination is also an encrypted location you need to back up into its file system, not the device where the encrypted file sits. So use more specific filesystem paths not UUIDs. That would be something like /mnt/folder or /run/folder not /dev/anything as that’s hardware location, and not directly mounted in an encrypted filesystem unlike how it can be in a non-encryoted system.


  • 100% CPU use doesnt make sense. RAM would be the main constraint not the CPU. Worth looking into - maybe a bug or broken piece of software.

    Also the DE may he more the issue than the distro itself. You could install an even more lightweight desktop environment like Open box. Also worth checking whether youre using x11 or Wayland. Its easy to imagine Wayland has not been optimised or extensively tested on something like your device, and could. Easily be a random bug if the DE is pushing your CPU to 100%

    There are super lightweight distros like Puppy linux.


  • In terms of KDE dependencies, you’re talking basically about QT. The amount of packages you download shouldnt be too much and likely used for other QT programs which are common.

    However there is also GSconnect which is a Gnome extension and uses the KDE connect protocol.

    I would say that your concerns regarding the KDE Connect dependencies should be balanced against the good Android and iOS support, and the wide use of KDE connect means it is well maintained, supported and responsive to security updates. These considerations may outweigh the installation of packages that you otherwise won’t be using? It may be better to go mainstream and accept the dependencies than hunt down a lesser supported alternative and deal woth the associated shortcomings.


  • Interesting question, I’d imagine that one major limit would be the number of cores your CPU has available. Once you got to more VMs than cores, I’d guess things would quickly grind to a halt?

    But I wonder if you could even anywhere near to that point as on searching only L2 VM is mentioned on various sites and that is with warnings of severe performance limitations and for development testing only. While L3 might work the problems may get too bad you can’t practically go beyond that level?


  • The key is getting out at the right time, and that is weighed massively against small investors. The big investors and institions control the market and can move quickly while small investors cannot.

    Tesla is not doing well - look at its falling sales. It’s a risky stock to hold. The AI companies are also highly risky stocks to hold.

    That doesn’t mean don’t hold them - all anyone is saying really is that these are high risk investments, and at some point they are going to probably crash because it’s a bubble.

    That doesn’t necessarily mean “don’t invest”. It does certainly mean be prepared to get out fast and also only use money you can afford to lose when investing with such high risk stocks.


  • It’s about short term vs long term costs, and AWS has priced itself to make it cheaper short term but a bit more expensive long term.

    Companies are more focused on the short term - even if something like AWS is more expensive long term, if it saves money in the short term that money can be used for something else.

    Also many companies don’t have the money upfront to build out their own infrastructure quickly in the short term, but can afford longer term gradual costs. The hope would be even though it’s more expensive, they reach a scale faster where they make bigger profits and it was worth the extra expense to AWS.

    This is how a lot of outsourcing works. And it’s exacerbated by many companies being very short term and stock price focused. Companies could invest in their own infrastructure for long term gain, but they often favour short term profit boosts and cost reduction to boost their share price or pay out to share holders.

    Companies frequently so things not in their long term interests for this reason. For example, companies that own their own land and buildings sell them off and rent them back. Short term it gives them a financial boost, long term it’s a permanent cost and loss of assets.

    In Signals case it’s less of a choice; it’s funded by donations and just doesn’t have the money to build out it’s own data centre network. Donations will support ongoing gradual and scaling costs, but it’s unlikely they’d ever get a huge tranch of cash to be able to build data centres world wide. They should still be using multiple providers and they should also look to buildup some Infrastructure of their own for resilience and lower long term costs.


  • It does make sense for Signal as this is a free app that does not make money from advertising. It makes money from donations.

    So every single message, every single user, is a cost without any ongoing revenue to pay for it. You’re right about the long run but you’d need the cash up front to build out that infrastructure in the short term.

    AWS is cheap in the sense that instead of an initial outlay for hardware, you largely only pay for actual use and can scale up and down easily as a result. The cost per user is probably going to be higher than if you were to completely self host long term, but that does then mean finding many millions to build and maintain data centres all around the world. Not attractive for an organisation living hand to mouth.

    However what does not make sense is being so reliant on AWS. Using other providers to add more resilience to the network would make sense.

    Unfortunately this comes back to the real issue - AWS is an example of a big tech company trying to dominate a market with cheap services now for a potential benefits of a long term monopoly and raised prices in the future. They have 30% market share and already an outage by Amazon is highly disruptive. Even at 30% we’re at the point of end users feeling locked in.


  • Even this won’t be enough. Each age is still basically a disruptive reset of the game.

    It’s interesting looking at metacritolic where formal reviews give the game a score of 79 out of 100, while the player score is 3.7 out of 10, and the Steam score is 49% positive / 51% negative.

    A great example of what bullshit much of the gaming press spouts. People will have spent their hard earned money on this trash based on nonsense reviews.

    Now we have this constant stream of “news” from the devs / publisher about how they’re going to fix their broken game.

    Civ Vii is fundamentally a broken game, released by a big publisher to be a DLC machine like it’s predecessors. But unlike Civ VI, or games like Cybperunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky, it is fundamentally broken as a design. This isn’t going to be redeemed with patches and content updates like those other games; it needs to be fundamentally be rebuolt. It’s unlikely the publisher will have the patience or willingness to fund that.

    I think once we get through this financial year the publisher will decide to cut it’s losses, release a couple of crappy DLCs next year rather than actually fix the game and possibly even move on to Civ 8. They’ll talk a lot about how they listened to gamers for Civ 8 - glossing over the money gamers have wasted on this shit fest.


  • I have a mini PC I use as a console, works great. I run Linux and don’t get this crap. This is unfortunately a windows “feature”, although it’s frustrating Firefox is making use of it. Presumably Firefox has an update and is “letting you know” about it’s features. Presumably this can be turned off within Firefox, but other apps may do the same from time to time. It’s crazy Windows allows this to be drawn over a full screen game.

    FYI as an alternative Linux on a mini PC can be set up like the Steam Deck interface to be truely controller only. Windows games run great (I’ve completed Cyberpunk 2077 on mine for example), but one limitation is anti cheat games may not work. If that affects games you’d want to play then either stick with windows or dual boot Linux and Windows and switch to windows if you ever want to play an anti-cheat game that doesn’t work in Linux. But Linux in gamescope mode is perfect for gaming, with none of this type of nonsense.


  • The republicans have a clear path to win, the election is a toss up between the two parties at this point.

    If the Democrats just assume public anger will mean they are going to win the midterm then they’re doomed. Despite everything Republican support is holding in the polls. Things are so polarised that Republican voters will seemingly accept anything of their party rather than accept a Democrat.

    1/3 support dems, 1/3 support republicans. The key is the 1/3 of voters who are not engaged in politics or hate both parties. The only way the dems can win the midterms is getting off their arses and speaking to those voters. But rightly, those voters are fed up with the shit fest that is US politics.

    The midterms are going to be down to the wire, and sadly I wouldn’t be surprised if the republicans win.


  • Rust or mold, it doesn’t really matter. As other have said it’s on the outer part of the circle - the bit contacting the outer glass thread. The inner circle is the plug that contacts the contents and is clear.

    If it feels scratch with a finger nail its rust, if it’s soft and scrapes off its mold. But as I said it’s not in contact with the contents so it doesn’t matter.

    Also the contents of the jar are pickled. That means brine or vinegar, which is highly acidic and is what keeps the food fresh/prevents mould and bacteria. So if the pickles themselves look fine then they’ll be fine to eat. If the pickling had failed the contents would be mouldy.

    Rust would make sense as the content of the jar is acidic and acids accelerate rust. There could be small pockets of air left at that location when you seal the jar and some fluid inevitably gets forced out as it is sealed; air plus acid is perfect for rust. But the jars internally themselves were otherwise well sealed as there is no rust in the inner bit of the circle, suggesting it plugged the jar contacting the fluid directly and no gas was left.

    This likely reflects the jar lids are not quite perfect for the jar or possibly not screwed on to their perfect max tightness leaving air behind at those locations. But they were screwed on well enough to seal the content.


  • So in terms of hardware, I use a Raspberry Pi 5 to host my server stack, including Jellyfin with 4k content. I have a nvme module with a 500gb stick and an external HDD with 4tb of space via USB. The pi5 is headless and accessed directly via SSH or RDC.

    The Raspberry Pi 5 has H.265 hardware decoding and if you’re serving 1 video at a time to any 1 client you shouldn’t have any issues, including up to 4k. It will of course use resources to transcode if the client can’t support that content directly but the experience should be smooth for 1 user.

    For more clients it will depend on how much heavy lifting the clients do. I my case I have a mini PC plugged into my TV, I stream content from my pi5 to the mini PC and the mini PC is doing the heavy lifting in terms of decoding. The hardware on the pi5 is not; it just transfer the video and the client does the hard work. If all your clients are capable then such a set up would work with the pi5.

    An issue would come if you wanted to stream your content to multiple devices at the same time and the clients don’t directly support H.265 content. In that case, the pi5 would have to transcode the content to another format bit by but as it streams it to the client. It’d cope with 1 user for sure but I don’t know how many simultanous clients it could support at 1440p.

    The other consideration is what other tools are being use on the sever at the same time. Again for me I live alone so I’m generally the only user of my pi5 servers services. Many services are low powered but I do find things like importing a stack of PDFs into Paperless NGX is surprisingly CPU intense and in that case the device could struggle if also expected to transcode content.

    I think from what you describe the pi5 could work but you may also want to look at higher powered mini PC as your budget would allow that.

    For reference I use dietpi as the distro on my server, and I use a mix of dietpi packages (which are very well made for easy install and configuration) and docker. I am using quite a few docker stacks now due to the convenience of deploying. Dietpi is debian based, and has a focus on providing pre configured packages to make set up easy, but it is still a full debian system and anything can be deployed on it.

    Obviously the other consideration in the pi5 is an ARM device and a mini PC would be X86_64. But so far I’ve not found any tools or software I’ve wanted that aren’t compiled and available for the Pi5 either via dietpi or docker; ARM devices are popular in this realm. I have come across a bug in docker on ARM devices which broke my VPN set up - that was very frustrating and I had to downgrade docker a few months ago while awaiting the fix. That may be worth noting given docker is very important in this realm and most servers globally are still x86.

    If I were in your position and I had $200 I’d buy the maximum CPU and GPU capability I could in 1 device, so I’d actually lean to a mini PC. If you want to save money then the Pi5 is reasonabkr value but you’d need to include a case and may want to consider a nvme or ssd companion board. Those costs add up and the value of the mini PC may compare better as an all in one device; particularly if you can get a good one second hand. There are also other SBC that may offer even better value or more power than a pi5.

    Also bear in mind for me I have a mini PC and pi5; they do different things with the pi5 is the server but the mini PC is a versatile device and I play games on it for example. If you will only have 1 server device and pre exisiting smart tvs etc you’ll be more reliant on the servers capabilities so again may want to opt for the most powerful device you can afford at your price point.




  • Regardless of all other considerations, Israel should be removed given the highly suspicious voting that got Israel to first place. In the public vote and second place overall. Israel’s song was mediocre and barely registered during the contest, got mediocre scores from the professional judges, and it was not a commercial success before or after the contest, and yet somehow it won the popular vote.

    If Israel had won it would have done permanent damage to the Eirovision song contest as there is strong suspicion the vote was rigged. People can vote up to 20 times so it is feasible to manipulate the vote at relatively low cost if focused in a few countries.



  • For me it sort of stimulated my brain and got it going again.

    I had a bad bout of depression in my early 20s, and the first time I took antidepressants I remember noticing how vibrant all the colours were, how much sound there was. It was like everything had been dulled and a veil had been lifted.

    However it was not an instant cure - the first effects just showed how bad my depression was. It took weeks and months for things to gradually improve.

    The next thing I actually noticed changing was my motivation to do things started lifting. For me it was a positive, if slow process. But it can be a negative thing ironically - people can be motivated to commit suicide and it’s why it’s one of the ironic risks of antidepressants at first. Take antidepressants under close medical supervision.

    But eventually my mood did lift. It was very gradual. And I didn’t really notice it until moments of laughter came back or I found joy in my hobbies and interests again.

    I would say antidepressants don’t just lift mood in one go. I’d think it move of mood swinging up and down around a centre. When you’re depressed your mood is centred at very low, and swings around very low and a bit less low. What antidepressants do is gradually move that centre up back toward normal. So at first you swing between very low and a bit less low, then between quite low and low, then a low and a little low, then a little low and normal and eventually you’re centre hits normal. Then you swing between a little low and a little high.

    The antidepressants keep you at that level - they don’t make you endlessly happy, they just return your centre to where it should be. (For.some people they can tip into mania and over but that’s uncommon).

    I stayed on antidepressant for nearly 2 years and finally came off. That’s when things got better - the antidepressants did the lifting but I also learnt the warning signs of depression and could be vigilant in the future. Coming off antidepressant when I was ready, the centre of my mood was in a good place but swings up and down were bigger/back to normal so I could have really good times again, but also some bad times. The difference with the bad times was they didn’t last, plus they were “appropriate” to life’s events and struggles. I didn’t need the antidepressants to.maintian that. But that is just for me - I know some people stay on antidepressants for life to achieve the same outcome.

    I also knew when to ask to go back on antidepressants. I needed short courses of 3 months or so a couple of times. I actually had a terrible episode of depression again for over a year after a traumatic life event and the doctor denied me the medication saying I was just “grieving”. I had a terrible bout of depression lasting nearly 2 years and nearly killed myself. That depression thankfully finally lifted itself but it really damaged my trust in the medical profession (and I’m a doctor myself)

    For me antidepressants work. They’re not a magic wand and they’re not the whole solution however. Sadly people don’t get access to other useful parts of the solution like CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) - I didn’t for example. But you can learn strategies to cope, prevent your mood dropping so low, and recognising when your mood drops. For me a the antidepressanrs were a tool to get me back to a normal centre ground/baseline while I learnt how to manage things. And they were and are a tool I’m prepared to go back to should things ever go bad again.


  • Yes of course it caused rent rises, and it makes sense that it would. It’s a fast efficient railway system and people want short commutes. Tube stations are always hotspots for property prices and rent.

    This is really not a surprise.

    What is not covered in the article is there remains a major housing shortage in London. Rents have gone up 28% in 3 years including away from the Elizabeth line which is shocking but is treated like it’s normal.

    There are multiple factors in that including high inward migration to London, and a shortage of new properties to match the influx. Property is also treated like a commodity with rich foreigners owning property as an investment in London’s market. Other countries actually deal.woth that nonsense while the UK continues to embrace it even to the detriment of many of its citizens.


  • When I lived in London I didn’t need a car because the transport network is so good. Now I live in Manchester I do need a car because the transport network isn’t anywhere near as good.

    For me I work in the NHS and work at different sites. One site is about an hour walk from home (or 30mins bus) and I often walk to work. But the other sites just aren’t reachable in a timely manner even though by car it’s only 25mins away. I’d have to get a bus and 2 trams.

    Unfortunately many workplaces outside the city centre are not directly accessible by public transport, so ars become a necessity. Meanwhile in London there is essentially a mesh of rail and buses making commuting on public transport more feasible.

    The ultimate solution for me at least is expanding public transport but that’s politically broken in the UK. HS2s main benefit was actually freeing up capcity on the existing rail network - in Manchester that would have unclogged lines that could have become commuter railway lines with trains every 10mins. I have a station 10mins from my house by its useless for getting about as the line is mainly west coast trains heading into the city centre. Local trains that stop at my station are 1-2 an hour at most.

    So electric cars will have to fill the gap.