Computing

KDE Impressions

These days, I often hear a lot about Wayland. And how much of effort is being put into it; not just by the Embedded world but also the usual Desktop systems, namely KDE and GNOME.

In recent past, I switched back to KDE and have been (very) happy about the switch. Even though the KDE 4 (and initial KDE 5) debacle had burnt many, coming back to a usable KDE desktop is always a delight. It makes me feel home with the elegance, while at the same time the flexibility, it provides. It feels so nice to draft this blog article from Kwrite + VI Input Mode

As we grow old, so do our computing machines. And just like we don’t decommission ourselves, so should be the case of the machines. They should be semi-retired, delegating major tasks to newer machines while they can still serve some less demaning work: File Servers, UPNP Servers et cetera.

It is common on a Debian installer based derivative, and otherwise too, to use block encryption on Linux. With machines from this decade, I think we’ve always had CPU extension for encryption.

Laptop Mode Tools 1.74

Laptop Mode Tools version 1.74 has been released. This release includes important bug fixes, some defaults settings updated to current driver support in Linux and support for devices with nouveau based nVIDIA cards.

A filtered list of changes is mentioned below. For the full log, please refer to the git repository

1.74 - Sat Jul 18 19:10:40 IST 2020

* With 4.15+ kernels, Linux Intel SATA has a better link power
  saving policy, med_power_with_dipm, which should be the recommended
  one to use
* Disable defaults for syslog logging
* Initialize LM_VERBOSE with default to disabled
* Merge pull request #157 from rickysarraf/nouveau
* Add power saving module for nouveau cards
* Disable ethernet module by default
* Add board-specific folder and documentation
* Add execute bit on module radeon-dpm
* Drop unlock because there is no lock acquired

Resources

• Source tarball, Feodra/SUSE RPM Packages available at project’s release page
• Debian packages will be available soon in Unstable.
• Homepage: https://github.com/rickysarraf/laptop-mode-tools/wiki
• Mailing List: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/laptop-mode-tools

What is Laptop Mode Tools

Description: Tools for Power Savings based on battery/AC status
 Laptop mode is a Linux kernel feature that allows your laptop to save
 considerable power, by allowing the hard drive to spin down for longer
 periods of time. This package contains the userland scripts that are
 needed to enable laptop mode.
 .
 It includes support for automatically enabling laptop mode when the
 computer is working on batteries. It also supports various other power
 management features, such as starting and stopping daemons depending on
 power mode, automatically hibernating if battery levels are too low, and
 adjusting terminal blanking and X11 screen blanking
 .
 laptop-mode-tools uses the Linux kernel's Laptop Mode feature and thus
 is also used on Desktops and Servers to conserve power

Setting up a Sony PS3 Blu-Ray Disc Remote Controller with Kodi

TLDR; Since most of the articles on the internet were either obsolete or broken, I’ve chosen to write these notes down in the form of a blog post so that it helps me now and in future, and hopefully others too.

Raspberry Pi

All this time, I have been using the Raspberry Pi for my HTPC needs. The first RPi I acquired was in 2014 and I have been very very happy with the amount of support in the community and quality of the HTPC offering it has. I also appreciate the RPi’s form factor and the power consumption limits. And then, to add more sugar to it, it uses a derivative of Debian, Raspbian, which was very familiar and feel good to me.

apt-offline 1.8.2

I am pleased to announce the release of apt-offline version 1.8.2

This release has many bug fixes along with a long standing issue of signature validation

2017 - The year of realization and change

Back in 2017, the bug was reported that apt-offline did not validate apt meta Packages files. apt-offline was only doing a signature validation for the Release files but did no validation of the apt meta Packages files, which had their checksums listed in the Release files. This validation was completely missing in apt-offline and gave the user the wrong impression that validation was in place.

Laptop Mode Tools 1.73

I am pleased to announce the release of Laptop Mode Tools version 1.73

This release includes many bug fixes. For user convenience, 2 command options have been added.

rrs@priyasi:~$ laptop_mode -h
****************************
Following user commands are understood
status      :   Display a Laptop Mode Tools power savings status
power-stats  :  Display the power statistics on the machine
power-events :  Trap power related events on the machine
help        :   Display this help message (--help, -h)
version     :   Display program version (--version, -v)
****************************
15:22 ♒ ॐ  ☺ 😄    


rrs@priyasi:~$ sudo laptop_mode status
[sudo] password for rrs: 
Mounts:
   /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p4_crypt on / type btrfs (rw,noatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,space_cache,autodefrag,subvolid=5,subvol=/)
   /dev/nvme0n1p3 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime)
   /dev/nvme0n1p1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
   /dev/fuse on /run/user/1000/doc type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
 
Drive power status:
   Cannot read /dev/[hs]d[abcdefgh], permission denied - /usr/sbin/laptop_mode needs to be run as root
 
(NOTE: drive settings affected by Laptop Mode cannot be retrieved.)
 
Readahead states:
   /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p4_crypt: 128 kB
   /dev/nvme0n1p3: 128 kB
   /dev/nvme0n1p1: 128 kB
 
Laptop Mode Tools is allowed to run: /var/run/laptop-mode-tools/enabled exists.
 
/proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode:
   0
 
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio:
   40
 
/proc/sys/fs/xfs/xfssyncd_centisecs:
   3000
 
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio:
   10
 
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs:
   3000
 
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs:
   500
 
......SNIPPED......

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_cur_freq:
   400000
 
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu5/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq:
   2001000
 
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor:
   schedutil
 
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu7/cpufreq/scaling_governor:
   schedutil
 
/proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state:
   state:      open
 
/sys/class/power_supply/AC/online:
   1
 
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status:
   Charging
 
15:22 ♒ ॐ  ☺ 😄    



rrs@priyasi:~$ laptop_mode power-stats
Power Supply details for /sys/class/power_supply/AC

P: /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
L: 0
E: DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
E: POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
E: POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
E: SUBSYSTEM=power_supply

Power Supply details for /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0

P: /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
L: 0
E: DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
E: POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
E: POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Charging
E: POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
E: POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-poly
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
E: POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7600000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8760000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_NOW=545000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6842000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6592000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=6526000
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=98
E: POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
E: POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL G8VCF6C
E: POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
E: POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1549
E: SUBSYSTEM=power_supply

15:23 ♒ ॐ  ☺ 😄    



rrs@priyasi:~$ laptop_mode power-events
Running Laptop Mode Tools in event tracing mode. Press ^C to interrupt
monitor will print the received events for:
UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing
KERNEL - the kernel uevent

KERNEL[140321.536870] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=0
SEQNUM=5908

KERNEL[140321.569526] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0 (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Discharging
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-poly
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7600000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8761000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6842000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6592000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=6526000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=98
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL G8VCF6C
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1549
SEQNUM=5909

UDEV  [140321.577770] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=0
SEQNUM=5908
USEC_INITIALIZED=140321550931

UDEV  [140321.582123] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0 (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Discharging
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-poly
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7600000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8761000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6842000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6592000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=6526000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=98
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL G8VCF6C
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1549
SEQNUM=5909
USEC_INITIALIZED=140321580812

KERNEL[140324.857185] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
SEQNUM=5912

UDEV  [140324.916156] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=AC
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
SEQNUM=5912
USEC_INITIALIZED=140324887055

KERNEL[140324.917955] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0 (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-poly
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7600000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8622000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6842000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6592000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=6526000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=98
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL G8VCF6C
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1549
SEQNUM=5913

UDEV  [140324.922916] change   /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0 (power_supply)
ACTION=change
DEVPATH=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
SUBSYSTEM=power_supply
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-poly
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=7600000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=8622000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=6842000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=6592000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=6526000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=98
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY_LEVEL=Normal
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=DELL G8VCF6C
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SMP
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=1549
SEQNUM=5913
USEC_INITIALIZED=140324922572

^C
15:24 ♒ ॐ   ☹ 😟=> 130  

A filtered list of changes is mentioned below. For the full log, please refer to the git repository.

Integrating Comments on Hugo with Isso

Oh! Boy. Finally been able to get something set up almost to my liking. After moving away from Drupal to Hugo, getting the commenting system in place was challenging. There were many solutions but I was adamant to what I wanted.

• Simple. Something very simple so that I can spend very limited time to tickle with (especially 2 years down the line)
• Independent. No Google/Facebook/3rd Party dependency
• Simple workflow. No Github/Gitlab/Staticman dependency
• Simple moderation workflow

Simplicity

First, the migration away from Drupal itself was a PITA. I let go of all the comments there. Knowing my limited web skills, it was the foremost requisite to have something simplest as possible.

User Mode Linux 5.2

User Mode Linux version 5.2 has been uploaded to Debian Unstable and will soon be available on the supported architectures. This upload took more time than usual as I ran into a build time failure caused by newer PCAP library.

Thanks to active upstream developers, this got sorted out quick. In the longer run, we may have a much better fix for it.

What is User Mode Linux a.k.a uml

It is one of the initial virtualization technologies that Linux provided, which still works and is supported/maintained. It is about running a Linux kernel as a single unprivileged user process.

BPF Compiler Collection 0.11.0

bpfcc version 0.11.0 has been uploaded to Debian Unstable and should be accessible in the repositories by now. After the 0.8.0 release, this has been the next one uploaded to Debian.

Multiple source respositories

This release brought in dependencies to another set of sources from the libbpf project. In the upstream repo, this is still a topic of discussion on how to release tools where one depends on another, in unison. Right now, libbpf is configured as a git submodule in the bcc repository. So anyone using the upstream git repoistory should be able to build it.

Linux and ARM

With more ARM based devices in the market, and with them getting more powerful every day, it is more common to see more of ARM images for your favorite Linux distribution. Of them, Debian has become the default choice for individuals and companies to base their work on. It must have to do with Debian’s long history of trying to support many more architectures than the rest of the distributions. Debian also tends to have a much wider user/developer mindshare even though it does not have a direct backing from any of the big Linux distribution companies.