I got used typing “sudo service --status-all”
then got used to typing “sudo systemctl list-unit-files --type=service”
now a new one to learn “sudo nitroctl list”
looks simpler
That can only be a good thing for my gnarly arthritis fingers.
Hey SteveTech
I dont use internal or external SSD’s.
It maybe because I am an old greybeard, but I prefer to suffer the slight loss in speed of a HDD, so I can dd/erase/wipe them and reuse them again and again.
Though I have been using “disktest” to erase SSD’s and HDD’s recently and it has been working great. Much faster than zeroing with dd /dev/zero, shred or wipe.
https://crates.io/crates/disktest
https://github.com/mbuesch/disktest
However, I digress, I had not heard of f2fs before.
Ive been having an intersting read online.
It appears that it is a default for android phones.
I do have a few SSD’s laying around from when I replace them with HDD’s. So I will test f2fs on one of those.
Thank you
My niece, same age. no problems so far
I installed linux mint xfce on an old laptop for her.
we set it up together and she loves it. Themes icons and all that jazz.
I have hidden and removed items from the start menu. Just to keep it simple.
I also set up some aliases so she just has to open a terminal and type “update”. she loves that. Thinks she’s a hacker now and impresses her friends.
I have set up an alias to call bleachbit, so she just types “cleanup” in the terminal, types her password, and she can watch bleachbit do its thing. I explained to her how important it is to keep her machine clean, like housework at home.
I must say, Kids are a nighmare for attracting viruses and malware using windows, its not the best age to suddenly be thrust into the slop of the internet.
They are young and excitable and will click on anything and everything that catches their attention without giving it a second thought.
Its a big plus not worrying about viruses and malware on linux.
To stop her having free reign and accidentally seeing porn on the internet and protect her from the worst crap, I installed Mullvads DNS on linux and in the librewolf browser.
Mullvad have a fabulous family dns filter; https://family.dns.mullvad.net/dns-query
here are the options:
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
I have set the search engine to Startpage
I have also taken advantage of Ublock origin and added loads of these is the: my filters list
just a few of many to stop access to certain websites from the search pane
This one stops amazon links appearing in the startpage search
startpage.##.g:has(a[href=“.amazon.”])
startpage.##a[href=“.amazon.”]:upward(1)
This one stops ebay links appearing in the startpage search
startpage.##.g:has(a[href=“ebay.”])
startpage.##a[href=“.ebay.”]:upward(1)
I spent more time on this than anthing else;
Hey pitiable_sandwich540
Thank you
I dont know why I have been so focussed and stuck on exFAT for all these years.
It must have been something I read somewhere that led me to it.
from all the decent feedback i have gotten on here, ext4 seems the best way to go.
I should have known this being a linux user for over 20 years.
Hey IanTwenty
Thank you
ext4 seems the way to go for me
Thank you Eideen
I have never used any back up programs, Maybe I should consider it.
Both Borg and Pike-backup are in the offical repos (extra).
I shall check them out
Thank you nyan
I will look into the dmask and fmask mount options.
Definitely a no! in regards to attaching my drives to any windows machine.
The last windows machine I turned on was a Windows 95 machine when they first came out.
I thank god, That I wouldnt even know how to turn on a windows 10 or 11 surveillance machine.
Thank you Hack3900
Thank you SavvyWolf
This is particularly annoying when I have to upgrade my distro and all my files have to be moved to an external drive.
Unfortunately some of my files are up to 10Gb. thats why I stayed with exFAT.
I will certainly try Ext4 on my external drives.
Thank you Eugenia
Compressisng the files sounds a great idea.
I have in fact compressed a 12Gb file that I split into 10Gb chunks that still decompresses without problems.
This is particularly annoying when I have to upgrade my distro and all my files have to be moved to an external drive.
Unfortunately some of my files are up to 10Gb. thats why I stayed with exFAT.
I will certainly try Ext4 on my external drives. I will test it this week
Hey arsus5478
There are instructions to install with wget on the git page as you mention and you seem to have folowed that guide, but the easiest way is to use APT.
For debian I would add the PPA repo:
There are clear instruction on the git page to install from apt.
About half way down the page you will see APT.
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation
APT
You can download and install yt-dlp for recent Ubuntu and other related Debian-based distributions by adding this PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomtomtom/yt-dlp
sudo apt update
sudo apt install yt-dlp
Your system’s package manager will now automatically download the correct dependencies and keep the package updated with the rest of your system whenever you update:
Done
this is a good introduction to adding an external PPA repo to apt and getting to know debian
Hey Novocirab
Thank you
Thank you
I shall update the post to title to [Solved]
new user learning
Thank you Björn
I knew someone more technically gifted in the community would have a good answer as to why this happened.
Hey BCsven
We definitely do.
“Some people go their entire lives without hearing news that good” – Neo
I install a full MX-Linux distro on an old 32Gb usb drive.
Particularly helpful when family or friends have IT problems.
I install the latest downloaded distro on a usb with dd:
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=MX-23.5_x64.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
boot into the live distro F12,
fully update the live disk.
set it up as you would your new linux device. network manager, web browser, text editor, email, VPN, etc and any tools you want.
whatever you change here goes into your new usb distro settings
once complete, install and run bleachbit as user and as root to clear all the caches and install data.
install another blank usb into the laptop
Open MX-Linux tools to create a snapshot
select Snapshot.
select a different snapshot directory. use the blank usb you just inserted,
usually: /dev/sdb
rename the snapshot to a name of choice.
once the creation of the snapshot is complete, safely remove the usb drive and shut down the live distro.
boot into your daily driver.
Insert the usb drive with the MX-Linux snapshot, and transfer it to a new folder/directory.
insert the 32Gb usb. format it with gparted, fat32 is fine
open the folder/directory with the snapshot.iso
open a terminal
then install the snapshot onto the usb with dd.
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=snapshot.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
always double check with:
sudo fdisk -l
I am sure it will creep back up once the MX 25 has been released with Debian 13 on 9th August.
https://mxlinux.org/blog/changes-coming-with-mx-25/
Optional distro downloads for Systemd or sysVinit.
use Mx-Linux on my old T450 laptop.
works great for my needs.
I have been using disktest to overwrite my SSD’s.
I overwrite the SSD’s before encryption. works just as well on HDD’s too.
A 2TB HDD takes about 3.5 hours to overwrite with the encrypted seed
A 250GB SSD takes about 17 minutes to overwrite with the encrypted seed
https://crates.io/crates/disktest
https://github.com/mbuesch/disktest
install with cargo
cargo uninstall disktest
much faster than your usual suspects like dd.
it runs as root: so add this $PATH to the root .bashrc export PATH=/root/.cargo/bin:$PATH
recent test run on 250Gb ssd with just write with no verify:
disktest --write -j0 /dev/nvme0n1
The generated --seed is: omNw4JreY1ZVAfwD4dgooF061R10Ra0vnmYv5SrU Use this seed for subsequent --verify.
Writing /dev/nvme0n1 (512 bytes sectors), starting at position 0 bytes… [15:09 / 00h:00m:10s] Wrote 7.62 GiB (8.18 GB) @ 779.3 MiB/s …
[15:26 / 00h:17m:16s] Done. Wrote 238.47 GiB (256.06 GB, 256059113472 bytes) @ 235.5 MiB/s. Successfully dropped file caches. Generated --seed omNw4JreY1ZVAfwD4dgooF061R10Ra0vnmYv5SrU
Success!
to check my SSD’s I use:
prometheus-smartctl-exporter
sudo smartctl -i -a /dev/nvme0n1
ZDNET’s key takeaways
A very hard sell, all positive, shill work.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Security is great on linux, You dont this on a desktop distro.
reliability is great on linux, You dont this it on a desktop distro.
I have been using linux for 20 years and never borked anything.
This includes distro’s: Kali, ParrotOS, Debian, linux mint, unbuntu, manjaro, arch, Archman, Blackarch, Endeavour, raspberry pi, sparky linux and the old ArcoLinux, on and on.
sounds more like androids a/b partitioning system. and look how delicate that is
apt, npm, AUR, pamac and pacman etc, have been working great for years,
never had a package break! at install.
Suitable for experienced users and lazy bastards.
With an immutable system, you are always guaranteed to have a bootable system. The updates for an immutable system have been well-tested by the developers, which means the updates are easily reproducible
All those shitty updates I installed over 20 years, none failed, and all the updates had been tested by the developers.
and more and more reasons not to go with immutability
too much hard sell