data1701d (He/Him)

“Life forms. You precious little lifeforms. You tiny little lifeforms. Where are you?”

- Lt. Cmdr Data, Star Trek: Generations

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  • 155 Comments
Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: March 7th, 2024

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  • Please specify:

    • What distribution
    • What architecture
    • What desktop environment
    • What you have done so far to try to resolve the problem (e.g have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the package?)

    Based on your host name, I’m assuming it’s Arch. From what I can tell from the terminal output, Ghostscript is missing (thus the libgs.so error). Maybe try reinstalling it with Pacman. Did you update your system and it somehow got autoremoved (I don’t know Arch that well)?







  • I’d say play with Linux in Virtualbox or Hyper-V. I used the former before transitioning.

    Also, I’d say don’t use Ubuntu; it jumped the shark years ago and has lost much of its quality.

    I usually recommend PopOS for people new to Linux, as I find it to basically be decrapitated Ubuntu.

    I don’t personally use openSuSe (I’m a big Debian/XFCE guy), but its YaST settings are more comprehensive than other distros.

    However, I would warn you you might not be able to avoid config files and terminal sometimes, though. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, though; sometimes, the terminal and text files are the most efficient way to do something and a GUI simply can’t expose a program’s full power. That’s why I recommend you starting in a VM - you can have a bit of fun without the full commitment.

    As for ffmpeg, I don’t know that there is a good GUI. Honestly, though, learning command line ffmpeg isn’t the worst idea - I’ve found it very useful and something I got used to. If that doesn’t work for you, then best of luck finding a GUI.

    For trying to run applications designed for a different distro, you could use distrobox. However, it’s pretty rare these days that an application doesn’t have a universal Flatpak. Honestly, if an application is deliberately limited to one distro, I find it isn’t worth it and may signal low software quality.

    For notepad++, you could use something like VSCodium, but honestly, if you’re used to Notepad++, just run it under Wine.

    For virtualization, don’t use Virtualbox on Linux. It doesn’t use the built in hypervisor module, KVM, but its own proprietary one. I’d recommend the Virt Manager GUI instead.

    Most distros seem to have OpenSnitch in their repos.






  • Could it be a Secure Boot issue? From what I can tell, this is roughly a late Windows 8.1 era machine, and I think Microsoft already required OEMs to have Secure Boot around this time; I have a 6th gen Intel laptop (don’t know about 5th gen, which I think this laptop has) with TPM 1.2. Lots of laptops are big jerks about this, and sometimes you have to disable it at least until you allow non-Microsoft Keys.

    Also, can you change the title of your post? I feel like it doesn’t convey what you’re actually asking and sort of scares people away from wanting to respond to you. Maybe something more like “Tablet Boots to Black Screen After Attempted Debian Install?”




  • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websitetoLinux@lemmy.mlA word about systemd
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    8 days ago

    Honestly, it’s 2024, and as a result, this post gives me a bit of a chuckle. For most purposes, systemd has won, and honestly, I hardly even notice. (Granted, I have only used Linux during the systemd era.) If systemd actually interferes with one’s needs on a technological (not just a vague philosophical) level, little stops them from seeking out a way to use another init system.

    Has it gotten more difficult to use other init systems these days? Yes. However, by the time a person has a problem where systemd can’t do the job and have to use a different init system, they’re probably more than competent enough to create custom services. I also feel like in terms of software support, only the most idiotic, worthless projects have no possible way to port hem to another init system.


  • Honestly, no. I just use direct apt commands on my Debian installs for native stuff, assuming I even use the shell for that; sometimes, if it’s not a complex update that’s going to hold back 1.0*106 packages, I just use Synaptic or Package Updater, frankly, as one of those is what I have my XFCE Package Update Indicator set to use on any machine I use frequently and it’s convenient sometimes.

    As for Flatpaks, I just run the flatpak update command whenever I feel bored. I wish Warehouse GUI supported updating, just because I find it really weird that’s excluded from an otherwise pretty slick application that gets rid of me having to muck through the Flathub.

    I don’t write Rust code at the moment, and as for Python, I’m either using the Debian version of Python packages or scattered venvs that follow a de facto standard for Python developers: “What’s an update?”



  • I haven’t researched this (I don’t have kids), but out of curiosity, what type of mobile device is your daughter using? Also, I think PiHole is a solid recommendation like others recommend.

    Otherwise, from a quick Google, I don’t know of anything that can integrate both Linux PC and mobile phone screen time. Honestly, this sounds like a fun project I could implement someday if I ever had the will. However, for right now, in terms of screen time all I can think of is reading system logs (perhaps via SSH) to manually analyze your daughter’s screen time.