Brickfrog

@ brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts

12
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536
Joined

3 yr. ago

3d ago

Rolling my First Self-Made Router
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1

Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3d ago

Should I use PFsense or OpenWRT?
I wouldn't recommend pfSense unless you're already invested in it (e.g. already have a pfSense setup and want to transfer your config files and settings over). Netgate (parent company) has been moving towards their paid versions (pfSense Plus and TNSR), the Plus version is free if you buy their router otherwise will cost you some money for a subscription. And meanwhile they stopped providing current downloads of full installs/builds of the free community pfSense so actually getting the current 2.8.1 is a hassle now - you're expected to download their Netgate installer that needs internet access to download the full install while installing the router software, or you need to download/install an older version of pfSense (2.7.0 I think) and then get online to update it to 2.8.1.
Just went through all that doing a re-install, it's crazy that I need to have internet access to install the router that will provide internet access LOL.
OPNsense is a well known alternative. OpenWRT could work too but I haven't used it personally.

5d ago

Anyone remember . . . Tetris?

https://github.com/ddhhhkj/tetris-android last updated a year ago

That's interesting, not sure that I trust an AI coded game enough to load onto my phone. But it is amusing seeing an AI project using the copyright "Tetris" name, most human coders aren't brave enough to re-use the name itself. But AI is gonna AI I guess.

5d ago

Anyone remember . . . Tetris?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 5d ago

Ah you just reminded me, I remember Tttris / Titris being one of the better free open source Tetris clones on Android way back. No ads, no need to be online, just a good standalone Tetris clone for Android. I still have the old .apk, might be the same as the last one published to F-Droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.seavenois.tetris/ but like you said eventually stopped being updated & isn't compatible with current Android phones nowadays.

Now you got me thinking about this again, wish I had a good suggestion. Will be following this post, maybe other people know about some other good ones.

1w ago

Older Nvidia GPU not working under Kubuntu 26.04 / Plasma 6.6

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1w ago

On Debian the older Nvidia GPU would still work fine with the default Nouveau driver (open source non-Nvidia), I think(?) it'd be the same on Kubuntu/Ubuntu. Since it was an upgrade maybe you just need to re-enable Nouveau on your system? It's not something I've ever done but doing a quick online search came up with some instructions here https://gist.github.com/vredchenko/42381e9cff3f1e162cb47cfd6479c459 , it looks more or less correct I'd just double-check before rebooting that Nouveau is not being blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d

You could try that & see how it goes before doing anything more drastic. You're not going to do any heavy gaming with Nouveau but it should handle day-to-day tasks fine.

2w ago

Data recovery query

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 2w ago

Like the other comment mentioned I'd try https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec first.

Just a heads up with proper data recovery it's usually a good idea to dump an image of the media card to your drive and do any data recovery attempts against that image, not the media card itself. I would usually use ddrescue for that but you'll probably be okay with standard dd too if the card itself is fine (as you said the deleted files were user error, not a failing card).

PS - You should definitely not use the media card in the camera until you're done with recovery attempts, the more you use it the less likely you'll recover anything off it.

3w ago

Is there a reason why the piracy scene here is so dead?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

At the very bottom is a menu with an entry called “Instances”. Click that to see lists of linked and blocked instances.

Just FYI that does not tell .world members about which communities lemmy.world admins block. Whether on purpose or accidental lemmy.world admins are a bit secretive about which communities they block, there is no published list anywhere I could find. If you find one let me know but AFAIK it does not exist.

So per your example .world members can see that instances are linked and federated (including dbzero) but there's no indication about any blocked communities on those linked instances.

3w ago

Is there a reason why the piracy scene here is so dead?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

You would need to view the instance directly, not through lemmy.world due to the lemmy.world admins blocking it. I'm not sure if lemmy.world admins block links to it too but if you need a link look up all the Lemmy instances at https://lemmyverse.net/?order=active

Divisions by zero is currently the 7th most active Lemmy instance.

From there you'd just have to decide if you want to create an account at that instance itself, or just create an account at a different Lemmy instance that isn't blocking piracy communities. I think lemmy.world admins may be the only ones actively blocking piracy communities.. I haven't heard of other admins at other instances doing that.

3w ago

I2P and I2Pd: any more information?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

Not an expert but I think originally I2Pd came about due to performance reasons as well as for people that don't want to run Java. The idea being that it would run faster and more memory efficiently vs the Java app. Nowadays I'm not so sure there's a huge difference but I can't say that I've done any intensive testing on both.

There is a minor difference between the two if you plan to use bittorrent over I2P and want to use the I2PSnark torrent client. The I2P java app is the the only one that supports bittorrent DHT over I2P with the I2PSnark torrent client. From https://i2p.net/en/docs/applications/bittorrent/#general-guidance-for-developers

DHT support requires SAM v3.3 PRIMARY and SUBSESSIONS for TCP and UDP over the same session. This will require substantial development effort on the client side, unless the client is written in Java. i2pd does not currently support SAM v3.3. libtorrent does not currently support SAM v3.3.

In practice that's not a huge deal, people who wish to torrent usually add open I2P trackers onto torrents to work around the lack of DHT but it would be nice if DHT support were more universal within the I2P ecosystem.

1mo ago

Tips to use RDP on Debian

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I'm on Debian but have been using GNOME with its built-in RDP server since it's Wayland compatible.. But before I did that I had also set up XRDP so here's a few ideas :)

I just installed Debian with XFCE. I installed XRDP but for the life of me I cannot get it working.

Are you using XFCE with Wayland or X11? XRDP currently only works with X11. Make sure the user you are using to RDP with is able to log in normally with XFCE + X11 before attempting RDP.

Also RDP logins only work with Linux users that are not currently logged in at the desktop so make sure you're logged out before testing.

Also double-check that the xrdp.ini file looks right, particularly the incoming port it is configured to use. (on Debian it is in /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini). When I initially configured XRDP the port setting was strangely configured, it was set with port=vsock if I remember correctly and that wasn't working.. I had to change it to a regular port number. Also consider changing the port number if necessary, I had to change mine but only because Gnome's own RDP server was already using the default port 3389. (if you change xrdp.ini settings make sure to restart the xrdp service)

Also double-check that the XRDP service is active and running (sudo systemctl status xrdp) - on my end the service would stop running when the port number config was wrong which meant it was no longer listening to incoming connections.

1mo ago

Torrents and removable storage

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

You don't need to but #1 could be a bit easier if you prefer multiple torrent clients/instances for organization. qBittorrent / Deluge can run multiple instances so you could have like qBittorrent "A" instance pointing to your internal SSD and qBittorrent "B" instance pointing to your external HDD. That's just a quick example but I'm sure Transmission and other torrent clients can do the same.

The only tricky bit with multiple torrent clients is that they'd each need their own incoming connection port if you intend to be fully connectable (port forwarded). That may not be feasible if you're using a VPN that only gives you 1 port forward but otherwise it's doable, depends on your setup.

1mo ago

Aria2c works, but Qbittorrent is fucked

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

In qBittorrent what is the Status of DHT, PeX, LSD when you click on the torrent and click its Trackers tab?

I’m on CGNAT

Your own torrent peer is not and cannot be connectable (port forwarded), unfortunately.

Not sure if you'll be able to get much improvement, it'll always be slow or impossible depending on the amount of connectable peers in the torrent swarm. But you should be seeing okay-ish speeds if the torrent you're trying to download has tons of connectable peers. Does the torrent you're downloading have a lot of seeds/leeches on it?

PS - If you're saying everything usually works fine then something changed, could try restarting your internet router just to rule that out.

1mo ago

Appimage disappear after installing

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

Most AppImage files are full compiled applications on their own, no need to "install" anything. Just run them directly to start the application.

You may need to expand in your post what it is you're doing exactly? Or maybe you downloaded the one Appimage that is an installer for something and it is designed to remove itself after installation? Doubt that is what is happening but can't entirely rule it out.

1mo ago

Advice for upcycle build

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

CPU: socket LGA1200 era Intel Celeron
DRIVES: 4 SATA, 1 PATA, 2 NVME

Just wanted to mention that PATA hard drive may need to sit this one out, depends on whether you want to buy more stuff beyond a motherboard. LGA1200 means you're using motherboards built from roughly 2020+, it would be highly unusual to find a motherboard with a PATA port in this decade or even last decade. So to use that drive inside the server you're looking at buying some type of adapter (I've seen PATA-to-SATA adapters but can't vouch for any in particular) or a PCIe card with PATA ports if those exist. Or to use it externally you'd have to hunt around for an old IDE-to-USB enclosure or some other type of USB adapter to have the drive sit outside the server.

I have a few old PATA drives myself but actively using them seems like more trouble than it's worth

1mo ago

Bitwarden 100% price increase

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

The link is from February 1st, about a blog post in January. I clicked here thinking Bitwarden just raised their subscription price again haha.

1mo ago

Recommend me a USB to SATA adapter that actually works on Linux

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

The last ancient USB to PATA only adapter I once had did actually support SMART stats, but apparently the adapter’s firmware didn’t support drives over 128GB

So close, you almost had it!

Same, been thinking of just keeping an eye out at thrift stores and such for an antique USB drive enclosure.. one that isn't a Maxtor OneTouch, heh. Or maybe my idea of a janky PATA-to-SATA connected to SATA-to-USB will actually work for SMART info by some miracle.

If I had more space for storing old tech I'd maybe just adopt or buy an ancient desktop that actually has PATA ports in it. I've actually seen them come up on Craigslist, like ancient Compaq desktops from back in the day before SATA existed.

1mo ago

Recommend me a USB to SATA adapter that actually works on Linux

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

Your post title and post body are asking for two different things :P Tons of SATA to USB adapters and drive enclosures work well on Linux, that part isn't too difficult.

But what you probably want is one that has both UASP support and TRIM support for best SSD support. Here's the tricky part, even if the adapter or drive enclosure has TRIM support that doesn't mean it was auto enabled in the Linux system it was plugged into. Often times Linux can't tell if an adapter or drive enclosure has TRIM support so the safe thing to do is to not enable it by default. That means you can see the drive supports TRIM, hdparm says the drive supports TRIM, yet when you run fstrim it still complains that TRIM isn't supported.

Take a look at

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#External_SSD_with_TRIM_support

and https://glump.net/howto/desktop/enable-trim-on-an-external-ssd-on-linux

If you already have an external adapter or enclosure that claims TRIM support but it isn't working in Linux maybe try to enable TRIM and see how it goes?

For what it's worth I do have a drive enclosure, with ASMedia ASM1351 chipset, that claims TRIM and UASP support but by default fstrim still won't run TRIM on any drives inside it. If I get some free time maybe I'll see if I can get Debian to enable TRIM on the device just for testing but it could be a bit.

EDIT: Confirmed the instructions in archlinux seem to work and I was able to temporarily enable TRIM on my external drive enclosure to successfully run fstrim on an SSD inside it. I only did a quick test, setting provisioning_mode to "unmap" so it'll lose TRIM configuration once I disconnect the drive or restart the system. You'll probably want to go the extra step and set up udev rules to keep it enabled.

Tested on Debian with a Startech S251BMU313 (USB 3.1 enclosure for 2.5" SATA drives with ASMedia ASM1351 chipset). In theory the archlinux instructions should work with any external USB adapter or enclosure with TRIM support.

Also note the instructions are a bit confusing, I did notice that running sg_readcap immediately resets the configuration in provisioning_mode so in my case I had to avoid re-running sg_readcap after enabling "unmap".

EDIT2: Forgot one important tidbit :P for whatever reason the actual echo "unmap" command in archlinux would not work for me, I think you may need to have root permissions to actually do that? Instead I ran this with my non-root admin user:

        echo unmap | sudo tee /sys/block/sdX/device/scsi_disk/*/provisioning_mode

Replace sdX with the drive device you're working with. I'm not entirely sure why the above command works for me in Debian, and not the archlinux version, but figured I'd document it here just in case.

1mo ago

Recommend me a USB to SATA adapter that actually works on Linux

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

That's good info! I've been looking around for a PATA to USB adapter with SMART support and haven't had a ton of luck narrowing one down. Thinking offhand I may need to cobble together a PATA-to-SATA adapter connected to a SATA-to-USB adapter to actually get some SMART info moving from a PATA drive via USB. It's not the only way to do this but it would be a lot easier if it can be done via USB :/

Also some fun info since you mentioned PATA adapters - The Maxtor OneTouch II is a terrible ATA enclosure, especially on Linux. For whatever reason the built-in chipset does some sort of disconnect right at the end of long operations like formatting, partitioning, etc. so you're never entirely sure if the command worked correctly. I guess it was designed with Windows in mind, or maybe its Linux compatibility isn't 100% there. And of course no SMART info gets passed through.

2mo ago

Router of choice?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 2mo ago

Right now using a pfSense router, it's been working well but I'll eventually replace it with hardware to run OPNsense (pfSense fork) when the time comes.

If you're mainly just worried about wireless I'd just look into something to run OpenWrt or maybe FreshTomato if you're sticking to older hardware. I have an older Linksys wireless router that is compatible with FreshTomato firmware so it's been running on that and works well for my own usage, nothing fancy.

2mo ago

Bring Back the Burned CD— They’re a love language. And a reminder of the hope we once had.

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 2mo ago

Feels like the article is slightly off base, the people today looking for something physical and memorable have been buying vinyl. In 2026 most people I know don't have a CD player let alone a CD burner. But lots them do buy and play vinyl and have record players for that purpose.

Or.. if the article is just a nostalgia deep dive then why the commitment to CDs? You could do the same passing around USB sticks if the purpose is to share music with friends.

Also wonder if the article writer's own discs actually still work, burned discs don't last that long. They mention having a whole box of old discs but I don't know if they actually tried to play them and checked them for errors. A while back I was doing some data recovery for a friend who had all her stuff burned to discs over the years, turned out about 20% of her discs were either unreadable or full of errors.

2mo ago

What about letter fonts? Are they libre?

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Brickfrog @lemmy.dbzer0.com 2mo ago

I was reading into this recently too. My understanding is that Debian + LibreOffice install the Liberation Fonts by default so usually you don't need to worry about documents using Ariel and Helvetica (Liberation are metrically compatible replacements).

After further reading I ended up also installing the Crosextra fonts, the advantage of those two is that they are metrically compatible with Microsoft's Calibri and Cambria. Once installed in theory LibreOffice should be able to open documents that had those Microsoft fonts and auto replace them with the open versions. (there's a setting in LibreOffice to force font replacements but it didn't seem like I needed to do that in my case)

Some more info on that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croscore_fonts#Crosextra_fonts

The Crosextra font packages in Debian

https://packages.debian.org/trixie/fonts-crosextra-carlito

https://packages.debian.org/trixie/fonts-crosextra-caladea

Also interestingly - if you do really, really want some of Microsoft's fonts they are free to install but I don't think you actually get a license to distribute/publish with them. I didn't bother installing these but could be useful for someone with tons of old MS Office documents with lots of random MS fonts.