Nuke it from orbit: https://www.aaron.ai/
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, the doctors have started using AI voice agents and they understand jack shit. πππ
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Hm, I donβt think so, the requested page was a Linux-specific post. π€ I sometimes wonder if privacy-oriented browsers might do this on purpose, to create garbage data? π€ No idea.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I honestly wish I could do more than just sit here and wait. Itβs just a matter of time until they remove X.Org from the repos. π«€ But I really canβt dedicate so much time to this β¦
I give up.
Letβs try again next year. I donβt have the stamina. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
Canβt set up a meaningful taskbar: https://github.com/labwc/labwc/discussions/2924 (This is not a labwc issue, itβs a generic issue in the broader Wayland ecosystem.)
HTTP referrers are quite broken, arenβt they?
Because of that recent storm on my blog, I had a peek at them. Thereβs a lot of garbage in there. For example, https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/disks-virtual.html is supposed to refer to one of my blog posts β¦
Whatβs going on here?
@bender@twtxt.net Even I donβt believe in that anymore. :β(
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Donβt remind me about Morse. I really wanted to learn that and tried so for quite a while, but no success. π’
@aelaraji@aelaraji.com And I read the following funny response to that:
Bluesky: Users verify their age by adding a payment method or uploading a photo ID.
Mastodon: Users verify their age by posting pictures of the vintage computer equipment in their homes.
https://beige.party/@maxleibman/114848276288629121
π
AI this, AI that.
Tech is no longer interesting. I need to find a new field.
(β¦ maybe followed by βtmux Thursdayβ to cool down β¦)
Thinking about doing βWayland Wednesdayβ. Only use Wayland every Wednesday. Collect bugs, report bugs, fix bugs.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org 06.jpg is quite funny. Block the road for 30 minutes! %)
@bender@twtxt.net Hm, it is now. π€ I should have made a screenshot when I first saw it.
setpriv
on Linux supports Landlock.
@prologic@twtxt.net Yeah, itβs not a strong sandbox in jennyβs case, it could still read my SSH private key (in case of an exploit of some sort). But I still like it.
I think my main takeaway is this: Knowing that technologies like Landlock/pledge/unveil exist and knowing that they are very easy to use, will probably nudge me into writing software differently in the future.
jenny was never meant to be sandboxed, so it canβt make great use of it. Future software might be different.
(And this is finally a strong argument for static linking.)
Looks like hereβs something wrong with Markdown parsing. π€ The original twt looks like this:
>This extension was turned off because it is no longer supported
Thanks Google.
This browser was uninstalled because it absolutely sucks!
So only the first line should be a quote.
setpriv
on Linux supports Landlock.
Landlock is still young and a bit unpolished, but itβs slowly getting more popular. π₯³
setpriv
on Linux supports Landlock.
Another example:
$ setpriv \
--landlock-access fs \
--landlock-rule path-beneath:execute,read-file:/bin/ls-static \
--landlock-rule path-beneath:read-dir:/tmp \
/bin/ls-static /tmp/tmp/xorg.atom
The first argument --landlock-access fs
says that nothing is allowed.
--landlock-rule path-beneath:execute,read-file:/bin/ls-static
says that reading and executing that file is allowed. Itβs a statically linked ls
program (not GNU ls).
--landlock-rule path-beneath:read-dir:/tmp
says that reading the /tmp
directory and everything below it is allowed.
The output of the ls-static
program is this line:
βrwβrββrββββx 3000 200 07-12 09:19 22'491 β /tmp/tmp/xorg.atom
It was able to read the directory, see the file, do stat()
on it and everything, the little x
indicates that getting xattrs also worked.
3000
and 200
are user name and group name β they are shown as numeric, because the program does not have access to /etc/passwd
and /etc/group
.
Adding --landlock-rule path-beneath:read-file:/etc/passwd
, for example, allows resolving users and yields this:
βrwβrββrββββx cathy 200 07-12 09:19 22'491 β /tmp/tmp/xorg.atom
PSA: setpriv
on Linux supports Landlock.
If this twt goes through, then restricting the filesystem so that jenny can only write to ~/Mail/twt
, ~/www/twtxt.txt
, ~/.jenny-cache
, and /tmp
works.
st tries not to redraw immediately after new data arrives:
https://git.suckless.org/st/file/x.c.html#l1984
The exact timings are configurable.
This is the PR that changed the timing in VTE recently (2023):
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/2678
There is a long discussion. Itβs not a trivial problem, especially not in the context of GTK and multiple competing terminal widgets. st dodges all these issues (for various reasons).
Something happened with the frame rate of terminal emulators lately. It looks like thereβs a trend to run at a high framerate now? Iβm not sure exactly. This can be seen in VTE-based terminals like my xiate or XTerm on Wayland. foot and st, on the other hand, are fine.
My shell prompt and cursor look like this:
$ β
When I keep Enter pressed, I expect to see several lines like so:
$
$
$
$
$
$
$ β
With the affected terminal emulators, the lines actually show up in the following sequence. First, we have the original line:
$ β
Pressing Enter yields this as the next frame:
$
β
And then eventually this:
$
$ β
In other words, you can see the cursor jumping around very quickly, all the time.
Another example: Vim actually shows which key you just pressed in the bottom right corner. Keeping j
pressed to scroll through a file means I get to see a j
flashing rapidly now.
(I have no idea yet, why exactly XTerm in X11 is fine but flickering in Wayland.)
The WM_CLASS
Property is used on X11 to assign rules to certain windows, e.g. βthis is a GIMP window, it should appear on workspace number 16.β It consists of two fields, name
and class
.
Wayland (or rather, the XDG shell protocol β core Wayland knows nothing about this) only has a single field called app_id
.
When you run X11 programs under Wayland, you use XWayland, which is baked into most compositors. Then you have to deal with all three fields.
Some compositors map name
to app_id
, others map class
to app_id
, and even others directly expose the original name
and class
.
Apparently, there is no consensus.
Yeah, little fellow. I also just want to walk away. https://movq.de/v/bef8c35f01/ach.mp4
βπ«©β is my new favorite emoji.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Yeah, if thereβs no stable API, then itβs not a lot of fun β¦ Bah. :|
β¦ but you canβt set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland
globally, because that breaks Wine again β¦
β¦ okay, the SDL backend works if you also set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland
.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org dmenu is a great example.
There have been several attempts at porting dmenu from X11 to Wayland. Well, not exactly βportingβ it, more like rewriting it from scratch. Turns out: Itβs not that easy.
dmenu is super fast and reliable. None of the Wayland rewrites are (at least none of the popular ones that I know of). They are either bloated and/or slow.
It takes a lot of discipline and restraint to write simple software and not blow up the codebase. This is much harder than people think. Itβs a form of art, really.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I do my timetracking in a little Python script, locally. Every now and then, I push the data to our actual service. Problem solved β but itβs a completely unpopular approach, they all want to use the web site. I donβt get it. Then, of course, when itβs down, shit hits the fan. (Luckily, our timetracking software is neither developed nor run by us anymore. Itβs a silly cloud service, but the upside is that Iβm not responsible anymore. π€·)
Some of our oldschool devs tried to roll out local timetracking once, about 15 years ago. I donβt remember anymore why they failed β¦
This is developed inhouse, Iβm just so glad that weβre not a software engineering company. Oh wait. How embarrassing.
Oh to be anonymous on the internet. That must be nice. π
β¦ but the SDL backend is broken as well, albeit differently β¦
β¦ which is probably a GTK bug.
QEMU on Wayland unusable, because it canβt grab the mouse β¦ Iβll add it to my TODO list and investigate/report it eventually.
@prologic@twtxt.net Yeah, this really could use a proper definition or a βmanifestβ. π Many of these ideas are not very wide spread. And I havenβt come across similar projects in all these years.
Letβs take the farbfeld image format as an example again. I think this captures the βspiritβ quite well, because this isnβt even about code.
This is the entire farbfeld spec:
farbfeld is a lossless image format which is easy to parse, pipe and compress. It has the following format:
ββββββββββ€ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β Bytes β Description β
β βββββββββͺββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ£
β 8 β "farbfeld" magic value β
ββββββββββΌββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ’
β 4 β 32-Bit BE unsigned integer (width) β
ββββββββββΌββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ’
β 4 β 32-Bit BE unsigned integer (height) β
ββββββββββΌββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ’
β [2222] β 4x16-Bit BE unsigned integers [RGBA] / pixel, row-major β
ββββββββββ§ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
The RGB-data should be sRGB for best interoperability and not alpha-premultiplied.
(Now, I donβt know if your screen reader can work with this. Let me know if it doesnβt.)
I think these are some of the properties worth mentioning:
- The spec is extremely short. You can read this in under a minute and fully understand it. That alone is gold.
- There are no βknobsβ: Itβs just a single version, itβs not like thereβs also an 8-bit color depth version and one for 16-bit and one for extra large images and one that supports layers and so on. This makes it much easier to implement a fully compliant program.
- Despite being so simple, itβs useful. Iβve used it in various programs, like my window manager, my status bars, some toy programs like βtuxeyesβ (an Xeyes variant), or Advent of Code.
- The format does not include compression because it doesnβt need to. Just use something like bzip2 to get file sizes similar to PNG.
- It doesnβt cover every use case under the sun, but it does cover the most important ones (imho). They have discussed using something other than RGBA and decided itβs not worth the trouble.
- They refrained from adding extra baggage like metadata. It would have needlessly complicated things.
@prologic@twtxt.net Hm, I wouldnβt say that. Go code could fall into that category as well.
Maybe this topic could use a blog post / article, that explains what itβs about. Iβm finding it hard to really define what βsuckless-like softwareβ is. π€ (Their own philosophy focuses too much on elitism, if you ask me.)
@prologic@twtxt.net Ah, Iβm referring to software thatβs similar to that of suckless.org: Small, minimal codebases, small tools, but still useful. dmenu is probably the best example and also farbfeld.
Hereβs the author of Anubis talking about some of their experiences:
https://xeiaso.net/blog/why-i-use-suckless-tools-2020-06-05/
(You can skip the long config and keybinds part.)
The lack of suckless-like simple, hackable software these days is appalling.
The Linux installation on my main PC turned 14 today:
$ head -n 1 /var/log/pacman.log
[2011-07-07 11:19] installed filesystem (2011.04-1)
@eldersnake This wasnβt always the case, though. Quake3, Quake4, Unreal Tournament 99 and 2004 are examples of games that used to run very well as native Linux games. But that was 20+ years ago β¦
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org (Itβs either that, or the fact that itβs womenβs football and βnobody wants to see that anywayβ.)
In all fairness, GOG says that Forsaken is only supported on Ubuntu 16.04 β not current Arch Linux. If you ask me, this just goes to show that Linux is not a good platform for proprietary binary software.
Is it free software, do you have the source code? Then youβre good to go, things can be patched/updated (that can still be a lot of work). But proprietary binary blobs? Very bad idea.
I bought the βremasteredβ versions of Grim Fandango and Forsaken on GOG, because theyβre super cheap at the moment. Both have native Linux versions.
And both these Linux version crap their pants. π«€ The bundled SDL2 of Forsaken says it βcanβt find a matching GLX visualβ and I couldnβt figure out how to fix that. I didnβt spend a lot of time on Grim Fandango.
Both work great in Wine. π€¦
(I do have the original version of Grim Fandango from the 1990ies, but that one does not work so well in Wine. I figured, if itβs so cheap, why not. And I now get to play the english version. π The german dub is pretty damn good, actually, but I always prefer the original these days.)
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I have to say, this sounds much worse than our stuff at work. π«© (We donβt use any Microsoft services, at least not for core tools.)
Okay, now this is a very interesting Rust feature:
https://blog.rust-lang.org/2025/07/03/stabilizing-naked-functions/
This (and inline assembly) makes Rust really interesting for very low-level stuff. π₯³