For many years I have been a heavy user of ConnectBot. It was a fine SSH client for Android but it was usually missing latest ciphers and other new SSH features. Two weeks ago I stumbled upon Termux, a open source terminal emulator that bundles an APT-based Linux distribution for Android and immediately it became my ultimate Android console tool.
Continue readingCategory: Linux
Bluetooth mouse disconnects on Ubuntu
One of the most annoying problems I recently had with Linux notebooks with the “btusb” driver was the disconnect of bluetooth mouse devices. Devices like my Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 3600, Xiaomi Mi Portable Mouse or other Bluetooth LE (low energy) mice have had lost their connection when my notebooks ran on battery and a reconnect was possible only after a restart of the Bluetooth stack.
Continue readingOpenZFS 2.1 performance improvements
The version 2.1 of OpenZFS is going to be released soon supporting Linux kernels from 3.10 to 5.13 and FreeBSD 12+. This will be the first long term release (LTS) version of OpenZFS.
Alexander Motin and other OpenZFS developers are currently working on various micro-optimizations in areas like atomics, counters, scalability and memory usage. Most of the optimizations are already part of the upcoming release. Release candidate testers already report improved performance compared to OpenZFS 2.0 and previous releases.
Continue readingProblems with Ubuntu Linux on notebooks with AMD Ryzen APUs
End of last year I have replaced my aging ASUS Zenbook UX32LN with a Ryzen-based UM431DA. After installing Ubuntu 20.04 focal with kernel 5.4 I have noticed four annoying problems:
- Initializing X.Org and getting to the login screen may not work
- Suspend does not work (system freezes)
- There is disturbing tearing when moving windows or playing movies
- Sound is very loud and volume control does not work properly
Hiding ZFS volumes from Nautilus, Caja and udisks2
On Ubuntu and derivatives, there are multiple ways how ZFS volumes can be hidden from the volume listing in Nautilus (GNOME) or Caja (MATE). It is possible to hide individual volumes by editing /etc/fstab or blacklisting all volumes in the udev rules configuration.
Continue readingmfslinux – minimalist in-memory Linux distribution
After many successful years developing mfsBSD for FreeBSD systems I started to work on a small memory-only diskless distribution for Linux. It comes in handy if you want to run a diskless system, have a recovery partition with a rescue system or simply want to modify your primary hard drive layout.
Customizing a Red Hat or CentOS Linux bootable ISO
RHEL and CentOS ship bootable CDs or DVDs in the ISO file format. It is possible to modify these ISO files with various types of customizations, e.g by adding additional boot menu items or an automated kickstart installation. This article contains a step-by-step guide how to customize and repackage a bootable CentOS ISO.
OpenZFS Feature Flags Compatibility Matrix
With the introduction of ZFS feature flags many users have experienced compatibility problems working with ZFS pools on different operating systems or operating system versions. In this article I am providing a table comparing the ZFS Feature Flag support on FreeBSD, Linux (zfsonlinux), Mac OSX (OpenZFS OSX) and illumos (OmniOS). Continue reading
Native ZFS for Linux: development continues at LLNL
In my past article “Tutorial: native ZFS on Ubuntu and Fedora Linux” I have given a tutorial how to install ZFS on Linux from the KQ Infotech github repository. This tutorial can be considered obsolete as the company KQ Infotech has been acquired by STEC, Inc (company with focus on SSD). Their ZFS on Linux project was assumably closed, as there is no more serious activity at their github repository. Continue reading
Tutorial: native ZFS on Ubuntu and Fedora Linux
ZFS is a great filesystem and making it available for Linux opens a bridge between Solaris, FreeBSD and Linux.
KQ Infotech has released the source of their ZFS port to the general public, using pool version 28.
You can get more information at their webpage: kqstor.com
Source code is available at github.com.
In this arcicle I am giving a tutorial how to build from source and install packages of native ZFS kernel modules for Ubuntu/Debian and Fedora Linux.
You need a x86_64 version (64-bit) of the Linux distributions.
NOTICE: tutorial is obsolete, please visit Native ZFS for Linux Homepage