Yesterday I updated my Manjaro Linux host and ran into a problem (it likely started already with update 2023-11-28). At boot, after I logged in, the desktop background would not change to my chosen picture and no desktop icons would appear. Also, when clicking the file browser, it wouldn’t open. After nearly 30 seconds the desktop background changes and the icons appear. Also, the file browser opens.
Continue reading “Manjaro Update 2023-12-01 and the XFCE Desktop”Tag: Linux
Does the Linux NTFS3 Driver Corrupt Directories?
About a year ago I switched to the new Linux NTFS3 driver built into the kernel. Up until then I used the user space NTFS-3G driver to mount Windows NTFS drives on my Linux host. Yesterday when running my hash script on one of my NTFS photo backup drives, I noticed an input/output error.
Continue reading “Does the Linux NTFS3 Driver Corrupt Directories?”ChatGPT for Coding
Can an AI chat bot like ChatGPT understand and explain program code, or even write its own code based on your directions?
Everybody (almost) is talking about artificial intelligence (AI). I wanted to see if ChatGPT, a large language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI, is able to help in coding. Can ChatGPT evaluate and improve program code? Or can it even write its own program code, based on the task you set forth?
Continue reading “ChatGPT for Coding”Camera Manufacturers: Please Use Accurate Time Stamps for Image Files
Update: October 4, 2023
My Canon and Nikon cameras use either the exFAT file system or the (older) FAT file system for image storage on their SD, SDxx, CF, CFexpress or XQD cards. In theory, the exFAT file system supports accurate time stamps up to a precision of 10 milliseconds. The FAT32 file system, in contrast, just offers 2 second accuracy for the modification time, or 10 millisecond for the creation time.
Continue reading “Camera Manufacturers: Please Use Accurate Time Stamps for Image Files”New NTFS Driver in Kernel 5.15
Linux kernel release 5.15 introduced a new NTFS file system driver named NTFS3. This kernel driver was originally developed by Paragon Software as a commercial solution (more about the ntfs3 driver can be found on their FAQ page).
NTFS3 is not to be confused with NTFS-3G, a user space driver that employs the FUSE or “file system in user space” approach. There is a 3rd driver available – simply NTFS – that was shipped as the standard NTFS driver on Linux, but it lacked support for many of the Microsoft NTFS features (like writing to disk). Most of us dealing with NTFS drives have installed and use the NTFS-3G driver.
Continue reading “New NTFS Driver in Kernel 5.15”Why Long Tutorials?
Anyone who follows this website will notice that the tutorials are rather long. In these long tutorials I usually give reference specs, explain basic terms or processes, and expand on the how and why.
I wish I could write short, easy, step by step tutorials titled “GPU passthrough made easy” or the “Quick guide to VFIO bliss”. In fact, there are plenty of those out there in the great Internet. Some of the most popular ones are on Youtube, showing you how to get your Windows gaming VM up and running in no time.
Continue reading “Why Long Tutorials?”Manjaro Linux Kernel 5.10
I was so busy studying, writing, and processing photos that I didn’t touch my Manjaro Linux host for a long long time. Then one day I decided to upgrade my PC from a 5.4 kernel to the most recent LTS or “Long Term Support” Manjaro Linux kernel 5.10.
Continue reading “Manjaro Linux Kernel 5.10”Manjaro Linux
A look at Manjaro Linux from a VFIO passthrough user perspective – the benefits and downsides of using Manjaro as a Linux host
Last year in April I switched from Linux Mint via a short detour to Pop_OS to Manjaro Linux as my host OS. The reasons I chose Manjaro Linux were its up-to-date kernel and software and its well-rounded selection of software packages. However, the latest and greatest kernel and software can come at a price of being less stable. In this post I like to weigh in the pros and cons for Manjaro Linux and what you might want to consider before jumping on the wagon.
Continue reading “Manjaro Linux”LVM and the Ease of Migrating to a New Drive
Online data relocation to other drives using LVM and pvmove
These days my disks are filling up fast. My current PC holds 7 drives, including 2 NVMe drives. Actually 8 drives as I installed a new HDD today. All of my disks and partitions – with the notable exception of the FAT16 EFI partition for UEFI boot – are using LVM, the Logical Volume Manager.
With the availability of larger drives at reasonable costs, I decided to move some logical volumes (LV) spanning several drives onto one single drive, thus consolidating disks. This one drive will then be mirrored in a RAID-1 configuration for redundancy.
Note: In a multi-drive LVM Logical Volume each drive represents a potential point of failure. Moving the data from multiple drives onto one drive reduces that risk.
Continue reading “LVM and the Ease of Migrating to a New Drive”Passing Through a Nvidia RTX 2070 Super GPU
Tutorial for passing through a Nvidia RTX graphics card to a Windows 10 virtual machine using a modified VBIOS
Last update: September 14, 2021
Starting with the GeForce 1000 series, vfio passthrough of a Nvidia GPU has become a little more complicated. If, when starting the VM, you get a black screen, chances are you need to pass along a VBIOS file to the VM so the GPU can properly initialize.
This post is about passing through a Nvidia RTX 2070 Super GPU or any other modern Nvidia GPU to a Windows 10 guest.
Continue reading “Passing Through a Nvidia RTX 2070 Super GPU”