Welcome to mintCast

the Podcast by the Linux Mint Community for All Users of Linux

This is Episode 448!

This is Episode 448.5!

Recorded on Sunday, October 13, 2024.

On vacation im Joe; not working again, I’m Moss; Feeling the burn, I’m Bill; got the Adblue I’m Majid; … Eric

— Play Sta ndard Intro —

• First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – September, Xfce 4.20 creeps toward Wayland support, Archive.org is breached, Arch and Valve team up, WWWFoundation packs it in, More WordPress news, even MORE WordPress News, and Google adds Linux apps to future Android versions;
• In security and privacy: zero, zeta, zilch, zap
• Then in our Wanderings: Bill connects with the younger generation, Joe is still fixing things, Moss whines, Majid folds, and Eric leaves an outline;

• In our Innards section: We talk headphones
• And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions
• Please remember if you want to follow along with our discussions, the full show notes for this episode are linked in the show’s description

— Play News Transition Bumper —

The News

20 minutes

• Mint Monthly News – September, 2024
  • From the Linux Mint blog (via londoner)
  • The main topic in this blog post was the Visual improvements that are coming to Cinnamon. Bit by bit, someone called Joseph is improving the look and feel of the Cinnamon desktop. The new default theme is much darker and contrasted than before. Objects are rounded and a gap was introduced between the applets and the panel. The dialogs were redesigned. They’re now nicely balanced and feature separated buttons.
  • When an application is frozen and no longer responds Cinnamon shows a “Force Quit” dialog. This used to be a Gtk window. It was rewritten in Clutter to look like the rest of Cinnamon:
  • The media-buttons OSD looks more modern and much cleaner than before, and so does the Workspace OSD. Joseph is also working on notifications, animations, the main menu, pkexec/logout dialogs, a new status applet…
  • The transition towards Aptkit and Captain is now finished. Starting with Linux Mint 22.1, set to be released this December, none of the Mint projects will depend on aptdaemon, synaptic, gdebi or apturl anymore.
  • No more translation issues. Everything is now fully translated.
  • No more bugs/papercuts. We no longer depend on unmaintained components which are upstream from us.
  • Redefined scope. Anything not needed was removed, anything that was missing (purging packages, downgrading to specific packages etc..) was added. This allowed the team to completely refactor the code in the Update Manager and greatly simplify its architecture
  • In the Software Sources tool, the downgrading of foreign packages was performed via a VTE (an embedded terminal). This is now handled by Aptkit directly, with a nice progress dialog.
• Xfce 4.20 creeps toward Wayland support
  • From The Register (via londoner)
  • The next version of Xfce, the oldest FOSS Unix desktop environment around, is nearly ready – and should have preliminary, “minimally usable” Wayland support. The latest release schedule for Xfce indicates that version 4.20 [insert stoner joke here] should go into feature freeze next month, for a planned release on December 15 – exactly two years after Xfce 4.18 appeared. This will probably be too late for inclusion with Mint 22.1.
  • This also means it goes Wayland 25 years after Xfce 3.0, the first open source release. Xfce 1 and 2 were proprietary and were built with the XForms toolkit, as creator Olivier Fourdain explained in a 1999 interview. You can see screenshots of those early versions on Oleg Slavkin’s GitHub archive of early releases.
  • As befitting its dignified elder status, Xfce doesn’t rush into things. We reported way back in February last year that preliminary steps towards Wayland support were coming, and they should start to bear fruit in the December release. The next version will not be a full, all-native Wayland environment. The plan is to retain X11 support – in part because Xfce isn’t just a Linux desktop. It also supports all the BSDs, including Dragonfly BSD. The Wayland roadmap says: “This doesn’t mean that by the next major release an Xfce session on Wayland will offer all existing features, but we hope it will be minimally usable.”
  • The rest of the article talks about some of the other changes to Mint 22.1 that we have just mentioned (in the previous item).
• Archive.org, a repository of the history of the Internet, has a data breach
  • From ars TECHNICA
  • Archive.org, one of the only entities to attempt to preserve the entire history of the World Wide Web and much of the broader Internet, was recently compromised in a hack that revealed data on roughly 31 million users.
  • A little after 2 pm California time, social media sites became awash with screenshots showing what the archive.org homepage displayed. It read:
    • archive.org Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!
  • HIBP is short for Have I been PWNed, the authoritative site for breach notifications that helps people protect their accounts after they’ve been compromised.
  • The message didn’t last long. Soon after it appeared, archive.org, when it loaded at all, displayed a message saying the site was temporarily down. Later, the site returned. Archive.org’s Brewster Kahle said on the social media site X that the archive had come under a DDoS attack.
  • Now, Have I Been Pwnd is reporting that archive.org was hacked. HIBP said the compromise occurred last month and exposed 31 million records containing email addresses, screen names, and bcrypt-hashed passwords.
  • Latest update on the DDOS attack from ⁨@brewsterkahle⁩ (Oct 11 @ 10:22am PT):

“The data is safe.

Services are offline as we examine and strengthen them. Sorry, but needed. ⁨@internetarchive⁩ staff is working hard.

Estimated Timeline: days, not weeks.

Thank you for the offers of pizza (we are set).”

• Arch Linux and Valve team up to make Steam gaming even better
  • from XDA-developers
  • Valve and Linux have been making big strides lately, and now, it seems it’s getting even better. Arch Linux has announced that it has struck a partnership with Valve that will help it do its job better. And given how the Steam Deck uses Arch Linux as a base, this will likely mean good things for gamers.
  • The Steam Deck OLED dropped by surprise recently, and it’s a fantastic handheld that’s more than just a screen upgrade.
  • As announced on the Arch Linux website, the Project Leader for Arch Linus, Levente Polyak, discussed what this means for Arch Linux. From what they’re saying, it seems this collaboration will make things a lot easier for Arch Linux developers to get things done:
  • We are excited to announce that Arch Linux is entering into a direct collaboration with Valve. Valve is generously providing backing for two critical projects that will have a huge impact on our distribution: a build service infrastructure and a secure signing enclave. By supporting work on a freelance basis for these topics, Valve enables us to work on them without being limited solely by the free time of our volunteers.
  • This opportunity allows us to address some of the biggest outstanding challenges we have been facing for a while. The collaboration will speed-up the progress that would otherwise take much longer for us to achieve, and will ultimately unblock us from finally pursuing some of our planned endeavors. We are incredibly grateful for Valve to make this possible and for their explicit commitment to help and support Arch Linux.
  • If you’ve kept up with your Linux gaming news, you may remember that Valve may be working on an ARM64 version of its Proton compatibility layer, allowing games to run on ARM64 Linux devices. So, does this collab with Arch Linux link up with Valve’s Proton developments? As it turns out, no. As reported by a quote given to GamingOnLinux:
  • The enclave is essentially intended to be a way for us to PGP-sign packages with a single signing key instead of how we do it right now, which is with one personal key per packager. It will not benefit Proton or the anti-cheat situation in any way and is completely unrelated.
  • Either way, this is an exciting time for Linux gamers, whether they’re on a PC or a Steam Deck. Let’s hope there are good things ahead.
• WWW Foundation packs it in
  • from WebFoundation blog
  • 27th September 2024
  • After 15 years working towards a Web that is safe, trusted and empowering for all, the Web Foundation is shutting its virtual doors on the 27th September.
  • The Web Foundation was created to be a standard bearer for a Web that is safe, trusted and empowering for all. In that time, WF has led groundbreaking research and measured the health of the web through our Web Index, influenced significant global policy through our Contract for the Web that has held Governments and corporations to account, launched collectives such as the WRO to protect women online and created innovative tools for the field such as the Open Data Barometer.
  • On behalf of the board, Sir Tim and Lady Rosemary Leith Berners-Lee and all at the Web Foundation would like to thank you for your support on this journey.
• 159 employees are leaving Automattic as CEO’s fight with WP Engine escalates
  • from TechCrunch
  • Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package that the company had offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress and his handling of the tussle with web hosting provider WP Engine.
  • In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic.
  • Nearly 80% of people who took the offer worked in the company’s Ecosystem / WordPress division, and the rest were in Automattic’s Cosmos businesses, consisting of apps like Pocket Casts, Day One, Tumblr and Cloudup.
  • Mullenweg, who co-created WordPress and is arguably the face of the open-source project, tried to put a positive spin on the announcement, writing that the company “decided to design the most generous buy-out package possible, we called it an Alignment Offer.”
  • “HR added some extra details to sweeten the deal; we wanted to make it as enticing as possible,” he wrote, and later on added: “159 people took the offer, 8.4% of the company, the other 91.6% gave up $126M of potential severance to stay!”
  • “It was an emotional roller coaster of a week. The day you hire someone, you aren’t expecting them to resign or be fired; you’re hoping for a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Every resignation stings a bit,” Mullenweg wrote.
  • Some employees who left the company include the head of WordPress.com (Automattic’s commercial WordPress hosting arm), Daniel Bachhuber, head of programs and contributor experience Naoko Takano, the Principal architect for AI, Daniel Walmsley.
  • Mullenweg and Automattic have been in a skirmish with WP Engine for almost two weeks now, in which the CEO has called WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress,” accusing it of wrongfully using the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks, and banning the company from accessing the open-source WordPress.org resources.
  • Both WP Engine and Automattic have sent each other cease-and-desist letters. And WP Engine earlier on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg, accusing the company and its CEO of “abuse of power,” extortion, and saying the WordPress co-creator has conflicts of interest in handling WordPress as an open-source project.
  • Automattic has so far called all of WP Engine’s claims meritless. “I stayed up last night reading WP Engine’s Complaint, trying to find any merit anywhere to it. The whole thing is meritless, and we look forward to the federal court’s consideration of their lawsuit,” the company’s legal representative, Neal Katyal, said in a blog post.
  • Over the last few days, several people on X have hinted about a severance offer being circulated among Automattic employees. Mullenweg also allegedly DM’d a former employee who posted about the offer and accused her of attacking the company and him.
  • Today, some Automattic employees who opted to keep their jobs posted messages in support of the company and Mullenweg.
• WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin
  • from The Verge
  • WordPress.org has taken over a popular WP Engine plugin in order “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced today. This “minimal” update, which he labels a fork of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, is now called “Secure Custom Fields.”
  • It’s not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post. He writes that he’s “invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines,” in which the WordPress team reserves several rights, including removing a plugin, or changing it “without developer consent.” Mullenweg explains that the move has to do with WP Engine’s recently-filed lawsuit against him and Automattic.
  • Similar situations have happened before, but not at this scale. This is a rare and unusual situation brought on by WP Engine’s legal attacks, we do not anticipate this happening for other plugins.
  • WP Engine’s ACF team claimed on X that WordPress has never “unilaterally and forcibly” taken a plugin “from its creator without consent.” It later wrote that those who aren’t WP Engine, Flywheel, or ACF Pro customers will need to go to the ACF site and follow steps it published earlier to “perform a 1-time download of the genuine 6.3.8 version” to keep getting updates.
  • As its name implies, the ACF plugin allows website creators to use custom fields when existing generic ones won’t do — something ACF’s overview of the plugin says is already a native, but “not very user friendly,” feature of WordPress.
  • The Verge has reached out to Automattic, WordPress.org, and WP Engine for comment.
• Google is preparing to let you run Linux apps on Android, just like Chrome OS
  • from Android Authority
  • Engineers at Google started work on a new Terminal app for Android a couple of weeks ago. This Terminal app is part of the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) and contains a WebView that connects to a Linux virtual machine via a local IP address, allowing you to run Linux commands from the Android host. Initially, you had to manually enable this Terminal app using a shell command and then configure the Linux VM yourself. However, in recent days, Google began work on integrating the Terminal app into Android as well as turning it into an all-in-one app for running a Linux distro in a VM.
  • A set of patches under the tag “ferrochrome-dev-option” was recently submitted to AOSP that adds a new developer option called Linux terminal under Settings > System > Developer options. This new option will enable a “Linux terminal app that runs inside the VM,” according to its proposed description. Toggling this option enables the Terminal app that’s bundled with AVF.
  • Currently, Android’s Terminal app still requires you to manually configure the Linux VM by providing a Debian image and creating a vm_config.json file, but Google plans to upgrade the Terminal app to take care of that for you. In one of the patches under the “ferrochrome-dev-option” tag, Google says that the existing “LinuxInstaller” app, which downloads and configures Debian to run in a VM through AVF, will be “merged to [the] terminal app soon.” This suggests that the Terminal app will become an all-in-one app that downloads, configures, runs, and interfaces with an instance of Debian running in a VM.
  • Google is still working on improving the Terminal app as well as AVF before shipping this feature. AVF already supports graphics and some input options, but it’s preparing to add support for backing up and restoring snapshots, nested virtualization, and devices with an x86_64 architecture. It’s also preparing to add some settings pages to the Terminal app, which is pretty barebones right now apart from a menu to copy the IP address and stop the existing VM instance. The settings pages will let you resize the disk, configure port forwarding, and potentially recover partitions.
  • What’s particularly interesting about the patch that adds these settings is that it was tested on “tangorpro” and “komodo,” the codenames for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel 9 Pro XL respectively. This suggests that the Terminal app won’t be limited to Chromebooks like the new desktop versions of Chrome for Android. I don’t know when the Terminal app will land, but it’s possible we could see it arrive in next year’s Android 16 update.
• KDE neon upgrades to 24.04.1 Ubuntu base
  • from OMGUbuntu
  • For those unfamiliar with it, KDE neon is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that is something of a reference platform for KDE Plasma. It’s available in User, Testing, Unstable, and Developer editions.
  • KDE neon (User Edition) is the ‘stable’ version but still described as suiting ‘adventurous KDE enthusiasts’ rather than those seeking a rock-solid, totally-reliable distro. KDE neon isn’t tested as a distro as throughly as, say, Kubuntu.
  • But if you want the benefits of the Ubuntu 24.04 package set with the latest KDE Plasma 6.2 release on top (plus guaranteed upgrades to KDE Plasma 6.3, 6.4, etc as they’re release) then KDE neon is where you can go to get it.
  • Sharing news of the uplift on the KDE discuss forum, KDE developer Jonathan Esk-Riddell said:
  • “We have just switched on the upgrade for KDE neon to rebase on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. We do this every two years and the 22.04 LTS base was getting increasingly crusty with old Pipewire causing problems and packages like Krita not compiling at all.”
  • Upgrading an existing KDE neon edition based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to one based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is easy enough.
  • A little notification will appear in the corner from today, informing you that the update is available. When this appears just click the action button in the notification, and follow the on-screen steps.
  • Backup important files, settings, configurations, etc before upgrading. The KDE neon sub-forum has threads from users hitting issues during/after upgrade.
  • During the upgrade process you may be be shown a dialog asking what to do about a “Configuration File Change”. Click “Keep” and the upgrade will continue. Once done, it’ll prompt you to cleanup (remove obsolete packages), after which you can reboot.
  • Use the Firefox DEB? You may find the Firefox snap is reinstalled. Upgrading disables 3rd-party repos are disabled so pinned package settings are ignored.
  • For more details see the KDE neon wiki.
  • Moss’ upgrade on the M600 Tiny took about 30-35 minutes.
  • Upgrade changed from v. 6.2 to v. 22.04 LTS
  • 6.8.0-45 kernel
  • kept reporting issues trying to deal with flatpak (… is masked)
  • on Moss’ T580, it took 33 minutes, followed by learning that it took over GRUB, and failed to see Bodhi on the drive. I had to boot to Mint, install grub, then boot to Bodhi from the Mint boot menu, and then install grub and update grub-customizer to get my boot back. I also uninstalled all of snapd after booting back to neon.

— Play Security Transition Bumper —

Security and Privacy

10 minutes

— Play Wanderings Transition Bumper —

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

30 minutes (~5-8 mins each)

• Bill
  • These last couple weeks I’ve continued to work more local so as to continue with my endeavor of being home every night and improve my health through better diet and exercise. I’m happy to say my exercise routine has continued to improve daily. The weight loss is slow, but I’m not allowing myself to get caught up on that as much. My most important goal is to improve my health by stabilizing my blood pressure, lower my blood sugar and cholesterol, and improve my cardio-vascular health overall. These things are all happening, and the proof is undeniable. My last DOT physical was stellar, all swelling has disappeared, and the headaches every morning which has plagued me for so long, have effectively stopped. The quality of my workouts have progressively improved as time has gone on. One of my two younger sons has displayed interest in lifting with me, so Saturday we spent some time getting a base-line for him so that I have an idea what size weights to buy in the immediate future. I do curls with 45lb dumbbells. Obviously that isn’t practical for a 15 year old little skinny boy, So we had to do some work to find his sweet spot. I wanted to make sure he could do three sets of 12 reps effectively. We tested his base line with straight presses, butterfly presses, and curls. It’s been an excellent way for me to connect with him. I won’t lie – I often struggle finding ways to come together with my sons, given the huge generation gap between us. I really appreciate it when I can find something that engages us both.
  • We’re getting ready to do a bit of changing to the Linux OTC show. Starting with the next episode, we’ll be livestreaming the YouTube version of the show. This is for the most part to lessen the work load of editing, as before I had to take the OBS recording and run it through software, do some clipping to the beginning and end, then do some audio improvements. Livestreaming will remove the need for all of this thus freeing up at least 40 minutes of time. The other reason is to try and solicit some listener interaction. We will be monitoring the Discord, Mastodon, and YouTube comments during the stream, and interacting directly with the audience. This is what we should be doing on mintCast, though I’m not sure how many of us actually do it. I’m really looking forward to it. We’re going to start livestreaming every other episode of 3 Fat Truckers as well, though that will be on Facebook, which seems to be where that show lives, eats, and breathes. I’ll still have to do the video editing for the YouTube version of that show. At least for the time being.
• Joe
  • Picked up a cheap Miracast device from aliexpress. I wanted a way to reduce the number of times I connect and disconnect the USB port on my cell phone and to test out one of these devices to see what it can do.
  • It was not that difficult to set up on my portable screen and it works surprisingly well with DEX. It is over wifi but I have noticed very little latency and the resolution is not terrible. Samsung does throw an alert saying that it might be better to run wired but this works well enough
  • I did also try to find a solution to make it an extended display for Linux and there are a couple of applications claiming to do that out there. First gnome-network-displays is supposed to work and is easy to install with a Flatpak from flathub. The problem with it for me is that I run mint and it requires Wayland. It was able to see the device after a couple of tries but it would not connect.
  • Next was Miraclecast which while I was able to get to install and there was notes saying it would work as a server and a client but it would not see the device and the interface was not intuitive at all. I could have gone through the rest of the process to make a virtual display and place it in the correct location but if it wont see the device I don’t see the point.
  • My 12tb hard drive is dying. Self test shows multiple failed sectors and bad reads and the the thing is randomly disconnecting and moss is having to contact me about it when it is non accessible. But with the leftover space on my other drives and the drives that bill sent me to test on my DAS box I was able to move it all off the 12tb drive and now I just need to get another drive to shuffle things back the way that they are supposed to be.
  • I also had to go in and point my plex at these various drives and the read process was very slow for the copying. It took a couple of days for all of the copying to complete. Also needed to redo some of my automation as that was the drive where certain files were automatically moving to
  • Started playing around with Andronix again. This is an android application that will make a VM without needing root and allow you to run Linux. I was able to set up Ubuntu 22 with little issue and it does run very well in DEX.
  • On this VM I was also able to install X2GO client and access my server at home. I did use the method that allows me to spinoff another desktop instead of accessing the desktop that is already running and it looks great and I have not noticed any heavy latency on any of the networks that I have used it on.
  • My children spilled Febreze on my OneGX. Needless to say I was a little upset. I took it apart and dried it as much as possible and even used some IPA to see if I could get more of the Febreze to evaporate. When I turned it back on everything was working except for the keyboard. That was a little disappointing but I was able to order another from aliexpress for 40 dollars.
  • Then two days later the keyboard started working again. Oh well I will have an extra keyboard for it. But I did start playing around with the theming and trying to get the tool bar buttons larger on cinnamon. Evidently it is not as straightforward of a process as it used to be. If I actually get that to work I will let you know
  • Moss sent me a care package to keep me busy on my vacation. His ThinkCentre M700 Tiny, a set of Turtle Beach headphones, a tablet, and a multimeter.
  • The ThinkCentre is an interesting issue in that the power supply is fine and it sometimes turns on to the splash screen and then boot loops. I pulled the SSD and hooked that up externally to verify that there was no issue. I pulled the RAM and went through all the configurations of swapping them around and only using one of them in the two slots and nothing worked. But then I put the device back together and it started giving the beeps that there was no ram installed. IDK if it is an issue with the RAM itself or if I caused the RAM controller to fail.
  • So for now I have ordered a single stick of low cast DDR4 RAM to check and see if that is the issue and the next thing will probably be to purchase a working mobo and swap around until we know what works and what doesn’t.
  • The multimeter. This was supposed to be a straight forward corrosion on the battery terminals fix. And there was that. A bit of rubbing alcohol some vinegar a file a pick and some elbow grease. I did get the device to turn on and it is reading but it is not correct and the readings are a bit all over the place. I can see that there is some further issues on the board. I need to sit down and take it further apart and give it much more of a cleaning and then I figure there is another part that will need to be replaced. Probably the crystal on the inside. (did you check the fuse? – Moss)
  • The headphones. A simple pair of Turtle Beaches. I did test them and while it had problems connecting at first, the 3.5mm looked fine. I rubbed the connector a bit and plugged it in. Moss had an issue where he would use it for a time and it would cut out and not come back on. I could not replicate this once I had it connected. I used it for a couple of hours and it worked the whole time.
  • I will say that he was right and the microphone sucks but I cannot find anything else wrong with it. I could probably still do a full cable replacement on it and see if that helps?
• Moss
  • I had a couple issues with my replacement PineTime, but they seem to have corrected themselves. I really love this watch. When it works.
  • School is out for Fall Break already. I did not have work last week and won’t have any next week. I like the time off, I do not like the lack of incoming funds.
  • Not much else has been going on here. I have similar problems booting up my studio M700 Tiny to what I had with the one I sent Joe, except the studio machine boots fine on the second boot. Which is what the other one did until it got worse and then stopped working at all. Meanwhile, my third M700 Tiny, being used as my TV streaming device, is working fine.
  • The coffee today is horrible. I just got a new bag of something decaf, don’t remember whether it was Amazon or Kroger brand, and it just tasts burnt. But I never throw anything away, just use it up and get something else. I have a long time ahead of me in terms of bad coffee. Maybe I should put some chocolate or peppermint oil into it…
  • I’m back on the current version of Audacity, I think it’s 3.6.4. Seems to work OK. It also seems to take a bit more time to edit my FCWN show, even though some of the tools appear quicker to get to. Maybe it’s just that my show is getting longer.
  • I’ve had some issues around the DDoS attacks on Archive.org. This is unconscionable. Please donate to Archive, they are providing more services than anyone is aware of and doing it almost completely on donations.
• Majid
  • Again not the busiest 2 weeks for me. Working a lot to try and get these waiting lists down. Also managing the Residents has got a little easier with a new colleague joining me in that role.
  • I have been running Aurora on this podcasting rig for that few months. In fact probably the longest I’ve been on an immutable distro. Works well. But of course I’m a nerd, and after listening to Leo and co. wax lyricial on Cinnamon and Mint on LUS and OTC and decided I would try Mint 22 (again). I hadn’t had a good experience on using it on my laptop and had gone back to GNOME. However Cinnamon on a desktop machine is a much better experience in my opinion whilst GNOME better for touchscreen laptops. All about getting the right tool for the job. As usual quick setup and have kept most of the defaults of the Mint-Y theme.
  • Work phone got upgraded. Got a Pixel 9. Works well, not my primary machine, but does have a nice camera with some good AI smarts. Also the best call quality I think I’ve ever had.
  • I’m definitely converted to the foldable form-factor on my OnePlus Open. Also has a better camera then the Z Fold 5.
  • Just cant get Plex working on my NAS. Keep getting “you don’t have access to this server” every time I install it. I’m going to have another go with Jellyfin. I really want to replace my cloud services with my NAS, but haven’t had the guts to go over fully.
  • My daughter seems to have got around Google Family Link on her Moto G32. Had to end up doing a full factory reset, delete accounts and then re-install. I know its a budget device, but the fact its still on Android 13 is annoying.
  • My mother has been complaining about her desktop computer. Shes 74, and doesn’t do much on it. But she was saying its got slow. I think the best thing to do would be put Mint XFCE and an SSD in it. But its a good 4-5 years old and I cant even remember the specs (except that it had a 3TB HDD).
  • I think my car has a few broken sensors. The tyre pressure light and AdBlue warnings keep coming on, yet when I check them, they are fine. I’m tempted to try and do some diagnostics myself, but I’m not sure how. One of the nurses at work is a former mechanic and she told me of some android apps that can be used. Maybe something I’ll try. (incidentally, shes also a fan of the show who we gave a shout out to last time!).
  • Finished Rings of Power. Was OK, picked up near the end. Also finished Nightsleeper which was good fun. Twilight of the Gods was very…Snyder-y. Thinking of Citadel;Diana next. Still going through Terminator Zero and The Gentleman. I heard My Lady Jane is good on Prime, but it has been cancelled already, so I don’t know if its worth starting. (It is. – Moss) I do get frustrated when streaming services do that.
• Eric
  • PineTime screen issue
  • First paid-for Proton app (Proton VPN)
  • COSMIC Alpha 2
  • Audio equipment from Bill

— Play Innards Transition Bumper —

Linux Innards

30 minutes (~5-8 minutes each)

• These week it’s all about the Headphones.
  • Bill
    • I’ve got a couple different types of “over the ear” headphones, but for the sake of this episode I’ll focus my coverage on the several types of earbuds I’ve recently purchased. I think the features they offer are a bit more interesting, and noteworthy. I’ll describe them by make, model, some of the features they offer, then rate them by a few categories.
    • JVC Gumy HAFX7B These are a basic “wired” type of earbud. The quality of sound is good, but you’re really limited theses days by the decreasing number of devices offering a proper headphone jack.
      • Sound quality – 8
      • Fit – 10
      • Controls – N/A
      • Phone call quality – N/A
    • Yinyoo KBEAR Xuanwu Professional in ears Monitor Headphones These are the headphones I use while recording podcasts. I really enjoy using these because they negate the problem with over-ear headphones leaking sound into the microphone, creating echo in the recording. I also like being able to fit these loosly into my ears to allow hearing other things going on in my environment. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend these for listening to music, though there’s no real reason why they couldn’t work.
      • Sound quality – 8
      • Fit – 10
      • Controls – N/A
      • Phone call quality – N/A
    • JLab Go Sport+ Wireless Workout Earbuds Ok, so now we’re getting into some of the wireless stuff I’ve most recently purchased. The journey to the perfect pair have been a bit of a journey that I’m not completely sure I’ve finished. These were the first pair I purchased. They are the hook around the ear type, which appears to be a deal-breaker for me. The force put on the earphone by the hook actually pulls it out of my ear canal making it impossible to maintain good quality sound. I quickly passed them onto my kids.
      • Sound quality – 8
      • Fit – 4
      • Controls – 4
      • Phone call quality – 9
      • Android software – 10
    • JLab JBuds Air Pro True Wireless Earbuds Ok, so these are a huge improvement on the previous buds. They are a sit in the ear type of kit, as such they fit well, and I had no real problems problems. They weren’t the “best” fitting earbuds I tried, though they are great! The improvement is no doubt reflected in the price.
      • Sound quality – 10
      • Fit – 9
      • Controls – 6
      • Phone call quality – 9
      • Android software – 10
    • TOZO T10 (Classic Edition) After lamenting to the guys a couple weeks ago about the experiences I was having with the other earbuds, Joe and Majid had a couple suggestions. These are the ones Joe recommended – and rightly so. First off, these bad boys are water proof. You can wear them in the shower. I don’t know why you would want to, but maybe I’ve just seen “Psycho” too many times. Also, the price comes in right about $25 making it nearly a no-brainer. The sound quality is surprising for the price point. I really like these. The only problem is with the simple design making them a little fiddly to get the fit right, but once I do, they seem to stay in place and sound great.
      • Sound quality – 9
      • Fit – 7
      • Controls – 8
      • Phone Call quality – 9
      • Android Software – 10
    • Jabra Elite 3 in Ear Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds Right, so in many ways these “should” be the goat. These earbuds, recommended by Majid are by far the best fitting of all the tries. The sound quality is fantastic. I really love the uniquely tactile buttons on each earbud. They are on sale right now on Amazon, but weren’t the cheapest option I tried. Though I have no real regrets. They would have gotten a 10/10 for everything except that the android app doesn’t seem to save the custom eq setting, making me have to reset it every time I use them. I put up with that though because they’re the only ones I have that fit so well, I forget they’re there. I imagine the problem with the settings not getting saved have to do with the app being developed for a considerably older version of Android. The lesson here is that you can’t have it all, and life is one big trade off.
      • Sound quality – 10
      • Fit – 10
      • Controls – 10
      • Phone call quality – 9
      • Android software – 5
  • Joe
    • Sennheiser Urbanite XL
    • beyerdynamic DT770
    • Meze 99 neos
    • AudioTechnica
      • ath m line
    • Skullcandy
      • Hesh 3
      • Crushers
    • Razer
      • Kraken
      • Nari Ultimates
    • Turtle Beach
    • LG HBS
    • Jabra 65t
    • Samsung
      • WH-xb700
        • Alexa integration
      • Galaxy buds
  • Moss
    • Adorer wired earbuds. Never had a problem.
    • Lenovo thinkplus LP3 Pro BT earbuds (USB micro charging). Nice, but they keep slipping out of my ears, and grabbing them to keep from falling frequently means I hit the Off button.
    • Joe already talked about the Sennheisers I’m wearing
    • ,,,and the Turtle Beach Recon 50Ps which are my current backups (the microphone is worthless, but decent headphones)

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Vibrations from the Ether

20 minutes (~5 minutes each)

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Check This Out

10 minutes

Housekeeping & Announcements

• Thank you for listening to this episode of mintCast!
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• Next Episode – 2 pm US Central time on Sunday, October 27, 2024.
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• Livestream information is at mintcast.org/livestream

Wrap-up

• Joe – Tllts.org,  linuxlugcast.com, [email protected], Buy Joe a coffee
• Moss – Full Circle Weekly News, [email protected], Mastodon @[email protected], occasionally on HPR
• Bill – [email protected], Bill_H on Discord, @[email protected] on Mastodon, also – checkout my other two podcasts Linux OTC and 3 Fat Truckers
• Majid – [email protected] @[email protected], AtypicalDr on Instagram and Threads and The Atypical Doctor Podcast on Spotify and also Linux OTC.
• Eric – You can hear and see me on the Distrohoppers’ Digest and Linux OTC podcasts as well as the Linux Saloon and LinuxLUGCast streams. I can be reached by email at [email protected].

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible:

• Bill for our audio editing
• Archive.org for hosting our audio files
• Hobstar for our logo, initrd for the animated Discord logo
• Londoner for our time syncs and various other contributions
• Bill Houser for hosting the server which runs our website, website maintenance, and the NextCloud server on which we host our show notes and raw audio
• The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about <Thanks, Clem … and co!>

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