And this readded the initrd line and now I am able to boot into F38. Everything still works, I have some errors with VirtualBox and qemu that I will need to fix at some point:
VirtualBox has an error when you start it saying "Unable to enumerate USB"
Qemu has a dependency error (must have changed between F36 and F38) so I'll need to probably remove and reinstall that.
So, quite a few things have been happening recently.
I tried to go the next step on Manjaro and copy my home directory across ready for me to run the Ansible playbook to do the setups (I've been testing it would work via VirtualBox on my Windows laptop)
After waiting ages for the file copy, when I went to do the backup, there was a btrfs checksum error so I'll have to try again some other time.
Separately, I got a message on an issue I raised at Fedora's bugzilla the Fedora 36 (the version of Fedora I raised the bug on), was coming up to EOL so I should look to move away from it or upgrade. So I decided to try doing the upgrade.
The upgrade completed without error, but first boot after the upgrade hung with a weird Kernel Panic error (I have posted this on the Fedora Forums)
So I rolled my laptop back to preupgrade state for now.
I suspect I may need to end up doing a clean install, so I've prepared a btrfs and a ext4 lvm installation and have imaged those in preparation.
Finally, Wordpress posted that they're stopping Autosharing to Twitter because of Twitter's Idiot-in-Chief screwing up the API usage.
Still, they have mentioned they will be adding autosharing to Instagram and Mastodon instead, and that helps me, since I'm slowly moving what little Twitter presence I had onto Mastodon anyway.
My Twitter has been disconnected from my Wordpress and I've revoked its access from Twitter's side anyway.
I've been continuing to tinker with ArchLinux and Manjaro and have since found out about "Oh-My-Zsh" and "Oh-My-Bash" -- basically addons you can add onto your shell via the shell's rc and profile files and it provides a really nice prompt that tells you additional information at a glance, like which branch you are in if you are in a git repo, or whether the previous command returned a non-zero error code.
They are quite polarising though, as I found out when I mentioned this to one of the systems architects here in the office. One of the architects told me someone he worked with even considered OMZ malware.
Vanilla ArchLinux uses bash out of the box, Manjaro uses zsh out of the box, which is how I found out about the OMZ/OMB addons.
OMZ has a ton more plugins than OMB - unsurprisingly since it's also the default shell for Macs (vomit).
I did start copying my files across to my Manjaro installation. It took nearly 6 hours to copy. However, when trying to do the backup afterwards, it failed with a btrfs checksum error. That worried me since I hadn't done anything since the previous backup other than copying files.
I do remember running into similar issues with btrfs last time I tinkered with it when reinstalling Fedora. It could end up with me switching to either ext4 (like I did with Fedora) or trying the xfs file system option in Manjaro.
Referring to my earlier blog post, I finally got Manjaro sound to work and have been spending my spare time working on getting the Arch/Manjaro side of my setup playbook to work. VirtualBox has helped with that.
I've been struggling with making CloneZilla backups on my new Toshiba SSD. The transfer speed onto it is horrendous, but the speed on my Samsung SSD is fine. And the return window is now closed so I can't return it. I guess, I'll need to look at purchasing yet another external SSD.
Well, it was going to happen at some point in my life, but I ended up getting a speeding ticket after registering an average speed over 5mph above the speed limit for an average speed zone.
Instead of points, I've been offered a driver education course, which I of course am going to have to take. I opted for the classroom rather than virtual.
Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning, but I can combine it with some shopping.
This article popped up on my Google News feed and the first thing that caught my eye was the fact the headline mentions they were sacked, but the subheading says "affected due to layoffs"
Laying someone off is not the same as sacking them. As someone at work explained: sacking someone is when you keep the role but do away with the person; layoff is when you do away with the role, but (sometimes) keep the person. These workers were laid off since they also got severance pay. Something you'd never get if you were fired.
In fact, this article may get the writer and the publication in trouble. Being fired has a far more negative impact on your career than being laid off so anyone of those 140 workers trying to get jobs elsewhere may find it harder to get a new job if their prospective employers do a basic internet search and find this article that implies (incorrectly) that they got sacked.
After spending many years using Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora, I've decided to look at going a bit deeper and start tinkering with ArchLinux
Initially I tried to use Manjaro, but I couldn't get its sound working with my Pixelbook, even using u/LyncolnMD's setup (reddit link here). That being said, a commenter on that thread did say they had sound working, so I'm not sure how he made that happen.
Bizarrely, under vanilla ArchLinux, on which Manjaro is based, it works. So I've decided to go into ArchLinux instead.
I spend several hours making backups of my current Fedora setup and making CloneZilla images.
It took several hours to copy back the files too (212GB of content in my home folder).
I have also decided to reutilise my pixelbook-fedora-setup repo to configure for archlinux too. That will take a while to reconfigure everything since ArchLinux uses pacman as its package manager (with some AUR helpers like yay or pamac). Ansible has a pacman module, but no yay module, so each time I have to use yay to install packages under ArchLinux, I have to use the shell module instead. A minor issue, and I can see a few people have already worked on some yay modules, but none are officially distributed yet.
So until I finish reconfiguring my pixelbook setup repo, I'm staying on Fedora. I'm using a VirtualBox machine to do the testing of the setup.
I got called by the hospital and they gave me an update on the lump removed from the mouth. It was thankfully nothing serious, but recommended I keep an eye on it in case it came back (there is always a risk of that)
It's been a while so here's a few updates in the meantime
It's coming up to a year since I moved house and only now have the pile of construction rubbish been moved from outside my old flat. Dumping of rubbish by the neighbours in the adjoining block of flats into the garage is still happening.
Conservatives lost control of the area to Labour but I'm seeing absolutely no change
We went through a period of very cold weather (-6degC) and this was costing us £10-£15 per day in gas usage.
Moving onto other updates. As posted previously, I went into hospital to remove a lump from my mouth. I'll soon get a follow up call from the doctor to check how I'm doing. Stitches took about 10 days to dissolve. I just have a small white patch there now where the lump was removed and the doctor cauterised the wound.
Twitter has descended into a real s**thole since Elon took over. First killing all third-party clients and then indicating it may start charging for API usage.
The third-party client purge I can tolerate -- it was originally started during the Jack era, but charging for API usage, or even limiting tweets per day is not something many people will accept.
I started working on stripping out twitter functionality from my TFL updates bot and that's near enough done now. It now tweets (or should that be toots) into a Mastodon account at https://mastodon.xyz/users/updatesbf
RSS feed functionality should still work, but it is not enabled yet, until I can get Keda to work.
The stitches they put in my mouth have finally dissolved just over two weeks after the operation. All I have now is a small white patch in my mouth where the lump was with white lines across it where the stitches used to be.
So it's been a couple of days since the operation. The pain has now died down enough to be tolerable without painkillers - or at least as frequently.
I'm able to eat semi-solid food now stuff like soups, porridge and congee (look that up if you don't know what that is). I have been able to drink hot drinks without too much pain now, like tea, although I still need to mix in a bit of cold water to cool it down first.
Brushing my teeth has been easier now and I've started using salt water rinses as instructed -- although the side effect of that seems to be that it dries the hell out of my lips (well, that's what salt does, after all).
I'll be heading back into the office next week, but only for one day since I'm training for three days and the fifth day is taken up by another freaking train strike.
Today, I went to hospital to be operated on -- something I haven't had done for over 35 years.
The operation was, quote, "An excisional biopsy" of a lump in my mouth - a lump I have been carry for several years.
The lump has been growing very slowly and I am now biting it more frequently than before, causing a lot of pain.
My dentist referred me into the Maxillofacial department of my local hospital.
I visited there last week to get a preliminary examination. The doctors there agreed it could be removed and scheduled me into a biopsy today.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit nervous. Nonetheless, the doctors helped reassure me and the operation started. They offered me a pair of sunglasses to go over my own glasses as the light from the operating theatre's light is very bright. I chose to use them.
Settling in, the process started with three anaesthetic injections. I felt the first two and they didn't feel bad. The third one hurt, and the fourth one was tolerable.
Couple of minutes later, the doctor poked around inside the mouth to check if the anaesthetic had taken effect (I didn't feel anything). They started stuffing gauze in my mouth, and it felt a bit like one of those prisoner scenes in the movies when they did that.
The nurse kept my lip open while the doctor operated on it. I felt nothing at all. This was so weird, I could see them doing stuff, but they were out of my field of vision and I had no idea what was going on down there.
I started to see blood on the gauze. LOTS of it. They swapped out gauze a few times and then I started seeing small thin wafts of smoke coming from there. However, still no pain.
The doctor then started stitching me up. They used 3 stitches and still felt nothing.
I asked for a mirror at the end of the operation to see how bad it was. I had a puffy upper lip on one side and normal on the other. Expected though.
The doctor ran through some after care instructions. I'm supposed to be on a soft diet for 3 days, no hot food or drink for 24 hours, no smoking, vaping or alcohol for at least 3 days, no strenuous exercise for 3 days, no spitting or rinsing the mouth for 24 hours, salt water rinse after meals from 24 hours onwards, and painkiller use when needed to help reduce pain and swelling.
It's been around 5 hours since the operation and I'm feeling rumblings of pain. Not intense, but I suspect the anaesthetic might be beginning to wear off.
Just got my boiler fixed after three days without reliable hot water.
We had two engineers in over two days, and a total of 4 hours where neither could figure out the problem. Then we called in the manufacturer's engineer (Vaillant)
The outlet sensor was faulty and was registering a temperature of 999 deg C. The boiler kept flaring up then tripping the safety cutoff as a result.
5 minutes, and one replacement part later and everything was fixed.
My dislike of the Apple brand is well-known and documented, and recently, I came across a story that made me hate them even more.
It seems like Apple are now locking out older devices and devices running older versions of their OS. This obviously then forces them to buy the newer, greater model and spend more money in their stores, forcing customers to remain locked into their ecosystem.
Heck, I still have an ASUS TF101 running Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4) and it still runs. Sure, a lot of apps refuse to install, but the basic stuff I need the device for works, and that's all I need.
The message went out to patients of the medical facility – there are reportedly about 8,000 of them – on December 23, 2022. It asked patients to fill out a DS1500 form, which is used to help terminal patients expedite access to benefits because they may not have time for the usual bureaucratic delay.
About an hour after thoroughly alarming recipients of the not-so-glad tidings, the medical facility reportedly apologized in a follow-up text message.
Error or not, there should have been failsafes to prevent this happening. Even Tom Scott has a story from personal experience when he had to get himself tested for STDs (his face tells you everything you need to know
Well, it's New Year's Eve, and I haven't posted any proper blog posts since April. So here's a bit of an update.
We completed the purchase on our house and moved in around April.
We had a period of 40degC+ temperatures soon afterwards and it was _really_ uncomfortable to even exist during that time. I couldn't even work in my bedroom during that time, and had all the windows open overnight.
And recently, we had a complete reversal, with temperatures hitting -6degC, and a thick layer of snow. Since the house is not on the main road, we no longer have priority with the gritters, which lead to some nerve-wracking drives on the Saturday when I headed up to morning shopping.
I later found out my former neighbour in the flat where I used to live (still find it strange to say that) actually lost functionality to their boiler during this cold snap (the pump to their boiler broke), so they had to wear like 5 layers of clothes and sit around a portable heater in order to keep warm -- travelling to a relative's house to get showered and stuff.
I also found out that two Muslim families have moved into the two vacant flats since we moved out. This now leaves only 4 flats out of the 12 available that are inhabited by non-Muslims. I am, sadly, not surprised by this turn of events, the local council have been aggressively buying up all the council properties they can, and then throwing probably the worst people into them -- heck they even bought and sold one of the flats across to a neighbouring council -- so essentially we have a flat in one council that is being used to house people from another council. 1 of the remaining residents is only there because they have a vulnerable relative nearby and will move out when she passes. Another is already looking for a new property, and the other two families haven't made their plans known yet.
We've now gone through over 6 months in the new house and have been getting and going through the new bills. Trying to keep the house warm during the cold spell has been costing me over £15 per day in Gas alone. Thankfully, the cold spell only lasted around a week, and the government's energy assistance did help with the Electricity side -- giving £66 extra per month. That doesn't help with the Gas costs, but it does mean I can use the space heater (which runs off electricity)
My Yaris seems to be having trouble with acceleration even without ECO mode on, so I'm going to start putting money aside to buy a full EV -- maybe a Tesla, Hyundai, or Toyota EV (even if Musk has been an AH with the Twitter purchase, I'm still liking the Tesla interface -- I even got to sit behind one this year, even if only briefly)
As with most people, I grew concerned with Musk's handling of the Twitter purchase, so I picked up a side project a year or so ago: Mastodon.
Back when Twitter had issues with privacy, several projects spawned up: Ello, Diaspora* and Mastodon to name a few.
Ello basically failed and has now turned more into a portfolio site. Diaspora is sort of like a decentralized Tumblr and Mastodon was the Twitter equivalent, so much so that there's more than one auto-crossposter now that allows you to Tweet to Twitter, and it will automatically crosspost it to Mastodon, and vice versa,
I decided to update my TfL Travel Updates project and allow it to post to Mastodon instead. I have it now posting to https://mastodon.xyz/@updatesbf but I am also looking at setting up my own Mastodon instance so I can experiment and break things on my own setup without messing up or flooding someone else's instance
I'm still here, covid and the flu didn't take me out. Just been occupied by other things in life, including moving house. That is now pretty much finished.
My role at work has now changed and I'm now a Senior SRE, and with this comes a host of other tasks, including interviewing prospective new
Ran my LFT and it came up negative. The family also ran LFTs and they were all clear. Guess it confirms my suspicion that whatever I have is just the flu, even though it feels horrible.... :-(
A long busy day at the office and we wet, windy, and miserable evening, so no running, but I did head out for a walk. I know from experience that slugs emerge after a wet spell, and I've on more than one occasion squished one unknowingly during a run, leaving a slimy mess when I made it back to the house.
No running today, but I did head out for a walk to get my dad some Valentines Day stuff (he was feeling under the weather but still want to get something for my mum)
Now it's just a matter of trying to sneak it into the house with my my mum knowing :-P
