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Sysadmin Corner 001: Wake-On-Lan Sticky Setup
2023-08-24
Upgrade Joys and Ah-ha Moments MX 23 Libretto is awesome! I have been running MX Linux on my Recycled Workstation at work since MX 19 so this is the second time I have upgraded to the newest version of MX Linux on this workstation. Although I have enjoyed running the MX Fluxbox edition for the last few years, I decided to switch to their flagship edition which uses XFCE as the desktop environment.…
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Volley Your Files From One Computer to Another
2022-07-28
It’s Magical The ability to transfer files from one computer to another on my home network using scp felt magical when I first got into Linux. I had been using “sneaker net”. In those days, “sneaker net” meant putting the file on a 3.5" floppy and walking the floppy disk across the house into the room where the other computer was located. Before I started running Linux on old computers, I never had a network of computers.…
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MX Linux as Wireguard Client
2022-01-02
In my previous post, I shared the excitement of getting a Wireguard VPN set up on a 1st Generation Raspberry Pi. At that point, I had only set up my main Linux system at home, my Fedora 35 system, as a Wireguard client to connect to the RPi Wireguard server. You can read about the configuration methods I went through by reading Wrangle Dotfiles Round 2.0 to get my Fedora 35 system connected to the Wireguard VPN.…
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ROXterm a Full Featured Terminal
2021-12-21
MX Linux often introduces me to new FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). My preferred flavor of MX Linux is MX-Fluxbox . This MX Linux flavor used to be bundled with the flagship version of MX Linux that installed the XFCE Desktop . Since the ISO already had all of the XFCE tools, MX-Fluxbox often used XFCE tools as its defaults too. With the latest release of MX-21 the development team decided that there would be three separate ISO’s for the three main flavors plus an additional ISO of XFCE offering Advanced Hardware Support for computers with the latest hardware and graphics cards.…
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Diving Into a Pool of Butter with MX-21 and Btrfs
2021-11-01
Thoughts Before MX-21 Install MX-21 was officially released on October 21, 2021 in its XFCE, KDE, and Fluxbox editions with the standard Debian 11 kernel. MX Linux has been a joy to use since my first install that you can read about in MX Fluxbox Puts a Shine on Old Code . Now with two of my computers running MX Linux Fluxbox Edition, I definitely planned to upgrade. I had done some testing while MX-21 Fluxbox was in beta, but I didn’t know how I would handle upgrading my MX Linux desktop that had a btrfs RAID1 array.…
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Recycled Workstation Build
2020-12-06
I recycle computers into Linux boxes. Either I repurpose old hardware that I have purchased or I give a second life to computers that others plan to get ride of. Recently I assembled a new workstation to replace the spare computer that I use at work when I’m at my standing desk. My primary computer at work runs Windows 10 so that I can still use a priopritary program that I need for my vocation.…
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Using Hugo to Learn Skills
2020-08-30
After spending my free time of the past week enhancing discoverfoss.com , I decided to reflect on why this blog exists, and why I’m using Hugo to manage it. Discoverfoss.com came from a desire to give back to the free and open source community which has given so much to me and my family. I’m not a coder. I have no ambitions of being a “Youtuber”. I enjoy writing, and my profession requires long form writing for teaching and manuscripts for public speaking.…
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Wrangle Dotfiles with Yadm
2020-08-23
Running a Linux distribution as your computer’s operating system opens up a world of tweaks, configurations, and personalizations. FOSS offers choices in desktop environments, window managers, and favorite programs. All these choices enable you to set up a computer environment that serves your unique needs. What happens when you want to recreate that same experience on a 2nd or 3rd computer that is also running a Linux distribution? You can manually copy each of your configuration files from one computer to another using a folder connected to syncthing or a USB flash drive transferred with sneakernet .…
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MX-Fluxbox Pseudo Tiling
2020-08-18
Eventually the experienced FOSS user will discover tiling window managers. Similar to fluxbox, tiling window managers are light weight on resources, but they might need additional customization to enable features that come turned on automatically in desktop environments like Gnome , Plasma , Mate , and XFCE . Tiling window managers include FOSS like Awesome , Xmonad , i3 , and herbstluftwm just to name a few. Tiling window managers use keyboard shortcuts to quickly arrange your program windows into tiled layouts to make the most of your screen real estate.…
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MX-Fluxbox Window Grouping
2020-08-16
When you hang around technology enthusiasts who love to be productive on their computers, you might hear the term “workflow.” Workflows tend to be as different as the individuals who establish their personal workflow. In FOSS communities individuals will sing their praises of their desktop environment often because they like its default workflow or it fits their preferred workflow. Perhaps, I’m an odd duck, but I have found “workflows” that work for me in all the major desktop environments.…
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