Linux users with uncommon or unusual setups: tell us about it

I’ll start with mine. yes part of this was to brag about my somewhat but not too unusual setup. But I also wanna learn from your setups!

Anyways: I primarily use Gentoo Linux.

I have two headless servers: a Raspberry Pi 4B and a Oracle cloud VM (free tier). Both running OpenRC, and both were running mainline kernel with custom config (I recently switched the Pi to PiFoundation kernel due to some issues). The raspberry pi boots from SSD and has no sd card inserted.

Both servers were running musl libc instead of glibc for a while. This gave me a couple of random issues, but eventually I got tired and switched back to glibc.

I have a desktop running gentoo and a laptop running arch, but hoping to switch the laptop to gentoo soon.

Both are daily driving wayland (the desktop had nvidia card and used for gaming). The desktop is running a kernel with a minimal config that compiles in 2-3 minutes.

What’s your unusual setup like?

flashgnash,

I use Microsoft edge

mjpc13,
@mjpc13@programming.dev avatar

I have a Microsoft Surface 7 running NixOS. Everything works, even touch/pen

gigatexal,
@gigatexal@mastodon.social avatar

@mjpc13 @cyclohexane that’s impressive. Would mean the laptops should also be supported ? Was it hard to do?

mjpc13,
@mjpc13@programming.dev avatar

It was not too hard if you are already familiar with Nix. The features supported (and the custom Linux kernel) can be found in surface-linux. For NixOS I used the nix-hardware flake to simplify things.

The worst part was the compilation of the Linux kernel, that took hours on the surface. Eventually, I used the remote nix build feature to compile on a more capable computer.

gigatexal,
@gigatexal@mastodon.social avatar

@mjpc13 this would be an amazing blog if you wrote it up. Front page HN content right here. Very cool stuff. Thank you for sharing.

mjpc13,
@mjpc13@programming.dev avatar

Maybe I’ll write something in the future

theshatterstone54,

Fedora Hyprland, with Floorp and Emacs. Not very unusual, especially when compared to what people are saying here. Umm… floating Waybar and EWW as a conky replacement? A customised Neofetch?

Oh, I got it! I’m using my own handcrafted colourscheme! It’s not perfect but it looks very good and is quite nice and blue! And I use Bemenu for a logout menu in a homebrew script.

I’m getting into using Syncthing to synchronise my Notes directory between my devices, which I use on my phone to access my orgmode notes and todo items via an app called Orgzly.

I use a Launcher called Olauncher on my phone which runs LineageOS rooted with KernelSU (that’s quite unusual I guess).

My backup solution is 2 USB sticks and Syncthing.

I run the teams-for-linux flatpak for education-related purposes.

Even with all that I still feel like the most Plain Jane user when I’m seeing people using servers and niche distros, even though I’m sure combining it all together will leave us with only 1 user in the world that does things in that exact way: me.

daddyjones,
@daddyjones@lemmy.world avatar

Just a reboot. There’s an EFI menu listing all the available images - I keep a couple of old ones around to roll back to in case of problems - and I just select the one I want.

Harbinger01173430,

I have a ZFS Ubuntu deaktop install que on an all amd PC and use snap. Given that everyone else has something completely extravagant and hate snaps, I’d say my standard build is unusual.

gkpy,

i have a gentoo system with a custom s6-rc service tree that fully replaces openrc and boots via s6-linux-init.

instead of a display manager i have tinydm (from postmarketos) and autologin setup. since i use full-disk encryption and suspend-to-disk i find that i don’t need the extra login step into my user session.

i have a bunch of bemenu-based helpers for wifi, bluetooth, vpn, audio, passwords, mounting drives, etc.

i don’t have polkit or sudo installed. i use doas.

theshatterstone54,

Do you have those bemenu helpers in a repo somewhere? I’ve been really getting into bemenu scripting recently and I’m really enjoying the results (case in point: when I do a logout/shutdown via my bemenu logout script I feel like an absolute boss).

fruitycoder,

Irubn Bluefin which is a downstream of Fedora built to be more Dev focused and “cloud native”. Desktops apps are flatpak first, my terminal just opens distrobox containers, system CLI tools I get from nixpkgs, services i run on a k3s service on it, and I have use vscodiunm with gitpods to support devcontainers hosted on the k3s cluster. I sometimes pxeboot a raspberry pi or another laptop or a server from my openwrt router to add compute to the cluster if I need it.

Been tinkering with, well, Tinkerbell to do the pxe booting from the k3s cluster but I may go back to Metal3 so I can just used the servers BMCs and do the extra work to config the pxe boot from there.

I really want to get it too full distributed desktop OS at some point, either using moonlight or some real systems work with RDMAoCE and tricking the processes into thinking they are on the same system. That one feel very RnD though.

csm10495,
@csm10495@sh.itjust.works avatar

My username has a space and a newline in it.

Random things break at random times.

ProtoShark,

a) why? b) what does your shell prompt look like?

lemmylem, (edited )

Libreboot Gaming Desktop

  • Dell OptiPlex 9020 MT Motherboard
  • i7 4790K
  • 32GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
  • 9TB (1TB M.2 NVME, 2x4TB Hard drives) RAID 0 with LUKS and LVM (/boot stored on SD card)
  • NVIDIA 2080 SUPER 8GB VRAM
  • NZXT S340 Elite Case
  • EVGA 700W BR
  • Kicksecure GNU/Linux

Libreboot Server

  • Dell Precision T1650
  • Xeon E3 1275 V2
  • 32GB DDR3L 1600Mhz RAM (ECC)
  • 8TB (2x4TB Hard drives) RAID 1 with LUKS and LVM (/boot stored on SD card)
  • AMD RX580 8GB VRAM
  • Proxmox VE / Learning to use YunoHost inside VM

Libreboot Laptop

  • Lenovo Thinkpad T440P
  • i7 4810MQ (Recommend i7 4700MQ for better battery life)
  • 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
  • 1TB SSD (/boot encrypted with Argon2)
  • 100% Free BIOS (LibreMRC), Intel Management Engine is still present but neutered
  • Intel AC 7260 (Can run without blobs when running Linux-libre kernel)
  • AR9271 USB for WiFi (100% FOSS)
  • Kicksecure GNU/Linux with Linux-libre kernel (Removed all non-free-firmware with vrms)

GrapheneOS Phone (100% FOSS in the OS layer)

  • Cheogram / JMP.chat for Calling / Texting
  • Mint Mobile for Service (Cash)
  • Ported number into JMP.chat
  • F-Droid

LibreCMC Routers (100% Free Firmware/Software)

  • ThinkPenguin R1400 Ethernet (1Gbps)
  • ThinkPenguin R1300 WiFi Router (100Mbs)
  • Running under MullvadVPN (Paid in XMR)

OpenWRT Network Switch

  • D-Link DGS-1210-28MP
  • VLAN Support

Yeah that’s pretty much my setup, don’t know if it’s really strange or not lol

downhomechunk,
@downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

It’s strange!

azvasKvklenko,

The Optiplex gaming setup is quite bizzare. Isn’t that CPU a bit of a bottleneck for this relatively powerful GPU?

Btw I used to own the same Thinkpad but it was supplied with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 6xx-something, but never tried Libreboot on it. Given that I sold it in 2020, not sure if libreboot was even doable on it back then.

lemmylem,

A bit, it’s actually not too bad. Rarely any micro stuttering on ultra settings in RDR2, I am actually planning on buying the AMD 7900XTX graphics card to put in this machine. I want to run local LLMs on it, I’m not too much of a gamer as I used to be. Anyways, this thing rocks! I love it. Eventually, I’ll plan on buying a MSI Z690-A DDR5 motherboard and install Dasharo firmware onto it.

fruitycoder,

How does it game for you so far?!

lemmylem, (edited )

It can play all my games at 1440p and ultra settings (RDR2, GTA V, etc.) I’ve never had a time where I’ve wanted to upgrade from it. I built most of this computer for about $450-$500, all used parts I got off eBay plus some other parts that I pulled from my other computer

deania,

Not sure if this counts, but on my install of nobara whenever I hover over an icon in the home bar it relocates to the bottom left corner of the screen, leaving an empty space. I can still interact with apps by clicking on the empty space where the icon used to be so it doesn’t brick my home bar, it’s just really annoying.

LovePoson,
@LovePoson@lemmy.world avatar

Well my unusual setup I spent years thinking about it before I was even able to have the money to achieve it. It’s based on portability and versatility and since I’m now working remotely now it makes even more sense. The plan was to run something portable with less power and smaller when outside, and leave the powerhouse to be accessed remotely. So for that reason I have a dualboot Oneplus 6 with LineageOS and Droidian, Waydroid container on Droidian and Debian proot-distro on LineageOS. That so i dont have to totally reboot for some tasks i might need on android or linux. 4 media folders shared between both of them as well as their containers. This makes sense now cause i long thought of running a Lapdock with it even if only wireless, and I got it recently! It works really nice on android but cant transmit over miracast on linux yet, still figuring that out. Nevertheless thats not the main device that is on my mind. A pinephone pro is a good fit too, but im leaning towards something like the gpd pocket 3, a real portable and modular mini pc that could be connected with just a cable to work better on the lapdock (also can be used as a tablet which is dope).

The powerhouse itself is a server with 16 threads of cpu and 64gb of ram and 2 gtx 1060s for graphics that i plan on configuring with vgpu to split graphical load between the vms with. It is also my remote gaming server :D with moonlight and sunshine, and i spent quite some time configuring all of it to be easily almost plug and play with controllers to have no issues if i disconnect or using multiple different controllers, with a good game launcher (Playnite) to host all games from it.

All of this just to someday achieve my dream of working wherever I want with a camper van to explore the world!

timicin,

i have a single box i use for data storage; backup; wifi; router; and switch.

it runs ubuntu on the bare iron with

  • a windows 10 kvm/qemu vm with pci pass through on wifi to get 1 gig wifi speeds on intel in ap mode (intel won’t allow it using linux drivers)
  • a pfsense kvm/qemu vm for router & firewall to internet and with pci pass through on a 1 gig nic to gap the internet from the base ubuntu
  • dns & ip masquerade along with kvm/qemu based sofware defined networking for windows, pfsense and ubuntu to forward all wifi and cabled network through to internet and
  • connected via 3 gig nic and switch for much faster local data storage and backup on the ubuntu install.
  • vpn and remote backup using pfsense for access to my setup from anywhere else in the world. (eg routing traffic from the office to my home connection for personal use and access to my data)

topographically, it looks like this, but in reality it’s all one box:


<span style="color:#323232;">                              ┌────┐                    ┌─────────────┐                             
</span><span style="color:#323232;">          ┌───────────────────┤vpn │ ┌──────────────────┤windows (wifi│                             
</span><span style="color:#323232;">          ▼                   └────┘ │                  └─────────────┘                             
</span><span style="color:#323232;">┌──────────┐                         │                                                              
</span><span style="color:#323232;">│ internet │                         │                                                              
</span><span style="color:#323232;">└──────────┘                         ▼                  ┌───────┐        ┌──────┐      ┌───────────┐
</span><span style="color:#323232;">          ▲                ┌─────────┐                  │ubuntu │◄───────┤switch│◄─────┤  backups  │
</span><span style="color:#323232;">          └────────────────┤ pfsense │◄─────────────────┴───────┘        └──────┘      └───────────┘
</span><span style="color:#323232;">                           └─────────┘                                                              
</span>
mfat,

That’s very interesting. I thought that intel Wi-Fi cards can’t do AP mode anywhere. I had no luck on ubuntu and openwrt. Didn’t know Windows could help. I’ll try to build a Windows VM with passthrough.

timicin, (edited )

the windows driver allows for full wifi-6/7 speeds in ap mode and is the only way, afaik, to get it with intel cards

there are other efforts to backwards engineer or hack the changes that disables higher speeds in ap mode for linux; but none worked when i tried about 10-ish months ago. i tired these ones:

jeffgeerling.com/…/wifi-6-gets-134-gbps-on-raspbe…gist.github.com/…/290b1b83b17f51355c63a97df7c1cc6…askubuntu.com/questions/1163145/…/1163146#1163146

and if you don’t have a windows key like me, do yourself a favor and create a windows image instead of a vm and keep re-using it to get around the windows validation setup timeout after 30 days. (i didn’t realize this until after the fact so i had to create a work around with ansible to stop/copy/paste/launch the vm every 30 days)

mfat,

Awesome, thanks much.

spencer,

Not mine but my partner’s machine (which I build and largely maintain for her) is a custom Debian install on ZFS root using ZFS boot menu and running a custom minimal i3 desktop environment.

Samueru,

Both servers were running musl libc instead of glibc for a while. This gave me a couple of random issues, but eventually I got tired and switched back to glibc.

musl in a nutshell

technologicalcaveman,

Gentoo gaming and music production rig working through mostly tty with dwm as a graphical display. I typically stay on tty until I want to play a game, use modern web, or record a song. Otherwise tty with Links browser.

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