 Hey everybody, welcome to the Linuxcast. I'm your host, Matt Weber. I'm joined by Martin Burke. How you doing, Martin? Yeah, well, Matt, yeah, yourself. What have you been up to this week or last four nights, alright? Well, I mean, as you know, the world has ended. The US election has taken place. We're all, we're all living in post-apocalyptic times or whatever they said it was gonna happen. I don't know. It's 2020. Things have just gone. Oh, I had to beep it out. Anyways, yeah, I'm doing all right. How about you? You doing okay? Yeah, yeah, really good. We've been doing a couple of days off. I upgraded my spare rig, which I use for the podcast. I mean, it was previously an i5 which had a measly four cores in it. So I decided to upgrade it to the i7, which has got a double the capacity with eight cores. So the improved power I've decided to change from mint to KDE Neon. Hmm. I've been quite impressed actually, apart from today, but that's probably my own making. I used to be obsessed with KDE because it was, you know, it's so customizable so I could go through and tweak things like every day and it really fed my ADD. But then I discovered Bruno manager. No, he could spend hours on it. To be fair, I found a good widget because I wanted to do lists and whatnot with a type to my phone and my PC. But it's just a nice little widget that just sits on your PC. So there's no way I can never escape it. Just edit it, strike it through stuff like that. About yourself, what have you? Having a few problems, haven't you? Yes. All right, so I don't we talked about this a couple weeks ago, like maybe on your first episode I was talking about how I'd been doing Rofi scripts for the launcher and I found an early cool and called Rofi Bluetooth that allows me to just to hit a key binding and it would bring up all my Bluetooth devices and I could select it and it connect. But that stopped working. I don't know. I had to go through. I mean the key binding was still working and I'd go through and it would it wouldn't connect and I had to shut off Bluetooth, turn Bluetooth back on, reconnect. It was a pain in the ass. I really got stopped the swearing. I don't know what it was with me today. Anyways, I So I just decided to use Bluetooth CTO, which is a command line, you know command thing to connect things and it's just it's a pain and I did a video on the on the YouTube channel like 20 years later and Audio problems are still a thing on Linux. I mean, all right, so it's like you're building a car Martin You're a car mechanic. You're a Custom car builder or whatever. There's there every car has to have certain things that will make it a car like wheels and Steering wheel and a gas pedal. I mean unless you fled friend Fred Flintstone or something I don't know. I mean those are the things that you know a car has to have Same thing with an operating system There are certain things that have to just plain old work. One of those things, you know is audio and you know 20 or 30 years later Audio problems still exist on Linux and it's like it's the I mean, it's one of the main things that has to work in it Just I'm understand Bluetooth is fairly new, but it's not Bluetooth isn't actually fairly new anymore It's been around for 15 years maybe longer Yeah Yeah, I had a few problems with my Bluetooth. I just So did you just stick to the leads and it's definitely not pulse audio playing up? Oh No, I don't I think it's the fact that I'm using a window manager and it doesn't have a gooey Bluetooth thing. I don't know it's just clashing heads somewhere in between then I have all I Because I don't know what the difference between pulse audio and also is so there I have both installed Because I want the pulse out the also a little widget for my poly bar, which is my saddest bar along the bottom You know, but pulse audio works better with you know, connecting things. It's it's it's a mess. It's just Makes me want to use windows You've probably still have the same problem All right, if you want to get in contact with us, you can do so at the Linux cast on Twitter You can also follow me on Twitter. I'm at MTWB Martin is Martin tweet to you The links to those will be in the show description. You can subscribe to all of our podcast feeds at the linuxcast.org now that just redirects you to our anchor page because we don't actually have a website because I'm much too lazy for that nonsense If you want to get context via email their old-fashioned way You can do so at the linuxcast at gmail.com or follow us on Facebook at Facebook comm slash Linux cast also Make sure you subscribe on YouTube where you'll find awesome videos including a video of the podcast We call it a video. It's really just a you know an audio wave of our of us talking But you also find tips tricks a whole bunch of other stuff on there as well so we're gonna move into our news section and This week Martin, why don't you go ahead and go first? Yeah, it was Last week's news really to the rest just I bought it back up to be fair Just to see if you might dip your toe in to the new raspberry pi 400 It have you saw the one with the keyboard right that it comes in a keyboard Yeah, old school. Yeah, it looks really cool. I'm Not sure if I'd ever buy it because I'm not sure what I'd use it for but it looks cool You know If it had like an eight does it have an hdmi a connector on it because yeah, if it does Yes, that's a I might replace my my computer my standing desk with it. That'd be really fun Well, I was thinking the same because I mean I've I've got an old rig here And one upstairs that I use for work, but I was just thinking well I could just use well, I've got poise to use but this this has got a little bit more power behind it with some new Chip architecture, but you've got two micro hdmi ports in it as well and they output 4k And I mean the wattage a little kick out. I mean Next to nothing as compared to your power supply on your PC Plus with the added bonus it's you got your keyboard there all the time I mean be interested as well because I mean a lot of people that Like working the IT industry and things like that having to take the actual keyboard to work with them and things like that and sanitiser desks, but If it's a case that you could just buy a Raspberry Pi for I think it was let's see I think it was Yeah, 95 pounds as a kid. I think it's about $98 or something. There's not much of a difference. I mean the kids quite good You've got a nice little Raspberry Pi booklet You've got your mouse everything to get you up and running You're not gonna get cheaper than that unless you boys taking hand moving on to Linux really so I'll may well purchase one the back in stock. So Yeah, it does really look good. Um, I Don't see the HDMI Connector though. Maybe I'm just missing it. It's a micro hdmi the really small one So you'll either have to buy an adapter Or the normal size hdmi to the micro you pet better off just buying the Adapter to be fair or two of them obviously Yeah, it looks awesome tempted with playing about it. Yeah, that looks I don't actually have any pies I've never figured out a good useful one. Um, I won't see now. She chants. I was standing. Oh, yeah I was thinking about you know by building a NAS, but it's just I'm just too lazy Again, but by the time I go through and buy, you know, the raspberry pie and then all the drives and stuff. I Anyways, so um, yes, I still that kind of Because I don't think that was like any rumors of that 400 coming out like No The guys at Ubuntu had it since September I'd saw on the Interview and I just couldn't say anything about it because I've got Groovy Gorilla working on it. I'll say working I don't know whether it's a big laggy, but with the added punch that this has got over the normal for Hearing good reports off it and at the end of the day if it's just your your desk station or if you've got to Connect to your server at work. You're gonna use a surface power next year round. Yeah. Yeah, it's a definite way Well, it's definitely gonna be the Christmas Hitting the computing world Well, apart from obviously Xboxies and yeah, the four PS4s that are available So my link for this week was the pro one X smartphone Now this thing looks like I don't know if you remember our if they had this over in the UK Martin But they had a the original droid phone It was Might have it was made by Motorola. So it's probably branded something different, you know in the rest of the world It was it was the original droid phone here And they had a slide-out keyboard like this and this looks this runs a linear Joe linear OS or Ubuntu touch or Android and it looks really cool I'm not sure I can't remember this this link is like three weeks old now, but I'm not sure what it's $600 so I mean it's not even Horrendously expensive. I mean, especially when you consider like an iPhone is like $1,000 and this one here will run multiple, you know Operating systems. It looks really cool. I'd love to try one out. I miss physical keyboards. Thank you on Yeah, especially when you can tie it up to your monitor and get that external I think that's six fifty dollars is the the early bird price or the is it the XDA developers? It's dunny. I think when it retails depending on how many they've got left because I think it's just a case of it It's an old phone previously. They're just updated the specs. I think it's gonna go and retail just well $900. Oh, wow. Yeah, that'd be too much. They'd be too expensive Which is a bit pricey, but six fifty sounds okay, especially if it can replace Yeah, your workstation and you just slip it in your pocket But it does look really cool and the hinge on it looks like it it's gonna last and sort of did you want it with the developers and Got a good love of linux and especially with lineage always straight out the box People want stuff like that. Yeah, people just don't want to be messing about with a phone installing things and but no, yeah It does look good But I think $900 People are just buy it. Yep. No, I think about something like that I mean we could go on a rant about phone prices phones are just too expensive. I mean the mainstream phones are just Way too pricey Why would you spend a you know $1,500 or $2,000 on a phone when you could buy a computer for that? Well, like a high-end computer I mean like you end up with like a get by a gaming rig for $2,000 And rant this is gonna be all about rants today is this gonna be Ha ha Nevertheless, it looks a super cool phone. It does look really nice and at least it's moving in the right direction Maybe when they get a fair few sales off it maybe a couple of the people say Actually, if we give people a choice Which is what people want. Yeah, we'll ship it with the Ubuntu or lineage But then again, they'd have to get rid of some of the bloat workers I mean Samsung's renowned for if you bought one of their phones Yeah, I need to get it off. Anyway, it's in the phones. Yeah, so If you want to get to the links of those topics, they will be in the show notes and We'll move on to our main topic now, which is Linux permissions. Now, this is my topic And when I first selected this I was having a hard time getting jellyfin to work and I gave up on jellyfin I Yeah, I gave up on Plex a long time ago even though I did manage to get plex up and running for a while But that was when I was still distro hopping like every Three weeks and so I'd have to keep going through and setting up plex server every three weeks And it was just oh man, it's a pain in the butt but I was three weeks ago I was still trying to get jellyfin to work and that's when we selected this topic and It just reminded me Martin that Linux permissions are terrible I mean if you alright, so if you open up, you know a windows machine You put into windows and you want to do something you don't have to get into the terminal and type in ch mod plus Exit or you know seven five five or any of this nonsense in order to get it to work You just use it. I mean you might guess it's pop up or whatever and says are you do you want to do this or whatever? But I mean you don't have to deal with links You don't want to deal with permissions in windows that that you know to the point where you have to get into the terminal to do it And you do have to do that in one on Linux. We were talking the last time we're here about Barriers to entrance for noobs and this is one of them, right? I mean if you if you're a Fairly technological you can figure out how to install Linux fairly easily But once you get to the point where you have to go through and change permission on something and then risk not being able to access your data because you did it wrong Yeah It's just it's such a pain to have to go through and do it And it's just it's completely broken and I'm not I understand. Go ahead Martin say what you're saying is say No, that's right. I mean Well still do distro up now just do it for the food VMs more than anything now But what I did because I was just used to new can pave and part of the process of Always enjoyed stuff like that. I don't know why So I decided to create a script right so do this script get all my programs on there Save typing it out. We're going to websites do this script right copy it across to a USB Right, let's have a look. Let's bring the USB up. You did not have permission to open this file. I'm like what? Why I've just literally typed it out and Obviously must have been dead to the I Didn't use the same name or stuff like that But I just thought how the hell and I figured out after a while. I mean, I did the lazy I'll use a gooey went to permissions and Changed it by there and I thought well, I suppose it is good in one sense from a security level But it's stuff like that. He's like you say it's a barrier because it just could not understand Well, I copied it from there. Well, let's copy it again. And it just could not understand it. Obviously didn't realize how How detailed that the permissions are, I mean, let's have a look at my Linux pocket guide here But yeah with the LS minus L to bring up your permissions and stuff like that And what you say with the numbers and and things like that. I mean you could just scratch your head I mean I've gone through a couple of videos as I do and the start off for you and Then it's I just get a bit lost to be fair I think if I do have to do it I probably would like you say the ch-mod and things like that. I probably would just do it the lazy way I mean, it's not the way that you like because you like to be command-loyed and doing it all in there But it's stuff like that. He's just Hassle, I mean thankfully I don't move a lot of folders or files about but there's Obviously people the two of nazis and things like that. It's got to get it all sort in That's my thought on Initial hurdle if you're just the one person using a computer It's hard right because you're just moving computers around for yourself You have just the one username just the one group that you're you know you're on But if you're trying to manage files for like on a NAS or on you know a server or something like that And you have multiple groups and multiple users it gets I Understand that it I understand the thought behind Linux permissions It's supposed to be allow you to give this extra functionality over security for you know multiple people and all that and it's a great idea But when you're just a single user you shouldn't have to have to deal with it for regular things like Yeah, if you're installing like a plug server or jellyfin I mean those are those are my examples because that's what I you know where I've had my biggest problems But if you know if you're doing those things the program itself who just changed the permissions like it should pop up like it does I know comparing it to the Great Satan of Windows, but you know just pop up and say hey We need access to these files. Do you give us permission to do so? Type in your password. You know, that's how it should work instead of having to go. Well, I can't jellyfin access my external hard drive Oh, I have to get in there and I have to give jellyfin permission I have to put jellyfin the jellyfin user which it creates upon install in the group of You know whatever and then I also had to change the permission so that they have act read and white permissions to that folder but not that folder but the parent folder and maybe the parent for a parent folder and Now all of a sudden jellyfin has re-write access to my entire External hard drive including places like my tax documents and stuff. I mean cuz of course it does because apparently it needs it I mean, it's just I mean, it's the dumbest thing in the world because it's broken it's just that is that that's not the way it should work and It's just completely frustrating. I I mean, I full-time Linux user here have been for three years I'm not gonna all of a sudden abandon Linux is because this is bad, but this is broken and it needs to be fixed I'm not sure what the I mean the solution is just making a an ability for Programs to change the permissions that they need You know, whether that's a pop-up or whatever that I mean, that's the solution, but I Think that people have just gotten so used to having to deal with this Nonsense that they've just it's just what it is And on another thought I mean, why are there two ways to do it Martin? I mean, I understand this is Linux wherever You know every there's ten ways of doing everything But why are there more than why is there this is it's like It's like with audio. You don't want two or three ways of doing something because it just makes things confusing and makes it harder to Actually work And there's at least two probably three ways of changing permissions on Linux that I can make up So you can do the you know RX RW X RD RW X RW X thing You know, which is what you get when you do LS dash L Or you can go through and do the numbers thing, which is even more confusing because those letters add up to numbers 7 5 5 6 5 5 6 100 whatever I Don't know any of those numbers mean Nobody else does either. I mean by the way Right and You know, so there's two ways and you can if you have a GUI file manager like Sunar Nautilus or Dolphin or whatever You can right click on it and change permissions from there so that's three different ways of doing this and none of them are good because half of the time the The GUI way doesn't work because it doesn't have permission to change things. So if you haven't ran your file Your file manager as a you know as root it doesn't have permissions to change most file You know, you know permissions so you can say you can go in there and change those permissions And it will show that they were changed, but you didn't actually change him because it didn't have permission It's Just had to move a file for a certificate over Let's just scratch in my head and it's well open up as roots. Well, I Should just go to just drop in and I found out because it was locked down this the file manager is using at the time So I forget whether it was Nautilus that I'd used just to enable me to copy from the Direct to heart downloaded it to And to something another direction my root fold and I thought well with windows I mean it's just you just drag it across and Drop it nice and easy. I mean I can understand. Yeah, it's security You shouldn't really be tatting about that other folders and that you got your home folder So your main one, but sometimes you do have to stray out I mean, I can understand all the security, but maybe it'd be nice just to when you're setting it up as you're going through your Setup and it's just going to be a single user computer. Yes or no Do you want to set up? Advanced file permissions. Yes or no and take it from there, but obviously It's one of the cases if it's not broke don't fix it for some people But if it's just your average person that has got your nas and things like that and quite comfortable in the information's not Going out anywhere Yeah, I mean to be fair, I haven't come across it that much thankfully But no data will To come but I'll still use the right click and change your permissions to be fair. It's just So much easier Just just just from my laziness to be fair. I mean Yeah terminals quite good get it getting the command line do a couple of bits and pieces like that But if you deal with dealing with mass amounts of data and changing things over unless you are Linux literate It can be a pain in the butt. Yeah, I could see that now. I mean, yeah, security's fine. Yeah, brilliant As opposed to Windows I mean it literally is dragon drop drop it on get it sorted. They can read it There we go. It's there for a reason. That's all I can say on it. Yeah To test us. It's just one of those It's it's for advanced users is what it is. It's exactly what it is. You're right And you know, that's fine because they consider all Linux users. I damn it keep hitting my headphones on the microphone I mean, they consider all Linux users at measures because you have to be fairly advanced in order to install it in the first place I guess so they just assume that you know, this is something and you're right that this isn't something that you see all the time So it's not something that new users are probably going to even I mean If you're a new you Linux user chances are you're not even going to you know, ever see Linux permissions I mean, unless you're gonna do something outside of the realm of normal, you know, like yeah You're probably gonna be perfectly fine But it's once you get more advanced start managing servers or you know raspberry pies or or Any file management really at all. It's good. That's gonna be when you start having you know having issues and that's uh, I Don't know. Anyways, so let's jump into our apps of the week Martin. Why don't you go first? My recommendation and is an app called overgrove This is to Upload download From your Google account if anybody's got those. I mean, I'd I subscribed it was cheap at half the price I think it's about 45 quid for for the year Tied up to my family so we can share things This apps you can use it for I think it's two weeks and just see how you get along with it Obviously it syncs all your data you could choose what to sing what not to sync and Back up your local drives Convert Google Docs to office file formats for offline editing Backup only option if you want that and you can sync multiple Gmail accounts And I mean I quite like this and it just filled that extra bit of security Especially if you're dropping photos on to your PC. You just don't know and you can leave it running in the background So I mean I'll drop the guys. I think it's about five bucks But yeah, it's quite happy with it. It sits sits down does exactly what it should do It's a lot easier than the dropbox ones Just works so that's that's my recommendation if anyone does use a Google Drawing have you have any problems with it deleting files? Because I've used some of those Google Drive things that the more free versions Once you had to pay for and I had a problem where they're in deleted like half the stuff on my drive. It was really annoying Now they these go guys In pretty stand-up to be fair I could say test it out, but yes, you've had a bad one before But yeah, just choose. I think it comes down to One thing I don't like if you get the settings wrong and you delete from your computer And then it deletes it from your drive You want to get your sync working right sometimes? But yeah, if you use your G drive and give it a quick try see what you think of it But touch wood not at any deleted data So mine is a little Terminal application of course because you know nerd here Called WPM. I've left the link in the description. The links for both of these will be in the show description The show notes And this is called it's called WPM and basically if you're if you're interested in learning or either learning how to type or learning how to type faster This is basically just a typing test in the terminal Um, and it's it's fairly simple. It's got about 1500 quotes or whatever that you can just go through and it'll you You type the stuff and it shows you how fast you work It's very simple. It has a few options like you can keep tracking your stats and stuff But uh, you know, it's not anything overly complicated. It's just a few hundred lines of code And I mean it doesn't really have any Overvanged, you know, like huge advantages over doing like I got a website or something But this gives you control over your own statistics and stuff and like I've been trying to go through and practice my typing every single day for about About three months now and I've gotten faster. Um, I've always been fairly fast And I can get up to like, you know, 80 words a minute, but I've been trying to break the hundred word a minute Barrier I'm not quite there yet. I'm not as accurate at those speeds as I you know, I'm little ones But anyways, this is just means I can keep this open in a terminal or whatever in one of my tabs and Work on it every day. That's mine. I just give you 10 15 minutes to it Just to check it's got like terminal commands in there. That's uber boring, but it's already just like the quick Fox type stuff. Oh, no, I had it has um, is it just like words? It's like quotes from books and like, you know, Shakespeare and Probably mostly public domain works is what I've been finding so far. I haven't gone through all that through all the quotes but um it's not I Think because you can go through an ad like say you had a You found a repository of quotes online or whatever you can go through and add your own quotes to this too So that you can control length and stuff like that and it's just in a little I think it's like like a CSV file where the quotes are located. It's not even so you click Yeah, it's not even that hard to um, you know set up or alter or anything. It's just really a really small program I think you could set it up with your own terminal commands and just Practice those so to speak. Yes. That's a good little app actually. Yes. I was well not up Yeah, it surprised me that they're it even kind of existed I mean what I mean usually when you think when you know practice typing whatever you just go to a you know Mavis beacon or whatever it is I'm you know on the internet, but this is just something that you can store locally and you know I have to worry about you know having to sign in with your Google account your Facebook account in order to you know Keep track of your stats. Anyways, that is it for us this time Our next one is Season four episode 14 dual bootings we're gonna be talking about the merits of dual booting I guess and whether or not we should still do it. I think that this is Martin's topic So we should that should be really fun. Should you use Windows? I don't think she'd use Windows. I think that's just Anyways To Linux partitions, that's what you need to Linux Anyways all the contact information is there at the top it remember to subscribe on YouTube for many awesome videos every week See ya next time Thanks for watching guys. Cheers. Yeah