Weekly Forum Summary

Community
28

This week in our forums…

Key Stats

In the past week, our Linux forums had the following activity and key statistics:

Total New Posts: 74
Total New Topics: 6

Top Members

@Brian_Masinick: 14 posts, 22 likes
@J_J_Sloan: 9 posts, 16 likes
@hydn: 19 posts, 12 likes
@ejkeerbs: 6 posts, 9 likes
@MarshallJFlinkman: 5 posts, 9 likes
@shybry747: 3 posts, 6 likes
@tmick: 6 posts, 6 likes
@toadie: 2 posts, 4 likes
@vipuser: 2 posts, 3 likes
@sarcutus: 1 posts, 3 likes

Interesting Topics

  • In General Discussions, @shybry747 shared a smooth real-world upgrade story in Switching Your Linux HDD to a Different System. Moving an NVMe from a Dell 7050 to an HP Z2 G4, Fedora 43 Sway booted without fuss. @toadie noted Windows can sometimes handle this too with extra tweaks, while @MarshallJFlinkman mentioned only GPU drivers tend to be the gotcha. @tmick added that even a full AMD-to-Intel/NVIDIA swap worked for him with the original disks.

  • @J_J_Sloan started a discussion in General Discussions about desktop viability in Linux distros vs the BSDs on the desktop. He detailed FreeBSD 15 struggles with Intel HD 530 graphics and contrasted it with smoother OpenBSD usage, though some gaming quirks remained. @Brian_Masinick and @tmick compared notes, agreeing BSD fits servers well, while Linux tends to be the daily driver winner. The thread veered into ZFS vs Btrfs experiences too, with @MarshallJFlinkman asking about parity reliability and performance.

  • In General Discussions, @vipuser asked for practical ad-blocking approaches in What is your strategy to block ads on your distro?. The community shared layered defenses: @MarshallJFlinkman uses uBlock Origin with aggressive lists, Pi-hole, Tor/Privoxy, and pfSense egress filtering; @hydn described pfSense with pfBlockerNG as a single, effective solution; and @toadie keeps it simple with Proton VPN, Brave, and UBlock.

  • Over in Linux Support, @ktulhu989 asked how to effectively “black-hole” all logs without writing to disk or RAM in Made directory to act as /dev/null. The question outlines a QEMU host that minimizes persistence and seeks a write-nowhere approach for /var/log beyond tmpfs, highlighting challenges with programs that rotate or create new log filenames.

  • In Linux Support, @J_J_Sloan described a puzzling failover firewall case in Weird networking/nat/forward issue. Debian keepalived and FreeBSD carp worked, but similar RHEL 10 VMs blocked traffic to the DMZ while still allowing internet access. The discussion points to changed defaults like stricter nftables forwarding and rp_filter behavior on RHEL 10.

  • @Save_The_fox reached out in General Discussions with Help with Microsoft after a malware incident and difficulty accessing account security settings. @Brian_Masinick proposed considering a switch to MX Linux or Linux Mint as a more controlled and stable environment going forward.

  • In General Discussions, the Fedora-KDE-43 review thread sparked talk about COSMIC. @shybry747 liked its blend of a standard desktop with tiling features and a solid status bar, but disliked GNOME-style workspace renumbering. @Brian_Masinick asked what specific aspects made COSMIC appealing compared to sway or traditional GNOME setups.

  • In Linux Support, a straightforward cloning job paid off in How to clone Ubuntu. @vipuser confirmed Clonezilla worked better than expected for this case, following earlier guidance to image and restore with minimal post-clone tweaking.

  • In Community, @ejkeerbs posted a helpful field report in Finding Linux Compatible Printers. He described success with Brother printers like the HL-L3280CDW and HL-L6200DWT on Fedora and Kubuntu, noting WiFi setup quirks via the control panel and that proprietary drivers aren’t necessary in most cases thanks to network discovery.

  • Also in Linux Support, hams will appreciate @ejkeerbs’ deep dive on interface naming in “Port” identification. He explained how lsusb output, FLRig direct USB access, and HamLib’s rigctld interact, and why device references such as /dev/ttyUSB0 can be confusing across apps, especially with radios like the Icom IC-7610 presenting multiple USB bridges.

Activity by the @staff Group

Best Reply or Topic of the Week

The nod goes to @ejkeerbs for a clear, experience-based explanation that untangles device naming for ham radio software in “Port” identification. The post shows how FLRig and HamLib relate to USB devices, why a radio like the IC-7610 presents multiple endpoints, and how to configure serial speed with rigctld. It is a strong, reusable reference for anyone wrestling with USB-to-serial devices and rig control on Linux.

Thanks for reading. See you again next week! :penguin:

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