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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #86403 > unrolled thread

The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users

Started byLeroy H <lh@somewhere.net>
First post2026-05-11 19:00 +0000
Last post2026-05-15 18:06 -0700
Articles 20 on this page of 79 — 16 participants

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Contents

  The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-11 19:00 +0000
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-11 20:10 +0100
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2026-05-12 18:11 +0200
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:38 +0100
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-05-11 20:12 +0100
      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-11 22:47 +0000
        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-11 22:42 -0400
          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-12 13:52 +0000
            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-12 17:49 +0100
              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-12 22:00 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 04:47 +0000
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:43 +0100
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:40 +0000
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:41 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:56 +0200
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 12:56 +0100
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:52 +0000
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:24 +0200
                        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:34 +0100
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:48 +0000
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:25 +0200
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-15 20:51 +0000
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-05-14 10:00 +1000
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:00 +0100
                        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:45 +0100
                          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:25 +0100
                            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:38 +0100
                              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:28 +0100
                                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:40 +0100
                                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 18:06 +0100
                                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-14 23:46 +0000
                            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-15 20:41 +0000
                              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-16 08:49 +0100
                                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-16 09:51 +0000
                                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-16 11:44 +0100
                        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 11:16 +0100
                        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-05-15 09:19 +1000
                          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-15 12:23 +0100
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:42 +0100
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-14 01:12 +0000
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-14 10:09 +0100
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-14 12:54 +0200
                        Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-14 17:52 +0000
                          Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-14 22:50 +0200
            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-12 18:55 +0200
            Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 22:19 +0000
              Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 14:56 +0000
                Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-13 17:45 +0000
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-13 18:50 +0100
                    Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 19:09 +0000
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-13 22:34 +0200
                      Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-05-13 21:34 +0000
                  Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-13 19:06 +0000
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-11 21:41 +0000
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-05-11 14:59 -0700
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 03:53 +0000
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 00:39 -0400
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-12 23:02 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 20:49 -0400
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users makendo <makendo@makendo.invalid> - 2026-05-12 12:47 +0800
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-12 01:26 -0400
    Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-15 21:04 +0000
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-16 00:37 +0000
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-16 08:35 +0200
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-16 19:41 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-16 18:40 +0000
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-16 20:37 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-16 23:07 +0200
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-05-16 22:33 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-17 01:11 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-05-17 00:39 -0400
        Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-05-16 18:39 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-05-16 22:10 +0200
            Re: The Stupidification of systemd Haters Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-17 04:21 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-05-16 19:37 +0000
          Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-17 13:37 +0100
            Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users L Thorpe <lt666@sixsixsix.net> - 2026-05-17 17:22 +0000
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-05-16 00:48 +0000
      Re: The Stupidification of GNU/Linux Users Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-05-15 18:06 -0700

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#86643 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromRichard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-05-14 10:09 +0100
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<wwvv7cq1hot.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk>
In reply to#86635
Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
> Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> I can not think now of a task that puts the kernel CPU load at 100%.

Perhaps an IPSec VPN endpoint with a very fast network interface and
lots of clients that (for some reason) use DES3-CBC as bulk cipher?

(DES3 because it’s not accelerated and CBC mode because of its
dependency speedbump.)

I’m not going to do the experiment...

> If you actually mean 100×$(nproc)%, I can think of several ways to do
> it, video encoding and CG rendering being two obvious ones.
>
> Another one is doing some large build with “make -j”, and forgetting
> to specify a process limit. ;)

Those are all user process load. The question was about kernel CPU load.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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#86657 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2026-05-14 12:54 +0200
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<o8mgdmx9qb.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#86643
On 2026-05-14 11:09, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>> Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>> I can not think now of a task that puts the kernel CPU load at 100%.
> 
> Perhaps an IPSec VPN endpoint with a very fast network interface and
> lots of clients that (for some reason) use DES3-CBC as bulk cipher?
> 
> (DES3 because it’s not accelerated and CBC mode because of its
> dependency speedbump.)
> 
> I’m not going to do the experiment...

I am thinking now of an applet in XFCE 4 called "multiload ng". I think 
it comes from an old gnome one. Well, the thing is it can graph 
processor load as "User, System, Nice, or I/O wait". Kernel load would 
be "System". But maybe other things are also "System". Maybe libc?


> 
>> If you actually mean 100×$(nproc)%, I can think of several ways to do
>> it, video encoding and CG rendering being two obvious ones.
>>
>> Another one is doing some large build with “make -j”, and forgetting
>> to specify a process limit. ;)
> 
> Those are all user process load. The question was about kernel CPU load.


Yep.


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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#86667 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-05-14 17:52 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<n6mgf5Feru8U2@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#86657
On Thu, 14 May 2026 12:54:48 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:


> I am thinking now of an applet in XFCE 4 called "multiload ng". I think
> it comes from an old gnome one. Well, the thing is it can graph
> processor load as "User, System, Nice, or I/O wait". Kernel load would
> be "System". But maybe other things are also "System". Maybe libc?

I had to install it on openSUSE with

sudo zypper install sysstat
sudo systemctl enable sysstat
sudo systemctl enable sysstat

There are a bunch of flags described in the man page but 

sar
Linux 6.17.0-23-generic (kropotkin)     05/14/2026      _x86_64_        (8 CPU)

12:00:15 AM     CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait    %steal     %idle
12:10:18 AM     all      0.48      0.00      0.48      0.04      0.00     99.00
12:20:05 AM     all      0.50      0.08      0.51      0.07      0.00     98.84
12:30:03 AM     all      0.48      0.00      0.47      0.05      0.00     99.00
12:40:01 AM     all      0.49      0.00      0.49      0.06      0.00     98.96
12:50:01 AM     all      0.47      0.00      0.47      0.05      0.00     99.00
01:00:14 AM     all      0.49      0.00      0.48      0.06      0.00     98.98

That's cumulative but 'sar -u 2 10' will report every 2 seconds for 10 times.

The docs say 'system' means kernel.  you also get iostat and pidstat. pidstat is useful to see who is dipping into the kernel.

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#86673 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2026-05-14 22:50 +0200
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<a5phdmxt8o.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#86667
On 2026-05-14 19:52, rbowman wrote:
> On Thu, 14 May 2026 12:54:48 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> 
> 
>> I am thinking now of an applet in XFCE 4 called "multiload ng". I think
>> it comes from an old gnome one. Well, the thing is it can graph
>> processor load as "User, System, Nice, or I/O wait". Kernel load would
>> be "System". But maybe other things are also "System". Maybe libc?
> 
> I had to install it on openSUSE with
> 
> sudo zypper install sysstat
> sudo systemctl enable sysstat
> sudo systemctl enable sysstat
> 
> There are a bunch of flags described in the man page but
> 
> sar
> Linux 6.17.0-23-generic (kropotkin)     05/14/2026      _x86_64_        (8 CPU)
> 
> 12:00:15 AM     CPU     %user     %nice   %system   %iowait    %steal     %idle
> 12:10:18 AM     all      0.48      0.00      0.48      0.04      0.00     99.00
> 12:20:05 AM     all      0.50      0.08      0.51      0.07      0.00     98.84
> 12:30:03 AM     all      0.48      0.00      0.47      0.05      0.00     99.00
> 12:40:01 AM     all      0.49      0.00      0.49      0.06      0.00     98.96
> 12:50:01 AM     all      0.47      0.00      0.47      0.05      0.00     99.00
> 01:00:14 AM     all      0.49      0.00      0.48      0.06      0.00     98.98
> 
> That's cumulative but 'sar -u 2 10' will report every 2 seconds for 10 times.
> 
> The docs say 'system' means kernel.  you also get iostat and pidstat. pidstat is useful to see who is dipping into the kernel.

"multiload ng" is a GUI tool, but considering that all apps drink from 
the same sources for their data, %system must be kernel on all tools. 
Then libc must be userland.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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#86517 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2026-05-12 18:55 +0200
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<kl2cdmxck6.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#86487
On 2026-05-12 15:52, Rich wrote:
> c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
>> On 5/11/26 18:47, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>> On Mon, 11 May 2026 20:12:03 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:


> 
> I used to build my own kernels, but this was back in the days of
> systems with 512MB of total RAM and i586 class CPU's running at
> 150-200Mhz.  Back in those days it /felt/ like there was a speedup by
> building the kernel against the specific CPU one had in one's box, and
> with the 512MB RAM days, there *was* a benefit of stripping out drivers
> that one did not use, as a smaller kernel left more RAM available for
> one's applications.

Me too, but the distros making everything modules also saved the same 
RAM and was less work for users. Maybe the startup was a bit slower :-?

> 
> But somewhere along the path from i586 class CPU's to i3/i5/i7 class
> CPU's, and 512MB ram to 24G RAM it became a case where the performance
> increase from "build with CPU optimizations for a speific CPU" and
> "Kernel is smaller" was no longer noticable.  The standard kernel
> Slackware built felt just as fast as the custom built kernel, and the
> difference in memory usage was a tiny sliver of the total, so it wasn't
> worth it to continue.  So somewhere around the "Pentium 3" to Core era
> I quit compiling custom kernels for myself as I no longer felt like I
> could detect the benefits from doing so.

Right.


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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#86533 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-05-12 22:19 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<n6hnbuF2nluU2@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#86487
On Tue, 12 May 2026 13:52:51 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

> I used to build my own kernels, but this was back in the days of systems
> with 512MB of total RAM and i586 class CPU's running at 150-200Mhz. 
> Back in those days it /felt/ like there was a speedup by building the
> kernel against the specific CPU one had in one's box, and with the 512MB
> RAM days, there *was* a benefit of stripping out drivers that one did
> not use,
> as a smaller kernel left more RAM available for one's applications.

It's been a long, long time but iirc you could also screw yourself royally 
if you said 'I don't need that' for some obscure feature that you 
definitely did need.

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#86595 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 14:56 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<10u23e2$2odeg$6@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86533
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 12 May 2026 13:52:51 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
> 
>> I used to build my own kernels, but this was back in the days of systems
>> with 512MB of total RAM and i586 class CPU's running at 150-200Mhz. 
>> Back in those days it /felt/ like there was a speedup by building the
>> kernel against the specific CPU one had in one's box, and with the 512MB
>> RAM days, there *was* a benefit of stripping out drivers that one did
>> not use,
>> as a smaller kernel left more RAM available for one's applications.
> 
> It's been a long, long time but iirc you could also screw yourself royally 
> if you said 'I don't need that' for some obscure feature that you 
> definitely did need.

Been there, done that....

Was esp. troublesome when fixing the mistake involved waiting another 
hour plus for a kernel compile to complete.

The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never* 
overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current kernel 
and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry first.  Then if 
the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn something on, I had a 
way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy disks".

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#86612 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-05-13 17:45 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<n6jrl9F2dl2U1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#86595
On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:

> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never*
> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current kernel
> and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry first.  Then if
> the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn something on, I had a
> way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy disks".

That was my initial Linux experience. Download a few boxes worth of 
floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble the 
mess. iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for more 
floppy images.

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#86614 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 18:50 +0100
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<10u2dkq$2sb5d$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86612
On 13/05/2026 18:45, rbowman wrote:
> On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
> 
>> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never*
>> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current kernel
>> and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry first.  Then if
>> the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn something on, I had a
>> way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy disks".
> 
> That was my initial Linux experience. Download a few boxes worth of
> floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble the
> mess. iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for more
> floppy images.
> 
I THINK my first personal install was red hat from a CD...
Later I mostly burned DVDs and then switched to a USB drive


-- 
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the 
very definition of slavery.

Jonathan Swift

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#86621 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 19:09 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<10u2i8r$2tm2g$3@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86614
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 13/05/2026 18:45, rbowman wrote:
>> On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
>> 
>>> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never* 
>>> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current 
>>> kernel and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry 
>>> first.  Then if the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn 
>>> something on, I had a way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy 
>>> disks".
>> 
>> That was my initial Linux experience.  Download a few boxes worth of 
>> floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble 
>> the mess.  iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for 
>> more floppy images.
>> 
> I THINK my first personal install was red hat from a CD...
> Later I mostly burned DVDs and then switched to a USB drive

You missed out on all the *fun* of downloading 30+ floppies, then 
writing to 30+ floppies, then booting and installing from 30+ floppies, 
only to find out something was wrong with the media on floppy # 29 (it 
was always the last, or one just a step or two before last that had a 
media issue) such that the install failed, and you had to start over 
again after writing #29 (or whichever) to a new disk (and hoping it or 
one of the others didn't now fail too).

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#86627 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 22:34 +0200
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<cs3fdmxlk.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#86621
On 2026-05-13 21:09, Rich wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 13/05/2026 18:45, rbowman wrote:
>>> On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
>>>
>>>> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never*
>>>> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current
>>>> kernel and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry
>>>> first.  Then if the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn
>>>> something on, I had a way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy
>>>> disks".
>>>
>>> That was my initial Linux experience.  Download a few boxes worth of
>>> floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble
>>> the mess.  iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for
>>> more floppy images.
>>>
>> I THINK my first personal install was red hat from a CD...
>> Later I mostly burned DVDs and then switched to a USB drive
> 
> You missed out on all the *fun* of downloading 30+ floppies, then
> writing to 30+ floppies, then booting and installing from 30+ floppies,
> only to find out something was wrong with the media on floppy # 29 (it
> was always the last, or one just a step or two before last that had a
> media issue) such that the install failed, and you had to start over
> again after writing #29 (or whichever) to a new disk (and hoping it or
> one of the others didn't now fail too).
> 

I never did that.

For one thing, in the 90's in Spain you paid local calls by the minute. 
I didn't have internet till 97 or 98. I had Fidonet. So even though I 
knew about Linux from comments I heard, I could not try it till it came 
in a summer magazine as CDs.

I was working for a large serious company that had a Linux server doing 
things in the corner. I then realized it was a serious OS, not some 
amateur thing anymore. I wanted to try it, and learn some Unix, because 
Unix was used at my work site.

I think I first installed Red Hat. After reading a lot about how to make 
room in the hard disk, I installed that, got to a prompt, and did not 
know what to do with it.

Next I bumped into another magazine that did a piece analyzing several 
Linux distros. It said that SuSE was the easiest. And soon that summer 
came a magazine with a double CD with SuSE 5.3. Bingo! I installed that 
one instead.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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#86631 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromCharlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 21:34 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<Z76NR.519$lL1.474@fx45.iad>
In reply to#86621
On 2026-05-13, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:

> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 13/05/2026 18:45, rbowman wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
>>> 
>>>> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never* 
>>>> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current 
>>>> kernel and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry 
>>>> first.  Then if the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn 
>>>> something on, I had a way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy 
>>>> disks".
>>> 
>>> That was my initial Linux experience.  Download a few boxes worth of 
>>> floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble 
>>> the mess.  iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for 
>>> more floppy images.
>> 
>> I THINK my first personal install was red hat from a CD...
>> Later I mostly burned DVDs and then switched to a USB drive
>
> You missed out on all the *fun* of downloading 30+ floppies, then 
> writing to 30+ floppies, then booting and installing from 30+ floppies, 
> only to find out something was wrong with the media on floppy # 29 (it 
> was always the last, or one just a step or two before last that had a 
> media issue) such that the install failed, and you had to start over 
> again after writing #29 (or whichever) to a new disk (and hoping it or 
> one of the others didn't now fail too).

I had all that fun on mainframes using 8-inch floppies long before
Linux existed.  My first Linux installation was from a CD, thank God.

-- 
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  Growth for the sake of
\ /  <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>      |  growth is the ideology
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  of the cancer cell.
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Edward Abbey

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#86620 — Re: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2026-05-13 19:06 +0000
SubjectRe: The Stupidification Of systemd Haters
Message-ID<10u2i47$2tm2g$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86612
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 13 May 2026 14:56:02 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
> 
>> The first time I made this mistake it also taught me to *never* 
>> overwrite my existing, working, lilo boot entry for the current 
>> kernel and instead to install the new kernel as a second entry 
>> first.  Then if the new kernel panicked because I forgot to turn 
>> something on, I had a way out other than "reinstall from 30+ floppy 
>> disks".
> 
> That was my initial Linux experience.  Download a few boxes worth of 
> floppies with the Slackware stuff over dialup and carefully assemble 
> the mess.  iirc my first pass didn't have gcc; back to Slackware for 
> more floppy images.

In my case the first was 30+ floppies with SLS (Slackware's precursor), 
but I also did the 30+ floppy shuffle for more than a few Slackware 
installs as well.

For one of the variants (it might have been SLS) I had internet access 
via a shared unix workstation that $job provided and that had a T1 
connection.  I also knew the sysadmin and so got a favor of "can you 
copy these files to these floppies for me" done.  So I didn't have to 
suffer the 2400bps download speed for 30+ floppies that time.

Later ones, yeah, several days worth of downloads at 2400bps to get 
everything down before being able to use the 30+ floppies to install 
anything.

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#86410

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2026-05-11 21:41 +0000
Message-ID<10ttief$1eq41$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86403
Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> wrote:
> I have a motherboard that contains on onboard sound chip
> that the manual specifies as:
> 
> Realtek ALC1220-VB
> 
> The command "lspci -vv", using a live distro, also reports:
> 
> Intel Comet Lake PCH cAVS Audio
> ...
> Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl, snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl
> 
> This device should function with Alsa but absolutely
> nowhere can I locate the kernel configuration parameters
> for this device.  The latest kernels do not seem to possess
> the above modules.

My Slackware 15.0 system has snd-hda-intel.ko, snd-soc-skl.ko and 
snd-sof-pci-intel-cnl.ko already prebuilt from Slackware.  Perhaps you 
are not finding them due to the underscores vs.  hyphens?

> Internet forums report nothing but the mainstream distros
> which include every possible module in one giant, bloated mess.

Slackware gives you the option of a giant huge kernel with most things 
built in, or a kernel with most drivers built as modules.  You get to 
pick which you want during install.

> No remedy is to be found.

Since Slackware 15.0 has the three modules you mention, there is one 
remedy: install Slackware 15.0.

> Doesn't anyone build their own kernel anymore?

I used to do so.  It has been so long now since I last built a kernel 
I've forgotten how long ago that last build was.

> Is the average GNU/Linux user just a distro slave with no technical 
> competence or curiosity?

The average computer user (no matter the os) is a "distro slave with no 
technical competence or curiosity".  The only difference between them 
is "which distro" (MS for winblows or one of the Linuxes).

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#86411

FromBobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com>
Date2026-05-11 14:59 -0700
Message-ID<10ttjfi$1fdcv$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86403

On 5/11/26 12:00, Leroy H wrote:
> I have a motherboard that contains on onboard sound chip
> that the manual specifies as:
> 
> Realtek ALC1220-VB
> 
> The command "lspci -vv", using a live distro, also reports:
> 
> Intel Comet Lake PCH cAVS Audio
> ...
> Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl, snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl
> 
> This device should function with Alsa but absolutely
> nowhere can I locate the kernel configuration parameters
> for this device.  The latest kernels do not seem to possess
> the above modules.
> 
> Internet forums report nothing but the mainstream distros
> which include every possible module in one giant, bloated mess.
> No remedy is to be found.
> 
> Doesn't anyone build their own kernel anymore?  Is the
> average GNU/Linux user just a distro slave with no
> technical competence or curiosity?
	
	And what distribution of GNU/Linux are you using, Leroy?

	Limited technical competence and heaps of curiosity but at 88
not terribly interested in studying for new career.
	My Distro not-Slave is a man in Texas who publishes the
distro and compiles with assistance from testers and coders.
He is presently working on 6.18.26 and other parts of the
Distribution.   What he provides us generally works smoothly.

	Some of the PCLinuxOS users do build their own kernels
but I have limited time sitting at the computer and use it for
communication.  I read technical groups like col.misc for
comprehensible tips not for slamming the other users.
	But you see, I will at times...>
> Fortunately I have a PCIe soundcard (SB_Audigy_5RX) for which
> I was able to locate the exact kernel configuration parameters.
> But it was not an easy task.  Such information is very sparse.
> 
> GNU/Linux was begun as a project for the technical elite, but
> now it seems that is has devolved into a definite idiocracy.

		Well aren't you proud of your own big brain.
		So is Donald Trump, a very stable genius, in his own estimation.
		
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026.04- Linux 6.12.87 pclos1- KDE 
Plasma 6.6.4

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#86441

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-05-12 03:53 +0000
Message-ID<n6fmh9FnemvU2@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#86403
On Mon, 11 May 2026 19:00:12 +0000, Leroy H wrote:

> This device should function with Alsa but absolutely nowhere can I
> locate the kernel configuration parameters for this device.  The latest
> kernels do not seem to possess the above modules.

Sounds like Pipewire got you by the balls.

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#86447

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-05-12 00:39 -0400
Message-ID<a-2dna9L_sq-Mp_3nZ2dnZfqnPadnZ2d@giganews.com>
In reply to#86441
On 5/11/26 23:53, rbowman wrote:
> On Mon, 11 May 2026 19:00:12 +0000, Leroy H wrote:
> 
>> This device should function with Alsa but absolutely nowhere can I
>> locate the kernel configuration parameters for this device.  The latest
>> kernels do not seem to possess the above modules.
> 
> Sounds like Pipewire got you by the balls.

   Usually PiperWire "Just Works".

   But if you want some WEIRD connection to
   other audio apps then, well, good luck.

   There are multiple, independent, solutions
   to Linux audio. Expecting Mercedes parts
   to fit yer Chevy ... well ......

   Yet I keep hearing laments from people who
   discover they Can't Get There From Here.

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#86536

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-05-12 23:02 +0000
Message-ID<n6hps1F2nluU4@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#86447
On Tue, 12 May 2026 00:39:53 -0400, c186282 wrote:

>    Usually PiperWire "Just Works".

After one Ubuntu update the 3.5mm jack I was using for my speakers stoped 
working and I would only the the Default (non) Selection. I found out more 
about pipewire, pulseaudio, wireplumber, and friends then I ever wanted to 
know. 

Solution: my Bluetooth earbuds worked so I bought LogiTec Bluetooth 
speakers. Problem solved. 

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#86541

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-05-12 20:49 -0400
Message-ID<GIOdna73z5NaV573nZ2dnZfqnPGdnZ2d@giganews.com>
In reply to#86536
On 5/12/26 19:02, rbowman wrote:
> On Tue, 12 May 2026 00:39:53 -0400, c186282 wrote:
> 
>>     Usually PiperWire "Just Works".
> 
> After one Ubuntu update the 3.5mm jack I was using for my speakers stoped
> working and I would only the the Default (non) Selection. I found out more
> about pipewire, pulseaudio, wireplumber, and friends then I ever wanted to
> know.
> 
> Solution: my Bluetooth earbuds worked so I bought LogiTec Bluetooth
> speakers. Problem solved.


   Hey - if you can't get there by one road ... !

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#86448

Frommakendo <makendo@makendo.invalid>
Date2026-05-12 12:47 +0800
Message-ID<10tubdh$1mdou$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#86403
> This device should function with Alsa but absolutely
> nowhere can I locate the kernel configuration parameters
> for this device.  The latest kernels do not seem to possess
> the above modules.

Some configuration entries are hidden beneath several levels of nested
unchecked checkboxes, and the way to unlock them can be non-obvious at
times (e.g. how will you know that you need I2C drivers to drive your
computer's SMBus controller?).

There is a search function in menuconfig/nconfig to help find exactly
what you want and how to unlock it, but it isn't very easy to use.

Though far easier said than done (I doubt if anyone will be even willing
to do this), this could make life easier to make a kernel tailored to
a specific computer:

   - A program that sets Kconfig options based on what PCI devices
     are on your computer;
   - An index mapping PCI IDs, USB IDs, etc. to Kconfig options;
   - Tools for compiling and maintaining said index.

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