Barry Tennison

Many thanks, that’s very helpful. I know nwg-shell and (yes) love sway. With my renewed interest in slackware, I can now understand better how @jloc0 ‘s sterling work (which I knew of before) fits in. I shall pursue with interest 💚

2025-03-16 10:26:44 UTC

- reply

Today's Slackware install - works! - was courtesy of the excellently documented SARPi project. Installer is pretty retro - gives one great control, but lots of choices. Have you any tips on getting quickly from a SARPi img.gz to a minimal KDE/Wayland install?

2025-03-16 10:26:20 UTC

- reply

So, Slackware was my first ever linux install - in 1994 (stacks of CDs!). Grappled then (my notes show) with lilo (ugh!) and compiling kernel v 1.1. Had X11 of course, no Wayland then! I moved to Debian (v1.3?) in 1998, and I never dabbled with Slackware again - till now. I did use KDE on & off after that.

2025-03-16 10:25:59 UTC

- reply

Piqued by your comments, I've just installed Slackware/KDEPlasma (not really minimal - I need to hone my slackware knowledge). This is on RPi4B8GB, to make comparisons with my RPi installs of ChimeraLX, Fedora41 and Ubuntu2410, mostly sway on gnome base. I also use KDEPlasma on x86_64 Manjaro - works v well.

2025-02-22 08:59:25 UTC

- reply

AND Kalpa is a wonderful name, especially from a Buddhist pov

2025-02-22 08:56:51 UTC

- reply

Many thank for the tip re https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Kalpa I don’t usually try alpha versions, but this looks VERY tempting. Mind you, I’ll believe “rock solid, rolling, and atomic” AND usable when I see it 🤔😭

2025-02-21 07:21:00 UTC

- reply

Such a risk taking explorer 😎 No place for “safe-atomic-like-Bluefin” ⁉️ (mind you, ‘safe’ is … relative …)

2025-02-19 15:06:38 UTC

- reply

Great write-up! Funnily enough, I had v recently worked through almost exactly in the same way; in my case, on RPi4-8GB (from a new, 14 Feb .img.gz); to gnome and then with the addition of sway (turns up automatically in gdm menu) and my own sway/config. Works a treat.

2025-02-19 07:04:56 UTC

- reply

Perhaps you could offer some “encouragement” in response to this query? (I replied briefly; the OP does seem to have some reasonable understanding)

2025-02-18 09:22:09 UTC

- reply

You don’t say what architecture? If x86_64, the answer is basically yes, but it could be fiddly, especially the restoration, especially if it’s a different machine. Easier on some others eg Raspberry Pi, where you can just (if needed) take a backup image of the USB/SDCard, burn to a new one, plug & go

2025-02-15 15:48:07 UTC

- reply

I found it was really helpful (AFTER having run ChimeraLX for a while!) in understanding the background, the setup and some of the choices. Not that I understood everything !?!

2025-02-15 15:47:37 UTC

- reply

Especially as you’ve chosen to soak-test ChimeraLX, have you watched this video from FOSDEM 2023? https://youtu.be/8ZUm4nuxFfs?si=2brUdisq5bJ40JOa [Chimera Linux: A BSD LLVM distro from scratch (FOSDEM 2023)]

2025-02-02 10:22:17 UTC

@npub170q…awr2 Woo! AND it’s sway-based…
https://hachyderm.io/@michelin/113933573590186433

2025-02-02 10:08:52 UTC

- reply

Great! One of my laptops is a 2014 MacBookAir on which I run Manjaro with KDE 6.2.4 and love it, although sway is still fave. My main use for the KDE install is to run QGIS (mostly for historical map over-lay-ers), which I do sadly on x11, whereas I’m otherwise a complete wayland devotee.

2025-02-01 12:39:18 UTC

- reply

Re: “entire kitchen, not just the sink” Have you investigated apk masking (negative constraints in apk-world), as mentioned (under gnome) in https://chimera-linux.org/docs/configuration/desktops ?

2025-01-22 20:47:45 UTC

@npub170q…awr2 Discovered zypper dup, which has improved my tumbleweed life. Still can’t get gdm to work: indeed have to killall it before sway will start - then sway works well. Firmly suspect this is to do with x11, which seems weirdly intrinsic to the supposed-Gnome install - so am reluctant to weed it out ham-fistedly. Happy days.

2025-01-20 06:46:27 UTC

- reply

It is indeed a Pi image, from https://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/tumbleweed/appliances/ I went for a Gnome version (dated 15/01/2025) but I couldn’t get Gnome (not even gdm) to work on it; but considerable fiddly customising with (curses) yast finally let me run sway very satisfactorily. But no GUI yast2.

2025-01-19 22:35:59 UTC

@npub170q…awr2 Is it really true that openSUSE cannot run yast in a Wayland session? I’m running sway on Tumbleweed, and I seem to be confined to running the curses version of yast2 - which is SO PAINFUL (but I have got some stuff done - packages found and installed - nevertheless). At least zypper works fine. [My first time with openSUSE]

2025-01-18 12:04:12 UTC

- reply

I'd still like to see/find an atomic/composable/immutable-root distro like Bluefin running on RPi4 (the x86_64 versions are great) - but without the intricacies of Fedora IoT or Fedora Core

2025-01-18 12:03:18 UTC

- reply

Amusing major feature claims:
- Ubuntu Sway Remix : no snaps!
- Fedora 41 Sway : no flatpaks!

2025-01-18 12:02:45 UTC

- reply

Great range of software on both: plus virt and podman/containers stuff on F41, and nwg(-shell) on Ubuntu

2025-01-18 12:02:17 UTC

Both of these are superbly competent lightweight desktops, running amazingly well on RPi >= RP4-8GB.
- Ubuntu Sway Remix : https://github.com/Ubuntu-Sway/Ubuntu-Sway-Remix
- Fedora 41 Sway : best using https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/RaspberryPi
Minor glitches are avoidable, with care

2025-01-18 06:44:24 UTC

- reply

🤭😱🤩🍷

2025-01-15 18:00:39 UTC

@npub170q…awr2 The DE cosmic-epoch is in alpha, but when did that ever hold you back? Maybe try it on Arch? https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch
https://mastodon.social/@ryanabx/113829296836579008

2025-01-10 10:19:26 UTC

- reply

I’m sad for you. I had a sister; she died in 1976 aged 24. I wish she were still alive - even though she did sometimes annoy me!

2025-01-10 09:15:08 UTC

- reply

Some would say wise, to avoid ‘terminal satisfaction downturn’. Others might argue runs risk of ‘satisfaction interruptus’ if somehow prevented from actually taking the last bite (eg stolen by partner/malicious-friend/waitperson? Earthquake/fire? Sudden death??). I still often do it your way - and I’m significantly older than you.

2025-01-03 09:01:40 UTC

- reply

Chimera Linux is great. It has a very serviceable Raspberry Pi image: I run sway on it on an RPi4 (with 8GB ram), and am keeping it up to date to see what develops (it’s entering beta…)

2024-12-25 09:02:39 UTC

- reply

I don’t know how you can stand Gentoo. I maintained a Gentoo aarch64 install on an RPi4 for a few years, closely following sakaki- (qv github) and it was SUCH high maintenance. Still, you obviously like regular challenges. Happy Xmas from the UK 🍷

2024-12-24 13:25:30 UTC

- reply

I admire your dedication and taste for novelty! cc @npub1zt0…sk6c

2024-12-24 10:09:18 UTC

@npub1zt0…sk6c Weird news, but ok-to-good IIUIC
https://hachyderm.io/@jorge/113694505885798785

2024-12-10 09:22:03 UTC

- reply

Are you AVOIDING Bluefin(-dx) ??

2024-10-28 19:04:44 UTC

- reply

You may not realise there is Cat 5e as well as Cat 5. Have a look at this link and notice that the max (“guaranteed”) speed also depends on length of cable https://infinity-cable-products.com/blogs/performance/what-is-the-cat5e-max-speed

2024-07-31 11:50:20 UTC

- reply

Surely you’ve discovered that there’s a KDE variant in the same stable, called Aurora? Both are wonderful, IMHO