cwillu's comments

On: Photoshop's challenges with focus, pt. 2

[cwillu]

That popup when the field is emptied via backspace made me angry just to see it inflicted on a user. What the actual fuck

[Sharlin → cwillu]

Yeah, that one belongs to r/badUIbattles, not production software. What the actual fuck indeed.

On: SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format

[cwillu]

Excel is also a shared DB: it has supported multiple concurrent users accessing and modifying the same spreadsheet for decades.

On: Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE

[cwillu]

Grub2 is scary and complicated. Remove grub from the equation, and all the scary goes away.

[creshal → cwillu]

Grub is really impressive in how it consistently spent the last 30 years focused on improving everything except the UX of the one workflow 99.99% of its involuntary users need it for (boot linux as reliably as possible, and make it easy to debug when it does not).

[nicman23 → cwillu]

grub is just a operating system. it is quite good when shit hits the fan

[creshal → nicman23]

~90% of the failure modes grub can fix don't exist without grub. I can't remember any time when its needless complexity was actually a net benefit compared to literally any of its alternatives (and between gummiboot/syslinux/efilinux/isolinux/systemd-boot/efistub I've used a lot of them).

[nicman23 → creshal]

i like grub, but i also remember pre-0.98 grub

On: Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE

[cwillu]

Friends don't let friends use grub.

rEFInd is _so_ much simpler: one efi entry, one text config file in the efi partition, nothing that needs to change when the kernel updates, and no massive pile of templating and moving parts to mysteriously break dumping you at an impenetrable grub “rescue” shell.

[ciupicri → cwillu]

I'm using rEFInd because it can load and use the NVMe EFI driver unlike GRUB and systemd-boot. rEFInd is a true UEFI boot loader.

I think that Fedora doesn't know to update its configuration when I install or remove a kernel, so I use rEFInd only to run systemd-boot which is pretty well supported by Fedora. I could probably try letting rEFInd scan the boot partition for kernels or modify/tune kernel-install [1], but why fix something that's not broken?

As a side note, I don't like how by default rEFInd does some things automatically and how it makes the boot menu kind of bloated. I had to do configure it a bit, but at least it lets you include separate configuration files that override the defaults or add menu entries. This is why I don't consider it quite simple; I prefer the more minimalist approach of systemd-boot.

[1]: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/kern...

[nikisweeting → cwillu]

Or even better: https://zfsbootmenu.org/

[mdhen → cwillu]

Systemd-boot is my choice for any simple boot scenario. Love it. Agreed that grub is a mess

[100ms → cwillu]

does refind support secure boot and measured boot? I loathe pretty much anything systemd but systemd-boot gives me this with zero effort, and it's legitimately useful

[coredog64 → 100ms]

Secure boot, yes: I just had to futz with that a few weeks back when the CUDA toolkit installed Nvidia-signed drivers.

[28304283409234 → cwillu]

Can refind boot a .iso file that just happens to be on a disk somewhere? Grub can!

[ChocolateGod → cwillu]

Or just use systemd-boot which uses BLS thus there are no config files.

[ux266478 → ChocolateGod]

BLS means many config files instead of one, not zero config files.

[NekkoDroid → ux266478]

> BLS means many config files instead of one

Which ones? If you want to all you need is a single UKI in /EFI/Linux and everything is synthesized from that.

[ux266478 → NekkoDroid]

systemd-boot's automatic sourcing of UKIs isn't a BLS thing. This is BLS:

https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_spec...

[aslihana → cwillu]

Loved that too much hahaha: “friends don’t let friends use grub”.

rEFInd seemed best for me too

[lproven → cwillu]

> rEFInd is _so_ much simpler

TBH I've only used it for Hackintoshes and BSDs. I don't know why you'd want it.

But I am finding this hard to post on account of this big hairy grey thing with a long prehensile nose that's in the way...

They only work on UEFI. I don't like UEFI. I have kit in near-daily use that doesn't have UEFI at all.

GRUB works on BIOS, UEFI, x86, Arm, whatever. It boots Linux, all the BSDs, Haiku, whatever. So GRUB wins.

I hate GRUB for its hostility and unfriendliness and impenetrability... But it does the job on more kit than, well, any of the alternatives.

[p_l → lproven]

You haven't upgraded any x86 compatible beyond 2005? /s

[stirfish → cwillu]

Back when the earth was still cooling, I remember having to choose between grub and lilo. Who wants a little worm in their computer? I went with Lilo.

Now I use grub, because I don't know much better. I'll check out rEFINd.

[utrack → cwillu]

does it support encrypted /boot though?

[DaSHacka → cwillu]

There's also systemd-boot, which seems to be getting more popular.

https://systemd.io/BOOT/

[cogman10 → DaSHacka]

That's what I'm currently using in gentoo and it's fine. Realistically there's only 1 config file to modify if I want to change kernel settings and otherwise it just works.

That said, I'm probably going to try a straight EFI boot on my next laptop.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub

[majorchord → cwillu]

Friends don't let friends perpetuate harmful dogmatic FUD that lacks nuance and perspective.

[cwillu → majorchord]

Calling an opinion you don't like FUD doesn't make that opinion wrong, harmful, or dogmatic.

On: Iran hit more U.S. military targets than has been reported, satellite images

[cwillu]

Too bad about the bystanders.

On: Inkscape 1.4.4

[cwillu]

“uselessness” he says…

[2ndorderthought → cwillu]

I'm not a big inkscape user or a big fan but last time I used it that was absolutely not a word that approached my mind... ...

On: Appearing productive in the workplace

[cwillu]

We were promised GlaDOS, and were given Wheatley.

On: Virtual violin produces realistic sounds

[cwillu]

Do you have an analog sustain pedal? The fine control with partial pedaling made some difference for me re: pianoteq's feel.

[vintermann → cwillu]

I don't know how many levels it has, but it's definitively more than 2 :) I am a lousy pianist anyway, it's my son who's serious.

On: Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn't know it

[cwillu]

“I don't know what it is, but that ain't it” is just the standard confused thinking on consciousness.

We don't know what consciousness is apart from the direct experience, and at best we have informal arguments for why data processing can't be it.

On: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent

[cwillu]

Isn't that asking for consent?