The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[mikedt]

Oh, I want to know all about it if you do!

Yeah, I kind of figured you would be.

Well in the meantime I'm going to download and try Deepin, see what it's actually like.
https://www.deepin.org/en/download/

My previous experiences with Chinese Linux distros haven't been too good, but as this apparently has Huawei behind it, should be better.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Well in the meantime I'm going to download and try Deepin, see what it's actually like.
https://www.deepin.org/en/download/

My previous experiences with Chinese Linux distros haven't been too good, but as this apparently has Huawei behind it, should be better.

Please let us know your take on it.

You know, I used to love trying different Linux distros, I mean up to and including after I'd settled on Kubuntu as *my* distro. It was fun running live versions, or--on a new laptop--installing one, using it for awhile, then wiping it and installing another, ultimately ending up with Kubuntu.

But since my illness...I just don't care. I have no energy or desire to fiddle with new flavors at this point. I'm not complaining! I'm perfectly content where I am right now. But I kind of hope that old excitement and enthusiasm comes back at some point, because it was such fun, and it kept me in the loop, but if it doesn't, I'm good.

 

[mikedt]

Well that's a good start for Deepin. Evidently the included video player can't play the included Deepin introductory video. It's probably missing the necessary codecs.

Will do more investigations. But if this distro turns out have as many issues as other Chinese distros I've tried. I could still buy the Huawei laptop and put Ubuntu or Kubuntu on it, as those are no problems

 

[mikedt]

I've been testing and using Deepin for most of the afternoon and evening. And so far i haven't found any serious issues with it yet. Apart from the stock video player not working, so I installed VLC instead, and that works perfectly.


Much of the included software is for China, and some is a bit of a Frankenstein as well. Of course it can remove and install whatever you like.

There isn't a Wechat client for Linux. It's only Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. Also a couple of the included apps are actually Android versions, like iQIYI video, so there's apparently Android support included in this distro, as well as WINE(for running Windows software).

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks for the running commentary, @mikedt. Please keep it coming.

So, at this point, would you say that overall you're pleased/impressed/happy/something else with it?

How does its UI customizability compare to Kubuntu's?

In the article, I remember reading that it does come in an English version. That's good to know!

 

[MoodyBlues]

Pine64 announces plans to release a $25 Linux smartwatch next year.

Pine64, a company I'd not heard of before, is also behind a ridiculously low-priced Linux tablet with detachable keyboard. To say nothing of their PinePhone, a Linux phone prototype solely for developers.

I'd like to learn more about their products. Their first pre-order batch of Pinebook Pro laptops sold out just...like...that.

I'm hooked on System76, and wouldn't expect laptops at 10% of their prices to match their quality or specs, but they could be fun to play with. They very easily can--and apparently are--pull in new users who believe It's never too late to escape the Gate$ of hell.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Oracle releases the "world's first" autonomous operating system with its Oracle Autonomous Linux. Among other things, it can tune and patch itself without human intervention, while up and running.

It certainly sounds very intriguing, and I'm sure it can do what Oracle claims, but I don't see it in any way as a death knell for Linux system administrators.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Am I the only *buntu user who has had never heard of something called snaps? Until reading this article, that is.

Thanks to its helpful link, I at least now have a clue about Ubuntu Snap, along with its apparently miraculous impact on the Linux community--not just *buntu users.

I love the first paragraph from the first link:

"All Linux users are the same, right? Oh, hell no! Linux users are a diverse bunch, with differing opinions, tastes, and personalities. In fact, that is probably a contributing factor to the fragmentation of the Linux community. Linux users have lots of options between distributions, desktop environments, and more — they are not stuck in a box like Windows 10 users."

 

[palmtree5]

Am I the only *buntu user who has had never heard of something called snaps? Until reading this article, that is.

Thanks to its helpful link, I at least now have a clue about Ubuntu Snap, along with its apparently miraculous impact on the Linux community--not just *buntu users.

I love the first paragraph from the first link:

"All Linux users are the same, right? Oh, hell no! Linux users are a diverse bunch, with differing opinions, tastes, and personalities. In fact, that is probably a contributing factor to the fragmentation of the Linux community. Linux users have lots of options between distributions, desktop environments, and more — they are not stuck in a box like Windows 10 users."

yeah, snaps are basically a packaging format that works on some distros beyond Ubuntu (see also: Flatpak and AppImage)

 

[Dngrsone]

Somehow, Discover has broken, and I can't seem to fix it... Am I going to have to reinstall Neon?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Somehow, Discover has broken, and I can't seem to fix it... Am I going to have to reinstall Neon?

What is Discover, @Dngrsone? I'm not familiar with it.

How has it broken? And what have you tried to fix it? What happened then?

Which distro are you using, and what's its version?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Look what popped up on Jeopardy! last night:

Anyone else remember when mentioning Linux, even to self-proclaimed 'computer geeks' [who used window$ ], yielded blank stares and "what's that?" Those days are long gone!

 

[GameTheory]

https://androidforums.com/threads/resolved-file-manager-manage-files-based-on-id3-tags.1314378/
Continuing from the thread linked above^. Moved here as per Moody's suggestion. A little more code...

#!/bin/bash

base_dir=$(pwd)
files=$(find $base_dir -iname "*.mp3" -exec basename {} \;)
tool=mediainfo

for i in $files; do
  mp3_dir=$base_dir/$($tool $i | grep -i 'genre.*:' | sed 's/^.*: //' | sed 's/\(.*\)/\L\1/' | sed 's/[,;:-/_=.~|].*//')
  if [ ! -d "$mp3_dir" ]; then
    mkdir "$mp3_dir"
  fi
  mv "$i" "$mp3_dir" > /dev/null 2>&1
done

What this does:

• Searches its working directory for all mp3 files.
• Checks genre for the files and creates genre folder if doesn't exist in its working directory. For multi-genre files it chooses the first main genre. (first genre is the main)
• Moves mp3 files to their respective genre folder.
• Ignores files with no genre (usually unofficial).

This is nothing final and can still be spruced up and expanded with more logic. Awk can make this more elegant. However, in its current state it will organize your files neatly by genre.

Note:
Since my music is on Spotify, I didn't have proper mp3 files to test with. So I had to assume that the delimiter is a comma which is common for string separation. Open a multi-genre mp3 in VLC and go to "tools > media info" and tell me what the genres are separated with and I'll adjust.

Edit:
Now compensates for all delimiters.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Since I can't be of much help currently in terms of coding, and since @GameTheory doesn't have MP3 files to play with, here's something I can contribute.

This is what an example directory would look like; on my computers, all media files are stored on the /data partition, under their appropriate subdirectory. So here's a sample listing:

$ pwd
/data/media/sounds/MoodyBlues/EveryGoodBoyDeservesFavour
$ ls -1
01 - Procession.mp3
02 - The Story In Your Eyes.mp3
03 - Our Guessing Game.mp3
04 - Emily's Song.mp3
05 - After You Came.mp3
06 - One More Time To Live.mp3
07 - Nice To Be Here.mp3
08 - You Can Never Go Home.mp3
09 - My Song.mp3

And here's the output of mediainfo for the first song:

$ mediainfo 01*
General
Complete name                            : 01 - Procession.mp3
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
File size                                : 8.75 MiB
Duration                                 : 4mn 40s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 256 Kbps
Album                                    : Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Album/Performer                          : The Moody Blues
Part/Position                            : 1
Part/Total                               : 1
Track name                               : Procession
Track name/Position                      : 1
Track name/Total                         : 9
Performer                                : The Moody Blues
Composer                                 : Michael Pinder
Genre                                    : Rock
Recorded date                            : 1997
Copyright                                : (C) 1997 Decca Music Group Limited
Cover                                    : Yes
Cover type                               : Cover (front)
Cover MIME                               : image/jpeg
Comment                                  : Amazon.com Song ID: 208803264

Audio
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 3
Duration                                 : 4mn 40s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 8.57 MiB (98%)

For the project at hand, we're just looking for the 'Genre' line, which in this case only contains one entry. So let's look somewhere else...

$ pwd
/data/media/sounds/T.Rex_MarcBolan/TheSlider
$ ls -1
01 - Metal Guru.mp3
02 - Mystic Lady.mp3
03 - Rock On.mp3
04 - The Slider.mp3
05 - Baby Boomerang.mp3
06 - Spaceball Ricochet.mp3
07 - Buick Mackane.mp3
08 - Telegram Sam.mp3
09 - Rabbit Fighter.mp3
10 - Baby Strange.mp3
11 - Ballrooms Of Mars.mp3
12 - Chariot Choogle.mp3
13 - Main Man.mp3
$ mediainfo 01*
General
Complete name                            : 01 - Metal Guru.mp3
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
File size                                : 5.14 MiB
Duration                                 : 2mn 31s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 273 Kbps
Album                                    : The Slider
Album/Performer                          : T. Rex
Part/Position                            : 1
Part/Total                               : 1
Track name                               : Metal Guru
Track name/Position                      : 1
Track name/Total                         : 13
Performer                                : T. Rex
Composer                                 : Marc Bolan
Genre                                    : Classic Rock
Recorded date                            : 2010
Writing library                          : LAME3.97
Copyright                                : 2010 Fat Possum
Cover                                    : Yes
Cover type                               : Cover (front)
Cover MIME                               : image/jpeg
Comment                                  : Amazon.com Song ID: 218940199

Audio
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 3
Mode                                     : Joint stereo
Duration                                 : 2mn 31s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 273 Kbps
Minimum bit rate                         : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 4.94 MiB (96%)
Writing library                          : LAME3.97
Encoding settings                        : -m j -V 0 -q 3 -lowpass 19.5 --vbr-old -b 32

It's also one entry, but with two words.

When we first started talking about this, I looked at several MP3s' info, and I *swear* I saw some whose genre field contained more than one type, such as 'rock' and 'pop'--but now that I'm actually LOOKING for them, I can't find a single one. So, if anyone can post the output of mediainfo, or just grep and print the genre line, containing more than one type, that would be great. What we need is to determine its field delimiter, which we're pretty sure is comma.

 

[GameTheory]

Moody you got me thinking, so I went on google images just to see what delimiters are being used for multi genre files. It turns out that it's these (, ; : -). So I made the change to compensate for all and threw a bunch others for good measure.

Updated code:

#!/bin/bash

base_dir=$(pwd)
files=$(find $base_dir -iname "*.mp3" -exec basename {} \;)
tool=mediainfo

for i in $files; do
  mp3_dir=$base_dir/$($tool $i | grep -i 'genre.*:' | sed 's/^.*: //' | sed 's/\(.*\)/\L\1/' | sed 's/[,;:-/_=.~|].*//')
  if [ ! -d "$mp3_dir" ]; then
    mkdir "$mp3_dir"
  fi
  mv "$i" "$mp3_dir" > /dev/null 2>&1
done

The change is in this particular sed:

sed 's/[,;:-/_=.~|].*//'

The delimiters are all within the square brackets.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Moody you got me thinking, so I went on google images just to see what delimiters are being used for multi genre files. It turns out that it's these (, ; : -). So I made the change to compensate for all and threw a bunch others for good measure.

Updated code:

#!/bin/bash

base_dir=$(pwd)
files=$(find $base_dir -iname "*.mp3" -exec basename {} \;)
tool=mediainfo

for i in $files; do
  mp3_dir=$base_dir/$($tool $i | grep -i 'genre.*:' | sed 's/^.*: //' | sed 's/\(.*\)/\L\1/' | sed 's/[,;:-/_=.~|].*//')
  if [ ! -d "$mp3_dir" ]; then
    mkdir "$mp3_dir"
  fi
  mv "$i" "$mp3_dir" > /dev/null 2>&1
done

The change is in this particular sed:

sed 's/[,;:-/_=.~|].*//'

The delimiters are all within the square brackets.

Looking good! Very good.

I think the one thing that could be a little hurdle is 'space' used as a delimiter. Say that we have "rock pop" instead of "rock, pop" or some other character. How do we know that that refers to two genres, as compared to "classic rock" or "country western" and such, which are clearly referring to one genre?

Also, it seems trivial/obvious enough to use the first word encountered in 'genre' as the directory destination genre, but what happens when we have "rock pop" and "pop rock" (not Pop Rocks!), without a delimiter? (Yeah, I -know- I'm seriously overthinking this, but it's good for my brain. )

Aside from hard-coding every conceivable combination--which defeats the whole point of letting Linux 'decide' and do it automatically--I think going with the first discrete word is probably best, as you've said.

 

[mikedt]

Oh, I want to know all about it if you do!

Yeah, I kind of figured you would be.

I've just had another look at vmall.com for the Deepin Linux Matebooks, and they're all listed as OUT OF STOCK, with no indication of when they're going to be available again. Really, did Huawei discontinue them that quickly?

 

[GameTheory]

Looking good! Very good.

I think the one thing that could be a little hurdle is 'space' used as a delimiter. Say that we have "rock pop" instead of "rock, pop" or some other character. How do we know that that refers to two genres, as compared to "classic rock" or "country western" and such, which are clearly referring to one genre?

Also, it seems trivial/obvious enough to use the first word encountered in 'genre' as the directory destination genre, but what happens when we have "rock pop" and "pop rock" (not Pop Rocks!), without a delimiter? (Yeah, I -know- I'm seriously overthinking this, but it's good for my brain. )

Aside from hard-coding every conceivable combination--which defeats the whole point of letting Linux 'decide' and do it automatically--I think going with the first discrete word is probably best, as you've said.

Hey thanks.

Spaces in genre are handled by the last sed. If you have an mp3 with multi genres like this; "Soft Rock; Country Rock", it will create a folder called "soft rock" in lowercase and place respective files in it.

Spaces as delimiters will only be found in unofficially obtained media, as only a fool would use spaces to delimit. Even then, I doubt someone would be foolish enough to do that. Imagine a file with 4 multi word genres arranged like words in a sentence. A program cannot handle that, and a human would get confused. So this is for official mp3s only.

Next I'll probably just add a "choose directory prompt" and a bash type GUI with tput and ansi color codes. I'm leaning towards rewriting this in java, at which point it'll be for my tech blog to give this more exposure.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I've just had another look at vmall.com for the Deepin Linux Matebooks, and they're all listed as OUT OF STOCK, with no indication of when they're going to be available again. Really, did Huawei discontinue them that quickly?

Either that, or they can't keep up with demand!

 

[mikedt]

Either that, or they can't keep up with demand!

Could be.

Although it's shown as out of stock on Huawei's own vmall.com site, they seem to be available from tmall.com. I'm holding off buying for the moment, because my four year old Macbook Air is still working good. But later in the year I still might get a Linux Matebook 14, depending on finances.

I have been running Deepin in Virtualbox on the Macbook, and it's a very nice distro, can't find any other issues with it at all. It's quite customisable, for changing looks and how it works etc.

 

[MoodyBlues]

But later in the year I still might get a Linux Matebook 14, depending on finances.

I'm not familiar with Matebook.

If you're open to other brands, I really can't say enough about System76. It's not just their products' stellar quality, but the company's commitment to top-notch customer service that has me sold on them.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I was only halfway paying attention during a 'Tech Smart' segment on the morning news today. Halfway, because its topic was Micro$oft's unveiling of some new products. But my ears perked up when I heard 'Android.'

Apparently, in keeping with M$'s new strategy of embracing Linux, at least one of their new products will 'run any Android app.' Sorry, I don't know which product, and I don't know if Android will actually be its OS, or what. But it's further proof that M$ couldn't beat 'em, so they're joining 'em.

 

[GameTheory]

I was only halfway paying attention during a 'Tech Smart' segment on the morning news today. Halfway, because its topic was Micro$oft's unveiling of some new products. But my ears perked up when I heard 'Android.'

Apparently, in keeping with M$'s new strategy of embracing Linux, at least one of their new products will 'run any Android app.' Sorry, I don't know which product, and I don't know if Android will actually be its OS, or what. But it's further proof that M$ couldn't beat 'em, so they're joining 'em.

Surface Duo which will run android and scheduled for end of 2020.
https://www.cnet.com/news/surface-duo-no-microsoft-isnt-making-another-windows-phone/

 

[MoodyBlues]

Surface Duo which will run android and scheduled for end of 2020.
https://www.cnet.com/news/surface-duo-no-microsoft-isnt-making-another-windows-phone/

Yep, that's it! Nice article. Thanks.

 

[MoodyBlues]

More about Micro$oft embracing Android.