Christian Hergert: Sysprof and Podman

With the advent of immutable/re-provisional/read-only operating systems like Fedora’s Silverblue, people will be doing a lot more computing inside of containers on their desktops (as if they’re not already). When you want to profile an entire system with tools like perf this can be problematic because the files that are mapped into memory could be coming from strange places like FUSE. In particular, fuse-overlayfs. There doesn’t seem to be a good way to decode all this indirection which means in Sysprof, we’ve had broken ELF symbol decoding for your things running inside of podman containers (such as Fedora’s toolbox). For those of us who have to develop inside those containers, that can really be a drag. The problem at the core is that Sysprof (and presumably other perf-based tooling) would think a file was mapped from somewhere like /usr/lib64/libglib-2.0.so according to the /proc/$pid/maps. Usually we translate that using /proc/$pid/mountinfo to the real mount or subvolume. But if fuse-overlayfs is in the picture, you don’t get any insight into that. When symbols are decoded, it looks at the host’s /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so and finds an inode mismatch at which point it will stop trying to decode the instruction address. Also: Adding a New Disk Device to Fedora Linux

Raspberry Pi Leftovers

• StereoPi v2 stereoscopic camera is powered by Raspberry Pi CM4 (Crowdfunding)

  StereoPi stereoscopic camera based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 was introduced in late 2019 on Crowd Supply. The camera can record 3D video, create 3D depth maps with OpenCV, and benefits from the Raspberry Pi software ecosystem.

• What is the Difference Between Raspberry Pi 3 and 4?

  Raspberry Pi may sound like an appetizing raspberry-flavored dessert, but it’s far from being edible. It’s a credit card-sized, Broadcom-based, single-board computer, that’s easy on the pocket. Hailing from the United Kingdom, the first generation of Raspberry Pi was released in 2012 with the intention of teaching students about computers. Due to its size, cost, and modularity, it has been utilized for other purposes, such as in IoT (Internet of Things), robotics, electronics projects, and is now being promoted for industrial use as well. The unbelievably tiny computer has spanned four generations so far. There are normally two versions for each generation, models A and B, but revisions and enhancements come along the way, upgrading the models to A+ or B+. Although inedible, these Raspberries have delightful features. Two of the most in-demand models are from the third and fourth generations of the Raspberry Pi. Expectedly, Raspberry 4 is a better model, but it costs more than its predecessors. Is it a worthy upgrade from Raspberry Pi 3? Read on as we dig deeper into the gratifying features of its two recent versions.

• What is the Raspberry Pi Zero used for?

  Raspberry Pi was built to educate students about computers and teach them about programming. The Linux-based kit is complete with all the basic components of a desktop computer board despite its credit card size. Just put the tiny board in a case, load the OS in a microSD card, and connect all the necessary peripherals, and you can already boot up a computer! Surprisingly, it became popular among DIY enthusiasts and project builders too. Raspberry Pi boards are already small, but would you believe that the Raspberry Pi Foundation managed to make an even smaller board?

Best Messaging and Communications Apps for Ubuntu

The popularity of Linux has been able to replace Windows at many workplaces, and the same scenario was also reported for personal users. Hence many popular apps from various platforms such as Android and Windows are being integrated into Linux and its distros. Business emails/chats are also being replaced by instant messaging and communication apps as they provide more options to share files, photos, and videos, making the whole process easier. It would be great to use messaging apps on the Linux desktop that we use on our mobile devices. According to your mood, apps like these give you the flexibility to use the messaging app wherever you want. This pandemic also taught us the importance of messaging and communication apps because these apps made it possible for many businesses to run smoothly in the time of crisis. So, in this article, we’re going to have a look at the best messaging and communication apps for Ubuntu.

KDE vs. GNOME – everything you need to know

The fight for dominance in the Linux desktop environments has mostly been a tug of war between GNOME and KDE. It is difficult to portray a winner in this tug of war. The user community influence and its user preference determine which Linux desktop environment to choose as an adaptive platform. This presumed stalemate in the Linux desktop arena portrays KDE and GNOME as the main major players. It is common for a Linux user to side with either GNOME or KDE desktop environment based on the Linux community influence, other users’ influence, or usage popularity. This article is here to make an analytical comparison between these two Linux desktop environments. We will explore both the strengths and weaknesses of these two Linux desktop environments. At the end of the article, your decision to go with or remain with either of these two Linux desktop environments will be based on their marketable feature strengths and their evident weaknesses that your Linux lifestyle can accommodate.