Tanguy Ortolo

Major desktop environments such as Xfce or KDE have a built-in computer suspend feature, but when you use a lighter alternative, things are a bit more complicated, because basically: only root can suspend the computer. There used to be a standard solution to that, using a D-Bus call to a running daemon upowerd. With recent updates, that solution first stopped working for obscure reasons, but it could still be configured back to be usable. With newer updates, it stopped working again, but this time it seems it is gone for good:

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest='org.freedesktop.UPower' \
            /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend
Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Suspend" with
signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.UPower" doesn't exist

Read more GNU/Linux graphic sessions: suspending your computer

When you start using Linux' logical volume manager, one of the first question you have to answer is: what name will you give to your volume group? The usual answer is: vg1, vg2, etc. Although it does not bear any specific meaning, this naming convention is simple and seems functional enough.

In fact, this is a bad idea, which can have nasty consequences on the long term. Here is why: one day, your computer will eventually give out. To save your precious data, you will remove its drives and plug them into another computer. If you are using LVM with the same naming convention on that second computer, you will then get a name conflict, which will prevent you from seeing the volume group you want to recover.

The solution is to name volume groups uniquely across all your computers, and if possible other people's. An elegant way to achieve this is to use your host names as a basis. For instance, on a machine called “Piñacolada”, you would name a single volume group “pinacolada”, or two volume groups “pinacolada1” and “pinacolada2”. Or perhaps “vg-pinacolada0” or whatever, you get the idea.

Do you remember how Intel used to be the white knight of graphic card manufacturers, the one from which you could buy hardware without looking, being sure that it would be supported by GNU/Linux directly?

Do you remember how they broke that by releasing the infamous Poulsbo card?

Well, they did it again. The newest Intel Atom D2500, D2550, D2700, N2600 and N2800 processors, codenamed “CedarView” and “Cedar Trail”, include a graphic core that is only supported by a proprietary driver only available on Meego (read: unusable on regular GNU/Linux.

Read more Beware of the newest Intel Atom GPU

I have just bought a gamepad, the Saitek V.3 Cyborg Rumble Pad (also marketed as PS2700), mainly to play at SuperTuxKart under Debian GNU/Linux.

It works perfectly, except for one minor feature, and it can be used for playing and as an X11 input device.

Read more Using a gamepad under GNU/Linux