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PumpkinDrama via Linux

1 settimana fa • •

PumpkinDrama
1 settimana fa • •

How do you debug system issues on Linux?

I use Manjaro Linux with the Cinnamon desktop and sometimes run into system-level issues, but I have no idea how to properly debug them. It doesn’t feel as straightforward as debugging a normal program. What’s the best way or resource to learn system debugging on Linux?

#linux

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in reply to PumpkinDrama

silly goose meekah

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

If you're using systemd you should know journald. There are UIs to make searching the journal logs easier, like journald browser

in reply to PumpkinDrama

tangeli

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

There are guides available. Search for 'Linux kernel debugging' or 'Linux module debugging', depending on which you are more interested in. And, of course, learn about the relevant parts of the kernel.

You might have a look at Debugging kernel and modules via gdb¶. The kernel.org site has a wealth of information.

Debugging kernel and modules via gdb — The Linux Kernel documentation

^{www.kernel.org}

in reply to PumpkinDrama

buckykat [none/use name]

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

I simply stopped using Manjaro, this resolved all system-level issues I had encountered.

in reply to PumpkinDrama

FigMcLargeHuge

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

Just as a general rule, I would start checking log files. You can start by searching /var/log for files that have been modified in the last few mins with something like "sudo find /var/log -mmin -10 -ls 2>/dev/null". That will get you all log files in /var/log changed within the last 10 mins. Then you can tail those or grep them looking for clues. I have done searches of the entire file system looking for log files that were recently modified to find clues. It might also help to send the output to a file so you can view that and scroll up and down rather than just trying to read the output of the find, tail or grep commands. Put a "1>/{path}/filenameyouwanttouse.out" at the end of the command or you can pipe it to the tee command and it will show on the screen and write to the file you specify.

Questa voce è stata modificata (1 settimana fa)

in reply to PumpkinDrama

DigitalDilemma

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

Sysadmin here, this is my usual flow for various distros

as /u/FigMcLargeHuge mentions, recent logfiles in /var/log. Notably /var/log/messages (EL) and syslog (Debian) but anything that's recent.
journalctl - More and more things are moving to binary logging. If you know the process, then journalctl -u processname restricts to just that. also add a -f for tailing it for ongoing logs.
dmesg -T - especially at system level, this captures any hardware/low level logs. (-T reports actual times, not just seconds since boot)
Once you have some logs that you think are related, but don't know WTF they actually mean, you have two options. The first is to google likely strings. This is... ineffective much of the time - accidental misinformation and outdated advice is increasingly common. The answer might be there, but it takes time and can be frustrating to weed out the cruft.

The better way, (IMO, and people downvote me for saying this) is to use AI. Get a few lines of logs with the errors, check them for confidential information, and simply paste the suspect lines into chatgpt, gemini, claude, co-pilot, whatever. No need for context, it'll figure that out. The LLM will, 4 times out of 5, identify the problem very quickly.

Now, once it's identified that, it will offer to fix it for you. This is where you've got to be on your toes as LLMs are really really quick to give bad advice at this level. But that first triage is nearly always worth doing and helps shape your own mind as to what's going on. AI is still useful for fixing it, but do understand what it's telling you to do.

in reply to DigitalDilemma

ZeDoTelhado

in reply to DigitalDilemma • 1 settimana fa • •

Did you try to do this workflow with local models? If so, in your experience what are the better models for this?

in reply to ZeDoTelhado

DigitalDilemma

in reply to ZeDoTelhado • 1 settimana fa • •

We did experiment with local models. They were okay, if a little slow with the resources we allocated for testing. Ultimately though, we paid for copilot. I'm still a little sceptical that it won't leak data, despite the assurances, so I do clean anything sensitive before pasting.

As for best models - generally gpt4 or 5 is my go-to, but the others have their uses. I tend to stick with one until it annoys me, then move on. Claude's pretty good for code help, imo, but there's not really a huge difference between them.

What's your experiences?

in reply to DigitalDilemma

ZeDoTelhado

in reply to DigitalDilemma • 1 settimana fa • •

I do not use models in general online, but my needs are also much smaller. Max I use my local model for ollama is translations. I am always interested in seeing more focused models so we can use on lower end hardware

in reply to DigitalDilemma

BCsven

in reply to DigitalDilemma • 1 settimana fa • •

I have resorted to the AI step also, if Stract.com doesn't give me a good link, because if I paste a minidlna crash log Google responds with:
- Mini Cooper on sale
- Buy your DAC device here
- want to sign up to streaming music
- network and NAS comparisons

Useless.

At least AI said: based on your error it appears a file in your database has metdata tags it cannot parse properly.
Sure enough the tagger I used had applied a tag to a wmv file and Minidlna couldn't deal with tag1 area vs tag 2 areas used in other file formats.

in reply to DigitalDilemma

MangoCats

in reply to DigitalDilemma • 1 settimana fa • •

use AI. Get a few lines of logs with the errors, check them for confidential information, and simply paste the suspect lines into chatgpt, gemini, claude, co-pilot, whatever

concur. I used to put smaller snippets of the logs into Google search to hopefully bring up pages from fellow sufferers of the same malaise; that usually worked, but AI is doing it better - now.

in reply to DigitalDilemma

Holytimes

in reply to DigitalDilemma • 1 settimana fa • •

If there's one thing AI is good at is trawling though a hell scape of random data from across time and space. And outputting... Something reasonably close.

Least close enough to actually put you in the right path 9 times out of 10. Even if the ai is wrong, it's still vastly more time effective then going to stack overflow for this was solved with no solution present.

Hell I had a issue trying to find documentation for a old game I was modding from 10 years ago that maybe sold 1000 copies the wiki was dead the devs site was dead and the way back machine didn't have the pages I needed.

Some fucking how chat gpt knew the game, was able to identify it correctly from a script I gave it then spat out the exact correct context and documentation I needed.

It was flabbergasting. Cause at the same time it told me the game came out in 1995 when it came out in 2015... It got basic ass info wrong but the technical details right.

I was so fucking confused how it managed that.

in reply to PumpkinDrama

Eugenia

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

I use a distro that doesn't fall into such things all the time. Linux Mint works great for me, as is Debian.

in reply to PumpkinDrama

Sophienomenal

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

Generally, it depends on the issue. The first thing I'd check is journalctl, and if there are any errors, I usually look up "[pasted error] [distro name]" and go from there. if I'm unable to find errors, then my next bet is to look up "[description of issue] [distro name]". Unless I am directly familiar with the component that is having an issue, I try to see if I can find a solution online first. Of course, I never recommend running commands you read online that you don't understand, so take it as a learning experience and pull up some man pages to see what everything is doing. By doing that, you can even begin to learn how to debug and fix these issues by yourself. Even just finding issues other people have and proving it isn't your issue helps narrow it down.

What I will never under any circumstances recommend is using an LLM. Please, just use a normal search engine (I prefer DDG), and find forum posts from real people. Those people are generally capable of understanding what they're saying, so they won't give completely made up information based on generation of the most likely next word from the data an LLM model was trained on. Besides, chances are that the LLMs are trained on the data you would find by searching anyway, so why not go straight to the source?

I do find myself having to troubleshoot issues entirely on my own sometimes, but usually those are of my own doing, and I can likely figure out what I did wrong (I host my own server and tinker with it quite often). Of course, since switching to atomic distros on my desktop, I haven't had any system issues to troubleshoot with it in years. Running Manjaro is practically a guarantee that you'll have system issues, though. I've never had a worse experience with my system than when I ran it, and I'm not alone in that.

Otherwise, if you find yourself unable to find an easy solution, backups are a wonderful thing. My server recently had part of its boot corrupted, and it was just a case of recovering from a backup to restore it. Remember, with backups: 2 is 1 and 1 is none. Data can (and will) get corrupted eventually.

in reply to Sophienomenal

BCsven

in reply to Sophienomenal • 1 settimana fa • •

Stact.com if you remember the good google times pre 2010

in reply to PumpkinDrama

rozodru

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

journalctl and log files are very valuable. If it's specific to an application running said application in a terminal with verbose also gives can potentially provide you with a clear indication of what's going wrong.

I'm dyslexic so I get syntax errors all the damn time and thankfully using NixOS it likes to remind me on rebuild how much of an idiot I am.

Worse comes to worse you can always plug the error into an LLM like Claude or Chatgpt. But take that with a grain of salt. It'll give you a good base to start from for debugging but never trust something like Claude that will constantly tell you "it's a known issue" when it isn't.

All this being said I've had the best experience for help via whatever application/distro/whatever IRC channels on Libera chat.

in reply to rozodru

TimeSquirrel

in reply to rozodru • 1 settimana fa • •

There's an entire step between trying to figure it out yourself and resorting to an LLM which is probably likely to tell you to shove cheese into the USB ports. Regular web searching. Forum and social media posts. The distro's wiki itself or other such resources. You know, the stuff the AI originally sucked up, mashed together, mixed around, and spat back out.

in reply to TimeSquirrel

rozodru

in reply to TimeSquirrel • 1 settimana fa • •

right that's why I said worse comes to worse and to take it with a grain of salt. For very simple issues it's fine, beyond that it's a coin toss. It's a fine rubber duck. Like if I missed something obvious but I'm just not seeing it then it might point that out for me. Like for example I recently reinstalled my OS and I couldn't get wireguad to work so as a last ditch effort I plugged it into Claude and it told me that I had forgotten to replace a privatekey on one of the peers. I had just completely missed it.

in reply to PumpkinDrama

Lemmchen

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

First thing I do is to check the kernel output: sudo dmesg -Tw

in reply to PumpkinDrama

paequ2

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 1 settimana fa • •

On Guix, I could bisect (like git bisecting) my OS. So usually what would happen is:

I'm running in a good state
I accidentally mess something up
oh no
guix system switch-generation $n, where n is the last known good state
then binary search until I find the first bad generation
look at the config changes I made
fix them
back to good state

Unfortunately, my laptop is too new so Guix isn't fully compatible with all my hardware. (Yes, I was using nonguix)

But that was a pretty neat experience compared to debugging something on Arch.

Nonguix / nonguix · GitLab

Guix channel for packages that can't be included upstream. Please do NOT promote or refer to this repository on any official Guix communication channels.

^GitLab

in reply to PumpkinDrama

stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]

in reply to PumpkinDrama • 5 giorni fa • •

Op should be tagged as a bot.

ProdigalFrog via Technology

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ProdigalFrog
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Making CPU's at home: Creating a Home Chip Lab – Sam Zeloof

Home Chip Lab – Sam Zeloof

^{sam.zeloof.xyz}

#technology

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Gaza peace plan ‘at precarious moment’ as killings continue on both sides | UN News

Gaza peace plan ‘at precarious moment’ as killings continue on both sides

The UN relief chief on Wednesday urged Israel and Hamas to honour their agreement to return deceased hostages and allow aid at scale into Gaza, warning that it should not be used as “a bargaining chip” amid reports of new civilian killings and extraj…

^{UN News}

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1 settimana fa • •

tilerummy
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Professional,Genuine,Unified

tilerummy.com – Free Rummy Game & Community Forum

Free Rummy online! Play with real opponents, explore game modes, and join our active forum. Available on web & app – start your Rummy journey today.

^tilerummy

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1 settimana fa • •

floofloof
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'So Much for America First': Trump Admin Says Argentina Bailout Doubling to $40 Billion

cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/51070777

"Yet, they never have the funds for healthcare coverage for all," said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

BrikoX

2025-10-16 04:22:47

'So Much for America First': Trump Admin Says Argentina Bailout Doubling to $40 Billion

"Yet, they never have the funds for healthcare coverage for all," said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

'So Much for America First': Trump Admin Says Argentina Bailout Doubling to $40 Billion
^{brett-wilkins (Common Dreams)}

#World

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1 settimana fa • •

MuskyMelon
1 settimana fa • •

Goldman economists on the Gen Z hiring nightmare: ‘Jobless growth’ is probably the new normal | Fortune

Fuck these Goldman economists for pissing on our backs. A recession is a recession, a downturn is a downturn.

Goldman economists on the Gen Z hiring nightmare: ‘Jobless growth’ is probably the new normal

“History also suggests that the full consequences of AI for the labor market might not become apparent until a recession hits.”

^{Nick Lichtenberg (Fortune)}

#politics

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Hotznplotzn
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Russian pro-war channel publishes footage of drones striking humanitarian UN convoy outside Kherson

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44151259

Archived
Russian pro-war sources have published a video of a drone strike on a UN convoy in Ukraine. The footage surfaced on the morning of Oct. 15 via the Telegram channel “From Mariupol to the Carpathians,” which is associated with Russian UAV operators in the Kherson sector. The Ukrainian side had reported a truck attack on Oct. 14, and the UN stated that the incident could be considered a war crime.
[...]
The truck targeted by the drone bears the inscription WFP — the abbreviation for the World Food Programme. On top of the trucks, the UN abbreviation is also visible, marking them as United Nations vehicles.
[...]
The strike on the convoy was reported on Oct. 14 by Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Ukraine’s Kherson Regional Military Administration. One of the four trucks burned out completely, and another sustained serious damage. There were no reported casualties.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, called the deliberate attack on humanitarian workers and facilities a severe violation of international humanitarian law. He emphasized that it could be considered a war crime.

Russian pro-war channel publishes footage of drones striking humanitarian UN convoy outside Kherson

^{The Insider}

#World

return2ozma via Technology

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return2ozma
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Western Executives Shaken After Visiting China

Western executives warn that China's heavily roboticized manufacturing industry could quickly leave the West behind.

^{Victor Tangermann (Futurism)}

#technology

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halfapage

in reply to return2ozma • 1 settimana fa • •

leave it to businessmen to be shocked and appaled that a country you've been delegating most of your industrial production needs to for a few decades is now better at producing than their own companies

were they supposed to just work for you for fraction of a cost forever and don't learn anything?

i swear they think all people except themselves are NPCs

cm0002 via Technology

1 settimana fa • •

cm0002
1 settimana fa • •

New AI System Uses Wi-Fi to See and Track People Through Walls - The Researchers

https://www.theresearchers.us/2025/04/24/new-ai-system-uses-wi-fi-to-see-and-track-people-through-walls/

#technology

Lunatique via Technology

1 settimana fa • •

Lunatique
1 settimana fa • •

New AI System Uses Wi-Fi to See and Track People Through Walls - The Researchers

I saw reports of this 2 years ago now it's even worst. This needs to be banned

https://www.theresearchers.us/2025/04/24/new-ai-system-uses-wi-fi-to-see-and-track-people-through-walls/

#technology

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girlthing

in reply to Lunatique • 1 settimana fa • •

Given that surveillance / phone cameras are ubiquitous, and it's been possible to track people through cell tower triangulation / monitored WiFi hotspots for ages, does this really make things much worse than they already are?

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Lunatique

in reply to girlthing • 1 settimana fa • •

Yes. It can see through your damn walls. Even if your phone is in the dresser

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