ItsZariep

What are DKMS Modules on Linux?

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

Many distributions compile DKMS modules when updating, but what exactly are they?

“Normal” Modules

To understand dynamic modules, we first need to look at a normal module.

These normal modules are compiled for a specific kernel version, which means that if for any reason you change or update the kernel, the module may stop working.

This happens because kernel modules depend on the version and configuration with which that kernel was compiled. Therefore, a module that works correctly on a given version may not be compatible with another. These modules are relatively common in point-release systems (such as Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora).

Why Linux has TWO random number generators?

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

In Linux, there are two files that generate random numbers, and using the wrong one could break your security.

What are they?

/dev/random and /dev/urandom are kernel interfaces used to generate random bytes for cryptography: SSH keys, certificates, tokens, etc.

Differences

The difference stems from entropy: the real physical noise that the system collects, such as mouse movements or disk timing.

/dev/random, in its classic design, would block, meaning it would make you wait if it thought it ran out of sufficient “fresh” entropy.

Removing Rust-based Programs on Arch Linux

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 UTC

Why?

There is usually no practical advantage to removing Rust-based software, mainly because rust is not a runtime, it statically compiles the program into a single binary, maybe only a a storage size concern.

However, some users may want to audit their system for personal preference, minimalism, curiosity, or ideological reasons.

Problem

On Arch-based distributions, Rust is often only a makedepend, so it is not listed in pacman -Q or similar package queries. That means there is no single command that can reliably detect which installed packages were built with Rust, because that information gets stripped from the package metadata.

Is GNU yes faster than BusyBox yes?

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you’re doing well. The other day I was looking into the behavior of Linux commands, which led me to notice that yes in GNU is faster than in other implementations, such as BusyBox or BSD.

What is `yes`?

The yes command is an extremely simple utility: it repeatedly prints a string (by default y) until the process is interrupted or the output fails. Despite its functional simplicity and its reduced use due to the evolution of terminal programs, there are implementations with very different philosophies, such as those of GNU coreutils and BusyBox.

¿A World Without Linux? | Theory

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you’re doing well. Today, Linux is the foundation of many modern architectures and standards, not just because of the kernel itself, but because of what emerged around it. Therefore, imagining a world without Linux basically means having to rebuild the foundation of modern computing history.

Although Linux is omnipresent today and practically invisible to the average user, its absence would trigger radical transformations in technology, the digital economy, and software culture. This time, I will attempt to create a theoretical framework regarding what I believe an alternative world would look like, one where Linux or something similar had never existed—alongside the historical and technical justifications that allow us to evaluate these scenarios. So without further ado, let’s begin.

What is the VFS in Linux? (Storage Management)

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you’re doing well. If you use Linux, or Unix-like systems in general, it is quite likely (and actually almost unavoidable) that you have used a file system. But how do these file systems communicate with the kernel? This is where the Virtual File System (VFS) comes in.

The VFS is one of the fundamental pillars of the Linux kernel. Its purpose is to provide a unified abstraction for manipulating files, regardless of the type of file system being used (such as ext4, ZFS, NFS, etc.). This layer allows applications and system calls to interact with files uniformly, without requiring knowledge of the physical or logical implementation details of the underlying storage systems.

How to Have User Services in Runit

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Why do this?

Unlike simply launching programs normally, having them as services gives us the advantage of being able to supervise, stop, or restart them independently, without needing to restart the entire session.

If that is the case, you’re probably interested in having user services in Runit. These services work similarly to system services, but with runsvdir running under the user instead of root.

Requirements

Before starting, you need to prepare the following directory hierarchy. They don’t necessarily have to be in this location, but this guide assumes they are created like this:

What is microcode in Linux?

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Hi guys, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. If you’ve been involved in the Linux world, and more specifically with low-level components, you’ve most likely heard about microcode.

Although invisible in the daily user experience, they are also essential for the correct, secure, and efficient operation of modern processors.

This time I will try to explain what microcode is, its importance in Linux distributions, how it is managed, and its practical benefits. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Termux: How to use Termux-X11

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Why?

Termux-x11 is a more integrated method to have graphical session than using the unconvenient VNC method.

Requirements

Procedure

Install the required packages

pkg update

pkg install x11-repo

pkg install termux-x11-nightly

If you have [pacman in Termux], it is not necessary to install x11-repo.

In addition to this, you can also install a desktop environment or window manager. In this example, I will use IceWM and XFCE, but the Termux repositories also offer other options such as Openbox or LXQt.

What is POSIX? - Its History and Importance Today

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Hey everyone, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. If you’ve spent a bit of time in the world of operating systems like Linux distributions, BSD variants, or even macOS, you’ve surely heard about POSIX. But what exactly is POSIX? In this video, I will explain what POSIX is, its history, and its importance today, so without further ado, let’s get started.

Introduction

As you probably already know, a constant challenge across different operating systems or even programs has always been software interoperability, since programmers naturally code their own way and come up with distinct ideas to accomplish similar tasks.

Setting Power Modes at Boot on Intel and AMD GPUs (Linux)

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Why?

This is useful for those who want to avoid relying on graphical tools like CoreCtrl and prefer an automatic configuration from boot.

Requirements

Hardware

AMD: GCN or newer GPU (driver amdgpu). Any model released since 2012.
Intel: Gen6 or newer GPU (driver i915). Any model released since 2012.

System

Linux with udev support.
Root access.

Basic Configuration

Performance Levels

AMD

Edit or create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/amdgpu.rules with the following content:

How to use spice-html5 in QEMU/virt-manager

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Why?

This can be useful if you need solid remote access to a virtual machine using SPICE/QXL but don’t have access to the spice-gtk client for some reason.

Preparation

QEMU

If you are using QEMU without a GUI, you simply need to modify the SPICE parameter:

 -spice port=5900,disable-ticketing

This applies if you want to use port 5900 (this can be changed). For example, in a full command:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
 -m 1024 \
 -cdrom TinyCore-current.iso \
 -boot d \
 -vga qxl \
 -spice port=5900,disable-ticketing=on \
 -device virtio-serial \
 -chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,debug=0,name=vdagent \
 -device virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0

virt-manager

In virt-manager, you just need to ensure:

Why sudo is safer than su - Linux

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you are doing well. Today I am going to talk about security when executing programs as a superuser in Linux, specifically, the difference between using sudo and su. Although it might not seem like it, they are not interchangeable, and there are actually several benefits to using sudo instead of su. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Context

As I mentioned in the introduction, in Unix and Linux systems, privilege management is a fundamental aspect of system security and administration. Traditionally, the su (switch user) command has been the primary tool for changing users, including accessing the superuser (root) account.

FIFOs in Unix-like Systems: What are they and what are they used for?

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are well. In Unix-like operating systems, Inter-Process Communication (or IPC) management is essential for the efficient execution of programs. One of the oldest and most widely used mechanisms in this context is FIFOs or “First In, First Out”. Sometimes also known as named pipes, FIFOs allow independently running processes to exchange information in an organized and efficient manner.

On this occasion, I will explain what FIFOs are, how they work in a Unix-like environment, and what they are used for. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Changing the TTY Color Scheme in Linux

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 UTC

Procedure

First, you need a color scheme. While it’s possible to write one manually, there are tools that generate schemes easily. E.G VT Colorscheme Generator (created by me), which generates it right from your browser.

Method with Root

If you have root access (as in most cases), the most recommended way is to modify the kernel’s execution line. This is done through the bootloader configuration. For GRUB, you need to open the file /etc/default/grub and look for the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. You should append the color scheme to the end of that line, resulting in something like this:

Remapping keys in Linux (keyd)

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 UTC

What is keyd?

keyd is a daemon that captures keyboard input from udev and sends back an alternative mapping configured by the user. Besides keyd, there is also xmodmap, but the latter only works on X.org, whereas keyd works on X.org, Wayland, and even the TTY, it is universal.

How to install and use keyd?

According to Repology, keyd is in the repositories of several popular distributions. If it’s not there, you can follow the instructions on its GitHub page.

I used an old CELL PHONE like a RASPBERRY PI

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you’re doing well. The other time, while chatting in the Telegram group, we were discussing how and where to host Zariduck, a bot we have there for experimenting and hanging out. Since Oracle wouldn’t let me create an account no matter how hard I tried. Anyway, among various options, a somewhat wandering idea came to mind: taking advantage of an old cell phone I have stored away and installing Termux on it.

The History and Differences Between FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 00:00:00 UTC

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I hope you are well. If you have researched operating systems a bit, you probably know about BSD, which was a system from the University of California, Berkeley. However, when software maintenance was discontinued, three variants of it were created: FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, each destined for different uses. In this video, I am going to explain the differences between them, their common uses, and a bit of their history, so without further ado, let’s begin.

Termux: Replace DPKG/APT with pacman

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 00:00:00 UTC

Why do this?

Pacman is usually faster than apt, so by switching the package manager we’ll have a faster experience when installing packages (especially on older devices). Termux has repositories with pacman, so it’s not a crazy idea.

Procedure

Update the system:

pkg upgrade

Install pacman:

pkg install pacman

Initialize and update pacman keys:

pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate

Install pacman using pacman (sounds redundant, but this adds pacman and its dependencies to the “pacman database”). Also install apt and dpkg (this is to add them to the database so they can later be removed with pacman):

pacman -Syu pacman dpkg apt --overwrite '*'

Remove dpkg and apt using pacman:

pacman -Rns dpkg apt

With this, dpkg and apt will no longer be on the system, and everything will rely purely on pacman. However, Termux’s pkg commands are also compatible with pacman, so you can keep using them normally.

How to Create a Custom Repository in Arch Linux

Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 UTC

Hey everyone, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. In this post, I am going to show how to make an Arch Linux repository. More than just being useful for creating a custom repo, this post will help us understand how Arch repositories work under the hood.

Procedure

Preparation

The first thing to do is create a folder. Inside it, it’s best to create a subfolder where all the PKGBUILD files will go. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it allows for:

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 UTC

Hello, I am Zariep, a youtube (since 2019), programmer (since 2017) and linux user (since 2015)

My favorite programming languages are C and C++, my favorite package manager is pacman

Besides programming and operating systems, I quite enjoy PC video games

This site uses
Hugo	A static site generator
Tessera	An Hugo theme created by me
Utterances	A lightweight comments widget based on GitHub issues

You can see the source code of this website and site-specific Tessera theme changes on this site source code.

ItsZariep

What are DKMS Modules on Linux?

“Normal” Modules

Why Linux has TWO random number generators?

What are they?

Differences

Removing Rust-based Programs on Arch Linux

Why?

Problem

Is GNU yes faster than BusyBox yes?

What is yes?

¿A World Without Linux? | Theory

What is the VFS in Linux? (Storage Management)

How to Have User Services in Runit

Why do this?

Requirements

What is microcode in Linux?

Termux: How to use Termux-X11

Why?

Requirements

Procedure

Install the required packages

What is POSIX? - Its History and Importance Today

Introduction

Setting Power Modes at Boot on Intel and AMD GPUs (Linux)

Why?

Requirements

Hardware

System

Basic Configuration

Performance Levels

AMD

How to use spice-html5 in QEMU/virt-manager

Why?

Preparation

QEMU

virt-manager

Why sudo is safer than su - Linux

Context

FIFOs in Unix-like Systems: What are they and what are they used for?

Changing the TTY Color Scheme in Linux

Procedure

Method with Root

Remapping keys in Linux (keyd)

What is keyd?

How to install and use keyd?

I used an old CELL PHONE like a RASPBERRY PI

The History and Differences Between FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Termux: Replace DPKG/APT with pacman

Why do this?

Procedure

How to Create a Custom Repository in Arch Linux

Procedure

Preparation

About

What is `yes`?