Unmet dependencies continue to prevent available Espanso packages from installing on my machine running Debian 12. Given that I depend on Espanso to expand all kinds of text and wanted to upgrade to the latest version for Wayland, I updated the following instructions and installed from source.
Following these instructions, Espanso 2.2.1 for Wayland will be installed on your system and enabled for the current user.
These days, the Wera Zyklop Pocket ratchet is my go-to tool for any kind of bicycle-related maintenance. It is easily small enough to fit in my hip pack and I carry it everywhere I ride. Get a few additonal bits to fit the particular requirements of your bike and you’ve got a fantastic tool that, because of its ergonomic properties, represents a significant step up on any of the traditional multi-tools.
A virtual disk image is a block device in a file. There are a number of different disk image formats to choose from when setting up a virtual machine. QEMU Copy On Write version 2 (QCOW2) is the default virtual disk image format for the Quick Emulator (QEMU). Features such as thin provisioning, snapshots and compression make QCOW2 one of the most versatile virtual disk formats available.
These instructions specifically use Debian 12 with a GNOME desktop as the host, but they should also be applicable to other Linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint. The virtual machine in this case is a Windows 10 guest using the NTFS file system.
Check the disk size of the sparsified image file. The disk size should be smaller than the virtual size. In this particular case, the disk size is 26.7 GiB and the virtual size 64 GiB.
# qemu-img info /var/lib/libvirt/images/windows-sparsified.qcow2
Determine which partition to resize by obtaining more detailed information about the contents of the sparsified disk image.
# virt-filesystems --long -h --all -a /var/lib/libvirt/images/windows-sparsified.qcow2
On the virtual device /dev/sda, the size of the partition /dev/sda2 is 63G. It appears to offer the greatest scope for resizing, as the overall disk size in Step 7 is only 26.7 GiB in total.
The partition /dev/sda2 listed in Step 8 is equivalent to /dev/nbd9p2 connected as a network block device. Use GNOME Disks to shrink /dev/nbd9p2 to its Minimal Size.
Use a graphical utility to minimise the risk of introducing errors.
Select the correct partition and from the pop-up menu choose the option to resize.Select Minimal Size and resize the partition.
Step 12
Disconnect the resized image.
# qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd9
Step 13
Unload the NBD kernel module.
# modprobe -r nbd
Step 14
Create a target image larger than the resized source image. In this example, the size of the target image is 32G and its format QCOW2 with full preallocation and a cluster size of 2M.
You can also modify format specific options for an existing image without having to create a target disk image. Or alternatively expand into a target image that uses a format compatible with other hypervisors, such as RAW, VMDK, VDI, VHD, VHDX or QED.
“If you watched the SEC Twitter account hack that moved markets yesterday and wondered how to prevent account takeover for your personal, business, or high profile social media account, here’s an Account Takeover Prevention Guide for you and/or your organization.” @racheltobac neatly summarises the steps you should take to prevent the hijacking of your online accounts.
Continue by obtaining relevant information about available storage devices.
$ sudo smartctl --scan
Depending on the type of disk, you should see a block of information similar to the following.
/dev/sda -d scsi # /dev/sda, SCSI device
Step 4
Enable SMART support for and display detailed information about the device.
$ sudo smartctl -iHs on /dev/sda
Ideally, information about the device to be monitored would be found in the drive database.
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
The device should report a successful self-assessment test.
=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Please note: the drive database does not extend to NVMe devices. SMART support for NVMe devices is curently limited to a subset of features.
Step 5
Verify the SMART capabilities of the device.
$ sudo smartctl -c /dev/sda
The following output confirms that the device /dev/sda has both short and extended self-test capabilites.
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 85) minutes.
The output provides estimates for the duration of short and extended (long) self-test routines.
If the device is capable of self-tests
Use the following command to run a short self-test.
$ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda
Use the following command to run a long self-test.
$ sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda
Display a list with the results of recent self-tests in reverse chronological order.
$ sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
All tests should have completed without error.
Step 6
Edit the default configuration /etc/smartd.conf and comment out any DEVICESCAN options, thus preventing smartd from attempting to search for attached devices indiscriminately.
On Debian 12, you can use the following command to comment out the DEVICESCAN option in the default configuration file.
For the device /dev/sda, the following configuration for monitoring the device with smartd would have to be added to /etc/smartd.conf.
/dev/sda -H -l error -l selftest -S on -s (L/../.././06|S/../.././18) -m root -M test
-H display the health status as reported by the device
-l error show the increase in the number of SMART errors since last check
-l selftest show the increase in the number of failed tests in the SMART Self-Test Log
-S on enable Attribute Autosave on startup
-s (L/../.././06|S/../.././18) schedule a long self-test between 06:00 and 07:00 daily and a short self-test between 18:00 and 19:00 daily
-m root local user root receives warning by email
-M test send a test email on startup
Example configuration for smartd and NVMe devices
Current versions of smartmontools offer experimental support for NVMe devices. In practice this means that only a limited, but still useful, feature set is available.
For the device /dev/nvme0, the following configuration for monitoring the device with smartd would have to be added to the end of /etc/smartd.conf.
/dev/nvme0 -H -l error -m root -M test
-H display the health status as reported by the device
-l error show the increase in the number of SMART errors since last check
“Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, writing from a prison cell in 1963
“Nothing simply is itself, outside the matrix of relationships in which it appears. Instead, being is an act or event that must happen in the space between the self and the world.” Abeba Birhane does not simply regard human beings as either self-contained or self-sufficient. But can relational and autonomous accounts of the self be reconciled?
“This third attempt to pass largely the same unlawful decision also raises questions as to the larger role of the European Commission being the guardian of the EU treaties. Instead of upholding the ‘rule of law’ the Commission simply passes an invalid decision over and over again, despite clear rulings by the CJEU.” By agreeing the Data Privacy Framework with the US, the European Commission likely prioritised diplomatic and business interests over the rights of Europeans.
