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This summer AMD announced the Radeon Raytracing Analyzer "RRA" as part of their developer software suite for helping to profile ray-tracing performance/issues on Windows and Linux with both Direct3D 12 and the Vulkan API. Initially the RRA 1.0 release was binary-only but now AMD has made good on their "GPUOpen" approach and made it open-source...

Cloud Hypervisor 28 Released As The Project's First LTS Version  Phoronix

Cloud Hypervisor as the open-source, Rust-written and modern hypervisor project that was started by Intel and now also backed by AMD, Arm, Microsoft, and other vendors is out with a big release...

For going along with the i915 DRM kernel driver support to premiere in Linux 6.2, the Mesa 23.0 development code for Intel's Vulkan driver is exposing performance metrics / hardware counters for DG2 "Alchemist" Arc Graphics hardware...

With Linux 6.1-rc6 due out this weekend we are reaching the point at which the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem maintainers will be cutting off new feature code from being queued into DRM-Next ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.2 cycle. Intel engineers today sent out a final batch of drm-intel-gt-next changes to make it for this next kernel version...

Intel Readies More Meteor Lake Graphics Driver Code For Linux 6.2  Phoronix

AMD has been putting out a number of ROCm compute stack point releases recently with ROCm 5.3.3 having been the latest to premiere on Thursday...

Intel Arc Graphics A750/A770 Performance Ahead Of Linux 6.2 + Mesa 23.0  Phoronix

My favorite Git tools Dwayne McDaniel Fri, 11/18/2022 - 03:00

As with any other technology or skill, just reading about Git cannot make you proficient at it or make you an "advanced" user. Now it's time to dig into some of the tools in Git that I've found useful, and hopefully, that will help you use Git.

Git reflog

In my previous article, I wrote about Git history as a chain of commits, and that's a very good model for most purposes. However, Git actually remembers everything you do with Git, not just commits. You can see your entire recent history with git reflog.

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(Dwayne McDaniel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The log that reflog refers to is found in .git/logs, and it's called HEAD. Opening this file, you can quickly see all the actions taken recently. Inside .git/logs/HEAD, you see rows corresponding to the output of the reflog command.

You can checkout any of the states in a reflog. No matter what you do, Git gives you a way to easily get your files back to a previous state!

To checkout a previous state, use the command:

git checkout HEAD@{<#>}

Replace <#> with the number of steps behind HEAD you want to reference. For instance, if I wanted to check out the state right before I did the last git pull from my example, I would use the command git checkout HEAD@{5} Doing this puts Git into a detached head state, so I would need to make a new branch from there if I wanted to preserve any changes I wanted to make.

By default, your reflog sticks around for at least 30 days before Git cleans up its history. But it does not throw this info away; it packs it into a more compressed form. You don't need to wait for Git to tidy up. You can do it any time with the garbage.

More on Git What is Git? Git cheat sheet Markdown cheat sheet New Git articles Git gc (garbage collection)

Even though the size of objects and files in your .git folders are tiny and highly compressed, when there are a lot of items present, then Git can start to slow down. After all, looking up entries from a list of 1,000 refs is more time-consuming than a list of only a handful of entries. From time to time, Git performs an internal garbage collection step, packing up all the objects and files not actively in use. It then stuffs them into a highly compressed pack file.

But you don't need to wait for Git to decide to clean up the unused objects. You can trigger this any time you want with the git gc command.

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(Dwayne McDaniel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Next time you've made hundreds of commits locally, or you just notice that Git commits are taking a little longer than usual, try running git gc. It might speed things up.

Git bisect

The git bisect command is a powerful tool that quickly checks out a commit halfway between a known good state and a known bad state and then asks you to identify the commit as either good or bad. Then it repeats until you find the exact commit where the code in question was first introduced.

Git worktree

Imagine a scenario where you are working in a branch, very deep into adding new dependencies, and are not in any way ready to make a commit. Suddenly, your pager goes off. There's a fire is happening in production, and you need to drop everything, switch to a hotfix branch, and get that patch built quickly.

It's decision time. Do you could cross your fingers, make a commit, and hope you remember where you left off? Do you git stash, which might cause dependency issues and also mean you have to remember what exactly you were doing when you stashed? Or do you just checkout the other branch with a different folder and work as you usually would?

That last option might sound too good to be true, but that is precisely what Git worktree allows you to do.

Normally with Git, you can only have one branch checked out at a time. This makes sense, now that you know that Git tracks the active branch with HEAD, which can only reference one ref at a time.

Git worktree sidesteps this limitation by making copies of branches outside the repository folder. Git knows that this other folder exists and that any commits made there need to be accounted for in the original repo folder. But the copy of the branch also has its own HEAD file keeping track of where Git is pointing in that other location!

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(Dwayne McDaniel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Git always has at least one worktree open, which you can see by running the command:

git worktree list

This command shows you the current folder where .git is located, the most recent commit ID, and the name of the currently checked out branch at the end of the line.

You can add more entries to the worktree list with the command:

git worktree add /path-to-new-folder/<branch-name>

The add directive creates a new folder at the specified path, named the same as the target branch. Git also sends a linked copy of the repo to that folder, with that branch already checked out. To work in that branch, all you need to do is change the directory then proceed to work as usual.

When you are ready to go back to the original work you were focused on before being interrupted, just change directly back to the original folder. Your work is in the exact same state you left it earlier.

When you are done and want to clean up after yourself, remove any worktree items you want with the command git worktree remove /path-to-new-folder/

A few words of warning for using Git worktree:

• If a branch is assigned to a worktree, you can not check it out as you normally would. Attempting to checkout a branch that is already checked out throws an error.

• It's a good idea to remove any unneeded worktree entries as soon as you're finished with them. Errors might occur when running other Git operations while multiple branches are checked out.

• When working in a code editor like VS Code, changing directory in the terminal doesn't automatically change the open folder in your editor. Remember to open the desired folder through the file menu to ensure you are modifying the correct version of the project files.

So much more to Git

While it might feel like I've covered a lot here, I've actually only scratched the surface of what's possible with Git. It's possible to build entire applications that complement Git, and extending that even further is possible. Fortunately, there are also a lot of resources you can turn to when learning Git.

The one book I would recommend everyone read is absolutely free and you can download it right now. The Pro Git Book covers how Git works in great detail and gives a lot of excellent examples. The one caveat about the book, though, is that it is a little out of date. The free version linked from the git-scm website is from 2014. Still, this book gives you the best foundational knowledge of how Git works and helps make any other Git-related topics more accessible.

There are also cheat sheets and articles out there to help you become a Git expert in no time. But as I said earlier in this article, the only way to learn Git, or any other skill, is to practice, practice, practice.

Git reflog, git gc, git bisect, and git worktree are just a few of the tools I use routinely.

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Get verified on Mastodon with your website Seth Kenlon Fri, 11/18/2022 - 03:00

If you're migrating away from Twitter, you might be looking for a way to ensure your followers that you are who you say you are. Ignoring debates of how anyone can be sure of anyone's true identity online, it's easy to verify yourself on Mastodon if you already have your own website. This requires a very basic understanding of HTML, so if you don't maintain your own website, then send this article to your web maintainer instead.

1. Get your verification code

Sign in to your Mastodon account and click the edit profile link under your Mastodon handle.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the Edit Profile screen that appears, scroll down to the Verification section. This section contains a special verification code. Click the Copy button to copy your verification code to your clipboard.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

More great content Free online course: RHEL technical overview Learn advanced Linux commands Download cheat sheets Find an open source alternative Explore open source resources 2. Paste your code on your website

To assure people that the same person running your Mastodon account also runs your website, you must paste your verification code into your website.

The verification code you got from your Mastodon profile page is just a hyperlink back to your profile page, around the word "Mastodon." It's arguably the most obvious word to link back to a Mastodon profile, but it's entirely arbitrary. What really matters is that a link to your profile page, with the rel="me" attribute, appears on a page of a website you control. The contents of the link doesn't actually matter.

You can create a page to serve especially for verification, or you can put it into your site's footer, or into a social media icon.

Here's a simple example of a page exclusively serving as a verification point:

>
>
>My website>
>
>
rel="me" href="https://mastodon.example.com/@tux">Mastodon>
>
>

You don't have to create a whole page for your verification, though. You can just paste the verification link into the footer of your site, or somewhere on the index page.

3. Add the verification URL to Mastodon

Once your page is live, copy its web address from your web browser's URL bar. For example, the sample page I created is located at http://myexamplewebsite.tk/index.html.

In your browser, return to the Edit Profile screen of Mastodon. Locate the Profile Metadata section, and type Website into the Label field and then paste the URL of your verification post in the Content field.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Click the Save Changes button and return to your profile page to see your newly verified status.

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(Seth Kenlon, CC BY-SA 4.0)

On some Mastodon servers, it seems that verification may take an hour or so to resolve, but on two of the three I've tested, the green checkmark appeared immediately after saving.

Verified on Mastodon

A green checkmark on Mastodon indicates proof that the same person controlling your Mastodon account also controls your website. If there are people in your life who know your website and trust that it's yours, then verifying that you've been able to link back to your Mastodon profile is proof that you have control over both platforms. And ultimately, that's as good as identification gets on the Internet.

A blue checkmark might look and feel official, but identification like that is designed to be artificially scarce and yet only cursory. Mastodon acknowledges this, and provides a verification option for every user. With nothing but a website and a Mastodon account, you can self-verify to your followers, demonstrating that the same person (you) posting content online is the same person active on an exciting open source social media.

Three easy steps to a green checkmark on the open source social media platform.

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How to Install and Use htop in Linux  It's FOSS

The post How to Use fgrep Command to Search for Strings in Linux first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides .

Brief: In this beginner-friendly guide, we will discuss some practical examples of the fgrep command. By the end of this guide, users will be able to perform text search operations efficiently using the command

The post How to Use fgrep Command to Search for Strings in Linux first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.

How to Setup Kali Linux in VM Ware Workstation  Security Boulevard

Mesa 22.3 Will Hopefully Be Released Next Week With Improved Vulkan Drivers, Rusticl  Phoronix

Barring any unforeseen issues from coming about, Mesa 22.3 will hopefully be released next week...

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The Red Hat Asia Pacific (APAC) Partner Awards 2022 recognize commercial and public sector partners for their continued efforts to develop innovative solutions using Red Hat technologies to meet customer needs and improve business outcomes. This year’s theme for the Red Hat APAC Partner Awards is ‘Open Innovation Ecosystem’. It is through a strong and dynamic partner community that innovation is built on the open source principles of co-creation, transp

Seamlessly Run Windows Apps on Your Linux Desktop With WinApps  MUO - MakeUseOf

Testing Six Different Linux Distributions On The Intel Core i9 13900K "Raptor Lake"  Phoronix

For those wondering about the out-of-the-box performance of different modern Linux distributions when running the new Intel Raptor Lake processors, here are six different distributions running on the current flagship Core i9 13900K processor. Tested this round was CentOS Stream 9, Clear Linux, Debian Bookworm (Testing), EndeavourOS, Fedora Workstation 37, and Ubuntu 22.10.

SDL 2.26 RC1 was released today as the pre-release for the upcoming SDL 2.26 library...