Nostr notes by Sohrab Behdani :freebsd:

I have a Brother HL-2140 printer that, for some reason, works ...

2026-08-30T11:39:30Z

I have a Brother HL-2140 printer that, for some reason, works properly only on Windows. On GNU/Linux and macOS, printing images often results in a horrible dithering effect because of the rather broken CUPS driver.

Now that we're living in the age of AI, and with increasingly capable models available, I had a thought: I already have the Windows driver, and I have access to Gemini, so why not throw a ridiculously long prompt at it and ask it to figure out how the Windows driver works, reverse-engineer the protocol, and build a proper CUPS driver from scratch? :)

So that's exactly what I did.

I gave Gemini the Windows driver and a detailed reverse-engineering task, let it work through the problem, and started implementing and testing what it came up with.

The result was honestly better than I expected. I was fully prepared to receive a giant pile of questionable AI-generated code, but instead it produced something surprisingly clean and functional. There's still plenty of room for optimization and cleanup, of course, but the basic result is already quite promising.

The project is available here:
https://github.com/behdanisohrab/open-hl2140

here's a side-by-side: the left side is the driver generated through the reverse-engineering process with Gemini, while the right side is the original CUPS driver.

It's a surprisingly good example of how AI can be used as an engineering tool rather than simply asking it to generate code and hoping for the best.

We'll see how far this rabbit hole goes.

#cups #linux #AI

Exactly. I think healthy competition can exist, but it should be ...

2026-08-28T07:06:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…e30g
_________________________

Exactly. I think healthy competition can exist, but it should be about learning from each other and improving the ecosystem, not about trying to destroy or discredit other projects.

Every open-source project has different goals, ideas, and audiences. A new project becoming popular should be something we celebrate, because it means more people are building and contributing.

At the end of the day, we all benefit from a stronger open-source ecosystem.

Lately, there’s something about the Iranian open-source ...

2026-08-27T11:33:31Z

Lately, there’s something about the Iranian open-source community that I genuinely struggle to understand: the amount of tribalism and factionalism.

It often feels like whenever a project such as Omarchy or CachyOS gets hyped, some of its Iranian fans immediately turn it into a campaign against other projects. They start brigading, insulting our work, and even insulting the people who use our software.

But why?

Is there some kind of competition I’m not aware of? Is open source supposed to be a battlefield where one project has to “win” and everyone else has to be mocked?

Why do you feel the need to come after me, my work, or my users just because you prefer another project?

Open source is supposed to be about collaboration, building things, learning from each other, and giving people freedom. Not about forming tribes around whatever project is currently being hyped and attacking everyone outside the tribe.

Maybe to some people, these are just comments or posts on the internet. But when you’re the person spending hours, days, months, and years building and maintaining a project, this kind of behavior is genuinely exhausting.

Honestly, this has contributed to a very high level of mental burnout for me, to the point where I’ve reached a stage where I can barely get myself to work.

I don’t understand why a community that is supposed to encourage people to build things has to become a place where you constantly feel like you need to defend yourself and your project.

Disagreement is normal. Criticism is normal. Even competition can be healthy.

But harassment, insults, tribalism, and brigading against other people and their projects accomplish absolutely nothing.

So, seriously: why?

What exactly are we competing for?

Hi Mastodon! 👋 As a developer of Parch Linux ...

2026-08-18T12:20:19Z

Hi Mastodon! 👋 As a developer of Parch Linux (https://parchlinux.com), I need some advice. Does anyone know how DistroWatch tracks updates, or how to properly reach out to Linux news sites? It's FOSS reviewed us once, but we’ve made massive changes since: new custom tools, a rewritten installer UI, and more!

Tomorrow marks our 5th anniversary! 🎉 But despite publishing our updates, we're facing total radio silence. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but after 5 years, it honestly feels like a media boycott simply because of our project's origin (Iran). I didn't choose my nationality, and despite heavy restrictions, our team has built something we're proud of.

We even have Server and Mobile editions in active development, yet the mobile efforts seem ignored even here among FOSS enthusiasts.

How can we break this silence? Any advice is appreciated! 🐧❤️

#Linux #FOSS #OpenSource #LinuxMobile #LinuxDistro #TechNews #TechJournalism #ParchLinux

How is the status of #FreeBSD support on Rpi5? well i have rpi5 ...

2026-08-13T15:26:15Z

How is the status of #FreeBSD support on Rpi5? well i have rpi5 running Parch Linux for now but i want to try the BSDs on it as well.

#raspberrypi

After a grueling 2,000-hour nationwide internet shutdown in Iran, ...

2026-08-09T06:13:03Z

After a grueling 2,000-hour nationwide internet shutdown in Iran, international connectivity has finally returned to the Parch Linux servers.

This prolonged outage completely destroyed our SEO. Searching for our project yielded zero results for months, which took a massive toll on our visibility and progress. Now that we are back online, I am trying to figure out how to rebuild the lost trust of our international users and effectively promote the project again. Unfortunately, open-source news outlets have rarely covered us unless we directly request a feature.

Despite these hurdles, I am incredibly relieved that the connection is restored and people outside of Iran can finally see our work once more.

Hoping for freedom.

https://parchlinux.com

#ParchLinux #Linux #OpenSource #FOSS #InternetFreedom #Iran

I’ve been working on a native KDE client based on #Carburetor, ...

2026-08-05T13:45:21Z

I’ve been working on a native KDE client based on #Carburetor, and I’m happy to announce its release under the name #Karburetor.

The goal of this project is to provide a better Tor experience for KDE Plasma users with a client that fits naturally into the KDE ecosystem, without GNOME dependencies and with a focus on a more native, simple, and integrated experience.

In this release, several parts of Carburetor have been redesigned so Karburetor can run independently from GNOME. The settings, proxy management, and user interface have been adapted to better match KDE standards.

Karburetor now uses native KDE settings and integrates more smoothly with Plasma services. Proxy handling has also been improved, allowing Plasma and KDE applications to directly use the Tor connection.

New features include active Bridge detection, improved support for different Tor transports, and a more extensible architecture for future improvements.

GitHub:
https://github.com/kdefarsi/karburetor

P.S. Due to network limitations in Iran, Codeberg being censored, and GitLab being sanctioned, unfortunately the sources are temporarily hosted on Microsoft GitHub for now.

I may move the project to KDE Invent in the future if possible, after it becomes more stable.

#KDE #KDEPlasma #Linux #OpenSource #FOSS #Tor #Privacy #GNUlinux #Qt #KDEApps

FreeBSD 15 + CDE is probably the closest you can get to sitting ...

2026-06-22T17:55:09Z

FreeBSD 15 + CDE is probably the closest you can get to sitting in front of a high-end UNIX workstation without owning a time machine.

Running Common Desktop Environment in 2026 feels strangely refreshing. No blur effects, no Electron, no notifications fighting for attention, No ai written code, just Motif, terminals, man pages, and a desktop paradigm that was already mature before I was born.

Current setup: • FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE • CDE • dtwm • bhyve • Motif everywhere

Today’s activity: reading bhyve(4) manuals and pretending I'm a UNIX admin in 1996.

#FreeBSD #BSD #CDE #Unix #Motif #bhyve #OpenSource #UnixPorn #RetroComputing #FOSS

Hello everyone after a long time! Hope you're all doing ...

2026-06-17T12:17:16Z

Hello everyone after a long time! Hope you're all doing great, I've missed this community :)

My internet is finally back to a relatively stable state, which means I can jump back into my old passion projects!

I recently saw that a native ARM64 beta port of the Steam client was released, and I knew it was the perfect time to test it on my Linux phone.

I'm currently running #postmarketOS with #PlasmaMobile on my PocoPhone F1. Since pmOS is based on Alpine, it uses musl libc, which doesn't support running these binaries natively. To bypass this, I set up an Ubuntu 24.04 #Distrobox container and installed the ARM64 Steam client along with box64 and box86. The process wasn't as straightforward as some guides suggest (like the one below); I had to do some extra tweaking. I'll definitely write a detailed blog post or a postmarketOS wiki entry about it soon!

🔗 https://interfacinglinux.com/community/sbcsoftware/native-steam-client-for-arm-linux/

I managed to boot Steam into Big Picture mode and went straight to setting up Proton.

Note: The Proton 11 ARM64 mentioned in the link didn't work for me, so I used Proton Experimental instead.

I paired my PS4 controller via Bluetooth, and it worked flawlessly out of the box! For the gaming test, I downloaded Crab Game (kept it lightweight due to my strict data limits).

Against all odds, it actually launched! Running via Proton Experimental + Box64/86 inside Distrobox on my phone, I managed to get a relatively playable 20-30 FPS. Linux mobile gaming is getting wild! 🐧🎮

#LinuxMobile #SteamARM64 #GamingOnLinux #AlpineLinux

Thank you friend :) I hope that one day we all be free in this ...

2026-04-10T10:01:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…9w84
_________________________

Thank you friend :)
I hope that one day we all be free in this country with no internet censorship

Hello! I am still safe, especially after these 40 days of war ...

2026-04-10T08:16:12Z

Hello!
I am still safe, especially after these 40 days of war that took place in my country.

I don't want to write a critique of the war; everything is relatively clear. Fortunately, I am in the eastern part of the country, which wasn't damaged much.

But well... the Iranian government has shut down the internet for us for 40 days; this is truly annoying and has even caused many things to be destroyed.

Whether it is the digital economy, or businesses that were active on Telegram and the internet. Whether it's website SEO. For example, my own project, Parch GNU/Linux, has had its servers go out of reach because they were in Iran, and I cannot provide updates for it without the internet. Even its rank on DistroWatch has dropped significantly. Who is going to compensate for these government-inflicted losses later?

These events have caused people to be forced to migrate to government-monitored platforms, most of which are a fourth-rate copy of Telegram.

There have been struggles too; we are resisting this by using Delta Chat, Matrix, and even XMPP so as not to go to these platforms.

Pray for us.

I wrote about my experience so far about #linuxmobile on dev.to ...

2025-05-22T19:37:23Z

I wrote about my experience so far about #linuxmobile on dev.to

https://dev.to/behdanisohrab/linux-on-mobile-my-experience-so-far-nbm

So... i decided to become active on Dev.to platform so i wrote an ...

2025-05-18T22:34:26Z

So... i decided to become active on Dev.to platform so i wrote an article on there about #parchlinux

https://dev.to/behdanisohrab/why-i-created-parch-linux-making-arch-accessible-for-everyone-436j

Since we migrated our project #ParchLinux from #GitLab to ...

2025-02-13T14:37:29Z

Since we migrated our project #ParchLinux from #GitLab to #Forgejo, the server load has dropped significantly!
Previously, building each ISO took about 40 minutes with GitLab, but with Forgejo, this time has been reduced to 13 minutes 😃

GitLab charged for most features we needed, like push/pull mirroring repositories from GitHub or other platforms, but in #Forgejo, we get them for free.

I’d like to thank the Forgejo developers for creating such a great platform that saved us from GitLab’s clutches.

when i want to re-build pmos image for my phone it shows me that ...

2025-01-14T08:43:19Z

when i want to re-build pmos image for my phone it shows me that the systemd mirror in staging returns a 404 error, how long should i wait until i can make an image once again?

#postmarketos

#Ptyxis is now inside the #Alpine repos. i have it installed on ...

2025-01-02T09:06:26Z

#Ptyxis is now inside the #Alpine repos.

i have it installed on my #pmos installation, i hope it replaces the gnome-console in the upcoming Pmos changes:)

#linuxmobile

finally i had integrated the systemd-boot inside #parchlinux. our ...

2024-12-30T20:05:04Z

finally i had integrated the systemd-boot inside #parchlinux.

our goal for 2025 is to implement the secure-boot support inside the distribution:)

Finally the #Camera for #pocoF1 is here with #Postmarketos Edge ...

2024-11-01T16:22:37Z

Finally the #Camera for #pocoF1 is here with #Postmarketos Edge and Kernel 6.11 🥳

Not much perfect but it works!

#linuxmobile