Category: Hardware

Let’s Learn About Halt

Today’s article is about the halt command. The reason we’re writing about the halt command today is because I was halfway through another article before I realized I’d already written an article on that subject. So, this is going to just be a nice, easy article.

And, yes, yes I did write more than half of an article that I’ve already written. I ain’t even intoxicated!

The command we’re looking at using today is called ‘halt’. For such a little command, here’s an interesting post about the difference between halt and shutdown. And, if that’s not enough, you can read the other answers and comments on that page. 

Anyhow, halt is described like this in the man page:

halt, poweroff, reboot – Halt, power-off or reboot the machine

Of those three, we’ll just be covering the halt. Yes, the man page contains all three in just one page. They’re all related. As I said, we’ll just be covering the useful features of halt command today.

And, without further ado…

The Halt Command:

This article requires an open terminal, like many other articles on this site. If you don’t know how to open the terminal, you can do so with your keyboard – just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

Once you have the terminal open, the first use of halt would be just to halt the system:

That will halt your CPU. It probably won’t shutdown your computer all the way, it will just stop it. So too won’t the -f (force) flag. If you force it, it just stops the CPU. It looks like and requires sudo:

Finally, of the options we’ll cover, is the -p flag, and the -p stands for poweroff. It’s just another way to shut down your computer, and it obviously looks like this:

Those are about the only ways you’re ever going to use it, if you use it at all. It’s not a command that you’re likely to bump into but now you know it exists and how to use it.

Closure:

There you have it, another article. This one covers the halt command in Linux. It’s not a major article, but I needed one in a hurry – just to ensure there’s one scheduled. While my health is mostly returned, I’m still not so caught up that I have a bunch of extra articles. Feel free to step up and write one or two!

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Benchmark Your Linux Box With Geekbench 5

Today’s article will teach you how to benchmark your Linux box with Geekbench 5. It’s a fairly simple exercise, even for a beginner. Parts of the directions for this exercise will change with time, so I hope to make it obvious how you would make said command changes.

What is a benchmark? It’s a measure of your system’s performance. In this case, it tests things like CPU performance, graphics performance, and memory performance. When done, it gives you a handy URL where you can see the results online and share them with your friends.

For example, I have a benchmark result here. That one isn’t as good as it could have been. For example, I had a pile of applications open and hadn’t even been rebooted in about 60 days. See?

Ideally, you’ll run your benchmark with a clean slate. That’ll give you the best results. Be sure to reboot and make sure you’re running as few processes as is reasonable to get the best result.

Why benchmark? Well, it’s good to know how your hardware stacks up. It’s also good for bragging rights, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s a valuable bit of information if you’re into overclocking. (Overclocking is tweaking at the hardware level to make your system run faster than it is designed for.) It’s a way to measure the performance gains from overclocking.

Well, this article will tell you how to benchmark, using Geekbench 5. It’s not as challenging as one might think!

Benchmark Linux With Geekbench 5:

This article requires an open terminal. If you don’t know how to open the terminal, you can do so with your keyboard – just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

Once you get your terminal open, run the following commands:

That’s going to download the Geekbench 5 benchmarking software for Linux. However, that URL is going to change because the name of the download is going to change when Geekbench releases new versions.

If it has changed – and it WILL change eventually – you can get the new address by clicking on this link. The name of the file is also going to change the following command. It’s an obvious change that you’ll need to make. The current next command is:

That will extract all the files into their own directory. The directory name will also change. So, for this particular file, the next command is this:

Oddly, I didn’t need to make the “geekbench5” file executable, I just ran it with sudo. It looks like:

Now, you wait…

It shouldn’t take very long, though it may take a while on older computers. It will tell you what it’s checking as it checks it and, when done, it will give you a URL to check your results. It’ll look something like this:

geekbench click to see results
That address is where you’ll be able to see your results. Uploading is mandatory with the free version.

You can pay for a copy of Geekbench 5 and get your results locally, or so I understand. I’ve not actually tried it. The free version uploads the results, which I presume they use to crunch additional data, gauging the computers currently in use. They may even provide said data to others, but I’m sure it’s reasonably anonymous. Their privacy policy is located here.

Closure:

And there you have it. You now have your benchmark results in a handy web-page. You can also register to keep track of your previous benchmarks, even adding new results to your collection as you go. Me? I only bothered benchmarking my test laptop and it turned out better than I had expected.

There are other benchmarking utilities. You can use ‘hardinfo’ for some benchmarks, even comparative benchmarks – but older ones, by reading my hardinfo article. If you do benchmark your systems, feel free to leave some comments here or wherever you find this on social media.

Thanks for reading!

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Guest Article: Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs)

We tech workers (and enthusiasts) tend to spend many hours at our desktops, performing the same physical and mechanical motions over and over again, making us susceptible to Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs). That’s what this article is going to be about, oddly enough. It’s a good subject to consider, for all of us.

RSIs are caused by doing the same thing, over and over again. That’s just not good for the body. There are ways to minimize the risk of injury, but the prevalent wisdom includes everything from breaks to ergonomically designed equipment.

According to this recent link, 2/3rds of all workplace injuries are repetitive stress injuries. One quote from the article that rings true is, “Today, the main causes of RSIs are manual labor, office work, and the overuse of computers, leading to injuries localized in the upper body.” (Emphasis mine.) We geeks certainly tend to fall into that category, using computers for much of our awake time, both at work and at home.

I don’t really want to give much in the way of medical advice, so I’ll say that you should spend some time looking up ways to reduce your chances of getting an RSI. They’re a pretty serious risk. To this day, I still have flair-ups in my right wrist. I wear a wrist-wrap but the flair-ups are so bad that even turning a door knob is uncomfortable. Surgery was the recommended solution, but I’ve been chopped open enough.

When I saw someone on Reddit offering to do medical articles, I asked them to write an article about RSIs. The output from that request follows below the links and disclaimer.

This article was provided by the owner, operator, and writer for “Daily Remedy“. The author of this site offers no opinion on the content of the linked site, I’m just happy to have the article about RSIs. Don’t forget that you too can write an article. A special thanks goes out to the author of this article. I hope that you readers enjoy it as much as I do.

Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs):

A push of a thumb, a flick of a finger, and a wrangling with a wrist – just some of the many actions we undertake when using the latest gadgets promised to improve our health.

But with the influx of these new gadgets, we enter a brave new world. In which consumer electronic devices are not defined by traditional principles of consumerism, but consumed with healthcare data – often using awkward, inconvenient gadgets to obtain such data.

Device manufacturers tout the importance of healthcare data when marketing the devices. And consumers eagerly acclimate to the lack of ergonomics when purchasing the devices. Simply put, device manufacturers often develop medical devices that are uncomfortable for consumers, who in turn accept such discomfort as acceptable practice for medical devices – all in the name of data.

But when does the discomfort of the device supersede the value of the data? – when the discomfort harms patients while using the device.

Known as repetitive stress injury (RSI), it is a medical condition that affects many office workers throughout the country. Normally ascribed as work-related overuse injuries, ostensibly from desktop computer use – be it the mouse or the keyboard – RSI is often treated with braces or work restrictions as a first line treatment.

But with healthcare growing to encompass a larger part of the economy, and more patients utilizing peripheral monitoring devices at home for chronic diseases, we will soon see a rise in new forms of RSI – coming from the medical device use itself.

In a 2019 study, continuous positive airway pressure devices, known as CPAP machines, used for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), were evaluated for device design and ergonomics. The study found many of the CPAP devices were poorly designed, incorporated little to no user feedback in device design, and were built using an antiquated engineering-centric focus of device design.

The same study, while attempting to present solutions to the problem of CPAP machine designs, acknowledged particularly unique difficulties in designing an ergonomic CPAP machines – which include engineering hurdles and psychological barriers to effective use.

Clearly there is more to effective device design in healthcare than traditional ergonomic principles. In fact, we should begin to study ergonomics in healthcare as a unique field in its own right, something I propose to call, healthcare ergonomics.

Healthcare ergonomics accounts not only for the engineering barriers that go into medical device design, but also for the psychological barriers patients face when using the device. In other words, healthcare ergonomics accounts for device use from the perspective of a consumer and that of a patient, a veritable dual identity of the end user.

Healthcare ergonomics balances the ease of use with the value of the data gleaned, further complicating device design, since the design itself is not the only consideration, but also the ability to glean the necessary data as well.

Some devices seem to have succeeded. The Apple Watch is an early test case of such success. Consumer Reports analyzing the latest iteration of Apple Watches find the device consistently excellent in various reviews.

Interestingly, the report notes the Apple Watches’ ability to optimize most mundane tasks: “But they do it by performing the routine jobs just a little better than the Series 4; notching top ratings for step counting, heart-rate tracking, and ease of use.”

Apple is known for their prowess in device design, so these reports should come as no surprise. But it is still commendable that a traditionally consumer oriented technology company could adapt to healthcare ergonomics so readily. And their ability to make such a transition should be emulated among other companies considering entering the healthcare space.

But it was not easy. Apple had more than its fair share of missteps – something the company openly acknowledges. The early versions of its heart rate monitoring and EKG (heart rhythm tracing) were wildly inaccurate. But they persisted – both in the device design and in the data gleaned – and for their persistence they are rewarded with first mover status into a healthcare market with spectacular market potential.

Apple balanced device design from the perspective of a patient and a consumer, and they weighed design with data, noting the importance of high fidelity data trends. They engaged in clinical studies with academic medical centers to study their watches. They actively sought direct feedback from early adopters to glean design improvements – in fact, every aspect of the device design centered on healthcare ergonomics.

The contrast in CPAP design and Apple Watches is worth noting for entrepreneurs and executives seeking to enter or to gain market shares in the healthcare consumerism market. To truly succeed in healthcare, you have to understand the complexities of the end user and balance design needs with data quality.

Not an easy task, and likely why few have succeeded. But the roadmap is set, and the opportunity is there for anyone enterprising enough to pursue it – the burgeoning field of healthcare ergonomics.

SOURCES:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14606925.2019.1595446
https://www.consumerreports.org/smartwatches/final-test-results-apple-watch-series-5/

Closure:

There you have it, another article in the books. This time, it was a guest article. I picked the subject because it’s important, especially for us, to be mindful of our health. As a group, we’re not the most healthy of people, and adding an RSI to the list of our ailments isn’t a good idea. Trust me, you don’t want carpal tunnel.

So, take care of yourself. Read up on your devices and learn how to use them safely. Read up on best-practices so that you can try to minimize your risks. Even if you feel good now, that doesn’t mean you will always feel good and healthy.

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Get Hardware Info With ‘dmidecode’

Today’s article will explain how to use dmidecode to get information about your hardware. The command is a little different than most, as it actually checks your system’s BIOS and reports that information.

Yes, you read that correctly. This dmidecode command checks the BIOS and reports that information. There are times when the BIOS reports different hardware than other tools, so it’s a good idea to have some knowledge about your hardware to begin with.

Anyhow, I could sit here and try to explain dmidecode, or I could just use their description – which is better than I could do.

dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer’s DMI (some say SMBIOS ) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system’s hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. Thanks to this table, you can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware. While this is a good point in terms of report speed and safeness, this also makes the presented information possibly unreliable.

As you can see, it’s a pretty interesting tool. It’s almost certainly installed for you by default. If it isn’t and you’re using a major distribution, check your system’s repos and it’ll be in there. It’s a pretty neat tool and one that you can use regularly, even though there are other tools that tell you about your hardware.

Using dmidecode:

This article requires an open terminal. Open one with your keyboard by pressing CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

Many distros have dmidecode installed by default. If not, you’ll need to install it with your systems software installer. It’s bound to be available for any major distro. Now…

There’s a whole lot to this dmidecode thing, so we’re going to rely on the man page quite a bit. You’re encouraged to crack open a second terminal in which to run man dmidecode. That’ll help!

The first way to run dmidecode is with the -s flag, where you’ll use a name. In your first terminal, type the following to get the BIOS vendor’s name:

That’s the first (and pretty handy) way to run this command. Some of these commands will even give you information that helps you not have to open the case. That one helps you find the BIOS vendor’s name without having to reboot and check the BIOS yourself.

There are quite a number of options (names) that follow the -s flag, such as baseboard-serial-number, processor-family, or even chassis-serial-number. There’s a ton of them – so switch to the terminal with the open man page and check the text next to the -s flag for more information.

The other way to run dmidecode is with the -t flag. In this usage, you’ll need to know the corresponding number to the information you want. That’s okay, you don’t need to memorize them, as I explain below. The basic command is:

The number should correspond to the information you want. In the terminal with the open man page, you can scroll down to see your options. You’ll see that #13 is about the BIOS language, so command would look like:

The output would look similar to this:

dmidecode showing bios language
There’s some cruft in the output, but it is indeed the BIOS language.

You can refer to the above-mentioned man page, memorize them, or use a cheat sheet (if you plan on running the command frequently). I assume the project keeps things updated, so checking the man page at their GitHub would be the most correct source.

Either way, you will see that you will need to know both ways of running dmidecode in order to make the most out of dmidecode. You’ll need to be both fluent with the keywords and with the DMI Types, should you want to make the most out of this application – but you don’t have to memorize the entire man page.

Closure:

There you have it, another article is in the books! This time, it’s about dmidecode – a valuable tool to add to your growing arsenal of tools. It’ll save some time if you end up needing it, so you might as well learn about it before you need it.

Thanks for reading! If you want to help, or if the site has helped you, you can donate, register to help, write an article, or buy inexpensive hosting to start your own site. If you scroll down, you can sign up for the newsletter, vote for the article, and comment.

How To: Find The RAM Total In The Terminal

Today’s article will show you how to find the RAM total, because that’s basic information everyone might want to know. If you don’t already know how much RAM you have, this is a good article for you. If you’re like me and need to be reminded from time to time, this is also a good article for you!

You might have a computer that doesn’t run as fast as you want, and having not enough RAM may be a cause. Before you install a distro, you should know that distro’s minimum requirements, of which RAM is often one such prerequisite. Maybe you’re upgrading RAM and really want to make sure you know what you have inside? Dunno, but there are reasons why you might want to find the RAM total.

Not all my articles are long, and that includes this one. This one should be pretty quick and easy, suitable for folks just starting out who want to know how much RAM they have.

Find The RAM Total:

This article requires an open terminal, like many other articles on this site. If you don’t know how to open the terminal, you can do so with your keyboard – just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

With the terminal open, we’ll just use the free command. It looks like this:

The output is obvious and will look similar to this:

free -m in action
The output should be fairly obvious to all readers. The total RAM is listed in the output.

That’s the output from a fairly standard device. It should be obvious, but the column you’re looking for is under ‘total’ and you’re looking for the big number/top row.

You can also check /proc/meminfo for more information. Run the following command for a bunch of data about your installed RAM:

If you take a look at the output, you’ll be looking for the row starting with “MemTotal” in the results. Of course, you can just use ‘grep’ to pull out just the information you want. Try it with this command:

That should do it. It should give you an output that has just the row you’re looking for. Feel free to change ‘MemTotal’ to another row, but remember that it’s case sensitive – like most of Linux.

Closure:

There are surely other ways to find the RAM total, but those are a couple of easy ways to toss into your growing toolbox. This is also another article in the books. It’s just a short article, but it’s an article nonetheless. 

Thanks for reading! If you want to help, or if the site has helped you, you can donate, register to help, write an article, or buy inexpensive hosting to start your own site. If you scroll down, you can sign up for the newsletter, vote for the article, and comment.

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