=^.^=

Modify XFCE Window Manager Shadow (xfwm4)

karma

I wasn't able to locate a GUI settings widget that would allow me to easily change the shadow settings in XFCE 4.12, part of the dom0 distributed with QubesOS. If I missed something or this has changed please let me know.

  • Open System Tools > Window Manager Tweaks
    • Click on the Compositor tab
    • Any time you adjust the following settings, check and uncheck the Show shadows under regular windows checkbox to preview/make your changes take effect.
  • Open System Tools > Settings Editor
    • Click on the xfwm channel. Scroll to the properties that begin with shadow_:
      • shadow_delta_height
      • shadow_delta_width
      • shadow_delta_x
      • shadow_delta_y
      • shadow_opacity

Things a Kratom Consumer Might Want to Know

karma

I recently had a conversation with some nice folks imparting what little wisdom I have about Kratom after using it for 15 years - from the perspective of a consumer - and it came up that it could be useful to share this with other folks so here it is.

User 1, [23:42]
[In reply to karma]
I got tired of popping like 18 caps to get a good dosage.

User 2, [23:43]
I've thought about doing kratom. They have it in gas stations and some dispensaries around here. Is that stuff really that good???

User 1, [23:46]
[In reply to User 2]
Feels like a glorified caffeine to me

User 2, [23:48]
[In reply to User 1]
So I could essentially get the same effects from drinking a monster?

User 1, [23:48]
No 😂

User 1, [23:48]
Not quite

User 2, [23:48]
Plus there's so many different versions of it I don't even know which one is the best

User 1, [23:48]
Oh yeah lol, the different veins.

User 1, [23:48]
K would be more knowledgeable than me on that tbh

User 1, [23:49]
He could probably explain it better than I could too

User 2, [23:49]
I think he's messing with kratom right now

karma, [23:56]
it's not about the veins it's about the strains

karma, [23:56]
see i bought a kilo once

karma, [23:56]
i was like 18

karma, [23:56]
and it may as well have been bagged tea the lot of it

karma, [23:56]
i ate a whole oz over 3 hours and got nothing

karma, [23:57]
i'm not a pot strain kind of guy i don't pay any attention to them i just go by looks

karma, [23:57]
you can't do that with kratom powder

karma, [23:57]
so back in the day this one strain came around that was priced a buck an oz more across the board and they called it DA PIMPS KRATOM because kratom vendors of the era were rather unsophisticated

karma, [23:57]
you want that Maeng Da - if it is real it is always consistent. There may be better strains but if you want the old gold standard this is it.3

karma, [23:57]
doesn't really matter what vein

karma, [23:58]
i just got two kilos with 200g each of all different strains and veins. I have all sorts of different coloured veins of Maeng Da. People make a lot of fuss about the different effects of different colours. I have found that white/gold TEND to be the strongest but this is never always the case. Taste around and find the strain and vein that is right for you, but don't go by the bulls*** that "all red strains are 'more uplifting' and all green strains are 'more sedating'. This is f***ing nonsense marketing, kratom by and large is kratom. There is more potent kratom and less potent kratom and sure the alkaloid profiles are all different but the one we really care about bar none is mitragynine.

karma, [23:58]
some of them i've never tried before

karma, [23:58]
and i don't remember a lot of them because these days they come and go like pot strains

karma, [23:58]
but you can always rely on real Maeng Da to get you off on 7 grams

karma, [23:58]
that's all i'm taking at a time spaced throughout the day these days

karma, [23:58]
and i even get a little high

karma, [23:58]
if i wasn't an experienced user i would only need to do it once in the morning and i'd be high all day

karma, [23:58]
NOW. extracts.

karma, [00:00]
ok so tinctures: avoid them, except for the O.P.M.S mini liquid shots. these are expensive as f***, only available in america - or at least outside of canada because they are more "consumable" than the O.P.M.S branded gel caps but each one is tuned to about 110mg and there is your sweet spot. despite being expensive as f*** and tasting like an old man they are one of the quickest and least bulky (this is important) ways of getting your fix.

karma, [00:00]
raw leaf: HELL. NO. you do NOT want to make tea with this s***. that's just taking a horrible taste and making it go longer and it takes so many grams of raw powder to get off that, if you strained the tea it would take a litre and twice the plant material to get the same volume of alkaloids and if you didn't strain the tea you would literally be drinking kratom sludge. CAPSULES. ONLY. it is the ONLY worthwhile way of administering kratom.

karma, [00:00]
pure mitagynine extracts: nah. i have always found them weaker than full-spectrum. something about having the full alkaloid palette is important even though the amounts of the lesser two dozen alkaloids seems rather unimportant. also for some reason i have found these tend to induce the kratom migraine easier than other routes, other than tinctures.

karma, [00:00]
full spectrum mitagynine extracts: yes, but expensive, but how you want to get high without eating a s***load of caps if that is what is important to you.

karma, [00:00]
"enhanced strains": mmmyeah mostly

karma, [00:01]
this one notorious one came around called UEI for Ultra Enhanced Indo and i had such a good relationship with one of the only vendors that didn't f*** around with buttcoin and took manly credit cards that they eventually gave me a personalized discount code and then had me call them on their cell to order at a flat bulk rate

karma, [00:01]
this s*** was so good you could do one or two caps and get off for the whole day

karma, [00:01]
but it was a**PENSIVE

karma, [00:01]
but because it was so potent it was WORTH the idk 700 bucks an oz i was spending

karma, [00:02]
compare to regular kratom leaf powder at 10-13/oz

karma, [00:02]
what they do there is take mitragynine full spectrum extract and add it back to a bit of leaf powder

karma, [00:02]
for some reason this combination is harder hitting than just the extract and obviously s***tonnes harder than the plain leaf

karma, [00:02]
now a few years ago UEI disappeared much to the chagrin of the entire elite kratom using world. like this s*** had a reputation.

karma, [00:03]
but a bunch of people have started making enhanced extracts with all sorts of strains

karma, [00:03]
now

karma, [00:03]
because it's a hodgepodge, real UEI (there were fakes) used to come from only one distributor, it's buyer beware

karma, [00:03]
so if you go this route you want to get a couple grams of each one you want to try or you can rely on reviews that you can google up or reddit up or whatever the f*** ever

karma, [00:04]
then when you find your gal stick the f*** with her and try to get a bulk deal

User 1, [00:06]
I have a Kratom shop in my area so it was really simple for them to set me up with a pack of caps just because I'm a beginner

karma, [00:06]
ugggghhhh generally try to avoid brick and mortars for kratom

User 1, [00:06]
I was just trying it

User 1, [00:06]
I'm not as into it as you are lol

karma, [00:07]
they tend to have ridiculous markups and the commercial brands which are a very silly markup

karma, [00:07]
even if you are just trying it out you will probably find better ways from the comfort of your own home online

karma, [00:07]
ALSO you want to aim for ~110mg of mitragynine for a solid trip. but you should know about the kratom headache. obviously it varies by user but there is a ceiling to the dosing where you will end up with a debilitating headache and zero high.

User 2, [00:07]
It's better to buy it online?

karma, [00:07]
oh my yes

karma, [00:08]
brick and mortars especially just head shops are notorious for charging 3x for leaf powder and then there are the commercial brands which can be $60 for say 2 O.P.M.S gold capsules

karma, [00:08]
each capsule has the requisite mg in it to get you f***ed but you can get f***ed for sooooooo much less money even buying other extract based s*** online

karma, [00:08]
buy a bag of capsules it's your only hope

karma, [00:09]
if you buy anything precapped it will have a markup of at least 33% usually double

karma, [00:10]
now if you do get gel caps and you have found something you like if it is not an extract or enhanced leaf powder just straight leaf powder you need a capsule making machine because doing them all by hand will drive you mental

karma, [00:10]
on amazon there are new chinese fancy ones that do 100 at a time for $30

karma, [00:10]
i have one but it's more complicated to use than the two i have that i'm used to that's the old standard Cap-M-Quick "machine"

karma, [00:11]
this will make 50 capsules size 0 or 00 or if you get the model you really want size 00 or 000 within about 10 minutes

User 2, [00:11]
[In reply to karma]
How expensive is that?

User 1, [00:11]
I use the ole shove em in the caps with your finger method

karma, [00:11]
then you need to make sure you get the right size capsules off amazon

karma, [00:11]
gel caps are $30 a bag of 1000 on amazon

karma, [00:11]
you want the 000 ones if you are serious and want to save time

karma, [00:12]
[In reply to User 1]
ok i'm going to save your life here

karma, [00:13]
you fold a piece of paper and lay it back down flat. you dump the s*** in the middle and you take each half in each paw and you jam jam jam them together in the middle of the pile until they won't jam anymore. make sure there is some slack and then fix the capsule together. repeat. this is if you have enough powder for more than one capsule. otherwise take the paper and use the crease to sluice the material into the larger end of the capsule capsule

Install Telegram Messenger on a Qubes Fedora VM

karma

Launch a terminal for the desired TemplateVM then enable the RPM Fusion repositories:
sudo bash dnf config-manager --set-enabled rpmfusion-free rpmfusion-nonfree dnf upgrade --refresh
Now install telegram-desktop
dnf install telegram-desktop

It should be noted that if you enable RPM Fusion repos and use KDE packages the version of Qt or KDE provided by Fusion will likely break virtually every KDE package except konsole and updating Qt amicably will eject Telegram. For this reason you should consider duplicating your Fedora TemplateVM before installing Telegram or using the RPM Fusion repos in general.

Don't forget to reduce your storage limits in the settings.

Updating Qubes Post-Installation

karma

This is a brief checklist of operations to conduct after a fresh installation of Qubes. Full documentation is available at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/updating-qubes-os/.

After configuring your network first update the dom0:
sudo qubes-dom0-update

Next, update your TemplateVMs: Qubes Menu > System Tools > Qubes Update.

The Qubes Update utility doesn't always work the first time for me. If you find it hangs and produces no details launch the TemplateVMs individually and from the command line run:
dnf update
for Fedora and
apt-get update
for Debian.

Now reboot to effect any kernel updates and load the updated dom0 environment.

Install critical software that you will definitely need to your TemplateVMs. Things like:

  • screen
  • sshfs
  • nmap
  • links/lynx
  • nano
  • whois
  • bind-utils (fedora) dnsutils (debian)

Next, duplicate the default fedora and debian TemplateVMs and update your personal, work etc AppVMs to rely on the copies. Since system Qubes like sys-net and usb rely on the default fedora TemplateVM you may regret making changes directly to it when setting up your regular working AppVMs.

Software I like to install into my duplicated TemplateVMs includes:

  • kde-standard
  • kate
  • chromium (part of default repos) or google-chrome (third party download)
  • telegram-desktop

It is prudent to check your repositories for meta packages that install bundles of packages which might otherwise leave a system piecemeal and produce unexpected dysfunction. For example, it is possible to install kate by referring to it directly. However if your intention is to have a fully functioning KDE environment rather than just the essential packages required to install and run kate you are liable to find yourself in trouble if you end up trying to use a KDE function that either didn't or relies on a package that was not part of the dependency tree you initially installed.

On Fedora and Red Hat descendant images you can pull up a list of such meta packages or "package groups" by running (as root):
# dnf grouplist Last metadata expiration check: 0:19:25 ago on Tue Jun 13 04:20:04 2023. Available Environment Groups: Fedora Custom Operating System Minimal Install Fedora Server Edition Fedora Workstation Fedora Cloud Server KDE Plasma Workspaces Xfce Desktop LXDE Desktop LXQt Desktop Cinnamon Desktop MATE Desktop Sugar Desktop Environment Deepin Desktop Budgie Desktop Development and Creative Workstation Web Server Infrastructure Server Basic Desktop i3 desktop Available Groups: 3D Printing Administration Tools Audio Production Authoring and Publishing Budgie Budgie Desktop Applications C Development Tools and Libraries Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Management Tools Compiz Container Management D Development Tools and Libraries Design Suite Development Tools Domain Membership Editors Educational Software Electronic Lab Engineering and Scientific FreeIPA Server Games and Entertainment Headless Management LibreOffice MATE Applications Milkymist Network Servers Neuron Modelling Simulators Office/Productivity Python Classroom Python Science Robotics RPM Development Tools Security Lab Sound and Video System Tools Text-based Internet Window Managers Qubes Environment Qubes UI (Audio/Gui)
Then one may install such a group thus:
dnf groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

It's a good idea to install the latest TemplateVM images. You may like to experiment with updating your critical system VMs (i.e.: sys-net, sys-usb) to use the latest fedora template. I personally would advise duplicating freshly installed images, just as with those installed from the installation media, before making any base modifications - including package updates. sys-net can generally be expected to run smoothly off a fresh image, after all. From the offical documentation at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/templates/:

# qvm-template list --available Available Templates debian-10-minimal 0:4.0.6-202010131933 qubes-templates-itl debian-10 0:4.0.6-202009131420 qubes-templates-itl debian-11-minimal 0:4.0.6-202302031359 qubes-templates-itl debian-11 0:4.0.6-202302031359 qubes-templates-itl fedora-32-minimal 0:4.0.6-202010191916 qubes-templates-itl fedora-32-xfce 0:4.0.6-202010191916 qubes-templates-itl fedora-32 0:4.0.6-202010192324 qubes-templates-itl ... fedora-38-minimal 0:4.0.6-202305201231 qubes-templates-itl fedora-38-xfce 0:4.0.6-202305200036 qubes-templates-itl fedora-38 0:4.0.6-202305200036 qubes-templates-itl

To gain access to the official community repository of templates affix:
qvm-template --enablerepo qubes-templates-community list --available

Then install your preferred templates thus:
qvm-template install template-name

The GUI tool qvm-template-gui can be used in later stages to rapidly reassign AppVMs their updated templates but at present has no facility for browsing or installing new images.

Enable USB Keyboard for Qubes dom0

karma

Full documentation is available at https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/usb-qubes/. You should read the Security Warning about USB Input Devices before doing this.

To enable a USB keyboard for dom0 (making it available to all VMs) modify /etc/qubes-rpc/policy/qubes.InputKeyboard on dom0 to reflect:
#sys-usb dom0 allow,user=root sys-usb dom0 ask,default_target=dom0 $anyvm $anyvm deny

You will then be prompted to grant USB keyboards access any time they are connected. To also allow USB keyboards to enter the LUKS and login passwords please refer to the official documentation.