@BlackPanther so your rendered markdown works, but your preview fails in VS code?

Does a spaceless path work? Seems like github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/45155 but that's closed and presumably fixed in 2018

perhaps github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/103343

Getting an insane error message from Mercurial, but can't reproduce it in a test case. Vaguely worrying.

One of those times it would be helpful to be a deity, at least a minor one, and have all the answers.

> User error. Hit any user to continue.

@AndrasDeak LARTs to the rescue!

@StephenKitt hehe

Suggestions to wipe an HDD before passing on a laptop? Live CD and cat from /dev/zero to /dev/sda?

hmm, not sure if that will actually work with cat

@AndrasDeak I didn't confirm that the rendered markdown works until I opened the same markdown file in a markdown previewer application called MacDown. So the issue is with Visual Studio Codes renderer.

Maybe I'll open an issue, maybe not.

@Andras Do you know whether MacOS can use the same file system that is used on Linux? A file system such as extension 4?

Sorry, no idea

but that sounds like something that's probably covered at Ask Different

@AndrasDeak cat should be fine. I tended to use dd, but several people here on U&L pointed out that it has no advantages over cat. dd shows the amount of written data when sent a USR1 signal, it helps you organize your day when overwriting a huge & slow HDD. (I also thought dd could be optimized to be faster, but I was probably just struggling to make it as fast as cat :-)

@fra-san my concern was regarding the fact that /dev/zero doesn't have an inherent size. The cat suggestions I know, but only in the context of copying images and stuff.

good tip about USR1, I had no idea about that

And if you want progress tracking, pv is better than dd in general.

@AndrasDeak I also need to wipe my laptop, and I think I will zero it using dd.

@AndrasDeak np

Can someone recommend me a good markdown previewer application for Linux? Something like MacDown but for Linux instead of MacOS?

Thanks to the Arch Linux Wiki:

 pv --timer --rate --eta -s "$(blockdev --getsize64 /dev/sd"XY" )" /dev/zero > /dev/sd"XY"

@BlackPanther A viewer or an editor (as MacDown seems to be)?

@fra-san A combined editor and viewer, just like MacDown.

emacs?

This was the first hit for "linux markdown": addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/typora-markdown-editor

@BlackPanther Strictly based on the site's look: wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter

(I have never used a dedicated markdown editor).

@terdon I was meant to learn emacs, but git got me into vim, and I've never looked back. So I no longer have an interest in emacs.

@terdon Thanks, I'll read about it.

@fra-san Thanks. It looks very professional.

@BlackPanther Fair enough. I'm sure vim can also handle it.

github.com/iamcco/markdown-preview.vim

How would vim/emacs show rendered markdown? With included images and headings and shit?

ah, by starting a local web server

that's actually really useful for my remote lectures where I might have to type out formulae on the fly

non-archived repo is at github.com/iamcco/markdown-preview.nvim

@terdon nice find, thanks

@AndrasDeak emacs can show it inline

It's not perfect, but I have mine setup so it displays this:

# Heading

This is a list:

* foo
* bar

And `inline code` above:

    indented code
    on multiple
    lines.

And here's a quote:

> How would vim/emacs show rendered markdown? With included images and headings and shit?

Like this:

@terdon meh

@terdon might need an update ;)

Eh, it's been a while. I use this for my README files and it's quite useful. Not perfect, but enough to give me some basic formatting which is all I really need.

(I specifically meant meta.stackexchange.com/questions/348746/…)

@AndrasDeak Ah, right

Most people have an above average number of arms

Most people have the median number of arms

hah, I think this is the first real world example I've ever seen to justify the existence of median

(I know there are definitely an unlimited number of cases but I'm no statistician)

@jesse_b one I like is that if Bill Gates walks into a bar, the median doesn’t change much but everyone is a billionaire on average

yeah that's good

I've mounted a partition I just created manually with fdisk. Using sudo mount -o loop /dev/sdb tmpdir/ I get "WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only.". Is this normal? Googling for the error gives me mostly localization hits...

It's a "W95 FAT32" partition that's the only inhabitant of /dev/sdb with a "dos" partition table (MBR?).

and it's a USB stick so I couldn't have accidentally turned it read-only with a hardware switch

hmm, perhaps I used the wrong type of FAT

(nope)

OK, I caved and used debian's graphical disk utility, now it's working. Fdisk output looks the same... Oh well.

(Although a manual mount still gives the same warning, so I'm probably doing something wrong. But automatic mount which I needed now works just fine)