Humble beginnings: this is where we first struck Earth. Now, it is only an incredibly inconvenient trade depot located 38 Z-levels above the main workshop. After a management mishap and waves of migrants, food and drink supplies were exhausted so a hundred dwarves were mobilized to pick the surface clean of fruits. Many got nauseous from cave adaption. It was a sight to behold though. They picked the field like a horde of locusts and left a trail of vomit in their wake. A few seams of bituminous coal have been extracted.

With no drinking water available on the surface and no available aquifers, modest living accommodations had to be arranged while the primary focus was placed on locating the caverns. This outpost is now abandoned, with most of the furniture stripped away. A large seam of lignite was discovered along the wall of a former stockroom.

A cavern was discovered nearly 40 Z-levels below the surface. It had water which could be tapped for a well, and fertile soil to establish a farm. It wasn't all good news though. Very quickly, it became the sight of conflict with the indigenous population of Bat People. Sometimes wielding steel weapons and shields, these flying creatures have appeared in numbers up to 90 at a time. The farm has been completely enclosed by stone walls, and a fragile armistice has held for a couple years as both sides foolishly prepare to completely annihilate each other... one day.

Once water was discovered, we finally chose a place to establish more permanent industry and living spaces.

One floor of the high density dorms. This one also features a few hallways of tombs. Casualties of the war with the Bat Men lay here, including a Gorlak monster slayer.

At the bottom of the second cavern, some 41 Z-levels below the main workshop, a large family of Rutherers mills about, living a care-free life. These creatures are enormous and incredibly dangerous, but they have a benign temperament and won't seek conflict unless they are pissed off. The stray cats have been testing their patience, however.

As I near the end of the fifth year, the population of the fort has soared to 180. Hopefully this will be the one which manages to dig all the way to hell.

After taking a turn in the secession game I decided to start up my own fort. Two and a half years in, I have seen a weremoose attack (two dead, infected militia commander is trapped in a walled-off section of the fort), and just now an Etten (a giant two-headed humanoid creature). The Etten died without too much disaster, but it has dropped a tablet which turns anyone who reads it into a necromancer.

Previous thread(s):

Year 1

Diary of Thikut "Porkroll" Mafolustuth, Stonecarver, Militia recruit

• 1 Granite, 101:

Almost a year has passed since we struck the earth here at Roomtheaters. The comforts of the old Mountainhome, Luckclasp have almost completely faded out of memory. All which remains is the strain of one of the hardest winters I can recall. Despite that, the time has passed quickly. We have made ourselves quite busy trying to establish the settlement. Between the madness of Inod Ustuthuzol (poor bastard), the battle with the Troglodites, the constant influx of new faces, and all the work being done on the fortress, it has been hard to keep track of it all.

I have made it my New Year's resolution to begin keeping a journal.

• 12 Granite, 101

A pair of Elven merchants from The Squashed Clearing have arrived to establish trade relations. The dwarven children, dripping with curiosity, eagerly rushed a pair of wooden bins filled with the Miners' bounty of gemstones to the trade depot, to catch a glimpse of these strange, pointy-eared creatures. Nomal Ducimottem, the fortress Broker caught them at the last second and hissed at them to leave the wooden boxes downstairs. The Elves are known to be touchy about the use of wooden implements.

Rumors swirl around about Elven caravans bringing exotic animals to trade. Trained war elephants, tamed lions. Sadly, this group only brought a porcupine and a wolf with them. In fact, they didn't bring much of practical value at all. To keep them happy, we bought everything that looked fermentable, along with some strange wooden puzzle boxes and toy boats for the kids. Hopefully next year they will bring a breeding pair of trained war rhinoceroses.

• 19 Granite

Dolomite has been discovered in and around the caverns. This flux stone a crucial step towards the establishment of a steel industry, and the equipment of a state-of-the-art military force. Glory to the miners!

Hopefully I will get my hands on a ☼masterful☼ steel battle axe by the year's end.

• 2 Slate

A convoy of migrants has arrived at the fortress. 15 in total, a good number of them skilled in various trades. The riches we've traded to keep a couple scraps of food in our pantry must have given them the impression we're sitting on a dragon's hoard and living in luxury over here. Just wait until they see the living accommodations! I've seen bathtubs in the Human tenements which are more spacious than these fucking dorms.

Population: 38

• 14 Slate

The mood has been sombre in this place ever since we settled here. With every waking day there is little to look forward to but work. The explosion in residents has made the need for better housing more apparent than ever. So we decided to kill two birds with one stone. We will raise our spirits by founding Banikuvel Rigoth Iteb - "Hexbear, the Craft of Posts" - a new tavern. Our current block of dorms will eventually become an inn for visiting guests, while new housing for permanent residents will be built deeper into the Earth, in a more defensible position.

• 23 Slate

Alath Nebelber has given birth to a baby boy right on the floor of the new tavern.

Population: 39

• 1 Felsite

Stukos Uzolakur has become a professional Furnace Operator, by smelting the fortress's very first batch of STEEL BARS. Craftsdwarves throughout the fortress are lining up to get their hands on this cutting edge material, but supplies remain very limited. Until supplies can be increased, it will be used only to create munitions for the militia.

• 13 Felsite

The metalsmiths have delivered us our first batch of steel swords and battle axes.

• 28 Felsite

Dodok Oddomuthir, an Armorer, has been taken by a fey mood and has immediately begun work on a strange construction.

• 5 Hematite

Dodok Oddomuthir has crafted Leshalkivish Ashok, a sleek silver high boot! She offers it to the Square Gates.

It menaces with spikes of silver.

Seriously? One boot? Not even a pair? Well, at least we have a legendary armorer now.

• 12 Malachite

Summer progresses slowly. The metalurgists and smiths continue to produce steel armaments, and we have begun training with their new shiny weapons. Progress on new dorms below the cavern layer inches along. Moods are rising somewhat, but there is still a lot of dissatisfaction among the fort.

• 20 Malachite

Construction has begun on a temple dedicated to the Demonation of Guards, a popular religious tendency among citizens of the fortress.

Dodok Oddomuthir, legendary armorer, is forging several ☼Masterpiece☼ steel mail shirts.

• 25 Malachite

10 More immigrants. Trappers, milkers, and butchers.

Population 49

• 28 Malachite

Kib Ethadedem, Leatherworker, has given birth to a boy

Population 50

• 14 Galena

After checking to make sure there were no troglodites, the doors to the cavern were opened. All of a sudden, troglodites appeared. GREAT! Time to try out this new steel battle axe.

...

Zulban Vosutnish, Performer has been found dead.

Limul Asnakuth, Child has been found dead.

• 19 Galena

Pure madness has ensued in the caverns for several days now. Thirteen troglodytes, one TROLL, and two dwarves lay dead. Another troll roams the caverns as dwarves rush to gather cave spider silk. Two human monster hunters patrols the cavern.

• 1 Limestone

Autumn is here. Recent events have proven that we are not yet capable of dealing with major threats, and we need to be careful. If it were not for the Human monster hunter, who sacrificed his life defeating the troll, we could have been in big trouble. The caverns will remain shut until we have some sparring experience under our belts.

• 3 Limestone

No one has seen Asen Rashducim, Stonecrafter, in over a week. We fear the worst.

• 11 Limestone

It turns out Utesh Holdfaith, the Human trollslayer is still alive, despite losing the ability to walk and being trapped in the cavern for weeks. He has been welcomed back into the fortress, as another Human monster slayer, Spibsa Atemodda slips through the gate to take his place. Meanwhile, a Dwarven caravan has arrived.

Expedition leader Cog Itebirid meets with the outpost liaison. Discussions remain strictly about trade. We'll try to get some turkeys next year. They breed quickly and provide a good source of food and leather.

We purchase all the subterranean seeds we can, along with a variety of foodstuffs to prepare for the winter and keep our dwarves from going insane eating nothing but plump helmets all year.

• 14 Limestone

Fan favorite background music track "Strike the Earth" plays for the first time

• 15 Limestone

Sigun Lisidlokum has been taken by a fey mood and claimed the carpenter's workshop!

She says she wants logs, silk, and cut gems. We have all of that shit already. Oh well.

• 14 Sandstone

Sigun Lisidlokum has begun a mysterious construction

• 19 Sandstone

Sigun cas created a legendary hazel wooden splint... neat.

• 25 Sandstone

She is now cranking out ☼Masterpiece☼ wooden beds

• 27 Sandstone

More immigrants. Population 56

• 28 Timber

Oh shit, we don't have a craftsdwarf workshop. No wonder why those rock mugs never got made lmao.

• 6 Moonstone

After a year of on and off training, the four core members of the militia have gained enough experience to begin sparring directly with one another using edged weapons

• 22 Moonstone

Human monster slayer Spibsa Atemodda was bested in combat by a Giant Cave Bat. RIP.

• 24 Moonstone

Metalsmith Stukos Uzolakur withdraws from society. He has claimed the metalsmith's forge. He begins working secretly.

• 28 Moonstone

He creates an artifact copper bed! He is now a legendary blacksmith.

• 9 Opal

Moses Amalastesh, Engraver, has given birth to a boy! Tholtig Likotustuth, Trapper, has given birth to a girl!

• 15 Opal

The Denomination of Guards demands a temple complex and high priest

• 28 Obsidian

Well, I never got a ☼Masterpiece☼ battle axe, but I'll settle for this ☼Masterpiece☼ armor.

Outcomes

Though we suffered a few losses, the population has grown from 23 to 58

We now have a LEGENDARY armorer, blacksmith, and carpenter.

Steel production, while not automated, is online. I left 36 bars of steel for the next player.

The militia was culled to four members, but those members are clad in steel and capable of sparring.

The save can be downloaded from https://matapacos.dog/bearmurdered/bearmurdered102.tar.xz

Recommendations to next player

Dig deeper

Military can use expansion now that we are shitting masterpiece steel armor. I culled it initially because I prefer for dwarves to train and become attached to high quality weapons. Also a handful of of iron / copper weapons are forbidden but might prove useful in an emergency.

The only steel armor produced so far is helms and chain mail. Leg protection would be nice, and SHIELDS, which take TIME to train with (but beware, not all dwarves are strong enough to use weapons like axes effectively with one hand. Maybe just give the swordsdwarfs shields)

Fortress needs better defenses. I tried to dig in a way where partitions can be built (including above and below the new housing area), but no ~~drawbridges~~ gates have been built.

There is an active petition to expand the temple to a temple complex

Stockpiles are not streamlined at all

The hospital is effectively non-functional. It needs a couple chests for storage, a bucket, a source of fresh water, operating tables, and soap. Soap is more difficult to produce than you might imagine.

Choose a dwarf and give them a nickname

It still is Mother's Day.

Its Mother's Day.

Take Two Interactive is shutting down the studio. RIP.

D-Bus is a common mechanism for inter-process communication used on Linux. It allows applications and services to present a collection of properties and methods, as well as interact with the properties and methods of other process. It is used extensively by modern desktop environments. It is the canonical interface to interact with BlueZ, the main Bluetooth stack on Linux, as well as UPower.

D-Bus is implemented in C, and it provides libdbus - also implemented in C - to use it. But libdbus has little to no documentation. Just a light Doxygen reference of functions, structs, macros, etc. The main intoduction says explicitly, "This manual documents the low-level D-Bus C API. If you use this low-level API directly, you're signing up for some pain." Other pages on the freedesktop website recommends using other language bindings - like gdbus (which isn't a binding, but a re-implementation of the wire protocol), which has almost the same interface and even less documentation.

What the fuck are we even doing here? "Yeah this is dogshit, but it's okay because it's supposed to be used through a wrapper library which (for C) doesn't exist without various strings (gobject / qt / systemd) attached." I don't want a dependency on QT to dick around with BlueZ, and I sure as hell don't want to dive down the whole gobject rabbit hole just to write a program in C anyway.

I don't understand how such robust infrastructure gets built with this attitude. Clearly it still happens, so I must be missing something.

Tell your boss you caught a really bad case of ligma and go for it.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2006806

In response to a post made by @actual_patience@programming.dev about a month ago, asking if anybody has tried Bcachefs.

I recently got around to giving Bcachefs a shot. I am currently running a Gentoo system with Bcachefs as the root filesystem. The filesystem consists of a 1.5TB NVMe volume backed by a conventional 6TB hard disk drive.

Getting it set up was no picnic. I might be missing something, but as far as I can tell a lot of standard tooling lacks support for filesystems spanning multiple block devices (single-partition Bcachefs seems to work like any other FS, but that defeats the point of using Bcachefs). It seems most of them assume you are going to use LVM for a use case like this, while Bcachefs sidesteps the device-mapper interface (and everything built on top, like LUKS and LVM) completely.

At the moment, Bcachefs uses a colon-separated list to specify these block devices. From things like the initramfs generated by dracut or mkinitcpio to utilities included in util-linux, this syntax is not widely supported. A multi-device Bcachefs filesystem can be mounted with mount. The command looks something along the lines of mount -t bcachefs /dev/nvme0n1p1:/dev/sda1 /mnt. These multi-device lists only work if you specify the filesystem type explicitly, and I had to roll my own initramfs from scratch in order to take this input from the kernel command line and handle it specially. Though mount works, libraries like libblkid (and probably others) report suspicious results about the volume / constituent partitions (i.e. that only one of the constituent partitons is mounted). That said, I am not running bleeding versions of Linux, util-linux, or bcachefs. Unstable maybe, but provided by versioned ebuilds in Gentoo. It is also worth noting, it is not currently possible to mount Bcachefs subvolumes the way you can Btrfs subvolumes. The only way this can be done currently is via bind mounts. There is an issue open to implement this feature, but it is not currently a high priority.

The filesystem itself appears to be working smoothly, though there are several rough edges (for instance, I don't think you can currently change a filesystem label after formatting it. Also it struggles when there is not enough space available to reach the replicas_required target. I didn't get an error, it just got super slow).

Before trying this out, I used to run Btrfs in a multi-disk LVM which performed ssd caching at the block layer. Performance on Bcachefs isn't noticeably worse or better IMO, but I haven't done any remotely empirical side-by-side benchmarks. I just got this running yesterday and will need more time to assess performance. I will need to put a lot more data into this filesystem before it starts missing cache on the hot drive, for instance.

Bcachefs is certainly in an experimental state (as the Linux menuconfig tool will remind you), but it aims to do exactly what I am looking for in a filesystem so I had to try it out. I plan on sticking with it unless a catastrophe occurs.