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In mid-December I upgraded a Daedalus-based Refracta to Excalibur. Since I don't use this system regularly, it is taking some time to identify whatever problems there are. Today I noticed two: The GRUB menu never appears before the OS boots up, and the background for LightDM is a black screen. I thought that running update-grub might solve the GRUB menu problem, but I was wrong -- it had no effect.
I discovered this yesterday and thought I'd share my discovery here for anyone who might find this type of OS interesting. By the way, the disk image file for the latest version of Sculpt OS is a mere 35 MB.
“Sculpt is an open-source general-purpose OS. It combines Genode's microkernel architecture, capability-based security, sandboxed device drivers, and virtual machines in a novel operating system for commodity PC hardware and the PinePhone. Sculpt is used as day-to-day OS by the Genode developers.”
Sculpt OS
https://genode.org/download/sculpt
A casual Sculpt OS walkthrough
https://genodians.org/nfeske/2025-01-30-sculpt-os-walkthrough
What happens when you try this?:
aptitude install tomcat10 -sI could replace the screen and I could buy a new laptop but I am irritated by those options.
I did some quick research on this, and apparently this problem could be caused by a faulty cable. Or maybe even just a loose cable. The fact that warmth seems to help is a clue that the cable may simply be loose.
I could run Windows as the host and run however many Excaliburs in VMs. But I think that is a retrograde step.
Since gaming is important to you, I see nothing wrong with doing that.
Kicksecure is a Debian-based "distro" that supposedly requires systemd. That being the case, it appears that it would not be possible to easily "Devuanize" Kicksecure.
Explanations for why this is (supposedly) the case can be found here:
Non-Systemd - Systemd Development Discussion
https://forums.kicksecure.com/t/non-systemd-systemd-development-discussion/766
systemd
https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Systemd
A question for the more knowledgeable folks here: Considering the systemd features that are being used in Kicksecure, is systemd really as essential as Kicksecure's lead developer implies?
“The danger is not only that AI systems might behave unpredictably, but that fear of that possibility will legitimize permanent emergency governance—centralized control over computation, research, and information flows—on the grounds that there is no alternative.”
How a Techno-Optimist Became a Grave Skeptic
https://brownstone.org/articles/how-a-techno-optimist-became-a-grave-skeptic/
Look at the changelogs:
https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/changelog.html
https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/x/xscreensaver/xscreensaver_6.09+dfsg1-2_changelog
Comparing the two, something seems a bit off to me. Then again, this is the first time I've done such a comparison, so maybe this is "normal" for Debian?
@Fielding
Try this and post the output in a reply:
aptitude search vivaldiI think it's time to bring this old science-fiction movie to the attention of many more people:
Colossus: The Forbin Project
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/
I prefer to install the gdebi-core package and then use gdebi like this:
cd ~/Downloads
sudo gdebi <package-name>.debThis approach has rarely (if ever) given me any problems.
@zapper
For even more information, here are some relevant links:
https://packages.debian.org/stable/snapper
https://packages.debian.org/stable/snapper-gui
https://packages.debian.org/stable/timeshift
Also, I should have mentioned that ZFS has rollback capability as well.
The night before last I upgraded a Daedalus-based Refracta to Excalibur. I experienced no major problems, but there were some minor ones.
The most noticeable problem was the CPU Graph plugin for Xfce kept crashing and had to be removed. I'm not sure why, and haven't had time to investigate this issue yet.
I may have also found a serious problem in one of Debian's packages -- a security-related program never starts because no configuration file was installed when the package was installed. I will refrain from naming the software until I've investigated further. Perhaps this was just a fluke caused by the system being in a transitional state when I attempted to reinstall the package.
The reason I had interest btw, is because the concept of secure rollbacks if something didn't update correctly.
You can accomplish that by using BTRFS or LVM. Years ago (on the Debian forum) I mentioned that I would use such an approach if I ever decided to run Debian Sid.
If everything works, why update?
Because not updating is a bad practice, security-wise. And that's a major reason why I would never use a Puppy Linux derivative (or similar) as my "daily driver". By the way, I did try that once, years ago, on an old computer, but quickly gave up because the system was too unstable.
sudo apt install isoimagewriter E: Unable to locate package isoimagewriter
Are you using Daedalus or an earlier version of Devuan?
Mintstick is what you seek my friend, it's in the repo, it's an awesome utility. Refracta2usb if you want to do more complex things like multi-boot and persistence.
There is also isoimagewriter for creating bootable USB flash drives from hybrid ISO files.
how did you find out that is so old?
I did a search on DuckDuckGo for "icecat 102.11.0esr" (no quotes) and found this:
“Version 102.11.0, first offered to ESR channel users on May 9, 2023”
Firefox ESR Release Notes
https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/102.11.0/releasenotes/
I am using icecat extended support release 102.11.0esr (64-bit) GNU IceCat gnu-1.0
Why are you using a version of Icecat that is so old? That version of Icecat is over two years old.
Which version of Icecat are you using?
Does this mean that you cannot compile stuff and then do make install onto your system even with sudo or doas?
According to my limited understanding, you're expected to use Flatpak to install any additional software that you may want. And I'm guessing that some software that is available in "tarball" format, like Firefox, SeaMonkey, etc., could be installed into your home directory as well.
I was looking for VirtualBox in the repositories but couldn't find it. Then I learned that it had been removed some time ago because it's considered crap.
I believe that the real reason is because VirtualBox is not compatible with the way that Debian prefers to do things. Oracle wants people to use the latest version of VirtualBox rather than the Debian way, which is to apply patches to an older version of VirtualBox.
Please see this post for a possible solution:
Please reply with the output of this command:
$ whereis connman"Would you allow a stranger to drive a camera-equipped computer around your living room? You might have already done so without even realizing it."
The Day My Smart Vacuum Turned Against Me
https://codetiger.github.io/blog/the-day-my-smart-vacuum-turned-against-me/
I tried sledjhamr.org on my computer - IGN, error 404, not found IP, message (translated) no release file.
That seems a bit odd. Try this and reply with the results:
$ nslookup sledjhamr.org
$ nslookup sledjhamr.org 1.1.1.1