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#126 Re: Off-topic » Several Russian Linux Kernel Maintainers Removed » 2024-11-05 08:55:19

I wonder if that will impact also further science collaboration. What about the fusion reactor from EU ? Russia contributes parts .
Will that be banned too or politicians do that in piece by piece way and they think linux problems wont hurt the west?
Also i wonder how easy and meaningfull is to align country-level policy changes with a libre license that allows anyone to fork the project.

#127 Off-topic » Can a linux box transform into an gathering (adhoc) network node ? » 2024-10-03 07:53:12

chomwitt
Replies: 0

If i install 10 different linux distros (or devuan only) in 10 different laptops in what level can we achieve the followings :

Each laptop can toggle a communication-collaboration intention state that ranges from : too friendly to too cautious.
That is done accepting that a personal computational device should follow the state(comm wiliingness)  of its owner.
According to that state the laptop calibrates :

  • willingness to be part of a local or near adhoc network
      (a participant can at least see the other participants.
       additionaly could see a topology graph and the distances)

  • the participants with whow it forms that network

  • public announcemt of its presence not

  • willingness to share public files according to various private rankings

  • willingness to be part of applications that run only with participants
      on that adhoc network.
      (that maybe is sth different. Communication between peers is not the same
      as co-accesing through protocols a shared process.Holding shared state
      allowing realtime concurrent manipulation of that state means i think
      a node capable of supporting that digital state.

I ve learned in the libera#networking  about PirateBox. But it seems as having a computer
that belongs to someone of the participants and we decide to connect to that computer
if we want to share files and collaborate digital. That approach reminds me of the DeadDrops
approach in terms of confidence and trust . Its like demanding a leap of faith big of small.

Can a classic unix mainframe deliver all those requirement ?
With a small difference that all people in a gathering should use terminals to log into the mainframe
and see who is logged in , who shares files , who wants to talk etc?
What if some persons share a computational device ? Imagine four people came to a local cyber gathering
with a sized workstation and four dump terminals? Can say that those four people by having a unix installation
have already achieved - access to the adhoc local network facilities in my initial list? Are we playing with words here?
What could happen also if the 10 laptops were modular and i could take off the computational cores of the 10 laptops , hook them into a mother-board workstation running unix and let the participants access the shared workstation have we again achieved a local adhoc lan ? Or rephrasing: do we have the same facilities offered to the cyber -local- gathering ?

What about  lan parties  ?
In lanparties there is usually a server (a central node) that runs an application (game server) where other connect.
That reminds of a starlike topology , akin to using a piratebox to achieve local e-communication.

The last couple of year bic corps have released tech like Airdrop (ios) , NearbyShare (android and windows).
But perhaps due to the small factor of the smartphone device they focus on simple files exchanges (sharing)
and not on general local adhoc collaboration. And that could align conceptually with the small factor of a personal
computation device(PCD) that is not adequate for productive collaboration.

Also i had a look at KDE connect that seems to approach the issue of communication and integration of one's person's
PCDs

Lastly why it seems that the use case covered by techs like airdrop and nearbyshare seems counterintuitively more difficult than connecting the whole globe via the internet ? What do i miss ? Have we solved the confidence issues in communicating and collaborating in vast wide networks and not in a local one ?  Why it feels that installing a linux distro transform your gear into an isle connected nevertheless  to the internet hyperway  ? Why it feels that the box steers your communication path and not vice versa ? (wow.. that sounds more zen that i intented to :-) )

(ps: if someone read my previous post and find it atleast interesting i apologize for replacing it with that one but i constantly rethink my approach on the matter and i feel that a long philosophical minded post could not help in focusing in the essentials of my  inquiries.)

links:
Bring your own device

#128 Re: Off-topic » The Crappiness of Modern Laptops » 2024-09-13 08:12:52

I have 10 years old Thinkpad T410.

Structurally is in bad shape , but i can still use devuan on it ok.

But for future i made a promise to my self  to go towards laptops that score high not in performance but in repairability, modularity , openness , sustainability ,  and lower ecoprint .

For last years MNT Reform seems to be in good track toward some of these axis. But i dont have the money!

If anyone in greece cares to share the cost and share an MNT Reform please contact me. I propose sharing by turn in 2 months periods per shareholders. No more than 4 shareholders. So the cost could drop to 250euros.
Ofcourse that sharable laptop wont be the main laptop but a secondary one.

#129 Re: Off-topic » Firefox is becoming too chrome like. » 2024-09-13 07:19:11

Blocking ads is just plugging a single hole in a cheesegrater. There are so, so, many other ways in which information about you, your browsing habits, and other such data can be, and are, collected every day.  The moment you stepped online, you've basically already given up privacy.  The only remaining question is the degree to which your privacy will be sacrificed.  That it is non-zero is already indisputable.

I wonder if an analogy with the car's highways would be helpfull.

The moment you deside to go to city B from a main highway , third parties (including indifferent babies inside other cars on the same road) would know that someone with your face was on a certain time on a certain road propably heading towards a certain city. ...

So assuming that going somewhere using a shared network is intrinsically a social activity, that pushes anonymity aside. So maybe the real question is : In a social context where interaction are visible to many parties WHO of that parties is one that has the intention to use the shared info for purposes that we dont aggree with.

#130 Re: Off-topic » How fossil vcs create commits? » 2024-09-12 09:41:47

I did some test in subversion (svn) and in svn after i have edited a single file i can commit it
and a new revision is created of my whole project.

$ svn status
M       hello.c

$ svn commit -m "hello.c small change"
Sending        hello.c
Transmitting file data .done
Committing transaction...
Committed revision 2.

$ svn info 
Path: .
Working Copy Root Path: /home/chomwitt/SubversionProjects/clang-tut-svn/clang-tut-svn
URL: file:///home/chomwitt/SubversionProjects/clang-tut-svn
Relative URL: ^/
Repository Root: file:///home/chomwitt/SubversionProjects/clang-tut-svn
Repository UUID: d6886743-4710-4964-b599-501d0e4beea0
Revision: 1
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: chomwitt
Last Changed Rev: 1
Last Changed Date: 2024-09-11 16:46:06 +0300 (Wed, 11 Sep 2024)

$ svn update
Updating '.':
At revision 2.

So if i am not mistaken i didnt have first to 'add' the changed file to the repo and then to make a commit for my project.

#131 Off-topic » How fossil vcs create commits? » 2024-09-10 18:00:38

chomwitt
Replies: 1

Trying to find a vcs perhaps more intuitive and more simple that git i tried lately fossil.

Now suppose i have a certain project tree that i work on.
I'd like to have a command: $ fossil commit project-tree
That command would seems intuitive. We have made some changes and we want to save our project's tree state.But no. In fossil we must do (like in git)
$ fossil add files
and after we have added all the files with changes to our fossil repo THEN
we can make a commit.

$ fossil help add
Usage: fossil add ?OPTIONS? FILE1 ?FILE2 ...?

Make arrangements to add one or more files or directories to the
current check-out at the next commit.


(isnt that strange way to explain what a cvs command does? ''Make arrangements' ?..
make arrengement to add a file to the current check-out at the next commit ? Is that explanation or a cvs riddle ? )

So it seems that we have to tell Fossil to construct the Artifacts (Artficats are the equivalenf of blobs in git). But why should  i worry about constructing the artifacts? It seems to me like plumbing that shouldn't bother the end user. The end user is interested in his project.

A project could be various things. Composed of things of various types. But it seems to me that a programmer when using a VCS is interested in the project's state. Not in the project's various subunit's states.

note1: vaguely i remember that in git there is a command to do a commit bypassing all the ''plumbing' steps.

note2: Darcs also handles changes to files by  'addiing' first a file to the vcs's repo. ( ref )

#132 Re: Other Issues » How does LTSP work ? » 2024-04-04 06:01:41

I just realised that devuan has ltsp5 . Not the newest ltsp incarnation. 

Announcing LTSP 19.08   
LTSP has been redesigned and rewritten from scratch as part of a GSoC 2019 project,
The new LTSP comes with a new goal:
Linux Terminal Server Project helps in netbooting LAN clients from a single template installation that resides in a virtual machine image or a chroot on the LTSP server, or the server root (/, chrootless). This way maintaining tens or hundreds of diskless clients is as easy as maintaining a single PC.

I.e. the focus now is in ease of maintenance, not in recycling old hardware. New technologies like diskless fat clients with UEFI, Wayland etc are supported, while thin client support is now reduced to "remote desktop with xfreerdp / x2go / VNC".

The old LTSP will now be called LTSP5 (it was first released in 2005), to distinguish it from the new versions that follow the year.month numbering.

..and i may add that newest ltsp has a systemd depedence.

A link to ltsp site would create confusion since the installation guide there refers to the newest ltsp.

So should i try to use a possible unsupported version or maybe try x2go ?

#133 Re: Other Issues » How does LTSP work ? » 2024-04-02 19:46:42

isnt that strange? Unix is multiuser. Unix uses simple tools to do the job. What do i miss ?

#134 Other Issues » How does LTSP work ? » 2024-04-02 05:53:44

chomwitt
Replies: 5

------------ update ------------
Devuan uses LTSP5 (not the ltsp19 from 2019 onwards) .(see related announcment of that change).

For documentation for newbies ,like me, i think the best entry point so far that i have searched is : https://github.com/ltsp/ltsp5/wiki

Devuan wiki / LTSP5

Also since ltsp5 is a devuan stable package and not in debian stable see:
devuan git page of ltsp5

----------------------------------

I try to understand how LTSP works and ideally make it work in my Devuan system and it would be also cool to test devuan thin clients with qemu. Ideally i would like to administer a couple of home devuan pcs from my computer minimizing the fuzz to must admin each of them individually.
So i would prefer to install software in one system and the network-clients to access a unified root filesystem shared by all users but of course with access restriction do each user.

I found in the internet a distinction between ltsp with thin cilents and ltsp with fat clients(1).

It seems that an LTSP server offers (creates certain types) of images of installed systems to clients . And a client can use ipxe to boot with those images.

And a client while running an image (lets say Devuan stable) will be used AS a standalone pc with the difference that the filesystem resides in the LTSP server .

If my description covers correct the casual way ltsp is used today then the server is not a unix server for user in a traditional sense with each user having a home folder under a common root fs and sharing all the server's installed software but each client is practically another root filesystem installation with  the ltsp server acting as a file server ?

And then each user of a fat client must be his own sysadmin ? I mean , the LTSP server's sysadm is responsible only for setting a central server for distro images and the 'file server' ?

I guess a crucial question that helps to differentiate various setups it what are the responsibilities of a user ? Do we have one sysadm and many users or do we have one sysadm and many other 'sysadms'.
-----------
(1)By fatclient i refer to a pc that has cpu and main memory and can run programs but it does not necessarily has a secondary storage.

-----------
(a) How to create a Ubuntu 12.04 x64 LTSP server with 32bit thin clients  // 2011 LTSP5 tutorial .

#136 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » A devuan wiki page on virt-manager » 2024-03-17 05:30:36

I started using virt-manager and it kind felt ok . But it has that irritating config setup.
I wouldnt have problem trying command line. A small push with a link to a good tutorial
would help. I dont mean fancy one in a website that welcomes you with a thousand cookies
harvester companies. A simple one laying out simple concepts would be ok.

#137 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » A devuan wiki page on virt-manager » 2024-03-16 06:21:06

stopAI thanks for the suggestion. Searching recursively in virt-manager dependencies  ... ->

$ apt-cache depends --recurse --no-suggests --no-conflicts --no-breaks --no-replaces --no-enhances virt-manager | grep "^\w" | sort -u | grep 'virtinst\|libvirt-clients\|libvirt-daemon\|qemu-system-misc\|bridge'
libatk-bridge2.0-0
libatk-bridge2.0-0:i386
libvirt-clients
libvirt-daemon
libvirt-daemon-config-network
libvirt-daemon-config-nwfilter
libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc
libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu
libvirt-daemon-driver-vbox
libvirt-daemon-driver-xen
libvirt-daemon-system
libvirt-daemon-system-sysv
qemu-system-misc
qemu-system-misc:i386
virtinst

...-> i see that  bridge-utlis  is the only that is not pulled.

#139 Desktop and Multimedia » A devuan wiki page on virt-manager » 2024-03-15 09:24:26

chomwitt
Replies: 7

---- UPDATE ---
I stopped the wiki page on virt-manager and instead i started a new one
on using Qemu in CommandLineInterface. Using QEMU from a CLI
---- endupdate ---

I started a wiki page on virt-manager in the https://wiki.devuan.org

It's in the sandbox in https://wiki.devuan.org/Sandbox/Virt-Manager .

I occasionaly use virt-manager and in now as in the past i had again difficulties in setting
it right in devuan. So i think a wiki page could function as focus in order to collect
instructions and tips to smooth things out.

devuan wiki needs i guess some thinking about how to organize things so for
time being i put it in the sandbox.

Also for now i choosed to  use as name the package name that i used for installation.

Any corrections and suggestions are welcomed .

#140 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » virt-manager works only when started as root. » 2024-03-15 06:36:15

Sorry. I guess you are right in guiding towards a pemission issue because eventually i had to change permission
related libvirtd options:

$ sudo nano /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

unix_sock_group = "libvirt"
unix_sock_rw_perms = "0770"

$ sudo nano /etc/libvirt/qemu.con
user = "chomwitt"

group = "chomwitt"

And it was essential  to do also:

Upon opening Virt-Manager, it will default to the system variant (root) of the QEMU connection.
This can be changed to the user connection by going to: File > Add Connection.
Now select QEMU/KVM User session as the Hypervisor and click OK

#141 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » virt-manager works only when started as root. » 2024-03-14 23:21:49

GlennW thanks for the ideas but i think virtualbox is a different virtualization program .

For time being i followed the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Virt-manager  instructions and it worked.

#142 Desktop and Multimedia » virt-manager works only when started as root. » 2024-03-14 20:45:32

chomwitt
Replies: 6

$ dpkg -l virt-manager
ii  virt-manager   1:4.1.0-2    all          desktop application for managing virtual machines

I have added myself to the libvirt group (to pass another error : unable to connect to libvirt)
but now starting virt-manager as a regular user i see 'QEMU/KVM - Not connected' and left clicking on the create a new virtual machine
i see a error window "Error : No active connection to install on."

But $ sudo virt-manager doesnt display that issue.

#143 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Help needed with StumpWM » 2024-02-05 08:31:01

That is the devuan and the debian package stumpwm (2:22.11-3)

I just noticed that deb packages  have a package for ALL architectures. But arch has a binary for amd64.
So that explains my issue but not entirely. Because could it be that the lisp code is older and not 22.11-3 ?

#144 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Help needed with StumpWM » 2024-02-05 07:19:42

@boughtonp  that is usefull info on version format.
But why installing in Daedalus stumpwm 2:22.11-3 when i run it says in the NEWS changes up to 0.9.6 version  and while running reports "version 1.0.1 compiled in 05 February 2024: (date i last tried ! ) ?

I dont compile it. that what it says. I just installed it.

And that happens even if i have sbcl installed not from the devuan repos but from the sblc site (newest stable version).

I also checked the arch stumpwm-22.11-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst .
It doesnt contain any NEWS .

Both arch and devuan-debian package contain a README that states :

Note: The recommended way to install SBCL is by downloading one of their
pre-built binaries available in their [web page][sbcl-platform-table] or build
it from source. Please do _not_ install SBCL using your distributions package
manager, especially Ubuntu. If you do so it is likely that you'll run into
problems when building StumpWM due to using obsolete versions of the
dependencies.

Also the debs contain a lot of lisp files. The arch package contains only the binary.

And in the deb the binary /usr/bin/stumpwm is a shell script:

sbcl --load "/usr/lib/stumpwm/load.lisp"

#145 Desktop and Multimedia » Help needed with StumpWM » 2024-02-03 15:42:27

chomwitt
Replies: 3

$ sudo apt-cache show stumpwm
Package: stumpwm
Version: 2:22.11-3

/usr/share/doc/stumpwm/NEWS:
* Changes since 0.9.6
** in float mode windows can be resized with the middle mouse button
....

And while StumpWM is running Prefix + v  gives :  1.0.1 compiled at January 2024.

So what is the 2:22.11-3 for ?
Also the version i use has various bugs . If anyone has managed to compile (or wants to) the latest
version please tell me to help each other.

-------------------------------- my compilation effort
$ dpkg -L stumpwm
/usr/bin/stumpwm        // that is the stumpwm binary from the package Version: 2:22.11-3 in Daedalus.

Following the instructions more closely in the github page i managed to compiled.
I think it crucial to install a linux sbcl binary from the sbcl project page as instructed
and follow the instructions from there.

After installing the sbcl binary and loading to it the libraries needed we
compile the stumpwm src :
$ git clone https://github.com/stumpwm/stumpwm.git
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

'/usr/local/bin/stumpwm'   is the directory that will be installed if we compile the github sources.
We put that path in .xinitrc and we are ok

-----------------------------------------

Of course that leaves a bitter taste in my Devuan admin mouth. The package 'stumpwm' can not work with sblc  devuan package and that result in  an older version running?  And thus instead of 22.11-3 we get 1.0.1 ?

----------------------------------------
StumpWM main page
Debian tracker / StumpWM

#146 Re: Off-topic » [SOLVED] What is your view on major distros dropping X11 and requiring Wayland? » 2024-01-25 13:20:37

I wouldn't be so hasty to focus my attention to synthetic AI-driven bio-engineering. I dont trust the extremely well oiled (with billions) hype engines that trigger massive diversion of public or shareholders money and value to exciting new techs that instigate FOMO feelings to the public and to the investors while more pressing ecological and society problems get under the radar . On the contrary that attention diversion highlights  the great power imbalance and pathological power concentration on the mass media , and mass social platforms.

Can we really entrust our future to companies that build their fortunes on parent's money for pc room-cell gaming? Last time i checked farmers in Taiwan were suffering in order to sustain the water-hungry TSMC. Can we trust steam to guide the future of the display server??

That's one reason that i prefer more often to look back . Like in How X started..

#147 Re: Off-topic » [SOLVED] What is your view on major distros dropping X11 and requiring Wayland? » 2024-01-22 18:58:31

Touche!  big_smile

Seems I hit a nerve. FWIW . . . the rage quit and deletion was completely unnecessary and deprives the forum of your thoughts which had value historically if not practically.

Are you answering ? Or fueling with more facts the nonpoliteness that i attributed to you ?

#148 Re: Off-topic » [SOLVED] What is your view on major distros dropping X11 and requiring Wayland? » 2024-01-22 17:11:37

Oh is that all! So easy to say. So useless to say. Show us the fork YOU are going to initiate and we will take your babblings seriously. Hot air does nothing but add to our collective climate woes.  wink

I hope you can make sense of what you write. Because it seems to me that your response except from lacking politeness is also so easy to say  and so contradictory to say.
My 'babblings' will get elevated to not 'babbling' status when i present in front of you code ?
Show me your code ? That is the babbling status elevator ?  Really ?  That old opensource mentality ?
Have you read my arguments? Who drives Wayland developemt ? How  386 arch opensourced X11 started?
Have you tried to answer 'Why no X11 fork exists?'  And lastly have you pondered how ethical are the gaming money?

And i guess all other comments on an offtopic thread have pass you babbling status filter. 
Even comments that promote possibly false inflammatory dichotomies X vs Wayland .

I guess you intend to program the heck out a harmonious libre community  since last time i checked politeness
hasnt been incorporated in any existing programming language.

#150 Re: Off-topic » [SOLVED] What is your view on major distros dropping X11 and requiring Wayland? » 2024-01-21 09:24:34

I'd like to remind my relative posts ;
How X started
Copy paste , a hard problem?

A very short recap of my current understanding is that historically speaking a Display Server (DS) is a concept broader than a rendering frame perfect protocol. And than Wayland can be seen as an improvement in the a DS's RP (Rendering Protocol) and not as a replacement of X11. Why ?
Because X11 was a DS with network-centric nature from day one.  So i think posing Wayland as X11 replacement creates confusion and harm.

For those interested in detailed arguments in favor of my claim you could read my posts where is the results of days digging in the web for X and x386 history.

As for the future..
I am pessimistic too. But not only of X . I am pessimistic of Steam and Codeweavers too . PC - roomcell gaming is a selfdefeating aim. Contradictory .I am also pessimistic of the perfect frame goal.As Wittgenstein would said every construction is a short of a prison. And i guess prisons, how matter fanciful ,after a while they start to suck more and not suck less.

Game money and gpu money is  currently in the driving seat. That could end . I think ,  as in the X case ,  the 'new' wont came from the hackers . They look blind sometimes. It will come from society new needs. BUT i think in order for libreIT world to respond quiclly to those needs X11 networking and platform - vendor independence spirit must be kept alive.

Lastly , i think it very basic discussing about X and Wayland to answer why there is not a fork ? Isnt that supposedly the spirit of libresoftware that shines ?  Could it be that Wayland is a fork ? And then the case is simple. One group of people must step forward and  do another fork focusing not on the rendering site but on the network centric side. And that means proposing a common standard - protocol for remote - desktop , remote graphics . And remote-network-graphics cant be frame perfect. They must be typed and semantically sound. A pixel or mime cant be a sound type for that kind of remote computing, And you cant have either one type-system. You must be able to accommodate many.

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