well, I hope an expert responds soon. all the best.

This may not be what you are looking for, but...

Devuan has xfce4 by default, and kde/plasma with x11 works.

I have used gnome apps before (a long, long time ago) and found

openbox with xorg (x11) I was able to install apps from gnome and kde and it worked no probs on a very old laptop.

Just my 2cents worth.

I hope you figure it out.

pcalvert: I tried madaiden's tips, but he stops explaining and just lists lots of stuff...

I looked at so many web-pages now with little progress, I ordered a decent book (recent and GNU/Linux orientated), should be here soon. ;-)

I am considering switching facebook to a different browser, instead of the most convenient ff-latest,

Like flashpeak-slimjet, it's a pain to setup because I don't use sudo, but it has it's own sandbox...

I used to use it a while ago for surfing entertainment sites when I was really bored and depressed.

Thanks for the tips, Zapper. I have privoxy... and http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/ (now updated 2012 https://www.putorius.net/block-unwanted … s-on.html) for blocking addverts to reduce bandwidth.

ptunnel gets the udp packets sent through tcp, so are picked up by the vpn leaving little trace afaik.

I ran halflife and counterstrike off a winxp install in vbox for ages... testing hardware, but also for fun.

Thanks aluma, I also have done just that... especially when I had win10 running, I used to disconnect hdds not required for the session.

Thanks everyone. I have a lot less trouble when I don't have FB sitting there open and logged in.

But my family and friends like to use it to talk, and show off.

For the love of life!

Talk soon...

Hi, thanks for the info, Zapper and aluma.

I also play games as a type of escape... I call it, "Possitive Distraction(s)".

Like those old games, I have OpenTTD, My last map was huge, I had 2300 trains.
But I changed the config so I am the only human (supposed to be on-line multiplayer competition) and some bots when I have setup my virtual trainset. lol

It's a lot of fun, and challenging logistics, and better than a win98(plus?) screen saver.

I spent all day yesterday & this morning trying to install and configure selinux to get a sandbox play-area for firefox,
but even after I get selinux to load it won't boot through to a login-gui (sddm in my case).

Still a work in progress... I guess if it was easy everybody would be doing it.

I also have to watch out not to share too much info, because of those data mining... for details I may inadvertently reveal.

My pc shutdown again last night just after a movie finished... I had no browsers open then, but had just cleared the cache.

I use about 5 different browsers... for different things. I guess that just makes it more complicated.

I haven't had any consequences either. I have to consider the global authorities... I use rumble for news programs, not the TV.

I may be considered a deviate dissident... linux user. I don't think I am, just wanting some truth and freedom.

Anyhow, it's still a work in progress (I'm not giving up yet).

Hi, all this is very interesting... thank you for the tips.

I thought I knew what I was doing, but all of these replies suggest I haven't even started.

I, like most am just a general user who tries to keep the screen door shut, But I also like to have the lights off so I can't be seen too easily from outside to begin with.

I'm going to be busy... If I want to do this properly and not just blindly hacking away at configs in hope it might help or work better than a clean install.

I was trying to follow this guide, but my system either won't boot or blocks social websites... I can listen to web-radio stations but not get facebook to load. Firefox-latest...

I put this here as a warning, because it seems incomplete or not for a system connected to the www. (no offence intended, )
ref. https://madaidans-insecurities.github.i … el-modules

It seems some of the kernel commands I used from there to my grub config were stopping that social webpage connections.

this is the grub edits I had made, but restored my backup today...
/etc/default/grub

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# GlennsPref 20230920 ipv6
# GlennsPref 20240209 hardening-tips

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=4
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty12 vga=794 modeset.nouveau=0 nokmsboot ipv6.disable=1 security=none apparmor=0 amd_iommu=on slab_nomerge init_on_alloc=1 init_on_free=1 page_alloc.shuffle=1 pti=on oops=panic mce=0 page_poison=1"

# discover other os's
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

GRUB_INIT_TUNE="400 440 1"
# resume=uuid errors... noresume "we don't susspend"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="noresume idle=nomwait"

GRUB_THEME=/usr/share/desktop-base/grub-themes/desktop-grub-theme/theme.txt

This morning I reverted to this... to get the system up.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty12 vga=794 modeset.nouveau=0 nokmsboot ipv6.disable=1 security=none apparmor=0 amd_iommu=on slab_nomerge init_on_alloc=1 init_on_free=1 page_alloc.shuffle=1 pti=on oops=panic mce=0 page_poison=1"

btw, that enabled me to boot, but not connect to social pages. I had a longer version the day before, but I haven't got a copy of it to show you.

this is what I have now... wip,

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty12 vga=794 modeset.nouveau=0 nokmsboot ipv6.disable=1 security=none apparmor=0 amd_iommu=on"

amd_iommu is the only edit I have kept for today.

I also made a list of changes to /etc/sysctl.conf, but just "net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=1 # Ignore broadcast pings"

and to /etc/modules, a large list of /bin/false for unnecessary modules.

But, neither of the last 2 file edits stopped my boot or connection to the home wifi and social pages.

Anyhow, that's my observation so far.

I'll move on to the pages suggested here and take notes for my future research and actions.

Thank you again, bye for now.

I Love Gary Moore. Thin Lizzi played in aus, a free concert in the gardens. Gary was on that tour I believe.

I never heard of April Wine before... but I've heard the saying so many times, If You See Kay! never knew what it was about. Thank you.

I hardly slept last night reminiscing the old days... but I'm happy about it.

Eric Johnson I saw with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai (G3), brilliance, gold brilliance!

I first saw JS on his surfing... tour, with Stu Hamm. The drummer was fantastic too.

Joe went to give away one of his black strat-killers (Ibanez) guitars, but the security was so intense here back then, if you got up out of your chair, you were leaving or going to the rest room. And they were throwing people out for arguing with them. That was Queensland politics back then, a police state (Joe Bijelky Peterson, I don't care how he spelt his name, glad he's dead). My girlfriend and I were in the third row, If I jumped up to get the guitar, I would have missed the rest of the concert and probably got beaten up and the guitar smashed as well. Those were the days. Nobody took the guitar, Joe was stunned!

Wish I could play and understand music like those guys. Thank you for the memories and new music. I only just discovered Rust and Journmey in the last couple of years, lol. I must have been stoned or something.

America has some really cool love songs. That's where I started playing, on a gut string classical.

That vid of Triumph was amazing, 1984 was a great year for Rock music, imo.

One of the songs, and vocalist reminded me of Chickenfoot. :-)  (the way they sound...)

thanks. :-)

Maybe that is your problem. Its a plain text file...

Try editing the file. I believe those addresses are cisco DNS routers. <edit>it's cloudfare not cisco, my bad! </edit>

you may have to stop and start the network services to get it to use the new addresses.

Some use google dns... like 8.8.8.8 but it may not be as private as you might expect.

p.ps. I'm using Daedalus, but I also keep Beowulf and Chimaera in my sources list for easy access, and backports.

root@GamesBox:/root  apt update && apt upgrade -y && apt autoremove -y
Hit:1 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus InRelease                                                                                                      
Get:2 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:/razer/Debian_12  InRelease [1,519 B]                                                             
Get:3 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security InRelease [32.5 kB]                                                     
Get:4 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools/Debian_12  InRelease [1,552 B]                   
Hit:5 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian bookworm InRelease                                                 
Hit:6 https://repo.nordvpn.com/deb/nordvpn/debian stable InRelease              
Hit:7 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates InRelease
Hit:8 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-backports InRelease
Hit:9 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-proposed-updates InRelease
Hit:10 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera InRelease
Hit:11 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-backports InRelease
Get:12 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-security InRelease [26.2 kB]
Hit:13 http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf InRelease
Get:14 http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security InRelease [26.1 kB]
Hit:15 http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-backports InRelease
Get:16 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-security/main amd64 Packages [267 kB]
Get:17 http://deb.devuan.org/merged chimaera-security/main i386 Packages [266 kB]                                                                          
Fetched 621 kB in 7s (86.0 kB/s)                                                                                                                           
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
root@GamesBox:/root  

That's fantastic. I once played Sister Golden Hair for my little sister at her wedding reception, I was sweating bullets and quaking inside, and messed it up a few times... when I finished I asked, "want me to do it again?" they all shook their heads and laughed. It was a great experience, first public performance with a PA, but thankfully all friends and family. lol.

Yeah, bragbook is a farce!

The list of bands and types of music I appreciate is too long to list,
I'd forget some of the best and that would not be fair to all those wonderful musicians who shaped my life.
I haven't heard of Triumph... thanks, I look into that.

There's a special kind of bliss I experience when engaged in playing music, and singing (and whistling too).
In a world of Tech I have that escape.

Currently I'm teaching myself some finger picking, Dust in the Wind, by Kansas... and Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. It excites my brain. ;-)

When it comes to playback quallity, I rip my cd's to flac and really don't have change any eq settings. But I do have mp3's for in the car... it's so noisy it dosen't really matter, it seems my memory of the tunes fills in the gaps. Getting a constant volume level across all tracks and albums is the hardest part I feel.

I hope you had a good vacation, a break from work is a necessity these days more and more for our mental health.

Thank you for your replies, you put a smile on my face and lighten my moods this time of a morning (here in Australia).

(Off-topic, Off-topic)
My biggest concern now-a-days is securing my system from being hacked, facebook I think...(and maybe forums like this one LQ) I'm saving that for another post here... to help others and maybe get some advice as well, but it seems that when I ask, something is knocking on the doors... testing me. Like all my fans shut off yesterday just after I refused a so called friend of a friend a senseless conversation, that I think was meant to enable them/it to distract me while they mined my account and system. My cpu overheated and auto shutdown was initiated, thankfully that was immediate, but when I rebooted the bios reported overheating... and all the fansettings were OFF!. I'm not sure how to ask or how to compose the statement/question appropriately. anyhow, I'll get to that soon.

aluma, what was/is the name of your pop group? I have some demos I put up on Jamendo.

These recording were mostly done to test equipment, and are not even demo quality, but just hard and fast recordings some of the songs I have written.

I can only find one song up there now, but here it is...
https://www.jamendo.com/track/570749/reita

ps, here's the rest... some were done with friends. https://www.jamendo.com/album/65893/no-edits
all the best, Regards Glenn

Hi, here are MY most frequently used message lookups...

cat /home/glenn/.xsession-errors | grep -i "(EE)\|(??)|fail \|segfault"
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i "(WW)\|(EE)\|(??)"
cat /var/log/syslog | tail

you may use the same lookups with dmesg,  and swap the filtering around to search for a match of what your looking for.

I also have sys-type logs sent to tty11 & tty12 so I can easily switch to those consoles and see if anything has changed.

I hope this gives you some tips to work with.

all the best, GlennW (aka, GlennsPref)