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#1 Re: Installation » auto.mirror.devuan.org » 2018-03-24 19:52:49

The mirrors could be slow at times for sure, at home i put in place an apt-cache NG because I install a lot. My apt-cache NG is a Debian install, but it does work for Devuan as well. The way I remember I never did any custom config on it as it always worked.

#2 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Purging exim breaks MATE install » 2018-03-24 19:43:59

I am trying Dovecot which is part of webmin / usermin (exim is not). Its not like exim is in my way, but I just cant seems to get rid of it without breaking something. For me openbox was great for years, but now I am thinking of a slim desktop which does have the KDE or Gnome dependent file managers, text editors and other nice utilities the bare openbox/usermin combo do not readily have.

This is, however, not an issue with Devuan anyhow, I assume its the same on any other distro as well.

#3 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Purging exim breaks MATE install » 2018-03-24 16:57:06

I did that, installing a bare system utils-only then purged exim and tasksel MATE.
Different issue this time: the menu item 'root terminal' ( /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator) is not taking the root password. Luckily there is an xterm emualtor that works, so I am able to run sudo.

When I run 'sudo apt-get remove --purge exim*' the package list contains mate-desktop stuff.. so it seems MATE has a lot of dependencies requiring exim.

Exim is not currently part of webmin, and I am experimenting with that and usermin so I would prefer a different mta. I might have to leave exim in place, or try a different DE. btw, webmin did a fantastic job to support Devuan.

#4 Desktop and Multimedia » Purging exim breaks MATE install » 2018-03-24 15:14:11

alluredbit
Replies: 7

I just did a default install of 1.0 on vbox with MATE, and then I removed all utility software, alsa and pulseaudio, saned, etc.. I used apt-get remove --purge, clean, autoremove

When I purged exim I got some error about 'wildcard services are not going to work until next reboot' .. After reboot I am still able to log in, but only to run level 3.. if I startx the GUI it looks some gardien green-blue and no desktop..

This is just a kick-the tires install, as on Devuan I never installed any of the desktop before, and curious what works and what breaks. If you ask i can try and duplicate this later.. I purge exim all the time from the server installs and no issues.

#5 Re: Installation » VirtualBox Install Stalls » 2017-12-24 17:21:20

Dec 24 05:06:15 clock-setup: Setting Hardware Clock to 05:06:15 = 1514091975 seconds since 1969
Dec 24 05:06:15 clock-setup: ioctl(RTC_SET_TIME) was successful.
Dec 24 05:06:15 clock-setup: Not adjusting drift factor because the --update-drift option was not used.
Dec 24 05:06:16 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/10open-iscsi
Dec 24 05:06:16 finish-install: iSCSI detected, refreshing initramfs
Dec 24 05:06:16 in-target: update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae
Dec 24 05:06:19 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/10update-initramfs
Dec 24 05:06:19 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/15cdrom-detect
Dec 24 05:06:19 cdrom-detect: Unmounting and ejecting '/dev/sr0'
Dec 24 05:06:19 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/20final-message
Dec 24 05:06:21 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/30hw-detect
Dec 24 05:06:21 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/50config-target-network
Dec 24 05:06:21 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/55netcfg-copy-config
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/60cleanup
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/65partman-md
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/90base-installer
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/90console
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/94random-seed
Dec 24 05:06:22 finish-install: info: Running /usr/lib/finish-install.d/94save-logs

Using dynamic disk option the actual size of the file VirtualBox is using smaller than the limit, about 8 GB instead of 128 GB, so there is no need to resize.

Looking in /var/log/installer/syslog these are the last lines.. is the log suppose to end here, at this point? There is no delay between setting the system time and ejecting the CD but in reality there was about 10 minutes..

Where should I look, or how should I start another install to find evidence? It happened twice already, so before I try again I wonder is there a way in VirtualBox to monitor real-time logs or something..

#6 Re: Off-topic » A/2017 U1 = First Detection of Interstellar Body » 2017-12-24 07:24:47

You guys need to separate news from publications.
Basically, news is what you study... before you write...

#7 Re: Installation » Stable repositories for adding and updating the entire system! » 2017-12-24 06:35:28

This is one of my most recent

deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie main non-free contrib
deb-src http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie main non-free contrib

# jessie-security, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-security main contrib non-free
deb-src http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-security main contrib non-free

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-backports, previously on backports.debian.org
deb http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

Most time spent in updates is with source repositories which you or I do not have, so no idea why it takes you as long as you describe. I have more (much more), I use an apt-get cache, proxies and more so there could be the reason for no comparison.

#8 Re: Installation » Palemoon a browser that doesn't convince! » 2017-12-24 06:18:32

Do you know any website that helps you test video and audio formats?
I would say once you have the resource web address you could tell the difference between 'no support', 'no config' or 'no idea'.
I tried so many times make Flash work on different browsers that by now I know that browsers work - Flash does not.

#9 Off-topic » inode, storage and perfomance » 2017-12-24 05:50:17

alluredbit
Replies: 0

I started selecting 'news' when I know my VM is going to run off SSD instead of HDD.

Then, I am wondering if doing the same on HDD would also be a reasonable choice - especially when the HDD is a RAID-10.
The VM manager, whatever that is, going to submit low-level operations to the host so it should make no practical difference what allocation you chose.

This COULD be comparative when you are thinking about using WD Blue for high-performance VMs. If you RAID them up large blocks of writes might not be as bad as suspected.

Any thoughts?

#10 Installation » VirtualBox Install Stalls » 2017-12-24 05:09:23

alluredbit
Replies: 2

I have a 128 GB SSD system for installing VirtualBox images.
This is the first time I created a dynamic disk size bigger than what is available, and the install stalls at the end.. precisely at the step where the install script is about to remove the CD from the sources list. If I wait long enough the install eventually resumes.

Any ideas what and how should I try to identify what is going on?
I installed dozens of the release "devuan_jessie_1.0.0_amd64_NETINST" (the one from the current torrent I am seeding) and my instances are usually 16-32 GBs, This is the first time I selected 139 GB on a 128 GB hardware.

#11 Re: Devuan » Webmin v.1.860 supports Devuan? » 2017-12-24 04:37:25

Indeed very good news, especially for those of us who are not well-rounded experts (yet).
I installed webmin via APT, and all works the way described (apt-transport-https is the only package needs to be added to the default base instance).
I also uninstalled / installed exim4 and a few other exercises - all is fine. I am using the 1.870 update.

webmin is so useful, and it is great to see it working with SysV init.

#12 Re: Installation » Manual partitioning: boot partition, dual boot » 2017-08-25 23:19:19

I installed Linux in a lot of different ways, and my main home server is my latest:
Its a dedicated box, but for your information it has 4x1 TB GBs in RAID 10 for /home, 1x256GB SSD for /root and swap, another 1x256 GB SSD for UFEI /boot, /svr to hold Windows swap files for the VirtualBox clients, and a second swap.

I cannot boot from RAID10 since UEFI cannot read it, so I needed a separate /boot partition.

I also needed something FAST for Windows swap partitions so I separated /svr for it.

Just to show, when VirtualBox consumes around 95% of the installed 32 GB RAM Linux (currently Debian) locks up and I have to hard-reboot. Yet, none of the two swap partitions on the SSD are touched. For VirtualBox using swap is pointless, and Linux is not going to force it so it locks up instead. If I had VirtualBox on a Windows server this would be different, as Windows would start swapping pages used by VirtualBox, to preserve RAM allocated to Windows itself. You decides wich is better - i prefer the Linux way.

You might want to add separate /boot, add any (or more swap) when your use case warrants it, this is also how you optimize and fine-tune a Linux system. Most of my background is in Windows, so it took me some time to realize this about Linux.

My two swaps are created for the host Debain OS, as it is also my proxy to cache apt files, my MariaDB to host the databases of virtualBox web isntallations and so on.. they are not being used by VirtualBox but they are used by other software.

And so on, as I said this box is my most recent, and I applied all my experience when I bought the parts and built it for the specific purpose to be a VirtualBox sandbox.

#13 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-25 22:15:51

What I could use is examples to build and configure the virtual boxes. I am hoping someone already put some work into a vagrant base box, or has preseed cfg files on the web I can use.
Eventually I am going to work my way through this page https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller, but again that is for Debian. When things break I need to test both Debian and Devuan to be able to tell if the error is in my cfg file or it is due to deviation between the two OS. Eventually most of the errors are going to be deviations, but as of right now my preceed files are pretty basic and full of errors.

With preseed I actually need to finish the installation and boot to the box to tell if the script worked. In some cases the install is going to finish, without any errors. I think preseed breaks only over critical errors - no network, bad mirror address and such, otherwise it grabs some default values where the ones in preseed are invalid or missing. Not something anyone would want, obviously. so I wish preceed would stop the installation when there is any issue.

The most time-consuming is to make DHCP / DNS work, and that is where, I assume, a vagrant base could be of some help. Not perfect for my use though, Vagrant requires the first network card to be NAT - which is not what I want. I want internal network so all virtual interfaces are exposed via kernel routing and IP masquerading. Again, I currently have this on Debian. It is the most time consuming, because when there is any error in the stack of parameters the new install is going to boot to a random hostname with a random IP - and that is not what I want. I want the hostname and the IP that is assigned to the MAC, every time the box is rebuilt.

Manual configuration is not helping me since the purpose of my project is to automate the most. I have a plan but I have little time to play as this is not what I do for living. I really like Bitnami and my idea is about the same, except the Bitnami 'product' is still heavy binaries. I much prefer typing a few commands, and the box is automatically built and configured. mostly from cache on my network. On a box with i5 and RAID 10 I should be able to build 5 base Devuan clients concurrently, with LAMP and Joomla! installed in less than 5 minutes.

This is all talk at this point, I have a lot of work to do until I have something to show.

#14 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-25 18:20:36

preseed has a lot of control, and I am planning on putting together something where preseed late_command would run the Reduce script, preseed classes would target the full-install type (for LAMP, Tomcat and stuff). From there, DHCP/DNS would control which network the new clients go. LDAP would authenticate users across the networks / Devuan clients. I never used preceed with late_command or with classes, so if you have a quick example please post it.

#15 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-25 17:47:45

I tested a few automated Devuan VirtualBox installs with this script.

d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US
d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select us
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
d-i mirror/protocol string http
d-i mirror/country string us
d-i mirror/http/hostname string auto.mirror.devuan.org
d-i mirror/http/directory string /merged
#d-i mirror/http/proxy http://192.168.1.2:3142
d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
d-i passwd/user-fullname string Tom Thumb
d-i passwd/username string tom
d-i passwd/user-password password tom2mot
d-i passwd/user-password-again password tom2mot
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i time/zone string US/Central
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string pool.ntp.org
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman/mount_style select uuid
d-i base-installer/kernel/image string linux-image-amd64
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
#d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security, updates
#d-i apt-setup/security_host string security.debian.org
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server
d-i pkgsel/upgrade select safe-upgrade
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false
d-i grub-installer/only_devuan boolean true
d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string /dev/sda
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

It seems to work fine as it did create the user and password. The script is still loading from pulic_html/d-i/jessie/preseed.cfg
Should any part of this script be changed to something else?

Also, I do not know enough about apt-cacher to say this for sure, but it seems to be working. On disk all I see is the Debian depositories nothing Devuan-related, and with base isntalls it is difficult to say...

I am still trying to have a chance to install webmin, as the next step would be to test d-i and make sure the hostnames and the IPs are also automated by a DHCP server. To manually configure DHCP/DNS is just too much work for me as I am no expert.

Anyone has a d-i script or a vagrant box used for base installs, or other advise to help me improve VirtualBox base installs?

#16 Re: Installation » Manual partitioning: boot partition, dual boot » 2017-08-25 17:16:32

If you share the hardware, and have the UEFI I would consider booting into Devuan from a USB stick, and leave the MBR for Windows.

You may have a perfectly fine system running on detached external storage, in case you want to leave the internal hardware entirely for Windows. Create the / on the fastest storage you have, like a USB3, put the /boot on a USB2 stick and /home on something you can carry around. Your most important stuff is probably going into your /home anyways - unlike on Windows where you have them all over the place.

The swap partition is also optional, you may create swap file(s) later or use no swap. Linux is not using swap the same way Windows does. Linux is going to lock up as soon as you are just about to run out of RAM, in place of grinding at your swap endlessly. Just restart it an try not to load it up so much. Automated installs always create a swap partitions but you can use expert install and not create any other partitions besides /, /boot and /home.

On a single-user Linux system you have less disk activity vs. Windows so it is better suited for non-optimal configurations, and it is more flexible regarding file systems and partitions. Of course it is not going to perform optimal, but it is going to work. On busy systems it is recommended to keep /var separate from /, but again, on a single-user system no part of the system is really busy.

#17 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-19 14:15:15

The modem was just an example of something that is part of the minimal install, and it is currently recommnended to be removed by Reduce. It could be added and removed with apt anytime.

  When we consider Devuan's bithdate there is a lot of legacy stuff already. Other distros may extend back all the way to the days of 386, whie Devuan was born in the Cloud already and the farthest back is Pentium. It seems logical that legacy stuff to be optional, not default.

  This might be like to the Itanium stuff in Windows, every time someone configures a WSUS server there is that list of Itanium stuff recommended to be Declined. Of course someone else might come allong and say "Put that back, we just bought a bunch of those. we are going to install Windows XP 64-bit on them to replace the ones on our production floor". No doubt it could happen. Industrial stuff especially keep lingering on and never seem to become obsolete.

  I guess one of the reasons besides space and mips savings for Reduce could be just to avoid that extra code which could by chance bring a server down or open the door to an attack. Both also very unlikely, but again there is a chance.

  My personal reasons for posting about this is the virtual stuff. VirtualBox is providing a lot of the facilities for each instance, and the minimal install could be very different for a VritualBox install from a bare-metal or another hypervisor install. I work with full OS images, as my virtualbox instances are models of real-world scenarios. Each VirtualBox maybe moved to another computer and provisioned the full resource pool there, or scaled back and shared with a number of other images on one machine. Once all is working fine the virtual is replaced with a real box.

  There might be scenarios where Virtualbox images are used for production, but my guess is they are used more in testing and educational context. A more recent distribution like Devuan could implement a bit of a house-cleaning in this area, and support cleaner and leaner virtual installations better than other distros.

#18 Re: Off-topic » If you like to write shell scripts and good with math I have a project » 2017-08-19 05:03:21

I would like to ask you something.. This is still under the Off Topic category

  To illustrate my point consider the Marathon with 10,000 participants. There is only one winner, so you could ask why the rest bother to show up at all? Or, you could say everyone who finish is a winner! Then, you could also say everyone who's not the winner is a loser. Or, everyone who did not finish is a loser. So on, so on...

  What do you think?

  I think that context creates the content, and if you say my post above is self-promoting garbage it is going to be. It does not take much to take some circumstance out of context and label me and my post opportunistic.

  I say my post above has enough information for anyone here, on this Linux/technical/geek-powered web, to decide if they want any part of it, and may silently ignore it if they wish. It is not going to be the worst stuff people ever read, and it is not competently unrelated to Linux. From my point of view I am going to lose only if I resolve to continue building that web by myself, alone.

  I cannot allow to be called a spammer and self-promoting. I put too much effort in that post to help find partners to work with, and this is the ONLY web I ever   posted it. The more I think about it the less I understand your resentment. We must be on two, completely different wavelengths.

#19 Re: Off-topic » If you like to write shell scripts and good with math I have a project » 2017-08-19 01:59:27

I am here to find someone who would like to write and share a shell script that duplicates the output of my SQL scripts. Maybe I should have asked on SQL support web instead, they too have people with good scripting skills.
Apologies for wasting your time, I'll try to be more considerate with my posts in the future.

#20 Re: Off-topic » If you like to write shell scripts and good with math I have a project » 2017-08-19 01:09:59

"vanity site" ?
Did I do something unethical?
I asked for someone with a specific skill in shell scripting and math. I work very hard to make sure the web explains its purpose.
There is no registration on that web because it is not a public forum, I plug that web and its projects everywhere because that is how you find like-minded people. I am looking for people to get a project going. I am trying to create something meaningful.

Did I do something unethical?

#21 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-18 23:29:29

I auto install my boxes with preseed to the default minimal, then I run this script:

#!/bin/bash
# ###
#
sudo apt-get update
#
sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server mysql-client
sudo systemctl restart mysql.service
#
sudo apt-get -y install php5-common libapache2-mod-php5 php5-cli
sudo apt-get -y install mcrypt
sudo systemctl restart apache2
#
sudo apt-get -y install phpmyadmin
#
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webmin.list'
sudo wget -qO - http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install webmin
#
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get -y autoremove

This is for Jessie as I need the php5 stuff still, and of course there is 'service'. I am going to start working on Devuan installs soon and rework this script.

By the way, the last time I ran this scrip on a Devuan 1.0 virtualbox image all worked except Webmin, but I remember reading something about that being resolved by the good people there.

I am going to try and create a list similar to the one on Debian, because it might be extreme but there are also a lot of stuff there nobody needs anymore. I cant remember the last time I saw a modem LOL

#22 Hardware & System Configuration » A Better Reduce for Devuan? » 2017-08-18 19:56:50

alluredbit
Replies: 10

The Debian forum at https://wiki.debian.org/ReduceDebian has some info about all the stuff could be cut, but the few times I tried getting rid of them did not end well.

I suspect the entire list does not mount to much savings in storage and mips, but I could be wrong. Does it worth paying attention to this, and keep trying? I would like to place the list in a script and run it through all the vbox images I am going to build if there is measurable benefit to it.

#23 Re: Installation » Official Docker image? » 2017-08-18 16:44:17

I did not try this on Devuan yet, and it is not Docker but - on Debian I use preseed pointed to a local share, the new PC is grabbing the IP and the hostname from local DNS/DHCP server based on MAC, and of course there is an apt-cacher as well to grab any packages from the local network. In my opinion it is much better than Docker for base images. Maybe someone could verify that this works on Devuan as well...

#24 Off-topic » If you like to write shell scripts and good with math I have a project » 2017-08-18 13:18:15

alluredbit
Replies: 6

This is my first post here.
First and foremost thanks for Devuan! This is an awesome display of devotion and desire for excellence. With Windows 10 people might realize that Operating Systems should be designed and updated primarily to get things done, instead for profit-first. What a waste Microsoft is doing with these ad-based menus and such, even the idea of it is repulsing. I sure hope Devuan and the like is going to receive much, much more attention and demand in the future.

I am looking for people to co-write some articles with me. I am building a web to document data structures that are seldom if ever change, and one of the projects going to be about finite seguence of known values such as coordinates, IP address range, part numbers, etc. etc. The article would be to outline the sets such [a-z][0-9][-#], then write the SQL scripts to generate the 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. length combinations or permutations (depending on the context of the sequence). The subject to discuss would be controlling the size and predicting the use of the sequences (1N* are good for part numbers but bad for cross-word puzzles)

I am going to write the SQL scripts to generate the sequences, and I need people to write them in shell scripts. I prefer shell scripts because that is the most affordable to anyone. I am not entirely sure about what to introduce next to SQL for this, and if you are an expert saying Python, Perl or another is much prefered to the shell then I would consider it. My knowledge is too limited to decide.

My scripting skills are not that great, and my math skills are abysmal compared to what's needed to properly express the algebra. I am not looking for a PhD for this since the issue is pretty basic, but someone with training is going to have the proper vocabulary and composition. Actually anything is better than mine LOL!

If you are looking for something else to do I also need help with documenting the install and configuration of a network with one central LAMP, LDAP-kerberos, DNS, DHCP box, kernel routing to 2-4 different networks with their own, fully LDAP-authenticated clients. So far I have done this on Debian under VirtualBox, and most of the configuration is performed and documented via Webmin so I am going to document that first. Eventually I would like to do this on Devuan via config scripts, and this project could be an article to submit here. If you have or know about a like project already underway I would like to look at it.

On my web I also need all sort of co-authors and editors, please visit if you are interested.

All this is part of the web I am building, where the operating system, the tools and the documentation is there to help you create something useful - instead of looking at eye-candy and be entertained by adverts!

You can also email me at my registration address via the form email, also listed on my web. Thanks for reading!

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