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It's odd how you can ask the same question multiple times and never be understood. Is it so impossible to create an HDD that can boot on multiple systems like a "live" CD, that no one can even comprehend the question? I would think it would be possible to tell your OS to install all available drivers and use a slightly modified boot process similar to what a live CD uses.
Yeah, but they are fixed on CD. If I install from a "live" CD don't I get a system adapted to the hardware I installed on? If I want to take an HDD with a personal install (choice of applications) and use it in several different systems, can I make such an HDD with a typical "Live" disk?
Is there an option in the standard installer of Devuan -- or any other major distro -- to include all the files you need to test at boot time and choose the right drivers for whatever system the disk has been placed in? Or is that a special mode that has to be configured by expert devs?
Yeah, I had the impression from the way it was pushed in the installer that it was a 'normal' thing, but I guess LVM is not very widely used? I always opted not to use it because I realized that 'dynamic' resizing could only be possible by fragmenting the actual allocation of the partitions, with possibly major performance implications.
I guess what made me think about it again was preparing to use SSDs. Fragmentation of partitions would not be a performance issue on SSDs. But I've never had an SSD in any system yet. They always seemed too expensive, and somewhat unreliable. I keep hearing they fail little or no warning. Unlike spinning disks that usually give you SMART warnings for a while before actually becoming unusable. But the durability and reliability of SSDs has been increasing, and the speed advantages are tempting for uses like gaming.
It sounds like I still don't need to use LVM. Just plan my partitions well so I don't have to re-map them later.
Yes, I discovered the "Easy Fix" MSI. An amusing name. All it does is add TLS 1.2 support. Applying that solved many problems. It stopped whingeing that it was not a legitimate copy and was able to check for updates even beyond the antivirus. Many things turned up that I was not even aware of. Some of them dated 2021, after the end of public support. Maybe they released some of the 'extended support' stuff for free after the final end of all support? It's taking a while to download and install them. But it seems worthwhile to get them.
Edited to add: And yes, Firefox now works properly also.
So far I have always avoided using LVM as it seemed like an extra layer of abstraction, and to my mind code, on top of any other drivers needed to access the drives. Does LVM really add any overhead to disk access? Can it slow down a system at all? Or is it only relevant at the install phase, and then at the time of any modifications of the disk layout?
Well, my first thought was logging, which is supposed to be different on Windows when using an SSD compared to an HD. There is supposed to be much less, to reduce the wear on SSDs. Logging of everything has been so automatic in *nix for so long I wondered if there was any concession to hardware wear. And then there is the automatic disk optimization in Windows, but Linux doesn't do that at all. There may be other operational differences, though, so I was just wondering.
When you use one of those 'whole partition' transfer utilities to copy a system from an old HD to an SSD, does the OS notice the change in hardware? I seem to recall there are differences in how an OS should behave on one vs the other, but I don't know if that is something fixed at install time, or if it should be manually changed, or if it's automatically recognized.
A strange problem has occurred on two Windows 7 systems/disks that I have maintained for a while, just because. I don't boot them often. Maybe once a year or so. This time Windows 7 OS itself seems to be cut off. The "Microsoft Security Essentials"/"Defender" anti-virus cannot update anymore. I guess MS has finally cut the hold-outs loose. But something much stranger occurred with the browsers.
On one of these systems Firefox still works. I can start it up and go onto the current web. Everything seems normal. On the other, Firefox thinks all websites have "security problems" and refuses to connect. The a certificate match problem, right? What would there be in a Firefox install that requires updating beyond what the standard update would perform? I ran the latest available update (115.24) on both. And both seemed to update successfully.
Or is this a problem fixable in the browser at all? Would there be some other update, something on the OS side, that I missed for one of those old disks?
Bliss OS is where the Android x86 developers went. It's fussier than Android x86 and won't run in many of the emulators that previous port could use. I think it requires KVM in Linux. But that's a technical detail that may change from one release to the next.
I do agree with the OP complaint about the trend towards forcing everyone to use smartphone apps (either iPhone or Android) to interact with businesses. I've not encountered the banking restrictions talked about, yet, but now I am worried. I hate the idea of having access to all the critical details of my life on a portal device that I may have to carry around just for safety. You need a phone to get help on the road if your car breaks down, for example. But then you've got your entire life on that little device where ever you go and can potentially lose it and control of your life right along with it.
Is there a Google Authenticator on Linux? If not, I'm seeking the best way to run Android on Linux so I can use the Android app on more than just a phone. The use of passwords is increasingly risky, and SMS 2FA is actually worse, but I don't want to switch to the authenticator mode and then be dependent on one tiny device to access my Gmail. If it flakes out for some reason, I'm locked out. I need backups/reliability.
A full VM seems excessive, but I'll do the 'due diligence' if necessary. Poking around, though, I have discovered AnBox and WayDroid, and these seem to be more like "Wine" for Android. Interface layers that do not require a full VM with isolated disk space. Any thoughts by anyone on which of these is better? And for what reasons? I notice Anbox is in the repositories but Watdroid is an independent thing you have to install an extra repository for.
The main thing I am looking for, of course, is simply stability / reliability. Don't need the fanciest features as I'm not into mobile gaming or anything else that would tax an emulator.
Retrieving it manually is a pretty clumsy work-around. They should have the repositories working. And it did work later in the day when I tried again.
My Devuan 4 install in a VM cannot find a major repository today.
E: Failed to fetch http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/f/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_4.3.8-0+deb11u1_amd64.deb: 404 Not Found [IP: 130.225.254.116 80]
Has something been moved? Or is there a problem with the repository?
Yes, I'm aware of /etc/apt/sources.list.d already. What I'm not certain about is the data files downloaded from those repositories. Deleting the text file under apt is surely not going to remove the data from that source? Or does Apt do that automatically?
As with all 'volunteer' contributions these days, I would recommend caution. Has it been audited? Something like this runs with root privs, doesn't it?
Clearly, a local database is kept when you run apt-get update. Where is it stored? If I install a third-party program of some sort, such as Google Chrome, and it adds a repository for itself, is that kept in the same place? And if I later remove this program, what happens to that extra database? Does it get removed automatically? Or do I have to manually delete it somehow?
Slashdot has a story about yet another SNAFU with secure boot. MS attempting to fix a Wind'ohs vulnerability has broken GRUB and people with dual boot systems cannot boot.
Please post what tweaks you made here? I've tried setting up Proton VPN according to their directions, but I'm not sure how 'generically' useful their setup might be.
The Proton Mail / VPN people suggest you install OpenResolv when you configure a Linux system to use their VPN. Of course, they recommend that you to use their app first. But that requires the Gnome desktop environment, which is now in the death-grip of you-know-what eldritch abomination from the depths of Red Hat. So, if you configure manually, they say you should install both OpenVPN and OpenResolv -- specifically to prevent problems of the sort you are describing.
Now I am seeing warnings in some other Chrome installs. I have multiple disks with different distros and even, *shudder*, Windows 10 on them. Plugging them into my machines and updating them this weekend, I am finally seeing something happen in Chrome. There is a list of 'extensions that may not be supported soon' showing up. In the list is uBlock Origin, of course. But also NoScript, and Decentraleyes (!) ... This makes no sense. Decentraleyes uses a static list. All it does it replace 'free' resources that are also used to track browsing with local replacements. The agenda is pretty clear when something like that is included in the purge.
It's odd that the one VM just deleted uBlock but the other systems are giving advance warning. I wonder if there is some sort of 'gradual' process being implemented with random selection of certain installs to get the purge at different times. They are probably trying to prevent the backlash that a sudden mass shutdown would provoke.
Since this is going forward, it looks like I will have to be very, very selective in the future. Literally running Chrome only for sites where it is required and staying away from it for anything and everything else.
Not to mention that all the usual implementations of Secure Boot manage to achieve is to make things needlessly harder for users of alternative OSes like Devuan to install the OS of their choice.
You say that as if it's an accidental side-effect.
Version 126.0.6478.182 (Official Build) (64-bit)
That is currently running on a Devuan 4 VM that I use. Searching Google itself for the latest version, I get:
126.0.6478.182/183 / 16 July 2024
Looks like Google doesn't care about what Chromium supports. But again, the weird thing is that the ad-blocking extension is still in place, though it was deleted in a Devuan 5 VM.
More weirdness. uBlock Origin still works in another VM running Chimaera even though it was nuked in a newer VM running Daedalus. No, the updates have not stopped for Chimaera. I have the same version of Chrome on both systems... ???
In other news, Google has backtracked on killing third-party cookies in Chrome. Hmmm.... could it possibly be anti-trust fears?
Does this ηMatrix browser follow Chrome's customizations of HTML closely? If not, it's less useful than Firefox. At least Firefox has a lot of legacy support. Chrome is now dominant, and with some sites you just have to use Chrome to get access to the content.
But I spoke too soon. My copy of Chrome in a Linux VM deleted its installed uBlock Origin when I started actually visiting sites. Had to go get uBlock Lite with the new restricted powers.
So yes, Google has done something or other. With no announcement. It just deletes the ad-blocker with no warning or notice.
Google Chrome has updated today for the first time in several weeks. They had adopted a weekly patch schedule, claiming it was needed to keep up with bugs being exploited, so I wondered why the delay. Maybe they were preparing large changes for the end of the old extensions? But today it has updated again on both Windows and Linux and I don't see any warnings or error messages about the ad-blocking or other privacy protecting extensions like Noscript. Has there been any sort of announcement of a delay in their plan? It was supposed to be implemented in July, last I heard.