Posts by Gnostic

Gnostic · Off-topic

@greenjeans
Can't find a "Like" button, so please accept a smilie

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

SOLVED!

Installed LXDE.

sudo apt install lxde

At boot, when the Slim logon appears, press F1 to cycle through the DE options until LXDE appears. Log in with that instead of XFCE.

As if by magic, the background that appears is one of the Devuan images.

I can now right-click on that background, choose Desktop Preferences and change the background to any of the other Devuan images.

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Not sure if this is progress or not.

After doing Ctrl-C on the terminal window and rebooting, I found I had a black background, The icons and wallpaper had disappeared.

When I open a new terminal and run

xfdesktop

(without any options), the icons and old wallpaper reappear.

Then when I run

Applications -> Settings -> Desktop

I get the following in the terminal window:

(xfdesktop-settings:3417): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 14:44:58.936: g_object_get_qdata: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(xfdesktop-settings:3417): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 14:44:58.936: g_file_get_path: assertion 'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed
(xfdesktop-settings:3417): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 14:44:58.961: g_object_get_qdata: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(xfdesktop-settings:3417): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 14:44:58.962: g_file_get_path: assertion 'G_IS_FILE (file)' failed

Would any of the options help?

Usage:
xfdesktop [OPTION?]
Help Options:
-h, --help Show help options
--help-all Show all help options
--help-gapplication Show GApplication options
--help-gtk Show GTK+ Options
--help-sm-client Show session management options
Application Options:
-V, --version Display version information
-R, --reload Reload all settings
-N, --next Advance to the next wallpaper on the current workspace
-M, --menu Pop up the menu (at the current mouse position)
-W, --windowlist Pop up the window list (at the current mouse position)
-A, --arrange Automatically arrange all the icons on the desktop
-e, --enable-debug Enable debug messages
-d, --disable-debug Disable debug messages
-D, --disable-wm-check Do not wait for a window manager on startup
-Q, --quit Cause xfdesktop to quit
--display=DISPLAY X display to use

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

@Eeqmcsq

Thanks for mentioning Excalibur + slim display manager.

I had upgrade from Daedalus to Excalibur.
So my stack was Excalibur + xfce + lightdm
But it was only booting to the command line, and I had to run startx manually every time.

I've installed slim and chosen that as the display manager. Now on boot, startx does work automatically and I get to the slim logon.

:-)

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Did

xfdesktop -Q

and

xfdesktop -e

- got this:

DBG[xfdesktop-common.c:498] xfdesktop_debug_set(): debugging enabled
DBG[xfce-desktop.c:975] update_backdrop_workspace(): new_active_workspace -1, new_backdrop_workspace -1
DBG[xfce-desktop.c:1083] xfce_desktop_set_single_workspace_number(): single_workspace_num now 0
DBG[xfce-desktop.c:975] update_backdrop_workspace(): new_active_workspace -1, new_backdrop_workspace -1
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2740] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell spacing is 2
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2741] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell padding is 6
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2742] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell text width proportion is 1.900000
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2743] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): ellipsize icon label is true
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2744] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): label radius is 4.000000
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon Home to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon File System to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon Trash to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon KINGSTON to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon rootfs to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon bootfs to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon Subscriptions | Substack to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-thumbnailer.c:283] xfdesktop_thumbnailer_queue_thumbnail(): file: /home/keith/Desktop/Subscriptions | Substack.desktop not supported
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon Thunderbird to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-thumbnailer.c:283] xfdesktop_thumbnailer_queue_thumbnail(): file: /home/keith/Desktop/Thunderbird.desktop not supported
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:580] add_icon(): adding icon Firefox ESR to icon view
DBG[xfdesktop-thumbnailer.c:283] xfdesktop_thumbnailer_queue_thumbnail(): file: /home/keith/Desktop/Firefox ESR.desktop not supported
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2740] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell spacing is 2
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2741] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell padding is 6
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2742] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): cell text width proportion is 1.900000
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2743] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): ellipsize icon label is true
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:2744] xfdesktop_icon_view_style_updated(): label radius is 4.000000
DBG[xfdesktop-icon-view.c:3788] xfdesktop_icon_view_size_grid(): created grid_layout with 180 positions
DBG[xfce-desktop.c:975] update_backdrop_workspace(): new_active_workspace -1, new_backdrop_workspace 0
DBG[xfdesktop-backdrop-renderer.c:644] xfdesktop_backdrop_render(): loading image /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-x.svg
DBG[xfce-desktop.c:975] update_backdrop_workspace(): new_active_workspace 0, new_backdrop_workspace 0
DBG[xfdesktop-backdrop-renderer.c:644] xfdesktop_backdrop_render(): loading image /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-x.svg
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:974] metadata_monitor_changed(): metadata file changed event
DBG[xfdesktop-file-icon-model.c:974] metadata_monitor_changed(): metadata file changed event

The strange thing is those results in the Terminal window didn't change or extend while I tried

Applications -> Settings -> Desktop,

to change the background.

Also, they didn't change while I went to

/usr/share/images/desktop-base/

and right-click on an image, and choose Set as wallpaper

Is it possible

xfdesktop

is not my active desktop?

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Thanks!

After tail -f ~/.xsession-errors.

$ tail -f ~/.xsession-errors
[2905:2905:1113/002130.274806:ERROR:gpu/command_buffer/service/gles2_cmd_decoder_passthrough.cc:1091] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:A060580034000000]Automatic fallback to software WebGL has been deprecated. Please use the --enable-unsafe-swiftshader (about:flags#enable-unsafe-swiftshader) flag to opt in to lower security guarantees for trusted content.
Opening in existing browser session.
[2905:2905:1113/002920.123524:ERROR:gpu/command_buffer/service/gles2_cmd_decoder_passthrough.cc:1091] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:A060580034000000]Automatic fallback to software WebGL has been deprecated. Please use the --enable-unsafe-swiftshader (about:flags#enable-unsafe-swiftshader) flag to opt in to lower security guarantees for trusted content.
[2905:2905:1113/003220.166154:ERROR:gpu/command_buffer/service/gles2_cmd_decoder_passthrough.cc:1091] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:A060580034000000]Automatic fallback to software WebGL has been deprecated. Please use the --enable-unsafe-swiftshader (about:flags#enable-unsafe-swiftshader) flag to opt in to lower security guarantees for trusted content.
[2905:2905:1113/004411.084519:ERROR:gpu/command_buffer/service/gles2_cmd_decoder_passthrough.cc:1091] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:A060580034000000]Automatic fallback to software WebGL has been deprecated. Please use the --enable-unsafe-swiftshader (about:flags#enable-unsafe-swiftshader) flag to opt in to lower security guarantees for trusted content.
Opening in existing browser session.
[2905:2905:1113/004452.875371:ERROR:gpu/command_buffer/service/gles2_cmd_decoder_passthrough.cc:1091] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:A090580034000000]Automatic fallback to software WebGL has been deprecated. Please use the --enable-unsafe-swiftshader (about:flags#enable-unsafe-swiftshader) flag to opt in to lower security guarantees for trusted content.
[2760:2760:1113/004514.556395:ERROR:ui/gfx/x/atom_cache.cc:232] Add chromium/x-window-drag to kAtomsToCache
[2760:2760:1113/004543.596970:ERROR:chrome/browser/ui/views/user_education/impl/browser_user_education_interface_impl.cc:154] Attempting to show IPH IPH_DiscardRing before browser initialization complete; IPH will not be shown.
Opening in existing browser session.

After

xfdesktop-settings -e

and trying to choose a different background.

DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:793] xfdesktop_settings_generate_per_workspace_binding_string(): name /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:871] cb_image_selection_changed(): got /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-light.svg, applying to screen 0 monitor 0 workspace 0
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:793] xfdesktop_settings_generate_per_workspace_binding_string(): name /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:881] cb_image_selection_changed(): Saving to /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image//usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-light.svg
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:793] xfdesktop_settings_generate_per_workspace_binding_string(): name /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:1129] xfdesktop_settings_update_iconview_folder(): current_folder /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/xfce-light.svg, dirname /usr/share/backgrounds/xfce
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:793] xfdesktop_settings_generate_per_workspace_binding_string(): name /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/workspace0/last-image
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:1008] update_icon_view_model(): folder didn't change
DBG[xfdesktop-background-settings.c:958] stop_image_loading(): xfdesktop_settings_stop_image_loading

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Desktop Settings, go to the Folder drop-down menu, choose the directory you want, then DO NOT select a file from the list. Just click on the Open button. It will open that directory and show you thumbnails that you can select.

Tried that, but sadly still no change to the background.

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Ah, thanks.
Yes, it is XFCE.

That's after an upgrade from Daedalus to Excalibur.
As described here:
https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … -excalibur

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

I've found background wallpaper images in two folders
/usr/share/images/desktop-base/
and
/usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/

On any of those images, I can right-click and see the option for "Set as wallpaper". But nothing happens when I do that. The wallpaper stays unchanged.

Also, when I right-click on the existing background and choose Desktop Settings to view background wallpapers, I can click on them, but nothing changes.

Do I need to unlock something?
Thanks.

Gnostic · ARM Builds

@RedGreen925
Re

And I see you have a 6.12.52 kernel installed somehow that fails to install on this build too as I mentioned. How did you get that kernel installed?

It was from the Latest Builds page with the Trial ARM Images.
https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … %20Builds/

Hope that helps.

Gnostic · DIY

@jwm-kit
Thanks, and please excuse my ignorance, how can I use that with "Open with" ?
Would it be "Open with other application" or "Set default application" ?
Or something else?

Gnostic · ARM Builds

The image I started with was

rpi-devuan-daedalus-6.1.93-armel-ext4-2025-10-16-0434.img

I just ran

sudo apt-get install raspi-firmware

and got these results:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
firmware-brcm80211 bluez-firmware
The following NEW packages will be installed:
raspi-firmware
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4816 kB of archives.
After this operation, 22.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus/non-free-firmware arm64 raspi-firmware all 1.20220830+ds-1 [4816 kB]
Fetched 4816 kB in 1s (4125 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package raspi-firmware.
(Reading database ... 282379 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../raspi-firmware_1.20220830+ds-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Setting up raspi-firmware (1.20220830+ds-1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142+deb12u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.52
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/broadcom/initrd.gz

Is it because I ran it with sudo, or is there some critical difference in the builds?

Gnostic · DIY

Folks on my local network like to bookmark websites by dragging & dropping from the browser address bar into their file manager.

On Windows machines that creates an Internet Shortcut URL file.
For example, for Pi-Hole it will contain this:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://pi-hole.net/

How to make that useful on a Linux machine?

I've written a tiny bit of Python that seems to work.

# UseDesktopLink.py
import sys
import webbrowser
script, filename = sys.argv
file_object = open(filename,'r')
for line in file_object:
#print(line)
if line[0:4]=="URL=":
url=line[4:]
#print("url=",url)
# just in case the line has msdos cr-lf, remove that
url=url.replace('\x0d\x0a', '')
# or just Linux LF
url=url.replace('\x0a', '')
webbrowser.open_new(url)
file_object.close()

I intended it to work with a right-click on the URL file and "Open with ..", "Set default application" then a custom command.

python UseDesktopLink.py %f

But it's not working.
What might I have forgotten to do?

Gnostic · ARM Builds

Is this better?
https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … 1-0134.zip
769Mb

Gnostic · ARM Builds

This is probably too late for @SpongeBob, but might be useful for someone in future.

I used
sudo rpi-eeprom-config --edit

To boot usb first followed by nvme:
BOOT_ORDER=0xf461

To boot nvme first
BOOT_ORDER=0xf416

Also useful in the same config, to reduce power consumption when the Pi is shutdown but still plugged into the power supply:
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1

See
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/ … ption-140x

Gnostic · ARM Builds

Same here, it's perfectly normal for a RPi5 fan to start briefly at startup, then stop until any high load is put on the CPU. Which is actually an interesting experiment, to find what puts the highest demand on the CPU, or maybe the graphics. In my case, the one website which always starts the fan spinning is FlightRadar24.

Gnostic · ARM Builds

Thanks to all for the guidance. Can I contribute my own story, on how I got Devuan running on RPi5?

The following was done on a Pi5 with a M2 compact Hat and a 1TB NVME.

I tried the main "Get Devuan" page, looking for an ARM or RPi5 version to download
https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan

But I got confused by that, sorry. :-(

Thanks to this topic, found the Latest Builds page.
https://arm-files.devuan.org/RaspberryP … %20Builds/

I chose
rpi-devuan-daedalus-6.1.93-armel-ext4-2025-10-16-0434.img
and flashed that image onto a Class 10 32GB SD card
(sticking to reputable brands with good performance)

Plug that in the Pi and it boots nicely to a command line.
Logon with the default user & pswrd of devuan, devuan
Then use menu-config to setup the basics.
But it is just the command line with no GUI.

Next, what desktop to use? I tried KDE.
sudo apt install kde-full

This was a mistake! From the size of the download and the time it took to install (30 mins +), I was thinking this is a *big* package. Sure enough, on the Pi5, its big, fat and slow. You can get a good idea how old the basic package is when you go looking for whatever Internet Browser comes with it. Firefox and Chrome aren't there, what you get is Konqueror. It felt like lurching back in time by at least ten years.

Next, change to XFCE
sudo apt install xfce4
A smaller download, and quicker to install, which is an encouraging sign.

Also needed lightdm, so that I could switch from KDE to XFCE
sudo apt install lightdm

Sure enough, XFCE is much faster than KDE on the Pi, and a pleasure to use. At this point, I had a stable and usable Devuan desktop booting from the SD card. But still had Raspian on the faster NVME.

Next:
How to copy Devuan from the SD to the NVME?
I wasn't feeling confident enough about using command line tools (dd)
So I tried rpi-clone
https://rpi-clone.jeffgeerling.com/

That talks about cloning an SD card to NVME
sudo rpi-clone nvme0n1
But that just did not work for me.
"Device not found" - even though nvme0n1 was visible with lsblk

Plan B?
Boot from Raspian on the NVME
Plug in a spare USB3 HDD
Use Raspian to install another copy of Raspian onto the spare USB3 HDD.
Then boot Raspian from the USB3 HDD.

Now both the Devuan (on the SD) and the NVME are visible without being active devices.
Use the Raspian Image Copier to clone from SD to NVME.
Shutdown, unplug the spare USB3 HDD.
Put a "backup" label on that and put it on the spare parts shelf.

Reboot from NVME, and here we are now, writing in Pi5 Devuan on the NVME.
Thanks!

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

Thanks folks, problem solved.

# upgrade from Chimaera to Daedalus

nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-updates main
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-security main
#deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-backports main

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

(reboot)

apt install xfce4
apt install xfce-terminal
apt install xfce-goodies
apt install firefox-esr
startxfce4

Gnostic · Desktop and Multimedia

I've got Devuan installed and can boot to the command line.
So far so good.
How can I install and start a Desktop?
And which one?

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#26 Re: Off-topic » So they asked me what I wanted for helping with the library... » 2025-11-15 11:58:11

#27 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-13 16:55:46

#28 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-13 14:52:33

#29 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Excalibur RC1 + Xfce + slim + auto login shows Untitled window » 2025-11-13 13:16:02

#30 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-13 13:07:16

#31 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-13 00:56:28

#32 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-12 20:27:23

#33 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-12 20:18:41

#34 Desktop and Multimedia » [SOLVED] Cannot change background » 2025-11-12 19:51:22

#35 Re: ARM Builds » fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails » 2025-11-07 18:13:13

#36 Re: DIY » Using Windows URL files on Linux machines? » 2025-11-04 00:10:35

#37 Re: ARM Builds » fresh install, raspi-firmware install fails » 2025-11-03 23:59:37

#38 DIY » Using Windows URL files on Linux machines? » 2025-11-01 20:16:11

#39 Re: ARM Builds » Mini/Net install for RPi3 » 2025-10-31 19:19:40

#40 Re: ARM Builds » Booting on USB on Raspberry pi 4 » 2025-10-30 13:52:08

#41 Re: ARM Builds » testing trial arm image pi 5 » 2025-10-29 22:52:58

#42 Re: ARM Builds » Raspberry Pi 5 » 2025-10-28 18:13:20

#43 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » How to start desktop on Raspberry Pi3? » 2023-11-11 22:26:41

#44 Desktop and Multimedia » How to start desktop on Raspberry Pi3? » 2023-11-11 16:30:28

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