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If your hardware is not capable [of running with only free software] - you always have the option of installing requiring firmware but you have to specifically request it's installation.
This is a necessary step to ensure that Debian/Devuan can reach to as many people as possible and It's a very good compromise.
Well said! I'm totally sold on the advantages of free software (my laptop only runs software from the main repository, has libreboot instead of BIOS, and router runs LibreCMC) but I have to concede that Debian/Devuan's compromise makes more sense (for reason above) than completely eliminating the contrib and non-free repositories just to get an endorsement from the FSF.
By the way, a major reason why many people need proprietary firmware is for wifi. However, it is simple to swap a laptop's free software-unfriendly wireless card (e.g., Intel cards requiring firmware-iwlwifi) for one that is freedom-friendly such as the Penguin Wireless N half height mini PCIe card (available here), which uses the ath9k* module. I've done this swap many times and it's very easy--equivalent to a RAM upgrade except that there are more screws to remove and put back. The only thing to do after the swap is to uninstall the non-free wireless firmware you were using before, since you don't need it anymore
* ath9k is free software and therefore comes baked-in with Devuan's default kernel as well as with the more strict linux-libre kernel.
lazlo: Yes, running the two wipefs commands and then going into GParted to create the partition table and fat32 partition also works (converts a non-auto-opening thumbdrive to an auto-opening one). The wipefs commands are very fast, much better than waiting 30+ minutes for the original dd command.
Since I've bumped into this issue many times, here is a script that puts it all together: wipefs steps, new msdos partition table, creation of single partition as big as the device, formatting the partition to fat32, adding a label to the partition:
sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo wipefs -a -f /dev/sdb1
sudo wipefs -a -f /dev/sdb
sudo parted /dev/sdb mklabel msdos &>/dev/null
sudo parted /dev/sdb mkpart primary 0% 100% &>/dev/null
while [ ! -e /dev/sdb1 ]; do sleep 1; done # because parted mkpart exits before it's done creating sdb1!
sleep 1
sudo mkfs.msdos -F 32 /dev/sdb1
sudo dosfslabel /dev/sdb1 "my_label"
EDIT: I'd try the targeted dd command as well, but at this point all of my "broken" thumbdrives have been fixed
WARNING: Before using the script above, make sure a) /dev/sdb is actually your thumbdrive (one way to check is with "sudo blkid"), and b) the thumbdrive contains no valuable data. If you have any doubt, don't run the script--it assumes these two things are true.
lazlo: You nailed it!
0. I plugged in a thumbdrive that caja wasn't automatically opening, then...
1.
sudo umount /dev/sdb1
2.
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb
3. I went into GParted and when I chose sdb it complained about there being no partition table--presumably because it was overwritten with zeros by the dd command--so I went ahead and created an msdos partition table.
4. Still in GParted, I created an sdb1 partition with fat32 filesystem.
Then I removed the thumbdrive and plugged it back in, and... CAJA AUTOMATICALLY OPENED IT!
I tried cheating with a different thumbdrive, hoping that skipping the time-consuming dd step and going straight to creating a new partition table would be enough, but no luck with that.
While I will continue to wonder where exactly was the problem, thanks to you we have a fix. Thanks a lot! This has bothered me for a long time, since long before Devuan.
I hate a puzzle I can't solve. I'll be thinking about this forever if I don't find a good solid reason for it.
Haha. I know the feeling.
I will try dd and will post back in a few minutes.
In the meantime, the only demonstrable difference I can find between the sticks that auto-open and the ones that don't is the product id:
Here's one that doesn't auto-open:
bruno@thinkpad:~$ lsusb
---snip---
Bus 007 Device 006: ID 13fe:5500 Kingston Technology Company Inc.
---snip---
And here's one that does:
bruno@thinkpad:~$ lsusb
---snip---
Bus 007 Device 007: ID 13fe:4100 Kingston Technology Company Inc.
---snip---
Notice the same vendor id (13fe) but different product id (5500 vs. 4100). Could this have anything to do with it?
Me, too. Very mysterious behavior, to be sure.
I'll keep at it when I have time, and will post any new insights here.
greenjeans: That was a really good idea. Yes, I was trying the stick fresh without any content. Alas, adding files makes no difference (i.e., the stick automounts and icon shows up on desktop, but caja does not automatically open it).
Just to check my sanity, I found two other thumbdrives and can confirm that caja automatically opens them. Therefore, caja continues to (sometimes) respect my setting to automatically "Browse media when inserted".
Are you ready for something very strange? I took one of these new sticks and formatted the existing partition to fat32 using GParted. Then I took the other stick, deleted its existing partition, created a new partition, and formatted to fat32 (all using GParted). Surprise: Caja continues to automatically open these two sticks, no problem.
So at this point I can't seem to reproduce my problem. What I can say for sure is that caja consistently opens some sticks and consistently doesn't open others, despite the fact that all of these sticks have been formatted in GParted in the exact same way. All the sticks are of same brand (Patriot Memory), but different models.
I have both varieties of sticks here (auto-open and no-auto-open) in case someone can think of a helpful comparison to make between them.
@greenjeans: I tried adding "inode/directory=caja-folder-handler.desktop" and no joy. I also tried "inode/directory=caja.desktop" just for kicks and no luck either.
@lazlo: Good ideas. I tried the same USB drives in Debian 8 and got same results (some auto-open and others don't), so I don't think this is systemd-related. Also, I always unmount the drives before attempting to reformat in GParted (besides, I think GParted would refuse to format a drive that's mounted).
I'm sure that some subtle difference between a thumbdrive from factory vs. one formatted in GParted is to blame for this...
P.S. Sorry for making a big deal out of such a minor issue. It's just that Devuan works so well that at this point this is the only thing about my system that bothers me
No joy there, either. I opened caja with root and it also has a check by "Browse media when inserted".
By the way:
When I right-click on the Desktop icon of a USB drive that DOES automatically open and go to Properties, it says "Type: folder (inode/directory)".
When I do the same thing to a USB drive that DOESN'T automatically open, it also says "Type: folder (inode/directory)".
Are these the drives' x-content settings? If so, the x-content is identical and therefore not the culprit.
Thanks, greenjeans. Caja's "Browse media when inserted" is already checked.
Maybe formatting in GParted causes the thumbdrive's x-content to change? How do I check its current x-content and, if applicable, change it to something that will continue to trigger Automount-open?
I'm on Devuan Jessie with MATE. When I use a brand-new USB drive, plugging in the drive causes it to first appear on the Desktop then, after a very brief interval, the file manager (caja) automatically opens a window at the root of the drive. Very nice.
For some strange reason, if I then format the USB drive in GParted (my tool of preference for such tasks), plugging in the drive still causes an icon for it to show up on the Desktop, but now I have to actually click on the Desktop icon in order to browse the files--caja no longer automatically opens a window at the root of the drive.
A screenshot of how I'm formatting the drive is below. What do I need to do so that after formatting a USB drive, caja will continue to automatically open it for browsing when the drive is plugged in?
More generally: Why does caja automatically open some thumbdrives but not others of the same brand?
BTW, don't worry too much about style at first. Just get the scripts to work. As you learn better ways of doing things, you can edit your scripts to make them prettier and more robust. This is called "refactoring" and is a good practice.
Is there a definitive Linux shell commands reference?
I consider these two to be the most definitive:
http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide (the pitfalls section is especially good: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls)
The best way to get started with shell programming is to write scripts that solve your simple real-world problems (any time you find yourself thinking "wouldn't it be nice if my computer could do _____ automatically?" counts as a real-world problem). You then tackle increasingly more complex problems. As you do this, consult references on an as-needed basis. If you get stuck, ask.
I think reading the two references above start to finish would be most helpful after you've written several scripts and are comfortable with the basics.
Bummer. Your issue is not lack of sse2 support. I'm afraid I don't know Firefox well enough to know why recent versions are crashing on your machine. I tested both AppImages (52 and 53) and they run okay on my Devuan Jessie 64bit with the default 3.16 kernel.
All I can say for sure is that lately Firefox has been aggressively breaking compatibility (e.g., 52 and up require pulseaudio, 53 and up require sse2). I'd consider not playing their little game and going with a conservative alternative such as Palemoon.
If you want to give the Firefox52 AppImage a shot, just follow the steps in my post #9 above, but use this instead of the wget line in that post:
wget https://bintray.com/probono/AppImages/download_file?file_path=Firefox-52.0.1.glibc2.3.4-x86_64.AppImage -O Firefox52.AppImage
I'd be interested in knowing if it's the sse2 issue that made Firefox53 a no-go for you.
@hughparker1: Three separate issues going on.
1.
zenity, kdialog, Xdialog missing. Skipping /tmp/.mount_Cdg7JV/usr/bin//firefox.wrapper.
This is benign. It just means that you don't have zenity, kdialog, or Xdialog installed--the AppImage requires one of these to be present in order to show a dialog asking you whether you want the .desktop file to be added to your ~/.local/share/applications directory. This is the only AppImage-specific error that you are getting. After the firefox.wrapper (i.e., the .desktop integration step) is run or skipped, the Firefox53 binary inside the AppImage is executed.
2.
(firefox:7574): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed
This is benign. I think it's a GTK error. I see it when I try running the AppImage, too, and then Firefox53 starts for me without any problems.
3.
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 7624
ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...
This is the show stopper. It means that Firefox53 is crashing. I'm sure this will happen regardless of how you try to run Firefox53 on your system (AppImage or not). If Firefox from Devuan repository works for you but Firefox53 crashes, my guess is that you are running an older processor that, as of Firefox53, is no longer supported (see https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5 … uirements/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … 4_or_amd/).
Specifically, as of Firefox53, Firefox requires sse2 support in the CPU. What is the output of this command:
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i sse2 || echo "no sse2 support"
?
If lack of sse2 is indeed your issue, then Firefox52 is the last version that will run on your machine. When the time comes, see Life after Firefox.
Bummer. Sorry to hear. I wish I knew more about polkit so that I could be of more help.
I hope your clean install of 2.0 goes smoother.
I had many problems with polkit (including the USB mount-unmount and "unable to determine the session" issues) when I tried running Devuan Jessie without a display manager. After many hours of troubleshooting and trial-and-error--over several days--I gave up and gave lightdm a shot.
Well, all the problems vanished once lightdm was installed. I feel mildly bad for not actually learning enough about polkit to manually fix the problems, but on the upside I got fully operational and put a stop to my headache and hair loss.
What DE and what (if any) display manager are you using? If you are not currently using a display manager, may I suggest you give lightdm a shot? If it solves your polkit-related problems, you can easily configure lightdm for autologin and it will stay completely out of your way.
@golinux: A disadvantage of GNU Icecat, given your reason for looking at alternatives, is that it tracks Firefox versions.
@pekman: I tried Pale Moon and am quite impressed. Thank you for the recommendation. My mini-review:
- it is free software (MPL 2.0)
- there is a portable, distro-agnostic version for linux (the bzipped tarball available here: http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline)
- the bzipped tarball worked out of the box for me, including sound and video
- Pale Moon was forked from Firefox years ago, so no recent or future Firefox shenanigans to worry about
- it is compatible with any Firefox plugin that works in Firefox 24 (see http://www.palemoon.org/faq.shtml)
- note that user profile is saved to "~/.moonchild productions" and not ~/.palemoon as one might expect
I predict Pale Moon will be my default browser when Firefox runs off the cliff.
It isn't FOSS, as such, as it is being controlled by a specific group of people or a business concern.
A simpler way to know if it is free software or not is to discover* the software's license, then check this list: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
The intent of the software developer comes to a point in the chosen license. Software under a free license = free software.
* Hopefully the license is prominently listed on the project's website. Not finding the license on the project's website is usually a bad sign, but not always. If you can't find the license on the project's website, check Wikipedia. If Wikipedia has an article about the project, the license will be right in the infobox.
Being free software is a must-have for me--I just cannot trust an internet-facing "blackbox" running on my system. Vivaldi is proprietary software, unfortunately.
Here's a short list of free software alternatives available today:
- GNU Icecat
- Waterfox
- Chromium*
* Being made by Google, I'd only use Chromium as an absolute last resort. Remember, your browsing data is Google's main "product".
P.S. In general, when looking for "alternatives to X software", I always go back to this resource: https://prism-break.org/en/
(Unfortunately, in the GNU/Linux section, Web Browsers subsection, Firefox currently is their main recommendation.)
I'm not too worried. We have a critical mass of smart, freedom-loving folk in the GNU/Linux community who value traditional workflows (e.g., Devuan developers), so we'll figure something out when we get there. I myself will roll up my sleeves and figure it out if need be. Sorry I can't be more helpful at this point--I only looked into this cursorily.
I have never actually used Wayland yet. Truth is I have absolutely no complaints regarding X11, so will put off Wayland for as long as I possibly can (forever if possible).
Don't get angry. Get busy and create an alternative.
Totally agree.
I have been busy switching to and supporting Devuan Will continue to get the word out, contribute financially, and help out here in the forum.
This is wrong and it makes me angry.
Why not just scrap GNU/Linux? All the world needs is Windows, MacOS, and GNU/systemd. Even then, our overlords at Redmond, Cupertino, and Red Hat may get together and decide that with these three OSs we still have too much choice.