Hello:

Happens ...

For Linux users, it is good practice and healthy for their billfold to avoid getting carried away with some apparently novel hardware, especially input hardware.
ie: keyboards/mice/touchpads/cameras

A constant example of this are the 'feature' buttons in some netbooks/laptops that, without the proper divers/modules, are mostly useless.
Even then, after a while the drivers/modules stop being maintained or supported and a kernel upgrade sends their usability down the loo.
An example I have at hand is my trusty ca.2009 Asus 1000HE and its hotkeys once supported in the Linux kernel.

The good practise I refer to above is best exercised before putting down the cash on the countertop.
ie: doing the due diligence and ascertaining that the device in question is Linux compatible and then checking in on-line fora if such claim is indeed true.

Bear in mind that most (if not all) that type of hardware is thought for and destined to MS Windows users, not the likes of us.

That said, after trying a great many known brand keyboards, in both MS and Linux environments, I ended up late in life with one of the first keyboards I ever used: a ca. 1995 IBM Type 'M' keyboard made by Lexmark.

I purchased it second (third/fourth?) hand, absolutely filthy but in good working order and with no missing kcaps.
After a very thorough cleaning plus the mandatory DIN/USB adapter graft it has been happily clicking away on my desk for the last 4 years or so.

It will surely outlast me.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Let me see ....
Yes, although it was not pertinent to the original subject matter, I did answer the question.

See?
Now, just to settle the confusion and nothing more:

Have a look here.

As you can see that package is WiCD only by name.

It is just a transitional package that works as a front end to any one of its listed dependencies:
ie: network-manager-gnome | network-manager | connman-gtk | cmst | connman-ui

From the README.Devuan file:

That said, it seems that Debian had a Python 3 version of WiCD in its experimental repository accepted in late 2019.

But it has not had any attention paid to it since then and something tells me that it will remain so.

Thanks for your input.

TG.

Hello:

Right ...

Another possible solution.
I'll have a look at that one too.

Thanks a lot for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

You're welcome.

I'd say completely remove KDE.
But cannot say much beyond that as I have never installed it, much less along another desktop.

Someone else here may have a suggestion on how to do that properly.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Good question.

I first came across Network-Manager long ago, when I moved around looking for a distribution that I felt comfortable with.
From what I have read on the forum lately, it seems it has only gotten worse.

Unfortunately, WiCD has been in abandoned state for the last 12 years or so.
There have been timid attempts to do something but without any result, like if it was a curse.

I'll have to see about something else.
But not Network-Manager.

So does xarchiver, it was a question of being able to 'Compress ...' from the PCManFM drop down menu and add a password just like you could do it when opening the application directly.

All it took was a suggestion to the maintainer who very rapidly acted on what he (also) thought was a good idea* and that was it.
* instead of replying something to the effect of why don't you do it yourself.   

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

That sort of narrows things down a bit.

Right ...
Xserver definitely involved and may have an issue (?) with that xfce plug-in.
Not at all surprised.

When I first set up xfce, the first thing I discovered was that I had to get rid of anything xfce power management related.
But then I have a workstation, not a laptop.

That said, I don't think it anyone will be able to help past this preliminary evaluation unless you post some more data.
I certainly cannot.

You may want to consider posting:

1.
the dmesg printout

~$ sudo dmesg --level=alert,crit,err,warn

2.
the Xorg.0.log file

~$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

You may also want to consider running a test by logging in as root and completely removing the xfce4-power-manager software package.

Then reboot and see if you can start the desktop without it.

~$ sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove xfce4-power-manager   

Using the purge options along with auto-remove, will get rid of everything regarding the xfce4-power-manager package.
That will be good for if/when you want to reinstall it again.
ie: (supposedly) no debris left behind.

Best,

A.

Hello:

You're welcome but it is really all IB's merit.

He is the one who has been keeping this very nice/useful (ca. 2005) application running and up to date for the last 9/10 years.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Not with synaptic (daedalus is not in my sources.list file) but wget got me a *.deb file a couple of minutes ago without issues:

~$ wget http://deb.devuan.org/merged/pool/DEBIAN/main/s/sudo/sudo_1.9.13p3-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
--2024-02-07 20:35:19--  http://deb.devuan.org/merged/pool/DEBIAN/main/s/sudo/sudo_1.9.13p3-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb
Resolving deb.devuan.org (deb.devuan.org)... 131.188.12.211, 147.78.194.22, 195.85.215.180, ...
Connecting to deb.devuan.org (deb.devuan.org)|131.188.12.211|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1889484 (1.8M) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: 'sudo_1.9.13p3-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb'

sudo_1.9.13p3-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb     100%[=============|<-snip->|=================>]   1.80M   652KB/s    in 2.8s    

2024-02-07 20:35:23 (652 KB/s) - 'sudo_1.9.13p3-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb' saved [1889484/1889484]
~$

HTH.

Best,

A.

Symantec?

Now, that was a real blast from the past. 8^°
Had not come across that name in maybe 15 years now.
I recall having seen some *.gho files and the MS portable executable to read them in one or two CDs somewhere within the pile of stuff to get rid of.

That said, you are (quite obviously) referring to synaptic, the GUI package manager a great many Linux users are fond of.

So that would make for two typos.  8^P !

Best,

A.

Hello:

I wrote it was interesting (to me and from where I sit) because I did not know about 90% of the things mentioned in the article.

That and that the concept/idea the author meant to get across made sense, again, to me.
ie: standards and consensus

Indeed it is.
I think it describes to a tee the present situation for Linux in general and Devuan in particular.

The US DoD thing should be taken with a few grains of salt but I don't think it is something to be dismissed.
If it does happen, it will have a cost for the Linux ecosystem.

Thank you for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Sure ...
Why not.
Seems to be doing fine. -> see steve_v's excellent explanation above
But ...
What about the security holes you have made reference to?
Please, humour me.

Neither am I, like you, just a user with just a few years' experience with MS and Linux under my belt.
ie: not a coder/programmer/maintainer. Can hardly manage to $ ./configure | $ make | # make install once in a blue moon.

Well, you should know by now that to get to more and more common all you need are enough posts constantly beating that same drum over and over again till it ends up becoming common enough.

Along the same lines and only to illustrate my point:   <- no intention of starting a discussion
In the US, the view that Wayland Donald Trump is more secure the best president they ever had is becoming more and more common.

I see.
Lacking that important piece of IT review, it would then seem that ... the view that Wayland is more secure ... does not have much to stand on.
Yes?

Given the bloat and its provenance, I (very) seriously doubt it.
Of course, YMMV.

Like I said, I am (like you) just a user so I cannot/would not do that.
ie: I lack the needed know-how / training.

What I can tell you is that I have continuously used X11 for a great many years through (in hindsight) far too many distributions and have had no issues with respect to security or anything a well written xorg.conf could not (99% of the time) fix.

As far as I am concerned, the burden of proof is on Wayland and not on X11.
ie: Wayland has to prove to be both better and more secure than X11.

Not the other way around.

Thank you for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Please excuse this rather off-topic (not 'Quote Button' related) post.

Indeed.

That said, I can clearly understand that this homogenization of all things Debian/Devuan with respect to the file system tree can (and most probably will) offer a more standardised way to attack any Debian based Linux system, but we will all just have to be more vigilant and careful.

This usrmerge is just one battle, not the war.
Some battles must be avoided to be able to stand and be able to fight another, more important one.   

Devuan can and will eventually be able to work around this usrmerge issue.
In my opinion (YMMV), a minor one.

I think that there are other Devuan users [many?/a lot?] that are in the same boat as I am and if so, it may be a good thing to consider that this usrmerge thing be the default from whatever Devuan version our overworked/understaffed devs/admis think would be least problematic onwards.

If interested, full post here.
Also see this article at ElReg.

*  underline is mine
** emphasis by article's author

Best,

A.