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#76 Re: Off-topic » The story of Mel » 2026-06-22 09:59:06
Hello:
... the "further reading" sub-section contains an image containing Mel Kaye.
Nice find!
Note that the list of students (seated at the table) in the photo includes a spook suit student from the NSA.
Best,
A.
#77 Off-topic » The story of Mel » 2026-06-18 09:32:36
- Altoid
- Replies: 2
Hello:
Going through one of my daily rags, I came across a post with a reference to this link, which I am rather reluctantly posting here ie: the Off-topic page.
Not because it is not a truly delightful and inspiring read but because if it is so to a non-programmer like me, it will surely be of much higher significance to those who understand, make a living and/or dedicate time and effort to that very specific craft/art.
As such, it deserves to be in a much more important section of the forum or maybe become a sticky of sorts.
I think that there is a very important lesson to be had in those lines.
Best,
A.
#78 Re: Packaging for Devuan » request for a new Zettelkasten assistant » 2026-06-17 20:57:57
Hello:
... new note-taking package ...
... added to the repos. It's called 'zk'.
zk is not available in the official Debian repositories, which is the reason for it not being in the Devuan repositories.
If and when it gets included in the Debian repositories and has no 'unfixable' dependencies on systemd, you will find it after a few days in the Devuan repositories.
Until then, you (most probably) have the option of building it from source.
Best,
A.
#79 Re: Desktop and Multimedia » Authorization required in Gajim » 2026-06-17 11:17:05
Hello:
... get rid of it too.
Ditto.
Best,
A.
#80 Re: Installation » overlay-root » 2026-06-16 13:05:20
Hello:
Sorry for the delay in answering, was away from my kb.
Or maybe the kb was away from me? 8^°
... worked and I didn't notice a difference.
Good to know.
... use overlay-boot on several servers ...
... bit of trial-and-error getting things set up, but for the most part it's been working well.
Thank you for the detail but I fear it is all rather over my head.
But it is good to know it works as you intended which means that it will most probably work for me.
So, one down. 8^)
... any particular question about overlay-boot?
The basic question for me would be if it will work for my (simple?) use case and most important, how to go about it.
To wit:
1.
Not decided yet but most probably will not be entering the Devuan Excalibur scene.
Reasons being how complicated it is getting (and will get) and the fact that (as mentioned) my box* works perfectly well with Daedalus.
That means I will not purchase any new core hardware (MB, PSU, etc.) save something wreaking havoc with my Sun U24.
Possible exceptions would be finding the odd SAS2/3 spare and matching controller, or a four socket PCI-E video card to replace the twin two socket FX580s for a decent price (liberating a PCI-E slot) or having to replace one or both of the SyncMaster 940n flanking a newer but also discontinued Dell P1914S.
*
TL;DR: all hardware that will run perfectly well with Devuan Daedalus (or even Chimaera) without a hitch - PBKAC being the obvious exception.
My idea (if feasible) is to run a Devuan Daedalus box in a highly protected space, isolated from the web for work/office crap.
And at the same time have web access by other means. eg: a VM running an up-to-date Devuan live ISO with some sort of sandboxed environment for banking, sharing downloads or video streaming (which I do quite a bit at these days).
My box hosts a headless Devuan Chimaera VM with a Pi-hole/Unbound DNS which could be moved to a RPi3B+ living in a drawer. It may then justify the time and money I spent on the bloody thing and in doing so, liberate memory (8Gb) and CPU (Intel Q9550) cycles for running the above setup.
That is about it.
Best,
A.
#81 Installation » overlay-root » 2026-06-15 12:42:00
- Altoid
- Replies: 8
Hello:
Aside from a post post by Ralph Ronnquist from early 2023, I have not seen or read about anyone using it.
Q: anyone using overlayroot?
Asking because I will most probably not upgrade to Excalibur, Daedalus works perfectly well with my ca. 2007 hardware, just like it did with Jesse / ascii onwards.
Best,
A.
#82 Re: Installation » [SOLVED] missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/ » 2026-06-14 13:18:13
Hello:
Is this an issue?
Not necessarily, more so if your graphics are working properly.
I had the same issue with my Nvidia Quadro FX 580s and Nouveau drivers.
If so, how to fix it?
See here: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=51169#p51169
Best,
A.
#83 Re: Devuan » Why not use runit? Do you guys use runit? » 2026-06-08 21:57:35
Hello:
Stability, simplicity,code correctness, robustness and reliability ...
Could not have said it better.
+10
Best,
A.
#84 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » [SOLVED] Screen randomly turns black » 2026-06-08 20:59:22
Hello:
... seems to occur due to some changes (or bugs) in XFCE's power management.
I got rid of all XFCE power management stuff back in ascii, it was a PITA.
Best,
A.
#85 Re: Devuan » Why not use runit? Do you guys use runit? » 2026-06-08 18:24:22
Hello:
@blackhole: agree on all, good analysis.
Seems we are more or less on the same page.
... if you're just a desktop user ...
... except for perhaps slightly faster boot times.
Yes, perhaps is the right word.
And even then, just how much faster?
5 to 10s (!) less boot time?
Every morning, I switch on my box and go see if my moka pot has finished brewing my coffee.
I'm ready to log in when I sit down, mug in hand.
Best,
A.
#86 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » [SOLVED] Screen randomly turns black » 2026-06-08 14:54:27
Hello:
... two commands I have tried did not work.
The screen went black again. Whatever that means.
Means the same thing as before: screen is going to sleep. 8^°
As you can see from your printout ...
--- snip ---
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
Standby: 0 Suspend: 0 Off: 0
DPMS is Enabled
Monitor is On
--- snip ---... DPMS is/was enabled.
What does $ xset q say now?
ie: after the commands.
BTW: what desktop have you installed?
If XFCE, have you read this? it is in the body of https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=31558#p31558
XScreenSaver
If xscreensaver is installed and runs alongside Xfce Power Manager, it may not be clear which application is in control of blanking and DPMS as both are competing for control of the same settings. Therefore, in a situation where it is important that the monitor not be blanked (when watching a video for instance), it is advisable to disable blanking and DPMS through both applications. To know more about XScreenSaver options, see XScreenSaver#DPMS and blanking settings.
Best,
A.
#87 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » [SOLVED] Screen randomly turns black » 2026-06-08 13:33:14
Hello:
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 600 cycle: 600There you go ... 8^D
Your screen is blanking because it is set up to do so every 600 seconds.
As to why it did not happen before (Daedalus) and is happening now (Excalibur), I have no idea.
The solution is probably here ...
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=31539#p31539
... or here:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … acking-out
I have no experience with how to set those parameters, maybe someone else can chip in.
Best,
A.
#88 Re: Documentation » Exploring Help systems semantics » 2026-06-08 13:05:37
Hello:
Pity to miss "man pages" ...
8^)
Best,
A.
#89 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » [SOLVED] Screen randomly turns black » 2026-06-08 12:41:02
Hello:
... new to the forum ...
Welcome to Dev1.
... my screen, while in the X environment, randomly (could be 1 minute, could be 20 minutes…) turns to black.
There is (in all probability) nothing wrong with your screen, it is just going to sleep.
Proof: it comes alive after touching the pad.
See this thread: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4502
There may be an answer on how to stop this behaviour there.
Edit:
Please open a terminal and run ...
~$ xset q... then post the output so we can see what is going on with the settings.
Specific to what is going on with your screen are these:
--- snip ---
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: xxx allow exposures: xxx
timeout: xxx cycle: xxx
--- snip ---Best,
A.
#90 Re: Devuan » Why not use runit? Do you guys use runit? » 2026-06-08 11:42:19
Hello:
... sysV for many years without any problems, so see no reason to change.
Indeed.
Like I wrote elsewhere:
Choosing anything other than the default Devuan [ext4] filesystem implies that you are absolutely sure that you have a use case that really justifies your doing so, a second implication being that you are sufficiently versed in the options being considered.
This (quite obviously) also applies to choosing any init package other than the default Devuan [sysvinit], something of a trend in the last few years.From where I see it, keeping the default options is a basic part of the KISS principle.
ie: if it works as advertised / needed, is adequately supported and has not given you any grief, use the default.In my case as a 100% Linux user for the last 14 years (the last 8 or so with Devuan), I have never (ever) had any isssues with [sysvinit] or [ext4].
Of course, 'choice' is a good thing to have.
For when it is needed and you absolutely know why you need it.
Not just for the sake of it.
Best,
A.
#91 Re: Devuan » Why not use runit? Do you guys use runit? » 2026-06-08 09:25:55
Hello:
Runit seems fine.
Sure ...
Would not be in the repositories if that were not so.
Sysvinit also seems fine.
Being the default init package in Devuan since my first installation (jesse), it has always been what my systems used.
Other pre-systemd distributions I went through also had it as the default, again with no issues.
I never saw/noticed/came across any problem found to be related to sysvinit.
I cannot see a use case for any other init package.
ie: works as expected out of the box with no issues.
Best,
A.
#92 Re: Other Issues » [SOLVED] Unintended reboot » 2026-06-04 11:11:33
Hello:
... Dell 9020 reboots on every shutdown unless I explicitly hit the power button after shutdown ...
I have had a similar issue with my Sun U24 WS for years, fortunately it is not at every shutdown but just when the %$#"¿ crap BIOS feels like it.
I have found that it occurs when there are sharp changes in ambient temperature between booting and shutting down, most probably due to a badly written BIOS + a faulty/wrong on-board sensor spec, so it is an issue I decided to ignore.
That said, yours seems to be a well known issue with that Dell rig.
A quick web search with the unsolicited Google IA intervention (?) brought up this*:
If your Dell OptiPlex 9020 is randomly rebooting on Linux, it is usually triggered by a kernel panic upon hardware conflict, failing storage, or power supply issues.
* to be taken with a few grains of salt. 8^°
See here.
If sudo halt works, you may want to write up a script to shut it down via sudo halt && sudo shutdown -now.
Check the respective man files for the proper syntax.
Best,
A.
#93 Off-topic » Off Topic but relevant. » 2026-05-29 17:22:55
- Altoid
- Replies: 1
Hello:
And quite relevant at that.
Article by Liam Proven in today's edition of The Register.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That an app 'Fits on a Floppy' is still a useful measure in 2026
In a world of mass-produced bot-slopware, small is more beautiful than ever
by Liam Proven Published Fri 29 May 2026 // 09:15 UTC
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a good week-end.
Best,
A.
#94 Re: Installation » [SOLVED] Unknown file » 2026-05-22 14:07:23
Hello:
No idea as to why it is there.
Doing some more digging found that, at some point and for reasons unknown, I did ...
# ldconfig -p
#... which can only be executed with elevated priviliges.
From man ldconfig:
-p
--print-cache
Print the lists of directories and candidate libraries stored in the current cache.
As it was just a print I tried it, with the result being a huge printout in the terminal:
[root@devuan ~]# ldconfig -p
1442 libs found in cache `/etc/ld.so.cache'
libz3.so.4 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz3.so.4
libz3.so.4 (libc6) => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz3.so.4 ...
--- snip ---
ld-linux.so.2 (ELF) => /lib/ld-linux.so.2
ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
Cache generated by: ldconfig (Debian GLIBC 2.36-9+deb12u14) stable release version 2.36
[root@devuan ~]# No idea as to how that got in the /root directory but I deleted it.
The cache itself is in /etc/ld.so.cache.
That's all I could find, so I guess I can mark it solved.
Best,
A.
#95 Re: Installation » [SOLVED] Unknown file » 2026-05-21 17:36:07
Hello:
What kind of file is it?
It has no extension.
According to mc:
Size: 106771
Modify time: Apr 26 2025
Can you see inside it with ...
Yes.
... text editor and have a look?
It has some code (?), starting with the string glibc-ld.so.cache1.1 and ending with ldconfig (Debian GLIBC 2.36-9+deb12u10) stable release version 2.36.
No idea as to why it is there.
Can't remember what I was doing last thursday, much less on Apr 26 2025.
My guess is that it can be safely deleted but I have been wrong many times so I thought I's ask. 8^°
Thanks to both for the fast reply.
Best,
A.
#96 Installation » [SOLVED] Unknown file » 2026-05-21 11:10:00
- Altoid
- Replies: 4
Hello:
Doing some clean-up of leftovers from the various dist-upgrades I have gone through since jesse/ascii (actually found a netscape.desktop file) I came across a strange file.
#/root/fpvAny idea as to what it is?
I cannot find a reference to it save 'first person view' drones setups which I do not have.
Please advise.
Best,
A.
#97 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » Accidental success: Devuan on a HP ZBook » 2026-05-17 00:19:26
Hello:
"but wouldn't boot cleanly"
... should have been more explicit.
Indeed ... 8^D
... would boot as far as GRUB ...
Ahh ...
So, as I thought, the system did boot.
You just did not get a desktop because (most probably)* as you did not install the GRUB bootloader, the system booted into GRUB2.
No fault of yours as it seems that the GRUB package is not included in the available installation images from Daedalus onwards.
See here:
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=7970
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=63791#p63791
Probably because ... 'reasons'?
ie: the desperate need of imposing all that UEFI crap of anyone and everyone.
* My memory is a bit hazy, the last Linux Devuan I installed on a clean drive was either Jesse or ascii, long ago.
From then on, it has been dist-upgrades for my BIOS (non-UEFI) Sun U24 WS.
... lacked the skills or knowledge to get it go any further.
At this point it does not matter.
ie: you have installed Mint, which found a Devuan installation and solved the issue you had by installing the GRUB bootloader*.
* educated guess, corrections welcome.
If interested in learning your way around a non-systemd Linux, you may want to read up on how to properly install Devuan from the various files available for download.
Mint doing everything on 'automatic' is nice and straightforward.
But you won't learn much. 8^°
Best,
A.
#98 Re: Hardware & System Configuration » Accidental success: Devuan on a HP ZBook » 2026-05-16 20:59:07
Hello:
... my surprise when the Linux Mint installation told me I already had Devuan installed ...
As you surely know, Mint is a systemd distribution and I cannot but wonder if HP UEFI just plays nicer with systemd present than when it is not.
Just a thought.
When you say "but wouldn't boot cleanly" I understand (like the Mint installer) that Devuan was installed and actually booted, albeit with something not being right.
Could you please tell us just what you are making reference to?
Best,
A.
#99 Re: Installation » How install hplip-3.25.8? » 2026-05-15 12:35:56
Hello:
... metric-ton of dev packages ...
Same here.
... and none end in ".devel".
But ...
Have you searched for packages using *-devel?*
* maybe not enough Joe? 8^P
My TimeShift snapshots stash say my system had these two years ago:
$ locate *-devel
/2024-03-09_07-37-32/localhost/usr/share/doc/libfontconfig1-dev/fontconfig-devel
/2024-03-09_07-37-32/localhost/usr/share/doc-base/fontconfig-devel
/2024-03-15_08-30-04/localhost/usr/share/doc/libfontconfig1-dev/fontconfig-devel
/2024-03-15_08-30-04/localhost/usr/share/doc-base/fontconfig-devel
/2024-05-23_08-50-02/localhost/usr/share/doc/libfontconfig1-dev/fontconfig-devel
/2024-05-23_08-50-02/localhost/usr/share/doc-base/fontconfig-devel
$ That said, my present Daedalus system has nothing with *-devel in the name.
A very quick look at the web (whatever that is these days) found that -dev is Debian/Ubuntu ware and -devel is RedHat/CentOS/Fedora ware. Take it with a few grains of low sodium salt.
Best,
A.
#100 Re: Installation » How install hplip-3.25.8? » 2026-05-13 23:20:50
Hello:
... understood ...
No, I'm afraid you have not understood.
Maybe it is a language problem, the answers posted somehow lost in translation?
No idea.
... but why exactly lasted hplip do not want to install at Devuan ...
The answer to your question is really quite simple:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The package you are attempting to install has not been packaged for Devuan by the Devuan maintainers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to know why the hplip-3.25.8 package you downloaded (which is not a *.deb file) will not "install at Devuan" you will have to ask the maintainers:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/hplip/ … ip/3.25.8/
To be able to do that you have to join the sourceforge.org mailing list:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/hplip/lists/hplip-help
Once you have joined, you can log-in:
And post the question:
https://sourceforge.net/p/hplip/mailman/hplip-help/
Your argument [... debian repos always have unfresh old software.] is quite clearly not a valid one.
The hplip package in the Devuan repositories works as intended and (for the moment) is the only one available for Devuan.
I hope I have cleared up your doubts.
Best,
A.
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