Hello:

Good to know.
Thanks.

The daemon(s) run in the guest, yes?

Lets see:
I boot the host and it autostarts the guest (headless) at some point in the boot process.
I can eventually login to the guest's desktop via the VirtualBox manager, but I am slowly getting used to doing most things via cmd line.  =^)

I log in to the host as soon as I get SLiM on screen and right upon getting the desktop, I load Pegasus Mail and Pale Moon.
But unless I wait a few seconds, I cannot get anything from either because there is no net connection available at that point.

I expect this is because Unbound and Pi-hole are not up and running yet.
Not because of the guest machine not being up yet.

Sound plausible?

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

On a whim, I added the vboxusers group to the guest machine and my userid to the group:

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ groups
groucho adm disk mail cdrom tape sudo backup plugdev users vboxsf vboxusers
groucho@dev-pihole:~$ 

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ cat /etc/group | grep vbox
vboxsf:x:999:groucho
vboxusers:x:1001:groucho
groucho@dev-pihole:~$ 

Unfortunately, the error in dmesg persists:

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i error
[   17.507723] 00:00:00.118675 vminfo   Error: Unable to connect to system D-Bus (1/3): Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
groucho@dev-pihole:~$

There are two instances of system_bus_socket.

1. In /var/run/dbus

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ ls /var/run/dbus
pid  system_bus_socket
groucho@dev-pihole:~$ 

2. In /run/dbus

groucho@dev-pihole:/run/dbus$ ls
pid  system_bus_socket
groucho@dev-pihole:/run/dbus$ 

This would be correct as they are linked:

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ ls -ald /run /var/run /var/lock /run/lock
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 920 Nov 20 16:26 /run
drwxrwxrwt  2 root root  80 Nov 20 16:27 /run/lock
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   9 Jun  6  2018 /var/lock -> /run/lock
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   4 Jun  6  2018 /var/run -> /run
groucho@dev-pihole:~$ 

So ...
Why doesn't vm find it?

I wonder where it is you have to tell it where to find it ...
Some *.conf file?

Best,

A.

Hello:

Sorry, I neglected to mention it.  8^/

My host runs on Beowulf:

groucho@devuan:~$ uname -a
Linux devuan 5.10.0-0.bpo.3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.13-1~bpo10+1 (2021-02-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux
groucho@devuan:~$ 

It runs VBox 6.1:

groucho@devuan:~$ vboxmanage --version
6.1.18r142142
groucho@devuan:~$ 

The guest runs on ascii:

groucho@dev-pihole:~$ uname -a
Linux dev-pihole 4.9.0-16-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.272-2 (2021-07-19) x86_64 GNU/Linux
groucho@dev-pihole:~$ 

I thought something like that would happen.
Mix & Match is usually not a good idea.
Unless backports?

So, I get this error in my guest's dmesg:
ie: when booting.

groucho@dev-pihole:/var/log$ sudo dmesg | grep -i error
[   18.005937] 00:00:00.181397 vminfo   Error: Unable to connect to system D-Bus (1/3): Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
groucho@dev-pihole:/var/log$ 

This seems to be related to VBox and dbus.

But ...
I also get this on the screen when I shutdown the host, found it in /var/log/messages:

groucho@devuan:/var/log$ cat messages | grep -i error
--- snip ---
Nov 19 22:38:23 localhost kernel: [21254.843754] traps: VBoxSVC[2451] trap int3 ip:7fa545efcddc sp:7ffe92195e50 error:0 in VBoxXPCOMIPCC.so[7fa545ef8000+f000]
--- snip ---
groucho@devuan:/var/log$

It seems to be related to VBox, just like the error in the guest.

Could these be related? Dumb question.  8^|

No problem.
It's the effort that counts. 8^)

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

For some reason the hardware was write-protected and mounted read-only.
It may be that the firmware did it because it detected a physical problem.
Or not ...  8^|

Check this Seagate link:
https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/k … -220091en/

If I were you and the files stored on the drive are safe/backed up, I'd clear it completely and reformat it.
Then check it to see it's health.

A.

Hello:

I've just installed it.
Straightforward, easily configured from the start and works right out of the box.
From what I have seen/tested, works exactly as intended.

The maintainer keeps a clear head:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … g=712137#8

Unless you are running some serious email stuff in your box, I'd say it is a great option.
Don't think you'll have unpleasant surprises like I had with Exim4.  8^|

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4379
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4672

---
Edit:
Besides needing to be in the mail group, you will also need to install the mailutils package.
Otherwise doing mail at the command line will not work.

Don't know why, I would have thought it to be a dependency.
---

Best,

A.

Hello:

Right.

What version?
The one in the Beowulf repository?
ie: 0.11-1+deb10u1

Thanks for your input.

A.

Hello:

Rather dissapointed to see that I'm probably the only one here using Pi-hole on a VM. 8^P

But I digress, so to the point:

The problem was not caused by the VBox VM / Exim4 starting order but by Exim4's default configuration / installation process / whatever.
ie: Exim4 was not waiting for the virtual machine to start but was obviously attempting to do something and not being able to do it.
Hence the delay at boot.

I really did not want to but finally ended up diving into the Exim4 configuration files.

On the suggestion of a (very kind) member of the exim-users list, I was given instructions for changing the 30s value on daemon_startup_sleep but that did not solve the problem.

While I was at it, I also tried playing with the reverse DNS values, including remming the whole reverse DNS block, also to no avail.
This left me with the impression that the problem (30s delay) was not at all related to the reverse DNS done by Exim4 or the daemon_startup_sleep value.

A last minute complete reinstall of Exim4 (typical MS strategy I really loathe) did not work either.

tl;dr

The solution was to add 'this' line to the the 'Main' section of the file exim4.conf.template:

disable_ipv6 = true

But I had to add it: it was not there by default.
ie: not disable_ipv6 = false, disable_ipv6 = true or even disable_ipv6 = so it would come up (?) when running dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config.

I was just shooting in the dark, no memory of how I got to doing that.
It was late, I was tired, cannot remember.

Probably the paniclog message I had not seen before?

In any case, to me this is another Exim4 bug.
I see it as a bug because this is happening even after a clean Exim4 installation on a Devuan installation with IPv6 disabled everywhere:

1.
The kernel command line includes the bit needed to disable ipv6 at boot:

ipv6.disable=1

2.
The /etc/hosts file has no machine readable IPv6 lines:

groucho@devuan:~$ cat /etc/hosts
#
127.0.0.1         localhost  devuan
#
# remmed to disable ip6
#::1              localhost       ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
#fe00::0          ip6-localnet
#fe00::0          ip6-mcastprefix
#fe02::1          ip6-allnodes
#fe02::1          ip6-allrouters
groucho@devuan:~$ 

3.
The /etc/ssh/ssh_config file includes the line needed to disable ipv6:

groucho@devuan:~$ cat /etc/ssh/ssh_config
--- snip ---
AddressFamily inet     # instead of 'any' or 'inet6'
--- snip ---
groucho@devuan:~$

So that was it, Exim4 was attempting to do something on IPv6 but not being able to do it.
In spite of IPv6 being disabled at the kernel command line, /etc/hosts and /etc/ssh/ssh_config.

The end result being a 30s delay at boot.

Have a good week-end.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Seems it is: Desktop and Multimedia

Me thinks you may have not searched well enough.

https://www.google.com/search?q=xfburn+ … CA0&uact=5

The link above will get you 166 results.
You may want to check some of them out.  8^)

That said:
I have xfburn 0.5.5 on Devuan Beowulf with a backported kernel:

:~$ uname -a
Linux devuan 5.10.0-0.bpo.3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.13-1~bpo10+1 (2021-02-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux
:~$ 

What version of Devuan are you using?

The xfburn GUI starts up properly, would have to find a blank to test as I have not burnt a CD/DVD in a good while.

Is your device properly recognised?
ie: xfburn -> Edit -> Preferences -> Devices

Are the proper boxes ticked in the 'Detected devices' window?
ie: Write CD-R, Write CD-RW, Write DVD-R, Write DVD-RAM, Write Blu-ray.

At what point in the process do you get the error message?
Have you tested the burner with another application to rule out the hardware being the problem?

A.

Hello:

For the longest time more or less the same was said of Xorg-server.
But there it is, born again so to speak.

https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/in … 1.1.tar.gz

Reminds me of reports of deaths being greatly exaggerated ...  8^D

This thanks to someone (Povilas Kanapickas) who stepped up.
And despite this dumb Python2 decision, I believe Wicd will also survive.

Apparently SLiM (ArchWiki) it is not fully compatible with systemd, including logind sessions.

It is an excellent example of Linux philosophy, I like it much more than any of the other DMs I have tried.
ie: lightweight, easy to configure, requires minimal dependencies and is independent of the DE: ticks all the boxes.

SLiM works for me on Devuan so that's what I use.
I recall that installing SLiM solved all the auth/log-in issues I was having in Devuan by not having a DM.

--> I think it should be the default Devuan DM.

I have read that GhostBSD 10.3 dropped GDM in favour of SLiM back in 2016 and is still there.
See http://www.ghostbsd.org/10.3_enoch

Hopefully someone will eventually step up and update it so it can be used with non-systemd distributions.

Use a systemd distro?
Then use one of those other bloated DMs.

If I cannot have it in the future, I'll just opt for not using a DM and see how I manage to work things out.

Best,

A.

Hello:

No.
Sorry if I was not clear.
Too early or too late, can't recall. 8^|

I had a long unused Devuan ascii (VBox) virtual machine on my U24 and managed to install Pi-Hole v5.6 on it.
I found a video on line with instructions on how to do it on Ubuntu Server (roughly same thing) and the run it as a recursive DNS server.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnFtWsZ8IP0

You have to watch it a few times to get a grasp of it, especially if you have not done it before but it is roughly all there.
The chap talks a bit fast, you'll have to do some stop/backwards with the video feed and strain your eyes a bit.

It does involve a no-no: an automated install script from the Pi-Hole website but you have alternatives if that makes you feel unsafe.

Installing Pi-Hole on Devuan ascii was quite straightforward although it is not a supported OS, you just have to override the initial OS check.
Instructions are on-screen when you run the script.

Then you have to install unbound for the DNS server bit.
Find it on the Devuan repository.

I then set the Devuan ascii virtual machine to start at boot and that's about it.
See https://pgaskin.net/linux-tips/configur … autostart/

A small side effect is that my box's boot sequence lags for a shortish while when the system starts the MTA.
This is due to a failed reverse DNS lookup that Exim4 is attempting at boot and happens because the DNS running on the virtual machine is not up yet.

Haven't found a suitable solution for that yet.

------
EDIT I:
It's an exim4 caused problem.

Solution to that here: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=4672
------

As for how Pi-Hole works, it seems alright but there are quite a few things that require uBlock to remain in my browser (Pale Moon).
You Tube adds is one of them.

I still have to dive into Pi-Hole fine tuning, just a question of time.

------
EDIT II:
Fine tuning was basically disabling the Pi-hole cache and letting the Unbound DNS do that job on the VM.

See: https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/recurs … a766d4f703

As for You Tube ads, it seems that your best bet would be uBlock.
------

Some things are supposed to be intercepted/sunk by Pi-Hole but they still show up as blocked by uBlock, have to do dome research on that.

------
EDIT III:

The reason to that is that while Pi-hole just blocks requests to ads, uBlock still thinks that there are ads to be blocked, even though they were blocked by Pi-hole. Pi-hole can't modify the web site that you see, so it can't signal to uBlock that an ad is blocked.

The only way for uBlock to know that Pi-hole blocked an ad is to see if the ad's image/resources are missing.
Otherwise, uBlock sees that there's a match against their filter, even if it's already blocked, and tries to block it.
But that means it is blocking an empty element.
ie: already blocked by Pi-Hole.
------

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.