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Hello:
I have recently installed Devuan 32 bit ASCII on my (old but trusty) Asus 1000HE, in preparation for (eventually) ridding myself of the present XP installation which I still use for some things like tax returns and coffee roasting software.
groucho@devuan:~$ uname -a
Linux devuan 4.9.0-9-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 4.9.168-1 (2019-04-12) i686 GNU/Linux
groucho@devuan:~$
For the moment Devuan boots from an SD Card holding grub while the rest of the installaton is on the HD.
This allows me to boot into XD when I need to and at the same time not have to mess with the drive's mbr.
The rig works (quite) well and the hardware is holding up almost as well as my Palm IIIxe's. (!)
Unfortunately, one of the USB ports has a broken tab so there's some surgery ahead.
---
I am really very thankful for having a 32bit systemd free installation such as Devuan available, hopefully 32bit support will continue for a few years.
---
I've been going though the logs to see what needs tuning/unloading/fixing as this Atom N280@166/2Gb RAM system needs not be unduly taxed.
eg: there are no serial, parallel or PS/2 ports, among other things which are loading modules.
There are also some things that I use every so often but are not working properly, eg: Asus hot keys.
One thing I have found in dmesg is this:
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i eee
[ 8.043608] eeepc_wmi: Found legacy ATKD device (ASUS010)
[ 8.043690] eeepc_wmi: WMI device present, but legacy ATKD device is also present and enabled
[ 8.043784] eeepc_wmi: You probably booted with acpi_osi="Linux" or acpi_osi="!Windows 2009" <---- ???
[ 8.043877] eeepc_wmi: Can't load eeepc-wmi, use default acpi_osi (preferred) or eeepc-laptop
[ 8.043977] eeepc-wmi: probe of eeepc-wmi failed with error -16
groucho@devuan:~$
The thing is that my kernel command line does not have acpi_osi="Linux" or acpi_osi="!Windows 2009".
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo dmesg
--- snip ---
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-9-686-pae root=UUID=24b98eaa-bf67-4746-a866-473cac307016 ro ipv6.disable=1 enable_mtrr_cleanup
--- /snip ---
So ...
What is to be done with this?
I have not been able to find out just what a legacy ATKD device is.
Combing through lshw I did find an unclaimed device:
*-display:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Display controller
product: Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f7f80000-f7ffffff
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
Try ...
Neat ... =-D!
Thanks for the tip.
A.
Hello:
... the mantainer of the package xfce4 dont agree ...
We may be drifting off topic here ...
But jo make my position clear: I'm not nocking Linux or Devuan, quite the contrary.
It is just that (IMO) what XFCE does by forcing the installation of (unneeded) Orage and on top of that, making it impossible to uninstall without also uninstalling XFCE altogether is contrary to the basic philosophy behind Linux:
------------------- > Do one thing and do it well.
There are other programs/maintainers that do this same sort of thing.
Must have all learnt how to do it at the Redmond Academy. 8-D!!!
Different opinions, not big deal ...
Well ...
It's the same type of different opinion than generated the need for Devuan.
systemd is also a different opinion on how to do things and also contrary to the basic philosophy behind Linux.
... is very simple: not install the package xfce4 ...
Just what I am doing: openbox and tint2 work quite well for the time being.
... point Altoid talk about is very important for me.
It is of the utmost importance, not only to both of us but for how Linux will continue to develop.
Thanks a lot for your input.
Best,
A.
Hello:
... can't really install such a configuration without already having a configuration ...
Indeed !!! LoL
Only after a good while did I realise how dumb my question was.
ie:
You have to know where the source is to know where the source is.
A chicken or egg? thing. 8-/
So when I got home I cp'd the sources.list file from my other desktop setup to /etc/apt and that was it.
... assuming your can trust it ...
Hmmm ...
For all my Devuan things I trust only Devuan sources.
Or ones that have been adequately verified by other derived distributions/groups.
... of highest importance security-wise that the machine administrator knows exactly what the "apt sub system" configuration is.
There is no escape from putting enough cognitive effort into learning it.
Quite so ...
For all my Linux experiences, I have (almost) always used synaptic, but with this installation on my trusty 1000HE, I have been rather enjoying the command line once again.
Reminds me of my long gone DOS days and hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace soon enough.
... includes the "pinning" aspect, which is configured in the /etc/apt/preferences.d/* files, and the "general apt parameters" of /etc/apt/apt.conf and the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/* files.
Right. Duly noted, thanks for the heads up.
Hopefully I'll one day be able to do anything on the command line in Linux. =-)
... devised at a time when the nuances of "trust" were less developed ...
... totally off parity with its importance.
Maybe that will change one day, if we all put enough behind that notion.
There's too much bad influence out there, convenience seems to have become the word.
Thanks for your input.
A.
Hello:
Is there a way to retrieve the /etc/apt/sources.list file from the command line?
Something like this:
# apt-get install sources.list <- just an idea, I know it does not work
Or do I have to jed and edit sources.list by hand?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
... defaults of any OS instalations are just that, the defaults.
Of course ...
My point being that getting Orage installed by default when installing the XFCE desktop does not seem to have any justification.
Or is it an essential part of XFCE, without which XFCE does not function at all or is in any way hampered?
... glad to know that your problem is fixed.
Thanks.
A.
Hello:
This time the installation went through without any issues but the result has been the same as before, in the two machines I have.
But it will not boot.I just get a j (lowercase) followed by a blinking underscore.
ie: j_
I managed to fix the problem but have no idea why it happened or how to avoid it happening.
To fix it, with the USB installation in place, I booted with a Devuan ASCII 2.0.0_i386_DVD-1 installer DVD, went to Rescue Mode and reinstalled GRUB to the USB stick (/dev/sdb).
And that was it.
The drive booted into GRUB and upon logging in I installed XFCE4 which, after a reboot, started without any issues (for the time being).
rant
It's a pity that installing a desktop drags so much stuff in with it ...
eg: I did not ask for an Orage Calendar or Orage Globaltime.
But there it is.
And uninstalling it also uninstalls XFCE4 (and only XFCE4).
Reminds me of some similar MS practises we have all suffered at some time or another ...
/rant
But the problem is fixed.
Thanks for your input.
A.
Hello:
Yes. Repeat the procedure. At the first error ...
I've repeated the procedure.
But in case there was some issue with the SDCard, this time I carried out the installation using the same devuan_ascii_2.0.0_i386_netinst.iso burnt to a CD instead of dd'd to an SD Card.
Again, the CD-ROM was correctly verified.
This time the installation went through without any issues but the result has been the same as before, in the two machines I have.
But it will not boot.
I just get a j (lowercase) followed by a blinking underscore.
ie: j_
The fdisk -l output is the same, only difference is where the boot partition starts (2048 instead of 4096):
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdf
[sudo] password for groucho:
Disk /dev/sdf: 7.2 GiB, 7757398016 bytes, 15151168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000312cd
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdf1 * 2048 9220095 9218048 4.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 9222142 15151103 5928962 2.8G 5 Extended
/dev/sdf5 9222144 12294143 3072000 1.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf6 12296192 15151103 2854912 1.4G 83 Linux
groucho@devuan:~$
A.
Hello:
... everything except 'Standard system utilities' at the tasksel window ...
It refused to do it.
ie: failed at that point in the installation.
Retried a number of times but the only way I was able to continue and write GRUB to the USB stick was to uncheck that.
But it will not boot.
I just get a j (lowercase) followed by a blinking underscore.
ie: j_
I'm having a very hard time with this installation, no idea what's going on.
The .iso file I downloaded checked out perfectly well and the installer verified the "CD-ROM" so that's not it.
This is what I have:
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdf
[sudo] password for groucho:
Disk /dev/sdf: 7.2 GiB, 7757398016 bytes, 15151168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000312cd
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdf1 * 4096 9220095 9216000 4.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2 9222142 15151103 5928962 2.8G 5 Extended
/dev/sdf5 9222144 12294143 3072000 1.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdf6 12296192 15151103 2854912 1.4G 83 Linux
groucho@devuan:~$
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
... If you choose one of the desktops in the installer, you get the task-xxx-desktop package that pulls in everything else.
I see ...
... un-check everything except 'Standard system utilities' at the tasksel window, you'll get a working cli-only system, and you can then install xfce4 and whatever else you want.
OK, sound like it may be pretty much what I need.
I suppose it configures the wired network?
... install from CD-1 without a network mirror.
... a working desktop with a bunch of the usual stuff missing.
... not sure if that includes libreoffice or not.
I think it does.
Thanks for your input.
A.
Hello:
I'm needing to install Devuan with just the main stuff + XFCE so I can complete the installation later on once bootedup and running.
eg: no Open Office, among other things.
But I see no way of doing this in Devuan ASCII netinst, even with the advanced option.
Any way to do this?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
... you can boot from the SD card ...
Yes.
Hitting esc at boot time gives me what Asus rather awkwardly calls the BBS Popup (Boot Selection Popup) menu, where I can choose from HDD, SD Card slot or whatever is plugged into whichever one of the three USB 2.0 ports has something booteable plugged in. I haven't been able to find out what the extra B in BBS stands for, but it sounds/looks bad. =-D!
... should be able to install grub to the SD card, put / on the SD card, and put /home /var and swap on the HDD.
OK
... normal installation that can be updated/upgraded.
That's great.
If you want to install to the usb stick ...
No, not really.
In my experience, I have found some USB ports to be liable to have problems, not in the contacts (unless abused) but with the plastic 'tonge' that is supposed to be the support for whatever is plugged in.
Unfortunately, it is far too easy to inadvertently exert force on the plugged in whatever in such a way that it leverages this plastic piece up/down.
After a number of these instances (think 2010 to today) and even if they are very slight, the plastic will eventually weaken and then break off.
Which is why I'd rather boot from the SD slot.
... it is possible to boot to ram and then install to the same stick.
What would drive me to boot to RAM is that it would be a faster read while installing.
... leave 2MB free space before the first partition.
Grub might need that. Gparted insists on leaving 1MB.
Keep your eye on that.
Will do. Once again, thanks for the heads up.
2MB it is then. =-)
Thanks a lot for your input.
A.
Hello:
It should work ...
OK, one down. =-)
... it's normal to have different partitions on different drives.
I thought as much once I realised I could split / from the rest of the installation and boot my main rig from a SSD.
Have not done it yet.
I really like Linux's ability to put things in their own place.
I recall that in another life/another OS, I put both the /swap and a /programs directory on separate partitions.
I did not trust the MS 'program files' arrangement.
Not to much use besides keeping things tidy as a lot of stuff still ended up in /program files.
Eventually I put the swap file in the same partition as /programs as all that took a toll speedwise.
Take note of what the device names are when you boot from usb vs. booting from internal disk.
Of course, thanks for the heads up.
Using uuids in fstab should help with that.
OK.
What worries me a bit is the actual process, eg:
1. boot Devuan ASCII (to ram?) from image dd'd to a USB stick.
2. install to the second partition (ext4) on HDD, where the first partition (NTFS) holds the XP installation.
3. make sure /, boot record and GRUB are installed to the SC Card in the slot.
Q1.: How do I make that last part of the process failsafe?
Q2.: Am I correct in assuming that installing ASCII in this manner will allow for updating?
It is something I have found booting from an *.iso with persistance will not and mess it all up.
Thanks for your input.
A.
Hello:
I've seen that I could boot my ASCII rig from a 32Gb SDD (holding just / ) with the rest of the installation ie: /home, /var and /swap residing on separate partitions in another HD.
I was wondering if I could do something analogous with my Asus 1000HE 2Gb netbook on which I need to run XP for some time yet.
ie: boot from a USB or SD card holding just / and with the rest of the installation ie: /home, /var and /swap residing on separate partitions in the netbook's HD, where the first partition and the boot record belong to XP.
I have attempted to boot with an *.iso image and use the persistence option but it has proven to be rather problematic.
Thanks in advance.
A.
Edited: dyslexical spelling mistakes.
Hello:
It seems that there's a bug (race condiiton) in the kernel's CPUFreq code, only discovered from 4.20 due to some changes in the kernel.
I understand it is still an issue in the 5.0 kernel. (read it somewhere but now I just cannot find the link ...)
See:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199349#c4
I happen to have a shutdown hang issue with my rig and was wondering if the fact that I have cpufrequtils installed makes things worse.
It is set at 'performance' with no min o max settings so that it does not kick in (I guess it does not).
But the issue is still there. =-/
Would uninstalling cpufrequtils and using linux-cpupower instead for setting performance help in any way?
Is all this (cpufreq and linux-cpupower) in any way related to cpuidle and how it works?
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i cpuidle
[ 0.172005] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[ 0.188005] cpuidle: using governor menu
groucho@devuan:~$
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
... lost our understanding of April fools jokes?
No ...
Providing April's Fool pranks are something you are sufficiently acquainted with to understand what they are about.
If not, just like you (apparently sufficiently acquainted), people who are not (a great many others) will also be fooled.
And therefore rightly alarmed.
Enough to send an Admin a mail, like I did.
... think it was pretty funny - gopher!
I would ask you to consider that sufficiently acquainted actually entails knowing where necessary limits lay.
ie: what can be considered an April's Fool joke and what ends up being a stupid prank reflecting in the worse possible manner on its author.
Becasue with respect to humour, a basic sense of oportunity, grasp of context and timing are what make the difference between being funny or an utter dick-head.
I certainly did not find it funny and am really very dissapointed to have seen this happen here.
Of course, YMMV.
A.
Hello:
... if I can bash out a modification.
It would seem that acpitool is just an application that writes to /proc/acpi/wakeup, just like you would do by using echo.
Found a helping hand at Stack Overflow and put this script to execute at boot (in rc.local)
#!/bin/sh
# set /proc/acpi/wakeup to disabled with acpitool
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:
for i in $(seq 1 9)
do
/usr/bin/acpitool -W $i
done
groucho@devuan:~$
This is the result, sleep to all input devices seen by acpitool set to disabled:
$ acpitool -w
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
---------------------------------------
1. USB0 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.0
2. USB1 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.1
3. USB2 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.2
4. USB5 S4 *disabled
5. EUSB S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.7
6. USB3 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.0
7. USB4 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.1
8. USB6 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.2
9. USBE S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.7
10. P0P1 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:01.0
11. P0P2 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:06.0
12. P0P3 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.0
13. BR11 S4 *disabled
14. BR12 S4 *disabled
15. BR13 S4 *disabled
16. P0P4 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.4
17. BR15 S4 *disabled
18. P0P5 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1e.0
19. GBE S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:19.0
20. SLPB S4 *disabled
$
Cheers,
A.
Hello:
Rather than use acpitool ...
Indeed ...
That's the first option I came across when I started with this but I was at odds with the posted script because (as I understand it) it activates when the machine is going into suspend, which my machine will not do as I have turned off all PM options.
It's a Sun Ultra 24 with a buggy BIOS (last version available) and ACPI issues so as part of the intended fix, I have deactivated all PM features.
When I found sysctl (which does not work with /proc/sys) and then acpitool, I went with the latter as it did work and seemed rather more straightforward, albeit with my very clumsy script.
I'll look into the posted script again and see if I can bash out a modification. (pun intended). =-)
Thanks a lot for your input.
Cheers,
A.
Hello:
I could be wrong here but ...
There's a post here https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … 417_417965 that may indicate that you are right ...
/proc/acpi/wakeup is not a child of /proc/sys, sysctl doesn't work here.
... but it's over my pay grade, no idea how that works. =-/
... script is the "correct" solution.
Yes, the script is a solution and the one I'm using works but it's awfull.
If I cannot find a way for the command acpitool -W to address multiple entries in /proc/acpi/wakeup at once, I need a more complex script ie: with a minimum of elegance to do it with.
Any idea where I can get a sample script to modify from?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Hello:
In an effort to weed out an acpi problem, I need to set all the /proc/acpi/wakeup variables to disabled.
Like this:
groucho@devuan:~$ acpitool -w
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
---------------------------------------
1. USB0 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.0
2. USB1 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.1
3. USB2 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.2
4. USB5 S4 *disabled
5. EUSB S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.7
6. USB3 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.0
7. USB4 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.1
8. USB6 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.2
9. USBE S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1a.7
10. P0P1 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:01.0
11. P0P2 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:06.0
12. P0P3 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.0
13. BR11 S4 *disabled
14. BR12 S4 *disabled
15. BR13 S4 *disabled
16. P0P4 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.4
17. BR15 S4 *disabled
18. P0P5 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1e.0
19. GBE S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:19.0
20. SLPB S4 *disabled
groucho@devuan:~$
As doing it via terminal lasts only till the next reboot, for the time being I'm doing it with a script in /etc/rc.local:
usr/bin/acpitool -W 1 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 2 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 3 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 5 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 6 &&
usr/bin/acpitool -W 7 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 8 && usr/bin/acpitool -W 9
Now this is really not an elegant way to do this (running the same instruction eight times with a different variable each time!) something which is clearly reflected as the output rolls off the screen although for some reason it is not getting logged anywhere.
The man file does not indicate how to set multiple devices at once.
I understand there's also the proper way to do this: with a *.conf file in the /etc/sysctl.d directory.
groucho@devuan:~$ cat /etc/sysctl.d/README.sysctl
Kernel system variables configuration files
Files found under the /etc/sysctl.d directory that end with .conf are parsed within sysctl(8) at boot time. If you want to set kernel variables you can either edit /etc/sysctl.conf or make a new file.
The filename isn't important, but don't make it a package name as it may clash with something the package builder needs later. It must end with .conf though.
My personal preference would be for local system settings to go into /etc/sysctl.d/local.conf but as long as you follow the rules for the names of the file, anything will work. See sysctl.conf(8) man page for details of the format.
groucho@devuan:~$
I cannot figure out the syntax and cannot find any examples on line.
Anyone know how to do this?
Thanks in advance.
A.
Edit 01/04/19
Dir name correction
Hello:
Thank you for your link ...
You're welcome.
... free software needs more humanpower.
One would tend to, at first sight, agree.
But I have come to think that, to quote George and Ira Gershwin in Porgy and Bess, "It ain't necessarily so."
I have the notion that what is needed is something else and manpower may not be the problem.
A bit OT, but just a few lines:
It seems that it's not possible (and probably won't ever be) to harness the creative work of the countless thousands of programmers, developers and contributors dedicated to this fantastic project started by Linus Torvalds in a way that that they just work together and come up with just 'one' 100% functional and scalable 'distro' instead of generating gadzillionz different flavours, forks of whatever is available out there.
One of the (few) negatives of open source and free licensing is that forking projects just for the sake of having their own project - "look Ma! I rolled my own distro!!!!" - has almost become the norm.
It is highly counter-productive and there is no logical reason for it.
I'll write the required Thunar feature myself.
If you do, I'll gradly do the testing.
Cheers,
A.
Hello:
... seems to me similar to the embedded terminal I use in Dolphin.
I think it has exactly the same functionality but it is directly built into Dolphin.
Very useful.
... we could write this feature in the "wish list" of Thunar.
Ahhh ...
Yes, we could.
But don't hold your breath, it would probably go nowhere, fast.
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11319
Only "open terminal here" is supported. There are other, more complicated file managers that provide what you want, but thunar does not.
It reads sort of like take it or leave it to me.
Cheers,
A.
Muito obrigado.
Mas eu já tenho tudo isso (custom actions) habilitado em Thunar.
O que o plug-in do nautilus-terminal faz no Nautilus aparentemente não é possível fazer em Thunar.
Thank you.
But I already have all that (custom actions) enabled in Thunar.
What the nautilus-terminal does in Nautilus apparently in not possible in Thunar.
AQ.
Hello:
One of the things (the only one, actually) that I miss from my days with Ubuntu is the drop down terminal you could have in Nautilus.
It's the Xfce drop down teminal (which is just like Tilda and others) but with the distinct advantage of being embedded into Nautilus' tabs/windows, following the navigation.
Much better than the open terminal here or open root terminal here custom actions.
Synaptic in ASCII has a long list of nautilus packages but nautilus-terminal is not one of them.
Any one know if there's something like this for Thunar?
Cheers,
A.
Hello:
... thinking that apparmor is stopping it ...
AppArmor is disabled in ASCII.
groucho@devuan:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i apparmor
[ 0.010652] AppArmor: AppArmor disabled by boot time parameter
groucho@devuan:~$
I do not have a boot time parameter disabling apparmor (ie: not my doing), so it is probably disabled at a lower level in ASCII and it's not even in the repository.
I'm guessing that there may have been good motive for all that.
When I tried my hand at the newer post-ASCII kernel, AppArmor was installed along with it.
The newer kernel ended up complicating things in my rig so I gave up.
But on uninstalling it, AppArmor was left behind and on reboot threw a few errors in the logs.
AppArmor is a service and as such you could disable it to see what happens with haveged and eventually remove it if it gives you too much trouble.
On the other hand, I guess AppArmor could be configured not to mess with haveged.
I for one am rather weary of AppArmor (or SELinux for that matter) and it's eventual usefulness in a single user installation, where you make every possible effort to run a tight ship. I see it as being more an administrator's tool in a multi-user environment but then, what do I know?
I may well be mistaken and prove to be a god-send instead of a headache.
Cheers,
A.