Can't identify Linux distribution **SOLVED**

NFT5 · 2017-09-29 08:03:11

I'm not really intentionally making a habit of popping up in Linux forums but here I am. Debian user since the end of XP and it has served me, and the 15 machines that I admin, well. But, for myself, I wanted more, or better, or something, so have done a clean Devuan install with MATE desktop.

No problems with the installation, except that I wasn't asked if I wanted to install GRUB and it took a little work to get that back in Debian's control, at least for the time being. Fixed the IO page fault issue and installed the usual software that I run. Nothing extraordinary here except for Virtualbox that I like to keep up to date, the Flash plug-in and Grub Customizer that I sourced from MX16. Other software is just some basic utilities, the rest of the MATE package that wasn't installed, Thunderbird, Dropbox and the like. MX16 repos are disabled in my sources.list.

First hint of a problem was GRUB not finding Devuan and then finding it as an "unknown" Linux. Running update-grub a couple of times seemed to fix that. Then Vbox chucked a wobbly which was easily enough fixed by installing kernel headers. Odd, I don't recall having to do that before.

Then I started Control Centre and a number of the apps refuse to start, citing "The platform you are running is not supported by this tool". The popup box advising of the error does offer to modify itself if I choose one of a list of distributions. A little judicious Google-foo finds only one slightly related mention and a comment that most of the distros that I'm offered to choose from are well outdated. I'd agree with that. Further encouragement not to proceed without a little research comes in the rather dire warning that making the wrong choice might "damage the system configuration or downright cripple your computer".

It would seem that there should be some file with identification information in it, but I really don't know where to look. A search here uncovered something which may be vaguely related, but appears not to have been resolved.

chris@BOSSDESK:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Devuan
Description:	Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0 (jessie)
Release:	1.0
Codename:	jessie
chris@BOSSDESK:~$

Apps in Control Centre that are afflicted include, but may not be limited to:

Time and Date
Users and Groups
Services
Network

Suggestions?

Last edited by NFT5 (2017-09-29 23:34:02)

darry1966 · 2017-09-29 08:30:14

Welcome:)

FOSSuser · 2017-09-29 09:21:19

Welcome aboard.

Try running

uname -a

NFT5 · 2017-09-29 10:37:00

Thanks darry1966 and FOSSuser.

chris@BOSSDESK:~$ uname -a
Linux BOSSDESK 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.43-2+deb8u5 (2017-09-19) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Both sysinfo and hardinfo recognise the kernel, but not Devuan as the distribution. At first I thought it was a MATE related thing, but now I don't think so.

golinux · 2017-09-29 15:40:04

When I access "users and groups", Devuan is also not listed. I check Debian and it works just fine.

greenjeans · 2017-09-29 19:18:24

Problem #1: It's os-prober that's the issue with grub calling Devuan "unknown linux", easy fix: /usr/lib/os-probes/mounted/90linux-distro and replace/rewrite that file to include Devuan. The version I modded and use is in below codebox.

Problem #2 The control center app isn't updated properly for devuan, but it works perfectly in Devuan, just choose the "Debian" option at that first pop-up and it will work fine.

#!/bin/sh
# Test for linux distributions.
set -e

. /usr/share/os-prober/common.sh

partition="$1"
dir="$2"
type="$3"

# This test is inaccurate, but given separate / and /boot partitions and the
# fact that only some architectures have ld-linux.so, I can't see anything
# better. Make sure this test has a high number so that more accurate tests
# can come first.
# Unless volumes to checked are already mounted, they will be mounted using
# GRUB's own filesystems through FUSE. Since these ATM doesn't support
# symlinks we need to also check in $dir/usr/lib* for distributions that
# moved /lib* to /usr and only left symlinks behind.
# TODO: look for ld-linux.so on arches that have it

# Modded by greenjeans to add Devuan and Vuu-do and strip old invalid entries. September-2017

if (ls "$dir"/lib*/ld*.so* || ls "$dir"/usr/lib*/ld*.so*) >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
	if [ -e "$dir/etc/debian_version" ]; then
		short="Debian"
		long="$(printf "Debian GNU/Linux (%s)\n" "$(cat "$dir/etc/debian_version")")"
	# RPM derived distributions may also have a redhat-release or
	# mandrake-release, so check their files first.

    elif [ -e "$dir/etc/devuan_version" ]; then
      short="Devuan"
      long="$(printf "Devuan GNU/Linux (%s)\n" "$(cat "$dir/etc/devuan_version")")"
    elif [ -e "$dir/etc/vuudo_version" ]; then
      short="Vuu-do"
      long="$(printf "Vuu-do GNU/Linux (%s)\n" "$(cat "$dir/etc/vuudo_version")")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/altlinux-release" ]; then
		short="ALTLinux"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/altlinux-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/magic-release" ]; then
		short="Magic"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/magic-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/blackPanther-release" ]; then
		short="blackPanther"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/blackPanther-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/ark-release" ]; then
		short="Ark"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/ark-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/arch-release" ]; then
		short="Arch"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/arch-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/vine-release" ]; then
		short="Vine"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/vine-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/pld-release" ]; then
		short="PLD"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/pld-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/fedora-release" ]; then
		short="Fedora"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/fedora-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/redhat-release" ]; then
		short="RedHat"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/redhat-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/SuSE-release" ]; then
		short="SuSE"
		long="$(head -n 1 "$dir/etc/SuSE-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/gentoo-release" ]; then
		short="Gentoo"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/gentoo-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/turbolinux-release" ]; then
		short="Turbolinux"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/turbolinux-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/pardus-release" ]; then
		short="Pardus"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/pardus-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/kanotix-version" ]; then
		short="Kanotix"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/kanotix-version")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/slackware-version" ]; then
		short="Slackware"
		long="$(printf "Slackware Linux (%s)\n" "$(cat "$dir/etc/slackware-version")")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/sbin/pkgtool" ]; then
		short="Slackware"
		long="Slackware Linux"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/frugalware-release" ]; then
		short="Frugalware Linux"
		long="$(cat "$dir/etc/frugalware-release")"
	elif [ -e "$dir/etc/lfs-release" ]; then
		short="LFS"
		long="$(printf "Linux From Scratch (%s)\n" "$(cat "$dir/etc/lfs-release")")"
	else
		short="Linux"
		long="unknown Linux distribution"
	fi
	
        label="$(count_next_label "$short")"
	result "$partition:$long:$label:linux"
	exit 0
else
	exit 1
fi

Last edited by greenjeans (2017-09-29 19:20:27)

NFT5 · 2017-09-29 23:33:07

Awesome! Thanks, works perfectly.

Better safe than sorry on the Control Centre apps issue. I've borked enough installations that I didn't feel like re-installing this one.

Noted "SOLVED".

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2017-09-29 08:03:11