xfce4-alsa-plugin now available for Debian-based systems (0.3.0-2)

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-27 12:48:06

When I installed Devuan Beowulf in my laptop with the amd64 server CD, everything works fine. Except for my wifi and sound. I don't mind wifi since rtl8821ae is crap anyway, but sound bothered me. Turns out pulseaudio for some reason doesn't work. Thankfully alsa does, so I can configure the volume using alsamixer.

Then I found xfce4-alsa-plugin while surfing the internet. It's available for Arch and Gentoo, but not for Debian. So I decided to package it, even though I have little experience in packaging...

I was able to determine the build dependencies of my package for debian/control, and ripped off the description of xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin for my package. Then there was a problem. It uses meson to compile, and I have no idea how to make debian/rules work with that (I actually have no idea how to write a debian/rules in the first place. I used the default debian/rules from Debian's introduction to packaging, and obviously that didn't work lol). I thought about downloading the source of a meson-based Debian package (which in this case was budgie-desktop), and copied the relevant parts of its debian/rules to mine. To my surprise, it worked! Now I just have to install it. Everything seems to work fine.

You can find a Debianized version of xfce4-alsa-plugin on my git repository. A

debuild -us -uc

will definitely work fine with amd64 (ignoring the lintian warnings), and should work too with i386. I'm not sure with other archs though.

Package description

Package: xfce4-alsa-plugin
Priority: optional
Section: xfce
Installed-Size: 86
Maintainer: Job Bautista <jobbautista9@protonmail.com>
Architecture: amd64
Multi-Arch: same
Version: 0.3.0-2
Build-Depends: valac, meson (>= 0.37.0), libasound2-dev, libgtk-3-dev (>= 3.20.0), libxfce4panel-2.0-dev (>= 4.13.0)
Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libc6 (>= 2.4), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.39.4), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.19.12), libxfce4panel-2.0-4 (>= 4.13.0)
Recommends: alsamixergui
Description: Simple ALSA control for xfce4-panel
Xfce4 panel plugin icon to control ALSA. You can use this applet to control
your ALSA volume levels using the scrollwheel.
Description-md5: 1baca75d7a1d990a1615c43eaaed0b03
Homepage: https://github.com/equeim/xfce4-alsa-plugin

Last edited by jobbautista9 (2020-07-27 13:10:19)

Vernon · 2020-07-27 14:02:24

jobbautista9 wrote:

When I installed Devuan Beowulf in my laptop with the amd64 server CD, everything works fine. Except for my wifi and sound. I don't mind wifi since rtl8821ae is crap anyway, but sound bothered me. Turns out pulseaudio for some reason doesn't work. Thankfully alsa does, so I can configure the volume using alsamixer.

This is a known, easily correctable Beowulf bug. Please see link below for details.
https://bugs.devuan.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=276

To correct, please follow the following instructions.
As root, comment out the autospawn=no in your /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf file. My /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf file now looks like the below.

# On linux systems, disable autospawn by default
# If you are not using systemd, comment out this line
# autospawn=no

larsH · 2020-07-27 14:17:15

Hi

Or use volumicon-alsa if you want a graphical application

Have a nice day
Lars H

Vernon · 2020-07-27 14:18:11

Updated with instructions for installing wicd and removing connman

jobbautista9 wrote:

When I installed Devuan Beowulf in my laptop with the amd64 server CD, everything works fine. Except for my wifi ... . I don't mind wifi since rtl8821ae is crap anyway,

I don't have this device but the following instructions may work.

As root, add non-free contrib to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. The un-commented parts of your /etc/apt/sources.list file should look like

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib

Then issue the following commands as root.

apt-get update

apt-get install firmware-realtek

Reboot. Devuan Beowulf does not install a graphical WiFi manager when you have no working WiFi during installation. You need to install wicd by issuing the following command as root.

apt-get install wicd

Since you now have wicd network manager installed, you no longer have need for network manger connman which was installed during installation. Remove it by issuing the following commands as root.

apt-get remove connman

Remember, I do not actually have your system so follow these instructions at your own risk. You may have to re-boot for the changes to take effect. Good Luck!

Last edited by Vernon (2020-07-27 14:36:03)

HevyDevy · 2020-07-27 15:23:51

Vernon wrote:

Updated with instructions for installing wicd and removing connman
jobbautista9 wrote:
When I installed Devuan Beowulf in my laptop with the amd64 server CD, everything works fine. Except for my wifi ... . I don't mind wifi since rtl8821ae is crap anyway,
I don't have this device but the following instructions may work.
As root, add non-free contrib to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. The un-commented parts of your /etc/apt/sources.list file should look like
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib
Then issue the following commands as root.
apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-realtek
Reboot. Devuan Beowulf does not install a graphical WiFi manager when you have no working WiFi during installation. You need to install wicd by issuing the following command as root.
apt-get install wicd
Since you now have wicd network manager installed, you no longer have need for network manger connman which was installed during installation. Remove it by issuing the following commands as root.
apt-get remove connman
Remember, I do not actually have your system so follow these instructions at your own risk. You may have to re-boot for the changes to take effect. Good Luck!

A better solution would be learning about ifupdown/wpa_supplicant in my opinion, rather than an outdated wifi manager like wicd.

Vernon · 2020-07-27 19:13:53

HevyDevy wrote:

A better solution would be learning about ifupdown/wpa_supplicant in my opinion, rather than an outdated wifi manager like wicd.

What useful wpa_supplicant features does wicd not have?

Note that the more recent versions of wpa_supplicant have "features" that don't work with certain Broadcom drivers.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1703745

In fact, due to decisions made by the Fedora leadership, a copr (ppa) had to be created just so Broadcom users could use wpa_supplicant.

https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs … upplicant/

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-27 20:55:14

Vernon wrote:

Note that the more recent versions of wpa_supplicant have "features" that don't work with certain Broadcom drivers.

Note that wicd uses wpa_supplicant to associate with wireless access points.

iwd ftw!

Vernon · 2020-07-27 21:04:07

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Vernon wrote:
Note that the more recent versions of wpa_supplicant have "features" that don't work with certain Broadcom drivers.
Note that wicd uses wpa_supplicant to associate with wireless access points.
iwd ftw!

Thanks. I did not know that. I should have checked all the wicd package depends before posting.

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-28 01:39:04

Vernon wrote:

Updated with instructions for installing wicd and removing connman
jobbautista9 wrote:
When I installed Devuan Beowulf in my laptop with the amd64 server CD, everything works fine. Except for my wifi ... . I don't mind wifi since rtl8821ae is crap anyway,
I don't have this device but the following instructions may work.
As root, add non-free contrib to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. The un-commented parts of your /etc/apt/sources.list file should look like
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-security main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf-updates main non-free contrib
Then issue the following commands as root.
apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-realtek
Reboot. Devuan Beowulf does not install a graphical WiFi manager when you have no working WiFi during installation. You need to install wicd by issuing the following command as root.
apt-get install wicd
Since you now have wicd network manager installed, you no longer have need for network manger connman which was installed during installation. Remove it by issuing the following commands as root.
apt-get remove connman
Remember, I do not actually have your system so follow these instructions at your own risk. You may have to re-boot for the changes to take effect. Good Luck!

Actually I already have firmware-realtek when I finished installing my Devuan Beowulf. It is still unreliable and drops connection randomly, sometimes it doesn't reconnect. Whether I use wicd or connman, or a backported kernel + firmware-realtek, it's still the same. I migrated to Chimaera and replaced wicd with connman, ~~and so far, my connection is more stable and reliable compared to Beowulf. I can suspend my system to RAM for 12 hours without worrying about my wifi never reconnecting again after waking up.~~

EDIT: Nevermind, my wifi still as unstable as before

Last edited by jobbautista9 (2020-07-28 03:49:06)

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-28 01:45:28

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Vernon wrote:
Note that the more recent versions of wpa_supplicant have "features" that don't work with certain Broadcom drivers.
Note that wicd uses wpa_supplicant to associate with wireless access points.
iwd ftw!

In my experience, iwd is less reliable than wpa_supplicant. When I installed iwd along with connman and removed wicd and wpasupplicant, then rebooted my Chimaera system, I wasn't able to get a wifi connection. So I reverted back to wpasupplicant (while still keeping connman), which works. Also note that iwd has a Build-Depends on systemd.

Last edited by jobbautista9 (2020-07-28 01:45:49)

ofvergara · 2020-07-28 04:52:49

I am still using my old SLED11sp4 while still evaluating devuan as my next distribution. I have network manager installed and i haven't had any issues with it in years (no systemd, i'm using version 0.7.1). it manages ethernet, wifi's and vpn's with no issues at all.

what would happen if you installed network manager instead of wicd or supplicant from the repositories?

is it difficult due to the dependencies?

does it mess or not integrate seamlessly with your current desktop environment?

please let me know since i am interested in this topic. the devuan-based distributions i have evaluated install mostly wicd by default, yet i would rather have network manager installed instead. i once tried removing wicd and installing NM, but then no icons were shown on the notification area and i could not find a way to activate connections on the desktop.

cheers.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-28 07:23:14

jobbautista9 wrote:

In my experience, iwd is less reliable than wpa_supplicant

The package in beowulf is pre-release, the current versions are much better — I'm using v1.8 in my Alpine Linux box and it's very reliable.

jobbautista9 wrote:

iwd has a Build-Depends on systemd

That's not a hard dependency, Alpine Linux don't list it in their makedepends (Alpine is fundamentally incompatible with systemd).

EDIT: systemd is only needed because the compilation generates a unit file, Alpine specify ./configure --disable-systemd-service.

EDIT2: which is probably why your Devuan system didn't work with iwd — it doesn't supply a sysvinit script.

Here's the Alpine init script: https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/tree … /iwd.initd

Use sysd2v to convert /lib/systemd/system/iwd.service to a sysvinit script then make it executable, put it in /etc/init.d/ and enable it.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2020-07-28 07:36:54)

Vernon · 2020-07-28 13:42:24

ofvergara wrote:

I am still using my old SLED11sp4 while still evaluating devuan as my next distribution. I have network manager installed and i haven't had any issues with it in years (no systemd, i'm using version 0.7.1). it manages ethernet, wifi's and vpn's with no issues at all.
what would happen if you installed network manager instead of wicd or supplicant from the repositories?
is it difficult due to the dependencies?
does it mess or not integrate seamlessly with your current desktop environment?

This thread here encouraged me to try Network Manager with my Devuan Beowulf LXQt installation. I used the following commands as root

apt-get install libpam-elogind

apt-get install network-manager

apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Since you want Network Manager to manage all your interfaces, you will need in comment out all other interfaces except loopback in your /etc/network/interfaces file like this.

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
# allow-hotplug eth0
# iface eth0 inet dhcp

# iphone
# allow-hotplug eth1
# iface eth1 inet dhcp

Devuan Beowulf installs connman which you will want to remove with the apt-get remove connman command. Network Mananager integrates seamlessly (nice panel icon, manages ethernet and wireless interfaces) with my Devuan Beowulf LXQt desktop and should integrate seamlessly on other desktops like XFCE as well.

The only problem I have with Network Manager are problems I have with Network Manager on all the Linux distributions and are nolt Devuan specific.

Unlike WiCD, when new hotspots become available, they do not always appear in the Network Manager applet scan menu. I need to disconnect and the re-connect to get the new hotspot to appear.
Unlike WiCd, if there are multiple hotspots with the same SSID, the Network Manager applet only shows one of them in its scan list.

Note that you can get WiCD to help you manage your Ethernet device by ticking the Alwalys show wired interface in the WiCd preferences menu.

WiCd Preferenes

Last edited by Vernon (2020-07-28 13:43:32)

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-29 02:58:57

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

jobbautista9 wrote:
In my experience, iwd is less reliable than wpa_supplicant
The package in beowulf is pre-release, the current versions are much better — I'm using v1.8 in my Alpine Linux box and it's very reliable.
jobbautista9 wrote:
iwd has a Build-Depends on systemd
That's not a hard dependency, Alpine Linux don't list it in their makedepends (Alpine is fundamentally incompatible with systemd).
EDIT: systemd is only needed because the compilation generates a unit file, Alpine specify ./configure --disable-systemd-service.
EDIT2: which is probably why your Devuan system didn't work with iwd — it doesn't supply a sysvinit script.
Here's the Alpine init script: https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/tree … /iwd.initd
Use sysd2v to convert /lib/systemd/system/iwd.service to a sysvinit script then make it executable, put it in /etc/init.d/ and enable it.

The sysd2v script did work, however the iwd sysvinit script generated doesn't autostart at boot, so I have to "service iwd start" as root once I logged in. I'm using openrc.

And for some reason, exim4 is taking too long to start when I have iwd installed. This is not the case in wpa_supplicant.

I hope Devuan fork this package and add the necessary init scripts. It's really annoying when you install a package just for it to not work afterwards, and you're forced to find a workaround yourself.

ofvergara · 2020-07-29 03:04:24

excellent information Vernon, a detailed step-by-step newbie-friendly guide.
Very much appreciated, cheers.

golinux · 2020-07-29 04:36:26

jobbautista9 wrote:

I hope Devuan fork this package and add the necessary init scripts. It's really annoying when you install a package just for it to not work afterwards, and you're forced to find a workaround yourself.

You could start by submitting the patch to Debian. If that fails, you are welcome to maintain it long-term for Devuan.

Marjorie · 2020-07-29 10:54:18

jobbautista9 wrote:

The sysd2v script did work, however the iwd sysvinit script generated doesn't autostart at boot, so I have to "service iwd start" as root once I logged in. I'm using openrc..

I use sysvinit not openrc, however with sysvinit you would also need to (as root, I use sudo)

1) ensure the execute bit is set for your init script

sudo chmod +x  /etc/init.d/your_script_name

though I'm guessing you must have done this for the service command to work.

2) and run

sudo update-rc.d your_script-name defaults

this creates the sym links ( /etc/rc.x/SNNyour_script_name and /etc/rc.x/KNNyour_script_name) from your_script_name in the various (NN=00..06,S) run level directories needed to trigger starting/stopping the init script at boot.

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-29 12:19:13

golinux wrote:

jobbautista9 wrote:
I hope Devuan fork this package and add the necessary init scripts. It's really annoying when you install a package just for it to not work afterwards, and you're forced to find a workaround yourself.
You could start by submitting the patch to Debian. If that fails, you are welcome to maintain it long-term for Devuan.

I was able to build iwd without systemd by overriding dh_auto_configure, but I have no idea how to make the package install the sysv initscript to the system and tell it to update-rc.d...

Last edited by jobbautista9 (2020-07-29 12:21:33)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-29 18:24:12

^ I presume you used apt source iwd to grab the original Debian source package and modified that?

jobbautista9 wrote:

I have no idea how to make the package install the sysv initscript to the system

Add the iwd sysvinit script to the main source directory and run this to create a patch to add it:

dpkg-source --commit

Then create a file at debian/iwd.install with this content:

iwd /etc/init.d/

jobbautista9 wrote:

tell it to update-rc.d

Add this to the file at debian/iwd.postinst (just before the #DEBHELPER# line):

# enable sysvinit script
update-rc.d iwd defaults

And also create a file at debian/iwd.postrm with this content:

#!/bin/sh
set -e

# remove sysvinit script
update-rc.d iwd remove

#DEBHELPER#

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-30 03:52:26

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

^ I presume you used apt source iwd to grab the original Debian source package and modified that?
jobbautista9 wrote:
I have no idea how to make the package install the sysv initscript to the system
Add the iwd sysvinit script to the main source directory and run this to create a patch to add it:
dpkg-source --commit
Then create a file at debian/iwd.install with this content:
iwd /etc/init.d/
jobbautista9 wrote:
tell it to update-rc.d
Add this to the file at debian/iwd.postinst (just before the #DEBHELPER# line):
# enable sysvinit script
update-rc.d iwd defaults
And also create a file at debian/iwd.postrm with this content:
#!/bin/sh
set -e

# remove sysvinit script
update-rc.d iwd remove

#DEBHELPER#

Thanks, I applied your patch and iwd now starts at boot. I reported the bug to Debian (#966518) and included the patch, and I'm now waiting for a response. I hope they consider applying the patch, since if they do, then that means there's still a chance that init freedom will return to Debian.

golinux · 2020-07-30 04:13:45

@jobbautista9 . . . Thank you for taking the initiative to do that.

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-30 12:05:03

So I got a response from the maintainer, and they sounded like I did everything wrong. Apparently, I was supposed to use Debian, even though I literally get the same result in a Debian Bullseye system with systemd removed and sysvinit installed (I had to install a Debian testing system alongside Devuan just to confirm this, even though I am 100% sure it will just be the same result). They also say that I didn't attach a patch on my email, even though I included the iwd-sysvinit-script file, which is the main patch, and the three other files which are needed to make the init script work on installation. My patch was unorthodox, sure (maybe the standard is to have .patch or .diff as an extension), but Debian's developer info about BTS says that the patch tag can be used if a patch or some other easy procedure for fixing the bug is included, unless the patch causes some other problems.

The response really struck down my morale hard.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-30 19:03:24

My word, Andreas is a grumpy ****er isn't he?

Looks like he isn't interested in adding sysvinit support to iwd and he is not compelled to do so: https://www.debian.org/vote/2019/vote_002#outcome

jobbautista9 · 2020-07-31 02:05:58

Seems like we are forced to fork this package. Not that I'm surprised, though the response from him could have been a lot nicer (like "sorry, we don't plan to support non-systemd inits anytime soon, so I will have to put your report to wishlist priority"). He also wants iwd to be removed from Debian, which would be a disservice to both Debian and Devuan users. I can volunteer to become a maintainer of the fork, but I can't do it alone. @Head_on_a_Stick: Can you co-maintain iwd with me? You seem to know packaging more than me, based on your posts above, you love using iwd.

Speaking of fork, how do you guys start a fork of a Debian package? Do you send a bug report to wnpp then say that you intend to fork a package?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-31 07:19:46

jobbautista9 wrote:

Can you co-maintain iwd with me?

Sorry, no, I'm already maintaining several Alpine Linux packages and I intend to also start maintaining some OpenBSD ports so I don't think I'll have the time. And I don't actually use Devuan anyway so my help probably wouldn't be very useful.

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#1 2020-07-27 12:48:06