Re: seeking new laser printer [solved, mostly]

[Kleene, Steven (kleenesj)]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 18:15:31 +, I wrote:
>> 1. Formerly (but still Bookworm), I had an HP LaserJet 5MP connected with
>> a USB-to-parallel adapter.  I saw this character special device:
>>
>> crw-rw 1 root lp   180, 1 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/lp1
>>
>> I would typically print with something like "cat file > /dev/usb/lp1".
>> Now, though, with the new laser and a straight USB connection (no
>> wireless), I see these in /dev/usb:
>>
>> crw--- 1 root root 180, 0 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/hiddev0
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9796 Dec 21 13:01 /dev/usb/lp1

On Monday, December 30, 2024 3:56 PM, Greg Wooledge replied:

> I can't address your other questions, but this one is pretty clear.
> That /dev/usb/lp1 is just an ordinary file.  Whatever content you're
> redirecting to that location is just going to disk.  Or virtual disk
> in memory, if your /dev is a memory-based virtual file system.  It's
> no longer a character special device at all, and it has no connection
> to your printer.

Yes, this is embarrassing.  I created that lp1 by using cat to send a file 
there in the way that caused printing with the character special lp1.  So 
what's there now is just a copy of the PostScript I copied there.  Thanks.


From: Greg Wooledge 
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2024 3:56 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: seeking new laser printer [solved, mostly]

External Email: Use Caution


On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 18:15:31 +, Kleene, Steven (kleenesj) wrote:
> 1. Formerly (but still Bookworm), I had an HP LaserJet 5MP connected with a 
> USB-to-parallel adapter.  I saw this character special device:
>
> crw-rw 1 root lp   180, 1 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/lp1
>
> I would typically print with something like "cat file > /dev/usb/lp1".  Now, 
> though, with the new laser and a straight USB connection (no wireless), I see 
> these in /dev/usb:
>
> crw--- 1 root root 180, 0 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/hiddev0
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9796 Dec 21 13:01 /dev/usb/lp1

I can't address your other questions, but this one is pretty clear.
That /dev/usb/lp1 is just an ordinary file.  Whatever content you're
redirecting to that location is just going to disk.  Or virtual disk
in memory, if your /dev is a memory-based virtual file system.  It's
no longer a character special device at all, and it has no connection
to your printer.

Re: Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mounted read-only

[Tim Woodall]

On Mon, 30 Dec 2024, Tom Browder wrote:


I've had this problem a long time ago, and don't remember how I recovered,
but it was with help here.

I suspect a failing disk, and I wonder if there is a hail Mary command I
can do to force a reboot to see if it can recover on its own. I would
almost welcome starting over with a new server.

I can login and su to root. I have not been able to inspect logs yet due to
time.

I see a 2023 Debian thread getting into lots of low-level fsck and other
things, but  can my old brain and trembly fingers hack it without
compounding the problem?

Opinions requested, please.

-Tom

Oh, I do have backups of my important stuff.



if you can su to root, and provided that inittab hasn't been corrupted,
then
reboot
will force a reboot. But without ipmi or equivalent, if it doesn't come
up then you're completely stuffed without physical access.

My provider has a shareable kvm that you can 'book'. I have the ibm
equivalent (IMM) so never needed to try it.

Even my home machines have ipmi, it is so useful to have bios access
without needing to attach a screen.

Tim.

Re: synaptic workalike that WILL run on sudo with wayland.

[Stefan Monnier]

Anssi Saari [2024-12-30 18:16:25] wrote:
> Stefan Monnier  writes:
>> FWIW, I've been using ARM-based SBCs for more than 10 years (4 different
>> boards, I'm ashamed to say) and have used Debian on all of them.  So no:
>> you don't need Armbian to make use of that kind of hardware.
> OK, which ones?

First Mele A2000, then a Banana Pi (still in use tho in need of
replacement) + Orange Pi mini, and more recently an Odroid-M1.

> I'm only aware of the Rock64 and it's not exactly modern
> or fully supported but would work for my purposes.

I don't think anyone needs "fully supported", so the details will really
depend on your specific needs.  Personally, I use the boards as small
headless servers, and choose the boards I buy by consulting the latest
Linux kernel's DTS files to see which boards (and which features of
those boards) are supported by the vanilla kernel.  You don't really
need to understand the DTS "language", you can usually search for terms
like "usb", "eth", "sata", "pci", "hdmi", ... to get a good first
approximation.  If needed, you can often confirm your understanding by
consulting the Git history of the lines with the keywords of interest.

I've never used Debian's installer on those boards, and don't even know
if Debian officially "supports" them.


Stefan

XFCE and Fuse

[George at Clug]

Hi,


Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba
shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
or Samba shares?


In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE? 



https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDesktopHowTo
Xfce

For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser 
fuse).
Thunar is missing a plugin to create network shares (bug 672539).
Workaround: define custom actions (adjust the permissions (setguid)
according to the samba section above).


What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?


The most obvious issue I observe is that Thunar is 1) not able to
display Windows shares or Samba shares, 2) not able to connect to
connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.


I can do install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse.
# apt install gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse


But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
fuse group does not exist, why is this?  I have read on the Internet
that with Bookworm there is no need to add the userid to the fuse
group, but the instructions on the DesktopHowTo, does recommend this
step.

# adduser  fuse
adduser: The group `fuse' does not exist.


I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
the fuse package?
# apt install fuse3


Even after installing the fuse package, there is no group in
/etc/group called "fuse".
# grep fuse /etc/group


I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
group and adding the userid to the group actually help?

# groupadd fuse
# adduser  fuse


I read the statement "Thunar is missing a plugin to create network
shares". And checking the bug report it seems this bug was reported in
"Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 21:12:03 UTC". Will this bug be fixed? 
resolved? There is a comment "If you are still interested in packaging
thunar-shares-plugin, please..." from 2015.


I could not find a package called thunar-shares-plugin in Synaptic, so
I guess this plug in, if it still exists, was never packaged?


With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
be some policy related reason.




George.

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[George at Clug]

Joe,

Thanks for your reply which provides me with more information.

What do you know about Nemo?  I noticed it is installed. When running Nemo, it 
seems quite similar to Thunar.

I installed Nautilus. When I go to "Other Locations" in Nautilus, I do not see 
any listed Windows/Samba shares. When I attempt to access "Windows Network", I 
get the message "Failed to retrieve share list from server..." message so I am 
guessing there is still something missing in my Debian XFCE installation that 
would allow Nautilus to discover Windows/Samba shares.  

Thank you for your comment on mapping shares via fstab as I had wondered if 
mounting shares with noauto would be possible. 

Our main file share is SAMBA, which has worked well over the past years with 
Windows 7 and Windows 10, and also Debian Linux.

For XFCE, I always install gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse, then in Thunar I use 
"smb://[ip address of Share]/[sharename] and bookmark this connection. This 
process works well for me, but it would be nice if Thunar was able do discover 
shares as I believe Thunar could discover shares if whatever required 
supporting packages were installed. Since Nemo is also not able to discover 
shares in my XFCE computer, I assume other supporting packages need to be 
installed for this feature to work. But what would they be?

I have a test Fedora Gnome and a LDME Cinnamon computers and while both behave 
differently, both find our file shares. I was not able to see any difference in 
file share related packages between the LDME computer and my Debian XFCE, 
though I expect I am missing something as even Nautilus on my XFCE is not able 
to discover the file  shares. Of course Nautilus, Nemo, and Thunar work if I 
explicitly connect to these shares.

George.



On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 08:39 Joe wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:34:20 +1100
> George at Clug  wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > 
> > Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba
> > shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
> > that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
> > 2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.
> > 
> 
> Is it vital for you?
> > 
> > Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
> > or Samba shares?
> 
> I've never tried, but Thunar is generally not as polished or capable as
> Nautilus. It is still under development, still gaining capabilities. I
> can remember when it didn't have 'extract here' for zip archives, not
> that long ago.
> 
> But I mount shares on local directories with /etc/fstab, where of course
> Thunar has no difficulty in accessing them. They need to be mounted
> noauto or boot will hang if they go missing, and are automounted on
> first access. I access shares from various applications, so it makes
> sense to mount them, I don't need to try browsing for shares in
> unfamiliar networks. I'd probably use Nautilus or Konqueror for
> something like that.
> 
> A quick Google does suggest difficulties with Thunar, but then SMB
> shares are always difficult, especially where Windows is involved. Much
> sacrificing of chickens needed. These days I have no shares on
> Windows, but it's hard enough getting Windows to deal properly with
> Samba shares.
> 
> -- 
> Joe
> 
> 

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[George at Clug]

David,

Thanks for your reply.

On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
> On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
> 
> > In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
> > not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE? 
> 
> Because gvfs will function without those backends, so it would
> be against policy to depend on those packages. OTOH gvfs-daemons
> appears to be a dependency, and includes a minimal set of backends.
> 
> > For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
> > and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser 
> > fuse).
> 
> > What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?
> 
> The package descriptions tell you:
> 
>  "This package contains the afc, afp, archive, cdda, dav, dnssd, ftp,
>   gphoto2, http, mtp, network, sftp, smb and smb-browse backends."
> 
> and
> 
>  "This package contains the gvfs-fuse server that exports gvfs mounts
>   to all applications using FUSE."
> 
> > But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
> > fuse group does not exist, why is this?
> 
> Because there's no need for it as /dev/fuse has been read/writeable
> since jessie; and no one has updated the wiki.
> 
> > I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
> > the fuse package?
> > # apt install fuse3
> 
> I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that
> gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. Hence 
I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 package 
does not exist in my LDME, nor in Debian Bookworm Gnome, so I am confused. 

> 
> > I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
> > Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
> > group and adding the userid to the group actually help?
> > 
> > # groupadd fuse
> > # adduser  fuse
> 
> I don't think there's any harm in your creating random groups
> for fun :)

Thanks for this info, in future I will not bother creating the group and adding 
my userid to it. 

> 
> > With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
> > browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
> > default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
> > be some policy related reason.
> 
> No idea. Maybe the answer is at 
> https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=157776
> and maybe not. I don't use gvfs, so most of the information above
> comes from reading the package files.

Well it will remain a mystery to me until one day finding file shares just 
works, lol. 

> 
> Cheers,
> David.
> 
> 

Re: seeking new laser printer [solved, mostly]

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 18:15:31 +, Kleene, Steven (kleenesj) wrote:
> 1. Formerly (but still Bookworm), I had an HP LaserJet 5MP connected with a 
> USB-to-parallel adapter.  I saw this character special device:
> 
> crw-rw 1 root lp   180, 1 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/lp1
> 
> I would typically print with something like "cat file > /dev/usb/lp1".  Now, 
> though, with the new laser and a straight USB connection (no wireless), I see 
> these in /dev/usb:
> 
> crw--- 1 root root 180, 0 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/hiddev0
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9796 Dec 21 13:01 /dev/usb/lp1

I can't address your other questions, but this one is pretty clear.
That /dev/usb/lp1 is just an ordinary file.  Whatever content you're
redirecting to that location is just going to disk.  Or virtual disk
in memory, if your /dev is a memory-based virtual file system.  It's
no longer a character special device at all, and it has no connection
to your printer.

Re: seeking new laser printer [solved, mostly]

[Kleene, Steven (kleenesj)]

On December 7, 2024 4:21 PM, I wrote:

> If you are able, please recommend a black-and-white Postscript laser
> printer that will work well with Debian (Bookworm). ...

With advice from the group, I bought a Brother DCP-L2640DW driverless 
monochrome printer/scanner.  I run the fvwm window manager and can print with 
lp and scan with xsane.  I never installed the Brother printer, scanner, or 
BR-Script3 drivers.

So I'm mostly happy, but I can't say I really understand who's doing what.  
Here are three questions.

1. Formerly (but still Bookworm), I had an HP LaserJet 5MP connected with a 
USB-to-parallel adapter.  I saw this character special device:

crw-rw 1 root lp   180, 1 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/lp1

I would typically print with something like "cat file > /dev/usb/lp1".  Now, 
though, with the new laser and a straight USB connection (no wireless), I see 
these in /dev/usb:

crw--- 1 root root 180, 0 Dec  3 08:53 /dev/usb/hiddev0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9796 Dec 21 13:01 /dev/usb/lp1

(The first of these is dated before I even changed printers and so may be 
irrelevant.)  If I cat a file to the new lp1, nothing happens.  I don't even 
know if CUPS is using this lp1.  What's going on with the device stubs?

2. I have a virtualbox Windows XP machine.  With the HP printer, it worked 
through CUPS and needed to find /dev/lp0.  So I just made a symbolic link from 
that to /dev/usb/lp1.  XP had a driver for the old HP.  Now, though, the 
devices and the printer have changed.  In XP, I can choose from a long list of 
prehistoric printer drivers.  Does that even matter with a driverless printer?  
I also suspect the new device stub won't work from XP.  I don't really need to 
print from XP, but it was sometimes convenient.

3. With xscan, the scan quality is good enough for most purposes.  But when I 
tested some fine engraving (like a dollar bill), it was less sharp than I get 
with my old Epson Perfection 2400 (from 2004).  In both cases I asked for 300 
dpi and set JPG quality as high as possible.  The Brother at 600 dpi didn't 
match the Epson at 300 dpi.  Would installing the Brother scanner driver be an 
improvement, or is this just a limitation of the hardware?

Thanks for getting me this far and for any further advice you may have.

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[Joe]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:34:20 +1100
George at Clug  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> 
> Is anyone familiar with using Thunar to access Windows shares or Samba
> shares? I have found that after installing Debian Bookworm with XFCE,
> that Thunar is 1) not able to display Windows shares or Samba shares,
> 2) not able to connect to connect to Windows shares or Samba shares.
> 

Is it vital for you?
> 
> Does someone know how get Thunar to display and access Windows shares
> or Samba shares?

I've never tried, but Thunar is generally not as polished or capable as
Nautilus. It is still under development, still gaining capabilities. I
can remember when it didn't have 'extract here' for zip archives, not
that long ago.

But I mount shares on local directories with /etc/fstab, where of course
Thunar has no difficulty in accessing them. They need to be mounted
noauto or boot will hang if they go missing, and are automounted on
first access. I access shares from various applications, so it makes
sense to mount them, I don't need to try browsing for shares in
unfamiliar networks. I'd probably use Nautilus or Konqueror for
something like that.

A quick Google does suggest difficulties with Thunar, but then SMB
shares are always difficult, especially where Windows is involved. Much
sacrificing of chickens needed. These days I have no shares on
Windows, but it's hard enough getting Windows to deal properly with
Samba shares.

-- 
Joe

Re: booting by UEFI?

[Max Nikulin]

On 30/12/2024 16:17, Nicolas George wrote:

Max Nikulin (12024-12-30):

Create EFI System Partition: it should have proper partition type UUID and
it is not recommended to make it too small (<500 MB).


Only if one wants to have the bootloaders for other systems on it. I
have been using EFI system partitions of <50 or <80 mega-octets for more
than a decade without any trouble, and now I am using a 16 mega-octets
disk image to boot VMs.


My fault, I forgot to post a link with some reasoning:


Nicolas, I am not trying to force *you* to resize ESP partitions on your 
machines. However I consider it safer to use bigger partition in general 
case, especially due to some uncertainties in respect to specific 
configuration.


Are you sure that fwupd will never try put a large enough file to update 
firmware of some device? My experience is that laptop firmware updater, 
launched from a USB stick, creates some files on the internal drive. Are 
you sure that unified kernel images will not become default before the 
user replaces their drive?

Re: Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mountedread-only

[gene heskett]

On 12/30/24 06:37, Alain D D Williams wrote:

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:29:05AM -0600, Tom Browder wrote:


I suspect a failing disk,

My main home PC is 10 years old and still going strong (I over specced it when
I bought it). A few years ago I had what looked like disk problems (time outs,
failed writes, ...). I replaced the power supply and the problems went away.

I have seen this before: some power supplies seem to fade as they age and the
symptom is disk failures.

Changing the PSU is cheap, quick & easy - consider it.

Excellent advice, applies to most name brand psu's as they drift low 
with age. The no-name supplies you can get for a $15 bill by the 
wagonload in China are often the longer lasting psu's. They will fail 
immediately, or more likely run for a decade or more.


Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis

Re: Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mounted read-only

[Tom Browder]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:37 Alain D D Williams  wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:29:05AM -0600, Tom Browder wrote:
>
> > I suspect a failing disk,
>
> My main home PC is 10 years old and still going strong (I over specced it
> when
> I bought it). A few years ago I had what looked like disk problems (time
> outs,
> failed writes, ...). I replaced the power supply and the problems went
> away.


Unfortunately this is a leased, remote server. But I can ask the company to
check the PSU.

Thanks.

-Tom

Re: booting by UEFI?

[Nicolas George]

Max Nikulin (12024-12-30):
> Create EFI System Partition: it should have proper partition type UUID and
> it is not recommended to make it too small (<500 MB).

Only if one wants to have the bootloaders for other systems on it. I
have been using EFI system partitions of <50 or <80 mega-octets for more
than a decade without any trouble, and now I am using a 16 mega-octets
disk image to boot VMs.

The partition just needs to be large enough to hold what one wants to
put in it, and booting Linux requires very little.

Filesystem  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda377M  166K   77M   1% /boot/efi

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George

Re: elpa-auto-complete and elpa-markdown-toc missing from trixie

[Tim Woodall]

On Sun, 29 Dec 2024, Charles Curley wrote:


On Sun, 29 Dec 2024 21:52:52 + (GMT)
Tim Woodall  wrote:


This looks like the culprit:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1077096

But the maintainer hasn't dealt with it in 6 months.

This package needs a no-change upload to rebuild it against dh-elpa

=2.1.5.  This is because binNMUs cannot be used to rebuild arch:all

packages.

IIUC literally all that is required is to reupload without any
changes.


Thank you.

I looked to see if I could simply load the elpa packages from emacs
(M-x list-packages). Neither one is a stand-alone package. However,
Markdown mode is available, and might contain markdown-toc. I didn't
see any obvious candidate for auto-completion.

I don't require them on trixie, and am willing to wait until it is
released. I don't see an obvious workaround. I hesitate to go to the
upstream source and pull in those, as I am no elisp expert.



You should be able to build the package locally.

I don't use emacs, so this doesn't impact me, but this is the biggest
headache of dist-upgrade, working out what is no longer present before
you start.

moinmoin was the worst. Because all my notes were on a moinmoin wiki. I
now have a separate buster VM and its mirror just for this. Ironically,
the only reason I chose moinmoin over any other wiki was because debian
used it so I thought they wouldn't drop it without lots of planning that
I'd see.

I'm still waiting to see what debian migrates to. I have few enough
pages that worst case I can cut and paste if necessary and
auto-conversion would be a nice to have rather than essential.

Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mounted read-only

[Tom Browder]

I've had this problem a long time ago, and don't remember how I recovered,
but it was with help here.

I suspect a failing disk, and I wonder if there is a hail Mary command I
can do to force a reboot to see if it can recover on its own. I would
almost welcome starting over with a new server.

I can login and su to root. I have not been able to inspect logs yet due to
time.

I see a 2023 Debian thread getting into lots of low-level fsck and other
things, but  can my old brain and trembly fingers hack it without
compounding the problem?

Opinions requested, please.

-Tom

Oh, I do have backups of my important stuff.

Re: Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mounted read-only

[Alain D D Williams]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:29:05AM -0600, Tom Browder wrote:

> I suspect a failing disk,

My main home PC is 10 years old and still going strong (I over specced it when
I bought it). A few years ago I had what looked like disk problems (time outs,
failed writes, ...). I replaced the power supply and the problems went away.

I have seen this before: some power supplies seem to fade as they age and the
symptom is disk failures.

Changing the PSU is cheap, quick & easy - consider it.

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT 
Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  https://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers. Registration Information: 
https://www.phcomp.co.uk/Contact.html
#include 

Re: elpa-auto-complete and elpa-markdown-toc missing from trixie

[Frank Guthausen]

On Mon, 30 Dec 2024 08:22:50 + (UTC)
Tim Woodall  wrote:
> 
> You should be able to build the package locally.

You might try another option: add the old repository to sources.list
and install that version. Other software should not be affected by this
trick since the version numbers are higher. But after installation of
the package the extra repo can be removed to avoid disturbance. Be aware
this way there are no security updates for that package. The idea can
be improved by security considerations and apt pinning.
-- 
kind regards
Frank


pgpvOEzQju2lu.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: Recovery help needed for remote server: file system mounted read-only

[Dan Ritter]

Tom Browder wrote: 
> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:37 Alain D D Williams  wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 05:29:05AM -0600, Tom Browder wrote:
> >
> > > I suspect a failing disk,
> >
> > My main home PC is 10 years old and still going strong (I over specced it
> > when
> > I bought it). A few years ago I had what looked like disk problems (time
> > outs,
> > failed writes, ...). I replaced the power supply and the problems went
> > away.
> 
> 
> Unfortunately this is a leased, remote server. But I can ask the company to
> check the PSU.

Then you can also stop all daemons, run sync, and ask the
company to power-cycle it. Quite possibly they provide a console
for you to do that yourself.

-dsr-

Re: new computer arriving soon

[Marc Shapiro]

On 12/27/24 8:19 AM, David Wright wrote:

On Thu 26 Dec 2024 at 14:30:38 (-0800), David Christensen wrote:

On 12/26/24 11:35, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Saturday 21 December 2024 08:14:11 pm Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Saturday 21 December 2024 02:20:20 pm Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:

Set the machine to boot in UEFI mode if this is available rather than
legacy MBR / both.

Why is this preferable?

?


UEFI features I like:

1.  UEFI firmware provides Secure Boot and the Debian Installer can
create a system with appropriately signed software (boot loader?
kernel?).  This makes it harder for malware to infect the system and
can prevent corrupt software from trashing the system.

2.  GPT puts two copies of the partition table on disk.  If one gets
trashed, the system can still boot; making recovery easier.

3.  GPT supports labels for partitions.  This allows me to use
meaningful names when configuring and using partitions.

4.  GPT has no need for extended and logical partitions, and all
that troublesome CHS stuff.

Cheers,
David.


What about LVM?  Is it usable (or even useful) with UEFI?

Marc

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[George at Clug]

On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 14:59 David Wright wrote:
> On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 14:10:16 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
> > > On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
> 
> > > > I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
> > > > the fuse package?
> > > > # apt install fuse3
> > > 
> > > I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that
> > > gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.
> > 
> > I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. 
> > Hence I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 
> > package does not exist in my LDME.
> 
> I am too: I can't find any google hits for gvfs-fuse3, and neither

That is because I was the one who was confused.

It was not gvfs but was actually fuse and fuse3 for which I was mentioning.

fuse - Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a simple interface for userspace 
programs to
export a virtual filesystem to the Linux kernel. It also aims to provide a
secure method for non privileged users to create and mount their own filesystem
implementations.

fuse3 - Filesystem in Userspace (3.x version) 
Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a simple interface for userspace programs to
export a virtual filesystem to the Linux kernel. It also aims to provide a
secure method for non privileged users to create and mount their own filesystem
implementations.

And fuse3 is installed in Debian Gnome.

George

> https://packages.debian.org/ nor https://tracker.debian.org/
> can find it. The only mention is:
> 
>   AI Overview
>   Learn more
> 
>   GVfs-fuse3 is a package that provides limited access to GVfs
>   filesystems for applications that don't use GIO: 
> 
>   GVfs-fuse3
> 
>   What it does
>   Exports GVfs mounts to applications that use FUSE
> 
>   Part of
>   GVfs, a userspace virtual filesystem
> 
>   Dependencies
>   Includes fuse3
> 
>   GVfs is a userspace virtual filesystem that uses D-Bus to
>   communicate with mounts that run as separate processes.
>   It has a set of backends that support trash, SFTP, SMB, HTTP,
>   DAV, and more. GVfs also has modules for GIO that implement
>   volume monitors and persistent metadata storage. 
> 
> but that could be AI just parroting.
> 
> Cheers,
> David.
> 
> 

Re: booting by UEFI?

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:54 PM Max Nikulin  wrote:
>
> On 30/12/2024 16:17, Nicolas George wrote:
> > Max Nikulin (12024-12-30):
> >> Create EFI System Partition: it should have proper partition type UUID and
> >> it is not recommended to make it too small (<500 MB).
> >
> > Only if one wants to have the bootloaders for other systems on it. I
> > have been using EFI system partitions of <50 or <80 mega-octets for more
> > than a decade without any trouble, and now I am using a 16 mega-octets
> > disk image to boot VMs.
>
> My fault, I forgot to post a link with some reasoning:
> 
>
> Nicolas, I am not trying to force *you* to resize ESP partitions on your
> machines. However I consider it safer to use bigger partition in general
> case, especially due to some uncertainties in respect to specific
> configuration.
>
> Are you sure that fwupd will never try put a large enough file to update
> firmware of some device? My experience is that laptop firmware updater,
> launched from a USB stick, creates some files on the internal drive. Are
> you sure that unified kernel images will not become default before the
> user replaces their drive?

For a data point... I experienced upgrade failures on my pfSense
firewall because /boot/efi was too small. So did a lot of other
people. It was a stock install. None of us chose the partition size.
The 200 MB size was chosen by the installer. See
.

Jeff

job is killed

[henrik]

my job consumes a lot of memory (almost consumes all of the system 
allowed ram).

when the job is running, it will have the chance to be killed.
I just got the reminder in terminal: Killed. and job exits.
who is killing my job? linux kernel, or VPS management program?
(I am using a 2 core, 8g RAM kvm vps).

Thank you.

Re: synaptic workalike that WILL run on sudo with wayland.

[Anssi Saari]

Stefan Monnier  writes:

> FWIW, I've been using ARM-based SBCs for more than 10 years (4 different
> boards, I'm ashamed to say) and have used Debian on all of them.  So no:
> you don't need Armbian to make use of that kind of hardware.

OK, which ones? I'm only aware of the Rock64 and it's not exactly modern
or fully supported but would work for my purposes.

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[David Wright]

On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

> In Debian Bookworm installations, why is gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse
> not installed by default when installing Debian with XFCE? 

Because gvfs will function without those backends, so it would
be against policy to depend on those packages. OTOH gvfs-daemons
appears to be a dependency, and includes a minimal set of backends.

> For network browsing in the thunar file manager, install gvfs-backends
> and gvfs-fuse, and add your users to the "fuse" group (sudo adduser 
> fuse).

> What is the issue of not having these two packages installed?

The package descriptions tell you:

 "This package contains the afc, afp, archive, cdda, dav, dnssd, ftp,
  gphoto2, http, mtp, network, sftp, smb and smb-browse backends."

and

 "This package contains the gvfs-fuse server that exports gvfs mounts
  to all applications using FUSE."

> But when try to add my userid to the fuse group, I discover that the
> fuse group does not exist, why is this?

Because there's no need for it as /dev/fuse has been read/writeable
since jessie; and no one has updated the wiki.

> I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
> the fuse package?
> # apt install fuse3

I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that
gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.

> I then created the fuse group and added my userid to the fuse group.
> Is this correct?  Is doing this a problem? Does creating the fuse
> group and adding the userid to the group actually help?
> 
> # groupadd fuse
> # adduser  fuse

I don't think there's any harm in your creating random groups
for fun :)

> With the popularity of XFCE, I would have expected that "network
> browsing in the thunar file manager" would be fully supported by
> default by now. Is there a reason it is not?  My guess is there must
> be some policy related reason.

No idea. Maybe the answer is at https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=157776
and maybe not. I don't use gvfs, so most of the information above
comes from reading the package files.

Cheers,
David.

Re: XFCE and Fuse

[David Wright]

On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 14:10:16 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:
> On Tuesday, 31-12-2024 at 12:12 David Wright wrote:
> > On Tue 31 Dec 2024 at 07:34:20 (+1100), George at Clug wrote:

> > > I think I found the "fuse" package was not installed. Should I install
> > > the fuse package?
> > > # apt install fuse3
> > 
> > I don't understand: fuse and fuse3 aren't the same package. I see that
> > gvfs-fuse depends on fuse3, so I assume fuse won't work.
> 
> I did notice that when I installed gvfs-fuse that gvfs-fuse3 was removed. 
> Hence I assumed that gvfs-fuse3 is a later version of gvfs-fuse. gvfs-fuse3 
> package does not exist in my LDME, nor in Debian Bookworm Gnome, so I am 
> confused. 

I am too: I can't find any google hits for gvfs-fuse3, and neither
https://packages.debian.org/ nor https://tracker.debian.org/
can find it. The only mention is:

  AI Overview
  Learn more

  GVfs-fuse3 is a package that provides limited access to GVfs
  filesystems for applications that don't use GIO: 

  GVfs-fuse3

  What it does
  Exports GVfs mounts to applications that use FUSE

  Part of
  GVfs, a userspace virtual filesystem

  Dependencies
  Includes fuse3

  GVfs is a userspace virtual filesystem that uses D-Bus to
  communicate with mounts that run as separate processes.
  It has a set of backends that support trash, SFTP, SMB, HTTP,
  DAV, and more. GVfs also has modules for GIO that implement
  volume monitors and persistent metadata storage. 

but that could be AI just parroting.

Cheers,
David.

Re: new computer arriving soon

[gene heskett]

On 12/30/24 23:02, Marc Shapiro wrote:


On 12/27/24 8:19 AM, David Wright wrote:

On Thu 26 Dec 2024 at 14:30:38 (-0800), David Christensen wrote:

On 12/26/24 11:35, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Saturday 21 December 2024 08:14:11 pm Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:

On Saturday 21 December 2024 02:20:20 pm Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
Set the machine to boot in UEFI mode if this is available rather 
than

legacy MBR / both.

Why is this preferable?

?


UEFI features I like:

1.  UEFI firmware provides Secure Boot and the Debian Installer can
create a system with appropriately signed software (boot loader?
kernel?).  This makes it harder for malware to infect the system and
can prevent corrupt software from trashing the system.

2.  GPT puts two copies of the partition table on disk.  If one gets
trashed, the system can still boot; making recovery easier.

3.  GPT supports labels for partitions.  This allows me to use
meaningful names when configuring and using partitions.

4.  GPT has no need for extended and logical partitions, and all
that troublesome CHS stuff.

Cheers,
David.


What about LVM?  Is it usable (or even useful) with UEFI?

Marc
Good question Marc. I'm searching for someone who knows how to combine 
4 ea 4T SSD's into one volume for use with amanda, the lvm docs are 
somewhat confusing, lacking the context that actually teaches.



Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis

Re: SMTP servers

[Brad Rogers]

On Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:00:24 +
Joe  wrote:

Hello Joe,

>A&A has an excellent reputation, but rather high prices.

High prices for what?  £25pcm is what I pay for 'net access using A&A.
Anyone else wants *at least* £29pcm - (possibly a 6 month budget price
to start) with a minimum 18 month contract and no guarantee they won't
hike the charge mid-contract.

I can leave A&A at any time I choose - no fees, no penalties.  Try to
leave Sky, BT, PlusNet (and a plethora of others) before the contract is
up and see what happens...

-- 
 Regards  _   "Valid sig separator is {dash}{dash}{space}"
 / )  "The blindingly obvious is never immediately apparent"
/ _)rad   "Is it only me that has a working delete key?"
Only the wounded remain, the generals have all left the game
Generals - The Damned


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