fglrx: Out of memory when allocating device heads

2009-06-21 Thread Michael
Hello

i guess this is no new issue, but even after some extensive websearch i 
couldn't find a comprehensive answer as to what i've to do to get it running.

After some over-due update, X stopped working on my laptop.

* Thinkpad T60 with ATI FireGL X1300
* Debian testing/unstable
* xorg-server 1.6.1.901  Build Date: 14 May 2009  05:49:41PM
* fglrx 8.56.4 [Dec  1 2008]


Some tests revealed the following 2 issues:


(1) #root: modprobe fglrx

Kernel 2.6.29-2:

[ 3838.545456] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1413 
MBytes.
[ 3838.546986] [fglrx:drm_alloc] *ERROR* [driver] Allocating 0 bytes
[ 3838.547708] [fglrx:firegl_init_device_list] *ERROR* Out of memory when 
allocating device heads
[ 3838.548758] [fglrx:firegl_init_module] *ERROR* firegl_init_devices failed


Kernel 2.6.26-2:

[  554.979633] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1413 
MBytes.
[  554.979959] [fglrx]   vendor: 1002 device: 7149 count: 1
[  554.980476] [fglrx] ioport: bar 1, base 0x2000, size: 0x100
[  554.981110] ACPI: PCI Interrupt :01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> 
IRQ 16
[  554.983174] [fglrx] Driver built-in PAT support is enabled successfully
[  554.984182] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.56.4 [Dec  1 2008] with 1 minors


(2) #user: /usr/bin/xinit (with kernel 2.6.26)

X.Org X Server 1.6.1.901 (1.6.2 RC 1)
Release Date: 2009-5-8
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 i686 Debian
Current Operating System: Linux lynx 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Thu Mar 26 01:08:11 
UTC 2009 i686
Build Date: 14 May 2009  05:49:41PM
xorg-server 2:1.6.1.901-2 (jcris...@debian.org)


xserver log:

(II) LoadModule: "fglrx"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so
(II) Module fglrx: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."
compiled for 1.4.99.906, module version = 8.61.2
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 0...@00:00:0
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for fglrx
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Version Identifier:8.61.2
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Release Identifier: 8.612
(II) ATI Proprietary Linux Driver Build Date: Apr 28 2009 21:43:49
(II) PCS database file /etc/ati/amdpcsdb not found
(II)   Creating PCS database from initial defaults instead
(WW) This ATI Proprietary Linux Driver does not guarantee support of video 
driver ABI higher than 2.0
(WW) Video driver ABI version of the X server is 5.0


I should note that i use this laptop for production, on travel, and need fast 
graphic rendering, and i'd be happy to have a full OpenGL running...also, to 
run google earth, which for me is most useful especially on travel. But if 
nothing helps i'd be satisfied at least to have any X at all.

Any suggestions ?

tia,

Micha


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Re: fglrx: Out of memory when allocating device heads

2009-06-21 Thread Michael

I purged all related packages (fglrx, sources, amd stuff), also remaining 
artefacts in /etc/ati,  and reinstalled things to try it from the scratch. 

Now the status seems to be, it doesn't build with 2.6.26 anymore. It builds 
with 2.6.29, but then it doesn't load.






 


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Re: fglrx: Out of memory when allocating device heads

2009-06-22 Thread Michael
Hello Martin !

Many thanks !

So it's radeonhd now and it even has 3d accel. I'll try it later, and tell how 
it works.


Martin:
> Try this one: http://mfluch.wordpress.com/linux-on-the-t60/


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Re: Safe install

2009-09-29 Thread Michael
First of all, i've never tested it with Vista myself so i need to carefully 
restrict my statements to XP.

Both Windows and ThinkVantage have their own bootloader, and grub can boot that 
bootloader.
All you need is the chainloader command in grub.cfg (this is for grub2, but 
it's very similar for the legacy old grub). 

In a Debian system, this file will be automaticly updated after every kernel 
install or update, and  there need to be a 'safe' way to preserve custom 
entries. This is /etc/grub/grub.d/40_custom file.

For example, to insert grub boot entries for Windows XP on partition sda1 and 
Thinkvantage on sda2, you would put this into 40_custom:

!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# /etc/grub.d/40_custom:
menuentry "Chainloader sda1" {
set root=(hd0,1)
# insmod fat
# search --fs-uuid --set 0fa5641b-9105-4102-acf6-c68795e8bf62
chainloader +1
}

menuentry "ThinVantage sda2" {
set root=(hd0,2)
# search --fs-uuid --set 0fa5641b-9105-4102-acf6-c68795e8bf62
chainloader +1
}

Then run 'update-grub' (as root, or via sudo), it will update the 'real' config 
in /boot.

The fs-uuid directive should normally be not necessary, it is optional. The 
respective uuid of your specific partitions would be different of course. If 
you don't know what it's about just drop it :)

If you install grub into the MasterBootRecord (MBR) then of course the Windows 
code will be gone.
What you will see is that chainloading into Windows will launch the 'normal' 
Windows Boot menu.
However, stuff like hibernation and special boot keys will be affected.

Some 2 years ago a german guy on this list, Stefan Bellon, told me a way to 
boot into grub via the original Windows XP setup, which would preserve the 
original Masterbootrecord and thus keep Windows hibernation and blue 
Thinkvantage button working at startup (before any bootloader).

This works for XP, as far as i know Vista boots different, but probably can be 
setup in some analog way. 

You would reinstall Windows MBR again (there should be some onboard M$ System 
Tool) and afterwards modify the Windows XP 'BOOT.INI' file to launch the grub 
code from the Windows harddisk. 

You can copy that code in linux commandline with dd into a binary file, say 
'bootgrub.bin' and put that on the Windows filesystem (just beneath the 
BOOT.INI). Since Linux has no good NTFS write support, you could for example 
put it on a memory stick for transfer, or use a Samba network or even just 
email.

An example BOOT.INI would look like that:
 
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=C:\bootgrub.bin
[operating systems]
C:\bootgrub.bin="Linux Grub"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP nogui" /fastdetect 
/bootlog /noguiboot /safeboot:network /sos

This setup was working with legacy grub, but i missed to prevent the package 
script from writing into the MBR when i mirgated to grub2. It didn't matter 
much to me, anyway, i think if the harddisk basically is ok, then i can launch 
ThinkVantage via grub quite as well, i just don't really need the button 
anymore. (And if the disk would not work, then also not ThinkVantage, so what. 
And there always are those pretty Recovery CDs). However, for this reason, i 
can't tell if it would work with grub2 exactly the same. 

As a result, you will see the Windows boot menu, from where you can boot into 
Windows, or 'jump' to the linux grub bootmenu.

The used grub binary will read the grub.cfg configuration of the linux 
partition just as usual, and also that configuration will be kept updated via 
package managemant just as usual. However, you need to recognize that the 
bootgrub.bin code now is 'out of reach' for grub updates.

But, once it works, it works, so what. Most grub updates anyway would not modiy 
that bootcode anyway, especially with grub2 which is highly modular, and the 
modules are loaded dynamically from the linux /boot directory now. Most updates 
will go there, anyway.

If there would be a security fix just in that initial code, then you need to 
recreate the external binary file. But then, if you really need such a good 
security for your laptop, then you would do completely different things anyway, 
and in the end of that road it wouldn't matter how it gets booted, again, 
because the ultimate solution is to store any sensible information (like your 
complete home directory) on a small external encrypted device.

hth Micha

 


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Re: Safe install

2009-09-29 Thread Michael
Robert:
> I recommend using the "GRUB For DOS" 


Yes looks like another (and maybe easier) way.

Still, if you're mostly working from Linux, the most simple way is just to 
install grub and setup chainloaders (which is done at system install anyway). 
All you loos is the ThinkVantage button, no great deal IMHO.

As for hibernation, i need to clarify, it works just as usual: Grub chainloads 
to Windows and that just resumes. What i meant is that if you would rely on 
WinLogon to protect your Windows access, now there's grub with it's insecure 
edit and commandline escapes - which can be deactivated of course.

As i said, if you really need strong security, you wouldn't rely on either OS 
or BIOS side access protection, nor on any encryption, because anything can be 
cracked up to the point to remove the hard drive for professional analysis. You 
just would not store any sensitive information on such a laptop. 


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Re: How to Fit Exercise into Your Life

2009-10-01 Thread Michael

Uhm Linux is way enough of exercise


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Re: fglrx: Out of memory when allocating device heads

2009-10-06 Thread Michael
It still does not really work.  The 'radeonhd' driver appears to have no GL 
direct rendering. Google earth, for example, barfs that it will be using a slow 
emulation.

When i used the 'radeon' driver it would not enable the maximal resolution 
(1400x1...@16) so i stick with 'radeonhd'. Interestingly this one does not 
depend on the firmware-linux package, and i deinstalled it.

Meanwhile i tried compiling fglrx with Debian kernel 2.6.30-2, in a recent Sid, 
but it's still the same ("Cannot allocate memory").

According to
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/legacy/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.2&product=2.4.2.3.9&lan
ATI has dropped support for most of the X series Radeon cards.

"AMD has moved a number of DX9 ATI Radeon™ graphics accelerators products to a 
legacy driver support structure.  This change impacts Windows XP, Windows 
Vista, and Linux distributions. 
(...) No new features will be provided in future driver updates.  The Linux ATI 
Catalyst™ driver will only be supported in Linux distributions prior to 
February 2009 for the legacy products listed above."

However why does that necessarily imply that the latest fglrx packages do not 
work anymore.
I have 2 questions:

(1) 'modprobe fglrx' results in the 'Cannot allocate memory' failure, it seems 
to be a kernel related problem. Would it be possible to fix that on the kernel 
side ?

(2) The previous fglrx versions worked in the past, is it possible to prepare a 
working package for Sid ? 

I tried to downgrade Xorg and any fglrx packages to 'stable' but then 
fglrx-source would no more build. It also seemed that reinstalling fglrx messed 
up radeonhd somehow, and i had to purge all fglrx-* packages to get it clean 
again.


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Re: fglrx: Out of memory when allocating device heads

2009-10-06 Thread Michael

thx, Marvin and Matthew.


Actually i'm not motivated to file a bug since there already are lots of 
'Cannot allocate memory' bugs filed. I also don't think this would be a debian 
package bug, it should go anywhere else - it is not the Debian maintainers 
fault that fglrx is not updated against new kernels and Xorg ABIs.

Since fglrx is the prop ATI driver, the bug probably need to go to ATI and i 
lack the arguments as to why they should do anything about it - besides that 
their decision leaves a bad image and that people who experienced the 
consequences would dissuade from buying an ATI board for Linux, generally, now. 
And this is especially sad since AMD is the only competitor of Intel, and i 
always felt it is a good thing to support them just for some balance.

I think all hope rests on the free driver now, i hope they will be able to 
implement some DRI in the future. But maybe they would not work on the 
now-older X cards either.

Well, any short-time solution would probably only get a chance if ATI would 
release their Catalyst driver completely to the community. But how can we 
convince them to do that, after so many years. Maybe AMD has an ear.

btw. I was told that i can't exchange the Grafik chip on that Thinkpad (T60p) 
is that true ? Does anybody know how could i have it done in Germany (w/o 
shipping it to Taiwan or so) ?
I think this would be another, shorthand solution...


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How to set up language and textconsole ?

2009-10-19 Thread Michael
Hi all,

(Would you pls cc to me directly ?)

I've some nagging questions around this since long :) my textconsole is somehow 
broken, it does lacks correct localization and does not display the german 
umlauts.

The specific problem is that (1) the laptop has american keyboard layout. Still 
i'd need the umlauts for the localized messages (manpages etc) and user 
interfaces (like midnight commander).

The first question is about localization.

I've installed 

locales 2.9.25 (update ATM waiting for libc6 update)
localization-config
I did choose several locales to be generated, like en_US and de_DE in three 
encodings: UTF-8, ISO-8859-1 and -15. I can see them compile w/o error.

How do i configure the language ? My login shell (bash) seems to source 
~/.profile, and i tried different export LANG= strings there but none shows any 
effect. What's the correct syntax ? For example, in /etc/locale.gen it's 
de_DE.UTF-8 but somehow i remember also de_DE.utf8 ?
Should i make it LANG=de or LANG=de_DE ? I tried all these but i just can not 
see any german manpages, although manpages-de is installed.
 
Does it make sense to choose UTF-8 at all, since it's american keyboard ? But i 
like to be able to read UTF-8 encoded textfiles on textconsole. And would this 
setting also affect the X environment ? Would i need UTF-8 then for X, because 
i have to deal with UTF-8 files (documents, filenames) ?

I also saw LANGUAGE=bla, do i need this too ? Is it exchangeable with LANG= or 
something different ?

Then the next question is, where to put this export ? There are so many config 
files !

I'd like to set system default to something like en_US (do i need to make it 
en_US.ISO-88591 ??)

* I think /etc/default/locale is used for sure.
* But how about /etc/environment ?
* I would not touch /etc/profile to avoid update syncs.

Then the user specific setting:

* Is ~/.profile the proper choice ?
* Will this be recognized in X ?
* Is xorg Option XkbLayout unaffected from all those settings ?

*sigh* i'm horribly lost !


Now for console ...


It's a Thinkpad T60, small 14" display with 1400x1050 resolution, standard 
debian sid/testing, stock kernel 2.6.30. (Does it matter it's an ATI GPU?)

I can see there are different packages around 'console'. 
Actually i've installed:
 
console-setup
console-common
console-kit
console-terminus
kbd

The display has a 1400x1050 resolution and ATM the configured console font 
Terminus size 12 is the best i can get. But in the past i had a smaller font 
which looke3d very nice, i guess it was Terminus 12, but this would not work at 
all anymore. This changed suddenly at some update.
I think it was the move to grub2, which displayed a way too small menu image (a 
sqaure in the left upper corner) when i set the gfxpayload to 1400x1050. Maybe 
this is related ?

Maybe i should mention that i don't install any display manager like kdm. The 
machine boots into text login, i need to type two short strings, and then X to 
startup a standard KDE. I would like to keep it that way, because it has proven 
reliable under so many difficult circumstances (like no-working ATI, 
nealry-out-of-battery-power, or simply totally in a hurry to lookup some phone 
number or so) and i am used to textconsole tools. Still, i often start standard 
X session. But i can't leave the language configuration to kdm.

So far...! I know this quite a bunch of question, but i'm thankful if even a 
few could be addressed. Maybe someone with german textconsole layout could look 
up some of the mentioned configurations, and tell me how it looks like ?

hopefully 

Micha

ps. I'm roaming for several days and may not be able to respond immediately.


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Re: How to turn the screen off, while working in console

2010-02-05 Thread Michael
Krzysztof,

I'd also start with BIOS and /etc/console-tools/config (BLANK_TIME and 
POWERDOWN_TIME).

If you rather like to trigger it manually, then you're better off with sudo. 
There's a NOPASSWD option (man sudoers).


micha


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Re: what laptop to buy

2010-02-05 Thread Michael
 Daniel,

Be careful with non-recent ATI FireGL video cards, that was working bad for 
some time (dunno today though). Some older Thinkpads still ship with these.


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Follow up: About W/L double-boot systems

2010-07-04 Thread Michael

Funny. 

I just cleared off the Adobe Reader stuff from my laptops' W$, a few days ago, 
replacing it by a free viewer, which as side effect released some hundred 
Mbytes of harddisk space. No notorious updates anymore, no amazing list of 
software patents on every startup.

I preserved the OEM thing in my doubleboot system because i thought i would 
need, for example, the ThinkVantage tools for BIOS upgrade. But burning and 
using the BIOS Upgrade Boot CD from the Lenovo website worked like a charm, and 
those ThinkVantage tools don't do anymore else then updating themselves, and 
backup the Windows, which i didn't need for anything since long. GRUB can boot 
the Rescue partition anyway, which again primarily deals with recovering the 
unneeded Windows; and for anything else a Knoppix shell has much more 
capabilities.
(I think i a specific linux backup on that partition would be more useful to 
me.)

So right now, the main reason i keep the preinstalled system is because i'm 
curious how long i can refuse the introduction of the Microsoft Malicious 
Software Removal Tool. (Lastly, they even went so far to let me choose "Yes i 
want install IE 8 *and* the MSR" only together, or nothing.)

I think there are reasons to run a Windows, for example if you're doing .Net 
and need a good DE. It's just it always leaves you with a paradox feeling that 
it's not you using the system but the other way round.


 


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Re: Follow up: About W/L double-boot systems

2010-07-04 Thread Michael
Sorry i missed the reply-to the spammers. Please don't repeat my mistake ...


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Re: help diagnosing possible graphics issue with Thinkpad T61 Nvidia Quadro NVS140

2012-01-26 Thread Michael
Doesn't Lenovo grant 2 years warranty ? Claim it.

I would tell them the issue anyway, because only then they might get attentive 
and fix the issue in new models.


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Re: help diagnosing possible graphics issue with Thinkpad T61 Nvidia Quadro NVS140

2012-01-26 Thread Michael
Uh, sorry, last year you bought the monitor, not the laptop.

Well then, like Preston said. If you are lucky the DVI is a separate part and 
exchangeable. Graphic card could be exchangeable too (but could be also 
on-board chip). If you find another T61, in the used parts market, which is 
defect in some other way, you could be able to do it yourself. 
But it's a lot of effort with totally uncertain outcome.
I would be interested in your resolution.


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Re: help diagnosing possible graphics issue with Thinkpad T61 Nvidia Quadro NVS140

2012-01-27 Thread Michael

> As a temporary stopgap, I've been able to get slow 2D graphics on my 
> external monitor via the fbdev X11 driver.

fbdev does use the GPU memory but not the GPU itself, if i recall right. So 
maybe either the GPU chip is defect (or lose) or there was a change in driver 
or kernel (upgrade). Or the always unknown third possibility ;)

Anyway, i would at least screw it open and have a close look, maybe something 
simply got lose or some rubbish laying around.


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Re: can't get Iceweasel to work on my laptop

2012-03-21 Thread Michael
Tina,

Since debugging wireless can be tedious especially under this circumstances 
(newbie and mailing list), i suggest go to the person who prepared the laptop, 
and ask her to configure it for you.


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Re: can't get Iceweasel to work on my laptop

2012-03-21 Thread Michael
Tina,

> I do not have the root or admin passwords and have not been able to get them.

That's another problem. 

If the installed software really already is 2y old, then consider a totally new 
installation. It could possibly solve your problems 'on-the-fly' but there is 
no guarantee, and usually requires help by someone experienced to be finally 
successful.

I'd download and burn a recent Debian Linux installation-CD, and boot this CD 
and follow the instructions. Let it wipe out your old installation, but backup 
your working data and account data first (on memory stick or burn to CD) - you 
would need to restore these in the working new installation, from the backup. 
later. It may include reconfigure your accounts in some applications like 
skype, email, whatever (note this is only the access data stored on your 
laptop, like password and login, of course you do not touch at all your mail 
account at yahoo)

Doing this 'net-install' requires reliable internet access during the process, 
meaning cable connection, to finish the installation. Instead of trying by 
wireless, it is highly recommended to go to some place where you can plug in a 
cable.

Your laptop probably have a 32bit Processor, so you would chose this file 
(download and burn:)

 
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/multi-arch/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-i386-netinst.iso

but i recommend to check first if this is really true. The alternative is 64bit 
and there the respective installer would be  
 
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/ia64/iso-cd/debian-testing-ia64-netinst.iso
(assuming your laptop have an Intel processor, see 'intel inside' sticker.)

I'm not sure what's the best way for you to find out this spec, unless it's not 
mentioned on some label or in the manual. Maybe you can find your laptop specs 
online. Maybe you have the 'cpuid' command (from a command terminal) available.

Note that i recommended the 'testing' version of Debian here. Despite its name, 
it should run fine, and the 'stable' version is rather old right now. If there 
are bugs, they use to be minor and usually can be fixed with simple application 
update.

If you like to go that way, read http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst and print out 
or do notes from http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386 (for the 
installation process, as seen by the user, the 32 / 64 bit question is rather 
irrelevant, it should be the same).

If your laptop is very important, or if you have NO TIME, then leave all this 
to an experienced linux user or expert. You may ask for help of a local linux 
user group, ask for someone dropping in at your place (or meetiung in some 
suitable, bright lighted populated place :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_User_Group
http://limestone.uoregon.edu/woven/lugww/
http://lug.org.uk/listings

Good luck ^^


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Re: can't get Iceweasel to work on my laptop

2012-03-21 Thread Michael
And by the way, if someone else likes to answer by explaining how to break 
root: Please don't do on public lists, and consider if that really solves 
anything.


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Re: can't get Iceweasel to work on my laptop

2012-03-21 Thread Michael
Richard,

> I'm not convinced I'd go for a daily build, or the testing distro, either, 
> but that's another issue.

I used daily 'testing' installers more often and there never was a problem with 
the installer or base system. If there would be a minor bug with a desktop app, 
later. then you can update or change app.

It is strategic recommendation. I was using stable installers in the past and 
always ended up with upgrade to testing, then unstable, because i wanted more 
recent features. For example, latest video codecs, or new website features 
(css3, html5, flash).  Especially big internet players never wait for Debian 
with their upgrades ... Then, upgrading from stable to testing can be quite 
cumbersome, since the distance can be huge, but from testing to unstable is not 
such a big deal.

Agreed, Ubuntu always is an option and the most popular. But over the last 
years, whenever i installed the latest Ubuntu (up to 11) for someone else (or 
did remote support), i found so many deficits and bugs, that i always ended up 
with installing better or less annoying apps, or just newer versions, and then 
the whole thing just sucks. And i finally switched back to plain Debian. It was 
rather surprising to me too.

But even inexperienced users have specific requirements (even when they got 
used to Windows or Ubuntu since long) and then you can adjust a plain Debian 
much easier. Like, resolving dependencies when upgrading certain packages (or 
all) to unstable.

Of course YMMV and there are good reasons for staying stable too. It's also 
true that even trivial problems can be mountain ranges for someone who no idea 
what's up.

> ie replace ia64 with amd64. ia64 is for Itanium machines, which is mostly 
> expensive servers.
oops...so 'amd' is for intel too ? I always forget it and confuse itsorry!


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Re: can't get Iceweasel to work on my laptop

2012-03-21 Thread Michael
Ah, and it was Brandon, not Richard, yepp. Time to go to bed...


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Re: Go for Open Source Software

2012-05-09 Thread Michael
It is definitely a SPAM using the mailing list as gateway to automatically 
detect and process valid mail addresses (per bounces). The content actually is 
quite a joke considering the purpose. They have humor. Welcome in the world of 
Spammers. 

It's like a natural hazard. Anyone reacting emotionally on such a thing should 
stay indoor because there may be rain.


ps. Best SPAM ever:

From: "Acted F. Spangled" 
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2006 11:03:37 +0200

1) We do not unsubscribe anymore becouse abusses go to unsubscribe url.
2) If we unsubscribe u others spamers are not.
3) If u abuse this e-mail we will never make spam more usefull.
  -- spamrec...@yahoo.com


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Re: Problems with battery charging

2013-01-10 Thread Michael

Ivan,

I don't have your laptop brand and never had your problem, but just a few quick 
shots:

asus_wmi seems to be the keypad backlight kernel driver. 

Old piece from 2011: 
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1102.3/00970.html

I don't see how the wmi driver should be related to battery charging. Maybe 
it's rather random that the kernel message gets triggered.

Make sure your power connector is not flaky, or the supply adapter is working 
correctly. Try a replacement one (no need to buy, only for testing, maybe from 
a friend ?). Also check the battery connectors, and make sure that it's 
generally healthy.

If there are any (non-character) function keys  then make sure the keys  keys 
aren't flakey, like maybe dirty underneath, or simply damaged. Especially if 
you poured out your coffee over the keypad...
The touchpad could be flaky too, sending random input triggering some desktop 
shortcut function.

Counter-check with a different kernel version.

If you compiled a custom kernel you could disable the wmi driver. (Or is there 
a way to disable it at boot time, by boot options, for every kernel ? Dunno.) 
But as i said, i can't see the connection, and that should also only just clear 
the error message, not the problem.


 


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shutdown from xfce desktop ?

2013-02-07 Thread Michael


The last few times i installed via Debian netinstall, choosing xfce Desktop, i 
ended up with a desktop that requires the user to type in the root password to 
shutdown the machine. It's essentially the same when trying to shutdown from 
the login-manager (lightdm or gdm3). 

I know the reason why a shutdown is prevented on a multiuser terminal server, 
but i think it's justified to expect a user to be able to shutdown just with 
one click on a single desktop machine ?

Maybe it's my fault, and i wiped out some essential package later (doing kind 
of cleanup) so i wanted to ask these 2 things:

(1) anyway who's managing the log out /shut down thing normally (at the backend 
level) ? 

(2) Is there a way to configure this from within the desktop session (like, 
some system-settings module) ?

I could not find anything so far, but as i said, maybe it's just not installed 
right now.

This happened to me 2 years ago, and with three different machines with an 
install image (netinstall 'testing') from January.


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Re: 64 bit download for Intel Pentium

2013-02-16 Thread Michael
Should be amd64

http://www.debian.org/ports/#portlist-released


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Re: acpi handler

2013-03-10 Thread Michael
Maybe the documentation (or maybe the source code) of package 'acpitool' can be 
helpful to you ?



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Re: console mode

2013-03-29 Thread Michael
Bob,

Many thanks for the interesting hint !

Another thing you could do is run console-log (and bootlogd)



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Measures against overheating / Was: static or dynamic /dev

2013-04-05 Thread Michael

sting wing, 

although there isn't really anything left to add to Bobs reply (which is good 
work, as expected); but just for the fun of it, some related ideas.

If you need to monitor harddrive temperature, then possibly you've already 
reason to fear overheating, and you finally would need to lower the temperature 
generally, right.

There are settings in the BIOS as well as in the desktop settings what to do 
after so much idle time (or tools like 'sleepd', or you could  screw some 
hdparm -f -Y command into the right places.) However, that does not really work 
since there are too many processes doing continuous small disk writes, like 
logs and network activities. Therefore, you should configure as much things as 
possible into RAM (see /etc/default/tmpfs) and even link specific folders 
there. As a small demonstration, some image viewers clutter your disk with 
large amounts of thumbnails in ~/.thumbnails, and you could make that a 
symbolic link to a /tmp/thumbnails folder which you create at desktop launch, 
via autostart script. (I invented this just now, not tested.) The thumbs will 
be lost, after shutdown, but usually most of them are obsolete anyway. Highly 
experimental would be /var/log mounted as tmpfs :) but why not.

However, if you've got serious overheating, then the real solution is to get 
the heat out of the computer. With PCs for example i tend to use external 
drives for the busy system partitions. In very modern laptops you would have an 
internal flash disk anyway, which probably don't produce much heat. But a 
simple thing you can do is to clean the inbuilt fan from heavy dust and you may 
even consider to open up some additional slots in the case, manually, or make 
the existing one larger (loosing warranty of course).


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-05 Thread Michael
Vladan,

It appears i have thrown out my last 2 WD disks just recently ... ;) 

The reason, of course, was they were worn out. I didn't know of the idle3 
problem, then.

Anyway, now i'm using only SG and even fresh new drives always show several 
'pre failure' values in smartd.
I'm lazy using gsmartcontrol, btw.

> Is there any way to reduce numbers of load cycles on PATA drives?

Beats me   sorry.


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-05 Thread Michael
Vladan, maybe the hdparm -m and -M options would ba also interesting for you. 

It's amazing what you learn and discover just by dropping into some random 
mailing list question. For example, you made me just install cpufreqd on my PC 
where i never considered that a priority. But why should i waste energy ? And 
it definitely effects heat. I find the cpufreq config quite easy to understand.

While i know we're talking Laptops here, but as a sidenote, on this PC, the hot 
GPU card is directly under the CPU fan, and the case does not have any side 
opening. Apparently makes the CPU fan blow the hot GPU air onto the CPU chip :| 

I wanted to equip the case with one of those large, slow side fans, since long. 
Some modern cases even have a second sidewall fan directed at the harddisk 
slots. Well, i always just put the busy system disk out-of-case, main problem 
solved. (Using a 50cm SATA cable)

As for the dust, i plan to place 3 or 4 small quiet indoor fountains around the 
PC.

- kidding.

As another sidenote, i've a couple of rarely used storage disks (like Backups 
or Archives) which i'd like to send hdparm -Y at boot time, but then, linux 
apparently needs to wake them up (hard resetting) at shutdown just to tell them 
to shutdown. Sucks. Any idea ? this is kernel 3.0.2 on Debian testing.

---

Bob,

> I have that problem of continuously increasing load cycle count from
> head parking with a brand new Seagate 2T drive.  It isn't just WD with
> this problem anymore.

Many thanks ! - I'll keep an eye on that.


> File /etc/hdparm.conf:

I'm trying to not change the default config templates, because linux does not 
have any mechanism to merge user modifications into template updates, so user 
have to do it manually. Therefore i gathered all possible tweaks in my personal 
boot script called by /etc/rc.local. (Another possibility is 
/etc/default/hdparm)




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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-10 Thread Michael
Sting Wing,

Since your disk is SSD (if i understood correctly), and those normally don't 
produce much heat, i wonder if it is some other component which (as side 
effect) heats up the disk drive.


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-11 Thread Michael

Thanks for the info ! Indeed, on my laptops it just worked fine since long. 
However, i was talking about a PC (always ON AC) and there, i needed to install 
the daemon to have the CPU actually scaled. Or at least i did not know hot to 
user-configure the kernel driver. The cpufreqd config is easy to grok.

As i said, it's experimental, to save energy and reduce heat. I don't feel any 
performance loss since then. It's a 3.2.x kernel btw, i just downgraded to 
testing after i nearly screwed the box with too heavy version/arch experiments.


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-15 Thread Michael
Babu,

> Having been using Debian 64bit on AMD server as a gateway/fileserver with 
> samba for a while, the ondemand governor is working perfectly fine

For this office pC, the kernel cpufreq driver just did not scale anything 
although the capability was reported. Go figure. Maybe the K8 mainboard is too 
old for that. But i really don't feel like debugging this any further. It works 
now, i'm happy.

I may give it another try after some kernel upgrade. However, i really like the 
configuration of the daemon - i could adapt it much to my needs, easily.


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-15 Thread Michael

Turning back to harddisk sleep vs. write access of OS subsystems: Here is my 
'todays workout' for the smart OS.

On most of my machines (no online servers) i did not need the last weeks of 
logs, for years. The only reason would be intrusion detection, but hey, i'm 
talking about laptops and office PCs with nothing worth to break the router. 
So, to stop the continuous harddisk access, i just de-installed rsyslog daemon.

Then, i made /var/log a tmpfs and out of curiosity, just to see if ot works, 
reinstalled rsyslog again. As expceted, after each boot, the standard logs get 
created at syslog start (which is in desktop runlevel rc2, in debian) and so 
far noone is barfing. 
Anyway, it can be easily reverted, only one '#' in /etc/fstab, and reboot.

Here is what happened (tm Monk):

(1) Booted into 'single' mode (runlevel 1) because here, no syslog should be 
running (that is, per debian default; if your system is different then issue 
'/etc/init.d/*syslog stop' to shutdown the log daemon)

(2) Edited /etc/fstab with mcedit (package 'mc' - else you could use nano or vi 
or whatever) and added this line:

tmpfs/var/log   tmpfs   
noatime,nodiratime,uid=0,gid=4,mode=755,size=50M  0   0

Please note:

a.   If you mount /var as separate partition (which i always do) then the new 
entry has to be AFTER the /var one, because /var/log can only be mounted after 
/var. (The line order in fstab equals time order)

b.   'uid' for root, gid for 'adm', permissions 755 are 'rwx r-x r-x'. I may 
have lost the original permissions of /var/log some year ago when i fiddled 
with tiger; correct me if 755 is wrong.


(3) I copied /var/log to /var/log-BAK, just in case. It can be deleted after 
some days, if you're sure anything is fine.

(4) Afterward, i deleted all content of  /var/log, with mc. You may use 
commandline 'rm -rf' but be very careful with this.You can as well leave the 
old /var/log/* since it will be mounted-over. I just felt like cleaning the 
disk up. This steps generally leaves /var/log as mountpoint with original 
permissions, in case you'd revert the thing some day.

(5) Rebooted.


By the way, i also de-installed much desktop/server/network stuff that i never 
really needed on my 'office' machines. Namely exim4, the highly active 
avahi-daemon, ssh-server, network-manager (i use plain ifup), ntp (i use rdate 
on all my machines). Other candidates for office - depending on your needs - 
could be bluetooth, wireless, samba, nfs. It also turned out that i can live 
without 'hal'.
In total, it was a huge amount of packages which i got rid of. Finally, my 
smart desktop boots a lot faster too.

There is some argument that sometimes you suddenly need an ssh-server, or 
samba, and what if the internet is down and you can't install. So, 
alternatively, one could only switch the init scripts off. Lookup the 
/etc/rc2.d README for the debian way.

However, it's real funny to walk around and mark 'deinstall' anything you don't 
know what it's good for, and look which packages get broken, and if those can't 
be just deinstalled too (which was the case for avahi-daemon, only required by 
llibreoffice java on my desktops, which i never ever needed anyway.)

Maybe one should start with the package manager anyway, and configure it not to 
install 'recommendet' packages automaticly. That would free most systems of 
several hundred packages and lots of unneeded stuff.


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Re: Measures against overheating

2013-04-27 Thread Michael
Stefan,

> Note that this risks will fill your ram&swap with logs, next time some
> problem shows up causing infinitely repeated log entries.  For this
> reason I prefer to install busybox-syslogd: it's much smaller than
> rsyslogd, keeps the logs in memory (like your tmpfs) but only keeps the
> last few KBs of it, so there's no risk of overflowing.

Nice hint ! Thanks!

However, i've got no log daemon at all right now, and the only logs left are 
lastlog, X log, dmesg and consolekit. Of these, as i believe, only dmesg could 
potentially be flooded; but IIRR the kernel cuts repetitions (which occur 
regularly with flakey hardware) automaticly. At least i saw something like 
'last message repeated xyz times' in the past.

It's actually an interesting question how the system behaves in the worst 
crisis (and with no swap) - it makes me think to trigger this purposely some 
day :)


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Re: it is avahi? Re: network

2013-06-24 Thread Michael
Does he even need avahi service at all.


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Re: it is avahi? Re: network

2013-06-24 Thread Michael
But ugh, that's a lot of stuff to study, when the problem may be rather trivial.

How about try reinstalling all avahi packages. (Using a package manager, check 
anything with *avahi* in their names.)

I recommend to move to Debian 'testing' anyway (i.e. upgrade) except your 
laptop is way old. I bet the upgrade fixes the error message.


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Re: it is avahi? Re: network

2013-06-25 Thread Michael
Hannu, just curious, how did you translate 'region' (in the error message) ?
Is the original finnish (?) word a technical term and what does it refer to 
exactly.


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Re: it is avahi? Re: network

2013-06-25 Thread Michael
Hannu,

The only things a fresh avahi-daemon installation puts into the config (that 
is, not commented) are:

[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=100
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]

[reflector]

[rlimits]
rlimit-core=0
rlimit-data=4194304
rlimit-fsize=0
rlimit-nofile=768
rlimit-stack=4194304
rlimit-nproc=3

If there was a domain name default, it would be "domain-name=local" (but 
commented out), without dot. But it will be derived from your hostname anyway. 

So maybe try commenting (disabling) any domain setup. If any, it should be 
something like 'gone.local' if gone is your machine. 

Check the /etc/avahi/hosts file too. My version has commented examples, only:
# Examples:
# 192.168.0.1 router.local
# 2001::81:1 test.local

so i guess it should work w/o any manual explicit configuration too.

Also check if you got libnss-mdns installed, which is recommended by avahi.

I am sorry i can not easily check how it works w/o manual configuration. I just 
can't remember any installation asked me anything about it so i guess the 
defaults should work out of the box.

I deinstalled any avahi services on all machines in this small intranet because 
we don't seem to have any need for it, and we didn't miss anything afterwards. 
For example, i don't understand why laptops need a avahi-daemon, or rather, why 
avahi-discover should be depending on the daemon. Do you really want to publish 
your laptop 'files to access' in a mixed environment ?
 
We have one printer and it seems network access via IPP works fine even without 
avahi. I guess a roaming laptop or smartphone could benefit in some trusted 
environment though. But seriously, in which business or university environment 
do you send off a printing job from your laptop without first being granted 
explicit access to the printer ? 
I admit i am oldfashioned and do not understand any modern usages of multicast 
dns.

Well. in your situation, i would deinstall (with complete 'purge') anything 
with 'avahi' in its name, except it breaks essential other packages (for 
example, cups and gvfs need some avahi libs), especially the daemon. Then, i'd 
check if something i need does not work anymore. If so, reinstall 
avahi-discover. With luck, the error will be gone with a new package default 
config.

It should be noted that such a task needs some experience (or boldness) with 
'apt-get' or a good package manager. It's rather easy, and safe, if you know 
how to use 'aptitude'. If you configured things manually, and want to preserve 
the config, don't use 'purge'. Keep in mind that even if you deinstalled half 
your system, it can be reinstalled in a few moments, if only you keep track of 
what was removed (for example, the /var/log/aptitude).


gl mi


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Re: it is avahi? Re: network

2013-06-27 Thread Michael
Cristian,

> That looks like someone is attempting to eavesdrop on you.

I would be interested in how that could work and how to defend against it. 
Would you mind to try to explain it, for short ... ? 

Here are my questions:

(1) If i understand correctly, the 'dig' result shows that domain 'local' is 
directed to either  "ns1.inet.fi" or "hostmaster.sonera.fi" correct ? How would 
a SOA answer section look like for a non-grabbed domain, in a regular dig 
result ?

(2) As far as i know the regular setup only has 'localhost' for loopback, i 
don't know anyone using 'local', except, as it appears, avahi. So would this 
redirect (or rather, grabbed domain) take effect only for the avahi system, in 
a default installation ?

(3) I don't think that Hannu's situation necessarily indicates anything 
criminal like eavesdropping. But anyway, if so, then what use could you imagine 
to 'eavesdrop' especially avahi communications ?


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Re: Installing debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso on a partition of a Macbook 5,2

2014-01-26 Thread Michael
Daniel,


> as MBR has a four partition limit.

the standard way was to make partition #4 of type 'logical' which is a 
container where you can add several more partitions, like separate linux /home 
(recommended) and linux swap. also, if necessary, grub could even boot a 
logical partition too.
i dunno about efi but for sure grub can boot a lot of things in different ways. 
it also has an efi emulation module.

> but do install GRUB-ps to your Debian partition (should be /dev/sda4)

guess that should have been 'GRUB-pc' here


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Re: Optimus_x64

2014-08-19 Thread Michael

... perhaps you should have explained first that Linux calls it "Bumblebee" ?

https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/FAQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus

hth


> hi,
> 
> 
> I am on dual-boot debian 7 & ubuntu 14 (updated) with two choices on my 
> laptop :
> Nvidia or Intel.
> Optimus technology manage it with the soft "prime" allowing switching 
> the graphic-card easily.
> 
> On ubuntu, it is clear & neat ; i add nvidia settings - it chooses and 
> download the driver ; then, i restart.
> On Debian, it is not clear, not at all.
> 
> 
> I wish obtain the same thing on my debian.
> What must i do ?
> Is someone know a how-to (recent please) ?
> Is someone working with optimus ?
> Does Debian accept Optimus & Nvidia settings + Prime ?
> 
> Very simple with ubuntu, even the french doc is easily readable :
> http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/prime
> 
> apt://nvidia-331 nvidia-prime mesa-utils.
> or
> sudo apt-get install nvidia-331 nvidia-prime mesa-utils
> 
> Nota Bene : it works only with proprietary driver
> 
> 
> That is one part of my problem.
> 
> ***
> 
> The second part occurs when i follow a debian tutorial : installing a 
> proprietary driver : it is not the same that ubuntu' choice  !!!
> driver 331 -Nvidia settings_ubuntu
> driver 340 -Nvidia site_debian
> 
> Like every user, we prefer let the assistant do the right choice.
> If i choose another driver (maybe better) is there not a risk to crash 
> my system ?
> With the Nvidia assistant, the better driver will be choose without any 
> risk.
> 
> Why have i not on my software the prime soft & nvidia 331 (mesa-utils 
> is) included in the packages (Optimus on laptop is a modern function 
> well known) or at least a quick  help/explanation ?
> 
> I looked for information on several sites but i did not find something 
> coherent or relevant.
> OK, it is maybe not free, not tolerated but i need it : it saves the 
> life of my battery on debian and allows me playing on line on ubuntu.
> 
> Different tutorials are on the web but i do not know which one i must 
> follow.
> 
> I would like solve that on debian with the same manner/procedure that i 
> did on ubuntu.
> 
> ***
> 
> 
> How to install Optimus_Prime on Debian 7 ?
> 
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2221392
> trouble-shooting help
> 
> https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#wheezy-backports
> unclear
> http://mirror.onat.edu.ua/debian/pool/contrib/n/nvidia-settings/
> unreadable
> http://pkgs.org/download/nvidia-settings
> can i download it whithout any risk ?
> http://pkgs.org/debian-wheezy/debian-backports-contrib-amd64/nvidia-set
> Is it unstable or a verified package ppa ?
> 
> What must i choose ?
> 
> 
> Thank you by advances for your answers.
> 
> 


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Re: ALSA replacement

2014-10-05 Thread Michael

Hmm, why didn't you dub this 'pulse audio replacement', i wonder. For most 
desktop users, ALSA is already doing about anything they need. Most of the rest 
can be done by just the player (maybe using some pulse lib but would not 
require the server).
Well apparently gnome-media depends on it. Many good players (including vlc) do 
not. 
Go figure.


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Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-14 Thread Michael
Hello,

Someone gots me a 4y old Lenovo Thinkpad X301 with a 64G Samsung SSD and i'd 
like to give it a try and follow this instruction
  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD_Memory_Cell_Clearing

There is no usable OS yet on this laptop (albeit a Windows 7) and i consider 
booting a Live-CD.

Does anyone know 

(1) If i need a specific boot disk. I'm going to download grml.org for the 
first try.

(2) If there's any problem with using Samsung Magician for SSD BIOS update even 
when the Samsung Download Center does not know the harddrive (anymore), so i 
downloaded just the first thing i saw, version 4.1 from 06/2013

Anyone have a little experience with this ?

tia mi


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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-14 Thread Michael

As for the firmware, Samsung (and also Magician) seem to support only model 470 
and newer. 
My drive has firmware PS105L16. Would anybody be able to tell if there was any 
newer version available ?

I guess i'll just skip this step and continue with cell clearing.


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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
Florian,

thx for reply. 

I got no further yet through workload delays.

> >   https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD_Memory_Cell_Clearing

> i would just reinstall, and the use "fstrim" to clear the rest of the drive.

Another friendly guy from this list already recommended this approach. So. i 
will try reformatting then manually TRIM the whole disk from a grml bootdisk. 
which hopefully has trim support in hdparm.

But you think it yields the same result ? The few articles i read did not make 
clear if TRIM command is doing cell clearing actively, or if it's something 
that only advises the SSD to clear at writes, and only those blocks affected.

For example, this does not make it clear:

"A Trim command (commonly typeset as TRIM) allows an operating system to inform 
a solid-state drive (SSD) which blocks of data are no longer considered in use 
and can be wiped internally."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM

The problem here is the 'can'.

While this seems to point out some 'fragmentation' issue:

"Write performance is known to degrade over time even on SSDs with native TRIM 
support. TRIM only safeguards against file deletes, not replacements such as an 
incremental save."
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#TRIM

which would not apply if starting from a freshly formatted disk.

Couldn't find the answer here, too
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/8

I also wonder if i should mount my usb memory pen drives with the 'discard' 
option ?


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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
Leslie,

Ah, but since fstrim works only on a mounted filesystem, there is already a 
difference to a reset by SSD BIOS. A filesystem allocates lots of blocks, for 
tables and journal and the redundancy backups. (I wonder if that's even anymore 
useful with a SSD, and if there are specific SSD mkfs options to drop all that?)

A little offtopic, but while we are at 'lifetime optimization': I also wonder 
about swap space. Is it still needed for hibernation or is there a 
'pagefile.sys' option in the linux subsystem (pm-utils?). But as i've 
understood, any separation by partitions would lead to less freedom for the SSD 
to allocate free cells, because there shall be as much free space as possible, 
thus i should do only the essential split into / and /home.
Which would be necessary for the chance to re-install another OS some day. For 
example, one w/o sysetmd ! 
Anyway, if there is a way to tell installers to keep a /home folder, then even 
that would not be required.


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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
Bjørn,

thx for the infos. There is more of these old TPs (next is a T410) which i'm 
giving away, so i have to calculate a bit. But i'll consider your ideas. 


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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
Bob,

That was a lot of useful information. Thank you !

No i'm not affiliated :) i'm just occasionally (as a hobby) doing support for 
people who run into problems. I think i kind of know this OS a little bit, and 
i have to admit over the years (although i was indifferent at the beginning) i 
started to hate it. I could write 10 mails each day to the developers, about 
why the hell dare they impose absurd workloads upon their customers.They really 
keep people busy, telling them doing things instead of doing things for them. 
-To be fair, usually i'm called when it's already screwed so i'm biased. And 
yes it got a few good points. But still. I'm a G/linux user since many years 
and i always had to fix a lot of things, but it's a very different feeling.

But i didn't dig into SSD so far. For me this is a chance to learn. Yes, i 
understood your point. But this is old hardware, maybe it's worth a little 
consideration. (And i'm not gonna replace things because i'm donating these TPs 
&& rather leave investments to the owners.)

I didn't know that partitions are just only logical things nowadays. Does that 
mean partition layouts are obsolete now ?


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Re: How to use Solid State Drives (SSD)

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
I think i meant GPT here.

And from what i've read, following the link Bob Prolux posted, i conclude it 
doesn't really matter, as GPT is just a newer and more flexible system to cover 
disk sizes >2T, but for laptops the old MRB system should be good enough (as 
long as grub supports it).



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Re: Solid State Drive BIOS update and Memory Cell Clearing

2014-12-16 Thread Michael
Hello all,

I booted the laptop into a grml boot-cd, then checked things with hpdarm -I. It 
appeared this old SSD does not do TRIM.

Given that it's just an old disk with possibly low firmware performance, and a 
small and cheap one anyway, and without TRIM, i decided to just go with the 
memory clearing option, even if only to see if it works; and followed the 
instructions of the archlinux wiki [1] -- and anything went fine so far, just 
as described.

I should mention that indeed the drive was 'frozen' and indeed it went 'not 
frozen' after a suspend. I had to remember the 'echo -n mem > /sys/power/state' 
method (it's ages since i used such stuff) because the bootdisk did not come 
with any suspending tools. 

The clearing process itself needed only about 10 seconds, and differently to 
the wiki example, there was no gauge or feedback whatsoever. But checking with 
cfdisk, all the Windows partitions were gone and there wasn't any table too, 
just a clean disk.
I think it's safe to reuse this experience with the other Thinkpads. (It's a 
pity it can't be done just from the mainboard BIOS)

Let me finally say, many thanks for your advice, i really didn't know my 
options and how to evaluate them, and i learned a lot (: but be warned, i'm 
still curious ;)

mi

[1]  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD_Memory_Cell_Clearing

[2]  http://xkcd.com/309/


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Re: How to use Solid State Drives (SSD)

2014-12-16 Thread Michael

I'm going to setup just one partition for anything (except swap), since i could 
not find any arguments why to split /home or anything else, applying to me. I 
don't keep massive data on a travel laptop anyway, and If i'd need a reinstall 
i can backup /home easily to some external drive, with the slight advantage 
that i can memory reset the disk again.

I will setup a swap partition, because the hibernation swapfile thing seems to 
allocate fixed disk space too, so there's not much difference except that a 
separate partition seem to be somewhat easier to understand (and maintain). 
Well, a swapfile can be easily extended, if you add more memory, but then, I 
don't think i'll ever need so much for hibernation anyway. It's not my habit to 
leave everything opened when i close the lid, it's not too much asked to shut 
some windows, especially when it leads to faster wake up.

But even on a desktop, there can be cases when SSD partitioning might be 
useful. For example, you might consider to increase the FS blocksize on a 
separate video storage partition, and you'll probably have no need for any 
timestamps there. In fact, it could be a much reduced filesystem, optimized for 
space, with less table redundancy, no preserved-root space, and so on.

Does anybody know if the barrier / nobarrier mount option takes effect on SSD ?


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Re: No halt/poweroff on an EliteBook 840 G1 after upgrade

2014-12-17 Thread Michael
Edit /etc/default/halt and change the value as Eddy writes.

Yes, systemd is probably the cause, it replaced pm acpi by its own terminology, 
disregarding the legacy convention.

if nothing else helps, replace systemd with systemd-shim emulation (maybe also 
switching back to sysvinit).


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Re: No halt/poweroff on an EliteBook 840 G1 after upgrade

2014-12-18 Thread Michael
Bjørn,

> Yes, systemd will happily break existing ACPI PM setups without any
> warning.
> 
> The systemd point of view is that any breakage is caused by other
> packages failing to detect that systemd is installed. 

And besides, that's how they shot down the Debian OpenBSD port, just like that.

The said behavior even stands up against the kernel.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76935#c36

That said. We just have to get used to systemd configuration.


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Re: No halt/poweroff on an EliteBook 840 G1 after upgrade

2014-12-18 Thread Michael
Florian,

i did not mean it literally. I meant that systemd upstream rejected to care for 
any other kernel, than Linux, and that was the result. I can dig up the 
respective mails if you require me too, but it will be some work since i did 
not bookmark them (and i have no browser history).

But, if you know the true story, then i'm not offend if you correct me.

mi


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Re: No halt/poweroff on an EliteBook 840 G1 after upgrade

2014-12-18 Thread Michael
Florian,

Well, you can see it this way.  I'd rather seen a bit more sensibility in doing 
that 'big step' when it means so much damage.

> systemd is a big step for debian, but its not the cause for everything.

Yes, true.

Well, anyway, poweroff button stopped working for me too, on both my laptop and 
my PC, right after the systemd update switch. I did not like it and moved back 
to sysvinit, and suddenly poweroff worked again. But of course, it could be by 
case. So, my problem was rather that of 'good style'. Without any warning, or 
asking me for choice, my sophisticated custom init setup altogether with some 
hardware go screwed up, and that made me angry. I was not used to such a 
treatment from Debian, in all the years before, to the contrary, the updates 
used to ask me about every little thing.


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OT: Debian BSD port / systemd incompatibilities

2014-12-19 Thread Michael
Florian,

> so the argument, that they "rejected to care for other kernels" is
> simple invalid. if there are some developers who care, nobody will stop
> them in getting the bsd port in shape for release.

Please have mercy when i'm not really into the exact tech specs, and i'm not a 
developer either. 

But to my understanding, systemd explicitly requires kernel cgroups which are 
not implemented in other kernels types (BSD, Hurd). 
So how do you expect to get the BSD port 'in shape' ?

I found a link, not the one i was reading, but anyway:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2011-May/msg00427.html

"systemd is Linux-only. That means if we still care for those non-Linux 
platforms replacements have to be written."

I've seen this kind of statement more often, from that person, and he's quite 
clearly the inofficial leader.

That was May 2011. Since then, systemd expanded like a fungus into amazingly 
more essential subsystems. It's really becoming kind of a OS layer. Do you 
really expect BSD staff to 'rewrite' pretty much the whole thing ? In my view, 
the lack of these resources were clear from the beginning, and it was also 
clear tha abandoning compatibility will deeply separate those sister archs from 
the GNU/Linux mainstream.

In the same post of 2011 Poettering already suggests tie systemd to Gnome, 
which in turn impacts the decision of many distros to accept the switch to 
systemd even if they did not like it. KDE now have no choice but to follow. If 
that course is continued (and it definitely will, as Poettering supports the 
Gnome OS thing) then some day soon BSD and other archs will not have that kind 
of desktop anymore.

Well, ok, they could try fix their kernel. I don't know if this works out 
though.
 
> the release team just decided, not to wait for them.

I wonder if there will be nothing to wait for, anymore.

mi


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Re: OT: Debian BSD port / systemd incompatibilities

2014-12-19 Thread Michael
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=74589#c9

Status: RESOLVED FIXED 


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Re: No halt/poweroff on an EliteBook 840 G1 after upgrade

2014-12-19 Thread Michael
Like 

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=systemd
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?repeatmerged=no&src=systemd
https://wiki.debian.org/systemd#Known_Issues_and_Workarounds

?

> Could you please point me (us?) to a good and reasonably short summary
> about the known issues in debian related to systemd, and how to switch
> back to sysvinit, in case? 

There is no real switch back. Systemd grabbed libpam (login) which now is 
libpam-systemd, and is required by policy-kit, networkmanager, gdm, and finally 
just Gnome session, and also is required by udisks2 which k3b needs ... and so 
forth. You'll find something everywhere which finally pulls in systemd.  So it 
will be installed anyway. 
But you can revert to the sysv init system (reading the rc files) by installing 
systemd-shim and sysvinit packages, and add kernel commandline 
'init=/lib/sysvinit/init' (probably best in a separate menu entry added to 
/etc/grub.d/custom.cfg). 

At least this is how i understood things and it works for me.

If your problem is just only hardware issues then this is probably overkill and 
you should just try to track it down and file a bug.


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Re: OT: Debian BSD port / systemd incompatibilities

2014-12-19 Thread Michael
Florian,

> you never even tested (debian/bsd), and you are not working on it.
> 
> So you spread fear to problems you don't have, you don't understand, and
> you don't work on them.

But which of these apply to you :) i wonder.

But, anyway, OT as is, let's not extend it any further. 


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how to make debian use my swapfile for hibernation

2015-03-18 Thread Michael
Hey all,

On my old laptop, i used a swap partition for hibernate. It could be declared 
to the kernel (or rather, pm-utils?) by "resume=/dev/sdx" parameter. 

Now i'm going with a /swapfile, already created and mkswapped, but dunno how to 
tell the system about it.

There is https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Suspend_and_hibernate#Hibernation 
 but, one reason i decided to go with a swap file, is to be able to easily 
change its size anytime later. But according to this manual, if i recreate it, 
i also have to adjust the offset stuff ? That's several fiddling steps (which i 
need to remember or at least to write down and remember where) -- folks, this 
is no more what i call 'easily'.

So, i wonder if there is some magic piece of software that i still did not 
discover, which simply detects the swapfile automaticly and dynamically (like, 
configuring only the filename or Label) ?

tia mi








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Re: how to make debian use my swapfile for hibernation

2015-03-18 Thread Michael
Cindy,

Your idea is pretty close to what really happens, but it's happening in another 
'sphere'.

You probably mean the 'export' shell builtin command. It is used in the context 
of the shell (the login environment), for example when compiling code from 
sources.

A shelled login creates a conext environment, for example, parameters that 
define how this shell works for you. When you start a process from that shell 
(launching an application), it gets it's own processing environment, often with 
only rudimentary environment parameters. 
Typical processes are launching the desktop, or stuff done via sudo, or 
compiling sourcecode.

With 'export', you can set variables in the 'outer' shell login context, which 
may be used by any process or sub-context. Imagine it as setting up satellites 
into the earth orbit so everybody can 'read' them :)

So far my understanding, which is not derived from the manuals but my best 
guess :)

Hibernation however belongs to the kernel space. That space is no more earth 
orbit, since it is created way before any login happens. The kernel deals with 
the hardware, with booting up the machine. It's rather like the sun, apparently 
a little different from any planets.

Although a user can tell some system software (like pm-utils) about the device, 
it's not going to happen via export. It's a real system configuration. Next 
thing is, that system software tells the kernel, and the kernel saves the 
snapshot image. So far, no problem. But what happens when the machine wakes up 
again ? Now, the operating system (GNU/Linux) is not even running, only the 
kernel starts to boot up and now have to find the piece of information where 
the snapshot image is.

If you were to 'export' this information for this time of wake-up, where to 
drop it so the kernel can read it ? One possibility is the so-called 'initrd', 
which really comes close to a satellite. Only that it's rather an asteroid, but 
packed with stuff that every userspace-ship needs to survive down here :)
Another method is to tell the bootloader (eg. grub) by inserting it into the 
boot commandline. The bootloader then tells the kernel.

Well, don't ask me what a bootloader would be, in our little planetary computer 
system. Maybe a kind of Stargate ...

Anyway. My question hits the difference between swap partition and swap file. 
It's a little tricky. Both kernel and bootloader have no problem to identify a 
partition, but normally they can not identify a single file. That would require 
the filesystem driver already being launched (which implies *a lot* of other 
stuff, and besides there are two dozen different file systems), which simply 
isn't happening.

BUT grub does have file system drivers, so why not using that ? Grub should be 
able to tell the offset to the kernel, no ? Requirement would be a unique name, 
like pagefile.linux :) Well, it may add another 1-2 seconds to the bootup time, 
though.

Meanwhile, i configured the swapfile 'physical offset' as per manual, and it 
works. But it's so inelegant.

> Hoping this at least maybe triggers another similar thought

Well, many Laptop brands ship their specific boot partition together with the 
OEM generic Windows, and they implement all the stuff that Windows would have 
difficulties with. I guess you can do this with Linux as well, only it requires 
a certain amount of work and time. It's rather a miracle that even a generic 
Linux *does* work on so many different machines... so, i do not want to 
complain for real.

mi


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Re: how to make debian use my swapfile for hibernation

2015-03-20 Thread Michael
Florian,

> too. There is no guarantee that the filesystem will not change the
> offset. An FSCK

Uh, i did not think of that...hmpf. Indeed, that's a problem.

Well, as a workaround, i could figure the actual offset by boot script and ... 
uhm ... put it where ... ? 

(Building a new initrd in case it differs ? Ugly again...) 

Argh, this stuff is so cumbersome. Why the heck won't grub just lookout for the 
file, it does have file sys drivers no ? Only putting the path and name into 
grub should be enough. And even the kernel could figure the offset himself when 
hibernating.
Well, somehow it does not seem an urgent todo for developers. Most people do 
only suspend their devices anyway. And buy new batteries more often...

> Just use LVM

Can i convert the existing partitions into LVM ? It was quite some work to 
configure this very specific laptop...

It's another question how all that works out with a flash drive.


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Re: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb) and ilwifi on debian jessie

2015-03-20 Thread Michael
Maiky,

> I'm running 3.16, but I can't use wifi.

You did not tell the reason. IMHO in English, "can't" can mean it works, but 
you won't do it.

>  If I load Ubuntu Live using the "use only libre software" option at boot 
> everything work well.

I do not understand this piece. If the nonfree iwlwifi firmware is needed then 
does Ubuntu still include it ? What about 'only libre' then ?

OTOH if the firmware is not needed, why should you install it.

By the way, did you at some point (temporarily) switch off wifi in the BIOS ? 
Then, a booting linux kernel can't see it at all and if that was an 
installation then maybe the proper drivers don't get installed. Just an idea.




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Re: Debian Wheezy on Dell 7535

2015-03-30 Thread Michael
Gajadur,

There is /etc/default/halt (or so, i'm no more using Debian), you can try to 
switch to the alternative. Maybe it works...

If not, try to find out which command (as root or via sudo, from a terminal) 
does shut down the machine. For example, "shutdown -h now" should never do a 
reboot. If that command works, put it into a xfce4 panel button and use that 
instead of 'logout'. Or just hack the logout button.

hth


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Re: Debian Wheezy on Dell 7535

2015-03-31 Thread Michael
Dwijesh,

What happens when you shut down from a boot DVD (life CD) Linux ? Like GRML 
oder some installer disk.

www.grml.org

If that works then try to install the same kernel.

Anyway, does it work from Windows (does the laptop still have that ?), and can 
you do the Dell hardware check ?

Should be onboard, otherwise try support, like 
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-15-7537/diagnose

(this was the model closest to your 7535 that i could find though)

Maybe it's worth to look into BIOS and switch off some IRQs or ports that you 
never need...

If even Windows does not shut down then it's probably a warranty case.



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Re: Debian on Acer Aspire E15

2015-04-05 Thread Michael
Dave,

aptitude install firmware-atheros 
or 
apt-get install firmware-atheros

will choose the most recent version available. If that is not what you need, 
then it's probably easier to use aptitude as a interactive application (start 
without any option) and do the downgrade manually - with aptitude, any 
dependency conflicts can be resolved automatically or manually, the latter is 
lots useful with backports. 

It would require to learn the aptitude key navigation, but it's worth it.

For a quick shot you can try to download the package file 
(firmware-atheros_0.43~bpo70+1_all.deb) and install it with dpkg:

dpkg -i firmware-atheros_0.43~bpo70+1_all.deb

but if i recall right, this would not solve any dependency conflicts 
automagically, it only warns you and aborts. Make sure that general updates do 
not upgrade the package version too (you may put a file into 
/etc/apt/öpreferences.d). With aptitude, set the package to 'hold' (h).

(i didn't use backports or downgrades in ages, sorry can't be more specific)

(plus i'm on archlinux right now, can't lookup things easily)


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Re: Debian on Acer Aspire E15

2015-04-05 Thread Michael
wow, that's solid advice.

Dave, what i've written before was off the road. Please do Loredanas thing. And 
i beg your pardon, i should not answer in a hurry, wen i'm not even in the 
position to do.

(Is it Horsefall, for real ?? another wow. take care.)


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Re: Debian Wheezy on Dell 7535

2015-04-06 Thread Michael
Dwijesh,

Glad it works for you now. 

Anyway, i never suggested a firmware / BIOS update, though it's a really good 
idea with very new laptops, so please honor your own right doecision :)

Just for the records, how did you do the update ? From the a Dell 
'rescue&repair' boot (the dell system partition) or from Windows ?


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Re: Laptop

2015-04-11 Thread Michael
Tobias,

I installed Jessie on 4 year old Lenovo Thinkpad X301 (small) and 410 (larger), 
both with 128M SSD. As far as for my standard usage, anything works. I didn't 
try the WiMAX/ WWAN-GPS stuff or fingerprint sensor.
You may lookout for Swiss keyboards.


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Re: Laptop

2015-04-11 Thread Michael
The libreboot laptop mentioned by Francesco have Intel AMT removed. I didn't 
even know what this feature does, and looked it up.

It's no surprise that corporate giants like Intel oder AMD evolve into that 
direction, but still, thinking about the kind of implicit power (for example, 
theoreticaly they could activate webcam and mic and transmit over WLAN) makes 
me shrivel.

Gross: "Security technologies that protect access to the AMT features are built 
into the hardware and firmware. As with other hardware-based features of AMT, 
the security technologies are active even if the PC is powered off, the OS is 
crashed, software agents are missing, or hardware (such as a hard drive or 
memory) has failed."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology


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Re: Laptop

2015-04-12 Thread Michael
In the past, installed GNU/Linux on Dell Inspiron as well.

It's kind of sad that after so many years, recommendations still are Dell and 
Thinkpad (which is Lenovo of China now - go figure ...).

I'm not up to date but maybe there are more options today.

Intel based
http://zareason.com/shop/Laptops/
https://system76.com/laptops

Dell
http://emperorlinux.com/
http://thelinuxlaptop.com/stealth-linux-laptop.php

Lenovo (?)
http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:Models  (very old models still from IBM)

Compatibility reviews
http://linux-laptop.net/


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Re: Laptop

2015-04-12 Thread Michael
Hi Loredana

> Most modern laptop are much less powerful than older ones (as a rough measure 
> compare processor speed)

I'm not sure about it. For example, my T401 have Intel Quadcore, and i believe 
most modern laptops have a multi core CPU. You probably know how parallel 
processing beats single core in speed even with lower per-core frequency. it 
also reduces heat and noise (by fan activity).


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Re: Laptop

2015-04-12 Thread Michael
ah sorry i mistyped it all the time. It's a Thinkpad T410s not 401.


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Re: Installing Debian with only 64mb RAM

2015-04-18 Thread Michael
Have a look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Linux_distribution

Yes, with an old Laptop one really should chose a rather old kernel, but then, 
the latest 'stable' Debian possibly will not run on that thing (for example, 
systemd). So you would either chose an old Debian in the first place, or use 
some specialised minimal Linux.

64 M is a tough condition. Maybe you're already in the 'embedded systems' class 
with this ...

ps. Maybe obvious, but still, for the final OS, you could install only a 
windowmanager as minimalistic desktop, for example, fluxbox or Windowmaker. 
Better not install a KDE or Gnome session.


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Re: Graphical display is black after upgrade from Debian 7 to 8

2015-05-06 Thread Michael
Ulff,

I lost the thread already, sorry, but just in case you didn't know. Yuo 
probably have to debug this in 'single user mode' which you can get by grub, if 
the grub menu displays at all. (Try hitting escape, then chose 'advanced 
options' or maybe 'e' for edit to see the options).

Lookup the 'linux' line. Booting the 'single' entry, you hopefully get a root 
console. Now you can lookup the graphic card via 'lspci -v' (maybe send us the 
result) and you can install packages with apt-get. If you know how to use 
aptitude, install and use this.

If you install the meta-package xorg-driver-video then xorg will try to chose 
the best guess as driver. There are fallbacks like VESA framebuffer, so at 
least something should work.

Do 'less /etc/X11/xorg.conf' to see if there's a driver preconfigured. Maybe 
disable that by renaming the file so something like xorg.conf-suspendet and 
relaunch X. (Xorg doesn't need this file, it figures things out by itself, but 
you still can place 'override' defaults here)

by the way, if you need more extensive debugging you should temporarily disable 
the login manager (lightgdm or kdm or so) from the boot scripts. Today that's 
done via systemd 'systemctl' but i can't tell you exactly how, since i'm not 
using that init system. Without login manager, you can reboot and end hopefully 
up in textconsole login. Now you can login as root, and on another console (try 
Alt + arrows) as user. Just do 'startx' or 'xinit' from the user console, and 
immediately see the result.

It just comes to my minid, if you don't know how to disable services, it might 
be easier to temporarily deinstall the loginmanager completely.


good luck


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Re: Memory usage Debian Jessie (stable)

2015-05-10 Thread Michael


> short of memory just because browsers (and,
> more generally, graphics) are blowing up without control.

From the point of the browser developers, their browsers got burdened with all 
kind of tasks that were desktop applications in the past: Multimedia, dynamic 
content from multiple sources, all kind of interactivities, independent 
processes, and countless plugins and snapp-in apps with nearly inpredictable 
interactions. And before all, the desktop simply becomes the internet. In fact, 
i know young people who already do not know what concepts like desktop or 
browser mean or what it's good for. Before talking about 'bloating browsers' 
one should consider this a paradigma change, and a future where the word 
'browser' becomes meaningless. 


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Re: Memory usage Debian Jessie (stable)

2015-05-10 Thread Michael
Sreedhav,

Your links appear to not support the complaint.

> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/firefox-3-0-4-overheats-system-memory-and-cpu-use-inacceptable-687418/

and that one is way old (Jan 2008)

> A great song by Simon & Art Garfunkel- I Am a Rock  with lyrics -url:

finally, maybe this was the most useful link of your post ...


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Re: Cant Boot into system

2015-05-18 Thread Michael
Arghya,

You don't need any sudo when the script is run by init, because it will be 
executed with system (root) authority.

Just make it one line

echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

and it should work.

That is, if "OFF" is correct here, and "vgaswitcheroo" really sounds a little 
weird to me too. (You didn't activate spelling auto completion, writing the 
script on your smartphone, no ?)

It's not immediately clear to me why your system hangs. Maybe the switch does 
not what you expect. You should disable or remove the script and do more 
checks, like booting into 'single' mode and do the thing and check if it makes 
a difference.

If you need to fix your system try to get the bootloaders (grub) commandline 
(press Esc or e, i can't quite remember) and add 'init=/bin/sh' to the linux 
kernel parameters. Then continue the boot (there is a short key helper at the 
bottom).

If you can't access grub because it's blocked then you need a boot DVD to get a 
commandline, like the installer disk or grml or something. Mount th partition 
on some arbitrary folder (like /mnt/mydisk) and repair, or better, remove the 
script. 


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Re: cant boot into system

2015-05-18 Thread Michael
Arghya,

> i can get into root terminal through elementary OS recovery mode but i cant
> remove the entry from system startup.

If update.rc does not work for you (for whatever reasons) just delete the 
script in init.d - that alone should suffice to give you a normal boot again, 
and you can clean up the (now broken) rc symlinks later.


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USB audio device (webcam) for thinkpad 410

2015-06-12 Thread Michael
Hello,

First of all: I can listen to music in all the players, by internal speakers or 
by headset headphones.

I bought a Creative Live HD VF 0790 usb webcam, which is advertised to work 
with Linux, and plugged it into a Thinkpad 410s.

According to dmesg, it is recognized by name and the kernel (v. 4.0.5) seems to 
use the uvc driver.

According to lspci, there are HDA Intel 5 Series / 3400 audio chipset and a 
'Mic' and 'Dock Mic' device on PCI.

I can also see a CX20585 'hdaudioC1D0' type 'speaker', which appears as audio 
device in the players. It appears as both output and mic device in audacity.

Somewhere i read i should make sure /dev/audio* gets created after i plug in 
the webcam. I can see a /dev/video0 appearing, but there is no /dev/audio*.

I can see the Live cam named correctly as a capture device in xfce4-mixer 
(using ALSA) , it is the only channel shown for this device, and i turned it to 
maximal. For the the HDA Intel device, i turned all capture / mic channels 
either off or to 100 or 50%, it does not make any difference with regard to the 
tested applications. 

After starting guvcview, i have the video working but there seems to be no 
audio input (capture). Although i don't even know exactly how to test this. 
Just 'captured' video sequences and played them in vlc - always no audio.

In guvcview, i can switch audio to the Live cam audio device. Then, the visible 
meter shows maximal (100%, red) input w/o me doing anything, and it does not 
respond to noise or voice. Still, saving a test stream, the result has no 
audio. Later on, after some reboot, it does not even show the noise thing, just 
dead silence.

The guvcview, audio controls button lets me choose the API:   No sound, 
portaudio, or pulseaudio. 
I did not install pulseaudio and would prefer to avoid it. Can't i use a webcam 
w/o pulseaudio ? Do i need jackd fpr 'portaudio' ? I installed jackd (version 
2) and started it with qjackctl but it does not seem to make a difference.

I tested some other other applications. In audacity, there is the 'Click to 
start monitoring' thing on the microphone meter. With internal mic, it works as 
expected, i can record my voice. With Live cam device (which is shown correctly 
and i can chose it as capture device) there are exactly 2 signals, depending on 
the XFCE4 alsamixer adjustment: With capture channel off, there is zero signal, 
with anything else, it's 100% (red) and just loud noise. As mentioned above, 
after some testing and reboot, all zero, not even the noise remained. I had to 
stop the testing at this point because i'm running out of time.
 
vlc does also not 'capture' audio, when it records a webcam sequence (the video 
is working but no sound).

Does 'cheese' indicate audio at all ? 

As a means of avoiding the problem in the first place, i plugged my headset 
into the laptop audio port (the small plug thing at the left side which has a 
headset symbol) and tried all these applications again. But i can't get any 
audio input, if anything then the internal / inbuilt mic is used. (It's easy to 
test, if you go away the audio signal faints accordingly)- I simply don't know 
how to say 'use the headset audio port'. 
With my old Thinkpad T61 the headset worked out of the box once plugged in. (No 
more here, can't compare anymore) 
In all the mentioned applications, i can't see any choice offered like 
'internal mic' or 'headset mic'. 

xfce-mixer has some IEC9something audio switches disabled, which i don't know 
about, but they made no difference.

To summarize, i have two problems:

1) The onboard mic is very low quality and i really want to get either the 
headset or the webcam microphone working. 

2) I do not know how to check, in a video chat application, the webcam audio 
input. Normally it would not send my own talk to the laptop output device, no ? 
Do i need to actually talk to someone ? But i would prefer to install skype 
only after i having the hardware running, in case this comes with its own 
trouble. But if you think i should debug this with skype, i'd give this a try.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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Re: USB audio device (webcam) for thinkpad 410

2015-06-13 Thread Michael
Jan-Rens,

> What's the output of:
> 
> $lsusb -v | grep Device

Buss   002   Device   003:   ID 041e:4097Creative Technology, Ltd

then some Root Hubs and the Mouse


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Wireless manager

2015-09-06 Thread Michael
Hello,

I'm having a hard time to find a wireless connection manager appropriate for 
some kids Laptops.

In Android, you got the list of access points and you tap on one and enter the 
passphrase, and that's it.

Is there anything comparable for a linux desktop, which does not require to 
enter a SSID manually oder chose which encryption and all the stuff that 
network manager applet (for xfce) seems to require ?

Micha 



Re: Wireless manager

2015-09-06 Thread Michael
Ionel,

> Have a look at wicd.  I use wicd-gtk -n because I do not run a desktop 
> manager.

Many thanks.

I'm testing this right now and the installer says 'add wicd to your systemd 
configuration', do you know how to do this ?




Re: Wireless manager

2015-09-06 Thread Michael

Ah, i guess it's just 'systemctl enable wicd'. I'm still running sysvinit and 
are not too familiar with systemd.



Re: Wireless manager

2015-09-06 Thread Michael
Ionel, 

Testing the wicd-gtk thingy now and it looks great. Maybe a little complicated 
for kids on first look, but after all they still need only to click and insert 
the passphrase and that's what i was looking for.

Thanks you very much.



Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-06 Thread Michael
Well, guess what i'm asking here :)

Is there a bluetooth manager for exchange data with Android smartphones, which 
is approxmiately as easy to use as the Android side (meaning usable even for 
kids) ? 



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Matus,

It's about up- / downloading music and photos. It should be usable for kids, so 
an easy graphical frontend is required. Just as easy as it works with android 
<-> android. 

> On 06.09.15 15:16, Michael wrote:
> >Is there a bluetooth manager for exchange data with Android smartphones,
> > which is approxmiately as easy to use as the Android side (meaning usable
> > even for kids) ?
> 
> I think any bluetooth application should be able to communicate with android
> phones. The question is, what do you want to do with it, e.g. sync your data?



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Like, download photos from the phone to the computer, upload music files to the 
smartphone. One Linux bluetooth manager for all kind of files,  talking to the 
android bluetooth manager. Is that possible ?



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Cindy,

Many thanks !

Just for the records, i first tired 'blueberry' but it diint work ... 
esepcially when downloadig files from the smartphone, it disconnects 
immediately.

So i tried your suggestion blueman (which also pulls in the 'bluez' backend 
stuff) and yes, it works. But somehow it's icky at least in XFCE  ... it does 
not appear in the systray (although i enabled the bluetooth daemon via 
systemctl and rebooted), is slow in connecting, and clutters the screen with 
send file messages for every single file, which is ugly when sending 100 files 
at once. Half of the preferences items are no accessible, without any 
explanation, and there anyway didn't seem to be any explanations (like desktop 
notify messages) about anything that failed. 
My feeling is, the whole thing would appear rather unappealing, and 
complicated, to the kids in question.
Well, but it works.

I realize it's tedious to select many (like in 50 or 100) files via small 
screen touchpad, no matter if android gallery of file manager. I wonder if 
there is a way to access just the android (sdcard) file system from the laptop 
via bluetooth. Just like a Windows or NFS share. So i could use a comfortable 
laptop file manager, or at least it's large screen and mouse.

Anybody knows ?



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Also, right now (transferring photos from android to laptop) i've got a 
transfer rate of 200 Bytes (yes) per second ... which is kind of amazing. It 
means downloading 100 photos will take forever.
Is that normal ?? I remember transferring files from android <-> android much 
faster.



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Well, the situation is, these kids have easily 2 - 3 Gigabytes of media files 
(including many own video clips each usually between 50 - 100 Mbyte)  on their 
smartphones which i would like them - for various reasons - backup to their 
laptops; but they wont use a cable connection, which, anyway, did not work on 
linux for me so far. But i won't try to solve this problem because todays kids 
really refuse to use cables and plugs anyway. 
Actually they don't even have this kind of equipment, and never seen it, using 
second hand smartphones w/o any adds.
And yes it sucks but it is eat or die :) i learned that for sure. They never 
use anything that requires some effort.

Next task is upload several hundred music files, from their laptops.
And they should be able to do all this on their own, and frequently.
So we really need some transfer speed ...



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Ranf,

Thank you ! 

> Have look at the Android-App AirDroid. You access the phone over Wifi from a 
> browser on the desktop.

Can't test this right now. Just let me ask beforehand, what kind of browser ? A 
specific AirDroid browser, or just something like Firefox ? 

Can i transfer multiple files (like, a complete folder) with this, in both 
directions ?



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-07 Thread Michael
Uhm, i am really not looking for a cloud storage / cloud desktop solution ... 
as fascinating as it is - but what i am looking for, need work w/o internet 
access. 



Re: Bluetooth manager for connecting to Android

2015-09-13 Thread Michael
Eric,

I'm on the road now and only occasionally online.

> FYI, gphotofs and gthumb, tools that depend on gphoto2, work very well
> for a cable connection with Android phones, at least for photos.

But it definitely has to work for video and music files too, and i doubt gphoto 
will deal with them ...

> You can also use the Internet, i.e. WiFi in a local network, by using
> FTP from the phone.

That's indeed a good idea. There should be some easy graphical ftp clients too 
(if not just their familiar file browser).

I guess rsync exchange should be possible too. Well it would depend on 
usability for kids.

btw. isn't there a possibility to establish an ad hoc WiFi connection ?

> to use for your kids, I don't know but my experience is that kids often
> know more than I do...

Yes they're fast learning but the same time, are totally lazy :) well maybe 
it's also a question of gender, but i certainly don't want to stumble into 
prejudice flame wars here :)

> > they don't even have this kind of equipment, and never seen it, using
> 
> How do they charge their phones?  Most phones use micro USB for charging
> and the same cable that goes to the power plug can connect to the
> computer...

I know, but they don't have that kind of charger. Only cheap 'one way' chargers 
with only one USB (micro) plug.

Anyway, with cable, he one thing that would work is if the Androids' external 
SD card appears as storage in the laptop file browser. Anything else would be 
too complicated...or at least, unpopular. But i could not get the connection 
working on my own Android, so ...

But anyway, i wonder if i shouldn't start a new thread since the original 
bluetooth question is solved now? 



Connecting Linux and iOS (iPad)

2015-09-22 Thread Michael
Hello, here is another tricky question ...

Can i network-connect (WiFi) a linux laptop with an iPhone or iPad for copying 
files (in both directions) ?

Something like NFS or Samba ? 



Re: Connecting Linux and iOS (iPad)

2015-09-22 Thread Michael
Jerome,

Sounds good. I'll need more time but i will try it out !

thx



Android again

2015-10-20 Thread Michael
Hi there,

Does anybody know if i there is an Debian package for 'aafm' somewhere out in 
the net ? 

https://github.com/sole/aafm

I could install aafm in archlinux (from the AUR repository) and it worked out 
of the box.

greets mi



Re: Android again

2015-10-20 Thread Michael
Ricardo,

Thanks for the link ! Let's see if i can screw it in ... ! 



Re: Android again

2015-10-24 Thread Michael

Seems to work without too much hassle. 

I had to first install android-tools-adb which is available from the Debian 
testing package servers. Then i could dpkg -i the downloaded Ubuntu aafm 
package. Next i had to insert some udev rules manually, following

 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Adb#Configuring_adb

(I still wonder if i have to replace the group "adbusers" with the debian group 
"adb" here ?)

I figured i have to start aafm as root, and created a sudoers entry.

There's a small problem left: Though adb can fully access the main card 
(/storage/sdcard0), i can't write to the external one (/storage/extSdCard), 
which albeit is the one where i would copy over media files. Well, as last 
resort i always can move the stuff with the android file manager.

greets --micha


ps. Nice thing is the adb shell, the commands are listed here:
http://developer.android.com/tools/help/shell.html#shellcommands



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