Re: Installation problem
On 28/02/2021 22:12, Alan Glasser wrote: > I am trying to install Buster on an old 386. > I burned the three full DVDs. > I boot the first DVD and it gets to the point of asking about > additional cds/dvds. > I push the eject button on my dvd drive and nothing happens. I try to > do a forced eject > with a paperclip, but that doesn't work either. I click "No" as I > can't eject the DVD. > Nothing happens. > > This is repeatable on my machine. > Three times; same behavior. > > Any ideas? Try switching to a Console (Left Alt + F4) and running the command "eject". Operating systems have the ability to "lock" optical drives so that you don't, say, eject a drive that's being written to. The Installer should, clearly, be unlocking the drive at this point if it expects you to swap disks, but either you're not at the right point in the installer (might you, for example, be on an explanation page, and the NEXT page is where the drive unlocks?) or there's a bug. Either way, 'eject' should at the very least give you an error message you can work with. > > Thanks for your help. > > Alan Glasser > OpenPGP_signature Description: OpenPGP digital signature
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Invariants [was: need to reinstall pulseaudio every day]
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 09:16:34PM -0600, Nicholas Geovanis wrote: [...] > But of course death is invariant to physics. In fact it makes the physics > clearer without altering it in any way. And then, "science advances one funeral at a time", attributed, IIRC to Max Planck, a... physicist. It seems they banded up all together to get us :-) Cheers - t signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: need to reinstall pulseaudio every day
On Sun, 28 Feb 2021, mick crane wrote: That is a bit weird. Is it an actual file and not a link ? it's a file. Since I re-enabled my monitoring, it didn't disappear. wait and see... best regards, -- Pierre Frenkiel
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Du, 28 feb 21, 12:03:31, Celejar wrote: > > Snark aside, what's wrong with something like this: > > "Many wireless network cards (and even some wired ones) require > non-free firmware to function properly. This firmware is not included > in the standard installation images, due to Debian's free software > ideals. If the network hardware your installation will rely upon > requires such firmware, you may consider using the alternate non-free > installation images available here." For those who didn't visit the Debian website recently, following the discussion on debian-devel this is now two clicks away from the home page (-> More... -> Download: More variants of Debian images): https://www.debian.org/distrib/ If any of the hardware in your system requires non-free firmware to be loaded with the device driver, you can use one of the tarballs of common firmware packages or download an unofficial image including these non-free firmwares. Instructions how to use the tarballs and general information about loading firmware during an installation can be found in the Installation Guide. unofficial installation images for "stable" with firmware included Kind regards, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. Due to vision problems I wish to convert it to HTML for onscreen viewing. pdf2htmlEX is an inappropriate tool as it is too focused on maintaining format of original. Its rigidity results in a fixed number of *characters* per line irregardless of chosen font size. As there is nothing formatted as a table, this restriction is inappropriate. The only relevant links in the document are from the "Table of Contents" to the appropriate section. pdf2htmlEX *IGNORES* them! A suggested tool? TIA
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
How is a naive user meant to know whether his hardware required non-free firmware? The only route that seems to be given by this wording is that they install (or try to install) the system using the official image, and then have to work out for themselves what does not work, and from that which unofficial image to use. Could the installer not help here by identifying hardware it can not support but which an unofficial image does support and point the user in the right direction? Yes the knowledge of which hardware exists changes over time, and after the installer is built, but if the unofficial images had machine readable descriptors on the debian web site of what they support (which would be updated each time a new image was added) then the installer could consult this and thus be able to give the best available advice. On Monday, 1 March 2021 09:29:57 GMT Andrei POPESCU wrote: > On Du, 28 feb 21, 12:03:31, Celejar wrote: > > Snark aside, what's wrong with something like this: > > > > "Many wireless network cards (and even some wired ones) require > > non-free firmware to function properly. This firmware is not included > > in the standard installation images, due to Debian's free software > > ideals. If the network hardware your installation will rely upon > > requires such firmware, you may consider using the alternate non-free > > installation images available here." > > For those who didn't visit the Debian website recently, following the > discussion on debian-devel this is now two clicks away from the home > page (-> More... -> Download: More variants of Debian images): > > https://www.debian.org/distrib/ > > If any of the hardware in your system requires non-free firmware to > be loaded with the device driver, you can use one of the tarballs of > common firmware packages or download an unofficial image including > these non-free firmwares. > > Instructions how to use the tarballs and general information about > loading firmware during an installation can be found in the > Installation Guide. > > unofficial installation images for "stable" with firmware included > > > Kind regards, > Andrei
Re: Installation problem
David Christensen wrote: > On 2/28/21 2:12 PM, Alan Glasser wrote: > > I am trying to install Buster on an old 386. > > I do not believe the Intel 80386 processor is supported by Linux any more: > > https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI0OTg Good catch. $50 in Raspberry Pi parts is literally much faster than any 386 ever made. The $100 Raspberry Pi 400 kit is everything needed for a desktop system except for a monitor. -dsr-
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On 01.03.2021 15:44, Richard Owlett wrote: A suggested tool? I can't suggest a converter, but maybe sane PDF viewer, like "evince", will solve your problems. It can change font size, page layout and has other useful capabilities like index\bookmarks and text search. For me reading documents in PDFs is much more convenient than in clunky html pages. -- With kindest regards, Alexander. ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org ⠈⠳⣄
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On 03/01/2021 06:22 AM, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote: On 01.03.2021 15:44, Richard Owlett wrote: A suggested tool? I can't suggest a converter, but maybe sane PDF viewer, like "evince", will solve your problems. It can change font size, page layout and has other useful capabilities like index\bookmarks and text search. For me reading documents in PDFs is much more convenient than in clunky html pages. That is on my system but the available "Help" says nothing about the options you mentioned. That may be because I'm using the MATE desktop. I've had "Help" weirdness on other programs IIRC.
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
[Fixed top-posting.] On Mon, 01 Mar 2021 10:23:51 + David Goodenough wrote: > On Monday, 1 March 2021 09:29:57 GMT Andrei POPESCU wrote: > > On Du, 28 feb 21, 12:03:31, Celejar wrote: > > > Snark aside, what's wrong with something like this: > > > > > > "Many wireless network cards (and even some wired ones) require > > > non-free firmware to function properly. This firmware is not included > > > in the standard installation images, due to Debian's free software > > > ideals. If the network hardware your installation will rely upon > > > requires such firmware, you may consider using the alternate non-free > > > installation images available here." > > > > For those who didn't visit the Debian website recently, following the > > discussion on debian-devel this is now two clicks away from the home > > page (-> More... -> Download: More variants of Debian images): > > > > https://www.debian.org/distrib/ > > > > If any of the hardware in your system requires non-free firmware to > > be loaded with the device driver, you can use one of the tarballs of > > common firmware packages or download an unofficial image including > > these non-free firmwares. > > > > Instructions how to use the tarballs and general information about > > loading firmware during an installation can be found in the > > Installation Guide. > > > > unofficial installation images for "stable" with firmware included > How is a naive user meant to know whether his hardware required non-free > firmware? > The only route that seems to be given by this wording is that they install > (or try to install) > the system using the official image, and then have to work out for themselves > what does > not work, and from that which unofficial image to use. > > Could the installer not help here by identifying hardware it can not support > but which an > unofficial image does support and point the user in the right > direction? Yes the knowledge of which hardware exists changes over time, and > after the > installer is built, but if the unofficial images had machine readable > descriptors on the > debian web site of what they support (which would be updated each time a new > image > was added) then the installer could consult this and thus be able to give the > best available > advice. It's even worse than that - as I reported here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=895258 in at least some cases, if NIC firmware is missing, the installer will simply display the rather unhelpful message: "Network configuration failure," with no hint of what the problem might actually be. A savvy user will know to look in the logs, where the problem is made quite clear, but the installer itself could certainly do with some improvement. Celejar
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 04:44:56 -0600 Richard Owlett wrote: > A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. > Due to vision problems I wish to convert it to HTML for onscreen viewing. > > pdf2htmlEX is an inappropriate tool as it is too focused on maintaining > format of original. Its rigidity results in a fixed number of > *characters* per line irregardless of chosen font size. As there is > nothing formatted as a table, this restriction is inappropriate. > > The only relevant links in the document are from the "Table of Contents" > to the appropriate section. pdf2htmlEX *IGNORES* them! > > A suggested tool? You can try pdftohtml, in poppler-utils. I don't know whether it will suffer from the same problem you have with pdf2htmlEX Celejar
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
Richard Owlett wrote: > A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. They certainly don't write it that way, so perhaps they have a source website where the original text is written? -dsr-
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 12:03:31 PM Celejar wrote: > "Many wireless network cards (and even some wired ones) require > non-free firmware to function properly. This firmware is not included > in the standard installation images, due to Debian's free software > ideals. If the network hardware your installation will rely upon > requires such firmware, you may consider using the alternate non-free > installation images available here." +1
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On 03/01/2021 07:04 AM, Dan Ritter wrote: Richard Owlett wrote: A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. They certainly don't write it that way, so perhaps they have a source website where the original text is written? With that in mind I had already posted to a list followed by the programmer. I've a gut feel the answer will be effectively no.
OT (was: Re: need to reinstall pulseaudio every day)
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 10:16:34 PM Nicholas Geovanis wrote: > Hint: You know you're getting old when you find your 2nd wife on dating > sites 😂 I hope that is your 2nd ex-wife ;-)
Re: OT (was: Re: need to reinstall pulseaudio every day)
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021, 7:22 AM wrote: > On Sunday, February 28, 2021 10:16:34 PM Nicholas Geovanis wrote: > > Hint: You know you're getting old when you find your 2nd wife on dating > > sites 😂 > > I hope that is your 2nd ex-wife ;-) > Well of course "ex-wife". Do I look like a Mormon polygamist?? Do I like the Utah wilderness?? Polygamist is a Greek word FYI 😃 My 3rd grade teacher was Mormon... >
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On 03/01/2021 06:58 AM, Celejar wrote: On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 04:44:56 -0600 Richard Owlett wrote: A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. Due to vision problems I wish to convert it to HTML for onscreen viewing. pdf2htmlEX is an inappropriate tool as it is too focused on maintaining format of original. Its rigidity results in a fixed number of *characters* per line irregardless of chosen font size. As there is nothing formatted as a table, this restriction is inappropriate. The only relevant links in the document are from the "Table of Contents" to the appropriate section. pdf2htmlEX *IGNORES* them! A suggested tool? You can try pdftohtml, in poppler-utils. I don't know whether it will suffer from the same problem you have with pdf2htmlEX I had initially ignored it as the man page starts with: This manual page documents briefly the pdftohtml command. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. When it says "brief" it meant "options will be only *listed*"! I just tried it and it apparently suffers same end result. If someone knows of some functional documentation for it, I'll try again.
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
* On 2021 01 Mar 06:55 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote: > On 03/01/2021 06:22 AM, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote: > > On 01.03.2021 15:44, Richard Owlett wrote: > > > A suggested tool? > > I can't suggest a converter, but maybe sane PDF viewer, like "evince", > > will solve your problems. > > It can change font size, page layout and has other useful capabilities > > like index\bookmarks and text search. > > For me reading documents in PDFs is much more convenient than in clunky > > html pages. > > > > That is on my system but the available "Help" says nothing about the options > you mentioned. > That may be because I'm using the MATE desktop. I've had "Help" weirdness on > other programs IIRC. Evince has a "zoom" capability that enlarges the document including fonts and images. I use it quite a bit to see detail in scanned electronics schematics. - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: need to reinstall pulseaudio every day
Pierre Frenkiel (pierre.frenk...@gmail.com) wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Feb 2021, mick crane wrote:
>
> > That is a bit weird. Is it an actual file and not a link ?
>
> it's a file. Since I re-enabled my monitoring, it didn't disappear.
> wait and see...
Have you done *any* basic, proactive analysis yet?
ls -ld / /usr /usr/bin /usr/bin/pulseaudio
sudo grep -ri pulse /etc/crontab /etc/cron.* /var/spool/cron
find /lib/systemd /var/lib/systemd /etc/systemd -name '*.timer' \
-exec grep -i pulse /dev/null {} +
The first one should give 4 lines of output. Show them.
The latter two don't give any output on my system. If they give anything
on yours, show it. And then investigate it. And then tell us what you
learned.
If you can think of any other places from which an automatic or timed job
might run and do *ANYTHING AT ALL* involving pulseaudio, investigate it.
And then tell us what it was, how you investigated it, and what you
learned.
Re: How to self-load non-freeware firmware on existing netinst ISO installer
On Sun 28 Feb 2021 at 18:36:49 -0600, David Wright wrote: > On Thu 25 Feb 2021 at 14:32:49 (+), Brian wrote: > > On Wed 24 Feb 2021 at 22:47:59 -0600, David Wright wrote: > > > On Thu 25 Feb 2021 at 10:36:40 (+0800), Robbi Nespu wrote: > > > > > > > > 5. Create /lib/firmware: mkdir /lib/firmware and transfer the > > > > >firmware there. > > > > > > > > > > 6. ALT-F1 to go back to d-i. d-i should now find the firmware. > > > > > > Note that on most systems, steps 3 through 6 are unnecessary as > > > the installer will find the firmware itself anyway. > > > > That's the advice given in Section 6.4.1 if the Installer Guide and, > > if it works, it works. However, I would not like to guarantee that it > > does, just as, in the case of the OP, the non-free installer ISO does > > not come up with installing the firmware. > > Agreed: it's difficult to do too much for the installer. > > And AFAICT my advice and the Installation Guide § 6.4.1 and > § 4.3.1 are all out of date. It appears that nowadays (official > buster 10.8 netinst, amd64 and i386), loose firmware files > don't get picked up, either off a second USB stick¹, or off an > extra partition added to the hybrid installation stick. You > have to offer it the firmware in .deb files. "loose firmware files" is a bit of a woolly term; it needs expanding on. The .deb files will have a directory structure (please see later). > OTOH my official wheezy 7.1.0 netinst i386 installer does pick up > the loose files, exactly as described in the Installation Guide. > So it appears we have a regression in the debian-installer. That isn't quite my recollection but it is so long ago that I am not willing to push it. I am also not motivated (yet) to try it out. > I haven't tested jessie or stretch because my netinst media are > all firmware versions, so I can't pinpoint the change in behaviour. > The Installation Guide's wording in those two sections (above) > became settled by the time of wheezy, but has remained unchanged > since then. Unless the problem has been fixed for bullseye², > I would suggest that the guide text needs revising. > > > Transferring the firmware files directly to where the installer kernel > > can find them seems more assured of success. If it doesn't, there is a > > big problem for the system both during and after installation. > > I also haven't tested whether, when you copy loose files to > /lib/firmware, you have to preserve the directory structure. > For example, wheezy automatically copies the file tg3_tso5.bin > from '/media/tigon' to '/lib/firmware/tigon', but would manually > copying it to /lib/firmware/tg3_tso5.bin still work (if the > user wasn't aware of its usual location, …path-to/tigon/tg3_tso5.bin)? > ↑↑ The directory structure has to remain intact. Execute, for example, modinfo zd1211rw | less At the top we have firmware: zd1211/zd1211_uphr The kernel would expect the firmware file to be in zd1211/. -- Brian.
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Mon 01 Mar 2021 at 10:23:51 +, David Goodenough wrote: > How is a naive user meant to know whether his hardware required > non-free firmware? That's a very tricky one to give a definitive answer to. It possibly depends on the quality and quantity of research done by the user. Howerever, the user has to get an ISO from somewhere and could come across the text that Andrei quotes. If difficulties are encountered, returning there to get another image is an option. -- Brian.
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
On 03/01/2021 07:13 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: On 03/01/2021 07:04 AM, Dan Ritter wrote: Richard Owlett wrote: A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. They certainly don't write it that way, so perhaps they have a source website where the original text is written? With that in mind I had already posted to a list followed by the programmer. I've a gut feel the answer will be effectively no. I was wrong. I didn't understand what a info file was. texi2html worked like a charm!<*GRIN*>
Re: Problem converting manual in PDF to HTML for on screen viewing
> A program I wish to use distributes its manual as a PDF file. > Due to vision problems I wish to convert it to HTML for onscreen viewing. I think what you're trying to do is quite difficult. It's a bit easier than OCR, but still hard enough that it's not well supported by any tool that I know. So the better option is to try and find some source for that PDF and then try to convert *that* to a format you like. Stefan
Re: How to self-load non-freeware firmware on existing netinst ISO installer
On Mon 01 Mar 2021 at 14:13:08 (+), Brian wrote: > On Sun 28 Feb 2021 at 18:36:49 -0600, David Wright wrote: > > On Thu 25 Feb 2021 at 14:32:49 (+), Brian wrote: > > > On Wed 24 Feb 2021 at 22:47:59 -0600, David Wright wrote: > > > > On Thu 25 Feb 2021 at 10:36:40 (+0800), Robbi Nespu wrote: > > > > > > > > > > 5. Create /lib/firmware: mkdir /lib/firmware and transfer the > > > > > >firmware there. > > > > > > > > > > > > 6. ALT-F1 to go back to d-i. d-i should now find the firmware. > > > > > > > > Note that on most systems, steps 3 through 6 are unnecessary as > > > > the installer will find the firmware itself anyway. > > > > > > That's the advice given in Section 6.4.1 if the Installer Guide and, > > > if it works, it works. However, I would not like to guarantee that it > > > does, just as, in the case of the OP, the non-free installer ISO does > > > not come up with installing the firmware. > > > > Agreed: it's difficult to do too much for the installer. > > > > And AFAICT my advice and the Installation Guide § 6.4.1 and > > § 4.3.1 are all out of date. It appears that nowadays (official > > buster 10.8 netinst, amd64 and i386), loose firmware files > > don't get picked up, either off a second USB stick¹, or off an > > extra partition added to the hybrid installation stick. You > > have to offer it the firmware in .deb files. > > "loose firmware files" is a bit of a woolly term; it needs expanding > on. The .deb files will have a directory structure (please see later). > > > OTOH my official wheezy 7.1.0 netinst i386 installer does pick up > > the loose files, exactly as described in the Installation Guide. > > So it appears we have a regression in the debian-installer. > > That isn't quite my recollection but it is so long ago that I am not > willing to push it. I am also not motivated (yet) to try it out. I thought it would be clearer to use the d-i's own nomenclature. Anyway, here are the relevant lines of syslog, with just tg3_tso5.bin, the one that comes in a subdirectory: kernel: [] tg3.c:v3.121 (November 2, 2011) kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: Tigon3 [partno(BCM95705A50) rev 3003] (PCI:33MHz:32-bit) MAC address 00:c0:9f:44:15:b5 kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: attached PHY is 5705 (10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet) (WireSpeed[0], EEE[0]) kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: RXcsums[1] LinkChgREG[0] MIirq[0] ASF[0] TSOcap[1] kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: dma_rwctrl[763f] dma_mask[64-bit] net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface eth0 kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: firmware: agent aborted loading tigon/tg3_tso5.bin (not found?) kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: TSO capability disabled kernel: [] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: wake-up capability enabled by ACPI check-missing-firmware: /dev/.udev/firmware-missing does not exist, skipping check-missing-firmware: missing firmware files (tigon/tg3_tso5.bin) for tg3 check-missing-firmware: copying loose file tg3_tso5.bin from '/media/tigon' to '/lib/firmware/tigon' ↑ kernel: [] tg3.c:v3.121 (November 2, 2011) net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface eth0 kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: Tigon3 [partno(BCM95705A50) rev 3003] (PCI:33MHz:32-bit) MAC address 00:c0:9f:… kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: attached PHY is 5705 (10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet) (WireSpeed[0], EEE[0]) kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: RXcsums[1] LinkChgREG[0] MIirq[0] ASF[0] TSOcap[1] kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: eth0: dma_rwctrl[763f] dma_mask[64-bit] kernel: [] tg3 :02:02.0: firmware: agent loaded tigon/tg3_tso5.bin into memory > > > Transferring the firmware files directly to where the installer kernel > > > can find them seems more assured of success. If it doesn't, there is a > > > big problem for the system both during and after installation. > > > > I also haven't tested whether, when you copy loose files to > > /lib/firmware, you have to preserve the directory structure. > > For example, wheezy automatically copies the file tg3_tso5.bin > > from '/media/tigon' to '/lib/firmware/tigon', but would manually > > copying it to /lib/firmware/tg3_tso5.bin still work (if the > > user wasn't aware of its usual location, …path-to/tigon/tg3_tso5.bin)? > > ↑↑ > > The directory structure has to remain intact. Execute, for example, > > modinfo zd1211rw | less > > At the top we have > > firmware: zd1211/zd1211_uphr > > The kernel would expect the firmware file to be in zd1211/. I confirmed that. The good news is that the d-i tells you the name of the subdirectory: I had forgotten that (and these are the screens that are almost impossible to log). So it's not an issue even for someone who doesn't know the name of the module, or doesn't know to get a shell and use modinfo. But the regression remains, AFAICT. Cheers, David.
Re: Non-free firmware [was: Debian install Question]
On Mon 01 Mar 2021 at 11:29:57 +0200, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > On Du, 28 feb 21, 12:03:31, Celejar wrote: > > > > Snark aside, what's wrong with something like this: > > > > "Many wireless network cards (and even some wired ones) require > > non-free firmware to function properly. This firmware is not included > > in the standard installation images, due to Debian's free software > > ideals. If the network hardware your installation will rely upon > > requires such firmware, you may consider using the alternate non-free > > installation images available here." > > For those who didn't visit the Debian website recently, following the > discussion on debian-devel this is now two clicks away from the home > page (-> More... -> Download: More variants of Debian images): > > https://www.debian.org/distrib/ > > If any of the hardware in your system requires non-free firmware to > be loaded with the device driver, you can use one of the tarballs of > common firmware packages or download an unofficial image including > these non-free firmwares. > > Instructions how to use the tarballs and general information about > loading firmware during an installation can be found in the > Installation Guide. > > unofficial installation images for "stable" with firmware included The page https://www.debian.org/distrib/ is entitled "Getting Debian". And what is Debian? asks a user. The answer is at https://www.debian.org/intro/philosophy > The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made > common cause to create a **free** operating system. (Emphasis is mine). Then, at the bottom of https://www.debian.org/distrib/, we see an advert to download an unofficial image of the installer. "unofficial" is mealy- mouthed. What is meant is "non-free". What it says is "Hey, we have a better installation image for you but we had to sneak it in here because of the Debian thing" :). The Installer is the Jewel in the Crown of Debian. Tainting it and having it competing is a new development. I am all for being pragmatic, but usurping the Installer's status appears a step too far. -- Brian.
Re: How to self-load non-freeware firmware on existing netinst ISO installer
On Mon 01 Mar 2021 at 10:53:16 -0600, David Wright wrote: > On Mon 01 Mar 2021 at 14:13:08 (+), Brian wrote: > > > > The directory structure has to remain intact. Execute, for example, > > > > modinfo zd1211rw | less > > > > At the top we have > > > > firmware: zd1211/zd1211_uphr > > > > The kernel would expect the firmware file to be in zd1211/. > > I confirmed that. The good news is that the d-i tells you the name of > the subdirectory: I had forgotten that (and these are the screens that > are almost impossible to log). So it's not an issue even for someone > who doesn't know the name of the module, or doesn't know to get a > shell and use modinfo. That's good. > But the regression remains, AFAICT. I am going to pass on investigating an unsupported wheezy. I have my installations working well with hd-media and a suitable preseed.cfg. Naive users can sort themselves out, -- Brian.
Preseed Bug or User Error?
I have a Lenovo T61, with a iwl4965 wireless interface that requires a
firmware blob. It is well supported in Buster. I am testing it with the
latest Bullseye netinst installer,
https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unofficial/non-free/images-including-firmware/weekly-builds/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-testing-amd64-netinst.iso
I have a preseed file which the installer finds and loads. It has
several stanzas related to the wireless interface, reproduced below.
When I have them commented in, the installer finds the firmware blob
and installs it, apparently correctly. The installer asks me for the
network to use (already provided in the preseed file). However, I am
unable to configure the network.
The password for the network as a non-alphanumeric character in it. It
occurred to me that the parser might not like that character.
Commenting out only that line produced no change: I was never prompted
for the password, and did not get a connection.
If I comment out the wireless interface stanzas entirely except for
"d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string", I can get a manual configuration, and
the interface comes up correctly. If that string is commented out,
manual wireless configuration fails.
I have the syslog files from both a sucessful manual configuration and
from a failure, but have not attached them here.
So, is there an error in my preseed file, or have I hit a bug in d-i?
And if the latter, under what package should I file it?
Preseed wireless interface stanzas:
--
### Description: Wireless ESSID for ${iface}:
# ${iface} is a wireless network interface. Please enter the name (the ESSID)
# of the wireless network you would like ${iface} to use. If you would like
# to use any available network, leave this field blank.
d-i netcfg/wireless_essid string Curleynet2
### Description: Wireless ESSID for ${iface}:
# Attempting to find an available wireless network failed.
# .
# ${iface} is a wireless network interface. Please enter the name (the ESSID)
# of the wireless network you would like ${iface} to use. To connect to any
# available network, leave this field blank.
d-i netcfg/wireless_essid_again string Curleynet2
### Description: Wireless network type for ${iface}:
# Choose WEP/Open if the network is open or secured with WEP.
# Choose WPA/WPA2 if the network is protected with WPA/WPA2 PSK
# (Pre-Shared Key).
# d-i netcfg/wireless_security_type select wpa
d-i netcfg/wireless_security_type select WPA/WPA2 PSK
# Possible choices: WEP/Open Network, WPA/WPA2 PSK
### Description: WEP key for wireless device ${iface}:
# If applicable, please enter the WEP security key for the wireless
# device ${iface}. There are two ways to do this:
# .
# If your WEP key is in the format '--nn', 'nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn',
# or '', where n is a number, just enter it as it is into this field.
# .
# If your WEP key is in the format of a passphrase, prefix it with 's:'
# (without quotes).
# .
# Of course, if there is no WEP key for your wireless network, leave this
# field blank.
# d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
### Description: WPA/WPA2 passphrase for wireless device ${iface}:
# Enter the passphrase for WPA/WPA2 PSK authentication. This should be the
# passphrase defined for the wireless network you are trying to use.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wpa string >redacted<
--
--
Does anybody read signatures any more?
https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/
use of $ARGS in systemd unit file by prometheus package
Prometheus takes some command line arguments to control certain aspects of its operation. The systemd unit file shipped with prometheus includes the line ExecStart=/usr/bin/prometheus $ARGS I know I can simply override the unit file with one in /etc/systemd/system, but what if I wanted to use this variable? Where would I set it?
Re: use of $ARGS in systemd unit file by prometheus package
Hi. ExecStart=/usr/bin/prometheus $ARGS > > I know I can simply override the unit file with one in > /etc/systemd/system, but what if I wanted to use this variable? Where > would I set it? > See "EnvironmentFile" directive above. Check manual pages for more info: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html and https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html
Re: use of $ARGS in systemd unit file by prometheus package
> Hi. > >> ExecStart=/usr/bin/prometheus $ARGS >> >> I know I can simply override the unit file with one in >> /etc/systemd/system, but what if I wanted to use this variable? Where >> would I set it? > > > See "EnvironmentFile" directive above. > Check manual pages for more info: > https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html > and > https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html > Thanks. I think EnvironmentFile is just used for setting the environment file of the running process. Setting ARGS in /etc/default/prometheus seems to add the value to the command line arguments, as well as to an environment variable called ARGS for the prometheus process. I can't find any mention of this in the systemd or prometheus docs, but it works.
