Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Felix Miata]

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
...
> Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: 
> Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
> chip ID: 8086:0042
> Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel resolution: 
> 1920x1080~60Hz
> OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Desktop v: 2.1 

That Ironlake is Intel 5th Gen GMA (Clarkdale). FWIW, the 4.19 kernel can work 
with the "same"
kernel, server & OpenGL/Mesa, on Intel 4th Gen GMA Eaglelake with KDE/Plasma on 
EXT4:

# inxi -Gxx
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4 Series Integrated Graphics vendor: Biostar 
Microtech Intl Corp
driver: i915 v: kernel
   bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:2e32
   Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting unloaded: 
fbdev,vesa alternate:
intel compositor: kwin_x11
   resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz
   OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel G41 v: 2.1 Mesa 18.1.7 direct 
render: Yes
# uname -a
Linux big41 4.19.4-1-default #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 23 07:51:18 UTC 2018 
(2f38375) x86_64 x86_64
x86_64 GNU/Linux

That's all from an openSUSE Tumbleweed box that has Stretch and Buster but not 
Sid. Same box
also has Fedora 29/Plasma5 running as with TW, except it has Mesa 18.2.4.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is religion, not science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

On 12/1/18 7:05 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 18:10 (UTC-0500):


Felix Miata wrote:



Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 17:19 (UTC-0500):



Felix Miata wrote:



Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
...



Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last official 
release of that
driver was over 4 years ago.




   But all of this is with the current kernel the one before the one 
which boots to a blank screen. Sven already replied to my original post

leading me to bug reports which describe whats going on here. The latest
kernel in Sid also apparently is leading to some file corruption on
ext4 systems. I think we've been chasing the rabbit down the wrong hole.
I am sticking to the second newest kernel when I run Sid.





Frank McCormick

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Felix Miata]

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 18:10 (UTC-0500):

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 17:19 (UTC-0500):

>>> Felix Miata wrote:

 Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
 ...

 Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last 
 official release of that
 driver was over 4 years ago.

 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX

>   I purged it but had to reinstall as the machine would only boot to 
> a command line without it and with nomodeset.

You're confusing me. With nomodeset you should expect crippled or worse X. 
Without nomodeset you
should expect good. Good X with Intel GPU requires either modesetting driver 
included within the
X server, or the unofficially deprecated xf86-video-intel driver provided by the
xserver-xorg-video-intel package. Nomodeset is for rescue operations, 
proprietary non-Intel
video drivers, and some ancient hardware.

>> Maybe that's precisely the problem. Nomodeset is a cmdline (boot) parameter 
>> that blocks use of
>> both competent X drivers for Intel's current century GPUs, modesetting and 
>> intel. 

>But didn't you just say the last official release of the driver was 4 
> years ago ?

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-intel/

> What's your
>> Xorg.0.log report, or output from 'inxi -Gxx'?

> frank@franklin:~$ inxi -Gxx
> Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: 
> Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
> chip ID: 8086:0042
> Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel resolution: 
> 1920x1080~60Hz
> OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Desktop v: 2.1 
> Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes
> frank@franklin:~$

This suggests you are booting without nomodeset, and xserver-xorg-video-intel 
is installed, so X
is working, but something else is wrong. Please show Xorg.0.log via 

or use cmdline utility pastebinit and provide URL.

Which DM is configured (login manager/greeter)? (cat 
/etc/X11/default-display-manager)

Is Plymouth installed? If yes, try disabling it. (append plymouth.enable=0 to 
cmdline)

Is Fedora working correctly?
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is religion, not science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: Bastion server

[Dan Ritter]

Ilyass Kaouam wrote: 
> Please can you give me an equivalent off Wallix but open source?


Can you define what services Wallix provides?

Your subject is "Bastion Host", which I usually think of as
being a machine directly behind a firewall which offers certain
services to the outside world, such as:

- SSH forwarding
- VPN
- mail proxy
- file transfer

Is that what you want?

-dsr-

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

On 12/1/18 5:53 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 17:19 (UTC-0500):


Felix Miata wrote:



Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
...



Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last official 
release of that
driver was over 4 years ago.



https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX




 I purged it but had to reinstall as the machine would only boot to 
a command line without it and with nomodeset.







Maybe that's precisely the problem. Nomodeset is a cmdline (boot) parameter 
that blocks use of
both competent X drivers for Intel's current century GPUs, modesetting and intel. 



  But didn't you just say the last official release of the driver was 4 
years ago ?



What's your

Xorg.0.log report, or output from 'inxi -Gxx'?



frank@franklin:~$ inxi -Gxx
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: 
Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0

   chip ID: 8086:0042
   Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel resolution: 
1920x1080~60Hz
   OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Desktop v: 2.1 
Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes

frank@franklin:~$





--
Frank McCormick

Bastion server

[Ilyass Kaouam]

Hi,
Please can you give me an equivalent off Wallix but open source?
Thanks

Ilyass KAOUAM
SysAdmin

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Felix Miata]

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 17:19 (UTC-0500):

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
>> ...
>>> Can anyone help? Where should I look first.

>> Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last 
>> official release of that
>> driver was over 4 years ago.

>> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX

> I've been using nomodeset for a while. Seems to be a more serios problem.

Maybe that's precisely the problem. Nomodeset is a cmdline (boot) parameter 
that blocks use of
both competent X drivers for Intel's current century GPUs, modesetting and 
intel. What's your
Xorg.0.log report, or output from 'inxi -Gxx'?
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is religion, not science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

On 12/1/18 3:18 PM, Sven Joachim wrote:

On 2018-12-01 14:12 -0500, Frank McCormick wrote:


I have spent the last several days setting up Fedora on
another partition. When it came to boot back into Debian Sid
this morning I discovered my screen goes blank after the first
few seconds.


Quite likely that's bug #914495[1].  #914980 and #915178 appear to be
duplicates.


 There is

4.19.5 in experimental which would likely fix your problem, but several
people have observed ext4 filesystem corruption with the 4.19 kernel[2],
I guess that's the reason why the Debian kernel team does not upload
4.19 to unstable.



   Sure sounds like it. I'll stick with 4.18.0-2 until the kernel team
gets it sorted out.

Thanks Sven

--
Frank McCormick

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

On 12/1/18 2:39 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
...

Can anyone help? Where should I look first.


Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last official 
release of that
driver was over 4 years ago.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX




   I've been using nomodeset for a while. Seems to be a more serios 
problem.

Thanks
--
Frank McCormick

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Sven Joachim]

On 2018-12-01 14:12 -0500, Frank McCormick wrote:

> I have spent the last several days setting up Fedora on
> another partition. When it came to boot back into Debian Sid
> this morning I discovered my screen goes blank after the first
> few seconds.

Quite likely that's bug #914495[1].  #914980 and #915178 appear to be
duplicates.

> The previous kernel is fine. 4.18.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.18.10-2 
> (2018-11-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Probably you should stick to that kernel for the time being.  There is
4.19.5 in experimental which would likely fix your problem, but several
people have observed ext4 filesystem corruption with the 4.19 kernel[2],
I guess that's the reason why the Debian kernel team does not upload
4.19 to unstable.

Cheers,
   Sven


1. https://bugs.debian.org/914495
2. https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=201685

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[Brian]

On Sat 01 Dec 2018 at 12:22:09 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:

> On Saturday 01 December 2018 10:02:29 rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> > On Friday, November 30, 2018 07:26:33 PM Gene Heskett wrote:
> > > On Friday 30 November 2018 13:58:52 Michael Stone wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 05:23:09PM +, Michael Thompson wrote:
> > > > >Because if your root partition fails, you can reinstall and all
> > > > > your
> > > > >
> > > > > files are safe on their own partition...
> > > >
> > > > ...leaving open the question of how likely that scenario is.
> > >
> > > Not bloody likely Michael, if the disk is toast, so are all its
> > > partitions as a general rule. If you are going to put you /home on a
> > > separate partition, put it on a different disk.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately that has NOT been acceptable to the installer for most
> > > of a decade now.
> >
> > Hmm, it hasn't been 10 years since I installed Jessie, yet I have my
> > top level directories (e.g., /abc, which hold my data directories
> > (e.g., /abc/Documents)) on a separate disk, and I'm rather certain I
> > did that with the installer -- maybe I used a different version of the
> > installer (or maybe I'm mis-remembering -- maybe I created those
> > partitions (on a separate disk) after the installation.
> >
> > But, I've thought about it for a few moments, and I'm more certain I
> > did that with the installer...
> 
> Maybe it has a mode that allows it, but when I last made an install 
> useing a distro installer, it wasn't having any of that. Would not 
> proceed past the disk partitioner point. So I got in the car and drove 
> the 25 miles to my nearest Staples and bought a disk big enough and then 
> installed it on the new disk, then put the old ones back in and used mc 
> to copy my data to the new disk. I think that install was ubuntu hardy 
> heron. Every other install since on x86 hardware has been from a 32 bit 
> i386 iso compiled by the linuxcnc folks which is currently still wheezy 
> based, and 32 bit because the 64 bit kernels IRQ latency is horrible due 
> to its much larger stack frame that has to be swapped out for a context 
> switch.

I love this type of response; one can well imagine the situation. A
drive at high speed. The Highway Patrol sirens blaring. Staples put
on Red Alert to service an incoming customer. Helicopters surveying
the road ahead and beaming the car's progress on local TV. Tweets
from the White House encouraging the car driver not to buy anything
made in China.

"My fault?" says the customer, "not me, guv - it was Ubuntu that did
it".

Don't admit mistakes. Always go down fighting. :)

[...] 

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[Joel Roth]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 08:39:55PM -0600, David Wright wrote:
> On Fri 30 Nov 2018 at 11:23:57 (-1000), Joel Roth wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 Cindy-Sue Causey wrote:
> > > Cliff's Notes Version Part I: Flaky USB connections are an important
> > > factor! An accidentally disconnected USB connection can cause data to
> > > become *unknowingly* redirected back to the original directory on the
> > > primary partition. That situation can then potentially lead to loss of
> > > e.g. downloaded data if a user is not always 100% aware of where data
> > > is actually residing at all times.
> > 
> > I've had problems with flakey connections with external USB
> > drives for years. These problems have occurred with various
> > drives and on two different laptops. The usual result is a
> > disk operation such as 'ls' fails with the message
> > "input/output error". This usually happens after
> > the drive has been idle for some hours. 
> 
> Hm, with poor connections, I find that it's usually the laptop
> moving about which disturbs the cable and causes the problem.
> After idle periods, I just get the message, when it wakes up:
>  usb 4-5: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
> which I assume may be because the USB was in some sort of
> powersaving mode.
 
> > In my experience, the only case where writes went into
> > directory of the mount point (and not the intended
> > partition) was when the partition was not mounted. Once an
> > I/O error occurs, at least in my system, no further read or
> > write operations to the mount point will succeed. 
> 
> I've never had the mount points overwritten, perhaps because
> of how I set their permissions:
> drwx-- 2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 cdrom0/
> and I
> # touch -r cdrom0   all the mount points ...
> so it's easy to see when they're in use as the differing
> permission/ownership/timestamp sticks out.

Nice. I usually make a fstab entry for device
and do a mount -a whenever I plug in a new device.

> It also sounds as if you have   ,errors=remount-ro,
> set as an option in your /etc/fstab entries so that any
> error immediately write-protects the partition; though
> I didn't know that prevents reading as well. Does it?

I don't think my devices got remounted, as in that case
they would be at least read accessible. I do use remount-ro
option. 

One of these I/O errors ends the party completely.
Seems obvious that I should check kern.log for clues
next time I observe it.

I've never lost data due to these  errors, just
can be frustrating if the devices need unplugging and remounting.

^^


> Cheers,
> David.
> 

-- 
Joel Roth
  

Re: issues with stretch, issue 2 from many

[David Wright]

On Fri 30 Nov 2018 at 16:20:15 (+0100), Ionel Mugurel Ciobîcă wrote:
> On 27-11-2018, at 13h 52'25", Ionel Mugurel Ciobîcă wrote about "issues with 
> stretch, issue 2 from many"
> > I have issues with stretch, to many to count...
> > This one will focus on the window manager startup.
> > [...]
> > Question 2.1: Why .xsession is not read and .xsessionrc is read?
> > Question 2.2: Who starts the second call of fvwm? If I comment out the
> > fvwm call in .xsession(rc) then the fvwm doesn't use the ssh-agent
> > (for example). At the moment I simply deleted x-window-manager, so
> > when I logout from fvwm I get a error/warning instead of a new fvwm
> > session.
> 
> @ David, before login in the first time as user, after installation, I
> check if the executable fvwm2 exists. See this:
> 
> ~> ls -ltr /usr/bin/fvwm2 /usr/bin/fvwm /etc/alternatives/fvwm
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 908056 ian 16  2017 /usr/bin/fvwm2
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 oct 18 09:35 /usr/bin/fvwm -> 
> /etc/alternatives/fvwm
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 oct 18 09:35 /etc/alternatives/fvwm -> 
> /usr/bin/fvwm2
> 
> So, yes, the executable is fvwm2. It was always fvwm2.

I probably didn't make my point clearly.

Back in the 20th century, we had to make modifications to our X
startups to get fvwm2 to run instead of fvwm1, including running
the binary specifically as fvwm2 instead of just using the name
"fvwm".

In going through nine releases since then, I've "cleaned up" these
startup files so that they follow closely the Debian recommendations.
I only run X through startx, so this is relatively straightforward.
Anyone who's used a DM or DE through these nine upgrades could
likely have accumulated modifications and tweaks across a more
complex set of files. Hence my point about cruft.

> If your call to fvwm2 is first in .xsession, how do you get the rest
> to be executed?

The call looks like this:

if [ -x /usr/bin/fvwm ] ; then
mv -f "$HOME/.fvwm/fvwm-log" "$HOME/.fvwm/fvwm-log~"
exec /usr/bin/fvwm > "$HOME/.fvwm/fvwm-log" 2>&1 & Wmpid=$!
elif [ -x /usr/bin/foo ] ; then
mv -f "$HOME/.foo-log" "$HOME/.foo-log~"
exec /usr/bin/foo > "$HOME/.foo-log" 2>&1 & Wmpid=$!
else
printf '%s\n' "Error - no window manager found"
fi

where you could have a string of different WMs to try (twm,
for example, once upon an eon).

Now that the WM is running, all the applications can be mapped
to their correct locations using, for example,
 xterm   …   -xrm "*Page: 3 3" ¹
Obviously this would be impossible without starting the WM first.

Finally, the following code keeps X running.

# wait for the window manager in the background to die
printf '%s\n' "Waiting for PID $Wmpid"
wait $Wmpid

(Printing the PID also aids another method of killing X apart from by
menu and by Ctrl-Alt-BackSpace.)

> Initial x-window-manager was pointing to kde.

I don't understand that statement. If x-window-manager stands for
/etc/alternatives/x-window-manager, it has to point to a WM binary,
doesn't it? I thought KDE was a DE.

> My fvwm2 is started by .xsession. The second instance is started by
> something that died, because the parent is now init. I do not start
> both fvwm2 and x-session-manager. Something (that I try to find out by
> asking the list, see question 2.2) is starting it. I want to stop that
> behaviour. Which is only happening on stretch.
> 
> I use xdm.

Too convoluted for me to be much help.

¹ You would need an & here, but the tool being discussed at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2018/10/msg01096.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2018/09/msg00884.html
(different months break the threading) handles that.

Cheers,
David.

Re: Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Felix Miata]

Frank McCormick composed on 2018-12-01 14:12 (UTC-0500):
...
> Can anyone help? Where should I look first.

Try purging xserver-xorg-video-intel and restarting the server. Last official 
release of that
driver was over 4 years ago.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is religion, not science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

I have spent the last several days setting up Fedora on
another partition. When it came to boot back into Debian Sid
this morning I discovered my screen goes blank after the first
few seconds.
The previous kernel is fine. 4.18.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.18.10-2 
(2018-11-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux


This is the output of inxi-


System:Host: franklin Kernel: 4.18.0-2-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 
compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: IceWM 1.4.2 info: wbar

   dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 5536E2F v: ThinkCentre 
M90p serial: 
   Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial:  BIOS: LENOVO 
v: 5JKT47AUS date: 07/13/2010
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard 
K330 serial: 4016-b1-f3-8c-d1
   charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: 
Discharging
   Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse 
M215 2nd Gen serial: 401b-11-8a-8b-04
   charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: 
Discharging

Memory:RAM: total: 3.54 GiB used: 486.8 MiB (13.4%)

PCI Slots: Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Are you root?
CPU:   Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5 660 bits: 64 type: 
MT MCP arch: Nehalem family: 6 model-id: 25 (37)

   stepping: 2 microcode: 11 L2 cache: 4096 KiB bogomips: 26601
   Speed: 1463 MHz min/max: 1197/3326 MHz boost: enabled Core 
speeds (MHz): 1: 1464 2: 1463 3: 1463 4: 1463
   Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon bts 
clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64
   dtherm dts ept est flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr ht ibpb 
ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor msr mtrr
   nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pni 
popcnt pse pse36 pti rdtscp rep_good sep smx ss ssbd
   sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow 
tsc vme vmx vnmi vpid xtopology xtpr
   Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: 
conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable

   Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
   Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass 
disabled via prctl and seccomp

   Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: __user pointer sanitization
   Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB, 
IBRS_FW
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: 
Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0

   chip ID: 8086:0042
   Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel resolution: 
1920x1080~60Hz
   OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Desktop v: 2.1 
Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio 
vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel

   bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:3b56
   Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.18.0-2-amd64
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82578DM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo


Can anyone help? Where should I look first.

Thanks


--
Frank McCormick

Latest kernel gives blank screen when it boots

[Frank McCormick]

I have spent the last several days setting up Fedora on
another partition. When it came to boot back into Debian Sid
this morning I discovered my screen goes blank after the first
few seconds.
The previous kernel is fine. 4.18.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.18.10-2 
(2018-11-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux


This is the output of inxi-


System:Host: franklin Kernel: 4.18.0-2-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 
compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: IceWM 1.4.2 info: wbar

   dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 5536E2F v: ThinkCentre 
M90p serial: 
   Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial:  BIOS: LENOVO 
v: 5JKT47AUS date: 07/13/2010
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard 
K330 serial: 4016-b1-f3-8c-d1
   charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: 
Discharging
   Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse 
M215 2nd Gen serial: 401b-11-8a-8b-04
   charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: 
Discharging

Memory:RAM: total: 3.54 GiB used: 486.8 MiB (13.4%)

PCI Slots: Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Are you root?
CPU:   Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5 660 bits: 64 type: 
MT MCP arch: Nehalem family: 6 model-id: 25 (37)

   stepping: 2 microcode: 11 L2 cache: 4096 KiB bogomips: 26601
   Speed: 1463 MHz min/max: 1197/3326 MHz boost: enabled Core 
speeds (MHz): 1: 1464 2: 1463 3: 1463 4: 1463
   Flags: acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon bts 
clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64
   dtherm dts ept est flexpriority flush_l1d fpu fxsr ht ibpb 
ibrs ida lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor msr mtrr
   nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pclmulqdq pdcm pebs pge pni 
popcnt pse pse36 pti rdtscp rep_good sep smx ss ssbd
   sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow 
tsc vme vmx vnmi vpid xtopology xtpr
   Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: 
conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable

   Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
   Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass 
disabled via prctl and seccomp

   Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: __user pointer sanitization
   Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB, 
IBRS_FW
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: 
Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0

   chip ID: 8086:0042
   Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel resolution: 
1920x1080~60Hz
   OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Desktop v: 2.1 
Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio 
vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel

   bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:3b56
   Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.18.0-2-amd64
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82578DM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo


Can anyone help? Where should I look first.

Thanks

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 01 December 2018 10:02:29 rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

> On Friday, November 30, 2018 07:26:33 PM Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Friday 30 November 2018 13:58:52 Michael Stone wrote:
> > > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 05:23:09PM +, Michael Thompson wrote:
> > > >Because if your root partition fails, you can reinstall and all
> > > > your
> > > >
> > > > files are safe on their own partition...
> > >
> > > ...leaving open the question of how likely that scenario is.
> >
> > Not bloody likely Michael, if the disk is toast, so are all its
> > partitions as a general rule. If you are going to put you /home on a
> > separate partition, put it on a different disk.
> >
> > Unfortunately that has NOT been acceptable to the installer for most
> > of a decade now.
>
> Hmm, it hasn't been 10 years since I installed Jessie, yet I have my
> top level directories (e.g., /abc, which hold my data directories
> (e.g., /abc/Documents)) on a separate disk, and I'm rather certain I
> did that with the installer -- maybe I used a different version of the
> installer (or maybe I'm mis-remembering -- maybe I created those
> partitions (on a separate disk) after the installation.
>
> But, I've thought about it for a few moments, and I'm more certain I
> did that with the installer...

Maybe it has a mode that allows it, but when I last made an install 
useing a distro installer, it wasn't having any of that. Would not 
proceed past the disk partitioner point. So I got in the car and drove 
the 25 miles to my nearest Staples and bought a disk big enough and then 
installed it on the new disk, then put the old ones back in and used mc 
to copy my data to the new disk. I think that install was ubuntu hardy 
heron. Every other install since on x86 hardware has been from a 32 bit 
i386 iso compiled by the linuxcnc folks which is currently still wheezy 
based, and 32 bit because the 64 bit kernels IRQ latency is horrible due 
to its much larger stack frame that has to be swapped out for a context 
switch.

The use of the kernel argument called isolcpus has helped extend the life 
of these wheezy based installs but apparently does not work on the arm's 
so we are doomed to use an interface card that offloads the realtime 
stuff into an fpga card specifically programmed for the job. That adds 
around $200 to the cost of building a machine because the fpga stuff is 
3.3 volts max, and needs a lot of buffering to absorb the noises around 
one of these machines that would kill an fpga before the first motor to 
start has moved 5 shaft degrees. I've killed 3 of the $70 cards making a 
pi run a lathe before I was convinced to buy the 3 buffer cards at $45 
each that this particular interface card needed for protection. Zero 
problems with noise since.  But thats a $39 rpi3b, and $200 in the 
interface. 

Now I'm in the process of adding a smart breakout card to my 4 axis mill, 
because a $2 voltage regulator failed shorted, putting 35 volts on a 5 
volt breakout board with clean up the exploded epoxy results. 

So I'm rebuilding that with a 5x more expensive $120 card that will run 
on 12 or more volts, and also give me enough i/o to build a tool changer 
and possibly a workpiece pallet changer if I can get them made. But with 
anything I need. like connectors or cable being a buy it on ebay thing, 
it will take another month to put the lib back on the box, its done and 
the machine works again.  Keeps me out of the bars don'cha know. ;-)

And thats life, no one makes either of those items for any machine at 
less than 5 to 10 thousand dollars due to the custom labor involved. And 
do it all on a slow to us, 1 kilohertz control thread.  With those, it 
becomes a write the g-code once, run many times for production, so you 
can load the  machine and turn out the lights and have a bin of finished 
parts when you turn the lights on the next morning.

Thank you, rhkramer

-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page 

Re: An appropriate directory search tool?

[David Wright]

On Tue 30 Oct 2018 at 09:52:52 (-0500), David Wright wrote:
> On Fri 19 Oct 2018 at 12:03:42 (-0400), Greg Wooledge wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 19, 2018 at 10:48:42AM -0500, David Wright wrote:
> > > find . -type f -exec chmod a-wx {} \;
> > 
> > For this one, you probably want to replace \; with + to get the efficiency
> > boost, which would be pretty significant here.  You probably wrote this
> > one a long time ago.
> 
> You're dead right. It could even have been copied straight from Unix
> Power Tools 1st ed. And, of course, with the other example
> find . -type f -exec file {} \; | less
> it can make a huge difference to the number of "find: ‘file’
> terminated by signal 13" messages if you lose interest and quit
> out of less.

[…]

> Updated. I'm more careful in writing my bash functions than this
> commandline¹ stuff where the filename population tends to be
> more restricted (ie I generated them).

… and so I was running my eyes over my .bashrc file to see if there
were any similar constructions that had survived over the years and
could do with updating. In doing so, I came across examples where
a little extra thought is required:

find "$@" -depth -xdev -type d -empty -ok rmdir {} \;
find "$@" -depth -xdev -type d -empty -print -exec rmdir {} \;

Using + in the second example won't work correctly.

There's a warning in   man find   about the potential of + to
short-circuit running all the commands in case of error, but
perhaps it should also warn of the dangers of mixing + and -depth.

Cheers,
David.

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[David Wright]

On Sat 01 Dec 2018 at 10:02:29 (-0500), rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, November 30, 2018 07:26:33 PM Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Friday 30 November 2018 13:58:52 Michael Stone wrote:
> > > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 05:23:09PM +, Michael Thompson wrote:
> > > >Because if your root partition fails, you can reinstall and all your
> > > >
> > > > files are safe on their own partition...
> > > 
> > > ...leaving open the question of how likely that scenario is.
> > 
> > Not bloody likely Michael, if the disk is toast, so are all its
> > partitions as a general rule. If you are going to put you /home on a
> > separate partition, put it on a different disk.
> > 
> > Unfortunately that has NOT been acceptable to the installer for most of a
> > decade now.
> 
> Hmm, it hasn't been 10 years since I installed Jessie, yet I have my top 
> level 
> directories (e.g., /abc, which hold my data directories (e.g., 
> /abc/Documents)) on a separate disk, and I'm rather certain I did that with 
> the installer -- maybe I used a different version of the installer (or maybe 
> I'm mis-remembering -- maybe I created those partitions (on a separate disk) 
> after the installation.
> 
> But, I've thought about it for a few moments, and I'm more certain I did that 
> with the installer...

Gene's relationship with the Debian installer has been what can only
be described as "interesting". Take, for example,
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2015/02/msg00128.html
which is the part of a series of threads from early that year.

As someone who hasn't installed Debian onto anything other than
preexisting partitions since the last century, I can't understand
that thread. Likewise, having installed Debian onto partitions across
multiple disks, I have to disagree with Gene again.

But on the OT topic, I don't put /home on a separate disk to
ameliorate hardware failures, but because the original (SATA) disks
in these (loaned, 2006) machines are, as always, small by modern
standards (80GB), so I build the duplicate systems on them, and put
/home on one of my own (2006–2008) 500GB disks. It will also make
it more convenient if and when the machines are recalled.

Cheers,
David.

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[rhkramer]

On Saturday, December 01, 2018 02:54:22 AM Pascal Hambourg wrote:
> Le 01/12/2018 à 03:21, Ric Moore a écrit :
> > On 11/30/18 8:45 PM, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> Why bother with /opt -- iirc, /opt is for optional software, not user
> >> data.
> 
> Right.
> 
> > True true, but you may select the /opt partition from the install menu
> > and not re-format it.
> 
> You can select arbitrary mount points in the installer. All you have to
> do is type the path. 


> For example I did it to use a separate filesystem
> for /var/log (so that flooding logs would not fill the whole /var or /).

+ 10 (or 100, or 1000 ...)

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[rhkramer]

On Friday, November 30, 2018 07:26:33 PM Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Friday 30 November 2018 13:58:52 Michael Stone wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 05:23:09PM +, Michael Thompson wrote:
> > >Because if your root partition fails, you can reinstall and all your
> > >
> > > files are safe on their own partition...
> > 
> > ...leaving open the question of how likely that scenario is.
> 
> Not bloody likely Michael, if the disk is toast, so are all its
> partitions as a general rule. If you are going to put you /home on a
> separate partition, put it on a different disk.
> 
> Unfortunately that has NOT been acceptable to the installer for most of a
> decade now.

Hmm, it hasn't been 10 years since I installed Jessie, yet I have my top level 
directories (e.g., /abc, which hold my data directories (e.g., 
/abc/Documents)) on a separate disk, and I'm rather certain I did that with 
the installer -- maybe I used a different version of the installer (or maybe 
I'm mis-remembering -- maybe I created those partitions (on a separate disk) 
after the installation.

But, I've thought about it for a few moments, and I'm more certain I did that 
with the installer...

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[Curt]

On 2018-12-01, Jimmy Johnson  wrote:
>>>
>>> Opinions, please.
>
> I dislike top posting.

That isn't an opinion. This is an opinion.


-- 
He used sentences differently from any other prose writer. He always sounded
like a slightly drunk man who is very melancholy, who has no illusions about
life, who is very strong but whose strength is entirely unnecessary.
--Krasznahorkai on Krúdy

Re: lpic certification courses

[mj]

Hi!

Thanks everybody for the interesting responses/discussion.

MJ

On 11/29/18 2:51 AM, Andy Smith wrote:

Hello,

On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 09:50:05AM +0100, mj wrote:

Any tips for other good online lpic prep courses..?


My early dealings with LPI as an organisation put me off of it for
life so I am unable to make any recommendations I'm afraid.
Admittedly that was more than 10 years ago.

As someone who has interviewed people for Linux sysadmin positions,
I can tell you that if you spent an equal amount of your time on
stackoverflow.com / superuser.com / unix.stackexchange.com as you
would taking and studying for LPI courses, and then showed me your
username on those sites, I would learn more about your abilities as
a sysadmin than just seeing an LPI certification on your resume. Or
an RHCE for that matter.

Cheers,
Andy

Re: [OT?] home partition vs. home directory

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 11/30/2018 09:22 AM, Hans wrote:

Am Freitag, 30. November 2018, 18:14:40 CET schrieb Default User:



When you are using a seperate home-partition you can easily install the whole
system new - and all user specific content will be saved and will not have to
configured by the user(s) again.

In case, you have no backup from the users..

Best

Hans



There is no need to have more than one partition for the reason you 
suggest.  For 15 years or more there is no need to format before 
install, you only need to delete system files.  You can save the files 
in users /home/user folder and do the install with no format, just use 
the same user name or change the user name to what you want before 
install. I do recommend deleting the users system files too before the 
install.



I often see people recommend a separate home partition.

But why would (or not) that be better than just a home directory within the
root directory?

Wouldn't one less partition be simpler, and therefore (all other things
being equal) better?

Opinions, please.


I dislike top posting.
--
Jimmy Johnson

Debian Wheezy - KDE 4.8.4 - AMD A8-7600 - EXT4 at sda10
Registered Linux User #380263