Re: dropbear-initramfs possible with open-iscsi during boot, using different NICs?

[Reco]

Hi.

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 09:53:05PM -0400, Christopher David Howie wrote:
> I have a system with dropbear-initramfs to unlock crypto containers during 
> boot.  The system has a second NIC that I will be using to attach iSCSI disks 
> to
> the system, some of which / may wind up moving to. (/boot will remain 
> attached locally.)
> 
> It seems that there is support for iSCSI during boot, however it's not clear 
> to me how to get the kernel to bring up _both_ NICs so that dropbear and
> open-iscsi can run on different ones.  (Based on my research, the ip= kernel 
> parameter can only be specified once.)
> 
> Is there a supported way to configure two interfaces in the initrd to 
> accomplish this?

In a way, yes, but the kernel commandline is unsuitable for this.
What you need is a init-premount script (see initramfs-tools(7)) which
configures either second or both NICs with "ip" from busybox or
"udhcpc".

Reco

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Peter Wiersig]

Steffen Dettmer  writes:
> So you propose not to use init.d scripts. I usually prefer a simple shell
> script that is easy to test, systemd is just way to complex. But probably
> for Debian you are right, if I understood correctly, newer versions do not
> even support init.d / LSB anymore, so using systemd units seems to be
> required there.

Like Greg says, systemd units are really much simpler.

The thing with the compatibility mode is that that part has do *guess*
what the init.d tries to call and adapt that to its inner working and
can fail. 

it's documentation with Debian 9 (stretch) is in
man:systemd-sysv-generator(8), but it's also so short that it would
probably not help.

furthermore quoting from "man systemd.service":
NOTES
1. Incompatibilities with SysV
   http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities

and from the referenced doc: 
"If your distribution removes SysV init scripts in favor of systemd unit
files typing "/etc/init.d/foobar start" to start a service will not
work, since the script will not be available. Use the more correct
"/sbin/service foobar start" instead, and your command will be forwarded
to systemd." 

There are many more details on that page and maybe buried in there is a
hint why the init.d you have does not work.

> About your gitlab-runner.service failure:
>>
>> https://wiki.debian.org/systemd#Failed_units
>> HINT: Extensive debugging information about systemd is on this
>> FreeDesktop page. https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Debugging/
>
>
> I didn't find anything about init.d or DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE in these
> pages.

Correct, as they are about systemd units/services/timers etc.

> Only I found using "status", but this does not help either:
>
>   root@node17-0:/etc/init.d# systemctl status gitlab-runner2.service
>   - gitlab-runner2.service
>  Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
>  Active: inactive (dead)

Was the ...-runner2 intentional? Your other quoted error showed
"gitlab-runner.service".

> funny that it does not even tell WHICH file was not found and why it was
> loaded anyway.

Yeah, that's probably jessies ancient systemd at fault. Newer output
is more detailed and looks like that:

   server:/etc/apt/sources.list.d# systemctl status atd.service
 ● atd.service - Deferred execution scheduler
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/atd.service; enabled; vendor 
preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-07-24 04:48:30 CEST; 2 months 
29 days ago
  Docs: man:atd(8)
  Main PID: 570 (atd)
  (...)


> There is no such file "gitlab-runner.service" (I tried "find /etc" and
> "locate").
> It seem that some systemd magic applies here. Maybe, if its content is
> needed for technical reasons, systemd creates some "virtual unit" on the
> fly, who knows.

There is also a possible gitlab-runner@.service file to check, for the
indeed rather magic stuff from systemd.

Did you install gitlab as whole from packages or from source? Is the
gitlab-runner version compatible to the other parts?

Did you use the gitlab runner packages from the gitlab repo?
https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/linux-repository.html

Debian 8 should be jessie, so supported until summer if i get that page
correctly, and remember the codename to version number correct.

Where did you get the init.d file from? Can you put it in a gist or pastebin?

Hmm, strange apparently there is a correct runner service in play when
the installer parts find systemd:

https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/configuration/init.html
" The system services of GitLab Runner

GitLab Runner uses the Go service library to detect the underlying OS
and eventually install the service file based on the init system.

Note: service will install / un-install, start / stop, and run a program
as a service (daemon). Currently supports Windows XP+, Linux/(systemd |
Upstart | SysV), and macOS/Launchd.

Once GitLab Runner is installed, the service file will be automatically be 
created:

systemd: /etc/systemd/system/gitlab-runner.service
upstart: /etc/init/gitlab-runner"

Annoying that those are generated and not packaged. Try to share them
with us also, so we may to look for errors in there 

Peter

(solved) Re: Missing a "9" (possible font missing)

[Beco]

Dear Michael,

You got it right:

[...]

> "Segoe UI", Verdana, "Lucida Grande", Arial, Helvetica,sans-serif;
>
> however in the section "für die Turnierdatenbank" (tournament database)
> there is only
>
> FONT-FAMILY: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Helvetica;
>
> Maybe this is the problem (although I would be surprised to learn that
> neither firefox nor chrome can handle this)? Anyway, installing
> > ttf-mscorefonts-installer might be worth a try.
>
> Regards
> Michael
>


Installing:

# apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

solved the mystery.

Thanks.

Att.,
Beco




-- 
Dr Beco
A.I. researcher

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure
you realize that what you heard is not what I meant" -- Alan Greenspan

GPG Key: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x5A107A425102382A
Creation date: pgp.mit.edu ID as of 2014-11-09

dropbear-initramfs possible with open-iscsi during boot, using different NICs?

[Christopher David Howie]

I have a system with dropbear-initramfs to unlock crypto containers 
during boot.  The system has a second NIC that I will be using to attach 
iSCSI disks to the system, some of which / may wind up moving to. 
(/boot will remain attached locally.)


It seems that there is support for iSCSI during boot, however it's not 
clear to me how to get the kernel to bring up _both_ NICs so that 
dropbear and open-iscsi can run on different ones.  (Based on my 
research, the ip= kernel parameter can only be specified once.)


Is there a supported way to configure two interfaces in the initrd to 
accomplish this?


--
Chris Howie
http://www.chrishowie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crazycomputers

If you correspond with me on a regular basis, please read this document: 
http://www.chrishowie.com/email-preferences/


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IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER

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This overrides any disclaimer or statement of confidentiality that may 
be included on your message.

Re: latest epson drivers stoped working with debian 10

[David]

On Tue, 22 Oct 2019 at 08:21, duub qnnp  wrote:

> [...] the oficial drivers of epson [...]

Please provide a link so that we could download and see
exactly what code is not working for you.

> [...] i can't install the drivers [...]

Please also cut and paste from a terminal window the exact
command you run together with the error message it produces.

> [...] Is there any workaround or fix? [...]

We don't know until you describe your problem in a way
that gives people remote from your situation enough
details to be able investigate it.

Re: Signs of hard drive failure?

[Ken Heard]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Today Bob Weber wrote, in part:


> I would first check if the raid was working.  Use "cat
> /proc/mdstat". You will see something like this for each raid drive
> configured:
> 
> md0 : active raid1 sdb1[3] sda1[2] 28754230 blocks super 1.2 [2/2]
> [UU]
> 
> Make sure that both U's are there.  If not be careful because the
> raid is operating on one disk.  Before you reboot copy all the
> important data from that raid drive.

I had tried that, and both U's were there.

> Next use smartctl to do a long self test.  Use "smartctl -t long 
> /dev/sda".  You can still use the machine but it will slow the
> test down.  The tests take a long time and smartctl will estimate
> how long. Then do the second drive "smartctl -t long /dev/sdb".

I will do these tonight while I watch the results of the Canadian
election.

> If these pass then you could try booting with a system rescue CD.
> First check what drive names it has used by running "ls /dev/md*".
> You will see something like /dev/md0 or /dev/md123. Now check the
> filesystem on the raid drive with "fsck -f /dev/mdx" replacing x
> with what you found in the previous command.

To be kept in reserve; I have used Knoppix before.

> That should keep you bust for a while.

Indeed.  The other three responders also found problems with my
scripts; so I will have to look into those as well.

> Let the list know what you found.

Of course.

Regards, Ken




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Re: at-spi-dbus-launcher not responding

[Jean-Philippe MENGUAL]

Hi,

I realize I reproduce the bahivior described here. I dont know if
debian-accessibility was Cc but I do it. Let's what they say, but I
guess we should report a bug against at-spi itself.

The problem here is, indeed: at shutdown of Mate, "at-spi-bus-launcher
does not respond" and I can override te stop "reboot anywy".

Regards

-- 
Jean-Philippe MENGUAL

Re: Missing a "9" (possible font missing)

[Michael Lange]

Hi,

On Mon, 21 Oct 2019 17:39:24 -0400
Larry Martell  wrote:


> 
> There are many font finder apps. I use the WhatFont Chrome extension.
> That page looks to be entirely in Verdana.
> 

that depends on which fonts you have installed, according to the style
sheet the requested font for the body is one of:

"Segoe UI", Verdana, "Lucida Grande", Arial, Helvetica,sans-serif;

however in the section "für die Turnierdatenbank" (tournament database)
there is only 

FONT-FAMILY: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Helvetica;

Maybe this is the problem (although I would be surprised to learn that
neither firefox nor chrome can handle this)? Anyway, installing
ttf-mscorefonts-installer might be worth a try.


Regards

Michael


.-.. .. ...- .   .-.. --- -. --.   .- -. -..   .--. .-. --- ... .--. . .-.

There's a way out of any cage.
-- Captain Christopher Pike, "The Menagerie" ("The Cage"),
   stardate unknown.

Re: Missing a "9" (possible font missing)

[Larry Martell]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 5:32 PM Beco  wrote:
>
>
> Hi guys,
>
> When I open this website:
>
> https://chess-results.com/
>
> Every "9" is written as a dash "-". If you look for any event year for the 
> current year you (well, at least me) will see 201-
>
> I'm not sure how this come to be. I tried to look at the "html page source" 
> to detect what font it uses, but I saw no explanation there.
>
> Some time ago I remember removing A LOT of fonts I don't need from my 
> computer (mostly not-latin). So maybe I removed something I shouldn't.
>
> I tried with firefox and google chrome, both the same results. I installed 
> back
> fonts-ibm-plex and fonts-noto-core to test, but still no "9" at the page.
>
> I thought maybe it was a site problem, but when I used virtualbox and chrome 
> over windows 10, the "9" was there.
>
> I changed the default font from firefox to "liberartion sans" but no luck.
>
> Not sure how to proceed. What is the mystery?

There are many font finder apps. I use the WhatFont Chrome extension.
That page looks to be entirely in Verdana.

Missing a "9" (possible font missing)

[Beco]

Hi guys,

When I open this website:

https://chess-results.com/

Every "9" is written as a dash "-". If you look for any event year for the
current year you (well, at least me) will see 201-

I'm not sure how this come to be. I tried to look at the "html page source"
to detect what font it uses, but I saw no explanation there.

Some time ago I remember removing A LOT of fonts I don't need from my
computer (mostly not-latin). So maybe I removed something I shouldn't.

I tried with firefox and google chrome, both the same results. I installed
back
fonts-ibm-plex and fonts-noto-core to test, but still no "9" at the page.

I thought maybe it was a site problem, but when I used virtualbox and
chrome over windows 10, the "9" was there.

I changed the default font from firefox to "liberartion sans" but no luck.

Not sure how to proceed. What is the mystery?

My best,

Bèco.

-- 
Dr Beco
A.I. researcher

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure
you realize that what you heard is not what I meant" -- Alan Greenspan

GPG Key: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x5A107A425102382A
Creation date: pgp.mit.edu ID as of 2014-11-09

latest epson drivers stoped working with debian 10

[duub qnnp]

Hi,

I've upgraded to the latest version of debian and I've found that the 
oficial drivers of epson are asking to install lsb, but the package has 
been renamed... to lsb-base and now i can't install the drivers.


The printer-driver-escpr package doesn't work with epson wf-7210

Is there any workaround or fix? Or I've to wait until someone from epson 
fixes it?


thanks

duub

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 09:26:57PM +0200, Steffen Dettmer wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 3:27 PM Greg Wooledge  wrote:
> > This is not correct.  Debian's systemd will use init.d scripts in
> > compatibility mode.
> 
> Ahh, this sounds good! But how to do that correctly?

wooledg:~$ systemctl status exim4
● exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
   Active: active (exited) since Thu 2019-09-05 08:45:26 EDT; 1 months 15 days a
 Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Tasks: 0 (limit: 4915)
   Memory: 0B
   CGroup: /system.slice/exim4.service

See "man systemd-sysv-generator" for further details.

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Steffen Dettmer]

Hi,

thanks for your reply.

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 3:27 PM Greg Wooledge  wrote:

> > But probably
> > for Debian you are right, if I understood correctly, newer versions do
> not
> > even support init.d / LSB anymore, so using systemd units seems to be
> > required there.
>
> This is not correct.  Debian's systemd will use init.d scripts in
> compatibility mode.


Ahh, this sounds good! But how to do that correctly?

Installing the script and calling insserv does not work; by reading the
wrapper scripts I accidentally found that it works with I set
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE, otherwise it does not work.
I found no hint in the documentation and no helpful error messages
in the places pointed by it.
What am I missing?

Steffen

Re: Buster's VDR plugin epgsearch is broken.

[Brian]

On Mon 21 Oct 2019 at 19:03:54 +0300, Jari Fredriksson wrote:

> The fixed release is in Debian testing. Will we ever get it backported to
> Buster? The plugin crashes VDR when it finds a conflict in the timers. VDR
> in Buster is unusable with this plugin and my use case requires the plugin.
> 
> What is Debian policy about this kind of incidents? Should I get the source
> package and patch and build it myself, or will it get ever patched to
> Buster?
> 
> I had a self build VDR 2.2.0 in Jessie-Stretch but now decided to go with
> the stock version with a fresh Buster setup.
> 
> What a misery.

A recourse is to file a wishlist bug asking for a backport.

-- 
Brian.

Re: Signs of hard drive failure?

[Bob Weber]

On 10/20/19 10:21 PM, Ken Heard wrote:

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

In the past week or so some in my computer procedures have become
sluggish, and some others have not worked at all.

For example the following script works:

#! /bin/bash
CURPWD=$PWD
cd /home/ken
tar -czf /media/fde/backups/kfinancescurrent.tgz --wildcards\
- --exclude-from=docs/tarlists/kfinancesarchive.lst docs/01-kens/Finances
cd $CURPWD

Whereas this one does not work now but did two weeks ago:

#!/bin/bash
# Shell script to create a tgz file for the contents of the
# /home/ken/docs and the /usr/local/ directories,
# minus the files in file /home/ken/docs/tarlists/kexcludedocs.lst
# This script may be run from any directory to which the user has
write # permission.

# Start by creating a variable with the current directory.
CURPWD=$PWD
# Change directory to /
cd /
# Create the tarball.
tar -czpf media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz  -X
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullexclude.lst -T
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullinclude.lst
# Return to the starting directory.
cd $CURPWD

Now when I try to run it it returns the following:

ken@SOL:~$ tar -czpf media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz  -X
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullexclude.lst -T
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullinclude.lst
tar (child): media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz: Cannot open: No such
file or directorytar: home/ken/docs: Cannot stat: No such file or
directory
tar: usr/local: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

All the files/directories which this script cannot stat do in fact
exist, proven by the fact that the first script uses the same
directories, but different files in those directories.

As these symptoms can indicate I think hard drive failure or potential
failure I am trying to explore this possibility.

I am using Stretch and TDE with two 2 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives
in a RAID 1 configuration.  Both drives were purchased at the same
time and were installed in the box on 2016-05-30.  Although hree and
one half years ago, this particular box is only used six months out of
twelve.  I would not have thought that drives -- if they last the
first year -- would not show signs of failure after 1.75 years.

In any event, I ran smartctl -a on both drives.  For both "SMART
overall-health self-assessment test result [was] 'PASSED'"
Nevertheless for all the specific attributes, identical for both
drives, three of them had the indication 'Pre-fail' and 'Old-age' for
the other nineteen.

I also ran 'badblock -v'.  Both had 1953514583 blocks.  The test for
/dev/sda was interrupted at block 738381440, and for /dev/sdb at block
42064448.

I am not sure what all these test results mean, or how accurate they
would be for indicating if or when a failure would occur. It did occur
to me that if after copying all my data files to an external hard
drive I could replace the /dev/sdb device with a new one and copy all
the data in /dev/sda on the assumption with a new and presumably
pristine drive the OS given the choice would access the data it wanted
from the drive which responded the quicker.

If that approach worked I could replace the other drive in another
year or two (really one year of use) so that both drives in the RAID 1
would not be of the same age.

Comments and advice as to the best way of getting this computer back
to 'normal' to the extent that such a state could ever be 'normal'.

Regards Ken

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I would first check if the raid was working.  Use "cat /proc/mdstat".  You will 
see something like this for each raid drive configured:


md0 : active raid1 sdb1[3] sda1[2]
  28754230 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]

Make sure that both U's are there.  If not be careful because the raid is 
operating on one disk.  Before you reboot copy all the important data from that 
raid drive.


Next use smartctl to do a long self test.  Use "smartctl -t long /dev/sda".  You 
can still use the machine but it will slow the test down.  The tests take a long 
time and smartctl will estimate how long.  Then do the second drive "smartctl -t 
long /dev/sdb".


If these pass then you could try booting with a system rescue CD.  First check 
what drive names it has used by running "ls /dev/md*".  You will see something 
like /dev/md0 or /dev/md123. Now check the filesystem on the raid drive with 
"fsck -f /dev/mdx" replaceing x with what you found in the previous command.


That should keep you bust for a while.  Let the list know what you found.


--


*...Bob*

Re: Xfce4-Terminal Prompt is Changed by ANACONDA

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

i meant not
  [...] man bas, section PROMPTING.
but rather
  [...] man bash, section PROMPTING.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: Xfce4-Terminal Prompt is Changed by ANACONDA

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
> or some reason the Xcfc4-Termial is:
> (base) comp@AbNormal:~$
> rather than:
> comp@AbNormal:~$

Check the content of the environment variable PS1.

  me@myhost:~> echo $PS1
  \u@\h:\W>

The meaning of the "\"-codes is explained in man bas, section PROMPTING.
I guess you want

  \u@\h:\W$

or if you prefer to see the full path of your current working diectory:

  \u@\h:\w$

If the change by Anaconda is persistent, then you need to find out which
startup script of configuration file sets PS1 to something like
  (base) \u@\h:\W$


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Xfce4-Terminal Prompt is Changed by ANACONDA

[Stephen P. Molnar]

I have just installed Anaconda 19-10 on my up to date Buster platform as 
user. For some reason the Xcfc4-Termial is:


 (base) comp@AbNormal:~$

rather than:

comp@AbNormal:~$

which is what the installer created.

What is going on here, and how do I get the prompt back?

The root prompt is unchanged.

Thanks in advance.

--
Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D.
www.molecular-modeling.net
614.312.7528 (c)
Skype:  smolnar1

Buster's VDR plugin epgsearch is broken.

[Jari Fredriksson]

The fixed release is in Debian testing. Will we ever get it backported 
to Buster? The plugin crashes VDR when it finds a conflict in the 
timers. VDR in Buster is unusable with this plugin and my use case 
requires the plugin.


What is Debian policy about this kind of incidents? Should I get the 
source package and patch and build it myself, or will it get ever 
patched to Buster?


I had a self build VDR 2.2.0 in Jessie-Stretch but now decided to go 
with the stock version with a fresh Buster setup.


What a misery.

--

Will the third world war keep "Bosom Buddies" off the air?

Re: Compatibility with DELL PowerEdge R440 Server

[Sven Hartge]

Aylwin  wrote:

> I am planning to order 4 units of Dell PowerEdge R440 Servers
>  .

> Can you please advise me if Debian 9 64-bit can be installed without
> any conflicts.

If you plan on using the PERC RAID controller, you will most likely need
to use 4.19 as your kernel.

I can only vouch for Debian 10 working without problems in R440, I have
not tested Debian 9, as I see no benefit from installing the Oldstable
release at this point in time.

Grüße,
Sven.

-- 
Sigmentation fault. Core dumped.

Re: Compatibility with DELL PowerEdge R440 Server

[john doe]

On 10/21/2019 3:29 PM, Aylwin wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
>
> I am planning to order 4 units of Dell PowerEdge R440 Servers
>  .
>
>
>
> Can you please advise me if Debian 9 64-bit can be installed without any
> conflicts.
>

Do you realy insist on oldstable (Debian 9 Stretch) or can you cope with
stable (Debian 10 Buster)?

--
John Doe

Compatibility with DELL PowerEdge R440 Server

[Aylwin]

Hi,

 

I am planning to order 4 units of Dell PowerEdge R440 Servers
 .

 

Can you please advise me if Debian 9 64-bit can be installed without any
conflicts.

 

Thanks and looking forward to your reply.

 

Best regards,

Aylwin

Sales & Operations Manager,

South East Asia

 

-

 

RugGear Mobile Pte Ltd

1014 Geylang East Ave 3,

#05-198, Singapore 389729

Tel : +65 6687 4158

HP : +65 9220 1990

 

Email :   ayl...@ruggear.com.sg

Web : www.ruggear.com.sg

 

Re: Upgrade Adventure Stretch-to-Buster

[Bernd Gruber]

Well, I really appreciate the deb-multimedia, but as I ran into similar 
troubles times ago, I usually remove all non-official packages before 
upgrade and reinstall them afterwards.

Greetings
Bernd

Re: Signs of hard drive failure?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 10:21:20PM -0400, Ken Heard wrote:
> #! /bin/bash
> CURPWD=$PWD
> cd /home/ken
> tar -czf /media/fde/backups/kfinancescurrent.tgz --wildcards\
> - --exclude-from=docs/tarlists/kfinancesarchive.lst docs/01-kens/Finances
> cd $CURPWD

What happens if cd /home/ken fails?  Suddenly your tar command is
running from the wrong location.

You must always check the result of a cd command, and take appropriate
action when it fails.  For example,

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/ken || exit
tar czf ...


If this is the entire script, then that's all you need.  You don't need
the second cd command at all, because the current working directory of
the script doesn't matter after the script exits.

If there's other stuff after this tar command, and you want to "undo"
the cd that you used for tar, there are a few good ways to go about
this.

The first is to encapsulate the cd+tar into a subshell.  The cd happens
in the subshell, so as soon as the subshell terminates, the original
process resumes with its original working directory.

#!/bin/bash
(cd /home/ken &&
 tar czf ...
)
other commands


The second is to take advantage of tar's -C option, which allows tar
to change directory internally.  Then, your script doesn't need to cd
at all.

#!/bin/bash
tar c -C /home/ken -zf ...


Finally, if you *do* choose to store a directory name in a variable and
use that variable later in the script, you must quote it correctly.

cd "$olddir"


This is not optional, and not negotiable.  The quotes are REQUIRED.

https://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 12:20:10PM +0200, Steffen Dettmer wrote:
> So you propose not to use init.d scripts. I usually prefer a simple shell
> script that is easy to test, systemd is just way to complex.

An init.d script is approximately 5 to 10 times as complicated as
a systemd unit.  Rough estimate, here.

> But probably
> for Debian you are right, if I understood correctly, newer versions do not
> even support init.d / LSB anymore, so using systemd units seems to be
> required there.

This is not correct.  Debian's systemd will use init.d scripts in
compatibility mode.  However, writing a brand new init.d script in 2019
is just pointless masochism, unless you're distributing a product that
has to run on a variety of init-systems.

Re: Adobe Flash Player on Debian Buster

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 04:48:24AM +1100, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
> Fortunately the days of /really/ needing Adobe Flash Player, due to
> the saturation of websites requiring it are long gone.

Tell that to Kronos.  Please.

Re: debian-installer: long delay in language selection step after add console=tty0 as the kernel arg in pxe cfg file

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Xihuan Yang wrote:
> Package: debian-installer

You are probably writing to the wrong list. We are just the merry users.

Consider to write to

  debian-b...@lists.debian.org

Archives:

  https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

debian-installer: long delay in language selection step after add console=tty0 as the kernel arg in pxe cfg file

[Xihuan Yang]

Package: debian-installer
Severity: serious
Justification: pxe install

When installing debian 10 guest on xenserver host, debian-installer will be 
stuck on language selection console step. In busybox syslog shows 
debconf/language is set to empty.

Oct 21 09:24:59 main-menu[239]: INFO: Menu item 'localechooser' selected
Oct 21 09:24:59 debconf: Setting debconf/language to
Oct 21 09:24:59 preseed: successfully loaded preseed file from 
http://10.71.152.11/export/2682772-xenrtneofhjbt/preseed-xenrtdebian106411b35270.cfg
Oct 21 09:24:59 preseed: running preseed command preseed/early_command: tail -f 
/var/log/syslog > /dev/hvc0 &
Oct 21 09:24:59 main-menu[242]: (process:876): 2019-10-21 09:24:59 
URL:http://10.71.152.11/export/2682772-xenrtneofhjbt/preseed-xenrtdebian106411b35270.cfg
 [2849/2849] -> "/tmp/_fetch-url_debconf-seed.891" [1]
Oct 21 09:24:59 main-menu[242]: INFO: Falling back to the package description 
for brltty-udeb
Oct 21 09:24:59 main-menu[242]: INFO: Menu item 'localechooser' selected
Oct 21 09:25:00 debconf: Setting debconf/language to
Oct 21 09:29:43 main-menu[242]: INFO: Menu item 'localechooser' succeeded but 
requested to be left unconfigured.
Oct 21 09:29:43 main-menu[242]: INFO: Falling back to the package description 
for brltty-udeb
Oct 21 09:30:27 main-menu[242]: INFO: Menu item 'localechooser' selected
Oct 21 09:30:27 debconf: Setting debconf/language to

After disable `console=tty0`  as the kernel arg in pxe cfg file. We can not see 
the console installation steps, but the debian 10 install will be sucessful. 
Pxe cfg and preceed file is as below:

pxe.txt
```
SERIAL 0 9600
PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 20
DEFAULT install


LABEL install
KERNEL xenrt/2682421-xenrty9zndi0n/linux
APPEND vga=normal auto=true priority=critical interface=eth0 
url=http://xx.xx.xx.xx/export/2682421-xenrth6mfd_1k/preseed-xenrtdebian10646731e612.cfg
 initrd=xenrt/2682421-xenrty9zndi0n/initrd.gz console=tty0 console=hvc0
```

preseed-xenrtdebian10646731e612.cfg
```
d-i preseed/early_command string tail -f /var/log/syslog > /dev/hvc0 &
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_GB
d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated  string true
d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap   select us
d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap   select us
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string localhost
d-i netcfg/get_domain   string xenrtcloud
d-i mirror/country  string enter information 
manually


d-imirror/country   string manual
d-imirror/http/hostname string repocacher-lon.xenrt.citrite.net
d-imirror/http/directorystring /debian/
d-iapt-setup/security_host  string repocacher-lon.xenrt.citrite.net
d-iapt-setup/security_path  string /debian/
d-i mirror/http/proxy   string
d-i mirror/udeb/suite   string buster
d-i mirror/suitestring buster
d-i time/zone stringstring UTC

d-i partman-auto/disk   string /dev/xvda
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe  select atomic
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm   boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partitionselect Finish partitioning and 
write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i passwd/make-userboolean false
d-i passwd/-password-cryptedpassword 
***
d-i pkgsel/include  string openssh-server psmisc 
ntpdate net-tools
d-i grub-installer/only_debian  boolean false
d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string /dev/xvda
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress   note
d-i debian-installer/exit/poweroff  boolean true
d-i apt-setup/services-select   multiselect none
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-first   boolean false
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-nextboolean false
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-failed  boolean false
d-i apt-setup/use_mirrorboolean false
d-i preseed/late_command string sed -i 's/#PermitRootLogin 
prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/g' /target/etc/ssh/sshd_config; 
/target/etc/init.d/ssh restart; sed -i 's/quiet/console=hvc0 console=tty0/g' 
/target/boot/grub/grub.cfg /target/etc/default/grub;
d-i base-installer/install-recommends boolean false
popularity-contest  popularity-contest/participate 
boolean false
tasksel tasksel/first   multiselect standard
```

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Steffen Dettmer]

Hi,

thanks for your reply.

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 10:26 PM Peter Wiersig 
wrote:

> 5.)
> Instead of init.d scripts create systemd units.
> https://wiki.debian.org/systemd#Creating_or_altering_services

https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/


So you propose not to use init.d scripts. I usually prefer a simple shell
script that is easy to test, systemd is just way to complex. But probably
for Debian you are right, if I understood correctly, newer versions do not
even support init.d / LSB anymore, so using systemd units seems to be
required there.

About your gitlab-runner.service failure:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/systemd#Failed_units
> HINT: Extensive debugging information about systemd is on this
> FreeDesktop page. https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Debugging/


I didn't find anything about init.d or DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE in these
pages.
I just see that I'm supposed to reboot (!) with special parameters to debug
a shell script.

Only I found using "status", but this does not help either:

  root@node17-0:/etc/init.d# systemctl status gitlab-runner2.service
  - gitlab-runner2.service
 Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
 Active: inactive (dead)

funny that it does not even tell WHICH file was not found and why it was
loaded anyway.
I tried "journalctl -b > journal.txt" and found in journal.txt several
blocks like that:

  09:40:09 node17-0 systemd[1]: Started LSB: gitlab-runner.
  09:40:09 node17-0 gitlab-runner[17967]: Starting multi-runner from
/local/users/sdettmer/work/_gitlab/config.tom   l ...  builds=0
...
  09:44:08 node17-0 systemd[1]: Stopping LSB: gitlab-runner...
  09:44:08 node17-0 gitlab-runner[17967]: WARNING: Requested service stop:
terminated builds=0
  09:44:08 node17-0 gitlab-runner[17967]: All workers stopped. Can exit now
  builds=0
  09:44:08 node17-0 gitlab-runner[10318]: Stopping GitLab Runner:.
  09:44:08 node17-0 systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: gitlab-runner.

which does not give any hint (except that it works with
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE set).

The string "gitlab-runner2" does not appear anywhere in the whole file at
all.

Any other places where I could look?

What is in gitlab-runner.service on that one server anyways?
>

There is no such file "gitlab-runner.service" (I tried "find /etc" and
"locate").
It seem that some systemd magic applies here. Maybe, if its content is
needed for technical reasons, systemd creates some "virtual unit" on the
fly, who knows.


> Somewhen in 2016-2018 someone on debian planet posted multiple blogs of
> a great systemd introduction series, I can't find my bookmark right now
> :(
>

What a pitty, I though init.d scripts would be in support of systemd, but
apparently they are not anymore :(
So in future portable packages won't be that easy.

Steffen

Re: Debian 8 how to install and run init.d scripts?

[Steffen Dettmer]

Hi,

thank you for your reply.

On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 3:34 PM Jonas Smedegaard  wrote:

> Quoting Steffen Dettmer (2019-10-18 15:17:10)
> > in short: how to use "init.d" scripts on Debian?
>
> In short:
>
>   service $SERVICE stop
>

Thanks for the tip. man insserv does not tell about service, and neither
man init.

Anyway, it does not work.

I created a new file and:

  root@node17-0:/etc/init.d# service gitlab-runner2 start
  Failed to start gitlab-runner2.service: Unit gitlab-runner2.service
failed to load: No such file or directory.

(It is a 230 line wrapper to call a shell script with a single parameter,
which calls a binary with more than 100 command line options - to call a
shell script. Unfortunately, no --debug or --verbose. Using strace showed,
that this binary seems to send socket commands only, so it seems it
communicates with some complex server. To start a shell script with a
single parameter. And it does not work.)


> > in detail:
> >
> > On one server a init.d script with LSB header does not work, at least
> > when started by command line.
>
> Diving into the rabbit hole of messing directly with those files,


Unfortunately I don't understand what you mean.
Do you mean, I shall not have any own software on Debian?


> I suggest to start here:

  man service


Obviously, the man page is outdated. Tracing the service script (bash -x)
shows 83 lines of output ending with:

  exec systemctl start gitlab-runner2.service

so actually the script delegates to "systemctl", which is something from
systemd, which is not described in the man page at all.

I still think systemd makes some magic when called with
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE set...

Steffen

Re: Signs of hard drive failure?

[elvis]

In the past week or so some in my computer procedures have become
sluggish, and some others have not worked at all.



Have you tried e2fsck to check the filesystem first?



For example the following script works:

#! /bin/bash
CURPWD=$PWD
cd /home/ken
tar -czf /media/fde/backups/kfinancescurrent.tgz --wildcards\
- --exclude-from=docs/tarlists/kfinancesarchive.lst docs/01-kens/Finances
cd $CURPWD

Whereas this one does not work now but did two weeks ago:

#!/bin/bash
# Shell script to create a tgz file for the contents of the
# /home/ken/docs and the /usr/local/ directories,
# minus the files in file /home/ken/docs/tarlists/kexcludedocs.lst
# This script may be run from any directory to which the user has
write # permission.

# Start by creating a variable with the current directory.
CURPWD=$PWD
# Change directory to /
cd /
# Create the tarball.
tar -czpf media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz  -X
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullexclude.lst -T
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullinclude.lst
# Return to the starting directory.
cd $CURPWD

Now when I try to run it it returns the following:

ken@SOL:~$ tar -czpf media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz  -X
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullexclude.lst -T
/home/ken/docs/tarlists/kdocsfullinclude.lst
tar (child): media/fde/backups/kdocsfull.tgz: Cannot open: No such
file or directorytar: home/ken/docs: Cannot stat: No such file or
directory
tar: usr/local: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

All the files/directories which this script cannot stat do in fact
exist, proven by the fact that the first script uses the same
directories, but different files in those directories.

As these symptoms can indicate I think hard drive failure or potential
failure I am trying to explore this possibility.

I am using Stretch and TDE with two 2 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives
in a RAID 1 configuration.  Both drives were purchased at the same
time and were installed in the box on 2016-05-30.  Although hree and
one half years ago, this particular box is only used six months out of
twelve.  I would not have thought that drives -- if they last the
first year -- would not show signs of failure after 1.75 years.

In any event, I ran smartctl -a on both drives.  For both "SMART
overall-health self-assessment test result [was] 'PASSED'"
Nevertheless for all the specific attributes, identical for both
drives, three of them had the indication 'Pre-fail' and 'Old-age' for
the other nineteen.

I also ran 'badblock -v'.  Both had 1953514583 blocks.  The test for
/dev/sda was interrupted at block 738381440, and for /dev/sdb at block
42064448.

I am not sure what all these test results mean, or how accurate they
would be for indicating if or when a failure would occur. It did occur
to me that if after copying all my data files to an external hard
drive I could replace the /dev/sdb device with a new one and copy all
the data in /dev/sda on the assumption with a new and presumably
pristine drive the OS given the choice would access the data it wanted
from the drive which responded the quicker.

If that approach worked I could replace the other drive in another
year or two (really one year of use) so that both drives in the RAID 1
would not be of the same age.



The chances of both drives dying at the same time is minute, you would 
be better spending your money on a big cheap hard disk for another 
system to do backups to.


Or buy another couple of disks and do raid 6.




Comments and advice as to the best way of getting this computer back
to 'normal' to the extent that such a state could ever be 'normal'.

Regards Ken

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--
The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it. ? 
Benjamin Disraeli

Re: Top 7 Programming Languages That Employers Really Want

[Mark Rousell]

I probably shouldn't prolong this thread but...

Maybe this cartoon will help:
https://blog.toggl.com/save-princess-8-programming-languages/

More seriously, I was recently asked which languages to learn and I
wrote up a list of what I thought was important. See below.

On 18/10/2019 03:33, Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming wrote:
> This is just a quick survey. May I know what programming languages do
> you know? I am considering being a programmer or developer.
> How long will it take for me to master a programming language like
> C++, Java, and Python?

I'm not a professional programmer but programming is part of my job. I
mostly find myself using using C#, Javascript, Typescript, VBScript, and
PHP. I expect to soon need to know some Powershell, Python, and possibly
Kotlin (or Java). I also like the look of Rust but it's a big learning
curve. But all that is just me.

Anyway, below is the list that I mentioned.

Current Mainstream Languages. (Know a few of them well. Which ones
depends on your likely employer, your actual or like projects, and your
preferences). Listed in no particular order.

  * JavaScript
  * TypeScript (transcompiles to JavaScript, increasingly popular)
  * C
  * C++
  * C#
  * Python
  * PHP
  * Rust
  * Go
  * PowerShell
  * Bash (and Linux/Unix shell)
  * Java
  * Kotlin
  * Perl
  * Visual Basic  (VB.NET)
  * SQL  (Oracle PL/SQL, Microsoft T-SQL, MySQL)
  * HTML (not a programming language but important to have some familiarity)
  * CSS (not a programming language but important to some familiarity)


Current Less Popular Languages. (Be aware of them, some awareness of
them. Some are increasing in popularity, some are reducing in
popularity). Listed in no particular order.

  * Swift (very important if coding for iOS)
  * D (very sadly losing out to Rust, I think)
  * Ruby
  * Pascal  (Delphi, Object Pascal, Free Pascal)
  * Objective-C  (being replaced by Swift)
  * R
  * Haskell
  * Lua (embeddable scripting language)
  * VBScript
  * Visual Basic  (VB6)
  * F#
  * Julia
  * Dart  (JavaScript competitor from Apple, will be used in Fuschia)
  * CoffeeScript  (transcompiles to JavaScript, being replaced in
practice by Typescript)


Others, Historical, Niche. (To have at least looked at very, very
briefly so as to be aware of their existence, look and focus). Listed in
no particular order.

  * PL/I
  * RPG  (IBM AS/400, IBM i)
  * Ada  (military, aerospace)
  * Fortran
  * Cobol
  * Oxygene  (Object Pascal-like for .NET, iOS, Android, Java, macOS)
  * Eiffel
  * Clojure (Lisp)
  * ML
  * Vala
  * Nim   
  * Nemerle  (a .NET language)
  * Erlang
  * BBC Basic
  * Scala
  * Ring
  * Clarion  (4GL)
  * Elm
  * REXX
  * Coldfusion CFML
  * ActionScript
  * Algol
  * MS-DOS/CMD Batch
  * TCL
  * AWK  (see also Sed)
  * Forth
  * Haxe
  * Matlab
  * Boo  (a .NET language)
  * Microsoft QBasic  (and similar)
  * Prolog   



-- 
Mark Rousell