Re: Mason service on personal computer

[john doe]

On 12/20/23 00:57, Daniel Rodriguez wrote:

Hello,

I want to understand the purpose of a service that I found on my personal
PC. it's mason.service, I am troubleshooting, some services and it shows
the following output with systemctl status mason.service:

● mason.service - LSB: Starts the mason firewall script

  Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mason; generated)
  Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2023-12-19 17:51:40 -05;
18min ago
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
 Process: 1250 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/mason start (code=exited,
status=1/FAILURE)
 CPU: 4ms



Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Starts the mason

firewall script...
Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno mason[1250]: /etc/init.d/mason: 111:
/var/lib/mason/samlib: cannot create /dev/stderr: No such device or address
Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: mason.service: Control process
exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: mason.service: Failed with
result 'exit-code'.
Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Starts the
mason firewall script.



I would like to confirm if this is a service that
is working for no reason on my personal PC; otherwise, does it have a
different purpose?



As shown in the above output the service has failed to start.

We do not have enough informations to say if it is working or being used.

Given that this is FW related, it might not hurt to ensure that incoming
traffic is blocked by using a front-end to nftables (built-in FW
capability).

--
John Doe

OT: Pitfalls of online purchases (Was Re: Mouse single click handling?)

[Alexander V. Makartsev]

On 19.12.2023 23:48, Felix Miata wrote:


Can you suggest any particular online source in North America that sells those
switches? I had no success trying to refurb one in my invaluable Logitech 
Trackman
Marble FX PS/2 trackball. It took 2 hours to get that tiny switch back together
after disassembly and cleaning. :( A Kensington Orbit I had much better luck 
with
cleaning, so didn't need a new switch.

I can't unfortunately.


AliExpress is reputable? That's news to me. I ordered something from it 20 
months
ago. There was a lot of back and forth email between us before I actually got
something a month later that turned out to be used rather than new, and just as
broken as the original part I was trying to replace. My credit card company
eventually issued a refund after I explained all that happened. That particular
card I rarely used, and hadn't for a number of months before that online 
purchase
or for several months after. 3 months or so after the refund, there were 4 cash
advances issued on it totaling around $8,000 on the other side of an ocean I had
never crossed. Those got reversed, but my credit rating dropped 100 points and
hasn't come near recovering.

I share information only about my own experiences with AliExpress.
It might be very hard to find a good and reliable store there, but at 
least their official support and "dispute-system" are working fine.
The important part is that you have to keep all transactions, 
communications, chats within AliExpress platform.
Never agree to switch to email or any other resource for conversations 
with sellers. It's just asking to be scammed and AliExpress official 
customer service will be unable to help you.
I had to open disputes a few times and usually AliExpress officials 
step-in and resolve the dispute in customer's favor, unless the dispute 
is unreasonable and there is no evidence.
The whole shopping experience there could be daunting, there is simply 
too much stores and wares to choose from and their site is not helping, 
by being difficult and slow.
IMO it is too much of a risk to buy anything expensive there, given that 
postal service might smash the package during delivery, but ordering 
something like electronic components, hand tools, repair equipment, 
spare parts, etc, should be fine.
I had to order spare LCD screens and fragile repair equipment from 
reputable shops a few times. All delivered without damages.
Sometimes shops send items with a wrong part number, I had to start 
disputes explaining the problems and return items back. All returns were 
refunded back to my debit card.
I've never encountered any problems with payments or refunds, and their 
Escrow-account protection ensures that money will be released to the 
seller only after customer has received what they ordered.
I've heard there is a frequent "carder" and "skimmer" problem in the 
United States [1], so those issued card advances you had might be 
nothing to do with AliExpress, if you paid using their platform.
Anyway, I've used many cards throughout the years to pay for goods on 
AliExpress and never encountered any suspicious activities.
I also extra careful when I have to reveal my card information online 
and when I use ATMs.



[1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/?s=carder+skimmer
--
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄

Re: difference in seconds between two formatted dates ...

[Albretch Mueller]

On 12/20/23, David Wright  wrote:
> To be fair to the OP, there was no official "script", but just some code:
>   https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2023/12/msg00894.html
> which I pasted into /tmp/lbrtchx.sh. The filename suffix was a mere
> convenience to make emacs colour the code and tidy the indentation,
> speeding up finding lines broken by the MUA. I then ran it with:
>   $ bash /tmp/lbrtchx.sh
>
>> It *looks* like this command is trying to take a date/time string in
>> one format, and convert it to a different format, and then append a
>> +00:00 time zone offset even though that's not the correct offset for
>> the author's time zone (as far as I know).
>
> Yes, I'm guessing that the OP is in my timezone, as just a few of
> their previous posts have -5/-6 offsets. But most are +0, and
> I wonder whether the OP ran this code on an all-UTC machine.
> (IDK whether their using gmail is relevant.)

 If I understand what you seem to not understand about my work around
to get a time difference in seconds out of my "cobblesome" date
formatting for file names, this is my time zone (remember I am using a
Debian Live DVD, on "exposed mode" ;-))

$ date +%z
+

$ cat  /etc/localtime
TZif2UTCTZif2UTC
UTC0

 At the end of the day, all I need is a time difference in seconds
(and yes, milliseconds would be better), which would be the same
regardless of your time zone.

 I do see the good in what you are suggesting to me and I will have to
include time zones in the file names as well and deal with the
possible cases (someone working at Charles de Gaulle Airport in
Paris/France boards a plane to Boston Logan/MA/USA ...). But the
actual question I will have to deal with is how to check and possibly
reset the time zone and the time via a network in a reliable way once
a ToG booted computer gains access to the Internet for which I will
have to use systemd-timesyncd when it boots and shuts down/ when it
changes modes.

 Am I clearer now?

 Thank you,
 lbrtchx

Re: difference in seconds between two formatted dates ...

[tomas]

On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 12:00:29AM -0600, David Wright wrote:

[...]

> Yes, I'm guessing that the OP is in my timezone, as just a few of
> their previous posts have -5/-6 offsets. But most are +0, and
> I wonder whether the OP ran this code on an all-UTC machine.
> (IDK whether their using gmail is relevant.)

Nitpick and reminder: in UNIX and cousins, the "machine" has no
timezone. It's the executable (and its children, if they don't
change it). See:

  tomas@trotzki:~$ date
  Wed Dec 20 08:24:32 CET 2023
  tomas@trotzki:~$ TZ=Asia/Singapore bash
  tomas@trotzki:~$ date
  Wed Dec 20 15:24:47 +08 2023
  tomas@trotzki:~$ exit

What is /etc/timezone for, then? you may ask.

It's just the default for when you don't pick any.

As to gmail... I rather not think about that (still aching from
my cognitive dissonance to see someone so much trying to protect
himself from intrusion to entrust his communication to the biggest
vacuum cleaner for personal data and human behaviour of known
history, but I disgress).

Cheers
-- 
t


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Mason service on personal computer

[glasswings]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 06:57:52PM -0500, Daniel Rodriguez wrote:
> I want to understand the purpose of a service that I found on my personal
> PC. it's mason.service,

=> http://www.stearns.org/mason/mason-2.html

It's a tool for building firewall rules based on typical traffic.  But
as far as I can tell it's only to run with manual monitoring and
configuration, so if you don't know why it's there there's no point
running it or having it installed.

> I don't have a firewall, it's a simple personal PC,

Networked Linux is typically shipped with the ability to understand
and enforce firewall rules - that means you have firewall features -
but if you're behind a port-blocking home router it's probably not
worth setting those rules up.  This is most likely the setup you have,
but you can check with 

ip addr

Your ethernet or wifi probably has a 192.168.x.x local-only address,
which means you only get incoming traffic through NAT, which means you
also have a firewall.  If you're connected directly to the public
Internet (shockingly rare in these days) you wouldn't.

When you get upgraded to IPv6 you'll get a real global address with no
NAT (no NAT for native 6-to-6 traffic) but typically home routers
still give you a strict firewall.

Re: GRUB -- Debian overrides? Or maybe I just don't understand it well...

[Felix Miata]

David Wright composed on 2023-12-20 00:00 (UTC-0600):

> In case it's not clear, "generically symlinked" means that
> /vmlinuz is a symlink pointing to the most recent linux-image.
> (Similarly for initrd.) I added the following to
> /etc/grub.d/07_custom:
 
>   menuentry 'My bullseye' $menuentry_id_option 'custom' {
>   load_video
>   set gfxpayload=keep
>   insmod gzio
>   insmod part_gpt
>   insmod ext2
>   search --no-floppy --set=root --label noah03
>   echo'Load /vmlinuz …'
>   linux   /vmlinuz root=LABEL=noah03 ro systemd.show_status=true quiet
>   echo'Load initial ramdisk /initrd.img …'
>   initrd  /initrd.img
>   }
 
A bit less is needed here in custom.cfg:
menuentry "Debian 13 Trixie defkernel 3 on P10" {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
search --no-floppy --set=root --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt10 --label 
zd8p10deb13
linux /vmlinuz root=LABEL=zd8p10deb13 noresume consoleblank=0 
preempt=full mitigations=off
initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry "Slackware 15.0 GUI on P25"{
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
search --no-floppy --set=root --hint-efi=hd0,gpt25 --label zd8p25slack
linux /boot/vmlinuz rw root=LABEL=zd8p25slack noresume consoleblank=0 
mitigations=off
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
}
# lsblk -f | egrep 'fat|slack|deb13'
├─sda1  vfat   FAT32 ZD8P01ESP20A0-2A08
├─sda10 ext4   1.0   zd8p10deb13  e37c3e3c...
├─sda25 ext4   1.0   zd8p25slack  6664eb9b...
# grep RETT /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
# rpmqa grub2-2.1
grub2-2.12~rc1-12.1.x86_64
#
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

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

Felix Miata

how to clone apt repository to newest only?

[이 강우]

how to clone apt repository to newest only?
Fedora/Red Hat will organize the repository by copying only the most recent 
packages from that distribution if you give it the "reposync --newest-only" 
option, but Debian doesn't seem to be able to do that.

What can I do?

Re: Bookworm: Analog audio disappeared

[glasswings]

Oof, I would be frustrated.

It doesn't sound like a Pipewire problem.  It's more likely related to
a firmware upgrade, and I wouldn't try to troubleshoot Pipewire (etc.)
until I could see the audio hardware in amixer or alsamixer.  Also the
CPU microcode seems less likely than the motherboard firmware.

DG2 sounds like an Intel GPU and HDMI, so it's also something I would
ignore for now.  Almost certainly it's the Intel 7a50.  My next steps
would be

* reboot into the firmware menu and poke around, just in case there's
  a new option
* review the dmesg log after a fresh boot, see what in there is
  audio-related.

The big question in my mind is whether the correct Alsa module is
being detected and loaded, or perhaps some idea of whether it's
failing.

On top of that some Googling suggests "sof-firmware".  But it sounds a
little like people throwing things at the wall and seeing if it
sticks.  I would try to identify the sound device a little better
before installing more software, but it does look like it's
compatible with some recent Intel integrated IO.

=> 
https://thesofproject.github.io/latest/getting_started/intel_debug/introduction.html

And it does look like you have a version of sof-firmware installed
so I wonder if it's not up to date.  This isn't something I'm familiar
with; I haven't needed it for my AMD machine.

I also wonder whether the jack task assignment changed.  Many HDA
devices can switch an analog jack between several kinds of input and
output (line-level vs microphone with DC bias vs headphone out) and I
could imagine those settings being changed.  hdajackretask, which I
think is part of alsa-tools-gui, is the usual way to change those
settings.

Re: GRUB -- Debian overrides? Or maybe I just don't understand it well...

[David Wright]

On Tue 19 Dec 2023 at 21:40:19 (-0500), Felix Miata wrote:
> Mark Fletcher composed on 2023-12-20 00:28 (UTC):
> 
> > I am curious to know from Debian
> > GRUBbers (as it were) if the behaviour I am describing in this thread
> > is expected...
> 
> I suspect few if any regulars here spend much time with Slackware. I think a 
> more
> conventional approach would be to reconfigure Slackware to boot by UUID, with 
> the
> result that Debian's os-prober should pick it up in the more reliable 
> fashion. I
> don't have a bootloader installed on my only Slackware, and have no more
> familiarity with ELILO than that it seems to be the Slack user favorite
> bootloader. Whether or how well it or its Grub might pick up Debian, or any
> proclivity it may have to usurp boot control from Debian or include stanza(s) 
> for
> Debian, I have no basis for guessing.

I can't see anywhere where the OP claims to have set up LFS for
booting itself, as opposed to being booted from a Debian Grub.
It only says "I have been able to get a grub.cfg including the
LFS system …", which seems to imply LFS has only been set up
as a "foreign" system by a Debian system.

When os-prober runs on my system, a lot of stuff gets logged in
messages, syslog and user.log. The lines that contain the string
"result:" (without the quotes) are interesting. It's evident from
those that have six fields following result: have had their root=
field copied from the foreign system's grub.cfg. (In my case,
"foreign" means a Debian system of the previous release.)

When os-prober writes several clauses into my new grub.cfg's
"### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###" section, the references
to the partition are constructed using UUIDs (not PARTUUIDs, because
there's an initrd). However, the kernel command line reads
"root=LABEL=toto04", so that string wasn't constructed by os-prober,
but copied from the foreign grub.cfg¹.

That suggests to me the probability that whereas +Grub constructs+
the root= strings for the "### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###"
section, +os-prober copies+ the root= strings into the
"### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###" section instead.

> If you can keep your Slack kernel (& initrd if using one) generically 
> symlinked
> without much trouble, a stanza you put in /etc/grub.d/41_custom should be 
> able to
> boot Slack from Debian's Grub using your custom stanza containing root=LABEL= 
> or
> root=UUID= without trouble. Same would go for using 07_custom, or custom.cfg 
> with
> 06_custom, to move your custom stanza to the Debian Grub menu's top.

In case it's not clear, "generically symlinked" means that
/vmlinuz is a symlink pointing to the most recent linux-image.
(Similarly for initrd.) I added the following to
/etc/grub.d/07_custom:

  menuentry 'My bullseye' $menuentry_id_option 'custom' {
  load_video
  set gfxpayload=keep
  insmod gzio
  insmod part_gpt
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --set=root --label noah03
  echo'Load /vmlinuz …'
  linux   /vmlinuz root=LABEL=noah03 ro systemd.show_status=true quiet
  echo'Load initial ramdisk /initrd.img …'
  initrd  /initrd.img
  }

¹ After installing a system, upgrading the kernel, or upgrading
  Grub, I run a script that converts /all/ the UUIDs in grub.cfg
  into LABELs, in this little dance:
  cp grub.cfg   → grub.cfg-uuids
  cp grub.cfg-edited→ grub.cfg-old
   < grub.cfg filter-script > grub.cfg-edited
  cp grub.cfg-edited→ grub.cfg

Cheers,
David.

Re: difference in seconds between two formatted dates ...

[David Wright]

On Mon 18 Dec 2023 at 14:12:12 (-0500), Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2023 at 12:35:29PM -0600, David Wright wrote:
> > OK, I tried running it (attached). What should it show?
> 
> That the OP is confused about many things.
> 
> > # date --help
> 
> No shebang.  But the script uses bash syntax.  When executed FROM BASH,
> the script will "work" because bash will intercept the Exec format error
> from the kernel and try again under a child bash shell.
> 
> When executing the "script" from any other parent, it will simply fail.
> Either the kernel's Exec format error will be treated as a final, fatal
> error, or it'll be retried under a child sh shell, which won't be able
> to process the bashisms.

To be fair to the OP, there was no official "script", but just some code:
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2023/12/msg00894.html
which I pasted into /tmp/lbrtchx.sh. The filename suffix was a mere
convenience to make emacs colour the code and tidy the indentation,
speeding up finding lines broken by the MUA. I then ran it with:
  $ bash /tmp/lbrtchx.sh

> It *looks* like this command is trying to take a date/time string in
> one format, and convert it to a different format, and then append a
> +00:00 time zone offset even though that's not the correct offset for
> the author's time zone (as far as I know).

Yes, I'm guessing that the OP is in my timezone, as just a few of
their previous posts have -5/-6 offsets. But most are +0, and
I wonder whether the OP ran this code on an all-UTC machine.
(IDK whether their using gmail is relevant.)

I ran it on my machine (America/Chicago) to demonstrate to myself,
and also the OP, that the code couldn't be correct.

> If the conversion is correct (apart from the tz offset), but the epoch
> time that results is not correct, then it's very likely the +00:00
> that's causing the failure.
> 
> I'm in America/New_York, and if I were to try something like this:
> 
> read -r s dt < <(date '+%s %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00')
> echo "$s"
> date +%s -d"$dt"
> 
> I would expect the two numbers printed to be *different* from each other.
> A date/time string generated in my time zone but with a forced +00:00
> tz offset is simply incorrect, as it would be in most time zones in
> the world.
> 
> Leaving off the +00:00 would allow it to work *most* of the time, with
> the exceptions being the times during a daylight saving transition.
> 
> Skipping the date/time string and only using the +%s part would allow
> it to work *all* of the time, possibly except for leap seconds (I'm
> not up to speed on those).

AIUI with POSIX timezones, you don't have to worry about leap seconds
with computations of this sort: they effectively don't exist.

$ TZ=posix/UTC date -d '1972-06-30T23:59:59' '+%s'
78796799
$ TZ=posix/UTC date -d '1972-06-30T23:59:60' '+%s'
date: invalid date ‘1972-06-30T23:59:60’
$ TZ=posix/UTC date -d '1972-07-01T00:00:00' '+%s'
78796800
$ TZ=posix/UTC date -d '1972-07-01T00:00:01' '+%s'
78796801
$ 

as opposed to:

$ TZ=right/UTC date -d '1972-06-30T23:59:59' '+%s'
78796799
$ TZ=right/UTC date -d '1972-06-30T23:59:60' '+%s'
78796800
$ TZ=right/UTC date -d '1972-07-01T00:00:00' '+%s'
78796801
$ TZ=right/UTC date -d '1972-07-01T00:00:01' '+%s'
78796802
$ 

Cheers,
David.

Bookworm: Analog audio disappeared

[Christian Gelinek]

Dear Debian community,

I'm running Bookworm with XFCE; Linux version 6.1.0-15-amd64 
(debian-ker...@lists.debian.org) (gcc-12 (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0, GNU 
ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.40) and since yesterday, I cannot seem to 
use the analog audio card any more.


The card isn't showing up in `pavucontrol` or in `aplay` and `arecord`:

```
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ aplay -l
 List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices 
card 2: PCH_1 [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [Q32V3WG5]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: PCH_1 [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: PCH_1 [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: PCH_1 [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ arecord -l
 List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices 
card 0: U0x46d0x825 [USB Device 0x46d:0x825], device 0: USB Audio [USB 
Audio]

  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ aplay -L | grep -A 1 default
sysdefault
    Default Audio Device
--
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)
```

Note that the USB Audio device is a webcam and its microphone is 
working. I don't have speakers on my monitors, so I can't test the HDMI 
playback devices. The analog devices (front audio, line-in/out) are now 
completely missing.


Other debug info:

```
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ cat /proc/asound/modules
 0 snd_usb_audio
 1 snd_hda_intel
 2 snd_hda_intel
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ sudo lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 7a50 (rev 11)
    DeviceName: Onboard - Sound
    Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 9e02
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 159, IOMMU group 10
    Memory at 420142 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Memory at 420130 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
    Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [80] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 
--
04:00.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation DG2 Audio Controller
    Subsystem: Intel Corporation DG2 Audio Controller
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 160, IOMMU group 15
    Memory at 8130 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Latency Tolerance Reporting
    Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ lsof /dev/snd/*
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfsd-fuse file system /run/user/1007/gvfs
  Output information may be incomplete.
COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
pipewire  1764 cgelinek   48u   CHR  116,1  0t0  381 /dev/snd/seq
pipewire  1764 cgelinek   49u   CHR  116,1  0t0  381 /dev/snd/seq
wireplumb 1766 cgelinek   32u   CHR 116,10  0t0  788 /dev/snd/controlC0
wireplumb 1766 cgelinek   34u   CHR  116,8  0t0  769 /dev/snd/controlC2
```

PipeWire and its PulseAudio interface seem to be running OK:

```
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ pactl info | grep '^Server Name'
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.65)
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ for s in wireplumber pipewire-pulse.service 
pipewire-pulse.socket ; do

  systemctl --user status $s |head -n3
done
● wireplumber.service - Multimedia Service Session Manager
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/wireplumber.service; 
enabled; preset: enabled)
 Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-12-20 09:51:24 ACDT; 1h 
43min ago

● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; 
enabled; preset: enabled)
 Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-12-20 09:51:24 ACDT; 1h 
43min ago

● pipewire-pulse.socket - PipeWire PulseAudio
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.socket; 
enabled; preset: enabled)
 Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-12-20 09:51:24 ACDT; 1h 
43min ago

cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ aplay -L | grep -A 1 default
sysdefault
    Default Audio Device
--
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)
```

...but there is [a known 
issue](https://wiki.debian.org/PipeWire#pacmd_fails_with_.22No_PulseAudio_daemon_running.22) 
with `pacmd` - `pactl` works but also doesn't show the analog audio 
interface I'm interested in:


```
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ pacmd list-sinks
No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
cgelinek@gar:/tmp$ pactl list short
1    libpipewire-module-rt    {
    nice.level    = -11
    #rt.prio  = 88
    #rt.time.soft = -1
    #rt.time.hard = -1
    }
2    libpipewire-module-protocol-native
3    libpipewire-module-profiler
5    libpipewire-module-metadata
7    libpipewire-module-spa-device-factory
9    libpipewire-module-spa-node-factory
11    libpipewire-module-client-node
13    libpipewire-module-c

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 11:56:29PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> >> FWIW there's a case to be made that "The Right Thing" is to try and
> >> reduce consumption of resources, and prolonging the use of hardware
> >> falls in this category.
> > One's time is also a finite resource.
> 
> Yup.  But the OP seemed to have at least some time/motivation to try and
> workout a solution other than replacing the device.

Some people have learnt their Huxley by heart. "Better ending than
mending"

Cheers
-- 
t


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> FWIW there's a case to be made that "The Right Thing" is to try and
>> reduce consumption of resources, and prolonging the use of hardware
>> falls in this category.
> One's time is also a finite resource.

Yup.  But the OP seemed to have at least some time/motivation to try and
workout a solution other than replacing the device.


Stefan

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 10:43:37 -0500
Stefan Monnier  wrote:

> FWIW there's a case to be made that "The Right Thing" is to try and
> reduce consumption of resources, and prolonging the use of hardware
> falls in this category.

One's time is also a finite resource.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 17:01:46 +0100 (CET)
local10  wrote:

> I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail
> with the same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps
> there was a way to fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12
> months.

I suggest you buy a different rodent. I bought three Logitech rodents
some years ago on sale for $10 each. All three still work quite well.

ID 046d:c517 Logitech, Inc. LX710 Cordless Desktop Laser

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[David]

On Tue, 2023-12-19 at 20:57 -0700, Charles Curley wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:30:55 -0500
> Jeffrey Walton  wrote:
> 
> > Use Jitsi, if possible. You can even run your own Jitsi server, if
> > desired. And it is open source. .
> 
> You might also look at Jami, which has the virtue of being in the
> Debian repos.
> 
> apt show jami-daemon

Jami is excellent!
Cheers!

Re: Mason service on personal computer

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:57:52 -0500
Daniel Rodriguez  wrote:

> I read on the web and it suggests that it works when one uses a
> firewall in the middle of the network to administrate. I don't have a
> firewall, it's a simple personal PC, but I would like to confirm if
> this is a service that is working for no reason on my personal PC;
> otherwise, does it have a different purpose?

You may not have a physical box that sits between your computer and the
Internet. But you almost certainly have some sort of software firewall
on your PC, which does much the same thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(computing)

apt-cache show mason

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:30:55 -0500
Jeffrey Walton  wrote:

> Use Jitsi, if possible. You can even run your own Jitsi server, if
> desired. And it is open source. .

You might also look at Jami, which has the virtue of being in the
Debian repos.

apt show jami-daemon

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: How to index mails in kmail?

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:19:59 +0100
Hans  wrote:

> is there a way to get all mails of kmail get indexed?

Try mairix.

apt show mairix

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: GRUB -- Debian overrides? Or maybe I just don't understand it well...

[Felix Miata]

Mark Fletcher composed on 2023-12-20 00:28 (UTC):

> I am curious to know from Debian
> GRUBbers (as it were) if the behaviour I am describing in this thread
> is expected...

I suspect few if any regulars here spend much time with Slackware. I think a 
more
conventional approach would be to reconfigure Slackware to boot by UUID, with 
the
result that Debian's os-prober should pick it up in the more reliable fashion. I
don't have a bootloader installed on my only Slackware, and have no more
familiarity with ELILO than that it seems to be the Slack user favorite
bootloader. Whether or how well it or its Grub might pick up Debian, or any
proclivity it may have to usurp boot control from Debian or include stanza(s) 
for
Debian, I have no basis for guessing.

If you can keep your Slack kernel (& initrd if using one) generically symlinked
without much trouble, a stanza you put in /etc/grub.d/41_custom should be able 
to
boot Slack from Debian's Grub using your custom stanza containing root=LABEL= or
root=UUID= without trouble. Same would go for using 07_custom, or custom.cfg 
with
06_custom, to move your custom stanza to the Debian Grub menu's top.

Multiboot is as much art as science. Like anything in Gnu/Linux, there are
multiple ways to decouple felines from their skins.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

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

Felix Miata

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Felix Miata]

Fred composed on 2023-12-19 18:04 (UTC-0700):

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> invaluable Logitech Trackman
>> Marble FX PS/2 trackball. 

Nothing like it has been manufactured since it was discontinued nearly 3 
decades ago.

> digikey.com and mouser.com both have microswitches and good service.  It 
> will be a lot easier to throw the mouse away and get a new one.  They 
> are almost dirt cheap.

Not trackballs like a Marble FX, at any price. Caps are about the only things on
digikey and mouser I can ever find to match need. Identifying what I need among
the bazillion choices of almost but not quite they stock is the usual problem.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

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

Felix Miata

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Fred]

On 12/19/23 11:48, Felix Miata wrote:

Alexander V. Makartsev composed on 2023-12-19 11:37 (UTC-0500):


local10 wrote:



I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes generate 
two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a single click.

This is a very common problem with micro-switches inside computer mice,
mechanical keyboards, etc.
They wear out with use and has to be replaced, given that they are very
inexpensive, standardized and relatively easy to replace.
Here is a link to PDF datasheet [1] for Omron D2F series switches
specifications.
You need a switch with pin plunger and compatible terminals, those
depend on mice model.
You can buy them at local electronics store, order them from China
(AliExpress), or from any other reputable source.



[1] https://omronfs.omron.com/en_US/ecb/products/pdf/en-d2f.pdf


Can you suggest any particular online source in North America that sells those
switches? I had no success trying to refurb one in my invaluable Logitech 
Trackman
Marble FX PS/2 trackball. It took 2 hours to get that tiny switch back together
after disassembly and cleaning. :( A Kensington Orbit I had much better luck 
with
cleaning, so didn't need a new switch.

AliExpress is reputable? That's news to me. I ordered something from it 20 
months
ago. There was a lot of back and forth email between us before I actually got
something a month later that turned out to be used rather than new, and just as
broken as the original part I was trying to replace. My credit card company
eventually issued a refund after I explained all that happened. That particular
card I rarely used, and hadn't for a number of months before that online 
purchase
or for several months after. 3 months or so after the refund, there were 4 cash
advances issued on it totaling around $8,000 on the other side of an ocean I had
never crossed. Those got reversed, but my credit rating dropped 100 points and
hasn't come near recovering.

Hi,

digikey.com and mouser.com both have microswitches and good service.  It 
will be a lot easier to throw the mouse away and get a new one.  They 
are almost dirt cheap.


Best regards,
Fred

Re: GRUB -- Debian overrides? Or maybe I just don't understand it well...

[Mark Fletcher]

On Mon, 18 Dec 2023 at 22:15, Felix Miata  wrote:
>
> Thus, you, as admin, construct working stanzas however you like, with or 
> without
> UUIDS, with or without device names, with or without volume LABELS, however 
> you
> like boot to go, and they don't get changed, except by the admin - you. This 
> is
> easy, because you as admin can use the kernel (and initrd) symlinks Debian 
> puts in
> /, or anywhere you'd like symlinks to them to go, for distros that don't
> automatically create them for you. There's no need for maintenance when new
> kernels are installed in the case of Debian and other distros that 
> automatically
> generate new symlinks. For those that don't, creating them is trivial.
>
> 
> is a thread that goes through my UEFI system setups.
> --

Thanks very much for your help, I reckon I can make that work.

Is that the "official" answer? I am curious to know from Debian
GRUBbers (as it were) if the behaviour I am describing in this thread
is expected...

Thanks

Mark

Mason service on personal computer

[Daniel Rodriguez]

Hello,

I want to understand the purpose of a service that I found on my personal
PC. it's mason.service, I am troubleshooting, some services and it shows
the following output with systemctl status mason.service:

● mason.service - LSB: Starts the mason firewall script
>  Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mason; generated)
>  Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2023-12-19 17:51:40 -05;
> 18min ago
>Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
> Process: 1250 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/mason start (code=exited,
> status=1/FAILURE)
> CPU: 4ms


Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Starts the mason
> firewall script...
> Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno mason[1250]: /etc/init.d/mason: 111:
> /var/lib/mason/samlib: cannot create /dev/stderr: No such device or address
> Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: mason.service: Control process
> exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
> Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: mason.service: Failed with
> result 'exit-code'.
> Dec 19 17:51:40 DantiteisMagno systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Starts the
> mason firewall script.


I read on the web and it suggests that it works when one uses a firewall in
the middle of the network to administrate. I don't have a firewall, it's a
simple personal PC, but I would like to confirm if this is a service that
is working for no reason on my personal PC; otherwise, does it have a
different purpose?

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 5:29 AM Bret Busby  wrote:
>
> On 19/12/23 17:53, John Conover wrote:
> > Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?
> >
> Are you aware of Zoom using video calls for spying on, and, collecting
> personal information from, users, causing
>
> "The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) is calling on free and open
> source software (FOSS) contributors to stop using Zoom video conferencing"
>
> "Back in March, Zoom quietly changed its fine print to include a clause
> in section 10.4 that assigned the video-chat biz perpetual, royalty-free
> rights to use "customer content" "

++

Use Jitsi, if possible. You can even run your own Jitsi server, if
desired. And it is open source. .

Jeff

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Tom Dial]

On 12/19/23 02:53, John Conover wrote:

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?


Zoom works fine on Bookworm using mainstream Logitech camera/microphone. It 
coexists with pipewire on the system where I use it, but does not show that as 
a dependency.

Installing it will drag in its dependencies, if they are not installed. Dpkg 
--info for the current Debian install file shows:


 new Debian package, version 2.0.
 size 181054970 bytes: control archive=34820 bytes.
1329 bytes,18 lines  control
  122532 bytes,  1403 lines  md5sums
 593 bytes,18 lines   *  postinst #!/bin/bash
 226 bytes,11 lines   *  postrm   #!/bin/bash
 Package: zoom
 Version: 5.17.0.1682
 License: see https://www.zoom.us/
 Vendor: Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
 Architecture: amd64
 Maintainer: Zoom Linux Team 
 Installed-Size: 654828
 Depends: libglib2.0-0, libxcb-keysyms1, libxcb-xinerama0, libdbus-1-3, 
libxcb-shape0, libxcb-shm0, libxcb-xfixes0, libxcb-randr0, libxcb-image0, 
libfontconfig1, libxi6, libsm6, libxrender1, libpulse0, libxcomposite1, libxslt1.1, 
libsqlite3-0, libxcb-xtest0, libxtst6, ibus, libxkbcommon-x11-0, desktop-file-utils, 
libgbm1, libdrm2, libxcb-cursor0, libxcb-icccm4, libfreetype6 (>= 2.6), libgbm1 
(>= 17.1.0~rc2)
 Recommends: libegl1-mesa, libgl1-mesa-glx
 Section: default
 Priority: optional
 Homepage: https://www.zoom.us
 Description: Zoom Cloud Meetings
  Zoom brings people together to connect and get more done in a frictionless, 
secure video environment. Our easy, reliable, and innovative video-first 
solutions provide video meetings and chat, with additional options for webinars 
and phone service.
  .
  Zoom is the leading unified communications platform and helps individuals, 
schools, healthcare professionals and enterprises stay connected. Visit 
blog.zoom.us and follow @zoom_us.
  .
  By installing this app, you agree to our Terms of Service 
(https://zoom.us/terms) and Privacy Statement (https://zoom.us/privacy).


As with any product, it always is a wise to consider the terms of use and other 
legal documentation and exercise discretion.

If you decide to use it, I use (as root)

  apt install zoom_amd64.deb

It installs under /opt except for a symbolic link /usr/bin/zoom -> 
/opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher

Regards,
Tom Dial



 Thanks,

 John
 

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Kent West]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 3:30 PM Kent West  wrote:

>
>
> On 12/19/23 10:53, John Conover wrote:
>> > Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?
>> >
>> >  Thanks,
>> >
>> >  John
>>
>
> Yes.
>
> I have version 5.17.0 of the desktop client running on my sid/trixie box
> at this very moment.
>
> with Pipewire running.

>
> --
> Kent West<")))><
> IT Support / Client Support
> Abilene Christian University
> Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com
>


-- 
Kent West<")))><
IT Support / Client Support
Abilene Christian University
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Kent West]

On 12/19/23 10:53, John Conover wrote:
> > Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?
> >
> >  Thanks,
> >
> >  John
>

Yes.

I have version 5.17.0 of the desktop client running on my sid/trixie box at
this very moment.


-- 
Kent West<")))><
IT Support / Client Support
Abilene Christian University
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[local10]

Dec 19, 2023, 18:41 by ale...@nanoid.net:

> Been there done that. Cheap mice have cheap switches which fail sooner
> than later. Gaming mice are more expensive, but they are rated for 10-
> 20million clicks. Way more than than the cheap ones. In the long run
> those gaming mice come cheaper. I have an Evga X3 mouse at work i got
> in 2018. It still works and it cost just 30 euros.
>


It's a Logitech Trackman Marble Trackball mouse (T-BC21 model). I like this 
model but for some reason they just don't seem to last as long as they used to.

Regards,

How to index mails in kmail?

[Hans]

Hi folks,

is there a way to get all mails of kmail get indexed? 

As far as I read and understood, mails of kmail are not indexed by baloo. 
Obviously akonadi is 
indexing in its own way.

However, none of my mailfolders are indexed and I can not get it forced to be 
indexed. They 
say, akonadi is responsible for indexing, so I checked:

 dpkg -l libkf5akonadi* |grep ii 
ii  libkf5akonadi-data4:22.12.3-1  all  Akonadi arch 
independent data 
ii  libkf5akonadiagentbase5:amd64 4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi agent 
base library 
ii  libkf5akonadicalendar-data4:22.12.3-1  all  data files for 
akonadi-calendar 
ii  libkf5akonadicalendar5abi1:amd64  4:22.12.3-1  amd64library 
providing calendar 
helpers for Akonadi items 
ii  libkf5akonadicontact5:amd64   4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi 
contacts access library 
ii  libkf5akonadicore5abi2:amd64  4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi core 
library 
ii  libkf5akonadimime5:amd64  4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi MIME 
handling library 
ii  libkf5akonadinotes5:amd64 4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi notes 
access library 
ii  libkf5akonadiprivate5abi2:amd64   4:22.12.3-1  amd64libraries for 
the Akonadi PIM 
storage service 
ii  libkf5akonadisearch-bin   4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
library - runtime 
binaries 
ii  libkf5akonadisearch-data  4:22.12.3-1  all  Akonadi search 
library - data files 
ii  libkf5akonadisearch-plugins:amd64 4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
library - runtime 
plugins 
ii  libkf5akonadisearchcore5:amd644:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
core library 
ii  libkf5akonadisearchdebug5:amd64   4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
debug library 
ii  libkf5akonadisearchpim5:amd64 4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
library 
ii  libkf5akonadisearchxapian5:amd64  4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi search 
xapian library 
ii  libkf5akonadiwidgets5abi1:amd64   4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi widgets 
library 
ii  libkf5akonadixml5:amd64   4:22.12.3-1  amd64Akonadi XML 
helper library


It looks like, I have everything necessary installed. 

Did I miss anything? Can I force akonadi to reindex all mails?

I also dicovered "akonadi vacuum" and "akoinadi fsck", but these shall only 
clean and compress 
the database.

Searching the web I found many discussions with the problem "cannot search 
through mails in 
kmail" but none of them got any solution.

Several years ago this worked, but I forgot, since when searching through mails 
in kamail was 
no more possible.

Thanks for any help. If this is a bug in kamil or akonadi, please tell me, too.

Best regards

Hans

Re: system not updating

[Michael Grant]

> Any chance you have phased updates set up? Search apt_preferences(5)
> for Phased-Update-Percentage for details, and check your apt
> configuration.

Nope, not using that.

sources.list:

deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security/ bookworm-security main 
contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security/ bookworm-security main 
contrib non-free

deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm-updates main contrib 
non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm-updates main contrib 
non-free

deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm-backports main contrib 
non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm-backports main contrib 
non-free

deb http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm main contrib non-free 
non-free-firmware
deb-src http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/   bookworm main contrib non-free 
non-free-firmware

preferences:

Package: *
Pin: release a=bookworm-security
Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: *
Pin: release a=bookworm
Pin-Priority: 500

Package: *
Pin: release a=bookworm-backports
Pin-Priority: 490


And these are the same across all the machines.


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: system not updating

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 01:37:40PM -0500, Michael Grant wrote:
> On the one that's not getting updates:
> 
> [strange /etc/apt #1939] apt policy openvpn
> openvpn:
>   Installed: 2.6.3-1+deb12u2
>   Candidate: 2.6.3-1+deb12u2

It's already upgraded.  Perhaps this system has unattended-upgrades
installed (or some equivalent), and the others don't.  Or, they all
do, but the times at which they upgrade are randomized, and you
happened to catch things during an interval when one of them has
upgraded, but the other two haven't yet.

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Felix Miata]

Alexander V. Makartsev composed on 2023-12-19 11:37 (UTC-0500):

> local10 wrote:

>> I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes 
>> generate two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a 
>> single click.
> This is a very common problem with micro-switches inside computer mice, 
> mechanical keyboards, etc.
> They wear out with use and has to be replaced, given that they are very 
> inexpensive, standardized and relatively easy to replace.
> Here is a link to PDF datasheet [1] for Omron D2F series switches 
> specifications.
> You need a switch with pin plunger and compatible terminals, those 
> depend on mice model.
> You can buy them at local electronics store, order them from China 
> (AliExpress), or from any other reputable source.

> [1] https://omronfs.omron.com/en_US/ecb/products/pdf/en-d2f.pdf

Can you suggest any particular online source in North America that sells those
switches? I had no success trying to refurb one in my invaluable Logitech 
Trackman
Marble FX PS/2 trackball. It took 2 hours to get that tiny switch back together
after disassembly and cleaning. :( A Kensington Orbit I had much better luck 
with
cleaning, so didn't need a new switch.

AliExpress is reputable? That's news to me. I ordered something from it 20 
months
ago. There was a lot of back and forth email between us before I actually got
something a month later that turned out to be used rather than new, and just as
broken as the original part I was trying to replace. My credit card company
eventually issued a refund after I explained all that happened. That particular
card I rarely used, and hadn't for a number of months before that online 
purchase
or for several months after. 3 months or so after the refund, there were 4 cash
advances issued on it totaling around $8,000 on the other side of an ocean I had
never crossed. Those got reversed, but my credit rating dropped 100 points and
hasn't come near recovering.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

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

Felix Miata

Re: system not updating

[Eric S Fraga]

It looks like the package is already at the latest version?
-- 
Eric S Fraga via gnus (Emacs 30.0.50 2023-06-19) on Debian 12.0

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 08:40:56PM +0200, Alexis Grigoriou wrote:
> On Tue, 2023-12-19 at 17:01 +0100, local10 wrote:
> > Dec 19, 2023, 15:30 by hfollm...@itcfollmann.com:
> > 
> > I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail
> > with the same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps
> > there was a way to fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12
> > months.
> > 
> 
> Been there done that. Cheap mice have cheap switches which fail sooner
> than later. Gaming mice are more expensive, but they are rated for 10-
> 20million clicks. Way more than than the cheap ones. In the long run
> those gaming mice come cheaper. I have an Evga X3 mouse at work i got
> in 2018. It still works and it cost just 30 euros.

As I said, I fixed a couple of them where the switches weren't the
failure, but rather the mechanical transmission, which became "too
short" (most probably because the frame around it became too long).
A thin shim did the trick.

Cheers
-- 
t


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Alexis Grigoriou]

On Tue, 2023-12-19 at 17:01 +0100, local10 wrote:
> Dec 19, 2023, 15:30 by hfollm...@itcfollmann.com:
> 
> I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail
> with the same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps
> there was a way to fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12
> months.
> 

Been there done that. Cheap mice have cheap switches which fail sooner
than later. Gaming mice are more expensive, but they are rated for 10-
20million clicks. Way more than than the cheap ones. In the long run
those gaming mice come cheaper. I have an Evga X3 mouse at work i got
in 2018. It still works and it cost just 30 euros.

Re: system not updating

[Michael Grant]

> Go to one of the other two, and get the *name* of one of the packages
> that you wish more information about.
> 
> Then, on all three systems, run:
> 
> apt policy my-pkg-name

On the one that's not getting updates:

[strange /etc/apt #1939] apt policy openvpn
openvpn:
  Installed: 2.6.3-1+deb12u2
  Candidate: 2.6.3-1+deb12u2
  Version table:
 2.6.7-1 250
250 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian testing/main amd64 Packages
 10 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.6.3-1+deb12u2 500
500 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security bookworm-security/main 
amd64 Packages
500 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

On the one that is getting updates:

[top /etc/apt #1211] apt policy openvpn
openvpn:
  Installed: 2.6.3-1+deb12u1
  Candidate: 2.6.3-1+deb12u2
  Version table:
 2.6.7-1 250
250 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian testing/main amd64 Packages
 10 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
 2.6.3-1+deb12u2 500
500 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian-security bookworm-security/main 
amd64 Packages
500 http://mirrors.linode.com/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2.6.3-1+deb12u1 100
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

on the one that isn't getting updates:

[strange /etc/apt #1940] apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
ca-certificates-java/stable 20230710~deb12u1 all [upgradable from: 
20230620~deb12u1]
linux-image-amd64/stable-updates 6.1.67-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 6.1.55-1]

note that even though the candidate is openvpn 2.6.3-1+deb12u2, it
won't be installed.  Why?  What's blocking it?

Michael Grant



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Re: system not updating

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 12:57:36PM -0500, Michael Grant wrote:
> I have 3 debian servers which are mostly the same.  2 of them if I run
> apt list --upgradable, I get a list of 20 or so packages to update.
> One of them only shows this:
[...]
> linux-image-amd64/stable-updates 6.1.67-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 6.1.55-1]

Go to one of the other two, and get the *name* of one of the packages
that you wish more information about.

Then, on all three systems, run:

apt policy my-pkg-name

system not updating

[Michael Grant]

I have 3 debian servers which are mostly the same.  2 of them if I run
apt list --upgradable, I get a list of 20 or so packages to update.
One of them only shows this:

$ apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
ca-certificates-java/stable 20230710~deb12u1 all [upgradable from: 
20230620~deb12u1]
linux-image-amd64/stable-updates 6.1.67-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 6.1.55-1]

The sources files are identical.  There's nothing being held back that
I know of.  Packages on this server currently match the other
servers...for example, openvpn is the same version, it's going to be
updated on the other servers but not this one.

How can I find what's causing this?

Michael Grant


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Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[err404]

On 12/19/23 10:53, John Conover wrote:

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?

 Thanks,

 John
 

you can use zoom.us in your web browser
there is less options, but it work well.

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Brad Rogers]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 17:01:46 +0100 (CET)
local10  wrote:

Hello local10,

> So I thought perhaps there was a way to fix them instead of buying a
> new one every 6-12 months.

Replace the flaky switch.  If you're not happy wielding a soldering
iron, get a friend to do it - assuming you know someone competent at
soldering.

Failing that, when you come to buy a new mouse, pay more;  That way, one
would hope, that the quality of parts would be better, making for a
longer life.

My mouse developed similar behaviour;  LMB(1) became very touchy.  I
replaced the switch about three years ago and am still using the same
device now.  The mouse is now over a decade old.

Also, it's a good idea to give your mouse a darn good clean every now
and then.  This means taking it apart to get all the dust and other cruft
out that accumulates over time.

(1)  IME it's almost always LMB that fails - it gets far more use than
RMB.

-- 
 Regards  _   "Valid sig separator is {dash}{dash}{space}"
 / )  "The blindingly obvious is never immediately apparent"
/ _)rad   "Is it only me that has a working delete key?"
Early morning when I wake up I look like Kiss but without the make-up
Strong - Robbie Williams


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Re: Mouse single click handling?

[gene heskett]

On 12/19/23 10:11, local10 wrote:

Hi,

I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes generate 
two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a single click.

With reference to the above, is there a way or setting to force several mouse 
clicks within a short period of time to be interpreted as a single mouse click?

Thanks
Thats in the mouse, caused by the switch not being solidly against the 
pcb its mounted to by solder so it flexes, eventually breaking the 
copper foil of the trace, so it issues a click as you push the button, 
but breaks contac as your fingeer pushes ion down, the makes the second 
contact as the switch comes back then the switch opens, creating two 
clicks for the motion of one. Sometimes you can lay a piece of wrapping 
wire around the switches pin, and extend it across the micro-crack after 
scraping off the green masking paint and rigging some sort of a clamp to 
hold the switch against the pcb solidly so it doesn't re-break your fix. 
 Its a fiddly PITA. 30+ years ago I had to keep a pile of Amiga mice 
working at the tv station where I was the CE.  The Amiga mouses motion 
encoders were unique as they were miniature quadrature encoders, much 
smoother and far more instant and accurate than any "pc" mouse even 
today, if you ever used one you will remember how easy it was to do 
precise work, and no one but Amiga (commode door) ever made replacements 
as it took an ultra fine 9 wire cable to talk to it.  We stretched what 
we had well past their geriatric years fixing them as best I could. 
Today the spastic junk we can get at Wallies isn't made to be fixed, 
just toss it and get another $9 model.  Problem solved, for a while.


Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5  KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0  Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 6.1.0-15-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11

.


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, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Alexander V. Makartsev]

On 19.12.2023 21:41, to...@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 09:37:20PM +0500, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

On 19.12.2023 20:04, local10 wrote:

Hi,

I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes generate 
two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a single click.

This is a very common problem with micro-switches inside computer mice,
mechanical keyboards, etc.
They wear out with use and has to be replaced, given that they are very
inexpensive, standardized and relatively easy to replace.

I've had some success inserting a thin shim between plunger and
switch, on the theory that the whole thing (plunger, switch, mount
on the PCB) get shortened/worn out on use.

Usually it is gunk and taint getting accumulated on metal contacts inside.
If you really have to repair a micro-switch without soldering, you can 
disassemble them, clean thoroughly contacts inside and metal plate with 
Isopropyl alcohol, let it dry out and reassemble.

Required tools:
1. Needle to pry open a plastic cap and tweezers (those could be bought 
at hardware store)

2. Steady hands (can't be bought)
3. Good eyesight (you guessed it, also can't be bought).


--
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[local10]

Dec 19, 2023, 16:37 by to...@tuxteam.de:

> Here's someone offering a patch for xserver-xorg-input-evdev:
>
>  https://blog.guntram.de/?p=16
>
> and this is someone reporting on how to build for Ubuntu:
>
>  
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/321816/mouse-sometimes-doubleclicks-when-i-click-once
>
> so yes, it seems you are not alone :-)
>


I will look into it. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Installing? Why debian?

[yxcv]

Debian still wants interesteing user to take netinstall.iso or any other 
*iso because of Debian installation, but recommends the US-Shit GRUB. it is 
usefull to study Heise.de before and absolut all from Ubuntu about the 
GReatly Ugly and UnUseabe pile of sht B. This shit in combination with other 
maschines in  the net kill all other bootprogramms on all maschiens. This 
isn's just mad, it is criminal typical US-Manner. And Debian is it stupid 
partner just like Ukraine.
When interested for control. kill all ethernet, therefore wireless is just 
so much suppoerted. And Debian is the stupid partner. Everybody is warned.


All answers never will be read

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Curt]

On 2023-12-19,   wrote:
>
>
> But at the end, that's how most (reaonably complex) hardware works :)
>

Surely there must be superior and inferior mice. Maybe the OP should try
another brand. Or has she?

Up on the ISS, I would suppose they use touch screens, as floating mice
would be a novelty.

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 09:37:20PM +0500, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:
> On 19.12.2023 20:04, local10 wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes 
> > generate two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a 
> > single click.
> This is a very common problem with micro-switches inside computer mice,
> mechanical keyboards, etc.
> They wear out with use and has to be replaced, given that they are very
> inexpensive, standardized and relatively easy to replace.

I've had some success inserting a thin shim between plunger and
switch, on the theory that the whole thing (plunger, switch, mount
on the PCB) get shortened/worn out on use.

Cheers
-- 
t


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Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 11:31:21AM -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 05:01:46PM +0100, local10 wrote:
> > I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail with the
> > same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps there was a way to
> > fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12 months.
> 
> If you can fix the hardware, sure.
> 
> Putting crazy workaround hacks in the drivers is not a fix, though.

But at the end, that's how most (reaonably complex) hardware works :)

Cheers
-- 
t


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Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Alexander V. Makartsev]

On 19.12.2023 20:04, local10 wrote:

Hi,

I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes generate 
two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a single click.
This is a very common problem with micro-switches inside computer mice, 
mechanical keyboards, etc.
They wear out with use and has to be replaced, given that they are very 
inexpensive, standardized and relatively easy to replace.
Here is a link to PDF datasheet [1] for Omron D2F series switches 
specifications.
You need a switch with pin plunger and compatible terminals, those 
depend on mice model.
You can buy them at local electronics store, order them from China 
(AliExpress), or from any other reputable source.



[1] https://omronfs.omron.com/en_US/ecb/products/pdf/en-d2f.pdf
--
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 05:01:46PM +0100, local10 wrote:
> Dec 19, 2023, 15:30 by hfollm...@itcfollmann.com:
> 
> > I have to ask: are you currently located at a remote location like the ISS
> > station or similar?
> >
> 
> No, nothing like that.
> 
> 
> > Why would you go down this rabbit hole when the right
> > thing is to replace faulty hardware especially when it is cheap hardware?
> >
> 
> 
> I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail with the 
> same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps there was a way to 
> fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12 months.

Here's someone offering a patch for xserver-xorg-input-evdev:

   https://blog.guntram.de/?p=16

and this is someone reporting on how to build for Ubuntu:

  
https://askubuntu.com/questions/321816/mouse-sometimes-doubleclicks-when-i-click-once

so yes, it seems you are not alone :-)

Cheers
-- 
t


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Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 05:01:46PM +0100, local10 wrote:
> I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail with the
> same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps there was a way to
> fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12 months.

If you can fix the hardware, sure.

Putting crazy workaround hacks in the drivers is not a fix, though.

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 10:29:33AM -0500, Henning Follmann wrote:

[...]

> I have to ask: are you currently located at a remote location like the ISS
> station or similar? [...]

Bad mood, today?

Cheer up
-- 
t


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Re: Mouse single click handling?

[local10]

Dec 19, 2023, 15:30 by hfollm...@itcfollmann.com:

> I have to ask: are you currently located at a remote location like the ISS
> station or similar?
>

No, nothing like that.


> Why would you go down this rabbit hole when the right
> thing is to replace faulty hardware especially when it is cheap hardware?
>


I've been replacing them, I have 4-5 mice like that, they all fail with the 
same defect after 6-12 months or so. So I thought perhaps there was a way to 
fix them instead of buying a new one every 6-12 months.

Regards,

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Stefan Monnier]

> I have to ask: are you currently located at a remote location like the ISS
> station or similar? Why would you go down this rabbit hole when the right
> thing is to replace faulty hardware especially when it is cheap hardware?

FWIW there's a case to be made that "The Right Thing" is to try and
reduce consumption of resources, and prolonging the use of hardware falls
in this category.

This said, fully working mouses are thrown out on a regular basis at
most large organisations, so it's probably a lost battle.  But maybe the
OP's mouse have some characteristic which makes it harder to find
worthy replacements.

I'd encourage the OP to try and add support for such "debounce" support in
the drivers.  If for no other reason than the satisfaction of having
done the right thing and the feeling of empowerment one gets from molding
the software to one's own needs (enabled by Free Software).


Stefan

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Henning Follmann]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 04:04:19PM +0100, local10 wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes 
> generate two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a 
> single click.
> 
> With reference to the above, is there a way or setting to force several mouse 
> clicks within a short period of time to be interpreted as a single mouse 
> click?
> 
> Thanks
> 

I have to ask: are you currently located at a remote location like the ISS
station or similar? Why would you go down this rabbit hole when the right
thing is to replace faulty hardware especially when it is cheap hardware?

-H


-- 
Henning Follmann   | hfollm...@itcfollmann.com

Re: Mouse single click handling?

[Dan Purgert]

On Dec 19, 2023, local10 wrote:
> I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes
> generate two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead
> of a single click.
> 
> With reference to the above, is there a way or setting to force
> several mouse clicks within a short period of time to be interpreted
> as a single mouse click?

As far as I'm aware, there are no "low-pass" options in the drivers /
software to accommodate the case when the mechanical parts in the mouse
start sending spurious clicks, thanks to the contacts / springs / etc.
wearing out.  

It'd probably be less effort to just replace the failing switch(es) in
the mouse than trying to add that to the software.


-- 
|_|O|_|
|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: DDAB 23FB 19FA 7D85 1CC1  E067 6D65 70E5 4CE7 2860


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Mouse single click handling?

[local10]

Hi,

I have several mice that went bad with the same defect: they sometimes generate 
two single clicks very quickly (say, within 10-20ms) instead of a single click.

With reference to the above, is there a way or setting to force several mouse 
clicks within a short period of time to be interpreted as a single mouse click?

Thanks

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5  KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0  Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 6.1.0-15-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[David]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2023 at 11:04, Jerome BENOIT
 wrote:

> can we efficiently jail zoom ?

Hi, my approach is to do that on my laptop by using grub to boot into various
different Debian installations.

Multiboot is un-fashionable, but I find it useful and versatile. Hard
drives are plenty
big enough to allow multiple operating systems installations.

The 931GB spinning hard drive has 4 primary partitions, sizes are approximate:
  Z = 12GB boot
  X = 12GB standalone minimal Debian installation with /boot symlinked
to /mnt/Z/X
  Y = 12GB standalone minimal Debian installation with /boot symlinked
to /mnt/Z/Y
  LUKS2 = 895GB

So basically there is unencrypted boot, and the majority of the drive
is allocated to the
LUKS2 encrypted partition. Plus there are a couple of minimal Debian
installations,
one of which has Zoom installed.

The LUKS2 partition contains LVM volumes
  S = 12GB swap
  A, B, C, D, E = 5x 12GB Debian installations with /boot symlinked to
/mnt/Z/{ABCDE}
  T = 149G data
  U = 497G data

I have installed Zoom on partition Y, which does not contain
cryptsetup tools, so
the LUKS2 partition cannot be opened, which hides all my sensitive data from
Zoom.

When I want to do real work, I boot one of my encrypted A,B,C,D,E installations
which can all access the common encrypted data in the T and U volumes.

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Dan Ritter]

Jerome BENOIT wrote: 
> can we efficiently jail zoom ?

It needs access to a microphone, camera, and the network. I
suppose you could call that a jail, but for programs, that's
pretty much everything except filesystems and root privileges.

-dsr-

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Jerome BENOIT]

Hi,

can we efficiently jail zoom ?

Jerome

On 19/12/2023 11:28, Bret Busby wrote:

On 19/12/23 17:53, John Conover wrote:

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?

 Thanks,

 John


Are you aware of Zoom using video calls for spying on, and, collecting personal 
information from, users, causing

"The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) is calling on free and open source software 
(FOSS) contributors to stop using Zoom video conferencing"

"Back in March, Zoom quietly changed its fine print to include a clause in section 10.4 that 
assigned the video-chat biz perpetual, royalty-free rights to use "customer content" 
"

?

...

Recommendation had been made, for people to switch to jitsi.


Bret Busby
Armadale
Western Australia
(UTC+0800)
.

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[tomas]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 06:28:48PM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:

[...]

> Are you aware of Zoom using video calls for spying on, and, collecting
> personal information from, users, causing

Thanks for pointing that out. It can't be overstated.

Cheers
-- 
t


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Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Bret Busby]

On 19/12/23 18:28, Bret Busby wrote:

On 19/12/23 17:53, John Conover wrote:

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?

 Thanks,

 John


Are you aware of Zoom using video calls for spying on, and, collecting 
personal information from, users, causing


"The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) is calling on free and open 
source software (FOSS) contributors to stop using Zoom video conferencing"


"Back in March, Zoom quietly changed its fine print to include a clause 
in section 10.4 that assigned the video-chat biz perpetual, royalty-free 
rights to use "customer content" "


?

...

Recommendation had been made, for people to switch to jitsi.

" "Throughout the pandemic and its widespread Zoom adoption, we warned 
that relying on proprietary, for-profit controlled technology as 
essential infrastructure is dangerous," the organization wrote on 
Tuesday. "Last week, Zoom demonstrated exactly why everyone must stop 
using their services without any further delay." "


- Same report...


Bret Busby
Armadale
Western Australia
(UTC+0800)
.

Re: Zoom on Bookworm?

[Bret Busby]

On 19/12/23 17:53, John Conover wrote:

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?

 Thanks,

 John
 


Are you aware of Zoom using video calls for spying on, and, collecting 
personal information from, users, causing


"The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) is calling on free and open 
source software (FOSS) contributors to stop using Zoom video conferencing"


"Back in March, Zoom quietly changed its fine print to include a clause 
in section 10.4 that assigned the video-chat biz perpetual, royalty-free 
rights to use "customer content" "


?

...

Recommendation had been made, for people to switch to jitsi.


Bret Busby
Armadale
Western Australia
(UTC+0800)
.

Zoom on Bookworm?

[John Conover]

Does the Zoom client work on Bookworm with pipewire?

Thanks,

John

-- 

John Conover, cono...@panix.com, http://www.johncon.com/