Re: OT: NFS resource(s)

[Judah Richardson]

Try r/linuxquestions on Reddit.

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:49 Matt Zagrabelny  wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I am hitting a strange NFS issue and I'm trying to find some sort of
> interactive resource (user mailing list, or IRC, or etc.) to ask some
> questions on.
>
> I see there is an NFS kernel mailing list, but I doubt they want to help
> me debug my problem.
>
> Is anyone aware of good NFS (v4) resources?
>
> Thank you!
>
> -m
>

Re: Buster: I can access SMB share from Windows 10 v1903 client, but cannot write to it (settings within)

[Judah Richardson]

Solution here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/csc3vt/buster_i_can_access_smb_share_from_windows_10/exe050g/

On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 11:07 PM Judah Richardson 
wrote:

> On Debian Buster, I have a shared folder that lives on a btrfs raid1
> array. It's located at
> /mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s
>
> I would like to ensure that my samba user and mine alone has read/write
> access to that folder.
>
> I cloned the permissions from my home folder to that folder using:
>
> sudo chmod --reference=/home/MyUsername
> /mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s
>
> In smb.conf, I have:
>
> [hpprobook4530s]
>comment = backup path
>browseable = yes
>writable = yes
>path = /mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s
> #   create mask = 0775
> #   directory mask = 0775
>force user = MyUsername
>
> I've restarted the samba daemon after each change using:
>
> sudo /usr/sbin/service smbd restart
>
> While I can access the folder from my Windows 10 v1903 client, I cannot
> write to it. What am I doing wrong?
>
>
>

Buster: I can access SMB share from Windows 10 v1903 client, but cannot write to it (settings within)

[Judah Richardson]

On Debian Buster, I have a shared folder that lives on a btrfs raid1 array.
It's located at
/mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s

I would like to ensure that my samba user and mine alone has read/write
access to that folder.

I cloned the permissions from my home folder to that folder using:

sudo chmod --reference=/home/MyUsername
/mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s

In smb.conf, I have:

[hpprobook4530s]
   comment = backup path
   browseable = yes
   writable = yes
   path = /mnt/ToshibaL200BtrfsRAID1/@/Backup/luckyBackup/HPProBook4530s
#   create mask = 0775
#   directory mask = 0775
   force user = MyUsername

I've restarted the samba daemon after each change using:

sudo /usr/sbin/service smbd restart

While I can access the folder from my Windows 10 v1903 client, I cannot
write to it. What am I doing wrong?

Re: Does Debian crontab support the @NumberOfSeconds scheduling syntax?

[Judah Richardson]

Thanks all, I wound up just using @monthly instead.

On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 4:56 AM Sven Joachim  wrote:

> On 2019-08-18 08:10 +0200, Sven Hartge wrote:
>
> > Judah Richardson  wrote:
> >
> >> In FreeBSD and derived OSes, you can use @n, where n is a number, to
> >> indicate that a task should be started n seconds after its previous
> >> invocation completed.
> >
> >> I couldn't find anything like that in the Debian crontab
> >> documentation. Is it supported or possible?
> >
> > This is not something Vixie cron in Debian supports.
> >
> > You could achieve something like this with systemd.timers though.
>
> To elaborate on that, systemd.timer(5) mentions the following option:
>
> ,
> | OnUnitInactiveSec= defines a timer relative to when the unit the timer
> | is activating was last deactivated.
> `
>
> Cheers.
>Sven
>
>

Does Debian crontab support the @NumberOfSeconds scheduling syntax?

[Judah Richardson]

In FreeBSD and derived OSes, you can use @n, where n is a number, to
indicate that a task should be started n seconds after its previous
invocation completed.

I couldn't find anything like that in the Debian crontab documentation. Is
it supported or possible?

Re: buster: DNS server?

[Judah Richardson]

Make sure your router's DHCP server functionality is disabled.

On Wed, Aug 14, 2019, 15:13 D. R. Evans  wrote:

> 1. I have a server that does all I need it to do under stretch.
>
> 2. On that machine, I have installed a clean version of buster on a
> separate
> bootable drive.
>
> 3. Under buster on that machine, I have installed (by copy from stretch) an
> iptables configuration that seems to be behaving as I expect. In
> particular,
> it allows me to reach the Internet from machines on the LAN side of the
> server.
>
> 4. Under buster, I have installed isc-dhcp-server and copied a working
> /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf from stretch. It seems to be behaving correctly. In
> particular, it seems to be responding correctly to machines on the LAN
> side of
> the server.
>
> 5. If I ping by name a machine on the Internet from the server (e.g.,
> google.com), the ping succeeds.
>
> 5. If I now go to another machine on the LAN and ping a machine on the
> Internet by address (e.g., 172.217.11.238), the ping succeeds.
>
> 6. But if (still on another machine on the LAN) I ping a machine on the
> Internet by name, (e.g., google.com) the request times out and I receive
> the
> message: "ping: google.com: Name or service not known".
>
> 7. On the machine on the LAN, if I look at the configuration for the port
> on
> the LAN machine (using nmcli), I see:
>   IP4.DNS[1]: 192.168.0.1
> which is correct (the server's IP address being 192.168.0.1).
>
> So this seems to be saying that:
>   1) the basic packet forwarding through the server is working
>   2) DNS on the server itself is working
>   3) DNS requests received from the LAN by the server are not being
> resolved
>
> I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to diagnose and fix the
> problem.
>
>   Doc
>
> --
> Web:  http://enginehousebooks.com/drevans
>
>

Re: Secure Shell refuses to accept connections from anyone

[Judah Richardson]

Try logging in as a user that has sudo power.

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 08:31 Keith Steensma 
wrote:

> I've installed both Version 9.9 (OldStable) and 'Buster' (Stable) and
> found that both version seem to have the same problem.  It's like I'm
> doing something wrong.  But these are fresh installs - no modification.
>
> With Secure Shell server installed and running on port 22 (or any other
> port of your choice) and iptable Chain Input and Output Policy Accept
> All.  When I try to connect from a Windows machine using 'putty'
> (without letting 'putty' fill in any user name) and fill in a regular
> user's login name, Secure Shell refuses to allow that connection and
> replies back "Access denied' and asks for the password again and again,
> and again. Never allowing the connection.
>
> The same thing happens if I fill in 'root' as the login even though a
> 'root' login is not permitted in the default 'sshd_config'
> configuration.  Even when I change the configuration to allow for 'root'
> login, 'root' can never login.
>
> Has anyone run into this behavior before or know about a fix for this
> problem.  I have formatted, installed, reinstalled and Googled so many
> times that I many be going crazy.
>
> Keith
>
>

Re: August 10, 2019

[Judah Richardson]

The only way to know for sure is to boot into a live OS and see what works
and what doesn't. Or install it and see. From my experience I'd say Linux
supports everything except maybe stuff that uses TPM and some advanced/high
end GPU functionality.

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 20:09 David Christensen 
wrote:

> On 8/10/19 3:53 PM, Randy Demerchant wrote:
> >   I have a dell laptop 1720 and desktop acer ax 1935. I like to know can
> I install and use Debian on eithers of these two system with out ant
> problems Can you let me know thank you Randy
>
> I have rarely been able to find a reliable answer to the question "Does
> OS distribution X work on computer hardware Y?" by STFW or asking on
> mailing lists.  But, sometimes you get lucky and somebody has that exact
> combination.
>
>
> Assuming you possess the hardware, one approach is to download a "live'
> image of whatever OS you are interested in, write it to CD, DVD, USB, or
> whatever, and try booting it.  CMOS Setup changes may be required.  If
> and when it boots, log in, get to a sudo or root prompt, and look around
> -- dmesg(1), /var/log/*, etc..  It is prudent to backup, image,
> disconnect, and/or remove any existing drives before you start.
>
>
> Another approach is to install a spare HDD, SSD, or USB drive, do an
> install, boot, log in, and look around.  Again, CMOS Setup changes may
> be required, and it is prudent to backup, image, disconnect, and/or
> remove any existing drives before you start.
>
>
> It is not uncommon for computers to require, or benefit from,
> proprietary device drivers -- notably WiFi adapters and graphics chips/
> cards.  Getting them installed and working correctly involves extra
> effort.  I am more familiar with adding these to a HDD/ SSD/ USB
> installation, but perhaps the live distributions have figured out a
> solution.
>
>
> David
>
>

Re: history/history.db files appearing

[Judah Richardson]

Do you have some kind of backup, sync, or versioning application running?

On Fri, Aug 9, 2019, 22:01 Greg Marks  wrote:

> On a computer running Debian 10, in a number of directories a
> subdirectory "history" has mysteriously appeared containing a
> file history.db.  There are 11 of these history.db files in various
> places in my home directory; cmp reveals that they are all identical.
> Each is an "SQLite 3.x database, last written using SQLite version
> 3027002."  Each is a 12288-byte file containing, in addition to a
> bunch of special characters, the words: "tableversionversionCREATE
> TABLE version ( version VARCHAR NOT NULL, datfile VARCHAR UNIQUE NOT
> NULL)-Andexsqlite_autoindex_version_1version."  In some (but not all)
> cases the timestamp on history/history.db matches the timestamp of some
> file I was editing with vim 8.1.1401 in the same directory containing the
> history subdirectory--for whatever that's worth--but I can't reproduce
> the phenomenon by editing similar files with vim.  All history/history.db
> files appeared since upgrading from Debian 9.  I couldn't find anything
> relevant in the log files around the timestamps of the mystery files.
>
> Does anyone know what might be causing this?  As far as I can tell it's
> harmless, but it is a bit disquieting when files start appearing that
> I didn't intentionally create.
>
> Regards,
> Greg Marks
>

Re: Helpful attitude (was: Server hardware advice.)

[Judah Richardson]

My experience with Linux forums over the years is that more effort is spent
trying to find reasons to call people asking questions lazy and stupid (or
dissing Windows/Windows users when the OP never even mentioned either) than
actually helping them.

So far this mailing list is below average on that metric from my
observation, which is good.

On Thu, Aug 8, 2019, 10:57 Jonas Smedegaard  wrote:

> Quoting deloptes (2019-08-08 17:13:03)
> > Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > > Reading the whole initial post (not only first half) is good too ;-)
> >
> > But please, I tried to make the statement more precise, cause the
> > first half contradicts the second. Of course you could use any
> > hardware that runs linux as a server, but putting those demands
> > together, seems the guy is looking in the wrong direction. If you put
> > together miserable hardware, you get miserable results. And you can
> > not call this a server. You can use it _as_ a server - I was missing
> > "as". Perhaps I was too picky, but no one knows what OPs state of
> > knowledge and experience is.
>
> Let's for the sake of discussion assume that the initial post was
> totally incomprehensible to you.  You then asked for clarification -
> makes good sense.  And asking in the style of "When I read server
> hardware I understand..." makes good sense as well.
>
> ...but then the OP responded and explicitly clarifies to you what
> his understanding of "server hardware" is, it no longer makes sense to
>
> ...but when the OP responds with "I would say a server is any piece of
> software or hardware that serves data to other devices" you got your
> clarification!
>
> >From that point on it no longer makes sense to insist - in same thread -
> on a different interpretation: Topic is a request for help, and you are
> frankly not helping with what was asked.
>
> You might theoretically be helping millions of others reading along who
> appreciate your continued inout about a derived subject - but it is more
> sensible to me, and more visible to those who want that help, if you
> change the subject line to match your derived topic.
>
>
> > And in general in one discussion everybody can put forward any
> > statement or question. No one is forced to answer.
>
> Anyone can do anything.  Not all is sensible, however.
>
> Possibly taking the time to write this email is not sensible - time will
> tell...
>
>
>  - Jonas
>
> --
>  * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
>  * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
>
>  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
>

Re: How free is Debian

[Judah Richardson]

You don't need a license for an ISA to compile for it. You need a license
only if you're developing a CPU that uses that ISA.

On Wed, Aug 7, 2019, 19:34 Shahryar Afifi  wrote:

> With respect to all the contributors, developers, hobbyist and users,
> who made GNU/Linux and Debian and all other distributions possible,
> here lies a humble, ignorance and yet curious question.
>
> Are all binaries in the kernel code were writing from scratch? Are
> there any binary blobs in the kernel that it was given to developers?
> If amd64 license is not free, how is it that we have amd64 microcode in
> the debian free? and if they are not the same, are we using the full
> potential of our hardware?
>
> I apologize in advance for my ignorance.
> Thank you.
>
>

Re: Debian Buster: Is it safe to use on autodefrag on a Btrfs filesystem that is used for (Restic) backup only with no Btrfs snapshots or subvolumes?

[Judah Richardson]

This. From the Btfrs Gotchas page:

Files with a lot of random writes can become heavily fragmented (1+
> extents) causing thrashing on HDDs and excessive multi-second spikes of CPU
> load on systems with an SSD or large amount a RAM.
>
>- On servers and workstations this affects databases and virtual
>machine images.
>   - The nodatacow mount option
>    may be of
>   use here, with associated gotchas.
>- On desktops this primarily affects application databases (including
>Firefox and Chromium profiles, GNOME Zeitgeist, Ubuntu Desktop Couch,
>Banshee, and Evolution's datastore.)
>   - Workarounds include manually defragmenting your home directory
>   using btrfs fi defragment. Auto-defragment (mount option autodefrag) 
> should
>   solve this problem in 3.0.
>- Symptoms include btrfs-transacti and btrfs-endio-wri taking up a lot
>of CPU time (in spikes, possibly triggered by syncs). You can use filefrag
>to locate heavily fragmented files (may not work correctly with
>compression).
>
>
On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 5:50 AM Mart van de Wege  wrote:

> Stefan Monnier  writes:
>
> >> Is it safe to use autodefrag for my use case?
> >
> > It sounds like it might be "safe" (the text doesn't actually say it's
> > unsafe, but just that it has downsides).
> >
> > I do wonder why you'd want to do that, tho.  Fragmentation is typically
> > something that clueless Windows users worry about
>
> No. Fragmentation is an issue with all copy-on-write filesystems
> (including ZFS, which avoids periodic defrag by keeping an enormous
> amount of information in memory and doing defrag on the fly on that).
>
> Mart
>
> --
> "We will need a longer wall when the revolution comes."
> --- AJS, quoting an uncertain source.
>
>

Re: Which resolv.conf file?

[Judah Richardson]

Assuming you're using a DE, make your desired changes in the GUI
network/connection settings and they'll get written to resolv.conf.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 01:03 Bob Bernstein  wrote:

> I want to make a change or two to resolv.conf, but every time I
> come across it I flee in terror, warned that my changes will be
> destroyed and the linux gods angered.
>
> What is the approved method for changing the list of DNS servers
> called upon by, in my case, Stretch on amd-64?
>
> (Is there someone I could slide a few simoleons to in order to
> facilitate this business?)
>
> Thank you
>
> --
> These are not the droids you are looking for.
>
>

Re: How can I force a particular startup hdmi mode on Raspian/Buster?

[Judah Richardson]

I've never gotten that to work reliably either. Good luck.

On Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 11:43 Gary Dale  wrote:

> I'm posting a Pi question to this list because I believe I need a Debian
> answer. The Raspian answers have been failing me - see
>
> https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/101144/how-can-i-get-my-new-raspberry-pi-4b-to-output-1080i-video?noredirect=1#comment167120_101144
> for the details.
>
> Raspian uses a /boot/config.txt file to control video modes but this is
> failing in my case. It refuses to output 1080i unless I set that mode
> from the command line. However, when I do that, I lose the ability to
> adjust the overscan that the config.txt provides. Without that ability,
> I lose a lot of the desktop, including the task/menu bar.
>
> I believe I should be able to deal with this by using xorg.conf and/or
> xrandr settings but it's been a long time since I've had to deal with
> that. Can anyone point me to some good, up to date, how to for setting a
> display to 1080i with overscan adjustments?
>
>

Re: Upgrading from Stretch to Buster with docker 3rd party installed

[Judah Richardson]

I upgraded just fine with 3rd party repositories enabled. What you might
want to do is ensure the repositories match the Debian version you're
upgrading to.

Typically repositories that do different builds for different Debian
versions put the version in the repository URL. So check whether any such
repository has a Buster counterpart. If it doesn't, then disable it. If it
doesn't have any Debian version indicated, I'd leave it as is.

On Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 15:35 James Allsopp 
wrote:

> Hi,
> I was going to upgrade to Buster, but I've got docker installed  and am
> running a container as an ldap server. Consequently I don't want to get rid
> of it, but the install guide I read suggested removing all 3rd-party
> repositories before starting.
>
> This is the current situatioin with my sources files
> ❱ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
> #
>
> # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.0.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST
> 20170617-13:06]/ stretch main
>
> #deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.0.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST
> 20170617-13:06]/ stretch main
>
> deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main  contrib non-free
> deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main  contrib non-free
>
> deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main
> deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main
>
> # stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
> deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main
> deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main
>
> ❱ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
> deb https://download.docker.com/linux/debian stretch stable
>
> If anyone has any advice, please let me know,
> Thanks
>

Debian Buster: Is it safe to use on autodefrag on a Btrfs filesystem that is used for (Restic) backup only with no Btrfs snapshots or subvolumes?

[Judah Richardson]

Hi All,

First time on the mailing list.

*System:*

OS: Debian Buster with KDE
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100
RAM: 8 GB
OS SSD: 1 TB Crucial MX500 SSD, where /home folder is located. Formatted as
ext4
Other HDD: 2 x 2 TB Toshiba L200 HDD, both used completely for Btrfs RAID1
(files and metadata) with a single subvolume, no Btrfs snapshots

*Goal:*

To store rotating snapshots of some folders in /home/MyUsername/ (located
on SSD) on the Btrfs filesystem located on the 2 HDDs. I've chosen Restic
 for this since rsnapshot's developer switched to Borg
and Borg doesn't do snapshots.

*Problem:*

I want to minimize fragmentation on the Btrfs file system, but Debian's
Wiki recommends against usin g
-autodefrag. The reason for this seems to be found in the Warnings section
:

>
>- Mounting with -o autodefrag will often duplicate reflinked or
>snapshotted files when a balance is run. (TODO: is this still current for
>linux-4.19.x?)
>- Any "btrfs filesystem defrag" operation can potentially duplicate
>reflinked or snapshotted blocks. Files with shared extents lose their
>shared reflinks, which are then duplicated with n-copies. The effect of the
>lack of "snapshot aware defrag" is that volumes that make heavy use of
>reflinks or snapshots will unexpectedly run out of free space. Avoid this
>by minimizing the use of snapshots, and instead use deduplicating backup
>software to store backups efficiently (eg: borgbackup).
>
> *Question:*

Given that Restic:

   - doesn't use reflinks
   - uses its own snapshot system (not Btrfs')
   - performs deduplication

Is it safe to use autodefrag for my use case?