Need help setting up debian dual boot on Macbook Pro (with El Capitan)
The Macbook Pro is described as ‘Early 2015’, which is 64bit. q1: Should I tray to use testing or jessie? q2: I have used netinst on some previous debian installs on different hardware, but Macbook Pro doesn’t have a CD drive. How do I make the Macbook boot from a .iso file on USB thumb drive or what steps to perform? What search terms should I use? Of course answers to above questions won’t be enough, but I hope they will get me started. Either way I expect to be doing a lot of reading ;-) Paul Condon pecond...@gmail.com
Re: Finding a replacement for my ISP's smtp server
On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 02:56:40PM +0100, Brian wrote: On Mon 28 Jul 2014 at 14:02:29 +0200, Slavko wrote: Dňa Sun, 27 Jul 2014 13:02:18 +0100 Brian a...@cityscape.co.uk napísal: He could check with nc. brian@desktop:~$ nc smtp.gmail.com 25 220 mx.google.com ESMTP 19sm41008233wjz.3 - gsmtp AFAIK, the port 25 have to used only for (inter-) servers connections, the clients have connect via 587, the port 25 for client connections is for backward compatibility only. How does the server tell the difference between talking to another server (which is acting as client) and what you call a client? I have found a script on the web that makes Mutt into a work-alike substitute for Thunderbird. I don't like it, but it is a start at getting what I once had. The script has at least one undocumented Mutt command and other curiosities which I want to resolve before I feel comfortable with my new situation. I already know that gmail uses (and publishes for others to use) several different port numbers. I haven't yet determined whether the different numbers are because they have changed there interface over time or they simply intend to support all of them. But, for now, I am in the much happier condition of tweeking a new toy, than the recent past where I was unable to reply to email without going through so much pain that I couldn't remember what I wanted to say by the time I could key in my message. The script that I found uses 587, but a different sript that I found (and didn't work) uses 465. If this email gets to the debian-user list, and gets properly connected to the thread that is being quoted, the problem is Solved. I think I have even got gmail to masquerade as my old email address. We shall see. Thanks to all, Best regards, -- Paul E Condon pecon...@mesanetworks.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140728151159.ga5...@gmail.com
Re: Finding a replacement for my ISP's smtp server
On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 01:37:57PM +, Curt wrote: On 2014-07-28, Joel Rees joel.r...@gmail.com wrote: (Piques my curiosity.) They have made it clear in that they do not require or use TLS. (Wondering what TLS has to do with strangeness in this case.) I have read that without TLS the email file, and my password are sent over the internet in the clear, un-encrypted, and that is 'clearly' a BAD THING. I have seen in recent days enough error message blaming TLS to convince me that there are many programmers who beleive it is. Until recently, I was like most of the world unaware of the whole issue. Maybe what mutt has to do with vlc. -- Paul E Condon pecon...@mesanetworks.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140728153539.gb5...@gmail.com
Re: Theme control in Xfce4
On 20140726_0639+0200, B wrote: On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 22:26:02 -0600 Paul Condon pecond...@gmail.com wrote: on with my imperfect eye-hand coordination. I want the old Crux back. Is there a package of 'legacy' themes? What is its name? I don't know if it can be recovered; however, you could go in /usr/share/themes as root, create your own theme directory, copy the actual Crux theme in it and modify it according to your needs. This way, whatever the changes, you'll be able to keep it the way you want. Because of a totally different malfunction, I am using gmail to post my question to this list in spite of my total unfamiliarity in its proper use. Now I am unsure of how to link this reply into the thread started by my original post. There must be a way, in the gmail user interface, to post a reply to a list, but maybe not. Oh well. Back to composing the reply to B: I found the theme collection where you said it would be. The content of a theme seems to be a collection of text files with names matching the expression '*.xpm' I know how to copy the whole lot of them into a different directory in a different place where I could modify them, but what is xpm? I think it might be possible for me to learn enough about xpm to make the change needed, if you can get me started. A question about what I found: In the themes directory, there is also a theme named 'Cruxish' (just after 'Crux' in alphabetical order), but in Xfce4 Applications Menu - Settings - Appearance Crux appears in the pick-list of themes, but Cruxish does not. Perhaps all I need to do is make Xfce4 offer me Cruxish? OTOH, your suggestion of making my own personal theme and squirreling it away somewhere where I can recover it across dist-upgrades and netinst is the better long term solution. Your advice? -- Paul E Condon
Theme control in Xfce4
Until quite recently, i.e. in the last year or so, I used the Crux theme in Gnome and more recent Xfce4. But in a recent install from release 7.6 (of Wheezy), Crux has changed in a way that is significant for me. I have a style of working in which I have many overlapping terminal windows on the screen. When the window that has focus is too small to contain some long lines without folding, I like to quickly expand the window, either to the left or to the right, depending on what other window will be covered by the expansion. The old Crux had thick borders on all four sides, top, bottom, left, and right. This thick border made it easy to position the mouse cursor on a particular edge and quickly adjust it to my liking. In the new Crux the side borders are extremely hard to hit on with my imperfect eye-hand coordination. I want the old Crux back. Is there a package of 'legacy' themes? What is its name? The so-called hi-contrast themes don't help. They don't affect the outside border. Instead they use up interior area, thus reducing the area of useful information. How can I get the old Crux back? Please. -- Paul E Condon
trouble formatting 3TB Seagate external HDrives. need help
I have two 3TB Seagate external HDs. They were purchased from different stores at slightly different times earlier this year, here in Colorado. I want them to have ext4 file systems on them, excepting if someone on this list can give a reason otherwise. I have googled and gotten a lot of hits, which indicate to me that this is a well known problem. Unfortunately, I have difficulty following the instructions, and all my efforts have not reached a successful conclusion. Now with further trys, it seems to me that stuff has been written onto the drives that needs to be wiped off because I get messages that from the disk utility in xfce4 that it won't overwrite a disk with data on it. So I want to use dd to wipe a complete drive. For this I have found the following: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdg bs=1M In the above, I have already changed the HD device to sdg (from sda), but I wonder about bs=1M. Could the process go faster with a larger block size? What are the criteria for choosing a value for bs? And, how long should a 3T wipe take to complete? The job has been running for about 12 hours. Would it go faster with a different bs? Faster enough to make the waste of 12hrs running worthwhile? Is there some way to invoke an 'progress indicator' for dd? And, in general, is there a better way? TIA paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51c86c02.8060...@mesanetworks.net
Re: how can I set the from address in mutt?
On 05/27/2013 07:20 PM, Gary Dale wrote: I want to send e-mail with an attachment via a script. The attachment requirement prevents me from using mail but mutt can handle it. Normally when I send using mail, I can simply use the -r option to set the mail user account specified in /etc/exim4/passwd.client. This is probably clumsy and there must be a better way of doing it but it works. Now I want to use mutt to send attachments but it doesn't have the -r option. Putting in my_hdr From: in .muttrc doesn't do it either. Can someone suggest a way to make this work? It's probably trivial but I can't find the solution via google. There is a package named exim4-config . Run dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config , i.e. reconfigure the config package for exim4, which is separate from the actual exim4 package. Answer the questions and you get return address overwriting in exim4 plus other stuff that you would have never known you needed. To handle a password authorization, read /usr/share/doc/exim4/README.Debian.html section 2.3 and man exim_passwd_client for the details of the format of the file passwd.client HTH, Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51a43d87.9090...@gmail.com
Re: wheeezy-backports - strange policy?
On 05/23/2013 10:59 AM, Hans-J. Ullrich wrote: Hi folks, I made my minds about wheezy-backports now for a long time, and allow me, to open this discussion. Pleae correct me, if I am wrong: IMO wheezy-backports is the successor to debian-volatile and is intended for use of debian/stable users (aka wheezy at the moment). As far as I read, packages in wheezy-backports are put into, when the environment of those is chenged and a higher (and newer version) is needed. As an example I want to name here clamav (which needs a newer version, when the virus-database is being updated, some chatprograms like yahoo, ehen a new protocol must be used or new protocols have to be used, but package versions in wheezy do not support them). If I am correct, then I do not understand, why packages are available in wheezy-backports, but not in debian/testing. According to debian behaviour (I think the word policy is the wrong choice here), Packages from unstable will be tested, then, if no big bugs appear, get into testing , and when it is stable enough, are put into stable. And if I am still correct, that ALL packages in wheezy-backports are aimed for the use only in debian/stable, there will appear things, I do not understand. 1. So, how can it be, that i.e. libreoffice in wheezy-backports is version 4.0, whilst in debian/testing it is still 3.5? And the backported version is from unstable, it is 4.0! 2. How can it happen, that everyone is telling me, Do NOT upgrade ALL installed packages from wheezy-backports in debian/stable. It will crash your system! ? I think, there is a problem with wheezy-backports policy. I like the idea very much, and I think, it is good, but if I am correct in all my points, I think, it is not easy for unexpierenced users, to use wheezy-backports at all. Pleae apologize, if I am wrong and I am happy, when I will be enlightend. :) Best regards Hans There is no such thing as wheeezy-backports , or even wheezy-backports. The name was changed to wheezy-updates. This new name signals a melding of back-port and volatile functions. Both functions need deployment of a time scale shorter than the traditional Debian release cycle. Call if by its new name and it may eventually sink in that the name really means something different than volatile or b backport. Both more and less and other. I know, sometimes it's difficult to walk and chew gum at the same time... :-) Wheezy-updates is different from testing/jessie. Wheezy-updates contains packages that are a newer version of a software that are buiilt to run using the libraries in wheezy. OTOH, Jessie is a newer version of a software that is built to run using newer versions of the libraries. (among other things that change between major releases). It is tricky, and takes a judgment call with a higher pay grade than I have to make the call. Personally, I think I have never felt the need to use volatile during the whole time that it existed. Backports was something that I sometimes thought I needed, but never badly enough to actually learn how to use it. Now, it appears to me wheezy-updates is being used for rapid replacement of software that should not have been released. But again, I'm not an expert and my opinion is only the opinion of a software klutz. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/519e704b.4010...@gmail.com
Re: Gain owner of a file using vim :w!
On 05/22/2013 04:48 PM, Beco wrote: Dear users, I'm astonished by this (maybe I'm naive and I'm missing something). Yesterday as root I saved a file skel.bashrc in my /home/beco user, owned by root, group root. Today I edited it, logged as beco, and vi told me warning, read only!. I edited anyway, just to test, and saved with :w! After that I checked the file and it has changed to owner beco, group beco. How is that possible? Thanks, Beco -- Dr Beco A.I. researcher Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye. (H. Jackson Brown Jr.) I did not know about this, and it is suprising, but ... I have frequently used another flaw in the read-only security to get a copy with write permission. I open a new document in a new window, and then use my mouse to select the whole text in the window holding the read-only original. Then I paste that text into the new, empty document. The read-only feature of the UNIX paradigm is not a way of enforcing intellectual property rights. It is just a way of reminding oneself to be careful and not clobber something that one really needs to keep. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/519d6545.3070...@gmail.com
Installing Wheezy on a box that is new to me.
I have a computer on which I wish to install Wheezy. I have inquired locally in Colorado about which flavor of Wheezy I should (previously I have only ever had occasion to use i386). The box is a Dell Optiplex GX620 with Pentium 4 HT processor. I have been told that this processor is Itanium. I am skeptical, but maybe so. I have trashed the preloaded Windows XP software in attempting to follow other advice. The box operates very nicely when I boot it with a Knoppix 7.0.5 live DVD, but I want Wheezy. I have good connection to the internet. I hope to use Jigdo to download a single CD image to boot on the box and do the main work of getting all the packages via the internet. But which single CD image to I need to jigdo? Why CD? Because I have writer that is only CD, not DVD. TIA, Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51965b99.3040...@gmail.com
Re: how to avoid download during debian installation.
On 05/12/2013 10:26 AM, Pascal Hambourg wrote: David Christensen a écrit : On 05/12/13 00:32, Pascal Hambourg wrote: The client is not using approx for security updates. Why ? That's the way the Debian installer set it up. Thus I regret that the installer does not allow to manually configure a custom mirror for security updates. I thought about configuring it as a standard mirror, but this is not possible because of thename/update path instead ofname. I think that the installer does not place restrictions on Approx serving security updates. I think I have that working in my Approx. My /etc/approx/approx.conf contains just two un-commented lines: debian http://ftp.debian.org/debian security http://security.debian.org/ I used to set clients to get security updates from my Approx server, but lately I just leave the installer settings alone. May I ask why ? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/519009c4.5050...@gmail.com
Re: how to avoid download during debian installation.
On 05/12/2013 10:26 AM, Pascal Hambourg wrote: David Christensen a écrit : On 05/12/13 00:32, Pascal Hambourg wrote: The client is not using approx for security updates. Why ? That's the way the Debian installer set it up. Thus I regret that the installer does not allow to manually configure a custom mirror for security updates. I thought about configuring it as a standard mirror, but this is not possible because of thename/update path instead ofname. I think that the installer does not place restrictions on Approx serving security updates. I think I have that working in my Approx. My /etc/approx/approx.conf contains just two un-commented lines: debian http://ftp.debian.org/debian securityhttp://security.debian.org/ I used to set clients to get security updates from my Approx server, but lately I just leave the installer settings alone. May I ask why ? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51907a35.4050...@gmail.com
Video and sound in Wheezy: Howto?
I installed Wheezy on a HP computer which had been running Squeeze about a week or two ago. I've done installs of Debian many times before on other hardware, and earlier versions of Debian. This install went very smoothly, but ... I just noticed today that I can't play video clips in Iceweasel, no moving picture and no sound. And in Google Chrome, I can get the moving picture, but no sound. When it was running Squeeze, video clips were working fine, but I recall there was lots of magic in getting Squeeze video to work long ago. This time I was hoping for a 'automagic' install, and until today when I discovered the video problem it had been fully automagic. What should I look for? Perhaps a package dependency is missing. Or what? What is the names of the video/sound packages that are used with Xfce4? (Come to think of it, I was running Gnome2 under Squeeze (and I don't remember tha package names from then)) As I remember, there were many competing video/sound packages with not much to distinguish them except that some worked for some people and others worked for other people. What is the situation now? TIA -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/518b0b2f.9000...@gmail.com
Re: business card image, where?
On 05/07/2013 05:30 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 21:13:07 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: On 05/06/2013 05:20 PM, Brian wrote: Which includes the USB stick the ISO is on. So you can boot d-i from the stick, provide needed firmware from the same stick and install to it. Some would see that as value for money, :) I don't understand why one would want to install grub on the memstick as if it were to become somehow self booting. The bios handles booting from the mini.iso because the mini.iso has been crafted to be booted by the bios. Wouldn't grub be superfluous? Or what? Let's try to clear this up. Imagine a machine with two hard disks which has a BIOS handling USB booting. You write the mini.iso to a USB stick and boot from it. You set up the network, choose a mirror and download the installer components. At this stage the stick can be removed from the machine as the mini.iso has done its essential job and everything needed to complete the installation is in memory. Then Detect disks and Partition disks (Manual method). You will be offered two hard disks for partitioning and installing Debian. Re-insert the USB stick (or do not remove it in the first place) and now you will be offered it as a third device to install to. If you proceed to use it then everything on it (including the MBR) will be overwritten. To boot the OS on the USB device you will need GRUB. And isn't needed firmware already part of the bios (which is pretty much all the firmare in a PC) . Or would grub/firmware a different way to boot instead of the code in the mini.iso?? I'm referring to the prompt for non-free firmware which you may get when network hardware is being detected. OK, Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/518928d3.4090...@gmail.com
business card image, where?
I want to make a 'business card' install CD as mentioned in old boiler plate at www.debian.org, but I can't fathom the organization of the hot links there. What is the URL of the actual iso image that I need to download and burn onto a blank CD? TAI -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51879858.1000...@gmail.com
Re: business card image, where?
On 05/06/2013 05:57 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 05:47:36 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: I want to make a 'business card' install CD as mentioned in old boiler plate at www.debian.org, but I can't fathom the organization of the hot links there. What is the URL of the actual iso image that I need to download and burn onto a blank CD? It is no longer produced. I hope it can be revived. It has been a useful tool for me when my attempts to dist-upgrade fail, as they usually do. My 6.0.4 business card, worked at getting me running on wheezy, and even offered to install 'jessie', or 'squeeze', which it called 'old stable'. The beauty of business card is that the facts of what is to be downloaded are not burnt into the physical CD. I hope I can find a copy of the old iso image in the rubble of my old system. Why do my dist-upgrades usually fail? User error, I suppose. Wrong choices in answering configuration questions, etc. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5187a4a8.1030...@gmail.com
Re: business card image, where?
On 05/06/2013 07:32 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 06:40:08 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: On 05/06/2013 05:57 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 05:47:36 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: I want to make a 'business card' install CD as mentioned in old boiler plate at www.debian.org, but I can't fathom the organization of the hot links there. What is the URL of the actual iso image that I need to download and burn onto a blank CD? It is no longer produced. I hope it can be revived. It has been a useful tool for me when my attempts to dist-upgrade fail, as they usually do. It is very, very unlikely it will be. My 6.0.4 business card, worked at getting me running on wheezy, and even offered to install 'jessie', or 'squeeze', which it called 'old stable'. The beauty of business card is that the facts of what is to be downloaded are not burnt into the physical CD. I hope I can find a copy of the old iso image in the rubble of my old system. The netboot mini.iso should suit your desire for beauty. It can be seen as basically the businesscard ISO without the installer components. I think mini.iso will solve my problem. I've tried it on my equipment and ran through a trial install up to the point where it asked for a commit to writing a new format on my computer's hard disk. Every step of the way the questions asked were exactly the same. The basic similarity is pretty good, and it even has a shorter name, saving disk space in the directory, and clutter on the terminal screen. ;-) I had always felt the old name didn't indicate its real value. Thanks. Thanks Thanks -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5187e038.2050...@gmail.com
Re: business card image, where?
On 05/06/2013 07:32 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 06:40:08 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: On 05/06/2013 05:57 AM, Brian wrote: On Mon 06 May 2013 at 05:47:36 -0600, Paul Condon wrote: I want to make a 'business card' install CD as mentioned in old boiler plate at www.debian.org, but I can't fathom the organization of the hot links there. What is the URL of the actual iso image that I need to download and burn onto a blank CD? It is no longer produced. I hope it can be revived. It has been a useful tool for me when my attempts to dist-upgrade fail, as they usually do. It is very, very unlikely it will be. My 6.0.4 business card, worked at getting me running on wheezy, and even offered to install 'jessie', or 'squeeze', which it called 'old stable'. The beauty of business card is that the facts of what is to be downloaded are not burnt into the physical CD. I hope I can find a copy of the old iso image in the rubble of my old system. The netboot mini.iso should suit your desire for beauty. It can be seen as basically the businesscard ISO without the installer components. Can this mini.iso be written to a USB memory stick, as well as to a blank CD? What program do I use? Surely not wodim, Perhaps 'dd'. When I plug in the stick that I want to use, it indicates that there is already a partition on it, i.e. there is both /dev/sdg and /dev/sdg1. Which should I use for the of=??? If not 'dd'. What program? TIA -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/518813a9.1050...@gmail.com
Re: business card image, where?
On 05/06/2013 05:20 PM, Brian wrote: On Tue 07 May 2013 at 00:09:07 +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote: On Lu, 06 mai 13, 14:33:45, Paul Condon wrote: Can this mini.iso be written to a USB memory stick, as well as to a blank CD? You already have a reference for that. Something that is not widely known about the mini.iso is that it can also be written on the to-be-installed media ;) Which includes the USB stick the ISO is on. So you can boot d-i from the stick, provide needed firmware from the same stick and install to it. Some would see that as value for money, :) I don't understand why one would want to install grub on the memstick as if it were to become somehow self booting. The bios handles booting from the mini.iso because the mini.iso has been crafted to be booted by the bios. Wouldn't grub be superfluous? Or what? And isn't needed firmware already part of the bios (which is pretty much all the firmare in a PC) . Or would grub/firmware a different way to boot instead of the code in the mini.iso?? But beware! If dd, cat or cp is used to write the ISO to the stick GRUB will not install on it because it detects the signature of an isohybrid\. The solution is dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX count=100 prior to partitioning. /dev/sdX is the USB stick. The wrong 'X' could ruin your day. But, as I read the instructions, the is no partitioning done, just a write with dd, cat, or dd. So prior to what step is the above done? But, agree that it is a good idea to write only onto the device intended, and not clobber some other device on the computer on which one is doing the preperation of the memstick. I am confused. And I wish I had better control of the text editor in Icedove. This looks very messy. In any case, I think I have succeeded in putting mimi.iso on a USB flash drive in a way that can be booted using the bios of the computer on which I wish to install Wheezy. And I could not have done it without your advice and counsel. Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51887143.1050...@gmail.com
a problem with CUPS
I have a rather complicated CUPS printing setup, which works, mostly, but not entirely: My printer is an old HP 5MP, laser printer, which I purchased before HP invented the word laserjet because I was committed to Macintosh back then and the HP 5MP offered both parallel port and Apple Talk interfaces. My current working desktop computer has neither of these. It is too new. And I don't think I have any Apple Talk cables any more. But I do have another, much older computer that does have a parallel port and an ethernet interface card. When I got my 'new' computer (one without parallel port) , I made the older computer into a 'print server', serving 'printing' over my LAN. It has worked well, except for times when new print software was released and I had to configure the CUPS soft ware. I have great difficulty comprehending CUPS. My problem is that CUPS software does not handle .pdf files easily. If I try to print file, zyx.pdf, by typing lpr zyx.pdf , the command is accepted, the light flashes on the printer and after a while a piece of paper comes out of the printer ... but it is -blank-. Evince also 'prints' only blank pages. Pages from iceweasel, and emacs (including the fancy Postscript format) are printed correctly. But if I save the page to a file and then try to print the file, something prevents the black stuff from sticking to the print drum. Where is that something? Ideas? TIA -- Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51769a45.9010...@gmail.com
Re: migration to wheezy and disaster recovery
On 04/13/2013 04:50 PM, Joe wrote: On Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:19:18 -0600 Paul Condonpecond...@gmail.com wrote: Last week I decided to dist-upgrade from Squeeze to Wheezy, thinking I would get in ahead of the rush of stragglers. I found a nice document with lots of step-by-step instruction, and particularly how to create a log file of the steps that I actually performed. I thought I was following it but I will never know because something went wrong and my failed attempts at recovery have lost the log file. Nothing was working. I found a 'business card' CD for Squeeze 6.0.5, that installed Squeeze 6.0.7, which is to be expected. But all sorts of features haven't been configured to my habits. I am just now able to email this list, but via gmail, and I am quite new at using gmail. I think I know how to reply-to-list, but I really need help and apologize in advance for violations of Debian etiquette. In particular, this is being composed in Icedove, and I don't know how to limit the line length. Please, someone, tell me. I had been running Gnome/Squeeze before the disaster. At one point I caught a glimpse of the new Gnome3 that comes with Wheezy. I don't want to install it and then figure out how to remove it. I think I won't be finnished with my recovery until I get Xfce installed in its place in Wheezy, and to do that is to install Xfce in Squeeze and then do a dist-upgrade to get to Wheezy. But ... I don't know how and can't find instructions. When I search with Google I find lots of hits to pages that say it can be done and most also say it is easy, but *how* ? What CDs do I need? What packages do I install under Squeeze? I am at a loss. To me, it is important that I keep my computer bootable at every step of the way. It is my only link for getting useful help. Suggestions for alternative plans are welcome, but please don't suggest switching to a different distribution that is more forgiving of user error. I don't believe there is one, do you? My first firm question(s): What packages should I install from a Debian repository to get a working installation of Xfce that come up when the computer boots? What substeps are there to making this happen? A url that I can read? As far as I recall, if you already have X working, just the xfce4 metapackage should do the job. If you have a working graphical login already, you should be able to reboot then select an xfce session before logging in. If it doesn't work, you will be returned to the login and can try a different kind of session, then track down the error log to see what went wrong. To have a go at the larger question: while you have a working installation, get hold of Knoppix and burn it to a disc. There are many live distributions, but Knoppix is probably still the best for hardware driving. You don't want to mess about with trying to add drivers to a live distribution. The Knoppix DVD obviously contains more software than the CD, but the CD should be enough to deal with most problems. I'm assuming you don't currently have a live CD as you are emphasising the need to maintain a working machine. If you can borrow any live CD, or get one on a magazine cover, omit this step, but if you have to download one, make it Knoppix. Check that it does indeed boot up. Now you have a guaranteed working Internet machine, whatever mess you make of the hard drive, and also a reference hardware driver set if Wheezy gives you any trouble. You probably won't need it, but now you have a bit more confidence and will be willing to kick the machine a bit harder when it defies you, as it will. Now to work... You haven't made it completely clear where you are now: it appears you have a Squeeze with a graphical desktop running, probably on Gnome. If so, I think it will be difficult to move to Wheezy and completely avoid unwanted Gnome-ness. The best you can do is to install the xfce4 metapackage and then try to remove the big bits of Gnome. I have an ex-Gnome Sid/LXDE installation, and I think purging gnome-core and gnome-panel (which will kill the gnome metapackage) will discourage any attempt to upgrade the full Gnome system. You might try cleaning up a bit more with deborphan and related tools, and maybe aptitude why, and then try the dist-upgrade. You say that you don't fancy picking bits of Gnome out of your system, and I thoroughly agree, I'd start again from scratch. This time it will be quicker... I haven't ever installed xfce4 from scratch, so I can't be definitive here, but this is how I'd do it: make the smallest usable installation of Squeeze, nothing but the base system (some would say not even that), and do the dist-upgrade to Wheezy immediately. Any DE, even one of the lighter ones, is quite bulky and there is no point in downloading it all twice. Also, the less there is to begin with, the less chance a dist-upgrade will cause trouble. Moving from a brand new bare-bones Squeeze should present no problems, but read through the upgrade notes again,
Re: netinstall size?
On 04/13/2013 10:19 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: Tony van der Hoff wrote: On 13/04/13 11:35, agroconsultor wrote: On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 10:41:03AM +0100, Tony van der Hoff wrote: On 12/04/13 21:25, agroconsultor0 wrote: Hello I have seen at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ that the Wheezy net installer is no more than 175 MB and the cards no more than 50 MB; is this information correct? or there have been changes that are not reflected here?. thanks. The *net* installer contains only sufficient software to get a minimal system running, which then completes a full installation over the net. The full install will contain all necessary updates. yes, but i am looking for a small image, under 210 MB That's not what you asked! Ask the right question, and you'll get the right answer. As a *nix neophyte myself I'll guess he doesn't realize that ... looking for a small image, under 210 MB... can be read multiple ways: A. the downloaded image is less than 210 MB. B. the image as installed to a local drive is less than 210 MB. C. a functional system occupies less than 210 MB on a local drive. D. the RAM required to load/run a installation is less than 210 MB. I would also suggest he give the motivation for asking the question - it would help flag unstated/unrecognized assumptions. I suppose OP should consider a live CD or a business card CD. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5169964a.5090...@gmail.com
migration to wheezy and disaster recovery
Last week I decided to dist-upgrade from Squeeze to Wheezy, thinking I would get in ahead of the rush of stragglers. I found a nice document with lots of step-by-step instruction, and particularly how to create a log file of the steps that I actually performed. I thought I was following it but I will never know because something went wrong and my failed attempts at recovery have lost the log file. Nothing was working. I found a 'business card' CD for Squeeze 6.0.5, that installed Squeeze 6.0.7, which is to be expected. But all sorts of features haven't been configured to my habits. I am just now able to email this list, but via gmail, and I am quite new at using gmail. I think I know how to reply-to-list, but I really need help and apologize in advance for violations of Debian etiquette. In particular, this is being composed in Icedove, and I don't know how to limit the line length. Please, someone, tell me. I had been running Gnome/Squeeze before the disaster. At one point I caught a glimpse of the new Gnome3 that comes with Wheezy. I don't want to install it and then figure out how to remove it. I think I won't be finnished with my recovery until I get Xfce installed in its place in Wheezy, and to do that is to install Xfce in Squeeze and then do a dist-upgrade to get to Wheezy. But ... I don't know how and can't find instructions. When I search with Google I find lots of hits to pages that say it can be done and most also say it is easy, but *how* ? What CDs do I need? What packages do I install under Squeeze? I am at a loss. To me, it is important that I keep my computer bootable at every step of the way. It is my only link for getting useful help. Suggestions for alternative plans are welcome, but please don't suggest switching to a different distribution that is more forgiving of user error. I don't believe there is one, do you? My first firm question(s): What packages should I install from a Debian repository to get a working installation of Xfce that come up when the computer boots? What substeps are there to making this happen? A url that I can read? Thanks for reading and for whatever suggestions you can make. Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5169afb6.4030...@gmail.com
Re: Re: Is the a 'contrarian' Debian install available?
I think I have also read somewhere that netinst is a minimal system that is capable of hardly anything, except downloading and installing more packages from a mirror on the web. For this to be true in any meaningful sense, I had always assumed that it is capable of booting from hard disk. And Tom is finding that his install is not capable of doing that. The sequence of events for a netinst type install is that at some point *before* the CD is popped out, the grub boot program is written to the MBR space on the hard disk. Then after rebooting you are offered the tasksel dialog to specify what you want installed into the final system. OTOH, if you use businesscard, you do your tasksel before popping out the CD, because, I suppose, the businesscard install is not capable of booting from what it has written onto the HD, just as a 'live' disk does not automatically write itself onto the HD. But Tom never said anything about the properties of businesscard, or about using businesscard in his experiments. If I have recalled incorrectly, and the netinstall CD does ask for tasksel selection before popping out the CD, then there is very little observable difference between the two. (Also, not something that Tom expressed an interest in. ) And, perhaps both install systems that are incapable of booting from HD. That is very minimal, indeed. I really am not sure. All my 'facts' are hardly more than vague recollections of reading stuff. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4fe52e7f.5040...@gmail.com
ipchains memory problem
I recall seeing somewhere on my machine recently a document that detailed the Debian setup of ipchains. Now I am attempting to set up ipchains and I can't find it. I know about man, apropos, locate, etc, etc, but I must not be remembering the magic n-letter string that all gurus know to use. What is the fully qualified name of the file where ipchain rules are saved? AND, more importantly, where is it documented? I particularly need to know where it is documented because I think that many other questions that I have are answered there. Paul
Re: How can i install woody?
Michel Loos wrote: On Mon, 2001-12-10 at 02:37, Paul E Condon wrote: Michel Loos wrote: On Sun, 2001-12-09 at 19:14, Brian Clark wrote: * Paul E Condon ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [Dec 09. 2001 01:25]: But I don't believe there are any install floppies yet for woody, right? Wrong: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/ I just looked at this link. There are no base-x floppy images. I had noticed this a few days ago and thought they would soon appear. Now I wonder. Is one supposed to use the base-x disks from potato? (Yes, I am a newbie.) I think you are supposed to use the web-based base install, at least that is what I usually do. Michel. I went through the exact same thing (and I was shocked the woody base* images were not there, too). I just created the root and rescue floppy for potato, wrote the base*.tgz (for potato) and the drivers.tgz to a CD-R and installed potato. From there it's really easy to change your sources.list to point to testing and do a apt-get -u dist-upgrade (you may want to do apt-get -us dist-upgrade first to make sure everything looks OK). I didn't run into too many problems with that method. -- -Brian Clark I gathered from this exchange that exchange that there is a way of installing woody that involves the web and does not use base-x floppies. So I tried it. Today, it didn't seem to be confusing. But it didn't work. Here is what happened: 1 Pretty much like Potato install at the beginning. No problems. I tell it about network card and ppp. I don't recall it asking about modem. 2 Get to the place where it asks where it should go for the packages to install. It gives several options, including web. I choose web. 3 It asks how to get to the web, and gives to options: eth0 and ipddp0. Big problem. I know eth0 won't work because that connects to another Devian Linux box and to two Apple Macs. None of these have a connection to the web. I don't know what idppd0 is, but I select it anyway. I am lead thru a sequence of setup screens on which I make no changes; the URL looks OK ... .us.debian.org ... I don't have a proxy that I know of, so I leave none I select OK and get an error message immediately: Malformed release file http://http.us.debian.org:80/debian/dists/woody/Release I try several times. The modem never blinks any lights. I get only the above message. From where is it getting this release file? 4 So I fire up the existing Red Hat 6.2 (on another hard disk) and look for woody installation instructions. I find a section on web install. It is about 4 lines long and ends with the phrase this sentence in not finished Perhaps one can install over the web. But can one install over ppp? (and diald?) Did you pass through the Network configuration part after selecting the drivers? If the network is not configured it will not work. Michel. Paul I think my problem was that I DID select drivers. I did select them because I know they are there and I will want to use them when/if the install happens. But, the install script ASSUMED that my access to the internet was via a route thru one of those drivers, and therefore never set up ppp. I know I was never asked for a phone number, etc. I have not checked out this theory. I have not had the time. But if it is true, it is, in my opinion, a flawed user interface. Yes, I made a mistake (maybe), but answering a question honestly should not cause an install to fail. Again, if this theory is true, an option of ppp-to-the-net should always be offered along with cdrom, fd0, nfs, etc. But maybe I don't understand. Paul
