Re: Install & restore backup: what if I use LVM?

[solitone]

> On 19 Nov 2018, at 16:59, Reco  wrote:
> 
> LVM requires certain kernel modules and hooks to be present in
> initramfs.
> If your current installation lacks them, I suggest you to install lvm2
> before the backup to save yourself the hassle of regenerating initramfs
> after the restore.

Unfortunately I don’t have the system any longer (I’ve lost everything while 
performing
some risky partition resizing), so I’m late--I can’t install lvm2 and then 
backup. I can only rely on a backup that lacks those modules & hooks.


> Also, since it's you're using backup2l with tar backend, you'll need to
> do something to restore all those capabilities extended attributes. A
> hint here is:
> 
> grep setcap /var/lib/dpkg/info/*

Uhmm... I forgot of this issue. I believe I’ll end up restoring just /home

Re: Install & restore backup: what if I use LVM?

[solitone]

Another option would be:
(1) Install the system as it was (i.e. with physical partitions);
(2) Restore the backed up configuration/files.
(3) Move to LVM.

How cumbersome would be point 3?

Re: Install & restore backup: what if I use LVM?

[solitone]

> On 19 Nov 2018, at 12:35, Jonathan Dowland  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 07:01:07AM +0100, solitone wrote:
>> When I was playing with my disk's partition table I messed it up and
>> lost everything. It was a dual boot system with macOS and Debian.
>> 
>> Thanks to the back2l utility I have a full backup of Debian. Now I
>> would reinstall it and recover all the backed up files. However, I
>> didn’t use LVM and now I would. In this case, would the adjustments
>> needed from the original configuration be difficult?
> 
> This rather depends on how back2l functions. I can't find a reference to
> it in the Debian package repositories. Can you point us at a URI that
> describes it?

It simply results in a backup of the filesystem archived in a tarball. Once I 
reinstall Debian, I can restore the original configuration pulling in the 
original version of my files from that tarball. But this would work if the 
configuration were the same. If I install with LVM something would be different 
in terms of configuration, so some original config files wouldn’t be right, and 
I’d need some manual adjustement. The point is: how much?

Install & restore backup: what if I use LVM?

[solitone]

Hi,

When I was playing with my disk's partition table I messed it up and lost 
everything. It was a dual boot system with macOS and Debian.

Thanks to the back2l utility I have a full backup of Debian. Now I would 
reinstall it and recover all the backed up files. However, I didn’t use LVM and 
now I would. In this case, would the adjustments needed from the original 
configuration be difficult?

Thanks  

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 17/11/2018 16:50, Stefan Monnier wrote:

Really?  I thought his old drive was SATA (hence his worries that his
new drive would need new drivers).


No, the old original drive is PCIe 3.0 x4 AHCI. The new one is PCIe 3.0 
x4 NVMe.

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 17 Nov 2018, at 16:06, Stefan Monnier  wrote:
> Didn't use LVM?  Too bad: that means there's a risk your new dirve and
> partitions will get new identifiers so your fstab may need to be adjusted.

Ehm.. no.. I didn’t!

> macOS doesn't touch EFI, AFAIK, so don't expect the Time Machine to
> touch it either.

I also believe Time Machine won’t backup the EFI partition. Therefore macOS 
Recovery should recreate a default EFI partition when recovering from the Time 
Machine backup. A default EFI partition that would only contain Apple’s data, 
and not the Grub2 loader I have at the moment in the current drive.

Regarding you suggestion and the external reader, I need to check if I can find 
something cheap.

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 16/11/2018 14:46, Stefan Monnier wrote:

I would expect the clone to work just fine.  I'd expect your initrd
contains drivers for both SATA and NVMe anyway.


OK. Now that I know that initrd does contain NVMe drivers, I would ask 
whether my strategy for cloning is sensible.


Firstly, here's my original partition table:

===
$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA APPLE SSD SM0128 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 121GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End SizeFile system Name  Flags
 1  20.5kB  210MB   210MB   fat32   EFI System Partition 
boot, esp

 2  210MB   22.6GB  22.4GB  hfs+
 3  22.6GB  23.2GB  650MB   hfs+
 4  23.2GB  31.2GB  8000MB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
 5  31.4GB  121GB   89.8GB  ext4linux
===

Partition 3 is macOS, partition 5 is linux. I don't know why partition 2 
is there, macOS's Disk Utility created it when I originally partitioned 
the disk to make room for linux.


Partition 1 is the EFI partition, which is mounted on /boot/efi:

===
$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 40216560   4021656   0% /dev
tmpfs 807236 1352805884   1% /run
/dev/sda5   85825416 68182636  13240004  84% /
tmpfs4036168 4892   4031276   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs   51204  5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs40361680   4036168   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 20163323678177955  12% /boot/efi
tmpfs 8072320807232   0% /run/user/113
tmpfs 807232   16807216   1% /run/user/1000
===

The debian installer put the Grub2 loader in this partition:

===
$ sudo ls /boot/efi/EFI/debian
grubx64.efi

$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent:  

Timeout: 5 seconds 

BootOrder: ,0080 

Boot* debian 
HD(1,GPT,d43355a1-7dc2-4a96-ba68-4400a5db3981,0x28,0x64000)/File(\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi) 

Boot0080* 
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1c,0x5)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(3,GPT,911f18b9-6252-4cb8-8ad3-81c9ca73ded5,0x2a0f760,0x135f20)/File(\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi) 



Boot0081* Mac OS X 
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1c,0x5)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(3,GPT,911f18b9-6252-4cb8-8ad3-81c9ca73ded5,0x2a0f760,0x135f20) 



Boot* 
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1c,0x5)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(3,GPT,911f18b9-6252-4cb8-8ad3-81c9ca73ded5,0x2a0f760,0x135f20)/File(\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi)

===

Now, here is what I would perform:

(1) Use macOS Time Machine to backup macOS on an external hard drive.
(2) dd the linux partition into an image file:
$ sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/sda5 of=/debian_part.img
(3) Install new drive.
(4) Use macOS Recovery to restore macOS from the Time Machine backup.
(5) I believe that point (4) will also restore the EFI partition, but 
will debian/grubx64.efi be preserved as well? Need to gather some info 
and check. Anyhow, I should have ended up with just two partitions: the 
EFI partition and the macOS partition.

(6) Use macOS Disk Utility to partition the new disk.
(7) How to restore the backed up debian partition? Do I need to 
reinstall a basic debian system from scratch and then run something like:

sudo dd bs=4M if=/debian_part.img of=/dev/sdaN
(where N is the new partition number)?
Or is there some tool that can ease the recovery process?

Thanks!

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 16/11/2018 14:46, Stefan Monnier wrote:

I would expect the clone to work just fine.  I'd expect your initrd
contains drivers for both SATA and NVMe anyway.

But it's easy to check:

 zcat /boot/initrd.img- | cpio -vt | grep nvm

will show you the relevant files in the your initrd.
You should have about 10 of them inside ../kernel/drivers/nvme/ if your
initrd is ready to boot from an NVMe drive.



I've got 8 of them:

$ lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 | grep nvme
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/target
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/target/nvmet-fc.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/target/nvmet.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/target/nvmet-rdma.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme-fc.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme-rdma.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme-core.ko
lib/modules/4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64/kernel/drivers/nvme/host/nvme-fabrics.ko

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

Another issue I have is--how to migrate my debian system from the old 
original SSD to the new larger SSD?


As for macOS [1], it should be easy. There is a macOS application called 
Time Machine that allows to backup macOS from the old SSD and to restore 
it to the new SSD. This would work with a single boot system with macOS, 
but I have no idea what will happen to Grub [2] in this process.


However my main concern is with the linux partition. How can I migrate 
it? If I simply clone the linux partition from the old drive to the new 
drive, I fear something would go wrong, as the new drive is different 
and would require different drivers, missing in the original linux system.


What would be the best strategy?

[1] I have a dual boot system, and I have kept macOS mainly to keep the 
possibility of firmware upgrades.
[2] Grub allows to boot debian. If I do nothing, Grub starts and boots 
debian. If I press the "alt" key during startup, the Apple's original 
EFI boot loader starts and boots macOS.

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 15/11/2018 21:48, deloptes wrote:

Check first if someone has used it on your type
of hardware and what is the feedback - I assume you are not the first. NVMe
is working fine - debian provide the kernel which provides the support and
I have seen M.2 working just fine


Late 2016 - Mid 2017 MacBookPros (MBPs) with Generation 5 SSDs (PCIe 3.0 
x4 NVMe) do work with linux kernel >= 4.11 [1].


MacBookPro13,3 (it uses a Samsung NVMe controller) also works with 
kernel < 4.11. In contrast, MacBookPro13,1, MacBookPro13,2, 
MacBookPro14,1, and MacBookPro14,2 (they have an Apple NVMe controller) 
need a kernel patch with kernel < 4.11 [1].


I would think that kernel >= 4.11 supports Trascend JetDrive 850, but 
since different controllers have a different level of support I can't 
say it for sure. For the time being I have found no reports on this SSD 
with linux.


[1] https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7

Re: New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

On 15/11/2018 21:01, deloptes wrote:

I also do not think you have to stick to this specific
drive (JetDrive 850) - perhaps macOS certified, but from linux perspective
it would make no difference.


The thing is the form factor, which unfortunately is proprietary [1]. 
The connector resembles the standard M.2, but in fact is different.


Another options would be OWC Aura Pro X [2], but many people report 
overheating issues with that drive.


[1] 
https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-guide-to-specs-and-upgrades#hdr-6

[2] https://www.owcdigital.com/products/aura-pro-x

New SSD on a MacBook Pro

[solitone]

Hi, I've got a compatibility question regarding SSDs.

I run debian 9.6 on a MacBookPro12,1 (Early 2015, 13"). I'm thinking of 
upgrading the stock 128 GB SSD [1]. Specifically, I'm considering the 
Trascend JetDrive 850 [2].


The original SSD uses a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and the AHCI protocol. 
Although MacBookPro12,1 cannot take advantage of PCIe 3.0 (I gather it 
only supports PCIe 2.0), it  supports the NVMe specification, hence it'd 
be possible to upgrade to an NVMe SSD [3]. JetDrive 850 uses a PCIe 3.0 
x4 interface with NVMe.


What do you think in terms of compatibility with debian? What worries me 
is that JetDrive 850 requires macOS version 10.13 or later, and I wonder 
whether debian supports it. Is this only a matter of NVMe (macOS 
supports NVMe starting from version 10.13; linux since kernel version 
3.3), or is there something else to consider?


Thanks in advance!


[1] I'm running short of space, since I've got a Windows 10 instance in 
KVM that's hungry of storage space. Almost all of the 32 GB that I've 
allocated are used by just the system and its updates!

[2] https://www.transcend-info.com/Products/No-956
[3] 
https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-guide-to-specs-and-upgrades#hdr-21

Re: How to shut down

[solitone]

On 27/03/18 19:02, Don Armstrong wrote:
> You can use either. `shutdown -h now` on a machine with systemd actually
> invokes systemctl with the equivalent of systemctl poweroff

Yes, I've checked again and now 'systemctl poweroff' does power off the
machine. No idea on what changed.

How to shut down

[solitone]

What's the current best practice to shut down the system? In the old
days I used to:
# shutdown - h now

but then I read of the systemd way:
# systemctl poweroff

However, with the latter the system does shut down, although the machine
does not power off (I have to physically press the off button). While
with the former it actually powers off.

Re: XFCE and network manager

[solitone]

On 16/03/18 10:34, Abdullah Ramazanoglu wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Mar 2018 10:20:42 +0100
> solitone <solit...@mail.com> wrote:
> 
>> It was a fresh install. May it depend on the fact that I used an
>> outdated installer?
> 
> Possibly. I had installed stretch + xfce from scratch and got n-m
> installed by default.

OK, I reinstalled with the latest installer and everything went smooth
this time, n-m was installed by default.

Re: XFCE and network manager

[solitone]

On 16/03/18 08:27, Ben Caradoc-Davies wrote:
> Did you upgrade or was this a fresh install?
> 
> task-xfce-desktop recommends network-manager-gnome (and thus
> network-manager) on sid and stretch:
> https://packages.debian.org/sid/task-xfce-desktop

It was a fresh install. May it depend on the fact that I used an
outdated installer? When I put that installer on my USB stick, stretch
was still unstable.

XFCE and network manager

[solitone]

Just installed scratch with xfce4 on an oldish machine, downloading all
the needed packages through my wifi adapter.

On first boot wifi is down, and there is no application I can use to
choose and connect to my wifi access point.

I realize that xfce's own Airconfig has never lifted off and is
currently unreleased, abandoned and unmaintained, so xfce users usually
use NetworkManager or Wicd.

I would suggest that any of these is installed by default when xfce is
chosen during installation.

Re: apt uninstall apparmor

[solitone]

On 14/01/18 20:08, Brian wrote:
> don't you think worth the effort?

Yes, I do. And I've reinstalled apparmor, and will try intrigeri's solution.

Re: apt uninstall apparmor

[solitone]

On 12/01/18 21:37, Brian wrote:
> Do you have a plan to inform the AppArmor team of your detailed findings?

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=887163
Apparently it's a well known issue.

Cheers

Re: apt uninstall apparmor

[solitone]

On 13/01/18 20:51, Brian wrote:
>> Do you have a plan to inform the AppArmor team of your detailed findings?
> 
> Thought not.
> 
> Pointing the finger at a 3+ year old post on another OS is easier than
> engaging in a detailed bug report which involves time and effort. And
> people wonder why bugs slip through to stable. 

Sorry for the delay, but I don't have so much time. Please give me some
time. I will, but when I manage. For the time being I uninstalled
apparmor just because I need my computer to work when I need it.

apt uninstall apparmor (was: Thunderbird no longer opens links)

[solitone]

On 30/11/17 08:48, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:
> On 30.11.2017 10:45, solitone wrote:
>> Hi, since a few days, hyperlink no longer works in my Thunderbird.
>> When I click a hyperlink in a message, Chromium (my system's default
>> web browser) should open and display the link. This has been working
>> fine for long, but now it no longer happens.
>>
> I had this problem too, and yes AppArmor is the reason.
> 
> You can disable AppArmor for thunderbird by typing:
>     $ sudo aa-disable /usr/bin/thunderbird


I was almost going nuts with qemu/virt-manager. I could no longer attach
USB devices to the guest. When shutting down the guest, it ended up in a
"shutting down" state, and never exited from that.

Then I found a post [1] pointing the finger to apparmor. I uninstalled
it and everything works again as expected. At the moment I have no plan
to reinstall it.

[1]
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2229882=2=13070240#post13070240

Re: Thunderbird no longer opens links

[solitone]

On 04/12/17 12:49, Jonathan Dowland wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 01, 2017 at 03:30:50PM +0100, solitone wrote:
>> On 01/12/17 15:22, Jonathan Dowland wrote:
>>> AppArmor is not enabled in current
>>> stable, so you should only hit this bug if you are using stable's
>>> thunderbird on a testing/sid system, or manually enabling AppArmor
>>> yourself on stable.
>>
>> I have stretch, and didn't requested it manually, but was installed
>> with the latest kernel update from stretch backports. I think it was
>> installed because of that backported kernel version:
> 
> Ouch, I think this is probably a mistake. Good catch!

This is the message I get when I install the bpo kernel:


apt-listchanges: News
-

linux-latest (86) unstable; urgency=medium

  * From Linux 4.13.10-1, AppArmor is enabled by default.  This allows
defining a "profile" for each installed program that can mitigate
security vulnerabilities in it.  However, an incorrect profile might
disable some functionality of the program.

In case you suspect that an AppArmor profile is incorrect, see
<https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/11/msg00178.html> and
consider reporting a bug in the package providing the profile.  The
profile may be part of the program's package or apparmor-profiles.

Re: HiDPI migration: desktop environment issue

[solitone]

On 24/12/17 11:24, Jerome BENOIT wrote:
> I read that Cinnamon and MATE, both former clones of GNOME[2], have HiDPI in 
> mind:
> is there any other possibility ? 

I use KDE's Plasma, which supports HiDPI pretty well.

Re: Thunderbird no longer opens links

[solitone]

On 01/12/17 22:59, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

On 01.12.2017 22:19, Michael Biebl wrote:


I think it might be useful to open a (wishlist) bug report against the
linux package to not add the recommends when building for stretch-backports

Isn't AppArmor required in buster and also required in stretch-backports 
linux-image? Of course AppArmor can be disabled completely or partially 
if profile for some application is broken, but it is not just 
recommended package now.


Yes, if I'm pretty sure it wasn't just recommended, but it was 
required--if I remember right I had no choice.

Re: Thunderbird no longer opens links

[solitone]

On 01/12/17 15:22, Jonathan Dowland wrote:

AppArmor is not enabled in current
stable, so you should only hit this bug if you are using stable's
thunderbird on a testing/sid system, or manually enabling AppArmor
yourself on stable.


I have stretch, and didn't requested it manually, but was installed with 
the latest kernel update from stretch backports. I think it was 
installed because of that backported kernel version:


Start-Date: 2017-11-26  06:57:11
Commandline: apt upgrade
Requested-By: solitone (1000)
Install: libapparmor-perl:amd64 (2.11.0-3, automatic), apparmor:amd64 (2
.11.0-3, automatic)
Upgrade: linux-image-4.13.0-0.bpo.1-amd64:amd64 (4.13.4-2~bpo9+1, 4.13.1
3-1~bpo9+1)
End-Date: 2017-11-26  06:57:30

Cheers!

Re: Thunderbird no longer opens links

[solitone]

On 30/11/17 08:48, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

I had this problem too, and yes AppArmor is the reason.


Yes, I had a look at logs and I can confirm that apparmor is indeed the 
culprit:


---
~$ sudo journalctl -kaf --no-hostname | grep thunderbird
Nov 30 11:15:03 kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1512036903.046:65): 
apparmor="DENIED" operation="file_mmap" 
profile="thunderbird//lsb_release" name="/usr/bin/python3.5" pid=27432 
comm="lsb_release" requested_mask="m" denied_mask="m" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Nov 30 11:15:15 kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1512036915.636:66): 
apparmor="DENIED" operation="exec" profile="thunderbird" 
name="/usr/bin/chromium" pid=27508 comm="thunderbird" requested_mask="x" 
denied_mask="x" fsuid=1000 ouid=0

---

It's a known bug, which is marked as solved since it has been solved in 
the latest version of thunderbird (1:52.4.0-2~exp1):

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=855346#135

My question is--when will be this version come to stable? At the moment 
we have 1:52.4.0-1~deb9u1:


---
~$ apt-cache policy thunderbird
thunderbird:
  Installed: 1:52.4.0-1~deb9u1
  Candidate: 1:52.4.0-1~deb9u1
---

Thunderbird no longer opens links

[solitone]

Hi, since a few days, hyperlink no longer works in my Thunderbird. When 
I click a hyperlink in a message, Chromium (my system's default web 
browser) should open and display the link. This has been working fine 
for long, but now it no longer happens.


I checked everything that's pointed out in a Mozilla Support web page 
[1], but didn't find what's causing the issue:


- I checked that the operating system's default browser is specified. 
From KDE Plasma System Settings -> Applications -> Web Browser, I see 
that chromium is specified.


- I checked that no application is specified for the HTTP / HTTPS 
content type. In Thunderbird -> Edit -> Preferences -> Attachments -> 
Incoming I had two actions, one for HTTP the other for HTTPS, both 
pointing chromium. I tried and deleted both. When I clicked on a 
hyperlink in a message, a popup asked for an applications to open it, I 
chose chromium flagging the remember checkbox, and the action for HTTP 
content type was recreated, but the link did not open.


- I checked for an incorrect preference like 
network.protocol-handler.external-default or any other preference 
beginning with network.protocol-handler.warn-external, but I have no 
such preference.


- I checked for interference from an extension, running Thunderbird in 
Thunderbird Safe Mode, but the problem persisted.


The only other suspect I have is apparmor, which was installed in a 
recent security update. But can this be the reason?


Thanks & Regards!

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Hyperlinks-in-Messages-Not-Working

Re: Recovering accidentally deleted file folder

[solitone]

On 16/10/17 17:43, tv.deb...@googlemail.com wrote:

package "testdisk"


Testdisk worked beautifully well for me

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

This is serious hacking :^)

On 30/09/17 13:04, Reco wrote:

the next thing I have to suspect is that your backup misses
/dev directory (possibly /proc and /sys). The contents for those are
irrelevant. You simply do not have /dev, /proc, /sys in your root
filesystem.


No, I don't, you're perfectly right! Now I've made /dev, /proc, /sys, as 
well as /run and now it boots right.


I still have several error messages complaining about the floppy disk 
(?), which slow booting, but everything seems to end well. Now I'll try 
to correct grub. Thanks!


===
Begin: Loading essential drivers ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done.
Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top 
... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... [1.688631] 
blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0

[1.689678] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[1.699913] random: fast init done
[1.760666] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[1.762276] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
Begin: Waiting for suspend/resume device ... Begin: Running 
/scripts/local-block ... done.

[2.828592] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[2.829812] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[2.13] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[2.890727] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
[3.964558] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[3.966112] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[4.024658] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[4.027035] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[...]
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
[   32.404669] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   32.406074] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[   32.464656] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   32.465880] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
done.
[   32.536758] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   32.539140] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[   32.600728] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   32.603490] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
Gave up waiting for suspend/resume device
done.
Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.29.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/sda1] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: clean, 434185/5898240 files, 15163985/23592711 blocks
done.
[   33.183454] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data 
mode. Opts: (null)

done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... done.
bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell
root@(none):/#
===

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 28/09/17 08:58, Reco wrote:

It's initrd that first tries to mount tmpfs filesystems on /root (and
fails), and only *then* mounts your root filesystem to /root (with the
intention to switch to it as /).


Is the stock initrd supposed to work like this? When I boot my 
production system, I end up with tmpfs mounted on /run:


$ df
Filesystem   1K-blocks  Used  Available Use% Mounted on
udev   4027784 04027784   0% /dev
tmpfs   807952  1352 806600   1% /run
/dev/sda5 85825416  58793224   22629416  73% /
tmpfs  4039744  49724034772   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4   5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs  4039744 04039744   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1   201633 23678 177955  12% /boot/efi
tmpfs   807948 0 807948   0% /run/user/113
tmpfs   80794820 807928   1% /run/user/1000

Also, I don't understand why it needs to mount the root filesystem to /root.

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 27/09/17 14:01, solitone wrote:
Although mkfs had warned me, I mistakenly formatted the entire file, 
like this:


$ sudo mkfs.ext4 restore.img

Now I've redone it the right way, using a loop device, and I'll see how 
it goes.


It's a struggle! Now that I partitioned the image file, it sees 
/dev/sda1. There was an inconsistency between the filesystem size and 
the physical size of the device though, that I repaired with resize2fs, 
specifying the physical number of blocks.


Now it finally mounts /dev/sda1, but on /root rather than on /, as it 
did before with the unpartitioned image file (/dev/sda):


==
Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.29.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/sda1] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: clean, 434181/5898240 files, 15163981/23592711 blocks
done.
[   33.088863] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data 
mode. Opts: (null)

done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... mount: mounting /dev on 
/root/dev failed: No such file or directory

mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
done.
mount: mounting /run on /root/run failed: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
Target filesystem doesn't have requested /bin/bash.
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.


BusyBox v1.22.1 (Debian 1:1.22.0-19+b3) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) df
Filesystem   1K-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 46448 0 46448   0% /dev
tmpfs1168460 11624   1% /run
/dev/sda1 92365508  58650588  2898  67% /root
(initramfs)
==

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 27/09/17 08:56, Reco wrote:
I'm curious to know how you'd achieve this. 
Although mkfs had warned me, I mistakenly formatted the entire file, 
like this:


$ sudo mkfs.ext4 restore.img

Now I've redone it the right way, using a loop device, and I'll see how 
it goes.


Thank you!

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 26/09/17 17:31, Reco wrote:

On 26/09/17 13:01, solitone wrote:

It's strange, since it finds /dev/sda, i.e. the entire disk:

=
[    6.438693] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 188743680 512-byte logical blocks:
(96.6 GB/90.0 GiB)
[    6.469182] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    6.482421] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache:
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
=

However, it then complains that /dev/sda1 does not exists


That's because you don't have any partitions on that disk. Partition
that's start with sector 0 is impossible.


Interesting. I used parted to create one single partition as big as the 
entire file. Here's what parted shows now:


=
$ /sbin/parted  alan_restore.img
WARNING: You are not superuser.  Watch out for permissions.
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /media/solitone/Maxtor/vmimages/alan_restore.img
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.

(parted) p
Model:  (file)
Disk /media/solitone/Maxtor/vmimages/alan_restore.img: 96.6GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End SizeFile system  Flags
 1  0.00B  96.6GB  96.6GB  ext4
=

I assumed that that number 1 referred to partition n. 1, but I must be 
mistaken.

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 26/09/17 17:31, Reco wrote:

On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 01:12:52PM +0200, solitone wrote:

However now it fails
because it tries to mount /dev and /run on /root/dev and /root/run, rather
than simply /dev and /run:

=
[...]
Gave up waiting for suspend/resume device
done.
Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.29.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/sda] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/sda
/dev/sda: clean, 434616/5898240 files, 15174007/23592960 blocks
done.
[   40.335292] EXT4-fs (sda): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Opts: (null)
done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev
failed: No such file or directory


Interesting. Do you have /root directory in your root filesystem?


In the source system that I'm backing up I do, it's the home directory 
of the root user.


Ciao!

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 26/09/17 13:01, solitone wrote:

It's strange, since it finds /dev/sda, i.e. the entire disk:

=
[    6.438693] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 188743680 512-byte logical blocks: 
(96.6 GB/90.0 GiB)

[    6.469182] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    6.482421] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: 
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

=

However, it then complains that /dev/sda1 does not exists


I've found out that if I specify /dev/sda like this:

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -hda alan_restore.img
-kernel /vmlinuz
-initrd /initrd.img
-append "root=/dev/sda ro init=/bin/bash"

then it finds, checks, and mounts the root file system. However now it 
fails because it tries to mount /dev and /run on /root/dev and 
/root/run, rather than simply /dev and /run:


=
[...]
Gave up waiting for suspend/resume device
done.
Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.29.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/sda] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/sda
/dev/sda: clean, 434616/5898240 files, 15174007/23592960 blocks
done.
[   40.335292] EXT4-fs (sda): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. 
Opts: (null)

done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... mount: mounting /dev on 
/root/dev failed: No such file or directory

mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
done.
mount: mounting /run on /root/run failed: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
Target filesystem doesn't have requested /bin/bash.
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
run-init: opening console: No such file or directory
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.
=

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 26/09/17 08:46, Reco wrote:

/dev/sda2 refers to the partition in QEMU disk that contains your
restored root filesystem.


I've got only one partition in my image file:

=
$ /sbin/parted  alan_restore.img
WARNING: You are not superuser.  Watch out for permissions.
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /media/solitone/Maxtor/vmimages/alan_restore.img
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.

(parted) p
Model:  (file)
Disk /media/solitone/Maxtor/vmimages/alan_restore.img: 96.6GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End SizeFile system  Flags
 1  0.00B  96.6GB  96.6GB  ext4
=

I'd expect I should refer to it with /dev/sda1. However, when booting it 
doesn't find it.


It's strange, since it finds /dev/sda, i.e. the entire disk:

=
[6.438693] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 188743680 512-byte logical blocks: 
(96.6 GB/90.0 GiB)

[6.469182] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[6.482421] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: 
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

=

However, it then complains that /dev/sda1 does not exists:

=
[   39.409892] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   39.410232] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
[   39.481887] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[   39.482281] floppy: error -5 while reading block 0
Gave up waiting for suspend/resume device
done.
Begin: Waiting for root file system ... Begin: Running 
/scripts/local-block ... done.

done.
Gave up waiting for root file system device.  Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT!  /dev/sda1 does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!
=

Same thing if I try with /dev/sda2 or anything.

Regards!

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 24/09/17 11:51, Reco wrote:

Cheat it then and run QEMU like this (I don't know what's your root
filesystem is called, you may need to replace sda2 with something else):

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda  \
-kernel  \
-initrd  \
-append "root=/dev/sda2 ro init=/bin/bash"


Hi Reco, does /dev/sda2 refer to the partition containing the root file 
system of the *host*?

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 24/09/17 11:51, Reco wrote:

ACLs are easy. Even tar(1) knows them.
It's things like these that give you headache:

$ /sbin/getcap /bin/ping
/bin/ping = cap_net_raw+ep

# lsattr /etc/resolv.conf
i-e /etc/resolv.conf

# getfattr -d /var/log/messages
# file: var/log/messages
user.name="main system log"

# ls -alZ .bashrc
-rw-r--r--. root root system_u:object_r:admin_home_t:s0 .bashrc

If you have any of these in your source system, but don't have in target
one - your backup is invalid, consider changing tool you're using.
Note that these are just the examples, there can be other files like
this.


Is there anything like this in the standard debian configuration? I 
haven't set any.

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 22/09/17 21:38, Reco wrote:

2) Your backup is made by rsync(1) or tar(1).

Make yourself a file representing virtual machine disk.
Apply parted/fdisk/whatever to make appropriate number of partitions
inside it. Create filesystems.
Mount these somewhere, invoke rsync(1)/tar(1) as needed.


Ok, I've done all these steps.


Fix extended file attributes, capability labels, SELinux labels if any
etc. By hand, that is.


This is hard, since I'm unaware of what files have extended attributes. 
For instance, I've just found out that /media/solitone has an ACL, but I 
would need to extract the information for all files involved in a list 
and back it up, in order to restore it later on manually.



Fix boot/grub/grub.cfg or whatever configuration file of bootloader
you're using.


I don't know how to do this. I have to admit I never really understand 
GRUB. I've always relied on the configuration steps that debian 
automatically performs. Have you got a simple document that could guide me?


Thanks!

Re: Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

On 22/09/17 08:08, Reco wrote:

Execute this on your source system.

grep MODULES /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

If it says MODULES=most then you're in luck as it means your initrd
contains all kernel modules for all kinds of hardware.
And restoring from backup into QEMU-KVM means you only need to
reconfigure the bootloader.


Is there a way to configure KVM so that it resembles my bare
metal, and the test is significant?


That's highly unlikely. On x86-64 there are two QEMU device models
worthy of speaking, and that's Intel i440FX and Intel Q35 motherboards.
Chances are you have different hardware.

So, it *will* have different NIC, Video adapter *and* most importantly,
IDE/SATA/SCSI controller.

Using Debian and MODULES=most you have a luxury of not to think about
it.


Ok, I see, and it seems I'm in luck:

~$ grep MODULES /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
# MODULES: [ most | netboot | dep | list ]
MODULES=most

But now I don't know what to do next, since:


I would install a basic debian system in KVM, and then overwrite it
with my backed up files. Is this approach correct?


No. Some (but not all) configuration files would differ. Some (but not
all) packages would differ.

Restore backup to KVM

[solitone]

It's time to test my backups. Apart from user files, I also back up 
system files, except for the following directories that are excluded: 
/dev, /lost+found, /media, /mnt, /proc, /run, /sys, /tmp.


I would try and restore them to a virtual machine (KVM). Would it be 
possible? Is there a way to configure KVM so that it resembles my bare 
metal, and the test is significant? I would install a basic debian 
system in KVM, and then overwrite it with my backed up files. Is this 
approach correct?


Cheers!

Re: Rescue mode when root account locked

[solitone]

I'll unlock the root account then.

Rescue mode when root account locked

[solitone]

When I boot in rescue mode, I get this message:

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked. See 
sulogin(8) man page for more details


When I press Enter to continue, it continues bootup in normal graphical 
mode.


Would it be wiser to unlock the root account, so that I can go into 
single user mode? Or is there something I can do, without unlocking the 
root account?

Re: firmware-linux-nonfree needed? (was Stretch and i3-7300T)

[solitone]

On 19/09/17 22:01, deloptes wrote:

what if you do
cd .../brcm/
sudo ln -s brcmfmac43602-pcie.bin brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt


On reboot I had a kernel panic. After removing that link everything 
works again. These are the messages I got:


=
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: firmware: 
direct-loading firmware brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.bin
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: firmware: 
direct-loading firmware brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt

[...]
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request 
at 9b7041bf

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: IP: ioread32+0x29/0x30
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: PGD 266107067
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: P4D 266107067
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: PUD 0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Oops:  [#1] SMP
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Modules linked in: joydev(+) hid_apple(+) 
bcm5974 iTCO_wdt iTCO_vendor_support intel_rapl x86_pkg_temp_thermal 
intel_powerclamp coretemp kvm_intel efi_pstore kvm irqbypass 
crct10dif_pclmul crc32_pclmul applesmc input_polldev 
snd_hda_codec_cirrus snd_hda_codec_generic brcmfmac brcmutil 
ghash_clmulni_intel intel_cstate i915 cfg80211 intel_uncore lpc_ich 
snd_hda_intel pcspkr mmc_core efivars sg mfd_core mei_me intel_rapl_perf 
snd_hda_codec mei snd_hda_core thunderbolt snd_hwdep drm_kms_helper 
snd_pcm snd_timer snd shpchp drm intel_pch_thermal soundcore 
i2c_algo_bit btusb btrtl btbcm acpi_als btintel battery kfifo_buf 
bluetooth industrialio sbs ecdh_generic sbshc rfkill evdev ac button 
apple_bl video parport_pc ppdev sunrpc lp parport efivarfs ip_tables 
x_tables autofs4 ext4 crc16 jbd2 crc32c_generic
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  fscrypto ecb mbcache hid_generic usbhid 
hid sd_mod crc32c_intel ahci libahci aesni_intel aes_x86_64 crypto_simd 
cryptd glue_helper libata i2c_i801 scsi_mod xhci_pci xhci_hcd usbcore 
usb_common
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: CPU: 0 PID: 328 Comm: kworker/0:4 Not 
tainted 4.12.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 Debian 4.12.6-1~bpo9+1
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Hardware name: Apple Inc. 
MacBookPro12,1/Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6, BIOS MBP121.88Z.0167.B24.1702161608 
02/16/2017

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Workqueue: events request_firmware_work_func
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: task: 8f0124993000 task.stack: 
9b6f4114c000

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RIP: 0010:ioread32+0x29/0x30
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RSP: 0018:9b6f4114fce0 EFLAGS: 00010286
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RAX:  RBX: 8f0124134000 
RCX: 
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RDX: 000f RSI: 0246 
RDI: 9b7041bf
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RBP: f88f0770 R08: 8e7d4800 
R09: 0008
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: R10: 9b6f4114fcd8 R11: 0e66 
R12: 0027
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: R13:  R14: 1dc4 
R15: 8f01249120a0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: FS:  () 
GS:8f012ec0() knlGS:
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: CS:  0010 DS:  ES:  CR0: 
80050033
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: CR2: 9b7041bf CR3: 000178809000 
CR4: 003406f0

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Call Trace:
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? brcmf_pcie_setup+0x1da/0xca0 [brcmfmac]
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? __vunmap+0x71/0xb0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? brcmf_fw_request_nvram_done+0x186/0x630 
[brcmfmac]
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? brcmf_fw_request_nvram_done+0x1a1/0x630 
[brcmfmac]

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? devres_add+0x2f/0x40
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? _request_firmware+0x3ee/0xa10
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? request_firmware_work_func+0x41/0x80
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? process_one_work+0x181/0x370
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? worker_thread+0x4d/0x3a0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? kthread+0xfc/0x130
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? process_one_work+0x370/0x370
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? kthread_create_on_node+0x70/0x70
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? do_group_exit+0x3a/0xa0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:  ? ret_from_fork+0x25/0x30
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Code: 00 00 48 81 ff ff ff 03 00 77 20 48 
81 ff 00 00 01 00 76 05 0f b7 d7 ed c3 48 c7 c6 c5 1f a3 94 e8 2d ff ff 
ff b8 ff ff ff ff c3 <8b> 07 c3 0f 1f 40 00 48 81 fe ff ff 03 00 48 89 
f2 77 1f 48 81

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: RIP: ioread32+0x29/0x30 RSP: 9b6f4114fce0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: CR2: 9b7041bf
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: ---[ end trace 0a283c37a9dbcc15 ]---
[...]
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request 
at fffefaadfec5

Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: IP: 0xfffefaadfec5
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: PGD 17880c067
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: P4D 17880c067
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: PUD 0
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel:
Sep 20 12:14:52 alan kernel: Oops: 0010 [#2] SMP
Sep 20 

Re: intel-microcode (was Stretch and i3-7300T)

[solitone]

On 19/09/17 19:02, solitone wrote:
what about intel-microcode that I've just 
installed? Can I expect some performance related benefit?


I gather that microcode updates are usually issued to fix errata in the 
CPU's design [1], and without the intel-microcode package installed an 
older version of the microcode would be loaded from BIOS/UEFI in the CPU 
at boot time [2].


[1] 
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4b4hzx/is_it_worth_installing_the_nonfree_firmware_for/d15zctc/
[2] 
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4b4hzx/is_it_worth_installing_the_nonfree_firmware_for/d15zljn/


So the point is not performance, but bug fixing, and it seems reasonable 
to install that package.

Re: firmware-linux-nonfree needed? (was Stretch and i3-7300T)

[solitone]

On 19/09/17 14:11, Greg Wooledge wrote:

On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 07:54:32AM +0200, solitone wrote:

On 18/09/17 07:11, Jimmy Johnson wrote:

The packages you need to install are firmware-linux* and intel-microcode.


Would firmware-linux-nonfree bring any advantage as far as performance is
concerned? I don't have it installed, and everything works fine on my
machine, but I wonder whether I should consider installing it. I've just
installed intel-microcode since I feel it might have an impact.


When in doubt, try:

  dmesg | grep -i firmware

and see if it complains about any files that it wants to load but can't.

From there, you can use packages.debian.org, or one of the IRC bots,

to track down which package contains your firmware file.


I only find something related to ACPI, which I don't understand whether 
is significant:


~$ sudo journalctl -k|grep -i firmware
Sep 17 21:14:48 alan kernel: ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) 
query ignored
Sep 17 21:14:48 alan kernel: acpi PNP0A08:00: [Firmware Info]: MMCONFIG 
for domain  [bus 00-9b] only partially covers this bridge


And then a strange error message, it doesn't find a .txt file:

Sep 17 21:14:50 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: firmware: 
direct-loading firmware brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.bin
Sep 17 21:14:50 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: firmware: failed to 
load brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt (-2)
Sep 17 21:14:50 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: Direct firmware load 
for brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt failed with error -2

[...]

brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.bin is the firmware for my Broadcom BCM43602 
wireless card, contained in package firmware-brcm80211. Without it the 
wifi network adapter didn't work, so I provided it during installation, 
and then that package was automatically installed. I don't understand 
what's that brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt file, it complained about it 
also during installation, but the wifi card works nevertheless.


So can I conclude that I wouldn't get any benefit by installing 
firmware-linux-nonfree? And what about intel-microcode that I've just 
installed? Can I expect some performance related benefit?

Re: Stretch and i3-7300T

[solitone]

On 18/09/17 07:11, Jimmy Johnson wrote:

The packages you need to install are firmware-linux* and intel-microcode.


Would firmware-linux-nonfree bring any advantage as far as performance 
is concerned? I don't have it installed, and everything works fine on my 
machine, but I wonder whether I should consider installing it. I've just 
installed intel-microcode since I feel it might have an impact.

Re: Recommended editor for novice programmers?

[solitone]

On Sunday, 3 September 2017 21:33:55 CEST Dejan Jocic wrote:
> On 03-09-17, solitone wrote:
> > But is there anything that can do code autocomplation, for C++ or Java for
> > instance? Like getting the list of methods available for an object, when
> > typing a dot, as a typical IDE would do.
> 
> For Vim:
> 
> http://valloric.github.io/YouCompleteMe/
> 
> [...]
> 
> Something like that?

Yes, I see it's got semantic autocompletion, which is what I meant. It 
supports C++ natively, while for Java you would need Eclim.

I fear I'll need to convert to vim, so  :-)  Haven't checked the emacs 
alternative yet...
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Re: Recommended editor for novice programmers?

[solitone]

On Saturday, 2 September 2017 15:01:37 CEST The Wanderer wrote:
> I'm not sure what you would qualify as a "programming editor", but what
> I use to write code (when nano won't do) is geany, which is a graphical
> syntax-highlighting editor with various other features useful to a
> programmer.

But is there anything that can do code autocomplation, for C++ or Java for 
instance? Like getting the list of methods available for an object, when 
typing a dot, as a typical IDE would do.
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Re: macbook keyboard layout

[solitone]

On Friday, 25 August 2017 01:22:09 CEST Gene Heskett wrote:
> Works fine ~ for EN, and utf8 here.

On a MacBookPro 12,1 with italian keyboard works fine as well
~ (right-alt + ì)
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Re: which display manager would you suggest for Stretch?

[solitone]

On Thursday, 24 August 2017 02:37:41 CEST kamaraju kusumanchi wrote:
> gdm3 is the most the popular display manager with lightdm, sddm trailing
> behind.

I choose kde desktop during installation, and sddm whas installed.
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Saturday, 29 July 2017 18:40:58 CEST solitone wrote:
> From what I gather, the patch was included in kernel version 4.8-rc2:
> 
> $ git describe bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
> v4.8-rc2-641-gbafb2f7d4755
> 
> The kernel shipped with Stretch is version 4.9.30:
> 
> $ uname -v
> #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u2 (2017-06-26)
> 
> but we still experience the bug. This is because, if I understand it right,
> the commit containing this patch was reverted in the production kernel:
> 
> commit 0ee72d8f9b8e17b8e4ccfebc7a25cbc2d395cd6a
> Author: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gre...@linuxfoundation.org>
> Date:   Wed Apr 12 15:49:39 2017 +0200
> 
> Revert "drm/i915/execlists: Reset RING registers upon resume"
> 
> This reverts commit f2a0409a08502d64fbe3990354dff5902b08d2fb which is
> commit bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae upstream.
> 
> It was reported to have problems.
> 
> I therefore wonder whether this means this bug is still there in the
> production kernel, even in versions greater than 4.9.x.

Yes, that patch ended up in v4.9.9 [1]. Then some problems were reported, and 
it was reverted in v4.9.23 with commit 
0ee72d8f9b8e17b8e4ccfebc7a25cbc2d395cd6a [2].

I have just installed kernel version 4.11.6, from stretch-backports:

~$ uname -a
Linux alan 4.11.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.11.6-1~bpo9+1 (2017-07-09) 
x86_64 GNU/Linux

With that kernel hibernate seems to work, but I need further testing. I would 
suggest you to test that kernel version as well, and post your findings here.

[1] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.9
[2] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.23



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Re: Kernel development cycle

[solitone]

On Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:15:52 CEST solitone wrote:
> Let's consider a practical example, the history of patch
> "drm/i915/execlists: Reset RING registers upon resume". This patch was
> committed 641 commits after version 4.8-rc2:
> 
> $ git describe bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
> v4.8-rc2-641-gbafb2f7d4755
> 
> So I would expect to find it in version 4.8, which is the stable, final
> release of v4.8, following all the release canditates.
> 
> However, if I search for the tag that follows (and hence contains) that
> commit, I do not find version 4.8, nor version 4.9, but 4.10:
> 
> $ git describe --contains bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
> v4.10-rc1~154^2~44^2~178
> 
> Why? Why not v4.8-rc3? This means that the patch has been included neither
> in v4.8 nor in v4.9, but only in version 4.10-rc1, right? Why so much time
> was needed, considering it was the 621st commit on top ov v4.8-rc2?

Could you please point me out some doc that might help me understand this? I'm 
still thinking about it!

Thank you!
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Kernel development cycle

[solitone]

Hi, please help me understand some general practices involved in kernel 
development. 
Specifically, I'm interested in how patches are included or reverted in 
different kernel 
versions.

Let's consider a practical example, the history of patch "drm/i915/execlists: 
Reset RING 
registers upon resume" [1]. This patch was committed 641 commits after version 
4.8-rc2:

$ git describe bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
v4.8-rc2-641-gbafb2f7d4755

So I would expect to find it in version 4.8, which is the stable, final release 
of v4.8, following 
all the release canditates.

However, if I search for the tag that follows (and hence contains) that commit, 
I do not find 
version 4.8, nor version 4.9, but 4.10:

$ git describe --contains bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
v4.10-rc1~154^2~44^2~178

Why? Why not v4.8-rc3? This means that the patch has been included neither in 
v4.8 nor in 
v4.9, but only in version 4.10-rc1, right? Why so much time was needed, 
considering it was 
the 621st commit on top ov v4.8-rc2?

Another thing that confuses me is the following. In fact that patch ended up in 
v4.9.9 [2]. If 
my reasoning above is correct, it was backported from v4.10, right?

Then some problems were reported, and it was reverted in v4.9.23 with commit 
0ee72d8f9b8e17b8e4ccfebc7a25cbc2d395cd6a [3]. (What led to the decision of 
reverting it 
is explained in  [4] and [5]).

So my question now is--what version contains this patch? Is it true that I find 
it in v4.10? 

Stretch currently provides kernel version 4.9.30:

$ uname -v
#1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u2 (2017-06-26)

Since v4.9.30 follows v4.9.23, the patch is not be included in Stretch's 
kernel, so this 
explains why I'm experiencing the bug addressed by this patch. 

Thanks for your help.

[1] https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/111587/
[2] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.9
[3] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.23
[4] https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=100221#c10
[5] http://mid.mail-archive.com/1489443835.5568.7.camel@mailbox.org
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 26 July 2017 21:48:30 CEST solitone wrote:
> I haven't yet figured out which kernel version contains such patch, though.
> BTW, I have also submitted a bug to debian, pointing out that solution, but
> it doesn't seem to have been considered yet:
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=869424

From what I gather, the patch was included in kernel version 4.8-rc2:

$ git describe bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae
v4.8-rc2-641-gbafb2f7d4755

The kernel shipped with Stretch is version 4.9.30:

$ uname -v
#1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u2 (2017-06-26)

but we still experience the bug. This is because, if I understand it right, 
the commit containing this patch was reverted in the production kernel:

commit 0ee72d8f9b8e17b8e4ccfebc7a25cbc2d395cd6a
Author: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gre...@linuxfoundation.org>
Date:   Wed Apr 12 15:49:39 2017 +0200

Revert "drm/i915/execlists: Reset RING registers upon resume"

This reverts commit f2a0409a08502d64fbe3990354dff5902b08d2fb which is
commit bafb2f7d4755bf1571bd5e9a03b97f3fc4fe69ae upstream.

It was reported to have problems. [1]

I therefore wonder whether this means this bug is still there in the 
production kernel, even in versions greater than 4.9.x.

[1] https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/intel-gfx/2017-April/125833.html
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Thursday, 27 July 2017 00:05:08 CEST Cindy-Sue Causey wrote:
> What I'm remembering is that I would
> close the lid outside, unplug it, bring it inside, plug it back in,
> and open the lid hoping it would wake up as we expect = right where I
> left off out on the porch.
> 
> Quite a few times it did NOT wake up normally. It woke up in the way
> I'm grasping is being described above. It would suddenly, *partially*
> reboot without intervention from me.
> 
> After it went through what appeared to be a normal complete boot, I'd
> then *unexpectedly* end up back at the various *still open* windows
> I'd been using on the porch a few minutes before..

This seems normal when the system recovers from disc. Most likely you had set 
that the system should hibernate when the lid is closed.

> It was VERY nice that at least it did that. It was a curiosity,
> though, that it appeared to go through a "real reboot" where
> expectations are that memory is wiped and everything is gone, zapped.
> But instead of the memory (cache? sorry..) being wiped clean,
> everything I had been working on pulled up exactly as I had left it
> open only minutes before..

This happens because before suspend all the content in RAM is saved 
persistently to disc, specifically to the swap partition. When you tell it to 
recover (e.g. when you open the lid), the system reboots and reads that saved 
image from the swap partition, restoring your previous session.

> Oh, and I would, yes, get the login screen just before it would open
> on up into the previous session that theoretically maybe should not
> have been there.

Again, I think this is also normal. It wouldn't be safe if the user weren't 
asked the password, would it?
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 26 July 2017 04:15:06 CEST behrad eslami wrote:
> Yes it is. its new for me. after upgrade i have these error
> 
> On Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:13:41 CEST behrad eslami wrote:
> > Jul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [  90.862717] [drm] GPU HANG: ecode
> > 9:0:0xd23b808f, in chromium [1484], reason: Hang on render ring, action:
> > reset
> > Jul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [  90.862802] drm/i915: Resetting chip
> > after gpu hang

Yes, it is the same bug I have, and it has been solved with this patch:

https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/111587/

> [CI,3/3] drm/i915/execlists: Reset RING registers upon resume
> There is a disparity in the context image saved to disk and our own
> bookkeeping - that is we presume the RING_HEAD and RING_TAIL match our
> stored ce->ring->tail value. However, as we emit WA_TAIL_DWORDS into the
> ring but may not tell the GPU about them, the GPU may be lagging behind
> our bookkeeping. Upon hibernation we do not save stolen pages, presuming
> that their contents are volatile. This means that although we start
> writing into the ring at tail, the GPU starts executing from its HEAD
> and there may be some garbage in between and so the GPU promptly hangs
> upon resume.

I haven't yet figured out which kernel version contains such patch, though. 
BTW, I have also submitted a bug to debian, pointing out that solution, but it 
doesn't seem to have been considered yet:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=869424
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:13:41 CEST behrad eslami wrote:
> Jul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [   90.862717] [drm] GPU HANG: ecode
> 9:0:0xd23b808f, in chromium [1484], reason: Hang on render ring, action:
> resetJul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [   90.862721] [drm] GPU hangs can
> indicate a bug anywhere in the entire gfx stack, including userspace.Jul 23
> 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [   90.862722] [drm] Please file a _new_ bug report
> on bugs.freedesktop.org against DRI -> DRM/IntelJul 23 20:23:45 laptop
> kernel: [   90.862724] [drm] drm/i915 developers can then reassign to the
> right component if it's not a kernel issue.Jul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [
>   90.862725] [drm] The gpu crash dump is required to analyze gpu hangs, so
> please always attach it.Jul 23 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [   90.862727] [drm]
> GPU crash dump saved to /sys/class/drm/card0/errorJul 23 20:23:45 laptop
> kernel: [   90.862802] drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hangJul 23
> 20:23:45 laptop kernel: [   90.862878] [drm] RC6 onJul 23 20:23:45 laptop
> kernel: [   90.880192] [drm] GuC firmware load skippedJul 23 20:23:56
> laptop kernel: [  101.832839] drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hang

This seems very similar to my error, isn't it?

Re: From dual- to single-boot

[solitone]

On Tuesday, 25 July 2017 14:25:59 CEST Joel Rees wrote:
> Can you boot without the Mac OS partition?

I'm using grub to boot debian.

To boot MacOS, I need to press the option key (⌥)  to start up to Apple's 
Startup Manager, rather than grub. Startup Manager allows me to choose the 
MacOS partition, and boot that one.
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Re: From dual- to single-boot

[solitone]

On Monday, 24 July 2017 21:01:37 CEST Pascal Hambourg wrote:
> AFAIK, parted (the command line program) cannot move the start of a
> partition and its contents. Only gparted (the GUI program) can.

Yes, Pascal, you're right:
> Note that after version 2.4, the following commands were removed:
> check, cp, mkfs, mkpartfs, move, resize.
[1]

I can't remember: is gparted available in debian's installation media? 
Otherwise I could try and run gparted live [2].

> With LVM you could have just created a new partition, use it as a
> physical volume (PV) to extend the volume group (VG) and use the new
> available space to extend or create logical volumes (LV).

When I installed I thought LVM would be overkill for a laptop, instead it 
would have been the right choice.

> With btrfs instead of ext4, you could have used a new partition to
> extend the existing filesystem.

Good to know. I chose ext4 simply because.. it was the default!

> - create an image of the partition with dd, partclone, partimage,
> clonezilla... (it must not be mounted read/write)
> - back up the filesystem contents with cp -a, rsync...
> 
> The image has the advantage of saving the filesystem metadata (UUID,
> LABEL...)

Thanks, these were the hints I needed. I think I'll go for the image.

[1] 
https://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/html_node/Command-explanations.html#Command-explanations
[2] http://gparted.org/livecd.php
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From dual- to single-boot

[solitone]

I never use MacOs, so I want to just keep debian, so at least I'll put its 22 
GB space to better use. I used to keep it just for some sporadic firmware 
update, but frankly I don't think I'll need this again in the future.

The issue is that MacOs is at the start of the disc:

~$
~$ sudo /sbin/parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA APPLE SSD SM0128 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 121GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End SizeFile system Name  Flags
 1  20.5kB  210MB   210MB   fat32   EFI System Partition  boot, 
esp
 2  210MB   22.6GB  22.4GB  hfs+
 3  22.6GB  23.2GB  650MB   hfs+
 4  23.2GB  31.2GB  8000MB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
 5  31.4GB  121GB   89.8GB  ext4linux
~$

I would use parted from the installation media to delete partitions 1-4, 
recreate the swap at the start (unless I decide to usa a file for the swap), 
and move/extend the ext4 partition.

This seems a bit risky, though. I already asked this, but is there a way to 
completely backup my current system, so that I could quickly restore it on a 
blank new partition, in case everything goes wrong? 

I have daily backups of /home, /usr/local, and /etc. But in case I need to 
reinstall from scratch I think I need more. 

What's the best approach? 
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Sunday, 23 July 2017 09:30:30 CEST Hans wrote:
> I do not want to mourne or cause any anger, and I do not expect it to be
> fixed at all. Remember, people do this in theire spare and free time, so we
> cannot expect, to be it fixed at all.

Well, great things have been developed in this spare and free time, so if it's 
not fixed yet the reason it's very difficult I would say.

My bug has been marked duplilcate of another, already solved. Here's the 
patch:
https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/111587

How can I understand what kernel version contains this patch?
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Sunday, 23 July 2017 08:58:41 CEST solitone wrote:
> I'll file a new bug on bugs.freedesktop.org, since there are no open bugs on
> that.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101884
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Sunday, 23 July 2017 02:54:06 CEST behrad eslami wrote:
> I guess this is VGA kernel driver bug but i cant resolv it
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2017/02/msg00210.html
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2017/02/msg00211.html
> [3.100956] [drm] Finished loading i915/skl_dmc_ver1_26.bin (v1.26)[  
>  3.108246] [drm] GuC firmware load skipped

I've just tried again, and (after some time) I get the graphical login screen, 
but it's not functional. I can login from a virtual console, though.

I also have issues with my graphics processing unit. These are the messages 
that the kernel logs:

Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] GPU HANG: ecode 8:0:0x980e800f, in 
kscreenlocker_g [27962], reason: Hang on render ring, action: reset
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] GPU hangs can indicate a bug anywhere in 
the entire gfx stack, including userspace.
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] Please file a _new_ bug report on 
bugs.freedesktop.org against DRI -> DRM/Intel
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] drm/i915 developers can then reassign to 
the right component if it's not a kernel issue.
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] The gpu crash dump is required to analyze 
gpu hangs, so please always attach it.
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: [drm] GPU crash dump saved to /sys/class/drm/
card0/error
Jul 23 08:00:10 alan kernel: drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hang
Jul 23 08:00:21 alan kernel: drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hang
Jul 23 08:00:32 alan kernel: drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hang
Jul 23 08:00:43 alan kernel: drm/i915: Resetting chip after gpu hang

I'll file a new bug on bugs.freedesktop.org, since there are no open bugs on 
that.
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On Thursday, 20 July 2017 02:28:32 CEST behrad eslami wrote:
> I increase swap and have same problem yet. 

Did you increased the swap partition, or are you using a swap file?
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Re: Hibernate in stretch

[solitone]

On my previous laptop with jessie hibernation didn't work. On my current 
laptop with stretch hibernation doesn't work either.

During the several updates that interested stretch in the last few months, the 
symptoms changed, and I don't remember exactly their evolution at the moment. 
Currently, when the system resumes, after a few boot messages, everthing 
stalls on a black screen. I don't even get the login screen.

On Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 8:20:34 AM GMT+4:30, Lck Ras  
wrote:
> Are you sure you have enough swap space? You generally need 1.5x your
> total memory if order to hibernate safely.

1,5x? I thought 1x would be enough:

~$ free -m
  totalusedfree  shared  buff/cache  available
Mem:   789039061358 6112625   3070
Swap:  7629   07629
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Re: apt-get autoclean configuration

[solitone]

On Friday, 21 July 2017 16:09:15 CEST Curt wrote:
> The man page sends you to '/usr/share/doc/apt/examples/configure-index.gz',
> where the boolean values are exclusively (I think) "true" or "false", as
> are all the default values in the /etc/apt/apt/apt.conf.d "fragments."

I see, but what confused me is that regarding the autoclean option the value 
"off" is mentioned in the manual, rather than "false". Since I didn't find any 
example with "off", I was unsure whether the suggested "off" would work 
anyway.
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Android Studio and AVDs

[solitone]

Is anyone using Android Studio on stretch? Have you managed to run apps on an 
Android Virtual Device (AVD)?

I've tried everything. The emulator seems to start, I get no errors, and the 
emulated device appears on my screen (at least when using software 
accelaration, otherwise it doesn't start at all). Then I've tried to build and 
install the Android Packege (APK) from the command line with adb, but when I 
run something like:

$ ./adb install my.apk 

I always get the error: "Can't find service: package"
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Re: apt-get autoclean configuration

[solitone]

On Thursday, 20 July 2017 08:25:41 CEST David Wright wrote:
> On Wed 19 Jul 2017 at 16:21:57 (+0200), to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 03:48:03PM +0200, solitone wrote:
> > > On Wednesday, 19 July 2017 15:22:33 CEST to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > > >   echo "APT::Clean-Installed no;" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/no-autoclean
> > > 
> > > I've set it to "false", not to "no". The manual says "off", but didn't
> > > find any occurence of "on" and "off" in the other apt config files,
> > > just "true" or> 
> > > "false". Hope it works:
> > I'd think so. But alas, I can't quote a document stating the "official"
> > syntax. The man page doesn't say anything on this :-/
> 
> I don't understand. man apt.conf   has a whole section on syntax

The thing is that it's not obvious to me that you can set any of the values: 
"true", "on", "yes" vs. "false", "off", "no".
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Re: WLAN connection: 5 GHz priority

[solitone]

On Thursday, 20 July 2017 10:05:56 CEST Dan Purgert wrote:
> That being said, most network admins worth anything will be approaching
> the problem from their side too (e.g. with band steering), in order to
> "encourage" client devices to connect to the 5 GHz signal.

I've tried the band steering option on my AP, but my network card would rather 
connect to the 2.4 GHz channel anyhow. It seems to worth signal level very 
much, and the 5 GHz signal is usually weaker than 2.4. Therefore I made do 
with weakening the 2.4 GHz signal. 

Funnily enough other clients (two android devices and a windows laptop) prefer 
5 GHz even when it's weaker and my linux laptop connects to 2.4.

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WLAN connection: 5 GHz priority

[solitone]

Although this issue is widely discussed, but I didn't find a way to solve it. 
My access point provides both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and I'd like my WiFi 
adapter chose 5 GHz over 2.4.

To accomplish this, I reduced the AP's TX power for 2.4 GHz, and increased 
that for 5 GHz. The point is that when the 2.4 GHz signal is higher than 5 
GHz, my WiFi adapter prefers the 2.4 channel, even though usually the 5 GHz 
channel is less crowded and has less interference and therefore its 
performance would likely be better.

Another way would be to configure two separate SSIDs, one for 2.4 GHz, the 
other for 5 GHz. However, neither option is viable when I have no control on 
the APs, like in a university wireless campus.

Is there some tweak I can do on the kernel module, so that the choice doesn't 
rely on any specific configuration on the AP?

My laptop features a Broadcom BCM43602 802.11ac WiFi adapter, supported by the 
brcmfmac driver:

$ sudo lspci -vnn |grep BCM43602 -A17
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless 
LAN SoC [14e4:43ba] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Apple Inc. BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC [106b:0133]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 55
Memory at c140 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
Memory at c100 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/16 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [68] Vendor Specific Information: Len=44 
Capabilities: [ac] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [13c] Device Serial Number 0f-bd-a7-ff-ff-9d-98-01
Capabilities: [150] Power Budgeting 
Capabilities: [160] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [1b0] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [220] #15
Capabilities: [240] L1 PM Substates
Kernel driver in use: brcmfmac
Kernel modules: brcmfmac

I found this patch that seems relevant:
brcmfmac: Give priority to 5GHz band in selecting target BSS
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/4156831/

but it seems it wasn't ever applied.
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Re: apt-get autoclean configuration

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 19 July 2017 23:02:04 CEST to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> There is this function StringToBool in apt-pkg/contrib/strutl.cc:
>
>  [...]
>
>  |// Check for positives
>  |if (strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"no") == 0 ||
>  |
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"false") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"without") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"off") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"disable") == 0)
>  |   
>  |   return 0;
>  |
>  |// Check for negatives
>  |if (strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"yes") == 0 ||
>  |
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"true") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"with") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"on") == 0 ||
>  |strcasecmp(Text.c_str(),"enable") == 0)
>  |   
>  |   return 1;
> 
> That seems to be it: no/false/without/off/disable versus
> yes/true/with/on/enable. Should that be in the docs?

Thanks tomás, that's great! 

I think this info should defenitely be in the man page.
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Re: apt-get autoclean configuration

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 19 July 2017 15:22:33 CEST to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
>   echo "APT::Clean-Installed no;" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/no-autoclean

I've set it to "false", not to "no". The manual says "off", but didn't find any 
occurence of "on" and "off" in the other apt config files, just "true" or 
"false". Hope it works:

$ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80autoclean 
APT::Clean-Installed "false";

apt-get autoclean configuration

[solitone]

>From 'man apt-get':

autoclean (and the auto-clean alias since 1.1)
   [...]
   The configuration
   option APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages
   from being erased if it is set to off.

I've just lost some cached package files, although they are installed, so I 
want to set this option. Should I create a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d for this 
purpose?

Thanks & Regards

Re: Connessione wifi

[solitone]

Usually the language used here is english. I translate your question, so more 
people can understand it.

On Tuesday, 18 July 2017 07:52:18 CEST Gabriele Cossetti wrote:
> I've just installed Debian 9.0 on a IBM PC 386. I have the a 
> Sitecom N150 USB WI-FI adapter that won't work after installation.
> 
> What should I do to have it work?

What's the output of lsusb?

Have a look at:
http://www.tutorial360.it/default/tutorial.php?id=277 

Re: How to use Garmin Connect with Debian 7?

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 11:55:25 CEST Joerg Desch wrote:
> I could use the Windows license key of the dead
> windows notebook and run it inside VirtualBox. Do you know if the USB
> connection to the Garmin devices runs through the virtual host?

Yes, I used to have a VirtualBox instance on my previous laptop, and it did 
work. Then I migrated that VirtualBox image to KVM when I prepared my new 
laptop, and it continued to work.

Re: How to use Garmin Connect with Debian 7?

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 12 July 2017 11:07:39 CEST Joerg Desch wrote:
> I'm using a Garmin Edge 520 for my bycicle and a (new) Forerunner for
> running. How can I access Garmin Connect without installing the Windows
> tools?
> 
> The Garmin Edge 520 is already registered to my Garmin Connect account.
> I've used an old Windows 7 notebook with isn't functional anymore. Now
> I've tried to sync the Edge 520

I have a Garmin Edge 520, and I use the Garmin Connect app on my smartphone to 
sync it, not the Windows tool. I just needed the Windows tool during initial 
configuration, but once it's registered you no longer need it (except for some 
rare events when you need it to solve weird sync issues).

I don't know whether it's possible to perform the initial configuration steps 
without the official Garmin tool, I have a Windows 10 installation on a libvirt 
virtual machine, that I use just for Garmin and iTunes.

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

On Sunday, 11 June 2017 20:06:48 CEST Brian wrote:
> if you change your sources.list to use a suitable
> one from snapshot.debian.org it will be found.

I didn't know that, thanks! 

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

On Sunday, 11 June 2017 10:39:25 CEST Dejan Jocic wrote:
> In case that you are on stable, perhaps in old stable repository, or its
> backports, after you add those to sources.list. 

No, I'm on stretch, so I'm using the stretch repository:
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ stretch main non-free contrib

Since stretch is still in testing, several packages get upgraded regularly. On 
of those was chromium, which some days ago was upgraded from ver. 58 to 59. I 
believe version 58 now is no longer in the stretch repository, so if you ask 
apt to install that version, it doesn't find that.

> I've suggested  it only because you were asking how to do it with apt

Yes, I see, and in fact apt would be my preferred tool, if downgrading were 
possible with it.

Thanks!

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

On Sunday, 11 June 2017 08:39:25 CEST Lisi Reisz wrote:
> please, Solitone, let me and the list know what I am supposed to have said.
 
No Lisi, I don't have more info than the list regarding what you supposedly 
said on this 
topic  :-)

In any case, I've just removed the hold on the 4 chromium packages and 
upgraded. 
Everything's fine, chromium 59 does not have the issue that chrome 59 has.

In case I had to downgrade, I would have uninstalled those 4 packages, and 
reinstalled 
version 58 with dpkg, using the .deb files stored in /var/cache/apt/archives. 

I'm wonder whether Dejan's suggestion actually works:
# apt-get install package=package-version-number
Whenever I try it I always get something like this:

# apt install chromium=58.0.3029.96-1 

I believe this means the old version is no longer available in the repository. 
So if you want 
to downgrade you need to have the package stored locally. But where do you find 
old 
packages in case you no longer have them in /var/cache/apt/archives?

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

--- Begin Message ---
UTC Time: June 10, 2017 9:55 AM
From: solit...@mail.com

On Saturday, 10 June 2017 05:45:22 CEST Fungi4All wrote:
> apt
>
> Hold a package:
> sudo apt-mark hold 
>
> Remove the hold:
> sudo apt-mark unhold 

That's ok. I can then:
$ sudo apt upgrade
to upgrade that package to the latest available version.

But my question was: once I've upgrated it, how can I *downgrade* it to its
previous version, in case I find out it doesn't work right? What's the best
practice to downgrade with apt?

Thanks

With a package like chrome/ium that runs at the upper level of the structure
(ie top floor 5th) you can take it away and then find the .deb or the source of 
a previously
working version and re-install it. Apt will not do this and the reason is:
If you were to do this at a lower level, like 2nd or 3rd, the structure above 
will collapse.
If you were to remove something like lxdm you will have no display manager to 
proceed.
You still have the entry level shell. All package managers are set to be moving 
forward
upstream as they call it.

In some cases you can substitute mid-level packages, as lightdm with lxdm. 
Neither can
coexist with the other. While your kernel is already built on one, apt will 
take one away
and replace its functions with the other. It will affect you next boot.--- End Message ---

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

On Saturday, 10 June 2017 05:45:22 CEST Fungi4All wrote:
> apt
> 
> Hold a package: 
> sudo apt-mark hold 
> 
> Remove the hold: 
> sudo apt-mark unhold 

That's ok. I can then:
$ sudo apt upgrade
to upgrade that package to the latest available version.

But my question was: once I've upgrated it, how can I *downgrade* it to its 
previous version, in case I find out it doesn't work right? What's the best 
practice to downgrade with apt?

Thanks

Re: Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

On Friday, 9 June 2017 23:38:40 CEST Jimmy Johnson wrote:
> I've never downgrade using apt, but with synaptic it's not too hard,

Hi Jimmy, and thanks for your reply. I'm under Plasma Desktop, so I don't have 
synaptic--I use KDE's Discover. Although I use it only for automatic updates. 
For installing/removing packages, as well as setting a package on hold, I use 
apt. I'd rather use apt for downgrading as well.

Cheers!

Downgrading specific packages with apt

[solitone]

I am on Debian 9 (scratch), and I have a MacBook Pro 12,1 with retina display.

Few days ago I upgraded Google Chrome from version 58 to 59:
google-chrome-stable:amd64 (58.0.3029.110-1, 59.0.3071.86-1)
This new version no longer supports HiDPI. As a result everything in Chrome is 
so small that I would need a magnifying glass!

Not a great issue though, since I usually work with Chromium, not Chrome. But 
today apt has proposed the very same upgrade for Chromium too:

chromium/testing 59.0.3071.86-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 58.0.3029.96-1]
chromium-driver/testing 59.0.3071.86-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 58.0.3029.96-1]
chromium-l10n/testing 59.0.3071.86-1 all [upgradable from: 58.0.3029.96-1]
chromium-shell/testing 59.0.3071.86-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 58.0.3029.96-1]

I suspect if I upgrade I would end up having the same HiDPI issue with 
Chromium. So for the time being I have put on hold those four packages. But 
I'd like to test whether this is true. What should I do to be able to 
downgrade to version 58.0.3029.96-1 in case 59.0.3071.86-1 does in fact break 
HiDPI? I always have some difficulties when I need to downgrade with apt. This 
time I want to be prepared.

Thanks!

Re: Secure boot - Uefi installation

[solitone]

On Thursday, 20 April 2017 08:41:26 CEST Kent West wrote:
> I installed on a Dell (don't recall the model number now, but it's a recent
> model), and I found that the firmware appears to be buggy, in that you can
> specify a UEFI installation to boot, and it shows the setting you enter,
> but it ignores that setting and boots only to the default installation,
> which is something like "\boot\default\boot64.efi".

If I remeber right, when I installed debian alongside windows 8 on my previous 
UEFI HP laptop, I had to disable fast boot in windows 8, otherwise it would 
boot directly windows, not grub.

Re: Debian hardware compatibility

[solitone]

On Thursday, 20 April 2017 08:07:51 CEST Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 03:12:33PM +1000, John Elliot V wrote:
> > Will stretch RC3 smoothly transition to stable (with an apt-get
> > dist-upgrade) when stretch is released?
> 
> Yes.  In fact there's a very strong possibility you won't even need to
> do a whole dist-upgrade.  A simple "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade"
> may work, if the freeze proceeds smoothly.

This was exactly what happened to me when jessie transitioned from testing to 
stable. I would expect stretch be the same.

Re: Secure boot - Uefi installation

[solitone]

On Tuesday, 18 April 2017 00:30:47 CEST Karagkiaouris Diamantis wrote:
> do i have to disable the secure boot and then proceed with uefi
> installation?

Yes, you should disable secure boot. I had to do this when I installed Jessie 
on an HP UEFI laptop.

Re: [SOLVED] System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:44:06 CEST solitone wrote:
>  I tried and reset NVRAM, a nonvolatile random-access memory that
> Macs use to store certain settings like sound volume, display resolution,
> and (I realise only now) startup disk selection.. and GRUB doesn't start
> any longer, it boots up directly into MacOS.
> 
> After that, I also reset the System Management Controller (SMC) and at least
> now the initial bootup phase into MacOS is much quicker.
> 
> Now I managed to restore GRUB, using the rescue mode option of my
> installation USB stick. Everything is as before: very slow keystrokes
> response in grub, integrated keyboard and mouse working after some time in
> login screen only when external usb mouse and keyboard plugged in (both of
> them!)
> 
> I've noticed that also Apple Startup Manager suffers from the same issue
> that GRUB has: I press keys and it responds after tens of seconds! Trackpad
> is also very slow or doesn't work at all. I need to check my updates on
> Apple side..

The thing I didn't explain there is that after I reset the SMC, MacOS boot 
seemed to be quicker, however it still tooked 30 seconds or more to start the 
Startup Manager when pressing the alt button at startup. Besides, Startup 
Manager responded very slowly to keypresses, and the trackpad didn't work, or 
was really slow. This clarifies the issue wasn't a consequence of reinstalling 
GRUB, and I suspected it depended either on Apple's hardware or in some low 
level Apple software component.

I found a few posts around that described exactly the same problem I had, like 
this one:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/270248/macos-startup-manager-is-very-slow-and-laggy

Some people said that MacOS Siera 10.12.4 would solve that issue. So I tried 
and upgraded (I was on 10.12.3), and I can confirm it is indeed true. That 
system update must contain also a firmware update that addresses that I/O 
issue. Now everything works very well again.

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 11:02:06 CEST solitone wrote:
> Apparenlty the only way I can restore functioning of the integrated keyboard
> and trackpad is by booting up with an external usb keyboard and an external
> usb mouse plugged in. I have the usual issues in grub and during bootup,
> but when I get the login screen, after 30 seconds or so the external usb
> devices get detected, and also the integrated keyboard and trackpad get
> detected so everything starts working.

This is what I collect from a ssh, running multiple lsusb commands.

At first only the two external devices are listed, apart from the hubs:

solitone@alan:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04b3:3025 IBM Corp. NetVista Full Width Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. M90/M100 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Then one of the two integrated usb devices (maybe the keyboard, I haven't 
checked, so I don't know for sure) is detected:

solitone@alan:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05ac:8290 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04b3:3025 IBM Corp. NetVista Full Width Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. M90/M100 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

After some further time, also the second integrated usb device (perhaps the 
trackpad) is detected:

solitone@alan:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05ac:0273 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05ac:8290 Apple, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04b3:3025 IBM Corp. NetVista Full Width Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. M90/M100 Optical Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

>From this time, everything works fine, and I can also unplug the external usb 
devices and the integrated keyboard and trackpad continue to work.

Cheers,
  Davide

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 11:20:34 CEST Michael Lange wrote: 
> Another thought: if that is possible, have you tried to boot into a live
> system, just to rule out a hardware issue?

I had used Apple Diagnostics to perform a hardware check, and nothing wrong 
was found.

After that, I tried and reset NVRAM, a nonvolatile random-access memory that 
Macs use to store certain settings like sound volume, display resolution, and 
(I realise only now) startup disk selection.. and GRUB doesn't start any 
longer, it boots up directly into MacOS.

After that, I also reset the System Management Controller (SMC) and at least 
now the initial bootup phase into MacOS is much quicker. 

Now I managed to restore GRUB, using the rescue mode option of my installation 
USB stick. Everything is as before: very slow keystrokes response in grub, 
integrated keyboard and mouse working after some time in login screen only 
when external usb mouse and keyboard plugged in (both of them!)

I've noticed that also Apple Startup Manager suffers from the same issue that 
GRUB has: I press keys and it responds after tens of seconds! Trackpad is also 
very slow or doesn't work at all. I need to check my updates on Apple side..

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 00:27:22 CEST Michael Lange wrote:
> I would try to install a different kernel (if possible with external
> keyboard) and boot into that one, if the problem disappears the culprit is
> most likely the kernel.

I managed to boot into the older kernel that I still had in the grub menu 
(4.9.0-1-amd64). It was difficult because, as I said, the keyboard works badly 
in GRUB as well, but at least it somehow works, I just have to wait tens of 
seconds after a keypress.

Anyhow, it booted in 4.9.0-1-amd64, but it showed the same issue: keyboard and 
trackpad don't work. So it doesn't seem to be kernel related.

Now I have rebooted again in 4.9.0-2-amd64 version 4.9.18-1 (2017-03-30). 
Apparenlty the only way I can restore functioning of the integrated keyboard 
and trackpad is by booting up with an external usb keyboard and an external 
usb mouse plugged in. I have the usual issues in grub and during bootup, but 
when I get the login screen, after 30 seconds or so the external usb devices 
get detected, and also the integrated keyboard and trackpad get detected so 
everything starts working.

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 09:53:05 CEST Dejan Jocic wrote:
> If you have old kernel, you do not have to choose it in the GRUB menu during
> boot, you can set up your GRUB to boot from it automatically. 

I have a submenu entry in my grub.cfg:

solitone@alan:~$ grep --color menu /boot/grub/grub.cfg  
 
[...]
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --
class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-
f3a2281f7d01' { 
   
submenu 'Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux' $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-advanced-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64' --class debian 
--class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-2-amd64-advanced-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
  
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (systemd)' --
class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-2-amd64-init-systemd-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (recovery mode)' 
--class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-2-amd64-recovery-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64' --class debian 
--class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-1-amd64-advanced-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64 (systemd)' --
class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-1-amd64-init-systemd-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64 (recovery mode)' 
--class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 
'gnulinux-4.9.0-1-amd64-recovery-7f537d3b-e578-4cd3-8583-f3a2281f7d01' {

To automatically load 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.9.0-1-amd64' I need to 
set :
GRUB_DEFAULT="1>3"
in /etc/default/grub?

Cheers,
  Davide
 

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Thursday, 13 April 2017 01:23:02 CEST Dejan Jocic wrote:
> He should have old kernel still installed, right? If that is the case,
> he could simply boot with old kernel.

Yes, I still have 4.9.0-1-amd64. 

The point is even in the GRUB menu screen my keyboard no longer works well, 
which is even stranger. Sometimes I press a key and after tens of seconds 
something happens, other times nothing happens at all. So it's difficult to 
move 
in the GRUB menu and select the old kernel.

Plus now it's been 18 hours since last boot and everything works very well, 
but if I reboot now I'll struggle again and I'm not sure I'll manage to have 
it work again..

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 12 April 2017 22:29:25 CEST Mart van de Wege wrote:
> It's USB-related, so I'd say either the kernel package or udev.

Ok, thanks. These are the related packages that were upgrated:

linux-image-4.9.0-2-amd64:amd64 (4.9.13-1, 4.9.18-1)
udev:amd64 (232-19, 232-22)
libudev1:amd64 (232-19, 232-22)

Re: System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 12 April 2017 19:55:12 CEST Jochen Spieker wrote:
> I'd write a bug report. Your e-mail is a pretty good start.

To Debian BTS? Related to the kernel package? I have no clues as to what 
component might be actually involved.

Thanks,
  Davide

System broken after yesterday's upgrade

[solitone]

Hi, something really weird is going on today on my system--debian stretch on 
an Apple MacBookPro 12,1.

Some time ago I noticed a strange issue with USB, which prevented the keyboard 
and the trackpad to work after bootup (they are both USB devices on 
MacBookPro's). Here's an extract of the kernel logs that I collected at the 
time:
> Mar 29 09:06:25 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 2, error
> -62
> Mar 29 09:06:36 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 3, error
> -62
> Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: Stopped the command ring
> failed, maybe the host is dead
> Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: Abort command ring
> failed Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died;
> cleaning up Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died;
> cleaning up Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died;
> cleaning up Mar 29 09:06:56 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting
> address 4, error -108
> Mar 29 09:06:56 alan kernel: usb usb2-port3: couldn't allocate usb_device

After some rest, everything started working again, and I didn't worried--till 
this morning, when I rebooted! Again, keyboard and trackpad no longer worked. 
Again I brutally switched of the laptop, and tried to wait some time, but 
nothing, this time it didn't help! I suspect the misbehaviour depends on the 
upgrade I carried on yesterday, since this was my first reboot since then.

The really strange thing is that even grub now is sooo slow to show up. It 
takes 30 secs or more! Obviously, the keyboard does not work there. After some 
additional time, the kernel boots up, but it stalls for 30 seconds on the step 
"loading initial ramdisk". After that, it boots up correctly, displays the 
login manager, but as I said I have no keyboard nor trackpad.

I tried many times. In the end I tried and plugged external usb mouse and 
keyboard. After bootup they didn't work either, but after some additional 30 
seconds they started working, together with the integrated keyboard and the 
trackpad. No idea what's going on.

I rebooted without the external usb devices plugged in, and waited for several 
minutes, but nothing happened, keyboard and trackpad didn't start working. I 
rebooted again, like before with the two external usb devices attached, and 
like before everything started working after some pretty long time.

As I said, the culprit might be yesteday's upgrade. Among others, the kernel 
was upgraded:
 
Start-Date: 2017-04-11  07:33:56
Commandline: packagekit role='update-packages'
Requested-By: solitone (1000)
Upgrade: [...] linux-image-4.9.0-2-amd64:amd64 (4.9.13-1, 4.9.18-1
) [...]

Everything worked fine before. Now the first steps (starting from grub) in the 
bootup process are unbelievably slow, and the laptop's keyboard and trackpad 
don't work unless I wait much time and do some weird ritual, like plugging in 
some external usb devices and again wait and wait.

Now everything works well, but I fear that at the next reboot I'll have to 
struggle, hope, and pray that I can use my sytem again!

Here are the kernel error message that I've collected during the last reboot:

solitone@alan:~$ sudo journalctl -k -b -1 -p 3
-- Logs begin at Sun 2017-02-12 21:33:16 CET, end at Wed 2017-04-12 15:42:11 
CEST. --
Apr 12 14:42:14 alan kernel: brcmfmac :03:00.0: firmware: failed to load 
brcm/brcmfmac43602-pcie.txt (-2)
Apr 12 14:42:14 alan kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware version 
= wl0: Nov 10 2015 06:38:10 version 7.35.177.61 (r598657) FWID 01-ea662a8c
Apr 12 14:42:14 alan kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_cfg80211_reg_notifier: not a 
ISO3166 code (0x30 0x30)
Apr 12 14:42:15 alan kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_p2p_create_p2pdev: set p2p_disc 
error
Apr 12 14:42:15 alan kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_cfg80211_add_iface: add iface 
p2p-dev-wlp3s0 type 10 failed: err=-16
Apr 12 14:42:21 alan kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_inetaddr_changed: fail to get arp 
ip table err:-23
Apr 12 14:42:22 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 2, error 
-62
Apr 12 14:42:33 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 3, error 
-62
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 urb 8ae9df53b840 failed to 
resubmit (22)
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 urb 8ae9df53b000 failed to 
resubmit (22)
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 urb 8ae9df53b900 failed to 
resubmit (22)
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 urb 8ae9df53bf00 failed to 
resubmit (22)
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died; cleaning up
Apr 12 14:42:39 alan kernel: bcm5974 1-5:1.2: could not read from device
Apr 12 14:46:12 alan kernel: INFO: task kworker/1:1:46 blocked for more than 
120 seconds.
Apr 12 14:46:12 alan kernel:   Not tainted 4.9.0-2-amd64 #1
Apr 12 14:46:12 alan kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/
hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
Apr 12 14

Re: Laptop reboot and suspend

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 5 April 2017 19:49:29 CEST Teemu Likonen wrote:
> If hibernation is like s2disk then yes, it works. I don't use it often,
> though.

Yes, it's suspend to disk. I would use it, but unfortunately in my system it 
doesn't work (screen does not turn on).

Ciao

Re: Laptop reboot and suspend

[solitone]

On Wednesday, 5 April 2017 11:24:12 CEST Teemu Likonen wrote:
> My laptop's (Apple Macbook Air) suspend-resume works
> well with Debian 8 

Does hibernation work as well? I have a MacBook Pro 12,1 with Debian 9 and 
while suspend does work, I didn't manage to have hibernate working reliably.

Random usb failure at bootup

[solitone]

Hi,

this morning I experienced a bad issue that worried me for a while, but 
happily it ended well with no consequences.

After resuming from suspend, the monitor was black, and I had to press the 
power button to hard shutdown the computer.

On reboot, the monitor still didn't switch on. I tried several times. In the 
last tries the monitor switched on, but the keybord still didn't work. This 
affected the boot loader as well. The system booted up, and I got the login 
screen, however no key worked (apart from the power button, it's a MacBookPro 
12,1).

I brutally switched off the laptop, and leaved off for some time (1 hour). 
When I tried and rebooted it, everything worked well again.

I inspected the kernel messages, and found the following usb errors (keyboard 
and monitor are USB devices on the MacBookPro 12,1):


Mar 29 09:06:25 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 2, error 
-62
Mar 29 09:06:36 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 3, error 
-62
Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: Stopped the command ring 
failed, maybe the host is dead
Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: Abort command ring failed
Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died; cleaning up
Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died; cleaning up
Mar 29 09:06:55 alan kernel: xhci_hcd :00:14.0: HC died; cleaning up
Mar 29 09:06:56 alan kernel: usb 2-3: device not accepting address 4, error 
-108
Mar 29 09:06:56 alan kernel: usb usb2-port3: couldn't allocate usb_device


It seems that some rest is sometimes needed ;-)

Re: revert package instructions found do not work

[solitone]

On Friday, 17 February 2017 03:54:22 CET Felix Miata wrote:
> I forgot to hold the non-broken mc version 4.8.17 before upgrading, so want
> to revert to the older packages in the cache:
> # ll /var/cache/apt/archives/mc*
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  510906 May  8  2016 mc_3%3a4.8.17-1_amd64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  512534 Oct 16 19:06 mc_3%3a4.8.18-1_amd64.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1265158 May  8  2016 mc-data_3%3a4.8.17-1_all.deb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1267428 Oct 16 19:06 mc-data_3%3a4.8.18-1_all.deb
> 
> Nothing I try found via searching the web, e.g. "debian revert package"

I would install with dpkg the packages you still have in the apt cache, in 
order to downgrade to the old version, and then hold them.