Re: thunderbird

[Doug McGarrett]

On 5/30/21 4:04 PM, Joe wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2021 18:29:11 +
fxkl47BF  wrote:


for a few decades i have used pine/alpine.
i'm considering a new mail application.
there are more out there than you can shake a stick at.
what are your thoughts of thunderbird.


A bit slow and heavy for my liking. I used to use it, then switched to
Claws-Mail, which is faster and seems to do what I need.


Thunderbird will find all the esoteric locations, etc. that email
systems need to function. Claws mail does not. If I knew how
to find the necessary information, I would try claws mail.
--doug

Re: on the verge of shopping for new desktop hardware, recommendations?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 3/9/21 6:50 PM, David Christensen wrote:

On 3/9/21 3:15 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 1:12 PM David Christensen wrote:

On 3/7/21 7:09 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:

On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 5:25 PM David Christensen <



What model mac?



It's a mac pro.



When posting on a technical mailing list, please include the relevant
engineering identifiers when referring to hardware or software items --
e.g. alphanumeric codes variously named "model number", "part number",
"assembly number", "serial number", "architecture", "revision", etc..


I don't have a good way to copy/paste information from the mac gui 
--- is

there
a shell command that i can run that could identify the exact model?
('uname' only
identifies the software; the mac does not seem to have a 'lscpu' 
command.)



The identifying information should be engraved into the chassis, a 
nameplate, a sticker, etc..



David

Getting back to the original question: I recommend finding a machine, if 
possible, with a built-in DVD drive.
It makes installing a new system straightforward, and allows you to copy 
media, including music for

your car player, without having to buy an external usb dvd drive.
--doug

Re: on the verge of shopping for new desktop hardware, recommendations?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 3/7/21 7:24 PM, IL Ka wrote:



The reason for the two networks is that my modem-router is
electrically incompatible with one of my computers.

hmm, I never heard about such things)
Is your electrical grounding configured correctly?

In my country some old apartments do not have third (ground) wire. 
I've seen a lot of glitches because of that.


Have you tried to install an ethernet switch?

You can connect your modem-router to the ethernet switch, and connect 
all PCs to this switch. It may help.


Or you can mix and match. I have a router AND a switch, because the 
router does not have enough ports.
In my case, I paid no attention to what is connected to what, and 
everything works. In your case, you might
want to connect the complaining computer to the switch, and everything 
else to the router directly, if
there are enough ports. This may work better--maybe the problem really 
is something in common to the

computer and something else that's plugged into the router.
--doug

Re: Looking for ~Dartmouth BASIC

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/25/21 2:56 PM, Dan Ritter wrote:

Richard Owlett wrote:

I was trained on CORC/CUPL
   Can you say I/O == "026/line printer"
I want to prototype a problem.
What BASIC in Debian repository most resembles "Dartmouth BASIC"?


Your choices are yabasic and python3-pcbasic. Both of them try
to be something like Microsoft BASIC.

I would strongly recommend learning Python. If you haven't
touched BASIC in the last few years, you won't be any faster
figuring out a new BASIC than you will learning Python, and
there's a far larger community of Python users.

-dsr-


Whatever BASIC you wind up with make SURE it has a CASE statement.
Original BASICs did not--that includes Microsoft BASIC and George
Washington BASIC. I'm told that at least some modern versions do
have the CASE statement. About 30 years ago, I was asked by my
boss to write a program for him that had a lot of possibilities to be
addressed. He wanted it in BASIC, since he was familiar with that
language. Three pages later, it was done. I could have done it in less
than a page with Turbo PASCAL, because that language, as just about
all modern languages, does have a CASE statement. (So does BASH.)
PS--I'm not a programmer, I'm an RF Engineer, retired.
--doug

Re: Problems installing from flash drive.

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/5/21 9:54 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:

I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
  1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
  2. without internet access.

One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all 
installation DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward 
to do a default install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.


Resulting problems include:
  1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
  2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
 asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
You can--and in my opinion, should--purchase an external optical drive. 
They cost somewhere in the $20 range.
I have an LG model GP08LU11. It can read and write CD, DVD, and it will 
do LightScribe.  I don't know if this model is
still available, but LG does have a couple models listed. Putting the 
request into Google produces a slew of drives.

--doug


One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in such 
a way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can 
use Synaptic.


The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or 
Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.


Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of 
appropriate ISO files?


TIA

Re: sharing a network connection from debian to non-debian

[Doug McGarrett]

On 1/16/21 1:29 AM, john doe wrote:

On 1/16/2021 6:02 AM, Dan Hitt wrote:
In 2016, i had a computer with mint on it (which is a form of 
ubuntu), and
it was connected to an internet modem.  There was a super simple gui 
on it

that i could use to share that connection with some older hardware that
were not directly connected to the internet modem.  (They were not
connected to the internet modem because for whatever reason, directly
connecting them made them very unstable and prone to crash.) But,
nevertheless, the old hardware could use the mint box with no 
configuration

on my part, and get out to the internet through it.



If you could share your internet connection to multiple devices, the
internet modem you are refering to is probably a router with integrated
modem.

Okay, I'm nitpicking here but this might be useful for the below.


Now, as it happens, i'm planning on upgrading that mint box to debian.



I would suggest reinstalling Debian from scratch.

In preparation for that, i'm trying to share the internet with them 
using
another box, which has debian on it, and which is connected to the 
internet

modem.  The debian box has some address like 192.168.*.* on the internet
modem network, and an address like 10.*.*.* connected to the old 
hardware,
and the two networks have no direct connection, they just both hook 
up to

my debian machine (one on the motherboard's ethernet, and one on a
usb/ethernet device).

For the old hardware, i can specify the address, a gateway, and a 
host for
dns (all done by ip).  I would choose the ip of the debian box for 
both the

gateway and the dns, and i'd take the ip address of the old hardware to
just be something unused (no need to run dhcpd on the debian box, i 
think).




You can certainly use static addressing Dnsmasq has the advantage of
conbining a DHCP and DNS server.
So I would say using Dnsmasq instead of Dhcpd and Bind will be way
easyier if you want to go with dinamic addressing


So i just need to know what to do on the debian box so that it can field
requests to get ips from host names on the internet, and forward 
packets to

the internet modem.  Hopefully, it will be some simple tool like
nm-connection-editor, but maybe it has to be a series of commands.  
If it

is a series of commands, what are they?



It looks like you are using a desktop environment, you might be heading
for trouble trying to mix GUI tools and serving internet connection to
clients.

What you need on that Debian box is to route the packages from your
internal network to your external network (1, might be what you want).


Unless you want to learn and play with it, I would suggest you, if you
can afford,  to buy a ''router' with no built-in modem that you would
plug behind your ISP modem.

And you should look for a router with more than four output ports--
there are a couple of such--so that when you want to add a printer or two
and maybe hook a laptop into your network and possibly a separate
scanner--you get the idea. . . .
--doug



1) https://fedoramagazine.org/internet-connection-sharing-networkmanager/

--
John Doe

Re: No GRUB with brand-new GPU

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/29/20 10:58 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Michael Stone composed on 2020-12-29 22:37 (UTC-0500):


On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 21:42:11 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:

Boards with 2 M.2 NVME and 6 SATA aren't at all uncommon, but finding one with
those and dual eSATA and Firewire and USB-C and Triple Channel and PS/2 and 
S/PDIF
and dual PCIeX16 slots and PCIeX4 (or 8) slot and dual PCIeX1 slots and PCI slot
and 8 channel audio ain't too easy.

Right, you won't find many motherboards with a bunch of obsolete
interfaces. Adapters are cheap if you have some old device you don't
want to part with (I have a firewire card for an old scanner) but all of
that? Seems unnecessary.

So people are supposed to discard or replace their older external devices just
because something else came along that may or may not actually be as well suited
to task?

Obsolete, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder/user. I want my external
disks on the same bus as my internal disks, not the USB bus, which when used for
disks too commonly results in musical device names, and reboots that need to be
redone because of a USB stick that failed to get removed first.
I still prefer floppies (and OM) to USB sticks when appropriate to data 
size. They

have room to write on them what they contain, equivalent to DVDs and CDs. 
Smaller,
like faster, isn't necessarily better either.
I agree that USB sticks are a pain to label, but if you have some ten 
year old floppies

kicking around, see if you can read the data on them--odds are, you can't!
--doug

Re: running microsoft team on debian 10.3

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/8/20 10:37 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:
One of the local government agencies that i would like to interact 
with communicates using Microsoft Team.  The software actually has a 
debian package, which i have downloaded, but not installed yet.


I have a computer running debian 10.3, but it does not have a web cam 
or a mic.


So presumably i need to set up both of those items to make this work.

Does anybody have any experience using Microsoft Team on debian, and 
is there anything i need to be cautious about (of course apart from 
running software from a giant software company)?


Any advice about the web cam or mic?

TIA for any pointers.

dan

Try this:
The camera is called Fogéek and Amazon sold it to me for $49.95. Specs 
from the box it came in are as follows:

Image sensor :              CMOS
Pixel :                             5 Million
Maximum Resolution :    2592*1944
Frame rate:                    30fps
Port                                 USB2.0

If I could send you a picture, I would. It is very clear, no visible 
pixels, did not require a bright light, and the
audio pickup is very clear and audible without shouting at it or 
anything. And I don't work for Amazon or

the Chinese people who made the camera.
--doug

Re: Web-bot tarpit aka spider trap (was: swamp rat bots Q)

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/6/20 8:26 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:

On Sunday 06 December 2020 16:40:37 Charles Curley wrote:


On Sun, 06 Dec 2020 13:15:50 -0600

"Martin McCormick"  wrote:

I found our old dial-up modem in a box of odds and ends 2
years ago and wondered if it could read callerID tones sent after
the first ring.  It can so I started on a perl program that
initializes the modem for callerID and then compares the strings
received with a pair of files, one of which is called scum and
contains callerID name packets of folks we don't want to talk to.
The other is called good and looks for names of friends or anyone
else we like hearing from.  It is actually scanned first and
causes the program to abort.

You wouldn't care to make this software available, would you?

Consider adding an option to send a fax tone instead. :-)

Make that 2 options, if a fax tone gets an answer, send a fax advising
them that sorry, but spammers have used up all the machine paper.

Cheers, Gene Heskett

FYI, I have a phone on my internet line, which I pay for with the internet,
and also a regular Verizon phone. The internet phone lets me call
anywhere in the US or Canada for no extra charge, but it is set not
to ring. The same line connects to my all-in-one printer-scanner-fax.
I think the spammers get the message--I'm not noticing much of
their attempts on that line, and none of them ever left me a fax!
(I have a smart answering machine on the Verizon line. Nothing gets
thru there either. But I have to pay for caller-ID.)
--doug

Re: Instructions for command line usage of WiFi.

[Doug McGarrett]

On 11/29/20 9:42 PM, pe...@easthope.ca wrote:

From: Reco 
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:09:26 +0300

I'm mildly curious how you managed to obtain a laptop which does not
have any kind of wireless connectivity, ...

The machine is a Sharp Mebius PC-CB1-M1.
https://jp.sharp/support/mebius/spec/pc_cb1_m1.html

It has an 8P8C socket and a 6P2C socket.  lspci reports VIA
VT6102/VT6103 Ethernet Controller and VIA AC'97 Modem Controller. No
evidence of IEEE 802.11 or Bluetooth.

This is the only Sharp machine I've used.  They could have made a
similar model with WiFi.  I don't know.

Regards,... P.


There are plug-in wireless adapters for very little money that should
solve your wireless connectivity problem. See:

https://www.amazon.com/customerpicks/Explore-external-WIFI-adapters-for-laptops/e679dff1b9ef87bf0396

--doug

Re: NTFS partitions can't be mounted

[Doug McGarrett]

On 11/25/20 2:54 PM, The Wanderer wrote:

On 2020-11-25 at 12:31, Linux-Fan wrote:


Kanito 73 writes:


Hello

Al the previous issues I published are now solved. Relative to the
RTL8821CE, I searched for a module rtl8821ce.ko but the generated
module was just 8821ce.ko so when I loaded the only RTL*
(rtl8821ae.ko) the right 8821ce.ko was already loaded and I thought
it was the rtl8821ae activating my wifi. [SOLVED]

Now I have another BIG problem.  I installed both Windows10
(version OCTOBER 2020) and Debian 10.0.6 in dual boot and left a
large NTFS partition for data on the primary disk (HDD) and the
whole secondary disk (SDD) also as a unique NTFS partition.
Well, I installed Windows, then Installed Linux and tested the NTFS
  partitions from Linux (Debian) mounting and copying some files
successfully.

[...]


So I think that Windows 10 locks the partitions or something weird
is going on.

The Wanderer's post contains a more elaborate explanation of the
immediate issue you are most likely facing: Windows going into
suspend-to-disk rather than actual shutdown.

A  possibility to bypass the fastboot/rapid startup technology is to
use suitable arguments to the Windows `shutdown` command.

Yeah, I thought of that after hitting Send. The syntax for "shut down
now" should be 'shutdown /s /t 0'.


It used to be possible to bypass it by doing a right-click on the
Windows logo in the lower left and then choose "Shutdown" from that
menu but I am not sure if this still works.

No, to the best of my awareness it does not. If it *does*, I'd be quite
interested to learn that.


Microsoft changes the system required to kill the fast-boot every so often,
almost surely to make it difficult for users of Linux to access Windows from
the Linux system. The routine as I last used it, a couple of months ago,
requires that you become Administrator in the Windows system, which
is not really very straightforward, but is doable. Then you access the
terminal and type in a word or two, and return. It's on the web--Firefox
is your friend.
--doug

Re: An old box running Debian 8

[Doug McGarrett]

On 11/12/20 4:52 PM, Miroslav Skoric wrote:

On 11/11/20 7:42 PM, Felix Miata wrote:




I have an old comp (CPU Pentium II Celeron 400 MHz, 224 MB RAM) running
ham radio server in Debian 8. It works well in CLI, but very slow after
starting GUI. I wonder whether it would be worth to try (if possible at
all) to upgrade it to Debian 9. Any experience with such old boxes?


Which WM or DE is your GUI running? Some use/need a lot more RAM than 
others. If
you want a full DE you might wish to try TDE, a fork of KDE3 
initially created
when KDE went to version 4, 10 years ago. Its latest release is 
available for

Squeeze, Wheezy, Jesse, Stretch and Buster.
 





It is MATE (cannot remember the version). At first I removed all 
graphics, so it remained CLI-only Jesse. Then I installed Mate from 
the repository. Just for occasional use, not 24/7.


Btw, I did not even think of KDE or Gnome because they both were 
terribly slow even in Wheezy.


Did not much test MATE vs. Xfce or LXDE, regarding the speed.


Misko

I have been only cursorily following here, since I don't use debian, but 
I wonder if you might
consider upgrading your mother board to a new one the same size and 
shape, with
a faster processor and probably more ram. Then the latest version of deb 
would surely work
and well. It's a full afternoon's worth of work, more than likely, but 
you would have to see
if you think it's worth it. A lot cheaper than replacing the whole 
machine, surely.

--doug

Re: Please be respectful

[Doug McGarrett]

These messages are very unrespectful. I don't need a screen full of this 
BS! Stop it!

On 10/24/20 12:23 PM, Leslie Rhorer wrote:



On 10/24/2020 3:11 AM, to...@tuxteam.de wrote:

On Sat, Oct 24, 2020 at 02:52:41AM -0500, Leslie Rhorer wrote:

[...]


A couple of decades ago I had to have spinal surgery [...]
What he thought of me as a person was completely irrelevant.


Nice example. If you now try to abstract from it, that means
exactly that: whatever criteria each one choses to be important
is none of your (or my) business.


That is exceedingly poor abstraction.  What it means is I would 
have to be a complete idiot to allow my personal feelings to interfere 
in any way with my ability to continue living and breathing.  It also 
means his manner, no matter how offensive, is in no way relevant to 
his skill.


Of course, there is also absolutely no way he or anyone else is 
going to hurt my feelings by being brutally truthful.  The only thing 
that mattered is he felt he could fix me.



Our duty


Duty?  Are you serious?  I certainly never took an oath to 
Debian.  Did you?  My duty is what I choose it to be, and nothing else.



is to find ways of getting along together


Who says?  It is definitely not my top priority.


while trying to respect this.


While trying to respect what?  I never, ever *TRY* to respect 
anyone or anything.  I either do or I do not.  Neither is at all 
difficult.



Perhaps to someone else her physician's bedside
manners are more important that her own life?


Are you suggesting women are idiots?  If not, then why do you say, 
"Her"?


In the great scheme of things, I am perfectly well aware my life 
is not particularly important.  Not very long from now I will cease to 
live, and in less than a century - probably not much more than a 
decade - no one will have any idea who I was or even that I ever 
lived.  Boo Hoo. That my life is far, far less important than many 
millions of other things does not, however, mean my life is not worth 
much more than many things.  My personal feelings are way, way down 
that list.



It's on us to respect that.


No, it isn't.  Not even a tiny bit.  I respect anyone's right - 
male or female - to be as stupid as they want to be.  That does not 
mean I respect them, nor can anyone anywhere compel me to do so.  I 
also will not choose to mourn anyone killed by their own foolishness.

Re: make a drawing

[Doug McGarrett]

On 8/30/20 11:51 PM, Russell L. Harris wrote:

On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 05:06:20AM +0200, Emanuel Berg wrote:

Anyway, I'd like to make a drawing of it. Any idea
what software might be used?


sweethome
inkscape
dia

There are a number of Linux-usable CAD programs, but the one I thought 
was the best is now gone: DraftSight. There is supposed to be a cloud 
version of it, but I don't know any more about that. It used AutoCAD 
commands, which I used to be familiar with (25 years ago!)  If you have 
any cad experience, try and find an app that uses the commands you know, 
or used to. If you just want a PICTURE, the best  advice is to just take 
one-or two, or however many different views you need.


--doug

Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work

[Doug McGarrett]

On 8/12/20 5:24 AM, songbird wrote:

Dan Ritter wrote:

Doug McGarrett wrote:

Someone along this thread mentioned key-pullers. I have a couple of IBM
model M
keyboards that haven't been cleaned in years. They work well anyway, but I'd
like to clean
the keys. Where could I get one of those key-puller tools?
(If you ever get a chance to get one, TAKE IT! There's no better keyboard
anywhere than
this, altho it's too loud for a crowded office. And ALT-ESC will do the left
Windows-key


$10 at NewEgg. $5-15 at Amazon.

but the keycaps on the Model M are among the easiest to pull by
hand; I like to have a small flat-bladed screwdriver nearby, to
pop one edge of oddly-placed keycaps.

You may want some isopropyl alcohol to wipe away finger-grease
from the remaining surfaces of the keyboard.

   a butter knife will work ok too.

   i agree though about the Model M and similar keyboards and
really miss mine.  too bad that that unicomp keyboards won't
work for me (i've broke two of them the past x number of years
and can't figure out how to fix them and since they're not
sturdy enough it isn't worth sending them in for repairs).


   songbird

There is an outfit that refurbishes Model M keyboards, and I think it 
used to

have a source for a similar k/b. You can find them at:
   https://clickykeyboards.com/
These k/b's are expensive, but the Model M will probably never wear out!
--doug

Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work

[Doug McGarrett]

On 8/11/20 9:53 AM, Dan Ritter wrote:

rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

The way I clean (a non-laptop) keyboard is by disassembling it and putting all
the parts in a fresh (i.e., clean) washtub of warm water with dishsoap, let it
soak for a few minutes, then rinse with clean water and let dry, often
overnight (I almost always have a spare keyboard, but right not my spares need
cleaning "-(

This is a perfectly good method, and one which I used two days
ago.

-dsr-

Someone along this thread mentioned key-pullers. I have a couple of IBM 
model M
keyboards that haven't been cleaned in years. They work well anyway, but 
I'd like to clean

the keys. Where could I get one of those key-puller tools?
(If you ever get a chance to get one, TAKE IT! There's no better 
keyboard anywhere than
this, altho it's too loud for a crowded office. And ALT-ESC will do the 
left Windows-key

trick for Windows users.)
--doug

Re: Some keys on the keyboard do not work

[Doug McGarrett]

On 8/10/20 7:56 AM, Eugen Dedu wrote:

Hi,

I have a Dell Latitude 5580 laptop, and have been a happy debian 
unstable user for 20 years.  I have a very weird problem with its 
builtin keyboard which slows down my work significantly (ctrl-c, 
ctrl-x, ENTER etc. do not work):


Since several months ago some keys on my keyboard do not work, in all 
the applications (e.g. gnome-terminal, emacs, thundebird, firefox). 
When I press on them, very often nothing happens (usually, I press on 
them for 10 seconds to make appear the character), sometimes the key 
appears twice, and sometimes it works flawlessly.  When it works, it 
works for several minutes or several hours; similarly, when it does 
not work, it does not for several minutes or hours or days.  I use 
very often suspend/resume, I also use xmodmap and awesome window 
manager, but I suppose this is irrelevant.


The problematic keys are found on the last row: xcvm,. (but zbn work) 
and the bottom keys (ctrl, alt, window, however space works always 
correctly), plus ENTER key.


I have always thought that it is a X problem which will get fixed. 
Interesting, a few days ago I noticed that on grub I have the same 
problem: c and ENTER did not work.  So now I wonder if it is not a 
hardware problem, however sometimes it works for a long time!


I have looked at Xorg.0.log, without seeing anything wrong.

How can I track down where the problem is, and fix it?

Thanks,
Eugen

For a quick answer, why not borrow a keyboard from some friend, or even 
a friendly dealer, and see if the problem goes away?

--doug, WA2SAY

Re: Enlarging /boot

[Doug McGarrett]

On 8/2/20 4:32 PM, Erwan David wrote:

I used the buster installer about 1 year ago,with a fully encrypted
disk, thus

a /boot/efi partition, a /boot partition then an encrypted lvm.

/boot is now not large enough to even have 2 kernels on it,
initramfs-tools cannot create the images.

I see this
/dev/nvme0n1p2 237M   92M  133M  41% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p1 511M  5.3M  506M   2% /boot/efi

Is it possible to reduce /boot/efi and have some more room for /boot, or
should I reinstall the computer ?
Perhaps you can make the partition larger, using an external version of 
gparted.

Download gparted and burn it to a cd or a bootable usb stick and make the
partition bigger. This will not destroy the data on the partition, but 
it can

give you as much extra space as you need. You will, of course, have to
shrink the partition that is next on the drive to make room for this 
operation.

You can do that without losing data on the other partition, assuming it is
not already full. gparted will caution you about the possible loss of data,
but typically there is no loss in doing these operations. These functions
will take a few minutes, so be patient.
--doug

Re: Epson WF-C5290 printer - connection issues.

[Doug McGarrett]

On 7/28/20 11:05 PM, Weaver wrote:

On 29-07-2020 09:07, Brian wrote:

On Tue 28 Jul 2020 at 13:17:33 -0700, Weaver wrote:


Ippfind delivers on nothing, also.

How about 'ippfind -T 5'?

Nothing!
Just a return to the prompt.

Same thing happens when tried on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
--doug

Re: Kind reminder: please don't reply to and/or quote spam, ever

[Doug McGarrett]

On 4/19/20 4:59 PM, to...@tuxteam.de wrote:

/snip/

This may be a little off-topic, but it seems to me that any email from a .nl
address is spam. Am I wrong? (I just erase from the top!)

--doug

Re: Change in plans (was: Re: Another possible device

[Doug McGarrett]

On 3/28/20 8:17 PM, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

On Saturday, March 28, 2020 04:41:57 PM David Christensen wrote:

On 2020-03-28 12:18, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

I received the Wavlink device, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to return
it and give up on it.  (I'm not clear on what software / drivers I'd
have to find and install, and the device says it doesn't support Linux
(but does mention that it works with Ubuntu 14. -- I guess
Ubuntu is no longer Linux ;-)

I was hoping that I'd be able to find a manual or an installation guide
online before I received (or opened) the package, but I did not.


When happens when you connect the docking station to a USB 2.0 port on
your Dell 1501 laptop?  What does dmesg report?


I haven't unwrapped the unit -- I'm returning the unit in the original, intact
packaging.


What is the make and model of the Express Card dual 3.0 adapter?


Haven't received that yet, probably coming in 6 weeks from the far east.

I have a 4-port USB3 hub running on an older Dell Laptop. Works fine. It's a Sentey or Sentry--couldn't read the 4th 
letter, it's fancy print--Model LS8101. It works in Windows and PCLinuxOS with no drivers or anything. Not running
PCLinux on any other machine anymore, since they castrated it, but it still runs my Epson printer/scanner and OpenSUSE 
does not.


--doug

Re: *nix

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/17/20 1:52 PM, mick crane wrote:

On 2020-02-17 16:29, Charles Curley wrote:

On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 22:07:59 -0500
Doug McGarrett  wrote:


(I fell off the stoop
after tripping over my dog's tether in the dark on the 4th of July,
1915, and spent most of the summer in various stages of recovery.)
Maybe some day I'll figure out how to dial a number on the phone.


I suspect that you find having to dial a phone a step backwards in
user interface technology.

For the young whippersnappers in the audience, telephone technology in
1915 required that one pick up the ear piece, wait for the operator to
acknowledge you, and tell her (it was usually a woman) to whom you
wished to speak. She would then connect you by re-arranging physical
patch cords to make physical connections.

And hope it wasn't a long distance call, which could take hours to set
up.


In the 50s I heard that you could tap out the number on the cradle in 
the public phone boxes and connect without inserting coins.


mick


Now you tell me!   --doug

Re: *nix

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/17/20 10:03 AM, Dan Purgert wrote:

On Feb 17, 2020, Curt wrote:

On 2020-02-17, Doug McGarrett  wrote:






[...] I hope I never have to do so again. (I fell off the stoop
after tripping over my dog's tether in the dark on the 4th of July,
1915, and spent most of the summer in various stages of recovery.)
Maybe some day I'll figure out how to dial a number on the phone.


I'm sure you must've recovered by now and greatly admire (and remain
somewhat astounded by) your longevity.


Not to mention the fact he had a working mobile phone some 60 years
before they were invented!


OK, 2015. I just reread the post, and I didn't catch it then, either!
--doug

Re: *nix

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/16/20 4:30 PM, Charles Curley wrote:

On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 13:03:05 -0800
Charlie Gibbs  wrote:


  > With touchscreen technology becoming the standard even for laptops
  > and desktop monitors the demand for keyboard oriented interaction
  > decreases so the developers must create interfaces that are better
  > suited for tap / swipe.

Fine.  But the keyboard should still be an option.  All I'm asking
is that I be allowed to choose.  I'm not insisting that everyone
use a keyboard, and likewise people should not insist that I
_not_ use a keyboard.


Feel free to contribute code.

Finally some common sense. I HATE touchscreen "technology" as they like 
to call it. I want to use my keyboard and my trackball, and I do not 
even try to communicate by touch-screen phone. A phone is a voice
communications device, as far as I'm concerned. Good for calling 911 if 
you have to. I hope I never have to do so again. (I fell off the stoop
after tripping over my dog's tether in the dark on the 4th of July, 
1915, and spent most of the summer in various stages of recovery.)

Maybe some day I'll figure out how to dial a number on the phone.

--doug

Re: buster: low audio level

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/12/20 6:39 PM, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:

Quoting D. R. Evans (2020-02-12 23:54:16)

Jonas Smedegaard wrote on 2/12/20 3:19 PM:


/snip/


is more resource heave in my experience.  An area righ in bikeshedding.


What on earth is bikeshedding? That's a new one on me!

/snip/


Good luck,

  - Jonas

Re: buster: low audio level

[Doug McGarrett]

On 2/12/20 1:05 PM, D. R. Evans wrote:

Jonas Smedegaard wrote on 2/12/20 10:43 AM:

Quoting D. R. Evans (2020-02-12 18:34:27)

I just installed buster on a new (to me) machine, and the audio level
is very low. With all the mixer controls and the physical volume
control on the speakers turned up, I can hear audio, but even then it
is unpleasantly quiet, certainly nothing one would want to listen to.

Any suggestions as to how to fix this, or even how to go about
investigating it sensibly, would be gratefully received.


Maybe you missed some mixer controls?  Desktop environments nowadays
commonly use (not only ALSA but also) Pulseaudio, and a common mistake
is to only play with the knobs tied to ALSA.

One relatively userfriendly interface to Pulseaudio that I know of is
pavucontrol, available in the Debian package of the same name.  You can
run it as a self-contained graphical tool, or if you want it handy
accesible then additionally install pasystray.



OK; I installed that, but it doesn't seem to do anything more than the desktop
mixer program.

It says that Analog Stereo Output is 100%, as does the mixer program. Moving
that slider does make the volume even lower, so it is having an effect, but
only to make the audio even harder to hear.

  Doc

You say this is a new machine, so it surely came with Windows. If you 
still have Windows, try whatever program Windows has for audio and see 
if it works right. Maybe the machine is defective.

--doug

Re: Print Settings issue

[Doug McGarrett]

On 1/9/20 12:49 AM, kaye n wrote:

Hello Friends,

I've given up on using imagescan. I was able to install it, but it just 
could not detect the wifi printer, so I uninstalled it.


The built-in Xsane scanner seemed to work at first, but now when I open 
it, I get:


Error during CMS conversion:
Could not open scanner ICM profile.



I'm running a different distro--OpenSUSE Tumbleweed--and I am having a 
lot or trouble tying to get to an Epson all-use printer, scanner, fax.
I had used XSane Scanner on a different Linux which has been severely 
ruined (PCLOS) and it worked fine but I could never get it to scan with 
TW, and now I can't seem to get it to print either. Why is printing and 
scanning so difficult? VueScan doesn't find the scanner either.


--doug

Re: Windows install on 4 partitions?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/29/2019 11:05 AM, Kenneth Parker wrote:



On Sun, Dec 29, 2019 at 10:30 AM Joe mailto:j...@jretrading.com>> wrote:

On Sun, 29 Dec 2019 07:55:22 -0500
rhkra...@gmail.com <mailto:rhkra...@gmail.com> wrote:

 > On Saturday, December 28, 2019 03:46:53 PM Doug McGarrett wrote:
 > > I bought a new computer last summer, and it came with Windows 10 on
 > > FOUR partitions! I shrank the Windows partition 4 to 100 GiB to
 > > allow a minimum Windows system for anything that won't run on
 > > OpenSUSE TW, and made a new partition for Linux, using a disk for
 > > GParted. Works fine.
 >
 > Interesting, I'm wondering about the logic behind that -- was that an
 > effort to segregate the user's "real" data (photos, videos, email,
 > ...) on a separate partition?

No, MS has never done that. The Users directory is always part of the
system tree. If Windows breaks badly, or gets a virus, you reinstall
it. It's your responsibility to have backed up anything you want to
keep.

 >
 > Which manufacturer?  What is on /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4?  (Are
 > /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 as described in the original email (Windows
 > and Windows recovery partitions)?
 >
 > I don't remember the correct terminology, but is the partioning done
 > under whe old scheme (where there can be up to 4 primary partitions
 > or 3 primary partions and then (hmm, iirc, up to 12?) extended
 > partitions "under" /dev/sda, or under the new scheme (which I don't
 > remember enough about to describe -- I vaguely think a lot more
 > partitions and all of them primary?)?
 >

I'd guess C:, Recovery, EFI and a small 'Microsoft Reserved Partition'.
The MS Disk Administrator does not show this reserved partition, but
GParted does. My Windows 10 machine is an Acer Aspire netbook (which, by
the way, came fitted with a drive too small to do the inevitable set of
updates after first boot). Partitions will be GPT now.


I have an HP, where I, in effect, replaced Windows with multiple Linux
Partitions, Debian, Devuan and Ubuntu.  Most of the 1 Terrabyte
[Spinning] Hard Drive was the, actual NTFS Windows Partition.  I Blew
all of that away.  But that was Partition Four.  In order, Partition 1
is 1G, Hidden NTFS, and labeled "diag".  Partition 2 is Fat32 (377 MB),
EFI, and I use it, with both Debian's and Refind's EFI Programs, to
allow me to Boot.  (Since every Debian Upgrade that includes Grub
Reconfigures Grub, the Refind part is there in name only).  Partition 3
has a Blank File System name (in parted), is 134 MB, and is labeled
"Microsoft Reserved Partition", with a Flag of msftres.

Since they didn't take up much space, I thought it would be prudent to
leave the first three Partitions alone (except for using the EFI one).

My 1.97 Cents worth.  :-)

Kenneth Parker
Computer is a make hitherto unknown to me--"PowerSpec" bought from 
MicroCenter in Westbury, NY. I believe Ken explained the partitioning.
I didn't want to mess with the Windows layout, even tho I almost never 
boot into that os. (But i may have to: I can't get midi to work in Linux.)

--doug

Re: INQUIRY

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/28/2019 01:54 PM, Charles Curley wrote:

On Sat, 28 Dec 2019 18:38:56 +0100 (CET)
 wrote:


Hello Debian , I'm getting error while installing grub in Debian.
The error is "unable install grub in dummy"
My intention is to dual boot debian and windows.


Well, I have no idea what "dummy" is in this context.

Most Windows installations are to /dev/sda1 (the main Windows
partition) and /dev/sda2 (the Windows recovery partition). Assuming you
have shrunk your Windows partition, rather than install a second drive
for Linux (you didn't say), your boot partition will be /dev/sda3 or
higher. Other partitions will be /dev/sda5 and/or higher. And all of
that discussion ignores UEFI issues


I bought a new computer last summer, and it came with Windows 10 on FOUR
partitions! I shrank the Windows partition 4 to 100 GiB to allow a 
minimum Windows system for anything that won't run on OpenSUSE TW, and 
made a new partition for Linux, using a disk for GParted. Works fine.

--doug


Since you want a dual-boot setup, you have several options. One is to
have Windows present a boot menu, with an entry for Linux. Another is
to use grub to boot both Linux and Windows. In the former case, you
install grub to the Linux boot partition. In the latter, to /dev/sda.
And again, that ignores UEFI, which is a whole other can of lawyers.

So what is the *exact* error message you got?

Which version of Linux? Debian, I expect. But which version of Debian?
And which of the many possible installation patterns are you trying to
use?

Re: Good advice on Linux (debian) compatible microscope

[Doug McGarrett]

On 10/26/2019 05:55 PM, deloptes wrote:

Doug McGarrett wrote:


You haven't said what you're going to look at, but in my humble opinion,
if you only want to LOOK, not record, a binocular optical microscope
with a ring light and under slide illumination option is the way to go.
I don't know if a high magnification microscope like you're describing
is available with a zoom function, as lower gain units are, but if there
is a zoom function available, get it.


OK - thank you this sounds like a classical microscope


I am personally familiar with much lower gain instruments, for
inspecting and assembling electronic circuits using surface mount
devices. That kind of microscope would use about 7X to 20X zoom
magnification.


yes but modern electronics get smaller and smaller - factor of 10x is not
good.


If you want to record, there are optical microscopes with a "third eye"
where a camera can be installed, and the camera could be an electronic
camera with output to a computer.


this is also a good idea


When you know for sure what kind of scope you want, look to eBay or a
similar source--microscopes are quite expensive!

--doug, retired RF Engineer


One thing I would like to use it for is electronics and another thing is for
the children that are in school. So I wouldn't spend too much for
professional optics (lenses) that are indeed quite expensive, but I may
consider the other options you mentioned. I am also kind of reserved when
it comes to modern things. They usually sell you some crap made in china.

thanks


Many of the better scopes are made in the USA, in Germany, and 
Switzerland. You can always look up the source on Google.

--doug

Re: Good advice on Linux (debian) compatible microscope

[Doug McGarrett]

On 10/26/2019 02:02 PM, deloptes wrote:


Hi,
I read some time ago a discussion here about microscope and I am thinking
for long time to buy one.
I have no idea what I have to look at, so I hope someone would help make the
right choice. Here are some of the requirements and questions I have

Req.
 400x zoom is OK, but I saw also one with 500
 price <=200,-
 stand alone and PC use (implies display and USB)
 not hand held
 linux (debian) support

Questions
 the few I had a look at say they support AV out. What does it mean?
 is the quality good enough? does such one supports also video over USB?
 the few I saw say they use Li-Io battery - is it reliable/replaceable
 (I know that some Li-Io batteries are very rear.)
 it says also optic zoom 200 and digital zoom 400

Thanks in advance


You haven't said what you're going to look at, but in my humble opinion, 
if you only want to LOOK, not record, a binocular optical microscope 
with a ring light and under slide illumination option is the way to go. 
I don't know if a high magnification microscope like you're describing 
is available with a zoom function, as lower gain units are, but if there 
is a zoom function available, get it.
I am personally familiar with much lower gain instruments, for 
inspecting and assembling electronic circuits using surface mount 
devices. That kind of microscope would use about 7X to 20X zoom 
magnification.
If you want to record, there are optical microscopes with a "third eye" 
where a camera can be installed, and the camera could be an electronic 
camera with output to a computer.
When you know for sure what kind of scope you want, look to eBay or a 
similar source--microscopes are quite expensive!


--doug, retired RF Engineer

Re: [OT] replacement for SystemRescueCD

[Doug McGarrett]

On 10/24/2019 02:51 AM, David wrote:

On Thu, 24 Oct 2019 at 15:44, Default User  wrote:



  Guys, [...]


Guys, thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure what I will do yet.


Hi,
I'm sure you don't intend to offend, but in future please try
to choose words that cannot accidentally be understood
as excluding valued members of this community.

Even though in some situations "guys" is claimed to be a
gender-neutral word, I doubt that everyone thinks of themselves
as a "guy". And it will be polite to those people to not make them
choose between doing that or feeling excluded.


I first heard some young women use the word "guys" for a group of 
themselves back around 1956. So it's not a neologism!


--doug

Re: Top 7 Programming Languages That Employers Really Want

[Doug McGarrett]

On 10/18/2019 09:31 AM, Dan Ritter wrote:

Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming wrote:

Subject: Top 7 Programming Languages That Employers Really Want

This is just a quick survey. May I know what programming languages do
you know? I am considering being a programmer or developer.
How long will it take for me to master a programming language like
C++, Java, and Python?


Nobody knows.



skip intro


Most experienced programmers know two or three computer languages very
well, and one or two others just enough to figure out what a program is
doing.

Python is generally considered a good language to start learning
the ideas of programming, and is also widely used for a variety
of tasks. I think "Learn Python The Hard Way" is an excellent
introductory book. It will take a dedicated student at least
two months to get through it, or about a year if you work on it
one day a week or so.

Once you know one programming language, you will find it much
easier to learn new ones in the same family of languages, and
also easier to learn unrelated languages. For example, once you
understand the concept of a typed variable, you won't have to
relearn that -- just what the types available in a given
language are.

I work in shell, Perl, Python, Ruby; I use some special purpose
languages like SQL, and specialized configuration languages like
Cisco IOS and Juniper's JunOS. I have used any number of
languages in the past that I don't encounter much, like LISP,
FORTRAN and Prolog.

I don't consider myself a programmer. I'm a senior
general-purpose systems administrator with network engineering,
security and people-management specialties.

-dsr-


I'm not a programmer either. I started learning code way back
when BASIC and Fortran seemed to be the most common languages,
and I learned to use BASIC. (This was in the days when we had
an acoustic modem and a Teletype machine, and the mainframe was
1500 miles away!) Later, I learned a "real" language, Pascal.
When I discovered the case statement, I was in heaven! What a
mess it was to do the equivalent in BASIC! As an RF engineer,
it was really handy to solve some repetitive equations in Pascal.

I'm not sure if any Pascal compilers are still available, but
Turbo was the most popular back when. Until the last version
came out, and it was too complicated for its own good.

I took a good look at Python, and decided that the necessary
indentation was too much for me to deal with. Maybe there is
some kind of automated system for doing this, but I don't know
of it.

As for as learning to code, the most important part of any coding
language routine is to state a problem and define a means of solving
it, step by step, before you write a word of code, regardless of the 
coding language! (This usually is called "pseudo code.") So if you have

a logical mind, that's the first step.

--doug

Re: disk going bad? or fuser related issues? . . .

[Doug McGarrett]

On 10/04/2019 03:26 PM, Étienne Mollier wrote:

Albretch Mueller, on 2019-10-04:

  Lately I have been noticing the NTFS partition being slower than
usual: telling me I am not allowed to open that partition and/or the
OS doing it itself but taking its time (like 5 seconds). The other
partitions mount just fine, so it doesn't seem to be a hardware issue.

  Is that disk partition somehow going bad or there might be something
else going on?


I vaguely recall from the previous decade that NTFS is subject
to noticeable performance loss while fragmenting.  From time to
time, you may want to run a defragmenter tool on this drive, to
reorder file blocks.


root@mrme:~# mount --types ntfs --verbose /dev/sdc1 /media/mrme/NTFS
Mount is denied because the NTFS volume is already exclusively opened.
The volume may be already mounted, or another software may use it which
could be identified for example by the help of the 'fuser' command.


I've had that kind of behavior in a dual boot context, while the
Windows system kept the partition still mounted even after a
poweroff, in order to boot faster (sic) afterwards.  I had a
solution which involved disabling the Fast Boot capability of
the motherboard for one, and second to always use the Restart
button instead of Shutdown, which actually put the machine in
some kind of deep-sleep.  Which little luck it may just be that.

Kind Regards,  :)

I bought a new computer in May or June, and it came, of course, with 
Windows. As far as I can tell, with this version of Win 10, it is no 
longer possible to disable the fast boot. Damn MS anyway!

--doug

Re: why won't ff look at this url?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 08/26/2019 03:22 PM, Andrei POPESCU wrote:

On Sb, 24 aug 19, 10:21:59, Gene Heskett wrote:

Greetings folks;

https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/w-va-ambulance-ems-director-arrested-accused-of-missing-and-tampering-with-narcotics

All I get for clicking on it is a blank screen.


Two things you could try:

 1. firefox --safe-mode
 2. stop Firefox, rename ~/.mozilla (i.e. where your profile is) and
 start Firefox

Hope this helps,
Andrei

I don't know what this means, but in OpenSuse Tumbleweed with FossaMail 
and Thunderbird, the URL opens perfectly.

--doug

Re: How good is AI?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 08/24/2019 07:56 PM, bw wrote:

In-Reply-To: 


Larry Martell 
No programmer is good enough to make a bot like Gene. No human is even
good enough to be like Gene.


I would have to disagree.  I recall back in early 1990's I got ahold of a
little freeware bot called 'Chat With Lisa'
(https://archives.scovetta.com/pub/fehq/BBSDoorGames/lisa14.zip) on my
BBS.  That bot prog was extremely intelligent, and could hold a decent
conversation, although at the time it was of course only text/response.
I fooled dozens of people with that door, using it as 'page sysop' on the
BBS.  I can only imagine how far the technology has progreesed since
then...

I actually fell in love with that bot once or twice, she could even send
pics.  I knew she was fake, but dang she had personality!!

Have fun,
bw


I haven't heard of a 'bot that could pass the Turning test, as yet, have 
you?


--doug

Re: 3 phase power (was Re: Wireless home LAN - WiFi vs Bluetooth?

[Doug McGarrett]

On 07/31/2019 09:08 PM, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

An update | correction | recollection ;-)

On Tuesday, July 30, 2019 11:34:43 AM rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:

I have seen diagrams in NEC code books for a different arrangement to get
120 volt 3 phase power, but I don't recall ever actually encountering that
in real life.


Oh, wow, how quickly I forget -- I did encounter systems like that, often for
lighting in industrial applications,  And, further, iirc, we could (and did)
buy and install florescent light (and maybe HID?) fixtures designed to work on
208 volts, which we connected phase to phase in that kind of system.

Of course, I could be misremembering.


In that case, iirc, 120 volt loads are connected from a hot
tap to the neutral wire (the 4th wire of the 3 phase arrangement), and you
get (nominally) 208 volts (RMS) connecting phase to phase.  I have seen
things like motors that were rated like 240 / 208 volts (or something like
that).



Three-phase power comes in two varieties: delta and wye (Y). In delta, 
there are only three wires, and you get power across any two of the

three phases. In the wye configuration, you get power from one phase of
the three to the center of the wye.
If I remember right, and I'm not sure I do, you get 208 VAC across two
points of the delta, and I THINK you get 120 VAC from an end point to 
the center of the wye.


--doug

Re: Easiest way to do VGA to Text

[Doug McGarrett]

On 07/31/2019 02:22 PM, deloptes wrote:

Joe Pfeiffer wrote:


I used tesseract-ocr, mentioned previously, a couple of years ago with
very good success.  Also, the problem he's trying to solve is much


what means very good success? You had to proof read it at the end - time
spent. For me either something works or it doesn't none of them worked even
close to good


simpler than the general OCR problem; he's got the actual correct pixels
(rather than a scan), and maybe even have knowledge of what fonts are
used.  That makes a huge difference.



I doubt it - really! Let me know at the end. I am curious.

regards


Does your repo have cuneiform? I found that cuneiform works LOTS better 
than tesseract.
(You can find cuneiform in the rpmfind app, and convert it with alien if 
you can't find a deb version.)


--doug

Re: FossaMail

[Doug McGarrett]

Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
Does anyone out there have a copy of FossaMail  they would be willing to 
share.  I had a catastrophic failure of Stretch, had to reinstall and 
can't find my copy of FossaMail.


Many thanks in advance.


I just asked for the rpm--then I found a copy. I don't know how to send 
it to you, if you can use the rpm version, but I do have it. It's 26 MB!
You probably know it's discontinued, but I like it and I'm going to 
install it, assuming the libs are available.


--doug

Re: Help - 13-year Debian veteran can't install Jessie

[Doug McGarrett]

On 7/27/2015 2:30 PM, Glenn English wrote:


On Jul 27, 2015, at 11:49 AM, Michael Fothergill 
 wrote:




On 27 July 2015 at 18:27, Mark Allums  wrote:
On 07/27/2015 08:46 AM, Hans wrote:
Am Montag, 27. Juli 2015, 08:13:29 schrieb john vera:

In one word, drivers.



Don't we mean: firmware.  Nonfree firmware was removed from Debian main for 
some silly reason.  A lot of hardware needs it to function.


​I agree.  Having to install the firmware manually to get X11 working is a bit 
Arthur Tuttlesque.

Why not go the whole hog and install Gentoo instead?


Guys, this is not tough. Just put "non-free" in your apt sources file line(s), 
and you'll never see the difference. The firmware in not unencumbered; it's $free, but 
not beer free. You can get it any time you ask for it.



Doesn't that necessitate being able to install the program first?

--doug


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Re: A rookie's query: Want to about Debian and the related

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/06/2013 04:13 PM, André Nunes Batista wrote:

On Tue, 2013-11-26 at 16:58 -0500, Doug wrote:

On 11/26/2013 03:22 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:

On 11/27/13, Lisi Reisz  wrote:

On Sunday 24 November 2013 19:20:47 Doug wrote:

On 11/24/2013 12:34 PM, AP wrote:

[snip]

(i) Which Distribution:

[snip]

(ii) DEB vs RPM

[snip]

The other differentiator is the package manager. I have a very
strong opinion here: the package manager MUST display the available
programs that you can choose from.

That statement is a very contentious one, and one with which I
disagree.  I have not infrequently been using Synaptic on a computer
I administer, torn my hair out and switched to Aptitude to solve a
problem.


If it doesn't, you will have to
have a list from somewhere. The idea of using "apt-get-install
filename" is just beyond my belief.

Beyond your belief?  So you do not believe that there are many of us
who _like_ the command line?  You may not like it, but many do.

Doug, are you thinking "apt-get install packagename"
or "dpkg install filename"?

The latter is rarely used (even by 'power' users) these days, and the
former is not what you wrote - perhaps this clarifies something useful
for someone.

Enjoy
Zenaan



Maybe I have it wrong--I refer to having to install knowing a priori the
name of the package you want to install. And I have _never_ had a
problem with Synaptic. Using it for at least 4 years now.
I'm not afraid of the command line, I use it frequently.

-doug

--
Blessed are the peacemakers..for they shall be shot at from both sides.
--A.M.Greeley



errr WTF?! How are you supposed to install something which you don't
know?


/snip/

Yes, that's the whole point! Some file manager systems do _not_
provide file names.

--doug


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Re: A rookie's query: Want to about Debian and the related

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/02/2013 12:26 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Mon, 2013-12-02 at 11:20 -0600, y...@marupa.net wrote:

On Monday, December 02, 2013 05:56:09 PM Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Mon, 2013-12-02 at 10:27 -0600, y...@marupa.net wrote:

On Monday, December 02, 2013 05:14:17 PM Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:14:27 +0100, AP 

wrote:

On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Ralf Mardorf

 wrote:

I can't remember what I tested a while ago. Perhaps Claws, maybe
Sylpheed. I'll try _both_ again.

Have all tried Thunderbird?  I am eager to know about it. Is it
excellent?

I used it for years, it was and likely is excellent, but not a native
Linux app and as already mentioned before, I dislike the Mozilla policy.
It's my eccentric, whimsical notion that I don't use Mozillas _if
possible_, but I also guess that ... [1]. IOW Mozilla as a MUA for me
never ever again. As browser I still use QupZilla and the Tor Browser
Bundle quasi based on Mozilla software.

Why would you say it's not Linux native? Is Thunderbird not compiled for
Linux? It's not running on Java or Mono or anything, is it? I don't follow
your logic here.

Do you mean it's not exclusive to Linux? That's true, but why is that a
bad
thing?

If you want adapt a Microsoft/Apple policy to Linux, then Mozillas are
perfect. Go and give Google all your private data, don't care about the
freedom to choose a mail format, use mbox (yes, it's UNIX, not
Microsoft, but how often is it used by Linux MUAs?) ... Mozilla software
is excellent regarding to technically aspects, but not regarding to
freedom.

I don't see how POP3 or IMAP services are "nonfree" just because you have data
on a server somewhere. There might be privacy concerns but those protocols are
just as open as mbox is.

Perhaps you can elaborate how Mozilla's approach is "nonfree" aside from the
trademark issue we already know about.

You misunderstood my point. There might be nothing bad with using mbox,
but having the freedom to chose mbox or maldir is the freedom to chose.
Mozillas nanny you, they chose the mail format for you, the chose Google
as startpage for you, they make decisions for you. I want to decide on
my own. I don't need somebody to make decisions for me.

Regards,
Ralf




Start (Home) Page:
Firefox>Edit>Preferences>General>Home Page
Set it to anything you like. Or nothing.

For Thunderbird--Mail format:
choose font, choose top or bottom reply, choose color,
choose sig, enable spam filters, I can't even name all the
possibilities.

Sacrifice something good and useful to the great god FOSS, again!






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Re: A rookie's query: Want to about Debian and the related

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/02/2013 11:56 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Mon, 2013-12-02 at 10:27 -0600, y...@marupa.net wrote:

On Monday, December 02, 2013 05:14:17 PM Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:14:27 +0100, AP 

wrote:

On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Ralf Mardorf

 wrote:

I can't remember what I tested a while ago. Perhaps Claws, maybe
Sylpheed. I'll try _both_ again.

Have all tried Thunderbird?  I am eager to know about it. Is it
excellent?

I used it for years, it was and likely is excellent, but not a native
Linux app and as already mentioned before, I dislike the Mozilla policy.
It's my eccentric, whimsical notion that I don't use Mozillas _if
possible_, but I also guess that ... [1]. IOW Mozilla as a MUA for me
never ever again. As browser I still use QupZilla and the Tor Browser
Bundle quasi based on Mozilla software.

Why would you say it's not Linux native? Is Thunderbird not compiled for
Linux? It's not running on Java or Mono or anything, is it? I don't follow
your logic here.

Do you mean it's not exclusive to Linux? That's true, but why is that a bad
thing?

If you want adapt a Microsoft/Apple policy to Linux, then Mozillas are
perfect. Go and give Google all your private data, don't care about the
freedom to choose a mail format, use mbox (yes, it's UNIX, not
Microsoft, but how often is it used by Linux MUAs?) ... Mozilla software
is excellent regarding to technically aspects, but not regarding to
freedom.


And just sacrifice something else useful to the great god FOSS!


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Re: A rookie's query: Want to about Debian and the related

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/02/2013 09:14 AM, AP wrote:

On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Ralf Mardorf  wrote:


I can't remember what I tested a while ago. Perhaps Claws, maybe
Sylpheed. I'll try _both_ again.

Have all tried Thunderbird?  I am eager to know about it. Is it excellent?


Thunderbird is excellent. Have been using it exclusively for several 
years, ever since
KMail screwed me by printing about 5% of my incoming mail in some Asian 
script

that could not be recovered into English.

--doug


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Re: A rookie's query: Want to about Debian and the related

[Doug McGarrett]

On 12/01/2013 01:40 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

On Sun, 2013-12-01 at 09:43 +0800, gmail wrote:

On 12/01/2013 08:45 AM, Celejar wrote:

On Fri, 29 Nov 2013 16:32:57 +0100
Ralf Mardorf  wrote:

...


I suspect that the good MUAs are all without a GUI, hopefully I'm
mistaken.

Sylpheed is a good GUI MUA.


Regards,
Ralf

Celejar



how about thunderbird ？

I experienced Mozillas in the past as very good MUAs, but I dropped
them, because I dislike the policy of Mozilla. My favorite browsers are
still Mozillas, but I dislike that upstream e.g. does not allowed for
the distros to start it without their Google startpage, when it runs for
the first time. This might be different for the Debian Ice* versions,
but I want to use software that isn't distro specific. Other than most
Linux users I'm not married with a distro, I want to be able to switch
between distros, but to stay with the same software.

Regards,
Ralf




You can go to the preferences and choose another start page
if you like. (That's not Thunderbird, of course, that's Firefox.)
Anyway, if you'd rather have Bing, you can have it. Or Yahoo.
Or whatever pleases you.

--doug


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