December 2017 - luv-main

Debian/stretch screen corruption/hangs
by Brian May 11 Jan '18

11 Jan '18

Hello, I seem to be having an increasing problem on my Thinkpad Carbon X1 2015, where: * The screen will lose sync. Like it is an older analogue monitor. Sometimes it will come good after 1 second. Other times a suspend/resume will solve this. Some videos showing the problems: https://photos.app.goo.gl/g71psLYXEfcNK1Vx1 - the black screen with dots is uncommon, the scrolling display is more common. This is with *one* emacs window shown at full screen. * The screen will flash bright for a second, go back to normal, and then the computer will completely freeze. * These above symptoms typically happen in response to a keypress at a terminal window (gnome terminal and xterm both affected). Especially the down button or escape key, but these aren't the only ones. Happens with no external devices plugged in. * wayland/xorg gnome/kde/awesome/etc all have the same problem. Have latest Debian/stretch with latest security updates. It is possible that a regression in a security update has caused increased problems, but I am doubtful. At first I thought this was a hardware problem. Which means I should try to get it fixed under warranty. But: * Built in tests all pass. * The problem is not reproducible under Windows. * I installed Debian/stretch (brand new install) on a very different computer - a MacBook Pro, and encounter - what appears to be - exactly the same symptoms. Although the "lost sync" affect doesn't last as long. The only thing in common is both have high resolution displays. I reduced the resolution on the Thinkpad, just in case, but still get similar problems. This MacBook Pro works fine with OSX. Any ideas? This is making Linux on these computers unusable, I never know when it is going to crash. In practice, times are often very short, or worst time (e.g. 2nd time entering this email... This time under OSX). Regards

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Ubuntu 17.04, openssh certificates, ssh-agent and fights with gnome-session + gnome-keyring-ssh
by Anthony 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

Hey folks, I decided it was time to upgrade my SSH key, so I set about creating a new one. I reacquainted myself with ssh-keygen, created a key with recommended options, and then worried because it was failing to work. ... I then found out that the recommended options which cover for some of keygen's previous format limitations are not supported by gnome-keyring-ssh. So, I found the instructions for turning off gnome-keyring-ssh and turning on normal ssh-agent. ... but then I realised my keys still weren't propagating to programs I ran (primarily ssh + rsync using ssh from command line) So I hacked around it with some stuff in .bashrc (I know, not pretty). export SSH_AGENT_PID="${SSH_AGENT_PID:-$(ps -o pid,ppid,command -u $(whoami) | grep '[s]sh-agent' | head -n 1 | awk '{print $1}')}" export SSH_AGENT_PPID="${SSH_AGENT_PPID:-$(ps -o pid,ppid,command -u $(whoami) | grep '[s]sh-agent' | head -n 1 | awk '{print $2}')}" export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="${SSH_AUTH_SOCK:-$(find /tmp -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -name "agent.${SSH_AGENT_PPID}" 2>/dev/null | head -n 1)}" ... and this worked for a little bit, but then I found that: 1. This wasn't propagating to programs invoked from launcher (think Remmina) 2. That an update of some sort was now messing with the SSH_AUTH_SOCK variable I tweaked my bashrc hack job: export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="$(find /tmp -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -name "agent.${SSH_AGENT_PPID}" 2>/dev/null | head -n 1)" ... but then wondered about: 1. Why was something that looked like gnome-keyring-ssh setting the path in SSH_AUTH_SOCK to something that didn't exist 2. How I could have the right variables set early enough that things "just work" for both command line and GUI launched apps Doing some reading, it seems like some hacks have been made to gnome-session and friends on the assumption that gnome-keyring is the default, so SSH_AUTH_SOCK should always point to where it puts things. In 17.10 (which I haven't moved to yet until they figure out a stable way of doing remote desktop into a machine running Wayland - I use connection to x11vnc over SSH to be able to interact with console session), apparently there is a variable one sets called GSM_SKIP_SSH_AGENT_WORKAROUND (and I thought my .bashrc was a hack job), though the suggestions I looked at didn't give me much luck in my 17.04 configuration. So, after that large chunk of explanation :) - Anyone else using SSH certificates on a linux GUI desktop? - How are you doing it? Anthony

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Humble Bundles: No Starch Press Coder stuff, Make from Make magazine
by Rodney Brown 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

13 Days Left Humble Book Bundle: Be a Coder by No Starch Press https://www.humblebundle.com/books/be-a-coder-books >=USD1 Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good! Learn You A Haskell for Great Good! Teach Your Kids to Code The Linux Command Line No Starch Press Sampler >=USD8 Land of Lisp Realm of Racket Clojure for the Brave and True The Art of Assembly Language (2nd ed.) Think Like a Programmer The Art of R Programming >=USD15 The Art of Debugging Code Craft Data Visualization with JavaScript Ruby Under a Microscope Understanding ECMAScript 6 >=USD18 Wicked Cool Shell Scripts (2nd ed.) The Book of R 8 Days Left Humble Book Bundle: Maker Skill Builders by Make: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/maker-skill-builders-books >=USD1 Woodworking for Young Makers Getting Started with Soldering DIY Robots: Make: Vol 55 >=USD8 Minecraft for Makers Easy Electronics mBots for Makers All Hands on Boards: Make: Vol 57 $10 off print and $5 off digital subscription to Make: magazine >=USD15 Getting Started with the micro:bit Getting Started with 3D Carving Modern Leatherwork for Makers The Community Issue: Make: Vol 58 More in 1 day 21 hours >=USD20 Zero to Maker: Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About) Anything (2nd ed.) Design for CNC Jumpstarting C Jumpstarting JavaScript

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Check & update your Android version - Pixel Phone Help
by Andrew McGlashan 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Hi, This is probably why I stopped seeing updates.... https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705#pixel_phones&nexus_ devices Minimum update & support periods Device -- Nexus 6P No guaranteed Android version updates after -- September 2017 No guaranteed security updates after -- November 2018 No guaranteed telephone or online support after -- November 2018 So... insofar as official updates go, my phone will likely expire it's useful life in November, 2018. Unless I go with non-stock ROMs by then. I was a bit annoyed not to get the 6th Novebmer patch that was the one that fixes the KRACK problem, but it's all good now; pity anyone whom has this phone and [probably] won't get updates without sideloading though :( Kind Regards AndrewM -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iF4EAREIAAYFAloxEm0ACgkQqBZry7fv4vtb7gD9F+s9gHTVeIEzQSbdTnZ8JEwH +bixCCuW8HgBXJ/SEvkBAKO0WVjvVV0rccOS5aGgIsKFWV9CIrQJWwBOR338PcpT =CyHw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Full OTA Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices | Google APIs for Android | Google Developers
by Andrew McGlashan 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Hi, My Nexus 6P was stuck on 5th November security level, I knew there was a 6th November update, but I never got it for some reason; then the 5th December update come out. Android version 8.0.0 So, I found this page and downloaded 8.1.0 for the phone and sideloaded the update (no root required). https://developers.google.com/android/ota#angler Now it is all up to date again. Kind Regards AndrewM -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iF4EAREIAAYFAloxD1sACgkQqBZry7fv4vtDvAEAmGlljNQaVZQVUSym1TCtXV3W aBdQ08Ugk7bbVlNh7aUBAKeZzK14f+Igtwjc7kX12QTZbJBT3qWhUiV+n+e6oVh3 =SgBC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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laptop suspend in Debian/Testing
by Russell Coker 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

I've just installed Debian/Stretch on a new (to me) laptop and upgraded it to Testing. When I close the lid it doesn't suspend, instead it gives the message "authentication is required for suspending the system while other users are logged in" (presumably due to "ssh user@localhost" but also happens when I've logged out of the ssh session). https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/492950-how-get-rid-of-quot-authe… Above is one Google hit about this, it references a program set_polkit_default_privs which doesn't seem to exist on Debian. https://askubuntu.com/questions/543921/authentication-required-before-suspe… The above page recommends changing /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/ org.freedesktop.login1.policy which doesn't work for me. Any suggestions on what to do? One suggestion that I haven't yet tried is to change XDM programs. I'm happy with sddm and it should work. Ideally I would be able to discover enough about this to file an adequate bug report against sddm.

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Free to a good^H^H^H^H home - not quite vintage hardware
by cory seligman 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

Hi All, just in case anyone has some obscure legacy hardware requirements, I have a (probably working) Pentium III class HP Vectra desktop machine up for grabs. No idea how much RAM it has. No HDD. It has a PCI USB2.0 and firewire (maybe 800) card in it and a very nice National Instruments Data Acquisition Card on an ISA bus. Last time I used it was probably 10 years ago for some legacy data acquistion work. I have the proper hardware interface cards and hardware programming manual. From memory, linux drivers for the DAQ weren't hard to get going. Anyone want it?

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Wi-Fi device firmware
by Mark Trickett 01 Dec '17

01 Dec '17

Hello All, Thanks to not having ADSL, but a mobile broadband modem instead, it has wi-fi connectivity, I have yet to get the optional cradle I would like for wired ethernet connectivity. I have a USB wi-fi device from AusPi which comes up as the following from sudo lsusb: Bus 001 Device 006: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter My question is whether I can get the Debian 7 package and unpack for the firmware, then use that on a Debian 9 system. The reason is that the Debian 7 is a laptop with built in wi-fi, whereas the Debian 9 is a desktop that currently does not have net access, until I can implement wi-fi, or get the cradle for the mobile modem. I am not averse to networking the two computers, but the laptop is using Network Manager to get the wi-fi connection, and Network Manager prioritises the wired connection for the external network connection and assumes that the wi-fi is a local network. Yes, I can set the wired ethernet as unmanaged and set manually, but that too has issues, along with current desk space to run both computers. Regards, Mark Trickett

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