From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

My Manjaro box - which processes a few cameras via 'Motion'
plus I use for streaming stuff to my TV - had become fatally
balky. Could no longer update. Even with all the tricks it
could not successfully load all the new stuff, a bunch of
complaints about bad PGP signing and such. Can't get there
from here.

I waited several months to see if this resolved itself.
It did not.

Manjaro is a "rolling" distro like Tumbleweed ... you can do
a FEW point updates, but it won't be long before it decides
to re-do the entire thing (2+gb).

First up, I decided to try Deb Trixie/LXDE. I like LXDE,
straight-up, no bullshit.

DID, after many version adjustments to the cam files, get
Motion to work. For some reason they changed many of the
param names in Motion 4.7x ... mostly to annoy it seems ...
and some of the docs are kind of obscure on those points.
There may be some giant clusterfuck 'camera def' that's
suppose to go into many of those old slots. Didn't use
any of those - and it worked OK.

BUT ... *NO SOUND*

Alas LXDE does not have any remotely easy (or documented)
tweaks/methods to re-direct the sound to the HDMI port.
Checked Lubuntu docs, but it's just too different.

So, also installed XFCE. Alas even that didn't add what
I needed.

So ... hosed the whole thing, a full days work gone
into the aether.

Installed MX/XFCE instead. MX has a lot of goodies that
make it easy to adjust weird stuff.

Again got Motion working - I'd just made copies of my
fixes from the Deb install.

MX did have a just-good-enough sound utility however,
and after thinking a bit I managed to switch the
audio to the HDMI with a few clicks. You'd THINK distros
would just automatically do that, but they don't.

Finally, VNC. Managed to nuke the xstartup file and
you CAN'T get that to re-install. However I had another
MX/XFCE box so I copied that one and it all worked
perfectly. ('xstartup' is black magic ... SO much
advice on how to do it and 95% of that doesn't work)

DO note that MX comes with the firewall ON ... which
caused some puzzlement initially with my clients.

SEEMS that if you use the 'live' MX installer, if
you pick the systemd incarnation then it installs
the systemd version (which I wanted). If you pick
the non-systemd version then it won't. However
you CAN use 'grub-customizer' to select the menu
option to boot the systemd version later if you
want.

Anyway, I can see why MX remains near the top of
the DistroWatch list for years. A very capable
mid-Linux with a bunch of extra, useful, utilities
thrown in.

Manjaro ... never LOVED it, but after a fashion I did
get it to do what I wanted and it worked OK for a
couple of years. The updates fault though ... did
not want to put up with that in these insecure
times !

I've mostly used Deb derivatives for the past 15
years, so I know how they think, where they put
stuff. So, not having youthful energy anymore,
I'm just gonna stick with the best of the DebiVerse.
No, do NOT like the 'Buntus ever since they tried
to force their 'cloud' shit on everyone.

Mint can be OK, but at this point I'm more
familiar with MX.

Anyway, just A Day In The Life of an average Linux
user. NOW wanna re-do an old threaded Python/OpenCV
video and snapshot grabber. It's 3 years old and
already I've had problems figuring out what I wrote
and why, despite lots of comments :-)

Next, can I make a KVM machine on my other Trixie
box ? VirtualBox isn't in the repos and getting
the Trixie version from Oracle does NOT work,
all kinds of bitching about unprovided/uninstalled
dkms shit. My goal is an OpenSUSE-Leap VM for
fun and experiments.

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Tue, 5 May 2026 01:35:27 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Next, can I make a KVM machine on my other Trixie box ? VirtualBox isn't
in the repos and getting the Trixie version from Oracle does NOT work,
all kinds of bitching about unprovided/uninstalled dkms shit. My goal is
an OpenSUSE-Leap VM for fun and experiments.

I can't address Trixie on x64 but with most distros 'apt install virt-
manager' installs all the dependencies including QEMU. Many sites give you
a laundry list of things to install but I haven't found that to be
necessary.

I've seen it called different things in the menu but it's usually 'Virtual Machine Manager' in the System tools. At least that's what it is on the Raspberry Pi Trixie based OS.

'lsmod | grep kvm' should show either kvm_amd or kvn_intel. Most distros
load the module by default or you can use modprobe. Really old processors don't have the necessary instructions to support kvm but my LM is on a
2011 netbook and has them.

lsmod on the Pi doesn't show kvm but I do have a Ubuntu VM on it for
kicks. It's a tty session but it does run.

You're experience echos mine on LM. I could install VB, unload the kvm
module, and start the manager but actually trying to spin up a VM threw
the dkms errors. kvm/QEMU works fine.

As far as Leap 16, I first spun up the GNOME version. It's plain vanilla
GNOME and sucks. Rather than try to civilize it I switched to KDE.

I think that was the iso that pointed out another problem. I had an old thumbdrive formatted with vfat. The iso was bigger than 4 GB so I had to reformat it to exfat.
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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 5/5/26 14:22, rbowman wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 01:35:27 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Next, can I make a KVM machine on my other Trixie box ? VirtualBox isn't
in the repos and getting the Trixie version from Oracle does NOT work,
all kinds of bitching about unprovided/uninstalled dkms shit. My goal is
an OpenSUSE-Leap VM for fun and experiments.

I can't address Trixie on x64 but with most distros 'apt install virt- manager' installs all the dependencies including QEMU. Many sites give you
a laundry list of things to install but I haven't found that to be
necessary.

I'd tried a KVM/QEMU VM on Fedora about six months ago.
There were many problems. The final annoying problem was
that there was no clear way use a WiFi connection - had
to fake a hardwire using an 'extender' that had a hardwire
plug on it - otherwise no clear way to set a 'bridged'
adapter that'd be on yer local network.

So, I'll try again with Trixie. STILL think it's a
bastard distro - lots of little stuff doesn't want
to work properly even at 13.4

This crap is why I like(d) VirtualBox ... so many tweaks
just a click away. Alas something IS wrong in the VBox
food chain right now. My download for Trixie was seriously
deficit ... lots and lots of stuff missing. No 'official'
VBox in the repos either - maybe for obvious reasons.

I've seen it called different things in the menu but it's usually 'Virtual Machine Manager' in the System tools. At least that's what it is on the Raspberry Pi Trixie based OS.

PIs are 'different'.

Also a PI doesn't REALLY have the CPU power to
make a VM worthwhile ... wonder why it's offered ?

'lsmod | grep kvm' should show either kvm_amd or kvn_intel. Most distros load the module by default or you can use modprobe. Really old processors don't have the necessary instructions to support kvm but my LM is on a
2011 netbook and has them.

All my processors (except one on the box with floppies) are
fairly current. Whether the correct kernel stuff/modules are
loaded by default ... I'll see shortly. DID kinda-sorta get
it to run on Fedora ..... kinda-sorta .........

VMs do have some good uses. Has VMWare squished this down
to just their expensive commercial solutions ???

VBox used to be just plug-n-play NOT all that long ago.
Would load all the new Linux distros into it for testing
and it'd even do DOS and CP/M-86. SOMEthing's gone very
wrong.

Hmmm ... could always install a five year old version
of Deb, install the old VBox, then use VBox to run
newer versions of stuff :-)

lsmod on the Pi doesn't show kvm but I do have a Ubuntu VM on it for
kicks. It's a tty session but it does run.

Good enough for fooling around :-)

DID get TumbleWeed to install on a PI-4 ... not
really 'snappy' but it worked.

You're experience echos mine on LM. I could install VB, unload the kvm module, and start the manager but actually trying to spin up a VM threw
the dkms errors. kvm/QEMU works fine.

As said, SOMEthing has gone very wrong in the VM world.
I used VBox on my biz servers, I've used KVM too.
It all worked pretty easily (except having to do fiddly
edits in KVM config files while VBox was just a few clicks.

As far as Leap 16, I first spun up the GNOME version. It's plain vanilla GNOME and sucks. Rather than try to civilize it I switched to KDE.

I've seen the recent KDE ... no No NO !!! :-)

My plan is to use my full install image and put
XFCE as the OSuse desktop. Might add LXDE too
but XFCE is "good enough".

I think that was the iso that pointed out another problem. I had an old thumbdrive formatted with vfat. The iso was bigger than 4 GB so I had to reformat it to exfat.

Yep, been there !

Remember when Linux distros were SMALL ??? :-)

ANYhow ... MX 25.x did solve my dead Manjaro problems.
It's all working very smoothly. Even watching an old
Dr.Who stream right now - 200 channels of cable had
SHIT for offerings this evening.

Not sure WHAT's up with Manjaro ... distro bits with
bad PGP sigs and such just shouldn't BE there at all !
Are they down to one old guy at Manjaro ??? Not in
love with Arch, but it DID serve OK for awhile.

Oh ... little bandwidth trick. I used to have both
the 2.4 and 5ghz from the router with the same SSID.
The adapter/drivers on each unit had to kind of
decide what stream to use when. This resulted in very
irregular performance, esp between my main boxes.
Gave the 5ghz a slightly different SSID so I can
pick it out explicitly - notable improvement and
it also took some of the load off the 2.4 stuff.

NEXT week ... gotta find a working PPD for my Dymo-550
label printer. Found SOME stuff on GitHub - TOO much
actually. Can't tell what's best or ready-2-go. My
handwriting was always bad, now being old I'd rather
have machine-printed address labels for clarity, just
to be sure. Yea yea, CAN theoretically do it with
my everything print/scan machine, but getting sheets
of labels or envelopes to print right is never easy.

Well, super-WORST case, I've got an XP CD install
somewhere ... but really really DON'T wanna go there.
If not a VM then I'd need to nuke a machine and
install XP as the primary (it doesn't like to share)
and then Linux in other partitions like in the bad
old days.

Ah ... the initial Who with barbarian "Leila" is on :-)

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Wed, 6 May 2026 00:42:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:

I'd tried a KVM/QEMU VM on Fedora about six months ago. There were
many problems. The final annoying problem was that there was no clear
way use a WiFi connection - had to fake a hardwire using an
'extender' that had a hardwire plug on it - otherwise no clear way to
set a 'bridged' adapter that'd be on yer local network.

I don't believe that's in the cards for any distro. You can bridge to a
wired router but not WiFi. I didn't dig too deeply since the virtual IP is satisfactory for internet connectivity even though it doesn't show up on
the LAN.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 5/6/26 02:35, rbowman wrote:

On Wed, 6 May 2026 00:42:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:

I'd tried a KVM/QEMU VM on Fedora about six months ago. There were
many problems. The final annoying problem was that there was no clear
way use a WiFi connection - had to fake a hardwire using an
'extender' that had a hardwire plug on it - otherwise no clear way to
set a 'bridged' adapter that'd be on yer local network.

I don't believe that's in the cards for any distro. You can bridge to a
wired router but not WiFi. I didn't dig too deeply since the virtual IP is satisfactory for internet connectivity even though it doesn't show up on
the LAN.

Well, MOST people connect via WiFi these days ... and
want everything, not just to surf usenet.

Wired is fine for yer server farm, but .....

Just started up a VBox running TinyCore ... it's set
to "bridged adapter". Running ifconfig it shows that
it IS on my local network via 'wlan0'. Can also ping
google. This is a laptop, no wired connections.

May have to hose my nice, but as-yet unpurposed, Deb
install on the box and install OSuse ... maybe I can
run VBox on THAT and then make a Trixie VM ? :-)

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 06/05/2026 15:55, c186282 wrote:

  Well, MOST people connect via WiFi these days ... and
  want everything, not just to surf usenet.

Bollocks.
Wherever possible I wire

Its reliable, better supported and more secure & faster

  Wired is fine for yer server farm, but .....

That uses optical interfacing these days

  Just started up a VBox running TinyCore ... it's set
  to "bridged adapter". Running ifconfig it shows that
  it IS on my local network via 'wlan0'. Can also ping
  google. This is a laptop, no wired connections.

  May have to hose my nice, but as-yet unpurposed, Deb
  install on the box and install OSuse ... maybe I can
  run VBox on THAT and then make a Trixie VM ? 🙂

--
In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act.

- George Orwell

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From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Wed, 6 May 2026 17:47:47 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 06/05/2026 15:55, c186282 wrote:

  Well, MOST people connect via WiFi these days ... and want
  everything, not just to surf usenet.

Bollocks.
Wherever possible I wire

Its reliable, better supported and more secure & faster

I'd be careful of MOST in this context too. My entire internet is via a
wifi hotspot. When I'm away from home I use whatever WiFi that is
available. The BUT there is I'm not putting up a website on a VM and
expecting to be able to connect to it using the wireless router at Joe's Coffee Shop.

Even at home I'm not putting up a SPA on the openSUSE VM and expecting to connect to it from anywhere but the host machine. That is sufficient for testing.

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