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Re: Choosing a Distro (Mark Rogers)
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

I've been using Debian for years now. Decades in fact! If Stable is not up to date enough you can move to Testing, which I did for a while without any problems, but for now am just sticking with Stable. Its always worked perfectly. Debian is where people end up. I use Fluxbox myself, as WM, which I find perfect, and Lightdm as DM. Its fast, keeps out of the way, handles workspaces very well, i have lots of keyboard shortcuts which makes it very convenient. It has a really neat feature, you can combine different apps into tabs in the same window. So for instance, you are writing something and need to refer to a web site and a spreadsheet as you write. You have all three apps open in tabs in the same window and can just click back and forwards between them. I have put in MATE on Debian for someone else, and that has worked out very well. MATE is also very simple and keeps out of the way, and the team have the rare ability to refrain from fixing what works. Its about like Gnome 2 used to be, before they went crazy and ruined it. Debian is Systemd now, which I don't much like. If you want Debian without Systemd, then probably MX Linux. I might go for this if changing distros, but am not bothered enough to move from Debian for it. Or there is Devuan. Mint with MATE for someone I put it in for was also fine. It depends what you want, Mint strikes me as full-on consumer grade. Whereas if you install plain Debian, Fluxbox with Lightdm, tweak the right click menu, startup and keyboard shortcuts to suit you, you have something which will probably suit you better and keep out of the way, but it would not be fair to install that for a naive user. I have tried tiling WMs, but they are not for me. i3 is said to be the best. So I think this is a vote for Debian with Fluxbox. Or, if you want to keep away from Systemd, MX Linux. One reason for going with Debian is that its going to be around for ever. Not sure about some of the less used distros, and that is a real factor for me. And if you decide you want a full-fat consumer experience, Mint. There is not going to be a huge difference between Mint with MATE and Debian with MATE. You could also put Fluxbox on Mint. I think Mint, like Debian, will be around. I have tried Arch in a VM, and didn't care for it, but it has a great user community and excellent documentation. Matter of taste, really. I use Foxclone for backups by the way. Really recommended. Peter

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Re: GIMP - book recommendations?
by Bev Nicolson 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

Thank you both. I shall have a look at those. Bev On Sun, 2024-01-21 at 11:06 +0000, BD wrote: > Hi, > > I never used gimp for anything more than simple image manipulation as > it is quite advanced. Similarly never had the need to look at other > options. > > In the past I had to learn how to use Inkscape and tutorial from "TJ > free" was more than enough. Have a look at this playlist as it might > be what you are looking for: > https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqazFFzUAPc4vITMJaF3Fnqh3pccSMnC4 > > Cheerio, > Bart > 21 Jan 2024 08:51:08 Bev Nicolson <lumos(a)gmx.co.uk>: > > > I confess I find GIMP baffling, for the most part. I've tried > > figuring > > it out, I got a book on it a while back but it didn't help that > > much to > > be honest. All I can do is simple stuff like re-sizing phots or > > (if I > > can find the widget again) resythnesizing. > > > > Does anyone know if there's anything like a Dummies Guide to GIMP > > out > > there? Something that explains it clearly and simply (like you've > > never > > used photo editing software before) *and* gives a glossary of > > terms > > too? > > > > Bev > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe send an email to main-leave(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

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GIMP - book recommendations?
by Bev Nicolson 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

I confess I find GIMP baffling, for the most part. I've tried figuring it out, I got a book on it a while back but it didn't help that much to be honest. All I can do is simple stuff like re-sizing phots or (if I can find the widget again) resythnesizing. Does anyone know if there's anything like a Dummies Guide to GIMP out there? Something that explains it clearly and simply (like you've never used photo editing software before) *and* gives a glossary of terms too? Bev

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Transferring sms to computer
by Bev Nicolson 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

Are there any Linux apps for transferring sms messages to a computer? I'm getting new phone and am keen to keep the texts (or some at least) I have on the old one. The only caveat is that it is quite an old phone. (Android 7.1. Old.) TIA. Bev

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Editing SVG files at commandline
by Mark Rogers 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

I have some large svg files I need to edit that crash programs like Inkscape when I try to do much with them, but the changes I want to make are essentially removing bits from them that I don't want which are easily found within the svg if viewed as text, What I'm looking for is a way to do things like: - completely remove group B which is nested inside group B - remove all "path" elements residing inside group C, unless they match a regex pattern - move all elements from group D into group E (or ungroup them) I imagine that with the rightXML skillset, which I don't have, this is probably fairly simple? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0344 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Puzzle about networking, continued...
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

OK, it was indeed simple and stupid! It was one of the adaptors, just not the one that I had changed out! Finally at my wits end replaced it with one of the ones I had mistakenly swapped out, and everything is fine. Anyway, an instructive unguided tour of the wilds of modern networking, which is a lot more complicated than in my youth. Or at least different. Now for the next challenge, converting a bios system to efi. I have put together a system using Aorus from Gigabyte. It does not support legacy mode. At least it boots normally from an EFI stick so the build is OK. The next step will be to convert the cloned bios drive to EFI By the way, if anyone ever wants to clone a hard drive I strongly recommend foxclone. Absolutely brilliant, simple and foolproof. If you ever got tired and irritable wandering through the thickets of clonezilla you will love foxclone. Its a lot faster than CZ, and it will also clone a large drive to a smaller one, assuming there is space for all the files. Peter Also systemctl status NetworkManager gives this: NetworkManager.service - Network Manager Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-12-20 16:53:00 GMT; 1h 39min ago Docs: man:NetworkManager(8) Main PID: 769 (NetworkManager) Tasks: 3 (limit: 19064) Memory: 14.1M CPU: 545ms CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service So that's working. I have come on the suggestion to disable it and then configure /etc/network/interfaces manually. What do you think? Peter Puzzle about networking. Any suggestions? All of a sudden and for no apparent reason my ethernet connection isn't working. Its not the router, other machines on the router work fine. Its not the local powerline device, I have changed that out. The machine also works fine with a mobile data dongle plugged in to a usb port. So I think it must be something about the configuration, though why it should suddenly have changed is a mystery to me. I do ip link, and this shows as number two: 2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff So then I do ifup enp3s0, and get this: ~$ sudo ifup enp3s0 ifup: unknown interface enp3s0 When I use the gnome network control tool it fails to bring it up. ip link set appears to work, at least no error message. ifconfig gives this: enp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet6 fe80::d2da:494:eadc:4e0b prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 982 bytes 158082 (154.3 KiB) TX errors 1 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 So why can't I bring it up with ifup? Rebooting doesn't make any difference. I don't know what else to try. Its probably something very simple that I am just missing.... Peter

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Re: Puzzle about networking
by Phil Ashby 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

On 21/12/2023 12:00, <peter.northerly(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ifconfig gives this: > enp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 > inet6 fe80::d2da:494:eadc:4e0b prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> > ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) > RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) > RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 > TX packets 982 bytes 158082 (154.3 KiB) > TX errors 1 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 I'm suspicious of the complete lack of received packets there. It appears you are sending (probably DHCP requests), but getting nothing back. Things to check: 1/ The cable - swap out for a known working one (from another PC?) 2/ The sockets - dust bunnies cause havoc ;-) 3/ Everything other than the affected machine - pop a different device on the end of the cable if you have one (or borrow one!) 4/ The kernel message log (/var/log/kern.log and/or dmesg) might be shouting about something unwell. 5/ Recent software changes (updates perchance? new kernel?), can you roll back (kernel - most likely you can pick previous at boot) (more advanced detective work) 6/ Fire up a packet sniffer (tshark, wireshark) and watch for packets going in/out of the device on the affected machine. 7/ If you have a network *hub* (NOT a switch), then pop that in line and use another machine to watch for packets to/from the MAC address (I'd use tshark or wireshark, YMMV) on another port of the hub. My money is on a recent kernel change borking receive or dust bunnies. Phil.

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Puzzle about networking
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 20 Dec '23

20 Dec '23

Puzzle about networking. Any suggestions? All of a sudden and for no apparent reason my ethernet connection isn't working. Its not the router, other machines on the router work fine. Its not the local powerline device, I have changed that out. The machine also works fine with a mobile data dongle plugged in to a usb port. So I think it must be something about the configuration, though why it should suddenly have changed is a mystery to me. I do ip link, and this shows as number two: 2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff So then I do ifup enp3s0, and get this: ~$ sudo ifup enp3s0 ifup: unknown interface enp3s0 When I use the gnome network control tool it fails to bring it up. ip link set appears to work, at least no error message. ifconfig gives this: enp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet6 fe80::d2da:494:eadc:4e0b prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 982 bytes 158082 (154.3 KiB) TX errors 1 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 So why can't I bring it up with ifup? Rebooting doesn't make any difference. I don't know what else to try. Its probably something very simple that I am just missing.... Peter

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Puzzle about networking, continued...
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 20 Dec '23

20 Dec '23

Also systemctl status NetworkManager gives this: NetworkManager.service - Network Manager Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/NetworkManager.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-12-20 16:53:00 GMT; 1h 39min ago Docs: man:NetworkManager(8) Main PID: 769 (NetworkManager) Tasks: 3 (limit: 19064) Memory: 14.1M CPU: 545ms CGroup: /system.slice/NetworkManager.service So that's working. I have come on the suggestion to disable it and then configure /etc/network/interfaces manually. What do you think? Peter Puzzle about networking. Any suggestions? All of a sudden and for no apparent reason my ethernet connection isn't working. Its not the router, other machines on the router work fine. Its not the local powerline device, I have changed that out. The machine also works fine with a mobile data dongle plugged in to a usb port. So I think it must be something about the configuration, though why it should suddenly have changed is a mystery to me. I do ip link, and this shows as number two: 2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff So then I do ifup enp3s0, and get this: ~$ sudo ifup enp3s0 ifup: unknown interface enp3s0 When I use the gnome network control tool it fails to bring it up. ip link set appears to work, at least no error message. ifconfig gives this: enp3s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet6 fe80::d2da:494:eadc:4e0b prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> ether 08:60:6e:e7:d2:be txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 982 bytes 158082 (154.3 KiB) TX errors 1 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 So why can't I bring it up with ifup? Rebooting doesn't make any difference. I don't know what else to try. Its probably something very simple that I am just missing.... Peter

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touchpad weirdness
by Bev Nicolson 22 Nov '23

22 Nov '23

Every so often the touchpad, and indeed any mouse function as far as I can tell, fails. The cursor just flickers and dances about uncontrollably. I've found out how to close a window and shutdown the laptop using the keyboard but how do I figure out what's going on here? There are no outstanding updates to install if that makes a difference. Bev.

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