This page is the continuation of several blog posts related to Debian

Installing Debian

The Debian GNU Linux operating system is available as a torrent download or a http download at debian.org/CD:

  • The net install CD is sufficient to install Debian.
  • On debian.org/CD/live/ you can get “Live images which you can use to try Debian first and then install the contents of the image.”

Verify the checksum

shasum debian-10.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso
shasum -a 256 debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

To copy the image to a usb key follow the instruction on how to copy the iso image to a usb key

Find the device name of my USB key (it had a previous Debian system on it):

sudo fdisk -l
# /dev/sdb1

Unmount the USB key

sudo umount /dev/sdb1
# or
sudo umount "/media/gabriele/Debian Inst"
# or
sudo umount "/media/paul/Debian 10.1.0 amd64 n"

Transfer the iso image to the key

sudo cp debian-live-9.5.0-amd64-gnome.iso /dev/sdb # or sudo cp debian-10.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso /dev/sdb

The iso should be copied to sdb and not to sdb1 ! Then the USB drive can be used to boot a laptop.

After the installation

Add my user name to the super user group

su
# Then as a super user 
/usr/sbin/adduser paul sudo

I updated the debian mirror to a nearby mirror

sudo apt edit-sources

Debian on a HP Elitbook

Note: on a HP laptop make sure that the “legacy boot” is enabled and that the “secure boot” is disabled. On another HP laptop, I had to disable the fast boot so that I could boot from a USB device. The boot devices can be chosen by pressing ESC at start up, then F9.

Debian installation went smoothly.

After the installation, there was one issue with the wifi card having a non-free driver. I had to place the package firmware-iwlwifi on a USB key. The download link is at the bottom of the page (all. Then installed it from the usb key with

sudo apt install ./firmware-iwlwifi_20161130-3_all.deb

Alternatively, the .ucode file can also be found in firmware-nonfree_20161130.orig.tar.xz And given directly during the installation step.

After that extra step, the wifi card was working inside Debian.

See also my 2014 blog post : Debian GNU Linux installation on a LENOVO T400

“BootDevice Not Found” issue in a HP Elitebook: Grub-EFI reinstall The issue happenned on a partitionned disk. The fix was to completely erase the main disk and to reinstall a new debian on a single partition.

Screen rotation issue

Debian / Gnome: disable sensor-based screen rotation

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock true

or use lock orientation in the dash. But this doesn’t solve the issue on the home screen.

Screen rotation in Ubuntu 18.04 Also mentioned in reddit incorrect display orientation after bootup

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.orientation active false

Also after boot

Edit this file:

vim  /etc/udev/hwdb.d/60-sensor.hwdb

The default matrix is:

sensor:modalias:*
      ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX=1, 0, 0; 0, 1, 0; 0, 0, 1

I used this setting to fix the orientation of an HP Elitebook laptop.

sensor:modalias:*
  ACCEL_MOUNT_MATRIX=0, 1, 0; 1, 0, 0; 0, 0, 1

Debian Development

Documentation

Autopkgtest

Tests ensures the compatibility between a software and its dependencies. The relationships between software are defined here: https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html and new versions of dependencies are tested before their integration into the system. For example, the result of autopkgtest on Debian’s continuous integration, such as the results of the python-pip package https://ci.debian.net/packages/p/python-pip/”

Installing software

AA package management

APT

For software in the repository, use

sudo apt install packagename

APT behind a proxy

Hash sum mismatch issue, fix bad proxy

sudo vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99fixbadproxy

Enter:

Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth 0;
Acquire::http::No-Cache true;
Acquire::BrokenProxy    true;

Now run the update command:

sudo apt update

How to set the proxy for APT I entered the proxy url in this apt configuration file:

vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/proxy.conf

In the following form (do not forget the semicolon at the end):

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://user:password@proxy.server:port/";

Search packages

Search packages with apt

apt search <name>

Search packages with aptitude, the high level interface to the package manager

aptitude search <name>

Search packages on the Debian website.

Installing from backports

backports.debian.org contains a list of backports available for each LTS Debian version.

Add the main, contrib and non-free backports to /etc/apt/sources.list :

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free

Install from backports

sudo apt -t stretch-backports install nodejs

DEB packages

For software in .deb packages, check the md5sum and install with

md5sum packagename.deb
sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb

or

sudo apt install ./packagename.deb

Stack overflow How to install a deb file, by dpkg -i or by apt? “When you use apt to install a package, under the hood it uses dpkg.”

If there are missingdependencies and you fix them you can retry the previsouly failed installed with:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Remove a package with:

sudo dpkg -r packagename

NIX

  • NIX manual https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/

    “You can have multiple versions or variants of a package installed at the same time. This is especially important when different applications have dependencies on different versions of the same package — it prevents the “DLL hell”. Because of the hashing scheme, different versions of a package end up in different paths in the Nix store, so they don’t interfere with each other.

    “An important consequence is that operations like upgrading or uninstalling an application cannot break other applications, since these operations never “destructively” update or delete files that are used by other packages.”

    “Since Nix on the other hand doesn’t install packages in “global” locations like /usr/bin but in package-specific directories, the risk of incomplete dependencies is greatly reduced. This is because tools such as compilers don’t search in per-packages directories such as /nix/store/5lbfaxb722zp…-openssl-0.9.8d/include, so if a package builds correctly on your system, this is because you specified the dependency explicitly. This takes care of the build-time dependencies.”

    “Once a package is built, runtime dependencies are found by scanning binaries for the hash parts of Nix store paths (such as r8vvq9kq…). This sounds risky, but it works extremely well.”

  • The Nix package manager https://github.com/NixOS/nix

    • Nix packages https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs

      “a collection of over 80,000 software packages that can be installed with the Nix package manager. It also implements NixOS, a purely-functional Linux distribution.”

  • Nix with docker files

Nix on Debian

  • Debian Package for NIX https://packages.debian.org/sid/nix-setup-systemd

    “Purely functional package manager (systemd setup) A powerful package manager for Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. Nix provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup of build environments. This package uses systemd mechanisms to setup the nix package manager.”

  • Nix Package Manager on Ubuntu or Debian https://ariya.io/2020/05/nix-package-manager-on-ubuntu-or-debian

Nix on a cluster

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/K3s

Anbox

Android in a box is an android emulator that runs on Linux. To install it on debian I added the contrib and non-free backports to /etc/apt/sources.list :

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free

Then installed anbox from the backports:

sudo apt -t stretch-backports install anbox

I have encountered issue 211

Ansible

Other resources

  • How do you handle server automation https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1069k94/how_do_you_guys_handle_server_automation/

    • recommends ansible

  • https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/automation/ansible-vs-salt

    “Ansible uses the concepts of a control node (where Ansible is executed from) and managed nodes (the devices being automated—often a Linux® or Windows machine). Since Ansible is agentless, it can communicate with devices without requiring an application or service to be installed on the managed node. Ansible Automation Platform can spread automation jobs out across execution nodes using a technology called automation mesh. Ansible users can finely orchestrate different parts of their infrastructure using Ansible Playbooks, which are files written in human-readable YAML. Ansible uses a procedural (or imperative) programming approach, which tries to preserve the configuration of an IT infrastructure by defining the steps to reach a desired state.”

CEWE Photobuch

Download one of the setup files from CEWE or partner shops setup_CEWE_FOTOWELT.tgz, setup_CEWE_Photoworld.tgz, setup_dm_Fotowelt.tgz Extract it :

tar --extract -f setup_CEWE_FOTOWELT.tgz --one-top-level

Launch the installer (no need to be sudo):

cd setup_CEWE_FOTOWELT/
./install.pl

Lyx

wiki.lyx.org LyXOnDebian explains how to install Lyx on Debian:

sudo apt install lyx

Lyx couldn’t access some layout files, I first thought I needed install latex layouts:

sudo apt install texlive-latex-recommended
sudo apt install texlive-latex-extra

But these were already installed.

Default version of Lyx is 2.2 on debian strech. wiki.lyx.org LyXOnDebian explains how to install lyx 2.3 from the backports on Debian stretch.

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
# Add deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main 
# Or a mirror, for example
# deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get -t stretch-backports install lyx

Mutt and Neomutt

packages.debian.org Neomutt

The Arch Linux setup page explains that :

“The NeoMutt project aims to bring together all the patches for Mutt. It adds a large set of features. Lots of old Mutt patches have been brought up-to-date, tidied and documented.”

It also has a section on setting up the vim editor with Mutt.

How do I set up posteo in an email client?

Mutt configuration example in a dotfile with connection to posteo and vim editor.

Example of Mutt setup for professional email coming from an Exchange server.

Python

Pip, pipx and virtual enviroments

  • In Debian version 12, pip can only be used to install in a virtual environment

  • Create a virtual environment directory, activate it and instal a python package inside

    mkdir ~/rp/penv/
python3 -m venv ~/rp/penv/
source ~/rp/penv/bin/activate
pip install biotrade

If you need tools that can be started at the command line such as jupyter lab,

- Install them in the virtual environment and start them from there 

- Or use pipx to install them, so that the command becomes available

    pipx install jupyterlab

Virtual environment compulsory in Debian 12

  • Trying pip install in the main python environment returns the following

    pip install jupyterlab

    error: externally-managed-environment

    This environment is externally managed To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to install.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package, create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv. Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make sure you have python3-full installed.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application, it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.

Spyder

Install editor

pip3 install spyder

Quarto

Install quarto https://quarto.org/docs/get-started/

cd ~/downloads sha256sum quarto-1.5.57-linux-amd64.deb sudo apt install ./quarto-1.5.57-linux-amd64.deb

R and Rstudio

Installing R from the CRAN mirror

Install R from the CRAN repository, see Cran mirror of Debian packages

Add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb https://cran.stat.unipd.it/bin/linux/debian buster-cran35/
deb http://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian buster-cran40/

In case you get an error:

The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY FCAE2A0E115C3D8A

Add the PGP key so that this server is trusted :

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-key 'FCAE2A0E115C3D8A'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-key 'B8F25A8A73EACF41'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-key '51716619E084DAB9'

Based on this stackoverflow answer about key server receive fail error I had to use a server providing a connection on port 80 because the default port is apparently blocked by a firewall on my network.

Then run the following to upgrade R to the lastest version availale on your CRAN mirror:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install r-base r-base-dev

Or if you already had an old R version on your system:

sudo apt upgrade

Installing Rstudio

Download Rstudio for Debian

Run

dpkg -i rstudio-version-number.deb

Dependency error: rstudio depends on libclang-dev Install it

sudo apt install libclang-dev

Uninstall rstudio

sudo apt remove rstudio

Remmina

Installing from the backports (see above section on how to add the backports in sources.list)

sudo apt-get -t stretch-backports install remmina

Element Matrix

Sane

  • The Flatbed scanner Canoscan lide 400 is supported on Linux according to the sane backends page.

  • When the scanner is plugged in, I can see it’s USB id 0x04a9/0x1912 (mentioned in the sane backends web page) in the output of

    lsusb | grep -i canon #Bus 002 Device 115: ID 04a9:1912 Canon, Inc.

Install sane from source following these instructions http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=141668

Install build dependencies

sudo apt install sane
sudo apt install build-essential make autoconf-archive
sudo apt build-dep sane
sudo apt install libjpeg-dev

Clone and build the latest version of sane

git clone https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends
cd backends/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make -j9

I tried the other instructions related to the pixma linking

ll /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.*
sudo rm /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.so.1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.so.1.0.27
ll /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.*
sudo rm /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.so
cd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/
ll /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.*
cd ~/rp/zz_forks/backends/
ls backend/libsane-pixma.la

The problem is that the ‘.so.28’ file doesn’t exist, I tried with another file

sudo cp backend/libsane-pixma.la /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.la
sudo ln -s libsane-pixma.la /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.so.1
ll /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.*

I also tried these instructions:

make
make install

I created this file

sudo vim /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/49-sane.rules

Containing only one line

ATTRS{idVendor}=="04a9", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1912", MODE="0664", GROUP="scanner", ENV{libsane_matched}="yes"

This doesn’t seem to help, the scanner is not detected

Sane shows a recent version

sane-config --version
# 1.0.31

But the scanner is not detected, even when called as super user

sudo sane-find-scanner
# No USB scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that
# you have loaded a kernel driver for your USB host controller and have setup
# the USB system correctly. See man sane-usb for details.
# SANE has been built without libusb support. This may be a reason
# for not detecting USB scanners. Read README for more details.

Microsoft

Yes I know, these software shouldn’t be here, but I have to use these things for work and study.

Skype

Debian wiki skype: Download .deb file from https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/

wget https://go.skype.com/skypeforlinux-64.deb

Install

sudo apt install ./skypeforlinux-64.deb

Teams

visit teams.microsoft.com

  • See also the Teams section in the communication page.

  • This download is not available. Only the website (they call it web app) is available for Linux at teams.microsoft.com.

    • It used to be possible to Donwload teams from microsoft

    • The install instruction was as follows, but it is not possible any longer, use the teams website instead.

      sudo apt install ./teams_1.3.00.25560_amd64.deb

  • Microphone stopped working in teams I had a sound issue. I managed to reactivate the sound under Debian settings / sound / applications there by reactivating the sound for cmus this somehow also affected teams and I could hear the audio again in teams after that. Or maybe I also change the settings for Skype? In any case I have sound again in teams now. Yes, after looking at another laptop with teams only (no Skype) I’m sure that teams appears as “Skype” in that Debian settings / sound / applications menu.

  • Questions related to the lack of screen sharing capability on Linux:

Vim

Edit the keyboard configuration as explained in [mapping caps lock to escape in Debian] (https://martin.hoppenheit.info/blog/2014/mapping-caps-lock-to-escape-in-debian/)

sudo vim /etc/default/keyboard

Add the following line to that file:

XKBOPTIONS="caps:escape"

VPN

ExpressVPN

Copy the links, then download the software and signature file

cd ~/downloads
curl -O
# For example
curl -O https://www.expressvpn.works/clients/linux/expressvpn_3.13.0.8-1_amd64.deb
curl -O https://www.expressvpn.works/clients/linux/expressvpn_3.13.0.8-1_amd64.deb.asc

cat expressvpn_*_amd64.deb.asc

Check the signature

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 0xAFF2A1415F6A3A38
gpg --fingerprint release@expressvpn.com
gpg --verify expressvpn_3.13.0.8-1_amd64.deb.asc
gpg --verify expressvpn_3.14.0.4-1_amd64.deb.asc

You might want to define the trust level of the express vpn key (to make sure subsequent installs are verified with the same key over time)

gpg --edit-key release@expressvpn.com
gpg> trust # 3 = I trust marginally
Your decision? 3

Install

sudo apt install ./expressvpn_3.14.0.4-1_amd64.deb

Wajig

Debian and ubuntu system administration wajig docs

Zathura

Usage

Tab    Show index and switch to Index mode

The configuration file is located at ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc. More information in man zathurarc.

Invert color is map to Ctrl+r by default, to map it to Ctrl+i, edit the configuration file

map <C-i> recolor

Copy to clipboard (instead of middle mouse button clipboard)

set selection-clipboard clipboard

Scroll

set scroll-full-overlap 0.08

Zoom

Zoom install on Linux

cd ~/downloads/
rm zoom_amd64.deb
wget https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoom_amd64.deb

# Check public key fingerprint
rm ~/downloads/pubkey
wget https://zoom.us/linux/download/pubkey
cat pubkey | gpg --import-options show-only --import
# Add the public key to the keyring
gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 59C86188E22ABB19BD5540477B04A1B8DD79B481
gpg --verify zoom_amd64.deb

# Install
sudo apt install ./zoom_amd64.deb

Webex

I use the web based version of Webex

Audio

Audio Setup

To remove background noise edit the pulseaudio configuration file:

vim /etc/pulse.default.pa

Add these lines

load-module module-echo-cancel source_name=logitechheadset
set-default-source logitechheadset

Restart pulseaudio

Audio Issues

“dummy output” issue. Seen on a Debian Forum one of the answer to Pulse Audio shows “dummy output” linked to that KDE PulseAudio page: KDE PulseAudio Integration “One thing that can happen is that some other process”hogs” the audio device during PulseAudio startup. When this happens PA is unable to use the device until it is restarted. If PA is unable to open your hardware, you will automatically be given a “Dummy Output”. As the name suggests, anything that is “Played” via this device is inaudible). This “Dummy Output” should be easily visible in both KMix and Phonon. If this happens, then you can debug which process is hogging the hardware via the command: sudo lsof /dev/snd/* /dev/dsp* (Note that apps which have the /dev/snd/control* devices open are unlikely to interfere).”

Debian wiki Missing playback devices or audio capture deleting the configuration files and restarting pulseaudio. The following commands restored audio:

$ rm -r ~/.config/pulse /tmp/pulse-*
$ pulseaudio --kill
$ pulseaudio --start

Media keys

Some keyboards have media keys stop, previous, play/pause, next. I’d like to remap them to play pause in cmus. In the mean time I have set ‘Ctrl+Shift+P’ as a shortcut in settings/keyboard, ‘+’ at the bottom:

cmus-remote --pause

Fonts

Some programs require fonts that are not installed by default. For example:

sudo apt install fonts-crosextra-carlito fonts-crosextra-caladea
sudo apt install fonts-deva-extra

List of missing fonts SubstitutingCalibriAndCambriaFonts

Fonts for coding

  • Deja Vu Sans Mono

Firefox

In a remote desktop session of Apache Guacamole inside a tab in Firefox. Copy-paste works only in one direction. I can copy from inside the remote desktop session and paste into the host system, but it doesn’t work in the other direction, I can not copy from the host system to the remote desktop session.

  • Blog post on “Firefox copy and paste with Apache Guacamole” https://sudoedit.com/firefox-async-clipboard/

    • Based on this, I changed dom.events.testing.asyncClipboard to true in an attempt to enable pasting into a remote desktop session in Firefox. –> This didn’t work on its own.

  • Based on the Stackoverflow pages I also changed

    • dom.events.asyncClipboard.readText to true. –> This didn’t work, reverted to false.

    • dom.events.asyncClipboard.clipboardItem set to true

Restarted the browser. After that it worked. It appears both dom.events.testing.asyncClipboard and dom.events.asyncClipboard.clipboardItem are needed for the copy paste to work from Firefox.

Related pages:

Gnome

Gnome shell pressing the super key does not work

“You might have locked your super button. Try unlock it on your keyboard. It usually has two icons - a window key and a lock.”

There is indeed a lock on my mechanical keyboard if I unlock it, the super key works again.

Keyboard

Network

Sometimes helps with WiFi connection. Restart network interface:

sudo service network-manager restart

Or

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Differences between systemctl and service commands. What is the difference between service and systemctl > “[…], service is designed as a high-level wrapper to”abstract” out various service managers like init.d, initctl, and (of course) systemctl.”

NGINX

Install

sudo apt install nginx

Configure HTTP only

Attempt at an nginx configuration for server_name.net, based on the default nginx config (comments removed) at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default. Directory listing is enabled through autoindex on.

Create a configuration file in sites-available:

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/server_name.net

Insert the following

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;
        root /var/www/server_name.net;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        autoindex on;
        server_name server_name.net;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

Create a symbolik link to sites-enabled

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/server_name.net /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/server_name.net

Restart NGINX as a super user:

systemctl restart nginx

Enable HTTPS

Install certbot and the related nginx plugin

su

apt install python3-certbot-nginx

Make a certificate for nginx as explained on the debian wiki page for letsencrypt.

export PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
certbot --nginx -d edartra.de --post-hook "/usr/sbin/service nginx restart"

Enable auto renewal of certificate:

su

crontab -e

Add the following line

16 3 * * * certbot renew --post-hook "systemctl reload nginx"

Note: In my case the certbot command failed with the following message:

The error was: NoInstallationError("Could not find a usable 'nginx' binary. Ensure
nginX EXIsts, the binary is executable, and your PATH is set correctly.")

Because /usr/sbin was missing from the PATH. To add it temporarily before running the certbot command:

export PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH

Configure HTTP redirect to HTTPS

Edit the file in sites-enabled

vim /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/server_name.net

Add the following content

server {
        root /var/www/server_name.net;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        autoindex on;
        server_name server_name.net www.server_name.net;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

    listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/server_name.net/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/server_name.net/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}

# Redirect http to https
server {
       listen 0.0.0.0:80;
       server_name server_name.net www.server_name.net;
       rewrite ^ https://$host$request_uri? permanent;
}

Mouse and Touchpad

Under Gnome Settings / Mouse and Touchpad, I set Natural scrolling off under the mouse and the touchpad sections.

Screen display

The issue is that sometimes the display menu doesn’t provide all resolutions available for a given additional screen. Typically resolution suggested are lower than the one recommended by the screen.

Wayland

Make another screen resolution available

Ask Ubuntu Adding a custom resolution with Wayland I tried this answer and added this to the kernel boot parameter. Note from ubuntu wiki kernel boot parameter “Be sure to add a SPACE after”splash” before adding your new parameter.) Click the Save button, then close the editor window. ”

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

Then edit this line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet video=DP-2:1920x1200@60"

Then update grub

sudo update-grub

This did make the new resolution available in the Gnome display settings.

Switch between Wayland and Xorg

itsfoss.com switch-xorg-wayland

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

Custom wrapper script for x11

Debian 10 Buster uses wayland as a window manager. To force the use of x11 for zathura, in debian a zathura wrapper script containing:

#!/usr/bin/bash
GDK_BACKEND=x11 /usr/bin/zathura "$@"

Can be placed under the default user bin located at ~/.local/bin. This is one of the first element of the $PATH environment variable.

Outdated solution using xrandr

xrandr doesn’t work with Wayland Askubuntu wrandr will not work with wayland The information on setting a resolution with cvt is still relevant. CVT calculates VESA CVT mode lines.

How to force screen resolution in Ubuntu and make it permanent The lack of auto detection of the available resolution probably mostly arises with VGA ports. See all active screens with the RandR extension:

xrandr

Create a new resolution using cvt :

cvt 1920 1200 60
# 1920x1200 59.88 Hz (CVT 2.30MA) hsync: 74.56 kHz; pclk: 193.25 MHz
# Modeline "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync

Use the output of the cvt command to create a new mode

sudo xrandr --newmode "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync

An askubuntu answer suggests the same command without sudo.

Find the display

xrandr | grep -e " connected [^(]" | sed -e "s/\([A-Z0-9]\+\) connected.*/\1/"

Add new display mode where is the output from the previous command

xrandr --addmode XWAYLAND1 1920x1200_60.00

This will add the new resolution to your existing list of supported resolutions. You can then choose the right option from the “display settings” or following command

xrandr --output XWAYLAND1 --mode "1920x1200_60.00"

System information and version

Find out which Debian version is running

cat /etc/issue

Display the OS release

cat /etc/os-release

Suspend or stop the system

To suspend the system from the command line:

systemctl suspend

or

systemctl hibernate

To stop the system

sudo halt

Tools

These tools are not specific to Debian. I place them here because I use Debian as my main system. If a section gets too large it may get moved to another page in the future.

Gimp

The most important Gimp shortcuts are:

  • CTRL + B to open the tool Box
  • CTRL + L to open the Layers dialog

A list of Gimp Shortcuts

Upgrade Debian version

From Jessie 8 to Stretch 9

I followed the documentation on upgrades from Debian 8, Jessie

In bash store the output of apt-get install with many dependency issues in a text file

$ sudo apt-get -f install > aptgetfinstall.txt

Using R to extract all packages and try to remove them

R> bli <- readLines("aptgetfinstall;txt")
R> blil <- strsplit(grep("^ [[:alpha:]]", bli, value=TRUE),":")
R> pkgissues <- unlist(lapply(blil, "[[", 1))

The bash command to remove a package was

$ sudo dpkg --force-all -P <packagename>

Send this command for all packages

R> lapply(paste("sudo dpkg --force-all -P ", pkgissues),system)

From stretch 9 to buster 10

Edit the sources.list files to replace “stretch” by “buster”

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
# in vim :%s/stretch/buster/g

Attention, I had another sources.list file under a subdirectory I had to comment the sources mention there as well, otherwise the system wouldn’t uprgade most packages.

sudo vim  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/base.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade

The update steps mentioned above worked well in October 2019, but one year later, in October 2020 I tried to update another laptop from Debian 9 to 10 and many Debian packages were kept back. The GNOME desktop became unstable and I couldn’t log in any longer. I could still log into the command line to make a proper backup of all the data to a USB drive. I ended up reinstalling a fresh version of Debian buster 10 to that laptop. The lesson I learned from this, is that it’s better to update to a new stable release pretty soon after it’s released.

Debian releases: > “Debian is version 10, codenamed buster was initially released as version > 10 on July 6th, 2019 and its latest update, version 10.6, was released on > September 26th, 2020.”

From Buster 10 to bullseye 11

Following the updates at https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#backup

First update the current version of your system

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Added the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list and commented all the other lines

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free

# R installation
deb http://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian bullseye-cran40/

Recorded the process with

 script -t 2>~/upgrade-bullseyestep.time -a ~/upgrade-bullseyestep.script

That file ended up having 24000 lines at the end of the update.

Then ran

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

From bullseye 11 to bookworm 12

  • Update instructions at https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.html

  • Remove forgotten packages

      apt autoremove

  • Remove obsolete packages

      apt list '~o'
  sudo apt purge '~o'

  • List transitional dummy packages

    deborphan  --guess-dummy

  • Edit APT sources with the following lines that should replace bullseye sources

      sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
  # Note that non-free-firmware is needed now for firmware
  deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  deb-src  https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

  • Also change the R package source in that file as explained in https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/

      deb http://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian bookworm-cran40/

  • Recording the session with

      script -t 2>~/upgrade-bookwormstep.time -a ~/upgrade-bookwormstep.script

  • Update

      sudo apt update

  • Minimal system upgrade

     sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs
 # W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/cnl_dmc_ver1_07.bin for module i915

  • Upgrading the system

      sudo apt full-upgrade

    “This script detected the following installed services which must be stopped before the upgrade: postgresql”

    • Stop PostgreSQL

      sudo service postgresql stop

    • Configuring PostGreSQL

      “Obsolete major version 13 The PostgreSQL version 13 is obsolete, but the server or client packages are still installed. Please install the latest packages (postgresql-15 and postgresql-client-15) and upgrade the existing clusters with pg_upgradecluster (see manpage). Please be aware that the installation of postgresql-15 will automatically create a default cluster 15/main. If you want to upgrade the 13/main cluster, you need to remove the already existing 15 cluster (pg_dropcluster –stop 15 main, see manpage for details). The old server and client packages are no longer supported. After the existing clusters are upgraded, the postgresql-13 and postgresql-client-13 packages should be removed. Please see /usr/share/doc/postgresql-common/README.Debian.gz for details.”

    • Lots of messages about possible missing firmware

      W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/dg2_dmc_ver2_07.bin for module i915

  • Install firmware-linux (is it good?) saw it here https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/556946/possible-missing-firmware-lib-firmware-i915-for-module-i915

      sudo apt-get install firmware-linux

  • Purging removed packages

    apt list ‘~c’ sudo apt purge ‘~c’

Blogs

Uses this “A collection of nerdy interviews asking people from all walks of life what they use to get the job done”.