Debian

As a Debian Developer I have a discount on using Gandi and I’ve been using it for quite a long time and have been very happy with it. I’ve been using it for registering domains. For example this blog’s domain is managed by my Gandi account. Using ... [More] publicly registered domain in private-only setup In addition to using this DNS registrar for public stuff, like a blog, one can also use it for a domain accessible only within a private network. [Less]

I had a problem with my mouse. The slippery plastic bits on the bottom weren’t glued on well and came off, which then gave more friction when moving on the desk. After asking advice on a mailing list the best suggestion was Teflon sticky tape. I ... [More] bought a few meters of such tape (a lifetime supply for mouse repair) and used an 8cm strip on each side of the bottom of my mouse which made it slippery enough. Ebay seems like a good place to buy that, most of the offers are well below $20 for a reel of tape including postage. One thing to note is that they also sell non-adhesive teflon tape. I made the mistake of investigating the capabilities of teflon tape then buying the cheapest one on offer which turned out to be “plumber’s tape” which doesn’t have adhesive, fortunately it was well below $10. I now have a lifetime supply of plumber’s tape if I can ever find a use for it. No related posts. [Less]

Since Colin isn't blogging about it, I guess the honor falls to me :-) As of a few days ago, the man-db version in Debian unstable (2.10.0) is a lot faster in rebuilding its index (used for whatis/apropos). Earlier versions would use as much as ... [More] a few minutes in the dpkg trigger; now it's about 40 times as fast, and rarely takes more than a few seconds even for large upgrades. (We've discussed putting it in the background, but it's really not that annoying anymore.) The code is basically all Colin's; I'll take credit only for nagging him and providing a straw man implementation to demonstrate the speedup was possible in the first place. On a larger view, I would really love for the free software community to care more about performance than we do today. Today's CPUs, GPUs, SSDs and networks are so fast that most tasks should really be instantaneous; but yet, there are so many annoyances everywhere. (Of course, it would also help those of us that are on more resource-starved machines.) Some of this is due to the amount of layers of frameworks, language runtimes etc. that are hard to cut through, but even simple software coded in plain old C suffers from this. We're perennially short on resources, but we can't rely on faster machines coming every other year anymore :-) [Less]

The sublime One, by Be is a pastoral, English summer time instrumental improvisation around field recordings and the theme of the honey bee. A lovely piece to accompany deep thinking. I’m reminded of Virginia Astley. Be are associated ... [More] with Caught by the River, a collective who explore ways of setpping out of daily digital live and embrace, nature, walks, calm, etc. [Less]

Recently, I've wrote Debian New Cotributor Guide in Japanese. Here is the photo of on-demand printed version. Debian New Contributor Guide This book (JIS-B5 128p) was published for online event - Techbookfest 12th. It covers how to package a ... [More] new software in Debian. techbookfest.org Mostly PDF format is preferred, and a few printed versions were distributed. [Less]

Yesterday, KDE released version 5.24 of the Plasma desktop with the usual long list of updates and improvements. This release will be considered a LTS release. And Plasma 5.24 is now available for all Debian releases. (And don’t forget KDE ... [More] Gears/Apps 21.12!) As usual, I am providing packages via my OBS builds. If you have used my packages till now, then you only need to change the plasma5XX line to read plasma524. To give full details, I repeat (and update) instructions for all here: First of all, you need to add my OBS key say in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/obs-npreining.asc and add a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/obs-npreining-kde.list, containing the following lines, replacing the DISTRIBUTION part with one of Debian_11 (for Bullseye), Debian_Testing, or Debian_Unstable: deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/other-deps/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/frameworks/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/plasma524/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/apps2112/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/other/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ The sharp eye might have detected also the apps2112 line, yes the KDE Gear suite of packages has been updated to 21.12 some time ago and is also available in my OBS builds (and in Debian/experimental). Just one warning, but I guess most people using these repos already know it: Since I am not using Debian (lovely politics!) for my main machine anymore (only for my laptop for now), I haven’t tested these packages as solidly as the one up to now. Still, I got already one positive installation feedback. Enjoy the new Plasma! [Less]

Yesterday, KDE released version 5.24 of the Plasma desktop with the usual long list of updates and improvements. This release will be considered a LTS release. And Plasma 5.24 is now available for all Debian releases. (And don’t forget KDE ... [More] Gears/Apps 21.12!) As usual, I am providing packages via my OBS builds. If you have used my packages till now, then you only need to change the plasma5XX line to read plasma524. To give full details, I repeat (and update) instructions for all here: First of all, you need to add my OBS key say in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/obs-npreining.asc and add a file /etc/apt/sources.lists.d/obs-npreining-kde.list, containing the following lines, replacing the DISTRIBUTION part with one of Debian_11 (for Bullseye), Debian_Testing, or Debian_Unstable: deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/other-deps/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/frameworks/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/plasma524/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/apps2112/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/npreining:/debian-kde:/other/DISTRIBUTION/ ./ The sharp eye might have detected also the apps2112 line, yes the KDE Gear suite of packages has been updated to 21.12 some time ago and is also available in my OBS builds (and in Debian/experimental). Just one warning, but I guess most people using these repos already know it: Since I am not using Debian (lovely politics!) for my main machine anymore (only for my laptop for now), I haven’t tested these packages as solidly as the one up to now. Still, I got already one positive installation feedback. Enjoy the new Plasma! [Less]

Some Django applications use Model Mommy in unit tests: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-model-mommy Upstream, model mommy has been renamed model bakery: https://model-bakery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ Model Bakery is a rename of the legacy ... [More] model_mommy’s project. This is because the project’s creator and maintainers decided to not reinforce gender stereotypes for women in technology. You can read more about this subject here Hence: https://bugs.debian.org/1005114 and https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/python-model-bakery_1.4.0-1.html So this is a heads-up to all those using Debian for their Django unit tests. Model Mommy will no longer get updates upstream, so model mommy will not be able to support Django4. Updates will only be done, upstream, in the Model Bakery package which already supports Django4. Bakery is not a drop-in replacement. Model Bakery includes a helper script to migrate: https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/python-model-bakery/-/blob/master/utils/from_mommy_to_bakery.py This is being packaged in /usr/share/ in the upcoming python3-model-bakery package. It is a tad confusing that model-mommy is at version 1.6.0 but model-bakery is at version 1.4.0 but that only reinforces that Django apps using Model Mommy will need editing to move to Model Bakery. I'll be using the migration script for a Freexian Django app which currently uses Model Mommy. Once Model Bakery reaches bookworm, I plan to do a backport to bullseye. Then I'll file a bug against Model Mommy. Severity of that bug will be increased when Django4 enters unstable (the 4.0 dev release is currently in experimental but there is time before the 4.2 LTS is uploaded to unstable). https://packages.debian.org/experimental/python3-django Model Bakery is in NEW and Salsa Update: Django 4.2 LTS would be the first Django4 release in unstable. [Less]

Some Django applications use Model Mommy in unit tests: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-model-mommy Upstream, model mommy has been renamed model bakery: https://model-bakery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ Model Bakery is a rename of the legacy ... [More] model_mommy’s project. This is because the project’s creator and maintainers decided to not reinforce gender stereotypes for women in technology. You can read more about this subject here Hence: https://bugs.debian.org/1005114 and https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/python-model-bakery_1.4.0-1.html So this is a heads-up to all those using Debian for their Django unit tests. Model Mommy will no longer get updates upstream, so model mommy will not be able to support Django4. Updates will only be done, upstream, in the Model Bakery package which already supports Django4. Bakery is not a drop-in replacement. Model Bakery includes a helper script to migrate: https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/python-model-bakery/-/blob/master/utils/from_mommy_to_bakery.py This is being packaged in /usr/share/ in the upcoming python3-model-bakery package. It is a tad confusing that model-mommy is at version 1.6.0 but model-bakery is at version 1.4.0 but that only reinforces that Django apps using Model Mommy will need editing to move to Model Bakery. I'll be using the migration script for a Freexian Django app which currently uses Model Mommy. Once Model Bakery reaches bookworm, I plan to do a backport to bullseye. Then I'll file a bug against Model Mommy. Severity of that bug will be increased when Django4 enters unstable (it is currently in experimental). https://packages.debian.org/experimental/python3-django Model Bakery is in NEW and Salsa [Less]

I recently wrote that managing an external display on Linux shouldn’t be this hard. I went down a path of trying out some different options before finally landing at an unexpected place: KDE. I say “unexpected” because I find tiling window ... [More] managers are just about a necessity. Background: xmonad Until a few months ago, I’d been using xmonad for well over a decade. Configurable, minimal, and very nice; it suited me well. However, xmonad is getting somewhat long in the tooth. xmobar, which is commonly used with it, barely supports many modern desktop environments. I prefer DEs for the useful integrations they bring: everything from handling mount of USB sticks to display auto-switching and sound switching. xmonad itself can’t run with modern Gnome (whether or not it runs well under KDE 5 seems to be a complicated question, according to wikis, but in any case, there is no log applet for KDE 5). So I was left with XFCE and such, but the isues I identified in the “shouldn’t be this hard” article were bad enough that I just could not keep going that way. An attempt: Gnome and PaperWM So I tried Gnome under Wayland, reasoning that Wayland might stand a chance of doing things well where X couldn’t. There are several tiling window extensions available for the Gnome 3 shell. Most seemed to be rather low-quality, but an exception was PaperWM and I eventually decided on it. I never quite decided if I liked its horizontal tape of windows or not; it certainly is unique in any case. I was willing to tolerate my usual list of Gnome problems for the sake of things working. For instance: The Windows-like “settings are spread out in three different programs and some of them require editing the registry[dconf]”. Finding all the options for keybindings and power settings was a real chore, but done. Some file dialog boxes (such as with the screenshot-taking tool) just do not let me type in a path to save a file, insisting that I first navigate to a directory and then type in a name. General lack of available settings or hiding settings from people. True focus-follows-mouse was incompatible with keyboard window switching (PaperWM or no); with any focus-follows-mouse enabled, using Alt-Tab or any other method to switch to other windows would instantly have focus returned to whatever the mouse was over. Under Wayland, I found a disturbing lack of logs. There was nothing like /var/log/Xorg.0.log, nothing like ~/.xsession-errors, just nothing. Searching for answers on this revealed a lot of Wayland people saying “it’s a Gnome issue” and the trail going cold at that point. And there was a weird problem that I just could not solve. After the laptop was suspended and we-awakened, I would be at a lock screen. I could type in my password, but when hitting Enter, the thing would then tend to freeze. Why, I don’t know. It seemed related to Gnome shell; when I switched Gnome from Wayland to X11, it would freeze but eventually return to the unlock screen, at which point I’d type in my password and it would freeze again. I spent a long time tracking down logs to see what was happening, but I couldn’t figure it out. All those hard resets were getting annoying. Enter KDE So I tried KDE. I had seen mentions of kwin-tiling, a KDE extension for tiling windows. I thought I’d try this setup. I was really impressed by KDE’s quality. Not only did it handle absolutely every display-related interaction correctly by default, with no hangs ever, all relevant settings were clearly presented in one place. The KDE settings screens were a breath of fresh air – lots of settings available, all at one place, and tons of features I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Here are some of the things I was pleasantly surprised by with KDE: Applications can declare classes of notifications. These can be managed Android-style in settings. Moreover, you can associate a shell command to run with a notification in any class. People use this to do things like run commands when a display locks and so forth. KDE Connect is a seriously impressive piece of software. It integrates desktops with Android devices in a way that’s reminiscent of non-free operating systems – and with 100% Free Software (the phone app is even in F-Droid!). Notifications from the phone can appear on the desktop, and their state is synchronized; dismiss it on the desktop and it dismisses on the phone, too. Get a SMS or Signal message on the phone? You can reply directly from the desktop. Share files in both directions, mount a directory tree from the phone on the desktop, “find my phone”, use the phone as a presentation remote for the desktop, shared clipboard, sending links between devices, control the phone media player from the desktop… Really, really impressive. The shortcut settings in KDE really work and are impressive. Unlike Gnome, if you try to assign the same shortcut to multiple things, you are warned and prevented from doing this. As with Gnome, you can also bind shorcuts to arbitrary actions. This shouldn’t be exciting, but I was just using Gnome, so… The panel! I can put things wherever I want them! I can put it at the top of the screen, the bottom, or even the sides! It lets all my regular programs (eg, Nextcloud) put their icons up there without having to install two different extensions, each of which handles a different set of apps! I shouldn’t be excited about all this, because Gnome actually used to have these features years ago… [gripe gripe] Initially I was annoyed that Firefox notifications weren’t showing up in the notification history as they did in Gnome… but that was, of course, a setting, easily fixed! There is a Plasma Integration plugin for Firefox (and other browsers including Chrome). It integrates audio and video playback, download status, etc. with the rest of KDE and KDE Connect. Result: if you like, when a call comes in to your phone, Youtube is paused. Or, you can right-click to share a link to your phone via KDE Connect, and so forth. You can right click on a link, and share via Bluetooth, Nextcloud (it must have somehow registered with KDE), KDE Connect, email, etc. Tiling So how about the tiling system, kwin-tiling? The out of the box experience is pretty nice. There are fewer built-in layouts than with xmonad, but the ones that are there are doing a decent job for me, and in some cases are more configurable (those that have a large window pane are configurable on its location, not forcing it to be on the left as with many systems.) What’s more, thanks to the flexibility in the KDE shortcut settings, I can configure it to be nearly keystroke-identical to xmonad! Issues Encountered I encountered a few minor issues: There appears to be no way to tell it to “power down the display immediately after it is locked, every time” instead of waiting for some timeout to elapse. This is useful when I want to switch monitor inputs to something else. Firefox ESR seems to have some rendering issues under KDE for some reason, but switching to the latest stable release direct from Mozilla seems to fix that. In short, I’m very impressed. [Less]