Debian-8-jessie-KDE

[GreyGeek]

Just to play around and get a sense of JesseKDE 8.1 I installed it as a guest OS using the default fs, EXT4. There were no supprises but some terminology differences. When the install app asked if I wanted to use a "Network Mirror" I assumed they were asking if I wanted a connection to the Debian repository for 8.1. After I clicked "Yes" that's what it turned out to be. I noticed that while my Kubuntu 14.04 installation was running KDE 4.13.3 the KDE in Jessie is running KDE 4.14.2

After a while I decided to see how Btfs played under JessieKDE. I started by deleting the old guest OS and installing a new one. The big difference between their install programs is the absence of an indicator arrow on the dropdown dialog boxes in Jessie, so they did not look like entry boxes of any kind or controls that could be modified. There was no clue that there was a choice available on any of the partition settings. On some screens you select one of several list options (which don't look like options as much as they look like lines of text) and then click the "Continue" button. The partition screen looked similar, except that there was a colon between the lable and its data. Double clicking on the lines caused options to pop up. I changed the default EXST4 to Btrfs, and left the mount point as "/". I changed the boot flag from "no" to "yes" and let "/" take all the virtual drive. Pressing "continue" I was prompted to write the partition configuration to the HD. I was asked where I wanted to write grub and I chose the HD, pressed "Continue" and then the installation started.

When It was done my first action was to oepn a console and see how the subvolume listed. I couldn't do it because Jessie, even when you choose the Btrfs, does not come with btrfs-tools installed. I opened the software manager, Aper, and installed that package.

Jessie uses "su" and during the install you are asked to enter a password for root. This is how the distros I used to use before I switched to Kubuntu. I'm not going to play around to get sudo working, or put myself on the list of sudo users. Su is fine with me I opened a console and entered su btrfs filesystem show / and was immediately rejected instead of being asked for the root password. I entered "su" and my password when asked and then as root entered the above command, sans "su". It presented the Btrfs information. Things look good. I tried the "list" command and several others. Then I entered mount /dev/sda1 /mnt and even though I am runnning live on /dev/sda1 I was able, just like in Kubuntu, to mount it and play around, then umount it. Later on I'm going to start making snapshots and more subvolumes.

[otisklt]

jesse gave me some issues with a laptop wifi during install, asked for some intel files, i make them available but it still does not work right...

[dibl]

Does every new version of KDE go to Debian?

Eventually. But not really quick.

don@debian-8-box:~$ inxi -v3
System:    Host: debian-8-box Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4) 
           Desktop: KDE 4.14.2 (Qt 4.8.6) Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8

[gnomek]

Does every new version of KDE go to Debian?

By the way, interesting info:
http://forums.netrunner.com/showthread.php?tid=17531

https://github.com/netrunner-debian

[marco07]

With systemd initialization, you can (as root) issue

systemctl poweroff

to shutdown, or

systemctl reboot

.

Thank you!!

[dibl]

Systemd ... systemctl ...
Take a vacation and one falls irretrievably behind progress...
A person jumping in a time warp from RH 5 or SuSE 5.2 to Kubuntu 14.04 or most any other distro would be totally lost! Were it not for this forum I'd be a total

Very true, GG. Systemd has been a lot to digest, no question about it.

BTW, the official systemd command to shut down X is

systemctl isolate multiuser.target

But on my wired ethernet systems that kills networking too. I learned by experimentation that the command I gave several posts up does indeed kill all the user processes, but leaves networking intact. This is on siduction systems, I haven't tried it on a full Debian stable system.

[GreyGeek]

Systemd ... systemctl ...
Take a vacation and one falls irretrievably behind progress...
A person jumping in a time warp from RH 5 or SuSE 5.2 to Kubuntu 14.04 or most any other distro would be totally lost! Were it not for this forum I'd be a total

[dibl]

But instead of "halt", I used shutdown -h now.

With systemd initialization, you can (as root) issue

systemctl poweroff

to shutdown, or

systemctl reboot

.

[marco07]

Excellent.

Unless an error can be traced to a hardware issue, i.e. by finding dmesg or log entries from the kernel, I would not expect the booted kernel version to have any effect on it. It may have been only coincidental that the problem seemed solved by booting an earlier kernel.

I run demesg and try to attach a copy of it here using .txt file. But the attachment gives an error message. I could not solve it. What do I do wrong?

[marco07]

I noticed the issue of non-functional leave buttons in my guest 0S, one one occasion. I opened a Konsole and used the halt command. The issue hasn't reoccurred.

So did I. But instead of "halt", I used shutdown -h now. This powered off the system properly. But on next boot-up the Leave menu items were not functional till today as I described in my last post.

[GreyGeek]

I noticed the issue of non-functional leave buttons in my guest 0S, one one occasion. I opened a Konsole and used the halt command. The issue hasn't reoccurred.

I'm planning to install Jessie on my HD and use the btrfs. I just backed up all the data in my home account. Probably sometime in the next couple of weeks. When (not if) Kubuntu moves to a Debian base I'll reinstall it.

[dibl]

Excellent.

Unless an error can be traced to a hardware issue, i.e. by finding dmesg or log entries from the kernel, I would not expect the booted kernel version to have any effect on it. It may have been only coincidental that the problem seemed solved by booting an earlier kernel.

[marco07]

In ~/.kde/share/config is a file named ksmserverrc. Google found some forum posts from late 2014 indicating that deletion and regeneration of this file solved the power buttons issue. Just for safety, I would advise copying the current file off to some other directory in your user's home folder, then delete the original, and either reboot or log out and then (as root) kill the X session from tty1 with

# systemctl stop lightdm

and then

# systemctl start lightdm && exit

and log back in and see whether it is fixed.

Thanks!
Here is my situation right now.
Ever since the last occurrence of the issue, I have been starting up Debian Jessie from the grub menu by using the work around method I described in my last post. I did that today as well. In order to try your suggestion, I decided to restart the system thru normal grub menu in order at least not to lose the work around option, if things went awry. Lo and behold, the system menu became functional and all seemed to be OK. I checked the file ~/.kde/share/config/ksmserverrc, and noted that this file was last created today around the time I first started Jessie with work around option. So, the newly created ksmserverrc seems has solved the issue, I hope.
conclusion: I did not use your suggestion yet. But I took a note to use it next time if the issue occurs.
BTW, I also made a back-up of the newly created ksmserverrc file, for in case.
Thanks for your time and help so far. I will be in touch with this thread.

[dibl]

In ~/.kde/share/config is a file named ksmserverrc. Google found some forum posts from late 2014 indicating that deletion and regeneration of this file solved the power buttons issue. Just for safety, I would advise copying the current file off to some other directory in your user's home folder, then delete the original, and either reboot or log out and then (as root) kill the X session from tty1 with

# systemctl stop lightdm

and then

# systemctl start lightdm && exit

and log back in and see whether it is fixed.

[marco07]

OK thanks. It appears to be a totally supported hardware system, as far as Google can find for me. If it is certified for Ubuntu, which is Debian based, I can't imagine that there is a hardware issue running Debian Jessie.

So, your example problem mentioned Firefox. Have you seen problems with KDE packages? Have any of the crashes taken down the OS? Can you tell more about the issues that you have observed, how they were triggered, whether you are able to repeat them, etc.?

Yes, I do not think the issues I experience are hardware related. I have both
ubuntu 14.04 and kubuntu 14.04 installed on different partitions on this desktop
with perfect performance without any issues at all.
The main issue I experience every now and then is that although the OS is
functional, for one or other reason, I lose the logout, restart, and shutdown
actions from the kde luncher "Leave" menu, i.e. these become non-responsive. The
iceweasel (Firefox) seems working OK now. Have not had any crashes since my last
post. As to how the issues are triggered, I have no clues at all, and do not
know at which point of work or time this happens. I cannot manually repeat
them. Though, I suspect they may occur after changes in configuration files as
a result of software installation or updates.
The thing is that after a reboot the issues still remain. The work around I
discovered is to start the system from grub menu by going to advanced action
for debian 8, and starting the original kernel (2nd one in list), which is
still the same version as first, or running the recovery system and from there
selecting the default system (Ctrl-D). Then the "Leave" items on the luncher
menu become functional and responsive again.
Sorry, for this to get long. I could not find a better way to describe the
problem.
Thanks!