Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Living With Linux - How I was able to Switch from Debian Testing to Stable to use Backports

There is a meme in the Linux World.  The Answer is Always Debian

However, there are times where the question is "How will I be frustrated by ancient software today".

I moved from "Stable" to "Testing" about six months ago.  This week I moved back from Testing To Stable. 

People don't often do this, and it is difficult to do gracefully.  In short the way I did it was to use a second computer, install a fresh copy of Debian Stable onto it, then use my backup to put back what I needed.  Both my /home and my programs.

The long form of that is pretty long and nuanced.  The syntax for "backports" is at the bottom of this article.

The scenario was that I had software that got to far out of date because the modern connected world your browser and other software must be absolutely current.  Surf the wrong site and you have viruses infesting you.  Other sites are purposely breaking software you have and you are forced to upgrade to current.

Debian Linux's reputation is rock hard stability.  It does so by very thoroughly testing what they put to get everything safe as of date of issue.  Lawyer's Answer is that a week later in the fast world of the modern internet, you will have to have more modern software to protect yourself.

First I want an Encrypted Hard Drive.  Reason is in case the house gets broken into, the computer goes missing, whatever, you will have the machine, but you won't have my personal information.  My password on the machine is fairly UN-guessable.

Second.  That creates a problem.  To do a secure clone of the hard drive means that the way encryption works, you need a second machine to get the data off of the backup so you can copy it back to wherever you want it.  

Second machine makes things easy.  One machine gives you more difficulty and grief.  I have the old hardware, I'm fine with maintaining two similar but distinct machines.

Third, my "Daily Driver" computer was great, and went through two different upgrades to the actual hardware.  I'm very fortunate to have someone who gives me hand me down laptops that are basically worthless to the organization they work for, and they are expensed.  I repair them, which gives me a "New To Me" computer out of something that does not work.

I fix the broken new machine with parts scavenged, recycle the old one, and while everything is out in the open, I simply put the old hard drive in the new machine and go with it at the end of it all.  Fast, Safe, Secure.

My old install on Debian Testing that I had for about 3 years via multiple computers and multiple updates was now broken.  It was asking for an upgrade and when I did that via "apt update" and "apt upgrade" it killed my install if I forced the upgrade.  After two months of this I decided enough is enough and proceeded after a backup happened and I did it to use backports and in this broad fashion.

First, get a clone of the original Debian Testing hard drive and set it aside.

Second, install the most up to date version of Debian Stable you can find on to a stick and then onto the other similar computer.

I did say nuanced.  All my machines are Thinkpad. with similar hardware, and all are encrypted.  The older one I installed to is over 7 years old with a bad battery which is why I now consider it "parts".

To create the 8gb stick I used 'dd if="MyDebianISO.iso" of=/dev/sdb conv=noerror,sync status=progress' and walked away.  When finished, I booted from that stick on the older computer, installed it.

It takes about 15 minutes on the "old" computer to install Debian.  It's just not worth the time to delve into fixing things at this point.

Third, create a list of markings on the "new" computer that is running Testing.  Run Synaptic, Create a text file of everything installed.  That creates a problem where the programs that are broken will break the install on the new machine.  To find them, sort the markings and hunt.  Delete what you do not need, and import it into Synaptic on the old, Stable install.

Sorry, I can't be more specific than that since your needs are different than mine, but the sort command is simple.  Assuming you have marks.txt as your input, marks_sorted.txt as output:  cat marks.txt | sort > marks_sorted.txt

Get that file to the Stable machine and import your marks_sorted.txt after deleting anything you do not want into Synaptic there.  Then verify you don't have a broken install, and update the Stable computer

I verified my install, rebooted the computer a couple times and verified I was up to date.  

Result was now my computer now had a "clean" version of Stable up to date.  I swapped hard drives with the newer hardware because it was marginally faster with a fresh battery in it, and rebooted there.  Everything worked.

Except my Firefox was the older one, and yt-dlp was not working in some situations.  After all, you sometimes want to listen to media offline, especially as an endurance athlete like I am.

That required two different fixes.

Firefox - I went with the version in www.flathub.org instead of going with the one in mozilla.  It's said to be current.  Same with Librewolf.  I use one for "my surfing" the Librewolf for emails and (unfortunately) facebook.  In my mind along with my own /etc/hosts file,  it keeps the garbage ads and spying by the sites down.

yt-dlp was demanding that I went to backports to do an update.  This is the point of all this text.

Backports.  

Determine that /etc/apt/sources.list has backports enabled.
I had these lines at the bottom of my sources.list file:

# Backports allow you to install newer versions of software made available for this release
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main non-free-firmware

To use Backports to update, you only update a SINGLE program.  apt will grab what it needs to keep you up to date (I hope) so you aren't missing any dependencies.

apt update
apt upgrade "NeededPackageName"/bookworm-backports

In my specific case:  apt upgrade yt-dlp/bookworm-backports


Sunday, March 24, 2024

Today was a big day - I bought my first stepladder. It really was a big step up for me.

No my friends, I have not forgotten you.  I'm sitting here with my feet on the coffee table after a workout.  I had my "daily driver" computer get weirder and weirder over the last two months and am re-creating my environment on another machine.  That's part of the challenge of running an operating system where they're telling you "It's Testing, it may break!".  

Got tired of the Weird so I went back to "Stable". 

"Linux really is user friendly, but it is picky about who its friends are!"




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A guy was traveling in the Spanish countryside, and after driving all day he stopped for the night at a tiny inn.

The innkeeper, upon giving him his key, asked him if he would like to participate in a battle of wits with his special chicken. "If you stump him, you get a wish, any wish you like!" he explains.

The man agrees to it, and he's led into the bar, whereupon sits a healthy sized hen. He proceeds to have a battle of wits, and is roundly defeated by the hen.

"I didn't expect the chicken to be so smart!" says the man.
"No," says the innkeeper, "no one expects the Spanish inn quiz wish hen!"

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Why did the lead guitarist only have 5 strings on her guitar? Because she was wearing the g-string

 It's about to rain, I've had my perfect scrambled eggs, now it's time for a little comedy.


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A small startup company announces they will be holding an employee costume party to celebrate the end of their first fiscal year in business.

The theme of the party is “Past and Present” to celebrate the work that has been done while also looking forward to the years to come. To further expand on the theme they encourage all employees to bring family members if they would like to, children included. They even announce they will even be giving away a prize for the most creative costume!

The day of the party arrives and everyone is in attendance, including the CEO of the company, Catherine.

As she’s mingling with employees, she comes across one employee with a particularly interesting costume. They are wearing a full cat outfit as well as makeup with wrinkles and gray hairs.

“So what are you supposed to be?” asks the CEO.

“I’m you!” responds the employee. “I’m you in the future… old ‘Cat’”.

The CEO laughs and thanks the employee for their creativity and work on the costume.

The employee’s young daughter then walks up to join their parent, also dressed as a cat, but without the wrinkles or gray hair.

“Do you know what I’m dressed up as?” asks the girl.

It immediately clicks as the CEO recognizes what the girl’s costume is.

“Why, you’ve gotta be kitten me!”

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

For Perfect Scrambled Eggs, One Tablespoon of Milk Each and Low and Slow.

Custard-y and soft scrambled eggs shouldn't be this easy.  Really.

For each Egg, add one Tablespoon of Milk.
Scramble in a bowl, mug, etc.

Add any add ins as you feel necessary but if they need cooking, do that separately.

Get your favorite skillet out and start to warm it up on LOW.
Yes, Low.

They don't have to be babied, but relax, everything will cook in time.

The picture was at the end of cooking my breakfast today.  That gadget in my hand shows how low the heat was on the surface of the skillet, 233F.  Just over Boiling.  Call it 105C.

You will be cooking this low and slow.  It seems to be the key to this.
Push the eggs around with your spatula gently.  They will set. 

But try it.

It took me less time to make two eggs in a skillet than it usually does to make a "Souffle Egg" in the microwave.   Sure there's clean up afterwords, but at least you're not having them explode and coat the insides of the microwave, or turn into a yellow and white hockey puck.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

I thought I found a clover made of stone. It turns out it's a sham rock

 Ok, after a long workout this morning where I had to stop to watch the sunrise over the airpark and the airplanes, I'm in the chair listening to classical music and thinking what diabolical story can I dig up for today. 

See if this fits the bill! 


A little girl was in church with her mother when she started feeling ill. "Mommy," she said, "can we leave now?"

"No" her mother replied.

"Well, I think I'm gonna be sick, Momma!"

"Then go out the front door and around to the back of the church and then behind a bush."

After about 60 seconds the little girl returned to her seat.

"Were you sick?" her mom asked.

"Yes."

"How could you have gone all the way to the back of the church and returned so quickly?"

"I didn't have to go out of the church, Mommy. They have a box next to the front door that says, 'For the Sick'."

Saturday, March 16, 2024

I never ride my bike around the mental health hospital, There are dangerous cycle paths down there!

 Between adding two teaspoons of cocoa and an ounce of peanut butter to my morning oatmeal and an ounce of Dulce De Leche (Caramel Sauce), this is getting a bit out of hand.  Tasty, but a bit out of hand.

But yes, tasty.  And hey I'm not going to give you any bad ideas but my own diet has me at 600 calories per meal - and this just hits it.   Maybe hold back on the caramel sauce next time couldn't taste it :)


Anyway



A preacher was making his rounds to his parishioners on a bicycle, when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawn mower.

"How much do you want for the mower?" asked the preacher.

"I'm just trying to make enough money to buy a bicycle," said the little boy.

After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked, "Will you take my bike in trade for it?"

The boy said, "You got a deal."

The preacher took the mower and tried to crank it. He pulled on the string a few times with no response from the mower.

The preacher called the little boy over and said, "I can't get this mower to start."

The little boy said, "That's 'cause you have to cuss at it to get it started."

The preacher said, "I'm a minister, and I can't cuss. It's been so long since I've been saved that I don't know if I even remember how to cuss."

The little boy looked at him happily and said, "Just keep pulling on that string. It'll come back to ya!"

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Migrating my Linux Install From One Machine to the next. Took me longer to open the case.

Before I retired, I always had very new computers.

Then I moved down here to Florida.  The power company who shall remain nameless with their crappy infrastructure took care of that.

I had a rather nice desktop machine.  Then I realized that it was killed by power spikes.  The old laptop I had still worked.

Hmm, I'm onto something here.

Basically that power brick on the floor filtered the power spikes.  Literally, it blew out a power brick and left me powerless until I could get to the computer store down in Miami.

Then I realized that there is not enough room for a desk and a desktop and a giant CRT Style Monitor.  Hey it was the "Naughties" so LCD Screens were still expensive.

I migrated to my laptop permanently.

It was harder to move data around then, the hardware did not lend itself to it, and Windows... Well the less said about that the better.

Now, my newest computer is a little more than 3 years old (November 2020) and it's fast in comparison.  I moved over to Linux permanently and never looked back a while ago.  Some time around 2010, maybe earlier.  When Windows 8.1 came out.   I still have that install on a very old laptop and cringe every time I use it.  Ugly block land, and now Windows 11 is coming back to the way it used to look in Windows 2000 ... with AI?  Sheesh how do you people use Windows these days?  It's a steaming pile of sluggish poop!  Do you want SkyNet because AI is how you get Terminator.

This particular "new" machine I have here is a Lenovo T15 with 16GB of memory and a rather fast 500GB hard drive. 

How I went to it was simple.  I opened it up and connected the new machine and the hard drive clone of a backup from my X390 Yoga.  Turned it on and it worked.

Yep.  That's it.  Really, that old Yoga was feeling it's age because the USB-C socket that I used to power it was getting flaky but it is still a solid performer - Linux is a very forgiving environment.  The prior two upgrades, going back about 10 years, are both usable speed wise, even today.  You can't do that with Windows.

Oh, I had the "new" computer reboot a couple times and looked over the bios on the new machine and everything was just like I left it.

All done until this morning.  I was presented with an "initramfs" prompt.  It was an error that was fixed easily by two file system checks.  Took about 5 minutes once I remembered what I needed to do.

fsck -y /dev/mapper/luks*d
fsck -y /dev/mapper/luks*2

That means: File System Check, answer everything yes, on the drives referenced in the Mapper directory.

Yep.  That's it.  Took about 15 minutes to move the hardware.  Newer machine, larger screen, faster processor, still an encrypted hard drive.  Thanks for the upgrade!  I am right back where I was, doing my thing and happily listening to Mexican Pop on my cheap little external speakers.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

If that’s Orion’s belt….Where’s his pants?

 Since my Wordpress backup of this www.ramblingmoose.com site liked the topic yesterday, I thought I'd repeat the silliness.

So folks?  Did you reset your clocks?  How many will you miss until May or June or some other dear sweet lady's named month?

Don't let's go on that metaphor, it's a bit odd.

Just back from a workout, nice day for it.  Here is hoping your weekend is just as awesome!




A timid little man was terrified of flying, and was on a long distance trip.

He was on his first ever flight, and he had the window seat. Besides him sat a giant man, heavily tattooed, and not smelling the cleanest.

After the plane took off, the timid little fellow soon found himself feeling sick. But he didn't know how to get past the large fellow that sat between him and the way to the bathroom, especially because his neighbour was now fast asleep.

Suddenly it was too late, he couldn't help himself, and he got sick all over the other man. He frantically tried to wipe up the mess, hoping the giant wouldn't wake up.

Despite his best efforts, he noticed the man stirring, and his eyes opened. Thinking quickly, the timid little man smiled and said, "Are you feeling better now?"




Oh ew, but he did cover his mistake fairly well if a bit evil.

How about a second one?  Since we're heading to a burger joint similarly named, and I was just at a golf course biking circles around the place...





Two guys are out playing golf

Jim and Dave are playing golf one day when they come to the 8th hole there are two women teeing off.

Jim turns to Dave and says "go ask if we can play through"

Dave takes off towards the two women but only makes it about ten paces before he turns around and comes back

"What's the matter?" Asks Jim

"Well you see one of those women is my wife and the other is my mistress" replies Dave

"I see" says Jim as he heads off to ask the women if they can play through, like Dave he takes about ten steps then returns to Dave and says "small world"

Saturday, March 9, 2024

The Orion's Belt is just a big waist of space..Terrible joke. Only three stars.

 Well, I did complain that I whacked my jokes back up file, and my original or current jokes file.

I found it on an old laptop.  So if I give you a duplicate, just tell yourself that you heard it before, and if you like you can reach out to me here or on facebook (ugh) and say so.  I'll be gracious, shrug, and "try better".

Now, about those old laptops... I have a stack here, and I am sure you do too.  If you have an old intel Mac (i3/i5/i7) that you are trying to get rid of securely, I can help you there too.  We'll talk.  Either you donate it to the cause or I hand you your machine back with a base install of Linux...

On to the Jokes...


This one I know I heard but I don't care, I like it!




A burglar breaks into a house. He begins to search the home for valuables when hears a quiet voice say
“Jesus is watching you” he dismisses it as paranoia and carries on with his crime.
He hears the voice again “Jesus is watching you”.
He’s knows this time it’s not in his head so he looks around the room and sees a parrot in the corner.
He walks over to the parrot and it repeats one more time “Jesus is watching you”.
The burglar says to the parrot. “Is your name Jesus?”
“No it’s Moses” the parrot replied.
The burglar laughs and says “Who names a parrot Moses?” and
the parrot says “The same person who named the Rottweiler Jesus”



If that was not enough, here's my tip o the hat for a two-fer!





A priest and a nun are caught in a blizzard.

They find a deserted cabin and take shelter.

They find a sleeping bag, a bed, and a pile of blankets.

The priest, being a gentleman, offers the nun the bed and takes the sleeping bag for himself.

As they get tucked in for the night the nun calls out,

- "Father, Father I'm cold!"

So the priest gets up and puts another blanket on the nun.

- "Is that better Sister?" he asks.

- "Yes Father, much better," she replies.

So he gets back in his sleeping bag and starts to nod off when she again calls out with,

- "Father I'm still cold!"

So once again the priest gets up and puts another blanket on her, ensuring she is tucked into the bed well.

- "Is that better Sister?" he asks.

- "Oh yes Father, that's much better," she says.

So the priest gets himself back into the sleeping bag and this time is just starting to dream when he wakes up to her call of,

- "Father, Father I'm just so cold!"

The priest thinks long about this and finally says,

- "Sister, we are in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard. No one but you, myself, and the lord himself will ever know what happens here this night. How about, just for this night, we act as though we were married?"

The nun thinks on this for a minute, she can't help but admit to herself she's been curious, and finally answers with a tentative,

- "OK Father, just for tonight, we will act as though we are married."

So the Father replies,

- "Get up and get your own damned blanket ya cow!" and rolls over to fall asleep.



Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Trust in Dog, That Storm Means It's Not A Workout Day Even Though It Will Clear


 I guess the light comes on and nobody is still home.

The alarm has a light on it that is "just enough" to wake me.  Ear plugs are in so I can't hear the thing anyway. 

I can't also hear the rain outside until I pull the ear plugs out.  After checking the radar, it's no workout so I drop into a lower gear and ask Rack the McNab SuperDog (TM) if he's ok and can wait or "Do you need to go out". 

Rack just lay on his bed, sprawled out, vibrating from the outdoor thunder and lightning, very, very, frightening.

Yes, a McNab SuperDog (TM) is smart enough to tell you if he needs to water a tree or not.  That's why he's a Super Dog for crying out loud!

He didn't.  I watered my own porcelain "tree".  Was able to check Radar while doing all that and realized that "It's Not A Workout Day" or as a Visitor or Tourist to My Fair City would say "Not a Beach Day".

I grabbed my clothes after checking the scales for the daily weigh in.  Leaning against the wall in the hall I heard the Weather Alert Radio agree with my appraisal.  The Radar was evil and green/red and mottled, and we were in a lull in the downpour.  The Pompano Beach AirPark where I workout was under a red blob, and just forget it.  Ok, not going to happen.

The clearing that they need to do after the storms was not going to happen either because it's not a high priority.  It rains, their choices in plantings next to the trails drop litter on the trails, and eventually they get the blowers out to clear it off, but it could be a solid week in some cases.  Your workout is not their priority.

I pulled on the jeans and looked in the mirror.  Not bad, my two-pack may not be a six pack, but I'm also close to being a grandfather's age.  Memento Mori can wait.

...and we went out for a walk. 

By the time we got back he was laying at my feet as I made his food bowl vibrating.

All that is to say basically that if you think the Sunshine State is easy to predict weather because it is rarely colder than 50F and rarely warmer than 95F, hold my beer while I get Radar up.  Storms can come from any angle.  Here they tend to ride the border between Broward and Dade Counties right on that line.  The heat islands from Miami and Miami Beach and Downtown Fort Lauderdale, tend to push the storms right along that.  Just North of Downtown Fort Lauderdale in Wilton Manors and adjoining Oakland Park are in the "rain shadow" and drier, and the Pompano Airpark is a cool bit of land that pulls in storms. 

I once outraced a Thunderstorm coming south on Federal Highway/US1 from Boca Raton into Deerfield Beach into Pompano Beach getting to my car completely dry on my racing inline skates.  Apparently that storm was not moving at that high a speed.

So trust in Dog, and get a good Radar app.  Oh and those Weather Alert Radios are generally programmable with something called "SAME" which will limit the alerts to just your one-ninth of the county.  In a square county, like mine, that's important.

Mind you by 9AM all that is immaterial because the weather has cleared for a couple hours.  Slop will still be on the trails in Pompano but momentum has it's own charm and so do the Peppermint Patty Pancakes that I made for breakfast.  Well, Peppermint.  Not really enough Cocoa yet to call them Peppermint Patty, but that's easy to fix.