/dev/chat

JBallin

00:31

I'm having some kind of delay with curl. I update the content on a page, and confirm that it's been updated by looking at it in the browser (raw text) and then when I curl it, the updates aren't shown. If I wait like a minute, it seems to work properly. What's the reason?

I'm specifically using the raw link to my GitHub gist

Faheem Mitha

00:44

@JBallin Can you give a link that other people can use to test?

JBallin

02:02

@FaheemMitha I can't give a specific link as it seems to be time sensitive. Go to gist.github.com, create a gist, click raw, take the link up until /raw/ and try curl link, now add a change to the gist, and curl it, and even though the link will show the change, the curl output will not

Faheem Mitha

02:16

@JBallin Sounds like a reasonable question to ask. I suggest you post one on the site. If it isn't reproducible, you can always delete or close it.

I can't test it myself right now. Maybe later. Feel free to ask for comments/feedback on the question here in chat, once you've posted it.

Actually, on second thoughts, the question, though reasonable, might not be on topic. Since I don't see how it obviously related to U&L. Thoughts?

I suppose curl is a Unix thing, so in that sense, it's Unix related.

@JBallin Oh, and if you post a question, give a somewhat more explicit recipe. The more explicit the better, within reason. Most people will give up rather quickly if they can't figure out how to reproduce.

Prabhjot Singh

03:41

@FaheemMitha yes, Fedora 27. If you suggest Ubuntu I could try Debian. Ubuntu and Linux Mint are Debian like if not mistaken.

Kusalananda

05:30

@JBallin The cd happens in the subshell, so it will not affect the surrounding environment (no need to do cd - or cd "$OLDPWD").

@JBallin \. is the same as . (or source in bash). I don't know why it's escaped like that.

JBallin

Thanks for clarifying @Kusalananda!

Kusalananda

And good morning, too!

Faheem Mitha

06:13

@PrabhjotSingh Debian is also a good choice. But Ubuntu might be easier to start with.

JBallin

I figured out a workaround to my curl issue btw @FaheemMitha, I think it may have been gist.github specific. I realized I could just use gist -r ID to read the gist (using github.com/defunkt/gist) thanks for your input!

Faheem Mitha

@JBallin You could still post a question, and answer it yourself. If it's an actual issue, that could be useful for other people.

Prabhjot Singh

@FaheemMitha you didn't read getting to know answer. I've used Linux mint seven months or so.

@FaheemMitha texlive icon not found

Bonjour everyone

Faheem Mitha

08:00

@PrabhjotSingh I did read it. But you just said you were using Fedora.

Prabhjot Singh

@FaheemMitha I installed lexlive, but now I fail to find lexlive on my Machine. I've Texmacs. That's good but without Indian languages.

Faheem Mitha

09:46

@PrabhjotSingh What do you mean, you failed to find TeX Live? Try typing pdflatex. Does it return something?

Prabhjot Singh

11:08

@FaheemMitha pdflatex returns this is pdftex version3.14 (preloaded format=pdflatex) restricted \write18 enabled.

Faheem Mitha

11:48

@PrabhjotSingh Ok. That looks correct.

Faheem Mitha

13:39

ldd /usr/bin/digikam | wc -l
265

Per changelog.complete.org/archives/…

Though John Goerzen gets:

$ ldd /usr/bin/digikam | wc -l
396

I wonder why the big difference.

Acsor

15:16

"Good" afternoon everyone. Note the quotes: I've been troubleshooting too much to define my own a good afternoon

Here is an issue, probably even too silly to demonstrate interesting... Oh wait, something's turning out different since the last reboot

OK, this is my kernel version: 4.16.0-2-amd64. A makefile I'm using expects the /build directory under /lib/modules/`uname -r`, but is not finding any. Probably I need to build something here?

What is unsettling in this circumstance is that the /build directory actually exists under /lib/modules/4.16.0-2-686!

Probably I can conjecture that /lib/modules/4.16.0-2-686 and /lib/modules/4.16.0-2-amd64 are largey equivalents, and that i may soft-link the former's /build folder into the second?

Well, I'm doing right that thing and perhaps I can manage to trick the makefile into doing its own thing, if it is a bit illegal

I will need this tweak even for configuring my Virtualbox setup and that currently does not work

Faheem Mitha

15:58

@Acsor You might want to start with your distribution.

And what are you trying to do?

Acsor

Debian testing, currently ~9

@FaheemMitha loading a kernel module I am writing and getting Virtual Box up and running. vboxconfig is lamenting when it is executed

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor Stable is 9.

Acsor

I'm on buster/sid

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor You are having problems loading a kernel module you are writing?

Acsor

Yes, and along with that starting a Virtual Box machine

Faheem Mitha

16:00

@Acsor testing doesn't have a release number, because it hasn't been released. Just say buster.

@Acsor Take one problem at a time, please.

Please confirm that you are having problems loading a kernel module you wrote.

That's actually perfectly on topic here, and probably doesn't come up too much. So I'd suggest writing a question. Here in chat you'll only get the attention of like maybe 3 people (if you are lucky).

Acsor

I'll go for the module loading one. Yes, I have. insmod refuses to load it. Apparently the .ko output file is in 32-bit, I can't say whether that signifies anything

Faheem Mitha

Incidentally, I'd recommend mimicking the organization of Debian's packaged kernel modules. At least, that is what I would do. I wonder if there is an example kernel module package. A hello.ko, as it were. I'm not aware of one.

Acsor

@FaheemMitha Yeah, I was thinking the same. But I'm feeling it is something very little, mainly because I'm inexperienced with building kernels, writing kernel modules and the like.

Faheem Mitha

That would have the advantage of creating a Debian binary package for you too.

Acsor

Well, my setup had been working until this morning. Then I upgraded some packages, probably deleted a few of them, and now I'm here wondering how to solve this hurdle

Faheem Mitha

16:06

@Acsor You'd really be better off running stable.

testing is really for people with more experience. I run stable myself, because I don't want the hassle.

Acsor

There must be a specific reason why I chose testing over the stable distribution. Unfortunately, I hardly recall that and can't fathom how reasonable it could still be

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor Did you manage to get a working "hello world" type kernel module?

Acsor

Yeah, absolutely. This morning, before upgrading the packages

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor Everyone will tell you that Debian stable is best for beginners.

@Acsor Ok. So that loaded, but the kernel module you wrote doesn't?

Debian stable is arguably best for people who are not beginners too, but that is more debatable. As I said, I run stable. Since 2001.

Acsor

@FaheemMitha It did a few times but not after a certain time, which occurred after opening aptitude and doing my own little things

Faheem Mitha

16:11

@Acsor Hmm. Does your system still pass basic sanity checks? E.g. dpkg -C?

Acsor

root@vacuum:~# dpkg -C
root@vacuum:~# echo $?
0

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor Looks ok.

Also apt-get -f install?

Acsor

I only have 436 packages to upgrade :-/

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor I don't follow. What's the output of apt-get -f install?

Acsor

Probably a major hassle avoided for the stable distribution. There's continuously very small upgrades that I run once in a while

root@vacuum:~# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 436 not upgraded.

Faheem Mitha

16:14

@Acsor Assuming you are actually running testing, you should upgrade.

What is your sources.list?

Acsor

@FaheemMitha I issued an upgrade earlier

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor That output says you have an upgrade to do. But first, sources.list.

Acsor

Here it is: pastebin.com/CWb0JYAZ

In the meanwhile I'm running the pending upgrade. Twice today...

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor That looks reasonably clean. Do you have anything in /etc/apt/preferences?

Acsor

preferences does not exist, and preferences.d is empty

Faheem Mitha

16:24

@Acsor Looks good.

I'd go ahead with the upgrade. And see if that makes any difference. If not, post a question. Feel free to ask for comments/feedback here if you do so. But there are never many people here, and probably less today, since it's Sunday.

Acsor

Well, you see. The testing distribution must have been for a reason - arguably the dated packages of the stable distribution - and I'm not sure if I'm recollecting the right one

Faheem Mitha

BTW, you probably want to use a specific code name in sources.list. In this case, buster, I suppose, as opposed to testing.

Acsor

@FaheemMitha Seconded

Faheem Mitha

The reason is that one day buster will become stable. On that day, your system will start pulling packages from the new, very unstable, testing.

Acsor

It isn't clear whether that's a codename of an historic release or just to the testing distribution. Here's what I read on Wikipedia:

> The testing suite is currently named Buster,[125] which is the real (not the toy) dog seen in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.
> Debian 10 freeze is planned for March 2019, and the release "some time mid 2019" and will be called Buster.

Well, probably the currently makes a difference

Faheem Mitha

16:28

@Acsor buster is the code name of the entity that will one day become Debian's next stable distribution. Probably 10, but that hasn't been decided yet.

Acsor

Oh wait, we're on 9. So that makes sense. I'm left wondering of any codenames for the testing distribution. But probably it changes over time

Faheem Mitha

@Acsor You're not on 9. 9 is stable.

Acsor

Yes, I meant: the stable is 9. Buster, as I may call mine, a preview of the tenth release

Thank you for the help and the cozy conversation. I was hoping to get some physical exercise today

If anything comes up that needs troubleshooting I'll probably head over the Q&A

Faheem Mitha

16:42

@Acsor ok

Acsor

17:12

Solved it! I just needed to install the `linux-headers-4.16.0-2-amd64` package, providing the kernel headers. I got there by looking up my kernel version number into the `aptitude` search.

Description-en: Header files for Linux 4.16.0-2-amd64
This package provides the architecture-specific kernel header files for
Linux kernel 4.16.0-2-amd64, generally used for building out-of-tree
kernel modules. These files are going to be installed into
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.16.0-2-amd64, and can be used for building

Faheem Mitha

17:40

@Acsor Yes, you need that for compilation. But that would also be needed for any kernel module, including a hello world type one.

Faheem Mitha

18:28

This is also an interesting article about FreeBSD: changelog.complete.org/archives/…

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