Debian Tips

Safely change a kernel boot option

When changing specific kernel boot option in grub, you might want to keep this even after a kernel upgrade (which rebuild the grub configuration). So you'll have to go to /boot/grub/menu.lst and find the kopt comment in this file :

# kopt=root=/dev/sda1 ro

This line specific what kernel options should be set by Debian when updating grub configuration.

Change default text editor

Run update-alternatives :

# update-alternatives --config editors

Revert Debian upgrade

When upgrading, you might like to revert back to a specified moment in time. Reverting upgrade seems stupid, but ISO Certification ask to have a defined process for that. So here we are :

Modify /etc/apt/sources.list and set (for 19 November 2007, here):

deb http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2007/11/19/debian stable main non-free contrib
deb http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2007/11/19/debian-security stable/updates main non-free contrib

Then in /etc/apt/preferences :

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 1001

And finally you just need to apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade !

See http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-french/2007/12/msg00529.html

Install Xvfb

Xvfb is virtual X11 Server that works only in memory.

time:/# aptitude install xvfb xdm

Then edit /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and change the line :

:0 local /usr/bin/X vt7 -dpi 100 -nolisten tcp

to

:0 local /usr/bin/Xvfb -dpi 100 -screen 1024x768x16

Finally start XDM :

/etc/init.d/xdm start

This will create a virtual X server at the size defined by screen option. Useful when forwarding via SSH !

Install Flash Player

To install Flash Player :

Go to http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/f/flashplugin-nonfree/, select the .deb corresponding to what you want and download :

time:/# wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/f/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.115.0.1_i386.deb

Then with dpkg, install :

time:/# dpkg -i flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.115.0.1_i386.deb

Stop kernel message on console

time:/# echo "0" > /proc/sys/kernel/printk

Convert filename encoding

If you have moved files from a system using ISO-8859-1 encoding to UTF-8, you might have filename looking like Norme_int�gration.pdf. There's a good tool : convmv.

#aptitude install convmv

Then just read the manual : http://www.j3e.de/linux/convmv/man/

Hibernate from Gnome menu reboot instead of shutdown

This was done on Debian Lenny

On a HP DC7800p, I had problem with hibernation from Gnome menu (SystemShut Down …Hibernate). Indeed my computer rebooted instead of powering off, to correct this behavior I just created the file /etc/pm/config.d/shutdown with HIBERNATE_MODE=shutdown !

More info with man pm-hibernate.

Dynamic MMap ran out of room

I had problem with aptitude. When I did aptitude update, I got something like “Dynamic MMap ran out of room”. So here is the solution I used to correct : http://vdachev.net/blog/2006/11/13/apt-get-e-dynamic-mmap-ran-out-of-room/.

The value given may be not enough, I needed to enlarge this value to make it works.

 
debian/tips.txt · Last modified: 2008/05/09 08:53 by tchetch
 
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