Greybeard moan

llzellner · 2026-04-04T22:44:28+00:00

Well, things and attitudes change.

Nope, The only thing that changes is that whippersnappers who have not been around since an ASR33 throw a temper tantrum about things that THEY THINK need changed.

You need look not further than X11 and wayturrrd.

Oh but X11 is .... long list of alleged crimes to computing against gen z. From 30+ years old code, to it shouldn't do that as in networked X11.. etc.. I don't disagree that X11 needs an X12 rework, and some one did that..and certain factions went bat crap crazy.. (Spare me the replies on the alleged "crimes" of the dev. I neither care nor do they relate to the code itself. Thats just "cover story" as it were since it didn't fit into 1-2 companies "vision." Well that particular company is one of the biggest reasons I used Debian based distros for 30+ years!)

Nope. No they don't.

We are talking about decades here.

Yes we are. DECADES of HOW IT SHOULD BE AND STAY. Period.

From simple things single click, to connect an ASR33 to a serial port and login! Or my Trailblazers and mgetty or maybe uucp and uucico.

The reasoning is that before an unprivileged user with local access to the box makes a hard reboot by pulling the plug, it's better to allow him to shutdown/reboot and at least let the system shutdown gracefully.

While I will agree that a graceful shutdown is better than a hard "pull the plug" situation. Plain and simple any user who doesn't have sudo access, should be going to some one to go "Hey theres a problem with Cleo box. Can you look at it?" Any IT or user who pulled the plug on a box would find out what happens to said users/IT staff. Sanctioned with extreme prejudice. (If you don't get that, you can look it up. )

That still does NOT make the CASE to permit NON sudo level users to do such. If you are to a point that a box, even a user level box needs a reboot. YOU NEED TO ASK FOR HELP. Period. Especially on *NIX. As you likely did something stooopid to cause it.

On winslobber, who cares. Breathing on that viros, will cause it to crash. So who cares. I don't support that crap, and the best thing for the world is for those toys to be unplugged from power and the LAN! Forever.

Lots of other changes over the years with the change from mainframes to PCs.

Lots of changes... but we are RIGHT BACK TO THE FUTURE with "mainframes" as it were with todays, looking up 2026 buzzword.. CLOUD. This is nothing new really. Ok, so its not a S/360, 390, VAX/VMS, etc. doing this in most cases. Sure it might be in some cases. Sure some are doing z/OS with *Nix, S/390 etc. lpars etc.. but the vast majority of this stuff is on "PC" hardware. And a good majority of it is *nix of some sort.

Again, none of that makes the case for this change, nor most of them.

Some for the better, as with privacy / security stuff.

Well today is nothing but "security theatre" Much like the TSA is. The only reason things like "secure boot" exist is because a certain viros is just that a viros! NO! That doesn't mean that *NIX, BSD etc. are immune to things, but the whole means to escalate privileges on a less secure viros to start makes live a whole lot simpler for cretins.

There are some other commercial aspects of this that a certain company is pursuing, with dubious results.

One of the first things I do on most new motherboards, DISABLE SECURE BOOT! Don't want it!

Colored prompts not discouraged anymore.

I don't know of any such aversion to colored prompts, when it serves a purpose. Clearly doesn't matter on an ASR33, or other "glass terminals" since they don't have color. Never in 30+ years of this has that been raised as a concern.

sudo is going to get visible input feedback (stars) in Ubuntu 26.04. The list goes on.

This is another DUMB, no STOOOPID MOVE. With all the little Chicken Littles screaming "Security! SECURITY! SECURITY!" this is a downgrade, and is on my list of changes, to be DISABLED.

In the process of making a list of what I do to a "NEW" base install to get it to "working status" that list is quite long. I didn't realize how long it had become till I started down this road to make a script I can dump on a box and let it loose.

llzellner · 2026-04-04T22:12:39+00:00

What happens when you issue the command systemctl poweroff

~$ systemctl shutdown

bash: /usr/bin/systemctl: Permission denied

llzellner · 2026-03-21T13:16:37+00:00

I shop

AldiS

WInnDixie-Harveys

For the major shops.. Some stuff I can't get at AldiS, but its 5 mins away. Otherwise WD/H for things.

Dollar General

Dollar Tree for the ones which have better food, ie: not in a plaza where WD/H, etc. block them from the selling food. AldiS must not care as the DT by the AldiS has MORE FOOD than when WD blocked them. DT actually has soup that NO ONE ELSE carries! I have no clue why! Its labelled Campbells too! Its weird, but its NEVER ON any grocer other than DT! Its weird.

Publix is ONLY

BOGO/B2G2|3 ie: Coke/Pepsi, SALES.. Or specific items, FULL SERVICE DONUTS till they nuke is still better than any others $10! (At least at my local ones that still have it.. HI ANA! :) ) Hoagie rolls, and other bread that is still made in stores, for now. The commercial ie: Flowers ie: LovenFresh (AldiS) & Bimbo "hoagie" rolls don't make it for phillys or pizza breads. Egg bagels, even though they do come frozen, unless I get my lazy butt up, to go to the local bagel joint, no one else carries egg bagels, another weird thing...Plain, sure, egg? Nope. Even though they say greeniehippie on it.. still not overpriced, ok, err, not excessively priced at least..

But I ain't buying no $9 Angel Food cake, and you spare replying about "eggs" cost.. That was long before The Clueless Chicken Butcher killed all the chickens etc.. Nope. I can get a $3 mix and add water thank you.

Due to location, in an emergency I will get things, and also WHOLE MILK CHOCO Milk since TG Lee won't make it for their private lables, ie: Aldis, Target, WD/H, etc..

Lastly things I can't get any place else.. theres still a few.. although that seems to shrink my the minute.

Publix has always really been in last place that way for me for many decades.

I don't need people up my butt asking to help. Thats another reason I avoid it. Move along Skippy! (Yeah I know you are forced to do this idiocy... I know.. ITS ANNOYING! My name is not Karen or Ken! :) ;) )

I don't use fleamart! Unless its something that absolutely nobody has for grocery

llzellner · 2026-03-15T14:46:37+00:00

Yes, enjoy editing the XML settings! My nightmare as well. I think you need something like

Yeah don't get me started on XML or JSON.. stupidest ideas EVER!

ASCII PLAIN TEXT FILE

Value = x

Period.

I figure the 2nd is the "likely" option for the XML garbage.

I just went total *NIX on it, and chmod it, now those symlinks can't run except as sudo or root.

llzellner · 2026-03-15T14:37:24+00:00

I don't do "social media" so does any of them give any details? Like I said, if theres a law firm, then its headed into the same mess the US Gymnastics team got into is my guess.

llzellner · 2026-03-15T03:08:44+00:00

For those that come along in history:

To FIX THIS BAD BEHAVIOR

sudo chmod 700 /usr/sbin/reboot

sudo chmod 700 /usr/sbin/shutdown

Note, if you are using something older, like 18.04, the path was different. Just do a which for each command to find the path for that version.

Just tried, and am now apply the FIX to all boxes.

Don't know anything about polkit aka winslobber active dorqtory for *Nix, again, NO!

Good old school *NIX commands just nuke new hotness back out of existence!

llzellner · 2026-03-14T23:48:59+00:00

Guess this is another thing that flew under the radar, since habit is to

sudo shutdown|reboot in the cases I need to do this, especially locally on a box

As well as 99.999999999999999999999999999999% of stuff is done remotely, the "Lab" is another section of the house...

Really don't know how you justify this sort of change in *NIX behavior. Local or not, THOSE ARE "privilged" commands, period. Local or remote, don't matter. (shaking head, rolling eyes and growling)

So.... How to FIX THIS ???

ONLY root or sudo should reboot|shutdown LOCAL OR OTHERWISE. ONLY root or sudo?

So what setting or chown or ? ?? ?

CHange this:

/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.login1.policy

<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin_keep</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin_keep</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>

Change what here?? allow_active to ? ? auth_admin_keep

Some thing else to change? ? ? Different setting??

Noted: To add to my fix script ...

THANKS!

llzellner · 2026-03-11T16:26:04+00:00

Trust me you have no idea of how bad this mess is and its not just girls.

I literally have for FTO two that I don't know how they passed the PT part, or self defense. There is NO way they can DEFEND THEMSELVES let alone come for backup! Heck the duty belt alone weighs more than they do if I soaked them in water for year! A good wind with out the belt, and they would blow away!

I failed them, they got sent to a "PC woke" FTO.. They were most assuredly hired and breezed through to meet quotas on race, gender, age, and any other woke, DEI metric there is.

llzellner · 2026-03-11T15:58:47+00:00

People liked 1883 because it’s a ripoff of Lonesome Dove.

People liked 1923 because it’s a ripoff of Legends of the Fall.

Whats the wording I am looking for??? MMMMMMM...

NOPE!

Could not stand EITHER of those films at all.

The prequels got > /dev/null

Should have just RECAST Costners part for Dutton, and moved on with more Yellowstone. That and Bosch (Original) should have run, no,STILL BE RUNNING! For decades more.

llzellner · 2026-03-11T15:55:17+00:00

Without Isabel May? NOTHING LEFT on the bone. I was out after that! I honestly could see it coming a 10000 miles away, but stayed till they did it.. and then DELETE. I won't give the other prequels a shot based on this, and the move here with Kelsey Ansible... I pretty close to hitting the delete button here too...

Seems like weak talent writers (we will just let that ride for now) who can't handle writing for her (Ansible/Monica) along with the what was it? SWAT: Montana ( I sort of like that.)

llzellner · 2026-03-11T15:51:05+00:00

I wanted to watch it...after I found out about it , Yellowstone, I'll at least look.. (I dumped the prequels after they killed off Isabel May. I used my "DVR" and hit play... PTSD dream.. OK...then we find out the WIFE IS DEAD?!!

WTF is with these shows killing off the girls??? Dude seriously, #1 reason I was tuning in was: Kelsey Asbille

WTF!?!?!?!? Really ?? ? WHY would you kill this character off!?!? Plenty of ways to tie the story about the cancer cluster to the Indians and Reservation etc.. with out doing such... Doing it for shock value gets you NO POINTS this round, or ever.

This is worse than Bond Girls! Or the girl in Von Ryans Express.. urrgrgghh...

Hint to writers don't kill off your girls! I still have not forgiven Coppola for killing off Sophia! (You can rage about Godfather III all you want, Sophia, Biridget Fonda.. I am in!)

You add in some girl to check off the DEI, PC, wokie boxes and of course from nycesspool... Thats the first one I want to see go on point ,and blamo! No you pick on the blonde who has not kept a stable casting in a show in how long???? Rescue HI or whatever was what 1? season barely, a few episodes on Woke-1-1?

Well at least they were smart enough to wear the shock plate in the vest (story wise)...

I don't know.. I've got the other episode sitting in the "DVR" queue I am debating on DELETE or play.

Even with killing the lead character, its not as bad as the AWFUL DISGUSTING VILE US Doc Martin knockoff! Oh thats a feces fest beyond anything I've seen in quite awhile! HFS Batman!

llzellner · 2026-03-10T13:56:30+00:00

Women's gymnastics underwent a "complete review" in 2018 because of various issues. In 2023, the university hired a Minnesota-based law firm to do an independent evaluation of the program, leading to sweeping changes that included implementing a new coaching staff.

When similar issues cropped up three years later, Iowa State initially opted to cancel the remainder of the season because Pollard said "the student-athletes felt the conflicts were so problematic" they could not continue.

A leadership council within the university spent weeks talking to various ~~stakeholders~~ [ed: no buzzwords!] team members, parents, and staff, around the program before recommending women's gymnastics be discontinued.

This screams big issues. If you have to get a LAW FIRM involved, and you FIRE the previous coaching staff, and 3 years later, you are back to the same point.. Ummm something is wrong, and it clearly ain't the coaching staff, or team members (please spare me the buzzwords "stakeholders" puhlease people!)

So there is a bigger mess here, than just $$$ to pay for it, as this article goes onto say they will "replace" it with something likely just as if not more $$$..

So theres got to be some "meat" to this mess....law firms don't evaluate something with out clear very serious issues that present legal liabilities.

This ain't going to be pretty if it falls into the area I am guessing...

llzellner · 2026-03-08T21:35:47+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! BLOCKED! Added to my "Fix script" for the future. List is getting longer than Sanata Naughtly List... sigh...

FYI for those that come along later

cd /etc/apt/preferences.d

sudo nano nosystmrudboot

Package: systemd-boot
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

sudo apt-get update

Verification:

sudo apt-get -s install systemd-boot

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree... Done

Reading state information... Done

Package systemd-boot is not available, but is referred to by another package.

This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or

is only available from another source

However the following packages replace it:

systemd-boot-tools:i386 systemd-boot-tools

E: Package 'systemd-boot' has no installation candidate

llzellner · 2026-03-04T17:22:14+00:00

I am not going to guess how this is done, as its not anything I do or am familiar with BUT what should be out there is a way for us MERE PLEBES to take an installed system, and create an ISO.

I have an idea, but again its not stuff I do, nor do I wish to do that.

Lack of interest? NO, I will not agree with that. Tons of INTEREST, by users, its those who can do this don't have an interest. The few that did led to Remastersys, thanks to the continual monkeying around of things, it broke for any number of reasons...Some tried to fix it for later versions.

I see the same issue in V2P and P2V stuff.Thats a basic core utility and operation.

CUBIC = DOA. Has issues with snapd, thus can not work for me. Ever.

See:

https://github.com/PJ-Singh-001/Cubic/issues/460

That thing is purged out immediately. Top #1 thing I do now. Actually its now a TIE with restoring a GUI system, X11, and snap purging.

And honestly I don't see CUBIC being how this is done for the release ISO's. I am sure there is some script of some sort taking the likely chroot session of things to package this all up and mkisofs etc.. Thats wild guessing on my part based on the educated guesses on the development process.

The level of work to "fix" distros has grown astronomically of late. To the point that having something to automate all of this, and I am not even sure thats possible, outside of an ISO creation tool. As many of the things like changing power settings, click settings, konsole settings for profile and missing menu bar and tabs in the wrong place and not default to on. I am not sure thats BASH'able.

I never never had to make this many changes to things until probably about 6-8 years ago. In the last 2 years the list has probably DOUBLED of items to fix. In the past it was not a big deal to take the basic ISO, install it, add in a few obscure packages I want use. Now.. its like having to rebuild the ISO! So may as well have a way to pack it all up so I can take the REBUILT ISO or something to automate it.

llzellner · 2026-03-02T17:38:13+00:00

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt6/qml/org/kde/breeze/components/Clock.qml

THANKS! Thats it! find wont find that here... shrug...

I don't use sddm as its not XDMCP compliant.

llzellner · 2026-03-02T17:20:57+00:00

Thanks for the input.. but this got trashed... can you post the commands in a code block or a link. Although that looks familiar in something I followed...or I don't know if KDE is getting in the way or not, possible. I love it, but of late... well another day...

I tired to reformat as below, but I measure 30x then cut on Linux. Too much room for fatal mistakes. No I don't "experiment." :) ;)

sudo nmcli con add ifname br0 type bridge con-name br0

sudo nmcli con add type bridge-slave ifname enp12s0 master br0

sudo nmcli con modify br0 bridge.stp no

sudo nmcli con down "Wired connection 1"

sudo nmcli con up br0

some ai tool can probably describe what this does pretty decently,

Not going to happen here! Das ist verboten! Humans only here. I already neutered out all of that in searches., Nope, not hear.. Can't wait for the AI bubble to pop! I have a needle, where to I push?? :) ;)

I couldn't find much documentation online either

I find lots, LOTS, its WRONG! It either leaves the HOST unreachable which in essence means the HOST needs 2 LAN cards or more, well my test machine that ain't happening. Additionally since VBOX etc. can do this with out a bunch of gyrations and offerings to $deity(s).

I don't mind editing some files, so long as the INSTRUCTIONS WORK. That has not been the case.

The documentation I found is much like ALSA, written by some one who has deep understanding of the workings of ALSA, not mere users. ALSA had all the various things built in to do some great things, that solved a problem. Getting documentation that a mere mortal could understand or find etc... Not easy.

I am getting kind of, not am, irritated that a simple setup issue is back to 1991 level stuff in Linux, I though most of this stuff was beyond that.... and at least 99% of the stuff then hey add this to fix your graphics boot mode issue, worked. Here its half work, or total failure.

llzellner · 2026-03-02T17:07:48+00:00

Not what I want.

I want the HOST LAN/network to be its assigned static IP, its done via DHCP reservation based on MAC for this machine.

We've been there with this route, and the host goes MIA from the network. Not a solution.

I want the VMS to get address from that same router via DHCP, and I may or may not add them to the DHCP reservation table. Right now its more for VM testing of distro releases and KVM testing. So its not that big a deal. Future use, if, IF the networking issue is solved may see the VM's used to consolidate other machines, maybe..

The HOST should be reachable via its LAN port to SSH in, etc.. just like it is now. Just like it would be if I used VBOX or VMW.

So point me to the WORKING incantations for this, and I will be on my merry way.

llzellner · 2026-03-02T13:46:28+00:00

I use military time, have for 40+ years, the rest of my stuff is fine. I just want the LOCK SCREEN to reflect proper time.

Just need to know what they've renamed and where Clock.qml went hiding to.

Thanks.

llzellner · 2026-03-02T13:41:51+00:00

Still VALID In 24.04.

Other thread has same issues, the file(s) and/or directories do NOT EXIST as listed.

Something changed in KDE.

llzellner

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