Linux

EDIT: ignore me. I didn't realise you can just "pick-up" icons/dockets and pull them off.

Does anyone use Docky?

I was using Cario dock, but sometimes it won't open files folders when I click, so I'm trying Plank and Docky.

Plank is a bit too plain.

For some reason I can't seem to remove Rhythmbox and Pigeonmail from Docky. In the add/remove they just don't show up.

I just uninstalled Pigeonmail as I can't see when I'd use it, but don't want to remove Rhythmbox as it could get used.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

I'll have a look at VMs - I just wonder how it will work in practice with an old laptop.

True, I have other old machines where I don't require much beyond a base install so that's fine.

I tried a couple of versions of Excel on Wine, it was a ballache as it wasn't 100% stable and a few things didn't seem to work (macros were particularly iffy).

Cariodock isn't opening my folders and I'm trying to fix it.

It seems to be a bug:

The dock doesn't launch the right files manager, images viewer, etc.

The dock doesn't directly launch these applications, it uses GVFS to do that: e.g. if you have a problem with the files manager, you should be able to reproduce this "bug" by launching this command:

gvfs-open file:///

Gvfs links a 'mimetype' with a launcher (.desktop file): e.g. for files manager:

gvfs-mime --query inode/directory

Now you've 3 choices:

use another application:

mimeopen -d .

(or edit this file:

~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

)
create a new .desktop file (in

~/.local/share/applications/

; you can find a lot of examples in /usr/share/applications/) with the command that you want to use and then use (for the files manager):

gvfs-mime --set inode/directory your_new_launcher.desktop
modify the .desktop file that is currently used with the command that you want to use 

If you still have this bug or if mimeopen or gvfs-mime don't work (e.g. on KDE) it's maybe because gvfs is not well supported. Please report a bug to both kde and gvfs maintainers of your distribution.

What I am struggling to work out is how to create a .desktop in the

~/.local/share/applications/

which actually opens the / or /home.

I'd like to stick to Cairo as Plank is too simple and I uninstalled Docky as it kept fucking up - so I may as well use Cairo.

So what did gvfs-mime --query inode/directory give you? Does it point to a reasonable-looking .desktop file? Does the file manager command from that file work when you run it directly?

If not, try to find any /usr/share/applications/*.desktop files that do successfully launch the file manager you want.

If you can't find anything there, check you can run the file manager from the command line, modify an existing .desktop file to do the same thing, and then set gvfs to use that .desktop file for mimetype inode/directory.

Cheers.

So what did gvfs-mime --query inode/directory give you?

Not much:

hugo7:~$ gvfs-mime --query inode/directory
This tool has been deprecated, use 'gio mime' instead.
See 'gio help mime' for more info.

gio: Unknown option --query

Usage:
gio mime MIMETYPE [HANDLER]

Get or set the handler for a mimetype.

If no handler is given, lists registered and recommended applications
for the mimetype. If a handler is given, it is set as the default handler for the mimetype.

When you say;

If not, try to find any /usr/share/applications/*.desktop files that do successfully launch the file manager you want.

I'm trying to fix the launcher's opening of file locations - like Home, Documents, Downloads, etc. Applications seem to load fine.

So searching for /usr/share/applications/*.desktop brings up a folder with apps that seem to open aok.

(weirdly this one: /home/hugo/PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/Spotify/dosdevices/z:/usr/share/applications )

OK, so what does gio mime inode/directory tell you?

You're trying to get directories to open properly, and they'll be handled by whatever is registered for mime type inode/directory.

Presumably either nothing is registered, or whatever is registered isn't set up right.

Default application for “inode/directory”: org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop
Registered applications:

caja-folder-handler.desktop
nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

Recommended applications:

caja-folder-handler.desktop
nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

Pretty sure in an earlier session trying to solve it, it asked me which I wanted. I chose gnome Nautilus after a quick google, but idk what the benefits between them actually are.

org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

OK, so if you open up that file (presumably in /usr/share/applications), there should be lines like

Exec=nautilus --new-window %U
... and/or ...
Exec=nautilus --new-window

So try running nautilus --new-window from the terminal. Does it work?
If it does, try running nautilus --new-window FOLDER (replace FOLDER by one of the paths you wanted to open from the dock). Does that work?

Now you should know whether you have a problem with all of nautilus, or whether nautilus just doesn't like one of your folders. Then you need to either figure out how to fix nautilus, or try caja instead (or find some other file manager, or ...).

Cheers, I'll give this a go tomorrow.

hugo7:~$ nautilus --new-window

A folder still opens though 99% sure it's nautilus ( definitely not in Caja.)

The folder opens quite slowly though. Before it was saying; Gtk-Message: 16:19:36.489: Failed to load module "topmenu-gtk-module"

...but this ( https://zxtech.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/how-to-fix-topmenu-gtk-module-error-in-ubuntu-18-04-lts/ ) fixed it.

Weirdly I tried another theme, and the path to the folder now works - although I've lost the super-extensive folder menu and icons that were there previously. Still at least I can access my folder from the dock, and it's faster than the launcher(?) I'd made.

Thanks for the help, when I've got a bit more time I'm going to read back and try and figure out what happened, as I'm not sure I've really solved the problem.

The cairo logs are reasonably verbose - I've used them to identify fix(ish)/problems with iffy .desktop files (like Spotify)

Question:

I have a couple of Raspberry Pi on my home network, both running headless, providing various network and home automation services.

Both are running off Micro SD cards and run Raspbian OS. One is a Pi B+, connected via ethernet and the other is a Pi Zero, connected via WiFi.

The former is critical to the network as it acts as my main DHCP server as well as other things. If it goes down, I will be in a bit of trouble.

I don't trust the Micro SD card to hold up. I am also a bit worried about hard power downs causing config issues, when the domestic power cuts out for a power cut or an RCD trigger etc.

So, my question: what is the best way to do an automated, periodic backup of these systems. Ideally one that allows me to restore them very easily, without having to reinstall all software etc.

One approach is for me to maintain an install script of the various software services and config files, but this seems work heavy and error prone.

Ideally I'd like an unattended way of imaging the whole card to a backup file, at 3am or something. I have storage on the network that can hold the backup files.

Any ideas?

At the most basic - setup a cron job using dd

Good suggestions here and here for Debian based backup.

I've no idea which ones are lightweight - I expect rsync is already installed though

Lookin a bit more into it, use rsync, not dd

Can I do that on an active OS, i.e. can it backup itself? I suppose rsync would be better for that, working at a file level, rather than a block level.

I wouldn't bother.

DHCP is emphemeral data, and the software is surely easy to install? I'd just have a spare SD card with the OS on it and a note of where to get the software (or a copy of it) and any config you need.

I'd focus on how to rebuild it rather than how to backup and restore it.

Rsync is good for hot backups.

How about using RAID, if you have spare USB ports on your pi. You could (and possibly should) back that up remotely too.

Not sure if correct thread, but it's mostly linux related.

I've just migrated to a new VPS, and my DNS looks a bit messed up.

And it's not consistent across machines on my network.

Does https://tiswas.org work for people?

Does https://www.tiswas.org work?

I think I may have an errant apache rewrite condition somewhere, although I'm using the same conf files that I used on my previous VPS.

Nevermind - ^ Fixed it, I think

The host standard DNS configuration has A records for *.tiswas.org and http://www.tiswas.org, but not for just tiswas.org

Which seems daft.

The way you're using tables for layout is offensively unnecessary.

For large corp dev, docker files are managed along the lines of config management and are in other repos (though local repos may still have a docker file for local dev work).

Two years later and I'm a total Docker convert. I set up almost all of our projects to use docker based CI/CD pipelines and production deployments.

Does anyone use docker swarm or kubernetes for development? We've been building out some microservices, and setting up a dev environment is getting more and more painful with each new service.

If you want to re-install the config quickly have a look at ansible

Does anyone use the Windows Subsystem for Linux?

In particular does anyone use it without administrator rights (work machine). I should be able to get it installed by an administrator but I'm just a standard user. Wondering if it impacts on how it works at all. I mainly want it for text manipulation tools.