path: root/guides/sysadmin/machines/hirondell/maintenance.org

* Config
** samba server
- I want most of my music on my laptop.
- I want to access it from my desktop.
- I want anyone on my home network to access it too.
- I am too lazy to remove the Windows partition from my laptop, so
  that partition sits mostly empty, eating 50% of the disk space.

Therefore, the only sensible move is to run Samba on the laptop,
serving a folder on my Linux partition with a symlink to the Windows
partition.

Chosen =/etc/smb.conf= excerpts:

#+begin_src conf
[global]
allow insecure wide links = yes

[sambo]
comment = Files yours truly is sharing with you.
path = /home/[…user…]/Public/smb
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = yes
wide links = yes
#+end_src

Then:

#+begin_src sh
# Mount Windows disk.
udisksctl mount --block-device /dev/disk/by-label/OS
# Symlink it from shared directory.
ln -s /media/[…user…]/OS/Music ~/Public/smb/
#+end_src

On the desktop side:
#+begin_src sh
sudo mount.cifs //hirondell.local/sambo […somewhere…] \
     -o guest,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g)
#+end_src
* Upgrades
** Bookworm
*** research
**** [[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#non-free-split][Release notes § Issues to be aware of]]
***** minutiae
- ~sed s/non-free/non-free-firmware/~
- =youtube-dl= ⇒ =yt-dlp=
- clear =GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=
***** System logs ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#changes-to-system-logging][ref]])
1. ~apt-mark auto rsyslog ; apt autoremove~
2. double-check that journalctl config saves to persistent storage
3. finally learn ~journalctl~
***** Reduced accessibility from GTK 3⇒4 transition ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#gnome-has-reduced-accessibility-support-for-screen-readers][ref]])
Not a huge deal for me (though [[https://github.com/transmission/transmission/discussions/5065][other aspects]] of the transition are
irksome), but [[https://tech.lgbt/@xogium/110507457689374019][dang]].
***** "Externally-managed" Python installation ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#python3-pep-668][ref]])
1. inventory & clear out stuff installed with ~pip install --user~
2. upgrade
3. install =pipx=
4. reinstall
***** VLC support for VA-API disabled ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#vlc-ffmpeg-5][ref]])
- [[https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1021601][Debian bug#1021601]] =vlc: VAAPI hardware acceleration no more available=
- [[https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/26772][VLC#26772]] =VAAPI is disabled with ffmpeg5 on vlc-3x=
  - "we won't support full FFmpeg5 in 3.0" ([[https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/26772#note_316827][ref]])
- [[https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/merge_requests/1245][VLC!1245]] =[VLC3] Support FFmpeg 5.0 (except for VAAPI)=
  - "it seems that the VAAPI part is far from trivial and requires
    invasive changes (contrary to the other fixes)" ([[https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/merge_requests/1245#note_302474][ref]])
- user reports: [[https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1021664][2022-10]], [[https://old.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/z5ectb/vlc_delaying_frames_on_a_fresh_debian_12_install/][2022-11]], [[https://old.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/119x7tr/debian_12_bookworm_no_hw_acceleration_in_vlc_h264/][2023-02]], [[https://old.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/14u38mm/video_choppy_in_vlc_but_not_totem/][2023-07]]

No idea how much that will affect little =hirondell=.  If push comes
to shove, I guess I can either
- build VLC 4,
- learn mpv.
***** systemd naming for Xen network interfaces ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#xen-network][ref]])
=eth0= changes to =enX0=.  No idea if my VPS is impacted or not; it
does have an interface named =eth0=, and that name also shows up in
=/etc/network/interfaces=.
***** Known severe bugs ([[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#rc-bugs][ref]])
- [[https://bugs.debian.org/1036041][bug#1036041]]: =upgrade-reports: Dell XPS 9550 fails to boot after
  bullseye to bookworm upgrade - grub/bios interaction bug?=
*** VPS
**** =/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg=
My local version has these two lines:
#+begin_src
mount_default_fields: [~, ~, 'auto', 'defaults,nofail', '0', '2']
manage_etc_hosts: true
#+end_src
No idea if this is OVH-specific.  No idea if I want them.  Let's trust
"the package maintainer" 😐
**** =/etc/ssh/sshd_config=
OK, note to self: *never* choose "do a 3-way merge".  Thought that
would be something along the lines of Emacs's Ediff; instead…
#+begin_quote
Merging changes into the new version
#+end_quote
/Mind giving a couple more details on that "merge" mate?/

OK,

- =/usr/share/openssh/sshd_config= has the new stock config,
- =/etc/ssh/sshd_config.ucf-old= has the /previous/ *local* config
- ~diff -u {/usr/shared/openssh,/etc/ssh}/sshd_config~ suggests that
  the ✨magic merge✨ did TRT; the only differences are
  - stuff I remember changing in (=PermitRootLogin=,
    =PasswordAtuhentication=)
  - a spurious whitespace-only hunk on =Subsystem sftp= (the
    =/usr/share= version uses tabs; the =/etc= version ended up with a
    single space)
**** Removing obsolete stuff
Erm, why does ~apt purge '~c'~ says
#+begin_quote
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
[…] nginx-core nginx-full […]
#+end_quote

😨

#+begin_src
$ dpkg -S $(sudo which nginx)
nginx: /usr/sbin/nginx
$ apt depends nginx
[…]
  Replaces: nginx-core (<< 1.22.1-6~)
  Replaces: nginx-extras (<< 1.22.1-6~)
  Replaces: nginx-light (<< 1.22.1-6~)
#+end_src

Ah.
***** Rsyslog
Refuses to disappear.  The doc says ~apt-mark auto~ followed by ~apt
autoremove~ should remove it, but that does not seem to be happening
(~autoremove~ does not find anything to remove).  The =rsyslog=
service is still up & running, and watches =syslog.socket= to
re-activate itself 😕

Decided to explicitly ~apt remove~ it on the advice of [[https://blog.frehi.be/2023/06/04/upgrading-from-debian-11-bullseye-to-debian-12-bookworm/][this gentleman]].
*** Laptop
**** non-free & non-free-firmware
#+begin_quote
Assuming the =non-free= component was only added to the APT
sources-list to install firmware,
#+end_quote
#+begin_example
$ apt list '?narrow(?installed, ?section(non-free))'
Listing... Done
doc-rfc-experimental/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-fyi-bcp/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-informational/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-misc/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-old-std/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-others/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-std-proposed/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc-std/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed,automatic]
doc-rfc/oldstable,oldstable,now 20201128-1 all [installed]
firmware-iwlwifi/oldstable,oldstable,now 20210315-3 all [installed]
firmware-misc-nonfree/oldstable,oldstable,now 20210315-3 all [installed]
gcc-10-doc/oldstable,oldstable,now 10.2.0-1 all [installed,automatic]
gdb-doc/oldstable,oldstable,now 10.1-1 all [installed]
make-doc/oldstable,oldstable,now 4.3-2 all [installed]
manpages-posix-dev/oldstable,oldstable,now 2017a-2 all [installed]
manpages-posix/oldstable,oldstable,now 2017a-2 all [installed]
tar-doc/oldstable,oldstable,now 1.34-1 all [installed]
#+end_example
Will be keeping =non-free= in addition to =non-free-firmware= then 🫣
**** Fallout
***** GRUB
#+begin_src sh
sudo sed -i \
     s/'^#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false'/'GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false'/ \
    /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub
#+end_src

***** PEP 668
#+begin_src sh
# Before upgrade: keep calm…
pip uninstall $(pip freeze --user | cut -d= -f1)
# After upgrade: … carry on.
sudo apt install pipx
pipx install yt-dlp
#+end_src

***** VLC
+Seems fine?  No choppiness observed on a 2k@24FPS video from yt-dlp+

Is choppy as all hell on /some/ videos, not sure which kind nor why;
could not be bothered discerning the patterns.  Learned me an mpv for
great good.
**** Goodies
- The [[#random-lag][random lag I had been observing since 5.8]] seems gone 🥳
- =libtree-sitter-dev= is new enough for Emacs; can get rid of my
  =/usr/local= version.
** Windows
*** 2025-03
For [[file:../amdahl30/killing-time.org::*SSD?][reasons]], had to dust off my Windows installation.  Asked
update-grub to [[https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#grub-os-prober][run os-prober]], booted, did "the thing"; then, out of
due diligence (at first; quickly replaced by morbid fascination;
sustained by existential ennui), attempted to push Windows Update as
far as it would go.

A lightly edited set of live notes follows; starting with the original
boot following the os-prober restoration.
**** Boot the Ⅰst
- "let's finish setting up your PC" ??? [fn:winup-boot1-setup]
- installed kingston manager thingy [fn:winup-boot1-kingston]
- waiting for updates to finish
  - waiting…
  - "2023-10 Cumulative Update" stuck at "Downloading - 5%" 🤷
    - welp, does not seem to progress anymore, and there are updates
      pending restart, so let's

[fn:winup-boot1-setup] This Windows installation was, AFAIR, pretty
well "set up" when last I booted it.  Hence my surprise at this
greeting.

[fn:winup-boot1-kingston] The [[https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/ssdmanager][Kingston® SSD Manager]].  My main reason
for turning on that Windows system, to be able to upgrade the firmware
of amdahl30's primary SSD.
**** Boot the Ⅱnd
- "give us a minute" FFFFFUUUUUUUU
- "we're updating Xbox Game Bar" WAT [fn:winup-boot2-xbox]
- "your version of windows 11 has reached end of service"
  - "click here to download a newer version of windows 11 to stay
    supported"
  - ffs
  - Windows Update not doing anything; "download now" greyed out;
    "cumulative update" dropped down to /0%/
  - 100% CPU still burning 🤷
- update running…
  - "antimalware service executable" taking 50% CPU during the update

[fn:winup-boot2-xbox] I have never owned an Xbox, nor have I ever used
this Windows installation for anything game-related (beside
downloading & running [[https://www.pj64-emu.com/][Project64]] that one time, to evaluate how well
that laptop could handle N64 emulation).
**** Boot the Ⅲrd
- "windows 11, version 23H2"
- hope I don't have to go through =2{4H{1,2},5H1}= 😬
- "need more disk space" are you kidding me
  - removing my music then…[fn:winup-boot3-space]
- "almost ready"
  - "we need to do a few more things before you can update. we'll let
    you know when we're done and what to do next"
  - wtf

[fn:winup-boot3-space] I, perhaps unwisely, split my 128 GB drive into
two roughly equal-sized chunks, one for Windows, one for Debian.  The
former sitting unused, I had dumped something like 5–10 gigs worth of
media onto it.
**** Boot the Ⅳth
- "Your computer may restart a few times"
  - YOU DON'T SAY
- 1h later it's still at 9%
- I think I'm going to sleep tho; which means it will probably reboot
  to Debian without completing 🙄
**** Boot the Ⅴth
Mornin' Debian; no, actually I was installing Windows updates, you can
go back to sleep mate.

Windows is probably done with the external storage, right?  Detaching.
**** Boot the Ⅵth
- "❌ please reattach external storage"
  - /I freed 5 gigs of Music for you/
  - not even tumbleweed full-distro rebuilds are that big
**** Boot the Ⅶth
- "you're up to date (last checked: yesterday, 9:01 PM)"
  - first of all Windows Update: you just spent 15s loading; why is
    the last check yesterday evening?  What were you doing during this
    15s load?
  - second, isn't there, like, a 24H2 or something?
  - "check for updates" again please
- "updates available" 🤪
- some downloads later…
  - "you're up to date"
  - /also on the very same window/ "2025-02 Cumulative Update Preview
    for Windows 11 Version 23H2" to "Download & install"
  - 🎭
- seriously though, is there not an option to climb to 24H2?  why go
  for the "preview" of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_11_version_history][a /maintenance/ release]]?
- maybe a reboot will fix it 🙃
  - woah =⊞ restart=…
    - proposes (LLM-backed?) completion
    - says "restart apps after signing in" is the "best match"
  - woaaah, =⊞ reboot=… says the "best match" is a 2022 TV show 🤣
    - the right margin even autoplays the trailer
    - the right margin also shows "results ranked by relevance" and
      /the first one/ is a Microsoft Support link to "restart
      (reboot)" your PC
  - OK fine, that was "fun"; luckily =⊞-x u r= still works
**** Boot the Ⅷth
- well, no, I still must install this "oldstable preview"
- OK then; do that
**** Boot the Ⅸth
- "check for updates"
  - {{{narrator(thinks a lot)}}}
  - "you're up to date (last checked: today, 9:02 AM)"
  - what are you talking about?  It's 9:42, you've just booted, and
    /spent thirty seconds checking for updates/ how can the last check
    be 40 minutes ago??
- {{{narrator(thinks a lot /again/)}}}
  - "you're right 🤪"
    - "have a security intelligence update"
    - "also, 24H2 is available"
- just to be on the safe side, start with the "intelligence update"
  then reboot
**** Boot the Ⅹth
- alright then, "download & install" 24H2
- creeps up to 34%
- "making sure you're ready to install (this may take a few minutes)
  (please wait)"
  - I assure you Windows /I/ am ready to install; please stop
    projecting
- (wait hang on; why are you saying it's 10:26 AM Paris time; it's
  11:26 AM Paris time you goof)
  - "last successful time synchronization: 1/8/2022 7:01:49 PM" 🤣
- "what needs your attention"
  - "this PC can't be upgraded to this version of Windows"
  - "your PC isn't supported yet on this version of Windows"
  - what have you spent the last 30 minutes doing?  how do you realize
    this /34% into the installation process??/
  - there's only a "refresh" button that does nothing
    - close
    - "are you sure you want to quit?" /you will literally not let me
      do anything else; why are you asking me??/
- well then; perhaps disk size?
  - mmm only 6 GB free on =C:/=
  - ah, perhaps the 7 GB =C:/Windows.old= directory is a problem 🙄
  - let's install windirstat I guess
    - winget is neat!
  - I have basically 2 GB of personal files; everything else is
    Windows cruft
  - "System → Storage → Cleanup recommendations" agrees we can reclaim
    the 7 GB =Windows.old=
**** Alas
That was all the energy I could muster this week-end.  We might not
have updated all the way to 24H2, and we might never succeed!  All the
same, we laughed, we cried; quality entertainment.  Sort of.
* Hiccups
** impromptu IBus
Installing [[https://zoom.us/][Zoom]]'s Debian package somehow enabled IBus[fn:: AFAICT
because ibus recommends im-config, and the latter autostarts the
former by default], which unconditionally set my keyboard to English
for some reason[fn:: Before properly running ~apt install
./zoom_amd64.deb~, I had mistakenly run ~dpkg -i zoom_amd64.deb~,
which failed because of missing dependencies.  Perhaps apt omitted
some post-installation configuration hooks because the first dpkg run
had left an error marker somewhere?].  Remediation steps taken:

1. Tweak IBus preferences, unset shortcuts (Emacs has a better
   interface for searching/inserting Unicode characters), check "use
   system defaults" for the keyboard layout.

2. Go on a hunt for whoever spawns ibus-daemon(1); AFAICT it's
   im-launch(1), which can be told not to use IBus through im-config
   (which eventually just writes ~run_im none~ in =~/.xinputrc=).

3. Eventually, maybe I should just uninstall im-config.
** random lag
*** DONE diagnosing
Since… a few days? weeks? one month? everything randomly becomes
"choppy":

- typing (Emacs, Terminator, Firefox): I can type in a bunch of words,
  sit back, wait a few seconds, then watch the words finally write
  themselves letter by letter.
- launching programs: ~while time $aprogram ; do sleep 0.5 ; done~,
  where ~aprogram~ just starts then exits, shows wildly varying times.
- scrolling a PDF with the touchpad (Evince): the pages stay stuck for
  a few seconds, then the reader jumps to the new location; the mouse
  pointer does change during this delay, as text and whitespace
  (invisibly) scroll by.

I can't remember changing anything recently, nor seeing any scary
update passing by.  journalctl, htop and dmesg do not show any obvious
suspects.  Some things I considered:

- Disabling some services e.g. tor or speech-dispatcher ⇒ no effect.
- Uninstalling xserver-xorg-video-intel ⇒ no effect.
- Upgrading systemd from backports ⇒ no effect.
- htop sometimes shows pulseaudio acting up despite no application
  playing or recording sound?
- Maybe I should try reinstalling Debian's stable kernel?
  - Luckily 5.7 was not uninstalled when upgrading to 5.8; booting on
    5.7 solves all of the "choppiness" issues listed above.

Now to pinpoint what's wrong with 5.8…
*** TODO fixing
Found a way to "quantify" the problem; asked around on the
debian-kernel mailing list, to no avail.

- [[https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2020/11/msg00084.html][2020-11]] - original report that 5.8 from backports triggers the
  issue: "wait for 5.9 to be available from backports or even 5.10"
  (LTS for the next Debian stable version)
- [[https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2020/12/msg00040.html][2020-12]] - quick report that 5.9 from backports does not improve
  things: 🦗
- [[https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2021/02/msg00231.html][2021-02]] - quick report that 5.10 from backports does not improve
  things *✨with scripts & numbers✨*: 🦗

#+begin_quote
    for ((i=0; i<100; i++)); do
        time -p terminator -x 'bash -c exit'
    done &> time-$(uname -r)

    grep $mode time-$(uname -r) | sort -k2

Where $mode is either real, user or sys.  Here are the extrema:

                        real            user            sys
                        min     max     min     max     min     max
5.7                     0.44    0.48    0.29    0.35    0.02    0.08
5.10                    0.47    3.30    0.31    2.87    0.02    0.30
5.10-after-suspend      0.46    0.50    0.30    0.36    0.03    0.08

Averages & standard deviations:

                        real            user            sys
5.7                     0.454±0.006     0.322±0.013     0.046±0.013
5.10                    0.961±0.607     0.559±0.518     0.074±0.052
5.10-after-suspend      0.469±0.005     0.332±0.012     0.050±0.011

These results feel consistent with the stutter I observe: 5.7 and
5.10-after-suspend have roughly the same performance, while
freshly-booted 5.10 is overall very jittery: terminator startup is twice
as slow on average, with 100× more variance.


Some more stats, eyeballed from /proc/cpuinfo and
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy*/scaling_governor:

                        idle frequency  CPU governor
5.7                     <  800 MHz      powersave
5.10                    > 1900 MHz      ondemand
5.10 (after suspend)    <  900 MHz      ondemand
#+end_quote

- [[https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2021/08/msg00278.html][2021-08]] - quick report that 5.10 from a fresh bullseye install does
  not improve things: 🦗
- 2023-08 - bookworm upgrade to 6.1: problem solved 🤷