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[Thread Retired] Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#61 Post by pwzhangzz »

By adding the kernel parameter "mem_encrypt=off", I was able to boot from the 5.14 kernel. Happy bookworm camper again! Thanks everyone!

I am sure this problem will be ultimately solved without this extra step.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#62 Post by pwzhangzz »

Upgrade kernel to Debian 5.14.9-2 (2021-10-03), the extra kernel parameter "mem_encrypt=off" is no longer necessary (for AMD gpus)!

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#63 Post by pwzhangzz »

All three of my main machines are running Bookworm now with the 5.15.0-2-amd64 (Debian 5.15.5-2) kernel. Knock on wood. Kudos to the Debian developers for such an amazing system even though it is labelled "unstable"!

Of course, running an unofficial developmental non-release "release" has its risks, but so does running everything else. The main rewards are: (1) increased alertness and preparedness for a disaster that has yet to happen, and (2) feedback to the developers.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#64 Post by pwzhangzz »

Everything was working great (the Linux kernel has been upgraded to 5.16.0-6) until today. After my most recent upgrade, most of Google Chrome extensions and LibreOffice stopped working. Ibus also stopped working with Google Chrome.

I think most of these problems are most likely related to the transition to Gnome 42 and GTK 4. But there is really nothing I can do but wait.

I have a "bootable" backup partition* (5.16.0-3 kernel) which was updated a couple of weeks ago. Since I am using this machine as my work machine to feed my family, I simply changed my default boot to this partition and instantly I am back in business.

Will report back when the above problems are solved.

* When using this backup partition, it is important to make sure to turn off software updates; otherwise, this would no longer be a backup partition.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#65 Post by pwzhangzz »

Everything seems to have settled. Thanks a whole lot--and deep from the bottom of my heart--to the hard working Debian developers. Words really couldn't express my appreciations.

The only remaining problem I am having is that ibus does not work with Google Chrome; thus, I cannot input Chinese characters in sid.

However, this problem can be easily fixed by specifying the GTK4 module:

google-chrome-stable --gtk-version=4

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#66 Post by pwzhangzz »

pwzhangzz wrote: 2022-04-15 00:01this problem can be easily fixed by specifying the GTK4 module:

google-chrome-stable --gtk-version=4
I tried to edit the /usr/share/google-chrome-stable.desktop with the above change:

Code: Select all

Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable  --gtk-version=4
but the google chrome icon then disappeared from gnome dash. I had to re-install google chrome to bring the icon back. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?

I also copied the /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop file to the ~/.local/share/applications folder. But as soon as I made the change, the new desktop icon also disappeared from the gnome dash.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#67 Post by pwzhangzz »

This appears to be a stupid mistake on my part. It will take me some time to explain it and I don't think anyone has a need nor the interest to know the (mostly half-baked) answer. Transition to Gnome 42 is steeper than I thought it would be. I am glad I can now "somehow" use ibus (and the associated Chinese/Japanese characters input) with the Google chrome browser.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#68 Post by pwzhangzz »

The only problem I am having now is that if I pin the launcher icon to dash, ibus would stop working with google chrome again.

A serendipitous (but stupid) way to circumvent this problem is to create a launcher icon on the desktop then launch the (modified) google chrome application from there, and everything will be working ok.

Can anyone help me trying to figure out why this is happening?

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#69 Post by pwzhangzz »

It's four c'clock in the morning EST and I saw Debian developers just uploaded the 5.17 kernel to the repository! Since I have checked my (bootable) backup partition (& it's working as an identical twin to my working partition), I immediately do my upgrade. Everything seems to be working OK. There are many benefits running the "unstable" version. Not the least of which is to provide feedback to our hardworking Debian developers.

Not only the Linux kernel, Gnome has also been upgraded to 42.1. The new screenshot app is awesome:
Screenshot from 2022-04-30 08-04-31.resized.png
Screenshot from 2022-04-30 08-04-31.resized.png (79.84 KiB) Viewed 6663 times

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#70 Post by pwzhangzz »

pwzhangzz wrote: 2022-04-15 00:01 Everything seems to have settled. Thanks a whole lot--and deep from the bottom of my heart--to the hard working Debian developers. Words really couldn't express my appreciations.

The only remaining problem I am having is that ibus does not work with Google Chrome; thus, I cannot input Chinese characters in sid.

However, this problem can be easily fixed by specifying the GTK4 module:

google-chrome-stable --gtk-version=4
This problem no longer exists. Ibus is now working OK with Google Chrome without any workaround!

Thanks, really, a whole lot!

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#71 Post by pwzhangzz »

pwzhangzz wrote: 2022-04-21 08:40 It's four c'clock in the morning EST and I saw Debian developers just uploaded the 5.17 kernel to the repository!
Now the 5.17 kernels are completely gone from my /boot folder ("sudo apt autoremove"). Our systems have now gone through three iterations of the 5.18 kernel. Everything seems to be working OK. I love Debian "unstable". (Again, unstable as in "package version updates", not in the "unstable" unstable.)

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#72 Post by pwzhangzz »

There was a comment posted at the Phoronix forum stating that Bookworm is actually more stable than Bullseye, at least as far as desktops are converned;
Debian Unstable ("Sid") actually is a very good rolling Linux release. Although it is labeled with a misnomer "unstable", because its package versions often are more up-to-date (thus the label "unstable"), it is sometimes more stable than the "stable" version, which usually does not allow version upgrade. For example, I need to regularly use ibus-libpinyin for inputting Chinese characters, and Debian Sid/Bookworm is more stable than Bullseye at least in this regard.
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/l ... erformance

From our own experience, Bookworm uses Gnome 42, which is order-of-magnitude more stable that the Gnome 3.xx (?) used in Bullseye. Thus, for us, Bookworm is more stable than Bullseye, although, as I mentioned above, you need a lot of experience and a lot of care as well as preparatory ardor to run Bookworm on everyday, bread-generating desktops.

The best way to try Bookworm, and collectively contribute to its development (we have more than a year to do that) is probably using a persistent LiveUSB. Persistence runs into the Debian DNA, this is one of the best features of Debian, outshining every other distro.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#73 Post by Hallvor »

Stable in Debian does not mean "few bugs", it means "few changes". Yes, sometimes testing has packages with better functionality, giving better user experience than the ones in stable. However, that is not what stable means around here.
[HowTo] Install and configure Debian bookworm
Debian 12 | KDE Plasma | ThinkPad T440s | 4 × Intel® Core™ i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz | 12 GiB RAM | Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4400 | 1 TB SSD

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#74 Post by pwzhangzz »

I saw Debian 12 is beginning to partially migrate to Gnome 43 alpha. An apt upgrade busted one of my VirtualBox machines. If anyone is running Debian 12, Perhaps you should turn off the auto upgrades and wait a few days until the sky is cleared. Just to be careful.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#75 Post by canci »

I really enjoy your pioneer posts :lol:
I find I'm too old and busy these days to do testing.
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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#76 Post by pwzhangzz »

canci wrote: 2022-08-17 23:08I find I'm too old and busy these days to do testing.
Just realized that Linus is already 52 years old (he always looms venerable to me but never thought he would be this old.) :lol:

But getting back to the subject, we have "somewhat" solved the problem (the problem was that the upgrade caused Debian 12 to always boot into text mode):
Screenshot from 2022-08-18 07-25-21.jpg
Screenshot from 2022-08-18 07-25-21.jpg (206.84 KiB) Viewed 3731 times


(It appears that the most recent upgrade screwed up at least some of the components of the gdm which needs to be reinstalled; the above screenshot shows that it now can boot into graphic mode.)

We do have a couple of "testing" machines (both virtual and physical), but we are actually using Debian 12 as our everyday work OS. There are a lot of challenges in doing this and I don't recommend anyone to do that without giving it a lot of thoughts and preparations (and with a lot of desktop experiences).

The problem was first observed in one of our VirtualBox machines but we are awaiting Debian developers to solve this problem before applying upgrades to other (mainly physical) machines.

BTW after the upgrade, gnome settings now adds a hibernate option for power button. As I mentioned in a separate post, there was no hibernate option prior to the 2022.08.16 upgrade.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#77 Post by pwzhangzz »

pwzhangzz wrote: 2022-08-17 22:51 An apt upgrade busted one of my VirtualBox machines.
Since this problem disappeared in this VM, I did an apt full-upgrade on one of our physical machines. Ditto. Everything seems to be back to normal. Thanks a whole bunch! ! !

As a follow-up, since both test machines (VM first then a physical Debian 12) have given a go-ahead signal, we are upgrading most of our work Debian 12 machines.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#78 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

If you're really running testing on production machines (why?) be sure to pay particular attention to https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... tml#s3.1.6 & https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... tml#s3.1.7 along with the advice given here.

For a list of packages with known, open vulnerabilities see https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/. Running a branch in production that has no security coverage and a history of extended exposure to vulnerabilities is an act of gross irresponsibility IMO. But whatever.
deadbang

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#79 Post by pwzhangzz »

Knowledge that can be glanced from the web is no substitute from real experience, only part of it. As I mentioned above, as far as our own special needs of desktops go, Bookworm is actually more "stable" (though not in the sense of package version numbers) than Bullseye. Our biggest frustration (totally expected) is that not too many others are using Bookworm (which they should not) and we have to build the necessary experience pretty much by ourselves. This is certainly an arduous process but the learning experience is invaluable. But in terms of getting a head start, the fewer the number of Bookworm users, the better. :) :) :)

But again, you can use a spare machine, a VirtualBox vdi or a persistent LiveUSB to try Bookworm (and make contributions), don't use it as an everyday work machine without a lot of preparations and desktop managing experiences. I believe we all know that.

I also should point out that, as part of our "preparations and desktop managing experiences", we are trying to minimize the number of variables as much as possible. All our machines have switched to AMD Ryzens and Radeons and all are running gnome desktops. Again, we have only very limited resources and our only purpose is to report the problems we encountered, not to fool anyone into trying this "unstable" rolling release. Not at all.

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Re: Look forward to Debian 12 "Bookworm"!

#80 Post by pwzhangzz »

Sid developers (!) have upgraded Linux kernel to 5.19. We tested on two machines (one virtual and one physical), and don't seem to have any problems. Should expect to migrate to work machines shortly.

Thanks a whole lot for the diligent work!

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