GNU/Linux Debian - Httqm's Docs

method 1 :

ar -x packageName.deb
ar comes from the binutils package.
you'll get several compressed archives, either in gzip or xz format. Anyway, tar is smart enough to identify the format and use the appropriate program to uncompress :
tar -xf data.tar.xz

method 2 :

dpkg-deb -xv packageName.deb

While installing Debian (any version), it is very likely that you encounter the "missing firmware" screen :

The procedure below applies to Intel WiFi card firmware but may work to any kind of hardware.

find and download the .deb containing the required firmware (here : Intel WiFi firmware-iwlwifi_20190114-2_all.deb)
extract the .deb
The required files are lib/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-??.ucode
prepare an extra storage media, either on a separate USB key or as an extra partition on the USB key you're using to install, with fdisk :
1. new partition
2. size : 64MB (not too big because it'll be formatted as FAT16, which doesn't support large disks of today )
3. partition type : 6
4. mkfs.fat /dev/sdxn
copy the iwlwifi-8000C-*.ucode files extracted earlier to the root of this new partition (you'll see later why it matters)
re-start the Debian installer and run it until it complains about missing firmware and offers to load them from a different source
switch to another console with Ctrl-Alt-F2
plug the USB key containing the firmware files and identify it with blkid (which gave : /dev/sdc1)
mkdir -p /lib/firmware
mount /dev/sdc1 /lib/firmware
this is why it was important to copy files at the root of the new partition : you can now see them with
ls /lib/firmware/iwlwifi*
return to the Debian installer with Ctrl-Alt-F1
Load firmware from another source ? answer Yes
the Debian installer should detect network interfaces (wired / WiFi / bluetooth / broadband / ) and continue normally

Install Debian using an unofficial non-free image including firmware packages.

Format (source) :

Each line is made of several fields :

deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free

deb : archive type. Either :
- deb : binaries
- deb-src : source
http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ : repository URL
buster : distribution. Either :
- release code name (1, 2) : Wheezy, Jessie, Stretch, Buster, Bullseye, Sid,
- release class : oldstable, stable, testing, unstable, stable-proposed-updates, stable-updates
main, contrib, non-free : components aka repositories

Repositories (source) :

stable-proposed-updates (source) :

point releases are minor distribution releases, like the version 10.8 for Buster.
NB : minor must be taken in the x.y.z version numbering meaning, not low importance
stable-proposed-updates is :
- an apt repository that contains the files that are being prepared for the next point release. This repository is fed by the proposed-updates mechanism.
- a link to the current stable distribution updates : buster-proposed-updates
stable-proposed-updates :
- isn't a standalone repository
- only contains the subset of packages that are going to be updated
which is why you should have both stable and stable-proposed-updates repositories enabled.

stable-updates (source) :

Some packages from proposed-updates may also be made available via the stable-updates mechanism. This path will be used for updates which many users may wish to install on their systems before the next point release is made, such as updates to virus scanners and timezone data.
All packages from stable-updates will be included in point releases.

The stable-updates term applies both to :

the update mechanism
the resulting repository

Who can explain this ?

deb	http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/	buster/updates	main contrib non-free
deb	http://deb.debian.org/debian		buster-updates	main contrib non-free

I got this on a Debian Buster guest, in the context of a bug with VirtualBox and LightDM..

The fix below doesn't solve the problem with VirtualBox, but at least, makes the line disappear from the log...

apt install accountsservice

root@myComputer ~$ apt upgrade
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), is another process using it?
root@myComputer ~$ ll /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Sep  9 08:09 /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend		today, a couple minutes ago
root@myComputer ~$ rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend
root@myComputer ~$ apt upgrade
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

I started seeing this error message after upgrading to Debian Buster. Could that be a bug in a new system utility ?

This is actually unattended upgrades being processed. There is nothing special to do, don't even bother with these lock files : they MUST NOT be deleted (otherwise —like everytime doing rm on system stuff as root— things may break BAD !)
Just sit and relax while your computer is being automatically updated. You don't even need to run apt update && apt upgrade manually now

I'm in a situation where I'd like to use openssh-client's BindInterface configuration directive, which is not available in my current openssh-client version (details in preceding "BindInterface" hyperlink) :

dpkg -l openssh-client

||/ Name                 Version         Architecture    Description
+++-====================-===============-===============-=============================================
ii  openssh-client       1:7.4p1-10+deb9 amd64           secure shell (SSH) client, for secure access

openssh-client is available at version 7.9 in the testing repository (source), so let's install this one.

All commands below are run as root (or with the appropriate sudo prefix).

echo 'deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian testing main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt update

apt search openssh-client

Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
openssh-client/testing 1:7.9p1-10 amd64 [upgradable from: 1:7.4p1-10+deb9u6]
	secure shell (SSH) client, for secure access to remote machines

not tested yet :
apt install openssh-client
comment the line added to /etc/apt/sources.list so that further packages won't come from testing.

The "easy" method :

Just execute dpkg-reconfigure locales as root and follow the on-screen instructions.

The "hard" method :

edit /etc/locale.gen
then launch locale-gen

Changes will be applied :

after the next reboot
or right after running (source) :
. /etc/default/locale

Every time I plug a USB drive, it's automatically mounted, which pops up the file manager :

this is pretty convenient 99% of the time to just "use" it
but some other times (like partitioning / formatting a drive), this prevents working on it since it mustn't be mounted.

The original version of this article was about this setup :
- Debian 8 Jessie
- the XFCE desktop environment
- the Caja file manager (which is part of the MATE desktop environment)
This update of the article is based on Ubuntu 20.04 + XFCE and Caja again.

You can disable + re-enable the automount of USB drives with (source) :

systemctl stop udisks2.service
systemctl start udisks2.service

Should you wish to make this reboot-proof, consider disabling this service.

You may also use dconf-editor to do so (source) :

install it :
apt install dconf-editor
run it :
dconf-editor
browse the tree to : org | your desktop manager | desktop | media-handling
switch off the Automount option

this is the graphical version of this solution
this solution (either CLI or graphical) sometimes doesn't work for unknown reasons so far

Below is the full trial-and-error process of my initial investigations on Debian 8. This is mostly made of things that don't work, but which may help for future / related investigations

Read the solution.

Here are all the solutions I tried that failed :

Disable automount in XFCE / Thunar : Start menu | settings | file manager | Advanced, then untick Enable the volume manager.
Disable automount in Caja : Edition | preferences | Media tab. Tick Never prompt or start programs on media insertion, untick Browse media when inserted.
When turning the X server off, no automount anymore. When opening a basic "Xsession", no automount, but when starting Mate or XFCE desktop environment, automount occurs. So this is not caused by some obscure system daemon.
The package xfce4-mount-plugin has no effect on this
The udev solutions :
- zur::Linux suggested creating a dedicated udev rule : rulesFile='/etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules'; [ ! -f "$rulesFile" ] && echo 'ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="block", KERNEL=="sd*|sr", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"' > "$rulesFile" : no effect, even after restarting udev
- Another one (source) : putting ACTION="add|change", subsystem=="block", ENV{UDISKS_AUTOMOUNT_HINT}="never" in /etc/udev/rules.d/10-no-automount.rules, and supposed to be effective instantly. Can't believe this, since we know that this automount is made by the desktop environment.

the ArchLinux forum inspired me when suggesting :

gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.media-handling automount-open false
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.media-handling automount false

On my side, this gave :

gsettings list-schemas | grep media
org.mate.SettingsDaemon.plugins.media-keys
org.gnome.desktop.media-handling
org.mate.media-handling

Then :

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount-open false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount false

The gconf* solutions :
- gconf-editor proved useless since I don't have Nautilus installed.
- gconftool --type Boolean --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/media_automount false (source)
- gconftool-2 --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/media_automount --type bool false (source)
  This writes settings in ~/.gconf/apps/nautilus/preferences/%gconf.xml :
```
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
	<entry name="media_automount" mtime="1449007996" type="bool" value="false"/>
</gconf>
```
  My desktop environment uses Nautilus settings even though Nautilus itself is not installed? Nah...
- Run, as root (source) :
```
gconftool-2 --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/volume_manager/automount_media false
gconftool-2 --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/volume_manager/automount_drives false
```

Let's be a serial killer :

ps aux | grep gvfs
kevin	7411	0.0	0.0	300296	7532	?	Sl	21:17	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
kevin	7425	0.0	0.0	206716	5932	?	Sl	21:17	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
kevin	7434	0.0	0.0	215796	6336	?	Sl	21:17	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
kevin	7446	0.0	0.0	202756	5884	?	Sl	21:17	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-goa-volume-monitor

kill -1 7411 7425 7434 7446

This "fixes" it. But it's dirty¹⁰⁰⁰. At least we know it's GVFS-related. Too many packages depend on GVFS (at least Caja does) so we can't simply uninstall it.

add to ~/.xinitrc (source) :
```
export GVFS_DISABLE_FUSE=1
```

So far, the winner is (inspired by) :

gsettings set org.mate.media-handling automount-open false
gsettings set org.mate.media-handling automount false

I've already edited this article several times because the "solutions" I found didn't survive a graphical logout/login or a reboot. So let's keep our fingers crossed with this one

Some extra notes :

Belonging to the plugdev group allows to use removable devices (source 1, 2)
udisks2 was frequently mentioned in pages related to that question. Do I have it installed ?
```
dpkg -l | grep udisks2
ii	libudisks2-0:amd64	2.1.3-5		amd64	GObject based library to access udisks2
ii	udisks2			2.1.3-5		amd64	D-Bus service to access and manipulate storage devices
```
Should be worth reading the Udisks reference manual.
And, by the way, I can't uninstall it because many packages depend on it : caja, gvfs, gvfs-backends, gvfs-daemons, mate-core, mate-desktop-environment-core

NetworkManager :

I noticed it because ...

eats up to 75% of a CPU
makes no difference on network activity before/after killing it
comes with his buddy nm-applet

Normal task :

Manage connections and report network changes (details). This has little to no interest in stable network environment such as a desktop computer.

Solution :

systemctl stop NetworkManager && systemctl disable NetworkManager && kill -15 $(pidof nm-applet)

The gvfs family :

I noticed it because ...

They are legion : ps aux | grep gvfs

stuart	9326	0.0	0.0	209840	4264	?	Sl	2015	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
stuart	9363	0.0	0.1	451864	8200	?	Sl	2015	0:24	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
stuart	9369	0.0	0.0	300240	4372	?	Sl	2015	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
stuart	9381	0.0	0.0	206556	4124	?	Sl	2015	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
stuart	9385	0.0	0.0	215636	4156	?	Sl	2015	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
stuart	9390	0.0	0.0	202568	3912	?	Sl	2015	0:00	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
stuart	9408	0.0	0.1	416220	10040	?	Sl	2015	1:31	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.11 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0
stuart	11057	0.0	0.1	135000	12016	?	Sl	2015	1:09	/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-metadata

randomly (?) eating 100% of a CPU core
permanently consuming disk I/O (SSD killer ?) and making disks slow

Normal task :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GVfs

Solution :

This is a quick'n'dirty solution. Use at your own risk !

for gvfsProcess in $(ps aux | grep "[g]vfs" | awk '{print $11}'); do echo "$gvfsProcess"; chmod -x "$gvfsProcess"; kill -15 $(pidof "$gvfsProcess"); done

Actually, doing this to all the gvfs processes breaks the desktop trash functionality (and shows an ugly "grep | awk" ). To let it work, leave /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd unaltered, which will in turn start /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash.
Improved version :

for gvfsProcess in $(ps aux | awk '$11 ~ /gvfs/ && $11 !~ /(gvfsd|trash$)/ {print $11}'); do echo "$gvfsProcess"; chmod -x "$gvfsProcess"; kill -15 $(pidof "$gvfsProcess"); done

modem-manager / ModemManager (1, 2) :

I noticed it because ...

There is no modem to manage.

Normal task :

ModemManager is a DBus-activated daemon which controls mobile broadband (2G/3G/4G) devices and connections. Whether built-in devices, USB dongles, Bluetooth-paired telephones, or professional RS232/USB devices with external power supplies, ModemManager is able to prepare and configure the modems and setup connections with them.

Whether ModemManager.service is enabled or not seems to make no difference to use my smartphone to connect to the Internet.

Solution :

Read this.

tumblerd :

I noticed it because ...

Eating CPU (1 core)

Normal task :

XFCE-specific, D-Bus service for applications to request thumbnails (source).

Solution :

kill -1 $(pidof tumblerd)
apt remove tumbler

The .iso image file :

The 1^st thing you'll need is an ISO image of the installation media. Debian offers many different images (CD / DVD / minimum / network / ...). I usually install from a Network install from a minimal CD, meaning I have to download a minimal installation bootable CD (~250MB), boot from it to start the installation process (pick language, partition hard drives, ...), then download the software packages I've selected during install.
These images are designed to be burnt on a CD and used as a boot media, don't forget to check file integrity before going further.

Debian .iso images are hybrid images : they are designed to boot from a CD / DVD or from a USB flash drive simply by "pushing" them to a storage + boot media.
A standard image can be converted into an hybrid one with isohybrid (sources : 1, 2) :

apt install syslinux-utils && isohybrid image.iso && dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdz

Preparing the USB flash drive :

identify the USB drive
Whatever is listed at this step, we need to deal with the device itself, not with a volume on this device : if it says /dev/sdz1, the device we'll write to is /dev/sdz.
make sure the USB drive is not mounted
transfer the .iso to the USB drive. There are several methods to do so :
- cat debian.iso > /dev/sdz (sources : 1, 2, 3)
- dd if=debian.iso of=/dev/sdz status=progress
make sure no data is stuck in a buffer : sync
you can now safely unplug the USB drive and boot from it

Booting from the USB flash drive :

This looks like the easiest part, but ...

Never underestimate the ability of simple things to miserably fail .

My motherboard, like ALL motherboards in the world (well, its BIOS setup, actually) has a Boot device priority setting, in which I can enable/disable/reorder items like Hard Disk Drive, Optical Disc Drive, Network or Removable Media.
Since my USB flash drive is both a media and removable, I've set Removable Media as the 1^st boot option, and moved Hard Disk Drive as the 2^nd option, plugged the key, then boot. It boots from the hard drive (). Retry, no change .

I completely removed Hard Disk Drive from the boot devices and tried again : Operating system not found. Insert a proper boot media and press a key or GTFO. At that point, I thought I made something wrong while transferring the image to my USB flash drive, so I started that step again (and again, and again, and one more time after that. Which is why I'm not sure about the "dd-only" method above).

...

Finally, it appears that, in the BIOS setup of my motherboard, a USB flash drive is not considered as a Removable Media but as a Hard Disk Drive. But, in order to boot from a USB flash drive, you have to plug it prior to entering the BIOS setup, enable Hard Disk Drive boot, then select the detected USB device as the 1^st boot device in the HDD boot priority menu.

Missing firmware :

It is very likely that, upon discovering hardware, the setup program detects some missing firmware(s) :

Hardware needs non-free firmware to run, missing firmwares are: rtlwifi/rtl8192sefw.bin

Please refer to my dedicated article : Missing firmware during Debian install.

Backports are recompiled packages from testing (and sometimes from unstable) to stable so that they can run without new libraries (whenever possible). To use a backport, you'll have to :

declare it in the /etc/apt/sources.list
install from backports

Update /etc/apt/sources.list :

For Wheezy :

echo deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt update

Search packageName in backports :

apt -t wheezy-backports search packageName
apt show packageName -a

There is no guarantee for any package to be available from the backports.

Install packageName from backports :

apt -t wheezy-backports install packageName
apt install packageName/wheezy-backports

Official repositories :

stable (currently aliased wheezy, version 7): The current release that has stable and well-tested software. stable is made by freezing testing for a few months where bugs are fixed to make the distribution as stable as possible; then the resulting system is released as stable.
backports: This repository provides more recent versions than stable for some software. It is mainly intended for users of stable who need a newer version of a particular package.
testing (currently aliased jessie, version 8): Will be the next major release and is currently being tested. It contains more modern packages than stable but older than unstable.
unstable (permanently aliased sid): Contains packages currently under development; it is updated continually. This repository is designed for Debian developers who participate in a project and need the latest libraries available, or for those who like to "live on the edge", so it will not be as stable as the other distributions.
oldstable (currently aliased squeeze, version 6): The prior stable release.

How packages flow between archives (source) :

Non-free and Unofficial repositories (source) :

main: packages that are released under a free license (BSD, GPL, etc.) and that meet the DFSG.
contrib: Packages which do comply with the DFSG, but may fail other requirements (e.g., they may depend on packages which are in non-free or require such for building them).
non-free: Packages that do not comply with the DFSG. These packages have some strict license conditions that restrict the usage and redistribution of the software.
Third-party: Not part of the Debian Project, they are maintained by third party organizations.

The impatients may follow this tutorial (or read the local copy).

Structure of a .deb package :

Many packages are cached in /var/cache/apt/archives/. You can extract the contents of a package with (details) :

ar -x packageName.deb

Once you've extracted the contents of a package, you'll see that it basically contains :

control.tar.gz :
- control : package meta-data
- preinst : pre-installation script
- postinst : ...
- prerm
- postrm
data.tar.gz : this is the actual payload of the package. It mimics the Linux file structure where something has to happen during install
debian-binary : this only contains the string 2.0, stating the version of the packaging system (this is approximate !!!)

As a good practice, it is wise to backup all modified files into /opt/packageName, so that they can be restored upon uninstall of the package.

Build the package

your package building environment should look like /path/to/workdir/packageBuildingRootDirectory/myPackage
myPackage should be named after : name-version
cd /path/to/workdir/packageBuildingRootDirectory/
build : dpkg -b myPackage
you should get : /path/to/workdir/packageBuildingRootDirectory/myPackage.deb

Unpack + repack a package (source)

You may want to unpack + edit + repack a .deb package :

out of curiosity
because its installation failed saying as little as The installation process exited with a non-success status. and you need some more details to start debugging

Let's say I want to unpack + edit + repack packageName.deb

look in /var/cache/apt/archives/ for packages to play with
this is safe as long as
- you don't install the resulting package
- you know exactly what you're doing

setup

packageName='packageName'				without the extension 
workDir="/tmp/$packageName"
mkdir -p "$workDir"
cp "/var/cache/apt/archives/$packageName.deb" "$workDir"
cd "$workDir"

unpack

ar -x "$packageName.deb"

which gives :

control.tar.xz			may change depending on which compression tool was used
data.tar.xz
debian-binary

continue

rm "$packageName.deb"				I won't need it anymore
mkdir -p DEBIAN && cd DEBIAN
controlArchive='control.tar.xz'				or .gz
mv "../$controlArchive" .
tar xf "$controlArchive" && rm "$controlArchive"	will be re-created during repack

now I have :
/

tmp/

packageName/

debian-binary

DEBIAN/

control

md5sums

postinst

postrm

preinst

prerm

data.tar.xz

The error message I got while trying to install this package is due either to the preinst or postinst script. I'll start investigating there.

repack

cd "$workDir/.."
touch "$packageName/DEBIAN/info"	prerequisite
chmod 755 "$packageName/DEBIAN"		as above
chmod 755 "$packageName/DEBIAN/"*	as above
dpkg-deb -b "$packageName"		the actual repack command

or :

dpkg -b "$packageName"

Install the package

copy myPackage.deb to the destination host
launch installation : dpkg -i myPackage.deb
If any other package is required by myPackage and is missing, it'll be flagged for further installation. Run apt-get install -f to install it.
myPackage will be installed automatically after that.

How to extract a Debian .deb package ?

method 1 :

method 2 :

Missing firmware during Debian install

Alternate solution

/etc/apt/sources.list

Format (source) :

Repositories (source) :

stable-proposed-updates (source) :

stable-updates (source) :

Who can explain this ?

DBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files

Situation

Details

Solution

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

Situation

Details

Solution

Debian Stretch : how to install openssh-client version >= 7.7 ?

Situation

Details

Solution

How to reconfigure locales on Debianoids ?

The "easy" method :

The "hard" method :

How to disable the automount of USB drives on Debianoids ?

Situation

Details

Solution

Alternate solution

Solution

Some extra notes :

Some processes that caught my attention for a reason...

NetworkManager :

I noticed it because ...

Normal task :

Solution :

The gvfs family :

I noticed it because ...

Normal task :

Solution :

modem-manager / ModemManager (1, 2) :

I noticed it because ...

Normal task :

Solution :

tumblerd :

I noticed it because ...

Normal task :

Solution :

How to install Debian from a USB flash drive ?

The .iso image file :

Preparing the USB flash drive :

Booting from the USB flash drive :

Missing firmware :

Debian backports

Update /etc/apt/sources.list :

Search packageName in backports :

Install packageName from backports :

Debian repositories

Official repositories :

How packages flow between archives (source) :

Non-free and Unofficial repositories (source) :

How to create a .deb package ?

Structure of a .deb package :

Build the package

Unpack + repack a package (source)

Install the package