HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

johnraff · 2023-02-07 09:25:40

Boron packages are now available from the official BunsenLabs package repositories.

Although they seem to generally work OK, there are very few changes from the Beryllium packages so far, only what was needed to get them to install on Bookworm. There are probably many small bugs and annoyances which it would be good to sort out before the official release. This is where any members of the community who would like to help move the project forward can join in the development process. If you can spin up a virtual machine, or have a spare computer at hand, please give this a go and report back what you found!

The source is on GitHub in the 'boron' branches:
https://github.com/BunsenLabs

To set up a Debian Bookworm system using these packages, follow these steps:

1)
Download current Debian Bookworm "netinstall" iso. Debian Bookworm "testing" is changing almost every day at the moment, and new iso images are going out every week. (The "di_alpha2" in the iso name refers to the state of the debian Installer which comes in the iso.)

NEWS From alpha2, the official Debian installer includes non-free firmware, so the "unofficial" images might no longer be needed. Try these official images first, because alpha2 also has many other improvements over alpha1:

amd64
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu … etinst.iso

i386
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu … etinst.iso

If you find some necessary firmware is missing from those images, you could try the "unofficial" alpha1 images:
UPDATE 10 Jun 2023: As of Debian 12 (Bookworm), firmware is included in the normal Debian installer images. USERS NO LONGER NEED TO LOOK FOR SPECIAL VERSIONS HERE.

2)
Follow the usual netinstall process, remembering:
*) Don't set a password for 'root' in the user setup phase (you'll have sudo rights).
*) At the final package selection phase, choose only "standard system utilities" (up/down arrows to navigate, spacebar to toggle selection).

3)
Login to the new command-line system, and (to make sure everything's up to date):

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

In fact right now (Feb 2023) Bookworm is getting upgrades almost every day, so the apt update/upgrade is essential.

You'll need the BunsenLabs apt signing key to use the BL repo. You can grab the bunsen-keyring package directly, as described here, but that only works smoothly if you have a graphical session already running with a browser. If you're still on a CLI session then you could download the deb file with wget, but it's rather a long url to type in:

wget https://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian/pool/main/b/bunsen-keyring/bunsen-keyring_2023.01.14-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i bunsen-keyring_2023.01.14-1_all.deb

Maybe easier is to grab the signing key directly:

wget https://ddl.bunsenlabs.org/ddl/bunsen-release.asc
sudo cp bunsen-release.asc /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d

When you install the BunsenLabs packages later, then bunsen-archive-keyring will overwrite /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/bunsen-release.asc but it's the same file anyway.

Then (use vim if you prefer):

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list

type in this line:

deb https://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian boron main

(With nano, Ctrl+O to write to file, Ctrl+X to exit the editor.)

Note that we are using the "official" BL server here. When BL Boron is declared officially released you won't need to edit your apt sources again.

Also make sure you add 'contrib', 'non-free' and 'non-free-firmware' to all the existing debian lines in /etc/apt/sources.list
something like:

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

...etc
(If you're not planning to build any packages from source, you can also comment out the lines which begin with 'deb-src'.)

[RBH edit:
Changed bullseye to bookworm above]

Update again:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

(No packages will probably be upgraded.)

4)
Now, time to install the bunsenlabs packages. The metapackage will pull them all in as dependencies, but be sure to use the --no-install-recommends option, or you'll get a pile of unwanted stuff:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends bunsen-meta-all

NOTE: bunsen-meta-lite is a slightly lighter alternative to bunsen-meta-all.

If you have operating systems on other partitions that you want to appear in the grub boot menu, you'll want to:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and uncomment this line:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Then:

sudo update-grub

See: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=8418

5)
Reboot to see the graphical interface:

sudo systemctl reboot

That's it, or was for me on a Virtual Machine.

A different approach would be to install only bunsen-configs with its recommends just to see a bare-bones interface. (You might need a couple of extra packages like xorg) Then add the other BL packages one by one...

On real hardware, you might need to tweak the network settings.
I'm pasting in @hhh's advice from Lithium, but this might get updated:
(EDIT On Bullseye I found /e/n/i already OK, but check it anyway.)

---
network

Since iwconfig sets up the internet connection during the installation, editing of /etc/network/interfaces is necessary after the BL desktop is installed to allow Network Manager to handle connections.

Comment out anything except for the first eight lines as so...

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug enp9s0
#iface enp9s0 inet dhcp

---
If you have any issues with any of this, then of course bug reports are extremely welcome and will help get BunsenLabs Boron into shape all the faster. Small things can go on this thread, and for anything that looks as if it might need discussion, please start a new topic in Bug Reports; a prefix of [Boron] in the title will help keep things organized.

Thanks!

Last edited by johnraff (2023-10-03 01:51:22)

johnraff · 2023-02-08 03:02:20

Minor annoyance - the Adwaita cursor theme has higher priority so it'll be set automatically. To get DMZ-white, after installation open Menu>System>Edit Debian Alternatives, scroll down to x-cursor-theme and select DMZ-White. The regular BL cursor should appear after a logout/in.

manyroads · 2023-02-08 15:40:32

FWIW. I posted the following on #Mastodon:

https://mstdn.social/@ManyRoads/109829864831022083

or1o9 · 2023-02-08 20:39:19

Posting from a fresh Boron install, nothing peculiar to mention so far. Great work team, thanks!

Will give some feedback later, or when necessary.

johnraff · 2023-02-09 08:36:40

A new thread has been started to discuss upgrading from Beryllium to Boron, and I've split off some posts from here.

I hope the original posters don't mind.

@manyroads, thanks for spreading the word!

Last edited by johnraff (2023-02-09 08:37:14)

or1o9 · 2023-02-09 19:39:23

Brought up the menu and the "Install Favourite Packages". First out was Terminator, no problem. Then I tried the same with Midnight Commander and mpv. Clicked on them and nothing happened. Tried also to install printing support, clicked, and nothing happened.

Also, clicked on the "Quick System Info". Nothing happened. Actually none of them works now. The Terminator installation terminated it.

Thought you should know and maybe others can try and check if or how it works for them.

Last edited by or1o9 (2023-02-09 19:48:59)

johnraff · 2023-02-10 01:28:06

^Many thanks for finding this! This is just the kind of feedback that we need right now.

I've just confirmed that after installing terminator the install scripts are broken - the terminal window no longer pops up.
If you go to menu>system>Edit Debian Alternatives and set lxterminal back as x-terminal-emulator, do you get the install menus back?

I have a suspicion terminator's behaviour has changed slightly - this kind of issue came up in the past with several terminals and I'm hopeful of finding a fix...

or1o9 · 2023-02-10 04:14:51

^ Thank you! Terminator were in fact the culprit. Worked like a charm with lxterminal.

Would it be possible to get the script to use lxterminal as default for this?

Nearly forgot, "Quick System Info" worked too.

Last edited by or1o9 (2023-02-10 05:01:15)

johnraff · 2023-02-10 06:18:41

^It's hoped that our scripts will work with whatever terminal has been set as x-terminal-emulator, but there are a couple - I found qterminal and terminology so far - which don't support the necessary -e option properly.

terminalCheck() in /usr/lib/bunsen/common/bl-includes does some tweaking for lxterminal, mate-terminal etc, but up to Beryllium, Terminator worked OK.

I don't know if this issue is related: https://github.com/gnome-terminator/ter … issues/700 but the developer says a new release might fix it. This commit: https://github.com/gnome-terminator/ter … 35b5faca62 came out after the last 2.1.2 release so for now we could wait a bit and see if a new release comes out in time for Debian Bookworm, and fixes the option parsing issue.

Otherwise we might need to:
1) add some code to work around terminator's problem, or even
2) make a terminator fork, or just
3) block terminator from using the scripts which need proper -e handling, like the menu install items.

I hope none of those turn out to be needed.

or1o9 · 2023-02-12 07:40:59

johnraff wrote:

so for now we could wait a bit and see if a new release comes out in time for Debian Bookworm, and fixes the option parsing issue.

Sounds good to me. But if this problem persists, and with many different terminals, maybe just a warning about it (in the welcome script?) could be a solution? Instead of spending a lot of time and effort on it since lxterminal does the job so well.

Anyway, printing worked out of the box so to speak. When I brought up the "configure printing box" my printer were there and it just worked. Brilliant work! Thank you! It was a pain to get it to work in the old days.

Since I am here I should mention one other thing. Might be that this is just my old hardware showing signs of dementia. Installed Boron on a Thinkpad that must be around a dozen human years now, and in computer time that equals thousands.

Three times now since Wednesday there has been a problem when booting. I have not changed anything that regards booting. The grub screen comes up, the default choice is the standard BL choice. After that it starts to boot with the usual screen with text, then suddenly a flicker and nothing. Just a black screen. No reaction whatsoever, no tty available, just a black screen. Had to power off manually, and reboot, then it worked. Never twice in a row.

Something to do with LightDM probably? Anyone else this has occurred for?

johnraff · 2023-02-14 01:04:04

orionH wrote:

johnraff wrote:
so for now we could wait a bit and see if a new release comes out in time for Debian Bookworm, and fixes the option parsing issue.
Sounds good to me. But if this problem persists, and with many different terminals, maybe just a warning about it (in the welcome script?) could be a solution? Instead of spending a lot of time and effort on it since lxterminal does the job so well.

Yes something like that probably. Maybe a yad popup warning if the current x-terminal-emulator doesn't support the -e option properly - as it should. In fact, this might justify a bug report to the Debian maintainer of terminator.

Might be that this is just my old hardware showing signs of dementia. Installed Boron on a Thinkpad that must be around a dozen human years now, and in computer time that equals thousands.
Three times now since Wednesday there has been a problem when booting. I have not changed anything that regards booting. The grub screen comes up, the default choice is the standard BL choice. After that it starts to boot with the usual screen with text, then suddenly a flicker and nothing. Just a black screen. No reaction whatsoever, no tty available, just a black screen. Had to power off manually, and reboot, then it worked. Never twice in a row.
Something to do with LightDM probably? Anyone else this has occurred for?

I'm not strong on hardware, but it sounds as if that might be it. Maybe you could start a new thread dedicated to this issue?

DeepDayze · 2023-02-14 02:36:27

I found that LightDM tends to have race conditions with some of the newer kernels and found a fix for it (forgot where).

The fix:

Lightdm and graphics drivers may run into race conditions as the lightdm service may sometimes tend to start before the kernel loads the graphics drivers. If this is the case, you may try to add the following lines in the /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf file under [lightDM] section.

Should look like this:

[LightDM]
logind-check-graphical=true

Reboot.

This time LightDM should start as LightDM then will check to see if graphics drivers are loaded before starting.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by DeepDayze (2023-02-14 02:39:26)

or1o9 · 2023-02-14 04:51:32

@johnraff and @DeepDayze, thanks for the suggestions. As a first measure I have changed the lightdm.conf file. Let us see if that helps, or I will have to get back to this.

johnraff · 2023-02-14 05:59:09

I've uploaded terminator 2.1.2-1.1~bl1 to BunsenLabs' bookworm-backports which seems to fix the faulty option parsing issue. Adding a patch based on the git commit above turned out not to be too hard. If you've enabled the BL backports in bl-welcome then try

sudo apt install -t bookworm-backports terminator

I also sent in a comment to an existing old terminator bug report on the same topic.

or1o9 · 2023-02-15 04:11:53

After installing Terminator from BunsenLabs bookworm-backports I can confirm that the script works. "Quick System Info" came up, and I also checked a couple of the install choices. I did not install anything now, but the script started so I guess that it would have finished it´s mission without complications. Thank you, great work!

johnraff · 2023-02-20 08:46:19

Debian Installer Bookworm Alpha 2 release
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-ins … 3/20230219

Good time to try a netinstall bookworm > Boron

OP updated with alpha2 image URIs.

Last edited by johnraff (2023-02-20 09:01:47)

hhh · 2023-02-21 10:11:05

^ The soft-freeze has hit. Debian testing (Bookworm) is 99.9% (not statistically accurate AFAIK, a bit of hyperbole on my part) as stable as Debian stable (Bullseye) is at this point.

When is Debian abandoning the Toy Story naming convention? Give me Debian Vector, Gru, Minion, Agnes and Dr. Nefarious! Screw you, Oxford comma, you're not needed here. Perfectly cromulent English.

johnraff · 2023-02-22 02:32:35

I can never have enough, commas. If in doubt, add, a comma.

"stable" has at least two meanings.
Here, it can mean "unlikely to break", in which case I agree with you.
The other meaning is "unlikely to change". Testing gets package updates nearly every day, and some of them do indeed change how things behave. In that sense, Debian testing is not stable at all at the moment.

^^Get how the official installer suddenly ships non-free firmware.

hhh · 2023-02-22 05:50:28

johnraff wrote:

The other meaning is "unlikely to change". Testing gets package updates nearly every day, and some of them do indeed change how things behave. In that sense, Debian testing is not stable at all at the moment.

Except that under the freeze, even the soft freeze, they don't get updates nearly every day, and if they do they're incredibly restricted and incremental...

Soft Freeze
Starting 2023-02-12, only small, targeted fixes are appropriate for bookworm. We want maintainers to focus on small, targeted fixes. This is mainly at the maintainers discretion, there will be no hard rule that will be enforced.
Please note that new transitions, new versions of packages that are part of (build-)essential or large/disruptive changes remain inappropriate.
The release team might block the migration to testing of certain changes if they might cause disruption for the release process.
Increased delay for all testing migrations
The testing migration delay of all packages will be increased to 10 days. This means the rate of changes to testing will slow down. This will also increase the chance that regressions are discovered before they reach testing.
The minimum delay of 10 days will also apply to packages with successful autopkgtests.
No new packages and no re-entry to testing
Packages that are not in testing will not be allowed to migrate to testing. This applies to new packages as well as to packages that were removed from testing (either manually or by auto-removals). Packages that are not in bookworm at the start of the soft freeze will not be in the release.
Dropping or adding binary packages to a source package, moving binaries between source packages or renaming source or binary packages is no longer allowed. Packages with these changes will not be allowed to migrate to testing. These changes are also no longer appropriate in unstable.
Please note that packages that are in bookworm at the start of the soft freeze can still be removed if they are buggy. This can happen manually or by the auto-removals. Once packages are removed, they will not be allowed to come back.
No changes in unstable that are not targeted for bookworm
Don't upload changes to unstable that are not targeted for bookworm. Having changes in unstable that are not targeted/appropriate for bookworm could complicate fixes for your package and related packages (like dependencies and reverse dependencies).
Testing migration
Changes in the rules for testing migration:
manual review by the release team for some packages
migration delay always at least 10 days
no faster migration for packages with successful autopkgtests
packages not in testing can not migrate (back) to testing
The following rules still apply:
no migration for packages that trigger autopkgtest regressions
no migration for packages with new RC bugs or piuparts regressions
migration for packages only allowed if all their binary packages have been built on buildds
auto-removal of non-key packages

https://release.debian.org/bookworm/fre … .html#soft

hhh · 2023-02-22 05:55:02

johnraff wrote:

^^Get how the official installer suddenly ships non-free firmware.

This wasn't sudden at all, once again Debian took their time debating it...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-No … are-Result

https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/20 … 00000.html

#1 2023-02-07 09:25:40

HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#2 2023-02-08 03:02:20

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#3 2023-02-08 15:40:32

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#4 2023-02-08 20:39:19

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#5 2023-02-09 08:36:40

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#6 2023-02-09 19:39:23

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#7 2023-02-10 01:28:06

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#8 2023-02-10 04:14:51

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#9 2023-02-10 06:18:41

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#10 2023-02-12 07:40:59

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#11 2023-02-14 01:04:04

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#12 2023-02-14 02:36:27

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#13 2023-02-14 04:51:32

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#14 2023-02-14 05:59:09

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#15 2023-02-15 04:11:53

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#16 2023-02-20 08:46:19

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#17 2023-02-21 10:11:05

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#18 2023-02-22 02:32:35

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#19 2023-02-22 05:50:28

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

#20 2023-02-22 05:55:02

Re: HOW-TO set up an experimental BL Boron system on Debian Bookworm.

Board footer