Andreas Hartmann's questions

I have a new laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14ARE05 with a Ryzen 4000 SoC). In order for its hardware to be supported, I had to install the latest 5.8.0 mainline kernel on my fresh 20.04 Kubuntu install. However I also need acpi-call-dkms for controlling power saving features etc.. However, the install fails:

Unpacking acpi-call-dkms (1.1.0-5) ...
Setting up acpi-call-dkms (1.1.0-5) ...
Loading new acpi-call-1.1.0 DKMS files...
Building for 5.8.0-050800-generic
Building initial module for 5.8.0-050800-generic
ERROR (dkms apport): kernel package linux-headers-5.8.0-050800-generic is not supported
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.8.0-050800-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/acpi-call/1.1.0/build/make.log for more information.
dpkg: error processing package acpi-call-dkms (--configure):
 installed acpi-call-dkms package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10
Errors were encountered while processing:
 acpi-call-dkms
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Basically it just says it's not supported. Is there some PPA where I can get a newer version of that package that is supported? Or (how) can I build that thing from source?

I'm running a fairly fresh (not release upgraded) install of Kubuntu 20.04. I'm in a "fully updated" state, as in apt update + apt full-upgrade tell me I am up to date.

I would like to install:

sudo apt install mesa-opencl-icd 

But:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 mesa-opencl-icd : Depends: libclc-r600 (>= 0.2.0+git20180312-1~) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: libclc-amdgcn (>= 0.2.0+git20180312-1~) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

This is originally caused by:

sudo apt install mesa-opencl-icd libclc-r600 libclc-amdgcn libclang-common-9-dev lib32gcc-s1 lib32stdc++6 gcc-10-base lib32gcc1 
gcc-10-base is already the newest version (10.1.0-2ubuntu1~18.04).
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 lib32gcc-s1 : Depends: gcc-10-base (= 10-20200411-0ubuntu1) but 10.1.0-2ubuntu1~18.04 is to be installed
 lib32gcc1 : Depends: gcc-10-base (= 10-20200411-0ubuntu1) but 10.1.0-2ubuntu1~18.04 is to be installed
 lib32stdc++6 : Depends: gcc-10-base (= 10-20200411-0ubuntu1) but 10.1.0-2ubuntu1~18.04 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Synaptic shows me that there is a newer version and my current one is obsolete:

I can't remove it, because I have packages that depend on it that are in return depended upon by basically all of my packages:

sudo apt remove gcc-10-base libgcc-s1 libstdc++6 libc6 zlib1g util-linux openjdk-11-jre-headless libxtst6 libxrender1 libxi6 libxext6 libx11-6 libpcsclite1 libnss3 liblcms2-2 libjpeg8 libfreetype6 libfontconfig1 libcups2 libasound2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'openjdk-11-jre-headless' is not installed, so not removed
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  alsa-topology-conf alsa-ucm-conf amd64-microcode apport-symptoms binutils-common breeze-cursor-theme cgroupfs-mount colord-data
  cups-common cups-server-common debconf-kde-data distro-info-data dns-root-data emacsen-common filezilla-common
  ... ALL THE PACKAGES BASICALLY ...
  libsmartcols1 (due to fdisk) findutils grep libpcre3 (due to grep) install-info (due to grep) gzip hostname init
  systemd-sysv (due to init) init-system-helpers (due to init) perl-base (due to init-system-helpers) libc-bin login
  libaudit1 (due to login) libpam0g (due to login) libpam-runtime (due to login) libpam-modules (due to login) mount
  util-linux (due to mount) ncurses-bin sed sysvinit-utils libcap-ng0 (due to util-linux) libudev1 (due to util-linux)
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1738 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 5.705 MB disk space will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful.
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'

These are my active apt repos:

deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates main restricted
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal universe
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates universe
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/serge-rider/dbeaver-ce/ubuntu eoan main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tiagohillebrandt/postman/ubuntu focal main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu focal main
deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
deb http://deb.xanmod.org releases main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rpardini/adoptopenjdk/ubuntu focal main

I tried force replacing the version in synaptic, but as expected, that will still make it remove basically all the packages. I also attempted manually installing the current version from the deb file, but that also breaks consistency. So my question is, how can I replace gcc-10-base and the other "obsolete" packages, without having to reinstall everything, so that I can continue installing the package I want?

UPDATE 1: I used

aptitude search ?obsolete

to find and remove two unrelated truly obsolete packages. gcc-10-base was not among them, so it's not obsolete I guess, but it also isn't the newest version, and also there are no updates available for it. Where is it coming from, since the entire OS is dependent on it?

UPDATE 2: I removed all third party debs to make sure there were no weird conflicts. It didn't help.

UPDATE 3: Reinstall isn't possible because it isn't on any repo anymore.

root@anvil:/etc/apt# sudo dpkg -l | grep gcc-10-base
ii  gcc-10-base:amd64                             10.1.0-2ubuntu1~18.04                        amd64        GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
root@anvil:/etc/apt# sudo apt install --reinstall gcc-10-base
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reinstallation of gcc-10-base is not possible, it cannot be downloaded.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I have a NAS running Ubuntu Server 18.04 with minidlna. Minidlna has been unmaintained for a long time and now it kind of sucks. I read that 19.10 has an integrated dlna server, but I couldn't find any instructions on how to use it on Ubuntu Server without a GUI. I'm willing to upgrade to a non-LTS version if it gives me a better DLNA experience, but I'd like now if and how it's possible to use that feature without a GUI.

I'd like to keep an Ubuntu Server 18.04 up to date with the latest mainline kernel. On the desktop I'd just use Ukuu, but I'm looking for a convenient method to use via ssh. I found this: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ Which helps me avoid having to build from source myself, and I could write a script that fetches and installs the latest respective deb files, but isn't there something like that already, such as a ppa?

Trying to follow these instructions: How to control fan speed?

sensors-detect added this module: coretemp

I get this error when runnting pwmconfig: /usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

I am using this mainboard, having connected two PWM fans to it: https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/atom/A2SDi-4C-HLN4F.cfm

Update: I contacted supermicro and they said that there was no official support for this on Linux, but IPMI is supported. With that being said, if someone were to discover a hack or similar to do it, please answer here.

I have a slightly unusual setup which I am failing to get running:

-Dell Precision Laptop with two identical NVME SSDs -I'd like to install Ubuntu to them with RAID 0 and full disk encryption -The Device uses UEFI booting, Secure Boot is turned off

The Ubuntu Desktop installer requires me to set up the RAID before the installer, then I can select automatic partitioning with encryption on the combined RAID partition, but then it fails to install GRUB. I also tried the server installer, it allows me to set up RAID and the encryption, but still doesn't install GRUB. I have read that I need to manually create a 200MB FAT32 partition for the boot loader but that also didn't work.

How exactly should my partitioning layout look like? Should the FAT32 partition be on both drives? Should they also be in RAID? Or is there some way I should manually install the boot loader afterwards and add the entries to the UEFI?

I have a PC with a:

VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Venus XT [Radeon HD 8870M / R9 M270X/M370X] [1002:6821] (rev ff) (prog-if ff)

How can I get OpenCL to work on it? I'm not offered a proprietary driver in the Software sources tool, and AFAIK it isn't supported on 16.04 anymore.

clinfo currently lists zero devices.

my swap is not being used, no matter how full my RAM gets. This is my swapon output:

NAME      TYPE       SIZE USED PRIO
/dev/dm-2 partition 31,9G 3,5M   -1

Could the PRIO -1 be a problem?

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
60

My swappiness is 60.

cat /proc/swaps
Filename             Type       Size        Used    Priority
/dev/dm-2            partition  33456124    3524    -1

I have 32GB of RAM and 32GB of swap, but currently when my memory runs my system will just lock up permanently rather than start swapping. Anything I can do about that?

Basically I am trying to run an application that will eat about 30GB of memory, while me physical memory is already half full. While it is booting up and loading data into memory my system just freezes, once the physical memory is full. And no it doesn't appear to just lock up while it is swapping, since even after a while doesn't unfreeze.

I installed Snappy Ubuntu Core on a Raspi, hoping to use it as a webserver, however I can't apt-get install packages and snappy install has virtually no packages available (right now). Do I have to manually compile and set up everything without any package management? Then what's the point of snappy if there is no software available for it?

SVP is a windows software application that calculates video frames in real time while a video is running in a player, making it run smoothly in 60 fps. It doesn't work in wine. Is there a linux alternative?

I am having problems with my 14.10 Ubuntu Server. Upon performing certain actions my apache2 restarts with a segmentation fault error. In order to debug this issue I would like to create a core dump. I have done the following:

• added CoreDumpDirectory /tmp/apache-coredumps to the config file
• Run ulimit -c unlimited
• Run apt-get install apache2-dbg php5-dbg
• restarted apache and caused the error. The log claims there may be a core dump in the directory, however it is empty.

I also tried to use gdb directly on the executable of apache2, but apache won't start unless started through apachectl or service apache2 start.

How can I get a core dump to debug my issue OR how can I attach gdb directly to apache?

Whenever I launch hydrogen it breaks my audio in all other applications which use Pulse, for example, I can no longer play videos in Chrome after having launched Hydrogen once, until I restart my PC or do sudo alsa force-reload. I have found people with similar issues, but no actual guide to fix this, often there are links to http://jackaudio.org/pulseaudio_and_jack (which has moved to http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html ) I am using Ubuntu Studio 14.04 64bit.

ALTERNATIVELY if this is truly impossible to achieve, can someone tell me how to use Jack on one soundcard and Pulse on another? This way I could plug in a USB sound card only when I need JACK.

Please don't make me use windows.

I already have several MySQL DBs running on my Ubuntu 14.04 Server, and I would like to migrate these as smoothly as possible to the compatible MariaDB. I'm also using PHPMyAdmin. Is there a different way to do this than to export all data and then reimport it all after installation?

I have an elderly laptop with a GeForce 9300M graphics chip. I don't game on it, but I want a smooth desktop experience with Unity. In my situation specifically, are the open source drivers better than the proprietary Nvidia ones? Or is the only reason for the open source drivers to exist them being open source? I'm also writing OpenCL applications. Can I use my GeForces stream processors for OpenCL with the open source drivers?

Update: by better, I mean in terms of reliability, energy efficiency and performance on the Desktop, in GPU computing, and out of curiosity also in gaming.

I'm following this tutorial to get my card reader working: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=636867

However I'm unable unload my sdhci module:

sudo modprobe -rv sdhci mmc_core mmc_block
modprobe: FATAL: Module sdhci is in use.

How should I proceed?

Or: How to make a directory write protected, for all users until unlocked again?

I have two fullHD monitors, one of which is a 15" Laptop screen. How can I change the DPI of only that particular screen, to read text more comfortably?

Is there a way to install Lubuntu 14.04 on a laptop with no boot from usb capability, a broken disc drive and running Debian right now and the only way of transferring data to it being usb flash drives?

I would like to have my screen fully powered at all times, but it goes to standby once I lock my PC.

On my Asus F3 Series Laptop there is a built in SD Card reader

lspci output:

09:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
09:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
09:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
09:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)

It is being recognized, but when I put in an SD Card, nothing happens/is mounted.