Testing TP2

[psionlover]

A year ago I did a lot of testing on my gemini linux device and finally left it alone, because it did not work for the (very limited) use case I need it for. After a year I had some spare time and blew the dust from my gemini. The good news is that I made some progress and have more hope to use the gemini for my daily life. I want to use the gemini just offline and sync it with my desktop while being at home:
- agenda, contacts, tasks
- notes taking and text editing
- basic (osm) maps (foxtrotgps seems to fit the bill)
- music listening
- reading and annotating books and articles
Syncing is really a pain in the arse. Many progs don't like interference with their data from external systems. Other programs (like evolution) just refuse to work if there is no connection with a (caldev or carddev) server. I finallly found some very down to earth progs which just take what they are offered as data (calcurse, abook, wikidpad) and I succesfully using them for a while now. But I still have quite a few hick-ups which I hope you can help me with. I have TP2 installed and as far as I know I installed everything like I should. I did not use the flashtool to make a new image. Just upgraded from TP1. My main problem is that lock-on-close-lid is not working. I made sure 'enable lid watcher' is off as I understand it would interfere with 'xss-lock gemian-lock'. Another thing is that brightness is not working (not by 'Lxqt settings', nor by using Fn-N/Fn-B ). It used to work, I am not aware to have changed something.

If someone can give me hints I would very much like to hear.

[Adam Boardman]

There is minimal difference between TP1-3, in terms of installing fresh or upgrading. However you do need to install one of gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi/gemian-desktop-minimal if you want to keep uptodate with improvements (the main things you would be missing are the kernel and the lxc android system.img). Other than that the only other thing to update is the bootloader and the change in that is the passing of the parameter to indicate which boot partition you booted from, so will always have to manually 'dd' your kernel updates (we plan to make that automatic in the future but for now everyone has to do that manually anyway and the partition layout changed TP1->2 with the addition of the extra boot partition for the other key combination). So there is really no point in worrying about the bootloader being old for technically minded folk.

In terms of your syncing, we have gka-calendar-qt and gka-contacts-qt as custom keyboard friendly UI's that store data in the evolution backend, which supports sync with various protocols, you should be able to configure that using regular debian tools (syncevolution etc). Google results indicate a few options for syncevolution between two computers and also rsync of the files if you really cannot get it to work and only change things on one or other at a time.

We recently got the stereo audio working and also the keepalive on closed so audio should be much improved. GPS is still not started, nor is the alarm on sleep working, both need investigation.

The keyboard shortcuts can get confused (lxqt bug whereby if it cannot find the key once it drops it), its generally best to just delete your users ~/.config/lxqt/globalkeyshorcuts.conf file whilst not logged in as a UI user (ie via ssh), then login for it to re-generate from the package version.

[psionlover]

There is minimal difference between TP1-3, in terms of installing fresh or upgrading. However you do need to install one of gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi/gemian-desktop-minimal

okay I missed that one. I installed gemian-desktop (apt-get install gemian-desktop).

(...) so will always have to manually 'dd' your kernel updates (we plan to make that automatic in the future but for now everyone has to do that manually anyway and the partition layout changed TP1->2 with the addition of the extra boot partition for the other key combination).

I did that already, but just for the record:

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$ sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel
$ sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot3
$ uname -a
Linux geminiPDA 3.18.41+ #7 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 30 16:45:45 MSK 2018 aarch64 GNU/LinuxBut I think something is wrong with the modules:

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$ ls /lib/modules
3.18.41
$ lsmod
libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:1655 kmod_module_new_from_loaded: could not open /proc/modules: No such file or directory
Error: could not get list of modules: No such file or directoryI tried symlinking (ln -s /lib/modules/3.18.41 /lib/modules/3.18.41+), but this did not help.

In terms of your syncing, we have gka-calendar-qt and gka-contacts-qt as custom keyboard friendly UI's that store data in the evolution backend, which supports sync with various protocols, you should be able to configure that using regular debian tools (syncevolution etc). (...)

Okay I tested those a year ago already and was not very satisfied with it. Just installed them again and only now realize they use evolution config. Sounds promissing. I did not install syncevolution yet, I am using nextcloud to sync between desktop and gemini (I expect it will do the same on caldav carddav). If I test/use evolution and gemian-calendar together on gemini the same items show up in both, so that's good   But problem I experienced in evolution is the same as in gemian-calendar: it does not accept edits in a caldav calendar while you are offline. If you think syncevolution can solve this please let me know but also explain why ? Some testing on gemian-contacts leaves me sofar with 1. if i add/edit an item it is unclear in which calendar it is put (local or caldav) and I see no way to organize this 2. I can't delete any items. Can you give me hints?

We recently got the stereo audio working and also the keepalive on closed so audio should be much improved.

audio is great. If I close the lid nothing happens, screen keeps on. What am I missing ? In autostart Screenlock (xss-lock gemian-lock) is activated. I really want sleep on lidclose to work.

GPS is still not started, nor is the alarm on sleep working, both need investigation.

can miss that for the moment  I saw that the camera is working now, great.

The keyboard shortcuts can get confused (lxqt bug whereby if it cannot find the key once it drops it), its generally best to just delete your users ~/.config/lxqt/globalkeyshorcuts.conf file whilst not logged in as a UI user (ie via ssh), then login for it to re-generate from the package version.

okay did that, but it did not solve problem that brightness can not be adjusted on my gemini. not by shortcuts and not by lxqt-settings. What can I do to get brightness working, it is a necessity for outdoor use and battery life.

[Adam Boardman]

So things like the kernel and the android system.img require a reboot before they take effect.

Your kernel version should be from a few days ago (yours is almost a year old May 2018!). I'd not go linking things just yet, try a reboot, and also check the date on the /usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img file that you just wrote to you boot partition to see that it also has a build date of very recent. Is it possible you've not pressed the right combination of keys on boot to select boot3? (and then also have a linux kernel on one of the other boot partitions that you have actually booted?)

You can also check 'sudo cat /proc/cmdline' to see what 'androidboot.bootpartition=boot*' is set to to see which boot partition we think you selected.

Sorry I've not tried caldav calendars, but the point of sync stuff is that you have both ends being independent but tracking changes so that then you can sync them up later. I just did a google of 'syncevolution between two laptops' and the top two ubuntu forums with suggestions that sounded plausible, sorry again, not actually tried them, tool options - syncevolution or msynctool.

I'm hoping that the new kernel will solve your sleep issues (your May 18 one is ancient), so we'll look at that after you've confirmed Mar19 kernel is booting.

Uncertain whats going on with the brightness problem, the shortcuts just run '/usr/share/lxqt/scripts/brightness +' (or -), so try running those and see if they work or not? That'll tell us if the problem is on the shortcuts side or the brightness side.

[psionlover]

Your kernel version should be from a few days ago (yours is almost a year old May 2018!)

You are right about the date, but it also states it is version 3.18.41 and that is the one you mention in your TP2 manual. So which is true ? A reboot (actually doing this continuously) does not help. I retried installing the new kernel and will show what I did. In both methods "sudo apt install gemini-kernel-image-3.18" and "sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel" I finally get errors like

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depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/3.18.41+: No such file or directory/lib/modules/3.18.41+ indeed is missing on my system. I supposed that 3.18.41+ could be the same as 3.18.41 and made a symlink:

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ln -s /lib/modules/3.18.41 /lib/modules/3.18.41+Now both "sudo apt install gemini-kernel-image-3.18" and "sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel" end without errors.

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sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel
[sudo] password for :
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  gemini-kernel-image-3.18
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gemian-modular-kernel
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/99.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 5,108 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
dpkg: gemini-kernel-image-3.18:arm64: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
 gemian-desktop-minimal depends on gemini-kernel-image-3.18 | gemian-modular-kernel; however:
  Package gemini-kernel-image-3.18:arm64 is to be removed.
  Package gemian-modular-kernel is not installed.

(Reading database ... 166557 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gemini-kernel-image-3.18:arm64 (0.1+0~20190310135701.31~1.gbpf74f54) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing gemini-kernel-image-3.18:arm64, directory '/usr/share/kernel' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing gemini-kernel-image-3.18:arm64, directory '/lib/modules/3.18.41' not empty so not removed
Selecting previously unselected package gemian-modular-kernel:arm64.
(Reading database ... 165282 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gemian-modular-kernel_0.2+0~20190321181532.42~1.gbpf8ea9a_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking gemian-modular-kernel:arm64 (0.2+0~20190321181532.42~1.gbpf8ea9a) ...
Setting up gemian-modular-kernel:arm64 (0.2+0~20190321181532.42~1.gbpf8ea9a) ...
running depmod%] [#########################................................]
Kernel images installed to /usr/share/kernel/
You need to write the correct kernel to the correct boot partition based upon your boot configuration.
eg: sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot2
or: sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot-stowaways-debian.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot3
After writing the kernel image a reboot is necessary to use the new kernel.
$ sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot-stowaways-debian.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot3
29072+0 records in
29072+0 records out
14884864 bytes (15 MB, 14 MiB) copied, 2.01651 s, 7.4 MB/s
$ sudo shutdown -r now
$ ssh @gemini
$ uname -a
Linux geminiPDA 3.18.41+ #7 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 30 16:45:45 MSK 2018 aarch64 GNU/LinuxSo if my system really still has an old kernel, I am afraid I don't know what to do else to get a recent kernel. Only thing I can think of is using the flashtool to install TP2 from scratch. But I *hate* that, it feels like doing trial and error and that is exactly what I want to avoid by using a device like gemini.

[Adam Boardman]

The version number is the upstream version number of the kernel we are based upon, it means nothing in the Gemian context, no one has yet got a newer kernel working to the state anyone would consider using it. Though it is an interesting project, so some day we may be able to update to a newer kernel version.

The date is currently the only way we can tell kernels apart, we are applying our small fixes to the available kernel, if the date is old, so is the kernel.

I have suggested that you check the dates on the files in your /usr/share/kernel folder, specifically the linux-boot.img one, though from the looks of your install logs you appear to have the old bootloader and chosen to flash a 'stowaways' kernel do I take it that you have more than one debian installed?

Could you provide the following:

1. Which key combination do you use to boot gemian?
2. Date stamps/file listing for files in /usr/share/kernel/
3. A directory listing of /.stowaways/ (just the names will do)

This will let me confirm that your actually booting the boot3 kernel (esc+silver), that the boot image components are uptodate, and that you do have a 'debian' stowaway to be able to boot (strikes me as unlikely anyone other than me would have that).

[psionlover]

Could you provide the following:

1. Which key combination do you use to boot gemian?

I mostly use 'longpress-esc' or 'shutdown -r now' in commandline. I also tested silver-esc, this gives sound noice and takes a bit more time, halfway gives an image with a battery and then black screen (presume it is off now) press esc to start gemini again.

2. Date stamps/file listing for files in /usr/share/kernel/

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$ ls -l /usr/share/kernel
total 43608
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  8991258 Mar 21 19:15 Image.gz-dtb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5888138 Mar 25 18:42 initrd.img-gemini.cpio.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14884864 Mar 26 21:33 linux-boot.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14884864 Mar 26 21:33 linux-boot-stowaways-debian.img

3. A directory listing of /.stowaways/ (just the names will do)

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$ ls -ld /.stowaways/
ls: cannot access '/.stowaways/': No such file or directoryPM: I searched for '*stowaway*' and did not fine anything else then above 'linux-boot-stowaways-debian.img'

This will let me confirm that your actually booting the boot3 kernel (esc+silver), that the boot image components are uptodate, and that you do have a 'debian' stowaway to be able to boot (strikes me as unlikely anyone other than me would have that).

Thanks for helping me on.

I accidently found a workaround for the brightness and sleep-on-closelid problem. If I logout of my regular user, login/logout to/from a new test user, login to my regular user brightness and sleep-on-closelid is working as expected.

[mithrandir]

At least the sizes of the kernel images match the sizes I have here, so we can assume the image files are recent.

Well, now, after rebooting, what is the output of uname -a ? If this still outputs the old date, the only explanation I can imagine is that you are not booting the kernel you have just written with dd.  

@Adam, what is this stowaway kernel for? Never heard of the the word stowaway in kernel context...
@Adam, is the new bootloader part of Planet's updated images, or where to get it from?

[psionlover]

Well, now, after rebooting, what is the output of uname -a ?

it is still the same after many reboots:

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$ uname -a
Linux geminiPDA 3.18.41+ #7 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 30 16:45:45 MSK 2018 aarch64 GNU/Linux

[Adam Boardman]

From the fact that your 'dd'ing to a bootN rather than just the primary boot partition you appear to have missed the memo about holding keys down for the ~2sec's between bzz of boot beginning and the appearance of the splash screen to select between upto three OS choices, see bootloader page. Note the date of your original install is important.

There are now three ways/forms of gemian install possible:

1. As a primary OS on a regular partition (TP1/2 single OS starting points do this).
2. As a stowaway on some other OS's regular partition (TP2+Sailfish multiboot - does this with sailfish as the stowaway, a few of us used to use stowaways for other versions eg buster etc)
3. Using LVM (Latest Sailfish 3 images use this, it is very flexible allowing for example booting from SD card, install from USB stick etc, see other thread here where I requested guineapigs, still need to tweak the kernel build scripts to make compatible boot images for this, its the new shiny that will be used by default in the TP3 release).

Unfortunately I cannot say when the bootloader fix was released, whilst I was informed that the patch was accepted, it has not made its way to planets github branch so I cannot check when it might have appeared in the downloadable images. We would need someone to report on the appearance of the above mentioned segment to the cmdline.

psionlover - please flash a regular linux-boot.img to your 'boot' partition and then reboot (the evidence indicates your not using stowaways or multi-boot key combinations to select between android/sailfish/gemian)

eg: sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot

Edit: A further fly in the ointment is that older bootloaders protected the primary boot partition (as a security measure) from being written to so it may appear to have written but actually have failed. If after doing the above and booting without pressing any keys still gives you the ancient kernel it might be worth the effort of a visit to the flash tool, either that or your stuck having to hold keys on every reboot to select the boot partition you can write to.

[psionlover]

Adam, thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. Indeed I completely forgot about the different boot options in the gemini. If I boot with only the silver button pressed after the bzz I boot into a gemian with the right boot.img:

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uname -a
Linux geminiPDA 3.18.41 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Mar 22 00:00:17 UTC 2019 aarch64 GNU/LinuxSo I presume I have the TP2 installed and booted as expected now and continue with the testing of my usecase with the gemini

[Adam Boardman]

I just updated the initramfs-tools-halium to improve the messaging and remove the stowaways stuff unless you've booted from it, hopefully it should be less confusing for folk.

No need to dd/flash your boot image if your running the 22nd Mar 2019 one, as there is no update to the kernel.

(I also added LVM support for the one or two guinea-pigs so they can also try the modular kernel too now)

[idc]

I just updated the initramfs-tools-halium to improve the messaging and remove the stowaways stuff unless you've booted from it, hopefully it should be less confusing for folk.

No need to dd/flash your boot image if your running the 22nd Mar 2019 one, as there is no update to the kernel.

(I also added LVM support for the one or two guinea-pigs so they can also try the modular kernel too now)

Hi Adam,
A quick apt-get update tonight gave me a new initramfs-tools-halium and some interesting messages in the output. These may relate to the above.

"You need to write the correct kernel to the correct boot partition based upon your boot configuration:
or: sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot2
After writing the kernel image a reboot is necessary to use the new kernel."

That looks nice and clear. And as I installed my Debian early this month well before the 22nd, I thought I'd follow the instructions and write to the correct boot partition with the command above. However, a 'ls /usr/share/kernel' outputs 'linux-boot-stowaways-demian.img' and 'linux-boot.img' but not a 'linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img'. Is that because I'm one of the guinea pigs?

Well, possibly I've done something stupid, but here is the pickle that I'm in. Grateful if you can see where I'm going wrong and suggest a way out. I decided to download the 'linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img' from and dd that download to boot2. I think I may have successfully rebooted but I'm not 100% certain. I then had a go at the instructions here on Touchscreen as touchpad - relative mouse input. On finishing with a

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sudo systemctl restart sddm I got a freeze. So I rebooted by holding down escape.
But then it got to 'Gemian booting - /dev/planetlinux/gemian' and just stuck there for a long time. After a few minutes, 'No problem', I thought, 'perhaps the linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img is the one that looks for an image to install and I'll go into sailfish and dd the 'linux-boot.img' instead (which is what the instructions say on the Debian TP2 pages under 'Update your kernel'. That didn't work. I got a kernel panic or file not found - sorry I should have written it down. I remember it mentioned mmcblk0p29, I think, which sounded wrong, as it should be looking for my planetlinux partition on mmcblk1p2.

OK. I went into Sailfish, mounted the planetlinux partition and 'dd' the 'linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img' in my Downloads folder into boot2. I am now back to the 'Gemian booting -/dev/planetlinux/gemian' and it has been paused there for ten minutes and counting.

Sorry about the long-winded explanation, but any thoughts gratefully received. If necessary I can always go back to your original instructions on the TP3 page and re-do the Debian, but as the partition on my sd card still seems to be there and intact, I thought I'd check first if you can see what I've done wrong and what I should be doing to correct it.

Thanks very much and all the best.
Ian
PS lights on the back of the gemini are showing 'red' on the LeftHandSide and flashing green and blue on the RHS. I have the power cable plugged in. (And am now going to go to bed leaving it running.)

[Adam Boardman]

Yes its a case of if you didn't test it it wont work. I messed up the paths for the LVM boot image creation, they ended up in the root (/) path.

You are also correct in assuming that there should be no need to reinstall the filesystem. Also that as before and after the install you didn't need to update your boot image so your re-downloading or going back to sailfish and re-flashing the LVM boot image you originally used for the install was a good fix. As evidenced from your then being able to reboot into gemian.

I'm afraid I've still never been persuaded to try out the relative mouse thing*, I find a nice clean jab on the middle of the button I want to tap almost always works for me, yes I cannot see the button as I tap it but having seen it a moment earlier as long as its not moving about it works for me. I'd be suspicious of that as the cause of your current problems, you should be able to USB cable/wifi/ethernet ssh in to undo/fix whatever went wrong with that. See debugging page on wiki for some possibly helpful tips.

I've updated the initramfs so others shouldn't get this problem, but should point out that unless you explicitly installed the 'gemian-modular-kernel' you'll likely still be on the built in kernel as before and so there would indeed be no point in you upgrading. If you do want to move to the modular kernel I should warn you that I've not rebuilt it since the messaging update so you'll need to ignore its output and then re-run the initramfs update script to make a new boot image that actually includes the new kernel and gives you an lvm version. A 'sudo update-gemian-boot-image' will suffice after updating everything. Check date-stamps on files in the /usr/share/kernel folder to verify.

* - Kiriririn offered to have a first bash at packaged it up for gemian but I didn't notice the oesf internal message for over a month with their github user id so they may have got distracted by other things. The call to action on that is really small, and I've set it to email me after the last time it caught me out, but I guess that is unreliable too, I've got a gmail thread between gmail users where one of my replies is missing from my friends view, but there on mine.

[cam1965]

There is minimal difference between TP1-3, in terms of installing fresh or upgrading. However you do need to install one of gemian-desktop/gemian-desktop-wifi/gemian-desktop-minimal

okay I missed that one. I installed gemian-desktop (apt-get install gemian-desktop).

(...) so will always have to manually 'dd' your kernel updates (we plan to make that automatic in the future but for now everyone has to do that manually anyway and the partition layout changed TP1->2 with the addition of the extra boot partition for the other key combination).

I did that already, but just for the record:

Code: [Select]

$ sudo apt install gemian-modular-kernel
$ sudo dd if=/usr/share/kernel/linux-boot.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/boot3
$ uname -a
Linux geminiPDA 3.18.41+ #7 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 30 16:45:45 MSK 2018 aarch64 GNU/LinuxBut I think something is wrong with the modules:

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$ ls /lib/modules
3.18.41
$ lsmod
libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:1655 kmod_module_new_from_loaded: could not open /proc/modules: No such file or directory
Error: could not get list of modules: No such file or directoryI tried symlinking (ln -s /lib/modules/3.18.41 /lib/modules/3.18.41+), but this did not help.

In terms of your syncing, we have gka-calendar-qt and gka-contacts-qt as custom keyboard friendly UI's that store data in the evolution backend, which supports sync with various protocols, you should be able to configure that using regular debian tools (syncevolution etc). (...)

Okay I tested those a year ago already and was not very satisfied with it. Just installed them again and only now realize they use evolution config. Sounds promissing. I did not install syncevolution yet, I am using nextcloud to sync between desktop and gemini (I expect it will do the same on caldav carddav). If I test/use evolution and gemian-calendar together on gemini the same items show up in both, so that's good   But problem I experienced in evolution is the same as in gemian-calendar: it does not accept edits in a caldav calendar while you are offline. If you think syncevolution can solve this please let me know but also explain why ? Some testing on gemian-contacts leaves me sofar with 1. if i add/edit an item it is unclear in which calendar it is put (local or caldav) and I see no way to organize this 2. I can't delete any items. Can you give me hints?

We recently got the stereo audio working and also the keepalive on closed so audio should be much improved.

audio is great. If I close the lid nothing happens, screen keeps on. What am I missing ? In autostart Screenlock (xss-lock gemian-lock) is activated. I really want sleep on lidclose to work.

GPS is still not started, nor is the alarm on sleep working, both need investigation.

can miss that for the moment  I saw that the camera is working now, great.

The keyboard shortcuts can get confused (lxqt bug whereby if it cannot find the key once it drops it), its generally best to just delete your users ~/.config/lxqt/globalkeyshorcuts.conf file whilst not logged in as a UI user (ie via ssh), then login for it to re-generate from the package version.

okay did that, but it did not solve problem that brightness can not be adjusted on my gemini. not by shortcuts and not by lxqt-settings. What can I do to get brightness working, it is a necessity for outdoor use and battery life.

My camera is not working. What is the steps to make it work Psionlover ( you said that it  is working now  ) ?
Thank you