Trisquelize Ubuntu, migrating from Ubuntu to Trisquel 10
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Hi,
I bought my laptop with Ubuntu 20.4.3 LTS, budgie desktop installed (by the company Tuxedo, Germany).
I can't install Trisquel 10 because the laptop is new and Trisquel doesn't support the newest hardware according to several attempts I made with different PCs.
So I installed GUIX additionally.
I have now Ubuntu and Guix installed.
1. Question:
What would be if I migrate from Ubuntu to Trisquel? When I start my laptop, the Guix system starts. Will then be a problem with that, so that I will get into trouble to start Guix or will Guix simply instead of Ubuntu add Trisquel in the boot menu so that I can choose what System I would like to start? (If I want to start Ubuntu, I have to enter the boot options in the boot menu and choose Ubuntu instead of Guix in order to run Ubuntu)
2. Question:
Can I migrate from Ubuntu to Trisquel?
As I understood it is possible from Ubuntu 20.4.4 LTS to Trisquel 10 because Trisquel 10 bases on Ubuntu 20.04 TLS.
Is that right?
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/migrate-ubuntu-trisquel-without-reinstalling
It says: Edit the following variables as needed: $MIRROR $RELEASE and $EDITION
What does that mean in my case? What do I have to write here?
RELEASE="toutatis"
EDITION="trisquel"
Do I have to change into: RELEASE=Trisquel10; (or what else should I write here?)
EDITION=0;LTSNabia (or what else should I write here?)
What else should I take care for additionally? Would it be good to join the #trisquel IRC channel at irc.freenode.org during the process, in case I ever need help.
thanks in advance
Gottfried
I forgot to say that Ubuntu works with a budgie desktop.
Trisquel with a Mate desktop.
Is there a problem during migration? or do I have to install the mate desktop first on ubuntu?
I can't install Trisquel 10 because the laptop is new and Trisquel doesn't support the newest hardware according to several attempts I made with different PCs.
I am not sure what hardware you are talking about. You can try Trisquel without installing and see: https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/starting-installable-live-system
Unfortunately, it is likely that the Wi-Fi will not work, because most chipsets require nonfree firmware. That is why many of us use a dongle with an AR9271 chipset, which will work out of the box. You can acquire such a dongle or an internal board to replace the existing one. The best is to support RYF vendors: https://ryf.fsf.org/products?category=7
Question
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/migrate-ubuntu-trisquel-without-reinstalling has not been edited for more than five years. The list of nonfree packages in the script is certainly not up to date. Also, there are characters that were wrongfully converted to their HTML equivalent strings, which start with "&". I would do a clean install. If you really want to adapt the script (please update the documentation accordingly: it is a wiki), Trisquel's 10 code name, to be written in the RELEASE variable, is "nabia".
GRUB is configurable. Simple configurations, such as specifying the default system to boot or whether the menu is displayed, are done editing /etc/default/grub and then executing the update-grub command, which will detect all the installed kernels, in both systems. Of course, you need administrative privileges (obtained for instance with sudo). See https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Simple-configuration.html or:
$ info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
I have not had several systems on a same computer for a very long time (since before GRUB 2) and I do not know what to do to not have the systems "fight" for grub (typically by executing update-grub or a lower-level command after a kernel upgrade).
> You can try Trisquel without installing
Perhaps Gottfried tried already and it did not work, see https://trisquel.info/fr/forum/creating-iso-trisquel-10-mate-desktop-failed#comment-165984
Gottfried, was that your Tuxedo laptop?
> There are characters that were wrongfully converted to their HTML equivalent strings, which start with "&".
There is a version without these problems at https://gitlab.trisquel.org/trisquelize/trisquelize/-/blob/master/trisquelize.sh (found from the link on the doc page).
> I would do a clean install.
If that works, yes, but if that doesn't, the trisquelization might be a way to solve the problem, but indeed, one should expect a 5-year script to have problems, as Magic Banana mentioned the list of Ubuntu's non-free packages is probably not up to date.
> I do not know what to do to not have the systems "fight" for grub
If there were already kernel updates with Ubuntu and with Guix, it means update-grub of Ubuntu did not create problems for Guix and the update-grub of Guix did not create problems for Ubuntu, I would hope that there is no "fight for grub" problem after trisquelization.
Migrate from Ubuntu to Trisquel without reinstalling
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/migrate-ubuntu-trisquel-without-reinstalling
#1 thing I never expected to read in this forum:
"I couldn't install Trisquel so I wound up installing Guix!" ;-)
Yes it was my Tuxedo laptop where I couldn't install Trisquel.I tried several times.
Trisquelizing is a problem, it could go wrong and I loose also Guix.
So I am not completely sure to do it.
I don't like Ubuntu that's why I would consider Trisquelization. But before that, I am gathering Infos, if somebody did it already or know more about it.
RELEASE="toutatis"
What does the word "toutatis" mean? I understood that I would have to write "Nabia". Is that right`?
would that be right?
RELEASE="Nabia"
EDITION="trisquel"
What does the word "toutatis" mean?
In the same way that Nabia is the codename of Trisquel 10, Toutatis was the codename of Trisquel 6, released more than eight years ago: https://trisquel.info/en/trisquel-60-lts-toutatis-has-arrived
I understood that I would have to write "Nabia". Is that right`?
Do not use a capital N:
RELEASE="nabia"
>"Trisquelizing is a problem, it could go wrong and I loose also Guix."
In my experience with GuixOS, it does NOT like to share a hard drive with any other distro. Personally I would say if you have Guix working well and you want to keep using it, I would give it the whole hard drive. I couldn't even find where longtime Guix users were able to make multi-boot partitions work on a disk.
Someone with more experience with Guix than me may have an alternative viewpoint, I'd be welcome to learn how to get it to play nicely side-by-side with Trisquel.
That being said, if you instead want to add Guix as a package manager on TOP of a Trisquel install - THAT combination works to perfection.
I have 2 harddisks, on one 500 GB there is Ubuntu, on the other one, 1TB there is Guix.
So hopefully, if I decide to migrate ubuntu to Trisquel on the one harddrive, Guix on the other one would stay.
But as already Magic Banana said, https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/migrate-ubuntu-trisquel-without-reinstalling has not been edited for more than five years. The list of nonfree packages in the script is certainly not up to date.
So it would need to be updated. If somebody could do it, I would be glad.
Originally if I remember correctly, I wanted to install Trisquel and it was not possible on this new laptop, than I tried Parabola, but that didn't work either, so I installed Guix, that worked. That's why I have ubuntu and Guix installed.
You could try this libre version of Devuan - GNUinOS - https://www.gnuinos.org/
I've tried it on a live usb and it was absolutely fantastic. If you use Magic Banana's script, you can add abrowser to it and have a distro that is probably close to as libre as Trisquel: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/state-web-browsers-debian#comment-164779
Thank you very much for sharing that. I gave it a try on a spare SSD today and am liking it so far. It has the same issues as other Debian based distros I have used of having older software but it is really nice to have a FLOSS option that uses something other than Systemd.
Did you see there is an ISO for the testing branch of Devuan/GNUinOS if you want newer packages? Just go here and select "daedalus", which is what Devuan is calling their testing branch right now - https://www.gnuinos.org/mirror/
I'm not personally a big fan of running Debian/Devuan testing, but might be worth trying the live ISO just to see if it's more to your liking.
Have you tried Trisquel's text installer?
No I haven't, because I was afraid as a normal Linux user, but not a Linux expert to run into trouble.
Trisquel's text installation is not much harder than the graphical one and it is certainly easier than the installation of GuixSD (but I have never tried it). The fresh install from the text installer may work on your computer.
>"it is certainly easier than the installation of GuixSD (but I have never tried it)"
I've never tried the Trisquel text installer, but having installed Guix, I can tell you that yes, anything having to do with Trisquel is almost certainly a thousand times easier and less frustrating than installing Guix. And you probably won't have to re-install Trisquel 5 or 10 times because of all the stuff that the documentation did not tell you to do, like with Guix.
Personally, I find that "text installer" sounds like it is going to be command line, but it is actually a graphic presentation, as guided as the "graphics installer", but just with text-based graphics. So indeed, not difficult at all
I never tried installing GuixSD either.
Parabola basically has no installer (actually, there is one but "it is only for specific cases", I tried and it did not work), you need to do it command line, understand what is needed from the documentation and the options and more sophisticated options can mean more installation work. Since it has the latest software for x86, it most probably can work on any x86 system. After failing several times and having given up, I tried again two months ago and then felt it as a happy surprise that it was booting and working fine right after I finished all the installation steps, which took me again quite some time of reading documentation and trying to understand.
well, I thought "text installer" means the command line, but if not,I will have a go.
In distrowatch somebody said that Parabola installed by a graphical installer has many bugs and problems, which will occur after installing. But installing like Arch it works fine. But that is too difficult for me. I have never done it and would not invest so much time to learn it, even though I would prefer to have a rolling distro.
Will Trisquel always build on Ubuntu or are there plans to change something? E.g. to build on Arch Linux?
In installing Guix it was surprising that the graphical installer worked very well and I got without any trouble Guix on my laptop.
But the problems appeared later on, because there were too few packages installed and it gave me a headache and a lot of time to install each single package. the printer e.g. took me hours and only with the help of the forum I managed the printer to get working. I almost gave up. But now, having Guix, I will stay. Still I didn't get my scanner working. Even after help by the Forum, it was impossible. That's why I want an other system on my laptop, in case Guix making problems I can have an other GNU distro like Trisquel.
So I will have a go with the text installer.
> In distrowatch somebody said that Parabola installed by a graphical installer has many bugs and problems
The graphical installer is too old. One should install with command line, which requires reading the documentation and getting familiar enough with many aspects. At first, one is easily drawn in the documentation.
> I would prefer to have a rolling distro
With a rolling distro, one needs to do system updates rather frequently, and since there is not much testing phase with new versions, there is a greater risk that something that was working before update won't work anymore after. Most often, it will be eventually fixed but the problems needs to be reported and analyzed, the fix may not come quickly. In some case, it may never come. With a stable distro, that won't happen.
If your concern with a stable distro is that some software is too old, you can use Guix as a package manager in Trisquel to add a few newer packages.
> Will Trisquel always build on Ubuntu or are there plans to change something? E.g. to build on Arch Linux?
I think current plans are to continue with Ubuntu. Debian could be a candidate but most likely not Arch Linux.
> Still I didn't get my scanner working.
If it worked with Ubuntu but not with GuixSD, it may be because it is not supported by free software. What model is it?
thanks for your help, it's a good idea that if I manage to install Trisquel I can add the Guix package manager (if I will manage it) on top of it.
My HP Officejet J4680 all-in-one is very old, but is working among all the Linux distros,
I have been using. Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro, Endeavour, MXLinux.
It is a printer and scanner together.
In Guix everything is installed, as a printer it is working, but as a scanner not. It always says: please connect your scanner, there wasn't found any scanner, no devices are available.
In Ubuntu, which I have installed on a second harddisk it recognizes the scanner and I can scan.
Probably you are right in saying that it is not supported by free software.
How can I get that fixed?
> Probably you are right in saying that it is not supported by free software.
In Debian, did you put only Debian main as source? If so, then it should be only free software, and it should work with Trisquel.
Perhaps the issue is only some configuration, or finding out the right programme.
Sorry, I only have a scanner that is able to directly upload files by ftp, so I have never tried to connect a scanner on any GNU/Linux system, perhaps other people on the forum have more clues.
Today I tried again to install Trisquel 10, but after booting up the usb drive there was a black screen as I said in an other topic (I tried 3 times).
So I tried to install Uruk. It stopped at the end of the installing, in saying that it could not install the boot loader.
After that I tried to install GNUinOS. I had little hope but interestingly it worked. It took some time, much more than Uruk, but it succeeded. So I have now on one harddisk Guix, on the second harddisk ubuntu and GNUinOS. I installed it besides ubuntu, in case if it doesn't work. So I can later delete ubuntu.
Of course when I start the laptop GNUinOS took over the boot menu and it integrated ubuntu as second possibility. It doesn't show Guix as a third option. So if I want to use Guix than I have to enter the boot menu with F2 key and choose Guix in the boot menu. There are listed 1. Gnuinos, 2. Guix, 3. ubuntu
So fortunately I don't depend on ubuntu any more, but Trisquel could not be installed.
Thank you all for help and AndyPrough for the mentioning of devuan/gnuinos.
My scanner worked with Debian, but on an other laptop, and as far as I remember I had besides the sources main notfree installed.
I installed the printer and a scanning programm in Gnuinos and tested the scanner and it worked.
That's good to hear. And remember, you can use Magic Banana's script if you want to install abrowser. abrowser is like Icecat, but with frequent updates.
As far as I understood IceCat is also a free Browser. What are the benefits of Abrowser (except frequent updates)?
Why is GNUinOS not listed in the GNU Distributions?
What is with URUK?
https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
So I have now the problem to update grub that Guix runs the boot process? Because now e.g. Guix does not show in the file manager Gnuinos partition. What is the safest way to do that? (it is not the question of this topic, should I open a new question?)
My understanding is that abrowser uses the icecat build configuration. You can use either one that you prefer.
GNUinOS probably hasn't applied for listing with the FSF as a libre distro. Not all of them do.
On getting grub to show Guix, have you installed and configured the os-prober package? There's lots of how-to's online. I'm not able to write one right now, but just search "os-prober debian" or something and you'll find the steps. They are simple. Most distros do not enable os-prober by default, so that's why you have to set that up to look for the other boot partitions for you.
I downloaded os-prober. In the ubuntu Forum it said somebody os-prober doesn't work in new distros.
I tried, but unfortunately os-prober doesn't work in my case. I will ask in the forum in guix what to do.
I'm pretty sure you have to add this to the end of your /etc/default/grub file if you want to use os-prober from Devuan/GNUinOS:
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
Have you done that already? Just open the file in a text editor (using sudo privileges) and add the line and save. Then run
sudo update-grub
At that point you should see both Guix and Devuan/GNUinOS in your boot menu (hopefully).
Here's the instructions from Debian: https://wiki.debian.org/Grub
I don't know how to do it from the Guix side. Might be the same procedure.
thanks for help.
I found a commentary from someone that I simply have to do a "guix pull" in the command line of my GuixOS and Guix will update my grub automatically.
I did it and it worked. So I had nothing to do in the grub file. That's amazing.
I did a "guix pull" (which looks for updates) and restarted the system, Guix had taken over the grub and like before Guix was the first option and the 3. option was entering the grub menu and choose in the boot loader gnuinox or ubuntu.
Excellent news!
I wanted to add abrowser according to the script of magic banana, but it failed.
When I open synaptic it says:
E: Keine Priorität (oder Null) für Pin angegeben
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
(even I changed the number 50 to 500) Before changing there was an other error message, which seems to be solved.
So I can't open synaptic at all.
Also I can't open Apper software-Verwaltung.
What do I have to do?
I would execute that command in a terminal (it clears APT's cache):
$ sudo apt clean
If that does not solve anything, please check whether /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel contains that (including the blank line between the yellow blocks below: they matter):
Package: *
Pin: origin "archive.trisquel.info"
Pin-Priority: -1
Package: abrowser
Pin: origin "archive.trisquel.info"
Pin-Priority: 500
Package: trisquel-keyring
Pin: origin "archive.trisquel.info"
Pin-Priority: 500
Nothing changed after doing a :
sudo apt clean
and a check
So I deleted the script in /usr/bin but unfortunately it didn't help.
When opening synaptic it shows the same message:
E: Keine Priorität (oder Null) für Pin angegeben
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.
What can I do?
The script is not meant to be in /usr/bin. It only needs to be executed once. It installs trisquel-keyring_2018.02.19_all.deb, creates /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trisquel.list and /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel and installs Abrowser from the newly-added repository (where no other package but trisquel-keyring and abrowser will be considered for upgrade, thanks to the APT pinning in /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel).
I solved the problem.
I had to delete the file "trisquel" in /root/etc/apt/preferences.d
Now I can use Synaptic again, without problems.
Have you first checked, as I asked, whether the content of /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel was as I showed in my previous post? If it was, I do not understand why it would raise a problem, but, maybe, you manually edited it.
Without /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel, you do not want Trisquel's repository! Indeed, Trisquel's packages would replace Debian's if they are more recent. My script adds Trisquel's repository through /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trisquel.list, that you therefore want to remove.
If you still want to run abrowser, you can always just manually download the latest .deb file for your architecture from here: http://us.archive.trisquel.info/trisquel/pool/main/f/firefox/?C=M;O=D
And then cd into the folder where you downloaded it and 'sudo apt install ./abrowser.[version].deb' and you'll be all set. Only difference with this procedure is you'll have to manually update by downloading a new .deb package each time there's a new version available. I've done this on many systems, works great.
I did check as You, Magic Banana, said and it seemed ok.
but I made a mistake beforehand, because it didn't work at the beginning and so I downloaded abrowser and tried to install it. So as far as I understood it, it got mixed up.
When I now startet the PC, and gnuinos, there were several messages:
e.g. startpar: service(s) returnded failure: plymouth... failed!
and it wanted to start Trisquel, but I din't install Trisquel.
The graphical desktop didn't open, but only the terminal and with: startx there opened gnuinos with Mate, but I was working with KDE the last times.
How can I now come back to the graphical desktop and delete everything from my attempt to install abrowser?
I deleted the file trisquel in /etc/apt/preferences.d/
but it didn't help.
when starting the laptop again it opens the commandline interface like before.
I am not a Linux expert, that's why I am asking many questions, because I learn by doing and through mistakes unfortunately.
As I tried to explain in my previous post, you should have removed Trisquel's repository. Removing only the APT pinning that was defined in /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel, the package manager prefers the newer versions, whatever the repository they come from. However, a given distribution provides versions of the packages that well work together. Having a mix of system packages coming from different distributions creates problem. I would reinstall the system...
I did a "sudo apt autoremove"
and now when starting the PC it opens only the commandline interface. When doing a "startx" than opens a rescue menu graphical desktop to log in and I can't login at all into any graphical desktop.
So getting worse and worse.
I reinstalled the system gnuinos without any trouble.
That's interesting that Synaptic would not work. I see why your system got messed up after removing /etc/apt/preferences.d/trisquel. That file was the one that was saving your system from chaos, once it was gone you were bound to get your system snarled up.
On my 32-bit GNUinOS, I have abrowser installed via Magic Banana's script, and my Synaptic still works. Rather odd what happened to you there.
Oh well, at least you are running again now. GNUinOS does come with IceCat, so you can use that instead of abrowser. Or you can install abrowser manually by downloading the latest version from http://us.archive.trisquel.info/trisquel/pool/main/f/firefox/?C=M;O=D into your Downloads folder and installing it with
sudo apt install ~/Downloads/abrowser_98.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1+10.0trisquel87_amd64.deb
(or whatever the name of the latest version of the abrowser package is). You'll just need to manually download the newer versions and use the same install procedure to upgrade them in the future.
Hallo,
Now I managed to install the script of Abrowser.
It's easy and it is working, but I made several mistakes, because I read in a book how to create a script and I mixed it with magicbanana's script advice.
so it was my fault.
thanks a lot for Your patience and help.
I am learning by doing.
Very good! I've learned many things about computers by messing things up and re-installing and starting over again. Glad it's working out for you.
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