tde-users August 2025

users@trinitydesktop.org

23 participants
19 discussions

Control Center =>System Administration => Monitor & Display config file(s)?
by J Leslie Turriff 23 Aug '25

23 Aug '25

Well, I made the mistake of tinkering with the Monitor & Display settings in the Control Center on my other machine, expecting that the 'Test Settings' button would work like the 'Test' button in the Configure Desktop => Screen Saver does, but no; 'Test Settings' seems to have stored its settings somewhere, there is no evident way to revert the display, and further tinkering has now the monitor is totally unreadable. (I'd provide a screenshot, but as usual, my old Samsung Galaxy 6 phone can't be read by Trinity.) Fortunately, I can ssh into the broken machine from this one, but I have no idea where Monitor & Display stores its misconfiguration files. Does someone know where they would be? I see /etc/trinity/tdedisplay/tdedisplayconfigrc, but it doesn't seem like it would have the effects I'm seeing: | @14:04:11 leslie@─►chestnut◄─ | wd=/home/leslie | $ less /etc/trinity/tdedisplay/tdedisplayconfigrc | EnableAutoStartProfile=false | EnableDisplayControl=false | StartupProfileName= | rc=0 OTOH, on this machine, /etc/trinity/tdedisplay/ is empty, | @14:02:05 leslie@pinto | wd=/home/leslie | $ ls -l /etc/trinity/tdedisplay/ | total 0 | rc=0 so maybe just removing that config file will fix it? Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.6 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.3 tde-config: 1.0

5 16

removing icons from desktop
by dep 23 Aug '25

23 Aug '25

Clean install of current TDE. Desktop is festooned with all manner of default icons. Trying to delete them, but many -- "My Computer" (gag), "Trash", "My Network Places" (double gag), "My Documents" (ditto), "Web Browser", and "Printers" are all owned by root and cannot be removed. I made a directory in ~/ called "default desktop crap" and moved the movable ones there. I run a desktop that is entirely free of icons. How do I get rid of these? I don't necessarily want them deleted forever, just put someplace where they don't make my desktop look as if birds just flew over. I'm sure they're a great help for those migrating from Windows 3.0. Thanks. Btw, the new icons in general are excellent. -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

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A big slice of dd hell
by dep 22 Aug '25

22 Aug '25

My SSD for the ThinkPad arrived, so I pulled the drive from the machine and using a separate machine to dd the contents of the existing drive onto the new one. It being a 1-tb drive on both ends, it took a few hours. dd reported success. I put the new SSD into the machine and booted it. I was happy to see it booted readily. I was less happy to see what happened next. I got to the nice graphical login window. I typed in my password. Screen went black with a mouse pointer, then after a few seconds returned to the login screen. Damn, I thought. So I shut down and reinstalled the original drive. And guess what? *Same thing*! Perfectly working installation has now lost the contents of its /home partition. Only thing there is /lost+found. This on the original drive, which dd shouldn't have touched at all. To say I am at a loss is an understatement. Everything else seems to work. Any informed guesses? -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

6 9

And the hits just keep on coming
by dep 21 Aug '25

21 Aug '25

Thought that I would just do a full reinstall on the ThinkPad, using the Matrix ISO file, but still more is going crazy. It has suddenly been decided that the USB devices to which I've written uneventfully for years suddenly belong to root and that there's nothing I can do about it. This includes SD cards that I use to move stuff from my cameras to my hard drive every day. So while I was ultimately able to copy the .iso to a USB drive, the ThinkPad won't boot from it. It *will* boot from a pre-existing system rescue stick, so it's not the TPad. How can I restore normal behavior to USB? Running current Debian and current TDE, both fully updated. Very bad dream here this week. -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

1 0

question re. testing
by dep 21 Aug '25

21 Aug '25

just did update/upgrade and see that the tde testing is now named whatever debian 14 will be. in my experience with it, which is some but not vast, it's not good to switch one's debian to the testing version until about a year after the last release -- kind of like not updating ubuntu until the latest lts had been out a year. but i'd still like to run the testing version of tde. any problem with doing this even though i'm sticking with trixie for now? i don't remember names being involved with tde testing previously. -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

3 2

for everyone's amusement
by dep 21 Aug '25

21 Aug '25

here's a check on the *source* drive of the recent failed dd: [sudo] password for dep: fsck from util-linux 2.41 e2fsck 1.47.2 (1-Jan-2025) Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information /dev/sdb6: 11/59154432 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 3995367/236615936 blocks -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

1 0

Live CD with Debian/TDE?
by dep 19 Aug '25

19 Aug '25

Hi, everybody! We're two months away from Microsoft Corp. discontinuing "support" of Windows 10. In conjunction with this, Windows 11, which is not just awful but also invasive, requires that many people purchase new computers. No doubt some will do this -- there will always be people who have more dollars than sense -- but many may be ripe for an alternative. I'll be in the next couple of days writing a piece on that alternative. The best choice, in my view, is Debian and TDE. So I'm seeking an installable live CD that provides just that. I thought there was one, "Matrix OS," but when one follows the link on the LiveCDs page -- https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/LiveCDs -- it throws a "your account is suspended" error. Is there another Debian spin containing TDE? It would be good if TDE were included in DEbian already -- Enlightenment is in the repository -- but I am not here to solve that problem. I'm here to rescue those whose computers have been abandoned by msft and, with luck, increase the TDE user base a bit. Thing is, I cannot recommend any other distribution or desktop. -- dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

10 17

Unlocking gnome-keyring hwen loging into TDE
by Thierry de Coulon 18 Aug '25

18 Aug '25

Chromium based browsers want to use gnome-keyring. My MX Linux (which installs with xfce) seems to install that too (at least there is a "password optional pam_gnome_keyring.so " in /etc/pam.d/common-password, and there was something in etc/pam.d/lightdm too). gnome-keyring does not get unlocked when I log into TDE/TDM, so these browsers ask for a password to unlock the keyring. My solution so far has been to use plaintext paswords (--password-store=basic) and I can live with it, because these are simply passwords to access websites, but it raises a question: is there a way to unlock gnome-keyring or KDE-wallet when loging into TDE (or to have chromium ude TDE's wallet)?

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Stop me before I buy again!
by dep 17 Aug '25

17 Aug '25

I have a ThinkPad X200 that I bought new from Lenovo when you placed your order and they built it to your specs in early 2008. It was very expensive -- I even sprang for the cellular option (3G, before we knew about Gs). Also with the docking station, which I used every day, all day, as my office desktop. Undocked the computer and brought it home each night. Replaced the 160gb hard drive with a faster 1tb one 12 years ago. Only had 4gb RAM because 4 more would have been something like $700. Ran Linux and TDE the whole time. And kept it in very good shape. So tonight I sprang for two 4gb memory strips for an 8gb machine (now $35 rotal) and splurged $88 for a 1tb Samsung 870 Evo ssd. I did not buy it a cellular account, so it will finish its days with its cellular circuitry unused. I've never even seen a Linux cellular application. Anyway, I hope it will now be a lot faster. The empty ExpressCard slot might so-remain, because there's nothing that goes there -- two extra USB-3 ports, or an SD card reader, or maybe an M.2 PCIe sata drive -- that would be more than spending money just to spend money. At least there's an excuse for the upgrades. Over the life of the machine, they might save me as much as half an hour. I may have overvalued my time. dep Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/

5 9

matrixOS: Call for help! (of sorts)
by jacobheinrich＠hotmail.com 15 Aug '25

15 Aug '25

Hey everyone! I hope youre all well, I have been away for quite a while. Here and there, I have been getting my matrixOS ISO ready for Trixie, with right now the only hold up is my homeserver which holds my personal git is tied up and packed away for another week. In the meantime I have been experimenting with various configs of packages and themes. Recently this has me wondering, what would everyone here like to see included in a Debian ISO that would make a universally recommended experience? Currently we have: Calamares installer with Autologin tweaked to work on TDM. Live-config hook for auto login on the live session Kubuntu 7.04-esque theme pulled from the Kubuntu default settings packages Mostly vanilla Trinity layout with some additions to the panel (again think old Kubuntu) "essential" apps like Libreoffice, firefox, vlc, gimp, etc* What I could use: Theme help (I have no sense of style, this includes wallpapers, plymouth splashes, ksplash themes, tdm themes) App suggestions (what are the apps you like to see) Tips or tricks youd like included on my site Testers

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