Testing Testing

Due to the installation of GrapheneOS on the Pixel 3a, and thinking about security in general – also on the desktop – I switched Debian back to using Wayland instead of X.Org. That works well, unless you have to work with screen capturing which would additionally require pipewire.

And because I also make music with my PC and until now heavily rely on Jack, I decided to try Debian’s upcoming version named “Bookworm”, or, in repository talk, “testing”. So I set up a virtual machine to try it. In case you’ll also want to do that, you can find the installer here.

So, after staring up a virtual machine with that installer, you’re greeted with something like this:

I decided to *not* use the selected Grahical Install but the “normal” and old-fashioned Install just below it. That’s text (ncurses) based, and looks like this while working:

And, after downloading some stuff which was not included or newer than in the downloaded installer, you’re rebooting into it like this:

And, after a few seconds, you’ll see the few initial (one time) configuration steps, like this:

And that’s pretty much it – takes some 10 minutes from starting the installer until here, and most of that time is spent downloading stuff you don’t already have.

And yes, my first check was whether screen capture works with Wayland (and now pipewire), which it does. Further checks will have to be done elsewhere, since audio recording is pretty much a realtime task, and thus not very well suited inside of virtual machines.

But anyway, I’m looking forward to using the upcoming “Bookworm” – when it moves from “testing” into “stable” later this year. Looking at the open RC (release-critical) bugs, it might already be more stable than stable… 😉

Like always, thanks for reading.

Most popular on XDA

Well this is interesting. Over at XDA Developers, there’s an article about the “Most popular custom ROMs for Android in 2023“. And of course on top of that list there just had to be LineageOS, as it’s probably the most popular custom ROM anywhere, not only on the XDA developers’ site.

What’s more interesting than that is the place 2 of the list, which is PixelExperience, or PE in short. And that’s interesting because it supports lots of vendors, and it turns their devices basically into almost original Pixel phones (minus the hardware like Titan chips of course). Haven’t tried it yet, but for the Pixel 3a like for many others there’s Android 13 available.

Until now, and both on the Google Nexus 5 and now on the Pixel 3a, I have tried /e/OS, LineageOS, and most recently now, GrapheneOS – so I’ve had basically every possible experience with and without Google services like microG or even the original ones (also on original phones). And all of these have their virtues, and also their different goals. While some of these ROMs simply prolong the lifespan of your device, others try to avoid Google and are built more on security aspects like application sandboxing and memory isolation. All valid reasons to try something different than a Google or Apple (or Samsung or any other) device.

I find all of that interesting. If the 3a (or the 4a) were still my “daily drivers”, then I’d be glad that I have choices, and would try and check if GrapheneOS and the app from my bank like each other. If not, I’d probably try PixelExperience – or any other one which supports the devices longer than Google does. The 3a is out of support since a while, the 4a will soon be, and so on… and anything is better than throwing devices away, isn’t it?

Thanks for reading.

Cookie, sleeping by my side

Took a snapshot of one of the male neighbours’ cats today, using my phone. Cookie was sleeping on the sofa right next to me, so I thought that would make a nice picture. Converted the photo in-“camera” (in the phone) using Google’s “Black & White Portrait” preset. And that looks like this:

PXL_20230329_141124695.PORTRAIT~2
Cookie, sleeping by my side
Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023
in-“camera” black & white portrait

Like always, thanks for viewing.

That iconic theme from Midsomer Murders

Mitchie loves the series – “Inspector Barnaby” like it is called here in Germany. And we all love the music. See and hear it being played on the Theremin by Celia Sheen:

Celia Sheen plays Midsomer Murders on Theremin

Like always, thanks for watching, and for listening.

Beautiful moments…

Sometimes we have some flowers on our table – and if they look like this then I can’t resist, have to take a photo:

7e7_3195211-closeup-tulip
Closeup of a tulip, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023

Like always, thanks for viewing.

Another history lesson with Mary Beard

I’ve embedded a video from Professor Mary Beard lately, and here’s another, a bit longer one:

Why Did The Roman Empire Collapse With Mary Beard | Empire Without Limit | Odyssey

You’ll even meet Professor Beard‘s husband, Robin Cormack, another Professor and art historian. Oh, and she pronounces the German city of Trier like “tree-air”, it should be a bit shorter, more like “deer” with a hard “tr” like in “trill” in the beginning, which would make it something like “treer” 🙂 But I’m nitpicking, her lesson is wonderful.

Like always, thanks for viewing.

Listening Wind – The Specials

This cover of the old and wonderful Talking Heads song is brilliant. And rest in peace Terry Hall (male singer, here on a chair):

Listening Wind – The Specials BBC6

Hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I did. And like always, thanks for listening.

Trying GrapheneOS

The last update of the inofficial version of LineageOS I had on my late brother Willi’s Pixel 3a phone went bad. Which is okay, not everyone has every device to test, and remember that these developers from XDA do it all for free and in their spare time.

So after reading an interesting poll in AndroidAuthority, together with a test of GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6, I decided to try it on the 3a. And what should I say – it looks *very* minimalistic but is brilliant under its hood, and again I’m learning a lot. Here’s an almost standard home screen from which I removed one app shortcut (the one for the gallery which is empty at the moment anyway):

GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 3a phone

Wonderful.

So to make it short: for now, I answered that poll with: “No, I’m happy with Google’s default experience” because I wouldn’t flash any third party OS onto a device which is still supported. But for an older one – as long as you can get images for them – this is a good choice in my opinion. So in case you *do* have a Pixel phone which is about to run out of support, and if you don’t need the Google Wallet for payments, GrapheneOS is worth a look. It can even run Google’s Play store in a sandbox in case you’d need that (which I don’t).

Like always, thanks for reading.

About what’s thrown at us – daily, and without our consent

Avram Piltch has an interesting article on Tom’s Hardware with the headline: “Get Off My Desktop! Windows Needs to Stop Showing Tabloid News“.

It reminded me a lot about when I first got an iPhone from my former employer – you couldn’t edit the news they threw at you in any way, unlike Google’s own Android Pixel phones where you could select which content not to be shown to you (they disabled that by now), just like Avram describes it about being in Windows here.

But what he probably doesn’t get is that this way, you’re only training the beast, feeding it with creating your own profile, which will inevitably lead to the fact that you’ll live in your own filter bubble over short or long.

But oh my, is he right about the embarrassingly stupidity of some of these “news”! Have you for instance tried to visit Youtube without being logged in into Google to have it filter things for you? It’s a real shame, often right-wing or dangerously close to conspiracy theorists, and from top to bottom really really bad. And we trust these same companies with developing anything “artificially intelligent”? If so, then I see no future for mankind; we’re doomed.

In his article, Avram tries to find and show some workarounds to the problem, but I think it’s those companies themselves – and their interests are far different from the average person’s, who has to live with the crap that they’re shoving up our screens. In my opinion, workarounds won’t help us much longer, the only way out of that is to get rid of Windows, and any kind of “social media”, or even more difficult, the quasi monopolist which Youtube has become by now. To even have to pay for an operating system whose makers do that to us is utterly insulting, isn’t it? So the best advice I can give to this is: break free from these self-inflicted chains, cancel Microsoft et al from your desks, and use something free (as in speech, and as in beer).

It was over 25 years ago now that I decided not to support a black box operating system anymore, as I called it at that time, and moved to a first (for me) version of Linux instead. My team lead at my employers’ at this time recommended to not focus on Linux but to try Solaris instead, so I learnt that as well – and got job offers simply through asking questions in some newsgroups (anyone remember those?). Both Suse and Red Hat were too commercially driven for my interests, so I’ve found better ones over time. Today? I currently live on the Gnome desktop of Debian stable, and my weather icon looks like this:

Date and weather in Gnome

And when I click on it, it looks like this:

Extended weather in the Gnome desktop

No ads. No distractions. Just peace of mind. And to friends, I would never recommend workarounds but only the best that I can think of.

Like always, thanks for reading.

In German / auf Deutsch: Für mehr direkte Demokratie und Volksentscheide

Wann immer ich Nachrichten wie diese sehe, regt sich in mir der Wunsch nach der Möglichkeit eines direkten – aus dem Volk heraus geäußerten – Mißtrauensvotums gegen einzelne Minister (wie in diesem Fall gegen die Herren Wissing und Lindner).

Wirklich; wir brauchen scheint’s deutlich mehr direkte (Basis-) demokratie und Volksentscheide. Es kann nicht sein daß einzelne gewählte Politiker vier Jahre lang einen Freibrief dafür bekommen, eine Dummheit nach der anderen zu begehen und ein ganzes Land der Lächerlichkeit preiszugeben. Oder eine Industrie zu unterstützen die dies – bis auf Porsche in diesem Fall – gar nicht will.

Und bevor die CDU/CSU oder gar die AfD sich über einen solchen Beitrag freuen: ich könnte auch gut ohne einige Abgeordnete wie die Herren Merz und Söder oder gar den meisten Mitgliedern der AfD in einem deutschen Bundestag leben. Aber ok – wir leben ja in einer Demokratie, also werde ich diese wohl ertragen müssen, auch wenn sie den ganzen Tag lang meist Unfug erzählen.

Vielleicht sollten wir “dem Volk” ja auch – wie die alten Griechen es hatten – die Möglichkeit geben jedes Jahr ein bis zwei Politiker abzuwählen? Es muß ja nicht gleich der Schierlingsbecher wie bei Sokrates werden, aber Dame Professor Mary Beard erkärt uns – jetzt doch wieder auf Englisch – wie Demokratie auch aussehen könnte:

Free Speech – What’s it all about?

Mehr interessante Geschichtsstunden – nicht nur über Demokratie – bei Dame Prof. Beard gibt’s hier. Eine “Dame” ist ein ziemlich hoher Rang eines OBE – also eines Officers of the British Empire. Und übrigens, Sokrates war toll… 🙂

Meine sonntäglichen 2 (Euro-) Cents…