Privacy Enhanced Linux for Pi 3 Update
HDMI 1080p Edition
http://tinyurl.com/pelinux3
(10.3 MB firmware partition ONLY, keep your data)
10278927 Aug 29 01:05 firmware.zip
md5sum f67dea931d9f4812ba155f551e4f9967
Firmware is on a FAT (old Windows) partition so just delete/replace what's there with the contents of this zip, no permission issues. The config.txt file now defaults to 1080p but you can revert back to the old behavior by commenting out two lines. This package does NOT upgrade the kernel from the very reliable 3.18 ARMv7 one you've been using. This package IS backwards compatible so if your Pi 3 goes up in a puff of smoke from lack of heatsinks just pop the card back into your trusty Pi 2. I'm still using the older Pi 2 firmware in one of mine though as it's optimized and boots a second faster. No drivers for the Pi 3's built-in WiFi and Bluetooth however, you'll have to keep whatever USB dongles you're currently using, sorry.
Time to Make a Backup
Before any potentially catastrophic operation, like updating from Debian 9 backports, it's always a good idea to make a full backup. I do so by putting my microSD card in a USB 3.0 card reader and:
sudo dd bs=512 if=/dev/sdb of=mypi.img
I get around 65 mb/sec backup speed out of my UHS card. To restore just reverse input file (if) and output file (of) parameters. The backup img file will be the same size (32 gig card = 32 gig file) so make sure you have room and a compatible file system (NTFS is OK, FAT has a max 2 GB file size).
Monday, August 29, 2016
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Systemd v230 is in backports and it breaks everything with its stoopid interface names. Ian Murdock Edition users now need to:
sudo apt-mark hold systemd
sudo apt-mark hold udev
sudo apt-mark hold systemd-sysv
sudo apt-mark hold xrdp
sudo apt-mark hold audacious
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
No change for users of the 9-11 edition:
sudo apt-mark hold locales
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-mark hold systemd
sudo apt-mark hold udev
sudo apt-mark hold systemd-sysv
sudo apt-mark hold xrdp
sudo apt-mark hold audacious
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
No change for users of the 9-11 edition:
sudo apt-mark hold locales
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
UPDATING PROGRAMS MANUALLY
Eventually you'll find you're not being supported adequately by one of the hundreds of developers whose work is combined into what people think of as Linux. Streamtuner2 stopped working for me recently and it turns out the version in the repo is ancient. Even worse, the program itself hadn't been updated for over a year so there's really no excuse for the repo maintainers. It's just plain laziness. Luckily we don't have to wait for them to wake up.
First thing to do is install gdebi because it'll resolve dependencies problems automagically for us.
sudo apt install gdebi
Then find the Sourceforge page for Streamtuner2 and get the latest dot-deb package, currently:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/streamtuner2/files/streamtuner2-2.1.9.deb/download
Ordinarily you'd also need an ARMHF version of the DEB package but fortunately for us this is a Python program. So all we have to do now is right click the package and select gdebi from the list. Updating Streamtuner2 to the latest and greatest version is just one install button click away. It's as easy as playing Wintendo.
Password for the default keyring is "pi", same as the default user.
Eventually you'll find you're not being supported adequately by one of the hundreds of developers whose work is combined into what people think of as Linux. Streamtuner2 stopped working for me recently and it turns out the version in the repo is ancient. Even worse, the program itself hadn't been updated for over a year so there's really no excuse for the repo maintainers. It's just plain laziness. Luckily we don't have to wait for them to wake up.
First thing to do is install gdebi because it'll resolve dependencies problems automagically for us.
sudo apt install gdebi
Then find the Sourceforge page for Streamtuner2 and get the latest dot-deb package, currently:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/streamtuner2/files/streamtuner2-2.1.9.deb/download
Ordinarily you'd also need an ARMHF version of the DEB package but fortunately for us this is a Python program. So all we have to do now is right click the package and select gdebi from the list. Updating Streamtuner2 to the latest and greatest version is just one install button click away. It's as easy as playing Wintendo.
Password for the default keyring is "pi", same as the default user.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Since submitting the article the official power supply came out at MCM/Element14. It works with the Pi 2 and Pi 3 and comes with travel adapters, all for under $10, so there's really no reason to buy anything else. Only one out of ten USB cables I tested could actually handle 2 AMPs so it's nice to have a wire rated for 2.5A supplying the juice (no more flickering red light) even if you don't need all that power. Tzumi also now has a 2.4 AMP USB battery. If 2.1A is "turbo charging" then I guess this one is "super charging".. or something like that... George Orwell was an optimist.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
For touchscreen I used Python code from https://github.com/derekhe/waveshare-7inch-touchscreen-driver to make it work with Privacy Enhanced Linux. If you look at his install.sh script there's a line commented out for pip3 which is what I use. You can sudo each step manually to make sure it goes OK. After installation I found I couldn't get the hidden panel to pop up -- the touchscreen overlay is actually 400x240, half the screen's res, and it doesn't go all way to the edge -- so a little driver hacking was in order. You only need to change two lines in /usr/bin/touch.py to subtract four pixels from X and Y axis coordinates before passing them on to the mouse emulator:
device.emit(uinput.ABS_X, x - 4, True)
device.emit(uinput.ABS_Y, y - 4, True)
I also decided to do the third button emulation through evdev by editing the touchscreen catchall in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf and adding:
Option "EmulateThirdButton" "1"
Option "EmulateThirdButtonTimeout" "750"
Option "EmulateThirdButtonMoveThreshold" "60"
"man evdev" for more info... the code author sells a "pro" version which does even more than that, though.
Lastly, I found xvkbd to be the most compatible on-screen keyboard given the Pi's terrible graphics (no fancy transparency effects) but the installer sux and I had to make a launcher for it. If you click the window manger control in upper left corner you'll find a "Always on Top" option for the keyboard.
Well, that's it then I guess.. you might want to uninstall progs that capture the mouse like tecnoballz as there's no way out of them with a touchscreen. The pre-installed Raleigh style turns sliders into buttons which also works well with my touchscreen... so remember, when all looks lost and hopeless, USE THE SOURCE LUKE! You can't do that with Microsloth Winblows. :P
Friday, May 27, 2016
FINAL RANT:
I really don't like the changes going on right now. It's like people with more money than brains have taken over or something...
For example: LightDM devs decided [Seat Defaults] is just too much plain English for us to handle so they changed the config file format to [Seat:*] which is unintelligible Egyptian hieroglyphics. Same over-educated rich brats decided that eth0 and wlan0 made too much sense, so now we need device names like enp2s0f0 and wlp3s0 -- I'm not really sure which one is wired and which one is wireless but I thank Jesus they didn't go full-blown stoopid (that's the new spelling) and give them UUIDs for names -- In any case, 30 megs of international language support was just too much space to waste on today's multi-gigabyte drives so locales only does one language by default now and overwrites all your previous language settings. Those are just a few examples, I could write several pages more on all the stoopid changes.
In short, I like 8 with 9 backports better and have no interest in 9 at this time. If you're a glutton for punishment, however, you CAN switch the 9-11 edition to stretch (testing repo) by first doing a sudo apt upgrade on a clean 9-11 image (see previous blog post), then sudo apt-get clean to purge 8.4 packages out before finally changing the first line in /etc/apt/sources.list to:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free
The next time to you apt update cache will be populated with Debian 9 testing packages and next time you do sudo apt full-upgrade you'll get XFCE 3.12 and everything else in 9 that's not in backports. Good luck...
FINAL ADVICE:
Simply put, PulseAudio just doesn't work right with the analog snd-bcm2835 driver you'll find in /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf but it's the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to Bluetooth audio. I resolved this issue by muting (turning volume to 0 on panel applet) the analog and only using Bluetooth. You could also simply remove the driver. If you need the audio port on the side of your Pi 2 to work correctly stay with the 9-11 edition which only uses ALSA. It's my understanding PulseAudio does some fancy resource saving by making the daemon go to sleep and wake up and that's what the old driver doesn't like.
I currently have over 16 gigs of music on my Pi 2 (my cell phone choked after 12 gigs) and use it as my main MP3 player with a Waveshare touchscreen. I also use Bluetooth for almost all my small file transfers to/from my laptop and phone. It's just so much easier without all the security garbage that inhibits freedom. After pairing I just send the file and click the accept button on the other end. That's it, no Internet connection, no Google account, no password and no TSA naked body scans required. For larger files and backup imaging, a USB 3.0 microSD card reader comes in handy.
I really don't like the changes going on right now. It's like people with more money than brains have taken over or something...
For example: LightDM devs decided [Seat Defaults] is just too much plain English for us to handle so they changed the config file format to [Seat:*] which is unintelligible Egyptian hieroglyphics. Same over-educated rich brats decided that eth0 and wlan0 made too much sense, so now we need device names like enp2s0f0 and wlp3s0 -- I'm not really sure which one is wired and which one is wireless but I thank Jesus they didn't go full-blown stoopid (that's the new spelling) and give them UUIDs for names -- In any case, 30 megs of international language support was just too much space to waste on today's multi-gigabyte drives so locales only does one language by default now and overwrites all your previous language settings. Those are just a few examples, I could write several pages more on all the stoopid changes.
In short, I like 8 with 9 backports better and have no interest in 9 at this time. If you're a glutton for punishment, however, you CAN switch the 9-11 edition to stretch (testing repo) by first doing a sudo apt upgrade on a clean 9-11 image (see previous blog post), then sudo apt-get clean to purge 8.4 packages out before finally changing the first line in /etc/apt/sources.list to:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free
The next time to you apt update cache will be populated with Debian 9 testing packages and next time you do sudo apt full-upgrade you'll get XFCE 3.12 and everything else in 9 that's not in backports. Good luck...
Simply put, PulseAudio just doesn't work right with the analog snd-bcm2835 driver you'll find in /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf but it's the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to Bluetooth audio. I resolved this issue by muting (turning volume to 0 on panel applet) the analog and only using Bluetooth. You could also simply remove the driver. If you need the audio port on the side of your Pi 2 to work correctly stay with the 9-11 edition which only uses ALSA. It's my understanding PulseAudio does some fancy resource saving by making the daemon go to sleep and wake up and that's what the old driver doesn't like.
I currently have over 16 gigs of music on my Pi 2 (my cell phone choked after 12 gigs) and use it as my main MP3 player with a Waveshare touchscreen. I also use Bluetooth for almost all my small file transfers to/from my laptop and phone. It's just so much easier without all the security garbage that inhibits freedom. After pairing I just send the file and click the accept button on the other end. That's it, no Internet connection, no Google account, no password and no TSA naked body scans required. For larger files and backup imaging, a USB 3.0 microSD card reader comes in handy.
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