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Asahi Notes

2024-01-30T18:27:25Z

Admin: /* To The Bug */

==Install / Reinstall==

Uninstall according to the Asahi Wiki "partition cheatsheet"

https://leo3418.github.io/asahi-wiki-build/partitioning-cheatsheet/

Install with the provided script at

https://alx.sh|sh

Pay attention when you must reboot after step 1 into Step 2! It's the part where you hit "enter" for shut down and must wait 30 seconds and then keep the Power Button pressed down to restart with a Prompt about choosing what to boot.

Now Ardour is a flatpak unfortunately ; there's 2 providers, Fedora and
(seeing the apple or a "macos recovery" splash at this stage is normal ; just wait for the terminal to pop up with instructions)

Local Policy Update takes time. Please wait.

Keep ignoring the patronizing apple about the security of your device. enter mac username and password as asked.

==To The Bug==

I am trying to reproduce a bug with Ardour that kills the nice sound hack from the asahi people to put the 6 speakers into a combined stereo pair thanks to speakersafetyd. I need Ardour (as a tool), and I need patch to bluetooth and internal too.

https://github.com/AsahiLinux/speakersafetyd

1. Fresh install of 39 from "welcome start setup"

Note: keyboard, possibly language, should be first step here.

2. Enable 3rd party (I need the Codecs)

3. Reboot for good measure, accepting the "critical update" request from Gnome Software

<----------Freshly booted, virgin, updated---------------->

4. Check the wireplumber install with an eye on the arch wiki:
- No pipewire-audio to be found
- Pulseaudio is on pipewire-pulseaudio, installed by default
- Same for pipewire-alsa
- BUT not for jack, where jack-audio-connection-kit is the default
- Asahi-audio is installed and up-to-date
- Lv2-bankstown same, speakersafetyd same

--> checking out VLC ; Settings now has 2 outputs, "internal" and "macbook" ; "internal" doesn't work.
- VLC set output module to Automatic, Alsa or Pipewire, sound works

--> Install helvum for visualisation of patch: everything fine, "macbook pro j414" are 2 inputs (and 6 outputs lol)

So far so good, good sound. But we haven't touched Jack yet - not that I need Jack ; what I need is Ardour with an internal patch

--> Adding Audacity, default settings ; plays nice with VLC into Helvum ; reset VLC to default which says "default alsa output currently pipewire media server"

Let's get to Ardour8 now, from Fedora not Flatpak this time (I noticed the issue with both Flatpaks, Fedora and Flathub)

Ardour Breaks Everything as soon as it is launched ;

- Volume goes 100% unamanageabe through keyboard,
- Nice 2 inputs "macbook pro speakers" disapears, replaced with everything times 6 wired to "Build-in audio speakers"
- Must Kill everything else that was running on loop (vlc and audacity) to start Ardour in Alsa config ; can't start otherwise
--> notice helvum empty, sound settings on "dummy output"

The kill is absolute ; a reboot seems needed. This was with Ardour on Alsa (choice is alsa, pulse, jack)

- Second attempt ; ardour kills the dual input macbook speaker module but speakersafetyd seems to be running

- Restarting speakersafetyd changes nothing
- stopping in kills sound (used vlc for test ; vlc outputs 6 into the 6 speakers - I'm afraid I'm sending full-spectrum 100% signal into each one of them, at risk of damage). Stil no control over volume.

- Third attempt ; fresh boot, settings / audio / helvum all good ; last Ardour use was on Pulse ; ardour splashscreen doesn't kill nothing, goes to audio-midi setup step (with pulse preselected) without complaints. Volume keys work, Speakers work, settings on "MacBook Pro J414 Speakers" - opening a new 48khz pulse session now...

Ardour is up, with nothing in it tho. There's a stereo output to the stereo speakers
--> this is useless, Ardour doesn't see VLC, Helvum doesn't "see" the ardour input tracks
- Crashed when I manually stopped the audio engine to switch to jack, killing volume buttons and resetting all to 6 channels

- four : jack ; fails with Jack complaining it hasn't got permissions to get a real time session ; sound settings shows "dummy output" only, Ardour crashes it all - note : this is without pipewire-jack, this on default Jack-connection-kit.
Later startup crashes shows other crash info like impossibility to connect to socket.

- Five : install pipewire-jack now. And now it works :)

The MacOS Memo

2023-12-23T13:05:45Z

Admin:

To change your terminal prompt (& use bash):

- switch to bash with

csh /bin/bash

- exit terminal & open it again

- create a .bashrc file with, ie :

# configure my multi-line prompt
PS1='
$PWD
==> '

Then macos will superbly ignore it. Go to here to not re-invent the wheeel like I just did :

https://www.weblife.fr/tutoriels/os-x-terminal-personnalise-avec-le-fichier-bashrc?cn-reloaded=1

Or set in

source /Users/regie/.bashrc && clear

in the terminal settimgs / Profiles / Shell ; uglier but quicker.

General feeling : shit keyboard, dust and liquid swallowing huge vents, updating process stressfull with many reboots and still progress bars

Btrfs before install notes

2023-11-29T15:35:01Z

Admin:

Set up BTRFS ''before install'', according to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maIu1d2lAiI this guide]

'''FAIL''' Network here is too slow it's infuriating, trying installs is horrible

(You are booted in the Arch Live environment meant to install Arch on your machine or VM)

==Before pacstrap (01:50)==

loadkeys for your keyboard

Select device with '''fdisk -l''' ; VM devices starts with V here, as in /dev/'''v'''da1 et

===Partitionning (02:05)===

fdisk /dev/vda

* Use '''g''' to create a GPT partition table on /dev/vda1

* Use '''n''' to create a first EFI partition

* Use +300M to make it 300M in size

* Use '''t''' to change its type to '''1''' to make it an EFI partition

* Use '''n''' to create a second partition for the rest of the disk

* Use '''p''' to check for values and mistakes

* Use '''w''' to write the modifications and exit the interactive fdisk prompt

===Formatting (02:50)===

* mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/vda1
* mkfs.btrfs /dev/vda2

===Start mounting and playing with BTRFS (04:50)===

* mount /dev/vda2 /mnt

* create subvolumes with

btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@home
btrfs subvolume create /mnt/@snapshots

* Check your existing subvolumes and their ID :

btrfs subvolume list /

(Reminder : subvolumes don't create snapshots of nested subvolumes ; here @ won't contain @home or @snapshots data)

* Create mountpoints

mkdir /mnt/efi
mkdir /mnt/home
mkdir /mnt/.snapshots
mkdir /mnt/btrfsroot

* Then Umount the actual /dev/vda2 to replace by the '''@''' subvolume

mount /dev/vda2 -o subvolid=256 /mnt
mount /dev/vda2 -o subvolid=257 /mnt/home
mount /dev/vda2 -o subvolid=258 /mnt/.snapshots
mount /dev/vda2 -o subvolid=5 /mnt/btrfsroot
mount /dev/vda1 /mnt/efi

==It's pactsrap time now (07:00)==

pacstrap -K /mnt base linux base-devel grub sudo git less nano efibootmgr btrfs-progs snapper snap-pac grub-btrfs tar sudo

Sodding network here man...

===And now...===

* check your mount points list for any misstep with '''mount'''

create your fstab file when mount is all ok

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Check again with '''less /mnt/etc/fstab'''

'''arch-chroot /mnt''' if everything is good

* you still have to do the usual : vconsole.conf for the keymap, locale-gen for lang etc, see the arch install guide

* Do the mkinit just in case :

mkinitcpio -P

* Install GRUB with this :

add --removable to the grub install line if necessary

then do grub-mkconfig

==then reboot==

--failed at grub / creating bootable system phase--

I use ARCH btw

2023-11-25T14:16:42Z

Admin:

Following the [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide guide] is mostly ok ; A word on something I completely forgot about :

==Read The FINE Manual==

(Assuming you have a thumbdrive ready and working)

* Use F12 on Fatitude to get to the Choose Your Boot Media at startup
* Load correct keymap :

# loadkeys fr-latin1

* Network interface probably gonna be wlan0 ; in doubt, do '''ip link'''

* Use [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Iwd#iwctl iwctl] to connect to the wireless network
[iwd]# station wlan0 scan
[iwd]# station device get-networks
[iwd]# station device connect SSID
[iwd]# exit
# ping archlinux.org

# timedatectl

* Check [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide#Partition_the_disks partitions] architecture :

# fdisk -l

* Only format your root partition to install a fresh system on it. Add swap if you have swap:

# mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/sda6 (the -f option is to override former btrfs subvolumes)
# mkswap /dev/sda8

* Mount the filesystems you're going to use on the /mnt folder of your live system:

# mount --mkdir /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi
# mount --mkdir /dev/sda7 /mnt/home
# mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/
# swapon /dev/swap_partition

* Now start reading '''Yes, but'''

==Yes, but==
- '''Yes, there's probably no need to partition''' if ''there's no need to!'' (esp EFI) You'll run into a permissions nightmare on your /home, but that's better than loosing data :

When the /home partition is mounted to /mnt/home at 'pacstrap' time, just '''chmod -r 777''' the entire contents of the previous /home folder ;
when you make your new user, be sure to give it another name.

- '''Only format your system / partition''' (or root partition) with ''makefs.<type of filesystem> -f'' is enough for a fresh re-install.

- It's ok to mount the EFI partition to /boot/efi and not simply /boot so as to not fill that small partition with everything in /boot, especially numerous kernels

On my fresh install, the EFI partition is 260MB which is a factory default - and my /boot partition is already 268MB ;
ergo, it wouldn't fit, with just 4 kernels + the windows stub

==Default install through pacstrap needs a lot more stuff, you'll probably want==

- base-devel linux-lts os-prober pacman-contrib git grub efibootmgr

- grep rsync nano tar git iwd less sudo

- gdm gnome networkmamager gedit - or any of your login manager and desktop environment of choice

- bluez bluez-utils usbutils git go zip wget

- firefox vlc smplayer gimp calibre

- [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Snapper snapper] ? if you go this route then snap-pac and grub-btrfs too. The current state of the wiki page there is
such that I should try snapper-gui-git (AUR) and/or btrfs-assistant (AUR). Creating, generating, booting into snapshots mostly work.
Restoring your system to a snapshot does not.

When you chroot in, it's normal for os-prober to ''not'' see the M$ partition, even if it is mounted ; you should re-run os-prober, and re-run grub-mkconfig, when you did reboot into the actual, fresh system. os_prober only need to see your EFI partition, where other boot stubs are stored, not the actual system disks

==don't forget to enable some systemd services, duh==

- gdm.service

- NetworkManager.service

- bluetooth.service

with

systemctl enable <name of unit>.service

If you are already in your graphic environment and instead need it to be enabled and start immediately (like for network), run

systemctl enable --now <name of unit>.service

==And make a basic user==
Then create a basic user with

useradd -m -G %wheel <name of user>

Add it to sudoers with

EDITOR=nano visudo

''Now'' you can reboot. Have you installed some '''network software'''? Have you '''enabled a graphic shell''' ? That's the core needs for a ''functional, fresh'' install to be tuned further as needed.

Set up [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository aur] or install [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flatpak flatpak] for dropbox and ungoogled-chromium ; add python-gpgme for dropbox.

==Other Housechores==

Uncheck the os-prober-false at the bottom of /etc/default/grub ; generally speaking, tweak the grub file to your liking and re-run grub-mkconfig
Add the user to sudo with ''EDITOR=nano visudo''
setup keyboard in gnome
setup keyboard in GDM with ''localectl set-x11-keymap fr''

Enable tap to click in gnome
Enable pinch in firefox by adding MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 in .bash_profile
Setup wiregard

Enable the paccache.timer service to get rid weekly of the cruft in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ ''which will totally eat up your disk if you don't do that!''

# systemctl enable --now paccache.timer

Good luck with btrfs, and snapper, and snap-pac, and grub-btrfs, and don't forget to [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Snapper#Booting_into_read-only_snapshots hack mkinitcpio] as described. Then try your luck with (no, it didn't work here):

# snapper rollback --ambit classic <snapshot number to rollback to>

The pyhton script snapper-rollback also doesn't work for me, asks for some cquota definition that is said to be damageable to performance on the root partition ;
note that I nevertheless blindly imputed some commands to enable quota, rescan them and such. sources suse and oracle.

Trying now in a VM to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maIu1d2lAiI scrupulously follow this guide], will add [[btrfs before install notes]].

==AND IF YOU FAIL...==

'''Just re-do the whole install thing ; it is better to loose 20 minutes re-doing it than spending 20 days fixing it'''

For reference, and in memoriam of failing to generate a correct one yesterday :

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda6
UUID=38472571-3738-42e4-9561-47facca89d00 '''/''' btrfs rw,relatime,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvolid=5,subvol=/ 0 0

# /dev/sda7
UUID=05d5954f-f948-4d21-9813-aa687a8d4cf4 '''/home''' btrfs rw,relatime,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvolid=5,subvol=/ 0 0

# /dev/sda2 LABEL=SYSTEM
UUID=B651-2AC6 /boot'''/efi''' vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 2

# /dev/sda8
UUID=3845f812-ba5d-4113-8dbe-635448119669 none '''swap''' defaults 0 0

== Annoyances, gripes and actual issues==

* Why is os-prober disabled in grub ; why is it not included by default?
* And '''why''' aren't included small stuff like less, nano, grep, wget, rsync - or iwd and pacman-contrib ?!
* Why can I not run Appimages ? They're supposed to work everywhere.
* Why did my last ''genfstab'' fail with only /dev/sda6? Why where there duplicate of everything when I re-mounted the drives genfstab missed?

'''Why is installing Arch still a 1h30 affair when I know the whole thing practically by heart? The pre-download, pre-pacstrap part was 11 minutes!!