ewilcox

  • May 16, 2024
  • Joined Jul 14, 2023
  • 0 best answers
  • In On-Screen keyboard blocks login screen in KDE-6

    Solus Linux released KDE-6 to the Stable repository on Friday, 29 March 2024. I updated my system on Saturday, 30 March 2024, and I had a few minor issues following the upgrade. After performing the upgrade, I rebooted my computer as suggested in the associated alert posting. After the reboot, all the installed applications on my system seemed to have disappeared, so I started experimenting (and I posted a cry for help in Support).

    I opened the Application Launcher menu, and there were no applications or categories listed, but the Search field was still there at the top, so I searched for Firefox, and an option to Run Firefox appeared in the right pane (where applications are typically listed), so I clicked it, and Firefox opened with its icon displayed in the icons-only task manager. I ALT-Clicked it and selected “Pin to Task Manager”, and it worked, so I un-pinned the blanked-out icon that was previously for Firefox. After repeating this procedure for all the apps I keep pinned to the task manager, for some reason I haven’t discovered, all the installed applications re-appeared in the Application Launcher’s menu.

    My next action was to switch to a login screen/SDDM theme that’s compatible with KDE-6. I selected the Maldives theme (one of the pre-installed themes), changing the background image to forest-street.png (the default desktop image for KDE on Solus Linux).

    The last thing to ‘fix’ was getting rid of the on-screen keyboard in the login screen. After multiple Internet searches, I found a solution that works in a post titled sddm blocks screen with on-screen keyboard in Ubuntu 20.04. Even though the post is for Ubuntu, the solution works in Solus Linux too, so I suspect it will work with almost any distribution.

    Following the directions, I opened the file/etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf in nano (as a sudoer/administrator), then added the following comments and command as the last item(s) in the General section of the file:

        # This disables the on-screen keyboard from popping up when
    # Username and Password are being entered at the Login screen.

    InputMethod=

    I saved my changes, closed Konsole, and rebooted Solus. I was no longer plagued with the on-screen keyboard.

    In the hope that this helps others,

    Ernie

  • In How to disable the KDE6 on-screen keyboard on the SDDM login screen
  • In How to disable the KDE6 on-screen keyboard on the SDDM login screen

    Does anyone know how to disable that on-screen keyboard on KDE's login screen?

  • In Yay! Solus 4.5 has arrived! Here's what I like (or don't) so far

    On January 9, 2024, I saw the Solus 4.5 release notification on the blog site. I immediately upgraded my desktop and primary laptop PCs, both of which dual boot the Solus-Plasma edition with Windows 11. Next, I downloaded the Solus-XFCE edition for installation on my older Dell Inspiron 5555 laptop PC. I have been waiting for the Solus-XFCE edition to be released for several months. It's labeled as a beta release, but my overall experience belies that. It feels like it's been in development for much longer than it has. This new edition is very well integrated, polished, and refined, to the point that it looks as elegant and cohesive as my Plasma edition DEs on my two primary computers.

    The only complaint I can come up with is that the installer (still) sets the boot menu timeout to zero seconds in all situations. This is fine if Solus will be the only OS on the computer, but in a dual/multi-boot scenario, it should be set to some greater value (perhaps 5?) so the boot menu can be seen at system start/reboot. If detecting an existing operating system during the installation process is impractical, perhaps an option asking "How long do you want to wait before booting the default OS?" (or something to that effect) associated with a drop-down selector offering values (perhaps) ranging from zero to nine could be added. Of course, it's up to the installer (Calamares) maintainers to decide how/whether to handle that, but I wanted to voice my opinion on this matter.

    All in all, Solus is perhaps the best distribution I've ever used. I want to thank all of you who are involved in its development and maintenance for all your hard work, and I want you all to know that each of you makes a very real difference for all of us who use it.

    Ernie

    • In I need DKMS to install a Wi-Fi driver

      ReillyBrogan, I'd never have decided to make any changes at all if this driver (or DKMS) were currently available and I'll return as soon as one of the two becomes available, either as a built-in kernel driver or as a package/set of packages in the repository. I made a request (https://github.com/getsolus/packages/issues/967) for my driver because it'll help me as well as other users who have an adapter that uses the chip sets it supports. I hope it becomes available ASAP 🙂

      Note: I didn't know that I could/how to make such requests (thank you for the link) or I'd have made the request before making any other changes (I'm temporarily using Manjaro - not what I really want). While I know how to build packages from source, I prefer not to have to do so.

      Thank you for such a helpful reply,

      Ernie

      • In I need DKMS to install a Wi-Fi driver

        @Phiqu, I appreciate your response, however I've decided to try out an Arch-based distribution for a while, so I no longer need this information. I really like Solus, but I've run into too many similar situations with it. I don't like hacking work-a rounds to set things up the way I want, and I don't want to re-build the driver every time I upgrade to a newer kernel. That's what DKMS is for (IMNSHO). Maybe when the Wi-Fi-6 driver I need becomes in-built in the kernel, I'll return, but for now, I'm going to embark on a new adventure with the new/different distribution.

        I thank everyone here for all the help I've received,

        Ernie

      • In I need DKMS to install a Wi-Fi driver

        How do I enable dkms support in Solus? I just got a Wi-Fi-6 USB Wi-Fi adapter, and it uses the 8852bu driver. There is a driver on GGitHub, but it installs with dkms. I searched the Software Center from the menu, and eopkg from the terminal using both "dkms" and "DKMS" to no avail. Any help is greatly appreciated.

        Ernie

      • In Can I use the Cinnamon desktop environment on Solus?

        If so, how do I switch to it?

        • When it comes to full DEs there are only Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma and MATE (soon to be replaced by xfce) available for Solus.
          (apart from that there are a number of additional window managers and the like, but those need extra configuration, with the possible exception of i3 which comes somewhat pre-configured)

      • In Looking for the location of the Applications Launcher icon image

        Almost immediately after posting this, the solution occurred to me. All I had to do was open the file manager and use it's search function to find the file (named 'start-solus-here', so you can disregard my question.

        Does anyone know where on the system I can find the icon images for the Application Launcher? I'm adding a few desktop links to some of the Solus resources I frequently use, and I'd like to customize them with the Solus ship I see on the launcher (on the panel). Thank you all in advance for any help,

        Ernie

        • In Changes to clr-boot-manager

          Thank you for this reply. Now I better understand the issues facing the Solus team regarding clr-boot-manager.

          Ernie

        • In Changes to clr-boot-manager

          I'm fairly new to Solus (a few weeks now) and there are a few changes I want to suggest for a future release:

          1. When Solus is installed alongside Windows or some other distribution, set a timeout by default so the user can see the boot menu.

          2. clr-boot-manager has the 'mount-boot' argument to mount the EFI partition. Please add a new argument to unmount the EFI partition.

          3. At present, Solus is the selected OS by default. Please add a new argument for clr-boot-manager to implement the 'default @saved' configuration. By adding this new argument, a user can choose whether to keep Solus as the selected OS all the time, or to save the current OS so when the system is restarted from Solus, it's selected, and when it's restarted from any other OS, it's selected.

          Thank you for creating such an excellent distribution. I know it has been a lot of work, and I'm probably asking a lot here. If what I suggest is not something you want to pursue for any reason, that's O.K. with me. I only make these suggestions because I think they will give the user more choices and I think that is part of what Open Source is about, freedom and choice.

          Ernie

          • In Boot Manager configuration question

            I have been dual-booting Windows 11 with Solus 4.4 for about the past week or so (this is my first adventure with Solus). I want to be able to configure the clr-boot-manager/systemd-boot to remember/save the current OS when I reboot the system and select it following a restart, so when I restart from Windows 11, Windows 11 is selected and when I restart from Solus, Solus is selected. As you know, the default setting is to select the most currently updated/installed version of Solus.

            When I initially installed Solus version 4.4 alongside Windows 11 (choosing the option to resize my Windows partition), the configuration defaulted to booting directly into Solus with no dual-boot selection menu visible. I learned that I can set a timeout value greater than zero seconds to see the menu using cir-boot-manager, and my settings change is respected following updates. I suggest that in a dual-boot scenario, displaying the boot menu should be enabled by the installer (set the timeout to some value - perhaps 5 could work)

            Returning to the point of my request, I see no configuration option in clr-boot-manager's help to save the current OS. Perhaps an option 'set-default' could be added, so the user can choose Solus, another OS (e.g.: Windows), or saved (the option I want).

            While researching how to accomplish my goal, I learned that I can re-mount the EFI partition, then edit the /boot/loader/loader.conf file, changing the default setting to contain 'default @saved'. This works very well until I install updates, and the boot manager configuration is reverted back to selecting the newest update of Solus in all circumstances. Is there a way to configure cir-boot-manager to save the current OS, so the updater respects my loader.conf changes? If not, can I hold out hope that this will change soon or in the next release?

            **UPDATE 07/25/2023 **
            There has been no response from the developers or anyone at Solus for four days so I'm assuming no response is forthcoming. Please know that I made these suggestions as constructive criticisms, intended to help improve Solus, especially for users new to the distribution.

            For others who read this and want to have the boot-manager configuration I want (or a configuration of their own) survive updates, etc. I have found a way to accomplish that end.

            1. In the terminal emulator window mount the EFI using:

              clr-boot-manager mount-boot

            2. Edit /boot/loader/loader.conf with your desired configuration:

              sudo nano/boot/loader/loader.conf

            My configuration is:

            timeout 5
default @saved

            The boot manager menu is visible for five seconds. When I restart from Solus, it is selected and when I restart from Windows, it is selected.

            Save your changes:

            press key combination CTRL+X, enter 'y', press ENTER (exits nano, saving changes.

            Next create a backup of your custom configuration in /boot/loader/loader.conf:

            sudo cp /boot/loader/loader.conf /boot/loader/loader.conf.bak

            Finally create a bash alias to update Solus. The alias command (named 'update') is:

            alias update='sudo eopkg upgrade && sudo clr-boot-manager mount-boot && sudo cp /boot/loader/loader.conf.bak /boot/loader/loader.conf'

            This alias upgrades the system, mounts the EFI partition on /boot, and copies /boot/loader/loader.conf.bak as /boot/loader/loader.conf, overwriting the existing file, preserving your custom loader configuration. After updating your system, you should restart the computer to make any update changes effective as well as to make sure the EFI is not mounted (default Solus behavior).

            This is working O.K. for me but YMMV, so make a backup of your Solus installation if you have anything you don't want to risk losing in the event something goes wrong.

            Ernie

          • In Boot manager configuration question

            penny-farthing,

            Well said, and to the point! Typographical errors or a disjointed commentary tend to make a post difficult to understand and therefore less useful or incorrect. Why take the time to submit a post if you don't also take the time to consider the reader? . . . just sayin' . . . 🙂

            Ernie

              • In Boot manager configuration question

                WetGeek,

                That's the main reason that when I compose a post, I do it in LibreOffice Writer or a text editor, depending on my objective - if I want to include graphics, or specific text formatting, Writer is my friend. When I think I'm satisfied, I read the 'finished' document, looking for continuity and flow, fixing what I don't like and re-reading it until I'm satisfied. If I'm using a text editor, I copy/paste the 'reviewed version' of what I'm trying to write into LibreOffice Writer to look for typos and fixing them. When I'm satisfied with the flow, structure, and absence of typos, I copy/paste my final version back into the text editor again to eradicate any formatting that the word processor may have introduced. My last step is to copy/paste it into whatever web page I'm posting to. While I did all that on the original post to this thread, I didn't know what the correct terminology is, or even if there is a 'correct terminology' for what I now know is the boot manager timeout setting, so that is why my initial question was a bit ambiguous.

                Ernie

                • In Boot manager configuration question

                  SOLUSfiddler,

                  Now, hat's something I didn't know, thank you for telling me (my newbieness is showing, isn't it). It seems to me that it would be easier for the moderators/administrators of the forums if the OP (original poster) were responsible for marking their thread(s) as "SOLVED" when appropriate, but that's just how I look at things (I like to take responsibility for what I create/originate) 🙂,

                  Ernie

                    • In Boot manager configuration question

                      Now, all I have to learn is how to mark a question/support post as "Solved"! 🙂

                      Ernie

                      • In Boot manager configuration question

                        [deleted],

                        I tried a variation on your suggestion. Here is what I have learned (for others who may be interested).

                        First, I installed the Nemo file manager (for Cinnamon) so I can open a file manager window as root.

                        Next I mounted my EFI partition at /boot in the Terminal app (so I can see the content of the /boot directory).

                        In Nemo, I navigated to the /boot directory, then opened a root instance of Nemo there. It now contains directories named EFI, loader, and System Volume Information as well as a file named solus-enroll-me.cer (I presume this is the signing key for MOK registration).

                        In the loader directory, I found a sub-directory named entries, and the loader.conf file you mentioned in your reply. I've been keeping notes on my investigations (I named it SolusNotes.txt), so I stored the content of loader.conf (just in case) there. It contains two lines of text, "timeout 5", and "default Solus-current-6.3.12-241.conf".

                        In my administrative instance of Nemo, I opened the loader.conf file (as root) in Kate, then changed the second line (as you suggested) to be "default @saved", and saved my change.

                        I closed all my opened windows and rebooted back into Solus to make sure that works. It does.

                        Next I rebooted to Windows to see if that works. It does (I can still boot to Windows O.K.)

                        Finally. I rebooted (one more time) to Solus, successfully.

                        The clr-boot-manager's boot menu now has the Windows entry selected (exactly as I want!, so I can reboot to the OS I am using following updates, etc. more easily).

                        One last question: Where can I find documentation/information on systemd-boot?

                        It's amazing how effective one small reply can be! I am genuinely grateful, and I can't thank you enough. Now I have my new Solus installation working exactly as I want it to. I am nor confident that I'll be a happy Solus user for many years to come (as well as - hopefully - a good community member)!

                        I know this reply has grown to be very long, but I hope it helps others who follow,

                        Ernie

                        • In Boot manager configuration question
                        • In Boot manager configuration question

                          Thank you for replying,

                          WetGeek Perhaps you're talking about something else?

                          I am. I wasn't asking about the boot device menu that I can load when I press the F-12/F-8 key, I'm asking how to customize the boot manager's menu (where I select which OS I want to boot). When I start or re-start my computer, Solus is the default selected OS on the boot manager's menu regardless which OS I used last. What I want is to learn how to make the last OS I used be the selected OS in the boot manager's menu when I start or reboot my computer.

                          • In Boot manager configuration question

                            I used Fedora-KDE until I found Solus-KDE. In Fedora, I could edit a configuration file to make the Grub2 boot manager remember/select the current/most recent OS following a reboot/cold-boot, making it the selected option. The result was that if I rebooted from Windows 11, when the boot menu appeared it would be selected and when I rebooted from Fedora, it would be selected.

                            I have tried to find documentation describing how to accomplish this with clr-boot-manager to no avail. Either I don't know the correct terminology for my search, or that configuration is unavailable. If there is a way to get clr-boot-manager to select the most recent OS (as described above), please direct me to the appropriate documentation (or tell me how to configure it).

                            Thank you for any help in advance,

                            Ernie