CD-ROM won't mount, I/O error dev sr0 sector

Some CD's I have burnt myself do not mount in Sabayon Linux. dmesg shows the following errors:

end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector nnnnnnn

Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block nnnnnnn

 Specifying the type (iso9660) and uid & gid allows the CD's to mount:

sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /media/cd -o uid=`id -u`,gid=`id -g`

Not sure if this is a result of the media (Imation) or Linux/Windows burning - suspect it is the Gnome Disk Utility - Disk Image Writer.

Plymouth splash not correct in Sabayon

After a Sabayon 13 update in May 2015, new artwork is locked in the initrd file system.  Dracut builds of the initramfs kernal image file system are not used by the system.

To repair Plymouth functionality:

• Remove dracut
• Install updated gcc package
• Install genkernel-next
• Set the preferred theme in /etc/plymouth/plymouth.conf
• Backup the current initramfs file
• Run genkernel initramfs
• Reboot

Remember screen brightness running Linux on MacBook

Running Sabayon Linux, with systemd, on a MacBook, the LCD backlight always resets to maximum brightness after reboot. This is an annoyance as it becomes necessary to adjust the brightness every time it is necessary to reboot the laptop.

To get the system to remember the brightness setting:

1. Create a script that can save or restore the setting when called with a parameter.
2. Create a (systemd) service that calls the script to save the setting on shutdown and restore the setting on startup.

Script: /usr/local/bin/my-settings.sh

#!/bin/sh
# Saves and restores settings for LCD and keyboard backlights.
if [ -z $1 ]; then
    echo "Usage: my-settings.sh [save|restore]"
fi
# Set variables:
export LCD_BRIGHTNESS="/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/apple_backlight/brightness"

# Save setting:
case $1 in
 "save")
    echo Saving settings...
    # if the settings folder does not exist, create it
    if [ ! -e /etc/my-settings ]; then
     mkdir /etc/my-settings
    fi
    # if the LCD_BRIGHTNESS file exists, then save a copy:
    if [ -e $LCD_BRIGHTNESS ]; then
     cat $LCD_BRIGHTNESS > /etc/my-settings/lcd
    fi
    ;;

 "restore")
    # if saved setting exists, if LCD_BRIGHTNESS exists, echo the contents into the system device:
    if [ -e /etc/my-settings/lcd ]; then
     if [ -e $LCD_BRIGHTNESS ]; then
      cat /etc/my-settings/lcd > $LCD_BRIGHTNESS
     fi
    fi
    ;;
esac

===============

Systemd service: /usr/lib/systemd/system/my-settings.service:

[Unit]
Description=Load/Save Keyboard & LCD backlight settings

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "/usr/local/bin/my-settings.sh restore"
ExecStop=/bin/sh -c "/usr/local/bin/my-settings.sh save"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

================

Enable the script and service:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/my-settings.sh
systemctl enable my-settings.service
systemctl start my-settings

GParted does not start in LXQt

Symptom: Clicking on GParted launcher has no effect. Log /var/log/messages shows:

The value for environment variable TERM contains suscipious content ...

The cause was having set the TERM variable using LXQt Session Settings, Default Applications, Terminal Emulation to /usr/bin/lxterm.  Changing back to xterm and logging out-in fixed the issue.

Install LXQt on Sabayon 14

This is a quick guide to installing LXQt desktop (current version LXQt 0.7.0) on Gentoo based Sabayon Linux (current release 14.06).


Firstly, remove razor-qt to avoid file collisions.

Use Layman to add the Qt overlay:

layman -a qt

Use Emerge to attempt to install lxqt-meta:

emerge -av lxqt-base/lxqt-meta

If it fails copy the text below regarding keywords, and paste into

/etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

Attempt to install again:

emerge -av lxqt-base/lxqt-meta

If it fails copy the text below warning the about unmask, paste into

/etc/portage/portage.unmask/99-lxqt.package.unmask

Attempt to install again:

emerge -av lxqt-base/lxqt-meta

If it fails on lxqt-panel download from source and manually compile and install:

 mkdir /usr/src/lxqt-panel

 cd /usr/src/lxqt-panel 

  wget http://lxqt.org/downloads/lxqt/0.7.0/lxqt-panel-0.7.0.tar.gz

 tar xvf lxqt-panel-0.7.0.tar.gz

 cd lxqt-panel

 mkdir build

 cd build

 cmake ..

 make

 sudo make install

If other packages from lxqt-meta have not installed, you may install them individually using Emerge, e.g.:

emerge -av  lxqt-base/lxqt-session

You should now be able to select LXQt from the login screen.

Enable NTP in Sabayon

To enable NTP time synchronization in Sabayon linux:

1. Install ntp package.
2. Customize configuration if required: /etc/ntp.conf
2. As root enable the service in systemd:

systemctl enable ntpd.service

3. Start the service:

systemctl start ntpd.service

It takes several minutes for the service to adjust the time. If the clock is skewed by more than 17 minutes then use the following command to perform a manual time sync:

ntpdate 0.gentoo.pool.ntp.org

To verify the NTP daemon is running:

ps -lA|grep ntp

PCManFM File manager has no icons in Razor-Qt

When using Razor-Qt desktop environment, if the PCManFM file manager has blank icons then you may need to use LXappearance to set an icon theme.  LXappearance can be started from command line:

lxappearance

or from Start menu -> Preferences -> Customize Look and Feel -> Icon Theme

Setting locale in Sabayon 13.11

To set the system default locale to en_AU.UTF-8 in Sabayon 13.11:

sudo nano /etc/locale.gen
  en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
  en_AU ISO-8859-1

sudo nano /etc/locale.conf
  LANG=en_AU.UTF-8

sudo env-update   (applies the changes to /etc/profile.env)
source /etc/profile (makes the change effective in the current shell - restart if not effective)

Zenity 3.8 list output bug on Sabayon

Zenity 3.8.0 on Sabayon 13.12 has a bug that doubles the output of list with seperating pipe, as explained here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zenity/+bug/1247137

 My workaround was to download latest source from:

https://git.gnome.org/browse/zenity

Download the package:

ZENITY_3_10_0.tar.gz

Ensure the following are installed:

automake
gcc
gnome-common (small)
yelp-tools

Extract, make and install:

cd ZENITY_3_10_0
autogen.sh
make
sudo make install