Sorry about that.

No worries. The archive.ph link gave me a Google reCAPTCHA to solve 😱 but the original link was perfectly readable for me. What were the paywall comments about, was it a non EU thing ?

To extend the link collection here’s a WayBackMachine one :

• https://web.archive.org/web/20240604182700/https://fortune.com/2024/06/03/sunsetting-section-230-congress-break-internet-tech-politics/

I believe NetGuard will act as a VPN.

Yes, correct.

This will prevent you from using an actual VPN.

It is indeed a drawback I forgot about (but a VPN connection can also be made on a local router at home).

If you cannot use another OS yet, install F-Droid and then install NetGuard. In NetGuard enable blocking of system apps in the settings and continue and block all apps. Then allow only the apps you need.

• https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.netguard

Do have the startx command installed ? You can use that from the command line without DisplayManager (Switch to a virtual console with e.g. ctrl-alt-F2). And with XFCE4 you can use the command startxfce4 to start from the command line without DisplayManager. This could help troubleshoot.

In the Lemmyverse for self-hosting Immich looks very popular (despite their warning : The project is under very active development. Expect bugs and changes. Do not use it as the only way to store your photos and videos!)

The old skool Piwigo might do for you ? https://piwigo.org/

I guarantee, most new users coming to Linux from Windows/macOS are going to laugh and look at you funny if you try to justify entering your password again and again and again.

That makes me think that I always thought that security was a joke included with Microsoft products. Already from the MS-DOS days onward. And I guess the other commenter is right : Microsoft does not want to annoy their users.

You should be able to use nmtui tool in the text terminal to activate your network connection. From the terminal you can also use the startx command to try and see if that would show you a GUI or other useful errors.

Also post ifconfig -a or ip addr show.

ifconfig is deprecated for a long time I think. Not even sure if some Debian package still provides it. I’ve switched to ip a and ip r and cat /etc/resolv.conf to look at such issues as OP has.

In such cases on Debian, as root, I try my “lazy” approach

apt install vlc mplayer vorbis-tools ffmpeg mpv

which may pull in the needed codecs to play mp3, ogg and flac files. Does playing a video in your browser work btw ?

Why do you not switch from Xubuntu to Linux Mint ? Mint is a derivate of Ubuntu but without Snap.

This one ? https://github.com/ProtonMail/inbox-desktop/releases

v1.0.3 Latest Fixes

Fixed an issue that led to opening a new Desktop App window when users clicked on the Update button of the Calendar Drawer in Mail. Uninstalling the application on Windows removes user data from the application data folders. The application is placed to a correct application category on Linux. No need to refresh the other application (Mail or Calendar) to apply changes when switching themes.

Waterfox has had some bad press. I don’t remember details but here’s something to read :

• https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/04/waterfox-browser-cuts-ties-with-system-1-to-celebrate-independence/ (2023)
• https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox-has-joined-system1/ (2020)

I prefer to stick to the no nonsense LibreWolf and when some things don’t work fall back to Firefox :

• https://librewolf.net
• https://flathub.org/apps/io.gitlab.librewolf-community

Small breakthrough: I booted the system without problems to tty1 (I believe this is called single user mode), logged in as an old user and now I can see all my data, logged in as old me.

Nice.

Do you still recommend to backup from live usb and upgrade from there?

I would backup from live usb and then when that is done stop using the live usb, reboot and try to upgrade via the recovery mode.

You can look at something like https://www.deviceinfo.me/ to see what just a browser can identify.

At the Keys Pressed (Live) it can see my arrow up and arrow down key presses 😱

Is this because I am using a free tier VPN? so it’s not functioning properly etc…

• Does Proton not have a page to check your IP address and check for DNS leaks (Mullvad does : https://mullvad.net/en -> Check for leaks) ?

• Did you look up your IP address by other means ?

• On the desktop with Linux you can check the content of /etc/resolv.conf and ip a (Your local IP) and ip r (Gateway address).

Else google fixed my location based on my previous location history? I used my google applications without VPN for many years, I am just learning & following privacy tips recently.

Are the sessions from your last login ? With some applications (Dunno about Google) you can delete older sessions from the overview.

Maybe inspired by Microsoft’s Linux :

CBL-Mariner is an internal Linux distribution for Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure

Some other contributors suggest I use a live usb, not installing the OS but using the live usb with working wlan to complete the installation, but this seems to be more complicated than working directly from initramfs.

My suggestion was to use live usb to find your /home files. Indeed using live usb and then using chroot to complete the upgrade from 23.10 to 24.04 is maybe more difficult (As /dev and /proc and /sys need to get mounted with the chroot). If I were you I would first find your /home files and make a backup and after that proceed with upgrading.

I purged the broken package with sudo dpkg -P libfreerdp2-2 and immediately afterwards I executed sudo apt get upgrade.

Cool.

how do I enable wlan as root from initramfs?

I’d run nmtui and then use the <TAB> key to navigate between the items and go for “Activate” to enable your WiFi connection. It will show no pop up or something when it successfully activates the connection. I think it will just show a * sign next to the connection item. When that is done use <TAB> to navigate out of nmtui and test your connection.

sudo apt install libfreerdp2-2

Can you try purging the broken package ? : sudo dpkg -P libfreerdp2-2

How about booting from Linux live medium (For example Ubuntu installation iso on pen drive, and choose Try without installing) and from there see if you can get to your home files.