OK - so - I built Kali 2023.3 on a Raspberry Pi 4B (8 GB model) - runs well (also got it running, also arm64, in UTM / QEMU on my MacBook - probably running a tad better there after installing spice tools in the guest).
Default user on the Pi image is / was “kali” - which I didn’t like - but sometimes changing a user name creates all sorts of issues (installing the arm64 Kali image from the install iso asks you what user name you want).
So - I created a new user “x” alongside “kali”, but useradd didn’t read the skeleton stuff out of /etc/ (not only that - it didn’t even create home!) - I also can NEVER REMEMBER which one to use, useradd, or adduser, and depending on the vagaries of what distro, or release you’re on, sometimes, one of those two will run you through a series of questions - seriously - WHICH ONE? useradd? adduser? I think on some distros, they’re the same thing…
So - “me being me” I created /home/x manually, copied /home/kali contents into it. Then (as root) cd /home/x ; chown -Rf x:x . - but when I try to fire up the file manager (I would assume “thunar”) - it barfs 'cause somewhere in its configuration it’s hard coded /home/kali .
And I can’t find the file that has that hardcoded in it. e.g. ~/.config/Thunar there’s only one file “accels.scm” whatever that is :
cat Thunar/accels.scm
; Thunar GtkAccelMap rc-file -*- scheme -*-
; this file is an automated accelerator map dump
;
(gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/ThunarActions/uca-action-2-2" "F4")
(gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/ThunarActions/uca-action-1-1" "F4"
The files user-dirs* located in /home/x/.config have $HOME in them e.g.
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run.
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
So WHERE the HELL is Thunar getting /home/kali from ? I don’t even know if it’s that - it might be ~kali?
I looked in ~kali, and can’t find any file with that username hardcoded into it :
┌──(root㉿ilak)-[/home/kali]
└─# pwd
/home/kali
┌──(root㉿ilak)-[/home/kali]
└─# find . -iname \.\* -type f -exec grep kali {} \;
Xsession: X session started for kali at Sun Sep 24 01:20:38 AM UTC 2023
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/kali/.Xauthority
localuser:kali being added to access control list
grep: ./.Xauthority: binary file matches
Surely it can’t be in .Xauthority? It’s a binary file… How does one edit it? Can it be deleted and will it be created on startup / desktop restart ???
I renamed .Xauthority and then ran an X app over SSH (xeyes) and that looks to have rebuilt the MIT Magic Cookie file $HOME/.Xauthority…
But I’m still getting the error :
“Failed to execute the … blah blah” because it’s got /home/kali hardcoded into it - and I can’t find which file has that in it…
Just tried to purge thunar - and guess what? It also purged xfce4-desktop* (yes and a whole bunch of other stuff!)… I reckon what I should have done is maybe installed nemo, set that as the preferred file manager…
Trying to re-install it now… It’s actully still running - surprising that it let me pull the rug out from under it - while it was still running… Let’s see how I go…
I might have to try this :
See if the Kali arm64 installer will boot off a USB thumb drive on a Pi4 (the Pi does have USB boot enabled) - and then allow me to install to SD-Card…
I’d rather not though - just remembered I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to get a “hat” (I guess its kinda like an ISA [definitely not like a PCI) card that sits atop the GPIO pins on a Pi) that works as a UPS - a “PiJuice” hat - it’s basically so that when I close the lid on the NextDock the Pi his using as display keyboard and mouse, it doesn’t shutoff power to the Pi.
** “(times FIFTEEN CHARS!)” only refers to the Discourse prompt telling me my subject must be at at least 15 chars long…
I’ve given up trying to fix Thunar - I just removed the icon from the top panel, and added Nemo to my plank dock…
Note also : There’s an option in XFCE Settings Manager for “File Manager Settings” but nothing there about which folder to default to… Anyway - I’m glad, I kinda hate the icon for Thunar anyway…
