[SOLVED] I found the Windows logo being used to identify a Linux kernel! Is this normal?

hazel · 12-03-2016, 01:50 PM

I'm teaching a friend to use Linux (she loves it so far). Yesterday we discussed how computers boot and I showed her the contents of the /boot directory. This was in AntiX using the rox file manager. I was shocked to see that the Windows logo was the icon used for the kernel. Has anyone else ever seen this?

ps I've just looked with pcmanfm in Debian, and that uses a violet diamond with gear wheels inside it.

rokytnji · 12-03-2016, 01:57 PM

I'll wait for Anti to reply since he builds the kernels. But I see what you mean <but not concerned about it on my end>

http://postmyimage.com/img2/205_screeny.jpg

Edit. Are you using rox file manager in Debian. Just wondering if thumbnails in rox file manager is the reason for the kernel image being a windows logo?

Because. If you had used SpaceFM file manager instead to show /boot folder. This is what you would have seen.

http://postmyimage.com/img2/315_screenshot1.jpg

hazel · 12-03-2016, 02:20 PM

Just installed rox in Debian and it uses the standard "binary file" icon for both the kernel and the initrd. The Windows logo seems to be an AntiX thing.

You might not mind seeing the Linux kernel labelled as Windows software but I find it creepy.

rokytnji · 12-03-2016, 02:32 PM

Do you have

Code:

$ apt-cache policy tumbler
tumbler:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.1.30-1+b1
  Version table:
     0.1.30-1+b1 0
        500 http://ftp.gr.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main i386 Packages

installed in Debian? As you can see. I do not in AntiX.

Quote:

You might not mind seeing the Linux kernel labelled as Windows software but I find it creepy

Fair enough. I would not put so much weight into a thumbnail as calling it a label.
But to each their own.

Ztcoracat · 12-03-2016, 04:35 PM

Quote:

I'm teaching a friend to use Linux (she loves it so far).

Congrads,glad to hear it.

anticapitalista · 12-03-2016, 05:04 PM

nothing sinister. Just change the rox icon theme

replica9000 · 12-03-2016, 11:47 PM

I would think the file manager isn't really aware that the file is a kernel. It just sees a file without an known extention, and is trying to guess the file type.

hazel · 12-04-2016, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by replica9000

I would think the file manager isn't really aware that the file is a kernel. It just sees a file without an known extension, and is trying to guess the file type.

But file knows it's a kernel so it must be in the magic numbers database. Don't file managers use magic numbers to identify files?

Habitual · 12-04-2016, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

But file knows it's a kernel so it must be in the magic numbers database. Don't file managers use magic numbers to identify files?

Easy test. change the file extension temporarily in the file manager and do a refresh.
See if the icon for the type changes.

hazel · 12-04-2016, 11:51 AM

Apparently that Windows logo stands for "dos executable". It comes from a theme called Faenza-Cupertino. Why rox thinks a Linux kernel is a dos executable I have no idea, but the cure turns out to be easy. Rox gives you a "change icon" option in the contextual menu for a file. On my AntiX system (oldboy upstairs) I changed the icon to the gear wheel for a Linux executable.

I could do the same for Michelle but I probably won't bother because that logo isn't going to bother her. She's a complete computer virgin and probably doesn't even know what that pesky flying window represents.

btw that's not the only weird association that rox makes. For example the grub modules seem to be taken for audio files; their icon is a pair of bright blue quavers. In that case it's definitely the filename suffix that's being read and not any kind of magic number. Grub modules have the suffix .mod and, according to Wikipedia, there's a music format called MOD.

anticapitalista · 12-04-2016, 05:14 PM

Not only rox, but spacefm as well (on antiX-full). The plot thickens ...

replica9000 · 12-04-2016, 06:51 PM

I use Dolphin, which shows a gear with a DOS label.

jlliagre · 12-07-2016, 07:19 PM

The kernel file starts with the magic number MZ which is precisely used by DOS executables.

This issue has already been reported, see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugr...cgi?bug=680175 but being only cosmetic, might stay uncorrected for a long time, if ever...

hazel · 12-08-2016, 01:02 AM

Now that's what I call a solution! I solved the problem in practice but you've explained how it arose. Well done!