Fatdog64-800RC [13 Feb 2019] [CLOSED]

[jamesbond]

Glad to hear you managed to clear it up. I just want to confirm that yes, the mkisofs parameters used in the original ISO creation, the one used in remaster, and the one used by save2session, all of them must be identical (and indeed they are - you can look into the FD ISO builder's build-iso.sh and see the parameter for the creation of the ISO).

As for the slow-boot - did you try to boot with the initrd-nano (the last entry in the boot menu)? Did it not help you?

[jajk]

Managed to get Fatdog installed and booting off hard drive on Acer ES 15 Laptop despite the (intentionally) buggy UEFI implementation designed to keep Win 10 as the only option.
Love the new O.S apart from not being able to connect to a wifi accesspoint.
The wifi applet can see my accesspoint but something is not working when I try to enter the password and connect......no connection is established.
Any clues as to why I cant' connect? Is there some information I can provide to make it clearer what is going on?

[mavrothal]

Trying RC on mbp works almost perfect
A small typo on mbp-kb-backlight.sh blocks it from working (#!/bin[dot]dash).
Also the volume control keys are not working and need some xmodmap(ing) to do the job.

Code: Select all

keycode 113 = XF86AudioMute NoSymbol XF86AudioMute
keycode 114 = XF86AudioLowerVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 115 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioRaiseVolume

You may want to add in in rc.platform.
Other than that nothing major besides the remaining spot/Downloads on fat/vfat media that is still useless and makes running the browser as spot annoying at least.
Also, is a kernel change still in the cards?

[quirkian2new]

Thanks guys for 800RC. just downloaded, and posting from 800RC now

I noted on page 1 there is -----> fatdog-remaster supports "medium initrd" (kernel modules inside, basesfs outside)

I usually fatdog with huge initrd if 4gb ram or more, small initrd with 2gb ram or less.

My last remaster is FD702 and haven't done any remaster after FD702.

Medium initrd sounds similar to small initrd in that the basesfs is outside, and just want to know how different is medium initrd with small initrd ? (any boot parameter )



My laptop is 2 gb ram and i am considering making a remaster for it when 800 final. (of course running in a manner similar to small initrd, that is, basesfs NOT totally load into ram )

[stemsee]

Medium initrd sounds similar to small initrd in that the basesfs is outside, and just want to know how different is medium initrd with small initrd ? (any boot parameter )

I suggested this option, so maybe I can offer some info.

When remastering with the huge option the modules and aufs 'stuff' is in the basesfs. For swapping kernels manually, at least, this adds a few more steps which could provide opportunities for mistakes. With the small initrd option the basesfs and kenel-modules.sfs are both inddependently in the initrd. The medium option gives the advantage of the maybe very big basesfs not in the initrd and not then copied into ram, but the initrd and the modules are independently in the initrd and loaded to ram. This is more similar to regular pups.

stemsee

[rufwoof]

As for the slow-boot [DVD] - did you try to boot with the initrd-nano (the last entry in the boot menu)? Did it not help you?

No I didn't try it. Humongous takes around 4 minutes power button pressed to desktop, with the fd65.sfs outside of initrd that halves down to around 2 minutes which is fine for me as typically its a case of hit the power on button and head for the Out house to prepare a brew (tea/coffee) which also takes around the same time. In order to boot direct to desktop I have to change the DVD's isolinux.cfg to default to fatdog-multi ... and edit the kernel boot line to include basesfs=ram:local ...etc. so a remaster (or modification to the iso) is required anyway. Seem to recall trying nano in a (much) earlier version of FD and hit problems and haven't tried it since .. but I should/will.

[rufwoof]

When remastering with the huge option the modules and aufs 'stuff' is in the basesfs. For swapping kernels manually, at least, this adds a few more steps which could provide opportunities for mistakes. With the small initrd option the basesfs and kenel-modules.sfs are both independently in the initrd. The medium option gives the advantage of the maybe very big basesfs not in the initrd and not then copied into ram, but the initrd and the modules are independently in the initrd and loaded to ram. This is more similar to regular pups.

I think (not sure) that when remastering 800 humongous I opted for the small option and did see separate fd64.sfs and kernel-modules.sfs in the temporary folders, but in the final iso I just have a small initrd (4.5MB) and a 418MB fd64.sfs ... and no separate kernel-modules.sfs.

So I think its humongous has all inside initrd, medium has separate initrd, fd64.sfs and kernel-modules sfs, small has separate initrd and fd64.sfs (with kernel modules contained within that).

[rufwoof]

My laptop is 2 gb ram and i am considering making a remaster for it when 800 final. (of course running in a manner similar to small initrd, that is, basesfs NOT totally load into ram )

I'm running fine with 2GB and everything loaded into ram. Multisession DVD booting so once booted the DVD can be ejected and just has to be reinserted for saving (I have Event Managers save session interval set to zero so it only ever saves when I click the desktop Save Session icon). Mostly, once set up I don't save as all data is outside of FD). I think you select which of humongous/medium/small more in alignment to how you boot rather than for memory considerations, except perhaps if available memory is very limited (500MB or less I guess).

[don570]

I suggest that Create Nvidia Driver SFS page be re-written
http://www.lightofdawn.org/wiki/wiki.cg ... aDriverSFS

since there is no patch for current nvidia download. This simplifies the instructions.

https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/ ... 418.30.run

___________________________________________________

[quirkian2new]

so from the readings, i presume that medium initrd will probably behaves exactly like small initrd, but medium initrd has the advantage of more easily change/swap kernel than small initrd (just download and replace the kernel-modules.sfs within the medium initrd) ?

i would also presume that the size of the medium initrd is approx. 70MB ?

thanks

[jamesbond]

1. standard initrd (aka huge initrd aka humongous initrd)
- fd64.sfs inside
- kernel-modules.sfs inside
- size ~400MB
- easy to replace kernel (just replace kernel-modules.sfs and vmlinuz)

2. small initrd
- fd64.sfs outside, merged with kernel-modules.sfs
- no independent kernel-modules.sfs inside or outside
- minimum number of kernel modules (individual modules) inside
- size less than 10MB
- not easy to replace kernel as kernel-modules.sfs is split into two:
=> large part is merged with fd64.sfs
=> a few small ones are merged inside initrd.

3. medium initrd
- fd64.sfs outside
- kernel-modules.sfs inside
- size ~70MB
- easy to replace kernel (just replace kernel-modules.sfs and vmlinuz)
- if you frugal install on hdd/usb you can do this manually yourself, just unpack initrd, take fd64.sfs out; and re-pack initrd.

4. nano initrd
- fd64.sfs outside
- kernel-modules.sfs outside
- size ~4MB
- no kernel-dependent stuff inside initrd
- may not boot properly if hardware requires kernel modules (e.g can't select from multiple savefiles/savedirs if keyboard requires kernel module loaded)
- if you frugal install on hdd/usb you can do this manually yourself, just unpack initrd, take fd64.sfs & kernel-modules.sfs out; and re-pack initrd.

Additional notes:
- The ISO contains both huge initrd and nano initrd. Remaster support 1/2/3 not but 4.
- even though fd64.sfs and kernel-modules.sfs are outside they can be loaded into RAM too if you wish.

[jamesbond]

Trying RC on mbp works almost perfect

Thanks to your feedback

A small typo on mbp-kb-backlight.sh blocks it from working (#!/bin[dot]dash).
Also the volume control keys are not working and need some xmodmap(ing) to do the job.

Code: Select all

keycode 113 = XF86AudioMute NoSymbol XF86AudioMute
keycode 114 = XF86AudioLowerVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 115 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume NoSymbol XF86AudioRaiseVolume

You may want to add in in rc.platform.

All done.

Other than that nothing major besides the remaining spot/Downloads on fat/vfat media that is still useless and makes running the browser as spot annoying at least.

I thought we've fixed this. Let me check again.

Also, is a kernel change still in the cards?

Yes

[jamesbond]

Managed to get Fatdog installed and booting off hard drive on Acer ES 15 Laptop despite the (intentionally) buggy UEFI implementation designed to keep Win 10 as the only option.
Love the new O.S apart from not being able to connect to a wifi accesspoint.
The wifi applet can see my accesspoint but something is not working when I try to enter the password and connect......no connection is established.
Any clues as to why I cant' connect? Is there some information I can provide to make it clearer what is going on?

Please launch Control Panel, choose the Utilities tab, scroll down to the bottom, and run "Bug Report Info Collector".

[jamesbond]

How to you drop capabilities in Fatdog?

EDIT: Sorted. I've added new lines into this otherwise it just widens out the forum (posting) width too much)

Good to know. So what went wrong before?

[jamesbond]

I suggest that Create Nvidia Driver SFS page be re-written
http://www.lightofdawn.org/wiki/wiki.cg ... aDriverSFS

since there is no patch for current nvidia download. This simplifies the instructions.

Thanks. I think the general statement is still true in the sense that newer kernels usually do need patches. The article pointed out at the time of writing 4.14 was the bleeding edge, so it needed patches. By now of course it isn't true anymore, but I also said that "older kernels don't need it".

[dancytron]

I installed it and removed Seamonkey and flash. Then I installed gtk3 and tested the portable Firefox (Fred's version) that I normally use in Debian Dog (and occasionally in various Puppies).

These are the menu.1st entries I am using.

title Fatdog800 fastboot
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /Fatdog800/vmlinuz rootfstype=ramfs savefile=ram:local:/Fatdog800/fd64save mergeinitrd1=local:/Fatdog800/initrd waitdev=3
initrd /Fatdog800/initrd-nano

title Fatdog800 fastboot No save file
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /Fatdog800/vmlinuz rootfstype=ramfs savefile=none mergeinitrd1=local:/Fatdog800/initrd waitdev=3
initrd /Fatdog800/initrd-nano

All works well so far.

Looks like a great job.

Continuing. . .

Removed libreoffice and dictionary, gimp pidgin avidemux transmission-qt5 and compton. Installed lxterminal. Changed defaults to portable firefox and lxterminal as applicable.

Added my /ect/asound.conf from Debian Dog ( See second example - https://alien.slackbook.org/blog/adding ... nd-levels/ ) which worked just fine.

Remastered with small initrd. ISO file was 316 meg.

Everything works great. It is at least as fast as Debian Dog Stretch, maybe even faster.

This is the menu.1st entry.

title Fatdog800 remaster
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /Fatdog800/vmlinuz rootfstype=ramfs savefile=ram:local:/Fatdog800/fd64save basesfs=ram:local:/Fatdog800/fd64.sfs waitdev=3
initrd /Fatdog800/initrd

[jake29]

I'm now using Fatdog64 regularly on a laptop, and on a few recent occasions did not pay close attention to battery-level - the result was a sudden system power-off.

Is there any utility within Fatdog64 currently that could force standby mode at low battery-level (i.e 5%)? Something like this would be a little more user-friendly to laptop users.

Apologies for making a feature request at RC stage, but this experience has been quite jarring.

EDIT: If a desktop notification warning is supposed to occur at 15%, I have not observed this.

[rufwoof]

How to you drop capabilities in Fatdog?
EDIT: Sorted. I've added new lines into this otherwise it just widens out the forum (posting) width too much)

Good to know. So what went wrong before?

When I was just 'trying it' from the command line, I forgot the -- at the end (otherwise just returns).

For example as root run capsh --print and you'll see all the capabilities that are permitted and one will be cap_chown, Then run

Code: Select all

# capsh --drop=cap_chown --
# touch tst
# ls -l tst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Feb 17 19:32 tst
# chown spot:spot tst
chown: tst: Operation not permitted

After the first line above you're back at the shell prompt, but if you omitted the -- at the end then you're not in a child process, but back at the parent level, that still has chown capabilities.

The -- signifies what to execute after the capabilities have been adjusted i.e. more usually in code you put a script path/name after the --

[SFR]

I'm now using Fatdog64 regularly on a laptop, and on a few recent occasions did not pay close attention to battery-level - the result was a sudden system power-off.

Is there any utility within Fatdog64 currently that could force standby mode at low battery-level (i.e 5%)? Something like this would be a little more user-friendly to laptop users.

Apologies for making a feature request at RC stage, but this experience has been quite jarring.

EDIT: If a desktop notification warning is supposed to occur at 15%, I have not observed this.

Ok, what happens when you launch this in terminal, when AC is disconnected:

Code: Select all

batt-low.sh low

You should get a yaf-splash with a warning message.
If not, what's the output of:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/*/state /sys/class/power_supply/*/online

Greetings!

[jake29]

Ok, what happens when you launch this in terminal, when AC is disconnected:

Code: Select all

batt-low.sh low

You should get a yaf-splash with a warning message.

I just now tested and the 15% warning did appear without my intervention. This is the first time I have seen the message, perhaps previously I had clicked it away without noticing.