Black Greyhound Ultra

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playdayz
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Black Greyhound Ultra

#1 Post by playdayz »

Like the original Greyhound it is very easy to experience Black Greyhound Ultra without installing a new ISO or making any permanent changes to your current Puppy. Uninstall one pet and reboot and you will be back to where you are now. But you might not want to go back! Oh, I am having fun with all this hype--But it really is just as easy as 1 - 2 - 3! You can check the pictures of Htop and the styles to get some idea of what to expect. One of the Htop shots is the default Puppy 4.1 (which is already light and fast, of course, compared to most other distributions) and the other is Black Greyhound Ultra (note the tasks and the memory usage). The styles are 3 of the 20 that come with Blackbox (plus the dock).

Image

Image

1. To try Black Greyhound Ultra, please download and install this pet of Blackbox 0.70.1. Blackbox was the original "box" window manager and the ancestor of Openbox and Fluxbox, etc. This Blackbox comes with 20 nice styles, which were distributed with the previous version 0.65.

http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy400/blackbox.pet

2. Once Blackbox is installed, then open the Menu to System and Pprocess process manager. Select and End Process your choice of the following processes (I end them all--they will all restart when you reboot).
  • /sbin/udevd -daemon
    syslog m -0
    klogd
    /bin/sh /sbin/pup_event_frontend_d
    absvolume -bg #DCDAD5
    xload -nolable -bg #888888 -fg red -hl white
    freememapplet
    asapm - 4
    blinky-bg #DCDAD5
    /usr/bin/inotifywait -e modify --format % /tmp/pup_e
3. With the "superfluous" processes ended, again choose Menu and Shutdown: Exit to Prompt. At the prompt enter

Code: Select all

xinit /usr/local/bin/blackbox
to start the Blackbox window manager.

It's very simple isn't it? But don't panic--Just Right-Click for the Menu. There you go--the fastest Puppy on the Planet, and probably in the running for the fastest Linux (because Puppy is such a good foundation to begin with). Well, maybe we should say, the fastest linux with X and a menu and a full load of programs. It's all in fun, you know, but it *is* fast.

You can take a look at the Styles from the Styles Menu entry and, of course, start all your programs. These styles are all drawn on the screen; they are not pixmaps. You can look at the style files (as text) in /usr/local/share/blackbox/styles and even modify them since they are reasonably easy to firgure out.

If you would like a dock on the right edge of the screen, open Utility: Gexec and type "bbdock" and press Enter. You can change the programs that are on the dock by editing /root/.bbdockrc.
Image
You might want to use Top to confirm that you are using about 25% less memory and running 50% fewer processes. In the original Greyhound I left Rox running to provide the Desktop and because it started quicker that way for file operations--however, Black Greyhound is so fast that it doesn't even need that--Rox starts fast enough, just like all other programs. Plus the elegant desktop is characteristic of Blackbox.

Yikes, I almost forgot to mention that it is thanks to plinej's menu program for Fluxbox that this Blackbox has a Puppy menu as well as a Refresh Menu option that means you don't have to restart the window manager to update the menu.

As promised, it is a simple thing to restore your old Puppy; just reboot and then uninstal the Blackbox pet if you don't want to keep it. Thanks for giving it a try.

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Eyes-Only
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#2 Post by Eyes-Only »

Hiya Playdayz! :)

You're right! This does look like fun! I can't wait to try this out! I've toyed with Blackbox as a shell in Windows 98se in days gone by (years ago, same version nearly) so it's about time to give it a whirl on its native Linux platform to see how well it works out here. I know that since coming to Linux 3 years ago I've often been tempted but there are sooo many other window managers out there, you know? Time for me to get back to the basics once again. LOL! (Actually, in its heyday, Blackbox was anything BUT "the basics". ;) )

Thanks for taking your time to share this with us my fellow Puppian friend. Wow... I'm surprised nobody else has commented about at least wanting to give it a shot. I would've thought Trapster, with his Fluxbox, would've wanted to try "The Original". :lol:

Thanks again!

Amicalement/Cheers!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

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trapster
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#3 Post by trapster »

You're right Eyes-Only..I just now found this thread and I will be giving it a try.

I try others and just keep coming back to flux.
trapster
Maine, USA

Asus eeepc 1005HA PU1X-BK
Frugal install: Slacko
Currently using full install: DebianDog

magerlab
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#4 Post by magerlab »

is it possible to write a script to kill all those daemons and apps that you mentioned?

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trapster
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#5 Post by trapster »

So this is what flux's daddy looked like :D
Very nice!
I'll play with it for a while but I do have my fluxbox just the way I like it. I'd have to go thru all the tweaking all over again:(

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trapster
Maine, USA

Asus eeepc 1005HA PU1X-BK
Frugal install: Slacko
Currently using full install: DebianDog

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Eyes-Only
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#6 Post by Eyes-Only »

Nice Trap! Not really much to configure from what I could see as, unlike Fluxbox, it doesn't seem to create a "/.blackbox" directory in "/root", so I guess one would more or less configure the individual "styles" themselves? Been a LOOONG time since I used Blackbox---and then it wasn't on Linux at that. :(

Yours does look nice though. What I did was just to enable in the "startblackbox" file my usual apps, and of course I ran ROX-filer for my wallpaper. So over-all I didn't save anything CPU-wise. By the time I was done it was like my Fluxbox install. LOL! Fun to play anyway. ;)

BTW Trap: Do you happen to have a current screenshot of your Flux desktop floating around here which one could refer to by any chance? Love to see it! TIA.

Amicalement/Cheers!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

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playdayz
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#7 Post by playdayz »

@Eyes-Only. Merci, mon ami. I was afraid Black Greyhound was going to die at the pound. But you saved him. I can always count on you to find the lean and fast alterantives ;-) Since Puppy is running in root, I just use the congfiguration files at /usr/local/share/blackbox. The "styles" can be configured inthe /styles/ directory.

@Trapster. Thank you for the good looking screen shot.

@magerlab. Here is the script I use. Someone could surely make a better one--this was all I knew how to do--but it doesn't kill "pup_event_frointend_d--you could see I was experimenting--it seems like I did it once but I cant' rememer how

Code: Select all

killall -9 xload
killall -9 blinky
killall -9 asapm 
killall -9 freememapplet
killall -9 absvolume    
killall -9 udevd               
killall -9 inotifywait
killall -9 klogd
killall -9 syslogd
killall -9 pup_event_frontend_d
killall -9 pup_event_frontend  
killall -9 pup_event_front

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trapster
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#8 Post by trapster »

@ Eyes-Only

Here

Here

Here

And here is my current desktop with lxpanel, beep media player, gkrellm and rainlender calendar.
Image

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trapster
Maine, USA

Asus eeepc 1005HA PU1X-BK
Frugal install: Slacko
Currently using full install: DebianDog

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Eyes-Only
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#9 Post by Eyes-Only »

No problem Playdayz! My pleasure as I'm the one who's been having the fun especially here in using the window manager! ;) Two thumbs up mon ami!

@Trapster: All I can say is this: WOW! :shock:

Umm... plus the fact that I've added those shots (all of them) to my Puppy Screenie Directory which I use to show folks just what the "Wee Pup can do." These show we're not just some little "fly by night distro" but actually something that's functional as well as beautiful.

Thanks for your time Trap! Very much appreciated on this end. Ditto as well for you Playdayz!

Amicalement mes amis Puppiens!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge d'Acadie"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

_MegadetH_
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#10 Post by _MegadetH_ »

After installing blackbox, i can't run it. I close all processes and I logout. I type xinit /usr/local/bin/blackbox and I got this error message:

waiting for x server to shut down FreeFont Path: FPE "usr/X11R77lib/x11/fontrs/misc/" refcount is 2, should be 1, fixing.

thanx for help.

Rait

#11 Post by Rait »

ImageImage

I needed a panel so im using fspanel.

_MegadetH_ - alt + cntr + backspace to kill X and then type xwin blackbox

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#12 Post by _MegadetH_ »

@Rait: I tried and when it restarts with blackbox It doesn't show the bar and with right click I have only a menu with "xterm, restart, exit". No application menu. :( is there something wrong with my installation?

Rait

#13 Post by Rait »

_MegadetH_ wrote:@Rait: I tried and when it restarts with blackbox It doesn't show the bar and with right click I have only a menu with "xterm, restart, exit". No application menu. :( is there something wrong with my installation?
Maybe u should try to reinstall that package and edit ur .xinitrc

Code: Select all

#exec $CURRENTWM
#v2.11 GuestToo suggested this improvement...
which $CURRENTWM && exec $CURRENTWM
[ -x $CURRENTWM ] && exec $CURRENTWM

exec blackbox
Instead of exec jwm and restart x.

magerlab
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#14 Post by magerlab »

you ''l also need a tray
i like stalonetray
and tint looks fine

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Eyes-Only
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#15 Post by Eyes-Only »

Megadeth? When you "ctrl + atl + backspace" to drop out of your current window manager and to the command line the correct command to type from there is:

Code: Select all

xwin startblackbox
This starts the "startblackbox" file located in "/usr/local/bin" which likewise starts additional items along the way and will run (or should run anyway) the XDG menu system to give you a semi-working menu to start with...

Once up and you right-click upon your desktop you should be able to go down to "Refresh Menu" as then that will have been added to your menu through the proper start-up sequence.

At least this is what happened for me on both Puppy-4 and 4.1 at any rate. I hope that this will help you some? Let us know, okie?

Amicalement/Cheers!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

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ttuuxxx
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#16 Post by ttuuxxx »

your probably missing this
ttuuxxx
Attachments
blackbox.pet
(325 Bytes) Downloaded 574 times
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

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playdayz
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#17 Post by playdayz »

@_MegadetH_ , Are you using the blackbox from the first message in this thread, or the blackbox from PetGet package manager. If you are using the one from this thread then the "xinit /usr/local/bin/blackbox" should work. There is not much that can go wrong if blackbox is in /usr/local/bin and its configuration files are in /usr/local/share/blackbox.

@Eyes-Only, the blackbox.pet in the first message of this thread doesn't need to run startblackbox to have a working xdg menu--it has plinej's wonderful program built in so all you have to do is to choose Refresh Menu from the menu. It shouldn't hurt of course.

I don't know what ttuuxxx's pet is right above this message, but its confusing to have the same name as the blackbox.pet in the first message of this thread.

_MegadetH_
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#18 Post by _MegadetH_ »

playdayz wrote:@_MegadetH_ , Are you using the blackbox from the first message in this thread, or the blackbox from PetGet package manager. If you are using the one from this thread then the "xinit /usr/local/bin/blackbox" should work. There is not much that can go wrong if blackbox is in /usr/local/bin and its configuration files are in /usr/local/share/blackbox.
I installed blackbox from this thread. Anyway now I can't try because I'm formatting the whole drive and installing puppy and win. I'll try again when I'll have pc ready. thnx

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playdayz
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#19 Post by playdayz »

@_MegadetH_ , I think this might be it. Where you using xvesa by any chance, as opposed to xorg? It finally dawned on me that what you described was the same thing I saw when I started with xvesa. Blank colored screen with nothing but an arrow, with right-click menu. I didn't think quick enough to try the xvesa setup wizard--I just exited and changed to xorg.

_MegadetH_
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#20 Post by _MegadetH_ »

playdayz wrote:@_MegadetH_ , I think this might be it. Where you using xvesa by any chance, as opposed to xorg? It finally dawned on me that what you described was the same thing I saw when I started with xvesa. Blank colored screen with nothing but an arrow, with right-click menu. I didn't think quick enough to try the xvesa setup wizard--I just exited and changed to xorg.
I think I was using xvesa. I will try to change to xorg and see what happens. i'm going to have a new fresh puppy installation, I will try with it.

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