Weird Graphical Glitching after installing Precise Puppy

Please post any bugs you have found
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dogbert0360
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 03:18

Weird Graphical Glitching after installing Precise Puppy

#1 Post by dogbert0360 »

So far I've liked installing Precise Puppy 5.4 but now I've been experiencing some weird graphical glitching. I wish that I could take a screen capture to show you what I'm talking about but it would be very difficult since part of the glitching are icons that have just square boxes for fonts. And the icons on my desktop are now just upside down red triangles with the same small box shape objects for fonts.

Has anyone else experienced this yet. Maybe someone can upload a screen capture so you can see what I mean.

HELP!!!!!!... :(

julakali
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat 03 Nov 2012, 13:45

#2 Post by julakali »

Same here.
I just installed puppy (grubconfig doesn't work as it can't find stage1, grub4dos works) and used the package manager to install clementine afterwards.

During the installation of clementine, all characters changed to boxes.
After a restart, all icons turned invalid, too.

Left me with a completely useless system.

Oh, and i took a "screenshot".
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rjbrewer
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#3 Post by rjbrewer »

julakali wrote:Same here.
I just installed puppy (grubconfig doesn't work as it can't find stage1, grub4dos works) and used the package manager to install clementine afterwards.

During the installation of clementine, all characters changed to boxes.
After a restart, all icons turned invalid, too.

Left me with a completely useless system.

Oh, and i took a "screenshot".
Don't post images over "600" in size.

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

slenkar
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#4 Post by slenkar »

which graphics cards are you using

julakali
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Joined: Sat 03 Nov 2012, 13:45

#5 Post by julakali »

Sorry for the image beeing to wide.
I don't think it has to do anything with graphics card.
It's an Pentium M based Notebook with Intel onboard graphics.

I just tried again, installed puppy - everything works - installed exaile this time - same bug.

edit:
Did i mention i'm using retropuppy 5.4?

julakali
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Joined: Sat 03 Nov 2012, 13:45

#6 Post by julakali »

gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders has an empty output on that broken system, while it lists many loaders on a working system!

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rcrsn51
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#7 Post by rcrsn51 »

julakali wrote:Did i mention i'm using retropuppy 5.4?
No. This version is advertised as strictly experimental. As a Puppy beginner, you would be better off starting with established versions.

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rjbrewer
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#8 Post by rjbrewer »

The thread for "Precise" bugs already exists;
Puppy Precise 5.4.

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

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01micko
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#9 Post by 01micko »

Code: Select all

gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders --update-cache
Restart X and reset your wallpaper. Report back.

As far as I know, a similar command is run in only /etc/rc.d/rc.update. I disagree with how it's handled in rc.update and change it for Slacko versions.

-------------------------------------------

Rationale:

At some point the system starts looking for loaders.cache in /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0. If that happens then looaders.cache becomes a broken symlink. This is because /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu is actually a symlink to /usr/lib

Code: Select all

# pwd
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0
# ls
loaders  loaders.cache
# readlink loaders.cache
../../../../etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders
# cd ../../../../etc
# pwd
/usr/etc
# ls
#
Nothing in /usr/etc. I don't know at what point the system starts looking in i386-linux-gnu but I do know creating the actual file instead of a symlink is a solution [with the command I posted above].
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

zul
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon 05 Nov 2012, 10:11

#10 Post by zul »

to fix that bug on your linux retro precise puppy

just make a symbolic link directory of pango and gdk-pixbuff-2.0 into /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu

Code: Select all

#ln -s /usr/lib/pango /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pango

#ln -s /usr/lib/gdk-pixbuff-2.0 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuff-2.0
and then restart, also dont forget to change your wallpaper :lol:

well it works for me... :P

Repip
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu 06 Dec 2012, 04:45

Weird Characters and Icons after downloading VLC Player

#11 Post by Repip »

Hi,
I am very new user, only 1 week old .. I have been running Precise Puppy Ver 5.4.2 on a SD Card for the past week and all worked very well.
Only extra programs I had loaded on the SD card were Firefox Browser and VLC Player.
I decided to install on Hard Drive and it worked fine until I downloaded VLC Player when near the end of the package download the screens displayed square boxes instead of characters.
I closed down the package manager and rebooted the machine only to find that now all the icons have changed to Triangles.
I have started from scratch again .. did a full re-load onto HD and did same downloads ie Mozilla FireFox ..Ok ... however VLC Player all squares again.
The machine works fine with the SD card however not with HD ??
I have read this Thread about making a symbolic link , however don't have a clue what that means .... pity !!
Can anyone help
I am using a Aspire One laptop
regards
Repip

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#12 Post by npierce »

Hi Repip,

Welcome to the forum.

Repip wrote:I am very new user, only 1 week old ..
Repip wrote:I have read this Thread about making a symbolic link , however don't have a clue what that means .... pity !!
Since it sounds like you may be new to entering commands in a terminal window, I'll try to provide enough detail. Forgive me if I tell you things that you already know.

Normally you would open a terminal window by clicking on the desktop icon labeled "Console", but you can't read those labels at the moment. On most Puppies, that icon is in the top row on the far right unless you relocated it. Try clicking that icon and a window named "urxvt" should open.

(If that doesn't work, you can use the "Urxvt terminal emulator" item in the menus, usually in the Utility sub-menu.)

In order to help us troubleshoot this problem, it would be very helpful if you would report the output from a couple of commands in your next post. The best way to enter suggested commands is to copy and paste them. Pasting in the terminal window is probably different from what you may be used to in other applications. Once you have copied one line from the "Code" box below, go to the urxvt window by giving it a left-click, then paste by clicking your middle mouse button. (If you don't have a middle mouse button, hold your Shift key and press your Insert key.) Finally, press Enter to execute the command.

Repeat for the other command.

(If copying and pasting don't work for you, you can always type the command. Please note that there are no one digits ('1') in the following commands, only lower case L's ('l').)

What output do you get for these commands?

Code: Select all

ls -ld /lib/i386-linux-gnu
ls -ld /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
This will tell us if those items are still symbolic links, as they should be, or if the installation of VLC Player changed them to directories or removed them entirely.

Once we know what has happened, we can provide further advice.

Repip
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu 06 Dec 2012, 04:45

Weird Graphical Glitching after installing Precise Puppy

#13 Post by Repip »

Hi npierce,
Whatever you tell me is all new ... so please treat me "gently" ... ha ..
I found urxvt and typed in the commands, tried to Copy/Paste results Ctrl-C to a text document to attach to this email however that obviously doesn't work in Linux, so wrote the results down , here they are.

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2 Nov 29 11:28 /lib/i386-linux-gnu->./

next command returns this

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 6 14:32 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu

strange that everything works Ok if I boot up on the SD Card ?
Is it possible to get the system / applications that I want onto the SD Card and then merely "copy" all that onto the Hard Drive ie without doing a "install" onto the hard drive? or doesn't it work that way ?

PS
Thankyou for the help, I am really keen to learn a little about Puppy and migrate from Windows, Puppy appears so far to be so much faster and simpler.

Repip (Bruce)

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#14 Post by npierce »

Hi Repip,

Thanks for reporting the results of those commands.

Yes, although copying and pasting with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V works with many applications in Puppy, copying and pasting to and from the urxvt window requires another method. To copy, just highlight the text with your mouse and left button, like usual, but don't press Ctrl-C. To paste, left-click on the window that you want to paste to, then click the middle mouse button -- nowadays that button is usually a scroll wheel (in this case, press it, don't spin it). If you have no such button or scroll wheel, you can click both left and right buttons simultaneously, but that usually requires a bit of practice to get it right -- at first it can be a little frustrating. Alternatively, pasting into the urxvt window can be done with Shift-Insert, but that doesn't work going the other way (pasting text from the urxvt window into another application).

Anyway, your hand copying worked fine. The results indicate that installing VLC Player didn't affect /lib/i386-linux-gnu, but did change /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu from a symbolic link (or "symlink") to a directory. (The 'l' at the start of the output for /lib/i386-linux-gnu indicates that it is still a link; the 'd' at the start of the output for /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu indicates that it is now a directory.) (If you are unsure of what a symlink is, feel free to ask.)

You are not the only one who has run into this problem. By providing that output, you have helped bring us closer to tracking down the root cause of the problem.

As you say, it seems strange that this works fine with your SD card. But Puppy does things differently internally depending upon what mode it is running in, so a bug that shows up in one mode may not appear in another.

It will help if we know what mode your Puppy is running in, and how the DISTRO_ARCHDIR variable is defined. Please report the results of these two commands:

Code: Select all

grep ARCHDIR /etc/DISTRO_SPECS
grep PUPMODE /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE
Of course I know that you also want to get your icons and their captions back, and not just report results of various commands. These commands may do that:

Code: Select all

mkdir /root/temporary_vlc_libs
cp -a -f /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/* /root/temporary_vlc_libs/
sync
rm -r -f /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
ln -s ./ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
These commands will save some of the files that were installed with VLC Player in a temporary directory, then remove the directory that was created, and recreate the correct symlink.

After running these commands, save anything you are working on and restart the X Server by going to the menu and choosing Restart X Server from the Shutdown submenu. I think that may restore your icons and their text. If not, try rebooting the PC.

Please, let us know if that works.

If it does work, you may then be able to get VLC Player to work after executing the following command. Since VLC Player worked for you when installed on your SD card, I don't anticipate any real danger here, but if you have saved anything that you don't want to loose, it might be a good idea to back it up before running this command, just in case.

Code: Select all

cp -a -f --remove-destination /root/temporary_vlc_libs/* /usr/lib/
This copies the library files that you previously saved in the temporary directory, and puts them where the applications can find them.

Repip wrote:Is it possible to get the system / applications that I want onto the SD Card and then merely "copy" all that onto the Hard Drive ie without doing a "install" onto the hard drive? or doesn't it work that way ?
Well, in theory, yes. But knowing what to copy is the hard part. When a package is installed, a list of its files is saved in /root/.packages. But if the packages caused dependency packages to be installed, and if the dependency packages cause more dependency packages to be installed, and . . . Well, you might have to chase down a lot of files. And then with some packages there are install scripts that you would need to examine. So, yes, it can be done. But with any luck we can solve this problem and you won't have to resort to doing that.
Repip wrote:Thankyou for the help, I am really keen to learn a little about Puppy and migrate from Windows, Puppy appears so far to be so much faster and simpler.
You're welcome. It seems that you have already learned quite a bit.

Good luck.

Repip
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu 06 Dec 2012, 04:45

Weird Graphical Glitching after installing Precise Puppy

#15 Post by Repip »

npierce,
Thankyou Session Icons restored, by the way i am not too concerned at this stage about any 'glitches' with the Laptop as i haven't loaded any personal stuff on it yet, just Puppy and Mozilla and VLC Player.
I have other computers to work with so at this stage I will just experiment with Puppy until I am confident with it then load personal stuff on.
It really is a simple quick exercise to completely reload Puppy anyway so I am willing to try anything at this point.

So the results are ... unfortunately I couldn't copy/paste into a text doc because the characters were all squares so I didn't know what button etc to press to save etc.
So i had to write the results down ...

multiarch distros , such as Ubuntu, will leave this, ex:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu, so DISTRO_ARCHDIR = i386-linux-gnu DISTRO_ARCHDIR=' '

next command results ....

PUPMODE = 2

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#16 Post by npierce »

Hi Repip,

Thanks again for the information, and taking the time to hand-copy it. (Yes, it would be hard to guess which of the many icons was for the text editor when the icons and their text captions were corrupt. :) )

I am glad to hear that the icons have been restored.

The information you supplied shows that the file /etc/DISTRO_SPECS contains this line:

Code: Select all

DISTRO_ARCHDIR=''
I think that is the problem. It should be:

Code: Select all

DISTRO_ARCHDIR='i386-linux-gnu'
If you would like the boring details of what this "386-linux-gnu" stuff is about, read this quotation. If not, feel free to skip over it. (Since you are a Windows user, and new to linux, I'll first mention that the libraries I am talking about are usually Linux "shared object" (.so) files, which are similar to Windows "dynamic linked library" (.dll) files.)
In another thread, I wrote:Debian and distros descended from Debian, such as Ubuntu, support "multiarch", which allows a library to have, for instance, both an Intel 32-bit build and an AMD (or Intel) 64-bit build installed on the same PC. (That is one example -- many other architectures are supported.) To do this, Debian and friends will sometimes put libraries built for the 32-bit Intel architecture ("i386") in /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ or /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ instead of the usual /lib/ or /usr/lib/, respectively.

Other distros may handle this differently.

Currently, Puppy continues to use the standard /lib/ and /usr/lib/ directories. For compatibility with Ubuntu packages, Precise Puppy has symlinks from /lib/i386-linux-gnu and /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu to /lib/ and /usr/lib/, respectively.

The problem you have run into is that sometimes when installing a .deb package from a Debian or Ubuntu repository, those symlinks get overwritten, so some needed libraries are not where they are expected to be.
The Puppy Package Manager (PPM) in Precise 5.4.2 has code that moves the newly installed library files to their correct Puppy location and restores the symlinks. But that code depends upon DISTRO_ARCHDIR being set with the proper value, which -- for reasons I don't know -- it is not.

(Some of the commands I gave in my previous post were copied from that code, so when you executed them you were doing manually what would have been done automatically if DISTRO_ARCHDIR had been set properly.)

(I hope I'm not boring you with needless details. I'm being even more long-winded than usual here since you said that your were "really keen to learn a little about Puppy", but perhaps you were thinking of things other than all this nuts & bolts stuff. :) )

Repip wrote:It really is a simple quick exercise to completely reload Puppy anyway so I am willing to try anything at this point.
I am glad that you are so willing and able to experiment.

If you are happy to have your icons back again, and ready to move on to other things, feel free to do so. But if you would like to try something else related to this problem, consider trying this:

1. Assuming that you are now able to find a text editor, use it to open /etc/DISTRO_SPECS.

2. Look for the line that begins with "DISTRO_ARCHDIR" -- it will be the same as the line in the first Code box earlier in this post.

3. Change it by adding i386-linux-gnu between the single quotation marks, so that it looks like the second Code box in this post.

4. Save the file.

5. Now try installing VLC Player again, and see if it installs without messing up your icons again.

If it works, it may save you from seeing your icons go crazy again when you install some future Ubuntu package. If it doesn't work, well . . . you get the fun of installing Puppy again! :)

Good luck.

Repip
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu 06 Dec 2012, 04:45

Weird Graphical Glitching after installing Precise Puppy

#17 Post by Repip »

Hi npierce

Have successfully restored VLC Player with that code you gave me, all systems go now in that area anyway ... hopefully it was a help to you guys.

Thankyou for all your help , I assure you I will need much more in the near future... trying to get a Canon PIXMA IP1000 going ... bit of a challenge, however I will read some info 1st and then request HELP !

regards for now

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#18 Post by npierce »

Hi Repip,

You're welcome.
Repip wrote:Have successfully restored VLC Player with that code you gave me, all systems go now in that area anyway ...
That is good to hear.
Repip wrote: ... hopefully it was a help to you guys.
Yes, it was. Your reports made it clear that the code that was supposed to fix the problem wasn't executing, and your report of DISTRO_ARCHDIR=' ' showed us why.

Barry has implemented a fix for the problem, which will be included in his next Service Pack for Precise.

See my bug report at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 616#669616 and Barry's blog entry: DISTRO_ARCHDIR variable not set

Thanks for your help in tracking this down.

metallica5456
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed 26 Mar 2014, 18:33

#19 Post by metallica5456 »

I am new user here...am member on other forums..but never used Linux before...I am having this SAME problem. Can you describe simple easy way to fix??

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#20 Post by npierce »

What flavor and version of Puppy are you using?

The problem discussed in this thread was the result of bugs in early versions of Precise Puppy 5.4, including 5.4.2. It was fixed in December 2012, so Precise Puppy 5.4.3 and newer do not have this bug.

If you are using an earlier version of Precise, the "simple easy way to fix" would be to switch to a newer version. If you are already using the newest version then your symptoms may be caused by a similar problem, such as installing a corrupt package that overwrote the /lib/i386-linux-gnu and /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu symlinks.

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