Fatdog64-620beta3

A home for all kinds of Puppy related projects
Message
Author
jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#21 Post by jamesbond »

Thanks JustGreg.
JustGreg wrote:I did try booting without loadmodule=radeon. However, it did not work properly. After load the initrd and sfs files, things were static for a good two minute period, then, many console messages, all going by too fast to read. The X server did start with a mouse cursor and desktop display. But, the menu bar at the bottom is missing and there are no responses to mouse selections (i.e. clicking on the terminal icon does not bring up a console terminal window). I had to use the power button to shut down the system.

The good news is with the loadmodule=radeon option, everything seems to work well.
Argh :( I though we have fixed it :(
We have actually implemented the equivalent of "loadmodules=radeon" if we detect a radeon card. Do you mind running this on terminal, and then upload the resulting text file here? We want to know what's the pci id of your graphics card.

Code: Select all

 find /sys/devices -name uevent | xargs -I '{}' sh -c 'echo ==={}===; cat {}' > devices.txt
Another thing you could test is, while use this boot parameter: savefile=none lateshell --- savefile=none means don't load any savefile (this is important to make sure that the change you are about to do is not saved anywhere), and lateshell means "enter a shell just before initrd is finished" (this is the equivalent of puppy's "rdsh" parameter). When you're in the shell, use vi to edit /aufs/new_root/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and change the line:

Code: Select all

# workaround for kernel 3.7/3.8 module load race conditions for radeon
find /sys/devices -name uevent | xargs sed '/MODALIAS/!d; s/.*=//' | 
grep -q pci:v00001002d0000 && modprobe -b radeon # start radeon module before udev
with

Code: Select all

modprobe radeon
That is, load radeon module unconditionally before udev starts. When you're done, quit vi and then type "exit" for the boot process to continue. See if by doing this it helps and doesn't crash. Since we have a luck factor here, if you can do this a couple of times to ensure that you've got a consistent result, it is much appreciated.

cheers!

EDIT: missing instructions.
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

JustGreg
Posts: 782
Joined: Tue 24 May 2005, 10:55
Location: Connecticut USA

#22 Post by JustGreg »

Hi Jamesbond,

I did both tests/items. I will email you the devices.txt file to you. It is 91KB in size, so I can not post it here.

I did boot using the savefile=none lateshell parameter. After modifying the rc.sysint with VI per your instructions, X server started normally without a hitch. I did not make a save file. If you want me to try something out and make a save file, just ask and I will get it done.

I hope the above helps.

I do like the rEFInd/efi stub boot process. It works well. I also have an entry in refind.conf to boot via grub2 now. It is nice to be able to boot either way.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#23 Post by jamesbond »

JustGreg,

I'm glad the the refind/efi-stub works. That is actually the preferred way to boot UEFI (with or without SB). The grub2 stuff is only a helper, although with it we get the extra benefit of booting unsigned kernels (including 32-bit kernels).

Thanks for doing the test and reporting the results. Don't worry about making a savefile - I have already gotten the answer I need. The original code (which I asked you to replace in the previous post) basically checks for certain PCI vendor:id codes; and if they are found, instruct the system to load "radeon" module. My previous instruction asked you to remove these checks and load the radeon module regardless (which in your case is fine since we know you do have a radeon card :) - but this is obviously can't be done on a general release). The fact that doing so works, means that the filtering code (the checks for PCI vendor:id) probably isn't very correct or isn't inclusive enough, and that's where the devices.txt will help - it will tell us the PCI vendor:id of your card and we can figure out how to include it in the filter.

Thanks again.

For whomever is concerned, we are planning to release 620 final in a few days time. It will come with a different (newer) kernel but everything else will probably looks the same (VLC will be updated). So if any of you have any concerns or issues or bugs, you may want to let us know, otherwise those will be carried through to the final release :oops:

cheers!
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

User avatar
Ted Dog
Posts: 3965
Joined: Wed 14 Sep 2005, 02:35
Location: Heart of Texas

Final in a few

#24 Post by Ted Dog »

Just got to a place to high speed download Beta3 would you provide a delta file between Beta3 and Final when Final is well FINAL. Thanks.

User avatar
minesadorada
Posts: 68
Joined: Sun 11 Sep 2011, 19:10

#25 Post by minesadorada »

FatDog 620/fpc-2.6.0-x86_64.sfs

For the Lazarus sfs to work 'out-of-the-box' a small change to the /etc/fpc.cfg is needed in the sfs.

Updated section of fpc.cfg below:

Code: Select all

# searchpath for units and other system dependent things
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget/*
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget/rtl
Highly impressed with Fatdog64 - especially the control panel. My new Lazarus Linux x64 platform of choice. Thanks for making it.

LateAdopter
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#26 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond
So if any of you have any concerns or issues or bugs, you may want to let us know
I have tested beta 3 and the the features that I use (cpuid msr Turionpowercontrol, xrandr panning and gamma) all working. Thank you.

One observation that applies to fatdog64 6xx generally:

Fatdog comes with the kernel default frequency scaling: ondemand, up_threshold=95 sampling_down_factor=1

This is rather berserk, because it continually winds the cpu down to minimum frequency, even when VLC is running at the limit.

On my hardware, athlon II x2, VLC and mplayer won't run at more than 70% cpu load without dropping frames.

I set the up_threshold to 80 and the sampling_down_factor to 10 via rc.local. That tames it and does not increase the idle power consumption. Then VLC runs smoothly on my worst case test video.

Even the performance governor turns the cpu down to minimum frequency quite often.

I monitor what the governor is doing with this line I got from the Arch wiki

Code: Select all

watch grep \"cpu MHz\" /proc/cpuinfo
This effect may be more noticeable on AMD processors, since they can run the cores at different frequencies.

I only mention this in case anyone has problems with video playback. Fatdog64 is my preferred way of of watching video.

Thank you.

User avatar
pemasu
Posts: 5474
Joined: Wed 08 Jul 2009, 12:26
Location: Finland

#27 Post by pemasu »

If you like to have cpufrequency switcher as tray app, you could test the attached pet. It consist of ppower binary, compiled from edited source in fatdog...and scripts in /etc/acpi/. The source was found from jemimah repo in smokey01.com and I have used modified scripts which I have used since Fluppy. Also created originally by Jemimah. I edited the ppower source code that it shows Powersave, Ondemand and Performance switches in tray.

There is already cpufreq-set with needed libs in Fatdog which the binary and scripts utilize. So...cpu governor can be switched with this tray app.

Maybe useful for LateAdopter when he needs full cpu speed with videos.
Attachments
cpufreq-ppower-0.0.1.pet
(6.41 KiB) Downloaded 647 times

User avatar
Billtoo
Posts: 3720
Joined: Tue 07 Apr 2009, 13:47
Location: Ontario Canada

Fatdog64-620beta3

#28 Post by Billtoo »

This particular DVD plays in both VLC and Xine but in VLC it will stop
for a second and then continue (often) but it plays perfectly in Xine.
I didn't change any settings in VLC so maybe it can be made to play
well, I didn't change any settings in Xine either.
Attachments
screenshot2.jpg
(110.54 KiB) Downloaded 1547 times

kirk
Posts: 1553
Joined: Fri 11 Nov 2005, 19:04
Location: florida

#29 Post by kirk »

Just got to a place to high speed download Beta3 would you provide a delta file between Beta3 and Final
Sorry Ted, final will have the latest kernel, VLC and more, so a diff would be huge.
On my hardware, athlon II x2, VLC and mplayer won't run at more than 70% cpu load without dropping frames.
My TV computer has a Athlon II x2 250, I don't have any problems. You might try modprobe cpufreq_performance, but if what you're doing works, that's good too.
This particular DVD plays in both VLC and Xine but in VLC it will stop
for a second and then continue (often) but it plays perfectly in Xine.
I didn't change any settings in VLC so maybe it can be made to play
well, I didn't change any settings in Xine either.
I've had a couple DVDs that VLC wouldn't play. That's why I made the Xine pet. Nice to have a backup. Final will have VLC-2.0.6.

jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#30 Post by jamesbond »

minesadorada, thanks.
I will re-upload the freepascal sfs later.

LateAdopter,
Thanks for the info, it's good to know.
Alternatively, there is a commented settings in rc.local which set the scaling governor back to "performance".
Did you use that, and if you did, did it help and were there are any unwanted side effects?
I have an AMD laptop and in my case setting it to performance all the time makes the laptop running hotter.

pemasu,
Thanks. Do you mind sharing the (edited) source too?

Billtoo,
Does LateAdopter suggestion help? Does setting the governor to performance helps?
Of course, if Xine works, then it's a solved problem, I suppose :).

cheers!
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

User avatar
pemasu
Posts: 5474
Joined: Wed 08 Jul 2009, 12:26
Location: Finland

#31 Post by pemasu »

Here is the edited source of ppower.
Attachments
ppower-jemimah-02.tar.gz
(6.45 KiB) Downloaded 586 times

LateAdopter
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#32 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond & Billtoo

I get the same problem with some MPEG2 files that are on UDF 1.5 formatted DVD+RW disks that were written 4 to 9 years ago.

I think the drive attempts to read them at 12x but, from time to time, it hits a rough spot and has to slow down to 4x a re-read a sector. This takes some time and flashing of the green LED to do. My Lite-on drive carries on at low speed for a while and then gets over confident and speeds up again, until the same thing happens again.

I think most media players buffer large amounts of data, which helps with seeking too, so they don't have a problem. VLC doesn't seem to do that. The preferences have "file cache" and "disk cache" both set to 300ms. I tried increasing them, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

If I have a problem, I just copy the MPEG file to the hard disk, which works much better. My recent recordings are all on an external hard disk.

I expect configuring the the driver to limit the read speed to 4x would also work, but that would interfere with normal file operations.

LateAdopter
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#33 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond
I have an AMD laptop and in my case setting it to performance all the time makes the laptop running hotter.
I have just tried uncommenting the performance section in rc.local but it looks as though that configuration is incorrect because the idle power consumption increases too much.

Here are the figures:

Code: Select all

Default UT 95 SDF 1 Idle 41.5 Watts Max Video 57.2 Watts
Mine   UT 80 SDF 10 Idle 41.0 Watts Max Video 56.7 Watts
performance         Idle 52.3 Watts Max Video 75.2 Watts.
That's not right. It indicates that power management is not working at all with the performance governor.

On Pemasu's Upup Precise 3.7.2

Code: Select all

performance         Idle 42 Watts.
That has a fixed frequency of 2800MHz but still can idle. Which is what the performance governor should do.

I have a desktop PC connected to an energy meter, so I can see what is happening. Those figures are wallplug power for the box.

EDIT:

I have just tried the taskbar tool that Pemasu posted and that behaves correctly in performance mode.

Code: Select all

performance         Idle 43.5 Watts Max Video 57.4 Watts.
That's more like it should be.
Last edited by LateAdopter on Sun 14 Apr 2013, 17:28, edited 2 times in total.

mini-jaguar
Posts: 597
Joined: Thu 13 Nov 2008, 13:45

#34 Post by mini-jaguar »

Seems o.k. so far. Haven't noticed the filesave getting smaller when copying files to drives, which I was having a problem with in beta2. Also the package manager doesn't go crazy when not connected to the internet, like it did in beta2.

The Inkscape .pet doesn't seem to work, which doesn't make much of a difference to me since I never use Inkscape and prefer Gimp. But I noticed it has a 2.6 version of Gimp, I wish it had a newer version (yes, I know someone already did make a package which I can install). I really don't like 2.6, it won't even resize the windows properly.

jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#35 Post by jamesbond »

LateAdopter,

Thanks for the info. I'm dumbfounded by the difference of power consumption between the script in rc.local and the tray applet because they (eventually) boils down to the same thing. Anyway, I'm glad that the applet works.

mini-jaguar,
Glad to see that the usb flash drive works so far. Inkscape requires libgsl, which should be pulled automatically if you use the package manager. Once libgsl is installed, inkscape then works. As for gimp, it will probably stay as is for now, not going through major package update just before final.

cheers!
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

LateAdopter
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#36 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond

There is one thing with the applet that needs fixing:

It does not run the performance script at startup. So you end up back with ondemand even though the icon says you are in performance.

When you change governor via the icon the script runs normally.

User avatar
smokey01
Posts: 2813
Joined: Sat 30 Dec 2006, 23:15
Location: South Australia :-(
Contact:

#37 Post by smokey01 »

A couple of games for Fatdog64.
http://www.smokey01.com/software/Fatdog ... ns-1.4.pet (Compiled by me)
http://www.smokey01.com/software/Fatdog ... 7-fd64.pet (Compiled by CatDude)

Cheers

gcmartin

#38 Post by gcmartin »

Thanks for the video boot-time parm. Seems to have stopped the lost of video upon return to an idle system. System has been responsive without video lost/lockup for several days. Can access all Ctrl-Alt sessions continuous.

One of the products that was presented by you was a "Netboot Server". This is a script which allows FATDOG to "serve" a boot image to another PC on the LAN who wished to boot.

In that implementation, the server ran, and a script provided by you will setup a PUP ISO for any LAN PC to boot via the server.

Is there a chance that the "server" could be added to the Control Panel's "Manager Servers and Services".

It would be utilized in many various real and virtual uses for PC system tests/operations.

Here to help

jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#39 Post by jamesbond »

smokey01,

Welcome back :D

pemasu,
Forgot to say thanks for your source files. I look at it, it looks simple enough, perhaps it can be replaced with technosaurus' "sit" (simple icon tray") - which is included in Fatdog?

gcmartin,
Glad that the video issues are resolved.

Thanks for raising the issue on netboot server.

"Netboot Server" as known in Fatdog's previous life will not make a comeback, nor will the pet. However, its functionality is now included in Fatdog out of the box, although it *does* need some configuration work.

So what's available? For a start, Fatdog comes with a pre-configured dnsmasq configuration file, for net-booting, called "dnsmasq.conf.netboot". This file contains the gist of the configuration used by the previous "Netboot Server" - dnsmasq run with this configuration file will behave identically with the original "Netboot Server". By default, this file is configured to serve netboot files to VirtualBox guests using "Host-only" network interface.

All that one needs to do is two easy steps:
a) copy all the usual netboot files to /var/lib/tftp.
This includes:
- copying "pxelinux.0" (available from /usr/share/syslinux), and
- creating "pxelinux.cfg" directory underneath it, and
- creating "default" configuration file inside this pxelinux.cfg directory, and
- copying the actual ISO / kernel / initrd / other files you want to boot, as needed, inside the pxelinux.cfg directory too.

b) start the dnsmasq by typing this "dnsmasq -k -C /etc/dnsmasq.conf.netboot" on terminal. Once you're done with dnsmasq you can kill it with Ctrl-C. If you want to automatically start this at boot, add that line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local (without the -k option).

/etc/dnsmasq.conf.netboot is heavily commented and should be easy to modify for use to boot real systems on real network interfaces (instead of VirtualBox guests) --- the file contains markers of where things should be changed if you want to boot real systems.

The reason why /var/lib/tftp and its subdirectories are not included by default in Fatdog is because it is *not* the correct place to put netboot files. It is there as an *example* only. One should specify a location *outside* savefile (e.g. /mnt/home/tftp or something) for the actual storage of netboot files, as they can be very large.

The old "Netboot Server" pet also contains a tool called "mknetboot.sh". The purpose of this quick-and-dirty script was just to embed puppy's base SFS to initrd (making a humongous initrd). This tool is not supported anymore (and thus not included in Fatdog) for the following reasons:
a) Proliferation of SFS files needed to boot puppy (not only pup.sfs, now we have zdrive.sfs, adrive.sfs, etc etc), and different puppies have different configuration of SFSes.
b) Some puppies will not netboot even if you put all those SFS inside the initrd, because --- well they simply don't support netboot, even if you make a humongous initrd out of them.

Time has changed. When I first released mknetboot.sh, most puppies only have one SFS and most of them supports netbooting via humongous inird, so such tool (though very limited) was useful. Today, not so. As such, I consider that providing such tool is not a help, it is in fact a source of unnecessary confusion and disappointment.
My take is this: if one wants to do netboot, make sure to get a netboot capable OS, and then learn how to setup the system properly.

Oh and dnsmasq will not be featured in the control panel as a service too, for the simple reason that it *requires* configuration before it can work - there is no sane default which can be used. (One can't just click "start service" and expect the netboot to work. It won't). In addition, dnsmasq is a very versatile daemon and can be used for many purposes (not only for netboot); in fact, one can run multiple instances of dnsmasq serving different purposes (by having each of them points to a different dnsmasq.conf file). A complete, fully-commented /etc/dnsmasq.conf.example is provided for those who want / need to use dnsmasq's other features. Anyone who needs to use dnsmasq regularly as a service should be able to write a simple service files in /etc/init.d themselves, perhaps by making a copy of existing service files and then modify it to start dnsmasq instead.

cheers!
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

User avatar
Ray MK
Posts: 774
Joined: Tue 05 Feb 2008, 09:10
Location: UK

#40 Post by Ray MK »

JFYI - FD64-b3 - installed to SDcard (ext2) and running like a champion for 3 days with no obvious issues. Fantastic.
Attachments
hardinfo_report.html.bz2
(6.9 KiB) Downloaded 563 times
[b]Asus[/b] 701SD. 2gig ram. 8gb SSD. [b]IBM A21m[/b] laptop. 192mb ram. PIII Coppermine proc. [b]X60[/b] T2400 1.8Ghz proc. 2gig ram. 80gb hdd. [b]T41[/b] Pentium M 1400Mhz. 512mb ram.

Post Reply