alphaOS [closed]

[simargl]

... frisbee handles wired connections too so you can test that one.

I removed service file called network from /etc/init.d used to start eth0 on boot, frisbee will do that task from now on. It works OK, but does make startup a couple of seconds slower...

Is this a eudev problem or did you remove some firmware from the AlphaOS 7 version

linux-firmware package is the same as in AlphaOS 7 (and many versions before)

I cannot get clock to work.

it seems

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rdate -s tick.greyware.com

from /root/.start doesnt get executed

when I run it in terminal I get message

rdate: timeout connecting to time server

I confirm it works here, so that could have been some temporary problem with their server.

[smil99]

Hi simargl et al,
I have been tweaking rcrsn51's cups 1.4.8 printing package made a while back for alphaOS v6 and it seems to work in v8 too! I am able to print/scan on both wired and wireless printer connections using this package. Thanks rcrsn51 .
Here is the link if you want to try it:
print_scan_alphaOS-8.0.tar.gz
Extract it and when in the extracted folder, open a terminal and type:

sh install.sh

to install.
Note:
(1)This package contains ppet for easy installation of .pet printer software.
(2) I had to delete the original /etc/init.d/cups and in its place, make a link to /usr/bin/cupsd for localhost:631 to work.
(3) install.sh gives an error about a directory not available but it works just fine.
A better way to make it work well is welcome .

Cheers.

[Scooby]

linux-firmware package is the same as in AlphaOS 7 (and many versions before)

Works now following Marvs advice

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rdate -s tick.greyware.com

I confirm it works here, so that could have been some temporary problem with their server.

I've researched the problem and it is suggested that it is a firewall problem
with port 37 blocked. Since I am mooching on a public wifi here (not at home)
maybe their firewall refuses the reply?

I saw ubuntu had a version of rdate with -o option for changing port
maybe I can compile it for alpha os? Can you install .deb in ALphaOS?

*edit* found a way to unpack

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ar xv rdate_1.2-4build1_i386.deb 

after fix of some shared library error

i tried

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/root/tmp/usr/bin/rdate -o 80 tick.greyware.com
rdate: Could not read data: Connection reset by peer

but got another error code. Any suggestions?

**edit**
on further thought maybe remote server doesnt want to be queried on port 80
So maybe this is not a good approach

any ideas how to sync time if port 37 blocked by net provider?

[Scooby]

I want wlan0 to be UP when I start AlphaOS 8.

I know I can do it with

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 ifconfig wlan0 up.

But were to put it?

Maybe there is another way? Perhaps by starting wpa_supplicant
somewhere in the boot-process?

I tried it in /root/.start -- that worked but wanted same behaviour as in
AlphaOS7 were wireless was connected automagically at startup.

Maybe that will be easier with frisbee, I think there was a checkbox for
automatic connection?

During boot there is a message

Starting wireless daemon...... [ok]

what does it do?

[simargl]

During boot there is a message

Starting wireless daemon...... [ok]

what does it do?

It runs this command: /etc/init.d/Pwireless2 start

DAEMONS variable in /etc/rc.conf contains list of files from /etc/init.d that will be executed during boot, every of those service files has their description and that message is shown during boot. Now /etc/init.d/Pwireless2 and /etc/init.d/network are removed, instead of them there is /etc/init.d/frisbee. I will attach new rc.sysinit and rc.conf that is using frisbee to start both wired and wireless network, so you can test. Put rc.sysinit to /etc/rc.d, and rc.conf to /etc, first get frisbee source from http://sourceforge.net/projects/alphaos/files/sources/.

If there is some error message related to frisbee it should appear in /tmp/bootsysinit.log

[Marv]

Posting from 8.0 using wired connection. Frisbee installed per post above handles eth0 just fine. Also detects iwlwifi networks correctly and various edit and reset functions and notifications all work correctly. I still have the dhcpcd/kernel incompatibility with my ipv4 router. bootsysinit.log shows:

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LOAD KERNEL MODULES
LOAD SWAP
MISC. SYSTEM SETUP
USER SELECTED MODULES
Loading module iwldvm 
Loading module mac80211 
SETUP SERVICES
up: error fetching interface information: Device not found
Starting system message bus:  /usr/bin/dbus-uuidgen --ensure ; /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'smsc47b397': No such device
dhcpcd[958]: version 5.6.8 starting
<30>Jul 21 18:09:47 dhcpcd[958]: version 5.6.8 startingdhcpcd[958]: wlan0: configured as a router, not a host
<28>Jul 21 18:09:47 dhcpcd[958]: wlan0: configured as a router, not a hostdhcpcd[958]: no interfaces have a carrier
<28>Jul 21 18:09:48 dhcpcd[958]: no interfaces have a carrierdhcpcd[958]: forked to background, child pid 987
<30>Jul 21 18:09:48 dhcpcd[958]: forked to background, child pid 987<30>Jul 21 18:09:48 dhcpcd[987]: wlan0: waiting for carrier<86>Jul 21 18:09:48 login: pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user root by LOGIN(uid=0)<85>Jul 21 18:09:48 login: ROOT LOGIN ON tty1<30>Jul 21 18:09:51 dhcpcd[987]: wlan0: carrier acquired<28>Jul 21 18:09:51 dhcpcd[987]: wlan0: configured as a router, not a host<30>Jul 21 18:09:51 dhcpcd[987]: wlan0: broadcasting for a lease<30>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1564]: sending signal 1 to pid 987<30>Jul 22 17:14:12 dhcpcd[987]: received SIGHUP, releasing<30>Jul 22 17:14:12 dhcpcd[987]: wlan0: removing interface<30>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1564]: waiting for pid 987 to exit<30>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1576]: version 5.6.8 starting<28>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1576]: wlan0: configured as a router, not a host<28>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1576]: no interfaces have a carrier<30>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1576]: forked to background, child pid 1603<30>Jul 21 20:14:12 dhcpcd[1603]: wlan0: waiting for carrier<30>Jul 21 20:14:18 dhcpcd[1603]: wlan0: carrier acquired<28>Jul 21 20:14:18 dhcpcd[1603]: wlan0: configured as a router, not a host<30>Jul 21 20:14:18 dhcpcd[1603]: wlan0: broadcasting for a lease

Exactly the same behavior as seen under 8.0 with patched p2wireless. Same router works with all other pups on this laptop.

All in all, seems like real progress though. Thanks smil99 and simargl.

[Scooby]

I also tried frisbee seems to work great with wifi, reconnects at startup with no interference needed from user. Although it is as sim said a little slower at boot.

Question.

Why isnt frisbe started from daemons in /etc/rc.conf?
and where is it started from instead?

[simargl]

It's started from /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, see this part

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.......
echo -n "Starting frisbee network manager..." >/dev/console
/etc/init.d/frisbee start
status_func 0
......

But, if you comment those 3 lines and add frisbee to DAEMONS in /etc/rc.conf, to start that one as all other service/daemon scripts, it will not work. I've got this error in /tmp/bootsysinit.log.

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/usr/share/frisbee/func: line 312: `add-profile': not a valid identifier

It's not a problem to start it directly since everyone will need Internet connection program.

[Scooby]

It's not a problem ......

Yepp no problem for me except for my curiosity, that's all.

I really start to get the system in order now.

Just a little problem with time there. A little boring to set it manually
each time. Any suggestions are wellcome.

And maybe get hybrid graphics working......

[Scooby]

I cannot get clock to work.

I think I found a solution that works for me?

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date -s "$(wget -S  "http://www.google.com/" 2>&1 | grep -E '^[[:space:]]*[dD]ate:' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*[dD]ate:[[:space:]]*//' | head -1l | awk '{print $1, $3, $2,  $5 ,"GMT", $4 }' | sed 's/,//')"

It returns GMT time and with your timezone set with for instance

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ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris /etc/localtime

date -s command seems to calculate the right time for you

I put the command in .start.

The above seems to work with several different sites. I for one severely dislike
google so I use a local one.

Dirty? Problems?

[simargl]

Kickshaw is menu editor for Openbox based on Gtk3. That type of application was missing, I thought only GUI menu editor for Openbox is obmenu which needs python and pygtk. This has no other dependencies except Gtk3, so it will be added in next version.

You can try it with: packer -S kickshaw.

[Scooby]

I figured how to put an icon in Tint2 panel but how do you put an icon/program-launcher
on the desktop itself?

Is there any good programs in repo to do this?

[simargl]

You can replace line imlibsetroot... in /root/.start with spacefm --desktop &, as spacefm can manage desktop wallpaper and icons/launchers and it does it better than rox-filer. For example, icons sizes are not hard coded to 48 pixels as for rox desktop. Then if you add lxpanel instead of tint2, set mint-x gtk and icon themes result will essentially be LXDE desktop for example something like Mint screen shot bellow.

[Scooby]

Is there a way to add a menuitem to spadefm desktop-menu that opens the original
AlphaOS menu, The one I get when I right-click Tint2 panel?

[simargl]

Is there a way to add a menuitem to spadefm desktop-menu that opens the original
AlphaOS menu, The one I get when I right-click Tint2 panel?

Right click - choose "Desktop Settings", and there is "Right click shows WM menu" checkbox

Edit:
Next version Alphaos 9.0 with new kernel, frisbee instead of pwriless and other changes will use Arch packages from 2013/08/01. Plan is to make new version for every month - same as Arch release their installation CD.

[Scooby]

Right click - choose "Desktop Settings", and there is "Right click shows WM menu" checkbox

Thanks, That works for sure but I wanted access to both menus. I can easily add menu item
for spacefm desktop menu but I dont know the command for running WM menu.

Asked this question on spacefm forum

Maybe it is easier the other way around? add a spacefm desktop menu to wm menu?

Seems like spacefm --desktop crashes sometimes when changing wallpaper and sometimes it doesnt redraw the background for conky.

Next version Alphaos 9.0 with new kernel, frisbee instead of pwriless and other changes will use Arch packages from 2013/08/01. Plan is to make new version for every month - same as Arch release their installation CD.

Does this mean you have to change savefile everytime?

If so I will have to hack a script that does all the usual stuff setting up my system for me!

Is new kernel pae?

[simargl]

Does this mean you have to change savefile everytime?

If so I will have to hack a script that does all the usual stuff for me!

I think you can use same savefile only if you didn't change system files like /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and /etc/distro_specs, because everything from save file comes on top and then system can't boot with wrong distro_specs - it searches for wrong files. If you installed packages in save file they can upgraded with: pacman -Syu without problems.

Is new kernel pae?

.. will be non-PAE, I doubt anyone with more that 4GB of RAM will use Puppy Linux, and especially Puppy and Arch derivative, that is not even listed on Distrowatch

[Scooby]

.. will be non-PAE, I doubt anyone with more that 4GB of RAM will use Puppy Linux, and especially Puppy and Arch derivative, that is not even listed on Distrowatch

Anyone but me then !

I have 6GB of RAM

[pemasu]

Since there has been a lot discussion about different Puplets, I have tested alphaOS 8.0 now about 4 hours, without break. Overall...after initial difficulties, there are plenty of good features and it show that a lot work, dedication, experience and time has been used. Pacman and arch repositories is the strongest feature which this Puplet offers.

http://pastebin.com/H0mw2uh0

Cheers.

[simargl]

Pemasu, I can agree with all of your observations after that short period you tested this system. Pwireless is indeed outdated, that's a fact, but it worked OK until latest version, so I thought no reason to change with something else. Now it will be replaced with Frisbee in next version, reports show that Frisbee works much better. Cups is not included at all, I think printing support should be in separate package of sfs module for those that need it. Again, you have right that most of system configuration is done with editing text, but I'm used to that and that's why Arch is targeted to competent Linux users.

Regarding your comment about minimalism (from The Arch Way) “a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.