slacko-6.0 beta 2

[8Geee]

Well, at least theres YouTube HTML5 apps for FireFox. And FF really should be at least FF27 due to https schemes being TLS, not SSL3. FWIW mplayer default isn't good, but its not poor.

***EDIT*** I see 6.0.2-beta came with FF24-ESR... too old.

A while back I made a patched FF27. The posting is here. There is another fix needed, linked in the 2nd post. This FF27 is 'modular', intending to be extracted in root, and remaining there. MHO is to find ~/.mozilla, and usr/firefox as already installed and move them to a backup location, then install FF27, and drag ~/.mozilla/firefox to literal desktop. Iconify as desired.

[Billtoo]

Manual frugal installation to a 16gb usb-3.0 flash drive, pc is an
Acer Laptop.

Computer
Processor 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 430 @ 2.27GHz
Memory 3100MB (276MB used)
Machine Type Physical machine
Operating System Slacko Puppy - 5.9.3
User Name root (root)
Date/Time Wed 09 Sep 2015 11:08:37 AM EDT
Display
Resolution 1600x900 pixels
OpenGL Renderer AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
X11 Vendor The X.Org Foundation

OpenGL
Vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Renderer AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
Version 4.5.13397 Compatibility Profile Context 15.20.1046
Direct Rendering Yes

It's working well so far.

[wdt]

Yesterday downloaded beta2, 5.9.3
Tried it on my wife's laptop, MSI x370
This has 4? different wifi cards, this is a rtl8188ce,, not N
All the wifi setup wizards resulted in a crash, kernel panic
Manually doing modprobe insertion of 3 modules
(rlt8192c_common, rtlwifi, rtl8192ce,)
and a lsmod |grep rtl
showed all 3 and mac80211 and cfg 80211
Perhaps there should have also loaded rtl_pci???
but it did not show up in the lsmod
There was no crash until ifconfig wlan0 up
Required a power button press of 4+ seconds
dave

[Billtoo]

Testing Slacko-6.0.5.0 manual frugal install on a 32gb flash drive,
computer is an 11 year old Compac Presario Desktop.
Graphics card is upgraded to an ATI 1600 agp.

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Tue 13 Oct 2015 on Slacko Puppy 6.0.5.0 Linux 3.12.21 i686
oem: ATI ATOMBIOS
vendor: (C) 1988-2005, ATI Technologies Inc.
product: RV530 01.00

X Server: Xorg Driver: radeon
X.Org version: 1.14.3
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (507x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV530
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 9.1.7

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Core 0: @2800 1: @2800 MHz

It's working great!

[unicorn316386]

Slacko Puppy 6.0.5.0 Linux 3.12.21 i686

Would it be possible to upload an iso of your 32-bit version files (initrd.gz, puppy_slacko_6.0.5.0.sfs, vmlinuz) for others to test? Not sure if I am brave enough to figure out how to make my own Woof-CE build but would enjoy a new 32-bit beta to play with.

A newer ThinSlacko might be neat as well. The last one I think was ThinSlacko 5.5? Maybe I'll read how hard this is to build later.

[Billtoo]

Slacko Puppy 6.0.5.0 Linux 3.12.21 i686

Would it be possible to upload an iso of your 32-bit version files (initrd.gz, puppy_slacko_6.0.5.0.sfs, vmlinuz) for others to test? Not sure if I am brave enough to figure out how to make my own Woof-CE build but would enjoy a new 32-bit beta to play with.

A newer ThinSlacko might be neat as well. The last one I think was ThinSlacko 5.5? Maybe I'll read how hard this is to build later.

No, but there is a newer version now, I don't know if 01micko plans to post that for testing but he's the man to ask.

HTH

[Rodney Byne]

My screenshot attached.

[mikeslr]

Would it be possible to upload an iso of your 32-bit version files (initrd.gz, puppy_slacko_6.0.5.0.sfs, vmlinuz) for others to test? Not sure if I am brave enough to figure out how to make my own Woof-CE build but would enjoy a new 32-bit beta to play with.

Regarding your Slacko-6.0 beta2, you might try this method for upgrading its kernel, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 713#865791, using one of 01micko's "Hugh" kernels from here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/huge_kernels/.

Assuming a frugal install. I'd explore such possibility by booting out of 6.0, or booting pfix=ram, duplicating its entire folder but under a different name and adding a listing of the Pup in the new folder to Grub4dos or Grub. Then you can explore upgrading your that Pup. And if everything else gets screwed up, you'll still have the functional version of Slacko you started with.

I don't think that Thinkslacko is recent enough to be upgraded in that fashion. However, once you've upgraded 6.0 using that method, you'll have both a initrd and a vmlinuz you can use to explore the possibility of upgrading the kernel in Thinslacko using the method described here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 037#453164 Hint, start at the end of the thread and read posts backwards. IMHO, the practice of separating the "core" from "applications", not prevalent when jrb started the thread, makes it much easier to switch kernels.

mikesLr

[rufwoof]

Hi Unicorn. I'd suggest waiting for a kernel 3.19. I compiled a LZ4 compression for ThinSlacko however Linux squashfs doesn't support decompression of that until k 3.19.

LZ4 decompresses very quickly so puppy sfs's compressed using LZ4 will benefit from that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ4_%28co ... gorithm%29

[Rodney Byne]

Hi to all.

A cautionary tale.

It has become evident over time that any Linux distro using
persistence or a save file, is probably prone to flashdrive failure by
frequent writes concentrated to the same segment of drive space.

Serious OS corruptions were first noticed on an "Integral"
8Gb stick having Linux Puppy Slacko 5.9.3 installed.

The stick seemed the most likely culprit over the OS performance,
as random failed opening of any apps was worryingly erratic.

It was suspected that the stick sector blocks suffered from
writes fatigue, when normal frequent saves to RAM occurred.

Fortunately in kernel toolkits, there is a test write & read facility
called badblocks which stress tests all blocks on the stick.

To use this, first format the stick then insert into USB as dev/sdc.
(in my case)
It is important to unmount the stick prior to tests.

Open a Terminal, copy & paste this command line:
sudo badblocks -w -s -o usbstick.log /dev/sdc
and enter.

Automatic tests commence by slowly writing certain hex characters
until 100% stick space is reached.
Then reading and comparing those up to 100% will reveal any errors.

The first sweep revealed 152 errors, aggregating upwards at each following sweep.
So initial suspicions were vindicated and the faulty stick was binned as unusable.

Be alert to all this.

Regards.

[unicorn316386]

Regarding your Slacko-6.0 beta2, you might try this method for upgrading its kernel, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 713#865791, using one of 01micko's "Hugh" kernels from here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/huge_kernels/.

Assuming a frugal install. I'd explore such possibility by booting out of 6.0, or booting pfix=ram, duplicating its entire folder but under a different name and adding a listing of the Pup in the new folder to Grub4dos or Grub. Then you can explore upgrading your that Pup. And if everything else gets screwed up, you'll still have the functional version of Slacko you started with.

I don't think that Thinkslacko is recent enough to be upgraded in that fashion. However, once you've upgraded 6.0 using that method, you'll have both a initrd and a vmlinuz you can use to explore the possibility of upgrading the kernel in Thinslacko using the method described here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 037#453164 Hint, start at the end of the thread and read posts backwards. IMHO, the practice of separating the "core" from "applications", not prevalent when jrb started the thread, makes it much easier to switch kernels.

mikesLr

Hi Unicorn. I'd suggest waiting for a kernel 3.19. I compiled a LZ4 compression for ThinSlacko however Linux squashfs doesn't support decompression of that until k 3.19.

LZ4 decompresses very quickly so puppy sfs's compressed using LZ4 will benefit from that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ4_%28co ... gorithm%29

Thanks for the tips. After writing my post, I did manage to compile the latest Slacko with Woof-CE, and then 01micko posted an official iso (Slacko 6.0.8.1 with kernel 3.14.55noPAE). I had more success with the 3.12.x and 3.14.x kernels than the 3.18.x and 4.x ones but will experiment with the new ones some more. It looks like the testing branch is up to 6.0.9.5 now.

[mistfire]

01micko I suggest that you should declutter more common unix commands by using symlinks pointed to busybox as many as possible and centralizing all the necessary system files in a path and use symlinks to redirect the needed resource files. This will remove duplicate system files and greatly reduce the filesize of slacko.

[miriam]

Hi folks, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this request. If I should post it elsewhere let me know, please.

I had a frugal install of Slacko Puppy 6.3.2 for a while until I was satisfied it did what I wanted. I'm really impressed with it, so did a full install. Unfortunately I then found that poweroff and reboot don't work anymore. X shuts down to the black commandline screen and looks like it tries to reboot or shut down, but the prompt reappears and it sits there blinking at me. I can type in commands fine and they work as they're supposed to, except for "reboot" and "poweroff" which clear the screen again and present the prompt again. Any idea what could be causing this annoying problem?

While I'm here, another small, but niggling problem is that the retrovol icon has disappeared from the swallow section of the tray. The blank spot where the icon should be is still there and I can click the blank area with either mouse button and the volume bar and menu for configuration and other things pop up.

This really is a great Puppy, in spite of these two small annoyances. Great job micko.

[01micko]

Hi folks, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this request. If I should post it elsewhere let me know, please.

It's not but never mind, I'll answer your queries anyway.

Unfortunately I then found that poweroff and reboot don't work anymore. X shuts down to the black commandline screen and looks like it tries to reboot or shut down, but the prompt reappears and it sits there blinking at me. I can type in commands fine and they work as they're supposed to, except for "reboot" and "poweroff" which clear the screen again and present the prompt again. Any idea what could be causing this annoying problem?

Unfortunately full installs don't get a lot of testing, especially since we introduced the 'save folder' which has the space of an entire partition at its disposal. So I'd venture to guess that a bug has krept into the shutdown/reboot routine. I'll raise an issue on woof-ce to see if someone can't track it down.

You could try exiting from X first to see if 'reboot' or 'poweroff' work (as a debugging measure).

While I'm here, another small, but niggling problem is that the retrovol icon has disappeared from the swallow section of the tray. The blank spot where the icon should be is still there and I can click the blank area with either mouse button and the volume bar and menu for configuration and other things pop up.

This should be an easy fix and probably another minor oversight with full installs. Try this

• right click the empty space where the icon should be and from the menu select 'Config Window'
• in the popup window select the 'Tray' tab
• in the list of options, click the black colour selector adjacent to 'Tray Icon Foreground Color'
• in the color wheel that pops up choose an appropriate colour; black is default and if that's fine for you, by all means you can use it.
• hopefully an icon shows; if not an X retart may be needed

Let me know if that works.

This really is a great Puppy, in spite of these two small annoyances. Great job micko.

Thanks!

[miriam]

Hi micko, thanks for the reply. Sorry for the wrong place. I searched but this was the most appropriate-looking thread that came up. Is there a better one?

You could try exiting from X first to see if 'reboot' or 'poweroff' work (as a debugging measure).

Nope, didn't work. As before it looks like it's going to work, then the prompt reappears and waits, blinking.

The suggestion with retrovol's swallow icon I really didn't expect to work as I've tried it before, but I did so again and tried an outlandish color -- orange foreground and dark green background. To my great surprise the icon displayed, though without the background color. Interestingly, when I open the retrovol config window again the foreground color says it's reset to black, though if I click "Apply" without changing anything the orange color remains.

Hmmm... after fiddling with it a few times the config window unexpectedly disappeared and the icon is no longer in the swallow area. However running retrovol from the command line brings it back with the last chosen color. Excellent!

Incidentally, I probably would have been happy with the frugal install except it wouldn't let me go past 2GB. I'm not sure why. That meant I wasn't able to install all the crap I tend to install on my machines (blender3D, Celestia, Gimp, ImageMagick, dict+dictd and about 20 dict databases, and so on) even though I still had plenty of room on the partition it would say I didn't have enough space.

Thank you Micko. I appreciate the help. (You in southern, middle, or northern QLD? I'm near Sunshine Coast.)

[mikeslr]

Hi Miriam,

There's rarely an advantage to Full Installs. Frugal Installs boot from compressed files. A Frugal Puppy reads those files and decompresses on-the-file the files it needs into RAM. Those operations use RAM and CPU. But only when have a low powered CPU --say, a single-core computer more than 6 years old-- and/or less than 512 Mbs of RAM will you notice any difference in how much quicker a Full install would perform.

I'm not running Slacko-6 at the moment. But as far as I recall, a Frugal Install enables you to create a SaveFolder rather than a SaveFile. With a SaveFolder you can do everything you could do with a SaveFile. But unlike a SaveFile, it is not compressed. As you install applications it grows as needed up to the extent of the available space on the partition/drive on which it is located.

It does require a Linux formatted partition, Ext2, 3 or 4. That, however, shouldn't matter anyway as your Full install similarly required such formatted partition.

If Slacko-6 can't handle a SaveFolder, I suggest you try Slacko-6.3. I know it can and it's highly unlikely that you won't be able to run it since as its requirements are (almost?) identical to Slacko-6.

mikesLr