testing: a slacko without xorgwizard-automatic

[greengeek]

Posting this using the 32 bit Slacko from a Dell Inspiron Duo which has the unusual feature of allowing the screen to rotate 180 degrees so that it can be used as a netbook (mini laptop) or as a touch enabled tablet. Very excited by this as the touchscreen works great and seems accurate.

Screen res is high so everything seems a little small for my fat fingers but working pretty well nonetheless.

I will find a suitable version of xvkbd and do some more in depth testing.
Couple of oddities so far - the leftclick mouse button doesn't seem to work (EDIT: "sometimes"). Not sure if thats hardware or software related yet. Also I seem to get variable response when I tap the main menu button - seems like the software has the ability to differentiate between a quick tap and a long one. Dunno. more testing to follow.

Here's my report-video:

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VIDEO REPORT: Slacko Puppy, version 6.3.0.1

Chip description:
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
Display controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
Multimedia controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM70015 Video Decoder [Crystal HD]

NOTE: there is no /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file.

Probing Xorg startup log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log):
  Driver loaded (and currently in use): intel
  Loaded modules: dri2 evdev fb glx synaptics

Actual rendering on monitor:
  Resolution:  1366x768 pixels (361x203 millimeters)
  Depth:       24 planes

[01micko]

There *should* be a version of xvkbd in the repo (you may need to update it). look for 'x-keyboard' too. It should install a status icon that controls xvkbd just by tapping on it.

Also, for the iconia I have rotation working .. but I haven't looked at it for a while and I can't recall if I uploaded packages. I do have an 'adrv' though that will load automagically. I'll post that somewhere soon.

[greengeek]

I recall on some puppies having been shown how to increase the dpi setting of the display in order to change the size of icons etc - but I can't remember how this is done.

I can't seem to get into xorgwizard to make any changes (obviously) so I am wondering if there is some method to change dpi? I want to do this to try and improve sizing of icons and tabs for touch use.

I am experimenting with a variety of methods to improve usability on a Dell Duo tablet.

Thread here

[greengeek]

I know bug reports are not being sought but I would like to request any pointers that people could give me to try and improve the desktop icon placement please as it is affecting useability on a touchscreen (and this is the first puppy that I have got anywhere near functional for real productive touchscreen use...)

I would like to alter the position of the desktop drive icons so that they are higher. Currently they "underlap" the bottom jwm tray and the drive labels are not fully visible.

I have looked at several files and think theses are the two most relevant:

/etc/eventmanager
/usr/local/pup_event/frontend_funcs

I also looked at /sbin/pup_event_frontend_d - which carries the note:"#have replaced pup_event_frontend_d script with compiled daemon." - but I don't know what that daemon is or who wrote it - so I don't know if it is involved or not.

I suspect the file that is most involved is /usr/local/pup_event/frontend_funcs but it references some definitions for geometry of drive icon placement within /etc/eventmanager - for example the following definition seems to be relevant to drive placement:

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#091208 adjust drive icons placement, read by /sbin/pup_event_frontend_d
#gap between icons and edge of screen (>0 if need to leave space for a tray)...
ICON_PLACE_EDGE_GAP=64
#indent from edge before icons start...
ICON_PLACE_START_GAP=32
#spacing between successive icons (64 matches other icons on desktop)...
ICON_PLACE_SPACING=64 #56
#left, right, bottom, or top of screen...
ICON_PLACE_ORIENTATION='bottom'

The file /tmp/pup_event_frontend/scrn_x says 1280 and scrn_y says 800 (ie res = 1280x800)

I have tried changing the "ICON_PLACE_EDGE_GAP to 128 and sure enough it does lift the usb drive and optical drive icons well above the bottom tray - but it leaves the icons for the inbuilt drives exactly where they were as seen in the pic below.

Does anyone have any suggestions how i can correct the low placement of the icons?

cheers!

[Sailor Enceladus]

@greengeek: In Menu -> Desktop -> Desktop drive icons manager I found a checkmark called "Refresh / Realign existing icons". Changing Edge Gap to 128 there then clicking that checkmark and pressing Ok made my sda icons disappear, then they reappeared 20 seconds later at a higher position (128 pixels from the bottom I guess). This is in Slacko 6.9.6.1 though.

[greengeek]

@greengeek: In Menu -> Desktop -> Desktop drive icons manager I found a checkmark called "Refresh / Realign existing icons"..

Thanks Sailor - that refresh option does indeed force the new gap setting to be re-applied to the icons for the inbuilt drives.

It appears that modifying the gap setting in /etc/eventmanager followed by an X restart is not sufficient to force the realign of all icons and this is reflected in the Puppy Pin file continuing to keep it's original geometry for the inbuilt drive icons - whilst also reflecting the new geometry for the other icons (usb and optical drives).

I am surprised by this as I would have expected X restart to fully restore correct icon locations and rewrite the Puppy Pin accordingly.

Thanks for the tip - that gives me a further angle to look into in order to track down what is not happening during restart X.
cheers

EDIT : Now also looking at /usr/sbin/eventmanager and /sbin/clean_desk_icons

EDIT 2 : At the beginning of /sbin/clean_desk_icons there is the following note:

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#120222 internationalization introduced bug, fixed it (caused drive icons to redraw every time X starts)

Why would you not want the icons to redraw after a restart of X? Ok there must be some other way to trigger redraw of the icons. I want to find out what this is and force it after I manually update the gap size in /etc/eventmanager. Is it simply a rox refresh command that I need?
Still seems odd to me that refresh X is permitted to realign hotplug devices but not internal drives.

EDIT 3 : I did find a way to get all drive icons to adjust to the higher level - I had to use the following script:

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#!/bin/sh
gxmessage -timeout 5 "  Please be patient while we reconfigure.
  The screen may go black." &
echo "ICONWIPE" > /var/local/pup_event_icon_change_flag
clean_desk_icons
fixmenus
sleep 3
jwm -restart
restartwm

There's probably better ways but this works for me so far.
(I included this script as part of a pinstall.sh in a pet that modifies my Slacko6.3.0.1 install on my Dell Duo. See thread post here)

[Insomniacno1]

Hi, I have a couple of questions:

Is the Slacko version you post about in Post #1 different from the newer version 6.3.2 - Or do 6.3.2 contain everything the one in Post #1 has and then some? If then, what is changed?

I have an Odys Wintab 8 tablet, which has Intel x86 64bit Baytrail Z3735E CPU and windows 8.1 with Bing - there are about 3GB free space. There are MicroSD(nonboot) and MicroUSB(bootable) and 32bit UEFI bios which is now set to be able to boot, unfortunately all my tries(all ubuntu variations and flavours) so far has ended up in a hung black screen, after seeing the initial boot menu and start of boot where I can choose "Try before install".

I'm not new to puppy, but that has always been on legacy bios pc's, I actually have a nice puppy MATE on my Multiboot USB, unfortunately that can't boot on my tablet because of syslinux and EUFI can't talk - not even in legacy boot.

I gather that with frugal install, it also works with NTFS formatted drives and that there are no problem with Grub4dos and EUFI systems. Am I correct in this assumption?

Where will Grub4dos be installed?

The partition scheme is as follows:

1. 100MB EFI
2. Windows C: - Windows 8.1 with bing - 9.30GB with 3.20GB free
3. Recovery - 5.15GB used

What is the best way of putting the Slacko on a USB stick and make it compatible with 32bit UEFI. I have both Slacko 6.3.2 UEFI and Slacko64 6.3.2 UEFI .iso files. Is the 64bit compatible with 32bit UEFI bios?


JBJ
Ps: I should say that on my Laptop I'm not using windows at all, I only use Peach OSI 14.04 LTS which is based upon Xubuntu. I have another laptop that has windows 7, but I'm trying to live without using windows at all and prefer any answers to be focused on this choice:) Thank you:)

[Sailor Enceladus]

@Insomniacno1: I think you still have to switch to legacy boot in BIOS to easily boot this iso, and Slacko 6.9.6.1 is a bit more compatible with uefi. The main change over 6.3 is how it skips some xorgwizard stuff I think, as mentioned in the first post.

[Insomniacno1]

Hi Sailor, That sounds interesting and I'm downloading the Slacko 6.9.6.1 right now, in both 32bit and 64bit.

@01micko, I did not get a reply if either of these are compatible with 32bit UEFI - Or do I have to manually add the bootia32.efi to the USB drive? Not all distributions are compatible with 32bit UEFI. Some are only compatible with 64bit UEFI and their 32bit counterparts are not UEFI at all.

Also a reply to the rest of my question would really help:)

I have been trying for 1 month now, to boot my Intel baytrail Z3735E tablet with USB stick and a Linux distrubution that can run with only 1GB Ram and maybe install in small space(3GB). I have tried many Ubuntu flavours and derivatives and even some based upon debian, to no luck - end up in black screen. I even left it there but after 3 hours I figured it were not going forward.

If I switch to legacy boot it doesn't boot at all - I just get a black screen with a hung cursor and nothing happens.

JBJ

EDIT: I have made allot more progress and you can read about it here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=108295

[Insomniacno1]

@01micko

Any chance for a 32bit slacko-6.9.6.1-uefi with bluetooth enabled that do not need pairing code? That would make it allot easier to use with tablet and finetune using bluetooth keyboard/mouse - since already using the only usb port for the usb stick?

Is that possible?

With kind regards

JBJ
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=108295

[jlst]

Hi Sailor, That sounds interesting and I'm downloading the Slacko 6.9.6.1 right now, in both 32bit and 64bit.
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The iso provided in this thread is just an old test release. The new slacko release has a plethora of changes, but these specific changes are still not there. However the next slacko release will have something similar in functionality that it still uses xorgwizard-automatic... but this is not the same xorgwizard.. this a different one. It's small gui/cli rewrite with simple functionality to edit xorg.conf.

So, the new changes will give you a xorgwizard for you to change screen resolution, color bit depth, keyboard layout, but with the added value of auto detecting input devices... that is the idea of course...

[mistfire]

I noticed a flaw regarding starting X on UEFI. FBDEV must be selected in order to start. xorgwizard script must be revised in order to support video on UEFI

[jlst]

I noticed a flaw regarding starting X on UEFI. FBDEV must be selected in order to start. xorgwizard script must be revised in order to support video on UEFI

I have a question.. are you using old releases or the current one.. slacko 700 alpha 3.

micko said he's releasing a new iso soon so i have to act quickly. the question is... how do you trigger xorgwizard: gui, cli?

in the current implementation there are two methods: in DISTRO_XORG_AUTO is set no in /etc/DISTRO_SPECS

Or you can add this file: "/var/local/xwin_no_xorg_auto_flag" in a adrv or something.

Then xorgwizard cli appears if there is no xorg.conf.

The current code only offers the vesa driver in cli mode (aside offering no changes (automatic video driver detection), screen resolution, color bit depth and an alternative xorg server if present and configured).

But i can add fbdev and modesetting, just answer my questions..