Create Debian 9 (Stretch) minimal ISO similar to DebianDog

[saintless]

is it possible to create
squashfs with xorg and desktop,
without kernel?

But dont break the system?

when install linux-image-4.9.0-3-686-pae you have initrd and vmlinuz.

so you only need initrd and vmlinuz? , then can you safe remove linux-image-4.9.0-3-686-pae?

and keep "initrd and vmlinuz", later install base system with debootstrap,desktop etc and purge linux-image?.

tinycore version "core" have initrd and vmlinuz only so is possible?

It is possible but you need to add some more kernel drivers in initrd.img (or initrd1.xz) for your own hardware and you need to make small edit in the boot script inside. The safe way to do it is moving /lib/modules from the main squashfs module inside initrd.img
Then you get universal initrd.img and vmlinuz and you can boot many other linux live systems using the same initrd.img and vmlinuz (including webboot). Read more in 8. here. It gives two main advantages:

1. No duplicate kernel drivers in initrd.img anymore saving 8-12 Mb compressed space (depending on the kernel).
2. Multiboot flash or CD/DVD drive using one initrd.img and vmlinuz to boot many different linux system modules without kernel inside (much space saved this time).

But discussion about that has nothing to do with this thread and I doubt you will get much help on that if you open separate thread. For linux user with some experience in bash scripting the link above should be enough to help.
Tinycore uses custom compiled kernel with less drivers so the size is much smaller and the same can be done with Debian/Ubuntu. But it will not work well on every hardware and you will have to install extra drivers all the time saving only 15-20 Mb all-kernel drivers compressed size. Doesn't worth the trouble if you are not building small linux system for your own hardware only.

Toni

[rcrsn51]

What is the smallest/simplest samba client that you guys would recommend for DD Stretch? ... edit: Just installed YASSM. Seems to do the job.

Thanks for testing.

It's possible to make YASSM even smaller by removing smbclient as a dependency. But that requires you to know the share names in advance, which I found a bit inconvenient.

Bill

[fredx181]

*** Update mklive-stretch ***

Added 'Kiosk' to the Desktop environment choices

The purpose is that a user is restricted to browsing the internet only (Firefox full screen with the addon: 'Webconverger' activated)
Without knowing the password for root, the user cannot make any changes to the system.

I'd appreciate if anyone will test this, e.g. pretend not knowing the root password and try to get into the system somehow (and mess it up badly )
And any suggestions to improve are very welcome !

Info about how to configure as adminitrator and more: Info-Kiosk.txt

Included firefox version is v45 (as set in kiosk.conf)
Upgrading to latest Firefox-ESR v52 is possible, but some websites e.g. spotify web, won't work properly anymore, see here:
https://webconverger.org/blog/2017/Is_i ... converger/

New mklive-stretch:
mklive-stretch script

GUI:


EDIT: Few hours later, made some improvements in the zz_kiosk_config.squashfs, e.g. checking connection before firefox start

Fred

[rcrsn51]

Installing Brother printers in Stretch-Live-64bit

Note: Did you read the information about Perl here?

Many Brother printer drivers only come in 32bit versions, so you need a 32bit compatibility package to install them. Here is a light-weight solution:

1a. Download the http://www.mediafire.com/file/zp8gsu3qg ... 4.deb/file.
It contains the 32bit libraries required by the Brother driver.
1b. Install this package with a right-click procedure.
1c. It also puts the "debbi-compat" script in /usr/local/bin.

2a. Download the two Debian printer driver packages.
2b. They must be installed from the command line. For example, open a terminal (F4) where the files are located and run:

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debbi-compat mfcj470dwlpr-3.0.0-1.i386.deb #Hint: use Tab completion
debbi-compat mfcj470dwcupswrapper-3.0.0-1.i386.deb

3a. Go to /usr/lib/cups/filter and locate the Brother file named something like br_xxx_model.
3b. Open a terminal and run: filter-fix br_xxx_model

4. The above procedure may have automatically installed a CUPS printer. Test it. Otherwise, do the usual CUPS install.

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

Brother has native 64bit drivers for their scanner models. Install them as usual. But they may also need the package: libusb-0.1-4.
Hint: Run the command "scanimage -L". If you get a segfault, it's probably because libusb-0.1-4 is missing.

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

[rufwoof]

I'd appreciate if anyone will test this, e.g. pretend not knowing the root password and try to get into the system somehow (and mess it up badly )

Install and run debsecan for a indication of potential (known) attack vectors. My Jessie installation was very disappointing on the security front. 2000+ reported, but many duplicates in one way or another; Filtering out duplicates and leaving only high urgency, remotely exploitable ... still left 70+. Stretch should be better as fewer 'known'. BSD (similar setup) in comparison has just 1

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$ pkg audit -F
vulnxml file up-to-date
libgcrypt-1.8.0 is vulnerable:
libgcrypt -- side-channel attack vulnerability
CVE: CVE-2017-0379
WWW: https://vuxml.FreeBSD.org/freebsd/22f28bb3-8d98-11e7-8c37-e8e0b747a45a.html

1 problem(s) in the installed packages found.

[rcrsn51]

Gnome-MPlayer can have trouble picking the right language when playing DVDs. So here is a little gtkdialog front-end that gives you full control of the settings.

Hint: Some DVDs work better using "Menus=yes". Click Help for instructions.

Update: If you have set up accelerated video with libgl1-mesa-dri (and a restart), mplayer may now recognize the "gl" video mode. It has been added to the Video drop-down list.

The default mode is now "x11" which should work with all video hardware. Check that your ~/.mplayer/config file has the "zoom=1" option.

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

Remove the fake .gz extension.

[fredx181]

Gnome-MPlayer can have trouble picking the right language when playing DVDs. So here is a little gtkdialog front-end that gives you full control of the settings.

I have also posted the libdvdcss decryption library. It is compiled from the latest VideoLAN sources.

Thanks again Bill, added to repositories

@all
New mklive-stretch:
mklive-stretch script

Added choice of Desktop environments also when used CLI:

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./mklive-stretch -cli

Fred

[zagreb999]

REGARDS FRED.

YOUR vlc.squashfs
VLC2.2.6

DOES NOT HAVE GTK
IT CAN NOT SEE HDD DRIVES...

THANKS

[fredx181]

REGARDS FRED.

YOUR vlc.squashfs
VLC2.2.6

DOES NOT HAVE GTK
IT CAN NOT SEE HDD DRIVES...

THANKS

Yes, probably not compiled with that feature, I replaced with another one made with vlc package from deb-multimedia repository (has GTK+):
https://debiandog.github.io/Misc/Stretc ... c.squashfs
Go in the preferences > Look and feel > Force window style and choose from dropdown box: GTK+

Fred

[wiak]

Hi Fred,

Gave your latest mklive-stretch -gui a blast. Haven't used it for a while cos too busy and was waiting till your developments slowed down a bit. I just built the bigger Ddog variant (with default apps etc).

Only issue was I forgot to include wifi firmware for my laptop but luckily I had a copy of iwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.83.5.1 and stuck that in /lib/firmware (as I'm used to doing) and rebooted. Frisbee connected fine for me (it doesn't always on XenialDog64, where I normally have to increase the sleep value from to 7 or more in /etc/init.d/frisbee line 38 - but don't have that issue with your DStretch 64bit version anyway - I've found that PeasyWifi always works for me, and now I'm used to its interface, I actually prefer that).

Haven't spent much time on your DdogStretch as yet, but checked a few things out:

Opened pcmanfm filemanager, and tried clicking on an sfs and it opened up fine as hoped. Similarly, clicked on an iso and that also opened nicely. Clicked on an .mp4 and the video started and double-clicked on video and it went into fullscreen fine too. Audio also working.

Also:

Clicked on pdf and opened fine in PDF Viewer.
Clicked on jpg and opened fine in gpicview.
right-clicked a .deb and was able to both extract it's contents and also install it with the other option.
The only thing that didn't work directly for me was single-clicking on a .html file. It didn't open up in browser. However, choosing right-click Open With -> Firefox ESR did work fine.

I like the selection of apps. For a long time I've mainly used XenialDog64 (or Puppy Slacko64 ver 6.3.2 when using Puppy) and the selection and look_and_feel in this DDogStretch are very similar, so suits me well too.

One thing that annoys me on Slacko64 is just having default urxvt-style terminal (no simply cut and paste). I don't use a mouse (trained myself to use trackpad most, to save hauling a mouse along with me, longtime ago), so don't have middle mouse button (and hitting left-right buttons at same time, for paste operation, more than a bit hit-and-miss) so always want right-click copy facility in terminal i use. So on Slacko64, first thing I always install is lxterminal. I'm not sure which terminal your Stretch is using (xfce something?) but it is a good one. The other thing I wish Puppy would standardise on in its woof-CE builds, in addition to Openbox (or similar) is pcmanfm - rox is fine, but slightly drives me mad nowadays...! Anyway, I know jlst who does most maintenance of woof-CE wishes branch/distro maintainers would adopt similar, so I hope they listen to him.

All in all your DogStretch is as convenient and beautiful to use as usual. I'll stick with XenialDog (because I like access to ubuntu repositories for my kids gaming needs...), and also for now Puppy Slacko64, but otherwise this new Dog is at least as nice and efficient as any of these.

wiak

[Payoon]

Hi folks,
after creating und using debiandog stretch64 everything works perfectly. The only difficulty I have is with the backlight control. I want to reduce the brightness for radeon graphiccard AMD Radeon HD 8570M, but it doesn't work. Here's what I have done so far:
In /sys/class/backlight I found /acpi_video0/ and /acpi_video1/

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echo 5 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

result: no change in brightness

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echo 5 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

result: no change in brightness

In the kernel line of menu.lst in grub I have added

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acpi_backlight=native

result: no change in brightness possible

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acpi_backlight=video

result: no change in brightness possible

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acpi_backlight=vendor

result: no change in brightness possible

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acpi_backlight=none

result: no change in brightness possible

I also use porteus 3.2.2. with the kernel 4.9.0 There I find in /sys/class/backlight the radeon_bl0 interface.
and with

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echo 120 > /sys/class/backlight/radeon/brightness

added to rc.local the display brightness is reduced to about 60%.

So I think what I need for debiandog is the interface radeon_bl0 in /sys/class/backlight/, but how to get it there? Can I load a module that starts at boot?
Googling didn't give anything new.

If anyone has an idea please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Payoon

[wiak]

Hi Payoon,

You seem to know what you are doing with this. Just wondered, since acpi_video0 is there, if:

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cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness

and

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cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/actual_brightness

gives any value as a result?

But from what you say, certainly the problem seems to be something to do with your system using radeon and needing some kind of radeon interface.

I imagine, from what you've already said, that you have read all of (since I've noticed this link is often given for info about such matters):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backlight

EDIT: I notice you twice quoted code:

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echo 5 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

but I presume the second try you made was with acpi_video1

EDIT: Maybe installing xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu will provide the solution since that is the one that often provides proper graphics support for radeon (my understanding of what dancytron is suggesting below?) so maybe also (?) do with backlight support too?? (I'm not sure).
I helped someone else out, on this thread, with that video server for graphics support of radeon once before and that was successful, but I don't know much about backlight support - so don't know if that is related:

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apt-get update && apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu

and then reboot and try brightness control commandlines again. (Admittedly, I'd be surprised if xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu had anything to do with backlight, but is certainly often used with some radeon-based systems to get graphics itself to work correctly, along with libgl1-mesa... and so on)

Or maybe it is in here (maybe what dancytron alludes to?):

https://packages.debian.org/stretch/fir ... d-graphics

Ah yes, re-reading dancytron post below, above is what he means/suggests (I've been working flat-out recently so my brain is no longer functioning correcting - to recover I badly need a rest I think...! Lost my ability to read it seems - and others have already kindly commented on my poor English grammar, which is undenied!).

or see here:
https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo

wiak

[dancytron]

Try installing firmware-amd-graphics .

See this page for more info. https://packages.debian.org/stretch/fir ... d-graphics

One advantage is to the mklive-stretch script is that you only have to install the drivers that you need. One disadvantage is that you have to install the drivers that you need.

You might want/need to install libgl1-mesa-dri and mesa-utils too.

[Payoon]

@wiak @dancytron
thanks to both of you. I will try all and give feedback.
Payoon

[rcrsn51]

Gnome-MPlayer 1.0.7 is a decent media player, but it is getting old. However, OscarTalks has built an updated version of MPlayer for Stretch here that supports newer codecs. Read here for more info.

Edit: Fred has converted this to the new "gmplayer" package in the repos.

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

[mikeslr]

Hi Toni & rcrsn51,

I just wanted to thank both of you for the work you've been putting in.

rcsn54, I really appreciate you're interest. Creating applications for, or retro-fitting Puppy applications to function under, DebianDogs not only distinguishes them from similar OSes, but also brings to them a maturity not otherwise available. As primarily 'a passenger' I only wish there were more fans with expertise interested in undertaking such underappreciated projects.

Toni, it's a pleasure to read your posts that explain how the system actually functions; how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

mikesLr

[Payoon]

OK it's done, but it took me nearly 1 hour to find out, that in fact two things were blocking the setting for backlight at the same time. One was the missing firmware. The other was that rc.local doesn't work during boot ( at least not by default). That took me a long time to find.

So step by step for those, who have the same problem with backlight.

- Downloaded and converted firmware-amd-graphics_20161130-3_all to a squash file and put it into the modules folder
- Reboot
- Found the (before) missing radeon_bl0 interface in /sys/class/backlight/ (very happy).

- the command

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echo 115  > /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness

in rc.local didn't work at boot but it worked in the console. ( I read since the use of systemd, rc.local must be activated somehow first)
- in init.d I made a file "set_backlight" with the following content

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echo 115  > /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness

- made the file executable
- activated the file with

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update-rc.d set_backlight defaults

- reboot

It works. Brightness is reduced by about half.

Thanks again for your input and enjoy DebianDog !

Payoon

[wiak]

Hi Fred

I didn't test any audio or video recording in previous test, because didn't realise Ddog full had that ability installed. However, I now note it has ffmpeg, and both Precord (for audio recording) and wex (for audio-video X11 screencast and optional webcam) recording. I needed to adjust my audio mixer to get it to work (put the Capture control up and in capture settings put on some internal mike boost for my system).

Also, worth noting that I don't have a webcam on this machine so wex seemed not to work at first but all I needed to do was uncheck the box for webcam. Would probably be best if wex had no webcam checked by default so it works with out issue on machines that don't have a webcam.

Thereafter wex produced excellent X11 screencast recording and audio. Precord also produced good audio recording. wex can also be used just for recording audio by unclicking checkboxes for video and webcam.

wex looks a bit like pAVrecord, but is a hundred times better in use I feel. The config screen may look a bit frightening to a first time user, but in practice the defaults work fine for high quality recordings anyway.

EDIT: On a different matter:

One tiny irritation was that when I clicked on menu.lst file it didn't open automatically (same as .html files in that respect). Again, I was able to open it using right-click Open With, but much nicer if just opened in editor simply be clicking on it.

wiak

[fredx181]

@wiak

Thanks for thoroughly testing !!

@rcrsn51

Gnome-MPlayer 1.0.7 is a decent media player, but it is getting old. However, OscarTalks has built an updated version of MPlayer for Stretch here that supports newer codecs. Read here for more info.

To import this PET into Stretch-Live, I have made the following script. Unpack the tarball and run it from the command line with:
Code:
sh get-oscar-mplayer

It also installs libdvdcss and peasy-dvd-player for your DVD-viewing needs.

If you already have Gnome-MPlayer installed, remove it first.

Thanks, I made a deb from it, named "gmplayer", libdvdcss and peasy-dvd-player as dependencies along with the others required.
It will uninstall gnome-mplayer automatically
On 32bit only for now: EDIT: For 32 and 64 bit now

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apt-get update
apt-get install gmplayer

Now I'll see if I can compile same for 64bit

EDIT: Latest SVN mplayer compiled for 64 bit also, package "gmplayer"
Added to amd64 repo, but not tested much, will do in the next days.

Fred

[fredx181]

*** Update mklive-stretch ***

Added 2 more choices,
- Full 'Dog' Openbox with pcmanfm, lxpanel - option to switch to Jwm, with Firefox V45
- Full 'Dog' Openbox with pcmanfm, lxpanel - option to switch to Jwm, with Google-Chrome (64 bit only)

New mklive-stretch:
mklive-stretch script

@dancytron
If you have time, can you test the Chromedog ? To see if there's anything that can be improved or added.
In /root/.local/share/applications there's google-chrome .desktop file (it has priority, so shows in menu, that way when updating chrome, the menu entry will not be overwritten (with the Exec=chrome-puppy.sh)
EDIT: I guess it's the consequence of running chrome as puppy, but it's a little strange that if you download a file, it can be saved only to /home/puppy

GUI:


Fred