BionicDog (updated: 2018-06-04)

[rcrsn51]

UPup Bionic Beaver (upupbb) 18.05 (May 2018)

??????
That's a Puppy. BionicDog is not. BT4Stretch is designed to work in a full Debian/Ubuntu environment. Puppy doesn't have that.

Glad it works for others.

?????
If no one reports, I have no idea how it works for them.

[rcrsn51]

@majka: Any update on this situation?

[Mike Walsh]

Hi again, Fred.

Yah; my fault, I think. I only put the initrd1.xz and vmlinux into /casper. I'll be honest, I couldn't see what the 3rd item (the squashfs one) was supposed to do!

It all boots up OK now. However, I still can't import bookmarks into Quantum..... Can't convert my Google-Chrome 48.0.2564.115.pet into a .deb, either; pet2deb says the file doesn't exist, it's hit an unrecoverable error.....now closing. Mind you, that could be a permissions thing, because of the file's location when I was trying to convert it. I'll experiment with that a bit more.

I can't quite figure it out. The FF-Quantum portable you put together works brilliantly in all my Pups.....yet the version you've built into BionicDog seems to have a bug in it. At least, the copy I've got hold of seems to....???

(The 'freezing-up'/unresponsive thing appears to be confined to the Firefox 'Library' window during my repeated attempts to import my bookmarks from an HTML file. It's not affecting anything else.....YET.)

Still, we've made progress. If I can install gDebi from the repos, I might see if I can install a newish version of Iron, instead. It's my favourite Chrome 'clone'. I'm guessing I'll need to log-in as 'puppy' for that, though, since they definitely won't run as /root.....


Mike.

[fredx181]

Hi Mike, looks like the older kernel solved your problem.
That's good news ! (but also bad news, because it seems that the newer kernel doesn't support some hardware anymore).
I'll make similar package with the 4.4 kernel for 64-bit later (as fallback, there may be others with the same problem)

Can't convert my Google-Chrome 48.0.2564.115.pet into a .deb

Just my opinion: I wouldn't recommend using pet packages.
Btw, you can ignore all messages like "Cannot stat ...." when converting pet to deb.
(it needs to be fixed, by suppressing these messages, on TODO list...)

Here's a deb for google-chrome 48 32-bit.
After install there should be menu entry "Google Chrome (as puppy)" (starting script: /usr/local/bin/chrome-puppy.sh)
https://fredx181.github.io/bionicdog/No ... 1_i386.deb
First do (if not recently done):

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apt-get update # update the package lists

Then can be installed by right-click from pcmanfm > Install deb (no need for Gdebi)
Or from terminal:

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dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_48.0.2564.109-1_i386.deb
apt-get -f install # force installing missing dependencies

EDIT: Strangely, the first time running Google Chrome from menu it doesn't start, but when I tried again it does start (and everytime after)

The FF-Quantum portable you put together works brilliantly in all my Pups.....yet the version you've built into BionicDog seems to have a bug in it.

Mmm.. strange, because I've put it together including the same binaries.

Fred

[rcrsn51]

@mikeslr: On May 3, you started a discussion about PeasyWiFi and WEP encryption.

You never returned, so I set up another router with WEP. It worked for me.

A confirmation from you would be nice.

[fredx181]

For info:
MBinnun made a new version of MBPUP (remastered BionicDog) v1.3, very enhanced, with different "flavors" to choose from :
https://github.com/mbinnun/MBPUP/blob/master/README.md

Fred

[Mike Walsh]

Mornin', Fred.

A query for ya. Can we, or can we not, add Ubuntu PPAs in BionicDog?

I'm only asking, because one of the necessary commands for adding any PPA is

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apt-add-repository

.....and bash insists the command isn't recognised. Or can't that be done with the Live version of Ubuntu?


Mike.

[rcrsn51]

I believe that it's add-apt-repository.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Bill.

D'you know, I'm inclined to agree with you. All the time I've been looking at this, I've been thinking it doesn't look right. I'll try it the other way round before the afternoon's out; see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'm glad I've got you on, mate. Do you like a good mystery, Bill? How about you, Fred? If the answer's 'Yes', then try this on for size....

The subject here is audio. Specifically, audio recording & playback. Note the last word. That's the key item, here.

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

My Linux journey started a little over 4 years ago. In May, 2014, to be precise, when I downloaded and installed the then-new Ubuntu 14.04 'Trusty' LTS.

Since I started with Linux, I have used the same identical hardware, all the way through. Yes, peripherals have changed and been upgraded, but the motherboard has remained the same.....including the audio chip. A RealTek circuit, built-in to the SB400 southbridge on this MSI mobo.

I often recorded streaming audio during the first year or so I used Ubuntu, before I began getting graphical freeze-ups, and switched to Puppy....but that's not the issue here. The point is, I recorded audio, then played it back again later. And every time, it played back perfectly.

When I moved to Puppy (first dual-booting with Ubuntu, then all-Puppy), naturally, I wanted to do the same thing. And y'know what I discovered? Oh, Puppy would record audio quite happily.....but playback was another kettle of fish entirely. It always played back quite slowly, and sounded like the audio was being dragged through a tub of molasses. TBH, it sounded crap. And no amount of adjustments or re-routing the audio output seemed to make the slightest bit of difference.

I got to the stage where I'd just accepted that this was one aspect of Pup that would never, ever work properly.

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

Fast forward to this last few days, when I decided to try out the 'Dogs' for the first time. This BionicDog is, of course, based on Ubuntu again. Just this morning, I thought about this problem, and, for a laugh, I decided to see what would happen when I tried to record a short video clip with GuvcView.

I've recently treated myself to a top-of-the-range Logitech webcam; the c920 HD Pro, so much better quality than what I've been using for the last couple of years. The clip recorded fine; Bionic recognised the cam's video chip, and configured it all correctly.....even Pup does that, because I've always made sure I buy UVC-compliant cameras, which are automatically supported by the kernel's UVC driver module.

What flabbergasted me was that BionicDog also not only recognised the cam's audio chip, and configured it properly, but the audio played back perfectly when I ran the resulting .avi clip through the default mpv media player.

No 'slowdown'. No 'treacly' quality to the sound. Just perfectly crystal-clear playback from the cam's stereo microphones.....

Remember; this is the same identical audio hardware since day 1 of my Linux 'journey'. It can't have owt to do with the kernel, either, since I'm running Pups with newer kernels than this. Yet not one Pup can play back recorded audio correctly. (I have no problem with playing back in media players, or streaming through the browser; in those, audio works correctly.)

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

So; my 'question', therefore, is this:-

What the HELL is Ubuntu doing with this audio sub-system that Puppy seems incapable of emulating? What's different? It's NOT the hardware, obviously.....it's got to be the software, or the way it's implemented. But what is being done differently?

Anybody got any ideas? Suggestions? Even a 'hint'or two might point me in the right direction, because this has been bugging me for a very long time.....

Please don't tell me it's something to do with PulseAudio. Even though that's about the only aspect of all this that seems as though it might be at the 'root' of the problem.....because it's always been a PITA to get working in Pup..!


Mike.

[rcrsn51]

The first thing I would check is the ALSA version.

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cat /proc/asound/version

Are new Puppies getting a new version or are they recycling the same old version out of woof?

Linux developers are building their apps on a standard mainstream platform. Puppy is not a standard platform.

Just because you pulled a bunch of packages out of Ubuntu doesn't guarantee that they will work like they do in Ubuntu.

[mikeslr]

Hi Bill,

Got distracted by other, more pressing questions. Good to know the problem is me. It will be awhile before I get to it. I'm leaving for a two week trip on Wednesday. You may have to remind me when I get back.

mikesLr

[fredx181]

Hi Mike,

About add-apt-repository (indeed the other way around, but apparently there's more confusion about that, on the web they say also sometimes "apt-add-repository" ).

Yes, PPA's can be used on BionicDog and added with the add-apt-repository command.
But Note: The script /usr/local/bin/add-apt-repository is a custom script that works in most cases (I guess 99%) but it's not the official which is part of package: software-properties-common (taking much space, has many dependencies, so to keep ISO smaller I didn't include that).
Included in this software-properties-common package is also a symlink to /usr/bin/add-apt-repository, named: "apt-add-repository" .

About the audio quality, I can't add more than what Bill already answered.
Maybe better ask someone who knows about woof-CE ?

Fred

[irishrm]

I must say I am very impressed with bionic dog. I'm considering making it the LTS os for my main laptop if I can solve a few small problems.
I need to to be able to disable the screensaver for video but I can't figure out how.
Also increasing the sound doesn't stick on reboot.
Any help would be appreciated.

For information:
I installed libre office directly from Ubuntu but had to download a dictionary to get spellcheck to work.
Irishrm.

[rcrsn51]

Also increasing the sound doesn't stick on reboot.

I don't know much about audio, but here goes.

Your audio settings are stored in the file /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.

They are controlled by the script /etc/init.d/alsa-utils.

At shutdown, it should store your current settings in the above file. At reboot, it should reload them.

This looks like it's working for me. If it doesn't for you, try the following:

1. Set the audio levels as desired.
2. Open a terminal.
3. Type: alsactl store
4. Reboot

Do you have just one sound card?

[fredx181]

I need to to be able to disable the screensaver for video but I can't figure out how.

With 'screensaver' you mean the screen gets blank every 10 minutes, right?
To disable it, you can do in terminal:

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xset s off && xset -dpms

(to test first if it works, do nothing for 10 min)
If it works for you, to have it start at login, just put it in .xsession, before the line "exec $SESSION_MANAGER", so becomes:

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xset s off && xset -dpms
exec $SESSION_MANAGER

Fred

[irishrm]

rcrsn51 thanks for the reply. Sorry to be bothering you again.
I tried your suggestion but didn't work.
I followed the path /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. The file asound.state is missing so maybe that's the reason sound isn't sticking.
Not to worry it's not a deal breaker anyway.
On this old computer there is only one sound card.

Getting access to the screen saver is more of an issue.
Thanks again,
irishrm

[irishrm]

Thanks fredx181.
I.ve done what you suggested and will wait for ten minutes tosee if it works.
irishrm.

[rcrsn51]

I followed the path /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. The file asound.state is missing so maybe that's the reason sound isn't sticking.

Even after you ran "alsactl store", the file is still missing?

Were there any error messages when you ran it?

[irishrm]

rcrsn51 I made a mistake in my typing first time. Got it right this time.
Re-booted and sound level is as I set it. asound.state is showing.
Thanks for sticking with me.
irishrm.

[rcrsn51]

Excellent. I don't know why the automatic store at shutdown doesn't work for you.