Pussy: potentially a Puppy with a perfect package manager

[nooby]

Good that you found out.

the rw problem was caused by something else not the dir name change

But please do share that maybe is the same reason why AntiX fails to do it and many many other Debian derivates. So it can help many many others!

How shall one boot a Debian using grub4dos on NTFS so it can save
on same NTFS that one booted the Debian from? I've waited for
the solution a year or so. Eagerly!

[sickgut]

re: timely release of the beta

hi people, in order to release the beta soon i have had to make some management decisions, as im the only dev and the only manager, the conference was long and boring and i dont think i learned anything because my manager is an asshole.

practical work has stalled in favor of research, and that is research into the various bootloaders. If i am to develop scripts and readme files, batch files and a GUI for grub4dos, syslinux, grublegacy and grub2 for both linux and windows that a newbie level user can use to setup the bootloader and not foobar their windows and or linux installs, the beta will be delayed for about 6 months to a year. If i did actually do this then pussy itself would no longer be current and i would be starting from scratch again.

currently i have developed a script for grub2 that can be used from the live cd that a midlevel user can boot pussy and windows with, if they are willing to copy and paste and or customize the examples and insert the example code into their grub2.cfg

The pussy beta will move ahead and be released with the linux grub2 scripts. After the beta has been released i will continue work on the other bootloaders and when that work is completed i will release a patch and also re-release the beta with these improvements included in it. I am still deciding if i should include the windows grub4dos, grub and syslinux tools in the /addons dir of the iso, as i do not have any usable scripts to tie it all together in windows that the average user would be able to use and understand. If you guys think it would be helpful to include these windows bootloader apps on the iso then let me know and ill include them as they are only a few mb in size.

if anyone wants to work on the bootloader stuff for pussy and can come up with a working solution that the average user can use to install grub/ grub4dos/ syslinux/ lilo etc then i will gladly incorporate it in pussy.

there isnt a hell of alot of work to do now to release the beta with the grub2 script.
ill keep you all informed on the progress

[sickgut]

Good that you found out.

the rw problem was caused by something else not the dir name change

But please do share that maybe is the same reason why AntiX fails to do it and many many other Debian derivates. So it can help many many others!

How shall one boot a Debian using grub4dos on NTFS so it can save
on same NTFS that one booted the Debian from? I've waited for
the solution a year or so. Eagerly!

im pretty sure the ntfs-3g driver in the beta will sort the ntfs write issue
i dont know what the particular reason was i lost write access on my test system ive made so many grub2 alterations that i cant pinpoint it, ill start again with a fresh grub2.cfg and see what i done wrong.

[saintless]

Hi, sickgut,
my opinion is even for linux newbies like me the alpha version is easy enough for frugal install. I don't think many people will use pussy linux for main and only one distro on their computer at the beginning. Most of them have dual boot system with boot loader already installed. It is a matter of adding a few lines in the existing boot loader and that is easy with all the information in this topic and forum.
You are the only developer and you should do what you want and you should create the linux system you like. It is not necessary to be easy for everyone. We get it for free. At least we must try to learn how to use the product of your work.

Best regards!

[john3voltas]

I don't think many people will use pussy linux for main and only one distro on their computer at the beginning.

I'm only one, but I will use Pussy as my sole distro on an old laptop that I have.
It's a P3 Celeron with 256MB and 30GB HDD.
The new laptop and the netbook will always keep multi-boot with 7+lupu+pussy.
Honestly, I can't force my boss to give up on 7, can I?
Lupu will be there because (for now) it looks nicer and for failsafe.
But puppy can be very frustating due to the lack of repository system...
Like for installing Bluetooth, for instance!
That's why pussy will always be there.
Cheers

[nooby]

It's a P3 Celeron with 256MB and 30GB HDD.

Well mine counterpart is a Packard Bell Laptop Model A6. with Celeron CPU
and 256 MB and 40GB internal hdd if I remember.

So would be cool to test the Pussy we wait for now and not wait these 6 months

Sickgut now when you have the WICD going then why not let us "volunteer" testers try out how it works for us all have different levels
of expereince of setting up things and that way you get feedback.

You don't have to do an official release only to allow us to go to that
server you have them on and on our own risk download and install and report back here.

See it as a test ride by the usual crew something, don't see it as the big public release party. I'm eager to test now.

[nooby]

Can you please edit the first post and make the link clickable

like this one
http://www.pussypussypussy.info/linux/

[Puppyt]

...and there are a lot of us lurkers out here keen to see it up and out after all your hard work, solo.
Here's to Reigning cats and dogs,

The foobar King

[sickgut]

Hi people

im putting together the beta now and gradually adding in and fixing all the options that people here voted to have in the beta and I have just setup the screen capture bit.

I have decided on using the "scrot" program. it is a console based program but it can be made to output a .png file of the screen shot to a dir on your hdd, and works fine when executed via a script.

check this out:

------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
mkdir /root/screenshots
scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h_scrot.png' -e 'mv $f ~/screenshots/'
xmessage 'Pussy has captured your screen and put it into a .png file in your /root/screenshots/ dir. '
-------------------------------

this is the contents of the screen-capture.sh file that is a script to run scrot. No /root/screenshot dir will exist until you run screen-capture, and if it already exists then no harm done. It will output a screenshot to the /root/screenshot dir with the date attached to the filename. Also when you view the dir, pussy will render the thumbnail of the saved screenie making it easier to sort through them. The scrot program itself only had one small dependency and totaled just 160kb or so, but it will be slimmed down and compressed into a squashfile. The screen-capture.sh will have a icon assigned to it and it can be an icon on the main desktop.

if anyone wants to make/ submit a suitable icon for this then that would be really cool, if not im sure i can find some stock one to suit it. If people dont wont it on the main desktop it can be just an entry into the jwm menu system and the catroll panel.

Also another subject here.... how i am aproaching the beta is i am basicly just adding things to the pussyos.squashfs file as that file is basicly fine, except some missing things like the ntfs-3g driver and better network manager etc etc. Once i have this basic squashfile finnished i will add the browser squashfs file and the console tools squashfs, then upload the squahfs files for you guys to copy to your systems.

the modifications im making to the pussyos.squashfs will interfere a little with the pussyxtra.squashfs that contains all the extra apps. So if you wanna try a preview edition of the beta you might wanna move or delete this file from your booting filesystem.
After i have overhaulled the pussyos.squashfs and made then browser and console tools squashfs ill have a day or 2 to do some reasearch then i will start on the new pussyxtra.squashfs. I am planning on replacing assaultcube with virtualbox, updating the java version etc etc. IF you have any requests for the pussyxtra.squashfs then let me know.

[Edit: note that altho scrot is a terminal program it cannot take snapshots without an X server... also what i thought was cool about scrot is that it saves the file to your hdd rather than putting it in your clipboard so you can paste it, as this is a little fiddly.]

[Re-edit: due to the nature of executing the scrot program via the screen capture script, it takes the shot immediately, possibly while your screen capture icon is hogging the part of the screen you wish to capture, so i will add a: "sleep 10" line. This will give you 10 seconds to click onto the program or window you wish to capture or arrange stuff how you like it. Ofcause the script can be edited and your own sleep value inserted in there instead.]

[sickgut]

As promised, i have made a package for all the wifi (and normal ethernet) firmware.

The package is a zip file that is 9.5mb in size, i dont think that this is too high a price to pay in iso size to get better out of the box network functionality. The network-firmware package will be located in the /addons dir of the iso and if you are missing firmware then you unzip it and then install the deb you need that covers your network card.

i have uploaded the zip package to www.thepussycatforest.info/beta
i have just realized that i forgot to include the install all script in that package but i will make sure its included in the beta, that way if you are missing firmware but unsure of what package you need you can just install them all.

right now im working on the dialup and pppoe stuff and this will be included in the /addons dir in the iso like the firmware stuff and the grub stuff. This /addons folder contains stuff that is optional so if you need it you can install it, if you dont need it, then its not just there bloating your system.

[Edit: have uploaded dialup-pppoe.zip to www.thepussycatforest.info/beta/ ... if someone can test this package for dialup and or pppoe i would greatly apprecialte it, if it doesnt work can you please copy and paste any error spam etc, this is something i cannot test myself.]

I am going to investigate a system where debs will install if you click on them as at present you have to run the dpkg --install packagename.deb to install them individually or dpkg -R --install * to install all the debs in a dir.

[saintless]

Thank you, sickgut,
apt-get is working fine on alpha version and it downloads the programs and dependencies in /var/cache/apt/archives. To save space is good to clean that directory manual after a program installation. I wrote that for the newbies like me
After the first setting up of the IP and DNS servers in WICD the internet connection runs without problems when the system starts.
The browser clean mode works fine as well.
I'm happy with pussy alpha, but I'm sure the beta version will be much better.
Best regards!

[sickgut]

Thank you, sickgut,
apt-get is working fine on alpha version and it downloads the programs and dependencies in /var/cache/apt/archives. To save space is good to clean that directory manual after a program installation. I wrote that for the newbies like me
After the first setting up of the IP and DNS servers in WICD the internet connection runs without problems when the system starts.
The browser clean mode works fine as well.
I'm happy with pussy alpha, but I'm sure the beta version will be much better.
Best regards!

cool, its always nice to hear from someone that has had a positive experience. There is a cleanup option in the catroll-panel that removes the apt cache but also removes buildup from things like thumbnail cache as well as other things. You can customize it to empty any folders you like.

thanks for the feedback

[sickgut]

o m f g

today i put in a whole days work and sorted these issues out with the beta:

added dofstools package so we can add fat or fat32 partitions from commandline or gparted

changed the I caN haz MoAr pro...whatever menu entry to Pussy. I cant seem to suppress the debian menu entry, but it makes sense to have a Pussy and a debian entry as the cutom stuff we add to pussy will be in pussy and the standard debian apps you apt-get will automatically get added to debian.

added network-config network manager also added an entry in catroll-panel that lets you switch between wicd and network-config as default network manager, added menu entry in the jwm menus for wicd and network-config in a new network -> managers section

added scrot screenshot program and menu entry for it

added catrol-panel entry in filesystems section for disk-uuid , this runs the blkid command, listing the uuid's of your disks and shows it in a xmessage screen

changed background image to reflect the version change

edited /etc/issue.net so that the ascii art splash screen shows when you telnet or ssh to pussy

applied the jwm patch from the patch.zip from the website to fix the jwm resetting to default issue

added ntfs-3g driver

blanked out the /etc/resolv.conf file, the entry here may have been stopping the dns namerserver stuff working correctly

When i rebooted i lost all my changes because i didnt have the persistent tag in my grub s o m e o n e s h o o t m e ! ! !

i know no use crying over spilt milk... i am listing everything i did here because it was all a success, added only like 8mb to the file size (before squashing, may be as low as 4mb) and it all worked sweetly, also im listing what i did here as a reminder for when i do this again.. i know it took a day to do all this correctly but next time i do it i know it will take half the time as i already know what to do.

i was about to strip out all the un needed files from my live-rw save file then merge it all with the pussyos.squashfs and upload the new squashfs file as a preview for the beta, when i realized the live-rw was empty. I vauguely remember swearing so loud my cat ran away for an hour or so.

So anyway in 2 days time, i will attempt this all again and will upload the resulting pussyos.squashfs file and everyone can download it and replace their current pussyos.squash with the new one and can test run an early beta. The only reason im not doing it again tomorrow is because i commited to reformatting my ex's laptop with vista then a windows 7 upgrade pack. After i get that done, ill be right on redoing the beta again.

a day after i do the new pussyos.squashfs i will make the browser and the console-tools squashfs, then we will have a complete beta preview.

Issues that will still need to be fixed before we move on to a full beta release are:

keymap issues for other languages

add support for acpi

one click online support similar to older puppies how you click on chat and you go straight to the official support irc channel

the ability to click on a .deb and have it installed in a way that lets the user know if there are any dependency issues or not hopefully by somehow usings the dpkg --install command in a terminal

various catroll-panel additions such as a save file section that generates a live-rw also some example live-rw files that are zipped, the same kinda setup for adding swap files.

web cam recording/ viewing

complete redo of the pussyxtra.squashfs, updating all software versions and eliminating the error spam problem when apt-getting with this squashfs installed that was caused by mksquashfs treating links as real files.

decent readme for the grub install/ hdd install and also some understandable documentation about live-rw save files etc. Only the .img version for USB installs will have the compressed save file feature as it is way way too fiddly at the moment to get it working with HDD installs at the present time. This works every time when the USB stick is imaged propperly. Until we get writing to the partition we boot from with HDD installs working 100% of the time its best this option is left out for HDD installs, also doesnt work with live cd.

i will check back in a couple of days hopefully with good news about the beta preview being ready for download.

[nooby]

oops too bad. But better to remember next time. Looking forward with high expectations then.,

[saintless]

We are ready for the beta cat tour any time, sickgut
looks like you are working too hard on the beta version. Thank you!

[sickgut]

YAY!!! its all done!! the beta preview is uploaded and so is the seamonkey.squashfs (fomerly refered to my as the browser.squashfs)

[Edit: huge edit, deleted most the post as i changed stuff on the website]

http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux/beta-preview/

everything is at the above url. There is a decent readme.txt there that explains most of it.

basicly there is a 2.6mb upgrade patch squashfs you can insert into your live media dir along with the seamonkey.squashfs and remove the pussyxtra.sqaushfs and your upgraded to the beta preview.

the other way is to replace your old pussyos.squashfs with the new pussyos-beta.squashfs, then add the seamonkey.squashfs and remove the pussyxtra.squashfs

the current pussyxtra.squashfs file will cause a few problems with the new OS as there will be a few menu problems and dead links also it will clash with the new browser seamonkey.squashfs... so to give the OS a fair test, please dont run it with the pussyxtra.squashfs. Also you will want to use a fresh save file. Your old one will work but it may point to a few things that arent there and its menu files are older so the new menus wont be there.

the new pussyxtra.squashfs will be released soon along with the console-tools.squashfs. The browser.squashfs is named seamonkey to keep with the alphabetical order loading thing. If you have problems with things not getting loaded at the right times, then you can just add a number to the beginning of the file like:

1filesystem 2pussyos 3pussypatch 4seamonkey

also note you dont have to run the pussypatch-beta file if you have replaced your old pussyos with the new pussyos-beta as they do the same thing

Other improvements that i didnt list the last post:

[Edit: removed the new network manager, have installed the resolvconf package that autodetects the DNS and this makes WICD network manager detect the DNS automatically, so there is no need for the new network manager]

added ACPI

added Putty and ISO master programs as the base OS needs a good ssh client with GUI
and every live cd distro really should have iso editing functionality.

when you empty the kitty litter it only has one swear word, not two. You should try it, its in catroll-panel.

----
i know the OS is a tad bare without the pussyxtra.squashfs but its kind of a similar comparison to puppy. The new pussyxtra applications package will be uploaded in the next week or so

[saintless]

Thank you, sickgut,
waiting for the links and start testing

[nooby]

Sickgut have you change the password for root?

I tested user root and password pussy and it say wrong word.

What boot code do you expect us to use for grub4dos?

I use this now.


title Pussy live
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /pussy.iso
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config noprompt noautologin
initrd /live/initrd.img


okay I can take away your noautologin maybe but then I am meow instead of root?

[sickgut]

WAIT EVERYONE!!!

there is a bug that i need to fix, there is an error in the new network manager. if you goto preferences and change the dhclient to dhcpcd it should work.

i dont know why this is happening with network-config. if you cant get network-config to work then goto catroll-panel then select network-managers then set-wicd-as-default, then you click the network icon on the desktop and this time wicd will control your networking. This is a real dissapointment because the whole point of the beta preview was to fix the dns problem. i am looking into the problem right now and i will post soon with a fix or reupload the squashfs files

Also i messed up the seamonkey.squashfs the /www folder isnt there, but the new one is uploaded. If you downloaded seamonkey squash before this message way posted then please download again.

[sickgut]

Sickgut have you change the password for root?

I tested user root and password pussy and it say wrong word.

What boot code do you expect us to use for grub4dos?

I use this now.


title Pussy live
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /pussy.iso
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config noprompt noautologin
initrd /live/initrd.img


okay I can take away your noautologin maybe but then I am meow instead of root?

i havent changed the password its still pussy, if you login as meow you can type: sudo -i
this will give you root access. are you using a new save file? it may be picking up another save file from another distro if you have moved or renamed the old one possibly