XFCE 4.12 for XenialPup 64bit

[battleshooter]

Hah, thank you for your positive report and advice Marv!

Credit where credit is due though, this is just XFCE on top of XenialPup, if anything works, it's just because I haven't broken it (yet)

I've compiled kernel 4.13.3 according to your instructions, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. It's been a long sleep deprived week. I'll just leave a link in case you can use it and look at it in more detail in the morn.

pstate_disabled_kernel-4.13.3.tar.gz

I don't have a laptop, but I'll just include your script in the next release and also test that, thank you for sending it to me.

More tomorrow, but just wanted to let you know your post has been read and appreciated.

[Marv]

Hi Battleshooter,
Swapped in the the modded kernel and it does disable the troublesome intel_pstate but I didn't see that ACPI_CPUFREQ wasn't enabled. Oops. Line 715 in the dotconfig is:

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# CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ is not set

It should be:

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CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=y

in order to enable the standard set of acpi driver/governors. Otherwise, that kernel gave a clean boot on a quick check. Sorry for the oops, I assumed where I should have checked.

On another tangent, clicking to mount and open SFS etc. was mounting but not opening Thunar for me. The $1 parameter /usr/local/bin/rox was getting was -n in that case. I added another test in that file, line 11, and now opening seems correct. I didn't change any of the other tests as I haven't a clue when they are invoked.
Changed line 11 in /usr/local/bin/rox:

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 if [ "$3" = "-d" ] || [ "$3" = "-x" ] || [ "$1" = "-s" ] || [ "$1" = "-n" ];then

apologies if this has already/otherwise been fixed.

Ohyea, I changed a few categories in the .desktops to put SFS_load_on_fly and PPM in System in the main menu and pulled Save and Shutdown from there since they are in the main menu body. Just fingerclick lazy.

And... DVDs now showing handler on insertion and playing well in MPV. A couple of basic .conf files are attached, I had to add them to get english playback on some DVDs (see the last two lines in mpv.conf). False .gz, strip it, create /root/.config/mpv directory and put them there.

Cheers,

[battleshooter]

How much of that could be put into Woof-CE (or the kernel kit thing)?

Hmm, it would be pretty easy to add the kernel configuration if there is a default DOTconfig that WoofCE works off in my unexpert opinion.

Would updating PupSys just involve uploading the new version with git?

Swapped in the the modded kernel and it does disable the troublesome intel_pstate but I didn't see that ACPI_CPUFREQ wasn't enabled.

Gotcha Marv and no worries, I appreciate you helping me get this sorted, I wouldn't have know to chase it on my own.

I'm going to compile the kernel with the missing setting, will post it in a bit

On another tangent, clicking to mount and open SFS etc. was mounting but not opening Thunar for me. The $1 parameter /usr/local/bin/rox was getting was -n in that case. I added another test in that file, line 11, and now opening seems correct. I didn't change any of the other tests as I haven't a clue when they are invoked.

This was awesome! Many thanks Marv, that was one of the things I needed to get around to fixing so appreciate you just telling me how Now the only Thunar issue I need to work out is why Palemoon keeps opening Rox instead.

Ohyea, I changed a few categories in the .desktops to put SFS_load_on_fly and PPM in System in the main menu and pulled Save and Shutdown from there since they are in the main menu body. Just fingerclick lazy.

And... DVDs now showing handler on insertion and playing well in MPV. A couple of basic .conf files are attached, I had to add them to get english playback on some DVDs (see the last two lines in mpv.conf). False .gz, strip it, create /root/.config/mpv directory and put them there.

I would like to change up some of the desktop categories as well, I feel some of them could be more specific, will go with your changes and also add the MPV fix.

[rg66]

On another tangent, clicking to mount and open SFS etc. was mounting but not opening Thunar for me. The $1 parameter /usr/local/bin/rox was getting was -n in that case. I added another test in that file, line 11, and now opening seems correct. I didn't change any of the other tests as I haven't a clue when they are invoked.
Changed line 11 in /usr/local/bin/rox:

Code: Select all

 if [ "$3" = "-d" ] || [ "$3" = "-x" ] || [ "$1" = "-s" ] || [ "$1" = "-n" ];then

apologies if this has already/otherwise been fixed.

That looks like the rox from X-Slacko which is modified from one of grey's NOP's (maybe, can't remember, thought it was Saluki at first). Line 11 was added for filemnt, the -s was later added for MochiMoppel's MMview.

[battleshooter]

That looks like the rox from X-Slacko which is modified from one of grey's NOP's (maybe, can't remember, thought it was Saluki at first). Line 11 was added for filemnt, the -s was later added for MochiMoppel's MMview.

Yep, rox to thunar wrapper was from Carolina, but I guess it didn't get upgraded since Carolina still uses the old filemnt.

New kernel, hopefully I didn't miss anything this time. Thanks for taking the time to check these Marv, appreciate it.

pstate_disabled_kernel-4.13.3ver2.tar.gz

[Marv]

How much of that could be put into Woof-CE (or the kernel kit thing)?

Hmm, it would be pretty easy to add the kernel configuration if there is a default DOTconfig that WoofCE works off in my unexpert opinion.

Would updating PupSys just involve uploading the new version with git?

The updated PupSysInfo 2.7.3 is in woofCE now, it shows up in the latest LxPupSc version. wcpufreq will get there, in testing. Hardinfo and inxi are maintained outside pupspace (correction.. I believe jamesbond maintains a version of hardinfo for fatdog64. I'll check). The kernel 4.13 changes show up as a commit at github for hardinfo but not yet in most repositories. I haven't checked on inxi.

battleshooter, I downloaded the kernel and will swap it in & look at the governors now.

Update: Yep, that dotconfig did it. intel_pstate disabled so no kernel parameter needs to be passed and all the usual acpi_cpufreq governors show up with schedutil added. Switched to the schedutil governor and watched cpu speeds while I ran glxgears. All good!

I am hooked on redshift and didn't have a 64b pet so I downloaded a 64b redshiftgui, added a start script in /root/Startup to it, and made a pet. Sets location correctly using postal code and it's running well on xfcexenial r2. Alas, too big to upload at 378kb though. Pruned icons to leave only scalable & attaching.

I just compiled hardinfo 0.6.2-alpha from github source files dated July 2017 and it compiled without errors, installs and runs well, but still mis-reports the current cpu frequency in 4.13 kernels. Now it gives it as the maximum cpufreq, not some number close to that, but still not the current freqs.

Thanks,

[LateAdopter]

Hello battleshooter

Your project is interesting since the ROX project seems to have been defunct for quite a few years.

I have just tried your XFCE-4.12r4.pet on a new Xenialpup64 7085 savefile and it's running successfully. I tried installing first on a copy my 707 remaster but that was fatal. I think it ran out of space during the install, now that I have seen how much space it takes.

The thing I have noticed is that retrovol and firewallstatus are taking 25% cpu load each, continuously. I checked a plain 7085 and that doesn't have the problem.

I am using a 4.13.1 kernel that I built. It's descended from the Fatdog 3.18.7 DOTconfig with the exception of MSR=y, that intel_pstate likes, and turning the loglevel down to 3 on the 4.10 and later kernels.

I think intel_pstate does do some configuration of recent Intel processors, like my Braswell N3150 SoC, so I prefer to keep it. The intel_pstate from 4.5 to 4.8 were too aggressive at downclocking to work properly with media players, but the recent ones are better behaved.

I was hoping that XFCE might access the Shared MIME database and identify my .ts files correctly, but it doesn't use the globs. It's the same as with Xenialpup64. So there must be some other part of GTK+ or Gnome that is missing.

Thanks for this

EDIT
Sorry, I was wrong. XFCE is correctly (mis)identifying my .ts files according the the globs/globs2 files as a trolltech file. I will try editing them to remove the trolltech .ts so that it can find the video/mp2t .ts in the list.

[Marv]

Hi LateAdopter,

I don't see anything out of the ordinary for retrovol and firewallstatus on my 2nd gen i5 (screenshot below) or my core 2 duo laptops. Currently running battleshooters r2 iso and the 4.13.3 v2 kernel above and the schedutil governor. Memory use is Slimmie minimized.

Once we get a warning flag in wcpufreq wrt adding a kernel parameter if needed to disable intel_pstate in order to get the other governors I don't see any reason not to leave it enabled in the kernel for those with newer kit -mild envy-. Where it has been problematic for me (admittedly mostly with 4.9 and older kernels) is on my Bay Trail, Pentium M and core 2 duo stable. On my sandy-bridge and ivy-bridge i5 laptops it was just about 'ok' though I prefer schedutil.

[battleshooter]

Yep, that dotconfig did it. intel_pstate disabled so no kernel parameter needs to be passed and all the usual acpi_cpufreq governors show up with schedutil added. Switched to the schedutil governor and watched cpu speeds while I ran glxgears. All good!

Woohoo Marv!

This is what my own processor says according to the new Pup-Sys 2.7.3, I think you said on the other thread something about a report from someone with many cores. It's not 16, but 8's a pretty good number heh

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AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core Processor
Max Speed: 3750 MHz
Current Speed of Core 0:3000 MHz, 1:1550 MHz, 2:1550 MHz, 3:1550 MHz, 4:1550 MHz, 5:1550 MHz, 6:1550 MHz, 7:1550 MHz
Core Count: 8
Thread Count: 16

I'm not sure why the first core is running at that speed though.

I was hoping that XFCE might access the Shared MIME database and identify my .ts files correctly, but it doesn't use the globs. It's the same as with Xenialpup64. So there must be some other part of GTK+ or Gnome that is missing.

That's something I'm currently researching as well since LibreOffice files are incorrectly identified as archive files instead of spreadsheets, word files, etc. I got it working before in Carolina, and .odts open correctly in Tahr so I'm sure it's doable

[battleshooter]

I call this one the "Marv Update"

XenialXFCE ISO Release 3

Thunar fix filemnt fix
Remove duplicate shutdown and save menu entries
Added PPM and SFS on the fly to System menu for convenience
Added suspend script and edited shutdown gui to use it to suspend instead of sleep

Added MPV configs for DVDs and extra mouse keys for convenience
Updated wcpufrequency and PupSys for the 4.13.3 kernel CPU change
Added kernel 4.13.3 with pstate disabled (for now)

XenialXFCE Release 5

Thunar fix filemnt fix
Remove duplicate shutdown and save menu entries
Added PPM and SFS on the fly to System menu for convenience
Added suspend script and edited shutdown gui to use it to suspend instead of sleep

Thanks mate

[rg66]

Hi battleshooter,

Just a suggestion, but this has gone far beyond a desktop .pet and is a full blown derivative. You should make a new thread in derivatives so it's easier to follow.

Cheers!

Edit: Thanks to Marv for the rox -n, even though it doesn't seem to affect slacko-6.x, I'll add it to the rox script in case anyone else wants to use it for newer puppies.

[Moat]

Nothing at all to report, but just had to say... gosh, I love Xfce! My fav, I think (Carolina was/is the best of the best, and I'm long-enamored with X-Tahr 2.0). Xenial is a fine, fine release to base things on, too - IMHO and newb-ish experience/perspective with numerous Xenial-based distros. I also love Battleshooter's and rg66's work (and now Marv?!!), so will be following this project very closely.

So, where the heck is Geoffrey?

Thanks to you all for this effort,

Bob

[battleshooter]

Roger that Rg, I'll get onto that, it would make the update section a little less confusing

@Moat

Haha Moat. Geoff is behind the scenes still, he's been giving me advice via pm since Vanguard and many of the configuration files are from Carolina so his, elroy, Rg and Jemimah's work is here.

Thanks for another positive report! I agree with you XenialPup is pretty awesome pup, I can really appreciate all the effort that's been put into it

[LateAdopter]

I was hoping that XFCE might access the Shared MIME database and identify my .ts files correctly, but it doesn't use the globs. It's the same as with Xenialpup64. So there must be some other part of GTK+ or Gnome that is missing.

That's something I'm currently researching as well since LibreOffice files are incorrectly identified as archive files instead of spreadsheets, word files, etc. I got it working before in Carolina, and .odts open correctly in Tahr so I'm sure it's doable

Hello battleshooter
I found it! There's lots instructions on how to add definitions but none on how to kill conflicting ones. Also XDG seem to have changed the files too.

The main set of definitions is now in /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml

I just deleted the trolltech xml block in it, ran update-mime-database and now my .ts are detected as video/mp2t transport stream. So gnome-mpv will agree to play them.

The retrovol firewallstatus problem has gone away today. Yesterday I noticed the temperature was 50C and ran top to see why, but today the temperature is 36C which is back to normal.

[Geoffrey]

So, where the heck is Geoffrey?

I'm watching the progress with great interest, just into a bit of activism at the moment, viva la revolution

[Marv]

Morning battleshooter,

Stripped all my changes from my savefile, did the standard pre-update scrub on it and booted into r3 on the i5 laptop. All seems good. PupSysinfo, wcpufreq, mounting/Thunar, menu, suspend, DVD play/language etc. exercised. All good. Came up without retrovol in tray on this first boot. I am going to post this and do an X-restart/reboot and fiddle with timing a bit. Never did hear back from ally on that on his Lenovo 230 but I've seen it before on faster kit and this laptop may be on the edge. Nothing else noted yet. Only 8 cores Tsk tsk. Having one core faster at any given time is more common than not. Somewhere there's a thread on that.

Back: Simple answer to Retrovol thing. Looking at the r3 main SFS, Retrovol is disabled. Wasn't in r2. Enabled it and it's up. Also udated the wcpufreq with intel_pstate speed capabilities and warning/instructions if any pstaters want to test http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 664#968664

Thanks,

[magerlab]

I always liked xfce4 so I installed your pet in XenialPup. Everything works fine. The only thing I miss is more xfce4-panel applets, especially xkb-layout plugin. Of course there's fbxkb that I am using, but xkb-layout plugin has more options. I tried to install this plugin from ubuntu's package, but it give me error message. If I try to install from puppy package manager it tries to install many dependencies( looks like it does not see that xfce4 is already installed.
Thank you

[battleshooter]

Evening Marv,

Back: Simple answer to Retrovol thing. Looking at the r3 main SFS, Retrovol is disabled. Wasn't in r2. Enabled it and it's up.

Oops yeah, I thought with all the trouble with Retrovol I'd just chuck it out and use Xfce mixer instead. It worked well on my test machines, not sure why Xfce mixer didn't appear for you when Retrovol used to.

Only 8 cores Tsk tsk. Having one core faster at any given time is more common than not. Somewhere there's a thread on that.

I'm almost ashamed to be seen with it given that Puppy's supposed to be for "low spec machines". But even now I have nice hardware, I still can't let Puppy go. It sure does make compiling a lot more fun though.

I always liked xfce4 so I installed your pet in XenialPup. Everything works fine. The only thing I miss is more xfce4-panel applets, especially xkb-layout plugin

Another XFCE fan hah. I guess I am beginning to understand the need for XFCE to be an option in Woof. It seems to be the second most popular after JWM/Rox, but I guess naturally XFCE fans would gravitate to this thread.

I'm not 100% sure if this pet will do everything you need Magerlab, but I just downloaded without installing xfce4-xkb-plugin from the ppm so I could manually skip all the outsider XFCE dependencies.

xfce4-xkb-plugin_0.7.1-2.pet

If there are any other plugins, you could probably install them the same way, or just let me know, it's not very difficult to do for me.

[Marv]

Oops yeah, I thought with all the trouble with Retrovol I'd just chuck it out and use Xfce mixer instead. It worked well on my test machines, not sure why Xfce mixer didn't appear for you when Retrovol used to.

I'll have a look-about for Xfce mixer. I've run both in the past so once it appears I have no real preference one over the other.

An aside: Do you have a server box in your household? I am tussling with throughput issues and getting up the nerve and info to to post a question elsewhere on them. I just need the rough time to transfer a file (copy/paste with Thunar or PCManFM, not rsync or cli), 256Mb or so (I used a savefile) on XFCE-Xenialpup64 or LxPupSc 64b kernel) and time on the same transfer same hardware from X-Slacko or any true 32b pup. I ask because your hardware is very different from mine. It's a comparison only and I expect either small difference or an unexpected result.

Cheers,

[sc0ttman]

Another Xfce fan here.. So easy to set hotkeys, remove window decorations, auto-fullscreen/maximise certain apps, etc..
And the Whisker menu has a spotlight-esque search function, and can popup fullscreen, that is just lovely.

I have Xfce setup *almost* as a tiling, keyboard-only WM on my crappy little netbook.. Works a treat.. Fast too..

I'm almost ashamed to be seen with it given that Puppy's supposed to be for "low spec machines".

Lol me too .. But uni stuff needed x64 ...

I still love my old Dell Optiplex though..
One of about 20 PCs taken by some kid from a skip after they were needlessly dumped by the NHS...

He had a stack of them in his room.. 20 quid each, I took three

It sure does make compiling a lot more fun though.

My brother can compile LibreOffice in about 3 mins on his FreeBSD setup, using an old i5 ..
He says ccache speeds things up massively for him.. I never used it though..

I will defo download this and test soon, I hope (like recent Slackos) it is one of the few Puppies that DOESN'T force my PC fans
to full speed... I hope it respects my BIOS/UEFI settings and keep them low/slow .. Most puppies dont

.. and I like your website BTW