The Debian-Stretch-Live Starter Kit

[rcrsn51]

How to make a squashfs module for DeaDBeeF music player

1. Go here and get a 32/64 bit deb package.
2. Do a vanilla third-party repo2sfs build.

Users of the 64bit Starter Kit and BT4Stretch are aware that PeasyMP3/Mplayer doesn't work over Bluetooth.

However, DeaDBeeF works nicely. Once you have made a BT connection and configured ALSA, you can right-click on an M3U/PLS file and play the Internet stream via DeaDBeeF to your BT speaker.

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[rcrsn51]

Here is Salix Linux on "primary" partition sda5 of a GPT drive. Booting is controlled by Legacy GRUB on sda1.

Salix uses the LILO bootloader. You can put LILO on the partition boot sector (AKA the superblock) of the install partition.

Then Salix boots from sda1 by chainloading:

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title Salix on sda5
root (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

However, in a UEFI/GRUB2 environment, this chainloading trick doesn't work. Use the entry for a regular full install:

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menuentry "Salix on sda5" {
  set root=(hd0,5)
  linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 ro vga=normal
}

[rcrsn51]

How to make a hybrid ISO of the Starter Kit

A hybrid ISO can be "burned" onto a USB drive using the dd command. The drive becomes bootable.

1. You need two packages:

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apt-get install syslinux-utils perl

2. Run: isohybrid xxx.iso
3. Insert your flash drive and determine its device name: sdX
4. Warning! The following step will erase everything currently on the drive! Pick the right device!
5. Run: dd if=xxx.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M
6. Boot the drive.

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[rcrsn51]

This is SliTaz Linux running on partition sda3 of a GPT hard drive controlled by Legacy Grub.

The original boot was off an ISObooter flash drive. The SliTaz installer located its files on partition sdb4 of the flash drive.

This worked fine until SliTaz tried to put the syslinux bootloader onto the hard drive's MBR, blowing away GRUB and making the drive unbootable.

So I booted off a Starter Kit flash drive, ran Legacy GRUB Config 2018 and restored GRUB to the MBR. I then made a standard menu.lst entry for the SliTaz full install:

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title SliTaz on sda3
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.55-slitaz root=/dev/sda3 video=-32 quiet

[rcrsn51]

This is Mint 19 on partition sda3 of a UEFI system. Booting is controlled from an EFI on sda1 as described here. Its grub.cfg also boots some frugal Stretch/Puppy installs on sda4.

When you install a big-boy Linux under UEFI, you MUST avoid putting GRUB2 on sda, where it will hook into the UEFI firmware. This will disable your own boot procedure. Luckily, Mint can install GRUB2 onto the PBS of the install partition. Then you can boot it from sda1 with:

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menuentry "Mint 19 on sda3" {
  set uuid=XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ${uuid}
  linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=${uuid}
  initrd /initrd.img
}

Or just:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Mint 19 on sda3" {
  set root=(hd0,3)
  linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3
  initrd /initrd.img
}

Unfortunately, some Linux installs will register themselves in UEFI regardless of what you want. This will take some surgery to remove.
Ask for help.

[rcrsn51]

Removed.

[rcrsn51]

How to build a squashfs module for 32bit Wine

I don't know much about Wine, but this worked with some basic apps. Details from here. Build the module in a CleanMode environment so you get all the dependencies.

1a. Go to /etc/apt. Open the file sources.list.
1b. Add this line: deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ stretch main
1c. Run: apt-get update

2a. Run: wget --no-check-cert https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
2b. Run: apt-key add winehq.key

3. Run repo2sfs. Use the Package name: winehq-stable

4a. Load the Wine module.
4b. To start the Wine configuration, run: winecfg
4c. To start a Wine app, run: wine xxx.exe

[dancytron]

How to build a squashfs module for 32bit Wine

I don't know much about Wine, but this worked with some basic apps. Details from here. Build the module in a CleanMode environment so you get all the dependencies.

1a. Go to /etc/apt. Open the file sources.list.
1b. Add this line: deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ stretch main
1c. Run: apt-get update

2a. Run: wget --no-check-cert https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
2b. Run: apt-key add winehq.key

3. Run repo2sfs. Use the Package name: winehq-stable

4a. Load the Wine module.
4b. To start the Wine configuration, run: winecfg
4c. To start a Wine app, run: wine xxx.exe

This might be of some interest. It shows how I (and RSH) put all the wine configuration files into the sfs file after winecfg runs.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=84557

[rcrsn51]

I expect that repo2sfs could do this.

At Pause B, go to /tmp/repo2sfs. Make a "root" folder. Drop the .wine folder into it.

[rcrsn51]

For those users who are switching their hard drives to GPT, I have updated the information here.

Be aware that the above does NOT apply to UEFI-based systems. But you can still multi-boot a UEFI machine using the same general principles.

Read here and here for examples.

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[rcrsn51]

How to install TeamViewer 15 for Linux

These steps will launch the TeamViewer GUI. I didn't actually attempt a remote connection.

1. You may want to create a special frugal install just for running TeamViewer.

2. In the Starter Kit, TeamViewer needs to run through systemd and a login manager.

a. Go here and read how to enable systemd in your GRUB menu (item #2).

b. Install the slim login manager. Run: apt install slim
The default slim setting (auto-login as root) appears to be OK. Otherwise, create a "guest" user for running TeamViewer.

3. Get a TeamViewer deb package and right-click install it.

4. Reboot.

5. Run TeamViewer from the Internet menu or from the command line with: teamviewer

[rcrsn51]

Updates:

PeasyScale updated here.
PeasyPrint updated here.

[rcrsn51]

Here is the Dell 3020 desktop box again. This time it has a Broadcom PCIe WiFi adapter and an old nVidia PCIe graphics card with a DVI-VGA plug. The setup is easy:

1. Run: apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
2. Run: apt-get install nvidia-detect
3. Run: nvidia-detect
4. Run: apt-get install <the recommended nvidia driver>
5. Run: apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms
6. Reboot.

All of the blacklisting is handled automatically. You need to run Sound-Card-Selector to set the internal audio as default over the nVidia audio on the card.

Prior to installing the nvidia driver, the nouveau modesetting driver was adequate. After loading mesa, it could run Google Earth fairly well.

As would be expected, the nvidia driver is much faster. It doesn't require mesa.

[rcrsn51]

This is an old Thinkpad X130e netbook. It has an AMD 1.3GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and Radeon graphics.

It was originally a Win7 machine, but the BIOS had been upgraded to UEFI. Initially, I reverted to Legacy Mode and booted off a Grub4Dos flash drive. But I could NOT get it to boot off a conventional hard drive setup.

So I switched back to UEFI and built the hard drive as GPT with a FAT32 EFI system partition and a GRUB2 menu. That worked. Now it multi-boots a collection of frugal installs and big-boy Linuxes.

The UEFI firmware has a quirk when you subsequently boot off a UEFI flash drive. It enumerates the hard drive first and uses its GRUB menu instead. So you need to run "Manually specify location of grub.cfg" and select the flash drive as "(hd1,1)/grub.cfg".

All the hardware works, including HDMI, Bluetooth and card slot, EXCEPT for the track pointer. On some Thinkpads, it behaves as a regular mouse. But on this model it appears to need a proprietary driver. The touchpad is functional, but small.

I installed a 64bit Starter Kit and tried to run Google Earth through the Chrome browser. But the machine doesn't have enough horse-power to start it. So I switched to the Pro desktop version (with mesa), which works.

As usual, be VERY careful when installing a big-boy Linux. Do NOT accidentally put its GRUB bootloader on sda! This hooks into UEFI and disables your own bootloader. It will take some surgery with the efibootmgr tool to fix it.

[rcrsn51]

This is the Gigabyte Brix from page 8, now with an SSD formatted as GPT/EFI. It has a collection of frugal installs and big-boy Linuxes.

The attached screenshot is Slacko 5.9.3 with a kernel upgrade to k4.1.11. It is using the savefile from an old Slacko 5.6 converted to a save folder.

The kernel upgrade was required to handle the newer hardware in the Brix.

[rcrsn51]

How to make a squashfs module of the Calibre ebook manager

1. Go to the Calibre website and download a .txz package. Look under "Manual binary install". These packages appear to be complete, with all the required dependencies.
2. Extract the package into a temporary folder named "Calibre".
3. Download and rename the attached deb package. It contains a .desktop file for Calibre.
4. Do a repo2sfs third-party build: repo2sfs calibre-desktop_1.0_all.deb
5. At Pause B, go to /tmp/repo2sfs/opt. Drop in the Calibre folder from Step 2.
6. Finish the build. Look for Calibre in the Accessories menu.

[rcrsn51]

This is the Lenovo single-core netbook from page 8, now with a GPT-formatted hard drive booted through Legacy GRUB. The browser is Palemoon-28 with the 20-intel.conf patch for old video.

[rcrsn51]

BT4Stretch updated here.

[backi]

Hi Everybody !
Bought me a new Machine .
A refurbished one ,second Hand from well reputed Shop here in Germany .
https://www.greenpanda.de/refurbished/d ... ok/?page=1

A Dell Prceision M6600 for 300 Bucks (Euro) ......dont know if this is a good Deal...but i am quite happy with it .......this Devil really rocks compared to my old Clunker a Toshiba L40 (....something).

So what`s up?
Can not startx .......somehow Desktop wont boot....
Message .....something like
-----discover..... bla...bla ...bla .....

and never stops

Can anybody help ?

Thanks in Advance !

[rcrsn51]

Can not startx .......somehow Desktop wont boot....Message .....something like
-----discover..... bla...bla ...bla .....and never stops

It is trying to make an automatic network connection over Ethernet. Assuming that you are NOT connected by Ethernet, it will eventually stop.

It appears that this laptop has built-in nVidia graphics. The Starter Kit should load the nouveau modesetting driver, which usually works well.

But in your case, it does not. With version -71 of the Starter Kit, it should automatically fall back to vesa mode and boot to a desktop.

For older versions, read here.

I notice in your post about XenialDog that it successfully loaded the nouveau driver. [Edit] But it may also have automatically fallen back to VESA.