Remastering: having trouble breeding a new Pup

[tourquoia@hotmail.com]

I'm trying to breed my own Pup. I've got as far as making a new cd with all my programs (including dotpups) but can't seem to get the default wm, theme or cursor. What I do is run the script to make a new pup, until the filesystem is created. I then copy my /usr and /root onto that and continue the script creting everything I want minus my settings. I was wondering if root0 might have the default settings so I copied everything from /root into it and made a lovely drink coaster. Also when I change my default wm from within the pup file, I can't change wallpaper anymore. My question to any who have made a custom puppy with a different default window manage is how you did it?

[Pizzasgood]

Using a re-writable keeps your house clear of coasters, or at least it should for a thousand burns or so. I've yet to wear one out, anyway.

You're right about needing to use /root0. Unfortuanately, it isn't quite as simple as copying yours to it. I don't know exactly which complications this can cause, but I know having replicas of the programs in /usr in /root0/.usr can't be good, so you'll definately want to make sure you don't copy that directory over.
Also, are you sure you are copying the hiden directories? Such as /root/.icewm/? They start with a period (.) to make them hidden.

/etc is really just /root/.etc, so if you are copying the hidden directories, that is taken care of.

One problem could be a result of simply copying the entire /root directory. Aside from /root/.usr, there are files that set configuration in /etc (/root/.etc) that are set after booting. Those might be better left alone.

Otherwise, without more info I can't really help much. My guess is you didn't get the hidden directories.

Have you tried AlienX's script? I've yet to use any but the one I wrote (HackyRemaster), and not because it's better but because it gives me more control, probably more than I need. But from what I understand, AlienX's should do the job. But maybe it is no longer compatible? Like I said, I've yet to try it. I need to put that on my to-do list sometime.

My question to any who have made a custom puppy with a different default window manage is how you did it?

My answer: The hard way. I wrote a remaster script from scratch that offered me complete control (some small mundane steps were automated, but you could skip them and do it manually too), then replaced everything by hand. It took some experimentation to find the right files to mess with, but I got it in the end.

[Nathan F]

I didn't even mess with the remaster scripts, but went right into it and used Puppy Unleashed. Basically this means starting from scratch, so I don't endorse this method unless you really do want to start from scratch. It depends on how significant the changes are that you want to make.

To set the windowmanager of your choice the file you need to edit is /etc/windowmanager. It will be inside root0 in image.gz, so look for it in the filesystem there in /root0/.etc/windowmanager while you're doing your remaster. I'm not sure how to do the cursor, Pizza had a nice one in the last Pizzapup.

The wallpaper issue comes up with regularity for people using icewm because it has it's own wallpaper setter that some themes use. If you're using icewm and that's what's happening then I'd just modify the theme to keep it from happening. Themes are in /root/.icewm/themes and you'd just have to comment out the line telling it what background to set. You can also choose to run icwm without the background setter by typing 'xwin icewm' instead of 'xwin icewm-session2'. If you installed it by G2's dotpup then it will run as icewm-session2. This is all assuming it's icewm we're talking about but maybe it's not.

Nathan

[Pizzasgood]

I'm not sure how to do the cursor, Pizza had a nice one in the last Pizzapup.

Yeah, I did do that once, but I have no idea how. The files were in some obscure place if I remember right. I made it worse by wanting to remove all the extra cursors that came with it, and having to figure out how to do it correctly.

The best advice I can give you for finding where stuff goes it to dismantle the dotpup it came in. running "unzip whatever.pup" will decompress it. Then you will probably be given a dotpup.tar.gz or some such thing, which should be decompressable with "tar -xzf dotpup.tar.gz" You might also want to examine any install script that comes with it (dotpup.sh runs first, but sometimes people have a second script in them).

[tourquoia@hotmail.com]

Thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate the little comments.

[tourquoia@hotmail.com]

I Installed everyhting I wanted (like an antivirus, Firefox and many other things) then setup icons 1st then I ran the unleashed script, (choosing everything I'd already installed) until the filesystem was made. I then did a "cp -r -u -v /usr /puppy/puppy-unleashed/rootfs".
After the new user was updated I went into rox and views /root with invisible files. I copied every folder but .usr and .etc to the new root0.
Afterward I went into /etc anc copied all folders but and only 2 files to /root0/.etc the files were windowmanager and background (which I'd edited). Then I continued the scrip until bootcfg needed editing. I appended the ramdisk_size then edited the boot menu with the new OS name. Something for a mid-level user to keep in mind is that an operating system is comprised of a kernel, libraries, and tools/applications. If you start with someone elses work and tweak everyhting out to make a new product, you in fact can rename it but always give credit where credit is due. This is because open source allows for this. Never do this with and distribute the product of any tweaking done to a non-free-OS. Next I'd like to get the sound working. On boot would be nice. And I need to include wireless keyboard / mouse drivers.



Next thing, I wonder if anyone has a place it could be hosted.
I have a 105 MB and a full 185 MB with Open office and a lot of other toys.

[Pizzasgood]

Ted_Dog has a hungry server. He likes to feed it puplets.