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Pelo · #2626 Post by **Pelo** » Tue 19 Sep 2017, 07:37

i Have been using a razor-Qt Puppy this morning.
I judge an OS on what it produces,
in french we have two words
efficacité : what is produced
efficience : ressources, means used to arrive to the result.
Puppy Linux should get the best quota.
I keep windows on my computers, because puppies are so tiny that many can be installed beside the big monster.
About Linux i began first with Muti-boot DVD with five Linux. None is worth the pain, worth the candle, worth the electricity..
Excepted for Datacrow, the java collection manager, Distrowatch provides so many that you can test, waiting for your end of life.
Like women, you can test many before you find the one (an LTS one

)

Colonel Panic · #2627 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Wed 27 Sep 2017, 21:55

I'm now using the latest version of Austrumi, 3.6.9 (the goose drank wine, if anyone's old enough to remember that song

). It's certainly different; it's the only distro I can think of which uses fvwm as its standard window manager. It is quite an attractive distro, has light resouirce demands and fits on a single CD.

Just one problem; the distro is Hungarian and all the menu instructions are in that language, which makes it pretty hard to figure out (you can't change the default language when you don'y understand any of the language).

Keef · #2628 Post by **Keef** » Thu 28 Sep 2017, 20:47

Colonel Panic

I tried 3.7.0. (It is Latvian, not Hungarian by the way)

To change language, click on the settings icon (cog and spanner).
Select Voladyus (flag icon), whichh brings up the language chooser.
You then get a log in screen which asks for a password. I guessed at 'austrumi' and it worked.

The download link on the website is wonky. If anyone else wants to try it, use this:

ftp://austrumi.ru.lv

rufwoof · #2629 Post by **rufwoof** » Thu 28 Sep 2017, 20:48

Just downloaded knoppix 8.1 dvd .iso and booted that using qemu. From a cursory browse around its packed as usual with loads of programs and worked well.

I used qemu boot command of

Code: Select all

qemu-system-x86_64 -k en-gb -smp 4 -boot d -vga std -enable-kvm -m 1020 -soundhw all -cdrom KNOPPIX_V8.1-2017-09-05-EN.iso

headfound · #2630 Post by **headfound** » Fri 29 Sep 2017, 17:09

I just upgraded to knoppix 8.1 too.
Triple booting iso using grub2win with puppy

Code: Select all

loopback loop (hd0,4)/knoppix/knx.iso
linux (loop)/boot/isolinux/linux64 bootfrom=/dev/sda4/knoppix/knx.iso lang=en
initrd  (loop)/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz

looks good so far, very quick boot, responsive and excellent hardware support as always. My mum has dementia so I've been trying to teach her to use some of the simpler Gcompris games.

Colonel Panic · #2631 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sat 30 Sep 2017, 07:50

Keef wrote:Colonel Panic

I tried 3.7.0. (It is Latvian, not Hungarian by the way)

To change language, click on the settings icon (cog and spanner).
Select Voladyus (flag icon), whichh brings up the language chooser.
You then get a log in screen which asks for a password. I guessed at 'austrumi' and it worked.

The download link on the website is wonky. If anyone else wants to try it, use this:

ftp://austrumi.ru.lv

Many thanks for that Keef! It worked like a dream, I'm posting from Austrumi now (don't know why I thought it was Hungarian, but still). Only problem with it is I can't change the language to British English, even though that is what is indicated on the set up menu. I get American English instead.

Robert123 · #2632 Post by **Robert123** » Tue 03 Oct 2017, 08:06

Here's one for you Colonel,

Miyo Linux a Devuan spinoff.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/miyolinux/

d4p · #2633 Post by **d4p** » Wed 04 Oct 2017, 15:46

Austrumi boot parameter: lang_en for english

Colonel Panic · #2634 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Thu 05 Oct 2017, 20:42

Robert123 wrote:Here's one for you Colonel,

Miyo Linux a Devuan spinoff.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/miyolinux/

Thanks. I tried the live version but it's very minimalistic - no browser, office suite etc. as standard so you have to install it all yourself. Looks very striking though with a dark slate blue and orangey red theme as standard, and also openbox and tint2 is a combination which works.

[EDIT: Thanks to d4p too for the Austrumi boot parameter.]

Colonel Panic · #2635 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sat 07 Oct 2017, 21:17

Robert123 wrote:Here's one for you Colonel,

Miyo Linux a Devuan spinoff.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/miyolinux/

Hi again,

I've tried it now and unfortunately although it looks good as I said above it's lacking too many libraries, making it very difficult if not impossible to install fresh software (I keep getting error messages saying I'm either missing a certain file such as libcurl or have the wrong version of it). Networking also hasn't worked on it yet.

For the moment I may have to wipe it, unfortunately, which is a shame as it's a brave effort to do something different.

Colonel Panic · #2636 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sun 08 Oct 2017, 17:24

On a very different note; I've gone full-on retro with my latest distro installation - Slackware current (29th September) with twm as the window manager. gkrellm for system monitoring and dmenu for menu functions.

It may look like the 1990s have returned but it works and is very light on resources; I've also modified twm's configuration file (there is only one) and added some top bar icons.

rufwoof · #2637 Post by **rufwoof** » Thu 12 Oct 2017, 16:21

I've been dual running FreeBSD for a while now and whilst I like its core arrangement (kernel and commands all maintained as a 'single' entity), and how a simple pkg update && pkg upgrade can update programs to latest versions ... such program updating could be a pain. For instance my latest update uplifted jwm from 2.3.6 to 2.3.7 but whilst that worked ok for me, noteworthy is how jwm configuration has changed for certain elements (dynamic menus for instance). I'm not using any of that stuff however, so the upgrade worked fine for me, however if I were then potentially jwm would have been broken. I can think of other examples such as if osmo calendar/diary decided to change how the data was stored then a update could break the system ... or many other similar sort of risks.

My primary boot is pure Debian (main repositories only) where updates don't break things as 'Stable' stays the same, just has security fixes applied - but that does mean you stick with older versions of programs (but if it works as you need ... as they say if it ain't broke then don't fix it).

Accordingly I'm considering retiring FreeBSD. Debian oldstable (currently Jessie) works well for me and my hardware, and updates are most unlikely to break it, and I can run everything as user, other than the occasional access cli level root to do things like mount drives and apply security updates (so if I do encounter a hack that breaks out of the browser or whatever - the hacker is very limited to what damage might be done such as installing ransomware).

FreeBSD was a interesting experience, and it was nice to see later versions of programs ... not one however had additional features that I'll particularly miss in staying with older (familiar) versions under Debian. Of course I'll have to upgrade Debian sooner or later and I haven't yet decided whether I'll just stick with OldStable i.e. only upgrade to Stretch when that drops into oldstable, or whether to just lag by say a year or so (so adopt/upgrade to Stretch once its been out for a year, when likely most of any issues will have been ironed out).

The only failing with Debian (excepting new hardware that might not be supported due to its lag (at least for Stable)) is that if a bug is locked in that isn't a security issue, then its locked in for the long term and you have to work around that i.e. either use another alternative program, or perhaps use a backport (later version). Fortunately their repository is extensive enough that there are alternative choices available in such cases.

rufwoof · #2638 Post by **rufwoof** » Thu 12 Oct 2017, 16:36

Colonel Panic wrote:On a very different note; I've gone full-on retro with my latest distro installation - Slackware current (29th September) with twm as the window manager. gkrellm for system monitoring and dmenu for menu functions

I like how with that setup you can install/run another dm/wm within that ... all contained within its own 'window' (rather than taking over the entire desktop). For instance I like to use pcmanfm --desktop as the desktop manager (icons), which 'normally' takes over the entire desktop, but under twm its a window.

After using twm for a while I got used to rolling things up (windows) and its method of moving/resizing things etc and quite liked it. I had a large virtual desktop space so that mousing to screen edges moved the visible window around within that. I did find that was a bit sea-sickness inducing however and later opted for more of a vertical arrangement, browser at the bottom, word processor at the top sort of thing. But later lost interest and reverted back to a more 'modern' choice.

On area I guess it would be good is if you were X'ing into another box, terminal server style. Monitor less server that others on the same lan could run from. kvm/qemu is quite good for that as the server can directly output to the likes of rdesktop, so the 'terminal' can be pretty lean, just xorg and something like rdesktop. Or maybe even have the server plugged into the TV so that a light handheld could be used as a form of remote control.

gkrellm works well. You can multiple instance it by running gkrellm -c 2 (gkrellm -c 3 ....etc.) or whatever suffix name you prefer for multiple copies, each with its own configuration file. I have one instance each for CPU/GPU temperatures, Date, eth0, proc, disk and individual cores/cpu so I can position/lock them around the screen as I desire.

Colonel Panic · #2639 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Thu 12 Oct 2017, 23:48

rufwoof wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:On a very different note; I've gone full-on retro with my latest distro installation - Slackware current (29th September) with twm as the window manager. gkrellm for system monitoring and dmenu for menu functions
I like how with that setup you can install/run another dm/wm within that ... all contained within its own 'window' (rather than taking over the entire desktop). For instance I like to use pcmanfm --desktop as the desktop manager (icons), which 'normally' takes over the entire desktop, but under twm its a window.

After using twm for a while I got used to rolling things up (windows) and its method of moving/resizing things etc and quite liked it. I had a large virtual desktop space so that mousing to screen edges moved the visible window around within that. I did find that was a bit sea-sickness inducing however and later opted for more of a vertical arrangement, browser at the bottom, word processor at the top sort of thing. But later lost interest and reverted back to a more 'modern' choice.

On area I guess it would be good is if you were X'ing into another box, terminal server style. Monitor less server that others on the same lan could run from. kvm/qemu is quite good for that as the server can directly output to the likes of rdesktop, so the 'terminal' can be pretty lean, just xorg and something like rdesktop. Or maybe even have the server plugged into the TV so that a light handheld could be used as a form of remote control.

gkrellm works well. You can multiple instance it by running gkrellm -c 2 (gkrellm -c 3 ....etc.) or whatever suffix name you prefer for multiple copies, each with its own configuration file. I have one instance each for CPU/GPU temperatures, Date, eth0, proc, disk and individual cores/cpu so I can position/lock them around the screen as I desire.

Thanks for replying. Configuration's done by a single file in twm and it's easy to assign separate menus to the three different mouse buttons.

I have my applications (dmenu plus a couple of others), plus application termination, switch window manager to another one, restart and logout from twm, all on the left button; my icon manager functions are on the middle button; and the window management functions (maximise, iconify, raise and lower etc.) are on the right one.

I find you can do a lot more with windows, and more easily, with an old window manager like twm than you can with some of the newer ones which seem almost intentionally "dumbed down". The one thing you can't do with it is move an application to another desktop window, as it only runs in a single one.

Impressive gkrellm setup by the way! I didn't know you could have several instances of gkrellm all running in the same window.

rufwoof · #2640 Post by **rufwoof** » Wed 18 Oct 2017, 16:51

I'm OpenBSD'ing currently. Using my nvidia card and moving windows around sees delays ... OpenBSD just doesn't work well with nvidia. Swapping that out to use the onboard Radeon ATI and OpenBSD works great. Odd when you consider that it tends to be the other way around for FreeBSD (supports nvidia well).

Under OpenBSD with nvidia fvwm also stuttered, but twm worked really well.

I intend to stay with OpenBSD for a while at least, so had the PC's cover off and removed the nvidia card and gave the internals a good dusting down. CPU heatsink was getting quite dust heavy and without the nvidia fan also spinning the system is really quiet now. I'm back to using jwm however as twm whilst OK doesn't really cut it for me. OpenBSD, jwm, pcmanfm --desktop as a core just works better for me.

I'm not really a fan of multi-desktops myself. Just as easy to have programs individually fill the screen and use the tasklist to switch between them, so I don't tend to have a pager (I also ditch the MENU button and showdesktop button and have those as part of the clock (left click clock shows the menu, right click the clock activates showdesktop).

(Clickable thumbnail)

Billtoo · #2641 Post by **Billtoo** » Thu 19 Oct 2017, 15:22

I installed Ubuntu 17:10 to the hard drive of my Lenovo ThinkCentre:

bill@bill-ThinkCentre-M58e:~$ inxi -bw
System: Host: bill-ThinkCentre-M58e Kernel: 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Gnome 3.26.1
Distro: Ubuntu 17.10
Machine: Device: desktop System: LENOVO product: 7491B8U v: ThinkCentre M58e serial: N/A
Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial: N/A BIOS: LENOVO v: 5HKT39AUS date: 06/17/2009
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo E8400 (-MCP-) speed/max: 2992/3003 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 430]
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.5 ) drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 430/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.90
Network: Card-1: Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: sky2
Card-2: D-Link System AirPlus G DWL-G122 Wireless Adapter(rev.C1) [Ralink RT2571W] driver: rt73usb
Drives: HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (2.3% used)
Weather: Conditions: 63 F (17 C) - Mostly Cloudy Time: October 19, 11:13 AM EDT
Info: Processes: 211 Uptime: 53 min Memory: 1703.2/3948.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.37
bill@bill-ThinkCentre-M58e:~$

I installed Kodi,Smplayer/Smtube,and a few others.

It's working nice so far.

Billtoo · #2642 Post by **Billtoo** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 10:34

I installed Xubuntu 17.10 to the hard drive of my lenovo.

bill@bill-ThinkCentre-M58e:~$ inxi -bw
System: Host: bill-ThinkCentre-M58e Kernel: 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: Ubuntu 17.10
Machine: Device: desktop System: LENOVO product: 7491B8U v: ThinkCentre M58e serial: N/A
Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial: N/A BIOS: LENOVO v: 5HKT39AUS date: 06/17/2009
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo E8400 (-MCP-) speed/max: 2992/3003 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 430]
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.5 ) driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 430/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.90
Network: Card-1: Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: sky2
Card-2: D-Link System AirPlus G DWL-G122 Wireless Adapter(rev.C1) [Ralink RT2571W] driver: rt73usb
Drives: HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (2.5% used)
Weather: Conditions: 48 F (9 C) - Clear Time: October 20, 6:22 AM EDT
Info: Processes: 156 Uptime: 16 min Memory: 471.9/3948.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.37
bill@bill-ThinkCentre-M58e:~$

It's working well, faster than the gnome desktop.
********************************************************
Edit: I installed lubuntu 17.10 to the hard drive of my HP desktop:

bill@bill-260-p029:~$ inxi -bw
System: Host: bill-260-p029 Kernel: 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: LXDE (Openbox 3.6.1) Distro: Ubuntu 17.10
Machine: Device: desktop System: HP product: 260-p029 serial: N/A
Mobo: HP model: 81B4 v: 01 serial: N/A UEFI [Legacy]: AMI v: F.04 date: 05/10/2016
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i3-6100T (-HT-MCP-) speed: 3200 MHz (max)
Graphics: Card: Intel HD Graphics 530
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.5 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2) version: 4.5 Mesa 17.2.2
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
Card-2: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtl8723be
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (1.9% used)
Weather: Conditions: 50 F (10 C) - Clear Time: October 21, 5:40 AM EDT
Info: Processes: 170 Uptime: 1:14 Memory: 893.6/3810.4MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.37
bill@bill-260-p029:~$

Installing Kodi in all versions of 17.10 that I've installed will cause an error to appear on the screen every
now and then.

rufwoof · #2643 Post by **rufwoof** » Sat 21 Oct 2017, 09:19

Installed Debian Stretch using netinst, installed the base system and LXDE desktop environment, and tweaked that desktop.

Set startup to have 3 gkrellm's one for each of disk, cpu and net, positioned and sized those to blend in with the (reduced width) panel/tray .. so their activity is still visible when a program is full-screen (panel still visible).

Set two xterms to load below other windows, one showing the top part of htop (with xterm you can Ctrl left mouse click to switch to full screen), the other runs mc. Sloppy focus so mouse over a window brings it into focus, so can mouse over the mc window and type, press enter and the command entered will be run.

I've set the clock to be the MENU button.

Left some icons on the desktop for drag/drop purposes (drag a .jpg file from the filemanager onto mtpaint desktop icon to open the image).

So that xterm displays more cleanly I turned openbox decorations off by editing ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rcml

Code: Select all

    <application name="xterm" class="XTerm">
      <decor>no</decor>
      <shade>no</shade>
      <focus>no</focus>
      <desktop>all</desktop>
      <layer>below</layer>
      <iconic>no</iconic>
      <skip_pager>yes</skip_pager>
      <skip_taskbar>yes</skip_taskbar>
      <fullscreen>no</fullscreen>
      <maximized>no</maximized>
    </application>
  </applications>

and in ~/.Xresources added xterm configuration of

Code: Select all

xterm.termName: xterm-256color
xterm*scrollBar: false
xterm*rightScrollBar: true
xterm*loginshell: true
xterm*cursorBlink: true
xterm*background:  black
xterm*foreground: white
xterm.borderLess: true
xterm.cursorBlink: true
xterm*colorUL: red
xterm*colorBD: red
xterm*colorULMode: false
xterm*colorBDMode: false

!fix alt key input
xterm*eightBitInput: false
xterm*altSendsEscape: true

!print color and bold/underline attributes
xterm*printAttributes: 2
xterm*printerCommand: cat > ~/xtermdump
!mouse selecting to copy, ctrl-v to paste
!Ctrl p to print screen content to file
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
Ctrl <KeyPress> Y: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD,PRIMARY,CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
<BtnUp>: select-end(CLIPBOARD,PRIMARY,CUT_BUFFER0) \n\
Ctrl <KeyPress> P: print() \n

!font and locale

! Default and menu font
xterm*locale: true
xterm.utf8:     true
xterm*utf8Title: true
xterm*fontMenu*fontdefault*Label: Default
!xterm*faceName: Monaco:antialias=True:pixelsize=15
xterm*faceName: DejaVu Sans:pixelsize=16:antialias=True
!xterm*faceName: monofur:antialias=True:pixelsize=20
!xterm*boldFont: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold:pixelsize=15
xterm*faceNameDoublesize: wenquanyi microhei:pixelsize=16:antialias=True
xterm*xftAntialias: true
xterm*cjkWidth:false
xterm*inputMethod:fcitx

!-- Tango color scheme
*xterm*color0: #2e3436
*xterm*color1: #cc0000
*xterm*color2: #4e9a06
*xterm*color3: #c4a000
*xterm*color4: #3465a4
*xterm*color5: #75507b
*xterm*color6: #0b939b
*xterm*color7: #d3d7cf
*xterm*color8: #555753
*xterm*color9: #ef2929
*xterm*color10: #8ae234
*xterm*color11: #fce94f
*xterm*color12: #729fcf
*xterm*color13: #ad7fa8
*xterm*color14: #00f5e9
*xterm*color15: #eeeeec

and for my setup/screen-resolution I start those xterms using

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
xterm -geometry 60x7+0+33 -fa DejaVu:size=12 -e htop &

xterm -geometry 85x23+0+204 -fa DejaVu:size=12 -e mc &

So much easier and safer to keep updated in a stable manner (apt-get update, apt-get upgrade).

rufwoof · #2644 Post by **rufwoof** » Sat 21 Oct 2017, 10:35

Just discovered that when a xterm window is in focus rather than Control, press/hold left-mouse and move the mouse over the Full Screen menu option and release the mouse ... to toggle xterm to full screen .... Alt/Enter keyboard combination does the same more quickly/easily

(alt/enter again to toggle the xterm window back again)

Billtoo · #2645 Post by **Billtoo** » Sun 22 Oct 2017, 23:25

After doing several installs of Artful Ardvark 17.10 I find that lubuntu 17.10 works best for me.
Just don't install Kodi because it will screw things up,hope they fix that soon.

****************************************************
Edit: I installed Xubuntu 17.04 to a usb hard drive on my hp mini
stream last spring.
Today I installed all available updates and rebooted, then opened the
terminal and did "sudo do-release-upgrade", 20 minutes later it had
upgraded to Xubuntu 17.10

bill@bill-200-009:~$ inxi -bw
System: Host: bill-200-009 Kernel: 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3
Distro: Ubuntu 17.10
Machine: Device: desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: 200-009 serial: N/A
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 2B38 v: 1.02 serial: N/A UEFI [Legacy]: AMI v: 80.03 date: 12/15/2014
CPU: Dual core Intel Celeron 2957U (-MCP-) speed/max: 1396/1400 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.5 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile version: 4.5 Mesa 17.2.2
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n driver: wl
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1032.2GB (1.9% used)
Weather: Conditions: 57 F (14 C) - Partly Cloudy Time: October 25, 12:27 AM EDT
Info: Processes: 177 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 434.9/1848.6MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.37
bill@bill-200-009:~$

I'm amazed at how well it worked.

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