Pussy: potentially a Puppy with a perfect package manager

[sickgut]

@sickgut sorry to make you repeat all that save stuff again. read the release notes for alpha pussy before you posted and the save info is mostly in there. i had forgotten it has been so long since i read it. but some useful new tips about squashfs in your latest post. thanks.
note i couldn't non-grub boot the latest iso when extracted and copied to usb flashdrive without first copying/adding the different boot things (isoliux folder and ldlinux.sys) from the alpha.

its all cool, the release notes didnt have quite the same info so i dont mind elaborating on it again. The .img version made for USB, you just run this command to image the usb stick with the .img version not the .iso (after unzipping it the .img.gz makes the .img)

dd if=pussy-alpha-full-usb.img of=/dev/sdb

(note that its the drive thats specified, not the drive AND partition, this is because the .img contains the parition info aswell)

I have not released the .img version for the beta preview yet, but you can still image a usb stick with the old alpha and then manually copy the new pussy-beta-os.sqaushfs and seamonkey.squashfs onto it and then you have a working usb stick. i will release beta preview .img versions on the website after i have finnished this last pussyxtra.squashfs file with the extra apps, so the beta preview is finally complete

its tricky to make the .iso usb bootable, so thats why we have the already to go .img that is actually a complete image of a usb stick and covers the first 699mb of your usb stick. (699mb is the expected size of the largest version of Pussy, this leaves room to upgrade the usb stick to newer or larger versions... also 1mb is set aside for more advanced boot stuff in the future, totalling 700mb).

there is 2 directions to go with the usb .img setup, we can either keep the image 700mb in size and leave it to the user to setup the persistent save file, or use gparted to extend the partition to cover the rest of the drive and then use the control-panel compressed save file method for saving.... this is direction number 1... and the current method.

number 2 is to pick a standard size for the usb image like 2gb or 4gb or 8gb, to support the most popular/ affordable size of usb stick. Just say we pick 4GB. We create a working 4gb usb stick that contains the full Pussy, ASWELL as a swap file or partition, and a live-rw file. This would be a fat32 format for the main partition so that the user can still use the usb stick in windows based machines. We also dont have to worry about disk fragmentation as the live-rw being a single file, it doesnt get very fragmented.

using the second method the user would never have to configure a thing at all, its all there. We could have separate downloads for different sized usb sticks.

note that the .img version can be imaged to a hdd and it works immediately without the user having to configure grub, but this would be the only booting OS on the HDD. This is cool if you just wanna use pussy, or you have multiple hdds in one computer and can change what one to boot from in the bios or the motherboards boot screen by pression f2 or f8/ f12 or esc or whatever. I used this method myself for a long time. And hdd writ e access works every time, when i use this method, i use the rest of the hdd space as a ext2 parition labled as live-rw.

again, you probably know all this but im elaborating for other users to read.

[sickgut]

Work on the new pussyxtra.squashfs is finnished now, its 364mb in size. This is the optional squashfs that the base 244mb ISO doesnt come with, this contains all the extra apps.

This version of the pussyxtra.squashfs contains the following apps:

GIMP, inkscape (full not lite), openoffice 3.2, assaultcube, virtualbox and java runtime (both newest versions from Oracle), wine, dosemu, cadubi, milkytracker (plays older .mod music files, also creates them), lmms, freepats (free wavetable samples for timidity midi player), new high quality wallpaper when rox filer background is enabled. (i would have used the same wallpaper for the jwm background that loads before you select rox background, but jwm only supports xpm files and this would have resulted in the image being almost 4mb in size. Instead, the old pussy background is loaded when you use just the jwm background when you first login to xorg, but the new high quality 150kb jpeg background is enabled when rox background is selected).

this version fixes the bug that spams apt-get with screens of errors when you install something, it was harmless errors spam, but its all cleaned up now, it was caused by squashfs treating symlinks as files but its fixed with this version.

Not much has really changed, just a new wallpaper, virtualbox, removal of clipgrabber and bug fixes. The only real reason this file had to be redone was because of changes to the base os, and the moving of the browser to a separate squashfs file.

You can download this beta preview version of the file and insert it into your live media dir and your good to go, or you can download the new iso that includes it

Files currently uploading, will edit this post when the upload is finnished:

[edit: finished uploading its all good to go]

for the squashfs file itself:
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... a.squashfs

for the new iso:
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... w-xtra.iso

Note that if you are just adding the pussyxtra file to your existing pussy, make sure that it is 4th on the loading sequence.... in order, the squashfs files should be loaded:

1filesystem, 2pussyos-beta, 3seamonkey, 4pussyxtra-beta

the live system loaded it all in alphabetical/ numerical order, so to get the right sequence you may need to rename the files and put a number in the front of them as per the above example. Ofcause the .iso will load in the correct order as all the new .iso releases now have the numbers at the start of the filename.

Ok have fun... im off to eat a pizza, watch a movie then goto sleep after 14 hours straight squash file making.

[aarf]

dd invalid option -F
When trying to create the live-rw
Catroll-panel>save-file>update-save-file does the squashfs save file persistent job. Better as dont need to specify a big amount of space in advance and can expand at will.

[sickgut]

dd invalid option -F
When trying to create the live-rw
Catroll-panel>save-file>update-save-file does the squashfs save file persistent job. Better as dont need to specify a big amount of space in advance and can expand at will.

hi aarf...

thanks for your input regarding the usb setup... i think i can make a script that you can click and it will extend the already there fat32 partition and make it fill the rest of the usb stick, this is just one click and it will fill the rest of any size usb stick. I will test this out and then make a catroll-panel entry for it along with alot of other catroll-panel stuff, there is alot of work to do there, havent even scratched the surface of save files, swap files etc and other disk related stuff, also the keymap and alsa fixes that saintless posted recently.

re: manually making save files
ok these are 2 separate commands on 2 lines, like type the first line then press enter, wait for command to finish then type next command.

dd if=/dev/null of=live-rw bs=1M seek=2000 <enter>
mkfs.ext2 -F "live-rw" <enter>

i should really copy and paste the shell terminal output to be less confusing to people.

@ everyone....
in the catroll-panel --> save-file --> update save file..... this only works if you havent renamed your /live dir to something else, as the script here literally presumes its still the standard /live dir:

mksquashfs /live/cow /live/image/live/savefile.squashfs

if you have done a hdd install and have renamed your live media dir to something else then it will error out.

[nooby]

Sickgut here is a naive suggestion from a noob.

You care much about being Debian compatible.
Could you have then Pussy Debian version
and Pussy Puppy version.

1. Pussy Debian version
That version should be exactly as you have it now.
It totally fail to do what I want and that is what the Debian devs
want it to be. I should not be able to change anything on the hdd.

2. Pussy Puppy version.

this version should behave as a puppy derivative does.
Not only be able to save changes I do to a html file or text file
but also save to a loop mounted sfs 2fs 3fs file like puppy does.

All on NTFS that is. Frugal booted using Grub4DOS puppy style.

While the Pussy Debian version should be Grub2 obviously

[sickgut]

arrrgh!!!

The new pussy-beta-preview-xtra.iso seems to be ok except for VirtualBox not wanting to work. Tomorrow or the day after ill remaster the pussyxtra-beta.squashfs file again and either fix this or remove virtualbox from it all together.

i think this is the same promblem i was having before with squashfs, some links are treated as files and some programs dont like that... the virtual box worked fine before i remastered it, but as soon as its in a squashfs file its broken again. However you may be able to get it to actually work buy reinstalling somethings but that isnt good enoiugh for this release so ill fix it. Altho this isnt even the real beta yet, i dont like having bugs.. we are still missing quite a few catroll-panel type features and thats ok for a pre beta but bugs and brokeness is bad so ill reupload working versions of the squashfs file and xtra.iso in a day or 2. Ill post here when the new versions are uploaded..

note this also affects users who have upgraded their hdd or usb install to the new file from the website. In the meantime, have a look around in the OS and its all fine apart from that one program. You might like to remove the icon for virtual box from the desktop if your overly fussy.

this will be fixed soon and the squashfs file and the xtra.iso from the website will be replaced... but in the mean time its still worth downloading and having a look

[sickgut]

Sickgut here is a naive suggestion from a noob.

You care much about being Debian compatible.
Could you have then Pussy Debian version
and Pussy Puppy version.

1. Pussy Debian version
That version should be exactly as you have it now.
It totally fail to do what I want and that is what the Debian devs
want it to be. I should not be able to change anything on the hdd.

2. Pussy Puppy version.

this version should behave as a puppy derivative does.
Not only be able to save changes I do to a html file or text file
but also save to a loop mounted sfs 2fs 3fs file like puppy does.

All on NTFS that is. Frugal booted using Grub4DOS puppy style.

While the Pussy Debian version should be Grub2 obviously

hi nooby

sorry dude but forking into 2 directions is beyond my capabilities at the moment, since ive started working on pussy again its is literally taking up every ounce of my time. Im working at it 12 to 14 hours a day at present.

make no mistake i am putting my all into this distro and all the niggling problems like the ntfs write to boot parition issue will be sorted out while still retaining compatibility. Its not going to be fixed in the next 2 days as ill be busy updating the buggy xtra.iso that was uploaded today. But after that is done there is a few things i havent tried yet and im sure ill figure it out. in the mean time just be patient, it will get fixed.

[Ray MK]

Hi sickgut

really nice backdrop - luvly pussy pic.
have downloaded iso and will burn to CD.

will let you know how I get on - greatly appreciate all you are doing.

many thanks and very best regards - Ray

[nooby]

Okay I be patient. But being a New Born Fundy Pessimist
I would say this. Being Unix supporters the Debian Devs
will never allow you to change Debian into allowing it
to save changes to the NTFS drive one boot from frugally.

That would betray their ideals and their honor. Trust me

I now will go into lurk mode and try to keep a low profile.

[saintless]

Thank you, sickgut, downloading and start testing.
I think there is no need to fix the problem with VirtualBox. if anyone wants it, he can easy install it with apt-get.
It needs too much RAM to be used and pussy linux is running fine on a low RAM computer.
If someone install pussy linux on a PC with 128 -256 MB RAM, he can not use VirtualBOX anyway.
Thank you for the great job!

[aarf]

all i did was install java http://www.java.com/en/download/help/linux_install.xml symlinked java (/drive/liverrw/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin/java)to /usr/bin/ and unpack the Arduino IDE and voilà.
havent hooked it up to the board to fully test it.

[sickgut]

Thank you, sickgut, downloading and start testing.
I think there is no need to fix the problem with VirtualBox. if anyone wants it, he can easy install it with apt-get.
It needs too much RAM to be used and pussy linux is running fine on a low RAM computer.
If someone install pussy linux on a PC with 128 -256 MB RAM, he can not use VirtualBOX anyway.
Thank you for the great job!

yeah, im going to remove virtual box from the new squashfs. For some reason the new squashfs is about 50MB too large compared to the old one and that is even accounting for virtualbox, but for the life of me i cant figure out what ive missed out when deleteing the unwanted bloat.

because im going to redo the pussyxtra.squashfs, if anyone has suggestion for extra apps then please speak up now, we have atleast 130mb of compressed space to play with, this equates to about 200 - 230mb real space. I was thinking of installing the entire Jack connection kit with all the alsa and rosegarden stuff..... or wings (a popular graphics program) .. or maybe a few games + include nvidia and ati video drivers on the iso so that we have a complete gaming package right out the box.

we could include all the compiling stuff like puppies devx, this will only take about 50mb of real space as half of it is already in the base Pussy.

Java development version? Skype? DVD/ CD ripping utilities? Movie editing?

Do you guys know anyone that has made some nice program and wants it distributed ?

Also, we dont need to stick to the debian repository, normal static packages are fine... OpenOffice and Java and Assaultcube and Seamonkey are already the static stand alone versions, not related to debian repos in any way. Uninstallation of static packages is sometimes easier than the apt-get remove system, simply delete its dir and remove the icon from the desktop. Other than the /www clean browser directory that contains seamonkey, all the static packages are in the /xtra dir and the executables for things like java are absolute linked to /usr/bin so the OS and other apps can still launch them.

im going to start work on it tomorrow so in the mean time speak up... what do you want included?

[saintless]

we could include all the compiling stuff like puppies devx,
this will only take about 50mb of real space as half of it is already in the base Pussy.

I vote for that +

Skype? DVD/ CD ripping utilities? Movie editing?

And if it is possible +

Printer and scanner manager,e-book reader like FBreader,
lite web camera capture like this one (i think it has debian package as well):
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=52373

This one is a good idea as well:

a few games + include nvidia and ati video drivers on the iso
so that we have a complete gaming package right out the box.

[aarf]

Things i miss from puppy. Ace of penguins and connect five. Pmount, pfind, webcam. Make the menu pretty. Radky's Pupsnap screen capture and edit. Autologin and auto startx.

[nooby]

Someones text in a picture makes the layout go wild.
if one edit that txt then it looks normal again

[sickgut]

Things i miss from puppy. Ace of penguins and connect five. Pmount, pfind, webcam. Make the menu pretty. Radky's Pupsnap screen capture and edit. Autologin and auto startx.

hi aarf...

apt-get install ace-of-penguins <---- This will be included
apt-get install pente bovo <---- These are 2 connect 5 games in the debian repo, bovo seems to look nicer and pente is fairly simple .... which one would you prefer?

some form of webcam suite will be added as well im currently testing 5 or so of them at the moment

the auto startx / autologin isnt something i can setup in this pussyxtra-beta.squashfs , that is something that ill have to setup in the filesystem.squashfs... this file will also be overhauled before we hit actual beta.

Currently all the auto startx options backfire because as soon as you exit the X session, it loads again so you can never really get to the console. You can, however edit your boot code in grub or on the cdrom or usb install in live.cfg in the syslinux or isolinux dirs of your live media and remove the: noautologin boot tag, this will auto log you in and startx but as the default user called user. This is ok till you wanna run a program because everything in pussy has been installed as root and user has no access to it. You can switch to root once logged in with the: sudo -i command or su root. But to make your X session run as root you will need to exit to console then su to root then startx and then your all ok.

What i am planning for the beta is to have extra options at boot, you can boot to X or boot to console with a propper login screen. .... no one can login remotely via a network as root without the password and this will remain intact.

the option for booting directly to X as root, without X annoyingly starting again everytime you exit it will get added to Pussy when i overhaul the filesystem.squashfs but this might not happen for another month or so.

Due to responses from my post asking for people to suggest packages for inclusion, im also looking at adding skype, dvd/ cdrom ripping, movie editing etc etc.... it may take longer than i previously planned to redo this squashfs file ... due to aot of testing involved but it will be soon.

[aarf]

Gtkballs is the connect 5 from Puppeee. When i apt-get anything i get the previously posted output about unmet dependencies. So i abort for now.

[sickgut]

Gtkballs is the connect 5 from Puppeee. When i apt-get anything i get the previously posted output about unmet dependencies. So i abort for now.

cool, gtkballs is only 900k and ill include it.

about your apt problem, have you ran:

apt-get update

This updates the package list, without doing this, everything will come up as package no found like in your other post. Because the list changes all the time, its impossible to ship pussy with the latest list, and only the latest will work properly. Also if you want to install something but dont know the exact package name then goto http://packages.debian.org and search for the package you can search by package name or description also by filenames in the package. Whatever is on that site in the queeze (stable) section, take note of the exact package name and use that in your apt-get. Also there are 2 tricks i find useful: --no-install-recommends command makes apt-get only install needed package and dependencies, not all the recommended packages aswell... sometimes without specifying that, it tends to want to install lots of stupid stuff like for example if you install something that is mainly for KDE or GNOME, it might decide to install half of the KDE desktop environment when it doesnt need to.

example: apt-get --no-install-recommends install gtkballs

And if you want to j ust download all the debs for a package and dont want to install it (if you want to burn a package and everything else that is needed to CDROM to keep as a backup or to install later or on other debian computers without internet access.. for example..) then use the -d tag with apt-get. All the debs will be saved to /var/cache/apt/archives/ .

example: apt-get install -d gktballs

Also note that even when you dont use the -d tag, all the debs that apt-get ever download, ie. if you ever use apt-get to install anything at all.... will get saved to /var/cache/apt/archives/ and they will still remain there after the program is installed. So after a apt-getting spree its good to delete the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives/ after you install stuff. The catroll-panel --> cleanup --> cleanup remove files option empties this dir as well, so you can just use that after you use apt so you dont waste the space in your save file.

if this still doesnt work after the apt-get update then please let me know as we have to get it sorted, apt-getting programs is 80% of the entire reason for pussies existence... we cant have any faithful testers like yourself using a pussy with broken apt-get... you might as well be using a cat with no tail or whiskers or something. Also if there is something causing it then we should document its cause so that other users will know how to fix or how to avoid breaking apt-get....

in the meantime if you really want to install a program and apt isnt working you can goto http://packages.debian.org and download what you need then open a terminal in the download dir and run: dpkg --install *
this will install all debs in the directory or you can use: dpkg --install filename.deb

dpkg uses the same system as apt-get... like apt-get actuall uses dpkg to install and then enter into a "status" file all the package names and deps etc on your system. Using dpkg to install stuff doesnt mess up your apt-get system.

but ofcause its best that we fix your apt-get. i kinda included the info about dpkg for other readers of the forum as well, im not like trying to lecture you....

[jbv]

we could include all the compiling stuff like puppies devx,

Yes. Please include the dev stuff.

Also for consideration:

mdadm

SmartMonTools
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/

GsmartControl
http://gsmartcontrol.berlios.de/home/index.php/en/Home

hdparm
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hdparm/

Webmin
http://www.webmin.com/standard.html

Thanks, Brenton

[sickgut]

ill definately include hdparm, i have seen and used webmin before, ill take a look at what is involved in introducing that to pussy... it may be included in the server version of pussy depending on what is involved.

i need to do check out the other things you have mentioned as im not familiar with them yet

thanks for your suggestions.