ISpup

[Béèm]

restart X can be done by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backspace and typing xwin.

[TLM]

restart X can be done by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backspace and typing xwin.

I have also found that typing startx ofrstartxfce4 works too, but xwin is the what the prompt tells you while you are dropped to the shell.

[Tman]

TLM,

I am downloading your pup at this moment, out of curiousity. QuirkyNOP-120 was my favourite during my initial months of exposure to puppy linux. I found it to be very stable and it also had more of a Windows feel to it than other pups, which helped make the transistion easier. I made a remastered version myself but then went it in favour of IceWM-based puplets.

If it is anything like Quirky-NOP, your puplet should be very stable and also good for newbies.

...
But I could not try this with ISpup because I could not find a "restart X" button. Is there one somewhere? ...

I remember having a problem with that; what I did was made an icon on the quicklaunch bar. The command I used was restartwm

EDIT:

I have tried it for about half an hour or so. Stability seems good so far. One recommendation would be to reorganize the desktop icons so they don't look so scattered. Xfce is capable of displaying multiple launchbars that aren't too difficult to configure. They also have an auto-hide feature.
A sample pic is provided for your consideration. Please note that I wanted to quickly make multiple launch bars as an example so, my launchbars don't actually work. I just made the links to the pics and did not enter any executable commands or descriptions.

[TLM]

G'day,

I have made a Frugal install of your ISpup to see what it is like. Once I could get it fully installed, ISpup has been running very well. I could add my usual pets and sfs packages with no crashes or faults.

My desktop has a troublesome ATI graphics card (using the radeon driver) which stops working before shut-down completes so I can not create a Save file (black screen) using the Universal Installer. As I found with the lucid-based Pups which also give black screens on this desktop, I can make an empty Save file (e.g. qrky-ispup.2fS) and move this into the ISpup subdirectory which after re-booting, is used to save my computer's settings. After this, I still get a black screen as soon as I hit 'reboot' but session data is not lost.

To fix this loss of graphics during shut-down with lucid pups, I install the proprietary ATI Catalyst driver and restart X to replace the radeon driver that seems to be my problem.

But I could not try this with ISpup because I could not find a "restart X" button. Is there one somewhere?

And I'd like to change the generic icon on the defaultemail I dragged to the desktop from /usr/local/bin to an email png or xpm but clicking on the desktop icon does not give a change-icon button. Other desktop icons are fine but not this one.

And is there a way to arrange the desktop icons automatically? I've manually dragged them all to where I think they look nice but I'd like to know if there is a different way to do this.

Thank you for sharing your Pup with us.

David S.

Hi David,
If you want to change the icon of defaultemail, you will need to create a .desktop file. This will also place it in the start menu. I have created one:

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Default-Email
Icon=stock_xfburn-import-session
Comment=Opens default email application
Exec=/usr/local/bin/defaultemail
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Internet;X-Internet
GenericName=Default-Email

Copy and paste the above code into Mousepad text editor (in your Utility category in the start menu) and then save it to the following directory /usr/share/applications
You will have to enter a name for the file when saving it before you click the Save button. I used the name Default-Email

You can then change the icon by either right clicking and going to Properties, or use Open With Mousepad and changing the Icon= line. Once you have your desired icon set, you can then drag it to the desktop, or right click and Send To the desktop. The Send To option creates a link, whereas dragging it will copy the launcher itself onto your desktop. Either method will work just fine. I prefer dragging them to my desktop since the Send To option creates a link with a green arrow mark on the icon, which i find unattractive.

[TLM]

TLM,

I am downloading your pup at this moment, out of curiousity. QuirkyNOP-120 was my favourite during my initial months of exposure to puppy linux. I found it to be very stable and it also had more of a Windows feel to it than other pups, which helped make the transistion easier. I made a remastered version myself but then went it in favour of IceWM-based puplets.

If it is anything like Quirky-NOP, your puplet should be very stable and also good for newbies.

...
But I could not try this with ISpup because I could not find a "restart X" button. Is there one somewhere? ...

I remember having a problem with that; what I did was made an icon on the quicklaunch bar. The command I used was restartwm

EDIT:

I have tried it for about half an hour or so. Stability seems good so far. One recommendation would be to reorganize the desktop icons so they don't look so scattered. Xfce is capable of displaying multiple launchbars that aren't too difficult to configure. They also have an auto-hide feature.
A sample pic is provided for your consideration. Please note that I wanted to quickly make multiple launch bars as an example so, my launchbars don't actually work. I just made the links to the pics and did not enter any executable commands or descriptions.

Yes, Thank you. I have only placed what I thought were the essential icons on the desktop to enable the enduser to get connected to the Internet and configure a firewall, etc. Everyone is going to want their icons arranged differently, so I am leaving that up to the enduser.

The restartwm is a good idea. I am already considering releasing another version with a few tweaks. I could put a restart window manager launcher in the panel, or just add it to the shutdown launcher i already have there.

[davids45]

G'day all,

Thanks for the above advice re no restartx button, and how best to re-start X.

Ctrl-Alt-backspace gave the expected black screen (dead graphics, no text) but still running computer. Typing 'xwin' blindly to the black screen restored the graphics - just like with Lucid, etc on this computer.
So I'll try installing the ATI Catalyst pet/driver, type Ctrl-Alt-backspace and then 'xwin' see how it goes.

Re the hard-to-change defaultemail desktop icon, I'll try your .desktop to bring up my emails on the Seamonkey I like, running as it does from another partition. If not, I'll just do what I did for the browser so I could use the off-partition Seamonky for that too.

David S.

[Sage]

I'll try your .desktop to bring up my emails on the Seamonkey I like

Wouldn't waste time on an email client that's part of a suite - none of them are much cop. Try Sylpheed or the more developed branch Claws. There is a .pet (sdomewhere?!) for Eudora OSE - the choice of the professionals.

[davids45]

G'day Sage,

Sorry but I don't or can't agree with your comment in regard to mail packages.

I have found the Netscape/Mozilla/Seamonkey suite's mail quite adequate over the last ten or more years and as a result, have a substantial email archive that I like to keep readily reachable. I could not see when I have briefly looked, that Sylpheed can import these, that it can share an existing profile or mail directory with Seamonkey, and doubt it can share e-mails with Windows (which I have an occasional need to run). And I use Seamonkey's accompanying browser and html editor when needed.

It's the 'devil I know' and am used to.

Which reminds me to mention, I have been able to set up my Seamonkey mail using the suggested .desktop file technique so it has a preferred "mail" desktop icon and runs from my data partition.

I tried to fix the graphics screen "death" during shut-down on this computer by installing the lucid ATI proprietary pet but this did not succeed. The computer (ISpup) is still using the radeon driver - however, not a big problem, as once ISpup has a working Save file, lack of signal during shut down or dropping to an invisible prompt has been tolerable. I guess that's another 'devil I'm getting to know".

David S.

[Geoffrey]

restart X can be done by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backspace and typing xwin.

I have also found that typing startx ofrstartxfce4 works too, but xwin is the what the prompt tells you while you are dropped to the shell.

Quirky NOP is something I've been working on since it was released so I have a few things that might be useful, there should be a script in /usr/bin/ called " restartwm "

to restart x I added a menu entry, just create a file in /usr/share/applications/ called " xfce4-RestartWM.desktop " and paste this code

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=restartwm
Icon=system-restart.png
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Categories=X-XFCE;X-Xfce-Toplevel;
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;
Name=Restart X
Comment=Restart Xfce Desktop

then in /etc/xdg/menus/ edit the " xfce-applications.menu " and add " <Filename>xfce4-RestartWM.desktop</Filename> " to the X-Xfce-Toplevel category layout and save it.

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"
  "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd">

<Menu>
    <Name>Xfce</Name>
    
    <DefaultAppDirs/>
    <DefaultDirectoryDirs/>
    
    <Include>
        <Category>X-Xfce-Toplevel</Category>
    </Include>

    <Layout>
        <Filename>xfce4-run-program.desktop</Filename>
        <Separator/>
        <Menuname>Settings</Menuname>
        <Menuname>Puppy Setup</Menuname>
        <Separator/>
        <Merge type="all"/>
        <Separator/>
        <Filename>xfce4-help.desktop</Filename>
        <Filename>xfce4-logout.desktop</Filename>
        <Filename>xfce4-RestartWM.desktop</Filename>
    </Layout>

here is the icon I used, you can use one of your own , just change it in the xfce4-RestartWM.desktop file to suit

hope this if useful

Geoffrey

[Geoffrey]

Here is another tweak that I have mentioned before else where, a new " .gtkrc-2.0 " file in /root
This will make those ugly icon text on the desktop transparent

Code: Select all

# dummy panel gtk settings to allow color setting in gtkrc files

style "panel"   
{
   font_name      = "DejaVu Sans 11"
}
widget_class "*Panel*" style "panel"

# this is the new part for transparent icon text box

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 0
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

style "sbstyle"
{
}
widget_class "*Scrollbar*"         style "sbstyle"
class "*Scrollbar*"                style "sbstyle"
widget_class "*GtkScale*"          style "sbstyle"
class "*GtkScale*"                 style "sbstyle"
widget_class "*GtkProgress*"       style "sbstyle"
class "*GtkProgress*"              style "sbstyle"

style "menubar"   
{
}
class "*MenuBar*"   style "menubar"
widget_class "*MenuBar.*" style "menubar"

style "theme-menu"   
{
}
class "GtkMenu"   style "theme-menu"

style "menu-item"   
{
}
widget_class "*MenuItem.*"   style "menu-item"
class "GtkMenuItem"      style "menu-item"
class "GtkTearoffMenuItem"   style "menu-item"
class "GtkImageMenuItem"   style "menu-item" 

[raffy]

ISpup works in AMD Fusion APU E-350. What is the secret?

I have attached the Xorg files in the Slacko discussion.

May I request for a battery PET for ISpup? XFCE is still foreign to me.

Thanks a lot for this fun puplet!

[TLM]

ISpup works in AMD Fusion APU E-350. What is the secret?

I have attached the Xorg files in the Slacko discussion.

May I request for a battery PET for ISpup? XFCE is still foreign to me.

Thanks a lot for this fun puplet!

Hi, glad it is working ok for you. If you are referring to a battery monitor, there is already one built in for XFCE. Just right click on the XFCE panel (taskbar) and select the Add New Items option. A list will come up and there is a battery monitor you can add to the panel. You may also right click on any item in the panel and select Move to move the items around where you want them.

[TLM]

Here is another tweak that I have mentioned before else where, a new " .gtkrc-2.0 " file in /root
This will make those ugly icon text on the desktop transparent

Code: Select all

# dummy panel gtk settings to allow color setting in gtkrc files

style "panel"   
{
   font_name      = "DejaVu Sans 11"
}
widget_class "*Panel*" style "panel"

# this is the new part for transparent icon text box

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 0
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

style "sbstyle"
{
}
widget_class "*Scrollbar*"         style "sbstyle"
class "*Scrollbar*"                style "sbstyle"
widget_class "*GtkScale*"          style "sbstyle"
class "*GtkScale*"                 style "sbstyle"
widget_class "*GtkProgress*"       style "sbstyle"
class "*GtkProgress*"              style "sbstyle"

style "menubar"   
{
}
class "*MenuBar*"   style "menubar"
widget_class "*MenuBar.*" style "menubar"

style "theme-menu"   
{
}
class "GtkMenu"   style "theme-menu"

style "menu-item"   
{
}
widget_class "*MenuItem.*"   style "menu-item"
class "GtkMenuItem"      style "menu-item"
class "GtkTearoffMenuItem"   style "menu-item"
class "GtkImageMenuItem"   style "menu-item" 

Thanks Geoffrey for all the tweaks. I have become too busy right now to compile any revised ISOs for ISpup, however when I do have time, I will include your input and give credit. Thank you for your feedback.

[russoodle]

Thank you, TLM....it's quite a fast little pup!

Contradictory to this statement of yours:

Those Up and Down green arrows in the panel? Totally unnecessary but quirky feature. Download it to see what they do

..for me, they are a welcome and effective addition for the slot-loading dvd-rw drive on my now-puppified iMac - very handy, so thanks for those

[TLM]

Thank you, TLM....it's quite a fast little pup!

Contradictory to this statement of yours:

Those Up and Down green arrows in the panel? Totally unnecessary but quirky feature. Download it to see what they do

..for me, they are a welcome and effective addition for the slot-loading dvd-rw drive on my now-puppified iMac - very handy, so thanks for those

Glad you like. I always find them useful for laptops where that little eject button is very hard to hit sometimes. Of course the close cd function does not work on laptop.

[otropogo]

Have just downloaded, md5summed, burned, verified, and booted ISpup-Q120.

My first try was with default settings, the second with:

puppy acpi=off

and logging level 7

The system crashed with the following message:

performing 'switch_root' to the layered filesystem...Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init.

Pid: 1, comm: switch_root Not tainted 2.6.33.2 #1

Call trace:

[<c12992347>]? panic+0x38/0xdd
[<c1028313>]? do_exit+0x5a/0x573
[<c12888ce>]? complete_and_exit+0x0/0x16
[<129b425>]? syscall_call+0x7/0x6

[otropogo]

While setting up a flash install (as previously posted, I couldn't get the ISpup LiveCd to load at all), I had the most incredible problems setting up my display with Xorgwizard. And the longer I worked on it, the worse it got!

Because I have a two monitor setup, in which one monitor is much more limited in capabability, I know exactly the settings I need to display on both of them legibly. It's 1280x1024@60Hz, period.

Whether I choose to let it guess the resolution and colour depth, or try to choose it myself from list, the result is always the same - both monitors are unable to display anything.

At the next step, after hiting the magic keystrokes to abort the setting, I get to tweak the refresh rate between 60, 72, and 85Hz, but no matter how many times I choose 60, Xorgwizard always switches it to 85Hz.

I've had this problem before, and I can usually fix it by accepting some crummy configuration that will let me navigate the desktop on at least one monitor. That lets me get to the resolution menu of xvideo, where finally, I get the option of 1280x1024@60, and fix the display.

But with ISpup, after saving this configuration in the 2fs file to the usb card, and rebooting, I got the xorgwizard again! Iyt was only after the second save that I could load a desktop.

[otropogo]

Went several more rounds with ISpup. I found a 256MB CF card and was able to install ISpup to it, albeit with some difficulty.

Bootflash gave conflicting popups, one in red said it couldn't open the iso file, the other, in orange said to wait, it was copying it. After a few long waits that got nowhere, I copied the files manually. The only thing Bootflash did was to make the card bootable.

Next came the xorgwizard ordeal, worse than last time. I made the mistake of telling it I had a Radeon card, and immediately both my screens dimmed so I couldn't see anything. I was able to brighten one just enough to navigate at maximum brightness. The other was useless.

It did reboot and reload though, and I tried using the gamma control to brighten things. But that was hideous. So finally I found a 2fs file from my previous attempts, copied it to the flash card, and rebooted to a readable screen on both monitors. I've never had this much trouble with xorg before.

Unfortunately, my repeated efforts to boot using the sfs and 2fs files on the hard drive failed, always with the same kernel panic, kill init message as before. I had copied the sfs file and the 2fs files to a directory called ISpup on disk0, and the loader was able to find them alright, either by changing config.sys pmedia=usbflash to =atahd, or by using the puppy pdev1=sda1 argument at bootup.

The loader then shows me the 2fs files, and when I choose one, it starts to load and crashes.


I've compared the contents of the ISpup folder with that of the pupave folder I use to load lupu, and all the same files are there. So ISpup's failure to load from the hard drive remains a mystery.

Update: my install of Quirky to USB-flash did mysteriously after several successful reboots. No idea why or how. Maybe the card is faulty, although Windows couldn't find anything wrong.

I haven't been able to replicate my one successful install, even with a 500MB card that accepts and runs lupu without issues.

[otropogo]

Have now tried to install Quirky a dozen times to USBflash, twice to LiveCD. I got one of the flash installs to boot a few times in a row, but only from the flash card, never from a save file on the hard drive.

I came back to the LiveCD, which previously crashed with a Kernel panic error, and by trying other boot options offered by the F2 key, managed to get it to crash with a bit already cleared error before the kernel panic instead.

There was also an promising one in which it upgraded from "version 119 to version 120" before crashing, and yet another one in which it tried to load the 2fs file on the hard drive, and gave a long optimistic message in red before finally crashing.

And all of the above from a CD burned and verified from an iso that passed the md5sum verification.

I give up. It looks from lack of traffic here as if Quirky-120 has been dead for quite a while anyway. I should have checked the dates first...

[TLM]

Hi,
Sorry you are having issues with ISpup. I honestly have no idea what is wrong. I abandoned ISpup quite some time ago to work on my new puplet, Diamond, which can also be found in the derivatives section. If there was anything particular you liked about ISpup, please let me know, and maybe you could just install Quirky NOP 120 (on which ISpup was based) and add the features to it. If it was a particular icon, wallpaper, or PET, let me know and i will upload what you want and provide a download link. Sorry i cannot be of more help.