Fatdog64-610 testing 20 Nov 2012 (finished)

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Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
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#46 Post by Sage »

Brief return to 64bit-land with an i3.4G. LiveCD, used my worst (p54) and best(zd1211) performing dongles along with a couple of others that rarely give problems. No problems finding base station, no problem connecting to ditto, but as soon as an attempt is made to use the connection for anything it drops out (message pops up in tray). e.g. load default browser, type in URL, - everything still stable - hit Enter and down it goes, new tray message pops up 'disconnected'. Few seconds later after stopping trying to access the connection, tray message often pops up with re-connect (but not always). This routine proceeds until patience runs out. Doesn't happen with any other distros on this machine or with those dongles on other machines/other distros, except, maybe, the Wistron which can be as much of a pig as Broadcoms. Didn't happen with FD600s. ???

kirk
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#47 Post by kirk »

Sage,

After it disconnects from your network, can you open a terminal and type:

Code: Select all

lspci > /root/lspci.txt

dmesg > /root/dmesg.txt
and then attach those two files to this thread? I'm surprised it worked in 601 and quit working with 610. Thanks

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#48 Post by Sage »

Many thanks, kirk, - will do; busy today, elsewhere, - hopefully tomorrow.

gcmartin

Live media is NOT getting the session saved at Power-off

#49 Post by gcmartin »

Hi all.

As has been traditional with my use of FATDOG since inception, I use its Live media feature for operations and management of the OS. Traditionally, after all tailoring is done and saved via saved session, the OS runs basically un-interrupted for in 1 case, year(s).

In testing the latest Beta; namely 610 I have run into an issue when trying to save the session back to the Live media. I do understand that there are several changes in the saved file(s) which represents the changes and the tailoring done while the system was running. I am positive on these changes as the architecture is very promising. But, unfortunately, I have run into some issues in trying to get my session saved.

To show the problem, here is a step by step that I followed which leads to the problem.
It surfaces as follows:
  • Menu>Power-off
    The Create Save File Window pops: click Yes (Do you want to create a savefile now?)

    What follows is unexpected at end of desktop session
  • Create Save File windows text dialogue changes to set/reset the system hostname: Changed it to FATDOG610-testing and clicked Next
    (this is unexpected because, all system changes including hostname changes should have occurred before reaching this point. Reason: Other system files and applications should have configured with hostname needs long before getting to this point in the system's use. This step really should be moved to system start and not at system end so that any tool that would utilize or need the final system hostname would have at their setups. But, I'm sure there are those who are going to argue this placement as a defensive.)

    Again, the following, too, is unexpected at end of desktop session
  • Create Save File windows text dialogue changes to set/reset root's password: Changed it fatdog and clicked Next
    (This also is unexpected placement. Shouldn't this be also done at system's initial start.)

    Expected
  • Create Save File windows text dialogue changes to choose save session device: Changed it /dev/sr0 (where the Live media presently resides) clicked "Save as multisession" (this is an unknown for which there is no documentation or desktop help for this new shutdown parameter) and clicked Next

    Expected
  • Create Save File windows text dialogue changes to show status of some prior entries for confirmation: Viewing shows my prior selections and clicked Next

    Xdesktop is then exited and text terminal (console) continues with message that a fatdog ...sfs is being created. Immediately the system progresses with another message, then and within 15 seconds, the PC powers down without every saving of anything to the Live media.
Could someone confirm the procedure or confirm the problem for support team review before releasing GA?

Also, my desktop configuration may be a little different from other desktops. There is no Floppy and there are 2 DVD burners on the system. And, as I may have mentioned, all local and remote mounts were umount'd prior to start of Power-off.

Here to help.

jamesbond
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#50 Post by jamesbond »

gcmartin wrote:Xdesktop is then exited and text terminal (console) continues with message that a fatdog ...sfs is being created. Immediately the system progresses with another message, then and within 15 seconds, the PC powers down without every saving of anything to the Live media.
Thank you, bug confirmed, I will look at it.
Could someone confirm the procedure
Procedure is correct.

EDIT: Bug is fixed for the next release. Please note that even after you managed to save the session, at next boot you will have to type "fatdog savefile=direct:multi" if you boot from the first DVD drive. If you don't want to do this all the time you will need to remaster and ensure that you put this boot parameter into your customised isolinux.cfg.
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jamesbond
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#51 Post by jamesbond »

Known problem: due to kernel bug, DVDs ejected with hardware button will stay shown on the Rox desktop. Right-click, then "eject" to remove it from the desktop.

This will be fixed in the next release (either we replace the kernel or we put back the userspace polling).
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Sage
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#52 Post by Sage »

Nothing's ever straightforward is it?!
The feature reported has become variable - occasionally, every dongle is now connecting, sometimes some aren't and sometimes some drop out. Also aware of some ISP issues. Working to try to isolate each parameter before we send you up/down any blind alleys, kirk. I saw something about forcing a connection to be retained somewhere?

kirk
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#53 Post by kirk »

I saw something about forcing a connection to be retained somewhere?
Sorry, I don't know how to do that.

I did try a wireless USB stick that uses the zd1211rw module. I connected to a wpa2 access point and did some surfing, no problems with that one.

Sage
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Location: GB

#54 Post by Sage »

Well, kirk, sorted out the ISP, now getting stability with connections to the zd1211 and the p54 Wiston. The rt2800usb ( new Hama 300MHz) now comes up as 'not in list' which it didn't do previously and when added, doesn't connect, which it did! The other dongles are out on loan - an Atheros and a Broadcom. The former is rather older but often worked for its previous owner as well as for me, the Broadcom is fairly new but haven't used it much yet. I knew the router was OK because the on-board units on mobiles and laptops always connected.
Thanks for following up - will know what to do next time!

Later: Knew I'd seen it recently, it's from our own micko over on the Slacko thread:
Regarding your connection, Frisbee has an option that keeps the connection up if it's flakey.

gcmartin

SWAP partition is not picked up on initial Live media boot

#55 Post by gcmartin »

Problem Scenario
Booted the Live media FATDOG610. There is a SWAP partition on the HDD.
But, the booting system is either not detecting/ignoring it. This is a new problem for booting PUPs.

Here to help

jamesbond
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Re: SWAP partition is not picked up on initial Live media boot

#56 Post by jamesbond »

gcmartin wrote:Problem Scenario
Booted the Live media FATDOG610. There is a SWAP partition on the HDD.
But, the booting system is either not detecting/ignoring it. This is a new problem for booting PUPs.

Here to help
Fatdog requires manual configuration (by editing /etc/fstab) to activate the swap file.
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

gcmartin

Re: SWAP partition is not picked up on initial Live media boot

#57 Post by gcmartin »

jamesbond wrote: ... Fatdog requires manual configuration (by editing /etc/fstab) to activate the swap file.
Thanks for your responses.

If time permits, maybe this could be used by default with manual config step to turn it off or expand it if necessary. Just a thought. If useful, run with it.

Cheers :)

jamesbond
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Re: SWAP partition is not picked up on initial Live media boot

#58 Post by jamesbond »

gcmartin wrote:
jamesbond wrote: ... Fatdog requires manual configuration (by editing /etc/fstab) to activate the swap file.
Thanks for your responses.
EDIT: Fatdog requires manual configuration (by editing /etc/fstab) to activate the swap PARTITION, not swap file. Fatdog has a utility (in the Control Panel) to automatically create a swap file and mount it at boot.
If time permits, maybe this could be used by default with manual config step to turn it off or expand it if necessary. Just a thought. If useful, run with it.
Well, if one is advanced enough to know about and create a swap partition, I'd assume that one knows how to edit /etc/fstab or at the very least be capable of using "swapon" command to use the swap partition :wink:
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spandey
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#59 Post by spandey »

I have a query related to default action of Fatdog or may be it's how all puppy's behave.
Using Fatdog, I opend a text file in some other linux partition using geany and without doing any changes just closed it. Will there be any changes to that file's attributes or attributes of any of it's parent directories?

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rcrsn51
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#60 Post by rcrsn51 »

spandey wrote:Using Fatdog, I opend a text file in some other linux partition using geany and without doing any changes just closed it. Will there be any changes to that file's attributes or attributes of any of it's parent directories?
There shouldn't be. But geany does some hidden stuff that basic text editors like leafpad do not. So I wouldn't want to swear to it.

Did you actually see something change?

spandey
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#61 Post by spandey »

I didn't see but I confirm that it does changes as my linux mint 13 system fails to boot up each time I have opened a file. I ended up restoring from backup. First I thought it was Linux mint problem but today I confirmed it twice.

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rcrsn51
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#62 Post by rcrsn51 »

Here is a potential issue with geany, but I suspect that it would also happen with other Puppies.

In Fatdog, you are logged in as the root user. But it sounds like you are accessing a Mint file that is owned by a non-root user.

If geany is creating temporary files in the Mint filesystem that are also owned by root, they could very well be causing problems, even if you never wrote the actual file back into Mint.

I have seen similar problems with geany when opening a network share. I also have an install of Ubuntu on a flash drive. I once browsed its filesystem from Puppy and managed to corrupt it.

As a test, try using leafpad instead. However, if you change the file and save it back, you will probably have the same problem with corruption.

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smokey01
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#63 Post by smokey01 »

I often use VirtualBox to test other or new distributions. The problem is loading external files in to the distribution. What I tried last night was to run pure-ftpd on the host and gFTP on the client. Only one problem, no pure-ftp in Fatdog or the repository.

You can get a copy here and it works fine.
http://www.smokey01.com/software/Fatdog ... 9-fd64.pet

jamesbond
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#64 Post by jamesbond »

spandey, I have absolutely no idea what caused the corruption. But you can test easily whether geany (or any other tools) changes stuff behind your back.

This is how I would do it. I would assume you are using the RAM layer (if you don't use RAM layer, change references to /aufs/pup_rw to /aufs/pup_save instead).

1. Open a file that exists in the base ISO, but you haven't touched yet, for example: /usr/share/doc/Xdialog.htm
2. Open the corresponding folder of that file in rox, ie "rox /aufs/pup_rw/usr/share/doc"
3. See if there is any Xdialog.htm in that dialog.
4. Close geany.
5. Refresh rox folder, see if Xdialog.htm shows up there.
6. Nothing? That means geany doesn't change anything. If you see a new Xdialog.htm file created there, ok - geany have changed stuff.

You can easily use experiment to verify this: instead of geany, use chmod or chown --- and you will definitely see a new copy created. That is just what the layering system is all about.

smokey01, pure-FTP isn't in the repo because it is already in the base ISO. You can turn it on through Services Manager in Control Panel.

cheers!
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gcmartin

#65 Post by gcmartin »

Hi JamesBond.

Thanks for your response. As you are witnessing some to the frustrations you exhibit. The primary issues that some of us have experienced is that much of the technology that comes with FATDOG is so new and different that we are having problems getting on-board based upon our past experiences with PUPs in Puppyland. And, in some cases, FATDOG offers technology which sharply contrast with past distros we use. So, sometimes what is happening is that we either "think" things are missing, broken, or mis-implemented as we are un-aware that new appraoches have been put in place. FATDOG is awsome, but it's also NEW!

But, we are trying and this is why we follow this distro. We're trying ...

Here to help :D

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