(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello All,
I hope this post gets through.
I was downloading soundconverter via ppm on my Precise box when all the text letters were replaced by outline rectangles.
The desktop is the same and the icons are now yellow warning triangles.
The background is as normal and I can use the menu etc from the panel.
Interestingly, the drop down menu in Opera is also corrupted. Does anyone have any idea what I've done?
I'm writing this on my Lupu system.
All input gratefully acknowledged as ever.

Some thoughts...

Did soundconverter start installing?

If so its likely the package has broken and/or changed some settings.

The rectangles instead of text usually means an incompatible font, maybe a local language?

The triangles mean the item on the desktop point to a file location that no longer exists.

Another possibility is there wasn't room in the savefile (frugal). Speaking of which are you frugal or full installled?

Thanks darkcity,
Yes, I think soundconverter did start to install.
The triangle icons actually work and I can access the applications but nothing on the desktop displays as it should, the background has gone as well.
It's a full install.

Short answer:

Upgrading to Precise 5.4.2 will likely solve this problem. (If you don't want to download the whole 166 MB .iso, a small delta file is available -- assuming that you already have 5.4 or 5.4.1.)


Long boring answer:

Debian and distros descended from Debian, such as Ubuntu, support "multiarch", which allows a library to have, for instance, both an Intel 32-bit build and an AMD (or Intel) 64-bit build installed on the same PC. (That is one example -- many other architectures are supported.) To do this, Debian and friends will sometimes put libraries built for the 32-bit Intel architecture ("i386") in /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ or /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ instead of the usual /lib/ or /usr/lib/, respectively.

Other distros may handle this differently.

Currently, Puppy continues to use the standard /lib/ and /usr/lib/ directories. For compatibility with Ubuntu packages, Precise Puppy has symlinks from /lib/i386-linux-gnu and /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu to /lib/ and /usr/lib/, respectively.

The problem you have run into is that sometimes when installing a .deb package from a Debian or Ubuntu repository, those symlinks get overwritten, so some needed libraries are not where they are expected to be.

This is "maybe fixed", as Barry says in his comment for the Woof commit (http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/b8e5755499) I'm not sure if anyone who ran into this has tested the fix or not, so it would be good to know if upgrading to Precise 5.4.2 fixes this for you.

See Barry's blog entry and comments at: "text becomes squares" bug fixed

You might be able to fix your problem by applying the fix suggested by forum member zul that Barry mentions in that blog entry. But there may be other libraries that became "lost" when the symlinks got overwritten, so I think an upgrade to 5.4.2 is your best bet to ensure that those libraries, and any libraries you install in the future can be found.

Thank you npierce,
Sadly an upgrade to 5.4.2 made no difference.
I took a look at the bug fixed post and I tried to create the symlinks (I even copy/pasted the script to make sure) but the result was "no such file exists".
I'm going to retry the command line on the updated version, I'll let you know what happens

Hello all,
The bug fix didn't work for me. When I break things they seem to stay broken!

The problem you have run into is that sometimes when installing a .deb package from a Debian or Ubuntu repository, those symlinks get overwritten, so some needed libraries are not where they are expected to be.

This is not only a problem in that case, it's generally a problem of puppy. To be a little more save I have refined the LazY Puppy petget (the installer for .pet, .deb, etc). At first run (so, just once) it copies some files, symbolic links, libs and its own directory to a sub directory in /tmp. After each installed package it copies all files and directories back to the original place. This way the basic system and all its functions will be save and run properly.

So soundconverter is a deb package rather than a Pet?

What I would do, as you are using a Full install-

1. Check file structure and files the package installs, and see if indeed those files have been installed in your root fs

2. If they have been installed: mount the base/pup.sfs (may be inside ISO), delete files that are from package but not in base/pup.sfs (from root fs), replace files from the package that are also present in the base/pup.sfs with the ones from base/pup.sfs (to root fs).

(Back if your system if worried about further breaking it.)

The triangle icons actually work and I can access the applications but nothing on the desktop displays as it should, the background has gone as well.

Maybe the icon images can't be found then. Have you tried fixing the background with Nathan wallpaper setter?

BTW on a frugal install you can copy your savefile (from another/fresh boot) before installing any software your worried about. That way if the software breaks the system you can just switch to copied savefile.

-Glossary-
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/basesfs Base/pup.sfs
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/RootFs Root fs

Hi RSH and darkcity,
Thanks for the input.
LazY puppy doesn't sound right for me, a little too advanced but thanks for the thought.
As far a Precise goes, as I've already updated to 5.4.2, I might just as well reinstall and start again. I back up everything so it's not a problem.
My real problem is that my short term memory is failing and if I start any major tinkering there is a risk that I get lost and have to start again - life's too short.
Once again, my gratitude to the best Linux community I've encountered.
Titus.

titus wrote:Sadly an upgrade to 5.4.2 made no difference.

Sorry to hear that.

So I am assuming that the behavior is the same as before: the desktop icons and their text change during the installation of soundconverter. Is that correct?

titus wrote:I took a look at the bug fixed post and I tried to create the symlinks (I even copy/pasted the script to make sure) but the result was "no such file exists".

That sounds like what would happen if /lib/i386-linux-gnu and /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu didn't exist at all. So perhaps the links were not overwritten, but were removed -- which is a different problem than the one Barry made a fix for.

What output do you get for these commands? If either reports "No such file or directory", you may be able to fix things with and/or As RSH points out, the symptoms that you see can result from other things. For instance, the same symptoms showed up in frugal installations when a bug that caused the save file to be saved improperly on an NTFS filesystem at shutdown. (Since the symptoms appear for you before shutdown, and since you have a full installation, that, of course, is not what's happening in your case.)

Since there are various things that could break and cause these symptoms, if you find noting interesting with the above suggested commands, darkcity's advice above may help you find the problem.

Anyway, please let us know what happens with the above commands.

And good luck.

P.S. I just saw your new post.

titus wrote:. . . if I start any major tinkering there is a risk that I get lost and have to start again - life's too short.

Yes, life is too short, and the time we spend chasing bugs needs to be kept to a minimum (something I keep telling myself, but don't always listen to). So, of course, feel free to move on without trying my suggestions, if that is what you need to do.

Hello npierce,
Thank you for the suggestions. I did a re-install before I read your post so I can't try them out. I would have liked to fix the installation but as I pointed out, time is precious and as I can easily swap from one drive to another then any tinkering becomes an academic pursuit.
There is also the fact that my concentration isn't what it was (and it never was much).
Thanks again,
Titus.

Hi titus,

You're welcome.