Fatdog64-620beta3

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gcmartin

#16 Post by gcmartin »

Running Live via DVD with save-session to the DVD disc.
Several items to report

#1 - ISOs
  • Remaster of system does not produce an ISO which boots (only 34K) when accepting defaults to remaster.
  • After ISOmaster install, ROX right-click on an ISO file does not show ISOmaster as a right-click option
  • ROX right-click on an ISO file, selecting BurnISO2CD: BurnISO2Cd does not use the ISO file-path. (PBURN does use the ISO file-path.)
  • Opening a terminal, and typing "burniso2cd ISO's_file-path" -- BurnISO2Cd does not use the ISO file-path, here, either. Could this script be adjusted to use the $1 file-path given on the command line?
#2 - HARDINFO
On Hardinfo, selecting Computer (top-most-line in left pane), RAM is not shown in right-pane

#3 - LOSING ABILITY TO OPEN-CLOSE-MANIPULATE DESKTOP WINDOWS.
Irregularly, the desktop is losing its ability for mouse-click and keyboard use.. This requires a desktop restart via Ctrl-Alt-Bkspace.
When trying xorgwizard to change the video driver (like VESA), Desktop will not restart. Video is nVidia PCIe 250-SLI. Reboot required. EAch time unable to capture dmesg.

Anyone else notice similar desktop problems?
Attachments
MissingRAM.png
RAM is missing values.
(84.3 KiB) Downloaded 1757 times

jamesbond
Posts: 3433
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#17 Post by jamesbond »

Hans,

Here's a patch for load_sfs and savefile tool that should solve the two issues you mention: the sfs loader won't show base sfs, and the ability to resize (ie enlarge) encrypted savefile. Let me know how it goes with you.

Thanks gcmartin for the report.
gcmartin wrote:*Remaster of system does not produce an ISO which boots (only 34K) when accepting defaults to remaster.
I tried this booting a clean LiveDVD, start the remaster tool and just click "Next" all the time. I got a 209MB ISO file (which isn't bootable because I didn't select the kernel, I just click "Next" when asked). How did you end up with 34k?
* After ISOmaster install, ROX right-click on an ISO file does not show ISOmaster as a right-click option
Won't fix, this isn't a problem. You can easily assign right-click yourself if you wish.
* ROX right-click on an ISO file, selecting BurnISO2CD: BurnISO2Cd does not use the ISO file-path. (PBURN does use the ISO file-path.)
burniso2cd doesn't support specifying filename on its invocation. I will remove all "burn with burniso2cd" right clicks.
* Opening a terminal, and typing "burniso2cd ISO's_file-path" -- BurnISO2Cd does not use the ISO file-path, here, either. Could this script be adjusted to use the $1 file-path given on the command line?
No. This is Barry's original CD burner script, it is kept there for the last resort in case Pburn fails for whatever reason (very unlikely). it is old and hasn't been updated for a very long time, I may want to consider removing this script altogether.
#3 - LOSING ABILITY TO OPEN-CLOSE-MANIPULATE DESKTOP WINDOWS.
Irregularly, the desktop is losing its ability for mouse-click and keyboard use.. This requires a desktop restart via Ctrl-Alt-Bkspace.
When trying xorgwizard to change the video driver (like VESA), Desktop will not restart. Video is nVidia PCIe 250-SLI. Reboot required. EAch time unable to capture dmesg.

Anyone else notice similar desktop problems?
How soon does this happen? If after how many hours you've got a problem? Did you notice a particular pattern? Anyway, please do this: add the "loadmodules=nouveau" as the boot parameter when you boot and see if you've got any improvement. If no, please add "nouveau.noaccel=1" and see whether you've got any improvement.
"Improvement" here means the time between crash with those parameters is longer than without (or hopefully, no crash altogether).

cheers!

EDIT: Forgot to add the attachment for Hans.
Attachments
patch-01.pet
(6.12 KiB) Downloaded 656 times
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

#18 Post by gcmartin »

Thanks@JamesBond.

I setup beta3 on the other X2 which has nvidia on the motherboard. It, too has issues as well. (same as I found in LH64). I am rebooting each of the 2 systems with the nouveau parm and will provide news, tomorrow.

On bootiso2cd, the issues are the same for ALL PUPs. It does work; just doesn't lend itself to right-click implementation in its present state.

On Remaster, I did save screen shots of each step of the path taken and will get those to you.

Here to help

JustGreg
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Joined: Tue 24 May 2005, 10:55
Location: Connecticut USA

#19 Post by JustGreg »

I tried the EFI-stub boot with a USB flash drive and rEFInd. It worked without a problem. The signed kernel was recognized and FatDobg 64 booted directly. Here is the entry in refind.conf file that I used:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Fatdog64 Linux" {
	icon /EFI/boot/icons/fatdog_logo.icns
	volume FS1:
#	loader /EFI/grub2/grub2.efi
	loader /EFI/boot/vmlinuz.efi
	initrd /EFI/boot/initrd
	options "root=UUID=####-#### waitdev=5 pmedia=usb"
}
File vmlinuz.efi is the normal kernel with efi extension. This helps rEFInd find the kernel. The value ####-#### is the identifying value for the partition with save file or directory. The waitdev=5, allows the kernel to find the USB device which respond slower.

I did try a hard disk installation. Without loadmodule=raedon, I got the failures to stop the X server. I had two failures and two successes.

I have an idea that I will try tomorrow. I am going to try just booting with the EFIstub and rEFInd on the hard disk. I will report the results.

I hope this helps.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

JustGreg
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Joined: Tue 24 May 2005, 10:55
Location: Connecticut USA

#20 Post by JustGreg »

I have Beta3 on my hard disk booting directly from rEFInd and not using grub2. It works well. Boots quickly. The biggest delay is the loading of the initrd file.

I did try booting without loadmodule=radeon. However, it did not work properly. After load the initrd and sfs files, things were static for a good two minute period, then, many console messages, all going by too fast to read. The X server did start with a mouse cursor and desktop display. But, the menu bar at the bottom is missing and there are no responses to mouse selections (i.e. clicking on the terminal icon does not bring up a console terminal window). I had to use the power button to shut down the system.

The good news is with the loadmodule=radeon option, everything seems to work well.

Here is the "refind.conf" entry that works the best on my hard drive:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Fatdog64 Linux Beta3" {
	icon /EFI/boot/icons/fatdog_logo.icns
#	volume FATDOG_LIVE
#	loader /EFI/grub2/grub2.efi
	loader /EFI/boot/vmlinuz.efi
	initrd /EFI/boot/initrd
	options "root=UUID=####-####-####-####-############ savefile=direct:device:sda3:/fd64save loadmodules=radeon" 
}
The sequence of ### is UUID value of the partition to be root.
Last edited by JustGreg on Mon 15 Apr 2013, 16:57, edited 1 time in total.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

jamesbond
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#21 Post by jamesbond »

Thanks JustGreg.
JustGreg wrote:I did try booting without loadmodule=radeon. However, it did not work properly. After load the initrd and sfs files, things were static for a good two minute period, then, many console messages, all going by too fast to read. The X server did start with a mouse cursor and desktop display. But, the menu bar at the bottom is missing and there are no responses to mouse selections (i.e. clicking on the terminal icon does not bring up a console terminal window). I had to use the power button to shut down the system.

The good news is with the loadmodule=radeon option, everything seems to work well.
Argh :( I though we have fixed it :(
We have actually implemented the equivalent of "loadmodules=radeon" if we detect a radeon card. Do you mind running this on terminal, and then upload the resulting text file here? We want to know what's the pci id of your graphics card.

Code: Select all

 find /sys/devices -name uevent | xargs -I '{}' sh -c 'echo ==={}===; cat {}' > devices.txt
Another thing you could test is, while use this boot parameter: savefile=none lateshell --- savefile=none means don't load any savefile (this is important to make sure that the change you are about to do is not saved anywhere), and lateshell means "enter a shell just before initrd is finished" (this is the equivalent of puppy's "rdsh" parameter). When you're in the shell, use vi to edit /aufs/new_root/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and change the line:

Code: Select all

# workaround for kernel 3.7/3.8 module load race conditions for radeon
find /sys/devices -name uevent | xargs sed '/MODALIAS/!d; s/.*=//' | 
grep -q pci:v00001002d0000 && modprobe -b radeon # start radeon module before udev
with

Code: Select all

modprobe radeon
That is, load radeon module unconditionally before udev starts. When you're done, quit vi and then type "exit" for the boot process to continue. See if by doing this it helps and doesn't crash. Since we have a luck factor here, if you can do this a couple of times to ensure that you've got a consistent result, it is much appreciated.

cheers!

EDIT: missing instructions.
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]

JustGreg
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Location: Connecticut USA

#22 Post by JustGreg »

Hi Jamesbond,

I did both tests/items. I will email you the devices.txt file to you. It is 91KB in size, so I can not post it here.

I did boot using the savefile=none lateshell parameter. After modifying the rc.sysint with VI per your instructions, X server started normally without a hitch. I did not make a save file. If you want me to try something out and make a save file, just ask and I will get it done.

I hope the above helps.

I do like the rEFInd/efi stub boot process. It works well. I also have an entry in refind.conf to boot via grub2 now. It is nice to be able to boot either way.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

jamesbond
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Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 05:02
Location: The Blue Marble

#23 Post by jamesbond »

JustGreg,

I'm glad the the refind/efi-stub works. That is actually the preferred way to boot UEFI (with or without SB). The grub2 stuff is only a helper, although with it we get the extra benefit of booting unsigned kernels (including 32-bit kernels).

Thanks for doing the test and reporting the results. Don't worry about making a savefile - I have already gotten the answer I need. The original code (which I asked you to replace in the previous post) basically checks for certain PCI vendor:id codes; and if they are found, instruct the system to load "radeon" module. My previous instruction asked you to remove these checks and load the radeon module regardless (which in your case is fine since we know you do have a radeon card :) - but this is obviously can't be done on a general release). The fact that doing so works, means that the filtering code (the checks for PCI vendor:id) probably isn't very correct or isn't inclusive enough, and that's where the devices.txt will help - it will tell us the PCI vendor:id of your card and we can figure out how to include it in the filter.

Thanks again.

For whomever is concerned, we are planning to release 620 final in a few days time. It will come with a different (newer) kernel but everything else will probably looks the same (VLC will be updated). So if any of you have any concerns or issues or bugs, you may want to let us know, otherwise those will be carried through to the final release :oops:

cheers!
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]

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Ted Dog
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Final in a few

#24 Post by Ted Dog »

Just got to a place to high speed download Beta3 would you provide a delta file between Beta3 and Final when Final is well FINAL. Thanks.

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minesadorada
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Joined: Sun 11 Sep 2011, 19:10

#25 Post by minesadorada »

FatDog 620/fpc-2.6.0-x86_64.sfs

For the Lazarus sfs to work 'out-of-the-box' a small change to the /etc/fpc.cfg is needed in the sfs.

Updated section of fpc.cfg below:

Code: Select all

# searchpath for units and other system dependent things
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget/*
-Fu/usr/lib/fpc/$fpcversion/units/$fpctarget/rtl
Highly impressed with Fatdog64 - especially the control panel. My new Lazarus Linux x64 platform of choice. Thanks for making it.

LateAdopter
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Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#26 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond
So if any of you have any concerns or issues or bugs, you may want to let us know
I have tested beta 3 and the the features that I use (cpuid msr Turionpowercontrol, xrandr panning and gamma) all working. Thank you.

One observation that applies to fatdog64 6xx generally:

Fatdog comes with the kernel default frequency scaling: ondemand, up_threshold=95 sampling_down_factor=1

This is rather berserk, because it continually winds the cpu down to minimum frequency, even when VLC is running at the limit.

On my hardware, athlon II x2, VLC and mplayer won't run at more than 70% cpu load without dropping frames.

I set the up_threshold to 80 and the sampling_down_factor to 10 via rc.local. That tames it and does not increase the idle power consumption. Then VLC runs smoothly on my worst case test video.

Even the performance governor turns the cpu down to minimum frequency quite often.

I monitor what the governor is doing with this line I got from the Arch wiki

Code: Select all

watch grep \"cpu MHz\" /proc/cpuinfo
This effect may be more noticeable on AMD processors, since they can run the cores at different frequencies.

I only mention this in case anyone has problems with video playback. Fatdog64 is my preferred way of of watching video.

Thank you.

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pemasu
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#27 Post by pemasu »

If you like to have cpufrequency switcher as tray app, you could test the attached pet. It consist of ppower binary, compiled from edited source in fatdog...and scripts in /etc/acpi/. The source was found from jemimah repo in smokey01.com and I have used modified scripts which I have used since Fluppy. Also created originally by Jemimah. I edited the ppower source code that it shows Powersave, Ondemand and Performance switches in tray.

There is already cpufreq-set with needed libs in Fatdog which the binary and scripts utilize. So...cpu governor can be switched with this tray app.

Maybe useful for LateAdopter when he needs full cpu speed with videos.
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Billtoo
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Fatdog64-620beta3

#28 Post by Billtoo »

This particular DVD plays in both VLC and Xine but in VLC it will stop
for a second and then continue (often) but it plays perfectly in Xine.
I didn't change any settings in VLC so maybe it can be made to play
well, I didn't change any settings in Xine either.
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kirk
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#29 Post by kirk »

Just got to a place to high speed download Beta3 would you provide a delta file between Beta3 and Final
Sorry Ted, final will have the latest kernel, VLC and more, so a diff would be huge.
On my hardware, athlon II x2, VLC and mplayer won't run at more than 70% cpu load without dropping frames.
My TV computer has a Athlon II x2 250, I don't have any problems. You might try modprobe cpufreq_performance, but if what you're doing works, that's good too.
This particular DVD plays in both VLC and Xine but in VLC it will stop
for a second and then continue (often) but it plays perfectly in Xine.
I didn't change any settings in VLC so maybe it can be made to play
well, I didn't change any settings in Xine either.
I've had a couple DVDs that VLC wouldn't play. That's why I made the Xine pet. Nice to have a backup. Final will have VLC-2.0.6.

jamesbond
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#30 Post by jamesbond »

minesadorada, thanks.
I will re-upload the freepascal sfs later.

LateAdopter,
Thanks for the info, it's good to know.
Alternatively, there is a commented settings in rc.local which set the scaling governor back to "performance".
Did you use that, and if you did, did it help and were there are any unwanted side effects?
I have an AMD laptop and in my case setting it to performance all the time makes the laptop running hotter.

pemasu,
Thanks. Do you mind sharing the (edited) source too?

Billtoo,
Does LateAdopter suggestion help? Does setting the governor to performance helps?
Of course, if Xine works, then it's a solved problem, I suppose :).

cheers!
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]

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pemasu
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#31 Post by pemasu »

Here is the edited source of ppower.
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LateAdopter
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Location: Reading UK

#32 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond & Billtoo

I get the same problem with some MPEG2 files that are on UDF 1.5 formatted DVD+RW disks that were written 4 to 9 years ago.

I think the drive attempts to read them at 12x but, from time to time, it hits a rough spot and has to slow down to 4x a re-read a sector. This takes some time and flashing of the green LED to do. My Lite-on drive carries on at low speed for a while and then gets over confident and speeds up again, until the same thing happens again.

I think most media players buffer large amounts of data, which helps with seeking too, so they don't have a problem. VLC doesn't seem to do that. The preferences have "file cache" and "disk cache" both set to 300ms. I tried increasing them, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

If I have a problem, I just copy the MPEG file to the hard disk, which works much better. My recent recordings are all on an external hard disk.

I expect configuring the the driver to limit the read speed to 4x would also work, but that would interfere with normal file operations.

LateAdopter
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 27 May 2011, 17:21
Location: Reading UK

#33 Post by LateAdopter »

Hello jamesbond
I have an AMD laptop and in my case setting it to performance all the time makes the laptop running hotter.
I have just tried uncommenting the performance section in rc.local but it looks as though that configuration is incorrect because the idle power consumption increases too much.

Here are the figures:

Code: Select all

Default UT 95 SDF 1 Idle 41.5 Watts Max Video 57.2 Watts
Mine   UT 80 SDF 10 Idle 41.0 Watts Max Video 56.7 Watts
performance         Idle 52.3 Watts Max Video 75.2 Watts.
That's not right. It indicates that power management is not working at all with the performance governor.

On Pemasu's Upup Precise 3.7.2

Code: Select all

performance         Idle 42 Watts.
That has a fixed frequency of 2800MHz but still can idle. Which is what the performance governor should do.

I have a desktop PC connected to an energy meter, so I can see what is happening. Those figures are wallplug power for the box.

EDIT:

I have just tried the taskbar tool that Pemasu posted and that behaves correctly in performance mode.

Code: Select all

performance         Idle 43.5 Watts Max Video 57.4 Watts.
That's more like it should be.
Last edited by LateAdopter on Sun 14 Apr 2013, 17:28, edited 2 times in total.

mini-jaguar
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Joined: Thu 13 Nov 2008, 13:45

#34 Post by mini-jaguar »

Seems o.k. so far. Haven't noticed the filesave getting smaller when copying files to drives, which I was having a problem with in beta2. Also the package manager doesn't go crazy when not connected to the internet, like it did in beta2.

The Inkscape .pet doesn't seem to work, which doesn't make much of a difference to me since I never use Inkscape and prefer Gimp. But I noticed it has a 2.6 version of Gimp, I wish it had a newer version (yes, I know someone already did make a package which I can install). I really don't like 2.6, it won't even resize the windows properly.

jamesbond
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Location: The Blue Marble

#35 Post by jamesbond »

LateAdopter,

Thanks for the info. I'm dumbfounded by the difference of power consumption between the script in rc.local and the tray applet because they (eventually) boils down to the same thing. Anyway, I'm glad that the applet works.

mini-jaguar,
Glad to see that the usb flash drive works so far. Inkscape requires libgsl, which should be pulled automatically if you use the package manager. Once libgsl is installed, inkscape then works. As for gimp, it will probably stay as is for now, not going through major package update just before final.

cheers!
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]

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