Akita Linux, Beta 16 ISO

[wuwei]

For what it is worth:

Been running Akita for several days now, and found - sorry to say - nothing to gripe about

It runs stable,
I could customize it to my usual layout,
All applications I have started, worked.
I even got Conky to work without black background. Now, THAT is an accomplishment!

So, all in all, a very good job sc0ttman!

Included is one more file in de translation, that I picked from further up this page.

[sc0ttman]

For what it is worth:

Been running Akita for several days now, and found - sorry to say - nothing to gripe about

Damn lol ... How are you connecting to the net? I assume on a desktop PC, not laptop or netbook, right?

It runs stable,
I could customize it to my usual layout,
All applications I have started, worked.
I even got Conky to work without black background. Now, THAT is an accomplishment!

Any advice you can give me on setting up Conky will be very much appreciated .
I never use it, but see its value and I know many people love it...

So, all in all, a very good job sc0ttman!

Included is one more file in de translation, that I picked from further up this page.

Excellent, thanks very much, added to the pile

Just a note to others though, the gettext'd version of the JWM tool thing has been supersceded, and the in-file translations, as listed above are now being used.. I am keeping the .pot files and such anyway, as I still have the gettext script, and it may come in handy as some point... At least I can use them to translate other bits n bobs..

[rodin.s]

I have made Russian translation for jwm_menu.

[sc0ttman]

I have made Russian translation for jwm_menu.

Excellent, thanks once again... Techno will want that too...

[L18L]

[wuwei]

sc0ttman wrote:

How are you connecting to the net? I assume on a desktop PC, not laptop or netbook, right?

Yes right, I have a desktop connected via LAN. The tricky part is, that there is no router, just a DSL modem. That requires pppoe, i.e. Roaring Penguine. Many times this is a real pain in the a... in Puppy.
Not so in Akita.
All I needed to do after pppoe was setup once, is to symlink /usr/sbin/pppoe-start_shell to /root/Startup. Now the internet connection is established at boot time. Just wonderful, beats all series 5 Puppies, with the notable exemption of Slacko.

Now Conky:

Any advice you can give me on setting up Conky will be very much appreciated .
I never use it, but see its value and I know many people love it...

Conky is another bear in the Puppy woods. Especially when you don't appreciate the black background behind the display area.

Most of the time I get it accomplished with the installation of these 4 files (see picture) and an entry in /root/.xinitrc of

Code: Select all

qiv -z -F /root/Choices/ROX-background.jpg
conky -d &

right before line 182 #exec $CURRENTWM

Where ROX-background.jpg is a copy of the current desktop background from /usr/share/backgrounds

This wasn't necessary in Akita!

It has to be conky 1.7.2 BTW, later versions create unexplicable problems with the background.

Sources:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=48725
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 2e7dc50e89
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=214382

My conky looks like this:

[sc0ttman]

It work great, I'm sure it fits nicely into Wary, however, Akita has the Puppy-desktop NLS system, and so desktop icons are also updated.. Techno script does not do this, fixmenus_on_locale must be used, and for some reason I cannot work out, I am having trouble integrating fixmenus_on_locale into your script - it doesn't work for me..

Obviously I am not complainng, it works as intended, but I cannot integrate it into my system as I'd like just yet.. But I'll get there

[sc0ttman]

sc0ttman wrote:
Yes right, I have a desktop connected via LAN. The tricky part is, that there is no router, just a DSL modem. That requires pppoe, i.e. Roaring Penguine. Many times this is a real pain in the a... in Puppy.
Not so in Akita.

Good, I did mess with those packages, and as far as I understand (which is not at all well), I've got a 'sweet spot' - a good mix of packges for Pup4... My twin brother has to use pppoe in Poland, I want him to test it, but he likes FreeBSD

All I needed to do after pppoe was setup once, is to symlink /usr/sbin/pppoe-start_shell to /root/Startup. Now the internet connection is established at boot time. Just wonderful, beats all series 5 Puppies, with the notable exemption of Slacko.

I guess we can do even better

Once connection is successful, the script should automatically be symlinked into /root/Startup, with a confirmation message... So that's another script to i18n Translation is something like:

Connection successful. These settings will be restored each time you start your computer.

..It has to be conky 1.7.2 BTW

Your conky setup looks great, can I get a copy of the rcfile?

By the way, I have added conky 1.7.2 into Akita, as standard, and will create a startup script in /root/Startup, plus an entry for the 'startups' program, so users can easily turn conky on at first boot

The startups entry will need translating:

a system information summary for the desktop

(or whatever is good/similar)

[wuwei]

Good morning sc0ttman.

Yes Puppy and pppoe are a bit in conflict. Yet, as I stated before, Akita is a positive exception in a long time. Last Puppy that started pppoe from the symlink in /root/Startup was ttuuxxx's 432v3.

I guess we can do even better .
Once connection is successful, the script should automatically be symlinked into /root/Startup, with a confirmation message...

You mean no more fiddling, script writing, symlinking and hoping for the best? Nah...I am not sure I'm going to like that....!

pppoe-start-shell.mo wrote:
Connection successful. These settings will be restored each time you start your computer.

translates to:

Verbindung erfolgreich. Diese Einstellungen werden bei jedem Neustart wiederhergestellt

Your conky setup looks great, can I get a copy of the rcfile?

certainly, see attached.
This file is from /etc/conky in my Akita installation. Earlier conky versions still had a conky.rc in /root. And keep in mind, that the partitions would have to be modified according to your setup.

The startups entry will need translating:

startups.mo wrote:
a system information summary for the desktop

Means:

Zusammenfassung der Systeminformationen für den Desktop.

That'll be all for now.

[wuwei]

This time I have a question for you sc0ttman:

In Akita the date and time in the tray bottom right are in black font color. This is fine for lighter tray backgrounds, but not for dark ones.

Where can I change the font color for date and time to look something like this:


Edit:
Figured it out myself.

Add this

Code: Select all

<!-- CLOCK PROPERTIES -->
	
	<ClockStyle>
		<Font>DejaVu Sans  -12</Font>
		<Foreground>white</Foreground>
			</ClockStyle>

to /root/.jwm/themes/nameofthetheme-jwmrc

[gcmartin]

@wuwei, Thanks for sharing you Conky.

... Conky is another bear in the Puppy woods. Especially when you don't appreciate the black background behind the display area. ... Most of the time I get it accomplished with the installation of these 4 files (see picture) and an entry in /root/.xinitrc of ...

I see your files listed, but I do NOT see which order you installed those.

1. When you have a moment, could you share the order in which to install those PETs?
2. And, if you could, would you share the Configuration file for the "conky.jpg" desktop display you show?

You contributions are very useful.

Thanks in advance

[wuwei]

Hi gcmartin,

glad to be of assistance:

Order of files in the picture counted left to right: 1-2-3-4

Order of installation: 3-2-1-4

4 = qiv is only needed if you have the black background problem. I didn't have it in Akita, So try without #4 first.

The conky.conf file for the conky in the picture is available on the previous page in my post Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:32 am "conky.zip". I couldn't upload it unzipped.


Have fun!

[sc0ttman]

This time I have a question for you sc0ttman...

Yep, you're right.. Here is the default setting in Akita:

Code: Select all

	<ClockStyle>
		<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
		<Foreground>#000000</Foreground>
	</ClockStyle>

Changing foreground would do it.. I noticed the '23oz' theme needs tweaking, so the taskbar and clock look better, I will try to fix this theme, so anyone who likes dark themes can choose '23oz', cos its really nice, apart from the taskbar...

Also see <TaskListStyle> and <TrayStyle>...

[sc0ttman]

Here's the updated 23oz theme, tell me what you think... Just replace the contents of /root/.jwm/themes/23oz-jwmrc with the below, then run the "JWM Config" tool, to choose the 23oz theme:

Code: Select all

<JWM>

<WindowStyle>
    <Font>Ubuntu-L 11:bold</Font>
    <Width>3</Width>
    <Height>20</Height>     
    <Active>
       <Text>#f8f1f1</Text>
       <Title>Grey:Black</Title>
       <Outline>black</Outline>
    </Active>
    <Inactive>
       <Text>#000000</Text>
       <Title>#D4CBCB:#B4B2B2</Title>         
       <Outline>#ebe4e4</Outline>
    </Inactive>
</WindowStyle> 

<TaskListStyle>
	<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
	<ActiveForeground>#f8f1f1</ActiveForeground>
	<ActiveBackground>#393939:#BBB3B3</ActiveBackground>
	<Background>#BBB3B3:#393939</Background>
</TaskListStyle>

	<!-- TRAY PROPERTIES -->

	<TrayStyle>
		<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
		<Foreground>white</Foreground>
		<!-- <Background>#837f7f</Background>-->
		 <Background>#393939</Background>
	</TrayStyle>

	<!-- PAGER PROPERTIES -->

	<PagerStyle>
		<Outline>grey</Outline>
		<Foreground>#c0bebe</Foreground>
		<Background>#9B9696</Background>
		<ActiveForeground>#BBB3B3</ActiveForeground>
		<ActiveBackground>#222222</ActiveBackground>
	</PagerStyle>

	<PopupStyle>
		<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
		<Outline>Black</Outline>
		<Foreground>#333333</Foreground>
		<Background>yellow</Background>
	</PopupStyle>
	
		
		<!-- CLOCK PROPERTIES -->
	
	<ClockStyle>
		<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
		<Foreground>white</Foreground>
		<Background>#393939</Background>
	</ClockStyle>

	<MenuStyle>
		<Font>Ubuntu-L 11</Font>
		<Foreground>White</Foreground>
		<Background>#393939</Background>
		<ActiveForeground>#f8f1f1</ActiveForeground>
		<ActiveBackground>#5A7584:#2F96CE</ActiveBackground>
	</MenuStyle>

</JWM>

[wuwei]

I replaced /root/.jwm/themes/23oz-jwmrc with your version, ran JWM Config, and the changes were accepted. Clock is now white on black. Just right.

Incidentally: In Europe one displays dates in this order: Day of the week - date - month.

In order to have the tray clock look like "Di 23 Aug 16.30" all that is needed to do is change a tiny bit in /root/.jwmrc-tray:

From this <Clock format=" %a %b %d, %H:%M ">minixcal</Clock>
to this <Clock format=" %a %d %b, %H:%M ">minixcal</Clock>

Further observation:
Quite a few changes in Akita require a reboot, not just a restart of X.
I noticed this with additional programs which showed up on the menu only after a reboot.
Also the change with the clock font color wasn't accepted until after a reboot.

[sc0ttman]

I replaced /root/.jwm/themes/23oz-jwmrc with your version, ran JWM Config, and the changes were accepted. Clock is now white on black. Just right.

I've updated it again since, am using it now, with JQ8-rounded icons and 23oz GTK theme - looks very nice indeed
(but I still prefer the Puplite theme)

Incidentally: In Europe one displays dates in this order: Day of the week - date - month.

In order to have the tray clock look like "Di 23 Aug 16.30" all that is needed to do is change a tiny bit in /root/.jwmrc-tray:

From this <Clock format=" %a %b %d, %H:%M ">minixcal</Clock>
to this <Clock format=" %a %d %b, %H:%M ">minixcal</Clock>

I am not sure about the ISO I uploaded, but the Akita I am running at the moment has PupClockSet installed, so changing the time format is as easy as clicking on the time, and choosing the format you like - I predicted this would be required by most Non-English users...

Further observation:
Quite a few changes in Akita require a reboot, not just a restart of X.
I noticed this with additional programs which showed up on the menu only after a reboot.
Also the change with the clock font color wasn't accepted until after a reboot.

Hmmm, not sure what happening there, one of the desktop refresh scripts might be missing something - I do not seem to have this problem, but the scripts concerned are updated quite a bit...

** EDIT1: Actually, I think I do - sometimes Puppy 4 requires users to manually run /usr/sbin/fixmenus, or if not, then users sometimes need restart jwm - so the changes can be seen after running /usr/sbin/fixmenus...

I plan to replace all references/calls to fixmenus with jwm_menu_create - which also restarts jwm, so this should remove the problem, and make a few scripts much faster (petget, and others)...

If I have missed anything, and you find other scripts which do not update correctly, or which break the localisation of the menu, then I would like to hear about them!

**
------------

I hope to get another ISO up very soon, once I have added all the Spanish translations and a few other things...
It should be a good one

**

EDIT2: I just remembered... I tried your conky rc file, I put it in /etc/conky and removed the one in /root - but it would not work - I seem to be stuck with the old layout and widgets (or whatever) ...

Am I doing it wrong? (I know I need to delete some of the partition stuff as well....)

**

[trefall123]

Sc0ttman,
I'm still a newbie to Linux after three years using Mint. I know nothing about programming. BUT, I've tried every major 'light' distro trying to make an old desktop work again and have noticed a few things maybe you can implement in Akita.
I've heard it depends on kernel and others say the hardware searcher(another word but don't remember it). ANYWAY, most 'light' distros don't have great usb wireless drivers. Puppy is the exception.
Those that don't have Puppy's driver support don't contain 'built-essential'/ 'make' so the installer has to download somehow and install several packages before he/she can get on-line to download updates, compile drivers, etc. Kind of pointless to me, especially if you only have one computer. Although I suspect most Linux users have more than one computer.
Non-English support is another thing. It seems to me, if Akita will be light-ish, the majority of the people hoping to use it, won't have the latest netbook or technology. They're probably using technology from at least 3-7 years ago. I also suspect, but have never seen a demographic study, that most of those people don't live in English-speaking countries. I would assume - German, Romance languages, Arabic and Mandarin would be enough. Just my .5 cent. Don't have the brain power to give you 2 cents worth.

[wuwei]

Thanks for your response sc0ttman.

I hope to get another ISO up very soon,

can't wait to try it.

I tried your conky rc file, I put it in /etc/conky and removed the one in /root - but it would not work - I seem to be stuck with the old layout and widgets (or whatever) ...

Okay, this is easy.

The archive contains a file named conky.conf.

If you have used conky1.7.2.pet, then conky installs itself to /etc/conky.
If you have an older version it installs to /root.

In the first case the config file is called conky.conf and resides in /etc/conky.
In the second case that exact same config file is called .conky.rc and sits in /root.

In other words, you can take my file and depending where your previous config file is located, just rename the new and replace the old with the new. That's all.

[sc0ttman]

ANYWAY, most 'light' distros don't have great usb wireless drivers. Puppy is the exception.
Those that don't have Puppy's driver support don't contain 'built-essential'/ 'make' so the installer has to download somehow and install several packages before he/she can get on-line to download updates, compile drivers, etc

I am hoping that hardware support in Akita is good - maybe not for netbooks and newer laptops, but in general it should be OK - the majority of desktop PCs around the world should have no problems..

I have already added many netbook and EeePC drivers to Akita, but STILL cannot get wifi working on my EeePC 1000HA!! But I did get the correct 1024x600 resolution, after choosing the 'intel' driver in Xorgwizard... That is progress..

And yes, compiling drivers in Puppy needs some extra steps - download and install devx and kernel source, BEFORE downloading driver source and compiling them. That is why extra drivers are available in the Puppy Package Manager (PPM)...

Akita will also feature an "OpenGL Installer", so users can easily identify and download the drivers required to get 3D acceleration working for their video card.

Non-English support is another thing. It seems to me, if Akita will be light-ish, the majority of the people hoping to use it, won't have the latest netbook or technology... I also suspect... that most of those people don't live in English-speaking countries. I would assume - German, Romance languages, Arabic and Mandarin would be enough

I agree - I have received numerous messages about a previous project of mine called "Puppy Arcade" - I read various blogs, comments and review sites which said many users wanted it available in their language, particularly Chinese, Japanese and Russian.

So Akita has good localisation, at least for English, French, Spanish and Russian. I would also like to get Arabic, Chinese and Japanese 'language packs' made, so these languages can be used as well. But this is something for others to contribute.

[technosaurus]

v 0.5 of jwm tools is out:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70804

I added an image viewer tool (xpm, png and jpeg) and a (over?)simplified drive tray ... I did have to use mount in the devicehandler script, but other than that, it is just shell and jwm

my drive tray reads sys and proc for drive info (instead of all the piping of fdisk, probepart & guess_fstype), so it lists unformatted, extended and swap partitions, but just display a message when clicked ... I may give the option to open them with gparted or something (by just changing the "exit" in the jwm_notify command to gparted ...)

the image viewer is just a hack, that I eventually wanted for the background setter, but it can at least view multiple images and resize