Slacko 5.7 final - 8 March 2014

[Jades]

Test upgrade on the Pentium D of a copy of my Slacko 5.6.0 save to 5.6.3 seemed to go fine with no problems noted in the time I was using it. Will check upgrades from 5.6.3 to 5.6.5 and 5.6.0 to 5.65 next.

In general looking very good, even the Wifi's behaving itself!

[Karl Godt]

Hi Mick

Snapmerge once again - a small inconsistency.
While handling directories, dev/snd is excluded:

find . -mount -type d | tail +2 | sed -e 's/\.\///' | grep -v -E '^mnt|^initrd|^proc|^sys|^tmp|^root/tmp|^\.wh\.|/\.wh\.|^dev/\.|^dev/fd|^dev/pts|^dev/shm|^dev/snd|^var/tmp' |

Whereas the part responsible for files does not exclude it:

find . -mount -not \( -regex '.*/\.wh\.[^/]*' -type f \) -not -type d | sed -e 's/\.\///' | grep -v -E '^mnt|^initrd|^proc|^sys|^tmp|^pup_|^zdrv_|^root/tmp|_zdrv_|^dev/\.|^dev/fd|^dev/pts|^dev/shm|^\.wh\.|^var/run|^root/ftpd|^var/tmp|\.XLOADED$' | grep -v -E -i '\.thumbnails|\.trash|trash/|\.part$' |

Nothing serious, but as a result we're getting many unnecessary 'cp: cannot create special file '/initrd/pup_ro1/dev/snd/hwC0D0': No such file or directory' (and so on) error msgs.

BTW, what do you think - is it really good idea to exclude also .trash? I remember my disappointment when I had some files left in the trash and found it empty after reboot.
It was like: "dear user, we know better which files you need and which you don't".

Greetings!

Today while running
/etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown
at the prompt and
mount -a
mount -o remount,rw /
xwin
I had the pupsave-file unmounted .
snapmergepuppy still claimed it would
Merging '/initrd/pup_rw' onto '/initrd/pup_ro1'...

Much to do..

Greetings!

[Sage]

rt2800usb (module used)

This one has a bit of an history. With a bit of Searching you might find the answer. Can't remember whether blacklisting is required then activate as a closely related, but different model number?
Nearly a decade ago, suggested this Forum needed a decent index. Other boards don't have them either, so important IPR goes missing or lost forever. No way to conduct scientific progress!

[Sage]

5.6.5 : Nice one, thanks, micko. Suggest you preload FlashPlayer v.10 to make a whole bunch of PommyB's very appreciative. Some fuzzy edges using an ATI-RV6DE-B3 card on some text and text boxes, not affecting main display. Didn't understand the significance of restartWM & restartGS?
Later:
Been running it most of today without issues.
Spoke too soon - full install doesn't switch off. Drops to prompt, but 'poweroff' still doesn't do the biz.

[SFR]

Hi Mick

Snapmerge once again - a small inconsistency.
While handling directories, dev/snd is excluded:

find . -mount -type d | tail +2 | sed -e 's/\.\///' | grep -v -E '^mnt|^initrd|^proc|^sys|^tmp|^root/tmp|^\.wh\.|/\.wh\.|^dev/\.|^dev/fd|^dev/pts|^dev/shm|^dev/snd|^var/tmp' |

Whereas the part responsible for files does not exclude it:

find . -mount -not \( -regex '.*/\.wh\.[^/]*' -type f \) -not -type d | sed -e 's/\.\///' | grep -v -E '^mnt|^initrd|^proc|^sys|^tmp|^pup_|^zdrv_|^root/tmp|_zdrv_|^dev/\.|^dev/fd|^dev/pts|^dev/shm|^\.wh\.|^var/run|^root/ftpd|^var/tmp|\.XLOADED$' | grep -v -E -i '\.thumbnails|\.trash|trash/|\.part$' |

Nothing serious, but as a result we're getting many unnecessary 'cp: cannot create special file '/initrd/pup_ro1/dev/snd/hwC0D0': No such file or directory' (and so on) error msgs.

BTW, what do you think - is it really good idea to exclude also .trash? I remember my disappointment when I had some files left in the trash and found it empty after reboot.
It was like: "dear user, we know better which files you need and which you don't".

Greetings!

Today while running
/etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown
at the prompt and
mount -a
mount -o remount,rw /
xwin
I had the pupsave-file unmounted .
snapmergepuppy still claimed it would
Merging '/initrd/pup_rw' onto '/initrd/pup_ro1'...

Much to do..

Greetings!

Hmm, maybe something like that, just before echo "Merging $SNAP onto $BASE...":

Code: Select all

mountpoint -q "$BASE" || { echo "WTF? Where's the savefile I'm supposed to save to, dude?"; exit 1; }

Anyway, continuing the subject - from time to time I'm encountering some input/output errors (btw, that's why I have re-enabled ability to fsck encrypted savefile in initrd.gz).
Haven't found the real source of the problem yet, but the point is that snapmergepuppy breaks the loop right after encountering such a file:

Code: Select all

 #stop saving if not enough room left in ${DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX}save file...
 FILESIZEB=`stat --format=%s "/${N}"`
 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && break #w003 precaution.

and lots of unaffected files won't get saved because of that.
One tiny change could prevent this:

Code: Select all

 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && continue

Greetings!

[Karl Godt]

SFR, to force a fs corruption , do this :

Code: Select all

mknod /initrd/pup_ro1/.wh..wh..opq c 188 1

and reboot .

[SFR]

Actually, I noticed that those i/o errors may have something to do with whiteout files indeed! Last time it was, more or less, like:
In /root there was a broken dir (two files inside), but in pup_rw/root the very same dir and both files were ok, whereas in pup_ro1/root was some suspicious .wh.. file around (shouldn't be there, I guess?).
Anyway, I did delete that .wh file, snapmergerpuppy (with 'continue' instead of 'break') had merged pup_rw -> pup_ro1 and magically the broken dir in /root has been repaired also. Strange...
___________

EDIT:
Since all my change proposals for snapmerge are scattered around, I attached the script with all those changes + one more: added '-r' option to all 'read' commands in order to handle dir/filenames with \ properly.

@Karl: nice tutorials about GitHub in HowTo section; I _really_ ought to learn it at last.

Thanks &
Greetings!

[James C]

Frugal install upgraded from 5.6.3 to 5.6.5....... other than needing to redo the icons (expected) .... all good.

-Computer-
Processor : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory : 1544MB (281MB used)
Machine Type : Physical machine
Operating System : Slacko Puppy - 5.6.5
User Name : root (root)
Date/Time : Tue 17 Dec 2013 05:34:48 PM CST
-Display-
Resolution : 1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Mesa DRI Intel(R) 865G x86/MMX/SSE2
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
-Audio Devices-
Audio Adapter : ICH4 - Intel ICH5

Code: Select all

# free
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:       1544856       944740       600116            0        70476
-/+ buffers:             874264       670592
Swap:      4198396            0      4198396
# 

[majorfoo]

Just downloaded 565 non pae iso, booted to desktop and did full install

Couple of small problems. Changed numlock to off in start menu and tired to reboot. Did not reboot, went to command prompt instead. Typed poweroff and went back to command prompt. Had to force power off. Reatarted computer, numlock still on - tried to shutdown again and went to command prompt.

Only change made on original boot to desktop from cd was change time zone to US Central.

[wyzguy]

I am doing a little testing on 5.6.5 and on the command line entered
busybox just to get the list of available commands.

I entered strings and got a command not found. The other few commands
I have tried seemed ok as usual.

This looks like a small fix needed for next release.

Nice looking icons!

[mavrothal]

from time to time I'm encountering some input/output errors (btw, that's why I have re-enabled ability to fsck encrypted savefile in initrd.gz).
Haven't found the real source of the problem yet, but the point is that snapmergepuppy breaks the loop right after encountering such a file:

Code: Select all

 #stop saving if not enough room left in ${DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX}save file...
 FILESIZEB=`stat --format=%s "/${N}"`
 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && break #w003 precaution.

and lots of unaffected files won't get saved because of that.
One tiny change could prevent this:

Code: Select all

 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && continue

Greetings!

Continuing with I/O errors is destined to result in a broken system sooner or latter, I believe.
What about an xdialog (scary) message with the option to abort or continue so at least you know you have a problem?

[Ray MK]

# uname -a
Linux e732 3.10.21-4 #1 SMP Sat Nov 30 17:20:25 EST 2013 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 370 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 1804536 602188 1202348 0 20732
-/+ buffers: 581456 1223080
Swap: 0 0 0
# uptime
11:04:16 up 2 days, 38 min, load average: 0.31, 0.26, 0.25
# ^C

All the basics are looking good - no obvious gremlins - all working OOTB as expected. Nice.

[SFR]

from time to time I'm encountering some input/output errors (btw, that's why I have re-enabled ability to fsck encrypted savefile in initrd.gz).
Haven't found the real source of the problem yet, but the point is that snapmergepuppy breaks the loop right after encountering such a file:

Code: Select all

 #stop saving if not enough room left in ${DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX}save file...
 FILESIZEB=`stat --format=%s "/${N}"`
 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && break #w003 precaution.

and lots of unaffected files won't get saved because of that.
One tiny change could prevent this:

Code: Select all

 [ ! $FILESIZEB ] && continue

Greetings!

Continuing with I/O errors is destined to result in a broken system sooner or latter, I believe.
What about an xdialog (scary) message with the option to abort or continue so at least you know you have a problem?

Hey Mavrothal

That was also my first thought, to do it like:
[ ! $FILESIZEB ] && { xmessage "Sth wrong with $N"; continue or break...}
but then I realized that it's not limited only to broken files, but may happen (and happens!) also when, during merging, one of already "indexed", but not yet saved files got deleted by some app or user himself, so warning would be unnecessary in such case and again - breaking the loop won't save some other, existing/healthy files.

The additional twist is that FILESIZEB=`stat --format=%s "/${N}"`, for unknown reason to me, reads size of a file directly from /... (there was my i/o error), whereas files are being transferred from /initrd/pup_rw/... actually.

'continue' instead of 'break' simply skips those broken/missing/(other_possibilities?) files and goes on to the next one, so I believe it's safe.

However, it's indeed worth to consider a warning if some of _existing_ files weren't saved...

Thanks &
Greetings!

[Sage]

Did not reboot, went to command prompt instead. Typed poweroff and went back to command prompt.

Already reported shutdown failure on previous page. micko may not have picked it up yet? It has happened before with Puppies, but I don't speak coding and can't remember where, when and how to fix.

[mavrothal]

However, it's indeed worth to consider a warning if some of _existing_ files weren't saved...

Well, push 3 out of 4 changes in woof-CE.
This one we may want to consider/improve further.

[SFR]

Thank you Mavrothal.

Well, the more I'm thinking about that part of the code, the more I'm confused...
First of all, I'd really like to know why size of files is being taken from / instead of pup_rw? What was the underlying reason?
I've checked and stat gives me the same or very similar (just a few bytes more or less, what is completely unimportant in this case, especially since the size is being divided by 1024) results from both sources.
I mean, it would be more consistent if the size of a file (that is about to be copied from pup_rw -> pup_ro1) is taken also from pup_rw.
It would also prevent situations like mine, where a dir/file in / acts (for some mysterious reason) like it was corrupted and the loop gets aborted because of that...whereas its "twin" in pup_rw is well and happy and there's no contraindication to copy it.
Unless there's really some reason for that...anyone knows?

Oh, btw: the commit says "Update when only file attributes change; [...]", but this particular change hasn't been included there, whereas not mentioned '-r' is in turn included.
Thanks again; when I find some more time, perhaps over the weekend, I'll analyze Karl's tutorials and hopefully join the party at GitHub at last.

Greetings!

[James C]

Another old test box,another frugal install of 5.6.5. All looking good.

# report-video
VIDEO REPORT: Slacko Puppy, version 5.6.5

Chip description:
VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C68 [GeForce 7050 PV / nForce 630a] (rev a2)

Requested by /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Resolution (widthxheight, in pixels): 1024x768x16
Depth (bits, or planes): 24
Modules requested to be loaded: dbe

Probing Xorg startup log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log):
Driver loaded (and currently in use): nouveau
Loaded modules: dbe dri dri2 exa extmod fb glx kbd mouse record shadowfb

Actual rendering on monitor:
Resolution: 1024x768 pixels (270x203 millimeters)
Depth: 24 planes

...the above also recorded in /tmp/report-video
# glxgears
1340 frames in 5.0 seconds = 267.997 FPS
1708 frames in 5.0 seconds = 341.532 FPS
1713 frames in 5.0 seconds = 342.550 FPS
1722 frames in 5.0 seconds = 344.306 FPS
1754 frames in 5.0 seconds = 350.797 FPS
1726 frames in 5.0 seconds = 345.121 FPS

-Computer-
Processor : 2x AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
Memory : 3113MB (184MB used)
Machine Type : Physical machine
Operating System : Slacko Puppy - 5.6.5
User Name : root (root)
Date/Time : Thu 19 Dec 2013 05:17:18 PM CST
-Display-
Resolution : 1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300)
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
-Audio Devices-
Audio Adapter : HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia

-Version-
Kernel : Linux 3.10.21-4 (i686)
Version : #1 SMP Sat Nov 30 17:20:25 EST 2013
C Library : GNU C Library version 2.15 (stable)
Distribution : Slacko Puppy - 5.6.5

Code: Select all

# free
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:       3113740       747468      2366272            0        63224
-/+ buffers:             684244      2429496
Swap:      6211580            0      6211580
# 

[mavrothal]

Oh, btw: the commit says "Update when only file attributes change; [...]", but this particular change hasn't been included there, whereas not mentioned '-r' is in turn included.

Yet another good reason to git(hub) yourself
Amended.

[Jades]

Spent most of the day using 564 (PAE version) doing a lot of surfing and downloading. Netgear WN111v2 wireless dongle working perfectly, not noticed any connection problems.

Couple of oddities noted with the icon bar. The connection status icon is still showing no connection, even though it's actually working. Connection was done via Network Wizard, on the saves where I used Frisbee the correct icon is shown.

If I choose, via JWM Settings, to have the clock shown as 12 hour with AM/PM, the AM and PM is missing although the second colon is shown. Setting it to 12 hour with seconds fits, however 12 hour with seconds /and/ AM/PM is similarly truncated. Resolution is 1024x768.

mtPaint is still out of date, latest version is now 3.44.44 - see forum thread..

I know you don't want to include the latest 1.12.xx generation of Gnumeric for space reasons, but would it be possible to have it available from PPM?

[Colonel Panic]

I'm just trying out Slacko 5.6.5 now. It looks to be working pretty well except that Chrome won't work in it (or in any other Slack-based Puppy I've seen).