Slacko 5.7 - March 2014

[Snail]

I have posted on Noryb's Installer thread about a very strange problem with X that I encountered when putting Slacko non-PAE onto an HP Mini netbook.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 767#817767

The problem may be related to the installer but it seems just as likely to be solely a Slacko non-PAE issue. I am OK using the PAE version but you may find this interesting miko.

[Snail]

Thanks to a suggestion by rcrsn51, I have narrowed the problem down a bit. On my HP Mini 110, whilst an ext4 savefile works just fine with slacko 5.7 PAE, the use of either ext3 or ext4 with the non-PAE vesion results in boot times of 6 to 7 minutes! More details on noryb's Installer thread.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 808#817808

Has anyone tried this on different hardware?

[SFR]

boot times of 6 to 7 minutes!

It's most likely the effect of the "hack" in rc.sysinit, which is a workaround for strange deadlocks that may occur while copying large files on kernels 3.2.x - 3.7.x.
See here for kinda "solution":
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 967#789967
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 223#790223

You can apply the modification from 2nd link and the boot time should back to normal, although the trade off is the possibility that disk I/O operations might freeze for >30s during saving session or copying larger (~80MiB+) files.

Greetings!

[Snail]

Thanks for the reply SFR. Mikeb and rcrsn51 over on the Installer thread have also made suggestions. I will try your suggestion.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Snail]

Hardware: HP Mini 110- 3500, atom n550, Alsamixer reports one card - HDA Intel, chip IDT 92HD81B1X5

Slacko 5.7 installed LinNwin, using noryb's installer.

Neither of the two versions of Skype sfs in the official slacko repository will work for me. I am sure that the 4.0.0.8 is no longer supported by microsoft. I am uncertain if even the 4.2.0.11 version is but I suspect not. I downloaded Oscartalks's sfs

http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/skype-4. ... ko14.0.sfs

This seems to work OK. I say seems because I can't get my mic to work to test it fully.

The mic issue isn't a Skype problem, I've also checked Prerecord and Pavrecord and neither of them can hear me either. I have set master, mic and mic boost to 100% in alsamixer but still no go. The mic works in Windows. Can anyone suggest anything else to try please?

[watchdog]

The mic issue isn't a Skype problem, I've also checked Prerecord and Pavrecord and neither of them can hear me either. I have set master, mic and mic boost to 100% in alsamixer but still no go. The mic works in Windows. Can anyone suggest anything else to try please?

Read:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=96784

[greengeek]

I have set master, mic and mic boost to 100% in alsamixer but still no go. The mic works in Windows. Can anyone suggest anything else to try please?

Once you are displaying the alsamixer screen, press the tab key till you see the 'capture' screen displayed. Post an image of this if possible please.

[smokey01]

Pressing F4 in alsamixer displays the capture controls. Unfortunately here in Slacko57 this kills alsamixer. Pressing F5 displays all controls. The two you are looking for are Capture and Digital. Also make sure you have the correct card and port selected. Some have front and rear controls.

[Snail]

Thanks watchdog, however pulse is already part of slacko 5.7 sfs.

Thanks to greengeek and smokey I have a microphone now. Smokey, it's not only F4 that's broken, so is F5 and several other function keys in alsamixer. Greengeek's tip about using the tab key in lieu of F5 was necessary. Why is alsamixer so broken in 5.7? Why are capture and digital off by default?

I'm getting a bit sad about slacko. First the PAE-ext3/4 incompatibility nonsense, then the skype sfs's in the repository are obsolete, next this rubbish with a broken alsamixer and, to cap it all off, I still cannot test skype as WIFI, which was brilliant initially, has upped and died on me. None of the tools can bring it back. Frisbee cannot even scan, Dougals wizard scans but cannot connect with wpa-supplicant. Clearly the savefile is corrupted somehow, because wifi still works with pfix=ram. I haven't a clue what caused this nor how to fix it. Even if I did fix it, what else is broken?

[smokey01]

Snail, try running alsamixer like this:
open a terminal

Code: Select all

xterm -e alsamixer

You will probably find the F4 & F5 keys will now work.

You should also be able adjust your settings in retrovol so there is no need to use alsamixer.

Another weird thing that sometimes occurs is the absence of the digital slider in retrovol. If you run mhwaveedit and try and record your voice, then go back into retrovol it will probably appear.

As for your wifi issue, rcrsn51 is probably a good choice to assist with this. Try his peasywifi app.

Cheers

[keyboard]

There is bug in gpptp while creating a vpn connection it doesn't hide my IP, A routing problem.

Please replace it, with this one on next release.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93384

it works and has more options.

Also uhm, the firefox ESR 17.0.1 doesn't updates when I click on "about" hope this is a bug as well ?

[8Geee]

usually updating controls are found in EDIT --->preferences. It may be unchecked. For Addons, TOOLS ---> Addons ---> Extensions. IMHO, don't rely upon about config for update manipulation.

[tempestuous]

For USB wifi dongles which contain the Realtek RTL8192DU chipset,
here is the 8192du driver.

This is the official kernel development driver, with source code taken from here -
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8192du
The vendor-supplied version of the driver failed to compile against the Slacko kernel.

Please note this driver is compatible ONLY with the "PAE" version of Slacko 5.7.
Plug in your wifi dongle only after installing the dotpet. Then run the Network Wizard.

[tempestuous]

EDIT: the mt7601Usta USB wifi driver has been reported as unreliable under Slacko 5.7,
so I have removed it.

For USB wifi dongles which contain the MediaTek MT7601U chipset, your best bet is to use Tahrpup 6.x along with the mt7601Usta driver provided by rcrsn51 here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 481#831481

[rcrsn51]

[Deleted]

[rcrsn51]

[Deleted]

[Sylvander]

Slacko-5.7.0-pae is still my number-1 Puppy and has been working flawlessly, except...
Since the clocks were put forward 1 hour to BST...
Slacko isn't doing it, so it's always 1 hour behind the clocks.
I can sync it manually, and have it set to autostart the auto-sync at boot time, but it isn't happening.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Sylvander]

Many boots later...
For some reason I don't understand...
Suddenly at this session...
The time is correctly synchronized.

[01micko]

This is due to updates of timezones in glibc sylvander. It's not a good thing to replace in a live operating environment as all sorts of weird things can happen. I hope (if still using slacko-5.7) that you can put up with the difference next year.

Cheers.

[Sylvander]

1.

This is due to updates of timezones in glibc...

What are "updates of timezones", and what is "glibc"?

2.

It's not a good thing to replace in a live operating environment as all sorts of weird things can happen.

What is the thing that is replaced, and how?
And...
What is a "live operating environment"?

3.

I hope (if still using slacko-5.7) that you can put up with the difference next year.

What difference?
And why next year?

As you can tell from the above, it's like you are talking Greek or Latin to me.
I hope you can explain to me in terms that someone of little Puppy knowledge and understanding might comprehend.
Such that a child might understand.

p.s.
4. I discovered at the beginning of this session that the time IS NOT SYNCHRONIZED...
I must have manually sync'd it [at the beginning of the previous session] and then forgotten I'd done it.
Ho-hum.