XenialDog (Ubuntu 16.04 'Xenial Xerus' LTS, 32-bit)

A home for all kinds of Puppy related projects
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The Flying Cat
Posts: 40
Joined: Mon 10 Oct 2016, 12:23

#281 Post by The Flying Cat »

Done testing, rebuilded new versions. Checked everything, sa far as I could, everything just works... primarily ok. BUT 4.8 kernel does slower at boot than 4.4, like 3 second or so. Also noticed that Frisbee clogging booting pretty hard, like 4s)

3 versions... because I can)
All derivates from same build, all share this:
- Based on 'Firmware-all' version;
- System upgraded to 16.10 Yakkety Yak (so I guess now it is Yakkety Dog) following algorithm here http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 918#930918
- Firefox removed!
- Yad pinned to original 0.28.1 version;
- Xarchiver replaced with File Roller (forgot mention it first time);
- Bleachbit installed (system cleaner);
- 'Shutdown' and 'Reboot' buttons removed to 'Shutdown Menu' (can be reverted to original by importing corresponding config files from /home/puppy/.config/openbox);
- Roxterm replaced with Lxterminal (everywhere, but not in JWM, rox pinboard and warlock bar) - since it kinda obsoleted and it was better to replace it with something;
- Compton installed - smallest and lightest compositor (Mint also uses compton), shadows disabled to cause less impact (but you can google whatever compton config). It's convenient for vsync and overall user experience. Added compton toggle button (blue gear) to tint panel so you can switch it on/off on the fly. Disabling: go to /root/Startup remove 'compton' script. NEW added blur to panels! Should one find blur undesirable (blur may cause slowdowns) then go to folder '.config' file 'compton.conf' and comment line 124 (blur background);
- Interface updated (again): added Numix Red and Blue themes, to correspond them added modified tint themes - red, blue and green, also added modified nightmare theme to openbox gui 'N1ghtmare' to match red, green and blue colors; new Plataro-Numix icon theme https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1137261/ modified to less eyepopping orange folders theme, hence 'Doge', and Adwaita icon theme replaced Ubuntu Human (just weights less), also new cursor DMZ-White and DMZ-Black. Fixed previous interface errors;
- Found small error in original XenialDog - RMB menu on desktop had File Manager linked to 'xfe', linked to 'pcmanfm';
- Everything updated)

Basically just upgrade to 16.10 with super facelift without noticable drawback and performance impact.

Update was wondering why new isos so fat, it turns out there are piece of 4.4 kernel stuck in the /boot folder - I remember removing old kernel after upgrade (via synaptic) and then something gone wrong, then I tried again or something and 4.4 was removed. Turns out not completely( Links updated.

Update2 rejoice rox pinboard and jwm users! 'Grey' problem solved. Please follow this link http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 577#931577

Here be Red *link removed* (317mb) please click flag on the bottom to change language.
It has following:
- Software & Updates/Software Updater/Additional Drivers installed. Software Updater switched to 'Autoupdates - Never' but I added launcher to tint panel. That might be pretty useful software, so I recommend at least checking it out or try on your own set ups;
- Kernel 4.8.0-26;
- Loads 27 seconds, after booting up it uses ~110mb of memory with compton on and ~100 with compton off.

Here be Blue *link removed* (284mb)
- Custom kernel 4.7.0-8.1-liquorix;
- Loads 24 seconds, after booting up it uses ~100mb of memory with compton on and ~90 with compton off!
This is some magical kernel! It loads faster and uses less memory than even original Xenial Dog (on my hardware from same weary flash loads 25s, uses 100m)! I actually was about to downgrading to 4.4 when Fred posted new tool with this kernel:D

And Green (link removed) sorry no time to update, leaving entry for comparsion purposes
- Freesbe replaced with Wicd;
- Kernel 4.8.0-26;
- Loads 24 seconds, after booting up it uses ~130mb of memory with compton on and ~120 with compton off.

Please be noted that 16.10 uses gtk 3.20 which is not compatible with gtk 3.18 and lower - GTK3 apps (like 'openbox gui' or 'synaptic') will look weird with not updated themes. Surprising no one most themes from repository not compatible with gtk 3.20, greybird and numix are compatible, as for the rest - you may try blackbird, breeze, arc and... I think that is it)

*Oibaf opensource video drivers are now support 16.10! https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/u ... cs-drivers (might help with hd video, games, composite de) good drivers especially if your gpu old, legacy, amd (I swear amd at some point was selling 'new' cards that already was legacy - without drivers) or some weird intel.
Attachments
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Red
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2016-11-04b.jpg
Blue
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2016-11-04g.jpg
Green
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Last edited by The Flying Cat on Mon 05 Dec 2016, 13:57, edited 11 times in total.

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fredx181
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Location: holland

#282 Post by fredx181 »

Hey Flying Cat

Thanks! You must have had some fun with it, 3 versions, WOW! :)

Obviously the problem I'm having with the 4.8 kernel must be hardware related, because for you boot time is only 3 sec slower (compared with 4.4 kernel), for me it's more than 20 sec slower (delay is just before or during login) that is... IF it boots (half of the times left with a black screen and have to do a forced shutdown)

So.. I'll go for the blue version, will report back probably tomorrow.

P.S. I wonder btw, why you say that 3GB RAM is required for the upgrade process, is for you the memory consumption becoming that high when just installing software? Never seen that.
Edit: re-reading your post, I think maybe you mean the disk space required, or when you use EXIT:/.. option for porteus-boot, then tmpfs gets full quickly, ok now I stop guessing... :?:

Fred

The Flying Cat
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#283 Post by The Flying Cat »

Long story short: you are sitting on a 16.04, then upgrade to 16.10 arrived, supposing you are remastering via ram, then since new system updates will consume somewhat like 1.2-1.3gb, then remaster will make copy of that, so +1.3 and there is also needs for outputted file that is like 300-400mb, not to mention compression itself require some memory to work.
So 1.3+1.3+0.4=3.0
All this applies only to remastering via ram. With EXIT: option)

As for the YakketyDog: If somebody can make them smaller or find and fix bugs I would be very appreciative if you could post updated iso. Also you can use themes, icons and compton however you like (theoretically should work even under Debian 8, including Numix themes*) - compton config tuned for smallest possible hardware load (and pretty much self explanatory if you are not satisfied with it), also works with XFCE and presumably LXDE, I believe Mate overrides compton config. I don't think I would be availiable in the near month or so.
*Numix themes availiable only in 16.10 (16.04 has red numix theme and it is somewhat buggy).

dancytron
Posts: 1519
Joined: Wed 18 Jul 2012, 19:20

#284 Post by dancytron »

I installed Yakety Dog Blue to my hard drive, Porteus boot, save on exit only.

I'm not sure what Compton is supposed to do, but it was taking 50% of my CPU per Conky. I figured out how to turn it off and it is running well now.

Installed Firefox, posting from it now.

Will ad to this post if I notice anything earth shattering.

Dan

edit: something messed up with Rox Desktop. Switched to Rox. Got an error that background was missing. Went to set wallpaper and it only appeared as a background to the Conky display, the rest was blank, see attached.
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The Flying Cat
Posts: 40
Joined: Mon 10 Oct 2016, 12:23

#285 Post by The Flying Cat »

Unfortunately I can't look it up in the near future, but here what was going on:

50% load on cpu is because of blur, that is only operation that is doing with cpu help, rest should be done via gpu (strange only that it was constant). Also since there are no visual differences that means that gpu drivers are not working, or it does not support any good open gl (glx backend). Which is also a thing with old radeon gpu (should be used xrandr backend). But that is why there is toggle button) So, yes, again - to disable compton press blue gear and remove compton script from Startup folder. Then you may want to remove launcher (blue gear button) from panel or rewire it to whatever, like firefox.

Completely forgot about rox desktop! Message about missing background is not error) Somewhere in config files written that a specific file should be used as wallpaper, a file that I happen to remove) And grey background - I thought it was something with JWM! This is a transparency issue, originally I thought it was compton issue (since compton uses real transparency). Conky uses it's own (fake) transparency - basically just redraws part of backgroung behing him as it's own - so that is why there is background. No idea what rox is doing, I need to check rox pinboard configs - in case there is a switch to better/different transparency. Or something is missing (upgraded to unsupported version), or overriden during upgrade - in this cases upgrade to newer rox pinboard version will help. But there is also a possibility of obsolence (software is not maintained and Ubuntu is moving away from xorg). So for now I recommend not using rox pinboard and jwm. *here goes tint2 ad*

This release is basically demo of upgrade possibility of XenialDog, also might help to prepare to future releases - new software and stuff) I knew that only a tech release would be boring so I threw in some interface modifications) They however shoud not affect anything, anything strange going on is 16.10 fault:D

Well, at least, thank you for checking it out)

dancytron
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Joined: Wed 18 Jul 2012, 19:20

#286 Post by dancytron »

Glxgears showed the graphics acceleration is working.

I have a Intel G31 Chipset graphics adapter. It has trouble with other things in linux (Google Earth's latest version for example). So it isn't surprising that it has issues with the latest fancy Ubuntu graphics.

I was testing for the sake of testing. I'm not going to actually use it, I like Debian Dog 64 for actual use (I use Chrome in it).

Dan

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fredx181
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#287 Post by fredx181 »

Nice job Flying Cat!

Running your blue version without problems, except the rox-pinboard problem dancytron already mentioned.
It's not a bug in rox, better call it a bug in the XenialDog setup.
It's because you removed /opt/docs/pictures/xerus.png and when rox can't find it the entry for backdrop will be completely removed in the config (causing that wallpaper setter doesn't work anymore).
Easy fix is right-click on any icon > Backdrop > drag and drop wallpaper.
From there on the wallpaper setter works again.

Do you mind if I add links to your posts about yakkety on the first post of this thread?

Fred
Last edited by fredx181 on Sun 06 Nov 2016, 11:33, edited 1 time in total.

The Flying Cat
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#288 Post by The Flying Cat »

Intel was (people say that modern acually pretty good) famous for their lack of... well, blatantly cheating with gpu) Unfortunately drivers on linux are part of kernel, so people want new kernels is partially because *yay new drivers*. But you still can install your own if you have any (like proprietary). Oibaf drivers is pretty good even in case of intel. But they still might not help, they usually just increase speed but if something missing on hardware level... In other words: compton says to cpu 'I want instruction beta-gamma from open gl!', cpu 'instruction done! hey, gpu render me beta-gamma from open gl!' and gpu answers 'I've no idea what are you talking about!' and that's why high load without anything happening. It's a common problem on linux that hardware (and actually software also) doesn't have full/correct open gl support.
Anyway, thank you for your input Dancytron:) By the way! Oibaf drivers is the reason I'm on Xenial/Yakkety Dogs)) Otherwise I would be sitting on the Debian Dog 64 also:D

Yes, Fred, you can do that) I would be glad!

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fredx181
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#289 Post by fredx181 »

The Flying Cat wrote:Yes, Fred, you can do that) I would be glad!
Done!

The Flying Cat
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Joined: Mon 10 Oct 2016, 12:23

#290 Post by The Flying Cat »

Cool) However, there are only 2 versions left. I might reupload reupload Green, but I simply might not be able to do that ^_^'
By the way I just remembered a few thing I forgot to mention about upgrading - if you fully remove 'software & updates' then you won't be able to enter 'repositories' setings in synaptic due to ubuntu puts comment line on XenDog rep '# Disabled during upgrade...'. I'll put a note about that now in posts.

backi
Posts: 1922
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Location: GERMANY

#291 Post by backi »

High Flying Cat !

I installed Yakety Dog Blue to Usb stick, Porteus boot, save on exit only ...using an old Toshiba 3000 Intel Celeron m processor .....1 gig Ram .
Did not have much luck with it .
Very,very slow .....
Loading apps will almost last forever .....machine almost freezing .
Seems to be unusable on my old machine.
Never the less.... thanks for your effort.

dancytron
Posts: 1519
Joined: Wed 18 Jul 2012, 19:20

#292 Post by dancytron »

backi wrote:High Flying Cat !

I installed Yakety Dog Blue to Usb stick, Porteus boot, save on exit only ...using an old Toshiba 3000 Intel Celeron m processor .....1 gig Ram .
Did not have much luck with it .
Very,very slow .....
Loading apps will almost last forever .....machine almost freezing .
Seems to be unusable on my old machine.
Never the less.... thanks for your effort.
Did you try turning of the Compton thing (click on the blue gear in the toolbar?

backi
Posts: 1922
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Location: GERMANY

#293 Post by backi »

Hi dancytron !

Turning off Compton did help .........now everything is running normal .

backi
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Location: GERMANY

#294 Post by backi »

Same as in Xenial -Dog .....Frisbee did not find networks ......replaced/installed wifibox-tazpanel......now internet working fine .

The Flying Cat
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Joined: Mon 10 Oct 2016, 12:23

#295 Post by The Flying Cat »

Hello everyone!
Just a quick heads up about new xenial updates: latest system updates + new kernel (4.4.0.47) gave me a huge boost in boot speed. System boots in 15 seconds, before was something like 22-24. So I don't think it's some storage shenanigans, i.e. bad bytes on flash.
I have quite beefy XFCE setup, with Wicd and ufw, before and now system was remastered with lz algorithm. Top 5 slow stuff according to 'systemd-analyze blame':
1.813s dev-loop1.device
1.791s dev-loop0.device
1.743s dev-sdb1.device
1.606s wicd.service (wicd before definitely was slowest with more than 2s)
1.397s ufw.service

Yakkety also have new kernels and system updates. Installing updates causes some 'udev error' (but everything working and installed so it appers to be some notification), which persists when installing something else. At least it immediately fixes itself if kernel is upgraded. Cannot test more now.
Will post updated yakkety in the first week of december.

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fredx181
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#296 Post by fredx181 »

Thanks Flying Cat, didn't try 4.4.0.47 yet but will soon.

There's one strange problem that yakkety has. When formatting (HDD partition or USB) to ext4 or ext3 and run the installer (or manually copy files and setup bootloader) the booting fails when using grub4dos or extlinux.
If the installing is done to a partition already created before from running Xenialdog (or from e.g. Debiandog-Jessie) booting goes fine.
After some digging I found that it's in changes from the new version e2fsprogs (1.43). It's in the way/configuration the partition is formatted.
Don't know why or what exactly they did. As GRUB2 is getting more and more the standard, maybe there's no problem with that, didn't test.

A workaround is to replace /etc/mke2fs.conf with the one from Xenial.
(Debian Stretch has the same problem, replacing /etc/mke2fs.conf with the Jessie version solves it).

If anyone knows more about this I'd like to know.

Fred

The Flying Cat
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Joined: Mon 10 Oct 2016, 12:23

#297 Post by The Flying Cat »

Can confirm, new gparted forces 64bit to ext4 thus making grub and extlinux unbootable.

mke2fs.conf from Xenial autodetects if 64 is needed:
ext4 = {
features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
auto_64-bit_support = 1


mke2fs.conf from Yakkety forces 64 bit:
ext4 = {
features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,metadata_csum,64bit,dir_nlink,extra_isize


So yes - either importing old mke2fs.conf or just removing '64bit' flag is enough:) Should be fixed in the next release.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=766910

backi
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Location: GERMANY

#298 Post by backi »

Could it be there is also a similar problem with Deb-Dog Jessie .?

What i did ......installed grub4Dos with Synaptics .....(in Deb-Dog Jessie )
tried to apply Grub4Dos to an Usb-Stick ....but failed to work as it it used to do .

I blamed it on the Grub4Dos from the Debian Repos.

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fredx181
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#299 Post by fredx181 »

backi wrote:Could it be there is also a similar problem with Deb-Dog Jessie .?

What i did ......installed grub4Dos with Synaptics .....(in Deb-Dog Jessie )
tried to apply Grub4Dos to an Usb-Stick ....but failed to work as it it used to do .

I blamed it on the Grub4Dos from the Debian Repos.
Could it be there is also a similar problem with Deb-Dog Jessie .?
No, the subject of the last few posts goes only for when running Yakkety or (Debian) Stretch.
Grub4dos package is not from the Debian Repos, it's from the custom DebianDog repository, so blame me :)
Answered more in detail about grub4dosconfig in the Jessie thread:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 813#932813

Fred

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fredx181
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#300 Post by fredx181 »

Hi Flying Cat, backi, All

Flying Cat,
In case you find the time or feel like updating Yakketydog ISO, I think you should know there's another problem I've found: Logging in as normal user doesn't work.
(btw, same problem I had with DebianDog Stretch and Sid)
Don't know exactly what caused that when doing the upgrade from Xenialdog, maybe xserver-xorg package.

Anyway to fix it, first install the "xserver-xorg-legacy" package and add "needs_root_rights=yes" to /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config so it becomes this:

Code: Select all

allowed_users=console
needs_root_rights=yes
It should work then, not sure if a reboot is required, probably not.

Other subject: backi and everyone,
Here are attached modified conky config files for Xenial and Yakkety.
Difference is in memory usage amount display which is now corresponding with 'free' and 'top' (it's more realistic IMO)
Also made some other improvements IMHO e.g. percentage display
Extract the archive and replace .conkyrc-port and .conkyrc-live in /root

Fred
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Modified conky configs, memory usage display corresponding with free and top
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