XenialDog 64bit (Ubuntu 'Xenial Xerus' LTS, 64-bit)

[mcewanw]

Hi Fred,

An 'almost' irrelevant issue:

I tried remastering, and quick-remaster from the commandline works great, thanks. However, I see no menu item for it from Start Menu and the old, provided, StartMenu -> System -> RemasterDog (or if that command entered on commandline) comes up with following apparent error messages -I don't know if they matter, and since quick-remaster is faster anyway, not a big deal - except nicer to have quick-remaster as the default one provided from StartMenu:

Code: Select all

root@xenial64:~# remasterdog
sda5 sda6 sda7
Copying files to /mnt/sda5/remast...
/usr/local/bin/remasterdog: line 140: COPY*100/TOTAL: division by 0 (error token is "TOTAL")
tail: cannot open '/tmp/remasterdog_progress' for reading: No such file or directory
/usr/local/bin/remasterdog: line 167: [: : integer expression expected
Check now for any left over process ID's from rsync, should not show any below
2175 2182 2183 

I'm really enjoying using XenialDog64 by the way - it was the Dog I was always hoping for...!

William

[fredx181]

Hi William,

Yes, thanks for reporting about remasterdog, indeed the progress bar display is broken (for the rest it still works by creating squashfs though)
Upgrade to newer version 1.0.2 will fix it, added to Changes and fixes list

quick-remaster from the commandline works great, thanks. However, I see no menu item for it from Start Menu

It's under "Module Tools" in the Menu, BTW, the GUI has more options.

Fred

[mcewanw]

Hi Fred,

Thanks. I'm currently experimenting to see if old supertuxkart (0.8.1) from Trusty works okay in Xenial, which it seems without issue so far to. Version 0.9.2 is too heavy for my system (used by the kids).

SORRY: I intended to post the following in XenialDog32 thread, since it mainly relates to that:

I simply added 'deb http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty universe' to my xenialdog32 /etc/apt/sources.list file. Then did an apt-get update, followed by apt-get -t trusty install supertuxkart.

Got an error about it needing the supertuxkart data file as dependency, but managed to resolve that with: apt-get -t trusty -f install

Maybe not considered too safe using trusty packages in xenial, but time will tell in this case!...

To cut my computer use, I'm trying to settle on just a couple of active distributions being XenialDog32 and XenialDog64. I'm not too keen on a multi-arch system so probably just boot one or the other depending on whether I particularly needing to run 32bit app or 64bit on occasion. The only thing I am planning to experiment with is systemd (maybe...) so XenialDogs fine for that purpose.

Like yourself, I am trying to get away from sitting too much at computer and spend more time with the family and in the garden and other aspects of non-virtual life!

Cheers, William

[fredx181]

Added to Changes and fixes list see 4.)

Bugfix for when using encrypted savefile:
If XenialDog64 is frugally installed and using "porteus-boot":
https://github.com/DebianDog/xenialdog/ ... rteus-boot
Replace initrd1.xz in the "casper" folder with the one from Here and encrypted savefile should work.

Fred

[The Flying Cat]

And I'm back! With 17.04! But before that I want to point out a few stuff. Also now I'm tracking only XD64, so I might've missed something.

Compton by default have a very slow fade in. It feels really sluggish even if you have no problems on hardware level. Open '.config/compton.conf' seek line 159 'fade-in-step' and set it to '0.064'. Higher the number faster the window will appear.

It might be nicer if shutdown window had a 'Cancel' button, in the left corner. Year ago I remembered something while already pressed the button and closed 'Save/NoSave' window. Turned out coundown still continued, and then saving, and then reboot

Sometimes when updating something, system generates kernel boot files in 'boot' folder (particularly annoying fat 'img' files). Original iso have only small 'config' file there. So I manually clean, when remember, boot folder. I think some additional cleaning in remaster scripts might be interesting but it might affect less frugal installs.

Upgrade-Kernel can actually auto purge old kernels. Or ask about it in a 'Y/N' manner. I mean it '.bak' old ones and Quick Remaster '.bak' old '.squashfs' anyway.

Zesty Dog 64
I was doing it for myself primarily out of curiosity and decided it's okay enought to share. Generally I was using rule 'simplest and fastes solution known to me'.
Features:
Almost everything removed, you can install stuff back via repository. Software & Updates installed. Chrome installed. Only XFCE. Did 'sh > bash', downgraded yad and swapped initrd1.xz Forgot to mention first time: Variety of themes and window borders. Full Faenza icon theme. Bleachbit installed. Xarchiver swapped with File Roller. Open Software & Updates - Other Software - mark 'Canonical Partners' if you want Skype
Bugs so far:
- Conky's font outline and shading is broken making font unreadable with transparency on, implanted Conky from Yakkety, works fine locked in synaptic. Unlock and reinstall via synaptic if you are interested in this bug.
- Thunar's icon hover glitched. Use PCManFM, Thunar needed only for 'Places' applet.
- Shutdown messages renders yellow font on white background (background color depends on theme - full dark will display dark background), making messages unreadable. This behavior was even on Jessies when installing big DE's.
- Adding PPA will result that distibution of this PPA will be set to 'xenial', which requires some manual fiddling prior installing from said PPA's. Software & Updates - Other software - Edit - swap 'xenial' to 'zesty'. Example and actual solution.
Notes:
XFCE menu (pops out with 'win' button) and clock are gtk3 now which looks like increased memory usage, can be replaced with built-in 'normal' versions. Shutdown buttons placed on a hidden panel in bottom right corner. Mesa 17 available, it's faster, but you can add ppa with it to XD. Original kernel 4.4 (due to broken on some systems 4.8 kernel) from XD64, can be upgraded to 4.10 (tried, runs fine, supposedly only bonus from it is support of newest Intel, AMD and Qualcomm cpu's). Open Software & Updates and set 'Download from' to 'main server' or someplace close:)

400 mb (xz compression), click flag on the bottom to change language.
https://yadi.sk/d/vYyZNfQe3H67Da

Better Edition (with 4.10 kern) http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 224#952224

PS. Kinda sick right now so might missed (hopefully not messed) something. That is the reason of absent screenshots (scrot removed, gnome-screenshot not installed). Quick remaster is awesome!:)

[backi]

Hi High Flying Cat !
Pleased to meat you (.....hope you guess my Name..... huuu ...huuu ....huuuh...huuuh..).

Is your link just for 64 Bits ?

It might be nicer if shutdown window had a 'Cancel' button, in the left corner. Year ago I remembered something while already pressed the button and closed 'Save/NoSave' window. Turned out coundown still continued, and then saving, and then reboot

Yes this is really annoying .But there is another thing which annoys me too ......why i cant download from Yandex ? ......i tried in Palemoon and Firefox.....pressed download .......nothing ......

[The Flying Cat]

Hello backi:)
Yandex is the nature of my game:D I'll put another link, likely on mega, although somewhat later, likely tomorrow.
It is indeed 64 only. 32 upgradable in the same manner. But XD32 is already good enough. Peering into the future is more useful when system is not capped on 4g ram, well mine is capped on 3 but still)

[backi]

Hi High Flying Cat !

Always one step ahead.....cause he `s an Artist ...a Pionier "We got to have some music on the new frontier"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6b8IIZpNkU

[backi]

High you Time Travelers ......more from the Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-uopkB6r0

[The Flying Cat]

Nice music thanks ^_^
Unfortunately only option I have now is mega (sorry, can't mark it as url)
https://mega.nz/#!boJUhQ5R!lp2E7P1cEONO ... nWOKjgaSKY
Pick gray 'Download through your browser' option.
If there still be problems I'll figure something out on the next week, probably register on dropbox or something.

[fredx181]

Thanks Flying Cat , will try your Zesty Dog 64 soon!!

Fred

[escucha]

This is a xenial64 not zesty!
Nor iso does'nt work properly.
Still trying.

[fredx181]

@ escucha

This is a xenial64 not zesty!

It's Zesty, just it may look like Xenial, because e.g. hostname is still Xenial and on other appearances the name has not been changed to Zesty.

@ The Flying Cat
Tried your XubuntuDog Zesty64 it runs fine for me, nice job!
I made some changes (and fixes), you may like, and remastered, here it is:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=down ... WZlTERid28 391 MB
Has kernel 4.10, there's a good workaraound btw for the problem I have on my hardware with kernel 4.8 or higher, add to kernel boot line:

Code: Select all

video=SVIDEO-1:d

Fred

[The Flying Cat]

Thank you, Fred

To all - mod version have 4.10 kernel, overally much more polished and have a neat shutdown menu:) So, yes, it is superior and recommended to use.
Just keep in mind PPA thing if you are in that sort of stuff.

I'll use this build for 17.10 upgrade:D And I just fill some stuff I forgot to mention first time and I'm going back to being ill.

[mikeslr]

Hi The Flying Cat, fredx181 & All,

Since I particularly like the xfce window manager especially now that there's a whisper menu, and The Flying Cat recommends fred's mod, I decided to try it. After installing the frisbee deb (see second post of this thread) it's seems to be working well. But I have a few questions before I begin customizing and fleshing it out.

Fred: After you published XenialDog64, you posted a couple of fixes. They also appear on the 2nd post of this thread. Are they included, necessary or recommended for your mod of ZestyDog64.

The Flying Cat: Sorry about your cold. I'm also having one of those days when my thought processes feels more like wading thru muck. So I'm also sorry, but I'm having difficulty getting my mind around something you pointed out:

"- Adding PPA will result that distibution of this PPA will be set to 'xenial', which requires some manual fiddling prior installing from said PPA's. Software & Updates - Other software - Edit - swap 'xenial' to 'zesty'. This behavior is exclusive to XD64 line (same was on Yakkety Dog 64), on YD32 this feature worked correctly."

"...recommended to use. Just keep in mind PPA thing if you are in that sort of stuff."

What PPAs does fred's mod use by default? Is there a multimedia PPA among them? Does your warning hold true if an independent PPA --such as that for avidemux-- was added? Just what(kind of) "fiddling" would be required? Or better still, exactly what steps should be taken. And, what other information in this area would be helpful to someone who barely knows what he's doing?

mikesLr

[rufwoof]

Since I particularly like the xfce window manager especially now that there's a whisper menu

Hi Mike. Isn't Xfce a DE (desktop environment) that sits on top of a Window Manager, such as Openbox (that sits on top of Xorg) ... or does Xfce also have its own Window Manager?

I thought that whiskermenu was a addon ... or at least installable for most of the common desktop environments.

I like the Openbox WM. Using that alone at present (no Tint2/LXDE/Xfce/KDE/Gnome, no panels ...etc.) ... Just a systray/notification popout (stalonetray) and openbox menus, along with Skippy-XD (launched by brightside hot corner tool).

Right click the desktop to bring up OpenBox menu. Set OpenBox configuration 'Margin' to leave a pixel or two width on the left hand screen edge and the menus easily accessible even if a window is full screened (and/or just have it activated by the Menu key or whatever (opposite side of the spacebar to where the Window/Special key is located).

[mikeslr]

Hi rufwoof,

Xfce is a windows manager. Other than XP's explorer and Puppy's original versions using jwm, it's the first one I was exposed to. That was running jemimah's Saluki. Xfce requires slightly more resources than openbox; an insignificant amount on current computers; less than gnome.

I hate wading thru menus, especially to launch the 10 or so applications I most frequently use. And to launch applications from desktop icons almost always requires that the window of an already opened application be minimized or moved. Besides, desktop icons almost always detract from the aesthetics of whatever wallpaper I've chosen. So, whenever possible I opt for panels which can be hidden until moused-over.

Unlike openbox onto which you have to add panels, such as tint2 or lxpanel, as far as I know, xfce includes the ability to open several; perhaps a reason why it requires slightly more resources than openbox. Adding launchers to xfce's panels is slightly less intuitive than to lxpanel. And as xfce doesn't provide desktop drive icons, one has to get used to opening windows to drives/partitions by first opening Thunar, the file manager usually used with xfce. Moreover, as xfce is the windows manager, some of the libraries required by openbox or jwm and dependencies of applications built to run under those aren't present. The foregoing explains why I've generally preferred openbox.

Whisper Menus makes the difference, especially on DebianDogs. Because you can use apt or synaptic to acquire dependencies, obtaining a functional application for one window manager is no different than for another. If there's anything I don't like about the DebianDogs, it's that their menus are even more unwieldier than Puppy's. The attached photo shows how whisper menu makes that difference: What gets assigned to the Favorites category is decided by the user.

Whisker Menu is not xfce's default menu. But most Puppy and Dog devs have provided it as an addition to or substitute for the default menu -- something you simply add to a panel. IIRC, in only one instance did I have to download it using synaptic.

I've looked and been unable to find any other window manager under which Whisper menu will run; and no comparable menu available under any other window manager; at least not without engaging in a lot of manual customizations each time you run a different operating system. And only Radky's Fbbox provides anything comparable in terms of the ease of accessing applications.

mikesLr

[rufwoof]

I hate wading thru menus, especially to launch the 10 or so applications I most frequently use. And to launch applications from desktop icons almost always requires that the window of an already opened application be minimized or moved. Besides, desktop icons almost always detract from the aesthetics of whatever wallpaper I've chosen. So, whenever possible I opt for panels which can be hidden until moused-over.

Hi Mike

With openbox menus you can define the exact layout of the menus, and have a sub menu (such as 'Debian' where the more 'normal' menu structure (automated) is replicated. In effect define your favourites and the order they're presented. The menu can also be via hot-key ... I have mine set to the Menu button (like the Windows button but on the opposite side of the spacebar). I set openbox Margins for the left screen edge to leave a few pixels width free, so when windows are maximised you can mouse over to the left screen edge and either right-click to present the menu, or middle click to select the desktop. Openbox menus work with character pressing as well, so with the menu open if I press T it automatically jumps to the Terminal choice and if there are no other T's in the menu it actually launches it (otherwise repeated pressing of T steps between the multiple T choices, Terminal and Transmission for instance if they were both in the menu).

Or just have your usual programs automatically loaded at startup and when minimised there's no sign of them on the display at all ... and use something like skippy-xd where when you mouse into the bottom left corner (using brightside to set that corner/action) and the windows are presented in a tiled manner ready for you to select one (you can even minimise by right clicking a window in the tiled set, or close the window using middle-click)


(animated gif of a handful of screenshots)

Some that use Openbox alone use docks that auto-hide to hold their regularly launched programs.

Also has the potential to be even more minimalist to leave the desktop empty and windows without title bars.

[backi]

Hi mikeslr !

I've looked and been unable to find any other window manager under which Whisper menu will run; and no comparable menu available under any other window manager; at least not without engaging in a lot of manual customizations each time you run a different operating system. And only Radky's Fbbox provides anything comparable in terms of the ease of accessing applications.

There is something in E17 (Enlightenment Desktop ) similar to Whisker-Menu...
it is called "Everything Starter " .

[fredx181]

Hi Mike,

Fred: After you published XenialDog64, you posted a couple of fixes. They also appear on the 2nd post of this thread. Are they included, necessary or recommended for your mod of ZestyDog64.

No, you don't have to do anything (besides frisbee install you did), these fixes are for XenialDog openbox, btw, remaster-scripts is already upgraded on Zesty64.
The 4th fix from second post (encrypted save) doesn't work on Zesty.

Whisker Menu is not xfce's default menu. But most Puppy and Dog devs have provided it as an addition to or substitute for the default menu -- something you simply add to a panel. IIRC, in only one instance did I have to download it using synaptic.

I've looked and been unable to find any other window manager under which Whisper menu will run

The Whisker Menu is a plugin for xfce4-panel, so if you install it (and the xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin) it can be used on any distro.
You may know already but "xfce4-appfinder" is very similar, here's demo (also I enjoy my recent discovery to show here as animated gif )
xfce4-appfinder on XenialDog64:


Fred