TrinityDog - Jessie & Stretch

[belham2]

Hi Belham, All,

As I said earlier that Conky transparancy is a bit problematic in Trinity.
My workaround is the script "setbackdrop" in ~/Startup which checks for changed wallpaper, but it's not ideal because it doesn't work with all wallpaper formats provided in the backgrounds list from "Configure Desktop"
Also it's a little slow with refreshing the conky transparancy.
So here's another way, but it requires compositing enabled (which uses just a little more RAM)

Here are the steps:
First move "setbackdrop" away from Startup folder

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mv ~/Startup/setbackdrop ~/

Logout and back in (now the conky display is black for sure)
From Menu, go to Trinity Control Center > Desktop > Window Behavior and click the tab "Translucency"
Tick the checkbox "Enable the Trinity window composition manager"
Click 'Apply' at the bottom and close the window.
Conky window is still black, so we need to edit now the conky config:
Open ~/.conkyrc-port (if using porteus-boot) or ~/.conkyrc-live (if using live-boot) with leafpad.
Add these lines somewhere before the "TEXT" block:

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own_window_argb_visual
own_window_argb_value 0

For Stretch version, find this line: "own_window_colour brown" and comment it out.
So should look like this:

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# own_window_colour brown

Save ~/.conkyrc-port (or ~/.conkyrc-live)

And conky should have transparent view with any wallpaper now
EDIT: Colors are a bit different though (specially the 'bars')
EDIT2: Just found that setting "own_window_argb_value" to 255 will display the normal colors:

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own_window_argb_value 255

Fred

Hmmm, tried and applied the above changes in Stretch, and me conky's background is still as black as midnight oil. Maybe it is because of the background (as you mention) I've chose and still stick with. Problem is, I sort of really like the gears (mechanical) choice, and am reluctant to change it since it's the thing I'll always see. With Trinity-Jessie, no matter what I throw at it, conky (and the overall monitors) acts like nothing is wrong and just keeps on displaying things crystal clear.


On another note, I've been playing with the gifondesktop---fun stuff. I like the running pack of dogs one. Too bad we couldn't incorporate this script into some system early-warning system GTKDialog (whatever YAD) for when I've done something in (or installed) a program that begins freezing up the overall system. Before things completely freeze, the script would automatically run and I would see a pack of dogs running across my screen AND then I'd know I'd better start running with them as I've surely screwed something up again

[fredx181]

Hmmm, tried and applied the above changes in Stretch, and me conky's background is still as black as midnight oil. Maybe it is because of the background (as you mention) I've chose and still stick with

The triple gears (I think you use) is one of the backgrounds (has jpg extension) that does work for conky transparent with the 'workaround' script setbackdrop in ~/Startup.
The mini-howto with compositing enabled is to make transparency also work with (some) backgrounds that have the .svgz extension. (e.g. Celtic is one of them).
Strange the setting with compositing and conkyrc edit doesn't work for you, thinking I forgot something to mention, but.. no.

On another note, I've been playing with the gifondesktop---fun stuff. I like the running pack of dogs one. Too bad we couldn't incorporate this script into some system early-warning system GTKDialog (whatever YAD) for when I've done something in (or installed) a program that begins freezing up the overall system. Before things completely freeze, the script would automatically run and I would see a pack of dogs running across my screen AND then I'd know I'd better start running with them as I've surely screwed something up again

Fred

[jss83]

Hi fredx181,

In my current search for a puppy that comes with the Ralink MT7601 Driver I am trying a lot of puppys, I downloaded the stretch version and amazingly it found my wlan device right ootb , which is great. And overall the desktop with this trinity environment and kde theme looks amazing plus the sounds , I am quite liking it.

How does one install VLC and Palemoon in this, as I am more familiar to use those. And how to install the .pet files?

Edit: Also, it seems I don't have root access to other drives I plugged in as I can't download stuff to them directly, how to gain access to usb drives with root privileges?

Thank you

[backi]

Hi for Palemoon download either installer or bzipped tarball :
http://linux.palemoon.org/download/installer/
http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/

For vlc :
downloading it from synaptic and installingcould lead to problems cause it does not start when logged in as root.
There is a solution for this .
After installing (or better download it as a squashfile with AptToSfs ,in case you know how to do ), make a small script with geany or leafpad :

#!/bin/sh
sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc

make it executable and run it after vlc install.....so you can run vlc as root .

Also, it seems I don't have root access to other drives I plugged in as I can't download stuff to them directly, how to gain access to usb drives with root privileges?

I think open your drives with Thunar would help .

[belham2]

. And how to install the .pet files?

Hi jss81,

Following backi's advice is good. There's also another method that doesn't involve any conversion when dealing with .pets.

1) Just download the .pet into the DDog.

2) Use Uextract or Xarchiver to extract it there to its directory

3) open it up, and open yourself another filemanager window, and

4) manually place things from the .pet into the respective folders in your own filemanager


Voila', you're done. This works for about 99% of every .pet, though you will come across a few where you have to place certain things (like games, or libs, or certain bins) into their correct but different place in a DDog. Doing this all manually will teach you how DDog's structure is different from the Puppy's, and you will learn (with a little trial & error) where to place everything properly

Good luck!

[jss83]

Hi Backi, Belham,

Thanks for trying to help, I am kind of in a different problem, the wlan is no longer getting recognized, while it is booting it shows some errors(although, the device is working fine in other puppy) so I don't know what to do but when I log on, in the network it only shows eth0 and not wlan.

Edit: Okay, it's back again, I think when I boot into debiandog (The 3rd option during boot) ram persistent version, its drivers gets loaded or something but how I do I make the save file from here? and make sure it loads the same one as default?

EDIT2: Okay I reformatted the disk and installed Stretch again and this time I booted with default option and it got the driver loaded and it auto saved the changes upon reboot, so maybe it was disc error which was causing the driver not getting loaded issue. I will now try to install palemoon and vlc as advised earlier and report back. I am using QTWeb now, it is quite fast I must say.

One more thing, can I just remove the icons in the desktop or is there way to use a minimal desk icon set the other way like in tahrpup?

EDIT3 Got Palemoon with the installer, had to run it in the terminal with sh but vlc apttosfs sounds tricky, I don't know how to do that. Also, how can I stop the taskbar window minimize/restore animations?

[backi]

One more thing, can I just remove the icons in the desktop or is there way to use a minimal desk icon set the other way like in tahrpup?

Why not just delete them (right-click on icon "Move to Trash" ).
or look in /root/Desktop folder .
Symlinking applications from usr/share/applications to Desktop (or root/Desktop folder )

but vlc apttosfs sounds tricky, I don't know how to do that

Just go to >Menu>D-Dog>AptToSfs >>>>choose a (mounted) Partition (with enough free space ) >>>>>type in vlc >>>>>enter >>>wait >choose>compression rate>wait>If you be asked for remove or not >you can remove.......
Resulting vlc.sqashfs can now be activated in Thunar by right click the squash file >menu>activate .....when activated look in Menu>Multimedia >Media Player (vlc media player ).

But you can also install vlc with Synaptic Packetmanager as full install.
When clicking the menu item (vlc ) it will not start .....because it cannot be run as root.
This is why you have to execute (in Rox-Filer ) the small script i gave you above .

#!/bin/sh
sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc
(don`t forget to make it executable)

Or in Terminal :
sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc

Regards !

[jss83]

I deleted the icons and changed the desktop wallpaper and everything is working as it should for now. I am really liking trinitydog and amazingly the brightness in mpv and gnome player is good.

Hm. I'll see if I can get myself to do the apttosfs thing, sorry I am not so advanced or smart but if not I'll do the full install and make the script and use an icon and redirect it to it. I think I can do that. I am currently running apt-get update because I think it's needed to get the vlc, right?

Thank you so much for your and Belham's help.

PS: I'd still require more help (I am sure) so keep checking this thread every now and then.

Also, this is what the apt-get update showed, this is okay, right?

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Fetched 13.4 MB in 2min 18s (97.1 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Failed to fetch https://fredx181.github.io/StretchDog/i386/Packages/./InRelease  Could not resolve host: fredx181.github.io
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
root@stretch:~#  

[backi]

For using AptoSfs no need to apt-get update .

I am currently running apt-get update because I think it's needed to get the vlc, right?

For installing full ...you have to .

[jss83]

I see, will update with apttosfs, the full version takes 188 mb space, so not doing that.

Thanks

Update: the apt2sfs didn't work, I did as told, it updated and started downloading the files then it gave some error (couldn't look at it, was too fast) and then it removed the folder from the partition where I suppose it was downloading the files.

I guess I'd have to do the full install.

[belham2]

Hi Fred,

Owe you an apology-----the conky "would have" went clear on Stretch if I had just entered the argh values correctly in .conkyport. Looked again just now, and I had two letters mixed up. Grrrr....



P.S. On Screenshot, is there any way to make the dialog box disappear after you make your selection? One can minimize it, but I was wondering if it could just disappear (while still doing its thing with a 3 or 5 sec countdown) like it does in Take-a-Shot and PupSnap and others? Just a little thing, but I wanted the pic below to not have anything in it other than the Pup staring back----(my wife & kids love this gif one you included, and also the running pack of dogs).

[backi]

Update: the apt2sfs didn't work, I did as told, it updated and started downloading the files then it gave some error (couldn't look at it, was too fast) and then it removed the folder from the partition where I suppose it was downloading the files. Confused

I downloaded vlc with AptToSfs with no problem .

Maybe try again ......sure you have enough free space on the ( mounted ) partition you choose to download ? Don`t run Synaptic simultaneously .
Maybe make a test with another application ......for example Audacious (Audioplayer )
Make Trial and Error until it works......learning by doing

[fredx181]

. And how to install the .pet files?

Hi jss81,

Following backi's advice is good. There's also another method that doesn't involve any conversion when dealing with .pets.

1) Just download the .pet into the DDog.

2) Use Uextract or Xarchiver to extract it there to its directory

3) open it up, and open yourself another filemanager window, and

4) manually place things from the .pet into the respective folders in your own filemanager


Voila', you're done. This works for about 99% of every .pet, though you will come across a few where you have to place certain things (like games, or libs, or certain bins) into their correct but different place in a DDog. Doing this all manually will teach you how DDog's structure is different from the Puppy's, and you will learn (with a little trial & error) where to place everything properly

Good luck!

Belham, I'm very, very disappointed in you!!!

4) manually place things from the .pet into the respective folders in your own filemanager

Seriously... that's bad advice IMO
Although the strict Debian/Ubuntu package management is sometimes criticised, they put a lot of effort in it to make it how it is. Every package has it's dependencies and sub-dependencies so all software fits together (with version checking etc.., it's very complicated) and you say: Just extract pets and throw the files in the filesystem ?!

If you do that often, sooner or later the package management (and the system) gets badly broken and besides that you can't uninstall (only if you know exactly what) what you copied into the filesystem.

I wouldn't recommend installing pets, but if you do, use (in Thunar) right-click > Convert pet to deb and then install the resulting deb (which can be properly uninstalled later by: apt-get remove <packagename>)

This works for about 99% of every .pet

99% ?! That would be nice, I wish it was true, but really it isn't.

I'm furious!! (no ... )
(it's just that your advice is only for people who know exactly what they're doing, e.g. adding some scripts or binaries in /usr/local/bin can't do any harm in most cases)

Fred

[fredx181]

Owe you an apology-----the conky "would have" went clear on Stretch if I had just entered the argh values correctly in .conkyport. Looked again just now, and I had two letters mixed up. Grrrr....

Ah, nice! I'll add this possibility to fixes info now that I know it works for others also, thanks!.

P.S. On Screenshot, is there any way to make the dialog box disappear after you make your selection? One can minimize it, but I was wondering if it could just disappear (while still doing its thing with a 3 or 5 sec countdown)

Don't think it's possible, only minimize to taskbar (set delay to a few seconds and minimize during that time)

Fred

[fredx181]

Hi jss83

Fetched 13.4 MB in 2min 18s (97.1 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Failed to fetch https://fredx181.github.io/StretchDog/i ... /InRelease Could not resolve host: fredx181.github.io
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
root@stretch:~#

This looks like a internet connection problem, could be a reason that apt2sfs doesn't work for you. (or as backi said, not enough free space on the partition)
Same as backi said, making a vlc.squashfs module with apt2sfs works fine for me.

You may want to try again, but if it still doesn't work you can download and activate this vlc.squashfs:
https://debiandog.github.io/Misc/Stretc ... c.squashfs

Acitivate from an 'actual' filesystem e.g. sda1 (not from e.g. /root ) by (in Thunar) right-click Activate Module (safe mode)
If you get the message: "Success module vlc.squashfs activated" then you can find vlc in the Menu under Multimedia.

Fred

[backi]

Hi fred !

Don`t forget vlc can not be run as root .Vlc is One of the few exceptions .
See my advice above to start vlc with this script .
(#!/bin/sh
sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc

Or in Terminal :

sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc

[belham2]

. And how to install the .pet files?

Hi jss81,

Following backi's advice is good. There's also another method that doesn't involve any conversion when dealing with .pets.

1) Just download the .pet into the DDog.

2) Use Uextract or Xarchiver to extract it there to its directory

3) open it up, and open yourself another filemanager window, and

4) manually place things from the .pet into the respective folders in your own filemanager


Voila', you're done. This works for about 99% of every .pet, though you will come across a few where you have to place certain things (like games, or libs, or certain bins) into their correct but different place in a DDog. Doing this all manually will teach you how DDog's structure is different from the Puppy's, and you will learn (with a little trial & error) where to place everything properly

Good luck!

Belham, I'm very, very disappointed in you!!!

4) manually place things from the .pet into the respective folders in your own filemanager

Seriously... that's bad advice IMO

I'm furious!! (no ... )
(it's just that your advice is only for people who know exactly what they're doing, e.g. adding some scripts or binaries in /usr/local/bin can't do any harm in most cases)

Fred

Tongue-scolding accepted

It's just that.....well......Frankenstein was my hero, and with development of "frugal" and "saveonexit" with porteus-boot, I figure just start slapping in hearts, stomachs, intestines, gall bladders....and can't forget the liver (to keep backi healthy).....slap it all together & see what monster creation you have. If it doesn't work, take it out, don't "saveonexit", and next reboot start the Frankenstein surgery again If things get real bad, then I sadly succumb to the boring, bland, no-fun "pet2deb script, taking all the life out of me as some code (that I barely half-understand) takes all the joy out of my life.

Backi, I need your help here....lololololol....to make Fred understand our sickness, our need to 'experiment' on the fringes of unlawful and unsound advice concerning ddogs and pups, lol, to feel like we can bust it up, screw it up, and still somehow save it and fix it....unless we come back crawling on our hands and knees to Fred, begging for help.

[fredx181]

Hi backi,

Just info because I know you use apt2sfs and loading modules often:
I found a problem activating the module vlc.squashfs (from link in above post).
It's made with apt2sfs in Stretchdog openbox_xfce version (not in Trinitydog) and I expected it would work on Tritydog also, but doesn't work right, don't know why yet, however activating with the "safe mode" it does work OK. So.. that's a "trick" to remember for you also maybe

Fred

[backi]

Hi belham !
One of your (many) manic Rants. I am accustomed to it .
In case it is urgent !
Should start a separate thread.... a psychological emergency support group (Puppy Linux Anonymous ) .
What about your Ritalin ?

[backi]

Hi fred !
Could not make it work in "safe mode" in Trinity Dog.

root@stretch:~# vlc
VLC is not supposed to be run as root. Sorry.
If you need to use real-time priorities and/or privileged TCP ports
you can use vlc-wrapper (make sure it is Set-UID root and
cannot be run by non-trusted users first).
Can only start it with:

sed -i 's/geteuid/getppid/' /usr/bin/vlc
vlc
Another trick...Menu>Switch User>Start New Session ......vlc works( as user puppy )