EasyOS version 2.3.2, June 22, 2020

[BarryK]

[BarryK]

lp-dolittle, don570,
Thanks for testing ibiblio.

I am having a problem with uploading files using rsync. It is disconnecting partway through.

Tried several times to upload Easy 0.8.5.

Failed, but doing it now using gFTP. The problem with gFTP is that it is incredibly slow, estimated 3.5 hours, whereas with rsync it would have been several minutes.

Anyway, I will announce when it is uploaded.

0.8.5 has the very nice Gnome-MPV, for you guys to try out.

Also, I bumped 'mesa' from 17.0.2 to 17.0.7. Didn't want to bump any higher, as that might break apps that use mesa.

EDIT:
Uploaded!

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/ ... yro/0.8.5/

Haven't checked the md5sum. Normally do an rsync upload, which takes care of that.

Note, if you have an earlier EasyOS on a flash drive, you might like to consider upgrading, rather than write to a new flash drive.

Upgrading is easy, explained here:

http://bkhome.org/easy/how-easy-works-part-2.html

...except, it is not required to click on 'initrd.q' to "fix" it, if booting up from the flash drive.

[Sage]

0.8.5: Works just fine, but...
..still have the irksome issues of restarts (2) and trying to guess viable video drivers, resolutions, etc. Why not make the default a simple VESA, 800x600 (for example), [if necessary in 4-colour], just to get everyone started. Surely that is the time to offer setup panels and video driver advice, etc?

[Billtoo]

I installed version 8.5 to a 32gb flash drive with easydd:

Computer
Processor 6x AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor
Memory 8178MB (502MB used)
Machine Type Physical machine
Operating System Easy Pyro64
User Name root (root)
Date/Time Wed Apr 4 11:46:13 2018Display
Resolution 3840x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.14.27, LLVM 3.9.1)
X11 Vendor The X.Org Foundation
Monitors
Monitor 0 1920x1080 pixels
Monitor 1 1920x1080 pixels
Audio Devices
Audio Adapter HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
Audio Adapter HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMIOpenGL
Vendor X.Org
Renderer Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.14.27, LLVM 3.9.1)
Version 2.1 Mesa 17.0.7
Direct Rendering Y_es

It's using the modesetting driver.
I bookmarked the Pyro64 repository and downloaded some files from
there.
Also installed Palemoon 27.8.3 web browser.

It's working well so far,
Thanks.

[BarryK]

0.8.5: Works just fine, but...
..still have the irksome issues of restarts (2) and trying to guess viable video drivers, resolutions, etc. Why not make the default a simple VESA, 800x600 (for example), [if necessary in 4-colour], just to get everyone started. Surely that is the time to offer setup panels and video driver advice, etc?

Do you have a very high-resolution monitor? What is it's native resolution?

Is Xorg defaulting to the native resolution, which you find too high?

[BarryK]

It's using the modesetting driver.

Is that what got chosen automatically, or you used the Video Wizard?

If you used the Video Wizard, what got chosen automatically (driver and resolution) and what was wrong with it?

Thanks for the feedback.

[Cu Chulinux]

I upgraded Easy from 0.8.1 to 0.8.5

Since I was using modesetting driver that's what I rebooted to. Worked fine just as with 0.8.1

I reset to Intel driver with the video wizard. Restarted X and seemed fine, except the menu had no text (as I think I explained previously). Checked the video wizard and was using uxa. Switched to sna and restarted X. So far (after about 20 minutes) no issues.Good news at last!

It seems that the Mesa upgrade may have been the fix for Intel video. I will continue testing and let you know if anything untoward happens.

Later I will try changing other settings like timezone, theme(sorry green doesn't work for me) etc. and see if all stays well.

Still, doesn't explain why Quirky is so ... well ... quirky on me.

[Billtoo]

It's using the modesetting driver.

Is that what got chosen automatically, or you used the Video Wizard?

If you used the Video Wizard, what got chosen automatically (driver and resolution) and what was wrong with it?

Thanks for the feedback.

On first boot it didn't get to the desktop, I ran xorgwizard and selected radeon but it didn't work,reran xorgwizard and chose modesetting,it prompted me to click on an ok box, then went to the desktop.
When I chose radeon the test that it did failed, forget the message but no resolution and no ok box to click on.

[Billtoo]

I installed to a 16gb SDHC card, using it on my Acer laptop:

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Thu 5 Apr 2018 on Easy Pyro64 0.8.5 Linux 4.14.27 x86_64
2.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics
Controller (rev 09)
oem: Intel(R) Sandybridge/Ivybridge Graphics Chipset Accelerated VGA BIOS
product: Intel(R) Sandybridge/Ivybridge Graphics Controller Hardware Version 0.0

X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.19.1
dimensions: 1366x768 pixels (361x203 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.0.7

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3227U CPU @ 1.90GHz
Core 0: @844 1: @822 2: @819 3: @896 MHz

This booted to the desktop,the touchscreen is working.
Gnome mpv works well.
I compiled gkrellm, that's about it so far, getting sleepy.

Thanks.

[Sage]

Do you have a very high-resolution monitor? What is it's native resolution?
Is Xorg defaulting to the native resolution, which you find too high?

Not a single answer, but the three I use most often for testing are:
HANNS-G HW1910 1440x900 bench workhorse for 2x64bit + 1x32bit open chassis and flying leads for 3xRPi and allcomers
AOC LW19H 1440x900 older but reliable for 3xAMD 64bit + intel coreduo & general testing
AOC LE19K097 1366x768 the only one that usually works ootb but mostly not available for testing due to mainline constant use.
Others as required + Samsung TVs
You didn't ask about video cards! Wish I had a list! Lots! The 32bit benchtop can be changed easily and quickly from nV, Rad PCI-E, AGP and a bunch of older PCI names now absorbed into the clones, but working and good for testing, plus (of course) misc. on-board which may be co-existing with above.
Not very scientific, I know, but nearly all will display at boot with Puppies up until about 1-1.5years ago, mainly showing at 1024x768, sometimes 800x600. 1024x768 is perfect for most kit younger than ~10yrs and very acceptable for my failing eyesight.
TVs usually only display in 800x600 or 640 x 480.

Yes, too high but more often not displaying at all.
Only started having serious problems since working (or not!) with USB based .img & co. Releases offered on liveCD like Quirky and almost all majors (Mint. Fedora, SuSE, etc) from CD + RPi (from SD) generally give start-up image, mostly defaulting to 1024x768 !
All this seems to coincide timewise with massive industry switch to laptops without DVD drive and their much shorter lifetime/obsolescence expectation. All the kids seem to rely on their (overpriced!) mobiles these days, so even less use for laptops than there ever was - just a nuisance technology IMHO. Box under the desk or mobile in pocket covers most requirements...
- and, nearly forgot the ubiquitous tablet, usually on sofa, not especially convenient when sitting down.

[belham2]

Hi Barry (& all),

Well, haven't tried Easy since 0.6-versions. Boy, you've made a lot of nice changes!

As usual, I frugally-installed lastest 0.8.5 (downloaded from ibiblio), made the initrd.q changes, and Easy was off to the races along with the other frgual-installed pups & DDogs on this 8gb thumbdrive.

I had no problems with booting, video (intel i915, all good on this Core i3 laptop). Also ran some vid movie files from an external drive, various formats, and Gnome-MPV played them all nicely. Regarding SM, not sure if you made any corrections/ changes with 'Seamonkey in Container', but boy it sure is (for me) more stable & working better. I have yet to see it display that occasional "https logged in, random logging out" behavior I had seen & mentioned back in 0.6. LibreOffice is humming along great, and quite snappy too. And Easyshare had no problems grabbing everything in the house, including the stubborn old Canon network printer.

All in all, great work. Thank you (P.S. Really liked the HelpSurfer popup...a lot of newbies are sure to adore that.)

[Billtoo]

I did another install to a pc with intel graphics:

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Thu 5 Apr 2018 on Easy Pyro64 0.8.5 Linux 4.14.27 x86_64
2.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
oem: Intel(R) SKL Mobile/Desktop Graphics Chipset Accelerated VGA BIOS
Binary file (standard input) matches

X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.19.1
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (508x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.0.7

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100T CPU @ 3.20GHz
Core 0: @827 1: @905 2: @863 3: @850 MHz

It works well.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tried installing on a pc with Nvidia graphics card and had no success
at all, the only way to get to the desktop was using vesa.
I loaded the devx + kernel source, disabled nouveau, and ran the
installer, seemed to go okay but it would not startx.

Couldn't use nouveau or nv either which I tried to use first.

Thanks.

[Sage]

Couldn't use nouveau or nv either which I tried to use first.

Glad to hear I'm not going bananas, Bill! Could this be connected to new dirty tricks by, inter alia the Wintel cartel, now that allegiances have become realigned (AMD, nV, Intel, Radeon, etc.)? Not sure where the prime architect and his fellow kernel writers, approvers and cheer-leaders stand in Linuxland these days? Grubby tentacles from Redmond still have extensive reach. $$$ ?

[BarryK]

I am making some improvements to container management. Will polish that a bit more tomorrow.

Will probably recompile the kernel, when scsijon figures out some extra kernel config settings for nvme ssd.

Plan to recompile samba, as before disabled some options that did not really save much space.

Thinking about a few other improvements, and maybe the next release will be 0.9 and assign it beta status.

[scsijon]

Will probably recompile the kernel, when scsijon figures out some extra kernel config settings for nvme ssd.

And that's not happening for the next two weeks as i've got to concentrate on the reports for my Uni laptop testing project, due for handover by the 19th.

However, for anyone in a hurry to buy a new laptop I would consider either pure sata SSD's or dual SSD/Hard Drive and rely on the hard drive at present. There are both kernel as well as bios changes to make for PCIE NVME and linux and so far I can't get them to be as a duality (laptop works both in windows and linux) mode. It should be do-able but with windows using the IRRT with RAID when using PCIe SSD's and linux normally needing AHCI for SSD it seems that it's a one or the other. To date all of the answers on the web for M.2 and NVME haven't worked for me when they are needed to boot the computer.

I haven't found the SSD Raid for PCIe setting that works for NVME yet when it's IRRT, but I'm going to have a look at the latest 4.16 kernel and it's new settings when I have free time. I have asked the question to intel about IRRT in the last few days, but of course have yet to receive a reply, (it would be nice if they could write a IRRT for linux).

Oh yes, I did have pyro 0.8.1 displaying ok with the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 4GB Graphics at UHD (3840x2160) from startup, in case this is of interest to anyone.

Your two pm's are awaiting attention.

[BarryK]

There is a new tutorial for Easy Containers, written for the upcoming version 0.9:

http://bkhome.org/easy/using-easy-containers.html

[tigs]

I have given it a try (the 0.8.1 version) on a Lenovo P51 Thinkpad with Intel Dual Band Wireless AC(2x2) 8265, Bluetooth Version 4.1. Everything is great except it does not detect the wifi card. I guess it does not have the driver for it.

Just tried to manual load Intel drivers. There are 3 of them, and none of them seems to work. I have also tried to use the draper, and did not get it to work either.



Thanks

PS. Just gave the 0.6.8 version a try as well. Can't get the wifi card recognized. only see the eth0.

[BarryK]

EasyOS Pyro64 version 0.9 is released ...almost.

ibiblio.org is in the midst of a hardware upgrade, and uploading, for the past week, has been problematic.

I have created three builds of 0.9, normal, and with modesetting and vesa xorg drivers preselected.

Early this morning, attempted to use rsync to upload. This time, the modesetting build uploaded, then the vesa build failed to upload.

Each failed attempt chews through my monthly data (only 10GB). Well, I'm on prepaid, using my mobile for Internet, and can buy another voucher at any time to renew, don't have to wait until the month is up. Or, I could visit one of my relatives with landline Internet and unlimited data.

Anyway, this morning I fell back to using gFTP. I did upload with it a couple of days ago, but it was very slow, about 25KB/sec.
So, using gFTP today to upload the vesa build ... and it is moving at about 10KB/sec, 77MB now uploaded of a total of 399, estimate 9 hours to go. This is like the old dialup days!

If anyone wants to try it, the modesetting build is uploaded:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/ ... ING.img.gz

It is just like a normal build, except preselects xorg modesetting, and you can run Xorg Wizard to select something else.

modesetting is pretty good actually. Not as hardware-accelerated as the "proper" driver, but it does have some acceleration I think, as uses the kernel gpu drm driver.

It would be good to check the md5sum:

43f36484f9f092cf746dfe00131d40d4 easy-0.9-amd64-MODESETTING.img.gz

The most interesting features, relative to 0.8.5, are the desktop containerized-apps icons, and samba recompiled with more features -- and hopefully EasyShare still works, and should work better with Windows machines.

Still stuck on that green theme though!

[BarryK]

On the subject of hardware-acceleration and the Xorg modesetting driver, my original understanding was that it has no hardware acceleration, confirmed by early docs, such as this, posted 2011:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... &px=OTk1OA

However, apparently, the 'glamor' hardware acceleration has evolved, and the modesetting driver can use it. Hunting for some more info:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... -May-Tests

In the past, there has been a noticeable performance hit with using modesetting, but now, I wonder?

Using modesetting exclusively would simplify everything.

Here is the glamor project page:

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Glamor/

...however, glamor is now included in the xorg-server package.

EDIT:
However, as far as I can make out, glamor is so far only for Intel video hardware?
The Gentoo page:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Intel
says that need to force modesetting to use glamor...

Code: Select all

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-modesetting.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
    Driver      "modesetting"
    Option      "AccelMethod"    "glamor"
    Option      "DRI"            "3"
EndSection

EDIT2: AMD
This report is ATI video working with modesetting driver and glamor acceleration:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Talk:ATI

So, we do need to seriously look into this, wether we can go for an all-modesetting solution.

EDIT3: NVIDIA
This is good info:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... odesetting

EDIT4:
Very good overviews:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... 175577962/
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm ... n_gallium/

[Billtoo]

I installed to a 32gb flash drive for use on my lenovo thinkcentre
desktop:

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Thu 12 Apr 2018 on Easy Pyro64 0.9 Linux 4.14.32 x86_64
0.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
oem: NVIDIA
product: GF108 Board - 1071v0p1 Chip Rev

X Server: Xorg Driver: modesetting
X.Org version: 1.19.1
dimensions: 1600x900 pixels (423x238 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 17.0.7

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Core 0: @2170 1: @2217 MHz

It got to the desktop on first boot at the proper screen resolution
1600x900
No devx available yet.

That's it so far, going to explore a bit now.

Thanks.

EDIT: Gnome mpv plays a 720p mp4 perfectly.
EDIT2: I made a pet of Gkrellm in my 0.8.5 install and used it in 0.9.0,also added palemoon web browser.
I see that a remaster needs to be done before Palemoon can be run in a container so I will wait until I've finished adding stuff before doing the remaster.