DebianDog - Jessie (21 June 2017)

[dancytron]

Hi,

I did a "manual frugal install" of the new Jessie Openbox version. I am using Porteus boot with changes in a folder, save only on exit. Then created a .squashfs file using the apt to sfs cli version with the following packages.

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lxterminal mesa-utils  libgl1-mesa-dri firmware-linux-nonfree libva1 libva-x11-1 libva-tpi1 rar xine-ui usbutils 

I renamed it, put it in the /live folder, and rebooted. All went well except one thing. Whenever I run either lxterminal or xine, I get an error. I've attached the message. It seems like it doesn't like the sfs file. Is there some way I can turn this error off?

I've attached a screenshot of the error that I'm getting.

Other than that, all seems well so far. Once again great job.

Dan

[fredx181]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for testing.

I did a "manual frugal install" of the new Jessie Openbox version. I am using Porteus boot with changes in a folder, save only on exit. Then created a .squashfs file using the apt to sfs cli version with the following packages.

Code:
lxterminal mesa-utils libgl1-mesa-dri firmware-linux-nonfree libva1 libva-x11-1 libva-tpi1 rar xine-ui usbutils


I renamed it, put it in the /live folder, and rebooted. All went well except one thing. Whenever I run either lxterminal or xine, I get an error. I've attached the message. It seems like it doesn't like the sfs file. Is there some way I can turn this error off?

Could it be that you created a .desktop launcher on the desktop e.g: ~/Desktop/LXTerminal.desktop?

If that's the case, it needs to be made executable:

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chmod +x ~/Desktop/LXTerminal.desktop

It's new behaviour of XFCE for some security reason, anyway I don't like it, but we have to live with it.
From the menu, lxterminal should run without the error message.

Fred

[dancytron]

Could it be that you created a .desktop launcher on the desktop e.g: ~/Desktop/LXTerminal.desktop?

If that's the case, it needs to be made executable:

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chmod +x ~/Desktop/LXTerminal.desktop

It's new behaviour of XFCE for some security reason, anyway I don't like it, but we have to live with it.
From the menu, lxterminal should run without the error message.

Fred

Well, what I did was use the right-click-->Send To--> Desktop function on the .desktop file in /usr/shared/applications.

I checked, and the menu and clicking on the .desktop file in /usr/shared/applications works fine.

chmod on the link in /root/Desktop doesn't seem to work.

Oh well, I can live with it.

Dan

[fredx181]

Hi Dan,

Well, what I did was use the right-click-->Send To--> Desktop function on the .desktop file in /usr/shared/applications.

Ok, then make the .desktop file in /usr/share/applications executable, e.g.:

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chmod +x /usr/share/applications/lxterminal.desktop

Or just make them all executable:

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chmod +x /usr/share/applications/*.desktop

This way it doesn't give error message when copied or symlinked to ~/Desktop.

Fred

[saintless]

Hi, musher0.

In your jwm | icewm version, how can I change the window manager
for another simple one such as wmx, aewm or echinus? (NOT a big
environment such as Mate or Gnome.)

Unfortunately aewm version available from Debian Jessie repository is not small because it needs full xorg installed (+92Mb).
I think you can install any other listed here:
https://wiki.debian.org/WindowManager
For example to change jwm with pekwm run in terminal:

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menu-debian #restoring official menu generating method /usr/bin/update-menus
apt-get install pekwm
rm -f /root/.xsession #remove .xsession link to .xsession-jwm
echo "exec pekwm" > /root/.xsession #create new .xsession file starting pekwm

Exit X and startx in pekwm.
Similar for blackbox.
For aewm you need to install also full xorg:

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apt-get install xorg

I don't know if wmx or echinus have deb packages but they are not available from official Debian repository. Maybe if you can find deb package from Ubuntu it will work.

Toni

Edit: OK, to test the DEVX I compiled echinus and made deb package. Now available in dd-repository.
First change to default debian menu:

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menu-debian

Install with:

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apt-get update
apt-get install echinus

It will auto-install fbpanel (works very well with fbpanel so I decided to add it as dependency).
To change Jwm with Echinus delete /root/.xsession link and create /root/.xsession file containing:

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~/startup &
exec echinus & fbpanel

Then symlink /opt/bin/start-up directly to /root/startup to skip loading rox-pinboard but keep working /root/Startup folder:

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ln -sf /opt/bin/start-up /root/startup

Exit X and startx with echinus.

Edit2: And wmx now available in dd-repository (again with fbpanel as dependency).

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apt-get update
apt-get install wmx

[saintless]

I got PM with some things that could create problems and I will try to fix them for next iso build.

1. No way to turn back once entered the Help selection of the iso image boot menu. Needs reboot to exit.
2. Some PC BIOS suffer a little problem on reboot: the system freezes and you have to force shut down by pressing the PWR button.
According to the PM "This problem is caused by some recent versions of the kernel and it can be solved if you put the boot parameter reboot=bios inside the bootloader. For more info about the Issue you can read this page below:"
http://linux.koolsolutions.com/2009/08/ ... -restarts/

I will add the information in fixes post for now.

Toni

[fredx181]

Hi Toni,

You wrote a while back about it, did a search, but I can't find the exact fix:
How to solve this error message from uxterm?:

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uxterm tried unsuccessfully to use locale en_US.UTF-8 by setting $LC_CTYPE to "en_US.UTF-8".

I copied from Jwm version /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz, but still got the error message.
This in terminal works though:

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LANG=en_US.UTF-8 uxterm

Fred

[saintless]

Hi, Fred.
It was a long time ago but I think all I did was adding /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz to make it work. My related posts are here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=832685
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 330#765330
I see it does not work this way in OpenBox. I will test more tomorrow and post if I remember something else I did to make it work.

Toni

[fredx181]

It was a long time ago but I think all I did was adding /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz to make it work. My related posts are here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=832685
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 330#765330
I see it does not work this way in OpenBox. I will test more tomorrow and post if I remember something else I did to make it work.

Thanks, but there's no need to put much effort in this, I just thought you knew instant fix.
I can always leave out uxterm in next iso release, as it is on latest wheezy openbox version.

Fred

[saintless]

Hi, Fred.
If you like to remove uxterm it is OK, but still I prefer to know why something working in Jwm doesn't work in OpenBox. And the problem is solved.
Copy from Jwm version /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive (or just overwrite the content from /usr/lib/locale/) + adding /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/UTF-8.gz and uxterm should work. I guess /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive was auto-generated somehow when I tried to fix uxterm a year ago. I'm sure I didn't add this file there.

Toni

[fredx181]

Thanks, Toni!
Running uxterm works now and I'll add it in next iso release.

Here's attached 'isolinux' folder for inside iso with:
- help menu entry removed (+ all files related to help removed)
- 12 menu entries, save and nosave for sysvinit and systemd
- different splash.png as the one you use for Jwm has text which makes some menu entries a little difficult to read.

If you agree on this I can make it similar for debdog-install later.

Fred

[saintless]

Seems hybrid-iso option to make bootable usb from DD iso creates some confusions (I have PM with questions about that), this is what works for me. Note I use DebianDog-Squeeze but I guess it doesn't make any change.

Download the iso you like to test (typing the commands in terminal):

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cd /live/image/
wget http://kazzascorner.com.au/saintless/DebianDog/DebianDog-Jessie/DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-3.16.0-4-686-pae.iso

Check the md5sum

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md5sum /live/image/DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-3.16.0-4-686-pae.iso

You should get this result:

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385d4d08d11bbd6b78bf0f6c73fd2e0b  /live/image/DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-3.16.0-4-686-pae.iso

Plugin the flash drive and wipe it: In my example it is /dev/sdb. Be careful to type the correct drive if it is different for you.

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dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1k count=2048 
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
2097152 bytes (2.1 MB) copied, 5.07566 s, 413 kB/s

Check out if the drive is still available:

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fdisk -l
...
Disk /dev/sdb: 4008 MB, 4008706048 bytes
124 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7688 * 512 = 3936256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Copy the iso image using dd command (the download path is /live/image in my example):

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dd if=/live/image/DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-3.16.0-4-686-pae.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1k bs=4M
41+1 records in
41+1 records out
174063616 bytes (174 MB) copied, 169.898 s, 1.0 MB/s

You should see the usb drive icon appear (plugout and plugin the drive again if it doesn't). You can open it to see the files from the iso:



Reboot and try to boot from the usb. It boots for me without problem.

If it does for you also you can use gparted to make new partition from the unallocated space:





Note making bootable usb from hybrid iso will make the usb partition with DebianDog files read-only and you can't edit the boot options. It is recommended to use DebianDog-installer if you like to edit boot options inside /isolinux/live.cfg

Toni

[saintless]

Here's attached 'isolinux' folder for inside iso with:
- help menu entry removed (+ all files related to help removed)
- 12 menu entries, save and nosave for sysvinit and systemd
- different splash.png as the one you use for Jwm has text which makes some menu entries a little difficult to read.

Thanks, Fred!

I will test it tomorrow on my machine and post back.

Toni

[fredx181]

1. No way to turn back once entered the Help selection of the iso image boot menu. Needs reboot to exit.

Btw, just typing 'menu' when in help section gets you back to the boot menu.
But it's not obvious and besides that the help is outdated (for squeeze) so probably best to remove it.

Edit: Maybe it's good to add a note about creating bootable usb with dd from hybrid iso, that it is read-only filesystem, so you can't edit the boot options.
And therefore, recommend to use the DebianDog-Installer for to be able to edit boot options.

Fred

[mcewanw]

Hello Toni and Fred,

Reading some of the details you have been discussing recently I can't help thinking that though dd can be used to create a bootable usb from hybrid iso, as you discuss, I personally think that is far too technical a procedure for many users. Best by far, I feel is using a DebianDog installer that simplifies and even hides as many technical details as possible without losing too much flexibility. Doesn't matter if everyone using DD is technically skilled in using Linux, which may be the majority case (I don't know) but its nice to build in as much user-friendliness as feasible. Not that it is difficult to cut and paste an appropriate dd commandline, but it comes across as a bit rough in terms of elegance don't you think? To be honest, I haven't even tried creating a bootable usb with the new distribution since I always just extract the live folder onto my hard drive and boot via my grub4dos installation, so maybe I'm missing something. It just comes across to me that you are advocating dd as main method of creating bootable usb, when DebianDog installer seems like best approach to me, with dd use just an option for 'experts' who understand what they are doing.

Just my two pence thoughts.

William

[saintless]

Hi, Fred.

Edit: Maybe it's good to add a note about creating bootable usb with dd from hybrid iso, that it is read-only filesystem, so you can't edit the boot options.
And therefore, recommend to use the DebianDog-Installer for to be able to edit boot options.

Done.
BTW we will need to replace initrd1.img also for next iso. I forgot to check it on time and it does not include wh fix needed for remastercow wh option to work. I will add it to the fixes post and upload new initrd files today.

I need some help to test the new isolinux setup. How do you replace the files inside the iso?
I can't do it from isomaster. Replacing all isolinux foleder or only the files inside the existing isolinux makes the new iso not bootable.

Toni

[mcewanw]

To be fair, in the first post of the thread, you do first mention using DebianDog installer but almost immediately discuss the use of dd alternative. The trouble, to me, is that the dd installation stuff appears to me to overwhelm the idea of using DebianDog installer instead. In other words, I think it would be good to say something suggesting that using DebianDog installer is the recommended method for most users?

WIlliam

[saintless]

Hi, William.

Yes, iso-hybrid to usb using dd command should be only option for users with more experience. I will remove the commands from the first post and keep only the link to the instruction with screenshots with recommendation to use debiandog-installer instead dd command.

Toni

[fredx181]

Hi Toni,

fredx181 wrote:
Edit: Maybe it's good to add a note about creating bootable usb with dd from hybrid iso, that it is read-only filesystem, so you can't edit the boot options.
And therefore, recommend to use the DebianDog-Installer for to be able to edit boot options.

Done.

Yes, better this way, thanks.

I need some help to test the new isolinux setup. How do you replace the files inside the iso?

First, I think editing the iso with isomaster doesn't retain the hybrid properties anymore.
I tested by creating the iso by using xorriso from folder with new isolinux folder inside and it works for me.
If you do use isomaster, try not replacing boot.cat, isolinux.bin and vesamenu.c32:
The only files to replace are: isolinux.cfg, live.cfg, menu.cfg, stdmenu.cfg and splash.png.
(and if you want, remove all the unnecessary help files)

Fred

[saintless]

Thanks, Fred!

The new menu configuration looks fine. Added to the fixes post with new initrd1.img files download links for the next iso update.

Toni