X-Slacko Slim 4.4r49 (unique, stable, and flexible)

Message

mistfire · #646 Post by **mistfire** » Fri 13 Oct 2017, 23:57

@Sage thanks for your comment. If you encounter that dialog just select "Save temp files" select the partition where to saved those files (in tarball format) then upload that to this thread instead of PM. Those files will give a clue to me what went wrong on searching puppy files to your machine

Sage · #647 Post by **Sage** » Sat 14 Oct 2017, 06:17

Misunderstanding, misty. That message shows BEFORE anything starts up. There's nothing to save, there's no partition!
This version doesn't start on any machine, 32 or 64bit, radeon or nV, no combination of HW. There's something radically wrong because r54 works just fine on every machine and so does r57 modified according your instructions.

mistfire · #648 Post by **mistfire** » Sat 14 Oct 2017, 06:37

@Sage Did you boot that on a real machine? If yes, then If there is no partition to save just plugged a usb flash drive before selecting "save temp file" in fatal error dialog in order to get that temp files.

Upon booting, did you see these messages before fatal error dialog shown?
Loading modules to access drives...
Searching for Puppy Files...

mistfire · #649 Post by **mistfire** » Sat 14 Oct 2017, 08:43

Fatal error message dialog explained.

This dialog is the unique feature of X-Slacko Slim's initrd. Its more user friendly than the vanilla one. The user gives options what to do next.

Options:

1. Save Temp Files - This will save the contents of /tmp of initrd to a disk (When puppy sfs is sucessfully loaded and perform switch root, it moves to /initrd/tmp). the /tmp folder of the initrd contains log files created by init script. Which is useful for troubleshooting. When the user choose this option. It shows list of storage device and the user must choose where to save the temp files in tarball file.

2. Go to prompt - Just access the ramdisk shell

3. Reboot - Just restart the computer

Sage · #650 Post by **Sage** » Sat 14 Oct 2017, 16:10

Upon booting, did you see these messages before fatal error dialog shown?
Loading modules to access drives...
Searching for Puppy Files...

Yes.

The Fatal Error message becomes irrelevant - nothing started, nothing to save.

Keef · #651 Post by **Keef** » Sat 14 Oct 2017, 19:08

Sage

If you get the message with the options, just select the Save Temp files one (it is first so probably already highlighted). Hit enter and pick a partition to save on.
It does work - I deliberately changed the name of the puppy_xslacko_4.2.sfs so it would not be found.
I was booting from a USB stick so saved to that.
If all goes well you will have a file called:
puppy-initrd-temp-files.tar.gz

Then again, is anything Sage proof?

Volhout · #652 Post by **Volhout** » Wed 18 Oct 2017, 13:10

hi mistfire

the modesetting.so you placed in /usr/lib/x/drivers-alternate/ is the correct one for this kernel.
I copied it to /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ to replace the older modesetting.so that was in that folder.
The older modesetting.so was incompatible with current kernel.

I finally have all graphics modes now !!

Please, for R60, make this change.

Regards,

Volhout

Volhout · #653 Post by **Volhout** » Thu 19 Oct 2017, 09:21

mistfire,

I am using, and exploring, XSlack Slim for a while now, and notice that there are many duplicate functions in the menu, and some are missing, or in the wrong section.

i.e. lighthouse system info is not in "system", but in "all"
this combines several independent system info tools

i.e.
control pane, combines many settings (XFCE, timezone etc..)
all the individual entries could be removed from the menu.

This is typically optimized by editting the .dekstop files in /usr/share/applications.

Are you interested in this type of cleaning up, or are you completely happy with how the menu's are structured now.
If you agree, I will spend an evening in trying to clean it up. Most of it can be done by simply adding "NoShow=true" in the items that can disappear from the menu.

Regards,

Volhout

mistfire · #654 Post by **mistfire** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 09:47

New X-Slacko Slim iteration released

Changes:
* Some fixes on PPM.
* Wrong modesetting driver fixed. (thanks Volhaut)

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2FRk ... GIwVlhZS0U
MD5 Checksum: 081e707158ea572df5412b53dead38d3

Sage · #655 Post by **Sage** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 11:11

r60: as usual, cannot get past the Error screen, regardless of which option is selected. IMHO this a show-stopping, major flaw which would seem to require an urgent solution,even if that means reverting to the expedients of r54. It won't go away by ignoring it!

mistfire · #656 Post by **mistfire** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 11:41

@Sage thats why I need the initrd tmp files that was saved in tarball (puppy-initrd-temp-files.tar.gz ). In order to trace the problem that was occured in your machine because it contains log files generated by init. If you encountered that fatal error, you must save the initrd temp files by choosing "save temp files". select a partition to save and upload puppy-initrd-temp-files.tar.gz here.

Sage · #657 Post by **Sage** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 16:14

you must save the initrd temp files by choosing "save temp files". select a partition to save and upload puppy-initrd-temp-files.tar.gz here

I cannot perform miracles! There are NO initrd temp files. There is NO partition to save. It never, ever starts!!! ipso facto, I cannot upload anything.
The whole thing is broken, unlike r54 which works perfectly. I cannot give you any other information until you provide a version that starts!
Exasperated...

mistfire · #658 Post by **mistfire** » Fri 20 Oct 2017, 22:14

@Sage we have a misunderstanding here. let me explain to you. initrd temp files exists. It was on the ram when puppy boot. To prove it, boot X-Slacko Slim using pfix=initrd parameter then you will get to the terminal, type ls and you will notice that "tmp" folder was shown. Thats what I talked about. The contents of tmp folder must be compressed to tarball and saved it to a partition.

About there is no partition to save scenario. Is there any hard drives exists on your computer? If not, connect a hard drive before booting or just plug a usb flash drive upon encountering the fatal error dialog then choose save temp files. The flash drive will be detected because the kernel has builtin USB modules on it. Keef tested that and it works.

We need any way to get that puppy-initrd-temp-files.tar.gz and analyze the logs created by init to solve the issue on your machine.

mistfire · #659 Post by **mistfire** » Wed 25 Oct 2017, 01:12

@Sage I have an idea how to fix your problem in your machine. But first can I have a favor to you, Can you boot a pristine X-Slacko 4.2 on your machine?

Sage · #660 Post by **Sage** » Wed 25 Oct 2017, 05:58

mistfire wrote:@Sage I have an idea how to fix your problem in your machine. But first can I have a favor to you, Can you boot a pristine X-Slacko 4.2 on your machine?

Yes, of course. Bit busy this week so don't hold your breath. Also resurrected an Intel machine in order to throw more light on why so many Puppies have suddenly stopped working or displaying correctly. To date the only constancy have been my utterly reliable AMD 32&64bit single and multiple core machines!
Later.

OK - it's later, and the answer is YES. I can boot XSlacko 4.2 from the .iso on all 7 machines presently running, different video cards - nv or Radeon, various cpu, - AMD , various mem., various screen sizes and resolutions, 32 & 64bit : no problems.
What would you like me to do next?
Incidentally, it's not just your Puppy distro that fails to boot, problems also with peebee's Zesty and Artful - there is nothing I can boot nor save from those, either.

PS: but NOT Intel !

Oh, how I hate Intel. A thousand curses on the Wintel cartel and all their leverage strategies. Nothing but trouble since 8088 and DOS 1. Killers of good science, DRDOS, Novell, : add your list here.....
If they love $$$ so much maybe someone over there can stuff a bunch of $ bills down their gullets. Would beat capital punishment.

zagreb999 · #661 Post by **zagreb999** » Tue 31 Oct 2017, 08:07

REGARDS

CHROME OS HAS CONVERTER
FOR ANDROID APPS...
CAN YOU ALSO MAKE
FOR XSLACKO SLIM?

THANKS.

mistfire · #662 Post by **mistfire** » Tue 31 Oct 2017, 10:24

@zagreb999 Im sorry to say that android app conversion was currently not on my capabilities. Im still waiting for developers who can develop a linux app that can run android app flawlessly with less cpu and ram usage

Volhout · #663 Post by **Volhout** » Tue 31 Oct 2017, 10:44

Hi mistfire,

I am happy with everything you did for this version of puppy, so don't see this as negative feedback. But I notice that booting Xslacko Slim is taking quite some time.

Do you have any idea what I can do to improve ?

Just for the record: (All distro's are frugal installs, booting from USB, with save file.
ISO size and save file size in brackets (ISO/SAVE). USB sticks are USB2 (not 3). Test computer has BIOS bootup time of 7 seconds.

Tiny Core (111M / 1k) 0:27 minutes
Puppy Slacko 5.7.0 (166M/128M) 0:50 minutes
Xslacko Slim R37 (157M/128M) 1:18 minutes
Xslacko Slim R59 (167M/128M) 2:18 minutes

The difference between TinyCore and Puppy is remarkable, but a totally different distro, and tinycore is not FAT32. The difference between 5.7.0 and R37 is significant (+56%) but was growing over the years (5.7.0 is 3.5 years old). Maybe related to systemd ?

But the difference between R37 and R59 is not clear to me.
Is it the zdrive ?

Edit: I did a speed check on the USB sticks and discovered that the 2 identical USB stick have completely different read and write speeds. This may explain it.

Sage · #664 Post by **Sage** » Tue 31 Oct 2017, 10:53

Awaiting your instructions, vide supra, misty!

mistfire · #665 Post by **mistfire** » Tue 31 Oct 2017, 19:01

@Volhaut, I think the some decisive factors of booting time was the kernel and the loading of sfs files. The init scripts is a hybrid of classic puppy and woof-ce. Also Puppy uses sysvinit so the X-Slacko Slim does. In the previous releases, I rely on X-Slacko kernel, then afterwards I use lxpupsc kernel however I realize it has lack of hibernation (suspend to disk) and doesnt produce 32-bit kernel anymore. So I put on last resort to compile it for myself for the first time. I have no longer a constant internet connection and a powerful computer to perform kernel compiling. So I still researching a precompiled kernel which is suitable for my needs.

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

X-Slacko Slim 4.4r49 (unique, stable, and flexible)

modesetting

fine tuning the desktop files and menu

ANDROID APPS

Bootup time