DebianDog - Jessie - Continued

[dancytron]

Find the file /etc/adjtime.

Open it. I'm not in DD right now, but it will say either LOCAL or UTC. Whichever it is, change it to the other and see if that fixes it.

The issue is that Windows (and Puppy usually) use LOCAL time for the hardware clock. By default, Debian uses UTC.

If you use Windows, you might need to go into the settings of your XFCE app and see if you can change it to Local to get them all to match.

[Moat]

Thanks dancytron - was UTC, changed to LOCAL, but no difference. Re-ran "Setup Timezone" utility - no change. Exit and re-started X, still no change. I really should just hold off until doing a frugal install, to assure any of these changes are "sticking", and allow fully re-booting to the new changes. All live from CD, ATM...

Thanks!

Bob

[belham2]

Thanks dancytron - was UTC, changed to LOCAL, but no difference. Re-ran "Setup Timezone" utility - no change. Exit and re-started X, still no change. I really should just hold off until doing a frugal install, to assure any of these changes are "sticking", and allow fully re-booting to the new changes. All live from CD, ATM...

Thanks!

Bob

Hi Moat,

That's weird, because awhile back when I set up Debiandog64 I had the exact same problem as you, and exact same 4 hr thing. But then I couldn't remember if I did something to NTP (when I was fooling around), so I re-installed it from command line:

$ apt-get install --reinstall ntp

..then I went into the '/etc/ntp.conf' and it was there I adjusted for my timezone and all was ok afterwards (I assume though that Fred, always by default, has NTP set up).

What's strange in Debian is that they include 'timezone' and 'localtime' in /etc/, but despite deleting those and re-setting them afresh, that would not work unless I either re-installed NTP or used the 'manual' method described next.

If you want to set time manually in Debian, and have it stick, just use 'date', like (as an example):

$ date --set 2016-10-16

then next set time with 'date'

$ date --set 22:16:12



Hope this helps.

[Moat]

... so I re-installed it from command line:

$ apt-get install --reinstall ntp

Thanks belham2! Just did only the npt re-install ^ as you describe above, and that fixed it! Times are now correct, and the panel weather app is working as it should - didn't have to touch anything else. Too cool!

Bob

[fredx181]

..then I went into the '/etc/ntp.conf' and it was there I adjusted for my timezone and all was ok afterwards (I assume though that Fred, always by default, has NTP set up).

Debiandog64 and this DebianDog32 version doesn't have ntp installed by default.
Me personally I've set it to "Etc/UTC" in /etc/timezone and make sure the time is set correctly in the BIOS.

Here's more info for setting it to LOCAL without ntp installed:
(note, then it's required to add the extra line in /etc/default/rcS UTC=no)
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 147#896147
(see: "To make things behave the same as Windows does (in case of dual boot):")

Thanks Moat, for testing and the positive reply!

Fred

[backi]

In my case there was a difference of 2 hours when using my custom timezone Europe/Berlin .....solved this problem by using Universal Time in Timezone Settings .Same in Xenial Dog .

[The Flying Cat]

Looks like there is several methods to resolve time issues) I would like to add even more)) Unfortunately time zone is required for some apps to operate correctly (twitter for example).
My notes says that after setting time zone run

Code: Select all

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1

which binds your time zone to your hardware clock (bios),

Code: Select all

timedatectl status

for displaying TZ current settings.
Full article here https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux ... e-in-linux

[fredx181]

Hi Belham,

I wrote earlier that I added redshiftgui .deb also to the DD64 repository, well, that one didn't work on DD64 (Oooff... I should test first before uploading in the future... )
Fixed now though, so to install on DD64:

Code: Select all

apt-get update
apt-get install --reinstall redshiftgui # --reinstall in case already installed the previous one

Fred

[belham2]

Hi Belham,

I wrote earlier that I added redshiftgui .deb also to the DD64 repository, well, that one didn't work on DD64 (Oooff... I should test first before uploading in the future... )
Fixed now though, so to install on DD64:

Code: Select all

apt-get update
apt-get install --reinstall redshiftgui # --reinstall in case already installed the previous one

Fred

Hi Fred,

No worries!! I have been playing with this latest Debiandog so much I haven't gotten around to install redshift on my DD64. So I am lucky, haha

Thank you again for doing this latest DebianDog....I was worried, with everything that went on and how Toni acted (which is one of those things I'll never understand) that it might have made you want to give up & quit. But boy you sure didn't. And you even came back stronger with putting XFCE in----I can't begin to describe (for me, at least) how much easier XFCE is to deal with than when I was modding Tint2rc---which can be a pain at times. Tint2rc is great and all, but XFCE is another world, imho, both simple & elegant, and basically just as fast.


P.S. I truly wonder if Puppy enthusiasts realize that the 'keeping your OS up-to-date with critical security flaws is a brain-dead easy with the DebianDogs? I mean, you install "unattended-upgrades" via the terminal, and you never have to worry about it again. It has changed how I view puppies overall, and imho, gives other pups & pup-related OSes something to shoot for. Slacko repos are great and all, but Debian repos seem to get stuff out faster, with less problems.

[Keef]

I've use DebianDog occasionally before, and have followed the thread(s) for along while.
A manual frugal install to internal SSD (using an IDE adaptor), on a Compaq nc6120. 2ghz CPU and 2 gig of RAM.
Running quite nicely, thank you very much.

[rufwoof]

VERY Nice Fred!

So far I've just tweaked the initial bootup, but looking around everything else I have briefly looked at looks fine.

Switching to using lz4 compressed filesystem squashfs and lzo compressed initrd1.lzo instead of initrd1.xz, combined with swapping out frisbee for wicd (and turning frisbee and conky off), shaves around 4.5 seconds of bootup time for me (down from 17 to 12.5 seconds)

Frisbee was a clear bottleneck

Frugal to HDD. Grub4dos menu.lst entry of :

title DD V2 (32 bit) only saves if run save2flash
find --set-root /DD/live/jessie-i486.sgn
kernel /DD/live/vmlinuz1 init=/bin/systemd from=/DD noauto changes=EXIT:/DD/live
initrd /DD/live/initrd1.lzo

Running boot times analysis :

Code: Select all

Booting filesystem squashfs lz4 remastered of original (filesize 332.4MB)
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 7.160s (kernel) + 9.562s (userspace) = 16.722s
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze blame
          5.224s frisbee.service
          1.953s networking.service
          1.382s keyboard-setup.service
           680ms start-pup-volume-monitor.service
           528ms loadcpufreq.service
           492ms systemd-logind.service
           479ms lm-sensors.service
           472ms pppd-dns.service
           280ms udev-finish.service
           258ms rc-local.service
           256ms rsyslog.service
           211ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           211ms kbd.service
           203ms console-setup.service
           132ms cpufrequtils.service
           115ms systemd-random-seed.service
           114ms dev-hugepages.mount
           113ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           112ms systemd-update-utmp.service
            99ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
            87ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
            85ms dev-mqueue.mount
            83ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
            73ms systemd-modules-load.service
            50ms systemd-setup-dgram-qlen.service
            43ms systemd-user-sessions.service
            39ms systemd-remount-fs.service
            28ms systemd-sysctl.service
            13ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
             9ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
             8ms systemd-udevd.service
             7ms live-tools.service
             2ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
root@jessie:~# 

Booting standard (gzip'd filesystem squashfs filesize 238.1MB)

root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 7.585s (kernel) + 9.483s (userspace) = 17.069s
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze blame
          5.183s frisbee.service
          2.006s networking.service
          1.395s keyboard-setup.service
           653ms start-pup-volume-monitor.service
           600ms systemd-logind.service
           569ms lm-sensors.service
           564ms pppd-dns.service
           561ms loadcpufreq.service
           321ms rsyslog.service
           270ms dev-mqueue.mount
           265ms rc-local.service
           256ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
           249ms dev-hugepages.mount
           243ms udev-finish.service
           208ms console-setup.service
           175ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
           158ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
           131ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
           112ms kbd.service
            97ms cpufrequtils.service
            76ms kmod-static-nodes.service
            57ms systemd-udevd.service
            48ms systemd-setup-dgram-qlen.service
            36ms systemd-sysctl.service
            29ms systemd-journal-flush.service
            27ms systemd-modules-load.service
            24ms systemd-update-utmp.service
            19ms systemd-user-sessions.service
            16ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
            11ms systemd-random-seed.service
             8ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
             5ms live-tools.service
             4ms systemd-remount-fs.service
root@jessie:~# 


Uncompressing initrd1.xz and booting using lz4 compressed filesystem

root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 5.928s (kernel) + 9.616s (userspace) = 15.544s
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze blame
          5.219s frisbee.service
          2.003s networking.service
          1.378s keyboard-setup.service
           579ms loadcpufreq.service
           525ms start-pup-volume-monitor.service
           490ms systemd-logind.service
           472ms lm-sensors.service
           465ms pppd-dns.service
           299ms rc-local.service
           245ms udev-finish.service
           221ms kbd.service
           213ms console-setup.service
           185ms cpufrequtils.service
           165ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           151ms systemd-random-seed.service
           136ms rsyslog.service
           121ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           117ms dev-hugepages.mount
           116ms dev-mqueue.mount
           114ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
            94ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
            93ms systemd-update-utmp.service
            69ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
            50ms systemd-modules-load.service
            49ms systemd-setup-dgram-qlen.service
            26ms systemd-user-sessions.service
            25ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
            24ms systemd-remount-fs.service
            14ms systemd-sysctl.service
            11ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
            10ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
             9ms systemd-udevd.service
             8ms live-tools.service
root@jessie:~# 


booting with busybox lzop initrd (lzo compressed) and lz4 compressed filesystem squashfs

root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 5.959s (kernel) + 9.550s (userspace) = 15.509s
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze blame
          5.228s frisbee.service
          2.117s networking.service
          1.387s keyboard-setup.service
           612ms start-pup-volume-monitor.service
           511ms loadcpufreq.service
           469ms systemd-logind.service
           451ms lm-sensors.service
           444ms pppd-dns.service
           367ms rsyslog.service
           288ms console-setup.service
           255ms rc-local.service
           225ms udev-finish.service
           169ms dev-hugepages.mount
           165ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           161ms kbd.service
           149ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
           116ms dev-mqueue.mount
           114ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
            82ms cpufrequtils.service
            61ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
            56ms systemd-modules-load.service
            52ms systemd-journal-flush.service
            49ms systemd-setup-dgram-qlen.service
            48ms systemd-user-sessions.service
            24ms systemd-random-seed.service
            21ms systemd-update-utmp.service
            13ms systemd-sysctl.service
            13ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
            11ms systemd-remount-fs.service
            10ms systemd-udevd.service
             9ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
             8ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
             4ms live-tools.service
root@jessie:~# 

Installed WICD removed frisbee, commented ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh to look like

#!/bin/sh
xfdesktop &
xfce4-panel &
sleep 2
xfce4-clipman &
#sleep 2
#frisbee-tray &
#wait $!
#sleep 1
#if [ -f /mnt/live/tmp/modules ]; then
#conky -c ~/.conkyrc-port &
#else
#conky -c ~/.conkyrc-live &
#fi
#wait $!
volumeicon


root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze      
Startup finished in 5.923s (kernel) + 6.597s (userspace) = 12.520s
root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze blame
          2.406s networking.service
          2.361s wicd.service
          1.004s keyboard-setup.service
           998ms start-pup-volume-monitor.service
           834ms loadcpufreq.service
           778ms systemd-logind.service
           749ms lm-sensors.service
           745ms alsa-restore.service
           743ms frisbee.service
           742ms pppd-dns.service
           612ms rc-local.service
           294ms console-setup.service
           290ms rsyslog.service
           285ms kbd.service
           255ms systemd-journal-flush.service
           197ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
           155ms systemd-random-seed.service
           150ms cpufrequtils.service
           146ms kmod-static-nodes.service
           146ms dev-hugepages.mount
           134ms dev-mqueue.mount
           133ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
           109ms systemd-udev-trigger.service
            91ms udev-finish.service
            80ms systemd-modules-load.service
            62ms systemd-update-utmp.service
            59ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
            59ms systemd-setup-dgram-qlen.service
            33ms systemd-sysctl.service
            31ms systemd-user-sessions.service
            30ms systemd-remount-fs.service
            10ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service
             7ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount
             6ms live-tools.service
             4ms systemd-udevd.service

root@jessie:~# systemd-analyze plot >p.svg

(had to convert from svg to jpg in order to post to free image hosting service as they don't cater for .svg files)



In short, gzip'd main filesystem, lzo compressed initrd and swapping out frisbee for wicd, at least on my system, improved boot speed.

lz4 and gzip were similar overall in speed, but lz4 has more IO (less compression) than zip (faster to decompress than gzip, but more work (data size) to do than gzip, overall comparable). lz4 however is nicer for remastering (quicker).

[rufwoof]

RE : Time

I just ran Menu, System, Setup Timezone and selected Europe, then London ... and within a minute or so the bottom right clock re-adjusted to UK local time.

[dancytron]

<snip>
lz4 and gzip were similar overall in speed, but lz4 has more IO (less compression) than zip (faster to decompress than gzip, but more work (data size) to do than gzip, overall comparable). lz4 however is nicer for remastering (quicker).

Yes, I was shocked by how quick the remaster went with the "Quick Remaster" script.

[rufwoof]

I don't really use sfs's now, I have everything extracted to the save file and a empty main filesystem sfs, so no need to remaster ...etc. (as that eliminates overlays, and enables booting either frugally (read only) or as though fully installed). Prior to that however I used a similar remaster as Fred's quick remaster (but single click only) ... which was fast enough IMO to be a replacement for saving (no need for a savefile/folder, just remaster a new main filesystem sfs with all of the changes incorporated).

As quick as it is, the bottleneck is disk. Remaster in ram or to a fast SSD and its even quicker

[backi]

Hi ruf!

I don't really use sfs's now, I have everything extracted to the save file and a empty main filesystem sfs, so no need to remaster ...etc. (as that eliminates overlays, and enables booting either frugally (read only) or as though fully installed)

What`s the purpose/advantage of this method and how to accomplish it (Details) .
Could you please elaborate further on it ? ...

Thanks

[rufwoof]

With live boot 3 you can create a partition with a label of 'persistence' and use that as the save 'folder'. That can also contain grub4dos bootloader (grldr and menu.lst) and the /live folder within which 01-filesystem.squashfs resides. When all of 01-filesystem.squashfs is extracted to that / root partition, then everything is in effect in the "savefolder", such that the 01-filesystem.squashfs can be empty. With everything extracted to the / folder it also means you can boot it like a full install. My menu.lst looks like :

Code: Select all

# menu.lst
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
timeout 2
default 1

title Debian FULL Install RW filesys (/boot/grub/menu.lst)
  find --set-root /debian-usb
  configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
  commandline

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO only saves if run flush2disk
find --set-root /live/01-filesystem.squashfs
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live timezone=Europe/London xorg-resolution=1280x768 config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

i.e. by default boots frugal/read only (but with a save2flash type script that can flush memory recorded changes to disk), or it can be booted like a full install ... handy for installing the likes of kernel updates and (in time) later versions of Debian stable as and when they come online (that might otherwise not be installed using a frugal type boot due to insufficient memory space being available to record all of the changes).

Whilst 01-filesystem.squashfs is empty, leaving it present means you can still load other sfs's if you so desire (just drop them into /live folder so they're loaded at bootup).

Slower to boot, but once a program has been run once then typically it remains memory resident so subsequent runs are quick. Easy to backup, I just boot frugally and make a mksquashfs of /mnt/sda1 on another partition. No need to pin apps or the kernel i.e. accepts all updates such as to wget rather than running with older (weaker security) versions. The equivalent of a full Debian stable version, where security updates come through in a timely manner and the set of programs available in the repository work well.

I originally allocated 16GB to that partition, but typically it uses less than 5GB in total.

A nice feature is that /lib/live/mount/persistence/sda1 is the path to the persistent layer, so for instance in my home folder I created a sym link called documents-persistent to /lib/live/mount/persistence/sda1/documents-persistent, so that any document changed in that folder are preserved across reboots even if no save is run during a frugal booted (read only) session. Similar for Osmo (so all calendar/task changes are preserved). 99.9% of time I'll boot frugal. Full boot is only when a attempted update during a frugal booted session indicates that it was unable to apply the updates (kernel or whatever), in which case reboot without saving ... into full boot mode and re-run the updates, before rebooting back into frugal mode again.

For the full boot, menu.lst chains to Debian installed boot menu.

Works well for me, and just requires a single additional script to make it save changes (extended version of save2flash that I called flush2disk)

[fredx181]

@rufwoof, thanks for testing!

Frisbee was a clear bottleneck

Yes, it hangs a little just before login, maybe that's caused by dhcpcd, not frisbee itself.
Another alternative for wireless-manager could be wifibox

Code: Select all

apt-get install wifibox

William and I worked on that in the Xenialdog thread some time ago, it uses busybox's udhcp, so it's very light.
http://debiandog.github.io/Jessie/i386/ ... 4_i386.deb

@dancytron

Yes, I was shocked by how quick the remaster went with the "Quick Remaster" script.

Me too, it's hard to believe that it works well, with the speed of light

The only thing I can see that I would change would be to also rename the save folder/file rather than give you a choice to delete it. That would make stepping back if there is a problem bullet proof.

I had looked into that before but did seem too complicated (e.g. to cover all cases, savefile, savefolder, possibly be on different partition than boot-partition)

Should be OK now, included choice for backup of save storage, install new version 1.0.2a:

Code: Select all

apt-get update
apt-get install quick-remaster

Or from synaptic, or install this deb package:
http://debiandog.github.io/Jessie/i386/ ... 2a_all.deb

To get back again to older version:

Code: Select all

apt-get install quick-remaster=1.0.1

Testing most appreciated!

Fred

[backi]

Hi rufwoof !

Thanks for your reply and your patience .
This seems to be another sophisticated method to run
frugal or frugal(full) with save on demand only .

Since I am quite happy using Porteus boot method with save on demand , so it seems to me not much advantage going over (although there are some quite interesting aspects in it) using Deb Dog this way.
Maybe someone else will.

There is just one thing which is confusing me in your description above ( maybe could confuse some other amateur too) .....how to " empty" this 01-filesystem.squashfs ?

When all of 01-filesystem.squashfs is extracted to that / root partition, then everything is in effect in the "savefolder", such that the 01-filesystem.squashfs can be empty. With everything extracted to the / folder it also means you can boot it like a full install.

Also... can everything the "savefolder" and the live folder be on the same partition labeled persistence ?
or am i asking a wrong question .....makes me somehow curious...did i misunderstood this ?

But not so urgent.
Maybe in some quiet hour i will go experimenting with it ,it`s not a question of live or death for me......maybe for someone else it is .

Thanks ruf !

[fredx181]

Hi backi,

In case you or anyone like one day to bring rufwoof's idea in practice, here's a howto for DebianDog (but can in fact be used with any Debian Live, (with some small changes)):
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 964#928964
It's very similar to what I posted earlier for DebianDog64:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 339#916339

See it as sort of a mix between frugal and full install, the good thing is that way it's 100% pure Debian (Live) (as with porteus-boot it's not, of course), and there's the ability to upgrade the kernel (not on DebianDog normal frugal install, the kernel is pinned).
The RO menu.lst entry is similar to porteus-boot "EXIT" (but you can save on demand, using flush2disk).

Fred

[backi]

Hi fred and rufwoof !

I think this compendium will answer (almost) all my questions .

Thanks !