Create Debian 9 (Stretch) minimal ISO similar to DebianDog

[rcrsn51]

Here is a simple file-sharing system for your home LAN. It uses Python to run a basic HTTP server.

1. Install the simple-python-http-server package attached below. The dependency is Python2. It adds a menu entry under Internet.

2. Set up a folder anywhere on your system and add the files you want to share. Subfolders will work too.

3. Run Simple Python HTTP Server. Note the IP address and port. Select the share folder. Click Start Server.

4. Go to a client machine and open a web browser.

5. Type in the server's URL and port

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http://aaa.bbb.cc.dd:8000

If a client doesn't know the server IP in advance, run PeasyPort and scan for Port 8000.

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Read here, here and here for additional tools to use with the Python HTTP Server.

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Setting MIME-type associations for audio files

Suppose that you have set up the server to stream audio files like MP3s. The client computer is also running a version of Stretch-Live with PeasyMP3 as the audio player and Firefox as the browser. In order that Firefox can recognize PeasyMP3 as a "helper" application, the client needs some configuring.

1. Make sure that PeasyMP3 works with locally installed MP3 files and is set as the default application. You can confirm this by looking in the file ~/.config/mimeapps.list.

2. Open /etc/mime.types and search for "mp3". The associated mime type is "audio/mpeg".

3. Open /etc/mailcap. Under "User Section Begins", add the line "audio/mpeg; peasymp3 %s"

4. Reboot.

5. Browse to the remote Python server and click on an MP3 file.

6. Select PeasyMP3 as the application.

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[fredx181]

F3-flash-check uses the f3 tools to test the health of your flash media. It writes large dummy files to the device, then reads them back.

Nice utility, thanks !
I tested with several usb-stcks and sd-cards, what a difference e.g. in write speed !! , some had only 2-3MB/s others 16-20MB/s (and inbetween) (on usb-2.0)
Added to repos (also your simple-python-http-server package).

@all
New version of "Google-drive Filemanager" v2, it's a complete rewrite, added to repos "googledrivegui2" (previous package name was just "googledrivegui")
Install with Synaptic or from terminal with apt-get:

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apt-get update
apt-get install googledrivegui2

See more info, pet packages and portable appimage here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 148#979148

Fred

[rcrsn51]

F3-flash-check v6.1 posted above.

If you have enough RAM, f3probe may be able to test non-destructively.

[rcrsn51]

Touchpad updated to v1.4-1 here.

The instructions for Tesseract OCR are updated here.

[rcrsn51]

Attached below is the img2pdf tool used by PeasyPDF. It converts a folder of JPEG images into a single PDF file. The dependency is python.

Remove the fake .gz extension.

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Here is the Timidity MIDI to WAV converter. The package contains a soundfont file and is ready to use in PeasyMP3.

TImidity is now in Fred's repo.
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[rcrsn51]

The Samba4 Basic Server is posted here.

@Fred: This needs testing and feedback before going into your repo.

[rcrsn51]

Removed due to lack of feedback.

Anyone who still wants this Bluetooth app should post a request.

[rcrsn51]

Here is a stand-alone script for doing frugal installs of Stretch-Live ISOs. You can run it from Stretch or from various Puppies.

Ubuntu/Mint/etc. users: Your distro probably doesn't have tools like gtkdialog to run this installer script. So here are some procedures for making a Starter Kit bootable flash drive.
a. BIOS machines: read here. Use the Starter Kit ISO file instead of a Puppy ISO.
b. UEFI machines: read here starting at Step 5.

This tool can also install onto USB devices. The preferred USB destination is an unjournaled ext4 partition.

1. Download and extract the script attached below. It is NOT a fake .gz file!
2. This is a clickable script that you can run anywhere. Save it somewhere like /root.
3. Make an EMPTY folder on an ext partition to hold the frugal install. It can also be a subfolder.
4. Run the script. Select the ISO, the target partition and the install folder. Click Install.
5. The "live" folder from the ISO will be copied into the install folder.
6. A window will pop-up showing the new Grub4Dos menu entry.
7. Copy and paste the entry into your menu.lst file. Hint: Use Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. Keep the long "kernel" line as a SINGLE line.
8. A backup copy of the GRUB entry is saved in the frugal install folder.
9. Reboot.

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The Bootloader section does a basic Grub4Dos setup to make a hard/flash drive bootable. Read the warning about Windows.

The new Puppy section does a standard frugal install of a Puppy ISO.

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Update: The regular Basic Install uses the Porteus boot method. But some hardware has trouble on USB or eMMC drives with this method. You will get a "cheatcode is incorrect" error. Here are some work-arounds:

1. Use the alternate install procedure under the Live-boot tab. This method does a frugal install like Porteus but creates a "persistence" save file instead of the Porteus "changes" folder.

2. Use an alternate version of the file initrd1.xz in your Porteus "live" folder. Get it here and rename the file.

3. Switch to Buster with the k5.6.0 kernel. This setup has the best hardware support.

Update: Read here for help with installing on UEFI systems.

Update: Read here for a discussion about GPT-formatted hard drives.

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Here is a strategy for building a system from scratch that can run a variety of Stretch-Live and Puppy versions.

1. Boot the machine from a system disc or flash drive.

2. Run Gparted and make the following partitions:
a. an ext3 "boot" partition. It will contain the Grub4Dos boot files. It can also store your original ISO files or other packages. If this is a UEFI system, the first partition must be FAT32.
b. an ext4 partition to hold the frugal installs.
c. an ext4 partition to hold common data like a music collection.

3. Copy the stretch-live-frugal-install script onto partition sda1. Copy over some ISOs.

4. Run the script, select Bootloader and install Grub4Dos to drive sda.

5. For each ISO:
a. make a matching folder on sda2.
b. Do a Basic install or Puppy install. In each case, the target partition is /dev/sda2.
c. Copy/paste the GRUB menu entry into your menu.lst file on sda1.
d. Make at least one CleanMode entry to act as a "back-door" into your system for maintenance purposes.

6. Reboot.

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[rcrsn51]

Here is the P910nd Print Server. It converts an attached USB printer into a networked printer using the socket:// protocol.

The instructions are here.

1. The server machine does NOT need CUPS.
2. The client machine must provide the model-specific printer driver.
3. These printers are NOT auto-detected by the CUPS client.
4. If you assign the server machine a static IP address, clients will always be able to find it. (PeasyWiFi can do this.)
5. The client control panel that was previously part of this project has moved to the separate app IP4CUPS here.

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[fredx181]

Hi All,

Recommended to upgrade the kernel to the latest security release, at this time it's 4.9.0-5 (package version: 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04))
See info here (Meltdown patch, not sure if/when Spectre will be addressed):
https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4078
Therefore install latest upgrade-kernel (v1.0.5) from Synaptic or with apt-get,

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apt-get update
apt-get install upgrade-kernel

and run "Upgrade kernel" from Menu > System and it will upgrade to 4.9.0-5 (on a frugal install)

Also updated mklive-stretch script
Change is that latest kernel 4.9.0-5 will be installed (previously was 4.9.0-4).
And (at github) the archive name containing basic boot scripts, configs, aufs and squashfs modules (for 4.9.0-5) is now:
dog-boot-stretch-20180112.tar.gz
(used in the script now to extract and copy files to the chroot)

Here is a stand-alone script for doing hard drive frugal installs of Stretch-Live ISOs. It is intended for Puppy-like systems booted by Grub4Dos.

Nice ! never tried before from=UUID and changes=UUID, works well.
Added to first post a link to your post and added to "Norepo" packages:
https://fredx181.github.io/StretchDog/NoRepo/
Also added your latest packages to repos.

EDIT: @all, googledrivegui2 update, install from synaptic or with apt-get, more info here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 902#979902

Fred

[rcrsn51]

Hi Fred: Can you explain this?

I updated my mklive script to the "-5" kernel and generated a new ISO. That worked fine.

I then tried to update a machine that has nvidia graphics. I wanted to keep the current "changes" folder and drop in the new "live" folder.

I had previously installed the Debian nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver so I knew this was going to be a problem - it would be a mismatch with the new kernel.

When I rebooted, X refused to start. I tried to manually blacklist nvidia and un-blacklist nouveau, but that failed.

So I apt-got the new linux-headers-$(uname -r), ran nvidia-detect, removed the current driver and installed it again.

I expected the installation to take the usual several minutes, but it was done immediately.

But when I rebooted, it worked!

What happened here? Was this the correct way to update nvidia with a new kernel?

Bill

[fredx181]

Hi Bill, sorry, I have very little experience with nvidia, I guess you did as you described here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 796#969796
and wonder why the driver install went so fast, right?

Maybe someone else can shine a light on this ?

EDIT: @ALL, It may come in handy to quickly load the DEVX in case compiling.
Here's DEVX containing most important build tools and latest linux-headers (4.9.0-5)
https://github.com/fredx181/StretchDog/ ... s/tag/v2.1
For i386 (pae) or amd64: 61-DEVX-Stretch-20180113-k4.9.0-5-....

Fred

[rcrsn51]

I tried this on another nvidia machine and it worked the same way. Apparently only a small part of the nvidia install package is actually kernel-related.

If you remove the driver and re-install it, it's smart enough to just build the new kernel module.

Is there a better way in apt-get to remove-install in one step?

BTW, I have used the same procedure when I forgot to install the kernel headers at the beginning of the install and the operation failed.

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Regarding UUID in the frugal-installer. I started using this when working with "split installs". If you just use "from=/", Porteus triggers a search. Under certain conditions, it can find the wrong "live" folder.

By using UUID, you can specify the unique path to your install.

Bill

[fredx181]

Regarding UUID in the frugal-installer. I started using this when working with "split installs". If you just use "from=/", Porteus triggers a search. Under certain conditions, it can find the wrong "live" folder.

Yes, the UUID option is nice, for info, another way to prevent finding the wrong "live" folder you can place "live" in folder "unique_name" and use "from=/unique_name"
EDIT: I see now that your installer does that already, so you are right that the chance is zero when using UUID that it finds the wrong "live"

Fred

[rcrsn51]

I would love to try this on one of those problematic machines where Puppy cannot find its main SFS file on a flash drive.

[puppytahruser]

Hi fredx181, is there any patch for "Spectre" and "Meltdown" in debian 9 (stretch) dog. And using "user" instead of "root" can give more protection from this two thread?

[fredx181]

Hi puppytahruser,

Hi fredx181, is there any patch for "Spectre" and "Meltdown" in debian 9 (stretch) dog. And using "user" instead of "root" can give more protection from this two thread?

You can upgrade the kernel to latest security release by running "upgrade-kernel", see here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 018#980018
But the patching is a work in progress, I guess, there's only a patch for "Meltdown" at this time, as far as I know.
And you can login as normal user "puppy" or create a new user and login with that.
(if that's going to give more protection, to be honest, I don't know)

Fred

[anikin]

I tried this on another nvidia machine and it worked the same way. Apparently only a small part of the nvidia install package is actually kernel-related.

If you remove the old version and install the new one, it's smart enough to just build the new kernel module.

Is there a better way in apt-get to remove-install in one step?

BTW, I have used the same procedure when I forgot to install the kernel headers at the beginning of the install and the operation failed.
---------------------
Bill

From my reading, nvidia cards will sometimes pick the open source, low quality "nouveau" driver. To make sure that never happens, imho, it's important to create a xorg.conf for your card. Debian says it's not needed, but I personally would rather be safe, than sorry and create it. Either manually: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf

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Section "Device"
Identifier "My GPU"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

or

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apt-get install nvidia-xconfig

and run

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nvidia-xconfig

command that will do it for you. Again, Debian says, xorg is configured automatically and this tool is deprecated, which doesn't mean it's useless. You can always do

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apt-get remove nvidia-xconfig

. And also you can blacklist the nouveau driver: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

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blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off

And also, before doing any nvidia installs, it's recommended to do some clean up first:

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apt-get remove nvidia*

edit

A matter of semantics: a full-blown xorg.conf, of course isn't needed. It has been deprecated a long time ago. The correct way to describe that configuration is 20-nvidia.conf.

[puppytahruser]

Thank you Fredx181, I have done the upgrade-kernel as you say.

[fredx181]

Updated mklive-stretch script
Added "xserver-xorg-video-intel" to the standard installed packages (without it, X won't start in some cases)

Also added xserver-xorg-video-intel to all custom configs (for preconfigured Desktop Environment choices).

Fred