Puppy 4.2Beta Seamonkey Bugs & Fixes

[ttuuxxx]

Just another boring zigbert-comment about adding alsaplayer+gstreamer.
Sigmund

Oh by the way it isn't gstreamer its streamtuner 2 different things completely

Now Sigmund what we could use, is a replacement for Gxine, YOur the man who could do it, probably pretty easy once I explain it also.
Tonight I played a DVD with VLC media player. So what you say eh?
well lets have a look at it, First I took my 7.8MB pet and ripped out the wxgtk libs, then I ripped out the GUI. Packaged it and it was a 3.2MB power pet package. No modules,drivers removed 100% workable vlc via command line.
Then I went to
http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/ch04.html where they have alot of the command lines.
So I installed the pet and typed in a command line
./vlc /mnt/sr0
and there it was a dvd playing, it was a bit gittery because I didn't load any modules, which you can with vlc command line, but think about it, a gtk interface with a drag and drop section and find file selector. play pause and yes fullscreen
vlc --fullscreen /mnt/sr0
Anyways with your know how, you could take pmusic add 'pep' Puppy Entertainment Player, <---I like the name better than say PMultimedia player.
Well Its an Idea anyways here's the VLC commandline version.
http://www.puppylinux.asia/tpp/ttuuxxx/ ... ndline.pet
If you do it that would be great, If not maybe another year from now I might know enough code to pull something like that off.
ttuuxxx
ps below is a screenshot of vlc commandline version playing via rxvt and no gui.

[ecomoney]

Ive been doing some testing of this version. of the main problems I came across is with gxine. Double clicking on an mp3 now automatically opens gxine, but each time it opens it re-runs the setup wizards.

Full screen flash video now works. The new the seamonkey is excellent, especially now it features the standard shortcut keys and Ttuxxx's new more conventional button layout. However the flash version is still at 9.0.48.0 which is now very old and will not work with many popular video websites. I thought I saw somewhere on the spec that version 10 would be used? From my tests this seems to be a lot faster on older hardware, crashes a lot less and will be compatible with most websites for a lot longer.

The "chat" feature that links into the puppy help chatroom is an excellent idea. However "chat" to most end-users weve encounted means Instant Messaging, of the yahoo or msn variety. Perhaps it should be renamed "Support" or "Live Support".

Instant messaging is a very important function of a modern computer system to an end-user, and puppy 4.2ce does not seem to have an inbuilt application for it any more. I have suggested before that the menu entry for /usr/local/bin/meeboview be re-introduced. This is a simple web-based messenger service that connects to msn, yahoo, jabber etc, and even now facebook chat. It also means that if any of the protocols change (as MSN has a habit of doing) then the meebo website will respond automatically, wheras an inbuilt application wil not.

the "gdmin/rsync" utility program (which I assume is for doing backups) seems to crash upon entering the name of a new backup.

On a more aesthetic level, the shortcut icon for the gnumeric application looks like a calculator, and is labelled "calc", its not obvious that its a spreadsheet application. There is also still a shortcut arrow on the "install" desktop shortcut. On the top launch bar also seems to be missing some icons.

I notice this is the first "beta" of 4.2 . Im kicking myself that I didint ask for a very small feature that will make a huge difference to puppies useability. Many people have mentioned that puppy's file structure in very alien to new linux users. the /root folder contains many links to various important folders. If it were to also to contain a symlink in a frugal install (by far the most common type) to the "outside world", i.e. the host disk that the pup_save.2fs file was on, it would make it a lot easier for the first time puppy use to find their treasured files and folders already on their computer. This link would also be visible automatically in the various applications save dialogs. The alternative is the end user hunting aout for the /initrd/mnt/dev save, /mnt/home, /initrd/mnt/dev_ro2 or wherever this most important location ends up being accessible from in the overall filestructure.

Many thanks to everyone for their work so far on this project, I am very much looking forward to seeing the end result.

[Béèm]

Hi Warren,

Ready here http://puppylinux.ca/puppyfiles/test/

Sorry if it's a bit slow....we are working on it.

Eric

I am on the Canary Islands for the moment and had indeed, just now a slow speed. But in ibiblio I had a blasting 450Kbps speed. Never saw that before. Was I lucky?

[pa_mcclamrock]

If we had a player that pleased us, we could trash both Pmusic and Gxine.

If you insist--but trash Gxine first, OK? I like Pmusic! Easy to play music, easy to save and read playlists, no bloat, and just all-around easy to use.

I think it was a longterm strategic choice of Barry to skip tcl/tk before Puppy 4.

The longer-term the choice was, the more out of date it now is. It may have made some sense to dump Tcl/Tk, I guess, back when you couldn't very well combine the ease of Tcl/Tk scripting with the good looks of GTK+--but now you can. Not only can you get real, instant GTK+ 2.0 widgets with Gnocl, you can also come up with Tk 8.5 themes that look a whole lot like, say, the Clearlooks GTK2 themes. The next step in reconciling Tk and GTK2, I think, will be to come up with some Clearlooks themes that can fully match the splendid array of color schemes you can easily get with Tk 8.5.

[pa_mcclamrock]

Hi david could you please try the above tcl/tk patch, It fixes the high scores error/problem in yahtzee, I was wondering how much of the errors does it fix:)

It fixes the "clock" bug! That's great! Thanks!! You can now merge it with the existing Tcl 8.5.6 .PET that went into Beta1 and submit the revised package for Beta2, right?

Would it cause any problems if I edited /root/ztcltk/tcl8.5.6-i386/usr/lib/tcl8.5/tzdata
and removed most of countries?)
Same with most of the files in /root/ztcltk/tcl8.5.6-i386/usr/lib/tcl8.5/encoding
could maybe be edit[e]d.

It would depend on whether anyone needed to use those encodings, or the data for those countries. It would probably be possible (if necessary) to cut out that stuff and put it into an auxiliary package for Puppy Unleashed, in case anyone did need to use them. But maybe it won't be necessary--at least, all of my Tcl/Tk apps will now run on Puppy 4.2 without my fairly fat 8.5.5-runtime .PETs, or your slightly fatter 8.5.6 ones, installed!

As Icewm goes WhoDo missed the latest package and I haven't tested yet the printing to see if anything is still missing or needed.

Well, I have, and something is. I still can't print, and I can't even set my printer as the default printer (see above, page 3). If there's anything you can do about it, thanks again and again in advance!

David McClamrock

[zigbert]

Now Sigmund what we could use, is a replacement for Gxine, YOur the man who could do it, probably pretty easy once I explain it also.
Tonight I played a DVD with VLC media player. So what you say eh?

Hello back Jeff. Your idea is a good one, but not for my simple bash scripts with gtkdialog. Since it lacks support of drag'n drop and sliders, it would never be a 1.class Entertainment Player (good name ). I think we have pushed gtkdialog rather hard already. But, who knows. Suddenly someone finds it attractive to continue the development of gtkdialog, or start on another gtk-bash-gui lib. On the other hand, I never plays an Audio-CD or listen to radio, so it wouldn't rise on my priority list. I have ripped all my LPs and CDs, and Pmusic is special made for my purpose. - Yeah, I'm happy with it. You're right that it uses more cpu than both Alsaplayer and Xmms, but it still runs without stutter on my 10 year old laptop (Pentium II). I don't expect anything more.

pa_mcclamrock
I don't know tcl, but I'm sure it is great. I see it gives small programs, and fast programs. The only question I ask myself is: If I add 100kb, - What do I get in return? There is no problem adding 2 or 4 mb, if we get something back. I just can't see what tcl gives to Puppy 4.2, that have a value of any mb. BUT, if you or someone else creates great code that the kennels WISH , and could save some space, that would be just terrific. What about a xine/mplayer/vcl gui ..... think about it, a gtk interface with a drag and drop section and find file selector. play pause and yes fullscreen Sorry ttuuxxx, couldn't help it


Sigmund

[magerlab]

i also vote for meeboview( it still sits invisibly in puppy 4.1.2 )!
I use it now for a couple of weeks ( AOL started a war against russian and CIS users that use other clients than native icq client)
So meebo.com is a good solution!

[Jim1911]

The 4.2 Beta is very stable so far except there is no support for usb printers. Tried to install ttuuxxx's Cupsusb.pet without success.

Looking forward to the RC. This may be the best puppy yet.

Jim

[jrb]

Hi guys,
Just reporting on load_sfs in 420b1. It has disappeared from the right-clicks menu. This is a simple fix. Just symlink from /usr/sbin/load_sfs to /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/OpenWith/.application_x-squashfs-image/

There is however a bigger problem, not just with load_sfs but also with loading .sfs files at boot with boot manager. Many of the files which get loaded are retained in the pup_save.2fs file at next boot, even if it is chosen not to mount the .sfs file again. All the .desktop files stay, changes to puppypin stay, the operating files that get used (swriter, scalc) stay. For OO3.0.sfs this amounts to an extra 60MB in the pup_save file. And I only created one short document!

This has changed from 420a4. There, at bootup, a simple fixmenus (easily added to .xinitrc) and restart jwm returned everything to the premount condition and no room was taken up in the pup_save. I've no idea what has changed but for those who need to use a small pup_save this could be a killer.

[Ray MK]

hi

Think something is seriously wrong with this 1st beta.

'cos my old laptops are so old that they don't have CD burners,
only CD players,
I would normally download an ISO, do an md5sum check,
make a copy of original iso to work with, put it in a NewDir (420b1),
mount & open up the ISO to extract the contents to (420b1),
unmount ISO, edit menu.lst, reboot and normally - BINGO - all works.

This time, after setup etc all seemed ok and normal so I saved to Pup_save.

Reboot, in particular file-update, took a lot longer than normal and was
accompanied with some excess processor and fan activity - finally
up comes desktop - but no wigdets displayed(only clock), but worse still - no desktop icons or menu items work. This is in Xorg
(home icon & drive icons seem ok)
So - reboot and try Vesa - same thing.
Started from scratch again. Same result - (all previous 4.2x worked).

Tried IceWm - worse still - no menu icons at all and most entry
desciptions (the txt) are missing.

Would this have something to do with the 25mb folder that
ttuuxxx mentioned earlier.

Running 4.2b1 now (pfix=ram) so until a save is made all seems to
function.

Hope this is not a major muddle to undo.

As always - very best regards - Ray

[zigbert]

There is however a bigger problem, not just with load_sfs but also with loading .sfs files at boot with boot manager. Many of the files which get loaded are retained in the pup_save.2fs file at next boot, even if it is chosen not to mount the .sfs file again. All the .desktop files stay, changes to puppypin stay, the operating files that get used (swriter, scalc) stay. For OO3.0.sfs this amounts to an extra 60MB in the pup_save file. And I only created one short document!

WOAAAAHHHH

Of course! The fixmenus script generates links in /root/my-applications/bin. I never thought of it, but it will of course be stored in the Pupsave file. If making these as symlinks instead, the problem should be solved. The icons will now show the ugly symlink arrow, so it is not 100%.......

try to edit /usr/sbin/fixmenus line 29
ln -f $EXEC $HOME/my-applications/bin/
add s
ln -fs $EXEC $HOME/my-applications/bin/

[rerwin]

WhoDo,
From our brief PM conversation I felt you are open to adding my "neglected modem" fix prepared for 4.1.2. It activates Intel, Agere and mwave modems, unusable since the release of 4.1. But it did not make it into the 4.2 beta. Perhaps it is too late in the schedule.

To make easy the acceptance of the fix, I attach a tgz archive with the fix and difference files, so you can assess what I have done. But if you consider 4.2 as "frozen", I can provide a dotpet after the final is released.

The forum postings describing the puppy 4.1.2 fix are:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 797#266797

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 523#270523

Thanks for considering this.
Richard

[jrb]

try to edit /usr/sbin/fixmenus line 29
ln -f $EXEC $HOME/my-applications/bin/
add s
ln -fs $EXEC $HOME/my-applications/bin/

I made the change in fixmenus and it has definitely improved the situation. All the links in /root/my-applications/bin are now symbolic links. The used operating files are gone. Now only 8MB's in pup_save. However, the .desktop files are still there in /usr/share/applications so the menu cannot be cleared.

Question: are hard links actual copies or only treated as copies?

[ttuuxxx]

WhoDo Can you please either post the links to the tcl/tk packages your using or upload them on here so I can modify the tcl package. So that it works properly, I made a patch and it fixes the broken clock parts, I just don't have the originals, I'm using a version I compiled of the same release model.
ttuuxxx

[jrb]

Zigbert,
As a test I rebooted, renamed your fixmenus, copied in the fixmenus from 420a4, and deleted the remnant .desktops from OO3.0.sfs. I then loaded OO3.0.sfs, opened OOwriter, created a document, saved and rebooted.

When puppy came back I typed "fixmenus" in a console and retarted jwm. All menu references to OO were gone. Of course the .desktop files were gone as well. I've no idea why the .desktop files would stick around with your /usr/sbin/fixmenus but, sadly, that seems to be the case.

[zigbert]

jrb
A hardlink is not a copy of a file. It is a coordinate file that points to the addresses on the harddrive. The actual data is not visible, - only the coordinate file. You can have as many hardlinks you want. They are all pointing to the same data. You have to delete all hardlinks if you want to delete the actual file. Because of its nature, it is not possible to have a hardlink on another filesystem. - And this is where I got trapped. Pup_save file is merging with pup_420. They act like one filesystem when running, but not when storing.

Next problem (sfs):
The new fixmenus script changes the syntax of the .desktop files. - BAD! If you change the syntax of the .desktop file, you also make a new .desktop file for those which are original stored in the Pup_420.sfs (or in such as ooo_420.sfs). It acts as described above with the hardlinks. Puppy cannot change anything in the Pup_420, so it has to make a new file in Pup_save. The Pup_save file is layered above Pup_420.

This means that changing syntax of the .desktop files using the fixmenus script FAILS. The answer could be to check whether the .desktop file actually points to a 'living' program, but honest - fixmenus is not the right place for this syntax improvement. I saw it as the solution until the .desktop standard got improved. It is obviously that it lacks info. (as the split between name - description and info about a desktop icon. Not only a 16x16 icon as at the moment.)

I have removed the syntax improvements from the fixmenus script. This may be executed as a standalone script. If Warren wants, he can execute it on his tree before building the iso. That is the correct place for such renaming.

Thank you, jrb
please try the attached fixmenus
- it builds symlinks in $HOME/my-applications/bin/
- it adds space between icon and text in menu.


Sigmund

Here is the script for making a split between name - description in the menu.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
APPS="`ls -1 /usr/share/applications | tr '\n' ' '`"
for I in $APPS
do
 APP="/usr/share/applications/$I"
 sed -i -e "s/ - / /g" $APP #remove old split

 #Split: avoid split in the following menu entries:
 [ "`grep 'Categories=X-SetupWizard' $APP`" ] && continue #all setup wizards
 [ "`grep 'Name=Puppy ' $APP`" ] && continue #entries starting with 'Puppy'
 [ "`grep 'Name=Add ' $APP`" ] && continue #entries starting with 'Add'
 [ "`grep 'Name=Set ' $APP`" ] && continue #entries starting with 'Set'
 [ "`grep 'Name=Configure Xlock screen locking' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Desktop drive icons manager' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Desktop icon switcher' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Format floppy disk' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=JWM configuration' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Remaster Puppy live-CD' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Wizard Wizard' $APP`" ] && continue
 [ "`grep 'Name=Xautoconnect to wireless network' $APP`" ] && continue
 NAME="`cat $APP | grep -m 1 ^Name= | cut -d ' ' -f 1 | cut -d '=' -f 2`"
 sed -i -e "s/^Name=$NAME /Name=$NAME \- /" $APP
done

[WhoDo]

From our brief PM conversation I felt you are open to adding my "neglected modem" fix prepared for 4.1.2. It activates Intel, Agere and mwave modems, unusable since the release of 4.1. But it did not make it into the 4.2 beta. Perhaps it is too late in the schedule.

No problem, richard. I just forgot to add it to my Unleashed tree for the Beta1 build. I'll add it for Beta2 and beyond. Sorry about that.

[WhoDo]

WhoDo Can you please either post the links to the tcl/tk packages your using or upload them on here so I can modify the tcl package. So that it works properly, I made a patch and it fixes the broken clock parts, I just don't have the originals, I'm using a version I compiled of the same release model.

Here they are, mate. This was simpler than trolling through the Dev and Alpha threads looking for where it was originally uploaded.

Cheers

[cthisbear]

" For the moment all I'm trying to achieve is the
best bog standard Puppy we've ever produced "

Fair enough.............Chris.

[WhoDo]

People, if you want the smallest - and fastest - mtPaint binary, pass the "release" option to ./configure when compiling it.

This disables debug code GTK+ would otherwise add, and enables handpicked optimizations (depending on GCC version) which are guaranteed to have a positive effect.

Thanks for that, wjaguar. I'm hoping ttuuxxx has seen and acted upon your suggestion.