Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[zigbert]

Puppy Stardust 008

Stardust 009 is released here

This is still Puppy 4.3.1 - thanks to Barry for this wonder-OS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Focus on desktop flow and user easiness.
- Desktop in DeepThougt taken to next stage.
- Cleanup in apps, menus and kilobytes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


......
Left: Default desktop with utility tray..........Right: Extended menu-system

......
Left: User-friendly widget system...........Right: Switch global color-theme in one click

......
Left: Easy access to desktop apps.........Right: Control center with complete handling of services

......
Powerful tools to manage trays and menus

......
Left: Improved integration with filebrowser..........Right: Many new apps


Download
username: puppy
password: linux
pup_stardust-008.iso (99Mb)
md5sum: 02eddd7f0c8cf8bbab9114ebdc7daffb

BE AWARE!!!!
If you have Puppy installed, you MUST run this with the prefix 'puppy pfix=ram'. Else, the Stardust desktop will not install.

Here is the good old Stardust icon-theme updated for Puppy Stardust (thanks to 01micko)



Comments version 008
With the help of ttuuxxx, technosaurus and pizzasgood, this release ships some new and interesting stuff.
- technosaurus has updated MhWaveEdit, now without using lisndfile as a dependency. There is no longer any use of libsndfile, and I have removed it.
- ttuuxxx has compiled the latest galculator. This one has replaced calcoo. ttuuxx has also given us improved MIME icons for Rox.
- pizzasgood has made a new volume mixer - RetroVol. This one is the first gui-mixer I have seen in Puppy that are a complete mixer for alsa. I have removed absvolume, and taken Alsamixer out of the default multimedia-menu.

In the Stardust area, the main focus last week has been on menus. A new help menu, improved Favorites, better icon-detection.... But the far most interesting is the rework of the main menu. It now shows your most-used-apps. - Updating when jwm (re)starts.

To get this going, the whole idea about $HOME/my-applications/bin had to be rearranged. Instead of symlink all apps here, it now keeps a starter-script that makes an 'addition' to the most-used-db (see $HOME/.stardust/) before it runs the program. This is done by the fixmenus script alone (/usr/sbin/fixmenus). This is what takes so long during installation, - when building starter-scripts to all available apps. When you install a new app, fixmenus will build a unique starter-script for your app. A nice bi-effect of this is that the icons added to desktop doesn't have the 'symlink-arrow'. - Just a nice and clean icon.

The original puppy menu uses the .desktop files to determine the executable, so these are also redirected to $HOME/my-applications/bin. - Simply by adding $HOME/my-applications/bin in front of the executable (Exec) value in /usr/share/applications/*.desktop. There are some exceptions, but everything is handled automatically by fixmenus.

The end result is that any program started from menus, trays or desktop will affect the 'most-used-apps' db. Running a program via terminal will grab executable form $PATH and will not update menu of most used programs.

Else there has been some bugfixing. Thanks to the 'gang' for helping out.
This release is 200kb smaller than 007.



Changelog since Stardust 007:
# Menuitems in main menu shows 'most used apps' instead of custom added.
# help menu with 'getting started' information
# Tip about 'getting started information' during Stardust installation.
# Reduce size of some huge ayttm icons in /usr/share/pixmaps. Save about 80kb.
# improved (and reduzed size) of Rox-mime icons (thanks to ttuuxxx)
# Moved Alsamixer out of the default menu. Retrovol seems to do the job.
# 'Add icon': option to skip popup dialog box.
# Shutdown menu has become 'Leave menu'
# Improved naming of apps in $HOME/my-applications/bin/
# Added Pscreenshot (trio)
# Added Retrovol (pizzasgood)
# Added Galculator (compiled by ttuuxxx)
# Updated MhWaveEdit to 1.4.17 - without libsndfile (thanks to technosaurus)
# Updated Uget to 1.5.0.1 (thanks to ttuuxxx)
# Updated dir2pet (thanks to BarryK)
# Updated lameSMBxplorer to 0.1.8b (thanks to patriot)
# Updated Pburn, Pmenu, fixmenus*, Ptray, ico2desk ...
# Removed libsndfile (thanks to technosaurus)
# Removed getez
# Removed pwsget
# Removed Calcoo
# Removed mtpaintsnapshot.sh
# Removed absvolume
# Removed icons win32-gnumeric.ico and svg-viewer.svg from /usr/share/pixmaps.
# Bugfix: Configure Ptray removes global-theme-buttons
# Bugfix: bookmarks in pmenu builtin filebrowser
# Bugfix: 'Add Icon' should contain also apps NOT in menu
# Bugfix: Pwidgets - Temp_cpu (thanks to 01micko)
# Bugfix: access 'rxvt -e scripts' via $HOME/my-applications/bin
# Bugfix: Alsamixer stays active and steal huge amount of cpu.
# Bugfix: Define default Stardust colors in /root/.jwm/jwm_colors.
# Bugfix: Default size of geany. (thanks to prehistoric)
# Bugfix: bookmarks in pmenus builtin filebrowser.
# Bugfix: Allow hidden dir/files in Favorites menu.
# Bugfix: Alignment of analog flat clock-skin.
# Bugfix: Use correct icon for mtpaint (thanks to trio)




____________________________________________________________________________

The following list shows many items that is taken out of the iso. But, it is not as critical as it seems. Most of these are tiny apps, and you have not been aware of many of them. Simply because other apps do the job.

Aqualung has left, and Pmusic is back. Pmusic has evolved in both features and speed, so It is more a matter of longterm strategy. I hope it will be possible to build more around ffmpeg in the future. We could hopefully get rid of lidsnd, libsamplerate and maybe libxine...

Gadmin-Rsync is out as well, since it crashed on first run. I don't think Pbackup fill the backup issue completely. It would be wonderful if there exists a tiny but complete backup suit.

If you see something that you would have changed, added or removed, I will be very glad if you mentioned it. Because of my limited time, it would be best if you deliver the patch.... My knowledge of network/internet tools is close to zero, so these are nearly untouched.

Possible improvements are easy to see
- Improve artwork.
- alternative multimedia tools using ffmpeg.
- hunt more files we don't need.
- upgrade gui in some of the scripts.
- extend the control center.
- replacement of Gparted (901kb)
- boot Puppy with pfix=fsck
- driver adds/updates
- ...

This is meant to be a full featured user-oriented Puppy....Though, I have to admit that the biggest modem drivers is removed.




So what's added
- Stardust desktop environment - including pcc (Puppy control center), desktop configuration tools and Pwidgets
- Pwireless2 (replaces Pwireless)
- ATI graphic drivers
- Broadcom wifi drivers
- splix - Samsung, Xerox, Dell printer drivers
- acpid
- Pmusic (replaces aqualung)
- woo-ff
- printoxx
- floppy-formater (replaces floppy-format.sh)
- gtkmoz (replaces PuppyBrowser)
- Pupradio (replaces pstreamvid)
- seahaven
- lameSMBexplorer (replaces pnethood)
- pstartupsound
- startmount
- fileedit (set to defaulttextviewer)
- default-wizard
- RetroVol (replaces absvolume and zmixer)
- Galculator
- Pscreenshot



Some scripts has been upgraded
- cpu-scaling tool
- fixmenus
- icon_switcher
- JwmThemeMaker
- Pburn
- sfsconverter
- theme_switcher
- you2pup




And what does the Stardust-generator change
- Install desktop at first startup rather than keep it in the iso to save space
- snap desktop icons - medium grid
- simple Pmount facelift
- Xlock is fixed
- start pCD instead of defaultmediaplayer when click on audio-CD icon
- seamonkey buttons
- defaultaudioplayer is changed from aqualung to pmusic
- defaultaudiomixer is changed from zmixer to alsamixer
- Updated P-series
- Net-setup goes to Pwireless2 for wireless configuration
- Darker background color in: rxvt, geany, abiword
- Generates icon-themes, gtk-themes and analog clock-skins




And of course, something had to leave
*** Programs ***
- absvolume
- aqualung
- background_reshape
- burniso2cd
- calcoo
- cdp
- cgtkcalc
- didiwiki
- e3
- floppy-format.sh
- gcolor2 (color chooser)
- gdmap
- gexec
- gfnrename - maybe better than PRename, but this is bash and easy updated.
- glightoff
- gtkdialog markup editor - devx ???
- gtklogfileviewer - Does any script use anymore ???
- gtksourceview
- libmad
- libsnd (mhwaveedit (not updated) and aqualung used libsnd)
- madplay
- mtpaintsnaphot.sh
- Net-setup (old version)
- nicoedit
- pcdripper
- Pdisk - could maybe be in use by some wizard
- picpuz
- pictureviewer
- pmirror/mirdir
- pmwget (PMirrorget)
- pnetnood
- pplog
- pstreamvid
- ptooltips - tool to show tooltips in gtkdialog - not longer in use
- PuppyBrowser
- PuppyPdf - Abiword does exactly the same
- Pwireless
- pwsget
- quisp
- rsync / gadmin-rsync - crashes on first run
- securetelnetshell
- tile
- waveplay - linked to aplay
- xAutoconnect - Pwireless2 should do the job
- xcalc
- xclipboard
- Xconsole
- xfontsel
- ycalc
- zfind
- zmixer

*** Trimming ***
- cdrkit - Pburn has very few dependencies
- jwmconfig2
- netpbm

*** Control panel has ditched some ***
- countrywizard
- XserverWizard
- wizardwizard
- And plenty of menu items

*** Graphics ***
- All wallpapers
- some Gtk-themes
- All Icon-themes
- many mini-icons

*** misc ***
- some apps NOT in control center has also lost their place in the menu
--> sfs-version-converter - warnings pointing to it is changed.
--> Pstopwatch - Ptimer should be enough.
- some documentation files
- some audio files
- the biggest modem drivers
- many fixed fonts

Puppy 4.3.1 Bugfixes
- JWM tray configuration.
- JWM keyboard shortcut configuration.
- Xlock - Lock screen.
- Kill pid of wallpaper setter when closing window.
- Shutdown / Reboot from menu after NFS error.
- Execute code from Geany with 'execute' button.
- Xf-prot virus checker (thanks to tasmod)
- Allow unique 24 pixel icons and symlinked icons in icon-themes.

[DaveS]

Downloading....................

[James C]

Downloading as well.....had to refresh the browser a few times but downloading fine now........

[trapster]

" "

[prehistoric]

Waiting for concurrent download limit to let me in. I'd download the delta if I could.

[01micko]

pup_stardust-007.iso:pup_stardust-008.iso.delta

checksum: db84b0ffa1a173dacdf46002a8ccc453 pup_stardust-007.iso:pup_stardust-008.iso.delta

Instructions for .delta file usage here

[Dpup]

Not able to make USB Flash boot with universal installer in this version.

Work around that does work is to boot CD with previous version 007, run the universal installer, then swap the boot CD when it requests to insert the Puppy CD, and version 008 USB Flash boot version 8 is produced that works fine.

Wonder if anyone else has same problem... the MD5 of the version 008 checks fine, and boots from CD fine.

[trio]

Sigmund,

Major bug:

I tried to set CPU Scaling in a fresh boot of stardust 008. It almost hangs the system. I open pprocess (painfully slowly) and see there are lots of repetitions (!) of this line (as I remembered, can't get a snapshot, as the system was becoming very slow):

bin/sh -c /ions/bin/cpu-freq
on and on and on..........

This maybe of the new feature of remembering which apps are frequentl used that you introduced?

That's all for now

[prehistoric]

Tried 008 with 1024x768 screen, and found a bug in the Pwidget background. On that small screen, the default PCC window overlaps the Pwidget area on the right. When I change the order in which the analog clock appears, part of the background for the clock shows signs of coming from the PCC window. If the PCC window does not overlap the clock, there is no problem.

Tried several screen resolutions and refresh rates. The problems I saw on that fancy machine last night showed up again at home. The X window system seems to go to higher resolutions than I asked for to keep vertical refresh rates down. Editing the xorg.conf file to use the real values for the monitor makes a difference, but often results in a raster that is the wrong size, or incorrectly positioned. The wizard advises me to use xvidtune (cautiously) under the X window system. When I try this, to correct the problems, every adjustment is declared out of range.

This CRT monitor (SGI labeled, but really a Sony GDM-5411,) is one of the few which really can tolerate some wild rasters, even up to 80 Hz interlaced (160 Hz field rate). The video adapter is described as an "ATI Radeon Xpress 1200 Series". It isn't much for gaming, but, for 2D graphics on a monitor like this, it is fine. This is one case where I want a later release of xorg.

As for serious bugs, like trio found, I haven't found them. I may have seen some weird things, out of the corner of my eye, but don't have anything solid to report.

It's getting harder for me to break things. You should be glad.

[hokal]

@dpup
have the same problem . Getting the system on a USB stick is impossible. The system just does not react when it should copy ISO file from CD.

[zigbert]

Bugs regarding Puppy installer and cpu-scaling, run this command in command:

[zigbert]

[zigbert]

The idi** building this iso hasn't discovered $HOME/.Xdefaults until now.

[prehistoric]

[trio]

Sigmund,

Ran the command you told above, but still no joy