Slacko-5.4 feedback and bug reports

Please post any bugs you have found
Message
Author
User avatar
Billtoo
Posts: 3720
Joined: Tue 07 Apr 2009, 13:47
Location: Ontario Canada

Slacko-5.4 feedback and bug reports

#196 Post by Billtoo »

I compiled and tested vlc-2.0.5 in Slacko-5.4, it works fine with the
intel video driver, should work with ati but it may need the
proprietary nvidia driver for nvidia graphics cards.I haven't tested
it with the nouveau driver so it may work on nvidia cards that use that
driver.
Vlc needs qt-4.8.2 to be installed and it's available for download in
the puppy package manager.

Here's the download link for vlc-2.0.5

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-965dfe10.html
Attachments
vlcscreen.jpg
(35.77 KiB) Downloaded 890 times

User avatar
tallboy
Posts: 1760
Joined: Tue 21 Sep 2010, 21:56
Location: Drøbak, Norway

#197 Post by tallboy »

Hi 01micko.
I saved to the live multisession CD by following the PowerOff procedure from the menu, and that worked as normal. Surprise at the next boot, when the 'Save' icon suddenly appeared above the middle on the screen!
I would have liked to see a 'save-to-some-live-media' dialog, without having to use PowerOff, as a menu item in future releases.

I also found out the hard way, that adding the rox-filer update pet, and then saving to CD, plays havoc with downloads and settings in earlier saves, at next boot. The 'Save' icon disappeared again. So as a tip for others, the update should perhaps be added to an unmodified .iso, to avoid extra work.
In an earlier post in this thread, you wrote:Some reading
I took a look at atop in that link, and it seemed like an interesting tool. Could it be used for diagnosing Slacko problems, specifically the 'freeze' problem, which I have experienced first hand myself?

tallboy
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

User avatar
tallboy
Posts: 1760
Joined: Tue 21 Sep 2010, 21:56
Location: Drøbak, Norway

#198 Post by tallboy »

Next release wish: I miss having a visible 'bullet' indicating that for example an .iso or an .sfs is mounted, like I have had in earlier puppys. It seems that the icon with a bullet that appear when a drive is mounted, is limited to those drives. ROX?

I also miss the mtpaint-based screen capture application in the tray in my dpup484/5, that let you drag a capture to size. Simple and quick.

I installed the jwm-661-plus.pet and jwmconfig2-130125.pet. The mouse cursor now changes it's shape when it is moved over the window border buttons, I hope that effect will be a setup choice and not default, in the stable versions soon to come. To me it feels confusing when the eyes are drawn to that movement, instead of just clicking when the cursor arrow is over a button.
When clicking the clock at the right side of the bottom tray to see the calendar, the calendar places itself so low behind the tray, that the close button is unreachable. Why not let the calendar close itself when the cursor moves away, like it did earlier? Unnessesary clicks are wasting time and destroying arms.
Besides, PupClockSet for setting the clock's format is now a module that have to be downloaded separately, it is not listed in the ppm.

tallboy
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

User avatar
ally
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sat 19 May 2012, 19:29
Location: lincoln, uk
Contact:

#199 Post by ally »

hey micko

noticed the first hang since running 5.4 again, maybe a coincidence but the partview icon was missing from the taskbar, took about 3-4 minutes from clicking the whitespace to the data displaying, when clicking on drive icons similar time elapsed

one other item to mention, not sure if it's a bug or not but have to click twice on desktop icon to get to clear desktop screen

I have process manager running in pwidgets and only high cpu load shows firefox (11 tabs open 18% load)

repeated attempts to open drives has the same hanging duration

also noticed that /var/log/messages date is one day forward (ie 30 jan)?

access to other apps and 'home' ok so it appears to be isolated to mounting somehow, again, sorry don't know how to gather data for you

:)

** EDIT running partview from the terminal outputs:

"EXIT=exit on timeout"

*** EDIT - drive mounting not resolved by restartx, drive icons not visible after either, would not shutdown correctly and required a power-button hold down to turn-off system

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#200 Post by npierce »

ally wrote:also noticed that /var/log/messages date is one day forward (ie 30 jan)?
This happens because, when Puppy starts, the local time is temporarily set to a fictitious time zone 23 hours ahead of UTC, and is not corrected until after syslogd is started. So syslogd sends us messages from the future. :)

You may be able bring syslogd back from its time warp by modifying one line in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (and rebooting):

Code: Select all

#unset TZ #100319 busybox hwclock gives priority to this (rather than /etc/localtime) and 'init' has set it wrong.
Remove the hash character at the beginning of the line so that it reads:

Code: Select all

unset TZ #100319 busybox hwclock gives priority to this (rather than /etc/localtime) and 'init' has set it wrong.
Although I don't see any potential problem, I have not tried this, so this advice comes with no warranty, and I don't know if there might be any other side-effects.

User avatar
ally
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sat 19 May 2012, 19:29
Location: lincoln, uk
Contact:

#201 Post by ally »

hey npierce

not bothersome just reported as noticed flopping around for clues on the hanging, thanks though

:)

User avatar
SFR
Posts: 1800
Joined: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 21:52

Hanging, HDD deadlocks, etc.

#202 Post by SFR »

Mick, there's a big chance that I won't be tormenting you anymore. :wink:
After 1024 conjectures, finally I tried:

Code: Select all

mount -o remount,sync /dev/loop1
...and:
(VirtualBox) Precise-3.7.2, pmedia=atahd, slackosave.2fs on NTFS partition - [ OK! ]
(VirtualBox) Slacko-5.4-PAE, pmedia=ataflash, slackosave.2fs on NTFS partition - [ OK! ]
(Real envir.) Slacko-5.4-PAE, pmedia=ataflash, slackosave.2fs on NTFS partition - [ OK! ]
(of course I have removed 'echo 1 > ...dirty' from rc.sysinit)

I doubt if this is the real solution (saving is not so fluent as in 5.3.3), most likely just another workaround, but it's the most promising one so far!
Anyway, I'll let you know if anything change for the worse.

Also, I don't really know how much my issue is related to your's (8-bit, Ally & others), but you could try and see if this helps (at your own risk, of course :wink: ).

:D
Greetings!
[color=red][size=75][O]bdurate [R]ules [D]estroy [E]nthusiastic [R]ebels => [C]reative [H]umans [A]lways [O]pen [S]ource[/size][/color]
[b][color=green]Omnia mea mecum porto.[/color][/b]

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#203 Post by 01micko »

Hello SFR

Interesting.. you may want to add "noatime" argument. What this does is prevent the kernel writing timestamps back to "disk" each time a file changes. It may improve your performance. https://lesswatts.org/tips/disks.php. Barry has that reference in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

Do you have a reference? Are you running the command from /etc/rc.d/rc.local? (I guess).
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

User avatar
8-bit
Posts: 3406
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 03:37
Location: Oregon

#204 Post by 8-bit »

It seems that I had a bad slackosave file.
The partition I did the frugal install to was formatted 2FS and I had made the save file 3FS.
I booted to another version of Puppy and ran e2fsck -y on the save file and it came up with some errors that were corrected.
I do not know if that was part of the cause.
But also, I had removed Firefox and had installed Seamonkey and let it do the latest update of itself.
Also, I had installed a Nvidia Pet file that corresponded with the kernel version as well as xfce4 and comp-fusion.
So trying to get your TRY_ME ISO to the same point, I ran into a problem finding a NVIDIA pet file for it, and it just was too many changes that I had made that stopped me from further testing.
As the TRY_ME ISO stood, there were no lockups.

So as a result, I can not be of much help in tracking down or reporting on the experienced pause.

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
Contact:

Desktop Icon Positions

#205 Post by tlchost »

Using Slacko 5.4 PAE Opera

It seems that if an sfs file is removed, the system rebooted and a save file made, the zip, trash and save icon positions are not saved. Sincew that seems to be the behavior of many Puppies, I don;t think it's Slacko related, but I'm wondering, short of removing the icons form the desk top, what I can do to have the icon positions not changed.

This is the only shortcoming I've found in Slacko....and like beautiful women, the icon problem is not enough to kick slacko out of bed for eating crackers.

Thom

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#206 Post by 01micko »

Thom,

I have a work around tool for this shortcoming.

See Menu >> Desktop >> Settings >> Desksetup Templates for Desk Icons.

Make sure you save the "Custom" setting and when you get that problem choose your custom setup from that tool and X will restart with your icons in tact. A bit clunky I know, but it works!
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

feelsub
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed 20 Jun 2012, 17:29

#207 Post by feelsub »

For the upcoming release it would be nicer to have ffmpeg 1.1 or later, many bug fixes, additional codecs & filters
-> VLC
Note that Audacity might still require the obsolete ffmeg 0.6 series...

* can't install Chrome 23 or later with PPM

* With my laptop, I sometimes use an external screen.
How with Slacko 5.4 do I shut off the laptop screen, so to have only the external one?

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#208 Post by 01micko »

feelsub wrote:For the upcoming release it would be nicer to have ffmpeg 1.1 or later, many bug fixes, additional codecs & filters
-> VLC
Note that Audacity might still require the obsolete ffmeg 0.6 series...
Would be nice but isn't going to happen. I haven't the time to recompile all the various other packages which depend on ffmpeg, including openshot.. that took me an age.
feelsub wrote:* can't install Chrome 23 or later with PPM
What is the issue there? I installed it from PPM, posting from chrome-23 now.
feelsub wrote:* With my laptop, I sometimes use an external screen.
How with Slacko 5.4 do I shut off the laptop screen, so to have only the external one?
I don't know.. anyone field this one?
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

User avatar
SFR
Posts: 1800
Joined: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 21:52

Hangs, deadlocks, etc...

#209 Post by SFR »

Hey Mick

Day 2, no hangs at all, even when I was saving the session while copying four large 5GB files simultaneously!
Interesting.. you may want to add "noatime" argument.[...]It may improve your performance
The performance differences between 5.3.3 and my workaround in 5.4 are not so significant really - probably I became a bit oversensitive after hours of analyzing HDD led's behaviour. :wink:
Anyway, 'noatime' was/is there already:
/dev/loop1 on /initrd/pup_ro1 type ext2 (rw,sync,noatime,errors=continue,user_xattr,acl)
Do you have a reference? Are you running the command from /etc/rc.d/rc.local? (I guess).
I was reading http://linux.die.net/man/8/mount, toying with "artificially" created 512M savefile (placed on NTFS partition):

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=tempimage.2fs bs=1M count=512
mkfs.ext2 tempimage.2fs
remounting it with various options + 'cat /dev/zero > (its mountpoint)/bigfile'
and suddenly 'sync' made that deadlock problem just vanished, instantly.

In real envir. initially I was running it from terminal right after booting into desktop, but now I've added it at the end of rc.sysinit...but I guess it's not the best place for it..?

The issue was quite a PITA, but (paraphrasing Tlchost's) "...and like beautiful women, the deadlock problem was not enough to kick Slacko out of bed for eating crackers". :)
feelsub wrote:* With my laptop, I sometimes use an external screen.
How with Slacko 5.4 do I shut off the laptop screen, so to have only the external one?
I don't know.. anyone field this one?
Maybe Zarfy could help..?

Greetings!
[color=red][size=75][O]bdurate [R]ules [D]estroy [E]nthusiastic [R]ebels => [C]reative [H]umans [A]lways [O]pen [S]ource[/size][/color]
[b][color=green]Omnia mea mecum porto.[/color][/b]

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#210 Post by 01micko »

SFR

This is magnificent work you are doing and my thanks goes out to you.. you get a virtual pat on the back!

I still want to investigate this further though, it is obviously something at the kernel level, be it the kernel it's self or the AUFS patches, I get them from GIT every time I compile a kernel.

I have just compiled 3.0.60 LTS with AUFS from GIT dated January 14. The 3.1.10 kernel in experimental slacko-5.4.00 was compiled in March 2012. A lot has happened with AUFS in that time. It may be a "feature", I can't find any reference on the mailing lists or logs though.

So.. in the next day I will release another testing build with 3.0.60-4g. This will endeavour to prove if it's vanilla kernel or AUFS as the source of this bug. This way, we have inductive proof to present to Barry for a fix in woof. I know he is on the build path with the next Precise, and I wish he'd have a look at this first. I will post on his blog tomorrow, I'm a bit tired now, plus I want to see what happens with 3.0.60.

Cheers and thanks again!
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
Contact:

#211 Post by tlchost »

[quote="01micko"]Thom,

I have a work around tool for this shortcoming.
</quote>
Does not seem to work here

Thom

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
Contact:

#212 Post by tlchost »

01micko wrote:Thom,

I have a work around tool for this shortcoming.

See Menu >> Desktop >> Settings >> Desksetup Templates for Desk Icons.
Doesn't seem to work here...exactly what file does it write to and what is the name of the script it installs??

Thom

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#213 Post by 01micko »

tlchost wrote: Doesn't seem to work here...exactly what file does it write to and what is the name of the script it installs??

Thom
Hmmm.. just tested working here. Did you click the "Custom" button to save your current layout? Files are in /usr/local/desksetup. Saves config in /root/.desksetup. It alters the rox-pinboard at /root/Choices/ROX-Filer.
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

tlchost
Posts: 2057
Joined: Sun 05 Aug 2007, 23:26
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
Contact:

#214 Post by tlchost »

01micko wrote:
Hmmm.. just tested working here. Did you click the "Custom" button to save your current layout? Files are in /usr/local/desksetup. Saves config in /root/.desksetup. It alters the rox-pinboard at /root/Choices/ROX-Filer.
I noticed I was never asked for a name for the custom file...so, my steedl trap logic tells me if it did not ask for a name, none was created.

So, help me with the ultimate Kludge....how would I do it manually? sve pinboard to some_other_name and after rebooting then copy some_other_name to pinboard and restart x ?

Thanks

ps, in the unspeakable IRC channel now

User avatar
tallboy
Posts: 1760
Joined: Tue 21 Sep 2010, 21:56
Location: Drøbak, Norway

#215 Post by tallboy »

File is ~/.desktopsetup/custompin, this setup works very well! Icons are my modified Stardust theme, GTK theme is also Stardust, and in the JWMConfiguration Manager is the JWM theme set to Black-vg, and the choice Change Window Decorations is set to 'larger' (window buttons).
This is the best puppy I have had so far, so I had to update my signature! I have done the modifications mentioned in this thread, but limited myself to a 590 version of JWM, and installed firefox-18.0.1, the original had some strange behaviour. I run live CD/DVD only. I usually save files to a USB HD, and it annoys me that turning off the machine with the Power button afterwards - as I have done before, now activates the whole Power-off/savesession procedure.

tallboy
Attachments
capture25928-1.jpg
(137.57 KiB) Downloaded 815 times
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

Post Reply