"Testing" Sensei & Sensei64

[James C]

I don't believe there should be any problems with removing the "nv" driver....most 64 bit hardware should be new enough to have relatively new video cards.Nouveau now works pretty well on most Nvidia cards.

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NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
 	RIVA TNT        (NV04)
 	RIVA TNT2       (NV05)
 	GeForce 256     (NV10)
 	GeForce 2       (NV11, NV15)
 	GeForce 4MX     (NV17, NV18)
 	GeForce 3       (NV20)
 	GeForce 4Ti     (NV25, NV28)
 	GeForce FX      (NV3x)
 	GeForce 6       (NV4x)
 	GeForce 7       (G7x)
 	GeForce 8       (G8x)
 	GeForce GTX 200 (NVA0)
 	GeForce GTX 400 (NVC0)

[cinclus_cinclus]

1. Using german key-mapping I get only a '?' for 'ä', 'ö' or 'ü' in the terminal emulator, For 'ß' I get 'ss'.

2. There is no locale-gen command.

[cinclus_cinclus]

I would like to create sfs-modules for large packages like Wine.

How to do that?

How to make sure that the modules are properly initialized?
Archpup had instructions and commands(?) for that purpose
I would have to reinstall Archpup for looking up how that worked.
I remember that Calimero has 'mkaddon' in his CTKarch for the same purpose.
Any hints highly appreciated.

[stifiling]

@James C

this is GREAT news. thanks for the frequent downloads and tests. installing the nouveau driver though made the system grow a pretty decent amount. it's because nouveau-dri package is a dependency of xf86-video-nouveau. i'm wondering if nouveau-dri was to be removed, if X will still start. i'd also like to know if you have a similar issue to meowcats using the radeon driver on the ati card....rather than vesa. he mentioned that it made his ram sky-rocket up to abt a gig of usage. when u have a free moment James C....could you please install on the ati machine:

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pacman -S xf86-video-ati

and change line 3 in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file....from vesa to radeon.....and see if X will start....

@cinclus_cinclus

I still have to repair the dev.sfs file for the 32-bit Senseis...that u requested earlier. I didn't know locale-gen was missing...thanks for pointing that out. I've taken all the locale files out of the system...because they were taking up a lot of space. I'll put the locale files in a locale.sfs....and upload it. I don't know much about that end of using GNU/Linux. so i have to see too if i can get the system to change from english to german or any other language.

archpup had simargl's makesfs script...I'll go ahead and put it in.

[cinclus_cinclus]

There is an archlocale_132.sfs from Archpup. Couldn't I just use that?
... and makesfs from archpup as well?

By the way I did download 'dev-senfull_001.sfs' already. Doesn't that work?

[mikeslr]

Hi stifiling,

Best of luck on this project. I've looked forward to "an" Archpup for some time and was especially pleased to find that you're developing a 64-bit version. So please accept the following as an attempt at constructive criticism.
As yet no one has built an Archpup which will allow me to get to first base: that is, to access the internet. My system uses a RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI which, so far, no Archpup has recognized. Of course, without internet access pacman isn't particularly useful. I am aware that it is possible, while running a different OS, to download the driver, if it exists, from the Archlinux repository having researched a similar problem while trying to run Ubuntu 10 or 11. I solved it by simply finding an operating system which didn't require me to jump thru hoops just to try it out. I'm certain many potential users will take the same approach. So I recommend, regardless of any desire to create a "lean and mean" distro, that it be fully stocked with drivers.
Not being able to access the internet also means that the great instructions for getting started that you were thoughtful enough to provide in your initial posts are unavailable to those who need them the most. Might I suggest that be included in the ISO, as a file you can open with geany or such other application already in the ISO.
On thing you need not be concerned about is the graphics driver for ATI Radeon 3100. Sensei booted to the desired 1600 x 900 OOTB.

Thanks for initiating this project.

mikesLr

[stifiling]

There is an archlocale_132.sfs from Archpup. Couldn't I just use that?
... and makesfs from archpup as well?

By the way I did download 'dev-senfull_001.sfs' already. Doesn't that work?

i don't think the archlocale_132.sfs will work 100% correctly.

makesfs script should work fine....try it out if u will...and let us know if it does.

the dev-senfull.sfs....does work mostly...but i do know of a mistake in it. so for it to be perfect...i need to reupload it.

My system uses a RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI which, so far, no Archpup has recognized.

i would absolutely like to get it working...and include the working solution in the barebones.sfs.

do you know which module that pci card usually uses? i think it might be rt61pci. could you try:

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iwconfig

and see if you see wlan0 or eth1. if not could you try:

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modprobe rt61pci
iwconfig

and then see if you see wlan0 or eth1. if not, or if so, but it won't connect....can you run:

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dmesg

and see if there's any mention of firmware...or any other oddity that might stand out and appear as though it may be the reason rt61pci isn't handling your wireless device. maybe rt61pci isn't even the right module...

[James C]

Did a frugal install, booted to a correct 1440x900 desktop and then the computer froze leading to a hard poweroff. Adding nouveau.noaccel=1 to the kernel line solved the problem though.Had to do the same on Raring and PHATSlacko as well.

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Chip description:
VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a] (rev a2)

Anyway...appears to be working well now.

[sszindian]

Just a simple question but...

How do you increase the size of a savefile after it's initially established?

'Thanks'

>>>---Indian------>

[James C]

Started installing a few packages with Pacman....... everything looking good so far.

[stifiling]

i made most of the suggested changes and also added the locale.sfs for Sensei.

the locale solution in Sensei is the same as the devx. because i plan to make more desktops for the system, i've made the desktop specific locale files installable via:

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pacman -S locale-senxfce

here's locale-senxfce-001-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz if you'd rather not redownload the full iso again at this moment. the way to install a local package using pacman is:

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pacman -U /path/to/locale-senxfce-001-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz

[meowcats]

trying to boot 64bit:
loads kernel then cannot find sensei64_001.sfs

[stifiling]

trying to boot 64bit:
loads kernel then cannot find sensei64_001.sfs

does is load senapps and sendesk?

are you using psubdir in your kernel commands? if so...delete psubdir...

[meowcats]

I am using syslinux, all files are in root directory. rename to syslinux.bin and syslinux.cfg. syslinux.cfg:

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default vmlinuz initrd=initrd.gz

does not find senapps and sendesk, it says:
searching for sensei files... cannot find sensei64_001.sfs, dump to initial ram disk.

[stifiling]

I am using syslinux, all files are in root directory. rename to syslinux.bin and syslinux.cfg. syslinux.cfg:

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default vmlinuz initrd=initrd.gz

does not find senapps and sendesk, it says:
searching for sensei files... cannot find sensei64_001.sfs, dump to initial ram disk.

i've only tested it from iso and with grub. don't see why that would matter...but it's the only difference i'm seeing here.

[meowcats]

Ok, but the 32bit PAE boots just fine with the same syslinux.cfg...

I actually tried booting the 64bit iso with grub4dos just now, and i got the same error message.

Loading the 64bit iso in virtualbox works though...

[stifiling]

Ok, but the 32bit PAE boots just fine with the same syslinux.cfg...

I actually tried booting the 64bit iso with grub4dos just now, and i got the same error message.

Loading the 64bit iso in virtualbox works though...

James C was saying something similar a lil earlier, he ended up getting the new kernel and the old kernel to work though. wonder what the issue was. but here's a screenshot of Sensei64 loading in virtualbox, on my Sensei64 host installation

here's how my grub menu entry looks

title Sensei 64
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/Sensei64/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/Sensei64/initrd.gz

and i have all the sfs files in /mnt/sda1/Sensei64
initrd.gz and vmlinuz is in /mnt/sda1/boot/Sensei64

[meowcats]

Ok I went and installed grub2, and put kernel in /boot/Sensei64, and sfs in /Sensei64.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg looks like

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menuentry "Sensei 64" {
set root=(hd0,1) 
linux /boot/Sensei64/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 
initrd /boot/Sensei64/initrd.gz 
}

Boots and loads kernel, but still same error about not finding sensei64_001.sfs

[stifiling]

meowcats,

I'm going to try it with grub2 now, and see how it works out for me. but I'd like for u to keep trying to get it working...and try the xf86-video-ati just like how you did on the non-pae one. and see if you're still getting that high ram use...

[meowcats]

The high usage issue, can be replicated with stock.

Just open the task manager and check option "count cache as used". Free -m shows this number by default. Since its just cache, I wonder if its normal behavior then?
also md5:

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57207f5ad0a062b8e87dc64c77b09293  senapps64_001.sfs
82c8237cb92547017b09a0df10276f62  sendesk64-xfce_001.sfs
81ce9dd50c7a32b05ce4593b7b0283d0  sensei64_001.sfs