Slacko 5.6 - feedback, bug reports

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Billtoo · #91 Post by **Billtoo** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 02:24

I used the F2FS Installer - Flash Drives to do a frugal install to a
64gb flash drive, computer is a lenovo ThinkCentre.
video-info-glx 1.5.3 Thu 29 Aug 2013 on Slacko Puppy 5.6 Linux 3.4.52 i686
2.0 VGA compatible controller:
Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
oem: Intel(r)Eaglelake Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS
product: Intel(r)Eaglelake Graphics Controller Hardware Version 0.0
X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.12.4
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (507x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) G41 x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Core 0: @2003 1: @2003 MHz
Linksys WUSB54GC 802.11g Adapter [ralink rt73]

No problems

James C · #92 Post by **James C** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 06:31

More MPlayer fun........ in Slacko 5.6 will not play anything ,and I mean anything, on my main Athlon XP box.
However, on an install on an old P4 box MPlayer plays everything.... just tested a few flv,mp4 and mkv samples.
No such problems with the 5.5 install on the Athlon XP. Guess I'll try a different build of MPlayer....

James C · #93 Post by **James C** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 06:54

Took /usr/bin/mplayer out of 5.5, where it works fine, and inserted it into 5.6..... no improvement.

watchdog · #94 Post by **watchdog** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 08:33

I found that gnome-mplayer's language settings (audio and subtitles) may be broken in this compilation. Disabling subtitles makes working gnome-mplayer. In Edit-Preferences-Mplayer insert as Extra Options to MPlayer:

Code: Select all

dvd://<titleno>

In Edit-Preferences-Subtitles untick the box "Show subtitles by default", too.

EDIT: as Extra Options to MPlayer also works:

Code: Select all

dvd://1 -alang it -slang it

(Change it with your locale...)

SFR · #95 Post by **SFR** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 10:16

Hi Mick

When mounting encrypted savefile file via mouse-click (filemnt) and a password typed in is incorrect, /dev/loopX remains associated with it and one can not unmount a partition, on which this savefile is.

What works for me is:

Code: Select all

  else
   losetup-FULL -d $DEVLOOP		# SFR: disassociate
   rmdir "$MntPt" #121203
  fi

in /usr/sbin/filemnt, ~ line 189.

And although I haven't encountered any problems with it (so far), I'm a bit uncertain - perhaps you recall that the use of 'losetup -d' was once a culprit in sfs_load, with kernels >= 3.2.
Hmm, I don't know...just reporting...maybe it's rare enough to leave it as is..?

Greetings!

watchdog · #96 Post by **watchdog** » Fri 30 Aug 2013, 11:54

For those guys who are reporting problems playing Dvds I think they should read this madness:

http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/

Is this the problem in some cases?

James C · #97 Post by **James C** » Sat 31 Aug 2013, 06:42

Finally got got around to installing the Nvidia driver on this box. Ran the video upograde wizard which offered and installed the "old" 173.14.37 driver. Installed and working ok. But, in Mageia I'm using Nvidia 295.71 , Lucid is using 260.19.12, Mepis and Mint are both running 304.88.
I know this chip uses the newest Nvidia drivers but the newbies possibly wouldn't.

# report-video
VIDEO REPORT: Slacko Puppy, version 5.6

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

Requested by /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Depth (bits, or planes): 24
Modules requested to be loaded: dbe
Drivers requested to be loaded: nvidia

Probing Xorg startup log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log):
Driver loaded (and currently in use): nvidia
Loaded modules: dbe dri dri2 extmod fb glx kbd mouse ramdac record wfb

Actual rendering on monitor:
Resolution: 1440x900 pixels (402x251 millimeters)
Depth: 24 planes

...the above also recorded in /tmp/report-video
# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
9888 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1977.463 FPS
10277 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2055.300 FPS
10329 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2065.706 FPS
10335 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2066.983 FPS
10375 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2074.925 FPS

01micko · #98 Post by **01micko** » Sat 31 Aug 2013, 10:37

Thanks James, found that bug. Noted for future reference.

-

I compiled mplayer from today. I think I know what was wrong with the old one now. I enabled "--enable-runtimecpudetect" and that seems to let run on my fast box and a slow box. At one point that was automatic, but I think that was a bug so they reverted it, don't quote me on that though!

grab it << http://01micko.com/packages/MPlayer-2013-08-30-i486.pet

As for gnome-mplayer, yeah I know mine is 1.0.8b but in the changelog from that to stable was only 1 relevant detail to do with music playlists, wasn't worth my effort. I have been in contact with Kevin DeCorte since the Lucid days so I know it well.
As for later versions, well they don't build as they need automake-1.13 and we are at 1.11. I am not updating that as it will likely affect too much. If I find the energy to build against Slackware-14.1 (coming soon) then that will be taken care of. With this new mplayer compile and Xine as a choice, most people should be able to run dvds. watchdog's find could be a cause as well,

rcrsn51 · #99 Post by **rcrsn51** » Sat 31 Aug 2013, 11:23

01micko wrote:grab it << http://01micko.com/packages/MPlayer-2013-08-30-i486.pet

I tested this on my old Athlon box with Slacko-5.6-PAE. Now Peasy DVD Player works correctly. Previously, it only worked with 5.6-NON-PAE.

Thanks.

James C · #100 Post by **James C** » Sat 31 Aug 2013, 22:58

01micko wrote: grab it << http://01micko.com/packages/MPlayer-2013-08-30-i486.pet

Working well on the Athlon XP box.

watchdog · #101 Post by **watchdog** » Sun 01 Sep 2013, 07:53

Copying a frugal install from an ext4 partition to a netbook's ntfs partition it keeps "Updating the layered filesystem... The next boot will be faster" at every reboot and at shutdown there are inode errors of my ext2 lightencrypted slackosave. Removing fsckme.flg does not solve the problem and it is recreated every time.

EDIT: copying the used SFS from root dir in the same dir of the frugal install on the netbook solves the strange behaviour of "Updating the layered filesystem..." at every reboot. But as I use the copied slackosave it gets inode errors at shutdown.

bigpup · #102 Post by **bigpup** » Sun 01 Sep 2013, 19:05

watchdog

One thing that can cause problems with putting Puppy on an NTFS formatted partition.
Was the partition De-fraged before doing the install?
Also, a save file made on one computer, may have problems on another computer, because the save file contains settings specific to the computer it was made on.

copying the used SFS from root dir in the same dir of the frugal install on the netbook solves the strange behaviour of "Updating the layered filesystem..." at every reboot

All SFS files need to be placed in mnt/home to load properly. That should be directory of the frugal install.

Billtoo · #103 Post by **Billtoo** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 02:31

I copied my backup savefile to another Slacko non-pae install that's
on a 32GB SDHC card then plugged it into my hp desktop.
video-info-glx 1.5.3 Sun 1 Sep 2013 on Slacko Puppy 5.6 Linux 3.4.52 i686
2.0 VGA compatible controller:
Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09)
oem: Intel(R) Sandybridge/Ivybridge Graphics Chipset Accelerated VGA BIOS
product:Intel(R)Sandybridge/Ivybridge Graphics Controller Hardware Version0.0
X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.12.4
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (507x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Desktop x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Core 0: @1600 1: @1600 2: @1600 3: @1600 MHz

I'm also running Lighthouse 602b2 from another SDHC card on this pc
and I can use zarfy to setup to use 2 monitors, I think this comes
from the slackware 64bit repository but it's not available in ppm.
I'll have to see if I can track down the source code for zarfy and try
to compile it.
Anyway, Slacko is working fine otherwise on this pc, right now I have
the same screen on both monitors.

@01micko,are you able to find/compile zarfy for Slacko56-non-pae?

EDIT:I found the zarfy source code but failed miserably compiling it, could you compile it if you have time?

EDIT:I found the SlackBuild for zarfy and used that, I'll attach it to this message in case you want to use it and make a pet of zarfy.

X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.12.4
dimensions: 3840x1080 pixels (507x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

EDIT: screenshot2 shows my desktop using zarfy, tas is broken now but pupsnap works fine.

peebee · #104 Post by **peebee** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 06:45

Hi Billtoo

There is a pet from 2009 of zarfy-0.1.0 (same version?) from Jemimah here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=47603

I am interested to know if it works as I was having problems connecting an external monitor to a laptop running Slacko5.6 at work yesterday.

The problem was that the external monitor showed the bootup sequence OK to the point where different drivers seem to switch in when the monitor goes black and then a "no signal" message appears.

The annoying part is that the laptop also has XP on its disk and this works fine with the external monitor.

I've tried grandr and lxrandr and neither kick the monitor into life.

The laptop has radeon graphics - I'm not at work today but will add further details tomorrow if needed.

I only want the monitor to mirror the laptop display (to display an "advertising slideshow" in LibreOffice Impress).

Any pointers as to what I might need to do to get the external monitor working with Slacko please?

Thanks
peebee

watchdog · #105 Post by **watchdog** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 09:13

watchdog wrote:Copying a frugal install from an ext4 partition to a netbook's ntfs partition it keeps "Updating the layered filesystem... The next boot will be faster" at every reboot and at shutdown there are inode errors of my ext2 lightencrypted slackosave. Removing fsckme.flg does not solve the problem and it is recreated every time.

EDIT: copying the used SFS from root dir in the same dir of the frugal install on the netbook solves the strange behaviour of "Updating the layered filesystem..." at every reboot. But as I use the copied slackosave it gets inode errors at shutdown.

Thanks bigpup. I have solved the problem of inode errors by copying the /lib/libntfs-3g.so.79.0.0 from wary and using it in slacko. Thanks to rcrsn51 who first wrote about this trick.

Billtoo · #106 Post by **Billtoo** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 12:59

peebee wrote:Hi Billtoo
Any pointers as to what I might need to do to get the external monitor working with Slacko please?
Thanks
peebee

Hi peebee,
On this pc without zarfy both monitors show the same screen.
When I bootup now I run zarfy and apply the settings, then I have the extended desktop.
I have Slacko 5.6 on a netbook and a laptop and both have an
external monitor connected to them.
I installed the proprietary ati driver on both and entered amdcccle in
the terminal, from there I was able to configure both screens, each
has the proper resolution for that screen.
The netbook has HD4200 and the laptop has HD5400 graphics so they are
both still supported by amd, if your laptop has XP on it then it'd be
in the legacy group I guess and the newer proprietary drivers don't
support legacy cards,maybe you could get the legacy driver to compile.

haitek · #107 Post by **haitek** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 16:37

Thanx heeps 01micko. I bought some new hardware and couldn't install an OS until I popped in a Slacko 5.6 CD, then it just happened. Must be destiny. I now have a screamingly fast puppy box which works a treat. The PAE recognises my 32Gb rAM, the nvidia driver recognises the nvidia GT630 with its 4Gb VRAM. Slacko installed on the SSD with no problems. Everything is good. Thanks again. SLACKO ROCKS! Very kewl.

bigpup · #108 Post by **bigpup** » Mon 02 Sep 2013, 17:45

haitek,

Wondering how long it takes to boot Slacko with that computer setup?
Talk about overkill system for Puppy!

Puppy might use 1GB of memory if you had everything running at the same time.
Good to know it works on a computer with those specs.
Make sure to run the "Video Upgrade Wizard" and use the Nvidia drivers for that GT 630 card.

Eldon · #109 Post by **Eldon** » Wed 04 Sep 2013, 08:28

As always, this seems to be an improvement over the last version, however I'm experiencing a problem and I'm not entirely sure if it's my hardware or what. It's been happening since 5.4 or maybe before that (I think it wasn't a problem with 5.1), but there was quite a while that this was not occurring with pretty much the same apps and the exact same hardware.

It seems to be a random (and somewhat frequent) kernel panic. It doesn't always say that, but sometimes it does. Sometimes it goes to the "text console" and I can hit xwin to go back, and other times it's completely frozen with (error?) codes/events on a black screen.

And it seems to perhaps, not be unique to me, or Puppy/Slacko.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1157715

^ A few users of Arch posted this a year ago, implicating the 3.4 kernel itself or a problem with btusb:
"I got a kernel panic about two weeks ago, and then again about an hour ago...
I have no clue how to address the problem, it seems these errors are completely sporadic, and I can't think of anything in common between their circumstances.

Honestly, it's just encouraging to see that it's not just me. I hope this isn't a huge problem with the Linux Kernel... Torvalds would be pissed.

EDIT: IRQPoll was not a solution for me, and I'm on linux 3.5.3-1, so the 3.5 update doesn't appear to offer all the salvation after all."

And then another guy replied:

"I've had the same problem and blacklisting btusb solved it for me."

So this may be unique to btusb and the 3.4(+?) kernel. I've got the slackware packages etc. installed so that I can use my (usb) Bluetooth keyboard so I think that may in fact be the issue (especially considering that the post is a year old and they haven't come back with an update that says "Still crashes with btusb blacklisted"). Of course, it could be something completely different, like my USB flash drive it's booting from, going bad or something like that I guess.

I don't know if I should go back to a version of Slacko with a earlier kernel or what, but I hope that this can be (easily) resolved somehow. I guess I should try an earlier version and see if this happens. If it does, then I'll try another flash drive and hope that fixes it.

So if anybody has usb bluetooth set up with a recent version of Slacko and you get the "black screen of death"

- it's not just you.

davids45 · #110 Post by **davids45** » Thu 05 Sep 2013, 07:06

G'day Eldon,

My 2-year old desktop has been suffering a similar infrequent and unpredictable freeze with more recent kernels (for about 6 months?). This has happened with Fulls and Frugals, with Slackos, Precises, Rarings.

I can't make it happen, but subjectively, it may occur more often when I'm running a large program (e.g. Libre Office, Seamonkey) and hardly ever when I'm doing nothing.

I have tried a different RAM stick but eventually I got a freeze, so I'm thinking its the motherboard/CPU.

I can't verify your btusb blacklisting immediately as a fix to a kernel bug but will see if it does seem to work if I can find it in various Pups - Upup Raring-3.9.9.2 (using this at the moment) doesn't list it under the Boot Manager Blacklist option.

Please post any other reports of this annoying behaviour you come across - I still fear it's a hardware problem.

David S.

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