SparkyBonsai 2.0+

[SparkyBonsai]

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The latest Sparkybonsai version 2.1 is available to download in x86-64 and x86 pae/non-pae at:

https://osdn.net/projects/sparkybonsai/releases/p17829

Usernames/passwords:
root 0000
puppy 0000
(four zeroes)

What's new:

1.Better localization with "locales" and IPA fonts (supporting CJK characters).
Find "Setup Locales" in the Menu-System or run:

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

Check your preferred language (recommended UTF-8 encoding) and choose it as default.

To change your keyboard layout edit ~/Startup/services file and modify the "keyboard layout" line. (i.e. to toggle between English-US and Russian using Alt+Shift):

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setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us,ru -option_grp:alt_shift_toggle

To configure redshift for your location, edit ~/.config/redshift.conf to modify the local dimensions (find out the absolute ones in google map or something). Edit the following (i.e. for Madrid):

[manual]
lat=40.416775
lon=-3.703790

Reboot and done.

Screen_21_japan.jpg (56.74 KiB) Viewed 3224 times

2.Bluetooth support. To start blueman tray icon on next reboot edit ~/Startup/services file to un-comment "#blueman-applet &" to "blueman-applet &".
To use it with a bluetooth sound device such as a speaker/headphones, you have to redirect alsa output to bluetooth, a tricky procedure as there is no suitable packet available on Debian repositories.
An easy way is to use Pulseaudio. There is a module including pulseaudio, pavucontrol and pulseaudio bluetooth plugin in the "optional" directory (in the fat Sparkybonsai ISO). It is recommended to load it on startup (not activate it on the fly) and just redirect the sound output to your bluetooth device using pavucontrol.

3.Pre-installed Ristretto image viewer.

4.Qalculate is replaced by Galculator.

5.Pre-installed cifs-utils and nfs-common in order to access network shares, samba or nfs, out of the box.
Create a new folder as mount point:

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mkdir </what/ever/mountpoint>

and mount your samba shares:

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sudo mount -t cifs -o username=<samba-username>,password=<samba-password> //<your.servers.local.ip.or.network.name/<shares/directory> </what/ever/mountpoint>

or nfs:

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sudo mount -t nfs <your.servers.local.ip.or.network.name>:/<shares/directory> </what/ever/mountpoint>

Now browse your shares at </what/ever/mountpoint>.
If you wish to mount them on start-up, copy the mount command into ~/Startup/services file and save it.

If you wish to run a Samba/NFS server, there is a module available in the "optional" folder (in the "fat" ISO) containing both servers and some GUI configuration tools (Gadmin samba and Simple NFS). For the servers to run properly, it is strongly recommended to run the module on boot-up (not activating it on the fly).

6.Sparkybonsai uses JWM-Menumaker (https://github.com/maurosh/SparkyBonsai) to construct it's menu, from now on fully supporting localization. It uses files and folders of the filesystem as data, partially generated by pcmanfm installed components (pcmanfm - libfm). It can be used for JWM menu by any linux system with similar construction, no matter if uses systemd or not.

7.Synaptic package manager and apt-xapian-index pre-installed and patched.

8.DebianDog's repository is enabled by default in order to update the installed DDog tools or install some new. Debiandog however is using some AntiX packets for its main distribution, incompatible with Sparkybonsai. Double check every upgradable packet from DDog's repository. If "Antix" is mentioned in its specs then it isn't compatible with Sparkybonsai init system and you shouldn't update/install it. If updated accidentally and your system became unusable, reboot in fresh mode and manually remove your changes file or folders. All changes will be lost.

9.The "01-base.squashfs" is able to boot-up alone, without a desktop support, in order to install/configure your own desktop (or a desktopless environment if you wish) from that point. In x86-64 01-base.squashfs, Xorg is installed. In x86 versions is not, so you have to install Xorg before proceed to an X11 desktop installation.

10.Only Porteus boot mode is available. Find more about Porteus cheatcodes at: http://www.porteus.org/tutorials/26-gen ... -them.html

11.There are 2 ways to set up a custom startup command. Include it in an (existing or new) executable flat file in ~/Startup directory or paste it in ~/.startup file. The first one runs on user login session and the second on JWM. Practically it's the same thing.

12.Some minor fixes and improvements.

Extra Modules:

In the directory "optional" of the "fat" ISO there are some extra modules to activate on demand or load them on boot-up.
To activate on demand right-click and activate the module. It takes some seconds to activate it and auto-update the menu. Deactivate same way.
Boot-up loading can be done by including in boot options (syslinux or grub) the "load=module[1];module[2]..." or simply copy the desired modules from "optional" directory to /live, where "01-base.squashfs" and "02-jwm.squashfs" are.

1.Firefox-esr and tor. To use tor you must configure it, i.e. using the "foxyproxy" add-on. This module can be activated on demand.
2.Libre Office and pdf viewer. This module can be activated on demand.
3.Fonts module with ms ttf fonts and Fontmatrix font manager. This module can be activated on demand.
4.Vlc media player. This module can be activated on demand.
5.Stremio media center for x86-64 and Popcorn-Time for x86 version (Stremio is 64bit only). These modules must be loaded on boot-up.
6.File servers including Samba/NFS servers and configuration GUIs. This module must be loaded on boot-up.
7.Pulseaudio including Pavucontrol and pulseaudio-module-bluetooth. This module must be loaded on boot-up too.

Note: Some modules are pre-configured for "puppy" or "root" user. If created and login as another user may not run properly until you copy startup files (with modules enabled) in created user's home. In any case, it is recommended to create your own modules for the new user or stuck on "puppy" user.

Tips:
1.To enable tap-to-click, edge scrolling and palm detection (if supported by your hardware) on your touchpad, edit ~/Startup/services and un-comment (remove "#") in synclient commands. It will be enabled on next boot.
2.If you don't want to use redshift or battery indicator, edit ~/.startup file and comment (put a "#") or remove the commands redshift-gtk and cbatticon recursively.
3.A good practice is disabling journaling for ext4 filesystems on USB stick installations. Journaling may slow down your system running on USB sticks. There's no sense to try it on a hard disk installation (it's faster using journaling) or a non-ext4 (ie fat32) filesystem.
To disable it, unmount your (ext4 formatted) USB stick, find its /dev point (i.e. /dev/sdc1) and run:

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sudo tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdXx

Sparkybonsai 2.0_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The second release of Sparkybonsai, a live GNU/Linux distribution based on DebianDog and SparkyLinux Po-Tolo, a Bullseye Debian derivative, is avalable to download at https://osdn.net/projects/sparkybonsai
The basic iso (360MB) contains the JWM window manager, PCManFM file and desktop manager, mousepad text editor, Qalculator, Xarchiver, Lxterminal, Lxpolkit, ARandR, Redshift and DebianDog's tools.
The modules iso (910MB) contains the same system plus some extra pre-installed and configured packages:
1.Firefox with tor configured and some extra add-ons
2.Synaptic package manager with xapian index
3.Fonts pack with ms ttf fonts and Fontmatrix manager
4.Office pack with Libre Office and Qpdfview
5.Vlc media player
6.Stremio media center with many plugins installed

All modules can be activated/deactivated on demand to fit your needs and keep your resources as light as possible.
Just right-click any module included in /live/optional and activate/deactivate it with the DebianDog's tool. To let them appear in JWM's menu, you just have to do a Session-Restart and the Sparkybonsai menumaker script will do the rest.
All applications, actions and scripts will run on user's or root mode if you prefer. Will boot by default on user's mode but you can exit the session (Session-Exit) and login as root (or other user you may create) via the Slim login manager.
Sparkybonsai was tested by greek users and the default configuration (timezone, keyboard layout) is adapted for greeks.
Hope to enjoy this floral pup* as we did. If you do, consider sending a donation to our favor Debian distribution, Sparkylinux. https://sparkylinux.org/donate/
*Sparkybonsai is not a Puppy Linux distribution as it isn't created with woof-CE.

Username/password:
root 0000
puppy 0000
(four zeroes)

Debian: https://www.debian.org
DebianDog: https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux/
Sparkylinux: https://sparkylinux.org/

[dancytron]

Could you, at a high level at least, tell us how you took an existing Debian based distro and "Dogified" it?

Is it something that could be repeatable with other distros? (The Raspberry Pi OS x86 version comes to mind).

I downloaded SparkyBonsai 2.0 and will install it on my laptop and give feedback sometime this week.

[backi]

dancytron wrote:

Could you, at a high level at least, tell us how you took an existing Debian based distro and "Dogified" it?

Is it something that could be repeatable with other distros?

Good Question.......i a m very interested too.

[SparkyBonsai]

Obviously you can edit/modify the DDog's mklive script. Another option is to create a squashfs with your own linux filesystem and replace the DDdog's one. If you wish to use systemd, you have to create the kernel files with systemd/udev present before (by editing the mklive script or creating them with DDog's kernel tool from a systemd enabled system (Sparkybonsai can do that).
As for Sparkybonsai, it is created manually, inspired by the source code of DDog mklive script and giving the commands (altered) one-by-one.
Maybe we should keep the whole procedure in a script to publish.
Anyway, i think it's better to ask one of the DDog's developers about.

[SparkyBonsai]

There were also some interesting attempts to "doggify" or "puppify" distros other than debian. I think there was an Arch-dog out there and the Woof-CE script supported arch-puppy creation but not anymore...
As for Rasbian, things are much easier as its basically more Debian than ubuntu doggified distros.

[esos]

Video resolution wont change

[SparkyBonsai]

Use ARandR: Menu-System-ARandr, right-click on your screen(s)-resolution-choose your new resolution-click the check icon (or Ctrl-Enter).
If you want to restore your prefered resolution on this GPU/monitor on boot: Layout-Save as-save it in /home/puppy/Startup or/and /root/Startup (if login as root).

Edit: To change properly your desktop resolution you need to reload pcmanfm after ARandR:

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sudo killall pcmanfm && pcmanfm --desktop &

You don't need to reload it on boot-up if you have saved the script in ~/Startup.

[Clarity]

Hello @SparkyBonsai

Downloaded the ISO to /BOOTISOS folder on my SG2D USB stick.

This PC is a older HP-intel dc5700 Core 2 Duo E6600, circa 2009

Pristine boots all the way to desktop without issues. Logs,, too, are clean.

Navigation is crisp and system has a clean polished look.

I have 2 current problems:

• The running system has a background "crackle-crackle" every second thru the speakers in the background that I have not been able to locate to turn off/fix.

• Going to desktop (Menu>Session>Exit), I get the GUI login screen but '0000' for Puppy or root will not allow passage back to desktop

Ideas?

[SparkyBonsai]

Hello Clarity,
That "cracle" sound, sounds like an open microphone or a false audio input. Opening alsamixer and muting it may solve it. For a better sound quality install pulseaudio and pavucontrol.
Sparkybonsai won't return back to JWM on tty login like DebianDog as it starts with Slim login manager. After exiting the JWM session will go back to Slim. You can type username/password to login back or "exit" to exit xorg.
If you hide the JWM squashfs and try to start X without a windows manager, you have to run an x-app, i.e. startx xterm. It's a difference from Buster which doing that by default on startx.
Actually this is the purpose of the separated squashed files, to keep the basic filesystem and install your own WM/DE according to Sparky philosophy.

[Clarity]

BTW, I should have mentioned, I am running the 910MB version, as I'm sure that is important to you.

The "pop-pop" every 2 second was so annoying, I had to shut my testing down.

I will try the pulseaudio method as it seems the industry is heading that way.

Thanks for the feedback to overcome my probs.

Edit: I took the 5 minutes needed to download the 300+MB ISO to the folder and SG2D found it on a boot. Selected it taking the 1st ISO's menu entry to a pristine desktop. This version ALSO has that annoying background pop-pop occurring every 2 seconds. Went into Alsamixer and set everything to 00. Still the popping remains thru the speakers. I am lost to provide an identity to why/where the desktop is producing that on this PC.

Takeaway: The Pop-pop occurs on both distro versions.

[SparkyBonsai]

I can't reproduce it in my system. Maybe something to do with your emulator.
A service running periodically is the pup-volume-monitor. Normally has nothing to do with sound but you can try to disable it:

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# systemctl disable start-pup-volume-monitor.service

Both isos has the same system.

[Clarity]

See the update to my prior post. Trying the sys command once I reboot. I will report in moment.

Ok, no solution to annoying pop-pop using the 300MB version. Will try a different PC, later.

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puppy@live:~$ sudo systemctl disable start-pup-volume-monitor.service
start-pup-volume-monitor.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install disable start-pup-volume-monitor

Discovered my signin problem: Num-lock NOT turned on. Once on, password working.

Have not seen this 'popping' problem in a decade or 2, IIRC. The popping starts immediately at the end of the console messages just as the debian text image is posted on the console prior to desktop and doesn't stop thru the speaker...ever.

[SparkyBonsai]

Right, numlock is OFF due to compatibility with netbook keyboards without numpad. Turns the central alphanumeric keys into numeric.

[Clarity]

dmesg attached

P.S. IIRC there were only about 100 64bit Netbooks ever sold in the world during their run. Not sure who still owns one.

No offense to anyone.
Thanks for your assisting. I will post when time permits to test on another PC.

[Clarity]

HOLD the Presses!

Just booted a Ubuntu (hirsute-desktop-amd64.iso). SAME problem on same PC. This is unique to this platform.

Edit: Booted on a different old PC. No "pop-pop"! So that problem is platform dependent with the 2 Debian derivatives i have booted.

Scenario: Same USB used as before, same folder containing ISOs (/BOOTISOS), same Sparky selections (test both versions; namely 900+MB and the 300+MB), same Sparky boot Menu selections, pristine desktop .... NO ISSUES at this point on this PC.

Thanks for assistance. PM sent to thank you as well.

[SparkyBonsai]

Welcome clarity, hope to fix your hardware issue somehow.

[Clarity]

Probably requires a firmware upgrade which is no longer available from HP.

Excepting this, that have recently surfaced, in last couple days, I never knew of the issue. I could play with other kernels, but, the PC is rarely used except for tests I do from time-to-time.

Curious if ACPI has a play in it, too.

Thx

[esos]

Thanks, it works
How to wifi autoconnect?

[SparkyBonsai]

Use peasywifi, there are help buttons. After connecting go to Auto tab, choose your profile and click "on". PeasyWifi will save a script peasywifi_auto at ~/Startup. To enable it as root repeat the procedure (as root) or copy the script at /root/Startup:

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sudo cp ~/Startup/peasywifi_auto /root/Startup

[fredx181]

Nice! Good to see you continued this.

Some remarks/questions: (tested the 910MB iso)
- The extra modules are in "optional" folder, any reason why not in "live" so that they are all loaded at boot ?
In case you don't know, optional is for the porteus-boot "load=" option, e.g load=firefox or multiple modules: e.g. load=firefox;vlc
- When booted with changes=EXIT: in DebianDog there's choice to save or not at shutdown (by calling script /usr/bin/wmreboot or /usr/bin/wmpoweroff) in SparkyBonsai the changes are not being saved then.

Anyway, testing your distro inspired me to make some changes and improvements for porteusbootscrips and sfsload (systemd support and other improvements), see viewtopic.php?p=22231#p22231

Regards and keep up the good work!

P.S. extra modules better not contain dpkg registration (as in synaptic module var/lib/dpkg/info and var/lib/dpkg/status) to avoid conflict with dpkg registration in base .squashfs's.
EDIT: but not a problem when manually loading modules with sfsload, as files will not be overwritten then.

Fred

[SparkyBonsai]

Thank you fredx181,
Sparkybonsai and all those great DebianDogs are available thanks to yours and all other developers' of Puppy, Porteus and Debian Live good work.
I keep in mind your remarks as an improved version 2.1 in both 64 and x86 arch will be available soon.
The concept of the "optional" is to choose the packs to preload on startup, so i think "optional" is the right place. Do you think its better to put them in "modules"?
The purpose of keeping the dpkg registration in synaptic is to load it on-the-fly. It won't be possible for modules using i.e. sqlite, they must be loaded at boot. Maybe synaptic will be one of them so i could remove dpkg registration.
This is not a problem for DebianDog or other projects including synaptic in the basic sfs but many users (including myself) prefer not to use it at all.
I noticed the update of porteusbootscripts yesterday, i'm about to test it. Do you think it's safe to update it for the new version?

Anyway, due to the covid lock-down in many countries, more people found live systems useful using old hardware for remote lessons, watching movies etc so we decide to release this updated version. It isn't actually a technical goal but an act of solidarity to all those people staying at home, especially the poor ones with low hardware resources. I'm glad to hear that our work helped kids on watching their school lessons, old people having a better time at home, medical staff running linux DICOM viewers and everybody else in this difficult situation for us homo sapiens.

[SparkyBonsai]

About the shutdown menu, Sparkybonsai uses a simple script (/usr/local/bin/sparkysd) detecting the saving state and give the option to save changes. I'll check it on "EXIT:" too.
I'm also looking at Porteus docs about the use of an encrypted changes file, trying to figure out how to auto-mount it on next boot. Most docs are outdated, can you tell me where to look about that?

[fredx181]

I keep in mind your remarks as an improved version 2.1 in both 64 and x86 arch will be available soon.
The concept of the "optional" is to choose the packs to preload on startup, so i think "optional" is the right place. Do you think its better to put them in "modules"?
The purpose of keeping the dpkg registration in synaptic is to load it on-the-fly. It won't be possible for modules using i.e. sqlite, they must be loaded at boot. Maybe synaptic will be one of them so i could remove dpkg registration.
This is not a problem for DebianDog or other projects including synaptic in the basic sfs but many users (including myself) prefer not to use it at all.

Ah, I see, no, optional is fine.
About keeping the dpkg registration in synaptic module, if a user decides to load it at boot (by placing it in "live" or specify load=synaptic on the kernel command line there will be problems with the package management, the other extra modules are okay btw (without dpkg registration).

I noticed the update of porteusbootscripts yesterday, i'm about to test it. Do you think it's safe to update it for the new version?

Yes, should be okay, I tested much, note that the change is only for when used EXIT: (save at shutdown) in that case there should appear a dialog at shutdown on the console with choice to save or not (added systemd service), yes, please test if that works for you too.

Sparkybonsai uses a simple script (/usr/local/bin/sparkysd)

Yes, I noticed, as I wrote earlier calling /usr/bin/wmreboot or /usr/bin/wmpoweroff would give a GUI choice to save or not (in case EXIT: being used), but you choose how to set things up of course.

Cannot answer about encrypted save now, maybe later.

Fred

[SparkyBonsai]

If you remove dpkg registration from synaptic pack and activate it on the fly, after installations occurs an error for the (already installed) python3. But i think it's better to remove it and activate synaptic on startup.

Another issue I spotted is the missing "chpupsocket $USER:$USER" on startup. For non-root users will not appear any drives (internal or removable) if file manager.
Of course it will be solved on the next release, for now users should include the command in a script (i.e. lxpolkit) in ~/Startup directory:

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lxpolkit &
chpupsocket $USER:$USER

[SparkyBonsai]

The latest Sparkybonsai version 2.1 is available to download in x86-64 and x86 pae/non-pae at:

https://osdn.net/projects/sparkybonsai/releases/p17829

See First post of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2572

[SparkyBonsai]

The new Sparky kernel 5.11.15-amd64 for Sparkybonsai 64bit is available to download at:
https://osdn.net/projects/sparkybonsai/ ... -amd64.zip
Sparky kernels are compiled by the Sparky Linux community for testing purposes, using the source of the latest linux kernel.
This one is tested and working as expected in real conditions (not emulators) on Sparkybonsai 64, most likely it's suitable for all latest DebianDogs.

To update your kernel on a Sparkybonsai/DebianDog installation, unzip the files, backup your existing ones and replace vmlinux1, initrd1.xz and k-X.XX.XX-amd64.squashfs.
Live boot kernel file (initrd.img) is also avalable.

[bark-woof-fetch]

screen_21.jpg

The latest Sparkybonsai version 2.1 is available to download in x86-64 and x86 pae/non-pae at:

Great stuff, congrats and thanks.

I particularly find useful the Alt + shift keyboard layout switcher, touch to click mouse check and the 01-base option to build new WM from. Although your default might make me a JWM convert.

[SparkyBonsai]

Welcome bark-woof-fetch and thanx for testing Sparkybonsai.

[mikewalsh]

screen_21.jpg

The latest Sparkybonsai version 2.1 is available to download in x86-64 and x86 pae/non-pae at:

Great stuff, congrats and thanks.

I particularly find useful the Alt + shift keyboard layout switcher, touch to click mouse check and the 01-base option to build new WM from. Although your default might make me a JWM convert.

.....you mean you've never LIKED Puppy's default set-up?

Mike.

[bark-woof-fetch]

screen_21.jpg

The latest Sparkybonsai version 2.1 is available to download in x86-64 and x86 pae/non-pae at:

Great stuff, congrats and thanks.

I particularly find useful the Alt + shift keyboard layout switcher, touch to click mouse check and the 01-base option to build new WM from. Although your default might make me a JWM convert.

.....you mean you've never LIKED Puppy's default set-up?

Mike.

Nah it's fine. Would be nice with some more pop-ups that repeats and explains what I just clicked and what I might could click on next and stay open until I cancel or close them manually. But not a biggie.