Been a long.... time since I developed or updated anything new for WeeDogLinux, though that's partly because WDL_Arch64 is a rolling distro (per Arch repos) and runs stable and fine for myself and family. However, though I rarely do much if any development work at this time of year (approaching summer where I live), my partner (who uses WDL Arch64 for her main business OS) keeps wanting new software installed, and frankly, Arch Linux is probably not the best distro to use for business purposes.
In particular, some packages a business user might desire are sometimes only available in the Arch User Community Repository (AUR), whereas the same packages are often provided early for Ubuntu distros. Having said that, Arch is one of the best distros to use if you like close to the most up-to-date versions of most common packages, owing to it being a rolling release.
Anyway, WeeDogLinux build scripts were designed to also build Ubuntu (or Debian, Devuan) distros, via the usual debootstrap mechanisms (and in a chroot with no dependencies required on the build host system itself), so I've been experimenting with that during the past 24 hours using main root filesystem build script "build_firstrib_rootfs_latest.sh" (same one used during an Arch build). However, I discovered it was no longer working for Ubuntu because the debootstrap version I had coded into the script was no longer available upstream - also, since I wanted to build a Ubuntu Focal-base WeeDog I wanted to use the latest debootstrap version. My earlier WDL Ubuntu dev work was far from complete, so I've been reorganising that part of the build_firstrib_rootfs script (which should also work with Debian or Devuan builds as before). I now have the draft system booting (following creation of WeeDogLinux initrd via build_weedog_initrd script), and am working on the f_00_Ubuntu_Focal plugin to create a desktop version, by modifying the current WDL_Arch64 plugin to install Ubuntu packages instead of the Arch ones (so overall look and feel comes from WDL_Arch64, including userswitch between root and normal user facility, which I also intend to enhance). Simple ethernet or wifi "wiakwifi" utility is also connecting fine (I don't have ethernet connection to this dev machine, only wifi, so I always get that working early... that's both simple and optional of course - could easily mod it to use any of the typical Puppy wifi connect utilities, or whatever Ubuntu repos could provide). Don't know when first release of this new full desktop WDL_UbuntuFocal will be, but might not be too far away...
In the meantime, I am posting this message from the WeeDog initrd booted WDL_UbuntuFocal64 draft attempt. Won't bother adding a screenshot at this stage since all that would show is basic X with Firefox and xterm on it, with openbox for decoration (as used in WDL_Arch64, but not yet configured in this draft)... This WDL Ubuntu work does mean that I've currently postponed my intended new WDL_Void enhancements, but I wouldn't likely have been doing that intended Void full desktop version till after summer anyway, so its really an unexpected extra that WDL_UbuntuFocal full desktop is on the way... Like all other WeeDog variants it should be extremely stable and RAM and CPU efficient (thanks to WeeDog initrd overlayfs frugal install mechanisms) and this current running draft version suggests that will indeed remain the case. Like WDL_Arch64, I don't intend slimming it down to occupy less hard drive storage space, however, since I personally see little point to that (since even a usb stick has plenty space nowadays, like alone a hard drive, and download size has no effect on RAM or CPU usage unless a user wants to copy whole distro into RAM prior to using it, which I never do since using as little RAM as possible is always my personal aim. I will also be using default systemd, per Ubuntu default configuration, and pulse-audio, since frankly doing so pretty much ensures audio hardware will be auto-detected and working, and overall system easy to control via systemctl utility. If you want non-systemd version (such as old sysVinit), you could modify the f_00 plugin (though you'd have to configure such changes yourself), or I'd advise trying WDL_Void, which uses runit instead.
Per usual WDL releases, no, I don't intend producing an iso, simply a make_Ubuntu_distro build script. Okay, so I did produce a WDL_Slitaz iso, but that is because it was so tiny and easy to produce. Being a rolling distro, I see little point in making a WDL_Arch iso (since first pacman update would be huge download anyway to bring the iso back up to rolling-release current state). I guess, I "might" eventually produce an iso for WDL_Ubuntu variant (since Ubuntu not rolling release really), but iso just becomes old and stale compared to simply make_Ubuntu new one from the single build script... (Yes, I generally don't like iso distros any more - too many big ancient iso files lying around on my usb sticks and hard drive wasting space here... usually just end up having to download newer version of such isos anyway... or have that painful huge update via package manager process going on prior to being able to use the now-old iso anyway...). If a user isn't used to running a single shell script yet, then probably best they don't use WDL anyway, though the install instructions are pretty simple:
1. make an empty directory for the build.
2. copy the single make_WDL_distro script into there and run it (and drink coffee for an hour or till the auto build is complete)
3. configure your grub (or whatever) to boot its vmlinux and initrd per the WDL menu.lst or grub.cfg frugal install format.
wiak
