Pinta-portable - 64-bit painting app...

[mikewalsh]

Morning, gang.

Here's a 'portable' of Pinta, based around the AppImage of v1.8 that bigpup found about a year ago. This is the last one that would work in most Pups; from 2.0 onwards, huge changes were made in the .NET requirements, along with the need for GTK-3. The upshot of these is that to run Pinta v2.0, you now need a very new Puppy.....only Fossapup64 or higher will now do.

I've given this my usual 'treatment'. You can run it from the 'LAUNCH' script, or you can add a Menu entry if preferred. Config files are all self-contained, sym-linked out at boot & deleted again at close.

You can find it here:- https://mega.nz/folder/SSoimZAI#DAmU0ok44kzf5At_TT2kcw

Best to move the unzipped portable outside the 'save'. Enjoy!

Mike.

[ozboomer]

Fanx a heap f'this... Could never get my head around the quirky operation of mtpaint (which I understand is tiny) and I don't need gimp's 'pretend Photoshop'-ness and peculiar most everything (for me). At least 'Pinta' (Paint .NET) is something I'm familiar with and can understand, even IF! it's pretty mammoth. Guess I'm still looking for a better 'small' image editor...

Best to move the unzipped portable outside the 'save'. Enjoy!

Owing to its size... or that it frequently writes something to a system area (troublesome for flash USB installations)?

[mikewalsh]

@ozboomer :-

Um.....O-kay.

If you want small, you could always take a look at the LaZPaint-portable.

https://lazpaint.github.io/

It's like a really, really tiny lightweight 'cross' between the GIMP and Krita......with shades of CinePaint thrown in for good measure. Tarball's a little over 3MB, unpacked between 12-13 MB. There IS something of a 'learning curve', but you can find a whole bunch of video tutorials here:-

This is NOT the very newest version. I built these the best part of a year ago; I've neither posted about them, nor have I even uploaded them. LaZPaint has been mentioned on the forum many times over the years, so it's not "new" to this community.

This particular build - this is is v7.1.6, and the current build is v7.2.2 - I chose from the archives because experimentation showed it to be the newest build at that time which would just "work" with the greatest number of Puppies, OOTB, without any fuss.

===================================

These are packed as ROX-apps. It's just the standard 'portable' layout with the addition of an 'AppRun' sym-link to the 'LAUNCH' script, which lets it run as a ROX-app (just click on the directory itself, and it'll fire-up.) Like this, you need to Rt-clk -> Look inside to go down a level into the directory itself; that's just a peculiarity of the way ROX-apps work. Normally, clicking would take you further in, whereas clicking on a ROX-app launches it!

Once inside, the usual MenuAdd/Remove scripts let you add or remove a Menu entry, IF one is wanted. It'll work just as well as-is.

Entirely up to you. It's not everyone's cup o' tea - it does have its own peculiarities - but you'll never know if ya don't at least try it. If you don't like it as a ROX-app, just delete the AppRun sym-link...

Lightweight, it most certainly IS.

Mike.

[ozboomer]

Nice suggestion, f'sure... I had LazPaint on my 'list' but forgot about it in the mess(!)

...bit of a problem, tho...

I extracted the tarball somewhere convenient... and when I tried to run program (under F96-CE and a few other distros), it threw an error:

Code: Select all

# lazpaint
lazpaint: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by lazpaint)
#
# ls -l /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2029224 Nov 11  2022 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc-2.31.so
[...]
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      12 Dec 16  2022 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.31.so
#

...but it did work Ok under BookwormPup... so it seems that distro must use the required C libraries. Hmm...

So, it comes down to:

• using Pinta (which I mostly know) but adds 30MB to the savefile; or

• using LazPaint (which I need to learn, but doesn't seem onerous) and only adds 3MB to the savefile... but I need to sort-out how to update the C libraries OR completely reconfigure the running F96-CE system(s)... or move to Bookworm (and more configuring)

I'll add both options to my on-going Puppy usage notes f'now, methinks... and wear the 30MB... f'now.

Fanx! a heap.

[mikewalsh]

@ozboomer :-

Ah, hell. I'm really sorry about that.......I forgot to include the link to to my 'portable' version.

v7.1.6 I tested under a whole bunch of Puppies, and it seems to run anywhere. Not much good my mentioning it, and then not letting you try it, is there?

You can find the v7.1.6 portable version here:-

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ev58xz ... t-portable

This'll run under Tahrpup64, Xenialpup64, Bionicpup64, AND Fossapup64 9.5 (Phil's original). The 32-bit build will run under the 32-bit equivalents..... Admittedly, even my Tahr64 has been upgraded from glibc 2.19 to Busterpup's 2.28 (and Xenial64 from 2.23 to the same), but they run it without fuss. This is why I settled on the older v7.1.6 build.......because from v7.1.7 onwards, they appear to have been compiled/built on a much newer system, and I DO like to make the 'portables' available for as many Pups as possible.

Let me know if it works for you, please.

• Download
• Unzip
• Move the portable anywhere you like, though outside the 'save' IS better
• Just click on the portable directory itself to fire it up, 'cos it's a Puppy-native ROX-app!

RT-clk -> Look Inside will give access to the afore-mentioned MenuEntry scripts.

Mike.

[ozboomer]

HidyHo, again...

Ah, hell. I'm really sorry about that.......I forgot to include the link to to my 'portable' version.

v7.1.6 I tested under a whole bunch of Puppies, and it seems to run anywhere. Not much good my mentioning it, and then not letting you try it, is there?

Uhrmmm... Ya. I thought it might've been 'an exercise for the reader'... but good ho.. I grabbed it Ok... and NOW I understand the explanation... 'coz I was sort-of familiar with Rox's 'app packaging' and recognized that structure in the Chrome 'portable'... but there wasn't any such structure in the tarball... and.. well, y'know........

It all works Ok in F96-CE... but you again mentioned to not include it in the savefile -- Is it because the program pages a lot... or there are other issues relevant to the situation where the savefile itself gets fragmented or resides on a USB flash drive?

Fanx! a heap for clearing all this up....

[mikewalsh]

@ozboomer :-

It's entirely up to you where you put it. As a true, self-contained portable app it will literally run from anywhere. With a small package like LaZPaint, it'll make hardly any difference......but I definitely recommend this for things like the browsers.....where the browser itself is pretty big to start with, and then on top of that, cache can quickly grow to GB in size if you don't take pains to control it.

All of which bloats the 'save' like crazy. Some Puppians like to use the save just for personal config/settings, and keep it as tiny as possible; whereas others - like me! - couldn't care less (with 5TB+ of storage & 32GB RAM, I am NOT short of space)........ "Horses for courses", y'know?

No; no special reasons (not technical or operational, anyway).....except for the fact that these will emulate the Windows PortableApps eco-system, where you can run your portables from a flash drive (if you want). And that's what I was aiming for from the very first attempts at doing this. A bunch of people helped along the way - credit where credit's due - and I've tried to hone the way they work as time has gone by, to everybody's benefit.

=============================

It's all about space-saving, and ease-of-use. As one of the old crew, from the early days, I hope you can appreciate this aspect of why I do this. I long ago came to the conclusion that, where folks run multiple distros - AND run pretty much the same programs in each - that one hell of a lot of storage space gets wasted due to duplication. Duplicated apps. Duplicated .configs......and those .configs need setting-up afresh in each distro. Not only that, they don't just waste space....they waste a huge chunk of your time doing so. How much better would it be to simply link to a ready set-up, ready to go app in a new distro?

This is what I did in my last yearly re-install of Windows XP. Instead of installing all my usual programs, I populated XP entirely with Windows portable apps.....and ya know what? That was the smoothest, most glitch-free 12 months I ever had with XP. That last year, it was a joy to use....but it still got the boot. I was still fed-up with it!

(I do have an ulterior motive, though. The desktop rig might be just 2-3 years old, with modern hardware, tons of RAM and buckets of storage space........but I also run a 15-yr old Dell Latitude lappie. Just 4 GB RAM. 120 GB SSD. This gets used in the front room of an evening when I keep Mama company. The same principle applies; saving space, keeping Puppy trim'n'tidy, and sharing apps between the pair of Pups that live there....)

Mike.

[mikeslr]

While I don't have T'Other Mike's portable, I can confirm that version 7.16 runs under Fossapup64. IIRC, all I did was download and extract the no-install package and created a menu pet linking to its binary. [As the current version requires glibc newer than Fossapup64 sports, easier to just use Mike's portable. But if you insist I tell you how to obtain the 7.16 'no-install' from github].

The binary is only 12 Mb, so no biggie to locate in /opt. At that size it's an interesting application. I use it mostly to convert webm graphics to some other format. But it originally caught my attention because AFAIK it's the only application which can combine raster and vector graphics. AFAICT, it uses overlays to accomplish that.

I don't know anything about creating vector graphics. I can confirm that Lazpaint will import an svg which you can use/modify. Couldn't find any written docs about creating them. But this youtube shows how to export your Lazpaint creations t0 Inkscape, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-b7vt ... A&index=15. To me it seems to be using Vector tools to create the vector graphic.

[ozboomer]

...I definitely recommend this for things like the browsers.....where the browser itself is pretty big to start with, and then on top of that, cache can quickly grow to GB in size if you don't take pains to control it."

So THAT's (partly) why my savefile 'usage' grows. How dumb of me... I'll have a look at moving it elsewhere. I wonder if there's any way to retain the history, bookmarks, etc (without having to 'sync' via a Google account OR export the 'lists')?

No; no special reasons (not technical or operational, anyway).....

I mentioned the 'paging' issues as someone obviously thought that was enough of an issue to add special functionality into the 'shutdown' scripts and provide a 'save' desktop icon. F'me, I tend to need to go to a new flash drive (owing to too many distros and versions) before the flash drive 'wears out' anyway...

"It's all about space-saving, and ease-of-use. As one of the old crew, from the early days, I hope you can appreciate this aspect of why I do this. I long ago came to the conclusion that, where folks run multiple distros - AND run pretty much the same programs in each - that one hell of a lot of storage space gets wasted due to duplication. "

Yup.. and that's why I went a little into the idea of trying to work out how to do something with another '.sfs' file or a 'layered disk' (like a 'zdrv_Perl_F96-CE_4.sfs' or something) so I could install all the Perl modules I wanted for a given distro version once... and just move it around as is already done with 'xdev'... but that kindof stalled - see Installing Perl Modules into a Custom .sfs File

... about 'portablized WinXP'...

It would be handy to have that control with anything in the 'package managers' (of the various incarnations)... but I well realize that's a major can of worms, design-wise, as has been discussed a lot elsewhere...

...and f'sure, the main reason I've been working to make Puppy a 'usable everywhere' distro is for exactly its original design philosophies: it's small... it works on old hardware (I'm reliably using it on a 2001 IBM Thinkpad, for example) and it can save everything in a 'savefile', as that makes expansion/backups/restores a lot easier & simpler at the cost of disk space (which is increasingly 'less expensive' than my time, trying to enhance my brain 'plasticity', etc).

If only Puppy would work properly and reliably with MIDI & audio.. but that's more a 'linux kernel' and 'linux subsystems' issue than Puppy, per se. I've wasted far too many hours over the last 30+ years trying to get a 'usable' DAW sorted in any Linux environment... although, in recent times, I'm still trying to persist with Reaper ...but it still doesn't seem to like Puppy (or all my hardware)...

...and a 'usable', non-online, dedicated 'mind mapping' application still eludes me; Freeplane and Xmind and other things are just too 'corporately focussed' (I do not want to make a 'Gantt chart' or a 'schedule of materials' or 'corporate structure' from my mind map, thank you) ...and they're generally too restrictive (in operation) or expensive for my sorts of uses... The next thing to try will be to find some sort of WINE subsystem that I can get to work reliably in Puppy, I think... and that will let me keep using my 2002 version of 'Mind Manager'

[mikewalsh]

@ozboomer :-

O-kayyy..... We're getting horribly "off-topic" here, but I'm just going to respond to 2 of your points before dropping it.

1 ) Re; the need to 'sync' a Google a/c in Chrome. Why? Where's the need? Think about it.....

IF you run the Puppy Chrome-portable.......and you run it from a flash drive.......you've immediately obviated the need to 'sync' the browser. Instead of having numerous 'fixed' browser installs in various locations, all 'syncing' with a copy of your profile THAT IS HELD ON GOOGLE'S SERVER'S (where they can pick it over at their leisure), with the portable you take not only the browser but the profile as well......because they're both in the same directory together. Your bookmarks, history, etc, will always be the same.....because running the browser like this, you are always using the same profile in every location......you're taking the browser AND profile to the Puppy. There's nothing TO 'sync'.....and no need to do so.

==============================

2 ) With regard to Linux DAWs, I've got an archived copy of 10wt3ch's final build of Studio 1337. Arguably the finest example ever of a Puppy DAW, this final build is Bionicpup64-based.......and it is LOADED. I've never seen so much stuff crammed into one place in my life, and it all works as it's supposed to.

10wt3ch finally gave up on it, and before he deleted it from his Google a/c he offered it free of charge for download on the forum for a while. I snagged a copy while it was available, 'cos it would be a shame to let such a magnificent example of what Puppy is capable of just disappear into cyberspace...... I believe Ally has probably got it archived at archive.org by now, since he appears to have done a copy of ALL my cloud a/cs (for posterity)!

IF you're interested, you can find it here:-

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ihyoyi ... tudio+1337

Entirely up to you.

Mike.

[wizard]

@mikewalsh

That was the smoothest, most glitch-free 12 months I ever had with XP. That last year, it was a joy to use....but it still got the boot. I was still fed-up with it

I still populate W10/11 with as many portable apps as possible, without which MS Windows registry quickly turns into a bigger hairball.

W10 and 11 make XP look good. UGH!

wizard

[ozboomer]

O-kayyy..... We're getting horribly "off-topic" here, but I'm just going to respond to 2 of your points before dropping it.

Ya, profuse apologies about that.. I should've split-off this discussion somehow.. I'll shush my yap about non-Pinta things now...

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