Vanilla Dpup 11.0.x Development Builds

[dimkr]

@d-pupp You're trying to mount the wrong image or trying to mount it the wrong way, because the image doesn't contain an exfat file system, it's a device image with one or two partitions.

[dimkr]

The next development build replaces most remaining uses of Xdialog and gtkdialog with yad. Some dialogs are more compact now (pupswap is a good example), and the shutdown dialog is a bit smarter: you can close it to abort shutdown (as the text there says - it was a lie until now) and it shows a timeout indicator.

In addition, all uses of gtkdialog-splash (the floating text thing) are converted to yad --layer=overlay --edge=top (with https://github.com/step-/yad/pull/4) so they should be faster and less RAM intensive.

bootflash and firewall_ng still use gtkdialog and Xdialog, but I think these are the last pockets of resistance and I'll convert them soon.

[rockedge]

@dimkr Nice.....

[d-pupp]

You're trying to mount the wrong image

dimkr you are correct I was trying to mount the wrong image. What happened was when I extracted the img somehow a space got put at the front of the name. So when I tried to use tab complete it didn't show up and I didn't read carefully enough. So I was trying to mount one the .gz file

Thanks for you help

[wiak]

The next development build replaces most remaining uses of Xdialog and gtkdialog with yad.

I've long also thought that that was the best way forward for Puppy Linux more generally. Gtkdialog is too big a burden to try and support into the future. Other small distros made similar decision to ditch gtkdialog for main user utils years ago. I think Slitaz, for example, earlier relied on gtkdialog (I may be wrong) but then moved to other frontend programming methodologies.

Yad does not offer so many features as a programming language, but offers sufficient for most simple frontend utility app use. Main thing it remains currently developed and maintained and no signs that situation is going to change any time soon. Other ways of programming gui frontends to underlying commandline utilities are not so easy; for example or add weight in terms of widget support mechanisms, gtk-based programming or, what might otherwise be attractive: Python with some framework such as PySimpleGUI or the more powerful Kivy. The framework PySimpleGUI might be a reasonable fit for Puppy Linux, but I worried in case it went the same way as gtkdialog in terms of longterm support. However, it does seem to remain a viable resource for anyone who needs more than nice and simple yad since PySimpleGUI continues to remain actively supported and isn't too big last time I checked (but now has commercial use license whilst remaining free for hobbyist use - a bit off-putting overall for distro main utility app frontends). Python Kivy, on the other hand, is IMO over-the-top bulky for default use by Puppy though.

[dimkr]

I'm doing this yad migration not because of gtkdialog's diminishing popularity but because:
1. yad is alive, in the form of multiple maintainrd forks, while gtkdialog is unmaintained
2. yad mostly shows one widget at a time plus buttons, making it possible to port it to GTK+ 4: yad itself can be ported and the few tools that use yad with widgets gone in GTK+ 4 can be found and fixed easily
3. We already have a problem with gtkdialog, many old tools that use it make assumptions that are no longer true with GTK+ 3, so good backward compatibility requires a GTK+ 2 build alongside the 3 one; porting to GTK+ 4 would make things worse, especially because distros are dropping GTK+ 2 (long-term maintenance of gtkdialog means packaging GTK+ 2)
4. Even simple tools that use gtkdialog are heavy, and GTK+ 2 builds are even worse because they run through Xwayland (add Xwayland's RAM consumption to gtkdialog's) and can't support things like fractional scaling or layer-shell

[d-pupp]

@dimkr
I got dpup11 118 running and I noticed I have no geany. Is that by design or is it just my download?

[dimkr]

@d-pupp Packages are removed from Debian Testing all the time and return once they don't break anything anymore. This is normal. Don't forget you're using a development build, not a stable release.

[dimkr]

Lots of new stuff!
1. Transmission is back to Debian Testing, so it's back
2. Bootflash, pup-advert-blocker, firewall_ng, pupswap and pretty much everything except /etc/acpi/actions/acpi_poweroff.sh is reimplemented using yad instead of gtkdialog
3. The build output is produced using bootflash: the build process creates a sparse image and runs bootflash in "headless" mode, so the downloaded images are self-replicating (the image you download and eventually boot from a flash drive can run bootflash to install the same thing to another flash drive, [...]), they default to PUPMODE 13 and boot faster (because they detect the Puppy partition using UUID, without having to search for it)
4. The save/no save prompt now supports cancellation (if you close the window, shutdown is aborted) and they have nice timeout indicators
5. Better color picker: https://github.com/01micko/wly_colpick
6. If connected to an external monitor, lid close/open disables/re-enables the internal monitor - instead of suspending
7. pupswap and firewall_ng now have menu entries
8. Debian Testing has finally transitioned to 6.7.x (with 6.8.x in unstable)
9. gnome-mahjongg and wdisplays are added

[retiredt00]

Apologies if already mentioned but can anybody please tell me/point to a link on how I can mount the vanilladpup 11 image and copy the files in my HD to boot it without writing it in USB stick?
Specific commands rather than process outlines would be much appreciated.
Thank you

[dimkr]

@retiredt00 You'll see the partitions inside the image after losetup -fP --show /path/to/image

[retiredt00]

@retiredt00 You'll see the partitions inside the image after losetup -fP --show /path/to/image

This worked
Thank you

[retiredt00]

Dear dimkr
I tried dpup11 in my semi-broken i7 laptop and works pretty good! Takes some used to but that is to be expected.
I noticed that dkms is not provided yet which is a major problem for me since I need broadcom-sta wifi driver to have internet access, and some more modules, particularly the fan-control module so my laptop will not sound like a plane takeoff, thus limiting my testing abilities.
One thing I noticed is that the sound system can recognize the microphone and the input level but not the speakers that always show as mute with no way to unmute them.
More after the (next?) dkms including version

[dimkr]

@retiredt00 It's not included because it should work just fine if you install it, e.g. apt install broadcom-sta-dkms should work just fine

[retiredt00]

@retiredt00 It's not included because it should work just fine if you install it, e.g. apt install broadcom-sta-dkms should work just fine

This does not work without internet connection and broadcom-sta is the package providing this connection in this machine.
Downloading the broadcom-sta trixie package and trying to install it with apt, dpkg etc fails with missing dependencies (dkms).

[dimkr]

@retiredt00 That's because you're trying to install a single package as opposed to letting apt install its dependencies. Do what you'd do in Debian, which is connecting to a wired network to install the WiFi driver.

[retiredt00]

Unfortunately there is no wired network in this machine
I guess I'll wait for bdrv or just pass.
Thank you

[d-pupp]

Lots of new stuff!

Trying out the new build. It is fast, CPU and memory use are low.
The new dialog boxes are working well. Just one note in dark mode the icons for puppy shutdown dialog are hard to see.
Some other minor issues..
Some of the icons on the main menu are not displaying
The fun menu is empty no gnome-mahjongg. I can run the game from the terminal.
The sfs-load dialog box is very narrow. Only the size of the close button
The wdisplays is a good addition. However the changes are not persistent yet.
Sometimes new windows block old windows or popup under. Is there a tile options for new windows?

Keep up the good work dimkr
Great job.

[dimkr]

Thanks @d-pupp, I'll do my best to fix these things.

Some of the icons on the main menu are not displaying
The fun menu is empty no gnome-mahjongg. I can run the game from the terminal.

I'm on it. I still don't know what causes this at build time but one fixmenus after boot seems to fix the problem.

The sfs-load dialog box is very narrow. Only the size of the close button

Easy fix.

The wdisplays is a good addition. However the changes are not persistent yet.

I have a plan for this, I want to generate a wlr-randr script on each change and run this script on each monitor plug/unplug event.

Sometimes new windows block old windows or popup under. Is there a tile options for new windows?

Yes, you can define the labwc window placement strategy. The (IMO bad) default is "center", not "automatic" or "cursor". The next builds will use "automatic".

[dimkr]

The wdisplays is a good addition. However the changes are not persistent yet.

11.0.125 will include kanshi with a profile generator that dumps the settings applied through wdisplays into a profile for the current set of connected monitors.

When you have monitors A, B and C connected and change things in wdisplays, this profile generator saves the settings into a kanshi profile: kanshi will re-apply these settings next time you have all three monitors connected.

If you unplug C and change settings for A and/or B, the settings for A and B will be saved as a separate profile and kanshi will re-apply this profile only when A and B are connected but C isn't. Once you reconnect C, kanshi will switch to the profile for A, B and C.

It should be intuitive: the settings you applied last time you had this set of connected monitors should get re-applied next time you have the same set.

[dimkr]

11.0.128 fixes the missing menu entries issue, fixes dialog size issues, fixes various issues with kanshi and adds JWM-like window buttons:

The most important change is a woof-CE.tar.gz tarball that's published alongside images: it contains the woof-CE tree used to produce the images (including kernel-kit), source code for applications built from source, the kernel source and the kernel configuration file. I added some fortifications to prevent the build environment from causing build errors and inconsistent output: for example, the host distro environment variables are cleared and PATH is hardcoded to the correct value, to prevent issues like missing menu entries. I was able to reproduce 11.0.128 from within an earlier build, which is really cool.

The next step is cleaning up kernel-kit, I want to automate the process of patching the Debian kernel so it can run outside of GitHub Actions, like the rest of the build process. Once this is done, 11.0.x should be super easy to reproduce locally, with or without customization.

[rockedge]

Once this is done, 11.0.x should be super easy to reproduce locally, with or without customization.

Excellent! Lately I have been building different variants on a local system just to try the different options and see what comes out of the assembly line.

Good stuff

[d-pupp]

@dimkr
Is there a way to do a save on demand in this build.

I am running in pupmode 13 and currently only have the option to save at shutdown. Sometimes when testing this I make a change I want to save before I start do other things. I know this is development so command line is fine.

Thanks

[peebee]

Feedback......
Frugal install with components from 1.img but with an initrd.gz modified with the DISTRO_SPECS from the puppy.sfs
Booted OK with grub4dos

Unable to do a screenshot:

Code: Select all

root@puppypc:~# mtpaint -s

(mtpaint:2025): dbind-WARNING **: 17:51:37.693: AT-SPI: Error retrieving accessibility bus address: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.a11y.Bus was not provided by any .service files
root@puppypc:~# 

Unable to do a reboot - resource busy message

[dogcat]

Posting from VanillaDpup 11.0.128

Booted OK with Grub4DOS using
title VanillaDpup_11.0.128 (sdb1/vanilla_110128)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vanilla_110128/vmlinuz psubdir=/vanilla_110128 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /vanilla_110128/initrd.zst

Running on a desktop computer, taskbar has a battery display with exclamation point ! ( -nan% Charged ) when hovered over battery

mpv media player does not launch from menu but does launch from /usr/share/applications/mpv.desktop

I confirm the same error with mtpaint that peebee mentions.

Nothing crashed, nothing strange.

[dimkr]

@dimkr
Is there a way to do a save on demand in this build.

Yes, the same dialog where you shut down also offers you to save without shutting down.

(or just run save2flash)

Feedback......
Frugal install with components from 1.img but with an initrd.gz modified with the DISTRO_SPECS from the puppy.sfs

It doesn't have initrd.gz, please don't mix with components from other Puppy releases because they're almost guaranteed to be incompatible and cause issues.

Unable to do a screenshot:

mtpaint doesn't support screenshots under Wayland, use the PrintScreen key (with or without Shift) to take screenshots.

[peebee]

Feedback......
Frugal install with components from 1.img but with an initrd.gz modified with the DISTRO_SPECS from the puppy.sfs

It doesn't have initrd.gz, please don't mix with components from other Puppy releases because they're almost guaranteed to be incompatible and cause issues.

What is the recommended way to do frugal installs to disk (grub4dos boot) for testing?

[dimkr]

What is the recommended way to do frugal installs to disk (grub4dos boot) for testing?

Currently there's only one recommended and officially supported installer: the included Bootflash. If you want to test things 'as intended', write the provided image to a flash drive and/or run Bootflash from within 11.0.x.

[dimkr]

mpv media player does not launch from menu but does launch from /usr/share/applications/mpv.desktop

10.0.130 will fix this.

It will also fix slower boot caused by xz compression of individual kernel modules inside the zstd-compressed zdrv. I pushed this fix while simplifying the kernel build process: the kernel is now built inside a Debian chroot environment, making it super easy to build and tweak locally (and that was the last remaining piece that's hard to reproduce).

[d-pupp]

10.0.130 will fix this.

First post from 10.0.130
Just have time for a quick look tonight but it's looking good
I can confirm that mpv starts from the menu
I still have a couple of icons in the menu with sfw default icons
I did have to remove my save folder for this version. Linux booted fine. However labwc refused to start

Nice additions to the shutdown dialog.

Thanks
dimkr