The Debian-Live Daedalus Starter Kit

[rcrsn51]

This is PeasyPDF updated to be gtk3 compatible. It uses the new xdialog3 package which is now in fred's repo.

[rcrsn51]

The Starter Kit ISO contains the very old theme package greybird-theme-dd-stretch. It mostly works OK but you may want an upgrade to the latest version from Bookworm. Run:

Code: Select all

apt remove greybird-theme-dd-stretch
apt install greybird-gtk-theme
apt autoremove

Note: After you install the new Greybird theme, some gtk2 apps like leafpad will throw command-line errors. Re-install the package gtk2-engines-pixbuf. Or get the gtk3 version named l3afpad.

When running gtkdialog apps with this theme, the fonts look too grey and faded for my liking. So I darkened them with

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/3c3c3c/000000/g' /usr/share/themes/Greybird/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

--------------------

[rcrsn51]

PeasyPDF is updated here and PeasyScale here.

[rockedge]

@rcrsn51 In KLV-Airedale-RT I used xdeb to install the PeasyPDF v5.1 .deb file. Glad to report it starts, but not working. What can I do to get it going (if possible)?

Screenshot_2023-09-30_19-49-25_500px.jpg (16.48 KiB) Viewed 6501 times

[greengeek]

Many Brother printer models only have 32bit Linux drivers, so some work-arounds are required.

1. Read the general instructions from the old forum here #74. It also discusses Brother scanner drivers.

2. If you have a Brother laser printer, the 64bit driver from here #383 may work well. This driver is also available from the Debian repos as printer-driver-brlaser.

3. If you have an inkjet printer with just a 32bit driver, follow these new instructions.

Important: Some Brother drivers need Perl. After installing the driver, check by running: grep -r perl /opt/brother
If you need it, get the "perl" package via apt-get. Or just install it in advance to be safe.

a. Download the http://www.mediafire.com/file/o8is279ar ... ashfs/file. It contains the 32bit libraries required by the Brother driver.
b. Drop this squashfs module into the "live" folder of your install so it will be auto-loaded at bootup.
c. Download the two Debian printer driver packages.
d. They must be installed from the command line using "debbi-compat". For example, open a terminal (F4) where the files are located and run:

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debbi-compat mfcj470dwlpr-3.0.0-1.i386.deb #Hint: use Tab completion
debbi-compat mfcj470dwcupswrapper-3.0.0-1.i386.deb

e. Go to /usr/lib/cups/filter and locate the Brother file named something like br_xxx_model.
f. Open a terminal and run:

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filter-fix br_xxx_model

1. The above procedure may have automatically installed a CUPS printer. Test it. Otherwise, do the usual CUPS install.

---

Many thanks for this tutorial. I was having a lot of trouble installing a Brother inkjet MFC-J6510DW on a version of Fossa64 9.5 but was successful after using your filter-fix and the compatibility squashfs you linked.
I did not seem to need the debbi-compat part of the instructions as I was using the "Driver install tool" (linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1) and it appeared to be handling that part of the process.
(Also - I did not initially realise that I even had debbi-compat available but i think maybe that was installed as part of the compatibility sfs??)
Anyway - after a few stumbles I got to a successful outcome. (Which would have been very unlikely without your information and utilities)
Cheers!

[dcung]

I have included the matching combo-wifi-driver-pack. It handles several WiFi cards that still prefer their vendor driver, like the Broadcom wl.

Tested the combo pack with my USB WiFi Realtek (8812BU chip). Works. Thanks.

[dancytron]

Built an SD card for my Gen 3 Lenovo 11e legacy boot laptop with the Debian Multi-installer. As always, the Debian Multi-installer worked to create the legacy installer with grub2. Installed Devuan Starter Kit among other things.

With the new kernel, got to the desktop but there was something hung in the background that made it unusable.

Default kernel boots to the desktop and works fine except no sound after I installed mpv and dog radio. Sound works in my Debian Dog Bookworm with Chrome test install, so it might be as simple as adding all the same drivers.

Added intel wifi drivers from the repo to Starter kit and wifi works.

[rcrsn51]

I also have a Braswell-era Chromebook, but with the full UEFI firmware conversion. I set up a UEFI-bootable SD card, installed the Starter Kit and switched to the Sid kernel.

It booted and ran OK, but slowly.

[Edit] I changed the boot arguments to "copy2ram" and "changes=EXIT:". The system became MUCH more useable when running off the SD card.

---

Regarding audio on Braswell units: run the "myalsaucm.sh" script attached below.

Follow the instructions carefully, particularly about first installing some kernel modules.

In Sound Card Selector, set the chtrt5650 device as default, possibly 1-0-1.

In AlsaMixer, unmute the SpeakerChannel and ExtSpk controls. Adjust the volume level with the DAC1 control.

The headphone port also works.

[dancytron]

Thanks.

Might be next week before I get to test it.

Sid kernel could have been just slowness. Old kernel is much faster.

Dan

[dancytron]

It works.

It found "Headphone, Speaker, Mic1, and Mic2".

When I chose all 4, it didn't work.

Ran it again and just chose Speaker and it works.

I don't have an old style set of headphones handy. I'll have to find some to test that.

Is there any real advantage to the new kernel if the old kernel is working fine?

Dan

[fredx181]

Besides the audio subject discussion, I'd like to say that if you want to use a newer kernel on a "stable" release, IMO it's better to use the kernel from backports rather than the Sid kernel.
Booting with the sid kernel on itself may work OK but if you want e.g. to install the matching linux-headers (for e.g. compiling kernel modules) it may become tricky (then can't find matching linux-headers) as the Sid toolchain is different from 'stable", no such problem when booting with the backports kernel AND having the backports repo enabled in sources.list (or just have it enabled temporarily, when needed).
EDIT: The "upgrade-kernel" script can be used for creating a backports kernel setup, but first the (bookworm-)backports repo should be enabled in sources.list.

[dancytron]

Unless there is a major security upgrade, I don't see any reason to upgrade kernels other than to contribute to general testing.

[rcrsn51]

I have posted here a kernel upgrade package based on Daedalus Backports k6.6.13. Just drop the files into your "live" folder. This kernel upgrade serves two purposes:

1. It has drivers for some newer WiFi cards that have entered the mainstream kernel and will now work OOTB.
2. It has the audio drivers required by various Apollolake/Geminilake Chromebooks.

As usual, I have included the matching combo-wifi-driver-pack. It has been fully tested against all the target wifi adapters.

[rcrsn51]

I have posted here PeasyPDF v5.2 for gtk3. Be aware that this package has dependencies that are specific to the Starter Kit.

[rcrsn51]

This is a repo2sfs "third-party" build with a "Pause B" setup script (attached below). Users who are new to repo2sfs should read here at post #6 and here at post #27.

The module has been tested successfully with file transfers between two machines.

Find the app in the Accessories menu.

[rcrsn51]

Here is a USB thermal label printer. If you have struggled to feed envelopes and label sheets through printers, this is a neat solution. No more addressing envelopes by hand.

I don't need to print 4x6 barcode shipping labels, so I got a roll of 4x1 address labels and wrote a little gtkdialog app to print them.

xscreenshot-20240526T170846.png (41.37 KiB) Viewed 2866 times

Labelary.com is a great resource to build label templates. For example:

daedalus.png (7.44 KiB) Viewed 2866 times

taxes.png (17.44 KiB) Viewed 2866 times

The app can also copy-paste an address out of a document or you can batch-print a set of addresses stored in a text file.

I'm using the CUPS built-in filter for Zebra-ZPL-compatible units. Make sure to set the label size in the CUPS settings.

BTW, don't bother spending more money on a fancy label dispenser. Go to your local building materials recycler and get a ceramic toilet paper holder. It works great.

[rcrsn51]

This is a Wyse Z90D7 thin client with an AMD G-T56N CPU and 4GB RAM.

The factory storage is an 8GB SATA DOM plugged into a regular SATA laptop socket. It is too small and slow to be useful but there's not enough room to replace it with a 2.5in SSD. One alternative is an M.2 SATA NGFF module on an adapter card with a SATA extension cable. But that would double the cost of the project.

There is also a mini-PCIe WiFi socket that's empty because the machine is running on Ethernet. So I got an mPCIe to M.2 NVME adapter cable and a 16GB stick of Optane memory. Plug it in and Linux sees it as a cheap little NVME drive! It only runs at PCIe X1, but that's still faster than the SATA DOM - 195 MB/s vs 20 MB/s on hdparm.

The Z90D7 won't boot off PCIe/NVME so I did a split install that boots off the DOM and jumps to the NVME drive.

[rcrsn51]

There has been some recent discussion about the BTRFS filesystem. The Deblive Multi Installer is compatible with BTRFS after one change:

Change line 276 to: PARTLIST=$(blkid | grep -E "ext|btrfs" .....

To format a partition as BTRFS in Gparted, you need to install the package btrfs-progs.

[rcrsn51]

There has been some discussion in the Puppy forum about light-weight DOCX viewers - something simpler than a full-size app like LibreOffice. People usually mention Abiword, but it is not good enough for general use.

My solution is a combination of the reliable little Ted word processor and pandoc.

1. Make a squashfs module using repo2sfs. Include Ted, libpcre3 (a dependency of Ted) and pandoc (from the Debian repo).
2. Load the module.
3. Install the tool Docx2Ted attached below.
4. Right-click on a DOCX file and associate it with Docx2Ted.
5. The file silently runs through pandoc, converts to an RTF and opens in Ted.
6. The RTF files are stored in the folder /root/Ted so you can reuse them.

It's not perfect, but it's much smaller and simpler than LO. And once you have the file open in Ted, you can edit it and save the changes. You could even use pandoc to save the file back as a DOCX.

[rcrsn51]

This is a companion script to ISObooter. It boots EasyOS image files without having to burn a dedicated USB drive.

Put the script in partition 2 of your ISObooter drive and run it as usual: ./imgbooter easy-xxx.img

The script extracts the image into a "frugal install" on the drive and makes the corresponding GRUB entry.

[Edit] No feedback. No confirmation. Project removed.

If anyone still wants it, it's available in the EasyOS section.

[rcrsn51]

Lately, my CUPS error log file (/var/log/cups/error_log) has been blowing up with warnings about a missing "Color Manager". There are two solutions.

1. Give CUPS what it seems to want - the "colord" package. But unless you are a graphic designer, it is just one more daemon hogging your system resources.

2. Turn off the CUPS error log. If you are happy with your printer setup, you don't need it anyway.

a. Run the CUPS web interface. Click the Administration tab. Click on Edit Configuration File.
b. At the top, set: LogLevel none
c. Click on Save Changes.
d. You can now delete the old log file.

[tosim]

@rcrsn51 Re:

This is a companion script to ISObooter. It boots EasyOS image files without having to burn a dedicated USB drive.
I would definitely like to have a copy of that script. Thank you.

[fredx181]

@rcrsn51 Re:

This is a companion script to ISObooter. It boots EasyOS image files without having to burn a dedicated USB drive.
I would definitely like to have a copy of that script. Thank you.

@rcrsn51 Why no reply ?

[BarryK]

@rcrsn51
I had bookmarked the post about imgbooter, just now got back to have a look at it, but it is gone!

Would greatly appreciate seeing what you have created.

[tryPuppy]

Just installed the latest fatdog on sdb2 of my Isobooter disk with the multi-installer. Multi-installer worked exactly as it should. Fatdog booted fine and graphics were correct.

Excellent. Did you also try putting the Fatdog ISO on sdb1 and setting it up with ISObooter? In that scenario, you need to put the big initrd file on sdb2 so Fatdog can find it when it boots (because Fatdog can't find the file when it's hiding inside the ISO). The GRUB menus that ISObooter generates expect that the file is in a folder named Fatdog.

No, not yet. I usually just do one ISO on sdb1 and then put the rest on sdb2 with the multiinstaller, but I'll try it.

I know this is dated, but since someone just refered me to this (the problem w dated posts & links!) Do you know what "mulit-installer" he's reffering to?
(I can only try 1 at a time, very tedious)

[fredx181]

Excellent. Did you also try putting the Fatdog ISO on sdb1 and setting it up with ISObooter? In that scenario, you need to put the big initrd file on sdb2 so Fatdog can find it when it boots (because Fatdog can't find the file when it's hiding inside the ISO). The GRUB menus that ISObooter generates expect that the file is in a folder named Fatdog.

No, not yet. I usually just do one ISO on sdb1 and then put the rest on sdb2 with the multiinstaller, but I'll try it.

I know this is dated, but since someone just refered me to this (the problem w dated posts & links!) Do you know what "mulit-installer" he's reffering to?
(I can only try 1 at a time, very tedious)

See here: viewtopic.php?p=3615#p3615

[fredx181]

The devuan repository address http://deb.devuan.org/merged is down for sometime already, so installing packages won't work anymore on the Starter Kit, to fix;
Change in /etc/apt/sources.list:
This:
deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
To this:
deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged daedalus main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
And it will work again after doing apt update

EDIT 2024-10-03: http://deb.devuan.org/merged seems to be back online again now.

[rcrsn51]

This is an HP-14 laptop with an AMD chipset and Radeon graphics. It is circa 2015 which means Win10, UEFI and SecureBoot. The Windows was long-gone but SecureBoot was still enabled, so I left it running.

I booted off my ISObooter drive. It paused to enroll the SecureBoot certificate, then continued to load the Daedalus Starter Kit ISO. I reformated the internal SSD for UEFI, copied the EFI folder off the flash drive and installed the Starter Kit.

I rebooted successfully off the SSD with SecureBoot still enabled. No other action was required. Everything worked OOTB - WiFi, Ethernet, audio over HDMI, Airprint.

I then installed some Puppies and KLs. They all worked despite running under SecureBoot.

xscreenshot-20241021T231140.jpg (23.23 KiB) Viewed 441 times

[fredx181]

@rcrsn51
As I wrote in my previous post;

EDIT 2024-10-03: http://deb.devuan.org/merged seems to be back online again now.

But... now for me it's offline again, do you have access to that repository ? edit: at @all, same question.
(perhaps it depends on the country you live in )

[rcrsn51]

@rcrsn51
As I wrote in my previous post;

EDIT 2024-10-03: http://deb.devuan.org/merged seems to be back online again now.

But... now for me it's offline again, do you have access to that repository ? edit: at @all, same question.
(perhaps it depends on the country you live in )

Yes.