Void Package Manager -- How to Use

[mikeslr]

Although my experiences with VoidPup and Void-based KLVs have been good OOTB, I've been reluctant to depend on those OSes as they employ Void's native package manager with which I am unfamiliar. XBPS is invoked via a terminal rather than a GUI. While I guessed it might be similar to Apt, that was a guess and without actually knowing the appropriate ones entering commands in a terminal 'willy-nilly' can run the gamut from useless to disastrous.

First thing this morning I decided to unravel the mysteries of XBPS and discovered https://linuxiac.com/void-linux-xbps-package-manager/, I won't try to summarize or duplicate it as It's also pre-first cup of coffee.

[geo_c]

Although my experiences with VoidPup and Void-based KLVs have been good OOTB, I've been reluctant to depend on those OSes as they employ Void's native package manager with which I am unfamiliar. XBPS is invoked via a terminal rather than a GUI. While I guessed it might be similar to Apt, that was a guess and without actually knowing the appropriate ones entering commands in a terminal 'willy-nilly' can run the gamut from useless to disastrous.

First thing this morning I decided to unravel the mysteries of XBPS and discovered https://linuxiac.com/void-linux-xbps-package-manager/, I won't try to summarize or duplicate it as It's also pre-first cup of coffee.

Many of the KLV's, well actually all of mine, Airedale, Spectr, KDE-Plasma, Hyprland, Bspwm, Boxer, and Awesome, have OctoXbps installed, which is a gui front end that works seamlessly. I like to use Xbps from the command line also, but when I want to search for packages I find it easier to use OctoXbps.

[Jasper]

OctoXbps does not work directly in VoidPup64.

As you have stated it works in KLV builds.

[rockedge]

@Jasper you need to start OctoXBPS with something like:

Code: Select all

run-as-spot octoxbps
sudo -u spot octoxbps

The point is OctoXBPS won't start as root user. So start it as spot.

Modifying the octobox.desktop exec statement That's how it is done in KLV's

[N97]

I'm trying to follow instructions that apparently don't work in VoidPup. I need a from start-to-finish example in terminal. typing in xbps-query -Ls vlc does nothing just a #
There MUST be precursory steps...
I notice that NO video libs like Qt5 are here, how does one play music or watch a vid? Full instructions or a pet needed

[Jasper]

@rockedge

Created password for spot
Changed user to spot

You can start up the GUI and when presented with the password issue it fails to register.

From memory dimkr may have indicated/suggested an error with PAM (.......... have not searched for the post in question ....... relying on my 'poor' memory)

Original thread:

viewtopic.php?p=127998#p127998

[N97]

My bug (no access) is apparently due to tapping the LIGHT browser only. Whats in the default apps is Light- using Autodetect, or path to browser fails.

Might want to fix this as Light is really too old in 2024. A new FF-esr or Chromium, would be a better choice IMHO while keeping the distro < 700Mb ISO.

Moving on to BW 10.0.9 when DVD's arrive. Good distro, but no Audio/Video means I use a 2008 Netbook that does play them, including movies. Thats a bit poor.

FWIW
N97

[wiak]

@rockedge

Created password for spot
Changed user to spot

You can start up the GUI and when presented with the password issue it fails to register.

From memory dimkr may have indicated/suggested an error with PAM (.......... have not searched for the post in question ....... relying on my 'poor' memory)

Original thread:

viewtopic.php?p=127998#p127998

So, as with Debian package manager, Puppy that uses Void package manager is not fully compatible. KLV distros are fully Void Linux compatible so my only wonder is why struggle when a perfect solution is provided. As for Debian-based Puppy variants, well, no one has yet provided a Debian KL variant (but easily enough done), but DebianDog has been the perfect small Debian-based distro since 2013 (and in beautiful functional polished form since 2014) so again I wonder where the constant need to struggle comes from? Puppy was simply never designed to be a faultless apt-capable Debian-based distribution - will it ever be??? - NO... and so what when the perfect small Debian-based DD distros have been available here for over ten years now. Had they been better forum promoted they would have dominated the place long ago; pity that didn't happen.

In years gone by the typical Puppian on the forum hadn't much of a clue on how to use apt. Now, since PPM is well-recognised at last as being 'no longer' up to scratch (was it ever?), Puppy has tried to keep its couple of dozen aging supporters happy by including apt capability and making it as usable as possible (despite that they mainly voiced their hatred at the very idea of using apt for years gone by and of course a Puppy relying on apt doesn't really look too good compared to a DebianDog???!). I supposed the same goes for Void Linux xbps package manager. No wonder the forum seems to have hardly any new audience; the problem is that nowadays it is probably very difficult to get anyone to join any new forum for any new distro so at least this forum has an audience (albeit from the past and shrinking). if Puppy's Void package manager proves perfectly good including its gui, then fine, no reason not to use it; same goes for Debian, but otherwise, what exactly is the advantage anyone finds using the somewhat broken Puppy implementations? - if you simply want the same looking desktop as that of a typical Puppy then just ask someone to make a KL look exactly like your 'pup', but with the major advantage of faultless upstream package management and far more advantage than that!

I can only wish that I had so much time to waste as some people here seem to have, messing around constantly with a distro trying to fix its inbuilt flaws, but I simply don't have that much time to waste.
The look and feel of most any KL distro can be re-arranged to any form a person wishes if only enough people had devoted even a fraction of the time wasted on old Puppy (round and round in circles getting nowhere really) to bring all KL distros up to the longtime excellent standard of the DebianDogs, and with enough people involved that could easily be done. I doubt any DebianDog user ever truly went back to Puppy - why would they?

It is frustrating being in a forum (old one and new one) as its louder old Puppite members resist its redesign whilst it rots away in its downhill fall into obscurity whilst resisting and even hiding any actual attempts at creative distro innovation. I couldn't care less about any distro here per se, but the forum was a great place, which is basically ruined by Puppy nostalgia and resultant failure and inactivity. Woof-CE is a dead horse in all reality despite years and years of some masochists constantly trying to kick some life into it - the result is the severely flawed distro called Puppy that does 'work' for most basic needs and hooray for that, but DebianDogs and KL distros basically just work (or can easily be made to work) for pretty much any need.

What is this great need to waste time all about? Yes, we remain here because it is technically useful and social at the same time to have a forum, but Puppy Linux, which was the initial reason for this forum existing, is now a big weight around its neck pulling it down into irrelevance. Maintaining internet SEO for Puppy is one excuse I've heard for lack of change, but ... big deal - would be a daft reason for not reorganising a forum to point to what is active and relevant... SEO for old news about a distro that now fails to work properly (?) - effectively an archive of less and less useful junk - and certainly its main Debian variant does not succeed in providing a great apt implementation like alone sufficient and nowadays necessary multi-user capability (whether only being used by one person or not. Many sophisticated apps nowadays need to be run by a properly secured normal user - fake normal user-workaround spot fudge is just another messy constant point of Puppy design/implementation failure. The system is an expensive waste of time actually.

The old Puppy design should have been abandoned and replaced; a new Puppy should have been born that no longer had limited single-user capability and had a build system that attracted people to use it. The Puppy forum should have provided the fertile ground that encouraged the redesign of new Puppy, but instead we got the woof-CE that simply statically forged old Puppy design whilst the technical revolutions moved dynamically onwards. Whilst still usable up to a point, a limited point that is enough for some still... the system has effectively hit a dead end and in this fast moving world is no longer actually fit for purpose despite all the nonsense advocacy, which effectively prevented it being rebuilt. All old machines need re-thought, re-engineered, re-imagined and re-designed eventually; plenty of great distros to use nowadays. Goodbye old Puppy; rest in peace instead of wasting everyone's time and destroying the energy and innovation that once was this forum. But no, lets throw a few need recipes into woof-CE and generate a few slightly different Pup variants and pretend that is something really new and up-to-date; well different desktop maybe??? How exciting.

Yes, I know, a few of you love your flawed Pups so much you like to pretend they are great. But they are not, and the forum suffers accordingly. No, you do not need more devs working on woof-CE, which would just be a waste of their talents (year after year after year). It needs retired to try and save this forum for more than a couple of dozen old members who will be here no matter how rotten Puppy's wooden old crutches and gnawing arthritis becomes.

But keep going on, wasting your time as you wish, but it wastes everyone's time. Puppy needs redesigned and woof-CE, far from being a point of celebration, needs thrown away and something better designed or used. Puppy is just the name given to a Linux distro. Any Linux distro can be made to look and behave in any way a user wants. What on earth do you want to keep using a flawed distro for when a better design would work just as well but with none of the constant time-wasting fudges needing to be thought up to work around the inherent flaws.

So, yes, there are plenty of good tutorials out there on using Void Package Manager, and similarly for apt. But... true... don't ever expect all aspects of these package managers to work perfectly if it is a Puppy distro you are using, no matter how much you love your Pup. DD or KL will work per the tutorials though, so choose which outcome you want or prepare to be forever bored by this forum continuing to go nowhere.

Well, really it doesn't matter. Just don't expect the good old active forum days. Most of the outside Linux lot don't even know DD or KL exist, and both FatDog and EasyOS would be considered very strange/experimental in most eyes, despite both being very interesting for those who like something very different. DD is like a Puppy on steroids, and always was, and KL is similar, easy to build in whatever shape and form a user might want and not just for Debian-based implementations. Puppy Bookworm - yes, okay, bit limited, flawed apt implementation - you get what you pay for and put your forum time, distro promotion, and support into. The present and the future is a result of your chosen investment. Rest assured, despite a handful of diehards here, hardly anyone nowadays uses Puppy as their main desktop OS (a wee novelty on the side or a not the best rescue system maybe...); Puppy simply isn't good enough for that overall purpose - it is flawed and limited by design. Hardly anyone uses a DD or a KL as their main desktop OS either, but no reason they couldn't - they are good enough for the purpose - have all the old Puppy frugal install advantages (and some more) and fully upstream capable/compatible.

This is why I fully now support the view that PLDF should be left for Puppy distro use only. However, not for a second do I believe a new forum for DD or FR/KL-variant or whatever could succeed - momentum is needed and I feel sure that new distro forums do not attract members nowadays. Perhaps I'm wrong about the latter, but alas there is no doubt this 'old' forum remains a magnet (albeit mainly for the dozen or so old Puppites remaining) despite its main offering simply not cutting it any more.

[Jasper]

@wiak

I appreciate your input.

My experience has been that *.xbps packages cannot be installed directly.

There are two methods of installing native applications for this OS.

VPM - Void Package Manager
XBPS - X Binary Package System

OctoXBPS is a GUI for XBPS.

So, the functionality of using a GUI may be crippled after all it is simply a window.

You can fallback to the command-line and use the above two applications.

An alternative is using their website to search for packages:

https://voidlinux.org/packages/

or even PKGS.org

https://voidlinux.pkgs.org/current/void ... in-x86_64/

If you so wish, you can compile yourself and create PET packages.

You do offer a solution

KLV distros are fully Void Linux compatible so my only wonder is why struggle when a perfect solution is provided.

This should be left to user's choice and based on their own needs.

[Jasper]

Light browser is just for basic browsing and it it suggested users download, install and use a modern browser.

viewtopic.php?t=12360

[N97]

So freakin what... VoidPup dependency upon LIGHT to run VPM kills this distro. Installing a new browser, and removing the LIGHT DOES NOT solve. GFB broken distro.

I was wrong about this, commands are limited. I got it working.

[rockedge]

VoidPup dependency upon LIGHT to run VPM kills this distro

.

What are you talking about here? VPM isn't dependent on a browser at all.

[N97]

original busted... i finally found out theres a limited set of commands. I did install mpv reboot and gave it my acid test... play a movie from USB 2.0.

Success! and Godzilla 2000 is playing. Configured sound, too.

[mikeslr]

When I did run VoidPup, I found Void Package Search web-page helpful to find out what was available, and the exact name to use on the command line, https://voidlinux.org/packages/.

I suspect that the "Search" command shown in jasper's post, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 14#p137714 will avoid any need to employ a web-browser.