The Debian-Live Daedalus Starter Kit

[rcrsn51]

Get Trx-Buster v1.1 posted above.The new script "trx-rx-mcast" has been added to the package.

The basic idea is to use the common IP address 239.0.0.1 on the sending machine and on multiple receiving machines. The procedure works with both wired and wireless units. But on a mixed network, you may find that wired machines hog the bandwidth and block wireless machines from connecting.

On the sending machine, run "trx-tx-start" as usual. Enter the IP address "239.0.0.1".

On receiving machines, run "trx-rx-mcast". Leave the terminal window open. End the session by pressing Ctrl-C.

Note: This procedure can also stream audio that comes directly into your sound card through the Line In or Mic port. Set up the ALSA Capture controls and run a command like:

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trx-tx -d plughw:0,0 -h 239.0.0.1

[rcrsn51]

I have built the combo-wifi-driver pack for the new k5.10.0-1-amd64 kernel that is currently being used in Bullseye.

[rcrsn51]

This is Touchpad v1.10. It has a group of Preset buttons to quickly configure your screen's brightness, colour, etc.

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[rcrsn51]

This is an HP Pavilion 10inch notebook. It has a 1GHz (!) AMD A4-1200 chipset and 2GB RAM.

Everything about it is under-sized: screen, keyboard, CPU, RAM. It's a mystery how the designers thought that these Chromebook alternatives could be decent platforms for Windows. But as a Linux machine, it is adequate - it can run the latest Firefox with YouTube at 480p.

All the hardware works OOTB: audio, WiFi, HDMI, eMMC card reader.

Being a Win8.1 machine, it has UEFI firmware with Secure Boot. I left the Secure Boot enabled, booted it off a UEFI flash drive, scrubbed the hard drive, rebuilt it with a new ESP, and installed the Bullseye Starter Kit. For a test, I put GRUB2 on the MBR so the machine could also boot from Legacy Mode.

Computers like this one debunk two Puppy myths:
a. Low-end machines cannot run a modern OS.
b. UEFI/Secure Boot/GRUB2 are too complicated.

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[trister]

This kind of unit debunks two Puppy myths:
a. Low-end machines cannot run a modern OS.

Last year I run StretchDog 32 bit on P4 -1GB ram pcs (using the EXIT: option for changes,dat) .It run Libre Office / Chromium Browser with Flash. They were running at decent speed. I runned older vesion of firefox.chromium but they could run the latest -if needed. Eg Firefox 17 was running at great speed and could run latest Adobe Flash 31 swfs.

Two years ago I had a P4 with 512MB. It was SLOW with the EXIT: enabled . Speed improved without the EXIT: option. I could open only 1 program each time.

[rcrsn51]

This is a standard third-party repo2sfs build with a guest user.

Include the Extra package: libsecret-1-0

Use the teams-guest-setup script attached below.

[rcrsn51]

The original 2018 instructions here still work in Bullseye with the newest Chrome release.

[rcrsn51]

This is a single BASH script. Extract the attachment below and copy it to /usr/local/bin.

Cloud is a front-end for rclone and is based on the work by p310don here. It assumes that you have rclone working and have configured your cloud storage locations (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf. Note: each cloud identifier in rclone.conf inside the [] brackets MUST be a single word.

1. Run: cloud
This displays the set of options.

2. Run: cloud select
This selects one of your cloud storage locations and sets it as the default.

3. Run: cloud on
This connects you to the selected location, mounts it at a mountpoint in /media and opens a window. You can now manipulate the cloud data using your file manager as if it were part of your local filesystem. You can copy files in/out of your cloud storage with regular Linux commands like:

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cp /media/Dropbox/tune.mp3 /root

You can even play media content directly from inside the cloud! Or you can mount two clouds at the same time and move content between them.

4. Run: cloud off
This disconnects and unmounts the cloud storage.

5. Run: cloud show
This re-opens the Cloud window if you have closed it.

6. Run: cloud list
This displays the contents of your selected cloud storage. You do NOT need to be connected to use this command.

7. Run: cloud share
This generates a link so you can share a selected file.

8. Run: cloud cert
Some OS's may lack the security certificates required by rclone. This command downloads a package.

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[rcrsn51]

This is a driver for some new Realtek RTL81xx Ethernet adapters. It supports devices not handled by the in-kernel r8169 driver. Do NOT install it if your r8169 adapter is working OK.

It is built for the current Bullseye k5.10.0-1-amd64 kernel.

There may be an issue with firmware. Check by running: dmesg | grep -i firmware

[rcrsn51]

Attached below is CPUtemp v3.4. The Info section has some changes required by Bullseye.

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Attached below is Batterup v1.7, which adds the Batterup Calibration tool to the System menu. It generates a list of valid choices for the UNITS variable to help you find the best calibration for your battery.

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[rcrsn51]

This is Touchpad v1.11 with two more tools for managing your screen.

[rcrsn51]

If you open the PeasyWiFi Config, you will see the line "export DRIVER=wext". Note that DRIVER refers to how the wpa_supplicant WiFi connection tool works internally. It does NOT refer to a kernel driver module like iwlwifi or rtl8192cu.

In the early days of PWF, wext was the standard protocol and some WiFi drivers only worked that way. But the standard has since changed to nl80211, so the Config line should become "export DRIVER=nl80211,wext". Make sure that you spell this correctly as "n-ell-80211". The vast majority of drivers now work with nl80211 and some may work better.

I mention this because I am finally seeing some third-party driver packages that have abandoned wext and only work with nl80211.

[rcrsn51]

This is an RCA-branded Windows convertible tablet. It has an Atom Z3735F chipset, 2GB RAM and a 32GB eMMC drive. These units were briefly sold by big box stores as an alternative to the Android tablet. But they proved to be just as useless as their cousin, the Windows "cloudbook".

With some hacking, they make barely adequate Linux machines. This one now runs the Bullseye Starter Kit from a UEFI boot to a Porteus install on the eMMC. But there are several issues that must be addressed first.

1. The touchscreen doesn't work at all and the touchpad only partly works, so the best setup has a mouse plugged into the single USB port. This creates a problem when doing file transfers via flash drive, but is easily resolved with Gnetcat. (When I first released Gnetcat on the old forum, it was widely mocked for serving no purpose. "Why bother with an app when you can just plug in a flash drive?" As usual, community members were so locked into the Puppy paradigm that they refused to envision anything beyond their own experience.)

2. Since the unit's original function is to run as a tablet, Linux always starts with the screen rotated sideways. This is fixed with an xrandr command in a startup script.

3. The Realtek r8723bs WiFi has an in-kernel driver, but could not reliably acquire an IP address via DHCP. So I switched PeasyWiFi to static mode and it now works fine.

4. Audio is through the troublesome Baytrail bytcr-rt5640 UCM driver. Luckily, Bullseye now has the requisite firmware in its repo, so both the speaker and headphone port can be activated after a little setup. However, some media players have trouble with this hardware (which might be resolved with pulseaudio). For example, Youtube audio works fine in the Chrome browser, but NOT in Firefox.

5. The unit has a mini-HDMI port that handles video OK, but ALSA cannot find any audio controls for it. The standard trick here is to use the ALSA equalizer as the default audio device and set the HDMI port as a slave. This works with most media players.

[rcrsn51]

This is a Dell 3120 Bay Trail Chromebook converted to the Bullseye Starter Kit. The switch from ChromeOS to Linux is now a routine, well-documented procedure.

Everything works - UEFI boot to the eMMC drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, internal UCM audio (mostly), HDMI, touchpad, battery monitor, SD card slot.

This is another example of a 64bit OS running perfectly well on 2GB of RAM.

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[rcrsn51]

PeasyMP3 is the little GTKdialog media player in Fred's repo. As a front-end for mplayer, it can handle a variety of audio, video and streaming content in a single app.

The preferred mplayer source is a package in Fred's repo called gmplayer. One of gmplayer's dependencies is libcrystalhd3, which is absent from the new Debian Bullseye repo. So installing PeasyMP3 in Bullseye fails to get gmplayer and reverts to the inferior gnome-mplayer package.

The solution is to first install libcrystalhd3 manually. Download the attachment below (taken from the Buster repo), remove the fake .gz extension and right-click install it. Then install peasymp3 via apt.

[fredx181]

PeasyMP3 is the little GTKdialog media player in Fred's repo. As a front-end for mplayer, it can handle a variety of audio, video and streaming content in a single app.

The preferred mplayer source is a package in Fred's repo called gmplayer. One of gmplayer's dependencies is libcrystalhd3, which is absent from the new Debian Bullseye repo. So installing PeasyMP3 in Bullseye fails to get gmplayer and reverts to the inferior gnome-mplayer package.

The solution is to first install libcrystalhd3 manually. Download the attachment below (taken from the Buster repo), remove the fake .gz extension and right-click install it. Then install peasymp3 via apt.

Thanks for noticing, I've added libcrystalhd3 to my repo , so now it should be picked up automatically when installing gmplayer.

Fred

[rcrsn51]

This is an ASUS CN62 Chromebox converted to the Bullseye Starter Kit. With an Intel i3-5010U chipset, 4GB RAM and a 16GB M.2 SSD, it has considerably more horsepower than your average Chromebook.

Video output is via HDMI. Audio is through either HDMI or the headphone port and both are recognized OOTB by ALSA. Browsers that run as guest need the usual mod to generate audio.

The RTL8111/8168 Ethernet card is using the alternate r8168 driver which is less susceptible to dropouts than the in-kernel r8169. The bootup sequence is fast enough that it does not need the "sleep 5" command in /etc/rc.d/rc.network.

Everything else works: UEFI boot, WiFi, Bluetooth, SD card reader.

[rcrsn51]

This is Audio Converter from here with some new features. [Edit] Get the updated version here, renamed as AV Converter.

1. Support for M4A (AAC) audio files via ffmpeg. Hint: Make a squashfs module for ffmpeg using apt2sfs.

2. Debug mode. In your Config, set the DEBUG variable to "-hold". This will hold the terminal window open so you can see any error messages.

3. The ANY file format. When you select "From ANY" and "To ANY", the file will be processed by ffmpeg using the ANYOPTS variable in your Config. For example:

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export ANYOPTS="-af volume=.50"

or

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export ANYOPTS="-af loudnorm=i=-20"

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[rcrsn51]

Gnost is a partition backup/restore system. It is a single GTKdialog script and uses the same standard backend tools as larger programs like Clonezilla.

Gnost is designed to be a portable app. You put the script in a partition of the storage drive (or in a subfolder) and click-run it from there. The storage drive could be an external USB hard drive or a partition of an internal drive.

Gnost has three dependent packages: ntfs-3g, partclone and lzop. When you run your Gnost setup on different platforms, these dependencies may not be installed. The easiest solution is to make a single squashfs module containing the three packages that you can load-on-demand.

You can run Gnost several ways. For example:

a. Boot a Windows computer off a Starter Kit flash drive. Plug in your USB hard drive and backup the Windows partition(s). See below for details.
b. Boot off a Linux computer. If necessary, use a CleanMode boot so the target partition is not mounted. Move to the storage drive, load the dependency squashfs module and run Gnost.

Download and extract the attached Gnost script. It is NOT a fake .gz package! Copy the script to your storage device.

NTFS partitions:

This could be a Windows system partition or an NTFS data partition.

Boot the target Windows computer off the flash drive. Connect your USB storage drive and open the destination folder.

Click on the "gnost" script and follow the steps. The NTFS partition must be UNmounted. Use a descriptive name for the image file, like "dell-sda2-ntfs.gno". The image will be saved in the current folder of the USB drive.

Use the reverse procedure to restore a partition. Then run Gparted and look for any problems. If necessary, use the Check function.

Ext and FAT partitions:

Use the same method. You can also restore the image to a different partition, provided that it has the matching filesystem type and is at least as large as the original. The Gparted Check function will expand the image to fill the new partition.

Be aware that moving a system boot partition may require extra steps to make it bootable again.

Gnost v3.6 adds a feature for advanced users - the ability to backup/restore the target drive's MBR. This can help to recover a badly damaged system.

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[rcrsn51]

I have posted here an ISO for the Debian-Live Bullseye Starter Kit.

It was made from the Bullseye testing branch but should be very close to the final version when Bullseye is officially released. It uses the current k5.10.0-6-amd64 kernel.

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e577c1418506de5b2543f4d9f88feeec  DebLive_Bullseye-amd64-6.iso

Please report any problems with the download.

The matching combo-wifi-driver-pack is also available.

[rcrsn51]

The Simple Python HTTP Server is a handy way to share a music collection across your network. It is easy to set up and clients can access the files through their web browser. Get the package simple-python-http-server from Fred's repo via apt-get.

But playing music in your browser can be awkward. Peasy Net Player lets you play the tracks as if they were on your own hard drive. The system uses PeasyMP3 as the media player on client machines.

Download and install the attached package. PeasyMP3 is a dependency, which will also get mplayer. Look for Peasy Net Player in the Sound & Video menu.

1. Start the Simple Python HTTP Server to share a folder of music files.
2. On a client machine, open a browser and go to the music server web page. It can also be a sub-page of the collection.
3. Select and copy the page URL.
4. Open Peasy Net Player and paste in the URL. Click Play.
5. PeasyMP3 will open, loaded with a folder of links back to the music server. Click Start.

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[dcung]

I have a usb wifi that I tried with this Bullseye Starter Kit on a PC.
It came with a driver cd. I didn't need it for Windows, plug it and worked.
I extracted the linux drivers zip files, and run the install.sh files, didn't work.

dmesg output attached. It shows Realtek_RTL8187.

Is there driver file that I can put in /lib/firmware to use it with Bullseye pls?

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[    3.153211] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Realtek
[    3.153212] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 123456
[    3.264078] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[    3.434557] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8187, bcdDevice= 1.00
[    3.434561] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    3.434563] usb 1-3: Product: RTL8187_Wireless
[    3.434564] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Manufacturer_Realtek_RTL8187_
[    3.434565] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 0015AF0DBEE6
[    3.472592] FS-Cache: Loaded

[rcrsn51]

Your RTL8187 appears to be a a rather old g-mode USB adapter. Is that correct?

The 0bda:8187 device is already supported by the in-kernel rtl8187 driver and should work OOTB.

Run: modinfo rtl8187 | grep 8187

What happens when you try to make a wireless connection in PeasyWiFi? What do you get when you click the I/F button?

Have you used PeasyWiFi successfully with other WiFi devices? Has this adapter worked in other Linuxes?

Your screen snapshot appears to be for a completely different driver.

[rcrsn51]

The procedures for installing Nvidia drivers in the Starter Kit are described here (Post 664).

The advantage of Method B is that you can pre-make squashfs modules for the build-essential and linux-headers packages. The Nvidia installer will happily use them without requiring extra stuff. I occasionally have trouble activating such complicated modules using the new load-on-the-fly tools, so I prefer to put them in the 'live' folder of my Starter Kit install where they will auto-load at bootup.

I went to the Nvidia site and got the legacy-390.xx series package. I set up Method B and ran the mk-nvidia script. It worked smoothly.

On the next reboot, I was running the nvidia driver as expected.

[fredx181]

I occasionally have trouble activating such complicated modules using the new load-on-the-fly tools

Can you say something about what is that trouble exactly ?
I ask because I'm investigating a way (by using overlay) to create symlinks from read-write source, instead of read-only, so I'd like to know if the read-only source is causing the problem for you.

[dcung]

Your RTL8187 appears to be a a rather old g-mode USB adapter. Is that correct?
The 0bda:8187 device is already supported by the in-kernel rtl8187 driver and should work OOTB.
Run: modinfo rtl8187 | grep 8187
What happens when you try to make a wireless connection in PeasyWiFi? What do you get when you click the I/F button?
Have you used PeasyWiFi successfully with other WiFi devices? Has this adapter worked in other Linuxes?
Your screen snapshot appears to be for a completely different driver.

My bad, Bill. The RTL8187 turned out to be the onboard (motherboard) wifi. PeasyWiFi, dmesg and modinfo detected that before I disabled it from BIOS. One that requires you to connect an antenna thingy, otherwise it doesn't detect any network. That's why I bought this USB one last year.
I disabled the onboard wifi, and PeasyWiFi, dmesg and modinfo reflected that no wifi I/F anymore.

No, I have not used this adapter with any Linuxes, first time trying.
I just tried XenialPup64 7.5 and it was not detected either.
Only used it on Windows10 to date, and I know it is working.
From Windows10 device manager, it shows that this adapter is Realtek8812BU.

[rcrsn51]

OK. The Bullseye combo-wifi-driver-pack may support this model. Download it here.

Please run "lsusb" and identify the vendor:product ID code for this USB adapter.

[rcrsn51]

Can you say something about what is that trouble exactly ?

To be honest, I can't at the moment. I don't remember if I was using your loadmodule tool or mine. But I had some trouble and resolved it by activating the module at bootup.

I will investigate further.

[dcung]

OK. The Bullseye combo-wifi-driver-pack may support this model. Download it here.

Please run "lsusb" and identify the vendor:product ID code for this USB adapter.

I got progress. I get list of wifi networks listing now when scanning.
Still failed to connect to my 3G or 5G wifi networks.
I already selected wlan1 in PeasyWiFi.
I'll continue fiddling....

lsusb output

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Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:b812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac NIC  --> should be the USB wifi adapter
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 003: ID 413c:2010 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 413c:1003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard Hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Flash Card Reader/Writer
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

[dcung]

screenshots