79MB WDL_Void core build (easily expandable)

[wiak]

@wiak unfortunately both installation procedures for XFCE4 and LXDE do not do the configurations for either to start on boot and or login. In my WDL-Void-JWM_ROX plug files that are the same steps I am doing manually for the XFCE4 experiments.

Ah, that's what I thought from reading your post. I will send you a suggestion on incorporating the details all inside the plug files - my first attempt did autologin straight to X - only issue was that was without starting xfce, which as you say is easily fixed via the usual ~/.xinitrc alteration. Once difference is that I avoid editing /etc/profile itself.

wiak

[rockedge]

I am going to run some test builds with the WDL_Void-XFCE plug file which incorporates the installation of Xorg and the XFCE4 desktop.

more detail here -> viewtopic.php?p=37772#p37772

the plug file is here : viewtopic.php?p=37772#p37772

There is NO KERNEL included in the build the plug file f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug performs. I have been supplying different Puppy Linux huge kernels in the frugal install's, with more information on that here -> viewtopic.php?p=37772#p37772

[rockedge]

Some problems that have shown up:
Autologin as root straight to XFCE desktop works out-of-the-box but there remain three issues that we know about:

1. A message about Policy kit pops up.

2. After a short while a message pops up on certain machines saying xfce Power plug fails in its attempts to do whatever it does...

3. Logout, doesn't enable reboot or shutdown (these options are greyed out). So for the moment just open a terminal and use reboot or reboot -f.

[wiak]

Some problems that have shown up:
Autologin as root straight to XFCE desktop works out-of-the-box but there remain three issues that we know about:

1. A message about Policy kit pops up.

2. After a short while a message pops up on certain machines saying xfce Power plug fails in its attempts to do whatever it does...

3. Logout, doesn't enable reboot or shutdown (these options are greyed out). So for the moment just open a terminal and use reboot or reboot -f.

I've been busy cutting some trees that were causing drain issues, so haven't had time to look into the above yet, but maybe 'tomorrow'...

By the way, it would be possible, with Void Linux to build a smaller XFCE distro (maybe) by cutting out some XFCE features and similarly a more basic X system. In particular, xbps-install xfce4 actually installs a lot of xfce-related packages, which could instead be done one by one (and only those wished for). Similarly xorg installs tons of X-related dependencies, whereas xorg-minimal provides what it says: a minimal X. Having said that, it's probably just as well to load most everything without trial and error later discovering much missing functionality. You can get a good idea of what 'xfce4' template installs and similarly 'xorg' here:

https://github.com/void-linux/void-pack ... 4/template

https://github.com/void-linux/void-pack ... g/template

[wiak]

I'm just trying an official Void Linux XFCE rootfilesystem with WDL init and rockedge's kernel/modules/firmware.

It's a bit tricky to extract the rootfilesystem, but not to difficult (I'll explain later).

To then speed things up for me, I copied wiakwifi and udhcpc directories and busybox into the resulting firstrib_rootfs.

Then I used ./mount_chroot.sh to chroot into it with intention of upgrading to latest files. But... the available official Void Linux iso currently has the recent expired (30 Sep) Let's Encrypt certificate issue (cert X3), so wouldn't upgrade.

Code: Select all

Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3

However, I'm currently upgrading via not using certificates as follows:

Code: Select all

SSL_NO_VERIFY_PEER=ture xbps-install -Su

However, first I had to upgrade xbps itself using:

Code: Select all

SSL_NO_VERIFY_PEER=ture xbps-install -u xbps

In some ways using official Void Linux XFCE live iso rootfilesystem might be the best approach for a Void Linux XFCE system, but has other big disadvantage that the iso is old so whole system needs upgraded using -Su so takes fair bit of time. I'm trying it in the hope it will reveal solutions to the remaining f_plugin xfce build issues.

EDIT: and guess what, the official Void Linux XFCE rootfilesystem resulted in exact same issues as rockedge described here: viewtopic.php?p=38208#p38208
So I guess I'll have to fault-find these issues directly rather than looking for a ready-made fix... Not sure when I'll get round to that though.

[rockedge]

@wiak I fixed the polkit agent error and the disabled shutdown, reboot selections on the logout screen.

All of the logout windows work and the polkit agent error (authority at login missing) has been fixed. Also the partition icons and the Trash icon now are appearing on the desktop as expected! Plus Thunar now is fully functional and shows partitions and can browse the network (I think).

Note: Needs to be added to the plug file

install:

Code: Select all

xbps-install -y elogind dbus-elogind polkit-elogind dbus-elogind-libs dbus-elogind-x11

in a terminal start dbus as a service:

Code: Select all

ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service

Done

2021-10-01-111733_320x240_scrot.png (93.84 KiB) Viewed 3364 times

[wiak]

@wiak I fixed the polkit agent error and the disabled shutdown, reboot selections on the logout screen.

All of the logout windows work and the polkit agent error (authority at login missing) has been fixed. Also the partition icons and the Trash icon now are appearing on the desktop as expected! Plus Thunar now is fully functional and shows partitions and can browse the network (I think).

Ah, that's great rockedge. I'm surprised these details weren't completed in the official Void Linux xfce rootfilesystem. Maybe just needed the service started there. Anyway, seemed to be almost the same as the version we have built from scratch. One thing I'd emphasize in you build post (not there at the moment) is the importance of doing:

Code: Select all

export CONNECTION_TIMEOUT=-1

prior to the build, for a far more reliable build in terms of Void repo not timing out. In later build_firstrib_rootfs script I'll add that internally for Void builds just to ensure it. Now that mount_chroot and umount_chroot can take actual rootfilesystem name as a parameter (not always needing just firstrib_rootfs) I'll also add to next build script a number to the resulting build directory; probably 08firstrib_rootfs/. That way I will not be faced with my common mistake of forgetting to number it prior to first boot attempt, which of course results in dreaded /sbin/init not found error. I like 08 because gives a lot of scope for inserting sfs addons earlier in the layer system when that proves useful - there are plenty of layers available anyway...

[wiak]

@wiak I fixed the polkit agent error and the disabled shutdown, reboot selections on the logout screen.

All of the logout windows work and the polkit agent error (authority at login missing) has been fixed. Also the partition icons and the Trash icon now are appearing on the desktop as expected! Plus Thunar now is fully functional and shows partitions and can browse the network (I think).

Note: Needs to be added to the plug file

install:

Code: Select all

xbps-install -y elogind dbus-elogind polkit-elogind dbus-elogind-libs dbus-elogind-x11

in a terminal start dbus as a service:

Code: Select all

ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service

Done
2021-10-01-111733_320x240_scrot.png

Hello again @rockedge. Thanks for the above pointer.

Note that elogind doesn't in practice need to be installed since it is included (as a dependency) when xfce4 (template) is installed.

I remained slightly concerned that same issue had occurred in official Void Linux XFCE root filesystem since that should have contained all packages. I therefore came across the following issue report and the closure fix:

https://github.com/void-linux/void-pack ... sues/20245

Author
Tcll commented on 7 Jul 2020 •
it seems I have fixed my issue
what you want is dbus and elogind separately
what you don't want is dbus-elogind as that's broken and does nothing
polkit-elogind is not needed

when creating services, you specifically want dbus as a service, not elogind as dbus starts that
my issue was that dbus was not a service after installation

Accordingly, since elogind is already installed I tried simply enabling dbus service (via f_00 build plugin) and that indeed proved to be sufficient in my current test. i.e dbus-elogind and so on apparently not required (or desired) to fix the issues. Note I've purposively included wpa_supplicant since many users, including myself, will want that - I don't readily have an ethernet connection so rely on wifi working out of the box (plugin user can comment out install of wpa_supplicant of course). I'll PM you the modified plugin for replacement in your above WDL_VoidXFCE howto post (please only post it in one place or it gets confusing - later we'll keep it on github and have a fetch script for it on WeeDogLinux forum).

Let me know if it all also works for you with that simple enable dbus service addition. Note that the likes of "ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /var/service" are for a normal running system only (not applicable to chroot modifications since runit not being used then). So the f_00 plugin way of doing it is like this:

Code: Select all

# enable dbus service
ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/dbus

Note that for Trash Can and so on I install gvfs:

Code: Select all

xbps-install -y gvfs

I presume you had installed gvfs when you had the Trash Can appear also? I don't think elogind and so on would themselves make a trash can appear.

wiak

[rockedge]

@wiak Yes I thought perhaps it was mostly the dBus service being enabled that did the fix! But I was pressing ahead throwing in what I had researched and already tried and I did not go back and determine what exactly did what. The trash can and the partitions appeared correctly on the desktop directly after dBus was started with the service link. Perhaps gvfs was pulled in already as a dependency. And Thunar began to see the drives,partitions and network. All the fix attempts happened on a live running system hence the way I symlinked it. I also use the method you are in the plug file when building from scratch.

Now to do another build using this plug and see where I land!!

EDIT:1 And landed with certificate errors!!

Code: Select all

[*] Updating repository `https://mirror.clarkson.edu/voidlinux/current/x86_64-repodata' ...
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
SSL_connect returned 1
ERROR: [reposync] failed to fetch file `https://mirror.clarkson.edu/voidlinux/current/x86_64-repodata': Operation not permitted
[*] Updating repository `https://mirror.clarkson.edu/voidlinux/current/nonfree/x86_64-repodata' ...
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
Certificate verification failed for /O=Digital Signature Trust Co./CN=DST Root CA X3
SSL_connect returned 1
ERROR: [reposync] failed to fetch file `https://mirror.clarkson.edu/voidlinux/current/nonfree/x86_64-repodata': Operation not permitted
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 19: xbps-install: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 20: xbps-install: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 21: xbps-install: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 24: pwconv: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 25: grpconv: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 29: usermod: not found
sed: /etc/default/libc-locales: No such file or directory
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 33: xbps-reconfigure: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 36: xbps-alternatives: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 40: xbps-install: not found
cp: can't stat '/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc': No such file or directory
cp: can't stat '/etc/sv/agetty-tty1': No such file or directory
sed: /etc/sv/agetty-autologin-tty1/conf: No such file or directory
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 48: can't create /etc/profile.d/autologin.sh: nonexistent directory
ln: /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/agetty-autologin-tty1: No such file or directory
ln: /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/dbus: No such file or directory
sed: /root/.xinitrc: No such file or directory
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 66: xbps-install: not found
Still some extra to do here re the likes of runit starting pulseaudio
among other user needed config bits and pieces,
so probably a few user-config issues noted as needing fixed here
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 74: visudo: not found
sh: /tmp/f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug: line 75: useradd: not found

[wiak]

And landed with certificate errors!!

That's not a fault of the plugin. I did a build last night successfully. Strange you are getting that certificate error though, since it is the result of the Let's Encrypt cert X3 expiry:

https://letsencrypt.org/docs/dst-root-c ... mber-2021/

You may recall, Void Linux official iso suffers that per my post here:

viewtopic.php?p=38243#p38243

But that shouldn't be effecting a brand new build (and didn't for me last night). I can only suggest you choose a different repo - maybe clarkson repo has not updated its Void Linux certificates since 30 Sept.

Anyway if the issue persists, I imagine you could do:

Code: Select all

export SSL_NO_VERIFY_PEER=ture

prior to doing a build to avoid using certificates. No a secure build then of course, but anyway a different repo is a better idea. I used one of the Australian ones in my build last night:

Code: Select all

6 https://ftp.swin.edu.au              AU: Melbourne

You should update the published plugin though. The only changes are two the two lines:

Code: Select all

# diff f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1.plug f_00_Void_generic_XFCE_no-kernel_WDLteam-rc1_new.plug
21d20
< xbps-install -y wpa_supplicant  # many, such as myself, will need this
58,59d56
< # enable dbus service
< ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/dbus

I should have named it rc2 of course...

wiak

[rockedge]

@wiak
Eventually I used Melbourne and that worked. Also I updated an already running WDL-Void and it at first wouldn't, complaining about certs, but then after another try it worked again and xbps-install -Suy completed and all went well.

I was able to boot to the xfce4 desktop and I was able to use CTRL-ALT-F2 to login to tty2 as user weedog, connect with eth1 meanwhile "root" was on tty1 (CTRL-ALT-F1) connected to eth0. So I was switching between "root" and "weedog" desktops, both with different setups (like wallpaper). Reminds me of the multi-user switch you used in the WDL-Arch-rc7 systems.

I had to completely disable the screensaver and Lock screen functions in the settings. After the screensaver activates and one returns to the desktop, it's frozen and I need to switch to tty3 to use htop to kill the screensaver. Found out though, that even with all the screensaver and lock screen options turned off, the monitor still goes into a blank screen screensaver and "wakes up" correctly. So the question is are there 2 different screensavers simultaneously running? So far I not discovered how even with all screensaver options disabled the desktop still goes into a screensaver mode, which now works correctly?

Also I had to install gvfs manually for Thunar to show drives and for the partitions to appear on the desktop. Maybe we need to add that to the plug file? I thought it would be pulled in as a dependency but that did not occur apparently. Once gvfs was installed all those missing features began to work.

So far the WDL_Void-xfce4 system is very fast, running in this setup in about 700 M of RAM and is proving to be quite fun to work with and on. I still find JWM-ROX to be more efficient but much more work to the initial build up though that giving much more room for customization.

Overall WDL-Void-xfce4 has great potential and the plug will build a base system ready to go and be tailored to suite many needs.

AND I experimented with making the autologin go with user "weedog" at boot, which also worked great and demonstrated the true multi-user capabilities!

logged in as "weedog"

2021-10-03-142037_1024x768_scrot.png (60.44 KiB) Viewed 3203 times

[williams2]

Xwindows (Xorg) has a builtin screensaver.

xset --help

To set the screensaver to blank the screen after 15 minutes of inactivity:
xset s 900

To set the screensaver to blank the screen after 5 seconds of inactivity (useful for test purposes);
xset s 5

On many machines, setting dpms standby does the same thing that the screensaver does.

I think xset s 0 disables the X screensaver (not sure)
xset s off should disable the screensaver in any case.

[rockedge]

@williams2
Thank you for the information! Does bring what is going on more into focus.

[wiak]

Also I had to install gvfs manually for Thunar to show drives and for the partitions to appear on the desktop. Maybe we need to add that to the plug file?

Yes, it's probably worth adding gvfs to the plugin installs. I haven't checked in Void, but in Arch Linux gvfs also has various maybe useful extra plugins - you'd need to query the available Void packages.

[wiak]

I have no idea about the screensaver(s) provided. Perhaps Void Linux docs or wiki has some comment. Without having tried anything myself I did come across an XFCE screensaver related link, which may or may not be useful at all: https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-li ... r-on-xfce/

[rockedge]

The trouble I am having is with the default xfce4 screensaver settings. I disable all of the screensaver options and disable the lock screen functions which seems to fix the "freeze" problem. But there still was a blank screen screensaver running? So now I know Xorg has it's own screensaver and I think that is what is providing the screensaver. I am fooling around with xset to see if the xfce4-screensaver GUI is just a frontend for xset or not.

Another weird occurrence was something during a "logout loop" on the xfce4 desktop changed some of the monitor settings causing a "Frequency out of range" error when I tried to boot various Puppy Linux's directly afterwards. The logout loop is when shutdown or the reboot command does not complete and one returns to the desktop and basically can not shut down or reboot without a hard stop.

I ran xorgwizard and reset the monitor resolution which fixed up the Fossapup's and Bionic's. Crazy was during this I was able to boot back into WDL_Void-xfce4 and the GUI worked fine. Went back to Puppy and broken.

Now it's all straightened out again

I am running another build from scratch to check if all the features work and ends up with a bootable WDL_Void-xfce4 desktop. Very very close to complete success on the latest run.