build a Puppy, but completely without some Puppy

[oui]

Hello!

As I see nothing come anymore in the size under a lot of hundred MB of size at Puppy

I did try to build myself easily a new completely actual Puppy

and it is really easy

The most annoying reality building Puppy is probably the among of things and steps to take in consideration until you have an ISO file able to well working in your /home/... excuse me in your /root (home)

That matter did become completely easy using the script from the Devuan derivate "refracta" (refracta itself is a full from Devuan derivated distro! see please distrowatch.com)!

Download please the "refractasnapshot-base" script and you will have a perfect solution to prepare a beautiful ISO

- compact
- well starting
- and offering all possible ways to continue (Options: out the ISO stuff, from RAM, install using the refracta installer, a second very small refacta script to make the installation easy) with an integrated boot loader (how to burn it WIT SUCCESS on about all USB sticks excepted very old one with not more than 1 GB? Completely easy: Plug in - Close and unmount - Gparted 4 usb (in my case) - New table - New partition as DOS 16 - Boot flag on! 0- Unmount (if automatic mounted)! - Copy the ISO on the stick:

dd if=pipapo.iso of=/dev/sdb (not sdb1 or somewhat other!!!) status=success .

This script can be used in all kind of Linux distros and installations (see the site from extix ! Also with arch, debian, gentoo, linuxfromscratch, slackware, suse, ubuntu, with or without preinstalled androbox, virtualbox, wine... it is very impressive!)!

Do that

FIRST STEP

download a (good) ISO (the contain of all ISO's is not always adequate to build the system from refracta snapshot!), for ex.:

out https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan the 32 bit net install ISO for the branch "testing" of Devuan:

https://files.devuan.org/devuan_daedalus/installer-iso/ and you will get this file:

devuan_daedalus_5.0.preview-20211227_i386_netinstall.iso (431 MB)

(All what I am now reporting on is tested with that iso , no other!)

burn it on a stick (howto see above!)

STEP 2

Create a new (if no better possibility, only transitional, you will erase it later) partition ext4

STEP 3

Prepare a dir /etc/ with subdir /etc/apt in that new partition and save a short text named apt.conf with following short content:

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APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";
APT::Get::Fix-Missing "true";
Acquire::Languages "none";
Acquire::Check-Valid-Until "false";

STEP 4

install your "after-Puppy" into that (transitional) partition (you can erase it after you did get the ISO with success...) through the official installer!

at tasksel, uncomment all things excepted the last item, the tools!

grub (?): I will separately report on this special question as it is not matter of the build but of your global system architecture...

you are now in your new transitional "just2start" full installation, an about empty installation (not really: you have a full Debian tool system for dpkg, apt and more!)

time sacrifice: somewhat like 1/2 h .. 50 min depending of internet connection

[textcolors]STEP 5=red,white[/textcolors]

install now refractasnapshot-base (as well as refractainstaller-base, a more little package) and gpm (you will like now to avoid to have to copy tonnes of texts being on the screen without toil marking the text and hitting on the wheel / middle key of mouse).

steps:

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su --
apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base

answer No

repeat hitting key CursorUp with following extended line:

apt install gpm sudo refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base > i1baseBasesudoGpm[/code]

through the redirection of screen output to a text file, you see no text but system stops at the same point where you did answer "No" few seconds before. Answer now Yes (or carrier return, it's the same) (so you get a written documentation what you did do, which dependencies did be installed, which download amoung which memory capacity used, which "Suggested" or "Recommends" package can other that been take under consideration! You can do that each net installation's step now; the command line itself will not appear in the doc " i1baseBaseSudoGpm". That is the reason why it is good to resume a bit what you did do, but you can find the bash output in history_bash, now, as you did become "superuser" in /root/ and later, as sudo is intalled, in /home/user! Both are hidden files, not forget!)

fill the /etc/sudoers file up correctly

and make your

first snapshot! I did name it "just2start" and the iso of MY installations snapshot (=ISO) has ab. 365 MB.

you can now forget the time sacrifice: somewhat like 1/2 h! for all future analog actions if you take care to actualize the content of that ISO (as it is the experimental branch of DEVUAN, it will continue to change in the next week or months...) following the actualization of Devuan testing.

(How to actualize later?

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

)

That installation is console only and a good start point for all future possible experimentations in 32 (or 64) bit. On computer with low memory, you can prefer an older release from Devuan (or an other distro) as far the script refracta snapshot works in it (test yourself and report here in case of success: which distro, which older stage, which memory available on your PC)!

Next msg: (coming soon)
- grow the installation to xorg and enter with "startx" into the new graphic system (MY installations snapshot "justXorg" (=ISO) size ab. 500 MB).
- grow the installation to a about full puppy like amount of main functions (MY installations snapshot (=ISO) "Devuan-à-la-Puppy" size 800 MB, which NO SOME DEVX.SFS or some hardware/disk capacity for that extension needs). Yes, it is a big size for a Puppy but actual Puppy's are not far of it and don't offer all what I did install (and need and have sometime real problems to install in Puppy in new, or sometimes extremely old release! Here is all fresh , more, yet "testing"!). Over that, it's it's architecture the architecture of a fully normal Linux respecting all rules of Linux!

.

[oui]

JustXorg
will be my program in this soon coming message

the next job is to install some parts working also in console, so you can stop here the installation (or continue if you have time) and use it immediately in console mode (using the key combination CRTL+ALT+one of the Fn-Keys in top of your keyboard, you can open a lot of consoles F1, F2, F3 etc. an marking text in one console port it without to have to write it again into an other place actually open in the other console! It is not so transparent as in windows being all on a desktop but works also...

you only have to login one time more in each console.

login? yes, at installations time of the system base described above, you did have to enter a password for root as well as an user and it's password (as usual in the most linux distributions excepted Puppy). As I want to be able to transmit my end iso, I did take as usual for Live installations a neutral password for root (root or toor, for ex.) and a neutral user name and password, and as I often use extix distros, I did use the usual extix combination for that user/user. But: do what you want

I use always the same installations text in such installations: it only will become longer and longer!

we did have in the last precedent step

apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base . This line is in /root/.bash_history.

as we did install "sudo" we will continue the right way using the sudo command and have get the line new again as the superuser history is not directly available for poor normal users...

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sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base

and extend this line:

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sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base deborphan alsa-utils clex didiwiki links2
sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base deborphan alsa-utils clex didiwiki links2 > i2consoleStuff

you can use all this stuff directly in console, didiwiki as smart writter (with bold, italic and underlined, as well as different titel, etc. only the function show-picture is of course in console not available). clex is a poor (very little) but powerful file manager. deborphan is the tool to search orphan packages you can (probably, you can prefer to only change the name using the command "mv" and erase later if all good) erase the 2d tool to have a clean system (with apt auto-remove).

I didn't install more for console mode. Possible would be for example the alsaplayer to listen music files, cups to print out and print server stuff, network server stuff, the old traditional great usage of Linux better than Windows in the past, or some sc (old spreadsheet not compatible with all fonts), wordgrinder (interesting are the export formats of it!), etc.

If you do that, you can use those packages in graphic mode in the console! If it is enough for you, why not!

Continuation to X (the graphic system of Linux! Is not separate as in Windows but the pure continuation of the console mode (depending of the distro, you sometimes can continue to open more consoles in console mode (but only one in graphic mode!)... It is usefull to quit properly linux is you can't enter some text any more, the situation what happens, if you activate "startx" to early! See later...).

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sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base deborphan alsa-utils lame clex didiwiki links2 menu 9menu xorg xli  elogind libpam-elogind xserver-xorg-legacy
sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base deborphan alsa-utils lame clex didiwiki links2 elogind libpam-elogind xserver-xorg-legacy > i3justX

I install xli as it is a good pictures viewer AND it is able to manage background pictures (as feh; but xli come's from X.org and is a bit smaller). But it is no must! Xli can only work in graphic mode (like the other) and you can use jwm itself to activate backgrounds! If you prefer viewnior, take viewnior! Xli is a suggested extension from xorg itself. The package xorg contains also a calculator, xcalc, an graphical text editor, xedit, and a viewer, xditview. As no man page installed, I did link for you the manpages in English found in the web. Links2 is both a text only browser and a very simple but very secure graphic browser if started with the option -g
. It is able to be used in some internet forums (learning by doing) also in mode console pure. Help is included in many languages...

If you want to look for some manpages if your own language, for ex. French, my mother tongue, you have to do:

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sudo apt-get install manpages-fr manpages-fr-extra
sudo apt-get install manpages-fr manpages-fr-extra > .i3manpages

for ex.:

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man -L fr xterm
man -L fr faceSize

(you will probably be sometime very desappointed: no manpage for that or those matter in your specific language ).

the first entry in X (graphic mode from Linux) hat to happen as superuser:

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sudo xinit

else if you get some error text, continue one time more:

the next entries can happen with "startx" or "X"

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sudo startx

As actually no JWM or ratpoison or other Window Manager is preinstalled, it is for the next message, your can now test if it's work and enter manually

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links2 -g

in the little terminal, your browser will open (empty blue-grey window! the menu is hidden an appear hitting ESC or the url bar entering "g"o or "s" (bookmarks, also empty but you can begin to feed it in!).

But be slow:

- you are actually superuser
- you will also from this step first have a snapshot before you enter smudge (excepted if you learn to limit the dir's and subdir's taken by snapshot, but it is an other story. Google if you want now...)

If all seems to work, you can take your second snapshot (see above how to do).

.

[oui]

and here Devuan-à-la-Puppy

at this point, you can use under poor condition the real graphic environment from Linux. you are in X. but You have no

- sessions manager (like Puppy: no "slim", or better ones like gdm, kdm etc.)
- window / desktop manager. As I really like JWM, used in Puppy, I will continue with it! This little app is a wonder: so small and so powerful, permitting more thank usually best developers use ! No other so small application can realize ALONE a so extended administration of the desktop....

But, before to do that, we have to clear an important question: It is recommended by Debian (and Devuan respects ALL DEBIAN excepted systemd), never to use the graphic environment and go into the internet as superuser.

If you try to go into the graphic environment with the command, startx (the package xorg did preinstall startx!), made for this purpose, you will meet actually a great deception: Devuan refuses actually to give you the rights to do that. You have to acquire the rights with one of the 3 packages you meet actually at the end of this actual stage of the installation (elogind libpam-elogind xserver-xorg-legacy) (it is the only one difficulty in this complete installation).

I did have to execute:

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-legacy

and did select the 2d option! After that it was possible to go into startx as simple user!

To quit the graphic environment and return to the main Linux environment, the console environment, simply execute

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exit

Arrived back in the console environment, you can reboot or shutdown

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Alt+Ctrl+Del

or

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sudo reboot

or

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sudo shutdown -h now

fill the /etc/sudoers file up correctly

I suggest that you make here an

intermediate second snapshot! I did name it "justX".

OR CONTINUE:

So that we can continue and install ...

... all the rest, why not?

... extending our commando line to make the complete commando line including the rest of that installation by add following steps to above line!

jwm mgp mtpaint mhwaveedit lame nted gv hunspell xsane tesseract-ocr gimagereader abiword gnumeric mtpaint osmo gparted synaptic xfce4-appfinder sakura cups cups-browsed smplayer epiphany-browser nemo

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sudo apt install gpm refractasnapshot-base refractainstaller-base deborphan alsa-utils lame clex didiwiki links2 menu 9menu xorg xli  elogind libpam-elogind xserver-xorg-legacy jwm mgp mtpaint mhwaveedit lame nted gv hunspell xsane tesseract-ocr gimagereader abiword gnumeric mtpaint osmo gparted synaptic xfce4-appfinder sakura cups cups-browsed smplayer epiphany-browser nemo

The system will register JWM (at the head of the new packages) as your actual main desktop and window manager and if you execute now the command, it will startx AND immediately show Jwm but before you do that,

adapt your environment and the actual menu of JWM manually, it is not difficult!

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cd /usr/bin
ln -s startx go

for you is "go" now equivalent from "startx" ..

After copying the file nano /etc/jwm/system.jwmrc

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cd /etc/jwm/
cp -a system.jwmrc system.jwmrc~

edit it:

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sudo nano /etc/jwm/system.jwmrc

nano opens and you can make the little adaptation:

1. copy the first line beginning with <Program icon="utilities-terminal" label= etc. and insert that as a next line with this text!
2. change in the first line beginning with <Program icon=" etc. the rest of the text of that line with

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"Finder">xfce4-appfinder</Program>

3. change in the next line you did just create after <Program icon=" etc. the rest of the text of that line with

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"Terminal">x-terminal-emulator</Program>

and save it. It is ALL (Finder iis all the precedent system installation and in Finder will be the item of the JWM menu where you find all the new graphic installation! You have nothing yourself to do to feed the Finder but can use the top bar of the Finder to start manually some new graphic app's. The system will use automatic the third item "Terminal"of the JWM menu to accede to all in the console, of course!

(Perfectionists would adapt the text of icon, but as icon are not used, this is perfectionismus pur... Perfectionists would probably also install an icon for Finder in the section <!-- Tray at the bottom. --> and eventually make an different usage as bottom / autohide=off etc. Perfectionists would probably also add a background picture in the section <!-- Virtual Desktops --> (jwm is able to do that here itself, you don't need some "feh" or "xli" for that! Please read the (good!) instructions for JWM but don't forget to save before you do what that file!)

xfce4-appfinder need, if all that is installed, only a few kB compared with the great advantages. same thing with nemo (probably the best actual file manager as it does also show the trees as well as he permit to get all the time the path + the files names so you can complete very fast some commando lines like dd if=path+filename of=/dev/sdb status=progress (see 1st msg!)). epiphany-browser? yes, it is really good and Gnome maintains it well! mgp, magic point, is the poor man presentation but for those like I having a low interest in presentation, it is probably enough in much situations and it is good to know it (it is the probably only one known linux app as it is in linux having start in old MS-Windows version with only 3 or 4 little modules of Cygwin!)

I hope I did not forget somewhat important...

fill the /etc/sudoers file up correctly

Make your

third snapshot! I did name it "DevuanJwmAndApps" and the iso of MY installations snapshot (=ISO) has ab. 804 MB, also only a few more than divers actual Puppy's + devx.sfs make toghether. I assume that ISO is yet clean from private stuff and you can transmit it as it is.

For the daily use, always starting from RAM (the start is fast: the unsquash process to copy it into the RAM needs only ab. 1 minute on MY PC and the rest of the start process is really very fast. If you processor is not so powerfull, try the first option from boot menu (no copy, no immediate unsquash (but probably more unsquash activity at running time?)), you will eventually need a bit more specific installation for your own specific needs. I install more stuff in /usr/share/hunspell and /usr/share/fonts as I need daily 2 or 3 languages. I always continue to install some /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so (the very old puppy version with only 9740 KB size), etc. Certain of you will continue to use "geany" and install it although there are a lot of ways to edit texts (SliTaz developers did use "nano" as common text editor for developers about 10 years along and did find it good enough...). Make a 4th snapshot! Good luck and enjoy!

.

[oui]

An important function have in your own new minimal Linux made of conceptional ideas from Puppy Linux using the middle offered by the great distro Debian in the rebel form from Devuan (Debian without the terrible MUST-OPTION systemd)

(thank you Devuan staff! I agree!)

have rights. Old Puppy users will have to learn (again) good habits...

I did explain it especially for the specific use of startx (transformed with a link to "go" for fast access to the graphic level beginning at the console level. Using the ISO you will not meet them again: the ISO opens directly in graphic mode without some login like Puppy Linux

Last word:

I dont understand why (as it is not logic) but after installing "sudo" (which is NOT preinstalled) no warning no dialog asking which have to be sudoer. Ok, is so.

Try it AS USER in the terminal:

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groups

A lot of YOUR groups will appear but (probably) not "sudo"

The elegant way to change it would (probably) be as superuser:

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usermod -aG sudo <your-user-name> 

and reboot!

(I use till more than 20 y the smudge way to edit directly with the editor from Puppy the file "/etc/sudoers" in the other system! The line "root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL" is to be copy a second time and the <your-user-name> to be registered in the second line where "root" is written in the first. An official way to do that would probably be

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SUDO_EDITOR=nano visudo

)!

.

[oui]

very billion of potential users not able to really use some English based distribution, this kind of Puppy would offer some comfort absolutely not available in other old distribution excepted, of course, Refracta Linux itself (as it did provide the tools...).

After you did put your new ISO onto your USB stick, you can restart IMMEDIATELY without to have to take long preparation for the next step: The Refracta snapshot is immediately finish with all tools for best reboot, especially a

BEST BOOTLOADER!

It see as following (excuse me, photographic view with a special objective for home photography without light (but it can't take narrow views...).

You see all options prepared fully automatic by the Refracta snapshot: start from stick (DEFAUL), Change the language (TAB and edit), load into the RAM and start from RAM (exactly like Puppy!), failsafe start as well as 4 other tools to start. Over that, you can opt for the 2d tool from Refracta linux, the Refracta installer and make a full installation.

If you change the language, a line appears to edit as the item name says. It is prepared for the language ITalian (probably the tongue of the main developer of the Refracta community). You have to change an 3 little places it or it_IT or IT into somewhat else (see the picture, I did do it with my mother tongue, FRench) and ALL THE ISO will be using, as far as available in that tongue, in the new by you defined language . I did do it also as test with Russian, no problem!

How to quit the system: open a terminal and activate:

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sudo reboot

or

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sudo shutdown -h now

(for foreign languages as Russian: ask before doing that a Russian speaker else you will have to do an hard reset )

ALL WITHOUT SOME TOIL = WITHOUT TO HAVE TO EDIT SOME WHAT

(yes the ISO is a little bigger but it includes simply more stuff... important stuff for those having not learn English...)

[oui]

the HOWTO on top is now complete!

see also https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=33843#p33843

Note: above design is not really from me. It was about the design from Beatrix Linux (old Puppy lover will remember, a bit later as Puppy began, the very little distro with no dog but a cat as icon and a few less app's as Puppy did offer (old Puppy's did include stuff like WYSIWYG HTML editor, skype etc.) as it was designed for people completely without experience. But that cat made from a German Swiss developer was based on Ubuntu instead Devuan/Debian with a very fast installation way different from Ubuntu but fully compatible with it... Late compliments to the old developers from Beatrix!

And now,

login
enter user password
and simply enter "go" + CR

and run your new small distro out the RAM where no smudge (histories, cookies etc.) can resist to the next "shutdown"
(but you can take enough histories, cookies on board as yourself decide, enough to permit unlimited use of the stuff, if you pack then yourself in the ISO ! If GAFA's will spy you, not within your own computer! )

[oui]

Hi lmemsm

I did read your message at viewtopic.php?t=5031 and did look at your y! video (see view at the end).

I use my minimal linux (a real Puppy as to be a minimal Linux ) as explained above.started and started in English (but you can start it in each language supported by the depositories recommended by refracta linux... Different from real Puppy, ll app' s are completely in YOUR language! And you can start again and use 5 minutes later the language of your wife (it's my usage: my real language is French and the language of my wife is German...)

web (one of the browsers of Gnome, also named epiphany browser) will admit don' t to be able to open this y! video.

as I know that, I did include in my packages list SMPlayer. SMPlayer also has toil to open the video but proposes me a solution I did accept and, as you see at the print screen, SMPlayer was after that able to show me the y! video (next problem for me: I did look! It is some kind of video only based on language. I can not understand at all spoken English... Sorry! THAT IS WHY YOUTUBE VIDEOS ARE ONLY REALLY WONDERFUL IF THE SPOKEN PART IS NOT IMPORTANT BUT IF THE USER UNDERSTAND ALL ONLY LOOKING THE PICTURES, it is often the case if good persons are reading (the other are NOT GOOD: they would better publish "texts" as translate.google.com would translate them...): A picture says more than 1000 words)!

The used REFRACTASNAPSHOT does all perfectly:

- build the ISO
- insert a start (real) GNU grub environment to start normally, or from RAM, in each language

and although NO SESSION's MANAGER is preinstalled

if you start as Puppy, you arrive at the same point: JWM (NOT the console environment) ist open

[oui]

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6266