KLV-Airedale-alpha Released for Experimentation and Improvement by the Puppy community

[wiak]

@wiak As indicated, it does seem v 2.13.1 has a cache bug and an upgrade fixes it. I haven't tried it yet though!

I hope so, but alas I know nothing about fc-cache or related /var/cache/fontconfig

I note as things stand that running fc-cache -r -v results in some caches failing to write and final fc-cache 'failed' message.

As quick test (no doubt destructive - so not recommended unless person knows what they are doing), I did:

rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic
rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/X11/util
rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings

since these were the ones fc-cache was reporting as failing to write.

Thereafter, fc-cache -r -v
worked with what remained in /usr/share/fonts
and gave final 'succeeded' message

I have not idea why the above three seemed to not write

[wiak]

If nothing else (new fontconfig/fc-cache) fixes things, maybe this is a possible workaround (I don't really know the issue but worth posting I suppose):

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=240026

What is suggested is to run command (sudo not required really since root...):

Code: Select all

sudo SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(date +%s) fc-cache -rs

I then also tried:

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sudo SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$(date +%s) fc-cache -r -v

and with that got a fc-cache "succeeded" message

[rockedge]

@wiak I have just compiled fontconfig v. 2.3.94 successfully using a Bionic64 and will see if it works on KLV...........and it does. Installed it manually by copying the components to their perspective positions.

Here it is as a .xbps package. Install with inst-xbps

something not right with the install package. I will re-compile it in KLV-Airedale later on. For now I see it does work so is anyone wants to compile it and offer it also as a xbps package that would be cool.

This package seems to have totally fixed the problem!

@fredx181 and @mikewalsh getting fontconfig-2.3.94 installed is the game changer. The system seems to be able to automatically keep the cache tidy and trim again.

[fredx181]

This package seems to have totally fixed the problem!

@fredx181 and @mikewalsh getting fontconfig-2.3.94 installed is the game changer. The system seems to be able to automatically keep the cache tidy and trim again.

That's good news !
I tested your 32-bit XFCE Void and has the same problem.
Also tested latest Debian(dog) Sid XFCE (running as root) and no problem (only 6 files in the cache). Version of fontconfig is indicated as 2.13.1-4.2

EDIT: @rockedge before you go into the trouble of compiling fontconfig...
I experimented by replacing the complete directory /usr/share/fonts with the one from my Debian install, and.. problem was gone !
So there may be one or two installed fonts that cause the problem, now need to find out which one...
EDIT2: Seems impossible to find out, thought of removing some font packages, but xbps-remove refuses because of dependencies.
Another thing, again experimented, but the other way around, on my Debian install replaced /usr/share/fonts with the one from KLV, all is still fine.
So... it's a mystery for me and no idea how to solve.

[rockedge]

@fredx181 We are narrowing the problem down at least. Looks like any fontconfig version greater than the one now present in Void Linux will fix the issue. So we could wait for the Void repos to reflect an upgrade to fontconfig or we just make a package out of a newly compiled version. I used Puppy to compile and the your dir2xbps which completed perfectly. But I think the compile with the Bionic64 lib's cuases a conflict at install time on KLV.

I did manage to compile and install the same newer fontconfig in KLV-Airedale. but I need to now do something similar to the Puppy Linux toolnew2dir make install so I can use the dir2xbps on it!

[Keef]

Have you tried:

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make DESTDIR=/path/to/directory install 

?
I think this is what you may be after.

[peebee]

I think VoidPup32 has the same fontconfig issue.....

[rockedge]

@peebee It definitely is fixed with any fontconfig version over 2.13.1_1. The version 2.13.94 I compiled in Puppy Linux Bionic64-CE (directly from woof-CE) has fixed the problem in KLV but I had to install it on KLV by hand. It is really working well now though.

So I did compile v 2.13.94_3 in KLV and I am making a xbps package out of it today. I could possibly go into VoidPup32 load the devx and compile a fontconfig and install it directly there. Or use a WDL-Void32 and compile and package it there.

Once VoidPup32 (which is working otherwise outstandingly) has the upgraded fontconfig, we should be back in the saddle again.

Yesterday on top of it, I woke up to find a PM that the oldforum was crashed. Which it was in a serious way. Turns out the 24 Hour Activity extension had completely overflowed a MySQL table and caused the entire system to go into a General Error. Some quick help spotting the culprit in the error messages from a user over at the phpBB forums brought it under control, then disabling and removing the extension and deleting the corrupted table directly in the database brought us back to the promised land.

@Keef That config option is what I am looking for!! Thanks!!!

[mikewalsh]

Mm. Quite a flurry of activity...!

Sorry to have been the one to cause it.....

@fredx181 and @mikewalsh getting fontconfig-2.3.94 installed is the game changer. The system seems to be able to automatically keep the cache tidy and trim again.

Well, that's good news at least. Just your luck to pick on Void as a base at a point in time when this little-publicized bug was extant... Then again, 430 MB where there should only ever be a few kb does rather "stick out like a sore thumb", y'know? I felt it needed mentioning, like....

Onwards & upwards. I'm quite sure you're not the first dev who's ever run into these kinds of issues, and I'm 100% certain you'll not be the last!

Are you intending to provide this as an add-on package, or will you just stick it in the next test-release?

Mike.

[peebee]

Once VoidPup32 has the upgraded fontconfig, we should be back in the saddle again.

I "borrowed" libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 from Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla (which has same glibc as Void - 2.32) and that seemed to quieten things down - just 1 new entry in the cache for the initial run of some apps.....

libfontconfig1_2.13.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb

Void is dropping a bit behind on glibc versions - now at 2.34

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh It was essential that you found this bug. It would of rendered KLV inoperable, which is exactly opposite of the direction we want to go in. Plus the fact that it wasn't present in the earlier WDL-Void builds it matched up to what we found doing some research. We tried out various methods now that this problem has been narrowed down to a manageable status. This hurdle is in principle, overcome, and you had a major role in identifying and explaining the problem. All I can say is job well done testing and observing. Now we can see how diverse methods of testing are so important and how lucky we are to have dedicated, focused individuals that play very important roles in the successful development of a project with the scope of ours.

I will add it immediately to the base rootfs and also release it here as a package to install on existing and already customized systems.

@peebee Good find! I will also try that out.

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

Well, there ya go. Glad to be of service, young man....

.....because I DO like the way this is starting to shape up, I must confess. Just wish I could contribute a bit more on the 'system' side of things, but that's never really been my 'forte', I'm sorry to say....

We all have our strong points, and our weak ones. That's why our community has always worked as well as it does, of course; we all help each other out.

Mike.

[fredx181]

Once VoidPup32 has the upgraded fontconfig, we should be back in the saddle again.

I "borrowed" libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 from Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla (which has same glibc as Void - 2.32) and that seemed to quieten things down - just 1 new entry in the cache for the initial run of some apps.....

libfontconfig1_2.13.1-2ubuntu3_i386.deb

Void is dropping a bit behind on glibc versions - now at 2.34

Thanks ! I downloaded libfontconfig amd64 .deb from ubuntu focal, replaced libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 in /usr/lib and problem solved !
edit: this deb: http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/poo ... _amd64.deb

@mikewalsh , please continue finding nasty bugs, then we can blame it on you !

EDIT: And when running fc-cache -v -r : I get "fc-cache: succeeded"

[rockedge]

Excellent fix! Very easy. I compiled and installed it again on another alpha8+ and it seems to work as well.
Here is a link to the compiled directories compressed as a .tar.xz
fontconfig-2.13.94_1.tar.xz

I tried to make it a package but none of them would install! Perhaps take a look at it and see if anyone can make it a package! Otherwise installing it manually works for sure. I think though overall it will be the best fix to download and swap in libfontconfig1_2.13.1-2ubuntu3_amd64.deb

P.S. probably could get fancy and use xdeb <path/to/deb> to install it. I'd be interested in seeing if this will work as intended?

[bigpup]

Good find and fix by all involved.
A little over my head in knowledge.

I will open a new can of worms

I started messing with installer programs to use in this KLV-Airedale OS.

I tried the Frugalpup installer and it's set of installers.
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=337
Got them installed and could open from menu entries.
But had all kinds of issues with getting them to do installs.
This set of installers would be great to actually get working.

So, tried a more general Linux installer.
Unetbootin

Unetbootin is easy to get and use.
All it is a bin file you download, make executable, and click on to run.
It does need a few other dependency stuff, but all were easily gotten by using OctoXBPS.
By what rockedge says will be in the next alpha release.
These needed dependencies will already be in it.

Tried using Unetbootin to do an install to a USB drive using the KLV-Airedale ISO as source.
Here is an issue.
The drive icons on the desktop are crap!!!
What pops up when you plug a USB drive in is OK, but what it identifies it as, sucks!
Unetbootin gives you option to select /dev/sdb, sdc, sdd, etc.......
No desktop drive icon gives this sdx identification.
So how do you know what to select?
.

Screenshot.png (159.99 KiB) Viewed 1373 times

[fredx181]

@rockedge
Great work !!
Tried also making a xbps from your build and it failed to install too,
I guess dir2xbps is too simple for this type of package.
So made a package "libfontconfig1" including only the lib from your build. Must say that I don't know Void enough to predict what happens e.g. when installing an updated fontconfig version. (edit i.e. will libfontconfig be overwritten ?)
Anyway... great that there's a solution now. Fixes the problem well for me.

libfontconfig1-1.12_0.x86_64.xbps

(488.23 KiB) Downloaded 59 times

Install with inst-xbps Recommended to first empty /var/cache/fontconfig rm -f /var/cache/fontconfig/*

[rockedge]

Nice work @fredx181 this will be easy to add to the base rootfs for alpha9!

Perhaps something to hold a package will be needed?

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To prevent a package from being updated during a system update, use xbps-pkgdb(1):

# xbps-pkgdb -m hold <package>

The hold can be removed with:

# xbps-pkgdb -m unhold <package>

I have several builds to run it on.

[bigpup]

I first used rm -f /var/cache/fontconfig/*

/var/cache/fontconfig showed empty.

Then installed libfontconfig1-1.12_0.x86_64.xbps

Checked to see what was in /var/cache/fontconfig
73 items in it.

Did rm -f /var/cache/fontconfig/* again.

Now /var/cache/fontconfig is empty.

Now the change seems to be working and staying correct in /var/cache/fontconfig

[bigpup]

Another can of worms.

Is there a firewall?

If yes.
How do we know if it is working ?

Can we do any changes to how it works?

[fredx181]

Then installed libfontconfig1-1.12_0.x86_64.xbps

Checked to see what was in /var/cache/fontconfig
73 items in it.

Yes, probably what you did run to install libfontconfig1 created the 73 files (while still the old libfontconfig was active).
So yes, you did good to delete the cache again after installing. Anyway this will work fine in a new KLV build with this fixed libfontconfig1 running from the start.

[mikewalsh]

Grrr..! Oh, for F***'s sakes.....

Not AGAIN.

@fredx181 :-

@mikewalsh , please continue finding nasty bugs, then we can blame it on you !

'Kay, buddy, try this one on for size.

I remember now why I always, in the past, eventually gave up on XFCE4 as a desktop environment. Because sooner or later, it always decided to "disappear" on me.....and since I never knew how to restart it - or, if I did, it never worked for me - I invariably ended up re-installing.

Yup, you guessed it; it's gone and done it AGAIN.

I went to boot into it a wee while ago. It boots up and goes through its usual routine fine.....only now, instead of my nice desktop that I've spent a ton of work on, all I have is a black background, with a tiny analogue clock in the top-right corner, and 3 big white rectangles of various sizes, each with a tiny bit of script in the top left corner; 'bash-config-5.1', or something similar.

To say I'm annoyed is putting it mildly!

Anybody have any ideas at all as to how I might fix this one? The desktop is completely unresponsive; left-click, right-click, middle-click, nothing produces owt. How do we 'drop out' to a console when it gets like this.....and try to restart XFCE4 (if anybody knows the command)?

I can revert to a recent backed-up copy if necessary, but I would like to try & 'fix' this first, if at all possible. Who's gonna be brave enough to come up with some suggestions?

Small wonder I've always preferred to stick with JWM/ROX-filer; for me, it's always been rock-solid & ultra-stable. I'm in my favourite Quirky64 'April' 7.0.1 ATM; to date, it has never yet once misbehaved.....not seriously, anyway!

BK always DID produce quality stuff. I guess that's why we call him the "PuppyMaster".....

Mike.

[wiak]

I remember now why I always, in the past, eventually gave up on XFCE4 as a desktop environment. Because sooner or later, it always decided to "disappear" on me.....and since I never knew how to restart it - or, if I did, it never worked for me - I invariably ended up re-installing.

You do a lot of tinkering via sfs load applications and now xbps variants so possible you've overwritten some important xfce-related lib or something. Sounds like later you'll be happier with KLV-Boxer (rockedge's JWM/Rox spin of Airedale - but probably lots of Airedale extras not implemented on that alpha2 as yet).

[fredx181]

BK always DID produce quality stuff. I guess that's why we call him the "PuppyMaster".....

I can imagine that you are upset, but that sounds to me like comparing and in my eyes it's discouraging.
Btw, what makes you think that it's XFCE's "fault" ? This is alpha version remember.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh something is not going correctly with the /root/.initrc , go in and see if it is there where it should and it is intact. Your set up is using the default /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc which does not launch the xfce4 desktop. You can also check it in the /upper_changes/root/.xinitrc from another system.

If you are at console use startx

Or when in this position press CTRL-ALT-F2, login as root (password=root) and use startx to get to a desktop. You can return to tty1 with CTRL-ALT-F1

also from the console xfce4-session will start the desktop

/root/.initrc should look like this:

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#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then

    xrdb -merge $sysresources

fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then

    xrdb -merge "$userresources"

fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
    xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
 for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
  [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
 done
 unset f
fi

/usr/local/bin/start-up &
exec xfce4-session

[rockedge]

Any way here is KLV-Airedale-alpha9 with the latest fixes built in.
Link is in the first post!

Missing is @fredx181's swapon routine to activate the use of a swap partition if existent

@mikewalsh Now is a good time to get to know another nice feature of KLV-Airedale. If you add a 2 digit number like let's say 55 to /upper_changes so it is named /55upper_changes the system will load /55upper_changes and write to a new /upper_changes.

So if something goes wrong simply delete the broken /upper_changes and replace it by renaming /55upper_changes back to it's original name /upper_changes.

This will allow you to roll back to what works again. One can layer the /upper_changes, like /55upper_changes, /56upper_changes or squash them to SFS and load them at boot in layers.

One can combine uncompressed and compressed file systems in the same system. This includes the rootfs SFS file.

[rockedge]

I am running alpha9 and typing from it. So far the fontconfig fix xbps package from @fredx181 seems to definitely work well.

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

Okay. Well, root/.xinitrc all matches, except I now have 4 extra items after those last two lines:-

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/usr/local/bin/start-up &
exec xfce4-session
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login

Which look suspiciously like what i described; the wee clock, and what look rather like a bunch of consoles?

Should I delete these last 4 lines? What d'you reckon.....or will KLV simply recreate them again?

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh YES! delete those 4 lines after exec xfce4-session!!!

It should not rewrite it at all. I will check the base rootfs to see if something crept in. Delete them reboot and see what happens.

How did that file change?

[mikewalsh]

@fredx181 :-

BK always DID produce quality stuff. I guess that's why we call him the "PuppyMaster".....

I can imagine that you are upset, but that sounds to me like comparing and in my eyes it's discouraging.
Btw, what makes you think that it's XFCE's "fault" ? This is alpha version remember.

Hiya, Fred.

No, I didn't intend to 'compare'; not in that way, anyhow. The Quirkies were Barry's first set of experiments and general playing-around when he first stepped-down and handed over the reins to Micko, and I'm honestly amazed that even now it's so dead stable & reliable.

Don't get me wrong; you, Erik, dimkr, mistfire, radky, josejp2424, Micko, of course.....tons of others whose names escape me ATM.....this community has an absolute gold-mine of largely untapped talent, against which my own meagre offerings seem paltry by comparison!

The reason I say what I did about XFCE is that this is - at least for me - a long-standing issue that dates all the way back to my very early distro-hopping days. I tried all sorts back then, many with XFCE, some for months at a time, and without fail, XFCE invariably ended up pulling its 'disappearing' stunt regardless of the distro I was testing. And I'm not the only one who finds it somewhat 'unstable'; I've trawled the XFCE developer forums on a number of occasions in the past, and plenty of folks have been complaining about that exact same issue. It looks like all these years later they still haven't got to the bottom of it.

But, as you say, it IS only in 'alpha' stage.....and as Will commented, I DO perform a ton of experiments on the long-suffering inhabitants of my kennels! ATM, I'm keeping an open mind; I wouldn't rule anything out presently. I'm quite willing to accept that it may indeed be my own fault.

(*shrug*)

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh Did the fix work?