KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta2 Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

@wiak I already went to another build and Rox is working fine.

I can't yet just build from the plug since the plug file does not have the many many items that were added manually and hand crafted. So I have been using the base build and upgrading it via rolling updates occasionally.

I just took an alpha13 which works very well and made those little changes that made it a beta1 and beta2 and repackaged it. Once again every thing works and I am going to upload for use today as Beta3.

If I do build a Rox to test out what happened it will be down the road just for the sake of finding out what happened. Otherwise I am pressing on by reverting back to alpha13 and again making those small changes which are really only 2 things that made it a beta. Really I could take this and go RC1 because I do not want to make KLV-Airedale too big!

I'll write off to what happened is some file corruption or what probably really happened, that I got the many many pieces and versions confused and put beta2 together using the wrong components. I have literally 30+ versions of KLV, WDL and WeeDogged distro's on this blade server many which are very similar.

Sometimes I boot and the phone rings, I come back and I can't tell what is going on.....lost the thread temporarily. I've begun to label each desktop background with the version so I know where I am. I at times have 4 machines directly in arm's reach and each doing some other thing like the forum software, the wiki software, keeping the main host server healthy, doing federal and state taxes for the year, dealing with emails and forum concerns, managing other client's web sites like https://nutmegkart.com that I built 10 years ago. And then me writing and playing around with scripts, program code, zoneminder.

Point is I get lost sometimes if I have to do something else and the focused thread is broken....by the cat running by with a mouse in it's teeth headed for the living room just now.....gotta go....

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

@wiak ,
I need to organize the extra packages that are the contributions to KLV-Airedale in a repo that the PLUG file can access and download then install. The rest is easy to add in to the PLUG file. I've kept it current with the additional core Void Linux components that are added.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta2 Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

rockedge wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 3:08 pm

Sometimes I boot and the phone rings, I come back and I can't tell what is going on.....lost the thread temporarily. I've begun to label each desktop background with the version so I know where I am. I at times have 4 machines directly in arm's reach and each doing some other thing like the forum software, the wiki software, keeping the main host server healthy, doing federal and state taxes for the year, dealing with emails and forum concerns, managing other client's web sites like https://nutmegkart.com that I built 10 years ago. And then me writing and playing around with scripts, program code, zoneminder.

Point is I get lost sometimes if I have to do something else and the focused thread is broken....by the cat running by with a mouse in it's teeth headed for the living room just now.....gotta go....

Oh I understand... even when I'm just working on one thing, if I kind of complete something, but forget to save it or don't post it, when I come back in a day or two I can't even remember if I'm looking at the correct version and have to check around and use diff and in the end just hope it is the right one. I don't know how you manage looking after the forum hosting as well as taking on management of KLV-Airedale; but you are doing a great job regardless; a problem like that of rox occurring must have been a real pain when looked like all was heading for final release. Good the hear you have managed to get on top of it.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by bigpup »

Just an idea, but I need this answered.

What format is the location all of this KLV-Airedale stuff is stored on?

Has it had any kind of file system checking program run on it?
Checking for any errors in the file system (format)?

The things you do not tell us, are usually the clue to fixing the problem.
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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

bigpup wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 3:59 am

What format is the location all of this KLV-Airedale stuff is stored on?

Rockedge stores it on his cloud I believe. Probably contains fsck for file system checking, but personally I'd usually do that when booted into a different distro (or a second install of KLV-Airedale) on a different storage media - rare that I'd bother though (which is why that occasional other distro boot method is fine for me).

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

The most useful thing (for me) coming out of Puppy is its huge kernel since has most all drivers built in that are needed to boot.

But... one thing missing... overlayfs. Pups have aufs built in, but not overlayfs. This is fine for Puppy since it uses aufs for its boot layering structure, but what a pity for those wanting to use overlayfs! I wonder how much bigger the kernel becomes if overlayfs is also included by default? Surely wouldn't be much, and I do know that gyrog did experiment with overlayfs-based Pups. Yes, the drawback from Puppy point of view is simply the neat aufs-based sfs-load mechanism doesn't work with overlayfs so have to adopt the symlink method (which does seem to work okay though). Anyway, I'm not suggesting Puppy should use overlayfs, but just wishful thinking that the huge kernels created also included overlayfs with, hopefully, little disadvantage in kernel size.

Also, since rockedge builds kernels too, maybe can produce some with overlayfs built in????????????????????????????????

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by peebee »

wiak wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 8:46 am

But... one thing missing... overlayfs. Pups have aufs built in, but not overlayfs.

Most recent Pup kernels I know about have both overlayfs and aufs...... certainly my kernel builds do and so do the "official" GitHub Woof-CE Kernel-kit builds.......

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

peebee wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:08 am
wiak wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 8:46 am

But... one thing missing... overlayfs. Pups have aufs built in, but not overlayfs.

Most recent Pup kernels I know about have both overlayfs and aufs...... certainly my kernel builds do and so do the "official" GitHub Woof-CE Kernel-kit builds.......

Oh, I didn't notice that. I thought it needed module for overlayfs, so not built in. Good to hear though. A kernel with overlayfs built in (not needing the module during boot) would be slightly better in KLV-Airedale; then modules could be a normal layer (for example layer 02 instead of special read-only mounted EDIT - bind mount to initrd/usr/lib/modules layer 00) and read-writable to upper_changes so compiling new modules (as pemasu likes doing) would work without any such 00modules 'tricks'

That 00modules trick is only used to fetch that one-extra module being overlayfs for the initrd pre-switch_root-stage, so that mechanism is not needed if overlayfs driver built into the kernel itself. Actually I could modify that method to just copy overlayfs module into the initrd (when needed) rather than use a bind mount - then compile would also work without issue. Reason I didn't do it that way was that I was thinking of situation where many modules might be needed by the initrd over and above those drivers included inside the kernel and bind mount was nice and simple. I'll think about the possibilities further later, but basically fine just now anyway. But, yes, for KLV-Airedale type of build a kernel including built-in overlayfs driver would be better.

EDIT: Just checked on other machine and yes, I see overlayfs not a module in VoidPup. I was basing my original statement on fact it is not built into the kernel on my FossaPup install (i.e. is a module with that one). That being the case, the VoidPup kernel/modules/firmware combination could be usefully used in KLV-Airedale, but instead of using the zdrv as 00modules.sfs it could then be used as, say, 02modules.sfs with the fdrv being 01firmware.sfs (though the order of modules/firmware layers shouldn't itself matter).
EDIT2: Ah, not quite... the VoidPup zdrv puts the modules in /lib/modules, whereas, in KLV-Airedale (per official Void Linux) they need to appear in /usr/lib/modules so that adjustment would need to be made if using 02modules.sfs overlay. Using modules.sfs with /lib/modules works fine in 00modules.sfs position because the related 00 mount bind mechanism in the initrd code by default takes the /lib/modules and binds it to /usr/lib/modules (i.e. it makes the adjustment automatically); I'd actually prefer the default to always be /usr/lib/modules per Void Linux and Arch Linux and maybe even now Debian(?) so might be changed to that later.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by peebee »

wiak wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:06 am

EDIT2: Ah, not quite... the VoidPup zdrv puts the modules in /lib/modules, whereas, in KLV-Airedale (per official Void Linux) they need to appear in /usr/lib/modules

You probably need to use the "usrmerge" versions of the Woof-CE kernel-kit builds.........e.g. see
https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 1907708126

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

From Wikipedia :

History

The need and specification of a kernel mode Linux union mount filesystem was identified in late 2009.[1] The initial RFC patchset of OverlayFS was submitted by Miklos Szeredi in 2010.[2] By 2011, OpenWrt had already adopted it for their use.[3]

It was merged into the Linux kernel mainline in 2014, in kernel version 3.18.[4][5] It was improved in version 4.0, bringing improvements necessary for e.g. the overlay2 storage driver in Docker.[6]

While most Live CD linux distributions used Aufs as of November 2016, Slackware used overlayfs for its live CD.[7]

All of my "huge" kernels from version 4+ have overlayfs already built in with AUFS patches and in some cases full real time patches applied to the stock kernel then compiled. I also enable virtualization and support for parallel and serial port communication. Depending on the kernel's purpose, I may change some clock speeds and timers.

So these huge kernels have BOTH overlayfs and AUFS available. I have done some experimentation with a Puppy Linux and WDL-Void (with a Puppy Linux kernel) to see what happens if I used both. This was to see different tactics for SFS loading on the fly, and if a hybrid model would work. Some moments it looks promising and another totally not.
https://rockedge.org/kernels is a website I built alongside several others that do other things These run on the same hosting service as puppylinux.com but different physical servers. I have an ownlcloud server set up as a private cloud service. There are only 4 users of this and 2 of them are me.

The host servers use Linux file system structure and are running Linux. These are commercial grade production servers running enterprise operating systems and web server, database components.

I do the hash checks before and after packages and images files (ISO,IMG) uploads to these servers and provide the hash numbers in txt files. Many checks are done in the background and the host service provides a good collection of the tools needed to stay secure and ensure integrity. That is the advantage of using a professional hosting service.

Plus backups are extremely important and those tools are present.
On the main servers as well as in some of the individual websites. For example from the forum:

Screenshot_2022-03-02_14-49-04.png
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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

peebee wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:56 am
wiak wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:06 am

EDIT2: Ah, not quite... the VoidPup zdrv puts the modules in /lib/modules, whereas, in KLV-Airedale (per official Void Linux) they need to appear in /usr/lib/modules

You probably need to use the "usrmerge" versions of the Woof-CE kernel-kit builds.........e.g. see
https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 1907708126

Thanks, useful link.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

A tip for changing the font color for the xfce4 tray (panel 1) clock

To change the font color to green using a custom format string:

Code: Select all

<span color="#00FF00">%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M</span>
Screenshot_2022-03-02_19-24-02.png
Screenshot_2022-03-02_19-24-02.png (30.59 KiB) Viewed 1218 times

with the tray (panel 1) clock using a custom string

Attachments
Screenshot_2022-03-02_19-24-44.png
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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by mikewalsh »

@rockedge :-

I assume this applies to employing your own font, too.....yes?

I vaguely remember needing to resort to a custom string to use my own choice of font in Lubuntu, back in my distro-hopping days, many moons ago. D'you remember the format required for this?

The following is a guide to the most commonly-used 'strftime' format codes, but nowhere does it give the format for changing font types.....OR colours, for that matter.

https://kapeli.com/cheat_sheets/strftim ... ents/index

(Apparently, this 'span stuff is in 'PangoMarkup' layout..?)

:?: :?:

Mike. ;)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by fredx181 »

mikewalsh wrote:

(Apparently, this 'span stuff is in 'PangoMarkup' layout..?)

Yes. See here for the options: https://docs.gtk.org/Pango/pango_markup.html
So to set custom font you can add for example: font="Sans Italic 12"
Then with the example above from rockedge <span font="Sans Italic 12" color="#00FF00">%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M</span>

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

rockedge wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 6:27 pm

@wiak ,
I need to organize the extra packages that are the contributions to KLV-Airedale in a repo that the PLUG file can access and download then install. The rest is easy to add in to the PLUG file.

Yes, that's exactly what I do for extra bits and pieces I also need installed for weedogit.sh to work. So for simple script or sfs I'd just wget it to appropriate place, or usually I wget a tar archive and untar it in correct place and then remove the tarred version. Works good and repeatable.

Certainly, it is possible to include whole script using the likes of a cat HERE document, but soon makes plugin too big if the script is more than a few lines long... It also unnecessarily complicates how to write the plugin when a simple wget would do... Nice of course when single plugin can indeed hold 'every script code line' since if repo fails the build will fail, but to be realistic, most utility extra scripts are too big for that. In practice, therefore, best to use wget code lines in the build plugin, or similar, to add the extra bits/utility apps. Also that means the plugin itself can be kept pretty small and easy to understand and the extra bits can be checked out separately any time just by examining, say, their tarball archive. I'm doing the same in WDL_Arch64 build - reducing cat HERE documents and just using wget more appropriately when needed.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by mikewalsh »

fredx181 wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 8:33 am
mikewalsh wrote:

(Apparently, this 'span stuff is in 'PangoMarkup' layout..?)

Yes. See here for the options: https://docs.gtk.org/Pango/pango_markup.html
So to set custom font you can add for example: font="Sans Italic 12"
Then with the example above from rockedge <span font="Sans Italic 12" color="#00FF00">%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M</span>

Cheers, Fred..!

I've got a font called 'Xolonium' which, although you can set it to 'Bold' and such like, behaves more like a monospace font. In other words, it doesn't cause the contents of the notification area to jig back & forth as the numbers change; everything stays in the same place!

I'll see how I get on, mate; I just couldn't quite recall the actual layout - spaces, quotation marks, etc.

Mike. ;)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by mikewalsh »

@fredx181 :-

.....and there we go:-

Image

Code: Select all

<span font="Xolonium Bold 14" color="#F6E792">%a %d %B %H:%M</span>

(I DO like the way the code-box remains red until you get the syntax right, and then turns white. Makes it easier to tell when it's correct.)

Cheers, Fred!

Mike. ;)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by fredx181 »

Nobody interested in testing 'save on demand' / 'save at shutdown' option ??? viewtopic.php?p=50707#p50707
IMHO, having choice to 'save or not' is one of the best features of a frugal install (Puppy has similar, pupmode=13, other live distros have it as well, e.g. Porteus)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

@fredx181 I'm testing it and really interested in the mechanism.

So far though I have been scrambling a bit getting over a small hiccup in the beta2 and ran into an issue with the very latest cutting edge dev release of ZoneMinder that is being fixed that I ran into and needed to describe to the dev's.

I have one set up using RAM0 and the rufwoof scripts and the other using RAM2 and the save on demand with rsync. I'll fire them up and play around in RAM2. Some of my first tries with RAM2 haven't gone well BUT I did not really put much effort into those tests.

Later today I'll know more Fred!

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by fredx181 »

rockedge wrote: Sat Mar 05, 2022 3:54 pm

@fredx181 I'm testing it and really interested in the mechanism.

So far though I have been scrambling a bit getting over a small hiccup in the beta2 and ran into an issue with the very latest cutting edge dev release of ZoneMinder that is being fixed that I ran into and needed to describe to the dev's.

I have one set up using RAM0 and the rufwoof scripts and the other using RAM2 and the save on demand with rsync. I'll fire them up and play around in RAM2. Some of my first tries with RAM2 haven't gone well BUT I did not really put much effort into those tests.

Later today I'll know more Fred!

Thanks Erik, well, no need no hurry, I was just wondering if I'm the only one interested in this 'save2flash' option for KLV.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

@fredx181 So far save2flash is working well in a KLV-Airedale-beta3 frugally installed on a USB HDD.

I am only saving after certain operations and in no pattern.

We need to decide how to include the save2flash package which will only engage and prompt to save at reboot/shutdown when in RAM2 mode. So when I use the usual upper_changes persistence and the save2flash is not needed that it will not prompt or be involved.

Otherwise it would only be installed on KLV's using RAM2 mode. Does that make any sense?

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by fredx181 »

rockedge wrote:

We need to decide how to include the save2flash package which will only engage and prompt to save at reboot/shutdown when in RAM2 mode. So when I use the usual upper_changes persistence and the save2flash is not needed that it will not prompt or be involved.

I think that's not a problem. It does a check if booted with RAM2 in the save2flash script. With the usual persistence it does nothing. (edit: shows message something like "not booted with RAM2")

Code: Select all

if grep -q "w_changes=RAM2" /proc/cmdline; then
....
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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

Excellent @fredx181 !! I had the message pop up at reboot on a regular beta3 before I set up this version I am typing from now. Needs to be re-checked though which I'll do now.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

fredx181 wrote: Sat Mar 05, 2022 4:02 pm

Thanks Erik, well, no need no hurry, I was just wondering if I'm the only one interested in this 'save2flash' option for KLV.

Well, of course I know its importance and usefulness, but am happy with the script adopted so had nothing more to say about it. Also I've been flat-out busy with weedogit and not meaning to involve myself with computing really at all just now!

Main issue really is the general small amount of feedback to anything nowadays - not that I'm blaming anyone for that - some individuals on here provide great feedback and that keeps the show going, but now that even a decade old computer is quite powerful it is not so easy I think to get many using any particular distro anymore.

The original Puppy filled a vacuum in the needs of many (along with Damn Small Linux, later tinycorelinux, and SliTaz of the time), but now these older low-resourced machines lie in our cupboards, even if they could still be switched on to consume more power than they are worth.

So less of us around I think - but not a dead interest at all - just a comparatively smaller club of enthusiasts. It does remain the case, however, and more so I feel, that distros/projects undertaken on this forum can be made better than most of the bigger offerings out there, especially in terms of flexibility. It is not as if, by default, you can boot official Ubuntu, click on any squashfs file and expect to be able to view its contents or load a simple sfs addon module on the fly when so so choose - instead you have to install enormous snap or flatpak and painful nonsense like that (like alone trying to work out how to get out of normal user mode to do any admin type work at all!!! Some (not all) of these big distros are stupid, which tends to make people stupid (in terms of limited power) if they use them (at least I cannot do without the likes of the various RAM changes modes and ease of uncompressing otherwise black box type components such as sfs, img, and iso files).

The whole point of 'frugal' install is not per se to use less resources though - rather, it has always been a way to provide extra flexibility and facilities via its overlay type mechanisms via its boot init. I do not like any idea of 'frugal' being to limit the flexibility being offered as if that limit of purpose would somehow be an efficiency measure - that idea would be a non-starter. When a distro system is built in a simplified manner to not include a feature (perhaps justified as 'increased efficiency'), it is often the case that that missing feature is exactly what most people want!

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by rockedge »

KLV-Airedale-beta4 is ready to download to use and test. This distro is filled with features and is ready and standing by to be customized and expanded on. A real foundation for learning more about frugal layered systems and getting hands on experience using systems built for real computing use in real life that are compact, portable, resilient and inherently secure.

Look to the first post in this topic for download links or go to:
https://rockedge.org/kernels or https://rockedge.org/?page_id=1013

KLV-Airedale-beta4 is able to load squash SFS packages on the fly or during the boot sequence.
Squash files and ISO images can be opened from the file manager and the read the contents.

  • XFCE4 desktop using a huge Puppy Linux kernel which can be manually swapped with other huge kernels.

  • can run with rootfs, 01fimware and 00module SFS files as uncompressed directories.

  • Also able to load compressed and/or decompressed directories,
    once a 2 digit prefix is added to the file name.

  • It is possible to mix using compressed squash files and uncompressed directories.

  • PDF reader, UExtract, Packit, and XBPS package manager utilities from right click menus.

  • 2 file managers, Thunar and Rox are available.

  • mount and open SFS and ISO files on the fly from either file manager.

  • direct access to an extensive package collection in the Void Linux repo's.

  • install .deb files directly with xdeb

  • true multi-user capability and run-as-spot and run-as-weedog utilities

  • can perform as a rolling release.

Also can be downloaded from https://rockedge.org/kernels in ISO->Kennel Linux

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by mikewalsh »

@rockedge :-

D/l'ed Beta4, and swapped the main SFS file over this afternoon. No issues to report; everything running as smooth as so much oiled silk.

Nice one, mate! This is really showing promise now as a thoroughly usable 'alternative' daily-driver (though still from the same 'kennels', of course...) It'll be a good one when it finally reaches 'stable' status and joins the listings on the main Puppy downloads page.

Your hard work, and constant re-building of the test releases, is very much appreciated. :thumbup:

Mike. ;)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by geo_c »

rockedge wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 2:41 pm

Look to the first post in this topic for download links or go to:

I downloaded beta-4, added it to my SG2D usb drive, and had a lot of fun playing around with gtk themes, ROX-mime icons, Librewolf appimages and such. I was able to boot the iso from SG2D, but I had difficulty understanding whether it is still possible to write upper_changes from that boot method. After booting with w_changes=RAM2, the save at shutdown option is available, but I'm not seeing those changes stick at next boot.

Also I'm having difficulty understanding the directory structure. After booting and removing the w_changes argument, or booting with w_changes=RAM2, I can't see anything higher than /root/ in the file managers.

So I decided to try and use my previous boot method, which was to mount the iso, copy the files onto USB, and run grub4dos on it. That's giving me kernel panic, with messages about too many symlinks. So that method is not working like it did on beta-1. Or I'm forgetting how to do it properly.

This is a really snappy OS!

I'm curious to play around with audio, being that it seems to be Pulse audio oriented. Wondering if that would work with JACK and the likes.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

rockedge wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 2:41 pm

KLV-Airedale-beta4 is ready to download to use and test. This distro is filled with features and is ready and standing by to be customized and expanded on. A real foundation for learning more about frugal layered systems and getting hands on experience using systems built for real computing use in real life that are compact, portable, resilient and inherently secure.

Look to the first post in this topic for download links or go to:
https://rockedge.org/kernels or https://rockedge.org/?page_id=1013

KLV-Airedale-beta4 is able to load squash SFS packages on the fly or during the boot sequence.
Squash files and ISO images can be opened from the file manager and the read the contents.

  • XFCE4 desktop using a huge Puppy Linux kernel which can be manually swapped with other huge kernels.

  • can run with rootfs, 01fimware and 00module SFS files as uncompressed directories.

  • Also able to load compressed and/or decompressed directories,
    once a 2 digit prefix is added to the file name.

  • It is possible to mix using compressed squash files and uncompressed directories.

  • PDF reader, UExtract, Packit, and XBPS package manager utilities from right click menus.

  • 2 file managers, Thunar and Rox are available.

  • mount and open SFS and ISO files on the fly from either file manager.

  • direct access to an extensive package collection in the Void Linux repo's.

  • install .deb files directly with xdeb

  • true multi-user capability and run-as-spot and run-as-weedog utilities

  • can perform as a rolling release.

Also can be downloaded from https://rockedge.org/kernels in ISO->Kennel Linux

So I downloaded beta4 and gave a quick spin, trying out various apps and utilities, just prior to going out for coffee. My install was a normal frugal install using grub4dos menu.lst to boot, though thus far I've only tried default (no w_changes line), which automatically gives on-media save persistance to upper_changes. Now I'll try w_changes=RAM2 and see how the save persistence (save2flash) is working since it is an important option.

All in all, KLV-Airedale is a really nice distro - it provides a nice XFCE desktop environment with all the bells and whistle benefits of that, but comes in a quarter or less of the download size of the many alternatives such as EndeavourOS, and also uses significantly less on-boot RAM. Also, it provides frugal install facilities like sfs-load, and click to open and read sfs files or isos and more besides. Pretty much everything a person using say a Puppy Linux system is used to having and would want but full multi-user xbps package manager Void Linux compatible. As you say, being able to use layer addons in either squashfs (sfs) form, or as simple numbered uncompressed directories is a huge plus factor. I'll have to think very hard indeed to try and find something it doesn't have that I'd like, and in some ways I'm really fussy in terms of my needs, so KLV-Airedale is clearly a good one from my usage point of view.

I'll also now try a build using weedogit.sh (or pupit.sh since should work same via either) - of course I'll have to manually enter revision as beta4 since at the moment both weedogit and pupit download beta3 by default - so will be good test to see the menu for revision entry is working okay in pupit (later I'll release new versions of weedogit and pupit, though likely just with that simple change of beta3 to beta4 as latest KLV-Airedale default.

As far as geo_c's question about SGD2, I've only worked on that once, and now forget all of it since it is not a mechanism I myself employ (nothing against it though). So at the moment I can't say about save persistence though I expect it will work (but might need to be specified in a different way - I really don't know till I try it sometime - one day I might investigate that matter more thoroughly again for better 'normal' behaviour - first time I was just doing what I could quickly to at least make it boot via either SG2D or Ventoy - it doesn't work by itself; it needed special code put inside the initrd and possibly I can refine that later). Normal grub4dos frugal install certainly works per usual.

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

@geo_c Considering I probably wrote the original of this I should know, but I forget. I suspect the SG2D w_changes=RAM2 grub kernel examples given here provide the clue required to effect save persistence with SG2D at present, but I haven't tested any of this since whenever this grub.cfg was originally written... KLV-Airedale provides grub2 grub.cfg (in /boot/grub directory). Main stanzas look like this:

Code: Select all

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - changes RAM0 mode" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=${iso_path} w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - changes RAM0 mode w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=${iso_path} w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - changes on media/BOOTISOS" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=${iso_path} w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS net.ifnames=0
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes on media/BOOTISOS" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes on media/BOOTISOS w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - changes via named partition (location unreliable)" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=${iso_path} w_changes=/mnt/sdb2/WDL net.ifnames=0
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - changes via named partition (location unreliable) w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=${iso_path} w_changes=/mnt/sda2/WDL net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM0 mode" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=RAM0
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM0 mode w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=RAM0 w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4- LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM2 mode" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_changes1=RAM2
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM2 mode w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_changes1=RAM2 w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM1 mode" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_changes1=RAM1
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "KLV-Airedale-beta4 - LABEL bootfrom - changes RAM1 mode w_copy2ram" {
	linux /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS/KLV-Airedale-beta4.iso net.ifnames=0 w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_changes1=RAM1 w_copy2ram
	initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Shutdown" {
	halt
}

menuentry "Reboot" {
	reboot
}

So looks like the important detail is:

Code: Select all

w_changes=LABEL=SG2DISOS=/BOOTISOS w_changes1=RAM2

I really think this facility has hardly been tested (except maybe once by me). Or maybe there is an alternative obvious way and my brain is just dead at the moment... I do think the mechanism likely needs further work, so I don't currently recommend using KLV-Airedale via SG2D or Ventoy for that matter - it was designed with normal all iso files copied to own bootfrom directory frugal install in mind. Maybe rockedge remembers more about SG2D boot than I do (I certainly and obviously don't...)

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Re: KLV-Airedale-beta+ Released, Ready for Download

Post by wiak »

If using 00modules and 01firmware (either of both as sfs or uncompressed) then:

01firmware must have arrangement to match Void expectations, which means /usr/lib/firmware hierarchy (which is does - all is fine in KLV beta4).

But... way back when WDL initrd was designed Puppy zdrv (modules) was usually in hierarchy /lib/modules so by default I made special 00 layer alter that automatically via a mount bind to /usr/lib/modules, so
by default 00modules needs to be in arrangement /lib/modules, which it is... all fine... ;-)

If however, both 01firmware and 00modules were in form /usr/lib/firmware and /usr/lib/modules then on grub kernel line you would need to add argument fwmod=usrlib

This is a bit confusing I know. I will change the default one day when hopefully everyone is using /usr/lib hierarchy and not /lib hierarchy for modules and firmware. It will be a very simply alteration to WDL initrd/init. I really do wish both modules and firmware were kept in /usr/lib hierarchy to match Void Linux expectations - then there is no confusion or adjustment tricks required...
------------------------------------------------------

But, currently, things are different if you want to put modules as normal overlay layer such as 02modules (rather than using that very special 00 layer design).
Then 01firmware still needs Void-compatible hierarchy /usr/lib/firmware,
but 02modules will also need Void-compatible hierarchy /usr/lib/modules.
fwmod=usrlib then does nothing because it is only used (when needed) for the case where you are using 00modules, not when using 02modules...
------------------------------------------------------

I note that the current KLV-Airedale is arranged with 00modules as /lib/modules and 01firmware as
/usr/lib/firmware, so that is correct (per current initrd/init design) and works (since modules auto-moved via bind mount to /usr/lib/modules), but issue will occur if you try and swap in a different kernel but with 00modules in arrangement /lib/modules and 01firmware in arrangement /lib/firmware. That just can't work as things stand (there is no initrd implemented 'trick' to move 01firmware hierarchy to Void-required /usr/lib - won't be one either since 01layer is part of normal overlay use so WYSIWYG.
------------------------------------------------------

Later I want to change the default expected hierarchy for 00modules, because most distros (and some Pups) are now moving to put both modules and firmware in /usr/lib hierarchy, which is best I think, so I'll arrange for that to be the default.
------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, all is fine with beta4 (00modules and 01firware are in correct hierarchy form to work), but if I use rockedge's new 5.16.12 kernel all is not fine because both the zdrv and fdrv use /lib hierarchy (which is correct at least for older Pups), but for
KLV-Airedale use the best would be /usr/lib hierarchy for both (and use 02modules instead of 00modules
since overlayfs is built into that one's kernel so no 00 trick required any more for initrd to find it.
However, I can confirm the 5.16.12 kernel/zdrv/fdrv combination is itself all good (but in that /lib hierarchy to work with traditional Pups correctly).
In fact I even do have it working in my KLV-Airedale (posting from it right now) simply by unsquashing the zdrv and the fdrv, renaming them 02zdrv and 01fdrv, and altering the hierarchy inside both of them to /usr/lib. Overlayfs is indeed
built into its kernel and not a module with that one so boot says can't find the overlayfs module, of course, since it is now in the kernel and so works anyway.

Hope rockedge understands the above. No-one else really needs to.

That perfectly fine new kernel of rockedge (but which, as I explained above, will not by default work with KLV-Airedale without hierarchy rearrangement) is discussed here: viewtopic.php?p=51781#p51781

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