EasyOS 3.4.4 released

[BarryK]

I haven't announce 3.4.4 on my blog yet.

Release notes:
https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64 ... -notes.htm

Download:
https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64 ... ell/3.4.4/

Blog post about the experimental new stark-black theme:
https://bkhome.org/news/202203/stark-bl ... s-344.html

Feedback welcome!

[ghoen]

Tks!

[ghoen]

tks second time.
Just a small very thing, pkg and sfg symbol are the same.
:;

Gijs (sounds like guys)

[BologneChe]

Bonjour à vous!

The touchpad now works great on my Acer Spin 1. The new themes are really cool! EasyOS is like fine wine; it's aging well! Very happy with your excellent work @BarryK !I will try the whole thing on my iMac because kernel 5.15 can now run the MagicMouse. To be continued.

Thanks!

[BarryK]

I found a bug:

In JWM-mode icon-free-desktop, the partitions menu doesn't show a plugged-in CD.
Hmmm, will look into that.

Another "bug", when plug in a usb-stick, the partitions menu is supposed to automatically popup. Also when unmount a partition. That auto popping up is no longer happening.

Odd. The auto popup is achieved by using xdotool to simulate a mouse middle-button click. Is xdotool broken after Xorg pkgs got updated?

[BarryK]

I found a bug:

In JWM-mode icon-free-desktop, the partitions menu doesn't show a plugged-in CD.
Hmmm, will look into that.

Fixed:
https://bkhome.org/news/202203/optical- ... -menu.html

[TerryH]

I found a bug:

In JWM-mode icon-free-desktop, the partitions menu doesn't show a plugged-in CD.
Hmmm, will look into that.

Fixed:
https://bkhome.org/news/202203/optical- ... -menu.html

I updated to EasyOS 3.4.4 yesterday. My laptop has a MicroSD Card reader. I just inserted a MicroSD and it wasn't identified. I've tried 2 cards and also left inserted when I did a reboot. The MicroSD cards are not being shown.

[BarryK]

I found a bug:

In JWM-mode icon-free-desktop, the partitions menu doesn't show a plugged-in CD.
Hmmm, will look into that.

Fixed:
https://bkhome.org/news/202203/optical- ... -menu.html

I updated to EasyOS 3.4.4 yesterday. My laptop has a MicroSD Card reader. I just inserted a MicroSD and it wasn't identified. I've tried 2 cards and also left inserted when I did a reboot. The MicroSD cards are not being shown.

What about when in normal icons-on-desktop mode?

[TerryH]

Fixed:
https://bkhome.org/news/202203/optical- ... -menu.html

I updated to EasyOS 3.4.4 yesterday. My laptop has a MicroSD Card reader. I just inserted a MicroSD and it wasn't identified. I've tried 2 cards and also left inserted when I did a reboot. The MicroSD cards are not being shown.

What about when in normal icons-on-desktop mode?

I changed to the UI to ROX and still can't access any MicroSD cards inserted when using EasyOS. All other Puppy/Dog installs can access inserted cards. I can also boot other installs from the MicroSD Reader using an inserted card. When a MicroSD card with EasyOS is inserted, it is identified as boot media, but fails to find Boot partition when booting. I am not able to see inserted cards in any way.

[BarryK]

I updated to EasyOS 3.4.4 yesterday. My laptop has a MicroSD Card reader. I just inserted a MicroSD and it wasn't identified. I've tried 2 cards and also left inserted when I did a reboot. The MicroSD cards are not being shown.

What about when in normal icons-on-desktop mode?

I changed to the UI to ROX and still can't access any MicroSD cards inserted when using EasyOS. All other Puppy/Dog installs can access inserted cards. I can also boot other installs from the MicroSD Reader using an inserted card. When a MicroSD card with EasyOS is inserted, it is identified as boot media, but fails to find Boot partition when booting. I am not able to see inserted cards in any way.

What about the previous version of EasyOS, that you updated from?

If the microsd card was accessable before, then it looks like a kernel problem. The kernel was 5.10.93, is now 5.15.16.
Easy 3.4.1 has the 5.10.93 kernel, after that jumped to 5.15.16

If, when rolled back, are you able to both see the microsd card after bootup and boot from it?

[TerryH]

What about when in normal icons-on-desktop mode?

I changed to the UI to ROX and still can't access any MicroSD cards inserted when using EasyOS. All other Puppy/Dog installs can access inserted cards. I can also boot other installs from the MicroSD Reader using an inserted card. When a MicroSD card with EasyOS is inserted, it is identified as boot media, but fails to find Boot partition when booting. I am not able to see inserted cards in any way.

What about the previous version of EasyOS, that you updated from?

If the microsd card was accessable before, then it looks like a kernel problem. The kernel was 5.10.93, is now 5.15.16.
Easy 3.4.1 has the 5.10.93 kernel, after that jumped to 5.15.16

If, when rolled back, are you able to both see the microsd card after bootup and boot from it?

My attempt to roll back has failed. The mount of the sfs failed. As I used encryption on partition 2 when I set it up,itś in the too hard basket t the moment. I will look at recreating 3.4.1 on a different card tomorrow to check.

[FeodorF]

@BarryK
Quick test about sd card problems.

Reading micro sd cards looks good for me with:

Alcor Micro Corp. AU6375 4-LUN card reader
It's a USB 2.0 multi card reader.

Code: Select all

scsi 9:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Generic- SD/MMC           1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 9:0:0:1: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 9:0:0:1: [sdd] 62333952 512-byte logical blocks: (31.9 GB/29.7 GiB)
sd 9:0:0:1: [sdd] Write Protect is off
sd 9:0:0:1: [sdd] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
sd 9:0:0:1: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: disabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
EXT4-fs (sdd2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null). Quota mode: disabled.

Used EasyOS v3.4.3 for testing.
Did a fresh install of v3.4.4 to usb - looks good too.

I added more drives so that the sd card had to start with:
[sdi1] / [sdi2]
That looked good too.

SD_card.png (4.91 KiB) Viewed 2165 times

[TerryH]

I changed to the UI to ROX and still can't access any MicroSD cards inserted when using EasyOS. All other Puppy/Dog installs can access inserted cards. I can also boot other installs from the MicroSD Reader using an inserted card. When a MicroSD card with EasyOS is inserted, it is identified as boot media, but fails to find Boot partition when booting. I am not able to see inserted cards in any way.

What about the previous version of EasyOS, that you updated from?

If the microsd card was accessable before, then it looks like a kernel problem. The kernel was 5.10.93, is now 5.15.16.
Easy 3.4.1 has the 5.10.93 kernel, after that jumped to 5.15.16

If, when rolled back, are you able to both see the microsd card after bootup and boot from it?

My attempt to roll back has failed. The mount of the sfs failed. As I used encryption on partition 2 when I set it up,itś in the too hard basket t the moment. I will look at recreating 3.4.1 on a different card tomorrow to check.

I downloaded the 3.4.1.img and manually fixed the install on the micro SD card. I copied the files for partition 1 and renamed the easyos direcory on partition 2, keeping the contents of the second partition for later data recovery. Luckily using the same encryption password allowed access to the old directory.

Running EasyOS 3.4.1 with the previous kernel does allow access to the internal micro SD card reader. So it appears as mentioned that it is kernel related.

@FeodorF As it is an internal reader and not a USB reader, cards are not identified as sdXY, they are identified as mmcblk0pY

[Montchalin]

My memory card is identified as mmcblk0p1 in ROX and works fine.

However, I see no mention of the memory card in System Information;
Computer -> Summary.
Storage
ATA WDC WD10JPCX-24u
plds dvd-rw
pny usb 2.0 fd

I boot from hard drive.
Lenovo Ideapad 110 laptop.
4x Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU 4405U A 2.10GHZ
20 GB ram

[BarryK]

My attempt to roll back has failed. The mount of the sfs failed. As I used encryption on partition 2 when I set it up,itś in the too hard basket t the moment. I will look at recreating 3.4.1 on a different card tomorrow to check.

A note about the encrypted folders in the working-partition.
If you bootup another EasyOS with the same password, then you will be able to access the encrypted folders on the other installation of EasyOS.

[Maybe]

Hey!
I love the black theme! I really liked the JWMdesk Theme Manager app! Thank you for adding the ability to personalize the appearance of Easy! Google Chrome works great! I use Zoom in Easy using Chrome, no any problem!

Yesterday my wife and I organized a children's party on Zoom! I managed pictures, music, videos using Easy OS! Everything went perfectly, the children are delighted, Easy did not disappoint!

For some reason, the grub4dos application in Easy does not work for me. At startup, the "Search, please wait ..." window appears and does not disappear for a long time.

From Dmitry (Russia)

[Grey]

If you bootup another EasyOS with the same password, then you will be able to access the encrypted folders on the other installation of EasyOS.

It sounds very exciting and smells like a book about great adventures. Almost "hacking"

[pemasu]

Lenovo yoga slim 7 pro laptop with ryzen cpu and amd radeon graphics. Kernel module amdgpu works fine. At the first boot X failed, then I did modprobe amdgpu and the X started fine. Laptop resumes from suspend, it has been problematic in earlier kernel versions when I googled about laptop.

Kernel support for Realtek 8852AE wifi chip should be incorporated to the 5.16 kernel tree.
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89 has the source which is used in kernel tree, if I have understood right.
I compiled it and the wifi works now.
Barry, if and when you compile kernel over 5.15, you could add the rtw89 to the DOTconfig:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... 11ax-rtw89

[BarryK]

Lenovo yoga slim 7 pro laptop with ryzen cpu and amd radeon graphics. Kernel module amdgpu works fine. At the first boot X failed, then I did modprobe amdgpu and the X started fine. Laptop resumes from suspend, it has been problematic in earlier kernel versions when I googled about laptop.

Kernel support for Realtek 8852AE wifi chip should be incorporated to the 5.16 kernel tree.
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89 has the source which is used in kernel tree, if I have understood right.
I compiled it and the wifi works now.
Barry, if and when you compile kernel over 5.15, you could add the rtw89 to the DOTconfig:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... 11ax-rtw89

@pemasu
Thanks for this info.

Was the radeon.ko module loaded?

Interesting that amdgpu.ko didn't automatically load.

When you compiled the rtw89 source, did you do "make install" or "make sign-install"?

I'm not familiar with the latter. If I include the rtw89 source when next compile the 5.15.x kernel, would want it to be automated and not have to enter a password.

Besides, the kernel is already configured to have signed modules, CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_FORMAT=y
ref: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Signed_kernel_modules

[pemasu]

I have to recreate the first boot for example with usb stick ( I have sdd install ) so that I can give you reliable info about amdgpu.ko and radeon.ko loading. I dont remember if I tried xwin jwm before failed X. I probably just did modprobe amdgpu and then xwin jwm and X started. So I need to test it again and check which modules were loaded at first boot . Right now I have only amdgpu loaded and I havent blacklisted radeon.ko.

About rtw89 source. I used "make install".

[pemasu]

Now checked the first boot. I remembered the sequence wrong. X fails to start. With lsmod, amdgpu.ko is loaded. Radeon.ko is not loaded. Then I did run xorgwizard and chose amdgpu driver and the resolution which is right for me. After that with xwin jwm the X starts fine. The missing step was to choose right Xorg driver. The X does not start without first choosing Xorg driver. With Xorg log, the amdgpu_drv.so has been loaded.

[BarryK]

@pemasu
Thanks for testing. Would you mind doing one more test?...

I am puzzled what xorg is doing. From your description so far, it seems that xorg loads radeon_drv.so instead of amdgpu_drv.so.

Could you do another pristine usb-stick bootup, without a password, and where X fails to start and drops you back to the commandline, run these:

Code: Select all

# cp -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log /files/
# lsmod > /files/lsmod.log
# sync
# poweroff

Then bootup a working Linux, then plugin the EasyOS usb-stick, and look at easyos/files on the usb-stick -- you will see those two files, 'Xorg.0.log' and 'lsmod.log'

Rename them with a false '.gz' and attach them here at the forum.

Much appreciated!

[BarryK]

I downloaded the 3.4.1.img and manually fixed the install on the micro SD card. I copied the files for partition 1 and renamed the easyos direcory on partition 2, keeping the contents of the second partition for later data recovery. Luckily using the same encryption password allowed access to the old directory.

Running EasyOS 3.4.1 with the previous kernel does allow access to the internal micro SD card reader. So it appears as mentioned that it is kernel related.

I haven't fixed your problem, but have a fix on one of my laptops:

https://bkhome.org/news/202204/kernel-m ... rtw89.html

[BarryK]

Kernel support for Realtek 8852AE wifi chip should be incorporated to the 5.16 kernel tree.
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89 has the source which is used in kernel tree, if I have understood right.
I compiled it and the wifi works now.
Barry, if and when you compile kernel over 5.15, you could add the rtw89 to the DOTconfig:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... 11ax-rtw89

I have compiled the rtw89 module for the 5.15.16 kernel. It will be in the next release of Easy:

https://bkhome.org/news/202204/kernel-m ... rtw89.html

[pemasu]

lsmod.log.gz

lsmod content

(3.3 KiB) Downloaded 1206 times

Xorg.0.log.gz

xorg log

(12.19 KiB) Downloaded 65 times

Could you do another pristine usb-stick bootup, without a password, and where X fails to start and drops you back to the commandline

@BarryK
Attached are the requested log files.

[BarryK]

lsmod.log.gzXorg.0.log.gz

Could you do another pristine usb-stick bootup, without a password, and where X fails to start and drops you back to the commandline

@BarryK
Attached are the requested log files.

Thanks for testing.

I don't know how to fix it. Xorg.0.log reports:

Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Xorg is loading the correct amdgpu_drv.so, but cannot find a usable screen resolution.

It worked after you ran xorgwizard and manually selected a screen resolution.

This does seem very much like a problem with Xorg, don't know what I can do.

[BarryK]

@pemasu
I wonder... looking in Xorg.0.log:

Code: Select all

[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "2240x1400" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1920x1200" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1920x1080" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1680x1050" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1280x1024" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1440x900" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1280x800" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1280x720" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "1024x768" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "800x600" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): Not using mode "640x480" (hsync out of range)
[   229.494] (II) AMDGPU(0): No remaining probed modes for output eDP

"hsync out of range" is a big clue. /etc/X11/xorg.conf has this:

Code: Select all

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
	HorizSync    35-81
	VertRefresh  59-76
	#UseModes     "Modes0" #monitor0usemodes
#	Option      "PreferredMode" "1024x768" #monitor0prefmode
EndSection

..."PreferredMode" line might be different in your case.

This is interesting, what if, pristine bootup and X fails to start, you then comment-out that "HorizSync" line, like this:

Code: Select all

# sed -i -e 's%HorizSync%#HorizSync%' /etc/X11/xorg.conf

...that is removing the hsync boundaries. You can also use the 'mp' text editor. Then see if X starts:

Code: Select all

# xwin

If it does start, I wonder what hsync it has chosen? Maybe Xorg.0.log will say.

[BarryK]

Another thought, those HorizSync and VertRefresh limits go right back, to when we had cathode-ray-tube monitors.

Perhaps even that VertRefresh parameter is "out of date". Perhaps they are not needed anymore.

I seem to recall, they prevented Xorg from selecting some insane horiz and vert values.

[FeodorF]

@BarryK
As I'm using your arm64 version I had a look at it. It reads:

Code: Select all

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	#HorizSync    24-84
	VertRefresh  59-75
	#UseModes     "Modes0" #monitor0usemodes
	Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1080" #monitor0prefmode
EndSection

[BarryK]

Perhaps this is the problem that pemasu is experiencing, horiz sync 81 limit needing to be higher. See this:

FHD (1080p):
# gtf 1920 1080 60 -f

Code: Select all

mode "1920x1080 60.00Hz 32bit (GTF)"
    # PCLK: 172.80 MHz, H: 67.08 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
    geometry 1920 1080 1920 1080 32
    timings 5787 328 120 34 1 208 3
    hsync low
    vsync high
endmode

WUXGA still OK:

Code: Select all

# gtf 1920 1200 60 -f
mode "1920x1200 60.00Hz 32bit (GTF)"
    # PCLK: 193.16 MHz, H: 74.52 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
    geometry 1920 1200 1920 1200 32
    timings 5177 336 128 38 1 208 3
    hsync low
    vsync high
endmode

QHD hsync too high:

Code: Select all

# gtf 2560 1440 60 -f
mode "2560x1440 60.00Hz 32bit (GTF)"
    # PCLK: 311.83 MHz, H: 89.40 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
    geometry 2560 1440 2560 1440 32
    timings 3207 464 184 46 1 280 3
    hsync low
    vsync high
endmode

UHD (4K) hsync too high:

Code: Select all

# gtf 3840 2160 60 -f
mode "3840x2160 60.00Hz 32bit (GTF)"
    # PCLK: 712.34 MHz, H: 134.10 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
    geometry 3840 2160 3840 2160 32
    timings 1404 736 312 71 1 424 3
    hsync low
    vsync high
endmode

But the above still doesn't explain why Xorg is failing in pemasu's case, as Xorg.0.log shows it tests successively lower resolutions and still says hsync is out of range. Very odd.