Re: KLA-XFCEbase 1.1 final (716MiB) release announcement

[wiak]

For some media, such as Ventoy, QEMU, and SG2D, you can also use savefolder, but you need to label partitions appropriately sometimes. For details about boot media label requirements for iso booting, see this recent post: viewtopic.php?p=79395#p79395
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KLA-XFCEbase-1.1
NEW: Has new FR initrd.gz ver 7.0.1 rc1 released 09Mar2023; includes /mnt/home symlink to bootfrom partition. Fixes major umount bug. Includes Arch Linux packages 09Mar2023 rolling release update.
Has over forty (!) new commandline-based utility apps (a few with very simple yad frontends), so size jumped a bit by around 40MiB. Worth it I think though.

There is a cherrytree README notes file on the Desktop that contains lots of details and tips regarding these additions, including a couple of simple yad GUI frontend templates in code form to help others develop their own.
I am no longer using gtkdialog for new app/utils in FirstRib when possible. Many upstream distros no longer have gtkdialog in their repos at all whereas yad is well supported and good enough for most simple frontends.

716 MiB download size
Download from sourceforge here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kla-xfcebase/
md5sum: 9b92301c515a42bc03a4d14235f5f9de KLA-XFCEbase-1.1.iso

INSTALLATION (Alternative methods):

1. On a Ventoy usbstick with ext4 data partition labelled as 'Ventoy', create a folder named /BOOTISOS and simply put the KLA-XFCEbase-1.1.iso in there and boot your Ventoy usb stick to use KLA-XFCEbase.
NOTE: With Ventoy, you can save on demand (called RAM2 mode) back to the 'Ventoy' labelled disk partition into auto-created Sessions folder.
Alternatively, if you have a partition on your system somewhere labelled 'Persistence' you can use save on demand persistence to Sessions folder there.
You can also choose from provided grub menu to do 'direct' writes back to same save persistence (either to 'Ventoy' usbstick labelled partition or to external 'Persistence' labelled partition).
2. Boot via QEMU using, for simple example, commandline:
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 2G -vga cirrus -smp 2 -device AC97 -cdrom KLA-XFCEbase-X.X.iso -boot once=d
If you attach a qcow2 additional -hda disk, and partition it wish one of the partitions labelled 'Persistence', you can use save on demand into the auto-created 'Sessions' folder there too.
3. Create a normal frugal install. For example:
a. mkdir -p </mnt/partition>/KLA-XFCEbase
b. mount the iso somewhere and copy all of its contents out and into that KLA-XFCEbase frugal install directory.
c. Open a terminal at that directory and enter command: ./wd_grubconfig
That should give you suitable grub2 or grub4dos accurate (correct UUID or LABEL provided) stanzas to use (assuming you have a working grub bootloader already installed on your computer).
Once again you can choose to use w_changes=RAM2 save on demand mode, or w_changes="" (default) direct save persistence mode.
4. For more usage modes refer to blog articles at https://tinycorelinux.info

Also read the following for additional useful installation-related information:
viewtopic.php?p=82242#p82242
viewtopic.php?p=75863#p75863

trizen (for AUR) and pacman info:
viewtopic.php?p=81188#p81188
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman

NOTE: You will probably have to replace the mnthome symlinks on Desktop and Thunar bookmarks to suit your own system. Easily done: just copy /mnt/home symlink and drop on your Desktop and in Thunar bookmarks and rename to mnthome or whatever you prefer.

Using this base version has the advantage that after installing the likes of Firefox or Chromium upgrades to the browser will overwrite the previous installation in upper_changes rather than use additonal space to that of any iso-internal version.

INCLUDES small but effective 'eolie' Internet browser; give it a try, you might be surprised
NOTE: I was really only including a browser to help with any html-based documentation reading, but it has proved to be much better than I intended/expected. In my tests, the selected small browser worked well and solidly with all of Youtube, Gmail, Gdrive, BBC news (but bbc video issues), and Facebook. For many, maybe all you need... Also works great for cut'n'paste page contents to cherrytree notes!!! Bound to be some sites it won't work with though, but you can still add your own later via package manager or portable. Note that opened browserTabs show on left side of window.

A FEW OF THE FEATURES:
1. Default timezone UTC. For simple timezone setting use StartMenu -> Settings -> Timezone. NOTE: For fast scrolling down the list provided use PgDn!!!
2. Includes latest FR initrd to show bootfrom partition in Thunar side panel.
3. Autologin as root to XFCE desktop.
4. Save on demand icon and top panel, and available in System Menu, and also asks on Logout if you want to save session.
5. Uses xfce4 whisker menu, power-manager, which allows brightness adjustment by scrolling on battery icon.
6. Ability to run as normal user instead. For example, to make an autologin as spot to desktop:

First prepare the user switch via: Start Menu -> System -> User Switch
Choose who you want to next autologin as - root, spot, or firstrib (password is irrelevant).
Finally, logout with:
Start Menu -> Log out (and choose Log out option from the pop-up)
Note that you have the chance to save on demand between logouts, but you can Cancel doing that if you don't want to save session at that stage (session all still safe in RAM).

Reboots will thereafter continue autologging in as the last user you selected. You can repeat the process at any time to, say, go back to autologin as user root.

NOTE 1: Normal users spot and firstrib are in sudo group with special configuration so they do not normally require password for sudo use. If you ever need passwords, by default user:password is root:root, spot:spot and firstrib:firstrib.

NOTE 2: This distro is designed, thanks to Arch Linux and its full multi-user pacman capability, to be almost maintenance free for some years apart from occasional pacman -Sy update/upgrades to savefolder... No constant and continuous weekly auto-builds intended or needed therefore. Just use it and be at peace.

A working, pretty-close to complete, f_<buildplug> is included, but with pacman package manager you can make it what you like anyway. Note that if you make a new plugin build it won't include some final XFCE-related configs because they were too difficult to script and are easier to do from the GUI (for example, the tiling effects).

Includes save on demand (FirstRib initrd RAM2) capability.

Should work fine with all of Normal frugal install, QEMU, Ventoy, and SG2D including persistence modes, without user boot-time intervention.

Thanks rockedge for iso/boot/grub general arrangement, and fredx181 for save2flash user-script, Puppy Linux dimkr kernel-kit build: currently using huge kernel/modules/firmware from recent Puppy Upup jammy, though you can easily change that to some other Puppy kernel/module combination or use an official Arch kernel/modules (though non-huge Arch kernel requires build of compatible FR initrd containing sufficient boot modules - included FRmake_initrd utility can do that for you though)

KLA-XFCEbase can also be used and provide persistence on NTFS or FAT32 partitions (by using a <savefilename>.ucimg w_changes savefile; refer to KLV-Airedale for many a FirstRib-related howto). For savefolder use, w_changes boot parameter should however point to a Linux formatted partition.

BASE VERSION purposively Does Not Currently Include:

An Internet browser.

I see no point in bloating a base iso with any browser users may well not want. Also browsers tend to need upgraded frequently so any supplied in iso become old too quickly and thus result in unnecessary iso bloat.
Since fully-Arch-compatible KLA-XFCEbase comes with official and complete pacman package manager (think of it like Quickpet...) it is better just to install what you want after first boot and save it to savefolder. Later upgrades will overwrite the old install and thus avoid that upgrade bloat.
To install Firefox, you simply need to open a terminal and (assuming you logged in as user root) enter command:

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pacman -Sy firefox

though, personally, I prefer:

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pacman -Sy chromium

and run that with --no-sandbox (or I suppose, using run-as-spot script; Actually now includes Start Menu -> Chromium-spot desktop item that works well once chromium installed via pacman, but would need to specially configure pulseaudio unix or tcp socket to get audio with that being run from root desktop (isn't done). Firefox works fine anyway once installed). Of course you can also or alternatively use portable apps/sfs addons.

Currently Includes:

1. Cherrytree hierarchical notebook (a fantastic, slim, but powerful, multipurpose application).
I use this for all my own documentation rather than any html or markup based editor. Main reason is I don't like typing too much and you can simply copy and paste from web pages directly into cherrytree (rich text, tables, syntax-highlighted code, and images-support included).
2. Since KLA-XFCEbase is XFCE4-based, it contains many expected utility apps from that, including file manager Thunar, xfce4-terminal, xfce4-clipboard-plugin, Power-manager/battery/backlight-brightness.
Package xfce4-goodies contains more. See also installable 'goodies' package list: viewtopic.php?p=79669#p79669
3. Mtpaint (also scrot/scrox and xfce4-screenshooter for screenshots)
4. Pulseaudio and pavucontrol
5. Wex for audio, video, webcam, screencasts and video recording. Just use pavcontrol to set the Input and Output levels and expect wex to work straight out of the box!
Uses ffmpeg backend along with the installed pulseaudio system.
6. Gifenc-sel (by fredx181) for making gifs out of videos (integrated to work via button in Wex).
7. Precord for simple audio recording
8. Geany (for text/code editing); also simple L3eafpad notebook; all such apps included are GTK3-based (official Arch repos discontinuing old GTK2 app support, though you can still find some in the unofficial Arch User Repository/AUR).
9. Git (useful for online archiving). AUR helper/package manager/installer Trizen (which should be run as normal user; for example: trizen -S <package_name>). For some AUR apps you will need to install build-dev package (includes gcc compiler) first though (pacman -Sy build-dev). Personally I often just use save on demand mode and just install build-dev in temporary session... no need for devx.
10. NetworkManager with nm panel applet
11. Gtkdialog, yad, gxmessage, for simple GUI scripts and scripting.
12. Gdmap and UExtract as right-click Thunar actions. The gtk3 version of Gdmap was specially compiled from Arch AUR.
13. rsync, nano, alsautils, lame, pciutils, usbutils, xdg-utils, filemnt
14. mpv (AV player)
15. Xournal - properly working with paste image support too!
16. Programming languages installed: Lua, Python, Perl, and Bash of course plus yad and gtkdialog (Everything being GTK+3 versions).
17. Absolutely TONS of new utility apps, which are described in provided cherrytree README notebook.
Including simple yad frontends for wd_simpleHTTP and wd_translate (translates text to locale language).
Network apps such as full tcpdump, ngrep, nmon and too many more to describe here (refer to the README available on Desktop).
Most of these utility apps are very useful and I encourage you to make your own yad GUI frontends for some of them.
18. basic scientific X11 calculator: xcalc-gtk
19. Window 'tiling' should work too:
Tile top > WindowsSuperKey-UParrow etc...

[Sofiya]

One important detail is missing.
to be able to run script.sh shell files (on mouse click), type in terminal:: xfconf-query --channel thunar --property /misc-exec-shell-scripts-by-default --create --type bool --set true . now sh files will be launched by clicking

[geo_c]

KLA is booted using the provided menu1st approach with the directory name changed to my name /KLA-xfce. I eliminated the ram2 option, but I'm not seeing a /mnt/home directory in the file manager, similar to my earliest boots of KLV-airedale.

My menu.1st entries look like this:

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title KLA-xfce
  find --set-root uuid () 1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43
  kernel /KLA-xfce/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43=/KLA-xfce
  initrd /KLA-xfce/initrd.gz

title KLV-airedale (sdb2/KLV-airedale-UUID)
  find --set-root uuid () 1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43
  kernel /KLV-airedale/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43=/KLV-airedale net.ifnames=0
  initrd /KLV-airedale/initrd.gz  

title KLV-airedaleDEV (sdb2/KLV-airedaleDEV-UUID)
  find --set-root uuid () 1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43
  kernel /KLV-airedaleDEV/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43=/KLV-airedaleDEV net.ifnames=0 
  initrd /KLV-airedaleDEV/initrd.gz

Arch/xfce has a really smooth feel, a notch up from Void. And the app repos for arch are a lot better than Void. I can really get behind this one even more than KLU which I haven't installed yet.

[rockedge]

Also seeing excellent performance from KLA. Looking at giving some compiling a go with it and see how web dev goes with it!!

[wiak]

Sorry, I just re-uploaded KLA-XFCEbase-rc4 because I noticed I had forgotten to delete some unnecessary cache taking up space before making the iso. No need for you to re-download really since identical performance and content otherwise - just very slightly smaller iso being now 681MiB!

Surprisingly, that's a bit less than the November released KLA-OT2 for older machines that uses openbox, tint2, and Python jgmenu rather than XFCE; probably I could slim that OT2-base variant down a bit, but not by much.

[geo_c]

Surprisingly, that's a bit less than the November released KLA-OT2 for older machines that uses openbox, tint2, and Python jgmenu rather than XFCE

So is the only advantage of using openbox/tint2 the size and speed? If so I'll probably spend time on KLA-XFCE.

So as I briefly noted above, I'm not seeing /mnt/home in KLA-XFCE. I don't have the ram2 save options in the boot stanza, and the upper_changes are being written on the fly to my USB drive. But when I shutdown it asked me if I wanted to save. I chose yes, then it replied that I need to add the ram2 line to the boot stanza. I don't see /mnt/home in Thunar, but I can read/write to the drive which comes up as /mnt/sdb2.

Should I just go with save on demand/shutdown in the boot stanza? I'm starting to appreciate some of the flexibility of that approach, as all of my USB installs operate that way except KLV-airedale.

[Sofiya]

That's right, you need to add w_changes=RAM2

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title KLA-xfce
  find --set-root uuid () 1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43
  kernel /KLA-xfce/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=1b186e42-4f56-4cf3-bc41-863feab8ee43=/KLA-xfce w_changes=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
  initrd /KLA-xfce/initrd.gz 
   

[wiak]

Surprisingly, that's a bit less than the November released KLA-OT2 for older machines that uses openbox, tint2, and Python jgmenu rather than XFCE

So is the only advantage of using openbox/tint2 the size and speed? If so I'll probably spend time on KLA-XFCE.

So as I briefly noted above, I'm not seeing /mnt/home in KLA-XFCE. I don't have the ram2 save options in the boot stanza, and the upper_changes are being written on the fly to my USB drive. But when I shutdown it asked me if I wanted to save. I chose yes, then it replied that I need to add the ram2 line to the boot stanza. I don't see /mnt/home in Thunar, but I can read/write to the drive which comes up as /mnt/sdb2.

Should I just go with save on demand/shutdown in the boot stanza? I'm starting to appreciate some of the flexibility of that approach, as all of my USB installs operate that way except KLV-airedale.

Hi geo_c,

I don't know about /mnt/home; I presume a symlink or something was used in KLV-Airedale to make that point to the bootfrom location? Or what is it used for. I remember Puppy used it for something, but I can't remember what so I imagine that Puppy effect was arranged in KLV-Airedale. If not problematic, and I know why, I could do the same for next KLA release (and KLU releases). The actual bootfrom location does pop up in side panel of Thunar, but as its actual location so I guess you want /mnt/home to be a symlink to that or something? @rockedge will be able to tell me what /mnt/home is used for and how it is implemented in KLV-Airedale.

Yes, only major difference between KLA-OT2 and KLA-XFCE is the desktop environment. In case of OT2 of course, the plug file has to build an overall desktop environment (since openbox is simply a desktop manager) whereas for XFCE that is all done for us (which actually makes XFCE distros far easier to create). The KLA-XFCE distro actually started existence from same build plugin as used for KLA-OT2, mainly cutting a lot of stuff out of that and including xfce4 components.

So, yes, end result is simply that Openbox/tint2 with Pyghon jgmenu combination is a bit less resource intensive than XFCE; enough to make it worthwhile on older (say ten year old+) or lower resourced modern computers.

Personally I feel that openbox/tint2 still has its place since old Core2Duo machines in particular run like lightning with that (though most run quite well with XFCE, but not quite so smoothly). However, on modern machines with sufficient resouces I feel that the days of Openbox/tint2 and moreso JWM are all but over (and Wayland will later kill them off maybe anyway). XFCE on the otherhand remains much more efficient and less resource intensive than the likes of Gnome, and XFCE is also likely to fully support Wayland by its next major version release around 2024.

The Logout save and demand mechanism was newly added and I am likely to improve on that later. Shouldn't really appear unless user has configured grub to use that save on demand mode. Harmless but a bit annoying it popping up unneeded like it does for that case. I don't advocate one boot mode over the other except that for more critical work, I personally tend not to use save on demand mode at all; I don't want to accidentally forget to save sessions at these times, and also save2flash routine is a complicated process and if anything goes wrong or is wrong with it then corruption would result. Possibly it is fine, but for the likes of business use I avoid save on demand use, but that is probably just me playing 'safe'. Most of the time I do indeed prefer save on demand since I don't always want to keep what I play with and install during sessions.

In terms of which current KL distro anyone uses, the FR initrd and utilities associated with that are the same, so any developments that occur relating to that usefully help develop the others anyway.

By the way, I just noticed I forgot somehow to include run-as-spot in /usr/local/bin which I'll add to the next release, if you need that now (e.g. if you want it for Chromium-spot) I suggest just copying it over from KLV-Airedale /usr/local/bin/run-as-spot or from KLU-jam.

[geo_c]

The actual bootfrom location does pop up in side panel of Thunar, but as its actual location so I guess you want /mnt/home to be a symlink to that or something? @rockedge will be able to tell me what /mnt/home is used for and how it is implemented in KLV-Airedale.

Now that shows how much I'm a puppy-linux user and not a true linux user per se. I always thought /mnt/home was a linux thing, and apparently it's a puppy-linux thing. /mnt/home is incredibly useful if you are copying system persistence to different drives and symlinking files from those drives into the /root directory. Basically I have hundreds of scripts and symlinks that point to /mnt/home.

Most of the time I do indeed prefer save on demand since I don't always want to keep what I play with and install during sessions.

Well like I said, it's currently writing to upper_changes on the fly, so if that last prompt is just an annoyance, then I'll ignore it. I just wanted to be sure I don't have my configuration really fouled up.

EDIT: I got it, it's pacman. What's the KLA package manager called? Or rather what is the command? It looks like I need to run it from command line. I've been updating KLV-airedale from command line a lot. I'm not sure there's any advantage over using the gui, except that it's good to know. I went to pkgs.org to find a txz package for Xfe file manager, and I was surprised to see Aarch didn't have one listed.

[Sofiya]

EDIT: I got it, it's pacman. What's the KLA package manager called? Or rather what is the command? It looks like I need to run it from command line. I've been updating KLV-airedale from command line a lot. I'm not sure there's any advantage over using the gui, except that it's good to know. I went to pkgs.org to find a txz package for Xfe file manager, and I was surprised to see Aarch didn't have one listed.

sudo pacman -Syu

[wiak]

Xfe isn't in the official Arch repos. That probably means it is gtk2 based (edit: no, its fox), which is being phased out.
Per usual in these cases, it is available from Arch AUR (community created non-official), but normal Arch package manager doesn't include these so you use a 'AUR helper' to fetch and install from there.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xfe

The KLA distros are supplied with a simple commandline-only AUR helper called Trizen. You use it basically just like normal Arch package manager 'pacman', but you must do so when logged in or switched to a normal user account.

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trizen -Sy xfe

might then fetch and install out-of-the-box (EDIT: no, needed base-devel installed first). However, the AUR process may need some compiling automatically done in the background and to save space the KLA distros don't include compiler/build environment (its quite big install). All you would likely then need is to first install build environment with command (as root user):

EDIT: I had the wrong package name. It should be:

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pacman -Sy base-devel

and thereafter, userswitch to spot user, say, and run that trizen -Sy xfe command should install it for you.

I haven't tried installing xfe so don't know if you'll need that install base-devel step or not.
EDIT: Yes, you will need to first install base-devel for compiler for AUR use.
When asked, you do not need to edit the PKGBUILD

End result was xfe was around 7MB install size or suchlike.

In other words, like most non-official packages, AUR provided packages in source format which are automatically compiled and installed into the pacman database via the helper program (trizen in this case), which themselves use the makepkg -Si command. If you wonder how that works automatically, that is the job of the PKGBUILD instructions some Arch community person has specially constructed.

[wiak]

Note that as you install new packages with pacman (similar to apt/dpkg), the packages get stored under /var hierarchy so can be easily re-installed (not AUR compiled ones I think though - I'll have to look into that since would be nice to keep a copy sometimes). However, that uses up a lot of save persistence space, so good to clear that cache every now and then. The pacman command for doing that is:

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sudo pacman -Sc

EDIT: I found the AUR trizen-compiles xfe package here on my system:

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/home/spot/.cache/trizen/sources/xfe/xfe-1.45-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Note that Arch packages are zst compressed nowadays and end with the extension .pkg.tar.zst

[geo_c]

sudo pacman -Suy

I ran the command, and 4 packages were listed to update, one of them being sudo-1.912.p2-2, which gave me pause. It's safe to update sudo I presume? (Being such a puppy-linux user I'm very sudo illiterate.)

[wiak]

sudo pacman -Suy

I ran the command, and 4 packages were listed to update, one of them being sudo-1.912.p2-2, which gave me pause. It's safe to update sudo I presume? (Being such a puppy-linux user I'm very sudo illiterate.)

Yes, should be fine. Arch being rolling release updates that quickly! See above my edited post on location of trizen built xfe package (though trizen also automatically installs it). Don't worry about rolling release nature of underlying Arch Linux, we used old WDL_Arch64 (similar to KLA-OT2) for over two years for our business use (albeit direct saves mode) with no issues whatsoever - even glibc upgrades went fine (and kernel was pinned to avoid issues).

[Sofiya]

Code: Select all

sudo pacman -Syyu   - update packages

sudo pacman -Sy <program_name>  - install packages

sudo pacman -Rs <package_name>   - remove packages

sudo pacman -Scc  - To remove all saved packages  in /var/cache/pacman/pkg and intercept, use the following command 

sudo pacman -U /path to file/xxx.pkg.tar.xz   - installing local packages 

[Sofiya]

I never use a package manager. always from the console
in the Console, I just clearly see what is happening and how the installation is going

[geo_c]

I did the update and sudo updated fine. I did notice a syntax error updating dpkg though. I don't know if it's consequential or not. Actually I don't know if it's an error on dpkg or what what's listed in the /tmp/directory about 3/4 the way down this output:

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:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages...
 xfce4-session-4.18.1-1-x86_64                                     336.8 KiB  1186 KiB/s 00:00 [########################################################] 100%
 dpkg-1.21.20-1-x86_64                                            1873.3 KiB  2.31 MiB/s 00:01 [########################################################] 100%
 xfce4-power-manager-4.18.1-1-x86_64                               543.9 KiB   321 KiB/s 00:02 [########################################################] 100%
 sudo-1.9.12.p2-2-x86_64                                          1765.2 KiB   492 KiB/s 00:04 [########################################################] 100%
 Total (4/4)                                                         4.4 MiB  1261 KiB/s 00:04 [########################################################] 100%
(4/4) checking keys in keyring                                                                 [########################################################] 100%
(4/4) checking package integrity                                                               [########################################################] 100%
(4/4) loading package files                                                                    [########################################################] 100%
(4/4) checking for file conflicts                                                              [########################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/4) upgrading dpkg                                                                           [########################################################] 100%
usage: vercmp version1 lt|gt|le|ge|eq version2
       return value 0 if true, else 1
/tmp/alpm_6BWtJI/.INSTALL: line 4: ((: < 0: syntax error: operand expected (error token is "< 0")
(2/4) upgrading sudo                                                                           [########################################################] 100%
(3/4) upgrading xfce4-power-manager                                                            [########################################################] 100%
(4/4) upgrading xfce4-session                                                                  [########################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/5) Reloading system manager configuration...
(2/5) Creating temporary files...
(3/5) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(4/5) Updating icon theme caches...
(5/5) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
┌──[ root@archlinux ] [ 02:11:20 ]
├── ~
└># 

[geo_c]

I never use a package manager. always from the console
in the Console, I just clearly see what is happening and how the installation is going

Yes I understand. I noticed that OctoXBPS displays in the output window exactly what you would get in the console. The only thing I don't understand about console package management is how do you 'browse' all the available packages in the repo?

[Sofiya]

I never use a package manager. always from the console
in the Console, I just clearly see what is happening and how the installation is going

Yes I understand. I noticed that OctoXBPS displays in the output window exactly what you would get in the console. The only thing I don't understand about console package management is how do you 'browse' all the available packages in the repo?

see list of all packages installed from repositories pacman -Q

see a list of all installed packages pacman -Qqe | grep -v "$(pacman -Qmq)" > pkglist

To list only total installed packages in Arch Linux pacman -Q | wc -l

List packages that are no longer required as dependencies ("orphan packages"): pacman -Qdt

[wiak]

Search for a package:

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pacman -Ss <package_name>

Yes, funnily enough I don't entirely trust GUI package management - just another sometimes sort of invisible layer in the way. Of course I need to google for commandline usage since switching between different distros means forgetting individual distro package manager commands (i.e. use crib sheet).

I also regularly just google to see the name of package and/or if it is main Arch repos or in AUR:

e.g. google Arch Linux xfe package

No gui required.

Of course it is easy to write a simple yad frontend to the most usual commands.

[wiak]

... I'm not seeing /mnt/home in KLA-XFCE.

Hi geo_c,

I don't know about /mnt/home; I presume a symlink or something was used in KLV-Airedale to make that point to the bootfrom location? Or what is it used for. I remember Puppy used it for something, but I can't remember what so I imagine that Puppy effect was arranged in KLV-Airedale.

So I quickly checked in KLV-Airedale and it is indeed just a simple symlink to the bootfrom directory, which is determined form a grep of the mount command result. In KLV that is implemented in a little script under /root/my-applications called "swapper.sh", which fredx181 also uses to load swap partition. No problem with incorporating the script, its simple, so I'll put in under /usr/local/bin (I don't like my-applications idea since already is a ~/.local/bin location that is typically adopted in Linux normal usage - why reinvent the wheel is my opinion, but /usr/local/bin or /usr/local/sbin makes more sense for this purpose to me). I'll then have to call that script up in some starter script - again I'll likely use conventional Linux way to do that rather, but we'll see...

For the moment you can make the symlink yourself or easier just put the same script in /usr/local/bin on your system, make it executable, and run it. Rather than attaching a copy of the script for download (since bad practice to have several download locations since scripts get developed!...), I've just put its contents below for copy and paste use:

swapper.sh:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
# utility by fredx181 Jan2022
#
# revison 19Feb2022 by fredx181
#### Load swap ####
 echo "LOAD SWAP"
  for ONESWAP in `fdisk -l | grep ' Linux swap' | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | tr '\n' ' '`
  do
    echo -n "Loading swap partition $ONESWAP..." >/dev/console
    swapon $ONESWAP
  done
#########################

#### Create symlink /mnt/home ####
MNTHOME=$(mount | grep "/mnt/layers/merged/media" |  cut -d'/' -f3 | cut -d' ' -f1)
cd /mnt/
ln -sfn /mnt/layers/merged/media/root/$MNTHOME home
#########################

or simply copy out of your KLV installation from /root/my-applications/bin/swapper.sh to /usr/local/bin on KLA (and/or KLU). I'll include and auto-start it in next KLA/KLU releases.

NOTE: Above is assuming normal frugal installation. For Ventoy that likely won't work - I'll have to think about whether easy to get same for Ventoy (though will require some code changes in the FR initrd for same result using Ventoy boot).

[pp4mnklinux]

I gonna try.

Thanks for sharing.

Have a nice weekend.

[wiak]

... I'm not seeing /mnt/home in KLA-XFCE.

...
or simply copy out of your KLV installation from /root/my-applications/bin/swapper.sh to /usr/local/bin on KLA (and/or KLU). I'll include and auto-start it in next KLA/KLU releases.

NOTE: Above is assuming normal frugal installation. For Ventoy that likely won't work - I'll have to think about whether easy to get same for Ventoy (though will require some code changes in the FR initrd for same result using Ventoy boot).

Indeed, above swapper.sh symbolic link won't work with Ventoy. To be honest I find both Ventoy and SG2D more work (in terms of FR initrd) than they are worth, as I keep telling Clarity. The fact I made them work at all should be considered a bonus; I'm not trying to emulate how well or otherwise any other distro works with say Ventoy. FirstRib was purely designed for normal frugal installation and that is really the hub of the matter.
Nevertheless, I had a hunch why swapper.sh (i.e. the /mnt/home symlink trick) wouldn't work when using an iso and I've tested my initrd code modification, and my hunch seems to be correct. Risky always however to modify the key FR initrd component - it really is the heart of the system all working correctly with the designed addon sfs/uncompressed numbered layers mechanisms. Shame to break it for 'extra' Ventoy functionality in my opinion. However, probably one last Ventoy-related piece of code. It is frustrating for me because frankly I want to get away from computing for a while and a new initrd means re-making all the flipping isos!!!!! which is not a trivial task. Each design probably took dozens and more like hundreds of hours of work each prior to my managing to create the as-presented variety of isos for publication. Yes, frustrating bothering about some missing Ventoy functionality that was never an intended part of the design in the first place.

Basically Ventoy and SG2D additions make me a bit mad, because frankly they complicate the FR initrd/init code greatly, which is not what I wanted in the design. Result is that it is much harder to maintain and develop that component than I now like it to be. Chuck out Ventoy support and it all becomes easier to understand, maintain, and modify, which isn't surprising since Ventoy was not in original design planning. I consider it a shame in the sense that making the likes of Ventoy work better probably mean other important FR dev work simply hasn't happened and won't. Comes down to: how important is Ventoy when it comes to all this anyway - so the effort for that makes me a bit frustrated; that is true. Hard to be bothered since this is not a job - just a hobby. Anyway, I think this latest addition will be my last Ventoy-related addition. What ever does work there - good, whatever doesn't - well forget it.

[rockedge]

I wouldn't be sad if Ventoy did not work. I still see no advantage in using it. The Kennel Linux as a Frugal installation works very well and that's what it was designed for. Same reason I don't race my VW Passat TSI against Porsche's or drag race against muscle cars. The VW wasn't built for that.

Leave the Ventoy support as is or take it out which in my opinion would improve the boot speeds of KLA.KLU and KLV.

Free the Kennel!!!! Down with Ventoy!

Isn't Ventoy from China? Spy balloons are from China. Does Ventoy = spy balloons ?

[Clarity]

I dont harbor any hatreds or racism for the Chinese. As history shows they remain one of the few countries who have not put upon any others in the world for over 12000 years, truth be told.

As far a Ventoy is concern, I am not pushing nor asking for adoption.

But in the experiment, which all things of mankind are, we try things that others produce for worthiness. If it is shown to offer use, that is what all of what we are (or should be) about, IMHO.

The tests I am showing offers several avenues to attract more users to consider KLs as well as attract users who venture into Puppyland with ease of use that will get them to stay, find worth, and contribute to what is done in the community at large. My efforts has a primary goal as well where if a boot-helper USB is successfully created ONCE, all anyone needs to do in the future is to add ISOs to that USB's folder without the common all too often issues of making/getting USB/DVD created along with some of the other means which have a traditional problematic past for many over the years..

If anyone creates a Ventoy or SG2D USB from the directions we provide on the forum, ONCE, all future forum distro use is simply a download and boot.

My mission continues to address this to make PUPPY Forum attractive to anyone who comes here from any technology background they have had experiences by making it simple and easy. This is not just for Americans or Canadians or Japanese or Brits or ... I want to believe its for mankind! And I seek this forum as it shows cooperation as its core no matter: We are technology peoples. Human, yes, but technology rules out emotion as either it work usefully or it does not.

We are focused on technology and that brings understanding, here.

I hope this is seen as a fair statement...I hope.

[rockedge]

@Clarity Sounds good.

[wiak]

No need to remove the Ventoy-related code. That code is bypassed when neither Ventoy or SG2D is being used so doesn't effect boot speed.
Anyway, I think the matter is cleared up now and understood how to use Ventoy with KL.

[Phil_54]

Unless I'm missing something, the first post link to the iso is just a link to the first post.

[ally]

@Phil_54

I've mirrored files here: http://archive.org/details/Puppy_Linux_KLA_Arch

the rc4 direct: http://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux ... se-rc4.iso

[wiak]

Unless I'm missing something, the first post link to the iso is just a link to the first post.

I took the old link down because I was close to uploading a new rc5.

I was interrupted badly and so work stopped for a while.

I also became side-tracked working on many new utility apps (commandline) and one gui frontend based.

Tonight I pretty much finished that work and just have to finally make the rc5 iso, but despite my making it clear that my submitted work is a FirstRib-based distro (rebranded Kennel Linux for others here to build upon) and not at all a Puppy Linux derivative or type, earlier rc versions continue to be published elsewhere named Puppy_Linux_KLA, which is not acceptable to me (and not only that). I had already made my feelings about that clear I believe. I can't stop those who choose to insult or ignore my wishes about my own work, but result does effect others sorry.

I'm still thinking about the future regarding what happened and was 'said' to me recently (or 'liked'), so I may simply store future versions I make (including this almost completed KLA-XFCE rc5) as FR-named versions on my own FirstRib cloud storage site. I'm not against sharing at all (or wouldn't have), so I didn't/don't really want to do that, but may be the only way to end the wrong/unwanted Puppy_Linux name categorisation and storage elsewhere.

Rockedge's store of some KL releases of mine (KLU-jam) under isos/Kennel Linux is correctly categorised and thus fine however.