F96-CE_3 Stable Release

[rockedge]

F96-CE_3 is released! The Team has further fine tuned the boot capabilities and other details to improve overall performance. Resulting in this well balanced general purpose Puppy Linux distro.

F96-CE_3 Changelog:

• Update init to Woof-CE commit 4a23874 for improved support of CD/USB boot modes (thanks dimkr and wizard)
• Update Firefox-ESR to v102.9
• Update PKG package manager to v2.10 (thanks mistfire)
• Adjust loginmanager environment error and add support for recent modern browsers when configured to run-as-spot (thanks mow9902 and MochiMoppel). Note: the loginmanager run-as-spot option is not recommended for the typical portable browsers configured for Puppy Linux (such as Firefox-ESR in F96-CE), and in fact this option may break the normal launch scripts of the selected browser.
• Adjust timing (5-sec delay) of ALSA sound restoration when booting/rebooting (thanks thinkpadfreak)
• Adjust builtin_files of ydrv to improve compatibility with the 'Remove builtin packages' utility (thanks fr-ke). Note: for those who choose to remaster the default F96-CE ISO, it is now possible to remove the portable Firefox-ESR browser via the 'Remove builtin packages' utility but you must do so before the first run of the Firefox browser, i.e. before the unique browser profile folder is created inside the portable browser folder. However, if you prefer to manually remove Firefox-ESR (/opt/FirefoxESR-portable64 folder, /usr/bin/firefox symlink, and /usr/share/applications/firefox-portable.desktop), you can easily do so at any time prior to remastering your custom ISO.

ipv6 support has been compiled into the kernel and F96-CE_2 can now resolve IPv6.

F96-CE is outfitted with kernel 6.0.12-FP and is AUFS layered. Built from a base foundation Fossapup64-9.6 generated by woof-CE, F96-CE uses Pkg2 and PPM for package management and has many of the usual Fossapup64 applications and features.

F96-CE_2 Changelog:

• Adjust failed CD/USB boot modes. F96-CE now supports UEFI and Legacy MBR boot modes when installed to (1) CD optical media or (2) USB media formatted by Rufus or Unetbootin. (thanks wizard)
• Adjust 6.0.12-FP kernel support of IPv6 - which also precludes prior firewall ip6tables activation errors
• Adjust firewall_ng to fully support IPv6 extended packet matching (thanks dimkr)
• Adjust implementation of Apply/Cancel functions in firewall_ng. Note: Using the firewall tray icon to turn the firewall OFF does so in a non-persistent manner. However, stopping the firewall via the 'Firewall Setup' dialog persists after rebooting. (thanks Overdrive5 and dimkr)
• Adjust MIME-type handler for matroska (mkv) video files (thanks Jinx)
• Adjust save/restore functions of ALSA audio volume when booting/rebooting (thanks thinkpadfreak)
• Add F96-compatible components of 666philb's original F95 bugfix update of fossa quickpet applications (thanks oldaolgeezer)
• Add dummy apulse file which enables audio for some older ALSA-dependent applications in the pulseaudio/pipewire environment (thanks dimkr)
• F96-CE includes the CPU Frequency Scaling application (wcpufreq) with an important caveat. Specifically, Intel resources may no longer provide all cpu frequency data, in which case the frequency comboboxes of wcpufreq are empty and the application may be of limited usefulness.

Changelog:
• Add Qualcomm Atheros firmware to fdrv (thanks dimkr)
• Add Bluetooth tutorial to Puppy Help Resources (thanks wizard)
• Add EFI directory and puppy.cer file to the root of the ISO to support the Unetbootin USB installer (thanks wizard)
• Add editable configuration file for pulseaudio (/root/.config/pulse/default.pa) to optionally set or override the default pulseaudio parameters.
• Adjust Bluetooth connectivity (thanks dimkr)
• Adjust Fossa Quickpet to exclude applications not supported by F96-CE (thanks bigpup)
• Adjust play of audio CDs by DeadBeef Music Player (thanks peebee)
• Adjust PPM support of puppy-fossa64-official package repository (thanks peebee)
• Disable Connman automatic updates of Time and Timezone. For users who prefer the original default auto-updates, go to /var/lib/connman/settings and delete the lines pertaining to TimeUpdates and TimezoneUpdates. (thanks thinkpadfreak)
• Update Connman Internet Connection Manger (as generated by the Woof-CE build of fossapup64 on 1 Feb 2023)
• Update 6.0.12 kernel to gcc 9.4.0 (thanks Rockedge)
• Update YASSM Samba Share Mounter to v4.5 (thanks rcrsn51)
• Update nicOS Package Extractor (thanks amethyst)
• Upgrade MPV Multimedia Player with feature and stability enhancements, and add the user-friendly Celluloid GUI (thanks Marv)
• Replace controversial Pale Moon Browser with Firefox-ESR Portable for improved internet access including compatibility with github, YouTube, Netflix, etc. (thanks mikewalsh) Note: For those who prefer a different browser, the Firefox-ESR portable application is self-contained and easily removed.
• The above updates and upgrades (mostly Firefox, MPV, extra firmware, and requisites for Unetbootin) add slightly to the ISO size.

Changelog:
• New Woof-CE build of F96 with multiple infrastructure adjustments (thanks dimkr)
- Improve amdgpu video support in fdrv firmware
- Prioritize SFSs and copy to RAM only while free ramdisk space is >= 64 MB
- Adjust init stack-order of xdrvs (FDRV -> ZDRV -> BDRV -> YDRV -> ADRV)
- Fix IME integration with Chrome browser
- Prevent setup-spot from copying /home/spot to pup_rw
• New build of kernel 6.0.12 with matching gcc for the kernel and devx (compiler friendly)
• Remove browser-bdrv and add portable-Palemoon browser to /opt. After a savefile is created, you may (optionally) move the portable-Palemoon folder to /mnt/home and symlink back to /opt. This arrangement will protect your savefile from the burden of an ever-increasing browser cache. Alternatively, if you prefer a different browser, simply remove the self-contained portable-Palemoon folder and install your preferred browser. (thanks mikewalsh)
• The iso contains no default adrv or bdrv (advanced users may create and customize xdrvs for personal use)
• The optional applications-ydrv remains in the iso, but 'essential' apps are now moved to the main Puppy-SFS. The ydrv contains almost 30 supplemental apps (/var/packages/ydrv) that many users may find useful. However, if the included ydrv is of no value to you, simply rename or delete the ydrv - then reboot.
• Fix CUP-PDF printing
• Adjust compatibility with qemu and qemu_gui
• Update PKG package manager to v2.0.9 and adjust the gpkgdialog GUI for improved user interaction
• Update Openssl to the following securtiy release: openssl 1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.16
• Update Puppy Help resources
• And many additional adjustments to improve the desktop experience

F96-CE Web Page

The download links ->

F96-CE_3.iso
SHA1-MD5_F96-CE_3-iso.txt

devx_fossapup64_9.6.sfs
SHA1-MD5_devx_fossapup64-9.6.txt

kernel_sources_fossapup64_9.6.sfs
SHA1-D5_kernel_sources_fossapup64_9.6.txt

[Clarity]

Boot pristine OK. Shutdown doesn't hang, thus is OK, too.
Default puppyshare folder does not exist Changing it ALSO does not start SAMBA.

F96 via QEMU(1).jpg (94.71 KiB) Viewed 8192 times

[wizard]

@Clarity
On real hardware, MBR, frugal install I can't replicate the samba issue. Are you saying samba does not start when you click the button?

Thanks
wizard

[radky]

@Clarity

Manual frugal install of F96-CE_3:

Can't confirm your issues with tldr or samba.

• No issue with tldr (summary reports are OK)
• No issue with samba (starts OK and samba daemons are active)

[retiredt00]

Dear radky
I updated to CE3 in a physical machine and I have issue with out of tree modules
They compile fine albeit with some warnings but when you try to load them they fail with "err -22" "unknown symbol" and "disagrees about version of symbol"
I also tried a fresh install with ISO and SFSs from the first post, in case was something in my savefile, with the same outcome.

Did you or anyone else build and loaded successfully out of tree modules in CE3 (or CE2 that had a similar issue if I remember correctly)
THX

On a positive note I'm happy to see that the new ISO boots fine in my virtual machine and discovers the save files wherever they might be.

[Clarity]

Thanks everyone for your reports. I will try to follow up on how I am arriving at this behavior. I have confirmed the checksum is correct for the ISO file. This behavior is unusual.

Later today, I have several other machines to try to replicate and understand why on this old i7 I saw this in testing, yesterday.

Thanks again everyone.

[Clarity]

Just did a quick QEMU test.
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -vga std -m 2G -smp 2 -device AC97 -cdrom F96-CE_3.iso

This time, instead of allowing F96 v3 to default in its Menu, I chose the RAM Only option. This time it boots, tldr test in terminal is what's expected and SAMBA...I've gotten to the bottom of it (dont know if it should be reported as a bug to WoofCE builder),

SAMBA
Opening it and choosing the Apply button there are couple tool-tip toast messages that pop-up. What is expected to happen upon successful checking the smb.conf, the utility will Start SAMBA. This version does NOT do that even though the toast messages indicate such. Manually, clicking the RED button will start SAMBA and toggle-stop when necessary.

Solutions

1. So one approach for WoofCE is to change the toast messages alerting the user to manually start OR

2. another approach is correct the behavior to do what it use to do where SAMBA is started upon successful processing of the smb.conf

Thanks everyone

Edit: Just checked booting this time allowing the boot to occur using its default top menu selection: ALL IS WELL.

I have no explanation of my initial reported problems. Sorry.

w

[dimkr]

Is there a more detailed list of changes, and where these changes come from? Something more detailed than "updated initrd.gz".

[mikeslr]

Is there a more detailed list of changes, and where these changes come from? Something more detailed than "updated initrd.gz".

ditto, please.

[mikewalsh]

.....'Kayyy....

Still using PulseAudio though.....isn't it? (*grumble, grumble*) I still don't like it, and never will.....despite improving "compatibility". Ah, well. That's "progress", I suppose.

Never mind..! "Onwards & upwards", I guess....

Sorry for sounding like a grouch, guys. Thanks to all for their hard work, as always.

Mike.

[gychang]

CE_3 still does not "remember" my sound settings when set from the taskbar icon, Preferences configuration is lost after a reboot, very polished overall, thanks for all your efforts!

[radky]

Is there a more detailed list of changes, and where these changes come from? Something more detailed than "updated initrd.gz".

@dimkr
It seems the F96-CE_3 changelog is missing in the introductory post of this forum thread.

F96-CE_3 Changelog:

• Update init to Woof-CE commit 4a23874 for improved support of CD/USB boot modes (thanks dimkr and wizard)
• Update Firefox-ESR to v102.9
• Update PKG package manager to v2.10 (thanks mistfire)
• Adjust loginmanager environment error and add support for recent modern browsers when configured to run-as-spot (thanks mow9902 and MochiMoppel). Note: the loginmanager run-as-spot option is not recommended for the typical portable browsers configured for Puppy Linux (such as Firefox-ESR in F96-CE), and in fact this option may break the normal launch scripts of the selected browser.
• Adjust timing (5-sec delay) of ALSA sound restoration when booting/rebooting (thanks thinkpadfreak)
• Adjust builtin_files of ydrv to improve compatibility with the 'Remove builtin packages' utility (thanks fr-ke). Note: for those who choose to remaster the default F96-CE ISO, it is now possible to remove the portable Firefox-ESR browser via the 'Remove builtin packages' utility but you must do so before the first run of the Firefox browser, i.e. before the unique browser profile folder is created inside the portable browser folder. However, if you prefer to manually remove Firefox-ESR (/opt/FirefoxESR-portable64 folder, /usr/bin/firefox symlink, and /usr/share/applications/firefox-portable.desktop), you can easily do so at any time prior to remastering your custom ISO.

[radky]

CE_3 still does not "remember" my sound settings when set from the taskbar icon, Preferences configuration is lost after a reboot...

@gychang

When booting or rebooting F96-CE_3, the /root/Startup/sound_state_restore file provides a 5-second delay before the ALSA settings of the prior desktop session are restored to the current desktop session. Previously, @thinkpadfreak reported this delay was necessary to allow sufficient time for pulseaudio to start before the underlying ALSA settings are restored.

If your computer hardware is old or slow, perhaps a longer delay is necessary (maybe 10 seconds)?

Alternatively, you could adjust pulseaudio settings directly.

Go to /root/.config/pulse/default.pa and set your preferred audio settings.

Example 1: Un-mute the default output device at startup:

Code: Select all

pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ false

Example 2: Set the default output device volume to 50% at startup:

Code: Select all

pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ 50%

Example 3: Control a specific audio output device at startup (please go to the following post):
viewtopic.php?p=81412#p81412

[gychang]

CE_3 still does not "remember" my sound settings when set from the taskbar icon, Preferences configuration is lost after a reboot...

Example 3: Control a specific audio output device at startup (please go to the following post):
viewtopic.php?p=81412#p81412

thanks

[iarda1]

Hi.

I'm interested to try a FULL install (vgr. into an SSD drive) for a plus in access velocity. How can it be done?

also:
I don't want every browser start in maximized mode. Is there any clue to remove this feature? it affects every browser and every window open!

Good work.

[Jinx]

To fix the Firefox browser size see viewtopic.php?t=8161

[bigpup]

I'm interested to try a FULL install (vgr. into an SSD drive) for a plus in access velocity. How can it be done?

What is vgr???

Why do a full install and loose some of the features of how Puppy works?

Just do a frugal install to the SSD and get all the features of Puppy operation.

A frugal install is still the complete operating system just installed in a special way.

Stop thinking of installing Puppy Linux the way other Linux operating systems install.

Is F96-CE_3 or Puppy Linux in general all that is going to be on the SSD?

[rockedge]

@iarda1 To really accelerate what is already fast isn't to run Puppy as decompressed and spread out over a partition, but to change the compression type the SFS system files are squashed with.

The recommended way is to change the squash file compression type from xz to zstd which is possible to do manually. Un-squash the SFS files and squash them again using zstd and 128k blocks as the compression protocol.

The CE edition is squashed with the xz compression protocol which involves a tick more CPU work to decompress at boot, Once the system is booted the rest runs from RAM from that point on.

[mikeslr]

@ iarda1: Puppy Linux was designed to run as a portable 'co-existent' install, that is from a folder without regard to on what media that folder was located and even if that folder was an 'entire partition'. It is 'co-existent' because that folder need not be an entire partition.

See "How Puppy Linux Works", https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 827#p55827 and "How Puppy Linux Save Works", https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 818#p63818. Short layman's version of those: on boot-up some files-systems are copied (compressed) into RAM-cache, the SaveFile/Folder is mounted and an index is created in RAM as to where the files in those file-systems are located. Puppy's management of RAM is very efficient. Very little RAM become unavailable for actual 'work'.

Only copying such large file-systems as f-96's application-system-file, puppy_fossapup64_9.6.sfs, (368 Mbs on storage) takes any noticeable time. However, more than a dozen years ago, when computers typically sold with less than 256 Mbs of RAM it was discovered that by disbursing the contents of such application-system-file across an entire-exclusive-to-Puppy partition (i.e. a 'full install') boot-up time could be reduced by a few seconds. On more recently available computers --with more powerful CPUs and especially at least the 1 GB of RAM required by recent Puppys-- about 5 years ago the difference between booting up a 'frugal install' and a 'full install' Puppy amounted to micro-seconds.

Since its publication there has been no further development of Puppy's 'full install' technique. Even at the time it was developed, it did not provide Puppy with any of the safety features builtin to Linuxes designed to run as 'Full Installs'. Keep in mind that Puppys run as Root and that the development of malware has not stood still.

Rockedge has pointed one method for expediting boot-time. I think there's another. As aforesaid, the only noticeable delay in boot-up is that which it takes to copy the puppy_fossapup64_9.6.sfs into RAM. You can avoid that by employing the boot-command pfix=nocopy. See, viewtopic.php?p=14683&sid=27e1f60b7d01b ... 253#p14683. If I understand it correctly, when that command is present the 'base-file-system' will only be mounted (like the SaveFile/Folder) and not copies into RAM.

Frankly, I prefer to take the opposite approach in order to run an almost invulnerable Puppy. I employ amethyst's nicOS-Utility-Suite's --on F96's Utility SubMenu-- Save2SFS to substitute a SaveFile/Folder with a READ-ONLY- adrv.sfs which contains a hardened web-browser. If booted from a USB-Key, after boot-up I can remove the Key. If booted from a hard-drive, after boot-up even the partition on which Puppy is located is unmounted. My menu.lst/grub.cfg provides two stanza, one specifying pfix=ram. So while I have a SaveFolder holding my version of the kitchen sink, if I'm searching strange corners of the web I boot pfix=RAM: nothing inadvertently reaches my READ-Write SaveFile/Folder and everything in RAM is wiped on shut-down.

[mikewalsh]

.....in addition to all of the above, by insisting on a 'full' install (as though that's the only way an operating system COULD possibly be installed..!! ), you're voluntarily denying yourself the majority of Puppy's best features.....which are designed to work with the 'frugal' install.

The 'full' install pretty much limits you to .debs & .pets. You definitely can't 'load' SFS apps, because the mechanism doesn't function with that type of installation.

But hey! if that's your bag, go for it. Your choice. Who are we to tell you otherwise..? Decades of accumulated experience apparently counts for very little, so it would seem....

Me, I can go from power-on to a working desktop in less than 20 seconds with a frugal Puppy. A quad-core, 9th-gen Intel running at almost 4 GHz, a 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD and 32GB of DDR4 RAM just might have summat to with it. I think that's quite fast enough for most folks.

(*shrug*)

Mike.

[MochiMoppel]

also:
I don't want every browser start in maximized mode. Is there any clue to remove this feature? it affects every browser and every window open!

Certainly not every browser, but it affects Firefox and ports like Pale Moon and LibreWolf.
To remove this "feature" open the file /root/.jwm/jwmrc-personal and rremove the lines

Code: Select all

<!-- Start Firefox maximized, to save vertical space -->
<Group>
    <Name>Navigator</Name>
    <Name>Firefox</Name>
    <Option>maximized</Option>
</Group>

Save the file and in a terminal enter the command

Code: Select all

jwm -restart

and press Enter. That should do it.

@rockedge , @radky I dont know if you are in charge of maintaining the JWM config files or if this a CE thing, but in any case I think that some settings need fixing. Above is one of them. Not only does <Name>Firefox</Name> nothing (because there is no WM_CLASS name "Firefox"), the whole setting can do more harm than good and forces a browser behavior that not all users might appreciate.

[rockedge]

I dont know if you are in charge of maintaining the JWM config files

[nilsonmorales]

Please driver for Broadcom BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]
DELL LATITUDE E6420 core i7
muchas gracias de antemano

[iarda1]

@MochiMoppel

Thanks for help. I don't want 'save vertical space'.

[thinkpadfreak]

about pulseaudio

"pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa" is the culprit. Pulseaudio itself is not to blame.

I went to "remove builtin packages," removed "pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa" and rebooted.
/root/Startup/sound_state_restore is no longer necessary.

I had thought that the start of pulseaudio was too slow, but the fact will be that the plugin was resetting some of the values after pulseaudio started. As a result, the alsactl command needed to be executed again. (/etc/rc.d/init.d/10alsa executes the command at boot)

Connman also used to be a cause of trouble. Generally speaking, we should be careful when we introduce something new.

[retiredt00]

Please driver for Broadcom BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4359]

Please add the Broadcom BCM4360 while at it (the wl kernel module), as my efforts with sources from recent Debian or old (Focal) Ubuntu OS versions, failed to compile a functional driver with the current F96 kernel
Thank you.

[radky]

about pulseaudio

"pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa" is the culprit. Pulseaudio itself is not to blame.

I went to "remove builtin packages," removed "pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa" and rebooted.
/root/Startup/sound_state_restore is no longer necessary.

I had thought that the start of pulseaudio was too slow, but the fact will be that the plugin was resetting some of the values after pulseaudio started. As a result, the alsactl command needed to be executed again. (/etc/rc.d/init.d/10alsa executes the command at boot)

Connman also used to be a cause of trouble. Generally speaking, we should be careful when we introduce something new.

@thinkpadfreak

Available in the multimedia category of the menu, pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa is a popular audio equalizer which is used to adjust the output spectrum of multimedia applications in the pulseaudio environment. Many audiophiles find it useful, so simply removing it from F96 may not be the best option for those users. Even so, if the community is in agreement, this application can be removed in the next release.

Please keep in mind, pulseaudio will automatically detect your audio output devices, including standard hardware devices and virtual devices such as pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa. When there are multiple output devices (including virtual devices), pulseaudio will have no knowledge of your preferred (default) output device unless you select and save that information to the pulseaudio configuration file. Specifically, when booting or rebooting in an environment with multiple audio devices, pulseaudio reads the configuration file (if available) and restores the prior saved audio settings. If the configuration file does not stipulate a default audio device and volume level, then your preferred audio device and sound volume may not restore to your expectations.

As F96-CE evolved over the last few months, multiple forum posts have provided guidelines for selecting and saving the preferred options for a specific audio output device in the pulseaudio environment. However, it seems no one has followed those guidelines. If anyone is interested, the links below are provided once again. Please feel free to offer additional guidelines.

viewtopic.php?p=81412#p81412

viewtopic.php?p=84478&sid=91028bbeaaa4e ... 631#p84478

[rockedge]

Even so, if the community is in agreement, this application can be removed in the next release.

No. Not in agreement. The equalizer remains in.

Connman also used to be a cause of trouble. Generally speaking, we should be careful when we introduce something new.

Not anymore and it provides simultaneous connections on machines with multiple ethernet devices that need to be connected to networks.
I think we are careful, hundreds of hours have been invested in being so.

[bigpup]

Every version of Linux using pulseaudio has reports about not saving settings on reboot.
Best fix so far is the manual edit of the pulseaudio configuration file.

F96 is using:
pavucontrol version 4.0
pulseaudio version 13.99.1

From the release notes of pulseaudio version 15.0

Card profiles can be set to sticky

Card profiles can be set to sticky using the command pactl send-message /card/<card name> set-profile-sticky 'true|false'. The current status can be queried using pactl send-message /card/<card name> get-profile-sticky. If a card profile is sticky, it will always be restored, even if the profile is unavailable. Also port availability changes on the card will not impact the profile choice. This is for example useful to set the card profile permanently to "off" for HDMI devices. Setting profiles to sticky is already implemented in pavucontrol and will be provided with the next pavucontrol release.

There is now a pavucontrol version 5.0

From release notes for pavucontrol version 5.0

Support for locking card profiles (new in PulseAudio 15.0). Locking a profile prevents PulseAudio from automatically switching away from that profile on plug/unplug events.

Wonder if doing an update to the versions of pulseaudio and pavucontrol would help to fix the save settings issue.

[thinkpadfreak]

Available in the multimedia category of the menu, pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa is a popular audio equalizer which is used to adjust the output spectrum of multimedia applications in the pulseaudio environment. Many audiophiles find it useful, so simply removing it from F96 may not be the best option for those users. Even so, if the community is in agreement, this application can be removed in the next release.

I don't think pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa should be removed in the next release.
I prefer not using it as a workaround on my machine. Jammypup64 9.7b / 9.8 and Vanilla Dpup 9.2.x don't have the plugin, so their pulseaudio worked out of the box on my machine.