KLV-Spectr-RT with full real-time kernel 6.1.38-rt13c

[rockedge]

KLV-Spectr-RT equipped with the Puppy Linux huge full real time kernel 6.1.38-rt13.

Uploaded 17-Oct-2023 and found under ISO on https://rockedge.org/kernels
Or -> https://rockedge.org/kernels/data/ISO/K ... Spectr/RT/

Download directly -> KLV-Spectr-RT.iso 669 M
Hash Values -> SHA1-MD5.txt

Added the cpupower package in to the rootfs to manage CPU frequency tuning.

MOD+z will activate Spectrwm's key bindings and controls listing.

[geo_c]

I grabbed it, this should be fun.

[rockedge]

Something not 100% with detecting screen resolution...and my Rox pinboard fonts and icons are really big.

[geo_c]

Something not 100% with detecting screen resolution...and my Rox pinboard fonts and icons are really big.

I'm not having the issue on a Dell Precision i7 laptop, more than 10 years old.

I did my usual update on the prior system, copied the iso files underneath my prior upper_changes and it seems to be running well.

I can't tell if it's running faster because Spectr is so fast to begin with. I'm running off a USB stick though at the moment. If it goes well I'll put it on the hard drive.

I'm going to try the Ardour install now and see if it will run. It's very graphics heavy, so we'll see.

[geo_c]

All right, Ardour seems to run top speed. Opened a few projects with it. There might be a few a quirks in the dialog windows, as is sometimes the case with Spectrwm in that you don't always see all the buttons, which can sometimes be remedied by floating the window and resizing.

I'll have to install some plugins and play with it more, but it does run and interact with pulse just fine, Audio sounds clean, and runs fast off USB.

Very promising.

continued... And so plugins all loaded and the system run greats, extremely low latency. Even without measuring I can still tell how much latency is in the system simply by hitting the play button in Ardour on full scale project. In KLV-Airdale-sr2 standard, there was a good second and a half or two of buffering before the audio would transport would even start.

In KLV-Airedale-RT40 and KLV-Spectrwm-rt13c the transport takes off instantly. VERY NICE!

I'm still not sure about buttons on pop-up dialogs, I don't seem to get the OK/Close button, but that's not particular to Ardour. That's remedied by the meta+x keystroke.

[geo_c]

@rockedge , just to follow up, this realtime kernel is running Ardour like a dream, better than jackalpup, literally instantaneous response from the program no matter how many audio tracks and plugins I load it with.

And while doing all that it never breaks over 900MB of ram or 10-15% cpu usage. I think the graphics overhead is so low, combined with the realtime scheduling that it's kind of an ideal set up for audio, might be great for video editing too.

Also the pop-up windows for the plugins are easy to navigate, as they just become like any other floated window (similar to using meta+t) and they can be iconified with meta+w.

I think I'll look into what the Void repo has in the video department.

Oh and I should mention that I did copy it to the hard drive of my Dell Precision. Running like a top so far!

[geo_c]

So something popped up recently in KLV-Airedale and now KLV-Spectr, which I'm inclined to attribute to a recent Void update. But I'm not certain, could be something I did.

The issue is that when I copy upper_changes from one machine to another, using the cp -arv command as I usually do, suddenly the /mnt/home symlink is not working any more, because it's pointing to the previous drive in which it was installed. So in other words, if I copy upper_changes from sdb1 to an install on sda1, The /mnt/home link is still pointing to sdb1.

I simply delete it and create a new one to the drive where the install resides. Seems to work fine, but I don't ever remember it being that way in the past, which is why I wonder about an update.

[rockedge]

@geo_c Yes it seems that the /mnt/home symlink is created now and we'll have to study it a bit to see where it is set.

On occasion I've also just deleted the /mnt/home if it doesn't symlink the correctly mounted partition that is the root partition. The symlink will be recreated to reflect the current target.

Maybe a clean up routine at system shutdown or reboot that simply deletes it. Although I do use the /mnt/home symlink as a bookmark sometimes.

[geo_c]

This KLV-spectrwm-RT is definitely my new audio system.

[geo_c]

The Spectrwm with RT kernel is really amazing. I've run some big audio projects in Ardour with lots of very resource intensive plugins, lots of real time graphics in addition to the audio processing, and the processors never go above 20%, while the RAM usuage hangs around 800MB-1GB.

That's crazy low resource.

But now that KLV-Spectr is running real time, presumably with the processors scaled to performance, I'm trying to figure out how get a temperature reading from the sensors.

The sensors command is not found by the terminal even though there is libsensor.so in /lib.

I considered installing lm_sensor, but it looks a little risky, given that it loads modules.

I'm probably missing something easy. But I think in the past I tried to get conky that's running in the status bar to display temp, and it doesn't work either.

[rockedge]

@geo_c I'll focus on getting the CPU temp sensor data to work. I only roughly went over it and have not tested it out, so no idea yet what works and why.......

[geo_c]

@geo_c I'll focus on getting the CPU temp sensor data to work. I only roughly went over it and have not tested it out, so no idea yet what works and why.......

I've been setting up KLV-spectr. I'm now setting up preconfigured workspaces, and it's phenomenal. The entire system is really squeaky clean and fast.

For instance, when I'm running Ardour multi-tracking on KLV-airedale, Xfce seems to have issues with the graphical plugin-in windows. Things get stuck, they hang, windows display at odd sizes and the plugin-gui doesn't always fill the entire window, they won't always resize, audio pops when fiddling around with it, etc.

But in Spectr-RT, none of that happens. The plugin-guis come out in perfectly sized and instantly responsive fashion. The controls move on demand, and it's just all around a joy to use.

Thing is I haven't even set the governor or clock speeds with cpupower on Spectr yet. I just haven't had the need.

EDIT: and now I set the governor to performance. I have never seen LibreWolf open up so fast.

[rockedge]

I think KLV-Spectr is the OS for exactly what you are working on. I have been using ChituBox-Pro to make the model files for a 3D printer on it. Like any CAD/CAM it's resource hungry and though the machine is not directly controlling the printer the real time kernel makes it fast and smooth like no other OS I've tried on using ChituBox-Pro.

We'll keep refining KLV-Spectr and perhaps the CPU performance manager should be included in the base rootfs.

I think this OS could be shared with the musicians and sound engineers working from home studios.Still might be a bit advanced in respect too KLV-Spectr's installation, so maybe a set of instructions that are usable and or a install script. Not sure really.

@geo_c can you post some of the workspace configurations or a look at the entire spectrwm.conf?

[geo_c]

Here's my /root/.spectrwm.conf

I'm using conky-cli in the status bar, and I have 5 workspaces configured so that the master is small and the stack is large.

You see I have some autorun= lines commented out. I can get rox to open with autorun, but not on workspace 2 & 3, I keep getting 2 rox instances on workspace 1.

Code: Select all

#
# spectrwm Example Configuration File
#
# PLEASE READ THE MAN PAGE BEFORE EDITING THIS FILE!
# https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/blob/master/spectrwm.html
#
# All example settings in this file are commented out with a '#'.
# See the spectrwm(1) man page for default values.
#
# NOTE: rgb color values are in hexadecimal! See XQueryColor(3) for details.

#workspace_limit	= 22
#focus_mode		= default
#focus_close		= previous
#focus_close_wrap	= 1
#focus_default		= last
#spawn_position		= next
#workspace_clamp	= 1
#warp_focus		= 1
#warp_pointer		= 1

# Include mapped workspaces when switching with any of the ws next/prev actions.
#cycle_visible		= 1

# Window Decoration
#border_width		= 1
color_focus		= rgb:dc/a5/42
color_focus_maximized	= rgb:dc/a5/42
#color_unfocus		= rgb:88/88/88
#color_unfocus_maximized	= rgb:88/88/00
#region_padding		= 0
#tile_gap		= 0

# Region containment
# Distance window must be dragged/resized beyond the region edge before it is
# allowed outside the region.
#boundary_width 		= 50

# Remove window border when bar is disabled and there is only one window in workspace
#disable_border		= 1

# Bar Settings
#bar_enabled		= 1
#bar_enabled_ws[1]	= 1
#bar_border_width	= 1
bar_border[1]		= black
#bar_border_unfocus[1]	= rgb:00/40/40
#bar_color[1]		= black
bar_color_selected[1]	= rgb:60/a3/60
bar_font_color[1]	= rgb:dc/a5/42
#bar_font_color_selected	= black
bar_font		= xos4 Terminus:pixelsize=18:antialias=true
#bar_font_pua		= Typicons:pixelsize=14:antialias=true
#bar_action		= baraction.sh
bar_action      = /root/conky-nox11-spectrbar
#bar_action		= conky
#bar_action_expand	= 0
#bar_justify		= left
#bar_format		= +N:+I +S <+D>+4<%a %b %d %R %Z %Y+8<+A+4<+V
workspace_indicator	= listcurrent,listactive,markcurrent,printnames
#workspace_mark_current	= '*'
#workspace_mark_active	= '^'
#workspace_mark_empty	= '-'
#workspace_mark_urgent	= '!'
#bar_at_bottom		= 1
#stack_enabled		= 1
#stack_mark_horizontal	= '[-]'
#stack_mark_horizontal_flip	= '[v]'
#stack_mark_vertical	= '[|]'
#stack_mark_vertical_flip	= '[>]'
#stack_mark_max		= '[ ]'
#clock_enabled		= 1
clock_format		= %r %a %b %d 
#iconic_enabled		= 0
#maximize_hide_bar	= 0
#window_class_enabled	= 0
#window_instance_enabled	= 0
#window_name_enabled	= 0
#verbose_layout		= 1
#urgent_enabled		= 1
#urgent_collapse	= 0

# Dialog box size ratio when using TRANSSZ quirk; 0.3 < dialog_ratio <= 1.0
#dialog_ratio		= 0.6

# Split a non-RandR dual head setup into one region per monitor
# (non-standard driver-based multihead is not seen by spectrwm)
#region			= screen[1]:1024x768+0+0
#region			= screen[1]:1280x1024+0+0
#region			= screen[1]:1280x1024+1280+0

# Launch applications in a workspace of choice
##autorun		= ws[2]:/root/app-launch/rox
##quirk[/root/app-launch/rox:ws2] = WS[2]
##autorun		= ws[3]:/root/app-launch/rox -name ws3


# Customize workspace layout at start
layout			= ws[1]:-13:0:0:0:horizontal
layout			= ws[2]:-13:0:0:0:horizontal
layout			= ws[3]:-14:0:0:0:vertical
layout			= ws[4]:-14:0:0:0:vertical
layout			= ws[5]:-14:0:0:0:vertical

# Set workspace name at start
name			= ws[1]:Home
name			= ws[2]:Pane
name			= ws[3]:wrk1
name			= ws[4]:wrk2
name			= ws[5]:wrk3

# Change the modifier to use when specifying 'MOD' in bindings.
# This should come before configuring bindings, not after.
# (Mod1: Alt key, Mod4: Windows key, Mod2: Apple key on OSX)
#modkey = Mod4

# This allows you to include pre-defined key bindings for your keyboard layout.
# All key bindings are cleared before loading bindings in the specified file.
#keyboard_mapping	= ~/.spectrwm_us.conf

# PROGRAMS

# Validated default programs:
#program[lock]		= xlock
#program[term]		= xterm
#program[menu]		= dmenu_run $dmenu_bottom -fn $bar_font -nb $bar_color -nf $bar_font_color -sb $bar_color_selected -sf $bar_font_color_selected
#program[search]	= dmenu $dmenu_bottom -i -fn $bar_font -nb $bar_color -nf $bar_font_color -sb $bar_color_selected -sf $bar_font_color_selected
#program[name_workspace]	= dmenu $dmenu_bottom -p Workspace -fn $bar_font -nb $bar_color -nf $bar_font_color -sb $bar_color_selected -sf $bar_font_color_selected

# To disable validation of the above, free the respective binding(s):
#bind[]			= MOD+Shift+Delete	# disable lock
#bind[]			= MOD+Shift+Return	# disable term
#bind[]			= MOD+p			# disable menu

# Optional default programs that will only be validated if you override:
#program[screenshot_all]	= screenshot.sh full	# optional
#program[screenshot_wind]	= screenshot.sh window	# optional
#program[initscr]	= initscreen.sh			# optional

# EXAMPLE: Define 'firefox' action and bind to key.
#program[firefox]	= firefox http://spectrwm.org/
#bind[firefox]		= MOD+Shift+b

# QUIRKS
# Default quirks, remove with: quirk[class:name] = NONE
#quirk[MPlayer:xv]			= FLOAT + FULLSCREEN + FOCUSPREV
#quirk[OpenOffice.org 2.4:VCLSalFrame]	= FLOAT
#quirk[OpenOffice.org 3.0:VCLSalFrame]	= FLOAT
#quirk[OpenOffice.org 3.1:VCLSalFrame]	= FLOAT
quirk[Firefox-bin:firefox-bin]		= TRANSSZ
quirk[Firefox:Dialog]			= FLOAT
#quirk[Gimp:gimp]			= FLOAT + ANYWHERE
#quirk[XTerm:xterm]			= XTERM_FONTADJ
#quirk[xine:Xine Window]			= FLOAT + ANYWHERE
#quirk[Xitk:Xitk Combo]			= FLOAT + ANYWHERE
#quirk[xine:xine Panel]			= FLOAT + ANYWHERE
#quirk[Xitk:Xine Window]			= FLOAT + ANYWHERE
#quirk[xine:xine Video Fullscreen Window]	= FULLSCREEN + FLOAT
#quirk[pcb:pcb]				= FLOAT

And basically what I'm doing is using a Rox window as the master on w2,w3,w4,w5 open to a directory full of launcher scripts, and that gets open 1st on the workspace and is a kind of a panel strip, while the other applications stack horizontally on w2, and vertically on w3,w4,w5. It makes for really efficient placement.

My bar action = conky is pointing to a script that launches conky and points to the conky config in /etc/conky

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
####this script is located as /root/conky-nox11-spectrbar#######

conky -c /etc/conky/conky_no_x11-spectrbar.conf

[geo_c]

Here's my conky config for the status bar

Code: Select all

-- Conky, a system monitor https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky
--
-- This configuration file is Lua code. You can write code in here, and it will
-- execute when Conky loads. You can use it to generate your own advanced
-- configurations.
--
-- Try this (remove the `--`):
--
--   print("Loading Conky config")
--
-- For more on Lua, see:
-- https://www.lua.org/pil/contents.html

conky.config = {
	background = false,
	cpu_avg_samples = 2,
	net_avg_samples = 2,
	no_buffers = true,
	out_to_stderr = false,
	update_interval = 2.0,
	uppercase = false,
	use_spacer = 'none',
};

conky.text = 
[[
(cpu:$cpu%=${freq}MHz)  (mem:$memperc%=$mem)  (disk=${fs_used}/${fs_size /})  (wlan0=${addr wlan0}::${downspeed wlan0}><${upspeed wlan0})  (eth0=${addr eth0}::${downspeed eth0}><${upspeed wlan0})
]]

[geo_c]

So if I could just get this app-launch directory to open in Rox on workspace 2,3,4,5 on startup, this would be the kickinest desktop ever. Basically it works pretty well as it is, but I have to meta+p to open rox first on every workspace to achieve my goal.

It goes like this:

1st my workspace1 comes up looking like this...pinboard is the master window

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Then I open something on workspace1 in the stack, it opens automatically sized not to cover the pinboard launchers...

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Then when I open up a second application in the stack, like epdfview, they're split horizontally...
greenshot
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Workspace2 has no pinboard, so I open a launcher directory in rox, horizontally as the master...

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Opening an app like ristretto in the w2 stack automatically fills the space without covering the launchers...
screen capture freeware
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Opening a second app in the w2 stack automatically splits the screen horizontally below the launchers...

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On w3,4,&5, following the same procedure puts the master rox launcher directory on the left and splits the applications in the stack vertically...

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So all this is confgured in the /root/.spectrwm.conf, with a few simple lines here and there. All I need to do is get those autorun configurations to work, and then I can simply open applications on various workspaces that fit the task.

Of course the horizontal, vertical, floated and fullscreen (not shown here) views are all accessible by toggling through them using meta+space_bar.

[geo_c]

@rockedge, I uploaded another set of shots to get rid of my ipaddress...woops, these are cooler anyway...it's super fast to take screenshots on this desktop, meta+s

[geo_c]

I've got mention that with Rofi installed and always available in my launcher windows, it's extremely easy to bounce around between workspaces, click Rofi, click desired application, instantly see it. Rofi also has a good choice of themes built in. I'd screen-shot it, but it closes as soon as any keystrokes for the window manager are utilized.

[rockedge]

I am experimenting with xLunch in the latest KLV-Spectr_rootfs SFS created with the latest update/upgrade's.

I have uploaded an updated/upgraded KLV-Spectr-RT.iso with the link in the first post.

For those running current systems that have been already updated it's not really needed to swap the rootfs SFS in their current version.
@geo_c uses the "pseudo full install" technique which will also produce a rootfs SFS.

Added the cpupower package in to the rootfs to manage CPU frequency tuning.

[geo_c]

I have this OS finely tuned and squashed into a read-only system. I've got a nice gruvbox theme going on, installed gpick to grab colors quickly, tweaked ~/.Xresources, and ~/.spectrw.conf

Nothing missing, a very complete and fast working system, notice in htop where the ram sits with all these applications open.

ws1

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ws2

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ws3

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ws4

[rockedge]

Trying out some builds of KLV-Spectr-RT as test platforms. Experimenting with jgmenu added in. Down side is there are a few python and other dependencies adding some weight so I am not building it into the rootfs at this time. Interesting using it but I am using it crudely but jgmenu could be probably configured in Spectrwm to bind to a shortcut key combination and launched that way.

Screenshot(68).jpg (56.68 KiB) Viewed 6827 times

[geo_c]

jgmenu could be probably configured in Spectrwm to bind to a shortcut key combination and launched that way.

Speaking of shortcut keys, what I did was configure .spectrwm.conf with a couple shortcut key combinations that open rox and xfe, and from rox I am able to launch about everything on the system. I have my own launch scripts and directories with desktop files copied to them.

I suppose a menu would be nice, but to me not at the expense of the low resource approach. And the dmenu is also more than adequate enough to launch most programs. At this point this is the fastest application launcher, desktop organizer of all of them.

For instance if I use lilypond, I first open a terminal using meta+p (dmenu) and then epdfview, then geany. Because the spectrwm.conf contains lines configuring the workspace, the terminal opens very small at the top automatically, then epdfview and geany split the stack horizontally.

It works as well as Frescobaldi for editing and viewing the output of lilypond code, and no window sizing is necessary. It's all done simply with a few keystrokes opening the applications.

It's even more automatic than using Frescobaldi to edit and view lilypond output, which actually requires window sizing and zooming. Spectrwm uses the desktop space the most efficiently of all OS's so far.

Bspwm looks interesting, and I will have to give it a try soon.

[rockedge]

Uploaded an updated/upgraded KLV-Spectr-RT using the 6.1.38-rt13 kernel. Also available is a full real time kernel 6.1.46-rt14 that can be dropped into this system.

[geo_c]

Uploaded an updated/upgraded KLV-Spectr-RT using the 6.1.38-rt13 kernel. Also available is a full real time kernel 6.1.46-rt14 that can be dropped into this system.

Since I'm running a resquashed PFI install of KLV-Spectr-RT with a 6.3.8-rt13 already, I'm curious as to what you added. I'm not looking to rebuild Spectr again unless you've added something I can't pass up.

There is an issue with KLV-Spectr that I don't know if I ever reported before, that being that I have to restart pulseaudio from time to time. I even made a launch script to make it easier. I can always tell it needs to be run when I launch pavucontrol and it spins at the connecting to pulseaudio message. I simply launch pulseaudio again and it all works right away.

Truth is I'm all about KLV-Bspwm-CE at the moment. It's superb. No pulse audio issue there. It's a really great setup the way dmenu, polybar, and bspwm are all integrated. Lots of nice pup tools in there too. Mounting drives from PCmanFM/gtk-fileopen, Display Control, Octoxbps, Customize Look and feel, all nice tools.

EDIT:
Posting from my PFI remastered Spectr now, and it's a great OS. I'll always have it installed, similar to F96, a go-to OS for doing the things it does best. I'll boot the new iso soon and see how it runs.

[rockedge]

@geo_c Nothing added yet to make much difference. Mostly testing out different integrations. KLV-Spectr is still pretty basic and probably will not get much more development other than testing some ideas. The KLV-Bspwm distro is quite good and more complete as far as the desktop set up goes so this distro will remain interesting for a really fast lighter weight OS.

This will be the last updated finished ISO of this project. The PLUG will be refined a bit more over time and then KLV-Spectr will be offered as a PLUG file option for the Firstrib build script

Overall this distro opened up some ideas coming together and is a good proof-of-concept and presenting KLV with a tiling type window manager.

the KLV-Spectr-RT project is now in hibernation

[geo_c]

Overall this distro opened up some ideas coming together and is a good proof-of-concept and presenting KLV with a tiling type window manager.

the KLV-Spectr-RT project is now in hibernation

Aww, well like I said above, KLV-Spectr will always have a place in my setup.

If you ever want to try another tiling window manager, I've heard good things about awesome:
https://mipmip.github.io/awesomewm-scre ... gallery-12

[geo_c]

I've been upgrading the look of my Spectr. Added BeautySolar icons, ported @Sofiya's ctlos-qogir-dark gtk3 theme, installed pcmanfm, and changed the fonts and colors in spectrwm.conf. Looks a lot better now.

Bspwm is fast, but I think this window manager is faster. Just my impression. I'm still running Spectr with system files compressed xz, and Bspwm files are compressed zstd, and still this feels more respoonsive to me.

Maybe the only annoying thing about Spectr is the icon size, which is unusually large. Haven't been able to figure that out yet. Of course in Thunar and pcmanfm I have the view set to large icons, so they are capable of displaying at 16px, but not shown in these pics.

One more thing I'd like to get figured out about both of these tiling wiindow managers is how to use multiple displays. It looks like in Spectr you have defined workspaces with the display resolutions.

[rockedge]

@geo_c The desktop looks really good! I believe that Spectrwm is one of the fastest and responsive tiling window managers available and has the the most straightforward text based configuration file that is easy to work with. The overall size of KLV-Spectr is kept small and less background processes run which means more CPU for programs being worked with at least in theory

Maybe the only annoying thing about Spectr is the icon size, which is unusually large.

Totally noticed this also around beta2 that suddenly the icon sizes in the rox-filer were so big, double the size they were in the alpha's
Definitely should.........have somewhere some setting to adjust the icon sizes.

One more thing I'd like to get figured out about both of these tiling window managers is how to use multiple displays.

Also looking to get multi-monitor setup going. Easy in KLV-Airedale but not yet so in either KLV-Spectr or KLV-Bspwm. Researching how to best acheive it and control a multi-monitor capability.

[geo_c]

Maybe the only annoying thing about Spectr is the icon size, which is unusually large.

Totally noticed this also around beta2 that suddenly the icon sizes in the rox-filer were so big, double the size they were in the alpha's
Definitely should.........have somewhere some setting to adjust the icon sizes.

One more thing I'd like to get figured out about both of these tiling window managers is how to use multiple displays.

Also looking to get multi-monitor setup going. Easy in KLV-Airedale but not yet so in either KLV-Spectr or KLV-Bspwm. Researching how to best acheive it and control a multi-monitor capability.

Well, I uninstalled my old Unichrome icons from Rox and set it to the Beauty Solar, and then set some icons manually for some of my scripts, looks really nice now. As far as Rox goes, the icons are adjustable as three sizes can be seen below, but the icons on the desktop panel seen above the Rox windows are a bit big. That I haven't found an adjustment for.

[geo_c]

Well now, that's interesting. I logged out and logged back in, then Rox scaled some of the pinboard icons smaller. Resetting the icons using Rox didn't change them back either.

EDIT: reuploaded the image showing that it's not just the pinboard, it's Rox across the board in the windows too.

I know this distro is hibernation, so I'm not asking for any investigation, just documenting my findings.