F96-CE_1 with 6.0.12-FP Kernel Stable Release

[thinkpadfreak]

Hello.

The following are some of my observations.

1. The volume of sound is not saved. /etc/asound.state is not updated when the OS shuts down. It does not seem that the setting of alsa is restored when the OS boots.

2. The hwclock seems to be set to utc even though I unchecked the item in quick setup.

3. The mouse pointer freezes after the OS wakes up from "sleep" (the suspend state). This issue may be hardware-dependent.

Does anyone experience the first two issues?

[fr-ke]

@thinkpadfreak

I can confirm 1. and 2.

Checking or unchecking the item in Quick setup doesn't seem to change anything.

@thinkpadfreak

EDIT: To be exact:
This only applies if the time zone is not changed!
If I by default set "GMT+8 (Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong)" change to "Australia/Perth ." .
then the time changes to local time.
In my case minus 8 hours

[wizard]

@thinkpadfreak

1. The volume of sound is not saved.

Cannot confirm, the volume setting on my computer is saved between boots.

Thanks
wizard

[thinkpadfreak]

To be exact:
This only applies if the time zone is not changed!
If I by default set "GMT+8 (Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong)" change to "Australia/Perth ." .
then the time changes to local time.
In my case minus 8 hours

Thank you for the reply.

I set "Asia/Tokyo," and "utc" is unchecked. But I have had to adjust the clock every time I reboot into another puppy.

So I added the following command to /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown:

Code: Select all

hwclock --systohc --localtime

1. The volume of sound is not saved.

Cannot confirm, the volume setting on my computer is saved between boots.

Thank you for the reply.

Did you change the volume from the default value?
/etc/asound.state was updated only when I executed the following command:

Code: Select all

alsactl -f /etc/asound.state store

And the setting was restored only when I executed the following command after booting:

Code: Select all

alsactl -f /etc/asound.state restore

[wizard]

@thinkpadfreak

Did you change the volume from the default value?

Yes, using the volume control in the JWM tray.

wizard

[radky]

Hello.

1. The volume of sound is not saved. /etc/asound.state is not updated when the OS shuts down. It does not seem that the setting of alsa is restored when the OS boots.
---

@thinkpadfreak

Pulseaudio is relatively new for Puppy Linux and the setup options are primarily by command line (no GUI).

To set your audio output device and hopefully retain those settings after rebooting, you could try the following:

1 - To test the following, first disable any ALSA control scripts you may have created.
2 - Right-click the tray volume control applet and select Preferences -> Output Devices
3 - Select your preferred audio output device and click the 'Set as fallback' icon to set this as your default (and preferred) output device
4 - Enter the following in a terminal:

Code: Select all

pactl info | grep -i 'default sink'

For my system, this returns the following:

Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

5 - To save your preferred (default) audio output device, add the 'sink name' directive to /root/.config/pulse/default.pa. This file does not exist in F96, so you must create it and add the appropriate 'include' call to the system-wide pulseaudio config file: /etc/pulse/default.pa (note the period symbol preceding the 'include' statement in the example below).

6 - To save your preferred audio volume for the selected output device (for example, 70% of maximum), you could add the 'sink volume' directive to /root/.config/pulse/default.pa.

For my system, /root/.config/pulse/default.pa would be something like this:

Code: Select all

.include /etc/pulse/default.pa
pactl set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
pactl set-sink-volume 0 70%

7 - Reboot

[thinkpadfreak]

Yes, using the volume control in the JWM tray.

Thanks for the reply.
I wonder if this issue is hardware-dependent.

2 - Right-click the tray volume control applet and select Preferences -> Output Devices
3 - Select your preferred audio output device and click the 'Set as fallback' icon to set this as your default (and preferred) output device

Thanks for the explanation.

I am not familiar with pulseaudio, but I did only these on Jammypup64 9.7b / 9.8 by Grey, and I got sound as I preferred.
I use alsactl command on F96-CE as I stated in the previous post, and I think this method is simpler.

[radky]

2. The hwclock seems to be set to utc even though I unchecked the item in quick setup.

@thinkpadfreak

Do you see this issue only in the current iteration of F96-CE, or perhaps also in other recent Pups such as vanilla Dpup or S15Pup?

Concerning quicksetup of F96, the most recent Woof-CE commit of Oct 22, 2022 for quickset has a small change to fix the locale combobox under Wayland, but I see no difference in the implementation of the HWCLOCKTIME and DEFAULT_UTC variables. Maybe @dimkr could help us understand your bug report for F96.

[thinkpadfreak]

Do you see this issue only in the current iteration of F96-CE, or perhaps also in other recent Pups such as vanilla Dpup or S15Pup?

S15Pup64 has no problem as to the hwclock setting.

The last version of Vanilla Dpup I use is 9.2.21, and it has the same issue.

[dimkr]

Maybe @dimkr could help us understand your bug report for F96.

I'll take a look.

[thinkpadfreak]

@radky
@dimkr

I newly created a save file, and repeated booting to see if those issues persist.

Surely the volume of sound is not saved. But I haven't been able to reproduce the issue of the hwclock setting.
When I booted with the former save file and rebooted into another puppy, the clock needed to be adjusted.
So it is conceivable that I may have done something wrong to the former save file, though I don't remember doing anything related to the hwclock setting.

I feel sorry to have made a fuss.

[dimkr]

I looked at quicksetup and I don't really see a problem in this area. The change to UTC or back to localtime seems to work fine. Hope I'm testing the right thing and understand the problem correctly.

@thinkpadfreak Vanilla Dpup 9.2.x has a bug that causes it to change the system clock, if that's one of the Puppies you're using, it can definitely cause this kind of issues.

[thinkpadfreak]

I haven't been able to reproduce the issue of the hwclock setting.

I didn't set up the Internet connection when I tested with the newly created save file. I connected to the Internet, and the issue of hwclock appeared!

Probably there is nothing wrong with quick setup, but I suspect that there might be some other program which acquires the time from the Internet and sets hwclock to utc.

[thinkpadfreak]

I suspect that there might be some other program which acquires the time from the Internet and sets hwclock to utc.

It is connman.

I refered to information on the Internet, and modified /var/lib/connman/settings like this:

Code: Select all

[global]
OfflineMode=false
TimeUpdates=manual
TimezoneUpdates=manual

[WiFi]
Enable=true
Tethering=false

[Wired]
Enable=true
Tethering=false

This prevents the setting of hwclock from being changed automatically.
(Rebooting is necessary.)
Once the clock is adjusted manually, F96-CE doesn't affect other puppies' clock any more.

[gychang]

thanks for the iso. Will tinker around.

[rockedge]

F96-CE_1 is released! See first post for download link.

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.

[bigpup]

Frugal install of F96-CE_1

Using the old save file from the install of F96-CE

So far the old save file seems to be working OK in this newer version.
All the old setup settings got used, (network connection, graphics, QuickSetup stuff, etc.......)
It used the Nvidia driver that was provided by the old save.

Firefox ESR settings has updates set to automatically update.
Usually browsers are setup to check for updates, but ask to actually do the update.

Not sure if this could cause issues before making a save.

[dimkr]

I refered to information on the Internet, and modified /var/lib/connman/settings like this:

Thanks @thinkpadfreak, I'll test https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/woof-CE/pull/3914 and merge it so future builds don't have this problem.

EDIT: @radky and @rockedge, I see connman-puppy is missing in PETBUILDS. If this petbuild is included and patchelf is present on the host used to run woof-CE, connmand is patched so it does not change the hardware clock, creating problems for those who hop between distros. Many users complained about this. As far as I see, the configuration change proposed by @thinkpadfreak is unneeded if connman-puppy is included. In addition, TimeUpdates=manual prevents connmand from adjusting both the software and hardware clocks, while connman-puppy makes connmand adjust the software clock, making time more accurate and preventing validation failures of HTTPS certificates (a good thing) but without touching the hardware clock (so it's a win-win).

[Tahrbaby]

F96-CE_1 is released! See first post for download link.

Thank you @rockedge

[Tahrbaby]

Bluetooth all working now.

Well done!

[Gnimmelf]

Hi there

cannot make my main browser viewtopic.php?p=59662#p59662 Brave work?
it works in imppup viewtopic.php?t=4138

iron viewtopic.php?t=771 works but not google chrome?

why might that be?

kindly Gnimmelf

[rockedge]

I am downloading to test the Brave portable browser. Try to see what is going wrong to fix it.

UPDATE: I downloaded from the mega site and extracted Brave and placed it in /mnt/home
It started right up on the first attempt so I will have to try it out on some other F96-CE_1 systems!

[Marv]

F96-CE_1 booted perfectly in my custom ydrv savefile-less system. All settings preserved, no nits found as yet. I now have pulled firefox from the main SFS and resquashed. So far, great. Multimedia tests later.

My portable Brave, the most recent portable from @mikewalsh , extracted to a 'portables' directory on my external data directory (EXT2) and called from a .desktop in /usr/share/applications works flawlessly. Slimjet and un-googled chromium installed in like manner also. In some pups, launching from a .desktop with terminal=false will block launching if chromium -as is it's custom- wishes to put its debug/error messages in terminal. When that has occurred -not in FP96- a '>/dev/null 2>&1' at the end of the execute line in the launch script has gotten around that. Once, I also had a blocked launch when, if I recall correctly, the permissions of /home/spot were incorrect, not spot:spot. Worth a check if one of the chromium derivs won't launch.

Posting from Slimjet portable in F96-CE_1 now.
Update: This added posting in Brave in F96-CE_1.

Thanks,

[keniv]

F96-CE_1 is released! See first post for download link.

Thanks to all involved in producing this. I've made a manual frugal install on an hdd. Used the save file from F96-CE. Booted up right away. Had already setup both Palemoon and Firefox ESR portables on this savefile so had to change the default browser back to palemoon, however, give the discussion about palemoon, I may go back to Firefox ESR as the default. One reason I am keen on the new F96 xxx is the use of pulse audio. I have an interest in software defined radio (SDR) using a cheap Chinese USB dongle Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187 Wireless Adapter.
There are packages for GQRX, CubicSDR and Spektrum on this forum provided by forum member @Anacleto (not sure if he/she is still about). Spektrum is not an issue as it does not have sound but GQRX and CubicSDR do. GQRX could be got to work with apulse on FossaPup64 9.5 but CubicSDR did not work (no sound). GNURadio, GQRX and Cubic SDR all work perfectly in F96-CE_1. Don't think there are many on here interested in this stuff but I thought I'd give the fact that they were working a mention.
So far everything I've tried works. I will build a new clean save file just to make sure that there are no residues from the old one.

Regards,

Ken.

[mikewalsh]

@Gnimmelf / @rockedge :-

It sounds like a permissions issue to me. The Chrome- and Brave-portables both run as 'spot'; Iron runs as root with '--no-sandbox'.

Even so, they should run without issues, since the 'LAUNCH' script - in both cases - is written to chown ownership of all the relevant bits BEFORE it fires the browser up. So; I'm not entirely certain what's going on here...

Mike.

[Marv]

Multimedia tests:

Deadbeef plays CD well, default CD player: deadbeef /dev/sr0/all.cda.

MPV plays DVD well, default Media player: MPV

Celluloid plays DVD if set as default Media Player but is choppy with high DVD use until the MPV config files in the Celluloid preferences>Config files are set to point to /etc/mpv/mpv.conf and /etc/mpv/encoding-profiles.conf respectively. Then it plays well. Beats me where it stores that information though.

Cheers,

[Keef]

The firewall status insists that it is off, even after running setup. Right clicking and turning on has no effect. Tried removing and re-starting but no change.

[oldaolgeezer]

some comments while trying F96-CE_1:

Thank you radky, rockedge and many others for your hard work on this great iso.

(I frugally installed it alongside my other Puppy's expanded iso's with no save file.)

I noticed three small round circles at the top right corner of ROXfiler windows
(and other windows such as the browser, etc) that were greyish and "blank",

three small circles at the top right corner of windows.png (15.42 KiB) Viewed 1774 times

I'm accustomed to seeing different colors or an "X", "-" and a "square" on/in them.

Do I need to change my theme to distinguish these small circles?

Thanks for any help

[rockedge]

@oldaolgeezer Yes the window buttons can be changed

Menu->Desktop->JWMDesk
then select the "windows" tab and the controls look like below. Use the theme section and select button to pick a button theme.

Screenshot(29).jpg (53.09 KiB) Viewed 1771 times

[oldaolgeezer]

Wow !

What fast response !

I didn't know that they were called "buttons".

Thanks, rockedge !

If you can tolerate an old geezer's babble:
Decades ago, in my early days with Windows XP, I experimented with trying a new system font.

I was shocked when the contents of the three little squares on the top right of WinXP's
windows suddenly looked different !

I found that they each had a different single "character" inside each of the tiny squares. And that the "characters" were
merely a high numbered hex code in my test font alphabet.
I had assumed that what I now know are called "buttons" in Linux were merely three little windows with only
one text character within them (not graphic icons). In WinXP they were three tiny text windows, only one character wide and tall.

Thanks again.