KLA-OT2base-1.0 released (717MiB). Arch Linux pacman full multi-user compatible.

[wiak]

So following Sofiya's comments, I'll probably include gpdf in next release.

I'm also checking out some small webkit-based browsers (but has to be better than not so great Dillo...!) that, after some encouragement, are even working with youtube for me (and most every page I myself tend to visit including this forum, BBC news, Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, and so on; I forgot to check Mega NZ...EDIT: Mega worked too. Then again, I still think people are better really to add their own preferred browser, but occasionally it is nice to have at least something that works out of the box (especially since cherrytree so great for cut and paste into from browser) until then if I can get one into the iso without more than say 30 to 50MB extra iso-size bloat (without youtube working that is possible, with youtube, maybe just about)?

Problem is whether the browser will be stable or keep crashing... Thus far so good so maybe good enough as smallish inclusion or in small basePLUS release.

EDIT: browser proving stable thus far - in relative terms a small addition and saves needing portable or bigger browser until wanted. I'll definitely make a basePLUS iso with it to see what final size is compared to current 694MiB without browser. RAM used by browser is hard to say - none can do well in that respect with complex web pages. Will need someone with a low-resourced machine (with say 2GB RAM or similar and Core2Duo or weaker processor) to try it later. Works fine on my Intel i7 laptop of course!

[wiak]

Sorry, was slowed down, albeit slightly, by some of the usual background disruptions whenever I am trying to get new KL work ready for contribution, but nothing relevant or difficult to handle.

KLA-OT2base-rc5 (702MiB iso without Internet browser) and

KLA-OT2basePLUS-rc5 (714MiB iso with small but effective 'eolie' Internet browser; give it a try, you might be surprised

NOTE: I was really only including a browser in basePLUS 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 Tabs, show on left side of window.

Arch Linux compatible with pacman and trizen (AUR helper).

So base version only 8MiB larger than previous release.

All isos currently in state of scheduled transfer to new permanent FirstRib cloud storage site.

DOWNLOAD links for the two latest iso versions currently unavailable

Aside from the Internet browser, base version and basePLUS are identical... It was hardly really going to the trouble of making two alternative isos in the end since so little iso size difference. Tried many small browser candidates, and most were either poor in terms of capability or user-friendliness, or simply added a lot of bloat. Don't expect perfection from the included wee browser though, but it certainly impressed me.

Note that in Arch Linux at least, yad (gtk3) package appears to depend on webkit2gtk, which is why the eoline browser was such a small extra addon (since base contains yad). Not sure if yad has such big dependency in other distro packaging, but I think it doesn't. It is possible Arch packages could be split such that base version a bit smaller even with yad (without webkit2gtk), but I don't see the point; it's fine. EDIT: Void Linux yad: makedepends="gtk+3-devel webkit2gtk-devel gtksourceview-devel gspell-devel"

Whilst these wee distros contain a great deal of out-of-the-box functionality, they are both 'base' versions so intended for you to add your own apps and enhancements!
They purposively include the build plugins to show you simply, and exactly, how they are constructed via simple script code as an aid help you further improve them for your own or community purposes.

Note my comment re: bbc video issues (youtube is fine); these can almost certainly be addressed via further gstreamer-related addons/codec (bbc advert videos work fine though ), but such extras not intended for base releases.

The update to the KLA-XFCE and KLU-XFCE versions will come later and with similar enhancements.

Have to agree with this. All these different developments must be a total nightmare for a new user who has come to a Puppy Linux site just to download the latest Puppy. I am getting lost with all the goings on myself. I find it strange that we do not have a main, traditional, polished, well-tested and recommended 64-bit Jammy Puppy for example at this point in time. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for development but....

This guy, who suddenly chose to invade the KLU-jam thread with above off-topic moan-post, soon after its announcement in KL area, has apparently/hopefully (though not without further moaning) gone off for his beers that Grey offered him now. According to them, the arrival of KLU-jam made them 'despondent'. Free as in beer is clearly (surprisingly maybe) not always appreciated for some very odd gang-club oriented reason or another. At least if I was in some branch of the mafia, turf wars related to huge profits being involved would make some sense to me. But in hobby open-source development????! Unbelievably daft. I'm not sure how old or young these guys are, but for goodness sakes what a lot of sad insecure drivel going on these days and about nothing of any import. Em, but sorry to the depondents - new versions of KLU-jam coming soon too...

[Clarity]

Tested OT2 vRC5

I have a test HOST PC that has 2 USB sticks attached; namely

1. 'sdg' for my Ventoy USB

2. 'sdh' for my SG2D USB stick

I also have a master Bootisos folder on the HOST's system drive where I keep all Forum distros I test.'
I've just completed the following VM boots, desktop events, and shutdown without session savgin that are successful without any VM use issues.

The 2 stanza's I have completed tests are

1. qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -vga std -m 2G -smp 2 -device AC97 -name "SG2D via QEMU" -hda /dev/sdh

2. qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -vga std -m 2G -smp 2 -device AC97 -name "OT2 vRC5 ISO file via QEMU" -cdrom KLA-OT2base-rc5.iso

BEware: Use of the 'cirrus' vga parm causes a never-ending boot-loop, thus the 'std' works; most importantly is that screen dynamics are without any latency for this distro with 'std'.

Bare metal test forthcoming as soon as the test PC for it is available.

[wiak]

Thanks Clarity.

KLA-OT2basePLUS-rc5.iso New download link back again, I lost the mega link by accident last night when clearing out old versions so re-uploaded this rc5 to mega when my attempt to post to new storage alas failed (will sort out later), but I had been working on the iso contents in between times so not sure if I have made this build correctly. I think it is okay, but haven't had time to even boot it so please let me know if any issues. If you already have it the first rc5 I uploaded was better tested, so just use it. I'll post md5sum soon.

Basically, I was under a lot of irrelevant pressure last night as I was trying to move the isos to new storage location, lost needed concentration, and messed up the procedure. C'est la vie. Slik er livet.

EDIT: assuming I checked the correct iso (too late at night here for me to download from mega link) the md5sum check said:
3f4b70626eb4d73a5f2864251428a089 KLA-OT2basePLUS-rc5.iso
Let me know if download matches. If not I'll have to re-download and test tomorrow to confirm.

The other KLA and KLU isos were near completion when my re-organization went astray so just keep using previous releases if you have them. I still have assembly work to do for the next releases, so will take a while, sorry to those interested.

[one]

Hi @wiak,

I downloaded your KLA-OT2basePLUS-rc5 and the md5sum matches ...

Thank you very much for your work ...

PS: Keep your chin up and do not give up, please.

peace

[Clarity]

I have the old version. I will retest later today.

[geo_c]

I have the old version. I will retest later today.

Well, I think I'm gonna have to jump on this Open Box/Tint2 thing. I didn't want to learn another desktop/window mangager, but it looks to cool to pass up.

[Clarity]

Using the same stanzas mentioned before, getting the successful same results. MD5 checksum match the new version OT2+

Have not tested bare-metal, but expect the same as seen in stanza #1, above.

[wiak]

Had a small break cos of family get-together. Back now to completing next KLA-XFCE release. One non-bloat target for additional functionality are the many very small commandline utilities out there. Actually, quite a number of commandline-based programs are quite large so would swell the base release, which I don't want, but there are lots of useful ones which are tiny in size so these are my targets for inclusion. Fact is, however, many commandline utilities are rarely used for the simple reason the user has no idea they are even included on their system or of what their purpose is. Nevertheless, I believe that one of the attractions of this forum is that it encourages learning about Linux through simple development projects that result in often amazingly useful GUI frontends to such underlying utilities that can take the place of much larger fully blown applications. i.e. via the likes of yad and gtkdialog in sometimes (but not necessarily) very simple scripts. Anyway, building little frontends give me at least something to do as a further forum-related hobby pursuit...!

Once I've completed the next KLA-XFCE release, I plan to quickly also make and release a new KLA-OT2base Community Edition release to include Sofiya's sfs addon since whatever new utilities I include in KLA-XFCE I'll also include in KLA-OT2baseCE, so will all be released with new rc6 designation. Since Sofiya has usefully provided the work in numbered sfs addon form, normal frugal install users will be able to remove that if they just want to start from base, but I expect most will want to keep it. The overall idea is for that addon sfs can be expanded for future CE releases (or replaced with alternative variants) whilst still keeping a core 'base' rootfilesystem inside the iso.

Thereafter a lot of this work will be inherited and used when I publish next KLU-jam, the quite tiny Ubuntu XFCE FirstRib-based variant. That will likely also be released quite soon.

[wiak]

Having just releases new KLA-XFCEbase including important latest FR initrd.gz (ver 7.0.1rc1) I'm not working on new KLA-OT2base (dropped the PLUS from the name and will use new rc version number). Thereafter, it would be good if @Sofiya, once this latest KLA-OTAbase is published, could produce same versioned (rcX) KLA-OT2baseCE.iso. Just wait a bit please till the base version is ready though. It is important to make this update since a potentially dangerous issue was discovered by geo_c relating to the FR initrd, which the new initrd.gz fixes. The issue was not regarding any functionality of the initrd.gz, but rather the Desktop icon that allowed underlying boot partition to be unmounted - not good to allow that in practice since needed present for save on demand to work per its design.

[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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KLA-OT2base-1.0
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 10Mar2023 rolling release update.
Has over forty (!) new commandline-based utility apps (a few with very simple yad frontends).

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.

717 MiB download size
Download from sourceforge here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kla-ot2base/
md5sum: 0ccb3389c4d4d3592f8ec84f0efc8f67-OT2base-1.0.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-OT2base-1.0.iso in there and boot your Ventoy usb stick to use KLA-OT2base.
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-OT2base-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-OT2base
b. mount the iso somewhere and copy all of its contents out and into that KLA-OT2base 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 addional space to that of any iso-internal version.

[Clarity]

Booted and running without issues in a VM

Code: Select all

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -vga std -m 2G -smp 2 -device AC97 -name "OT2 v1.0 via QEMU"  -cdrom KLA-OT2base-1.0.iso 

[josejp2424]

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: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 395#p79395
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KLA-OT2base-1.0
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 10Mar2023 rolling release update.
Has over forty (!) new commandline-based utility apps (a few with very simple yad frontends).

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.

717 MiB download size
Download from sourceforge here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kla-ot2base/
md5sum: 0ccb3389c4d4d3592f8ec84f0efc8f67-OT2base-1.0.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-OT2base-1.0.iso in there and boot your Ventoy usb stick to use KLA-OT2base.
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-OT2base-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-OT2base
b. mount the iso somewhere and copy all of its contents out and into that KLA-OT2base 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:
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 242#p82242
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 863#p75863

trizen (for AUR) and pacman info:
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 188#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 addional space to that of any iso-internal version.

very nice system.
I just want to congratulate them.
I tested this iso, also the one provided by @Sofiya.
and I loved it

[rockedge]

Assemblies are not built KLA-XFCEbase and KLA-OT2base

Fix discussed here -> viewtopic.php?p=114670&sid=b4cd3daadee5 ... f9#p114670