KLV-Airedale-sr15 with the Void Linux Kernel 6.10.10_1

[rockedge]

KLV-Airedale-sr15
Kennel Linux Void Airedale Stable Release 15 948 MiB download size ↓
KLV-Airedale-sr15
SHA1-MD5.txt
Download from SOURCEFORGE

This is Stable Release version 15

• Complete system update/upgrade from upstream Void Linux repos.

• From Puppy Linux added Partview

• Upgraded Grub2config to version 2.0.2_1 from @Sofiya

From sr14 ->

• Upgraded the save2flash mechanism to version 1.9_1

• Complete system update/upgrade from upstream Void Linux repos.

• Cortile upgraded to version 2.5.0

• Thanks to @fredx181 and @wiak for the fine tuning!

From sr13 ->

• Added the Void Linux multilib repository to the xbps configuration

• Complete system update/upgrade from upstream Void Linux repos.

• Added 3 styles available via Settings->Display with the files in /root/.themes

• Updated filemnt and filemnt-thunar for correct syntax with the mount command

From sr12 ->

• Installed using the latest FirstRib skeleton initrd.gz version="7.0.3"; revision="-rc1" Date: 05Apr2024

• Removed xz-5.6.0 and replaced with rollback to safe version xz-5.4.6

• Added a script to launch regeneration of the xLunch menu when selected from the xLunch menu.

• Added Cortile 2.3.3 for a dynamic tiling wm layered on top of XFCE4.

From sr8 ->
Added Grub2config adapted for KLV usage borrowed from Puppy Linux to be able to install a grub2 boot loader on a drive partition easily.
With both Grub4Dos and Grub2config together, setting up a boot-able virtual machine frugal installation can be done in the RAM0 mode.
with a complete system update/upgrade and outfitted with a Void Linux kernel 6.10.10_1 on 22Sep2024
cpupower has been added. Audio is now using pipewire.

The wd_utils are updated to the latest versions supplied by @wiak, and @fredx181 has fixed a bug in the save2flash script.

Has Firefox 127.0.2 built in for a web browser.

Features full SAMBA support and managed by a modified for KLV Samba Simple Management GUI script, borrowed from F96-CE_4.

This version is equipped with 01firmware-6.9.1_1.sfs created with the woof-CE Kernel-Kit during a huge kernel build.

The team fine tuned login/logout with a long term solution utilizing the Void Linux service manager runit to fix a conflict after upgrades to the runit-void package added a service directory agetty-tty1 that conflicts with KLV's custom agetty-autologin-tty1 during logout/login causing difficulty in changing user. Adding a file called : /etc/sv/agetty-tty1/down instructs runit to disable the service which is persistent across reboots.

The initrd.gz and w_init are upgraded to version 7.0.1-rc1 which are constructed from the latest FirstRib skeleton-initrd.

Added the symlink gtk2dialog that targets the binary gtkdialog-8.5 which is compiled against GTK2 which gives access to either gtk2 or gtk3.

@fredx181 has repaired a bug in save2flash and modified swapper.sh to adapt for the /mnt/home device showing directly in Thunar and on the desktop. swapper.sh activates any swap partitions available to KLV-Airedale during system start.

From a suggestion by @wiak added in a modification to w_init that will display icons for /mnt/home partition in Thunar and on the desktop.

New and improved tuning of the /boot directory boot stanza's. improving the reliability of booting in QEMU, Ventoy and S2SG.

Improved and rebuilt initrd.qz including expanded support for SD cards.

Routine system update/upgrade. And wallpapers from @Sofiya are included, replacing some of the stock xfce4 backgrounds.

@wiak has again done more work improving the boot system menus and further improvement to the initrd.gz boot mechanisms :

The iso config file boot/grub/menu.lst is used to boot from cdrom using that internal to ISO provided menu.lst (i.e. he currently uses grub4dos for that purpose).
The ISO config file boot/grub/loopback.cfg is used (per usual) to provide the boot menu for SG2D
The ISO config file boot/grub/grub.cfg is used by Ventoy (but included no Ventoy compatible entries until my alterations below)

I have made some modifications to all of the above (though have left previous entries in place for later experimentation and possible modification or deletion).
In particular I have provided the ability when booting via SG2D or Ventoy of using the FR modes:

a. RAM0 for session changes in RAM only (i.e. no save persistence)
b. RAM2 save on demand mode back to upper_changes folder (or ucimg savefile) in same directory iso is stored (or in subdirectory if symlink manually made to iso).
c. RAM2 save on demand mode back to upper_changes folder in, Clarity suggested, partition with LABEL 'Persistence' and directory 'Sessions'
d. Direct save (not in RAM) back to upper_changes folder (or ucimg savefile) in same directory iso is stored (or in subdirectory if symlink manually made to iso).
e. Direct save (not in RAM) back to upper_changes folder in, Clarity suggested, partition with LABEL 'Persistence' and directory 'Sessions'

No editing of the presented SG2D or Ventoy boot menus will be required to achieve these most useful FR initrd modes. User just needs to put the KLV iso in BOOTISOS (or wherever it is put usually) and boot...

starting of the pulseaudio system for any user that is logged in has been fixed and improved. Thanks wiak, Sofiya and fredx181 for the exact steps.

Upgraded to a new version of @fredx181's save2flash, and set LANG=en_US.UTF-8 in /etc/environment as default localization.

Thanks to @Sofiya for the poorercputemp and Display Control packages that also have been added to desktop.

• Grub2config is now included in the System menu. For setting up a boot-able device using gparted and grub2config.

• Grub4Dos is also in the menu. Making KLV-Airedale also capable of setting up a boot-able device using gparted and grub4dosconfig.

• CUPS starting as a service has been added and is working thanks to @rcrsn51 spotting missing components!

KLV-Airedale-sr15 is just as at home on FAT32, NTFS partitions as it is running from ext2/3/4 formatted partitions.

Also included is wiak's generate a set of boot stanzas script. fredx181's mksplash has a menu entry and the remaster script is installed.

With the addition of a xfce4 desktop tiling configuration. A tip from wiak for configuring Tiling windows done with the Super (Windows) key and an up, down, left, right, home, pgup, pgdown or end key.

gxmessage in the default rootfs.

save2flash has been expanded to handle persistence on FAT32 and NTFS partitions.
The mksplash GUI utility to create splash notification banners.

The latest initrd.gz brings vFat and NTFS formatted partition support to KLV, allowing persistence on NTFS/vFat systems as well as the usual /ext2/ext3/ext4/swap support.

• included htop, Grub2config, Grub4Dos, CUPS

• created a symlink /root/spot with the target /home/spot

• Auto login cleaned up.

• includes also the logout logic provided by fredx181 gives true mulit-user support.

• replaced loop.cfg to the most recent modifications.

• Debian kernel 6.0.0-3-KLV SMP PREEMPT DYNAMIC is used.

• added gtkhash

Plus the other important improvements contributed by the KLV team.

Added @fredx181's save2flash utility that can be used when KLV is started in RAM2 mode to perform session saves on demand for persistence.
This is similar to PUPMODE13 in Puppy Linux.

fredx181's swap partition enable script includes the latest revisions, and also added are the packages

• mime-add-1.0_0.noarch.xbps

• edit-sfs-1.0_0.noarch.xbps

KLV-Airedale-sr15 is able to load squash SFS packages on the fly or during the boot sequence.
Squash files and ISO images can be opened from the file manager and the read the contents.

• can run with rootfs, 01fimware and 00module SFS files as uncompressed directories.

• Also able to load compressed and/or decompressed directories,
  once a 2 digit prefix is added to the file name.

• It is possible to mix using compressed squash files and uncompressed directories.

Also can be downloaded from https://rockedge.org/kernels in ISO->Kennel_Linux->Airedale

[Sofiya]

in the bootloader (in loopback.cfg) the lines were not registered when loading from ISO, to save

(RAM2 save on demand BOOT from ISO)
(RAM2 save persistence BOOT from ISO)

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 79#p130879

[rockedge]

in the bootloader (in loopback.cfg) the lines were not registered when loading from ISO, to save

(RAM2 save on demand BOOT from ISO)
(RAM2 save persistence BOOT from ISO)

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 79#p130879

I fixed it! Now it is repackaged into a new ISO and uploaded.

Thanks for reminding me!

[JusGellin]

I would like to try this. I used Ventoy to see a beautiful display that comes up with lots of apps available on a small laptop.

How can I properly install this on the laptop?

Thanks

[Clarity]

Forgive my confusion: What is meant by "install"?

Booting any forum distro from its ISO and saving work by the user done in the session is a Frugal operation of the distro.

The combination of ISO boot and session-save is technically an "install"; although some/many will disagree.

So, help ME out: Are you seeking

• Frugal operation via ISO file

• Frugal operation via extractions and jerry-rigging boot menus

• Complete rebuilding of the distro into system storage such that ALL operations are done directly via storage with no hint of the frugal use.

• Something else

Curious

[JusGellin]

Forgive my confusion: What is meant by "install"?

Booting any forum distro from its ISO and saving work by the user done in the session is a Frugal operation of the distro.

The combination of ISO boot and session-save is technically an "install"; although some/many will disagree.

I meant putting it on a laptop pc to be used as an install (frugal install) like you can for any puppy.

[Clarity]

OK. KLs extractions and boot menu setups are done manually the same way all other forum ISO are manage for this.

Merely boot some OS, extract the contents from its ISO into a folder of your choosing, setup the GRUB2 (or boot-subsystem of choice) and you are there.

Hope this is helpful as the KLs are identical for this as all the other forum distros are.

[JusGellin]

OK. KLs extractions and boot menu setups are done manually the same way all other forum ISO are manage for this.

Merely boot some OS, extract the contents from its ISO into a folder of your choosing, setup the GRUB2 (or boot-subsystem of choice) and you are there.

Hope this is helpful as the KLs are identical for this as all the other forum distros are.

Thanks, I learned this from another KL I tried and wanted to make sure this was the proper way of doing this.
What you mentioned almost makes it work except for mine in order to boot and get the Grub2 stanza, I had to run the script wd_grubconfig.
(that is so helpful!)
Then I copied the stanza into grub.cfg of the efi partition.

Part of my doing this is to learn how to do things and figure out more how things work.
This KLV-Airedale is so polished. I like it.

Thanks for helping me. I always appreciate your help.

[JusGellin]

What does the grub.cfg setting w_changes=RAM2 do?
Is there a list of other possible settings?

Thanks

[wiak]

What does the grub.cfg setting w_changes=RAM2 do?
Is there a list of other possible settings?

Thanks

Too late here (about to sleep), but no doubt someone will explain.

Most of the docs I've written are really to remind myself of various technical details rather than being organised general user docs. However most info can be found there with careful reading.

For example: https://www.tinylinux.info/post/firstri ... ram-modes/

Long time back I posted where most of such info is and pretty much all of it remains correct. Refer to: viewtopic.php?p=102017#p102017

[rockedge]

What does the grub.cfg setting w_changes=RAM2 do?
Is there a list of other possible settings?

Thanks

This parameter puts KLV in RAM2 mode which means save on demand or save or not save on reboot/shutdown.

w_changes=RAM0 mode is KLV loaded in RAM but no persistence
w_changes=RAM2 mode is KLV saves on demand or saving the session is optional at system shutdown
w_changes= mode KLV writes to upper_changes with continuous persistence.

@wiak has written some good documentation about the different session persistence modes that are around and I'll have to organize into something more useful like in this moment.

[fredx181]

What does the grub.cfg setting w_changes=RAM2 do?
Is there a list of other possible settings?

Thanks

....
w_changes=RAM2 mode is KLV saves on demand or saving the session is optional at system shutdown
....

Ok, but what is the difference then between w_changes=RAM2 and w_changes1=RAM2 ?

[rockedge]

Ok, but what is the difference then between w_changes=RAM2 and w_changes1=RAM2 ?

No difference in what it does. @wiak added the w_changes1= parameter so we could use:
w_changes=/mnt/some_partition_or_some_directory w_changes1=RAM2
to define the /upper_changes location and be able to select RAM mode if needed.

Also works like this:
w_changes=RAM2 w_changes1=UUID=0123456789=/Sessions

[JusGellin]

I found that this installs qemu libvirt virt-manager very simply.
I was hoping to be able to use this as host for virt-manager vm system instead of Alpine Linux which needs everything installed to get a working system.
So I made a comparision of the two using my small laptop system consisting of 112G internal drive with 4G memory.

Here's my abbreviated results:
KLV base install used 948M drive space and 730M memory usage.
Alpine linux used 1.6G drive space and 552M memory usage.

KLV virt-manager install used 2.5G drive space and 760M memory usage.
Alpine linux used 1.8G drive space and 659M memory usage.

Install a Bookworm vm (virtual machine)
For KLV I had to add modprobe tun to make installing a vm work and make it automatic by adding to /etc/rc.local
When this was done and rebooted with a save session, a merge was indicated occurring.
This increased the file size to 23G

For a running install of the vm Bookworm:
KLV now had 23G drive space and 3.3G memory usage.
Alpine had 3G drive space and 2.8G memory usage.

KLV seemed to almost work close enough as a virt-manager host except when I made a small change and it increased the storage to 23G
Why did it do that?

Is there anything that can be done with this KLV system to reduce its size to make it with its only purpose to host the virt-manager?
It only needs a desktop and the virt-manager install.
Or is there something better that would be better suited for hosting virt-manager?

Thanks

[wiak]

Huge increase indeed. No idea what was installed new to cause that. Is this using RAM2 save on demand mode or direct writes?. Is it the upper changes folderthat swelled?

I suggest installing/using gdmap to get quick idea what is taking up so much space. Sounds like some kind of crazy cache issue to me.

[JusGellin]

Huge increase indeed. No idea what was installed new to cause that. Is this using RAM2 save on demand mode or direct writes?. Is it the upper changes folderthat swelled?

I suggest installing/using gdmap to get quick idea what is taking up so much space. Sounds like some kind of crazy cache issue to me.

It worked like it should.

I've left the bootup as what was defaulted - w_changes=RAM2
So it is on demand.

I think I know what happened after trying it again.
When a virtual machine is made, one of the settings is how large the drive will be.
Since I was just testing I allowed the default to be 20G
This makes a file with qcow2 extension to be made.
This type of file is supposed to only expand as needed.

Before virt-manager was giving the error that it was missing tun (which appears to be a device it needs)
I was always having to run modprobe tun to allow the install to occur, but it wasn't its max size.
So I misinterpreted by making this automatically set using the /etc/rc.local file with this in it that for some reason made this qcow2 file expand to the full amount.
Alpine Linux doesn't seem to expand it unless more is added to it.
That was what made the expansion occur in the upper_changes folder which increased this large amount when I did a session save.

I need to look into why the expansion occurs.
I never worried about it before because it only expanded as needed, so didn't watch how it really works.

So now it seems although KLV is a little larger in memory use and close to the same for storage,
I could possibly use this instead of Alpine Linux, which I liked for it conciseness and not having a bloat of apps with it.
My purpose is to just have a host for virt-manager that just operates as a host and has a desktop.

=============================================================
By the way KLV-Airedale makes installing the virt-manager host so very easy.
All it takes:
1. Update apps
xbps-install -Su

2. Installs
xbps-install virt-manager libvirt qemu

3. Set services
ln -s /etc/sv/libvirtd /var/service
ln -s /etc/sv/virtlockd /var/service
ln -s /etc/sv/virtlogd /var/service

4. Make modprobe tun run automatically
Add this to /etc/rc.local

Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin

I could modify a PLUG recipe that makes what is close to KLV-Airedale, that will build the rootfs with the same desktop environment but a lot less of the apps.

So a version that is specific to running as a Virtual Machine host and has some of the features of KLV-Airedale but mostly the base system is identical.

This will allow us to build a different rootfs which we can swap into a KLV-Airedale-sr15 and it will become KLV-vmHost that you can test out. It will take a few hours to build.........because it will happen in-between raking leaves off the lawn.......

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
That would be great!

(too bad I can't come over and help you rake leaves)

[rockedge]

@JusGellin

I managed to assemble a boot-able ISO of a system that has less though there are still a few packages that could be taken out but might be convenient to have on the host.

I have not tested this at all.

Otherwise a host with out Xorg or Wayland so no graphics and the connections to the virtual machines are done remotely via VNC is possible and then all the GUI programs will be eliminated. Might be an experiment for an extreme moment.

[bugnaw333]

I encountered Error opening an NTFS partition.

[rockedge]

@bugnaw333

I was concerned by your post so I tested sr15 on 2 of my Windows 10 machines and have not experienced any problems mounting and reading and writing to the NTFS partitions Windows resides on. So I have not been able to reproduce the error.

can you provide more details on what problem mounting a NTFS partition you're having?

[bugnaw333]

On a Ventoy 1.0.99.

[Clarity]

@bugnaw333, couple observations to help.

Ventoy has NOTHING to do with the problem. Like @fredx181 indicates, I, too, have no such issue when booting KL ISOs or use of NTFS on a PC whose base is Windows OS.

Question

• Is NTFS on your PC system's drive or on a USB attached to PC's port?

Your system 'may' be having some issue with the NTFS partition as it may be formatted/used in Windows with some different setup or design such as a security implementation(s).

I am curious if you have seen this problem when booting other KL's or FATDOG when launching from Ventoy?

If so, I would boot into Windows and run a drive scan. Further, when leaving Windows, ALWAYS do a shutdown before booting any launcher like Ventoy/SG2D.

[bugnaw333]

@Clarity
Isos are on Ventoy stick:
1. I dont see any problem mounting NTFS (hdd) using FATDOG, KLA and KLU-jam.
2. KLVs have same error --attempting to unmount my 2 NTFS partitions during boot.
3. Quiet noting that KLU-jam has the same unmount boot error with KLV but I could mount the NTFS part on desktop.

[wiak]

Ok, but what is the difference then between w_changes=RAM2 and w_changes1=RAM2 ?

No difference in what it does. @wiak added the w_changes1= parameter so we could use:
w_changes=/mnt/some_partition_or_some_directory w_changes1=RAM2
to define the /upper_changes location and be able to select RAM mode if needed.

Also works like this:
w_changes=RAM2 w_changes1=UUID=0123456789=/Sessions

Yes, that is correct 'almost'...

w_changes is used to define where the running upper_changes savefolder is located.

So if it is specified as w_changes=RAM2, that means running upper_changes is in RAM (and RAM2 mode is save on demand using save2flash utility).
For that case the external media upper_changes folder is in the frugal install bootfrom directory.

However, I think rockedge meant the following, where w_changes instead specifies a partition/directory where you want the external media upper_changes to be located (rockedge wrote it the wrong way round):

w_changes=UUID=0123456789=/Sessions

(doesn't need to be /Sessions, any directory can be specified and it will be automatically created, in the specified partition (which could alternatively use LABEL syntax), for the purpose.

so if you still want save on demand mode, you need to use additional: w_changes1=RAM2

[Clarity]

I assume this be correct for KLVA vSR15 directing session to be saved on the "Persistence" partition in its "Sessions" folder...on demand?
... w_changes=LABEL=Persistence=/Sessions w_changes1=RAM2 ...

NEVERMIND: The 2nd boot menu stanza show Ventoy...Persistence. Quick look seems to be effectively the same.

Testing vSR15 on bare-metal PC now.