QuickPup64 24.01 RC4

[Clarity]

Status:
Same problem results. Here's the VM stanza should you need.

Code: Select all

qemu-system-x86_64 -name "QP64 v2301rc7 VM via Ventoy USB" -enable-kvm -smp 2 -m 2048 -vga std -device AC97 -net nic -net user -rtc base=localtime -hda /dev/sdg

where /dev/sdg is the bootable USB

There are known problems booting WoofCE PUPs via Ventoy discussed in depth over past 6 weeks. This problem details covered in testing by @gyrog in the forum seems related.

As such this distro, also, is affected similarly when launched from Ventoy. As noted in my reports, no such problem getting to desktop occur when SG2D launches the ISO file via either QEMU or on bare-metal.

P.S. Of the WoofCE PUP since 2019, there are only a very small number that will boot to desktop froM Ventoy, while all boot to desktop from a SG2D launch; @01micko 'Slacko64 v7" is one of them that does not have issues getting to desktop in either a VM or bare-metal from Ventoy launch.

[Clarity]

Funny, on bare-metal vRC7 boots to desktop via Ventoy. The shutdown problem discussed on the forum for Ventoy ISO file launches of WoofCE PUPs does exist, though.

[mistfire]

@Clarity what a weird behaviour

On my latest experiment, I'm trying to move all builtin GTK+ apps to GTK3 in preparation for moving to wayland just in case

[Clarity]

Yes, so much in Linux world is moving to newer GTK+s.

I just saw this Blue Recorder announcement moving onto Wayland and newest GTK. You might find it of interest for its use simplicity.

[one]

Hi @mistfire,

I took your latest rc7, did a new frugal install on ssd - booted ok.
At shutdown I created a new savefolder with some quick settings.

After shutdown I booted again, this time with the newly created savefolder - booting fails!

The last message on the screen (after loading all the sfs's including the savefolder):

Code: Select all

creating ramdisk (4431 M)

That's it ...

peace

[TerryH]

Similar to @one, I am getting the same result, stalling on Creating ramdisk.....
Mine wasn't a new install but an updated prior RC version. This is using desktop with AMD FX-6100 8 GB Ram

[mistfire]

Hi @mistfire,

I took your latest rc7, did a new frugal install on ssd - booted ok.
At shutdown I created a new savefolder with some quick settings.

After shutdown I booted again, this time with the newly created savefolder - booting fails!

The last message on the screen (after loading all the sfs's including the savefolder):

Code: Select all

creating ramdisk (4431 M)

That's it ...

peace

What is your hardware specs?
Where did your create savefolder?
Does loading savefile messages shown during boot?

[mistfire]

Similar to @one, I am getting the same result, stalling on Creating ramdisk.....
Mine wasn't a new install but an updated prior RC version. This is using desktop with AMD FX-6100 8 GB Ram

Please try to swap to older kernel 6.x version or other compiled kernel 6.x version aside from peebee's compiled kernel then boot it to see if stalling on creating ramdisk persists

[mistfire]

Yes, so much in Linux world is moving to newer GTK+s.

I just saw this Blue Recorder announcement moving onto Wayland and newest GTK. You might find it of interest for its use simplicity.

Too bad it was a just a flatpak package only.

[TerryH]

Similar to @one, I am getting the same result, stalling on Creating ramdisk.....
Mine wasn't a new install but an updated prior RC version. This is using desktop with AMD FX-6100 8 GB Ram

Please try to swap to older kernel 6.x version or other compiled kernel 6.x version aside from peebee's compiled kernel then boot it to see if stalling on creating ramdisk persists

OK, but at the moment I won't be able to do it for a couple of days

[Clarity]

@TerryH, @one, @mistfire

For those who dont understand, here's a prelude
My situation is slightly different from each as I achieve Frugal use via QP64's ISO file booted via SG2D. I have NEVER installed a PUP as has been described in the past as Frugal because the WoofCE (and other forum distros, too) afford EVERYTHING that traditional frugal gives without ANY of the normal downside problem member have trying to achieve such. I merely download the ISO file, boot the USB launcher, select the ISO file and I arrive at a frugal operation with ALL distro's bells and whistles.

But, QP64 doesn't seem to be handling the SAVESPEC as designed. The SAVESPEC file tell the booting WoofCE PUPs where Persistence is to reside or found upon reboots. The SAVESPEC's presence avoid any user action necessary for full WoofCE PUP processing from distro start to distro completion. When this works properly. there is NO efforts by users to manipulate the GRUB2 stanzas in QP64 to getr to desktop...none!

That being said: We can achieve the same thing by using the PSAVE parm (instead of SAVESPEC) upon booting to get exactly the expected behavior for persistence processing.

In my case for ALL forum distro, I keep all persistence in the following

• A partition on my system drive labeled Persistence

• A folder on Persistence's partition named BOOTISOS

These 2 minimal requirements is good housekeeping as ALL sessions are save and found there and the SAVESPEC defines such for the WoofCE distros.

Scenario to circumvent the problems you are seeing

• I boot SG2D and from the list of selections to boot, I choose QP64

• At OP64's Menu, I edit the default stanza and add PSAVE=Persistence:/Sessions/

• QP64 boots to desktop with expected persistence processing results on both pristine boots or normal boots

This procedural boot and persistence effort has been steadfast in use for ALL forum distros. I have for the past 4 years merely download the ISO file to the USB and boot without thought or manipulations or efforts. Works!

Enjoy

P.S. REMEMBER: This is a circumvention as I envision that SAVESPEC processing will return to normal for this PUP in the near future. Then the circumvention steps will no longer be needed and you will simply take the Menu's default (as long as you have the SAVESPEC present in the BOOTISOS folder on the Persistence partition).

[one]

Hi @mistfire,

I took your latest rc7, did a new frugal install on ssd - booted ok.
At shutdown I created a new savefolder with some quick settings.

After shutdown I booted again, this time with the newly created savefolder - booting fails!

The last message on the screen (after loading all the sfs's including the savefolder):

Code: Select all

creating ramdisk (4431 M)

That's it ...

peace

What is your hardware specs?
Where did your create savefolder?
Does loading savefile messages shown during boot?

Hi @mistfire,

1. ACER Aspire 5745G Core i5 4 GB Ram
(Details attached)
2. same directory as quickpup64 (ext4)
3. yes - all sfs's including the savefolder are loaded

...............................................................................

@Clarity

Does your post indicate that you can boot rc7 successful with an existing savefolder???

peace

[esos]

I have no problem direct-booting rc7.ISO with persistence using grub2 bootloader.
Just wondering , How to activate pupmode13?
Plese advice, thanks.

[Clarity]

Hi @esos. You may have missed, so I am emphasizing to help.

...
Scenario to circumvent the problems you are seeing

• I boot SG2D and from the list of selections to boot, I choose QP64 vRC7

• At OP64's Menu, I edit the default stanza and add PSAVE=Persistence:/Sessions/

• QP64 boots to desktop with expected persistence processing results on both pristine boots or normal boots

...

[mistfire]

Hi @mistfire,

I took your latest rc7, did a new frugal install on ssd - booted ok.
At shutdown I created a new savefolder with some quick settings.

After shutdown I booted again, this time with the newly created savefolder - booting fails!

The last message on the screen (after loading all the sfs's including the savefolder):

Code: Select all

creating ramdisk (4431 M)

That's it ...

peace

What is your hardware specs?
Where did your create savefolder?
Does loading savefile messages shown during boot?

Hi @mistfire,

1. ACER Aspire 5745G Core i5 4 GB Ram
(Details attached)
2. same directory as quickpup64 (ext4)
3. yes - all sfs's including the savefolder are loaded

...............................................................................

@Clarity

Does your post indicate that you can boot rc7 successful with an existing savefolder???

peace

Somethings weird. It says, creating a ramdisk at 4G while the actual ram size was 4G?

[one]

[...]
Somethings weird. It says, creating a ramdisk at 4G while the actual ram size was 4G?

YES

peace

@Clarity,

Again: Does your post indicate that you can boot rc7 (via SG2D) successful with an existing savefolder???

[TerryH]

Similar to @one, I am getting the same result, stalling on Creating ramdisk.....
Mine wasn't a new install but an updated prior RC version. This is using desktop with AMD FX-6100 8 GB Ram

Please try to swap to older kernel 6.x version or other compiled kernel 6.x version aside from peebee's compiled kernel then boot it to see if stalling on creating ramdisk persists

OK, but at the moment I won't be able to do it for a couple of days

To check I booted with a Bionicpup64 kernel 4.19.23, starting with pfix=ram. Boot was fine and I then shutdown and created a save folder. On booting it stalled at creating ramdisk.

I then retried with included peebee's 6.2.x kernel, it failed to start X, booting to console. On shutting down, i selected to create a save file, I chose to create an unencrypted savefile, it created an encrypted savefile regardless. On attempting to boot with this save file, it gets an invalid password error. I did this process twice, once using the supplied password 'puppyisgreat' and also with a different password, the same result it gets a password error and can't boot with the created save file.

[Clarity]

Hi @one . You may have missed, so I am emphasizing to help.

...
Scenario to circumvent the problems you are seeing

• I boot SG2D and from the list of selections to boot, I choose QP64 vRC7

• At OP64's Menu, I edit the default stanza and add PSAVE=Persistence:/Sessions/

• QP64 boots to desktop with expected persistence processing results on both pristine boots or normal boots

...

have you found otherwise with SG2D?

[one]

[...]

have you found otherwise with SG2D?

Hi @Clarity,

Yes - I have! That's why I ask you two times ...

So I took the time for the long, winding road via Ventoy, SG2D - to finally boot quickpup64_rc7.
At shutdown I made a savefolder in /Sessions - and rebooting leads to the reported stop at "creating ramdisk".
That's why I'm very surprised that it doesn't seem to happen to you?

To verify I booted also rc6 - and this one booted fine (using the savefolder I created with rc7)!

peace

[Clarity]

Thanks @one

I did not have the same experience. But, I will now review in support of your findings.

I am assuming you are booting on bare-metal; correct? And my PCs that I am testing are Intels which are pre-2010 64bit with a SG2D launch of v7 saving the session to-within the system drive's /Sessions folder; namely my last one is /Sessions/quickPup64save-v7_pristine in my case.

Expect a response soon.

[Clarity]

@mistfire, on your Ventoy stick, in its BOOTISOS folder, launch your SG2D ISO/IMG file to desktop. AllowSG2D to list those ISO files it willl find in the BOOTISOS folder. From its ISO list, launch v7 and save its session.

Are you seeing the same when launching v7 to desktop from SG2D?

[Clarity]

I downloaded a fresh copy of v7 and compared the checksum. It the same file as on the USB.
This is report taken from booting my Ventoy USB.

1. Launched SG2D from the Ventoy list

2. Allowed SG2D to list all ISOs

3. Launched v7 from the SG2D

4. Allowed v7 to default from its own Menu

5. Since this PC has never had a prior QP64 session, v7 boots pristine

6. At v7 desktop it post a 'toast' message indicating updates available which I cliExpect an update soonck to check

   

   Screenshot_2023-12-03_15-47-20.png (192.19 KiB) Viewed 8607 times

7. It list updates, I select all for update and click to start and update

8. This opens a terminal window, that NEVER completes during the session. I allow the window to remain open thruout.

9. Opened FirstRUN and tailored the system

   

   Screenshot_2023-12-03_16-21-19.png (28.41 KiB) Viewed 8600 times

10. upon completion, the numbers keys work in a terminal, BUT the arrow keys do not to recall prior commands

11. The terminal command 'findsmb' is NOT returning results of LAN the 2 smb servers as it presents empty results

12. Shutdown works as expected

    

    Screenshot_2023-12-03_16-26-13.png (35.79 KiB) Viewed 8604 times

13. Upon reboot, taking same start from USB as shown above, v7 finds and uses the session that was saved.

14. All prior informaton created during pristine session remains; namely folders and pictures shown in this report.

15. The ONLY item of note upon reboot in a terminal, findsmb ONLY finds himself and others are not seen. This is a bug.

.
You MAY have noticed that I saved the session in the 'root' of the Persistence partition. That was an oversighted error.
I am retesting as I should have directed it to the Sessions folder on that partition. Expect an update soon.

[TerryH]

I have a small Dell 7140 Pro 2in1 Tablet 11" screen (Core 5Y10cCPU, Intel HD 5300 Graphics, 4 GB Ram, Intel 7265 Wifi card). As Quickpup64 had issues on my Laptop and desktop with AMD CPU's, I decided to try on the Dell, which I don't use much.

I downloaded the RC 7 and created a new frugal install, booted fine. Surprisingly the correct intel 7265 firmware was missing. I copied form Bookwormpup64 and did modprobe iwlwifi in a terminal to get wifi working. I then rebooted and created a save folder. On bootup it stalled on the Create ramdisk.

So on my 3 very diverse setups, Quickpup64 fails to boot.

[Clarity]

Report Update
Needed to fix the session pathing of this: Picture shows a reboot before moving the session.

console1.jpg (33.3 KiB) Viewed 8566 times

1. Rebooted another distro on PC

2. Moved the QP64 session from' root' to the 'Sessions' folder.

3. Rebooted the USB and followed exact same step in the report

4. QP64 finds and uses its session file (this means it is honoring and using the SAVESPEC file in the BOOTISOS folder)

5. Arror keys now work in a terminal and able to navigate history in the terminal via the keys

6. ALL other expected activities are operational.

Screenshot_2023-12-03_12-50-51.png (478.45 KiB) Viewed 8585 times

[one]

Thanks @Clarity,

interesting, but confusing ...

Additional - the problem only occurs with savefolder, NOT when using a savefile!

peace

[Clarity]

Hi @one

Please check your BOOTISOS folder for a file named SAVESPEC. Is it present? If so, please post its contents.
Can I assume you are launching QP64 from SG2D's Menu?

[one]

Hi @Clarity,

I assume the problem is in the initrd (major changes compared to rc6), nothing to do with SG2D.

Anyway - yes, I launched from SG2D menu.

Attached savespec, where 'Ventoy' is the label of the first partition (ext3).

peace

[Clarity]

Hello @one
It seems you are doing everything totally on the USB.

Sessions
Early on in my Linux life, even before these boot launchers, I found USBs to NOT be acceptable for my session files. So over the past many years, on each/every PC I boot to, I setup or have made a partition of 40+GB and have labeled it "Persistence". On that partition, I have a folder named Sessions where ALL of my linux distro session files are kept. Thus it contains Fatdogs, KLs, and WoofCE-PUP sessions...all in the same "kennel fence" (the Sessions folder). This I have present on ALL of my test PCs too. And when in-depth testing in QEMU (or any VM) I will have a virtual drive that has a persistence partition just as described for system drives.

ALL system drives are both speedy AND reliable in comparison to USBs. The system drive partition is ALSO a linux format of ext2-4 over the years with no efforts or concerns, as MOST boot operations do a FSCK insuring integrity on their own. All forum distros find their sessions in that folder on that drive's persistence (partition).

ISO-IMG USB
Normally, Ventoy writes the USB partition #1 as a non-linux format; namely exFAT. So for me, I never have a problem as I do NOT write any files to that partition excepting ISO or IMG files which usually reside contiguous in the BOOTISOS folder I have there.....ONLY those files are on that Ventoy USB partition.

This is presented after reviewing your SAVESPEC.

If you can, and you have available space of your system drive you might consider my layout. My SAVESPEC on the Ventoy disk's BOOTISOS folder looks like this:

Code: Select all

SS_ID='Persistence'
SS_DIR='/Sessions'
SS_MEDIA='Linux'

.
In summary: I have

• a USB that launches distro bootable files

• and a system drive that contain sessions.

It is a simple structure with understandable house-keeping names for the pertaining OS's needs.

Hope this info is helpful.

[mistfire]

QuickPup64 23.01 RC8 released

Changes:

• Fixed initrd bug on loading the save file.
• Initial preparation for Wayland.
• New apps added:
  -> Warehouse flatpak app manager
  -> Flatsweep flatpak cleaner
  -> Blue recorder the screen recorder
  -> ndisgtk3 the gui for ndiswrapper
  -> TLPUI for advanced laptop settings
• Improvements on gtock cron manager
• yad, gtkdialog, gxmessage, zenity, and Xdialog were all GTK+3-based
• Some puppy core apps are migrated to GTK3-based gtkdialog in order to support wayland
• Some GTK+2 apps have been replaced with GTK+3 version

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tl6vx8 ... r3n-x6fNSB
MD5 Checksum: 09f77ab17255831acf70643a5a0b2210

[Clarity]

Initial Report

1. Downloaded QP64 vRC8 to Ventoy USB's "BOOTISOS" folder.

2. Started VM booting the USB

   Code: Select all

   qemu-system-x86_64 -name "Boot latest KL from Ventoy" -enable-kvm -m 2G -smp 2 -vga std -device AC97 -net nic -net user -rtc base=localtime -hda /dev/sdg -hdb QEMUdisks/vHDD.img

3. Selected SG2D's ISO taking the GRUB2 option

4. After getting the SG2D list of ISOs, I selected the QP64 ISO file

5. Let QP64 use its default Menu entry

6. QP64 booted to desktop without issues

QP64vRC8 via SG2D.jpg (26.2 KiB) Viewed 8080 times

Minor Questions

• What command/utility indicates Wayland operations in effect?

• Is the Desktop>"Settings Manager" the replacement for the older Control Panel? If so, when its window opens on desktop should it read Settings Manager vs just 'Settings'?

• Is there a summary setup utility similar to FirstRUN available?

Issues

• findsmb is not showing other SMB servers on network?

• Clicking on borders of windows in attempts to expand windows will only expand upwards...not downwards?

  • More on this: hovering mouse over the bottom of a border, mouse-arrow changes to a 'funny'. Sliding that funny icon horizontally over the bottom border, it changes to the expected double-arrow momentarily and back. Its an odd behavior I get but I dont get the same mousing over the top boarder???

• SAVESPEC processing:

  1. 1st shutdown the processing leads the user to proper partition to deposit the session, BUT unless the user is paying attention, they will NOT notice that it will try to dump the session in the root on the partition. This is a bug and should be reported to @gyrog on WoofCE GITHUB. To circumvent, the users noticing the problem can change the QP....save to the proper folder. It will be saved properly when shutdown completes.

  2. Upon reboot, the QP64 vRC8 is finding its session, as expected. This matches info in the SAVESPEC file

• Hardinfo error info

  

  QP64vRC8 via SG2D(1).jpg (30.71 KiB) Viewed 8052 times

So far, in initial desktop use, its very smooth. Thanks @mistfire for all your efforts.

P.S. This report is from testing within a VM. This allows to have a head-start on what to expect in bare-metal booting.
Bare-metal will be reported at later time booting from the same USB. They should match perfectly.