Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Here is a screenshot from the running system.

downloaded easy-4.4.3-amd64.img

md5sum easy-4.4.3-amd64.img

# create easyOS usb 
dd if=easy-4.4.3-amd64.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M
sync

create EasyOS virtual machine in virtualbox

#add easyOS usb as a vmdk passthrough device
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename easyusb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb

add the easyusb.vmdk to the EasyOS virtual machine ide controller

start the virtual machine and press f12 immediately to select the boot device.
boot from the easyusb.vmdk

xorgwizard
select vesa (unaccelerated)
the other modes failed
xwin

warning: when I tried to configure the audio the virtual machine crashed!

use gparted to create a msdos partition map on the EasyOS.vmdk which was created with the VM.
Created an ext4 primary partition on that device with the label EasyOS
added a boot flag to the EasyOS partition

copied vmlinuz an initrd from the usb drive (/mnt/sdb2/easyos/ to the the EasyOS ext4 partition (/mnt/sda1/EasyOSdunfell/)

copied easy_4.4.3_amd64.sfs from /mnt/sdb2/easyos/sfs/easyos/oe/dunfell/ to /mnt/sda1/EasyOSdunfell/

renamed easy_4.4.3_amd64.sfs to easy.sfs

Theoretically easyos is frugally installed to the EasyOS partition on the EasyOS.vmdk at this point.

Unfortunately, when I run the Liminie bootloader installer the only installation found is the running system at /dev/sdb2 which is the easyOS usb being accessed through easyusb.vmdk
I decided to proceed to install the bootloader to sda. I believe it installed limine to the mbr of sda but it didn't put any files on sda1 so I copied limine.cfg and limine.sys from /dev/sdb1 to /dev/sda1
Then I edited limine.cfg to load the kernel and initrd on sda. I also changed the uuid to match the uuid of sda1

When I rebooted the VM it looked like it was going to work. I didn't need to use f12 to select the boot device. EasyOS started sking me about the keyboard again and it had me set a password. I agreed to encrypt the drive, then it crashed the VM.
Maybe I should not have encrypted the drive since the dynamic vmdk was allocated more space than the actual hard drive capacity. I'm not sure what the problem was.
Since the system was down anyway, I removed easyusb.vmdk from the ide controller.
I started the VM again and it booted. I entered my password and it proceeded to the point where X failed to start again.

xorgwizard
select vesa (unaccelerated)
the other modes failed
xwin

It worked. I expected the VM to crash when I started adjusting the resolution and setting up sound, so I shut it down (and saved the session) then made a backup copy of the virtual machine.
Actually I made a snapshot with virtualbox, but I could have copied the folder to make a backup.
Virtualbox has a clone feature which makes a copy and optionally changes the hardware ids and discards the snapshots. I tried to do a full clone of the current machine state including all network adapter mac addresses, disk names, and hardware uuids in the advanced mode to see if the snapshots could actually be discarded later.
The EasyOS VM folder is only 831MB but the clone operation proceeded to run for more than an hour before I canceled it. Something in Virtualbox must be broken.
Unfettered, I copied the EasyOS folder to EasyOScopy00 and again to EasyOScopy01
I then launched Virtualbox, removed the EasyOS VM an added the EasyOscopy01
Finally, I deleted the snapshot I created earlier an confirmed that there is only as single vmdk file in that folder after doing so.
The VM booted, prompted for a password, prompted to test the X settings, then booted to the desktop.
I clicked through the setup wizards for the input, firewall, network time, ... and restarted X. That brought me back to the xorgwizard so I again chose vesa.
Next I ran xvidtune from display control to correct the resolution but it idn't work so I tried the resolution changer and it didn't give me the proper options so I typed it in, and made the changes permanent.
Then I shut down the system and saved the changes when prompted.
The VM booted again without any interruption other than a password prompt, but the screen resolution was still not correct.
I was tempted to modify xorg.conf but I am not sure if I should change the monitor section or the screen section and I wonder if I should install virtualbox guest additions first.
Guest aditions was not present in sfsget so i attached the iso to the vm, opens sr0 and executed VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
poweroff+save, removed the guestadditions.iso, and started it again.
the resolution was still wrong so i manually changed xorg.conf and rebooted+saved
the xorgwizard came up an although tweak showed my edits, the test showed the wrong resolution. The system booted to the wrong resolution.
How do I get the resolution to 1280x800?

I tested the sound again from the sound card chooser, and the VM promptly crashed. How do I fix this? Should I start virtualbox with apulse?

update:

apulse virtualbox worked with the alsa audio driver.

@je55eah

Well, I cannot really help you - the last time I used it was whith debian stretch, but one thing is clear: you will not get a higher resolution (among other features) without guest additions. And yes, they must be installed inside the VM.

Maybe try to install the last EasyOS Pyro ISO. I remember, I had that installed, and it worked without any probs, but about the resolution I forgot.

About limine I don't know too, but did you try to just run it as "live cd" in Virtualbox, then use the second hdd for backups of your data? Like this it should be easy to boot I think.

I found this example xorg.conf file and it is very different from the xorg.conf in EasyOS.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=777759

The webcam is not operational in this configuration and clipboard sharing is not present. It doesn't seem like the guest additions did anything.

I used sfsget to download the kernel sources and tried installing virtualbox guest additions again by running ./autorun.sh in sr0 after loading the kernel sources sfs and the devx sfs. The printout sounded like it was successful, but nothing changes on a practical level. I tried hinting the resolution with virtualbox and using all the xorg settings tools again, but the display remained unchanged.

Some odd behavior I noticed when using sakura terminal in sr0 was that some of the files such as VBoxLinuxAdditions.run would not autocomplete with tab and Bash reports about them that no such file or directory exists.

I also found that the virtualbox host key does not work when running EasyOS as a guest. I have mine set to right ctrl which is the right command key on this MacBookPro9,2. I also tried specifying that the keyboard should not be auto captured, because that sometimes is reported to be a fix.

Can anyone help me with this? After I get the system to work properly I was planning to attempt nested virtualization with waydroid on easyos on virtualbox on fatdog.

@Berto

I can try the old pyro iso, but I'm not sure if I see the point since I was able to live boot from the passthrough usb interface. The live system also loaded a resolution smaller than my screen and it did not provide an option to choose the correct size.

Limine is working just fine the way I did it.

@je55eah
It's really easier to use EasyOS on a USB key than in Virtualbox

It would be easier if the b43 wifi drivers were included and if the virtualbox drivers made the video, camera, host key, and clipboard work as expected. As it is, I can boot the computer with the usb, but I am unable to get online. Things like this will turn away new users. The reason Puppy and Fatdog are my favorite linux distributions is because they run on everything. If EasyOS is meant to boot from usb then it really should boot on as many different computers as possible, including common virtual platforms such as virtualbox. If my leg wasn't currently broken I would get a wired connection, but some modern computers don't even have an ethernet port. Fortunately, I can boot the usb from virtualbox with the passthrough I set up earlier. I got online by using virtualbox and then I searched in the provided tools for b43 drivers. Synaptic failed to start, libapt-pkg.so.5.0 was missing so I used sfsget to download and load devx and kernel sources. I though it might be in there, but those sfs didn't help. Does synaptic work on easyOS and how should I go about getting the b43 drivers?

@je55eah

For the Broadcom driver, it is available in the PKGGet. Personally, EasyOS runs very well on my iMac, Acer Spin 1 and a Beelink BT3 pro. For download : http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/ ... s-dunfell/

Mes salutations cordiales;

Strange.

You have no wifi! Try with another distro and download (from the link in my post) and transfert the package to USB.http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/ ... s-dunfell/
After this Boot EasyOS from USB. Connect the key that contains the driver (which corresponds to your kernel) and run the driver

je55eah wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 12:42 pm

It would be easier if the b43 wifi drivers were included and if the virtualbox drivers made the video, camera, host key, and clipboard work as expected. As it is, I can boot the computer with the usb, but I am unable to get online. Things like this will turn away new users. The reason Puppy and Fatdog are my favorite linux distributions is because they run on everything. If EasyOS is meant to boot from usb then it really should boot on as many different computers as possible, including common virtual platforms such as virtualbox. If my leg wasn't currently broken I would get a wired connection, but some modern computers don't even have an ethernet port. Fortunately, I can boot the usb from virtualbox with the passthrough I set up earlier. I got online by using virtualbox and then I searched in the provided tools for b43 drivers. Synaptic failed to start, libapt-pkg.so.5.0 was missing so I used sfsget to download and load devx and kernel sources. I though it might be in there, but those sfs didn't help. Does synaptic work on easyOS and how should I go about getting the b43 drivers?

No, synaptic does not work. It was an incomplete experiment.
libapt-pkg.so.5.0 is in the "apt" package, but anyway, synaptic still won't work.

je55eah wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 11:35 pm

Strange.
Screenshot.png

You didn't do the search correctly, those packages are in "pet-dunfell" repository.
They will be found even if you are offline, but of course you will need to be online to download.

Yes, they were not in the main repo like BologneChe's image indicated, but they were in the pet repo. I was able to download one of them through virtualbox because, as my screenshot indicated, virtualbox gave me a virtual wired internet connection. After installing the broadcom drive through virtualbox I rebooted the entire system and I can confirm that wifi is now working when the actual computer is booted from usb.

What can we do about the virtualbox display and the other virtualbox integrations?

No, synaptic does not work. It was an incomplete experiment.
libapt-pkg.so.5.0 is in the "apt" package, but anyway, synaptic still won't work.

Thanks @BarryK

je55eah wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:15 am

Yes, they were not in the main repo like BologneChe's image indicated, but they were in the pet repo. I was able to download one of them through virtualbox because, as my screenshot indicated, virtualbox gave me a virtual wired internet connection. After installing the broadcom drive through virtualbox I rebooted the entire system and I can confirm that wifi is now working when the actual computer is booted from usb.

What can we do about the virtualbox display and the other virtualbox integrations?

You need devx and kernel source https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/eas ... e/dunfell/
Insert Virtualbox GuestAddition and execute!

Thanks, but I already did this.

I used sfsget to download the kernel sources and tried installing virtualbox guest additions again by running ./autorun.sh in sr0 after loading the kernel sources sfs and the devx sfs. The printout sounded like it was successful, but nothing changes on a practical level.

[image edit forthcoming]

It has been rebooted many times.

je55eah wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:49 am

Thanks, but I already did this.

I used sfsget to download the kernel sources and tried installing virtualbox guest additions again by running ./autorun.sh in sr0 after loading the kernel sources sfs and the devx sfs. The printout sounded like it was successful, but nothing changes on a practical level.

[image edit forthcoming]
Screenshot(2).png

Désolé, je n'avait pas fait la lecture entière!

In case anyone is curious, this is the content of my limine.cfg which works with mbr and a single partition

VERBOSE=no
TIMEOUT=10
DEFAULT_ENTRY=1
INTERFACE_BRANDING=EasyOS Limine Boot Manager
INTERFACE_RESOLUTION=800x600

:EasyOS Dunfell
    COMMENT=EasyOS Dunfell bootup
    RESOLUTION=800x600
    PROTOCOL=linux
    KERNEL_PATH=boot://1/EasyOSdunfell/vmlinuz
    MODULE_PATH=boot://1/EasyOSdunfell/initrd
    KERNEL_CMDLINE=rw wkg_uuid=0b1b278a-9f7d-4b83-a7dd-0dd0cdd19e15 wkg_dir=EasyOSdunfell/

:  Options...
::Fix broken video
    COMMENT=Run Xorg Video Wizard to fix broken video
    RESOLUTION=800x600
    PROTOCOL=linux
    KERNEL_PATH=boot://1/EasyOSdunfell/vmlinuz
    MODULE_PATH=boot://1/EasyOSdunfell/initrd
    KERNEL_CMDLINE=rw qfix=vid nomodeset wkg_uuid=0b1b278a-9f7d-4b83-a7dd-0dd0cdd19e15 wkg_dir=EasyOSdunfell/

VMSVGA or VboxSVGA your machine?

@BologneChe
That was the problem! Thank you. I had selected "enable 3d acceleration" so virtualbox was only allowing VMSVGA. When I disabled 3d acceleration an changed it to VBoxVGA I was finally able to change the guest resolution to a proper size.

Next, I'll see what I can do about getting the camera an the clipboard working before exploring Waydroid.

I enable biirectional clipboard sharing with the virtualbox panel and ran

/usr/bin/VBoxClient --clipboard

in the sakura terminal then clipboar sharing started working.

Where should I put this command so that it runs every time I start?

When I enabled facetimehd camera passthrough to the easyos guest easyos booted to the desktop then locked up with the fan running at a high speed. Fatdog has integrated the drivers somehow.

@step Is it possible to port the facetimehd drivers from fatdog into easyos?

Trying to install waydroid
hoping to download the waydroid deb file I installed apt-1.8.2.1-r9 with PKGget from oe-dunfell but it doesn't work

downloaded deb-get from https://github.com/wimpysworld/deb-get/ ... /tag/0.3.6
used deb2sfs to create an sfs. note, the deb2sfs UI doesn't fit onto a 1280x800 screen. As a workaround I set my resolution to 1680x1050 then put virtualbox into scaled display mode.
copied the sfs, specs and png files to /mnt/wkg/sfs/easyos/oe/dunfell/
I thought this would make the sfs available to load through sfsget, but I don't see it.
I was following these instructions:
https://bkhome.org/news/202209/easy-cre ... b2sfs.html

Since the only file in that sfs was deb-get.bin I copied it to /usr/bin and gave it a spin with

deb-get --help

# deb-get.bin --help
dpkg: unrecognized option: print-architecture
BusyBox v1.32.0 (2020-07-17 22:02:53 AWST) multi-call binary.

Usage: dpkg [-ilCPru] [-F OPT] PACKAGE

Install, remove and manage Debian packages

	-i,--install	Install the package
	-l,--list	List of installed packages
	--configure	Configure an unpackaged package
	-P,--purge	Purge all files of a package
	-r,--remove	Remove all but the configuration files for a package
	--unpack	Unpack a package, but don't configure it
	--force-depends	Ignore dependency problems
	--force-confnew	Overwrite existing config files when installing
	--force-confold	Keep old config files when installing
  [*] WARNING! Distributor ID:	Quirky is not supported.
  [!] ERROR! os-release not found. Quitting

It looks like that may be a dead end.
I'll just boot into a debian system and use apt to pull down the deb then copy it over manually.

What can I do to work through this?

# deb2sfs wayroid_1.3.3_all debs
dpkg-deb: error: archive 'debs/waydroid_1.3.3_all.deb' uses unknown compression for member 'control.tar.zst', giving up
Extracting debs/waydroid_1.3.3_all.deb...
dpkg-deb: error: archive 'debs/waydroid_1.3.3_all.deb' uses unknown compression for member 'control.tar.zst', giving up
Error extracting from debs/waydroid_1.3.3_all.deb, maybe file is corrupted. Aborting.

I see that zstd is already installed in easyos.

je55eah wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 4:53 am

Trying to install waydroid
hoping to download the waydroid deb file I installed apt-1.8.2.1-r9 with PKGget from oe-dunfell but it doesn't work

downloaded deb-get from https://github.com/wimpysworld/deb-get/ ... /tag/0.3.6
used deb2sfs to create an sfs. note, the deb2sfs UI doesn't fit onto a 1280x800 screen. As a workaround I set my resolution to 1680x1050 then put virtualbox into scaled display mode.
copied the sfs, specs and png files to /mnt/wkg/sfs/easyos/oe/dunfell/
I thought this would make the sfs available to load through sfsget, but I don't see it.
I was following these instructions:
https://bkhome.org/news/202209/easy-cre ... b2sfs.html

Getting waydroid to work will probably be a major effort, as it uses wayland.
Anbox is probably going to be much easier -- there is already a discussion thread on Anbox, working in one of the Puppy versions.
But Anbox also likely to be a challenge, as it comes as a snap package.