Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

EasyOS 4.5.5
January 10, 2023

Blog announcement:
https://bkhome.org/news/202301/easyos-d ... eased.html

Feedback for 4.5.5 starts on page 12:
viewtopic.php?p=78064#p78064

EasyOS 4.5.4
January 4, 2023

Blog announcement:
https://bkhome.org/news/202301/easyos-d ... eased.html

Feedback for 4.5.4 starts on page 11:
viewtopic.php?p=77534#p77534

EasyOS 4.5.3
December 12, 2022

Blog announcement:
https://bkhome.org/news/202212/easyos-d ... eased.html

Feedback for 4.5.3 starts on page 8 of this thread:
viewtopic.php?p=75220#p75220

EasyOS 4.5.2
November 27, 2022

Blog announcement:
https://bkhome.org/news/202211/easyos-d ... eased.html

Feedback for 4.5.2 starts on page 7:
viewtopic.php?p=73787#p73787

EasyOS 4.5.1
November 19, 2022

Blog announcement:
https://bkhome.org/news/202211/easyos-d ... eased.html

Feedback for 4.5.1 starts on page 3:
viewtopic.php?p=73143#p73143

EasyOS 4.5
November 12, 2022

It is anticipated that this one will be announced on Distrowatch, so have posted quite a long blog announcement:

https://bkhome.org/news/202211/easyos-d ... eased.html

Here is the desktop:

I didn't bother with a pre-release, tested it on a few computers and took a gamble that no show-stoppers slipped through.

Feedback welcome!

Thanks @BarryK. Appreciate your continuous effort!

The "How Easy works" part-1 page has been updated, in conformance with Easy 4.5:

https://easyos.org/tech/how-easy-works.html

Last update was in 2018. This is a complete rewrite, greatly simplified.

Review of EasyOS version 4.5....

1 ) Audio has changed from version 4.4.3. I don't need to set to pulse audio,
however each time I boot up the audio is muted and volume is zero.
The tray icon has x to show that it is muted.

2) Samba is installed, but I couldn't get a Samba server to be recognized by
Chromebook laptop. EasyOS 4.4.3 didn't have this problem.

3) The Blender SFS package works now to my surprise. In EasyOS 4.4.3 there was a
serious bug when trying to subdivide faces among other tasks. It's a bit slow though probably because I
am using the 'nouveau' video driver. Blender was never designed to use this driver.
It's recommended to use high end video cards.

4) I checked mtpaint scripting ability and found the same problem exists.
I can't execute the following in the script window...

-e/freetype font="DejaVu Sans"

______________________________________________

As soon as your browser is set up to full screen 1920x1080 the YAD brightness window will be crippled.
This is only browser related. There is no difference while using Seamonkey. It is not a 4.5 issue - versions before 4.5 have the same problem. I'm using a 2012 BIOS PC for testing.

Update
Looks like a hardware problem. It will come and disappear w/o any logic.

"How Easy works part-2" is updated:

https://easyos.org/tech/how-easy-works-part-2.html

Barry, inxi seems to be missing. The wrapper is there, but not the executable.

pakt wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:07 pm

Barry, inxi seems to be missing. The wrapper is there, but not the executable.

Thanks for reporting that. I installed inxi and encountered various errors.

One error is a missing perl file. /usr/lib/perl5/5.30.1/Class/Struct.pm is in the devx sfs; however without the devx easy only has 'perl_tiny' and that file is missing. Did a commit to fix it:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit ... 21efc34769

Ran into another problem, a bug in the inxi perl script.

Don't want it, we already have good hardware reporting tools.

I will find out what package has created that inxi-wrapper.

EDIT:
inxi-wrapper is in JWMDesk.
However, /usr/local/jwmdesk/menu_system_build tests for existence of inxi and if not there won't use inxi-wrapper

So, although the wrapper script is there, it isn't used, so I won't rate that as a bug.
Though perhaps radky should put that wrapper script "out of sight", in /usr/local/jwmdesk
...yes, probably a good idea, so creating @radky mention so he will see this.

EasyOS currently has JWMDesk 3.5.4, but I see the latest is 3.6, so I should probably update:

https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=3561

...Roger, would you mind testing 3.6 in Easy 4.5, make sure everything is OK?

Hallo,
i have a problem with remastering Easy. I get a new remasterd easy.sfs-file but cannt get it in the original easy-4.5.Img-file. When i click on the 4.5-img-file it opens correct as mount-img-1 ... and mount-img-2-ext4-loop3 . But when i try to override in the easyos-folder the easy.sfs with my new one i got a error-message - the file system is only readable. How can i change that?

I guess not that many people using scsi...... mpt3sas not found, directory doesn't even exist

pakt wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:07 pm

Barry, inxi seems to be missing. The wrapper is there, but not the executable.

An update: Roger has tested JWMDesk 3.6 in Easy 4.5 and everything works.
So I will bump to that version.

The developer of inxi moved from a bash script to perl.
However, some of the Puppy variants include the old bash script, and Roger sent that old version to me.
I have added the old inxi script to woofQ:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit ... 2d013727ac

...also fixed, it was reporting the distro as "Quirky". That required fixing /etc/lsb-release

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit ... 5576ec96cc

inxi zipped attached:

BeNeu wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:07 pm

Hallo,
i have a problem with remastering Easy. I get a new remasterd easy.sfs-file but cannt get it in the original easy-4.5.Img-file. When i click on the 4.5-img-file it opens correct as mount-img-1 ... and mount-img-2-ext4-loop3 . But when i try to override in the easyos-folder the easy.sfs with my new one i got a error-message - the file system is only readable. How can i change that?

Ah yes, that was done deliberately.
The reason was that when an update is performed, the latest /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img will be downloaded, and that must not be modified, as it can be used to download a small "difference file" for the next version update.
The md5sum of /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img is checked, to make sure that it is not corrupted.

If you have /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img, copy it somewhere else, then use manual steps to mount the partitions read-write. How to do that is described near the bottom of this page:

https://easyos.org/user/how-to-update-easyos.html

wdt wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:25 pm

I guess not that many people using scsi...... mpt3sas not found, directory doesn't even exist

I had to search, find out what that is! Found:

https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/Linux_Dri ... E_23.0.pdf

EasyOS does have the kernel module:

# modinfo mpt3sas

But it seems that you need some folders|files as well?

EasyOS 4.5 has been announced on lxer.com, first time ever:

http://lxer.com/

...hmmm, they don't support https

They have quite a big readership, they say 350,000 individuals per month.

Try modprobe mpt3sas
then,,,, cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ ; grep mpt3 *
ls kernel/drivers/scsi/mp*
not there
Yes, broadcom bought LSI maybe 5 years ago
------more----
modinfo mpt3sas
modinfo: ERROR: Module mpt3sas not found
maybe what you uploaded is different than what you have in front of you?

Thanx for the answer, i tried your hint. It does not work for me. A got an other error - not enough space.... I gave up remastering and made a copy/img from the whole USB-Stick: It is a very big img-file, but works with all my installed programs/games. Vabene

People have been complaining about the lack of software for EasyOS...
Here's my contribution...
http://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.p ... edcf3a6c91
ptm timer 2.8 SFS available
A simple timer/alarm script that can be used to wake you up with a mp3 songs
I made this script as an SFS so that it can be used by all containers and the front window.

don570 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 12, 2022 8:56 pm

2) Samba is installed, but I couldn't get a Samba server to be recognized by
Chromebook laptop. EasyOS 4.4.3 didn't have this problem.

I have just started to test EasyShare.

I have neglected sshfs and samba sharing for quite a long time, because I haven't got a LAN setup.
Use my phone as a hotspot, and haven't had a need for a LAN.

Today I got out my router, dusted it off, and plugged in two computers, both running Easy 4.5.

First up, tested sshfs folder sharing... and it doesn't work.

Hmmm, ok will get stuck into fixing it.

OK, first bug fix for EasyShare, found that the 'arp-scan' utility is broken.
The fixed arp-scan is here:

viewtopic.php?t=7362

I wonder, is there a reason for completely disabling support for SELinux and AppArmor in the kernel at compile-time, rather than simply booting the system without them?

(I'm asking because I'm using AppArmor on my main system)

Chrysolite Azalea wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 3:51 pm

I wonder, is there a reason for completely disabling support for SELinux and AppArmor in the kernel at compile-time, rather than simply booting the system without them?

(I'm asking because I'm using AppArmor on my main system)

No reason, other than, as Easy doesn't use them then no point in enabling in the kernel.

BarryK wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 1:41 am

BeNeu wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:07 pm

Hallo,
i have a problem with remastering Easy. I get a new remasterd easy.sfs-file but cannt get it in the original easy-4.5.Img-file. When i click on the 4.5-img-file it opens correct as mount-img-1 ... and mount-img-2-ext4-loop3 . But when i try to override in the easyos-folder the easy.sfs with my new one i got a error-message - the file system is only readable. How can i change that?

Ah yes, that was done deliberately.
The reason was that when an update is performed, the latest /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img will be downloaded, and that must not be modified, as it can be used to download a small "difference file" for the next version update.
The md5sum of /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img is checked, to make sure that it is not corrupted.

If you have /mnt/wkg/easy_<version>_amd64.img, copy it somewhere else, then use manual steps to mount the partitions read-write. How to do that is described near the bottom of this page:

https://easyos.org/user/how-to-update-easyos.html

Just remembered, the /usr/sbin/mount-img defaults to mounting read-only, but if you pass and extra parameter "rw" then the partitions will be mounted read-write.

wdt wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 4:02 pm

Try modprobe mpt3sas
then,,,, cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ ; grep mpt3 *
ls kernel/drivers/scsi/mp*
not there
Yes, broadcom bought LSI maybe 5 years ago
------more----
modinfo mpt3sas
modinfo: ERROR: Module mpt3sas not found
maybe what you uploaded is different than what you have in front of you?

Ah, yes. Most scsi modules are removed when building EasyOS, as a space-saving exercise.

I have changed the script in woofQ so that it now leaves mpt3sas.ko in.

Note, that module is 500KB, I don't really want to leave in big modules if they are not used.

This will be in Easy 4.5.1, coming very soon.

Lots of testing and fixes for EasyShare:

https://bkhome.org/news/202211/easyshar ... f-tlc.html

>Note, that module is 500KB
That is odd, checking another distro I see
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 130280 Oct 15 02:52 mpt3sas.ko.xz
a dep is scsi_transport_sas.ko.xz, but this is 12K, and raid_class,,3K
This is 5.15.74
thanks

wdt wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 5:27 pm

>Note, that module is 500KB
That is odd, checking another distro I see
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 130280 Oct 15 02:52 mpt3sas.ko.xz
a dep is scsi_transport_sas.ko.xz, but this is 12K, and raid_class,,3K
This is 5.15.74
thanks

Yeah, but that's xz compressed. Expanded, it will be 500KB.

EasyOS uses lz4-hc compression on easy.sfs, so that 500KB will probably become about 250-300KB.
lz4-hc decompresses very fast, which is why I use it. Though, compression is no where as much as xz.

EasyOS version 4.5.1 released, see announcement:

https://bkhome.org/news/202211/easyos-d ... eased.html

have fun!

Just d/l and installed with devx (manually).

It went well except the sound had a x in it and didn't work, tried the usual with MSCW, set it up and tested ok, and then rebooted with accepting a save; sound failed on reboot; tried setting it up and save and rerboot again with same response; tried again with a shutdown and "start-from-cold", worked this time, maybe there is a need to shutdown and not just reboot first time for sound settings to be set ok. JWM gave two warnings, $HOME/.jwmrc [344] / [345]: could not open included file: /root/.jwmrc-drives and /root/.jwmc-containers, plus key binding root menu "2" and "4" not defined. And libpng gave a warning: Interface handling should be turned on when using png_read_image.

Not sure I like the first startup screen at power-up, seems to make easyos look very similar to a number of others and not individual anymore.

I shall try it on one of my AMD boxes this evening as the last I tried failed on a AMD 5700U processor
EDIT: yup, no good on the asis amd box, starts ok but can't select a working video in any sense and can't access any part of / to chase problems either.

Tested result as usal.. cant read etc/fstab. Unable to find easy.sfs etc while booting from SSD. lamine also not generated menu for easyos which was on partiton 6. However, menue generated for antix and dpup installed on other partitions. Manually added menu entry. Except Antix Linux none of them are loading.

In old compaq laptop, wifi not working. Lack of B43 driver.

Ramachandra Iyer wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 12:18 pm

In old compaq laptop, wifi not working. Lack of B43 driver.

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64 ... fell64.pet