Fossa64-bas - CLOSED

[ozsouth]

V9 released 26/7/23. This is the last in this series. MID is the new project. Also LESS is the successor of BAS.

Fixed themes - can now choose (via Setup menu) blue, brown, green or grey (default) jwm theme.
Minor fixes & additions as per v8. . Is 200mb & my focus after this is on a bigger,
more complete version, so this should be the last of this series. Use at own risk.

UPDATE 27/7/23: my earlier apulse-gtk3 .pet (needed for bigger web browsers) was faulty.
This update also fixes non-printing issue I had in Firefox/Chrome. Is 3mb.
Fixed version uploaded - must uninstall previous & install this one (use at own risk):
see post 3 below.

I also discovered a way to drastically reduce the ffmpeg size to 7.5mb. Use at own risk. See 2nd post.

NOTE TO ALL USERS - as this is very cut-down, it only has what is needed to run. My packages contain needed extras.
If you want to use someone else's packages, remember they would almost certainly not have all files needed.
In particular, browsers - as Palemoon is gtk2, I didn't add gtk3, so I've linked my apulse-gtk3-fl.pet above.

-------------------------------

V8 released 25/7/23.

This is mostly a bugfix & reorganisation of files. pfind, lxrandr, xorgwizard, intel fixed; some requested
libs added to aid other browsers. New themes.

-------------------------------------

V7 released 15/7/23.

Fixed CD boot errors & adds evince for firefox/chrome printing workaround. 201mb.
For in-depth discussion on these issues, see: viewtopic.php?p=94040#p94040
Recommend not using earlier versions. Use at own risk.

-------------------------------------------

V6 released 14/7/23.

I had set my browsers to run-as-spot & my updater to delete /root files when run. Apparently, significant numbers
want to run as root, which would kill their settings each update. So v6 has removed that delete function.
To run Palemoon as root, edit /usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser , & remove 'run-as-spot'.

----------------------

V5 released 13/7/23.

Palemoon 32.3 (still gtk2), gparted & mhwaveedit added, & some fixes. 199.9 mb. Legacy boots from CD.
Mhwaveedit can play wav, au, ogg (click green play button), & also record, edit & save as wav.

--------------------

V4n released 10/7/23.

Removed non-working efi boot files - legacy CD boot is all that works (select in bios by turning off secure boot) - 6mb saved. On my HP laptop I have to press F9 when bootup starts, to select CD drive as boot device. Also added rfkill to iso.

-------------------

V4 released 8/7/23.

V4 contains the essential fix to previous ca-certificates fix & some other minor fixes. Is 204mb.
Compression is a bit lower - used -b 1M -comp xz -Xdict-size 25% - so should load faster.

-------------------

V3 released 6/7/23. Add updated browser certificates, as currently invalid. Note: this was incomplete - fixed in v4.

-----------------

V2 released 3/7/23. Auto-close browser before update; add forum icon. Note: lack of valid certificates a big issue - fixed in v4.

-----------------

V1. Back to Basics.
My goal when starting all this was to have a basic USABLE puppy, which was small, secure, extendable, with basic tools. 'Low' was experimental,'Medium' was much more than basic & 'Minimal' was too lacking - a decent web browser is a must. Since most folk seemed to want a puppy around 200mb, I've tried to combine all these efforts into a 204mb Fossa64 - Basic, half original fossapup's size. I used medium-high compression (-b 1M -comp xz -Xdict-size 50%), still less than standard puppies. It has Ted rtf wordprocessor, some useful utilites, security updates to busybox (2022) & wget, openssl, curl (all 2023), but doesn't have a media player or printing, but wav & au can be played via file manager & some apps have 'print to file', & .pets for those (& other functions) appear in next post. Has Palemoon, which plays youtube videos, but plays more media with ffmpeg .pet installed. Includes some fixes made since min-med pups released. Everything is 'use at own risk'.

History: PhilB made the original fossapup modular, enabling this sort of manipulation.
Thanks to: PhilB, BarryK, 01micko, peebee, mikewalsh, SFR, radky, zigbert, plinej, Jasper, rockedge & others I'm unsure of, for posting some forum software I used.

* leafpad text editor, terminal & minixcal calendar are in puppy .sfs

* .pets included in ydrv .sfs :

calcoo_1.3.8
gftp-fl
gmeasures -fl
poorerbatlev-1c
poorercputemp64-0.1d
pupmtp-fl
pupsysinfo-fl
scrot-fl
ted64-fixed-fl
viewnior-fl
xkbd-fl
yahtzeez-fl

evince-fl (in v6p onward)
gparted-fixed-fl (in v5 onward)
mhwaveedit-fixed-fl (in v5 onward)

Note: isomaster dropped - pCompress makes an iso from a directory - still need to have boot files though.

* other programs (also in ydrv .sfs):

blankcddvd - fast blanking of cd or dvd - user actioned
burniso2cd - burns (bootable) iso to cd or dvd (edited to suggest blankcddvd) - user actioned
makesusp - ensures laptop suspends upon lid close & resumes on open (runs on startup via /etc/init.d)
rfkill - wifi unblocker - user actioned (in v4n onward)
setblt - brightness setter - can set in terminal - default is setblt 5 (50% - runs on startup via /etc/init.d)
setspot - sets spot folder & all under it to owner spot - user actioned
updatesfs - run in blank folder - to add/remove sfs contents - user actioned
updatesfsl - as previous item but medium-high compression (recommended) - user actioned (in v4 onward)

* Palemoon gtk2 browser & basic updater are as adrv.sfs. For improved media compatibility, should install ffmpeg .pet.
Updating process: To update Palemoon, close it, & click Update Palemoon (in the Internet Menu). This temporarily
runs Palemoon as root - necessary to allow update. Then click Help, then click Check for Updates. Will update if
possible & then restart needed. Then close Palemoon, then open it from icon - updated version runs, as user spot.

TO USE ANOTHER BROWSER, see post 3 - will need apulse-gtk3-fixed-fl.pet, posted near top of this page.

* Background image can be changed by swapping in a .jpg as /usr/share/backgrounds/default.jpg, then restarting X.
.

[ozsouth]

other .pets available:

apulse-gtk3 (fixed) here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... xed-fl.pet

ffmpeg-small here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/qle2ymh3 ... l.pet/file

abiword/gnumeric here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/pec7upwt ... l.pet/file

masterpdf4 here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yd334myb ... l.pet/file

cups basic here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... sij-fl.pet

gutenprint here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... enp-fl.pet

mtpaint (update) here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/y2fsous9 ... l.pet/file

gnome-mplayer here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... xed-fl.pet

mpv here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... mpv-fl.pet

xpat2 cards here: https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... at2-fl.pet

claws-mail here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/4lp2fx2w ... l.pet/file

libreoffice 6.4.7.2 here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/799hnwns ... l.pet/file
- 180mb. Puts an entry in Document menu. Default saves to /root/Documents , in ms2007- format.
- Is set to US - to change this, when open, go to: tools/options/language settings/languages - edit locale & western settings

Some small .pets below:

[ozsouth]

For those who'd like a big Fossa64, without adding individual .pets, there is a bigger option coming soon.

Meanwhile, for V9 , you can have a bigger browser than Palemoon, and/or bigger fdrv, thus:

-------------------------

Bigger browser Replace Basic's adrv with (whatever) browser adrv or portable.

Out: palemoon (rename/delete adrv first).

In: Whatever browser sfs/portable you wish. REQUIRES apulse-gtk3-fl.pet below UNLESS you use ydrv in option 2.
My FirefoxESR - Designed to run as spot. To run as root, edit /usr/local/bin/firefox64esr , & remove 'run-as-spot'.
Updater (in Internet menu) is for 'run-as-spot' only - updates should be offered automatically if running as root.
Updater method (for run-as-spot ONLY): To update Firefox, close it, & click Update Firefox (in Internet Menu). This temporarily
runs Firefox as root - necessary to allow update. Then click Menu (3 bars on top right) then click Help, then click About Firefox.
Will update if possible & then restart needed. Then close Firefox, then open it from icon - updated version runs, as user spot.

Essential .pet for bigger browsers (if you downloaded any of my gtk3 .pets before this one, please uninstall
it & install new apulse-gtk3-fixed-fl.pet - see post 2 above).

Firefox ESR (v102.13) adrv 'big1' here (64mb): https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... 5.sfs.big1
(remove .big1 before use).

Note1: ffmpeg increases media available. Can install new smaller .pet in post 2 above.
Note2: I had issues with printing - fixed apulse-gtk3 .pet (see 1st post) sorts out this problem.

-----------------

Bigger fdrv. Replace Basic's fdrv with 'big' version:

Adds more firmware (rename/delete fdrv first).

fdrv 'big1' here (31mb): https://archive.org/download/puppy_linu ... 5.sfs.big1
(remove .big1 before use)

[Marv]

So far so good. Replaced the 'medium' system files in my install with the 'basic' files. No adrv or fdrv, using my LXDE/PCManFM/MyApps ydrv basically unchanged.

Clean boot, posting from it now using the current Brave run as spot/portable. My ydrv resident LXDE, drives-on-desktop, CUPS, PCManFM with gvfs and all apps I've tried continue to work well. The only app in your ydrv I don't pick up in mine is Ted, and I carry a full Evince as my onboard PDF app.

I run 'newer' pups of several flavours sucessfully, but as of now, fossapup64 (including this update) and peebees slackware based pups are the last ones where everything I need runs without fiddling.

Thanks

[ozsouth]

@Marv - would you please look at the ydrv to see if /usr/local/bin/defaultwordprocessor is there? It won't be for just the very first person. Should have in it as line 2, exec Ted "$@". Without that, right click on rtf, then choose Ted, opens file.

[Marv]

@ozsouth - I must have been the first download and it is not present in your ydrv in that downloaded iso. Since I substitute my ydrv sans Ted, I wouldn't have noticed in any event. My default for that is a portable LibreOffice. At some point I may have a look/relook at Ted.

Thanks,

[ozsouth]

@Marv - glad to know where it went & that it doesn't really affect you much, & doesn't affect anyone else at all. I've pm'd you a link to the corrrected ydrv (3.25mb) just for completeness.

[ozsouth]

V2 (bugfix) released. See 1st post.

[Geek3579]

Libreoffice 7.02 / 7.03 sfs loaded but did not run. Anybody else tried this ?

[ozsouth]

@Geek3579 - unfortunately, with a cut-down version, libraries will often be missing. I test in Fossa64-bas, then add needed libs before posting a package. I have posted a Libreoffice 6.4.72 .pet, which has libcups.so.2 added into it (you can check for missing libs by running soffice in a terminal). I have attached a .pet for that lib below. MAY be all you need.

[ozsouth]

V1,2,3 - ca-certificates are outdated, incomplete & thus invalid - v4 fixes this.

[ozsouth]

V4 released with essential fix of ca-certs that were in V3.
V4 also has some minor fixes & a bit lower compression for faster loading.
SEE FIRST POST.

[Marv]

Thanks, V3 install updated to V4 with no hitches or glitches observed. Continuing to use this install as my daily. At some point I added gnome-mplayer and gnumeric to my ydrv with no problems noted there either. My total directory size for this install, including LXDE, PCManFM, and my added apps, is 275MB. Makes it my smallest 'complete' pup at this point. At idle, lxtask shows 0% CPU use and 192MB memory use on this i5 based laptop; also nicely lean.

[greengeek]

Has anybody here successfully booted from a CD?

I am just about to download again and recheck md5 etc - but have so far been unable to boot the V4 iso from CD.

I have compared the CD contents to the usual F96CD-4 iso (which does boot perfectly) and grub.cfg is a bit different - but I don't usually boot 64bit pups from CD so don't really have much idea what is normal and what is not.

Really want to use this stripped Fossa as a test bed on my multiple (Vista era) laptops to see if it is a solid base. But CD bootability is a prerequisite as CD is the way I provide Puppy to my friends / family.

EDIT: When I mount the iso I do not see an EFI directory. Could this be the issue?

EDIT2: I don't actually need efi boot as I have secure boot turned off...

[ozsouth]

@greengeek - yes, I've booted a cd - only booting in legacy mode works. On my 8yo HP i3, I press F9 then select CD boot.
I burnt the CD using 'burniso2cd'.

[rockedge]

@greengeek I will give Fossa64-bas a try out in QEMU + VirtualBox booting as a CD-ROM and check it's operational status and also compare the boot stanza's available.

[Marv]

@greengeek , I hadn't done this in a decade but had a go at burning and booting from CDs on my i5 based laptop, legacy firmware, circa 2012. Back deck shade and dog sleeping in the sun for patience

I first used iso master to replace the stock ydrvs with my ydrv and pburn to burn the resulting isos. Success in Fossa64-bas v4 with the editing and burning done in F96-CE4. I also burned a copy of F96-CE4 using isomaster and pburn in LxPupSc64, again replacing the stock ydrv with my ydrv. Successful boot from CD and run there also.

Posting from Brave portable in the Fossa64-bas v4 install booted from CD. Runs perfectly but the load times remind me of why I now use USB3 sticks for my gimmes.

Update, just for completeness: All the needed tools to modify and burn an iso are present in Fossa64-bas. I just made a modded v4.5 iso as follows:

Made an appropriately named working directory on my EXT2 data partition. Mounted the stock iso and copied the files on it into the working directory. Removed the files and drives I don't use from that directory and substituted my LXDE/PCManFM/apps ydrv there. Used pcompress (rightclick) to create an iso from that directory and ran burniso2cd in a terminal opened from the directory containing the new iso. A nice 195MB CD resulted. Boots and runs perfectly.

[greengeek]

@ozsouth
@rockedge
@Marv
Thanks all for the testing.
I will try with a fresh download and see how I go.
So far I am showing the following:
# MD5
ed210d662bc832c05f9d6e973903da6b fossapup64-9.5-bas-4.iso
# SHA1
ed1461e120f255758095793602a4f5c91314c1a7 fossapup64-9.5-bas-4.iso
# SHA256
830f7c8b76f2df29acb8675af8667412bcc501a98b99d19b904fa286294f34aa fossapup64-9.5-bas-4.iso

[rockedge]

Testing v4 on a F96-CE_4 hosted QEMU virtual machine. I had to install GParted to set up the virtual hard drive. I used pkg which worked smoothly.

All is well

Screenshot(68).jpg (41.17 KiB) Viewed 2482 times

created a 10 G HDD with one partition formatted to ext4 labeled QEMU. Using a save folder. htop reports 570 mb of RAM being used.

[greengeek]

Thanks for testing.

It seems I can boot some machines from CD but not others. Need to check my bios settings between machines.

On one machine (Compaq CQ60) I can't enable wifi. It appears that the rfkill utility is unavailable.
(Could be worth adding back in if it's a small utility?)

[ozsouth]

@greengeek - as I was aiming at older pcs, I thought legacy boot would suffice. Will look into that. As for your CQ60, I'll look into rfkill, but it may be firmware - fossa64-bas has a small fdrv. You could run: dmesg | grep irmware , to see if so. Could also be missing driver, run: lspci | grep etwork , to identify your onboard wireless adaptor.

[greengeek]

.. it may be firmware - fossa64-bas has a small fdrv. You could run: dmesg | grep irmware , to see if so. Could also be missing driver, run: lspci | grep etwork , to identify your onboard wireless adaptor.

If I decide to use the larger fdrv - how do I activate it? Given that I plan to run live from CD - would i need to load the large fdrv somehow after boot or would i need to use Isomaster to graft it into the CD contents beforehand?
Thx!

[ozsouth]

@greengeek - yes, isomaster is the go. To be sure, you could go for even bigger fdrv, maybe this 48 mb one: https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linu ... 7dec22.sfs
But you could test, before editing & burning anew, by loading the bigger fdrv with fossa running (click on it in ROX-Filer).

[rockedge]

I converted an fdrv from Kennel Linux structure that is 77 mb to a Puppy Linux structure, It was constructed originally by @wiak for KLU-jammy and I am offering it in the latest KLV-Airedale-sr2 as well and so far has met expectations.

Download -> fdrv_fossapup64_9.5.sfs 77 mb

I made a quick ISO with the larger fdrv included. Ready for a test run...... fossapup64-bas-4.5.iso 263 mb

[greengeek]

I made a quick ISO with the larger fdrv included. Ready for a test run...... fossapup64-bas-4.5.iso 263 mb

Well interestingly that has cured my problem with failure to boot from CD on a Toshiba Satellite Pro S500. I had previously tried 2 downloads and multiple burns of ozsouth's v4 but always got to a flashing cursor but then no further.
With this version it loads up perfectly on that machine. (Can't see any difference in the CD contents so no idea what was going on...)

I am still having an issue with the Compaq CQ60 unable to hook up the wifi but that machine has some weird setup with the wifi switch - it seems to randmomly show soft blocked and clicking the switch seems to give unstable results. The lack of rfkill is a hindrance but I will persist with this till I can work out what's going on.

Looking like a great little stripped back base pup. Thanks oz and rockedge

[ozsouth]

Interesting - I discovered that my efi boot files do nothing - I set my bios to legacy ages ago. Setting it back to secure boot failed to boot anything. So I can remove the 6mb of efi files from the iso. Hence CD booting as legacy is the way to go. New machines, which may not have a legacy choice, don't have cd/dvd drives anyway.
As for v4.5 - shows the perils of minimalism = missing firmware due to small fdrv.
Also, rfkill is interesting - it's a symlink to busybox, but doesn't work. I made a small .pet - attached below.

[greengeek]

Also, rfkill is interesting - it's a symlink to busybox, but doesn't work. I made a small .pet - attached below.

Fantastic, thank you!
That has enabled me to get past the soft block and I am posting thru wifi now.
Before trying to hook up the wifi i ran rfkill and it showed me this:

Code: Select all

root# rfkill list all
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
root# 

but then i ran rfkill unblock all

and this cleared the soft block:

Code: Select all

root# rfkill list all
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
root# 

Then the sns wizard found the wifi networks and all good.

(For some reason this laptop shows the phy0 as a wireless lan but i'm pretty sure that is the wired lan)

Liking the look of this minimal pup!

[greengeek]

Also - I was able to hook up my Android phone and retrieve files from it using the pupmtp utility in Filesystem menu. This has been a struggle for me in other pups - but the lack of gphoto2 in this pup seems to have made it easier for pupmtp phone access.
Very happy.

[ozsouth]

@greengeek - Great! See your pm's for another option.

[ozsouth]

Smaller, non-essential updated iso made. See first post.