Fatdog64-901 Final [10 Oct 2023]

[Clarity]

@Clarity As I recall it was simple enough. ...

Yes! That why I thought there 'might' be a simple tool already within.

No problem on my end, ATM.

[recobayu]

Hi @fatdog and team..
Thank you for this very fast boot of fatdog.
I use this option boot menu:

Code: Select all

title fatdog (sda3/fatdog)
  find --set-root uuid () 1785ce6e-d396-4a26-bec7-c850512b8179
  kernel /fatdog/vmlinuz mergeinitrd1=local:/fatdog/initrd rootfstype=ramfs 
  initrd /fatdog/initrd-nano

I really watch my stopwatch and it only takes 28 second to boot into my desktop. Really fast on my dell latitude e6400. It is still using old hard disk.
I hope this initrd-nano also can be implement on puppy linux.
Thank you very much, @fatdog and team.

[wiak]

Yes, boots very fast for me from frugal install using initrd-nano too.

Considering it includes LibreOffice components it is remarkably small and powerful. Size may not always be important, but sometimes very handy to have a small distro with many useful utilities: FatDog seems to fit that portable need better than most any other distro nowadays.

[some1]

very handy to have a small distro with many useful utilities: FatDog seems to fit that portable need better than most any other distro nowadays.

Yes!!!
a high-quality distro
recommended

[recobayu]

How to make initrd-nano in puppy linux?

[rockedge]

How to make initrd-nano in puppy linux?

Most Puppy Linux initrd.gz are around 2312 K compressed and decompressed is 4192 K.

[wiak]

How to make initrd-nano in puppy linux?

Most Puppy Linux initrd.gz are around 2312 K compressed and decompressed is 4192 K.

Of course it isn't the size of the initrd really; well, the huge-style initrd that embeds the underlying main rootfilesystem, will be slow to load of course. (FR/KL can make/use similar huge initrd structure by the way. At least the FR initrd is designed to handle such constructs, but never been a focus in terms of a user installation tool/method).

Rather it is how efficiently you can mount all the layers and start whatever services and network and load the desktop. Not much you can do about it sometimes though (e.g. xfce might start up lots of stuff and take time doing it, or some systems have complex init system arrangements) - FatDog clearly keeps its init system lean and fast, which is very nice of course. That's the kind of advantage used to be seen in Puppy more generally - a simple fast sysv init system, but FatDog seems to be doing it all a bit better these days IMO.

Disadvantages in going it alone too of course - limited packages - more maintenance required to keep distro alive so lots of dev time between releases, but FatDog team keep doing a great job. Puppy on the other hand suffers from no solid dev team really working on its very old and hacked woof-CE code base. Seems to me that FatDog carries the Puppy-type distro torch these days and does a good job of that thus far. Everyone gets older though... All projects need new blood in terms of active developers because even the most experienced developers eventually want to put their feet up and do something else with their time... The word used in Puppy world: Do-ocracy seems to me to be more of a warning than an asset. Really it suggests that if no-one does the work, nothing will be done. Hence the ongoing importance of a continuing solid dev team, which is no-doubt what keeps FatDog moving forward over time.

[rockedge]

I say soon we begin to address the overall Puppy Linux woof-CE and start looking into the initrd design. I see good things around the FatDog project and definitely those FR has to offer that would take Puppy up a level.

Do-ocracy seems to me to be more of a warning than an asset.

Does sound a wee bit like a threat.

[Clarity]

@fatdog is the ONLY forum distro which OOTB can be booted as a frugal (no matter if used via its ISO file booting or via a manual setup by the users) as weill as running within KVM VMs AND will also boot from traditional PXE method or via the simplified PXE ISO boot method that Ventoy offers.

One can also, without using a ISO file launcher (for example ISObooter/SG2D/Ventoy), boot directly from its ISO file via a GRUB2 stanza, as well.

It just works with everything I have booted it from over the recent years.

It has only 2 shortcoming that WoofCE and KL provide for their community. Those distros cater to an audience making it extremely easy for novice or experienced users tp boot their distros to desktop. WoofCE offer a guide for persistence (SAVESPEC present in the booting folder). KLs offer clear 'sample' boot stanzas. These distros negate the need for any user to tamper with the menu to go OOTB to desktop with persistence. As such these reduce the chances for user error(s) going to desktop.

For FATDOG, the knowledgeable user must interrupt the boot menu and guide persistence management; thus no guide file NOR pre-defined guide menus. Oh, we know that we can allow it to default to root use, but, if one wants to keep all of the sessions in a named folder, the ability does not exist, currently.

FD is fast and well designed.

[icake]

Further to the Chinese txzes (version 321.0.6) for Fatdog64-901 released on Oct 15, 2023, I have upgraded them to version 321.6.1 to enable Chinese support on more applications. Known limitations for version 321.6.1:

1. No Chinese support in urxvt for fcitx, gcin, hime, ibus, rime and scim. To enable Chinese support in console, I have added lxterm in all 7 input platforms.

2. No Chinese support in yong for geany, LibreOffice 7.5.2.2 and seamonkey 2.53.15

I. icake language txzes:
I have created 7 half-Chinese language txzes for fatdog64-901:
fcitx Chinese input platform: fcitx64_4.2.9-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (26 mb)
gcin Chinese input platform: gcin64_2.9.0-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (10 mb)
hime Chinese input platform: hime64_0.9.11-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (10 mb)
ibus Chinese input platform: ibus64_1.5.19-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (56 mb)
rime Chinese input platform: ibus64-rime_1.4.0-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (79 mb)
scim Chinese input platform: scim64_1.4.18-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (15 mb)
yong Chinese input platform: yong64_2.5.0-en-zh-bionic-321.6.1.txz (10 mb)

Plus 2 Chinese language txzes each for fatdog64-901:
Simplified Chinese: fatdog64-901-zhcn-321.6.1.txz (4 mb)

Traditional Chinese: fatdog64-901-zhcn-321.6.1.txz (3 mb)

To use:
(a) any 1 of the 7 half-Chinese language txzes will enable you to display and input Chinese in fatdog64-901

(b) the 2 Chinese language txzes will give you Simplified Chinese (zhcn) or Traditional Chinese (zhhk) menus, icon labels, tooltips for fatdog64-901. Please note that all Chinese language pets rely on a suitable half-Chinese language pet already installed to the system to provide Chinese input platform and Chinese fonts. Otherwise the system cannot input Chinese and display Chinese (shown as squares).

II. icake combo txz
I have also created an icake combo txz for fatdog64-901 with all 7 Chinese input platforms above and 3 user interface languages:
icake64-fatdog64-901-combo-est-fghirsy.321.6.1.txz (216 mb)

III. icake combo live iso
I have also remastered 1 icake combo live iso based on fatdog64-901 with all 7 Chinese input platforms above and 3 user interface languages:
icake64-Fatdog64-901-20240503-est-fghirsy.iso (875 mb)

so the total number of different systems created by the above icake combo txz and combo live iso is 21:
21 = 7 Chinese input platforms (fcitx, gcin, hime, ibus, rime, scim or yong) X 3 user interface languages (English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese)

more information about the fcitx, gcin, hime, ibus, scim and yong txzes, please see: Documentation-and-Tools

[fatdog]

As always, a huge thank you @icake for the Chinese language packs and remaster (added link to your post here).