Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

The Fatdog team is pleased to announce the release Fatdog64-903 Final.

This is a special release to address shim incompatibilities (c.f. viewtopic.php?t=12452).

Information on where to download, what has changed from previous versions, how to install/upgrade, is available in the release notes for Fatdog64-903.

For this version only, you can carry over and re-use your savefile/savedir from Fatdog64-900/901/902 (only, not from any other older version).

The Fatdog team is pleased to announce the release Fatdog64-902 Final.

This is a special release to address Linux kernel bug CVE 2024-1086

Information on where to download, what has changed from previous versions, how to install/upgrade, is available in the release notes for Fatdog64-902.

For this version only, you can carry over and re-use your savefile/savedir from Fatdog64-900/901 (only, not from any other older version).

Fatdog64-901 was released on 10 October 2023.

This is a special release to address glibc bug CVE 2023-4911.

Information on where to download, what has changed from previous versions, how to install/upgrade, is available in the release notes for Fatdog64-901.

Fatdog64-900 was released on 12 September 2023.

The Fatdog team is pleased to announce the Final release of the first of the 900 series, Fatdog64-900, following one month of public Alpha and one month of public Beta.

Information on where to download, what has changed from previous versions, how to install/upgrade, is available in the release notes for Fatdog64-900.

Please note: if you "discovered" the 900 ISO and downloaded it before this announcement, you may want to re-download again as there have been last-minute minor fixes and re-adjustment made.

900 Beta announcement
900 Alpha announcement
Previous release: Fatdog64-814

Since we now have a dedicated subforum at our disposal, please do not post support questions in this thread, create a separate one instead. Comments, feedback, etc related to this specific release are still okay. Thank you.

Hot Fix for Fatdog64-900

• 2023-10-03 No visible text in help viewer search results - Bug report
  To fix start Control Panel > System > Gslapt Package Manager; update the package list; install package mdview version 2023.09. This fix is already included in 901.

Add-ons and Tweaks

• Chinese language packs and remaster for Fatdog64-900 by @icake

• Chinese language packs and remaster for Fatdog64-901 by @icake

• Chinese language packs and remaster for Fatdog64-902 by @icake

• NVidia video driver SFS via SFS Manager; walk-through by @don570.

• LibreOffice Calc and ui_tweaks.sh by @fatdoguser et al. from this post through to post.

Reserved.

Review of Fatdog64-900 Final
So far so good. I upgraded from Beta Version of Fatdog64-900
by dragging vmlinuz and initrd from ISO.

I tested ptm timer, Krita 5.2 beta , blender 3.6 LTS and fSpy 1.1.0-beta.3

fSpy 1.1.0-beta.3 needed --no-sandbox option to launch.
Everything worked. I tested my wacom Bamboo tablet as well.

Will there be a accelerated nvidia driver?
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Will there be a accelerated nvidia driver?

Or a pathway of steps: Selectable driver would be better if this is reasonable.

Dear FatDog team
I upgraded to the FatDog64-900 final from the Beta Version by splitting the initrd in a VM and replacing vmlinuz, initrd and fd64.sfs in a FAT USB stick. Also replaced the devx and kernel source SFSs.
Everything worked fine after the first reboot when the extra SFSs were loaded.
The only "complain" is that an out of tree driver installed with dkms in the beta version fail to autoupdate for the new kernel (while source and devx were loaded).
Maybe the autoinstall option is not activated or (most liklely) I did something wrong with the original installation
In any case running dkms autoinstall <module> did the trick again.
Thank you for a solid release.

Further review of Fatdog64-900

mpv fast worked correctly to listen to downoads
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=8962

Baconrecorder had a slight problem with the larger size of font, but I will fix that.
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6797

Samba worked to transfer files from my chromebook
https://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/packa ... 6_64-1.txz

however when I clicked on 'Help' button of samba server this is what I saw...
The 'Start' button of Samba worked properly

@don570, thank you for your reviews and feedback.

Re the samba help button message box: the button tooltip says, "Show more detailed description of the service, if available." (emphasis is mine). The message box says, (title) "Sorry", "No information available for samba". That's because Fatdog64 doesn't include a detailed description of the service. What sort of help were you looking for when you clicked the button?
There are several good samba (SMB) help resources and tutorials, in the old forum and generally online. If you load the devx.sfs you will also get manual pages for almost all commands and services, including samba: run man 8 samba in that case. Manual pages can be more difficult to read than online tutorials, but often they are more accurate.

I'm curious to know, did you need to install the full samba package linked in your message to be able to transfer files from your chromebook? Usually the cutdown samba package, which is included in Fatdog64 ISO, is enough to get files from Linux and Windows machines. Is a chromebook an exception?
More curious, did you try using the /usr/share/Shares/Network icon to search for and mount your chromebook file system?

step wrote:

I'm curious to know, did you need to install the full samba package linked in your message to be able to transfer files from your chromebook? Usually the cutdown samba package, which is included in Fatdog64 ISO, is enough to get files from Linux and Windows machines. Is a chromebook an exception?

Yes I did install samba package. But I'll try it without my save folder loaded and report back.

Clicking on Network Icon set up network perfectly. My address was listed in window. Then I went to Chromebook and it could find the Share properly by name [see image]

step wrote:

What sort of help were you looking for when you clicked the button?

I was just testing to see if you had linked to a html document file somewhere.
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Also I tested the latest Blender 4.0.0 Alpha and it was very stable.
https://builder.blender.org/download/daily/
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I tested Fatdog64-900 Final again without a save folder and SAMBA worked without the need of packages from repository.
Good.
Recent Shotcut video editor will work as video editor.
My Bluetooth USB adaptor (CSR) ---> I was able to pair successfully (using looping)
and I then tried the audio test. I could hear left and right speaker but there was a strange latency problem.
Too bad to be usable . I have same problem with BarryK 's Easy OS. (and doesn't work very well with Windows either!!)

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don570 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 8:31 pm

Will there be a accelerated nvidia driver?

Thank you for testing.

And yes, we will build the accelerated nvidia driver too. Note that we don't have any recent nvidia hardware to test, so it will be entirely up to the people like you to confirm whether or not the driver works after we build it.

EDIT: Nvidia driver available from SFS manager. There are 4 of them: 535 series (latest production branch), and three more legacy series: 470, 390 and 340. Before using, please visit NVIDIA driver website to figure out which one supports your card.

Congratulations to the @fatdog team. This version is a rocket in comparison to other version and most certainly most all of forum distros. My hat is tipped to you for this fabulous piece of craftiness.

I have booted this distro in via its ISO file in the following order

• QEMU booting ISO directly

• QEMU booting a SG2D USB that contains the ISO

• QEMU booting a Ventoy USB that contains the ISO

• Booting a SG2D USB selecting the ISO on bare-metal

• Booting a Ventoy USB selecting the ISO on bare-metal

And LASTLY, I have just concluded booting the ISO via Ventoy's PXE over the LAN. What is amazing, here, is that FATDOG boots to full desktop in a mere 22 seconds. YES YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT! 22 SECONDS!!! At first, I thought something was wrong or that it was broken or missing something. I spent an hour searching...nothing is wrong. I retested 2 more times with the next test at 24 seconds and the last test was 19 seconds. This booting is CRAZY FAST!

Full operations are all successful and session saves are flawless and quiet.

My network is a normal home LAN with all test PCs wired. All PCs are old.

Thanks for the hard work to all of you. Seems well-worth it.

Preliminary Report on Ventoy's PXE ("iVentoy)

Definition: PXE is a LAN adapter technology to allow machines to boot from their wired network.

Below prescribes info, found and used, from the iVentoy website. The info in this post are mirrored here.

Scenario Prerequisites

• A PC running ANY LInux

• Wired network with the above PC

• Another PC that will boot after the PXE service is started

Setup the PXE service
It could NOT have been any simpler as Ventoy development has made this simple to do. Anyone merely:

1. Downloads the iVentoy for Linux

2. Expand the compressed file in a folder

3. Expansion creates 7 sub-folders and a CLI script

   

   iVentoy_directory2.jpg (9.87 KiB) Viewed 6285 times

4. Place a FATDOG ISO in the "iso" sub-folder

   

   iVentoy_ISOdirectory.jpg (8.45 KiB) Viewed 6285 times

5. Open a terminal in the folder

6. Launch the script file. It will tell you to open a browser

   Code: Select all

   # ./iventoy.sh 
   Usage: ./iventoy.sh { start | stop | status }
   
   # ./iventoy.sh start
   iventoy start SUCCESS PID=25955
   
   Please open your browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:26000 or http://x.x.x.x:26000 (x.x.x.x is any valid IP address)
   
   # ./iventoy.sh status
   iventoy is running, PID=9763

7. Open a browser

8. Click the Green button in the browser window

   

   iVentoy_Greenbutton2.jpg (27.05 KiB) Viewed 6281 times

This PC, now, can serve ISOs to other PCs, upon request

Boot a LAN PC

1. Power on another PC on your wired LAN

2. In its POST, interrupt it to the PC's boot manager

3. Select the LAN device to boot the PC

4. Select the FATDOG ISO file

Start work almost as fast as you can reach to sip your coffee

Conclusion
This was too easy to setup and test. All FATDOG functionality is intact. Only storage needed was for saving the session. No fussy installation, no downside, no problems.

The following ISO were tested by booting the test PC

• FATDOG's v900

• FATDOG's v814

• SG2D's ISO

• Ventoy's ISO

• Ubuntu's ISO

• PLOP's latest ISO

None compared to FD v900 20sec boot times

Enjoy

PS: PLEASE, Please, please post ANY shortcomings or issues you find in booting using this technology. This helps all of us.

The most recent krita alpha version 5.3 will open with the following command

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=  ./krita-5.3.0-prealpha-8367fa5e22-x86_64.appimage

here is output of terminal...

# ./krita-5.3.0-prealpha-8367fa5e22-x86_64.appimage
Cannot mix incompatible Qt library (5.15.7) with this library (5.15.8)
Aborted


# LD_LIBRARY_PATH=  ./krita-5.3.0-prealpha-8367fa5e22-x86_64.appimage
Replacing libstdc++.so.6 with the fallback version: libstdc++.so.6.0.30 -> libstdc++.so.6.0.32
Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
/tmp/.mount_krita-kAzkPX/usr/lib/krita-python-libs/krita added to PYTHONPATH

@Clarity, thanks for testing and sharing the information. iVentoy makes booting from PXE looks very easy!

@don570, we have a wrapper script called run-appimage that will do just that.
Try run-appimage ./krita-5.3.0-prealpha-8367fa5e22-x86_64.appimage Or just double-click the AppImage from ROX-Filer (after making it executable)

Yes, FATDOG is the only forum distro, currently, that OOTB affords ISO booting from every known technology that I am aware of...without boot stanza adjustment for many use cases.

Namely, its ISO file(s) has been tested and will boot from

• GRUB2 boot manager on bare-metal

• QEMU

• SG2D USB

• Ventoy USB

• ISObooter

• iVentoy PXE (using this, it boots faster than any technology I know; ATM)

giving the user full functionality by merely booting it. Sessions can be saved appropriately, as always. In my world, the ONLY storage needed for the OS is for SESSIONS: no full, no frugal, no ??? or other storage needs; except for the Session Requirements.

Thanks, AGAIN, to the @fatdog TEAM!

A very cool release, thank you Fatdog team. I've so far been impressed with the memory management, so little RAM is needed and used, even compared to the previous Fatdog 8-series, which is exactly what my Thinkpad T510 from over a decade ago needs and appreciates with its mere 4GB of RAM. Impressive. And finally, GTK3 with Wayland support straight out of the box. Most any web browser that I need works now from the get-go. This shoots straight to the top as my favorite dog for being so immediately functional. Thank you for extending the service life of my laptop trough your hard work, Fatdog team. Looking forward to see the updates too.

UPDATE: The time to desktop differs by which of the test PCs I use. The initial report was for a 2015 i5; while running from a Intel Core 2 6800 it takes a minute. Otherwise all desktop operation is the same.

In a nutshell, YMWV

My PCs, all, have swap partitions. But FD v9 is not picking this up at boot.

Curious if this should happen or an oversight?

Not had much to say as everything is working as expected. One thing have noticed though is that the network connection comes up more quickly now. On my machine it was taking 30s or so after reaching the desktop.
@Clarity
It takes around 22 seconds to get to the desktop on my laptop, using a frugal install on an internal SSD.

I. icake language txzes:
I have created 6 half-Chinese language txzes for fatdog64-900:
fcitx Chinese input platform: fcitx64_4.2.7-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (21 mb)
gcin Chinese input platform: gcin64_2.8.5-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (6 mb)
hime Chinese input platform: hime64_0.9.10-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (10 mb)
ibus Chinese input platform: ibus64_1.5.19-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (55 mb)
scim Chinese input platform: scim64_1.4.14-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (14 mb)
yong Chinese input platform: yong64_2.5.0-en-zh-bionic-321.0.6.txz (10 mb)

Plus 2 Chinese language txzes each for fatdog64-900:
Simplified Chinese: fatdog64-900-zhcn-321.0.6.txz (4 mb)

Traditional Chinese: fatdog64-900-zhcn-321.0.6.txz (3 mb)

To use:
(a) any 1 of the 6 half-Chinese language txzes will enable you to display and input Chinese in fatdog64-900

(b) the 2 name+version number corresponding Chinese language txzes will give you Simplified Chinese (zhcn) or Traditional Chinese (zhhk) menus, icon labels, tooltips for fatdog64-900. Please note that all Chinese language txzes 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 fatdog64-900 with all 6 Chinese input platforms above and 3 user interface languages:
icake64-fatdog64-900-combo-est-fghisy.321.0.6.txz (113 mb)

III. icake combo live iso
I have also remastered 1 icake combo live iso based on fatdog64-900 with all 6 Chinese input platforms above and 3 user interface languages:
icake64-Fatdog64-900-est-fghisy.iso (789 mb)

so the total number of different systems created by the above icake combo txz and combo live iso is 18:
18 = 6 Chinese input platforms (fcitx, gcin, hime, ibus, 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

Running the unmodified desktop on large screen TVs is a challenge: The on-screen mouse is so tiny that it is hard to see. I have looked over the control panel and dont see a way to expand to use other larger on-screen mouse pointer.

Edit: Seems Openbox in CntrlPanel does this ===> And a font change. Current font on a 3840x2180 resolution used by FATDOG is too tiny. One option of course is to change resolution, but, I like what I can do with multiple video sources on this large real-estate.

Recommendation please

Clarity wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2023 8:31 pm

Running the unmodified desktop on large screen TVs is a challenge: The on-screen mouse is so tiny that it is hard to see. I have looked over the control panel and dont see a way to expand to use other larger on-screen mouse pointer.

And a font change. Current font on a 3840x2180 resolution used by FATDOG is too tiny. One option of course is to change resolution, but, I like what I can do with multiple video sources on this large real-estate.

Recommendation please

Fonts can be adjusted via Menu > Setup > Fatdog Control Panel / Menu using Set global font size. Default value is 96, increasing the value enlarges the size of the fonts. You don't need to change font sizes, changing the global font sizes adjusts the relaltive size.

As for the cursor, Menu > Desktop > Customize Look and Feel, the mouse cursor can have a larger version. There are selections for GTK +2.x or GTK + 3.x themes.

TerryH wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:23 pm

As for Cursor .. Menu > Desktop > customize Look and Feel, the mouse cursor can have a larger version. There are selections for GTK +2.x or GTK + 3.x.

Thanks. I had reviewed for this in the right-click Menu on the desktop real-estate and do not see that option. Seems the only way to see it was through the 'real Menu' in the bottom left to get to the option to re-configure...THANKS, again. You may not have any idea of how much of a world of difference this makes from a mouse which is size of a dot to one I can now see readily. Means alot.

For those of us who are HDMI PC users, YOU MUST MANUALLY set your audio via the Control Panel.

I've posted a request to all forum distro developers, here.

@Clarity, re swap: try adding autoswap to your boot options.

Fatdog FAQ - online and the question mark on the desktop wrote:

║ autoswap ║
Detect and use all existing swap partitions (not swap files, swap partitions).

@icake, thank you for the Chinese language packs!

@icake, thank you for the Chinese language packs!谢谢！

Success!
nvidia geforce GT 1030 video card in old dell i5 desktop

Steps:
-First check the list of cards at nvidia site

Rather confusing that my card is listed under 10 series [see image]

-newest driver Version: 535.113.01 - release date sept 21
- Go to fatdog repository. Closest to my card's driver is an older driver
but it has correct kernel

-Use control panel SFS loader app to load package
-Wait patiently a few seconds for the app to say that the SFS package will be loaded at bootup
-reboot computer and launch Blender app
Blender shows the card name [see image]

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Some notes:
-Blacklisting of nouveau video driver and 'depmod -a' command
is done automatically by package
--Avoid using 'Choose Graphics driver' (a frontend for xorgwizard)
since it creates a file ---> /etc/X11/xor.conf.d/20-gpudriver.conf
which confuses Xorg server
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