EasyOS version 2.3.2, June 22, 2020

[rufwoof]

EDIT/Update : Ignore. Turns out I miss renamed the file to audacity-2.1_amd64.sfs instead of the audacity_2.1_amd64.sfs name in the .specs file ... DOH! Sees it and loads OK now.

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Purely as a experiment I grabbed a copy of a sfs from puppy (audacity sfs), unsquashed it and then ran dir2sfs to create a EasyPak sfs. Dropped the .png .specs and .sfs into the easy sfs folder (...sfs/easyos/oe/pyro/) alongside devx and kernel-source sfs), but when I tried loading it using the bootmanager ... it doesn't show (devx and kernel source sfs's do show). Rebooted and looked again ... and still missing from the list.

The .specs file content ...

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#generated by dir2sfs:
DB_pkgname='audacity_2.1'
DB_nameonly='audacity'
DB_version='2.1'
DB_revision=''
DB_arch='amd64'
DB_categories='Multimedia;audiovideo'
DB_size='43048'
DB_fullfilename='audacity_2.1_amd64.sfs'
DB_dependencies='easy_1.0'
DB_description='audacity'
DB_description_long='longer description, may have mulitple lines'
DB_compileddistro='ubuntu'
DB_compiledrelease='pyro'
DB_path='easyos/oe/pyro'
DB_apps='audacity'
DB_icons='audacity'
DB_install='individual'
DB_hash='196f5041938bf814098aa863a223f6d6f5b0ff0a6e9a4e4af4cf398bf6d7d43e'

I was casual about the choice of Puppy sfs used, didn't expect it to work (run) due to potential mismatches, more a case of I was just going through (for the first time) the Easy method of creating a EasyPak sfs (dir2sfs). It was a i686 version of audacity, that I pretended was amd64 as I was just more interested in the process of creating a Easy sfs than actually having a working version of audacity.

Any suggestions as to what I did wrong or omitted to do?

[rufwoof]

Under jwm, audacious crashes if I try to load more than one visualisation. I've just compiled cwm and within that ... multiple audacious visualisations work fine.

[alibadrelsayed]

To rufwoof: thank you again for your support, I download http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/firmware-sfs and added to my firmwares, and load ALL kernel modules in boot manager, but the problem still there, any other suggestions ???

[rufwoof]

I'm at a loss alibadrelsayed as to what else you might try. Perhaps Barry might be able to assist. Or maybe others over on the EasyOS forum

[rufwoof]

Attached is a actual .gz file (decompress it with gzip -d cwm.gz) for the cwm window manager I compiled using Easy.

Create a snapshot of your Easy Container. So you can roll back to that to undo all changes if later you so desire.

Open (run) the easy container and within that drop the above cwm file into /usr/bin (alongside jwm) .. make sure its executable chmod a+x /usr/bin/cwm

From the main session (alt-F6) change /mnt/sda1/easy/1.0/containers/easy/container/.control/easy (your path may differ) to contain just

#!/bin/sh
cwm

Inside the easy container, create a personal /root/.cwmrc (cwm configuration) file, containing something like ...

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# .cwmrc
# 
gap                             2 0 0 0
ignore                          xclock
ignore                          xload
color inactiveborder            Black
color activeborder              "#494949" 
color groupborder               "#01a252"
color urgencyborder             "#3d9751"
color selfont                   "#0034A9"
color font                      "#FFFFFF"
color menufg                    "#49F6F6"
color menubg                    "#333333"
fontname                       "DejaVu Sans:size=14:antialias=true"
bind-key CM-comma               "amixer set Master 0%"
bind-key CM-period              "amixer set Master 100%"
command " seamonkey "             "seamonkey"
command " sakura "               "sakura"

You might like/need to add to /root/.Xdefaults a value of

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Xft.dpi: 120

(and subsequently change that up or down to a value that fits for you).

Close down the Easy container. Re-open it again and you should be running a cwm desktop (instead of jwm). Don't be shocked to see just a black screen.

Note in the above .cwmrc ... I've set a gap of 2 pixels at the top of screen. So if/when you maximise a window with ctrl-alt-m there will still be a 2 pixel region that you can left, middle (press/click scrollwheel on a mouse), right mouse click ... to show the windows, groups, applications menus respectively (see attached image that shows a left mouse press in the top 2 pixel screen region)

cwm seems horrible at first, but if you persist you end up loving it. Blank initial screen. The frequent commands I use are ...

alt-? (alt shift /) ... execute menu (type in the first two or three characters of a program name such as mtp (for mtpaint) and it will be highlighted, press enter to launch it).

In cwm windows have no titles, no buttons. To move a window its alt-left mouse press/drag. To resize its alt-middle mouse. To close a window ctrl-alt-x. Maximise a window with ctrl-alt-M. Flip between windows with alt-tab.

Personally I like to leave open all windows I open and maximise them (ctrl-alt-M) and just use alt-tab to flip between them ... or left mouse press in the screens top 2 pixel region to show the windows list menu.

To quit cwm is ctrl shift with right hand, alt-q with left hand (four button simultaneous press).

Fundamentally I'm setting my EasyOS up to be similar to by OpenBSD setup. Boot to cli (qfix=nox), load tmux and my admin menu (tput based). Open another tmux window and launch the Easy container directly (so no main (real) root desktop (I use cli for that). I like mc for file manager and text editing in cli.

Everything else runs in a contained environment (Easy container).

Likely not a comfortable set up for many, jwm and rox are very nice for mouse heavy use (desktops), cwm/tmux/mc are more for keyboard heavy use (laptops). Nice thing about Easy is you can give it a go, and roll back very easily to undo the 'experiment'.

[rufwoof]

Barry

Rox inside the Easy container seems to be missing ???

Running cwm as the easy container window manager and alt ? and typing rox ... shows nothing. I installed the pyro version of rox inside the easy container and still not showing in the cwm exec launcher, but the executable is in /usr/local/bin/rox, which works when run from the cli. Thinking it may be the cause of the easy container launcher issue, where as a workaround you do a jiggle of starting rox, killing it, restarting it and then running jwm ???

[rufwoof]

Barry

/usr/sbin/easy-version-control around line 494 echo ... exclusions list, includes mnt being excluded (along with dev, proc, run ....etcetera) and where that exclusion list is subsequently applied to the mksquashfs when creating a container snapshot.

If mnt is excluded then with mc installed (via dotpup being run within the container) inside the easy container, its configuration settings are not stored in the snapshot as the mc configuration settings are stored under /mnt/wkg/home inside the container and therefore not preserved (excluded) into the snapshot sfs.

Removing the mnt exclusion (so it is included) and mc configuration settings are preserved within the snapshot. However I'm uncertain as to what implications storing the containers mnt folder in snapshots might have.

[rufwoof]

woof'd a 250MB easy.sfs, absent of libreoffice (I petget install that within the easy container) and seamonkey (I install firefox portable that auto updates in the easy container) .. and a bunch of other smaller utility type programs I don't personally use. Standard easy.sfs is around 400MB in the way of comparison.

Means more being stored in the containers save area, so creating snapshots are slower to run through (rollbacks are quick enough). So I modified the snapshot creation (easy-version-control) to use lzo level 1 compression (-comp lzo -Xcompression-level 1). Space for me isn't a issue as its a frugal to HDD installation.

A couple of libs were missing (copied them across from a earlier version), and Xcalc still shows in the menu despite not having been installed.

[BarryK]

Looks like the usb is being detected ok

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[ 8.770077] usb 2-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[ 8.868288] usb 2-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=12d1, idProduct=14fe
[ 8.868291] usb 2-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[ 8.868292] usb 2-1.3: Product: HUAWEI Mobile
[ 8.868294] usb 2-1.3: Manufacturer: HUAWEI
[ 8.869886] usb-storage 2-1.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 8.869987] usb-storage: device found at 3 

.. so looks like its not a driver issue after all. Perhaps a bad burn of the usb image, or even a partially faulty usb ??

The obex errors towards the end ... are you trying to run openbox instead of jwm as the window manager?

Those obex errors are something in the udev rules. The error message doesn't seem to do any harm.

[BarryK]

rufwwof, thank you alot for your efforts, my image burned correctly I'm pretty sure of that with hecksum and other tools, the same mdsl modem detected correctly without any problems in xenialpup 7.5, I think its somthing wrong in usb-modeswitch 2.5.2 because in xenialpup 7.5 usb-modeswitch 2.2.0 the modem been dtected without any prolem, and I'm not trying to run openbox wm as far as I know, I'm not sure.

I wonder if it is a conflict with ModemManager and NetworkManager. Have these installed, which replaces all the network tools previously used.

Try this: Go to /etc/init.d and change the properties of 'rc.networkmanager' to non-executable. Then reboot.

On the desktop "connect" icon, right-click and choose "Internet Connection Wizard" ...and choose whatever you want from there.

[BarryK]

EasyOS is now on the Rock64:

http://bkhome.org/news/201902/easyos-ve ... ock64.html

And check this out, the PinePhone:

http://bkhome.org/news/201902/pinephone ... t-kit.html

...they are claiming that the final phone will cost only US$150

[alibadrelsayed]

Barry: thank you again for your help, I will try what you told me and I'll be back.

[alibadrelsayed]

Barry K, I Go to /etc/init.d and change the properties of 'rc.networkmanager' to non executable
reboot
choose Internet Connection Wizard
the modem detected correctly but when I click connect this is the output :
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Warning: section [Dialer wireless] does not exist in wvdial.conf.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
OK
--> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
CONNECT 7200000
--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
--> Don't know what to do! Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Feb 3 07:24:32 2019
--> Pid of pppd: 12835
--> Disconnecting at Sun Feb 3 07:24:33 2019
--> The PPP daemon has died: No ppp module error (exit code = 4)
--> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail.
--> I guess that's it for now, exiting
--> The PPP daemon has died. (exit code = 4)

Iany solution for this error ??
thank you for your support.
[/img]

[alibadrelsayed]

[alibadrelsayed]

[BarryK]

Barry K, I Go to /etc/init.d and change the properties of 'rc.networkmanager' to non executable
reboot
choose Internet Connection Wizard
the modem detected correctly but when I click connect this is the output :
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Warning: section [Dialer wireless] does not exist in wvdial.conf.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
OK
--> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
CONNECT 7200000
--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
--> Don't know what to do! Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Feb 3 07:24:32 2019
--> Pid of pppd: 12835
--> Disconnecting at Sun Feb 3 07:24:33 2019
--> The PPP daemon has died: No ppp module error (exit code = 4)
--> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail.
--> I guess that's it for now, exiting
--> The PPP daemon has died. (exit code = 4)

Iany solution for this error ??
thank you for your support.
[/img]

Gee, it seems like it is almost there. It is years since I used usb-modeswitch and wvdial. Memory of how to use them getting a bit hazy.

This line looks important:

The PPP daemon has died: No ppp module error

...you can google that.

You might have to manually load some kernel modules, for example:

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# modinfo ppp_async

...I did a quick google and someone reported having to manually load ppp-async, someone else said ppp_generic

You can do this in a terminal to see what is already loaded:

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# lsmod

He is a related post:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 228#838228

So, you could try this, before trying to use wvdial:

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# modprobe ppp_generic

and/or:

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# modprobe ppp_async

I'm wondering what has gone wrong here. The appropriate kernel module used to load, can't recall, I thought there was one called 'ppp', but there isn't now, perhaps that is the problem.

[BarryK]

EasyApps is now internationalized:

http://bkhome.org/news/201902/easyapps- ... lized.html

[alibadrelsayed]

Barry K, thank you for your support, I load all ppp kernel modules,
ppp_generic
ppp_async
ppp_deflate
the problem still there.
I'll try to tweak some configurations and packages like modeswitch and
wvdial and comparing some xenialpup 7.5 kernel modules with EasyOS 1.0
to see what's going on. I will be back if I find a solution,
till that any suggestions will be appreciated.

[rufwoof]

Nice! If you extract/use portable firefox inside the easy containers shared folder ... then it isn't included as part of the containers snapshot (nor the main session snapshots).

You can also run it from both sides, but not at the same time. Not sure you'd want to though (i.e. just run it in the container only).

[rufwoof]

Barry. Seems odd that root inside the easy container cannot edit /.control/easy, but spot can (su spot and then edit the file).

That aside my question is, how/what creates that easy file after a container rollback? It suggests that dir2sfs does within the file itself, but editing that doesn't reflect the changes after a rollback. (Fundamentally I just want it to contain

#!/bin/bash
cwm

after a rollback as that is the window manager I'm using).