Quirky Werewolf 64-bit 7.4 released

[BarryK]

USB Boot for Werewolf64
1. I tried to frugal install the Werewolf64-7.3.3 to USB disk manually. But got kernel panic. After checked with few PC and added 3 seconds delay to init script, the problem solved.

2. It is hard to make the USB disk boot from different PC. Because different PC have different number of hard disk, the USB name sometime is sdb2, sometime is sdb3 or other.

Yeah, that's on my to-do list, to allow specification of UUID in the BOOT_SPECS. Which will of course then make frugal install to USB drive feasible.

[L18L]

Topic Quirky Werewolf 64-bit in forum francophone.
Not so easy to install this Quirky. To get it easier for french speaking people, i created a topic for them.
First i have to succeed in installing quirky Myself. But i understand better english language than my colleagues ( but linux Less). I shall translate information collected here.
francophones, cliquez ici, merci....

Barry, I ve been trying to help find a translation.
But found just German and Italian (OP will understand Italian).
A pointer to installquirky.pot would be useful.
(Yes I know, installquirky is searching translations in langpacks)

[FeodorF]

Some problems with the frugal installation.

1. If you do a frugal install of the live-CD (Ver. 7.3.3.) you will get an error message #15 'File not found' from Grub. The reason for that is, that this line does not work:

Code: Select all

   find --set-root --ignore-floppies /werewolf64-7.3.3/initrd.q

initrd.q will not be found on sda2. If you replace this line with the 'uuid', everything will be fine.

Code: Select all

   uuid 71d8d275-e823-49a3-8f52-a9219b35aedd

2. The changes made in the retrovol setup will not survive a reboot. fe: volume will be reset to 75% instead of the selected 100% at setup.

3. Radio streamer (pMusic) shows an error message.

[BarryK]

Topic Quirky Werewolf 64-bit in forum francophone.
Not so easy to install this Quirky. To get it easier for french speaking people, i created a topic for them.
First i have to succeed in installing quirky Myself. But i understand better english language than my colleagues ( but linux Less). I shall translate information collected here.
francophones, cliquez ici, merci....

Barry, I ve been trying to help find a translation.
But found just German and Italian (OP will understand Italian).
A pointer to installquirky.pot would be useful.
(Yes I know, installquirky is searching translations in langpacks)

I am not sure if I understand what you are asking for.

The script is here in Quirky:
/usr/local/install_quirky/installquirky

So if you run MoManager in Quirky, you should get that script and others in that folder, being offered for translation, with TEXTDOMAIN=installquirky

The standalone 'installquirky.amd64' and 'installquirky.x86' can be created by running /usr/local/install_quirky/create-quirky-installer, which puts all the 'installquirky.mo' files that it can find into the self-extracting archive.

There are certain .mo files that I have built-in, in woofQ.
For German for example, in woofQ rootfs-skeleton/usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES, there is:

delayedrun.mo, installquirky.mo, quicksetup.mo, welcome1stboot.mo

If the translator for a language can create these, then send them to me and they will be built-in to the next release of Quirky.

This ensures that at very first bootup, a non-English speaking person has a friendly readable interface, even before having installed a langpack PET.

[L18L]

The standalone 'installquirky.amd64' and 'installquirky.x86' can be created by running /usr/local/install_quirky/create-quirky-installer, which puts all the 'installquirky.mo' files that it can find into the self-extracting archive.

This is exactly what I have not been aware of.
Maybe just because I did run quirkyinstall from fatdog
Thank you very much.

With this information any translator can create a new quirky-installer containing their language.

[FeodorF]

@BarryK

While opening the 'XArchive 0.2.8-6' window it does not show the option 'Extract'. The window needs to be enlarged - just a little bit.

Thank you!

[L18L]

The window needs to be enlarged - just a little bit.

Or click the "arrow down" at right side

[linuxcbon]

Hi Barry,
I don't understand your problem with usb and why you use a patch...Maybe a simple explanation ?
Thanks

[gcmartin]

@BarryK, as you work on improving USB device boot handling, you may want to review this PUI thread opened by @BigPup.

May be a follow-on.

[don570]

I've never had any problems with attaching a USB stick or external USB
burner.

However a problem I have had is clicking on the drive icons at the
bottom of desktop.

In werewolf --> my Windows partition (ntfs) mounts as read-only
if I click on icon.

But if I use the application 'pmount' ---> it mounts as read and write.

_______________________________________________________

[technosaurus]

If quirky is still about quirky ideas, why not just put the whole filesystem as an initramfs using lz4 compression, (to compensate for loading the large size) so that you don't even need to worry a about mounting any filesystem until after the window manager starts then you can use jwm's StartupCommand. I did something similar a while back except I configured my kernel to not support any mountable filesystems at all ( so my kids could use it without accidentally deleting files). I'm not sure why game developers don't do something similar.

[BarryK]

If quirky is still about quirky ideas, why not just put the whole filesystem as an initramfs using lz4 compression, (to compensate for loading the large size) so that you don't even need to worry a about mounting any filesystem until after the window manager starts then you can use jwm's StartupCommand. I did something similar a while back except I configured my kernel to not support any mountable filesystems at all ( so my kids could use it without accidentally deleting files). I'm not sure why game developers don't do something similar.

That's what I have done.

Except that have recently added the ability to save session from live-CD and remove 'q.sfs' (the main Quirky f.s.) out of the initrd to the hard drive, thus speeding bootup.

Ditto for frugal install.

Then there's 's.sfs', the saved session.

A frugal install to USB drive, with external q.sfs and saved session now requires the drive probing in the init script of initrd.

Right now I'm rethinking the whole thing!

[CHLee]

Compare to old puppy, I think the Werewolf's frugal install is better.

1. The size of old "save file"(xxxxsave.3fs) is fix(eg:128MB), it waste many room of the USB disk. The Werewolf's "save file"(s.sfs) is a compressed file system, if you have 10MB data, you only need about 6MB room. The s.sfs file can be updated by press the "save icon".

2. The boot time of Werewolf is fast, the initrd.g only 400kB(if take out the q.sys), boot loader load the vmlinuz and nitrd.g are quickly, because the size small. After the kernel run, it load the q.sys and s.sys fast.

3. Werewolf's init script simple and small, the "boot_specs" help the init script find the q.sys and s.sys. Compare the old puppy, it no need to find all of hard drives, it let Werewolf booting fast.

4. You can keep your system no change if you haven't press the "save icon". You can test(or compile) new software freely, if it no good, you change reboot and the system will same as previous.

Barry, I used your new scanning(waiting USB ready) method, I tested three PC, all boot OK, without "kernel panic". The average scanning time about 2 sec. It is good. Thank you very much.
Best regards,
C.H.Lee

[BarryK]

Barry, I used your new scanning(waiting USB ready) method, I tested three PC, all boot OK, without "kernel panic". The average scanning time about 2 sec. It is good. Thank you very much.
Best regards,
C.H.Lee

As you are editing the 'init' script, an optimisation is to move the block of code that creates the zram above the usb-scanning block.

Coz, the zram code takes about 0.8 seconds, so you can reduce the usb-scanning time.

My latest 'init' doesn't require the usb-storage patch, see attached:

[don570]

I plugged in my portable USB writer and copied a file from CD to /root.
No problem.

_________________________

[CHLee]

Just test your new init script, no need to wait for USB ready and boot fast.
One problem, you haven't update the /BOOT_SPECS file. So, it keep the BOOT_DEV=UUID=xxxx-xxxx, it break the "Save Icon"(save script).

If you move below code before you save the /BOOT_SPECS file, then you no need to use xBOOT_DEV(keep to use BOOT_DEV), and the BOOT_DEV will update to sdx on /BOOT_SPECS file too.

Code: Select all

if [ "${BOOT_DEV:0:4}" == "UUID" ];then #151122. 151124. 151125
  #refer: http://bkhome.org/news/?viewDetailed=00297
  while [ ! "$xBOOT_DEV" ];do
   sleep 0.5
   xBOOT_DEV="$(blkid | grep "\"${BOOT_DEV:5}\"" | cut -f 1 -d ':' | cut -f 3 -d '/')"
  done
 else
  xBOOT_DEV="$BOOT_DEV"
 fi

Perhaps you already know this problem, hope can help you some.
Thank you very much.

I attached my init script, this is for you reference.

C.H.Lee

[FeodorF]

@BarryK

There is one problem while doing a full install from the live-CD onto a ext3 partition (fe. sda2).

The ext3 folder 'lost+found' gets deleted during the install process.

[BarryK]

Just test your new init script, no need to wait for USB ready and boot fast.
One problem, you haven't update the /BOOT_SPECS file. So, it keep the BOOT_DEV=UUID=xxxx-xxxx, it break the "Save Icon"(save script).

That's the problem with posting just the one script.
In woofQ I have also updated the 'savesession' script to handle the BOOT_DEV=UUID=xxxx-xxxx format.

Note, as part of the rethink, I am probably going to change the names of those variables, BOOT_DEV, BOOT_FS, BOOT_FOLDER, to INSTALL_DEV, INSTALL_FS, INSTALL_FOLDER, as "BOOT" is not quite right.

[CHLee]

I am thinking fast CD boot for Werewolf. Can we take out the q.sys from initrd.q? The new init script used the blkid to find the boot device. The blkid can not list the CD UUID, but it can list the CD label as below:

Code: Select all

# blkid
/dev/sdc2: LABEL="test" UUID="5a5c3cc1-6479-4f64-b025-c6874bbddaef" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="5555-1234" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="sda4" UUID="fbcb9f0e-5a98-42d0-bd24-7d3fabccd8ff" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="sda3" UUID="83174c3d-36eb-4cdc-8ce8-806a512ccd55" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="sda2" UUID="1aeeeeaa-2d99-4d8a-ad9b-2424c04c5e74" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="sda1" UUID="7ded8135-9ef3-44e4-a00d-a3a97f25c343" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="dc1f5ca6-1bde-446b-858e-a64bd8de620d" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sr0: LABEL="CDROM" TYPE="iso9660"

When make the ISO file, we can set the CD's Label, for example "Werewolf-733". And, the isolinux.cfg can set as :

Code: Select all

label werewolf64
kernel /werewolf64/vmlinuz
append initrd=/werewolf64/initrd.q rootwait rw boot_specs=UUID=Werewolf-733:iso9600:werewolf64
timeout 50

All werewolf's files (initrd.q, vmlinuz and q,sys) put into the "werewolf64" folder.
Then no need to change anythings, the CD should boot as the USB boot.
The problem should in the "save icon"(save script), because it can not save the s.sfs to CDROM. The save script should be changed.

I haven't to test this idea yet, I will try later.

C.H.Lee

[Silversurfer]

Dear All,

I have just tried the new Puppy Werewolf 7.3.3 and I think it is definitely one of the best ever from BarryK.

However, I ran into a problem when trying to produce a live custom CD. I have tried many times with MD5 checked download, but get the following message:

‘File//initrd/ q_rw/ file/temp wkgdir/ initrd-tree/ q.sfs changed size while reading file system, attempt to re-read.’

It tries to finish the job, but drops back to around 50% every time.

I have 4Gb of RAM and 64bit Intel chip computer. I have UEFI bios set to legacy mode. I have had no problems with Quirky April.

I would be grateful if any one can offer any advice on the matter.