X-Slacko-4.4 with Xfce

[Moat]

Awesome, Marv! Great to hear the reports of no issues so far, four days in and running every 10 minutes. Downloaded your .pet, and will have a look at your handiwork.

I haven't observed the anomaly often enough to determine how many/how big/which type/etc. of files are present in /.local/share/gvfs-metadata when things go all wonky - would be nice to suss that one out, tho... IF one had some solid data regarding the above, some coder who's smarter than me could create a little script that does something such as periodically grep (?) the number/size/type/etc. of /.local/share/gvfs-metadata's contents and if above some relevant value... cleans things up (maybe retaining the few, latest and most important bits? Whatever those may be...).

Good stuff, Marv!

Bob

[Marv]

Hi Moat, Originally in the script I did test both the size of the .cache and the gvfs-metadata directories and only deleted and killed gvfsd if that dir was over a threshold. Ran that way and without the size test and really couldn't see a difference. For now, I'm only using a size threshhold on the .cache directory in the script. Simple to add the gvfs size test back in but as you point out, how much or big is bad? I also have a ver 1.1 that tests for and only adds the crond files if they are missing (they are already in the newer LxScPups etc.) so it is more general.

Jim

[Mike Walsh]

Hiya, Marv.

Now, then. How good is this .pet of yours.....and would you mind awfully explaining what's actually going on when it runs, please? I ask, because I'm re-discovering quite a taste for XFCE, long after my Xubuntu days..! In addition to X-Slacko 2.3.2 (with the XFCE 4.10 desktop), I've just recently installed X-Tahr 2.0; I've always got on very well with Tahr (stable as they come).....and I've been following the last few day's-worth of posts with interest.

I, too, have noticed the CPU performance going lairy....especially after installing any sizeable application. Is this kinda 'normal' behaviour we're seeing here.....or is it simply an as yet unfettled 'bug' in the current release of the XFCE/Thunar combo?

Whaddy'all think of it so far?





This is a USB install, with the menu.lst's kernel-line modified with the 'i915.modeset=0' parameter so's I can run it with the old Dell lappie's ancient Intel graphics, or the big Compaq as the fancy takes me.

It's got Grub4DOS installed to the drive itself, and I've added it to each machine's main Grub4DOS menu, too.....so they can pick it up without having to go into the BIOS and/or one-off boot menu.

I'm all for an easy life, me..!


Mike.

[Marv]

Hi Mike,
Can't say how good it is in the grand scheme, but it seems to solve a longstanding problem for me.

Basically the problem is that periodically the gnome virtual file system daemon, gvfsd-metadata, can't write sucessfully to its directory /root/.local/share/gvfs-metadata and goes into a tight loop and CPU use skyrockets, not uncommon to see 100%. When you suspect it, just open the task manager and look at the most CPU intensive processes. It's a long-standing problem across many (gnome based) OS.

It is a function of hardware, worse on my older machines than on the newer ones, of file/file size operations, and IMO of software age, much less a problem in the current LxPupSc for example.

What the pet does is start crond, a task scheduling daemon, installing the start files in the X-series pups but not in the newer LxPups as they are already there (ver 1.1 of the pet). A script, gvfsd_kill.sh is then scheduled to run every 10 minutes (my arb choice). It does two things. Stop the gvfsd-metadata daemon (wait til stopped, typically less than 100 ms) and empty its directory. The capability is there (again in 1.1) to only do the operation if the size of the dir is greater than xxMb. As a bonus, it checks /root/.cache size and empties it if it is greater than 10Mb (again my arb choice). crond is a busybox process and is present and tested with this in X-slacko 4.2, X-Tahr 2.0 and LxPupSc by me. Should be ok in most pups.

For context, the high CPU use by gvfs is my number 2 phone call after 'my cd/dvd doesn't play when I put it in' so for me it is an issue. May not be for everybody. As Moat and I have discussed above and elsewhere there is certainly a possibility for an interaction but the cross-section seems low. I haven't seen it now in 4 or 5 days on 4 or 5 machines up 24h with a variety of uses.

Whew,

Edit: ver 1.11 uploaded above. Same function, fixes a whiteout problem on removal and avoids using /tmp, cleaner uninstall.

Jim

[Mike Walsh]

Mornin', Marv.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll give it a go. Currently I'm restarting X every time it happens....which is a pain in the..... !!

Talking of which, what's going on here? Every time I boot into X-Tahr, my desktop icons are all 'arranged' over on the far left-hand side. I seem to recall XFCE in Xubuntu had an option to 'lock' the desktop.....but Pup doesn't appear to have it.

So what's the answer? X-Slacko 2.3.2 doesn't do this; I've never had the problem with it. I know it's an older version of XFCE, true, but even so.....

It's annoying!!!


Mike.

[Marv]

Mornin', Marv.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll give it a go. Currently I'm restarting X every time it happens....which is a pain in the..... !!

Talking of which, what's going on here? Every time I boot into X-Tahr, my desktop icons are all 'arranged' over on the far left-hand side. I seem to recall XFCE in Xubuntu had an option to 'lock' the desktop.....but Pup doesn't appear to have it.

So what's the answer? X-Slacko 2.3.2 doesn't do this; I've never had the problem with it. I know it's an older version of XFCE, true, but even so.....

It's annoying!!!


Mike.

The pet also installs a .desktop , gvfsd_clean, which calls the kill script. Add it to a panel and it kills without restarting X. To disable the scheduled task once the pet is installed just use the boot manager>services to turn off crond. Or just copy and paste the .desktop and script from the pet.

Next time I boot into X-Tahr I'll look at the icons. I pretty much run with an empty desktop so I never thought about it.

Edit: Version 1.12 above uses file number and size tests, logs to gvfsd_log in /tmp, gives immediate mode (.desktop) over-ride precedence, and (I hope) uninstalls better to accomodate other crond tasks pre-existing in pups that have crond enabled while still installing the needed crond files in those pups that don't have them.

Edit: Booted into both X-Tahr 2.0 and X-slacko 4.2 as part of the work above and while there deliberately spewed my icons about on the desktop. Drives, folders, trash, and a launcher or two. Restarted X, rebooted, and the repositions stuck FOR A WHILE, then reverted to the left. So no help on that. Running bog standard Grub4Dos frugal install with smallish (256Mb) EXT2 savefiles. The icon positions are saved at root/.config/xfce4/desktop/, don't know where the call to use that is though. The odd thing is that I know they were still spewed for a time because I started writing this (Opera, fullscreen), then checked again and they had reverted. ???

Jim

[Mike Walsh]

Hiya, Marv.

Well, your .pet is the mutt's nuts, mate. I installed it in X-Tahr yesterday, and haven't had a single instance of the CPU going bonkers since! Done quite a bit of file-transfer stuff in that time-frame (over the network, as well).....and everything's purring like a kitten. Smooth as so much oiled silk.

Nice one. Cheers!

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

As for the desktop icons; I gave 'em up as a bad job. I don't know what's going on there myself, but I've ended up using a second panel as a launcher bar. They seem to be behaving themselves on there..!


Mike.

[Marv]

Thanks Mike, I've been using it on all my laptops now and haven't had any runaways either. Since it logs, and I've been flogging several of the machines installing new printers and putting a newer laptop in service in place of one of the Pentium Ms, I have a better idea how the load builds and have an alternate script that is even more selective. It checks for time since file creation (modification actually) in both the cache and gvfs directory and uses that information as well as size to decide when to kill/clean. The immediate mode still exists from the .desktop. No changes at all to the structure of the 1.12 pet, just the gvsd_kill.sh script in /usr/sbin. I'll gzip just the script and attach it below for a look-see. I think it's pretty self explanatory.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, Marv.

Thanks for that. I'm in 571 at the moment, but I'll do the swap in X-Tahr later today, and see how it goes. I'll keep you updated along the way.

Cheers.


Mike.

[Marv]

Fixed a misplaced " in the kill file 2 posts up, next to last line. Re-uploaded, sorry. Happened when I added cache info to the logfile.

[Mike Walsh]

Re-downloaded, extracted & replaced.

Cheers.


Mike.

[mistfire]

@rg66 I try convert X-Slacko to network bootable placing SFS file inside the initrd.gz when it boot to network by PXE it fails to load SFS in ram causing kernel panic.

[Rodney Byne]

Hi to all.

Can someone advise me how I may be able
to link the PrtSc key on my laptop, to automatically
open Take-a-Shot TAS-1.9?
Thanks in advance.

[Geoffrey]

Rodney, in the xfce control panel select keyboard > Application Shortcuts > Add, select a application and you will be prompted to select a key, it's like that in X-Tahr pretty sure the same in X-Slacko.

[Rodney Byne]

Thank you Geoffrey,
For your clear instructions, so Ctrl-PrtSc was the link answer
to pull up TaS, as I wanted to capture full-screen camera views
from the ISS in this example today below.
It looks as if the pink-topped clouds while flying over nth Africa
was a Saharan sand storm.
Best regards.

[rg66]

I've uploaded a couple of sfs's to the repo. vlc-2.2.6-i486-1alien.sfs and wxHexEditor-0.23.sfs. Get them here: http://www.smokey01.com/rg66/X-slacko/sfs/

After a very long break, I am working on X-Slacko again. v4.3 should be out sometime in the not so distant future and will most likely be the last of the 4 series.

[Marv]

Hi rg66, most happy to hear from you.

Jim

[belham2]

Hi rg66, most happy to hear from you.

+1

Actually am kind of excited 'RG-the-XFCE-master" is back in the puppy house and going to be doing a new release . Between Battleshooters' still excellent Carolina Vanguard and Geoffrey's great X-Tahr-2.0 (for all our family photo/video work), RG66 completes the triumvirate that brings us that XFCE-goodness and project-stability. (Mistfire & his X-Slacko-Slim is almost there to make it a quartet, but only if Slim's Xorg problems could get worked out).

So welcome back rg66! Can't wait till the new release

[rg66]

Just for something to do I made a recently used files app. You can select multiple entries and it seems to handle white spaces. Rec_used-1.1.pet can be downloaded here http://smokey01.com/rg66/X-slacko/pet_p ... -X-slacko/
Menu entry is in office.

[rg66]

I've uploaded opera-stable_45.0.2552.898_i386.sfs and palemoon-27.3.0.sfs to the repo. Get them here: http://smokey01.com/rg66/X-slacko/sfs/