(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Today I boosted the Simplux boot process.

I rewrote all remaining inititalization scripts. Simplux now does a cold start up to the X-desktop in less than 30 seconds!!! On machines with faster BIOS routines it should be below 25 seconds.

Please do not expect the steady release of new Alpha releases. Each release costs time I prefer to invest in implementing new features.

Planned time schedule:

Alpha release with completely redesigned file-system-organisation (I want to write a layered block device driver) sometime in July.

Beta 1: September

Release version: first quarter of 2009

@Leachim

I fully understand, and in theory I even agree with your approach, but if you don't want to actually loose the alpha (beta) testers, somehow you should compromise yourself I believe.
We need something, or we'll loose interest. July is rather in the distant future, and if I taking into consideration the alpha 2 delays, I estimate that it will be even August or September.

Please don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your efforts, and it's an incredible work indeed, I just wanted to share my concerns.

Thanks:
xant

Release version: first quarter of 2009

Xant - do not be concerned . . .

Take your time.

There is a difference between whine and wine . . .
Hope that does not sound harsh

New testers will always emerge . . .
and I hope xant will be one of the old hands by then

In the early days of Puppy until about 6 month ago Barry had a six week release schedule . . .
It meant the user base expanded rapidly with the interest and skills.

It is up to developers to develop according to their needs, timetables and abilities.

Look forward to 2009

Great news,

Today I boosted the Simplux boot process.
I rewrote all remaining inititalization scripts.

Are these incremental improvements available for download somewhere?

Cheers,
Richard

I don't want to promise anything, but I will try to create an update procedure for updating Alpha 2 to my current version. This won't be very easy, because kernel, initrd and initialization scripts must be updated all at once.

The new init-scripts are very short and do not support any special hardware like modems or wireless adapters! Everything works fine as long as there is an ethernet-adapter that can be configured via DHCP.

Leachim wrote:But you should be able to emerge xfce yourself.

Finally I had some time to play with this, and it's actually sort of working.
I run "emerge xfce4" command (Simple and logical ) and that's all.

If I log off (I emerged in the terminal), with command startxfce4 it starts and seems working. I'll try to play a little to make it as default if I'll have the time

I think you made a small mistake with the machine name, as in /etc/hosts there are localhost and puppy linked to 127.0.0.1 but when you start xfce is complaining about the missing puppypc which is the actual computer name. If you enter it to the mentioned file, it stops doing that.

As for Puppy, if it's not the main window manager, you can't shutdown the system from it, just log off.

Added:
If I replace in /sbin/xwin the line:
xinit "/etc/xinitrc" "--" "-br" "-nolisten" "tcp"
with
xinit "/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc" "--" "-br" "-nolisten" "tcp"
it starts automatically without any issue.

Also the ATI driver not working with old cards issue exists, but unfortunately in this case the xwin doesn't start at all. Not even if I copy my xorg.conf from NOP.

@Lobster,

Waiting is not my strength for sure. Thanks for your words, we'll see what the future brings.

xant wrote:I think you made a small mistake with the machine name, as in /etc/hosts there are localhost and puppy linked to 127.0.0.1

There were several things wrong about hostname. Not sure whether I fixed it now, but I rewrote all initialization code, so it surely will not be the same error anymore ...

xant wrote:As for Puppy, if it's not the main window manager, you can't shutdown the system from it, just log off.

I also rewrote the whole shutdown-code - hope it will work now!

xant wrote:Also the ATI driver not working with old cards issue exists, but unfortunately in this case the xwin doesn't start at all. Not even if I copy my xorg.conf from NOP.

Hmm - have you tried using "radeon" or "vesa" drivers? Maybe you can send me the erroneous xorg.conf, your working xorg.conf, the output of lspci and ddcprobe via personal mail or just post it here?

Guys, this simplux stuff is seriously something. I still have to get used to the idea of only downloading the source and building realtime with emerge.
Krusader e.g. took around 1 hour but it WORKS.

I more and more respect the power of this operating system...

Thank you for it

Leachim wrote: Maybe you can send me the erroneous xorg.conf, your working xorg.conf, the output of lspci and ddcprobe via personal mail or just post it here?

Ooops. Having little more look on the issue (with your suggestion) I think I figured out what may happened.
NOP uses "ati" driver, and it was not working either like fglrx which was suggested by xwizard with the Mobility FireGL 9000 I tried with.

But now with my Radeon 7500 if I change the driver to "radeon" (and set up the resolution of course) it WORKS.

I've attached the mentioned files, and I'll do the same with the other card if I get back to my workplace.

Also one addition: all those things you left in \root\Desktop folder are visible on the xfce4 desktop. I tend to believe you just forgot to delete them.

Thanks:
xant

@Leachim,
Some developers seem to use "xdelta" to expedite updating their .isos from one release level to the next. I wonder if the same tool couldn't be used to serve your needs.

Cheers,
Richard.

The problem is creating the ISOs in the first place. First this takes rather long time because I do this by

* deinstalling all unneeded software

* splitting distribution files and personal files into a new base image and a new save-file

* reinstalling the before uninstalled software

Also for users, installing a new version is far from optimal, because they will either have to delete their save-files (this means not only your personal data but also all installed software) or call for troubles.

Another big problem I ran into each time creating a new iso: booting from CD! Simplux is not really meant to be run from a CD and each time I build an ISO there were drivers missing, the scripts tried to write to the CD and so on ...

Leachim wrote:The problem is creating the ISOs in the first place.

Fully agree, based on my Puppy experiences any new release is a pain as all my user modifications I have to adapt, despite the fact that it has "update personal file" feature.
I much more like the previous approach of update_simplux which downloaded only the "essential" changes. (Especially as I finally run it from flash drive.)
If my vote counts kindly ask to somehow try to strengthen that direction, instead of posting new ISOs frequently.

added:
I've checked the Latitude D600, it's also working if I change the driver to radeon. Kindly ask to upgrade your xwizard.

Thanks:
xant

This distro is great for spanish speakers, but it hangs. Any chance to rescue it with puppy?

What do you mean when you say "it hangs"?

Does the boot process halt? Does X reject to start?

The first (very alpha!) version of the Simplux-wiki is online:

http://simplux.org/wiki

Feel free to fill it with contents! Currently Geman and English pages are completely intermixed - sorry for this inconvenience.

so I'm thinking, are you still using layers like in puppy so I can I use .sfs files ?

reason is I wanna remove the the source files to bring my base.sfs down some but I still wanna be able to access them(and other files).... or do i really need them?

pretty much i wanna make a dev.sfs if possible

Simplux Alpha 2 still uses layers (with aufs as the union-filesystem). But it is completely incompatible with any version of Puppy Linux!

Simplux contains the gcc-suite, perl, python ...

php and lots of other languages can be easily installed using emerge.

Alpha 2 supports two base-layer sfs-files: /simplux/base.sfs and /simplux/base_1.sfs.

Future versions of Simplux will leave the traditional filesystem-layer-approach and will use a layered block device driver instead. I want to start writing this driver in June.

Dear All,

It's not so visible as standing at the bottom, but the simplux site (simplux.org) has a forum. I've put instructions how to get xfce4 and skype up and running.
It's also easy to emerge e.g. Krusader, so in my opinion this alfa 2 is operational. (I've started to use as my primary mobile system.)

Best Regards:
xant

For those of you who dare to look into the mouth of a lion - the new Simplux-update-system is ready for testing!

http://simplux.org/wiki?simplux_update

The update procedure described in the wiki will - when installed - allow for extremely simple updating - just enter:

update_simplux

It supports several simultanous configurations. So you can (should be able to ^^) easily step back if something went wrong.

I can generate new updates nearly as easy. So I will supply updates on a regular basis.

Please post success or failure of your trials here (or in the Simplux forum)!