I-Nex : CPU-Z for Linux!

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, all.

I've been trying to get this to work in Puppy - any Puppy - for ages.....and I've finally been successful.

How many of us remember CPU-Z from our Windows days?

I used to use it regularly.....and its spin-off cousin, 'GPU-Z'. Very useful little tools, and they were universally accepted as proof of your system hardware, in much the same way that BleepingComputer.com relies on Piriform's Speccy for system info.

There are packages available for 32- & 64-bit Tahr, and 32- & 64-bit Xenial.....but I've only been successful with the flagship Puppy. Which I suppose is quite fitting, really!

You will need to install/load quite a bit of stuff to get this functional, however. For starters, it's written in a relatively new, little-known language called Gambas; this is available through the PPM, so that is at least a plus point. Make sure to update the database first, though; this ensures you get the most current version available. It appears to be quite 'fussy' about this.

This appears to be the sticking-point for Tahr64; the terminal tells me the version installed from the PPM is too old for the supplied Tahr I-Nex package! And updating the databases doesn't give a new enough version, so.....I'm going to try 'transplanting' the /usr/lib64/gambas directory from Xenial64 into Tahr64, and see what happens.

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You'll need to make sure you have Perl installed; again, available through the PPM.

You'll need Qt5 loaded; the Qt5 SFS package in Tahr64's repo at Ibiblio will do nicely, 'cos that's the one I'm using here.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... _amd64.sfs

Now; I'm not entirely certain about this next bit. According to the library requirements, Qt4 is also needed (?!?):-





Only the 'Core' module, though; I know I don't have a Qt4 SFS loaded, so I must have installed this through the PPM. I don't know if there is a Qt4 SFS available for Tahr64; anyone?

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Finally, you'll want the I-Nex package itself, which is available as a .deb package from here:-

https://launchpad.net/i-nex/+download

...I-Nex's page at Canonical's Launchpad site. Make sure you get the i-nex_7.6.0-0-bzr977-20161012-ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb package; this is the one we want. Install this last of all.

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All things being equal, if you've been successful, you can now launch it from Menu->System->I-Nex. Do be patient; this takes several seconds to load (I guess it's collecting all the relevant information it wants); at one point you'll get a wee pop-up informing you that this can't be run as root; just 'OK' this, and the pop-up will go away. A few seconds later, I-Nex should fire-up.....and this, boys & girls, is what it looks like:-








Neat, huh? It has all the usual CPU-Z functionality.....and a built-in screenshot tool, as well (which I didn't discover until after I'd already posted this..... )

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So, to summarize:-

1.) You will need Perl installed. Xenial should already have this in /usr/lib64, but check anyway. If not, grab it through the PPM.

2.) You will need Gambas installed. Again, grab it through the PPM; it's the 'gambas3' package you want.

3.) You will need Qt5 loaded. The Qt5.5.1 package from Tahr64 @ Ibiblio, referenced above, will suffice.

4.) You may need Qt4 as well; this will need checking via a start through the terminal:-

Code: Select all

i-nex.gambas

.....and see what comes up.

5.) You'll need the ICU52 libraries installed. Xenial64's are actually too new for this (ICU55), so I've 'borrowed' them from Tahr64 (which has the correct versions), and made them up into a .pet package.....which you can find here.

6.) Finally, install the 'i-nex_7.6.0-0-bzr977-20161012-ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb' package from the I-Nex Launchpad packages page, as referenced above.

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And that, mesdames et messieurs, should be that. With any luck,you'll now have I-Nex running in Xenialpup64. Anybody fancies trying this, let us know how you get on with it, please.

Enjoy!


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, all.

Upon reflection, I will state, here & now, that I don't think this is worth all the messing about to get it working in Puppy.

The Windows executable for CPU-Z is a small, 1.8 MB download; at most, it wouldn't take more than 10 MB total to run. Moreover, you can unzip it, and run it from anywhere. It won't, however, work in Puppy under WINE, 'cos I've tried it; the problem being that it's looking for totally different system directories than exist in Linux.

The I-Nex utility itself is similarly small. The fact remains, however, that you have to install/load hundreds of MB of extra stuff simply to get it functional. To that end, especially in Puppy (where we do try to keep stuff as small and streamlined as possible - for obvious reasons), the existing system tools, like 'gnome-system-monitor' (for the 'buntus), 'mate-system-monitor' (for the Slackos), pWidgets, gKrellM, Conky, inxi (even my own recent discovery, 'Neofetch'), etc., are much more efficient and 'frugal' in nature.....they consume far less in the way of resources.

It was an interesting excercise in getting the thing running.....but I really can't recommend it, unless you have a relatively powerful machine with large quantities of RAM, large, fast SSDs, etc., etc. (I think I simply have far too much time on my hands.....and not enough to keep them occupied..!)

(*shrug*)

As always, my motto is 'choice in all things' as far as Pup's concerned.....but some of those choices are 'no-brainers'... I try to provide stuff like this, partly for those who simply can't live without certain types of apps they've become 'attached' to over on the Dark Side (mwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa ).....and for those among you who, like me, enjoy 'pushing the boundaries', just to see what's possible in Puppy.

That decision, as always, is down to the individual 'Puppian'. You decide.


Mike.

[musher0]

Hello Mike_Walsh.

Hm. +/- 400 Mgs in dependencies and sfs's to offer panels that do the same
as a couple of utilities that radky has put together using existing, already
on-board, Puppy components... HardInfo, for one.

As you say, to each user his/her own...

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, musher0.

Which is why I've 'qualified' my 're-take' on the whole thing. Yes, it's identical to what CPU-Z offers in Windoze.....but that's obviously working with stuff already installed in Windoze itself.

As you say, the amount of dependencies is equivalent to two Puppies in total, to get one small app running. Personally, I don't see why it couldn't be written in GTK; do away with all that Qt crap. But that's the way software development is heading; Qt is getting into everything. Qt5 is enormous.....and that's the one devs all seem to be using now.

Do I think it's worth it? No, I don't.....given that we have multiple apps already available that do the same job for a fraction of the space. But it was fun getting it working, all the same. If the total amount of stuff required had been between 5-10% of that huge total, I'd've seriously considered putting together a .pet or SFS.....but as it stands? Nah.

Shows what's possible, though. Since it's written the way it has been, with a new, relatively-unknown language, it's obviously been put together with 'modern' Linux users in mind, running a mainstream distro, with large, powerful machines, and to whom system resource usage is of little, if no concern at all.

It's hardly for Puppy. As I said, I think I've got too much time on my hands!


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, all.

Just in case anyone's interested, I-Nex will now run in Bionicpup64, Phil B's new release.

As I said before, I-Nex needs some large chunks of resources. Qt4 & now Qt5 SFS packages are quite freely available throughout the Puppy eco-sphere. Most of the smaller items are available either via the PPM or as 'official' .deb packages.....none of these require much space, or they're part of Pup by default anyway.

Gambas3 was the one missing piece that had to be 'permanently' installed.....and it's a 'biggie'. Thanks to some sterling work by did18 of the French-speaker's forum, we can now load even Gambas as an SFS!

So; Qt4, Qt5 and Gambas can all be loaded/unloaded if, as & when required for this excercise. The I-Nex app itself, by comparison, is tiny!

Anyways; have fun with it.


Mike.