Porteus Settings Centre

New features which should be implemented in Porteus; suggestions are welcome. All questions or problems with testing releases (alpha, beta, or rc) should go in their relevant thread here, rather than the Bug Reports section.
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Hamza
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Porteus Settings Centre

Post#1 by Hamza » 13 Oct 2011, 17:30

Porteus Settings Centre v2.0 is here
After weeks of works, finally here is Porteus Settings Centre v2.0

There will be released two versions of this tool,
-A stable version for normal users - (last bugs fixing and cleaning of code)
-A development version for developers (not ready yet)

Features of stable version;
Network Settings (using pns-tool)
Security Settings - You can changes the password of the current user and change the default user at boot-up.
Changes Settings (using save.dat manager)
Jump Menu - You can change your system menu by using a jump menu. So every features available will be listed in this Jump Menu.
On the fly - PSC will make a module with its files when you have completed the "first run" process. (Optional)
CheatCodes Manager - You can easily manage your boot parameters with a nice GUI with help buttons if you don't understand/know a cheatcode.
Porteus FireWall Manager - You can easily set up your firewall at every boot, and change its mode with 3 pre-defined mode, Normal,Strict,Block All.
Porteus CleanMe - If you browser takes too long to start, maybe its cache is too big. So with this feature, you will able to clean your browser's cache.
Compatible browsers :
-Firefox
-Seamonkey
-Opera

Usage :
The Porteus Settings Centre will not run if you are using "Always Fresh" Mode, because, every changes will be lost at shut down of the system.
PSC has been written to be run from Guest account because guest is the default user of Porteus at boot-up. It can be run from root too.
If you run it as guest, you will get a dialog box to give root's permissions to PSC.
It cannot works without root's permissions.

Its size is about 650KB.

It has been tested under Porteus V1.0 64Bit and Porteus V1.0 32bit (by Ahau), and everything is working.

Needed files/packages:
-OpenSSL
-GTK2+
-Xdialog

If one of these packages are missing, PSC should run a dialog box (if Xdialog is present) with missed package(s).
If it does not happened, you can get a report at /opt/psc/logs with the date of run like DAY-MONTH-YEAR

This application does not needs any Internet Connection. It generate the icons, if one of them are missings.

TODO List :
-Write a Password Dialog Box to avoid any prompt console.
-Add FlashPlayer compatibility to CleanMe - It will able to install/update/fix the flash plugin.
-Finish the "Make a new user" function - This feature should be able to make you a new account instead use Guest or Root accounts under Porteus.


This release was real challenge, Agreimann was the first owner of this application but he leave the idea and the source code of this application to The Porteus Community.
I think everyone can contribute to Porteus Settings Centre, Any variants are welcome.
Everyone should have his own variant of this tool if He wants one. No restriction, Freedom!

I will publish the link to download, when it will be ready for stable version.
NjVFQzY2Rg==

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fanthom
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Re: Porteus Settings Centre

Post#2 by fanthom » 14 Oct 2011, 00:45

sounds really good Hamza :)
CheatCodes Manager - You can easily manage your boot parameters with a nice GUI with help buttons if you don't understand/know a cheatcode.
this function may need an update as i have changed default cheatcodes a bit in /boot/porteus.cfg. here is updated list:

Code: Select all

kde
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 changes=/porteus/

lxde
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 lxde changes=/porteus/

fresh
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz nomagic

copy2ram
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz vga=791 copy2ram

vesa
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz autoexec=vesa-mode changes=/porteus/

text
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz autoexec=telinit~3

pxe
APPEND initrd=/boot/initrd.xz autoexec=pxe-boot
3 major changes:
a) 'autoexec=xconf;telinit~4' is gone as we have runlevel 4 set as default and /etc/X11/xorg.conf is not needed anymore
b) text mode requires now 'autoexec=telinit~3' (to switch runlevel from 4 to 3)
c) VESA mode requires now 'autoexec=vesa-mode' (to copy /etc/X11/xorg.conf-vesa as /etc/X11/xorg-conf and use VESA driver instead of autodetection)
The Porteus Settings Centre will not run if you are using "Always Fresh" Mode, because, every changes will be lost at shut down of the system.
how do you recognize 'Always Fresh' mode?
(i can bet you have forgotten about one thing :P )

Cheers
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Hamza
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Re: Porteus Settings Centre

Post#3 by Hamza » 14 Oct 2011, 15:12

Hi,

this function may need an update as i have changed default cheatcodes a bit in /boot/porteus.cfg. here is updated list:
Ok, I will update the cheatcode manager. Thanks :)

how do you recognize 'Always Fresh' mode?
It checks some informations in /mnt/live/var/log/livedbg file as you recommended.

Cheers!
NjVFQzY2Rg==

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fanthom
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Re: Porteus Settings Centre

Post#4 by fanthom » 14 Oct 2011, 19:58

how do you recognize 'Always Fresh' mode?
It checks some informations in /mnt/live/var/log/livedbg file as you recommended.
yes - this is the correct way but does not cover all scenarios.
a) with 'magic folders' every single folder can be used: /etc, /var, /root, etc... for making changes persistent.
b) user can create xzm module from changes saved in /mnt/live/memory/changes
c) /rootcopy.
Porteus gives you extra possibilities for storing changes other than standard 'changes=' cheatcode.

to the point:
The Porteus Settings Centre will not run if you are using "Always Fresh" Mode, because, every changes will be lost at shut down of the system.
i would be really careful with that statement :)
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Hamza
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Re: Porteus Settings Centre

Post#5 by Hamza » 15 Oct 2011, 09:07

I can update the warning function about changes to ask if the user currently running one of these cheatcodes.
It can checks the running parameters with /proc/cmdline too.

Thank you!
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