Porteus-v1.0-rc1-x86_64 last call for testing

[fanthom]

@Rava
1) Lxterminal will work ok after using LST
2) done: added 10 loops to rc.M, new function for adding one free loop in 'activate', new script 'add_loop_devices' where user can specify how many loops he wants
3) your FF addons needs too many conditions i would leave it up to the users which addons they want (ff profile can be stored in changes)

@beny, Hamza
yep - great news indeed!
Thanks to Pat and all Slackware crew for this update

@all
waiting on a latest LXDE from ponce (need some testing) and KDE-4.6.3 which should be out Tuesday next week.
I'm going to release rc2 Wednesday/Thursday next week and it will be a unofficial FINAL, as we need to wait on 32bits to stay in sync.
We are getting really close to 1.0

Cheers

[francois]

http://www.mediafire.com/?n500id0e2k0fb the last nvidia driver 270.41.06 for porteus rc1

*************************************************************************************
Hello beny, I have tried your nvidia driver. It does not work for me. After booting with the driver, I do not get into X window. I drop to a shell asking me to login. Removing the module everything comes back to normal.

Mes respects, Francois.

[jcuk]

Report: Porteus v1 x86_64 RC1 (VirtualBox) Module Add Kills save2ram KDE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTRODUCTION
My main use for SLAX-remix / Porteus is to make a RAM based
Host OS for transportable VirtualBox VMs that I work from. Also trivial
forensics / data recovery / (re)building Windows installed local HardDisks.
As with my ancient SLAX6 transportable working environment, I'll write
scripts to automate other changes and additions to the RAM based system when
the final release is out and everything "just works" as expected ;-)

It functions perfectly OK (with serious usability issues) from the beta CD.
These issues drive me back to SLAX-remix06 when I need to work productively
( Hints included in Details below ) Currently I only use Porteus x86_64
for faster aide signature generation/checking of local filesystems than is
possible from 32bit i486 built systems. And playing with VirtualBox v4.


Executive summary:
Loading VirtualBox 4.0.4 module from root Desktop using
Dolphin ( double click to activate from local /mnt/sda13/<directory path> )
OR the module manager (after defining the source path) will both lockup the
desktop, with slight differences. Unable to restart the Desktop in a good
state afterwards from Ctrl-Alt F6 genuine console root login (responding).
Killing X cleanly doesnt autostart a kdm login for switch back to F7
Suspect broken/corrupted (KDE stuff?) lurks in RAM filesystem and memory.
tarballs of /var/log /root and /tmp saved for analysis if needed.


DETAILS

Home Desktop System: Acer T180 (Dec 2006) AMD X2 4G RAM, Nvidia 6100
Logitech Trackball Marble (three button)
Huawei E220 Modem plugged in before power up.
Boot: choose copy2ram, TAB edits: Splash=quiet, ramsize=18%
Set passwords root and guest at startup.
KDE guest Desktop autostarts OK (H res.1024, US country default)
...Note [1] prefer to see Login screen when multiple users are defined
even better when LiveCD starts up console only, GUI free:
extended SMART disk testing on some hardware fails otherwise.
( learner user hints at command prompt like puppy does? )

Logout Guest user and Login as Root user.
Change Desktop resolution to 1280x1024. [ get this as defaultwith remix06 ]
Change to UK country ( !Thanks for that! )
Open bash console. Unmount Windows and other unneeded partitions
...Note[2] prefer LiveCDs that ID but DO NOT automount local partitions
I prefer to choose, manually mounting whats needed, later.
Hate /media automounts that use UUIDs. Especially with spaces.
( prefer mount identities that retain the device name )
Run dolphin - configure: F9 show tree from root. Detailed list view. Show
hidden files. Sort by date (newest at top of list). x out all the other
panel distractions, resize panels so it looks and feels like konqueror...
( Konqueror lets me Right Click to add a directory - Gone in Dolphin :-( )
Make symlink to local disk partition VirtualBox directory from root.
Method: View from Dolphin. Copy path in address bar to paste buffer.
To bash window: paste path, complete command.
...Note[3] Can no longer do this by simply pressing trackball button(!)
Can we have the X paste buffer back and working in KDE again?
A serious PIA to use "Copy and Paste" from MENU BARS only!!
Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V dont always work.
Dragging cursor all over Desktop every time for menu access...

OK at this point everything works faster and better than the beta with the
RC1 graphics driver. Great Stuff! But as soon as I try to activate
the VirtualBox main module it will lock up the KDE Desktop. If I kill X
cleanly from a Ctrl-Alt-F6 logged in genuine console, it doesnt clean up
the mess properly and rerun a cleanly started new login (or autologged in
user Desktop).

When I activate VirtualBox by double-clicking on the module file, it brings
up grey dialog box that that rapidly turns all grey. Then other windows
just leave a grey patch if you shrink or kill them. Nothing works from the
Task Bar at the bottom.

OK. Restarted from a Cold Boot. Next up: the dedicated module manager.
Using the Module manager is a two step process. Add the preferred directory
path. Then add the module. This didnt lockup the desktop straight away; I
thought it was going to work out. But the Task Bar stopped responding again
before I had a chance to do anything else :-(

What I do next when the desktop stays working with VirtualBox modules:
In Porteus-x86_64beta update/load additional software. Usually Slackware
repository (small) packages. Sometimes custom compile my own from source
from a "prepare" bash script. gkrellm I cant live without: Its useful to
see what is going on with the system at all times, especially when testing.

For some strange reason firefox wont allow me to update online, directly,
when I work from the beta. Have not tried this yet from RC1. is this a
file permissions issue even though its in RAM? Never did find out.

ASIDE - Other software I add most of the time to SLAX-remix/Porteus:
If I'm using this LiveCD for Media recovery/analysis work I will load the
smartmontools slackware package (built in to SLAX 5, omitted from SLAX 6).
Other packages, or software used regularly are gpg, aide [filesystem
signatures and diff changes]. gkrellm lets me see exactly what is going on
with my system, and I cannot live without this, especially for experimental
LiveCDs and hosts used to keep alert to network access security issues.
dvdisaster is another small program that is valuable to protect, test and
keep track of deterioration in optical media archives such as CD/DVDs.
The KDE GUI partitioning tool does not do NTFS (!?) so I have to bale out
and reboot a Puppy distro and use gparted if I want to build/repartition
a PC/Laptop that has Windows on it ( most of them ).
...Note[4] - consider building in these small packages by default?
lessfs and cryptmount are very useful with virtual machines.


Final Note (Newer software versions):
Now that New Slackware is out, please note that VirtualBox also went up
to version 4.0.6: containing important speed improvements for linux guest
systems among other fixups. Can you (re)build RC2 for VirtualBox 4.0.6
please, if a complete rebuild for new Slackware base is being attempted.
It would be better if the extension pack was already in the Porteus (re)package. Perhaps Oracle will allow you to do that if someone asks them nicely ;-) Version 3 is less hassle because those features are builtin.
Oh - Mozilla recently fixed a bunch of security holes. New firefox!

Thank Y'all (in advance) for the hard work and time in building the next
release candidate LiveCD. Look forward to working from it.

--jcuk

Posted after 15 minutes 2 seconds:
Apologies for the formatting in the previous post.
I used spaces to indent the subsection notes. They all vanished
when the text was copied into the box :-(
Makes it harder to read now. Sorry about that.
I'm not used to posting in Web 2.0 Forums. Prefer UseNet.
and plain text, like many ancient pre-web internet techies.

--jcuk

[beny]

francois you have to try that, blacklist noveau,with the driver into the ponce repository fanthom have added the blacklist script for noveau,but can be other issue...

[francois]

1)Nouveau. Thanks beny. I am trying it right now, maybe I read too fast the overall posts, it makes sense this way. And it works. It was too simple.

How did you get to build the module yourself? I have been trying to do so with the nvidia package, but even with nouveau blacklisted, there would be an error stating nouveau was still there.

2) I would like to build a package to get my keyboard settings, that is multilingual canadian. I know this could be set from: K > System Settings > Hardware > Input/Output > Keyboard > Layouts > Add Layout.

Which kde package is needed?

Respectueusement.

[fanthom]

"(VirtualBox) Module Add Kills save2ram KDE"
yes i can confirm that (only KDE is affected, activation works ok under LXDE and terminal mode). i think i know what's causing this, will try to fix it asap.

"prefer to see Login screen when multiple users are defined
even better when LiveCD starts up console only,"
hmmm... i would like to get to desktop as soon as it's possible so i guess you will have to tweak /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc to disable autologin feature.

"( learner user hints at command prompt like puppy does? )"
will have a look on puppy and see if we can do the same in Porteus.

"prefer LiveCDs that ID but DO NOT automount local partitions
I prefer to choose, manually mounting whats needed, later."
sorry but i need to follow majority of users which probably want automount by default. please hardcode 'noauto' cheatcode in your /boot/porteus.cfg file.

"Run dolphin - configure: F9 show tree from root. Detailed list view. Show
hidden files. Sort by date (newest at top of list). x out all the other
panel distractions, resize panels so it looks and feels like konqueror..."
i also prefer 'detailed tree view' but was asked for icons as it looks nicer. please save dolphin settings in /porteus/rootcopy

"( Konqueror lets me Right Click to add a directory - Gone in Dolphin :-( )"
works here

"Can we have the X paste buffer back and working in KDE again?"
works here

"A serious PIA to use "Copy and Paste" from MENU BARS only!!
Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V dont always work."
try ctrl+c and shift+insert instead of ctrl+v (works for terminals, mceadit, etc)

"gkrellm I cant live without: Its useful to
see what is going on with the system at all times, especially when testing."
i would recommend you to try superkaramba (included in Porteus)+ some monitoring theme:
http://kde-look.org/index.php?xcontentm ... 25c070e768

"For some strange reason firefox wont allow me to update online, directly,
when I work from the beta. "
don't know but i would create xzm from ff instead.

"The KDE GUI partitioning tool does not do NTFS (!?) so I have to bale out
and reboot a Puppy distro and use gparted if I want to build/repartition
a PC/Laptop that has Windows on it ( most of them )."
why not try cfdisk in console? you will have to add 'ntfsprogs' package to be able to format partitions with ntfs (btw ntfs-3g and ntfsprogs are merged together so it should be availiable for next version of porteus)

"consider building in these small packages by default?
lessfs and cryptmount are very useful with virtual machines."
will have a look on your propositions but we are really tight in space and i would like to stay under magical 300MB ISO size.

"Can you (re)build RC2 for VirtualBox 4.0.6
please,"
no problem

"Thank Y'all (in advance) for the hard work and time in building the next
release candidate LiveCD"
you are welcome

@francois
"How did you get to build the module yourself? I have been trying to do so with the nvidia package, but even with nouveau blacklisted, there would be an error stating nouveau was still there."
try to use 'nomodeset' cheatcode + boot in text mode not GUI so nouveau will not be loaded.

"Which kde package is needed?"
wait for rc2 as i will upload localization packages on the server and update LST.

Cheers

[francois]

@fanthom:

Thanks. The info is quite appreciated.

[Hamza]

@ francois,

If you have free time , you can make a module of Slackyd+deps , if some users want use it .

You need post the full details of your module with all deps included in.

Regards,

[beny]

hamza the slackyd package are default in the porteus system

Posted after 41 second:
and seem you never used it

[Hamza]

Yes , but the default slackyd is for Stable version?

Yes , I never used it , I like use the script for download some pkgs

I used it only for found the deps with slackyd -d

Regards,

[beny]

since slax remix slackyd are the default package search manager

Posted after 1 minute 54 seconds:
maybe you can use slapt-get but is a tool very powerful that can damage your system if you choose wrong action

[Hamza]

Thanks a lot.

I prefer use my scripts.

[beny]

ok but you have a system and a lot of people that use it,you can use script but exist people that are not able to make script or so,this programs are for all the people that use porteus or slackware and use it everyday.

[Hamza]

I agree with you , but this conversation is offtopic with Porteus v1 rc1 x86_64.

[francois]

1) Slackyd

I do not want to contradict you Beny and Hamza, but I have seen reading somewhere that fanthom does not intend to keep slackyd in version 1.0. If this is the case I imagine that we have to debate it right here or in the thread about the package manager for next release:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 6&start=40

or on the thread about slackyd:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=142

Personally, whatever the choice of the eventual package manager and I know that brokenman is actively working on the issue, but people have to test his script:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 2080#p2080
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 6&start=30

Until we are sure that we get a reliable one, and this could take months, slackyd should be kept.

2)Problem with initial passwords setting:
-at booting still in cli mode, there are a few funy caracters (...@ or the sort), when one enters repeatedly with toor (or just using the enter key for both root
and guest)
-for naive users not used to root privileges, the file psswd.xzm needs root privileges to be displaced into /porteus/modules. I imagine that this has to be automated. And what about rights from guest to insert other modules into /porteus/modules?
-if we want non-root, we will be stuck with extra procedures all the time