Porteus problems

[Porteous_Maximus]

I just want to say first, great distribution so far.

My use case:
I spend time between United States and Japan, so some of my friends are Japanese and some are American. I'm trying to create a Porteus distribution to help with one of my Japanese friends whose windows laptop doesn't work right anymore, presumably due to malware. This person is somewhat afraid of Linux because she thinks it is only for advanced users. I do not think so, and I'm trying to create a distribution of Linux that has the basics: Word processing(Libre office) and Skype. I also selected a Japanese keyboard. I will be back in Japan shortly, and I would like to be able to place my Porteus CD in the drive and have something functional.

But I'm running into problems.

Skype does not load the WebCam drivers.
The Japanese keyboard does not appear by default, even though I selected it on the cookbook using the website.

And one wish list item: VNC server started automatically

So I'm writing to you as somewhat of a half-newbie. I know my way around Linux but not enough to fix driver problems, and even after selecting the Japanese keyboard manually, I still could not get it to type any kana.

I would appreciate someone's assistance.

[brokenman]

Welcome Porteous_Maximus ... (Is that nick derived from a monty python script with the emperor Gluteus Maximus?)

It would help greatly in troubleshooting the webcam problem to generate a system information report (in Porteus Settings Centre) and upload the report to pastebin then link to it here.

You may also be interested in our resident Japanese guru's mix of Porteus which should fix the kana character problem you are having.
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=2966

Once these are sorted we can move onto starting the vnc server automatically for you.

[neko]

@Porteous_Maximus

May I help you about a Japanese keyboard ?

Would you tell me which a Porteus desktop you have gotten ?
Version number 3.1?
32 bit/64 bit ?
kde4/lxqt/mate/xfce ?

I will check upon your answer.

Thanks.

[Porteous_Maximus]

Good evening. Please forgive the delay, I only have time to do this at night after work.

Okay, so I loaded up the information center and I tried to upload a report with the dump report button. It produces a file of size 1, and it's empty. It says that it is uploading to pastebin, but nothing ever happens. I checked Internet access, and that's working fine. Something might be wrong with the dumping, as it is an empty file. Also, the button for dumping the report says that it is going to put it at the root desktop with a file name of psinfo.txt, but the pop-up window says that it is going to /tmp.

I noticed one other thing that seemed off. During the initialization, is looking for Porteus 3.1, but the INIT message says 2.88. Don't know if that means anything.

May I help you about a Japanese keyboard ?

Would you tell me which a Porteus desktop you have gotten ?
Version number 3.1?
32 bit/64 bit ?
kde4/lxqt/mate/xfce ?

I will check upon your answer.

Thanks.

I am looking for 3.1, 32 bit, KDE please. I tried to get the Japanese keyboard working again tonight, but even when it says Japanese, all it shows is English. No amount of fiddling with the settings got me anywhere.

Thank you for both of your replies. I appreciate the assistance.

[neko]

@Porteous_Maximus
I checked the Japanese key board of Porteus-KDE4_ja-v3.1-i486.iso.
It changed a keymap to Japanese key board by using cheatcode "kmap=jp".

=========================================================================================================
Porteus-KDE4_ja-v3.1-i486.iso

md5sum: 994a6e67abee3e5b5cf75fa8c79c6fcf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/qbi1a ... 1-i486.iso

was created for this testing.

This is constructed with following packages.

=== basic modules ===
/porteus/base/000-kernel.xzm ... from Porteus-KDE4-v3.1-i486.iso
/porteus/base/001-core.xzm ... from Porteus-KDE4-v3.1-i486.iso
/porteus/base/002-xorg.xzm ... from Porteus-KDE4-v3.1-i486.iso
/porteus/base/003-kde.xzm ... from Porteus-KDE4-v3.1-i486.iso
/porteus/base/04-firefox.xzm ... V35.0 Japanese version

V35.0 Japanese version:gotten from the site
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

=== additional module for Japanese ===
/porteus/modules/003-kde_locales_ja.xzm ... got Japanese items from 003-kde_locales.xzm
/porteus/modules/005-locale_ja-8.xzm
/porteus/modules/kde-l10n-ja-4.14.3-noarch-1alien.xzm ... from Porteus Language-Selection-Tool

005-locale_ja-8.xzm:
includes Japanese locale, font, input method and manual packages.
You can analyze this module from the information in /var/log/packages/ .
=========================================================================================================


Thanks

[brokenman]

When I mentioned our resident Japanese guru I was referring to Neko. Follow his advice closely.

[Porteous_Maximus]

I will burn a copy of this and test it. I am hoping that it includes Skype. I will let you know the results!

Thank you!

[Porteous_Maximus]

The Japanese version works great. I just need to add Skype and WebCam drivers.

Can you please instruct me the process?

[neko]

@Porteous_Maximus
Excuse me that I cannot help you about the driver.

=========================================================================================================
Porteus-KDE4_ja-v3.1-i486-2.iso

md5sum: 5479f859e8f4a76655d88b18c68679af
http://www.mediafire.com/download/smu46 ... i486-2.iso

includes skype.
And The "ADOBE FLASH PLAYER" was updated to version 11.2.202.429.

If you understand the Porteus cheatcodes well,
you can start up ISO including a new module easily.
ISO@/boot/docs/cheatcodes-ja.txt, that is a Japanese version, is included in this ISO.
=========================================================================================================

Good luck!!

[Porteous_Maximus]

Thank you for this Japanese version with Skype. It is getting active use right now!

I appreciate your help.

[neko]

@Porteous_Maximus
Now, 'firefox' and 'Adobe flash player' have been updated.
If you need the latest versions,
please try to update ISO by yourself.

Best regard.



[how to update firefox module]
The latest Japanese locale firefox firefox-NNNN.tar.bz2 (Linux 32 bit) will be gotten from the site.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
note) NNN: version number.
example: firefox-35.0.1.tar.bz2

The latest Adobe flash player install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz will be gotten from the site.
http://www.adobe.com/jp/software/flash/about/
If yours(11.2.202.429) is not the latest one(11.2.202.440),jump to the flash player download center,
select 'tar.gz' file, and download.

(1) ISO disassembly
==============================================================================
% su
# mloop Porteus-KDE4_ja-v3.1-i486-2.iso
# cp -a /mnt/loop ISO
# uloop
==============================================================================
(2) firefox module disassembly
==============================================================================
# mloop ISO/porteus/base/04-firefox.xzm
# cp -a /mnt/loop MODULE
# uloop
==============================================================================
(3) firefox update
==============================================================================
# bzip2 -dc firefox-35.0.1.tar.bz2 | tar -x
# rm -fr MODULE/usr/lib/firefox*
# mv firefox MODULE/usr/lib/.
==============================================================================
(4) Adobe flash player update
==============================================================================
# tar -xzf install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz
# mv libflashplayer.so MODULE/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/.
# rm -fr readme.txt usr
==============================================================================
(5) firefox module assembly
==============================================================================
# mksquashfs MODULE 04-firefox.xzm -b 256K -comp xz -Xbcj x86
# rm -fr MODULE
==============================================================================
(6) ISO update & assembly
==============================================================================
# mv 04-firefox.xzm ISO/porteus/base/.
# mkisofs -o Porteus-KDE4_ja-v3.1-i486-3.iso -v -l -J -joliet-long -R -D -A Porteus -V Porteus -no-emul-boot -boot-info-table -boot-load-size 4 -b boot/syslinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/syslinux/isolinux.boot ISO
# rm -fr ISO
==============================================================================