site
contact
newsQuirky Pyro64 0.5 released
This is the second alpha release of Quirky built from binary packages compiled in OpenEmbedded. Codenamed "Pyro", as that is the version of OpenEmbedded used for the build.
Installation
Primary download host is ibiblio.org:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/releases/pyro-0.5/
There are three choices to download, a live-CD ISO file, an 8GB image for a USB-stick, or a raw image that can be written to a drive or partition by means of the provided scripts.
I recommend the 8GB USB-stick image if you have a PC with UEFI-firmware, as I have manually installed rEFInd in it, which gives a nice menu, and implements dual-booting.
This link explains how to write a USB-drive-image-file to a USB-drive. It is written for Easy OS, but applies equally to Quirky:
http://bkhome.org/easy/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html
Then, there is a tutorial that explains how to get your PC to boot from an external USB-drive:
http://bkhome.org/linux/prepare-your-computer-for-booting-linux.html
There is a tutorial that explains about rEFInd and how it can
implement dual-booting with Windows (etc.). Though it was written
as a guide to installing Easy OS to the internal drive, the part
about eEFInd applies equally well to booting off a USB-stick:
http://bkhome.org/easy/how-to-install-easy-os-on-your-hard-drive.html
Then there is the live-CD ISO file, for which you will need a
cd-burner-app.
The third option is more for the Linux expert, who understands the commandline -- download pyro64-0.5.usfs.xz. Notice that it is the smallest download, at only 275MB. This is because it is xz-compressed.
In the case of downloading pyro64-0.5.usfs.xz, also
download the three scripts. Have a look at them, so you can see
what they do, and also check that the Linux distro you are running
has everything that the script will require. The script 4install-quirky-to-drive-mbr-esp
will write the .usfs.xz file to any USB-stick, any size
(though it must be at least 4GB, 8GB or more preferred).
The USB-stick written-to by 4install-quirky-to-drive-mbr-esp
will be bootable on old BIOS-firmware as well as new UEFI-firmware
PCs. It uses syslinux, but note that I intend to modify the script
in the future, to use rEFInd for the UEFI booting (and keep
syslinux for BIOS booting).
Devx
If you want the "devx" PET, it is available via the PKGget Package Manager, or directly here (690MB):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/packages/pet_packages-pyro/devx-0.5-pyro64.pet
...yes, rather large. That is due to included static libs. I may filter those out next time.
Bugs
Testing 0.5, I have only encountered one small bug so far. The initial "jumping off page" that comes up in the browser, has incorrect URLs.
Video
The video is usually an area where problems arise. In the case of Intel video, the default is sna video acceleration. However, the Intel xorg driver was compiled with support for uxa acceleration, which is the older method. If you have problems, such as tearing on the screen, try uxa,
Here are instructions how to switch to uxa:
32-bit UEFI
The 8GB stick image has boot capability for both 32-bit and 64-bit UEFI PCs, however the 32-bit is untested, an "I wonder if this will work" experiment.
Feedback
There is a thread on the Puppy Forum for Pyro64 feedback:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=110541&start=60
Tags: quirky