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YouTube Nomad-series adventure underway

August 05, 2026 — BarryK

See parts 2, 3 and 4, checking out an old house and inexpensive Shire-run caravan parks:

https://www.youtube.com/@meanderinglight/videos

Right now, I'm at Ravensthorpe, at a free RV overnight stop. Toilet across the road, petrol station that sells food. Nice little place to stopover, maximum allowed 48 hours.

It is not permitted to erect a tent here; anyway, for one night I will just sleep in the car.

So, how do I use my laptop in this tiny little Kia Picanto hatchback? Did consider a tray to hook onto the steering wheel; however, not enough room. Instead, the plywood from the folding table serves as a nice surface, placed on the passenger-side:

img1

...have to twist to the side to use it, but OK.

As my videos are mostly going to be taken while walking, have seen the limitations of the phones. They have EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization), but can see its limitations. Seriously considering buying a DJI Osmo Pocket4, with 3-axis gimbal:

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/dji-osmo-pocket-4-standard-combo

...well, that will have to wait, as booked in at the campsite for 4 weeks. Maybe after that will locate the closest JB-HiFi store.

As on-the-go for the last few days, have ignored EasyOS and the forum; however, once settled at the campsite on the coast, will get back to it.    

Tags: nomad

Grey with pink-highlights theme

August 01, 2026 — BarryK

EasyOS version 7.4.6 has a new theme. I posted about it in the latest YouTube video, Part-24:

"EasyOS Part24: Themes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KY1up1JhXM

There have been previous blog posts showing the themes in earlier releases of EasyOS, for example:

Screen snapshot:

img1

...this is the same theme as used in QV (Quantum Vis) -- another experimental Linux distribution, development currently on-hold.

The file in woofQ2, woofq2/configure/x86_64/default-theme, which becomes /root/.packages/default-theme in a running EasyOS, has this for 7.4.6:

#gtk, jwm, wallpaper: names of pet pkgs, which may actually have more than one
# theme inside, hence the : separator with actual theme name.
DEFAULT_THEME_GTK2='gtk_2_3_theme_flat-grey-rounded3:flat-grey-rounded3'
DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3='gtk_2_3_theme_flat-grey-rounded3:flat-grey-rounded3'
DEFAULT_THEME_JWM='jwm3_theme_easygrey:EasyGrey'
DEFAULT_THEME_WALLPAPER='desk_background_galah_pink_grey1:galah-pink-grey1.jpg'
DEFAULT_THEME_DESK_ICONS='desk_icon_theme_treepata_black_pinkish:treepata-black-pinkish'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FOREGROUND='#15150b0b0000' #very dark brown
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_SHADOW='0' #0=none
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FONT='Open Sans Semi-Bold 13'
DEFAULT_THEME_XORG_TEXT_DPI=102
#20240117 3buildeasydistro: write these into /etc/gtk-3.0/settings.ini:
# ${DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3##*:} and
DEFAULT_GTK3_FONT_NAME='Open Sans Semibold 13'
#20240118 set to one of these: blue green grey orange (default orange)
DEFAULT_THEME_BASE_COLOR='grey'
#20260426 text colors in rox window... very dark brown... 7.4.6 go back to default black...
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_UNKN_COLOR='#303000000000'
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_BDEV_COLOR='#303000000000'
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_FILE_COLOR='#303000000000'
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_DIR_COLOR='#303000000000'
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_CDEV_COLOR='#303000000000'
#DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_PIPE_COLOR='#303000000000'
#20260617 choose chromium theme (default is blue). allowed values: "orange", "yellow", "grey", "green"
DEFAULT_THEME_CHROMIUM='grey'
#20260618 xcursor themes are in /usr/share/icons
# exs: blue_animated_36 blue_animated_48 magenta_animated_36 magenta_animated_48 simple_blue_28 simple_white_28 simple_white_32 simple_yellow_28
DEFAULT_THEME_XCURSOR='magenta_animated_36'

I'll be traveling extensively in the countryside soon, and expect to take photos, one of which may end up as the next wallpaper.

Do you like the grey theme better than the previous orange theme? Or would you prefer a more soothing blue theme? Let me know in the forum.   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.4.6 released

August 01, 2026 — BarryK

Changes since 7.4.5:

Note that the graphical installer has not yet been extensively tested, and still to be considered as alpha-quality.

Download:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4.6/

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=174736#p174736

Experimenting with a new theme.   

Tags: easy

RustDesk added to Appi

July 31, 2026 — BarryK

Forum member vtpup asked how to add RustDesk to Appi, the AppImage package manager:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=17250

Here is the project homepage:

https://rustdesk.com/

Flapi, the Flatpak package manager, has a "Customize" button to add new entries, but Appi doesn't.

In /usr/local/appi, I edited 'appi', inserted this at line 293:

 RustDesk) DIRECTDL='https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/releases/download/1.4.9/rustdesk-1.4.9-x86_64.AppImage'; DIRECTVER='1.4.9'; MENUcat='X-Network'; MENUtop='Network'; MENUname='RustDesk remote access'; ;;

In 'online-info' inserted this at line 95:

 RustDesk) URL='https://rustdesk.com/' ;;

Then in /usr/local/appi/entries/amd64/entries, inserted at line 86:

<item icon-name=\"rustdesk\">RustDesk|${FLGrustdesk}|83M|$(gettext 'Remote access and support')</item>

Then downloaded a 48x48 pixel logo, 'ruskdesk.png' and placed it at /usr/share/pixmaps

Decided to put it into the "System" category in Appi, as it was empty:

img1

Haven't tested it yet.   

Tags: easy

Fix for multiple sfs layers in main desktop

July 30, 2026 — BarryK

The previous two posts described the problem:

Nailing it down more, have inserted this into /sbin/fixlayers in the initrd:

#20260730 sync apt layers. see /usr/local/petget/update_dbs.sh, alias/apt, alias/apt-get
if [ -z "$prevVER" ];then #prevVER set if a version update.
 #sfs layers change.
 mkdir -p /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${WKG_DIR}.session/session1/var/local/petget
 echo -n '0.0.0' > /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${WKG_DIR}.session/session1/var/local/petget/dpkg-sync-layers-ver
fi

There is code in /usr/local/petget/update_dbs.sh, alias/apt and alias/apt-get, that runs 'sync-dpkg-layers':

#20250821 sync dpkg db layers...
#20260730 see initrd /sbin/fixlayers #20260730
#also run from /usr/local/petget/update_dbs.sh and alias/apt
mkdir -p /var/local/petget
if [ ! -e /var/local/petget/dpkg-sync-layers-ver ];then
 echo -n "${DISTRO_VERSION}" > /var/local/petget/dpkg-sync-layers-ver
else
 V1="$(cat /var/local/petget/dpkg-sync-layers-ver)"
 if [ "${V1}" != "${DISTRO_VERSION}" ];then
  echo -n "${DISTRO_VERSION}" > /var/local/petget/dpkg-sync-layers-ver
  /usr/local/petget/alias/sync-dpkg-layers
 fi
fi

Looks like loading devx sfs on the main desktop is now fixed, but will have to build the next version of EasyOS to verify.   

Tags: easy

SFS loading order error

July 30, 2026 — BarryK

I am amazed that we keep finding new things to fix, where we think that area is OK. Posted about a problem with loading the devx sfs on the main desktop:

https://bkhome.org/news/202607/partial-fix-for-devx-sfs-loaded-on-main-desktop.html

This lead me to a startling discovery; the easy.sfs and devx.sfs layers were loaded in the overlayfs, but the devx.sfs was on the bottom! That is not supposed to happen; extra sfs's are supposed to be stacked on top of easy.sfs.

They do stack correctly in containers, and that is where my attention has been. Have neglected loading of extra sfs's on the main desktop. The cause goes back to when EasyOS adopted overlayfs, and dropped aufs.

The overlayfs mount has a format like this:

mount -t overlay -olowerdir=/lower1:/lower2:/lower3,upperdir=/upper

...where /lower1 is top of the read-only layers, /lower3 the lowest.

I had it the wrong way round, probably from "aufs thinking". Have fixed these files in the initrd:

/sbin/extrasfs
/inc/layer-lockdown, layer3, layer2, layer1, layer0

In many cases, an sfs stacked below easy.sfs will still work, but in the case of the devx sfs, it mucks up apt. Now on the track to properly fixing the problem that forum member retiredt00 reported.   

Tags: easy

Partial fix for devx sfs loaded on main desktop

July 30, 2026 — BarryK

Forum member retiredt00 has drawn my attention to this problem:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=17248

I booted up Easy on a usb-stick and ran SFSget to installed the devx sfs on the main desktop, not in a container. the window has some out-of-date information:

img1

...that is very old information: "NOTE: It is currently recommended to install to the main filesystem, NOT in a container"

I have changed that text to "NOTE: it is not necessary to install it with SFSget; just click on the devx icon on the desktop and it will be downloaded and installed into the devx container -- this is now the preferred method."

Yes, loading the devx sfs in the devx container is now the recommended method. See documentation:

https://easyos.org/dev/how-to-compile-source-code.html

Keeping coding and development separate from the main desktop is a vast improvement. If coming from Puppy Linux, please do adjust to this!

However, if the user does want to load the devx sfs on the main desktop, it should still work. Currently, the packages in the devx sfs are not recognized by APT.

I have modified /usr/local/petget/alias/sync-dpkg-layers, modified at line 106:

##############
#handle NEWstatus...
DEVXloaded=0
#20250822 careful, devx sfs may be loaded...
if [ -f /INSIDE_devx ];then
 DEVXloaded=1
fi
#20260730 devx sfs loaded on main desktop...
losetup --all --output BACK-FILE -n | grep -q -F 'devx.sfs'
if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
 DEVXloaded=1
fi
for aNEW in ${NEWstatus}
do
 [ -z "$aNEW" ] && continue
 grep -q -F "|${aNEW}|" /root/.packages/user-installed-packages
 [ $? -eq 0 ] && continue
 #20250822 careful, devx sfs may be loaded...
 if [ $DEVXloaded -eq 1 ];then
  grep -q -F "|${aNEW}|" /root/.packages/devx-only-installed-packages
  [ $? -eq 0 ] && continue
 fi
 #want to purge it from db, as no longer exists...
 sed -i "/^Package: ${aNEW}$/,/^$/d" /var/lib/dpkg/status
 rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/info/${aNEW}:* 2>/dev/null
 rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/info/${aNEW}.* 2>/dev/null
done

However, that is only part of the story. Need to keep thinking about it...   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.4.5

July 29, 2026 — BarryK

Important fixes since 7.4.4, and new graphical installer:

Have dropped gtk2-ng, back on Debian's gtk2 packages. Have reported a bug to the gtk2-ng project site:

https://git.devuan.org/Daemonratte/gtk2-ng/issues/27

The graphical installer, "Easy Installer", is a beta-release. Testers are most welcome, but probably best if you test on a computer that you don't mind if something goes wrong. Well, it may be 100% OK, but at this stage cannot make any guarantees. Well, can never make a guarantee of 100% infallibility.

Download:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4.5/

Newcomers to EasyOS are recommended to read the version 7.4 announcement, as it has more details:

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=174637#p174637

Have fun!   

Tags: easy