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Simplification of version update

November 10, 2026 — BarryK

When you click the "update" icon on the desktop, there is a check to see if there is a later version of EasyOS online. If yes, then there is a check to see if there is a delta file, which looks like "easy-7.5-amd64.img___easy-7.5.1-amd64.img.delta"; if so, then the delta file is downloaded, instead of the full "easy-7.5.1-amd64.img", which is about 1.1GB.

However, ibiblio.org has an rsync server, and rsync has the ability to generate a delta-difference between an online file and a local file. This will do it:

rsync --progress -av rsync.ibiblio.org::easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/7.5.2/easy-7.5.2-amd64.img ./easy-7.5.1-amd64.img

rsync is very clever, it will figure out a delta difference and only download that, so instead of 1.1Gb, the download will be considerably smaller, say about 200MB, depending on how different the online and local files are.

Doing away with delta files and using rsync results in a huge simplification of the download scripts. This is part of /usr/local/easy_version/easy-update:

#20261110
#find out if any .img, delete any others...
LASTIMG="$(ls -1 easy-*.img 2>/dev/null | sort -V -t "-" -k 2,2 | tail -n 1)"
if [ -n "$LASTIMG" ];then
 mv -f ${LASTIMG} XXX${LASTIMG}
 rm -f easy-*.img 2>/dev/null #get rid of any others.
 rm -f ${DISTRO_NAME_SHORT,,}-*.img 2>/dev/null #20230305
 sync
 mv -f XXX${LASTIMG} ${LASTIMG}
else
 #create a temporary img file...
 echo
 echo -en '\033[1;35m' #bright magenta
 echo "$(gettext 'Creating a temporary .img file...')"
 echo -en '\033[0;39m' #reset.
 /usr/local/easy_version/create-temp-img
 #...creates /mnt/wkg/easy-temp.img
 LASTIMG='easy-temp.img'
fi

#20261110 now use rsync to download...
echo
echo -en '\033[1;35m' #bright magenta
echo "$(gettext 'Downloading') ${DISTRO_NAME_SHORT,,}-${latestVER}-${DISTRO_TARGETARCH}.img ..."
echo -en '\033[0;39m' #reset.
rsync --progress -av rsync.ibiblio.org::easyos/${DISTRO_TARGETARCH}/releases/excalibur/${DISTRO_VERSION}/easy-${latestVER}-${DISTRO_TARGETARCH}.img ./${LASTIMG}
if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
 mv -f ${LASTIMG} easy-${latestVER}-${DISTRO_TARGETARCH}.img
else
 #fail.
 echo
 echo -en '\033[1;31m' #bright red.
 echo "$(gettext 'Something went wrong with the download. Aborting')"
 echo -en '\033[0;39m' #reset.
 rm -rf ./.cache 2>/dev/null
 echo -e "\033[1;31m${MSGexit}\033[0;39m"
 exit 9
fi

There is also /usr/local/easy_version/easy-update-devx that does the same thing.

Notice in the above code, there is a call to /usr/local/easy_version/create-temp-img. This is a new script that will create a .img file, by grabbing vmlinuz, initrd and easy*.sfs, so initially it won't matter if you haven't got a .img file at /mnt/wkg, one will be created. Then rsync will do the delta thing to create the .img of the latest version.

It is a real neat mechanism, very simple. From the user's point of view, there is less to think about, you don't even need to keep a /mnt/wkg/easy-<version>-amd64.img, as it will get auto-generated if not there.    

Tags: easy

EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.5.1 released

November 09, 2026 — BarryK

Hot on the heels of 7.5, various improvements:

Download from:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.5.1/

Or the mirrors:

https://mirror.lug.umbc.edu/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.5.1/

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.5.1/

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.5.1/

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=179540#p179540

Have fun!  

Tags: easy

Evince PDF viewer replaced with Papers

November 08, 2026 — BarryK

We have lamented the one-pixel-wide window border around Evince, that cannot be overridden by the window manager. This is the gtk3-based app in the Debian package repository. I have compiled the gtk2-based version, available as a PET package installable via PKGget (named evince0), which does have a sane window border.

There is a workaround, by holding down a certain key, the mouse pointer can resize the Evince window; but not long after learning that in the forum, forgot how to do it.

Problem now solved, have dropped Evince, replaced with Papers:

https://apps.gnome.org/Papers/

https://itsfoss.com/news/gnome-papers-hands-on/

Papers also overrides the window manager drawing of window border; however, it does draw the border more than one-pixel thick, making resizing with mouse easy.

Papers will be in the next release of EasyOS, coming soon.    

Tags: easy

Osmo window has no close-box

November 06, 2026 — BarryK

This is causing confusion. Osmo is an icon in the tray; click on it and the Osmo window appears. The window has no close-box; clicking on the tray icon will close Osmo.

Users do discover this, but it is not intuitive, not at first anyway.

I have now added explanation when choose the Osmo menu entry (in the Personal category of the menu).

Also, there will be a popup message on first bootup and whenever and SFS or version update, top-left of screen, informing of this.   

Tags: easy

NVIDIA SFSs for the rollback kernels

November 04, 2026 — BarryK

I posted about compiling the 6.6.161 and 6.12.115 kernels, and SFS files to support rolling back to these older kernels:

https://bkhome.org/news/202611/kernels-66161-and-612115-compiled.html

Have now also compiled NVIDIA SFSs for these kernels, along with the 7.2.12 default kernel:

nvidia_6.12.115-615.78.08_amd64.sfs
nvidia_6.6.161-595.58.03_amd64.sfs
nvidia_7.2.12-615.78.08_amd64.sfs

...the format of the filename is nvidia_KERNEL-VERSION-NVIDIA-VERSION_amd64.sfs   

Tags: easy

Packing the carry-on bag

November 03, 2026 — BarryK

Continuing the Nomad-series on YouTube, a short video how packed the carry-on bag for upcoming trip to India:

"Nomad Part29: Packing the carry-on bag"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ6N_mCFCCo

The place where I am currently staying in Perth, Australia, the outside courtyard has noticeable background noise from a busy highway. So after recording the video, stripped the audio to a separate file, like this:

# ffmpeg -i DJI_20261102145041_0002_D.MP4 -vn -c:a copy output2.aac

Then uploaded it here:

https://audiodenoise.com/

...then clicked the "AI Speech Enhancer" button and accepted the defaults. It did an absolute brilliant job of removing the motor background noise. Then used ShotCut to merge the filtered audio back with the video.    

Tags: nomad

Kernels 6.6.161 and 6.12.115 compiled

November 02, 2026 — BarryK

I reported recently that EasyOS has a simple mechanism to rollback to an earlier kernel:

I have compiled 6.6.161 and 6.12.115 in woofQ2, and EasyOS could be built now with either of these; however, with Easy 7.5 we have bumped to the 7.2.x kernels. But, with this rollback mechanism, can easily go back to these earlier kernels.

I have made a change to the SFS name; preivously, it was linux-kernel_VERSION_amd64.sfs, but want a name that better indicates the purpose. So, these new SFSs are now named:

linux-kernel-old_6.6.161_amd64.sfs
linux-kernel-old_6.12.115_amd64.sfs

Another change, have built the broadcom wl.ko module into the SFS, so you won't have to install it separately. Let me know if anything special is required in /etc/modules.conf or /etc/modprobe.d to get the wl.ko modules to work properly.

I am going to upload these SFSs; however, when use SFSget, do not install them. Well, you can download them, but do not set to boot one of them. Reason is, the inc/05kernel-change script in the initrd only recognises the SFS file name of linux-kernel_VERSION_amd64.sfs. Please wait until EasyOS 7.5.1 is released, which will fix the initrd.   

Tags: easy

Yradio ripping improvement

November 01, 2026 — BarryK

Yradio streaming radio player, created and maintained by fredx181, has been improved:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=178830#p178830

Now at version 1.9.5-1, using mpv for stream ripping instead of streamripper. This will be in the next release of EasyOS, expected to be 7.5.1  

Tags: easy