Woof alpha1

Download from here:
http://puppylinux.com/test/

Read preparation instructions here:
http://puppylinux.com/woof/

This is only for those interested in building a Puppy distro, not really for end users.

By default Woof is set to build a Slackware-based live-CD. I did a complete run-through, downloading packages and building the ISO, tested on a USB stick. Get the desktop, no bad error messages in the log files. This is alpha1 though, and some things might not be right -- for example I did notice some files that should have been in the 'devx' file. I don't know if Perl or printing works.

Note, if you try this alpha1, after having downloaded all the packages that is a major step out of the way. In future you will be able to test alpha2 etc and things will happen much quickly as most packages will already be local. The '1download' script can be rerun and it will download any new required packages.

I decided not to upload a live-CD ISO file just yet, until a few more things are ironed out.

Some things that I plan to do in the near future:

1.
Script '0setup' downloads the package database files for the compatible-distro (ex: Slackware). The format of these files differs for each distro, and I am reading these by special-case handling in the scripts. What I will do is preprocess this data into a standard format, then special-case handling will not be required. The standard format will be extremely compact, making it feasible to put these database files into the live-CD and hence to be usable by the package manager.

2.
Some files do not go into the right place. Work on that. Also make sure nothing missing. Hence get all aspects of Puppy working -- perl, printing, etc.

3.
Woof is building with PET packages mostly from pet_packages-4 directory on ibiblio, so really is based on Puppy 4.1.2. I will sync with later packages, such as those in the upcoming 4.2.

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Comments

Going for it...


Pet Packages
Username: archwndas
"Hi Barry, After installing any puppy on the hard drive, I have to manually download and install several pet packages which are not included in the official pet repository. I usually find these in the Puppy Forums. These packages are: skype-2.0.0.72.pet Eterm-0.9.4.pet grace-5.1.21-i486.pet xpdf-3.0.1-base.pup tex.iso emacs22.pet auctex.pet It would be nice if you could copy them in the main pet repository. Also if you could make a pet for tex.iso. It is very useful you know for people who publish in scientific journals. LaTeX is the most frequently used word-processor by most of the Scientific Journals. Cheers...

size matters
Username: paulh
"Might be just worth noting on your instructions page that this is a c. 500MB download (at least it was for me, running an arch build) Also that 1download hard codes the repo, so for someone in Europe changing the http source to nluug for instance could speed things up mightily

Woof Alpha
Username: Lobster
"Everything seemed to go smoothly up to this command [b]# ./2createpackages Preprocessing arch 200902 pkgs database... Checking syntax of PKGS_SPECS_TABLE...[/b] When I got this error message (did not look for package) [b]ERROR: packages-tar-gz/atk-1* does not exist. Please find a package that matches, place it in packages-tar-gz, then press ENTER key to try again: [/b] Seems a straightforward procedure in principle :)

atk-1 etc
Username: paulh
"Lobster check my post at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=275115#275115

via Woof
Username: dogone
"Lots of errors which I will have to capture next time around, but I type is in "spup". Desktop came up seamlessly and everything run in these first 10 minutes works without complaint. Amazing! Elapsed time from start slack download to spup iso just over 5 hours on a 2GHz Athlon w/2GB RAM. Woof builder's CPU utilization never went much above 4%, which surprises. BUT IT WORKS!!! More next time through. Congratulations Barry! P.S. Woof apparently wants something in devx - loading it cleared some error messages.

Arch
Username: BarryK
"Ah, I forgot to change the variable in DISTRO_SPECS file from "arch" to "slackware". Anyway, the arch build should work too. Lobster, your error message is probably because the 'atk' package did not download. After running '1download' you should have got a 'DOWNLOAD-FAILS-tar-gz' file for any packages that failed to download. ...you can run the '1download' script again, it should only download what is missing. Or manually download the missing packages.

strip command missing
Username: dogone
"When Woof is run configured for Slackware without devx_412 loaded, the second script generates the following MANY times. ./2createpackages: line 472: strip: command not found No such error if devx_412.sfs is loaded.

packages-templates not populate
Username: Sit Heel Speak
"Running from a full install of Puppy 4.10 with devx_410.sfs having been previously mounted then copied-in and rebooted...building woof-alpha as slackware,...during ./2createpackages I get warnings of the following nature, too many for the rxvt scroll buffer to show them all before diffstat: Processing zlib processing zlib-1.2.3-i486-2.tgz WARNING: no template packages-templates/zlib found.

Woof alpha1 feedback
Username: BarryK
"A forum thread has been started: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=38718 A bug in '1download' has been found, I have posted to the thread about this. Will upload fixed scripts tonight probably. Ah, yes, 'strip' is in the devx file in Puppy 4.1.2. Alright, I'll put it into Woof so that the devx file won't be needed.

nluug
Username: 01micko
"Paul, I got packages from ibiblio and nluug.....??? nluug may have been down??? (at the time, and I mean instant when the script was checking)??? Found Arch packages and 2createpackages is about halfway thru, I'll check warnings later, but I have dev loaded... in 412

templates missing
Username: BarryK
"[i]WARNING: no template packages-templates/zlib found.[/i] Sit Heel Speak, That doesn't matter, I'll comment-out that warning.

Tags: woof