Gconv-modules cache

This is amazing. Pemasu and Radky have been puzzling over why gtkdialog-based applications are slow to startup. The amazing thing is, they have found out why, and found the fix. This can shave noticeable startup time off of some apps! And we thought that Puppy was already super-fast!

Here is pemasu's report:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=76961&start=105

The problem is that Puppy lacks the cache file /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache, which is a compiled data file. The file is created in the Glibc source package when it is compiled, but we never put it into Puppy.

The matter is made worse, because Puppy has always had a cutdown selection of files in /usr/lib/gconv. Therefore, using the cache file as-is is not correct.

I wrote a little script that creates a cutdown /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules, and then a correct /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache is generated using the 'iconvconfig' executable.

The correct files, including the script, are now in Woof, in the 'glibc' template, in /usr/lib/gconv-cut, and FIXUPHACK updates /usr/lib/gconv. Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/36a75da77e

I also put the corrected files into the 'glibc' PET package for Wary. See:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_packages-wary5/glibc-2.10.1-1-w5c.pet

Note: I posted a 'gconv-modules.cache' to the Forum, however that one is not quite correct. The files in the Woof commit are the latest.

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Comments

Hybrid ISO
Username: Iguleder1
Barry - I have a small feature proposal: make all Woof-built ISOs hybrid by default; "isohybrid $iso" and that's it! This allows the ISO to be directly written to a flash drive, e.g: [code]dd if=/path/to/iso of=/flash/drive[/code] And there you have a read-only flash drive. It's great for quick rescue and it's an interesting USB installation method that could be added to BootFlash.

Re Hybrid ISO
Username: BarryK
"Iguleder, Does it still work like a normal ISO? I mean, could we just have the one ISO for all purposes? Regarding BootFlash, it already has that technique, using a program called "isohybrid" -- which is in most puppies. ...a very long time since I tried that option. I was even surprised that we still have the 'isohybrid' executable in Precise Puppy.

ROX-Filer log bug
Username: Iguleder1
"Just saw my patch in the [url=http://repo.or.cz/w/rox-filer.git/]ROX-Filer git repository[/url] - it fixes the squashed log window bug. Barry, can you add the fix to the Wary ROX-Filer package? The fix is in Templates.ui, so the package does not need to be re-compiled, only edited and re-packaged.

woot
Username: anewuser
"glibc-2.10.1-1-w5c.pet causes troubles on wary 5.0 regarding certain apps and ISO to utf8 (or viceversa) conversions according to logs on /etc. pcd pmusic ppm among others are affected Booting from CD but reading wary sfs from hdd.

Gconv cache file broken
Username: BarryK
"Testing on the Raspberry Pi, my gconv cache file is causing trouble. For example, reports a parsing error and displays a blank window. If I remove my cache file, or use the official bigger one supplied with the glibc source package, then Netsurf displays web pages. So, I have reverted, now using the official glibc cache file. A side note about Netsurf: on the RP, it renders pages very poorly, text overlaps all over the place. I only tested on Puppy Linux "sap6".

Tags: woof