woofV drive-image get desktop

Continuing the woofV project, here is the previous post:

https://bkhome.org/news/202402/woofv-post-process-populated-rootfs.html

I have worked on '7create-easy-sfs', '8create-drive-img' and some support scripts, and have built a easyVoid drive image file, which I wrote to a USB-stick and booted it, and got a desktop. The scripts are here:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/tree/main/easyos/easy-code/rootfs-skeleton/usr/local/woofV/rootfs

There are some things broken, but it is good to get the desktop.

The 'rootfs' folder, that became 'easy.sfs', is very big, and that is something that I need to examine -- why is it so much bigger than 'easy.sfs' 6.0.2 -- the easyVoid built with WoofQ (and not using XBPS). Yes, XBPS did pull in more dependencies, but didn't expect that much size growth.

I'm still in two minds about Void's rolling release model. It seems that an update to the repository can happen at any time. So, in woofV I download the repo database, then start installing packages to 'rootfs'. In the middle of doing that, the repo changes, and suddenly a package that attempt to install isn't in the repo.

To work around this, the Void documentation advises to sync with the repo everytime install a package. I haven't done that, but looks like should do so. Likely, that will slow down installation. If the repo does change then XBPS may have to reinstall some already-installed package. I guess it will work; it just bothers me.

I was reading reports that if attempt to install a package in the middle of a repo change, there will be failures downloading, even if trying to sync with the database; the advice is to wait awhile, then retry.

Then there is another concern; a fundamental question about using XBPS to install the packages, versus using PKGget (PPM). There are so many potential issues, that I am attempting to work around. Forum member dimkr posted a couple of these fundamental concerns to the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=110287#p110287

PKGget is very simple, and works OK with the devx; if a choose to install a package that has a dependency on the devx SFS, PKGget will popup a window warning of this.

However, PKGget is too simple in some respects; it may have a problem with the rolling release model. At startup, PKGget syncs with the Void repo database; however, if install a package and an already-installed dependency has become too old, PKGget isn't aware of this. However, the plan is that the woofV-built easyVoid, PKGget will be changed to be a GUI frontend to XBPS, so repo changes will be handled auromatically.

Anyway, just cogitating over the issues.    

Tags: easy