mtPaint now supports webp images

WEBP image files, with ".webp" extension, are not very well supported in EasyOS. Discussed in the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=12789

I have compiled mtPaint version 3.50.10 in OpenEmbedded, with .webp support. Note that the latest mtpaint is not 3.51 as is suggested in the forum thread, it is 3.50.10. Yes, the README file here says "3.51", but the latest release identifies itself as "3.50.10":

https://github.com/wjaguar/mtPaint

Also modified /usr/bin/build-rox-sendto so that now click on a .webp file will open it in mtPaint, as well as mtpaint will show in the right-click menu.

Gimp in EasyOS is still not compiled with webp support. Personally, that doesn't concern me, as I very much like mtPaint and it does everything I want in an image editor.  

Tags: easy

QV version 241007 released

Here it is:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky-void/amd64/releases/base/

Read about QV in the "quirky" news tag:

https://bkhome.org/news/tag_quirky.html

You are most welcome to play with QV!

Bootup QV on a USB Flash drive, you will find 'qv-installer' which is an easy way to install to internal drive.

Forum feedback here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=132484#p132484   

Tags: quirky

Update PET for QV

QV is a quasi-full install that manages packages with the Void xbps package manager, with PKGget as a GUI frontend. Updating is tricky, as it is not just a matter of installing the latest packages from the Void repository. There are also .pet and .tar.xz (from Scarthgap) packages, plus all of the support scripts.

Regarding the support scripts, look in /usr/local for example and you will see lots of them. These are all in woofQV, the QV build system.

I have tackled creating an update .pet package. It will be named qv-update-<date>.pet and is about 91MB -- it will always be about that size. The full drive-image .img file, which is about 1.5GB, after being installed from thereon it should only be required to install 91MB update PETs.

Here is the script that creates both the devx and qv-update PETs:

https://github.com/bkauler/woof-quantum-vis/blob/main/buildquantumvis/rootfs/8create-extra-pets

As QV is based upon snapshots, installing either of those, devx or qv-update PET package, will only apply to the current snapshot. Probably a good strategy would be to take a snapshot of the one that you want to update, boot into it, then install qv-update. If you don't like the update, for whatever reason, no problem, just delete the snapshot and go back to the older one.

May be able to release QV this evening. Playing with this is going to be very interesting.   

Tags: quirky

Attempt to disable pam

I think that PAM is an acronym for "Permission Access Management". In QV, it has caused trouble, and we want to disable it.

QV has 'pam-libs', not 'pam-base' and 'pam' packages that are also in the Void repository.

I have put a hack into the 'init' script in the initrd:

#20240423 attempt disable pam, this will zeroize these files...
#for aF in /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${QV}/etc/pam.d/*; do >$aF; done
#20241006 try this instead...
#for aF in /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${QV}/etc/pam.d/*; echo 'skip-authentication' >$aF; done
#or, if delete /etc/pam.d then pam will read /etc/pam.conf instead...
rm -rf /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${QV}/etc/pam.d 2>/dev/null
#have pre-created this in rootfs-skeleton...
#echo 'skip-authentication' > /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${QV}/etc/pam.conf

...there was an earlier attempt, 20240423, deleting everything in /etc/pam.d

From online reading, file /etc/pam.conf is ignored if folder /etc/pam.d exists. So the hack now trying is to delete /etc/pam.d entirely, and just have a global "skip-authentication" line in /etc/pam.conf

Haven't tried it yet.   

Tags: quirky

Custom trike luggage rack completed

Continuing the custom recumbent trike project, here is the previous post:

• MPPT controller for custom trike — September 13, 2024

The rear luggage rack was originally bolted directly onto the wheel fork, but I moved it up above the shock absorber. This photo shows that the bottom of the luggage rack is now bolted onto thick (5mm) aluminium bars, one each side:

There will be panniers on the sides of the luggage rack, and to strengthen the rack framework, see the short lengths of aluminium tube that have been mounted horizontally. These will help to prevent the panniers from pushing the luggage framework in toward the wheel.

The two vertical black tubes are to support the solar panel. They are 22mm OD. Those 90-degree pipe clamps are available from Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007097452540.html

The vertical black tubes have been reinforced with diagonal aluminium tube. The pipe clamps are 22mm with rubber strips, available from here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002813162527.html

...I bought those because they have double-thickness tabs, where the bolt goes through, which I think assists with clamping tightly. Photo of smaller 8mm clamp:

The smalled clamps on the luggage rack frame are the ones shown in the above photo, and I removed the rubber. The luggage frame is tubes about 10-11mm, and the 8mm clamp is a good tight fit.

The wood blocks bolted to the seat may or may not be temporary, depending in whether I need to adjust the seat position.

in the photo, notice the large black rubber cap on the end of the 55mm OD pipe. This is to keep out the rain. It is 50mm, that I was able to stretch over the pipe. Purchased from here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005239973627.html

The custom trike project is progressing slowly, as busy with other things, especially EasyOS and QV coding. But, it is progressing.   

Tags: light

AARNet mirror of EasyOS

AARNet is "Australian Academic Research Network", see their about page:

https://www.aarnet.edu.au/who-we-are

Good news, they have agreed to mirror EasyOS from ibiblio.org:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/

I will add this as another download choice in PKGget. This will join the only other mirror, NLUUG (Netherland Linux/Unix User Group):

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/

So now we have the ibiblio.org server in the USA, NLUUG in Europe, and AARNet for Oceania region. Though, of course, the best download depends on many factors, not just what country the server is located.    

Tags: easy

Global IP TV Panel updated to 2024MK8

As the title says. Created and maintained by forum member ETP, see discussion:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=689    

Tags: easy

QV basic handling kernel version changes

Did some online reading about this; it is an awkward situation. With btrfs, there may be lots of snapshots, even hundreds. Some may be old, setup in a certain way, with certain apps, and working fine -- if you have updated the kernel, you may not want to bootup one of those old snapshots with the new kernel.

There is also the problem that the old snapshot will have kernel modules in /usr/lib/modules, for the old kernel, not for the new kernel. /usr/lib/firmware may also be a problem; may have correct firmware for the old kernel, not for the new.

A lot on online dscussion about the best way to handle this.

I have made a start, some basic handling:

https://github.com/bkauler/woof-quantum-vis/commit/cf5d3036d237bac510674133c431f50a2b963bfb

So, when you choose to bootup a different snapshot from the default, the 'init' script will look to see if /usr/lib/modules/<default kernel version> exists. If not, will offer to update the snapshot to use the default kernel.

Or, will offer to change the default kernel to the kernel version that is in the chosen snapshot. That may be more than one to choose from.

It can be fleshed out a bit more. Haven't thought about /usr/lib/firmware. Not tested yet. The code would be more elegant if could use kexec.     

Tags: quirky