ROX-Filer wider rename, copy, save dialogs

The very narrow dialog boxes in ROX-Filer is an annoyance. A little while ago, MochiMoppel posted a very simple fix:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6493

At the time I saw this, I thought that's great, but then it slipped my mind. Now reminded, have put it in immediately, into /root/.jwm/jwmrc-personal in woofQ2.

I love these little refinements; we keep edging closer to "perfection".    

Tags: easy

Fixes for version update

Forum member vtpup was reporting some customizations getting deleted when there is a version update.

Custom changes to /usr/local/bin/default* files fixed:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=169456#p169456

An SFS file deleted:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=169462#p169462

No icon in menu when a .deb installed:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=169455#p169455

Amazing, it never ends, we keep finding things to fix!   

Tags: easy

Kernel 6.12.85 compiled

This has been compiled in woofQ2, also the NVIDIA SFS. All of these are uploaded.

SFSs:

kernel_6.12.85_src.sfs
kernel_6.12.85_src.specs
nvidia_6.12.85-595.58.03_amd64.sfs
nvidia_6.12.85-595.58.03_amd64.specs

PETs:

pet_packages-excalibur/broadcom-sta-wl-20201202-k6.12.85-excalibur64.pet
pet_packages-excalibur/linux_headers-6.12.85.pet
pet_packages-excalibur/linux_kernel-6.12.85-excalibur.pet
pet_packages-excalibur/rox-filer-20260502-excalibur.pet

Was prompted to do this when read Caramel posted a report of security vulnerability of earlier versions.  

Tags: easy

ROX-Filer back-forward and thumbnails

Rox in Easy 7.3 got rolled back, because of some problems:

• ROX-Filer minimal leak fix — April 24, 2026

Compile fail and crash now fixed. WoofQ2 applies these patches:

300-filer-leak-fix.patch
301-back-button.patch
302-filer-thumbnails.patch
303-log_gcc14_pointer_fix.patch

WoofQ2 uploaded (260502):

https://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/woofq2/woofq2-project/

Discussion about these patches in in two forum threads:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=16727

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=16611

have done some basic testing, looks good.      

Tags: easy

Global IP TV Panel 2026MK8

Forum member ETP has bumped it:

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

I have updated the PET.    

Tags: easy

What theme do you like best?

Would you like to vote for the theme that you would like to see in future versions of EasyOS, past 7.3? Share your preference at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=16806

I'm very curious if there will a consensus.   

Tags: easy

Another look at EasyOS themes

There have been many desktop themes in EasyOS over the years. See this blog post:

"A look at past themes"
https://bkhome.org/news/202406/a-look-at-past-themes.html

Looking at themes since then, here is Easy Scarthgap-series version 6.0:

...quite pleasant, that photo was taken by me. File /root/.packages/default-theme has this:

DEFAULT_THEME_GTK2='gtk_2_3_theme_easyblue:EasyBlue'
DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3='gtk_2_3_theme_easyblue:EasyBlue'
DEFAULT_THEME_JWM='jwm3_theme_easyblue:EasyBlue'
DEFAULT_THEME_WALLPAPER='desk_background_carrabin:carrabin-station.jpg'
DEFAULT_THEME_DESK_ICONS='desk_icon_theme_easyblue2:EasyBlue2'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FOREGROUND='#00002a2a7f7f' #dark blue
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_SHADOW='0' #0=none
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FONT='DejaVu Sans Bold 10'
DEFAULT_THEME_XORG_TEXT_DPI=102
#20240118 set to one of these: blue green grey orange purple (default orange)
DEFAULT_THEME_BASE_COLOR='blue'

Progressing to the Excalibur-series, first release was version 7.0, October 2025:

...also pleasant. The same theme stayed right up to version 7.2.5, then 7.2.99 had a different wallpaper.

DEFAULT_THEME_GTK2='gtk_2_3_theme_lighteasyblue:LightEasyBlue'
DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3='gtk_2_3_theme_lighteasyblue:LightEasyBlue'
DEFAULT_THEME_JWM='jwm3_theme_lightbluebrown:LightBlueBrown'
DEFAULT_THEME_WALLPAPER='desk_background_dry-field:dry-field-blue-sky.jpg'
DEFAULT_THEME_DESK_ICONS='desk_icon_theme_treepata-yellow-blue:treepata-yellow-blue'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FOREGROUND='#15150b0b0000' #very dark brown
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_SHADOW='0' #0=none
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FONT='DejaVu Sans 13'
DEFAULT_THEME_XORG_TEXT_DPI=102
#20240117 3buildeasydistro: write these into /etc/gtk-3.0/settings.ini:
# ${DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3##*:} and
DEFAULT_GTK3_FONT_NAME='DejaVu Sans 13'
#20240118 set to one of these: blue green grey orange (default orange)
DEFAULT_THEME_BASE_COLOR='grey'

The latest release is 7.3, and decided time for a complete change:

The default-theme file:

DEFAULT_THEME_GTK2='gtk_2_3_theme_flat-light-orange-red:FlatLightOrangeRed'
DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3='gtk_2_3_theme_flat-light-orange-red:FlatLightOrangeRed'
DEFAULT_THEME_JWM='jwm3_theme_light-orange-red:LightOrangeRed'
DEFAULT_THEME_WALLPAPER='desk_background_eastern_quoll:eastern-quoll.jpg'
DEFAULT_THEME_DESK_ICONS='desk_icon_theme_peachy_red:peachy-red'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FOREGROUND='#606006060000' #dark brown
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_SHADOW='0' #0=none
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_TEXT_FONT='DejaVu Sans 13'
DEFAULT_THEME_XORG_TEXT_DPI=102
#20240117 3buildeasydistro: write these into /etc/gtk-3.0/settings.ini:
# ${DEFAULT_THEME_GTK3##*:} and
DEFAULT_GTK3_FONT_NAME='DejaVu Sans 13'
#20240118 set to one of these: blue green grey orange (default orange)
DEFAULT_THEME_BASE_COLOR='orange'
#20260426 text colors in rox window... very dark brown...
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_UNKN_COLOR='#303000000000'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_BDEV_COLOR='#303000000000'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_FILE_COLOR='#303000000000'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_DIR_COLOR='#303000000000'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_CDEV_COLOR='#303000000000'
DEFAULT_THEME_ROX_PIPE_COLOR='#303000000000'

Feedback welcome on the forum, which of these you like best!   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.3 released

Version 7.3 is a "milestone" release. A huge amount of development since 7.2, with many 7.2.x minor-number releases. A lot has happened, and as usual it is too difficult to summarize in a few paragraphs.

To start, here are significant changes since version 7.2.99:

• More fixes for Xorg Wizard — April 24, 2026
• ROX-Filer minimal leak fix — April 24, 2026
• Fix Xorg Wizard session save at reboot — April 23, 2026
• Nvidia driver compiled, SFS created — April 23, 2026
• ROX-Filer crashes, rolled back — April 22, 2026
• Chromium 147.0.7727.116

The online release notes document all changes since 7.0:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/release-notes.htm

For newcomers to EasyOS, I recommend a quick read of this page, that itemizes how and why EasyOS is different from any other Linux operating system:

https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

Also, a short introductory blurb, extracted from the 7.0 release announcement:

Compared with prior releases of EasyOS, the Excalibur-series is a "whole new ball game". All prior EasyOSs were built with woofQ; Easy Excalibur is built with woofQ2, that is a redesign of woofQ based on Debian's APT underpinning all package management. Easy has PKGget, a package manager GUI, that is able to install all kinds of packages, such as .deb, .txz, .rpm and .pet; that chameleon-like ability is retained, but now PKGget is a wrapper on top of APT. So now PKGget and APT talk to each other, and even if utilities such as 'apt' and 'apt-get' are used in a terminal, it will automatically sync in PKGget.

Easy Excalibur is built with Devuan Excalibur packages, equivalent to Debian 13 Trixie, but without systemd. Instead, EasyOS uses the simple busybox init, enhanced with pup_event service management.

EasyOS has inbuilt containers support, known as "Easy Containers" and this is taken to the next level. In particular, there is now a pre-created container named "devx" that has everything for a compiler/development environment. Like all Easy Containers, "devx" runs just by clicking a desktop icon, and the user can flip between any of them with single clicks.

Easy Excalibur is big, the download is around 1GB; and it takes EasyOS's habit of "including the kitchen sink" to the next level. Not just the Chromium browser, also the SeaMonkey browser suite is included, builtin. And of course all the usual guys, such as Celluloid, Inkscape, Gimp, SolveSpace, LibreOffice, HomeBank, StreamTuner2, Osmo, NoteCase and Audacious. As well, lots of utility and support apps, such as GParted, Blueman, NetworkManager, gFTP, YouTubeDL, and dozens that are found only in the Puppy-family or exclusively in EasyOS.

EasyOS ships as a drive-image file, not as an ISO. Download from here, courtesy of ibiblio.org:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/

A mirror in the USA, courtesy of Linux User Group at UMBC (thanks to amerrym1, see forum):

https://mirror.lug.umbc.edu/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/

Fast mirror in Europe courtesy of NLUUG:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/

Australia, courtesy of aarnet:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/

If you know about ISO files, not drive-image files, they are quite easy to install. Either write to a USB-stick and boot that, or open it up and copy the files into an internal drive. There are tutorials that explain these choices, such as this one to install to an internal drive:

https://easyos.org/install/easy-frugal-installation.html

Or, to a USB-stick (or any complete drive):

https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html

Easy since 7.0 has had basically the same muted bluish theme, with nature-scenes wallpaper. Was getting a bit bored with it, so dreamed up something totally different for 7.3. You might find this a bit less restful on the eyes than muted-blue:

High-resolution, 1680x1050 pixels, is here.

The wallpaper was created by Australian Aboriginal artist Sarah Levett, see here.

Might end up going back to a more muted theme, especially as will be taking lots of photos soon in the Australian countryside, that will be likely wallpapers. But for now, this orange-brown-red theme is OK.

Feedback welcome at the forum. Any issues encountered, there are guys keen to help:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=16803

Have fun!    

Tags: easy