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Dune3D parametric CAD added to Flapi

February 06, 2025 — BarryK

Easy, using the "Customize" button:

img1

This will be in the next release of Flapi.

Homepage:

https://dune3d.org/   

Tags: easy

sdparm and sg3-utils compiled in OE

February 05, 2025 — BarryK

I have compiled 'sdparm' and 'sg3-utils' packages in OpenEmbedded, and added to the Easy Scarthgap package repository. You can install via PKGget, after updating the package database, or download directly:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/packages/compat/oe/scarthgap/

sg3-utils has a utility that can detect if a drive supports TRIM, in cases where other methods fail. I will experiment with this.  

Tags: easy

hdparm updated in initrd

February 05, 2025 — BarryK

The initrd has the binary executable 'hdparm' statically-linked with musl, version 9.58. Caramel has observed that a later version, in the main Easy filesystem, 9.65, seems to be better behaved:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=141941#p141941

I have compiled hdparm 9.65 statically-linked with musl, in OE. Actually, this is an old version of OE, from the EasyOS Pyro-series, that I keep for musl static compiles. Here is the binary:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/tree/main/easyos/easy-arch/amd64/target/boot/initrd-tree/bin

This does need some more investigation. The 'hdparm' utility has worked for me, but all of my USB drives are pendrives or SATA SSDs, or SATA HDDs. The problem may be with a NVME SSD in a USB caddy. So, I will investigate 'sg3-utils' to get around the limitation of 'hdparm'.   

Tags: easy

Linux 6.6.75 kernel compiled

February 05, 2025 — BarryK

EasyOS Scarthgap and Daedalus series have used the 6.6.x kernel, up until recently. Scarthgap 6.6 has the 6.12.11 kernel and 6.6.1 has the 6.12.12 kernel.

It has put me in a quandary, as the AVS audio driver does not work (it loaded on my Acer Aspire 1 but no sound, whereas legacy driver works), and the 6.12 kernel has removed many legacy audio drivers, forcing us to in some cases use AVS. Which is bad if the fallback legacy driver is no longer there.

I would like to rollback to a LTS kernel before 6.12, but unfortunately that is 6.6. The inbetween, 6.8, 6.9, 6.11, are all EOL.

But there is good news. Although kernels after 6.6 have improvements for the Intel Core Ultra 7 and Ark GPU, I have compiled 6.6.75 and video and sound now both work on my Asus Zenbook S13. This is using the i915 video driver and legacy audio driver.

So, going to stay with the 6.6.x kernel for Scarthgap, and probably Daedalus also. For now anyway.

Although I want EasyOS to work on recent laptops, the main focus is that Easy will work on older computers, right back to the very first with 64-bit CPU. I want all the legacy drivers.   

Tags: easy

Fix unmute when boot different audio hw

February 04, 2025 — BarryK

I was reminded of this problem when testing booting Easy Scarthgap 6.6.1 from USB-stick on my collection of computers.

At the very first bootup, script /usr/bin/delayedrun unmutes the audio and sets a level of 80%. That's good, but then bootup on other computers and the audio icon in the tray shows as muted, with level 8%, then requires manual unmute and set level.

This is now fixed. Bootup on a different computer for the first time, and audio is unmuted and set to 80%. See commit:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/805604c9e9cffcaedbe923fae25e21fdb8f4eede   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Scarthgap-series version 6.6.1 released

February 04, 2025 — BarryK

Version 6.6 was release on January 29, 2025:

And the Daedalus-series version 6.5.7 also on January 29:

Here are the highlights of Scarthgap 6.6.1, relative to 6.6:

The 6.12.12 kernel with completely disabled audio AVS and video Xe drivers, is an experiment. OK on my computers, except for my Zenbook laptop Xorg did not start, and had to run 'xorgwizard'; chose "modesetting" driver and let Xorg choose the resolution, then Xorg worked. Don't know why didn't work first go, whereas the 6.12.11 kernel did.

Then there is AVS. In the 6.12 kernel apparently some legacy audio drivers have been removed, intended to be replaced by AVS. Let me know if audio fails on your computer.

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/6.6.1/

...which also has release notes and getting-started readme.

Fast mirror in Europe:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=141926#p141926

have fun!    

Tags: easy

Global IP TV Panel updated to 2024MK10

February 03, 2025 — BarryK

Forum member ETP created and maintains this, see forum:

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

He has to update often, as the URLs change. I am grateful for the time he puts into doing this, as I sometimes watch a streaming TV channel. It is good to have a selection of different political viewpoints, such as CGTN (Chinese English news) and Sky News (Western right-wing). Ha ha, "Western right-wing" is an understatement.        

Tags: easy

Lockdown and disable drives fix

February 03, 2025 — BarryK

EasyOS has the capability of booting up running totally in RAM with the drives disabled. There are actually two types; not actually disabled, just all unmounted, and secondly truly disabled. There is an introductory webpage:

"Ultra-secure web browsing"
https://easyos.org/user/ultra-secure-web-browsing.html

Alfons reported a problem with lockdown, that turned out to not be a problem; however, while testing lockdown I noticed something else -- the "save" icon was missing from the desktop. The original "update" icon was there, but it was supposed to be replaced by a "save" icon.

Booting up in lockdown mode, there is an information window, and the "save" icon should be there, like this:

img1

Testing on my Lenovo Ideacentre which has 32GB RAM. That free space of 45.3GB is due to running in /dev/zram0 in RAM, which has a compressed ext2 filesystem.

I fixed it, so the "save" icon is back:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/ee7f748794756f72e22a789f27f66859bf39bd72

Hmmm, this bug has been there since usr-merge was implemented in Easy. I wonder how many people tried EasyOS lockdown mode, it didn't work properly and they just moved on, without reporting it. Or maybe lockdown mode hasn't attracted any attention.

Changing the subject, when there is a change of kernel, some files in /usr/lib/modules get left behind. Just a tidyup, removing them:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/dd70ac336358c6cc4e44b9d67c4064c2e5d613d5   

Tags: easy