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EasyOS Excalibure-series version 7.4.8 released

September 14, 2026 — BarryK

Highlights since 7.4.7:

Download:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4.8/

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=176818#p176818

Have fun!    

Tags: easy

Chromium 151 and 152 not using system X cursor

September 14, 2026 — BarryK

You guys running EasyOS 7.4.7 will know about this. It is a known problem reported to the Chromium developers:

https://doc-1160-1o5g-issuetracker.googleusercontent.com/issues/544155039

I have just built EasyOS 7.4.8 with Debian's latest Chromium .deb, version 152.0.7977.82, and the fault is still there.

I do wonder about the Chromium developers sometimes. A little while ago, they introduced a bug with the mouse pointer hovering over the tabs. These bugs should not be happening in the first place, which makes me think the developers are not using Xorg and not bothering to test on Xorg.

I don't want to release 7.4.8 with this bug still there.

EDIT:
Fixed, see post by NorthernSoul:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=176852#p176852

In /etc/gtk-3.0/settings.ini, appended this line:

gtk-cursor-theme-name = default     

Tags: easy

Compiled 6.12.109 kernel

September 10, 2026 — BarryK

Haven't done much EasyOS development recently; busy with the YouTube "Nomad" channel.

but, need to bring out a new release soon. Have bumped to the latest 6.12.x kernel.  

Tags: easy

Improve low-battery warning

August 27, 2026 — BarryK

Easy 7.4.7 has powerapplet_tray version 3.1, which added a beep when battery discharges below 10%, repeated every 15 seconds (and only when discharging, not on charge).

One of the tester guys commented that it wasn't very noticeable, and unfortunately I also discovered the same. Running the laptop in my tent, it wasn't on charge, and I did hear the beep, but didn't connect that with the battery being low. The tray icon also flashes, but I didn't notice that either. Then the laptop suddenly died.

I have bumped powerapplet_tray to version 3.2, and this time it calls an external script, /usr/sbin/bat-low-warn, every 15 seconds:

#!/bin/ash
#20260827 /root/Startup/powerapplet_tray will call this every 15 seconds
#when battery below 10%.

export TEXTDOMAIN=bat-low-warn
export OUTPUT_CHARSET=UTF-8

paplay /usr/share/audio/error.wav

M0="$(gettext 'WARNING LOW BATTERY')"
popup "background=#ffa0a0 terminate=5 timecount=dn name=batlow|<big><big><b>${M0} </b></big></big>"

sleep 1
paplay /usr/share/audio/error.wav
###end###

...that should get our attention!    

Tags: easy

EasyOS draft submitted to Wikipedia

August 25, 2026 — BarryK

Forum member pp4mnk submitted this to Wikipedia awhile ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:EasyOS

I didn't mention it earlier, as I thought that it looked OK and would be accepted. But it hasn't, see the commentary prepended.

pp4mnk sent me this in a private message, June 26:

I consider positive if easyos users can visit it and make suggestions to improve it, but they must take into account wikipedia basics, so a post publishing that I have prepared a Wikipedia draft, and it is currently awaiting review. If anyone would like to take a look and notices any errors, references that could be improved, or sections that could be made more neutral, I would be greatly appreciate any suggestions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:EasyOS

Many people think Wikipedia has very few restrictions, but it's actually quite the opposite. The standards are very strict, and depending on which reviewer evaluates your draft, getting it accepted can sometimes be quite challenging. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I greatly appreciate the effort that pp4mnk has put into this. Maybe someone could edit it, take out what they consider to be LLM-generated.  

Tags: easy

Fix for pulseaudio causing app crash

August 23, 2026 — BarryK

Described this earlier today:

https://bkhome.org/news/202608/pulseaudio-mixer-causes-apps-to-crash.html

I'm concerned that apps other than geany might also crash, and apps other than pavucontrol might cause the crashes.

So, have restored this in /etc/profile:

export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

As was described in a github link in the previous blog post, enabling that variable causes issues with Asian languages in chromium. So, instead have disabled it in chromium.

/usr/bin/chromium is a script, that will run chromium as user "chromium". I have inserted this into the script:

unset XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS

The script is generated by /usr/local/clients/setup-client, by woofQ2 when EasyOS is built.

Interesting, I wonder if some other mysterious crashes that some users have reported, will now be fixed.   

Tags: easy

Pulseaudio mixer causes apps to crash

August 23, 2026 — BarryK

Forum members vtpup and NorthernSoul have reported the problem:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=175677#p175677

Look in /etc/profile:

#20230918 remove... ref: https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/woof-CE/pull/3867
##v2.10 MU: rox crashes with DRI modules. solution:
#export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

That link:

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/woof-CE/pull/3867

That variable was unset due to Chromium unable to properly display Chinese and other Asian characters if it is set.

I'll think about it, but probably won't set it globally, just set it when run 'pavucontrol', as the guys have suggested.  

Tags: easy

More packages compiled in woofQ2

August 20, 2026 — BarryK

Just to let you guys know, I'm still working on EasyOS; currently compiling packages in woofQ2.

The Excalibur-series is built with a lot of binary packages from the Scarthgap-series. Scarthgap is built with binary packages compiled in OpenEmbedded/Yocto, and there are a lot that are not available in the Devuan/Debian repositories. Hence, those binary packages have been used to build the Excalibur-series. But, I am gradually porting them into woofQ2, so they will be compiled in a running Easy Excalibur.

Doing the nomad thing right now, and likely for sometime into the future, so at times won't have Internet access. Right now where I'm camping, don't have a phone signal, but do have one nearby. A five minute walk, where I am right now.  

Tags: easy