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

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

Kernel 6.6.52 compiled

EasyOS 6.3.1 has the 6.6.47 kernel, compile was reported here:

• Kernel 6.6.47 compiled fix bt5 mouse — August 26, 2024

It was reported recently, a fix given by forum member dimkr, for the mouse synaptic driver on a Chromebook:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=131683#p131683

I have compiled the 6.6.52 kernel with that fix. Chose both of these as modules:

CONFIG_CROS_EC=m
CONFIG_CROS_EC_LPC=m

It is intended that this kernel will be in the next release of both EasyOS and QV.   

Tags: easy

Kernel 6.10.11 compiled

I announced on the forum, intend to return to QV development:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=131592#p131592

In anticipation, have compiled the 6.10.11 kernel, with the fixes for bluetooth v5 as reported recently:

• Kernel 6.6.47 compiled fix bt5 mouse — August 26, 2024

There is a lot to do. EasyOS is built with woofQ:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq

Whereas QV is built with woof-quantum-vis:

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

The work improving Scarthgap, including fixes, has gone into woofQ, but woof-quantum-vis is a separate project. Many woofQ fixes can be applied to woof-quantum-vis, and I will have to do it the hard way, given that they are radically different; will have to look at each woofQ commit and see if it can be applied to quantum-vis.

EDIT:
This kernel is a disaster! I started a filesystem check on a 4TB USB3 SSD, and CPU activity went through the roof. So much on the desktop became unresponsive. Some tray applets still worked, networkmanager applet was unresponsive, window close buttons unresponsive. My evaluation of this is superficial, just observed this weirdness, didn't try any in-depth analysis.

Hit CTRL-C to stop the filesystem check, then ran "sync", but the USB drive was still very busy, even though sync had returned. I tried to shutdown, but it hung, with a message something to do with unable to flush to the drive.

I'm running EasyOS 6.3.1, on which I had compiled the 6.10.11 kernel. Went back to the 6.6.47 kernel, and all is good. In fact, right now doing a filesystem check on another 4TB USB drive, running 6.6.47, and this time cpu activity stays sane, and everything continues to work. The filesystem check is happening right now. It takes awhile with such a big drive.

I had previously used the 6.8.1 kernel with QV and no problem. One thing I notice, an alarming increase in vmlinuz size:

6.6.47:  6809K
6.8.1:   7489K
6.10.11: 8785K

These kernels have essentially the same configuration file, except as expected more hardware support with the later kernels; but mostly I would expect more modules, not the kernel to grow by such a huge amount.

Anyway, what is wrong with the 6.10.x kernel? Some fundamental change in process management? Staying with the 6.6.x kernel for QV.    

Tags: easy

EasyOS and Bedrock Linux

I have posted about Guix, an application manager that can run in any Linux distribution, and provide an alternative repository:

• Decided not to integrate Guix into EasyOS — September 21, 2024
• Guix works with EasyOS — September 20, 2024

Nix package manager is similar. Guix and Nix install packages that run as though they are native apps, with full access to the filesystem and I/O.

Forum member Caramel investigated Nix, see here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=8904

AppImages and Flatpaks also behave like native apps, though the Flatpak sandbox can sometimes make this difficult.

Running apps in a container or VM (virtual machine), on the otherhand, is an isolated environment. Apps do not see the main filesystem and may have very limited I/O capability. It is possible to punch holes, for example could bind-mount /files inside the container or VM. But then, that's the whole idea; run the app securely, isolated from the rest of the system. Note also, some apps do not work properly in the container or VM environment, despite punching holes.

Now along comes Bedrock. It was forum member antithesis who mentioned Bedrock and (just now) got me interested in it:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6592

What you do is bootup an installed Linux distribution, then run the Bedrock script. This "hijacks" the Linux distribution, moves it all to a different location, and replaces the main filesystem with its own. I have done this with EasyOS, and after being hijacked, everything was moved to /bedrock/strata/easyos

At first, I attempted with a normal EasyOS; however, Bedrock choked on the aufs layered filesystem. It wants a normal full installation, so I created a usb-stick with EasyOS fully installed, no SFS layers, no initrd. I then ran the Bedrock script and hijacking worked. Rebooted and got the normal EasyOS desktop. Almost everything works, except apps that require dbus coud not find the dbus socket -- should be able to sort that out.

Jesse at Distrowatch wrote a very nice review of Bedrock a couple of years ago:

https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20210705#bedrock

Here is the Bedrock homepage:

https://bedrocklinux.org/

What I can do next, is add another strata, say Alpine Linux, and install apps that will run just like native apps.

Very interesting; however, EasyOS as-is is not suitable. I need to create a variant that is only a full install, which would be an entirely different distro, going back to what Quicky Linux was. QV (Quantum Vis, or Quirky Void) is a full install -- might use that as the starting point, except build from Scarthgap and do not use btrfs.

Stay tuned!    

Tags: easy

Decided not to integrate Guix into EasyOS

I posted yesterday about Guix package manager:

• Guix works with EasyOS — September 20, 2024

After a couple of enthusiastic days intensely working on Guix, and planning to integrate it into EasyOS, doubts started to creep in.

In balance, I decided that it doesn't bring enough "to the table" to warrant inclusion. Yes, I want to expand the package repository; however, will focus on improving the existing package managers. For example, can add more Flatpaks to Flapi.

Regarding Flatpaks, I installed ShotCut and OpenShot video editors, just to confirm they work OK. Reason for doing that, is OpenShot installed via Guix, sound didn't work; sound with ShotCut was OK. Midori web browser installed via Guix didn't work.

With Guix, it is advised to run "guix pull" which performs package updates -- unfortunately, this takes a very very long time. Then there's the size of downloads; I used to think Flatpaks were big, but now think they are not so bad. Flatpak downloads are bundles of packages, whereas Guix downloads individual packages; prefer the former.

The "last straw" was when I shutdown and saved the session, shutdown hung. Somehow, $PATH got stuffed up. Yeah, I was experimenting with guix-binary tarball from git master branch, so could not expect high degree of stability. Even so, it has been years since Easy hung at shutdown.

I think Guix will work best in the Guix OS, not as a foreign package manager.

Another thing I didn't like, is although Guix claims to only install to /gnu and /var/guix; in fact, it creates or requires (or requires editing) folders and files in other places. Trying to recall... /etc/guix, /root/.config/guix, /root/.guix-profile, /etc/profile.d/guix, /etc/.bashrc, /etc/init.d/guix-daemon

It's an OK product, just don't think it is a good fit with EasyOS.   

Tags: easy