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Easy Excalibur hanging again at 2nd boot

July 16, 2025 — BarryK

I thought it was fixed, see earlier blog post:

...the kernel in Easy 6.108 is 6.12.37, with those changes reverted. And, testing, it looked fixed. Until forum member james2 posted:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=152262#p152262

2nd startup tonight loading stopped after services on checking for opticals

Yes, that's about where it was freezing for me.

I've been testing Easy Excalibur on a WD Elements 480GB SSD, see this blog post:

Many repeated boots, no problem.

james2's post got me worried. I wrote Easy 6.109 (the latest build, still the 6.12.37 kernel), to a Crucial SSD CT480E100SSD8, 480GB NVME M.2, in a Simplecom SE505 USB caddy. The caddy is described here:

https://www.simplecom.com.au/simplecom-se505-nvme-m-2-ssd-to-usb-c-enclosure-usb-3-2-gen-2-10gbps-288.html

First boot OK, second boot ...oh dear, it hangs, about the same place as james2's experience.

So, that has got me wondering...

The WD SSD is probably a SATA interface, but perhaps that is not a factor. What does jump out at me is that the one that works is USB gen1, the one that fails is gen2.

I haven't got figures right now, but I do recall that the data transfer when using easydd was faster to the WD SSD than to the Crucial SSD. Which seems wrong, but I recall something, can't recall the details, that Linux has some problems with USB gen2 ...these are only vague memories, from awhile back, will have to read up on it.

Anyway, having one SSD that boots repeatedly OK, the other only once, does give me something to go on. Right now, I'm wondering about udev. Easy Excalibur has udev rules provided by Devuan/Debian packages, whereas before most of the core rules were from the compile of eudev in OpenEmbedded.   

Tags: easy

SpaceFM file manager now in EasyOS

July 14, 2025 — BarryK

This has been a drama. Looking for a very small two-pane (or more panes) simple file manager, for those guys who are not entirely at home using ROX-Filer. Actually, it is just mental conditioning; having multiple ROX windows is just as effective, perhaps more so.

Anyway, looked around. "Small" is a difficult ask. Then there is the problem of integration into EasyOS. We have partition icons on the screen, and if a file manager has capability of mounting and unmounting partitions, then it must sync with those desktop icons. Easy has EasyShare for all kinds of network connectivity, but many file managers have their own inbuilt network connectivity; perhaps good as an alternative means of doing stuff over a network, such as file transfer with Samba.

Have done this before, but yesterday did it again; looked at the file manager offerings. What it came down to, is there is only one that ticks the boxes; SpaceFM. SpaceFM does all interfacing with bash scripts, which is great. Bash we know. I played with the scripts, and it was quite easy to mount a partition within SpaceFM and the desktop icon would also change to show the "close box", meaning it is mounted. And reverse, unmounting.

Also, SpaceFM has plugins, most importantly some that are for network connectivity.

Now for the problems...

I started by using SpaceFM from the Debian repository. It is version 1.0.6 with some patches applied to fix a few things and get it to compile with recent glibc and gcc. Because, that's the problem; 1.0.6 was released 7 years ago. The project is dead.

Yeah, I found plugins, but all dated 2012 or 2013. Hmmm.

What I found is it is unstable. Crashed several times. Also, the "refresh" button doesn't work. I read a comment somewhere that there is a problem with gtk3, and SpaceFM does have the choice of compiling with gtk2, so I did that. No joy though.

Was playing with this until about 7am this morning, and went to bed when the sun was rising. Not a good habit to get into.

Anyway, here is the project page, the now-dead project page:

https://ignorantguru.github.io/spacefm/

I discovered a fork on github, that is still active:

https://github.com/thermitegod/spacefm

...very active; however, it has grown into something very different, accumulated huge dependencies.

Then found another fork on github, that has a little bit of development after version 1.0.6. Noticed that Puppy Forum member dimkr has contributed commits. Compile failures, so I applied all the Debian patches; only one of them partly-failed. Compiled, and pleasant surprise, no more crashing. Also, the "refresh" button works. Here is the project page:

https://github.com/gameblabla/spacefm

And here is a photo:

img1

Mime-handling works nicely also; right-click and shows appropriate apps to run the file, just like in ROX.

Mounting and unmounting of partition now looks good, but there is more to do. For example, Easy has 'filemnt' that can be used to mount and unmount an .iso file, which can replace the method that SpaceFM wants to use.

The plugins are in /usr/share/spacefm/plugins. Two of them are for network connectivity, and one of those uses a script named /mnttools', that I have put into /usr/bin. Not tested, that can be a future project for anyone who is interested.

Puppy Forum discussion on SpaceFM is here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=152255#p152255

Finding the plugins was not so simple. There is this page:

https://github.com/IgnorantGuru/spacefm/wiki/plugins/

...some links are broken. I found some of them here:

...errr, now I can't find it. It is a google project site, back in the day when Google was hosting projects. Still there, but read-only. The plugins are listed on the Old Puppy Forum, but no link:

https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=89334

...you might think that doing a google search on one of those filenames would locate it, especially that google have it archived somewhere, but no. I will have to append the link to this blog post later. Also, will upload the SpaceFM PET and patched source tarball soon. It will be builtin to the next release of EasyOS.   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Excalibur version 6.108 (v7-beta)

July 13, 2025 — BarryK

Lookig good! Here are recent blog posts:

...with regard to "Blueman repaces BluePup", they are now both builtin.

Download from here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2025/6.108/

...you will need to do a new install. The "update" desktop button should be working for the next release.

Forum feedback welcome here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=152166#p152166

For anyone who is interested, you can download the two tarballs from here and build your own EasyOS:

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

...recommend set it up in some ext/btrfs/f2fs partition other than the one booted Easy from, and at least 15GB free space. The entire build takes only 30 minutes on a reasonably-fast modern computer.

I love the new "devx" container; compiled the Linux 6.12.37 kernel in it, that is used in this release of EasyOS.  

Tags: easy

Easy Containers has gone to the next-level

July 11, 2025 — BarryK

I posted about usability enhancements for Easy Containers yesterday:

There were some bugs and issues to resolve. Now fixed, and looking so good. Here are the newcomers:

img1

Here is a snapshot of the desktop, note that sda1 and sdb2 are mounted:

img2

Containers "excalibur", "x2", "x3" and "devx" are full EasyOS desktops. The first three are just normal desktops; devx is special, as it has the devx .sfs loaded. Container devx also has less security; as this is a compiling and project development container, it needs maximum power, despite being in a container.

A requirement is that the devx container be able to access partitions outside the container. For example, you may have your software compiling projects somewhere, in another partition. I took a sledge-hammer approach to this; there is a new variable in the 'configuration' file of each container. In /mnt/wkg/containers/devx/configuration, there is this new entry:

EC_ACCESS_MOUNTED='true'

When set to "true", when the devx container is started, all partitions mounted in the main desktop, will be bind-mounted into the container. With the exception of the current host partition, which is sdc2 -- this is done to retain some modicum of security. Yeah, sledge-hammer approach; maybe it could be fine-tuned in the future, be able to select particular partitions to bind-mount. Click on "devx" icon, and a couple of seconds later it is up and running:

img3

...see the two partition icons. Click on them and ROX window opens. The devx .sfs is loaded, so all the development tools are there, including git.

Not to forget, /files folder is still shared with the main desktop and other containers. I used TAS to take desktop shots in each container, they got saved to /files/media/images, and there they all were back on the main desktop.

Flipping back to the main desktop, and back into the devx desktop, is just the blink of an eye.

In all of these desktops, PKGget is available. It is now running on steroids, as a GUI frontend for APT. I posted a snapshot of the new PKGget:

But, can also use APT directly in a terminal; and yes, it also automatically syncs with PKGget. I started the x2 container and tested running apt in a terminal:

img4

PKGget has some advantages over running APT in a terminal; one being that it will offer to install the app to run non-root. For example, offer to run Abiword as user "abiword". This is another feature that sets EasyOS apart from all other Linux distributions.

That non-root feature can also be added to running apt in a terminal -- a future project.

And yes, running an app as its own user is supported in the containers. It is taking security to the next-level; not only are you inside a container, but running as its own user isolates it from other apps that are running as their own users. On top of that, many apps, such as a web-browser, run their own sandbox. Incredible!

This apps-running-non-root feature has been in Easy for a few years; see this post in 2021:

It is so much fun having all these desktops, just a click away. I was flipping btween them just for fun of it.

Still a few things to fix. Expect the next release of Easy Excalibur in a day or two. Will also upload the woofQ2 tarballs; FeodorF has been finding how simple and fun woofQ2 is:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=14605

...yes, you can build your own EasyOS in 30 minutes. Note though, the next upload will be very much improved, so if you want to try it, wait a couple more days.

This post has turned into a bit of a presentation how Easy is very different from other Linux distributions. Might as well throw this in; Easy has four package managers, not just PKGget:

https://easyos.org/user/package-manager-concepts.html

...relevant to reference that here, as three of them, PKGget, Appi and Flapi, work in containers.

I posted a link from the forum to this blog post, in case anyone would like to contribute some thoughts:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=14734      

Tags: easy

Taking EasyOS to the next-level

July 09, 2025 — BarryK

The upcoming V7 is already "next-level" or "a whole new ball game", with APT underpinning package management, so might as well also think about giving some enhancement treatment for Easy Containers.

Over the years, some users have expressed the desire to, and implemented, multiple desktops in containers. They had to do some hacking, so I thought, why not have them ready-made?

Another thing is, if you want to do some source code compiling, or use git or whatever, it is required to load the "devx" sfs file. Which we usually do onto the main desktop.

However, that is messy. It would be much tidier if can have a desktop in container, with devx sfs loaded, and minimal security so as not to impede development requirements. Then can go-to-town compiling packages and not mess up the main desktop. So why not have that also pre-built?

So, now bootup and lots more container icons:

img1

Those "x2" and "x3" are clones of "excalibur". The "devx" container is also a desktop requires the devx sfs, and this will be downloaded, if not already, but as it is big, the user is asked:

img2

There are currently some bugs and issues, so might take a couple of days to get it sorted. This post is a heads-up to let you know what is coming.   

Tags: easy

Kernel 6.12.35 freeze

July 06, 2025 — BarryK

I'm annoyed, because so much to do developing the new Easy Exaclibur; this kernel freeze is a major distraction. Yesterday, as got the devx sfs working, thought might as well compile the latest 6.12.x kernel.

Then recalled reading something at the Gentoo wiki, here:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/USB/Guide 

Device Drivers  --->
    [*] PCI support  --->
        [*] PCI Express Port Bus support
        [*]   PCI Express Hotplug driver
        [*] Support for PCI Hotplug  --->
            [*] ACPI PCI Hotplug driver

The kernel that I have been using, 6.12.32, has this:

Device Drivers  --->
    [*] PCI support  --->
        [*] PCI Express Port Bus support
        [ ]   PCI Express Hotplug driver
        [*] Support for PCI Hotplug  --->
            [ ] ACPI PCI Hotplug driver

Alright, so followed Gentoo's advice and ticked those two boxes.

It boots, then a moment after the GPU driver module loads, everything freezes, requires holding down the power button to turn off. At first thought it might be the Intel i915 GPU driver, so booted with "nomodeset" kernel parameter. Freezes in the same place. Tried a few other things, no go.

So, the problem is either enabling those two boxes, or there has been a kernel regression.

Note, Gentoo also recommends this:

Device Drivers --->
    [*] Unified support for USB4 and Thunderbolt

...which I did not do. Tried that about a year ago, and the 'blkid' utility in the initrd didn't work.

So, I suppose do another kernel compile, with those two disabled.    

Tags: easy

Bluepup fixed in Easy Excalibur

July 04, 2025 — BarryK

That was one of the reported bugs, so Easy version 6.101 has Blueman bluetooth GUI.

Wasn't satisfied leaving Bluepup broken, as it has worked reliably for years. Suddenly now in Easy Excalibur, the VTE terminal embedded in gtkdialog no longer displays anything.

So, examined the code in /usr/local/bluepup/bluepup, traced the problem to this line:

tail -f /tmp/bluepup/btctl_in | tr -d 'SOH' | tr -d 'STX' | tee -ai /tmp/bluepup/vte.log

...I was wondering how that will display in the web page. That "SOH" and "STX" are actually ASCI control characters. They don't display here, so I have replaced with the letters that represent what they are.

I was immediately suspicious when saw those "tr" operations. Reason is, up until now EasyOS has relied heavily on busybox applets. But with this new-generation woofQ2, decided to use the full utilities in 'coreutils' and 'util-linux' and only use busybox applets when there is no alternative.

'tr' is in 'coreutils' package. 'tr' was spitting out warning messages in lots of the scripts, so changed to running busybox tr, then OK. That's why I was immediately suspicious.

What I found is the full 'tr' utility does not delete any occurrences of those control characters. No it silently fails, passing nothing through. The line is fixed like this:

tail -f /tmp/bluepup/btctl_in | busybox tr -d 'SOH' | busybox tr -d 'STX' | tee -ai /tmp/bluepup/vte.log

Now Bluepup works.

I'll leave in both Blueman and Bluepup, as users might find one works better for them than the other. The bluetooth tray applet will need to be able to switch also.

The Wikipedia has a hexadecimal ASCII table that shows SOH is numeric 01 and STX is 02:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII

Keep hitting bugs, but, getting there, they are getting solved.   

Tags: easy