Attempted to compile Chromium

The attempt was on Easy Buster 2.1.6, booted off USB-stick. Although it failed, it would be good to document the steps...

It is a massive project, with a lot of dependencies. /tmp requires 20GB free space, which was the first hurdle, as easy has a tmpfs mounted on /tmp -- which is done in the 'init' script before switch_root -- so I modified 'init' not to mount /tmp. A partition with 50GB space is required, and at least 8GB RAM is recommended.

I found some build instructions, inside a source tarball downloaded from here, size about 1GB:

https://github.com/chromium/chromium/releases

The instructions, though, downloaded the complete source again, did not use that tarball. Following those instructions:

# git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
# export PATH="${PATH}:/mnt/sde1/chromium/depot_tools"
# mkdir chromium
# cd chromium
# fetch --nohooks --no-history chromium
# cd src

There is a script to downloaded any missing dependencies, however, it aborted. It requires certain versions of either Ubuntu or Debian, and although Easy uses Debian DEBs, it is not Debian. This was the attempt:

# ./build/install-build-deps.sh --unsupported

I looked at the script, and was able to determine what deps are required, and manually installed them, and their dependencies, via the PETget Package Manager. This is what I installed (as well as their deps):

ninja, cdbs, devscripts, libbrlapi-dev, libpam0g-dev, libspeechd-dev, openbox,
 p7zip, python-cherrypy3, python-crypto, python-numpy, python-opencv, python-openssl,
 python-psutil, python-yaml, rpm, librpm-dev, ruby, openjdk-11-jre

I then put in path variables for Java:

# export PATH="${PATH}:/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin"
# export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
# export JAVA_BIN_DIR=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin

Then:

# gclient runhooks

The instructions explained some variables that can be applied, however, didn't explain how to apply them, so I took a punt and preppended them:

# enable_nacl=false symbol_level=0 blink_symbol_level=0 gn gen out/Default

Now to start the compile:

# autoninja -C out/Default chrome

After awhile, fail, with errors like this:

/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/bits/stdio.h:58:10: error: use of undeclared identifier '__getc_unlocked_body'
  return __getc_unlocked_body (__fp);

Googling returned nothing, however, I think the problem may be changes in stdio.h. Chromium is, I think, compiled on earlier versions of Ubuntu and Debian (16.04 and Jessie), older glibc. I left it at that. 

Tags: easy

EasyOS Buster-series version 2.1.6 released

Version 2.1.3 was released 3 weeks ago, see the blog announcement:

http://bkhome.org/news/201909/easyos-buster-version-213-released.html

There are some bug fixes, but the big news is the incorporation of the 'nm-applet' GUI tray applet, for network management. The source is patched so as to integrate with EasyOS. In particular, it can be popped-up by clicking on the "connect" icon on the desktop -- after booting 2.1.6, try it!

Networkmanager is now better integrated, so that the user can switch between the older network management systems, such as SNS and PupDial. The Connection Wizard is still available by right-clicking on the "connect" icon, or in the Setup menu.

Release notes are here:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.6/release-notes-2.1.6.htm

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.6/

If you need assistance with installing, read this:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.6/readme.htm

There is a thread in the Puppy Forum for feedback:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=1038956#1038956 

For any interested developers, here is a tarball of woofQ as used to build Easy Pyro 1.2.5 and Buster 2.1.6:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/project/woof/woof-project-20191009.tar.gz 

Have fun!

Tags: easy

Installing EasyOS to laptop is too easy

I have a very cheap Acer Aspire1 laptop, with Apollo Lake CPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC storage, passive cooling. It cost AU$240, purchased January 2019. It came with Windows 10 S, with free upgrade to 10 Pro. I have posted about problems with Windows on that machine.

Anyway, I don't use Windows, well, extremely rarely. The laptop sits beside my lounge chair, for comfortable browsing, and it has EasyOS on a USB-stick, protruding from the side of the laptop -- awkward, when the laptop is balanced on the lap.

So why not take that extra step and completely replace Windows with Easy, then no need for a protruding USB-stick?

OK, booted up EasyOS Pyro on USB-stick, with the 'easy-1.2.5-amd64.img.gz' file on it, then just ran:

# easydd easy-1.2.5-amd64.img.gz

It gave me a choice of installing to the internal eMMC (/dev/mmcblk0) or the USB stick (/dev/sda) and I chose the former. That's it, installed.

Powered off, removed the USB-stick, powered on, and EasyOS started up. Didn't even have to setup anything in the UEFI-firmware. How's that for easy?!

I wrote about the same type of installation, to the entire drive, in my Mele mini-PC:

https://easyos.org/install/how-to-install-easyos-on-a-new-ssd.html

...in that case, I did have to set the UEFI-firmware to boot the SSD. 

Tags: easy

EasyOS Pyro-series version 1.2.5 released

EasyOS 1.2.5 has been released. This is the latest in the "Pyro" series, version numbering 1.x, which is supposed to be in maintenance mode, as development is focussed on the "Buster" series, version numbering 2.x.

However, the Pyro series is getting more attention than just maintenance. I have compiled 'network-manager-applet' with my patches, so there is now a nice GUI, replacing the text-mode 'nmtui'.

Release notes here:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/pyro/1.2.5/release-notes-pyro-1.2.5.htm

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/pyro/1.2.5/

...English, French and German builds, and there is an ISO if anyone needs it.

Installation notes:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/pyro/1.2.5/readme.htm

Feedback welcome in this thread of the Puppy Forum:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=109958&start=1860 

Tags: easy

EasyOS version 2.1.5 released

NOTICE 2019-10-06:
I have removed 2.1.5 from the Internet. SSL in Chromium is broken, and I can't see why. The next release is delayed until this mystery is solved. 

Version 2.1.3 was released 3 weeks ago, see the blog announcement:

http://bkhome.org/news/201909/easyos-buster-version-213-released.html

There are some bug fixes, but the big news is the incorporation of the 'nm-applet' GUI tray applet, for network management. The source is patched so as to integrate with EasyOS. In particular, it can be popped-up by clicking on the "connect" icon on the desktop -- after booting 2.1.5, try it!

Networkmanager is now better integrated, so that the user can switch between the older network management systems, such as SNS and PupDial. The Connection Wizard is still available by right-clicking on the "connect" icon, or in the Setup menu.

Release notes are here:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.5/release-notes-2.1.5.htm

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.5/

If you need assistance with installing, read this:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/buster/2.1.5/readme.htm

There is a thread in the Puppy Forum for feedback:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=1037589#1037589 

Have fun! 

Tags: easy

XorgWizard fixed in Easy Buster

It was reported that the CLI XorgWizard is not working in Easy Buster 2.1.3. Yes, confirmed.

I found the cause. The script /usr/sbin/xorgwizard-cli searches for the path where the Xorg drivers are located. However, Buster has two paths, /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xorg/modules/drivers. The latter path only has one driver in it, ast_drv.so. The script sets the driver path to the latter one, hence is unaware of where all the other drivers are.

Fixed, and XorgWizard now offers choice of which driver to use. 

Tags: easy

Fix for screen locking

Forum member Argolance reported that screen locking, via the icon labelled "lock" on the desktop, does not work in Easy Buster.

Yes, running "ldd /usr/bin/xlock" in a terminal revealed that one of the shared libraries is the wrong version. Executable 'xlock' is in the 'xlockmore' PET package, and I had used the PET from the 'thud' build of Easy. The required library is 'libcrypt.so.1', which is present, however it is an incompatible version. This is one of the problems if we try to use PETs from a different distro, or even a different version of the same distro.

I compiled 'xlockmore' in Easy Buster 2.1.3, and now it works. The fixed PET will be used in the next release of Easy Buster. 

Tags: easy