New blog for Easy OS

I have posted recently about archiving this blog, as I am moving to a new host.

As it is a fresh start, I evaluated about a dozen CMSs (Content Management Systems) and blogs. Some of them are very nice, but I was always unsatisfied with the speed (lack of) and server overhead.

The problem is, I am comparing with this blog, which is a small perl script, derived from PPLOG. It rates 95/100 on the google site speed test. Many CMS/blog systems rated quite high, up to 87, some were woeful, down around 50-60.

Then I thought some more about what I really want. Most of my sites are static web pages. The only dynamic part is the blog.

Hence, I moved on to evaluating static site generators. Apparently, there are over 450 of them. I waded through a couple of dozen of those, before finding Bashblog.

Very simple, and creates a somewhat rudimentary, yet capable blog. The Bashblog website:
https://github.com/cfenollosa/bashblog

The author seems to have designed it to run 'bb.sh' on the remote site. I did that, but there are limitations, so I set it up to run locally, and I wrote a one-line rsync command to sync with the remote site.

This is the result:
http://easyos.info/news/

The text is a bit small, I need to play around with the css file.

It is also supposed to have Disqus commenting, I don't know why that isn't working.

There is absolutely no server overhead in this. Posts are created in markdown and posted as html. They are just static html pages, already archived. Brilliant!

I plan to post a howto sometime, on how I have setup Bashblog, and mods.

Since these blogs have no server overhead, I will probably have at least one more, a personal blog.

Bashblog uses 'Markdown.pl' from here:
https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

Tags: linux

Descendents of PPLOG

This blog that you are looking at now, is a special version of 'pe_pplog', that was created when my blog was under attack. That was back in 2013/2014.

Puppy forum member 'efiabruni' is the developer of pe_pplog, and here is where she has kept my special version:
https://github.com/efiabruni/pe_pplog/tree/comment_registration

Efia has her blog running here:
http://tine.pagekite.me/pe_pplog.pl

A couple of days ago, I downloaded her latest version from github, but found that posts failed. The hint as to why is a bugfix reported in her last post, which appears to have repcussions -- I suspect the latest change has not been actually tested.

Yesterday, I sent an email to Efia, no reply yet. I did have a go at fixing it myself, but having zero knowledge of perl doesn't help.

So, are there any other descendents of PPLOG. There was sc0ttman's JSPPLOG, but I found his website is gone.

However, 01micko has created 'sjpplog_ng':
https://github.com/01micko/sjpplog_ng

You can see this blog in action here:
http://blog.puppylinux.com/

Here is a forum thread on pe_pplog, back in 2013:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=86326

Tags: linux

jwm version 2.3.7

Yippee, I have finally upgraded JWM!

Quirky has been using version 976 from git, for years. This is the "2.2.x" series. Now I have compiled version 2.3.7, released 20170721. This page explains differences between the 2.2 and 2.3 series:
https://joewing.net/projects/jwm/release-2.3.shtml

All of my collection of JWM theme PETs will need to be upgraded. So far, have just done the 'brightdeepblue' PET, as used in the latest Quirky and Easy.

The 'jwmconfig2' PET is for the old version. Rather than fix it, I am now using radky's PupControl, which has JWMDesk in it.

Tags: linux

Hiawatha web server

I have compiled the latest Hiawatha, version 10.6, as the PET used in Quirky and Easy is ancient. Project site:
https://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/

This is how I compiled it:

# mkdir build

# cd build

# cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR=/etc -DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=/usr/lib -DCMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR=/usr/bin -DCMAKE_INSTALL_SBINDIR=/usr/sbin -DCMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR=/usr/share/man -DWEBROOT_DIR=/root/Web-Server -DLOG_DIR=/var/log/hiawatha -DPID_DIR=/var/run -DWORK_DIR=/var/lib/hiawatha -DCONFIG_DIR=/etc/hiawatha

# make

# new2dir make install

<

Tags: linux

Desktop icons new layout

After an eternity, I am building a pup-derivative with a new layout of icons on the screen.

The partition icons are still there, above the tray.

The others are now just one line across the top of the screen, and those less-required are removed.

As SFS files are important in Easy, this is a new icon, labeled "sfsget". This is alongside what was named "install" but is now going to be either "pkgset" or "petget".

The renaming of "install" will remove confusion, due to the different meanings of that word.

I will also have radky's PupControl, which will launch via the "setup" icon. radky has just released a new version, that is Easy-compatible.

Tags: linux

SFSget rewritten

I have rewritten /usr/sbin/sfsget, the SFS downloader app.

This was not in Quirky, as Quirky is for full installations, though that changed somewhat later on.

Easy OS, however, is exclusively based on a layered filesystem, using aufs or overlay, and SFS files are making a big comeback.

Easy though, is very different from Puppy, and I had to rewrite SFSget from scratch.

Done, and it works real nice.

Tags: linux

Markdown to HTML

I wrote about redesigning the local help files in Easy:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/easy-help-overhauled.html

Now I am thinking of dumping all of that.

Various reasons, one of which is that HelpSurfer is too unstable. Also too slow.

jamesbond's mdview is soooo fast, and help files in Fatdog are now based on markdown. Wrote about mdview here:
http://bkhome.org/news/201707/mdview-markdown-viewer.html

L18L wrote a custom converter to convert one of the Fatdog md files to html:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=895313#895313

I wondered what is out there, to convert md to html. There are many converters that require an Internet connection, but I want one that works offline.

Found these:
Written in C:
http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/Code/discount/
Javascript:
https://github.com/chjj/marked

Read more...

Mele PCG35 Apo ordered

I wrote about this mini-PC recently:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/mele-pcg35-apo-minipc.html

Decided to buy it. Another system is needed for testing. Unfortunately, the Alpha Litebook has fatal problems with using Flash drives, so not using it. I posted about it here:
http://bkhome.org/news/201707/alpha-litebook-laptop.html

Also, a system with Windows 10 will be useful for testing dual installations with Easy OS.

Like the passive cooling too!

Tags: linux