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ROX-Filer Home icon

August 06, 2017 — BarryK
The icon bar along the top of ROX-Filer file manager has a "Home" icon. Click that, and it takes you to /root.

In Quirky and Easy, I want to differentiate between the /root and the user's preferred working home. When I click the "Home" icon, I want to go to that alternative path.

This question has been asked a few times on the Puppy Forum, for example here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24348

I have created a patch for the source code, 09-rox-filer-easy-home.patch. hard-coded for the home path in Easy Linux.

The source that I am using for Quirky and Easy is:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/sources/alphabetical/r/rox-filer-2011-10-22-has_configure.tar.gz

And these patches have to be applied:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/sources/alphabetical/r/rox-filer-patches/

09-rox-filer-easy-home.patch really should be generalized to suit any desired home, so it will work in any pup, as my todo note here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/sources/alphabetical/r/rox-filer-patches/bk-notes

...if anyone wants to do that, go for it!

After patching, compile:
# ./ROX-Filer/AppRun --compile

Which will create 'ROX-Filer' executable, copy that to /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/, or where ever ROX is in your pup, then restart X.

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How to compile SeaMonkey 2.48

August 05, 2017 — BarryK
I have received a request, how to compile SeaMonkey 2.48.

This is a useful read:
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/cvs/xsoft/seamonkey.html

Get the 'hotfix.patch' from here:
http://svn.exactcode.de/t2/trunk/package/www/seamonkey/hotfix.patch

This is what I did:

# patch -p1 < ../hotfix.patch

# CFLAGS_HOLD=$CFLAGS
# CXXFLAGS_HOLD=$CXXFLAGS
# EXTRA_FLAGS=" -fno-delete-null-pointer-checks -fno-lifetime-dse -fno-schedule-insns2"
# export CFLAGS+=$EXTRA_FLAGS
# export CXXFLAGS+=$EXTRA_FLAGS
# unset EXTRA_FLAGS
<

This is my mozconfig file. Note that I used system pixman, however pixman spits out error messages, non-fatal, but you might want to consider using SM's internal pixman library: "--disable-system-pixman"

I did not use system nspr and nss, as in Quirky 8.3 (based on Ububtu 16.04.2 DEBs) they are too old.

Here is 'mozconfig':
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS='-j1'

mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=suite
ac_add_options --enable-application=suite
ac_add_options --enable-system-hunspell
ac_add_options --prefix=/usr
ac_add_options --host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
ac_add_options --disable-dbus
ac_add_options --disable-accessibility
ac_add_options --with-system-bz2
ac_add_options --disable-updater
ac_add_options --disable-parental-controls
ac_add_options --disable-system-sqlite
ac_add_options --disable-system-cairo
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --without-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --with-system-zlib
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --with-default-mozilla-five-home=/usr/lib/seamonkey
ac_add_options --enable-default-toolkit=cairo-gtk2
ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
ac_add_options --with-system-libvpx
ac_add_options --enable-gio
ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi
ac_add_options --disable-gconf
#ac_add_options --with-system-nspr
#ac_add_options --with-system-nss
ac_add_options --enable-ldap
ac_add_options --with-system-icu
ac_add_options --disable-pulseaudio
ac_add_options --enable-alsa
ac_add_options --enable-system-ffi
ac_add_options --disable-gnomeui
ac_add_options --with-pthreads
ac_add_options --enable-system-pixman
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --with-system-libevent
#ac_add_options --disable-libjpeg-turbo
<

Just put 'mozconfig' into top-level of source code, then off you go:

# make -f client.mk

Before installing, if you already have /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.48 and seamonkey-devel-2.48, /usr/share/idl/seamonkey-2.48, and /usr/include/seamonkey-2.48, rename them to something else. then:

# make -f client.mk install

Make sure that /usr/lib/seamonkey is a symlink to seamonkey-2.48, and check that /usr/bin/seamonkey is a symlink to /usr/lib/seamonkey/seamonkey or /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.48/seamonkey

Then run "seamonkey".

Or, if you want to make a pet, use 'cp -a' to copy out all of those target directories, before running seamonkey (when seamonkey runs, it actually writes into /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.48, or at least it used to, so grab the pristine files before first run of seamonkey).

Tidy up: if creating a PET, good to use an existing PET, such as mine, as a template. Note, delete the dictionary files, as all pups have hunspell, and delete the 'modern' theme -- again, look in my PETs.

Get my PET from here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/packages/pet_packages-xerus/seamonkey-2.48-xerus64.pet

If you have Quirky and maybe a very recent pup, it will have 'pet2dir' utility, so just do this to expand the PET to a folder:

# pet2dir seamonkey-2.48-xerus64.pet

If your pup does not have this utility, then do it this way, which will give an error message, but works:

# tar -xf seamonkey-2.48-xerus64.pet

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SeaMonkey 2.48 final

August 05, 2017 — BarryK
Quirky 8.3 has SeaMonkey 2.48-beta1.

Now, the final has been released. I have compiled it in Easy (Ubuntu 16.04.2 Xenial Xerus compatible).

PET (45.9M):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/packages/pet_packages-xerus/seamonkey-2.48-xerus64.pet

I was astounded how fast SM compiled. I am running Easy on the "innostor" 16GB USB3 Flash drive that I bought recently for AU$7. It is plugged into a USB2 socket, but that doesn't slow it down. Plus, 'q.sfs' is in RAM. 'devx' sfs is mounted in the aufs layer and that is mounted from the flash stick. In all, very fast.

Tags: linux

HelpSurfer 0.2

August 03, 2017 — BarryK
HelpSurfer is at version 0.2.

Forum member SFR posted a patch for Surfer, see my blog post yesterday:
http://bkhome.org/news/201708/improving-surfer-tiny-web-browser.html

Hey, it is like I am a little kid again, on Christmas morning!
I put in another request, for a "Quit" icon in Surfer, and SFR posted another patch:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=962839#962839

Here is the latest source, with both patches applied:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/sources/alphabetical/h/helpsurfer-0.2.tar.gz

And a 64-bit PET, compiled in Easy (built with Ubuntu 16.04.2 Xenial Xerus DEBs):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/packages/pet_packages-xerus/helpsurfer-0.2-xerus64.pet

Yes, Easy, I am excited like a little kid about that too, 'coz it is coming along very well. For those who don't know, Easy is the "next generation" after Quirky Linux.

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Mele PCG35 Apo mini-PC

August 03, 2017 — BarryK
If I was on the lookout to buy a mini-PC right now, this one would rate near the top of the list:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Fanless-Windows-10-Mini-PC-Desktop-MeLE-PCG35-Apo-4GB-32GB-Intel-Apollo-Lake-Celeron-J3455/715968_32822268228.html



The Aussie Dollar is riding high right now, one Dollar buys 80 US cents. Let's see, US$179 is AU$225.

The chap at cnx-software has looked at it:
http://www.cnx-software.com/2017/07/18/mele-pcg35-apo-mini-pc-is-powered-by-intel-celeron-j3455-desktop-processor-supports-2-5-sata-drives/

Apparently there is an "Ubuntu edition" in the works.

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Puppy Linux Newsletter August 2017

August 03, 2017 — BarryK
The August edition of the Puppy Linux Newsletter is now out. Read online or download:
http://smokey01.com/newsletters/

If you would like to participate, this is the forum thread:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=109754

Tags: linux

Improving Surfer tiny web browser

August 01, 2017 — BarryK
Surfer is a web browser, see project home:
>https://github.com/DeforaOS

The chap who created Surfer, many years ago created version 0.0.7 which worked with libgtkhtml, forming a very tiny HTML viewer.

This tiny version has been in many pups (Puppy Linux and derivatives) as the internal HTML documentation viewer.

Tiny, which is great, very useful just to look at local HTML files, but there is one major problem -- libgtkhtml supports HTML4 and some CSS, there is no support for javascript.
Consequently, web pages on the Internet cannot be reliably displayed, and in many cases will crash Surfer.

What is needed is for Surfer to treat Internet links in local web pages as a special case, and launch "defaultbrowser" (which is the main browser, ex SeaMonkey).

I looked at the source code, and it wasn't obvious how to do that, so I posted the question to the Puppy Forum:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=111186

Fantastic, forum member SFR has created a patch!

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Innostor fast and cheap USB3 flash sticks

July 31, 2017 — BarryK
I posted a couple of days ago about a 16GB USB3 Flash drive that I purchased for AU$7, that turned out to be very fast:
http://bkhome.org/news/201707/emtec-vs-lexar-usb2-flash-sticks.html

My memory is that it was purchased at Kmart, I think at least a few months ago, maybe more.

Anyway, I found another one, this time only 8GB, and in Woolworths, on sale for AU$5. Some photos:



...that AU$2 was just at one store in NSW, over a year ago.

Anyway, my new Hub 8GB USB3 stick identifies itself as "IS917 innostor" and here is my write speed test, to a fat32 filesystem:
# sync

# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sdc1/dummyfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync oflag=direct
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 64.0743 s, 16.8 MB/s
<

...pretty good, especially when I recall my Emtec drive purchased yesterday from BigW, at only 1.6MB/sec -- and they cost about AU$7 each.

Here is more info on the is917 innostor chip:
http://www.innostor.com/product_details.php?id=8
http://usb3speed.nirsoft.net/?pdesc=SD+card&vid=8053&pid=2327

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