DebianDog - Wheezy

[saintless]

Hi, William.
I will try to arrange something similar for documentation in the next days.
Abiword on the site does not work well on OpenBox version. I need to recheck all applications there for both versions and to fix some issues. gnumeric also needs some fixing in the module structure.

I also want to include Premote package somewhere, and there may be others who like a light solution (using apt-get rdesktop) to winblows remote desktop (rather than the rather heavy Remmina).

Can you give me a link to this application if you already made one? I remember you posted instruction for this. Ffmpeg is also new to me. I need to learn how to test if it works from sfs first. I will look at it.

Debian packages - just edit the control file from existing package to your new package name, description, etc. I'm not sure how to set the correct size only. Still learning how to make deb files proper. To prevent problems with dpkg database use applications that do not need any dependencies. Check the control file in:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... 0_i386.deb
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... 1_i386.deb
I don't feel comfortable to make instructions about creating deb packages yet. If Fred decide to open a thread for this it will be nice. I know he uses some file for conflict dependencies but I havent try this yet.

Toni

[mcewanw]

Thanks Toni, I'll try out some ffmpeg packages to see if they are working in DebianDog with the Puppy apps I'm familiar with and I'll get back to you about that and also Premote. I presume I should put the binary for things like Premote in /opt/bin rather than /usr/bin, which is where I would have it in Puppy? I've also been playing with slitaz inkscape (full version), which works very well in DebianDog and very much smaller than the official apt-get one. I was using it to design a logo for a friend and was surprised what a great program it is. I had looked at inkscape lite in Puppy in the past, and didn't find it very useful, but the full version is a different matter altogether it turns out - superficially similar looking, but far superior.

I'll report back about Premote and ffmpeg, once I have more info, on the dev thread.

[saintless]

Hi, William.

I presume I should put the binary for things like Premote in /opt/bin rather than /usr/bin, which is where I would have it in Puppy?

Yes, better in /opt/bin
Anything you find useful and smaller we can add to the site. Write in the development thread if you need help with something.
I prefer to make sfs modules from packages containing non-debian wheezy official libs like abiword and gnumeric instead deb packages.

Here is new Abiword and Gnumeric sfs modules. Work on both versions.
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... d.squashfs
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... c.squashfs
For Jwm-icewm version run System -> Menu Puppy to refresh the menus. Then start abiword and gnumeric from Office menu.

Toni

[slavvo67]

Saintless:

The Openbox version was quite fun. I'm not sure why but it kind of reminds me of the old Puppy 5.2.8.

Best,

Slavvo67

[saintless]

Hi, Slavvo. All credits go to Fred.
He is fully responsible for the OpenBox-XFCE look, as for many other extras in both versions.

Toni

[dancytron]

Consider adding gdmap (the graphical program that shows the sizes of files) from puppy. It is small and in the Debian repository.

[saintless]

Thanks, Dan.
Just tested the debian package. It is really small. I will add it to the next version list.

Toni

[fredx181]

For what it's worth:
Steven Shiau (he builds Clonezilla & GParted Live CDs) wrote:
If the available space in dir /tmp/ is less than 500 MB, tune it to be larger than 500 MB. You can make it by the commands like:
mount -t tmpfs -o "nosuid,size=60%,mode=1777" tmpfs /tmp
Or
mount -t tmpfs -o "nosuid,size=524288000,mode=1777" tmpfs /tmp

Perhaps, the command can be added to the script?

Thanks, it's very useful, but instead of mount I made the script to remount /tmp. (if needed)

Attached new remaster script: remasterdog-tmp-add2.zip

Now it will check for space available in /tmp and, if not enough, it will remount /tmp with new required size (also a check if the amount of RAM is enough, if not, it displays a message and quits)
Not recommended on a computer with less than 1G RAM.
Also I would advice to run the system without swap (with swap enabled, it was swapping for me almost immediately and made the system very slow).

Fred

[saintless]

Thanks, Fred! Link added in the first page packages for next version.

New separate module 064-cups.squashfs - 17Mb. Works with both versions:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... s.squashfs
Place it in /live and reboot.
Only for users who seldom need to use printer like me. This module will not update dpkg database. Also will not break anything in the system. The information for this is included in the module but it takes much time to edit status and available files to automate the process.
If you use printer often better install cups with apt-get and remaster the system or use save file.

Toni

[fredx181]

Hi Toni
Can't say it enough, my compliments for how you arranged everything and keep updating all, great job!
Just noticed this for example, very nice, gives a good "picture" of the DebianDog included extras (besides official Debian):
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/pictures/

Fred

[mcewanw]

Three boot methods available for DebianDog:

1. DebianDog Wheezy live-boot-3x - debian initrd.img created with initramfs-tools-v3.x.
Chose this one if you are familiar with Debian-Wheezy save file options.
2. DebianDog Wheezy live-boot-2x - debian initrd1.img created with initramfs-tools-v2.x.
Chose this one if you are familiar with Debian-Squeeze save file options.
3. Debian-PorteusDog Wheezy (porteus-boot) - porteus initrd1.xz made for debian kernel and firmware.
Chose this one if you are familiar with Porteus or Puppy linux.

Hi Toni, Just a small matter. When I first read the above post the thought crossed my mind that live-boot-3x might be better listed as number 3 in the list because otherwise a new user will likely adopt that method by default and lose the advantages of Remaster cow and so on. I see that has happened recently with your communication with user Ether.

Also, I feel these last communications with Ether would have better been answered in this thread than the dev thread since the results are an excellent illustration of how useful DebianDog. Many users may not also be reading the DebianDog dev thread.

Personally, I would put the porteus boot method as number 1 in the list, since it can not only save to an ntfs partition (as well as Linux ext partitions and fat32) but also if changes:EXIT method used it will automatically create a save directory (automatic persistence). I understand you not putting that 1st, however, in that it is not a pure debian method - though in practice it is full debian system and pure other than that boot mechanism.

[saintless]

Hi, William.
I will open new HowTo thread for DebiaDog (actually it will be more Debian HowTo thread) and I will add the chat with Ether there as option for make sfs from first boot with DebianDog.

About the boot order options - my thought was to have first entry for pure Debian Wheezy boot. No problem to reverse the boot order but it will happen for the next version. It is not good idea to replace the iso versions very often. We need also to change the boot list for debdog installer the same way.

Toni

[saintless]

DebianDog included extras (besides official Debian):
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/pictures/

Hi, Fred.
We can use pictures from this folder to include them as in our posts instead attachments. I started to make new thread with the above pictures and I will edit a little the first page posts here with links when it is finished:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93391

Toni

[fredx181]

DebianDog included extras (besides official Debian):
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/pictures/

Hi, Fred.
We can use pictures from this folder to include them as in our posts instead attachments. I started to make new thread with the above pictures and I will edit a little the first page posts here with links when it is finished:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93391

Toni

Great!
I didn't know how to use ,btw

Fred

[jrb]

Hi guys,
Just wanted to let you know how impressed I am with what you've done so far. I still don't really know what I'm doing with Debian but so far I've used apt-get to install Chromium34, Cups, and cifs-utils. Internet, printing and networking are up and running!

I got DebianDog installed in /0_DebianDog/ on the harddrive of my main computer no problem using grub4dos and

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title DebianDog (sda1/0_DebianDog)
  uuid ab6b0aba-fe3b-45f3-b8d5-69bb4f5623c5
  kernel /0_DebianDog/live/vmlinuz1 noauto from=/0_DebianDog changes=/live/ 
  initrd /0_DebianDog/live/initrd1.xz

But then I wanted to set up a usb flashdrive. Firstly this drive wouldn't boot with grub4dos so I redid a slacko570 install using Puppy Universal Installer which got it booting with extlinux. Then I deleted Slacko570 and copied the /0_DebianDog/ onto the usb. It took me a bit of research and playing around but I finally got it booting with changes being found in /0_DebianDog/live/changes. Here's my extlinux.conf file

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default /0_DebianDog/live/vmlinuz1 initrd=/0_DebianDog/live/initrd1.xz noauto from=UUID:b3ab615e-cf52-4851-869f-77ef816892ce/0_DebianDog changes=UUID:b3ab615e-cf52-4851-869f-77ef816892ce/0_DebianDog/live/

.
You can see I had to use the flashdrives UUID which I got from the blkid command.

One other thing I might mention, I noticed DebianDog wasn't using /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/OpenWith, only /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/SendTo. So I cleaned out all the broken symlinks and empty folders and placed the remainder in /SendTo, deleted OpenWith and symlinked /OpenWith to /SendTo.

Keep up the great work, you've got a winner here!

Cheers, J

[saintless]

One other thing I might mention, I noticed DebianDog wasn't using /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/OpenWith, only /root/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/SendTo. So I cleaned out all the broken symlinks and empty folders and placed the remainder in /SendTo, deleted OpenWith and symlinked /OpenWith to /SendTo.

Thank you, Jrb.

I will fix OpenWith this way for Rox in the next version.
I'm testing something about iso-hybrid CD option. Refracta linux use it but this makes me worry a little:

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A usb drive prepared with dd from iso-hybid will act like a live-CD. It will be a  read-only system, and you will not be able to create a second partition on the device. If you later want to use the device for data storage, you'll need to zero the first 2048 KB before re-writing the partition table.

I hope in time with some more help we will improve the installer to work for any hardware like puppy universal installer.

Toni

[saintless]

New thread with information about special DebianDog utilities and first boot setup programs:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93391
I will start new one in the next days with DebianDog How-To tips and tricks and more information how to use Debian.

Toni

[fredx181]

Here's my extlinux.conf file
Code:
default /0_DebianDog/live/vmlinuz1 initrd=/0_DebianDog/live/initrd1.xz noauto from=UUID:b3ab615e-cf52-4851-869f-77ef816892ce/0_DebianDog changes=UUID:b3ab615e-cf52-4851-869f-77ef816892ce/0_DebianDog/live/
.
You can see I had to use the flashdrives UUID which I got from the blkid command.

When booting from usb and you have a folder with same name on the harddrive (as you gave on the "from=/..." or "changes=/..." parameter) it will use the data on the harddrive

Of course using UUID is very secure but I'd like to mention that if you had changed the name of the 0_DebianDog folder to e.g. 1_DebianDog it would have worked also without having to use UUID.

Fred

[jrb]

When booting from usb and you have a folder with same name on the harddrive (as you gave on the "from=/..." or "changes=/..." parameter) it will use the data on the harddrive

Of course using UUID is very secure but I'd like to mention that if you had changed the name of the 0_DebianDog folder to e.g. 1_DebianDog it would have worked also without having to use UUID.

Fred

Sadly this wasn't the case. As you say, when I booted the usb on the computer with the /0_DebianDog/ folder on the harddrive it worked without the UUID and I thought it was a success. When I tried booting it on another computer which did not have DebianDog installed it could not find "changes in /live/" no matter what I tried in the "from=" or "changes=" until I put in the UUID. Perhaps I missed another working cheatcode pair but I tried quite a few. I also tried letting it create changes.dat, which it did, but it could not find it again at next boot. I wonder if it could be the speed of the netbook I was trying to boot on. Its an Atom N270 processor at 1.6Ghz and maybe the search for /changes/ or changes.dat just timed out?

I'm afraid this savefile business is a bit off putting right now. I like to think I'm fairly competent and I know I'm tenacious, but the time and energy I put into figuring out something that worked could well have frustrated many Puppy users, which is a shame considering how easy it is to use DebianDog, especially package installation. I think the UUID cheatcode options could provide a successful experience quite a bit faster, at least for flashdrive installs.

Just my 2 cents. Thanks again for your hard work, J

[fredx181]

Sadly this wasn't the case. Sad As you say, when I booted the usb on the computer with the /0_DebianDog/ folder on the harddrive it worked without the UUID and I thought it was a success. When I tried booting it on another computer which did not have DebianDog installed it could not find "changes in /live/" no matter what I tried in the "from=" or "changes=" until I put in the UUID.

Strange, I just tried to reproduce it on a flashdrive (except that I'm using grub4dos instead of extlinux) and there's no problem using changes directory inside /0_DebianDog/live/ on usb flashdrive.
I have no other "/0_DebianDog/live" directory somewhere else existing.
My menu.lst entry:

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title Debian-PorteusDog Wheezy changes to /0_DebianDog/live/
 uuid f8675617-d98d-4a7b-a87a-e573ab64d2c8
 kernel /0_DebianDog/live/vmlinuz1 noauto from=/0_DebianDog changes=/0_DebianDog/live/
 initrd /0_DebianDog/live/initrd1.xz

So I'm beginning to suspect that extlinux handles things different than grub4dos.

Btw, do you have any idea why grub4dos didn't work for you?, it works for me on any filesystem including ext4.

Fred