EasyOS 5.8.2 released

I have uploaded version 5.8.2; however, the menu item "Rollback to previous version" in the initrd does not work.

I checked the logic of the code carefully before releasing 5.8.2. Updated a 5.6.7 installation to 5.8.2 ok; however, when I tried to rollback to 5.6.7, it failed. I discovered that busybox grep in the initrd does not recognize the "-A" option.

I need to sort that, either tonight or tomorrow, and will follow up with version 5.8.3.

Version 5.8.2 release notes:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/5.8.2/release-notes.htm

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/5.8.2/

The delta files are massive. Updating from 5.6.7, the download is 808MB.  

Tags: easy

initrd menu improvements

Recently, when I updated EasyOS on one of my laptops from version 5.7 to 5.8, I got a black screen, which required holding down the power button to power-off. I reported about this:

https://bkhome.org/news/202405/kernel-515150-disaster-for-amd-gpu.html

To recover, I had to rollback to version 5.7. I knew how to do this, but for anyone else, there is a problem. The menu in the initrd offers two choices, to rollback to "pristine first bootup" or "the last snapshot". The problem with these two choices is that they only apply to the current version.

I have added a new menu entry "Rollback to previous version". This will enable someone to recover if they find themselves in the same situation as me.

Another change I made is hit the spacebar to stop the menu 15 second timeout. This was implemented in QV, and I really like it. The user can then peruse the menu entries at their leisure.

Here are the commits:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commits/d549cd97be743e1f6f7f5cfe29af3e5d86e88b41/   

Tags: easy

EasyOS going back to Chromium builtin

EasyOS 5.8 and 5.8.1 have Firefox as the builtin web browser. I do want to support Firefox, as the only remaining non-Chrome browser; however, there are things about it that annoy me too much.

Mostly, I still have the problem of the menu locking up. I posted about that in December 2023, with a photo:

https://bkhome.org/news/202312/firefox-is-still-disappointing.html

The main reason that I switched to Firefox from Chromium, is no longer able to compile Chromium in OpenEmbedded, at least not in the Kirkstone-series as clang is too old. But, can still compile Firefox.

The xz-compressed Chromium package compiled in OE, last time I did compile it, is 93MB. I checked the official x86_64 package provided by Google; downloaded as a .zip file, that I repackaged as .xz, and it is 109MB. Bigger, because it is using less of the host system shared libraries. I can live with that bigger size.

Here are the recent woofQ commits:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commits/dc209c385e1be391a431cd2f284765adabc15735/

One thing to note, it does not have the Google API keys. Personally, I have never missed their absence.

Note that you will be able to update Chromium any time you want, via "Download latest Chromium" entry in the "Internet" category of the menu. This will download the latest Google build.

You will still be able to use Firefox of course. It is available for download via the "Internet" menu category.  

Tags: easy

Lots of utilities compiled for EasyOS Kirkstone

Forum member Flash posted about the 'tree' utility:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=118592#p118592

I compiled it in OpenEmbedded/Yocto, then a lot more, 25 in total:

atop       "Monitor for system resources and process activity" https://www.atoptool.nl
cmark      "CommonMark parsing and rendering library and program in C" https://github.com/commonmark/cmark
daemonize  "A tool to run a command as a daemon" http://software.clapper.org/daemonize/
devmem2    "Simple program to readwrite fromto any location in memory" 
dfu-util   "Device firmware upgrade" https://dfu-util.sourceforge.net
dhex       "dhex is a hex editor that includes a diff mode" http://www.dettus.net/dhex/
eject      "Eject CD/DVD" https://eject.sourceforge.net/
gengetopt  "skeleton main.c generator" https://www.gnu.org/software/gengetopt/gengetopt.html
gpm        "Console mouse driver" https://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/gpm
hstr       "bash and zsh shell history suggest box - easily view navigate search and manage your command history." http://dvorka.github.io/hstr/
joe        "Console text editor with good functionality good choice for vi-haters" https://joe-editor.sourceforge.net/
links      "Text-mode web browser" http://links.twibright.com/
logwarn    "A utility for finding interesting messages in log files" https://github.com/archiecobbs/logwarn/wiki
monit      "Manage and monitor Unix systems" https://mmonit.com/monit/
nano       "Small and friendly console text editor" https://www.nano-editor.org/
nmon       "Performance monitor" https://nmon.sourceforge.io/pmwiki.php
picocom    "Lightweight and minimal dumb-terminal emulation program" https://github.com/npat-efault/picocom
pv         "Terminal-based tool for monitoring the progress of data through a pipeline" http://www.ivarch.com/programs/pv.shtml
rdfind     "Rdfind is a program that finds duplicate files" https://rdfind.pauldreik.se/
rsnapshot  "A filesystem snapshot utility based on rsync" https://rsnapshot.org/
rtc-tools  "Useful programs to test rtc drivers" 
satyr      "Automatic problem management" https://github.com/abrt/satyr
synergy    "Synergy - control multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse" https://symless.com/synergy
toscoterm  "A very small and simple terminal emulator" 
tree       "A recursive directory listing command" http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/
xmlstarlet "Command line XML toolkit" https://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/

These have been uploaded and are available in the repository, via PKGget.    

Tags: easy

Gittyup GUI Git client

I have been using SmartGit for years. It is a commercial product, with a free license for non-commercial use. It is a great product; however, sometimes there are inconveniences. It "phones home" at every startup, and frequently insists on perfoming an update. A few times, I had to re-validate the free license. Recently, at startup it reports downloading "git", but I already have git, and I hit "Exit" then restart SmartGit and then it doesn't try and download git. Weird.

Anyway, I want to get away from it. The last few years, many free Git GUIs have emerged. There is one, "GitAhead", that was a commercial product; however, a couple of years ago (not sure exactly) it became free open-source. The homepage states that it is no longer being developed, just bug fixes:

https://gitahead.github.io/gitahead.com/

However, looking at the commits, still fairly active:

https://github.com/gitahead/gitahead

GitAhead rates well in reviews. For example at slant.co:

https://www.slant.co/options/18757/~gitahead-review

Slant.co has rated it number 10 in GUI Git clients, all platforms:

https://www.slant.co/topics/4985/~visual-git-guis

...SmartGit comes in as number-1.

There are YouTube videos on GitAhead, such as this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdhQqSSbYPQ

Then I found "Gittyup", which is a continuation of the GitAhead project:

https://github.com/Murmele/Gittyup

...yes, very active.

I have compiled Gittyup, created a PET, and it will be in EasyOS Kirkstone-series devx SFS from now on. For the record, here is how I compiled it:

# git clone https://github.com/Murmele/Gittyup.git gittyup-1.3.0
# cd gittyup-1.3.0
# git submodule init
# git submodule update --depth 1

# cd ..
# dir2tgz gittyup-1.3.0
# sync
# cd gittyup-1.3.0

# cd dep/openssl/openssl
# ./config -fPIC
# make

# cd ../../../
# mkdir -p build/gittyup-1.3.0
# cd build/gittyup-1.3.0
# cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR=/etc \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_LOCALSTATEDIR=/var -DENABLE_UPDATE_OVER_GUI=OFF -DUSE_SYSTEM_OPENSSL=OFF \
  -DUSE_SYSTEM_QT=ON -DUSE_SYSTEM_LUA=ON -DUSE_SYSTEM_HUNSPELL=ON -DUSE_SYSTEM_LIBGIT2=OFF \
  -DUSE_SYSTEM_GIT=ON -DUSE_SYSTEM_CMARK=OFF -DENABLE_TESTS=ON  ../..
# ninja
# new2dir ninja install

It requires openssl 1.1.x, whereas Kirkstone has 3.x, so configured for builtin. Also builtin libgit2, as the Kirkstone libgit2 caused scintilla compile fail. Haven't tested it yet; just started it, but took it no further.   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Kirkstone-series version 5.8.1 released

Version 5.8 was withdrawn a day after release, due to a black screen with the 5.15.157 kernel:

https://bkhome.org/news/202404/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-58-released.html

https://bkhome.org/news/202405/kernel-515150-disaster-for-amd-gpu.html

Easy 5.8.1 has the 5.15.149 kernel.

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/5.8.1/

If you are new to EasyOS, please read the 5.7 announcement; it has more details:

https://bkhome.org/news/202402/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-57-released.html

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=11398    

Tags: easy

Kernel 5.15.150 disaster for AMD GPU

In the release announcvement for EasyOS 5.8, I posted a withdrawal, due to getting a black screen on my Acer Aspire3 laptop:

https://bkhome.org/news/202404/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-58-released.html

Seems that get the black screen and dead system as soon as the 'amdgpu' kernel module loads. Here are the GPU details:

# lspci | grep VGA
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c2)
05:00.7 Non-VGA unclassified device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2/Renoir Non-Sensor Fusion Hub KMDF driver

# lspci -n -k
...
05:00.0 0300: 1002:15d8 (rev c2)
	Subsystem: 1025:1456
	Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
	Kernel modules: amdgpu

I perused the kernel changelog, nothing jumped out as the obvious culprit. So, a painfully slow method, but I compiled and tested earlier kernels. Already know that kernels up until 5.15.148 work, and .148 is in Easy 5.7.

I tested .153: black screen. Tested .150: black screen. .149: works!

I intend to release Easy 5.8.1 with the 5.15.149 kernel.

Then, need to try and determine what patch in the .150 kernel has caused the problem. Might contact the kernel developers first.

Note, my black-screen problem does not affect all AMD GPUs. Forum member 'gcav' reported his "AMD Ryzen Mobile 3700U" is OK:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=118550#p118550   

Tags: easy