Changes and Additions:
- Remove automatic save for Firefox Settings and Bookmarks (it writes continuously on the boot device since history and bookmarks are in the same file)
- Start and NoStart Service cheat-code to allow boot services tweaking from bootloader menu
- Desktop Compositing enabled by default (may be a dedicated cheat-code?)
- More graphic support for new cards (i miss the hardware to test it, i hope to find someone able to test it for me)
Additions i will write just if i have a lot of time to spend
(if anyone want to help writing one of this just let me know, help is welcome)
- GUI to configure automatic link creation on your desktop
- GUI to configure bootloader settings
Bug Fixes:
- Fix Bluetooth to work also in Persistent Changes Mode n
- Fix All the scripts for CD ISO image creation
- Find a way to make Sony Vaio P scroll to work
- Documents Link and Sticky-Notes on ext(2,3,4) working by default
- Nautilus Preview disabled by default
- Hibernation in Gnome fixed
- Deluged configured to run in server-client mode by default
you can suggest improvements, add-ons, fixes and changes in the comments
this post will be updated with your suggestions (only the accepted ones of course :-p)
if you are not expert enough for a technical help or you have no time, you can support PixieLive development with a donation
1 From pixel -
Yes, that will be great. I eagerly look forward for 1.1.
If possible also a installer like the one used by jolicloud and ubuntu.
I am really not a programmer, just know how to use the end product.
Thanks.
2 From Christian Lorandi -
@pixel:
write a graphical installer require too much time, anyway, i hope someone will integrate PixieLive in UNetbootin or something like that
3 From meeped -
great project - good to see someone doing real work on the poulsbo.
however I seem unlucky, my Xorg.0.log says:
---
(II) PSB(0): Debug: MMIO virtual address is 0xb7180000
(--) PSB(0): Mapped PCI MMIO at physical address 0xd0600000
with size 512 kiB
Fatal server error:
xf86MapVidMem: Could not mmap framebuffer (0x7f9c0010,0x800000) (Invalid argument)
---
I tried to track it down using strace:
6300 open("/dev/mem", O_RDWR) = 10
6300 mmap2(NULL, 8388624, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, 10, 0x7f9c0) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)
then the error is printed to stderr and the logfile.
also I tried http://www.pixielive.org/ developmen... but no improvement.
Actually the size of the mmap is not 0x800000 but 0x800010
can't get this to run :(
4 From Christian Lorandi -
@meeped:
is it a Sony Vaio-P?
quote electrodacus:
(pressing TAB in the bootloader (blue) screen and adding it to the boot parameters, without quotes)
5 From meeped -
wow! thanks a lot. that helps. but actually only when 2GB are also installed. Not when I inset a 1GB module...
still looking for a valid screen, but I think I get that operational.
6 From Christian Lorandi -
@meeped:
is mem=900MB not working on 1GB?
7 From Steve99 -
PixieLive 1.0 works well on an ACER 751h with 1GB RAM running from an SD card with a few tweaks. Suspend requires that the alternate_suspend module be installed (i.e moved from Optional to Modules directory). Power management works well, however, you have to add the line "cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info" to the startup session to get the battery indicator and the "On Battery" power options to be available from boot. With these tweaks, this OS works better than any other Linux version that I have tried.
I have 2 requests as bug fixes for PixieLive 1.1. The first is to fix the help function for many installed programs which reports an error that "Gnome-Help" is unavailable. The second is that persistent changes are not saved when booting PixieLive 1.0 from HDD, even with the Ext Fix installed. If there are fixes for these in the current 1.0 OS version, please let me know.
8 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
- i don't understand where to put the
- the absence of Gnome-Help is not exactly a bug, but a precise choice, since the content of gnome help is most of times useless for most users and it require space on disk, the idea is to keep the distro as small as possible
- persistent changes work pretty well also without ExtFix for me, even if installed on HDD did you add "changes=PixieLive" to your grub line (i.e. after AllowSuspension)?
christiancat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info
bacause battery monitor is already working on my EeePC, if you can be more precise i will surely fix it in the 1.1anyway i can think about including it as separate module, like for additional programs, so who want it can just get it from the website, and the others can have a smaller distro
9 From meeped -
@Christian
Ah, OK, now I am with you. mem=900MB with 1GB behaves the same as mem=1900MB with a 2GB module.
I can boot "further" but now I am stuck with
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(EE) PSB(0): the stolenBase is:0x7f800000
(EE) PSB(0): screnIndex is:0;fbPhys is:0x7f800000; fbsize is:0x007bf000
(EE) PSB(0): Unable to write to SDVOCTRL_E for SDVOB Slave 0x70.
(EE) PSB(0): Unable to write to SDVOCTRL_E for SDVOB Slave 0x70.
FATAL: Module psb not found.
(EE) [drm] drmOpen failed.
(EE) PSB(0): [dri] DRIScreenInit failed. Disabling DRI.
(EE) [drm] Could not uninstall irq handler.
(EE) PSB(0): This driver currently needs DRM to operate.
the full Xorg.0.log is at http://pixielive.pastebin.com/ QA2Xa...
10 From Christian Lorandi -
@meeped:
i don't know in your specific case, i suggested those 2 solutions to people with problems similar to your, i don't know if they can work... i don't have that computer to test them, i can just google for solutions
11 From Steve99 -
* i don't understand where to put the cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info bacause battery monitor is already working on my EeePC, if you can be more precise i will surely fix it in the 1.1
Response -- If you don't include this line in the startup session, the battery indicator does not show the battery level (only the AC power symbol) and, if you click on preferences, none of the options for "On Battery Power" are aviable. Adding this line to the startup session fixes all this. This fix is suggested at the Ubuntu Hardware Forums for the Poulsbo graphic support.
* the absence of Gnome-Help is not exactly a bug, but a precise choice, since the content of gnome help is most of times useless for most users and it require space on disk, the idea is to keep the distro as small as possible.
anyway i can think about including it as separate module, like for additional programs, so who want it can just get it from the website, and the others can have a smaller distro.
Response --- Adding this option as a later optional module is a welcome solution. Sometimes the help features are needed.
* persistent changes work pretty well also without ExtFix for me, even if installed on HDD did you add "changes=PixieLive" to your grub line (i.e. after AllowSuspension)?
Response --- When I add "changes=/PixieLive" or "changes=/PixieLive/" in the guib line, I get a boot error indicating a read-only error when trying to start dev/console. Does the command have to come after or before "AllowSuspension" since it appears before in the syslinux.cfg script rather than after as you have recommended?
Anoother request for 1.1 be be to add additional users with unique passwords
12 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
changes=/PixieLive/
(with a / before and after the directory name) really don't know what's wrong in your case, which filesystem is your?reminder for me: in case of more than 1 user autologin should be disabled...
13 From Steve99 -
Thanks Christian for your help. I have not been able to get persistent changes from booting from an EXT3 partition, howevef this may be a bug spoecific to the Acer 751h as you suggest. I will try the 1.1 Alpha and see if the bug is still present.
Is adding new uers simply using the standard linux terminal command lines?
14 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
- it's a strange bug for a "computer model", i think it was more probably related to some strange option on the filesystem but i'm not expert enough in that field...
- yes, if you have persistent changes you can just use the standard unix command from command line (useradd), if you are not using persistent changes you should also take care of save your
- if you wanna just change password for pixielive you can use the command
christian/home/username
directory in a module to find it back at every reboot, and also/etc/passwd
,/etc/shadow
, and/etc/group
where users, groups and password are stored (you could use the "Save Custom Settings" application in the menu). You could also edit/etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf
to remove autologin for the user pixielivepasswd code>
15 From RapierTG -
Maybe you could implement better ralink wireless. Mean the rt2870sta module as its not working on 1.0. Dunno why but on ralink side this driver is also often called rt3070.
16 From Nigel -
Hi, liking all your work so far, but could you include the newer sony module which allows 3g modem and gps to be used on the sony vaio-p Current version (for kernel => 2.6.34): sony-laptop-zseries-0.9np7.tar.gz
Version for 2.6.33: sony-laptop-zseries-0.9np6.tar.gz
Old version (for kernel < 2.6.33): sony-laptop-zseries-0.9np5.tar.gz can be found at http://www.logic.at/people/preining... also I use my laptop as navigation aid - utilizing a little known programs zygrib and opencpn - how do i go about compiling these to lzm files. currently i use Ubuntu 9.04 (jolicloud). BUT wanting to switch to Pixielive. Thanks again for all your work.
17 From Steve99 -
Dear Christian:
I was able to be persistent changes to boot properly from the HDD on ac Ext3 partition and to make changes to usernames and passwords. I had to download the PixieLive 1.0 torrent and start a fresh installation.
Some issues for booting from the HDD:
1) Firefox does not save any changes
2) Stickynotes do not save between logins.
3) Root Terminal
I have installed the Ext module, but these 3 issues are not resolved in either PixieLive mode "With Changes" or "Without Changes". However, when I login as "root", items 1 and 2 are fixed. Is there some permission that I need to fix?
Thank you for your help to date and your efforts in developing and supporting PixieLive. This is the best Linux distribution for the Acer 751h that I have found.
18 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
did you added some users manually? because that problem saving changes on ext filesystem would be totally explained,
usermod -a -G wheel YOURUSERNAME
19 From Steve99 -
I traced the problem back to an interrupted download of the PixieLive 1.0 torrent. I redownloaded the torrent and this time there were no download errors or interruptions.
I changed the username from old "pixielive" to "new" using the sequence of commands:
killall -u old
id old
usermod -l new old
groupmod -n new old
usermod -d /home/new -m new
usermod -c “New Real Name” new
id new
passwd new
This automatically added "new" to the WHEEL in place of "pixielive" so it was not necessary to apply your fix using the "usermod .... wheel ...." command above. Then I had to manually change the permissions and ownership of the Documents and Settings directories and subdirectories and files to Owner "new" and Group "new".
Everything works OK using the new username and password including automatically saving Firefox settings and Stickynotes.
Thanks
20 From Steve99 -
Christian:
Can you make modules for "yelp" and "evolution"? There are slax modules for these available on the slax website at http://www.slax.org/modules.php. Yelp is the gnome-help viewer and I beleive that the yelp XML files are already included in PixieLive 1.0.
Thank you in advance.
21 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
about yelp, i will do it (but i have some doubt about the presence of xml files...)
about evolution: i will try, it's a quite complicated system, but probably not much different from others...
Christian
22 From Steve99 -
Christian:
What I believe to be the help files are found in "usr/share/gnome/help" and are combination of "xml" and "page" files organized under directories for the various gnome applications.
23 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
Yelp, Gnome Help ready for you
let me know if it works please, so i can include it in the Applications Page
Christian
24 From Christian Lorandi -
@Steve99:
Evolution-2.30.2-r1 ready for test, as usual, please let me know if it works
thank you, Christian
25 From Steve99 -
Christian:
Gnome Help works for most gnome applications, with a few exceptions such as "yelp" itself. I tried Evolution and it worked fine, however, I have switched to a web-based email application so I haven't tested it extensively.
Thank you.
26 From asdo -
Is it possible to "emerge --update --deep world" pixielive 1.0 once emerge is installed and working? I keep on getting errors trying to update my system and I don't know if that is due to the specific setting up of pixie or maybe it is me who has messed up his system due to some beginner tweaking of me. Could you give me some advice here? Maybe should I just mask some packages to shelter the pixie specific settings?
I'd be glad to hear about it from you,
sincerely,
asndo
27 From Christian Lorandi -
@asndo:
it should be possible, i don't know exactly why it doesn't work, may be some files are missing, are /etc/make.globals, /etc/make.conf and /etc/make.profile present? make.globals and make.profile should be symbolic links
christian
28 From asdo -
Well theoretically I can do updates since everything is ok with my emerge.
However, once some updates are performed and I try to reboot, pixie fails to load. Once it hanged when gdm loaded (some settings must have been overwritten since it was the logging window, disabled by default, that had appeared just before the system became unresponsive), once x-server broke down. In either case some important settings connected with GMA500 must have been overwritten. In the second case I got it explicitly in the error message saying the psb drivers were missing. It seems odd to me since I tried to be cautious with the settings while answering the dispatch-conf utility.
Hence was my previous question. I think it would be enough if I just masked the packages explicitly configured to work with GMA500, especially those which form the basis of the pixielive distro. I mean the likes of gdm, x-server etc. Could you send us the list of names of such packages to be masked?
Apart from that the update process was truly annoying. I kept on getting "stale NFS file handle" errors. After every such an error I was forced to restart my update. After that, the package that had send me the error emerged itself smoothly and I received the very same error for the other one, few packages later. And so over and over again.
I'd be glad to hear your comments on that.
sincerely,
asndo
29 From Christian Lorandi -
@asndo:
if you you are trying to update the 1.0 this is the list of masked packages:
>=x11-base/xorg-server-1.7
>=x11-base/xorg-drivers-1.7
>=media-libs/mesa-7.7.1
>=x11-libs/libXinerama-1.1
>=x11-proto/xineramaproto-1.2
>=x11-libs/libXext-1.1.1
>=x11-proto/xextproto-7.1.1
>=x11-libs/libXtst-1.1.0
>=x11-proto/recordproto-1.14
>=x11-libs/libXi-1.3
>=x11-proto/fixesproto-4.1.1
>=x11-libs/libXxf86vm-1.1.0
>=x11-proto/xf86vidmodeproto-2.3
>=x11-proto/inputproto-2.0
>=x11-apps/xinput-1.5.1
#>=dev-lang/python-3
>=x11-libs/libX11-1.3
>=gnome-extra/gnome-power-manager-2.30
>=x11-drivers/ati-drivers-10.4
if you are updating from 1.1beta2... there are no masked packages at all, but... do you really need to update it? :-D
the next version is ready, i have just to refine the "Save Proxy Settings"
30 From asndo -
thank you for the prompt answer.
that was a good point, whether do I really have to update my system. the truth is: only to some extent, namely when I want to emerge some additional programs. keeping that in mind I masked all pixielive packeges and have been unmasking thereafter only if my desired package explicitly demanded them. thanks to your list I know which of them can be indeed safely put into the updating process and which not.
if it is so that the new pixie won't be that sensible to x-server upgrades, I can't wait to have it! but will it be shipped with the same gma500 drivers or not? if with the new ones, will they be as stable as in pixie 1.0? In 1.0 everything runs so smoothly, I am impressed (only java seemed to be somewhat slower than the average to me on one occasion..)?.
if I could make a feature request, please do not put openoffice and skype into the main distro, but rather as the additional packages like in case of R or wine.
cheers,
asndo
31 From Christian Lorandi -
@asndo:
the driver in the new version will be different the 1.0, it will be the same as the 1.1beta2, the EMGD, it works smoothly as well, the only unsupported feature seems to be screen rotation and there are some problems with libva for some file formats, if you want to see HD movies, most of programs will be as separated packages, like in 1.1-beta2
christian
32 From asndo -
And how about the flash video viewing in firefox? As for now youtube is the only page I know that runs videos smoothly in pixie. Have there been made any improvements on that? Or maybe is there a simple solution to that even within pixie 1.0?
sincerely,
asndo
33 From Christian Lorandi -
@asndo:
no idea... imho you need a Release Candidate to test it ;) i'll upload it for you as soon as possible
bye