OB Astronomy remaster

[Taco.22]

Hi, introducing PCLinuxOS-BlackCat.

I have done a makeover on OB Bonsai and created a version for anyone into astronomy.  It has been a great learning project, and hopefully it may be of some use to stargazers.  It has a variety of planetarium programs, a couple of CCD apps, and a comprehensive star chart.  It weighs in at 850mb, but that is mostly due to the included data.  The browser also has links to appropriate astronomy sites.  The list of astro software is relatively brief - much of what is available is oddball stuff that can easily botch the system - trust me!  However I am continuing to add things - Virtual Moon Atlas, extra links to websites, telnet to access the info. and so on.   

BlackCat contains Iron, Sylpheed, Gftp, Pidgin, Gimp, Abiword, Gnumeric, Geany, Evince, ImageMagick, VLC, wxCamXfburn, Celestia, Stellarium, Xephem, Skychart, Fitsblink, Qastrocam, wxAstroCapture and the full printing package.  I was going to limit it to CUPS only but decided to thow the rest in.

I would like to thank melodie for being there as I borked and glitched my way through the build.  It has been and still is a great learning experience, albeit frustrating at times.

PCLinuxOS can be downloaded from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18945176/blackcat.iso

Let know what you think - problems, suggestions, ideas, criticisms etc.   

   

[nerdful1]

no kstars?

[melodie]

no kstars?

Hi,

If kstars need Kde, then Taco has better time not to install it : 850 MB is already big enough.

Taco, I will get it, to see if I can help you reduce it's size a bit. I won't take time to test the programs thought, I won't find enough time for that, so I'll leave it to other testers.

[melodie]

Hi,

I am testing it under Virtualbox, as live. I didn't install it yet.
First, I must say that the way you have arranged it, added the menus to main menu is interesting and very pleasant.

Now critics. I am about to hunt all extra files that are not necessary in the Live version.

In the home of guest:

$ ls -lAm
.AbiSuite/, .adobe/, .bash_logout, .bash_profile, .bashrc, .cache/, .config/,
.dbus/, Desktop/, .dmrc, Documents/, Downloads/, .fontconfig/, .gconf/,
.gconfd/, .gftp/, .gimp-2.6/, .gksu.lock, .gnome2/, .gnome2_private/, .gnupg/,
.gstreamer-0.10/, .gtk-bookmarks, .gtkrc-2.0, .gvfs/, .htoprc, .local/, .mc/,
.mdk-menu-migrated, Music/, Pictures/, .pki/, .purple/, .qt/,
.recently-used.xbel, .skychart/, .stellarium/, .sylpheed-2.0/, Templates/,
.thumbnails/, tmp/, Videos/, .virtualmoon/, .wxAstroCapture/, .Xauthority,
.xbindkeysrc, .Xdefaults, .xephem/, .xinitrc*, .Xresources, .xsession*,
.xsession-errors

You can remove all .directories created by the applications you have started. .AbiSuite/, .adobe/, .gftp/, .gimp-2.6/, .gnupg, .gksu.lock, .gstreamer-0.10/, .pki/, .purple/, .qt/,
.recently-used.xbel, .skychart/, .stellarium/, .sylpheed-2.0/, .virtualmoon/, .wxAstroCapture/, and   .xephem/.

Inside ".local" and ".config", it's also possible to figure out what the started apps have left:
/union/home/guest/.local/share/webkit

this one can be removed.

/union/home/guest/.local/share/xfce4/helpers/custom-TerminalEmulator.desktop
maybe you don't need this one. If you do, you probably know what you would need it for (it's a file that belongs to a depend to Thunar maybe ?)

drwxrwx--- 1 root  root    35 Jan 17 18:36 .adobe/

you should not have files belonging to root in the home of guest.

You can delete the file history (or the lines added in it, between the titles) in .mc. and remove .bash_history, .recently-used.xbel and .xsession-errors.

In .config you can remove directories : Thunar, chromium, unless you have configured it ian a special way you want the users to get. You need to remove geany, geeqie, gpicview, xarchiver, xfburn, and maybe xfce4 (check if there is something special you added there, otherwise you can remove it). You can remove  Trolltech.ceonf.

In the home of root : all the same as in the home of guest. It needs the same type of cleaning. And alsoin /etc/skel/.config. (do you need /etc/skel/.gimp-2.6 ? I think not).
for the final, you can remove /root/.synaptic/log/* (files). 111K.
/var/log contains 2.3 MB files.²

You can preserve the file prcsys.log and remove all other files:

[root@localhost log]# mv prcsys.log ../
[root@localhost log]# find . -type f -exec rm {} \;
[root@localhost log]# cd ../
[root@localhost log]# mv prcsys.log log/
# du -csh log/
4.0K   log/
4.0K   total

Now it's small again. (prcsys.log missing makes the system yell that it's missing, when you reboot, but if you remove it it will be recreated anyway... just don't make it missing just before remastering, because a yelling boot is not nice, in a live)

/usr/share/doc contains 47 MB. You should keep HTML, a few docs that you think are interesting for your version if you want, (related to astronomy applications) and remove all the rest.

[

root@localhost share]# cd doc/
[root@localhost doc]# mv HTML ..
[root@localhost doc]# rm -Rf *
[root@localhost doc]# cd ..
[root@localhost share]# mv HTML/ doc/
[root@localhost share]# du -csh doc/
16K   doc/
16K   total
[root@localhost share]#

Now it's smaller.

[root@localhost opt]# du -csh VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6/
11M   VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6/
11M   total
[root@localhost opt]#

you may want to remove this one. This is not useful in a live.
 
Do you need all the printing stuff for an astronomy version ? The users could install just what they need. (In the idea of reducing the size, of course).

Else: in the menu entries, all the same astronomy apps are in "Sciences" and in "Education". This would look nicer if you choose that they are either in one, or in the other (see the desktop files related, to tweak it, and maybe report about it in software section after).

That's all for now. I'll uninstall printing tools,(I won't need them in virtualbox anyway),  install it and tell you if I find other things.

Good job so far !

[melodie]

I have done a "./uninstall" as root in the opt Virtualbox dir to remove guest additions, now I remove theses packages:

Code:

a2ps will be removed with configuration
c2050 will be removed with configuration
c2070 will be removed with configuration
cjet will be removed with configuration
cups will be removed with configuration
cups-drivers-foo2zjs will be removed with configuration
cups-drivers-lz11 will be removed with configuration
drv_z42 will be removed with configuration
epsoneplijs will be removed with configuration
foomatic-db will be removed with configuration
foomatic-db-engine will be removed with configuration
gutenprint-common will be removed with configuration
hplip-hpijs will be removed with configuration
hplip-model-data will be removed with configuration
lexmark7000linux will be removed with configuration
libgutenprint2 will be removed with configuration
libhpip0 will be removed with configuration
libijs1 will be removed with configuration
lm1100 will be removed with configuration
min12xxw will be removed with configuration
ml85p will be removed with configuration
mtink will be removed with configuration
oki4linux will be removed with configuration
openprinting-gutenprint will be removed with configuration
pbm2l2030 will be removed with configuration
pbm2lwxl will be removed with configuration
pbmtozjs will be removed with configuration
pentaxpj will be removed with configuration
pnm2ppa will be removed with configuration
postscript-ppds will be removed with configuration
ppmtocpva will be removed with configuration
ppmtomd will be removed with configuration
printer-testpages will be removed with configuration
printer-tools will be removed with configuration
psutils will be removed with configuration
python-reportlab will be removed with configuration
stylewriter will be removed with configuration
x125 will be removed with configuration
cups-drivers will be removed
cups-drivers-capt will be removed
cups-drivers-foo2kyo will be removed
cups-drivers-lbp660 will be removed
cups-drivers-lxx74 will be removed
cups-drivers-m2300w will be removed
cups-drivers-magicolor2430dl will be removed
cups-drivers-magicolor5430dl will be removed
cups-drivers-magicolor5440dl will be removed
cups-drivers-pegg will be removed
cups-drivers-ptouch will be removed
cups-drivers-splix will be removed
cups-pdf will be removed
foomatic-db-hpijs will be removed
gutenprint-cups will be removed
gutenprint-escputil will be removed
gutenprint-foomatic will be removed
gutenprint-gimp2 will be removed
gutenprint-ijs will be removed
hplip will be removed
hplip-gui will be removed
hplip-hpijs-ppds will be removed
lexmark2070 will be removed
libgutenprintui2_1 will be removed
lxcontrol will be removed
printer-filters will be removed
printer-utils will be removed
task-printing will be removed
task-printing-canon will be removed
task-printing-epson will be removed
task-printing-hp will be removed
task-printing-lexmark will be removed
task-printing-misc will be removed
task-printing-okidata will be removed
task-printing-server will be removed
z42tool will be removed

and this will free 264 MB. I watch out not to remove some "cups-something" or else, that would pull out abiword, geany, screenie, or parts of the system...

I wanted to let you know, incase you are interested to lower a lot the size of the iso.

[melodie]

Hi,

Before installing, last : In PCC system services I change theses:

I activate kheader, I think it can sometimes be useful.

I deactivate iptables6 bacause on the other versions only iptables is on, and sparing one more service makes boot faster on live versions, numlock, because on some laptops it can cause difficulties to login (if the numlock is active, the keys don't let access the letters) and I deactivate portreserve.

If you keep the packages for printing, you may not want cups to be started at boot (people can configure it easily after install if needed).

[Taco.22]

Hi melodie.

Wow!  Thanks for the homework!!  I will work my way through your list and trim down the fat.  Your efforts are much appreciated.   I'm glad you like it.   

[melodie]

Hi,

I'm glad you like the work I do to help you go throught it. After smurflover, I think you are the second member who puts hands on Bonsai to make something new to share, and that's really nice !

It's being installing in Virtualbox now, I'll let you know how much space it takes after install and anything of interest that I might find.

[melodie]

after reboot the vboxvideo driver could not be loaded. I have logged in as root, uninstalled it ( x11-driver-video-vboxvideo ), did apt-get update, reinstalled it, did a gdm-restart and now it works. I have the matchbox window to enter root password and so on...
sys
After install, it seems that the window theme is not the same as in the Live (not sure). If you want it to follow, you ought to do a new copy of the .config/openbox/ files to /etc/skel/.config/openbox (that must be the rc.xml file).
the volume monitor on the panel is mute, as well in the live as in the installed version. Wouldn't you want to use the system "volumeicon+gnome-alsamixer" as monitor ?

Maybe the original plugin from Lxpanel can be set to be unmute thought, I'm not sure.

 

[Taco.22]

I've almost finished the list you gave me - just waiting for the print package to uninstall.  So the live cd uses "x11-driver-video-vboxvideo" for video?  Do I do as you did and reinstall?  I was curious as to what video drivers might be needed.  I'll also reload /etc/skel/.config/openbox/ and rc.xml.  To be honest I hadn't tried sound.  I recall having to load gnome-alsamixer to fix that problem in my current system.  I'll check it out. 

[Taco.22]

Gnome-alsamixer solves the problem - just unmute everything and turn the volumes up.  Volume control on the system tray then works too.
 

Else: in the menu entries, all the same astronomy apps are in "Sciences" and in "Education" as well. This would look nicer if you choose that they are either in one, or in the other

I agree, but it seems that the moment "Astronomy" is listed in .desktop it appears in "Education".  I seem to recall that from KDE3 when I had that.  Just need to come up with a logical listing.     

[Taco.22]

OK, had one of those moments!  Did a reboot and encountered your issue of "x11-driver-video-vboxvideo" not working.  Did what you had done except that reinstalling wouldn't work.  Apt-get was having issues with repositories.  So I fumbled around and finally used the Vesa driver, which worked fine.  I had no problem reinstalling x11-vbox through Synaptic though.  Interestingly VBox sets its x11 video driver in Control Center, regardless of what you set it at.   

[melodie]

Very good !

For the driver, yes, it's this one - x11-driver-video-vboxvideo - for Virtualbox.
How much space does the distro use on your hard drive after the cleaning ?

Are you going to make a RC2 soon ?
One last question, and I go back to my occupations : have you done this remaster in a virtual machine, or in a real machine ?

Keep on the good job !!

[Taco.22]

I didn't make note of the size originally, but it is now /=2.6g and /home=201mb.  I fully intend doing a RC2 in the next day or two - getting it up to Dropbox is the slow part.  All of this has been done in Vbox because my testbed 'puter recently died!  Thanks very much for your interest. I'll post when RC2 is up.

[melodie]

Hi,

I will take a look in the virtual machine and tell you what I find. BTW, If you install for remastering to share you do not need to create a separate partition for the home directory.

/Edit : it's 2497 MB for the whole system. If you have the same (type "df -m" in console) then your next iso should be between 600 and 700 MB, perhaps under 650.