PCLinuxOS Openbox Bonsai 2010.11<s>.13</s> who wants to test ?

[jlf001]

Hi,

For information : I did 5 isos today, the 5th is being compressing file just now. I decided to get rid of the pager and removed it. So that the people who want it will configure it themselves once the system installed, therefore this problem does not exist anymore.

Now, lxpanel is started before openbox, from within a file named .xsession, which replaces .xinitrc : why is that ? That is because GDM does not see a .xinitrc, and he can see an .xsession, so I just renamed it, and that did the trick. (Simple test : try to start lxpanel from .xinitrc : you don't get a panel. Start it from .xsession, you get the panel).

pcmanfm is started from /home/guest/.config/openbox/autostart where one of the first lines call a shell script which is in /usr/local/bin...

I'll try the 5th iso in a moment.

Regards,
Mélodie

I'm up and running on the ISO I downloaded earlier.  I decided to skip the VirtualBox test and install it to the hard drive I just put into this.  By the way, it's a PIII, 500 MZH, 384 mb of ram HP Omnibook with a ATI Rage Mobility Video card.  So far, with the exception of the pager problem on first boot, all is working well.  

Looking forward to your next ISO,

Jeff

Edit:  Had a minor problem with logging off, but it was related to the ATI card.  Turning off 3D Hardware Acceleration seems to have taken care of the problem.

[melodie]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your report. Next iso will be coming soon.

Regards,
Mélodie

[jlf001]

Hi Mélodie,

RC1 up and running in VirtualBox.  All four desktops are shown in the pager on first boot.  I think it's time to install to my old laptop.  Great work.  I think you're almost there!!

Jeff

[gseaman]

I have it installed successfully on my old computer (9-10 version). I have a black screen with icons. I haven't really followed the other discussion about this, as I wasn't even sure I would get it installed. Further installations will go much easier, as I have a swap drive on the hdd. I'll install the next one and let you know if I have any major problems that aren't already known.

Galen

[jlf001]

Hi Mélodie,

RC1 is up and installed on old HP.  I've been testing and adding various software.  No problems to report at this time.  Here's a snapshot of my latest desktop.

http://img834.imageshack.us/i/rc1snapshot.png/

Jeff

[melodie]

Hi Mélodie,

RC1 is up and installed on old HP.  I've been testing and adding various software.  No problems to report at this time.  Here's a snapshot of my latest desktop.

http://img834.imageshack.us/i/rc1snapshot.png/

Jeff

Hi,

Have you removed the pager from the panel after install, or did I forget to copy the hidden lxpanel directory to /etc/skel before remastering ? And I see you installed conky : what about trying htop which is already installed ? It's in the monitoring section.

[jlf001]

Have you removed the pager from the panel after install, or did I forget to copy the hidden lxpanel directory to /etc/skel before remastering ? And I see you installed conky : what about trying htop which is already installed ? It's in the monitoring section.

Mélodie,

I was done testing the RC1 ISO, including htop and couldn't find any problems other than sound, so I started experimenting.  By the way, your pager setup worked fine.  I then installed GKrellm, as I'm a GKrellm fan, and set it to autostart.  I then put back the ALSA volume control in LXPanel and got it working.  Initially, ALSA would not run and I found that I had to restart the ALSA service each time I rebooted or logged on.  The fix was to add the audio group to the user I initially set up.  This can easily be done by running User Administration.  I've since installed several other lightweight programs and have them up and running.

I still can't believe that this old laptop is fun to use again.  You've done a great job here!!

Jeff

[jlf001]

Hi Mélodie,

One last thing, then I'm done for this evening.  I could not figure out why the hard drive space was filling up so fast and then it dawned on me.  On your next remaster, you might want to set up Synaptic to delete the downloaded packages after installation.  Those cached rpm's take up a lot of space on an old hard drive.

Have a great day,

Jeff

[melodie]

The fix was to add the audio group to the user I initially set up.  This can easily be done by running User Administration.

Ok, fairly easy.

I've since installed several other lightweight programs and have them up and running.

Would you share your list ? Maybe others could be interested, to get ideas.

I still can't believe that this old laptop is fun to use again.

What are the specs ?

You've done a great job here!!

Jeff

Thank you, and thanks to all who help.

PS: I'll change the settings in Synaptic right away, to be sure I don't forget.

[Rob]

Hi Melodie ,
 I finally got the right .iso downloaded and installed in virtualbox with 256 mb ram . The live cd .iso loaded up showing the desktop , but after installing and booting up I had no desktop background. I did have the panel and my documents icon..I followed your previous instructions on setting a wallpaperand that solved the background problem. I'm not able to give a really technical review but in my opinion PCLinuxOS Openbox Mini would be great for older lower end computers.The problem I have with it that it doesn't have codecs for mp3 and the like preinstalled,it was easy enough to install flash but not sure what all gstreamer packages I need to run mp3's ,I did install the gstreamer-bad pluggin and installed Banshee but could not get an mp3 to play.I think if all the codecs as in the regular editions of PCLOS were preinstalled It would be more likely for a non-technical user like me to choose it,though I believe it is tailored for more advanced linux users. As far as sound issues or network issues and the like I've had no problems.
Sorry for not being able to be more technical in my review but that's what I like about PCLOS ,you don't have to be for the most part.

[melodie]

Hi Rob,

I fixed a 6 seconds delay for "pcmanfm -d" to be started after Openbox : ths is why in live vbox you get a background, and I put only 3 seconds delay for installed version, otherwise in a more recent machine it would be a punishment to wait for the background to appear. This is only a fix in shape of "turn-around", maybe not a fix strong enough.

I don't know yet what causes the problem. In a future install I want to try the most recent pcmanfm that is in testing. (And need new knowledge, understanding and to take a little time for some research).

I might try 4 seconds for installed versions in the next RC I will upload, to see if that fixes in Virtualbox install (I think only first login is the problem... but this should be checked as well).

I wished more people would come to test it ?

[jlf001]

Hi Mélodie,

Would you share your list ? Maybe others could be interested, to get ideas.

Lightweight:

1.  parcellite - Clipboard Manager
2.  emelfm - Two Panel File Manager
3.  gpicview - Image Viewer
4.  mtpaint - Painting Program with Snapshot Utility
5.  sylpheed - Email Program
6.  pragha - Music Player

Others:

1.  bleachbit - Cleanup Utility
2.  abiword - Work Processor
3.  aspell - Spell Check
4.  FoxitReader - PDF Viewer
5.  flash-player-plugin - Flash Player
6.  mplayer and mplayer plugin - Media Player installed for Firefox)
7.  firefox - Web Browser (Usable, but slower than Midori)
8.  xskat - Card Game (My favorite)
9.  gkrellm - System Monitor (My favorite)
10.  smplayer with ffmpeg - Music / Video Player
11.  alsa-utils - ALSA utilities

What are the specs ?

Specs:

HP OmniBook 4150:

Pentium III (Coppermine) 500 MHz
Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x 8 MB Graphics
384 MB Ram (Updated from original 128 MB)
ATA 30 Gig Hard Drive (Replaced original hard drive)
Toshiba CD-ROM Drive
ES1978 Maestro 2E Sound
Netgear 54 Mbps Wireless PC Card WG511 v2 (Running with ndiswrapper)

One last thing.  I did find that PCMan still has the view as detailed list folder problem.  Other than that, all else is running fine.  I'll be doing more testing today and get back with you.

Jeff
 
Edited

[nixer]

Hi Melodie,

Sorry to join this testing a little late, but work had me busy yesterday.  I have done a physical install of RC1 and am currently running it.  I have found a few minor things that you will want to fix, if possible.  They are:

1.  The keyboard layout is not correct at a console boot.  Once OB is loaded at the login screen, it is fine.  But at the console prompt the "a" key is a "q" and the "q" is an "a".  I have seen this on all of your ob mini releases.  I am not sure about the other PCLOS releases.
2.  The link on the default index.html file is incorrect.  By the way, I like that default page.  It shows the link to PCLOS Help (bottom left) as http:wwww.pclinuxos.com .  One too many w's there.
3.  When I move my mouse over the network applet in the panel, it shows the DNS as "8.8.8.8" and I have it set to use opendns servers, not the "8.8.8.8" as shown.  I checked and I have the dns servers entered correctly in the network configuration, but it is not working.  Opendns says that I am not using their servers.

I am off to check the sound and will report more later on.  These are the issues that I found upon my initial physical install.

It looks good Melodie  

EDIT:    I got the sound working!  There really wasn't much of a problem after I did the sound/group fix mentioned above.  My problem is a problem to this system mainly.  For some reason I have to have the "digital output" toggled and the only apps for this are "gmixer" and "gnome alsa-mixer". 
After installing and trying to run gmixer, it will not start and in a terminal I get this error message: 

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gmixer", line 37, in <module>
    import gtk.glade
ImportError: No module named glade

I get several error messages when running gnome alsa-mixer but it does work.

[Rob]

Just a quick update ,as per your suggestions I've installed ffmpeg and smplayer but still no luck playing mp3's,not sure what's wrong. here is error log                             /usr/bin/mplayer -noquiet -nofs -nomouseinput -sub-fuzziness 1 -identify -slave -vo xv, -nokeepaspect -framedrop -nodr -double -input conf=/usr/share/smplayer/input.conf -stop-xscreensaver -wid 20971864 -monitorpixelaspect 1 -ass -embeddedfonts -ass-line-spacing 0 -ass-font-scale 1 -ass-styles /home/rob/.config/smplayer/styles.ass -fontconfig -font Arial -subfont-autoscale 0 -subfont-osd-scale 20 -subfont-text-scale 20 -subcp ISO-8859-1 -subpos 100 -nocache -osdlevel 0 -vf-add screenshot -slices -af equalizer=0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 -softvol -softvol-max 110 /home/rob/Music/Stolen Thief.mp3

/usr/bin/mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[jlf001]

Hi Rob,

Did you check to see if your user is has audio group privileges?  You can check this under User Administration in the PCLinuxOS control panel.  I've got smplayer up and playing an mp3 at this time.

Jeff

Edit for all:  I forgot to mention that I also installed alsa-utils.  That gave me access to alsamixer from the root command line.