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

[Was_Just19]

The very same as previously reported for RC6.6 and RC6.5

Hi,
You talked about time, not about hanging:

Well I surely don't know what else to call it when it just stops and does nothing for nearly a minute before continuing.

But as I said I gave full details in the post you linked to and in others too.

My last post was just to let you know that the problem is still present in RC7, and is the only one of the 2010.10 ISOs, presently available, that exhibit the problem.

regards.

[jlf001]

Mélodie,

RC7 has the same problem as RC6.6.  In the OpenBox menu, there is nothing when you click on Applications.  Your suggestion of running openbox-menu as root in a terminal did not restore Applications.

Also, PCManFM will not save the settings unless I change the desktop background.  For example, if I select Show Hidden and then logoff, upon logon the setting is not kept.  However, if I change the desktop background, the PCmanFM settings are saved, including Show Hidden.

As for Just19's problem, I had a similar problem on my HP OmniBook.  My problem was due to the ATI Video Card.  Once I turned off 3D hardware acceleration, the problem went away.

Jeff

[melodie]

Mélodie,

RC7 has the same problem as RC6.6.  In the OpenBox menu, there is nothing when you click on Applications.  Your suggestion of running openbox-menu as root in a terminal did not restore Applications.

Hi,

I didn't say as root. You do that as user. I will check this point with the live install on the stick. Do you miss the Applications menu in live or once installed ?

Also, PCManFM will not save the settings unless I change the desktop background.  For example, if I select Show Hidden and then logoff, upon logon the setting is not kept.  However, if I change the desktop background, the PCmanFM settings are saved, including Show Hidden.

That must be sort of theses tricks that the new PCManFM brings with it ? Does it also do it when you just close pcmanfm after changing the setting and restart it ?

As for Just19's problem, I had a similar problem on my HP OmniBook.  My problem was due to the ATI Video Card.  Once I turned off 3D hardware acceleration, the problem went away.

Jeff

You must be a genius ?  

Well after I read this last night I tried to turn off 3D acceleration in the laptop Nec M160 (Intel Graphic 945 with driver i915) and logged out : could not login again the machine just crashed and rebooted.

I tried to reboot 3 times, then once at the login screen the screen had colored stripes and the machine crashed and rebooted again. I could not even get to boot to init1 : same behavior, crashed arrived at the end of the boot.

To solve this I had to boot to Archlinux which is installed just besides (I could have done it with live cd or live usb as well), chroot my / partition and there launch drakX11 in console, to reset the 3D hardware acceleration on. Then I could reboot again.

The one experience I met with when I had tried the install to Ext3 with Just19's script the other day, on the Dell computer with persistant mode was identical to his experience the first time : but the reboot had been slow to start -- one minute or a bit more -- only on the first boot, and then once I had restarted it one time it didn't do it anymore, as if a cache had been created in the meanwhile.

For my personal use I am not interested : usb sticks have shorter lifespan than hard drives do. Ext3/Ext4 are filesystems that write a lot. I suggest using this technique on SSD disks or USB hard drives.

With classic install on Fat32 I don't meet with this large delay to shutdown or reboot. I would still have to try the persistant mode with the Live Linux USB Windows application (this is on Fat32), but I won't have time and need for this at the moment.

I have tried the boot in live usb on my Nec M160 and on a small Dell yesterday. We still have 2 or 3 other machines available for testing this. Up to now, normal reboot and shutdown : same time needed as for an installed system.

So about long timespan shutdown and reboot, we may think that this depends on what graphic card is in use in the machine, while using persistant mode or live mode on Ext3 filesystems : is that so ?

Jeff, I'll come back to you for the problems you met with.

Thanks,
Mélodie

[melodie]

Hi,

For Openbox right-click Application : well I forgot (again ?) to copy the /home/guest/.cache to /etc/skel and to /root. This should be easy enough to solve.

I'll come back after I test PCManFM ways.

[melodie]

Hi,

I just tested PCManFM's ways, you are perfectly right. By changing the wallpaper in the Desktop-pref options, the PCManFM's menu preferences are saved.

I checked permissions on the directories and files as well, they look ok to me. I will go write a bug report at pcman's bug reports place.

Here is the output of the console : some "ls -l" to check perms, then I compared before and after changing wallpaper : you can see "show hidden=1" on the second output of 'more pcmanfm.conf', along with the new wallpaper name and path.

[guest@localhost ~]$ ls -lA
total 270460
...
drwxr-xr-x 9 guest guest      4096 2010-10-25 07:28 .config/
...

[guest@localhost .config]$ ls -l
total 36
drwx------ 3 guest guest 4096 2010-10-18 06:37 pcmanfm/

[guest@localhost .config]$ cd pcmanfm/
[guest@localhost pcmanfm]$ ls -l
total 4
drwx------ 2 guest guest 4096 2010-10-25 07:32 default/
[guest@localhost pcmanfm]$ cd default/
[guest@localhost default]$ ls -l
total 4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 guest guest   0 2010-10-25 07:32 desktop-items-0.conf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 guest guest 385 2010-10-25 07:32 pcmanfm.conf

//At this point I had already displayed the hidden files in the home of guest

[guest@localhost default]$ more pcmanfm.conf
[config]
bm_open_method=0
su_cmd=gksu %s

[volume]
mount_on_startup=0
mount_removable=1
autorun=1

[desktop]
wallpaper_mode=1
wallpaper=/usr/share/wallpapers/wallpaper.png
desktop_bg=#05227b
desktop_fg=#ffffff
desktop_shadow=#000000
show_wm_menu=1

[ui]
always_show_tabs=0
hide_close_btn=0
win_width=1014
win_height=710
splitter_pos=150
view_mode=0
show_hidden=0  //but here it was still on 0
sort_type=0
sort_by=2
[guest@localhost default]$
[guest@localhost default]$ more pcmanfm.conf
[config]
bm_open_method=0
su_cmd=gksu %s

[volume]
mount_on_startup=0
mount_removable=1
autorun=1

[desktop]
wallpaper_mode=1
wallpaper=/media/pcobox2010-10/usr/share/wallpapers/11064657-e59.jpg //new bg
desktop_bg=#05227b
desktop_fg=#ffffff
desktop_shadow=#000000
show_wm_menu=1

[ui]
always_show_tabs=0
hide_close_btn=0
win_width=1014
win_height=710
splitter_pos=150
view_mode=0
show_hidden=1 //now we can see that the config has been written
sort_type=0
sort_by=2
[guest@localhost default]$

[Was_Just19]

The one experience I met with when I had tried the install to Ext3 with Just19's script the other day, on the Dell computer with persistant mode was identical to his experience the first time : but the reboot had been slow to start -- one minute or a bit more -- only on the first boot, and then once I had restarted it one time it didn't do it anymore, as if a cache had been created in the meanwhile.

OK one last time, as you seem to be completely misinterpreting what I reported.

USB stick, 1 partition, 4GB in size, ext3 filesystem.
Grub installed and managing the boot.
5 PCLinuxOS ISOs extracted to the partition.
No persistent mode employed.

Openboxmini RC5 through RC7 that I have tested, all hang on shutdown for nearly a minute before finally shutting down properly or rebooting if that has been selected.

All of the other current PCLinuxOS ISOs shutdown and reboot correctly, without hanging.

Of the two PCs I have available for test here this happens on one only.

On the other PC the shutdown and reboot of the RCs is similar to the other PCLinuxOS ISOs tested.

So this hanging at shutdown/reboot is apparently hardware sensitive.

I hope that finally clarifies the situation I have been reporting.

regards.

[melodie]

OK one last time, as you seem to be completely misinterpreting what I reported.

USB stick, 1 partition, 4GB in size, ext3 filesystem.
Grub installed and managing the boot.
5 PCLinuxOS ISOs extracted to the partition.
No persistent mode employed.

Openboxmini RC5 through RC7 that I have tested, all hang on shutdown for nearly a minute before finally shutting down properly or rebooting if that has been selected.

All of the other current PCLinuxOS ISOs shutdown and reboot correctly, without hanging.

Of the two PCs I have available for test here this happens on one only.

On the other PC the shutdown and reboot of the RCs is similar to the other PCLinuxOS ISOs tested.

So this hanging at shutdown/reboot is apparently hardware sensitive.

I hope that finally clarifies the situation I have been reporting.

regards.

Hi,

Yes this clarifies, and even gave me an idea and even several, one of theses ideas also came from Jeff's report : he found a solution to solve the shutdown delay, that was about deactivating 3 D hardware acceleration.

* The remaster process is such that the 3 D is automatically configured in all cases;
* Deactivating for his ATI card solves the problem;
* Deactivating (in my main install) for my Intel breaks X;

The difference between Openbox Mini and the other 2010 versions is that there are no proprietary drivers in Openbox Mini.

For the problem you meet with, I'd suggest several possibilities to solve : do as Jeff, or change stick (who knows if you didn't install OB Mini to a part of the stick that has corrupted sectors ?), or install the proprietary driver that your machine uses, then with theses 3 possibilities, if you test them, would you let us know how it goes ? I would be glad if you happen to be able to use it the way you like.

For the problem I meet with your use of it : I will certainly meet with the problem with other persons using ATI or nVidia powerful graphic cards. So to avoid this, I could install the proprietary drivers : but then the goal that this version is supposed to fill would not be reached : it's goal is to be a small base version easy to handle and to modify in order to make something else out of it.

But the name is confusing : "Openbox Mini" looks like it's just one more mini : is that right ? Well Openbox Mini is not just one more mini, it's a base core iso with a few additional programs, and X installed.

What would you all think, if I renamed it to "Openbox Xcore" ?

[melodie]

Jeff,

The PCManFM bug you found is now here:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=801864&aid=3095516&group_id=156956

If you have anything more to say about it, you are welcome to comment there.

[Was_Just19]

For the problem you meet with, I'd suggest several possibilities to solve :

do as Jeff,
                   What would you have me do when running live and then shutting down?



or change stick (who knows if you didn't install OB Mini to a part of the stick that has corrupted sectors ?),
                    As I already said it functions correctly on one PC and not on the other. Not a USB stick problem. Have used more than one stick. The problem is definitely in the ISO and how it relates to some PC hardware.


or install the proprietary driver that your machine uses,
                                                                                     I can try this later.

then with theses 3 possibilities, if you test them, would you let us know how it goes ? I would be glad if you happen to be able to use it the way you like.

It is not 'the way I like' ......  if the present situation is OK for you then I need do nothing.

There is no point in me spending time on a problem which is of no interest to you.  

On the matter of the name ....
                                               yes I understand what you need to achieve. I am unsure what needs to be done that will help ordinary users to differentiate between a mini and this ISO. It seems that something like you propose is as good as any other means. It should force those who do not know, to ask for clarification.

regards.

[melodie]

PCManFM issue:

I found this issue in my main machine : pcmanfm does not like ntfs-config:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,81686.msg677585.html#msg677585

[melodie]

do as Jeff,
                  

What would you have me do when running live and then shutting down?

Deactive 3D acceleration to PCC > Hardware > X server, logout, login, reboot.

or change stick (who knows if you didn't install OB Mini to a part of the stick that has corrupted sectors ?)

,
                    As I already said it functions correctly on one PC and not on the other. Not a USB stick problem. Have used more than one stick. The problem is definitely in the ISO and how it relates to some PC hardware.

Can you remind me what is the Graphic Card that one machine on which it does not work properly ?

or install the proprietary driver that your machine uses,
                                                                                     I can try this later.

Ok.

then with theses 3 possibilities, if you test them, would you let us know how it goes ? I would be glad if you happen to be able to use it the way you like.

It is not 'the way I like' ......  if the present situation is OK for you then I need do nothing.

I can't test on machines I don't have... that is the point.

On the matter of the name ....
                                               yes I understand what you need to achieve. I am unsure what needs to be done that will help ordinary users to differentiate between a mini and this ISO. It seems that something like you propose is as good as any other means. It should force those who do not know, to ask for clarification.

regards.

Thank you.

I just found something maybe not directly related but although interesting. Our pm-utils package is number 1.2.4-1pclos2007 and the latest one available at freedesktop.org is 1.4.1 released last June. I'm going to request packages section.

[Was_Just19]

Code: [Select]

lspci | grep nVidia
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce 7900 GT/GTO] (rev a1)

Code: [Select]

lscpu
Architecture:          i686
CPU(s):                2                         # due to hyperthreading on P4
Thread(s) per core:    2
Core(s) per socket:    1
CPU socket(s):         1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            15
Model:                 4
Stepping:              3
CPU MHz:               3200.000
L1d cache:             16K
L2 cache:              2048K
4GB RAM

Dell Dimension 9100

[Was_Just19]

Deactive 3D acceleration to PCC > Hardware > X server, logout, login, reboot.

Not an option to tick or untick.  nv driver used

Tried proprietary drivers .......  current nvidia ........ no change.

[melodie]

Deactive 3D acceleration to PCC > Hardware > X server, logout, login, reboot.

Not an option to tick or untick.  nv driver used

Hi,

When you go to Xorg server configuration there is a section "options" : don't you have any choice when you click on that button ?

Tried proprietary drivers .......  current nvidia ........ no change.

Yes, the current is the one. By the way, there is a new nVidia driver available at nvidia site, as of 2010.10.13, : http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-260.19.12-driver.html

Would it be relevant to ask for an update or is it as for the kernel : no need to move ?

This might need reboot for changes to take effect. Therefore either it would need install to hard drive, then add driver, then remaster, or maybe it could be done in persistant mode... not sure about that.

[melodie]

Hi,

I found about a few packages missing, such as "xset". I'll add a few more packages for a next RC version.

For PCManFM not keeping hidden files being displayed as a choice, I tried to use only feh to manage background : if I do so then pcmanfm keeps hidden files to be displayed even after unlogging and reloggin to X session.