BlackCat Astronomy version - almost

[Taco.22]

Thanks to Melodie's new OB Bonsai, I have put together a new version of the BlackCat Astronomy version.  It has been a long, drawn out saga, punctuated with a number of hardware failures.  The most recent disaster was when the project was about to go to iso when the hard drive failed!  THIS should have been the Phoenix version - it's risen from the ashes so many times I can still smell the smoke!!

Anyway,  the test iso has finally been baked on to a fresh cd, and tested on another computer.  I have two problems.

The first relates to a piece of software that needs SQLite as a dependency.  I have trawled through Synaptic looking for a likely candidate, and tried a few, but I've run out of ideas.  This software installed with no problems on previous versions of OB, so I need to know what I'm looking for in the repos.

Second relates to the iso - on boot its screen resolution is something like 800x600, whereas it was 1280x1024 on the host computer.  When I try to change the resolution it wants to download stuff, and then on logout it's even worse.  I have only used the basic command when creating the iso - are there other commands that should be included?  Again, I didn't have this issue with previous Bonsai, so I need to know what I am missing.  The host machine is a P4 with 512mb of ram and 32mb of video.  The test machine is a duo core with 2gb of ram and I'm not sure what video it is but screen resolution is currently set at 1680x1050.

All suggestions are most welcome.  So far this release is looking good, with the BlueMoon theme and more software jammed in due to it's smaller initial footprint.  Plus a couple of items have snuck into Synaptic since my last effort.  So with a bit of luck, once I get these couple of issues out of the way, I should be able to upload it in the next couple of days.  Onwards and upwards .     

     

[melodie]

Hi Taco,

You details are not precise enough. What software ? Why can't you ask for a package ?

Wants to install a software : take note of what it will install and let it install whatever your machine needs (is it task-X11 and a few more ? this is normal... )

Regards,
Mélodie

[Taco.22]

Hi Melodie,

The application is SkyChart.  As I mentioned it installed with no queries in the earlier Bonsai, but now it wants SQLite.  I was just wondering what had changed, and how to identify SQLite in Synaptic.

The issue with screen resolution - the Bonsai live cd automatically recognises the screen and plays fine.  It also installs fine.    It is on the remaster that I'm having an issue.  How do I carry over the default screen options?

Regards,
Taco.22

[melodie]

Taco,

Have you considered requesting a package for SkyChart ? Is it free as in Free software ?
SQlite : type in console "apt-cache search sqlite" and you will get all packages whose name contain this character chain. For the resolution, do a search on the forum, someone recently has given his findings about how to do that. But you can do it for your machine only, not for all, I am afraid.

Regards,
Mélodie

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

Have you considered requesting a package for SkyChart ? Is it free as in Free software ?

I have, and yes it is free software, but it would be quite a job, and not a big enough user base to warrant it.

SQlite : type in console "apt-cache search sqlite" and you will get all packages whose name contain this character chain.

Tried that, but what I got is just the list that I found in Synaptic when looking for SQLite.  In terminal, "sqlite -version" showed "2.8.17".  Still can't find it, but I think I'll give SkyChart a miss anyway.  Maybe something in PCLinuxOS repos has moved on and left SkyChart behind.  Pity; the same version of SkyChart worked well with previous BlackCat.

For the resolution, do a search on the forum, someone recently has given his findings about how to do that. But you can do it for your machine only, not for all, I am afraid.

I'm a bit stumped on this one.  I downloaded Bonsai, burnt it to disc, installed it to hard drive, and then reconfigured it to BlackCat.  At each step it rendered the screen resolution correctly.  But when I created a live cd and played it on another machine the screen resolution didn't match what the original Bonsai displayed.  I have not touched anything to do with configuring the video card.  Has my remaster taken my machines specs rather than keeping a general default?  I'll have to do another remaster to see if it repeats itself, but again, I didn't have this issue with the previous Bonsai.  Just wondering what might have changed.  Can I set the video settings to some generic setting that carries through?

Regards,
Taco.22
   



 

[melodie]

The live cd's have their own hardware detection setup. Therefore in each new machine it will use this hardware detection while booting. If you want it to match a specific resolution you will have to do it in the distro once installed.

Have you seen this topic ? Keyboard & display tweaks for Intel GM45 video (Solved)

[Taco.22]

I have created and burnt another iso, but the problem remains.  When booted the screen resolution is way too small - everything really big.  Conky doesn't fit!  After a couple of times changing the resolution in PPC it finally settles down, but it's not working out of the box like the Bonsai disk I started with.  Curiously, by making the resolution bigger everything on the screen gets bigger!  Don't get it.  I looked at the link you mentioned - do I need to set some parameters in the system?  This wasn't happening with the previous version of Bonsai.  I must have done seven or eight remasters with that and they just seemed to pick an appropriate resolution.

One other query - how do I get the install icon to appear on the desktop of the remaster.  I seem to recall something about making the Edu version mistake proof.  Has that carried over to Bonsai?   

[melodie]

Hi,

For the resolution, try putting xorg.conf out of the way in the system before remastering. Once out of the way (move it to "xorg.conf-backup" for instance", boot twice.

For the draklive-install launcher, copy the file from the directory where the desktop files are, or make a symlink. If you start the Live Bonsai, open a console to the Desktop and do "ls -l" to see what it looks like.

Can't you use a screen with a generic resolution for the purpose of making a version for all ? When a user has an exotic resolution he usually manages to find how to fix it, as did utu in the thread I mentioned.

I try to re-read your first post and understand where the problem lies, I don't see quite well how to help you. When you setup the resolution in PCC, do you select from the list in "Flat panel" ? This is where there is the larger choice...

"The test machine is a duo core with 2gb of ram and I'm not sure what video it is but screen resolution is currently set at 1680x1050."

Please answer to this and be back with the answer. The command "lspci" and "grep "Driver" xorg.conf" are your friends : what video card does this machine use ? And what driver ?

Regards,
Mélodie

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

Regarding the desktop icon for the installer -  I had already put a sym link into the desktop folder.  Worked out that as long as it wasn't in /skel then it will do it's job but not carry through.

However, your instruction on deleting the xorg.conf proved interesting.  When I deprecated it and rebooted (twice) I found myself with the default OB "desktop".  All my settings were gone.  Nothing in /home/guest/.config/openbox remained.  Well, not the menu.xml, anyway.  Or the wallpaper.  Or Chromium's settings.  Fortunately I was able to copy all of those, plus a couple of other things across from /skel.  I also had them backed up on a stick but still, it was not a good feeling!  Anyway, long story short - got the system operational again, tweeked and fine tuned it, created the iso, burnt it to disc and booted two computers with it.  I am currently writing this from the live cd booted on the second machine - the duo core with 2gb of ram that I mentioned previously.  All working good.

Thanks very much for your advice.  I can now upload the iso - BlackCat will ride again!!  I will start a new thread once it is up, which will be a day or two, depending on upload speed.

Regards,
Taco.22