Bento2 - OBUbuntu Remix presentation

[melodie]

Hi,

After the last months working on this project, I can say it now looks almost like an official one, if it was not for the few ppa inside and a handful of details related to decoration. The most obvious will be the Lubuntu slideshow, used temporarily in this spin, which we will replace at some time in the future.

What it contains:

Accessories:
file-roller - Archive manager
pcmanfm - File manager
galculator - Scientif calculator
midnight-commander - File manager with many features


Graphics:
geeqie - Image viewer
Libreoffice Draw - Drawing module from the LibreOffice suite


Internet:
firefox - Web browser
sylpheed - E-mail client
xchat - Chat with other people using Internet Relay Chat


Office:
ePDFviewer - display pdf documents
Libreoffice suite - Draw, Writer, Impress, Calc


Programming:
geany - text editor with syntax highlighting and advanced features


Sound and video:
brasero - burn CD's and DVD's
exaile - listen to music and manager your collection
gnome-alsamixer - manage the volume of sound
gnome-mplayer - watch videos


Fantasy:
xsnow -  X Window application that will snow on the desktop background. Santa and his reindeer are also there.


Transparency:
xcompmgr - provides transparency and some effects available in the Openbox right-click menus.


System and Preferences:
many tools to do mostly everything...
network-manager-gnome
synaptic - package manager
software center - choose and install programs
update-notifier - setup the updates as you need
bleachbit - keep your system clean
fslint - manage other parts of the file system
htop - view and manage processes
sakura - terminal emulator

and many more…


Command line tools:
lftp - ftp cli client
openssh server and client
testdisk
sdparm
hdparm
foremost
lshw


Accessibility:
gnome-accessibility-themes
at-spi2-core - Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (dbus core)
libatspi2.0-0 - Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface - shared library


Virtualbox guest packages:
virtualbox-guest-dkms
virtualbox-guest-utils
virtualbox-guest-x11


Special packages from ppa:
Faenza icon theme
Grub Customizer


Other ppa:
meets repository for openbox-menu
Medibuntu repository (not activated)


More useful packages:
linux-firmware-nonfree - Non-free firmware for Linux kernel drivers
b43-fwcutter
firmware-b43-installer
pptp-linux, pppoeconf, pppoe, ppp, pppconfig


Options:
feh and tint2 don't show. Feh is used by the "xsnow start/stop" script.
tint2 can be used to replace lxpanel. Change it in $HOME/.config/autostart
where you can rename the two following files appropriately:
lxpanel.desktop                             
tint2.desktop-backup

Zram module configured and started from the /etc/rc.local file  // to djohnston: could you pass over the script you use to activate and deactivate it from the menus ? I would like very much to have a look at it... 

openbox-menu allows having the dynamically generated and updated menus in
Openbox ! \o/

obsession (not packaged yet, installed in /usr/local) provides the power management menus.

What does it look like ?


At start, there are two funny drawings down the screen:

...so just press any key on the keyboard to get the next screen, or else it will start the installer directly. If you do so, you will get a choice for the language:

Once the language chosen, you get several entries, and options:

if you choose to try without installing the following screen will appear:

and soon you will discover the desktop:

The right-click is default setup to the Openbox menu - with the Applications menu provided by openbox-menu :

It is possible to change it by hitting the "Desktop Prefs" menu:

and untick the choice "Show menus provided by window managers when desktop is clicked":

if you want to switch back, you will have to hit again the Desktop preferences entry in the Lxde like right-click menu:

The Lxpanel menu provides classic menus as in Lxde:

The distribution offers many gui applications to configure the system and the desktop as you can see in the list of the following image:

The Openbox theme is Clearlooks 3.4 and the GTK3 theme is Clearlooks  as well (installed apart from the repos as it's not packaged) as you can see when looking at the window of the Ubiquity installer:

and when it is time to quit comes obsession (not yet packaged):

A reminder of what this distribution is made from:

Ubuntu Mini Remix - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-mini-remix
Some additional packages for the system, listed along the numerous tests of the paste months
Ubuntu Builder gui tool built with Gambas - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-builder


This latest test release, which should be the last before starting to work on creating new packages and on the customizations, is 687 MB large and can be downloaded from this link:

ISO: bento2-ubuntu-remix.12.04-i386.iso

md5sum: bento2-ubuntu-remix.12.04-i386.md5sum

[djohnston]

The LXDE desktop session is also installed and available as a login choice. Is that by design? Just wondering, because compared to the Openbox desktop, the LXDE desktop is butt-ugly, has mostly wrong icons, and has no folder icons in PCManFM.



There is a problem with the Users and Groups application. Please see here for details.

[melodie]

The LXDE desktop session is also installed and available as a login choice. Is that by design? Just wondering, because compared to the Openbox desktop, the LXDE desktop is butt-ugly, has mostly wrong icons, and has no folder icons in PCManFM.

"butt-ugly" lol!  roftl! I added lxsession at some point when I was seeking for a solution to a problem... I thought recently I would remove it just to see if the problem comes back or if it was solved by something else I added. So I will remove it and we'll see what happens then.

There is a problem with the Users and Groups application. Please see here for details.

I can see Taco has worked well and found a turn around which could help us for the time being. I have added a comment after I saw the bug report he pointed to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-tools/+bug/1025094?comments=all

I didn't point to here in the comment, I just hope adding a feedback will wake them up (they have lots of reported bugs to triage and take care of... as usual).

Thanks, and looking forward to it if you find more to report.

[djohnston]

I added lxsession at some point when I was seeking for a solution to a problem... I thought recently I would remove it just to see if the problem comes back or if it was solved by something else I added. So I will remove it and we'll see what happens then.

Before you remove it, please do this:

Open Synaptic and update or do sudo apt-get update. Upgrade the system. (I had a kernel update waiting.) Then install the galternatives package. Dependencies=none. This is a GUI frontend to Debian's /etc/alternatives. Right now, startlxde is the default session manager. If you remove lxsession, you may run into problems. This happened to me once before on Lubuntu.

Start the Alternatives Configurator from Applications > Preferences. Scroll down the left pane and select x-session-manager. In the right pane, click the Add button. In the popup window, set the priority to 100. Click the Browse button. Browse to /usr/bin/ and select openbox-session. Click OK.



That will actually change Openbox to be the new default session manager. Then you can uninstall LXDE packages without the rug being pulled out from under you. There are a lot of uses for the Alternatives Configurator GUI. It's much easier than hunting down and soft-linking the alternatives to the available options.

[djohnston]

Preferences > Input Method Switcher doesn't work. Reason:

Code: [Sélectionner]

darrel@Bento:~$ im-switch
/usr/bin/im-switch: 1: eval: zenity: not found
/usr/bin/im-switch: 455: /usr/bin/im-switch: zenity: not found
darrel@Bento:~$
Zenity's missing. I'm not sure why you leave the ibus and im-switch packages installed. They are generally used for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc. keyboards.

[melodie]

Start the Alternatives Configurator from Applications > Preferences. Scroll down the left pane and select x-session-manager. In the right pane, click the Add button. In the popup window, set the priority to 100. Click the Browse button. Browse to /usr/bin/ and select openbox-session. Click OK.

I would have if it were in a working session but I have only Synaptic and a terminal diving their feet into a chrooted build directory, so this is not possible. Let's see how it goes.

Thanks for the idea anyway.

I'm not sure why you leave the ibus and im-switch packages installed.

They are needed by some of the underlying processes. ibus stands for "intelligent bus". I don't quite remember what works not if we don't have it, it might be the display of the languages at the start of the live, and or other things.

[djohnston]

Well, I've removed all ibus packages and im-switch. No problems.

Ubuntu Software Center won't start. Running software-center from a terminal gives a key error, some DBUS errors, and beaucoups python errors. The fix: reinstall packages software-center and software-center-aptdaemon-plugins.

[melodie]

Well, I've removed all ibus packages and im-switch. No problems.

However I remember it is a problem for the Live CD. When at some time in the future I will have information / or a script (waiting for someone's work in the matter) to manage it all, I will create a new "filesystem-manifest.remove" file to be put in the casper directory of the Live CD, and the list of packages in it will be the ones to be removed at the end of the install process, just before rebooting.

I have asked the question here, regarding ubuntu-builder, I am looking forward for an answer. Else than that, it is possible to have a look at both files : filesystem.manifest and filesystem.manifest-remove from... let's say a Lubuntu, or a Xubuntu.

Ubuntu Software Center won't start. Running software-center from a terminal gives a key error, some DBUS errors, and beaucoups python errors. The fix: reinstall packages software-center and software-center-aptdaemon-plugins.

Then I am going to reinstall it in the build directory too, in case it could help fixing it for the next test release. Yesterday I updated and added the 2 packages you told me about. I'll wait for more feedback before starting the iso creation process again.

Thanks.

[melodie]

List of ibus packages in Xubuntu Raring:

Code: [Sélectionner]

ibus 1.4.2-0ubuntu1
ibus-gtk:i386 1.4.2-0ubuntu1
ibus-gtk3:i386 1.4.2-0ubuntu1
ibus-pinyin 1.4.0-1build1
ibus-pinyin-db-android 1.4.0-1build1
ibus-table 1.5.0.is.1.4.99.1-1ubuntu1
They don't appear in the filesystem.manifest-remove, and perhaps they are not intended to be removed, unless any of the following packages pulls it away (this is the list of packages from the filesystem.manifest-remove):

Code: [Sélectionner]

apt-clone
archdetect-deb
btrfs-tools
casper
cifs-utils
cryptsetup
cryptsetup-bin
dmraid
dpkg-repack
ecryptfs-utils
firefox-locale-bn
firefox-locale-de
firefox-locale-en
firefox-locale-es
firefox-locale-fr
firefox-locale-hi
firefox-locale-ja
firefox-locale-pt
firefox-locale-zh-hans
gir1.2-json-1.0
gir1.2-timezonemap-1.0
gir1.2-xkl-1.0
gparted
jfsutils
keyutils
kpartx
kpartx-boot
language-pack-bn
language-pack-bn-base
language-pack-de
language-pack-de-base
language-pack-en
language-pack-en-base
language-pack-es
language-pack-es-base
language-pack-fr
language-pack-fr-base
language-pack-gnome-bn
language-pack-gnome-bn-base
language-pack-gnome-de
language-pack-gnome-de-base
language-pack-gnome-en
language-pack-gnome-en-base
language-pack-gnome-es
language-pack-gnome-es-base
language-pack-gnome-fr
language-pack-gnome-fr-base
language-pack-gnome-hi
language-pack-gnome-hi-base
language-pack-gnome-ja
language-pack-gnome-ja-base
language-pack-gnome-pt
language-pack-gnome-pt-base
language-pack-gnome-xh
language-pack-gnome-xh-base
language-pack-gnome-zh-hans
language-pack-gnome-zh-hans-base
language-pack-hi
language-pack-hi-base
language-pack-ja
language-pack-ja-base
language-pack-pt
language-pack-pt-base
language-pack-xh
language-pack-xh-base
language-pack-zh-hans
language-pack-zh-hans-base
libcryptsetup4
libdebconfclient0
libdebian-installer4
libdevmapper-event1.02.1:i386
libdmraid1.0.0.rc16
libecryptfs0
libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a:i386
libnss3-1d:i386
libtimezonemap1
localechooser-data
lupin-casper
lvm2
python3-pyicu
rdate
reiserfsprogs
ubiquity
ubiquity-casper
ubiquity-frontend-gtk
ubiquity-slideshow-xubuntu
ubiquity-ubuntu-artwork
user-setup
watershed
xfsprogs
xubuntu-live-settings

I could do the same thing with the Lubuntu iso or the Ubuntu iso, however I think this one, coming from a recent ISO I tested in Virtualbox, should be enough for the demonstration. Please also acknowledge the the menu entries should not be there anymore in the Raring versions to come soon, because I asked the question about it on the #ubuntu-bugs chan and someone has fixed it for the next version.

[melodie]

Hello,

Now that we know which user applications can fit in an iso lower than 700 MB I am going to lower the size for next versions. Here is what was removed today (and added as result to removals and also added Midori to replace Firefox):

Code: [Sélectionner]

Commit Log for Sat Apr 13 10:07:03 2013

Completely removed the following packages:
firefox
firefox-globalmenu
firefox-locale-en
firefox-locale-fr
libreoffice-base-core
libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-common
libreoffice-core
libreoffice-draw
libreoffice-gtk
libreoffice-help-fr
libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-l10n-fr
libreoffice-math
libreoffice-pdfimport
libreoffice-style-tango
libreoffice-writer
software-center
update-notifier

Removed the following packages:
python-uno

Upgraded the following packages:
bash (4.2-2ubuntu2) to 4.2-2ubuntu2.1
gir1.2-dee-1.0 (1.0.10-0ubuntu1) to 1.0.10-0ubuntu1.1
libdee-1.0-4 (1.0.10-0ubuntu1) to 1.0.10-0ubuntu1.1
libjack-jackd2-0 (1.9.8~dfsg.1-1ubuntu1) to 1.9.8~dfsg.1-1ubuntu2
libnautilus-extension1a (1:3.4.2-0ubuntu7) to 1:3.4.2-0ubuntu8
libnm-gtk-common (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2
libnm-gtk0 (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2
nautilus-data (1:3.4.2-0ubuntu7) to 1:3.4.2-0ubuntu8
network-manager-gnome (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2

Installed the following packages:
libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0 (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
libunique-1.0-0 (1.1.6-4)
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
libwebkitgtk-1.0-common (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
midori (0.4.3-1ubuntu1)

Code: [Sélectionner]

Commit Log for Sat Apr 13 10:15:26 2013

Removed the following packages:
fonts-opensymbol
gir1.2-gmenu-3.0
gir1.2-gudev-1.0
gir1.2-launchpad-integration-3.0
libboost-date-time1.46.1
libcdr-0.0-0
libclucene-contribs1
libclucene-core1
libcmis-0.3-3
libexttextcat-2.0-0
libexttextcat-data
libfile-copy-recursive-perl
libgnome-menu-3-0
libhyphen0
libieee1284-3
libmspub-0.0-0
libmythes-1.2-0
libsane
libsane-common
libvisio-0.0-0
libwnck-common
libwnck22
libwpd-0.9-9
libwpg-0.2-2
libwps-0.2-2
lxpanel
oneconf
python-cups
python-debtagshw
python-imaging
python-openssl
python-pam
python-piston-mini-client
python-serial
python-twisted-bin
python-twisted-core
python-twisted-web
python-ubuntu-sso-client
sane-utils
software-center-aptdaemon-plugins
ubuntu-extras-keyring
ubuntu-sso-client
ubuntu-sso-client-gtk
uno-libs3
update-inetd
update-manager
update-notifier-common
ure
xfonts-mathml

Upgraded the following packages:
bash (4.2-2ubuntu2) to 4.2-2ubuntu2.1
gir1.2-dee-1.0 (1.0.10-0ubuntu1) to 1.0.10-0ubuntu1.1
libdee-1.0-4 (1.0.10-0ubuntu1) to 1.0.10-0ubuntu1.1
libjack-jackd2-0 (1.9.8~dfsg.1-1ubuntu1) to 1.9.8~dfsg.1-1ubuntu2
libnautilus-extension1a (1:3.4.2-0ubuntu7) to 1:3.4.2-0ubuntu8
libnm-gtk-common (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2
libnm-gtk0 (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2
nautilus-data (1:3.4.2-0ubuntu7) to 1:3.4.2-0ubuntu8
network-manager-gnome (0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.1) to 0.9.4.1-0ubuntu2.2

Installed the following packages:
libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0 (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
libunique-1.0-0 (1.1.6-4)
libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
libwebkitgtk-1.0-common (1.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
midori (0.4.3-1ubuntu1)

Code: [Sélectionner]

exaile will be removed with configuration
fonts-droid will be removed with configuration
gnome-user-guide will be removed with configuration
gsfonts will be removed with configuration
jockey-common will be removed with configuration
libsmbclient will be removed with configuration
ubiquity-slideshow-lubuntu will be removed with configuration
gnome-mplayer will be removed
gvfs-backends will be removed
jockey-gtk will be removed
mplayer2 will be removed
libsvga1 (version 1:1.4.3-31) will be installed

[melodie]

Hi,

I tried to use a link producing a mp3 stream from a webradio in Virtualbox, and I first had a message stating it could not read mp3, then a message related to "audiosink not configured".
I added gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 for the mp3 because I had not selected it at install time.

Then I added the packages as they were part of what "apt-cache search audioskink" returned:
gstreamer0.10-gconf 
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-0

It had also said about gstreamer0.10-alsa but this is probably a source package because it would have pulled in build essentials and a bunch of packages.

Now I am listening to Radio Swiss Pop from within Bento2 in Virtualbox. Next, I'll try using a USB headphone I have from within Vbox, with pulseaudio.