Start New Project

[konaexpress]

Hi guys and gal,

I have been away for a little over a month on vacation and for the holidays and wow are things changing. So.......

White Island is having massive problems now so I am looking for a new project to play with.   I have not quit the Orca project but need something to do. I was thinking of a Debian LXDE base again but I want to stay away from an Ubuntu base as this creates all kinds of problems. Once again I am thinking of something small that can run on netbooks and can be used for BASIC programming using the BaCon IDE.  Any ideas?  I will find some free web hosting so that I can see to the up keep of it.  My plan is to just keep it small and usable and maybe a SMALL user base, nothing big, don't need the headache.

-John

[melodie]

Welcome Konaexpress !

You will find out that Taco.22 has created a perfect base to build whatever you want on it. I let you seek for his latest "Village RC2" widely improved, along with djohnston's active participation.

[konaexpress]

Thanks Melodie, I found it and I am downloading it now. Lets hope this new little project has way less bumps in the road.......

-John

[Taco.22]

Hey, konaexpress - long time no see!  If you need any help just let us know.

[djohnston]

John,

Glad to see you back! The VillageLinux base is excellent. Many quirks have been worked out and bugs squashed. I believe you have a preference for LXDE. I used to. LXDE is a desktop environment which uses the Openbox window manager. I've found using just the Openbox window manager and native desktop tools and adding selected LXDE programs makes for a far better user experience. YMMV.

If you still want to tinker with LXDE, may I suggest a Debian net install? That will install just LXDE and nothing else. Well, except for OpenOffice, and GIMP, and ... But, no other desktop environments. You should try the netinstall at least once. It's very easy. If you want/need pointers, just ask/PM Taco.22 or myself.

[konaexpress]

Thanks guys,

     I gave the Village RC2 a shot but it looks to lock up at the live boot screen. It already has Thunar installed correct? Would it get  mangled up if I use PC man fm?


-John   

[djohnston]

I gave the Village RC2 a shot but it looks to lock up at the live boot screen. It already has Thunar installed correct? Would it get  mangled up if I use PC man fm?

The file manager has no bearing on the iso not loading. Can you define "lock up"? Are you seeing any error messages? Do you get a kernel panic? Just as an aside, the iso uses xz compression instead of the standard lzma. Are you giving it enough time to get to the desktop?

Another question would be does the CPU in your PC have PAE extensions? If it doesn't, that's where it's hanging. If that is the case, the iso can be remastered with a different kernel for older CPUs. The video card may possibly be an issue, but that's just a guess. What video card are you using?

EDIT: To check for PAE compatibility, open a terminal and as a regular user do:

hwinfo | grep pae

If you get output, the CPU is PAE compatible.

[Taco.22]

Hi kona - how long did you let the boot process wait?  It can take anywhere between a few seconds and nearly a minute (worst case) before the isolinux boot screen changes - depends on computer speed.  You then get a little spinning wheel on a grey background.  After a bit the wheel speeds up and it boots direct to the desktop.  By the way you can replace Thunar with pcmanfm - that way you will get desktop icons.  You'll need to rework the autostart file, and I'm not sure what happens with gigolo, but I guess we will find out!!  Does pcmanfm do wallpaper?  Anyway, any queries just ask.

I probably need to do a version without the PAE kernel - how old would a computer have to be if it can't use PAE?

[konaexpress]

Sorry about all that, I shot that out before bed.

I know that the file manager does not effect the boot LOL........

PAE is the problem, I did not have it setup on my VBox.

PAE should be OK, I plan on this being used on net books but older machines will have a problem with it.

I will go mark VBox for PAE and get back to you guys.

-John

[djohnston]

I probably need to do a version without the PAE kernel - how old would a computer have to be if it can't use PAE?

Well, a PentiumIII CPU is pae capable. So, it's not necessarily the age of the machine.

[melodie]

Hi,

All Ubuntu versions also where provided with pae kernels when the latest LTS came out except one : Lubuntu! Which continues to resist to the pae temptation! At least until next LTS version (don't know about intermediate versions).

What about installing a non pae kernel in Village RC2, so that more machines can work with it ? Else, what about reverting the compression level to what it was before ? I think more people are likely to complain about a screen staying black instead of looking like it's booting.

[djohnston]

What about installing a non pae kernel in Village RC2, so that more machines can work with it ?

His problem was installing in VirtualBox, not on bare metal.

Else, what about reverting the compression level to what it was before ? I think more people are likely to complain about a screen staying black instead of looking like it's booting.

The compression method can always be easily changed. However, I'll say up fromt that my last DebWeb respin had to use xz in order to keep it CD sized. I'll try both compression methods on the next one.

[melodie]

Hi,

Bare metal sometimes do have a CPU withouth the pae instruction. This is why I am suggesting.

[konaexpress]

Got it installed OK.

Good job with this distro! It looks good and runs well, so I installed LXDE over the top of it.


The Gparted bit will confuse the heck out of new users though.

The source list needs to be updated with the testing branch to get things like gdebi installed.

I like it, dumping the Weezy install for this.

-John

P.S.  Why do I have to do the captcha thing and simple math to make a post every time?

[Taco.22]

P.S.  Why do I have to do the captcha thing and simple math to make a post every time?

Due to attempts by spammers, see here.