torios-dev team mailing list archive

[Israel <israeldahl@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul
(inline relpies)
On 12/14/2016 11:39 PM, Paul Wise wrote:
> Hi Israel,
>
> I would like to welcome yourself and ToriOS to the Debian derivatives
> census! Would you like to take this opportunity to introduce yourself
> and ToriOS to us all? 
Hi, I am Israel, the main developer of ToriOS.
The ToriOS project was started to help people who have computers that
cannot run heavier desktop environments like LXDE (which is not very
heavy by modern standards).  We originally based the project on Ubuntu
12.04, but amid some concerns I made the choice to move to Debian
Jessie, which has the i586 kernel and is supported for a good length of
time, thus providing an LTS version of ToriOS.  This decision was well
received and has proven to be a very good choice!

We at ToriOS, are a rag-tag international band who all met through the
Lubuntu Community, and our love for helping others.  Most of us are
still active participants on the Lubuntu mailing list, and continue to
help people who need assistance.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census/ToriOS
>
> It would be great if you could join our mailing list and IRC channel:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/DerivativesFrontDesk
I have joined the mailing list already, and have gotten a few e-mails. 
I will join the IRC as well, thank you.
>
> I would encourage you to look at Debian's guidelines for derivatives:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Guidelines
>
> You may want to look at our census QA page, some of the mails from
> there may apply to ToriOS.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/CensusQA
>
> You don't appear to be subscribed to the ToriOS census page,
> I've made a few changes to the ToriOS census page:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census/ToriOS?action=info
Oh, ok, I will subscribe to it, this is my first time to have a
derivative so I am learning the process, thank you.
>
> The page says that ToriOS modifies some packages but doesn't say if it
> modifies binary packages or source packages. Could you clarify that?
Sure thing, we only modify JWM, though since Samuel Henrique has began
maintaining JWM again after Jari Alto could not this is less needed,
though I still provide a more up-to-date version.
No other packages are directly modified.  We add additional packages
through a PPA.
This includes:

 A binary menu generator for JWM (as well as script versions for non x86
users of the PPAs) mostly compliant with the freedesktop standards,
complete with the menu and directory files
https://github.com/Israel-/jwm-menus
https://launchpad.net/jwm-menu

 A graphical settings manager (JWM Settings Manager), to make
configuring JWM much easier for those not liking to modify XML files by
hand.  This is binary
https://github.com/Israel-/jwm-settings-manager
https://launchpad.net/jwm-settings-manager
There are also some rudimentary scripts to do something similar in the
ToriOS code base

A user and group modification program (fladduser)
https://github.com/Israel-/fladduser
https://launchpad.net/fladduser

 The core ToriOS packages to configure the system, and provide scripts
to make JWM into a desktop environment, rather than just a window manager:
https://github.com/Tori-OS/torios-core
https://code.launchpad.net/~torios-dev

 Our installer is also vastly different, though it is all written in
bash script and uses zenity (or dialog) to install an OS from a premade
tarball
https://github.com/Israel-/OBI
https://launchpad.net/one-button-installer


> Would it be possible for you to add the ToriOS sources.list to the wiki
> page? This will eventually help feed back patches and new packages to
> Debian developers.
The only package we modify is JWM, and I have assisted Samuel in
updating this package to the current state in Debian Jessie.  This
includes a revised control (adding SVG and jpeg support) and a more
simplified rules file, etc...
> The page is missing a dpkg vendor field. It is important that Debian
> derivatives set this properly on installed systems and mention the
> value of the field in the derivatives census.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Guidelines#Vendor
I was unaware of this.  We directly use Debian and only add packages
from a PPA, and modify only JWM.  After reading that it is unclear if I
should modify it, as Debian is the main vendor of packages, rather than
ToriOS
>
> I've added the ToriOS blog to Planet Debian derivatives which helps the
> Debian community find out the things that are happening in the world of
> Debian derivatives.
>
> http://planet.debian.org/deriv/
Thank you very much!
>
> ToriOS folks might be interested in joining the Debian local groups
> from around the world.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/LocalGroups
I am unfortunately no where near any of the groups, but I will pass
along the information.
>
> Next year the annual Debian conference is in Montreal, Canada. It would
> be great if developers from ToriOS could attend DebConf. If this isn't
> possible, next year DebConf will be in either Taiwan or Brasil.
>
> http://debconf17.debconf.org/
> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf18
ToriOS has very few developers.  Nio Wiklund developed mkusb/guidus,
(z)mktbl and the OBI (one button installer).
I wrote the other programs, modified OBI to use zenity, and created the
scripts to build the ISO.  I am not sure if I have the time or funding
to travel to Canada, as ToriOS receives no monetary funds.
>
> I would encourage any attendees to volunteer to ensure the continued
> the success of the annual Debian conference, here are some examples of
> things that need helpers.
>
> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf13/VolunteerCoordination
>
> I note that ToriOS is based on Debian stable. The Debian release team
> recently released a timeline for the freeze for the next Debian stable
> release. I would encourage you to review it and prepare your plans for
> rebasing on the next Debian release (stretch).
Thank you, I have been following this in preparation, and have already
spoken with the project leader about this upcoming change.
>
> https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20161105202425.AC42F1F6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> A great way to help ensure that the next Debian release working well is
> to install and run the how-can-i-help tool and try to work on any
> issues that come up.
>
> http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=837
> https://packages.debian.org/unstable/how-can-i-help
> https://wiki.debian.org/how-can-i-help
I will look into this tool, once we have finalized our next release,
which has many bug fixes, and updated packages.
>
> You might want to consider adding DNSSEC to your domains, TLSA records
> and SSL to some of your domains. SSL on the repository will help ToriOS
> users to obscure package names and version numbers from global active
> adversaries. You might also want to add HSTS headers.
Thank you I have added the project leader to this e-mail so that he will
be aware.
The repositories are all PPAs from Ubuntu at this point, as we do not
have any servers of our own, nor the funding many projects receive.
> Please feel free to circulate this mail within the ToriOS team.
>
I have added the developers list to this e-mail as well to involve the
entire team.


-- 
Regards