torios team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Israel,
See text inline and at the end ...
Best regards/Nio

2014-05-27 18:29, Israel skrev:
> On 05/27/2014 10:13 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>> 2014-05-27 15:30, Israel skrev:
>>> I think we can do it if we include only minimal things.  Even Lubuntu
>>> comes with extra things that aren't needed.
>>>
>>> We can surely leave off an e-mail program, and only offer to install it
>>> afterwards.  A lot of people use the web browser
>>> for virtually everything.  Technically a web browser can watch movies,
>>> play music, browse your filesystem, view images,
>>> (and lots more)  even offline.  I think this will be the important app
>>> to keep on it.
>> I agree
> I wonder if we should use a simple browser for some of those common
> things, rather than including a lot of other things.
> Of course imagemagick is light and fast.  It has the ability to take
> screen shots, and display images, etc..  So it might be good to include
> for that....
> though we'd need a script to use the screen shots capability in a sane
> way for users, to assign a filename, and increment it if they take
> multiple shots.
> something like Screenshot-$date.jpg  where $date it the time/date stamp.

It is definitely worth considering

>>>>>  ...
>>>> lubuntu-core and lubuntu-desktop are meta packages, that make it easy to
>>>> install a group of packages with one command.
>>>>
>>>> It is possible to use meta-packages or just a command line or script
>>>> file to install groups of packages for different user profiles, for example
>>>>
>>>> multimedia, office, gaming
>>>> ultra-light, medium-light
>>>> desktop, laptop, netbook
>>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> The advantage is that the installer will be flexible, the disadvantage
>>>> is that it will need internet and downloading to make each installation
>>>> complete.
>>> I think this is a good idea.  We can host a PPA for testing, once it is
>>> decided what programs to use, etc...
>>> Maybe even get a 'jwm-desktop' or 'torios-desktop' package in the
>>> official repos one day :)
>> Hi Israel and all other ToriOSes,
>>
>> Yes, it is a good idea with a 'jwm-desktop' or 'torios-desktop' package
>> in the official repos one day. It will provide support to the really old
>> and or weak computers, when the other flavours of Ubuntu are heading
>> forward and gradually will need more horsepower and memory.
>>
>> -o-
>>
>> Try the newest version of the OBI-9w installer, made yesterday and
>> uploaded today. It is not in the wiki manual yet, and I think I want to
>> improve the menu before making it really public. But I think it is
>> relevant for our discussion about ToriOS, because it has a kind of text
>> based menu in the installed Ubuntu mini.iso system, that offers some
>> typical post-installation meta packages
>>
>> Lubuntu Core
>> Lubuntu standard
>> Xubuntu standard
>>
>> and menu entries for
>>
>> update & dist-upgrade
>> cleaning
>>
>> See this link
>>
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/9w
>>
>> and download this link *the txt3 iso file*
>>
>> http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9w/obi_Trusty-npae124-txt3-9w.iso
>>
>> This method with typical post-installation meta packages can be extended
>> easily and made convenient for the end user.
>>
>> See the attached picture, made in my workstation with way too much
>> memory for these light-weight systems, but anyway, it shows what the
>> choice menu can look like in text mode in the final system, before a
>> graphical desktop environment is installed.
>>
>> -o-
>>
>> I can understand that you may want to have more control over the look
>> and feel of ToriOS, and want a basic graphical desktop environment. But
>> you can keep the concept of a window with a menu with alternative meta
>> packages and other useful menu entries. You can also have desktop file
>> 'meta_packages.desktop' offering such a menu.
>>
>> Best regards
>> Nio
> What are you using for the graphics?  Is it ncurses or something else?
> I am asking to know if it can it be themed differently?
> It would be nice to make a really solid user experience where Tori OS
> can have a specific 'branding'
> from the first moment of installation to the first boot into the OS.
> 
> And also... which Virtual Machine program works the best for this, can I
> just use Virtual Box, or do you suggest VMWare, or something else.
> I don't have a PAE machine to use right now... though, and my old PPC
> wont work with this.  Of course I get 'broken' computers from people
> when they get a new one.
> And I fix them (usually only requires installing a version of Ubuntu,
> which I choose based on Hardware and user expectations)
> and give them to someone who has a REALLY broken computer, and cannot
> afford to buy a new computer right away (or at all).
> 

The 9w installer itself can run in text mode or graphics mode. The
default graphical desktop environment is LXDE (as it is in Debian). I
have only changed the background picture.

The menu system is using the 'dialog' package, a script-interpreter
which provides a set of curses widgets. It works in text mode as well as
reasonably well in terminal windows (where for example mouse clicks
work; dialog works with X/Open curses). It is similar to whiptail (which
I think is used in the alternate installer). I like dialog, so use it.

-o-

I think it is easier to perform the branding in a fully graphical
desktop environment. It is possible to translate the dialog scripts to
work with zenity. They are similar but not the same. (I have used
kdialog some years ago, but never zenity.)

Of course it is possible (and probably more flexible) to use python, but
I have no experience of using it. I started with a tutorial, but there
was no time for it.

-o-

I think most virtual machines work with 9w. I have tested it in
VirtualBox and KVM + virt-manager. I made screenshots recently in
VirtualBox, where you can set the properties of the virtual cpu and to
limit the RAM to low values. Use VirtualBox that you know already!

One good feature with KVM + virt-manager is that guest machines can boot
from USB and from image files (dd dumps of block devices) in the host
computer.

-o-

'I don't have a PAE machine to use right now...'

You can't be serious :-D

Yes, I know what you mean. I hope you find a non-pae computer that is
'broken' but not really broken :-)

I have an IBM Thinkpad T42 with Pentium M. It lacks a PAE flag, but has
PAE capability. Lubuntu 14.04 LTS works well with Phill's non-pae kernel
as well as with the generic PAE kernel and the boot option forcepae.