NuTyX yet another distribution

hazel · 07-04-2016, 12:24 PM

Thank you. Appending the root partition to the command line does indeed solve the initrd problem, but it doesn't make the Nutyx kernel load any faster. And I now have a new problem: your kernel insists on setting up a framebuffer console which my VIA Chrome9 video card can't support. The keyboard locks up and all I can see on the screen is a pretty cyclic colour display. My lilo.conf has the "vga=normal" option set globally, and I have also added "nofb nomodeset" to the kernel command line, but annoyingly none of these requests is honoured.

However, subsequent examination of the system logs did show that everything else was set up correctly.

In view of all this, I think that using a different kernel is probably the quickest solution. At the moment, it's the Dragora kernel, but I intend to download the source for your nutyx-lts kernel and build my own version, using your configuration file as the starting point. I can add the disk drivers that I need for a direct boot while cutting out frame buffer console and other stuff that I don't need.

I've already tried cards and I like it. I think I could get fond of this system.

tnut · 07-04-2016, 01:56 PM

I think you need to blacklist some FB modules. Could you check what's are the modules in your /etc/modprobe.d/ folder. If any file found check if you see any "blacklist <modulename>"

I could suggest you to create one blacklist.conf file with

Code:

mkdir /etc/modprobe.d
cat > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf << "EOF"
blacklist viafb
EOF

This might help to solve your prob

hazel · 07-05-2016, 07:57 AM

Yup, that did it! Thank you, tnut! But this is not the final solution because the laptop also has a webcam and that is going to need viafb. In addition, I need to find out why the boot is so slow and the only way I can think of to do it is to get the kernel source and gradually move away from your default configuration until I hit whatever is causing the problem. One thing I have already noticed; the kernel is gzipped, not bzipped. But that should make it unpack faster, not slower.

I'm writing this out of NuTyx, using Firefox, which I have just installed. Big step forwards!

Now I have a proposition to make to you. Your documentation is excellent, but it is clearly written by someone who does not have English as his native tongue. Would you like me to "re-English" it for you? It's a job I enjoy and I've done it for other developers.

tnut · 07-05-2016, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Would you like me to "re-English" it for you?

Sure I would be glad to have some help from your side. I had some already in the past. The only thing you need to know is git. Even you can edit from the web browser and submit to the NuTyX team your pull request

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

the only way I can think of to do it is to get the kernel source and gradually move away from your default configuration until I hit whatever is causing the problem.

That's exactly what I was going to propose you by following (and why not correcting) the topic available on the web site.

Just make sure you can avoid the initrd then sure your kernel will boot faster.

Generally speaking now, I was wondering... How did you manage to use the install-nutyx script without any documentation. At the moment this is still not really official that you can install NuTyX from it.

Quote:

Is the install-nutyx script that I downloaded the same one that runs on your installation disks?

Not anymore. Since the release of Saravane version (means version 7 of NuTyX) I decide to recode from scratch the installer of NuTyX which is as you have maybe guess the same initrd that launch the installed NuTyX. Before version 7, the MINI iso had to be connected on internet and then the first thing it was doing is grabbing the script... I stopped as this was a security issuer (script MD5SUM not checked)

hazel · 07-06-2016, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnut

Generally speaking now, I was wondering... How did you manage to use the install-nutyx script without any documentation. At the moment this is still not really official that you can install NuTyX from it.

You should read your own home page! I found the idea here in Section 1. I was immediately intrigued because I have never seen anything like this before. Debian has a "net-install" but it starts from a minimal disc image. To be able to install a distro from nothing but a bash script was a challenge I couldn't resist. Of course I knew that the result would need a lot of extra work to turn it into a functional system, but I'm a pensioner and have plenty of time.

When I typed "install-nutyx", I got an error message which suggested setting LFS=<mountpoint of partition> as a temporary environmental variable. So I did and had no further problems until I tried to boot the thing.

hazel · 07-07-2016, 11:45 AM

My first home-made kernel panicked, which always seems to happen to me on a first build with a completely new kernel. I have an improved version building now, which I hope will boot to completion. But I can already report one thing: without an initrd, I don't get that tiresome delay. And I have found a close parallel to my problem here. It's definitely the initrd that causes the problem (with certain kinds of hardware anyway).

All this confirms my long-standing suspicion that initrds are a bad thing and should be avoided where possible. However I do recognise that a binary distro with a stock kernel can't boot without one.

tnut · 07-07-2016, 01:44 PM

Good news.

Keep going

hazel · 07-09-2016, 01:16 AM

Ok, it boots now. I'm typing this out of NuTyX with my new kernel. Now to the other matter.

I've installed git on my main machine. What do I have to do to book out the html pages I need for the edit project? I've found the page in your NuTyX git repository that lists English html pages, but when I try to clone it, nothing happens. And the git guides I've found online aren't exactly helpful, when you're starting from scratch. Do I have to clone the individual pages?

Please let me have a few useful commands, then I can get stuck in. The other way, of course, would be to just download page source in Firefox and edit that, but I don't know how to get the results back to you.

tnut · 07-09-2016, 12:50 PM

Congratulations for your new kernel.

Quote:

What do I have to do to book out the html pages I need for the edit project?

The most easy way

1. Register yourself on github.com
2. Fork github.com/NuTyX/core by clicking the green button "Fork"
3. You will have an exact copy for the project in your accounpt.
4. You can directly modify by edit the www/en/xxx.html files and do directly the commit for your account.
5. As soon you did some work, you can propose a pull-request, I will get an email.
6. Your work will be intergrated to the webpages after rendering

Hope It's can help you

hazel · 07-09-2016, 01:57 PM

Excellent instructions!

OK, I've forked it. I might start work on it tomorrow. Of course I also have the major job of populating my NuTyX desktop with applications. What I have now is hardly a usable system. But I already like it better than Dragora.

btw would you like me to write you a recipe for the openchrome driver build?

tnut · 07-10-2016, 03:27 AM

Quote:

btw would you like me to write you a recipe for the openchrome driver build?

Sure go ahaid, if it works will integrated it.

The receipe to adapt is:

https://github.com/NuTyX/core/blob/m...i/xorg/Pkgfile
Add the md5sum of the openchrome driver sources in the begin of the recipe and you're done

hazel · 07-10-2016, 01:06 PM

OK. Here is the xorg-server recipe including openchrome:

Code:

# Description: With xf86-input-evdev,synaptics,vmmouse,wacom, xf86-video-ati,fbdev,intel,nouveau,openchrome,vmware.
# Packager: tnut at nutyx dot org
# Depends on: mtdev xorg-libxvmc xorg-server xcb-util xorg-xkeyboard-config xorg-twm xorg-term xorg-xclock xorg-xinit libevdev

run=(xorg-font xorg-xkeyboard-config xorg-server xorg-twm xorg-term xorg-xclock xorg-xinit)
section="driver"

name=xorg
version=7.7
release=10

source=()

build() {
cat > list.md5 << "EOF"
aa3363ce5061d0c4d1e7f7019b99716d  xf86-input-evdev-2.10.3.tar.bz2
4e3c8bed1ab4a67db2160c2c3d7e2a34  xf86-input-synaptics-1.8.3.tar.bz2
85e2e464b7219c495ad3a16465c226ed  xf86-input-vmmouse-13.1.0.tar.bz2
4faa1d4bf6eb74f40dba8c5cb3c9c3e4  xf86-input-wacom-0.33.0.tar.bz2
59bfe0feba875c5cd28b03766aaa3b98  xf86-video-ati-7.7.0.tar.bz2
3931c0e19d441cc576dc088f9eb9fd73  xf86-video-fbdev-0.4.4.tar.bz2
dc79910c7b9e32321cefc7af250c7765  xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.12.tar.bz2
894a9e120663d70a66b0210ad8adb173  xf86-video-openchrome-0.4.0.tar.gz
a893c37c589f7a31cea929a5d896a0e2  xf86-video-vesa-2.3.4.tar.bz2
0cba22fed4cb639d5c4276f7892c543d  xf86-video-vmware-13.1.0.tar.bz2
EOF
unset MAKEFLAGS
for package in $(grep -v '^#' list.md5 |cut -d " " -f 3)
	do
		packagedir=$(echo $package | sed 's/.tar.bz2//')
		packagename=$(echo $package | sed 's/.tar.bz2//')
		case $packagename in
			xf86-input-wacom-[0-9]*)
				wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/linuxwacom/$package;;
			*)
				wget http://ftp.x.org/archive//individual/$section/$package;;
		esac
		grep $package list.md5 |md5sum -c -
		tar -xf $package

		pushd $packagedir
		case $packagename in
		xf86-input-vmmouse-[0-9]*)
			./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var \
            --with-udev-rules-dir=/lib/udev/rules.d \
            --without-hal-callouts-dir \
            --without-hal-fdi-dir;;
		xf86-video-intel-[0-9]*)		
			./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --enable-kms-only;;
		xf86-input-wacom-[0-9]*)
			./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --with-systemd-unit-dir=no;;
		*)
			./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var;;
		esac
		make
		make DESTDIR=$PKG install
		popd
	done

# Intel is a bit different
wget  ftp://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/xf86-video-intel/xf86-video-intel-0340718.tar.xz
tar -xf xf86-video-intel-0340718.tar.xz
cd xf86-video-intel
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var \
--enable-kms-only \
--enable-uxa 
make 
make DESTDIR=$PKG install
}

I have also committed a new version of index.html from the NuTyX documentation. You had better study this carefully as it's the first one, to see if what I'm doing is acceptable, and if I have correctly understood the text. If so, I shall be happy to continue.

tnut · 07-10-2016, 02:49 PM

Nice job.

Keep going

hazel · 07-11-2016, 05:42 AM

Oops! Still some typos! It's surprisingly hard to edit html source when you don't have instant visual feedback. In future, when I commit new pages, they may be accompanied by final corrected versions of previous ones, if necessary.

tnut · 07-11-2016, 12:27 PM

Code:

It's surprisingly hard to edit html source when you don't have instant visual feedback.

Very easy:

1. Install http server and git on your NuTyX:

Code:

get apache apache.service git

2. Start the service:

Code:

sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start

3. Get a copy of your OWN core copy, do this in your home directory:

Code:

git clone git@github.com:littleoldlady/core.git

4. Now you just need a link. Let's suppose your user is indeed hazel and the clone copy is in /home/hazel/core
The only link you need is then (in root it's easy this time):

Code:

ln -sv /home/hazel/core /srv/www/nutyx

5. You should be able to see your OWN render copy of the website at the following adress:

http://localhost/nutyx/www

And as you can see (because all the links are relative) even navigation works perfectly)

Next step I will tell you how to push and pull unless you find thoses explainations by yourself which would be fine

Thanks a lot for your help in translation