Interest in a lower compression iso optimized for USB booting?

[John]

BG405, I built a test iso with firmware-misc-nonfree included. That package has a quite a few additional drivers in it. If you have the time maybe see if it performs any different for you?

https://damnsmalllinux.org/download/dsl-...esting.iso
https://damnsmalllinux.org/download/dsl-...so.md5.txt

[meo]

Have tried the new test iso on VMware Workstation and Qemu in Windows. However I try I only get like a 1024x786 resolution in VMware W. so I didn't bother to install. In Qemu on the other hand I get a true 1920x1080 resolution and it looks great. A snag that I had to get a get around was that when upgrading (the live disk) it would terminate like you can see in the attached note. So I installed and then upgraded which went well even if it spits out and error WARNING at the end. The same error message comes all the time if you install something also (like firefox). Unfortunately the sound does not work when using Qemu. Kind of strange since it works in VMware Workstation (at least on alpha 2). 

Note: (desktop-menu:4103): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:36:51:492: Could
not find the icon 'distributor-logo-antiX'. The 'hicolor' theme
was not found either, perhaps you need to install it.
You can get a copy from:
http://incon-theme.freedesktop.org/releases
Writing Menu: fluxbox

PS Attached the last log file from Qemu DS

[grindstone]

Only another eeepc for now (thanks, BTW, to all for xorg=fbdev tip). Single core 64-bit N450 Atom, 2GB:
Alpha2: 1:51
lz4: 1:12

Moved since I knew where to find floppy with boot manager on it to usb-boot older machines...looking
Occurs to me, however, that few people might have that use case--using boot FD to run USB live on machines that old, but...could be wrong. Have to run this moment--will try alpha3 later today--thank you for making it and for all the work!

[John]

Grindstone, thanks for doing the tesing. Just fyi, this isn't Alpha3 yet, but heading towards 3.

Meo, to clarify, 1920x1080 was not possible with Alpha2, but is with the above Alpha3-testing iso in your Qemu setup? I'll get on that distributor-logo-antiX error.

[BG405]

Moved since I knew where to find floppy with boot manager on it to usb-boot older machines...looking
Occurs to me, however, that few people might have that use case--using boot FD to run USB live on machines that old, but...could be wrong.

I have an old Dell Optiplex (Pentium 350MHz) which requires the Plop Boot disk in order to boot from USB. I think this may be the case for a lot of ancient machines.

@John: I'll test the new ISO in a while. Had a network issue to deal with just now; had to run another cable, physical accessibility was awkward to say the least! Wish ALL ethernet cables had boots on, to save the retaining clips being snapped off when trying to pull cables through, rendering them practically useless!

[BG405]

BG405, I built a test iso with firmware-misc-nonfree included.  That package has a quite a few additional drivers in it.  If you have the time maybe see if it performs any different for you?

I've tested this on those machines, unfortunately same issue. Works fine in VirtualBox starting up at 800x600.

However, I did try it on the Acer Aspire One ES1-111CP POS (luckily I remembered the supervisor password as it wouldn't boot, not been turned on in years and the battery has never worked, guess it lost some of its settings due to flat CMOS cell). On this, it boots into normal mode with 1366x768 resolution .. and FAST. I had the icons in around a minute from power-up. (ALPHA3 ISO).

[grindstone]

OK--back-again. First, thank you. That did it for my more common (rt28XX) wireless adapter etc. First time everything worked smoothly all the way so I installed it started feathering a nest to try to live in it a while. Got enough installed to build a module for the real target wireless (rt8812), etc. Worst ram usage was <230MB and that was a tie with the (post-?) installer doing locales and about the same 230 dkms module-building. On the mighty 2003 32-bit celeron, I went to the grocery store during locales and another trip while building modules, but--once-installed, it's doing just fine, mostly. Put firefox-esr on because I could but that's a load and obviously requires copious ram but thought I'd mention it for others. We shall see

The config coughs a few times only where desktop files have been changed or the Gtk warning hicolor issue mentioned elsewhere. Inspecting it, the hicolor icons are indeed installed. Specifically, it's
desktop-menu couldn't find applications-accessories

Thanks again, whatever it's called, it's better, here.

---

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention--and maybe others more familiar with Antix know--but it seems the DSL either live or during installer operation does NOT auto-mount existing swap partitions on the HD (I pre-formatted everything).  I swear that when I installed Antix core, not only did it detect them, it used them to stash all the apt-get update and install stuff from the live run.  Maybe one more thing--the change time and date button in the control center seems to be a placeholder only (?).

[John]

I really appreciate you guys sticking around and helping with all the testing.

BG405, If you could do some investigative work and figure out which drivers are missing I'l make an effort to get them included. Do those computers have the right resolution in antiX 23 32bit base? If not, how about in the antiX 23 32bit full?

Grindstone, that's great news about the wireless adapter! Thank you for pointing out the swap issue and the date/time bug. I have to put some thought into how I want to handle the control center.

[BG405]

I'm pretty sure both of those machines (not the ES1) use the GMA950 drivers. I'll check a bit later today re. the AntiX 23; it's gone 4AM here and need to try to coerce myself into getting a bit of shut-eye (fat chance, really. As you may have guessed, I'm mostly nocturnal).

If I can find a battery for the ES1 it may well be worth it as it has a really nice clear display. The onboard eMMC junk is really slow, it takes an age to boot into Mint (outdated 18.2 KDE) for example, but using USB boot looks like a viable option. It doesn't even have a SATA header fitted even though there is a position for it on the motherboard!

EDIT:
Re. Swap (Grindstone's post) I'd make grabbing swap optional. Reason? I used the original DSL to sort out partitioning on a Puppy Linux installation, which literally was like a dog with a bone and wouldn't relinquish its hold on the swap partition.

[grindstone]

Perhaps an automount opt-out for those workflows?

 

At any rate, thanks all for the work.