How has the extensions framework changed?
Forum: Apps
Topic: How has the extensions framework changed?
started by: nickelplated
Posted by nickelplated on June 23 2006,01:11
I just checked an extension I'd created on the last release, and it no longer installs right on this new one. I'm going to go ahead and assume there are some new things I need to know to make it work again 
It seems for some reason or another, it no longer creates an entry in /tmp/mydsl.menu when mydsl-load is run, though it does install all other parts of the extension.
Also I'd like to know about this new .unc extension and how to make one, is there documentation about that around here somewhere?
Posted by mikshaw on June 23 2006,03:01
Your extension probably extracts the file to /var/tmp/mydsl.menu, which doesn't work anymore. Menu items should now be included in /tmp/mydsl.menu only. The /tmp symlink used to point to /var/tmp so either one would work, but now /tmp points to (i think) /ramdisk/tmp
Posted by nickelplated on June 23 2006,16:20
Oh, okay that'll be pretty easily fixed, thanks for the info!
Posted by mikshaw on June 29 2006,19:04
Of the myDSL extensions I have continued to develop, so far I see that vim and irssi need to be fixed for this change in DSL3. If anyone notices an extension i've built that no longer works, whether it be because of /var/tmp/mydsl.menu or for some other reason, please post here and I'll try to fix it. Some extensions I've built have been abandoned for various reasons, so I won't make any guarantees. The two i mentioned here will continue to be updated as I find the time and motivation, as well as most of the other uci packages I put together...fluxbox, imagemagick, enigma, icewm, evilwm, sox, tcl, audacity, etc. A newer version of MPlayer has been built by another user, so i won't bother with that, at least not for a while.Anyway, since i'm rebuilding these two, I thought I'd ask if anyone has noticed any others that need fixing. The only ones i have with me are those that have been updated in the last 6 months or so, so there are probably at least one or two others needing to be fixed.
Posted by nickelplated on June 30 2006,20:19
I don't think I've noticed any others that aren't working, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out.
Posted by cbagger01 on July 02 2006,15:40
Regarding this whole "/var/tmp" thing, could this big incompatibility problem be solved simply by adding an extra (mostly superflous) tiny symlink to the bootup for DSL version 3.01:/var/tmp -----> /tmp
(and of course /tmp already links to /ramdisk/tmp so the "broken" extensions would start working again).
Just a thought. Don't have 3.x loaded right now, so I can't test it.
Posted by roberts on July 02 2006,22:49
Linking into and from unionfs can sometimes cause system hangs.Otherwise I suppose Knoppix would have done this.
It is ok for Knoppix proper to move forward with this change, but not DSL?
Sometimes it is not easy to always support the old. If it were only that simple, it would have been done. Adding unionfs is complex enough. It is just as simple to try to keep things clean and tidy. Being less complex should always be a goal. I found not only some linking but also some mounts (nfs and smb do not always work across unionfs either. But those type of mounts are not really necessary, just as these symlinks. Better to KISS than to crash and wonder why.
Posted by humpty on July 04 2006,19:58
mostly you only lose your menu shortcuts. it's not a big deal unless the apps have no desktop icons either.You can create desktop icons, which are permanent in .xtdesktop. Speaking of which, should we come up witha set of 'standard' icons (ala 'moricons' )?
Posted by cbagger01 on July 06 2006,04:10
The more I think of it, the whole/var/tmp -----> /tmp
link should not become the standard mode of operation, and instead should only be used as a temporary workaround until the broken extensions are fixed. (That is, assuming that it even WORKS. Still haven't tried it yet).
Why?
Because extensions should never have "tarred" filename paths that begin with /ramdisk/tmp/xxx or /var/tmp/xxx
These bad extensions would also be problematic when someone tries to use them with a traditional hard disk installation instead of a livecd configuration because with a hard drive based filesystem, /tmp is neither located at /ramdisk/tmp nor at /var/tmp
So the right thing to do is identify the "broken" extensions and request that the contributors fix them.
On a positive note, any extensions created with "deb2dsl" should not suffer from the /var/tmp or /ramdisk/tmp problem.
Posted by mikshaw on July 06 2006,15:05
| Quote (cbagger01 @ July 06 2006,00:10) |
| These bad extensions would also be problematic when someone tries to use them with a traditional hard disk installation instead of a livecd configuration because with a hard drive based filesystem, /tmp is neither located at /ramdisk/tmp nor at /var/tmp |
I haven't used a traditional harddrive install, but i can't see why /var/tmp would not work in pre-3.0 installations. In the earlier versions of livecd/frugal DSL /var/tmp was the true directory, and /tmp was a symlink to /var/tmp....any reason it wouldn't be the same on hd? Some might look at that linking to mean that /var/tmp is the appropriate directory to use. I thought that for a long time, before realizing the flaws in my logic.
Posted by cbagger01 on July 06 2006,17:20
I have never done a traditional HD installation, but I would suspect that the install would do away with many of the symlinks needed in order to get it working from a read-only livecd / ramdisk perspective.In general, a typical linux hard disk install would have /tmp be either a "real" directory or a mountpoint to a temp data storage partition.
My understanding of DSL is that it hd installs to a single data partition so I would expect to see /tmp exist as a "real" directory.
But since I have never actually done a traditional install, it is really just an educated guess on my part.
Posted by roberts on July 06 2006,19:04
Tis true. No sysmlink. /tmp is a real directory off of /
Posted by roberts on July 06 2006,20:10
I am going to write some batch scripts to test for the /var/tmp vs /tmp for all extensions. This will probably be easier on me than to receive many emails which I would have to process. Since I have direct access to all extenions from a system prompt I should proceed. So, please stand by and hold off on the emails, if this would be the only change being submitted.
Posted by roberts on July 08 2006,00:19
OK. As promised, I wrote a script to batch process the uci type extensions. I found the following needed to be updated for the /var/tmp /tmp change.azureus-2.3.0.6.uci
blender.uci
firefox-1.5.uci
helixplayer.uci
imagemagick.uci
irssi.uci
links.uci
madwifi-ng-2.4.26.uci
mozilla-1.7.uci
openoffice.uci
python2.3-gtk2.uci
realplayer.uci
seamonkey.uci
sunbird.uci
supertux-0.1.3.uci
thunderbird-1.5.uci
vim.uci
wine-20050524.uci
These have been corrected. All are in the uci repository.
I spot checked many of them.
Would appreciate other to test as well.
Hopefully, these new ones will propagate to all the mirrors soon.
Posted by roberts on July 09 2006,19:55
*** Important - Please Read ***The second phase is now completed.
I have repacked the following extensions for the /var/tmp menu issue.
If you are using any of the following extensions or any of the previously mentioned uci type extenions, you should re-download these repacked extensions.
If you host an unoffical extension repository, you should also fetch these updated extensions or manually fix your extensions.
The prior format, /var/tmp menu items, will soon become deprecated
BitTornado.dsl
abc.dsl
abiword.dsl
amsn.tar.gz
aria.dsl
ayttm.dsl
azureus-gtk2_java-2.4.0.2.dsl
bitchx-1.0.dsl
bluefish_pre07.dsl
briquolo.tar.gz
disksearch.dsl
dsl-cube.tar.gz
dsl-xjig.dsl
freecraft.dsl
gcombust.dsl
gift.dsl
gqcam092.dsl
gtkedit.tar.gz
gv.dsl
gwc.dsl
imagemagick.tar.gz
jose-java-1.4.0.dsl
lottpick.dsl
mp3blaster.tar.gz
mplayer-xfree86.tar.gz
no-ip.dsl
nxclient.tar.gz
openoffice-1.1.4.tar.gz
openoffice.tar.gz
peerguard.dsl
samba.dsl
siag-office.dsl
sunbird_0.2a.tar.gz
timidity.dsl
tor.tar.gz
ultramixer-java-2.0.4-ver3.dsl
valknut.dsl
vim_full.tar.gz
webhttrack.dsl
worker.tar.gz
x-lite-gtk2-2.0.dsl
xbill.dsl
xmule.dsl
xpen.dsl
xv.dsl
ymess.dsl