VL-LIGHT Dev thread

[Lyn]

Sorry to come in so late.  Did anyone look at Deli Linux?  Its a very lightweight Slackware derivative that has many of the same features that is being attempted with VL light.  Might have some important lessons for people on this project

[Witek Mozga]

VL5.9-Light-A2.3 is ready for download

I was given a choice which applications to install, I deselcted pidgin but after installation the nice animated panel on the top still contained the icon for pidgin.

[Witek Mozga]

The original thread of "should VL attempt at Light version?" was closed.  I do not think this thread should be a continuation.

Mea culpa, because I couldn`t help sharing my opinion with you again. I`ll try to keep my mouth shut on "should it or should it not".

[nubcnubdo]

I have a hard time reconsiling the fact that Puppy Linux and VL are both derived from Slackware.

Puppy is not derived from Slackware. Puppy was developed from scratch by Barry Kauler, and is not based on any distribution. As of version 3.0, Puppy has compatibility with Slackware 12 packages. Puppy has a single user/account, which is essentially root, hence there is no login, which reduces boot time. (This also reduces security, more than likely.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_linux

I see VL Light as a return to VectorLinux's roots as a fast, efficient, lean OS. VL has always attracted users who want to get more life out of older, even challenged computer hardware. Not too long ago the VL Std iso didn't fill up an entire CD as it does today.

[GrannyGeek]

None of which explains why Puppy boots in 1min and VL takes 2.5min especially when both are derived from Slackware

I have four computers. VL boots in 40 seconds or less on all of them. The slowest one is a 1.3 GHz Celeron Tualatin with 1 gig of RAM. The fastest one is an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ with 3 gigs of RAM. Personally, I have zero interest in old, slow computers and have given any that I had away, but if that's the best someone can do, I sincerely wish them luck.

Even when I was running VL on a P133 laptop with 48 megs about seven years ago, it didn't take 2-1/2 minutes to boot.
--GrannyGeek

[BlueMage]

I don't see how Puppy is any more a speciality product than VL.

I have used Puppy a lot while traveling. It is an excellent live product. I have not tried a hard drive install of it lately, but when I did in the past, the installer was very much a work in progress.

It still is, in a number of ways.

That doesn't change the fact that Puppy saved my sanity while I was in Dubai.

Though I do think Newtor has summed it up perfectly - a) there's no point in debating the validity or lack thereof regarding VL Light, as time will reveal that fairly clearly, and b) no doubt some insight into how certain aspects of the larger versions can be trimmed or further optimised without sacrificing wide-scale usability.

[lagagnon]

Puppy weighs in at 50M to 80M and boots very much faster than VL (60sec against 150sec plus).

Please let us help you! Something is seriously wrong with either your machine, hardware, BIOS or installation if Puppy takes 60 seconds and VL 150 seconds. I have loaded VL on old P200's with 96 MB of RAM and they boot MUCH faster than that. What sort of computer are you talking about?

[nubcnubdo]

I agree with Bill: Puppy boots considerably faster than VL 5.9 Std as an installed OS. I'm gonna quantify that impression shortly, so if there are any conditions I should impose on the experiment, let me know. I plan to use the same computer for the comparison, probably different hard drives.

Estimate: If VL takes 100 seconds to boot, then Puppy would take 70 seconds. Is that 30% faster?

[nubcnubdo]

Re: black & blue skins on xmms and gmplayer

I like the dark blue wallpaper, looks great. The skin of xine looks good here because in its standard form, it actually stands out against the blue wallpaper. This is what I call good contrast. Gmplayer and xmms, on the other hand, are more obscure because they blend in with the blue background. There's little contrast, and its difficult to see controls in the dark colors. When I see a screenshot posted, there is usually good contrast between the app displayed and the background wallpaper. When there is good contrast, the illusion that there are two planes on the screen is enhanced, giving an overall 3-D impression.

[BlueMage]

I agree with Bill: Puppy boots considerably faster than VL 5.9 Std as an installed OS. I'm gonna quantify that impression shortly, so if there are any conditions I should impose on the experiment, let me know. I plan to use the same computer for the comparison, probably different hard drives.

Estimate: If VL takes 100 seconds to boot, then Puppy would take 70 seconds. Is that 30% faster?

Recommend you test Puppy as installed to a USB stick and Vector as a normal install - that way, neither is forced to load in an unusual manner (Puppy is intended to be run from external media, rather than as a hard-drive installation) which may mess up times.

[Darin]

as promised there is another version based upon light 2.3 but live with almost everything stripped out except opera...we have it loading on 64mb or ram running live but not sure how usable it is..I used flux with wbar and I was able to get idesk working but found it easier to just do a few custom scripts to go ahead and add the needed icons to the wbar instead...looked alot cleaner that way...the first iso was pretty good but uel redid the bootsplash for me to get the white text for the splash text and we have a different bootsplash and redid the wallpaper..this is was made for my personal stuff with me working on the supergamer series so it is stripped

[caitlyn]

This probably can't be fixed but I'll report it anyway since VL: developers are generally more clever than I am...

I have two Toshiba Libretto SS1010 itty bitty subnotebooks, 233MHz Pentium processor in one, 266MHz in the other, 64MB RAM in one, 96MB RAM in the other.  96MB is maxed out, BTW.   Disk drive is only 2.1GB.  Upgrading isn't easy as Toshiba used a 6.4mm high drive in the Slim Shock series of the Libretto.  The only possibility is an IDE flash device -- not out of the question but not something I'm ready to do immediately. The issue with older Libretti is that they do not have a bootable CD-ROM drive, nor do they support booting from USB even if you have the docking bay with the USB 2.0 port, which I do. 

The method that worked for both VL 5.1 and VL 5.8 was to create a small partition (55MB) with Damn Small Linux frugal install.  Currently I have DSL 4.2.4 installed and running just fine.  Then I would use a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive, copy vinstall-cd to my home directory, and with a couple of minor edits to adjust for the older software in DSL the hosted install worked like a charm.  It doesn't work with VL 5.9 Light (any alpha version) or VL 5.9 Mini A1.  Oh, it installs everything as it should, tells me install is done, and then issues a segmentation fault telling me my kernel (I assume the DSL kernel) is too old.  DSL uses kernel 2.4.31.  If I then reboot and choose my new VL install from an entry I created in the grub menu it startd to boot, I get the penguin on the screen, and then:

Code:

ohci-hcd 0000:00:0b:0: request interrupt 11 failed
ohci-hcd 0000:00:0b:0: init 0000:00:0b:0 fail -16
kernel panic - not syncing VFS: unable to mount root-fs on unknown block (0,0)

So much for hosted installs with DSL.  I may try DSL-N 0.1rc4 or else DOS unless someone here has a brilliant suggestion.

[nubcnubdo]

Remove hdd from Libretto, attach IDE adapter to 2.5" hdd, install hdd in any old desktop PC, install VL on 2.5 hdd in desktop PC, remove hdd from PC and replace in laptop, boot to TUI, run VASM to redetect hardware. Might be worth a try.

[caitlyn]

You've obviously never tried to get a drive out of an SS1010.  The older Libretto models (20CTA-110CT) had drive caddies that were easy to get to.  Not so the Slim Shock series.  I won't be disassembling the system anytime soon if I can avoid it.  I have other methods to try.

DSL-N didn't work, FWIW.

[nubcnubdo]

You've obviously never tried to get a drive out of an SS1010.

I definitely eschew Toshiba products.

my toy: HP Omnibook 510 (sans expansion base)
http://www.math.fau.edu/sramka/omnibook510/