Almost all components are available via OpenSUSE repositories. The Enlightenment-DR16 and Enlightenment-DR17 are used as default user GUI. Entrance - your default login manager. Disk contain MS Web Core fonts, codecs, Adobe's flash player and browser plug-in, custom build font rendering (to use all DR17 font configuration capabilities), custom environment for the default user (Login: linux , Pass: soad) and other useful tools and utilities. You can read the list of available packages on the main page.
Almost all EFL/Enlightenment packages could be rebuild from source (user needs to install the source .src.rpm packages) to get the current E-cvs. You're welcome to evaluate the disk and ping me if you have something to say, ask, etc.
P.S. Novell/SUSE provide it in the default distribution set and it's a certified OS for Adobe's Flash Player. If you're using this LiveCD I assume you've accept Novell's License Agreement and I don't see here any issues for the end users or for my modest person (I just picked the products all have an access to).
Interesting point about the adobe flash player. Is there something in the licence agreement that when I install the linux flash player that I have to be using a distribution that appears on their positive list? I could see the same question arising if I had compiled an OS from scratch and customized it. Or is the problem only when distributing a distro? I'll have to look into that as well (if someone doesn't beat me to the punch).
Being a student of philosophy and ethics, this is very interesting to me. I'll have to look into the ethics of copyright, licencing and so forth.
> Or is the problem only when distributing a distro?
exactly. Adobe apply some restrictions to the Flash Player Distribution. You're welcome to read it's policy (I posted link above). If you plan to master and distribute your own "Linux distro" - it's safe to request a separate license from Adobe. But de facto all Linux users could download the Player and install from Adobe's respective homepage (they provide tar.gz packaged binaries).
Ah, thank you for clearing that up. I'll have a look at the policy one of these days. Regarding the LiveCD the OP had linked to, if it is a problem simply don't include the flash binaries, but provide the ability to install them from the tar.gz package and then the individual user can decide whether they wish to install flash or not. I have talked to some who absolutely loathe using flash or java and will not install it.
It's easy to provide a standalone installation (for example when you first time launch Firefox the popup appear and ask about Flash Player). And looks like I should make it exactly this way. Will be improved for the next LiveCD release (hope that I'll make it when E-0.16.999.044 is out). Or, if 'swfdec' is good enough, just wipe out Adobe's Player.
Live CD iso is updated. Flash player now installed 'on demand' in interactive mode when you first time launch 'Firefox'. E-cvs snapshot dated Aug 01 2008. Added 'Tk' package for 'aria2-gui', default E configuration (modules loaded for user E environment) are reset to defaults.
please report here any issues. some folks argue that graphical login doesn't work. if it's true and no workarounds could be found - then 'entrance' will be replaced by 'gdm' and default passwordless login will be implemented.
I downloaded and burned the ISO to a 700MB CD. Roxio said there was an error during buring. I have 3 files on the CD when I browse it: the boot directory, the read-only.iso and one last directory. I try to run the live CD on a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ650N computer. The CD boots up fine and lets me do the resolution selection and language selection. When I tell it to boot the environment either it stalls at the green splash screen or shows me the console and hangs when trying to detect the CD/DVD drive. Did roxio give me a false negative for an error, or did something screw up. What should I be seeing on the CD when I browse it in Explorer?
well, right now i'm uploading a new image to the 'download page'. added 'xmms' (with a bunch of cool skins), 'MPlayer' (custom build for this live cd), 'xchm' (to view .chm files), man pages and some more tiny console utilities. please check md5sum of an .iso file after download. if md5 is fine - then i'd recommend to burn at minimal speed. no errors should happen.
that's correct, if you're browsing the .iso (or burned image) you'd see the following:
digits are the size in bytes of the image i'm uploading right now. you can try to use the .iso in a virtual box, vmware, qemu or any other preferred virtual machine. the 'core' of this disk is based on OpenSUSE-11.0 and looks like your Sony should have almost no issues with it (according to the specs).
Mcedit - text editor for the console (no vim/emacs/joe etc - too huge packages, sorry)
What about the "tiny" OpenOffice package ? Is this really something your target audience wants to have ? I'd get rid of that, in favour of some "more interesting" stuff.
for example? OpenOffice is a standard de-facto. i'd be glad to know how this livecd could be improved. thanks for the comments regarding '23Oz', awesome and up to the point (still hope to know your 'validation' of bluesteel).
right now the disk is a kind of "general purpose". i can make a king of 'gaming cd' with proprietary drivers for ATI/nVidia, 'network oriented' one or any other... but just wanted to make a dumb "standard" LiveCD to play any kind of audio, watch any movie/stream (with MPlayer), have a good-looking fonts and a comfortable console environment. there's nothing special in this disk in general. it just works. i only tried to select the best software for it...
The OpenSUSE E-repos are transfered to svn today and new version of Enlightenment LiveCD is uploaded to the download page. A lot of improvements. Review and documentation will follow soon.
Is the mdsum at http://sda.scwlab.com/soad_linux.html correct? It took 12 hours to download the iso and the mdsum is this: bb19decc387464e1daf0fd671eef3634 :-(
sda, thank you for making the live cd! Also, thank you for sharing! Much the same as youI have been with Suse since 8.2. Recently though I have been trying out lots of other distro's because Suse is not the same. Its slow, bloated and ....... well in need of a diet. My favorite was 9.2. Anyway I would like to try this disc however I need to ask for help to do so.
My computer is a HTPC chassis with micro a atx board. This board uses an embedded ATI 1250 Radeon chip and utilizes an HDMI output. The monitor or television takes up to 1280x720 but only at 30 frames per second. My first few attempts to boot from the disc were unsuccessful as the xconfig was incorrect for my television.
Can anyone advise a line I could insert on my etc/X11/xorg.conf file or can someone suggest how to start live cd in text mode so I can yast2 in some ati-drivers? Or possibly I could build upon this live cd with a set of configs for x and or the ati drivers and remaster the live cd with what I may need to get Suse and Enlightenment running on my setup? I have tried to bot in text mode however Entrance keeps me from going much further. Entrance, its buttons and its fields are not able to be seen or distinguished on my television due to bad xconf.
thanks for your report! it'd be nice exercise to solve this. type 'linux 3' in the "Welcome" screen (where you've got the option to press F3 and select the resolution) and login as root (root/soad) into the text console. you have no 'xorg.conf' at all in this case. if you can setup the network in YaST (text ncurses mode) and get the internet connection you may add this repo:
zypper ar "http://ftp.leg.uct.ac.za/pub/linux/rpm-repositories/ati-opensuse/11.0/" ATI
and install ATI fglrx:
zypper ref -r ATI zypper in ati-fglrxG01-kmp-default x11-video-fglrxG01
then it's up to you how to make the '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' file to get things running. you may try to use the default sax2 autoconfig:
/etc/init.d/create_xconf start
(this will launch sax2 and 'Entrance' after sax2 config completion) or use the standard:
aticonfig --initial
check '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' (use 'vim' or 'mcedit') and start 'Entrance' manually:
/etc/init.d/entrance start
if the network setup is impossible - just download two files somewhere:
mount the disk where they are, install (via 'rpm -i ./*.rpm' or so) and proceed further
the only thing to remember here: if autoconfig ('/etc/init.d/create_xconf start') with sax2 fails (gives you a wrong resolution) than you need to build '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' manually ('aticonfig --initial' for example) and then start the 'Entrance' ('/etc/init.d/entrance start').
of course, you can rebuild the image according to your needs. you need a linux box and kernel with a 'squashfs' support for this. i'd describe the steps in general:
1) mount iso image 2) find 'squashed' file (suse-11.0-live-iso-read-only.i686-2.5.1) and mount it to some other dir (lets say 'squash') 3) copy all from 'squash' to another place (lets say 'copy') 4) chroot to 'copy' 5) install fglrx drivers. if autoconfig gives you wrong resolution -> set the correct 'xorg.conf' and adjust servises using 'chkconfig':
chkconfig entrance_livecd off chkconfig create_xconf off chkconfig entrance on
6) exit chroot and make a new 'squashed' file 7) replace the original 'squashed' file and create a new iso with 'mkisofs' (example of a command):
but all of this is quite time consuming. i'll make a new LiveCD (we're having monthly updates) with the latest Xorg and hope this will solve the case. fglrx drivers still suck if you wish to watch a DVD for example. they're also has shitty set of OpenGL instructions (i can't play Quake3 with fglrx without manual gamma correction via catalyst).
if you have an example with working 'xorg.conf' for open source ati/radeon driver than you may use this way:
1) boot from LiveCD 2) after Entrance appear with a wrong resolution go to the text console (Ctl+Alt+F1) and login as root (root/soad) 3) kill Entrance and X:
/etc/init.d/entrance_livecd stop
4) adjust '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' and start Entrance again:
/etc/init.d/entrance start
'Entrance' itself doesn't care about resolution. it looks only at Xorg. if this version of Xorg sucks (and it really is for you) than we'll have the latest one next month. of course i'd appreciate if you can make the following to check this out:
3) kill Entrance and X:
/etc/init.d/entrance_livecd stop
4) add new repo and update Xorg itsef:
zypper ar "http://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/X11:/XOrg/openSUSE_11.0/" XOrg zypper ref -r XOrg zypper up -t package -r XOrg
5) check new autoconfiguration:
/etc/init.d/create_xconf start
yes, 9.2 is still awesome. thanks to gwdg.de for the mirror of all updates for it (i'm still using 8.2 and 9.2 now for some really old hardware). it's time to make an official OpenSUSE Enlightenment LiveCD wiki page and describe there the cases like yours or just guide the User how to 'enlighten' the default SUSE installation (you're very kind to note that it's "slow, bloated and ......." i'd definitely replace this dots with some proper words...). welcome to post any questions here or directly in our SUSE forum: Enlightenment for OpenSUSE
Thank you for the solution sda! I'll dive in to this after work tonight. One question though. To get a internet connection I am guessing I will have to install network manager from within Yast. As you indicated in Welcome.pdf Yast wants to see it there. Will this pose a problem in the future if I wanted to utilize exalt?
well, not exactly. i stated in Welcome.pdf that you can disable 'exalt_daemon' and not to use 'exalt' at all if you've got a stable network environment which could be set in YaST. in other words: your network could be configured with YaST without 'Exalt'. or you're welcome to use 'Exalt' . no need to install other network managers imho. hope that you should have no issues after text mode login and network configuration via YaST. you may disable 'exalt_daemon' before YaST network setup just in case:
/etc/init.d/exalt_daemon stop
after you get the desired GUI resolution restart this 'daemon' and use 'Exalt' if you wish:
Well after a couple of days trying I am in square one again. Booting to command line with "linux 3" at command prompt was no issue. Good knowledge of door to prompt. Can that be included in statup menu or do you wish to keep as hidden? Starting Yast in ncurses mode was also no issue. An evening was spent trying to get wireless working within Yast. Would not recognize any encryption used. Come to find out no encryption on network also did not work. Yast would say network was inaccessible and that it needed to install network manager to activate hardware. Catch 22.
Went to work for half of Saturday so I could bring home cat 5 cabling tools. Ran cable from one side of apartment to other. This time I could see ip address and dhcp working on init or boot. Good I thought. When Yast was started network was still unreachable. DHCP was indicated next to eth0 in network settings but no internet. Only until a SuseConfig was initiated by Yast did network services activate and xml files from repositories were downloaded. No I could try a new xserver from repositories I though.
zyppered in the repositories you had given to me on last post. Downloads came in no problem. /etc/init.d/xconf start (from memory) resulted in xconfig that did not work with television so I tried aticonfig --initial and that gave a positive looking output. Inspection of the xorg.conf file resulted in many positive looking lines. Sony television looks to be recognized. ATI X1200 was listed (close I have an X1250). Everything looked good up to the modes section. Under modes I saw a lot of 800x600 and one 1920x540. Noteworthy is that I saw vertical and horizontal frequencies of 30 - 46. I will have to research the television but I thought it was capable of a 1280x720 or 1280x768 image and at 30fps. I wuld have to conclude that your advice was solid and that it was the ATI driver that guesses incorrectly on a working configuration for my hardware.
I am not very good at xorg.conf files. There was a lot of other information in modes that I am not sure about. if anyone reading this is using a 720P television for a monitor can you possibly copy a line from the modes section of your xorg.conf file and post it here so I can take a crack at a resolution and sync rate that may work for me? Thank you in advance and Thank you SDA for your help. Your reply was very complete and with options in event that first attempt did not work. Very nice of you to take to time to offer such a complete reply.
Generally speaking I believe that the timing of your efforts on this Enlightenment openSuse live cd to be ideal. We both agree that Suse has become quite overweight. It seems to me that from Suse 9.3 to present there has been a large push on desktop eye candy. Knowing Vista was coming the linux community pushed out some desktop effects and monitors that could have been developed in my opinion too quickly. Getting things to work and brilliance of execution are in two different categories. Vista has fallen on its face and continues to skid in the dirt. Normally I would not care but I am a bit of an activist with linux and internet trends so I see this time we are in now as a wonderful time to suggest an alternate operating system to users who still use windows and may not be as in to computers as the readers of these forums. I have promoted elive in the past however I prefer the Suse platform and always have. Part of me wishes that Enlightenment openSuse Live cd came with mad-wifi,Ati,Nvidia, and some other things that promote an "out of the box" working system that would show windows users that linux can be more beautiful, easier to work with and full of both community and solutions.
I concur with one poster here who suggested removing openoffice for some "fit and finish" items. It is defacto however a link to a doc that offers instructions on how to install openoffice either through zypper or yast could be effective in guiding someone through adding software. Just a thought.
our October Enlightenment LiveCD will contain the latest Xorg out from the box. now let me say a couple of words regarding your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:
1) to get the exact modeline you can use 'gtf' command: gtf X Y REFRESH_RATE assume that 60Hz is o'k for the television, so:
2) now we need to include this modeline into the 'xorg.conf' and point to use it. it's nice to add a 'Virtual' parameter for the 'Screen' section. here'a an example of a 'xorg.conf' for your TV and 'fglrx' driver:
now let me state the points about ATI&nVidia drivers. i do believe that this driversh are best when compiled and installed by user from official sources. and really hope that the latest Xorg is better for ATI than 'fglrx' at all aspects except the gaming. i had an ATI and disappointed in proprietary drivers quality for all OSes i got. also i promise to improve wifi support in October release (madwifi will be included). also i'll make my best to improve the network configuration options.
i'm really glad to receive your feedback.
my best regards!
P.S. heh, looks like i'll include NetworkManager as well :)
Well first let me say that if you are ever in usa please let em know so that I can buy you a beer! Obviously you have been more productive than I since Suse 8.2 in terms of learning the operating system and its configuration. Also let me thank you again for the level of support you are offering. I am busy with web overtime at work and with web page of side for next few days. By Thursday I hope to get back in to the xorg.conf suggestions you have gone out of your way to provide for me.
As for the network manager on the next release I am not sure that is needed. If you plan on including madwifi that was half my battle in getting my box on the network. The other half of the battle was to initiate a suseconfig or tell yast to rewrite the system config. AS this step was taking place I could see network services come on line. If you have a way to script a suseconfig after runlevel 5 is up I think that, with exalt, would solve most cases.
I have to sat that I am disappointed with ATI as well. AMD is doing good job on linux support and that will improve over time. I bought a hiper media center and thought I was getting nvidia hardware but when box showed up it was ati.
Very interesting bloat article you have posted. I have already linked a few friends to it. Some tools that I did not know about and solid methodology on chasing out uneeded fat. Great job!
we searched the ways to easily solve the case with resolution configuration and found that it looks like our mistake/fault to remove the GUI of the SaX2 Configuration Utility from the disk. our October 'release' will have this feature among other enhancements as well. the cure will look like (if needed, just hope that all would be o'k with auto tools):
1) press Ctl+Alt+F1 (right after you've seen the wrong resolution for a login screen) 2) login as root (root/soad) 3) type 'service entrance_livecd stop' (or /etc/init.d/entrance_livecd stop) to stop the X 4) type sax2 5) select your resolution 6) save & exit sax2 7) type 'service entrance start' to get a nice 'Entrance' login screen
If you can set your network and install 'sax2-gui' package by typing 'zypper in sax2-gui' the solution above could be that simple (it's not applicable to the proprietary fglrx drivers, though might work as well).
I typed out all of my xorg conf file as well as the next two hours worth of dialog I received when I tried all of your suggestions (none of them worked) and this stupid forum told me a username or agent was not provided and poof all of my typing was gone when I hit the back button. grrrrr
long story short.
sax2 never started up with any selections I could choose from. all I got was a (sax) prompt and got nothing but errors with whatever I typed.
Both commands you provided to stop the xserver did not successfully do so. There was a process not found error of some variety.
Got yast opened and got a suseconfig completed. This got networking services activated and I was able to add repository of gwdg.de and got new XOrg. also got sax2-gui. "sax2-gui" : command not found
/etc/init.d/xconf_create start gave errors with pam_getenv command not found.
inspected xorg.conf for modelines. Had to use pastebin link to write new modeline. Repeat new XOrg did not write a working config for my monitor. After zypper in nano for a text editor that is intuitive and has accessible list of commands, I added correct modeline for my monitor.
startx errored with mulitple lines indicating one was already running and to remove lock file. I removed the lock file and even more errors resulted. I tried as root and user but x would not start.
as none of the commands you provided worked and as new x will not write correct configuration for my monitor and as sax2-gui not a good command even after installing it I am back at square one and I am starting to get frustrated.
SDA can I just build a working disc with the opensuse build service with the correct drivers and modelines already bundled? I am getting tired of all the command line. If so where is the opensuse build service? I go to opensuse.en and all I can find are endless articles talking about ot and no links to the actual service itself. this link is the frustration I talk about http://opensuse.org/Build_Service its an article that talks about it but where is the actual service itself?
Looks like I am heading back to elive for a while.
Thanks for your feedback! Sorry that the disk is not good for you. May be next one will be better.
1) After you got the latest Xorg and sax2-gui you can launch a 'sax2' command as a root and get a nice configuration tool for your TV. The resolution 1280x720 is included by default there and could be tested before save if driver/monitor support it.
2) Disk contain the MC (Midnight Commander) and you could use 'mcedit' command instead of vim/nano/etc any time to edit the files in a simple way.
3) After we make an update/(new version) of the LiveCD (soon, in October i guess) we contribute the simple package to make an Enlightenment LiveCD just with one click. Anyone could install that package, read instruction, add the drivers/packages/components we had missed and "press the button". It means that you can add there the belowed fglrx drivers, remove OpenOffice, add more themes etc...
4) To build the packages in OBS you must get a Novell account (register) and read some basic tutorials how to use OBS and create a nice rpm's. Nothing extra but could take some time to get used to.
Regards, sda
P.S. If you have the Welcome.pdf - welcome to e-mail me in case of any questions.
My last post was written with an air of frustration. My apologies. I did get the netwok active and zyppered in sax2-gui however when typing in sax2-gui the system told me command was not found. Even after updating package though yast2. When typing sax2 the prompt change to (SaX) but no configuration or selections were available. Nothing happened. Anything I typed resulted in sax telling me the command structure it wanted. Command, variable, variable or something like that. Both of the commands you provided did not stop the xserver so in looking back it made no sense to try to go further. I did download new x and it errored when I told it to make an xconfig saying pam_getenv was missing. So after correcting its bad guess with your link to a pastebin xconf based on my monitor I completed what should have been a good config. However I never stopped xserver so new conf never had chance to get loaded.
How come CTL+ALT+ BACKSPACE does not stop the xserver? I heard a beep but I never saw any screen change. I may hold off on OBS. The tool you speak of sounds enticing. I may not have gotten so frustrated if enlightenment forum threw away about five pages of post I was going to make. I will send you an email with my handle in the instruction line. Hopefully you can let me know when next disc is available.
Err... You're damn right! And that's the 'back side of the moon' - our payback that we are using the 'Entrance' instead of 'gdm', 'kdm' and so on. There's only one way to stop the X server for the current disk:
1) you MUST have a command line and be logged as root 2) type the following:
killall -9 entranced killall -9 entrance killall -9 X
but as I wrote above the following command does exactly the same:
/etc/init.d/entrance_livecd stop
If the X is up (via Entrance) -> only switching to the terminal (Ctl+Alt+F1) is a cure. The new disk will contain the init scripts rewritten from scratch (I just finished this yesterday). AFAIK - all others are using 'gdm' and some even state that 'Entrance' is a 'no go'.
The new one will out in days. Announce here as usual. But we're making too many changes and it'd be quite important for User to read a renewed Welcome.pdf. Unfortunately we are limited in resourced to test all the hardware which should work. For example - we'll include 'madwifi' + 'madwifi-kernel-module' on the disk, but some cases show that the only cure is to install the latest Vanilla-openSUSE kernel (2.6.27*) where 'ath5k' is a part of a kernel tree. We just outline such 'events' in the Welcome.pdf and hope that it'd be useful.
You're Welcome any time. I do understand that we're (the SOAD team) made some mistakes and need to correct them. We just don't wanna hurry up this time.
I thought tonight was my night upon seeing new commands to get x server killed. I went through the motions. Software management in yast2 activated network services. Added x and ati repositories. init.d'd an xconf. got ati and did an --initial config. edited the xorg.conf with pastebin link as reference. Thought I was good to go but once I tried to get x back up the command: /etc/init.d/entrance start gave an error of "Becoming entranced: entrance/etc/init.d/entrance: line 25: pam_getenv: command not found. typing: startx gave a lot of bad output claiming failing to load drivers of fglrx but I think thats because of a broken link or due to entrance being proper method to startx. Anything beginning with service like service entrance start also errored saying that service command not found. I also tried /etc/init.d/entrance_livecd start and suggestion of /etc/init.d/entrance_livecd start_original for a gui login was made. So I went of the original option and again pam_getenv command not found. This time line 39. Could not start xserver.
So it seems xserver is not easy to kill nor is it easy to bring back to life. I will await your next suggestion.
Only one suggestion left: please, wait a bit till the new 'release'.
pam_getenv is nothing special, but HUGE THANKS for the testing. It's time for us to think a bit how to implement the Entrance/gdm selector on boot. We also make a nice command 'Kill_X_Server' to kill this friendly buddy and do our best to make things work out of the box.
Installed the recent update on my dell laptop the other night. I really have missed SuSE, just didn't realize it until now. I have been loyal to E17 and playing around with distributions that offered Enlightenment as a desktop shell like Elive, openGEU, GOS, etc....
SOAD linux recognized my dual boot perfectly and no editing of partition scheme was needed. My dell is old. Its a P3 mobile with an NVidia go series and I upped the system RAM to 256mb. This distribution flies. Very lightweight and equipped with simple but effective tools. I cant wait to try the command line disc burning utility.
Yast is a great configuration environment as well. From a users standpoint this one item alone separates SuSE from other distributions. Such a wide range of system control from one interface.
Keep up the good work and thanks for a great distribution!
My only suggestion is to include mrxvt. I would have suggested Eterm but its font selection makes it slightly outdated. At least, with mrxvt you get all the snazzy Eterm-like eye candy e.g. pseudo transparency or real transparency, artwork placement, along with modern font selection. I say, if you want to impress with a gorgeous desktop on a lightweight distro, why not dazzle them all the way :) with Mr. xvt aka the boss of terms mrxvt!
thanks! we're thinking about 'urxvt' actually :). also we'll definitely look at 'mrxvt'. the reason why 'eterm' is not there - is lack of utf8 support. 'eterm' still can't handle UTF chars and this is the core reason why we have only 'xterm'.
