Request for Help Testing - FluxBox/Systemd ISO

[VastOne]

Request for Help Testing - FluxBox/Systemd ISO

I have streamlined this ISO to have only FluxBox and it is using systemd as a default

Please test and let me know your thoughts

download from here

[VastOne]

VSIDO + systemd + FluxBox

OOTB

[PackRat]

Some first impressions:

Excellent piece of work, fully functional Sid distro; runs really smooth on my HP2000 laptop; most distros run a bit hot but this one is slick. Will test the video multimedia later.

- some deviations from the KISS principal though:

FileZilla and gFTP are installed by default - select one and drop the other; both are in the repos so easy enough to switch on the user end.

You dropped Thunar, but kept a lot of other Xfce apps; is there a way to replace a lot of these and decrease the size and O&M of the iso? Just off the top of my head:

Fluxbox has fbrun internally so xfrun4 is redundant
Terminator replaces xfce4-terminal - this would also give a tmux-like interface to the terminal
alsamixer-gui replaces xfce4-mixer

Don't know if there are easy swaps for the other apps - and I usually install xfburn on my systems - but it seems to me you can drop some apps.

Keep up the awesome work.

Edit - O&M = Operations and Maintenance for anyone scratching their head.

[VastOne]

Great info and discussion ...

gFTP will be removed

The xfce apps that are there are unique ones that help make VSIDO what it is...

xfce4-appfinder can and will replace xfrun4 because it can be run as xfce4-appfinder --collapsed and becomes the default run program... I want to keep this because of how powerful the appfinder side of it is, especially for a DE like FluxBox.  It is a perfect two in one application that expands with the dropdown... This I like more than anything for users who are new to FluxBox

Personally, I am not a fan at all of terminator and like all of the options in xfce4-terminal... as far as size, it is negligible.. they are about the same on the ISO and and memory when running... Having said that, I need to look more into this 'tmux-like interface'... What are it's advantages?

I will did check out alsamixer-gui, although xfce4-mixer is small with no dependencies and does the job...

Check this out



xfce4-mixer hands down looks a TON better.... and is fully functional

Thanks PackRat, I really appreciate your insight and input

[VastOne]

Lets expand upon this even more...

What about Transmission?  Is there a better app?

Mirage and I like it but is there a better app?

There are a few untouchables...

Iceweasel (for now)
GMusicBrowser
SpaceFM
Medit
FluxBox
bum
disk-manager
ceni
puddletag
tint2

Let me know... This is the time to be creative

[PackRat]

Cool - I was thinking you would also remove some xfce4 library files as well and make a significant drop in size of the iso.

Terminator allows the terminal be split horizontally and vertically as well as tabs - so you can have multiple sessions in multiple tabs. Very similar to the containers that are created in i3. Again though, I was thinking you could unload a bunch of xfce4 libraries if you swapped out some apps.

[VastOne]

Actually, XFCE is quite small... I did an original build and removed everything related to XFCE and was surprised at how little it changed the ISO size

Sitting at 663 Mb right now with all three WM's loaded is a nice footprint

With this build and stripping OB and most of Xfce removed we are at 653 MB... not much play below that...

[jedi]

  First a note to lwfitz;  When running the vsido-welcome script, Thunar got installed while installing some of the developer apps! 

OK, Xfce4-Terminal is to me, way nicer than Terminator.  That said, I usually install Terminator, uzbl, and claws mail, for those brief flings dizzie talks me into with i3!  I just really can't get into the 'tiling' anymore for some reason.

"There are a few untouchables..."

Iceweasel (for now)
GMusicBrowser
SpaceFM
Medit
FluxBox
bum
disk-manager
ceni
puddletag
tint2

I totally agree these are and should be "untouchables"!  IMO Xfce4-mixer is prettier, and for me offers all the functions I need as well as looking pretty nice too.  (oh I said that already)

Transmission is the only 'Bit-Torrent' client I've used with Linux.  I really like it, and it has my vote as being the default.

The Xfce4-Application Finder is really awesome.  It is a big help to me when running the Fluxbox Menu editor, as I can 'look-up' locations, icons, etc when adding apps to the Fluxbox menu itself.  It is also pretty nice just as a stand-alone app menu as it lists everything installed on the system, and is pretty unobtrusive sitting in the 'Accessories' menu.

I really am amazed at the ISO footprint, being as small as it is, for the punch it packs!  There are only a couple of "popular distro's" out there that are smaller.  (The Arch and Gentoo distro's are relatively small, and if you wanted to count them, pmagic and gpartedlive which really can't be counted as distro's can they?)  I'm talking about LiveCD/USB stuff here.  Buntu is at a minimum of around 760Mb, and at the other extreme, openSUSE is a whopping 4.4Gb.  IMO the size of the VSIDO ISO is perfect, and even if it grew in size, I'd still be using it.  Nothing else has ever ran on a laptop for me as well as VSIDO does!

I agree with PackRat about the "coolness" feature of VSIDO as well.  My laptop runs way cooler with VSIDO than any other OS I've had on it!

The one app I'd like to see added is Icedove.  My mail client of choice.  This is insignificant though as apt-get has it installed for me in about 30 seconds.

My preference is Mirage over ImageMagick.  That's just a personal choice though and I've used both to view images.  I think Mirage is better featured and just looks better!

Sorry PackRat, I really don't like the tmux look myself.  I have lots of gold teeth and chains and earings and lip rings and all kinds of bling I like to show off!  (I don't really have all that gold stuff, though when I was really young I got an ear pierced!)  Anyway, this is the fun part of Linux!  If we don't like something, it is pretty simple to change.

Keep up the great work VastOne!

[jedi]

I didn't mention that I totally rebuilt the laptop this morning using the new Fluxbox only ISO.  Really glad you did the Fluxbox only build with systemd!  It is an outstanding build and with systemd installed by default, well, it's just AWESOME!!!

[VastOne]

^^ Nice writeup! 

Thanks... I do appreciate it!

[PackRat]

I use Transmission; it's always just worked. Deluge is nice and I know a lot of people that prefer it, but I don't use torrents enough to really say one is better than the other.

This is the first time I've used Mirage and I'm liking it. I'll have to put it through its paces.

Part of VSIDO's appeal is that you've bundled some apps that fly under the radar but just work. I like that approach. You're not just "painting the barn" as the saying goes.

Good set of multimedia apps, and system admin tools. Well done.

Side note - I had zero problems logging into my NFS server from this laptop so that's all good. Anyone using VSIDO as an NFS or Samba server?

[VastOne]

^ Nice input...

10 gold bullions to whomever solves the SpaceFM / SMF / Samba setup

I use sshfs for all my connection needs ...

[jedi]

Hey guys, probably should post this somewhere else, but here goes.  Get this error on every boot.



Any ideas?  It stays there for 10 or 15 seconds, then boots fine...

[VastOne]

I have not seen this, but I am seeing a delay on one of my test systmed installs...

Mine stops at systemd-fsck and just hangs there for a while... It is on the original that I have the FB / Systemd only build setup but it does not appear on any of the ISO installs...  As soon as I install it, systemd installs boots fine

[ozitraveller]

I usually get rid of bluetooth and exim4 after a new build as they slowdown the boot while they start daemons.