tinycore_v3.4rc1

[roberts]

The First Release Candidate of Tiny Core v3.4 is now posted and ready for testing.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/3.x/release_candidates

tinycore_3.4rc1.iso
tinycore_3.4rc1.iso.md5.txt

Change log for Tiny Core v3.4:

* Updated appsaudit multi-select updates and md5 checking.
* Updated fluff to 0.7.8 with integrated file type and associations GUI.
* Updated mnttool to show all drives and mount launch filemgr via FILEMGR env.
* Updated mnttool to support labels and 10+ partitions.
* Updated wallpaper gradients and color preview.
* Updated wbarconf for control of text, zoom, and icon size.
* Updated ab2tce.sh to terminate if appbrowser is aborted by killing X.
* Updated mountables.sh to support labels and 10+ partitions on a single drive.
* Updated rebuildfstab to support unpartitioned but formatted drives.

Note: .profile has been changed to add FILEMGR=fluff for use by mntttool.
Update your .profile as deemed necessary, e.g.,

cp /etc/skel/.profile /home/tc/.profile


Special thanks to Brian (ixbrian) for contributed mods to wallpaper and wbarconf.

[gerald_clark]

Very nice.
rebuildfstab now recognizes my LVM swap and ext3 partitions after putting 'vgchange -ay' in bootlocal.sh.

One little thing I see is that in AppsAudit, the MD5Check tab exit is 'Exit Update Mode' instead of 'Exit MD5Check'.

[roberts]

One little thing I see is that in AppsAudit, the MD5Check tab exit is 'Exit Update Mode' instead of 'Exit MD5Check'.

I forgot to change its title. After awhile I sometimes just can't see things. But that's where a release candidate and many eyeballs help. Thanks!

[Guy]

I just installed 3.4rc1.

I get an error message during startup, repeated more than once.

end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0

[gutmensch]

@guy: IIRC that's not critical. He's probing the floppy disk for the first sector and finds nothing. I can remember having this "error" on nearly every linux distro, I think there's just no other way to look up if there's a floppy in the drive or not (no USB magic in that old kind of technique

@others: correct me if I'm wrong!

[Guy]

This has only started occurring with 3.4rc1. It did not happen with previous versions.

[curaga]

True, floppies should not be probed.

[roberts]

Precipitated by the change to try to identify unpartitioned devices.
I will make it skip the detection for floppy and leave fstab entry as "auto".    

[maro]

Just spotted a possible surplus file: '/usr/share/doc/mfm.html'

[roberts]

Good catch. Thanks!

[maro]

Whilst searching around for something else I noticed a couple of files where '/home/tc' is used as a hardcoded value representing the default users home directory:

• (1) in '/etc/init.d/services/tftpd' it probably needs the "usual" lookup from '/etc/sysconfig/tcuser',
• (2) in the .desktop file for 'fluff' (i.e. '/usr/share/applications/tinycore-filemgr.desktop') it probably means to replace Exec=fluff /home/tc with Exec=fluff ~ (which should "fix" the FLWM menu),
• (3) the 'fluff' executable also uses '/home/tc' when pressing 'Ctrl-H' no matter what is stated in '/etc/sysconfig/tcuser' (and one ends up with Loc1Path = /home/tc in '~/.fluff.conf'), and
• (4) the 'fluff_help.htm' (in '/usr/share/doc/tc') also makes a reference to '/home/tc', which might not be such a good idea.

Since the FLWM menu uses 'fluff DIR' it appears only "fair" that 'wbar' follows the same principle. That would probably mean a change in '/usr/share/wbar/dot.wbar' from c: exec fluff to c: exec fluff ~. Furthermore I wonder in which directory 'fluff' should start when called from a shell: currently it seems to be always '/' (i.e. the root), but maybe for many users the more "obvious" choice would be the current directory. As it happens it does not like fluff . whilst it behaves as expected with fluff ~

Still on the subject of 'fluff' one minor observation when starting it first time from a shell:

Code: [Select]

Don't know how to process 'FileOwnerColWidth = 80
'...
I guess this is probably harmless, but it might be better to avoid it.

[roberts]

1, 2, and wbar addressed. I have passed on items 3, 4, starting with "." and code example to Mike. Fluff is still in active development. It is currently at 0.7.8. Good feedback. Thanks.

[MikeLockmoore]

@maro:  Thanks for the feedback.  In the current version, Fluff will use the following priority to determine which directory to initially display:

1) The path specified on the command line

2) (If no path on the command line) the path specified by "StartPath" in the .fluff.conf file, but note that this needs to be an explicit path, "~" won't work in the config file

3) (If there is no .fluff.conf file, or the file lacks a StartPath statement) the root directory "/"

Initially starting in the current working directory of a terminal shell session does make some sense.  But then the "StartPath" setting option won't make sense, and should probably be dropped.  And that means that if a user wanted the wbar to launch Fluff in a certain directory, he or she would need to configure the wbar stuff.  Perhaps "." will work as the "StartPath" (I'll need to test this later... if it works, that is a work-around for people who want Fluff to start showing the current working directory.)

There are two buttons on the tool bar, which are initially configured to "Home" and "TCE", which are also triggered by the keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+H.  As long as the first button is configured to the label "Home", Fluff will obtain the path to home via the $HOME environment variable, so it should automatically be correct even in the user does not log in as TC (but I have not tested this directly yet).  Will $HOME conflict with /etc/sysconfig/tcuser?  If so, who should win? Once we sort things, out, I will update the help document.

If the second button bar shortcut button is configured to the label "TCE", Fluff will obtain the path to it by reading /opt/.tce_dir, so it should also automatically adjust if the TCE directory changes for some reason.

The FileOwnerColWidth is an obsolete setting.  I will make sure it is not being written out any longer from Fluff.  Robert will need to make sure the .fluff.conf file that ships in TC Base's .iso does not include this obsolete setting.  (@Robert: Sorry that I neglected to mention this before.)

[roberts]

Referencing /etc/sysconfig/tcuser instead of env HOME is for those processes that may be initiated during boot, i.e., HOME value not set. Fluff would not be such a boot time process. Therefore referencing env HOME should be all that is necessary. Which I believe it is. The "issue" is the default .fluff.conf which we can drop.

Let fluff create such upon initial use. The only reason that I provided /etc/skel.fluff.conf was at the time the .tcz file type and association were not defaulted. Since such is now the case. I don't see a reason for an initial .fluff.conf.

[MikeLockmoore]

RobertS: understood and agreed.  Should I drop the "StartPath" setting and allow the wbar start script pass '~' as maro described?  Then Fluff would default to the current working directory unless there is a path passed into the command line. -- ML