Quirky Pyro64 version 0.2 (alpha)

This is the very first release of Quirky built from binary packages compiled from source in OpenEmbedded.

This is not a "final" release, currently considered as alpha quality. Though, you are likely to find it to be pretty good. Feedback is requested, bugs reported, improvement suggestions.

The download file is only 290MB, yet has an incredible collection of applications, including LibreOffice, Kodi, Gimp, Planner, Pidgin, Dia, Xine, SeaMonkey, Gphoto2, Gparted and Grisbi -- plus lots more!

Here are release notes and issues, in no particular order:

  1. Kodi and Xine. Two media players. Comparisons please! Kodi is huge, that 290MB download could be 260MB if I left it out (it would still be available in the package manager (PPM).
  2. Kodi issues. Usability testing of Kodi is needed. I can't seem to exit from it, except by press "\" to make it into a window, minimise the window then kill the window.
  3. Intel video. Currently there is only hardware-accelerated video for Intel graphics. I might compile more, for example 'nouveau', if there is interest.
  4. PPLOG, the person blog, is broken. It has been broken for a long time, should take it out if it can't be fixed.
  5. Printing works. For my laser printer anyway. The build has the gutenprint drivers, and hplip drivers are in the PPM.
  6. LibreOffice. Works great. Amazing to get such a huge app in such a small build. The database components needs a database, and 'mariadb' is in the PPM. Note. LibreOffice was compiled without Java support.
  7. Samba. Not there, I plan to compile it. Perhaps it will be in the next build, or in the PPM.
  8. OpenEmbedded. This was my dream, to compile everything from source. Not quite there yet, some packages not yet ported into OE, and in those cases have used binary packages from Quirky April.
  9. Green theme. Perhaps not to everyones liking. I will develop a new theme for the final release.
  10. Package choices. Any suggestions welcome for the next build. Some packages might need updating. Our enthusiastic Puppy developers are always coming up with new and improved apps. Jemimah's 'frisbee' for example -- rerwin has been working on that.

Installation

To install, there are choices:

There is the file 'pyro64-0.2.usfs.xz', which requires a script to install. Scripts to choose from are: 4install-quirky-to-drive-gpt, 4install-quirky-to-drive-mbr, 4install-quirky-to-partition, installquirky.amd64 and installquirky.x86.
The latter two are intended to work on Linux systems that might not have all the pre-requisites for an installation -- note, I haven't tested those last two for a very long time.

If the above is too intimidating, there is a simple flash stick image, for 8GB stick, 'pyro64-0.2-8gb.img.xz'.

Further installation notes can be found here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/releases/xerus-8.1.6/howto-install.htm
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/amd64/releases/werewolf-7.4/install-quirky.htm

There will be more information posted, please monitor my blog:
http://barryk.org/news

Also monitor this thread on the Puppy Forum and post feedback there:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=110453

Regards,
Barry Kauler
19 May 2017