Vuu-do Files

Vuu-do Openbox 64 Minimal 1.09

*News* November 2024: Some bugs fixed, some Appimages added for a modern browser and also the database program Symphytum (for my local public library's old machines). Making the appimages native so as to access easily through menu, located at /usr/local/bin so as to be in the PATH, and .desktops in /usr/share/applications with the others. Being appimages they are essentially sandboxed from the rest of the system to an extent, they contain all their own dependencies.

Firefox 128 Extended Support Release. The files it makes are in /home/[username]/.mozilla 
Symphytum database is in /home/[username]/.local/share/giowisys/Symphotum

Note they are in users home but are hidden normally, you will need to enable hidden files in the file manager view menu whenever you want to see files that start with a dot.

So this is version 1.09, essentially 1.07 with the changes noted above. The repo is now archived and there will be no updates as such. There are quite a few minor updates still available in the archive repo, but they are just that, minor version upgrades. I have changed sources.list to the archive so you can apply the updates if you like, but I have not done so myself and have not tested any of them, so breakage might occur and other unforeseen issues.

You can of course update the browser with a newer appimage, but Firefox 128 is long-term support. Do NOT try to update Symphytum, there is no newer version that works with this system.

Everything still works wonderfully in Vuu-do, and a modern browser was really all that HAD to be updated to work properly. This system was built on and for hardware made around 2010-2012 and is amazingly quick on such and even faster on newer machines. It would probably work on hardware going all the way back to 2005 or so as long as it was a 64-bit CPU. 

One thing: to view webp images you have stored locally you'll need to open them in the browser, as the old image viewing program onboard does not have that capability.

Update: 11/24/2024 1.08 uploaded and available.

Update: 11/25/2024 - Finished up on 1.08-1 and uploaded, many bug fixes and tweaks, minor mostly but an ugly mess i've been needing to work on for a while. Added another right-click context item for PcmanFM, when you right click on an image file you'll now have an option to view it's exif data in a window of it's own. 

Update: 11/26/2024 This is Vuu-do 1.09 which should be the last version change for Vuu-do 1, updated to all the most recent packages in the archive repo including a new kernel.

~greenjeans 
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Note from greenjeans:

Vuu-do is not a distro. It is a project, a user re-spin. It is not really suitable to be widely distributed, there is much hackiness, all of which actually make it run faster and better for it's intended purpose, but hackiness nonetheless. In general, the smaller your operating system, the faster it is, this is why I go so hardcore on getting rid of anything that's not being used. So for right now, english and utf-8 are the only options available in Vuu-do. A determined user could fairly easily re-build Vuu-do to run another language/locale. Please feel free to do so, use anything here as you see fit and make it your own!

Greenjeans is not a developer, just a veteran unix user. ;) 

All Vuu-do images include (and are built with) Refracta-snapshot, Refracta-installer, and Refracta2usb, making it easy for anyone to "roll their own". Users are actively encouraged to do so, Vuu-do is made with the same "Make It Your Own" philosophy adopted from Miyolinux which was the inspiration for Vuu-do Openbox.

Openbox in general tends to be more for advanced users and offers less conveniences than full-featured desktop environments, but Vuu-do is pretty cushy, and ought to make it easy for everyone. It's also lightweight and quick, you can use the "load to ram" option on the livecd with just a couple gigs of ram and Vuu-do will run pretty fast, a liveUSB is a great option too, fast and with persistence capability.

VUU-DO stands for Veteran Unix User-do, because if I can do it, so can you. And all thanks to a lot of great VUA's who make VUU's possible, please support Devuan and init-freedom! :D

Vuu-do is powered by Devuan with the help of a whole lotta fsmithred/Refracta magic and Miyolinux soul.
_____________________________________

FOR ALL VUU-DO ISO'S: 

USERNAME = vuudo PASSWORD= vuudo | ROOT PASSWORD = root

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Vuu-do Linux Release Notes | Version: 1.09 Openbox-64 minimal (non-uefi)| Software updated to: 11/26/2024 archive, 2018-2021.
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*These release notes are now common for all versions of Vuu-do Openbox, so some sections may apply to the maximal versions only. The particular version you are using however will always be reflected in the release notes line above.*

A few basics first: This is Openbox, expect less in the way of convenience unless you change it. It will also use less ram (by far) and be quicker. 

No desktop icons in Vuu-do, Openbox and Pcmanfm do have this capability, it's just not set up that way in Vuu-do. No drag-n-dropping icons into the panel either, use Tint2 Settings to add/subtract apps and other panel content. 

You can right-click anywhere in the desktop and also in clear areas of the panel and it will open the main menu. You can also (as of Vuu-do 1.0.4) use the alt+m keyboard shortcut. All this may be different than what you are used to, try it, you might like it. If not, try the Mate version for more drag-n-drop functionality and conventional panel menu.

FOR BEST RESULTS PLEASE USE THE EXPERT INSTALL! And remember, changes made to a running liveCD session will persist to the installed system if you install it during that session. 

Best policy for a clean install IMO : 

Try the liveCD out, take it for a spin and check out the programs and system and see if they work for you, if you like it and want to install then re-boot. 

Once booted in the liveCD session again, open Gparted and set up your partition for Vuu-do, apply and then close Gparted. Now run the installer and choose the expert install option, put a checkmark in the box for "Do not format filesystems, i'll handle it myself" when the list pops up, and choose "skip this step" when it asks if you want to run the partitioner. Install grub to the mbr if you want an awesome Vuu-do grub background! \o/ bonus: Vuu-do's grub will recognize your other Devuan and Vuu-do installs.

You can also install from a liveUSB using the same basic procedure, but you may need to run 'update-grub' as root in a terminal after you boot into the new install to have grub see your other partitions on that drive.

---------------------
General configuration
---------------------

While the system itself is extensively customized, with a few exceptions there is no initial configuration done to the programs in the maximal versions. Opening most of them for the first time adds anywhere from a few hundred k to dozens of mb's to the system in the case of large programs like the browser, and most folks like to configure their preferences for themselves in any case. All part of trimming the fat.

----------------
Trimming the fat
----------------

This is how I get the iso's so much smaller, and also part of the reason Vuu-do is more of a project than a distribution. Over 100 mb of files in /usr/share/doc, hundreds more in translations and locales, help files, backup files, etc. I also limited the amount of icon packs and themes, the gnome icons in particular take a lot of space so they're gone. 

In general it is assumed Vuu-do will be used by new users who probably wouldn't get much use out of those files anyway, or advanced users who don't need these things and would rather have the space filled with something useful to them. Most folks like to use their own wallpaper, preferred icons, theme etc., so I have kept the onboard-stuff in Vuu-do to a minimum.

Goal is to keep Vuu-do maximals smaller than CD size and under 2 gigs unpacked , yet still be able to edit/create/mod/view all common filetypes and perform all common tasks. The programs have been very carefully chosen and agonized over to this end, pruned in places, extended in others, and work is ongoing. 

It is also a goal to make Vuu-do completely and easily customizable by the user even if they are a NUU (New Unix User). Keeping it quick and light is easy in the minimals, much harder in the maximals, and this is also an important goal. Vuu-do Openbox versions typically idle at around ~130 mb of ram, adding services at startup will increase this, but even if you turn them all on it is still way less than 200 mb.

---------------------------------
Multi-user vs. single-user system
---------------------------------

Vuu-do is set up as a single-user system, I doubt many people still run multi-user systems, especially not in laptops. Adding a user will require invoking useradd, and Vuu-do does NOT currently have an /etc/skel file, to add another user you would need to make your own /etc/skel/, or alternately run as-is which will get you a very basic user profile then drop a custom dconf config file from another partition into the new user's home, or just make it and config it from the ground up.

TO-DO: I might make a Vuu-do /etc/skel file at some time in the future, but just not seeing need for it yet.

------------------
Keyboard Shortcuts
------------------

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts that have been added for your convenience. Please note that the font used on the conky display writes in all caps regardless of case, but all shortcuts use alt + (lower-case) letters to activate the shortcuts as properly listed below. 

alt + f = file manager
alt + t = terminal
alt + m = main menu
alt + l = lock screen
alt + s = suspend 
alt + h = hibernate
alt + r = reboot
alt + p = power-off/shutdown
alt + c = conky on/off switch
prt sc  = take screenshot 
----------------------------------

To edit/add/subtract keyboard shortcuts, go to the menu under Configuration and choose Advanced >> Openbox >> Edit Openbox RC

-----
Sound
-----

Sound is provided using ALSA, libpulse is onboard because it got dragged in by one of the media programs and is used (allegedly) to translate connections to other machines on the network that are using Pulse. In practice it tried to start that pulsecookie stuff and started creating folders in the users Home. So I disabled that part, you may need to re-install libpulse if you require that functionality.

To change Volumeicon preferences, right click the icon in the tray and choose "preferences". To adjust sound, go to the Advanced section of the menu and choose "Sound (ALSA)", you'll find the mixer there and also an equalizer, they open in terminal so you'll need to navigate using the keyboard arrows.

System runs entirely on 0.10 versions of Gstreamer, some apps you install may require the newer 1.0 Gstreamer packages, but so far everything in Vuu-do works perfectly with the older versions.

If Volumeicon does not pop up in the tray when you boot, it means that sound isn't properly initialized, probably the most common reason is your machine having more than one sound device. If your machine has an HDMI output then most likely it has two, one regular and one for the HDMI. ALSA defaults to using the first card (card 0), but in a dual card system, card 0 will often be the HDMI and the regular card is card 1. 

The quick ten-second fix in most cases is to add the file ".asoundrc" in your users home folder. ALSA doesn't require an .asoundrc to work, it's just a backup for cases like this where you need to change ALSA's default choices. Use this command in terminal to identify your cards: aplay -l 

Choose the card number that's not HDMI, it will likely be card 1, so we need to tell ALSA to use card 1 instead of card 0, here's the simple .asoundrc that should fix it for you:

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card 1
 }

ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card 1
 }

------------------------
Themes, icons, wallpaper
------------------------

Everything in Vuu-do is customizable and as many tools as possible are included to help the user do so. Open the menu and look under Configuration. The Settings, Sytem, and Advanced sub-menus are where you'll find most config options/tools. 

In addition to using Nitrogen to set wallpaper, the file manager (PcmanFM) has a right-click option when you select an image file that will offer "Set As Wallpaper", clicking this will copy the selected image to the wallpapers folder (/usr/share/images/Wallpapers/) and open Nitrogen for you to select the image and display options (i.e. Automatic, Scaled, etc.), and apply as wallpaper. 

Default theme used in Vuu-do is Numix-Frost, to edit the colors in this theme directly, go to /usr/share/themes/Numix-Frost/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and edit that file, there's a note in there pointing to the section, it's right at the top. Be VERY careful messing around in theme files, easy to break stuff, try to stick with just changing the color codes, best practice is to make yourself a backup, copy/paste a copy in your home folder first.

See the "Wallpapers/backgrounds" and "Panel/Tint2" sections below for more appearance-configuration info.

Vuu-do now also has "Resize Image" and "Rotate Image" options when you right-click some image files while in the file-manager (maximal editions only). 

As of version 1.08-1 it now also has an option to view exif data in the right-click menu for images.

The Resize option will ask for a size and then make a copy of the image in the new size and convert it to a JPEG, it will also add the new dimensions of the image to the filename. It's a "smart" resize in that it will retain the ratio of the original regardless of input, i.e. a 16x9 will stay a 16x9 even if you choose "800x600" in the dialog, the output image will be 800x450 and the new filename will reflect that.

The Rotate option makes a simple rotated copy in the same file type as the original, and adds "rotated" to the filename of the output image.

----
Menu
----

The Menu as noted below is dynamic, it will add/subtract entries in the menu automatically as applications are installed/removed. But it can be static as well
like the entries under the "Vuu-do Linux" section, and you can edit/add/subtract them. 

You can also delete the installer section at the top "Live CD/USB" along with the installer entry after you have installed the system from live media. It's the same Refracta Installer that's elsewhere in the menu if you need it later to make your own iso. 

To edit, open the menu to Configuration >> Advanced Settings >> Obmenu-Generator >> Edit Menu Schema , this will open the file in Pluma (text-editor) for you to edit, and I have made a note in that file pointing directly to the content you will need to comment out or remove.

<hackiness> 

I couldn't find a .deb of obmenu-generator that didn't still include cpanminus and other things as dependencies that are not really dependencies, cpan was needed to build the package originally, and someone just packaged it as-is still listing depends no longer needed. 

Obmenu-generator is not currently a Devuan package, but that might change in the future, so for now what i've done is delete the package and all those depends from Vuu-do, but I restored the actual executable (/usr/bin/obmenu-generator, there's also a schema template in /etc/obmenu-generator) and the config files in user's home (~/.config/obmenu-generator/*) and root's home, the program really only requires Perl, so it works normally. When it gets re-packaged i'll add the package to Vuu-do. 

This version of Vuu-do includes the newest (as of December 2017) 0.84 version of the Obmenu-Generator script in /usr/bin/, and also the newest Linux::DesktopFiles perl module (version .25) from the same author (Trizen).

TO-DO: Tooltips for menu entries, doesn't seem to be an option currently in obmenu-generator, but surely there's a way...I could see leaving the .desktop entries alone (see below maximal-specific-hackiness) if you could hover over menu entries and see the description. 

</hackiness> 

<maximal-specific-hackiness>
 
Desktop menu entries: 
I modded a LOT of the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications to give a short description of what the program actually does in the "Name" category. Too many one word names in the menu that didn't give a clue as to what the program actually did, common sense suggests it helps folks if you're a little descriptive, so I added extra info where needed so people new to the system can get oriented easily and quickly. I also modded quite a few to prevent redundant menu entries, but left a couple extras where apropos. 

Updating any of those programs however, will likely change it back, but it's simple for you to retain a copy of the descriptive .desktop file, or change the new one again.

System-config-printer:
I changed this program's entry in /var/lib/dpkg/status to delete the dependency on the gnome icon theme and changed it's version number to one higher (avoids Synaptic error), it really doesn't require the gnome icons to work and nothing else in Vuu-do Openbox does either, so I un-installed them. If you update this package (not likely, it very seldom has updates) it might re-install them.

Icons:
Libreoffice had large SVG's for their default menu icons, slows the menu down BAD. Deleted all, automatically replaced with smaller PNG's. Handbrake only had one icon but it was even larger than the Libre icons, an impressive 3.4 mb menu-killer, I made PNG's from the SVG and deleted it, Tint2conf as well. I also deleted a metric ton of other icons that Libreoffice dragged in, gnome, locolor, 512x512's and such, and also deleted the Libreoffice gallery in /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/gallery, 17 mb of images that the Libre users I polled didn't even know existed and had never used. Re-install if you want 'em.

</maximal-specific-hackiness>

-------
Sudo/Su
-------

Sudo is installed but there is no one listed in the sudoers file. You can add your user during the install process, or add after install. Su works everywhere, that's what I use instead of sudo, so for all root tasks on the livecd use su. If you want to run your machine this way after install, simply un-check all the sudo options when that screen pops up during install (as of Vuu-do 1.03, default is all options already unchecked so just leave them that way if you want to use su). 

Username/passwords for the livecd:

vuudo (user account) = vuudo
root = root

You can choose to enable/disable autologin for your user during install. To change autologin settings after install, edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf as root.

------------------------------
Power management/screen-locker
------------------------------

For the fastest possible shutdown, try the alt+p keyboard shortcut, suspend and hibernate work best using the keyboard shortcuts as well.

The XFCE power manager is installed and most functions work other than the options for when you close the lid on your laptop. 

Suspend, hibernate etc. all work fine thanks to the Obsession shutdown program (which also is used for the keyboard power shortcuts).

As of Vuu-do 1.0.4 I have gotten the system to suspend when you close the lid using an /etc/acpi/events entry connecting to a small script that invokes 
obsession-exit -s, but doesn't seem to work with i3lock even if you uncomment that line in obsession.conf, if you alt+s it works perfectly, but not if you close the lid, and still doesn't work with the XFCE power manager in it's settings menu.

No screensaver is installed, xscreensaver works fine if you want a full screensaving app, and it's available in the repo.

Screen-locking is enabled and shortcut is noted in conky display (Alt + l) in addition to main menu. This is only a locker, not a screensaver, the program is i3lock and it just blanks/locks your screen. It currently uses an image background with intructions for unlocking, if you'd like to use another image simply change the pathway. If you'd like to use a solid color try something like 'i3lock -c 000000', this will give you a solid black background, for a different color just change the rgb color code.To edit the command, open the main menu and navigate to Advanced-Openbox-Edit Openbox RC which will bring up the keyboard shortcuts file, scroll down to find the alt=L i3lock entry.

To unlock simply type your password and hit enter, i3lock doesn't give you a pretty unlock-gui like mate-screensaver or xscreensaver, you just get a simple green circle once you start typing and then after you finish and hit enter it unlocks immediately. So there is no service running sucking up power and ram, and the i3lock program and dependencies only add up to half a MB, so it's lightweight and very quick.

Obsession can work with i3lock to enable screenlocking upon resume from suspend and hibernation, to enable this feature just open ~/.config/obsession.conf (or root/.config/obsession.conf if you run as root) and uncomment the line referring to screenlocking, I added comments in that file to make it easy.

----------------------
Wallpapers/backgrounds
----------------------

To change desktop background, open menu then Configuration >> Settings >> Nitrogen

To add your own desktop backgrounds, drop them into /usr/share/images/Wallpapers. You don't need to be root. The next time you open Nitrogen(wallpaper-setter in menu)they'll be there. As noted earlier you can also now (as of Vuu-do 1.0.4) right-click any suitable image and choose "Set As Wallpaper". You can delete any existing wallpaper in that folder but.... 

.....the main Vuu-do wallpaper (vuudo11.jpg) is also being used as the background for lightdm (log-in manager), so if you delete it you'll need to provide another background image for it, go to /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf and edit this line "background=/usr/share/images/Wallpapers/vuudo11.jpg" to the correct new image you want to use. You can also change gtk theme, fonts, etc. while there. 

In addition, "vuudolock4.png" is being used as the screenlock background, so if you delete it be sure to provide another (or change to a solid color) and change the commands.

To change grub background, you'll need to provide a .png image named "desktop-grub.png", and use it to replace the same file in /boot/grub/. I'm pretty sure it needs to be 4:3 res, but I could be wrong about that, and it needs to be smaller than 500k or it won't work, the smaller the better, the one I used is 1600x1200 and about 200k.

-----------
Panel/Tint2
-----------

To add or subtract items from the panel or change it's size/color, open the menu and look under Configuration >> Settings >> Tint2 Settings, clicking that will open a nice GUI for editing the Tint2 config file, click "Edit Theme" up at the top left of that window to start editing. This makes Tint2 a lot more appealing than it used to be, it's super lightweight but still does pretty much everything you need a panel to do.

-------------
Time/Calendar
-------------

Ntp is installed in maximal versions, it's a lightweight service that runs in the background and automatically syncs your clock when you get online.

The calendar can be accessed by left-clicking the clock in the panel, if you right-click the clock it will allow you to change your timezone (dpkg-reconfigure tzdata), then enter your root password and follow the instructions. These functions are noted in the clock's tooltip which you'll see when you hover over it.

Sometimes it's necessary to change your hardware clock time in BIOS.

----
Grub
----

I fixed a small issue with grub, in that if you run update-grub after you're system is installed, it was defaulting to listing this OS as "Debian", it was in the /etc/default/grub file, the grub script reads this when you update grub and defaults to the grub_distributor as name for the main listing in grub. I changed this line so it will recognize Vuu-do when you update-grub.

Also modded os-probes so grub will recognize/label Devuan installs on other partitions, and will recognize other Vuu-do installs as well.

------------------------------------
Printing/scanning (maximal editions)
------------------------------------

The SaneD scanner program is configured not to auto-start on boot, you can enable it in Boot-Up manager, and the Xsane frontend is installed in maximal editions. 

The cups service is also turned off, enable it if you intend to print, you will need to start the service before the program "Print Settings" will work. 

I also have moved the Print-Tray-Applet from autostart, doesn't make much sense to have it start on every boot if you don't print much. You'll find it in /etc/xdg/.  If you want it to start every boot, just move it into /etc/xdg/autostart, there's a readme in /etc/xdg that explains this if you forget or haven't made it this far in my long-winded notes.

-----
Other
-----

Resolution is usually set automatically to the best res your monitor is capable of with the open-source drivers, if you want to change this you can use xrandr in terminal, or open "Monitor Settings"(lxrandr) from the main menu which is a graphic interface to xrandr. To do any better than the open-source driver you would need to install proprietary drivers for your graphics chip, those are available in the repo too, but do take some work to install and activate properly.

Fixed an issue with pcmanfm not mounting other partitions with a click, had to change some policy in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks2.policy, if you open that file you'll see the portions relating to disk-mounting. I set it so user can mount/open with a click and view files, you'll still need to gksu to root if you want to alter system files in those partitions or see into protected files.

Bluetooth support is onboard, but not enabled to start on boot, use Boot-Up Manager from the menu to start the service and enable on boot-up, bluetooth firmware is also included in maximal editions of Vuu-do.

Added a bunch of wi-fi firmware to try and cover as many computers as possible, if you know what firmware your machine needs to connect, you can safely un-install the rest, there are also AMD and Intel microcode packages onboard.

FOR BEST INSTALLATION RESULTS, PLEASE USE THE EXPERT INSTALL.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greenjeans closing note: I'm pretty sure if you try to update Vuu-do (jessie) to ascii or ceres that it will go badly, please record your epic cussing fits on video for my later enjoyment, i'm especially gratified and entertained when people throw stuff.

peace y'all,
~greenjeans