First impressions (feedback) and persistence

[Stevo]

The "splash screen" between GRUB and the lightdm login would be provided by plymouth. You can install it and at least one plymouth theme from synaptic, and add "splash" to the GRUB boot command.

Unfortunately, all there are in Synaptic are some Debian themes. Ubuntu themes will not work. I have an earth-sunrise theme deb that'll work--maybe eventually we'll make an MX theme?

[TenderFoot]

Thanks. Had to fiddle a bit to get a splash in Mint recently. Anyway, installed plymouth + plymouth-themes-all, rebooted then edited what I perceived to be the appropriate line (a bit more complicated for grub2 than grub!) and added "splash" after "quiet". The result was a sort of broken progress bar across the usual text output - not very satisfactory! Nor does there seem to be a way of selecting the splash so think a bit more research/editing may be necessary. The identically name splash available in Settings > Session and Strartup refers, of course, to the xfce one which shows the loading of its own components.

I quite like the splash and progress bar used in Mepis 8/11 startup and shutdown which seems to be a genuine indication rather than the oscillating or rotating ones (animated gif images?) now favoured by most distros which seem to be independent of what's actually happening - if anything! Anyway, have located earth_sunrise_1.0_all.deb - will that do?

I should. perhaps, add that my above experiments with splash are in an installed version of MX not the liveusb - neither of which I mind testing to breaking point at this time!

Referring back to OP:

Audio is now sorted on the two desktops. For whatever reason, most distros seem to default to the tv card as the sound device rather than PnP Audio .

Printing. Adding a couple of cups modules has made localhost:631 available but choosing manage printers wouldn't load. HPlip toolbox discovers the 5510e ok but then fails to communicate with it (error 5012). Looking at the error log indicates a problem with avahi so installed avahi-utils - which I know is a dependency - but still no joy. However coincidentally(?) it unstuck manage printers so now have one n/w printer sorted - almost. But on a broader point, I wonder why cups is not more complete by default in MX - xfce is more compact than kde3 (isn't it) yet M8 is more complete but will fit a cd?

Persistence. Had another go at booting the liveusb with Static Root + Home but failed complaining of corrupt rootfs but suspect this may be a consequence of aborting during the earlier mentioned password/security demands so will have to re-unetbootin and start again! Alternatively could I just recreate the rootfs?

As an additional thought, xfce usually has a couple of hidden files - gtkrc-2.0 and gtkrc-xfce - in the home folder and which can be edited to tweak some aspects of the desktop. Copied them from another xfce install and all is well! With the exception that, on reboot, the icons are partly hidden behind the panel but easily adjusted - so yes. at least home persistence is now working!

I would also add that I'm acting as a sort of "devils advocate" in this thread on behalf of those (like me!) who prefer things to work OOTB with a nice Gui for utilities and tweaks to hide the gory details of cli functions and there myriad switches which you gurus are so comfortable with! To labour a well worn analogy (or is it metaphor?), we don't need to know how a car works to drive it, with maintenance left to the experts - insofar a modern car can be maintained by us anyway, beyond basic housekeeping! No longer do we have to resort to the ubiquitous Haynes self-maintainer "bibles" to dismantle our vehicle with its wonderful final one line instruction "assembly is the reverse of dismantling" - which it rarely was!

And talking of documentation , reading the discussion in another thread, linux documentation is usually either barely existent or more often over complicated and/or technical - useful only to a guru who probably doesn't need it anyway. How about a "Documentation for Dummies" policy? Most of us lesser mortals would appreciate simple , perhaps briefly commented, step-by-step guides to achieve a goal. This may be accompanied by a more in-depth description of the processes so that we could develop our own understanding. If cli is involved then an expansion of the purpose and meaning of the various switches - for the aforesaid dummies!

[This may develop into a sort of (b)log - though with a positive motive - but will try to stick to the original queries, and if I forget to thank somebody, please take it as read!]

[Jerry3904]

And talking of documentation , reading the discussion in another thread, linux documentation is usually either barely existent or more often over complicated and/or technical - useful only to a guru who probably doesn't need it anyway. How about a "Documentation for Dummies" policy? Most of us lesser mortals would appreciate simple , perhaps briefly commented, step-by-step guides to achieve a goal. This may be accompanied by a more in-depth description of the processes so that we could develop our own understanding. If cli is involved then an expansion of the purpose and meaning of the various switches - for the aforesaid dummies!

Hmmm. This raises 2 quesions for me: 1) looking at your statement that i highlighted above: have you actually looked at the documentation for MX-14? 2) somebody has to write documentation: are you volunteering?

In a group where the small number of people doing development are all volunteers, simply complaining goes nowhere. This is a community: if you see a problem, create the solution!

[TenderFoot]

I wasn't having a pop at MX - it is a generalised comment about linux documentation! Mepis manuals and wiki are second to none and am simply endorsing the desire for documentation for "the rest of us".

I haven't found a specific MX manual yet though have seen the video and looked at antiX wiki. I was also looking at the thread in which BitJam gave a very full description of persistence and other contributors' suggestions for it inclusion in a/the manual. Anticapitlista also provides a nice simple guide as OP to same thread http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/viewtop ... 91&t=35481

If I were so knowledgeable then perhaps I would accept the challenge but if that were the case this thread wouldn't have started. Nevertheless, my comment was intended as positive not negative. However, if I learn to tame all aspects of persistence and then perhaps have a go from the perspective of a dummy...!

[BitJam]

... if I learn to tame all aspects of persistence and then perhaps have a go from the perspective of a dummy...!

Or from the perspective of someone just learning it. And you certainly don't need to tame all aspects before your input becomes useful. We already have people who know all the aspects. I think that knowledge gets in the way of them explaining it to beginners.

One trick that will help you convert your learning into blazing a path for others is to take copious notes. Record your experience. Perhaps even do a video screen capture but that won't replace your notes. You might come up with some ideas for changes that would make things easier and more intuitive for beginners. At the least you can probably create a simple how-to for other beginners.

You might think you have very little to offer because you are coming from the perspective of a beginner. But as you have seen and made clear, we need someone with that perspective to explain it to other beginners. Once you have mastered all the aspects it may be too late! Just the record of your experience could be useful even if you don't convert it into documentation.

[Gaer Boy]

I haven't found a specific MX manual yet...

Try the large question mark in the panel.

[BitJam]

Also the MX Docs tab on our Home Page. TBH, I couldn't find the docs either the first time I looked.

[Jerry3904]

Also the MX Docs tab on our Home Page. TBH, I couldn't find the docs either the first time I looked.

Also as Help in the Start menu

[anticapitalista]

re - printing. Did you use the meta-installer to install the HP printing applications? Is including avahi-utils on the cd enough (at least for hp printing)? What other modules did you install (you mentioned some cups modules, but didn''t say which ones)?

[loco]

Thanks. Had to fiddle a bit to get a splash in Mint recently. Anyway, installed plymouth + plymouth-themes-all, rebooted then edited what I perceived to be the appropriate line (a bit more complicated for grub2 than grub!) and added "splash" after "quiet". The result was a sort of broken progress bar across the usual text output - not very satisfactory! Nor does there seem to be a way of select...

hi again,

concerning plymouth... found a couple of nice links > here and an older one here. compiz is pretty easy if you follow the excellent howto in my sig (spoonfed) i use with xfce and kde currently, and will probably try to set it up live.
easy...

ps i link you are going to enjoy the earth sunrise theme when you get it working .

pps running with live persistence now and it works really swell. xfce only (i killed kde/started over) and using root persistence, although i did set up home persistence using live-usb for later/i guess.