Linux Blimp

Linux Gaming With Valve Proton – For The Record
Posted on September 2, 2018

Matt Hartley

Datamation.com

and OpenLogic.com/wazi, Matt also once served as a co-host for a popular Linux-centric podcast. Matt has written about various software titles, such as Moodle, Joomla, WordPress, openCRX, Alfresco, Liferay and more. He also has additional Linux experience working with Debian based distributions, openSUSE, CentOS, and Arch Linux.

(Last Updated On: September 2, 2018)

Linux Gaming With Valve Proton. The chat room and I discuss the development of a WINE port called Proton. Designed to allow Windows games to run on Linux with Steam, I share my experiences with it and provide a working demo as well. (Just a note. AC was running during the video. So yes, there is background noise in and out, with noise filtering only able to do so much. My comfort vs sound quality…guess which one wins. )

Datamation.com

and OpenLogic.com/wazi, Matt also once served as a co-host for a popular Linux-centric podcast.

Matt has written about various software titles, such as Moodle, Joomla, WordPress, openCRX, Alfresco, Liferay and more. He also has additional Linux experience working with Debian based distributions, openSUSE, CentOS, and Arch Linux.

Source

There is a new application available for Sparkers: Caprine.

What is Caprine?

Elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app. Caprine is an unofficial and privacy focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features.

Installation (64 bit only):
apt update
apt install caprine

The application is licensed under the MIT License.
The project’s GitHub repository: github.com/sindresorhus/caprine
The project developer is Sindre Sorhus.

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There is a new application available for Sparkers: Discord.

What is Discord?

All-in-one voice and text chat for gamers that’s free, secure, and works on both your desktop and phone. Stop paying for TeamSpeak servers and hassling with Skype. Simplify your life.

Installation (64 bit only):
apt update
apt install sparky-aptus sparky-aptus-extra

It requires:
– sparky aptus >= 0.4.x
– sparky-aptus-extra >= 0.2.4
Then run APTus-> IM-> Discord.

Due the Discord is a proprietary application, it is not stored at Sparky repository.
The APTus-> IM script can download and install the application for you.

There are two more applications have been added to APTus as well: Caprine and Ring.
Make sure that Ring can not be installed on Sparky if EFL from Sparky repos is installed.

The home page of Discord: discordapp.com

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Asyncio library is introduced in python 3.4 to execute single-threaded concurrent programs. This library is popular than other libraries and frameworks for its impressive speed and various use. This library is used in python to create, execute and structure coroutines and handle multiple tasks concurrently without doing the tasks in parallel. The major parts of this library are defined below:
Coroutine: The part of code that can be paused and resumed in multi-threaded script is called coroutine. coroutines work cooperatively in multi-threaded program. When one coroutine pauses then other coroutine can execute.
Event loop: It is used to start the execution of coroutines and handle input/output operations. It takes multiple tasks and complete them.
Task: The execution and the result of coroutines are defined by the tasks. You can assign multiple number of tasks using asyncio library and run the tasks asynchronously.
Future: It acts as a future storage where the result of coroutines will store after completion. This is useful when any coroutine requires to wait for the result of other coroutine.
How you can implement the above concepts of asyncio library is shown in this tutorial by using some simple examples at the source.

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Microservice oriented design patterns have made our applications more scalable than ever. RESTful API servers, front-end and even the databases are now horizontally scalable. Horizontal scaling is the act of adding new nodes to your application cluster to support additional workload. Conversely, it also allows reducing the resource consumption, when the workload decreases, in order to save costs. Horizontally scalable systems need to be distributed system. These systems that can survive failure of multiple VMs, containers or network links and still stay online and healthy for the end user.

When talking about distributed systems like above, we run into the problem of analytics and monitoring. Each node is generating a lot of information about its own health (CPU usage, memory, etc) and about application status along with what the users are trying to do. These details must be recorded in:

1. The same order in which they are created,
2. Seperated in terms of urgency (real-time analytics or batches of data), and most importantly,
3. The mechanism with which they are collected must itself be a distributed and scalable, otherwise we are left with a single point of failure. Something the distributed system design was supposed to avoid.

Apache Kafka is pitched as a Distributed Streaming Platform. In Kafka lingo, Producers continuously generate data (streams) and Consumers are responsible for processing, storing and analysing it. Kafka Brokers are responsible for ensuring that in a distributed scenario the data can reach from Producers to Consumers without any inconsistency. A set of Kafka brokers and another piece of software called zookeeper constitute a typical Kafka deployment.

The stream of data from many producers needs to be aggregated, partitioned and sent to multiple consumers, there’s a lot of shuffling involved. Avoiding inconsistency is not an easy task. This is why we need Kafka.

The scenarios where Kafka can be used is quite diverse. Anything from IOT devices to cluster of VMs to your own on-premise bare metal servers. Anywhere where a lot of ‘things’ simultaneously want your attention….That’s not very scientific is it? Well the Kafka architecture is a rabbit-hole of its own and deserves an independent treatment. Let’s first see a very surface level deployment of the software.

Using Docker Compose

In whatever imaginative way you decide to use Kafka, one thing is certain — You won’t be using it as a single instance. It is not meant to be used that way, and even if your distributed app needs only one instance (broker) for now, it will eventually grow and you need to make sure that Kafka can keep up.

Docker-compose is the perfect partner for this kind of scalability. Instead for running Kafka brokers on different VMs, we containerize it and leverage Docker Compose to automate the deployment and scaling. Docker containers are highly scalable on both single Docker hosts as well as across a cluster if we use Docker Swarm or Kubernetes. So it makes sense to leverage it to make Kafka scalable.

Let’s start with a single broker instance. Create a directory called apache-kafka and inside it create your docker-compose.yml.

$ mkdir apache-kafka
$ cd apache-kafka
$ vim docker-compose.yml

The following contents are going to be put in your docker-compose.yml file:

version: ‘3’
services:
zookeeper:
image: wurstmeister/zookeeper

kafka:
image: wurstmeister/kafka
ports:
– “9092:9092”
environment:
KAFKA_ADVERTISED_HOST_NAME: localhost
KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT: zookeeper:2181

Once you have saved the above contents in your compose file, from the same directory run:

Okay, so what did we do here?

Understanding the Docker-Compose.yml

Compose will start two services as listed in the yml file. Let’s look at the file a bit closely. The first image is zookeeper which Kafka requires to keep track of various brokers, the network topology as well as synchronizing other information. Since both zookeeper and kafka services are going to be a part of the same bridge network (this is created when we run docker-compose up ) we don’t need to expose any ports. Kafka broker can talk to zookeeper and that’s all the communication zookeeper needs.

The second service is kafka itself and we are just running a single instance of it, that is to say one broker. Ideally, you would want to use multiple brokers in order to leverage the distributed architecture of Kafka. The service listens on port 9092 which is mapped onto the same port number on the Docker Host and that’s how the service communicates with the outside world.

The second service also has a couple of environment variables. First, is KAFKA_ADVERTISED_HOST_NAME set to localhost. This is the address at which Kafka is running, and where producers and consumers can find it. Once again, this should be the set to localhost but rather to the IP address or the hostname with this the servers can be reached in your network. Second is the hostname and port number of your zookeeper service. Since we named the zookeeper service…well, zookeeper that’s what the hostname is going to be, within docker bridge network we mentioned.

Running a simple message flow

In order for Kafka to start working, we need to create a topic within it. The producer clients can then publish streams of data (messages) to the said topic and consumers can read the said datastream, if they are subscribed to that particular topic.

To do this we need to start a interactive terminal with the Kafka container. List the containers to retrieve the kafka container’s name. For example, in this case our container is named apache-kafka_kafka_1

With kafka container’s name, we can now drop inside this container.

$ docker exec -it apache-kafka_kafka_1 bash
bash-4.4#

Open two such different terminals to use one as consumer and another producer.

Producer Side

In one of the prompts (the one you choose to be producer), enter the following commands:

## To create a new topic named test
bash-4.4# kafka-topics.sh –create –zookeeper zookeeper:2181 –replication-factor 1
–partitions 1 –topic test

## To start a producer that publishes datastream from standard input to kafka
bash-4.4# kafka-console-producer.sh –broker-list localhost:9092 –topic test
>

The producer is now ready to take input from keyboard and publish it.

Consumer Side

Move on the to the second terminal connected to your kafka container. The following command starts a consumer which feeds on test topic:

$ kafka-console-consumer.sh –bootstrap-server localhost:9092 –topic test

Back to Producer

You can now type messages in the new prompt and everytime you hit return the new line is printed in the consumer prompt. For example:

This message gets transmitted to the consumer, through Kafka, and you can see it printed at the consumer prompt.

Real-World Setups

You now have a rough picture of how Kafka setup works. For your own use case, you need to set a hostname which is not localhost, you need multiple such brokers to be a part of your kafka cluster and finally you need to set up consumer and producer clients.

Here are a few useful links:

1. Confluent’s Python Client
2. Official Documentation
3. A useful list of demos

I hope you have fun exploring Apache Kafka.

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By Francesco Mondello</a>”>Francesco Mondello on October 15, 2018

In this tutorial we will see how to mute Spotify ads on Arch Linux with a very simple and lightweight script I found on GitHub called Spotify-AdKiller.

If you’re using Spotify Free on your Arch Linux system (or any kind of Linux distro), this useful script will be able to mute its annoying audio ads.

Spotify-AdKiller allows you to block Spotify ads in 3 different ways:

• Simple
• Interstitial
• Continuous

We will see in details these 3 different features after the installation!

How to install Spotify-AdKiller on Arch Linux

Spotify-AdKiller it’s packed for Ubuntu and OpenSuse as well, but we will see in details how to install and configure it on Arch Linux:

Since there’s a package in the AUR repos, we can install it using an AUR package manager or using these commands:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/spotify-adkiller-git.git cd spotify-adkiller-git makepkg -si

After installing it, we will see a menu entry called Spotify (AdKiller) with the famous Spotify green icon.

How to Configure Spotify-AdKiller

As said before, Spotify-AdKiller has 3 different ways to work:

• simple: mute Spotify, unmute when ad is over
• interstitial: mute Spotify, play random local track, stop and unmute when ad is over
• continuous: mute Spotify, play random local track, stop and unmute when track is over

The default ad blocking mode is continuous.

How to block Spotify Ads

In order to completely mute Spotify ads on Arch Linux, open the file $HOME/.config/Spotify-AdKiller/Spotify-AdKiller.cfg (if it doesn’t exist, run the Spotify-AdKiller script).

In the CUSTOM_MODE section add simple.

From now on, Spotify ads will be muted. Anyway, if you are a frequent Spotify user, consider obviously to get your Premium subscription! 🙂

You can get more info about Spotify-AdKiller on GitHub.

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Pi Supply is Kickstartering Iot LoRa Gateway and IoT LoRa Node pHAT add-ons for the Raspberry Pi, as well as a LoRa Node that works with the Micro:bit. An Arduino node is also in the works.

Pi Supply, which has produced a variety of Raspberry Pi add-on boards including the Papirus E-Paper display and Flick HAT gesture detector, has now returned to Kickstarter to launch a series of IoT LoRa Boards that work with the Pi. The offerings include an IoT LoRa Gateway HAT board starting at an early bird price of 120 UK Pounds ($157) and a LoRa Node pHAT node board with a 25 Pound ($33) early bird price.

Pi Supply’s IoT LoRa Boards
(click image to enlarge)

Both boards support any 40-pin Raspberry Pi, and they may also work with other SBCs with Pi-compatible 40-pin connectors, including the tested Asus Tinker Board, Asus

Tinker Board S

, and Odroid-C2. Pi Supply is also selling a Micro:bit LoRa Node board that works with the open source, Cortex-M0 based BBC

Micro:bit

board.

IoT LoRa Gateway HAT (left) and LoRa Node pHAT
(click images to enlarge)

Packages are available that include both the gateway and a node of your choic. There are also “To Go Kits” that include an SBC. For the 189 Pound ($248) Gateway To Go Kit, you get a full-sized Raspberry Pi of your choice up to a Raspberry Pi Model 3B+ along with a case, power supplies, SD cards and other accessories. The Node To Go Kit includes either a Micro:bit board, or for the pHAT model, a Pi Zero or Pi Zero W, as well as power supplies and accessories. There are also a variety of volume discount bundles.

LoRa background

LoRa is a long-range, low-bandwidth wireless standard that can work in peer-to-peer fashion between low-cost, low-power LoRa nodes. LoRa nodes can also connect to the Internet via a LoRaWAN gateway such as a Raspberry Pi with the IoT LoRa Gateway HAT. The Pi Supply boards can be purchased with support for the 868MHz European standard that most LoRaWAN networks use, or else the 915MHz U.S. standard.

LoRa/LoRaWAN technology is finding increasing use in IoT networks for irrigation systems, smart metering, smart cities, and home and building automation. The technology lets you connect to networks that run on top of LoRaWAN, including The Things Network.

Other LoRa add-ons for the Raspberry Pi include Sparkfun’s LoRa Raspberry Pi Gateway, Dragino’s LoRa GPS HAT for Raspberry Pi, and the Pi Conduit and Pi Conduit PoE boards from Gumstix. In addition, Lime Microsystems offers a Grove Starter Kit for the LimeSDR Mini that is designed to connect the Pi with the LoRA-ready LimeSDR board.

IoT LoRa Gateway HAT

The IoT LoRa Gateway HAT is built around the RAKWireless RAK833 mini-PCIe module. This LoRa gateway concentrator is in turn driven by a Semtech SX1301 LoRa baseband chip, which is also used on Arduino’s LoRa Gateway Kit shield.

IoT LoRa Gateway HAT with Raspberry Pi (left) and RAKWireless RAK833
(click images to enlarge)

The RAK833 module enables the IoT LoRa Gateway HAT to listen on 8x channels simultaneously. The board offers relatively low power consumption — it will draw about 500mA from the Raspberry Pi’s 5V Rail. The board is also touted for its fast setup, which does not require soldering or a software compile.

LoRa Node boards

The LoRa Node pHAT and micro:bit LoRa Node boards both use the RAKWireless RAK811 LoRa radio module “with full LoRaWAN Stack embedded.” The LoRa Node pHAT, which adopts the Raspberry Pi Zero sized pHAT (partial HAT) form factor, communicates with the Raspberry Pi over UART using only 3x GPIO pins.

Micro:bit LoRa Node with Micro:bit board and battery pack

Both the Pi and Micro:bit compatible nodes provide 8x pins that can be controlled via UART, including two for analog sensors. A u.FL connector and onboard antenna are also available. Both node boards consume less than 50mA maximum during transmission and are said to typically run at 30mA at 3.3V peak during operation and less than 1mA during sleep.

The Kickstarter FAQ indicates the company is working on an Arduino compatible IoT LoRa Node Shield, which has the same 25 Pound early bird and 29 Pound standard pricing as the other node boards. This is listed as an option in the shopping options, but is not detailed in the main text, so it’s unclear if this will share the Mar. 2019 ship date of the other boards. Assuming the campaign reaches its $32K goal by Nov. 6 (it’s halfway there), a BeagleBone cape version is also under consideration.

In the risk and challenges section, Pi Supply notes that it has learned from the problems it had with its much delayed PiJuice HAT uninterruptible power supply add on board for the Raspberry Pi, which is now shipping for 48 Pounds. “We are looking to build on the lessons learnt there to do things better,” says Pi Supply.

Further information

Early bird Kickstarter prices are 120 UK Pounds ($157) for theIoT LoRa Gateway HAT board (129 Pounds standard price) and 25 Pounds ($33) for the LoRa Node pHAT and Micro:bit LoRa Node boards (29 Pounds standard). More information may be found at Pi Supply’s IoT LoRa Boards Kickstarter page and eventually on the Pi Supply website.

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Ibase has launched the first network appliance based on AMD’s Epyc Embedded 3000 SoC. The 1U rackmount “FWA8800” appliance features 16 or 32 GbE ports and is built on a new “MBN806” ATX board.

We don’t regularly cover high-end, rackmount network appliances, but we thought this one might be of interest: As promised in February when AMD announced the Xeon-like Epyc Embedded 3000 SoC along with its Ryzen Embedded V1000, Ibase has released the first network appliance based on the Epyc chip. The 1U rackmount FWA8800 network appliance features 2x or 4x NIC slots for up to 16x or 32 GbE ports.

FWA8800 (left) and MBN806
(click images to enlarge)

The FWA8800 is built around a separately available Ibase MBN806 ATX board equipped with an octa-core Epyc Embedded 3201 clocked to 1.5GHz (3.1GHz max. boost). No OS details were mentioned, but the original benchmarks for the Epyc Embedded 3000 were run on Ubuntu Linux and Windows 10.

“The FWA8800 is optimized for throughput performance and high-density deployments in applications such as network security, VPN/SDN/NFV/SD-WAN, and data management and analytics,” stated Jason Ko, senior product manager at Ibase.

Epyc Embedded 3000 models, including 3201 model used on the FWA8800 and MBN806
(click image to enlarge)

The edge server focused, x86 compatible

Epyc Embedded 3000

offers 4x to 16x cores available in single or multi-threading models with TDPs ranging from 30W to 100W. The mid-range Epyc Embedded 3201 found on the MBN806 board and FWA8800 appliance is single threaded but offers the lowest available TDP at 30W. The SoC has a 16MB L3 cache.

MBN806 ATX board

Driving the FWA8800 appliance is the first motherboard we’ve seen running the Epyc Embedded 3000. The 306 x 280mm ATX form-factor MBN806 board is equipped with 4x DIMM slots for up to 64GB UDIMM DDR4-2667 RAM or up to 128GB RDIMM DDR4. (The server-oriented RDIMM, or Registered DMMM, can offer two to three times the capacity of standard UDIMM RAM, but typically requires a throttling back to slower 1066MHz memory operation.)

MBN806 angle views
(click images to enlarge)

The MBN806 has a single Intel I210-AT GbE controller, with the number of NIC slots depending on the SKU. The default is dual NIC slots. There are also dual SATA slots, as well as a rear expansion PCIe x8 slot and an M.2 M-key (PCIe x4 + SATA) interface.

Although the Epyc Embedded 3000 is headless, you can select an optional IPMI 2.0 module that supports VGA output. Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a Board Management Controller (BMC) technology typically found on server-class products such as Xeon-based COM Express Type 7 modules.

The MBN806 is equipped with an “IDN806” module that provides 2x USB 2.0 ports, an RJ45 console port, GPIO based factory default button, 3x LEDs, and an MGMT interface shared with the IPMI NC-SI port. The board supports 0 to 60°C temperatures.

FWA8800 network appliance

The 1U rackmount, 500 x 328 x 44mm FWA8800 network appliance offers all the features of the MBN806 motherboard, including the dual NIC modules with up to 16 GbE ports and the single WAN console port. The press release, but not the product page, mentions an option to double this to 4x NIC slots for 32 GbE ports.

FWA8800 front view
(click image to enlarge)

The dual SATA ports can optionally be deployed with dual hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA bays or a single 3.5-inch bay. The IPMI 2.0 module with the VGA port continues to be optional. Other options include a TPM 2.0 security chip.

FWA8800 rear views showing single (left) and redundant power supplies
(click images to enlarge)

The FWA8800 is equipped with a 250W ATX power supply, which can be swapped out for a 300W 1+1 redundant supply (see above image at right). The system has a 0 to 40°C range.

Further information

The FWA8800 network appliance and MBN806 ATX board appear to be available now, with pricing undisclosed. More information may be found in Ibase’s FWA8800 announcement and on its FWA8800 and MBN806 product pages.

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By Jack M. Germain

Aug 23, 2018 5:00 AM PT

Quirky Linux is a classic example of what makes Linux such a varied and useful operating system.

Puppy Linux developer Barry Kauler earlier this month released Quirky Xerus 64 version 8.6, which comes packed with the latest innovations for doing Linux stuff differently.

This latest in the “Xerus” series is a must-try if you like to push your computing experience envelope. It offers a slightly different approach to blending a traditional Linux desktop with the latest in usability options.

Quirky Xerus64 is a far stretch from the look and feel of Windows 10. Its Welcome screen simplifies desktop setup.

Quirky is related to the Puppy Linux family of distros, but it is not a mainline Puppy Linux release. Rather, it is a distinct distro in its own right. Its website is minimalist, but you can search out technical support for Quirky in the Puppy Linux forums.

Version 8.6 is an incremental release with package upgrades and architectural improvements, including the Linux kernel 4.14.63. One of its newest tricks is providing support for file sharing with an Android phone via the EasyShare network file and printer sharing tool.

I am a long-time Puppy Linux fan. I’ve relied on it for years as a pocket Linux tool. Quirky goes several steps further with innovations for enhanced productivity.

The main menu in Quirky Linux is stuffed with many of the tools and applications found in its cousin distro, Puppy Linux.

Different Strokes

Kauler forked Puppy Linux into Quirky Linux back in 2009 in order to explore new concepts. He had stepped down as Puppy Linux’s lead developer a few years earlier, only to return with a new dogpound of ideas in the Quirky distro offshoot.

Quirky is binary-compatible with x86_64 Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS. Otherwise, it is nothing at all like Ubuntu. It is architecturally very different.

Quirky is an experimental distribution that boots from a USB stick or CD and runs in system RAM for lightning-fast performance. Like its Puppy cousin, Quirky is a lightweight distro that provides a powerhouse of features and usability.

It looks like a Puppy Linux clone, but Quirky Linux follows a different path than its Puppy distro cousin. Quirky Xerus explores some new ideas while continuing the Puppy Linux tradition of providing a full suite of optimized applications, drivers and utilities in a very small size.

Common Ground

Quirky Linux’s desktop structure and appearance are similar to Puppy Linux.

Under the hood, Quirky is much different than Puppy, but its applications, utilities and user interface indicate a strong connection to Puppy.

Quirky uses Joe’s Window Manager for its desktop environment. JWM is a more compact desktop interface than found in GNOME or Xfce or LXDE. Both distros are designed to run on legacy, low-powered desktops and laptops.

However, Kauler did not stop at lightweight. He shoehorned lots of heavyweight performance into Quirky. For instance, he succeeded in weeding out typical lightweight applications in favor of full-featured heavyweights like GIMP and LibreOffice.

Puppy Linux is not meant to be fully installed on a hard drive. It lets you do a partial or frugal hard drive installation. That is where the persistent storage comes from by using a special personal savings file on the hard disk or a 2-GB USB stick.

Quirky Linux is sort of structured to function in reverse. It is designed to be fully installed. However, it does not have to be. You can run it from a CD or USB drive and maintain configuration updates for a pocket Linux system with a setup option.

If you are really adventurous and your hardware supports an SD card, you also can run Quirky from that storage device.

Strangely Functional

Quirky Linux is aptly named. It is peculiar compared to whatever operating system you use. Still, it has traditional panel bars, familiar-looking menus, and lots of configuration options.

Quirky Linux is configured from a main control panel and many menu tools. You can access the menu from the button on the left of the panel bar or by right-clicking on the desktop.

I have a long satisfying history with Puppy Linux. I started using it a decade ago on a USB drive when I traveled around frequently and was working on banks of Windows boxes in whatever office I visited.

So Quirky Linux fits right into my computing routines. It offers the next generation of portable Linux power and productivity. It takes the Puppy Linux concept to the next level. That familiarity makes working with Quirky a comfy experience.

What’s Inside

Quirky is not a dumbed-down Linux distro crammed onto a USB drive. It comes complete with a full set of kernel, printing, scanning and camera drivers. It has an ample supply of multimedia libraries. The Adobe Flash player is included as an optional installation. Quirky offers a quick install option of some common programs.

Quirky also does not skimp on applications. It includes a full suite of top-rated programs. The current release sheds some of the earlier software baggage such as Ami Word and Gnumeric spreadsheet.

Instead, you get the LibreOffice 5 office suite and lots more business and multimedia software headliners. The default Web browser is SeaMonkey version 2.49.4, but other choices are available in the PETget Package Manager.

Also included are Leafpad text editor and Geany IDE/editor. Other standard apps are ROX-filer file manager, the MPlayer media player and CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) support for printing. Overall, the software available through the Quirky repository will handle most, if not all, of the typical user’s needs.

Look and Feel

If you are familiar with Puppy Linux, you will be right at home running Quirky Linux. If you know any of the Ubuntu Linux desktop flavors, you will need some time moving in and getting cozy with Quirky.

The menu is nearly overwhelming. The categories are stuffed with applications that appear foreign. You will recognize some classic software titles. Mostly, though, you will have to click around to see what the Puppy/Quirky titles do.

Like Puppy Linux variants, Quirky’s software format is the Pet file structure. The Pet repository has its unique characteristics. It gives you access to numerous Ubuntu software warehouses, but those applications are packaged in the Pet format.

As is typical for lightweight desktops, the JWN environment is bereft of glitz, glitter and animations. But the speed and the range of functionality will impress you.

Quirky Linux has only a few background images. Its Qwallpaper switcher app lacks a random or timed display function.

Using Quirky

I last reviewed Quirky Linux in January of 2014. I was pleased with its performance then, but it didn’t displace my well-worn earlier version of Puppy Linux installed on a USB drive.

Quirky Linux succeeded this time around in replacing that well-worn Puppy distro. After testing this latest release, it was an easy decision to keep using it rather than process an upgraded installation of a more recent Puppy Linux release.

Being familiar with how Quirky operates, I was more concerned with newly developed differences Quirky Xerus 8.6 displayed in setting up and running its various options for full and partial operation. One of its chief advantages is using it as a live session OS with the ability to maintain persistent memory easily.

Installing an OS to a USB stick is a potential dogfight. The variables involve both the application that burns the system to the USB drive and the quality of the USB drive itself. The drive’s transfer speed is a factor in how well Quirky on a Stick performs.

Choices and Workarounds

As I expected, Quirky booted up from CD without any issues. However, running the OS from CD (or DVD) involves a long waiting period for the code to transfer to system RAM.

You can continue to run Quirky from the CD if you are satisfied with the default settings and software. Or you can click the SAVE button on the desktop to store your configuration settings and software updates in a special file anywhere you wish on the hard drive.

This approach gives you a computing solution that amounts to a live session on steroids. This method is a great way to run a first-class Linux OS on your Windows computer in a dual-boot setting without the hard drive partitioning issues.

From the live session startup, you can click the INSTALL button on the desktop to do a full installation of Quirky Linux to a hard drive. Do you have an external USB hard drive hanging around? Use that and take the full installation to any computer, but plug it into the external drive.

Be prepared for some troubleshooting if you opt for the USB stick installation method. You might have to try several different USB devices. It seems that the installation process for Quirky Linux can be a bit quirky.

Making It Work

The developer provides detailed
instructions for installing Quirky Linux to a USB stick as well as other storage options.

One of the tools for installing Quirky to a USB stick is the dd utility — but that did not work well. Neither did a few other tools.

What did work was doing the installation from the running live session using the Setup option in the main menu. I clicked on the Easy DD Frontend for dd tool and had Quirky installed on an 8-GB (recommended minimum size) USB thumb drive.

It is much easier — and apparently more effective with Quirky Linux — than using the dd commands in a console window. The application asked me to click on the location to the image file and then click on the location of the USB drive getting the installation.

It is a long process — it took 30 minutes — but it worked.

Bottom Line

Get Quirky Linux here. You have two choices. One is the standard ISO to burn to CD. The other is the gz archived package used for installing Quirky Linux to a USB drive.

Quirky Linux is not a distro that meets everyone’s computing needs. Unlike other distros, such as Linux Mint or Zorin, Quirky Linux does not have the look and feel of a Windows desktop.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro you’d like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please
email your ideas to me, and I’ll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.
Email Jack.

Source

By Jack M. Germain

Aug 30, 2018 10:23 AM PT

Bodhi Linux is an alternative to traditional Linux OSes that can change your desktop user experience.

It is one of a very few Linux distros using
Moksha, a forked version of the Enlightenment desktop.

Enlightenment is a Compositing Window Manager and Desktop Shell. It is radically different from other lightweight interface shells such as Xfce and LXDE. Its roots go back to 1996, when it started out as a project to build a Window Manager for X11. That project has started to transition to
Wayland.

It also evolved to handle mobile, wearable and tv user interface requirements. It is still viable in
Tizen, the Android offshoot platform.

Bodhi Linux 5.0.0 is a lightweight OS with a future-leaning desktop design.

The Bodhi community forked Enlightenment 17 several years ago in response to the lack of developmental progress from the
Enlightenment project.

The E19 (Enlightenment 19) release is relatively heavy and not suitable for older hardware, according to Bodhi developers. That gave rise to Moksha, actively maintained and updated with the latest Enlightenment libraries.

Bodhi is highly modular, with high levels of customization and choice of themes. This latest release brings a post-modern look and updated Ubuntu core (18.04) Bionic Beaver to the fast desktop.

The current Moksha desktop displays refinements over earlier releases. For example, it has a new default wallpaper, new themes for the login and boot sequence, and a Bodhi-branded version of the popular Arc GTK theme.

Enlightened Development

Moksha is very customizable. It has many features and options that contribute to its futuristic design and innovative desktop UI.

This gives the forked Enlightenment desktop an advantage over traditional Lightweight Linux desktops compared to choices such as GNOME, Cinnamon and KDE Plasma. While the Moksha desktop is light on resources, it has a modern look.

When creator Jeff Hoogland launched the Bodhi OS seven years ago, the distro used Enlightenment. In fact, the name “Bodhi” in Sanskrit means “enlightened” or “the one with sense.”

Hence, its developers called Bodhi “the Enlightened Linux Distribution.” That moniker stuck. The community earlier this month released Bodhi Linux 5.0 as the fifth major release of the distro.

Consistent Affair

This is my fourth review of Bodhi in its seven-year growing cycle. From my earliest hands-on assessment, Bodhi piqued my interest. It was different and surprisingly agile for a lightweight desktop. Even in its infancy, it impressed me.

The developers pushed the original concept to be more than impressive. The change in direction turned Moksha into a more functional desktop environment than the original Enlightenment release. Moksha was more adaptable to home use or office computing without a dumbed-down user interface.

Considering Bodhi’s limited developmental releases, you would expect considerable changes with each major release. However, version 5.0.0 lacks a lengthy change log, which Hoogland points out in his release notes. That is especially the case for updates to the Moksha desktop.

That results from the consistent stability the developers built into the Bodhi platform. Bodhi has been stable and well-performing for the last few releases. Other than the under-the-hood upgrades supplied from the Ubuntu 18.04 base, changes in this latest Bodhi release are design elements that improve its aesthetics.

Packaged Design

The Enlightened Linux distro takes a minimalist approach to computing. It does not give users an overstuffed collection of software that they will never use. Instead, it offers a modular architecture. Out of the box, the basic computing tools are present.

Bodhi follows a minimalist software philosophy to keep down software bloat. It does this perhaps to the point of overkill.

What does not come bundled with the installation ISO, you can add from the Bodhi repository or the Synaptic Package Manager. If you do not like a particular look out of the box, you can change it easily.

Bodhi comes in three flavors for the one-desktop distro. All three choices maintain the minimalist design. The options are Standard Release, Legacy Release and AppPack Release.

Typically, you get essential software only out of the box. These include a terminal, Web browser, text editor, and the PCManFM file manager.

Mainly Minimal

The Standard Edition is geared toward typical 64-bit desktop, laptop and workstation computers, but it is extremely minimalist by design. The software and theme options are very limited. So be prepared to do a lot of package installing to suit your computing needs.

The Legacy Edition works on older 32-bit hardware. The Legacy ISO image gives you an older Linux kernel optimized for hardware that is 15 or more years old. This kernel lacks the PAE extension, which is not supported on many older systems. The software and theme limitations are bare bones, just like the 64-bit Standard Edition.

The AppPack Edition is the most complete of the three options. You can use it as a full-featured live CD or base install. It comes with additional themes and applications installed by default.

The range of software and theme choices is still strictly minimal. The goal is to keep the software bloat as low as possible. If you do more than surf the Web with a browser, use email and handle light office tasks, you will be installing your must-have packages.

How Modular Design Works

Bodhi Linux has system tray icons. That element is fairly standard. With Moksha, they’re gadgets and modules.

Gadgets are small applications that either provide system information or perform a specific action. Gadgets are highly configurable by right-clicking the gadget on the screen.

Modules are the traditional icons. Gadgets are more like a mini control center. You can monitor a lot of things, including screen brightness, system temperature and CPU speed. A gadget inventory is provided, but most are not loaded by default to keep Bodhi Linux as lightweight as possible.

Shelves house gadgets. The desktop structure allows more than one shelf on a desktop, so you can have different shelves on different virtual desktops.

This arrangement is similar to the Activities feature in KDE Plasma and GNOME. Each shelf can house its own unique set of gadgets and application launchers.

You can locate shelves at the middle or a corner of any screen edge. This lets you get better use out of different size display screens.

To configure shelves, right-click them and choose Shelf > Settings from the context menu. You can set stacking, Position, Size and more. You can locate shelves on a specific virtual desktop or on all desktops.

The Plus Factor

This is where the iBar gadget comes into play. It is an application dock that houses launchers for frequently used applications. It also tracks them with a small orange dot.

Bodhi’s iBar does what a traditional panel bar does plus a bit more. It serves as a dock for running applications. It also can be a very useful tool.

Hover the mouse over one of these marked icons to reveal its launch menu. Other options show a thumbnail of the application and its title bar label.

If more than one instance of an application has been launched, both will appear in this menu. Click on one of these to bring its window into focus.

Also, you can use it to restore a minimized window, or windows hidden behind another app.

Getting Personal

Another desktop feature not found elsewhere is the Personal Application Launcher for desktop files that you create yourself. They are hidden files stored in your Home directory at .local/share/applications. These folder names begin with a period. To see them, open the file manager and press Ctrl+H.

Personal Application launchers are very useful. You can create specialized on/off switches to make various desktop functions available with a single click.

They also are handy for launching a command line application without having to open a terminal manually and enter the command phrase. It is easy to learn the pattern for writing your personalized launchers. Open application launchers come bundled in the installation at /usr/share/applications in a text editor.

Many applications are launched with an argument, often %U or %f. These two arguments control the number of files that can be passed to the application. For instance, %f opens 1 file. %U opens multiple files.

Bodhi’s Quick Launcher app is a standalone menu that supplements the main menu. It provides a search window that speeds up finding apps and files.

Enlightened Highlights

One of Bodhi’s more useful user interface traits is the left-click feature anywhere on the desktop that pops up the menu. It is very convenient. A more traditional menu button is also present on the Bodhi panel bar.

This bar can be on any edge of the screen. Right-clicking on the panel opens configuration settings. The orientation setting provides a list of placement options for the panel bar.

In addition to standard key bindings for keyboard shortcuts, Bodhi Linux has an extensive edge binding setting. You can set up to eight edge bindings. You can select a desired behavior or desktop action for each edge location.

That makes one “pointer gesture” for each edge and one for each corner. By default no edge bindings are set. Find the setting in Main menu > Settings > Settings Panel > Input > Edge Bindings.

Disappointing System Tools

Bodhi’s AppCenter is one of my biggest disappointments with this distro. It is not uncommon for a smaller or newer Linux distro to forgo its own applications repository in favor of more general purposes software warehouses using the Synaptic Package Manager.

Given the developer’s fervor for minimalizing software to avoid application bloat, more emphasis should be placed on providing meaningful software. The AppCenter does not rise to this task.

You Add/remove Bodhi-specific packages with the AppCenter. This is a Web-based software installation tool. When you open the supposed software application, Bodhi loads the lightweight default Midori Web browser to install applications directly from the Bodhi Linux AppCenter.

That repository resembles a fire sale two days after closing, so you must do most serious application installing through the Synaptic application.

The Enlightenment File Manager (EFM) is tweaked to work within Bodhi Linux to add files and launchers to the desktop by moving the desired files and launchers into the desktop folder located in the home directory. You can opt out of displaying desktop icons at Main Menu>Settings>All>Files>File Manager under the Display tab.

You can add other file managers and designate other default applications for more traditional functionality. Go to Main Menu/Settings/All/Apps/Default Applications.

More Woeful Basics

You face a similar tradeoff in handling basic system maintenance. The eepdater app updates the system components. Despite its listing in the main menu under Applications > System Tools as System Updater, it merely launches a rebranded terminal window to automate the Command Line Interface commands with the esudo app.

Basically, the esudo app is pretty much like gksudo of GNOME or kdesudo of the KDE Plasma desktop. Like the AppCenter, the eepdater app is not a standalone application to update the system.

Even the Swami Control Panel leaves oh so much to wish for as a really functional system settings tool. Swami only has a few categories in its control panel. In order to gain access to other system settings, you must return to the System Settings portion of the skimpy main menu to hunt around for other options.

Considering that the UI should be more intuitive within the “enlightenment” design, all of this easily creates a sense of confusion. One such “other” control panel is the Everything application. It seems that what is not controlled in other configuration panels may be covered with the Everything app.

One of the more confusing aspects of Bodhi Linux is the appearance of seemingly new things that are little more than a naming game. They are not new features that do not exist in other distros — only their names are different.

For instance, Terminology is the terminal application for entering command Line Instructions. It is more user-friendly, however, with some handy menus.

Bottom Line

Bodhi Linux is elegant and lightweight. It is worth putting this distro through its paces. It will not please every power user, but it offers a nice change of pace.

This distro can be a productive and efficient computing platform. Bodhi is very easy to use. It has a low learning curve. New Linux users can get acquainted right away.

Bodhi’s minimum system requirements are a 500mhz processor with 256 MB of RAM and 5 GB of drive space. You will get better performance from a computer with a 1.0ghz processor powered by 512 MB of RAM and 10 GB of drive space.

The installation routine is driven by the Ubiquity Installer. No surprise there since Bodhi is based on Ubuntu Linux.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro you’d like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please
email your ideas to me, and I’ll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.
Email Jack.

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