AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

avbox · 2019-09-03 15:57:43

A power desktop for the whole family. AVMultimedia works completely in RAM, so it's quick to start and fast to work with. Mate is used as the desktop. Thanks to Kernel 5.2.x many new graphics cards are perfectly supported. This allows AVMultimedia to edit movies wonderfully, even in 4K quality. The distribution comes with many ready-to-use applications. A selection: LibreOffice, Firefox, Gimp, Scribus, VLC, Kodi, Flowbalde, Kdenlive, QMapShack, Audacity, Rosegarden, Musescore, native Scratch3 support, GCompris. Unlike other distributions, AVMultimedia is not installed, but only started in the main memory directly from the ISO/USB stick. Thanks to compression, it is possible to keep approx. 6 GB of software in RAM even with computers that only have 4 GB of main memory, which leads to very fluid work (especially on older computers). Support for touch screens and tablets (turning the screen 90 degrees) is available (although not all devices could be tested). AVMultimedia can be downloaded here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/archivista/
https://osdn.net/projects/avmultimedia/releases/

Latest version is always avmultimedia.iso

Hardware requirements: 4 GB RAM, AMD64 Bit, ISO file with approx. 2 GByte

Currently available in German and English

If you get any troubles, please have a look in the FAQs:

http://archivista.ch/cms/en/support-2/avmultimedia-2/

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-13 08:16:01)

nixer · 2019-09-03 16:04:55

AVMultimedia can be purchased here

Link please?

Last edited by nixer (2019-09-03 16:05:50)

avbox · 2019-09-03 16:17:50

Currently there is no own web page, but you find some information here:

http://archivista.ch/cms/en/news/amd-ryzen-and-4k/
http://archivista.ch/cms/en/news/avmultimedia-2019v/

I made a presentation at last Augsburger Linux Day, but it is in German:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrFP0Otxp2w

avbox · 2019-09-03 19:21:16

nixer wrote:

AVMultimedia can be purchased here
Link please?

Sorry, my language is German and the german text was automaticially translated into English. And normally I do reread and check it. Even we sell a tablet (only with Swiss German keyboard), see https://azurgo.ch/produkt/avmultimedia/ I did not wanted to write this, I wanted to write "download" (I corrected it now).

But anywhere if sonewone is interested in running it on notebook/tablets, I personally use a ultralight Acer Swift 5 (<1kg) and ASUS Transformer T101HA works very well, but not the modell with the pen (the pen works, but not the sound card). If you have an Intel Celeron or i3..i9, there should not be a problem. Ryzen works very well (due to Kernel 5.2.x), but frankly spoken I would be interested to get feedback from users with their hardware.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-03 23:10:56)

nixer · 2019-09-04 11:57:18

Sorry, my language is German and the german text was automaticially translated into English.

Thank you for clarifying. I will give it a test run.

avbox · 2019-09-04 15:47:50

Oh, thank you for having a look. I give you some information (in case it does not work).

1. If possible, use uefi to boot, if not usb is too possible
2. if the first english option (with harddisk) does not work, use the one without harddisk
3. If it does not work without harddisk, you can go to 'e' on the menu item, then you can edit the boot options
4. I try to give you some information about the boot options below:

linux /vmlinuz quiet loglevel=0 splash ram md5.eb40e29a7434fdba02bf4e26cf43009d auto acpi_osi= silent lang.en

quiet loglevel.0 splash = if you remove them you get more log information in first stage boot
ram => always needed
md5.eb40e29a7434fdba02bf4e26cf43009d => always different, does check if the initrd is correct
auto => always needed, currently there is no manual setup
acpi_osi= => only needed on some computers (i.e. on my acer 5 swift, without this flag, the trackball does not work). Sometimes you can use acpi_osi=windows, but sometimes you cannot use it (so it is not there in the first boot options)
silent => if removed there is a text based installer

The most important point to figure out is stop.xx (stop.10). With this flag you can stop the installler at a certain point (you well get a shell).

And one final note to the installer: It is perl based, you find it in the initrd under /install1.pl

Normally you don't need anything of it, but in case you get troubles this is the procedure to find out what is wrong.

And one final note, default password is always archivista

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-04 16:32:39)

avbox · 2019-09-04 16:09:20

And yes, I just made an new version. Change was/is that if you boot without harddisk, the network too is not connected automaticially. You still can connect after it with WICD or network manager of AVMultimedia under menu System -> AVMUltimedia.

fsmithred · 2019-09-05 14:45:23

I'm using this iso:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/archiv … ia2019.iso

Questions:
- How do I re-open an app after I minimize its window? I can't find it anywhere.
- Is there a way to boot without putting the whole image into ram? I don't mind waiting a few seconds for an app to open.

Suggestions:
- Set the keyboard layout to match the language and/or put a keyboard switcher on the panel.
note: I was able to change the layout with 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration' and it changed immediately, but only once. On subsequent boots, it did not change the layout.)

- Put the same options in the isolinux boot menu that are in the grub boot menu.

From what I can see, this is ascii with a 4.19 kernel. I checked a few packages, and they are from ascii. (libc6, util-linux). If you got to beowulf by upgrade, it looks like it was not complete.

avbox · 2019-09-05 15:45:33

fsmithred wrote:

I'm using this iso:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/archiv … ia2019.iso

You got the wrong one, I renamed it, it is always avmultimedia.iso to download

fsmithred wrote:

Questions:
- How do I re-open an app after I minimize its window? I can't find it anywhere.

In the old relase, you only get it with Alt+Tab, in the current release you get it in the panel.

fsmithred wrote:

- Is there a way to boot without putting the whole image into ram? I don't mind waiting a few seconds for an app to open.

Well, technicially it would be possible, but I can't see any good reason for it. Why would you like it to have?

fsmithred wrote:

Suggestions:
- Set the keyboard layout to match the language and/or put a keyboard switcher on the panel.
note: I was able to change the layout with 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration' and it changed immediately, but only once. On subsequent boots, it did not change the layout.)

A keyboard swither is in discussion, but currently it is done in Mate, see our FAQs unter:

http://archivista.ch/cms/en/support-2/avmultimedia-2/

fsmithred wrote:

Put the same options in the isolinux boot menu that are in the grub boot menu.

Will think about it, but might I ask why you don't use uefi?

fsmithred wrote:

From what I can see, this is ascii with a 4.19 kernel. I checked a few packages, and they are from ascii. (libc6, util-linux). If you got to beowulf by upgrade, it looks like it was not complete.

Again, you got the wrong release, the old one was ascii, the new avmultimedia.iso is beowulf and kernel 5.2.9. I see big differences in speed on graphic cards but even network works for me much faster. I never so far had 110 mb from a virtual instance to the machine up to the latest kernel, very cool.

If you have any further questions (and if you can live with my "bad" english), your are welcome to ask.

fsmithred · 2019-09-05 18:36:46

Got the newer iso.

I removed 'quiet loglevel=0 splash' and 'silent' from the boot command. The boot info is still covered by black screen and a progress bar. It hangs at 75% then drops down to 10% and repeats, but I don't know where it is in the boot sequence. Adding 'S' to boot to single-user gives the same result. md5sum on the downloaded iso is correct.

I tried booting in both virtualbox and qemu and got the same result. The older iso boots in both of those.

uefi: Lots of people still boot legacy mode for various reasons.
ram: Not everyone has 4G ram or someone might want to test in a VM and give it less ram.

avbox · 2019-09-05 19:00:51

How much RAM do you have?

You can stop the install process with the flag 'stop.75' (fill in the last stage you see on the screen), then you get a login or shell (login will be user archivista and password archivista, then go to root with su). It would be helpfully If you could check for 'cat /proc/meminfo'. Also information gives 'dmesg'. And if it is on real hardware 'lspci' does too help. If network card is there, you can start a telnetd server from /telnetd.sh (if needed change ip adress). For virtualization I compiled e1000 card into kernel, this card is always available. If you are over stage 50, /etc/init.d/ssh should too work.

If you boot with legacy, you start it with 'ram ramonly stop.75', so it does not try to get harddisk and network and stops at stage 75.

The older iso does not need the same amount of RAM, a lot of packages are bigger under beowulf. I checked it on about 5 old pcs, it worked (more old pc I don't have).

About 2gb ram, I currently am working on it (probably we will not load all squashfs files).

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-05 19:03:00)

fsmithred · 2019-09-05 22:33:59

I'm testing on a laptop with 8G ram, and I'm alotting 4G to the VM. I can get to a shell and log in. (Note: it looks and acts better in virtualbox than in qemu.) Couldn't get network working.

dmesg shows that it fails around the time it's finding usb devices.
I don't know what to do with the meminfo output. I don't think I'm running out of ram. I tried giving the VM 5G and got the same result.

The only free usb stick here is 2G. I tried it before I realized it was too small.

avbox · 2019-09-06 00:39:02

First of all, I just published an iso (running it again with 2 gb). So if you have 8 GB RAM, that cannot be the problem. But your stick should be 4GB.

Please start once without harddisk and network. So about needed RAM I cann tell you:

What happens if AVMultimedia is started with less than 4 GB RAM?

If less than 3000 MB memory is available, some programs will not load: GIMP, Scratch3, Gcompris and Sozi. The lowest limit for use is 2 GB.

Why can't I start GIMP, Scratch3, Gcompris and/or Sozi?

Probably less than 3000 MB of main memory are available. In this case the above applications are not integrated. However, the first three can be downloaded manually as AppImage packages.

How do I start the different menu items when booting without UEFI?

Below eight codes are given: dhd dno dhda dhda dnoa ehd eno ehda enoa

The first letter corresponds to the language (d/e}, the following two letters are about whether the hard disk should be used (hd/no) and if an 'a' is listed at the end, this means that acpi_osi= is set.

So start your box i.e. eno or enoa

golinux · 2019-09-06 01:04:08

Note: Not much love for appimage around here . . .

avbox · 2019-09-06 07:24:34

Well, let's say you are a developper with small capacities. You would like to give your users a chance that it runs on a good number of different linux systems. Why should you not use AppImage here? I see that it does need much more space but else?

From point of the users, what is wrong when I can uses i.e. Gimp 2.10 years bevore it is available in the final stable branches?

I as the maintainer of AVMultimedia even can offer a release with 2 GB RAM (as I did it yesterday) because I don't include all the more optonal programs that are done with AppImage. And just to clarify this out, this optional Apps are already presented uncompressed so they run speedy.

Ok, I don't love them too, because they need more space then a traditional package but I don't love too all this packages that are becoming bigger and bigger in every release. The difference from Devuan ASCII to Beowulf on AVMultimedia is arround 800 MByte (6.5 GB to 5.7 which is a plus of 13 percent) more needed space with the same amount of packages.

And yes I see that sometimes there are 100 mb of icons in apps but I also see that noebody takes care that on a distribution all icons look pretty cool.

Actually I see about 450 mb of firmware, yes I don't like it. But I too see: a) an open source graphic driver from amd with a firmware blob or b) a closed driver from another manufactor. I don't like a) but b) is even more worse. In my private and business environment nearly all use Windows or Mac Without all this mltimedia stuff no chance that they even have a look at it.

My wish is not to use all over AppImage, but sometimes I don't see any alternatives. And yes, if someone sees better alternatives, then I'm ready to use them.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-06 12:06:54)

avbox · 2019-09-09 23:47:11

AVMultimedia: new version to setup xorg server

Just uploaded new iso files. Update gives you possiblity to start fbdev xorg.conf device in case the automatic recognition does not working well.

After it you can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and then save for next booting over sub menu 'System' and there 'Parameters'. There choose the option 'Save xorg file'. From that point on while starting AVMultimedia, this specific xorg.conf file will be used.

avbox · 2019-09-10 12:45:29

golinux wrote:

Note: Not much love for appimage around here . . .

So, I made a version without all AppImage-Stuff, the iso avmultimini.iso is much smaller and you can yourself add the packages through synaptic or apt-get install (i.e. gimp 2.x). Just take care to save the installed packages with the tool 'parameters' (you find it under menu system and then sub menu 'Avmultimedia'). Enjoy!

Another question: What else is needed to become an "official" devuan derivates (does mean to be included to the page 'Devuan Derivates)?

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-10 12:46:12)

golinux · 2019-09-10 19:04:31

avbox wrote:

Another question: What else is needed to become an "official" devuan derivates (does mean to be included to the page 'Devuan Derivates)?

Devs will have an opportunity to discuss the next time we get together. I cannot test because I work in a 32 bit environment. Also note that there is active discussion on this forum about other derivatives that have never even asked to be on the derivatives list.

I am curious why you chose to build AVMultimedia on Devuan. You have not discussed Devuan on this thread or shown an interest to participate elsewhere on this forum so I'm sensing a bit of a disconnect. Perhaps you can help us to better understand.

avbox · 2019-09-10 22:25:24

golinux wrote:

avbox wrote:
Another question: What else is needed to become an "official" devuan derivates (does mean to be included to the page 'Devuan Derivates)?
Devs will have an opportunity to discuss the next time we get together. I cannot test because I work in a 32 bit environment. Also note that there is active discussion on this forum about other derivatives that have never even asked to be on the derivatives list.
I am curious why you chose to build AVMultimedia on Devuan. You have not discussed Devuan on this thread or shown an interest to participate elsewhere on this forum so I'm sensing a bit of a disconnect. Perhaps you can help us to better understand.

I will try to explain it. Since 1998 I have a small(er) company which does produce document management systems (so called Archivista). In 2005 we switched from Windows to Linux and branded the product ArchivistaBox. At that stage the system was built with t2-project-org. As everything in t2 is built from source, it was too much work, so we switched around 2010/11 to Debian (you still will find under derivates the ArchivistaBox). 2017 I ran into a problem with a customer that needed hplip with classical init system; unfortunately it did not work with debian. So I tried it with Devuan and it worked. Since then I work with Devuan. This is all, but see the FAQs about AVMultimeida there I try to explain it too:

http://archivista.ch/cms/en/support-2/avmultimedia-2/

As I told you my company is a small(er) and it is a lot of work to fullfll all things (and yes I have family and children, and they too need time). I'm now far over 50 and at this age I don't want waste time about why one should choose system x or y. But I think that (linux) systems should be as easy as possible. I like Devuan because the fact that not every part is done completely new. In this manner it makes things as easy as possible.

In other parts, I think there is more work needed. My impression here is that most people here work since decades with linux what I like. It is good when Devuan is the Linux for linux veterans, but one should keep in mind that reaching the younger generation is too important.

Asking to add AVMultimedia is not so important. I just thought that it would be a benefit and that the Devuan team likes when someone is doing stuff with Devuan. Sure I did not bring in so far time or money to the project. The only reason is, my budget (on time and money) is rather small. But I can add here, I invested in past (on time and money) on several projects.

Due to my poor English and the fact that I rather like to travel by bike or even by foot (or then by train, nearly no airplane), yes you will not find my on every linux conferences around the world. I just did find out that the Devuan team has a booth at next linuxday.at (19th of October). I will be there too (may be there is time to get in contact). Just to note, I will give a talk about AVMultimedia:

https://www.linuxday.at/avmultimedia-18 … -dem-start

My wish about Devuan and AVMultimedia would be that a modern linux desktop can be used, for the whole family (even with no linux skills), at school and in business cases. Such a system must be much more easier than it is today.

My wish is not to make the system just for me easy, we need an easy system for all the people (most of them are still using not LInux and even not Devuan). Just today my 9 year daughter told me that they needed nearly the whole hour to get logged in and registred at windows computers at school. I think this problem would not exist on Devuan. But when I try to explain people who easy it could be with linux they mostly claim about installation (even with Devuan). I'm ready to share my experience with you and yes, let us make life more easier with Devuan.

golinux · 2019-09-12 05:25:59

First an apology for not seeing this page earlier. My bad. If I had been more diligent you wouldn't have been bothered with having to post the above response. But probably a good idea to have it here so others won't have to go on the hunt to find it.

Anyway . . . your request was discussed today and our biggest concern was for possible trademark infringement for example:

1. Microsoft Windows logo on the panel applications menu

2. Programs in the LibreOffice suite are rebranded using the trademarked logos of Microsoft Office

3. Icons used throughout the desktop are largely pulled straight out of Windows 10

We understand why this approach would help to transition newcomers to Linux but hope you understand why that would be a showstopper for us. Perhaps you would reconsider that decision.

Other than that there were reports of incorrect screen orientation and keyboard issues and a wishlist item to be able to boot it in a VM. Those are not a big concern for us as we realize it is part of a process in which the Devuan community can participate.

As mentioned above, I am unable to explore myself because my systems are 32 bit so this post is a collation of others' comments.

avbox · 2019-09-12 21:06:47

golinux wrote:

First an apology for not seeing this page earlier. My bad. If I had been more diligent you wouldn't have been bothered with having to post the above response. But probably a good idea to have it here so others won't have to go on the hunt to find it.
Anyway . . . your request was discussed today and our biggest concern was for possible trademark infringement for example:
1. Microsoft Windows logo on the panel applications menu
2. Programs in the LibreOffice suite are rebranded using the trademarked logos of Microsoft Office
3. Icons used throughout the desktop are largely pulled straight out of Windows 10.
We understand why this approach would help to transition newcomers to Linux but hope you understand why that would be a showstopper for us. Perhaps you would reconsider that decision.

I would like to answer the following:

a) I'm not a legal expert and I don't know if you are one?
b) Yes, there was some similarity to Windows icons of this well know Company. Just to be clear, in nearly every icon theme you will find some icons that look like the ones used in other OS. As I understand it, as long as you respekt trademark, use is not a problem (there was once a dark age, where there was a fight if Microsoft can use the trash icon that Apple claimed and originally camed from Xerox, if I remember right). The icons AVMultimedia used are hosted on github.com (which belongs to Microsoft). How can it not be legally when even the hosting company Microsoft does not complain about it? You even just find a big article about installing it under Linux, see https://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb- … 55013.html (I don't think this is a non commercial site). Also there is a longer discussion about it (from year 2000) under https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index. … 92408.html. When the choose of the icon was made, I did check all this seriously and I camed to the conclusion that at least the use for a non commercial project is ok (even there you find use in a commercial sense). Again, I'm not a legal expert, but use was not/never done in a manner you write here.

Examples: NO, i did not use the Microsoft Windows logo anywhere (this is completely wrong!). A similarity to a icon of another OS is NOT using the Microsoft Windows logo/tradmark (as long as I understand it). Same with LibreOffice, the Brand MicrosoftOffice was never used. In the manner you write it. One could get the impression that AVMultimedia wanted to make people think there is Microsoft Windows or MicrosoftOffice (Microsoft Windows, MicrosoftOffice are trademarked by Microsoft), but this is/was not/never the case. You even write the Icons are largely pulled straight out of (Microsoft) Windows 10. I checked the work again (icon set) and I did not had any signs, that the icons were copied from Microsoft Windows (see too at mate-look.org). And I also have to note here, AVMultimedia never used a Microsoft Windows theme (since beginning it is Blue-Submarine and nothing else).

Nevertheless I changed it and I would like to add the reasons too:

1) The new icon theme is fully svg based (so modifications are very easy), see https://github.com/bikass/korla

2) As I wrote in FAQs under http://archivista.ch/cms/en/support-2/avmultimedia-2/, AVMultimedia started as a pure 100% non commercial project. As it is too written in the FAQs, now the development is paid by my company because it is too much work (and yes, our document managment customers will get it sooner or later). The legal use in that sense could be a problem (especially if even people on Devuan forum wrongly write here AVMultimedia would be make use of Microsoft Windows Logos, what again never was the case). In business rules it is not only important how you use it, it is also important in what manner it is recognised by normal users.

3) If it is not ok for the Devuan community, I have no problems to change it. I would like to live in freedom.

golinux wrote:

Other than that there were reports of incorrect screen orientation and keyboard issues and a wishlist item to be able to boot it in a VM. Those are not a big concern for us as we realize it is part of a process in which the Devuan community can participate.
As mentioned above, I am unable to explore myself because my systems are 32 bit so this post is a collation of others' comments.

Frankly spoken it would be fine to post it in a way it is reproducable for me. But let me add here, that correct changing of keyboard is too described in the FAQs and about correct screen orientation, I think this is more a user case because you find in bottom right two icons to switch from landscape to portrait screen mode. I see that the larger amount of screens you can't rotate, but on tablets it is a must. If it is something different, please report so I could take care.

Last point: Booting it in a VM. Well, I'm a bit confused. All development is done virtually in KVM (it runs all the time virtually). All you need is to include iso to start, where is the problem? And yes, you need for the full version 4 gb of RAM, but this is too written in the FAQs (and earlier in this thrad). If you only have 2 GB, just use avmultimini.iso. But if soneone has troubles with running it in VMs, again it would be helpfully to post it here. And yes, apart of posting it here, there is a support forum http://help.archivista.ch/forum (there you could too post it).

So I'm ready for any feedbacks.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-13 06:36:28)

golinux · 2019-09-12 21:31:19

I will let those who posted objections and concerns take it from here.

fsmithred · 2019-09-13 11:39:25

I tried the avmultimini.iso. Thanks for putting that up. Here are some notes you might find useful.

I can get it to boot in qemu (with kvm) in legacy bios mode with 'eno' boot code. If I try uefi mode, it hangs on the archivista splash screen. The vertical size of the window increases to 2-3 times normal height, and I have to resize the window to see the bottom of the screen. After a few minutes of this, the cpu starts to get hot.

I can't get it to boot in virtualbox. Tried uefi and legacy bios.

It boots normally from usb. Booted it in legacy bios mode with 'eno' boot code.

The language was English except for kodi, which came up in German.

Changing the keyboard layout presented some problems. First I tried 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration'. I wanted to log out and in again to get it to take effect, but there's no way to log out of the desktop. I tried 'init 1' and nothing happened. I finally tried alt-sysrq-k and was able to restart the desktop. Keyboard was still German. This was especially frustrating for me because it made it impossible to do some things in the terminal.

Then I went into the desktop settings and found the keyboard layout settings. The drop-down menu for countries goes off-screen, and I can't scroll down.

I did not have any problems with the display orientation. The buttons on the panel work and are very cool. That's the first time I've ever been able to rotate the screen. (I don't need it, but I have tried it out of curiosity. Nice to see it finally work.)

It was also nice to see the pulseaudio volume control work. I haven't had good luck with that in the past.

Getting it to run in virtualbox or qemu is probably not essential to using it, but a lot of people like to test new isos in a virtual environment, for convenience.

avbox · 2019-09-13 12:44:43

fsmithred wrote:

I tried the avmultimini.iso. Thanks for putting that up. Here are some notes you might find useful.
I can get it to boot in qemu (with kvm) in legacy bios mode with 'eno' boot code. If I try uefi mode, it hangs on the archivista splash screen. The vertical size of the window increases to 2-3 times normal height, and I have to resize the window to see the bottom of the screen. After a few minutes of this, the cpu starts to get hot.

I recommend to use LEGACY bios so far for virtualization test. The screen resolution problem I too have with the bios file OVMF.fd. I will sooner or later take care about it. But one question with which other Linux does it work?

fsmithred wrote:

I can't get it to boot in virtualbox. Tried uefi and legacy bios.

I just need to install a computer where virtualbox does run, but I will check it out. Thank's for the hint.

fsmithred wrote:

The language was English except for kodi, which came up in German.

Yes, this is true. The project started in Switzerland, and so far I did not find out how to change the language outside of Kodi. But you can change to English and from then it belongs to the choosen language (all settings are stored in /home/archivista/data/kodi).

fsmithred wrote:

Changing the keyboard layout presented some problems. First I tried 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration'. I wanted to log out and in again to get it to take effect, but there's no way to log out of the desktop. I tried 'init 1' and nothing happened. I finally tried alt-sysrq-k and was able to restart the desktop. Keyboard was still German. This was especially frustrating for me because it made it impossible to do some things in the terminal.
Then I went into the desktop settings and found the keyboard layout settings. The drop-down menu for countries goes off-screen, and I can't scroll down.

Currently, you really have to to switch language in Control center. All other ways don't work so far.

You can use the arrow keys to switch to the desired language. In older release of Mate, there was a list and it was much easier to choose. I think about a keyboard tool, just give me some time.

fsmithred wrote:

I did not have any problems with the display orientation. The buttons on the panel work and are very cool. That's the first time I've ever been able to rotate the screen. (I don't need it, but I have tried it out of curiosity. Nice to see it finally work.)
It was also nice to see the pulseaudio volume control work. I haven't had good luck with that in the past.

Yes, pulseaudio is some way a bit tricky, but much better to choose devices (i.e. HDMI or internal card with headphones).

fsmithred wrote:

Getting it to run in virtualbox or qemu is probably not essential to using it, but a lot of people like to test new isos in a virtual environment, for convenience.

I too check all ISOs first it in a KVM guest, this is true. At this stage just disable UEFI and you are fine. So better support of VMs would be fine.

But I think, choosing the keyboard in an easy way is more important, so if you agree I first will focus an this.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-13 12:45:22)

avbox · 2019-09-13 12:55:43

fsmithred wrote:

Changing the keyboard layout presented some problems. First I tried 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration'. I wanted to log out and in again to get it to take effect, but there's no way to log out of the desktop. I tried 'init 1' and nothing happened. I finally tried alt-sysrq-k and was able to restart the desktop. Keyboard was still German. This was especially frustrating for me because it made it impossible to do some things in the terminal.
Then I went into the desktop settings and found the keyboard layout settings. The drop-down menu for countries goes off-screen, and I can't scroll down.

While just starting for a keyboard tool, I found out, you can set it via console with setxkbmap fr (where fr stand as example, could too be it or us). Unfortunatelly I does not change the keyboard in Control center.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-13 12:56:21)

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#1 2019-09-03 15:57:43

AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#2 2019-09-03 16:04:55

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#3 2019-09-03 16:17:50

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#4 2019-09-03 19:21:16

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#5 2019-09-04 11:57:18

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#6 2019-09-04 15:47:50

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#7 2019-09-04 16:09:20

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#8 2019-09-05 14:45:23

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#9 2019-09-05 15:45:33

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#10 2019-09-05 18:36:46

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#11 2019-09-05 19:00:51

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#12 2019-09-05 22:33:59

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#13 2019-09-06 00:39:02

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#14 2019-09-06 01:04:08

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#15 2019-09-06 07:24:34

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#16 2019-09-09 23:47:11

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#17 2019-09-10 12:45:29

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#18 2019-09-10 19:04:31

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#19 2019-09-10 22:25:24

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#20 2019-09-12 05:25:59

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#21 2019-09-12 21:06:47

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#22 2019-09-12 21:31:19

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#23 2019-09-13 11:39:25

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#24 2019-09-13 12:44:43

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

#25 2019-09-13 12:55:43

Re: AVMultimedia with Devuan Beowulf: A powerful RAM based desktop

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