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fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

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

setxkbmap

Thanks! I forgot about that one. It works instantly.

Also, I mis-reported one thing above. After killing the desktop with alt-sysrq-k, the change in keyboard-configuration took effect, and I got the us keyboard.

I didn't get to try the installer but hope to do that some time. Too much other stuff to do now. If anyone else tries it, please let me know.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

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.

The keyboard tool is now available. After downloading the current release I will find a new icon in the panel at right (just left of the icon to shutdown the machine). It does list all keyboards that are in the system available. There would be a hundred of variants (so I only included Swiss French & Swiss Italien). If you see some variants that ure used very common, just let me know.

The keyboard definitin needs to be saved if you want it to have preconfigured through AVMultimedia. You can do this under menu System, submenu AVMultimedia & Parameters. There choose 'Save Desktop'.

Please let me know if it does work. If so, I can start having a look for the virtualization "problems". If you (or someone else) has any whishes, please let me know.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

II 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.

Due to the fact that we don't support VirtualBox (support for KVM is no problem, just use aqemu for a graphical frontend), I checked it this morning on a freshly installed siduction client. It works without any problems:

http://archivista.ch/cms/wp-content/upl … imedia.jpg

But I would like to add the following points for anybody who is trying it in a virtualized mode.

First, AVMultimedia.iso has a very new 5.2.x kernel, so if you don't have a newer kernel, I would recommend to use at least KVM. Alternatively you can use avmultimedia_old.iso (this has an older 4.19 kernel).

Second, at this stage I recommmend to use LEGACY bios. And take in mind, that even AVMultimedia is installed in uefi mode on a empty disk (if you profide one), yu can start it with LEGACY mode from ISO file.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

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?

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

All over the weekend I searched for the bug about starting it in uefi mode with kvm/qemu. Fact was, with the older release (kernel 4.19.x) it worked, while with the kernel 5.2.x it did not work. Aflter a long search and some hundreds of restarts I found out it just was a kernel module that I had to disable: CONFIG_X86_SYSFB. If someone is interested in the problem, see here https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/57479

VirtualBox I could not test, I did not find the swith to enable UEFI (if someone can test or post the way to activate uefi), that would be helpfully.

Last edited by avbox (2019-09-15 23:17:25)

MiyoLinux

Member

Registered: 2016-12-05

Posts: 1,323  

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

VirtualBox I could not test, I did not find the swith to enable UEFI (if someone can test or post the way to activate uefi), that would be helpfully.

Hi avbox,

Hopefully this will help...

1.  When you open VirtualBox, click (to highlight) the OS that you want to run in VirtualBox.
2.  Click Settings
3.  When the Settings window opens, click System in the side bar.
4.  In the Motherboard tab, put a check mark next to "Enable EFI (special OSs only).
5.  Click Okay.
6.  The Settings window will close, and you can then click the Start button to start the OS in EFI mode in VirtualBox.

---

I have been Devuanated, and my practice in the art of Devuanism shall continue until my Devuanization is complete. Until then, I will strive to continue in my understanding of Devuanchology, Devuanprocity, and Devuanivity.

Veni, vidi, vici vdevuaned. I came, I saw, I Devuaned.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

VirtualBox I could not test, I did not find the swith to enable UEFI (if someone can test or post the way to activate uefi), that would be helpfully.

Hi avbox,

Hopefully this will help...

1.  When you open VirtualBox, click (to highlight) the OS that you want to run in VirtualBox.
2.  Click Settings
3.  When the Settings window opens, click System in the side bar.
4.  In the Motherboard tab, put a check mark next to "Enable EFI (special OSs only).
5.  Click Okay.
6.  The Settings window will close, and you can then click the Start button to start the OS in EFI mode in VirtualBox.

Even on my version I did not find a 'Motherboard' tab, I foundet it. Unfortunatelly with the release I made yesterday it did not work. The reason was/is that with efi you need a special virtualbox graphic driver from kernel. Now it is addd and it works. Just a side node, the virtualbox grafik driver is only in kernel 5.2.x in mainline, in 4.9.x you find it in the staging area. At the same time I added lz4 compression for kernel and initrd (but for me it does not make very big difference even it is a bit faster at first stage of booting).

I once would like to add here, that it works perfect two with 2 gb of ram (I only could test it virtually because I don't have any machines with less then 4 gb ram).

I again want to say thank you for all the input you gave. I hope that not only the devuan community sees that with devuan it can be very fast and easy. If soneone wants to put it in the derivatives list -- this is up to you.

And yes, any wishes (if it is possible for me) will be very welcome.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

Just released a new version with a (hopefully) better design:

http://archivista.ch/cms/wp-content/upl … da_new.png

Enjoy!

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

Another new release was published. If you have any wishes, post t here.

avbox

Member

Registered: 2019-09-03

Posts: 105  

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

Another new release, now booting is faster. To setup the whole system (more then 6 gb software) I actually only need between 15 and 35 secunds.