Sandals font update

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I found out this weekend that the 15 and 17 pixel sizes of Sandals had their accents broken, possibly by a Fontforge bug. Hence, I have an update for this bitmap-only font available:

Sandals-font-20070610.tar.bz2

This package also includes my first try at making an italic version of this font. It doesn't look that great and needs to be revised, but at least it's a start.

- Sam

MOOF 0.4 released

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Today I release MaraDNS on one CD 0.4. While this version is not 100% bug free, it is a usable system that should, given a stock DeLi Linux system with all packages installed, will make a tiny live CD ISO image. Should one have Firefox for DeLi Linux installed, the scripts will add Firefox to the live CD. The live CD, which is about 35 megabytes/33 mebibytes in size, consists of:

• Comple *nix scripting environment, courtesy of a modified Busybox 1.5.1 that compiles in DeLi
• X11, complete with video card detection scripts
• Dhcp client and network card auto-probing script
• Playback of mp3 files with XMMS
• Video games: Freecell (complete with difficulty levels), Minesweeper
• C development environment for compiling (complete with make) basic non-gui C programs
• DNS server: MaraDNS
• Scripting languages: ash, awk, and sed (Again, from Busybox)
• Text editor: vi (again, from Busybox)
• Window manager: a slightly patched FVWM version 1
• Firefox 1.5 web browser
• Security: Built-in iptables firewall for protecting the system from port scans and other nonsense
• Security: Firefox web browser runs as non-root user
• NetBSD ftp client, that has up-arrow history and tab expansion
• GNU wget, for getting files from remote web sites
• Fast bootup: The system boots up in about 15 seconds, even on older computers

The disadvantage is that there isn't any documentation for this system. So, I will supply some documentation here:

• No need to log in. Just hit "enter" and you will get a root shell prompt
• Since I forgot to do this, after you log in, type in chmod 1777 /tmp so that Firefox can download and save files
• To configure X, type in /etc/Xsetup
• To start X once configured, type in xinit
• To autodetect the ethernet card, type in /etc/probe.ethernet
• To get an IP address via DHCP, type in /etc/get.dhcp.ip. If you don't get an IP right away, you may have to try a few times
• To auto-detect the sound card in your computer, type in /etc/probe.sound
• Once you start X, to get a list of programs, left click anywhere where there isn't a window. RXVT is the terminal emulator; Firefox, of course, is the web browser; XMMS is the mp3 player; and Freecell is a solitaire card game

On a standard "Hockey rink" business card CD, you can fit not only this complete Linux system, but also about 17 mebibytes of other data. I myself have used this extra spce to fit one song I like (Glyder by Jonn Serrie), my private SSH key (encrypted), a bzip2 compressed tarball of the Bible, and a number of English lessons.

It is available for download here:

http://www.samiam.org/moof/moam-cd-0.4.tar.bz2 (Warning: 18 meg tarball)

MOAM-CD almost ready

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I finally got past the kernel problems. Basically, it looks like 2.4.34.4 is not happy with zlib_inflate being compiled in to the kernel. The workaround is to have zlib_inflate be a module, and insert the module in initrd before inserting the cloop module.

Once I got past that hurdle, the next problem is that, when the 2.4.34.4 kernel is compiled with devfs support, the modules call devfs routines. Since I don't like devfs; the code was abandoned years ago and the location of devices is different than where they are in newer 2.6 kernels, I have had to recompile all of the modules. They take up a little less space since all the devfs nonsense is not in the modules.

At that point, I was able to boot and run the system. I am very pleased with it. The only final thread I need to wrap up is international keyboard support; looks like I need to add xkbcomp and make sure the directories compiled keymaps go in to is a rewritable directory. I also need to make sure /tmp has 1777 perms.

I'm using the system right now. I haven't tested it yet, but it should be able to, after an hour or two (less time if you have one of those fancy Pentium 4 computers), make an iso image that is only a little over 35megs (about 33mebibytes) in size. Complete with Firefox browser, C compiling environment, *NIX command line environment, and even a couple of small video games.

Anyway, I haven't tested it, but it should compile fine and make an iso image from a stock DeLi 0.7.2 install. If you install the firefox package for deli, the iso image will include firefox.

It's here:

http://www.samiam.org/moof/moam-cd-20070607.tar.bz2 (18 meg tarfile)

Moam CD update

OK, I am a lot closer to getting a kernel that works as a DeLi Linux live CD boot CD. Essentially, all I need is DeLi's kernel with initrd enabled, for the CD auroprobing and loopback mounting. The reason why modules weren't working with DeLi Linux was because DeLi's kernel was compiled with versioning information for modules turned off and my kernel was compiled with this turned on. This made my kernel unable to load the modules from DeLi's kernel. So, I can now load DeLi's kernel modules. The problem now is that I can't load the cloop module, even though (as far as I can tell) I added the Zlib compression library to the kernel. It may be, that to include Zlib with the kernel, I have to have both zlib inflate and deflate enabled, not just inflate. I will deal with this tonight.

The Linux kernel is the #1 pain in the ass to deal with when making a distribution.

Moam CD update

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Well, I'm almost at Moam CD 0.4 Last night, I was able to add the C development environment. Since DeLi is based on uClibc, the basic C development was tiny--I was able to get all of the tools and include files needed to compile MaraDNS and still have the entire system fit in under 34 megs. So, it looks like I will very easily be able to fit all of the system on a Business card CD.

The only thing I have to do is get the kernel and initrd to work. The insmod with initrd couldn't even see the printk function in the kernel, so it looks like I will need to recompile busybox in the initrd. My plan is to make busybox static there, so I can have a static busybox which will allow me to unmount the CD correctly when shutting down, which will make getting the CD out after reboot easier.

The latest MOAM cd is here http://www.samiam.org/moof/moam-cd-20070605.tar.bz2

- Sam

MOAM-CD and Sandals font updated

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I worked this weekend on the MOAM-CD project. I have finished the roman (non-bold, non-italic) version of the Sandals typeface at three different sizes: 12 point, 14 point, and 16 point. All three sizes are very readable, and allow me to have an attractive readable screen font on the MOAM-CD without having to abuse the non-copyrightable status of fonts in the US.

Here is a copy of the fonts: http://www.samiam.org/moof/Sandals-font-20070603.tar.gz

I have also made an improvment to FVWM, where it can (somewhat) work around problems of laggy servers that don't always do "focus follows mouse". The hack is that there is code to make sure a window gets focus when it is automatically raised.

In addition, a compressed cloop filesystem (as opposed to cramfs) is made when making the CD image. I have updated the initrd to use cloop instead of cramfs. I have not had a chance to test this yet, because DeLi doesn't have mkisofs. So I have gotten the mkisofs code and will set up MOAM to compile mkisofs so the CD image can be made.

The compressed image, with Firefox, Freecell, and the X.org drivers, but without the C development environment, is only about 28 megs in size. When I added C compiling to the old CentOS 3-based Live CD, the image became about 15 megs bigger. Since DeLi is leaner, and doesn't use glibc, I think it will be leaner. I am guessing a Business card CD image with C compiling support will be about 40 megs in size; enough extra space for extensive customizing.

Anyway, I also need to get aumix, or another simple program to adjust /dev/mixer, to work in this system.

Here is a copy of the current code that will soon be able to make a live CD:

http://www.samiam.org/moof/moam-cd-20070603.tar.bz2 (13 meg tarfile)

Font update

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I am continuing work on my bitmap typeface. I have finished the typeface at 17 pixel size, and am now working on the 15 pixel version of the typeface. All ASCII and most IPA (Well, the IPA symbols that I will support in this font) symbols are done at 15 pixel size. The only thing I have to do are the accented letters. Then I will work on the 13 pixel size typeface. Once that is done, I will make "Cheap and dirty" bold and italic typefaces by having a program make the leters thicker, and using Fontforge with the DejaVu script to italicize the font.

I, alas, have no sample to show you guys. I should have things ready by Monday. I hope.