Lenovo S20-30 Touch + Crux 3.1

PART 3  | See Part 2 and Part 1

So, Crux is meant to be keeper. And this post will be long and occasionally detailed - as Crux' manual is not very long and help is only in form of mailing-list.

Made usb installer: dd if=crux-3.1.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=1M, booted and had auto-login as root.
Did whole fdisk /dev/sda, mkswap/swapon, mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda2 (and sda3) again.
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt    #sda1=swap, sda2=/, sda3=all stuff
setup

Picked packages manually - left some things out. Installer finished with no errors and then it was time to chroot.
It's not particularly important in which order you do things when chrooted - and some of following can also be done after reboot.
setup-chroot  #script with all needed chroot-things
passwd  #create root password
adduser myuser  #can be done later but I did then
mkdir /media/back  #mount point for sda3
chown myuser:users /media/back
nano /etc/fstab  #has to be fixed, otherways - no boot.
nano /etc/rc.conf  #can be done later, but why wait:
FONT= default
KEYMAP=us   #all availables are in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
TIMEZONE=Narnia/Mytown  # /usr/share/zoneinfo/
HOSTNAME=cruxlap
SYSLOG=sysklogd
SERVICES=(crond net)  #here go all started services, e.g: alsa gpm ntp sshd
localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Yourplace /etc/localtime
hwclock --set --date="2012-04-19 16:45:05" --localtime
hwclock --hctosys
# I have habit to use localtime - because of windows dualboot in my desktop-machine. If Linux is single-system, then it's no problem using UTC.

Created udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules with card mac number as eth0 - otherways udev changes card-name to something - and net is not going to load automatically on boot.

Kernel compilation.
Thought to be clever - and compiled newer kernel (3.18.22) than one provided by Crux. Well, it hanged when booting. Tried changing things / recompiling - but nothing worked. Copied confs to sda3 and reinstalled Crux (to be safe of leftovers). Copied confs back, and compiled original kernel.
Which booted alright. But - surely I was in some totally retarded mode - as I left Intels' video driver out. Recompile. Then I discovered that I left out also sound drivers. Recompile. And afterwards I discovered that I left out i2c - needed by coretemp... well, not essential - no recompile.
Anyway, compiling went exactly like it's written in Crux' page:
cd /usr/src/linux-3.12.24
make menuconfig
make all
make modules_install
cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz
cp System.map /boot

grub-install /dev/sda  &&  grub-mkconfig > /boot/grub/grub.cfg
I didn't like what grub created - so I made my own simple cfg file (can be copied from Crux' page, and then modified).
Copied all my desktop-Crux user-confs to laptop and changed ownership to my user.
exit && reboot

mount /dev/sda3 /media/back  #if not already in fstab
Before starting with updates I changed ports confs - made /media/back/ports and media/back/pac folders and edited /etc/pkgmk.conf and /etc/prt-get.conf accordingly. Also - every .rsync file in /etc/ports has to be changed too.
The point is - all sources+compilations grow very big, very soon. No need to stuff your root.
mv contrib.rsync.inactive contrib.rsync  #enable contrib, also in prt-get.conf
ports -u  #update ports list
prt-get sysup  #whole system upgrade - takes hours!
Only error I had was with xorg-server: missing libepoxy. Installed that and xorg compiled OK.

And then it was installing everything I normally do install. Troubles:

- gpm  # Only thing that worked was usb-mouse. Hacked /etc/rc.d/gpm:
/usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2
stop/start gpm and all touch-things started to function.
- openbox # cp /media/back/ports/openbox media/back/pac, then edited Pkgfile '--enable-imlib2 \' and also added imlib2 to depends line. The same goes for conky.
- xdotool  # Now there is package to be taken (1,5 years ago there wasn't)
- man needs pager - put into .bashrc: export pager='less'
- tint2 # has waken from long coma - and there is new version 0.12.2
Url in Pkgfile didn't work, though - the one in slackbuilds.org did, so I downloaded tar from there.  
- wmctrl  # url is slightly wrong - /dist has to be taken out.
- volumeicon 4.6  # last version with gtk2, needs patching.
- pale moon binary package to /opt, ln -s /usr/local/bin (I have a habit to put apps to local/bin... In Crux, this folder has to be created.)
- mplayer + smplayer  # Like previous time, there were severe problems. Basically , smplayer didn't play anything and whined about mplayer error. To cut it short - after almost 3 hours of aborted compilations I installed mpv, smplayer started to work with mplayer BUT not with mpv... &^%&#$$#^.
- compton  # Packages point to very old version. I dowloaded new git version but didn't succeed with make install (missing some dep). So I was impatient and ended up with just make and cp compton /usr/local/bin. And it works alright.
- mtpaint  # 3.40 doesn't compile - libpng-16 is too new for it. Git-version compiles ok.
- libunibreak  # is newer liblinebreak. There is no package in Crux - but it's easy to make. Fbreader needs it - and fbreaders' Pkgfile needs then fixing (liblinebreak out).
- libtorrent-rasterbar  # For qbittorrent. But - 1.0.5 from Pkgfile is a WRONG one. Qbittorrent needs 1.0.6 from git.
- qbittorrent  # Refused to make package (error - package is empty) - BUT at the same time - installed it.

And so on... Installing/upgrading Crux and adding your stuff takes 30 hours or probably more. But when all is done - it's real fast and lean. Exactly what fits with shity Celeron.

Lenovo S20-30 Touch with Funtoo and Alpine

PART 2  | See part 1

2. Funtoo, from 21. Sept stage 3 tarball.
Install went as per manual.
- Made systemrescue disk, also as per manual.
- Booted, used stage3-intel64-silvermont-pure64-funtoo-current-2015-09-21.tar.xz
Fixed fstab and some other stuff, rebooted successfully - but had no networking. Did:
rc-update add dhcpcd default && rc

Some things to write into make.conf (I am still talking of specific Lenovo netbook):
-CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
-VIDEO_CARDS="intel"
-INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"

And then I started with defining USE flags ('emerge app-portage/ufed', an helper app)...
After spending some hours with flag-lists, and reading a bit more about vast system of emerge I came to conclusion that I do not want to build advanced spaceship and make 18 trips to Jupiter JUST for using a distro on my ships console.
I suppose it's bad influence of Slackwares' and Cruxs' minimalistic package-system approach... but really... is such a system of building life from premordial soup neccessary?
Not for me - format.


3. Alpine Linux 3.2.3 64bit.
Installation instructions in Alpines' site are ... a bit unclear... you almost think that to install it, you already HAVE to have Alpine installation, and no other way.
Fortunately, it can be done without:
Unetbootin made nice working usb-image (and dd didn't!). Booted it and:
login: root / 'enter'
(and the usual warning - MY root-part is sda2, YOURS might be different)

mount -t ext4 /dev/sda2 /mnt
setup-timezone
setup-alpine -q
setup-sshd  # if you are going to remote into it
setup-ntp  # if you want to use time from network

setup-disk -m sys /mnt

Now, why I said things about fdisk etc? Because I forgot to format properly, and ended up with borked installation. Syslinux didn't want to live in grub-infested MBR.
Fixed it with:
- dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1
Then some confing ... aaand ... boot succeeded.

adduser myuser;
edited /etc/group , added new user to users, disk, wheel, audio, video, cdrom, plugdev (the last one has to be made - spacefm needs it)
apk update && apk add sudo
enabled wheel in /etc/sudoers
apk add bash bash-doc bash completion  # if ash is not your favourite...
changed user-shell to bash in /etc/passwd

... read Alpines' helps, package lists and installed various things.

Then I did change main repos to 'edge' (means testing). I certainly do not advice to do that, they are testing for reason. But - I wanted my favs - spacefm, tint2 etc. Did:
apk upgrade
/etc/apk/repositories  # changed repo to edge
apk upgrade --update-cache --available
sync
reboot
... And there wasn't any net. Imbecilic udev had changed cards' names.
I made file /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules with mac number (which can be found with ifconfig), and for good measure, did:
ln -sf /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-list.rules
After that, it's easiest to reboot.
Once after that I lost network again - and discovered that it was because kernel time had reverted to UTC and was three hours in future...
Did 'date' and 'hwclock' to diagnose - first was wrong, the second was right, so:
hwclock --hctosys

Then I started to have some problems I didn't know how to fix.
And it all culminated with X starting without any input but usb-mouse (yes, yes - I did install evdev and synaptic, I did try to X -configure...).
Lot of curse-words, and ... yes, format it was.
Moral: Alpine  is recommended as lean and fast distro - provided that you stay with 'main' repo AND do not have touch-things. Also - can't have overly specific software needs...

Lenovo S20-30 Touch + Linux

Turning little Win-8.1-laptop to Linux-laptop.

Some relevant (drivers etc) technical data:
Resolution - 1366x768,
CPU - Celeron N2840 2,16 ghz 64bit Silvermont,
Graphics -  Intel HD,
Sound - Intel + realtek,
Ethernet - Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E,
Wifi - Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565/AR9565,
Touchpad - Elan.
Most of info came from lspci, lsusb, lscpu and inxi.

Original state.
I bought this little thing (11.6") in December 2014.
It had 'Windows 8.1 with Bing' OEM x86_64 installed (original dvd: IR3_CCONA_X64FREO_EN-US_DV9.iso), AND totally bloated with Lenovo crapware, including infamous Lenovo superfish-spyware (this link, or other thousands).
After struggling a bit with remove-all-shit, I tried - as a passtime - to install Slackware 14.1 for dual-boot. With partial success only - X refused to start (might have been problem of oldish kernel).
Fortunately, in process, I messed up EFI and Windows didn't start anymore - so I had an excuse to reinstall vanilla win8.1 (registration is automatic, in bios).
Tuned it, played around, and hated whole thing. You can't make bread out of shit, even with helpful addons. Also, whole system tended to be quite sluggish (not a surprise really, with Celeron N2840).
So, after a long while (it laying around mostly unused) I decided to wipe whole disk and install Linux.

The machine has efi+secure boot, but - BOTH can be disabled. And that makes installing Linux markedly easier.
My initial goals were something like:
- fast and lean distro; with little bloat (no fullblown desktop environment);
- reasonably stable;
- with all my favourite software available;
- without let-us-be-new-Windows like crap - from systemd to gnome shell.
Which made me pick Crux (crux.nu and do local search to find my three previous Crux-posts). But - because I also had a waiting-list of 'I should try this one', then I decided to try first those of the list (Antix 15, Funtoo, Alpine 3.2.3).

To action:

1. Antix 15, 64 killah p. 
A distro based on Debian 8 Jessie, but with systemd carefully removed. Full iso comes with four window managers which are swappable on fly, in X. It includes control center and various other scripts. Means - sounds interesting.

Antix' install is from the live session (I think I dd-d the usb-stick...).
username/passwd - demo/demo.
I deleted all Lenovo partitions, made swap, root and home partitions: traditional MBR, as I don't see why I should use GPT with one 500GB disk. And mind - after several installs and different bootloaders it's wise to use fdisk, gdisk, mkfs and such - for wiping disk really clean.
With little helpful trick - reading ability - the installation is a cakewalk, nothing need to be explained here.
Rebooted and logged to JWM.
Checked other WMs ... didn't like default confs and looks, as it always happens with me... So, here come short bits as 'How to tune debian distro, and also brake it':

... Synaptics, enabled more repos. Installed xapian-index (gives a search-window on toolbar);
... rebuilt JWMs menu and launchbar, reordered everything (Joe's site is very helpful as of howto);
... ~/.jwm/theme - seems to have a syntax error: not 'dejavu sans 10', but 'dejavu sans-10'. Otherways it doesn't react to any size change.

There were several annoyances from the beginning:
- Cursor jumping around when typing (very &^%&^#@$%!).
- medit and geany started occasionally new window instances - as opposed to keeping things in tabs...
- when changing window managers various things happened, including some apps closing, some forgetting tabs... But here I doubt very much if it's possible at all to smoothly integrate very different WMs and (different) default apps ...
- few usual app-related-bugs every distro tends to have: Here - clipit didn't start and xmahhjong crashed whole JWM.

So I started to remove Antix goodies, first other WMs and then all antix-scripts and antix-libs.
Re-tuned confs and shit... and, of course, ended up with one-or-two hidden, not-so-easily-findable leftover-quirks ...
My curiosity about Antix satisfied and not willing to spend more time with detective-work I formatted the whole thing.
Some general moral here: If not having unlimited time - do not full-rebuild prebuilt distro.
Ah, well... but it WAS interesting when it lasted. :)

As long you do not have touchscreen and -pad; and do not change 'desktops' on fly - Antix is recommended. It's nice, lean piece of work.
It also ended up as my 6-year old son desktop system. Who seems to be entirely OK with it.