LevinRhan gets fed up with masked packages

since i'm quite chatty these days, and this has come up in conversation a few times, rather than respond to the "what are u installing" questions fresh each time, i'm drawing out here, the rough plans as they are at this stage, for my big old drastic revamp of my whole system.  biggest change for years.

on the 300gig velociraptor which until now, has only ever had 3 partitions, i plan on having:

sda1 16gb Swap 
(yeah, i've heard not to go above 4... what do they know about my needs)

sda2 16gb Secondary System  
(where i'll b when it hits the fan)

sda3 ??mb  GRUBBY 
(a small distro, probably slitaz, with a saikee style grub chainloader)
(THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTITION)

sda4 ~~ extended
sda5 3gb #!Statler  vanilla
(or likely in the future, whatever is the most up to date crunchbang)

sda6 16gb #!Statler Squishy
("squishy" from hence forth, for purposes of this document, simply refers to my custom configuration as used in default squishboom)

sda7 16gb #!9.04 Squishy
(old faithful, at least it has been for my laptop for the past whiley)

sda8 3gb Archbang vanilla

(likely the latest archbang.  cos u know, i like to keep track of it's progress too.)

sda9 >5gb Archbang Squishy
(yep, my custom configuration built on archbang... unsure how big i should make it... more likely will be another 16gb, echoing the partitioning for the crunchbangs.)

sda10 5gb Debian - Squishy
(yep, its not statler, it might be squeezebang, but the idea is more to build a squishboom on debian from scratch.)

sda11 5gb Crux - Squishy
(CRUX!   that's right!  i've long wanted to give it a shot... so why not give it some space for the funs.)

sda12 1gb Slitaz - Squishy
(was about to limit it to 512mb only, but 1gb just seems a little more round and convenient)

sda13 5gb Slackware - Squishy
(LONG have i been a Slackware admirer, :)  so i imagine i'll be in full on tantric geekgasm over having a squishslack.)

sda14 3gb Slax - Squishy
(slax!?   SLAX!?   yeah... :)  its loadsa fun.  has great potential to be a dream distro, but as it is, it's more like rummaging around a junkyard trying to put a decent system together.  still... loadsa fun... and easy to make your own distro.)


sda15 ~ sabayon - squishy
(nope... purpose of this is an end to my time with gentoo based... unless i opt for paludis)

sda15 ??gb BSD
sda16 ??gb BSD
sda17 ??gb BSD
sda18 ??gb BSD
(4 BSDs!?  yeah.   most likely PC, FREE, DragonFly & Open)

sda19 ??gb ICAROS
(yeah, i might even stick an aros in there.)

sda20 ??gb AROSBOOM (squishy)
(and if i stick aros in... why not see if i can go mad and install various more familiar apps for the interface)

sda21 room for more distro surfing
sda22 room for more distro surfing
sda23 room for more distro surfing
sda24 room for more distro surfing
sda25 room for more distro surfing
...and more?

and then on sdb 1.5tb internal, besides some backup partitions, storage, there's already partitions prep'd for more.

besides all my various usb pendrives, i'll make sure at least one of them has a full on chainloader grub too, incase something happens to my sda3.   also, in sda3, i'll make sure there's information (updated periodically) with what is in all the partitions... y'know, in a seperate text file, so i dont go messing about too much in the grub config and risking borking it with a pebcak error.

pretty wild huh?



aaaand, if this idea has just come upon me in my fever while ill, i've still got my dd'd backup of my old major grande install of sabayon, and two other sequentially smaller sabayon installs backed up too, so i can always go back.  :)

i'm taking it slow and cautious still tho... i dont want to make any more silly mistakes while my thinking is still a bit groggy from this cold, or flu or whatever i've had.


there.   info overload.   :D  now i just need to link next time someone asks me what i'm up to.  :D

yacb

yacb, Yet Another Config Backup.

this time, in my fresh archbang install, i've installed firefox and all the addons i use in my crunchayon* opperating system's firefox.

the purpose of this is so that should i need to again, i can just (in theory) download and decompress this .mozilla folder to my home folder, and assuming the correct version of firefox is installed, it will run just as i like it, with all my addons.

for clarity of reference, here are the addons, as generated by  MR Tech Toolkit:

Generated: Fri Apr 16 2010 15:56:05 GMT+0000 (UTC)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100402 Namoroka/3.6.3
Build ID: 20100402183726

Enabled Extensions: [14]

• Active Stop Button 1.3.0
• BarTab 1.5.1
• BetterPrivacy 1.47.4
• Compact Menu 2 3.1.1
• DownloadHelper 4.7.3
• Flagfox 4.0.4
• Flashblock 1.5.13
• Ghostery 2.0.3
• MR Tech Toolkit 6.0.4
• NoScript 1.9.9.63
• Packed Menu 1.0
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.2
• Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO) 2.0
• The DoGooder 1.0.3

Installed Themes: [4]

• Black Stratini 2.1
• Classic Compact 3.6.0
• Default
• Stratini 2.1

Installed Plugins: (1)

• Shockwave Flash

 and without further ado, here's the link to the uploaded config:
http://omploader.org/vNDY2Zw/digitsfresharch.mozilla.tar.lzma
or the short link:
http://omploader.org/vNDY2Zw
or if for some reason you wish to see omploader's info page about it:
http://omploader.org/iNDY2Zw


but i'm not stopping there.

as nice as the config files for conky, tint2 and openbox's menu.xml and rc.xml in vanilla archbang 2 rc2 are, i've grown too accustomed to my own configuration, especially the keyboard shortcuts... not really all that fussed about my menu.xml to be honest tho.  its not as useful once u get a nice logical and intuitive keyboard shortcut setup.  

just to illustrate some of the general guidelines in my keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl, like the name suggests, is generally for "control", root control that is.  so for example, if u press Tux*** - f to launch file manager, Ctrl - Tux - f to do the same, but with root priveledges.

Alt, like the name suggests, is either used to "alternate" something, like perhaps a toggle, or it is used as an alternative where that particular key combination (without the alt) is already taken by something else, but no other suitable alternative key had been found.  one example of this in squishboom is the package manager and partition editor, both mapped to p.  as package management is likely the more commonly used, it gets Tux-p, while the likely less often used partition editor is assigned the Tux-Alt-p.

Tux, as the more sherlock holmes / quincey / ironside / dunnaway among you may have already guessed, is for things relating to the opperating system... or more accurately/commonly, the window manager.  like for starting applications, adjusting transparencies, switching desktops....

...well, sort of.  it's an imperfect system, as the underlying crunchbang original controls were pretty much all kept intact so to preserve useability and workflow for those switching from crunchbang to squishboom.   squishboom's interface can be described with reasonable accuracy as crunchbang plus.

ooookay, enough waffle, to the point, here are the links to my squishboom** configs:

http://omploader.org/vNDY3Yg/digitssquishboomopenboxconfigs.tar.lzma
be advised, it may not all work, for example, there will be shortcuts in the rc.xml which will refer to applications not installed, and the autostart script will attempt to launch files which arent available.  the menu.xml has been neglected quite a bit thnx to both my shortcuts, and the debian automenu included within it, which of course will not function in non debian/ubuntu based distros.

http://omploader.org/vNDY3aA/digitssquishboomtint2configs.tar.lzma
my tint2 config.  maximising screen space usage, taking a leaf out of the book of tiling window management.  :)

http://omploader.org/vNDY3aw/digitssquishboomconkys.tar.lzma
and the conkys.   as nice an idea as the keybinding conkyswitcher is, its not essential for me at the moment with my system of shortcuts i can fathom easily enough without the cheatsheet.

http://omploader.org/vNDY3ZQ/digitssquishboomtildaconfig.tar.lzma
i've also included my tilda config, because i always install it, and its becoming an all too familiar experience reconfiguring it in every distro i install.

okies, that'll do the job.

*crunchayon is the nickname i gave to a minimal sabayon 5.1 install, configured to be like as is in squishboom (or crunchbang if you like).

** squishboom originally being my crunchbang adaption inspired by crunchbang, and attempting to take that which i liked about crunchbang most, further.

*** Tux is name i give to what you may know of as the "Super" or "Windows" button/key.   mine has a little "Tux" the penguin picture on it.  :)

no squish, but i spied my old friend dux.

yeah yeah, i still havnt officially released squishboom. :P :P
.*

side tracked with other stuff.

not least, archbang. :P if it would work on my system. well... it did.. but now it doesnt again. lol i remember those days, early with my 'nix honeymoon.
A!

also not least, crunchayon. i did almost the most basic install i could off the sabayon 5.1 games dvd. and started crunchbanging it. it's been mostly a pleasing experience. .... in the way ointment with flies is mostly pleasing.
#y

but while i was looking around for a usb stick i could use to test out archbang 2 on, via unetbootin, to see if live usb would work friendlier than native cd, i stumbled across, on my three 2gig drives:

1. wilburdavix ( the second linux distro i made for a friend. this one based on davix, the prior, on a stripped slax )

2. dux ( 5th incarnation of my own personal lightweight distro with just the main key features i seek.... except wifi fails! gur. )

3. squishboom 'nix ( a version i was gonna make, that has a pile of extra tweaks outside the purview of the effects from the pris enacted upon a crunchbang. ...but then i went n messed it up before turning it into a ISO, and put some personal data on it (ie, everyone would sign into my icq, msn and aim, and skype has my name there too ... if i hadnt done that, this version mighta been the one that made it to official release ).



the dux, i'm really quite happy with.
infact, just this very second as i type this, i think i should make a slaxboom. or at least a crax / crunchslax / slaxbang / slang ... whatever u wanna call a crunchbang-alike-slax. but the boom, meaning it'd b like squishboom. mmmm.

anyways, the dux is kinda... um... well, it just works so sweet. much thnx to slax, and kde and ... yeah. the rest. i'm just chuffed cos i had been having a pesky ntfs external play up, but here little dux is ready to go n play my playlist inside it. :D gosh i love it when things just work soooo much more effortlessly than u expect... and sad to say, i still think u get that experience most often, most easily, with kde3.5* still.

i love making the lightweight stuff.... but even kde can be reasonably lightweight.
but the really lightweight stuff i mean... like trying to make a pure cli distro that has dwm or musca just to save from the pain of twm for when u really need gui.



... actually, most of my time has been spent between doing some graphic design stuf for u-praise, & learning gentoo in vain hope i might be capable of producing a gentoo based crunchbang-like live-installer iso.

i would b a god if i pulled that off.

but then, if it were that easy, someone would have done it already... wouldnt they?

maybe i should stick to slax and slitaz and suse-studio and ubuntu remastersys dist.


anyways... just blowin of some steam.

wanted to make note of my "dux" distro somewhere. it's the one i been developing the longest... even longer than squishboom... cept i never planned to be releasing it so much as i have with squishboom.


would really rather if i had faster upload. then i would get dux v.005, wilburforce linux, wilburdavix, squishboom, puffinOS, GIMPstick pure, GIMPstick dirty, and the rest once made, all uploaded, so folks can get a grip on them, rather than get blasted with all my vapourware. ^_^

~ yeah... its true, i do actually do stuff for real. it's not all dreaming. lol.



ahhh... dux. wonderful. v happy to have my hd playing nice again. nice to know i can do this now anytime it does that again. rather than have to attatch it to a windows pc and restart it three times.