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I think that a news feature will be helpful
just to let anyone who is interested know whats
going on. There may not be a lot of updates, but
I will try and post important changes and
events.
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9/24/23
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I am working on the Debian 10/23
series. While I wasnt planing on adding
another desktop after finishing the 9/23 series, I
thought Talking Mate should also be a Debian spin.
It has a special place in my heart as my wife
needs visual accessibility in a desktop.
Adding Talking Mate to Debian was not easy and
required a new setup. While it took some time it
was well spent as it will help the Manjaro
version. I have gotten at least some screen reader
functionality with the Calamares installer.
The change in setup also makes it eary to disable
the screen reader if someone just wants the Mate
desktop. This will also be useful if someone who
doesnt need a screen reader wants to use the
computer. All thats needed is setting up another
login and disabling it for that account.
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9/10/23
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The Debian 923 series finished a
few days ago, and I am now building the Manjaro
23.0.1 series.
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9/4/23
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I am uploading the first of the
Debian 9/23 series, Cinnamon. The other two will
follow over the next two days.
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8/28/23
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Its been a productive week. On the
Debian side Cinnamon and Xfce-Compiz were added.
This took a lot of scripting to the eznix build
platform to have multiple profiles
available, and pull and replace files in the
setup depending on the profile.
A few generators were created to build and make
the common packages, and one to update the
profiles for the various iso's for a series.
It took some time to setup, but in the long run it
will free up time to improve the spins. An
example, it took about 6 hours to make the 11
package folders, create the packages, and test
them for the 923 series. The generator does it in
about 3 minutes.
Everything looks on track for the Debian 923
series to be out the first week in September. I
also have a head start on the wallpaper and themes
for the next Manjaro and Debian series. After
release its time to relax and od on Hearthstone
for a few days.
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8/23/23
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I have been working on the 9/23
Debian series. Xfce-Compiz was so easy I figured I
would get a start on Cinnamon because there is a
dock and a panel iso. Even if it wasnt done for
9/23 I thought the work would make it easier to
add it for 10/23. The good news is that Cinnamon
is coming along nicely. There are still a few
things left to do, but it will be ready for the
9/23 series.
LXQt, Xfce-Compiz, and Cinnamon will be the lineup
for the near future. For the 10/23 series I
will be looking at the included software lists to
see if I can improve it.
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8/17/23
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The Manjaro 23.0.0.2 series is
almost done. Only Cinnamon is left, and its built
and being tested. It should be released on
8/18/23.
I have built the first Debian Xfce-Compiz iso. It
still needs some work but it should be ready for
the Debian 923 release. A huge thank you to
Donald Norwood. He answered an email to the Debian
Forums and said it was ok to post about the Debian
spins there.
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8/8/23
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I am uploading the 8/23 Debian
release as I write this. I was able to do the
scripting to make a minimal iso. That will put me
ahead for next month when I plan on adding a
desktop to the Debian side of the project. I am
still thinking about it. The choices are
Mate-Compiz or Xfce-Compiz. Cinnamon has an
outside chance, but its going to be more work.
Gnome will be last if its added at all.
I did create my first little application. Its an
update script for the update notifier. It will
open a terminal, ask for your password, then
update and upgrade. It will stay open a few
minutes in case there are any errors so they can
be copied into a txt file for troubleshooting
purposes. Not much, but the other option was
bloated and added a lot of files. For a
lightweight desktop like LXQT, its good.
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8/6/23
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Its been some time since the last
update. The 23.0.0.1 Manjaro series was finished
about two weeks ago and I started on the Debian
spin. Since I couldnt make a Pantheon spin, I had
an extra theme already made. I used it for the
upcoming August Debian spin that should be
released in the next week.
The Debian side of the project took some big steps
since the initial release. Its now multiarch, has
a timeshift autosnap, the SbK Debian repository is
up, and lots of graphics have been made for its
parts. The build script is also pretty well
set for a full LXQt iso.
The September release will see a minimal iso
release and possibly another desktop. Thats going
to take a lot of scripting to accomplish so it
wont make the August release.
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7/19/23
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The repository and web host are
back up. I am working on the 23.0.0.1 series. OSDN
is still down, but Sourceforge is a good for a
download host. I am keeping all the backup sites
updated in case one of the main hosts goes down in
the future. Please, if you can, help support this
project with the "Buy me a coffee" button.
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7/17/23
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Its been a frustrating week for the
most part, but at least one bright spot. The
frustrating part is that the website, repository,
and release hosts all went down. There is no
timetable for them to return. I got a free web
host for the website and resurrected the old
Sourceforge site that had not been used in a year.
So the project is back online, but the repository
on Sourceforge is slow and sometimes errors out. I
will move back to the hosts I was using when they
are up. The Sourceforge site will be kept up to
date as a backup from now on.
The bright spot worth mentioning here is that the
first Debian spin was built and released. I spent
a long time in the Debian community at large. It
feels good to give something back. You can check
it out here if you want.
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7/4/23
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I have added a "Buy me a coffee"
button to the website. If you would like to help
support my work you can click on the button. At
present the plans for any funds raised will be
used for paying for the domain the project uses.
Additional money raised will likely be saved to
upgrade the ancient computers the project uses
before they die.
Thanks in advance for any donations.
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6/24/23
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I have uploaded the new website
theme. I hope everyone likes it.
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6/22/23 |
With all the work that went into
the last series on the theme generators I find I
have a little extra time on my hands. While I am
typing this I am looking at the dated website I
created in the early days. It works and info is
easy to find, but its far from my best work.
That being said I have been working on a website
refresh. Not sure when it will be done, but the
early test page has progressed to a point it is
the clear path forward. A little more work and
maybe it will be ready for the launch of the next
series.
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5/7/23 |
An update was released, so the next
series (22.1.1) is being built. There is a new LTS
kernel 6.1. I expect the LXQt spin will be
released Monday.
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4/30/23 |
All the themes and wallpapers are
ready. A release should happen with the next big
Manjaro stable update. Until then I will take some
time and polish a few things.
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4/21/23 |
If there was one piece of advice I
would give to someone working with css or some
other code they do not know like the back of their
hand, its backup often. After two days of hard
work I had the full theme generator 98% complete.
I forgot to back it up. I made some changes to get
that last two percent done. That didnt
happen, I fubar'd the gtk 3.0 and 4.0
templates up. I thought I had a current backup,
but it was more than a day old. So back to work I
went, backing up after each little area I worked
on. Two days later its all done.
The project now has a complete theme generator
instead of five separate ones. This is going to
make the theme very consistent, and save a lot of
time. The next release series will use themes from
the generator, and I am sure there will be bugs
that need to be fixed. But I am also sure I will
backup as much as possible, at least until a month
goes by and I start some other project. :)
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4/17/23 |
The new Gnome shell theme is pretty
much done. There are a few tiny things I would
like to change, but its nice as it is. The
advantage is that all themes from this point on
will include a gnome shell theme. I am thinking of
making this an all in one generator. It will take
a little work, but it should be doable.
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4/16/23 |
I have spent a few days working on
a new gtk theme generator script. Its based
on Otis,
but has had extensive changes including a complete
recreation of the gtk asset icons. The css is also
modified. Its looking real good. One advantage is
that Otis also has a Gnome Shell theme, something
I wanted to address at some point. Well no time
like the present. I already have the shell icons I
need modified for the script. Next is the css.
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4/11/23 |
The 22.1.0 series is complete. It
turned out to be very nice, and as a total might
be the best series of the past few. But I think it
can be better. One area I am not happy with is the
gtk theme. Specifically the dotted outlines in
some situations. I will be looking into
alternatives for the next series.
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3/31/23 |
The big update I was waiting for
happened today. I have started work on the 22.1.0
series. The packages for it are uploaded. I had to
do a little work on the build scripts, but
everything looks to be ok now. I expect to have
LXQt up tomorrow, and the rest will follow.
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3/11/23 |
The last big update was to close to
the last release series, so I put it off for one
more. Everything is ready, so the next series will
come right after the next big update.
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1/26/23 |
I have uploaded the first of the
22.0.1 series. The rest is going slow. I may get
out Mate-Compiz today, but it will take some luck.
If not the rest of the series should be out daily
after today.
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9/29/22 |
I have a lot of spare time so I
went looking for things to fix. In September of
2021 the project moved to a new repository. For a
long time the old repository was left as it was
and it was more or less forgotten. In June of this
year I was forced to pretty much empty it because
of limited hosting space. That brings us to today,
I have created a symlink linking the old
repository to the new repository. I am not sure
how many people are still running the old spins,
but they will need to add the new repository key
to access the files,
instructions are found here.
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9/27/22 |
The 22.0.0 series has been done for
a few days. My foot is getting better and while it
is healing it gave me time to finish the
preparations for the next series. It also gave me
time to sit and think about what needs to be done.
One area of need was a way to backup the build
server, the repository and the theme creation
setup. A day of scripting fixed that and I can now
backup everything with a command. While it doesnt
improve the spins it does make sure that if
something would happen to a hard drive it would be
easier to restore it from archives stored in the
cloud. Otherwise years of work could be
lost, and its a real possibility with my ancient
hardware.
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9/19/22 |
Just when things are going good,
life takes a turn. I was mowing my backyard, in a
house I have owned for over 20 years. I must have
walked on every part of that yard, or so I
thought. I stepped on a big rusty crusty nail that
went into my foot. I cleaned it out, put
antibiotic ointment on it. The next morning my
foot swelled up, I went to the emergency room.
I spent over a week in the hospital, had surgery,
and now have a nifty hole in my foot than needs to
heal. I have been out now a few days and I am
working on the 22.0.0 release that Manjaro
released during my hospital stay. Its going slow,
but I am half way done. I hope you like that new
Pantheon spin.
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8/28/22 |
A few days after stopping work on
the Enlightenment spin I tried Pantheon. It has
gone a lot better. Most of the work was theme and
package selection related. The only real bug is I
ran into was getting the live environment to auto
sign in. Along with its release, likely in the
next release cycle, will be a Pantheon specific
theme that may work with other desktops, but I
havent tested it yet. Still some scripting work to
do to fit the desktop into my build/packaging
setup, it should be easy but time consuming.
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8/22/22 |
After pounding my head against a
wall for a day trying to change the default file
manager in Enlightenment, I am shelving this build
for a bit. The file manager that is part of
Enlightenment is just bad. I was considering Caja
or Nemo, but after trying a lot of ways to do it,
it still wont start them by default.
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8/21/22 |
The 21.3.7 series is done and I'm a
little bored. I have some of the theming done, and
the rest wont take to long, and a month until I
will likely release the next series. I have been
looking at Enlightenment as a possible desktop to
spin. I have created a buildiso profile and an
iso. The iso boots to the desktop, and installs.
But there is a lot of work to do. I'm not sure
when it will be ready, or if it will ever be
released. But its a start.
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7/18/22 |
The 21.3.4 update dropped this
morning. Its only been 21 days since Manjaro was
updated to the 21.3.1 series, but I am going to
create the SbK 21.3.4 series. Updates to stable
have been over a month at times in the past. If
the next update takes that long there would to
much time between releases. I have all the
packages created and uploaded and I will start
making the iso's soon.
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7/9/2022 |
I went ahead with spinning the Kora
icon set. I created a color change script and
created the base package (KoraSpinBase). The base
package is in the SbK repository, but it only has
grey folders. Kora will not be in the next release
because the icons for it are already done, but
they will be in the one after that.
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7/7/2022 |
I am getting a little bit bored at
the moment. So I am looking for ways to improve
the spins. FlatRemix icons are nice, but the
appeal they once had is swiftly fading. I have
been looking at the Kora icon
set. There is a good chance I may Spin it.
It likely wont appear for two releases if I do.
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6/22/2022 |
I think I misunderstood what
was said on a update
post on the Manjaro forum. I thought that
the 22.0 series was next, and Manjaro did not
update the lsb-release package that shows the
release version. So I named the last SbK series
22.1.b. Then Manjaro released 21.3 after the SbK
22.1.b series was released. In the future I will
not advance the series number if that happens
again, instead I will create a point release.
At present all the theming is done for the
next series. Its likely to be 21.4 or 21.5 with
the release coming after the next stable update. I
will delete the 22.1.b iso's from OSDN site once
the next release is posted since the numbering
will be off.
Earlier this week I did some repository
maintenance. I removed some ancient packages from
a very old repository on OSDN. I created some
empty package databases and uploaded them to OSDN
so any users that still have not moved to the new
repository will not get any errors. |
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