Remastering CentOS AltArch 7 (1611) on i386 for LXDE and/or e16 desktops

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Len E.
Posts: 20
Joined: 2014/10/11 00:04:37

Remastering CentOS AltArch 7 (1611) on i386 for LXDE and/or e16 desktops

Post by Len E. » 2017/03/18 21:58:20

(This post in this category adds on to two previous recent posts:
livecd-tools for CentOS AltArch 7 (1611) on i386, 2017/03/15,
LXDE Desktop Environment for CentOS AltArch 7 (1611) i386, 2017/02/27.

For clarity, I believed the additional information contained herein warranted
a new post).

(The file CentOS-7-live-LXDE-i386.txt is the first part of the actual kickstart file used in the
subject remastering, down to the %post statement; the CentOS7repos.txt file lists the modules in the
3 local repositories that were defined.)

NEW PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED FOR LXDE

Two difficulties were encountered with the current process, compared to the
previous direct installation of LXDE onto a CentOS 7 32-bit minimal installation.

An error message, that the CentOS 7 package, oddjob-mkhomedir-0.31.5-4.el7.i686.rpm,
requires /bin/dbus-send, implied that the installation of the fc23 dbus modules required
by the lxappearance module were not compatible with it. It was puzzling that the same
error message occurred even with the retention of the standard CentOS 7 dbus modules,
which were not adequate for lxappearance. Performing a two-step rebuild from the
fc23 source rpm for dbus did not help. The final solution was to retain the rebuilt
dbus modules, and insert the fc23 oddjob and oddjob-mkhomedir binary rpms.

Because the rpm -i --replacefiles capability is not available within a kickstart file,
another means was required to overcome the file collision problem with the
file, /usr/share/backgrounds/default.png between the centos.logos package
and the desktop-backgrounds-compat fc23 package.

The solution was found in the web article, https://superuser.com/questions/
133317/is-it-possible-to-modify-rebuild-an-rpm-without-the-srpm

On a host system with "Development Tools" installed, the fc23 rpmrebuild package installs
directly. The installation of the fc23 f23-backgrounds-base package installs 2 subdirectories
in /usr/share/backgrounds, f23 and images. These subdirectories provide the normal default.png
access for desktop-backgrounds-compat. Running rpmrebuild on the desktop-background-compat
binary rpm allows changing the /usr/share/backgrounds/default.png path to
/usr/share/backgrounds/image/default.png.

The desktop-backgrounds-compat thus modified installs without any file collision problem.
(The CentOS7Repos.txt file shows a desktop-backgrounds-compat file with an oldrpm extension.
This is the original file renamed to deactivate it. The modified file has the .rpm extension
to activate it).

SETTING UP e16 AS AN INDEPENDENT LIGHT-WEIGHT DESKTOP ALTERNATIVE

Kim Woelders maintains the Enlightenment e16 desktop. He's coached me on the
effective deployment of e16.
His e16 fc22 src.rpm file can be downloaded from www.enlightenment.org website,
and 2 e16 .i686.rpm files for CentOS 7 are generated using the 2-step approach.

-When the initial login to e16 takes place, many files are created
in /home/user/.e16.
-Of particular importance is the e16_config--0.0 file (attached) , which requires
a few modifications for an independent e16. The file I've put in use
is attached.
-The changes to the vanilla config file are as follows, 0 is switch off,
1 is switch on:
-for cosmetic reasons only, desktops.edge_flip_mode and tooltips.enable
are turned off
-the key changes are in misc.session settings:
-enable_script and enable_reboot_halt are turned on
-NB misc.session.cmd_reboot = sudo /sbin/reboot
misc.session.cmd_halt = sudo /sbin/shutdown -h 0

These last 2 settings correspond to the following statements
added to the /etc/sudoers file:
## Allow members of group wheel to execute shutdown/reboot without a password
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown -h 0
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/reboot

With these changes in place, after the user has finished activities in the e16 session,
e16 can be exited either with reboot or shutdown.

*********************************************************************************************************
As the CentOS7Repos.txt file shows, the CentOS7e16 local repository has several files named
to ".noprpm". This is intended to show all relevant files, but to inactivate the .src.rpm files,
and the files that are also included in the CentOS7LXDE local repository. If a light distro with
only the e16 desktop is desired, all binary rpm's in CentOS7e16 should be activated, and the
CentOS7LXDE repository should be omitted entirely.

Lucian, who is the Stella architect and administrator, gave a valuable tip for the livecd-creator
run: in the command, include the parameter --cache=/(directory). The downloaded files during
the run will be stored in the cache, and will not have to be downloaded again in any subsequent reruns.

Len
Attachments
CentOS7Repos.txt
(3.6 KiB) Downloaded 94 times
e_config--0.0.txt
(4.11 KiB) Downloaded 92 times
CentOS-7-live-LXDE-i386.txt
(1.47 KiB) Downloaded 88 times

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