Author: jonathan

I’ve been working on my RPMs for this OS but today I was told that I have been using a very old version. So I have downloaded the latest version that came with it’s own problems. BSL v0.2 is based on a LFS 6.2 and this is out of date. This means that a lot of the dependences needed to be updated before I could start to build RPM5. After 10 hours of various attempts I finally got it to work on my Sunblade 100 running Ubuntu 7.10.

This brings me nicely onto my Sparc64 build. My Sunblade 100 has a 500Mhz Sun UltraSPARC IIe 64bit processor and with a lack of Sparc based linux OS I’ve decided to make a port of BSL for Sparc. It is possible to develop them at the same time because of the learning I will have to do and the speed of which some of the software compiles at. Hopefully BSL v0.3 will be available for both x86 and Sparc64 with RPM package manager to allow easy installation of software.

I’m working on version 0.3 at the moment at it is going to take a while due to the compiling times and getting the configuration right. The main differences between version 0.2 and version 0.3 the introduction of the RPM package manager and all the software is being made from the latest stable version. I am making this from my 0.2 build where I have the RPM package manager installed. I download the source and build it into an RPM file before installing it onto the system. This is taking a while because I have to make a spec file for the RPM package manager to make the package from and I am new to this.

With a package manager in place it will be much easier to add and remove programs to the system and to upgrade to the latest. The software is made on my desktop which is the fastest machine I have access to and can then be installed on my server and other computers. Before I had to compile it on the slower computers too and this would take much longer.

I’m working on a live CD based on version 0.1 Nicholas. This is more of a test to see what is needed to make a live CD work and what needed to be added to the system. I am using a kernel that has been pre-compiled by someone else and so far I’ve had to add mkisofs to the system in order to create an iso image. Once I know how to make Live CDs easily I will probably make future releases available. Then I’d have to workout an installer.

First I must apologise for the downtime. This was caused by me working on the server.

I also have great news. The server is now running Blue Square Linux version 0.2 Nicholas. The main differences between v0.1 and v0.2 is that the newer version has SSH, SSL, Apache, MySQL and PHP along with the latest kernel. However this build is still a work in progress and this will mean some more downtime to come as the kernel still needs some work.

I’ve just started a new build. This is going to be a basic Linux OS being built with the latest stable versions of the software that I can find. One done I plan to use the RedHat Package Manager to install more software but then again I might use another package manager like Paco of DPKG.

Hello. I have been looking about the net for the past week or so for laptops that I could buy from manufacturers and resell with linux install instead of Windows. After much looking, some confusion and mild annoyance on the part of Dell I’ve decided that the best way for me I sell a Linux Computer is to build one myself, install linux and then sell it to you. However I’d like to get your views and opinions on this before I buy the parts and build the computer so please leave a comment at the bottom of this post or email me on shop [at] bluesquarelinux.co.uk

Update: Planned spec on Black Flag here.

A MicroServer is an idea of mine to use thin clients as small web servers for those of whom want to host from home but do not have the knowledge to setup a web server or just wanting a small silent box to make websites on. A thin client is great as they have no moving parts, well at least not yet, and very low power usage. The downside if that they have very little internal storage or processing power. I plan to overcome this by using optimization to get the best out of the processor and installing a small laptop hard drive. A laptop hard drive instead of a desktop because of the low power usage, sound and size.

Planned Specs:
Processor: AMD Geode GX1
RAM: 64MB
HDD: 20GB / 40GB ( planned)
NIC: 100Mb/s
OS: Blue Square Linux

The last post was about getting XFCE to work. Now that I have had time to work on it I have installed the rest of the XFCE package apart from the Terminal program as I have not been able to get that to compile. The icons and theme are installed so there is no empty spaces where buttons should be and there is a working file system browser and web browser (the latest mozilla) however the windows manager still has problems as there is no way to change between programs. As there is another build of LFS out I will make a copy of that to use as my base system. I should also make a list of all the software in the OS and what version. Below is the latest screen shot of the Blue Square Linux build, click on the image to see the full size version.

It’s 1am and I have just managed to get XFCE working. It is still not finished but I need sleep. To keep you happy in the mean time here in the first screen shot.

This version has the 2.6.23.1 Linux kernel and XFree86 4.7.0 along with some minor tweaks to make VI look nicer, displays a welcome message before the login and fixes the PATH value. Other than this it is basically v0.1 but this will have a working GUI by the end of it. My friend would like the GUI to look like Apple Computers’ OSX and to be able to run MS Windows’ programs.