Established simple way to reduce multiple options?

[stevesr0Member]

Haven’t seen this question posted as its own thread.

Presumably, some, if not most, will settle on one init for their daily use (as perhaps with a default desktop).

Is there an established simple way for non nontechies “end users” to reduce their install to single options if they wished to do so?

If this is documented in a particular thread, I would appreciate the reference to it/them.

Thanks, in advance.

• This topic was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.

[andfreeMember]

Have you seen this topic and especially this tool?

antiX utilities for processing PDF files (posted by ChPol)

[sybokMember]

Is there an established simple way for non nontechies “end users” to reduce their install to single options if they wished to do so?

@stevesr0:
Do you mean reducing the number of inits as surmised by @andfree?
Or do you mean a simple guide to select ISO to download and consequently install?
Or something else entirely (such as single desktop or recommended live USB creation tool or an option in the installer itself…)?

[Brian MasinickModerator]

sybok wrote:

@stevesr0:
Do you mean reducing the number of inits as surmised by @andfree?
Or do you mean a simple guide to select ISO to download and consequently install?
Or something else entirely (such as single desktop or recommended live USB creation tool or an option in the installer itself)?

I’m getting rid of my comments; they are excessive.

--
Brian Masinick
Alternate "Search B":
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[stevesr0Member]

Hi all (andfree, sybok and Brian),

Sorry if I wasn’t clear.

I am trying to represent users who are EXTREMELY non technical, therefore HATES “unnecessary” complexity and wish to use a one init and one desktop system.

I am imaging that a “magic box” that had checkboxes for inits (and desktops) that the user could select to delete those inits and/or desktops that they didn’t want on their systems.

After the deletions, these desktops and inits would no longer be subject to upgrades when performing a

sudo apt update && Sudo apt upgrade

I imagine a number of possibilities at this time:

(1) this is doable and fairly easy (for a talented person <g>),

(2) this is doable but only with a lot of work in a continuing fashion,

(3) this might be doable if there was a lot of “demand” for it

(4) this is not realistically doable.

(5) this is deemed a worthless idea <g>.

The tool to hide things has the drawback that (I assume) all the “alternative” packages for inits and desktops still get included in upgrades and potentially raise additional dependency issues.

Hope that is clearer.

[032_hsnMember]

@stevesr0
Die Antworten, wie so oft, gehen leider nicht direkt zur Sache. Ich antworte dir exakt und klar auf deine berechtigte Frage. Wenn du es aber aus dem Deutschen übersetzen würdest.
Ich bin kein Spammer. Die deutsche Vergangenheit, braun oder rot, die Politik einfach, dieses spielt hier keine Rolle. Ich spreche halt nicht gut Englisch und die Übersetzungen sind mühselig.

Wenn du nicht möchtest, antworte einfach nicht. = Alles O.K. – Greetings!!

[stevesr0Member]

Hi Brian,

I believe your suggestions in your post #198068 above are excellent, BUT a very different thing than what I asked about.
How? Mine just address the multiple options that are a striking feature of antiX as a Linux distro – the inclusion of multiple desktops and NOW multiple inits.

My thought was that this multiplicity brings a necessary increase in complexity of maintenance and in “underpowered” computers might sometimes be a drag on performance, without requiring more separate versions.

Regarding a “minimal” install, I did this on one computer and am very happy with it. But, it was something I had the time to do and so long ago that I don’t remember whether it was particularly difficult. It is my Sid install and I started from the net version. That is about all I remember, except that with OpenBox, I have a graphical environment that is fun and I also have a command line environment that I boot into using just startx.

BUT, I wouldn’t recommend this to either noobies or permanent nontechies. For them, our full version is GREAT!

All that I would offer them (assuming adequate hardware) is the option to switch to a single desktop and init setup.

As I outlined in my list of options, there may not BE any significant number of such low tech folks who choose to use antiX. In that case, this is NOT something worth doing.

Hi 032_hsn,

I had to translate your comment and having done so, I am not sure how to respond <g>. Perhaps I did the translation wrongly?

Here is what I got:

The answers, as is so often the case, unfortunately don't get to the point. I'm answering your legitimate question precisely and clearly. But if you were to translate it from German...

I'm not a spammer. The German past, whether brown or red, politics in general, that's irrelevant here. I simply don't speak English well, and the translations are tedious.

If you don't want to answer, just don't.

I await enlightenment…probably my incipient senility.

[032_hsnMember]

@steves,
you are an extremely likeable person. I don’t know if you know this about yourself. Don’t talk about yourself like that, praise yourself!! On the other hand, people will suffer.
You’re right. The translation is incorrect. Wait a minute, I’ll make it for you in English now.

[032_hsnMember]

@steves0
Many people want what you want. Only professionals probably want to play with the distribution on an ongoing basis.The developer expected your wish.

Therefore you can tick the init you choose in the antiX init manager (see attachment, desktop = DPI is 220 for me). – Then you take a snapshot as usual and burn it onto a live USB stick.

You boot the stick as you have been doing for a long time.

Before the latest updates, you could simply press the ENTER key at the very beginning of the boot process.

But things aren’t going that way now. You must first click RUNIT in the boot selection. The selection with all inits will appear soon. You click on “your” init, and then you continue as usual.

As I know you, you don’t need an Xfce4 respin for this distribution, which is antiX 26. – Greetings

Attachments:

1. 

   Init-Manager.jpg
   

[ProwlerGrMember]

@stevesr0
For the novice user it is literally a click to hide other inits, & a double-click to switch the Primary (visible) init.

For the advanced or power-user @anticapitalista has already published instructions of how to remove them totally from the system here.

Attachments:

1. 

   Managing-inits.png
   

[032_hsnMember]

@steves0

.bashrc = that works too

(SysVinit doesn’t work yet)

Attachments:

1. 

   bashrc.jpg
   

[andfreeMember]

ProwlerGr wrote:

For the novice user it is literally a click to hide other inits, & a double-click to switch the Primary (visible) init.

For the advanced or power-user @anticapitalista has already published instructions of how to remove them totally from the system here.

As I understand, @stevesr0 would like to have a combination of the simplicity of the former with the “radicalness” of the latter, that is a simple (for the novice user) way to remove them totally from the system:

stevesr0 wrote:

I am imaging that a “magic box” that had checkboxes for inits (and desktops) that the user could select to delete those inits and/or desktops that they didn’t want on their systems.

After the deletions, these desktops and inits would no longer be subject to upgrades when performing a

sudo apt update && Sudo apt upgrade

(Although, I think that not upgrading could theoretically not require deleting in the sense of totally removing. Personally, I would like it if your tool offered the option of not upgrading the hidden inits as long as they remain hidden).

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by andfree.

antiX utilities for processing PDF files (posted by ChPol)

[stevesr0Member]

Hi all,

Thanks for a really nice discussion.

I think andfree’s comment

andfree wrote,

“Personally, I would like it if your tool offered the option of not upgrading the hidden inits as long as they remain hidden.”

Is a very good solution, as long as the additional load of hidden “stuff” isn’t a significant load on system performance (and it usually isn’t apparently.)

(And don’t forget, a similar tool for removing desktops might be nice for those with rather limited resources who didn’t want or felt unable to create their own single desktop environment.)

Shoutout to 032_hsn,

Thanks for your kind words. I shall have to scrutinize your suggestions a bit as I am a snapshot novice amongst all other things Linux.

Also, I need to reread anticapitalista’s method of permanent deletion. I vaguely recall it seemed rather a manual step-by-step.
032_hsn’s suggestion of snapshot led me just now to think that a custom snapshot tool that allowed a user to produce a “standard single init” version with a few “clicks” might be all (ahem?!) that is required.

Re: ProwlerGr’s work on multi inits. It is very valuable, given that some inits might lose support from the “greater”(?) Linux community and his coverup method seems like an adequate answer for most folks who might wish to simplify their work, but retain the option to switch to another init in the future. Kudos.

This has been a pleasant “theoretical” discussion and I feel the responses have covered the area quite well.

Thank you all (or as we say in North Carolina, y’all’s).

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.

[032_hsnMember]

@Brian
Hi,
wenn man es nur in zwei kurzen Sätzen schreibt, geht der Inhalt manchmal in die Nirvana. = Ich meine damit meinen Text mit den Aliasen (SysVinit). = Was auch du meinst.

Warum ich es dort unter den Aliasen überhaupt habe: kein richtiger Grund dafür. Wenn einmal die VirtualBox in dieser antiX 26 Init-Diversity Distro funktioniert, könnte es, hypotetisch, einmal für etwas nützlich sein (vermutlich aber nicht, es ist wohl umsonst hier, wird eventuell mal gelöscht). Ich sammle da und dort die Terminal-Befehle, auch ohne Grund. Später lohnt sich das manchmal.

SysVinit darf man nicht entfernenen. Davon gehe ich aus. Es wird hier daher geblockt. Ich sollte es nicht als Foto einbeziehen. Es kann aber (geblockt) augenblicklich nichts passieren.

SysVinit ist doch esentiell, und es funzt normal. Keine Fehler zu melden.

@steves0 … schreibt seine anfängliche Frage ziemlich eindeutig → er braucht eine KLARE Antwort. Nicht lange Reden, beziehungsweise widersprüchliche Texte. → Das habe ich ihm auf Englisch geliefert. (Davon, daß er einen Xfce4-Desktop bräuchte, sprach er nicht.) – Greetings !!

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