raymac46 Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 (edited) At Hedon James's suggestion I performed a spin of Arya Linux in VirtualBox. This was a mindless exercise since he has custody of our common brain this week but I tried. Arya Linux is like no other distro I've ever installed - and I've installed a few. Basically it is a collection of build scripts that the ALPS package installer runs to put the system together. I got the ISO downloaded OK and built the Virtual Machine. The ISO ran well out of the Box. It's a rather barebones Xfce desktop. To install Arya Linux had to use Gparted in the ISO to set up a basic root partition and swap. Then the installer worked through a massive number of scripts. At the end I was able to boot into the Hard Drive installation. The only desktop resolution available is 640X480 which is pretty skimpy on a 24 inch monitor. I don't see any possible way to install the Guest Additions. There is no build script for them and obviously the Guest Additions shell script won't fly. I don't know if HJ has any suggestions about how to get a bigger screen resolution. I didn't see a lot of info in Google and a couple of the tutorials appear to be on dodgy websites according to ESET. That's about all I know so far. Arya Linux is interesting but if I were Manjaro or MX-16 I wouldn't be too worried - yet. Edited March 9, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 I haven't installed yet. Just running the Mate ISO in VM, but I have 1024x768 resolution by default. Wondering if you couldn't "insert guest additions" CD from the VB interface and choose one of the manual shell scripts from within the file manager? It's been awhile I've done it manually, but there should be a shell script file to the effect of "VBoxAdditions_5.1.x_x86-64.sh" or something similar. Should be able to navigate to that directory from a terminal, with "cd" commands and to execute the script from the terminal with "sudo sh VBoxAdditions....." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 I had 1024X768 in the ISO but when I installed I got 640X480 after a reboot. I did install the Guest Additions ISO and try to run the normal install shell script from the command line and got an error - can't remember exactly but it wasn't about the kernel headers or the source not being present - as I would have expected in Debian. The whole build process is different as you'll see when you install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 yep, Linux From Scratch. No familiarity whatsoever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 (edited) Reinstalled Arya Linux and tried the Guest Additions shell.The error I get is failed to set up service vboxadd. The logs reveal missing source code. Now in Debian at this point I would install build-essential and module-assistant and that would give me the tools I need. There don't appear to be scripts to install these packages even if they exist in Arya Linux (probably do not.) Edited March 10, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 (edited) Arya Linux has a forum at Linux Questions. I am a member there so I have asked about the Guest Additions installation. So far all I've heard is to try the ISO which I've done. Sometimes you can install virtualbox-guest-dkms and virtualbox-guest-x11 packages but those don't appear to be available in the stock build scripts that come with the Arya Linux distro. The Arya Linux developer posts over there so we'll see if he has anything to add. Edited March 10, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 A mystery to be solved.... A google search of Virtualbox suggests this is a simple matter of kernel headers, but then references Debian tools to address: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80696 A google search for AryaLinux forums revealed that you were already there and had posted the question! Like you, I'm foundering a little here, but I think we can chalk that up to not knowing ALPS, and what tools are available to help. Interesting eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hopefully we'll find out. I agree with your diagnosis but then again you have our brain this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Remembering that AryaLinux is derived from Linux From Scratch (LFS), I found this, which sounds like it might be applicable to AryaLinux: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=69402 Will be interesting to see if AryaLinux developer (Chandrakant?) chimes in on your Linux Question forum post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Looks interesting. I think you may be on to something here. But what is this "functions" file? In the LFS Book it looks like a text rendition but no way to copy it that I can see. I just don't know enough to try this without some further howto help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 me either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 A bit of a workaround. Downloaded the VMware Player free app and installed Arya Linux there. You get a large selection of Display options. I haven't got the VMware Tools installed yet but when I figure that out I should be able to fit the VM to the screen. VMware looks like a nice application. Have you given it a try? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Here's what I have so far: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 This is the best I've been able to do: I got the VMware Tools installed but the controls don't allow me to View and fit the window. I can get a full screen 1920X1080 with a floating control bar at the top so that is pretty good. Here is the URL for the video tutorial that worked for me: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 stumbled on this, which might be useful for using ALPS in CLI: https://aryalinux.wordpress.com/ Right now I'm just running the Arya Mate LiveISO in VirtualBox, as I often do in VB, before making a decision as to how interested I am in continuing to explore a distro before installing to Virtual disk. I think I'm gonna have to install to virtual disk, as it looks like I could play with this for quite awhile before I get bored. Right now, in a Live environment, I can't even fire up the Mate terminal, and many other apps won't start. I've never seen a Live session that can only be "viewed", but isn't functional. I'm hoping installation will make it functional, so I can tinker. In the absence of a "package manager" GUI application, it seems kinda critical to know how to use ALPS. Interestingly enough, "man alps" isn't the ticket....its "alps help". strange bird... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Well this has been fun and I learned about VMware Player which looks like a nice alternative to VirtualBox and has a lot better video capability. I've only got it running in Windows though. The VMware Tools are installed with a Perl Script so the build process for them must be different. Provided you create a few /etc/rcX.d/ directories it goes easily enough. Really though Arya Linux looks a bit too geeky for me - especially since it doesn't really have a package manager. How do you update/upgrade anything? It's like pushing on the end of a rope. Hope you have fun with it HJ but Arch is more my style. Or some sort of Debian spin. No answers yet on how to get a decent display in Vbox. 640X480 is a little too much 1990-ish for my tastes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Same here. Make no mistake, AryaLinux is NOT ready for primetime...I just find it interesting that the source for this distro is LFS. And I can't quite figure out where they're headed with this (maybe they don't know either?), but it looks like they MIGHT be headed in the Gentoo or Arch direction. First, build the infrastructure, then build the ecosystem around it? Just guessing... It's frustrating me too. ALPS is the key, I think. It isn't really a "package manager" as much as it is a "script manager" for packages. I've installed virtualbox and dkms packages using: alps install <packagename> Packages available for installation can be discovered by: alps showall or alps showall 'wildcard-package-name-in-quotes' The virtualbox resolution issue and virtualbox guest additions seems to revolve entirely around the virtualbox build script, which fails to identify the distro (either LFS or Arya?); apparently this was addressed by VirtualBox in earlier additions, but fails with systemd installations. Something about 32 bit multilibs...and Arya is 64 bit only. So I'm failing too, repeatedly, and there doesn't appear(?) to be a workaround/resolution at this point. I'll keep it as a VM, and tinker with it occassionally, but until I resolve the display resolution of 640x480, there isn't much worth tinkering with, IMO. I think I'll look into using VirtualBox Manage tools to set a custom resolution and see where that leads me. But not today....I've already spent too much of my Saturday on this project, and the "honey-do" list is getting louder and louder... If I figure it out, I'll share the knowledge. Likewise, lemme know if you make any further progress... No rush....whenever.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Well I'll keep an eye on my query over at Linux Questions and see if a heavyweight developer responds. So far the only response I got was from someone with as much knowledge of the situation as we have. And we have only half a brain each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 (edited) One last comment. Siduction Xfce is excellent in VMware. It came with the VMware Tools installed right out of the box and it gave a perfectly scaled screen display just as it does in VirtualBox. Arya Linux has its charms but it's like a 1938 Chevy compared to a modern SUV if you test it alongside a polished Debian based distro. Edited March 11, 2017 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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