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woof - the Puppy builder

Currently supported:

Distro Version Architecture Status
Slackware 15.0 x86_64, x86 slackware-s15pup
Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 ubuntu-noble64
Ubuntu 22.04 x86_64 ubuntu-jammy64
Debian 12 x86_64, x86 debian-bookworm
Debian 11 x86_64, x86 debian-bullseye
Devuan 5.0 x86_64 devuan-daedalus64
Void - x86_64, x86 void-voidpup

(Other build configurations might work but they are not built periodically)

Building a Puppy: using GitHub Actions

Puppy can be built directly on GitHub, saving the hassle of preparing a suitable build environment on a fast machine with adequate storage.

  1. Fork woof-CE.

  2. Clone your fork.

  3. Modify woof-CE, commit your changes and push them.

  4. Trigger a woof-CE run on GitHub Actions.

  5. Download your Puppy from the newly published release.

  6. Test your Puppy and open a pull request to woof-CE, if you want your changes to be officially incorporated into woof-CE.

Contributing to woof-CE: using the GitHub web editor

See woof-CE Contributor 101.

Directory Structure

Woof-CE has five directories:

  • woof-arch : architecture-dependent (x86_64, x86, ARM) files, mostly binary executables.
  • woof-code : the core of Woof.
    • 0setup
    • 1download
    • 2createpackages
    • 3builddistro
    • support : various helper scripts used by 0setup, 1download, 2createpackages and 3builddistro.
    • rootfs-skeleton : the Puppy file system skeleton, which includes core scripts like sfs_load and configuration files like /etc/passwd.
    • rootfs-packages : additional Puppy packages, like the network wizard, that can be included in the build.
    • packages-templates : recipes used by woof-CE to make compatible-distro packages work under Puppy and reduce their size.
    • rootfs-petbuilds : recipes used by woof-CE to build packages from source.
  • woof-distro : architecture (x86_64, x86, etc.) and distro specific (Debian, Slackware, etc.) configuration files.
    • DISTRO_SPECS : metadata like the name and version number of the built Puppy distro.
    • DISTRO_PKGS_SPECS-* : the list of prebuilt (compat distro or PET) packages to include in the build.
    • DISTRO_COMPAT_REPOS-* : the list of compat distro repos to download packages from.
    • DISTRO_PET_REPOS-* : the list of PET package repos to download packages from.
    • _00build.conf : additional settings like the default theme, custom commands to run at the end of the build and a list of packages to build from source during the build.
    • _00build_2.conf : overrides settings defined in _00build.conf.
  • kernel-kit : scripts to download, patch, configure and build the kernel.
    • configs_* : kernel .config files.
    • debian-diffconfigs : .config file fragments for use with ./scripts/kconfig/merge_config.sh, which can be used to build a Puppy-compatible kernel from the Debian kernel source.
    • build.conf : a configuration file that specifies the kernel .config file to use and determines whether or not aufs is included in the build.
    • build.sh : builds the kernel based on the configuration defined in build.conf.
  • initrd-progs: scripts and files to generate the initial ramdisk

Preparation

  1. Suitable build environment
  • Linux partition
  • At least 6-10GBs of space
  1. Host operating system
  • A recent Woof-CE puppy with the devx (compilers, headers and other development tools) installed. Otherwise use run_woof.
  1. A woof-out_* working directory

The merge2out script merges woof-CE's core from woof-code, prebuilt binaries from woof-arch and configuration files from woof-distro/$arch/$distro/$version to into a directory named woof-out_* where you can run woof-CE. You then cd into woof-out_* and run the build scripts.

The great thing about this merge operation is that you can choose exactly what you want to go into woof-out. You can choose the host system that you are building on (usually x86_64), the target (exs: x86_64 x86, ARM), the compatible-distro (ex: slackware), and the compat-distro version (ex: 15.0). So, you create woof-out without any confusing inappropriate content.

So, to get going with woof-CE, open a terminal and do this:

./merge2out
cd ../woof-out_*

Building a Puppy: building the kernel

This is an optional step that can be skipped if you wish to use a prebuilt kernel in your woof-CE build.

Open a terminal in the woof-out_* directory.

  1. Switch to the kernel-kit directory

    cd kernel-kit

  2. Modify build.conf or replace it with one of *-build.conf

  3. Run kernel-kit

    ./build.sh

The output should be available in kernel-kit/output and 3builddistro can use it instead of downloading a prebuilt kernel.

Building a Puppy: using the commandline scripts

Open a terminal in the woof-out_* directory.

  1. Download package database files

    ./0setup

OPTIONAL: Tweak package selection. You can edit the variable PKGS_SPECS_TABLE in file DISTRO_PKGS_SPECS-* and the variable PETBUILDS in file _00build.conf to choose the packages that you want in your build.

  1. Download packages

    ./1download

About 500MB drive space is required, but this may vary enormously depending on the package selection.

  1. Build the cut-down generic Puppy-packages

    ./2createpackages

  2. Build Puppy live-CD

    ./3builddistro

This gets built in a directory named sandbox3 and as well as the live-CD ISO file you will also find the individual built files and the devx file.

Branding and Artwork

The human-readable distro name (DISTRO_NAME), version (DISTRO_VERSION) and file name prefix (DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX) are specified in DISTRO_SPECS.

3builddistro takes the distro logo that appears in documentation and first-run dialogs from woof-code/rootfs-skeleton/usr/share/doc/puplogos. It looks for ${DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX}.svg or ${DISTRO_BINARY_COMPAT}.svg, then falls back to a generic Puppy logo.

There are two ways to specify the artwork (window manager theme, GTK+ theme, icon theme, wallpaper and cursor theme) to use by default, both via _00build.conf:

  1. Using pTheme: choose one of the global themes under /usr/share/ptheme/globals.

    PTHEME="Original Pup"

  2. Using support/choose_themes: specify default themes individually.

    THEME_WALLPAPER="Blue.svg"
THEME_GTK2="Flat-grey-rounded"
THEME_JWM="Flat-grey"
THEME_JWM_BUTTONS="Buntu"
THEME_GTK_ICONS="Puppy Standard"
THEME_DESK_ICONS="StandardSvg"
THEME_MOUSE="DMZ-Black"

See support/choose_themes for a list of theme directories.

Themes are not downloaded automatically by woof-CE and must be added to the build as binary packages or built from source during the build.

Adding Binary Packages

The list of binary packages to include in the distro is specified in DISTRO_PKGS_SPECS-*. See woof-code/README.pkgs_specs for more details.

Building Packages from Source

woof-CE implements a "petbuilds" mechanism in woof-code/support/petbuilds.sh. It builds packages from source inside a chroot environment of the built Puppy distro (with its devx), so the built packages are reproducible, guaranteed to be compatible with the built Puppy and customizable.

This mechanism is useful when:

  1. A package must be customized to work in Puppy: for example, some applications refuse to run as root.

  2. A package is not available in the compat distro repos: for example, many Puppy tools rely on gtkdialog, but it's a Puppy-specific tool not available in other distros.

  3. An application is available in the compat distro repos, but it's too old for use in Puppy: for example, some Puppy JWM themes won't work if JWM is too old.

  4. An application is available in the compat distro repos, but the compat distro enables optional features that add unwanted dependencies, making the compat distro package bigger and heavier than a much smaller but slightly less full-featured package built from source.

  5. Maintaining a .pet package repository containing prebuilt packages is not an option.

To build a package from source during 3builddistro and include it in the build:

  1. Add a directory for your package under woof-code/rootfs-petbuilds.

  2. Add a petbuild file under the directory: this is a shell script that defines two functions, download() and build(). The former downloads files needed to build the package, like a source code tarball. The latter builds the package and installs it to /.

  3. If needed, add extra sources files that cannot be downloaded, like Puppy-specific patches.

  4. If needed, add extra files and directories that will be included in the package, like configuration files.

  5. Add a pet.specs file under the directory: this file is needed so PPM recognizes this package as a pre-installed one.

  6. Add a sha256.sum file under the directory: this file specifies the SHA256 checksum of all files downloaded by download(). If this file is missing, no verification of downloaded files is performed and this can lead to broken packages. Files not listed in sha256.sum are not verified.

For example, if the download() function of the busybox package downloads files named busybox-1.35.0.tar.bz2 and busybox-guess_fstype.patch, the sha256.sum file for busybox can be generated using:

   cd woof-code/rootfs-petbuilds/busybox
   . ./petbuild
   download
   sha256sum busybox-1.35.0.tar.bz2 busybox-guess_fstype.patch > sha256.sum

  1. If needed, add a pinstall.sh post-installation script.

  2. Add the package name to PETBUILDS, under _00build.conf.

TECHNICAL NOTES

History

Woof-CE (woof-Community Edition) is a fork of Barry Kauler's woof2 fossil repository of Nov 11, 2013 commit f6332edbc4a75c262a8fec6e7d39229b0acf32cd.

packages-templates directory

any directory in the template, the files in the target pkg will be cut down to the same selection (even if empty dir). Exception, file named PLUSEXTRAFILES then target will have all files from deb.

  • 0-size file, means get file of same name from deb (even if in different dir) to target.
  • Non-zero file, means copy this file from template to target.
  • Template files with -FULL suffix, rename target file also (exs: in coreutils, util-linux).

Any dir in template with PKGVERSION in name, substitute actual pkg version number in target dir. Except for /dev, /var, all dirs in target are deleted to only those in template, except if file PLUSEXTRADIRS is found in template.

As a last resort, if target pkg is wrong, a file FIXUPHACK is a script that can be at top dir in template. It executes in target, with current-dir set to where FIXUPHACK is located. (ex: perl_tiny). Ran into problem slackware post-install scripts messing things up. See near bottom of '2createpackages' how damage is limited. Also DISABLE_POST_INSTALL_SCRIPT=yes in FIXUPHACK to disable entirely.

If a dir in template has files in it then target is cut down (unless PLUSEXTRAFILES present), however there are some exceptions (such as .so regular files).

Packages-puppy-*

Notice that there are Packages-puppy-noarch-official, also Packages-puppy-common-official

The single-digit -2-, -3-, -4-, -5- files reside on ibiblio.org also. These files list the complete contents of each repository.

Puppy filenames

The main Puppy files are:

vmlinuz, initrd.gz, puppy.sfs, zdrv.sfs, fdrv.sfs, adrv.sfs, ydrv.sfs

Versioning is put into the last two, for example:

vmlinuz, initrd.gz, puppy_slacko_7.0.0, zdrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs fdrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs, adrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs, ydrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs

...those last two names are intended to be unique for that build of Puppy, so they can be found at bootup.

DISTRO_SPECS file

The filenames are stored in the built Puppy, in /etc/DISTRO_SPECS. For example:

DISTRO_PUPPYSFS='puppy_slacko_7.0.0.sfs'
DISTRO_ZDRVSFS='zdrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs'
DISTRO_FDRVSFS='fdrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs'
DISTRO_ADRVSFS='adrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs'
DISTRO_YDRVSFS='ydrv_slacko_7.0.0.sfs'

So, any script that wants to know what the names are can read these variables.

Woof 3builddistro also copies DISTRO_SPECS into the initrd.gz, so that the init script can see what files to search for.

However, in a running Puppy, you can find out the filenames in the way that scripts have done before, by reading PUPSFS and ZDRV variables in /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE.

In fact, to clarify the difference between these two sets of variables, I have put this comment into /etc/DISTRO_SPECS:

#Note, the .sfs files below are what the `init` script in initrd.gz searches for,
#for the partition, path and actual files loaded, see `PUPSFS` and `ZDRV` in /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE

kernel

Woof-CE, a fork of woof2 can build the same as woof2 however a new feature has been added. It now has the ability to build a distro with out modules in the initrd.gz, a feature which had been pioneered by Fatdog developers kirk and jamesbond. This has a number of advantages over the legacy kernel builds.

  1. No messy copying kernel modules from the initial ram disk to the root system.
  2. Ease of changing kernels.

It's named 'huge' type kernel, for want of a better term. The rationale for this is that Slackware developers name their default kernel huge-$some_suffix. The reason is that the vmlinuz kernel image contains all the necessary filesystem and hardware drivers to get the system to boot and hand over to the real running system. Once that occurs, kernel modules are loaded to bring up the rest of the hardware and extra filesystems if necessary.

"kernel-kit", part of woof-CE, has the ability to produce one of these 'huge' style kernel packages. Please read the relevant README and the comments in "build.conf" inside the kernel-kit directory.

If you have built a "huge" style kernel with kernel-kit then place the package in the "huge_kernel" directory at the root of your woof installation. If not, one will be downloaded for you after you invoke 3builddistro from the CLI. You do get a choice of which version you want. Be sure you choose the correct architecture. All 32 bit builds are suffixed with either i486, i686 or x86. All 64 bit builds are suffixed x86_64. At the end you will end up with an ISO image, devx and checksums as usual.

Regards, Barry Kauler puppylinux.com