Bento Openbox 2020 is around the corner

Bento 2020 soon available!

First, have a look to the new Bento Openbox!

Bento Openbox Remix 2020
Bento Openbox

Previously

I had produced Ubuntu remixes on top of Ubuntu Mini Remix in 2012 and 2014, but I had to find a new basis to rebuild as Fabrizio BALLIANI gave up on his project.

A reminder : Bento Openbox comes with a set of light components easy to use which makes the system easy to use and very snappy while relying on  Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Therefore less programs are needed in order to get a functional computer, and more computer power is available for the user’s software.

Additionnally some computers being able to start in CD only, or with the network, which isn’t always at reach for the users, the disk images size provided are less than 700 Mo as much as possible, which has become difficult to do when using these modern GNU/Linux distributions meant for a large audiance!

I had timidly produced a 16.04 version using Bento Openbox 14.04 as a basis, which led me to remove many user programs in order to obtain a small disk image.

The result was a usable system, however I was not fully satisfied.

At last this year I decided to start from another basis :  the excellent Xubuntu Core produced by Unit193 !

No more 32bits versions : Ubuntu doesn’t provide them anymore.

We will have Bento antiX instead in order to continue providing for old computers, therefore rebuilt on antiX (i486 kernels for the 32bits computers and also for 64bits,  plus UEFI might also be possible).

There is indeed a Bento Openbox Remix, there will also be Bento antiX versions which will evolve further.

Everything is still in test, already good for use, and needs some more improvements.

Stay tuned!

 

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Bento 2020 soon available!

First, have a look to the new Bento Openbox!

Bento Openbox Remix 2020
Bento Openbox

Previously

I had produced Ubuntu remixes on top of Ubuntu Mini Remix in 2012 and 2014, but I had to find a new basis to rebuild as Fabrizio BALLIANI gave up on his project.

A reminder : Bento Openbox comes with a set of light components easy to use which makes the system easy to use and very snappy while relying on  Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Therefore less programs are needed in order to get a functional computer, and more computer power is available for the user’s software.

Additionnally some computers being able to start in CD only, or with the network, which isn’t always at reach for the users, the disk images size provided are less than 700 Mo as much as possible, which has become difficult to do when using these modern GNU/Linux distributions meant for a large audiance!

I had timidly produced a 16.04 version using Bento Openbox 14.04 as a basis, which led me to remove many user programs in order to obtain a small disk image.

The result was a usable system, however I was not fully satisfied.

At last this year I decided to start from another basis :  the excellent Xubuntu Core produced by Unit193 !

No more 32bits versions : Ubuntu doesn’t provide them anymore.

We will have Bento antiX instead in order to continue providing for old computers, therefore rebuilt on antiX (i486 kernels for the 32bits computers and also for 64bits,  plus UEFI might also be possible).

There is indeed a Bento Openbox Remix, there will also be Bento antiX versions which will evolve further.

Everything is still in test, already good for use, and needs some more improvements.

Stay tuned!

 

Bento Openbox Trusty soon final

After weeks of testing and improving details, Bento Trusty is out… as RC2. Indeed, while it looks like it’s ready for all, it would be good to let a large community test it.

The programs included in Bento Openbox Trusty : Libreoffice, all the needed packages to configure the printer, and also Gimp, Inkscape, gThumb, Mirage, Pdfshuffler, Simple Scan, Gspeaker, Guvqiew, many programs to configure everything and to setup the user preferences. Also all the programs presented in the post “ Bento Openbox Vivid RC1 and RC2

Bento Openbox

Changelog:
This is a fully updated version, were added Baobab (to see the HDD occupation), remplacement or LXrandr bu aRandr, added Pdfshuffler to manipulate pdf files.

Downloads page
32 and 64bits:
bento-trusty-rc2-i386.iso (689Mo)
bento-trusty-rc2-i386.iso.md5sum
bento-trusty-rc2-x86_64.iso (696 Mo)
bento-trusty-rc2-x86_64.iso.md5sum{:}

Presentation of Bento Trusty RC2

Bento Openbox Trusty

The other programs are the ones installed in Sushi, which is the minimalistic version:

User interface:
Midori to surf the web, Geany as text editor and programming tool with syntax coloration;

Text mode tools:
sdparm, testdisk, htop, mc, lftp, hdparm lshw, openssh-server, openssh-client, rtorrent…

Other Internet software:
Some tools for the network, including network-manager-gnome, wpasupplicant, wpagui;

Transparency:
Xcompmgr is installed and configured, Compton is installed and is waiting for some configuration;

Several community sources have been added with their PPA repos and some of their software:

  • « ppa:mati75/lubuntu-testing » provides Openbox 3.6.0 git with a patch from Mati75 allowing to use xdg-autostart instead of python-xdg, if obsession is installed, and provides Midori 0.5.9 to replace the old Midori 0.4.3 from the repositories;
  • « ppa:kalgasnik/ppa » for lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings, provides a graphical tool to customize the lightdm login screen;
  • « ppa:ravefinity-project/ppa » for vibrantly-simple-icon-theme, an awesome icon theme provided with several colors to choose from.

 

Bento Openbox Vivid RC1 and RC2

The two new ISOs, are Release Candidates, and are for this reason reduced sized test versions ( 475MB) for a Vivid edition of Bento Village with the codename “Sushi”. They come with almost no application for everyday use, and tools for the advanced users.

La future Bento Vivid
La future Bento Vivid

 

As a reminder, Bento Openbox is a super light version built on Ubuntu and easy to use for everyone.

Here are a few programs contained in Sushi:

User Interface:

Midori to surf the web, geany as text editor and programming tool with syntax
highlighting,

Text tools:
sdparm, testdisk, htop, mc, lftp, hdparm lshw, openssh-server
openssh-client, rtorrent,

Network:
tools for the network include network-manager-gnome,
wpasupplicant, wpagui,

Transparency
xcompmgr is installed and configured, compton is installed
and waiting for the xcompmgr configuration files to be ported to compton.

There are also several community PPA and their program:

  • The “ppa:mati75/lubuntu-testing” provides Openbox 3.6.0 git with a patch written by Mati75 allowing to use xdg-autostart from the obsession project, instead of python-xdg if obsession is installed, and provides Midori 0.5.9 as a replacement to the old Midori 0.4.3 from the actual repositories;
  • The “ppa:kalgasnik/ppa” pour lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings, as it’s name states, provides a graphical user interface to configure the Lightdm login screen;
  • The “ppa:ravefinity-project/ppa” brings the vibrantly-simple-icon-theme, a beautiful and lean icon theme which comes with several colors.

The RC1 version contains resolvconf while the RC2 provides openresolv. I have not yet made my mind about which of the two does a better job for the resolver. Some feedback are needed in order to pick up one for the future final version.

As always, get to the Downloads page to get them.

A small Bento Sushi

The versions currently under construction are code-named “Sushi”. Today, I am starting the construction of Bento Sushi using the Ubuntu Mini Remix 14.04.1 64bit ISO image. The 32bit version is already online, it is labeled “rc4”, you can find it here: http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/

(let’s forget rc3!)

Sushi Trusty rc4

Tools used: Ubuntu Mini Remix 14.04.1 – Ubuntu Builder.

It is no longer maintained, but I am still running 12.04 (up to date) for builds, so it still works.

The following ingredients:

An up-to-date complete sources.list for Trusty, then after an “apt-get update” in the Ubuntu Builder chroot console, an addition of authentication keys. (because of the message NO_PUBKEY 16126D3A3E5C1192 at the end of the sources update).

Complete update, and system shutdown. (So that at restart it can see that it has two kernels, one of which to delete).

Restart, removal of unnecessary packages, and installation of Synaptic, as well as software-properties-gtk which are essential, because there is a chroot access to Synaptic in Ubuntu Builder. Too bad this program is no longer developed, because it is really easy to use!

Bento Village evolution

While summer has elapsed part way, through rains and sun, with heat-waves followed by fresh days and gray sky looking like the end of autumn, the Bento Village project continues to go it’s way.

What’s new? Plenty things. A new domain name: bentovillage.org, is used for a mailing list created with the help of Phillw’s friends, and dedicated to develop future new Bento editions. For the time being the future Bento Trusty is being built, while a list of the elements used is being written, for further use when we will be switching from the Ubuntu Builder tool to another method.

The lists can be obtained here:Building-Bento-Trusty ; Details-Bento-config.

Right now some updated editions of Bento Precise are being built. The PAE and non PAE 32bits versions are now online, the x86_64 version will be just after, before tomorrow most probably, and the eeepc 1101 will follow.

Another great news:
So far we have a space for downloads at Philippe Whiteside’s server, Phillw.net, but no mirror on another server so far, but Gandi.net, our host and sponsor for this one website, offers us an additional space as storage and download, which will be used as a mirror for the ISO files. All is left to do is using this space and place a copy of the files. Many thanks to Phillippe, and many thanks to the Gandi.net team!