Quirky

Quirky is a Linux distribution and is in the "Puppy Linux family", also known as a "puplet". However, Quirky is not a mainline Puppy release -- it is a distinct distro in its own right.

Quirky is built with the Woof build system, as is Puppy 4.3.x and later official puppies. Quirky is my plaything, an avenue for me to try out some quirky ideas -- hence the name "Quirky".

My blog has a "Quirky" category, so you can go there for the latest quirky news:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewCat=Quirky 

Quirky ideas

These are few of the ideas or objectives that make Quirky different. This list is just a start, and some may be dropped and others added. Some ideas may not even have have any practical usefulness -- they are just there because they are, well, quirky...
Embed the distro inside the kernel 
Recent versions of the Linux kernel have the ability to embed the initramfs and the entire distro filesystem inside the kernel. That sure is one big kernel!
A distro that keeps getting smaller 
Everything keeps getting bigger of course. Feature creep, inefficient coding. Puppy Linux started life as a 20MB live-CD and is now pushing 150MB in the latest betas. Quirky is currently 89MB and intends to move down with each new release.
Chroot instead of switch_root 
This is a very technical thing. The initramfs will stay in existence after bootup and perform a kind of "super root" security function and ensure clean shutdown of all partitions.
Simplified module loading management
Very simple scheduling and synchronisation mechanisms for module loading to ensure all peripherals are properly recognised and made ready for use.
Quirky is also an avenue for trying out new ideas in Woof, before they make it (or not) into the other "straight" puppies.

Newbie notes:
Quirky, as a derivative of Puppy, is extremely easy to use. However, if you are a newbie to Linux, there might be some quite basic things that are initially confusing. Please read these notes:
The above instructions are if you are already running Linux, and know how to open a terminal window. If you are running Windows or a Mac OS, there are instructions elsewhere. For example, here: http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00441 
The ">" shown above is not to be typed, it is the prompt that you see in the terminal.
It is important the you type in the correct drive name, not a partition name -- example, /dev/sdb is a drive, /dev/sdb1 is partition number one on that drive. In some computers, your SD-card may show up as drive /dev/mmcblk0, where /dev/mmcblkop1 is a partition on that drive.
If running Puppy or Quirky, type "probedisk" to verify correct drive name of SD-card.
If running Puppy or Quirky, check no partitions of the SD-card are mounted (if they are, you will see a little checkbox on the desktop partition icon -- click it to unmount).
If running some other variety of Linux, partitions may automount as soon as you plug in a drive -- and the drive may be assigned a very odd name. Follow the instructions for that Linux distribution to unmount and determine the correct drive name.
If still confused, ask on the Puppy Forum: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/ 
An extra note about automounting: Puppy and derivatives do not automount partitions, as our experience is that it is more of a hassle than a help. When you plug in an SD-card or Flash stick, partition icons will appear on the desktop, and you may click on one to mount it (once mounted, you can read/write its files). You always know when a partition is mounted, by the little checkbox that appears on the desktop partition icon.

After writing the Quirky image file to the SD-card (and be sure to do that "sync" step, which flushes the filesystem buffers), unplug and then plug the micro-SD card into the Pi2 or Pi3 (not the Pi1) and power-on.

At first bootup, QuickSetup will run, which is a window that offers various configuration options. If you have written the image to an SD-card that is bigger than the "8GB" image, say a 16GB SD-card, there will be a checkbox offering to increase the filesystem to fill the drive -- it is recommended to tick it.

Usage notes:
Quirky is pretty easy to use, as you will discover. Just a couple of things to be careful about, related to using the Pi:
A warning about using the Pi: never just turn off the power. Always choose to power-off from the menu. the SD-card may be corrupted if it is being written-to when the power goes off. 
Actually, Quirky will detect an abnormal shutdown and at next power-on will automatically perform a filesystem check of the card. However, it is possible the card may be permanently damaged by such sudden power loss.
QuickSetup has lots of things to set, however, there are some extra settings in the config.txt file in the first partition of the SD-card, for configuring the HDMI monitor, sound, etc. 
Read docs at the Raspberry Pi website on editing this file.
Note, it is on my to-do list to add settings of config.txt into the GUI of QuickSetup, with nice easy checkbox selections.
 

Regards,
Barry Kauler