10 years from last login - where are we now?

1

Hello, I has been using Haiku about 10 years ago, on my profile it says:

“Member for 10 years 9 weeks”

First of all, for all these years I was missing BeOS. My first contact was with BeOS R5 MAX, I’ve heard about Zeta(old days) but never used it - I believe OS should be free. I’ve heard about Haiku some time later and I was glad that this OS has one project to keep it alive. No more part-time BeOS R5 developement based on closed source, no more jokes like Zeta(the whole history of this distro and it’s creator was one big joke for me).

There was Haiku, one hope for Be to get reborn.

But time has passed. My life changed, a lot :). I’m older now, working full time, talking with my family using VOIP protocol, I have responsibilities. I’m no longer crazy teenager who can just go day by day without access to advanced office suite or Skype.

Currently I’m on Linux, Ubuntu, after trying a lot of Linux flavours I choosed one that has big community and regular releases. Still, I like to have fun with my minimal Openbox configuration staying away from Unity as long as I can.

And why did I created this topic? To ask you, who didn’t have 10 years vacation from BeOS, where’re we now?

I know that we have PSI+ so IMs are covered(still no support for Gadu-Gadu protocol is a little problem for me - or maybe we have it in another program?). I’m more worried about office, are there any dates when we can expect to get Libre Office for Haiku? KOffice and Gobe don’t satisfy me to be honest, so until I get LO I have no Office suite for Haiku. Also, what about VOIP that allow Video Calls between Haiku and Windows computers, any solution here? And last one, is there any way for Haiku to play my favourite mp3 file to wake me up? Currently I suspend my Ubuntu laptop and tell it to boot on certain time to play me my fav mp3 - possible?

One more thing, I have all me HDD partiotioned, is there any way to run haiku from USB drive? Don’t really want to mess with my HDD at the moment but I miss being up to date with Haiku news and progress.

Waiting for your answers, really :).

2

There is Think Free Office… it is propietary and runs on Java but might be good enough. I’ve ran it on Haiku awhile back…

If WebRTC support gets added to Web+ you’d be able to do chat from the web in realtime more easily hopefully with video… It hasn’t happened yet but alot of the other pieces like HTML5 video have fallen into place. So the answer is not quite yet.

Yes you can run Haiku from a USB drive https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/installing/making_haiku_usb_sticka

Haiku also has added stack and tile windows which are pretty sweet… similar to how you can tab windows on KDE etc… it makes the tab window borders make alot more sense.

I don’t know of any way to wakup haiku from suspend with a timer but it might be possible… never heard of anyone doing that though. I’m sure you could play an mp3 at a certain time if Haiku was left running but it is doubleful if it could be done on wakeup from suspend.

3

Thank you for your answer, btw. the correct URL is:

https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/installing/making_haiku_usb_stick

Still, how big should it be to make sense, let’s say is 8gb enough for basic installation and possibility to install a few programs and have some fun? Should be enough with old BeOS but not sure about recent Haiku.

And what’s also important, does that kind of installation allow me to update system and keep it up to date on USB stick? Btw. how is Haiku updated - do we already have any package manager or is it done some other way?

4

Hello, and welcome back :wink:

An USB with 8 GB is enough for Haiku. When Installer appears (on first boot), you should choose the empty space in the same device (The boot image is 600 MB, I think, so you can use the 7.4 GB avaible in the USB drive). After all, you will have 2 partition in the USB drive: the 600 MB with the bootImage and the 7.4 with the installation. Of course, the 600 MB partition can be deleted after the instalation.

Another way (a bit easier), is using two USB drives: the first one, with the 600 MB image to install, and another USB as destination.

If you need, I can post an screen guide with all the steps.

To update the Haiku partition, you can use this script:

#!/bin/sh
pkgman add-repo http://packages.haiku-os.org/haikuports/master/repo/x86_gcc2/current
pkgman add-repo http://download.haiku-os.org/haiku-repositories/master/x86_gcc2/current/
pkgman update -y
sync
sleep 1
shutdown -r
5

Nice to hear that, still - I think that I will be fine with all the information about installation on USB stick that you’ve already gave me :). After all, I’m GNU/Linux user for more than 12 years now :).

If I need any help I will tell you.

I guess I will give HAIKU a try in a month or two, maybe earlier.

Nice to check how things are going on.

6


Intel Core™ i3-2330M, revision 206a7 running at 2195MHz
Video - Intel Corporation device 0116: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (mode 1366x768x32)
Wi-Fi - Intel Corporation device 088e: Centrino Advanced-N 6235
SSD Plextor M5 Pro

7

Thank you so much for these videos! Very nice, I’m waiting for my 8gb Sandisk Cruzer Force and on free weekend I hope to give Haiku a go :).

Will keep you informed :).

8

After all I installed HAIKU Alpha 4 on my HDD instead of USB drive.

If I’m about to use this OS I need it to run with full speed. And I was changing my Ubuntu 14.04 installation into fresh installation of Xubuntu 14.04 so it was good oportunity for giving Haiku A4 a go.

Still, I have some questions guys:

  1. Can HAIKU read EXT3/EXT4 partitions and read/write them without any risk of damaging the data?

  2. Same as 1. but about FAT32(should be ok here I guess)?

  3. How can I resorte my USB stick back to normal using GNU/Linux installation? Didn’t see anything about it in making USB Stick how-to.

9

[quote=alzen]After all I installed HAIKU Alpha 4 on my HDD instead of USB drive.

.[/quote]

HAIKU Alpha 4 - not the best choice !

Recommended Nightly Images (x86 GCC 2 Hybrid)

http://download.haiku-os.org/nightly-images/x86_gcc2_hybrid/

https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/daily-tasks/updating-system

10

Curious for those dual booting a system with Haiku… Wonder what OS should be installed first? Linux/Windows or Haiku?

I have a i7 system I would not mind erasing and starting over with dual or even triple boot if possible with Gnome Ubuntu, Haiku, and maybe Windows 8.1.

If I stick to a Linux/Haiku system, should I install Linux first and then Haiku?

Any advice on how to dual install a fresh nightly and linux from scratch would be great!

TJ

11

[quote=macsociety]Curious for those dual booting a system with Haiku… Wonder what OS should be installed first? Linux/Windows or Haiku?

I have a i7 system I would not mind erasing and starting over with dual or even triple boot if possible with Gnome Ubuntu, Haiku, and maybe Windows 8.1.

If I stick to a Linux/Haiku system, should I install Linux first and then Haiku?

Any advice on how to dual install a fresh nightly and linux from scratch would be great!

TJ[/quote]
Install Windows first.
http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/applications/bootmanager.html work fine

12

Usually install Windows first. Other OSes and boot loaders can then work around it and add their boot menu. Usually it's GRUB for Linux (and Haiku, and even MSDOS).

Though if you have an UEFI motherboard, it's not easy to boot Haiku (they're still working on it). I've got mine set up with UEFI boot, GPT partitions and Windows + Linux on the main drive, and Haiku on a second hard drive set up with the old MBR partitioning system and BootManager from BeOS. To boot Haiku I have to hit a key when starting up and use the BIOS boot device selection to pick the second drive (and also have the UEFI BIOS running in old BIOS compatibility mode). Or I run VirtualBox in Linux and boot the Haiku partition virtually, which is much easier.

13

Hello kim,

Hmm, nightly builds - seems ok, I’m only curious which rev was Alpha 4 :D.

Also, please tell me can I update to latest nightly build from stable Haiku A4 installation? Would be great, I saw your links but didn’t get it clear is it possible that way or not.

And still waiting for informatio how to restore my pendrice to it’s normal function instead of haiku boot USB stick.

EDIT:
Guess that restoring USB Stick would be easy, probably regular “sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/your/device” will do the job.

I’m currently putting latest nightly Haiku on USB stick to reinstall it on Haiku partition.

EDIT2:
Restoring USB Pendrive is possible using these instructions:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/restoring-your-usb-key-partition/

14

[quote=alzen]Hello kim,

Also, please tell me can I update to latest nightly build from stable Haiku A4 installation? Would be great, I saw your links but didn’t get it clear is it possible that way or not.

/[/quote]

Alpha4 has no package management.

15

[quote=alzen]Hello kim,

And still waiting for informatio how to restore my pendrice to it’s normal function instead of haiku boot USB stick.

[/quote]

Unmount and delete all bfs-partitions on USB stick

16

Guess deleting only doesn’t do the job if you do not create one later and format it to FAT32 or other filesystem :).

ps. does package management allow me to update to new nightly by using it? I doubt but maybe I’m wrong.

17

[quote=alzen]Guess deleting only doesn’t do the job if you do not create one later and format it to FAT32 or other filesystem :).

ps. does package management allow me to update to new nightly by using it? I doubt but maybe I’m wrong.[/quote]

https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/daily-tasks/updating-system

18

Still trying Haiku in my free time,

The update solution from within Haiku itself works great. Just updated from r48287 to r48312 with absolutly no problem.

As I do not have much free time it’s going slowly, but I’m on my way to get familiar with BeOS/Haiku once again.

Currently I cannot hear any sound from Haiku nor I have the knowledge what apps are worth using like best web browser and so on. But I’m learning :).

19

For VOIP, there is Jitsi:

https://jitsi.org/

20

[quote=anthk]For VOIP, there is Jitsi:

https://jitsi.org/[/quote]
Explain, please. I don’t see a BeOS/Haiku build on the jitsi Downloads page.