Need Feedback for (wip) UHC-GUI

[EctoOne]

I think I found a bug. It seems that the GUI needs to be able to find ENV:Sys/font.prefs otherwise it gives the Guru 80000005.

While messing around with the whole Essentials Installer, I was trying if it would be possible to install UHC and the GUI on a disk and use it with a plain WB3.1 disk. It was just a matter of copying the UHC ENV files to ENV: and copying the lines from the user-startup into your GUI launch script beforehand. And I had to provide the System tool.

But at first the GUI just crashed and the last line I could see in SnoopDos was that the GUI was trying to open ENV:Sys/fonts.prefs.
So, I simply created that file with FontPrefs and setting Topaz as font for all options. Then the GUI started just fine, even when I moved the prefs file to the other UHC ENV files which get copied to ENV: like I said.

There are still some things to iron out, but I kinda like having such disk.

Oh, question. Is it just your GUI that auto deletes the files after they have been extracted or is that a normal UHC feature? Because since I currently don't have LhA available, and the GUI is not set to download only, it will just download and delete the files immediately.

And I have another feature request. An option (maybe a menu entry would be the best) to run the uhcupdate script. Then I won't have force user to use the shell, create another IconX script or directly put it in the GUI launch script.

[patrik]

Originally Posted by EctoOne

I think I found a bug. It seems that the GUI needs to be able to find ENV:Sys/font.prefs otherwise it gives the Guru 80000005.

While messing around with the whole Essentials Installer, I was trying if it would be possible to install UHC and the GUI on a disk and use it with a plain WB3.1 disk. It was just a matter of copying the UHC ENV files to ENV: and copying the lines from the user-startup into your GUI launch script beforehand. And I had to provide the System tool.

But at first the GUI just crashed and the last line I could see in SnoopDos was that the GUI was trying to open ENV:Sys/fonts.prefs.
So, I simply created that file with FontPrefs and setting Topaz as font for all options. Then the GUI started just fine, even when I moved the prefs file to the other UHC ENV files which get copied to ENV: like I said.

There are still some things to iron out, but I kinda like having such disk.

Oh, question. Is it just your GUI that auto deletes the files after they have been extracted or is that a normal UHC feature? Because since I currently don't have LhA available, and the GUI is not set to download only, it will just download and delete the files immediately.

And I have another feature request. An option (maybe a menu entry would be the best) to run the uhcupdate script. Then I won't have force user to use the shell, create another IconX script or directly put it in the GUI launch script.

The uhc extract scripts downloads to T:, extracts and if the extract went ok deletes the file. If it can't extract the file, the user is prompted and the file is left in T:.

[EctoOne]

Originally Posted by patrik

The uhc extract scripts downloads to T:, extracts and if the extract went ok deletes the file. If it can't extract the file, the user is prompted and the file is left in T:.

Oh, yeah I just confirmed that. Thanks for the info. Obviously the GUI is a bit different and there is no prompt. I was just curious.

[DisasterIncarna]

Thats probably due to me using rimisclib in amiblitz which has some easy to use font related stuff, yeah its reading your saved font prefs to work with, there are intuition font options and a load of other font related things to try out, i just used the first font related option that seemed to work well enough, ill have a play around with other font options and see if any can just grab the name/size/height from whatever is in use rather than check whats saved in prefs.

The option to update is a good idea also, ill add that to the list, currently i am also adding a menu option to change your preferred Text Reader so that the GUI can also show readme files before you download anything with a new button if the site supports any readme, not all do.

UHC has a feature for this already and an option to save your preferred text reader or output to cli with TYPE if nothing is set, rather than mess with the cli side of things to do what the GUI prefers I am setting the GUI's own prefs for preferred text viewer.

Also if you look in UHC:Packages, there are unpackers bundled with UHC-Tools for everything.....except lha

To get a working LHA without having any unarchiver, try the following 3 commands with UHC

AMINETSEARCH LHA.RUN
AMINETGET 0 RAM:
RAM:lha.run

This is a self decompresing lha package that gives you the following LHA 2.15 files.

lha_68020
lha_68040
lha_68k (the 68000 version)

so in your script, do a quick.

If Not Exists C:LHA
AMINETSEARCH LHA.RUN
AMINETGET 0 RAM:
RAM:lha.run
Copy RAM:lha_68k C:LHA
Endif

or something like that, this does ofc mean access to the interwebs is required, but you cant have everything the easy way

[DisasterIncarna]

in the https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=111529 thread for OS3.2 wishlist requests i think LHA has been mentioned a few times as a needed thing to bundle with the OS, not sure if they can if they havent already but maybe bundling the UHC-Tools installer? given that the file is somewhat tiny and can be used to download LHA via the method above it might be worth requesting or mentioning, over and over

The only limiting factor there is that the UHC Installer is itsself also lha'd (on aminet at least) but if people speak to people then perhaps the bare installer could get bundled? this ofc doesnt help "offline" amigas, but invaluable to "online" ones.

or maybe add a note to a user that they need to manually download https://aminet.net/util/arc/lha.run and add it to your disk before using your disk/installer.

[EctoOne]

I personally would went with xad as unpacker on a new Amiga version instead of standalone LhA. But that's just me.

I already have a script for installing LhA, it even installs the correct version based on the available cpu. That was the first thing I've written when I was working on the Essentials Installer. Just because I want the list of software which I have to include as small as possible. So far, I only have HTTPResume as required tool.
The only issue is, that it currently only really works on an emulator which supports internet connection with bdsocket. On a real machine you probably need some other way.

Trying to use UHC from a disk was just an experiment to see if it would work. I can simply change the script to use AGET from UHC instead HTTPResume to get LhA. Again, I want to keep the list of pre installed tools as small as possible. I actually would like to create a script which could create an UHC disk, but then you already need a running system. And since UHC already is an online based installation, I think just putting UHC and the GUI on a disk and download everything else, is probably the best way to avoid dealing with all the "legal" issues. Like distribution regulations and stuff.

I still want to write some more scripts for essentials, but after writing the LhA script I remembered why I never finished it before. It's just so tedious to write all the copy lines. Now I'm again at the point to get the minimal UHC disk working and add a file manager to the downloaded files so that people can copy the other stuff themselves.

And that reminds me of of another thing. Would it be possible to check for System in the whole PATH and not just C:?

Like I said, I had to provide it and make it accessible with an assign. Which I don't really like. I would prefer it to make it accessible with PATH.

[DisasterIncarna]

search paths? never tried before, ill add it to the queue of handy things to include....eventually..... soon(tm).

as for disks, limited space and also wanting a file manager, yeah i use FileMaster2 for that kind of thing, reasonably small, and for limited disk space consideration i think is better than FileMaster3 which i think has other library requirements adding to the bulk, so the older version is ideal, its around 70k in size

[EctoOne]

I have no idea about coding but can't you access standard dos commands?

Which COMMAND

Will find the COMMAND if it's in the PATH. I use that in combination with if exists as fallback in my script.

I haven't been thinking about the disk space, because in the end the whole thing is meant to be used with a hard drive but since I still want it to be useable without hard work that's a good point.

Edit: Actually, wouldn't it be enough to to remove C: from whenever you invoke C:System?

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by EctoOne

I have no idea about coding but can't you access standard dos commands?

Which COMMAND

Will find the COMMAND if it's in the PATH. I use that in combination with if exists as fallback in my script.

I haven't been thinking about the disk space, because in the end the whole thing is meant to be used with a hard drive but since I still want it to be useable without hard work that's a good point.

Edit: Actually, wouldn't it be enough to to remove C: from whenever you invoke C:System?

yeah ive used that before, very linux like, bvut i was never sure if that was something extra i downloaded or something bundled with the os, i suppose i could use UHC to fudge it into your workbench C: if its not already there, i pretty much already do that with the system command anyways.

Might play more with that command, see what happens with files with duplicate names in different locations, if anything at all.

[Swe_Kryten2x4b]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

yeah ive used that before, very linux like, bvut i was never sure if that was something extra i downloaded or something bundled with the os, i suppose i could use UHC to fudge it into your workbench C: if its not already there, i pretty much already do that with the system command anyways.

Might play more with that command, see what happens with files with duplicate names in different locations, if anything at all.

I'm sure it is bundled. And if say "which system" finds it in two places in the path, it will return just one.

[DisasterIncarna]

nice, ill eventually add locational support for various commands using that method, i will eventually do the same for any/all commands i use, i am currently adding support for showing readme files from clicking a button and you can use whatever program you like to view the text files such as Multiview.

As default it runs the readme program via WBRUN, and i can probably use the method above to detect its installed/present and if so use it, if not use something similar such as RunFromWB or numerous other cli tools that do the same thing and if no similar variations are found just launch it as a cli command as a fallback option.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by EctoOne

Edit: Actually, wouldn't it be enough to to remove C: from whenever you invoke C:System?

I am currently having an issue with amiblitz (or maybe its normal behaviour?) where when i execute a cli command, path settings seem to be completely ignored and only using a full path works or i get an unknown command error so i have been trying to use full path+filename.

[patrik]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

Also if you look in UHC:Packages, there are unpackers bundled with UHC-Tools for everything.....except lha

We figured you already have lha as UHC Tools requires lha to install

[EctoOne]

The issue returned when directly starting the GUI executable returned and it really messed me up.

I removed the user-startup entry and the env files to simulate a clean installation while I was working on a new version of the installation script. And I thought I messed something up because the GUI was putting out errors left and right when I started it from my dock.
I thought I screwed something up with the assigns/paths.

To find the cause, I tried using older versions which I still had but I started them from the shell. And they all worked even the latest version works fine.

I really don't understand why that is happening. Yesterday it was working fine, when I was using my already extracted UHC files which I simply copied. Today it failed when I changed it to download the package first and then extract it.

Anyway, I have a working script which only requires lha.run and UHCTools.lha to get started (and some env files) and currently can be used from a single disk.
I will see if I can add the mirror check from the original UHC installer and I have to see how much I need to add/change for a HD installation (I already have a requester at the beginning to choose the destination, but I haven't spent time with the HD option yet).

As for a file manager, you were right about the disk space. I believe it was like 22kb left on the disk after the setup. So, I probably will make the installation of a file manager optional and this will require to delete the already installed packages and obsolete files to make space.

But I will take a break to play Return to Monkey Island.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by EctoOne

The issue returned when directly starting the GUI executable returned and it really messed me up.

I removed the user-startup entry and the env files to simulate a clean installation while I was working on a new version of the installation script. And I thought I messed something up because the GUI was putting out errors left and right when I started it from my dock.
I thought I screwed something up with the assigns/paths.

To find the cause, I tried using older versions which I still had but I started them from the shell. And they all worked even the latest version works fine.

I really don't understand why that is happening. Yesterday it was working fine, when I was using my already extracted UHC files which I simply copied. Today it failed when I changed it to download the package first and then extract it.

Anyway, I have a working script which only requires lha.run and UHCTools.lha to get started (and some env files) and currently can be used from a single disk.
I will see if I can add the mirror check from the original UHC installer and I have to see how much I need to add/change for a HD installation (I already have a requester at the beginning to choose the destination, but I haven't spent time with the HD option yet).

As for a file manager, you were right about the disk space. I believe it was like 22kb left on the disk after the setup. So, I probably will make the installation of a file manager optional and this will require to delete the already installed packages and obsolete files to make space.

But I will take a break to play Return to Monkey Island.

yeah the GUI still needs to be launched as a shell/cli taskrather than a WB one, the icon "should" be set to do that, i still dont know why this is, perhaps something weird amiblitz3 is doing, there are newer versions of amiblitz i have yet to compile with as they all crash my emulated OS3.2.1 even when i do a clean early boot script to do a very, very clean launch, still working on what causes crashes/lockups when i try any version of amiblitz3 above 3.8.1.

Perhaps newer versions fix these issues but currently myself and others are just launching as a shell/cli task for now, its 1 of those, fix later when i understand it things.

[EctoOne]

Well, requiring the start script actually makes things easier for me. I need a way to call some programs before and after running the GUI, like setting assigns and stuff. And so I can just provide the new start script or create it with the installation script and don't need to do something fancy to implement it. There's always something positive to find.

[Etze]

I tried your GUI today on my A3000 (Kick/3.1/WB/3.2.1) and I really love it. It's so much faster to access Aminet with this instead of iBrowse or AmiFTP.

But I discovered one problem: The menu is black text on black background. Is it just me? I use a 8 bit WB on a ZZ9000 with the latest P96.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by Etze

I tried your GUI today on my A3000 (Kick/3.1/WB/3.2.1) and I really love it. It's so much faster to access Aminet with this instead of iBrowse or AmiFTP.

But I discovered one problem: The menu is black text on black background. Is it just me? I use a 8 bit WB on a ZZ9000 with the latest P96.

ah maybe something new i didnt notice, im using magicmenu so didnt think to even try the standard way, ill take a look on os3.2.1 and os3.1 without magicmenu and see what happens. I dont change/set any menu coloring or anything, i just setup the menu entries and kinda left anything else on defaults.

Cheers for the info, ill check that out.

[DisasterIncarna]

Originally Posted by Etze

I tried your GUI today on my A3000 (Kick/3.1/WB/3.2.1) and I really love it. It's so much faster to access Aminet with this instead of iBrowse or AmiFTP.

But I discovered one problem: The menu is black text on black background. Is it just me? I use a 8 bit WB on a ZZ9000 with the latest P96.

New version, not uploading to main post as the main update until others have tested this version.

Hopefully! fixed your menu problem, after some reading it seems i needed to enable WFLG_NEWLOOKMENUS in my window flaglist or you do indeed get miscolored menus, i have added the flag and now it appears to work....for me at least.

Also added a button to read an archives readme file if the site supports it, again theres a weird issue where for some1 else this functions perfectly for them, for me i get path related errors when trying to view the readme for say OS4Depot as that uses a different read script from say Aminet which has a different fully working read script.

As the OS4Depot+Others works for someone else and not for me, this probably means something is screwing with my paths when a command is looked for before executing.

theres a handful of sites that support readme's and i have the readme button enter a disabled state for sites that have no such function, if anyone can check all the sites that allows readmes and see if they get any failures (for me its RX not being found in my pathlist) , if this works for others, i can ignore the error on my side until i can find the problem.

To view readme's at all, first check the rightmouse menus, there will be an entry that says "TXT Viewer" and it will probably read "Not Set", select that menu and a requester pops up asking for you to pick a program to view files with, if in doubt just pick your MultiView program and then Save Prefs to keep the change, once done readmes will view with your viewer of choice....hopefully.

Basically, as usual, leave your results here, good/bad/broken/etc... cheers.

EDIT: Removed test version as newer version exists in a newer post.

[EctoOne]

The menu colors are fixed for me. I didn't even notice that.
And thanks for adding a new requirement. I basically just finished creating the whole UHC Disk, and now I have to add WBRun.
Lucky me that I've spent a lot of time on making the whole thing as modular as possible, so it won't take long. Just a little bit of copy and paste. Except that I also have to add it to the Guide I've written. And I probably need to supply a config file for the text reader so that it would work out of the box.

Just kidding of course. It's good to see new features. And sorry, I didn't test anything else.