Which Puppy for machine with Celeron N3050 CPU/GPU?

[puppy_apprentice]

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/celeron/n3050

I want to buy a barebone PC like:

https://www.zotac.com/sk/product/mini_pcs/zbox-bi322

[bigpup]

Only way to really know is to try a Puppy version.

Looking at the specs for this computer.
That is all common specs for a lot of low budget laptops.
Should try a version of Puppy with support for newest hardware.
I would think one of the newest Puppy versions should work.
Xenialpup64 7.5 (64bit) or Xenialpup 7.5 (32bit)
Bionicpup64 7.9.8 almost at final release, but it works well at this point..

However, a lot of other recent Puppies and Puppy like OS should work.
Probably would be good to only use a Puppy that has a Linux kernel in the 4 series.
Those kernels will have best support for new/newer hardware.

[puppy_apprentice]

Ok and thx.

I was afraid of internal Intel GPU chipset. I've read that ATI/NVIDIA are better supported in Linux.

Kernels ver. > 4 should works. N3050 is from 2015 so i think that Puppies made after that year should work.

[p310don]

I have one of these:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebon ... -rev-10#ov

which seems very similar. It runs Tahr & Xenial64 no problems at all.

[puppy_apprentice]

I've tested those Puppies:

Slacko 5.7
Works only in terminal mode.

Slacko 5.7.1
Works only in terminal mode.

Slacko 6.3
Works only in terminal mode.

Slacko64 6.3.2
Didn't boot to desktop out-of-box. Got errors with Intel driver. I had to use modesetting driver in xorgwizard.

[puppy_apprentice]

Tested:

Xenial32 7.5

Two questions:

1) I have 4GB ram but TOTAL in free and top is 2GB or i'm wrong (see screenshot)?

Found some info:

It's just that a single app won't be able to make use of it at once.

More there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_GB_limit

So top only can use 2GB and showing only this as total?

Version 32bit is not PAE?

2) Which temperature is correct from PSI or tray (see screenshot)?

[puppy_apprentice]

Tested:

Xenial64 7.5

The good:

64bit version see whole 4GB ram (screenshot 1).

The bad:

Some buttons have sometimes unreadable labels (screenshot 3 and 4). But if antialiasing is turned on everything seems ok. I didn't noticed this on Slacko64 6.3.2. Maybe this is problem with Intel driver?

Again question about correct temperature (screenshot 2).

[bigpup]

Xenialpup 7.5 (32bit) does only see up to 2GB memory.
It is not PAE enabled.
It was made that way for older computer support.

Xenialpup64 7.5 does not limit ram usage because it is 64 bit system.

Do not compare Slacko and how it works with Xenialpup.
They handle things differently.
Also, they use different Linux kernels.
Xenialpup is using newer kernels.

What you are seeing for temp readings in those two programs are just the differences in how those programs display information.
One looks like it is reading the internal computer temp sensor. The other is reading the CPU temp sensors.
I would use Pup-Sysinfo as the one that is more accurate.
Also, CPU temp is always changing up and down as you use the computer. The program displays what it was at a specific time.

Same for different programs showing the RAM.
There are several ways to figure ram amount and rounding off numbers.
The computer is going to show amount in a binary number not a decimal number.
Manufactures always use a decimal number to show ram amount.
Example:
A kilobyte is 1024 bytes. Therefore 1KB.
To the computer it is 1024 x 8 = 8192 binary digits.

Some buttons have sometimes unreadable labels (screenshot 3 and 4). But if anti-aliasing is turned on everything seems ok.

They are constantly tweaking and trying to improve the Intel graphics driver.
anti-aliasing turned on is doing what it is designed to do.
What you are using for the font can affect this.

If you are still trying Puppies.
Try Bionicpup64 7.9.8

[puppy_apprentice]

I would use Pup-Sysinfo as the one that is more accurate.

BIOS shows the same temperature for CPU.

One looks like it is reading the internal computer temp sensor.

Temperature in my room is 3 degrees less than the one in the tray, so yep maybe it is temperature of the box.

Anti-aliasing turned on is doing what it is designed to do.

I have small problem with antialiasing and similar filters like blur. When i look too long on the screen my eyes don't feel comfortable.

If you are still trying Puppies.
Try Bionicpup64 7.9.8

I will try. This small PC has USB/SD combo port, so far only USB part working.
Hope that SD part isn't dead and will working with newer kernel or i will have to load some drivers.

So far i'm happy with this small PC.

[puppy_apprentice]

Tested:

BionicPup64 7.9.8

Booted without problem to desktop (modesetting driver).

The good:
I can read SD cards (screenshot 1)

The bad (screenshot 1 and 2):
PupSys doesn't show speed for both cores separate.
HardInfo shows speeds below nominal minimal speed of the cores (1.6GHz.)

I know that there is sensors pet for Bionic, but official iso should have this out of the box (like Puppies above).

Errata: Spectre/Meltdown patches problem?
Checked in Slacko64 6.3.2: HardInfo sometimes shows speeds below 1.6GHz too, so maybe it is only HI error?

PS. Tried Xenial few times more and didn't noticed problem with buttons labels. So i don't know if there is something wrong with Intel driver or maybe i've done something wrong with settings.

[bigpup]

PupSys doesn't show speed for both cores separate.
HardInfo shows speeds below nominal minimal speed of the cores (1.6GHz.)

menu>System>CPU Frequency Scaling Tool.
It is probably set to powersave.
This will adjust speed to lowest speed possible, but it does save power.
If you set it to performance.
The processor will run at max speed all the time.
Read all the help in the CPU Frequency Scaling Tool.

[bigpup]

PupSys doesn't show speed for both cores separate.
HardInfo shows speeds below nominal minimal speed of the cores (1.6GHz.)

now you know why both programs are in Puppy.
These programs are not perfect, but hopefully, together, they give you the info you want to see.
There is also Htop for info.

You may have discovered a bug in Bionicpup64 7.9.8 for Pup-Sysinfo.
Part of using Puppy is helping to report bugs when you find them.
Post what you found in the Bionicpup64 7.9.8 topic
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114311
The developer of Bionicpup64 is still looking for any bugs in it.

[puppy_apprentice]

Ok, thx. Never used this scaling tool. I thought that processor can't work at lower speed than nominal. But if i remember well i've read that CPU in some circumstances can work at lower speed to be not overheated or burned.

Overall all tested 64 bits puppies working on that cheap ZOTAC very nice.

[puppy_apprentice]

Some more tests:

I. Movie playing

Have tried to play movie:

Code: Select all

[H264]  1920x1080  24bpp  23.976 fps  8022.3 kbps (979.3 kbyte/s)

from external HDD atached to USBv3 from console:

1) Bionic64 (kernel 4.19.12, modesseting driver for GPU, mpv player)
No errors!

2) Xenial64 (kernel 4.9.58, Intel GPU driver, mpv player) with errors

Code: Select all

engl/x11] Disabling screensaver failed (-1). Make  (+) Audio --aid=1 --alang=eng (*) (aac)
[vo/opengl/x11] Disabling screensaver failed (-1). Make sure the xdg-screensaver script is installed.

Audio/Video desynchronisation detected! Possible reasons include too slow
hardware, temporary CPU spikes, broken drivers, and broken files. Audio
position will not match to the video (see A-V status field).

but overall mpv dropped some frames and A/V were synchronized.

3) Slacko64 (kernel 4.1.11, modesseting driver for GPU, mplayer)

have got some errors that i don't have driver for GPU and my machine is too slow for this movie
i tried to synchronize audio with video using +/- keys, it wasn't perfect but for quick movie previewing isn't bad
I will test Slacko64 6.9.9.9 soon.

The winner is Bionic64!

II. GUI

1) Bionic64 and Slacko64:
no problems at all.

2) Xenial sometimes has problems with buttons labels as mentioned earlier.

I think that this problem can cause CPU Intel performance governor. Xenial boot with this as standard, so my CPU always has clock speeds at level 2.16GHz and sometimes higher (max speed in turbo mode is 2.16GHz).
When speed values changed in scaling tool to min: 480000 and max. 1601000 CPU works always with nominal speed 1.6GHz.
After this problems with labels disappear (or so far didn't notice it, will boot Xenial from time to time to check if problems returned).
The same good effect gives:

Code: Select all

intel_pstate=disable

as kernel parameter in GRUB. After this driver is acpi_cpufreq and governor is on demand and values 480000-1601000 were are already written in scalling tool (is acpi_cpufreq take those numbers from BIOS?).
Both cores works now in range 0.48GHz-1.6GHz.

III. Internet connection Huawei E-160 USB modem
1) Slacko64 no problem (PupDial)
2) Xenial no problem (PupDial)
3) Bionic - no internet ;( (tried all options from Connection Wizard)

[666philb]

hi puppy_apprentice

see if this helps with your internet.
open /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules in geany and add

Code: Select all

# Huawei E160
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0158", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1003", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

add it just before the end above LABEL="modeswitch_rules_end"

and then reboot

[norgo]

3) Slacko64 (kernel 4.1.11, modesseting driver for GPU, mplayer)
have got some errors that i don't have driver for GPU and my machine is too slow for this movie
i tried to synchronize audio with video using +/- keys, it wasn't perfect but for quick movie previewing isn't bad
I will test Slacko64 6.9.9.9 soon.

I'm not surprised about poor video performance.
A really terrible combination.

You could try to use GPU hardware decoding ( GPU is capable for it )
but you will need for this:

1. usage of intel driver
2. a video player compiled with VAAPI support ( mpv should have VAAPI support by default ). BUT ( mplayer doesn't support VAAPI at all, and the installed version in Slacko also doesn't support VDPAU ) so this version won't make you happy
3. the intel VA API ( 3 packages libva, libva-intel-driver, libva-utils)

if you are interested in I've compiled version 1.8.2 under Slacko700RC3 (32bit)
If the output of vainfo looks like this you have a good chance that hardwaredecoding will work.

# vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 0.40.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_40
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.40 (libva )
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Haswell Desktop - 1.8.2
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264StereoHigh : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
#

[puppy_apprentice]

hi puppy_apprentice

see if this helps with your internet.
open /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules in geany and add

Code: Select all

# Huawei E160
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0158", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1003", RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

add it just before the end above LABEL="modeswitch_rules_end"

and then reboot

Doesn't work ;(
I had the same problem with Slacko 6.3 on my old laptop but there even PupDial didn't work.

[puppy_apprentice]

I've found some info about graphics issues with Intel GPU driver.

https://fedoramagazine.org/solution-gra ... fedora-22/

I think that it is solution for my problem with buttons labels in Xenial.

I will test radky solution for Palemoon browser:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 97#1016897

[puppy_apprentice]

Internet in Bionic is working.

Installed:
pupdial-2.1.pet - works!
pgprs-s57-6.pet - works!

[puppy_apprentice]

DPup Stretch 7.5

Version with kernel 4.1.48 shows desktop for a while and left with blank screen (my monitor displayed message "no signal").

Version with kernel 4.9.149 boot to desktop. Internet via USB modem doesn't working got this error from PupDial:

Code: Select all

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Warning: section [Dialer wireless] does not exist in wvdial.conf.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Sending: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT*99#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT*99#
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected.  Starting PPP immediately.
--> Starting pppd at Mon Feb 25 21:06:23 2019
--> Pid of pppd: 25742
--> Disconnecting at Mon Feb 25 21:06:24 2019
--> The PPP daemon has died: pppd options error (exit code = 2)
--> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail.
--> I guess that's it for now, exiting
--> The PPP daemon has died. (exit code = 2)