Puppy 4.0 Dingo Nearly Office Pup (NOP)

[gray]

As recommended in the announcement thread, this is topic area for discussion of the Dingo based NOP pupplet.

This is remaster of puppy 4.0 Dingo with jwm / rox replaced entirely the Xfce4 desktop system using Opera as the browser. NOP is a minimalist approach with office apps removed allowing the user to add OpenOffice using an SFS pack.

Download from http://www.puppylinux.ca/NOP

Suggestions for improvements, problem reports etc should be included in this thread.

Now at Revision 1 ;
removed gtkam
replaced pburn with xfburn
updated Pschedule to v0.6
updated Pwireless to v0.8.3
updated Pbackup to v3.10
updated Pfilesearch to v1.5
added mtpaint
removed fotox
added gpicviewer
fixed a few little bugs
tweaked the size of petget GUI to fit smaller screens

[gray]

I have had a problem with previous versions of NOP and this one too, where the file manager Thunar would lock up. I didnt know what was causing this until now. It always happened if I looked in the /root/.opera folder.

It only happens if the thumbnails option is active, and is caused by the presence of files with a .dat extension. These are perversely registered as mpeg video mime types, and so the video thumbnailer tries to create a thumbnail image accordingly. However, I have never seen a video dat file - they are usually data files of various formats. Suffice it to say that the thumbnailer takes it's bat and ball home and refuses to play.

The fix is easy, and will be included in future NOP re-issues / versions. For now though, you can correct the problem as follows.

Edit the file /usr/local/libexec/ffmpeg-thumbnailer with mousepad to insert the line:

[ ${ifile/*./} = "dat" ] && exit

after the size=$3 line

This causes the .dat files to be ignored

[Sage]

Suggestions for improvements, problem reports etc should be included in this thread.

Added a few items to my earlier posting on the Announcements thread.

[setecio]

NOP is a minimalist approach with office apps removed allowing the user to add OpenOffice using an SFS pack.

Don't forget goffice as well for those of us on less powerful machines.

There is a post in the announcement thread where they couldn't get OO to load .... I suggested a rename to _400.sfs might be necessary. If this is true could you put a renamed version of goffice_400.sfs in the download location http://www.puppylinux.ca/NOP/ to avoid confusion.

Thanks.

[gray]

Setecio, I have just uploaded a goffice_400.sfs.

However, this new sfs now includes Gimp 2.4.5 as well as Inkscapelite, Abiword 2.6.2 (+ all plugins) and Gnumeric 1.8.2, so it is much bigger.

Davec51 asked how to change desktop shortcut icons. You cannot change the three default ones (trash, file system, Home) without changing the whole icon theme, but ones you have added yourself you can easily change. Right click on the desktop shortcut to get a context menu and select 'Edit Launcher', then click on the icon picture in the gui and use the file selector that pops up to change the picture.

[setecio]

Excellent, thanks Gray.

[Jaybekay]

I can't believe that this is an 80MB OS. Wow. And even after adding in abiword, gnumeric and mtpaint it is still under the "magic" 100MB. IMO this is easily the best compromise between size, functionality and aesthetics. Thank you for leaving out alll those uneccessary little apps.

How did you create this? Did you use unleashed?

[Henry]

Nop 4.0 has become my standard Linux. Here is my screen shot. Anyone interested in installing Qemu on it could see
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 348#189348
(Depending on the machine, emulation may be slow, as in Photoshop Elements, but full screen editing in WordPerfect is just fine.)

[Fishy]

I have looked everywhere for a desktop setting to change it to single click to activate the desktop icons! I looked all though NOP 301 and now NOP Dingo.

Probably something very simple that I am overlooking but please help. Double clicking brings back memories of Windows.

[Henry]

Fishy,

Only gray can say for sure, but I think you're out of luck here. Personally, I blank them out in Settings Manager, Desktop. I don't need the clever hotpup mounter and turn it off, preferring to automount and/or use pmount. The other desktop icons are replaced by icons in the upper panel. This way it's all single click. (The panels are autohidden of course.) I use the desktop for the clock

[Clarification: The hotpup mounting is very well done, but I keep my main data partition automounted, which is all I normally need.]

Henry

[setecio]

Sadly NOP4 isn't working for me. The WPA wireless connection is constantly giving problems and won't start on reboot, fails to acquire a WPA connection, and sometimes establishes itself on 'testing' ath0. It is also difficult to get it re-established. I'm using a Netgear WGT511T and WPA which work flawlessly in NOP3.01 and I can just reboot into NOP3.01 and it all works fine.

The problem is exactly the same in the standard Dingo Puppy 4, so I will just stick with NOP3.01 in the meantime until I have time to try and identify and fix it.

[Sage]

Xfce is a little bizarre over mouse behaviour. The 'single click' option isn't located in anything obvious like 'Mouse' but in Settings Manager/File Manager/Behaviour. Even more weird is that it doesn't always operate on the desktop icons themselves, only inside apps.

[Locky]

Hi,

First off I'm really impressed with NOP. A great looking puplet!

As I'm kinda into the appearance of the desktop I wanted to change some things to my liking. So after making some minor adjustments I ran the remaster live cd script. Unfortunately things didn't go as smoothly as hoped and puppy could not find the pza_400.sfs or zdrv_400.sfs. I think it was looking for and earlier version. Where can I edit the code to load these files?

Also I would like to be able to modify the menu. The last puppy I used was years ago and before the new "universal" menu layout. How do I make an alternative lout for me and preserve the original If I need/want to switch back. I can't make heads or tails of the new menu - but then again I haven't spent too much time on it - tips appreciated.

Changing the icons by simply unpacking into /root/.icons/ lead to mixed results. Desktop icons and menu defaulting the xfce fall back icon, rebuilding the icon cache didn't help. Tips?

Is there a dev.sfs for NOP4?

I can't get goffice_400.sfs to load, or any other .sfs file even if I change the name to XXX_400.sfs and selecting in the boot manager. The sfs files are in the / directory (I have a HD full install). What's wrong?

On a side note I'm looking for a music program that I can sync my ipod with. Amarok would be great but a little large, banshee OK. However these two require lots of libraries. (I've tried songbird but just didn't like it and it didn't work too well). Any lightweight option out there?

Cheers
Locky

[Fossil]

@Locky

In the interest of all those who do not have such large monitor's and detest having to scroll back and forth to read the text, please resize your screenshot to a more suitable 600 pixels.
Thank you.

[prehistoric]

This one is a beauty, Grey!

I'm running this on the infamous $25 (US) machine (500 MHz Compaq iPaq desktop with 128 MG RAM) described in mechmike's thread on cheap boxes for Puppy, along with about four other Puplets. (Be sure to read past the post describing it as DOA.)

I have the same questions a Locky in two regards: 1) how to use the nice Xfce menu editing and still have the default menu around when I need it; 2) getting those sfs files accepted by the boot manager. I can incorporate these files into the 400 sfs using MU's combiner, but feel sure there is another way for unsophisticated users.

Because this box lacks any CD drive (or floppy), the install was non-standard. I copied files from an ISO image and edited the existing grub menu.lst to add a frugal install with files in a named subdirectory. Here are the current Puppy entries:

Code: Select all

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title wNOP 0.2 Linux (on /dev/hda1)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title Muppy 008.3c Linux (frugal on /dev/hda1)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /Muppy083/vmlinuz  vga=normal PMEDIA=idehd psubdir=Muppy083 
  initrd /Muppy083/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title NOP 3.01 Linux (frugal on /dev/hda1)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /NOP301/vmlinuz  vga=normal PMEDIA=idehd psubdir=NOP301
  initrd /NOP301/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title bluedog Linux 1.00 (frugal on /dev/hda3)
  root (hd0,2)
  kernel /bluedog/vmlinuz  vga=normal PMEDIA=idehd psubdir=bluedog
  initrd /bluedog/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title NOP 4.00 Linux (frugal on /dev/hda3)
  root (hd0,2)
  kernel /NOP400/vmlinuz vga=normal PMEDIA=idehd psubdir=NOP400
  initrd /NOP400/initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends

The only reason NOP 4.00 is at the bottom is that it was only just added. Because the infamous i810 video doesn't wobble on this box, I intend to replace wNOP with a different full install, or a "frugal install on steroids". (We need a compact term here.)

Problems: 1) on a 500 MHz box with limited RAM the slow startup of Opera for reading local HTML documentation is intolerable; (How about using 300 KB for dillo?) 2) when I first started up I began losing desktop icons after a few minutes; (This happened on several attempts.) 3) the boot manager can't find sfs files in the psubdir, and at start up that's where the boot command tells it to look. (This might be different if I had installed from a real CD with PUI.)

Overall, this is extraordinary, for such a new release.

[gray]

Fishy : There is currently no setting to change desktop icons from double clicky to single

Locky : Remastering can be tricky. I can usually get it to work though - thats how I made NOP. It sounds like you may have files from an older puppy on your machine though ?

To edit the menu just right click on the menu button and select properties. You will see that you can select an alternative xml menu file or use the default. In the puppy NOP 301 threads there is info on copying the cache menu file to use as a basis for editing - but it will not be automatically updated when you add new programs.

To change the icons you need to add a new icon theme to the /usr/local/share/icons directory and then select that from the settings manager, user interface gui.

NOP should be able to use the standard puppy 4.0 devx sfs from the ibiblio repository site for puppy.

Note: For any puppy, SFS files do NOT work for a full hard disk install - only frugal.

Prehistoric : I cannot get puppy to load sfs files from a psubdir. It works if you put the sfs files on the top level though - ie /

Unfortunately dillo does not work in Puppy 4.0.

Losing icons from the desktop ? are you talking about drive icons - cos that is what hotpup is supposed to do - add and remove icons for removable media etc.

[Henry]

Removed, See next item

[Henry]

I hope I may be allowed to continue adding such questions to this thread. While they do not relate to problems in Nop per se (are there any? , they are part of my quest to make this top puppy useful for every function normally used in a computer, especially a "nearly office" computer. That was my reason for the Qemu effort, and thanks, Gray, for including it in the Nop 4.0 menu.

Scanning into linux is another thing that had me puzzled. I had wanted to use my familiar windows scanner, an Epson 4180 on linux. Information was mixed as to whether it should work. I could not get it detected, nor did i know how to safely select a new scanner before buying one, and not even sure that I had all the needed software installed.

Finally, I went to the St. Vincent thrift store, found three USB scanners with an average price of $8 and bought them, just to find out. The Lexmark X1150 worked immediatel;y with the Menu/Graphics/Xsane on a clean Nop 4.01. This is a 3-in-1but I have not yet tested its printing. Second was an HP Scanjet 3400C, which worked as well. Third was an HP 4200C which was "not found." (It did work in windows, though.) These are all pretty old. I am not recommending them, just got them for "research." I have yet to test these further, and of course want to be able to scan into the Gimp.

Note: http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html See the "scanner search engine" there to see if the "backend" is included, or if you have to try to get it elsewhere, which may be involved. At least look here before buying a scanner. (Now I know

In addition to scanning, which is essential, there is the related function, OCR. Large OCR programs such as we find in windows don't seem to exist for Linux. However the Sane UI, which today I saw for the first time, has an option to scan to OCR. Gocr is avery small program that Dougal made into a dopup some time ago.

Gray, what would be the best way to put gocr into Nop, and should it be included the next? (Maybe Barry will put it into puppy 4.?)

Finally, as an interesting side observation, just as a digital camera can be a "poor man's scanner," there is a fast, page at a time, "poor man's OCR" provided free on line by Tohoku University at their WeOCR server
http://ocr1.sc.isc.tohoku.ac.jp/e1/

Henry

[Locky]

I would like to compile a new version of ndiswrapper for my wireless card. I know the latest build of ndiswapper supports it and it doesn't work at the moment. Tips before my first compile with puppy?

make uninstall
make
sudo make install
cd /root/ndiswrapper-xxx/
ndiswrapper -i XXX.inf

Does this look right with dev_400.sfs loaded?

It gave the following error after the make uninstall and then the make command.

sh-3.00# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/build/ndiswrapper-1.51/driver'
Makefile:35: *** Cannot find kernel version in /lib/modules/2.6.21.7/build, is it configured?. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/build/ndiswrapper-1.51/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2
sh-3.00#

Modify the make file perhaps?

Gary: I definitely had no other sfs files from any other versions on the drive my only backup was on cd, I did however have a full install present (although surely this can't make a difference).

I can't seem to get my volume panel applet to control my usb speakers right on my desktop machine. It seems to default to the mother boards sound card. Any help on what to do.

What is the easiest way to remove programs that are preinstalled. Thinking that maybe an unleashed would be nice, but it seems a little extreme.

/Locky[/b]

[Henry]

Part of the elegance of Nop is it's use of the best browser, Opera, (which I've used since it first appeared) and it's integral email client, which I have not. It's good, but very different - it takes a while to get used to the virtual mailbox system, which actually does have several advantages. One real annoyance in Opera is the error console that uncontrollably pops up at frequent awkward times. Opera promises to make this optional when 9.5 appears - they also plan to somehow reindex all the email differently at that time. Another disadvantage of Opera is no Gpg, although I can work around that with the command line. Backups are very slow because each email message is a separate file, unlike Eudora or Thunderbird

Casual email users (most) will either be happy with Opera Mail or can add a small conventional email client to Nop if they prefer. The tiny Sylpheed is good, although it shows an "attachment" for most mails,making it hard to spot the real ones.

Claws 3.02 (a fork of Sylpheed) is better, and Claws 3.4 is large and polished, with easy Gpg, etc. plugins. Presentation of attachments is better. Thunderbird is of course ok.

(Trying different programs with Nop 4.0 is easier with Gslapt-0.3.29a, which is a 15Mb addition, although the Gslapt packages tend toward bloat.)

I have many important emails that need to be safe and searchable. A major consideration is how to import them from Eudora, which puts all the attachments into a separate folder. You can't apparently even get them into Claws. (For mailbox converaions in general Aid4mail is a $25 windows program that converts almost any kind to a generic form that can be imported to almost any email client.)

It seems there is no perfect email client, so I continue use Opera 9.27 in Nop 4.0.