Is the Puppy Package Manager kept up to date?

[jstevans]

Hi,

My newbie question comes from two things:

First, when I installed another version of Linux a while back the first thing it did after completing the install was to update over 300 files.

Second, I can't find any listing for Firefox 3 on the Puppy Package Manager.

I'm not sure whether the package manager is up to date (which would mean there is no Firefox for Puppy 4.1) or whether I'm supposed to have updated it somehow.

Thanks,

Jay

[disciple]

1. Updating Puppy:
Puppy does not download updates. If you want to update him you burn a newer version to disk and run the installation wizard again (assuming you have installed him in the first place - otherwise you just boot with the new CD and your save file is upgraded). If you have a frugal install you can manually replace the files if you don't want to burn a CD.

2. Updating individual programs:
If you turn the autoupdate feature of programs like Firefox and Thunderbird on, then they will update themselves.
Other programs you can generally install a new version over the top of the old one if you want.

3. Installing packages:
The official petget repository has quite a limited selection of packages as it is only what Barry has put in there, and it is not updated frequently. This should change because Barry is stepping down from developing Puppy, but at the moment this forum still really acts as our package manager. There are Firefox packages here, you just need to look for them.
Some programs like Firefox, thunderbird and openoffice can be installed with generic packages downloaded from their website. .pets are generally made from these anyway - the only advantage of .pets is that they are easier to install and particularly uninstall.

[jstevans]

Thanks for the reply, now I better understand the Petget package manager situation and updating Puppy.

However, regarding updating Firefox (for example). I just checked both of the machines on which I've installed Puppy 4.10 and in each case Firefox DOES have auto-update turned on. Yet, neither has updated itself - I'm stuck at 2.0.0.7. One odd thing - when I click "about" in Firefox it mentions "Bon Echo" - I have no idea what that is.

Can you help me out a bit? Is Bon Echo not actually Firefox and that's why it's not updating?

Also, I read this article http://www.scribd.com/doc/3986262/Puppy-Linux which says Puppy can handle .deb packages if I "install the dillo web browser and the pb.debialinstaller" from the Puppy Package Manager. However, I cannot find either listed in the package manager.

Sorry for the rather basic questions, I'm a newbie who has become quite a fan after turning two laptops that used to be paperweights back into useful machines - almost (I have a few little things to get fixed and then I'm back in laptop heaven).

Thanks for your kind help.

Jay

[Béèm]

With the puppysearch link in my sig you can look for firefox 3. There is a pet for it.

[disciple]

Yes, I've never figured out quite what is going on when everyone talks about "Bon Echo" - it was the code name for Firefox 2 before the first release...

There should also be a menu entry in Firefox to check for updates (Maybe in the help menu - it is in my 1.5.0.12 ). What happens if you try it?

BTW it is definitely best not to try packages from Debian or anything until you've checked for Puppy packages.

[Artie]

As a newbie you might have a look at my post at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=36014 where I have described some procedures in detail. I'd welcome any suggestions.

Artie

[Bruce B]

Artie,

Tonight I installed Firefox v 3.04. I got it from mozilla.org

Extracted it uses 32 MB

In order to save space I compressed it with squashfs, it's not down to 10MB (more than a 2/3 disk space savings).

The difference between this firefox.sfs and a typical one, is it doesn't integrate the way typical .sfs files do. Nothing to load or configure in the boot manager.

If you had a limit of three or four sfs files to integrate at boot time, this type of sfs install doesn't affect that.

I simply put firefox.sfs in /opt/firefox directory.

Then mount it like this with a script that runs from rc.local

mount-FULL -t squashfs -o loop /opt/firefox/firefox.sfs \
/opt/firefox/firefox

Even though it's one file, it works the same as if it were expanded into many files, the system doesn't know the difference.

Additionally, I don't need to put it in the pup_save file, although I did, I can put it in /mnt/home or actually where I want, at any point in time.

Later, if I need space in the pup_save file I can easily move it.

Did I communicate the concept well, did it make sense to you?

???

Bruce

[Artie]

Bruce B

Thanks for tip. I am still trying to get my head around sfs and pet files but I will be hooking up my oldest pc when I get the time to experiment on.

Artie

[BobSongs]

Bookmarking this post. I, for one, will certainly look into this.

Thanks, Bruce.

[Béèm]

Nice tip Bruce, but don't you really have the same limit on loop devices as with the bootmanager configuration method?
(unless the tip is applied to increase the n° of loop devices)