Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[CatDude]

Hi

I have been scouring the forum looking for users running Puppy on laptops, and it is proving to be very time consuming.

So i thought it would be a good idea to start a thread, to collect together as much information with regard to running Puppy on laptops.

Therefore, i ask for any laptop users, if you could please provide details of your experiences (good or bad)
maybe it would then help others who may be looking to purchase a laptop specifically for running Puppy.

If you could also give an idea as to the age of the laptop, that may prove useful too,
as would the Puppy version you have running on it.

Hoping you can help
CatDude
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Edit:
Below is a link to the old wikka page Working Laptops
http://pupweb.org/wikka/LaptopsWorking

I am adding the following link as it mentions a few laptops in there.
List your system

23/11/2010
I have now added a page to the wiki http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyOnLaptops
which should make it easier for you to find what you are looking for, instead of wasting time trawling through this thread.

Please note that it does not include any links to the machines mentioned in the List your system thread.
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[dejan555]

http://dejan.b0x.me/?p=116

At the time of writing I was using 214X but now using dpup484

[Roy]

CatDude,

First and foremost, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitude for your illustrated How-To which covers installing Puppy. That proved to be invaluable to me when I was first starting out with Puppy Linux a couple of years back.

I am currently running Gray's Boxpup 431 on my small Dell Mini-9 netbook; everything I use functions well -- media players, word processor, web apps -- but I have to manually re-edit DHCP Net Mask and Gateway information every time I connect in my current environment. Patriot's Alsa update (included by default in 4.3x-series) allows sound to work out-of-the-box, where older Alsa versions required extra modprobe.conf editing. Boot-up, video, sound and wireless with earlier pups was a challenge, to say the least, on this machine. It is less than two years old and requires the Broadcom wl wireless driver. Not really enough screen real-estate for a lot of desktop icons. Some of the infrequently-accessed functions still have the grating feel of fingernails across a chalkboard on this one (nothing against Gray's fine work -- these are Puppy problems). For some reason, I have been having a lot of trouble creating a bootable FAT-32 thumbdrive with Puppy's Gparted lately.... I also boot Linux Mint from USB on this machine, although it is not as spry as Puppy.

I have also set some other new Linux users up with Puppy for their own laptops. One guy, with a Gateway 7305GZ laptop, required something (can't remember exactly which option) to be muted in his Alsamixer before sound would function in official 4.31, which he is using now. Everything in Puppy-4.1-k2.6.25.16-seamonkey worked out-of-the-box (he has to edit DHCP connection information, too -- same ISP) but, as mentioned, he has updated to 4.31 (frugal install alongside XP) via steve_s' pup431-on-WinXP-install.exe (which steve_s credits others for starting). Don't know the age of this Gateway, but it cannot boot from USB. Oh, and he is pretty much a dedicated Puppy-user now that his printer/scanner setup is working.

Another guy with a Dell D610 runs a small variety of Puppy distros as Live CD's and has (I think) a full install of 4.12 on a spare hard drive [EDIT: He is running Teenpup2009 on the spare drive with 2GB RAM in this laptop]. He lets me use his computer from time to time, when I need a better connection or my eyes get tired of my netbook's 9-inch screen. I boot a thumb-drive loaded with 4.31 official when I use his machine. Absolutely EVERYTHING can be expected to work on this computer, being fairly common hardware (intel video), and it usually does. Well, DRI doesn't seem to be loaded, but I'm not a gamer. Another difference here is that he is using a different ISP and does not have to edit DHCP info.

I am not certain I have covered the specifics you are looking for, but will give more info if requested.

-Roy

[CatDude]

Hi

@ dejan555
Cheers mate

@ Roy

[Béèm]

I use puppy from 1.08 on on my Thinkpad R40, 256MB ram and am using a swapfile.
Now I am running dpup484beta3, but I have used the latest puppies also.
Quirky 003 runs also.

[jemimah]

I'd like to put in a good word for the EeePc! My goal in creating the Puppeee puplet was to make it the best netbook distro out there. Maybe I'm not there yet, but progress is made everyday. The Eee is durable, works well on Linux, boots from the SD card slot, and has relatively decent support from Asus (and from me).

I recommend getting one that's 10 inches or smaller. The newer 11 and 12 inch ones have different graphics cards that I haven't tested yet. Specifically, stay away from the Poulsbo chip (Intel GMA500), as there isn't an open source Linux driver available for it. Also keep in mind that the Atheros network cards are moderately preferable to the Ralink cards at this point.

[Laie]

Medion-Life-Notebook, bought in 2004
http://www1.medion.de/site/service_~u~_support/treiber_~u~_updates/download.pl?id=4210&type=anleitungen&filename=bdamim2230de.pdf&lang=de
I've tried several derivates.
Now it's Teenpup 2009 Legacy running frugal on an ext3 partition with swap. ZD1211 wlan-module running out of the box. Touchpad works with tap. Only shutdown doesnn't work. I got used to that, not a single Puppy derivate managed shutdown, nor did all the hints made by the community.

[mikeb]

HP2133 netbook.
puppy 4.12 full install on ext3 (it wiped my suse backup during install but no great loss.)

needed alsa update (1.1.20) for full sound card working.

vesa only video from puppy. suse drive gives 2d acceleration but crashes needing hard reset with more than one player running but gives correct resolution for the widescreen and can drive external monitor. openchrome not working (does on nimblex)..3d is out of the question on linux at the moment.

broadcom wireless b43 worked but disconnected when making lan file transfers. The wl driver is solid though.

Will boot from card reader and usb...I run XP from a SD card ... handy for 3D edit and playing games.

Needed gtk2/glib update to stop browser crashing.

Added clean shutdown fix so that XP can access the drive.

Added cleanup script so can reboot ok after power loss.

Added xbindkey to get function keys controlling volume. Brightness keys still work as is. ondemand power saving works though savings are not great...disabling unused functions like bluetooth in the bios help too.

Built in webcam and mic work..I have scary vids to prove it.

A solid machine with metal case..the latest version has atom cpu, 10" screen and other changes that are probably worthwhile yet cheaper than the plastic equivalents and the speakers sound excellent.

Sounds iffy but once sorted puppy does work well on it and is fast enough for video and flash video in spite of driver limitations....

mike

Edit....forgot to mention would only run frugally with pdev=scsihd

[walter90]

I'm using Puppy 4.2.1 on an HP Pavillion ze 5600

I run it from a flash drive but need the live CD to boot up. The first flash drive booted by itself but subsequent installs have all required the live CD.

Aside from that, I have no hard drive whatsoever (The old one died). I installed Wine, use Photoshop and some other windows programs with only reduced speed for some functions. I attribute that to the size of my RAM.

The speed is usually exceptional with basic functions. Occassionally I have to reboot to flush the RAM after I have moved or copied large files, unpacked large files or use a program for an extended period of time.

Over all I am very pleased with Puppy Linux.

[mikeb]

[smokey01]

Hi CatDude,

I run frugal puppy 4.3.1 on a Kogan netbook.

Puppy does not recognise the mouse pad or the wireless card.

All works fine if I use a usb mouse and a Vodaphone broadband modem. Mind you it took some time to get it to work. No wifi though with puppy. It works fine with the bundled gOS.

Smokey

[G0XAN]

Currently running Nearly Office Pup 4.3.1 on a Toshiba Satellite 1410, retired from WinXP service as it had slowed to a crawl
Celeron 1.5GHz
256MB RAM
18GB HDD

Using Edimax EW-7108PCg PCMCIA wireless networking card (worked straight out of the box).
Previously used a Sweex USB wireless adapter that also worked fine.

Added Go-OpenOffice 3.1 and devx-431 (sfs's), geany-0.18-p4, gimp-2.4.0-rc3, jre-1.6.0-11, seahaven-1.50-pup4 and gtktetris-0.6.2-pup4 (pet's)

Built Qt4 libs and Keepassx from sources.

Alsa worked OK with the soundcard, but had to add some amixer settings in rc.local to get the sound to be "on" by default.

Asunder and Xfmedia work perfectly. Putting music onto MP3 player is no problem. Digital camera no problem as USB mass-storage device.

As this is a full install, I also added the modified startup and shutdown scripts to cope with unruly shutdowns.

Since this laptop has only 5 minutes battery life, power failure is an irritation as the power lead also tends to fall out from time to time. So I figured out how to write a script to run every 30 seconds to monitor the power and pop up a dialog warning of power failure, before the battery gives up. This has saved me on several occasions.

Chose NOP mainly because it includes Opera. Seamonkey doesn't cut it with Facebook etc. Chose OOo as I need MS document compatibility.

[walter90]

[mikeb]

[CatDude]

Hi All

Thank you all so much for responding, this is great.
I hope that this thread can become the best resource on the forum, with regard to running Puppy on laptops.

Please keep them coming.
CatDude
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