Loram Puppy on Vaio with 128mb ram?

[AtleTZ]

Dear Puppy forum.

I really must say the latest Puppy is more than great when it comes to modems such as CDMA, be it USB or PCMCIA.

My need is to run Firefox with Adblock, Imageblock, Flashblock and Firefox Prefetch disabled. The problem I run into with my Vaio is that it starts to swap pretty fast when i use Firefox. I NEED firefox. Not Opera or whatever chews less ram.

Yes yes... I can also top up the ram, as the laptop handles 256mb.

But I want to run this on 128 as a part of a project to show off Linux on low ram. Period. I even look for a distro where i can pick out a 64mb ram module and still surf on my 3.1mb CDMA or 7.2HSDPA.

Is there any custom Puppy that also have the fantastic new modem suport? I mean... me as a newbee are now surfing on a CDMA PCMCIA card, with no problems setting it up.

Without the new modem support in the Puppy 5 i am lost, i think.

So... What can I do to make my puppy use less ram, or is there any loram version that also can install firefox and still have a little ram left?

I also use the chance to ask if there are any tweaks to get more speed on a 3.1mb CDMA card, as i set it to maks speed at 460800.

I do understand that there are physical limits here, but i hope to push it to the limit....

Happy Puppy user in the bush

[looseSCREWorTWO]

G'day,
With low RAM it always helps to put in a Linux-Swap partition of sufficient size so that RAM + Swap = 512mb.

A Puppy user named ttuuxxx created some "retro" puplets based on Puppy 214 and 216 which are designed for old PCs, but the last time I tried them they didn't support USB Modems. Likewise with Puppy 412 (also good for old hardware) I had no luck getting my USB Modem to work

The best option is probably Puppy 431 or 431 Retro, for which my USB Modem worked "out of the box" without any mucking about:

Puppy 431
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... up-431.iso
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... d5sums.txt

Puppy 431 Retro (2 versions)
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... modems.iso
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... modems.iso
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... d5sums.txt

[sinc]

I have a P4 with 256megs of ram and ttuxxx's "classic pup 214x" is really the only puppy i use consistently. ttuxxx is extremely busy with his work but loves making systems work for people so if you try it and can't get it to work try posting your issue in the 214x thread. You will most likely receive help.

[looseSCREWorTWO]

I did post there, so ttuuxxx would know about the issue. I never got a straight answer, so I'm guessing that some limitation in the way 214X is built means that USB Modems just can't be supported?

I'm sure if ttuuxxx had been able to fix the problem we'd all know about it. But like you say, ttuuxxx is extremely busy.

[AtleTZ]

My challenge is that i am in africa on some sort of introduce Open Source/ Linux to various sectors. What i saw wen Quirky was released, was a not to shy statement about being modem friendly that Puppy really lived up to.

There is more info on my project on http://www.schoolux.org and also a thread on http://www.slitaz.org called "Jumping Linux"...

I am onto Puppy not only due to low ram and super functionality, but also to see if it can fit in to the Schoolux program. So I am not really keen on starting to run the same distros that I was doing in 2008, then also stuck in the modem/newbee/linux problem.

I have a 768mb of Swap on the machine and for me to make it working I think i need tips like how to trim or shrink the ram usage in the current distro. Quirky has stated as a target to become smaller and use less ram, but its not booting on my Vaio PCG-F403, so ia cant say how lowram that is.

[looseSCREWorTWO]

G'day AtleTZ,
Barry K said on his Blog that Quirky and Wary are experiments. I tried them, plus Puppy Lucid, on old Pentium 2, 3 and 4 PCs I got at the Tip. On one Pentium 2 laptop, Lucid worked perfectly. On 4 other old PCs, none of these new Puppies worked properly. Some wouldn't even boot with them, yet the same computers all ran OK on Puppy 431 and 431 Retro. I have been fixing up a lot of old computers and giving them away to charities and a local Recycling Centre, but I kept 3 for my own use.

One of these has a CPU overheating problem. I tried many versions of Puppy, as Frugal Installs and as Full Installs, while keeping a close eye on CPU Temperature readings. Other people have reported that Full runs cooler, but on this computer I there is no difference and Frugal is more "user friendly" so I use Frugal.

The Puppy that runs most cool is Puppy 412 but it doesn't support USB Modems. Puppy 431 and 431 Retro versions run a bit hotter (so I guess they use more RAM and CPU) but USB Modems work very easily.

Puppy 421, Puppy 501, Quirky and Wary all run 10 degrees hotter than 431. That's what I saw. So now I use Puppy 431 Retro with Trio's CPU Frequency Scaling to keep the CPU Temp down to an acceptable level.

What I saw it that 431and 431 Retro work on 80-90 percent of old computers (Pentium 2, 3 and 4) but with low RAM you also need a Swap partition, so that RAM + Swap = 512mb.

If you want low CPU/RAM use (which means low CPU Temp) and the ability to use USB Modems, then Puppy 431/431 Retro is the way to go.

Steve

[AtleTZ]

Cool... I registrated a domain once, oldpc.org, just to have information like this thats cross distro as one can get ideas and a bit help on what to use old PCs for. I used to make thin client networks, but it becomes to complicated for people to maintain. And often... when it comes to donations and computers, it will be evaluated from how modern it looks and not how well it performs:-)

Anyhow.... seeing that its not only me that finds a old PC by far more exciting than whatever new hardware that comes along, i shall do some efforts to start up that service as today this information is spread around on the forums of Puppy, Slitaz, DSL and TC, where no place it connecting the dots. I dont care if people choses this or that as long as they chose Linux.

Maybe one shold adapt Henry Fords words on the T- Ford or whatever it was called.

"You can chose any color you like as long as its black"

It could be:

"You can chose any Operating System you like as long as its Linux"

Yeah... that will be the parole on Oldpc.org:-)

Anyhow, i get your point. I shall download, burn and test...

Still i have shaved the desktop of my Puppy 5, without seeing the big results on ram usage, but have one question here.

Just next to the Menu button there is 3 icons, as one is Show desktop, then Free space in drives and then Chose default Browser.

How can i change those to become the "connect" icon, the Firefox icon and a third that i have not yet chosen(Geany maybe)?

I also see that when i look at Top View Running Processes, its things like Cups that appears to use ram, that i dont use.

I am very much for tweaking or messing around further in the hope of being able to run Firefox a bit more fast.

Its seems to swap at tab nr 3 or 4. After that it goes slow. All goes slow, so the margins here are small. If i can free maybe 10 ram, i think it will be ok for me. But the more the better...

CPU heat problems has not been a issue so far, but I see your point especially with laptops.

If you like Steve... I will be more than willing to partner up with someone on the oldpc.org project, where Windows is considered a sin...

I have some experience my self on creative networks, creative usage of old hardware that I would not mind to share...

Hopefully....

Atle

[AtleTZ]

Configuring boot manager... I continue my hunt for the few ram needed.....

Syslogger, Cups and Dbus seems pretty harmless to disable.

Upon pressing the help button, I see that the help file does not really correlate to the three next items to disable. X-Hal and Option.

So we shall see if this does the job...

[looseSCREWorTWO]

To run FireFox quicker try an earlier version. To find out where to download from, you may need to Google on:
puppy linux firefox pet

I use SeaMonkey 201 rather than SM204, because the latest SM runs too slow on my old computers.

AtleTZ wrote:

Just next to the Menu button there is 3 icons, as one is Show desktop, then Free space in drives and then Chose default Browser.

How can i change those to become the "connect" icon, the Firefox icon and a third that i have not yet chosen(Geany maybe)?

I have no idea about that. Maybe Post a new question about it. It's a good idea to keep each Post in this Forum to one topic. You have more chance of getting help that way.

Steve

[looseSCREWorTWO]

G'day AtleTZ,
an ultra-light Puppy called PULP. Thought it might interest you:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=40226

Steve