Some general comments on Puppy 5

Puppy related raves and general interest that doesn't fit anywhere else
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peb
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Joined: Mon 24 Oct 2005, 20:28

Some general comments on Puppy 5

#1 Post by peb »

The Puppy 5 series is the first series that for me has been more than a novelty. It now has enough functionality that I use it regularly rather than for amusement.

1) I run it in RAM (about 2 Gb). Puppy's ability to do this is one of the reasons I use it. I can load .pets locally stored on the fly, and even use .sfs files loaded on the fly from a USB drive. One simple script saves those particular elements of my root home page that I want to set at startup.

2) I'd use a pupsave file, except it gives me no easy option to just save one when I want to. Once one has been created -- whatever changes I make to explore thing get dumped their with whatever leftover litter remains once I'm through exploring and trying things. I find this behavior annoying enough that I simply don't use one -- just start from pristine each time, and let my own script restore whatever I deliberately saved -- works good enough for me -- my dad couldn't cope with the geekiness.

3) The reality of today is that 85% of what I do involves the internet. With a good browser changed at my whim, and a good email program, this functionality is sufficient to do a lot of very useful work.

4) Some .pet packages seem to install without a point that I can save the downloaded file locally before installing it. That's a bit annoying, but I've worked around it in most cases.

5) Puppy would really become extensible with something like apt-get or Synaptic. The Puppy package manager doesn't always reliably resolve the dependencies, and many packages have their own .deb that use an apt-get address that is not part of the ubuntu distribution. That means I can't use a lot of them.

6) Some of my occasional irritation with Puppy is really irritation with the linux. There is no standard linux, and very, very few portable linux applications. Some packages want gnome, some want obscure hardware libraries, some want you to compile the kernel with various options -- all the stuff that sends a geek into orgasm, but is just time consuming and a drag for people like me. And then there's the fact that there are 20 half finished, half baked audio/visual packages -- and very few or no robust, modern ones.; everybody has to roll his project solution for a while before abandoning it.

7) All in all though, Puppy is at a point where it is materially useful for someone like me who likes the speed of a RAM filesystem, who can tolerate a little geekiness, and who is willing to use Windows for solid audio-visual packages with good performance. I have come to despise programs which litter the disk with fragments and libraries that never get uninstalled. it's nice to load a fast. pristine workspace without much concern about whatever virus, cookies, flash programs that might have been dragged down from the internet and installed surreptitiously during the last internet browsing. So the end result is a genuine THANK YOU for Barry and all the consistent Puppy contributors who have made many useful .pets and .sfs files available -- enough to keep me reasonably happy and to make this a tool I now use almost daily.

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Dougal
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Re: Some general comments on Puppy 5

#2 Post by Dougal »

peb wrote:2) I'd use a pupsave file, except it gives me no easy option to just save one when I want to. Once one has been created -- whatever changes I make to explore thing get dumped their with whatever leftover litter remains once I'm through exploring and trying things. I find this behavior annoying enough that I simply don't use one
Having it only save when you want it to is pretty simple:
- Make sure you run in pupmode 13 (i.e. with a tmpfs as top layer, can be done by adding PUPMODE=13 to the boot commandline)
- Comment out the line in /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown where snapmergepuppy is run
(you might want to add there "rm /initrd/pup_ro1/etc/.XLOADED", so X will always start when you boot)
- Turn off the automatic (periodic) saving
- link /usr/sbin/snapmergepuppy onto the desktop, so you can save a will...
Last edited by Dougal on Sat 19 Mar 2011, 21:04, edited 1 time in total.
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

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Lobster
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#3 Post by Lobster »

it's nice to load a fast. pristine workspace without much concern about whatever virus, cookies, flash programs that might have been dragged down from the internet and installed surreptitiously
You have been assimilated :lol:
Did we mention, "Resistance is futile"
Your designation is "Peb of Puppy 5.2.1"

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Puppy52LuciTips

Audio/visual?
I have been using Openshot. Easy. Good. 8)
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/CategoryMultimedia
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

ICPUG
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#4 Post by ICPUG »

Dougal,

You are a tease.

Your method sounds good but how do you turn off automatic periodic saving?

nooby
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#5 Post by nooby »

ICPUG I should not answer because I rely on a bad memory but there are a Pup mode that only saves when one tell it to.

But it does not solve that Firefox and Flash and such have their own files they update all the time. So it get written to even if "Puppy" himself never write to the pupsavefile on USB or HDD.

So from a wear and tear perspective such is very relevant question to ask.

I want to know too.

Did not one user in some thread tell us that he had made his HDD and some directories unwriteable so even if the programs want to write they are not allowed to :) Could be in Security or a thread about How to use Puppy without making any impact on the HDD.

I guess it can only be done from CD or USB?

Can a frugal install prevent Flash from updating teh temporal Cache?

Okay one can tell FF to not have a Cache at all and to not remember anything and so on. But as soon as one create one bookmark then it make a back up of the older ones? I know too little obviously
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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Dougal
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#6 Post by Dougal »

ICPUG wrote:Your method sounds good but how do you turn off automatic periodic saving?
Isn't there an option in the Boot Manager (or whatever it's named)?
If not, you can just comment out the line where savepuppyd is started in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (I think that's where it is started).
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

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Dougal
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#7 Post by Dougal »

I've edited my first post, to include the part about .XLOADED.
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

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