Three-Headed Dog 5.2.8.005 Updated APR 25 2012

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
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James C
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Location: Kentucky

#81 Post by James C »

Just to inspire playdayz for future projects........ :)
I was bored so I rebuilt Three-Headed Dog aka 529 with a 2.6.39 kernel,drivers,etc.. Works pretty well.Seems pretty snappy.

Sat 20 Aug 2011 Operating System: Three-Headed Dog-529 Linux 2.6.39
0.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev c1)
oem: NVidia product: NV18 () Board Chip Rev A2

X Server: Xorg Driver: unknown
X.Org version: 1.7.6
dimensions: 1440x900 pixels (411x263 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes


AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+
Core 0: 1998 MHz

...the above also recorded at '/tmp/root/report-video-glx'.

# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 1033860 513320 520540 0 53992
Swap: 1228936 0 1228936
Total: 2262796 513320 1749476
#
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luci-529.png
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tempestuous
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#82 Post by tempestuous »

Apparently Three-Headed-Dog already contains the new ath9k_htc wifi driver, thanks to its modern kernel version,
but I don't think it contains the necessary firmware that this new wifi driver requires.

I now attach the firmware, plus updated configuration files so that the Network Wizard will recognise the ath9k_htc driver as compatible with WPA/WPA2 wifi encryption.
Plug in your USB wifi device only AFTER you have installed this dotpet. Otherwise, you will need a reboot.

These are the USB wifi devices which should (in theory) be supported by the ath9k_htc driver:

0cf3:7010 Atheros generic
0cf3:7015 TP-Link TL-WN821Nv3
0cf3:9271 TP-Link TL-WN721N/WN722N & Unex DNUA-93F
0cf3:1006 TP-Link TL-WN322G v3/TL-WN422G v2
0cf3:b003 Ubiquiti WifiStation Ext
0846:9030 Netgear WNA1100
0846:9018 Netgear WNDA3200
07D1:3A10 Dlink Wireless 150
083A:A704 SMC Networks
13D3:3327 Azurewave
13D3:3328 Azurewave
13D3:3346 IMC Networks
13D3:3348 Azurewave
13D3:3349 Azurewave
13D3:3350 Azurewave
04CA:4605 Liteon
040D:3801 VIA
1668:1200 Verizon
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ath9k_htc-firmware.pet
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Last edited by tempestuous on Tue 23 Aug 2011, 12:54, edited 1 time in total.

Puppeteer
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#83 Post by Puppeteer »

I can confirm that this worked - my TP-Link TL-WN821Nv3 USB dongle is now detected using the ath9k_htc driver after applying the firmware .pet

See also this post: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 473#555473

I just had to OK some message about Puppy not knowing whether WPA/WPA2 was supported by the USB driver (or something along those lines). After that I plugged in the USB dongle again and there it was on the network interface list!

Thanks Tempestuous :) and thanks Playdayz for releasing this, at long last (for me), fully functional and smooth-running Puppy!

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playdayz
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#84 Post by playdayz »

Brown Mouse, majorfoo, and others,

This is experimental but it has been working for me. It does 2 things--first, it makes the newer chromium based browsers work without the pinwheel of death problem with loading, and second, it lets Seamonkey and other gecko based browsers work when installed along with the Chromium browsers.

1. First, please uninstall any Iron, Chromium, or Chrome pets.

2. Second, install this libgconf2-4_3.1.6 pet.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... _3.1.6.pet

3. Then install one or more of these Iron 13, Chromium 15 or Google Chrome 13 pets.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... cid528.pet
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... -Lucid.pet
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... -Lucid.pet

Please use only these pets--definitely do not use the pets for Slacko.

Install the Seamonkey 2.3 Lucid pet if desired, or Firefox, etc. If they are already installed they should now work without re-installation (crossed fingers).

Please let me know, especially if you notice any side effects, since if this works out it will be included in the first Instant Update. Thanks.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Firefox 6.0

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... cid525.pet
..

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playdayz
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#85 Post by playdayz »

Just to inspire playdayz for future projects........
I was bored so I rebuilt Three-Headed Dog aka 529 with a 2.6.39 kernel,drivers,etc.. Works pretty well.Seems pretty snappy.
Crazy Man! I hope to keep Three-Headed Dog as an ongoing Derivative--so maybe we can experiment to see which kernel works better, or if there are any advantages one way or the other.

aarf

#86 Post by aarf »

just for some reason i dont know, why arent we using kernel 3+, or why isnt anyone playng with 3+
Last edited by aarf on Mon 22 Aug 2011, 03:01, edited 1 time in total.

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James C
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#87 Post by James C »

aarf wrote:just or some reason i dont know, why arent we using kernel 3+, or why isnt anyone playng with 3+
Some of us are, I just installed k-3.0.3 in Slacko last night.Not that impressed yet though.

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pemasu
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#88 Post by pemasu »


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playdayz
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#89 Post by playdayz »

I will be posting an EZ-Woof for Lucid 5.2.8, which will make it easy to try different kernels.

tempestuous
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#90 Post by tempestuous »

Puppeteer wrote:I just had to OK some message about Puppy not knowing whether WPA/WPA2 was supported by the USB driver
I can fix that, if you please run this command -

Code: Select all

readlink /sys/class/net/wlan0/device/driver
The result will be in the form of

Code: Select all

../../../bus/pci/drivers/xxx
but it's just the driver-name at the end that I need.

Puppeteer
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#91 Post by Puppeteer »

tempestuous wrote: I can fix that, if you please run this command -

Code: Select all

readlink /sys/class/net/wlan0/device/driver
The result will be in the form of

Code: Select all

../../../bus/pci/drivers/xxx
but it's just the driver-name at the end that I need.
Hi Tempestuous,

I ran the following:

Code: Select all

readlink /sys/class/net/wlan1/device/driver
...as the USB dongle is wlan1 on my set-up (I blacklisted wlan0 which was using the ather5k driver).

...and the output was:

Code: Select all

../../../../../bus/usb/drivers/usb
Hope that was what you wanted...

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playdayz
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#92 Post by playdayz »

tempestuous (or someone else), Could you briefly explain how firmware works. I thought it was included in the kernel--at least in the kernel pet in /lib/modules/all-firmware. In Lucid 5.2.8 rerwin provided some replacement firmware tar balls.
But there is also /lib/firmware that does not seem to be included in the kernel pet.

The bottom line question I guess is what needs to be done to make sure we have the most recent and correct firmware?

vanchutr
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#93 Post by vanchutr »

Can't boot three-head lucid 5,2,9 from USB (without HarDDisk).
Same bugs (errors) in poparpup 003, midnightsun 003 and some others.
How to fix this? (Boot from USB flash without hdd - I'd read... the patch for this in Barry Blogs but I did'nt understood how to fix this errors. 01Micko had fixed (successful) this error in his slacko 3.12.37 beta

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pemasu
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#94 Post by pemasu »

vanchutr. Latest woof platforms should have addressed the boot problem without harddisk. I will upload today Polarpup-004 which is made with 18.8. woof.

Easiest way to fix it yourself, is to build puppy using latest woof. You can build Puppy of your flavor. There are many choices.

tempestuous
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#95 Post by tempestuous »

Puppeteer wrote:...and the output was:

Code: Select all

../../../../../bus/usb/drivers/usb
Ah, the ath9k_htc driver is reporting itself as "usb", which is what recent USB Ralink wifi drivers do, too.
OK here's a hotfix for the Network Wizard.

I have also updated the ath9k_htc-firmware package earlier in this thread, so I will remove the hotfix in a few days.
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tempestuous
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#96 Post by tempestuous »

playdayz wrote:Could you briefly explain how firmware works.
Firmware is required by many kernel modules, and several years back much of this firmware was compiled within individual kernel modules, so you never noticed it.
But at some point early in the Linux 2.6.x kernel Linus, himself, called on all driver developers to separate the firmware out into user space. Generally firmware is now located in /lib/firmware
Initially this firmware was loaded on-demand by the "hotplug" helper module, but this system was later overtaken by the udev mechanism, and that's what we currently use in Puppy.

When you compile any modern kernel and install it, you will see that a basic set of firmware is installed in /lib/firmware.
But this does not represent the entire range of firmware for all official kernel modules. For the entire range, you need to download this -
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git

Some of this add-on firmware is non-GPL and thus cannot be redistributed, some is considered uncommon, some is only relevant to the latest cutting-edge kernels, and generally the collection is large. For those reasons the "add-on" firmware is not included with the kernel source.

Then there's firmware associated with third-party drivers - that's generally what we have in /lib/modules/all-firmware
This location was chosen by Barry for third-party firmware, it's certainly not a standard thing. You will notice that the firmware here is packaged as gzipped tarballs - again, this was Barry's way of doing things. I seem to recall that rerwin questioned the wisdom of this in modern Puppies. He is certainly correct that compressed firmware doesn't help with the size of the Puppy ISO, but I believe it does help when Puppy loads completely into RAM - because the third-party firmware remains compressed, apart from the small subset of this firmware that might be required by your individual hardware.

playdayz wrote:The bottom line question I guess is what needs to be done to make sure we have the most recent and correct firmware?
The firmware collection usually only needs to be updated when there's a move to a higher kernel - this was certainly the case recently with luci-529 when a new driver appeared - ath9k_htc.

And it's difficult to know what the situation with new drivers is until users report any problems with a new kernel.
But with Lucid 5.1 - 5.2.8 things are generally stable and the firmware is in good shape.

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playdayz
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#97 Post by playdayz »

Can't boot three-head lucid 5,2,9 from USB (without HarDDisk).
vanchutr, You are right. It is my fault. When I built three-headed dog I did not do what is necessary to enable booting with no drives attached. In my defense I thought the new kernel/initrd.gz *might* have taken care of that--but I was wrong. Lucid 5.2.8 will boot with no drives attached--but 3 headed dog will not.

We will do an updated 3 headed dog in a week or two that will boot with no drives.

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playdayz
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#98 Post by playdayz »

have you found a good way to reduce temperature?(attached)
aarf, In most Puppies the cpu-frequency scaling is activated automatically by default (with a generic driver). In Lucid and Three-Headed Dog that is not true. We thought it worked better if people could chooise the exact correct driver--also, I personally did not want something activated by default--because I might not want to use it.

Control -> Utility - CPU Frequency Scaling
.

aarf

#99 Post by aarf »

playdayz wrote:
have you found a good way to reduce temperature?(attached)
aarf, In most Puppies the cpu-frequency scaling is activated automatically by default (with a generic driver). In Lucid and Three-Headed Dog that is not true. We thought it worked better if people could chooise the exact correct driver--also, I personally did not want something activated by default--because I might not want to use it.

Control -> Utility - CPU Frequency Scaling
.
had a quick try but failed. for me, would prefer if i didnt have to know what this is about, and what driver to choose, and that it was auto done as before..



flac needs a file association. gnome player plays it.

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playdayz
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#100 Post by playdayz »

Control -> Utility - CPU Frequency Scaling
.

had a quick try but failed. for me, would prefer if i didnt have to know what this is about, and what driver to choose, and that it was auto done as before..
You might try using the default acpi-cpufreq driver. That is the one that was used automatically.

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