Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

[InThereSomewhere]

To dogle, et. al.,

The intent of the non-technical “Feedback Request" topic was perfectly clear to me before I posted. The reason I posted a technical question in a non-technical topic was because I was goofy, not the dog. Ironically, I had a started writing feedback as requested, when something went wrong with my system. I tried to learn how to prevent it from happening again, then, after not finding what I needed, I decided to ask for help. When I posted my request, I thought I was in the Newbie Help topic when I was still in the Feedback Request topic. Why I got confused had nothing to do with unclear intent or poor signage. It was all about me being tired, frustrated a bit trying to understand what to do with a personal storage file needing to grow on a partition with nearly zero space left. Also, there was a large solar flare event, and the resulting emissions may have caused interference in my brain. I would like to add that it would be very helpful if there was a clearer iteration & explanation of puppy parts & how they interact. Diagramming might be a helpful education tool.

Also, I wish there was a small widget that showed if Puppy was happy or not, and if not, a click of the mouse would show the reason(s) for Puppy’s troubles. Such a widget would have the potential for more drill-down info, as well as links to appropriate tools for fixing the problem(s). It could be fun to come up with the internal (open source) rules that are triggered in the system when their is one or more problems. It would also help direct development of a more consistent set of mini tools the a user can invoke to help remedy the problem(s) that made poor puppy unhappy, possibly unstable or unable to do his tricks as usual. Perhaps a tiny dashboard on the desktop, or shown to user when a panel icon/indicator is selected. Such a mini dashboard widget could list the main parts of a puppy system, such as file system, storage file, system memory, kernel..The parts listed could include visual indicators representing each parts health. Such a list would also serve as a tool to educate users about how puppy works, which part does what & what it means for the each parts to be in a happy or sad state.

I have a bit more feedback regarding consolidation of related system tools, as well as an idea to make the main menu more better. I’ll send that feedback later, after I finally get some sleep before dawn.

Nighty Nite, fellow Pupsters & Puppy Breeders.

[Bucketbuilder]

Maik Murks,

Since you obviously didn't understand the issue I presented, I'll try to present it in a clearer fashion. (In this same forum, if you don't mind, since you did not reference a specific forum it should be posted in.)

Suspend and hibernate, at least on the 4 PCs I've tried, leave a problem that a simple power off / power on does not leave. Why would I want to click on this, then click on that, just to get wifi going again, when power up automatically starts the connection for me. (Actually, Puppy ought to be smart enough to reconnect automatically, most other OS's do.)

Further, as I previously stated, I've already decided that I want to go with an automatic power off after an allotted time, and that is the question, it is NOT how do I reconnect wifi after coming out of a suspend or hibernate. Please try to answer the question that I asked, instead of telling me how to do the obvious reconnect steps, which I already know, but wish to reject.

My question, for which I would still like an answer is:

How do I initiate a power down after an alloted time? I feel all the function needed is probably already present, I just need to hook the right stuff together, but as a newbie to Linux, Puppy, Etc., I am too ignorant to know what / how to do this.

Again, I'm not asking how to reconnect, I already know that, and I have decided the fix I'd like to employ is power down. Power up will then handle a wifi connect automatically for me, with no push-pull-click-click.

[Flash]

Bucketbuilder, I'm pretty sure I saw a recent thread, on how to power off after a specified delay or at a specified time, somewhere in the Puppy forum. I don't know where, exactly, but I think it was within the last week or two.

[stu90]

Maik Murks,

Since you obviously didn't understand the issue I presented, I'll try to present it in a clearer fashion. (In this same forum, if you don't mind, since you did not reference a specific forum it should be posted in.)

Suspend and hibernate, at least on the 4 PCs I've tried, leave a problem that a simple power off / power on does not leave. Why would I want to click on this, then click on that, just to get wifi going again, when power up automatically starts the connection for me. (Actually, Puppy ought to be smart enough to reconnect automatically, most other OS's do.)

Further, as I previously stated, I've already decided that I want to go with an automatic power off after an allotted time, and that is the question, it is NOT how do I reconnect wifi after coming out of a suspend or hibernate. Please try to answer the question that I asked, instead of telling me how to do the obvious reconnect steps, which I already know, but wish to reject.

My question, for which I would still like an answer is:

How do I initiate a power down after an alloted time? I feel all the function needed is probably already present, I just need to hook the right stuff together, but as a newbie to Linux, Puppy, Etc., I am too ignorant to know what / how to do this.

Again, I'm not asking how to reconnect, I already know that, and I have decided the fix I'd like to employ is power down. Power up will then handle a wifi connect automatically for me, with no push-pull-click-click.

Hello Bucketbuilder,
For a GUI answer to your question see my reply to you on the previous page:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 071#588071

If you want a simple terminal command or to make a script - you could use something like the below example:

sleep 1h && sleep 15m && wmpoweroff

What the above command does is waits for 1 hour and 15 minutes then powers off.

sleep 1h ( waits for one hour - h is for hour )
&& ( when sleep 1h is complete moves to next part of command )
sleep 15m ( waits for 15 minutes - m is for minutes )
&& ( when sleep 15m is complete moves to next part of command )
wmpoweroff ( powers of your computer )

Simply change the sleep h and m number to however long you want to wait before powering off.

[stu90]

sorry double post - mods please delete

[Bucketbuilder]

Stu90,
I see the logic of the script ok. I still do not know what kicks off the script. Is there an inactivity trigger that can call the script. I assume the script is just put into a file that is made executable, correct? As I mentioned, this is all totally new to me.

[stu90]

Stu90,
I see the logic of the script ok. I still do not know what kicks off the script. Is there an inactivity trigger that can call the script. I assume the script is just put into a file that is made executable, correct? As I mentioned, this is all totally new to me.

Hi Bucketbuilder,
To make a new script open rox file manger click in a clear area Right mouse button click > New > Script - name it what ever you like.
Then right mouse click on the newly created script and open as text.
Then paste the above command - make sure it is under #!/bin/sh (shebang) or the script wont work.
To run the script just click on it - be aware though with out looking at htop or some other system process manager there will be no obvious indication the script will be running, so if you are working on something when when the timer runs out and goes to shut down your work could be lost.
But the cool thing about scripts are you can do all sorts with them - such as play an audio file as an indication 1 minute before shut down to remind you to save any work / documents etc.

[Bucketbuilder]

I'm still not seeing how inactivity triggers running the script! What am I missing? (Having to click on it to kick it off defeats the whole purpose.)

[stu90]

Hello Bucketbuilder,
If you aim is to power off after an alloted period of inactivity then you don't need any script - instead go to Menu > Setup > Puppy even manager - Power tab then enter the number of inactivity minutes before power off.

[Jonesy]

I have a simple question and have searched dilligently for the answer amongst the massive compilation of information on this forum but have yet to find an answer or even a hint of one... Is there anyone out there that can answer a simple question about PL that is willing to help?

[maik.murks]

I have a simple question and have searched dilligently for the answer amongst the massive compilation of information on this forum but have yet to find an answer or even a hint of one... Is there anyone out there that can answer a simple question about PL that is willing to help?

Hi Jonesy.

Don't you think it could be a good idea to ask your concrete question and not only to talk about your question how simple it is - if you really like to have an answer?

Cheers

Maik.Murks

[juntech]

i downloaded puppy 5.20.its works great for me...no more viruses unlike in windows....i certainly will recommend it to my friends....

[Bucketbuilder]

Stu90,

Thank you for the instructions. I felt auto power down SHOULD be included in the base, but never could find it. I was jumping through hoops attempting to create the function for no good reason. Typical newbie problem I suppose.

One correction for your instructions, just in case someone else is looking for this, with Sloacko5.3.1, it is menu->SYSTEM->puppy event manager (power tab), not menu ->SETUP->puppy event manager (power tab). (I don't know about any other versions of puppy.)

I appreciate your consideration.

Bucketbuilder

[Jonesy]

I have a simple question and have searched dilligently for the answer amongst the massive compilation of information on this forum but have yet to find an answer or even a hint of one... Is there anyone out there that can answer a simple question about PL that is willing to help?

Hi Jonesy.

Don't you think it could be a good idea to ask your concrete question and not only to talk about your question how simple it is - if you really like to have an answer?

Cheers

Maik.Murks

Ah, a response... many thanks my friend I appreciate it.

I have seen others ask the same question as mine but I have never seen anyone answer it. I asked it here on the Virtual Box thread and no one ever responded but it appears that no one visits that thread very much.

My simple question: I am running PL 5.2.8 in Oracle's Virtual Box on Win XP and everything works fine. How does one get the PL desktop to fill the Virtual Box window...

[maik.murks]

Hi Jonesy.

How does one get the PL desktop to fill the Virtual Box window

I worry about that I don't understand your 'simple question'. From my point of view VBox works quite the same in WinXP works quite the same in *buntu works quite the same in Puppy. And the VBox windows are always filled with the guest system. On the other hand it seems to be that you have a problem. So, maybe it could be a good idea if you provide some more detailed informations of your system, of your VBox, of your Puppy and of what is exactly going on from your point of view - if you like to have an answer from me.

I asked it here on the Virtual Box thread and no one ever responded

Unfortunately I don't know of which thread you are talking about - but if you give me the link to this thread, then I could try to answer your question within that other thread - because this thread here isn't a good place for it. However, better you should provide the informations i've described above.

Cheers

Maik.Murks

[maik.murks]

sorry - double post

[Jonesy]

Here you go...

I could go through the usual "you need to search the forum BS" but I will spare you that nonsense...

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/postin ... 7e92ddbd7d

[Jonesy]

Unfortunately I don't know of which thread you are talking about - but if you give me the link to this thread, then I could try to answer your question within that other thread - because this thread here isn't a good place for it. However, better you should provide the informations i've described above.

Cheers

Maik.Murks[/quote]

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 452#589452

[minesadorada]

I am a newbie Puppy enthusiast, and I have just installed the excellent Slack Puppy on a friend's laptop as a replacement for his lumbering jammed-up Windows vista. He is a pensioner and only uses his laptop for email and web browsing, so he is very pleased with the speed improvement!

Something that I noticed when running puppy from CD or USB drive was that the hard drives do not appear on the file open/save dialogs, which gives the impression that they are not available.

It's only today that I cottoned on to dragging a drive from the /mnt folder to the pick list on the left of the dialog box, but this is far from intuitive.

There's probably a better way, but I have yet to find it

Anyway, to the point of this post: Would it be possible for Puppy to display all the drives on the pick list of the file dialog box by default?

This would make it easier for ex-windows users like me

[Puppyt]

@ minesadorada - welcome to the kennels (again?)

I sympathise with your situation - I also found it tough to remember to keep "mounting" drives and partitions in order to 'reveal' them in whatever filemanager (rox, emelfm, thunar etc). The "older hands" on the forum might be able to give you better advice, but as I was just exploring similar issues in converting my family from XP to Puppy, I thought I would illustrate the solution I have found:
1. If you don't already have radky's "Pup Control", you can download it here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61961. Install, and Choose Drive>Startmount.
2. Select the drives/partitions you want, and reboot.
3. The drives mount as you wanted (showing green lights), and there are some extra confirmatory dialogues to ensure that all works as ordered.


Can you see that I hadn't checked automatic mount for the flash drive (sdb in point 2.) and it isn't highlighted as 'ready' on the desktop in the lower screen?

I hope the image is clear enough for the main points (please don't go cross-eyed!). Radky has made a fabulous contribution with his PupApps+PupControl applications, and I think they should be standard in Official Puppy versions as they expose a lot of what goes on under the Puppy hood clearly and in a way that invites exploration and trouble-free experimentation. No little man behind the curtains any more, Toto...

Best Wishes

P.S. Here I used a frugal, HD-install of "XP-like Puppy 528" from the Hungarian Puppy Linux team, designed to assist Newbies to make the transition to Puppy.