Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[icosahedron]

GUI Pup for 128Mb. Feedback and questions.

Questions in red

I’ve just downloaded Wary 5.1.4.1, Original Puppy 2.1.4, Pup214x Top8 and TurboPupExtreme 1.0. (I’ll let Wary5.2 and Top9 settle a bit before I play with them). Each took about half an hour to download on my connection.

I understood that these were designed for older machines and I wanted to see how they performed on my old machine, a Pentium 3 with 128Mb RAM.

All four boot ok (if slowly), and access the net (if slowly), but only Original 2.1.4 will let go of the CD.

If I try to eject the disc in the other three, it refuses permission, saying that the drive is in use by Puppy. Watching a DVD is therefore out of the question.

Is this to be expected?

I imagine the RAM is too small even for these puplets, and Puppy is using the CD as a crutch. Perhaps I could fix the problem by creating a ‘swap file’ on a writable drive (don’t know how to do that - advice appreciated), but I’d much prefer to find a version of Puppy (with a Win-like GUI) that will run entirely in 128Mb RAM. The GUI is essential as I haven’t a clue how to do command line stuff.

Feedback:

Original 2.1.4
With CD removed, will just about connect to the net. The connection is unusably slow. Sites nag for updated browser and flash. YouTube access impossible.

214X Top 8
CD cannot be removed. Will just about connect to the net. The connection is unusably slow. Sites nag for updated browser. YouTube access impossible.

TurboPupExtreme 1.0
CD cannot be removed. Thought it had hung up a couple of times on boot. Slow and doesn’t talk you through what it’s doing as much as others.
Desktop is a blank screen - thought it had hung up again. Took a while to find that the icons are on the left and become visible only when you hover over them. Amusing with hindsight, perhaps, but not at the time...
Even when revealed, the icons are too small to recognise, requiring mouse hovers to find the right one.
All in all, I’m not impressed with the desktop. Clever, maybe, but a PITA, especially for noobs like me.
The connection is usable, successfully accessing Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, but it was initially difficult to find these sites as the setup is pointed by default at the Murga Forum and tries to find Google etc within the forum. Took a while to learn how to get out of the forum (by hitting the ‘Web’ tab).
It works, but sorry, it’s not for me.

Wary 5.1.4.1
CD cannot be removed. Noob-friendly splash and popup on start screen - I like it. Good for introducing your Gran to Puppy.
The connection is usable, successfully accessing Google, Wikipedia and YouTube. Definitely the best so far.
Tried it out on a newer machine with 1Gb RAM and it lets go of the CD there. Need to play about with it some more, but its universal nature could even make this my standard version...
You2pup doesn’t seem to work (even on 1Gb machine). Goes through the motions, tells me it’s downloaded (too quickly), but there’s nothing saved, not even a partial. Any ideas?

So, after performing these tests, I still haven’t found a GUI Puppy that will sit solely in 128Mb RAM and access Youtube.

Can anyone recommend a Puppy that will?
Is it even possible?

Thanks.

[harii4]

[cthisbear]

Copy the main >>> .sfs file to your hard drive.

Quick and dirty fix....I call it a cheat frugal.

No stress...no more memory neede....within limits.

puppy_wary_5.2.sfs = Wary 5.2

pup_214X.sfs = Puppy 2.14 Revision by Ttuxxxx

You could do the same with Teenpup.
Even though it's big.

Chris.

[nancy reagan]

[icosahedron]

Thanks for the answers.
Maybe I'll try upgrading the RAM. I suspect if I double it, it'll let go of the CD.

[Shep]

You'll still want the .sfs file copied to your HD, otherwise booting will always be painfully sloooow if it has to drag everything off the CD each time. Your experiencing slow download is a mystery; no one has complained of that before. You have DSL?

[gnomic]

Original poster said:

'I still haven’t found a GUI Puppy that will sit solely in 128Mb RAM and access Youtube.

Can anyone recommend a Puppy that will?
Is it even possible?'

Not a hope. Give up now. A PIII with less than 512MB RAM is only going to cause you pain and suffering with any recent gui browser. Certainly for YouTube at any rate. Perhaps with 256 RAM you can do some web browsing, but even that will likely be a struggle on the modern web site burdened with links to this counter and that ad site and analytics blah ad infinitum.

It also depends somewhat on whether the PIII is an early circa 500 MHz model or one of the final 1GHz models. Slower machines will struggle with streaming video. Also their video cards will likely be inadequate. And they won't have enough RAM unless upgraded and so it goes.

In essence current browsers don't run acceptably on less than 512 RAM and even then in my experience they tend to fall over before too long. And you need a recent browser to use YouTube. In fact you even need a recent browser to use Gmail if I recall correctly, I think the don't be evillers were going to enforce recent browser versions.

I sympathise with what you're trying to do here, I like to try and keep old machines going myself, but one has to be realistic about what one is going to do with them. Text editing wiith a basic text editor yes, playing some old games yes, even perhaps using a spreadsheet. Using the internet of today, no.

As for the command line, you are missing out on a key part of the Linux experience if you don't look into it. Just try opening a terminal and typing in the 'top' command.

[technosaurus]

You should be able to use akita (formerly puplite) and my static compile of webkitgtk or jemimah's midori with a modified flash9. Even better would be to do a full install and setup a 512mb swap file/partition.

[icosahedron]

Thanks guys.

LOL, I dunno what I've got, but it's not Puppy specific. I live in the sticks and everything downloads at that rate. According to the download window, I get 60-120kb/s depending on traffic - usually in the lower half of that band.

A live install in RAM is my chosen path.

All the above versions of Puppy boot from the CD into RAM quicker than XP boots from a HD on my other machine, so I'm fine with that, I just wanted to surf comfortably without wearing out my optical drive.

Wary (and TurboPup) provides an acceptable (for me) net speed, but it engages the optical drive every time I touch the mouse (which has got to create long term problems). I'm hoping another stick or two of RAM might solve the problem.

Either way, the 100Mb machine is just a spare so it's not critical. I was just trying out a few experiments and figured someone else with an old machine might benefit from what I found out.

Even my comments about TurboPup above are meant less as a criticism than a "Hey, it's not hung up, have you tried this?" guide to other would-be users.

Hmm. Maybe I'll poke about with a terminal one day, but for me Puppy isn't about 'the Linux experience', I'm really not programming-minded, but about using a computer as an office tool without the computer crashing, filling with crap, or trying to be the boss.

[sunburnt]

Hi icosahedron; You can make a swap "file" instead of a swap partition.

[Shep]