Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[jamesbond]

Kirk and jamesbond are happy to announce the release of Fatdog64 600 alpha2.
Fatdog64 600 is a major new release of Fatdog64 since Fatdog 521 and this alpha2 marks the first public release of the 600 series.
This release features hundreds of new packages re-compiled from T2 as well as new system infrastructure. As such, bugs are to be expected

Here are some highlights:

Packages:

• Kernel 3.3.4 (will be updated to latest 3.3.x for beta)
  
• Gcc-4.6.2
  
• Glibc 2.13
  
• GTK+ 2.24 with Glib 2.28
  
• Qt 4.7.2 (partial) - the rest is in the pet repository
  
• Xorg-1.11.4
  
• Mesa-8.0.2
  
• ALSA 1.0.25
  
• VLC-2.0.1 replaces Xine
  
• ffmpeg 0.9.1-git
  
• CUPS 1.5.2, ghostscipt 9.0.2, Gutenprint 5.2.7
  
• SeaMonkey-2.9.1 replaces Firefox
  
• Wpa_gui replaces Frisbee.
  
• Evince replaces epdfviewer
  
• Peasyscan 1.9, peasypdf 1.6, new peasyprint and peasyscale (thanks to rcrsn51)
  
• Fotoxx-12.01.2
  
• Abiword rolled back to a patched version 2.8.6
  
• Hundreds of other package upgrades.
  

Other new features in no particular order:

• Boot faster than Fatdog64 521 in most common situations
  
• Unlimited number of SFS (warning: too many SFS will slow the system down)
  
• PXE-boot directly using the ISO file
  
• Flexible savefile options - local disks, cifs share, nbd, or dvd+rw
  
• Savefile in a file or to entire partition
  
• RAM layer options in all savefile options, not only flash drive
  
• Ability to disable session saving when running in RAM mode
  
• "Underdog" feature - run other Linux partition with Fatdog
  
• ISO file is isohybrid file and can be either be burned to DVD or imaged directly to USB stick
  
• Clean un-mount - for savefile and the underlying devices, even for ntfs partition
  
• Faster multisession (dvd+rw only)
  
• New installer - install and configure boot loader in one step
  
• New remaster tool
  
• New package manager
  
• New event manager
  
• New Samba browser on desktop
  
• New savefile resize tool that does not require double the disk space
  
• Udev-based desktop drive icons
  
• Manpages in devx (or separate manpages.sfs)
  
• Dropped support for full-install and other form/media of multisession
  

Special thanks to:
a) rcrsn51 for testing ghostscript, printing and scanner drivers (in the repo), and the peasy-apps.
b) http://www.chiselapp.com/ who hosted the Fossil SCM repositories for Fatdog64.

ISO here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/fatdog/iso/
Devx here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/fatdog/sfs/600/
Please read the FAQ to see what have changed, especially the boot parameters. It is also available here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/fatdog/web/faqs/faq.html and also included with the ISO.

Note: Fatdog64 600 does not update from 521.

[jamesbond]

Q1. There is no fd64-600.sfs inside the ISO file.
A1: fd64-600.sfs is inside initrd. Fatdog64 600 uses what is known as "humongous initrd" in Puppy's terms.

Q2: My savefile on USB is not recognised.
A2: You need to add a delay to the boot parameter: waitdev=5 (will wait for 5 seconds)

Q3: Tap-to-click on touchpad doesn't work.
A3: Please look at page 2 of this thread for instructions from kirk on how to enable that.

Q4: I cannot get my (renamed) savefile to be recognised?
A4: Please read http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/fatdog/web/faqs/boot-options.html, the boot options to specify have changed. In fact, the only thing that still remains the same is pfix=vesa and pfix=xorgwizard, everything else has changed.

Q5: I chose my locale and timezone at Live CD session and then created the savefile. When I rebooted next, my settings are gone. I can confirm that the savefile is there and it is being used.
A5: This is a known bug, it will be fixed on the next release. For now, just re-do your settings again (after you have rebooted using savefile), and it will be saved.

Q6: How do I enable multisession?
A6: At the boot command line type "fatdog savefile=direct:multi". If your DVD+RW is located in other than /dev/sr0, type the device name e.g. "fatdog savefile=direct:multi:sr1".

Q7: How do I use SFS in multisession mode?
A7: Not in this alpha. It sort of works but cause problems later. Will be fixed in next release.

Q8: Drive icons display slowly
A8: It should display within 3 seconds. If not, you can try the attached blkid patch below.

Q9: How about printing?
A9: Fatdog has extensive support for printers and scanners, courtesy of rcrsn51. Please refer to this excellent HOW-TO if the built-in cups doesn't help you enough: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=628636#628636

Q10: Multisession save to DVD+RW always save "base.sfs"!
A10: Yes, this is a bug. It will be fixed in next release.

[Lobster]

Great initiative guys, I wish you every success.
Will put a link on the wiki shortly.

Underdog - I want it. From what I understand it is relatively simple code and might be available for all Puppys?
Did you use Woof2 to create this new 600? I know the answer but thought I would ask just in case.

I am a great fan of Fotoxx and VLC (great just works programs)

I should not download it . . . but what fun . . .

[jamesbond]

[Lobster]

[kirk]

Pet packages for 600 are now xz compressed. The older zipped pet packages will still install, but due to library changes, may not work.

[LateAdopter]

Hello Kirk and jamesbond

Thank you for this new fatdog64. I have done a frugal install by copying the two files from the ISO. It is working well.

Athlon II x2 240
785G (RS880G) chipset

VLC 2 plays my difficult H264 interlaced .TS test recordings properly, and the cpu load is significantly lower than with VLC 1.x on fd64 521.

One of the problems of T2 is that some of the shared libraries are 1 to 2 years older than are in the major distros i.e. the ones that come above Puppy in the distrowatch hit parade.

e.g. gtk+ and python.

I guess that this means that many binary packaes from them, will not work. Is there any chance that T2 will update them soon?

The good news is that I installed Opera 11.64 from the Ubuntu x86_64 .deb, from the Opera website, and it installed and works normally.

The cpuid and msr kernel modules are absent. They are needed for setting the voltage of my Athlon II to a sensible number.

For fd64 520 Kirk made a .pet of them for me, and they worked well, saving about 20 Watts. Could you do them for fd 6, when it's convenient, please?

Thanks again for this new fatdog version.

[kirk]

[irishrm]

Kirk, jamesbond:
Thanks for the new fatdog64.
Downloaded and installed to ram but there seems to be no driver for my broadcom wifi so there was no point in installing. Hopefully you will include the broadcom drivers in a future release. Until then I'll make do quite well with the old version fatdog64.
irishrm.

[Jim1911]

Having trouble with download, it's missing the FATDOG64-600.sfs, so I'm unable to boot from my menu.lst. Also, configure grub4dos does not find Fatdog64-600. My download is 201M which seems to be the correct size. Same result from /ftp/pub/os/Linux/distr/fatdog/iso/ and ibiblio. EDIT: Problem was that initrd is different and sfs is contained within initrd.

After solving above problem with the menu.lst, had a few others:

1. xorgwizard will not work.
2. EDIT2: Reboot, I thought wasn't working, however, it takes a long 8 minutes to create a save file and then finally reboots.

Thanks,
Jim

System: Custom Built with BFG NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GS 512MB, Asus P6T Motherboard, Intel core i7-920 (8MB Cache, 2.66 GHz), DDR3 3GB 1333MHz ram, Pioneer DVR-2910 DVD+-RW Dual Layer Burner, Realtek ALC1200 Audio, HP Photosmart C5280 All-in-One

[kirk]

irishrm,

I had hoped the Broadcom drivers in the kernel had it covered now. Could you open a terminal and type or paste in:

tar -cJf messages.tar.xz /var/log/messages

then attach messages.tar.xz to this thread?

Then after doing that install the pet package I attached and see if that works for you.

Thanks

[irishrm]

kirk:
This is all I got from the terminal. Not much help I'm sure.
tar: Removing leading ‘/’ from member names.

Better result from installing your wl.pet.
Installed it, re-booted and posting from new fatdog now.
Looking forward to exploring it.
If I can be of any further help please ask.

Can I ask what I hope is not to silly a question?
Can the wi.pet be used in 32bit puppies?

irishrm.

[LateAdopter]

[kirk]

[irishrm]

There is a file named messages.tat.xz in root but i,m afraid I can't do anything with it.

wireless is working fine but I'm having great difficulty getting the tap to work on my touchpad.
This has been a problem with other puppies as well but I have had better luck in fixing the problem.

I've been given a number of fixes here in the forum but at the moment none of them work.

I'll keep trying for another while but may have to look for help if I'm not successful.
I really want this to work.
irishrm.