Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[BarryK]

I have addressed many of the issues posted about in this forum thread, applied them to Woof. See blog thread:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02839

And, Precise Puppy alpha3 is now out:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02842

[Terryphi]

Thanks, Barry. Everything tested so far is running well for me. I took your advice and kept away for PPM for now.

[mrokosz]

Barry,
Thanks for the distro, works great, but I am using on really slow computer P3 500MHz 256MB RAM frugal installation, so the software is not as responsive as with with the little bigger but faster for old computers distro version, I am talking about version around 169 MB size of the iso. If there is no problem I prefer to use sfs with smaller compression ratio, it just works faster

mrokosz
P.S. Everything works great, Pemasu package problems not there any more. I guess it will replace Pemasu distro

[BarryK]

[rerwin]

jim3630, peebee, pemasu, Broadcom 43xx users,
I have attached my refined experimental package to select and load the appropriate Broadcom wifi driver for each variant of the 43xx devices -- b43, b43legacy, brcmsmac, wl, wl (older version). It is also intended to support b44 ethernet devices even with the wl loaded; but I cannot, myself, verify that that would be successful.

The logic ensures that only the wl driver is loaded even if a device is also supported by b43 or brcmsmac. As before, to avoid using the (default) wl driver, simply blacklist it in the BootManager. Also as before, if the wl driver cannot handle a device (device not detected), it will be automatically blacklisted so that another driver gets loaded at the next boot-up. (You can un-blacklist it in the BootManager.)

If you experience a problem with the main experiment-4 package, you can instead use either the 4a or 4b packages to ensure that only wl or brcmsmac (respectively) are available for use. That is to eliminate any influence by the main-package logic or the other drivers.

Note that brcmsmac cannot be used on an adhoc network, so please avoid doing that. Please send me a pmodemdiag file if you encounter a problem with these packages.

Note also that jim3630 has more success using frisbee as the network interface for his brcmsmac-using device. But I hope to also have SNS and the network wizard work with the newer (wl, brcmsmac) drivers, but need the expertise of those more familiar with the workings of wifi connection.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.
Richard

UPDATE 6/15/2012: The "5delta" package is added to address the cases where the proprietary driver fails for some (BCM4312 - hardware ID 14e4:4312) models that can also use the open-source driver. In experiment-4, a reboot was necessary to get the open-source driver to take over. The new package makes the substitution during the first boot-up after its installation. Although the logic appears to function as intended, it must be tried with the target device installed, to verify whether the substitution is truly effective and allows immediate connection. Please send me a pmodemdiag file if you can run the test. You should see driver b43 used, instead of no detection during first boot-up. TIA.

UPDATE 7/13/2012: The "5-6delta" package is added for minor mods and to move the b43 firmware files from the b43 "tarball"/directory into /lib/firmware/b43, to avoid a shutdown hang related to the absence of the firmware during the first boot-up. With that change, the module is successfully changed from wl to b43 if wl fails, all during the first boot-up. This was verified with dpup-exprimo.

UPDATE 7/14/2012: Re-uploaded "5-6delta" after download number 6, to remove the moving of b43 firmware during the installation and to add a test so that the b43 driver is not loaded if the firmware is not in /lib/firmware (ready for use). This prevents the b43-firmware-related shutdown hang if the firmware is not ready, making the implementation safe no matter where the b43 firmware is.
Richard

[peebee]

[BarryK]

Precise Puppy 5.2.58 (beta1) is out:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02856

Note, it has the brcm and wl modules, but doesn't have any of the resolution logic that you guys have been working out with rerwin.

[peebee]

[BarryK]

[tronkel]

Just been playing with the latest Precise Beta 5.2.38 released earlier today. Another li'l beaut. Like its Upup predecessors nice and snappy!

Just as with Ubuntu Precise Pangolin itself the ATI video card causes grief - nothing new here. With ATI graphics under Linux you have two choices. Either install the open source Radeon driver or the proprietary FGLRX driver. The current Radeon open source driver has been broken in recent kernel versions - so that just leaves the proprietary option.

You need to have both the devx and the kernel sources activated on your system. The bad news is that it does build - but with errors that result in an extremely slow frame rate performance.

The better news is that there is a tiny hack available that seems to work around the problem - see here:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=77735

It has rescued me on more than one occasion. So thanks for the tip - well worth a try if you're experiencing this sort of problem with ATI.

This is ilewis's first forum post actually.

[peebee]

[rjbrewer]

A non-pae version with i810 xorg drivers would be
nice to try.

[rerwin]

I just now discovered a minor bug in the experiment-4 package that modifies the firmware.dep file incorrectly, affecting 2 entries for Broadcom wifi and ethernet. I have re-uploaded experiment-4 with the correction to the relevant edit command.

To the first 6 downloaders: If you need the corrected package, please re-download the replaced copy of the experment-4 pet package, from here.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=630889#630889

The bug should not affect you unless your Broadcom device uses either of the b43legacy or b44 drivers. To correct the problem directly, please edit /etc/modules/firmware.dep.<kernel version>. The incorrect entries are

[rerwin]

I have added minor mods to the set of packages to automate the selection of the appropriate Broadcom wifi driver, "experiment-5-6delta" above:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=630889#630889

Just be sure that you have installed experiment-4, then 5delta, then 5-6delta. I am using multiple deltas because pemasu has been including each level in various exprimo versions. You need install only those of these packages not already installed.

We discovered that the b43 firmware needs to be in place in /lib/firmware before the first boot-up of a puppy. Otherwise, the driver failure due to the absence of the firmware seems to result in a serious hang during shutdown. If you have a Broadcom 4312 (aka, 4311) wifi device that produces a failure message (in dmesg), try making a remaster of a fresh puppy plus packages -4, -5delta and -5-6delta, to see the benefit of its connecting on the first boot-up.
Richard

[lassie]