Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

Booting, installing, newbie
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Diegogngui
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed 07 Nov 2012, 17:19

hello puppy comunity

#861 Post by Diegogngui »

Well this is my feedback!

I recently knew about puppy linux. I read about it at the puppy web page and downloaded it. First I get confused about the iso to download and it was all on Japanese haha. So I read again and successfuly download and installed to my pendrive the last stable version (in that moment was 5.3 because it was on october I think). My intensions are to try it on a pc desktop wich has only 256mb RAM.
But first I tried it on my pc and notebook (or laptop). I was amazed with the speed of running. So I got excited and tried to save my user profile files, but with no luck. My user profile file was created (on harddrive / pendrive) but nothing appears to be restored so, each boot had to start again. By the way, each time the programs icons or whatever icon on desktop, shows only a "!" with a triangle. All of this happened on the desktop with 256 ram too.
This problem shows only from the moment I try to use my user profile file.
I already tried different formats (mean sd2, 3 and 4).
All is restored back when I delete my user file and boot again.

I wasn't posting here to show you this problem but, well I did it anyway. My reason here is to thank the developers and all the comunity and feedback the great job you are doing.

By the way, now I'm downloading the new precise 5.4 iso to see what happens with this and try it. I pretend to make a dual boot on a 256 ram desktop pc and make a frugal install. Hope to get it run!

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rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

Re: hello puppy comunity

#862 Post by rcrsn51 »

What is the name of the Puppy that you are using?
Diegogngui wrote:which has only 256mb RAM.
That's really not enough memory to run the new Puppies. I would recommend that you start with an older, stable version, like Wary.

What tool did you use to set up your flash drive?

Arefacti
Posts: 165
Joined: Wed 10 Oct 2012, 12:43

#863 Post by Arefacti »

I am going to try to give you my feeling onto Puppy Linux without my personal tastes interfere..

Puppy is probably a more modern OS than he countered with his concept there " everything pocket it " using of the random access memory.

But, sorry: it is the jungle! As this forum also.

I tried at least fifteen puppies (look at my posts full of stupid questions without answers).:lol:
Fortunately that my key of 32 Go possesses two partitions, otherwise, I would have become crazy.
Of course, it is " the law of the kind(genre) ": everybody can make its puppy, but then one falls on some with many bug, or not adapted in needs.

Maybe it would be necessary to make one girl effort on the big list, in the description of puppies. or other idea..

Well, I hope to have hurt nobody. :D

I like Puppy !

edit : sorry Diegogngui
and rcrsn51 for my post before answer

Diegogngui
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed 07 Nov 2012, 17:19

Re: hello puppy comunity

#864 Post by Diegogngui »

rcrsn51 wrote:What is the name of the Puppy that you are using?
Diegogngui wrote:which has only 256mb RAM.
That's really not enough memory to run the new Puppies. I would recommend that you start with an older, stable version, like Wary.

What tool did you use to set up your flash drive?
Sorry, I edited my post. It was 5.3 (the previous of precise).

I don't remember because I tried ubuntu, xubuntu, lubuntu and puppy. I changed the tool. Now I'm making a multibook pendrive with YUMI 0.0.7.8.
I'll keep your advice and try that wary later. But first want to see what happens anyway.

Thanks for your answer!


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


Edit: Now, I successfuly could save and recover my user profile in my notebook with my pendrive using precise puppy ! I think that maybe there was something wrong with the partitions mounted or unmounted that I could solve a couple of weeks ago.

Arefacti
Posts: 165
Joined: Wed 10 Oct 2012, 12:43

#865 Post by Arefacti »

More things..

It is also necessary to say that for me a Linux distribution is important from part the quality of its community. Linux suffered enough from the "R.T.F.M".
It is not any more time if we wish to make known quality products as Puppy Linux.
I know a lot of Linux distribution, very well and console don't afraid me , but I liked Ubuntu too for the community.
Today, without answer in a forum because it is too simple it is for me the immediate abandonment of the distribution, I admit it.
( Already some cases for me at Puppy, saddened).
Today, let us consider that Linux became consumer and that "stupid" questions will be put. If we do not accept it, stay in our place.
In brief, persons would be very satisfied to answer to those questions, let them do and everybody will win.

Ido Wolf
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun 30 Dec 2012, 13:13

Puppy saved our family's first laptop!

#866 Post by Ido Wolf »

Just wanted to thank Barry Kauler and this entire community for a wonderful distribution of Linux.

Random details:
I'm a 19 year old, and the son of an electrical engineer who tends to use all sorts of technological products to fill his personal and professional needs.

Personally, I've been meaning to "migrate" from Windows to Linux for quite a few years now, but I've only found the time for it when I recently graduated from high-school and installed Ubuntu 12.10 on my PC. My dad and my brothers, however, are very "Linuxphobics". They never even wanted to try any sort of distribution (nevermind listening to my explanations about different distributions), and it's been impossible trying to show them the benefits of this wonderful system even when I had the beautiful Ubuntu at my disposal.

My needs from the OS:
So, long story short, we use our very first laptop (from Dell) which is probably nearly 10 years old now as a "media center" at the living room. It's mostly used as a "Facebook-oriented" internet browser for my mom, document/spreadsheet processor or email reader for my dad, and rarely to play some DivX files. It used to run on Windows XP, but it worked way too slowly to the point where it was unbearable.

Our experience with the OS so far:
So I finally convinced my dad to try a Linux distro when he realized that there's no harm in booting it as a Live CD. And so, I've downloaded and booted Puppy 5.4.3 Precise.
First, I just want to say that I've booted Live CDs before, but this was the absolute fastest, smoothest Live CD bootup I've ever seen. The desktop appeared after just a few minutes, and with very minimal configuration I could get the laptop to duplicate display to our HDTV, or to support both Hebrew and English as keyboard inputs.
And needless to say, we're all extremely satisfied with this OS. It has all the apps my mom and dad would ever need and then some; AbiWord, that spreadsheet processor, Gnome MPlayer, Paint, SeaMonkey etc...it's all there, works right from the get-go, and to be frank Puppy performs faster on that 10-year-old laptop than Ubuntu performs on my 2 year old PC. I was absolutely shocked when I first saw that.
And the funny thing about it is that the OS is so incredibly appealing. Everything you need is on the desktop. Everything you want is on the menu, and it even looks extremely appealing and cute with that puppy as the wallpaper image.

The only gripe I have so far is that Hebrew subtitles are messed up in Gnome MPlayer. I'll try to use SMPlayer as my MPlayer as a frontend and work around it as it's my frontend (and player) of choice in Ubuntu, but honestly, even if we can't figure that one out, it's barely an issue.

So to sum it all up, after playing around with the laptop for a few minutes, my dad told me that "it's like it came back to life". And I answered: "Funnily enough, one of Puppy's goals is to breathe new life into old PCs".

So yeah, that's my $0.02 about Puppy, thank you once again ;)

MickJW
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat 19 Jan 2013, 14:13

#867 Post by MickJW »

Hi all,
Just installed my first linux distro ever. I selected Wary Puppy 5.4 and was surprised how easy it was to get up and going. The only problem i had was i got this "Out of Range" error on my monitor (ACER 27 inch LCD) after the second boot. Finally figured out how to run Xorg and got it going by deliberately selecting a smaller resolution.
I opted for the Live to USB install so my cpu remains unchanged. Im quiet impressed how fast it runs and how simple everything is compared to WinXP.
I've had a look over this forum and its pretty comprehensive and an astonishing number of members!
After a few weeks i'd like to dual boot my WinXp with probably Linux Mint 13 , so are there any tuts to show how to make a new partiton , once resizing the original partition and installing Mint 13 that you fellow know is aimed at a newbie?
I already located a few Mint13 Dual boot tuts!
Thanking the developers and the form.
MickJW

highway_man
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu 07 Feb 2013, 03:22

New to Linux

#868 Post by highway_man »

Puppy Impressions: Fascinated. Frustrated. Intrigued.

The destination computer started to die about a year ago. The hard drive started to crash and corrupted the files. I tried Ubuntu at the time. It did see that the hard drive was bad, but failed to connect to the wired LAN. I also have an old '98 desktop that I want to maintain as a printer host and file repository. So I went looking for another distro that would be best compatible with both.

The Puppy OS is fast and light. That is why I even considered Linux. It took a computer that was headed for the trash and breathed new life into it. It found the wired LAN right away. The wireless was a little more challenging, but it is up now. When breakthroughs happen, I consider making my primary computer into a dual boot. As a Windows user, I would love to see a correlation between Windows environment and Puppy equivalent.

There are silly questions like: What is a kernel? Frisbee? VirtualBox? How do I compile source code? how do partitions work and why does Puppy only see one? that will eventually get answered with time. Just wish it was a little more intuitive.

puppylinux.org/wikka/Software
shows me how to load a PET file. I can go into Puppy Package Manager and 'see' that I have installed the game. But there is noting readily found to tell me how to do anything with that file...like...run it...or put a shortcut into the 'Fun' section.

A couple of Windows migrations that I would love to see. The 'Restore' process to undo any additions that I may regret. Task Manager to close a frozen process. It would save me from hard reboots. Top View Running Process is the closest that I could find, but doesn't fit the bill.

I wanted to at least post the Windows equivalent that I have found.

Console/Shell = Command Prompt

System > Hardinfo hardware information = System/Hardware

Setup > Puppy Package Manager = Remove Programs

Desktop > Pwallpaper background image chooser = Desktop background

Filesystem > ROX = File Manager

starhawk
Posts: 4906
Joined: Mon 22 Nov 2010, 06:04
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#869 Post by starhawk »

Open a terminal/console/shell window.

Type fixmenus and press [ENTER].

When the procedure is done, your installed PET file should be in the Menu.

If not, feel free to start a new topic in this subforum (Beginner's Help) about it.

Reason is that there are files in /usr/share/applications that have a *.desktop extension. Puppy polls all of those, and generates a menu from them.

Hope that helps :)

User avatar
Tote
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu 19 Jan 2012, 07:53
Location: South Wales

#870 Post by Tote »

Hello highway man,

If you make a copy of your save-file - and keep it somewhere safe- you can use it as a form of system restore. Plus, it's always good to keep a copy, just in case.

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puppyluvr
Posts: 3470
Joined: Sun 06 Jan 2008, 23:14
Location: Chickasha Oklahoma
Contact:

#871 Post by puppyluvr »

:D Hello,
To kill a process, use "pprocess" under "System" or open a terminal and type:
killall

followed by the name of the program.. IE:
killall mplayer
and hit enter.
Some Pups have "kill" as a right click menu item, to use on the taskbar..
You can also start a program this way, by name, and use the terminal to chase errors... 8)
BTW the Linux equiv to ctrl-alt-delete is ctrl-alt-bkspc
which will exit the Xserver to a console..
Enter
xwin
to return to the desktop...

For fun, open a terminal and enter
xmessage I wrote this!!!

swaan
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun 17 Mar 2013, 19:29

#872 Post by swaan »

I've been using precise puppy 5.5 on a 512mb usb stick for about 3 days now as my hdd went dead along with win7.

First I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible. It's a neat little thing. I have previously had DSL as a backup os and also SysRescue CD.

I love the wizards and pop up windows, how much useful stuff is packed into the tiny footprint. It's easy to use and helps me get things done. That is most important. Great to tinker. It feels warm and friendly and that makes it awesome. I don't want my OS to come and assimilate me with it's cold looks and rigid workflows. I don't want a serious world.

However there are things that nag me: I can't imagine having a more confusing audio setup. I have 2 sound cards and I just couldn't find a way to get the volume sliders work. This is also the first time I have used Seamonkey which is the most awful browser I have used in recent times - weird unreadable fonts, rendering problems, sluggish. Right click can be dangerous (click and it already selected something from the menu). Thats about it for now :)

User avatar
Tote
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu 19 Jan 2012, 07:53
Location: South Wales

#873 Post by Tote »

It's the challenge of making it how you want it that makes Puppy addictive. :D Try Firefox or Opera. Experiment. You might want to make a copy of your save file first.

starhawk
Posts: 4906
Joined: Mon 22 Nov 2010, 06:04
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#874 Post by starhawk »

@tote,swaan -- Seamonkey is a 'fork' of Firefox. They're twins. Not identical twins, but twins -- and they generally behave the same.

Try Opera or Chrome/Chromium.

User avatar
Sky Aisling
Posts: 1368
Joined: Sat 27 Jun 2009, 23:02
Location: Port Townsend, WA. USA

Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

#875 Post by Sky Aisling »

swaan

Sorry to hear your negative report about Seamonkey.
My experience is the opposite.

What version Seamonkey are you using?
You can find the version in the *about* area from the *menu* bar at top of the browser's page.

Some of the older versions present with hard to read font.
That can be changed.
Try adjusting screen themes from puppy's menu/desktop/desktop settings

User avatar
coldb
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu 21 Mar 2013, 20:53

#876 Post by coldb »

Hello everyone!!

So... I'm using Precise Puppy 5.5 for about two weeks (after much resistance) cuz I had several problems trying to use other linux distros on pendrives. Also, I didn't know the capacity of the Puppy until meet the Puppy Arcade... :D

Ironically after trying out I realized that most of the apps that come by default replaced pretty much all that I was using before. :shock:



Plus, some points that I would like to highlight about Puppy:
  • It's lightweight and cool;
  • Full of nice wizards that really work;
  • Booted in an old machine that I have without the Plop Boot Manager disk (lol);
  • Amazing community, I hope I can contribute in some way in the future.
Now I think I'm ready to try some derivatives...

saroele
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu 04 Apr 2013, 20:50

feedback to the puppy developers

#877 Post by saroele »

I'm using puppy since a few days (slacko5.5), and mainly wanted to recover a laptop with pentium 1.6Ghz and 512Mb RAM and windows XP into an all-round computer for my kids.

My first experiences are very limited, and I struggled a lot to install puppy on my hdd. Let me give you a bit of feedback already now, cause in a few days or weeks I might have forgotten initial troubles:
  • * I was confused by the different versions, not knowing what is meant by slacko, etc.
    * I know the linux community is proud of it's diversity, but it's simply a pain for beginners: too much choice is overwhelming and it feels like every choice you make could be a wrong one
    * there is big need for a single place with up-to-date documentation. I don't like browsing forums for basic information
    * I tried puppy from a live CD first, saving the file when closing. Next time I wanted to install it, but this was not possible cause the save file was loaded and therefore the drive could not be unmounted. So I found out about the pfix=ram boot options but it did not work
    * I had to put

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram 
  • in order to make it work, but that was not mentioned in official documentation if I remember well.
    * the installation was painful. I was confused by the many different options (partitioning, frugal vs full, saving in a directory or not, size of savefile) again. I also had trouble with my drive (bad sector or something like that), causing me to try it at least 10 times. The fact that gparted did not want to run and I had to use fdisk and mkfs to fix my drive complicated the story, but that's of course not to blame on puppy
    * the installation ends with the GRUB thing and guess what: again many choices: which GRUB to use, where to install it (MBR or the partition), ... I chose MBR but my computer did not start up, so had to do all over again and install GRUB in the partition in which I installed puppy (frugal).
    * it is VERY unclear how you have to shut down after doing the frugal install: save the file or not? Then another window with question to save another file...
    *on the other hand, it's amazing how fast puppy starts up, how easy it is to get wifi running etc.
So I'm still convinced it's a great linux distro and I'm willing to keep on using it. But once you want to install it, it's not as easy anymore as using it from the live CD.

I still have a few questions, but I will post them in another thread. I'm happy to give more details about the troubles I faced if it can help you making things more clear for future newbies like me.

Let me finish on a positive note: puppy linux looks like a very nice distro and with more documentation and less options to choose from it will convince many more users :-)

dsaly1969
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon 22 Apr 2013, 17:50

#878 Post by dsaly1969 »

I just recently switched over from Lubuntu to Precise Puppy on my dual boot desktop at home (although frankly we hardly ever start Windows 7 anymore). I had tried Puppy as my Lubuntu install had gotten corrupted due to a problem with an automatic software upgrade.

But Precise Puppy not only rescued my documents to store externally when I could not boot up Lubuntu, it was also so fast and efficient that my family and I decided to make the switch (my wife and kids also prefer a Linux system). It had no problem detecting my monitor, keyboard, or mouse. The install process to the HD took only a few minutes. It had no problem detecting my ethernet Internet connection (I live in a rural area so no WiFi only satellite internet for me). All the codecs worked right away (no problem with Flash, mp3, etc.). I'm still fiddling with Java so I can run Java games like Magarena, but if I have problems I can ask here on the forums.

Most of my family prefer Seamonkey, but I also put on Chrome for my son to play Black Hat Rider (some of the key commands conflicted with some of the shortcuts for Seamonkey). With the access to Ubuntu repositories we have a decent selection of games (I'm a glChess fan and love having access to a lot of chess engines). I have Chocolate Doom up and running to take away work stress when I get home. My son and daughter primarily uses Abiword for school assignments, but I can always upgrade to LibreOffice if necessary.

I will have to learn bash and more on how to use the terminal, but I love how easy it is to find an load software (both pet's and deb's).

All in all - great job and great product! Thanks!

Dave

paulparker
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 28 Apr 2013, 01:50
Location: Australia

puppylinux easy to use but NOT install

#879 Post by paulparker »

Subject: easy puppylinux to use but NOT install or damage

Subject description: use or demonstrate puppylinux on other computers without harming them...


Feel this needs be marked IMPORTANT so quick to find.

Previously used puppylinux to quickly demonstrate linux on other people's computers without fear of mucking them up.

Installed sometimes, specially older machines :-)

Along with links to the simple instructions of how to demonstrate puppylinux without damaging anothers computer...

purmasuu
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat 25 May 2013, 00:52

On puppy needs ur help 2

#880 Post by purmasuu »

I am a terrible typist , many times I can't even do my password correctly . Because I have this drawback I tend to try to do everything thru the GUI . I run the latest Lucid now but with Wary combined in . I say this because I see the 525 version sign on , but the beautiful lightning scene is what comes on with the usual original template icons
.
I have been fooling with this since last summer . Trying to get a bullet proof version on my usb flash stick (8g,4g) I started with a live cd from Linux Format magazine and enjoyed its speed and simple look . I like the control that I do have over it . Because I run wide open on the public access points I like not having to worry about viri . Should it happen I just re format and began again with a re-install .

My original stick with the updated sfs or apt is still there . I copy to other sticks and fool with them as I strive to understand the Puppy system . I originally came from the Mint system (Debian ver) It is quite fast but uses alot of space . What ilike about puppy was its resilience especially the Lucid version . It is as if it tenaciously keeps digging until it mounts . None of the other flavors and versions can match that . One thing I like is be able to plug it in another computer , mount up and go to town .
I had even used a (6g) Knoppix version . It is blinding fast but very touchy and hard to control the windows . I probably didn't understand the settings .
The main problem was I would put a cd in it and I couldn't get it to run . I knew it could run in XP or "7" I can get Gnome to work in either video or the exe but not both at once . My main confusion is with the little gear icons that look like exe's but don't operate the same . I can't click on them the way I could in windows to run an application . I can't use the run comand either because the little routine doesn't see it as an application . So sometimes the programs work and sometimes it doesn't .

I just about started and loaded this puppy every way it can be loaded and run . I like the frugal mode the best . However I find I don't need all those saves in session or otherwise . I need the original save for my base mount . Then I need about 1 or 2 more for the final tweaked save . With a last one that I mess with as I drop out packages and find what is actually needed .

My I idea is to have a puppy for each area of operation . One for media ' one for writing , one for photos , one for the internet . The idea is to keep puppy nimble and quick .

No one part would fail and ruin the other parts . I think the biggest problem Windows 7 had was trying to do all things and reserving huge amounts of space for various operations . I think trying to protect and redundancy is what slows it down . With all its libraries , services and functions , it can't help but become muscle-bound . It takes most computers with windows more than 5 to 10 minutes to load up . After people have using it awhile with what they do and the various bugs that crop up that is a more realistic number .

I think to get up and running with the internet as well windows must go thru 6-8 changes . each one can fail . I think the inherent setup that puppy has makes it more efficient . Right now I am trying to think what using usb stick can do to make say a business such as a postal service can do with it . Well for now I am out of time .

My main issue right now is I can't get abiword to use the template I want for its standard letter .

The second matter is I reformatted and mounted a usb stick but it won't load its drivers for starting puppy . I can run it after I mount it with another usb stick or even live cd . the only thing that is missing is the boot (exe) gear-look that say "boot cap" under it . "Boot mess"(exe) is right next to it . I can't put one in there . Also I can't expand the partition that Puppy is in .
..
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