Minisys-Linux Muppy 008.3 F (July, 12th, 2008)

[MU]

I updated the ISOs Embryo, Server, Mini and Standard to version 008.3E.
Also the buildsystems.

Changes:
- They now use aufs as driver to layer the writeprotected files with the savefile.
This is a very important bugfix to stop Firefox from freezing.
Details: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29911

- GtkBasic Analogclock upgraded to be compatible with other windowmanagers.

- Opera/Gftp/KDE .wh files in /root/ (relict from unionfs) are cleaned at startup/shutdown.

- Nvidia-Installer has a bugfix when it did not replace "nv" with "nvidia" in xorg.conf.


Mark

[tuxfriend]

Unfortunately, after full HDD install of Mini 008.3 E, I still get the error messages when booting: xxx is only readable. Boot is stuck.

Strangely, after booting via CD the rights are OK. But still can't boot via HDD. Grub looks OK.

The older standard version of Muppy had the same issues.

[tlchost]

I updated the ISOs Embryo, Server, Mini and Standard to version 008.3E.
Also the buildsystems.

There appears to be a problem with the standard version on a Live-CD . Many of the changes/additions I made or installations made to /root/ and /etc/ were not saved when I shut down the system and answered save to DVD/

Inspection of of files in the save folder show none of the changes I made being saved.

All previous versions saved correctly.

[MU]

tlchost
Apart from Unionfs to Aufs I made no changes to the "core system".
To check it, I must try it on my Desktop in Karlsruhe.
But I will not be there in the next week, so just can test it later, I'm sorry
I will have a look then.
Mark

[tlchost]

To check it, I must try it on my Desktop in Karlsruhe.

Thanks....perhaps in that time someone else using the Live-CD and see if they experience the problem.

Thom

[Sage]

Have I downloaded the wrong new 'standard' file? Streamtuner is missing. A superficial scan suggests other stuff may have been truncated, but that is subjective at this time.

[MU]

Sage

English Standard Iso:
ftp://ks301128.kimsufi.com/Muppy0083/EN ... 8.3-EN.iso
Checksum:
13f3b8d0751be450cf13275715453c73 Muppy-Minisys-Linux-Standard-008.3-EN.iso

I just ran it as frugal installation using US keyboard layout, and Streamtuner runs fine from the Multimedia menu.

Mark

[Sage]

Gee, thanks again Mark. Seems I've picked up the wrong file!

[prehistoric]

@MU,

I've now tried your Mini Muppy 008.3e on three machines, two of them previously considered problems. It works well, and the machine which was giving me hangs or error messages on "unmounting swap" is behaving.

Overall this "feels solid" and there are fewer mysterious glitches which I never knew how to attribute. "Chihuahua" alpha 6 shows the same improvement with aufs.

I tried something a little fancy and had trouble, but can't say this is due to the change. I burned a DVD "multisession" and booted from it, but when I attempted to save to the DVD it reported this as full and asked me to supply a new one.

I am trying to get the Mini ISO and three sfs files on a single multisession DVD. This should allow me to install the regular mini system by booting with "pfix=3", and get larger installations (mini+addons, +games, +office) by booting with smaller numbers. Has anyone else tried this hack?

[pigshed]

@MU ,

Hi Mark, Great work !

Regarding your earlier comment about mini not always being the best options on slower machines.

I downloaded 8.3e standard onto a PIII 600 laptop with 320mb ram, extracting the files from the ISO and set it up as a Frugal install (CD burning facilities are off line at present..). As you'd probably expect, it seemed pretty sluggish. Opera and Firefox were jerky and lagging on page scrolls and general performance was somewhat lethargic.

However, I took the drive out and put it in a near identical laptop, but with a PIII 450 and only 192mb ram, and it absolutely flies ! Applications and files open quickly, scrolling in Opera and Firefox is smooth and quick.

I've since tried various configurations between the two boxes and it's always considerably quicker on the 192mb machine - whilst being xubuntu slow on the 320mb machine. Is there an easy way to force it not to load into ram, whilst keeping it as a frugal installation ?

Thanks, Adam.

[MU]

on a machine with 320 MB, the Standard-Iso will not load to Ram.
msy_083.sfs is around 600 MB, so no chance to be loaded to ram.

If that computer is slow, there must be another issue.

Please check the size of your swap-partitions.
If you have a big one over 600 MB, then msy_083.sfs might be loaded completely into the swap, what is pretty undesirable.

I now always just use 256 MB of swap to avoid this, this seems to be enough, as also other forum-messages concerning swap indicate.

If this does not help, your harddrive might bbe slow.
To check hda1 , type:

Code: Select all

hdparm -t -T /dev/hda1

I get here:

# hdparm -t -T /dev/hda1

/dev/hda1:
Timing cached reads: 172 MB in 2.01 seconds = 85.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 30 MB in 3.57 seconds = 8.40 MB/sec
#

If your values are significantly worse, they maybe can be enhanced with some settings.

Mark

[accessdenied]

MU,
I'm still using 8.2 as my main distro. I just tried to a frugal install of 8.3e mini and the first thing I noticed after configuring the NIC for an IP address is the GoodWeather display desklet is not getting XML updates from Weather.com.
Anyone else have this issue?

Cheers.


edit:
MU, I did apply the same fix file you provided for 8.2 but still can not connect.

[MU]

The goodweather-desklet works fine for me.
Here is a description of the fix:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 798#195798

Please check, if that line really was modified.

Mark

[Sage]

Sad to confirm that there is a problem with the PUI in Muppy008-3e for the FULL install, Mark. It seems OK when using the first partition, but the GRUB menu screws up if there are multiple and/or unusual partition assignments. I think it's a simple fix for the cognoscenti like yourself, but the edits that I tried don't seem to work. Generally it defaults to the looping behaviour just after booting begins that we've seen in several previous releases, derivatives and core Puppy.
No complaints - your warning is clear, but it would be nice to have a solution, please. Interestingly, Dingo4 seems to be able to handle weird multi-boot arrangements, even when one of them is 'doze, so it seems that BK has cracked it.

[pigshed]

@MU,

Thanks for the information and ideas Mark, success !!!

The 320MB PIII 600 is now much slicker than the 192MB PIII450 !

When I first looked at the wikki and other places, it seemed pretty consistent to go with a swap of double your memory. So the 320mb machine had ended up with a 690mb swap and Muppy, as you suggested, must have been loading itself into there - hence the lethargy . Wonder if anyone else has a lethargic Muppy due to less than 768gb Ram and more than 650mb Swap ....

Coincidentally (based on the last posting in this thread) I read a post by Sage from 29th December 2006 "Linux Swap Partitions" (which for some reason I can't find now - otherwise I'd update it with this information - will try again later). Sage stated a maximum of 256mb swap for an x86 single core machine, backed up by Whodo, others and explanations.

The extra size didn't seem to affect dingo, I presume due to it's small size it all fitted into RAM and the swap never got accessed.

I am curious though as to when you would run Muppy-mini over Muppy-standard when it seems to run so reasonably on a PII450 with 192mb ram ? (Though I'm only looking at this from how I've tried it, which is as a frugal installation and haven't used it overly intensively).

Just for reference if anyone's interested, here were my HD results between the two machines. Just to throw another variable into the equation, the PIII 600 320mb machine is presently fitted with a 16gb Compact Flash card in an IDE adapter.

hdparm -t -T /dev/hda1

PIII 600, 320mb 16gb CF in IDE

Running Dingo Frugal:

Timing Cached reads: 222 mb in 2.00 seconds = 111.06 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 42 MB in 3.05 seconds = 13.77 MB/sec

Running Muppy 8.3e Frugal:

Timing Cached reads: 242 mb in 2.01 seconds = 120.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 40 MB in 3.09 seconds = 12.92 MB/sec

PIII 450 192MB 12GB normal IDE.

Running Muppy 8.3e Frugal:

Timing Cached reads: 264 mb in 2.01 seconds = 131.48 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 44 MB in 3.23 seconds = 13.60 MB/sec

Well, you never know ..

Just out of curiosity, Conky doesn't appear to display the network information for my PCMCIA (belkin/atheros) Wifi card, though it does for a PCMCIA xircom LAN card... This maybe hidden away in conky configuration, I haven't looked yet .....

Thanks again, Adam.

[accessdenied]

MU, sometimes the brain is too technical. Nothing wrong with Good Weather code.
"The issue was between the keyboard and the chair."

I did not insert a postal code....

Have to laugh for a minute on this one....

Anyway, another little problem I noticed is with rox's single click function.

I unchecked the 'single click to open' box in the p[inboard option and the single click function still works. Very annoying... any ideas?

[fzsolt]

I installed Muppy 008.3E on my brother's Asus A8E notebook. I did a frugal install. Works nicely, but we have two problems. One is widescreen usage. xorgwizard seems to recognize the 1280x800 display, moreover, this is the only resolution it offers. However, after X starts, it runs in 1024x768 stretched to full screen. How can I get true 1280x800? (yesterday I tried and it works in Dingo 4.0) I almost forget: the notebook has an intel GMA-X 3100 graphics chip.
Another, probably not so Muppy specific problem: how can I make GRUB working? The machine has a 160 GB SATA HDD, with two primary partitions: ext2 (where Muppy sits) and NTFS (with Windows XP), plus an extended with an NTFS data and linux swap partitions. I tried to install GRUB to the MBR, and also on the superblock of the ext2 partition. Install finished reporting success, but GRUB never starts, so I have to insert a boot CD, if we want to run Muppy. Any solution?
Thanks in advance.

[shri]

Hi,
I am using pcpuppyos 2.6.21.7 kernel There is problem with when i boot my minisys os then one popup windows is glow the popup windows glow everytime with booting system.
the message is display as below.

Your ClamAV antivirus installation is out of date.The
current version is 0.93.1.This must be upgraded manually.
http://www.clamav.net/

Is there antivirus upgraded or i upgraded manually.

Thanks.

[MU]

Muppy does not use clamav.
This must be a message in Windows?
Mark

[gw]

Hello,

@fzsolt
I've never installed Grub on a hdd.
But if you will create a multi-purpose boot cd for Puppy/Muppy, etc..., please visit this very interesting address :
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=16950
I hope it can help you
A+
--
gw
[/url]