(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:@rjbrewer
I notice you don't mention resizing a Vista partition.

Did you go from XP straight to Windows 7?

Tried it first on the old Pavillion (Win98) 3 years ago, my first computer.

Next was Win7 on a few laptops my neighbor and I were doing
Hackintosh experiments with.

Did it on an old Thinkpad with Win2k about the same time.

Recently on my Inspiron700m with Xp-pro, and on 2 other pcs'
with Xp-home (slipstream sp3) versions I made.

I'm basically Windows illiterate; Puppy 301 was my first usable o.s.;
been with the pup ever since.

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:@rjbrewer
...Did you go from XP straight to Windows 7?

So did I, too. Never had any contact to Vista.
Thank you for the warning,
I promise to be careful!

Funny file system in Windows7:
Windows Explorer shows two partitions, first C: and
second D: with drivers and some other stuff.
You would expect one hidden partition for the restoring information
but GParted shows first
1 MB of unallocated space, then
sda1 with a directory named "boot" and a file named "bootmgr", a directory "System Volume Information" an a file "factory.txt". This partition is hidden for Windows users.
sda2 represents the huge partition C:.
I admit, I don't quite understand the next:
there is no icon for sda3 on the Puppy desktop
there is 1 MB of unallocated space again then
sda4 containing the restoring info, again hidden in Windows.
sda5 is D: in Windows.
I attach a screenshot of the GParted information.

Where should I create space for sda6 (Linux) an the swap partition?

OUCH!

My Windows installations were done with official style install disks.
A free beta disk in the Win7 case.

They only use 1 ntfs partition.

When you get it on a new laptop the versions have all kinds of extra
parts. made for that laptop manufacturer.

You'll need better help than I can give in this case.

Start by typing win7 or dualboot in search.
Googling for win7-linux dual boot wouldn't hurt.

I probably wouldn't install Puppy on the drive in this case.
Frugal install with save-file on a partition may be okay.
I'd probably use usb or flash card installs.

A laptop that can run win7 isn't going to need a swap partition
for puppy.

Yes, I have puppy running without any problems from usb flash stick.
But puppy tells me not to pull off the stick while running.
This is sort of inconvenient.
I am always anxious not to break it off the usb slot.
So I'd rather have some kind of frugal install on the Harddisk.
Maybe easyBCD is the way...
Anyway - I'm leaving now till Sunday, no more time to fool around with the netbook.
One hour ago I tried to start puppy with a projector plugged in.
Xorgwizard tried to make it - I had to remove the pupsave file afterwards.

Puppy 4.0.0 Dingo was my first Puppy. A mate gave me the CD ages ago but I kept on using XP. Then I started finding lots of Pentium 3s and 4s in dumpsters, laneways, and at the Recycling Centre. No way XP will run properly on a Pentium 3, so how am I gunna make a PC for myself? Then I remembered the Puppy CD that Ash gave me. Now I do everything in Puppy. Haven't booted into Windows since last year.

@Laie
Like rjbrewer says, you don't need a Swap. Swap is extra "virtual RAM" needed for Dinosaurs like my 10 year-old laptop. It only has 128mb RAM so I put in enough Swap to bring up the total Memory (RAM + Swap) to 512mb. If computer has more than 500mb RAM no Swap is needed

I'm wondering if your computer has a Card Reader slot? You could put a 4gb SD Card in there and install Puppy to that - with nothing sticking out of the computer. If it won't boot from the SD Card you can use one of these special CDs (thanks rcrsn51 ):
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=28093

rcrsn51's instructions to use it are:

Download and unpack the attached "bootcd.tar.gz" to your home directory. It will create a folder named "bootcd" containing three files.

Copy the two core Puppy files "vmlinuz" and "initrd.gz" into the "bootcd" folder. It should now contain five files.

Click on the icon "makeiso". This will create a "puppy.iso" file one level up.

Burn it.

running puppy 4.2.1 with gnome 2.20.3 hard drive install on a lenovo 3000 c200. works good though i have issues with the wifi not being detected if i start of in gnome, usually have to boot with jwm or icewm to fix this issue. otherwise works well.

Hi all,
For all the people like me who use a keyboard with their laptop at home but not when travelling
a little script to turn on the numlock when the usb keyboard is connected at boot up.
I've posted the code so you can call the script what you want.
put the script into /root/Startup
You can test it by just running the script. Depending what else you have in startup it could take a few seconds before switching on.

requires xsetnumlock from xsetnumlock.pet installed into /usr/local/bin

script - laptop_numlock If anybody knows different / easier ways please tell

DC

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:...I'm wondering if your computer has a Card Reader slot? You could put a 4gb SD Card in there and install Puppy to that - with nothing sticking out of the computer...

Thx, good idea, I did that and it works well.

Broadcom 4306 (Sony Ericsson / Tmobile gc89) pc card works with puppy 4.21 seamonkey retro out of the box. This is the only distro, puppy or not, that I've found that works with this card trying on a couple computers I have.

Puppy Quirky 1.00 got my Huawei e160G USB Modem working and surfing the Web in less than one minute, with about 4 mouse-clicks. This is way better than any other O.S., be it Linux, Apple or Windows. I have also found Puppy 421 and 421 Retro to be very good on a wide range of PCs, but getting the USB Modem to work in them is "fiddly".

Puppy 4.2.1. running LIVE CD
Dell Latitude D610

Puppy works well however, about 1 out of every 3 or 4 boots will result in loading from 4 folders on the CD(which were created months ago just one day apart) and not from the pup file on the HDD.

When loading the 4 folders it takes about 2-3 minutes longer and none of my internet bookmarks remain.

If it loads from the HDD all the bookmarks remain.

I am not saving upon shutdown and I have been unable to identify a sequence that changes how puppy boots.

Also, is there a way to stop the touch pad from randomly going back or forward while in SeaMonkey? It is very annoying to be searching then if I just lightly touch the touch pad and zap I am back one or more pages in SeaMonkey.

Wurlitzer1928 wrote:Also, is there a way to stop the touch pad from randomly going back or forward while in SeaMonkey?

If you have a Synaptics touch pad, and are using Xorg, not Xvesa, here are three possible ways to disable horizontal scrolling. They work in Puppy 4.3.1. But I don't know if the Synaptics driver used in your Puppy 4.2.1 is the same, or if different, if it supports this option.

Method 1:

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following line to the list of options in the "InputDevice" section for "Synaptics Mouse": Then restart the X server.

This is the simplest method, but, unfortunately, if you later run xorgwizard for any reason, it will rewrite xorg.conf and remove this line. If you are game, you could also add the line to the appropriate place in your xorgwizard. Otherwise you could stay away from xorgwizard or use one of the other methods listed below.


Method 2:

Install synclient and use this command: You could put this command into a script in /root/Startup to turn horizontal scrolling off whenever you restart the X server.


Method 3:

Install both synclient and flsynclient and run flsynclient from Menu -> Desktop -> FlSynclient or from a terminal window with this command: Under the Scrolling tab, uncheck the box for Horizontal Edge Scroll. Then click the Save button. A script installed by the flsynclient package in /root/Startup will restore your chosen settings whenever you restart the X server.

Both synclient and flsynclient packages have been made available by jemimah here: FlSynclient - Advanced Touchpad Configuration Gui.

CatDude wrote:Hi
Therefore, i ask for any laptop users, if you could please provide details of your experiences (good or bad)
maybe it would then help others who may be looking to purchase a laptop specifically for running Puppy.
If you could also give an idea as to the age of the laptop, that may prove useful too, as would the Puppy version you have running on it.
Hoping you can help
CatDude

Puppy 3.XXX - 5.XXX boots and works like a charm on an old (1998) Compaq Presario PIII (2gb PNY USB), IBM (2001) Thinkpad T-23 (2GB Sony USB) and my (2007) Thinkpad T-60 (8GB ATIVA USB & 8GB Mitsushita micro hard drive)

The Puppy USB installer works with no problem for USB Flash Stick install & boot for the T-23 & the T-60 & so does universal USB Installer & Uinbootin (sp?) USB Installer.

Puppy 431 & Puppy 5 detected & runs the 15" 1400 X 1050 x 24 T-60 display with no problems.

I rarely resort to booting Windows on these laptops, preferring Puppy's superior speed and tiny maintenance needs, not to mention lower battery use, lower heat generation, & no hard drive needs!

Note: I only use the T-60. My daughter & grandson use the two other laptops. My daughter was both a Linux & a Puppy newbie)

--Bruised

npierce Your first method worked perfectly.

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

Craig

Craig,

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that it worked for you. I wish I was also able to help with your random boot-up sequence mystery, but I'm not familiar with how Puppy chooses where to look for saved user data at boot time.

N.

Just acquired a Gateway solo 9100. PII 233, 256M RAM, No HDD.
Frugal installed [my first time] 214X.RC5, onto usb stick, Works really well!!, Haven't found anything non-functional yet, but, I cheat, using old orinoco pcmcia wireless card, for net. Just wish that this usb stick would let me put a swap onto it... probably will,I just can't do it... Yet.
This 214X thing is the Berries!!!
RP

I just recently acquired a Compac Presario C700 that has no working hard drive, and about the same time I had to turn of my internet and use the apartment one, to save some money. I knew the laptop had an atheros wireless, which has in the past caused problems, but when I stuck Puppy 4.3.1. on a dvd in, everything has just worked ever since. Found an old 2g USB stick that still works, reformatted it to superdisk, and now I have the laptop booting from the USB.

This has let me use a free computer to access free internet (well, I DO pay rent,) with a free OS. Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and just when I needed it most.

Fan for life.

This thread is a great idea. At your list you can add my Compaq Presario 14XL250, bought in year 2000. It has a Celeron 600MHz chip, 184M RAM + 8 RAM for the Video (64 original + 128 added), Trident Cyberblade video card, Chipset VIA PLE133.

On the internet it is possible to find some specs and some general workarounds with Linux, especially for avoiding problems with the monitor, that must be configured manually: vga=792, SVGA 1024x768 @ 70 Hz ; 50-70 Hz.

In other words, at boot when getting the Puppy Video Wizard screen choose Xorg, then at "monitor type" choose option C (h31.5-48-5v50-70 LCD Panel 1024x768) and then at "select video mode" choose either 1024x768x16 or 1024x768x24. Easy!

All Puppy OS installed so far (latest kernel of series 2.x, 3.x and 4.x) where almost perfect, but with some unsolved problems: the usage of the S-video plug and the installation of packages... and sometimes installed packages do not work (?!?!?).

I could not boot LuPu 5.0.0, but things might have improved with LuPu 5.0.1

One last thing: for turning it off and shut down it is necessary to add acpi=force at bootload grub string

Compaq Armada 1700 running 4.3.1 here. Frugal install on 2nd partition dual-boot with w2k. Seems to work fine-it is a PII with 160mb ram. I wrote a post about it here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57419 I wonder if one of the earlier versions would run better. I mainly just use Opera for most things imap mail/browser/rss/newsgroups although I have installed firefox 3.6, thunderbird and did upgrade seamonkey. Will the latest opera 10.6 run on the older puppies?

Hi,
I recently picked up a very cheap Toshiba 3490ct, it probably dates from about 2005. I now have a happy turbopup xtreme running on it with pcmcia wireless. My two biggest hurdles were not having a CD drive (it's too small) and not being able to boot from USB (it's too old). My solution was to pull out the hard drive, put it into a usb enclosure and do a hard install via another computer. Once I had one install (plus Grub) I reinstalled and it booted up first go. With usb up and running I've been able to load lots of different pups to try them out by dropping in the Initrd and Vmlinuz files and pointign grub to them. (I even tried kubuntu but it was asking too much of 128mb ram). My final choice is Turbopup xtreme which goes as well as I need to do text editing and surf the web. Everything I've tried seems to work straight out of the box.
Just for the record I almost threw out my ASUS wireless card because it only loaded when it felt like it and would drop my connection after an hour even when it did go then I saw a post here about using "pci=noacpi" (I'd already got "acpi=force" to get make the lappie poweroff with shutdown) and with that configuration it's loaded and held every time ever since. I'd love to say that was my skill but really I just tried it and got lucky.
BTW thanks to all the smart folks here, for me Puppy isn't an ideological alternative, it's the practical solution for resurrecting functional hardware that other software has left behind.