Lucid Puppy 5.25 Feedback and Bug Reports

[666philb]

This is not a specific 525 problem, but it does occur here and before posting to an outdated thread, I thought I'd do it here.

Any change, addition or deletion of an additional SFS file results in scrambled desktop icons at the first boot. This is an unsolved problem with all Puppies, as far back as I can remember and that was 217. The phenomenon even occurs when just the name of the pupsave file is changed from say pupsave-x.sfs to pupsave-y.sfs, or lupusave as it is now.

Somewhere in the forum I read that this issue will be taken up at some future development. Great!

However, for all those of us who can't program themselves, I kindly request a work-around for the time being.

My concept is a GUI that does this:

1. Copy /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin to /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin.copy and overrides any previous versions, if any.
This saves the current desktop arrangement for future needs.

2. Copy /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin.copy to /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin and override it. Restart Xserver.
This brings back the previously saved arrangement after the scrambling occured.

It does not seem to be a difficult programming task, but it goes way over my abilities.

Any takers? A lot of Puppy users will be ever so grateful!

Puppy already has this

In the menu/desktop/desktopsettings/desksetup templates for desk icons
select custom and save your custom arrangement. and exit.

Then when the inevitable happens, as after installing an sfs. launch desksetup again, check the custom box is checked, and press apply.
Your icons return to their previously saved state

i just realised that my puppy may have this because i installed the 'pup combo plus.pet' which includes it.. desksetup.pet herehttp://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 133#488133
Bigpup pointed me at this

[goolwa_pup]

Hi,

on my thinkpad t42 had the same problem but transferred to usb stick and booted with grub. now OK.

But after installing W-bar and new wallpaper, bottom right hand digital clock has disappeared.

Probably not of great comfort to you Tony but I am using 525 (from the hard drive) with wbar and a different wallpaper, on my Thinkpad T43, 1 GB, 1.86 CPU, Intel graphics and it is working fine

[bigpup]

Hi,
But after installing W-bar and new wallpaper, bottom right hand digital clock has disappeared.
Typing fixmenus in monitor produces an endless loop of :-
Regards Tony

How are you running Puppy?
How did you install W-Bar?
Where did you get W-Bar?
How did you install new wallpaper?
Where did you get wallpaper?
What are your computers specs?

[bigpup]

desksetup templates for desk icons

This program comes installed in basic Lucid Puppy 5.25

Works very well at making a backup copy of the desktop icon layout. Can easily restore a messed up desktop.

If you select:
click this button to save your custom arrangement
It will save the present desktop as a custom saved profile.
(making a backup of the desktop)
To restore desktop:
select custom-choose your saved profile
click apply

[tony]

Deskto setup 0.4

Where to find ???

regards tony

[wuwei]

@ 666philb and bigpup:

Yes yes yes. That's it!
I tried it in Quirky 1.3 and Lucid 525. Works like a charm in both systems.

Thanks for pointing me to a "new" application.

@tony:

Link is in 666philb's post a bit up the page.

[bigpup]

Deskto setup 0.4

Where to find ???

regards tony

menu->desktop->desktop settings->desksetup templates for Desk icons

[PaulBx1]

It seems to me that the presence of old Puppy files does have an effect on how an install will go.

Yes, something is broken. You don't think it's a missmatch of .cfg file with the particular syslinux used, as I mentioned earlier?

I wonder when the Universal Installer was last messed with. It's not very universal any more.

Clearly, if it asks you "upgrade or wipe", then upgrade must be a supported option. I didn't even know you could do a full install on a flash drive; seems like it would wear out the flash drive fast. If you are saying full installs are for hard drives only, then I agree. I just don't see where you got the idea I was doing a full install. There is no hard drive in this picture; none in my laptop and none in my desktop.

I was not intending to do a full install, but to use a pupsave. I was installing to a flash drive that already worked that way in 511, and doing it as an upgrade, not wiping the whole drive first. There is no reason this should not be upgradable, and no indication in the Universal Installer that it is not. It's just the replacement of some files. There is no reason there should be any difficulty with this; it's not as if overwriting files is a new concept.

[PaulBx1]

Well I tried it again. This time I took the 511 version of puppyinstaller over to 525 to see if I could run that (there have been 6 changes of puppyinstaller since 511, and I was wondering if one of them were bad). I got the same result, unable to find lupu_525.sfs. However in order to get it to run, I had to edit it. Apparently the name of the sfs has changed, not only in the revision but also in that the dash has become an underscore. That is, lupu-511.sfs, became lupu_525.sfs (I just tried to bold the dash and underscore but I don't see that for some reason). I don't know if that is significant to this problem, but it makes me wonder why that was done since it must have broken a lot of scripts. I did try renaming it lupu-525.sfs but that didn't change anything; it still (now more reasonably) reported not being able to find lupu_525.sfs.

Which made me wonder: how exactly is it that it knows to look for this filename? Is that hard-coded into initrd.gz? Maybe initrd.gz is the problem...

It drops me at the prompt when this happens. I wonder if there is something I can check at this point? I did an "ls" but nothing is familiar.

[bigpup]

Clearly, if it asks you "upgrade or wipe", then upgrade must be a supported option. I didn't even know you could do a full install on a flash drive; seems like it would wear out the flash drive fast. If you are saying full installs are for hard drives only, then I agree. I just don't see where you got the idea I was doing a full install. There is no hard drive in this picture; none in my laptop and none in my desktop.

I was not intending to do a full install, but to use a pupsave. I was installing to a flash drive that already worked that way in 511, and doing it as an upgrade, not wiping the whole drive first. There is no reason this should not be upgradable, and no indication in the Universal Installer that it is not. It's just the replacement of some files. There is no reason there should be any difficulty with this; it's not as if overwriting files is a new concept.

Yes,Flash drives can only have frugal installs.

The universal installer will not upgrade a frugal install.
The upgrade option is for full installs.
The universal installer is not designed to overwrite a frugal install with another frugal install.

A frugal install can be upgraded, but it has to be done manually.
The way to upgrade a frugal install or install that uses a pupsave:
Use Rox Filer file manager.
Manually replace all the files except the old pupsave file.
(Delete the old files before installing the new ones)
If using a boot loader may need to edit it's menu.lst to reflect the newer version.
Reboot with the new files and when the old pupsave file is found it will be updated. (Maybe)
(sometimes this does not work 100%)

[bigpup]

Well I tried it again. This time I took the 511 version of puppyinstaller over to 525 to see if I could run that (there have been 6 changes of puppyinstaller since 511, and I was wondering if one of them were bad). I got the same result, unable to find lupu_525.sfs. However in order to get it to run, I had to edit it. Apparently the name of the sfs has changed, not only in the revision but also in that the dash has become an underscore. That is, lupu-511.sfs, became lupu_525.sfs (I just tried to bold the dash and underscore but I don't see that for some reason). I don't know if that is significant to this problem, but it makes me wonder why that was done since it must have broken a lot of scripts. I did try renaming it lupu-525.sfs but that didn't change anything; it still (now more reasonably) reported not being able to find lupu_525.sfs.

Which made me wonder: how exactly is it that it knows to look for this filename? Is that hard-coded into initrd.gz? Maybe initrd.gz is the problem...

It drops me at the prompt when this happens. I wonder if there is something I can check at this point? I did an "ls" but nothing is familiar.

The universal installer that comes with Lucid 5.25 is designed to work with Lucid 5.25
I am getting confused about what you are trying to do.
If you are trying to upgrade a frugal install to a flash drive, See above post.
If you are trying to do a fresh install to a flash drive, use the program menu->setup-> Bootflash install Puppy to USB.

[Sylvander]

Within Lupu-525...
When using Xfe...
And I right-click on a file, and choose "Open with..."...
There is only ever 1 program listed as available for opening files.
If I choose a new program, it REPLACES the existing program in the list.
Doesn't add to the list.
This is abnormal behavior.
It aught to be possible to add multiple programs to the list.

[bigpup]

Within Lupu-525...
When using Xfe...
And I right-click on a file, and choose "Open with..."...
There is only ever 1 program listed as available for opening files.
If I choose a new program, it REPLACES the existing program in the list.
Doesn't add to the list.
This is abnormal behavior.
It aught to be possible to add multiple programs to the list.

See if this will give you what you are looking for.
RoxRightclicks
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=37410

[Sylvander]

1. "See if this will give you what you are looking for.
RoxRightclicks"
(a) No, this isn't what I'm looking for.
As I said, it's the Xfe->"Open with..." feature I'm attempting to fix.

(b) I don't use ROX very much, and its "Open with..." feature is functioning well, as is.

[bigpup]

1. "See if this will give you what you are looking for.
RoxRightclicks"
(a) No, this isn't what I'm looking for.
As I said, it's the Xfe->"Open with..." feature I'm attempting to fix.

(b) I don't use ROX very much, and its "Open with..." feature is functioning well, as is.

Maybe something with the config files would help.
http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/index.php?page=docs

[PaulBx1]

The universal installer will not upgrade a frugal install.

Well, I suppose that depends on what one calls an "upgrade".

Anyway I'd rather get away from that term. Why complicate the issue? I assumed, reasonably I think, that since I had created this flash drive in 511 with UI, that I could take it up to 525 with UI. Because UI did not imply in any way that it couldn't do this, then if what you are saying is true - that it can't - then THAT is the bug: implying to the user that it can do something it can't, and not giving so much as an error message, but just completing and ending with an unusable flash drive.

The fix is to have UI inform the user of its inability. An alternative fix is to get it to actually do what it implies it can do - if something can be done manually, then it certainly can be done in a script. It boggles my mind that a "universal" installer can't do this simple, pretty obvious job.

Anyway I will wipe the drive and see if I can get it to work, either with UI, or with that bootflash thing, or manually.

[don570]

It aught to be possible to add multiple programs to the list.

Try right click and then choose 'custom menu'

Drag apps to the window that is presented and they will
show up when right clicking.

Also setting 'run execute' is very useful.
For instance for wav files I often set the 'run execute' to use mhwaveedit

[Sylvander]

1. "Maybe something with the config files would help."
There's nothing I can see that I know how to use to do the necessary.

[Sylvander]

1. "Try right click and then choose 'custom menu'"
(a) I can do that, and have done, in ROX...
But [I'll repeat] I'm not trying to fix ROX.

(b) And there is no such item in any context menu for XFE.
XFE is what I'm attempting to fix.

[smokey01]

Sylvander,

I'm not sure what XFE you are trying to get working but have you tried the one below 01micko packaged. This one may be considerably older.

http://www.smokey01.com/01micko/lucid/x ... -Lucid.pet

Whoops, gots confused between xfce and xfe. xfe in snowpuppy seems to work ok.