Suggestions for Puppy 2.18

[HairyWill]

keyboard shortcuts are user configurable
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 059#126026

[The Major]

The more I use Puppy and explore how I could tailor it for my own preferences, the more I find that I come back to Barry's basic distribution. I would go further than that - I find it very hard to find a better balanced selection of applications for the size of distribution.

I find that I don't need certain duplicate applications, and I don't use a dial-up modem, but many people do, and reading this thread shows that it would be almost impossible to please everyone. For example, I hate sylpheed, but others swear by it. Therefore, I think that Barry has got it about right for the wide variety of potential users.

The fact that we can add new applications via .pet files makes it easy to add our own touches to Puupy. The use of SFS files for applications like Open Office makes it even less necessary to have a bloated base distribution.

Having said all that, here is my tailored version of Puppy. I took out most of the calculators and all CD/DVD writers except Grafburn. I changed the look and feel (Icewm - Abby theme), remastered the base iso and then added what I use. Seamonkey has the Sea Gmone theme and Monkey menu, and is as close to Firefox as I need. Therefore, I have my version of a 90MB Puppy distro. (The screenshot is of my complete desktop after adding to the base)

I played around with having a base iso with Skype and Java added (I use Freemind, Ganttproject and Limewire which all need Java), but that requires about 130MB. Is that good or bad? It's useful for me, and added to the Open Office sfs file, is a good base for SoHo users (small office, home office). But, then again, I know some people get theological about Java.

Let's just celebrate that we CAN create our own versions of Puppy - try asking Microsoft if you play around with Windows.

Cheers

[Getnikar]

Having said all that, here is my tailored version of Puppy. I took out most of the calculators and all CD/DVD writers except Grafburn. I changed the look and feel (Icewm - Abby theme), remastered the base iso and then added what I use. Seamonkey has the Sea Gmone theme and Monkey menu, and is as close to Firefox as I need. Therefore, I have my version of a 90MB Puppy distro. (The screenshot is of my complete desktop after adding to the base)

That main issue with Puppy, and any distro, for me, is: whatever customisations I make, I want them to survive any future upgrade of the distro. I do NOT want to have to go reapply everything all over again every time there is a new distro version release, but I certainly will want that new release. There has been much discussion about this, in this thread, and many others in this forum, eg

- 'Puppy sub-distros, or superpackages' at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=18422
- 'GUI to make SFS squash files. ( mksfs )' at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=18513
- 'Barry - Puppy needs the "upgrade" feature...' at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=19278

come to mind.

It would be great to see a modular distro emerge from all this, that easily caters to newbs (eg a Default/Starter set of Base and Addons), and makes add ons easy and permanent/automatic through upgrades. Looking at the dicussions of late, this seems to be nearly here.

[ecomoney]

With the updates linux ntfs read/write capability, would it be possible for the next puppy to create a swap file on these type of partitions automatically? I am finding myself increasingly installing puppy onto new, or newer xp computers whos users cannot afford the extra software (like the one to write a letter lol), or have cought that many viruses their pc is practically unuseable. Puppy's killer feature in my experience is that it can be easily set up to dual boot with the cd in, puppy, cd out, windoze method (frugal install?). This means that people can wean themselves off redmund gradually - better ntfs support is a must for this. Also would it be possible to make NTFS drives come up under /mnt/home (it comes up as initrd/mnt/dev_save for some reason on NTFS drives) and make this standard place for the hard disk to which puppy is installed, thanks

Like an earlier poster I have found that a couple of wireless network card drivers on laptops do not load properly, this means that the ethernet card also somehow refuses to work until I unload the driver for it (would be great if this could be done via the gui).

[joki]

keyboard shortcuts are user configurable
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 059#126026

had that reply last time i asked (2.11?) and it didnt solve the problem which is that the window keys (the key between the ctrl and alt) are unsupported (pls provide details if my k is out-of-date). love m$ or hate them, the windows key shortcuts are well known and established, ppl are comfortable with them so it'd be good to have them in puppy (id have thought most of puppy's 'new blood' is from windows)

also, in this vein, it'd be good to get Alt-TAB working the same as windows (i.e. it should cycle thru the apps is last-used order, and not bring-to-front until alt-tab is released)

[Getnikar]

the window keys (the key between the ctrl and alt) are unsupported (pls provide details if my k is out-of-date).

I set my Windows key on this toshiba laptop to start the default web browser, by adding the key name into $HOME/.jwm/jwmrc...

Code: Select all

<Key key="Super_L">exec:defaultbrowser</Key>

I found which keysym to use (Super_L) by running xmodmap -pke, eg this is 2 parts of the output...

keycode 24 = q Q
keycode 25 = w W
keycode 26 = e E
keycode 27 = r R
keycode 28 = t T
keycode 29 = y Y
...

keycode 115 = Super_L
keycode 116 = Super_R
keycode 117 = Menu

and testing likely candidates in $HOME/.jwm/jwmrc.

Obviously, the first codes above are alpha keys, so it would not make sense to use them
Next to my Windows key, I have a key that produces the 'Menu' keysym, ie its a 'Menu' key. So I put it to use via $HOME/.jwm/jwmrc, to pop up a menu using Xdialog...

Code: Select all

<Key key="Menu">exec:MyMenu</Key>

[joki]

thanks Getnikar, that goes someway to providing an answer.
the interesting output of my xmodmap -pke starts at 113. have listed the keycodes which have values below. (i dont have a Menu, Super_R, or unmodified Super_L)

However, to faithfully reproduce windows behaviour, the Super_L and Super_R need to be modifier keys (like ctrl, alt, shift) and jwm needs to understand "<key mask="Super_L'...>" . If jwm can do this then we are in business but it is an effort. i reckon a lot more windows users would stay/be at home with puppy if the ui behaved like windows 'out-the-box' (ie the iso pre-configured with the windows key shortcuts, WK+E for explorer, D for desktop etc)

Code: Select all

keycode 113 = ISO_Level3_Shift
keycode 114 = Pause Break
keycode 124 = ISO_Level3_Shift
keycode 125 = NoSymbol Alt_L
keycode 126 = KP_Equal
keycode 127 = NoSymbol Super_L
keycode 128 = NoSymbol Hyper_L
keycode 156 = NoSymbol Meta_L

[Teddy89h]

An integration of the newest WINE as sfs would be great for people who switch from windows!!

[ttuuxxx]

Please include tv-out function for pci-e cards , either nvidia or ATi , it doesn't matter which , Also please make a script to ask which region are you in, So it can make it PALB. Like i said before in another post AGP tv out worked fine with no additional drivers using a 128mb radeon 9200se. Which was excellent, but i've tried it with pci-express 256MB on ati, and nvidia and nothing at all, Even with the respected websites latest drives and with help of #xorg on irc, and with help of #puppylinux helpers, could not get it going, I think its the Region and the card settings, the picture is in B/W with static. Please try to fix this www.ttuuxxx.com

P.s better printer support for a networked windows pc printer would be great, and firefox as the default browser would be great, And better windows shares also would be great, kind of sucks always have to manually type in the windows pc that you want to get files from, usually music or movies.
Thanks for your time

[joki]

pmount and/or mut to be able to mount things a read-only.
can't think of the gui app i used years ago but it gave you the option to mount read-only - i've got a script to do this for my external usb drive (i am paranoid i might accidently hit delete or some random prog will do something to all my backups)

[jonyo]

I'd like to see an md5 check option that can be done at the start, before pup boots along. Also being able to easily place icons on the desktop 'd be nice (perhaps with a right click).

My gals are just getting interested in pup & while I was settin middle daughter up, she was asking me about pup stuff, how it worked & appeared quite sceptical; poor child..only knows the win world.. At some point she asked about spellchecker.. said I hafta install spellchecker in abiword ..well.. ..she was quite taken aback..& made the funniest face (~ stunned bewilderment)..with both hands (fingers) starting on her forehead, then extending them out (like the Pope does..) even shaking her head a bit, with a ~"what the..h.." type attitude..

[John Doe]

An integration of the newest WINE as sfs would be great for people who switch from windows!!

not sure if it's the newest, but i had this one sitting around and dropped it into a squash for you all.

wine-0.9.37.sfs
wine-0.9.37.sfs.md5.txt

threw in a couple of ROX file associations for fun also. one can just click on exe's and shortcuts.

[superchook]

With the updates linux ntfs read/write capability, would it be possible for the next puppy to create a swap file on these type of partitions automatically? I am finding myself increasingly installing puppy onto new, or newer xp computers whos users cannot afford the extra software (like the one to write a letter lol), or have cought that many viruses their pc is practically unuseable. Puppy's killer feature in my experience is that it can be easily set up to dual boot with the cd in, puppy, cd out, windoze method (frugal install?). This means that people can wean themselves off redmund gradually - better ntfs support is a must for this. Also would it be possible to make NTFS drives come up under /mnt/home (it comes up as initrd/mnt/dev_save for some reason on NTFS drives) and make this standard place for the hard disk to which puppy is installed, thanks

Like an earlier poster I have found that a couple of wireless network card drivers on laptops do not load properly, this means that the ethernet card also somehow refuses to work until I unload the driver for it (would be great if this could be done via the gui).

I wonder if it would be possible to run mkswap on the XP swap file (pagefile.sys) and use that for Puppy's swap file. If this works and does not affect subsequent running under XP the it would be convenient when running Puppy on a borrowed computer. The default size for pagefile.sys is 1.5xRAM. I don't have an XP box to hand to try the idea but will later. I think there is an option under XP to zero out the swap file on shut down and if this _does_ zero out the entire file the puppy could do the same thing on shut down.

[WhoDo]

not sure if it's the newest, but i had this one sitting around and dropped it into a squash for you all.

wine-0.9.37.sfs
wine-0.9.37.sfs.md5.txt

threw in a couple of ROX file associations for fun also. one can just click on exe's and shortcuts.

Hey John, the links provided don't work. Has it moved?

[John Doe]

sorry.

i keep forgetting the mime types. all the puppy files i've posted are there, they just don't have handlers for the requests.

to tangent for a second....

i'm going to move all my "puppy stuff" into one pile soon and make a puplet with a bunch of squash files that will work with puppy (and other puplets). just have to get my act together a bit more.

i keep getting side tracked with all sorts of fun problems on the forum. so many interesting things to consider like kernel config, wakepup, and unionfs flushing.

[John Doe]

got it fixed tonight.

sorry for the delay. i'm fighting a really bad cold.

[linuxcbon]

- Dont use root as default user, but create a default user puppy with no password for ex.
- Dont make big progs by default (firefox, seamonkey ,nvu, gxine, gpe browser, etc. cannot run on old pcs).
- too many apps available in the menu ? keep only fast ones ?
- Improve network detection for tulip drivers for netgear ?
- timeout 10 for grub.

[jonyo]

I'd like to see a progress bar (or something) that shows up when a file or folder is being moved from one place to another.

At present, afaik, there is nothing indicating transfer of files in progress.

[willhunt]

a peer cache so puppy users can share there .packages directory
and a script to ask them how much bandwidth they would like to
donate to the cause!

[linuxcbon]

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