Classic Pup 2.14X -- Updated 2 series

[ecomoney]

As you may or may not know, I have some experience with 2.14r as it the chosen base for Puppy Linux 2.14r "Phoenix" CE, that I am dutifully yet belatedly returning to co-ordinating (if Lobster hasnt sacked me for my absence). There are quite a few half finished goodies about for 2.14r already.

You have not stated on here what you are wishing to achieve in/by updating 2 series. I will assume then you are aiming to create a Puppy Linux focused on having the same or better level of usability as current Puppy Linux, along with the ability to access the features in the latest versions of applications, but aiming to more fully support the older end of the age spectrum of usable computers.

There are inevitably many reports by people of their equipment becoming unsupported with the newer kernel version puppies, or of slowdowns that inevitably happens as the kernel has evolved and become more complex. Having a definitive, full featured 2.6.18.1 kernel puppy for these users will be welcome.

The link to the additional wireless drivers for 2.14 series is here

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15573

There is also a small but well formed (and well tested) accelerated graphics card loader for 2 series By Mark Ulrich here that deserves a place.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=7775

Any release of a previous version, to be viable and useable, would also need a supply of well tested applications. For this there is no shortage of Puplets based on 2 series, with applications that have already had considerable testing. Pic and Mix from 2.15ce based Ecopup, the first Lighthouse pup, not to mention 2.14 based Teenpup and Pizzapup to check.

This would be a good opportunity to introduce some more "cutting edge" features/requests such as the pfix=recycle scripts, or even a change of file manager to be more friendly to our ever increasing supply of linux newbies.

Another thing I have remembered is that the NTFS driver may need upgrading in 2.14r to a more recent release.

All the best with this project Ttuuxxx I will be keeping an eye on it.

[ttuuxxx]

Hi guys anyone with issue on this version, could you please compare it to 2.14.1R that its based on, that way I'll know if its a general 2.14.1R issue or just a new specific issue to this release only
http://214r.minipc.org/pup214R-1.01.iso <-- Original version

Ecomoney I'm basically building a updated base that can compile the latest applications like Gimp, which you couldn't do before. This will breath another 2+yrs life into 2 series. Its not a remaster I'm building, I'm editing the sfs file itself and compiling the latest versions needed to extend the life of 2 series. When I'm finished you can take the release and add change and make a CE out of it, if you wanted to. You've supplied some useful links which is good, but off hand do you know what should be used from those links? in a release like this?

My goal is simple, update 2 series so users like James C who has 256mb of ram and is saving almost 100MB using this over 4.2.1.

If anyone has any fixes, for any of the issues above, please post them
I'm meanwhile I'm going to continue updating some software for the next release. So please lend a hand and find some fixes , If we work as a community this release will be 10X better than If I did it alone.
thanks
ttuuxxx

[vg1]

mawebb88.

The params [cheatcodes] are different than in the p4 series. Read my post further up.
This is my menu.lst entry:

Code: Select all

title Puppy214R
rootnoverify (hd0,2)/puppy2/pup214R
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda3 PUPMODE=12 DEV1FS=vfat SFSFILE=vfat,sda3,/puppy2/pup214R/pup_214R.sfs ZDRV=vfat,sda3,/puppy2/pup214R/zdrv_214R.sfs PUPSAVE=vfat,sda3,/puppy2/pup214R/pup_save214R.2fs
# pfix=fsck
initrd /initrd.gz

Adapt this to your setup. Note the use of upper case [in the 2series it made a difference]. Also note sda3, not hda3 [ie if you have a sata drive, as appears to be the case]. Fsck works differently than in later series. Suggest to remove it for now until you get it going.
As said, this works with p214R and should also work with this one, unless something has been changed. I will comment more when I test it.

Edit: in your case it should read:

Code: Select all

title Puppy214X
rootnoverify (hd0,1)/puppy214X
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda2 PUPMODE=12 SFSFILE=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/pup_214R.sfs ZDRV=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/zdrv_214R.sfs PUPSAVE=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/pup_save.2fs
# pfix=fsck DEV1FS=ntfs
initrd /initrd.gz

Make sure that you have a 'satahd' flag on sda2, which you probably do already. P214R has a problem when booting a frugal install the first time without a pup_save. Either boot from cd first & create a pup_save on exit, or borrow a copy of an existing pup_save & try with that. It probably won't work correctly and you will later discard it, but if you do succeed to boot then with this save_file file in the appropriate dir [and named pup_save.2fs so it is pointed to correctly in the above entry] you should be able to boot with pfix=ram and create a proper pup_save on exit.

Once you get it going you can add DEV1FS=ntfs to the kernel line to gain a sec or two at boot.

Does that help?

vg

[tubby]

Had to add audio-volume-*-.png's to /usr/local/share/icons for tray display of volume.
Skype will not accept password?, also it seems to run after closing the program using upto 100% processor.

[ttuuxxx]

Had to add audio-volume-*-.png's to /usr/local/share/icons for tray display of volume.
Skype will not accept password?, also it seems to run after closing the program using upto 100% processor.

hi tubby thanks for that, the issue with Skype could just be that this version doesn't have flash, did you install flash?
also thanks for the volume heads-up, I'll include the icon with the next release.
ttuuxxx

[tubby]

Hi ttuuxx, i installed flash and an error showed glibc needed. I installed glibc and errors log showed unsupported c or something like that.
Anyway on reboot fatal kernel error with libm.so.6 and boot stopped.
I have just reinstalled and i am starting again.

[seeker]

ttuuxxx,

I would really like to test this Puppy. Is there a rush to get it out the door?

In particular I want to see if it will run 3D acceleration on my old built-in ATI. A few months ago I put together a couple of Puppies to play my old Windows games with, through Wine and Dosbox. I tried a lot of versions from 2.02 to 4.12 and found only two that worked for me as frugal installs. 215 CE with MU's 3D drivers (available from the Puppy 215CE menu) and a newer libC and Wine would play my games that needed graphics acceleration, and TipsyPup worked the best for the Dosbox games. Of course 215CE had to be isolated in it's own partition. 215CE seemed to have better video drivers than 214 as I could not get acceleration working correctly with 214.

Seeker

[ttuuxxx]

ttuuxxx,

I would really like to test this Puppy. Is there a rush to get it out the door?

In particular I want to see if it will run 3D acceleration on my old built-in ATI. A few months ago I put together a couple of Puppies to play my old Windows games with, through Wine and Dosbox. I tried a lot of versions from 2.02 to 4.12 and found only two that worked for me as frugal installs. 215 CE with MU's 3D drivers (available from the Puppy 215CE menu) and a newer libC and Wine would play my games that needed graphics acceleration, and TipsyPup worked the best for the Dosbox games. Of course 215CE had to be isolated in it's own partition. 215CE seemed to have better video drivers than 214 as I could not get acceleration working correctly with 214.

Seeker

naaa no rush, but I did see in the post from Ecomoney to the links for those extra 3d drivers for 2.14, so the next release I'll add them in, and it should be just as good as 2.15ce if not a bit better with the extras that in it
ttuuxxx

[ecomoney]

If we work as a community this release will be 10X better than If I did it alone.

I will say that is an understatement if ever I heard one. It might be ten times better if you helped....we will see.

but I did see in the post from Ecomoney to the links for those extra 3d drivers for 2.14, so the next release I'll add them in, and it should be just as good as 2.15ce if not a bit better with the extras that in it

How good it is depends on what good it does. If it were a modern base for a community edition then it would certainly have to include software that is in use by the vast majority of computer users around the world, rather than accelerated graphics that will be of use to some. The later GCC version will allow for a later flash player compatible with Facebook etc.

The link I gave you above is to Mark Ulrichs accelerated graphics configuration wizard. It downloads and configures the correct graphics driver automatically, for many legacy cards. The download locations are hard coded into it. The size is minuscule (82k) compared to the size of the drivers it enables easy access to. Much of the hardware better suited to a 2.6.18.1 kernel will have 128mb RAM or even less. Including all the weighty graphics drivers for various cards in the pup_2.14r would degrade the experience on these types of machines. Enabling easy access to these non-critical but nice to have features is the way to go.

The wizard can be downloaded from here

http://dotpups.de/dotpups/3D-Control-Center

It was also included in 2.15ce, you have a look at the wizard there.

While you are on Marks server, there are many tested apps provided by Mark Ulrich

http://dotpups.de/dotpups

with links to their documentation.

Documentation/relevant threads to the 2.14r project are here

Pup214R v1.00 - Puppy Linux 2.14 Revisited, is now available

Puppy 2.14r SP1 update

Some other miscellaneous goodies

Extras for Puppy 2.12 - 2.16

There was also Puppy "Phoenix CE" which was based from 2.14r V 1.01 (you see how confusing its getting).



This was basically just 2.14r with a few added/changed apps and look. Skipstone was tried as a "lite" browser here, but was buggy.

Heres a download link for my copy, it even has the same iso name.

http://www.ecomoney.eu/puppy/phoenix/pu ... master.iso

2.14r series had drive icons on the desktop...which adds enormously to puppys "newbie usebility". Many Gtk apps/scripts have moved on a lot since 2.15r/Phoenix was released. Moving these to from 4.xx to a potential community edition would be a matter of simply copying the scripts.

[clarf]

Beautiful work ttuuxxx... I love 2.xx Puppy series.

Are you going to add some fixes to this Puppy 2.14X Reloaded?. Are you going to post a list with the apps updated?.

Well if you find some fixes, I'll add them
When I'm totally finished I'll list the apps, since its still a bit on-going, I'll hold off a bit.
below is a snapsht of most of the packages I compiled, other than blinky, and maybe a couple of others.
ttuuxxx

Great work tuuxxx, Did you have to update or patch some libraries to compile those new versions?.

About new fixes, updating to new versions already fix some specific applications problems. For that reason it make sense to have a fixes list on well know Puppy 2.1x problems. Moreover using updated programs enhance Puppy, for example Pmount from 2.17 is faster in that version than early Puppys.

Fora additional fixes I remember right now some for 2.16 and 2.17 series. Please take a look on:

-browser bug, and easy fix by miriam (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=20908). Don´t know if necessary with latest versions .

-Updated Wallpaper Application by MU (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21017). Don´t know if you already updated this one .

If I could remember other fixes I´ll post them later.

[ttuuxxx]

Great work tuuxxx, Do you had to update or patch some libraries to compile those new versions?.

yes the main applications that was were stopping a lot of updates were, gtk2,pango,cairo,,glib. They've been all updated, So things like gimp,seamonkey can be compiled.
I'm still updating the devx and will be releasing it maybe today.
ttuuxxx

[tubby]

Hi ttuuxxx, a couple of bugs that are beyond my very limited knowledge, hopefully someone knows the answers already from original releases.
Firstly xerrs log show a couple of the problems namely jwm warnings, these seem to be pointing to a small white square in the bottom right hand coner of the screen obscured by the task bar. also fontconfig error ' cannot load default config file '.
When i plug a usb memory stick in no icon appears on the desktop, using usbview shows the memory stick but when i looked at /proc the computer locked showing /proc scanning.
I am using a usb wifi stick so i know the ports are functioning, i have tried the memory stick with and without the wifi stick but the same thing happens.

[ttuuxxx]

Hi ttuuxxx, a couple of bugs that are beyond my very limited knowledge, hopefully someone knows the answers already from original releases.
Firstly xerrs log show a couple of the problems namely jwm warnings, these seem to be pointing to a small white square in the bottom right hand coner of the screen obscured by the task bar. also fontconfig error ' cannot load default config file '.
When i plug a usb memory stick in no icon appears on the desktop, using usbview shows the memory stick but when i looked at /proc the computer locked showing /proc scanning.
I am using a usb wifi stick so i know the ports are functioning, i have tried the memory stick with and without the wifi stick but the same thing happens.

Hi thanks for that, I fixed the fontconfig, and the jwm"corners"warning, the square-box is a known bug, to all puppies, Below is some info to what cause it, a clipboard.
I fixed the missing absvolume icons.
Your usb stick is a strange one, the usb sticks I use work perfect, I tried 4 different kinds/makes. Can you find a error report?
Thanks for your help also.
ttuuxxx

#0.9.8 sync selection-buffer and clipboard. only useful for older apps
#such as rxvt that use the selection-buffer...
[ -f /usr/bin/autocutsel ] && /usr/bin/autocutsel &
#...disadvantage of this is it creates a little square bottom-right of screen.

[tubby]

Thanks for replying with your fixes, as to my usb problem i can not find any error messages that look like they point to usb. Usb view shows it correctly as a cruzer with all the attributes.
Have you tried to open the /proc/bus/usb/devices folder?, as i do not have an icon on the dektop for usb when i plug one in i am wondering if something may be broken.
Do you think that as my desktop icon for the partition i am running this distro on has vanished, ( it went walkabout after 2 or 3 boots ) has a bearing on my problem? Also if i look into Mnt it shows as a folder not a drive.?.

[mawebb88]

mawebb88.


Edit: in your case it should read:

Code: Select all

title Puppy214X
rootnoverify (hd0,1)/puppy214X
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda2 PUPMODE=12 SFSFILE=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/pup_214R.sfs ZDRV=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/zdrv_214R.sfs PUPSAVE=ntfs,sda2,/puppy214X/pup_save.2fs
# pfix=fsck DEV1FS=ntfs
initrd /initrd.gz

Make sure that you have a 'satahd' flag on sda2, which you probably do already. P214R has a problem when booting a frugal install the first time without a pup_save. Either boot from cd first & create a pup_save on exit, or borrow a copy of an existing pup_save & try with that. It probably won't work correctly and you will later discard it, but if you do succeed to boot then with this save_file file in the appropriate dir [and named pup_save.2fs so it is pointed to correctly in the above entry] you should be able to boot with pfix=ram and create a proper pup_save on exit.

Once you get it going you can add DEV1FS=ntfs to the kernel line to gain a sec or two at boot.

Does that help?

vg

Thanks vg for your suggestions. Tried but still not successful. Gets further but ends up with kernel panic. Tried taking out one parameter at a time but no joy and lost myself what I had or had not tried. I don't think my drive is sata BTW.

BTW I have 214R working fine from a USB stick on the same PC. I think I just try 214X from the same stick for my next move. Will report back if I have any further news.
Rgds Mike

[legendofthor]

G'day,
Just found this Project - all I can say is thank you to all the developers working on this especially ttuuxxx.... Puppy Series 2 certainly breathes new life into old computers.
I can test and compile programmes but system stuff is beyond me - in the next few days will start a thorough testing of the updates.
Is there going to be a central repository for the updated Puppy series 2 programmes or are you going to take Barry's suggestion and place them in Ibiblio?

Maybe kindly ask Caneri if he would be willing to start a new Folder Repository for New and Updated programmes - Series 2. In this way anything I make workable for series 2 will have a home.

Cheers
Martin

[vg1]

Mike,

sorry to hear you still get kernel panic.If you think your drive is not sata then try PMEDIA=idehd and replace each instance of sda by hda. Ensure you have 'idehd' on hda1.

Whatever the problem you will still need a pup_save file. Try using a copy of your working 214R pup_save. Place it in the appropriate folder & name accordingly. If all names & grub entries agree then it could work. If it boots but does not work correctly you at least know that the menu.lst entries are ok. But you still need a working pup_save and the method described in my earlier post will not work.

To create a new empty pup_save boot into your p412 in rox, navigate to /hda2/puppy214x and open a 'terminal here' [right click > window > terminal here ' or just " ' "] then:

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=pup_save.2fs bs=1M count=32

to make a 32MB pup_save.2fs, then:

Code: Select all

mke2fs pup_save.2fs

to turn it into an ext2 file system. Alternatively you can use any pup_save file, click to mount & open in rox [ie in p412], delete all inside it, click again to close, and you have an empty pup_save file.

Now boot with this empty pup_save file in /hda2/puppy214x and a correct PUPSAVE parameter as in the previous post, and your p214X should boot as with pfix=ram. It will ask you a few question as on first boot & will populate the pup_save. On 2nd boot it should work as normally with a new pup_save.
I went through this precise sequence and it worked for me. I now have a frugal install with a new pup_save and all works fine.

Good luck.

vg

[ttuuxxx]

G'day,
Just found this Project - all I can say is thank you to all the developers working on this especially ttuuxxx.... Puppy Series 2 certainly breathes new life into old computers.
I can test and compile programmes but system stuff is beyond me - in the next few days will start a thorough testing of the updates.
Is there going to be a central repository for the updated Puppy series 2 programmes or are you going to take Barry's suggestion and place them in Ibiblio?

Maybe kindly ask Caneri if he would be willing to start a new Folder Repository for New and Updated programmes - Series 2. In this way anything I make workable for series 2 will have a home.

Cheers
Martin

To tell you the truth I don't know, each package I compile can be split into 2-3 packages. usually the main program and the dev files and sometimes the locales. Now time that by 50 or so packages and your talking about a lot of extra work, really 95% of the packages are included in the the actual Os and Devx. Those packages would only be good if you want to do a unleashed and even then there is no unleashed for 2.14.1r, heck we can't even get the recompiled kernel for it, and the regular default 2.14 kernel without the extra modules is really not a good general kernel, like I said all the earlier 2.02-2.14 don't work on sata dvd players or newer videocards and xvesa is 10fps, I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the updated modules in 2.14.1r. If Barry was to recompile the kernel with extra modules like 2.14.1R has then I would think about doing all that extra work. Actually I probably would start from scratch again. This time with a proper xdg puppy menu and a barebones version.

as for the a new repo etc, thats for whoever wants to continue this after I'm done, maybe John from teenpup since he has proven that he likes this series. I'm more for Dpup and think that Dpup will be a better choice for older pc's when I'm finished with it.

I've been working of the devx, and fixing a small few issues it had. Also the xfburn package I made for 4 series didn't work because of the older glibc, So I recompiled the backend of xfburn, below are 2 packages, could some people please install both packages and test xfburn and see if it runs well ?
This is the first time its been ported to 2 series, just remember it comes with its own burning engine, so if you had issues with other burners then try this one. Since its the latest burning backend.
ttuuxxx

[ttuuxxx]

Hi Guys just made another version up and I was going to release it, but first I wanted to test it, and found a couple of small issues, So i'll fix them then release it in about another 2 hrs or so, does anyone want Pburn included, Most of the backend is already included for the other burning applications, it will add about 188kb compressed. Well let me know.
ttuuxxx

[clarf]

Hi Guys just made another version up and I was going to release it, but first I wanted to test it, and found a couple of small issues, So i'll fix them then release it in about another 2 hrs or so, does anyone want Pburn included, Most of the backend is already included for the other burning applications, it will add about 188kb compressed. Well let me know.
ttuuxxx

Thanks ttuuxxx, you are quite fast...

I´ll like to see icewm updated for 2 series, I tried to compile 1.3.3 version once for Puppy 4.1.2 and I couldn´t (didn´t tried to compile it for 2 series yet). Had you tried it ttuuxxx?.

I don´t use Pburn right now, but 188kb seems a very small size .