Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[musher0]

"So I've got good music and video, web browsing,
and games. These things are what matter to me,
it's a keeper! "

-- Billtoo, tenth post down this thread, last paragraph.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can download Puduan-6.0.0-wmx-alpha1a from here:
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZehKBZq6OU2MMHTJhMPKYqFDjlTY1GNUwk
(md5sum: 9f710c89830450544cc1d4b011c61b3e Puduan-6.0.0-wmx-alpha1a.iso)

The devx is available here:
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZS5sBZafMtHd0dddHI9HNM4TvNdjj8g2H7
(md5sum: b61b72fa646dfa0b867145632767bb7a devx_puduan_6.0.0.sfs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello all!

This is Puduan-6.0.0-wmx-alpha1a, a remaster of the Puduan Jessie built with
woof-CE. This thread is a continuation of that one.

Many thanks to all of you on that thread who helped me along this road. I wouldn't
be writing this presentation of a Puduan Pup without you.

~~~~~~~~~~
There are still some details to iron out, but I've been using it for a couple of days,
and it's been going great.

Some of those details will be, I think, "language separation", as gcmartin once
dubbed it. Meaning: you may find some bits of French here and there. After a while
I don't see it, because I can function in both languages, but please mention to me
those incongruities.

Any other bugs or stupidities you can find too.

This is what alpha versions are for, isn't?

~~~~~~~~~~
It's big for a Puppy: 291 Mg's. It has:

an adrive : containing fonts and themes

an fdrive : containing seamonkey and mplayer (if you like neither and have
replacements, tuck this sfs away in a safe place instead of loading it!)

a ydrive : containing the various themed wmx-8's and the wmx menu

of course a zdrive, which contains, in addition to the drivers and such usually
put in there, the tcltk interpreter needed for tkConverter.

This Pup uses aemenu-pango (the vovchik variant! Thanks, vovchik!) a lot.
It will take you a bit of "getting-used-to", but in the end I hope you'll agree with me
that using menus for a lot of functions makes computer life easier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On boot-up, you are brought to a near empty desktop, except for the ROX panel to
the left.

-- If you wish to have more icons on screen, somewhat like the traditional
Puppy appearance, click on one of the white-ish/yellow-ish icons either on the
bmpanel2 (first icon after the circles) or on the ROX panel (fourth icon from the
bottom), and click on "empty PPin". Twice! (The absolute first time is for
initialization, the second time is when you get results. After it's initialized, just
one click is enough to have the ROX desktop tilt from near-empty to normal and
vice-versa.)

-- If you prefer to have the ROX-panel on the right edge of your screen as in this
illustration by tester Billtoo, right-click on the ROX-panel and hit "panel options"
in the menu. In the window that appears, click "Right edge" in the bottom part. Done!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please see the post below for a short section on using the wmx-8 window manager.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may wish to explore Puppy's traditional default apps (and a few more) by
clicking on the aemenu below the clock. You can't miss it, it says "MENU" !

If you wish to change the default app, please use the "default-app chooser" utility.
The default app menu will still work, no problem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The jwm window manager is still there. To use it instead of wmx, go back to the
initial black console and type < xwin jwm >.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll cover more ground in the next post.

BFN.

[musher0]

Attached are two screen captures which I hope are self-explanatory. If they are not,
please ask. But first, please study them a bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Concerning wmx-8 generally:

The wmx menu proper is called with a MIDDLE click anywhere on an empty part of
the background. Be warned: you need a steady hand to navigate it. But after a while
it becomes second nature.

Left-click calls a list of what's running on the desk.

Right-click moves focus from one window to the other on the desk.

Top right is where you change desks with first a middle-click, then a left-click or a
right-click depending on the direction you want to go. You can also change desks
with your mouse wheel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To change the color theme of wmx, go back to the initial black console with
Cntrl-Alt-Backspace and type < choice-wmx > : a number of color themes will be
shown. Type the color you like and hit return. The colors are as follows:

light-grey

milk (the default color of wmx)

Navajo1 (a Navajo white theme)

Navajo2-bristled (almost the same as above, with "bristles")

noir2 (black with white type in the menu and window frames. Very classy.)

porto8 (the color "port", a beautiful dark red, like the Portuguese wine
bearing the same name)

vagues4 (transl.: "waves4". Sea blue)

vert6 (transl.: "green6". Ideal for green backdrops and GTK themes).

~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the wmx "Navajo1", to
-- totally maximize a window, type the "Left win" key + Home in the arrows pad.
-- to undo, type the "Left win" key + End in the arrows pad.

-- maximize a window horizontally, type the "Left win" key + the "+" key in the
numbers pad.
-- to undo, type the "Left win" key + the "-" key in the numbers pad.

-- maximize a window vertically, type the "Left win" key + Up in the arrows pad.
-- to undo, type the "Left win" key + Down in the arrows pad.

-- iconify a window, type the "Left win" key + the Enter key on the main keyboard.
-- to undo, click on the icon on the desktop.

NOTE -- Some colors of wmx were compiled with the Left-Alt key as the main key
(instead of Left-win). In the wmx color you are using, if for example, Left-win +
Enter does not iconify the window, try Left-Alt + Enter. And so on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you look closely at the above full-screen screenshots, bottom right, you'll see a
green-gradients line just above the digital clock on the bmpanel2. That's actually an
icon. Clicking on it will toggle the bmpanel2 off and on.

BFN.

[musher0]

Credits

First of All:
to Barry Kauler for having invented Puppy! (« À tout seigneur tout honneur ! »)

For Help in Using the Woof-CE Process to Output this Puduan Jessie:
01micko, 666philb, jlst

Invaluable Testers:
Billtoo, davids45, gcmartin.

For the Distinctive, Beautiful and Classy "Puduan" Backdrops:
nilsonmorales

Plus all the Puppy-ists and forum members who, during the past eight years, taught me
how to do things in Linux and Puppy through samples or examples, tips, general
directions, their Puppy-related work or their actual Puppies. They are too numerous to
mention all here, but off the top of my head:

aragon
Argolance
augras
béèm
dejan555
gposil
GrumpyWolfe
jemimah
jopervasco
Médor
mikeb
MU
petithar
rerwin
technosaurus
vovchik
wanderer
etc., etc., etc.

A bit of what you taught me is in here somewhere!

[musher0]

Special Features

1 ) -- A CLI music-player script based on the Sound eXchange, for ogg, flac and
mp3 files. To use, right-click on a music folder and click "BOU". A secondary CLI
menu allows you to play all pieces first to last, last to first, or a selection of titles.

Only thing is that you have to have music files in the folder. For example, I have a
Jessie_Cook folder with a Free_Fall sub-folder in it. The Free_Fall folder contains
the music files. If I call the BOU player from the Jessie_Cook folder I'll get an
error.

Additionnally, the qiv viewer will cycle through the cover art if there is any in the
folder, while the music is playing.

~~~~~~~~
2 ) -- If you left-click on the analog rclock or on the digital clock in the bmpanel2,
you get a menu with various calendars: monthly, term, six-month, past year,
current year, next year.

Also an organizer sub-menu can be accessed from there, and you can fetch your
e-mail from it. Please see attached picture.

~~~~~~~~
3 ) -- If you click on the X round button (second from the bottom in the ROX panel),
you will be presented with an abstract of xerrs.log. To consult both the abstract
and the xerrs.log, type "v" in the CLI window: the files will open in your editor,
either joe or geany (it doesn't work with leafpad). This info may give you leads for
debugging. (Illustrated by the first picture in the second post above.)

~~~~~~~~
4 ) -- Stats (in the wmx menu). From this menu, you can
4.1) -- show available ram and
~~
4.2) -- on which desk you are.
This one has a submenu:
4.2.1) -- The left and right arrows mean: go to the next or previous desktop;
4.2.2) -- the "+2" and "-2" entries mean: go to the 2nd desktop to the left or to
the 2nd desktop to the right.

It's designed as a continuum, in other words it cycles, meaning: it does not bump
and stay there at the first or last desktop, as in some other window managers.
Here's an example:
-- Let's say that you have three (3) desktops.
-- You are currently on desktop #2, thus in the middle of your screen set-up.
-- You open the stats submenu, then the desktop sub-submenu, and you click on
the "+2" entry.
-- Result: you are brought to desktop #1.

Here's another example:
-- You have three (3) desktops.
-- You are on desktop #1.
-- You open the stats submenu, then the desktop sub-submenu, and you click on
the "-2" entry.
-- Result: you are brought to desktop #2.

Capiche?
~~
4.3) -- You can free up some ram if you click on the ram statistics entry. It takes
a few seconds; the window will open at +/- 2 o'clock on your screen (some call it
East-NorthEast!).
~~
4.4) -- it also accesses a MRUD list (your "most recently used" docs and apps)
~~
4.5) -- and a "what's running" table. (Please see the attached composite picture.)

~~~~~~~~
5 ) -- "Dailies" system back-up technique.

~~~~~~~~
6 ) -- This Puduan Pup has its own "partview" (please see 2nd attached pic).

~~~~~~~~
7 ) -- To update the wmx menu, click on the entry in the wmx menu that says:
"MAJ_Update.sh". It's pretty fast, considering the amount of applications we have
in /usr/share/applications. When it's done, it will say so in a message on screen.
(This is, for wmx, the equivalent of < fixmenus > for jwm.)

~~~~~~~~
8 ) -- Most urxvt consoles fade to a grayish green color when not in focus. I'm
making a separate item of it so you're not surprised and know that this console
behavior is not a bug! The second picture in the second post above illustrates
this behavior.

~~~~~~~~
Happy exploring of your Puduan Puppy!

BFN.

[Billtoo]

I did a manual frugal install to a 16gb flash drive to use on my COMPAQ Presario.
It boots to the desktop but the mouse is dead, pressing tab does nothing.
I tried a usb mouse, and a ps2 mouse, no luck.
Tried a couple of different keyboards as well.

[musher0]

[Billtoo]

[musher0]

[musher0]

@Billtoo:

I corrected the problem. I created a new sfs and iso and tested it on a second
computer, and this time the keyboard and mouse work fine. I think I had hit the
customize button instead of the pristine one on the first remaster. But now it
should be fine.

The download link for the new, corrected, "alpha 1a" iso is in my first post.

BFN

[Billtoo]

I did a manual frugal install to a 16gb flash drive, computer is a compaq presario desktop:

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Sat 20 Aug 2016 on Puduan 6.0.0 Linux 3.14.0 i686
0.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV530 [Radeon X1600 PRO]
oem: ATI ATOMBIOS
product: RV530 01.00

X Server: Xorg Driver: radeon
1920x1080 60.00*+
1920x1080 60.00*+

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV530
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Core 0: @2800 1: @2800 MHz

I used links2 to download Firefox ESR 45.3.0

I got an error message about a missing backdrop so there was no
wallpaper at first.

I've just begun to explore but I like this so far.

Will report more after I use it for a few hours.

Thanks.

Later: I've added kdegames with PPM which is working much better but I
still needed my qt-482 pets to get it working.
Mplayer works well so that takes care of music and videos.
Firefox is working well.
So I've got good music and video, web browsing, and games.
These things are what matter to me, it's a keeper

[learnhow2code]

short post to musher to say-- you and i may have our differences, but keep up the good work. im happy that someone is working on woof-ce distros.

learning-by-doing is a way to become expert-- we can use more of those, glad that youre becoming one.

[musher0]

[musher0]

Hello all.

Almost forgot:

during the test of the alpha1 on that other desktop computer, I was able to save
to DVD sessions. Isn't that great?

We have back a totally HD-free Puppy if we wish or need to! In the Pup Wheezy I
woofed late last winter, that capacity had been lost!

Thanks to whomever corrected it, brought it back.

Nowadays saving to a DVD session may sound old-fashioned, but there are still a
couple of niche uses for it:

-- for absolutely secure online banking (recommended by the Australian police,
BTW), and also:

-- for dating or versioning of your work. It's a simple and efficient way for a dev or
any user to know what (s)he did when, since the names of the DVD session
folders are the date and hour of your saves.

BFN.

[davids45]

G'day/jour musher0,

I'm trying your latest puduan-6.0.0 as a Frugal. I am loading all your lettered sfs files on start-up (a, z, y, f).

Some problems and comments.

Background image did not load on booting - the image file was being looked for somewhere in /root. I used the wallpaper setter to go to /usr/share/backgrounds/ and loaded up your dark red puduan wallpaper (screenshot).

Weather program - icon is on the right side of the screen so gets covered by my pwidgets -so I moved the weather icon 'centre-stage'. I still need to press <Enter> to get the weather report after the program starts. My widgets also covered the grey analog clock which I could not move. So I moved the widgets by hand but the clock is now detail-less. The widgets also are displaying in a series of conky windows which is not their normal look.

I have two hard-drives (28 partitions in all) and like to have the partition icons in rows across the bottom of the display. These are all in a pile at bottom left of the display.

Attached screenshot shows my problems.

Only having had two years of high-school French about fifty five years ago, I am sadly mono-lingual . So I was in difficulty in closing puduan down - the red icon bottom right spoke to me in French . Your comment about mixed English/French still being present is truly made .

Software from my own sfs files loaded by the Boot Manager seem to be OK so far except for the pwidgets framing. Wine is OK as is libreoffice also a range of old games, and I'm posting from a slimjet sfs using a profile held on my data partition. And gimp (sfs) edited the attached screenshot without problem.

I will try to keep a record of any other things I come across and let you know later.

Thanks for this interesting new Pup.

David S.

[musher0]