New Wary/Racy website

[nic007]

belham2, I see one can download the videos one wants to watch from Netflix. Why don't you rather do that as that will be an alternative to your streaming issues. Also - I don't know in which format the videos on Netflix are streamed but if the format is different from the download file format (eg. mkv download files) you might try to stream the downloadable file from the download link.

[nic007]

Nice utility to have is LXRandR a GUI utility to change monitor settings (multi-monitor configuration). I've ripped this from my Tahr installation and repackaged as an sfs file Works for me with Precise and Racy. Attached as zip file.

[Mike Walsh]

@ Nic:-

3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

I believe you've hit on one of my issues here. I'll tell you for why.

I downloaded and tried your VLC-2.0 for Racy. Although I could get audio with everything I tried - .mp4, .avi. .mkv., even webm - I could not get a single one to show the video. At all. And that's strange, 'cos I have a recent SMPlayer from norgo running perfectly on here.....although these are statically-compiled. Maybe that's the difference?

I've got a newer ffmpeg running in Racy. But are we here literally talking just libavcodec, or do I need the other associated libs, too?


Mike.

[nic007]

@ Nic:-

3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

I believe you've hit on one of my issues here. I'll tell you for why.

I downloaded and tried your VLC-2.0 for Racy. Although I could get audio with everything I tried - .mp4, .avi. .mkv., even webm - I could not get a single one to show the video. At all.

I've got a newer ffmpeg running in Racy. But are we here literally talking just libavcodec, or do I need the other associated libs, too?


Mike.

Strange, works for me and plays all those formats you mention (webm version 8 though, not the new webm 9 videos of youtube) with the standard builtin codec pack of Racy. I haven't replaced Racy's codec pack or made any changes to ffmpeg.

[tuxtoo]

Don't know if this is the right place but I'm going to make a few points with regards to running Racy. This is specifically aimed at those users who need to run an older Puppy like Racy because of hardware constraints and not those who run it as some novelty or some old time fun project:
1. Racy is one distribution where upgrading the kernel does make a lot of sense and a huge difference. I highly recommend using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel instead. This will implement adrv and ydrv functionality and of course update the driver base, etc. The beauty of this, is that it fits like a hand in a glove without making a huge difference in size, neither does it bog down the system in any way (or make it harder for already constraint hardware). The original Racy kernel, re-packed as a zdrv, is about 18MB in size (packed at max XZ compression) whereas the Tahr kernel is 23MB.
2. I do not recommend the massive glibc upgrade to accomodate newer software as this will inevitably put a heavier load on already constraint hardware. For the general Puppy user, this is unnecessary. But of course you will want to use a new internet browser and thankfully watchdog has done marvelous work to make new browsers work with Racy by way of including only the necessary upgrades to make it work.
3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

In conclusion, this is how I run my Racy 5.5: The original base sfs stripped of its kernel and old browser, repacked with max xz compression = 65MB. Using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel packed as zdrv = 23 MB. And then I use a new browser like Palemoon as sfs-addon and a few other sfs-addons like VLC, etc. Perfect little system for me.

@Nic007 Some of this stuff is beyond my capabilities (at present) and I was wondering if you could make an ISO available to have a play with? If appropriate I can make it available on Racypup for download.

[mistfire]

Reviving Racy and Wary? I think you must update their package manager and its core apps.

You will find updated core apps. The updated package manager on this page https://racypup.netlify.com/system.html

Sorry you are disappointed.

If you are fluent in bash scripting, update the PPM, remasterpup, and sfs_load. You can use the x-slacko slim build kit. Download it, extract the tarball and examine the scripts on patches folder. Then modify your scripts, in order to make the package management of racypup better

To make the library files, executable files, and even kernel modules smaller. Strip it by using this command

Code: Select all

strip --strip-unneeded [library/executable file]
strip --strip-debug [library/executable file]

Also when creating sfs file, set the sfs block size to 512k, xz compression

[nic007]

Don't know if this is the right place but I'm going to make a few points with regards to running Racy. This is specifically aimed at those users who need to run an older Puppy like Racy because of hardware constraints and not those who run it as some novelty or some old time fun project:
1. Racy is one distribution where upgrading the kernel does make a lot of sense and a huge difference. I highly recommend using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel instead. This will implement adrv and ydrv functionality and of course update the driver base, etc. The beauty of this, is that it fits like a hand in a glove without making a huge difference in size, neither does it bog down the system in any way (or make it harder for already constraint hardware). The original Racy kernel, re-packed as a zdrv, is about 18MB in size (packed at max XZ compression) whereas the Tahr kernel is 23MB.
2. I do not recommend the massive glibc upgrade to accomodate newer software as this will inevitably put a heavier load on already constraint hardware. For the general Puppy user, this is unnecessary. But of course you will want to use a new internet browser and thankfully watchdog has done marvelous work to make new browsers work with Racy by way of including only the necessary upgrades to make it work.
3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

In conclusion, this is how I run my Racy 5.5: The original base sfs stripped of its kernel and old browser, repacked with max xz compression = 65MB. Using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel packed as zdrv = 23 MB. And then I use a new browser like Palemoon as sfs-addon and a few other sfs-addons like VLC, etc. Perfect little system for me.

@Nic007 Some of this stuff is beyond my capabilities (at present) and I was wondering if you could make an ISO available to have a play with? If appropriate I can make it available on Racypup for download.

Download link for the ISO:
https://mega.nz/#!sHB02KKT!USg6UND7S7Ls ... i0spLSG0fE
This is basically just a kernel swop with Tahr 6.0.5. Only the Racy kernel and the old Seamonkey browser have been removed from the official Racy 5.5 release and nothing has been added to the base sfs. This is fully functionally but users will probably want to make use of watchdog's new browsers for the internet. I find it sufficient for my own use as is but others may want to use it just as a base for further expansion.

[tuxtoo]

Cheers nic007, I will have a play and add it to the webiste.

tuxtoo

[proebler]

I was curious, so downloaded nic007 's iso and have made a frugal install on USB flashdrive, PUPMODE=13.
Using it at the moment on a HP Elitebook 6930p Core 2 with 3GB RAM, it flies!
As browser I am using Watchdog's firefox-45.9.0esr-w5-en_US-glibc219tweak from http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=109551, it is loaded as SFS.
I replaced /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown with the one from DPup-Stretch-7.5, which allows me to have the NO SAVE option at shutdown.
I have noted that resizing the personal storage space/racysave.2fs is not working. The file pupsaveresize.txt gets created, but is then not acted on when rebooting.
Thanks for this updated Wary/Racy.
It is a nice web page that you have created tuxtoo at https://racypup.netlify.com

[nic007]

I was curious, so downloaded nic007 's iso and have made a frugal install on USB flashdrive, PUPMODE=13.
Using it at the moment on a HP Elitebook 6930p Core 2 with 3GB RAM, it flies!
As browser I am using Watchdog's firefox-45.9.0esr-w5-en_US-glibc219tweak from http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=109551, it is loaded as SFS.
I replaced /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown with the one from DPup-Stretch-7.5, which allows me to have the NO SAVE option at shutdown.
I have noted that resizing the personal storage space/racysave.2fs is not working. The file pupsaveresize.txt gets created, but is then not acted on when rebooting.
Thanks for this updated Wary/Racy.
It is a nice web page that you have created tuxtoo at https://racypup.netlify.com

Try with base sfs as is (don't replace rc.shutdown and shutdownconfig) and report back whether the savefiles issues still exist. Thanks.

[nic007]

Did a few tests. There does indeed seem a problem with resizing the savefile. I've tried different permutations none of which worked. There seems to be some conflict. The resize script for Tahr 605 for instance does not even run in Racy. Racy's script does run but the resize is not done.

[proebler]

Tried with grep to find where 'pupsaveresize.txt' would be called on startup but failed to find the answer for the problem.
As a workaround I created a new savefile of the desired size and copied the old savefile's content over.

[nic007]

Nothing to do with the sysinit script either. Probably something in vmlinuz (ID strings or something). Anyways, there is an alternative as you have mentioned. BTW - no need to replace the rc.shutdown script to stop automatic saving at reboot/shutdown. Just comment out the snapmergepuppy lines in the "save session" section of that script (obviously when you already have a savefile).

[proebler]

@nic007,
put this into a file named pupsaveresizenew.txt

Code: Select all

KILOBIG=16384
PUPSAVEFILEX=/racy/racysave.2fs

If you run racy from a subfolder don't place the file there, but instead in / .
(as is, the file DOES assume that racy runs from /racy/ )
It will increase the racysave.2fs by 16MB on re-boot

[nic007]

@nic007,
put this into a file named pupsaveresizenew.txt

Code: Select all

KILOBIG=16384
PUPSAVEFILEX=/racy/racysave.2fs

If you run racy from a subfolder don't place the file there, but instead in / .
(as is, the file DOES assume that racy runs from /racy/ )
It will increase the racysave.2fs by 16MB on re-boot

That does not work for me but I'm glad it does for you. Anyways, I don't actually use a savefile.

[wiak]

Having been on a lengthy hiatus from Puppy and having been given an ancient 2005 Sony Vaio, 1.73ghz, 80gb HDD and 2gb maxed out RAM, I thought this would be a perfect Puppy Project. I have always preferred the true Puppies. versions 1 to 5, and I chose to install Racy-5.5 on this laptop. What's more I find that Watchdog has made up-to-date Palemoon Browser that runs perfectly on Racy-5.5.

...

So here is the link to the website: https://racypup.netlify.com/

Well, for me, this is the best ever Puppy website I've seen. The contents you have included show that Wary/Racy use is far from obsolete. Many of the packages you describe are bang up-to-date, including many of the modern Dog and Puppy utilities available on the forum such as DogRadio and so on.

I wish someone as talented at doing this kind of work, such as yourself, would produce a sister site that documents all the projects being developed on the Murga site since all of them feed into the modern Puppy ecosystem; they are not simply alternatives to Puppy, they are all murga-forum-user derived. But anyway, this new Wary/Racy site is truly inspiring - I also prefer these traditional Puppy systems to the Ubuntu/Debian-repo-using later ones. Indeed, now that I see how useful Wary and Racy still are, I'm also going to dig out an old dust-covered laptop I have and give that all a spin.

wiak

[Mike Walsh]

I wish someone as talented at doing this kind of work, such as yourself, would produce a sister site that documents all the projects being developed on the Murga site since all of them feed into the modern Puppy ecosystem; they are not simply alternatives to Puppy, they are all murga-forum-user derived. But anyway, this new Wary/Racy site is truly inspiring - I also prefer these traditional Puppy systems to the Ubuntu/Debian-repo-using later ones. Indeed, now that I see how useful Wary and Racy still are, I'm also going to dig out an old dust-covered laptop I have and give that all a spin.

@ Will:-

Hm. Sounds like another 'project' for Stuart & I..!

I have to agree with your comment about how useful these two 'veterans' still are. I don't know why, but I'd been determined to get Racy up-and-running at least 3½ years ago, though due to various interruptions it was around another 6 months before I did so. I'd read so much about it here on the Forum, I thought 'Well; let's see what all the 'fuss' is about...'

And I was very pleasantly surprised.

Yes, as I've stated; it's nice to be able to run the newest Puppies, though, due to bloat, some of the newest ones really need hardware with a bit more 'grunt' than I'm using here. I've always believed in being sympathetic to your hardware, and in using 'age-related' software wherever possible.....and in all honesty, Racy (and just this last few days, Wary) have astonished me by just how capable they still seem to be.

Wary is set-up to use certain items from a remote, Tahrpup-based 'jail' - I have watchdog to thank for that idea, because it permits the use of modern, up-to-date browsers, for one thing. Add to that the items that will run 'natively' (Adobe's Rdr 9 - yes, I know it's huge, but it seems to run in every Puppy I've ever tried it with; Openshot, for video-editing; various desktop 'widgets' I like to have; assorted screen-capture apps, including your magnificent Wex - superbly easy-to-operate, and with that modern ffmpeg, absolutely rock-solid in use; all the photo-editing tools I use on a daily basis, including MooiTech's superb 'PhotoScape', running under a common, remote install of WINE that every Pup is sym-linked to use.....etc., etc.) Even your quite astonishing pRecord, which is the first Puppy audio recorder that just 'works', OOTB, for me. Amazing stuff.

I'm definitely impressed. Oh, yes....


Mike.

[tuxtoo]

@ wiak

I wish someone as talented at doing this kind of work, such as yourself,

All I brought to the table of this project was some mediocre web development skills. Without Mike's Puppy skills the website would be but a shadow of what it is. The reality is, Mike is the brains of the outfit and working together with each others strengths is what has made the website what it is.

Hm. Sounds like another 'project' for Stuart & I..!

Hm. Sounds like something we might be able to pull off. Lets see, shall we.

[belham2]

Hi Tuxtoo and Mike!

I just wanted to say I had some time today, took a freshly dd'ed usb stick and downloaded Racy 5.5 & nearly everything else from the first page of racypup.netlify.com. Frugal-installed Racy, and soon had a great smile across my face. So, overall, great website guys, the layout/explanations are great!

I just have, for the moment, three questions and/or comments:

1) I didn't install the glibc-2.20-upgrade, though, as Watchdog's latest Palemoon installs great and doesn't seem to need it. But I will need the glibc-2.20 (right, Mike?) if I want to watch Netflix using a Chromey browser??

2) The "sfs2pet," after I installed it, would not convert a sfs to a pet. It only created a tar.gz file, was it supposed to create a pet? What did I screw up, haha??

3) My biggest problem is this: is there a problem with "pmount" in Racy-5.5 (I cant recall)?? Reason I ask is that (after Racy has completely booted) any plugged in USB, well, the icon for it pops up on the desktop, but when I go to click it pmount will not mount it. I get a red box pop-up saying:

"Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter: Error: unable to mount sdb1" (sda1 is the Racy USB)"

(btw, it did this for 6 different USB sticks, all EXT4 formatted, and I know all sticks are good as I use them in other pups---also, I can't mount the USBs from Rox-filer either, just get blank, empty USB directory saying it si there but showing nothing inside the folder. Lastly, Gparted sees the drive, the exact storage it has, and shows no Flags and/or anything that something is amiss)

I then pop open a terminal and try pmount from there, typing in to the terminal:

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1"

and an error message keeps coming saying:

"mount-FULL: /lib/libblkid.so.1: version 'BLKID_2.20' not found (required by mount-FULL)

....uhhmmmmm, huh?

[tuxtoo]

Hi belham2

I can answer Q2, well, sort of. I prefer to have a full HD install of Puppy, so I am unable to answer in respect of a frugal install. Just in case it was a bad upload of sfs2pet-1.2.pet I downloaded it from the website (racypup.netlify.com), installed it then downloaded Picasa_3.0-57.4402-i686.sfs and used sfs2pet to convert it with no problems.

Now, in the terminal window that opens the process seems to go fairly quickly with the info that the sfs file is converted to a tar.gz file. However, the process is not finished and you need to wait until the terminal window closes, after the terminal closes a Rox File Manager window will open with your converted pet file. sfs2pet deposits your converted pet in ~/my-pets folder

The time it takes for the conversion to complete is dependent on the size of the sfs file to be converted, obviously the larger the sfs file the longer it will take to convert. May I suggest you download the Picasa file (30mb) mentioned above from here and convert it to a pet which does not take too long ..... Hope this helps.

I will leave Mike to answer questions 1 and 3. Cos I don't know, sorry!