I'm feeling bold: a call for suggestions

Message

neighbor · #1 Post by **neighbor** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 04:26

Hello!

I've been hearing about Puppy for a few months and have been intrigued. Initially, learning that it ran off a CD, I figured it wouldn't work for me since I didn't want to lose my CD drive to run an OS - but now, with a little research I realize the CD drive is freed up after booting up with Puppy.

Here's my situation, and if anybody among all you knowledgeable folks has a suggestion, I'd love to hear it, as I'm open to trying something new!

I have a Sony Vaio which (same story you've all heard/experienced, I'm sure) has gotten totally bogged down by who-the-heck-knows-what-windows-crud. Slow, full, ick. It's such that I don't even want to use the computer so it sits in a bag waiting for the newer computer to join it...

Details: Sony Vaio with mobile AMD athlon processor
2002 Windows XP is current OS
490 MHz & 256 MB RAM

the HD is partitioned into C: and D: with the C: drive being full of something (I've deleted all files, all that's left is software). (4.94 GB used and 1.59 GB free) Too much of it is stuff I don't recognize and I fear to delete - or I would fear to delete if I was interested in keeping windows. But since the computer feels like junk at this point, I'm not interested in keeping windows. I want to make it mine!

So - to begin with, I'm looking simply to download puppy to CD and give it a whirl. Haven't done that yet as I'm totally new to everything being presented here and I'm still trying to figure out if I can download ISO files correctly without having to install another program... (sorry, that's a tangent to some degree)...

I think what I'm hoping for is a little word of encouragement and information about

a) can I (or should I) un-partition the hard drive (C: is nearly useless as is)
b) is this the same as reformatting it? and is this advisable?
c) do I do this from within Puppy or before installing Puppy?

I have this image in mind of having a blank slate, so to speak... There's nothing that I need to keep on the machine, so I'm willing to start from scratch, though it has to be a scratch which doesn't require a lot of coding/programming. As all of my computer experience is from within the windows framework, I'll need my user interface to be friendly...

I've been browsing the Beginners forum and it doesn't feel very beginnerish to me, with titles and abbreviations such as: kernal smp gspca, NTFS and SSH. these make no sense to me. I've been looking at video tutorials and slideshows about Puppy and I really like what I see - now I'm looking for the next step in translating my like into something to help me decide what I want to do about it...

So, is it possible/advisable to wipe out all traces of windows in order to play around and fully customize to my preferences - if so, what would be my first steps? And, does the partitioned hard drive create issues?

Any thoughts? Thanks so much!

alienjeff · #2 Post by **alienjeff** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 05:27

You can run Puppy without installing it to your HD. Why not just keep the existing OS installed, run Puppy from CD or DVD, and test drive it for a while to see if it's something you like?

Take the plunge. Action, not words. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

muggins · #3 Post by **muggins** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 09:44

yes, as suggested by AJ, don't wipe your existing installation until your happy that the puppy bootCD meets your expectations. i'd also suggest you do a forum search for "vaio", as it's a name that regularly comes up as sometimes experiencing probs with puppy.

neighbor · #4 Post by **neighbor** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 13:23

what a great idea. I hadn't even thought of searching for Vaio... yes, I guess I am putting the cart before the horse, having not tried it yet. I think I'm just so tired of watching machines slow down that I was/am willing to be drastic with the one machine that is just sitting there anyway.

Ok, off to continue browsing beginnners' pages... I'll let you know what happens next

Thanks!

hillside · #5 Post by **hillside** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 17:44

neighbor wrote:Hello!

I've been browsing the Beginners forum and it doesn't feel very beginnerish to me

You can find some basic manuals here. They take you through a lot of things in a step by step manner.

http://www.puppy-linux.info/en/manual/main.html

headfound · #6 Post by **headfound** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 18:23

Try this out!
http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/linnwin/contents.htm
Nice and easy to follow. Basically a simpler frugal install, you copy some files off disc onto your c: drive, add a couple from the site and copy/paste a few lines of code.
Reboot and you can boot either pup or windows.
!0 mins max.

neighbor · #7 Post by **neighbor** » Thu 25 Oct 2007, 23:33

success thus far!

I followed the directions and everything's working at this point (yes!). Download successful, Boot successful, and I now have this nice Welcome, woof, woof screen that I'm contemplating. This is exciting.

Thanks for the link to the manuals, hillside - I've been gleaning information off the download page and the forums and wherever else I could find it but hadn't come across the manuals yet... I notice my questions about partitions may be answered in short order by the manual.

I've downloaded 2.17 - wanting to start smaller than 3.0 and with something that probably more people have experience with (than 3.0) so I can find answers to commonly asked questions more easily...

headfound, I'll keep your idea in mind, after I attempt an initial trial of puppy. I've got my main computer on windows at the moment, so this "spare" is kind of my laboratory and open for experimentation (and as a spare, I don't rely on it having familiar Windows).

Thanks for y'all's reply, considering I"m probably way newbier than most newbies

Lobster · #8 Post by **Lobster** » Fri 26 Oct 2007, 04:33

You been Penguinated and Puppified

Good choice on your first Puppy.
3.02 should be out in aprox 1 month - should be a more stable upgrade to series 3

psssttt - wanna beautify your poodle?
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/EzPupHelp

2.17 online manual link
http://www.puppy-linux.info/en/manual/p ... /main.html

jonyo · #9 Post by **jonyo** » Fri 26 Oct 2007, 17:51

What's possible? Maan..lots!

A whole new world opens up.

So many options & possibilities that it boggles.

Certainly is wonderful to be able to revive old gear and make them fully usable.

Bit of a linux learning curve though but pup is one of the most noob friendly for most out there.

neighbor · #10 Post by **neighbor** » Fri 26 Oct 2007, 18:26

Last night the first things I did: added a new background photo (from internet via USB stick) to the few already there, and changed my background. Played a CD... Looked around a bit and saw that my files on the USB stick were there. Basically just learning what all the buttons and bells are for

I mistakenly (in retrospect) saved my changes/preferences on the HD - now I'll figure out how to retract that and save them to the CD - I liked how speedy it was on CD. Ultimately if I go all the way with this, I don't mind saving to HD, but it's kind of nifty playing with the "all-on-CD" option.

With the little warning up there about VAios sometimes having problems, I'm impressed that so far, for my basic needs at this point, I haven't had any such problems(knocks on head). Puppy even recovered from my mistakenly guessed monitor size (only slightly off, but still). Xorg and all those options that came with warnings worked without issue.

Next steps: to see if I can play my Japanese anime on it (codecs education here I come?), to figure out internet/ethernet stuff (DSL at home but the cable/jack is the wrong size for that computer...just to begin with). oh and CUPS.

I like a steep learning curve - considering I've only been looking at this stuff for two days, the basic superficial stuff is pretty figure-out-able. Great design and planning (way cool people on the puppy team!).

happy happy

SirDuncan · #11 Post by **SirDuncan** » Fri 26 Oct 2007, 18:35

Most important codecs are included by default. I am able to watch all my anime, western cartoons, British sci-fi, etc. in Puppy. Gxine is the default video player, but you will probably want to install either VLC or Mplayer. Most people consider them to be superior to Gxine if you watch a lot of videos.

There are a few codec packs in the package manager if you need them.

neighbor · #12 Post by **neighbor** » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 19:00

Thus far, Puppy is allowing me to do everything I'd wanted with the Sony Vaio, and then some... CUPS was set up with no problem and I just tested on of my anime that's written to CD and it worked.

I'm continuing to poke around and see what's what.

One thing that would take this all over the top would be setting up for internet connectivity. I'd written this machine off for all but basic word processing until I came upon Puppy, so - could anyone let me know something really simple about connecting to the internet?

I've currently got DSL at home, which I use with an HP laptop. The "port" size is different on the two machines, with the VAIO (the one being converted to Puppy) having a port that fits a regular phone jack while the HP port and the AT&T cables are all larger. Are there converters? Or am I wrong to think that this VAIO can be hooked up to my current DSL set-up?

Does there need to be special a configuration to run two different "styles" of computer on the same DSL router?

Thanks!

hillside · #13 Post by **hillside** » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 20:20

Fits a regular phone jack????

Sounds like a hookup to a modem. Are you sure this machine has a wired network card? Maybe it has wireless instead.

neighbor · #14 Post by **neighbor** » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 23:32

well.... here're the specs I pulled off the machine - maybe this will give enough clues.

1. Conexant-Ambit SoftK56 Data, Fax Modem
2. Realtek RTL 8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

?? I'm thinking the ethernet is what I'd use for network internet rather than dialup via the modem, right?

thanks!

neighbor · #15 Post by **neighbor** » Fri 02 Nov 2007, 23:41

oh, and we used the vaio for several years as our only online computer - as far as I recall it was DSL (though they called it ResNet because it was the resident network for university housing). it definitely wasn't dialup... I honestly don't remember what it was plugged into (ie. an adapter) once the cable left the computer...

hillside · #16 Post by **hillside** » Sat 03 Nov 2007, 00:33

It appears to have both a modem and a network card. Look the machine over very carefully, there must be a large network plug there somewhere. If it has a wired network card, it should be easy to get on the internet.

neighbor · #17 Post by **neighbor** » Sat 03 Nov 2007, 04:41

hillside wrote:It appears to have both a modem and a network card. Look the machine over very carefully...

oh! oh! yes! You are brilliant! and behind door number one there're a bunch of serial ports and one larger-than-a-phone-jack network port! I'd totally forgotten to look there. That was silly.

Thank you! I may be back with questions about connecting, but maybe it'll go smoothly too.

Tonight I tweaked around with Puppy, looking at everything in the start menu and trying to get a basic handle on how things are organized and how they work. It's interesting and there's so much there, and I feel like it's way less intimidating than Windows yet has all the usefulness I need. The programming aspect is way over my head, but just the apps "as is" are so cool.

Thanks for all the responses and help thus far. I'm a convert...

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I'm feeling bold: a call for suggestions

I'm feeling bold: a call for suggestions

Re: I'm feeling bold: a call for suggestions