Updating PuppyLinux 2.10 professional

[richard.a]

Updating PuppyLinux 2.10 professional
(for older computers that won't run more recent kernels)
(or should that be more recent kennels?)

Version 2.11 was the latest that would run on a series of older, yet still useable, computers. Version 2.12 and later won't, unfortunately. Some of the IBM Aptiva models, HP Pavilions and a range of other computers built in Taiwan by Lenovo are such. Not all of them; it depends entirely on the BIOS and other things internal.

Having seen what went into the 2.15 Community Edition of Puppy, and the follow-on by WhoDo with the EZ-Pup installer, led me to consider a physical facelift to the 2.10 (which runs very well on the computers in question).

2.10 already has a huge amount of very useful stuff under the hood. That overhead means a larger than "standard" ISO file to download and install, but it is still nowhere as huge as some distributions.

I've added a couple of extras, done some changes to the menuing, and kept (but adapted) the JWM window manager, as much as for any other reason that I'm not sufficiently familiar with IceWM to add, configure, and hone it.

I've also enabled the Print/Screen button (like WhoDo did in 2.15ce) to initiate taking a screen capture - which is also used in several other operating systems, including Windows, but surprisingly in few Linuxes. All it needs is a single line of code in the /root/.jwmrc file, near the bottom, in the key redefinition section...

<Key key="Print">exec:mtpaint -s</Key>

The desktop buttons inherited from the "official" Puppy have been moved to a single row around the three sides, similar to the layout used in 2.15ce and WhoDo's successor to that, EZ-Pup. It gets rid of a lot of the clutter, and creates a cleaner look So here we are with a very similar "look" while using the same "Litrix" wallpaper...


I've given it its own unique menu button and logo, which does make the old menu look a bit more exciting.

Also more exciting is the use of taskbar icons that have colours, rather than the ones from native Puppy which look a bit like line art.


I've added buttons to the right-hand end of the taskbar to save looking for commands on the menus - for LinNeighborhood, for the Console, and for the drives application. The last utilises the floppy icon that WhoDo introduced to 2.15ce for MUT , the console icon comes from gnome, and LinNeighborhood is a pretty obvious pair of screens located next to "Blinky"...


You may be curious about the program running in the bar above, called "Shutdown". At least I hope you are Anyway it is part of what I've been doing and let me whet your apetite with this...


Now I got the idea from this one, which was part of the distribution...


The 48 pixel icons were really large and they still looked awkward with text underneath that seemed unable to be resized, even with the icon size dropped to 32 px. Removing the text altogether created a better look, and here finally we have icons reduced to 24 pixels which are starting to look more like it. Small icons without a legend can more easily be done as a single bar, after all.


A number of these has been created, including a "parent" one that can initiate all the "children" created... and which can just as easily be from a taskbar icon, or a menu call, or a desktop icon (although getting away from desktop clutter was part of the object of the exercise). You might be interested in a page I've written about this here


If we are seriously looking at attracting users from the world of Windows, we need to provide an "interface" that feels reasonably familiar to them. I don't think anybody would expect an identical feel, but a substantial similarity would go a long way towards comfort. Here are some examples...

Run Menu now cascades, having both a "run" dialogue and a Console


Search Menu points to pfind instead of gtkfind, and an addition which looks for a browser google search


Documents Menu points towards not just the home directory but a choice of My Documents, My Pictures and My Music as well


The "Other" Office is a listing of all the installed office products that are not OpenOffice (and perhaps the XSane scanner software should be included here?)...


Additional Applications
I added a few more that I felt would be useful, starting withattempting to install xfe - which is a nicer multi-pane file manager that uexplore, but there were problems, and so I abandoned that.

Pmount in an earlier version than exists in 2.15 was able to be installed, and visually it is good.

As is pfind which replaces the GtkFind (only on the menu, because GtkFind is still there for those who would like to use it).

pfind is ideal for someone not expecting more than a place to type the filename you're looking for.

XnView is a very versatile graphics viewer, manipulator, and web page gallery generator, as we can see below...



Boot and shutdown times are very good, greatly helped by copying the pup_210.sfs to the drive where the save file is located (for live operation). Times on an Athlon 1150 with 512Mb of DDR RAM were 9 secs from power on to the menu of pup_sav files, and a further 20 seconds overall to an XOrg 1600x1200 desktop. Half a minute overall is very good. Shutdown is 10 seconds to power being shut off by the script!

Trying it in other lesser machines, and more powerful machines, produced virtually no difference.

What about forward and backward compatibility? These changes also work well in 2.02, 2.11, and also the "later" versions of 2.12, 2.14, 2.15. and 2.16 - remember that programs not actually installed don't actually run. Duh!

Everything has been placed in its own unique directory that can be just copied to the /usr/local directory. It was relatively simple - but time consuming - to open the icons for the smaller size test in mtPaint and scale them. But one could not expect an ab-initio user to do that...

I've even run some of these changes on v 1.09 for Windows98 which I have installed in several Windows computers, with very great success, as both a grub start and a desktop icon start. The only problem appears to be with the keyboard Print button assignment as "mtpaint -s"; it does not work there, and appears to lock the keyboard inoperable in X, requiring a closing X to the command line to fix.

Webpages on the two concepts are at
http://micro-hard.homelinux.net/puppy/210pro-dev/ and
http://micro-hard.homelinux.net/puppy/buttonbar/

[ecomoney]

A very nice set of changes, they would make the computers a lot more useable to "linux newbs". Could I trouble you to post a bit more technical detail about how you changed the menus and the Menu button. Perhaps you would post some config files? I think I know where they would come in very useful

[richard.a]

Robert, I appreciate your comments. It has turned out to be a triple-header combination project, which still isn't finished. Trying to fit it in around the family health environment, which isn't that easy.

I started by creating a pair of web pages, one for this project, and one for the button bars, and adapted both for the equivalent forum posts. Since which time I've added the concept of switching desktop pinboards complete with their configuration of icon placements and their sources, and so on.

New web pages will need to be created at the end (if there ever is an end!!!)

Then I found that trying to apply the idea to other versions of puppy - specifically v2.11 and the 2.02 retro mini-pup (while the concept works well), to make a more usable-across-the-board set of alterations I've had to start working on that while I remember what I did before, so I can provide standard menu scripts (all JWM currently), standard additional icons and pixmaps, etc, that work "out of the box" for all the early versions.

If you go look here you'll find a directory specifically for this project, with downloads and stuff...

I have zipped a number of things together, each suitable for unzipping to its own directory, for ease. The tars are getting altered frequently, so please don't think they are "final"... but they are can be used without any disasters A recent change - I think - in the zip is the five pointed gold favorites star. If it isn't there now, it'll be there the next update, the root and the extra icons zips both need updating for it to work

The general purpose version I'm basing on a combination of 2.02r and 2.11 - stuff will be somewhere else, perhaps here - (which is currently an empty directory). I'll put stuff there when I've got it to the point of sharing them too, which may be on the coming weekend, all things being equal.

Buttonbars are available in either of two sizes, the larger having text under the icons. This is determined by which script (of 2) for each bar to run They are designed as on optional add-on, but the shutdown and control panel button boxes are both part of the basic change to the menuing.

Each Button Bar zips are self-contained with their own icons in two sizes; the philosophy is that being an added-on extra, you can't guarantee that the main icon repository actually uses either the image you chose, or that its name is identical to what the script calls

We have button-bar (/usr/local/buttonbar/) directory zip, root directory zip (includes jwmrc and jwmrc-tray files), /usr/local/lib/X11/pixmaps (icons) zip, some more transparent ones for the 2.15-look, and /root/Choices/ (desktop look switching) zip, all logically grouped.

The scripts are each located logically within their subdirectories, and each script can be dragged to the desktop and an appropriate 48px icon is available to be dragged there too, for compatibility.

The root tar file, in addition to the menu scripts, includes a range of alternative "start" buttons - actually I rather like the paw logos developed from Nathan's one - at least I think they were his.

The extra icons also includes several more choices, as do the button bars, for example there are the older and newer RealPlayer icons provided.

I'm actually wondering if 48x48px isn't a bit too large, but that can be considered later.

Feel free to use whatever you can find, and feel free to comment here, or in PM if you prefer. But I suspect here would be better judging by the number of visits the threads have attracted. I'm quite amazed at that.

In the end, I'll need to find out how to create a dotpet (or whatever) from the tars to do an all-in-one "change" operation. Mustn't forget an update to the first of the help pages either, something easy to overlook. Time is the problem, though. Glad you find the concept useful.

[ecomoney]

Hi, Ive tried installing your menu's, have downloaded new jwmrc and jwmrc-tray files to root and restarted. The menus worked fine but with no graphics until I installed jwmrc-tray, now I dont have any graphics at all. Which file do I need to download and unzip, and where too?

I particularly like you "bookmarks" entry that pops up in seamonkey. Im hoping to include some linux/puppy/open source bookmarks already pre-installed in 3.03ce so that will come in very useful.

It must have been a very time consuming job to create these menus, hoping to find a volunteer to do it for 3.03ce based on your designs. Im also wondering if existing .pet's and .pup's will install their menu entries to the correct places?

[richard.a]

Thanks for the quick reply, sorry I was rather vague, didn't realise you were after doing something right now, should have realised... so let me answer specifics. Doing a defrag on windows HDD and the data disk (2 HDDs) on my testing machine, so I can't get to the current saved files.

I'm assuming you are testing on a v2.15ce right now? That's the more or less completed project. 3.03ce I suspect will have a menu and icon storage much like 3.00 which is virtually the same as my current baby, which is inaccessible for the next couple of hours.

Hi, Ive tried installing your menu's, have downloaded new jwmrc and jwmrc-tray files to root and restarted. The menus worked fine but with no graphics until I installed jwmrc-tray, now I dont have any graphics at all. Which file do I need to download and unzip, and where too?

You need to download all the tars in http://micro-hard.homelinux.net/puppy/2 ... downloads/ to your system, and then do the following... order is unimportant... some things won't work or won't be visible or both until they are all installed as follows...

cpanel.tar.gz unzip it to /usr/local/ and create an extra directory called /usr/local/controlpanel/ - this is the control panel box of buttons accessible off the new jwmrc-tray, button next to the desktop1 on the taskbar, and also off the Settings menu available on the main menu once you have the new jwmrc installed...

sdown.tar.gz unzip it to /usr/local/ and create an extra directory called /usr/local/shutdown/ - this is the shutdown panel box of buttons accessible off the new jwmrc menu, bottom button...

extra-icons.tar.gz unzip it to /usr/local/lib/X11/pixmaps and it will add the needed 48pixel and 24pixel icons for desktop (not if you are running a 2.15ce system, though, because they are stored elsewhere) and menu

210-look.tar.gz and 210roxfiler.tar.gz Don't worry about these until you decide you want to change desktop pinboards

210-root.tar.gz unzip it to /root/ and it will over-write your existing .jwmrc and .jwmrc_tray files with the new ones, and from memory there are a couple of other things, but as mentioned I can't get at the computer that has them on it right now.

210icons-215_u-s-p.tar.gz unzip it to /usr/share/pixmaps and it will add a few needed transparent v2.15ce icons for desktop (only if you are running a 2.15ce system).

You will notice that near the top of the menu is an extra JWM Restart button... makes life a lot easier while you are editing the JWM main menu because if you get the syntax wrong and lose the start button on the bar, you can right click on the desktop and restart the JWM after editing the file to restore what you should not have removed. A tip worth remembering, and it doesn't actually look out of place if you leave it there when you have decided that your changes are complete

I particularly like you "bookmarks" entry that pops up in seamonkey. Im hoping to include some linux/puppy/open source bookmarks already pre-installed in 3.03ce so that will come in very useful.

Agreed, that still needs to be done. It was left like that because it was working, and when I had a "round tuit" I was going back to do some more

Please remember this is still a work in progress

It must have been a very time consuming job to create these menus, hoping to find a volunteer to do it for 3.03ce based on your designs. Im also wondering if existing .pet's and .pup's will install their menu entries to the correct places?

It was/is time consuming. And because my experience with trying to get 2.15ce JWM menus to work right were also time consuming and not entirely successful (during I think 3 beta and 3-1/2 RC stages) I wanted to get this working with a spruced up JWM that can be made to look more acceptable, particularly with the theme that the developer of 2.10pro used. Couple that with full colour taskbar icons and several extra functional taskbar buttons, and I think you'll agree it looks quite passable

You will also notice dotpups menu item at the top of the main menu... some go there when you install, others go to the right spot on the menu. Haven't worked out which and why, but I suspect having changed the menu order considerably it will upset the install scripts for add-ons. It's fine for you and me to do menu surgery, I agree. That was why I was attempting to get whatever needed to be installed ahead of time.

And also why the buttonbars for multimedia, internet, et cetera were created; the buttons for uninstalled items don't work if the app isn't installed, but the links are to the default locations, so once they are installed, they'll work off the button bar. Not sure how succesful that would be, but I used floating icon bars for commands in AutoCAD and other CAD applications for many years, very successfully, as did many other users of those apps running under windows and under DOS.

DOTjwmrc and DOTjwmrc-tray are duplicates of the dotted real versions. Apache servers (even running on Windows) don't list dotted files because they assume the unix naming philosophy of being hidden

Have I missed anything? It's only 5pm here and another 2 hours or so and I should be able to get to my test computer to see what we have in 2.02r/2.11 icons, menus etc which is what you'd want for 3.00/3.03ce I suspect. In the meantime I should start preparing/cooking the meal for my wife and me

Enjoy

Richard


PS I'd love the code you created for the scrolling select user/select save file on another thread, can't see a link to it there.

R

Edit 2007-10-20
Robert, I've more or less documented my adaption of the 2.02r2 Mini-Pup here if that's of any use to you?

I'll need to tackle the 2.11 I had started, which was one of Barry's minimal releases, and I suspect that will be more like what you are looking for.

If you'd like to share what you want to do, maybe I've already looked at it and come up with a solution?

Richard

[darrelljon]

Looking for a puplet to give to a total n00b, and like the descriptive menu in this one e.g. "Word processor" instead of "Abiword". Are there any other puplets with descriptive menus like this?

[richard.a]

darrelljon, I'm not sure, but if there are, I haven't discovered them (yet). I don't believe in wasting effort and time duplicating what someone else has done

I also have no wish to reinvent the wheel in any form at all. And I'm not much of a coder, just someone who likes things to work!

Saying that, I've noticed others have also observed how difficult it seems to find such things things out.


I thought there might have been a bit more interest in this concept because honestly keeping working computers out of landfill (because they don't have enough grunt to run MS Windows in its latest version) is fairly important on many peoples' lists of priorities. Puppy would be a natural to do that.

I've recently built a portable working puppy demo whose BIOS is happy with and runs 2.15ce - albeit slowly - on a 1997 vintage Twinhead laptop that has a 266MMX processor, two 32Mb sticks of EDO RAM, a 2Gb HDD, and an 800x600 TFT screen, with a battery that has just enough life left to boot to a desktop in all its 2.15 themed glory

It runs - and does so nicely - with an added 400Mb of swap partition, at about the same speed as the Win98 original edition it was shipped with. There would be many people with discarded much more recent computers than that - in fact I have two Pentium 2's in the garage which I've robbed all their RAM from for other machines I'm testing from time to time!

The need for a swap partition reduces the space for the OS to about 1.6 Gb which includes a couple of 128Mb pup_save files to demonstrate live CD operation too.

This is described elsewhere on this forum.

Your point about menu item naming is valid - particularly for n00bs. I've been looking at the IceWM menu layout as used on 2.15 and also Ez-Pup, and hope to create an improvement viewed from the perspective of a newcomer to anything that isn't Microsoft Windows.

I suspect that ecomoney's custom v2.15 may be what you should look at because of the way his drop-in-centre and cafe works.


For all its faults, I think Microsoft has got the menuing system right for the average user who doesn't need or want to know anything deeper than "where is the button for such-and-such?"

[XIONG]

Very great~!
Keep up the great work~!