Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

Booting, installing, newbie
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Kainnech
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 24 May 2009, 08:59

Puppy User accounts

#16 Post by Kainnech »

HI, I'm totally new to Linux. I have tried out a few distros on CD before choosing Puppy (puplet Macpup 4.1.2). I really like it because it is so small and still has everything I need - almost.
It is lacking one thing that has me thinking about moving to another distro. I have done a full install on my family laptop and totally removed Windows XP (feels really good!). I want my wife and kids to be able to log in to their own separate account so they can have their own email, browser bookmarks, desktop wallpaper etc.
I have read about creating a copy of the pup_save file but there doesn't seem to be one in the full install?

How can I setup separate logins?

Bruce B

Re: Puppy User accounts

#17 Post by Bruce B »

Kainnech wrote: How can I setup separate logins?
Probably the most practical approach with Full Installs is
multiple partitions and installations, with GRUB menu items
for the each user. That way they have their own installation
to mess around with and not disturb others setup.

In other words, each user can customize and mess things up
as they please.

thebeaky
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat 09 May 2009, 09:29

a few more thoughts

#18 Post by thebeaky »

Hi

I have been using puppy 4.2 for about a month now, I really like the feel and the speed. I am not a complete linux newbie, but I feel I don't understand all that much. I can and am willing to learn.
There are however a few things that made it difficult to make the jump.


The first and possibly the biggest is the wireless wizard.

I could not connect to a wep router. after a long times research and help from the forum, I discovered it was because I was entering a string network key, instead of using hex, which was required. It would be worth mentioning on the screen at least, but even better to accept string and convert to hex. (its not hard I know that I wrote a program in prolog to do it in just about 5mins). ( I dont know how to add code and I suspect prolog code is rather useless in a system that doesn't come with prolog).

the second tarballs.

I keep finding downloads as tarballs .tar.gz which I want, I cant work out how to open them,

like pete22 mentioned manuals are out of date, and I followed manual instructions, and buttons I was supposed to use were not there.
I cannot even open them, let alone install them. That would be good to have defaulted to the system.

the third webcam.

I understand that as manufacturers dont seem to care about linux they don't publicize their driver documentation. which makes it hard for linux people to keep up. But when a new driver is out, it would be nice for it to be easy to add. I have 2 webcams, for which I am told to move to jaunty puppy for, so I tried downloaded the iso's and they begin boot, but stop before accesing any drives.
there must be a way of getting the up to date drivers installed onto an older puppy.

I have tested everything I feel I need before I drop windows, I feel I have almost reached that point. it remains just the webcam.

The fifth
full install: it works well off the disk, but I feel it would be so much faster if I could get it to work off my hard drive.
I have no partition ability on my computer, so I cannot make a swp partition, I also cannot put puppy in its own. but I was under the impression this should still be ok for frugal if I put puppy in the windoze part, and then got grub to work ( I had 7m to part, so I put grub in there). but although the installer says all is well, I have copied the lines it told me to the grub file, and it fails to boot.

I wrote a list of requirements, and have been working through them to see if I can complete the jump.




office Y
download manager Y
skype Y
webcam N
prolog. Y
Wireless Y
Audio editing Y
video editing N

video editing I havent found yet, I am sure there is, its not a hardware thing, but I cannot get my webcam working so when I do skype with my fiance I have to go back to doze.

On the other hand, things I have been impressed with.

I love that the community is so quick to help.
I did not find it hard to get started off the disk. it just worked. (except for wireless).


this has turned out a lot longer than I intended. hope it is helpful to you developers out there.

Beuleuleu
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat 09 May 2009, 15:11

#19 Post by Beuleuleu »

hi,

i'm noob on puppy, and he's wonderful on an old computer.

but i have two problems :

- in seamonkey i can't see all the web pages (like as the web page are too large for seamonkey), and i don't find how to resize.
- the policies are not nice, it's blurried and my eyes will soon explode.
And i don't know how to change it to have it sharper (must be antialisasing problem).

Sorry for my english :?

Tuna
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat 23 May 2009, 18:57

#20 Post by Tuna »

I'm using Puppy for the first time in an attempt to replace Win98se on a POS HP Pavilion with 128M ram.

I've used Mandriva for a few years now, and I have a couple of Ubuntu servers running in the office for web apps and SAMBA, so I'm not quite a newbie, but Puppy is a fresh experience.

There are some areas where improvements to the setup could be made:
  • partitioning - I have no problem setting up a hard drive for Linux usage, but a neophyte will be lost here. Scripted or automated partitioning would be very useful.
  • software updates - this should be as simple and brainless as Ubuntu's implementation. A message pops up informing the user that updates are available, click, done. I shouldn't have to worry about tarballs, extraction, and directories. The Seamonkey .16 update is a perfect example of how this is flubbed.
  • GRUB - a minor annoyance, but once the OS is installed, I don't need to sit at the boot screen. A default timeout to get to the desktop would be handy instead of having to mess with the menu.lst config.file.
Once I play with the system some more, I'll post some daily usability suggestions, if I think they're worthy of mention.

Master_wrong
Posts: 452
Joined: Thu 20 Mar 2008, 01:48

#21 Post by Master_wrong »

Installing to a USB was easy, but getting the files in their proper place was next to impossible for me to understand.
I agree... it would be great to put link to all known partition with their name not just sda1, hda2 etc...
so if we write in abiword then we want to save the document, we don't have to diving and search the right place... just select the link to the partition.

Sylvander
Posts: 4416
Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#22 Post by Sylvander »

What I did as a newbie coming from Windows to make sense of handling files/folders in Puppy:

1. Installed "X File Explorer" [Xfe].
See post #24 here.

2. Ran Xfe and made some new folders named 00, 01, 02, 03.
These will automatically position themselves in numerical order at the top of the Puppy filesystem because of the way filenames are handled alpha-numerically [numbers 1st, then letters].

3.
(a) Configured my web-browser [see installing Firefox below] to auto-save to /00, unless told otherwise.

e.g. Say I was to download a PET file to /00...
Then...
(b) I can use verifypet to to check that the internal contents of the PET match its internal md5sum.
[See post #73 here]
And here's the thread that originally offered the file.

(c) Then I might use the twin panes in Xfe to move [to folder /01] PET files that have been installed, and eventually delete them.
This is an additional/alternative method to keep track of what has just been installed, having been downloaded.

4. To install Firefox.
See post#98 here.
Attachments
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Master_wrong
Posts: 452
Joined: Thu 20 Mar 2008, 01:48

#23 Post by Master_wrong »

so what is 00, 01, 02 ?
where the partition : sda1, sda2, sda3 or c:, d:, e: ?,
can we make link ?

like 01 for sda1 etc? then change the name 01 to 01-drive c?

Master_wrong
Posts: 452
Joined: Thu 20 Mar 2008, 01:48

#24 Post by Master_wrong »

this is sample of what newbie would love...

simple and all i did was rename the volume name of partition from windows

Sylvander
Posts: 4416
Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#25 Post by Sylvander »

1. "so what is 00, 01, 02 ?"
Some new empty folders I made.
They could be named anything, but giving them these names means they are located at the very top of the Puppy folder system.
I make folders with these names in Partitions all over the place.
I know exactly where they are on each partition, and the kinds of things they are likely to hold.

2. "where the partition : sda1, sda2, sda3 or c:, d:, e: ?"
Those are normally located further down the Puppy folder system as seen in the screenshots below.
I have no problem remembering for example:
sda1 = C:
sda3 = Extended partition
sda4 = Puppy partition
sda5 = D:
sda6 = E:
sda7 = F:
sda8 = spare Linux partition
sda9 = Ubuntu partition
sdb1 = R: [USB 1st partition]
sdb5 = S: [USB 2nd partition]
sr0 = optical drive

3. "can we make link ? like 01 for sda1 etc? then change the name 01 to 01-drive c?"
Seems unnecessary to me, since I have no problem navigating down to those and remembering where they are located.
Notice there are LOTS of partitions/drives!
Do you find that convenient and more easy/quick?
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01.jpg
(50.89 KiB) Downloaded 3796 times

Master_wrong
Posts: 452
Joined: Thu 20 Mar 2008, 01:48

#26 Post by Master_wrong »

Notice there are LOTS of partitions/drives!
Do you find that convenient and more easy/quick?
:shock:
You must be joking
for me after 1 year with linux, it's not too confusing, but surely for someone fresh from window surely see these as list of cryptic code,
it would be better alot if we can also see the volume label so it should show list like these

sda1 =drive C:
sda3 = Extended partition
sda4 = Puppy partition
sda5 = drive D:
sda6 = drive E:
sda7 = drive F:
sda8 = spare Linux partition
sda9 = Ubuntu partition
sdb1 = R: [USB 1st partition]
sdb5 = S: [USB 2nd partition]
sr0 = optical drive

medicalystoned
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun 17 May 2009, 07:04

#27 Post by medicalystoned »

Beuleuleu wrote:hi,



- in seamonkey i can't see all the web pages (like as the web page are too large for seamonkey), and i don't find how to resize.
I have the same issue, it's like looking at webpages on my PDA....

Master_wrong
Posts: 452
Joined: Thu 20 Mar 2008, 01:48

#28 Post by Master_wrong »

@ Sylvander

Please check http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/

it's file manager is surely beautiful and seem easy to use...

sky king
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed 08 Apr 2009, 08:42

Automatic updates

#29 Post by sky king »

Earlier in the thread, there was a comment about automatically updating Puppy. Well, that's pretty much what I was trying to get away from in XP. I suppose I could go turn them off, too much of this kind of automatic stuff is not wanted by me. For its simplicity, Puppy is a wonderful thing. There are so many automatic setup features now, it's almost a no brainer for anyone who is curious to try Linux.

I'm pretty much a noob, and I almost immediately had a running OS from a CD! I had that success with a couple other distros, but got a cold feeling from them. On the surface, this system is real simple. And you can involve yourself as much as you want. Learning is part of the fun.

There are capable folks here to write little programs to do nearly anything (and spend hours or days testing and refining them), though. So don't let me discourage you from adding or subtracting features. Some will be included, others won't for various reasons.

A button for creating a pupsave file would be a good feature, I think

Graegareth
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue 02 Jun 2009, 10:39

New User

#30 Post by Graegareth »

Hello, this is my first post. I have been using Linux for around three years, so when I got a new netbook from China, I naturally removed Windows and set about to find a suitable Linux distro. I soon discovered that my new toy was not well supported. It has a VIA C7 processor and a unichrome pro-II video chip. The video is at the root of most of the trouble as it is unsupported by most distros, and the few that do support it think it is 1024x768 when it is really 1024x600 so I lose a lot of necessary bits of the desktop. After going through more than 50 different distros I finally reached for a disk of Puppy that I use to rescue my desktop computer when I mess things up. It worked! That was 2.15CE. After downloading 4.2.1 I loaded it and here I am, with a working wifi, a screen with the correct resolution and a rapid startup. I did download the update to Sea Monkey and don't know how to load it but that is simply something to entertain me later. As these laptops come onto the market, expect to see a lot more people using puppy as it is almost the only distro which suits them, apart from being a first class experience.
Syd

rft-hillview
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 29 May 2009, 19:19
Location: Somerset, England

#31 Post by rft-hillview »

I guess I am probably fairly typical of many home computer users - retired but have used the large zoo animals for many years.

I have a network consisting of a main PC running Windows XP (2.4ghz "gb ram) , ADSL broadband connection , two network printers (one on HP Jetdirect and one on Linksys PSUS4) , a wireless access point , a Netgear SC101 network disk system ( 120gb mirror) and an OLD Laptop also running Windows XP but struggling. (Gateway Solo 5150 PII 300mhz 228mb ram)

I thought that one of the linux varieties might make life easier and so took advise from an old colleague who said try one of the Ubuntu flavours or if I wanted a more "windowsy" system try Puppy Linux. My friends and most if not all web searches indicated that my Puppy (or any other linux) would not be able to access and share Windows created files on the SC101 network disk - I accepted this BUT JOY of JOYs they were all wrong.

So what we now have is:
1) dual boot WindowsXP / Puppy Linux on the laptop - installation made much simpler by the excellent Forum Post entitled "Dual Boot Windows/Puppy install Documentation" . My thanks to JVR for that

2) Sucessful connection to the network - by direct Lan it was so easy but my wireless connection was harder and the dialogue boxes here could be clearer - putting all the dialogue in one window instead of sequencing the operation can lead to confusion. Still all done and up and running.

3) Access to both network printers was a very simple CUPS operation - not the best or clearest dialogue boxes to be sure but adequate.

4) Download and install of Firefox and Thunderbird both straight forward but messy to get them onto the desktop - Puppy could do with a drag and drop > put shortcut here tool - Yes I know very Windowsy but not everything out of the Bill Gates stable is bad.

5) Interesting that in Puppy Control Panel under drives there is a button called WinLan but a search of the forum does not throw up any useful information - however using the said WinLan feature it was easy to see how many stupid shares I had open on my Windows PC so I closed most of them. Then the problem began - I could connect to my shares but could not access them - always a permissions error.

After I worked out that my Windows login had no password I added one and all my shares were accessible.

6) Purely out of interest I decided to share the Netgear SC101 network disk one my Windows PC - really a waste of time because the Netgear software was already on the Windows version on the laptop. However the share popped up in Pnethood and low and behold it worked.

Ok so there is the limitation that a windows PC needs to be up and running to provide the Share of the SC101 but IT WORKS.



After all this where to now:
Well the Puppy is a really nice pet - quite well behaved and no messes on the carpet. It was not hard to install and even a Puppy newbie like myself has been able to install a moderately complex network setup and make most of it work.

I still have to experiment with Puppy applications and get my head round the somewhat wierd names that linux people use for things and I still have to make file shares on the Puppy so my Windows PC can see them but all in all setting up the Puppy was a rewarding experience and certainly one which other potential newbies should not be afraid of.

My Thanks to all the Forum contibutors without whom we would be telling a much sadder story.

rft-hillview
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 29 May 2009, 19:19
Location: Somerset, England

Happy Puppy

#32 Post by rft-hillview »

I guess I am probably fairly typical of many home computer users - retired but have used the large zoo animals for many years.

I have a network consisting of a main PC running Windows XP (2.4ghz "gb ram) , ADSL broadband connection , two network printers (one on HP Jetdirect and one on Linksys PSUS4) , a wireless access point , a Netgear SC101 network disk system ( 120gb mirror) and an OLD Laptop also running Windows XP but struggling. (Gateway Solo 5150 PII 300mhz 228mb ram)

I thought that one of the linux varieties might make life easier and so took advise from an old colleague who said try one of the Ubuntu flavours or if I wanted a more "windowsy" system try Puppy Linux. My friends and most if not all web searches indicated that my Puppy (or any other linux) would not be able to access and share Windows created files on the SC101 network disk - I accepted this BUT JOY of JOYs they were all wrong.

So what we now have is:
1) dual boot WindowsXP / Puppy Linux on the laptop - installation made much simpler by the excellent Forum Post entitled "Dual Boot Windows/Puppy install Documentation" . My thanks to JVR for that

2) Sucessful connection to the network - by direct Lan it was so easy but my wireless connection was harder and the dialogue boxes here could be clearer - putting all the dialogue in one window instead of sequencing the operation can lead to confusion. Still all done and up and running.

3) Access to both network printers was a very simple CUPS operation - not the best or clearest dialogue boxes to be sure but adequate.

4) Download and install of Firefox and Thunderbird both straight forward but messy to get them onto the desktop - Puppy could do with a drag and drop > put shortcut here tool - Yes I know very Windowsy but not everything out of the Bill Gates stable is bad.

5) Interesting that in Puppy Control Panel under drives there is a button called WinLan but a search of the forum does not throw up any useful information - however using the said WinLan feature it was easy to see how many stupid shares I had open on my Windows PC so I closed most of them. Then the problem began - I could connect to my shares but could not access them - always a permissions error.

After I worked out that my Windows login had no password I added one and all my shares were accessible.

6) Purely out of interest I decided to share the Netgear SC101 network disk one my Windows PC - really a waste of time because the Netgear software was already on the Windows version on the laptop. However the share popped up in Pnethood and low and behold it worked.

Ok so there is the limitation that a windows PC needs to be up and running to provide the Share of the SC101 but IT WORKS.



After all this where to now:
Well the Puppy is a really nice pet - quite well behaved and no messes on the carpet. It was not hard to install and even a Puppy newbie like myself has been able to install a moderately complex network setup and make most of it work.

I still have to experiment with Puppy applications and get my head round the somewhat wierd names that linux people use for things and I still have to make file shares on the Puppy so my Windows PC can see them but all in all setting up the Puppy was a rewarding experience and certainly one which other potential newbies should not be afraid of.

My Thanks to all the Forum contibutors without whom we would be telling a much sadder story.

niksfish
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009, 19:44

#33 Post by niksfish »

Hello, I have some suggestions about puppy, and I hope you can do something about it.

First of all, I'm kinda newbie in this linux stuff, at least I know something about the terminal, but I don't know very much (and I dont want to). But I know a lot about computers, and googling, and windows, so I consider myself something more than the "aimed user" of this OS. I always try to solve the problems by myself. Enough of that.

Secondly, this was tried with a very much older version, I think from 2008, let's say november - dicember 2008 (I think it was 4.00) Maybe you have already done something about this.

Real start:
======
_________________________
I only wanted to do a hard drive install, not frugal, but the full one, but it was too dificult for me. I couldn't install lilo or grub correctly.
It is posible that my computer was broken, but i couldnt do it.

Then I tried frugal. It installed but I couldn't get the machine to boot correctly, I still needed the cd.

So I said fuck linux, and attempted to install W98 (yes, you may hate me XD). Unfortunately, it had a weird error that i couldn't configure the clock (bad download :roll: ). Then I got angry and let the dust take care of that shitty computer.

The important thing is that what I was looking for was a O.S that when you turn the computer on, it boots normally. I dont want to boot from USB or disket, cd or whatever, I have a HDD... And I want to use it.

I think this OS wasn't designed with the focus on that. Instead, it seems that you put a lot more effort on the cd that loads to ram, the usb, etc.

It really needs something more automatic to install lilo or brub. Or something more intuitive.
I dont want to have windows and linux at the same time on that old computer. I want only one OS, and to boot from the HDD.

Also, It stinks that you have to put the cd and wait to load the OS to look in the menu for the script to install puppy in the HDD. You should really do something without the graphical einvorement. Something that makes posible to simply install puppy in your HDD, like when you install windows. That way it wouldn't need to load all the menues, windows, etc. to the ram, and you could install it simplier and much faster.


So it should have somehting like an option, to select if you have only this linux, or you wanna do an install for various OS.

I would love to see at the begining, when it ask for a command, something to install, or an option like "try puppy from CD (or whatever)" and under that "install puppy". And everything else that it may need to ask for.

Thanks for reading.

computerophil
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu 19 Feb 2009, 07:39
Contact:

#34 Post by computerophil »

MP3 –file and ASF-file
(rechte Mouseklick) > Set run action
defaultmediaplayer "$1"

WAV-file and FLV-file
(right Mouseklick) > Set run action
gxine “$1“

could be set automatically
[img]http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/avt/avatar_66267.gif[/img] [url=http://computerophil.at/PUPPYdetail.html]computerophil.at[/url]
Puppy-Links, ältere Versionen, Sprach-Derivate, etc.

puppy_linux_newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 07 Jun 2009, 19:51

Puppy newbies

#35 Post by puppy_linux_newbie »

I am using Puppy Linux version 4.2.1, which worked great "out-of-the-box". Use Puppy on a 2nd-hand Dell Latitude C600 to connect wirelessly to internet. Have flirted briefly with Fedora and Ubuntu, but Puppy is the only distro that worked right off the bat with my Ativa Wireless G card, which was the whole point. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I am too damn stubborn to just go out and buy a different wireless card!)

As a newbie, when problems occur, it is hard to determine whether a) I am an idiot, or b) something in Puppy could be easier, clearer, or more user friendly. (More often than not, it turns out that I am an idiot.)

Biggest problem with Puppy? Puppy moves so fast that documentation and forums have a hard time keeping up. I might find a solution on a forum, but it applies to a previous version of Puppy, and things have changed so much that it is no longer relevant.

That said, I love Puppy! I love the small size, ability to use live CD or install to HD, and that Puppy is ready to go as soon as the ISO is copied to a CD. (The concepts of iso, distro, live CD, etc. are all new to me. Kids, I learned to program in Fortran and Cobol on PUNCH CARDS in the 1970's! Look that up in your Funk & Wagnall's! I have never been a programmer, sys admin, or otherwise directly involved with computers except as a user.)

My biggest issue is with the Unix/linux file system, which is just a learning curve. That, and the tarball thing. Nothing Puppy specific.

Why linux at all? Tired of the MS Windows game of increasingly bloated OS's requiring more RAM, HD capacity and processor speed. Plus the broken promise of every new Windows OS being less crappy/bug ridden and more secure than the previous version. Barry Kauler et al have put the Redmond gang to shame.

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