Puppy On Laptops

Using applications, configuring, problems
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CatDude
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Joined: Wed 03 Jan 2007, 17:49
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Puppy On Laptops

#1 Post by CatDude »

Hi

I have been scouring the forum looking for users running Puppy on laptops, and it is proving to be very time consuming.

So i thought it would be a good idea to start a thread, to collect together as much information with regard to running Puppy on laptops.

Therefore, i ask for any laptop users, if you could please provide details of your experiences (good or bad)
maybe it would then help others who may be looking to purchase a laptop specifically for running Puppy.

If you could also give an idea as to the age of the laptop, that may prove useful too,
as would the Puppy version you have running on it.

Hoping you can help
CatDude
.

Edit:
Below is a link to the old wikka page Working Laptops
http://pupweb.org/wikka/LaptopsWorking

I am adding the following link as it mentions a few laptops in there.
List your system

23/11/2010
I have now added a page to the wiki http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyOnLaptops
which should make it easier for you to find what you are looking for, instead of wasting time trawling through this thread.

Please note that it does not include any links to the machines mentioned in the List your system thread.
.
Last edited by CatDude on Tue 23 Nov 2010, 16:06, edited 3 times in total.
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dejan555
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#2 Post by dejan555 »

http://dejan.b0x.me/?p=116

At the time of writing I was using 214X but now using dpup484
Last edited by dejan555 on Sat 20 Feb 2010, 15:38, edited 1 time in total.
puppy.b0x.me stuff mirrored [url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_Mb589v0iCXNnhSZWRwd3R2UWs]HERE[/url] or [url=http://archive.org/details/Puppy_Linux_puppy.b0x.me_mirror]HERE[/url]

Roy
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed 31 Dec 2008, 18:31

#3 Post by Roy »

CatDude,

First and foremost, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitude for your illustrated How-To which covers installing Puppy. That proved to be invaluable to me when I was first starting out with Puppy Linux a couple of years back.

I am currently running Gray's Boxpup 431 on my small Dell Mini-9 netbook; everything I use functions well -- media players, word processor, web apps -- but I have to manually re-edit DHCP Net Mask and Gateway information every time I connect in my current environment. Patriot's Alsa update (included by default in 4.3x-series) allows sound to work out-of-the-box, where older Alsa versions required extra modprobe.conf editing. Boot-up, video, sound and wireless with earlier pups was a challenge, to say the least, on this machine. It is less than two years old and requires the Broadcom wl wireless driver. Not really enough screen real-estate for a lot of desktop icons. Some of the infrequently-accessed functions still have the grating feel of fingernails across a chalkboard on this one (nothing against Gray's fine work -- these are Puppy problems). For some reason, I have been having a lot of trouble creating a bootable FAT-32 thumbdrive with Puppy's Gparted lately.... I also boot Linux Mint from USB on this machine, although it is not as spry as Puppy.

I have also set some other new Linux users up with Puppy for their own laptops. One guy, with a Gateway 7305GZ laptop, required something (can't remember exactly which option) to be muted in his Alsamixer before sound would function in official 4.31, which he is using now. Everything in Puppy-4.1-k2.6.25.16-seamonkey worked out-of-the-box (he has to edit DHCP connection information, too -- same ISP) but, as mentioned, he has updated to 4.31 (frugal install alongside XP) via steve_s' pup431-on-WinXP-install.exe (which steve_s credits others for starting). Don't know the age of this Gateway, but it cannot boot from USB. Oh, and he is pretty much a dedicated Puppy-user now that his printer/scanner setup is working.

Another guy with a Dell D610 runs a small variety of Puppy distros as Live CD's and has (I think) a full install of 4.12 on a spare hard drive [EDIT: He is running Teenpup2009 on the spare drive with 2GB RAM in this laptop]. He lets me use his computer from time to time, when I need a better connection or my eyes get tired of my netbook's 9-inch screen. I boot a thumb-drive loaded with 4.31 official when I use his machine. Absolutely EVERYTHING can be expected to work on this computer, being fairly common hardware (intel video), and it usually does. Well, DRI doesn't seem to be loaded, but I'm not a gamer. Another difference here is that he is using a different ISP and does not have to edit DHCP info.

I am not certain I have covered the specifics you are looking for, but will give more info if requested.

-Roy
Last edited by Roy on Tue 19 Jan 2010, 16:31, edited 2 times in total.

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CatDude
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#4 Post by CatDude »

Hi

@ dejan555
Cheers mate

@ Roy
Roy wrote: First and foremost, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitude for your illustrated How-To which covers installing Puppy. That proved to be invaluable to me when I was first starting out with Puppy Linux a couple of years back.
You are most welcome, glad that you found it useful.
Roy wrote: I am not certain I have covered the specifics you are looking for, but will give more info if requested.
That is perfect mate, just the sort of thing i think is needed to help others make a decision on what to look for.

Thankyou both, for taking the time to respond.
CatDude
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Béèm
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Joined: Wed 22 Nov 2006, 00:47
Location: Brussels IBM Thinkpad R40, 256MB, 20GB, WiFi ipw2100. Frugal Lin'N'Win

#5 Post by Béèm »

I use puppy from 1.08 on on my Thinkpad R40, 256MB ram and am using a swapfile.
Now I am running dpup484beta3, but I have used the latest puppies also.
Quirky 003 runs also.
Time savers:
Find packages in a snap and install using Puppy Package Manager (Menu).
[url=http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HomePage]Consult Wikka[/url]
Use peppyy's [url=http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html]puppysearch[/url]

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jemimah
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#6 Post by jemimah »

I'd like to put in a good word for the EeePc! My goal in creating the Puppeee puplet was to make it the best netbook distro out there. Maybe I'm not there yet, but progress is made everyday. The Eee is durable, works well on Linux, boots from the SD card slot, and has relatively decent support from Asus (and from me).

I recommend getting one that's 10 inches or smaller. The newer 11 and 12 inch ones have different graphics cards that I haven't tested yet. Specifically, stay away from the Poulsbo chip (Intel GMA500), as there isn't an open source Linux driver available for it. Also keep in mind that the Atheros network cards are moderately preferable to the Ralink cards at this point.

Laie
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun 20 Jan 2008, 18:42
Location: Germany

#7 Post by Laie »

Medion-Life-Notebook, bought in 2004
http://www1.medion.de/site/service_~u~_ ... df&lang=de
I've tried several derivates.
Now it's Teenpup 2009 Legacy running frugal on an ext3 partition with swap. ZD1211 wlan-module running out of the box. Touchpad works with tap. Only shutdown doesnn't work. I got used to that, not a single Puppy derivate managed shutdown, nor did all the hints made by the community.
Last edited by Laie on Tue 19 Jan 2010, 08:01, edited 1 time in total.

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mikeb
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#8 Post by mikeb »

HP2133 netbook.
puppy 4.12 full install on ext3 (it wiped my suse backup during install but no great loss.)

needed alsa update (1.1.20) for full sound card working.

vesa only video from puppy. suse drive gives 2d acceleration but crashes needing hard reset with more than one player running but gives correct resolution for the widescreen and can drive external monitor. openchrome not working (does on nimblex)..3d is out of the question on linux at the moment.

broadcom wireless b43 worked but disconnected when making lan file transfers. The wl driver is solid though.

Will boot from card reader and usb...I run XP from a SD card ... handy for 3D edit and playing games.

Needed gtk2/glib update to stop browser crashing.

Added clean shutdown fix so that XP can access the drive.

Added cleanup script so can reboot ok after power loss.

Added xbindkey to get function keys controlling volume. Brightness keys still work as is. ondemand power saving works though savings are not great...disabling unused functions like bluetooth in the bios help too.

Built in webcam and mic work..I have scary vids to prove it.

A solid machine with metal case..the latest version has atom cpu, 10" screen and other changes that are probably worthwhile yet cheaper than the plastic equivalents and the speakers sound excellent.

Sounds iffy but once sorted puppy does work well on it and is fast enough for video and flash video in spite of driver limitations....

mike

Edit....forgot to mention would only run frugally with pdev=scsihd
Attachments
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Note the wear and tear on the keys due to epsxe before buying a gamepad :)
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Last edited by mikeb on Tue 19 Jan 2010, 14:18, edited 2 times in total.

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walter90
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#9 Post by walter90 »

I'm using Puppy 4.2.1 on an HP Pavillion ze 5600

I run it from a flash drive but need the live CD to boot up. The first flash drive booted by itself but subsequent installs have all required the live CD.

Aside from that, I have no hard drive whatsoever (The old one died). I installed Wine, use Photoshop and some other windows programs with only reduced speed for some functions. I attribute that to the size of my RAM.

The speed is usually exceptional with basic functions. Occassionally I have to reboot to flush the RAM after I have moved or copied large files, unpacked large files or use a program for an extended period of time.

Over all I am very pleased with Puppy Linux. :D

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mikeb
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#10 Post by mikeb »

I attribute that to the size of my RAM.
you could experiment making a swap partition on a usb memory stick

mike

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smokey01
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#11 Post by smokey01 »

Hi CatDude,

I run frugal puppy 4.3.1 on a Kogan netbook.

Puppy does not recognise the mouse pad or the wireless card.

All works fine if I use a usb mouse and a Vodaphone broadband modem. Mind you it took some time to get it to work. No wifi though with puppy. It works fine with the bundled gOS.

Smokey

G0XAN
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri 08 May 2009, 18:52
Location: Brighton, UK

#12 Post by G0XAN »

Currently running Nearly Office Pup 4.3.1 on a Toshiba Satellite 1410, retired from WinXP service as it had slowed to a crawl :(
Celeron 1.5GHz
256MB RAM
18GB HDD

Using Edimax EW-7108PCg PCMCIA wireless networking card (worked straight out of the box).
Previously used a Sweex USB wireless adapter that also worked fine.

Added Go-OpenOffice 3.1 and devx-431 (sfs's), geany-0.18-p4, gimp-2.4.0-rc3, jre-1.6.0-11, seahaven-1.50-pup4 and gtktetris-0.6.2-pup4 (pet's)

Built Qt4 libs and Keepassx from sources.

Alsa worked OK with the soundcard, but had to add some amixer settings in rc.local to get the sound to be "on" by default.

Asunder and Xfmedia work perfectly. Putting music onto MP3 player is no problem. Digital camera no problem as USB mass-storage device.

As this is a full install, I also added the modified startup and shutdown scripts to cope with unruly shutdowns.

Since this laptop has only 5 minutes battery life, power failure is an irritation as the power lead also tends to fall out from time to time. So I figured out how to write a script to run every 30 seconds to monitor the power and pop up a dialog warning of power failure, before the battery gives up. This has saved me on several occasions. :)

Chose NOP mainly because it includes Opera. Seamonkey doesn't cut it with Facebook etc. Chose OOo as I need MS document compatibility.
Gary

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walter90
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#13 Post by walter90 »

mikeb wrote:
I attribute that to the size of my RAM.
you could experiment making a swap partition on a usb memory stick

mike
How do I go about that mike? I'm always afraid when I go messing with making partitions.

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mikeb
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#14 Post by mikeb »

Since this laptop has only 5 minutes battery life, power failure is an irritation as the power lead also tends to fall out from time to time. So I figured out how to write a script to run every 30 seconds to monitor the power and pop up a dialog warning of power failure, before the battery gives up. This has saved me on several occasions.
yes I did that too as there is no built in ability it seems.
How do I go about that mike? I'm always afraid when I go messing with making partitions.
If there is a spare usb socket and a spare usb format it as swap and plug it in before booting and see if it gets detected..

now I'm hyjacking thee thread and will get carted off by moderators in white coats whilst screaming I love vista and want bill's babies...

mike

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CatDude
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#15 Post by CatDude »

Hi All

Thank you all so much for responding, this is great.
I hope that this thread can become the best resource on the forum, with regard to running Puppy on laptops.

Please keep them coming.
CatDude
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kattman
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#16 Post by kattman »

IBM Thinkpad R50e, I duel boot xp and puppy 4.3.1.1 every thinks works

Grubs boot loader disables the "ACCESS IBM", so recovering XP is not possable using the recovery partition. However adding this to Grubs Menu.lst makes it possale.

title IBM Rescue and Recovery
root (hd0,1)
parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b
unhide (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

found at : http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Rescue_an ... in_the_MBR

linbie
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat 09 Jan 2010, 05:03

Dell Latitude 2500

#17 Post by linbie »

Running Puppy 4.3.1 as a frugal dual boot with WIN XP

Dell Latitude 2500
Celeron 900MHz
128MB RAM
20GB HDD
CD/DVD Player
Netgear USB wireless adaptor
USB Mouse

snowshaker
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun 24 Aug 2008, 15:58
Location: Midwesterner running Slacko Puppy 5.3

#18 Post by snowshaker »

I've run Puppy release 2 on a Compaq 1230, which only had 96 MB of RAM and it seemed to work fine as a browser with a LAN connection. Ran faster than windows 98SE anyway. I could never get the wireless card to run though, but Puppy found all the other drivers including the LAN card.

I am running release 4 on an HP dv6358 laptop with 2GB RAM. Everything works, except I am still trying to connect to my windows network to use its printers. I remastered a live CD and then I will run Puppy in ram in public wifi locations with less fear of picking up malware.

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rjbrewer
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Location: merriam, kansas

#19 Post by rjbrewer »

My 1st laptop: Inspiron 4000, p3, 800, 500mb ram. Mfg. yr. 2000?
This was a gift with many hardware problems; added harddrive,
ram, dvd rom, wireless card. Got parts from a couple old broken
macbooks. About 50 dollars invested.

It runs any puppy very well. There were 3 things that I wished it had.
1. A 1.6 processor and more video power in order to watch video
streams without jerkyness, and fullscreen.
2. Usb 2.0 ports for booting from flash without needing cd to boot.
3. Less weight; for hauling around in my backpack while bicycling.

Received exactly what I wanted for Christmas.
Inspiron 700m. Pent. M 1.6, 1gb ram, 12.1" widescreen. Mfg.yr. 2004?
Has 1280x800 native resolution but also does 1024x768
perfectly, which is easier on my old eyes.
Has dvd/cd rw, which doesn't come with the new (and much more
expensive) 12" latops.
Almost 2 pounds lighter than the old laptop.

Has 2 minor issues:
1. The intel 855gm graphics will only play video "files" with correct
color balance using xvesa on the latest kernels.
2. The intel ipw2200 wireless has wpa problems with latest kernel.

Insignificant peculiarities for me.
I'm crazy about this laptop!!

edit:
The wpa problem seems to be part of the "small" iso puppy I was trying. Other versions with new kernel connect okay.

The xorg video color problem doesn't seem to exist in the 4.3.1
barebones pup that jrb is putting together.
Last edited by rjbrewer on Tue 19 Jan 2010, 08:39, edited 1 time in total.

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

davesurrey
Posts: 1198
Joined: Tue 05 Aug 2008, 18:12
Location: UK

#20 Post by davesurrey »

1. Advent 9315 (also known as Advent T5250). About 1 year old.
Intel Mobile Core 2 duo T5250 at 1500MHz.
2GB DDR2 ram
Sis mirage 3 graphics adapter
Realtek RTL8187B wifi adapter built-in.

Runs puppy 412, 421 and 431.1 with no problems except, despite lots of help from tempestuous, couldn't get wifi working in 412 nor 421. So only use 431.1 (ttuuxxx's version).

2. Systemax 7521T. ( think this was made by Mitac as model MTC 7521T.)
Intel celeron II 1GHz.
40GB HDD
128 MB ram.
No built in wifi so use Belkin F5D7010 pcmcia card.
Runs puppy 412 and 431. Works wonderfully. Despite its age my G/F loves it as it's so solidly built (just like me :-) ). Plays DVDs happily, the lot.

3. Asus eee 701 netbook.
upgraded to 2GB ram
4GB SSD
Tried everything but best was Puppy Dingo Plus .
Not used any more.

4. Asus eee 901

12GB SSD (4 + 8 GB)
Atom proc
2GB ram
Ran puppy off SSD and also SD card.
Used 431 and jemimah's puppeee-431.
Worked okay but just didn't feel right with any puppy. Can't explain.
Much happier with Crunchbang Linux 9.04
Also sad that 214X couldn't get wifi to work. For a netbook that's a killer..

HTH
Dave

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