Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[toowoombalinux]

G'day,
PuppyTLC OS is a project by the Toowoomba Linux Community for old reconditioned computers to give to families in need or crisis. While talking to the Salvation Army I found out they have a need for this kind of service - and that they need 400+ computers for the families going through their crisis centre!

The OS is to be a complete model - that is, it shouldn't need any additions for the family's computer use. Also, that reduces the changes that, if they should install extra software, it break the system. Once a computer is done it needs to be self-sufficient until the time when those families are out of crisis. We hope within 12 months as a reconditioned computer only has a limited lifespan! PuppyTLC is a subset of my (nemesis) never-finishing Ultimate Puppy.

The applications were pretty straight forward. I tried to pick software which could be handled by PII computers, software which wasn't too complicated to set-up and use, and that meets the family's general computing needs.
Needs to be met:
*Students (big focus)
*internet (incl' email, messenger, skype) with a host of plugins
*multimedia
*entertainment (ie: games)
*Office (finance, documents and printing)
A result of this is that it's rather large (around 3gbs).

I have come to the conclusion that unless it looks good it'll probably gather dust and the family will just go and spend money (which they have to borrow) to buy a Windows based machine. So I spruced it up!

PuppyTLC is based on fat-free Puppy-3.01. I have updated with jwm2 and gtk2+. All applications work well on a very (very!) dodgy 400Mhz AMD 64mbs computer.

You will notice that the Help Section is very incomplete - currently in the process of creating it. There is also a Control Panel on the Icon Bar (far right).

I have provided a script to download untar and join the iso. But you can manually do this if your so inclined. Unlike my first attempt at Ultimate Puppy the download and join process works without a hitch. (multiple testings!). I have altered the initrd.gz to allow for pfix=noram. This works well if you don't have any frugal installs - it will load the pup_save file instead. After installation and reboot there's a second file to download and install to complete the installation. (Internet Connection Wizard is in the Control Panel)

In effect I was hoping if the people in this community could help us test this OS so we can bring an unmet need to families in crisis.



Here's a link to my developmental blog:
http://toowoombalinux.wordpress.com

For manual download here are the links:
Available soon
{Best use wget -c in a terminal)

After unzipping the tarball you will need to move the tarball to a different directory or delet them.
Then join these files using:

[toowoombalinux]

Extra info,
text to speech can convert .doc .abw or .txt to speech - as long as it's copied to the my mail > My Documents folder. I've left some test examples in My Docs (I just copied a news story and it doesn't reflect my political views).

Cheers
Martin

[toowoombalinux]

Bug Rport.
All burning programmes don't recognise the drive to burn on - this has been rectified and will be corrected next time.
Gtk2+ Font size is a little big - Internet connection Wizard text overlaps - will make smaller.

Some people are experiencing download errors for the extra data file - my Mediafire account is a little stressed at the moment so it would be less pain if you used the manual download links given above (unfortunately due to download breakage a Puppy user used 6gigs of his bandwidth to unsuccessfully install the data file!) - and use the Control Panel install data-file button.

Cheers
Martin

[nancy reagan]

Hi,

Great job for as far as I can judge from a very very quick go.

Though technically probably superb (I am no tweaker: try to be a user which is already often very hard for me) I wonder whether first time users, so called Winblowers, will have a quickstart. Pets, what are they, what can you do with it etc. Let alone talking about "quickpets".

Like most puppies of a very high technical standard,often hard to handle by low profile users like me.

Especially program names in thhe menu Kspread, instead of Spreadsheet - Kspread, Wordprocessor - Kword. Anyways all those strange names blow me away in the first place, sometimes by hitting this or that button I arrive somewhere.

By testing you great work I would suggest to sit with Winblowers, ask what they would like to do and watch them while they are trying to find their way. But of course cannot be done before Christmas.

In writing your Help I would suggest to deliver them with a printed copy, easier when they get stuck on the way or just want to read more relaxed before getting started.

As I said very quick go.

First on my 1G desk.

When I -choose- xorg and after -test- I press OK it gets stuck and shows a different desktop.

When Xvesa turns up a grey screen and right clicking does not do anything.

After pressing ctral+alt+backspace (which new time users won't know)"xwin" and then "xorgwizard xwin xvesa," can't remember the order. Tried again but does not seem to be a specific order. Finally got screen again.

Miss the autoconnect like latest puppies have. Wesnoth does not load.

At shutdown it save to a savething of classic pup, without asking me. I hate those "save to file" features. Sc0ttman wrote a tiny script to skip saving (rubbish) that you do not want to. Or see his Arcadepup.

I hoped to be able to use it on my ramshackle 128mb Toshiba something something notebook, with broken harddrive. Hoped to install to usb stick which hang on a hub.

However it hangs when loading the screen, as is the case with Teenpups..

Q: what is the use of the extra data files sfs at the bottom of your page ?

Hope my info is useful to you. main problem: the screen setup, if there is any.

[nooby]

DON'T FRUGAL INSTALL

When will the frugal install be allowed then? Is that something you plan to achieve or did you give up on that feature?

I don't get it. Don't you like frugal install.

[toowoombalinux]

G'day,
"Ambitious but rubbish!" and "How hard can it be?" - two of my favourite Top Gear quotes...

Upcoming fix for LiveCD on machines with less than 256mbs .... sorry! It was having too many fonts!. Also, the Puppy Installer had problems correctly downloading the extra data file - this has temporarily been removed - manual download only.

The Menu descriptions will be made more thorough. Also, the installation of this distro will only be done by members of the Toowoomba Linux Community, so the installation guides are only there for testing on Puppy Ultimate.

There are TLC members who are testing it on their families; so any confusion will hopefully be sorted before we get cracking.

Fix will be posted next week after I've uploaded the files. Thanks for your patience. I am a bit of an unsophisticated nob at times!

FYI. About the extra data file.... I needed a OS that covers most of the bases, as this will go into reconditioned computers for families in crisis - it's a fire and forget policy. To meet this criteria I was unable to fit it all in a single CD - so the extra data file has the bits (like Wesnoth) that I couldn't fit in the CD. And it needs to be a CD as most of the machines we'll be dealing with only have a CDROM. Sorry for any misunderstanding. I didn't put this info in as it is not a standard release - only for testing.

Cheers
Martin
PS. Check out blog for further info.

PPS. Frugal install is fine if you have the ram but you end up with a huge pup.2fs file which needs to load every time you boot - then the pup_save file needs to load. I'm not stopping ppl loading with frugal but on the machines we'll be installing this OS on - Frugal is not an option. That's why I need it tested as a full HD install.

[toowoombalinux]

G'day,
Due to the current feedback I will be temporarily suspending access to the download until I can get a slightly improved version out (hopefully next week). I will be doing this in 48hrs so if you want this version (though I can't see why!) please get it now!

Cheers
Martin

[nancy reagan]

Though I am looking forward to your next, because it is very complete and light, and you want to give it to people in your town with this Christmas, which looks very stressful to me, I would suggest to provide these people first with a live cd ?

So that they can already getting used a little bit with the system, without damaging anything ?


Is it also possible to install on usb stick ?

[aragon]

[nancy reagan]

[harii4]

i would like to see an PuppyTLC core ISO:
"fat-free Puppy-3.01. updated with jwm2 and gtk2+" only.
look very nice.

[nancy reagan]

City of Toowoomba-linux community severely hit by water wall
Was even on the Dutch news.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/two-dead-as-wave-of-water-smashes-toowoomba/story-fn7iwx3v-1225985290274

[toowoombalinux]

G'day,
Yes, my back shed which had a fair amount of computer gear was flooded - cleaning up the mess then helping family and friends - at the moment up to 70 people are missing and 8 have lost their lives. Yesterday it was like the apocalypse had come to Toowoomba. We never expected it as we live on top of a range!!

PuppyTLC will be born anew again soon. For more info check out "Toowoomba Linux" on Facebook or follow my blog at ...
http://toowoombalinux.wordpress.com/

Sorry I haven't checked here more often but I needed Xmas off as it's been a hectic year....

Cheers
Martin

[nooby]

our thoughts is with you guys. What a mess nature can send out ways. It is terrible. Hope for the best though.

[jamalexa]

Toowoombalinux - glad to see you are alright. Hope the cleanup wasn't too bad.