Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Béèm]

[Jim1911]

[playdayz]

Seamonkey 2.1

This is the release of Seamonkey 2.1. I compared it to Seamonkey 2.0.14 from Spup. I don't mean to disrespect Seamonkey 2.0.14, but this is a significant speed improvement. SM 2.1 is larger though, 20MB pet. I didn't try at all to shrink it--in fact, as I understand it, optimizing at the highest level would make the code larger, somewhat. After installing the pet, the Browser icon opens SM 2.0.14 and the Seamonkey menu entry opens SM 2.1. In the graphic from Peacekeeper, higher is better. Firefox 4.0.1 gets about the same score as SM 2.1 on my machine.

(In the previous version of this post, the Seamonkey 2.1 was not actually any faster than the generic download from mozilla.org. I do not know why. But this one is. The 4009 score is for Seamonkey 2.1 compiled with -march=amdfam10--that is, for AMD Phenoms. The 3751 score is for the i686 version of Seamonkey 2.1--which is the one available now. The generic version scores in the low 3600's. The generic version of Firefox 4.0.1 also scores in the low 3600's.)



Seamonkey 2.1 -> http://diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/Seamonkey-2.1-i686.pet

[Lobster]

[DaveS]

Cowboy.... did you follow up on this: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=532276#532276

[Iguleder]

01micko - a very neat trick I found yesterday.

Usually, I compile my kernels under the Puppy I run, so the GCC version isn't stable as Debian's. That's what Puppy devs do, traditionally.

However, yesterday I tried a trick - I created a Debian Wheezy chroot environment with GCC 4.5.x (because 4.6.0 has many critical regressions) and compiled 2.6.32.41 (an upgrade from .40 ).

Guess what? 2 MB difference in package size and it's supposed to be much faster due to all the nifty optimizations of GCC >4.4.

There's only one problem with this approach: you'll need to keep the chroot environment/distro/whatever you used to build the kernel and build all third party and extra drivers with it, so you don't screw it up.

[Bert]

and what if the whole /root would be a symlink to /mnt/home/root?

Apologies if this is a stupid idea

EDIT Oops, I replied to cowboy, before seeing there were more posts after his...

[mikeslr]

Hi All,
I'm not sure how much space it would save, but Simple-Scan is a much more user-friendly, intuitive interface to Sane than Xsane. After tubby figured out what files were actually needed in Lupu, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=446209#446209, I packaged them together in a pet which only used 132.55 KB. http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=532824#532824. Of course, the XSane front end could still be available via PPM for those who need it.

A Slackware version of Simple-Scan has a compressed size of 167,00 KB, http://pkgs.org/slackware-13.37/slackers-i686/simple-scan-2.32.0.2-i686-1cf.txz.html but that probably includes "docs."

Sorry I can't test it in Slacko. Only my wife's computer has a scanner attached, and having been a only child, she finds it difficult to share.

mikeslr

[Minnesota]

Pardon my ignorance of how the file system and PupSave actually works.. by why is there any restriction on the size? Most file systems allow for expanding number of records in a file. Why is the file a fixed length? What is unique about the way our save file is structured that it can not automatically expand?

Most devices that we save to.. Hard disk, stick, CD, DVD, all can handle expanding file sizes. Certainly it is necessary to determine maximum space for a save, that is, is there enough space to make the save. That should be easy to determine.

[cowboy]

[mikeslr]

Hi All,

I had intended to just say "Ditto" to DaveS' response to Playdaz suggestion, adding only that I thought creating external Data Folders symlinked to / would be preferable to a Data.SFS, but before I could do so Minnesto identified one of the reasons why Folders would be preferable. SFSes are of fixed size and would have to be increased once they were filed with data in order to add more data. Folders will expand automatically up to the extent of the medium in which they are contained. [Of course, neither Folders nor SFSes could be used if Puppy was run from a non-rewritable CD/DVD without using some writable media for storage/persistence].

The second reason to prefer external Data Folders would be the ease of accessing the data from any operating system by those who dual or multi-boot.

The following is just me "brainstorming" beyond my level of experience to evaluate:
The aforementioned ease of access is a two-edged sword. For those running Puppy from a USB Key, anyone obtaining the key could access the data without having to boot into Puppy.
There are applications, such as Truecrypt, but their use requires a user to specify a code word before the folder is created, which may be something to confuse newbies. And I don't know if such additional applications are actually "entirely" necessary. I do know when creating a SaveFile one is offered the option of choosing the Ext2 format which can be encrypted. That suggests to me that Ext2 file systems can, themselves, be encrypted. But scanning the following seems to indicate that the size of the partition being created must be specified (i.e., subsequent expansion would require user intervention: gparted?).

http://www.goudkov.com/public/articles/encrypting_linux_partitions.jsp

In any event, at the cost of sacrificing a newby-friendly desktop without user intervention on first boot, what about a "Xorgwizard-like" first boot routine that would offer to create an encrypted data partition, or a first boot with optional boot to a desktop whose welcome screen would advise how to create encrypted Save Data Folders on reboot if that is desired?

mikesLr

[DaveS]

[Béèm]

[mikeslr]

My wireless settings do not (or do not always) survive a reboot.

On mnt/home I have both a folder containing the xp portable Filezilla and a folder containing a Linux Version of Filezilla. The latter runs under Lupus. I have pets to create menu entries for both. Having used PPM to install wine into Slacko, and having successfully installed a couple of apps I run under wine, I had intended to install the menu entries for the XP Portable Filezilla but chose the wrong pet. As Filezilla did not run, I tried to use PPM to uninstall the pet that created the menu entry. As the menu entry continued to appear (possible problem with PPM?), I figured perhaps running shutdown>Restart X server might be required. A half-black, half-garbled screen resulted which persisted when Ctl-Alt-Backspace>Xwin was typed. Tried Ctl-Alt-Backspace>xorgwizard, which enable me to choose my settings, but xwin brought up the same garbled desktop. Booted into Lupu, deleted SaveFile, copied protected SaveFile to active position, and successfully rebooted into Slacko.

mikesLr

[cowboy]

Initial download and test of Slacko 121.02 p3 seems promising on this machine. Run from Live CD, with 512MB savefile on USB stick. Booted to desktop, changed timezone and checked numlock, hit Xorgwizard button, Probe, and changed to 1024x768x24. Sound good, and stable through 5 reboots. Desktop stable through 5 reboots. Installed Firefox 3.6.13 from spup repository. USB optical mouse OK, hardwired keyboard OK. Reports below:

LSPCI

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
01:0a.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems LT WinModem (rev 02)
01:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
01:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation uPD72874 IEEE1394 OHCI 1.1 3-port PHY-Link Ctrlr (rev 01)

report-video:

IDEO REPORT: Slacko Puppy, version 121.02

Chip description:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)

Driver used by Xorg:
intel

Video mode used by Xorg:
Resolution: "1024x768" Depth: Depth 24