Precise Puppy 5.4 and 5.4.2

[peebee]

From page 6: For now, please try the attached packages without Frisbee, to see if there is any wireless improvement or impact.
Richard

Hi Richard

Tried the B43 firmware and dhcpcd pets on a pristine frugal install of Precise 5.4-pae.

All seemed well....wifi connection established as expected.

Do you want me to replace the dhcpcd in Frisbee for Precise from:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 2&start=85
and see how that behaves?

Cheers
peebee

[oldyeller]

I have downloaded both Precise pups.

Precise 5.4 official;
works great can use puppy-precise in the ppm to download and install pkgs.

Precise-retro 5.4 non pae;
I have downloaded again and reburned it to cd and still through the ppm using puppy-precise repo can not download and install any pkgs what so ever.

the noarch-repo in the ppm works just fine.

[tallboy]

Re: Failing to get a working internet connection

Have you tried first installing: http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_pa ... 2.4-up.pet and http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_pa ... 120815.pet

Nope, and that is my point. Any new puppy should be a relatively mature product by now, and trouble like failing to get an internet connection up and running at first try, should simply not happen! I think that booting, finding all hardware, and covering all possible ways to connect to the internet, is an absolute minimum requirement for any distro. If some other applications don't work because of new kernels, libs or other dependencies, so be it. That can be explained and fixed, but only if you are online!

If I came from Windoze, and if Precise was my first attempt to use puppylinux, the next thing happening would be that all my friends would hear about that awful linux 'thing' that couldn't even find the net!

Besides, I could not download those .pets without an internet connection, in fact I couldn't even read this post...

tallboy

[rerwin]

tallboy, watchdog,
There is no need to install the mentioned usb_modeswitch packages. They are built into precise 5.4. From the "wood_installed_packages list:

Code: Select all

usb-modeswitch-1.2.4-up|...|mode switcher for hybrid USB devices|ubuntu|precise||
usb-modeswitch-data-20120815|...|mode switcher data base||||

So, that's not the problem.

Tallboy, your modem should be supported by this puppy. Would you give us some information to allow me to work the problem? Please boot pfix=ram and try to start the modem by going through the "connect" icon and following the prompts to get to pupdial. If no modem is detected (ttyUSB?), click on CHOOSE, then PROBE, to see if it is found. If not found, open a console and enter pmodemdiag, to get a pmodemdiag...tar.gz file in your main (/root) directory. Attach that file to a posting here. TIA.
Richard

[smokey01]

Artsown

How does a newbie tell if Precise version is *PAE* or *non-PAE*?

In a terminal type: cat /proc/cpuinfo

This will show you a lot of information about each of you processors.

Pay attention after flags:
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority

pae will will listed if it supports it.

[watchdog]

I would wish a more prominent color for text highlighting.
otherways its superb.

Click Menu-Desktop-Chtheme GTK theme chooser. I have changed it to Polished-Blue and works fine.

[tallboy]

rerwin, will do, coming back later with full report.

tallboy

[majorfoo]

However, try as I might, I cannot find the setting for the panel clock to set to 12 hour time.
Where is the panel setting for the 12 hour clock?
Where is the panel setting to change the icons of the panel?

Also, where is the 'home' button on Seamonkey-2.13.1 tool bar?

I use PupClockset-1.9.pet for 12 hour clock

Desktop Icons can be changed by clicking on Desktop > then Desktop Icon Changer

Home button on Seamonkey-2.13.1 is found by clicking of View, then Show/Hide, then Bookmarks Toolbar

Regards
Majorfoo

[slenkar]

mangler doesnt seem to work, when i type mangler into a console it doesnt give any error messages and nothing happens

[musher0]

Puppy Precise 5.4 has decided to trap me in on the fourth save to DVD. Couldn't get out of Puppy Precise 5.4 without manually shutting down the computer.

That didn't happen on oldyeller's Puppy Precise 5.3. It did happen once in pemasu.'s version, but the bug was quickly corrected.

I'm in agreement with "tall boy" that bugs for such primary actions should never be found in Puppy at this mature stage of the distro, especially when the bug has been detected and solved before. (See various threads on both subjects in this forum.)

In view of these elementary shortcomings, it really doesn't matter if Puppy Precise 5.4 has in its innerds the drivers to connect by wifi to a server on the moon.

No wonder we are losing ranks on DistroWatch.

It's very very sad. I'm really disappointed.

BFN.

[`f00]

@Sky Aisling p8, article 5
The clock is a swallow in jwm's tray, towards the end of that file. It's probably something like %R (24 hr time with hrs:min and no seconds) - osmo has kind of a mini-doc on strftime format but it's more for calendar as I recall. You should be able to get a 12 hr clock with %r (uncapped).

http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/chrono/strftime lists some of the parameters for example

Traybuttons you can specify the icon .. stuff in the dock/systray is according to the applet(s)

If you edit jwm's tray file, simply reload jwm to see results

hth

, no deltas for 5.3.97 --> 5.4 .. oh well

[smokey01]

All, please give Barry a bit of slack here.

Remember this distribution has been in development for quite a reasonable time.

Most of these bugs should have been reported during the testing stage, and yes some of them may have been.

A few things to consider before being too harsh:

1. Barry and many others provide their time and knowledge for free
2. John Murga provides this Forum for free
3. There are many other people who offer unconditional assistance and storage space for free, including myself.

We all get frustrated at times but please consider the feelings and efforts of others.

Too many times I have seen a poor choice of words turn into a huge argument. In some case people have been banned while others have left.

Remember, English is not the first language of many who visit here and occasionally the wrong word or emphasis is used.

This is not directed any anyone in particular so please do not assume it is. It's just that in the last few weeks I have noticed many people have made some unkind comments and not just in this thread.

This is a friendly place to play, and I for one, would like to see it stay that way.

The new talent that is popping up in Puppy world is encouraging and as a collective I think there is value in encouraging and supporting it.

Remember, more developers=more choices.

[/soapbox]

[James C]

An additional thought, instead of whining and griping after a release, testers are always welcome before the final is released.

[oldyeller]

An additional thought, instead of whining and griping after a release, testers are always welcome before the final is released.

I do agree with this, I know that I get frustrated with things that I think should work when the puppy is done. But we have to help one another with input so that things get finished.

I do try and help with testing but I only use just a select few apps on puppy.

BarryK has done a fantastic job with puppy linux and if it was not for him we would not have this little pup to play with.

[Sky Aisling]

We are all so revved up about this new puppy.
Posts are flying all around the place. Looks like one of those Scottish pole tossing festivals.

Remember, John is taking down the forum sometime tonight or tomorrow for maintenance.

We may have to wait til Monday to continue our romp with the new pup.

[dennis-slacko531]

This latest distribution is turning things very positive. Precise 5.4 has captured my interest, and I'm a notorious hopper. I'll set my torrent (thanks 01micko) right after this little posting... Heck, don't stocks dip before they begin their best runs?

BTW, Barry knows full well how to market. Look at where we're at of all places... a Bugs forum (lol). The neon icons and cool skateboarding doggie goes a long way for new or old.

[James C]

Fresh frugal install of Precise 5.4 on my Windows 7/Mageia/SolusOS/Puppy box.Sound,display and internet all working and correct ootb.

# report-video
VIDEO REPORT: Precise Puppy, version 5.4

Chip description:
oem: NVIDIA
product: MCP61 - mcp61-86 Chip Rev

Driver used by Xorg:
vesa

Video mode used by Xorg:
Resolution: Depth 24 Depth: "Display"

...the above also recorded in /tmp/report-video
# glxgears
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 30
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 30
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 55
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 56
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 59
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 58
nvfx_screen_get_param:95 - Warning: unknown PIPE_CAP 30
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
4466 frames in 5.0 seconds = 893.159 FPS
4965 frames in 5.0 seconds = 992.833 FPS
5075 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1014.966 FPS
5116 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1023.118 FPS
5123 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1024.592 FPS
5117 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1023.340 FPS

Actually using the "nouveau" driver.

-Computer-
Processor : 2x AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+
Memory : 3888MB (202MB used)
Operating System : Unknown distribution
User Name : root (root)
Date/Time : Sat 27 Oct 2012 11:32:19 PM CDT
-Display-
Resolution : 1440x900 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Gallium 0.4 on NV4C
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter : HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
VGA compatible controller : NVIDIA Corporation C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

-Display-
Resolution : 1440x900 pixels
Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
Version : 1.11.3
-Monitors-
Monitor 0 : 1440x900 pixels
-OpenGL-
Vendor : nouveau
Renderer : Gallium 0.4 on NV4C
Version : 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4
Direct Rendering : Yes

Code: Select all

# free
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:       3888484       598232      3290252            0        67936
-/+ buffers:             530296      3358188
Swap:      4300796            0      4300796
# 

[James C]

Looks a bit better now......

[tallboy]

rerwin, here is the pmodemdiag file.

I also ran Precise on a live-CD in this machine, where I usually run my modified dpup-484beta4. The box has a P4 1.8 GHz, with an old nVidia GeForce2 MX200 graphic card. Here the resolution refused to change from 640x480, placed in a small square in the middle of the screen, I guess the retro-Precise may be better for this machine. The modem was found, the memory stick icon came up on the desktop, but the modem refused to connect.

oldyeller and James C: The following section may belong in a separate thread, but it was started here, so I continue here for now.

I am not clever enough to be contributing to the development of puppy, but I hope it does not exclude me from having some comments/complaints about Precise Puppy 5.4, after running it live.

And yes, english is a foreign language to me, so I am sorry if I have expressed myself harshly, or in a way that could be misinterpreted. It is in no way any attempt from me, to diminish the enormous amount of work that Barry K., John Murga and many others have made in their spare time, for free; I am deeply impressed and very grateful for the effort. After all, I am a dedicated puppy user, and all criticizing remarks by me should be interpreted as constructive criticism!

..instead of whining and griping after a release, testers are always welcome before the final is released.

Well, there may be a legitimate reason for 'whining and griping' a bit after a release. What is a tester expected to do? Find bugs? If every aspect of a puppy should be tested from scratch every time there was a new release, we would all be occupied full-time to cover all the different puppys/puppy derivatives that are released, almost every week.

Remember this distribution has been in development for quite a reasonable time. Most of these bugs should have been reported during the testing stage, and yes some of them may have been.

Yes, most of these bugs has been reported, but not in the testing section for one of the new puppy versions, but in hundreds, or even thousands, of posts in the forum! Following all the posts, and recording all the bugs or mishaps, will be a massive job, and it is not very likely it will ever be done. But what I mean is, that there could be a fixed, basic set of tools and applications that could be followed in the posts, and bugs and sugegstions and comments be recorded. That way the testers could concentrate on the other, old or new applications - or dependencies or adaptions of them. The developer, or developer's team, could concentrate on the base package.

An inventor will almost always protect his/her 'baby', and don't like the thought of other people fiddling with it. They often want to design, produce, market and sell their product themselves, even if they often are good at only one thing; understanding the basic product or concept.

After decades of working life, I am a student in my old days, and active in student organizations that are based on volonteers. One thing I had to adapt to, was that one cannot expect that people who are not paid, will act as if they were paid, or will accept to be treated as if they were paid.

I don't think one can rely on having a stable workforce in puppy development, even if I often register the same names over and over again as developers.

What I try to convey, is that the basic concept in two scenarios presented above - transferred to puppy development, may contribute to the the fact that development work is carried out on many puppys and puppy derivatives at the same time, instead of concentrating the work on perfecting one at the time.

I think some effort may be used on planning the development work itself, and how to delegate work, in the different stages of developing a new puppy. I am sure there are forum members that are experts in that field, and could volonteer to help.

That would also contribute to avoid that one man, Barry K. seem to be the target for all critizism that comes about a puppy. Sorry if I have given you that impression with my ramblings, Barry!

tallboy

[mavrothal]

Remember this distribution has been in development for quite a reasonable time.

From Barry's blog

Posted on 16 Mar 2012
I am not inclined to take on bringing an x86 (or x86_64) Precise Puppy to release status, it is just too much work, and I am going to get overloaded

Posted on 21 Mar 2012
As far as coordinating it to release status, I am interested, but worry whether I can give it sufficient time.
.....
I don't want bug reports. But, if anyone wants to fix bugs and submit them, then you are welcome.
.....
Any thoughts on whether this should be taken to release status, and how it should be coordinated, also welcome. Like, a small team?

Posted on 26 Mar
Precise Puppy alpha2

Posted on 24 May
Precise Puppy alpha3(!!!)

Posted on 3 Jun 2012
Precise Puppy 5.2.58 (beta1)

Posted on 6 Jun 2012
Precise Puppy 5.2.60 (beta2)
My Raspberry Pi has arrived, so I will switch over to playing with that for awhile.

Posted on 26 Aug 2012(!!!)
Precise Puppy 5.2.69 (beta3)

Look at the time line. Basically after a look-warm, iffy start, "release" development started 2 months ago with 4 more betas 2RCs and the final. Was it enough time? Looks like was not.

Unfortunately Barry is only human.
Being a lead developer and release manager for 3 or 4 pupplet (precise, wary, racy, RP) can not do justice to any of them.

The problem I believe is the sparse availability of release managers/seasoned developers currently. Micko has other engagements, as pemasu and jemimah. Playdayz has paramount real life problems. Ttuuxxx is idling and other active developers are diverging from current woof (Fatdog-Carolina).
Hopefully this will change soon.

BTW I do not think we should expect puppy users to be alpha-beta testers, nor should we allow skepticism by testers only.