[SOLVED] Which Puppy for this tiny computer?

Booting, installing, newbie
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starhawk
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#31 Post by starhawk »

A bit more detail --

The screen at the tech shop that I've been using, initially only worked in text mode -- graphics mode would make it go to "this isn't a recognizable signal so I'mma take a nap now" mode. I switched a setting in BIOS (forget now which one) and it worked in graphics mode... but...

Tech shop dude didn't have a PS/2 splitter. This board has one PS/2 port, with the pins that wouldn't be used for keyboard clock/data signals used as mouse clock/data signals. A very common arrangement, that, found on elderly laptops and other small boards quite often.

I don't have a splitter either.

So I was using a PS/2 keyboard and a COMport mouse. I had a Puplite5 CD with me at the time, and it refused to recognize the mouse -- it would go through xorgwizard or to xvesa just fine, but the cursor wouldn't budge.

Mouse is known good.

I've ordered the PS/2 splitter from eBay as of yesterday. Should get here sometime next week -- it's being sent cheap, meaning slowish, meaning First Class Mail.

BTW, the USB ports --all two of them-- are on a slightly strange header. It's standard except for the pitch -- most headers are 2.54mm / 0.1" -- this one is 2mm pitch with smaller pins, so a regular dongle won't fit the header. How wonderfully special :roll: I have someone on my other forum making me a USB dongle, but it's not here yet.

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#32 Post by starhawk »

I broke down and ordered the Commell-issue riser from a US distributor named Global American Inc. -- they are quite friendly and helpful! The other official US distributor of Commell products is BWI (Bill West Inc) and they were just shy of rude to me on the phone, where Global American was as helpful as they could be (which wasn't much, but it sure wasn't for lack of trying!)

It cost $12.50 or so, plus a ridiculous amount for shipping because Global American is a UPS loyalist :roll: I could put a stump speech up here about the Postal Service vs other carriers, but I'm not going to waste my keystrokes with that. Everyone who's going to have an opinion on the matter already has one.

So that will be here sometime in the evening tomorrow. (UPS Ground isn't usually this fast... dunno what's up with that.)

Then it's time to test my PCI graphics card. Fun!

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#33 Post by Yogi »

This might help decide your choice:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=84271

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#34 Post by starhawk »

Just opened the box with the PCI riser in it, from Global American. I don't know how they can get away with charging $25 normally for this, PLUS the $14 and change shipping.

I was lucky -- I knew about a British company selling the same thing for eight quid. Global was willing to price-match, but $12.53 is still a bit much for what would cost $5 on eBay if it was available there.

For those interested, a half-pound (if that) box from New Hampshire (Global American) to North Carolina (me) cost $14.11 via UPS.

All of that said, I'm about to fire it up and see what happens.

@Yogi -- I'm pretty sure I said this in an earlier post of this thread (could be wrong -- a quick look back and I can't put my eyes to it)...

But I really want to stick with Puppy. I haven't used any other Linux in YEARS. Like two. (When I did, it was Ubuntu. No thanks!) I feel at home with Puppy; it's very familiar. I don't get that anywhere else, and I don't want to have to start over with another distro. Puppy is good for my health :lol:

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#35 Post by Flash »

starhawk wrote:I don't know how they can get away with charging $25 normally for this, PLUS the $14 and change shipping.:
It probably sat on a shelf in a warehouse for years. Warehouse space isn't free, and neither are people competent enough to find that old part, box it up and ship it to you. Be happy that someone had what you were looking for, that it was correctly entered in an online catalog and that it was sent to you without mistake and in good shape. :)

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#36 Post by starhawk »

Fair enough.

By the way, folks...

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!

Proof of function is attached. I'm using Puplite 5.0 here.

Be warned: my biggest talent is to turn anything into a blurry mess using only a camera :P

Current system specs --
Spare 12v 60w power brick (AC-DC adapter -- sorry guys, it does not make music)
Commell LE-370Z / LE-370CM6 Motherboard (two names, one board, no identity crises somehow)
Celeron M ULV 600MHz, integrated
1G PC3200 RAM @ 266MHz (board is downclocking for no good reason)
PNY Verto FX5500 PCI graphics card
random spare laptop Combo Drive (optical drive) -- no HDD yet!
random spare 50mm fan (heatsink is intended to be fanless, which is very very stupid!)

Screen at the moment is an eMachines-branded eView 17F2 CRT. Very heavy :shock: but very functional!

I'm using the nv driver included with this version of Puplite. I guess "nouveau" was the one that was full of bugs and eventually dropped?

A note about the fan -- when idling, fanless, the temp is around 50 C. (The chip is rated to 100 C -- you can boil water with it!) Right now, with the noisy-but-effective fan... Puplite5 reports 15-16 C. I think I'll keep the fan :wink:

Also, considering Puplite took its sweet time loading into RAM... I think I don't want to bother with trying jejy69's GNOME232 Puppy. No, I can't add more RAM or faster RAM -- the board really only goes up to 1GB and PC2700 (333MHz) speeds. Not sure why it's downclocking to 266MHz ( = PC2100 RAM) when the stick in there is PC3200 ( = 400MHz)... but it is. Hmmm.
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#37 Post by starhawk »

Tried a copy of tigerpup that I got from rhadon (thanks dude!) -- I get a consistent kernel panic. (Something must be scaring the corn inside :lol: )

I'll test that ISO another time on another system.

About to try PAW RC2. Next will be Racy 530 unless it's PAE (I don't remember).

EDIT: I think my CD drive needs a lens clean :( I'm gonna go do that and report back what happens. Also Racy 530 is PAE so no-go :(

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Which Puppy for this tiny computer?

#38 Post by Monsie »

No, I can't add more RAM or faster RAM -- the board really only goes up to 1GB and PC2700 (333MHz) speeds. Not sure why it's downclocking to 266MHz ( = PC2100 RAM) when the stick in there is PC3200 ( = 400MHz)... but it is. Hmmm.
Have you checked the settings in the bios to see whether you can set a specific ram clock and/or timing? Your ram setting(s) might be set to "Auto" in which case you might be able to select "SPD" serial presence detect. If so, this could give you the proper configuration, because the bios may detect additional info from the ram module.

BTW are you going to try Wary on this machine?

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#39 Post by starhawk »

I'll try Wary later ;) Want to see if I can get Akita working, at least.

I'll see what I can do about SPD. That's something new to me -- but it sounds safe to try, so try it I will.

EDIT: didn't realize I had wary 5.3 archived. Burning a CD-RW of it shortly -- let's see if a lens clean fixed my drive!

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#40 Post by starhawk »

Known-good (previously used) CD-R of Wary 530 produced: same exact symptoms as the other four or so attempts.

Let's try cleaning the drive in the Commell test-rig then ;)

EDIT: SPD is enabled already, BTW -- the other choice is manual settings. No thanks!

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#41 Post by prehistoric »

starhawk wrote:...EDIT: SPD is enabled already, BTW -- the other choice is manual settings. No thanks!
What!? And, here I had you pegged as someone who likes a challenge. :wink:

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#42 Post by starhawk »

There's a point at which a wise endurance becomes a foolish persistence.

I reached that point with the graphics. Hence the PCI card.

I will not go past that point with the RAM and potentially muck up both memory and mainboard ;)

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#43 Post by starhawk »

HEY EVERYBODY

Image

Went back to the computer shop today, and learned two things --

(1) I can't troubleshoot to save my own butt, and
(2) it was a defective power brick the whole dang time.

This has been fixed. I will now proceed to test Linuxes (Linuces?) of the youthful canine variety ;)

:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

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#44 Post by greengeek »

No, your troubleshooting was perfect. You positively identified all the things it wasn't before confirming exactly what it was.

Thats how it's done.
:-)

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#45 Post by starhawk »

Power supply is one of the first things to check when the symptoms are all over the map.

BTW, the one spare supply I had that might've worked with this board...

...doesn't work :(

So I'm still dead in the water, till I can get a 12v "laptop" brick that's got some oomph to it -- 60w isn't enough with the graphics card :(

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#46 Post by Javelin Dan »

Starhawk –

I’m coming to the party a little late on this one and without much technical expertise, but I can give you the benefit of my experience. On my old Dell Inspiron 8000 (750Mhz, 512 MB RAM), I’ve tested dozens and dozens of different Linux distros, and dozens of versions of Puppy. I’m not doing anything high tech, so for me the criterion is fairly simple – can I configure my wifi USB dongle, and does it play Youtube videos to any degree? On this particular old box, Puppy rocks…but not necessarily all of them. Anything I’ve tried before version 5.whatever was problematic for me to get my wireless working. So all the versions I could actually test extensively were version 5 and above since I only have two CAT 5 cables hooked to my DSL and they are both occupied. Anything using ‘Barry’s Simple Set-up

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#47 Post by starhawk »

Thanks! I usually steer clear of the mainline Puppies, but I don't really know why... I'll give Lucid a try once I get a beefier power brick for this thing.

Anyone need a 12v 60w brick, that has a stronger 12v brick? I'll trade!

(I don't have the $20 to get the replacement I need on eBay :( )

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#48 Post by starhawk »

Non-update: still looking for that power brick...

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#49 Post by starhawk »

Update that really IS an update... Apologies for the long post -- but it's worth reading, and you won't really understand what's going on if you don't read it all.

Someone on another forum was really kind to me, just now.

That other forum has a section where people can buy, sell, and trade computer hardware of various form and origin. Within this section, there is a thread started long ago called the Perpetual Freebies Thread -- for stuff that is considered (by these people, most of them enthusiasts aka "computer power users") too old and worthless to charge anything more than the cost of shipping. All sorts of stuff shows up in that thread, and most of it works. In fact, probably a good portion of the computers accessing this forum regularly (Pentium 2/3/4/M and AthlonXP era stuff) would be considered quite suitable for that thread by the people on that forum.

As part of cleaning up a room in my house that has been a computer-equipment closet for entirely too long, I put up a veritable mountain of stuff in that thread. None of it was worth enough money (to them, not me) to bother putting up a For Sale thread. Nobody there would've paid more than shipping costs for any of that (to me) slightly-old stuff.

At some point, fairly recently, having cleaned up the room sufficiently... I posted a Want To Trade thread (not a Want To Buy, as --per usual-- I have basically no money) asking to trade my 60 watt power brick (for the tiny board) for a 90+ watt brick, as the brick I have isn't quite strong enough. I wanted a much more capable brick to allow for margin-of-error in estimating how much power the board was actually wanting to pull. (I can tell that the 60w brick is probably pretty close, as the board does partially boot, but I can't tell how close.)

To make a long story... well, less long... a fellow on that forum came across the three posts where I gave away all that stuff, and he decided to just up and give me the $20 I needed to buy a 96w brick I had picked out on eBay as a just-in-case if I couldn't do the trade after a while.

So, thanks to the wonders of Paypal, I've already ordered the brick. Should be here within a week or so.

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#50 Post by starhawk »

Received the power supply this morning. I also received something for another project -- I'll probably be working on that other project first, and if there's time to test the power supply with this setup, that will come second.

Tomorrow is going to be busy, so if nothing happens on this today, it will happen Saturday.

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