Trouble installing puppy arcade because windows disappear

[elim]

I'm trying to install Puppy Arcade 10 and having problems with it.

I put the cd in, booted to it. I get onto the desktop, then I go into the start menu and click Frugal-Installer - install Puppy to HD. A window pops up for a split second and then disappears.

Also, I tried launching a couple other programs too (like Puppy universal installer) and it seems every program does the same thing. A windows pops up for a split second (a flicker, not even enough time to see anything on it) and then disappears and nothing.

thanks

[bigpup]

Easy answer and first things to look for.
Bad download of the Puppy Arcade ISO file.
Bad burn of Puppy Arcade to the CD.

Your problems seem to indicate some core program or file missing from your install to the CD.

[elim]

Ok, now I downloaded it from a different mirror and did an md5 check sum and it matches perfectly. Burned it at a slow setting. Booted to it, and it has the same behaviour as before.

[bigpup]

Try this:
In a terminal or console type the name of a program and hit enter.
That should display any error messages trying to run program.
Post what they say.

[elim]

I can't open a terminal window because when I click on terminal it doesn't come up (or it comes up for a millisecond and then disappears)

I did ctrl-alt-f1 to get to console, and then ctrl-z and bg to get a prompt. Then I tried to run a few programs. They all say can't open display.

For example:
# xcalc
Error: Can't open display:

# leafpad
Error: Can't open display:

# galculator

(galculator:12915): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

[Karl Godt]

Might be a hardware issue . Trident cards for example . Or choose lower resolution : 1280x1024 -> 1024x768 in xorgwizard if s3virge . Apps that need X to run, wont run in kernel console, except for some few options like --help or --version .

[elim]

I ran the xorgwizard, and it's already set to 1024x768 by default. The only choices in xorgwizard were 1024x768x16, 1024x768x24. I tried changing the res to 800x600 in the config file, but the resolution still looked like 1024 when I got back to the desktop.

I tried generic driver and it just had a static screwed up screen. I tried the Xvesa option and it did load the desktop normally (looked identical to how the desktop looked by default), and tried to run some programs, they still flash up for a split second and disappear.

Every time I boot from the cd the display looks like it's 16 colors.

I believe the video card is an Intel 855 (this is a dell inspiron 1150 laptop)

[Karl Godt]

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Dell_Inspiron_1150

No idea other than blacklisting i915.ko driver or modeset=0|1 it . Xorg loads i915 by itself if you don't put it outof the way or do an alias mopdprobe='/sbin/modprobe -b' . Current Puppies honor blacklisting better than 4x series .
Maybe acpi=force|off option to kernel line in bootmenu another idea .

Honestly, that all might not worth all the effort .
My dells are desktop/mini-tower from year 2007/2008 and i managed it, but was a struggle with Puppy-4 Xorg-1.3.0 .
Puppy-5 Xorg-1.7 and up work better with intel chips in my experience .

[elim]

Yeah... I pretty much have no idea what you just said so I think this is a dead end. I was really looking for something I could just chuck on there and have it just work.

Problem is, lightweight distros suitable for old hardware seem to be harder to get working, less pre-loaded with things. And full featured current distros do that better, but they require newer better hardware which this isn't.

I already had wasted a lot of time previously with this machine trying to get a different distro working right, and didn't want to repeat that.

Thanks for your help though.

[rjbrewer]

My Inspiron 700M has 855GM graphics and I was able
to get my preferred 1024x768 res. (xorg-24) by
restarting X twice.

I'm not a gamer, but other things seem to be working
fine.

acpi and i915 mods have never been good choices on
this machine.

Any newer Puppy with 3xx kernel sucks for choosing
resolution.
Most 2xx kernel Puppies had i810 driver option which was veryhelpfull with 855GM graphics.
Xorg configuration is severely stripped in this os.

Edit:
Have not been able to keep wireless connection after
reboot or power-off, on.

[mini-jaguar]

I also used to want to install Puppy Arcade 10 on my computer, but I found it too buggy.

[`f00]

@elim
Yeah, display issues can be tedious. A few things to try..

0) cli interface (bypasses the usual X desktop) - the usual way to get there is Ctrl+Alt+backspace, once there use stuff like mp (console text editor) to read /tmp/xerrs.log for some hints as to what's going on..

1) edit xorg.conf manually (read How to edit the xorg.conf file for details, although you may not need all that much if xorg is stripped down in Arcade 10) and Restart X Server rather than go through the xorgwizard .. the true Xvesa kdrive server (as opposed to the xvesa option in xorg) should be easier to deal with.

Personally have no experience with your hardware nor Puppy Arcade 10, so this is just 2¢ discounted fwiw - did have that 'window flash' once upon a time but likely a whole 'nother reason for it, even if the "Can't open display" sounds familiar I even messed up gtk at one point and ever since then I made sure to have a few basic gui apps that use fltk instead (namely xfe file manager and its add-ons).