(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello
I have puppy 5.28 installed on a dell vostro 1320.

1) How do I find the free space on the drive it is installed on.
2) I tried to install vlc 1.57 ? and it said not enough space, I have wine installed and almost nothing else apart from puppy itself.
3) Is there a media player similar to vlc I could install.
Any ideas please
Thanks
number77

By your limited details of what type install you did
, I would guess you did a frugal install of Puppy.

I tried to install vlc 1.57 ? and it said not enough space

If it is a frugal install, this indicates you need to make the Puppy save file bigger.
You can do that by running the program resize personnel storage file.
If not a frugal install, give more details on how you did the install.

1) How do I find the free space on the drive it is installed on.
Open up ROX-Terminal or Uxrv Terminal Menu --> Utility --> ROXTerm
#df -h disk free -human
#free
#du -h disk usage -human
#mount

2) I tried to install vlc 1.57 ? and it said not enough space, I have wine installed and almost nothing else apart from puppy itself.
Menu --> Setup --> Alsa Sound Wizard check out those speakers.
Menu --> MultiMedia --> pupRadio / pupTelly streaming media or VLC-gtk

3) Is there a media player similar to vlc I could install.
Any ideas please. Explore menu --> multimedia
mplayer or vlc

Thanks
number77

Welcome to the Kenel. Hope the above helps. Ask questions.

It is a frugal install and I didnt realise vlc was already there so thanks.
Still not quite sure how to find free space on drive. I opened a console and copied
#df -h disk free -human
#free
#du -h disk usage -human
#mount
in but then what.I realy need some basic simple commands to use and understand console, like what language is it.

number77 wrote: Still not quite sure how to find free space on drive.

Look at 'menu > utility > resize personal storage space'.

number77 wrote:It is a frugal install and I didnt realise vlc was already there so thanks.
Still not quite sure how to find free space on drive. I opened a console and copied
#df -h disk free -human
#free
#du -h disk usage -human
#mount
in but then what.I realy need some basic simple commands to use and understand console, like what language is it.

Puppy != Ubuntu. We don't like console as much, although FWIW the standard rxvt console is a bash terminal.

Listen to rjbrewer, it really is that simple.

A short explanation of why, and how it works under the hood --

Puppy does things differently from a lot of other distros. By which I mean basically all of them. Your frugal install is essentially three or four files. vmlinux and initrd.gz are used at boot to initialize the system and unpack the Lucid 528 SFS into RAM. SFS stands for "Squash File System" -- it's one file with an ext2 filesystem in it, along with all of the original stuff from when you first booted. Your savefile (a *.2fs file, usually) is basically a changelog that lays down on top of the main (Lucid 528 SFS) filesystem and makes temporary but persistent changes to that original filesystem. That's why when you "boot from RAM" or enter pfix=ram at the boot: prompt when running from CD, you are back at your initial firstboot config -- all the changes you have made to the FS are in the savefile that sits on top and NOT in the FS itself.

The advantage to this is also the disadvantage -- running from a RAMdisk is a double-edged sword. It's a lot of what makes Puppy so blazingly fast on all but the most decrepit old heaps from the last century -- but it takes up RAM space. Your savefile also has a static size -- you can make it bigger, but it does not grow automatically (hence rjbrewer's directive, he's pointing you to the tool to enlarge it) and it can never get smaller without starting over.

Sorry, that was a goodly bit longer than I wanted it to be I'm a bit of a windbag sometimes. I do hope it makes sense tho.

Thats interesting
I can now increase swap file.
If I wanted to find the size of a partition in msdos I would use dir/w. What do I need to do to get the size of my ext2 partition and free space using puppy.

Please reread my post, particularly the 'under the hood' bit. You're still thinking in Ubuntu or some other traditional distro, which this is not.

# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda8 15116836 4679544 9669388 33% /
shmfs 249632 0 249632 0% /dev/shm
none 508524 0 508524 0% /tmpT
/dev/sda6 15116836 11447964 2900968 80% /mnt/sda6
# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 1017052 490344 526708 0 54708
Swap: 1028124 0 1028124
Total: 2045176 490344 1554832
# df-FULL
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 15116836 4679544 9669388 33% /
/dev/root 15116836 4679544 9669388 33% /
shmfs 249632 0 249632 0% /dev/shm
none 508524 0 508524 0% /tmpT
/dev/sda6 15116836 11447964 2900968 80% /mnt/sda6
# busybox df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 15116836 4679544 9669388 33% /
shmfs 249632 0 249632 0% /dev/shm
none 508524 0 508524 0% /tmpT
/dev/sda6 15116836 11447964 2900968 80% /mnt/sda6 [list]Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda8 15G 4.5G 9.3G 33% /
shmfs 244M 0 244M 0% /dev/shm
none 497M 0 497M 0% /tmpT
/dev/sda6 15G 11G 2.8G 80% /mnt/sda6[/list]

HTH
( should be same language as ubuntu : /bin/bash )
( df is a wrapper script to format /dev/root into */dev/truename* execpt for Lupu 5.1.1+)

That explains it nicely Karl. Problem was I copied all commands at once.
All commands worked except #df -FULL.
Also is it possible to clear the console window, something like cls in dos.
I have been on windows since the beginning and it is a struggle.

If you have a mount icon on desktop just click it and it will show your HD's and the free space. Alternatively, right-click on your HD icon and select run pmount. I'm running and older puppy so don't know if these options are available in the newer puppies. You can also check hardware information in the system menu (hardinfo information manager under filesystem).

I think you use # clear to clear the console and # clear history to... clear the history in the console.

It took me a year to learn that, which is why I rarely use the console.

nic007 wrote:If you have a mount icon on desktop just click it and it will show your HD's and the free space. Alternatively, right-click on your HD icon and select run pmount. I'm running and older puppy so don't know if these options are available in the newer puppies. You can also check hardware information in the system menu (hardinfo information manager under filesystem).

Yes options are in 5.28, nice one.
I think you use # clear to clear the console and # clear history to... clear the history in the console. 100% all thanks.[/quote]

number77 wrote: Also is it possible to clear the console window, something like cls in dos.
I have been on windows since the beginning and it is a struggle.

Ctrl + l (Control Key + Letter L)

Have you tried Tab Completion?
And arrow up?

It's often said that Bash it's DOS whith steroids.

Enjoy

Ctrl +l very fast, have any more useful commands.