Retro Precise 5.4 did the trick. Everything now works fine. I should have tried Retro long before ... I had an other old laptop : when I tried to install Precise 5.4.1 (not Retro), I had a message saying that it needed the non-PAE kernel. On this second laptop (the subject of this thread), I had no ...

Finally, reinstalled 5.2.8 on the machine.
Might be that I am not knowledgeable enough (and I did not have more time to find a solution).

Thank you very much John for your help, I appreciate.
Regards, CL.

OK thank you. Will try it tonight.
CL

A more complete answer : - frugal installation (light encryption of personal file, password-protected); - no icons right after installation; - nothing else installed on top of standard installation. I should mention : when I save the file for the first time (upon shutting down after installation), I...

Happened right after installation.
Nothing extra had been added.

CL

Installed Precise Puppy 5.4.1 on Thinkpad T23, 512 Mb RAM. Everything seems to be fine, except that when finished, all icons (on desktop, in directories, etc.) are the same, namely an exclamation point on a roadsign. It is like there are no icons on the machine, and all icons default to the same ima...