Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Pizzasgood · Posted: Fri 19 Oct 2007, 15:21 Post subject:

Ahh, probepart. Thanks, that will come in handy some day.

Everitt · Posted: Sat 20 Oct 2007, 08:43 Post subject:

Ok, a little help would be appreciated. It's not essential, what I have works,so I won't start a new post.
Here's what I want. I'm using an Xdialog to show a 'please wait' style of thing. Is there a way I can get the pid of that process so I can kill it (remove the box when I've waited long enough)? The problem is that there could well be other Xdialog's up from other things, so I can't reley on the output of 'pidof'

At the moment I'm using some pretty horrible code and a couple of temp files. It works, but it isn't ellagent.

Any ideas?

ecomoney · Posted: Sat 20 Oct 2007, 09:36 Post subject:

Thanks Everitt,

Dont ask me anything about it, but I hear "fdisk -l" can be used to find partitions.

Would it be possible to make your "wrapper script" take in arguements, Im thinking it would be nice if people could drag and drop files to the desktop shortcut to transfer them through the portal to their windows documents. Quite often certain hardware such as printers dont work in puppy and they would have to reboot into doze to print them. I dont know how this would work internally. It would make the whole process more "transparent".

Everitt · Posted: Sat 20 Oct 2007, 09:51 Post subject:

HairyWill · Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 2946 Location: Southampton, UK

my process id

Everitt · Posted: Sat 20 Oct 2007, 11:22 Post subject:

cb88 · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 1169 Location: USA

perhaps you should have a look at the trash can code...in 3.00+ it does drag and drop

Everitt · Posted: Sun 21 Oct 2007, 09:00 Post subject:

richard.a · Posted: Mon 22 Oct 2007, 03:16 Post subject:

WindowsNT, 2000, and XP
This is the MS Windows directory hierarchy viewed from within puppy:-

This will work...

1. Create a script file in /root - it will have a gearwheel icon

2. Drag a copy to the desktop - it will also have a gearwheel icon

3. name the shortcut to read what you wish it to,
then edit the shortcut to read exactly this
/mnt/hda1/Documents and Settings/administrator/My Documents

do not use file:///mnt/hda1/Documents and Settings/administrator/My Documents - it WILL NOT WORK.

Nor will file:///mnt/hda1/Documents%20and%20Settings/administrator/My%20Documents

4. The gearwheel icon on puppy's desktop will change to a directory (file folder) and the shortcut will work...

Why the &20's? Because they are the unix code for a blank, and you may feel they should be inserted to compensate for the unnecessary MO of Microsoft's file naming system, which came in with Windows95.

That is what some web browsers will return in the url for you (sometimes created in the ftp'ing of page to a server, too) - don't be misled, because a browser is not a direct equivalent to a file manager, although very close most times.

I tried this operation in Windows2000sp4 (same as W2000. In all probability works for XPHome and XP Pro as their file tree is the same), and thought I'd share the results.

We should remember that the majority of home windows users will be using the Administrator login. The justification for this is the flawed argument put forward by those technophobes who have no knowledge of what real systems use... simply that "it's your computer, you are by default the administrator".

I've created three other account links that can be used too, using exactly the same philosophy (with one minor change). You may notice that the Administrator and All Users have been set up and are working; the other two are still "gear wheels" in the capture here...

All Users - by definition, this cannot be used, because this is a combination of start menu links common to all users, and a skeleton for creating new users.

Default User - This one is a possibility, but I've never seen it used.

richard - which is my own login on the windows system on the machine on which I took the captures.

Why hda1 partition is nominated.
Simply, Microsoft assumes one drive, with one partition, containing its operating system (and nobody else's either) and all the private data mixed up as a big salad. They still haven't accepted the idea of separating system and data after all these years.

hda1 is by definition the first (or only) partition on the first (or only) hard drive.

Some method of instructing the new user how to change the addressing of the shortcut to their own directory is needed.

Windows95, 98, and Me
If it is Windows98 or WindowsMe then it is simple. There is only one user. And the My Documents folder is on the desktop. Don't get worried about directories called "All Users" and "Desktop" in the Windows directory, and the "\All Users\Desktop" directory; they aren't for personal storage.

The path is therefore /mnt/hda1/My Documents

cb88 · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 1169 Location: USA

windows is not always on hda1 becasue grub may remap the partition to accomodte windows....

so if a nerd somewhere has put windows on hda2 then a script that assumes hda1 will not work....

Everitt · Posted: Mon 22 Oct 2007, 15:41 Post subject:

richard.a · Posted: Mon 22 Oct 2007, 18:31 Post subject:

ecomoney · Posted: Mon 22 Oct 2007, 19:28 Post subject: Windows Works in Mysterious Ways

Hi, I realised that windows worked in mysterious ways, but not quite that mysterious!

There is a possibility I may be able to get 3.03ce included on the cover disks of some widely read windows only magazines aimed at the begginer to intermediate user, this is one reason Im very excited about this feature!

May I make some suggestions about how this script should operate now you have the technical details thrashed out. Puppy, although aimed at "linux newbs" does have its own hardcore following, and I dont think we are going to "win" any friends by having a permanent icon on the desktop to remind people of their past follies! Together with this I dont think we should devote too much desktop real estate to, or have it present when there isnt windows present on the system.

Altogether I think that this system should be aimed at people who are trying linux on their 100% windows p.c. (i.e. just one partition) for the first time.

...and there are a lot of them.

Ok, so puppy is aimed at people with computers that are of late windows 95 and windows 98 spec, so we should definetely include them, windows 3.1 is so old I dont think we need to cater for them as their hardware will be too old to run puppy. Windows NT, as I understand it is a operating system for networks and servers in business, rather than a home desktop operating system like puppy. Although it is possible to have multiple versions of windows running in different partitions, from what I have seen this is extremely uncommon. Its true to say the vast majority of computers have one big ntfs/fat32 partition with windows as their primary OS. It is these computers we should target with the first version of this wizard, and mop up the reminder with later versions.

The script should

1. Check if the hard disk (hda1) partition is formatted to ntfs or fat during bootup of the livecd version. If so it should place a shortcut to the wizard on the desktop. There is a file somewhere that lists all of the icons on the desktop in Rox (or JWM) and a line could be added to this? The Icon needs to be fairly prominent (near the top of the screen?).

2. When the wizard is run (like any wizard) it should start by giving a description of its purpose:-

richard.a · Posted: Mon 22 Oct 2007, 20:06 Post subject:

Robert I agree with you completely.

And I notice the way you described me on your page when servage returned control to you Very Happy

My friend that was well worded - it promotes the concept of helping one another (I was a "scouter" for years and understand the principle). You don't need to blow trumpets saying "I'm the greatest" in this line of work, please keep that description there. My surname is immaterial although you probably know that there is an axxxxx-under-lyme after all Smile

And that post you pointed us to. I've added a comment there, hope that was in order. You are doing a great job. And I hope that Jean looks at that page too Smile

Richard

cb88 · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 1169 Location: USA

hey hey i'm such a nerd/geek and i want it to link to my documents on it's own....

the first time you use this thing maybe it should as if you want it to setup "AUTOMAIGICALLY" or if you want to setup manually

that sounds like a good solution