Puppy Book by Grant Wilson

Message

Lobster · #1 Post by **Lobster** » Sat 03 Jan 2009, 08:53

Grant writes

I finally have it finished. There was so much more I could have included but I was trying to keep it really basic for first timers.

Yep 69 pages of friskiness

download for free if you just want an electronic copy
- it is in PDF so you can read from Puppy or print out

Printed versions are available
$5 of which goes to Grant

Check it out here: http://www.lulu.com/content/5560578
download PDF
http://puppylinux.ca/tpp/smokey/The%20P ... %201.0.pdf
'Online book' version
http://tmxxine.com/book/

Thanks Grant

NathanO · #2 Post by **NathanO** » Sat 03 Jan 2009, 12:50

Grant,

Thanks, I am starting to work on my presentation for the next Open Source Fest here in San Antonio, TX and will include your book in my presentation.

Lobster,

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

NathanO

Lobster · #3 Post by **Lobster** » Sat 03 Jan 2009, 15:38

Stick this pdf somewhere and link from the desktop
http://www.lulu.com/content/5560578

raffy · #4 Post by **raffy** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 00:35

Congratulations, Grant.

Lulu.com is also the site where headfound published his well-received "Puppy Linux Song" (the lulu.tv link does not work anymore, so the youtube URL is the one included here). Hey, headfound, any chance the URL in the video can be updated (it still shows puppyOS)? FYI, I always include it as the lone media file in root whenever I build a puplet.

rjbrewer · #5 Post by **rjbrewer** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 01:15

EXCELLENT!

After a year and a half, I can finally return "Red Hat Nine for Dummies"
to the library.

thanks

rjb

smokey01 · #6 Post by **smokey01** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 09:30

The intention of the book is to introduce Puppy and give new users a starting point.

I often give friends and people I know a copy of Puppy then spend the next couple of weeks answering questions or spending time at their house setting things up. Hopefully the book will provide enough instruction to at least get them started. I know I accomplish more when I work things out for myself.

Thanks to all who have provided encouragement and congratulations.

I am considering writing another book on how to use the bundled software. I might need some help as I don't use all of the software that comes with Puppy.

Thanks

Grant

sullysat · #7 Post by **sullysat** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 16:35

NathanO wrote:Grant,

Thanks, I am starting to work on my presentation for the next Open Source Fest here in San Antonio, TX and will include your book in my presentation.

Lobster,

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

NathanO

Hey Nathan,

I'm in San Antonio too and would love to connect with other open source/linux users, especially Puppy.

I hadn't even thought about this possibility, but if there's an organized community, please let me know, here or offline in email.

Thanks,
Sully

darrelljon · #8 Post by **darrelljon** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 22:31

Congratulations, finally some good competition for my book.

raffy · #9 Post by **raffy** » Sun 04 Jan 2009, 23:49

Yes, don't forget that jon has written a book on Puppy, too.

`f00 · #10 Post by **`f00** » Mon 05 Jan 2009, 01:02

Can't get much more user-friendly than a free .pdf

But seriously, this is a terrific book (or dl) for the beginner and highly recommended - it may seem rather simple at first but it should be a 'grounding' for the more advanced as well, so often discussions get so very complex that the beginner gets lost and unfortunately may lose interest. I found the menu section of particular value - this is one of those things that should retain some semblance of order and consistency across the many varieties of puppies (as much as possible, anyhow), imho. Even the simple descriptions I learned from (as often even simple 'what is this thing?' is lacking in the local docs or not that easy for a n00B to find). Also the latter sections on the BIOS, USB and other boot/install options, as well as the various howtos were quite informative - really great to have it all in one place as a stable illustrated offline reference. Thank you, Grant!

prit1 · #11 Post by **prit1** » Mon 05 Jan 2009, 03:27

Thanks Grant. Great job.

I went through several pages in the PDF. This is well organized in my opinion.

russoodle · #12 Post by **russoodle** » Tue 06 Jan 2009, 06:51

Thank you to Lobster for posting the info and link..

Thank you to Grant for a well-written guide..

Puppy really does have excellent community support, doesn't he?

Woof!

Lobster · #13 Post by **Lobster** » Tue 06 Jan 2009, 08:38

Don't forget the official manuals in a range of languages
http://www.puppylinux.org/manual

You can work on those
or translate them by contacting raffy or Oli

PenPen · #14 Post by **PenPen** » Tue 06 Jan 2009, 21:49

Grant,

What a way to start out the New Year, a free Book in PDF.
As soon as I can I'll get a copy of the printed version.
This will be an excellent way to introduce Linux / Puppy.

Wish I had the know how that you pressented in the section on USB intall before I did such a trial & error aproach to a pesky Flash Drive. (never did get it to work)

I just went back and used your instructions & wonders of wonders I now have an extra copy of Puppy on a 2Gig USB.

Thanks for the Time and Effort you put into this publication.
PenPen

smokey01 · #15 Post by **smokey01** » Tue 06 Jan 2009, 23:09

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

It is always difficult to decide the format and the amount of detail to include when constructing a book or user guide.

As I have said before the book was for newcomers to Puppy but not necessarily new comers to computers.

It gives me quite a buzz to know it has already been helpful.

I only put a few works and screen shots-together. There have been many who have contributed to Puppy. I thank them all.

Grant

#16 Post by **Pizzasgood** » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 01:20

Cool. I didn't read it in detail (I find it exceedingly difficult to read things I already know), but I scanned through. Here are some things I noticed:

On page 3, you say to "click here", but if it's a book, how do you click? Shouldn't it show the URL instead, so that those who get the printed book can see where to go? Also, ePDFView doesn't let you click on hyperlinks as far as I'm aware.

On page 5, in the paragraph that goes "I have been using Puppy for two years..." it looks like there is a space in the word "online". Not sure if there really is, or if it's just my eyes.

Also on that page, in the next paragraph, I believe that you need an apostrophe in "lets", since it's a contraction of "let" and "us", thus "let's".

Another thing on that page: maybe use a colon rather than a comma in this line:

Puppy may be installed, mainly, in two ways, full or frugal.

Typo on page 32:

Gexec will let you programs in the GUI as if you were at the command line.

Also on that page, I don't think your description of Xconsole is correct. It's a program to monitor console messages. It will display anything sent to /dev/console. Example: launch xconsole and then run this command from rxvt:

Code: Select all

echo "Wazzup yo?" > /dev/console

On page 39 you mention that you don't know what SSH is used for these days. The same thing it was always used for: logging into computers over a network. For example, I have an extra old computer that I've been using as an SVN server. It's under my bed and has no monitor hooked up. If I need to do any administration stuff for it, I do it by logging in from my newer computer with SSH (though I never bother with the menu entry). SSH doesn't provide any fancy gui stuff, it just gives you a commandline that's running on that remote machine. That's also what telnet did. But SSH is better because it can encrypt the communications, so that it's harder for people to eavesdrop on you. Other things can also be sent through an SSH connection. For example, 'scp' lets you copy files to a remote machine, similar to 'rcp' but encrypted. There is also a program called 'sshfs' (not included with Puppy) that lets you mount a filesystem of a remote machine onto your local machine, via ssh. Pretty neat. Another thing you can do with ssh is set up X forwarding, so that you can run GUI programs on the remote machine and the display will pop up on the local one.

During the internship I did over summer, the vast bulk of the work I did was on a remote server through SSH. This was at a one of the bigger cellular service providers. So SSH is definitely a heavily used technology in the tech-world.

On page 40 you may want to point out that with Pmusic, once you start playing some music, closing the program won't stop the music (that was by design). You have to actually hit 'stop' or wait for the song to finish.

On page 42, on the 'Exit to prompt' section, it may be a good idea to mention that you can bring the gui back by running 'startx' or 'xwin', because although Puppy does mention that when you close X, many people seem to not actually see that message...

Typos on page 62:

The real Puppy files are initrd.gz.

If you chose the default capacity of 512M this can be created later by...

You might want to also mention that /mnt/home is automatically set up to point at the partition that holds the pup_save.2fs file. Maybe you already mentioned it and I just didn't see it.

On page 63 when you mention the problems that can happen when messing with the MBR, maybe give a hint about the dos command 'fixmbr' that I believe can restore it. I don't fiddle with Windows much, but I believe that command is availible on things like DOS boot floppies and various Windows rescue disks. I don't care enough about Windows to actually research this, so you should verify this info before attempting to incorporate it.

In the ROX-Filer section, maybe mention that middle-clicking a folder will open it in a new window. This also applies to the "up", "home", and "reload" buttons in the toolbar. Middle-clicking files is a little different: it opens or runs the file, and also closes the ROX-Filer window at the same time.

Another useful tidbit is right-clicking the "eye" button to enable thumbnail images on the image files.
Left clicking the "eye" button will reveal hidden files (any file who's name starts with a period/full-stop).

Typo on page 68:

How do you change an icon fro a file?

Not trying to be picky or anything, just pointing things out in case you want to improve it a little.

bones01 · #17 Post by **bones01** » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 11:57

Looking forward to having a look at this book. Is the link to the pdf version still up? I'm looking at the Lulu page (lulu.com/content/5560578) but can't find a pdf download link.
Am I just missing it, or has it been taken down?

smokey01 · #18 Post by **smokey01** » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 21:58

Pizzasgood wrote:Cool. I didn't read it in detail (I find it exceedingly difficult to read things I already know), but I scanned through. Here are some things I noticed:

I know what you mean. It is for first timers.

Pizzasgood wrote:On page 3, you say to "click here", but if
it's a book, how do you click? Shouldn't it show the URL instead, so
that those who get the printed book can see where to go?

I agree but there are some links a couple of pages on that do this.

Pizzasgood wrote:Also, ePDFView doesn't let you click on hyperlinks as far as I'm aware.
It does work. I was surprised too.

On page 5, in the paragraph that goes "I have been using Puppy for two years..." it looks like there is a space in the word "online". Not sure if there really is, or if it's just my eyes.
I will check.

Also on that page, in the next paragraph, I believe that you need an apostrophe in "lets", since it's a contraction of "let" and "us", thus "let's".
Ta.

Another thing on that page: maybe use a colon rather than a comma in this line:
Puppy may be installed, mainly, in two ways, full or frugal.
You wouldn't believe how many times I read this before publishing and other helped too.

Typo on page 32:
Gexec will let you programs in the GUI as if you were at the command line.
I will check.

Also on that page, I don't think your description of Xconsole is correct. It's a program to monitor console messages. It will display anything sent to /dev/console. Example: launch xconsole and then run this command from rxvt:
Code: Select all
echo "Wazzup yo?" > /dev/console

Wasn't too sure about this.

On page 39 you mention that you don't know what SSH is used for these days. The same thing it was always used for: logging into computers over a network. For example, I have an extra old computer that I've been using as an SVN server. It's under my bed and has no monitor hooked up. If I need to do any administration stuff for it, I do it by logging in from my newer computer with SSH (though I never bother with the menu entry). SSH doesn't provide any fancy gui stuff, it just gives you a commandline that's running on that remote machine. That's also what telnet did. But SSH is better because it can encrypt the communications, so that it's harder for people to eavesdrop on you. Other things can also be sent through an SSH connection. For example, 'scp' lets you copy files to a remote machine, similar to 'rcp' but encrypted. There is also a program called 'sshfs' (not included with Puppy) that lets you mount a filesystem of a remote machine onto your local machine, via ssh. Pretty neat. Another thing you can do with ssh is set up X forwarding, so that you can run GUI programs on the remote machine and the display will pop up on the local one.

I used secure shell regularly in the past but not for at least 10 years. I wasn't sure if people still used it. I didn't want to ignore the program but then again didn't want to get too involved for new comers.

On page 40 you may want to point out that with Pmusic, once you start playing some music, closing the program won't stop the music (that was by design). You have to actually hit 'stop' or wait for the song to finish.

Good point, Psip is the same.

On page 42, on the 'Exit to prompt' section, it may be a good idea to mention that you can bring the gui back by running 'startx' or 'xwin', because although Puppy does mention that when you close X, many people seem to not actually see that message...

Because of the message I did not include it. I originally was going to include it though. I remember the first time it happed to me I got a bit of a fright, scratched my head, then eventually saw the message.

Typos on page 62:

The real Puppy files are initrd.gz.

If you chose the default capacity of 512M this can be created later by...

You might want to also mention that /mnt/home is automatically set up to point at the partition that holds the pup_save.2fs file. Maybe you already mentioned it and I just didn't see it.

I was really trying to keep this book non technical. Although this information is very useful it does scare many people away. A simple thing like mounting drives can be a huge issue for some.

On page 63 when you mention the problems that can happen when messing with the MBR, maybe give a hint about the dos command 'fixmbr' that I believe can restore it. I don't fiddle with Windows much, but I believe that command is availible on things like DOS boot floppies and various Windows rescue disks. I don't care enough about Windows to actually research this, so you should verify this info before attempting to incorporate it.

Useful but a little scary for some. A friend of mine read the and said it scared the S#@t out of him. That bothered me as I thought I must have included too much tech stuff. I can see a real need here for a beginners to intermediate book.

In the ROX-Filer section, maybe mention that middle-clicking a folder will open it in a new window. This also applies to the "up", "home", and "reload" buttons in the toolbar. Middle-clicking files is a little different: it opens or runs the file, and also closes the ROX-Filer window at the same time.

Good.

Another useful tidbit is right-clicking the "eye" button to enable thumbnail images on the image files.
Left clicking the "eye" button will reveal hidden files (any file who's name starts with a period/full-stop).

I meant to include this but simply forgot.

Typo on page 68:
How do you change an icon fro a file?
I have fixed many of these. probably have a few more to go.
My eyes hurt.

Not trying to be picky or anything, just pointing things out in case you want to improve it a little.

Thanks for your input it's much appreciated.

Smokey

smokey01 · #19 Post by **smokey01** » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 22:10

bones01 wrote:Looking forward to having a look at this book. Is the link to the pdf version still up? I'm looking at the Lulu page (lulu.com/content/5560578) but can't find a pdf download link.
Am I just missing it, or has it been taken down?

Bones, the link should be working again.

It can also be downloaded from here:
http://puppylinux.ca/tpp/smokey/ThePupp ... ook1.0.pdf

Smokey

bones01 · #20 Post by **bones01** » Thu 08 Jan 2009, 23:15

Got it.
Thanks

Now to see what I can learn!!

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