Feedback & Bug-Fix Suggestions for Retro-Puppy 218 alpha

A home for all kinds of Puppy related projects
Message
Author
raffy
Posts: 4798
Joined: Wed 25 May 2005, 12:20
Location: Manila

Feedback & Bug-Fix Suggestions for Retro-Puppy 218 alpha

#1 Post by raffy »

Barry has released Retro-Puppy 218 alpha:
http://www.puppylinux.com/blog/?viewDetailed=00798

Download from ibiblio:

Using the 2.6.18.8 Kernel (recommended):
ISO and md5sum

Using the original kernel (get this only if you encounter problem with the recommended version):
ISO and md5sum

From the readme:
pup2-218.iso
Live-CD. First alpha of the rejuvenated Puppy 2.xx series. The last was 2.17.1 released in 2006. This has the 2.6.18.8 kernel. Has heaps of analog dialup modem drivers, but missing many 3rd-party wireless drivers.

pup2-218-k2.6.18.1.iso
Same as above but has the original kernel used in Puppy 2.1x. You will need to install the pcmcia_cs PET package to get PCMCIA (PCCARD) to work, hopefully.

pup2_devx_218.sfs
Turns your Puppy into a complete C/C++/Vala/Genie compiling environment. Follow links at puppylinux.com for explanation of SFS files.
Last edited by raffy on Wed 10 Jun 2009, 15:17, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#2 Post by 01micko »

Working fine so far.. IBM k6 400MHz.

I intend to boot this on my 486, which has been running 2.16-fat_free. My biggest hurdle will be resources, the mobo only supports 32M ram :cry: . Is there a way (well of course there is!) to do a full install from console? Ah.. and how??? I'll have a search it's probably been covered.

This is a bit more fun!

Cheers.
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

Minnesota
Posts: 326
Joined: Thu 11 Sep 2008, 11:25

Printer works

#3 Post by Minnesota »

Brother HL1440 on parallel port works...however you must manually set default printer in cups it to work in Abiword and Gnumeric. It does not show on their printer list, but will print if printer is set to default.

2) WIFI network found and works.
3) Setting spell check on in Abiword does nothing.. no spell check?
:)

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#4 Post by tempestuous »

Oh dear. When booted from CD on a system with 256MB RAM, the sfs file appears to not have loaded into RAM.
Every time I launch an application I hear the CD spin up and there's a bit of a delay.

During boot up I saw the prompt -
"Loading the 'pup2-218.sfs' main file"
but it was on screen for a suspiciously short time.

This has never happened on any other Pup.

ALSA Master and PCM channels are muted at first boot. Haven't seen that before.

User avatar
BarryK
Puppy Master
Posts: 9392
Joined: Mon 09 May 2005, 09:23
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

#5 Post by BarryK »

01micko wrote:Working fine so far.. IBM k6 400MHz.

I intend to boot this on my 486, which has been running 2.16-fat_free. My biggest hurdle will be resources, the mobo only supports 32M ram :cry: . Is there a way (well of course there is!) to do a full install from console? Ah.. and how??? I'll have a search it's probably been covered.

This is a bit more fun!

Cheers.
01micko,
There is probably something posted on the forum or wiki about full hd install from console.

One way is to physically take the hard drive to another computer, install Puppy to it, then take it back to the original computer.

The new Woof-builds do have differences from earlier puppies, so any instructions about manual hd install may not be 100% correct. One thing that you could do is look in the script /usr/sbin/puppyinstaller, at lines 1107 to 1209.

This section of the script could be extracted as a separate script for a commandline hd full install. You would have to add a bit of code at the top to set all the variables appropriately.

With such a tiny amount of RAM, you will need a swap partititon.
[url]https://bkhome.org/news/[/url]

User avatar
BarryK
Puppy Master
Posts: 9392
Joined: Mon 09 May 2005, 09:23
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

Re: Printer works

#6 Post by BarryK »

Minnesota wrote:Brother HL1440 on parallel port works...however you must manually set default printer in cups it to work in Abiword and Gnumeric. It does not show on their printer list, but will print if printer is set to default.

2) WIFI network found and works.
3) Setting spell check on in Abiword does nothing.. no spell check?
:)
I didn't include the spell-check dictionary.

There is a package 'abiword-dictionary-en' in the 'pet_packages-4' directory on ibiblio.org, that would probably work.
...you can't get it with the Puppy Package Manager though, as it only shows the 'puppy2' repo -- ah, no, I think if you click the 'Configure' button you can choose to display the 'puppy4' repo (I can't check, running Upup right now).

Probably in next build, spell-check should be included.
[url]https://bkhome.org/news/[/url]

User avatar
BarryK
Puppy Master
Posts: 9392
Joined: Mon 09 May 2005, 09:23
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

#7 Post by BarryK »

tempestuous wrote:Oh dear. When booted from CD on a system with 256MB RAM, the sfs file appears to not have loaded into RAM.
Every time I launch an application I hear the CD spin up and there's a bit of a delay.

During boot up I saw the prompt -
"Loading the 'pup2-218.sfs' main file"
but it was on screen for a suspiciously short time.

This has never happened on any other Pup.

ALSA Master and PCM channels are muted at first boot. Haven't seen that before.
That is deliberate, the 'init' script has changed the test so that the sfs file only gets copied to ram if it is over 256MB.

The reason was, on a system without swap partition/file, it wasn't really leaving enough space for apps to run.

Then, the normal situation is that at first shutdown a pup-save is created and the pup2-218.sfs gets copied to the hard drive. At next bootup, the sfs file still doesn't get copied to ram but it loads fast and runs fast, and frees up the CD.

There is a 'pfix=copy' boot parameter, but that gets overridden if ram is less than 256MB.

I have only tested on two computers so far, and have got mixed results re that muted problem. On my desktop pc is came up muted. On my laptop it comes up not muted.

It looks like something in /etc/init.d/alsa needs to be tweaked. That's a script I concocted.
[url]https://bkhome.org/news/[/url]

OlddogNewtricks
Posts: 124
Joined: Sun 07 Jun 2009, 10:10
Location: U.K.

#8 Post by OlddogNewtricks »

No sound at all at boot up. Had to use the wizard, then volume went straight to 77

Pmount didn't show my swap partition, so replaced it with dougal's pmount3. While checking the swap on/off function found clicking 'refresh devices' in gparted caused it to crash.

Also my tray clock works O.K.

User avatar
`f00
Posts: 807
Joined: Thu 06 Nov 2008, 19:13
Location: the Western Reserve

Pup2-218 testing

#9 Post by `f00 »

jury still out on liveCD testing - meanwhile a screenie and disorganized notes
090610, in P218 on 5225
Geez, HotDogStand-retro ;) - Xorg oki but after choosing 1360x768 for the LCDtv it gave a usual 1024x768 (still amazing having Xorg start relatively fuss-free but that's likely having only a single onboard ATI in the old Compaq. Hunh :? on seeing the CD with a yellowball (could have missed it with the citrus-stand theme), so much to customize - Rox options still at 'fine' :| placement of icons and text doesn't have leafpad for default openwith :| .. yah Abi is oki and the kerning of linux fonts could be better (nope, that's not a space Virginia and sometimes letters ..).
090611, P218
kernel 2.6.18.8 on the old Compaq 5225 (finally - it went to dead sleep as I should have .. twice) .. Conky-1.7.0 needs a few things and wbar as well - qiv seems to help more than what image s/w is there (xli?) with blackbox wm (nothing new, really extra wm's are optional but I find them helpful sometimes).
Some hours on the Compaq 5225 i586 machine - refuses to save back to multisession (no idea what, it blithers about insufficient memory or a locked app or device .. too bad) so off to the i686 (fine in xvesa (after that screenshot ;) .. maybe if I return the CD to the 5225 with just a do-able not any hwr mods .. especially not sound which alsa never did get right on ess18xx)...
____________
btw (in addition to md5 for pup2-218.iso)
SHA1 is DA6D89A725947D74E472DFD17DEA747A7AC863F0
Last edited by `f00 on Wed 17 Jun 2009, 15:22, edited 1 time in total.

OlddogNewtricks
Posts: 124
Joined: Sun 07 Jun 2009, 10:10
Location: U.K.

#10 Post by OlddogNewtricks »

Remaster CD program not working, freezes when asking for files on CD. Only way to get rid of it is restart the X server.

elraven
Posts: 82
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 03:20
Location: wnc-usa

#11 Post by elraven »

I'm using puppy2-218 in my compaq presario, 256mb ram. Working good overall except for some minor stuff. pburn starts but then vanishes , consol reveals a gtkdialog 3:4907 : gtk warning ** could not load image : icon, theme not present. But, i just tried it again and it loads but takes it sweet time and only from consol so far. Other than that, seamonkey crashes ,no general sites to blame. Maybe - this is related to the problem with 214X at the moment,or something to do with flash and some back end lib or something. Anyways , i still think its cool beans and am looking forward to using it. Nice work barry :D

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#12 Post by 01micko »

Thanks Barry for your advice.

I get a seamonkey crash when I right click a bookmark and try to open in a new tab. Firstly, it allowed me to right click the bookmark then crashed when I chose "open in a new tab",, since then it crashes as soon as I right click a bookmark.

Cheers
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

tubby
Posts: 317
Joined: Sat 24 Jan 2009, 15:49

usb

#13 Post by tubby »

Usb Belkin wifi dongle not recognized by network setup but it is showing in hardinfo, lan connection ok. This is the same on both kernel releases.
Full hard drive install worked ok.

ralphv
Posts: 42
Joined: Sat 17 Mar 2007, 20:50

Re: Feedback & Bug-Fix Suggestions for Retro-Puppy 218 alpha

#14 Post by ralphv »

The glibc crashes flash 9 when you leave a flash site. This problem also happened in puppies 2.16 and earlier, but not in 2.17 because it had a newer glibc. Any chance of upgrading the glibc?

Ralph

User avatar
Lobster
Official Crustacean
Posts: 15522
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
Contact:

#15 Post by Lobster »

Tried it on a 64 bit Athlon dual core and a Dell pentium 2 inspiron 3500
laptop - both extremes of the Puppy catchment . . .
Apart from known issues (lack of wi-fi drivers etc)
it booted and worked on both

Tried a full install on the laptop
this failed at the Grub stage
Not sure if the HD is faulty (very likely)
or it did not like the XP filesystem/boot area

So maybe someone else will try an install . . .
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

User avatar
James C
Posts: 6618
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 05:12
Location: Kentucky

#16 Post by James C »

Gave both versions a quick spin on a P3 733 mhz, 256mb ram with 1gb swap. Boot up and shut down was fine with both.

Had the muted sound deal on both versions, no problem getting it going though.All the basics seem to work fine.

User avatar
01micko
Posts: 8741
Joined: Sat 11 Oct 2008, 13:39
Location: qld
Contact:

#17 Post by 01micko »

Lobster wrote: ....

So maybe someone else will try an install . . .
Hi Lobster,

I'm posting now on a frugal install on my K6 400MHz IBM and all is ok. However grub was already installed because I'm running other frugal pups on this box. This one is the fastest :) .

I'm also using MU's Puppy Browser. Much faster than Seamonkey on this old thing.

I'm also running Pwidgets (gasp!) However you need to make a symlink to libcurl named "libcurl.so.4" for it to work. (note: the standard Pwidgets, NOT the upup version.)

I'll let you know how I get on with my 486. I plan a full install to that on the weekend. I'll use a clean harddisk too, so any grub problems will be noted.

Cheers.
Puppy Linux Blog - contact me for access

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#18 Post by tempestuous »

BarryK wrote:That is deliberate, the 'init' script has changed the test so that the sfs file only gets copied to ram if it is over 256MB.
The reason was, on a system without swap partition/file, it wasn't really leaving enough space for apps to run.
OK, that's good to know.
I think it's worth throwing in some historical perspective:

I have been following Puppy's development since version 1.02 in 2005. Puppy's technical foundation of copying the compressed filesystem to RAM was unique amongst live CD distributions. DamnSmallLinux could be forced to load into RAM with the "toram" boot option, but this was uncompressed to RAM, not compressed to RAM.
It was clear that the Puppy approach achieved the successful use of the most powerful applications with the least amount of RAM ...
of course back in those days Puppy was 50MB, and 128MB RAM was (just) adequate.

I take the point that in Puppy's current form 256MB RAM is not quite sufficient to run Puppy completely in RAM, but in such cases we now have a significantly different situation where the compressed filesystem is stored on the hard drive or flash drive, not RAM.

To my mind this raises a big question:
In situations where the computer has 256MB RAM or less, does a frugal installation offer any advantage over a full installation? Because in both cases the files are being accessed from hard drive/flash drive, and it seems logical that files would be retrieved faster from an uncompressed filesystem rather than from a compressed filesystem.

Anyone care to comment?

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#19 Post by tempestuous »

Snappy or not?
I posted a while ago in ttuuxxx's thread about the general idea of upgrading Puppy 2.x, and how I was concerned that if you upgrade all its libraries it would cease to be Puppy2.

218-alpha seems not as snappy of my Pentium2-350 as the original Puppy 2.12-2.16 series, but I might just be imagining this. If I still had my old Pentium1 laptop the differences would be clearer.

Raffy, or 01micko, or anyone else, what are your opinions about Puppy 2.12-2.16 vs Puppy218 vs ttuuxxx's 214X2?

OlddogNewtricks
Posts: 124
Joined: Sun 07 Jun 2009, 10:10
Location: U.K.

#20 Post by OlddogNewtricks »

tempestuous wrote

what are your opinions about Puppy 2.12-2.16 vs Puppy218 vs ttuuxxx's 214X2?

I feel ttuuxxx's 214X2 is on a par with older pups, & feels perkier than 2.18, It still has features like the seperate ZDRV sfs file which can be dumped once you've set up for your machine & a remastering script that allows you to produce a new pup_xxx.sfs easily. (dougal's work here I believe). I've always frugall installed, so a simple remaster & replacement of the pup_xxx.sfs file is what I love about puppy. I' ve never used a pup save file so I can tinker away knowing a reboot (which literally takes seconds with puppy) brings everything back the way it was. A superb linux learning tool.
My old (3 years!) computer has a 2.5 ghz cpu & 256 ram which I could easily upgrade to 1-2 gb but why should I, that's the microsoft way.
Keep It Small & Simple

Well done Barry & everybody else involved in this tiny marvel.

phew!! thats my 10 pence worth.

Post Reply