Crowdfunded Puppy

[nooby]

We are all very different.
I'm a very pessimistic guy.
Now way I do such things
as buying from abroad.

If it is not available locally then I skip it.

But that is just me and good that you
told us about how to get it if one want it.

PS okay if one could by a BSG Cylon woman
from USA then I would do an exception
to my hesitation to buy from another country.

[gcmartin]

@TedDog has provided a very good and clear explanation (I think) on UEFI systems. This explanation pretty much centers around that post.

Its helpful to understand UEFI operation and what contributes to how it delivers its service.

Hope this help; for understanding what is shared, can also help one understand how they can exploit or circumvent PC boot process to meet-match requirements.

Here to help

[technosaurus]

It does have one distinct advantage:
Booting the Linux Kernel without a bootloader

[nooby]

From the text linked to I found this important part.

this document assumes your root partition is /dev/sda2
and that your kernel sources are in the /usr/src/linux folder
and that your UEFI boot partition is /dev/sda1.

How does one know that such exist on the Samsung
or ASUS or ACER HP/Compaq or Packard Bell or whatever
brand available over shelf for the average buyer
that are tired of Win8 and have heard of Puppy or
any other OS like Linux Mint etc?

The Seller does not even know what UEFI is.
And they don't allow you to boot an USB
to take a look how the HD is formatted.

Sure you can join support forums for all these machines
and hope for that at least one of them would know?

The most important thing is that before you shrink
a partition with Ms Win 8 on is to boot into
Win8 and make it go out of sleep more or else
one destroy the Win8 install.

That one keep the Win 8 is a must how else
to update your smartphone? The Smartphone
companies all of them except Apple make use
of the Ms Win OS for to do upgrades to Android OS

The exception may be Chrome book updating using itself

[technosaurus]

I don't think I have ever seen a computer that had a working hard drive without /dev/sda (or /dev/sda1 if it had been partitioned at all) ... but most drives using a MBR (partitioned with fdisk or other old MBR based tools) would need to repartitioned with gdisk to migrate from a MBR to GPT.

The process of installing to a GPT and setting up Linux to boot from it is currently difficult to automate with existing tools. Only a gentoo type installation would be able to handle it because the kernel command line needs to be built in to the kernel itself which requires a kernel rebuild.

I could make it work and install fairly quickly, but the installation disk would be at least a full CD and perhaps a mini-dvd in order to include the prebuilt kernel tree such that all the user needs to do for his PC is rebuild the kernel with parameters derived from the current hardware settings (a bit of an oversimplification) ... I just don't think the Puppy community would go for it due to size, so I won't go into further detail ... OEMs on the other hand spend lots of money manually doing this for each device, so if anyone wants to pay me to do it, then users could then use it to generate optimized per device builds (specific to raspberry pi, beagle bone, etc...)

[jamesbond]

To put this back on track, I want to comment as someone who has been on the receiving end of hardware donations by some generous forum members (=which is the initial idea of this thread).

I can tell you that it motivates me, but more importantly, it helps me to troubleshoot problems with that hardware, and enables me to provide better support for it - support that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

I am not the only one - there are others too (Barry himself included, I think). So yes, the idea *does* work.

That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

[gcmartin]

...That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

REread the thread. I agreed to help. In fact, I will help you or anyone on this. What can we do together to get this off the ground?

PM me with your ideas to start.

[technosaurus]

We need a business oriented person to set up some affiliate programs which I(we) could integrate into a new web desktop. Someone who can communicate with search engines, content providers and retailers to get a percentage of referrals. For that to happen the Puppy Linux Foundation would need to be formalized (with real virtual meetings and everything) and a person(s) authorized with a really cool sounding title that will (maybe) help their career.

[jamesbond]

...That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

REread the thread. I agreed to help. In fact, I will help you or anyone on this. What can we do together to get this off the ground?

PM me with your ideas to start.

I already said what I'm gonna do: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 464#735464

EDITED to simplify the reply.

[greengeek]

I can tell you that it motivates me, but more importantly, it helps me to troubleshoot problems with that hardware, and enables me to provide better support for it - support that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

I am not the only one - there are others too (Barry himself included, I think). So yes, the idea *does* work.

If such support came in the form of a 'piece of donated hardware' do you think this would benefit Puppy progress, or would such a piece of hardware be too out-ofdate as soon as it was available?

If there is benefit in this idea can you suggest some of the specs or features of the hardware that would enable developmental progress?
eg Making Puppy handle usb 3 - or has that already been solved?
Large RAM sizes - or is that issue sorted?
Recent wifi interfaces - or are they just too varied?
Recent video cards - or are they also just too varied?

Or would the value simply be in the fact that the hardware was powerful enough to crunch the numbers for faster compile times etc?

[jamesbond]

If such support came in the form of a 'piece of donated hardware' do you think this would benefit Puppy progress,

Yes, it definitely will.

or would such a piece of hardware be too out-ofdate as soon as it was available?

All things become obsolete sooner or later. But isn't it puppy's objective to breathe life a bit longer for them?

If there is benefit in this idea can you suggest some of the specs or features of the hardware that would enable developmental progress?

I can't, because the answer is "it depends". If you donate 86duino board then perhaps Puppy can be made to run on that board (with difficulty ). If you donate quad-core Core i7 with dual graphics and usb3 perhaps you can get puppy to run on it. The point is, the hardware can be used for many things:
- test/troubleshooting platforms
- build/compile platforms
- etc.

eg Making Puppy handle usb 3 - or has that already been solved?

usb3 is handled at kernel. Once the kernel supports usb3 then as long as puppy use that new kernel, usb3 is automatically handled.

A better example probably is bluetooth. Bluetooth support needs both *kernel* and *userspace* support. The kernel part is easy, the userspace one - not so.

Large RAM sizes - or is that issue sorted?

Large ram is solved by using PAE kernel or 64-bit kernel. Large RAM however helps to make build/compile process faster (a lot faster).

Recent wifi interfaces - or are they just too varied?

They are too varied. For challenge, try to get one with broadcom wifi - but don't cry it you can't get it to work.

Recent video cards - or are they also just too varied?

Too varied. The most important thing nowadays seems to be "dual-graphics", and this, like bluetooth, requires both kernel and userspace support, so it is challenging.

Of course, when speaking about video, it depends, one can try to install multiple video cards and trying to get all of them display at the same time; and/or making a giant screen composed of multiple outputs ... the point is - what is it do you want puppy to support?

Or would the value simply be in the fact that the hardware was powerful enough to crunch the numbers for faster compile times etc?

Yes, it is one of the things that helps.

The conclusion is: give the hardware according to the objective to be achieved. If you want puppy to run on certain hardware / new hardware, then give that. If you want puppy to run on obscure hardware, then give that. If you want to ease the burden of compiling, then give that. Sometimes you can achieve multiple goals within the same hardware.

Or, it can be given as $$ to free someone's time to do full-time development (like what Barry does), say for 3 months or for a year. Of course, before this happens, there must be objective measurable milestones to make sure it isn't abused. "Linux Foundation" originally existed to free Linus' time so that he can focus on Linux and nothing else. It works. (In fact it worked too well that now it can pay not only Linus but many others too). That being said, this may be too ambitious for this community

[greengeek]

This link about totally 'free' and unrestricted hardware is interesting:
https://www.fsf.org/news/gluglug-x60-la ... ur-freedom
(free as in the user gets to do what they want - not as in 'without cost')

Mentioned by Antipodal in this puppy security thread here

Apparently the gluglug PCs use 'coreboot' which is a bios replacement that can ignore or support UEFI - whichever is desired. coreboot info here

[Pelo]

I was searching in the forum for something else...
If we want to help a dev buying a brand new computer we can. He just has to open a count (see esmourguit sceenshot). That does not mean that people will give, once account opened.. Ask esmourguit again.

[Pelo]

Did my proposal stopped new opinions ? I hope no
Hurry up, in France, donate can be withdrawn from your income taxes to pay..next year (2018)
Income Taxes reduced 66% of what you donate for a laptop !

Which laptop, equipped last Windows 10, or older Seven, as me, with battery no charging, but wireless serviceable, and a Dongle, for outdoor computing in summer season.. Nice no ? I am really ready to donate, i did it for Wikipedia, never for Toutou Linux, something is wrong in the process, and esmourguit never explained how to pass trough the bug.
Election : a girl, speaking spanish, and Linux. Pretty ? Why not ? Pemasu(e) ?
royalties for Dev ? topic discovered buried, closed not due to the subject, but cause of personal attacks (not sure, 18 pages to translate in my head, only first pages done)