Review of Puppy LInux by a noooobie

[mekalu2k4]

Well guys, I am very new to Linux, and to Puppy. Using it for last 6 days.

Summary: PUPPY IS GREAT!! But has the potential to be "the Greatest" !!

Details:

I have been using Windows for many donkey years almost since inception, spending on updates, upgrades etc, 'the usual stuff'. My current machine is 18.4 inch/ Toshiba Qosmio/ X505-Q886/ nVidia/ 4gb RAM/ 500gb HDD/ Win 7 64. On one fateful night while browsing internet, I came across a link 'update to windows 8 free' and clicked it in a hurry (I normally won't do, but I did on that occasion). The machine indeed got upgraded to win-8, worked fine for 2 weeks. But started to have lots of problems later. Fans rev up for no reason, CPU making all kinds of noises, sound not working, my nVidia not working properly either.

Then called the Tech guys (I am not a tech guy) to look into the matter. Tech Guys's verdict: Machine got old, time to replace. Cannot buy back, as the machine is worthless, outdated bla bla bla....

I thought, why I don't give a try on this 'free OS' thing? went onto google, found 'Puppy'. Read couple of pages (spent only about 30min). Made a USB with puppy and tried. Voila!! worked, machine booted, I followed the instructions, (I did not care, as machine is to be discarded anyway) put the OS on HDD. Then remove USB, machine started on HDD puppy as magic. I was able to put skype, access my office email (thunderboard + some plugin for exchange) etc.

Suddenly my old laptop looked very good, a valuable asset again with the arrival of the Puppy. My salutations to the all the creators of this great OS and then giving it out free. No more weird noises from the machine. I found puppy as very stable OS, imagine, I could all my work at home as I did on win-7 for many years, that too without paying a single penny!! Even I can read PDF documents and print to PDF too!! Wow - all built in. Microsoft sucked lot of money from me already, but not anymore; no more tricks.

What I could not accomplish so far (compared to my routine on Win-7):
1. cannot watch movies in big 18.4 inch, VLC player never worked though I followed all instructions (I believe so). This 'Gnome Player' is working, but cannot go to full screen. - Note: I have a 18.4 inch lappy with nVidia card.

2. Cannot create wi-fi spot from my puppy linux machine. I use a tablet and phone, both need wi-fi to operate. So both are not working at home, as wifi could not be shared from my puppy. (I tried a lot to read and follow, but nothing would work)

Side lines: When I found those above two problems, I tried 'Lubuntu' another freeware OS UBUNTU (some 14+ version), but to my horror, my laptop did not start at all ( I believe my nVidia was the reason, I may be wrong). I promptly came back to my 'Puppy', all normal again.

Suggestions:
1. Make the apps same as Windows (easy, intutive and similar) to capture most Windows users onto this OS. Ex: build a similar app for 'wi-fi hotspot' 'or internet sharing'.

2. Do not expose users to a big wordy jargon. I found some new things in Linux such as 'cron' (why you cannot call this as Timezone??), directories such as 'etc', 'mnt' and a ton of others......

3. Sound (both mike and speakers) is not properly working on Linux, Windows still comes as winner (that is why I saw while configuring skype)

4. 5. Then downside 1: There are several pages with older versions of apps (eg: VLC installation) wifi hotspot' (like step-by-step screenshots). How to know which is the latest, or stable or working well? Ask users to delete their own pages on older versions. It is really a responsibility to take this prject ahead

5. Then downside 2: - 'shareinternet - PET' app. After installing it say - there is no icon or program group for it. What is going on? what the user supposed to do? When I manually click, it coolly says 'two configurations are missing'. avoid (remove) such crap.

6. downside 3: there is no proper single website/ page or thread on how to configure 'wifi'. It is ok, if somethings do not work. But make it very clear Better to put a thread on what works and what does not


Hope this helps?

Please feel free to write back, I am a new user, but not afraid to face comments

[rufwoof]

This 'Gnome Player' is working, but cannot go to full screen.

open /root/.mplayer/config and enter a line

zoom=1

and then open mplayer, select edit, preferences and under the MPlayer tab in the Extra Options field enter

-zoom

[mekalu2k4]

Hello 'Rufwoof', Thanks a lot... Now this Gnome Mplayer is working full screen, no issues. simple and straightforward. Just that I had to find a text editor though.

Any ideas on VLC player? or any ideas on 'wi-fi' hotspot creation? [in a simple way]???

[cthisbear]

Welcome to Puppy mekalu2k4.

How I tether...and use Frisbee.

How to tether Huawei IDEOS X3 phone to laptop? (Solved)

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=626959

Chris.

[666philb]

which puppy are you using?

[mekalu2k4]

@666philb:
I did some uname all and this is the result:

Linux puppypc10469 3.10.32 #1 SMP Mon Mar 3 16:37:24 EST 2014 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 450 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[mekalu2k4]

Welcome to Puppy mekalu2k4.

How I tether...and use Frisbee.

How to tether Huawei IDEOS X3 phone to laptop? (Solved)

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=626959

Chris.

Hi Chris,
thanks for your post. But really I want the opposite. Let me explain.

1. I do not have any router equipment. My internet cable RJ45 goes straight into my laptop.

2. I always used my laptop as router. which means my laptop acted as wi-fi hotspot. which means my internet conn is shared from laptop. I clicked some adhoc network in Windows (or someting like that) to do that.

3. I want to do the same thing now, want my puppy linux to set up internet sharing
pls help!

[SFR]

Linux puppypc10469 3.10.32 #1 SMP Mon Mar 3 16:37:24 EST 2014 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 450 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

k3.10.32 is used in Slacko-5.7.0, but to make sure, type:

Code: Select all

head -n 4 /etc/DISTRO_SPECS

2. Cannot create wi-fi spot from my puppy linux machine. I use a tablet and phone, both need wi-fi to operate. So both are not working at home, as wifi could not be shared from my puppy. (I tried a lot to read and follow, but nothing would work)

5. Then downside 2: - 'shareinternet - PET' app. After installing it say - there is no icon or program group for it. What is going on? what the user supposed to do? When I manually click, it coolly says 'two configurations are missing'. avoid (remove) such crap.

Have you seen this thread yet?
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=87584
Currently I'm using this method in Slacko-5.7.0 and works just fine.

EDIT: as for VLC, try this one:
http://01micko.com/packages/vlc-2.1.0-i686-s14.pet
and don't forget to download and load QT first (you can do it via 'Menu -> Setup -> Sfs Manager...').

HTH
Greetings!

[mekalu2k4]

Hi SFR,

I must appreciate your quick, simple intervention. I was about to move away and try 'Ubuntu' again. Your post changed everything. saved a lot of time. No more worries again.

First of all: answer to your question (data from your instruction on version): I issued the command 'head -n 4 /etc/DISTRO_SPECS' I got the below:

One or more words that identify this distribution:
DISTRO_NAME='Slacko Puppy'
#version number of this distribution:
DISTRO_VERSION=5.7.0

[I remembered that it is kinda 'Frugal', during installation. But now not showing up with that name. may be it got upgraded automatically?]


2. wifi hostspot:
Summary: It is working. Thanks a mil!!!!! Your instructions are clear, but could not figure out how to launch 'shareinternet' for a while, but when I was reading more on your another post, I realized it is only a click.

--- have one issue: presently the 'urxvt' window where I typed the commands, is outputting the text continuously, as long as I connect other devices to it. If I break it with Ctrl+c, the wifi is terminated. Is it normal? I am fine with one window just throwing up some text continuously, but wanted to bring to your notice. Please note that I was using your first approach, first set of code. You provided some different code later (with sleep command introduced), but did not try it out.

3. downloaded QT and then VLC. All Perfect man. SFR - you rock sir!!!

My feelings on Pupply Linux:

I honestly believe, that new ppl (like me) should keep a notebook and write down what means what, how to do each thing etc. That is very imp. In fact I could not respond to your post as I need to understand and try what is provided by you.

I also downloaded Virtualbox from Oracle and set up Win7. I have one application to trade on the stock market. They do not have any app for linux. Even that is running smoothly.

Thanks again sir. Have lots of nooobie questions, but will harass seniors slowly. For now, I am using my old machine very normally, as I was using it for the past 3 years. In fact, the machine is running smoothly, no weird sounds.

[SFR]

Glad to see you didn't give up on Puppy.

--- have one issue: presently the 'urxvt' window where I typed the commands, is outputting the text continuously, as long as I connect other devices to it. If I break it with Ctrl+c, the wifi is terminated. Is it normal? I am fine with one window just throwing up some text continuously, but wanted to bring to your notice. Please note that I was using your first approach, first set of code. You provided some different code later (with sleep command introduced), but did not try it out.

If my first approach works for you, just create a script out of it:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
ifconfig wlan0 up 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 
hostapd -B /etc/hostapd.conf  # '-B' = run daemon in the background
sleep 1
/root/my-roxapps/shareInternet/AppRun start

save it, make executable and just click on it.
You can also put it in /root/Startup/ - will be launched automatically with X.

BTW, to stop the service:

Code: Select all

/root/my-roxapps/shareInternet/AppRun stop
killall hostapd

Greetings!

[mekalu2k4]

I am happily using my system. Creators of Puppy and seniors here on this forum (special thaks to SFR) helped me. I was about to through my machine and buy a new i7 laptop. So I see your benign contributions saved about USD 800 and of course the usual trouble of 'win updates... etc'.

I have many questions, still in the process of learning Linux. Important ones are here:

1. I tried 'Remaster Live CD', it is partially success. Could burn the CD, used on another machine - all installed programs (skype, VLC player, thunderbird etc) are working fine.

However -
a. setting in most programs did not get transfered. For instance, my thunderbird has 2 emails configured, with all the emails downloaded locally (synced). The 'remastered CD' has the thunderbird, but not its settings or the email data. How to do achieve the live CD with the applications ??

b. I had a Win-7 virtualbox running on my machine (with puppy as host). Even this virtualbox is also missing. I understand that space on a single CD may be an issue when puppy base + programs and their data + Virtualboxes put together it might be well exceeding 650mb. But we could burn a DVD bootable and get all our business onto another machine easily?

Looking forward to hear from SFR and seniors as usual. Thanks in advance....

[Moat]

I tried 'Remaster Live CD', it is partially success.
However...

Hi mekalu -

Did you follow this remastering tutorial? >> http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=71349

The sections about copy/pasting the /root and /etc directories from your working Puppy (steps 5 and 7) might be of particular importance in trying to include all of your personal settings into the newly remastered .iso.

At least, I think so... !?



Bob

[mekalu2k4]

Hi Moat,
I tried, but not successful, the boot CD is working, did not contain the data. Need to try again. I am learning while experimenting. Thanks a lot to you all. Will update after another attempt.

[mekalu2k4]

Glad to see you didn't give up on Puppy.

--- have one issue: presently the 'urxvt' window where I typed the commands, is outputting the text continuously, as long as I connect other devices to it. If I break it with Ctrl+c, the wifi is terminated. Is it normal? I am fine with one window just throwing up some text continuously, but wanted to bring to your notice. Please note that I was using your first approach, first set of code. You provided some different code later (with sleep command introduced), but did not try it out.

If my first approach works for you, just create a script out of it:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
ifconfig wlan0 up 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 
hostapd -B /etc/hostapd.conf  # '-B' = run daemon in the background
sleep 1
/root/my-roxapps/shareInternet/AppRun start

save it, make executable and just click on it.
You can also put it in /root/Startup/ - will be launched automatically with X.

BTW, to stop the service:

Code: Select all

/root/my-roxapps/shareInternet/AppRun stop
killall hostapd

Greetings!

This did not work. Gave an error on start up something like 'You need two connections' . Then I put the code from one of the links (as suggested by you):

ifconfig wlan0 up 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
hostapd -B /etc/hostapd.conf

in a file, changed it to 777 to make it executable; put it in Startup folder. No errors. Then I went to my-roxapps to manually double click it. Then I am able to share the internet.

But I appreciate your assistance, this is just to inform you. I could only try today; as I got little time to experiment.

[mekalu2k4]

Hi all,

By this year April, I will be completing my first one year of successful use of Puppy Linux slako 5.7 on my old 18.4 inch Toshiba/ Toshiba Qosmio/ X505-Q886/ nVidia/ 4gb RAM/ 500gb HDD.

This forum helped me a lot, when I got deeply annoyed with the MS Windows on this machine. Then somehow, I was pointed to this Linux world; and that is it. No looking back. Had to experiment a couple of times till the OS worked well. We really do not shut the machine down; it will be on 24x7. All these months, we would have rebooted for about 3 or 4 times max. Machine is working as normal, as it did since last year April. I have no plans to replace this machine at all. Purchased this in 2009 or so; still going good.

Now I help others around, experimenting with different machines, different distros - enjoying with computer world.

By this post, I salute the creators, contributors and developers. A job well done, and the journey is ON. Then I also want to assure new comers on 'high reliability', of this OS.

[tallboy]

mekalu2k4, you seem to have come a long way in just one year with Linux, congratulations! Glad to have you on board!

3. Sound (both mike and speakers) is not properly working on Linux, Windows still comes as winner (that is why I saw while configuring skype)

Check out my thread Bye, bye Skype?

I guess you have picked up on much of the Unix/Linux basics as well, but there are always some sources worth noting:
There is an old project named The Linux Documentataion Project - TLDP, under the chapter Guides you will find Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide and GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary, and after those, the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide. After reading all of them and understanding everything, you'll be somewhat of a Linux guru yourself...

tallboy

[mekalu2k4]

hi tallboy,
thanks to you and all those on this forum, who supported me by providing timely inputs. I was supposed to buy a new machine. But puppy linux has changed that.

i am not pro on linux; but a user who knows its value. I use my machine (and my family also) to our daily needs and that is it. We do not experiment on installing or uninstalling etc. Initially, I had to try 4 or 5 times to get the total system working with Puppy - and now for a year; we have no issues at all. We still using it happily. I am sure, it will go on for next 4 to 5 years easily. For example, I cannot understand 'remaster puppy' process - I leave it and never worked on it again. No more trying, focus is to get the daily work done. My suggestions to new adopters/users who want use the machine seriously (as opposed to play with it or experiment) - I follow four basic rules:

1. do not add or install software if it is unnecessary. For example there are several applications/ or software such as - compiz, virtualbox, and scores of themes, animated backgrounds, gadgets and widgets etc. Those look very flashy, but most times they may interfere with the OS. So go for the absolutely needed ones. I am confident about - Libreoffice, Chrome, thunderbird, okular, skype, vlc and nymgo. Which means you can install or uninstall anytime; and as many times as needed. But compiz, virtualbox, VMware is not like others. At least as a user I had to reformat when I had to install or uninstall these. The problem is - the packages might not have been designed for kernel that we use. Nothing wrong with linux; as you know it happens more frequently on Windows even if you do not do anything - 'updates can sometimes destroy Windows OS'; I have had enough experiences.

2. As I said, my old machine now runs puppy slacko; there are lot of applications in it we hardly ever used. But I never tried uninstall them. I told my family not to do any stupid thing without my knowledge.

3. I collected a list of linux shell commands [like free, ps -ae; grep; cat; etc]. I have 5 pages of print with these commands, I use only a couple of them. I routinely check the memory and hard disk space [to see any big changes] and I have fair idea how these numbers look like. It is just first level of caution.

4. Every two weeks, I take backup of thunderbird and our documents which we keep in a specific folder.

Thanks again guys, you have been great!

[tallboy]

If you're happy, we're happy!

Coming from Windows, or Mac in my case, the whole mindset is different, and it takes some time to adjust. My point is, the fact that you and your family members, after being brainwashed by Bill & Co., are now using the puppy of your choice to get the daily tasks done, is quite an achievement!

If you ever want to experiment, burn a puppy to a CD, and use it as a live disc. When you boot a live CD, it moves the content from the CD into RAM memory, and you run the whole puppy from RAM. Very fast even on an old machine! You may then remove the CD if you like. The point is that you never touch the content on the harddrive, you can even run a PC without a harddrive, you cannot break anything, it doesn't matter what operating system you normally run.

It makes a perfect tool for testing programs. If you install for example a new version of Firefox, it installs into RAM - not to the harddisk. Only takes a few seconds. If you don't like it - just shut down the machine with the power button - don't bother with any menu items - and RAM clears and you are ready to start over again. Maybe install Gimp next time? No damage, no trace, no intrusion into your RAM from outside, and you can repeat that process as many times as you want to.

That is actually how I always run puppy, this very moment, the safest way you can imagine. I can mount my harddrive or a USB stick, and store files, music, photos and whatever on it, but it contains no programs, everthing is run from RAM. When I finish this session, I just unmount any drive that may be attached, and press the power buttom. I love it!
Bye, bye for now!

tallboy

[mekalu2k4]

If you're happy, we're happy!

Coming from Windows, or Mac in my case, the whole mindset is different, and it takes some time to adjust. My point is, the fact that you and your family members, after being brainwashed by Bill & Co., are now using the puppy of your choice to get the daily tasks done, is quite an achievement!

If you ever want to experiment, burn a puppy to a CD, and use it as a live disc. When you boot a live CD, it moves the content from the CD into RAM memory, and you run the whole puppy from RAM. Very fast even on an old machine! You may then remove the CD if you like. The point is that you never touch the content on the harddrive, you can even run a PC without a harddrive, you cannot break anything, it doesn't matter what operating system you normally run.

It makes a perfect tool for testing programs. If you install for example a new version of Firefox, it installs into RAM - not to the harddisk. Only takes a few seconds. If you don't like it - just shut down the machine with the power button - don't bother with any menu items - and RAM clears and you are ready to start over again. Maybe install Gimp next time? No damage, no trace, no intrusion into your RAM from outside, and you can repeat that process as many times as you want to.

That is actually how I always run puppy, this very moment, the safest way you can imagine. I can mount my harddrive or a USB stick, and store files, music, photos and whatever on it, but it contains no programs, everthing is run from RAM. When I finish this session, I just unmount any drive that may be attached, and press the power buttom. I love it!
Bye, bye for now!

tallboy

Thanks Tallboy, for your post. However, we have been happily using the puppy OS, and no time and space really to experiment; as our machine is kind of extensively used.
1. My kids do their school stuff [mostly word and excel and PPT], facebook, youtube, netflix, skype and what not. My daughter plays online games a lot like regnum, but machine never gave any problem thus far. I even do not know those game played by my kids, except staring at the screen and listening to those weird gun sounds pow pow like. Before going to bed, my kids will clean the computer with a wipe.

2. My wife will do lot of skype for hours, almost all day - with her parents in Canada. thankfully my office won't permit skype!

3. I do my emails and some reading in the night or early morning. Thunderbird is great, easy to take backup. Just copy the entire folder, that is it! Not like import/export like outlook the great.

4. I was not successful in creating a backup; tried to follow the steps, but did not work, so gave up on that. We are just using the machine, never really turned it off. So far no problems, it is working quietly; and doing all what it is supposed to do.

5. Recently I purchased two USB drives each 64gb and 1TB external drive and took backup of all our files. I made one USB bootable with puppy; tested on my office machine to make sure. But again, never used it since I last tested it. It is just lying in the cupboard. Actually you can see that I am not active on the forum, took long to respond to this thread - because I really do not need to get any help for now.

So, what all I can say - Yes, there used to be OS called like 'windows' once up on a time? It used to warn us on its scores of viruses, always looked as though the machine is going get sick or collapse anytime. And then MS security center says (threatens) my ID will be stolen anytime soon etc. No more of that crap.

Actually one of my friends almost pushed me to change the OS to 'kubuntu'; which looked great with all its bells and whistles. I looked at it in my office. But really no time and space at home to experiment. I do not wish to see that pain of fixing, reading the threads, web pages on installation, going through the process from the beginning etc.