Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

Booting, installing, newbie
Message
Author
User avatar
RetroTechGuy
Posts: 2947
Joined: Tue 15 Dec 2009, 17:20
Location: USA

Re: Do Puppies Expire?

#1001 Post by RetroTechGuy »

Sweet Baby Jamie wrote:I just chose Tahr because it uses Ubuntu repositories (so lots of software available) and because Ubuntu is somewhat familiar to me, and because it's the newest Puppy.
I'm assuming that you run a frugal install (I prefer that).

One word of caution, when attempting a software install from Debian or Ubuntu, it's not a bad idea to back up your save file first...

You can boot your machine to ram:

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram
And then navigate to the location of your save file, and simply copy it to a new name (I usually copy to the date I made the copy, and sometimes change the extension to ".2fx" which will effectively hide it from the boot process -- if you leave it normal, you will be prompted which file to load on boot).

If all goes well, you don't need to do anything. If it completely corrupts your save file, you simply boot to RAM again, and copy your file back over the original (keep in mind that this will wipe out any files you saved internally -- you're essentially restoring to a previous point in time -- you can copy those files out).

The other thing I do, is once I get a system booting the way I want (whether from flash, or HDD), I add the option "fsck" to check the file on every boot (it doesn't take long, unless you crashed -- and then you want to repair the file). This will keep your save file healthy and strong for a long time...

For example, my menu.lst file contains:

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux Super Lupu 1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /Sulu/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=Sulu pfix=fsck
initrd /Sulu/initrd.gz
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=58615]Add swapfile[/url]
[url=http://wellminded.net63.net/]WellMinded Search[/url]
[url=http://puppylinux.us/psearch.html]PuppyLinux.US Search[/url]

M@d0g
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 10 Dec 2015, 13:52

Tap time settings- touchpad

#1002 Post by M@d0g »

New to linux, first time using Puppy. I ran into a problem with my first install. I had mouse movement, and right click only on my touchpad. After hooking up a wired mouse, I played with settings a little and found the single finger tap time was set for zero. Bumping it up a little finally brought back the left tap. Just wanted to put this here for others. So far it seems I've found a good distro for this laptop

Using Lucid Puppy 5.5 Samsung laptop with 1GB ram, intel atom n270 @1.6GHz and a fried hard drive.

yobbocat
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 20 Dec 2015, 02:56

Complete Newbie (almost)

#1003 Post by yobbocat »

Hi
Like subject says, i am a complete novice at linux. Ive been on windows since 3.1, and am just taking a break from win 10 to see what is happening over here.
My first problem is a really basic one, something that i would have to expect to go on a forum to find the answer. (Its to do with shutting down a window (eg Firefox) by clicking touchpad on laptop on the 'x' button on top right hand corner, without having to click on the left click button.)
What I like about Puppy, is that it was easy to install. It comes with a small file size. I was very impressed with how how there were several tools to get me online with wifi.
Also im very pleased to have found this forum straight away. And im confident that i will get a proper helpful reply. One of the things that drove me mad about Windows, is that when i post on the official Microsoft forum wanting help with a specific issue, that is often a known well documented problem, no solution is posted - such as the problem with the Luma 930 phone having to be rebooted to reconnect to home wifi when i return from going outside, etc.
A major factor in me beginning to wonder about Windows, is that they have followed in Apple's footsteps by wanting us to create a microsoft account, and this trend of wanting all devices to sync up, and wifi printing, blah blah blah, which leaves me wondering about the security implcations in an age of internet banking. With that in mind, for the first time, ive installed Linux on my hard drive of laptop.
I have very limited experience with DosLinux type distro when i needed to sort out resizing partitions, making them bootable, and so forth before XP arrived.
Im really looking forward to trying to install some packages on Puppy.

Euro240
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri 11 Mar 2016, 22:38

#1004 Post by Euro240 »

medicalystoned wrote:
Beuleuleu wrote:hi,



- in seamonkey i can't see all the web pages (like as the web page are too large for seamonkey), and i don't find how to resize.
I have the same issue, it's like looking at webpages on my PDA....
Have you tried CTRL and the + key?
This usually zooms the page in properly
(I personally use firefox, and this helps me.

you can also change the default zoom in firefox.
Unfortunately I don;t know enough about seamonkey.

User avatar
James186282
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue 08 Sep 2009, 19:14
Location: Minnesota

#1005 Post by James186282 »

I have nothing but praise for how easy it is to put a CD in a junk computer (Old and slow) and be connected to the web and running the browser of your choice and go WOW this computer is great again. Like when I bought it 8 years ago. I mean this is almost magic. Laptops that are just "trash" are good *Even great.

My only complaint and this is probably OCD talking is that getting down into the nity gritty things changing files that are the standard way to do something is other linux distros are sometimes overwritten by something in Puppy. I'm NOT saying make Puppy like every other Distro. I've had machines running a variety of distros and for me? They can't touch Puppy for being fast and easy to get rolling.

Let me take one example. xorg.conf seems straightforward and you can find all sorts of information on how changing this does that. The issue I have is that puppy overwrites this at odd times and it can be a real pain to understand what happened and why. JWM is another example. If I go to Joe's web site and read the doc its all fairly straightforward but its different on Puppy (*And confusing and a bit overwhelming as to the number of files that run and that whats in one can be overruled in 4 or 5 different places)

Doing everything behind the scene and making it idiot proof is probably the best for most of the users who just want something that works and requires little to no deep down fiddling without using a gui "tool" thats idiot proof.

I dunno. This probably sounds lame. I only mention it because I have written crib notes on so many things. "What really happens when the machine starts up, when audio is running or the window manager or whatever. They generally sound like this, First this file runs. Then this other file runs and can overule what the previous file does. This file is normally where your supposed to change this but in this case any changes can really screw things up." That type of thing.

I like to see whats going on and clearly a lot of the power users do as well because they are the ones writing gui based routines that change options etc in a way that makes it simple.

This is kind of the Steve Job idea that a computer should be as easy to operate as a blender and I've never been a fan of that when its taken too far.

The goods far outweigh my frustraitions. And yes I was that kid who had to take apart the clock to see how it worked. And the radio and nearly everything else. I drove my mother insane but dear old dad encouraged my interest.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
[i]Donald Knuth [/i]

cokolo
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 02 Jun 2016, 18:29
Location: Nigeria

internet connection

#1006 Post by cokolo »

pls.... how do i make my Huawei 3531 usb moderm work

cokolo
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 02 Jun 2016, 18:29
Location: Nigeria

help

#1007 Post by cokolo »

Huawei usb modern not working
am using slacko 6.3

User avatar
LazY Puppy
Posts: 1934
Joined: Fri 21 Nov 2014, 18:14
Location: Germany

Re: help

#1008 Post by LazY Puppy »

cokolo wrote:Huawei usb modern not working
Welcome to the club! :wink:

Probably installing these packages will help?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=97692
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=97691

Try it first without to use a save file (boot pfix=ram).
RSH

"you only wanted to work your Puppies in German", "you are a separatist in that you want Germany to secede from Europe" (musher0) :lol:

No, but I gave my old drum kit away for free to a music store collecting instruments for refugees! :wink:

cokolo
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 02 Jun 2016, 18:29
Location: Nigeria

lazzy puppy

#1009 Post by cokolo »

i am using thar puppy 6.0.5 now
its working fine now.

how do i install a floating dock menu like mac installed
and i also want to learn how to program in c as a nonprogrammer
Attachments
ht62q9.jpg
(15.42 KiB) Downloaded 528 times
capture1982.png
(21.45 KiB) Downloaded 548 times
Last edited by cokolo on Fri 03 Jun 2016, 14:33, edited 1 time in total.

cokolo
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 02 Jun 2016, 18:29
Location: Nigeria

my puppy

#1010 Post by cokolo »

i just want my puppy to look cool too.
any ideas?

User avatar
RetroTechGuy
Posts: 2947
Joined: Tue 15 Dec 2009, 17:20
Location: USA

Re: lazzy puppy

#1011 Post by RetroTechGuy »

cokolo wrote:and i also want to learn how to program in c as a nonprogrammer
You want to add the "devx" file for your system of choice.

2 steps -- drop it in the directory where your other .sfs file resides, then under Menu >> System >> Bootmanager Configure you want to "add" this package to the boot process.

Look in the appropriate directory for the file:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pu ... cko-6.3.0/
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=58615]Add swapfile[/url]
[url=http://wellminded.net63.net/]WellMinded Search[/url]
[url=http://puppylinux.us/psearch.html]PuppyLinux.US Search[/url]

Jrickard
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 03 Jul 2016, 23:07

#1012 Post by Jrickard »

hello all, new member and also very new to puppy (slacko) and linux period.

I downloaded pup because microsoft has made me so frustrated that if i didnt leave their os I would have probably lost it and went jihad LOL! So i make a disc, booted up and made me a few usb, everything was ok, lil better instructions maybe as I am not a comp wiz but i am learning a lil bit, like where to look for the iso file :) Pup runs fine on 1 laptop I have and not as well on other netbook but this netbook has had a rough life.

It worked fine on an old dell 2400 desktop that i had around, it had low ram less than half a gb and ran fine, it now has 2gb and is better, although i couldnt get online as i dont have net out here in the sticks so i use my tethered iphone (whcih will be my last, sick of apple BS too) and the old dell with xp wont recognize it as anything but a camera,

Main comp I use is my wifes Toshiba P755,(hate this comp too but it works) my gateway nv54 was destroyed by windows 10, to be fair it did take a fall off car a few years back.

Issues, well first anything command line, period, its an experts way of doing things and seems like a foreign antique riddle to me , everywhere you look for a bit of assistance online they run out these long cmd lines like everyone knows what to do with it LOL I understand the space constraints in the os for puppies but I have it on a 32gb flash and also on two other 16gbs. heck my old dell only has an 80gb hdd LOL. Only thing i have figured out was getting flash and making usb boot, all i really do is look around net. but it would be nice to use built in camera without becoming a programmer in the process.
Last would be the names of things, have to look up everything because there is no rhyme or reason readily apparent. i mean come on sylpeed, geany...who names this stuff?

The great thing about it is its quick to boot and boots over whatever the comp os is and is fast on the net even with my tethered and signal boosted iphone as source, that was easy to set up, Frisbee it works LOL
I am not planning on leaving pup but if I found an easier to use one I would.

Just my experience over the last couple of weeks since I got slacko, hope it helps

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#1013 Post by rcrsn51 »

Jrickard wrote:i mean come on sylpeed, geany...who names this stuff?
The same people who named excel, powerpoint, google, twitter ...

learnhow2code

#1014 Post by learnhow2code »

rcrsn51 wrote:
Jrickard wrote:i mean come on sylpeed, geany...who names this stuff?
The same people who named excel, powerpoint, google, twitter ...
yeah but linux people use too many alphabets. ive been running CompTIA in the MCSE window manager, and so far its A+. but it would be better with a new BIOS on the ASUS, according to the IT pdf from IDG. (url) lol j/k.

User avatar
Burn_IT
Posts: 3650
Joined: Sat 12 Aug 2006, 19:25
Location: Tamworth UK

#1015 Post by Burn_IT »

Complain to the United Nations and tell them that they need to make ALL countries use English and Latin script.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

jfcarroll
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2016, 03:11

Hope to make Puppy Linux better

#1016 Post by jfcarroll »

This is my first post to the forum. I installed Puppy Linux for the first time last week. However, I have in the past used Linux as my primary operating system for over 7 years, including Debian and Ubuntu.

The thing that brought me to Puppy was that I wanted an up-to-date LiveCD; the current live-disc for Ubuntu is now 1.4 GB and too big for a CD. So now I'm using Puppy. I like it.

I thing the Puppy Linux goals are great, including:
Puppy will be extremely friendly for Linux newbies.
Puppy will just work, no hassles.
The first issue that I ran into when using Puppy Linux was with the Puppy Package Manager (PPM). When I went to update the repositories, I was presented with the option of whether or not to download each package database. I had to hit ENTER for each repository. I would prefer that all repositories be updated by default.

I searched the wiki, the forum, and other sites to change this behavior. I skimmed through this sticky thread from Oct 2014 to the present (the time that Tahrpup has been released). I didn't see any mention of package manager database update nor repository update, so I decided to post here.

I did discover that this option exists within the configuration of PPM, which is wonderful. I recommend that this option be set to use the "silent" method by default.

Similarly, I recommend that the terminal windows be hidden by default.

See attached screenshot for recommended default configuration for PPM.

These two changes would help Puppy Linux achieve it's goals of being more friendly to Linux newbies, and to "just work."

Thank you!
Attachments
recommended-defaults-ppm.png
I recommend these settings as the default for the Puppy Package Manager
(29.78 KiB) Downloaded 346 times

learnhow2code

Re: Hope to make Puppy Linux better

#1017 Post by learnhow2code »

jfcarroll wrote:See attached screenshot for recommended default configuration for PPM.
good suggestions, imo.

Sailor Enceladus
Posts: 1543
Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#1018 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

@jfcarroll: That's all fine and dandy unless there's a problem and then you can't see what the problem is (a.k.a Windows style).

rstuff
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 31 Jul 2016, 03:40

Linux For Old Dogs

#1019 Post by rstuff »

I was looking for a Linux distribution for old dogs. I was upgrading Mint and found I had narrow scrollbars that jumped several pages when scrolling. I decided to try Puppy Linux. I could not get wifi to work with Puppy. I could not find an option for WPA2 security and not broadcasting my SSID did not help. I still prefer to have my "Activities" at the bottom of the screen reminiscent of XP. Maybe there is a distro or theme out there somewhere that would save me hours of configuring an update and still be easy to use.

foofecker
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri 16 Sep 2016, 00:50

#1020 Post by foofecker »

Running Puppy from a USB key on a Sony Vaio laptop/netbook as my Lubuntu distro crashed and I haven't gotten around to fixing it. Using Slacko 6.3. 1.6ghz AMD processor, 4gb RAM.

Puppy runs surprisingly well and I quite like it even as a backup. I've no real technical knowledge of computers though and Puppy is confusing me.

It's running from the RAM and the site assures me that this is fine and normal, but I don't quite understand how the storage is working. Or if installing it to the HDD is better? Also, can I just plug it into any PC now to work as per usual or will that mess with settings every time?

Essentially Puppy is doing the job just fine at the moment and I like it - but I don't really understand it enough to stick with it once I get my PC up and running again with Lubuntu. Although I'll definitely keep the USB key as a future back up.

PS thank you for all the info on the forums!

Post Reply