Puppy as Primary Operating System

[foxpup]

I think you can take slackware packages too, and perhaps others.
You should look that the versions of the required libs correspond more or less with those of your puppy. (You could also compare kernel versions.)

[foxpup]

to easily control your computer from your phone while you are away

Why do you want that. I never leave my computer on when I leave.

[LazY Puppy]

If I remember right you have palemoon for a browser in Tahr. (I threw it out because it needs SSE2 and I only have SSE on my machine).

Throwing out anything being placed inside the puppy main sfs (e.g.: tahr_6.0.2.sfs) doesn't make any sense unless you did a remaster after the removal.

Otherwise it (e.g.: Pale Moon Browser) remains inside the puppy's main sfs and it is only marked as "deleted" or "removed".

You can check this at /initrd/pup_ro2/opt/ - there should be still directory: palemoon, but in /opt there should NOT be a directory: palemoon.

[hollipl]

Okay guys Ran into first issue. No matter what I do, even tried xset s off on command line, The display still blanks itself off to a black screen every 5 minutes or so unless I move the mouse, even when I'm watching a movie or youtube video full screen, which is annoying... Why can nothing seem to keep the screen alive and how do I fix this.. Tried power options as well..

[Semme]

Try "pupx" from a shell.

[mikeslr]

... but say when I download something in firefox, it seems to save it in puppys system partition download folder, not my large file partition...

Hi hollipi,

However you install a Puppy, it operates such that initially every change takes place in RAM. Using firefox, it will automatically create a folder named "Downloads" the first time you download a file into which it will place the downloaded file. In Linux Distros, such as debian, which are designed to occupy an entire partition, such Download folder would be created in the User's Home Folder. But Puppies run as root, so it is created in the /root folder. You can see it by opening Thunar or Rox to that folder. And you're correct, it would be part of Puppy's system.

I'm not certain how you installed "Puppy", whether it was a Frugal Install or a Full Install. If you used Puppy Installer, you made the choice. The name Frugal is misleading, but the alternate name "co-existent" never caught on. Frugal is not a "cut-down" version: it offers the same applications a Full. It just doesn't require an entire partition and so can "co-exist" on the same partition as another OS, enabling you to frugally use that partition.

With a Frugal Tahrpup, you have the choice of saving your changes --settings, installed applications-- in either one compressed file whose size you have to specify, but which can be "resized" later, or in an uncompressed folder which takes up only a couple of bytes when created but expands as needed (to all otherwise unused space on its partition, if necessary) as you install applications and change settings. A SaveFolder is the recommended choice.

As you have 1 Gb of RAM and can run Tahrpup easily, there is no advantage if you chose a Full Install. One of the disadvantages of a Full install is that applications you install --and crap you acquired while surfing the web-- will automatically be written to your hard-drive. Uninstalling the former may break applications or your system. And the later may be hidden and thus un-removable. With a Frugal Install, you can set Tahrpup up to only write to your hard-drive on command. See this thread: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 1&start=60. If your create/store data files on your hard-drive, the programs manipulating them will automatically write to the hard-drive. Frugal installs also enable you to use SFSes. Those are entire applications you can load-and-unload-on-the-fly. A loaded SFS not in use takes up little RAM. Unloaded, it takes up none.

You can test how well a Frugal Install works without removing your current installation. Merely create a folder with a unique name, maybe "tahrpup32" --without the quotes. Then open your file-manager to where ever you've stored the tahrpup 6.0.5 ISO. Left-click the ISO and a window will open showing you its contents. Place your mouse-cursor on any of the following files, and Ctrl-Left-Click it; then Ctrl-Left-Click the others: initrd,gz, vmlinuz, puppy_tahr_6.0.5.sfs and zdrv_tahr_6.0.5.sfs. All those files should now be highlighted. Without releasing your mouse-button, drag the last file you selected into the "tahr32" folder. The other files should accompany it automatically. Release the button and select "copy". Then Left-click the ISO again to close it.

The easy way to add your new version of Puppy to your boot menu is to run Menu>System>Grub4dos. Grub4Dos should create listing for both your old and new versions. Or you can edit your current boot menu. Ask for help editing if you want it. Either way, you'll want to edit your boot menu. Both Grub4dos and Puppy's installer will have recognized that your Puppy OS(es) were on a hard-drive and will have written boot arguments accordingly. You'll want to edit where it reads “atahd

[poorguy]

PoorGuy, I tried to download the pet and it threw me a 404 page not found error.

4th post down.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=106016

working link.
http://smokey01.com/gjuhasz/packages/netsurf-3.5.pet

[rufwoof]

As you have 1 Gb of RAM and can run Tahrpup easily, there is no advantage if you chose a Full Install. One of the disadvantages of a Full install is that applications you install --and crap you acquired while surfing the web-- will automatically be written to your hard-drive.

Hollipl only has 512MB Mike. For a full install you ideally need at least a GB I'd say. 512MB would work provided you had a swap file/partition ... but would tend to be slowed down by swapping to/from disk.

With a Frugal Install, you can set Tahrpup up to only write to your hard-drive on command

Except in some cases, such as when you load a PET and it uses the 'save' space as a work area.

The way I run Debian LXDE is I installed grub4dos, created a empty partition and use that partition for everything, grub4dos (menu.lst, grldr), the main filesystem (filesystem.squashfs) and as the save folder (partition). Nothing preventing that also being the location of a swap file either ... such as creating/activating a 1GB swapfile :

dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1M count=1024
mkswap swapfile
swapon swapfile

You have to set that partition as being bootable such as in gparted, and also give it a partition LABEL of 'persistence' (without the quotes).

For the Debian LXDE I use I downloaded a CD from here http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... rent-live/ that includes non-free firmware, in my case selecting the amd64 folder choice as my PC is 64 bit (use the i386 folder is 32 bit) http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... rent-live/ select the iso-hybrid sub-directory and ... pick one. I went for the ....lxde-desktop+nonfree.iso type file to download.

Once downloaded then you need to extract the live folder from that iso to the HDD partition alongside grldr and menu.lst (grub4dos installed files).

Then its just a matter of editing menu.lst to use that, something like

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /live/initrd.img

A second boot choice of booting read/write so all changes are recorded requires only the persistence-read-only boot parameter to be removed

title Debian Jessie Frugal RW
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /live/initrd.img

Taking that a step further, you can extract all of the filesystem.squashfs to the save 'folder' i.e extract all of filesystem.squashfs to the / folder. You can't do that directly so first you extract to a new/empty folder and then move everything in that folder up to the root folder

cd live
unsquashfs -d tempfolder filesystem.squashfs

... and then open tempfolder in a filemanager window, ensure all files including hiddenfiles are highlighted/selected and drag/drop those to another window showing the / folder and 'MOVE'. tempfolder is then left empty and can be deleted.

With everything in the 'save folder' there's no further need for filesystem.squashfs so that can be deleted, but best to create a empty one in its place otherwise that could prevent sfs's from being loaded.

cd live
rm filesystem.squashfs
mkdir tmp
mksquashfs tmp filesystem.squashfs
rmdir tmp

With that further step you in effect have a full install that can be booted like a frugal where changes aren't preserved on disk, just recorded in memory .... which runs a lot faster. Or you can boot it read/write where all changes are preserved as and when made.

The final step is to adjust from using /live/initrd and /live/vmlinuz boot files to using sym links to those in /boot ... as that way any Debian kernel updates will be correctly installed/used. i.e. create initrd.img and vmlinuz as sym-links to the initrd and vmlinuz files (with longer file names that indicate the version numbers) in /boot and adjust menu.lst to use those sym-links

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

title Debian Jessie Frugal RW
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

Instead of the RW boot choice above, I've set mine to chain to the Debian boot loader, which I installed from within Debian

title Debian FULL Install RW filesys must be extracted (/boot/grub/menu.lst)
find --set-root /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
commandline

So no different to a full install ... except that its booted via grub4dos that chains to it. I use that choice to run updates, that otherwise might exceed available memory space i.e. written to disk as soon as changes made. Slow, but used relatively infrequently. For the rest of time I use the RO boot choice (faster), but where no changes are recorded. However you can link from that read only layer to the main save folder, for example I created a /Documents-Persistent folder and once booted I created a sym link to that from within /home/user folder, so that I have a Documents, Picture ....etc where changes are lost after reboot, but also a Documents-Persistent folder where any changes within that are preserved across reboots.

I also have a script that I can run that's very similar (a adjusted version of) snapmergepuppy, so I can flush all changes in a RO session to disk to preserve them simply by running that script.

If you only use programs from Debian repository and perform updates periodically i.e. in a terminal running as root

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

then you'll have a very stable installation that keeps up to date, that in the above case can be booted read only so you can try out things and not save them ...etc.

Don't forget to set a root password i.e.

sudo passwd root

and enter a password of your own choice (you have to enter it twice).

Debian runs by default as 'user' not as 'root' which is safer, especially if you run a browser. LXDE is nice in that respect as its file manager pcmanfm includes a right click menu option to open a folder in a root based window. Which at first seems a bit weird to do after using puppy, but soon becomes more natural instinct.

I suspect that with a swap file created/used of perhaps 1GB size, Hollipl could have that running ok on that laptop. Can't say for sure as mine has 2GB (more than enough such that I don't even need to allocate a swap file/partition).

You can still load sfs's with that (when booted RO only) simply by dropping them into the /live folder. Any files with .squashfs suffix will get loaded at bootup in alphanumeric order. Or if you create a filesystem.module file in that /live folder then only the .squashfs files listed in that file will get loaded at bootup, in the order specified in that file. Personally I don't bother as its just as easy for me to load/unload stuff using Synaptic (from the Debian repository).

For completeness my /usr/local/bin/flush2disk script is attached below, which of course needs to be made executable in order to run. Other than that script the rest of my installation is pure Debian. Around 4GB in total space used (no swap file included) which I have installed on a 15GB partition.

Best of all worlds IMO. Stable repository with security updates quick to come through. And can boot frugal style where changes aren't recorded, except if you want them to be. And runs quicker as changes are recorded in memory instead of to disk. But can be booted to the equivalent of a fully installed Debian (which reminds me another change you should make is make the repositories inspected be a wider range i.e. /etc/apt/sources.list should look like

###### Debian Main Repos
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

###### Security
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

If you intend to compile stuff then you should add the sources (src) to that e.g. maybe a sources.list content of :

deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main

[hollipl]

... but say when I download something in firefox, it seems to save it in puppys system partition download folder, not my large file partition...

Hi hollipi,

However you install a Puppy, it operates such that initially every change takes place in RAM. Using firefox, it will automatically create a folder named "Downloads" the first time you download a file into which it will place the downloaded file. In Linux Distros, such as debian, which are designed to occupy an entire partition, such Download folder would be created in the User's Home Folder. But Puppies run as root, so it is created in the /root folder. You can see it by opening Thunar or Rox to that folder. And you're correct, it would be part of Puppy's system.

I'm not certain how you installed "Puppy", whether it was a Frugal Install or a Full Install. If you used Puppy Installer, you made the choice. The name Frugal is misleading, but the alternate name "co-existent" never caught on. Frugal is not a "cut-down" version: it offers the same applications a Full. It just doesn't require an entire partition and so can "co-exist" on the same partition as another OS, enabling you to frugally use that partition.

With a Frugal Tahrpup, you have the choice of saving your changes --settings, installed applications-- in either one compressed file whose size you have to specify, but which can be "resized" later, or in an uncompressed folder which takes up only a couple of bytes when created but expands as needed (to all otherwise unused space on its partition, if necessary) as you install applications and change settings. A SaveFolder is the recommended choice.

As you have 1 Gb of RAM and can run Tahrpup easily, there is no advantage if you chose a Full Install. One of the disadvantages of a Full install is that applications you install --and crap you acquired while surfing the web-- will automatically be written to your hard-drive. Uninstalling the former may break applications or your system. And the later may be hidden and thus un-removable. With a Frugal Install, you can set Tahrpup up to only write to your hard-drive on command. See this thread: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 1&start=60. If your create/store data files on your hard-drive, the programs manipulating them will automatically write to the hard-drive. Frugal installs also enable you to use SFSes. Those are entire applications you can load-and-unload-on-the-fly. A loaded SFS not in use takes up little RAM. Unloaded, it takes up none.

You can test how well a Frugal Install works without removing your current installation. Merely create a folder with a unique name, maybe "tahrpup32" --without the quotes. Then open your file-manager to where ever you've stored the tahrpup 6.0.5 ISO. Left-click the ISO and a window will open showing you its contents. Place your mouse-cursor on any of the following files, and Ctrl-Left-Click it; then Ctrl-Left-Click the others: initrd,gz, vmlinuz, puppy_tahr_6.0.5.sfs and zdrv_tahr_6.0.5.sfs. All those files should now be highlighted. Without releasing your mouse-button, drag the last file you selected into the "tahr32" folder. The other files should accompany it automatically. Release the button and select "copy". Then Left-click the ISO again to close it.

The easy way to add your new version of Puppy to your boot menu is to run Menu>System>Grub4dos. Grub4Dos should create listing for both your old and new versions. Or you can edit your current boot menu. Ask for help editing if you want it. Either way, you'll want to edit your boot menu. Both Grub4dos and Puppy's installer will have recognized that your Puppy OS(es) were on a hard-drive and will have written boot arguments accordingly. You'll want to edit where it reads “atahd

[foxpup]

Throwing out anything being placed inside the puppy main sfs (e.g.: tahr_6.0.2.sfs) doesn't make any sense unless you did a remaster after the removal.

You are quite right LazY Puppy. I did not explain how I do it.
I unsquashfs the main puppy sfs, delete manually what I do not want and mksquashfs what's left. Sometimes I add something, of course. It's a manual remaster.
By the way, I do not use compression when I mksquashfs because I have some working space (1G RAM/120G HDD) but I want more speed because my CPU is old (amd palomino from 2002, that is pentiumIII/XP generation).

I did not explain because I did not think hollipl wants to do something like that now.

[hollipl]

As you have 1 Gb of RAM and can run Tahrpup easily, there is no advantage if you chose a Full Install. One of the disadvantages of a Full install is that applications you install --and crap you acquired while surfing the web-- will automatically be written to your hard-drive.

Hollipl only has 512MB Mike. For a full install you ideally need at least a GB I'd say. 512MB would work provided you had a swap file/partition ... but would tend to be slowed down by swapping to/from disk.

With a Frugal Install, you can set Tahrpup up to only write to your hard-drive on command

Except in some cases, such as when you load a PET and it uses the 'save' space as a work area.

The way I run Debian LXDE is I installed grub4dos, created a empty partition and use that partition for everything, grub4dos (menu.lst, grldr), the main filesystem (filesystem.squashfs) and as the save folder (partition). Nothing preventing that also being the location of a swap file either ... such as creating/activating a 1GB swapfile :

dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1M count=1024
mkswap swapfile
swapon swapfile

You have to set that partition as being bootable such as in gparted, and also give it a partition LABEL of 'persistence' (without the quotes).

For the Debian LXDE I use I downloaded a CD from here http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... rent-live/ that includes non-free firmware, in my case selecting the amd64 folder choice as my PC is 64 bit (use the i386 folder is 32 bit) http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff ... rent-live/ select the iso-hybrid sub-directory and ... pick one. I went for the ....lxde-desktop+nonfree.iso type file to download.

Once downloaded then you need to extract the live folder from that iso to the HDD partition alongside grldr and menu.lst (grub4dos installed files).

Then its just a matter of editing menu.lst to use that, something like

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /live/initrd.img

A second boot choice of booting read/write so all changes are recorded requires only the persistence-read-only boot parameter to be removed

title Debian Jessie Frugal RW
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /live/initrd.img

Taking that a step further, you can extract all of the filesystem.squashfs to the save 'folder' i.e extract all of filesystem.squashfs to the / folder. You can't do that directly so first you extract to a new/empty folder and then move everything in that folder up to the root folder

cd live
unsquashfs -d tempfolder filesystem.squashfs

... and then open tempfolder in a filemanager window, ensure all files including hiddenfiles are highlighted/selected and drag/drop those to another window showing the / folder and 'MOVE'. tempfolder is then left empty and can be deleted.

With everything in the 'save folder' there's no further need for filesystem.squashfs so that can be deleted, but best to create a empty one in its place otherwise that could prevent sfs's from being loaded.

cd live
rm filesystem.squashfs
mkdir tmp
mksquashfs tmp filesystem.squashfs
rmdir tmp

With that further step you in effect have a full install that can be booted like a frugal where changes aren't preserved on disk, just recorded in memory .... which runs a lot faster. Or you can boot it read/write where all changes are preserved as and when made.

The final step is to adjust from using /live/initrd and /live/vmlinuz boot files to using sym links to those in /boot ... as that way any Debian kernel updates will be correctly installed/used. i.e. create initrd.img and vmlinuz as sym-links to the initrd and vmlinuz files (with longer file names that indicate the version numbers) in /boot and adjust menu.lst to use those sym-links

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

title Debian Jessie Frugal RW
find --set-root /live/filesystem.squashfs
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live config nofastboot persistence persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

Instead of the RW boot choice above, I've set mine to chain to the Debian boot loader, which I installed from within Debian

title Debian FULL Install RW filesys must be extracted (/boot/grub/menu.lst)
find --set-root /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
commandline

So no different to a full install ... except that its booted via grub4dos that chains to it. I use that choice to run updates, that otherwise might exceed available memory space i.e. written to disk as soon as changes made. Slow, but used relatively infrequently. For the rest of time I use the RO boot choice (faster), but where no changes are recorded. However you can link from that read only layer to the main save folder, for example I created a /Documents-Persistent folder and once booted I created a sym link to that from within /home/user folder, so that I have a Documents, Picture ....etc where changes are lost after reboot, but also a Documents-Persistent folder where any changes within that are preserved across reboots.

I also have a script that I can run that's very similar (a adjusted version of) snapmergepuppy, so I can flush all changes in a RO session to disk to preserve them simply by running that script.

If you only use programs from Debian repository and perform updates periodically i.e. in a terminal running as root

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

then you'll have a very stable installation that keeps up to date, that in the above case can be booted read only so you can try out things and not save them ...etc.

Don't forget to set a root password i.e.

sudo passwd root

and enter a password of your own choice (you have to enter it twice).

Debian runs by default as 'user' not as 'root' which is safer, especially if you run a browser. LXDE is nice in that respect as its file manager pcmanfm includes a right click menu option to open a folder in a root based window. Which at first seems a bit weird to do after using puppy, but soon becomes more natural instinct.

I suspect that with a swap file created/used of perhaps 1GB size, Hollipl could have that running ok on that laptop. Can't say for sure as mine has 2GB (more than enough such that I don't even need to allocate a swap file/partition).

You can still load sfs's with that (when booted RO only) simply by dropping them into the /live folder. Any files with .squashfs suffix will get loaded at bootup in alphanumeric order. Or if you create a filesystem.module file in that /live folder then only the .squashfs files listed in that file will get loaded at bootup, in the order specified in that file. Personally I don't bother as its just as easy for me to load/unload stuff using Synaptic (from the Debian repository).

For completeness my /usr/local/bin/flush2disk script is attached below, which of course needs to be made executable in order to run. Other than that script the rest of my installation is pure Debian. Around 4GB in total space used (no swap file included) which I have installed on a 15GB partition.

Best of all worlds IMO. Stable repository with security updates quick to come through. And can boot frugal style where changes aren't recorded, except if you want them to be. And runs quicker as changes are recorded in memory instead of to disk. But can be booted to the equivalent of a fully installed Debian (which reminds me another change you should make is make the repositories inspected be a wider range i.e. /etc/apt/sources.list should look like

###### Debian Main Repos
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

###### Security
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

If you intend to compile stuff then you should add the sources (src) to that e.g. maybe a sources.list content of :

deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main

rufwoof,

That actually sounds amazing! it doesn't sound too terribly complicated, but i would probably still want someone to walk me thru it a little bit more indepth, tho it definately is not out of my skill range at the moment. The system you were describing would be almost perfect to get maximum use out of this old machines specs. I can be reached by adding @outlook.com to my username and sending an email :] perhaps you could walk me through a little bit on an instant messenger or skype? at the moment I'm running tahrpup with xcfe FULL install, and whenever I use an application i'm forcing any saved files to goto the 48 gig partition by browsing to such location.. etc.

This is my first real dive into puppy, and I knew that it had plenty of power to setup such a system as you were describing I just didn't know where to start to get my hands dirty. I migrated recently from Bunsen labs because someone had abandoned the repos and I kept getting KEY ERRORS all over the place installing things from command line, so then I was tracking down package files in the web browser to satisfy dependances and It was just a mess

[foxpup]

Try "pupx" from a shell.

@hollipl: try this for your blank screen

[hollipl]

Try "pupx" from a shell.

@hollipl: try this for your blank screen

foxpup,
I ran pupx from shell, disabled the check by screensaver enabled, and put 0 in the timeout seconds box, and will now wait to see if it still turns off.

Code: Select all

root# xset q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Shift Lock:  off    04: Group 2:     off    05: Mouse Keys:  off
  auto repeat delay:  500    repeat rate:  20
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffdfffdfe5ef
                        ffffffffffffffff
                        ffffffffffffffff
  bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  20/10    threshold:  4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  0    cycle:  600
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF/,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Disabled

[Mike Walsh]

Hallo, hollipl.

With regard to your screen 'timeout' issue, there's an easy way to adjust this. Go to Menu>Desktop>pupx set properties of x. This will enable you to adjust timeout, screen-saver, mouse acceleration, keyboard adjustments, etc, etc.

As Mikeslr says, you will not find a /home partition/folder in Puppy. This is a peculiarity mainly of the Debian/Ubuntu-based distros, which are primarily multi-user systems. Every 'user' has their own /home folder, and nobody is allowed to run as root, except very temporarily. Puppy is primarily a single-user system, and always runs as root. Many Linux users (some of long-standing) are absolutely horrified by this..!

You may find this interesting:-

http://barryk.org/puppylinux/technical/root.htm

...an explanation by the Puppy Master himself, Barry Kauler.

Hope that helps a wee bit. I originally ran Tahrpup myself, on a 14 yr-old Dell Inspiron laptop, which now has a 2.6 GHz P4, 1 GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD. It ran flawlessly.


Mike.

[foxpup]

foxpup,
I ran pupx from shell, disabled the check by screensaver enabled, and put 0 in the timeout seconds box, and will now wait to see if it still turns off.

Okay.
I thought you missed Semmes post.

[poorguy]

"Puppy's Philosophy: FEAR NOT ROOT!"

[Mike Walsh]

"Puppy's Philosophy: FEAR NOT ROOT!"

^^^ +1, old son. Touchè..!


Mike.

[Semme]

Classified under "Developers" distro. And we're all one of those, right?

[Mike Walsh]

Hey, Semme.

I'm just thinking, now: that avatar of yours ain't a self-portrait, is it? Seems quite appropriate for someone who spends a lot of his time 'yanking my lead' (*groan*)

Sorry; couldn't resist that. And don't take it the wrong way, please..!


Mike.

[rufwoof]

...I just didn't know where to start to get my hands dirty....

Grab a livecd and boot from that, start here https://www.debian.org/CD/live/ reading through the detailed guides https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual ... and use that livecd to install a full install to a HDD partition which is relatively simple/painless. Boot and setup that full install ... and then use that full install as a 'save' folder (partition) content and overlay a frugal (livecd style) boot. Which in effect distils own to creating a /live folder in addition to the fully installed files/folders, allocating the partition a 'persistence' label using the likes of gparted or fdisk and adding grub4dos with an appropriate menu.lst that boots either that full install or the frugal choice.

The /live folder can be empty - as everything is in effect stored in the savefolder (partition). Personally I copy the /live folder from the liveCD to /live on HDD and just empty the filesystem.squashfs content as that's redundant (everything is stored in the 'save file' (partition)).

The big difference between full and frugal is that instead of writing all changes to disk as they occur as with full, with frugal all changes are recorded in (faster) memory. The system will also do a reasonable job of disk-caching so the first time you load a program may be slower (as its read from disk) than the second time you run it assuming it has remained in cache. The downside is that it doesn't preserve changes ... unless you manually flush those to disk (as per my earlier script). Another downside is that if changes exceed available memory space it will lock up. So large updates or program installations are better performed using the (slower to run) Full installed boot choice.

As a example, Installed that way to a USB stick and there is a massive difference between the operational speed of the full version and the frugal version. Frugal runs as fast as a HDD version as slower USB writes aren't being used, just writes to memory. Only if you flush those memory recorded changes to 'disk' (USB) does the slow write operation become apparent.

With the likes of Tahr puppy the aim is to create a small total filesystem that can all be loaded into ram at bootup, which caters for the boot medium then being ejected (no longer needed because its all in ram). With the above there's a large amount of files/data, but that's on HDD and parts of that are read in as-when required and can be swapped in/out as the system determines best. So whilst 'large' much of that wont be read anyway, mostly just there just in case its needed (foreign locale's, doc's ....etc). Reading everything into ram at bootup is slower to bootup, but quicker thereafter compared to reading stuff in as/when required. The latter is also makes more efficient use of memory space, by only reading in what is required/when it is required, not the entire filesystem ... which will contain programs/libs that aren't even used during a session.