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greengeek

Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Posts: 5624 Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
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Posted: Thu 04 Jan 2018, 13:49 Post subject:
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rimatheou wrote: | ... done! | Nice work! - you have strongly confirmed the crippled functionality when booting from HDD versus USB.
Would it be possible to boot Slacko 5.6 again (both USB and HDD) and post the output of the following command?
#free
It would be interesting to compare the figures returned from both USB boot and HDD boot.
My gut feeling is that possibly the HDD boot consumes too much of your available RAM - which is very limited anyway. The damaged desktop icons suggests that some important code is either not getting into RAM or is being overwritten.
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greengeek

Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Posts: 5624 Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
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Posted: Thu 04 Jan 2018, 14:09 Post subject:
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Gordie wrote: | EDIT again - Finally, on the first page. Looked like a sig to me so I missed it. "I have a JVC Mobile Mini Note PC, Pentium 3, 384 MB RAM"
This is an old, old computer. | I am wondering if it is Pentium3 or Pentium M? Either way - 384MB is a real challenge.
Also - I am tending to think that the mouse going AWOL is probably an issue with Slacko not handling usb devices properly during HDD boot (possible timing issue).
Pup431 and Lupu showed consistent mouse behaviour between usb and HDD boots (despite the other problems).
How do we find a modern, small footprint pup that is not a Slacko?
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bigpup

Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 12969 Location: S.C. USA
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Posted: Thu 04 Jan 2018, 16:55 Post subject:
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About the hard drive problems.
Do a check on the hard drive file system.
If this is formatted fat32 or ntfs.
Windows is the only operating system that has the best programs to check it. Windows chkdsk and defrag programs.
Gparted program in Puppy can do limited checks on these file systems.
If formatted Linux ext formats it can do very good checks and error correction.
Boot a Puppy form the USB.
DO NOT HAVE THE HARD DRIVE MOUNTED.
Run Gparted and choose the hard drive as the device to access.
Right click on a partition.
Select check.
Select apply.
If any errors are found, keep running the check until no errors.
You could just be dealing with an old hard drive that is going bad.
_________________ The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected
YaPI(any iso installer)
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bigpup

Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 12969 Location: S.C. USA
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Posted: Thu 04 Jan 2018, 17:07 Post subject:
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In the testing for wireless you say some Puppies find your wireless hardware, but do not find your wireless network.
On Laptops some have an off/on switch for wireless.
So make sure it is turned on. Puppy does not automatically do this.
Scanning and not finding a wireless network is usually about signal strength of the wireless signal.
Have the laptop in the same room as the wireless network transmitter to eliminate that possible problem.
Also the transmitter signal channel being used could be a problem of signal interference.
I had to change my transmitted signal channel for just such a problem. Other things in the area interfered with that channel.
Use the network Wizard to do the wireless network connections.
menu->Setup->Internet Connection Wizard->Wired or wireless LAN->Network Wizard
Network Wizard wireless connection steps.
1. Select Network Wizard
2. Select wlan0 (your network card may have a different description)
3. Select Wireless in the Configure wireless network box.
4. Select Scan and your ESSID should come up.
5. Select your ESSID and OK
6. Give a name to your profile. It should already be what you selected in step 5.
7. Most people use WPA/TKIP - select it or WPA2.
8. A box will open for you to write the WPA password. It is called a Shared Key. Enter the password.
9. Leave the other boxes as they are. Rarely do these need adjustment.
9. Select Save
10. Select Use This Profile
11. A box will appear showing Puppy trying to connect
12. A box will come up “REPORT ON TEST 0f wlan0CONNECTION”
13. Select Auto DHCP in the Configure interface box and it will go through a handshake routine. and declare itself successful
14. Select done
If something does not work.
What step?
You do what?
You see what?
Also make sure your system's time zone setting is correct - if not, many website's certificates then act as if they are expired, and the webpage won't display.
_________________ The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected
YaPI(any iso installer)
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Sat 06 Jan 2018, 09:08 Post subject:
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Slacko 5.6
free booted from usb
Code: |
# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 367428 282428 85000 0 40004
-/+ buffers: 242424 125004
Swap: 592892 0 592892
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free booted from hd
Code: |
# free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 367428 279696 87732 0 40036
-/+ buffers: 239660 127768
Swap: 592892 0 592892
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greengeek

Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Posts: 5624 Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 04:24 Post subject:
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Thanks Rimatheou - that confirms that the missing mouse is not caused by overflowing the RAM - the HDD boot uses less RAM than the USB boot (not what I expected...).
I reckon Slacko would have been a good puppy to use on that laptop - but if you need to boot from HDD then I think you will have to move away from Slacko as I think Slackos have some sort of hardware timing issue when trying to detect usb mice during boot (something I have experienced intermittently on my Slacko installs).
Now that you have got usb multi-boot sorted I think you may have to be adventurous and try a whole bunch of different puppies - look for a puppy modern enough to have a kernel that supports your hardware (trial and error) but old enough to be small and easy on RAM.
There is one other thing that is critical in order to make the most of your tiny RAM - you should set up a swap partition of approx 2GB if possible. Make this partition on HDD if possible - but if you are unable to use HDD for swap then make a fast usb stick with one big swap partition and plug it in as soon as the bootloader starts loading puppy.
There are lots of possible puppies that might be ok for your machine but here are a few options to try:
(set up the swap partition first...)
Saluki NOP
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=658402&sid=50f8b362a0bd1f9e80fa084628b33b55
download:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/nop/
Quirky/Racy 5.5
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=689113#689113
Download:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/racy-5.5/
Wary mediaplayer edition
http://45.33.15.200/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67137&sid=3d007421b936ff288bacc5317783ce10
Download:
http://www.smokey01.com/ttuuxxx/Wary/Custom/wary-511-k2.6.32.28_MediaPlayers.iso
Unicornpup
http://45.33.15.200/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=96973&sid=3d007421b936ff288bacc5317783ce10
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2071hgqycf1o35a/AAAGZwwHt91QDlay7nRpiZxHa?dl=0
(Marv said "In summary, it's just as at home on a thoroughly modern Intel based motherboard as it is on the 2004 era Pentium M laptop"
http://45.33.15.200/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=817096&sid=3d007421b936ff288bacc5317783ce10#817096
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 08:18 Post subject:
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@ bigpup
Before I installed Puppy to HD, I made the HD completely new: I made two primary partitions (os1 and os2), one extended with one logical (data) and a swap partition (512MB). The first primary partition (sda1) was newly formatted in ext3. This is where Puppy is installed to. I now made a file system check with gparted, but no errors were found.
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 10:25 Post subject:
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@greengeek
Swap Partition is now 2,5GB.
Racy Puppy HD install: mouse is not working, but it is working booting from USB. No wlan interface detected, but booting from USB two wireless networks were found.
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 10:52 Post subject:
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@ bigpup
There is no on/off switch for wireless. I have Fn+F9 for switching on/off, but this is a windows command. The jvc laptop is in the same room as the router. There is a Xubuntu Laptop besides the jvc, that is connected via wlan.
Quote: |
Step 4: Select Scan and your ESSID should come up. |
My ESSID didn't come up. I see two wireless networks, but not mine. => Booted from usb Slacko5.6. The wlan led is not lightening.
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ally

Joined: 19 May 2012 Posts: 1931 Location: lincoln, uk
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 11:27 Post subject:
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is the router wpa2
had a similar trouble on an older machine that could only see wep
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mikeslr

Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 3541 Location: 500 seconds from Sol
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 11:43 Post subject:
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You might want to try Carolina 1.2, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=656241#656241 a continuation of Saluki after jemimah, its dev, left. I'm not sure your computer would be able to manage the newer glibcs of 1.3. Something to try later. These OSes are forks of Racy.
Although the ISOs of Saluki and Carolina are large, these are very modular OSes. The ISO contain an adrv_sfs which contain all 'user' applications, except for geany and another small application. If you move the adrv_sfs into a folder where it won't be found on bootup --or even delete it-- they will still boot to desktop using little RAM, and having builtin applications to access their Repos so that you can install pets, create SFSes and built your own custom adrv.
You might also want to try frisbee as wifi manager. I've found that on some puppy-hardware-combinations frisbee will find networks when SNS can't, and vice-versa. Others have also had similar experiences. It's one of the reasons both are included.
mikesLr
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 11:45 Post subject:
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ally wrote: | is the router wpa2
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yes, it is.
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greengeek

Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Posts: 5624 Location: Republic of Novo Zelande
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 14:25 Post subject:
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rimatheou wrote: | The jvc laptop is in the same room as the router. There is a Xubuntu Laptop besides the jvc, that is connected via wlan.
My ESSID didn't come up. I see two wireless networks, but not mine. | With regard to the laptop not seeing your wlan I would suggest the following options:
- Try turning off the xubuntu laptop while you boot the JVC in case there is some interference.
- Try temporarily changing the security setting in your router. Most routers will let you select open, WEP or possibly also old style WPA.
- Are you able to borrow a USB type wifi adapter to plug in to the JVC? Or maybe a pcmcia cardbus style wifi adapter? (as far as I can tell your JVC does have a cardbus slot). It would be interesting to know if a different wifi interface had the same issue with not seeing your network.
Is there anything unusual about your router settings? eg set for hidden ESSID or something like that?
Do these links match your JVC specs?
http://www.small-laptops.com/jvc-mp-xv841us-mobile-mini-note/
http://salestores.com/jvcmpxv8.html
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bigpup

Joined: 11 Oct 2009 Posts: 12969 Location: S.C. USA
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Posted: Sun 07 Jan 2018, 17:53 Post subject:
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Quote: | There is no on/off switch for wireless. I have Fn+F9 for switching on/off, |
Have you tried them anyway?
_________________ The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected
YaPI(any iso installer)
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rimatheou
Joined: 09 Dec 2017 Posts: 71 Location: Germany
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Posted: Mon 08 Jan 2018, 10:11 Post subject:
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bigpup wrote: | Quote: | There is no on/off switch for wireless. I have Fn+F9 for switching on/off, |
Have you tried them anyway? |
Of course, I did.
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