Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Introduction

Since my HowTo dCore-xenial has become a project in which I've now started to "Puppify" the distribution (tailoring it to be able to use selected Puppy/DebianDog utility apps), I'm here now creating a general discussion/planning/bug-fixing thread for it in line with other "Puppified" distributions.

Distribution name dCoreDog (current edition "dCoreDog-xenial").

(All credit and thanks particularly to the tinycore linux team and contributors at http://tinycorelinux.net but also to the Puppy/DebianDog systems and utilities/applications developers)

It's a "Dog" since it has access to full Ubuntu repositories (note well: NOT dpkg/apt-based), including dependency checking package management, but is also being Puppified in the sense of providing ability to use Puppy and DebianDog gtkdialog-bash utilities (starting with weX and weav).

Opening this actual Project thread allows me to more easily keep track of the HowTo developments by means of a menu of links I'll put here to different and new parts of the work: most of that now being "tidying up" and "Puppifying" issues.

I've been using tinycore in somewhat puppified fashion since my early Puppy days but only ever published scant info in "Other distributions" thread. However, there is now a well-established fashion for mongrel Dogs in the kennels... wanderer's yet to be released "corepup" being another but completely separate tinycore variant being worked upon:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=923231#923231

I don't plan to release any iso for dCoreDog since that would defeat the purpose of the building blocks approach IMO. The release will therefore continue to be provided as a HowTo series of steps (which, is how I remember wanderer first planned to detail corepup, but from what he writes he is now working on corepup privately with a planned polished package release).

Being built via a list of HowTo steps, dCoreDog can be easily modified/adapted by the system builder. In that form it should be somewhat future-proofed since easy to adapt to new/different tinycore development team dCore releases.

CONTENTS

1. Building the basic distribution; including webbrowser/wifi (STEPS 1 to 19):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946635#946635

2. Adding alsa/pulse-audio and audio/video player (STEP 20):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946636#946636

The above two items (steps 1 to 20), which take about ten minutes, are enough to get the system basically working with wifi connection, firefox browser, sound system, and mpv audio/video playing. The rest is just Puppifying, and polishing:

3. (Optional STEP). Adding simple C-programming capability with build-essentials (STEP 21):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946637#946637

4. Adding locales and additional non-official-Ubuntu repositories, with examples for cherrytree notetaker and minetest game (STEPS 22/23):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946638#946638

5. Puppifying the distribution. Starting with gtkdialog, bash, and DebianDog/Puppy gtkdialog-bash programs "weX" and "weav" (STEPS 24 to 31)

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946639#946639

6. Some tips and polish. Converting a tcz to an sce; installing flit, a small, ultra-efficient panel, with battery monitor, volume control, and clock/date (STEPS 32 to 35):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=949589#949589

7. Further polishing. Install ntfs-3g to allow dCore to write to ntfs partitions (or boot from ntfs if all files later copied over to ntfs filesystem) since can otherwise only read from them; associate applications with file types in fluff filemanager (STEPS 36 and 37):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=949590#949590

William

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Reserved for possible future additions

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Reserved for possible future additions

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Reserved for possible future additions

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Reserved for possible future additions

backi · Joined: 27 Feb 2011 Posts: 1029 Location: GERMANY

Hi !

Sounds quite exiting !

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

wanderer · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 500

hi mcewanw

yes very exciting

following your awesome project as best i can

i will continue with my humble attempt of course

but i really consider what you are doing to be the point of the spear

thanks for all your work

best regards

wanderer

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Thanks, wanderer.

I didn't actually intend developing this as much as I have done. But once it became the main distribution I found myself using (in parallel with XenialDog) it became important for me to start developing it further to allow me to enjoy using it comfortably.

Your corepup project, despite being based on tiny core, is very different in many respects anyway since, from aside from using CorePlus, from what I understand from what you have described, you are additionally modifying tc core scripts for added functionality. Corepup sounds like it will be a nice distribution to experiment with.

I'm not myself planning any changes to standard dCore scripts in dCoreDog (aside from the ones that have already officially occurred following my requests/declared-issues on the tinycore linux forum itself). Really dCoreDog is bog-standard tinycore dCore, albeit specially 'tailored' with gtkdialog-bash-Puppy-utils-capability. Particularly with dCore (since it uses official Debian/Ubuntu repositories) I think it is important not to change its underlying operation at all - so update command, for example, works as expected, and so on. So dCoreDog is pure dCore - the HowTo is just a description of how to build it and add stuff needed for Puppy utils, to make it more Puppy-like and familiar.

William

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

6. Some tips and polish. Converting a tcz to an sce; installing flit, a small, ultra-efficient panel, with battery monitor, volume control, and clock/date (STEPS 32 to 35):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=949589#949589

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Added today:

7. Further polishing. Install ntfs-3g to allow dCore to write to ntfs partitions since can otherwise only read from them; associate applications with file types in fluff filemanager (STEPS 36 and 37):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=949590#949590

William

westwest · Joined: 10 Apr 2015 Posts: 11

I would like to try out dCoreDog,
but my old Lenovo requires B43 drivers for wifi.
How can I make those available for install?

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

mcewanw · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 3130 Location: New Zealand

Modified some of the following because I had forgotten to detail some extra dependencies required for wexweavscrox (gettext and ffmpeg) and also needed to add /bin/bash as a valid login shell to /etc/shells:

5. Puppifying the distribution. Starting with gtkdialog, bash, and DebianDog/Puppy gtkdialog-bash programs "weX" and "weav" (STEPS 24 to 31)

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=946639#946639

westwest · Joined: 10 Apr 2015 Posts: 11

Thanks William,

lspci -vnn informs me that bcmr4312 is active in tahrpup.

Steps 1-6 and 7 followed to the letter without a hitch.
Step 8 returns: error=-11, firmware file b43/ucode15.fw request failed, etc.
Further, sudo wifi.sh returns no wireless present.

Normally when this happens in other linux distros,
i can add folder usr/lib/firmware/b43/(drivers from tahrpup or other),
reboot and voila. This time, no go.

I will try with wifi.tcz and wl-modules loaded, blacklisting b43,
and report back.