New Wary/Racy website

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nic007 · #41 Post by **nic007** » Tue 19 Nov 2019, 03:28

Racy does have one major obstacle running on my machine. Playing video uses at least 50% more processing power than any newer puppy does on my laptop and therefor the machine also runs much hotter (when running video). This happens with different players as well. I can't get newer audio/video codecs to work with this distribution either. Still a fun distro to work with but as base for old machines Precise with the Tahr kernel is a better option. Also, I'm confident that if your machine can run Racy it should be able to run Precise. I have Precise 5.7.1 running with Tahr kernel and it rocks. There is also a Precise Retro version with older kernel. I think the latter deserves some thorough testing which is what I'm going to do. It may just be the perfect puppy for old machines.

scsijon · #42 Post by **scsijon** » Wed 20 Nov 2019, 03:13

belham2 wrote:Hi Tuxtoo and Mike!

I just wanted to say I had some time today, took a freshly dd'ed usb stick and downloaded Racy 5.5 & nearly everything else from the first page of racypup.netlify.com. Frugal-installed Racy, and soon had a great smile across my face. So, overall, great website guys, the layout/explanations are great!

I just have, for the moment, three questions and/or comments:

1) I didn't install the glibc-2.20-upgrade, though, as Watchdog's latest Palemoon installs great and doesn't seem to need it. But I will need the glibc-2.20 (right, Mike?) if I want to watch Netflix using a Chromey browser??

2) The "sfs2pet," after I installed it, would not convert a sfs to a pet. It only created a tar.gz file, was it supposed to create a pet? What did I screw up, haha??

3) My biggest problem is this: is there a problem with "pmount" in Racy-5.5 (I cant recall)?? Reason I ask is that (after Racy has completely booted) any plugged in USB, well, the icon for it pops up on the desktop, but when I go to click it pmount will not mount it. I get a red box pop-up saying:

"Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter: Error: unable to mount sdb1" (sda1 is the Racy USB)"

(btw, it did this for 6 different USB sticks, all EXT4 formatted, and I know all sticks are good as I use them in other pups---also, I can't mount the USBs from Rox-filer either, just get blank, empty USB directory saying it si there but showing nothing inside the folder. Lastly, Gparted sees the drive, the exact storage it has, and shows no Flags and/or anything that something is amiss)

I then pop open a terminal and try pmount from there, typing in to the terminal:

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1"

and an error message keeps coming saying:

"mount-FULL: /lib/libblkid.so.1: version 'BLKID_2.20' not found (required by mount-FULL)

....uhhmmmmm, huh?

belham, try it on a ext2 formatted partition, it should work, i've had the problem with other puppies, and for the last problem it looks like your package is an earlier version which doesn't have that setting built in.

regards

nic007 · #43 Post by **nic007** » Fri 22 Nov 2019, 02:37

Hi, tuxtoo
You may want to add Opera Mini to the Racy website. See here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 10#1042410

tuxtoo · #44 Post by **tuxtoo** » Sat 23 Nov 2019, 20:44

nic007 wrote:Hi, tuxtoo
You may want to add Opera Mini to the Racy website. See here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 10#1042410

I am happy to add Opera mini to the website, but the link you gave above goes to a page that gives a link to the racy-6.0.5.iso. I confused, which is easily done.

tuxtoo · #45 Post by **tuxtoo** » Sat 23 Nov 2019, 20:48

Don't know if this is the right place but I'm going to make a few points with regards to running Racy. This is specifically aimed at those users who need to run an older Puppy like Racy because of hardware constraints and not those who run it as some novelty or some old time fun project:
1. Racy is one distribution where upgrading the kernel does make a lot of sense and a huge difference. I highly recommend using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel instead. This will implement adrv and ydrv functionality and of course update the driver base, etc. The beauty of this, is that it fits like a hand in a glove without making a huge difference in size, neither does it bog down the system in any way (or make it harder for already constraint hardware). The original Racy kernel, re-packed as a zdrv, is about 18MB in size (packed at max XZ compression) whereas the Tahr kernel iics 23MB.
2. I do not recommend the massive glibc upgrade to accomodate newer software as this will inevitably put a heavier load on already constraint hardware. For the general Puppy user, this is unnecessary. But of course you will want to use a new internet browser and thankfully watchdog has done marvelous work to make new browsers work with Racy by way of including only the necessary upgrades to make it work.
3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

In conclusion, this is how I run my Racy 5.5: The original base sfs stripped of its kernel and old browser, repacked with max xz compression = 65MB. Using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel packed as zdrv = 23 MB. And then I use a new browser like Palemoon as sfs-addon and a few other sfs-addons like VLC, etc. Perfect little system for me.

@nic007

I have just got around to having a play with your Racy-6.0.5.iso and I wanted to do a full HDD install. All seems to go okay with the installation until I reboot and I get the following -

Code: Select all

Puppy Linux
Linux 2.4.22 [i486 arch]
(none) login: root (automatic login)
login[1799]: root login on 'UNKNOWN'
touch: cannot touch '/tmp/bootcnt.txt': Read-only file system
-sh: /tmp/bootkernal.log: Read-only file system
/usr/bin/xwin: line 60: /etc/DISTRO_SPECS: No such file or directory
#

The boot sequence hangs at this point with a prompt. Sorry, but I haven't a clue what the above output means. Any ideas on a fix?

nic007 · #46 Post by **nic007** » Sat 23 Nov 2019, 21:03

tuxtoo wrote:
nic007 wrote:Hi, tuxtoo
You may want to add Opera Mini to the Racy website. See here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 10#1042410
I am happy to add Opera mini to the website, but the link you gave above goes to a page that gives a link to the racy-6.0.5.iso. I confused, which is easily done.

The google drive link

nic007 · #47 Post by **nic007** » Sat 23 Nov 2019, 21:05

tuxtoo wrote:
Don't know if this is the right place but I'm going to make a few points with regards to running Racy. This is specifically aimed at those users who need to run an older Puppy like Racy because of hardware constraints and not those who run it as some novelty or some old time fun project:
1. Racy is one distribution where upgrading the kernel does make a lot of sense and a huge difference. I highly recommend using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel instead. This will implement adrv and ydrv functionality and of course update the driver base, etc. The beauty of this, is that it fits like a hand in a glove without making a huge difference in size, neither does it bog down the system in any way (or make it harder for already constraint hardware). The original Racy kernel, re-packed as a zdrv, is about 18MB in size (packed at max XZ compression) whereas the Tahr kernel iics 23MB.
2. I do not recommend the massive glibc upgrade to accomodate newer software as this will inevitably put a heavier load on already constraint hardware. For the general Puppy user, this is unnecessary. But of course you will want to use a new internet browser and thankfully watchdog has done marvelous work to make new browsers work with Racy by way of including only the necessary upgrades to make it work.
3. You can also make some other improvements without re-inventing the wheel. For instance replacing the old libavcodec library (the library which hosts your audio and video codecs for multimedia) with a new set. Just give your new library the same name as the old one.

In conclusion, this is how I run my Racy 5.5: The original base sfs stripped of its kernel and old browser, repacked with max xz compression = 65MB. Using the Tahr 6.0.5 kernel packed as zdrv = 23 MB. And then I use a new browser like Palemoon as sfs-addon and a few other sfs-addons like VLC, etc. Perfect little system for me.
@nic007

I have just got around to having a play with your Racy-6.0.5.iso and I wanted to do a full HDD install. All seems to go okay with the installation until I reboot and I get the following -
Code: Select all
Puppy Linux
Linux 2.4.22 [i486 arch]
(none) login: root (automatic login)
login[1799]: root login on 'UNKNOWN'
touch: cannot touch '/tmp/bootcnt.txt': Read-only file system
-sh: /tmp/bootkernal.log: Read-only file system
/usr/bin/xwin: line 60: /etc/DISTRO_SPECS: No such file or directory
#
The boot sequence hangs at this point with a prompt. Sorry, but I haven't a clue what the above output means. Any ideas on a fix?

Do a frugal install, can't help you with a full install, never done it.

Edit: Okay, I think I have isolated the problem. I've probably deleted DISTRO_SPECS from /etc when I did the kernel swop. /usr/bin/xwin looks for it at bootup. Attached the necessary file. Delete the file extension (.gz) and place it in /etc of the base sfs (you need to edit and repack the sfs file).

If you do a frugal install, it will not be necessary to edit and repack the base sfs as mentioned above. The attached adrv_racy_6.0.5.sfs.zip contains DISTRO_SPECS. Just unzip and add the sfs to the folder with the other puppy files before booting. Once a savefile has been created, DISTRO_SPECS will probably be saved automatically so you can delete the adrv.

Colonel Panic · #48 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sun 24 Nov 2019, 10:51

Thanks for the this ISO (which I'm downloading now)! Bookmarking the new site too.

tallboy · #49 Post by **tallboy** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 23:36

nic007, in the quoted code there is a line reading:

-sh: /tmp/bootkernal.log: Read-only file system

I have never seen a kernal mentioned before, sounds funny...

nic007 · #50 Post by **nic007** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 08:54

tallboy wrote:nic007, in the quoted code there is a line reading:
-sh: /tmp/bootkernal.log: Read-only file system
I have never seen a kernal mentioned before, sounds funny...

See my edited post above.

tuxtoo · #51 Post by **tuxtoo** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 14:40

nic007 wrote:Edit: Okay, I think I have isolated the problem. I've probably deleted DISTRO_SPECS from /etc when I did the kernel swop. /usr/bin/xwin looks for it at bootup. Attached the necessary file. Delete the file extension (.gz) and place it in /etc of the base sfs (you need to edit and repack the sfs file).

Cheers nic007, I will have a go at it and report back.

tuxtoo · #52 Post by **tuxtoo** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 19:50

tuxtoo wrote:
nic007 wrote:Edit: Okay, I think I have isolated the problem. I've probably deleted DISTRO_SPECS from /etc when I did the kernel swop. /usr/bin/xwin looks for it at bootup. Attached the necessary file. Delete the file extension (.gz) and place it in /etc of the base sfs (you need to edit and repack the sfs file).
Cheers nic007, I will have a go at it and report back.

@nic007

Installed edit_sfs-2.1.pet, opened puppy_racy_6.0.5.sfs from the USB stick using edit_sfs. Downloaded DISTRO_SPECS.gz from your forum post, removed the .gz extension added the DISTRO_SPECS file to /etc. I then rebuilt the puppy_racy_6.0.5.sfs. However, the original puppy_racy_6.0.5.sfs is 72mb and the repackaged version comes in at 88mb. I did copy the repackaged puppy_racy_6.0.5.sfs (88mb) back to the USB stick and rebooted. On reboot all I get is 'GRUB ERROR' and nothing else.

I am obviously doing something wrong, although I am at a loss as to what it is. Any tips?

nic007 · #53 Post by **nic007** » Thu 28 Nov 2019, 01:45

Are you installing to HDD or pendrive now? Anyways - Check that size of your download is correct, iso = 92MB. Base sfs = 65MB. Size of your base sfs after editing can be different (different levels of compression). Looks like you are having a bootloader problem. Start from beginning, doing a manual frugal install as follows:
Format drive, create partition, set boot flag with gparted > Create your Puppy folder on the partition > Copy vmlinuz, initrd.gz, zdrv from iso and the newly edited base sfs to this Puppy folder > Run Grub4Dos bootloader config from menu to install Grub4Dos > Check that grub and menu.lst have been installed afterwards > Reboot from the media you installed grub to.

tuxtoo · #54 Post by **tuxtoo** » Thu 28 Nov 2019, 23:50

@nic007

I am intending to install to the HDD, just putting it on the pendrive first rather than a CD.

Like you said, I started from the beginning. Essentially, I rebuilt the sfs as instructed and success! I have installed as a frugal as well as a full and both work great. Although is comes in a a rather hefty 115mb, somewhat bigger than your version. Thanks for your patience with an amateur.

Having got racy-6.0.5 working thanks to nic007, I managed to rebuild the ISO using DevTools and racy-6.0.5-1.iso can be downloaded from here -

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=down ... _hS-TKloEl

EDIT: 13-Dec-19. I have repacked the SFS using max compresssion and the ISO is now 94mb. Download racy-6.0.5-2.iso from here - https://drive.google.com/uc?export=down ... pyTRMQb00V

Cheers nic007

nic007 · #55 Post by **nic007** » Fri 29 Nov 2019, 01:51

Great. The sfs files in my iso have been packaged at maximum (highest) xz compression, that's why it is smaller. You can use my application called nicOS-SFS-Editor to package sfs's with different compression methods and levels. It's available under Utilities in the Software section of this forum. You can also use ISOMaster in Puppy's menu to build/rebuild an ISO.

nic007 · #56 Post by **nic007** » Sun 01 Dec 2019, 02:54

See: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 48#1042548

nic007 · #57 Post by **nic007** » Mon 02 Dec 2019, 09:07

Just a mention that I got Bionic's kernel working with Racy. Running well, there does not seem to be any adverse effects.

tuxtoo · #58 Post by **tuxtoo** » Wed 04 Dec 2019, 09:10

nic007 wrote:Hi, tuxtoo
You may want to add Opera Mini to the Racy website. See here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 10#1042410

Done.

nic007 · #59 Post by **nic007** » Wed 04 Dec 2019, 11:51

tuxtoo wrote:
nic007 wrote:Hi, tuxtoo
You may want to add Opera Mini to the Racy website. See here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 10#1042410
Done.

Hi, tuxtoo - Use this download link for the Opera Mini sfs on your Racy website: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zrDXy ... DhUi3sphfl
This is a newly created sfs with Opera Mini already setup and probably also has a newer version of Opera Mini. The old thread on the forum is outdated, gives setup instructions and could confuse people.

keniv · #60 Post by **keniv** » Thu 05 Dec 2019, 13:57

Hi All,
This thread has inspired me to try Racy again. I tried the Racy605.1 iso but it did not seem to recognise my sound card and kept losing my wifi settings so I went back to Racy5.5. I have installed,
glibc-2.20
pwidgets-2.5.8-486
service_pack-5.5_to_5.5.1
sfs_load-2.4
libffi6-jessie
Also some other stuff I've used before. I cannot get palemoon 28xxx to work but I suspect this is because this is a PIII laptop. I am sure I had palemoon 27xxx working with Racy55 when I last used it but I cannot get it to download. I used palemoon_installer-0.2.3-lucid-20171024.pet, which I think is what I used before. This seems to work then reports it can't find the version it wants to download. Have looked on palemoon.org and there only seems to be one version of 27 available though I may not be looking in the correct place. Can anybody suggest a way of installing palemoon 27xxx? In have got opera mini working.

Regards,

Ken.

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