Cheap machines ideal for Puppy

[Aitch]

The 'murrican dollar ain't what it used to be...

I ain't xaccly surprized!!

look what the burning bush is up to FGS!

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=28985

bl**dy surprised you still got currency, to be honest!!

nothing much current about it; what's the national debt $6.5trillion or thereabouts?

Impeach him or use the second amendment for it's intended purpose,
- you know, a la kennedy?

oh no, I 'm not supposed to say that am I

sue me!

Aitch

[mechmike]

Edit 02/2014 - the link originally posted no longer exists...

$25 USD Shipped in the US...

NO CD-ROM INSTALLED (SLOT IS OPEN FOR LAPTOP TYPE CD ROM)

Here's a couple of notebook CD-ROM drives without bezels for $4.50 (+shipping) each:

Edit 02/2014 - the link originally posted no longer exists...

Edit 02/2014 - the link originally posted no longer exists...

[prehistoric]

@mechmike,

My reading of this is that you still need an important piece of hardware to connect the drive. The Compaq "Multibay" drives can be swapped out in seconds, so can my Dell DVD. They do not have compatible connectors.

The ribbon cable on the other side has a common laptop IDE connector, (with Compaq's usual cable select arrangement.) You could permanently mount the drive, connecting the cable by hand, with some hokey mounting. A better solution would be to get the Multibay bracket from a defunct Compaq laptop. Does anyone have a source for these? I've seen hard drive brackets for reasonable prices, but CD brackets disappear quickly.

Anyone with experience on this should post to this thread.

For my purposes, the CD is not important. Swapping the hard drive and installing on another machine was easy and gave me my first bootable system. After that I was able to install other systems by copying from USB drives or across the network. Most of the time I use this as a machine where I can simply push the button and go on-line in a few seconds, and leave running for long downloads or seeding torrents. The primary reason I would want a CD rom or DVD would be for testing new releases.

[puppyfan12]

If only puppy would be ported to the ARM cpu, this would be an ideal device..

Handheld puppy...with adequate internal flash + ram + addon memory cards.

[FrankA]

http://a110wiki.de

it is a €200 machine with 1 GHz and VIA padlock security

[prehistoric]

Here's a machine you might want as spare laptop. Compaq Armada I already have a Dell D600 with a defunct hard drive. This is basically a disposable machine I can take on trips. I boot off a flash drive I carry on my person and leave no data at all on the machine.

The machine above is only one of many offered for sale this weekend which should have no problem as a Puppy machine. Before you spend a lot on a new laptop, checkout some alternatives.

[Aitch]

http://www.picopc.co.uk/?page=products

add about £20 for tax for the cheapies

Aitch

[prehistoric]

@Aitch,

You're cheating by comparing pounds to dollars one-to-one.

On your suggestion above, do you want Cheney in charge?

Bumper Sticker: When your bombs are smarter than your president, you're in trouble.

[alienjeff]

I know that many of you believe that every single one of the world's problems is the fault of the Bush administration, the United States of American, and capitalism. But if you were to take a break from finger pointing towards the North American continent and do an about face, you'd realize two things rather quickly.

1) your own country's leader(s), type of government, and societal form have plenty of faults to piss and moan about, and

2) you're standing knee deep in your own shit.

Clean your own house before criticizing others.

Can we get back on topic, please?

[Aitch]

Hey AJ

It was only in response to MechMike's original & I have got my rant running elsewhere, for those interested in world affairs & whether we should sit idly by......

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1&start=15

[unless of course you're content with him, AJ et al?]

continue in that thread, please, my posts are mainly on topic

but I will just say this - UK plc isn't threatening to declare US citizens terrorists & jail them without trial, whether we are up to our knees or not, and I do my bit of bashing as much as possible, here there & everywhere!
Some of you may have noticed?

Aitch

[Aitch]

@prehistoric

no dollar comparison here [unless this counts ]

£19 +£19 post UK [about $75 inclusive]

Compaq iPaq 800mhz celeron

Aitch

[prehistoric]

@Aitch,

When you make a link to an item on eBay it is certain to expire quickly. I didn't even get a look at this one.

On another subject in this thread: no matter how bad any American President may be (or may not be, AJ,) we are confident he will leave office in a matter of months without staging a coup. I've been on the spot in a place where things are done differently. The process is more important than any individual.

Didn't realize you were a Cromwell enthusiast.

[Aitch]

this is a bit aside, however

Didn't realize you were a Cromwell enthusiast.

Have you seen that film; 'To kill a King? maybe

or are you mistaking me for someone else?

Did you know that Cromwell and his ilk are the reason we have 'Licensing laws', in England?

Still misunderstood, even today!!

Prude Rule - Pah!!

but dictatorship, no thanks

or;

Did Cromwell have a suggestion for a cheap machine I missed?

Aitch

[prehistoric]

@Aitch,

First, a link to make this relevant to Puppy. Second, evidence which may cause a radical reassessment of Cromwell. Believe you may hold same responsible for Bradshaw's misdeeds. Finally, a contribution which even AJ should consider on topic.

See how it all fits together?

[Aitch]

@prehistoric

this still seems like a steal;

1.

'baby sports designer wear during the 2008 Roswell UFO Festival'

2. dating agency link, purporting to be relevant to radical re-assessment of Cromwell
3. link to 'Cromwell licensing laws' - pointing to diurnalism , caxton and freedom of the press

OK

I'll forgive you the 2nd bad link, it may not matter....

Cromwell may well have been in your class, but I think he was a couple above me, maybe?
[begin rant]

What I glean from this is that both our cultures owe a great deal to our common forebears, from the Norman Conquest/1066/1086 Domesday book, and those who crafted the great charters of 1215/1225, upon which our Bill of Rights was based in 1689, after our Civil War, and which incorporated Edward Coke's adoption of the supremacy of the common law over the King in perpetuity, and the inherent freedom of the individual, and this was adapted, but retained to this day in English common law & the American Declaration of Independence & Constitution as the 5th & 6th amendments, giving rise to 'due process & fair trial by peers'......
all very important stuff in terms of our current 'freedom of speech' - governed in part by a copyright act, also Cromwellian

However, I was referring to our 'Drink Licensing Laws', also going back to the puritans who sought control over the populace, but for darker reasons
Drinking was rife among the commoners and they were 'full of bawdyness and licentiousness, lacking in morals and killing each other in drunken fights'
and they were needed as deck hands and sailors [navvies/navigators] for the warships for the 'commonweal' i.e. the British Plunderers
So drink licensing was as much about keeping the men alive to send them to sea, as raising duty on an otherwise 'unlicensed trade of ginning' - making illicit spiritous drink - and it was enforced by the local magistrate, derived from the court of common pleas
A licensee was a person responsible for running a 'licensed public house', or inn, since the tradition dated back to monasteries, providing shelter, which was incorporated into the license, and the most famous, known as the Gin Act 1751 remained the basis of law until only just recently, when reform threw everything into turmoil, as sweeping new powers were 'conferred on local government', taking the law away from magistrates justices, into the hands of government - a government behaving as if 'Crown Power of God' had never been repealed by revolution!!
Now not only are the premises and the keeper licensed, now the punters are too, and on camera! - pay up, drink up, shut up!

So the way I see things both the American President and the British government are relying on the passage of time and the torturing of history by 'educators' - they are doing a steal......

Repeat after me;
We are all numbnuts, we will not object
We do not offer resistance to the removal of our hard fought for common rights
We succumb to the Almighty dollar tomfoolery & British skullduggery
Thank you & Goodnight!!
Amen

See how it all fits together?

NO - puppies at a roswell convention/dating/caxton/yellow pages cromwell , connecticut, address

let evil rule, if you like, I'm tired
[/end rant ]

Aitch
PS anyone know how to get back on track here?

[prehistoric]

@Aitch,

Alright Aitch, I guess you can't lighten up, even for a moment.

So, here's the explanation, the licensing started years before Cromwell became Lord Protector in 1653. Calling Cromwell a dictator sounds pretty grim, calling him a monarch puts him on a par with other rulers of England. Check on how many of those either dissolved parliament, usurped parliamentary powers, or never bothered to call it into session, before you object that there's a fundamental difference. Considered as a monarch, Cromwell didn't do all that badly, compared to near contemporaries. (Consider the earlier effects of Henry VIII or Mary Tudor on people with differing religious opinions. Consider the situation in France or Spain.)
Added: Check this Wikipedia article for more particulars. For a semi-popular book about him, I recommend Antonia Fraser's biography, which follows a revisionist view of his character that started a few decades ago.

His excesses, and those of the restoration, led in a direct path to constitutional monarchy. When James II attempted to draw Britain back into the Catholic sphere of influence, William and Mary were offered a throne with strings attached, and accepted the conditions, setting an important precedent. A limited form of religious toleration was a necessary part of their rule. My ancestors could be recognized as non-conformists without losing important parts of anatomy. The reference I found about licensing presses was part of a process which provoked Milton's Areopagitica, and propelled the idea of freedom of the press into public consciousness. Cromwell's attempts at blue laws ended up producing a city with his name and, apparently, considerable looseness.

In my lifetime we have repeatedly had one group in power making fools of themselves, while the opposition plotted to regain power by offering alternatives. Over a period of time some changes become irreversible. There is no longer a question about having a person described as "black" in a cabinet position, on the Supreme Court, or as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Maybe it didn't all happen the way you would like, but it did happen. I don't think there is a question about the top spot any longer. There have been other changes I have approved, and many I have not, but we have been adapting, slowly, imperfectly, it is true.

This is all pluralism in action. There have been many other episodes in history which produced a great deal of bloodshed, a change in government, and not much else, certainly nothing of lasting value. If I can't bring my government into conformity with your opinions momentarily, are you seriously calling for a descent into an abyss which has been repeatedly explored? Do you really believe in democracy, even if people are sometimes wrong? Do you really believe in legal protection for those who disagree with you?

The term "politically correct" raises my hackles. So does the idea of "right-thinking people" all agreeing. The idea of tearing up a constitution, even if flawed, brings back unpleasant memories. Unless you've actually seen what happens when secret police are given free rein, with your own precious butt in the balance, you simply don't have a basis for comparison. And, if you are one of those who proclaim "all who are not with us are against us" I suppose I'm in the opposition.

I prefer to believe you misspoke without thinking through consequences of a suggestion.

If administrators want to move these posts to a separate thread, I will be glad to return to topic.

[markofkane]

I am against "political correctness" because it infringes on Free Speech.

I believe in saying what I mean without "softening it up so I cannot offend anyone"

Political Correctness here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_DGoEWjT28Y

It has more than one part.

[Aitch]

If administrators want to move these posts to a separate thread, I will be glad to return to topic.

Suggestion:
yes, agreed - mods, please snip all relevant parts from this thread & move to :-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 100#213100

@prehistoric, you can suggest amendments to the heading if you like

I'll come back at this, once moved to save this thread

Aitch

Edit: have pm'd Flash

[prehistoric]

My latest acquisition, a used Compaq Armada M700, arrived today and was running Puppy 4.00 within minutes. I am not posting from that, however, because I wanted to test another possibility.

This time, I'm posting from the $25 Compaq iPaq desktop (not handheld) mentioned earlier in this thread. The difference is that this time I slipped the CD drive out of the Armada, slipped it in the multidrive bay of the iPaq and booted from a CD. This confirms that multibay devices do work in these iPaqs. This offers a simple way to install Puppy on these machines, for people who don't like swapping hard drives.

Next, I'll be trying various wireless connections on the laptop. So far, everything looks good.

[prehistoric]

This may help someone else trying to put Puppy on an old laptop.

I had no trouble getting Puppy 4.00 to boot from CD and run on the M700 mentioned above. Something I've never seen before happened when I tried to install to the internal ATA hard drive, gparted started "scanning all devices" and never finished. I thought there might be an OS problem with a chipset this old (Intel 440 bx/zx etc.), so I went back to Puppy 2.17.1 without changing the outcome. At that point, I switched to SystemRescueDisk 1.0.2 and got the same behavior.

I could have use fdisk or cfdisk to delete the sole partition and create a new one, but there are a couple catches: Compaq often puts a hidden diagnostic partition at the front of a hard drive which holds code the BIOS may use; for a suspend to disk there is typically a file inside the Windows partition (FAT32 for this machine) which holds the contents of RAM plus some information or code the BIOS can use to restore things. It is easier to deal with this later if you don't wipe all evidence of how it was working when you got the machine.

The solution was to call gparted from the console with the name of the device as an argument.

Code: Select all

# gparted /dev/hda

The name the OS uses for the device can be found in the output of dmesg, if you are not sure what it is called. Once gparted was pointed at the right device, I could resize the Windows partition to open up space without destroying the contents and create a linux swap partition plus an ext2 partion to hold my Puppy files.

For people new to Puppy this kind of solution is often totally mysterious voodoo. The problems aren't created by Puppy, they were put there by the manufacturer and only revealed when we tried to run anything but Windows. If you put Puppy on a Compaq machine, I strongly recommend you do not wipe the disk and start from scratch. A small partition with whatever secrets Windows holds is all you need.

For those who have wiped the disk, it is possible to get Compaq set up software and restore what you need on a new disk before you do anything with Puppy. Just don't expect the manufacturer (or MicroSoft) to make it easy. They prefer to sell replacement hard disks for premium prices, until they get old enough to be an inventory problem.

If you have wiped the disk and experienced no problems, please don't argue with me about it, just consider yourself lucky. There can be more things in hidden code than you have dreamed in nightmares - unless you write microcode for Intel.