(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I selected the wrong keyboard layout on my first CD boot and now I get to the puppy desktop and can't do a thing with the mouse or keyboard. How do I clear the files or settings so I can start over. All else seems to be working ok. Which keyboard do I select for the standard US one. Thanks a bunch, I appreciate the help!!

If you hit Ctrl+Alt+the backspace key this will take you to a console where you can remove the file containing the settings and reset the mouse options, typing xwin will restart the GUI desktop.

Read the instructions when you are in the console and if you have any more querys just ask in this post and we will help in any way we can.

Ctrl-alt-backspace will shut down the window manager and take you to a command prompt. Don't panic, just type xwin to restart the window manager. (Assuming the keyboard you chose has those keys.)

G2 recommends startx instead of xwin (which I have only ever seen in Puppy Linux)

the startx is the xwin equivalent

startx fvwm95
is one I use quite a lot (for eg. when I recently got stuck in a weird JWM anomaly)



PS.
G2 = GuestToo

Thanks, Lobster. I didn't know that. It might come in handy, if I can remember it next time I find myself looking at a command prompt.

Thanks for the input everyone. I fixed the keyboard mouse problem but the system locks up once the desktop loads. It might be a memory problem. I'm trying to get Puppy to run on a Pentium 90 with only 32 MBs of ram. It looks like the minimum is 64 MBs. Any ideas of what to try? Or am I out of luck? Thanks!!

Use a bare bones Puppy
add more ram (
see if you can get more ram in there)
set up a HD swap file (Puppy I believe does this automatically if short of Ram)

disable any on board ram being used for graphics and use a graphics card

try using a low resource Linux - you might get better results - DSL should work on your system (it will be slow)

If anyone has any insights or suggestions place them here
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/LowRam

Thanks Lobster, I'll see what I can do. Funny, I had just downloaded the DSL iso before I read your post. I'm going to open the beast up and check the ram situation. It's just a extra old system I have. I'm always fighting to get on our main system with the wife and kid so I thought I would try to get this dinosaur up and running. Thanks again!!!

if it was his first boot, then there is nothing important in pup001... why not just delete it and start the process over again? (access it via a live cd or whatever)

or am i missing something?

Norm678 wrote:I selected the wrong keyboard layout on my first CD boot and now I get to the puppy desktop and can't do a thing with the mouse or keyboard. How do I clear the files or settings so I can start over. All else seems to be working ok. Which keyboard do I select for the standard US one. Thanks a bunch, I appreciate the help!!

Just restet the option.

Start>Setup (near the top of the menu)>Mouse Keyboard Wizard.

Once there you should be able to change the Keyboard to what you need and Puppy should remember the change on the next boot.

Had to use this option to change the mouse setting from ps/2 (my booboo on set up) to USB. Puppy rememberd the change on the next boot. No problems

I got it straightened out. I used the Menu 3 HD option at boot and created a new pupxxx file. I then selected the correct keyboard and chose the ps/2 mouse option that looked like this, [ps/2]. After that it went right to the Puppy desktop and the mouse and keyboard worked fine. So Puppy is up and running on a Pentium 90 with only 32MBs of ram. Needless to say it's slow but working.

Glad you got your system running.

You might find useful, using dillo or even elinks (which I think is a pupget - see start menu). You might also consider turning off images in other browsers. Try using sylpheed for email - woosh.

Which do you prefer running with on your system? Puppy or DSL? I am really keen to see Puppy on an ISA, PCI or AGP plug in board.

What a fun project.

Who is up for it?