Puppy on the EEEPC?

[tempestuous]

Wait, don't install any extra drivers.
Barry mentioned the solution on the Developer Blog -
http://puppylinux.com/blog/?p=31#comment-126

I’ve got the standard Xvesa X server working at 800×480, that was easy — you need to go into /usr/X11R7/bin/xwin and bypass the ‘ddcprobe’ and just run the '915resolution 38 800 480' and set that as the only available resolution.

He was referring to the Intel Classmate, but the fix should be the same for the Eee.
And once the i810 Xorg driver has been "fooled" into accepting 800x480 as a valid bios setting, Xorg should work as well.

There is also a good Developer Blog post about "Working with a small screen"
http://puppylinux.com/blog/?p=56#comments

[JustGreg]

I have been using Puppy 2.14R on my ASUS Eee Pc. In some ways, Puppy works better (handling attached USB devices) than Xandros Linux that comes with the Eee PC. The sound work right out of the box. Tempestuous's network kernel modules for the network devices have solved the networking problem. I have been following the discussion on the video. Currently, Puppy only supports 640 by 480 resolution. I read the preceding two posts with interest.

I did an lsmod with Puppy 2.14r and Eee Pc and it reported i2c-i801 and i2c_core modules. Neither the i810 or i915 modules are listed.

Barry suggestion to force the 800 by 480 resolution seems to only apply to Puppy 3.00 and above. I had tried Puppy 3.01 with the Eee PC and ended up preferring Puppy 2.14R.

Any additional ideas will be looked and tried. If the video resolution issue can be fixed, then Puppy will be better for the user of Eee PC.

[tempestuous]

I did an lsmod with Puppy 2.14r and Eee Pc and it reported i2c-i801 and i2c_core modules. Neither the i810 or i915 modules are listed.

Don't worry about these modules ... yet. They are DRM modules for DRI (3D).

Barry suggestion to force the 800 by 480 resolution seems to only apply to Puppy 3.00 and above.

No, the fix should work with any version of Xorg.
First you should modify /usr/X11R7/bin/xwin to disable 'ddcprobe'. I see there are quite a few lines of code there, maybe Dougal could help with this.

Now it's necessary to run the correct 915resolution command, and I'm not sure that the exact command explained by Barry on the Developer Blog (and contained in xwin) is correct for the Eee. The setup of 915resolution is explained here -
http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/readme.html
You should end up running this command -

Code: Select all

915resolution <mymodenumber> 800 480

where <mymodenumber> is a valid mode number reported by "915resolution -l".
Make sure that this number is used in xwin (xwin currently uses "38").

[raffy]

Well, well, surprise. I was able to use an eee from this afternoon up to past midnight now, and here are my discoveries:

- inserted two lines in /usr/X11R7/bin/xwin

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if [ "$HAVEX" = "Xvesa" ];then #0.9.9
 #want to start 1st time with a safe video mode...
915resolution 43 800 480 16 # added by raffy, Dec 24, 2007

- videomode in /etc contains

Code: Select all

0x0114 800x480x16

Thank you very much, tempestuous, justgreg, barry and all, this is a reeely fun holiday!

ADD: All components working, but have not tested a microphone yet. The ethernet does not automatically load, but ath_pci makes ath0 immediately active. SafePup is based on Puppy 2.13 and pakt's barelypup.

EDIT: See my work posted as breeezy for the eee.

Added: See a discussion of the vbios trick here.

[dvw86]

Long time no see. I've been playing with Puppy on my eeepc since I got it on the 20th of December. I know I'm tardy on posting. Mostly I've been using Puppy 2.14R and I like it very much. There are a few things that I changed to make life a little better for the eepc though. Batmon the battery monitor is a must and works well. I moved it from it's default location though so that it is next to the freemem applet. It just looks better there. I changed the date and time display on the taskbar as well so that it just displays the time. This helps save space since the taskbar is pretty crowded on the small screen. It still has the full date and time when you hover over it though. Auto hiding the taskbar also helps with the small screen. xbindkeys can be used to make the function keys control the volume and print screen keys. You can use my setvolume script with xbindkeys to control the volume up, down, and mute functions. The F2, F3, and F4 already work. Thanks for all the hard work everyone. I look forward to using Dingo on the eeepc.



Link to xbindkeys and my setvolume script. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=6889

[raffy]

Yes, long time. Is your microphone working with 2.14R?

[Jactek]

Ive had Lighthouse pup on a 1gig SD card for a while but I couldnt get wireless to work til I downloaded the madwifi patch and now it works great. Sound worked at startup . I have had 3.01NOP working on a 1gig usb key with ndswrapper. I have installed DOFUS (thank you teenpup) on a USB key and it works but any print is small and hard to read.
Ive had some issues with the the default linux on the EEE it freezes up and ive had to reinstall about 4 times so ive been using puppy mostly.
My cd drive died on my desktop so Im using the EEE on my monitor and with a USB mouse and it works fine, but it isnt size correctly but it works.
I havent tryed mic or webcam

Jim

[dvw86]

My mic does not work in 2.14R or 3.01. What does work though is my home made USB CD writer. I used 3.01 to download, burn, and boot 2.14R. Very nice. Puppy is much nicer than the default OS, even when xandros is in advanced mode Puppy is better. I can see why Intel sent Barry two Classmates. Once all the drivers are working in Puppy, it will be the best OS for the eeepc hands down.

[dvw86]

I forgot to mention how xorg provides vertical and horizontal scrolling with the trackpad. NICE!

[iamonsite]

I've only scanned the forums for EEEPC subjects, and my time using puppy is short but I was wondering if anyone has bothered to make their puppy install to the SD card (leaving the Xandros install alone).
I've had my EEEPC for about a week, and haven't had much time to work with it as well but it got me wondering why it's not possible to merge part of what's already there, with what you need. Aren't the configurations for the screen, camera, sound, network already in configuration files (that could be translated into puppy compatible format)?
I'm not a programmer, but my understanding of Linux is that everything is a file.. why not copy what you can? Another issue I don't quite understand, is the hardware is pretty standard on the EEEPC, isn't there an area where someone could put ISO distributions without all the configuration issues?

Not a complaint, just a request.. I went looking for Puppy linux for my EEEPC and I'm lost trying to find a distribution that just works.. (without all the after install tweaks). I thought maybe someone would have a basic install where the hardware issues have resolved, and you just use dot pups to add what you want. (I guess that's wishful thinking if those packages are set for a different default screen resolution).

I'd like to put puppy on an SD card, with the latest version available (there's a benefit to that isn't there?) Leaving my Xandros install underneath untouched. Can anyone help me with that?
BTW - I did get the beta version of Skype working with video under my Xandros install - not sure why it can't be done with Puppy (I'm just a huge fan of a RAM based OS).

[raffy]

why not copy what you can? .. isn't there an area where someone could put ISO distributions without all the configuration issues?

Some programs can be copied as is, but most would assume the availability of certain library files. Skype is a good example. There is a complete build (that includes library files) and there is a smaller build without those files.

Also, new PCs may use new components, such as wifi for networking, so there will be new/updated drivers required for those devices.

Re: a distro without tweaks required: For now, you can play with breeezy for browsing - all device configurations should be completed this weekend.

[Dougal]

Some programs can be copied as is, but most would assume the availability of certain library files. Skype is a good example. There is a complete build (that includes library files) and there is a smaller build without those files.

There's a simpler way than copying: Barry's "underdog Linux" idea.
I don't remember the details, but you just need to create some "flag" file (underdog.lnx or something) on the partition where the other distro is installed and then that partition gets mounted as part of the union -- everything on it will appear in the Puppy filesystem.

[raffy]

"Copy" may actually be inappropriate, as Puppy can see and use the Xandros files. "Run" may be more like it. Just mount the Xandros partition, find the application of interest, then try to run it.

Thanks, Dougal, for the reminder about the concept of underdog. It's discussed here:
http://www.puppylinux.com/news-archive/news2006a.htm
where Barry also noted that "unionfs has bugs".

[BarryK]

Underdog Linux, yeah that has been mostly forgotten. Maybe need to revitalise it, maybe see if can put something to handle it into the Boot Manager.

Regarding 800x480 on the EeePC, Dingo alpha5 is supposed to automatically recognise the EeePC and setup correctly the 800x480, both for Xorg and Xvesa.

Note, I'll probably have a virtual 800x600 screen working sometime. An Intel engineer has promised a special Xorg driver to do this. It should work on both EeePC and Classmate.

[crb247]

Thanks for the in depth thread on the topic. I found out i might be getting an eeepc soon as a really early b-day present.
I'm looking at running puppy on it because it's now my favorite distro.

[rild]

I am trying to make webcam on eee pc to work. I am using pcPuppyOS which is based on 3.01. I've got the driver 10x to tempestuous - from here and the driver is loaded fine when I type in 'modprove uvcvideo' in terminal. There is nothing wrong in /var/log/messages file. However regarding Controling webcam guide there should be /proc/acpi/asus/camera . However the asus directory is missing. As far I understand the other module asus_acpi also should create /proc/asus/acpi but there is not present. Can someone help me is there is a way this two modules to make the /proc/acpi/asus directory. This probably will help for making webcam working.

[gary101]

How I got mine working. In a console enter the following:

modprobe v4l2-common
modprobe v4l1-compat
modprobe videodev
modprobe compat_ioctl32
modprobe uvcvideo

If you have skype 2 beta or another app that uses the webcam you should then be able to test if it is working.

If it is working you may wish to add the above to your /etc.rc.d/rc.local to load up the modules at boot.

Hope this helps

Gary

[rild]

still does not work for me - the modules are loaded fine, but skype can not the camera...
this is from /var/log/messages file

Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.debug kernel: unionfs: do delay copyup of "v4l2-common.ko"
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.debug kernel: unionfs: do delay copyup of "v4l1-compat.ko"
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.info kernel: Linux video capture interface: v2.00
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.debug kernel: unionfs: do delay copyup of "videodev.ko"
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.debug kernel: unionfs: do delay copyup of "compat_ioctl32.ko"
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.info kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.info kernel: USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)
Jan 17 00:41:14 (none) kern.debug kernel: unionfs: do delay copyup of "uvcvideo.ko"

[tempestuous]

I think that the V4L device nodes may be necessary.
Install the v4lctl.pet or xawtv-3.95.pet from here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 006#129006
then run the MAKEDEV-V4L.sh script which these dotpets provide.

[rild]

still doesn't work - tell me what output/log do you want...