(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Barry K.

I know the folks at OLPC gave you the cold shoulder regarding the use of PuppyOS on their laptop, but, assuming Puppy works with Open Firmware, do you plan to try and support the beast? BTW, I agree with you regarding the use of Puppy on there laptop, or at least the choice between Redhat and PuppyOS. I used the OLPC LiveCD to take a peek at the interface and found it cute, but very lacking for my (adult) purposes.

I put this in the cutting edge section of the forum because I believe the OLPC is cutting edge.

Inquiring Minds Await Your Response
Thanks Very Much
Regards
Ron

Hi, I to have considered the OLPC as a canidate for a mobile PC being both cheap and energy efficient so if Puppy worked on there as well that would be great.
Cheers

There is a new OLPC discussion here, and it is very likely (with some tweaking) that Puppy will run in it.

What remains to be done is give Barry one such machine, so he can do the tweaks directly.

I agree that this laptop is energy-efficient. There are equivalent machines available to Puppy enthusiasts, which are fully x86 compatible.

Um, I shouldn't say anything to give this away prematurely, but I have received an offer of two laptops that are competitors to the OLPC, to get Puppy working on them. I haven't decided whether to accept yet.

" I haven't decided whether to accept yet. "

Hey! Mr Nice Guy.
Modesty is OK....but the interest is there so take up the offer.

Once you have sorted them out......maybe with your Benefactors?
prior consent you could redonate them elsewhere,
or flog them off cheaply etc.

Chris

Hmm...wonder if ecomoney is following this thread?

Hi A.J. thanks for pointing this one out.

Puppy would be an excellent OS choice for these types of low spec laptops, and would no doubt do a lot to boost puppy's profile and standing. May I suggest Barry this would be an excellent project to become involved in once the 3.02 foundations for the next community edition are in place?

rrolsbe wrote:I used the OLPC LiveCD to take a peek at the interface and found it cute, but very lacking for my (adult) purposes.

Here a clarification could be usefull.

Recently I was talking to Mike C. Fletcher (responsible for "Developer Relations" for the One Laptop Per Child project) and he pointed out that there were many design desicions geared to discourage adults from using the OLPC.

He also explained that one reason why they were reluctant to sell computers to adults on the developed world was to reduce the black market.

The following parragraphs correspond to my own thoughts:

If you pay close attention, the last "C" refers to Child. These are computers for children. The keyboard, colours, form factor, software, etc are geared towards children.

There should be a stigma associated with an adult using a OLPC. These computers are for children. Every adult using one also means that there is a child not using it.

Even under the Buy-one-donate-one schema, the one you buy should be for a child. Whether it is your son or cousin or a disadvantaged child in your neighborhood. It is a computer for a child to call it his/her own.

Um, I shouldn't say anything to give this away prematurely, but I have received an offer of two laptops that are competitors to the OLPC, to get Puppy working on them. I haven't decided whether to accept yet.

If it sounds like fun - go for it. Puppy in hardware. Sounds good to me. I hope they are x86 and not MIT, Godson or ARM chips . . .

I still feel we need, 'reference hardware' for those intending to purchase new or second hand hardware, especially in the note book and emerging sub-notebook arena.

Other disros will be only too keen to put Sloth Linux on emerging laptops.

We may get some promotion and with your new digital camera and piglets help |(the Puppy formally known as Vincent) we look forward to pics of the whole process.

How exciting.

Woof woof.

Sure; it's definitely geared for children. And seriously poor ones at that.

But there is another angle. My wife teaches Literacy and Basic Skills to adults in a pretty run-down part of Central England. Much of the material she uses is on Web sites like the BBC's and she is seriously hampered by the lack of PCs in the class-room. Something like the OLPC could transform her work as they are cheap enough for cash-strapped education budgets and their pupils. They network with each other in a cloud so as long as one of them is in signal range of the server then they can all be on-line.

Yes the OLPC is for children who are MUCH, MUCH, MUCH poorer than anyone in England so we shouldn't take any away from that channel. But we do need cheap, reliable and robust laptops here too!

Please Barry, just do it!

rarsa wrote: There should be a stigma associated with an adult using a OLPC. These computers are for children. Every adult using one also means that there is a child not using it.

Perhaps so, and I do see your point. However, I rather feel that, even though your thoughts are well-intentioned, the result of applying them would be very restrictive and limiting. If anything, I would say that the OLPC project is struggling to be accepted, so any uptake, from any source, should be welcomed with open arms. Furthermore, the Free and Open-Source Software movement, more generally, is all about freedom of choice, and I personally prefer the dangers of that to artificial barriers, which can only limit the overall uptake of these open-source-based machines whilst encouraging the adoption of the Microsoft+Intel-based alternatives.

I suppose, what really interests me about the OLPC project is less the machine itself than the innovative concepts behind its "Sugar" interface. There is no reason, it seems to me, that the "journal" metaphor of "Sugar" needs to be restricted for use only with software suitable for a child. The interesting thing about "Sugar" is that the journal metaphor it employs carries, in my opinion, less cultural baggage than the traditional hierarchical space-oriented desktop to which we (in the 'West' at least) have become indoctrinated. Far from being a "childish" interface, I envisage Sugar to be a more universal paradigm (I hope so anyway). Nevertheless, for "Sugar" to take off, the OLPC offering needs to take off; the more of them adopted, the better.

Lets see here: Puppy v3.xx, Puppy v4.xx, possibly One Laptop Pupified Computer ... three parallel projects. Divide devs by 3. Divide testers by 3. Division, division, division ...

Oh yes: TS-3.03CE pending v3.xx stability. Not quite a new divisor, but a factor of sorts.

Any Puppy Linux developer can handle the Classmate PC, as Hacao has already solved the remaining display problem: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22880
See also http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23087

As to the eee, here's what has been done so far:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=9485
See also http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22535

Guess I can try out Pepper on the XO, see link.

http://www.pepper.com/linux/olpc.html

Heres hoping the XO will eventually work with a small linux distro like PuppyOS. Of course, this assumes buyers purchase the Beast.

Regards
Ron

It looks like folks using the eee got the Atheros wifi working through ndiswrapper. The eee wiki page is here: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:configurendiswrapper

Puppy Linux versions as old as 2.13 have been known to work in the eee.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 5&start=26
Raffy, a guy on the forum got 2.14 going with networking! Great potential.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ask_OLPC_a_Qu ... _laptop.3F

Will the OLPC be able to boot something like PUPPYOS via a USB stick?

Before I consider the purchase of two OLPC laptops, I would like to verify that the hardware will support booting Linux via USB flash devices. I know PuppyLinux was unfortunately quickly dismissed as a possible candidate to run on the OLPC hardware; however, since the AMD Geode is a x86 processor, I am in hopes I can boot PuppyLinux from USB attached devices, IE... USB Flash, Compact flash using USB adapter, hard drive/cdrom/dvdrom using sata/ide-to-USB adapter, etc.. Has anyone on the development team tried to boot any of the later PuppyOS releases on the current OLPC hardware? If so, how did it work?

Thanks Very Much In Advance Regards Ron

It can definitely boot from USB sticks; we do it all the time. It doesn't use a standard BIOS, so see the documentation for Open Firmware (Forth) about what files to put on the stick. Or download and poke at the Autoreinstallation image, which is booted from a USB stick.
The laptop has run Debian by using the OLPC kernel and kernel modules, and everything else from a standard Debian system. As far as I know, nobody has done the similar exercise with PuppyLinux. Most of the changes required for the hardware have been pushed upstream into the original packages. You may need to upgrade the X server in PuppyLinux as well as the kernel. It will definitely NOT work "out of the box". It will definitely work if you do some integration work. Go for it! -- gnu 19 Nov 2007

[edit]

The OLPC fascinates me with its specification. Oh to read a laptop in bright sunlight!!! and with incredibly low-power usage.

The Human Computer Interface is something ground-breaking too; okay so it's intended for children, but conceptually the "journal metaphor/paradigm" it employs is neither age nor, I imagine, culturally restrictive.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23800

HairyWill wrote: The [Intel] classmate is a fairly standard hardware design that IMHO doesn't really break any new ground apart from cost.

The OLPC XO has driven some ground breaking features especially in the area of power conservation.
Low power display up to 1200x900 pixels, readable in bright sunlight
wireless mesh networking as standard
static display can be maintained with the CPU off (for use as an e-book)

Damn. I'm looking forward to my OLPC, but I sounds like It'll be a pain to get puppy on it. I sure as heck don't have the hacking skills myself. I'm also sure I won't be the only casual user who will be looking to upgrade their XO to something puppy-like. If anyone with some actual skills can figure it out and put together a How-To, I (and likely others) would be most grateful.

I'm not sure, from what I've read, I even understand Why Puppy won't just boot on the XO.

PlatonicPimp wrote:Damn. I'm looking forward to my OLPC, but I sounds like It'll be a pain to get puppy on it.

It may (or may not) be tricky, or different, but if it is possible, which it seems from some things I've read, that it is, then I'm pretty sure you won't be waiting too long before someone provides the recipe for installing Puppy on the OLPC.

If a thing is technically possible, and desired, and the right person gets a hold of the applicable machine, you can bet your boots it will happen. May take a while, but I'm sure the machine will be fantastic anyway.