Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[sindi]

xpdf 3.01 (2005) no longer works properly, or segfaults,
on many pdfs (pdf 1.6, increasingly common)
I don't know why pulp uses such an old version. 3.02 is
2007 and supports pdf 1.6 and 1.7

Download 3.03 (Aug 2011) from
ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdfbin-linux-3.03.tar.gz

17MB download at 26K/sec contains binaries (static for
motif and freetype) for bin64 and bin32. xpdf is now 9MB

Contains also pdfimages, etc. and doc files.

pulp has all the dependencies, and it worked on a pdf that
3.01 scrambled.

First I tried Google Docs pdf reader, which worked as badly
as 3.01.

epdfview binary that I found online requires gtk+ 2.6 and
we have 2.0

[sindi]

Pulp uses glibc 2.6 - can it be upgraded to glibc 2.8?

Opera 12.02 youtube is broken. I waited for the bugs to be fixed in 12.10 and today tried 12.11. It requires glibc 2.8, as users of Puppy 4.31 and many other linuxes are complaining of at the opera forum (they should have waited until version 13 to break compatibility, people say). I switched to pulp from Basiclinux so I could use Opera newer than 9 because glibc could not be upgraded without a newer kernel, which I never managed to compile usably.

Youtube works in 11.52 - but keeps restarting videos after you have watched for half hour or so and the fix is to restart Opera. A youtube downloader would fix that problem but I don't have a fast enough connection to download long videos. Any other ideas how to use Youtube with older Opera? SMPlayer for Windows can be used to view Youtube directly without a browser.

After exiting Opera, Alt-F1 does not work until you click on the menu first.

[Colonel Panic]

[sindi]

I found several links to deb packages for glibc 2.11 in puppy forums but they are all broken. Has anyone successfully upgraded glibc to 2.8 or later in Pulp, which comes with 2.6? Opera 12.02 is the last version not requiring 2.8 or later.

I cannot figure out which package to use from the Deb site.

[sindi]

I recently hinstalled pulp on a friend's 233MHz Compaq Prosignia after
upgrading the memory to 158MB (I added a 128MB DIMM) so it could run
something other than Win98. First I tried the Puppy 4.31 LiveCD and
there was not enough RAM to run a browser. Pulp uses a lot less RAM so
I installed it instead.

Opera 10.63 works with yahoo mail. I did not try 11 or 12.02 (12.10
needs glibc 2., assuming they would use more memory. I tweaked Opera
as suggested at several sites to use less than the 117% of RAM it was
using at Yahoo. It now starts off using only about 50% of RAM. First,
boot it with:

opera -nolirc -noargb -nomail

argb - 32-bit visuals (I also set pulp to use 16-bit color)

lirc - infrared control (what does this have to do with browsing?) not
sure what if anything nomail does - not check for mail? (If you don't
have mail set up this may be irrelevant)

Turn off animated gifs, sound in web pages, set RAM cache to 4MB instead
of automatic, limit to 2 simultaneous connections instead of 8, etc.

(Search on "Opera less RAM").

I logged in and poked around a few times and used block content to keep
opera from displaying the ads. There were different ad providers each
time I logged in. Opera 10 does not do extensions (such as adblock).
Enable plugins only on demand (content) stops Yahoo from playing flash
movies, which the friend hated and which waste RAM. Set Opera site
preferences (advanced, content) to accept cookies from Yahoo then set
Opera not to accept cookies. (Add any other sites you want to log into
such as paypal or ebay).

Opera 11 is using about 100MB of memory at the yahoo login page, on a
newer computer with pulp, so might also be usable.

The friend has no home internet access (phone line is so poor quality it
won't work at more than 14.4K so DSL not possible and AT&T refuses to
change the wires, township won't allow cable TV/internet, no cell phone
reception), but a nearby public building has free wireless internet.
This is the friend's only laptop. He had been driving 3 miles each way
to the closest library to do email and can now walk 10 minutes instead.

[technosaurus]

Opera 9.27 static qt3 seems to be the best option for low ram systems (with unneeded locales removed it is only ~6mb package), but there is better news... Netsurf is adding javascript support (via spidermonkey). Once it stabilizes a bit more I'd like to build a static version of its xcb port (that 1 doesn't even need gtk2 and can even be built to work outside of x also in the console) it should only use a fraction of what opera does.

[anikin]

[greengeek]

[technosaurus]

[greengeek]

[sindi]

Exit X (ctl-alt-backspace) and run xorgwizard to change resolution and/or color depth.

Opera 12.0 flash does not work (linux or windows).
Opera 12.1 needs glibc 2.8 - has anyone found a working link to an upgrade package?
Opera 11.64 works with flash, for about 30 min, then suddenly gets stuck until you restart opera.

I eagerly await netsurf, also more info on standalone flash players that do not require downloading the full video first. SMPlayer (latest Windows version) does that.
I recall netsurf having almost no keyboard 'shortcuts'.

[sindi]

Found a "glibc upgrade" 2011 topic in puppy forums.

First two links there were broken but I downloaded deb glibc 2.11.3.4 package from
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/squeeze/i386/libc6/download

Copied over my pup_save.2fs file as a backup in case things broke.

dpkg-deb -x libc*.deb /
(The / is required).

It upgraded in 1 sec without causing any obvious problems.

Now /lib/libc6.so is symlinked to libc-2.11.3.so (June 7) instead of libc-2.6,1,so (2007). Have not tested with Opera 12 yet. People report gtk problems after the upgrade.

[sindi]

The gtk problem is that locales are not supported, but English is my native language.

Opera 12.11 plays youtube flash video. With -norgb -nolirc -nomail it is using 29% of my 512MB and 4% cpu time (at the forum). 72% playing a youtube video, and nearly 100% of cpu time (1.6GHz). 12.0 (don't know about 12.1) refused to play youtube but worked with glibc 2.6 (which pulp comes with).

On exiting youtube, the plugin wrapper is still using 26% of RAM and opera is now using an additional 44% but that may be adjustable (RAM cache?).

Opera 12 works correctly at lowes.com - no more blinking pages or refusing to go to links.

The newer libc is about 30% larger, and libcrypt 100% larger.
I would like to see glibc 2.11 and xpdf 3.03 in a future pulp.
And javascript netsurf instead of antique firefox.
Elinks can also be compiled with javascript support (I failed).

[sindi]

Elinks dropped javascript support.
links2 added it - anyone want to try compiling?

[jeff757]

If anyone is still looking for PULP 0.1 you can find it on zenfunk's blog page http://flusslinie.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/moving-on-to-pulp-0-1/ ,use PULP_0.1.iso link not rapidshare.
I just downloaded it 30 min. ago and md5 checked OK.