Introducing PULP - 125 MB Puplet for older hardware

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DMcCunney · #91 Post by **DMcCunney** » Sun 07 Mar 2010, 20:03

Colonel Panic wrote:@Dennis; thanks for the hint about the SUE command line text editor. I'm presently trying to find good Linux command line replacements / analogues for the DOS applications I've been using, and this one looks like a good text editor (I also use Joe, which uses the WordStar command set and which I know well).

As I mentioned in the post where I uploaded it, it's a text editor, not a word processor, and it doesn't have the bells and whistles of some other products. But it's quick to invoke and power5ful enough for the usual chores people need to do. It's not what I'd run on a more powerful system, but the Puppy box has limited resources, and something that comes up quick and is good enough gets the nod over something that comes up slow, even if "better".

I use Vim too, it's a fantastic text editor if you/re willing to take the time and trouble to learn it (it has a steep learning curve, to put it mildly). I can't say I'm an expert but I know enough to get by in it

Vim reminds me a bit of Photoshop. I ran across a story about a design student getting depressed because he didn't know everything about Photoshiop, and his professor said "Nobody knows everything about Photoshop! You learn the parts that do the things you need to do!"

Vim is li9ke that. I've barely scratched the surface. For the most part, Vim on my machines could be vi, since most of what I do with it uses vanilla vi functions I learned dealing with Unix in the 80's. I've had no reason to dig deeper.
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Dennis

Colonel Panic · #92 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Wed 10 Mar 2010, 13:52

A problem has arisen unfortunately; I downloaded the Pulp 0.1 ISO, burnt it to disk and then ran it on one of the community centre's computers, where it works fine.

The trouble came when I tried to log out of the system and return to Windows (someone else wanted to use the computer); the BIOS wouldn't recognise the hard drive when the machine rebooted and it got into an infinite loop, trying to boot from the CD-ROM with no live CD in there.

Has anyone got any idea please about how this might have happened and how to fix it? At the moment (though the community centre tech's being very understanding about it) I hardly dare mention Linux or Puppy in the centre for fear of the guffaws I'd get.

Thanks in advance,

CP .

DMcCunney · #93 Post by **DMcCunney** » Wed 10 Mar 2010, 21:15

Colonel Panic wrote:Has anyone got any idea please about how this might have happened and how to fix it? At the moment (though the community centre tech's being very understanding about it) I hardly dare mention Linux or Puppy in the centre for fear of the guffaws I'd get.

This sounds like an incomplete installation of some sort. I can't see how running Puppy from a live CD should do this.

Did this persist after a power cycle?
______
Dennis

Colonel Panic · #94 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 00:20

DMcCunney wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:Has anyone got any idea please about how this might have happened and how to fix it? At the moment (though the community centre tech's being very understanding about it) I hardly dare mention Linux or Puppy in the centre for fear of the guffaws I'd get.
This sounds like an incomplete installation of some sort. I can't see how running Puppy from a live CD should do this.

Did this persist after a power cycle?
______
Dennis

Thanks for answering, Dennis;

Yes it did. There was no installation; I took the CD out of the drive and tried to boot from the hard drive as usual, with this result.

I can't see why it might have happened either, but it did. According to our expert, a couple of pointers went missing from the Windows XP boot loader (NTLDR) and one of them linked to the hard drive. It's worrying me somewhat because I've always used Puppy on public computers on the understanding that it's completely "safe" to run it from a CD-ROM and a savefile on the hard drive, as I did in this case.

DMcCunney · #95 Post by **DMcCunney** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 02:27

Colonel Panic wrote:
DMcCunney wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:Has anyone got any idea please about how this might have happened and how to fix it? At the moment (though the community centre tech's being very understanding about it) I hardly dare mention Linux or Puppy in the centre for fear of the guffaws I'd get.
This sounds like an incomplete installation of some sort. I can't see how running Puppy from a live CD should do this.

Did this persist after a power cycle?
Thanks for answering, Dennis;

Yes it did. There was no installation; I took the CD out of the drive and tried to boot from the hard drive as usual, with this result.

I can't see why it might have happened either, but it did. According to our expert, a couple of pointers went missing from the Windows XP boot loader (NTLDR) and one of them linked to the hard drive. It's worrying me somewhat because I've always used Puppy on public computers on the understanding that it's completely "safe" to run it from a CD-ROM and a savefile on the hard drive, as I did in this case.

Weird. If something trashed the Master Boot Record, I can see something like this occurring. That's not hard to fix, but is a bit tedious.

I'd be very startled if a standard Puppy CD did that. I can't say for sure about a custom Puplet. It might have been coincidence, or it might have been an improperly housebroken Puppy, making a mess where it wasn't supposed to. Give a copy of the CD to the tech at the community center, and ask him to look at it. You want a second opinion to rule out Puppy being at fault.
_______
Dennis

Colonel Panic · #96 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 15:51

Thanks for replying Dennis. That's a good suggestion, but he's a bit busy at the moment so it's probably not the best time anyway.

I spoke to him earlier today and he thinks it'S most likely a trojan which corrupted the MBR and was downloaded earlier that day. I'm still mystified as I was the last person to use the machine before it went down and it was fine before; besides, the only thing I downloaded was Puppy PULP and I doubt there are any trojans on the download site.

Needless to say, my efforts to promote Linux and Puppy in particular haven taken a severe hit as a result of this, and I can't honestly blame the centre members for their scepticism.

Best,

CP .

P.S. I did manage to see some humour in the situation; I looked at my post count after i posted to report the problem and the number was 666 (the number of the beast)!

sullysat · #97 Post by **sullysat** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 19:16

Based on what I've read here, I would have to agree with your tech guy. Its most probable that something was downloaded before you used the machine and did its dirty deed when the system was shut down. Then, of course, it was noticed when you rebooted back to Windows after using puppy.

Ironically, if they were running Linux exclusively, the problem would probably not have happened in the first place.

Sully

Colonel Panic · #98 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 20:20

sullysat wrote:Based on what I've read here, I would have to agree with your tech guy. Its most probable that something was downloaded before you used the machine and did its dirty deed when the system was shut down. Then, of course, it was noticed when you rebooted back to Windows after using puppy.

Ironically, if they were running Linux exclusively, the problem would probably not have happened in the first place.

Sully

I like the sound of this! Thanks for that post, maybe I'll show it to our tech guy when I'm next in the centre.

Cheers,

CP .

DMcCunney · #99 Post by **DMcCunney** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 20:58

Colonel Panic wrote:
sullysat wrote:Based on what I've read here, I would have to agree with your tech guy. Its most probable that something was downloaded before you used the machine and did its dirty deed when the system was shut down. Then, of course, it was noticed when you rebooted back to Windows after using puppy.

Ironically, if they were running Linux exclusively, the problem would probably not have happened in the first place.
I like the sound of this! Thanks for that post, maybe I'll show it to our tech guy when I'm next in the centre.

Sully's thought was mine as well, and I agree with his analysis of what happened.

But don't expect the community center to shift to Linux. The folks who patronize the place are used to and expect Windows and Windows applications like MS Office. You can do most of the same things with Linux, but they will be done differently, and those differences will be a killer.

The folks who run Linux on the desktop tend to be folks who like experimenting and learning new ways to do things. The broader computer using audience does not fit that mold. They learn enough about the OS and the applications they use to do what they need to do, and that's as much as they want to learn. If the community centre tried to switch to Linux, and, say, Open Office, I'd expect to hear the howls of protest from the patrons over here across the pond.
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Dennis

sullysat · #100 Post by **sullysat** » Thu 11 Mar 2010, 21:36

DMcCunney wrote:The folks who run Linux on the desktop tend to be folks who like experimenting and learning new ways to do things. The broader computer using audience does not fit that mold. They learn enough about the OS and the applications they use to do what they need to do, and that's as much as they want to learn. If the community centre tried to switch to Linux, and, say, Open Office, I'd expect to hear the howls of protest from the patrons over here across the pond.
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Dennis

LOLOL Too true. I see this every day in fact.

Heck, even after almost three years, making the final switch to Linux for my office was difficult for me, from an 'emotional security' standpoint. Of course, in the almost four months since moving exclusively to Linux, I haven't had a single lock up, freeze up, or reboot for no apparent reason. Life is good.

The sad thing, Colonel, is that there will be those that will say that if you hadn't had to reboot to use your Puppy OS the problem wouldn't have happened. That's not the case, but I'll bet you'll hear it anyway.

Sully

Colonel Panic · #101 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Fri 12 Mar 2010, 18:41

Thanks for replying Dennis and sully. All seems to be sorted now anyway (I've spoken to someone at the community centre who supports using Puppy there and who confirms this).

The funny thing is that my last message on this thread was submitted from home, after I'd tried to post it from the local public library which runs Windows XP and Internet Explorer - and found I couldn't do it! It kept giving me a "postal mode not specified" message, and in the end I gave up.

And this is a computer system and Microsoft installation which costs tens of thousands to install and support countywide, and has every conceivable security measure built in - you can't even right-click with the mouse when using it.

Just goes to show.

Colonel Panic · #102 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sat 13 Mar 2010, 20:14

A quick update; I've just tested PULP 0.1 on my own machine and it works fine and hasn't trashed my MBR at all, so I think we can say Puppy's in the clear.

Just one thing though; I changed the window manager, jwm, for blackbox as I think it looks better with a plain (i.e. no wallpaper) desktop. Fluxbox (which I've just downloaded from this thread) would be good too;

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1589558908

taca0 · #103 Post by **taca0** » Thu 01 Apr 2010, 00:41

I like PULP 0.03 but I want to make it more small or like a lite version .

I mean less programs. Remove games, cd or dvd programs, printer, firefox .

I dont how to do that. I have a small CF card 256mb and 28mb ram so I need less programs and only the light programs that it has.

I use the frugal method.

Any recommendations!

Thanks Zenfunk for good idea.

tommy · #104 Post by **tommy** » Wed 21 Jul 2010, 08:50

I'm posting here just to report success with Pulp003 running in a crappy Pcchips (aristo) mainboard featuring Intel Vx chipset, Amd K6-166Mhz, a 256Kb Realtek Rtg3105 isa video card and 24MB edo Ram. I'm posting this with this dinosaur at the moment. No Cdrom , no Hard disk, just a floppy with wakepup, a usb pendrive and a wireless Zydas dongle. Posting this with Elinks. Great job! I really like this small distro with text web browser AND wireless support. No other distro was capable of this, I tried many but they were always lacking something necessary. Now it is time to find a way to add a Vnc .pet via console...
Bye!

greengeek · #105 Post by **greengeek** » Mon 23 Aug 2010, 07:36

Hi Zenfunk,

thanks for Pulp. I'm having a lot of fun with it on a Toshiba 2180cdt (which isn't keen to run too many linux distros).

I am confused about which Pulp is newest: is 0.03 the newest, or 0.1 please?

(I find 0.02 works very well for me, and 0.03 looks slightly easier on the eye, but never starts the browser for some reason, so I cant surf the internet. I have tried to download 0.1 but without success yet)

many thanks for your fine work.

Liam Murphy · #106 Post by **Liam Murphy** » Mon 23 Aug 2010, 10:22

DMcCunney wrote:
Colonel Panic wrote:
DMcCunney wrote: This sounds like an incomplete installation of some sort. I can't see how running Puppy from a live CD should do this.

Did this persist after a power cycle?
Thanks for answering, Dennis;

Yes it did. There was no installation; I took the CD out of the drive and tried to boot from the hard drive as usual, with this result.

I can't see why it might have happened either, but it did. According to our expert, a couple of pointers went missing from the Windows XP boot loader (NTLDR) and one of them linked to the hard drive. It's worrying me somewhat because I've always used Puppy on public computers on the understanding that it's completely "safe" to run it from a CD-ROM and a savefile on the hard drive, as I did in this case.
Weird. If something trashed the Master Boot Record, I can see something like this occurring. That's not hard to fix, but is a bit tedious.

I'd be very startled if a standard Puppy CD did that. I can't say for sure about a custom Puplet. It might have been coincidence, or it might have been an improperly housebroken Puppy, making a mess where it wasn't supposed to. Give a copy of the CD to the tech at the community center, and ask him to look at it. You want a second opinion to rule out Puppy being at fault.
_______
Dennis

Hi I am new to the forum and to Puppy.

I bought this computer recently because I am a wannabe writer (never published) who needs a machine exclusively for word processing, so I didn't care that the laptop was old. I was appalled, however, at how slow XP Professional was running on it, I formated the HD and I installed Puppy 5.1 on it to speed it up. It worked great and I am very happy with how fast it is

.

However, when I went to reboot for the first time "NTLDR is missing" error came up so everytime I boot I have to insert the Puppy CD twice, once to get the error, second to boot the system.

I was very happy to see this post and that there was a fix, but I am sorry that it is tedious

.

Dennis, could you share the fix with me?

Liam
___________

Gateway 9550 Laptop: Pentuim III - 1066MHz with 254MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive

cthisbear · #107 Post by **cthisbear** » Mon 23 Aug 2010, 11:22

" I formated the HD "

Should have used DBan.
No way that should show after format.
Or do you have 2 partitions??

Chris.

Liam Murphy · #108 Post by **Liam Murphy** » Mon 23 Aug 2010, 18:59

I just have the 1 partition. I don't have a problem with reformatting the drive again, so what is DBan and how do I use it?

Thanks for replying!

Liam

cthisbear · #109 Post by **cthisbear** » Mon 23 Aug 2010, 21:55

http://www.dban.org/

5 Minutes would do for your purposes.
Under no circumstances boot this with another drive
which has important data..

Chris.

Liam Murphy · #110 Post by **Liam Murphy** » Thu 26 Aug 2010, 08:28

Thanks for your advise Chris, after many adventures I was able to get rid of the error message and got Puppy installed again.

Liam

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Introducing PULP - 125 MB Puplet for older hardware

Which pulp is newest