Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

Booting, installing, newbie
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mikeb
Posts: 11297
Joined: Thu 23 Nov 2006, 13:56

#76 Post by mikeb »

To view Youtube videos, update flashplayer to version 10.
I don't quite understand this...I can still watch you tube with flash 7.
3 advantages...faster ,the video can be saved/watched from /tmp and no stability headaches.
The update to 10 is a suggestion as far as I see mainly to limit saving vids as they are downloaded to memory rather than disk. So you tube still leaves users with a choice :)

Ecomoney...I recommend you don't ignore security advice.
Wine hq recommend not running as root as it carries over some of the vunerabilities of windows.
Indeed pop round if you are in the south east. :)

mike

StOlEnDeStInY
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri 26 Jun 2009, 09:44

#77 Post by StOlEnDeStInY »

ragaman wrote:Open Office Writer 3.x can open docx files.

My greatest headache with Puppy so far has been network printing. I've ran Puppy for months without printing. Any print job is sent to my other machines through pnethood. I wish Puppy would just autodetect network printers and then ask the user for permission to set them up. Saves us hours of futile tinkering.
I have been running it since the last two weeks and loads of tweaks.. No result. Result: IT won't be implemented on my office computers.

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mikeb
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#78 Post by mikeb »

If the machine with the printer is running a server version of windows then network printing can be done by ipp which is very straightforward

mike

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rcrsn51
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Location: Stratford, Ontario

#79 Post by rcrsn51 »

If the machine with the printer is running a server version of windows then network printing can be done by ipp which is very straightforward
Please provide details. It might be the solution to this problem.

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mikeb
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#80 Post by mikeb »

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2 ... print.mspx

a starting point.
I believe windows uses a non standard port ie not 631 but cups can handle that.
Once setup cups should be able to talk to it .. probably need a local ppd or talk postscript.

The other way round ie printer on linux machine works by using the adobe postcript driver and ppd on windows clients.

mike

hatchiebird
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue 02 Jun 2009, 02:51
Location: Tennessee, USA

Good Article That Speaks to Linux

#81 Post by hatchiebird »

Puppy is one of three operating systems I run and I like it. However, I can't get wireless connection on my laptop and have not had time to read forums to figure it out. Linux Mint and a few others work. For easy of use for the new user I give Linux Mint an A and Puppy Linux a B. Being able to download Linux like a program is the way to go in the future. Take a look at Presto Linux http://www.prestomypc.com/

Linux has to work to get the masses non computer enthusiast interested. Speed, ease of use and stable is what the masses are looking for. Need to encourage people to use Linux as an additional operating system at first by running on portable hard drive, flash drive or as a downloaded option that easy to install and uninstall. The masses don't know how to get to step 1, burning the ISO file to a CD. Puppy does make it easier to install on a portable hard drive that all that I have looked at and I have look at many distros over the past few months. I would love to see Linux take more of the OS market share in the future. We will have to see what Puppy and Google OS and a few others are able to accomplish.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/67546.html#

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ecomoney
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Location: Lincolnshire, England
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#82 Post by ecomoney »

hatchibird, I couldnt agree more and we now have just such a thing, freshly made by seeker

http://www.ecomoney.eu/puppy/winstaller ... -pl421.exe

Development thread.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=44098

We will hopefully be offering this on our main puppy download page after it has been tested some more...Ive given it a few spins and it works fine for me.

MikeB, security, yes. Ive found with 5 years of using linux Im yet to have any kind of security breach. I understand a lot of Linux user experts points of view when it comes to absolute security, and I would agree if I were running google or wikipedia. A home computer system generally needs less security, as the consequences of any breach are far more limited. Having security which gets in the way of the user experience is a actually counter productive as it means that computer users stay using Windows, with all the security problems that has.
Puppy Linux's [url=http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=296352#296352]Mission[/url]

Sorry, my server is down atm!

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mikeb
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#83 Post by mikeb »

MikeB, security, yes. Ive found with 5 years of using linux Im yet to have any kind of security breach. I understand a lot of Linux user experts points of view when it comes to absolute security, and I would agree if I were running google or wikipedia. A home computer system generally needs less security, as the consequences of any breach are far more limited. Having security which gets in the way of the user experience is a actually counter productive as it means that computer users stay using Windows, with all the security problems that has.
Well my concern is of bringing insecure software to linux...indeed I made windows secure before even trying linux and part of the process was replacing insecure windows programs with safer ones...eg no IE, outlook and messenger are they are worst offenders...replaced with firefox, thunderbird and anything (plenty to choose from but msn via jabber was a very secure option,gaim, miranda etc etc) Another point is that lots of malware target these very programs that let them in so once removed bad code has nothing to ruin...experienced this a few times in moments of carelessness :) .
The IE/active X integration into the operating system/shell was designed to allow remote execution of code...unfortunately microsoft failed to realise the consequences of connecting this to the internet as it was originally devised with local lan usage in a business enviroment.

mike

a-_._-b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon 13 Jul 2009, 07:56

#84 Post by a-_._-b »

hi... new here... from Argentina, so excuse my english.
I've tested Puppy from 4.1 and two pupplets like Nop and Boby and worked a lot better than Ubuntu Hardy/Xubuntu/Fluxbuntu/And a waird distro from Argentina named Tuquito.
But I seams that with any Linux distro my machine feels slower (like a machine from two years erlier... I mean... P4Amd641.6ghrtz*2yearErlier=p3Sempron200-764ghrtz), a lot slower than Xp...
And this just for the common things... viewing pics and videos, playing music.
I'm not defending XP, neither Windows, in fact I would hate windows if not were the Os that always worked for me... well I hate windows, but works faster...
I know that Puppy is for refugees from XP, but I don't know for sure why it works so slow.
For example... a gxine playing .mpc/flac/ogg takes 17.8% on my machine...
The weird thing is that an Aimp with Wine playing the same files (but with a larger playlist) takes only 0.8.
The same goes for video Mplayer don't even resize the display, Gxine hangs and i have to shutdown X to get rid of the video, but KMplayer with Wine works ok (well the window can't be moved without ctrl+click)...
Games I've not tried... but in the sight of things like they are... don't think they would work.

So finally my question...
Might be my hardware that is not optimal recognised? I know my onboard video card sucks and have issues whit linux (the one that comes with Asus K8Vm-m Ultra, I think it is ViaDeltaCrome 864 or some like that)
Is any way to work this out?... (buying new card is not an option, buying nothin is an option)
Any .pet any config to vesa or Xorg?
Anything to at least see an 25mg .flv on 1024x780x24 and not having to restart X to close the video?

And another question, is common that the tray icons goes away with jwm and Icewm? (with fluxbox doesn't seems to happen)

Last thing... don't have an internet conection at home... I have near 2gb of pet packages (and near another gb of pups) so the PetGet is useless to me, well useless to add... to remove it works ok.


PD: Don't take me wrong, from the distros i've tested Puppy is the sweeter and I really want an exit from XP... I just want a way that doesn't involve buying a new machine since mine is not sooo old...

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mikeb
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#85 Post by mikeb »

@a-_._-b it does sound like video is not optimised for your card(yet) so you are not getting the speed benefits of 2d/3d acceleration. The gxine setup wizard (menu)should show xvideo enabled. Also gxine uses the goom visualisation by default when playing audio...this takes a lot of cpu (but pretty :) ) so make sure its turned off in preferences. I use beep media player or xmms which are similar to winamp and very lightweight. I also use vlc for video. There was/is a bug with jwm and full screen playback...icewm should be ok
As for games there is a section on this forum plus plenty of windows games work ok in wine with 3d/opengl setup...not to mention game console emulators.

You should get similar or better performance to XP

As for sorting the video search on this forum as there will be info about your vid card...I'm not familiar with it.

It's usually worth working through these issues..you probably had to do the same on windows at some point, and there's lots of help availble through this forum

regards

mike

a-_._-b
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon 13 Jul 2009, 07:56

#86 Post by a-_._-b »

First of all, thanks for the reply.

Gxine was touched a lot before I start complaining...
I've tried every X output (Xv, the first one of the list was the best), visualisation dislabled on load (experience level expert "master of known universe" seemed too much)I lowered the ffmpeg quality to cero, installed latest mplayerfullcodecs (that even slowed down the playback)...
The Cpu Stats for audio are with no visualisation and the window hidden.
with Aimp Visualisation in fullscreen Cpu goes to 30, gxine to 50...
Must be said that aimp with equalizer on goes to 4/5 and gxine eq is allways on... but 4.5vs17 still aimp is lower (and no other player sounds like aimp).
Anyway I get used to Aimp and I would install wine_xxx.sfs just to use it.

And XP goes slow only if you use everithing as is...
If you use from xp only the kernel and some modules (little some) and another windowmanager (like BBLean)and another filemanager works fast anywhere... but again the machines I have tested both, Puppy and XP were both with S3 graphics, and I know they sucs. I googled today, downloaded the xorg_full_dri and the openchrome and some tar.gz from Via Linux when i get home. But i have no hope at all.

Anyway I'll still gonna keep some puppylinux partition (1gb is never missed) because I like the way everything is handled via bash scripts and gtkdialog/xdialog... the only thing I still not get used to is to search for the files in a bunch of directories (i mean the Linux structure), in XP I learned to love the "Portable" aspect of programs.

And for games... I really doubt that Fofix (frets on fire) and Down Of War Soulstorm would work, the only I play and games are bigs enougth... my ext3 partition is only 1GB. Anyway I downloaded some games erlier.

As far as I know XP is better suited for me... but I really don't want to use it, I've started to gain taste to the way linux works, still im xp minded. I have all my non games program Open Source or freeware, but the os is the king of clo$ed $ource.
Maybe I have to wait 2 or 3 years more till ReactOs is finished?

xav795
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat 18 Jul 2009, 11:03
Location: France, Paris

Autoconnect does not go on the good access point

#87 Post by xav795 »

Hi
I am newbee on this distro, and i am testing it since a month. I am coming from xp and i was boring about the speed, the pressure made by MicroXXX pushing the users to buy stronger computer for his new OS.
With puppy i'am feeling free, and i feel like i was when using computers like atari and others. Puppy is nice, very simple, powerfull, and attractive with a lot of software published on .pet.

Well, my problem concerns the wifi.
I have installed puppy on my usb flash and all was good until one time, i don't know exactly what did happen, but now, after the boot, i am connected to a wrong access point. The particularity is that this is an open access point.
Before that day, i was always connected on the good one.
I went into the "/etc/network-wizard/wireless/profiles/" and my profiles are still there. But i can see that in autoconnect.conf i have
TITLE="autoconnect"
IP=""
GATEWAY=""
ESSID="any"
NWID=""
KEY="off"
MODE="Managed"
SECURE="open"
FREQ=""
CHANNEL=""
AP_MAC=""
peharps the reason?
Of course i saved in networkwizzard many times.
So i have re-installed puppy and all went good a new time. But after a while, the same problem has appeared.
Is there something in the rc.network i could check (peharps a break that is not long enough to execute my connection)
Another thing i found, strange, is that doing a "dmesg" gives me a lot of these messages : b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error

So i have to manually run the netwizard, choosing my profile in the list, then running the autodhcp, and trying to save for the next time this configuration, which does nothing for me.
The access point is then good.

Is there a solution to keep the autoconnect working?
Thank you for your help

Puppy 4.1.2
Inspiron Dell 6400
Flash USB

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mikeb
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#88 Post by mikeb »

@xav795
Autoconnect....once you save a profile it will get used and not necessarily in the order you want....so
1) if you do use another network don't save it...you can still use it without
2) to delete load the unwanted profile then press delete.
It is a little confusing.

If the b43 driver is being unreliable there is a pet for the broadcom wl driver which is very good (since they made the device!)...

mike

xav795
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat 18 Jul 2009, 11:03
Location: France, Paris

#89 Post by xav795 »

Thank you Mike,
i have deleted my profiles and did a new seach. Then i saved the access point with the wpa key using the wizzard.
When i have restarted the puppy, all went straight on.

On the other hand, i dont know what .pet to install exactly, i have to look more further to understand a little what is the problem.

Xavier

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mikeb
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#90 Post by mikeb »


xav795
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat 18 Jul 2009, 11:03
Location: France, Paris

#91 Post by xav795 »

Mike,
I have installed the "broadcom-5.10.27.14-k2.6.25.16.pet" and then have rebooted the pc, but there are messages when i ask with dmesg (the last lines)
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
printk: 17 messages suppressed.
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error
printk: 3 messages suppressed.
b43-phy0 ERROR: PHY transmission error

lsmod gives me : (an extract)
crypto_blkcipher 19844 1 ecb
b43 141340 0
mac80211 129680 1 b43
cfg80211 18696 1 mac80211
ohci_hcd 25860 0
serio_raw 6788 0
wl 1071364 0
sdhci 17288 0
ohci1394 31792 0
ieee80211_crypt 5632 1 wl
mmc_block 12676 0
b44 25616 0
pcspkr 2944 0
mmc_core 46868 2 sdhci,mmc_block
ieee1394 89272 1 ohci1394
ssb 34436 3 b43,ohci_hcd,b44
mii 5504 1 b44

I dont know if this is the good thread to talk about this

Xavier

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mikeb
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#92 Post by mikeb »

Indeed...and looks like the b43 and ssb drivers have not been disabled as they should.

Start a fresh thread and there will be more help on your particular problem

regards

mike

Wolfgar
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed 15 Jul 2009, 00:32
Location: Pennsylvania USA

Newbies' Perspective

#93 Post by Wolfgar »

I just installed Puppy Linux (PL) a couple of weeks ago. I had already tried several other distros with mixed (but unsuccessful) results.

I bought a junk laptop (Gateway Solo 9500 - hotstuff several years ago), and I thought this would be my new toy. I consistently had trouble getting Linux to boot off the hd. I often had to hit the power button four or five times. Wifi never worked. The whole point was to have my toy on wireless. Finally I threw the towel in on the Solo (it's now a door stop).

On a whim, I put PL on my Dell B130 laptop. Bang! First time - every time, but still no wifi. I dredged the forums to find an answer, and switching to the B43 driver turned the trick.

The Dell is very fast on boot/shutdown in under 15 seconds. I have not solved the other problems I encountered yet, but things work well enough now.

I was an administrator on a Risc6000/AIX system twelve-years ago. I tried Linux in 1995, but I did not have the time or inclination to get it up an running. PL is a real piece of work!

I am in sympathy with the anti-MS line. Realistically, I could dump Windows and function normally with PL, but I have to overcome some other snags first. I'm not asking questions or for help with this note because I believe in sweat equity. The answers are there, and I'll find them.

My AIX past is coming back to me, and the more I work with PL the better things will be. At some point, I want to help out and contribute to the cause.

My neighbor tried Ubuntu, but he is a point -and- click guy and he would have been completely lost figuring any thing out. He quit the chase (he prophesied in '95 Linux would never last!).

I will try to get some other geeks I know to give PL a shot. Thanks for the effort Murga and the other marines have invested in this project. Good job on a monster project!

HeathenKaer
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun 26 Jul 2009, 17:44
Location: Florida

#94 Post by HeathenKaer »

About a month ago, I amputated Windoze and started using openSuSE on my old laptop (acerTM2420, 256mb RAM, 1.5 GHz Intel, ~35GB HD, came with XP-sp1). It worked, after a great deal of stripping and streamlining, but was painfully slow. When I queried their forums, it was suggested I try the Puppy or DSL.

I'm very happy to say that I have Puppy 4.2 Retro up and running on Frugal install. It is so smooth and sleek and fast!. I have had no trouble.

Everything I've tried thus far, from watching videos to web surfing has been quicker than even my girlfriend's 6-month-old Vista machine.

Linux is a new language for me, and I just don't speak it yet. I grew up on DOS (my first computer was a Tandy 1000 with DM1.0). I

'm so happy to see such a thriving community so willing to help. It's been a long time since I felt like a n00b, and I'm so glad you are here to make the transition easier.

I did have a time of figuring out where that darn menu.lst was. And I haven't rebooted since I changed it, so here's me crossing my fingers.

I'm off to go thank the guys on the suse forum for sending me here.

Ciao, y'all!

t-rek
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed 29 Jul 2009, 12:55

#95 Post by t-rek »

I'm switched from windows to Puppy 3 days ago and I'am really satisfied with it. Well the installation wasn't really smooth but that is because the forums were down when i tried to install on my hdd. :D

I read the manuals and other other Linux tutorials too, and i would like to suggest you to make a tutorial about compiling source code, for beginners. It would be cool if you also use an example program, so we can follow your steps.
Thank U all

t-rek

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