Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

Booting, installing, newbie
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darkcity
Posts: 2534
Joined: Sun 23 May 2010, 19:16
Location: near here
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#841 Post by darkcity »

Glad your making progress, interesting that Puppy works on such a low powered computer. 8)

darussell
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 04 Oct 2012, 16:53

Libretto with working Puppy 4.1.1

#842 Post by darussell »

Seems to work OK, so far. The only remaining problems are trying to get it to recognize my PCMCIA-driven floppy and CDROM, and the display continues to be trouble. As I mentioned, if I use a "generic" VGA, I get a proper screen display; it just doesn't use all the available 800x480 screen. It seems (not matter what the selected screen display size, several of the Puppy built-ins (like PPM) seem to completely ignore my screen parameters and extend off-screen, hiding information and selection choices.

darussell
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 04 Oct 2012, 16:53

Puppy 4.1.1 on Libretto 110CT

#843 Post by darussell »

OK. Found this fix w/Google. Display now seems correct and working. Only PCMCIA CDROM & floppy to go....

Ok these are the directions for setting up the screen display on the libretto 110/100. No cut off at bottom of screen or menu.

Setup
Xorg video wizard
Edit xorg conf

Now edit these lines:

Section "monitor"
Display Size 160 100 # mm (Remove the # from in front of the line or in Linux speak uncomment it)
Identifier "Monitor0"
Vendor Name "TOS"
Model Name "5084"
Horiz Sync 31.5-48.5
Vert Refresh 56-72


Option "DisplayHeight480" (Remove the # from in front of the line or in Linux speak uncomment it)

Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
Default Depth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x480"
End Subsection

After editing save it.

Then hold down Ctrl/Alt and hit back space.

At the prompt, type "startx" . This will bring up your new display.

Pretty sweet graphics on this ancient Laptop.

dogbert0360
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 03:18

#844 Post by dogbert0360 »

I'm fairly new to Puppy Linux and have posted a few topics throughout this forum. But I'm going to list some things that I would like to see improved. Of course some of these have been covered by others.

1) "Dependencies Issues" - This by far needs to be addressed and taken care of once and for all. Nothing frustrates a new Puppy user than when trying to install their favorite piece of software, and then greeted by a huge list of lib files to hunt down. This is inexcusable and should be a thing of the past.

2) "Better installation notifier" - When installing software there needs to be a clear and understanding knowledge that the software is being installed. Not just a few simple blurb windows that appears and disappears, but a window that has a indicator bar showing the user that it is being installed and is finished when done.


3) One other thing that I found odd was removing a piece of software that came with the Puppy Linux I had installed, and noticing that it also removed an important lib file that other pieces of software depended upon. This too needs to be corrected. The user should be able to uninstall any piece of software without malice whether it came pre-installed or not.


4) "Better upgrade-ability" - This I know has been mentioned before and I would like to see this made easier and less problematic.

5) The ability to update drivers and software through "Slickpet". This would ensure the latest drivers are available to the user to install.

6) "Muiltimedia" install option in Slickpet. This could install media stuff like gstreamer or other media necessities. Kind of like "Restricted Extras" in Ubuntu.


If anyone else has any other points for this list feel free to add on.

iluminameluna
Posts: 30
Joined: Thu 20 Oct 2011, 07:33

Versions of Puppies: how to choose

#845 Post by iluminameluna »

Louis Lavery wrote:I'm using puppy 4.3.1, as that's what I thought I was supposed to do. Perhaps I should have started with some other version, I mean so as to get a better version of SeaMonkey?
But that's the only complaint I've got, I really like the system especially being able to boot from a CD, so thanks to the guys who made this possible.
Regards, Louis.
Glad you found your way here, Louis! I did too, abt a year ago & I keep finding myself back here after taking a tour with Ubuntu & then Lubuntu.

I wanted to address the issue of how to choose a version of Puppy to use that will work best for what you need and taking into consideration what your resources (hardware) can handle.

After reading countless forum posts on all kinds of questions, I started a thread (don't ask, I can't tell, 'cause I forgot!) for newbies who got as lost as I did last year just setting up wireless internet using a USB modem. Argh!

I went & found that thread some days back & discovered that all those issues had become moot (YAY! for newbies!) which is a great thing but I find that I still have NO clue as to which distro of Puppy will work the best with my little beast.

I don't know what the answer might be for figuring it out but I did have a good suggestion in the #puppylinux channel of the irc.freenode.net from a Mr. Frickss (he suggested Slacko 'cause I want to use Chromium as my browser).

I will go and try it out but in the meantime I've done a frugal install of Wary Puppy 5.2.2 which has ver 2.3.1 of Seamonkey, if it helps you or anyone else.

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

Forget Puppy

#846 Post by SorinMS »

Forget PUPPY. After spending almost a week working with puppy, I'd invariably come to this (see picture attached). It appear when you try to install some application. The only solution that i found is to wipe and reinstall the system. But you loose all the settings and application that are installed.
Initially, I want Puppy for a 256 MB ram old laptop, but today I must look elsewhere.

The pros:
-lightweight, could be installed in almost 10 min
- detect automatically sound, video, and wireless cards
- support wine (I've installed Office 2007 Entreprise on it)
- fast and low demanding hardware configuration
- relatively good internet support

The cons:

- It's very hasardous to download application with built-in package manager (se picture attached)
- To install a printer is very difficult. I give-up after one day trying
- Doesn't keep some settings; I hardly configure to associate MSPowerPoint for the .ppt files, but those settings dissapears when reboot (I've installed full, not frugal)
- difficult to work with file opperation (copy, paste, etc)

One in all, it seems a joke OS or maybe I'm not good enough for this OS
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rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

Re: Forget Puppy

#847 Post by rcrsn51 »

SorinMS wrote:- To install a printer is very difficult
No it's not. Go here to get printer driver packages ready-made for Puppy.

All you had to do was ask.

Dewbie

#848 Post by Dewbie »

SorinMS wrote:
difficult to work with file opperation (copy, paste, etc)
This works the same way as with Windows.
And (unlike Windows) you can also copy/paste by shading the area to copy, moving to where you want it copied, and clicking the scroll wheel. So it's actually easier.
Forget PUPPY. After spending almost a week working with puppy...it seems a joke OS
Then Windows must be, too, because it took me much longer than that to learn it.
(And I'm still learning it.)
Maybe you should try Windows 8. :lol:

dogbert0360
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 03:18

#849 Post by dogbert0360 »

(@zorinms)

Sorry that you had a bad experience using Puppy Linux. It seems to me that you installed "Precise Puppy 5.4" which is a new release from Puppy founder Barry K. I too, had the same thing happen and this could be a serious bug flaw. Barry in his blog post is working on a service pack which may address this issue and other bugs. Price one pays with any new release.

Please don't take this one bad experience with Puppy Linux as all are like this. I'm using Slacko 5.3.3 and from my use is very stable with plenty of software. Give it a try!

vobbino
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 05 Nov 2012, 05:12

Re: Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

#850 Post by vobbino »

dogle wrote:Newbies - Puppy is a brilliant distro for all sorts of people - but not yet for everyone (yet!). Some - hopefully just a few - don't get along with it. To make Puppy even better, we need to know WHY. If Puppy is not the answer to all your prayers, and especially if you are thinking of moving elsewhere, please pause and tell us what you didn't like, or what you would like to see get better, in this thread (but please discuss individual technical problems in another thread). Your views are very important - YOUR comments can help to make good things happen.
Hello everyone, I am a new member and I would like to thanks for offering support.
I finally decided to deal with Linux but with the live cd for now because have no time right now to deal with partitions and installations, also I need to buy a bigger hard disk.

I just downloaded Precise Puppy 5.4 and burned it on a cd, I'm happy with it because it looks nice, loads fast and the first run gives very clear instructions, you really cannot make mistakes.
However, as I'm not a Linux user the first thing I struggled with is the Home icon on the desktop.
It doesn't show all drives (I want to see the content) and even going up level it still doesn't show the root.
Same feeling regarding the file manager utility (I forgot its name), it just does the same behaviour as the Home icon, the only content visible is that from the live cd which I think is pointless.
There are the icons on the bottom which show all drives but why the file manager and the Home don't let see the root?
As I said I'm pretty new to Linux so if I said anything pity just let me know. :D

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666philb
Posts: 3615
Joined: Sun 07 Feb 2010, 12:27
Location: wales ... by the sea

#851 Post by 666philb »

hi vobbino

press the home icon, then click up a directory (the up arrow)

this is the top directory and you can find your hardrives,usbs & cds in /mnt/
Bionicpup64 built with bionic beaver packages http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114311
Xenialpup64, built with xenial xerus packages http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=107331

ICPUG
Posts: 1308
Joined: Mon 25 Jul 2005, 00:09
Location: UK

#852 Post by ICPUG »

Hi Vobbino,

666philb response to your query is, of course, correct but perhaps doesn't clarify things.

The Linux filesystem and the way Linux sees EVERYTHING including hardware as a point in the filesystem tree is different from the way other OS like Windows work. Consequently, it can be a little hard to adjust to in the beginning.

The simplest way to get at your hard drives is to use the icons at the bottom of the screen because these will automatically 'mount' the drive and open the file manager looking at the drive.

Having to mount the drive before you can see its contents is another feature of Linux. Consequently, even if you follow 666philb comments and try to seek the contents of your hard drive via the file manager you will not see the contents until the drive is mounted. The same thing applies if you want to save data from a program directly to the hard drive. The drive must be mounted first. This concept can really be tricky and upsets some people. However, it can be viewed as a security measure because mounting a device is an extra step any malware has to perform before it can deposit something on your computer without your knowledge. Also it is an extra step YOU have to perform before you can delete something you didn't mean to!

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

#853 Post by SorinMS »

Yes, indeed it's "Precise Puppy 5.4". Instead of it, i've installed Peppermint last edition, but it doesn't impress me to much. Remember, I want a light SO for an old laptop. At home, on my desktop computer I use Ubuntu, and I'm very pleased with.
dogbert0360 wrote:(@zorinms)

Sorry that you had a bad experience using Puppy Linux. It seems to me that you installed "Precise Puppy 5.4" which is a new release from Puppy founder Barry K. I too, had the same thing happen and this could be a serious bug flaw. Barry in his blog post is working on a service pack which may address this issue and other bugs. Price one pays with any new release.

Please don't take this one bad experience with Puppy Linux as all are like this. I'm using Slacko 5.3.3 and from my use is very stable with plenty of software. Give it a try!

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

#854 Post by SorinMS »

It doesn't have the CTR+S, CTR+V, CTRL+X, as in windows, or in other Linux distro.

Dewbie wrote:SorinMS wrote:
difficult to work with file opperation (copy, paste, etc)
This works the same way as with Windows.
And (unlike Windows) you can also copy/paste by shading the area to copy, moving to where you want it copied, and clicking the scroll wheel. So it's actually easier.
Forget PUPPY. After spending almost a week working with puppy...it seems a joke OS
Then Windows must be, too, because it took me much longer than that to learn it.
(And I'm still learning it.)
Maybe you should try Windows 8. :lol:

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#855 Post by rcrsn51 »

SorinMS wrote:It doesn't have the CTR+S, CTR+V, CTRL+X, as in windows, or in other Linux distro.
Are you talking about copying text between documents or copying entire files?

vobbino
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 05 Nov 2012, 05:12

#856 Post by vobbino »

ICPUG wrote:Hi Vobbino,

666philb response to your query is, of course, correct but perhaps doesn't clarify things.

The Linux filesystem and the way Linux sees EVERYTHING including hardware as a point in the filesystem tree is different from the way other OS like Windows work. Consequently, it can be a little hard to adjust to in the beginning.

The simplest way to get at your hard drives is to use the icons at the bottom of the screen because these will automatically 'mount' the drive and open the file manager looking at the drive.

Having to mount the drive before you can see its contents is another feature of Linux. Consequently, even if you follow 666philb comments and try to seek the contents of your hard drive via the file manager you will not see the contents until the drive is mounted. The same thing applies if you want to save data from a program directly to the hard drive. The drive must be mounted first. This concept can really be tricky and upsets some people. However, it can be viewed as a security measure because mounting a device is an extra step any malware has to perform before it can deposit something on your computer without your knowledge. Also it is an extra step YOU have to perform before you can delete something you didn't mean to!
Thanks ICPUG now I got it, I also was asking myself why I've to mount a drive!
By playing I was able to see the option (right click) but I still was confused then I manually copied the entire content of a DVD to another drive tough that wasn't my final expectation.
Your answer will clarify some issues I am having in another my thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=81939
Thanks for help.

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

#857 Post by SorinMS »

I've follow your indication and I've installed Slacko 5.3.3.
I haven't the errors that I had on Precise Puppy.
But the problem with printer installing still persist.
I followed the indication on help, but I couldn't install foo2zjs package.
When I type "make" command, that message appear: ERROR: must install GNU dc with -e option. I've download dc, and I follow the install help provided with it (configure, make, and make install). But is of no use; the error still appear. I have an HP laserjet 1005.

dogbert0360 wrote:(@zorinms)

Sorry that you had a bad experience using Puppy Linux. It seems to me that you installed "Precise Puppy 5.4" which is a new release from Puppy founder Barry K. I too, had the same thing happen and this could be a serious bug flaw. Barry in his blog post is working on a service pack which may address this issue and other bugs. Price one pays with any new release.

Please don't take this one bad experience with Puppy Linux as all are like this. I'm using Slacko 5.3.3 and from my use is very stable with plenty of software. Give it a try!

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#858 Post by rcrsn51 »

SorinMS wrote:But the problem with printer installing still persist.
I followed the indication on help, but I couldn't install foo2zjs package.
When I type "make" command, that message appear: ERROR: must install GNU dc with -e option. I've download dc, and I follow the install help provided with it (configure, make, and make install). But is of no use; the error still appear. I have an HP laserjet 1005.
You don't need to make anything. There is a ready-made PET at the bottom of the page named foo2xxx_rcrsn-2012.05.05.pet.

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

#859 Post by SorinMS »

rcrsn51 wrote:
SorinMS wrote:But the problem with printer installing still persist.
I followed the indication on help, but I couldn't install foo2zjs package.
When I type "make" command, that message appear: ERROR: must install GNU dc with -e option. I've download dc, and I follow the install help provided with it (configure, make, and make install). But is of no use; the error still appear. I have an HP laserjet 1005.
You don't need to make anything. There is a ready-made PET at the bottom of the page named foo2xxx_rcrsn-2012.05.05.pet.

SorinMS
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 02 Nov 2012, 13:41

#860 Post by SorinMS »

Finally I succeed in make my printer run on Puppy.
Thanks to all of you that supports me on the Puppy's way.

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