Puppy Linux Windows Installer - LICK v1.3.3 released

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phredo
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon 21 Oct 2013, 23:15

#301 Post by phredo »

The uninstaller just removes the entry from the boot.ini (along with deleting the grub4dos and puppy files.
In the case of the setup I referred to, I did run a file named "grubinstall.exe" that must have done something. I did the placing of the puppy and grub folders myself, as well as adding the line to boot.ini. I wonder what it was and if it's something I would need to undo, if I wanted to back out of it?

I like it that your exe sets up an "uninstall" option and that it doesn't change the mbr. I'm ready to try it on our desktop computers, especially my wife's, which only has a gigabyte ram. I just need to do a few more experiments with wine and vbox first. By the way, I haven't tried "default=C:\BOOT\STAGE1" yet, but I'll report if it works soon.

phredo
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon 21 Oct 2013, 23:15

#302 Post by phredo »

"default=C:\BOOT\STAGE1" worked to make Puppy the boot default. Makes it much easier to start up unattended without slipping into Windows by mistake with its long start up and shut down times.

noryb009
Posts: 634
Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2010, 22:28

#303 Post by noryb009 »

The installer for Slacko Puppy 570 has been released.

phredo: great to hear that it worked!

phredo
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon 21 Oct 2013, 23:15

#304 Post by phredo »

Thanks, noryb009 -

I've installed both your Precise and Slacko on several computers at home, and I love the ease of installation and the nice touches you put into the menu. I customized menu.lst, because I put both Puppy directories into a "Puppy" folder, both just to centralize everything and also to have a convenient place to add sfs files common to both, download files to so they'll be outside the save file(s), and anything else that comes to mind. It makes for something I can copy to another computer, with or without the original installation directories.

Because of the above, it would probably be easier for me to download an iso of Slacko 570 and just replace the 560 files with the new ones. Which files would I need to copy, just the puppy_slacko_5.7.sfs or some or all of the other files? Alternately, I could just save my menu.lst, install from your new exe, move things around and edit my old menu.lst, if needed.

Also, will my old save files work with 5.70?

Thanks

noryb009
Posts: 634
Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2010, 22:28

#305 Post by noryb009 »

Thank you! :)
Which files would I need to copy, just the puppy_slacko_5.7.sfs or some or all of the other files?
You need to copy the .sfs, initrd.gz, and vmlinuz (in some puppies, you also need the zdrv, but slacko doesn't have one).

You can do it either way. If you understand the menu.lst, you can also just make a new folder, copy the three files there, then add that to the menu.lst.
Also, will my old save files work with 5.70?
I'm not sure about this. I know that some Lucid Puppies were backwards compatible, but I'm not sure about slacko. You might want to ask in the main 570 thread.

as77
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue 25 Feb 2014, 09:16

#306 Post by as77 »

Windows Installers mostly run OK, but ... but a lady after downloading and running one was disappointed to have just a blank screen in her Amilo. The display of which I know to be problematic. But which I know how to force to VESA drivers. Even she knows the steps needed to use xorgwizard to get VESA working when booting from a cd

BUT this neat Windows Installer gives no chance to go to xorgwizard?
The blank screen situation is so stuck that no Ctrl-Alt-Backspace helps

Any advice?

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

#307 Post by mikeb »

From a laymans point of view this would be in the domain of the puppy installed rather than the installer BUT if there are any vga or video related settings in the menu.lst produced (or it needs some for this machine) that could be a factor.

Blank screens are usually a framebuffer problem.

mike

as77
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue 25 Feb 2014, 09:16

#308 Post by as77 »

I made a similar setup in my HP XP laptop. The Win-installer made just 7 files, none of which have any driver configurations to be edited.

These driver settings are buried in the "zipped" slackosave.2fs file? There is no menu.lst

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mikeb
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#309 Post by mikeb »

vga= is a kernel boot option set in menu.lst or whatever boot method is used....only a suggestion.

mike

noryb009
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Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2010, 22:28

#310 Post by noryb009 »

mikeb is right, this is more of a Puppy problem. Nevertheless, I'll try to help.

You can find the menu.lst at C:\menu.lst in windows, or at /mnt/sda#/menu.lst in another puppy.

If you want to try a menu.lst configuration without going into windows or puppy, you can go to "Start Puppy Linux", hit the Esc key (there might be a message box?), select the entry with up/down, then press "e" to edit the entry.
You probably need to add pfix=nox to the line that starts with "kernel". From there, you should be able to run xorgwizard.

If you are still having trouble finding the menu.lst, reply here. If you still have trouble with the blank screen, you would probably have more luck in the Beginner's forum.

magerlab
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Joined: Sun 08 Jul 2007, 20:08

#311 Post by magerlab »

Hello, friends!

I put this windows installer on my mom's laptop.
It works very good and she likes to use puppy, it's much faster than win7 that is preinstalled on the laptop.

I did not want to wipe win7 at all. It's much easier to use windows installer:).

The only thing I'd like to do is to edit the boot loader menu and put puppy on the first place because sometimes my mother forgets to choose puppy.

So, what file must I edit?
Thank you

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mikeb
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#312 Post by mikeb »

You can do it in windows ...computer advance settings and change the default to the one called puppy

mike

as77
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Joined: Tue 25 Feb 2014, 09:16

#313 Post by as77 »

magerlab wrote:... sometimes my mother forgets to choose puppy.. So, what file must I edit? Thank you
That's something I'd like to hear. I mean EXACTLY HOW, which file in which path ... Not Just "just do it" or "it is easy".
Many of us have a real life, not just googling and experimenting various things for hours and hours

Thanks to noryb009. Indeed there was menu.lst in c:\ with indeed looong rows ending pfix= ...
Not that the lady loves to visit xorgwizard at every boot. But maybe in the next months I have some hours spare time to find the very secret "pfix" to force VESA drivers
_ _ _

One more nice feature in these excellent Windows installers that after the blank screen in Linux there's the good old working XP and Notepad to edit the configuration. Still better were if only someone would tell how ...

Those frquent blank screens are doing excellent job in frightening ordinary users away from Puppy Linux to say Ubuntu where display recognizing is coded correctly

"Beginners Help" should have a sticky thread "Blank Screen". Now these discussions are scattered in maybe hundreds of threads. In which one very often finds just advice like "try this Puppy" or "try that Puppy"
_ _ _

E: Stuggling with the blank screen is over. Funny but true that her switching the Slacko 5.7.0 to non-PAE version cured the problem. Thanks again to the easiness of Windows installers not very many clicks were needed!
Last edited by as77 on Sat 19 Apr 2014, 00:51, edited 5 times in total.

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mikeb
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#314 Post by mikeb »

If you are talking about XP then yes here is an example.

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=C:\GRLDR
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\GRLDR="Puppy :)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000" /fastdetect

where the change is in bold.

magerlab was asking about windows 7 and you cannot do this with notepad it HAS to be done through the advanced settings. That varies with vista/7/8 and I don't have any of them to take a screenshot PLUS there are BILLIONS of google hits on that subject. :D

mike

ps as for blank screens changes in the kernel/xorg have given puppy builders a hard time .... even the world of linux like to make it hard for the 'competition' :D

noryb009
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Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2010, 22:28

#315 Post by noryb009 »

Not that the lady loves to visit xorgwizard at every boot. But maybe in the next months I have some hours spare time to find the very secret "pfix" to force VESA drivers
You should be able to just use "pfix=nox" once, run xorgwizard, and create a savefile, then I think VESA would be used the next boot. I'm not entirely sure about it, though.
Still better were if only someone would tell how ...
How to edit the file? Simply open it with notepad, make the changes, then save. To add pfix=nox, just change the line that looks like this:

kernel /Slacko-Puppy-Linux-5.7.0/vmlinuz psubdir="Slacko-Puppy-Linux-5.7.0" pfix=fsck

to

kernel /Slacko-Puppy-Linux-5.7.0/vmlinuz psubdir="Slacko-Puppy-Linux-5.7.0" pfix=nox

or similar.

How to fix the blank screen? Like I said before, I'm not an expert with video problems with Puppy. If the problem persists after trying pfix=nox, you'll probably have more luck posting to the Beginners Help, and in your post, include the video card and puppy version you are using.

as77
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue 25 Feb 2014, 09:16

#316 Post by as77 »

For Knoppix I have a two pages long list of boot menu options, which do (among other things) cure the blank display symptom (forcing to VESA)

This right from the boot prompt, not needing to run xorgwizard. Could email potential fixes to the lady living over twenty miles from here. Unfortunately having the seldom used Via S3 Unichrome Pro display adapter

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mikeb
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Joined: Thu 23 Nov 2006, 13:56

#317 Post by mikeb »

Via unichrome..indeed a nightmare...modelines in xorg.conf needed.

All getting a bit off topic apart from with regard to what to edit to change boot configs.

One things for sure norby009 is that the win32 installer is getting plenty of use :D and by and large is getting good results for users. (chatroom and forum feedback I notice)

mike

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technosaurus
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#318 Post by technosaurus »

a picture is worth 1000 words
Attachments
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Check out my [url=https://github.com/technosaurus]github repositories[/url]. I may eventually get around to updating my [url=http://bashismal.blogspot.com]blogspot[/url].

noryb009
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Joined: Sat 20 Mar 2010, 22:28

#319 Post by noryb009 »

Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I can assure you that this is a false positive. Google Chrome has marked a few other things false positive as well, and you can find more stories if you search for them.

I have downloaded one installer (570), and it has the same md5 and sha1 sum as the original. Mediafire is therefore not modifying the files (or at least that one).

You have to remember, this isn't your average installer - it changes how the system boots. To a malware scanner, it looks like a rootkit trying to conceal itself. I scanned a few installers with Windows Defender, and everything was clean.

If you still don't believe me, feel free to read through the source code. NSIS installers can be opened by 7-zip, so you can check the puppy files against the checksums of the files in the ISO. Finally, if you believe that I would change the source before compiling, you can decompile the script by using these tools. I couldn't get the decompiler to work, but compiling an installer with the same puppy files and settings should be the same, or very similar (from a binary diff tool). To reduce the size of the diff (from compression differences), you could just diff the script.bin file from the output of the Universal Extractor (see previous link). If anyone wants more specifics to get a closer match, let me know.

It wouldn't convince anyone if I decompiled the script/recompiled the exe, so if anyone wants to do so, let us know the result.

rokytnji
Posts: 2262
Joined: Tue 20 Jan 2009, 15:54

#320 Post by rokytnji »

I use the Slack0 5.7 .exe on my Compaq CQ57 Laptop with 4 primary Compaq partitions.

I guess if one wants to complicate things so the warning goes away
Change the file extension, and ask the user to rename the files back to .exe
Though renaming a file can be intimidating to a clueless computer user used to downloading and selecting run blindly.

It would require site instructions edit also. More a PITA than it is worth.
Just my opinion though.

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