Pussy: potentially a Puppy with a perfect package manager
Posted: Fri 01 Jul 2011, 06:02
Updated: March 2nd 2013
A new Pussy is currently being developed that is based on Debian Live Wheezy.
Newbie level full HDD install will finally be introduced in this version. All of the known issues that the older version had will be fixed (mostly due to HDD install being added as an option and newer less buggy rox-filer and other apps/ programs/ packages from the Wheezy repositories solve alot of the older problems).
New features/ bug fixes:
The actual ISO itself is bootable from GRUB/ Syslinux
Rox-Filer focus problem is solved due to a newer version of Rox-Filer
Newbie level HDD install and automatic GRUB config and dual booting setup is now a reality
Full non frugal/ Live HDD install is now an option. This uses less RAM than running a live system however, you cant use the same install on multiple computers without it messing up. (just like normal Debian installs that arent live and Windows for example)
The ability to specify what directories are "persistent" by editing one config file is introduced. Default behavior is all dirs are "persistent" but its possible to have only one dir like /root or /home or /myfiles set as "persistent". This can save space and clutter because it lets the user avoid keeping 1000 log files that get updated in the boot process from invading your save file or partition.
The inability to save to an NTFS partition if that partition is also the boot partition (ie. the bug that nooby made famous) has been fixed.
Copy to RAM boot method no longer copies the entire boot partition to RAM, only the specified .squashfs file.
The doubling of the JWM menus (Debain and Pussy) shouldnt be a problem anymore as saintless found a solution.
This new version does have a much larger disk footprint compared to the previous version.
3x variants of this new version of Pussy will be created:
#1) server/ console only edition. To be used as a server or as a nerdy educational/ technical learning tool. Similar to the older server version of Pussy but this time includes as much functionality that can be squeezed out of a commandline/ console/ terminal only OS. This will still work nicely on computers with no monitors attached (ie. headless server) and has network autodetection and all the server stuff working on the first boot (samba, webserver, ftp server, telnet server, ssh server etc).
#2) Pussy CDROM edition. Basically the same old Pussy with most the stuff you need already installed with the familiar JWM/ Rox-Filer/ Xorg desktop environment. This will take up an entire CDROM sized ISO and should be comparable to the older Pussy Xtra.
#3) Pussy DVD edition. Has everything you could possibly ever use or find useful. The size of a DVD ISO. Everything. More. Than. You. Could. Possibly. Imagine. Will. Be. Installed. And. Ready. To. Use.
Note the lack of a smaller Pussy "Base" version that was only a couple hundred MBs in size and offered a basic desktop environment with not many apps. This is because Pussy is now being designed to make full use of the space that is available on the media it is supposed to run from.
Also with the Wheezy base being much larger than the older Squeeze and the HDD install option adding another 200MB or so overhead of disk size, we decided to simply fit as much as we can into a full sized CDROM ISO.
Burning a 200mb distro to a CDROM disk is not how we will do things anymore. One reason is that all this does is waste 400 or 500MB of disk space on the CDROM that could be used for other things such as including all the apps/ firmware and other things that are traditionally downloaded and installed after setting up the OS. Its simply much better to offer a complete solution by including all the extra stuff that you would usually download and configure. This doesnt add to more RAM usage or load on the CPU as the same amount of apps are loaded into RAM at one time as the older smaller version. However if using the copy to RAM function to boot Pussy, then yes it will use more RAM.
I will post more info here as things develop. The server/ console only Pussy is just days or a week or so away from being finished and the CDROM desktop version is therefore maybe between 2 weeks and a month away from being released. The DVD version will probably be released between 1 and 2 weeks after the CDROM desktop version.
http://www.thepussycatforest.info
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is old news and is kept for archival purposes:
Updated December 29th 2011:
Uploaded the USB stick/ SD card image of Pussy Xtra to the new server.
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... w2.img.zip
Note: it may take 24 hours for the domain to become active, so if this url doesnt work for you just wait and try again. Instructions showing how to use the dd program to image a usb stick or SD card are on the website.
Updated December 6th:
Updated README.txt and known-issues.txt on the website: http://www.thepussycatforest.info to reflect the latest changes.
New features: auto mounting of removable devices and single click mounting of squashfs sfs and iso files. Webcam video recording and GTKam to grab images from cameras and grandr to manage multi monitor systems and change resolution of the fly. Keyboard mapping for other languages is now supported as a catroll-panel option.
There are OSes about with one click internet access, Pussy Linux is zero click. How would you like your wired ethernet to be automatically detected and setup even before the OS has finished booting? Try Pussy and see.
Pussy is in an early beta preview stage. There is 3 new versions of Pussy, both contain alot of fixes and some new features but this is a testing release and an early look at what will be available in the beta but there is still alot of work to do before the actual beta is released. Pussy has turned into a very community driven project and there are new features and fixes being added all the time, this early preview release gives Pussies contributors a chance to test whatever fixes have been applied since the alpha.
Pussy is similar to Puppy in the way it looks and works and offers a similar desktop environment but is based on Debian Live and has apt-get package management that works 100% of the time. We are still looking for Puppy devs to contribute so we can make this distro more Puppy like, with no noticeable difference to the user, but with the benefit of the debian apt-get package management.
Pussy Linux xtra iso download (649mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... eview2.iso
This is a demonstration of just how much functionality you can cram into a 700mb live-cdrom. DVD ripping, OpenOffice, video editing, assaultcube fps gaming, java, gimp, LMMS, compiling and development similar to devx This aims to be a complete solution, but uses no more resources than the standard version. Also fetures PPPoE and dialup.
Pussy Linux standard iso download (228mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... eview2.iso
Similar to Puppy in size and features.
Pussy Linux server edition download (91mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... server.iso
This boots to the commandline and by default, lighttpd, telnetd, pure-ftpd, openssh-server are running immediately ready to login. Has full wifi and ethernet autodetection with the wicd-curses network manager
Pussy separates the commandline and Xwindow system. Once booted, puppy has ssh, telnet, ftp and webservers working instantly. Pussy is a server OS and a desktop OS. Type startx to enter Xorg. Choose rox filer background to enable background icons. If you get ethernet connected spam over your login, dont worry, ignore it and login with root and pussy. In the future, the server edition will need to have user and pass to login, but the standard version, altho containing most of the server apps will boot to an Xorg desktop automatically with no need to login.
This is what Pussy Linux is:
Ive started with the smallest possible minimal install of debian-live. Then installed the familiar xorg, jwm, rox-filer desktop environment that puppy uses and most of the equivalent packages that puppy has except for puppy specific things like pburn and pdvdsrab and pmount etc somethings like those I am not able to shoehorn onto debian very easily. At present I'm a one man team. If others would like to work on Pussy and release patches for it containing these programs i would be very helpful. I have done nothing to break compatibility with the debian OS and as such the apt-get package management system works 100% of the time. After I've installed the apps i have hunted
through every folder of the OS and deleted anything that isn't needed, thus Pussy is slimmed down to a rough equivalent of Puppy. The application selection isn't exactly the same, Pussy contains stuff Puppy hasn't got and Puppy has stuff that Pussy hasn't got but I see Pussy as complete enough for a reasonable comparison between the two OSes.
Please note that the purpose of releasing Pussy is not to be in competition with Puppy, it is only to showcase to the Puppy devs that a Puppy based on a major distros base can be just as good and the package management is 1000x better at roughly the same size and resouces use. I am hoping that someone takes hold of Pussy and turns it into a Puppy.
Pussy will continue to be updated and worked on and like i said its very alpha ish and raw at the moment, but i hope that people in the puppy dev community will take a look at it and see how a future Puppy that is based on another major distro and is 100% compatible with it awesome package management could be created.
A new Pussy is currently being developed that is based on Debian Live Wheezy.
Newbie level full HDD install will finally be introduced in this version. All of the known issues that the older version had will be fixed (mostly due to HDD install being added as an option and newer less buggy rox-filer and other apps/ programs/ packages from the Wheezy repositories solve alot of the older problems).
New features/ bug fixes:
The actual ISO itself is bootable from GRUB/ Syslinux
Rox-Filer focus problem is solved due to a newer version of Rox-Filer
Newbie level HDD install and automatic GRUB config and dual booting setup is now a reality
Full non frugal/ Live HDD install is now an option. This uses less RAM than running a live system however, you cant use the same install on multiple computers without it messing up. (just like normal Debian installs that arent live and Windows for example)
The ability to specify what directories are "persistent" by editing one config file is introduced. Default behavior is all dirs are "persistent" but its possible to have only one dir like /root or /home or /myfiles set as "persistent". This can save space and clutter because it lets the user avoid keeping 1000 log files that get updated in the boot process from invading your save file or partition.
The inability to save to an NTFS partition if that partition is also the boot partition (ie. the bug that nooby made famous) has been fixed.
Copy to RAM boot method no longer copies the entire boot partition to RAM, only the specified .squashfs file.
The doubling of the JWM menus (Debain and Pussy) shouldnt be a problem anymore as saintless found a solution.
This new version does have a much larger disk footprint compared to the previous version.
3x variants of this new version of Pussy will be created:
#1) server/ console only edition. To be used as a server or as a nerdy educational/ technical learning tool. Similar to the older server version of Pussy but this time includes as much functionality that can be squeezed out of a commandline/ console/ terminal only OS. This will still work nicely on computers with no monitors attached (ie. headless server) and has network autodetection and all the server stuff working on the first boot (samba, webserver, ftp server, telnet server, ssh server etc).
#2) Pussy CDROM edition. Basically the same old Pussy with most the stuff you need already installed with the familiar JWM/ Rox-Filer/ Xorg desktop environment. This will take up an entire CDROM sized ISO and should be comparable to the older Pussy Xtra.
#3) Pussy DVD edition. Has everything you could possibly ever use or find useful. The size of a DVD ISO. Everything. More. Than. You. Could. Possibly. Imagine. Will. Be. Installed. And. Ready. To. Use.
Note the lack of a smaller Pussy "Base" version that was only a couple hundred MBs in size and offered a basic desktop environment with not many apps. This is because Pussy is now being designed to make full use of the space that is available on the media it is supposed to run from.
Also with the Wheezy base being much larger than the older Squeeze and the HDD install option adding another 200MB or so overhead of disk size, we decided to simply fit as much as we can into a full sized CDROM ISO.
Burning a 200mb distro to a CDROM disk is not how we will do things anymore. One reason is that all this does is waste 400 or 500MB of disk space on the CDROM that could be used for other things such as including all the apps/ firmware and other things that are traditionally downloaded and installed after setting up the OS. Its simply much better to offer a complete solution by including all the extra stuff that you would usually download and configure. This doesnt add to more RAM usage or load on the CPU as the same amount of apps are loaded into RAM at one time as the older smaller version. However if using the copy to RAM function to boot Pussy, then yes it will use more RAM.
I will post more info here as things develop. The server/ console only Pussy is just days or a week or so away from being finished and the CDROM desktop version is therefore maybe between 2 weeks and a month away from being released. The DVD version will probably be released between 1 and 2 weeks after the CDROM desktop version.
http://www.thepussycatforest.info
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is old news and is kept for archival purposes:
Updated December 29th 2011:
Uploaded the USB stick/ SD card image of Pussy Xtra to the new server.
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... w2.img.zip
Note: it may take 24 hours for the domain to become active, so if this url doesnt work for you just wait and try again. Instructions showing how to use the dd program to image a usb stick or SD card are on the website.
Updated December 6th:
Updated README.txt and known-issues.txt on the website: http://www.thepussycatforest.info to reflect the latest changes.
New features: auto mounting of removable devices and single click mounting of squashfs sfs and iso files. Webcam video recording and GTKam to grab images from cameras and grandr to manage multi monitor systems and change resolution of the fly. Keyboard mapping for other languages is now supported as a catroll-panel option.
There are OSes about with one click internet access, Pussy Linux is zero click. How would you like your wired ethernet to be automatically detected and setup even before the OS has finished booting? Try Pussy and see.
Pussy is in an early beta preview stage. There is 3 new versions of Pussy, both contain alot of fixes and some new features but this is a testing release and an early look at what will be available in the beta but there is still alot of work to do before the actual beta is released. Pussy has turned into a very community driven project and there are new features and fixes being added all the time, this early preview release gives Pussies contributors a chance to test whatever fixes have been applied since the alpha.
Pussy is similar to Puppy in the way it looks and works and offers a similar desktop environment but is based on Debian Live and has apt-get package management that works 100% of the time. We are still looking for Puppy devs to contribute so we can make this distro more Puppy like, with no noticeable difference to the user, but with the benefit of the debian apt-get package management.
Pussy Linux xtra iso download (649mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... eview2.iso
This is a demonstration of just how much functionality you can cram into a 700mb live-cdrom. DVD ripping, OpenOffice, video editing, assaultcube fps gaming, java, gimp, LMMS, compiling and development similar to devx This aims to be a complete solution, but uses no more resources than the standard version. Also fetures PPPoE and dialup.
Pussy Linux standard iso download (228mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... eview2.iso
Similar to Puppy in size and features.
Pussy Linux server edition download (91mb):
http://www.thepussycatforest.info/linux ... server.iso
This boots to the commandline and by default, lighttpd, telnetd, pure-ftpd, openssh-server are running immediately ready to login. Has full wifi and ethernet autodetection with the wicd-curses network manager
Pussy separates the commandline and Xwindow system. Once booted, puppy has ssh, telnet, ftp and webservers working instantly. Pussy is a server OS and a desktop OS. Type startx to enter Xorg. Choose rox filer background to enable background icons. If you get ethernet connected spam over your login, dont worry, ignore it and login with root and pussy. In the future, the server edition will need to have user and pass to login, but the standard version, altho containing most of the server apps will boot to an Xorg desktop automatically with no need to login.
This is what Pussy Linux is:
Ive started with the smallest possible minimal install of debian-live. Then installed the familiar xorg, jwm, rox-filer desktop environment that puppy uses and most of the equivalent packages that puppy has except for puppy specific things like pburn and pdvdsrab and pmount etc somethings like those I am not able to shoehorn onto debian very easily. At present I'm a one man team. If others would like to work on Pussy and release patches for it containing these programs i would be very helpful. I have done nothing to break compatibility with the debian OS and as such the apt-get package management system works 100% of the time. After I've installed the apps i have hunted
through every folder of the OS and deleted anything that isn't needed, thus Pussy is slimmed down to a rough equivalent of Puppy. The application selection isn't exactly the same, Pussy contains stuff Puppy hasn't got and Puppy has stuff that Pussy hasn't got but I see Pussy as complete enough for a reasonable comparison between the two OSes.
Please note that the purpose of releasing Pussy is not to be in competition with Puppy, it is only to showcase to the Puppy devs that a Puppy based on a major distros base can be just as good and the package management is 1000x better at roughly the same size and resouces use. I am hoping that someone takes hold of Pussy and turns it into a Puppy.
Pussy will continue to be updated and worked on and like i said its very alpha ish and raw at the moment, but i hope that people in the puppy dev community will take a look at it and see how a future Puppy that is based on another major distro and is 100% compatible with it awesome package management could be created.