Trying to install Puppy with 128 MB of RAM

[ravenxau]

[quote="saintless"]Instead of Swap partition you can use Swap file:
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SwapFile

I used this method and puppy runs fine on my machine which only has 64meg of ram.

[ravenxau]

.

I do not intend to use Dillo any time soon. (I'd consider giving it a second chance if the devs added support for flash and other, similarly modern things.) I will look at other browsers that are fairly full-featured but lightweight (QtWeb comes to mind), but Dillo is one browser that I will not use at this time.

-

no flash, etc.... is dillo's greatest strength - it runs great on low spec systems - if flash is required just try an appropriate version of seamonkey

[ravenxau]

On the browser front, can anyone recommend a lightweight browser that is NOT Dillo and has most of the features of, eg, Chrome? I don't fancy running actual Chrome/ium on this craptop! Flash and the ability to display modern webpages in modern ways is a requirement. "Looks good" is a nice bonus. Lack of memory leaks (Hi, Firefox!) is a nicer bonus.

Opera, perhaps?

[bigpup]

Try Classic Pup 2.14X
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42553
ttuuxxx likes to tweak programs down to the smallest possible usable size.
He keeps it updated.

[starhawk]

I've literally never had ClassicPup be faster than --or even as fast as-- Puplite5. The only two I've found which do run faster are TurboPup and (so far, on the CPi only) Akita.

That said, I'll try it, just for the sake of arguing. I cannot imagine that this will be a successful test -- if it works fast enough even to be usable, I will be extremely amazed.

EDIT: just realized it's 8pm here and I haven't had my dinner yet. Dinner first, puppy later. Sorry, guys, but I need food!

[Jasper]

QtWeb has much to commend it, certainly in terms of load and rendering speed where, like Dillo, it is lightning fast on my 14 year old desktop running Slacko 5.3.1.

However. the download is 13MB v 0.7MB for Dillo 2.2 (an eighteenfold, though probably unimportant increase), but my total RAM usage has increased to 107MB v 51MB for Dillo.

starhawk now adds speed as a new requirement - I have no idea what the effect would be if I had only 128MB of RAM and a 384MB Swap partition, but perhaps he, or anyone, would care to test QtWeb v Dillo and report back.

I use SeaMonkey mostly because it suits my needs best, but Dillo and QtWeb render some three times faster. they also load from scratch about four times faster (which is unimportant because I have plenty of RAM and all browsers load immediately from being minimised in my tray).

PS I just closed the QtWeb bookmarks side bar and total RAM usage went down from 107MB (per the screenshot) to 95MB and that seems, to me, to be more than peculiar.

[starhawk]

ClassicPup results are in...

Not faster than Akita, possibly a little slower. Still no audio.

Dustbin time. At least all I wasted was a CD-R and some time.

[rjbrewer]

ClassicPup results are in...

Not faster than Akita, possibly a little slower. Still no audio.

Dustbin time. At least all I wasted was a CD-R and some time.

Get a cd-rw.

[starhawk]

Only place that has optical media locally is the almighty Wal*Mart.

They don't SELL -RW discs there. Only -R.

[L18L]

Code: Select all

mkswap

or

Code: Select all

cfdisk

Keep on trying

[bigpup]

ClassicPup results are in...

Not faster than Akita, possibly a little slower. Still no audio.

Dustbin time. At least all I wasted was a CD-R and some time.

I said try it. Every computer reacts, to different versions of Puppy, in their own way. Sound issues can usually be fixed with a little setting tweaking.
Your topic title is "Trying to install Puppy with 128 MB of RAM".
Now you want that and the fastest operating system out there.
That would be a Linux version that works only in commands at a Linux "Command prompt" and uses programs that are very simple in operation.
With program added features comes bloat.

The result of adding new features to a program
or system to the point where the benefit of the new features
is outweighed by the extra resources consumed ({RAM}, disk
space or performance) and complexity of use. Software bloat
is an instance of Parkinson's Law: resource requirements
expand to consume the resources available. Causes of software
bloat include {second-system effect} and {creeping
featuritis}. Commonly cited examples include Unix's "{ls}(1)"
command, the {X Window System}, {BSD}, {Missed'em-five},
{OS/2} and any {Microsoft} product.

and any {Microsoft} product.
I like that statement!!
creeping featuritis
That's a good one too

[bigpup]

Dustbin time. At least all I wasted was a CD-R and some time.

Give it to a needy Windows user.

[starhawk]

The /original/ title of this thread, was more descriptive of what I actually wanted addressed. Re-read the first post and you'll see there are three questions. IIRC only one had to do with swap -- and that question has long been answered. The original title was something along the lines of "three questions regarding the infernal dell" -- I assume when I start talking along those lines, people know I'm mouthing off at this particular CPi. I've only made somewhere around a dozen plus threads on it

Flash seems to like retitling my posts, on the premise that people will actually read more than that before replying. The fallacy is that even he apparently didn't read the whole first post -- hence why the title is almost completely inaccurate. This is unfortunately not the first time this has happened. I think Flash is either a skimmer or a speed-reader who has not perfected his technique yet -- but then again, I could be wrong. I can't look over his shoulder -- he's half the country away in Arizona (I'm in NC) and my eyesight's not that great

So should I persist with an incorrect but mod-assigned title and deal with the assumptions of people who jump right in having read only the title and maybe a few posts, or do I re-title it myself the way it should be -- and risk mod-wrath and possibly a ban?

You tell me.

EDIT: I was wrong. Two questions of the three deal with swap. I'll repeat all three here for clarity's sake since I tend to be a bit of a windbag.

(1) Full install of Puplite5 on an ext3 f/s partition does not seem to function. It only mounts "read-only" even though it's not supposed to and, upon attempting to boot, errors out almost instantly. Why does this happen?
(2) Is it safe to put swap on flash-based media such as a CF card? [SOLVED -- the answer is "yes".]
(3) Versions of Puppy roughly 511 and earlier have a bug in Gparted that prevents swap space from being correctly created. Any attempt results in an unusable unoccupied partition with an "unknown filesystem". Why is this?

[Flash]

I read enough of the first post to see that you asked three questions. That's bad form in a forum like this, as it "braids" the resulting thread, making it hard for anyone to follow - either someone who's trying to help or someone who's looking for an answer. It's better to make each thread about only one subject. So I picked the question in your first post that seemed dominant and made the subject line about that.



P.S. By the way you do know that you can edit your posts, including their subject lines? When thinking up a subject line, consider that people might misunderstand it. Remember, they don't know what you know.

[starhawk]

OK, since you're the expert...

Which of these three would have been the best option?
(1) Make one thread about the three issues, in the Beginners Help section.
(2) Make THREE threads, each with a different issue, in the Beginners Help section.
(3) Make THREE threads, and place them in other sections of the forum (please specify locations).
(4) Other, please specify.

You tell me and I'll try to remember for next time. What I wanted to do, was make things a little easier for you by not cluttering up the place with umpteen billions of threads. I've had more than a few regarding this craptop, and I didn't want to increase that threadcount by much -- there's a fine line between "asking a couple questions" and "spamming the forum".

...and I'm fully aware of the ability to edit my own titles. I just didn't want to edit /your/ edit and tick you off even more. Last thing I ever want is a ban. Been there (on another forum), done that -- and it wasn't pretty. Bans cut me off from people I like.

[ggg]

(4) Other, please specify.

(1) Google more and more effectively (e.g. type any Latin phrase then click)

(2) Don't waffle, don't embellish needlessly, don't exaggerate (e.g. billions)

(3) Don't be rude (e.g. it [Puppy] has no bloody idea [it hasn't - devs might])

(4) Never mind wasting your time - think about the cumulative time of others

(5) Don't be tetchy, choose a short informative heading and a single theme.

[bigpup]

(3) Versions of Puppy roughly 511 and earlier have a bug in Gparted that prevents swap space from being correctly created. Any attempt results in an unusable unoccupied partition with an "unknown filesystem". Why is this?

Maybe has to do with the version of Gparted that is in these earlier versions of Puppy and your hardware.

Good question for a separate topic.

To really dig down to the cause, the first thing is determine if you are following the proper procedure to make a swap partition. Not an insult to your ability, but first step in troubleshooting a problem is start at a known point and work out from there.

Any attempt results in an unusable unoccupied partition with an "unknown filesystem

This statement tells me you have tried to do it, but does not tell me what steps you did and what happens at each step in the process. These are the clues to the answer.

If I need to do any real partitioning and formatting I use a Gparted live CD to do it. The latest version is up to date Gparted with latest bug fixes.
Info:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
Download:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted ... ve-stable/

[starhawk]

Steps that I almost always use to make a drive ready for Puppy:

- Delete any existing partitions
- Select most of the drive (most = minus whatever I want for swap) as ext3
- Select a small part (256-1024mb) as linux-swap
- Click the RUN icon and let gparted do its thing

So for this, I had 3820mb to play with. Delete current partition(s), set a 3436mb ext3 partition, and a 384mb linux-swap partition. Then I click RUN.

It removes the old partition(s) just fine, and sticks in the new ext3 partition quite easily, but when it comes time to make the linux-swap partition, it errors out -- IIRC I looked at the log once and Puppy was trying to mount the swap as it was being made -- I'll have to check that again and make certain what it says. All I know for sure right now is that the last step in the process, where it actually makes the partition there and useful, that's where it mucked up.

I'll also note that it can't seem to make the swap turn off. Yeah, there's swapoff -- in and out of gparted -- but it doesn't work at all. IIRC I got it to work by opening a terminal and typing swapoff /dev/sda2 but I could be wrong about that.

[ggg]

..only one [two] had to do with swap -- and that [/those..?] question has long been answered.

So what are you still muttering on about - that's a rhetorical question.

..opening a terminal and typing swapoff /dev/sda2 but I could be wrong about that.

So what is "that", as it worked - that's another rhetorical question.

Google puppy linux swapoff command and read the first result to confirm what you know works.

However, with a mere 128MB RAM do explain why you need help and swapoff /dev/sda2? That's my question.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Google google effectively then read, digest and give us a break for a few days.

[bigpup]

Just something to try to see if it has an affect.
When using Gparted perform each procedure as a separate operation.
Do not do as a combo process.
At completion of each, look for desired result. I have seen Gparted mess up if you give it combination process. I know it is suppose to handle multiple processes, but a possible cause of problem to eliminate.

Have you tried with a newer version of Gparted than the one that comes with Puppy?