Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

komarx6 · Joined: 23 Sep 2012 Posts: 22

I wanted to install fast and lightweight OS for my IBM X30. There is something wrong with it and it's really slow, so after trying few OS's I decided that puppy is the right choice.
I'm using Ubuntu for most of time, so it would be nice if I could install Ubuntu compatible version. I saw 5.2.5 on youtube and I liked it. But latest version has openbox desktop environment, and that is the problem. My old IBM X30 has problems with some desktop environment, and openbox is one of them. Screen just turns black when GUI starts. Then I tried 5.3.3 with JWM, and it was OK, but it doesn't look good as 5.2.5 that I saw on youtube. And it has SeaMonkey preinstalled, while I was expecting to choose which browser to install. (besides I prefer Ubuntu compatible version)
So should I install 5.2.5 or what is your advice.

Thank you

dk60902 · Posted: Sun 23 Sep 2012, 11:33 Post subject:

Wary Puppy 5.3, full install if your RAM is low, like 256MB or less.

komarx6 · Joined: 23 Sep 2012 Posts: 22

Why? What is it's desktop environment? What browser?
It's slackware compatible, right?
It would be better for me if I install ubuntu-compatible version, but slacko is OK too.

starhawk · Posted: Sun 23 Sep 2012, 13:15 Post subject:

The Ubuntu-derived Puppy would be Lucid Puppy (newest official version is Lucid Puppy 525, though someone has updated it further on this forum -- check the "Puppy Derivatives" or "Puppy Projects" section for that). It works with, as the name indicates, packages intended for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.

Thing is, you're running a Pentium 3 in that laptop. It's a fast Pentium 3 but it is still a Pentium 3. That's well out of date.

Check out Akita Linux (Puppy Derivatives section) or Puplite 5.0 (use the forum search button, and when you see the downloads, get the one with the Wary kernel in it). Those are based on the older (but still very useful) Puppy 420. Puppy does not update usually for security issues -- we don't seem to have many of those -- but rather to keep from being left behind. Akita and Puplite have been updated to be useful even though the original Puppy 4 series is a couple years behind the curve now.

Puplite and Akita will FLY on that laptop. Puplite will boot slightly faster though -- Akita is really Puplite 6 so to speak, so it's more up-to-date, but Puplite 5 is still viable.

Most Puppies use JWM as the windowmanager, and we seem to like Seamonkey for the browser. (I hate Seamonkey and I get rid of it as fast as I can, but I'm in the minority I guess.) There are Puppies with eg XFCE or LXDE around... Racy (the successor to Wary) uses XFCE by default I think. There are several floating around that use Openbox + fbpanel, and one or two with GNOME and KDE. We don't normally do GNOME or KDE because Puppy is supposed to be small (Puppy gets rather pudgy at about the 250-300mb mark) and the fancy DEs really balloon the ISO size.

...one further thing. The Official Puppies and the derivative Puplets (as we call them) are supported almost identically well -- so don't be afraid to try out an ISO from this forum, if you have a problem we'll try to help.

darkcity · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 2215 Location: near here

Hi komarx6,

Welcome to the forum ; -)

Puppies can be built using Woof with binary compatibility from another distro, such as Lucid, Slacko and Precise. Or built 'natively' as in the case of Wary/Racy.

Lucid was the official community version 5.00 - 5.28, based on Ubuntu

Slacko is the official community version 5.3 onwards, based on Slacko

Wary/Racy are the official BarryK version (Barry is the creator of Puppy) are 'native'

If you want Ubuntu compatibility Lucid is a good choice, but the latest version is recommended-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70855

starhawk · Posted: Sun 23 Sep 2012, 13:28 Post subject:

One other thing.

As darkcity pointed out, you can change windowmanagers. If you get a black screen -- hold down CTRL and ALT and hit BKSP (like CTRL-ALT-DEL on Win, but it's CTRL-ALT-BKSP instead). That gets you out of a gui. You'll see an "exited from X" message, it's OK.

Type xwin jwm as darkcity suggested, press ENTER and you should be good to go. If you get dumped back to commandline, you'll have to muck through xorgwizard. Type that and press ENTER and it'll give you a lovely DOS-like interface to poke through various settings. Just hit Probe and follow the rest of the prompts and you should be OK. Usually no need to Test later on. (I *never* hit that button!)

`f00 · Posted: Sun 23 Sep 2012, 14:17 Post subject: Subject description: wm-o-rama

Almost all pups have excellent provision for a variety of window managers and/or desktop environments (see desktop section of this forum), even a useful switcher like plogout if you have more than a few wms Wink

.

Could be your previous (ubuntu Neutral

) experience with openbox was missing a connection to the display - bummer as ob is a really nice wm and normally doesn't do that nonsense in puppy. Or the 'black' background was simply the usual startup of ob without a rox pinboard or other set background (you should have some sort of bgsetter in a startup for any wm or the rootwindow is 'black'/no-background).

@starhawk - hunh, in the past (with respect to the wild&crazy xorgwizard ui), I always did the final test since it used to give a decent 'confirm' check. Nowadays I avoid going down the xorgwizard maze like the plague/sapper-of-sanity it can seem to be (edit xorg.conf directly and re-X is faster and less confusing for me).

you're welcome - GL&HF with puppy, komarx6 Smile

komarx6 · Joined: 23 Sep 2012 Posts: 22

Thanks everyone!
I'm currently installing 5.3.3. to hard disk. I installed Lupufy, and openbox too. It works! I thought it has some problems with openbox because I installed Lubuntu on it and when I change to openbox in Lubuntu login screen everything goes black, Crunchbang didn't work so I thought it had problem with openbox.

Maybe I'll have more questions after installation, but that is it for now.
Thank you.

komarx6 · Joined: 23 Sep 2012 Posts: 22

OK here is question Smile

How to remove SeaMonkey?

darkcity · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 2215 Location: near here

The answer to this question is a little more complicated. The simple answer is to ignore it, install your favorite browser and set that as default.

---
removal depends on the type of installation you have gone for-

Frugal-
You could delete it, but to wont save any room because its part of the base SFS. You cant fully remove it without remastering the SFS.

Full-
You can delete its files to remove it.