Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[rayyu]

Hello!
I'm hoping someone can help me out here. Puppy works quite well on my laptop (except for some reason I can't get the movie player to work, but I'll get that sorted another time. . . =)) but on my netbook (Lenovo Ideapad S110), it seems like I can't get Puppy to work at all.

When I boot it up with the cd, all the usual messages show, but when it comes to the part where the desktop is supposed to appear, all I get is a black screen. I've tried Slacko and Precise, the latest versions.

Should I try using an older version? If so, what would be the best?

[starhawk]

First of all -- welcome, as we say, to the Kennels! We hope you'll hang around.

Now...

At the black screen, hold down CTRL and ALT simultaneously, then press <-BKSP once.

This should get you to a prompt:

#

Make the prompt look like this:

# xorgwizard

then press [ENTER]. You should (if these really new Pups are like the rest of 'em) see a DOS-like screen that lets you manually configure things. (You will not be using a mouse here! Arrow keys and [ENTER] are your new best friends.) Try Xvesa first (the 'vesa' button on the first screen). Having completed the wizard, you'll find yourself at the:

#

This time, make it look like this:

# xwin

and press [ENTER].

If the colors are all off, or it's full of fuzz, or it's something that twiddling resolution won't fix -- CTRL+ALT+BKSP, and reenter the wizard. This time you have a decision to make.

If your computer uses discrete graphics, and you know what they are (eg ATi or nVIDIA) then pick the middle ("Choose") button and select the relevant driver. IIRC there are two for nVIDIA and the one that has always been full of bugs is noted as such. There are three or four for ATi. Try each one in turn, till you find the one that works -- I don't know for your laptop which it is (hey, at least I'm honest about it!).

If your laptop does not have (and never did) a sticker on it for ATi or nVIDIA, then you probably have Intel graphics. Choose the leftmost button (something like "Xorg" or "Continue") and follow the prompts, with one exception -- DO NOT CLICK "TEST"! The "test" button has always been wonky with me -- sometimes it will do the right thing, more often it just messes things up. Best, then, to avoid it.

Hope that helps, and if it doesn't, we're here to answer more questions

[rayyu]

Thanks for replying!

Unfortunately, nothing happened when tried to start the wizard. Also kinda scary, there was an ominous beeping sound when I used the ctrl and alt on the right U^_^

I suppose I'll have to check out the older versions? or whatever is gonna work for a generic intel card

[cthisbear]

Specs:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=PD023081

:::::::::

Try >>> DpupExprimo5X327

http://smokey01.com/pemasu/DpupSqueeze5X/DpupExprimo5X327

squeeze-5.X.3.2.7-SCSI.iso 23-Feb-2012 15:36 150M

Should be a goer....chris.

[rayyu]

thanks! I've been checking out the other puplets but I've never come across this one.

It seems to be working, and I was psyched that it came with Enlightenment, which is my favorite WM. Unfortunately, when I switched to it xorg crashed after a few seconds. . . gonna try to configure it later, but so far using vesa makes it crash as well Oh well.

So based on the name, I'm assuming this is compatible with Debian Squeeze?

[RSH]

If it (any puppy) doesn't boot into X desktop, try boot option vga=ask!

[starhawk]

...or, at the "hashtag" prompt ( # ), type xorgwizard and press [ENTER]. That *should* get you to a good old-fashioned text-mode video setup wizard.

At the end of xorgwizard, you'll find yourself at the hashtag. Type xwin and press [ENTER] and you should be up. If it dies again, go back to xorgwizard. (If it dies but doesn't put you back to the hashtag, hold down CTRL+ALT and press BKSP. That will get you back!)

[rayyu]

Configuring xorg was easy. . . getting X to STAY up was the problem =))) I click on one thing in E17 and down it goes. I tried a few settings but nothing comes of it (( Looks like I'm stuck with JWM or other minimalistic WMs U^_^ Macpup isn't really my style, even if it does use E17.

Haha, I guess it's my netbook . . all the distributions I've wanted to run on it (Puppy, Tiny Core) always had trouble with the graphics Oh well, Puppy without the WM that I want is better than no Puppy at all

[starhawk]

Did some research for your problem. What you have sounded to me like a driver incompatibility, and I was right.

The problem is (basically) primarily one of corporate politics combined with Puppy tending to orient itself for somewhat older setups. Your computer is (in the Puppy view of things) rather new, and so Puppy doesn't like your graphics. Plus...

Intel (from what I understand) is not willing to release anything other than "development versions" (beta releases) of their graphics drivers for Linux use. I came across a reference on Arch Linux to a community driver via XFree86 (the organization that develops the X Window System) but there's going to be some work involved in making that functional for you, and I'm not an expert enough at it, to tell you how to do it.

If you want to go that route, please PM our resident drivers guru, tempestuous. I would, after referencing this thread, tell him that you're trying to get graphics drivers working for MacPup (make sure he knows which version), with an Intel GMA3150 driver setup. Tell him that I think this driver will work for you, if he can help you make it work.

On the other hand, it occurs to me that you could see if XorgWizard contains the "intel" driver -- try that first, then if it fails, talk to tempestuous at that point -- at least, that's my suggestion.

I wish you plenty of luck in either case.

[rayyu]

Thank you! I really appreciate you clearing this up for me Seems like my netbook just isn't as Linux-friendly as I'd've liked it to be. This isn't the only distribution that has had trouble with it, so I guess I know what to stay away from next time I go shopping. Haha, I was beginning to think that the main problem existed between the keyboard and chair. . .

Anyway, I really appreciate you and everyone else's help. Seems like Puppy just isn't for my netbook. . . well, for now. I don't really have enough time to be working on getting it to work, as I use to for school every day.

Oh well, it's not all bad. Puppy works great on my bigger laptop anyway XD

edit

Also, for the record. . . I was able to use the Lucid Puppy live cd so I rejoiced for a second and then--no wifi Alas. And apparently getting it up would involve compiling a driver, which I am so not ready for

[bigpup]

There are additional wifi drivers for Lucid Puppy here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=59000

[muggins]

rayyu,

if you have the dreaded linux-unfriendly poulsbo graphics you may want to check the slacko-5.4-pae & upup-precise-3.7.2 threads.

[rayyu]

Fortunately, I don't think I do. . . just a generic intel card (which is keeping me from running Slacko)

[rayyu]

[rayyu]