Puppeee 4.4 revisited

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Mike7
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Joined: Tue 19 Feb 2013, 00:31

#46 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, mikeslr.

Thanks for all the interesting info. I didn't know there had been further developments of Puppeee. I will surely try them out. Do you know if they have the USB self-install feature of Puppeee 4.4, like the bootinst.bat file?

I think I understand most of what you said, but I'm too new to all this to feel confident about implementing it. Dealing with partitions is partiularly worrying for me. Same goes for Grub4DOS, which I really need to figure out how to use.

Your workaround for saving the save file is good. I'll remember that.

I may have some questions for you relating to various things you told me, down the line.

Cheers, and thanks again.

Mike

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Mike7
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#47 Post by Mike7 »

rcrsn51-

ISObooter didn’t work. Here’s what happened:

-- I plugged in a pendrive, formatted it with gparted, and checked that it had a boot flag.
-- I extracted isobooter.tar.gz and copied the isobooter file to the pendrive.
-- I clicked on it, and got:

Do you want to make drive bootable? [y/n]

-- I typed y and pressed Enter, and got this:

Are you sure> [y/n]

-- I typed y and pressed Enter, and got this:

------------------------------------------------------------------
cp: cannot stat ‘/usr/lib/grub4dos/grldr’:
no such file or directory
/tmp/myscript.txt: line 16: bootlace.com:
command not found

No ISOs found! Press Enter to quit
------------------------------------------------------------------

-- I pressed Enter and quit.

Notes:
-- grub4dos was not opened.
-- I am now unable to remove isobooter by re-formatting the pendrive with Gparted.

Query: Should the pendrive be mounted or unmounted during the procedure?

Hope you can help me out with this.

Mike

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rcrsn51
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#48 Post by rcrsn51 »

What version of Puppeee are you using?

IIRC, I looked in one and saw Grub4Dos. But I have lost my download link to check again. Apparently, your version does not.

I don't understand your problem with deleting the isobooter file. Just right-click and delete it.

But to run Gparted, the partition must be UNmounted.

[Edit] I got a copy from aarf's link here. and it has Grub4Dos.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Tue 26 Feb 2013, 21:33, edited 1 time in total.

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ally
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#49 Post by ally »

hey mike

might be easier to get a usb cd-rom is you're having all these problems, I did!

keep trying - it's worth it

:)

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mikeslr
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Hope I didn't confuse you

#50 Post by mikeslr »

Hi Mike7,

Hope I didn't confuse you. Saluki/Carolina/'lina-lite are not further developments of Puppeee: its just that Saluki was a later creation of jemimah so employed some of the expertise and experience she acquired creating Puppee.
They do not have bootinst.bat unless it is now known under a different name: "Bootflash Puppy to USB." Its been some time since I installed Puppeee to my eeepc, Asus 701SD. It currently runs Saluki, and sits on my nightstand to provide web access so I can obtain an answer to that important question I'll have forgotten by the morning. Before my next trip I'll probably switch over to 'lina-lite. At any rate, as far as I recall, the bootinst.bat enabled you to set the flag of USB-Key to "bootable" while you were still in Windows. That's what Bootflash Puppy to USB, which I think is now standard on all Puppies, does, however, of course not in Windows. If, however, bootinst.bat did more, than no. You'd have to do it manually.

Once, however, that flag is set you don't have to do it again unless you reformat the drive. And as I mentioned, if you use gparted to format it, before closing gparted you can set the boot flag to "bootable." Just highlight the partition and --I think-- right-click in the column labeled "manage flags." But uness you need to reformat it, don't. Once the USB-key/drive is bootable you can use it as any other drive: install a bootloader such as Grub4Dos into it, delete any or all files and folders from it --deleting won't reset the boot flag-- and copy any files into it, including those necessary for a Pup to run.,

Last word, for now: Whether or not you intend to multi-boot from your USB-key, if you're going to use Seamonkey or firefox, I recommend that you move the .mozilla file out of the SaveFile. The first time you run either Seamonkey or firefoxin a Puppy, it create a folder, .mozilla, in root. You can see it if you just start Rox: it opens to root AKA /root. Then left-click the "eye" in the center of Rox's toolbar. Other file managers have menus, one of which will have the option to "Show hidden files." .mozilla is used to store settings, bookmarks, plugins, but also to cache webpages. It can rapidly eat up a great deal of space. Your SaveFile is not dynamic, although you can use "Resize Personal Storage file" to increase it. [Requires a reboot into that Pup, as it will resize the SaveFile of the next Pup you boot into]. So what many of us do is move .mozilla out of / and symlink it back. 666philb provided the following link to a Youtube video showing just how its done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkvXafoP ... fvXoLCq23c.

Since it's hidden, I usually move it to within a folder called "browserscache" --without the beginning "." to hide it. After starting a new Puppy and running firefox for the first time, I open Rox to /root, delete the .mozilla folder, and create a symlink to /browserscache/.mozilla. If nothing else, I don't have to import bookmarks and install my favorite addons to every firefox.
I also try to remember to clean my cache every once in a while.

mikesLr

Volhout
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#51 Post by Volhout »

Mike7 wrote:Hi, Volhout.

Does Slacko 5.3.3 maintain all the power management and keyboard functions of the EeePC? If so, maybe I'll test it out on mine.

Cheers!

Mike
Puppeee has more detailed power management, but to be honest, I checked what the actual power difference is when playing with backlight brightness, and switching between power modes on the CPU, and I must say, I was not overly impressed. In average use you could "tune" the power consumption down to 80% and maintain good customer satisfaction.

The basic function keys (volume up-down, display brightness, and external monitor toggle work in Slacko. The WIFI on-off key switches WIFI off, but I have not seen it toggle ON again (maybe not enough patience) but I generally use the WIFI disable/enable in the tray.

Reason I switched away from puppeee is that I noticed frisbee has 2 problems, that may be specific to my use of the netbook. But Jemimah stopped supporting Puppeee, so they did not get resolved.
1/ when using frisbeee for a longer period (daily use, adding average 1 new SSID per week, after 4 months..) it stops working. Looks like the SSID list is full or something, but it even refuses to connect to existing SSID's in the list. The only thing I found out is that if you remove your save file, it works again (like a new install) but I haven't found what causes it.
2/ I had huge problems connecting to free wifi at the airport, since it continuously scans. On the airport, there are so many networks that you need to scroll the list, but by the time you where scrolled down, it refreshed, and you where back on top. And since every new scan gave different results, it was unpredictable where to go next. A manual SCAN button was not implemented before Jemimah stopped. She did however manage to slow down the scan rate, so you had more time to scroll down.

These issues may however not apply to your use of puppeee 4.4

Regards,

Volhout

jakfish
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#52 Post by jakfish »

I agree with Volhout: I found frisbee problematic on my eee 900. In Puppy 1.0, jemimah used pwireless2, which--so far--has been pretty fool-proof. Though it does oddly turn on wifi upon boot, even if disabled at last shutdown.

Volhout, in Slacko 5.*, is there fan control? In Lubuntu 12.*, I installed "fancontrol" from the repo and found that worked well in regulating the eee 900 fan. Could I expect the same in Slacko?

Jake

Volhout
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#53 Post by Volhout »

jakfish wrote:
Boy, do I wish either 12.04 or 12.10 were LTS.

Jake
At time Ubuntu 12.04 was released as LTS, Lubuntu was still changing packages (what audio player, what ....) and would definitely not go into a LTS path, since it would require mainaining 2 branches.

Volhout
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#54 Post by Volhout »

jakfish wrote:I agree with Volhout: I found frisbee problematic on my eee 900. In Puppy 1.0, jemimah used pwireless2, which--so far--has been pretty fool-proof. Though it does oddly turn on wifi upon boot, even if disabled at last shutdown.

Volhout, in Slacko 5.*, is there fan control? In Lubuntu 12.*, I installed "fancontrol" from the repo and found that worked well in regulating the eee 900 fan. Could I expect the same in Slacko?

Jake
I don't know if there is fan control. Never checked. Was a no-brainer for me since 1000HA has a relatively quiet fan. Have the netbook in daily use for 3 years now. Actually I am quite impressed that this cheap netbook still works flawless. My wife's more expensive laptop, used only 1-2 times a week has far more problems. The only real problem I can think of is the low audio level (try watching a movie in an airplane).

I will check the fan control.

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Mike7
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#55 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, rcrsn51.

I've been trying to fix a leaky roof all week is why I didn't get back to you until now. I hope you're still here, because I'd like to get Isobooter to work for me, if that's possible.
What version of Puppeee are you using?
Puppeee 4.4.
I looked in one and saw Grub4Dos. But I have lost my download link to check again. Apparently, your version does not.
I couldn't find it. What should I do about that?
to run Gparted, the partition must be UNmounted.
I finally figured that out. What about when copying files like Isobooter to it? I suppose it needs to be mounted then, right? (Please be patient, this is all new to me.)
I got a copy from aarf's link here. and it has Grub4Dos.
I searched again just now with pfind and couldn't find any Grub4Dos files, only grub and grub-floppy. Should I download it? If so, how and from where?

What about:
"/tmp/myscript.txt: line 16: bootlace.com:
command not found"
and
"No ISOs found!"?
What do they mean and what can I do about it?

I hope you'll help me make Isobooter work for me. I haven't found any other way to make bootable pendrives and I've been working at it all week, day and night, when I'm not working on the roof.

Cheers. . . and thanks!

Mike

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Mike7
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#56 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, Ally.
might be easier to get a usb cd-rom if you're having all these problems, I did!
I guess you're right, but it's gotten to where I'm trying to make a point: that it can be done without them. Plus the whole idea of netbooks is that they're so small and portable. Adding a usb cd-rom changes that.
keep trying - it's worth it
I've hardly slept all week and still no success. I just can't understand it. I have two pendrives that boot every time: Puppeee4.4 and Kaspersky Rescue Disk. I made them on my EeePC in Windows. No cd-rom. But I haven been able to set up any other linux distros on pendrives no matter what I do.

Is it possible that something's happened to my computer so that it won't allow me to make more bootable pendrives?

Cheers!

Mike

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Mike7
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#57 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, Volhout.

I appreciate your thoughtful comparison between Puppeee and Slacko.
These issues may however not apply to your use of puppeee 4.4
I don't even know what frisbee is <grin>.

I've had problems with a lot of other programs in Puppeee4.4, though. The synchronism or compatibility or whatever between applications isn't always good. Usage instructions are often inadequate and confusing. And a lot of important programs just don't work right; for example, there's no obvious way to define a destination for extracted files in ISOmaster, so it extracts them to the same directory where the iso is, and then you have to move them, like to /dev/sdc.

The Universal Installer and Bootflash applications don't work at all.

Gparted doesn't format to Fat16 even though it's on the drop-down menu of available formats, which means that some syslinux executables won't work on my pendrives.

And I still haven't figured out how to get Puppeee to stop saving everything to the eeesave file every twenty minutes, which is driving me nuts.

Et cetera, et cetera <big grin>.

I haven't had your wi-fi problems, however. Pwireless2 works fine for me. I have around ten wi-fi signals in range, and it finds the ones without security codes, chooses the strongest signal among these and connects me, with an IP address, in about three seconds.

I can't really complain about Puppeee4.4. I mean, heck, it boots from a pendrive!

Cheers!

Mike

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Mike7
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#58 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, mikeslr.
Hope I didn't confuse you.
I'm kinda confused, but it's not your fault <grin>.
as far as I recall, the bootinst.bat enabled you to set the flag of USB-Key to "bootable" while you were still in Windows.
It sets up an MBR with the right settings so a pendrive will boot. That's what is apparently missing in most other linux distros. The iso files were made for cd and not usb drives, which boot differently. I've been learning about this the hard way.
uness you need to reformat it, don't.
I've been working with one key, and since nothing I install on it will boot, I've been re-formatting it over and over again. Do you think maybe that's why nothing I put on it now will boot?

Thanks for the tips on how to handle the big Firefox bookmarks cache. Much appreciated.

Cheers!

Mike

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rcrsn51
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#59 Post by rcrsn51 »

Here is a PET that has the missing Grub4Dos files for your version of Puppeee. It appears that Jemimah did not include them in all her releases.

After installing it, you can continue with the ISObooter instructions.
Attachments
grub4dos_puppeee-1.0.pet
(133.36 KiB) Downloaded 274 times

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Mike7
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#60 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, rcrsn51.

Thank you for the grub4dos download link.

Here's what I did:

-- Downloaded grub4dos and installed it in Puppeee 4.4. (I double-clicked on the downloaded grub4dos pet package, and something called xdg, I think, did the installation.)

-- In Gparted, I re-formatted a 4Gb pendrive as FAT32, then re-sized the partition to 1Gb and set the boot flag on it.

-- Copied Isobooter into the partition, ran it following your instructions, and it reported success. I opened the pendrive and saw that the grldr file was there.

-- Quit Isobooter and downloaded Slitaz-3.0.iso from the Slitaz website. Checked the md5 sum with the Puppy hash application and it was right.

-- Copied the Slitaz iso to the pendrive and ran Isobooter again. Answered "n", then "y" when asked if I wanted to boot from the splash screen.

-- When Isobooter told me, I pressed Enter to quit the program, then checked to see that menu.list was installed on the pendrive.

-- Unmounted the pendrive and unplugged it, shut down Puppeee, unplugged the Puppeee pendrive and plugged in the Isobooter/Slitaz pendrive, and rebooted the computer.

-- It wouldn't boot into the new Slitaz pendrive!

Now what?

Cheers!

Mike

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rcrsn51
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#61 Post by rcrsn51 »

Mike7 wrote:It wouldn't boot into the new Slitaz pendrive!
Please be specific. What exactly happened? What messages did you get?

Did you try any other ISOs? Like a Puppy?

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Mike7
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#62 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, rcrsn51.
What exactly happened? What messages did you get?
Nothing happened. No messages.The Isobooter setup went smoothly as per your instructions. But the pendrive won't boot the computer, so it boots into Windows as usual.

When I look at the contents of the pendrive everything is there: grldr, slitaz-3.0.iso, and menu.list (and the Isobooter program, which you didn't say to remove).
Did you try any other ISOs? Like a Puppy?
Not yet, but I will.

Cheers!

Mike

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rcrsn51
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#63 Post by rcrsn51 »

It may be that the Eee BIOS is not compatible with Grub4Dos. I don't own one, so I cannot test this.

Maybe some other Eee owner here can test it for you.

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ally
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#64 Post by ally »

I have earlier models (701/901) which both work fine with grub4dos so sure the later models will too

only trouble I ever had was trying to boot from left hand usb - they only boot from the right ones

have used cdrom, usb stick and sd card without problems

:)

anikin
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#65 Post by anikin »

No BIOS/grub4dos clash issues, whatsoever on my eeepc901 & eeepc1000, both are dual SSD models.

Mike, I'm too a big fan of Jemimah's puppee, but I also keep an eye on what's currently available here. Latest kernels (3 and upward) have dramatically improved in terms of support for Intel Atom processors, specifically in power management. Have a look at pemasu's upupPrecise (kernel 3.7.2) or Barry's Precise beta with kernel 3.8. You'll be amazed, as these two are absolutely cold blooded beasts. And should you need fan control for your netbook, take advantage of rcrsn51's presence here and ask him to compile one for you. I did once:)

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