Crowdfunded Puppy

[nooby]

Does anyone know of a puppy that has been made to run on a Chromebook?
Or are they somehow locked to google code only?

Very good question I stood there at the retailer and they are so cheap
compared to other brands. Acer having big built in HD was the one
me fancied most.

But not knowing if it would boot Puppy or not using USB
or frugal install I never bought it.

So hope somebody have tested and find this thread.

[gcmartin]

To change the question just a little, it can be asked this way:

1. Does the Linux kernel posess the hardware's peripheral drivers?
2. If not, are the drivers available anywhere?

My guess is that Chromebook OS (also referred to as ChromeOS) is a Linux derivative and "may" use kernel drivers.

Here to help

[Billtoo]

Very good question I stood there at the retailer and they are so cheap
compared to other brands. Acer having big built in HD was the one
me fancied most.

But not knowing if it would boot Puppy or not using USB
or frugal install I never bought it.

I have this model and use it a quite a lot.
Supposedly it's possible to install Ubuntu on it but if not done properly it destroys
the computer so I wouldn't risk that.
The ChromeOS is fine for me, I've got other computers to run Puppy and other distros on.
For web surfing,youtube,music,etc.etc. this is a good laptop.
The internal speakers are weak but it will connect to powered speakers or an hd tv.
Anyways, I'm happy with mine

[nooby]

Billtoo it shows how dependent I am on Puppy OS.

Sure I could use ChromeOS it is already loaded and
boots fast and have access to the apps and so on.

But it wants my real name and maybe mobile phone number too?

Didn't you have to give them that? I have the money
but something within me says. If it does not run Puppy
easily then buy something else for same amount of money

[Billtoo]

Billtoo it shows how dependent I am on Puppy OS.

Sure I could use ChromeOS it is already loaded and
boots fast and have access to the apps and so on.

But it wants my real name and maybe mobile phone number too?

Didn't you have to give them that? I have the money
but something within me says. If it does not run Puppy
easily then buy something else for same amount of money

I gave it my real name, I don't own,need, or want a mobile phone so I don't remember if it asks for that.

Anyhow, get what makes you happy of course

[greengeek]

I sent a message to system76 asking if they had any laptops that did not have UEFI and their response is:

Hi,
Thank you for your interest in our laptops! We don't currently have any laptops with a UEFI Bios. We engineer a custom bios. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
- Emma Marshall ( System76 Sales )

(Given that their primary target is Ubuntu I had been expecting them to say that their laptops used a special Ubuntu UEFI key so it's pleasing that they offer a completely alternative route...)

[nooby]

First time I here the name of that company.
I doubt that our retaliers eeven have heard of them either.

You are lucky living in a country having that diversity.
https://www.system76.com/

[greengeek]

Actually I live in New Zealand in the South Pacific so I think Sweden is possibly closer to system76 than I am

If you could pop in and collect one of their laptop samples before you come down into the southern hemisphere summer for a holiday that would be great...
Very warm down here today!

[nooby]

Actually I live in New Zealand in the South Pacific so I think Sweden is possibly closer to system76 than I am

If you could pop in and collect one of their laptop samples before you come down into the southern hemisphere summer for a holiday that would be great...
Very warm down here today!

Hehe would be cool to be in a warm climate for a change.

Relatives to me went to NZ for their Honey Moon. They loved the
dramatic scenery.

Okay back on track. Haha they cost some 10.000 SEK
that is some 3 times what I am prepared to pay for a computer

Using Google translation from Swe to Eng gives this crude result.

system76.com ... To my knowledge they do not exist here in Sweden,
and unfortunately it seems that they do not deliver outside of North America.

No wonder me had not even heard of them. Too expensive
for the average buyer of laptops.

[James C]

I have no connection to the company but System 76 does ship worldwide.

https://www.system76.com/home/shippinginformation/

Now Shipping Internationally!

System76 now ships Ubuntu laptops, desktops, and servers to 25 countries. New, lower UPS shipping rates make it affordable to have the quality and craftsmanship of System76 products in your country.

North America United States, Canada, Mexico

South America Brazil

Europe Iceland, Greenland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland,
Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Greece, Malta

Asia India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore

Australia

Zealandia New Zealand

One other thought, the higher cost may be relative for a machine guaranteed to work with Linux.

[nooby]

We are all very different.
I'm a very pessimistic guy.
Now way I do such things
as buying from abroad.

If it is not available locally then I skip it.

But that is just me and good that you
told us about how to get it if one want it.

PS okay if one could by a BSG Cylon woman
from USA then I would do an exception
to my hesitation to buy from another country.

[gcmartin]

@TedDog has provided a very good and clear explanation (I think) on UEFI systems. This explanation pretty much centers around that post.

Its helpful to understand UEFI operation and what contributes to how it delivers its service.

Hope this help; for understanding what is shared, can also help one understand how they can exploit or circumvent PC boot process to meet-match requirements.

Here to help

[technosaurus]

It does have one distinct advantage:
Booting the Linux Kernel without a bootloader

[nooby]

From the text linked to I found this important part.

this document assumes your root partition is /dev/sda2
and that your kernel sources are in the /usr/src/linux folder
and that your UEFI boot partition is /dev/sda1.

How does one know that such exist on the Samsung
or ASUS or ACER HP/Compaq or Packard Bell or whatever
brand available over shelf for the average buyer
that are tired of Win8 and have heard of Puppy or
any other OS like Linux Mint etc?

The Seller does not even know what UEFI is.
And they don't allow you to boot an USB
to take a look how the HD is formatted.

Sure you can join support forums for all these machines
and hope for that at least one of them would know?

The most important thing is that before you shrink
a partition with Ms Win 8 on is to boot into
Win8 and make it go out of sleep more or else
one destroy the Win8 install.

That one keep the Win 8 is a must how else
to update your smartphone? The Smartphone
companies all of them except Apple make use
of the Ms Win OS for to do upgrades to Android OS

The exception may be Chrome book updating using itself

[technosaurus]

I don't think I have ever seen a computer that had a working hard drive without /dev/sda (or /dev/sda1 if it had been partitioned at all) ... but most drives using a MBR (partitioned with fdisk or other old MBR based tools) would need to repartitioned with gdisk to migrate from a MBR to GPT.

The process of installing to a GPT and setting up Linux to boot from it is currently difficult to automate with existing tools. Only a gentoo type installation would be able to handle it because the kernel command line needs to be built in to the kernel itself which requires a kernel rebuild.

I could make it work and install fairly quickly, but the installation disk would be at least a full CD and perhaps a mini-dvd in order to include the prebuilt kernel tree such that all the user needs to do for his PC is rebuild the kernel with parameters derived from the current hardware settings (a bit of an oversimplification) ... I just don't think the Puppy community would go for it due to size, so I won't go into further detail ... OEMs on the other hand spend lots of money manually doing this for each device, so if anyone wants to pay me to do it, then users could then use it to generate optimized per device builds (specific to raspberry pi, beagle bone, etc...)

[jamesbond]

To put this back on track, I want to comment as someone who has been on the receiving end of hardware donations by some generous forum members (=which is the initial idea of this thread).

I can tell you that it motivates me, but more importantly, it helps me to troubleshoot problems with that hardware, and enables me to provide better support for it - support that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

I am not the only one - there are others too (Barry himself included, I think). So yes, the idea *does* work.

That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

[gcmartin]

...That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

REread the thread. I agreed to help. In fact, I will help you or anyone on this. What can we do together to get this off the ground?

PM me with your ideas to start.

[technosaurus]

We need a business oriented person to set up some affiliate programs which I(we) could integrate into a new web desktop. Someone who can communicate with search engines, content providers and retailers to get a percentage of referrals. For that to happen the Puppy Linux Foundation would need to be formalized (with real virtual meetings and everything) and a person(s) authorized with a really cool sounding title that will (maybe) help their career.

[jamesbond]

...That being said, I thought gcmartin was the one to do the fundraising, and I remember he has agreed to do it? Whatever comes out of it?

REread the thread. I agreed to help. In fact, I will help you or anyone on this. What can we do together to get this off the ground?

PM me with your ideas to start.

I already said what I'm gonna do: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 464#735464

EDITED to simplify the reply.

[greengeek]

I can tell you that it motivates me, but more importantly, it helps me to troubleshoot problems with that hardware, and enables me to provide better support for it - support that otherwise wouldn't be possible.

I am not the only one - there are others too (Barry himself included, I think). So yes, the idea *does* work.

If such support came in the form of a 'piece of donated hardware' do you think this would benefit Puppy progress, or would such a piece of hardware be too out-ofdate as soon as it was available?

If there is benefit in this idea can you suggest some of the specs or features of the hardware that would enable developmental progress?
eg Making Puppy handle usb 3 - or has that already been solved?
Large RAM sizes - or is that issue sorted?
Recent wifi interfaces - or are they just too varied?
Recent video cards - or are they also just too varied?

Or would the value simply be in the fact that the hardware was powerful enough to crunch the numbers for faster compile times etc?