Very pleased to be getting started with Linux. I have a Dell C600 notebook, an older P3 platform w' 0.5 ram, and a 20gig drive. Currently I am running Win2000 on it. Win2k is old enough that there are growing problems in keeping up to date w' other software like Office applications. This means that there is less and less reason to suffer with the low performance of the P3 in the Windows environment.
In order to smooth my transition, I've bought another 20gig drive. It will be dedicated to Puppy Linux. I'll use USB thumb drives for moving files to/from Windows, but I'll still do a small (2gig?) partition for Windows files.
I'll temporairily put the CD drive in the laptop to boot Linux and then set up to boot from the hard drive in the future.
This will be my first real experience w' another operating system since leaving MSDOS 3.3 long long ago, except just a little experience with OS-9 on my old RS Color Computer.
My big concern will be getting accessory cards, IE
First try at Linux
Ooops
Ooops.
IE my wifi card, and the USB port. I really like my Hawking pcmcia wifi card but have a Linksys card I can use if I have to. The Dell's bios doesn't support booting from USB so I'm concerned about it working OK w' Linux. We'll see.
Should be a good learning experience for me.
Don
IE my wifi card, and the USB port. I really like my Hawking pcmcia wifi card but have a Linksys card I can use if I have to. The Dell's bios doesn't support booting from USB so I'm concerned about it working OK w' Linux. We'll see.
Should be a good learning experience for me.
Don
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Lobster
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Don welcome to the kennels 
Does the potential lapdog (laptop running Puppy) have a CD/DVD to boot from? The Bios should support that.
Barry has just updated this 'hard Puppy' page (installing to hard disk)
http://puppylinux.com/hard-puppy.htm
Hope that is useful
Does the potential lapdog (laptop running Puppy) have a CD/DVD to boot from? The Bios should support that.
Barry has just updated this 'hard Puppy' page (installing to hard disk)
http://puppylinux.com/hard-puppy.htm
Hope that is useful
Lapdog... 
Yes, The Dell Lattitude C600 (P3 850mhz, .5gig ram) has a cd that plugs into the right side accessory bay. I have a battery in that bay most of the time, but will place the CD/DVD in there for booting Puppy Linux from the CD I bought. I then expect to format a 20gig hd for Linux, and boot from the hd thereafter.
I will not have Windows installed in a separate partition, the machine will be pure Puppy Linux. I expect to load Open Office, Firefox/Thunderbird/Sunbird. They will be loaded via USB thumbdrive.
My hope is to have a hardworking computer that is fast and responsive daily rather than the schizophrenic performance I see today w' Win 2k
Thank you for the link. I'll be reading there next. Should install Puppy next week after the new (to me) 20gig arrives.
Bowhunter8
Yes, The Dell Lattitude C600 (P3 850mhz, .5gig ram) has a cd that plugs into the right side accessory bay. I have a battery in that bay most of the time, but will place the CD/DVD in there for booting Puppy Linux from the CD I bought. I then expect to format a 20gig hd for Linux, and boot from the hd thereafter.I will not have Windows installed in a separate partition, the machine will be pure Puppy Linux. I expect to load Open Office, Firefox/Thunderbird/Sunbird. They will be loaded via USB thumbdrive.
My hope is to have a hardworking computer that is fast and responsive daily rather than the schizophrenic performance I see today w' Win 2k
Thank you for the link. I'll be reading there next. Should install Puppy next week after the new (to me) 20gig arrives.
Bowhunter8
Lobster wrote:......Does the potential lapdog (laptop running Puppy) have a CD/DVD to boot from?.....
Okay,
I booted from the puppy linux disk I bought. Stepped through the various setup stuff, and BANG! I'm online.
Of course it will all be gone, cause I don't want to touch the Win 2K hd for now. But I'll be setting Puppy up on its own hard drive very soon.
I am stunned by the performance of this setup. The .5 gig ram is working well. The boot time of Seamonkey is nothing compared to what I had with Windows. The screen to screen times are also amazingly faster.
I'm reading up on how to setup the hd partitions. It's gonna be tough waiting for the HD to arrive.
I booted from the puppy linux disk I bought. Stepped through the various setup stuff, and BANG! I'm online.
Of course it will all be gone, cause I don't want to touch the Win 2K hd for now. But I'll be setting Puppy up on its own hard drive very soon.
I am stunned by the performance of this setup. The .5 gig ram is working well. The boot time of Seamonkey is nothing compared to what I had with Windows. The screen to screen times are also amazingly faster.
I'm reading up on how to setup the hd partitions. It's gonna be tough waiting for the HD to arrive.
I respectfully disagree! Most hard drives are faster than most optical devices...baturay wrote:if you want to have a fast system, don't install puppy to hd.. use it from memory...
I have heard it said that a frugal install is the way to go... I have always used the full install option. Using full install has been the only useable option on the extremely slow machines that I have experimented with.
$0.02
RP
Re: First try at Linux
Bowhunter wrote:In order to smooth my transition, I've bought another 20gig drive. It will be dedicated to Puppy Linux. I'll use USB thumb drives for moving files to/from Windows, but I'll still do a small (2gig?) partition for Windows files.
You can get ext2/3 drivers for windows check here:
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2007/03/m ... ndows.html
BTW full install is quick but has its caveats, such as when you experience a power outage, it can really screw up your puppy installation..... With frugal install, you just boot from cd with pfix=ram, rename your pup_save.2fs file and start over in the worst case....... I say to rename your old pup_save file so you may mount it later and copy any personal documents you had in there.
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Lobster
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Puppy tries to load from its source location and then run from memory.if you want to have a fast system, don't install puppy to hd.. use it from memory...
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I respectfully disagree! Most hard drives are faster than most optical devices...
With sufficient memory (256MB and above), it will not need to call programs from source whether CD
DVD, USB or Hard Disk.
If you add programs to Puppy, more memory is used up and booting takes longer
So once in memory Puppy runs equally fast whatever the source.
DVD's are are faster than CD's
Hard drives are faster than DVD's
on the loading side.
Solid state and USB keydrives
should be even faster.
Those are the generalities.
I prefer to load from a RW-DVD (rewritable)
and my save file and data is on hard disk
I have always used live cd's and saved on the HD. I don't like installs. I don't have a dvd burner so I don't do it Lobsters way but that is a fantastic way if you have a newer computer.
The argument of which is faster with Puppy, running from ram or from an install is almost negligible when compared to the difference between ANY Puppy configuration and windows or mac. The added confusion that comes with installs is not worth it, in my opinion. If you're new, you owe it to yourself to try all the methods including using a live cd with a save file on your HD. Or a complete system, distro and save file on one dvd if you have the means.
Talk about small, simple footprint!
The argument of which is faster with Puppy, running from ram or from an install is almost negligible when compared to the difference between ANY Puppy configuration and windows or mac. The added confusion that comes with installs is not worth it, in my opinion. If you're new, you owe it to yourself to try all the methods including using a live cd with a save file on your HD. Or a complete system, distro and save file on one dvd if you have the means.
Talk about small, simple footprint!
[url]http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html[/url]
It's normal to think in terms of full install because, well, "that's the way it's always been done" and most other distros do it that way too. It can be done with Puppy, but it turns out booting from flash or frugal installs or CD boots or anything else of that nature is a lot more... carefree. Once you start thinking that way, you then use full installs only if your poor hardware demands it, but not as the default solution.
My target for Puppy Linux is;
Dell Lattitude C600
P3 850mhz, 500mb ram, 20gig hd, 1 usb port, 1 open pcmcia slot (wifi card in the other), 1 ethernet port, 1 rs232c serial port, 1 IR serial port.
Remember I have 2ea 20gig drrives though only one caddy. The laptop will be Win 2K OR Linux but I'll have to swap drives to change it.
The bios doesn't support booting from usb so that's out. It will boot from a NIC in the Pcmcia slot so MAYBE I could make it boot from a Flash Card in a caddy in the slot, which would be neat, but I don't need to do it.
I have the choice of putting the cd/dvd ROM, or a battery in one of 2 bays. I prefer to keep the battery in there for extended running time, using the optical drive when I need it. It is a ROM, no burner.
The 20 gig HD was very adequate for Windows, and I was still using a touch more than 1/2 of it. I'd be very happy to put a bunch of pictures and music off to a USB drive. Running from memory most of the time, a 20gig drive will serve well for quite a while.
Based on my reading, I've determined to do a frugal install using HardPuppy. I think this will work well because I have a full .5gig ram. It certainly looked very good last night, booted from the CD/Dvd to ram.
This decision is also based on simplicity for me as a newbie. Been way to long since OS/9 on my Radio Shack Color Computer for me to charge into full installs in Linux.
I get the impression the frugal install may prove more stable over time.
I will install: Firefox & Thunderbird, because I prefer some of the user features of Firefox, over the SeaMonkey browser. T-bird is adequate, but I will definitely explore other email programs. Sorry to say that I really like plain old Outlook Express.
I'm undecided at this point about installing Open Office. The wp that comes with Puppy didn't seem bad last night, so I may wait on that decision. If I continue to use the Lapdog for work, then I'll likely want the Open Office equivalent for Powerpoint.
Dell Lattitude C600
P3 850mhz, 500mb ram, 20gig hd, 1 usb port, 1 open pcmcia slot (wifi card in the other), 1 ethernet port, 1 rs232c serial port, 1 IR serial port.
Remember I have 2ea 20gig drrives though only one caddy. The laptop will be Win 2K OR Linux but I'll have to swap drives to change it.
The bios doesn't support booting from usb so that's out. It will boot from a NIC in the Pcmcia slot so MAYBE I could make it boot from a Flash Card in a caddy in the slot, which would be neat, but I don't need to do it.
I have the choice of putting the cd/dvd ROM, or a battery in one of 2 bays. I prefer to keep the battery in there for extended running time, using the optical drive when I need it. It is a ROM, no burner.
The 20 gig HD was very adequate for Windows, and I was still using a touch more than 1/2 of it. I'd be very happy to put a bunch of pictures and music off to a USB drive. Running from memory most of the time, a 20gig drive will serve well for quite a while.
Based on my reading, I've determined to do a frugal install using HardPuppy. I think this will work well because I have a full .5gig ram. It certainly looked very good last night, booted from the CD/Dvd to ram.
This decision is also based on simplicity for me as a newbie. Been way to long since OS/9 on my Radio Shack Color Computer for me to charge into full installs in Linux.
I get the impression the frugal install may prove more stable over time.
I will install: Firefox & Thunderbird, because I prefer some of the user features of Firefox, over the SeaMonkey browser. T-bird is adequate, but I will definitely explore other email programs. Sorry to say that I really like plain old Outlook Express.
I'm undecided at this point about installing Open Office. The wp that comes with Puppy didn't seem bad last night, so I may wait on that decision. If I continue to use the Lapdog for work, then I'll likely want the Open Office equivalent for Powerpoint.
Yes Pup Geek I can do that and I still don't want to. I've explained the way I generally want to keep the computer set up in previous posts.
I've now got Puppy Linux loaded and booting. I used the loaders suggested to create a hard drive based Puppy in one click. Worked well.
Now I'll be reading on how to replace SeaMonkey with Firefox. And the email portion with Evolution,
It also seems I neeed to figure out how to make internet connections wake up with booting of puppy.
IT's looking good.
I've now got Puppy Linux loaded and booting. I used the loaders suggested to create a hard drive based Puppy in one click. Worked well.
Now I'll be reading on how to replace SeaMonkey with Firefox. And the email portion with Evolution,
It also seems I neeed to figure out how to make internet connections wake up with booting of puppy.
IT's looking good.
Good to hear it's going well..
Any choice on which version you're using for the Lapdog yet?(other than the liveCD you bought ) I've found it good to scout them out via liveCD, mmyes a burner might be a good value-investment (also my preferred test platform on a vintage desktop altho I'm leaning to savefiles on thumb rather than multisession at times, it's good to have the burner option for keeping things all tidy on a disc - things can get strange if the dog loads a savefile from another version or puplet without 'asking', ) .. yep, definitely a pitb with older BIOS not being able to boot from usb (GRUB and wakepup2 seem to be picky about file systems, especially in p431..). 512Mb of RAM seems like a lot until it isn't, depending on your needs/wants (loading additional sfs as needed seems to be the modular approach, see here) - probably a good idea to pick up a cheap usb hub if you like more than 1 thumb at a time.
Oya, definitely some few Firefox-based puplets out there
Any choice on which version you're using for the Lapdog yet?(other than the liveCD you bought
) I've found it good to scout them out via liveCD, mmyes a burner might be a good value-investment (also my preferred test platform on a vintage desktop altho I'm leaning to savefiles on thumb rather than multisession at times, it's good to have the burner option for keeping things all tidy on a disc - things can get strange if the dog loads a savefile from another version or puplet without 'asking', ) .. yep, definitely a pitb with older BIOS not being able to boot from usb (GRUB and wakepup2 seem to be picky about file systems, especially in p431..). 512Mb of RAM seems like a lot until it isn't, depending on your needs/wants (loading additional sfs as needed seems to be the modular approach, see here) - probably a good idea to pick up a cheap usb hub if you like more than 1 thumb at a time.Oya, definitely some few Firefox-based puplets out there
Yeah it's going well
Thank you for the ecouragement.
Have to admit I'm a bit frustrated by the file handler. After so many years of Windows, I'm struggling w' command line stuff.
I've loaded Pup' 4.21 because I bought the cd a few months ago. I intended (rather mindlessly) to upgrade to 4.3 'cause "that's whatcha do"
The 512 is a hard limit for the hardware. Now it doesn't seem to be a limitation. It shows 378M free in the lower right corner of the screen. Not sure what that means right now, or how practical it is to make the changes I'd like to make,
Hadn't occured to me to have multiple .sfs files. I'll read the link.
Have to admit I'm a bit frustrated by the file handler. After so many years of Windows, I'm struggling w' command line stuff.
I've loaded Pup' 4.21 because I bought the cd a few months ago. I intended (rather mindlessly) to upgrade to 4.3 'cause "that's whatcha do"
The 512 is a hard limit for the hardware. Now it doesn't seem to be a limitation. It shows 378M free in the lower right corner of the screen. Not sure what that means right now, or how practical it is to make the changes I'd like to make,
Hadn't occured to me to have multiple .sfs files. I'll read the link.
`f00 wrote:Good to hear it's going well..
Any choice on which version you're using for the Lapdog yet?......
512Mb of RAM seems like a lot until it isn't,......
.....(loading additional sfs as needed seems to be the modular approach, see........
.........Oya, definitely some few Firefox-based puplets out there