Puppy On Laptops

[CatDude]

Hello ajlec2000

Good thread, CatDude. I like playing with used equipment and this info will come in handy evaluating potential acquisitions in the future.

My thanks go to you and everyone else, for taking the time to contribute.

I am now looking to purchase a laptop myself, but i have so many questions, i don't know where to start
for example:

• 1. Are there any particular brands and/or models that are best avoided ?
  2. Are there any particular brands and/or models that are highly recommended ?
  3. When it comes to CPU's, which are the best to go for AMD's or Intel's ?
  4. What about graphics cards, which are least likely to be a problem (driver wise) ?

CatDude
.

[brians3]

First off: Puppy Linux is the best Linux distribution available...period.

My second choice is PC Linux OS, but that's another subject.

I've been fooling around with Puppy for the last 2 or 3 upgrades but the current Puppy did the trick. All the previous versions were nearly impossible to connect wirelessly on any of my old laptops.

When 4.3.1 came out...perfection. That was exciting.

I have two old Toshibas and one Gateway, all of which came with Windows XP. When Puppy Linux 4.3.1 came out I could connect wirelessly and that was the final push that made me recommend it to everyone who showed any kind of interest.

The Toshibas are models 2435 with a 2.4 Intel processor and L25 S1216 which has a 1.6 Celeron. The Gateway is a barebones MX3225 with a 1.5 Celeron.

All 3 laptops work seamlessly with Puppy. And the speed is fantastic. I save my configuration to the hard drives and that makes it easy to boot up and use Puppy.

There have been issues with the soundcards working especially on the Gateway which I'm looking into now.

I also tried doing the USB pendrive Puppy and it only worked on the Gateway which is the newer machine (about 3 years old) and allows for a USB boot in the bios. But my configurations changed with Puppy on the USB drive and I couldn't connect wirelessly. Which was a disappointment. So I boot up with a mini cd in the optical drive instead

If anyone finds this interesting I can submit more technical detail in a future post. I'm composing this on my Gateway currently.

An interesting thing, too, for me with Puppy. My Gateway has a built-in wifi via Realtek. This wifi regularly has disconnects when I boot up under Windows XP and have taken to using a pcmcia Linksys card which is more stable most of the time.

Under Puppy, I connect regularly with the Realtek wifi and have left the Gateway on for a whole day without getting disconnected once. For me, that's impressive.

For that alone, I love Puppy Linux.

[CatDude]

Hello brians3

Welcome to the kennels.

First off: Puppy Linux is the best Linux distribution available...period.

For sure

Thank you for your input, it is most welcome.

CatDude
.

[Dean]

Toshiba Satellite 4070CDS
Processor: Intel Celeron 366 Mhz
Memory: 64 MB
Hardisk: 4GB
OS: Full install puppy 4.31 + 128mb swap partition

[Roy]

CatDude,

I am sure that there are plenty of knowledgeable and more experienced folks on this forum that might disagree with me, but I am kinda' fond of the 3~5 year old business-class Dell notebooks. Just make sure the BIOS allows for booting from USB. They aren't the lightest (best used as a desktop replacement) but I've seen technicians take them apart -- everything is accessible and they seem to last. Had an old Acer laptop for awhile which was a nightmare to disassemble and assemble. A nearby compatriot has a 14" Dell D610 Centrino that I would love to own if he were willing to sell it (he's not).

The ability to install around 2GB of RAM will allow you to run any Linux distro currently available. You will not be buying the laptop with the RAM already installed, of course (too expensive that way).

If you are looking for something that travels well, I think others are better qualified than I am to answer. For my own travels, I have a (now discontinued) Dell netbook (some of the newer Dell netbooks are not so easily upgradeable as mine is).

Although I don't know squat about comparing CPU's or computer brands that I have not owned, scour these forums for those hard-to-load graphics cards. Those are what I would be tempted to avoid. Intel graphics have almost always worked well for me with Linux; some of the Intel wireless drivers are typically compiled into the Linux kernels by default.

Most importantly, Google for a trustworthy review of the kit before you pay your hard-earned money. Some of the older Dells, as an example, had problems with too much heat. I think Dell was even sued at one point for CPU issues. Google is our friend!

-Roy

[racepres]

Toshiba Satellite 4070CDS
Processor: Intel Celeron 366 Mhz
Memory: 64 MB
Hardisk: 4GB
OS: Full install puppy 4.31 + 128mb swap partition

wow mister ... good on ya
If I owned that box it would have 2.14R onto it...
If it is workin' for you ... I applaud!
RP

[auriza]

@racepres
Out of topic: What is the difference, advantage/disadvantage of Puppy version 2,3, and 4. I also have old computer in home with 64M memory.

[sky king]

4.3.1 works on emachines em250. I don't think the webcam is recognized, Won't boot from SD card. Otherwise, I'm happy. $228.

BTW, WIN7 starter, included on this netbook, may pleasantly surprise you with startup and shutdown times. And the webcam works.

It's funny, windows is now including a pwidgets style clock.

[racepres]

@racepres
Out of topic: What is the difference, advantage/disadvantage of Puppy version 2,3, and 4. I also have old computer in home with 64M memory.

When I started w/ puppy it went so good that I decided to "revive" some really old hardware! Didn't go so well... but DSL was working very well indeed! After some experimentation and looking into kernel versions, [learned from trying to put linux onto a Mac] I decided to go w/ earlier versions for use on earlier equipment... Works so good for me that I won't be changing anytime soon...
RP

[auriza]

I see, for really old hardware. Thanks.

[jafadmin]

I've got a Thinkpad X60 with 1 Gig of RAM and a 500g drive partitioned as half ntfs and half ext2. I run XPPSP2 on the ntfs drive and run 4.12, 4.21, and 4.31 on the ext2 partition. I can choose which of the four OS's I want to run from the XP boot menu.

All OS's work fine with the built-in Verizon Broadband wireless modem as well as the various LAN and 802.11x wireless adapters.


I have a Thinkpad A21m with 196 meg of ram and 40 gig HD that runs a 4.21 full install and runs a linksys wireless pcmcia card.

I have a Thinkpad X31 with 1 gig of RAM and 100 gig HD that dual boots XPP and P4.12.

[svgt]

I've got a MITAC 5033. It runs pretty well with Puppy431. 64MB, 366MHz. I am looking for a manual and the last bios version. I would like to upgrade ram and cpu. Does anybody know the limits?

The computer runs under several names. another one is IPC Topnote K6II-366. Fujitsu Liteline Gericom etc

[timber]

Sony VAIO vgn-fs920
1.73Gh processor
2Gb ram
350Gb HD - all ext3
DSL modem w/ 802.11x wireless hub

Grub2 Menu:

puppy-431-NOP-r2 frugal install w/ compiz, openoffice. gimp and adobe reader.

All data, scripts, wallpapers etc stored in home (on partition rather than in 2fs file)

Backup Script using rsync to categorized folders on another partition or drive
for data, config, usr, etc, bin, sbin, lib, dev, var and one folder called nos for rsync of
iso, sfs, vmlinuz and 2fs file.

Xine script to turn off compiz before using and on after.
Cleanup script to empty trash, caches etc.

All runs very fast and smooth and I always have at least one complete backup on hand. puppy-431-NOP-r2 has become my main OS I'm happy to say.

Mint 8 Main (work and play - slower but very comfortable to use)

Mint Xfce 7 Host w/ VirtualBox - XP Guest (work station - lean mean and fairly quick) -- Soon to be upgraded to Mint Xfce 8.

I usually keep /home on a separate partition.
Also separate partitions for VirtualBox, virtual drives and virtual swap file.
For backup I keep an external hard drive clone kept in sync with rsync
Always trying new distros as well but will always keep returning to the three above ... work horse, race horse & greyhound (use depends on mood or task).

Only real annoying problem I can think of for NOS puppy is that I can't get VirtualBox to configure it's kernel.
I'd like to try a debian based puppy that uses apt-get and synaptic one day but it's not too high on priorieties right now.
I've found that Xfce is the best DE for me, it seems to have the best balance for speed and customization and is just a pleasure to use, now that I've gotten used to it.

Great idea for a thread CatDude!

timber

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[timber]

Sorry 'bout the double post ...
Technical (er ... I mean user) error.

timber

[afishe2000]

Just started working with Puppy linux...

• Thinkpad i Series 1300 model 1171 circa 2001.
  Pentium III @ 750 MHz
  184MB RAM
  20.0 GB HDD
  Integrated 802.11b
  8x4x24 CD-RW

Using 1.0.8, everything works straight out of the box, all newer versions freeze at "Loading kernel drivers needed to access disk drives..." during boot process.
Still looking for a solution to get a newer build on this old machine.

[bee_pipes]

Thanks loads for starting the thread CatDude. I'm looking at a new laptop - sorta leaning towards the ASUS eeePC. Need something for heavy reading and writing. I also appreciate your comments jemimah .

One question for the netbook owners out there - 10" screens. How are they for reading? I was considering the kindles - hate reading at the desktop and the trend of books & manuals seems to be increasingly electronic. How are the small screens for extended reading? Ideally I'd like something that lends itself to loafing on the couch - whether reading, writing or coding.

Again, thanks all for experiences.

Regards,
Pat

later edit: Sorry - should have mentioned - early 50's, bifocal wearer.

[TomRhymer]

Thanks loads for starting the thread CatDude. I'm looking at a new laptop - sorta leaning towards the ASUS eeePC. Need something for heavy reading and writing. I also appreciate your comments jemimah .

One question for the netbook owners out there - 10" screens. How are they for reading? I was considering the kindles - hate reading at the desktop and the trend of books & manuals seems to be increasingly electronic. How are the small screens for extended reading? Ideally I'd like something that lends itself to loafing on the couch - whether reading, writing or coding.

Again, thanks all for experiences.

Regards,
Pat

I have an Acer Aspire One 10" that I read on often, it works very well for me. One thing to look for is to make sure that the netbook has pageup and pagedown keys. Most netbooks combine these functions with other keys, which would drive me crazy when reading books. When I'm just reading I use WinXP rather than Puppy because Puppy doesn't seem to be able to slow down the Atom processor. In XP I get almost 10 hours of battery life reading with the wireless off. With Puppy, I get 5 hours regardless of use and the netbook heats up very quickly.

[abushcrafter]

The answer is the "CPU Frequency Scaling Tool". There is a newer version on the forums btw.

[bee_pipes]

Are there background tasks that can be disabled to bring down processor demand? Things that may be unnecessary, such as bluetooth or other options not in normal use?

Regards,
Pat

[TomRhymer]

The answer is the "CPU Frequency Scaling Tool". There is a newer version on the forums btw.

I've tried it, but none of the settings support the Atom processor.