Newbies - Puppy needs YOUR help too!

[puppymoro]

Hy there,

I'm using 5.2.0 but the problem is present in 5.2.5. At the begining after putting vmlinuz and the the rest on Compact Flash and lupu_520.sfs with lupusave-dell.2fs on usb stick it had a good start, meaning ..pausing when booting. but after 2 or 3 reboots that feature was gone. The COmpact FLash is in super floppy mode and on booting configuration pmedia=usbflash pfix=usbcard.

Anyway i moved the USB stick to the internal USB 1.0 port so now i can do a complete save of lupusave, but it is slow on booting and shuting down, and of course with swapping. I test with plus another usb stick into the pcmcia usb port for swap and did a lot better running but throw errors in shut down so "no good solution".

I'm using puppy on another laptop Esprimo mobile U9200 and works very well. I'm going to add (next week arrive from USA) to this one an Express Card with USB 3.0 and test puppy to see if the same problem occures.

For your curiosity i'm from Romania, I'm a doctor who desperate love IT, and constantly improving english.

SO STILL NEED HELP

[starhawk]

That Inspiron seems to be a little too old, in my opinion, to run Lucid. You might try Wary instead. (Lucid is for newer systems and Wary is for older systems).

If using Wary 511, you will need to enter puppy nosmp at the boot prompt to make it boot correctly, although you won't need that if using Wary 500 or earlier.

Romania... that's an interesting place. I can't say that I know much about it, though.

EDIT: Just looked up Romania on Wikipedia and read a little. You have a very interesting country For what it's worth, my father's side of the family is a combination of Russian (on my father's father's side) and Austro-Hungarian (on my father's mother's side). My mother's side of the family is all British, though, except for one Scot and one Austrian.

[DaveS]

how big an sd card is required to move my installation from loading off the cd to loading off an sd memory card, and how big a card is needed to use for saving additions to Lucid Puppy such as Firefox

2Gb is fine, I find 4GB about optimum, but if you are careful with what you install, you could manage with 1GB. Mostly 'more is better' applies.

[Tione]

I'm using puppy 525 on IBM ThinkCentre and works very well. I hope there will be a multi-user lucid version

[RetroTechGuy]

I'm using puppy 525 on IBM ThinkCentre and works very well. I hope there will be a multi-user lucid version

Put in your CD, boot up and when you see a command prompt, type:

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram

Yes, this will ignore your save file, and boot to RAM.

Once up, configure your Puppy in a manner similar to what you did the first time, and save it to a new name, say: "fred" (or "junior" for one of your kids).

On your next boot, you will be offered a choice of 2 pupsaves (lupusaves) to load, or "none". Pick the number, and it will boot that copy.

It's also good to make a backup copy of the save file, in case you crunch something in the future. I often boot to ram, and create a 32MB file called "tiny", whose purpose is to give me a preconfigured mount point, for copying or performing maintenance on my main pupsave (you don't want to copy a lupusave while it is mounted).

Not exactly "multi-user", but it provides separate "machines" for each user -- each can have their own installation and customization.

Got 6 kids, once you have a second lupusave created, boot up your copy, navigate to the folder where you stored the kid's copy, and copy that file to a new name (6 times) -- now each kid has their own lupusave to screw up.

[Darkgame]

well, ive been thinking about having 3 graphic drivers in a pupsave
When i do that, wine do not know which to use, as puppy randomly uses one.
Mayb there can be a hardware manager to point which drivers to use!
Ive seen pclinuxos capable of doing that, and i believe puppy can do the same.

[lcm123]

I am a new user of Lucid Puppy. Currently I am using a usb to boot in a netbook.

There might be similarity of my questions but I am a newbie here and the forum is too huge for me to go through for what I am looking for.

I got some problems in the beginning:

1. I installed Firefox 4b8 for my Lucid Puppy 5.2, but the Fire fox has problem on showing asian fonts. Even using the options in character encoding in view option do not solve the problem.

2. I would like to use the language input of Simplified and Traditional Chinese as well as Japanese Kanji in a document program and browser. But I am still being confused by so many choices(Do not understand whether this is a locale, language input or language support or fonts problems) and could not differentiate which is the one that I should pick.

Very appreciate if anyone could help me on this topics. I am a totally idiot on Linux. Detailed steps would be very very appreciate.

Thank you.

[alexandrion]

i'd love to see like some warning when i try to unmount a volume and it's busy, instead of doing nothing until it's unmounted

[666philb]

I am a new user of Lucid Puppy. Currently I am using a usb to boot in a netbook.

There might be similarity of my questions but I am a newbie here and the forum is too huge for me to go through for what I am looking for.

I got some problems in the beginning:

1. I installed Firefox 4b8 for my Lucid Puppy 5.2, but the Fire fox has problem on showing asian fonts. Even using the options in character encoding in view option do not solve the problem.

2. I would like to use the language input of Simplified and Traditional Chinese as well as Japanese Kanji in a document program and browser. But I am still being confused by so many choices(Do not understand whether this is a locale, language input or language support or fonts problems) and could not differentiate which is the one that I should pick.

Very appreciate if anyone could help me on this topics. I am a totally idiot on Linux. Detailed steps would be very very appreciate.

Thank you.

hi lcm123

That may be a font issue, try installling a font from here. i installed the 'ttf-arphic-ukai_0.2.20080216.1-1_all.deb' and i get asian font's in my browser. http://packages.debian.org/search?keywo ... ection=all

also you may be interested in thishttp://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51702

If your still having problems, please post again in the beginners section. as not many people will see your post in this section.

[heyandy889]

Hi, everyone. Wow, cool to see that Puppy Linux has its own forums. This is my second time using Puppy Linux. The first time, I was experimenting with turning old, small USB drives into bootable pen drives. Now, 6 months later, it was my thought for the quickest Ubuntu-type installation on my girlfriend's computer. I downloaded VirtualBox and stuck Puppy Linux inside, surprisingly easy. You just select the .iso as the "optical drive" for the virtual machine, and you are off to the races.

Anyways, I love this tiny, easy distro. Thanks for all the time and hard work.

[Shep]

how big an sd card is required to move my installation from loading off the cd to loading off an sd memory card, and how big a card is needed to use for saving additions to Lucid Puppy such as Firefox

This thread in the forums is probably not read by many of the experienced people who can answer technical questions; it is just for you to give feedback. If you have a technical question--something to which you hope to get an answer--then post your question to the Beginners forum.

A CD holds about 600 MB and by inspecting the CD you can see that puppy fills well under 1/4 of that. The .iso that you burn to the CD is usually just over 100MB and occupies about that much on the CD.

My Firefox occupies 34MB plus another 12 MB for its flashplayer, in the savefile.

So if the smallest SD card you can buy is 1 GB, there will be oodles of room!

[fitch]

my name is harold, this is my first post at this forum, i can be very wordy, and this is a metaphor-post, so please bear with me...

i would like to adopt this new puppy [puppy-linux] and his new name would be casey... i picked him up at the shelter because i liked his looks [lupu-525.iso] and he seemed sweet for a puppy... i want to train this puppy [configure] and then give him to a friend [real person, named casey]... puppy-casey would be a third replacement pet in this house... first, was the rabbit-casey [m$-windowz] which got cancer and died... second, was the penguin-casey [ubuntu] which kept swimming away and smells like fish... i could prolly get another penguin-casey and build a contained-pool for him... and yet, i think casey should really be a sweet/cuddly dog when he grows up from puppyhood and i want to adopt/train him...

i am a fairly experienced pet owner and have owned many different animals in the past... i luv dogs: the canine variety, the human variety [dawgs], and the electronic variety [linux].... however, i am having some issues with casey [puppy-linux-lupu-525] and am almost frustrated enough to take him back to the pound...

like many new pet owners, i want to 'show off' this brand new puppy and am coming up with lots of issues like house-breaking [installing to hdd], barking [configuring the applications/environment], and walking on a leash [saving the final user setup] that are causing me many headaches...

im sure that i am not the only one who has experienced these issues in the past - or will in the future... iirc, this thread was designed to ask/answer questions about 'what would help' so that i, or someone like me, will NOT have to take their new puppy back to the pound...

i made it thru the first page and this last-page (30-some-odd) of the thread, so if someone is reading this and just wants to provide some links for responses, thatd be GREAT... =)

-----

i completely understand (now, from hard experience over the past couple of days) why the main website has the page describing how/why NOT to install puppy: http://puppylinux.org/main/How%20NOT%20 ... 0Puppy.htm ... unfortunately, like many folks who -think- that owning a puppy is just like any other animal (esp if theyve owned pets b4), there needs to be some guidance on WHY/HOW/WHAT/... is going on when the puppy leaves little poopie-presents or barks-all-night or refuses-to-walk-on-leash...

using those three specific examples, here is what -i- would like to see addressed somewhere similar to the main website or in these forums...

1. housebreaking: most users (me incl) want to house-break their pets...

if i had realized -thoroughly- that after the disk loads up in the cdrom, that the disk can be removed... maybe i would not have been so anxious to try and install the distribution to the hdd... i found this distribution after the ubuntu install that i -was- using had stopped working... maybe some guidance about how to approach puppy from ubuntu would help... alternatively, for us old-timers who still use cds to listen to music - a walkthru on how to use puppy-linux for listening to a music-cd the first time (so that i would have realized that i can use that -same- cdrom right away) wouldve been a practical-use-case to expose the puppy to my new household...

2 - barking: most owners enjoy hearing their new dog bark/whine with excitement at first, but get tired of it fairly quickly and want to know how to muzzle them when it is not convenient...

i need (still) an introduction to the .pet downloads or the .2fs and .sfs filesystem that puppy-linux uses... for instance the java-jre can either be installed via a .pet or a .srs (i think)... which should i choose ? and why would i choose it ? similarly, after the sixth time of booting-up puppy-linux and having to download 15 Mb to get my web-browser working - i would really appreciate a little guidance on how to save that download somewhere... that is a really-big-thing for me... a simple 'file-save-as dialog-box' would allow me to understand that i -can- shut the dog up... of course, that would then mean id need a simple 'file-open' dialog to encourage barking when i want it...


3 - walking: it is always fun to take your new dog for a walk to show it off, but i would like to be able to let the dog off-leash for awhile... in particular, i would like to be able to have it COME back to me when i ask it to - whether we are at the park, or on a busy street, or even in my backyard...

similar to the save-as/open process for applications, i would like a save-as/open process for user-configurations... maybe this is all covered in the concept of 'pets', which is probably an advanced-topic; but an introductory article describing the common use-case of wanting to setup their new puppy in different ways is what i need to be pointed towards...

-----

i really-really enjoy the metaphor of dogs/puppy-linux... i WANT to love my very own puppy, that i want to name casey... ive been trying (for 2 days, almost non-stop) to figure this stuff out... and maybe i could get into it even more, but maybe im missing a mission-statement or something about the breed that would help me decide if i really want to invest myself in its upkeep...

i read the distrowatch-article which mentions that there is a whole root/spot-user discussion to be had... i am fine with whatever user puppy-linux currently is using... however, even with that article, i am STILL not able to get a consistent boot-process going that i am happy with... i keep getting the dreaded 'error 15: file not found' problem from grub...

ive poked around the main website and surfed a bit thru these discussion forums... my google-fu has not been very good... the main file:/// getting started stuff has also been great to surf around... and yet, i am still just not understanding what makes this puppy-linux 'tick' so that i can start to enjoy the training and configuring that invariably comes with any new pet... remember, my use-case is that i am going to train this puppy to be a reasonable dog - and then give it to a new owner who will just love-it and feed-it for (hopefully) many years to come...

i believe that most of my problems might have to do with all the -loop- devices which this puppy seems to enjoy jumping thru... i have never really understood loops very well... it is probably an advanced-topic... and yet, like any real pet owner knows - if you read about your breed (like dacshunds are designed to flush out badgers and labradors enjoy the water) it will really help me (new user) to understand why that new puppy either keeps digging-in-the-yard or jumping-in-the-puddles...

anyways, sorry to post such a long story... but if anyone has any links/comments/ideas that might help me to decide to keep this new puppy (rather than sending him back to the pound), id really appreciate it... i will, probably in a day or two, try posting my specific-issues in individual threads...

again, i really enjoy the look/feel of puppy-linux and all the hard work that the developers have gone thru... and the cute chihuahua mascot too... =) h.

[Aitch]

....similarly, after the sixth time of booting-up puppy-linux and having to download 15 Mb to get my web-browser working - i would really appreciate a little guidance on how to save that download somewhere... that is a really-big-thing for me......

Harold

In LUPU 525 when you've customized it to your hardware/screen/locale etc, and got the network going/downloaded FF or whatever....at the shutdown, you are asked to save or not

Unless you choose not, or don't save to your C: drive/primary partition....you will have to re-configure/re-install, as it's as if you'd never had a puppy....

Don't do anything other than the default location, but choose ext3 as it's more reliable, and, if you have enough space, increase the size

Other than that....Puppy is very well behaved, and won't bark unless you do something wrong....I believe

As to all the other analogies, I can only say, a Puppy is as good as its owner....and it is he who has to learn new tricks and play

This'll help ....bookmark it!

http://www.wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html

and

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/TutorialYouTube

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=115

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=597

Aitch

[fitch]

As to all the other analogies, I can only say, a Puppy is as good as its owner....and it is he who has to learn new tricks and play

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=597

howdee aitch,

thank you for all the links... i think i was just too tired to adopt a puppy at the end of last week... oddly, before logging in here to see if id gotten a response - i went over to the main website [puppylinux.org] and finally clicked on the 'manual-english' button... i know, i know, rtfm...

well, duh - the manual helped me to understand -exactly- what i was confused about... for instance, to only do a full-install if my memory is LESS than 256mb... or, to ignore all the grub-crud that gets installed and just use the simple lines from the editor-screen that popped up...

i had a wonderful relaxing day yesterday after id posted, and am now ready to try and adopt this puppy-linux again...

oddly, i had tried the beginners-start-here discussion - but i really appreciate that second-link with the index-of-resources discussion that youve posted... also, the other links - with the puppy-specific searching will come in handy too... like i said, my google-fu was just in poor shape earlier...

also, i -had- saved my user profiles several times, and copied them across even (theres a screen at bootup that asks -which- session to use) but even then (esp with manual copies) id been getting dreaded 'inode xxx not found' errors... but, im sure that this is due to my treating this puppy more like a penguin...

it is quite possible that i wont be worrying too much about the details of -why- things were not working for me this first time that i visited the pound... i will (starting fresh on monday) prolly be able to pick up a great casey-puppy and train him, thanx to your help...

and yes - it really is the -owner- who needs to be trained on any new animal, more than the animal that requires training... lol...

take care, h.

[Aitch]

inode problems are often grub related, but can also be partitioning by parted magic or another previously installed linux changing the inode size in the mbr

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=262479

see especially

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29356

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 324#262324

Aitch

[Joe-NC]

I thought I wanted to dump Windows ...until I started playing around with Linux. Its still too complicated for most people, even Puppy. I consider myself above average at being able to sort through computer issues, but this learning curve is kicking my butt. I'm about to give up. Things that are simple in Windows (like installing a program with nothing more than a double-click) are hysterically complicated even in Puppy Linux. I've tried two different distros, neither of which was able to cooperate with my sound card, where Windows did it effortlessly.

While reading through numerous posts, I've realized that many in the Linux community have forgotten that a computer is a tool for most people, not an end unto itself as it seems to be with many gurus. Some people just want to record a few guitar chords or organize their photos without having to get a PHD in computer science. Most beginners asking for help are met with discussions of various scripts, technical jargon, etc when what they really want to hear is "click this button, then click that button". People should be able to install a distro by simply putting in a CD and answering a few questions, without having to understand Grub. Sharing files on a network should be as easy as right-clicking the file and choosing "share", without having to understand Samba, FTP vs. http, opening a terminal window, etc. I just laugh at the thought of some of my computer illiterate friends EVER using Linux.

PLEASE make it fool-proof enough to compete with Windows, and easy enough that a 12 year old could install it and use it.

[Dewbie]

Joe-NC wrote:

I've tried two different distros

Could you tell us which ones?

[cthisbear]

Joe-NC .

And like all blow ins that whinge and complain, you couldn't even
post your hardware specs or which Puppy versions.

Where is the courtesy?

Man up.

This is one of the world's greatest Tech Help forums.

But I get irritable when this crapola arrives.

So why are you shifting....because MS is a pig.

So when you can recant a bit, we will help out.

You have to decide what you need this Puppy for,

music, browsing...whatever.

And we need your specs to balance the answer.

"""""""""""

On rereading this...

" PLEASE make it fool-proof enough to compete with Windows, and
easy enough that a 12 year old could install it and use it."

I have found the site that you need to assist you.

So without further comment I shall introduce you to
Professor Connolly for his technical assistance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPWVq6MwW4E

Chris.

[Joe-NC]

My Hardware specs:
Old IBM 300GL 6275-B9U (350MHz Pentium II)
384MB Ram
120GB Hard drive
Sound: M-Audio MobilePre USB
Graphics: S3 Trio64 3D

Yes, I know this is an old, slow machine. I'm just using it to experiment with Linux. I'd like to use it to auto-backup a few files from my Windows machine and do some simple recording with audacity. This is a stand-alone setup, not a dual boot.

Joe-NC wrote:

I've tried two different distros

Could you tell us which ones?

The first one was last year and I don't remember (maybe SimplyMepis?), now I'm trying Lucid Puppy. I've also tried Ubuntu Studio which had no problem with my sound card, but I switched to Puppy thinking it would run faster on my older machine. Puppy Studio requires more RAM than I have, so I chose Lucid Puppy instead. Ubuntu Studio was much more user friendly, but was slower.

Joe-NC .

And like all blow ins that whinge and complain, you couldn't even
post your hardware specs or which Puppy versions.

That's just it. A 12 year old wouldn't know their hardware specs would they? Per the first post, I realize this is not the place for technical discussions. I'm just offering one person's experience and opinions. Take it or leave it.

So why are you shifting....because MS is a pig.

Many reasons, mostly on principle. I'm tired of the succession of MS versions coming out before the previous one is perfected. Its just a cycle of planned obsolescence to keep themselves relevant. Manipulating information this way for profit stifles freedom. But that's a whole new thread.

So when you can recant a bit, we will help out.

LOL. Recant for what? For saying Linux isn't foolproof enough to compete with Windows or that too many Linux experts fail to realize that everyone else doesn't like playing with computers? Lighten up, I didn't mean to crush your spirit. I WANT Linux to succeed. I would LOVE to see it replace Windows on most personal desktops. I'm sure it is much better than Windows in many regards, but for beginners and people who don't care how computers work, it is still too complicated. I work with people everyday, young and old alike, who don't even know how to download a free ap. Just explaining to them that they must doube-click a file and follow some instructions to install a program is complicated enough for them. Explaining what a tarball is or how to open a command line ...forget about it. I know it will get there eventually. If there's an easier distro than Puppy, please tell me. (a distro for dummies)

On rereading this...

" PLEASE make it fool-proof enough to compete with Windows, and
easy enough that a 12 year old could install it and use it."

I have found the site that you need to assist you.

So without further comment I shall introduce you to
Professor Connolly for his technical assistance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPWVq6MwW4E

Chris.

LOL. I Like you. You should be the official Linux ambassador for new users.

[RetroTechGuy]

My Hardware specs:
Old IBM 300GL 6275-B9U (350MHz Pentium II)
384MB Ram
120GB Hard drive
Sound: M-Audio MobilePre USB
Graphics: S3 Trio64 3D

Yes, I know this is an old, slow machine. I'm just using it to experiment with Linux. I'd like to use it to auto-backup a few files from my Windows machine and do some simple recording with audacity. This is a stand-alone setup, not a dual boot.

Well, I am running 4.3.1 Retro on an old 333 MHz laptop. I succeeded in getting 5.20 running on a 300 MHz laptop:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=64548

A frugal install is likely to be the easiest, but...(now where is that thread by rcrsn51, which has some scripts to easily do a full install)

With the age of your machine, while 5.20 (or 5.25) might run, it's a good bet that older non-retro versions will not run.

Look for versions labelled "retro": http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... uppylinux/

4.3.1 Retro is a little harder to find:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... modems.iso

Or for newer OS, look at Barry's Wary, which is designed for older systems:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... ns/quirky/

That's just it. A 12 year old wouldn't know their hardware specs would they?

Well, a 12 year old probably would be running a 15 year old machine, either...