Barebone XVesa (86MB) with PXE (boot)

[rufwoof]

I only boot Windows 7 (when I have to boot Windows). - Thanks, though.

In Windows 8/8.1 if you tap the WINDOWS key and it takes you to the START screen, and then type in RDP does it bring up a RDP option. Does Win 7 do the same?

If so with this pup running/booted and showing the local IP address - something like 192.168.0.3 perhaps, then running RDP on the Windows box and typing in that IP address will bring up a logon prompt. Enter root for userid and woofwoof for the password and you'll have the puppy desktop running on your Windows box. Providing the Windows machine screen resolution is > 1024x768 then the full sized puppy screen will fit quite nicely within that.

If you go to the Windows Network (neighbourhood) and your Windows network name is WORKGROUP, then most likely you'll also see PUPSERVE available and have full access to all of the puppy directory from / down. If your workgroup name is something else then you'll have to change the Samba config file on the puppy PC before starting samba so that the workgroup name coincides. Samba config is available via the little text icon near/next to the bigger Samba Server icon on desktop 1 and the 6th line down in that is where the workgroup name is set.

I guess you could say that if you're running a 4 core Windows machine and have puppy installed on a 4 core PC, then that opens up 8 cores available on your Windwos box

[rufwoof]

For UK Virgin Media broadband you can open up ports (such as 5900 for VNC) or specify one PC as being in the DMZ. Different ways to achieve that depending upon which cable modem you have http://help.virginmedia.com/system/self ... #Superhub2

A PC in the DMZ is open to anyone.



Putting a puppy into the DMZ is best therefore when its a read only pup, such as booted from CD with no other HDD/USB devices attached. That way whilst a session could be broken, a simple reboot has you back to pristine again.

Setting the puppy up as a puppy phone for anyone to call is one such possible use. I've only just tried puppy phone for the first time (load the top dog (desktop 2 icon) and select the Menu, Internet, PuppyPhone Internet Telephone menu option). However the sound/record test I made with that wasn't as crisp/clear as with Skype. Another benefit of Skype (available in the googledrive respository) is you can have a Skype telephone number so that anyone can phone you, either via your Skype id or to the Skype telephone number - and a UK resident for instance can have a US telephone number if they so desire, such that anyone calling from the US pays just a local call rate. IIRC skype telephone numbers are around $5/month ($60/year). Handy if you run a small business and fancy giving a international feel - our UK London telephone number is xxx and our US telephone number is yyy

The Pup in the DMZ could also be set up as a web server, but bear in mind many services are asymetric so large 'downloads' from visitors would be 'uploads' from the puppy PC .. usually at a much slower rate than the puppy PC downloads. Of course for large files you could always store those elsewhere, such as in googledrive and just have your web page link to that for others to download (at much faster speeds).

[rufwoof]

VOIP calls in the UK landlines are charged (but relatively little) - however with VOIP buster calls to US, Canada, Hong Kong ... and a bunch of other landlines are free.

Conceptually for a UK resident if you have a Skype number and request/register a US number for that, then anyone calling you from the UK via that US number using VOIP buster - who don't charge for US landline numbers, also lets the caller pay zip/nada to call you, albeit in a roundabout (via US telephone number) way.

There is however still the issue of a Skype number costing $5 or whatever a month.

In follow up to my earlier posting about puppyphone I note that the version in TopDog is 1.2 whilst there's been a big revamp by JamesBond and the later 1.4 version might (I suspect IS) much better.

More details/links :

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyPhone
http://www.smokey01.com/help/psip/psip-help.html
http://www.smokey01.com/help/psip/psip- ... TocId52625
https://www.voipbuster.com/calling_rates/

Not sure this might work but consider if you were in a remote UK location with no broadband nor mobile phone reception, but there was a landline. You could perhaps have a Skype US number associated to that landline and then use VOIP Buster SIP to phone that US number (for free) from a PC/location that had broadband, and patch/proxy internet connection (old dial up style, but where the call time cost was zero rather than paying per minute for the call time). Whether that could push data through at 14.4kBaud or not ??? Slow, but better than nowt (or paying for a long duration telephone call).

[rufwoof]

Just uploaded a revised version. Expanded from 66MB ISO to 69MB ISO. Nothing much different, just the way the ISO was created (choice of compression).

Changes :

PuppyPin Script (~/Choices/ROX-Filer/Script) changed for the better. Now also sym links PuppyPin to the current PuppyPin[n] so that any other scripts/progs that access PuppyPin will automatically be pointed to the correct/current PuppyPin.

The other change is that "remaster" now defaults to "no" compression, turning out a initrd file of around 146MB - that's the initrd, puppy sfs and all firmware and modules (of that around 100MB is firmware/modules). Such a remaster takes less than 5 seconds, even on the 20+ year old single core PC I'm currently using. Click remaster, ...sit back a bit and !!!! ... NO ... IT'S NOT FAILED - IT'S DONE.

Bit of a cheat used however, all of /lib/firmware and /lib/modules are compressed into a tarball, which is extracted at bootup in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit. All told with modules and firmware not compressed the entire set is around 200MB. With compression applied etc (i.e. Gexec executed with a "remaster high" command and dropped into a ISO it comes out at 69MB (but takes longer to remaster).

During bootup at the 'Switching root...' part of the bootup there's a few second pause ... which is when the firmware and modules tar file is being extracted.

Once booted and being all uncompressed/running in memory, it really flies - as indicated by the less than 5 seconds to remaster - counting from when the remaster icon is clicked to when rox opens up the folder to show you the initrd (and vmlinuz) files.

Old LTS Wary was (is) stable and sound, dropped into a recent kernel with the added benefits of supporting more recent hardware and the two work very well together IMO. This bareboned and tweaked derivative is my more regularly booted pup for everyday stuff. Latest firefox, Libre Office, file sharing with Windows boxes (Samba), remote desktop control from Windows boxes (RDP)...etc. For video/audio editing however I do switch to Thin Slacko 5.3.3t for its nVidia (Openshot) etc support. I've added multiple desktops (with different wallpapers and icons on each desktop) to both of those (Wary and Slacko) and having become used to that functionality it makes other - even most recent pup's - seem somewhat dated

[unicorn316386]

even on the 20+ year old single core PC I'm currently using.

Is that a Pentium Pro? Nice to know this puppy runs ok on a 20+ year old PC.

[rufwoof]

Intel Celeron D (which ISN'T dual core). I may have over-exagerated the date by a few years as I've just looked up wiki and apparently that was 1998. Perhaps I should have said last millenia

I've never really followed CPU's and get rather confused by all the choices/range. Intel or AMD, number of cores ... and that's about my limit of knowledge.

[rufwoof]

MasterPDFEditor in the googledrive repository (first page if you click (to download/run) FireFox (desktop icon on desktops 2 and 3) is a nice little PDF editor IMO. One of the few that support adding attachments. Handy little drawing tools and you can highlight text etc. The only downside (at least for me) is the absence of a spell cheker !!!

[cthisbear]

Just tried yours plus Slackoff on my multiboot usb.

Not working.....

title Barebone Wary 2015
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /warybare2015/initrd.gz
kernel /warybare2015/vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash psubdir=warybare2015 pfix=fsck
initrd /warybare2015/initrd.gz

Working...

title slackoff 2015
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /slackoff2015/initrd.gz
kernel /slackoff2015/vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash psubdir=slackoff2015
pfix=fsck
initrd /slackoff2015/initrd.gz

Ideas....Chris.

[rufwoof]

initrd isn't gzip'd i.e. initrd alone not initrd.gz

Try

title Barebone Wary 2015
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /warybare2015/initrd
kernel /warybare2015/vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash psubdir=warybare2015 pfix=fsck
initrd /warybare2015/initrd

[Puppus Dogfellow]

rufwoof, can this this be remastered through woofy? what's the devx of the day? (i take it i'm mirroring the outdated?). can it run slimjet 6.0, palemoon 27.3, or LibreOffice 5.0? if i remove all the networking stuff and xvesa but add xorg high, does the overall size increase or decrease? would it boot to a desktop? i'm pretty sure with the dependency in Whitesnow's thread it'd be able to run dropbox...

it's looking good. firefox is nice and the recoll package i like by muggins may even have been originally done on a wary or racy from this era...

if the dell i found has a working cd drive (it turns on but doesn't boot--i think 278 mb of ram or some similar figure barely above 256), this'll be the first pup that goes on it, but i also want to try this out on a 2 gig asus--i want to see if there's an appreciable difference in performance between this and something roughly 100 mb larger. are there things missing from the core of the system (libraries and the like) that will turn package installation more toward the dependency hunting side of things than a regular pup, or is the weight savings primarily from programs having been removed? are the program removal tools still included?

anyway, sorry if these are questions i should be answering myself with testing (not quite sure how i seem to be so busy all the time) and thanks in advance. (and if this is incoherent i'm too tired to perceive it and apologize for that as well).

[rufwoof]

rufwoof, can this this be remastered through woofy?

No its not in woofy. I don't even know how to use woofy.

what's the devx of the day?

Hmm! Not sure about that one. For firmware/modules you'd need the devx/kernel sources from Slacko 6.1 whence the kernel came. For other stuff perhaps Wary 5.3 devx or if a TopDog app then the Wary 5.5. In short - depends.

(i take it i'm mirroring the outdated?). can it run slimjet 6.0, palemoon 27.3, or LibreOffice 5.0? if i remove all the networking stuff and xvesa but add xorg high, does the overall size increase or decrease? would it boot to a desktop? i'm pretty sure with the dependency in Whitesnow's thread it'd be able to run dropbox...

I've not tried any of that/those, and I have made changes since you mirrored - minor improvements.

Swapping out XVesa for Xorg would more likely increase the size and be less inclined to boot to desktop. For instance with XVesa I can boot the puppy with no keyboard, mouse, monitor plugged in and it boots up ok and can be remote accessed (vnc/rdesktop) into. Plug the PC VGA output into the TV's VGA socket and use the TV remote controller to switch the TV to VGA input and up pops the puppy screen with no Xorg configuration being required.

With the firmware/drives (kernel) from Slacko 6.1 I found that it became usable on our latest PC, that previously booted to desktop, but mouse/keyboard and network didn't work. The switch to later kernel/firmware/modules does however mean that older modem support is I suspect lost (Wary 5.3 was good for older modem support I believe).

Libre 5.0

Not sure, suspect it should be ok but haven't tried. I'm running 4.2.3.3 - see the desktop images I included in this post http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 935#874935

are the program removal tools still included?

That's in the TopDog (Wary 5.5), so you have to load that first to have the removal tool available - perhaps that should be moved to the under-dog (core) ??!! I've only tried it briefly i.e. epdfview worked, ran the remove tool and epdview no longer worked (not found). Not sure, but suspect you might be able to load the topdog, run the removal tool, then sfs unload the topdog ... and then remaster (so as to keep the core pup lean). The leaner you keep the core pup the better IMO. Just reboot, make changes (country/locale, desktop backgrounds, icon arrangements perhaps), remaster, and then replace the existing boot initrd version with the newly remastered version (backing up beforehand).

it's looking good. firefox is nice...

Automatically downloads the latest version when the Firefox icon is clicked (or restarts it if already been downloaded that session). Personally I prefer portable firefox stored on HDD and just load that up after booting. With HTML5 support that also means youtubes are ok without having to worry about Flash. I also store Libre, Skype ...etc sfs's on HDD and just sfs_load those (right click) after booting. You might notice that I included NoScript, Page Zoom and other bits and pieces in the main core, so that after Firefox is downloaded it starts up in a more usable manner IMO (menu showing, NoScript activated etc.).

Fundamentally I have it in mind of it being a dark box puppy installed on older thrown away PC's. Plug it into the TV, plug in the ethernet, insert CD, boot with BIOS set to boot from CD and with no HDD, mouse, keyboard etc you can 'remote' access/control into the box. If that box is then put in the DMZ of the router (external to local LAN), then you can access it from anywhere globally. Whilst insecure/accessible openly a simple reboot has it back to 'clean' again. Whilst opening up all sorts of opportunities. Plug in web cams and monitor your home from anywhere. Add mic/speaker and hear/see/talk with people from your smartphone (parcel delivery perhaps). Only RDP is required on the device (smartphone, Windows PC ..etc) in order to remotely control the puppy from anywhere - and RDP is standard (included) in later Windows (and a free app for most smartphones).

Having a pup running the other (open) side of the (router/cablemodem) firewall also means that you can setup 'anyone can access' web server (web site)...etc. Maybe with a audio alert such that if at home and you switch the TV to VGA input you see what's happening on the puppy (friend or family 'calling' you).

[rufwoof]

If the puppy is put into the DMZ (de militarised zone i.e. openly accessible from anywhere on the internet), then of course Samba wont work to internal (LAN) PC's as the router firewall would block that traffic (unless you opened up the ports).

In my mind a read only (CD booted), very open pup, that you know is openly available, whilst insecure is more secure than having a pup on the lan with ports open - as you have a potentially false sense of security. If breached you might believe that what is a insecure system to be secure. When you know the PC is insecure and open then mentally you act accordingly - making you more secure (think about what and how you transfer data/stuff from that open box/PC to/from a LAN based box/PC).

[Puppus Dogfellow]

rufwoof, can this this be remastered through woofy?

No its not in woofy. I don't even know how to use woofy.

woofy's just a cool tool: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57037
it decompresses the isos and included sfses, gives you guis to add or remove stuff, stitches it all back together. if a non-working package a or b is deal breaker, you could add it before your first boot and check to see shortly thereafter. it's just a way to remaster an iso you're not actually running at the time. while i have no interest in the networking stuff or limited video server (if that's the correct term for what xorg and xvesa et al are) it appears to necessitate, your remastering set up is very interesting to me (as is the iso's small overall size). with woofy, i could theoretically remove xvesa and add xorg high before first boot, but since you have a non standard set up with the sfs inside the initrd, i figured there was a chance it wouldn't work. it's a handy little tool (though it'd be nice to be able to add and remove packages in non-active isos through the command line--getting into the sfs and messing with things is doable enough without woofy, but it's far better at the package removal and addition side of things than i am).

Swapping out XVesa for Xorg would more likely increase the size and be less inclined to boot to desktop. For instance with XVesa I can boot the puppy with no keyboard, mouse, monitor plugged in and it boots up ok and can be remote accessed (vnc/rdesktop) into. Plug the PC VGA output into the TV's VGA socket and use the TV remote controller to switch the TV to VGA input and up pops the puppy screen with no Xorg configuration being required.

With the firmware/drives (kernel) from Slacko 6.1 I found that it became usable on our latest PC, that previously booted to desktop, but mouse/keyboard and network didn't work. The switch to later kernel/firmware/modules does however mean that older modem support is I suspect lost (Wary 5.3 was good for older modem support I believe).

less inclined to boot to desktop over the network or just in general? without concern with the lan and the tv or netboot or any of that--is dropping in another xserver as simple as any other pet? i think it would be, but last time i think i tried (in woofy, although i'd use a different xorg pet this time, and that was an xorg for xorg high swap) and it never got added--may've been a hiccup but i guess it got me wondering if something more was needed to make the switch happen and work.

Libre 5.0

Not sure, suspect it should be ok but haven't tried. I'm running 4.2.3.3 - see the desktop images I included in this post http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 935#874935

another interest i have in it is as a possible core for a very small up to date libre office pup--under 300 but with that, recoll, an offline dictionary, and a decent browser--seems close to manageable. if LO 5 didn't work out, i'd try to get the 4412 from april 7 32 to run on it. not as modern as the five, but the package from Barry is by far the smallest libre around i think--110 mb, though i think it's only writer and presentation tools.

are the program removal tools still included?

That's in the TopDog (Wary 5.5), so you have to load that first to have the removal tool available - perhaps that should be moved to the under-dog (core) ??!! I've only tried it briefly i.e. epdfview worked, ran the remove tool and epdview no longer worked (not found). Not sure, but suspect you might be able to load the topdog, run the removal tool, then sfs unload the topdog ... and then remaster (so as to keep the core pup lean). The leaner you keep the core pup the better IMO. Just reboot, make changes (country/locale, desktop backgrounds, icon arrangements perhaps), remaster, and then replace the existing boot initrd version with the newly remastered version (backing up beforehand).

with woofy, i wouldn't need wary for the removal tool...and once in barebone, --well, that remove built in packages gui--maybe i could track that down. could possibly be available by ppm, no? of course, to do that i'd need to know what it was called...

Automatically downloads the latest version when the Firefox icon is clicked (or restarts it if already been downloaded that session). Personally I prefer portable firefox stored on HDD and just load that up after booting. With HTML5 support that also means youtubes are ok without having to worry about Flash. I also store Libre, Skype ...etc sfs's on HDD and just sfs_load those (right click) after booting. You might notice that I included NoScript, Page Zoom and other bits and pieces in the main core, so that after Firefox is downloaded it starts up in a more usable manner IMO (menu showing, NoScript activated etc.).

latest cog from firefox downloaded, extracted, and moved to the desktop has been working well for me. adding off path things to the menus is easy:

Code: Select all

<Program label="firefox" icon="path/to/pick something">/path/to/firefoxfolder/firefox</Program>

anyway, thanks for the responses, rufwoof.

[nic007]

Woofy does not work correctly for me with Wary 5.3.9. Eg. Trying to remove Seamonkey only results to a 4MB cut to the base iso which is impossible. I wonder if this is because I'm using a "beta" version of Wary?

[Puppus Dogfellow]

Woofy does not work correctly for me with Wary 5.3.9. Eg. Trying to remove Seamonkey only results to a 4MB cut to the base iso which is impossible. I wonder if this is because I'm using a "beta" version of Wary?

seamonkey is likely already gone--it never seems to disappear from the built-ins menu no matter how matter subsequent remasters of a copy from which it's been removed are made--if that's the only the only thing you cut, maybe all those extra once overs i did to my spins were worth it. it could be the identical thing you started with but with a different compression ratio. woofy uses gz compression (will inflate most puppy isos upon recompression unless you repack them with packit or parchive or cli forcing it to use xz for the main sfs). every time i check it seems like rufwoof has changed his preference on that, but i'm not going to search back through the thread. if it tried to remove seamonkey and succeeded in rebuilding his iso or xz (i think i have a version of each, but i'm beginning to lose track), it did pretty well, i think. thanks for the testing--seems to show it may work to at least some degree.

[rufwoof]

The fastest remaster occurs with no compression which is now the default. To alleviate the filesize I've compressed /lib/firmware and /lib/modules into a tar.xz (high compression) that is extracted in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit during bootup (hence a pause when booting at the Switching Root ... message).

You can run gexec with either remaster high, remaster med or remaster low. For the CD (release) I use high which is xz -e, medium is gzip -9 and low is lzop -1. That's applied to puppy sfs so initrd remains consistent (non compressed). In init (within initrd) the puppy sfs suffix is inspected and either xz, gzip or lzop decompressed accordingly.

Ballpark high (xz extreme) produces a 70MB ISO, med (gzip) is around 90MB, lzop (low) a 115MB, gzip and no compression is around a 140MB ISO.

[cthisbear]

" initrd isn't gzip'd i.e. initrd alone not initrd.gz "

Got that....couldn't understand the size difference.

Sorry to not get back sooner.
A little busy at the moment.
Apologies for the lack of courtesy...hate that sort of attitude myself.

I put 3 versions on the stick.
Copied >> initrd to the root of the usb drive.

Tried a different usb port.
Yes! it booted.
Also used a different method of >> hd0, 0 in the boot.

So not really sure what made it boot.
More tests needed...but as I say I have been busy.

Regards....Chris.

[fitch]

Download the 69MB ISO https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4MbXu ... sp=sharing

md5sum for (me) paranoid downloaders ? im assuming (read thru the thread) that the one-fella who asked "ready for xxxx?" wouldve started hosting it somewhere else eventually ?

i will prolly just run-it, but fyi - the md5 data i got today (2015-12-13) was :

c9367331e03d2d99206241d9ffa4746c wary_5.3_XVesa.iso ##md5
d6f64a77d69d26eb8e097e7dfae7b64d182a3255 wary_5.3_XVesa.iso ##sha1

tia & hth, h.

[rufwoof]

the md5 data i got today (2015-12-13) was :

c9367331e03d2d99206241d9ffa4746c wary_5.3_XVesa.iso ##md5
d6f64a77d69d26eb8e097e7dfae7b64d182a3255 wary_5.3_XVesa.iso ##sha1

tia & hth, h.

Thanks Fitch

[fitch]

howdee rufwoof,

just got back to this again... burned-iso, loaded-up first-boot and started to look-around... made some notes about the process and rereading the thread... had some questions (similar to puppus-dogfellow) about whether this is ready-for-primetime...

1 - i have NOT tried the remaster-icon yet, i was just looking around at the basic desktop... this (not having remastered) might be why i am having issues...

2 - i noticed some errors when running the normal(?) menu->system->lighthouse-sys-info thing which leads me to suspect that the "hack" of kernel from wary-53 to slacko-6 is not quite correct... in particular, there were errors about /lib/modules and usb-mount and dbus iirc... otoh, the system DID boot up just fine with my minimal hw...

3 - on initial-boot, i did not have a mouse or network plugged in - these gave fairly obvious errors (network-popup and cannot-click anywhere onscreen easily)... i did not try (or know-about since i was following the thread-posts for instructions fairly slowly) a vnc-connection or a smartphone since i just wanted to see the first-boot make some sense to me...

4 - i had tried puppy many-many years ago so even wary-53 is new to me, so be gentle... but as i was going thru the thread/instructions - the next semi-obvious thing i tried was to adjust for USA vs UK... iirc, once id made the appropriate changes, puppy complained that it wanted a save-file and that i should restart-X... at that point (just hit the restart-X cuz i was not ready to save), i got a "weird" desktop-1 and your "nice" desktops-2_thru_5 seemed a bit different... i think the magic-icons youve made (for remaster, etc) somehow disappeared...

notice, i still have not put in a usb-key to create a save-file or a remaster-file or whatnot... i kinda wanted to make sure that this puppy (in default mode) would work generally for my uses... in particular, i DO, as you describe, want to get a simple PXE-server up and running to boot all the ancient boxen i have lying around...

this (puppy) seems like it is the correct answer for me - and it has some very-cool features (like the multi-desktop hack) as well... i hope you dont mind my comments - and maybe i can help test some further ideas ?

in particular, maybe we can get it into the apparently-current woofy-system so that others could help ? idk - just some thoughts on a first-boot testing...

heres my simple-question: what would you like me to try next ?

thx, h.

ps - in theory i could post my sys-info file and/or my personal-diary-notes if itd help in any way...