Precise-light - 17March2019 - for older hardware

[rcrsn51]

@sindi: Please reply to my post about WiFi before asking more questions.

[sindi]

I replied to the wifi question at great length this morning but apparently forgot to submit my reply. I learned more since morning.

2009 HP dv2, ipw2200.

SNS finds eth01 wifi and eth0 wired.
Connect times out. (Sometimes it works).

Peasywifi shows me linksys as a possible Wifi profile and Connect connects. (I must have gotten it working before somehow).

---------------------------------

2004 Thinkpad T42, ipw2200

Installed Frisbee - finds no interfaces.

SNS - Interfaces finds eth0 (e1000) and eth1 (ipw2200)
Choose eth1, and it connects eventually or sometimes it times out.

Peasy: Connect to open networks, Scan - interface wlan0 is not active.
I/F Your possible WiFi interface(s) eth1 OK
Status Interface wlan0 is NOT active.
Ethernet - choose eth0 or eth1.
Chose eth1, DHCP, reconnect, Reconnecting.... I waited about 40 sec and hit the X to exit the dialog box. Now it says Ethernet is connected, click on info to confirm.

I then changed from DHCP to Static, Configured static IP, and Reconnect.
It has been at least 30 sec so I clicked on the X again and it says ethernet is connected again.

So it is usable but very slow and confusing to set up. It lists eth0 (wifi) as ethernet, and still it says it is connecting when it has probably connected.

Every time I run peasy it is back to ethernet defaults, but I reboot and eth1 has the correct config and I am automatically connected. I did not click on auto. I did choose static.

peasywifi treats eth0 as wifi on the dv2 but as ethernet on the t42.. .

After I made a save file (to keep wifi settings) framebuffer console is again not working, but reboot was very quick this time. 2 of 3.

I have more ipw2200 laptops from 2004/5. No framebuffer problem on the three I checked. May be ATI-9200 related. ATI 9000 works, as does integrated Intel video.

[jrb]

How can I edit my copied-here-from-asus saved files to make framebuffer console work? I have not had this problem with any other puppy - I can always use the same save file (directory).

The save files/folders in modern WoofCE puppies don't do well transfering from computer to computer. I have a partial solution, but no time to write it up now. Will get back to it later today.

[rcrsn51]

@sindi: Your ipw2200 adapter has the name eth1 because that's how some old Linux wifi drivers work. But it is NOT an ethernet device.

Click the Config button at the bottom of the PWF screen. Make this change like I stated above:

Code: Select all

export INTERFACE=eth1

Then run the wifi connection procedure as usual.

Are you going into the Ethernet section and trying to set up eth1 there? That won't work because eth1 is a wifi interface.

[sindi]

A Precise with noPAE kernel 3.14.56 no SAVE file (pfix=ram) (Not toram or noram)

1. Framebuffer console (but not with any save file even a new one made on this hardware).

2. Peasywifi - works if I follow instructions ;=)
I/F (wifi is eth1)
Config - change wlan0 to eth1, save and exit config (can also add static IP and gateway)
Restart (since I changed the configuration)
Scan - my network appears
Connect - connects in 7 seconds (can also save before quitting)

3. sns works quickly eth1

4. Ctrl-Alt-Backspace exits
Ctrl-Alt-Del 'Precise Puppy ... is now shutting down...'
reboots in about 75 sec.

(I tested from power off and from reboot, same kernel, same result).

B Precise with noPAE 4.4.95 (Xenial 32bit 7.5), no SAVE file

1. Framebuffer console

2. Peasywifi works, 8 sec to connect
Saved my network, chose it from dropdown menu, Auto On.

3. sns works

4. Ctrl-Alt-Back to exit X, Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot, restarts in 7 seconds.
But only if I start from poweroff state, not a reboot. But not fully reproducible.


C K4 with save file (minimal, nade for this hardware)

1. No framebuffer console.

2. I had automated peasy to connect to my network, and powered off and then on again to same kernel.
As X was loading, a small green box appeared briefly without the usual text about wifi connected.
I can ping successfully. Not tested with kernel 3 only 4.

3. From X with menu: Exit, Poweroff - exits from X to vt, does NOT power off. Reproducible.
There is no message to type poweroff, but I type that and it powers off immediately.

Someone else please test with other hardware and kernel.

Conclusions:

1. Framebuffer console problem with any save file on this T42.
Due to ATI 9200 video? I have another T42 to test and other intel/ATI combinations.

2. Peasywifi requires editing a file for ipw2200 wifi connection and automation works
(at least with k 4.4.95) but the connection message does not appear in the green box.

sns works but I think user needs to choose eth1 every time it boots.

network wizard was easier to understand.

3. Various shutdown/poweroff problems.

I have 40 usable Pentium 4 laptops given to us with bad sound, wifi, optical controller,
hard drive, memory (or slot or controller), usb, keys, keyboard, and/or clogged with dust.
Many, esp. with Intel 855 chips, won't display properly with puppies 5 or easily run Palemoon 28.
So far Precise works on everything (except VertEdgeScroll and framebuffer console on two).

I want to offer laptops to poor people with free apt wifi that we give surplus food to.
Framebuffer is irrelevant.

They want to watch Youtube. GTK-youtube-viewer stopped working recently.
Youtube in a browser is too slow on old hardware (15+ years). 240p is too fuzzy.
360p worked great with GTK-viewer on any P 4 even low RAM. Any ideas?

The neighbor kid aged 10 shared with other kids our laptops that need external monitors or USB headphones or keyboards.
He got really into linux and wanted to try every version.

[rcrsn51]

2. Peasywifi requires editing a file for ipw2200 wifi connection and automation works

Excellent.

but the connection message does not appear in the green box.

I'm guessing that it has something to do with how your video initializes or what fonts are in play at bootup.

[sindi]

Problems with automated wifi and shutting down.

kernel 4.1.30 (to prevent freezes with kernel 3), b43, save file from asus M5000

----------------------

late 2005 hp dv2 (b43, AMD64).
framebuffer console works.

..... Auto, choose my network, ON. Exit. (same as with 2004 T42).

From X menu, Exit, Power Off, exits X to vt. I type poweroff and it goes off in about 4 seconds.

I power back on and load precise again.
No green box, and no connection has been made.

-------------------

Jan 2005 hp dv5000 (b43, AMD64, Athlon M200 video).
framebuffer console works.

Not auto connecting (though I set it up to do so).

Menu, Exit, Shutdown - goes to a screen with just two windows on it, one being Peasy the other the rxvt I started it from.
Alt-f2 goes to vt2. Back to X.

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace exits X and says it is shutting down and it shuts down in a few seconds.

---------

Boot again. framebuffer console still works.

Boots to X (with .xinitrc = jwm, type xinit). No green box and no wifi connection.
Shutdown as before. rxvt and netmon remain but no Menu.

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.
Precise Puppy is now shutting down.
This time it takes at least a minute.

Same if I exit X then type poweroff.

Or I power off, start again without X, then type poweroff.

Not predictable.


KERNEL PROBLEMS:

b43 and/or kernel 4.1.30 (needed with b43 on some hardware) and/or Athlon M200 (dv5000) video may somehow interfere with peasywifi automation
and with shutting down X and linux.

The 4.4.95 kernel produces wrong resolution screen with frozen mouse but working keyboard. No framebuffer console.
Peasywifi: scan, interface wlan0 is not active. I/F - no possible interfaces listed. Same with sns.
zdrv is 7/3 the size of the one for k41. So standard Xenial32 75 won't work here but Xenial 7.06
might and Precise will, with kernel 4.1.30 noPAE.

The 3.14.56 kernel freezes (dv2 immediately, dv5000 a bit later) mouse and keyboard.

[sindi]

I set peasywifi to automatically connect to my network, with static IP.
It does not do that, same as with T42 ipw2200. So far just b43 auto connects, on one laptop.

Is there a network wizard pet or should I copy the script from lupu?
The auto connect generally works with it.

----------

As on other laptops. menu, exit, shutdown just exits X. Ctrl-Alt-Del reboots quickly from a vt.

Reboot script says shutdown is part of minit package.

The poweroff script refers to rc.shutdown.

I am used to typing 'shutdown -h now' to turn off quickly but it does nothing.

Is there a minit package and if not can shutdown be restored?

[jrb]

Is there a network wizard pet?

[jrb]

Reboot script says shutdown is part of minit package.

The poweroff script refers to rc.shutdown.

I am used to typing 'shutdown -h now' to turn off quickly but it does nothing.

Is there a minit package and if not can shutdown be restored?

There is no reboot script. It is a link to the poweroff script and I see no mention of "minit" in that script. Minit is a ubuntu program but I wouldn't install it, too different from the puppy system.

If you want a quick shutdown

Code: Select all

busybox poweroff

but make sure you have shutdown all programs and unmounted all disks. It will create errors in your save file/folder.

[sindi]

Peasywifi in 5.7.2 worked as designed - the (empty) green box appeared while X was loading and I am connected statically via wifi.

I don't know why 5.7.2 would not work on one laptop.

Assemble 5.7.2 noPAE from the delta-ed PAE iso and the noPAE 5.7.1 kernel and modules:

Put iso in precise-572 directory, mount -o loop *iso /mnt/cdrom and copy from /mnt/cdrom to directory (.) the puppy*sfs and initrd.gz. Copy from 5.7.1 noPAE directory the files vmlinuz and zdrv*sfs. Change 5.7.1 to 5.7.2 in zdrv. Edit menu.lst. (change 1 to 2).

[jrb]

How can I edit my copied-here-from-asus saved files to make framebuffer console work? I have not had this problem with any other puppy - I can always use the same save file (directory).

Older puppies checked hardware everytime they booted and would change the video settings to match new hardware. Modern puppies don't, at least not as well. Here is my partial solution.

You can freeze your pupsave file/folder and then remove /etc/X11. This way puppy will have to adjust to new hardware on every boot.

• 1) Make sure pmedia=ataflash. If you are booting from usb then this is already set. If not add it to your kernel line in menu.lst so that puppy thinks you are booting from a usb.
  2) Create a new script, /etc/init.d/00pupmode12, containing:

  Code: Select all

  #!/bin/sh
  sed -i 's/PUPMODE=13/PUPMODE=12/g' /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE > /dev/null 2>&1

  and reboot. This will fool puppy into thinking its saving when its actually not.

Any changes you want to make to your pupsave must now be done manually. You can copy changes from /initrd/pup_rw, which would normally reflect what will be saved to your save file/folder. You can extract .pets and place them in your save file/folder. You can remove items, such as /etc/X11, permanently from your save file/folder. You may have to experiment a bit to get what you want.

Save folders are easy to work with. You can put stuff in or take stuff out as you are using the puppy, but make sure you have made a backup copy of the folder before you start.

Save files are trickier, you can't access them while they are being used. However you can:

Code: Select all

cp -l ./precisesave_A.3fs some_other_name.3fs

This creates a hard linked copy. As long as it does not contain the word "save" puppy will let you mount it (left click on it) and make changes and those changes will also be made in the save file.

Good luck, J

[sindi]

[quote="sindi"]Peasywifi in 5.7.2 (kernel 3.14.56 noPAE) worked as designed - the (empty) green box appeared while X was loading and I am connected statically via wifi.

I don't know why 5.7.2 would not work on one laptop. [quote]

5.7.2 with kernel 3 works on 2004 ASUS M5000 (with ipw2200).
It did not work on the Jan 2005 dv5000 (with b43) - kbd/mouse freezes and various other things did not work.

5.7.2 with kernel 4.1 on dv5000 when booted without X has no framebuffer console, but after loading X and switching vts framebuffer works.

BUT
Neither SNS nor peasywifi finds any wireless interfaces.
SNS I think found no interfaces at all and I did not check with peasy.

I will investigate editing save files as instructed (after some more pressing business) but it looks like even a brand new save files won't allow T42 to do framebuffer console. I will test on some other ATI 9200 laptop. This is all very educational. Thanks!

I have not tested 5.7.2 on any other laptops with any kernels.
.
With 5.7.1 and k41 everything works on dv2 and dv5000.

[rcrsn51]

Regarding the newer kernels: They may have started using a different driver than the old b43.

Run "dmesg | grep -i firmware" and look for error messages.

[sindi]

[quote="rcrsn51"]Regarding the newer kernels: They may have started using a different driver than the old b43.
Run "dmesg | grep -i firmware" and look for error messages.[/quote]

I think 5.7.2 with standard PAE kernel 3.14.56 worked with wifi, as did 5.7.1 on dv5000 but some bug related to wifi and kernel 3.X greater than 3.2 causes keyboard and mouse freezes. kernel 3.2 (Tahr retro) did not work for some other reason, nor did 4.4.95 Xenial32 7.5.

5.7.2 with kernel 4.1 works properly and sns and peasywifi work too, with b43. dmesg | grep -i firmware after running either of the says
br3-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2.

In both precises there is first something about e100: Firmware left e100 interrupts enabled: disabling. This is BEFORE any b43 message, which only appears after running a wifi program.

The identical kernel and modules but the 5.7.2 version of Precise light do NOT load firmware even if I run SNS or peasywifi. Interface wlan0 is not active. Even the e100 wired interface is not active.

So something in 5.7.2 broke wifi here. I will try on dv2 also with k41 and b43 wifi. I may have other 2005 AMD64 laptops with b43 to test on.

I have not tested the network wizard pet yet. This laptop does not seem to automate wifi - I have to click connect every time. It does save the IP settings.

[sindi]

[quote

I have not tested the network wizard pet yet. This laptop does not seem to automate wifi - I have to click connect every time. It does save the IP settings.[/quote]]

I tested network wizard with 5.7.1 k 4.1.30

Download, or directly install while online with petget. Type net-setup.sh and it lists a lot of network modules. No network interfaces seen but it offers me the chance to load one. Click on b43, 'cancel' as instructed, proceed as usual, connect, assign static IP addresses, WORKS. At this point SNS also sees network interface b43.

Reboot, and the profile for my network is loaded but I have to repeat this whole procedure of manually loading b43 and assigning IP addresses (or using DHCP).

The exact same thing happens with 5.7.2 same kernel.

This makes the laptop usable with Precise 5.7.2 by me but not by a newbie who expects an automatic connection.

What changed in 5.7.2 that keeps b43 from being detected by network scripts, when using kernel 4.1.30? I don't think this happened with the default kernel.

I would like a script to turn off mousepad touch so it does not keep moving my text around when my thumbs get near the touchpad. Too much effort to do it with a GUI from the menu. synclient TapAndDragGesture=1 seems to work. Put in jwm-personal?

[sindi]

One reason I did not use 5.7.2 with default kernel is e3pi segfaults.
It does it with kernel 4.1.30 too. Odd. Will test with another AMD laptop.

[sindi]

HP dv2, AMD, 2009, b43, with precise 5.7.2 finds no network interfaces until I modprobe b43 manually. e3pi segfaults as on dv5000. I use it all the time.

I will test on a DELL AMD b43 and an HP dv4000 non-AMD.

The d*mn touchpad is even more sensitive than dv4000.
synclient TapAndDragGesture-0 did not help, BUT

VerticalEdgeScroll is working. It works in Tahr

Piece of paper over touchpad fixed the problem.

[jrb]

One reason I did not use 5.7.2 with default kernel is e3pi segfaults.
It does it with kernel 4.1.30 too. Odd. Will test with another AMD laptop.

You can install e3_utf8-2.8.pet. The original 2.7.1 segfaults for some reason. I'll have it fixed in the next update.

[nic007]

Hi, jrb. I'm not sure if this has been brought up before (this thread is getting heavy to waddle through so apologise if it has ben addressed) but I notice that the little builtin program. ie. Burniso2cd is listed twice in the menu.