Precise-light - 17March2019 - for older hardware

[Fossil]

Minimal requirements. In case the subject does come up, I've been running (for fun!) Precise March 17 2019 on an ancient Compaq Ipaq desktop 500 mHz with 250 megs of RAM and double that amount swap partition using a security tightened-down Firefox 27 and a Palemoon_27.9.4 SSE GLIBC19 portable. It may be slow by today's uber-speedsters but once loaded it chugs along on a website to website basis. Hardly the 'gold-standard' but adequate for anyone who might come across a dumpster 'gift' and wonder if a newer Puppy will run on it.
Thanks jrb.

[jrb]

5.7.2 with kernel 4.1 on dv5000 when booted without X has no framebuffer

This Stackexchange article might help.

[jrb]

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.

Thanks Nic. Update coming soon, will fix.

[jrb]

Minimal requirements. In case the subject does come up, I've been running (for fun!) Precise March 17 2019 on an ancient Compaq Ipaq desktop 500 mHz with 250 megs of RAM and double that amount swap partition using a security tightened-down Firefox 27 and a Palemoon_27.9.4 SSE GLIBC19 portable. It may be slow by today's uber-speedsters but once loaded it chugs along on a website to website basis. Hardly the 'gold-standard' but adequate for anyone who might come across a dumpster 'gift' and wonder if a newer Puppy will run on it.
Thanks jrb.

Thanks Fossil, Expert endorsements are always welcome.

[sindi]

[quote="jrb"][quote="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.

[/quote]You can install [url=http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... f8-2.8.pet]e3_utf8-2.8.pet[/url]. The original 2.7.1 segfaults for some reason. I'll have it fixed in the next update.[/quote]

WORKS (in 5.7.2)! As does vertical scroll (not working on dv2 in 5.7.1).
Can you make 5.7.2 recognize b43 to obviate need to modprobe manually?
Would updated ffmpeg (to work with pmusic) enlarge Precise too much?

Why do I always see [/quote] and url= rather than clickable link?

The 500MHz Compaq sounds like a PIII. Good news!

I will test PII 233MHz 96MB and 400MHz 256MB (with external kbds).

Will an SSE2 PM work at all without SSE2 and without images?

[sindi]

Everything works on the T41 - fast startup and shutdown, framebuffer console, sound, auto wifi, vertical scroll on touchpad, browser, sound, X. On starting it warned me I was using a save file from 5.7.1 and let me upgrade it. SNS found both ethernet and wifi (eth0 and wifi0). I had to tell peasywifi that wifi was wifi0. Static. Next boot it found eth5 and eth6 (side effect of using a used savefile) and connected automatically.

Thinkpads come with a choice of wifi cards. Internal aironet is rare.

Three HPs all AMD take 75 sec to shut down and 30 to start up - they check the file system then load the save file. The T41 did not check the file system at startup and it shut down in 8 seconds. Why?

Is there a way to turn off touchpad tap but keep vertical scroll?[/url]

[sindi]

Too many OS'es late at night. Peasy says it has connected to wifi but there is no connection, and SNS keeps retrying and times out. Lupu connects.

At boot time it says WIFI CONNECTED in green. Peasy says it is connected (using either wifi0 or eth1) but ping says it is not.

The log says the aironet chip is 11MBps. I can replace it.

[jrb]

Why do I always see and url= rather than clickable link?

I always type in etc. Clicking on the buttons always places them at the end of your text no matter where you want them. Use Any words you want when the URL is very long or doesn't describe what it will call up. I use the preview button a lot and even then I have to edit out mistakes after posting.

Have you tried Menu->System->BootManager->Modules->Add New Module to get b43 to load at bootup? If that doesn't work I'll see if I can figure something out.

BTW, I have fixed Pmusic. It now plays local songs and streaming radio, etc. Had to upgrade libav-tools and supporting libs from tahr. Don't know how much bigger it will make Precise-light but will find out tomorrow.

BFN, J

[oldaolgeezer]

Hi jrb:

Thank you for your Puppy precise-light-5.7.2

I have been successfully trying it (as a frugal install)
on my HP G70-463CL and my IBM IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet Laptops

I have successfully installed:
palemoon version: 28.8.1
and calibre version 3.33.1

Two small suggestions:

First: In calibre's program: /opt/calibre/ebook-viewer, for its right click search or dictionary feature
to work, the directory: /root/Choices/URI needs (just a one time fix via the terminal):
ln -s /usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser /root/Choices/URI/https

My second suggestion, I would like to wish for "roxfiler with movable columns".
(I have tried to find a roxfiler pet with the movable columns, but
finally I had to copy the roxfiler with movable columns from my own old Puppy slacko5.7.0
save file but I failed to document where I got that version on my own old Puppy slacko5.7.0
Now, in my precise-light-5.7.2, when I issue: /usr/local/bin/roxfiler --version
it shows: ROX-Filer 2.11 Copyright (C) 2005 ....
But when I was looking for the roxfiler pet with the movable columns, I seem to think a number of the pets all
showed 2.11 as their version.)

Thanks again jrb

[jrb]

I really messed up here and deleted the post, but it was outdated anyway. See Here for the latest update.

[sheldonisaac]

I've just uploaded ....precise-light-5.7.2-mk2.0.iso___precise-light-5.7.2-mk2.2.iso.delta - 26Mb

Thanks a lot, jrb; I'll get it now.

[sindi]

"Pmusic - updated to 6.0 and now plays streaming radio

e3 - upgraded - now works

Network_wizard included "

e3 version 2.8 works

pmusic radio downloads the 2MB station list but won't play.
connecting
no connection
(0.00)

The dependency check shows missing
gtkdialog >=0.8.4
ffmpeg >=1.2 (as before)

ffmpeg -v says 0.8.17 (same as before), with no missing dependencies.

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

Still no automatic connection.

I put modprobe b43 in /etc/rc.d/rc.local and it now inserts but there is still no automatic connection on HP dv2 or dv5000.

Network wizard lets me set static wifi, and when I reboot I see the green wifi connected box, but there is no connection.



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

Menu, Exit, Reboot or Shutdown - exits X, does not reboot.
wmreboot does the same.

poweroff works quickly (dv5000)

I think this was the case before the delta update, on these two HP dv's.

If I start Precise 572 without X (pfix=nox) there is no framebuffer console until I start X.

With 5.7.1 fbcon works without X loaded.

In 572 started without X, then X loaded afterwards, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace then Ctrl-Alt-Del > black screen with flashing cursor. Poweroff - same.

In 5.7.1 Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does not fully exit X until I repeat it.
Ctr-Alt-Del says 'shutting down' and shuts down eventually.
(I don't recall if I started with or without X).

If I start 572 with X (not pfix=nox) Ctrl-Alt-Backspace works right.

Power button works.

I think 5.7.2 loads faster than 5.7.1.

Vertical Scroll is not working on dv2.

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

The update removed a couple of changes I had made (to .xinitrc and .jwmrc). I used the delta 2.2 with iso 2.0.

-----

Precise 5.7.2 mounted a CF card in a Hitachi Microdrive adapter in a type II PCMCIA slot, which uses the whole slot. I had to remove my PCMCIA USB adapter first (dead USB ports on computer). This is useful with old Nikon cameras if you have a PCMCIA slot but no CF card reader.

[jrb]

pmusic radio downloads the 2MB station list but won't play.
connecting
no connection
(0.00)

Somewhere in Zigbert's Pmusic thread I read that Pmusic will only play mp3 streaming downloads? If you choose the stations that say "mp3" they should play. They do for me. Might want to ask in Zigbert's thread.

[sindi]

I can play mp3 and m3u8 stations with pmusic in 5.7.1 but not pls or m3u.
Would the newer ffmpeg help?

I can play the same working stations with mpg123.
I could make an html file of them and use lynx to choose, with mpg123 set as player.
<a href>http://.....mp3</a>

At least one laptop (dv2) won't print with 5.7.2 - says printer is offline.

[sindi]

HP dv2 and dv5000, brother all-in-one MFC7820N which refused to print with Racy 5.5 (updated) and just said Sleep.
It does the same with Precise 5.7.2, but prints perfectly with 5.7.1.

lpr -P MFC7820N filename does nothing. Same as in Racy.

I copied over precisesave and it 'updated' to 5.7.2. (At some point all the changes got lost so I did this again).

I will go back to using 5.7.1 with the better e3 for a while. modprobe b43 in rc.local, manually connect on boot,
and play only mp3 files with pmusic or mpg123 or try with ffmpeg 1.2 pet to play pls and m3u too.

It is great to have working video (one exception) and wifi (one exception and not always automatic) and printing and sound in 5.7.1.

[Moose On The Loose]

I just put a frugal Precise on my computer and tried the chromium browser.
It does nothing at all.
No error dialog or anything
Is there a different browser that works?
Did I need to do something else?

[6502coder]

See jrb's second post in this thread. I'm running a PaleMoon originally installed via one of Mike Walsh's "portable" PETs.

[Moose On The Loose]

See jrb's second post in this thread. I'm running a PaleMoon originally installed via one of Mike Walsh's "portable" PETs.

I presumed that was a comment for me.
I thank you greatly.

I also see that there is a newer version of Precise-light than what I have.
I have work to do.

I intend to migrate to Precise or more exactly something I cobble together with it. If I don't hit something impossible expect to see some additions for it from me.

[Mike Walsh]

I just put a frugal Precise on my computer and tried the chromium browser.
It does nothing at all.
No error dialog or anything
Is there a different browser that works?
Did I need to do something else?

@ Moose:-

I fancy you're going to find that we're looking at mostly Mozilla-based stuff here for Precise-light.

The issue with the Chromium-based browsers is two-fold.

1 ) The version of GTK-3.0 that'll run in Precise is too old for the current crop of Chromium 'clones'.

2 ) Secondly, I think you'll find that many of the other libs'n'stuff are still the older ones from Precise as it originally came. Again, the current clones will turn their nose up at 'em.

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

The 'clones' are based on Chromium itself, of course.....Chromium being a thinly-disguised euphemism for Google's browser R&D department, who periodically pick out the cream of the builds off the conveyor belt - the Chromium Project's semi-autonomous 'build-bots' are continuously churning these builds out non-stop, scores of them every 24 hours. Many never see the light of day, but Big Brother picks out the 'stable' releases, adds his own proprietary crap to it, and releases it as Chrome.

(Chromium is where all the 'bleeding-edge' stuff is tried out, y'see, so many of these 'auto' builds aren't that stable to begin with. Added to which, unlike Mozilla, who at least use a 'binary' starter for the 'libxul.so' shared lib that contains the bulk of the browser, Chromium's 'main' shared lib has to be started via a 'wrapper script'. There's no binaries involved, so you can't even run

Code: Select all

ldd

....on it to find out exactly what's missing...! You have to dig your way through the copious terminal output the 'clones' constantly spit out, for these browsers continuously de-bug as they run.)

(*shrug*)


Mike.

[sindi]

HP dv2 2009

The latest 5.7.2 will not start X automatically - on boot 'starting X' then about 10 seconds later it ends up at a vt. I type xinit or xwin to start X.

SNS finds no interfaces, peasy claims to connect to eth0 but does not.
b43 (how do I know which exact version?)

Brother MFC7820N printer says 'sleep'

5.7.1

Loads X automatically at boot.

Connects to eth0 automatically at boot if cable is plugged in. Wlan0 needs to be loaded manually every time.

It prints.

I tested repeatedly with and without precisesave.

No vertical scroll with either version (it works with Tahr 605).

I will use 5.7.1 on the dv2 until 5.7.2 is perfected.


HP dv5000 circa 2005, also b43

5.7.2

loads X at boot time,

auto connects to b43 at boot time (amazing!)

peasy works but INFO does nothing
SNS will not load - just sits there doing nothing forever
network wizard finds b43 wireless but not eth0

Printer sleeps instead of printing.

Exit X, Ctrl-Alt-Del produces black screen with blinking cursor instead of powering off, then returns to vt prompt. Poweroff says it is shutting down but does the same. Power switch works.

5.7.1 (slow boot, filesystem check)

loads X

does NOT auto connect to b43 wifi
SNS finds eth0 and wlan0 (even with cable unplugged)
network wizard finds b43 and e100 eth0

Poweroff from vt works, quickly.

Prints.

I have not done the comparison on a DELL 600M (2004) or 1521 (2007), a 2012 Toshiba or a 2009 Compaq CQ50, since 5.7.1 works. 5.7.2 may help two netbooks to get online.

I will stick with 5.7.1 until the bugs are out of 5.7.2, updating e3.
It prints, automatically loads X and connects to ethernet, and powers off properly.

What was changed in 5.7.2 to interfere with printing, network, X and poweroff? Presumably these all work on newer hardware.