I am quite impressed with Puppy Linux. If I had a small profile desktop like a Dell Gx260 (laptop hd and external power supply) I would load it up with Puppy Linux. This is because Puppy has matured to the point that it can be a full time OS in my opinion. It is spot on with LAN and "open" wireless networks. I stayed in my wifes hospital room around the clock during her recent stay and found Puppy 4.1.2 very adept at connecting to the provided wireless network. When it comes to encrypted wireless communications however Puppy has some issues.
I have conducted a number of "experiments" if you will using Breezy, Pupeee and 4.12. I installed to usb and to ssd on my eeepc 701 4G. I compared results with each install. To be fair to Puppy I configured Puppy in each version and format with each of the available wpa and wpa2 settings available on my wireless router. I also conducted testing with and without editing the rc.local file to ensure loading of encryption modules ( no difference was noted).
The results are in:
The setups that passed are:
Breezy (wpa/tkip)
Pupeee (wpa/tkip) with password of 10 characters or more
The setups that failed are:
Puppy 4.1.2
Puppy 4.12 Bare
Observations:
Breezy could only handle wpa/tkip but it performed very well. It was very easy to set up and wpa-connect tool on the January, 2008 version connected very quickly. I wish all versions of Puppy had that tool. I would use it. Pupeee works well with passwords of 10 characters or more. It will not work with less and placing "s:" before the shorter password did not work in this case.
I did have an install of Pupeee that seemed to work pretty well for a few days but it fell off somewhere along the line. I have been experiencing a set of common symptoms with each of these setups. Sometimes the network wizard seems to effectively setup the wireless but will not allow internet access. wifi0 and ath0 are loaded and represented in the tray by Blinky. Even so no internet. Sometimes they are loaded and do provide internet access. Sometimes wifi0 will load but nothing I do will cause ath0 to load. I must reboot and try again.
However, even when internet access is granted it is certain that at some point performance with become extremely spotty. Sometimes wireless simply disconnects itself and ath0 actually unloads. Also, it appears that there are moments when Puppy cannot detect my wireless router to save its own life. Yet when I scan again there it is (viola). Often the wireless scan detects multiple networks in the area. This confuses Puppy and he goes on the floor instead of asking to go outside.
The ip address that the router consistently assigns this computer (regardless of which OS is installed, Xandros included) is 10.0.0.X. However Puppy will often claim to have connected with an IP address that is not at all related to my setup (269.xxx.xxx). This is outside the range of ip addresses available with my current hardware and makes me think that Puppy is trying to connect to one of those other networks out there instead of the one I asked it to connect with. The only available addresses on my system start with 10.0.0.1 through 10.0.0.4. Needless to say Puppy cannot connect to the Internet when this happens.
These little experiments are hardly scientific but they do demonstrate a consistent pattern of behavior. It is unfortunate because the Eeepc is not designed to be tethered to a desk and a cable. It is designed to be used in various rooms of the house, office or on the road.
ANOTHER MATTER:
RCH wrote:
I also was under the assumption that eth0 was for a cat5 connection
The cable is a CAT cable. The connection ports are RJ-45.
UPDATE:
I remember now why Pupeee was working so well with encrypted wireless and then seemed to fall victim to the same issues as 4.12. I changed the password for the network. DOH!
I had been using passwords of 10 characters or more but switched to one with only 8 characters. That is when Pupeee started having issues. I had read a post suggesting that s: be placed before the password but that did not do the trick. Changing the network password back to 10 characters caused Pupeee to lock right in to the network again.