Getting Started with Puppy

[deamonknight]

I'm trying to learn how to use Puppy Linux. I love the idea of light Distros and Puppy looks great for what I want. I've got several older systems and looking to replace the pre-XP Windows with Puppy. Eventually I'm looking to remaster Puppy for a utility disk, but right now I'm still trying to understand the best way to do things, as my main experience is with Ubuntu.

I've currently done a full install of Puppy 4.3 on a 800Mhz Duron, 198MB RAM, 10GB HDD, and its very responsive, I was honestly shocked by how well its preforming on such a dated system.

However, when trying to install software like OpenOffice 3, I've had alot of trouble locating current packages. Puppy Package manager only seems to have OOo 2.2 "cut down", Without an explanation of what cut down means.

Googling seems to indicate what a frugal install is perferred, and simply adding *.sfs files is the best way to add software.

If I want to use Puppy as the only OS on a system, will I have access to my whole HDD if I use a frugal install?

And will I undermine the point of the light distro if I add lots of software to a frugal install? What happens when the SFS Image gets larger than the available system memory?

I may simply reinstall and choose the frugal option, but I'm looking for advice.

-Thanks

[plaguedogs]

if you use a frugal install with sfs's, the sfs files will be on your hard drive, so no need to worry about running out of resources.
once you get your frugal install running, you drives will be accessible as hda1, hda2, et-cetra. once you make a pupsave file (after your first session) the drive you chose to save to will be known as /mnt/home. does that make sense?

your sfs's will go in /mnt/home, then in the menu under "system", go to "bootmanager configure boot up" here you can select which sfs's to load at your next boot.


maybe read this, http://puppylinux.org/news/releases/ope ... puppy-430/

here is the sfs for open office http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... 1-sfs4.sfs

[disciple]

There's no reason you can't use an openoffice .sfs with a full install as I explained here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1829987051, although I think I've given better explanations in the past. N.B. that the guy in that thread didn't use the .sfs in the end, he just copied all the files out of it into his full install.
There are also a couple of little utilities that people have written recently to enable you to run other things from .sfs even if they don't work normally (like openoffice does).

And will I undermine the point of the light distro if I add lots of software to a frugal install? What happens when the SFS Image gets larger than the available system memory?

Puppy Package manager only seems to have OOo 2.2 "cut down", Without an explanation of what cut down means.

Cut down means stuff has been removed to reduce the size. I'm not sure how much stuff.
You should probably use 3.x though, because it supports MS Office 2007 documents.
Until now the Puppy Package manager has only included packages made by Barry, so there aren't that many and a lot aren't kept up to date. Search the forum, as this is where most packages are.

BTW you can also download and install it straight from the openoffice website, which you may want to do if you can't find a package of the latest version.

[deamonknight]

Thanks guys, I'll keep reading. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like a full install its really only needed if you are trying to install on a system with less than 128MB RAM. I guess that means that the core SFS is about 128MB.

Cut down means stuff has been removed to reduce the size. I'm not sure how much stuff.
You should probably use 3.x though, because it supports MS Office 2007 documents.

Thats what I figured but I wasn't sure, also wasn't sure what would be added by the additional cut down package. Also, exactly why i wanted Ooo 3.2, I need to be able to read some MS stuff.

As for installing from OOos site, I didn't look for a puppy file but as I understand I can install *.deb packages? I don't like the idea of compiling from source on such an old machine.

Ultimately i did end up copying the /opt/ dir out of the SFS I got to get OOo 3 running, but wasn't sure that is the best way for all software.

[disciple]

I think openoffice can be installed from deb or rpm.
What way is "best" is a matter of opinion, but that way should work with any .sfs, and is easiest.