Puppeee 4.3X

[jemimah]

I put the pmedia=usbflash in there so that it wouldn't try to pick up puppy files from your hard drive. However, apparently some models don't recognize some flash media as being usbflash. It's fine to remove it if it's not working. The ext4 problem is different though; I can't even make it work.

The kernel totally makes a difference with the wireless, especially on the 901 and others with the rt2860 wireless card. There's still a little funkiness with that driver on the 2.6.31 kernel, but it's way more reliable than 2.6.30. I never tried it on anything older. Pwireless2 asks quite a bit more of the driver than the old network wizard, so buggy drivers will often perform better with the simpler system. Pwireless2 does have a problem with occasionally dropping the connection that I haven't been able to nail down (it seems to be wpa_supplicant's fault); but it should reconnect on it's own - you shouldn't need to do anything. Weak connections are dropped/reconnected frequently, but since the old network wizard won't tell you when this happens, I'm not entirely sure that it's abnormal.

The next version of Pwireless2 will have a way to revert to the old wizard, if I can figure out how to do it in an unconfusing way.

[cimh]

Thanks Jemimah and Hokal

On shutdown my eee creates the save file fine. I guess it is the ext4 which stops it getting picked up on boot.

Perhaps Jemimah you shouldn't bust a gut over this as the most recent phoronix tests with the newer kernals =>31 show that ext3 was faster than 4 in more than 1/2 the tests. Given these findings it might be better for me to revert to 3. I must admit that I so far 4 has been faster but that might be because I also disable some of the journalling by 'data=writeback' this can be done on ext3 too its just I have never tried.

- Yes I know that puts the data at more risk - but that doesnt worry me - my eee is primarily a netbook - all the files it uses are secure elsewhere.

Re WIFI. Yes at the moment I have to admit that pwireless2 is a weak point. Because of the signal dropping. - In comparison eb3 (I assume it runs network manager) is rock solid. I'm not sure the problem is due to a weak signal cos I think I get the dropping when I'm right next to the box - I'll check that. I'm currently about 9m 1 floor and 2 walls away from my Gplus mimo box and nm reports 86-100% strength with no dropping (or at least nothing visible). pwireless2 would probably drop 2-3 times when aquiring the signal and every couple of minutes after that.

Incidentally since this new frugal install I've had no more of the crashes that occurred with my full install - I wonder if switching back and forward between xorg and xvesa screwed things up.

But yes Hokal puppeee is brilliant. I wish I had Jemimah's skills.

cimh
901 eb3 + puppee431b frugal

[hokal]

@ Jemimah

it looks like it still will stay a dream to get puppeee 100% running on my version of eeepc901 with RaLink rt2860 module.

I've done the ultimate comparison test this evening with several access points in my neighborhood with the same 901 on ONE location. Just exchangesd USB sticks with the different OS.
Result:
With kernel 2.6.25.16 , 901 is running extremely well on WiFi. As soon as I start 901 with 2.6.31.5 at exactly the same location, the WiFi performance (speed) goes down so far that one can claim: it does not work practically with weaker signals. You can see beta_3 stopping transmission, requesting IP addresses now and then, and starting up and shutting down ra0. I also like the active "blinky" much more than gtrayicon, which is a dead icon, not showing any transmission activities. Even when the transmission is interrupted, very often gtrayicon just shows up (without the red cross).
Btw the battery symbol is just a white rectangular not showing up the colors blue and red for charging and draining !? Do I have to adjust here something ??

This performance is a lot better with the "old" kernel. (my personal experience tonight!)

Do you see a solution for the near future to improve the WiFi performance of your puppeee for 901 ?

rgds from Rheinland hokal

[hokal]

@cimh,

without puppy (and the skills of Jemimah) I would have given up already some time ago and return to Ubuntu, which I dislike a lot.
You have similar problems with WiFi, so it looks like my test unveiled some problems. The question is whether this is due to the GUI (pwireless2) or is it due to the implementation of the driver into the newer kernel ?? I'm just a user and do not know. If I get the console commands from an expert I could try the same thing without any GUI.

rgds

[cimh]

my eeebuntu3 uses: kernel 2.6.30-02063004-generic

and its fine.

[jtouso]

Jemimah and others:
Excellent beta 3 with my asus eeepc 901 (the ralink rt2860 problematic wireless).
All ok but if I use WEP encryption, my Puppeee (with my 901 + ralink 2860, of course!)...impossible to connect.
Problem from ralink rt2860 module? or Puppeee problem?
Thanks
BTW how does Asus EeePc 1005HA works with Puppeee?

[jemimah]

Ok, here's what's happening with the dropping connections, as far as I can tell.

With a weak or flaky connection it's normal for momentary disconnects to occur; they usually reconnect before you notice. However Pwireless2 uses wpa_supplicant to negotiate the connections; when wpa_supplicant sees a disconnect, it tells dhcpcd the interface is down, which causes dhcpcd to drop the lease and try to rebind. There is a way to tell dhcpcd to ignore wpa_supplicant when it marks ra0 as down. You need to edit /etc/dhcpcd.conf and add these two lines to the end.

Code: Select all

interface ra0
nolink

Can you guys test this out and see if it works better? I don't have any networks that are flaky enough to really test. Pwireless2 seems to basically work with this configuration but there may be oddities.

[jemimah]

Jtouso, WEP should work; it works perfectly on my 1000h with the same card. Are you using a hex key or a password? Hex key works better.

[prehistoric]

The default configuration of Puppeee beta 3_2 my 1005HE with ralink 2860 works too well to test this fix on three networks I'm maintaining. I'll try at some other sites.

jtouso,

I've also tested this on a site using WEP. If there are problems, I wasn't there long enough to see them. I'll try again.

[jemimah]

my eeebuntu3 uses: kernel 2.6.30-02063004-generic

and its fine.

Yes the network manager in gnome probably has work arounds for problematic cards. Also, the problems are mainly with wpa_supplicant; other stuff works better. I'd love to be able to use the network manager from ubuntu or wicd but they are just to big and have too many dependencies to work on Puppy. I tried Connman from Moblin too, which does compile, but it didn't work and there's no documentation. So I have to start from scratch. As far as I know wpa_supplicant is the only possible option for network roaming that will run on Puppy. If anyone knows of anything else, please let me know!

[jemimah]

Btw the battery symbol is just a white rectangular not showing up the colors blue and red for charging and draining !? Do I have to adjust here something ??

What happens when you run 'ibam' from the command line?

[Nevermore]

ibam
Total battery time: 1:54:00
Total charge time: 2:00:00

btw i noticed that xscreenlock is b0rked.
i cant lock the screen nor access the options...this on last beta

[cimh]

interface ra0
nolink

- Looks good connect seems better - certainly dont get the rA0 down pop up - only been using it at a distance for 10 mins but looks hopeful.

BTW just before I added the lines I was 30cm from my wifi box and I still got the rA0down and then IP address pop up so it seems like it does drop at times even when right next to the box.

I'll give it a longer test after work.

Also battery tray works fine for me blue / red mouse over gives % /time left and adapted time.

cimh
901

[werwinn]

IThis is from a Newbie perspective. (I am not very comfortable in a terminal, but am sure that will come.)

This is from a 1000ha, frugal install

The weak wifi signal acquisition is just OK for me. Some dropouts in the past, but came back quickly.

I am using Firedog, and Opera as browsers and it is just amazing how fast everything happens.

I will probably do a reinstall of Puppee to clean up a bunch of messed up file associations. (I did not pay enough attention!)

Thank you Jemimah and all for the excellent instructions. It did not take much time to install. I am grateful for a system that works so well, and it is still a Beta!

werwinn

[hokal]

@ jemimah

ibam
Total battery time: 3:35:29
Total charge time: 2:52:17

Whatever this means, I think its wrong. Battery time is much longer in praxis. How is total charge time defined ?? I charge the battery in less than an hour!
Preferences does not work on my 901; no blue or red color. In which .config or so can I check and adjust this battery icon behavior ??

I will test dhcpcd.conf changes tonight! Thanks a lot !

[jemimah]

A little explanation of Vattery:

Newer EEEs run my new version of Vattery where I replaced the backend with IBAM. http://ibam.sourceforge.net/ Ibam is adaptive and it takes a while to learn how long it takes to charge/discharge. At first it's going to be inaccurate while it learns your system, but after a few cycles it will be more accurate than other battery meters. Older Eees (maybe all celeron models, but I'm not sure) don't report correct battery information, so Ibam doesn't work on them. It that case the old version of Vattery loads, which gets it's info from the /proc/acpi/battery filesystem. The old version doesn't give you a time left estimate, only a percent charge.

---

Hokal, do you get a tooltip when you hover over the battery applet? Can you try 'ibam --percentbattery' and post the output. It should only show a blank battery if 0% is being reported. Also try starting vattery from the command line and see if there are any errors.

[jemimah]

ibam
Total battery time: 1:54:00
Total charge time: 2:00:00

btw i noticed that xscreenlock is b0rked.
i cant lock the screen nor access the options...this on last beta

The 701 uses the old vattery that doesn't use ibam. I will check the code tonight and see if I can figure out what's going on for you.

Xlock works for me. Are you clicking the lock icon on the desktop? What happens when you click it? nothing?

[hokal]

@ jemimah

thanks for the "vattery explanation". I understand.

ibam --percentbattery works!

Vattery starts a new WHITE rectangular. Hovering over the icon gives me indeed information. There is just NO color in the icon. The icon is white!

[dougeeebear]

vattery works as follows for me:

701 and 900 -- reports in 10% increments as expected, and the colors are displaying properly.

1000H -- reports as expected (I assume, as I haven't cycled the battery to get more accurate figures), and the colors are displaying properly.

Regards, Doug

[Nevermore]

The 701 uses the old vattery that doesn't use ibam. I will check the code tonight and see if I can figure out what's going on for you.

Xlock works for me. Are you clicking the lock icon on the desktop? What happens when you click it? nothing?

yes, if i click the icon nothing happens.
If i open a terminal and start xlock, it asks for password and works perfectly.
otherwise nothing happens