Puppy in Toshiba Satellite with 64 MB of RAM (Solved)

[vickyg2003]

Hello, I'm a newbie at this and in totally over my head.

I read an article about Puppy Linux reviving an old computer. I've got two old Laptop's sitting in my closet. I'd really like an internet appliance and Puppy Linux sounds like it might be the answer for me.


Toshiba Satellite
64MB RAM upgradable to 192MB max
9.35 GB HardDrive
CD Reader
Floppy Drive
2 USB ports
ps2 Mouse
PCMCIA Slot

Windows ME
Office 2000


I downloaded the latest puppy, and then struggled with what to do with an ISO file. I found a lot of bad information on how to use this with my burning software (Nero 5). I downloaded a couple of "free" burning software programs that other "How To" articles recommended to burn ISO images that didn't work either. Persistance paid off and I finally found a procedure that worked with Nero. I now have 10 coasters and 1 bootable CD.

I powered up the Toshiba with 64MB from the CD and it powered up and then froze. I figured this was from the lack of memory, I turned the machine off and restarted the application and issued a puppy pfix=nocopy thinking that it was the copying into memory that was my issue.

I was able to boot up and move the mouse around.

I am still unclear about what puppy linux is capable of doing with this machine. I don't want to invest in memory and a PCMCIA wifi card and new battery if this machine will not allow me to have a fully functional portable wifi browser.

If I upgrade the memory to 192MB will this be enough to be able to read the web, watch tutorial videos, read pdf files and doc files?

[starhawk]

Welcome, as we say, to the Kennels!

I burn my CDs using Imgburn. It's free and awesome.

It would definitely be very helpful to me to know the actual model of your Toshiba Satellite. The following advice is based on the information you've already provided...

For your purposes I would recommend using Puplite (you can find the link on this forum), as it's small enough to operate in that tiny bit of RAM. Even then, you will *definitely* need to max out your RAM to 192MB.

You could also look at other "light" versions of Puppy (we call them Puplets) such as PULP. Normally, I'd be recommending Wary Puppy here, but your RAM space is so small that I don't think it would be very useful to you.

Regarding your needs as specified in the original post --

You should have few problems with browsing the Web in general. You may need to do a little software tinkering (don't worry, it doesn't hurt) to get an external WiFi adapter to work. Avoid PCMCIA WiFi cards if using Wary.

Video playback is largely dependent on hardware... this particular laptop does indeed sound to be rather a little old, so it may or may not be YouTube-able. If it is, that size and quality of video would be about the top range of what you should expect. Flash animations (*.swf) are a lot less demanding (usually) then actual video, so you would probably have no issues there.

For *.pdf files you will be quite fine. For *.doc files... I'm not sure. I don't know if Abiword (the included word processing program) is interested in opening those. Someone else will need to weigh in on that. If it does not, then you'll be looking into adding additional programs, which may make that RAM a bit tight, even at 192MB.

[Flash]

...If I upgrade the memory to 192MB will this be enough to be able to read the web, watch tutorial videos, read pdf files and doc files?

Probably not as well as you'd like. In my experience, 256 MB is barely enough for a regular Puppy to be fully functional (entirely in RAM, without swap memory) and that's if you don't watch a lot of video (which can quickly balloon the browser's cache.) Possibly one of the stripped-down Puppy versions would work well for you.

[vickyg2003]

Thank you both for taking the time to answer.

Welcome, as we say, to the Kennels!

I burn my CDs using Imgburn. It's free and awesome.

It would definitely be very helpful to me to know the actual model of your Toshiba Satellite. The following advice is based on the information you've already provided...

Its a 1735. I have two of them.

You could also look at other "light" versions of Puppy (we call them Puplets) such as PULP. Normally, I'd be recommending Wary Puppy here, but your RAM space is so small that I don't think it would be very useful to you.

Regarding your needs as specified in the original post --

You should have few problems with browsing the Web in general. You may need to do a little software tinkering (don't worry, it doesn't hurt) to get an external WiFi adapter to work. Avoid PCMCIA WiFi cards if using Wary.

I found and booted the other one and it has 192MB and a pcmcia 3 Comm AirConnect 11Mbps Wireless Lan PC Card, there is also a pcmcia Ethernet card somewhere around here, but you said I should look for other type of wifi connection.

Is there something specific you would recommend?

Video playback is largely dependent on hardware... this particular laptop does indeed sound to be rather a little old, so it may or may not be YouTube-able. If it is, that size and quality of video would be about the top range of what you should expect. Flash animations (*.swf) are a lot less demanding (usually) then actual video, so you would probably have no issues there.

For *.pdf files you will be quite fine. For *.doc files... I'm not sure. I don't know if Abiword (the included word processing program) is interested in opening those. Someone else will need to weigh in on that. If it does not, then you'll be looking into adding additional programs, which may make that RAM a bit tight, even at 192MB.

I believe Abiword only opens RTF file. Docs aren't all that usual though and I can probably do without that as long as I can read PDFs. I read them all the time.

...If I upgrade the memory to 192MB will this be enough to be able to read the web, watch tutorial videos, read pdf files and doc files?

Probably not as well as you'd like. In my experience, 256 MB is barely enough for a regular Puppy to be fully functional (entirely in RAM, without swap memory) and that's if you don't watch a lot of video (which can quickly balloon the browser's cache.) Possibly one of the stripped-down Puppy versions would work well for you.

This doesn't sound promising. Video is a large part of internet content. Its important that I can get the news via the web.

[Flash]

I could be wrong. I'm not an expert on the details of Puppy or any other OS. My advice is, take advantage of Puppy's money-back guarantee. Give it a try. It's easy to do and that's really the only way to answer your questions.

[vickyg2003]

I could be wrong. I'm not an expert on the details of Puppy or any other OS. My advice is, take advantage of Puppy's money-back guarantee. Give it a try. It's easy to do and that's really the only way to answer your questions.

I want to, right now the problem is the PCMCIA card. Its a model 3CRE73796B. From what I can find on the internet, in windows this uses the same driver as the 3CRWE737A

In regular linux this both PCMCIAs card was confirmed to work with the Wavelan driver for the Orinoco

In this puppy linux forum, the 3CRWE737A was confirmed to run with the orinoco_cs on a version of puppy linux that started with 2, the puppy build that I'm trying starts with 5.

I've read a lot about the PCMCIA devices being troublesome in Puppy, but I have no concept of when those posts were written. So I don't know if that is in general, or a recent developement.

I've tried the loading, but after it loads the driver puppy still can't see the PCMCIA card.

I also tried the NDISWrapper on the real driver.


I can't find the old Ethernet card (also PCMCIA), so I can't try that yet.

If I can get that card to recognize and get that up to try browsing I'll judge for myself if the browser will be sufficient for my needs. It looks like there is a Browser build that just has what I want.

I don't want to spend money on this old computer, unless it seems like a workable deal. I'd like to purchase a USB wifi gizmo of some kind that I could use here where I have WPA2 too. But for the most part I'm interested in being able to do public wifi while I travel.

[aarf]

USB tethered phone is more reliable than public Wifi when travelling. The connection prices wont break you if you buy the 3g or gprs packages with a local sim card . Another issue is weight. My 7 inch EeePc is cheap and light. Old toshibas+charger tend to be heavy. A 3g phone can be even cheaper and is much lighter. Puppy can do PDF no problem. some phones have apps that can do PDF as well. My cheap 3g phone can do utube in a fashion. I have opened and created doc files in puppy.

[cthisbear]

Your specs.

http://www4.shopping.com/Toshiba-Satell ... 0084H/info

::::::::::

Don't burn your cd faster than 24 speed.

CD / DVD Type CD-ROM
Optical Drive Read Speed 24x (CD)

Forget Nero...crappy.

Use this Imageburn...no install.. don't update.

ImgBurn.exe .... Size: 1.53 MB

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-fe571dfa.html

"""""""""""

Pulp might work.

based on Puppy Linux barebones 4.12

it runs well on his Pentium II 300 MHz 128 MB RAM.

""""""

Rename the >> .doc to >>> .iso as usual.

http://flusslinie.wordpress.com/2009/05 ... 03-is-out/

md5sum: 6a630a82e966ea5f030e08528636adc4 pulp_0.03.iso

//////////

stu90 released >> Lucid 525 - lite ... 105mb

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=66470

http://smokey01.com/stu90/lupu-lite-525.iso

MD5:f28b31416b4dc02ff4b1e1ebade3378c

Probably too much for your laptop...but why not try it.

////////

What I suggest for ram challenged machines is

copy the main....>>>> .sfs file

to the hard drive in lower case.

Linux sees the name correctly...Windows stuffs up.

Chris.

[vickyg2003]

Thanks Chris,

Well I had read that my adapter worked with
Puppy 2.15CE
So I downloaded that one and sure enough, my adapter is found, and I can see the wireless network. I couldn't connect even when I brought the encryption down to WEP, but I think that is a matter of figuring out what kind of IP address I need.

So somewhere between LU5.25 and 2.15CE PCMCIA seems to have been broken.

I guess the next step is to work my way up through the builds that you suggest.

[mill0001]

vicky, I recommend that you make a swap file of about 325MB on the machine that has 192mb of memory and try 421retro puppy on it you may get good results. Just search the forum for how to make the swap file and to find the copy of 421 retro.

[Dewbie]

I use Puppy Linux 4.3.1, and haven't had any problems opening and editing MS Word .doc files with the integrated Abiword 2.6.3. However, Word's Arial typestyle can be tricky to work with.

Also, the manual recommends a burn speed of 4x for CDs. This always works well for me.

And consider using CD-RWs. They cost a bit more up front, but it's worth it because there's no waste.

[vickyg2003]

Pulp might work.


stu90 released >> Lucid 525 - lite ... 105mb

If Lucid 525 didn't recognize the PCMCIA card, do we expect lucid 525 - lite to recognize the card?

What I suggest for ram challenged machines is

copy the main....>>>> .sfs file

to the hard drive in lower case.

Linux sees the name correctly...Windows stuffs up.

Chris.

Oh so even though it looks like all CAPS to me through windows when I look at the CD, its really all lower.

vicky, I recommend that you make a swap file of about 325MB on the machine that has 192mb of memory and try 421retro puppy on it you may get good results. Just search the forum for how to make the swap file and to find the copy of 421 retro.

That makes sense, I picked 518 because it was the default
I found a lot of 4.12 retro builds, but no 421 retro builds, so I bet I'm looking in the wrong place. I come into the forums through
puppylinux.org. I started with the current download, and then went to the old list to get Puppy-215CE.

http://puppylinux.org/main/How%20to%20d ... py.htm#old

[Dewbie]

vickyg2003 wrote:

I found a lot of 4.12 retro builds, but no 421 retro builds, so I bet I'm looking in the wrong place.

Go here and scroll down to this one: puppy-4.2.1retro-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso

[Shep]

When you boot, during the process hit <F2> and type: puppy pfix=nocopy to cause puppy not to store the .sfs file in ram. This will allow all of your ram to be used for programs. A frugal install? Provided you put a copy of your .sfs file onto your hard disc, then it can be readily accessed from there as needed. You should create a swap file in case the ram is not sufficient for some programs.

Some older puppies use noram instead of nocopy so take note of which one your puppy offers you in the options at that point.

[vickyg2003]

Hello World!!!!!

I am speaking to you from BrowserLinux 366. This thing FLIES!

Now to figure out how to add the Pets!

[mill0001]

Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!

[PupGeek]

There are a few different ways to add software to your puppy, but as a newbie, pets are the best way to start. If you open a menu (either by right-clicking on the desktop or clicking the 'menu' button -- located where 'start' is in Windows) hover over 'setup', then 'set up puppy' you should find entries for 'Puppy Package Manager' and 'Quickpet'. Those are what is used to download and install .pets to your puppy.

Alternatively, you can use Ubuntu's deb packages or Slackware (.tgz) packages, depending on your version of puppy. (4.2.1 can even run Slackware's GSlapt package manager, and uses many Slackware packages as well). The Lucid Puppy series can install Ubuntu debs simply by downloading and clicking on them.

If you are daring and wish to experiment a bit with different types of packages and worry about messing up your pupsave file, you can learn to make 'roxapps' by visiting my thread about basic shell operation in this (Beginners Help) section.

[vickyg2003]

There are a few different ways to add software to your puppy, but as a newbie, pets are the best way to start. If you open a menu (either by right-clicking on the desktop or clicking the 'menu' button -- located where 'start' is in Windows) hover over 'setup', then 'set up puppy' you should find entries for 'Puppy Package Manager' and 'Quickpet'. Those are what is used to download and install .pets to your puppy.

I know I saw things like "Quickpet" on other builds that I tried but on this one I can't find it. The Setup is just for the screen resolution. There is a "More...." option on the menu that looks to be where I should find something for pet management, but I can't find it.

There are pets to do what I want. They are posted where I downloaded the BrowserLinux 366 from, so I know there must be a way to install them, but I can't find them. I did find the firewall and that appears to have installed.

If you are daring and wish to experiment a bit with different types of packages and worry about messing up your pupsave file, you can learn to make 'roxapps' by visiting my thread about basic shell operation in this (Beginners Help) section.

I thought I already was daring!!

However I would like to learn how to learn more, but right now I'm overwhelmed by the vocabulary! I picked puppy linux because it sounded "friendly" but even when you get here, its like you guys are speaking in code, or should I say barking!

[PupGeek]

I'm not very familiar with BrowserLinux. It may be an old version of puppy. Old versions (like 2.x) do not even use .pets, they use .pups (dotpups, as they are commonly called). As for the stuff about roxapps, I wouldn't worry too much about them right about now, until you can at least get some .pets or .pups installed. You can go to where you saw the packages (.pet or .pup), download them and click on them to install them, so you do not have to navigate the menus for the package manager.

[starhawk]

What programs are you looking to install? or, what functions do you want to add?

EDIT:

Actually, nevermind. I've never used a puplet where this didn't work: download the *.pet file you want (there are more than a few on this forum) and open it... like if you double-click to open a program, double-click the *.pet file. You should get a popup box that asks whether or not to install... just click OK and away you go!

I will note that I've never used Browserlinux.

BTW, *.sfs =/= *.pet. There's a special way of installing a *.sfs file that's completely different.