Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux on a small/old PC/Laptop

Puppy Linux runs on a very small footprint of around 100mb including basic programs. Completely replaces windows OS and all free of cash, viruses, spyware!

I am using Puppy Dingo which is 98mb one of the smallest flavours, they have them up to 600mb.
It will run happily from a Live CD or a Flash Drive. It will not alter your current Operating System. You can also Install it to a Hard Drive. I have added many extras like Gimp, Firefox etc.
Puppy Linux

I used a Live CD Gparted to format the hard drive and to partition it into Vfat32 for windows and EXT3 for Linux. I also used gparted to partition a 4gb flash drive into vfat and ext3.

I had to put GRUB (The Boot Manager) onto to the MBR for it to see it. You can also have Puppy and Windows running together on the same hard drive on different partitions. For windows you may have to alter boot.ini file

Use the US keyboard and 1024x768 Screen size.

Other Small Linux Systems you could try;
Damm Small Linux is 46mb
Feather Linux is 114mb

There are many flavours of Puppy Linux and you can create your own version.
I made one for the kids running Puppy and 100+ Flash Games.

I have a $200 laptop a Toshiba Tecra 8000, 400MHZ Intel CPU, 5.6gb Hard Drive, 192mb of RAM. Power use is 1.5amps compared to my ASUS Laptop at 6.5 amps.

You could install onto a small say about 2gb hard drive or run from the live CD or Flash Drive.

Puppy Linux Here www.puppylinux.org

No sound
ran Setup, Setup ALSA Sound
It was ISA but found ok

did not find modem (usually does) but did find USB WIFI. Try modem-wizard in a Console

It will do most things;

Abiword	Documents
Gxine	Movies and Music
Gnumeric	Spreadsheets
Seamonkey/Firefox	Web Browser
GRUB	Boot Manager
Gparted	partition/manage Drives
Puppy Package Manager	Install/Remove Packages
ROX	File Manager
GTKam	Download Pictures from Camera
Gimp	Graphics/Pictures
Xsane	Scanner (Use through Gimp)
CUPS	Print Manager (Epson JX80 will always work)
Geany	Text Editor
Pidgin	Yahoo/MSM/Gtalk/IRC/ICQ Instant Messenger
PCTorrent	P2P File Share
GFTP	File Transfer
RipOff	Music CD Ripper
PBurn	CD/DVD/BluRay Burner
BurnISO2CD	ISO Burner
Flash Games (Multi-Platform)
RXVT Console	To run Commands like df -h for hard drive use
Sylpheed	Email Client
Puppy Podcast Grabber	Podcasts
DIDIWiki	Personal Wiki/PIM
Seamonkey Composer	HTML Web Composer
mpaint snapshot/Gimp	Takes a Screen Shot
peazip	Compress/Decompress Files/Folders
calc	calculator

You can Install packages like Gimp, Open Office, Firefox from the Install Manager or download Puppy PET Packages and Install.

If booting from the hard drive the alterations and additions are saved, if from a live CD you can save the changes onto a pen drive or a hard drive or not save the settings/alterations. It does not like NTFS Drives.

Great program for old computers and the grand kids. 5 Stars from me!

To Connect to www
Press Connect on Desktop.
Connect Via Dialup or Network
For Network
Select Wlan0
Select Wireless
Scan for Network
Use This Profile
AutoDHCP
Open a Browser or Email

To Connect Camera and Download Pictures
Insert Camera into USB Port
Use GTKam
Should see the Camera if not Rescan or Add Camera
Select the Pictures you want
Save Photos All or Selected
Delete Photos All or Selected

To connect to a USB Hard/Pen Drive
Insert Into USB Port
Click on Mount and mount the Drive
sda1 etc.
To safely Remove Click on Mount and Umount (Unmount)

To connect to a Windows Hard Drive Partition
Click on Mount and mount the Drive
hda2 etc
Click on Umount (Unmount) to unmount

To Install/remove Software
run petget from a console
Or Download a PET package and click on it and install it.

The Desktop can be changed with its's appearance, wallpaper, theme etc. It seems to be a virtual desktop. You can drag and drop folders or programs onto the Desktop from ROX File Manager. Under /root

Some Linux Commands you can use in a Console/Terminal;

df -h	Hard disk space
lspci	list PCI Devices
ls /mnt/hda1/data	list all files/folders in location
ping www.google.com	Test Internet Connection
ping 192.168.0.1	Test WIFI Router could be different numbers (10.0.0.1)
iwconfig	Check WIFI settings
ifconfig	Check network settings
alsamixer/sqmixer	audio mixers
startx	Start Desktop Manager
vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf	Check X Settings
vi	Text Editor ESC+:wq to write and quit, INS to edit
xorgwizard	setup X Video Manager
poweroff	Shut down computer
reboot	reboot computer
ddcprobe	info on video card
dmesg	system messages, handy for trouble shooting
chmod 777 /mnt/hda1/data/.	Make all files read and write
lsmod	list installed modules
mount/umount /mnt/hda2	Mount/Unmount Drives
/mnt/hda1	C: 1st Hard Drive
/mnt/cdrom	D: CDRom
/mnt/sda1	E: Flash Drive
mkdir/rmdir	Create/Remove Folder
touch/rm filename	Create/Remove a file
ffmpeg	Convert Audio/Video files
route	IP Routing Table
badblocks -vvv /dev/hda1	Test HD
wvdial/modemtest	Test Modem
uname -a	Linux and Kernel Version

Enter the first part of command say dme or ls /mnt and press TAB it will complete or give options.

Using Vi Text Editor
In a Terminal run say;
vi /boot/grub/menu.1st

Edit the document in this case the Boot Manager Script

To save and exit;
Press ESC :wq

To not save and exit;
Press ESC :q

Have Fun!
Bill Rosoman
2008

HOME

BTW This howto lives at www.webng.com/leftfieldnz/puppylinux.html
TTFN