Q: NTFS partition
I have Windows XP installed on my computer, and the hard drive is partitioned with a single NTFS partition. When I boot up with the Puppy live-CD, the "home" file is not created on /root, so I can't have any permanent storage. Why doesn't Puppy work with NTFS?
A:
When the live-CD boots up, Puppy looks for a vfat, ext2/3 or reiserfs partition, in that order, and if found creates a 256M file on it, named "pup001". This file is actually a complete ext2 filesystem, and Puppy mounts this on /root, and it becomes your home folder and keeps all your personal files and settings. This is a very safe technique and is unlikely to mess up your hard drive as no partitions are being created or modified, just a file created.
Anyway, this technique has a problem when it comes to NTFS. Linux support for NTFS is not yet complete, and currently an NTFS partition can be mounted read-only but not written (safely) to. When Puppy boots up, if he can't find a vfat, ext2/3 or reiserfs partition, he gives up and only uses the ramdisk.
HOWEVER, Puppy version 0.9.7+ does have limited NTFS write support. That is, the Linux NTFS driver can safely write to a file if it already exists, but cannot safely create or resize a file.
SOLUTION: bootup Windows XP, download pup001.zip from the Puppy download site, unzip and save it to C:\pup001. Now reboot the Puppy live-CD and Puppy will use the pre-existing pup001 file as your home data file. Simple!
Q: MToolsFM
In the "File managers" menu, Puppy has "ROX Filer file manager", "MToolsFM file manager" , and "Mount/unmount drives". I understand with Linux that I need to "mount" a partition before it can be used, but "MToolsFM" does not have this requirement. Can you please clarify this?
A:
Traditionally, yes, you have to mount a partition. So, if you plug in a USB Flash card or a floppy disk, you must first run "Mount/unmount drives" to mount it. Then you can use ROX Filer to browse in the mounted partition.
However, "MToolsFM" accesses drives directly, without them needing to be mounted. So, plug in a USB Flash card or floppy disk, run "MToolsFM", and there it is. No need to unmount it later either.
"MToolsFM" does have one disadvantage though; it can only access unmounted media formatted with the msdos/vfat filesystem. Well, that's what they are anyway, when you purchase them, and when you use them with Windows. So, this is not a problem.
Puppy does not have "hot plugging", that is, auto-mounting of removable drives when they are plugged in, but so what? With "MToolsFM" you don't need it.
"MToolsFM" automatically configures to recognise drive A: as being your floppy drive, drive B: as being either a USB flash/memory drive or a IDE Zip drive, and drive C: as being a hard drive vfat partition. Only if these exist, that is.
Q: Window manager
Why not use "xyz" windows manager?
A:
I get asked this question a lot. Many people have suggested Xfce, which I agree is good. Historically, there was originally Fvwm, and Fvwm95 (used in Puppy) is a slightly modified version of Fvwm v2.0, and also Xfce has its origin in Fvwm.
Many people love the look-and-feel of Puppy, that is, the retro Windows 95 look. Others have told me that it is not so good. However, this is one of the reasons that I chose Fvwm95 -- I want the Win95 look as it is very comfortable for the great mass of Windows users out there. Also, in Puppy it is refined somewhat and is very pleasant and efficient to use.
However, Puppy version 0.9.9 is setup to handle just about any window manager, and comes with both Fvwm95 and JWM. The guys on the Puppy Forum have successfully used Fluxbox and IceWM -- see there for installation details. Note that these w.m.'s will probably be offered as packages for Puppy Unleashed.
Q: Printing problem
I ran the Printer Wizard and I can now print from Firefox, Xpaint and Abiword, but I can't print a plain text file, nor Postscript or PDF files.
A:
Printing support in Puppy is a work-in-progress. For now, the PDQ print manager handles Postscript files only, to any kind of printer, Postscript or otherwise. Firefox, Xpaint and Abiword convert to Postscript before sending to the PDQ print manager (note, the program lpr is a link to program pdq).
Sylpheed, the email client, can also print its plain text emails, as it has been configured to call a little program, /usr/bin/lprshell, which is invoked like this:
# lprshell myfile.txt
lprshell uses Abiword in commandline mode to convert plain text or RTF files to Postscript then print via PDQ. You can also use this script directly to print any plain text or RTF file (printout has the same page layout and font that Abiword is setup for).
If you have a Postscript file, you can open the Xpdq manager and choose the file, then print it (see Utilities menu).
If you have a Postscript or PDF file, open Gsview (also known as Ghostview) from the Utilities menu (or just click on the file in Rox), choose File/Print, choose a generic Postscript printer such as "psmono", check the "Postscript printer" checkbox, the number of pages to print, then print.
Note that the print-dialog box in Gsview brings up a large list of printers, however these are not used in Puppy.
These are printers supported by the Ghostscript package, however Puppy is configured to use the GIMP-Print IJS drivers and you will have already chosen a printer IJS driver when you ran the Printer Wizard (and PDQ would have been setup to use this printer as default). So, just choosing a generic Postscript printer in GSview will pass the Postscript file onto PDQ which will print to whatever is your default printer.
Q: Which small distro is best?
Is Puppy better than Damn Small Linux. Austrumi has bigger applications than Puppy or DSL. And so on...
A:
This kind of question comes up regularly on the Puppy Forum, and I get opinions via email. The main approx-50M distros are Damn Small Linux (DSL), Puppy Linux and Austrumi. Feather Linux is based on DSL and is somewhat bigger.
"If the hat fits, wear it". Given that the distros are about 50M, something has to be left out, and each distro has chosen a mix of tools and applications that suit particular users.
1. DSL is sub-50M but is lacking many heavy-duty applications, or rather, they have to be added separately, which is really cheating as by the time you've added a few decent apps like Abiword, Mplayer, printer support, Gnumeric, or whatever, the size has blown out to something enormous. DSL does have basic applications, like Links web browser, very basic multimedia support, very basic wordprocessing, but I don't think they will satisfy you for very long. DSL is based on Knoppix and has probably the best hardware detection and under-the-hood infrastructure. For example, Perl -- I don't know how much space Perl needs in DSL, but it must be massive. DSL has minimal docs in the distro.
2. I haven't looked at Feather closely, but it is based on DSL and is about 62M. I looked through the package list, and again, the applications are extremely basic.
3. Austrumi is a very interesting distro as it has focussed on getting some really heavy-duty apps into 50M. Namely, Mplayer, Abiword (wordprocessor), Gnumeric (spreadsheet) and Opera (web browser). Abiword and Gnumeric need the GTK2 libraries and also Gnumeric needs the Gnome libraries, which are massive. So, how does Austrumi do it? -- by cutting corners elsewhere.
I noticed that Abiword has been cut right down in Austrumi and cannot import/export MS DOC files. Many tools and apps that you will find in Puppy and DSL are not in Austrumi. Austrumi lacks kernel modules, limiting its hardware compatibility.
Opera is also much smaller than Mozilla-based web browsers (Opera is also shareware/adware, closed source). Austrumi has the Mplayer media player (also very cut-down).
So, in what way does Puppy "fall short" compared with these distros? Hardware detection is a work-in-progress, and will probably never catch up with DSL as the latter is based on Knoppix, whereas Puppy is built from scratch by myself (recently with much-appreciated help from the guys on the Puppy Forum).
On the other hand, being built from scratch is an advantage, as Puppy is highly optimised for smallness and speed. Puppy has the largest number of applications in the 50M distro, not as later add-ons. Puppy has over 2M of html docs included in the distro, which is unique. Puppy has Tcl/Tk which is also unique, which can be considered as a viable alternative to Perl. Puppy has shsql/Quisp, DSL has sqlite.
Comparing "heavy duty" apps bundled in the 50M distro, not as later addons, Puppy and Austrumi are way ahead. Furthermore, most of the heavy-duty apps in Puppy are, unlike Austrumi, not cut-down. Puppy has a a fully-functional Abiword wordprocessor, and fully-functional (with the full set of plugins) Gxine/Xine media player with Firefox/Mozilla plugin. In terms of the count of number of heavy-duty apps, Puppy is well ahead of Austrumi.
Okay, the above comments are from me, the developer of Puppy, so are going to be biased. So, DSL, Feather and Austrumi enthusiasts, don't get upset. Whenever anyone has asked, "which 50M distro is best", my standard reply has always been "if the cap fits, where it".
However, I am editing this page just before releasing Puppy version 0.9.9, which now features Puppy Unleashed, a tool to create your own custom Puppy out of whatever applications you want. Thus, you can have a 50M live-CD distro, that loads totally into ramdisk at bootup, blindingly fast, with your own custom selection of apps. So, why not just admit it? -- Puppy is the best!!!
Q: USB storage for my personal data
I am booting Puppy from the live-CD, but I don't want Puppy to keep the personal data "pup001" file on the hard drive. I would like this file to be on a USB pen drive. Can I do this?
A:
For Puppy version 0.9.7, we are partly there. If your PC has only a NTFS partition, with no pre-existing "pup001" file (see NTFS question above), then Puppy will ask if you want to use a USB drive. You may then plugin a USB drive and the file pup001 will be created on it. So, the hard drive won't be used at all.
If you want to make this the default behaviour when the live-CD boots, then you will have to remaster the CD. Puppy has a script, in the Start -> Setup menu, that takes you through this, in easy steps. At one point in the remaster script you will get the opportunity to edit the file "isolinux.cfg", which is the CD boot configuration file, and if you add these parameters: "PSLEEP=25 PHOME=sda1" then Puppy will use the USB drive as the "home", ie, the location of your personal pup001 file.
Another alternative is that you can install Puppy totally onto a USB Flash drive. Again, in Start -> Setup you will find a script to do that. If your PC has 256M of RAM, a good choice is a 128M Flash drive as Puppy will automatically load the entire Flash drive into ramdisk, totally eliminating writes to the Flash drive during a session (thus greatly increasing the lifespan of the Flash drive). One reason for not installing Puppy totally into a Flash drive is that some PCs cannot boot from USB -- look in your PCs BIOS setup to find out if this is supported.
Q: Security concerns
I have read that it is unwise to login as "root" for normal usage, such as surfing the web. I am concerned that Puppy logs me in automatically as root and I cannot run as a non-root user. Isn't this a security weakness?
A:
I need to flesh this answer out a bit more, but some initial comments:
1. Every time you boot Puppy, it's as though you have done a fresh install, as the entire filesystem except your home folder (/root) is reinstalled from two files, image.gz and usr_cram.fs. Furthermore, all of /usr is read-only. If some virus or whatever got into Puppy while surfing, it would be gone next time you bootup. Or, if it infected something in your home directory, you could still have it, but logging in non-root won't save you from that.
2. Puppy was originally intended to be a "client only" environment, which is fairly easy to make secure when surfing, even without a firewall:
The site www.grc.com has " ShieldsUp!," a product that will test the security of your computer while connected to the Internet. " ShieldsUp!" basically performs 3 tests: "file sharing", "common ports" and "service ports". Without the firewall running, Puppy "failed" the second two tests, as although all ports are "closed" they are not "hidden". Also, Puppy responded to ping requests. These failures are not necessarily a problem and Puppy is still secure.
However, I then ran the "Puppy Firewall Wizard" and accepted the default totally secure mode, then rebooted. I am connected to the Internet by dialup modem and using Mozilla. "ShieldsUp!" now reports that my computer is totally absolutely 100% invisible. It simply doesn't exist (apart from providing its IP address and responses of the browser). All ports are in "stealth" mode, meaning Puppy doesn't respond to any probe, nor does Puppy respond to pinging.
3. If servers are to be run in Puppy, it is a different story, and this is a work-in-progress.
Puppy has a personal wiki called "DidiWiki", with its own inbuilt HTTP server, so is accessed from a web browser, either locally or over a network/Internet. What we do in this case is run "DidiWiki" as user "spot". We can run an individual server application as a restricted non-root user, even though you yourself are still logged in as root.
Q: Clipboard
What do I need to know to use the Clipboard in Puppy?
A:
Puppy does not have quite the same seamless clipboard integration as in MS Windows. Basically, you can transfer plain-text only between different applications, but between two windows of the same application you may be able to transfer more than plain text.
So, basically treat the clipboard as for transferring plain text only between applications.
Some older Linux/Unix applications use a kind of clipboard called the "cut buffers", which are different from the clipboard. The Rxvt terminal emulator (which is Puppy's equivalent of Window's "DOS box") is one such application. However, everytime Puppy launches X (the graphics server), a little program called autocutsel is launched, which is what is called a daemon, that is, it runs in the background and synchronises the cut buffers and the clipboard.
What this synchrnisation means for you as an end user is quite interesting: when you have an Rxvt terminal window open, if you drag the mouse pointer over any text in the window to highlight it, Rxvt places the text in a cut-buffer and then autocutsel copies it to the clipboard when the left button of the mouse is released.
Therefore, you can copy any text out of an Rxvt window. You can experiment with this by running Xclipboard, which displays the contents ot the clipboard (and Xclipboard also saves previous contents of the clipboard).
Pressing the middle mouse-button can be used to paste into Rxvt.
The standard keyboard shortcuts ctrl-c (copy to clipboard), xtrl-v (paste from clipboard) and ctrl-x (cut to clipboard) work in most modern Linux applications, but you will find they don't work in some of the "older generation" applications used in Puppy, such as Rxvt.
There are a few applications that kind of live in a world of their own as far as the clipboard is concerned. Amaya for example. Amaya has its own internal clipboard system and does not use the main clipboard, or rather it does only partially.
Q: Spaces in filenames and directory names
Is it alright to have spaces in directory and file names?
A:
In theory yes, in practice don't. There are some applications, and some scripts (including some that I wrote) that misbehave if a space is encountered in a filename or path. I know that spaces are "normal" in Windows, but it is good to get out of the habit when using Linux. Use underscores "_" or dashes "-" instead. For example, "/root/my-applications/".
Q: Change clock
This may sound silly, but how do you change the 24 hour clock to a 12 hour clock?
A:
In the hidden file .fvwm95rc in /root, look for this line:
*FvwmTaskBarShowDateModuleClockFormat.DATE %H:%M
and change %H to %I
also
Actually using this string: %I:%M:%S%p %a,%b%d,%y will give something like 6:54:38PM Mon,May02,05
Way I have mine set. Space allowed wont expand larger so this is way I got all I want displayed. Experiment with spacing to meet your own personal wishes as to what you want displayed.
Oh and to make the seconds update properly add "+FvwmTaskBarUpdateInterval 1" (without the quotes) just after "#DATE"
Q: Virus EICAR Test File
When I ran McAfee, it detected the "EICAR Test File" in the Puppy Unleashed file. What is this?
A:
This is a test file to test that your virus software checker, XFprot, is working to minimum standards
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