FAQs
Esta página contiene respuestas a las preguntas más frecuentes comenzando desde Puppy 1.0.1
Esta pagina esta en desarrollo. Hay partes en Espanol y partes en Ingles: hay que buscarlas en Espanol.
Recien llegado a Linux? Puppy es accesible
Computadora antigua? Puppy es rápido
No tiene banda ancha? Puppy es pequeño
Necesita trabajar? Puppy contiene programas muy útiles
Un completo... tonto? Puppy viene con asistentes
Necesita más? Puppy viene con más aplicaciones, vea Puppy comparado
Computadora antigua? Puppy es rápido
No tiene banda ancha? Puppy es pequeño
Necesita trabajar? Puppy contiene programas muy útiles
Un completo... tonto? Puppy viene con asistentes
Necesita más? Puppy viene con más aplicaciones, vea Puppy comparado
Puppy está creciendo. Puppy es práctico. Diviertase. Puppy es para toda la vida.
N. de T: Dense cuenta de que hay dos de muchas sectiones (al menos las todavia en el ingles): es porque unas son un poco diferentes y se estan combinando. Please note that there are two of many sections (at least the ones still in english): this is because some are a little bit different and they are being combined. Fecha: Miercoles 2007-03-01.
AQUI HAY FAQs MAS RECIENTES (DE LA PAGINA DE FAQS DE BARRY K) Barry K dío su permiso que sea traducido al Español (Nota por CatmanDru). (Más adelante hay FAQ más viejos) Page updated: 19 September 2006.
Q: Acabo de copiar la ISO (al CD) y lo arranqué. ¿Hay sugerencias de de lo que debo hacer para aprender de buena manera como arreglar (setup) y configurar para sacar el maximo beneficio de Puppy?
Se recomienda dos cosas: 1) explorar el menú de Puppy y darse cuenta de lo que contiene este menú, y 2) ir al "Menú -> Help (Ayuda)" en el menú (véase el botón de "Menu" ubicado en la esquina de la parte inferior y izquierda de la pantalla) y leer estos documentos *HOWTO* (CómoHacer?).
Mucha gente creén que no será mucha documentacion contenida en (built-in), y accesible adentro de, Puppy, especialmente si ha usado uno de los otros pequeños 50 - 70MB distros de typo *live-CD*. Ál contrario, Puppy contiene casi 3M de archivos documentarios de HTML y de texto documentation, accesibles atraves del artículo de Ayuda (Help) en el Menú y también por medio del comando tradicional de "man" en un consola (console).
Los documentos HOWTO contienen conocimentos basicos y por esto ayudan mucho a dar a los usarios la abilidad de encontrar las soluciónes a sus problemas. Por ejemplo, aunque es sencillo establecer una coneccion al Internet, o grabar un CD/DVD, ayuda mucho leer cómo hacerlo antes de hacerlo.
Si no puede encontrar cómo hacer algo, cómo, por ejemplo (TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL) (wireless networking), busque el tema en el Puppy Wiki o en el Puppy Forum. Usarios de Puppy contribuyan (orto?) al Foro (Forum) cantidades inmensas diariamente (diario?). Cómo recurso último, puede preguntar en el Foro (Forum).
Wiki URL: http://www.puppylinux.org/wikka/
Main Forum: http://www.murga.org/~puppy/
P: ¿Cómo se guarda los archivos y _________ (settings) personales cuando uso Puppy cómo _______ (live-cd) en el lector de CD?
La primera vez que arranca Puppy desde (?) el live-CD, todos los archivos de Puppy encargaran del CD al RAM y Puppy correrá completamente en el RAM. Cuando apaga la computadora por primera vez, (vease Menu -> Shutdown), Puppy le preguntarle a Ud donde quiere guardar sus archivos personales y sus ________________(settings). Puppy vera cuales locaciones estan disponibles y mostrara un menu y Ud puede escojer el lugar que quiera. Es bien facil. Ud. puede escojer guardar los _________(settings) al disco duro o a un USB Flash Drive -- y en unos casos hasta que a un ____________(floppy disk).
Puppy hará un archivo, nombrado pup_save.3fs, en el cual guardará su dato personal (?). Si este archivo esta creado en una partition de un disco duro, no interferirá de ninguna manera con cualquiera cosa que ya está en el disco duro. Así es que si ya tiene Windows instalado en su disco duro C:, no hay ningun problema, Puppy puede crear su propio archivo, pup_save.3fs, para guardar datos sobre Puppy en el disco C: y cuando Ud. usa Windows este archivo será como cualquier archivo normal. O sea, no debe molestar Windows de ninguna manera.
Q: Instalar paquetes (de programas de aplicacion)
Do I have to install Puppy to hard drive to be able to install the extra packages?
Not at all! There is absolutely no need to install Puppy to hard drive, and the majority of Puppy users just run Puppy from the live-CD. Puppy has two package installation systems, PupGet and DotPup, available from the "Setup" menu. Any package that you choose to download and install will go into Puppy's "pup_save.3fs" file, which is permanent storage on the hard drive.
I recommend that you read-up on the package management system: Package management
Note: If you have booted Puppy the very first time, you should shutdown and reboot, so that Puppy will have a pup_save.3fs file (see previous question). Then, when you run the Puppy package manager and install packages, they will be installed permanantly.
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  P: Partición NTFS
    Tengo una version de Puppy *vieja* (antes de 2.00). Tengo Windows XP instalado en mi computadora, y el disco rígido está particionado con una sola partición NTFS (my C: drive). Cuando arranco con el live-CD de Puppy, el archivo "home" no esta creado en /root, por ello no puedo almacenar nada permanentemente. Porque no funciona Puppy con NTFS?
    Cuando el live-CD arranca, Puppy busca una partición vfat, ext2/3 o reiserfs, en ese orden y si la encuentra, crea un archivo de 256M allí, llamado "pup001". Este archivo, de hecho, es un filesystem completo con formato ext2, que Puppy monta en /root y de esa manera se convierte en su carpeta home manteniendo sus archivos personales y de configuración. Esta es una técnica muy segura que dificilmente interfiera con su disco rígido, ya que no se crean ni modifican particiones, solamente un archivo esta creado.
Aún así, esta técnica tiene un problema cuando se trata de NTFS. El soporte de Linux para NTFS todavía no es completo y actualmente una partición NTFS puede ser montada en formato solo-lectura, pero no puede ser usada para escritura sin riesgos. Cuando Puppy arranca, si no puede encontrar una partición vfat, ext2/3 o reiserfs, deja de buscar y solamente utiliza el ramdisk.
SIN EMBARGO, la versión 0.9.7+ de Puppy tiene una cierta capacidad para escribir en particiones NTFS. Es decir, el driver Linux para NTFS puede escribir sin riesgos un archivo, si el archivo ya existe, pero no puede crear o cambiar el tamaño de un archivo de una manera confiable.
SOLUCIÓN: arranque Windows XP, descargue pup001.zip desde el sitio de descargas de Puppy, descomprima y grabe el archivo en C:\pup001. Ahora reinicie con el live-CD de Puppy y Puppy usará dicho archivo pup001 como su archivo de datos home. Simple!
    Tengo Windows XP instalado en mi computadora, y el disco rígido está particionado con una sola partición NTFS (my C: drive). When I shutdown the first time, I chose the NTFS partition to create the pup_save.3fs file (my personal storage file), but it didn't get created. Why doesn't Puppy work with NTFS?
From version 2.10, Puppy has full support for NTFS partitions. You would have this problem if using an earlier version of Puppy. However, Puppy does have a problem if he thinks the NTFS partition has something wrong with it. This could be simply that you did not shut Windows down properly the last time that you used Windows.
Unfortunately, not-shutting-down-properly is not so uncommon with Windows -- or it may be that you just turned off the PC without going through the proper shutdown sequence!
After you have created a pup_save.3fs file, when Puppy is booted on future occassions, Puppy will search the computer for the pup_save.3fs file, and if found will then use it. However, if Windows was not shutdown previously, Puppy will be unable to access the pup_save.3fs file. So, this is an ongoing issue.
Note, this problem does not apply to Windows 95 and 98, as the VFAT filesystem is used (Windows XP can also be installed on a partition with VFAT filesystem, but the default is NTFS). Puppy should be able to fully access a VFAT partition even if Windows did not close down properly.
A technical point: Notice I use the words "partition" and "filesystem" interchangeably above. Strictly though, your C: drive is a partition of the hard drive, and NTFS is a filesystem in that partition. A filesystem is the framework for creation, manipulation and deletion of files and folders.
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  MToolsFM
En el menu de "File managers" ( ), Puppy (Cachorro) hay "ROX Filer file manager" ( ), "MToolsFM file manager" ( ), y "Mount/unmount drives" (Montar/Desmontar *Discos*). Entiendo que en Linux hay que *montar* una particion antes de que se puede usarlo, pero con "MToolsFM" no hay que montar los *discos*. ¿Puede explicar esto?
   Por lo general, sí, hay que montar una partición. Sí se usa un USB Flash drive o un floppy disk, hay que usar "Mount/unmount drives" para montarlo. Desde entonces se puede usar ROX Filer para navigar por la partición montada. En cambio, "MToolsFM" proviene accesso directo a los *drives*, sin necesidad de montarlos de antemano ni de desmontarlos. "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: MToolsFM
In the "File managers" menu, Puppy has "ROX Filer file manager", "MToolsFM file manager", and "Mount/unmount drives" entries. 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?
Traditionally for Unix/Linux, yes, you have to mount a partition. So, if you plug in a USB Flash card or a floppy disk, you must mount it. Then you can use ROX Filer to browse in the mounted partition.
Puppy has two simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) applications for mounting and unmounting partitions:
MUT (Media Utility Tool). See the icon at top of screen, picture of a USB flash drive.
Pmount. Run this from Menu -> File managers. Take your choice, both are good.
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 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: Don't understand when to mount a partition and when not to
Okay, I see in the "Menu -> File managers -> Pmount mount/unmount drives" menu, I can mount and unmount partitions, but I'm unclear about the situation when I want to just play a music CD or video DVD.
Yes, if you are coming from a MS Windows background, this mount/unmount thing does seem to be a hassle. There are however some pretty solid reasons for having it. Anyway, to answer the immediate question, you only have to mount a partition when you want to access it as a filesystem -- that is, you want to get in and read/write/create/delete files and folders.
However, when you only want to play a music CD or a video DVD, do not mount it. You are not accessing it as a filesystem. The player program will access it directly without it being mounted. Same thing when you use a CD/DVD burner program.
Q: Some major distros like Mandrake have automounting, why can't Puppy?
In Mandrake, I plugin a CD or USB drive and it is automatically recognised and mounted. Also, all my hard drive partitions are automatically mounted at bootup.
A common sentiment expressed on the Forum is that people are using Puppy as an easy way to learn about Linux. Manual control over mounting and unmounting is an important part of that learning process. Besides, automounting can bring its own hassles, and seasoned Linux users tend to prefer having manual control over what gets mounted, when and where.
Furthermore, manual mounting and unmounting is not difficult. Puppy makes it very easy. Puppy has the Pmount program, available from the menu, "Menu -> File managers -> Mount/unmount drives". Jesse Liley has developed MUT, our next-generation mounting tool, which makes it even easier. MUT is also in the "Menu -> File managers" menu.
In other words, Puppy keeps you in control, and this is well worth a small effort to understand the concept of mounting/unmounting.
Q: Window manager
Why not use "xyz" windows manager?
I get asked this question a lot. Of course you will have your favourite and would like to see that in Puppy. Understandable, but we have been through a very long process evaluating window managers and our current choices are not chosen lightly. Officially, Puppy is supporting JWM and Fvwm95. Some Puppy enthusiasts are supporting IceWM, Xfce and one or two others.
The 'standard' live-CD has JWM. In a nutshell this is because of it's features combined with very small size and speed. However, Fvwm95 and IcwWM are available as packages. Look on the Forum and Wiki, you may be able to find Xfce and others as packages also -- but do be careful that they are documented to work with your version of Puppy. It is easy to install packages of your choice, then remaster the CD (that is, create your own customised Puppy). Many people have done just that, and you may find a "flavour" of Puppy already made with what you want (such as Xfce).
JWM is configured for a retro Windows 95 look. Fvwm95 also has this look-and-feel. This was deliberate, to make "Windows refugees" feel at home -- particularly those who have used Windows 95 and 98 and never made it to XP. However, the 9x look and feel is only superficial, and under the hood there is heaps of power and convenient features Some people have said that they were initially put off by the "Windowish" look of it, or by the "bland" appearance. Invariably though, they found the user interface to be superb after using it for awhile.
A further comment on the "bland" appearance. If you have come from XP, you will be accustomed to things fading in and out, popping up, fancy shapes for windows, sound effects. Beware though, most of this is just hype -- marketting hype. Remember the old saying "all that glitters is not gold" (attributed to Shakespeare I think). Yes, the Puppy user interface is utilitarian, and proud of it!
Q: Printing problem
I ran the Printer Wizard and I can now print from Seamonkey and Abiword, but I can't print a plain text file, nor Postscript or PDF files.
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. Seamonkey 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 better?
Is Puppy better than Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux or Austrumi (etc.).
Yes.
Ha ha, there used to be quite a long answer here, in which I compared features of various tiny 50-70M distros. But, why not just own up, Puppy is better. But then, I'm the developer of Puppy, so what answer do you expect!
Seriously, "if the hat fits, wear it". Try the others, use the one you like best. Do be careful of superficial assessments though -- some reviewers are guilty of this. Use a distro for a few days, try doing all the things that you would want to use a distro for. Also don't forget that Puppy is only 50-70M. Bear that in mind when you're comparing a 700M distro! (actually, there are many testimonials that Puppy is better than most 700M distros)
The Puppy Wiki has a page with links to reviews of Puppy. Here's a direct link to one review that I don't think is on the Wiki page: http://www.linuxpipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=165600497.
HERES THE OLDER ANSWER:    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!!!
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 "pup_save.3fs" file on the hard drive. I would like this file to be on a USB pen drive. Can I do this?
No problem. The first time that you shutdown Puppy, after booting from live-CD, plug-in a USB pen drive and you can save to it
.
Another alternative is that you can install Puppy totally onto a USB Flash drive. In Menu -> Setup you will find an entry "Puppy Universal Installer" -- this enables you to install Puppy to many different media, including USB.
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?
I need to flesh this answer out a bit more, but some initial comments:
Every time you boot Puppy, it's almost as though you have done a fresh install, as the entire filesystem except your personal data is reinstalled from two files, initrd.gz and pup_xxx.sfs. Yes, a virus could hypothetically get into your pup_save.3fs file, but we can flush that out when doing a version upgrade or by doing a simulated version upgrade. Logging in as non-root does not prevent your personal files from getting infected.
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.
Qualification: My tests were with a direct connection to the Internet. If connecting via a LAN or router-modem then the ShieldsUp test will be of the LAN server or router-modem, not your PC.
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. It is even possible to run a web browser as "spot".
Finally, if you are interesting in delving further into this running-as-root versus running-as-user security issue, you will find this thread (NEED LINK) on the Puppy Forum interesting.
Q: Clipboard
What do I need to know to use the Clipboard in Puppy?
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.
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 -- that is, the program that switches the screen into graphics mode and provides an environment in which graphical applications can run), 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 synchronisation 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).
To paste into Rxvt use the middle mouse-button or press both buttons simultaneously if you have a 2-button mouse (see the Mouse Wizard to set this up).
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 (folder) and file names?
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/". After all, Internet URLs do not allow the space character, so it is consistent to have this restriction for local "URIs" (pathname/filename).
Another trap for the unwary is case. That is, "A" is different from "a" in Linux. Linux folder and filenames are case-sensitive.
While I'm thinking of traps for the Linux newbie, here's another. Say that you open a Rxvt terminal window in directory /root/ and in that directory you have an executable program that perhaps you have downloaded. let's call it "Demoexe" -- I've even given it a capital letter!
To run it, type this (where the # is the prompt, so don't type that):
# ./Demoexe
Coming from a DOS/Windows background, you might think that typing just "Demoexe" would run it, but not so. Linux will search for the file in the directories in which executables are kept, but will not look in the current directory. You have to append the "./" which is the path for current-directory.
Q: I'm getting screen flicker
The vertical refresh rate seems to be too low and the monitor has a noticeable flicker. What can I do about this?
Puppy has two X servers, the powerful Xorg and the simple and very small Xvesa Kdrive X server. The latter has many limitations, one of which is it cannot adjust the screen refresh frequency. When you run "Start -> Setup -> Xvesa Video Wizard" (which is what ran the very first time you booted Puppy), you are offered a selection of video resolutions, and there is a "MORE" button with further choices.
The Xvesa server obtains these resolutions from the video card and is able to tell the video card/chip to change to the chosen resolution, however Xvesa is not able to tell the video card what refresh rate to use. Thus, the refresh rate is whatever the video card/chip decides to use.
Now, the interesting thing is, the video card/chip may choose different screen refresh rates, depending on which resolution you choose. For example, the PC that I am using now chooses these refresh rates:
Mode Resolution Frequency
0x0114 800x600x16 56.5Hz
0x0117 1024x768x16 87.3Hz
0x011A 1280x1024x16 87.0Hz
0x0014 1280x960x16 60.3Hz
0x0131 1600x1200x16 60.3Hz
My monitor has a on-screen menu that is able to show the vertical refresh rate. Depending on your monitor and personal tolerance level, 60Hz may be annoying. In that case, experiment with other resolutions. I'm not certain of this, but very cheap monitors may have longer phosphor persistence so have less apparent flicker at low refresh rates.
The very first time that you boot the live-CD, you are offered a choice of using Xorg or Xvesa. The latter is very simple to setup and can get you up and running immediately. The Xorg server setup takes a bit more time to setup, but usually is straightforward. One of many advantages of Xorg is you can set the screen refresh frequency as high as your monitor can handle.
Note, older versions of Puppy and some cutdown "flavours" of Puppy may not have the Xorg server. If you are in this situation and the flicker is too annoying, move to the 'standard' Puppy, available via the Puppy download page: http://www.puppyos.com/download/downpage.htm
Q: Why not use Firefox instead of Seamonkey?
"My suggestion would be to replace the ugly/heavy Mozilla Seamonkey suite with Firefox & Thunderbird - leaner, meaner & prettier"
This question, or some variation of it, gets asked again and again on the Forum. Yes, Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email and news client, Sunbird Calendar, and NVU HTML editor. The Mozilla/Seamonkey suite, with all of this functionality, is about 11M compressed, whereas the separate applications are each about 8 - 11M compressed. So, the live-CD, instead of being 60M would be 85M and would be too big to run in RAM in a PC with 128M RAM.
In what way is Mozilla/Seamonkey inferior to the separate applications? IT ISN'T! Firefox, Thunderbird, etc., are forked from Mozilla source. Although they are being developed as separate projects these days, synchronisation does occur. However, some of the separate products are significantly different:
Currently, the Calendar module does not work in seamonkey. That's why we use Ical in Puppy.
NVU is way ahead of the Composer HTML editor module in Seamonkey. It is rumoured that NVU code improvements will find their way back into Seamonkey, but I don't know when.
Why are the separate applications so big compared with the Mozilla/Seamonkey suite? Simply because the Mozilla suite has a lot of common code shared by each module, whereas the separate applications have to duplicate that code. This creates a gigantic size bloat, not in the spirit of Puppy.
Note that Firefox, Thunderbird and NVU are available as PupGet packages for Puppy 2.10+.
Q: Where do I get the source code for Puppy?
Puppy is of course created from binary (compiled) packages, so where do the original source packages come from, and how are they compiled?
We need to ask a question: "what makes Puppy Puppy?" In other words, what is it that distinguishes Puppy from other distros and makes Puppy bootup fast, autodetect the hardware, save sessions and so on? The answer to this is to be found in one file, pupgetpkgs-1/0rootfs_skeleton-2.x.x.tar.gz, at this URL:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/
This file has the entire root filesystem, composed mostly of the scripts "that make Puppy Puppy". You can also find all of these scripts in your running Puppy. There is also another key script in the initial ramdisk, to be found at /initrd/sbin/init in your running Puppy.
If you are interested in downloading the original source packages from which Puppy is created, URLs are given here:
http://www.puppyos.com/download/downpage.htm
However, to understand how to compile them you should first read this page:
http://www.puppyos.net/pfs/
Or, if all you want to do is compile the kernel, look at this page:
http://www.puppyos.com/development/compilekernel.htm
<;br>
Note that the kernel configuration file used to compile the Linux kernel used in your running Puppy, is to be found at /lib/modules/. In the kernel source package this file gets renamed to '.config' -- see the above link for further instructions.
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What are some Quick Tips?
Rxvt and the clipboard:
Copying text from an rxvt terminal window to the clipboard is so easy: just drag with the mouse pointer (hold left button down) to highlight text, release the left button -- and the text is automatically placed in the clipboard.
Rxvt auto-complete:
Another neat feature in an rxvt terminal window is auto-complete -- start to type a directory name or filename, press the TAB key and it will automatically complete.
Live-CD faster boot:
Booting from live-CD and want a faster boot? If you study the How Puppy works page, you will see the search order for the usr_cram.fs file -- mount the CD, drag a copy of usr_cram.fs to /mnt/home/. Next time you boot, wow!
Q: May I release my own distro based on Puppy?
Yes. One basic rule is that you must choose a name for your distro that provides sufficient "product differentiation" from "Puppy", "Puppy Linux" and "PuppyOS". There is a thread on my News Blog that elaborates on this:
http://www.puppyos.net/news/index.php?entry=entry060828-141848
Some acceptable names already in use are "GrafPup", "MeanPup" and "Hacao Linux".
Another rule is that your project site must fully acknowledge myself, Barry Kauler, as the original developer and current maintainer of Puppy and there must be a link to my website, www.puppyos.com (or www.puppylinux.com).
A derivative of Puppy must not in any way seek to supplant the original Puppy project, by naming or promotion. A derivative work may be competitive but is offering a complementary product that enhances or offers features different from the main Puppy project.
AQUI HAY FAQ MAS VIEJOS (tal vez ya no se aplican):
  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: 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.
P:
    Esta bien tener espacios entre las palabras de los nombres de directorios y archivos?
   R:
    En teoria, si; en la practica, no. Hay unas aplicaciones y 'scripts' que se portan mal -- hacen problemas -- si encuentran un espacio en el nombre de archivo o directorio. Espacios en nombres es normal con 'Windows', pero en Linux es mejor no usar espacios. Use subrayos "_" o guiones "-" en lugar de espacios. Por ejemplo: "/root/my-applications/".
  Q: Change clock
  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
Q: What are the legal details?
Can you please explain to me more clearly the copyright, trademark and any other restrictions of Puppy?
A:
Puppy has software with a variety of licences, mostly GPL or LGPL, some closed-source. The "Help" page (/usr/share/doc/index.html) in every release of Puppy has this statement:
Legal notice:
Programs in Puppy are open source (except where noted above), and licences of individual products are duly acknowledged. The creation of the composite product named "Puppy", also known as "Puppy Linux" and "PuppyOS", is copyright (c) 2003,2004,2005,2006 Barry Kauler and all rights are reserved if not in conflict with other licences. Distribution is allowed, "hacking" is allowed, however Barry Kauler must always be acknowledged and the website www.puppylinux.com included in the acknowledgement.
Disclaimer:
Very simple, use entirely at your own risk. Barry Kauler accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever, and you use Puppy with this understanding.
The main page of the Puppy web-site, www.puppyos.com (also www.puppylinux.com) also has this: Notice: This is a logo for Puppy, also known as Puppy Linux and PuppyOS.
It is copyright (c) Barry Kauler 2006. Permission is given to use this logo,
however it must be displayed alongside a link (or link embedded in image)
to www.puppyos.com or www.puppylinux.com.
Notice: This image is my avatar, currently used on the Puppy Forum.
As it is an alias of myself, all rights are reserved.
Copyright (c) Barry Kauler 2006.
Puppy
PuppyOS
Puppy Linux Notice: I, Barry Kauler, established the 'Puppy Linux Project' in January 2003, first website and product release 18-June-2003, and I have trademark claim to the name and typed drawing of 'Puppy Linux', 'PuppyOS' and 'Puppy' as it relates to "computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation", under Federal and International Common Law and Trademark Laws as appropriate.
(c) Copyright Barry Kauler, 2003,2004,2005,2006. All rights reserved.
No part of this page is to be reproduced anywhere else. I have found that there is a problem where parts of my web pages are being inserted at other sites, then not updated, whereas I am updating my pages regularly. This is not a desirable situation, so please just link to my pages.
Please note that the images, names and typed drawings documented above do not have to be explicitly registered as a trademark in your country. In the USA, Federal registration is not required to establish rights in a trademark, Common law rights arise from actual use of a mark. This also applies to most other countries.
Also in most countries, a (c) Copyright statement in any document or artistic work is sufficient to reserve all rights to the owner, and the work may not be reproduced without permission of the owner.
* Extract from Puppy Forum.
HOME: www.puppyos.com Notice: This is the logo for PuppyOS. It is copyright (c) Barry Kauler 2006. Permission is given to use this logo,
however it must be displayed alongside a link (or link embedded in image) to www.puppyos.com.
Note also, other Puppy and Puppy-derivative sites have their own distinctive logos. For examples, see
www.grafpup.com and www.puppylinux.org. These should also be used in association with their respective sites.
Copyright notice: (c) Barry Kauler 2006. No part of this page is to be reproduced anywhere else. I have found that there is a problem where parts of my web pages are being inserted at other sites, then not updated, whereas I am updating my pages regularly. This is not a desirable situation, so please just link to my pages.
See also Barry's FAQ page∞.
Lots more info on how to use Puppy
CategoryLocalizationES