Puppy for Raspberry Pi, alpha2

This pup runs well! Significant improvements relative to alpha1, which was uploaded only a few days ago:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201206/squeezed-arm-puppy-alpha1.html

This pup is feature-complete, that is, to use that expression, it includes the "kitchen sink". But of course, as we expect with Puppy, still tiny -- the SD-card image download file is only 85.6MB.

Release Notes
Here is the main announcement and release notes:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/sap-5.96-alpha2-readme.htm

...as you can see, there are still some bugs that we need to fix, plus I am sure more will be discovered. Sound... that will probably work after the correct kernel driver is loaded, and I will see about automating that for alpha3/beta1.
In general though, it is looking good, and I am personally quite surprised at how nippy the performance of the big apps like Chromium are on the RP.

Note that first-time bootup is much slower than subsequent bootups. So, if it seems stuck at first bootup, just wait. Note, there are things that I can do to significantly speedup the first-boot, which I will attend to soon.

Download
Here is the SD-card image (85.6MB):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/raspi-sd-4gb-sap6-5.96.img.xz

And instructions for writing it to an SDHC card:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/howto-copy-to-sd-card.htm

If you want to do any C/C++/Vala/Genie/BaCon compiling, grab the "devx" file (see Release Notes for more details) (117.8MB):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/devx_sap6_5.96.sfs

Sha1sums and md5sums:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/sha1sums.txt
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/arm/test/raspi-sap6-5.96-alpha2/md5sums.txt

Personal comment
I have got to say, and of course I am probably biased, but I think that this pup is shaping up as the simplest and most complete out-of-the-box experience for newcomers to the RP.
Just about every app they might want ready-to-go, the Puppy Package Manager can install any app from the huge Debian repository, our simple "devx" one-file-install to transform our pup into a complete C/C++/Vala/Genie/BaCon compiler environment -- I recommend BaCon as a very easy language for programming-newbies.

Or, you can create utility and GUI apps without the the "devx" file, using just Ash/Bash, Perl or jimTcl scripting and gtkdialog (see Pburn, Pmusic and dozens of other apps created this way).
...yes, our tiny 85.6MB pup also has Perl and Tcl, albeit cutdown versions. If you really *must* have Python (see here why *not*: http://bkhome.org/genie/) then it is in the "devx". Heh, heh, I am just stirring some Python fans up, of course Python is ok if you want, but not much good for writing apps in Puppy as the "devx" is needed.

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Comments

Gparted broken
Username: BarryK
I was watching one of Lobster's youtube videos demonstrating alpha1 on the RP, and he has reported that Gparted fails. Ah, yes, same thing in alpha2. Some dependencies are missing: [i]libglibmm-2.4-1c2a libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a libpangomm-1.4-1[/i] My RP is not yet connected to the Internet. Use the Puppy Package Manager to install these and see if that is enough for Gparted (in System menu) to run. If not, try from a terminal window and report what is missing. Let me know if it works, then I'll add those packages to alpha3/beta1 build. Hey Lobster, those videos are already out-of-date, you will have to re-do them!

Forum feedback
Username: BarryK
"There is a thread in the Puppy Linux Forum for feedback on the alpha2: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=637941#637941

re jimtcl
Username: BarryK
"No, you can use gtkdialog for guis.

gparted working
Username: lobster
"[i]# gparted /usr/sbin/gpartedbin: error while loading shared libraries: [b]libcairomm-1.0.so.1[/b]: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory # gparted[/i] 4th library needed gparted now running Ay chi hua hua!

Re Gparted deps
Username: BarryK
"Lobster, Thanks for that, I have fixed it in Woof.

OpenOffice on RP -- no
Username: BarryK
"Heh heh, I tried it, installed OpenOffice from the Debian package repository. I started Writer ...yes, it starts up, but crashes soon afterward, complaining of insufficient resources. So, it's a no-go. The Puppy SD card has 256MB swap partition, but it seems that does not help, not enough anyway. It would probably work on the Mele a1000 though, as that has 512MB RAM, compared with 256MB in the RP.

Re presentation
Username: BarryK
"Raffy, Yeah, that was an idea I floated awhile back: http://puppylinux.com/development/projects.htm ...see heading "Presentation Manager". I have spent most of the money that guy gave me, which at the time had inspired me to offer a bounty for projects. No one took up the offer. Anyway, that Presentation Manager is still a good idea. A really interesting project for someone I reckon. Note, the ROX-Filer bug mentioned on that page has been fixed.

Raspi Alpha 2
Username: Tony Pottinger
"Barry, I am great Puppy fan and run Puppy on my netbook and an ancient Acer laptop. Love it. Just loaded Alpha 2 on to my Raspi. What a difference after a week of messing about with the other distros, SOMETHING THAT WORKS. Raspberry Foundation take note this is what the majority of us want. Brilliant Thanks.

1824 x 984 Screen
Username: Raffy
"Thanks for sap6, Barry. :) Well, this RasPi and the current Puppy config likes only true HDMI connection, so it had to wait for a new HDMI cable. (My HDMI-DVI cable won't work.) Plugging it to 32" TV, I got 1824 x 984 screen! (My first >1366 screen with such a tiny computer.) I wonder if there is room for graphics acceleration... Maybe if I config it for ordinary TV, the graphics will be faster :)

devx killed sap6 A2
Username: 01micko
"Hi Barry I downloaded the devx [i]devx_sap6_5.96.sfs[/i] from aarnet, didn't bother with an md5 as it was a smooth download. I mounted the devx (in /root) via gui, then from command line copied with : [i]cd / cp -arf /mnt/+root+devx_sap6_5.96.sfs ./[/i] Seemed to go ok until rxvt crashed, then rox desktop. Jwm menu still opened but no response. Couldn't even ctrl-alt-backspace. I unplugged :(. On reboot I got a /bin/bash error to do with ELF binary mismatch for gcc. System hosed. This is on the real hardware. Anyone else try to install the devx?

Re devx
Username: BarryK
"01micko, I have been happily using the devx without any trouble. I don't install it in a running sap6 though. I plug the SD card into my laptop, mount the second partition and copy to it. Note, you should always use '--remove-destination', otherwise the copy can follow symlinks and stuff things up. So: cp -a -f --remove-destination * / There is no need for '-r'.

User error
Username: 01micko
"I did it on my main machine, fast no errors and works fine, compiled simple "Hello World" no probs Apologies!

File-Sharing
Username: 01micko
"I compiled pure-ftpd, curlftpfs and mpscan on raspi and separated the binaries out of the old file_sharing puppy 4 pet to get working file sharing. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=638866#638866

Tags: puppy