Kernels and chromebooks, Oh MY!

[clm1919]

I'm not sure which thread is best - so I'm posting here. Please feel free to tell me to post this in another area of the forums.

HI! first post, just joined.....long time no linux (15+years) Trying things out again. (veteran noob)

Have a HP Chromebook 14 G5 Intel Celeron N3350/4GB/16GB (ApolloLake/SNAPPY)

I successfully installed Debian12/xfce off a live iso - everything worked - but it eats up too much space

- so i thought i'd try Puppy.

Writing this now on said chromebook RUNNING PUPPY -booting off the SD card with a "puppy_magic_thingy" on the internal drive saving all my settings. (100% puppy-noob, never used it before)

I've installed barrier so i can control the chromebook as a "smart monitor/2nd screen" from another machine.

It's set up just like my old Debian install......except....

I can't install the audio driver/firmware....stuff

according to everything i've read (and done before on Debian) i need a kernel 6.4 or higher AND to be not using a "live-usb" version.

SO....is puppy not going to work out?

it was nice to be able to play youtube and use VLC to play video's and music with the Debian install besides just using the machine as a "smart monitor".

Advice, Tips, suggestions greatly appreciated

[dancytron]

Which Puppy are you using?

Bookworm Puppy is based on Debian 12 and is the only Puppy that has been running on a majority of Chromebooks that I'm aware of.

viewtopic.php?t=8690

[wizard]

+1 for BookwormPup64 from here: viewtopic.php?t=8690

You'll find some packages, including VLC here: viewtopic.php?t=9637

Everything working on my 3 Chromebooks.

If you haven't already, check out the General Information section on the forum index page.

wizard

[clm1919]

i'm using this iso:

BookwormPup64_10.0.7.iso

when i tried to use the same steps as the old Debian12 install the audio script https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chrom ... inux-audio -

--under puppy it "worked" but couldn't install the required custom kernel (i believe it was called chrultrabook..something, I wish i had the space to keep the Debian install but I ran into low space issues when configuring things)

I'll look into the links provided - TY for the quick replies!

So far, except for no sound, I'm liking Puppy's zip and low resource use.

[bigpup]

Did you just change to developer mode to be able to boot BookwormPup64 10.0.7?

Or have you done a complete bios firmware replacement and completely removed Chrome OS?

BookwormPup64 is using the same core Linux files and programs as Debian 12, but it is not working the exact same way.
So not good to try doing stuff that is suppose to work in Debian.

Here is a topic specifically about Puppy Linux on ChromeBooks.
viewtopic.php?t=431

Getting sound to work is the main issue with Puppy Linux.

Read the different posts where others have given information on what they had to do to get sound working.

All ChromeBooks are different and what provides the sound in them.
So may just have to try some different things to get it working.

[clm1919]

i changed to developer mode and ran mrchromebox's firmware script to...uh...add legacy boot(?) (option1).

Took me a few tries.

eventually i took the plunge and just installed the Debian12 to the chromebook's internal (no more ChromeOS)

(I have Deb12 installed on another old HP15 laptop w/ 1TB HDA dualboot win10- testing it out there)

I was afraid of bricking the chromebook with custom firmware.

I'm making enough mistakes just re-learning basic linux again. I keep seeing students with these poor under-powered machines and now they're no longer supported. I've pretty much used linux (in the past...go go DSL CD's on socket 7 machines w/ no HDA). I was hoping i could learn how to something similar with chromebooks. But my computer skills have fallen far behind in the last 20 years....

still have my SE/30......somewhere....i boot it up once a year for nostalgia..... rambling....it's late....good nite

[wizard]

@clm1919

Probably be best to start from a known good install. Use your W10 computer and Rufus to create a bootable USB flash drive of BookwormPup64 10.0.7 and boot from that.

wizard

[clm1919]

Thanks, i did just that.

I wiped the drive, installed Deb12, but now the audio script seems broken - no custom kernel update (sigh). https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chrom ... issues/147

Removing LibreOffice from the chromebook saved a lot of space.

Did make a fresh puppy usb and did a first start and made a pupsave (?) with the correct trackpad options.

Both OS systems work, but no sound on either atm.

Not sure what is up with the SD card i was using...seems it is now looking for the OLD pupsave(?) and won't load.

I think i'm past my comfort zone, i've never compiled a kernel - everything has always been apt -update/upgrade or use a LIVE CD/DVD/USB.

I'll just keep using the cromebook as a second monitor w/ barrier and firefox for now. At least it's functional.

Will keep playing with puppy, but my other "play with linux" machine is an older HP15 laptop w/ no screen (hooked up to TV) - but it has an optical drive.
It's running Deb12...apparently using something called LXDE....although i could swear i used the XFCE debian iso. (this is how green-again i still-am).

might try the puppy on a core-2-duo desktop system that's been sitting on a shelf for a few years, just so i don't have to mess with partitioning the HDA. I think it still has a functional win10 or win7 system on it. have an old core-2-dual mac mini gathering dust somewhere too. Just not enough monitors

not giving up, but it seems the getting more out of the chromebook is going to be a huge time-sink-rabbithole with limited rewards.

[wizard]

@clm1919

Doing a little web searching indicates audio problems on your model are common. You might try Lubuntu or MX Linux. I've had success with MX and like it since it can be installed frugally with persistence and run completely from a USB flash drive. Both of them are heavier than Puppy, but probably lighter than D12. Did see a post reporting audio working in Lubuntu.

If you want to pursue BW64, some new kernels are available (you won't have to compile) and are easy to swap in Puppy, take a look here:viewforum.php?f=65

wizard

[mikeslr]

I know nothing about chromebooks. But otherwise changing --updating or down-dating-- is usually easy. Puppys are modularly built. Under Puppys the kernel consists of two modules packaged together. You'll find them here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=65 packaged as a "Huge-DESCRIPTION-tar.?z. I'd try ozsouth's 6.6.25 specifically created for Bookworm and Jammy, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewt ... 82#p117782; i.e. it is User-Merge. [Debian and Ubuntu no longer permit anyone other than its Devs to locate files in Top-level folders, requiring others to locate components under /usr].

Download and extract the tar.bz2. Within you'll find two files: vmlinuz-SPECIFICATIONS and kernel-modules-specifications.sfs. Kernel-modules consists of drivers --needed to communicate with your hardware-- that have been compiled against the included kernel. You'll notice that your deployed Bookworm has components named vmlinuz and zdrv_dpupbw_10.0.7.sfs. vmlinuz is the actual current kernel and zdrv.sfs are its associated drivers.

deployed-bookworm007.png (74.86 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

Rename the 'new' vmlinuz (delete the specification) and kernel-modules to >zdrv_dpupbw_10.0.7.sfs. [I create a folder named 'old-k' next to the old components and move them into it. You can do this as they were copied into RAM on bootup and the RAM copies are what are actually being used. See https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5818. Then copy/move your new versions next to the puppy_dpupbw_10.0.7.sfs

Reboot so that your new versions are used.

I've highlited fdrv_dpupbw_10.0.7.sfs. It contains firmware also needed to communicate with hardware --e.g., monitors, keyboards, etc. firmware does not have to be compiled against specific kernels. So the firmware which was in the ISO may suffice. If not, you can try the fdrv package that ozsouth linked to on the above post. [Also requires renaming have the dpupbw_10.0.7.sfs designation.

There are other fdrv packages available from the Kernel Section of the Forum. But perhaps someone else can provide the bash-command needed to identify which specific firmware files you need if the original or ozsouth's package doesn't.

[clm1919]

Thanks to all, I will look into those kernel options.

I found this while looking for chrulabook kernels: https://ethanthesleepy.one/public/chrul ... an-kernel/

I'm assuming it's for Debian because it's a ".deb" file that's in the directory (showing my ignorance here...) , and it's 6.6.0 - I'm pretty sure i was using 6.5.x back when i DID have the sound working under D12, but that was auto-updated by the (now not working) audio script i linked at github earlier in this thread.

that's just me poking the internet and seeing what's out there. I found a few other files, but i have no idea how to use them.

I think i'll try to take advantage of Puppy's strengths and look into the advice here. Thanks for all your advice and patience.

[mikewalsh]

@clm1919 :- Hi.....and to the "kennels". Nice to have you with us.

We've got quite a knowledgeable crew here when it comes to Chromebooks. Listen to what they say, and DO take their advice; these lads KNOW what they're talking about! Just be patient, and stick with it; between us, we'll get ya there (sooner or later).

Never actually had a Chromebook myself. Over the last few years, I've had the odd play-around with Arnold the Bat's ChromiumOS builds; some have worked OOTB - booting from a flash drive - whereas others haven't even tried to boot at all. Recently, I discovered ChromeOS-Reflex.....Google's attempt to make their OS more widely-available. Currently, I have it running on an old PATA/IDE SSD I rescued from an ancient Dell Inspiron lappie that popped its clogs after 21 yrs of faithful service. I've fitted it into an old Compaq floppy-disk storage case I'd had kicking around for a couple of decades (!), and made it into an external SSD, via a PATA-to-SATA adapter off eBay (around GBP £2) and a SATA-to-USB3 adapter cable.

Runs great, too!

I've been a Chrome man ever since the 'beta' test program in the late summer of 2007. I'd been using Firefox prior to that, but that had developed horrendous memory leaks and a tendency to crash whenever it felt like it.....often taking your work with it. Chrome was sleek, light as a feather, and sizzlingly fast; I fell for it straight away, and have used it pretty well ever since. When I moved to Linux full-time in the spring of 2014 (and Puppy 6 months after that), I was pleased to find that the native Linux builds were WAY more stable than those on that "other OS" (cough, cough!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With regards to the 'space' issue, once you get Puppy up-and-running to your satisfaction - with sound! - we have an entire range of self-contained 'portable' applications you can try. These will run quite happily from a suitably-formatted flash drive, so you can keep a bunch on a flash drive AND run 'em from there. The thread for these can be found here:-

https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5104

Hang in there! We'll get ya sorted...

(Debs can be used by any distro that uses a Debian base. They'll install straight-off in many Puppies, too.... )

Mike.

[clm1919]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With regards to the 'space' issue....<my edit>...we have an entire range of self-contained 'portable' applications you can try. These will run quite happily from a suitably-formatted flash drive <like the SD card? it won't matter if it has to be popped in and out to be recognized after boot?>

The thread for these can be found here:-

https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5104 <will definitely look into this-->Thanks SO much>

Hang in there! We'll get ya sorted...

(Debs can be used by any distro that uses a Debian base. They'll install straight-off in many Puppies, too.... ) <good to know, TY!>

<Thanks> Mike.

[mikeslr]

"/4GB/16GB". I take it that means 4 GB RAM/16GB 'Storage/Drive".

Puppys 'run in RAM' except for your SaveFile/Folder [latter recommended]. See How Puppy Linux Save Works, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 818#p63818 and How Puppy Linux Works, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5818. 4 Gb is sufficient RAM to run Bookworm and Bookworm OOTB needs slightly less than 776 Mbs of Storage. [It only needs the files/systems shown in the screenshot of my prior post. The ISO didn't include a ydrv. That's an addon I created. And some of the files (albeit small) in the ISO are needed only if you don't have a bootmanager, i.e., you are burning to a CD/DVD.

A SaveFolder automatically grows as you install applications/datafiles and is recommended over a SaveFile which is a dedicated block of storage requiring resizing (and a reboot) once it's near to being full. So how much of the 16Gb you'll need depends on the size of the programs you install and the datafiles you create.

You can 'off-load' datafiles to a USB-Key.

As T'other Mike wrote, he's provided a rather extensive bunch of 'portables' which --like Windows' portables-- can be run from anywhere. You can deploy the most frequently used ones to your chromebook's internal drive; and keep the less frequently used ones on a USB-Key, either run from there or quickly copied onto the internal drive. The 'must always have available' applications' such as LibreOffice, Gimp and a couple of web-browsers won't require more than 1Gb of Storage.

The applications you install via apt/synaptic &/or Puppy Package Manager will be installed to your SaveFile/Folder. Installed, each will occupy on Storage between 2 and 3 time their download size.

That ydrv I mentioned contains applications Bookworm's synaptic didn't offer but I frequently have a need for. It occupies 655 Mbs of Storage.

16 Gbs will take quite a while to fill up.

[clm1919]

@mikeslr

Thank you for all that information - yes 4GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage.

I have Debian12 installed on the chromebook's internal, hence the space issues (I'm hedging my bets on whether the earlier mentioned audio scrip will be fixed - it used to work and install a chultrabook kernel along with the intel firmware for sound).

I didn't see anything in the forums about anyone successfully running puppy (w/ audio) on an HP14G5, but I've been switching back and forth between booting puppy and debian12 and running Barrier to use the chromebook as a 2nd monitor for firefox. Trying to learn both. The puppy usb makes that easy.

<digression>I have a Lenovo Yoga chromebook - but even though it's past it's update limit i still use it as a chromebook - i has a decent touchscreen and can play my media files for now. It's an ULTIMA board - which some posts mentioned that even if Linux could be installed (with custom firmware, thus loosing ChromeOS) the speakers might blow up - i make enough daily mistakes on the linux platform so I'm just focusing on learning.</digression>

but the dual linux boot is why i was interested in the portable software - I've used a portable version of the Chrome browser under windows a few times, but i couldn't figure out how to make it work under PuppyLinux. The Add/Remove menu scripts worked, but the application wouldn't. I wish i had taken a picture of the terminal window. But it's TOO HOT today, and i just lost patience with heat producing computers in my No-AC work area. I might try again tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[bigpup]

If you use BookwormPup64 10.0.7 as the Puppy Linux to use.

There are some setup steps you may have to do to get sound.

On the desktop tray right side is a speaker icon.

Right click on it and select preferences.

Select output devices tab.

If it has listed a device Built-in Analog something as a name.

Click on the green check mark icon at far right of the listed device.

That will select that device as the sound output.

Usually that will get sound working, if a analog device is listed.

To give better advice.
Need to see what is being listed.
What is usually providing sound output.

If no help.
Puppy Linux may not have the needed firmware for the sound hardware.
May need to figure out what the hardware is.

[clm1919]

@ bigpup

thank you for your post.

When i open a youtube video (say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYEdTcBcNeI)

and go to sound preferences - i can see "built-in Audio Pro", "Built -in Audio Pro 7" and "Built-in Audio Pro 8"

The volume meter goes up and down - but no sound from speakers. When I change between them the same thing happens.

Volume is set to 100% on system and firefox in Playback.

NOTE: when i had sound running under Debian 12 some intel firmware needed to be installed.

I found this TWO YEAR OLD post by the amazing mrchromebox:
https://www.reddit.com/r/chrultrabook/c ... der_linux/

it mentions this: sof-apl-da7219.tplg.gz

And that looks familiar - i recall having to pick the SOF option under the now-not-working script (the other options warned of speakers blowing up, athough i don't think the HP14G5 has that problem, from what i can tell...but i could very well be wrong so i picked SOF....i hope they fix that script....that stuff in the two year post looks like directions for summoning a demon to me....or the lyrics to CaramelDancing....I'm a Noob)

But in my journey of re-learning linux i've found (especially with these chromebooks) that anything more than a year old might not be valid anymore
....cut and pasting old mystic linux commands is what broke my HP14G5 Debian system the first time... I think....

also, i think there was some issues with somethings called pipewire and pulseaudio not getting along or running at the same time

but that was all under Debian12

It seems safer to try things under puppy.... speaking of which....i need to look up how to backup linux systems now that i have the chromebook working as i like it (albeit with no sound). I bough a whole pile of new 32GB usb pen drives for this linux project.

[clm1919]

A little more digging before happily going into the AC and (less happily) getting ready for work....

has turned up this page: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... oject.html

I downloaded the zip file and bookmarked the page - but that's all.

For you code-magicians out there the audio script i keep talking about is here: https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chrom ... etup-audio

perusing the mystic spellings I found something that some of you might be able to glean some information from....I no longer have "ReadMagic" in my spellbook....

APOLIGIES if this is a bunch of spam. All i learned from a few courses in Pascal, Modula2 and C++ was....I'm not cut out to be a programmer..... (and HTML 3 didn't count...)

-------------------------<clipped from audio-Magic-script-Ritual-Thingy>------BOLD emphasis MINE-----------------------------

def sof_audio(platform):
if args.debug:
print_status(f"{args.debug} SOF debugging")
if args.debug == "Enabling":
cpfile("conf/sof/snd-sof-dbg.conf", "/etc/modprobe.d/snd-sof-dbg.conf")
else:
rmfile("/etc/modprobe.d/snd-sof-dbg.conf")
print_status("Done, please reboot for changes to take effect.")
exit()

print_status("Installing SOF")

# Install sof firmware
if not path_exists("/lib/firmware/intel/sof"):
print_status("Installing SOF firmware")
install_package("sof-firmware", "firmware-sof-signed", "alsa-sof-firmware", "sof-firmware", "sof-firmware")

# Special tplg cases
# RPL devices load tplg with a different file name than ADL, despite being the exact same file as their ADL counterparts
# sof-bin currently doesn't include these symlinks, so we create them ourselves
if platform == "adl":
tplgs = ["cs35l41", "max98357a-rt5682-4ch", "max98357a-rt5682", "max98360a-cs42l42", "max98360a-nau8825", "max98360a-rt5682-2way", "max98360a-rt5682-4ch", "max98360a-rt5682", "max98373-nau8825", "max98390-rt5682", "max98390-ssp2-rt5682-ssp0", "nau8825", "rt1019-nau8825", "rt1019-rt5682", "rt5682", "rt711", "sdw-max98373-rt5682"]
for tplg in tplgs:
tplg_path="/lib/firmware/intel/sof-tplg"
if path_exists(f"{tplg_path}/sof-adl-{tplg}.tplg"):
bash(f"ln -sf {tplg_path}/sof-adl-{tplg}.tplg {tplg_path}/sof-rpl-{tplg}.tplg")
if path_exists(f"{tplg_path}/sof-adl-{tplg}.tplg.xz"):
bash(f"ln -sf {tplg_path}/sof-adl-{tplg}.tplg.xz {tplg_path}/sof-rpl-{tplg}.tplg.xz")
# JSL needs tplg build from upstream which have not been shipped in distros yet
cpdir("conf/sof/tplg", "/lib/firmware/intel/sof-tplg")

def hifi2_audio():
if args.debug:
print_status(f"{args.debug} SOF debugging")
if args.debug == "Enabling":
cpfile(f"conf/sof/hifi2-sof-dbg.conf", "/etc/modprobe.d/hifi2-sof-dbg.conf")
else:
rmfile("/etc/modprobe.d/hifi2-sof-dbg.conf")
print_status("Done, please reboot for changes to take effect.")
exit()

print_status("Forcing SOF driver in debug mode")
if not path_exists("/lib/firmware/intel/sof"):
install_package("sof-firmware", "firmware-sof-signed", "alsa-sof-firmware", "sof-firmware", "sof-firmware")
cpfile("conf/sof/hifi2-sof.conf", "/etc/modprobe.d/hifi2-sof.conf")
---------------------------------</clipped from audio-Magic-script-Ritual-Thingy>------------------------------------

Must now go hide in AC and do this "work" thing..... will check in later today if i can.

[clm1919]

So, hopefully this helps somebody - but the issue still remains (on Puppy - not sure how to use this on puppy, but am willing to listen to sage advice)

Quick summary: HP Chromebook 14 G5 Intel Celeron N3350/4GB/16GB (ApolloLake/SNAPPY)

- using the mrchromebox scripts: https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/fwscript.html

- the machine boots from live USB's. (tested Debian12 / BookwormPup64 10.0.7)

- installed Deb12 onto the internal drive

- but the sound doesn't work.

- SO....I used the kernel .deb package here: https://ethanthesleepy.one/public/chrul ... an-kernel/

- ran the magic command: sudo dpkg -i *.deb

- rebooted

- followed the directions here (copy and paste links available on site - requires git to be installed):
https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chrom ... inux-audio

- picked the "SOF" option

- rebooted

- sound works now (under debian12)

SO...the question is, how to use this information to get sound to work under puppy.... I'm not qualified to answer that, but am willing to work with people smarter than me to try to figure it out.

[bigpup]

In BookwormPup64 10.0.7

You need to install git.

I did it by using the Synaptic Package Manager.
On the main window.
Click on the reload button to update the repository info.
Now do a search for git.
It will bring up a big list of stuff, but git will be in the list.
Go down the list until it gets to git as a listed item. (just git nothing else in the name but a version)
Right click on it and select mark for installation.
Now top of window click on apply button.
If any messages come up about other stuff needed just select mark them too.
After git is installed.

In a terminal you should be able to do what it says here:
https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chrom ... inux-audio

Try above first before also trying this.

Not sure messing with the kernel will be needed.

SO....I used the kernel .deb package here: https://ethanthesleepy.one/public/chrul ... an-kernel/

- ran the magic command: sudo dpkg -i *.deb

- rebooted

Not sure if this messing with the kernel, will work in BookwormPup64 10.0.7.
Puppy Linux uses kernels in a different way.
This being a deb package it may change stuff after the kernel is loaded and running the operating system?
Only way to know is try it.

[clm1919]

Thank you for the reply. I had already installed git from the terminal with <apt install git>

<edited for rambling> - I had tried the script before i started this thread (and a few other things) and something "broke" my deb12 AND puppy install on the SD card - So i'm a little hesitant now to just "bang rocks together" and see what happens.

but thanks to the easy to follow "backup your puppy save file" tutorial (success, i see the two menu options now)

I gave the script a go.

The updating kernel part of the script failed, but i got the audio options and picked "SOF".

AFTER REBOOTING

now in the PulseAudioVolumeControl i see the volume meters go up and down - but still no sound.

under ALLOutput Devices I see only "dummy output" (and nothing under HardwareOutputDevices).

So I'm guessing something in Kernels 6.4 and above that allow the firmware-driver-things to operate successfully, hence the warnings on chromebook pages about using kernels 6.4 and above.

So now i'm off to re-read all the "how to update the kernel on puppy linux" stuff (thanks to mikeslr for your earlier post)

not giving up.

[wizard]

@clm1919

So i'm a little hesitant now to just "bang rocks together" and see what happens.

Yeah, but sometimes it works

Thanks for the laugh

wizard

[clm1919]

Thanks for the laugh

I sometimes worry that my flippant and sarcastic wit will offend - glad to know it's tolerated/appreciated here.

I'm trying to "have fun" with this project - it keeps me from getting arrested from throwing computers from a 5th floor appartment in frustration....

i know i keep mentioning debian stuff (as this is a dual project for me) I hope that's OK

- i just used google voice this morning via firefox on the cromebook (Debian12) to call my parents - it worked....microphone/speakers-ALL!

about to try to do a "frugal install" to the SD card for puppy and then playing with the kernel-stuff before work.
(I've just been running off the USB-live since my last screw up).

[clm1919]

So.... I'm not sure what's going on, but booting from the SD-card with my frugal install failed...a few times...grub wouldn't even start

So started from scratch (on the SD card) - and then got a partial boot, but it failed with error.... wish i had taken a picture.

BUT - knowing there are issues with the SD card reader on chromebooks under Linux I tried the unthinkable....

i rebooted, and as the machine was searching for the installer partition, i popped the SD card in and out....

and now I was at a FRESH puppy, 1st boot screen....

I suppose i didn't do something right and my old pup save wasn't (? imported ?) from the internal drive.

also the grub boot, uh, looked different (?) from the live-USB I've been using (maybe i chose some wrong options). it looked more like an old 32 bit bios screen w/ a blue box.

installed barrier and git (as i know i want those)

rebooted

-same different "grub screen" with only one option
-had to pop SD card out (count to 3) and back in.
-and the boot completed again
-ran the "magic sound script" just for S&G's - (same result as earlier)

-rebooted
-same as above (pop the SD card out-in)
-boot competes, same no sound situation.
-but all changes have saved.

i now have a frugal install on the SD card, no need for the USB drive so, woot!, I have a free USB-3 port now (other one is for USB/Ethernet adapter).

backing things up, re-paritioning-formatting the SD card a few times and the frugal install took a lot longer than i thought, so playing with kernels will have to wait a bit.

Thought I'd update on progress though. I'm hoping this isn't seen as me spamming the forums.

[wizard]

@clm1919

I'm trying to "have fun" with this project

You should. Anyone can go out and buy an up to date computer. For many of us here the "fun" is in the challenge of making something useful that woud otherwise be discarded. Just finished converting an Acer CB3-532, cpu=n3060, ram=2gb, eMMC=16gb to a dual boot ChromeOS + Puppy BW64. It has a broken screen so now has to wait for me to find an affordable donor screen.

wizard

[wizard]

@clm1919

I'm hoping this isn't seen as me spamming the forums.

Nope.

To often we get posters who under report or don't follow through at all. You're doing fine.

Thanks
wizard

[mikewalsh]

I sometimes worry that my flippant and sarcastic wit will offend - glad to know it's tolerated/appreciated here.

I'm trying to "have fun" with this project - it keeps me from getting arrested from throwing computers from a 5th floor appartment in frustration....

@clm1919 :-

Nah, don't worry about that......I doubt ya COULD offend this lot! We like folks with a sense of humour; let's face it, for most of us, using Puppy is all about having fun anyway.......so if ya can have a laugh while you're at it, why not? As wizard says, half the fun for us here is in making something useful & functional out of equipment that others would've hurled into the landfill years ago...and 'our Pup' is perfect for doing that.

My old 2002 Inspiron 1100 lappie was a case in point:-

Weighing nearly 8 lbs - you wouldn't want to lug it around very far, or else you'd end up with arms twice the length they should be! - this 'beast' came with a 2.2 GHz 'NetBurst' Celery-stick, just 128 MB of RAM and a miniscule 20 GB HDD when we bought it all those years ago. To this day, I will never comprehend how the hell it managed to run XP 'Home'.....but it did; just.....somehow. It thrashed the poor wee HDD mercilessly, but in those days I wasn't that tech-savvy & mostly just kept my fingers crossed.....

I'll give those old 'NetBurst' Intels one thing; the hotter they got, the better they seemed to like it. The buggers were near as dammit indestructible!

I upgraded the hell out of the thing. I maxed the RAM to a full 2 GB, following advice from an Intel 'white paper' I tracked down on the 82845 chipset. The Celery-stick got the bum's rush in favour of a 2.6 GHz 'proper' Pentium 4 (all of GBP £5 off eBay); in those days Dell weren't yet using 'mobile' chips, so even their laptops used full desktop CPUs. It did mean it was a breeze to swap CPUs, though. The HDD got swapped-out, initially for a 32GB Transcend PATA-interface SSD; 6 months later, I upgraded to a 64GB unit. This made a BIG difference to Puppy's boot times, though it couldn't do much about operating speed due to being stuck with 400 MHz DDR1 RAM. And the P4s really weren't all they were cracked up to be; talk about slowww......watching paint dry was more entertaining! But, at the time, we all thought they were fantastic chips....

I added a couple of early-gen SanDisk USB 3.0 Ultra 'Fit' nano-sized thumb drives as permanently plugged-in 'external' storage; these worked fine.....the USB 3.0 interface was backwards-compatible with the Inspiron's USB 2.0 ports (this was one of the very first machines on the market to take advantage of the then newly-introduced USB 2.0 standard. Some manufacturers wouldn't get around to this for another 4 yrs or so). Yah, it occupied both USB ports, but despite having no built-in wifi (unlike its 'big brother', the 5100), I got around that with a brand-new, old-stock 'period' NetGear CardBus wifi adapter; Dell were good enough to supply a CardBus slot in all their machines, a trait that would continue for nearly another decade after that.

Running Puppy full-time from 2014 onwards, it transformed the beast from an under-performing slug to a frankly quite sprightly athlete. (Well, as sprightly as a P4 could ever be expected to get, that is...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She gave me another 8 yrs faithful service, alongside an almost-as-old Compaq desktop from 2004. This was donated by my sister, who - like most 'non-techies' - took the tried & trusted route of a new machine with a new version of Windows pre-installed. By 2014, I'd been using Windows for nearly 30 years, through all its many & varied incarnations.....and quite frankly, I'd had enough. I was fed-up to the back teeth with it.

Come EOL for XP, I Googled 'Free operating systems'.....and was gob-smacked at what came up. My first introduction to Linux, within 3 days I'd kicked XP into touch & dived head-first into the uncharted waters of the Linux ocean. Sink or swim, this would be my OS from then on..!

I started with Ubuntu 'Trusty Tahr' (14.04 LTS). That lasted around 6 months, until Canonical - in their 'wisdom', with their custom-built kernels - dropped support for the Compaq's graphics chip. Freeze-ups became a way of life from that point on - the 'Unity' desktop's hardware acceleration requirements weren't helping much, either. An acquaintance on the Ubuntu forums suggested I take a look at Puppy; PhilB had just released Tahrpup in November of that year. I tried it; yippee, graphics behaved themselves again, and the machine was acting like it had turned into a racing car! It was also the first distro that ran on the old Inspiron, OOTB, with absolutely everything working correctly......even the notoriously finicky 82845's 'Brookedale' 'Extreme' graphics core. (There was nowt normal about the 'Extreme' graphics at all, 'cos Intel chucked the VESA standards manual out of the window when they built THAT thing. Naturally, it worked OOTB under XP... )

That was it. I'd 'found the one' for me. Within 48 hours, Tahrpup had taken up permanent residence on the HDD of both machines....

I haven't looked back since.

Mike.

[clm1919]

I sometimes worry that my flippant and sarcastic wit will offend - glad to know it's tolerated/appreciated here.

I'm trying to "have fun" with this project - it keeps me from getting arrested from throwing computers from a 5th floor appartment in frustration....

Nah, don't worry about that......I doubt ya COULD offend this lot! We like folks with a sense of humour; let's face it, for most of us, using Puppy is all about having fun anyway.......so if ya can have a laugh while you're at it, why not? As wizard says, half the fun for us here is in making something useful & functional out of equipment that others would've hurled into the landfill years ago...and 'our Pup' is perfect for doing that

Mike.

@mikewalsh
@wizard
@mikeslr

Thanks to you all for your kind help and comments - this is exactly what I'm trying to do/learn - how to breathe new life into some older(er) tech. Linux helped me do that 20 years ago - repurposing old socket 7 (and PowerPC) machines destined for the scrap yard. Back then it was making boot-able CD/DVD's and a little configuration on a USB drive or a tiny HDA. SO MANY more options now - it's information overload.

The BIG question The link provided in this thread to "ozsouth's 6.6.25" kernel doesn't seem to work

- but i found THIS: "huge-6.6.25-64oz-aoum-lolat.tar.bz2"
-at the link: https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux_Huge-Kernels

can I / is it advisable to - use the the "change_kernels" program with this *.tar.bz2 file?
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=317 *been doing my homework*

as stated earlier - i'm feeling like a linux-neaderthal banging scripts and commands together.

It probably sounds like a "stupid question" but as I've said before, I've never upgraded/compiled a kernel - totally new territory for me - I'm wandering in the dark with a candle and everything seems to be written in Cuneiform or Sanskrit.

while i like the idea of puppy i keep seeing terminology i'm totally unfamiliar with ON TOP of trying to remember/relearn linux lingo.

[bigpup]

With BookwormPup64 doing some new things in Puppy Linux.

I am not totally sure about changing the kernel in it the way it has been done for years.

That is why I posted this topic to get some answers:
viewtopic.php?t=12191

[clm1919]

@bigpup

Thank you for that fast reply. I truly appreciate it.

I looked at that post, but i confess, even after trying to read this thread: viewtopic.php?t=7164

(which was interesting, and AMUSING -even if i didn't fully understand it....)

phrases like "For Bookwormpup64, kernels must be USRMERGE & capable of OVERLAYFS"

are still things i don't truly grasp (yet).

when i look at the list of kernels, the only thing i gleen is that a few of them are probably for specific distos:

-huge-6.5.2-rock-rt8.tar.bz2 (for a rocky linux puppy derivative???)

-huge-6.5.2-slac64oz-ao.tar.bz2 (guessing that's a slackware derivative)

-huge-6.5.2-ubun64oz-ao.tar.bz2 (ubuntu/puppy derivative?)

--huge-6.4.13-lxpup64.tar.bz2 (no idea what that is)

are any of them USRMERGE & capable of OVERLAYFS? i have no idea.

finding LOTS of information - lots of pieces, but the "linux puzzle" pieces are still in a giant pile - i just have the corners and edges so far....

I confess, in my boggled state of linux confusion I completely missed the very last sentence in the thread:

"My kernels that are usrmerge & aufs/overlayfs have aoum in filename." - ozsouth

sometimes you need to read things again and again (and after a glass of scotch....) before some things *click* -because your brain is just overloaded.

PS - very impressed how having 20 tabs open under puppy doesn't seem to stress the system.