The importance of running a suitable Puppy for your machine

[amethyst]

Okay, so I'm back using my customised version of Precise after running Bionic 32 for a few days. Have an old laptop circa 2005 however the specs are not all that dire, ie. 2GB RAM, Centrino duo processor. I've had a few crashes with the same Palemoon version using Bionic, Precise seems more stable (on my machine anyhow). However a thing that really annoys me is the detection of my cellphone modem using newer Puppy's (all of them not only Bionic). Every second boot, the newer Puppy's can't find the correct previous port (this port stays consistent because the cellphone is only used as a modem and is basically permanently connected to the same usb port). So, I need to do a new modem probe everytime. Precise does not have this crap, it just works and connects everytime. In fact,I don't even use the Pupdial application to connect, once the connection is setup, I just run a modified wvdial script (and modified wdial.conf) directly. Super fast. So the bottom-line, stick with the distribution that works best for you and your machine. Newer is definitely NOT always better (especially not for an older machine).

[amethyst]

Have to add that the latest kernel that boots fast on this machine is version 4.4 (Xenial era), newer works but all have some hangtime at bootup.

[rockedge]

My Gateway reverse proxy machine runs 24/7 and uses Tahr with the 3.17 kernel. Solid performance with Apache providing the reverse proxy

[6502coder]

@amethyst
Amen to your thesis.

IMHO too many newbs think they can dictate the terms of the deal: "I want to run such-and-such app or have such-and-such functionality and I have such-and-such hardware: how do I make such-and-such Puppy meet my requirements?"

Sorry, but that's not the way things work. First you find the Puppies that run nicely on your given hardware. Then from those you choose the Puppy that does the best job of meeting your requirements. Life is a lot easier when you don't insist on swimming upstream.

[bigpup]

Changing Bionicpup to using the same kernel, that is in Precise, may give you the needed operation.

That is the thing about Linux kernel.
The newer kernels are dropping support for the very old hardware and providing the needed support for the very new hardware.
So, kernel being used can affect a lot of hardware support for very old hardware.
Try using an older series 3 or 4 kernel in the newer Puppy version and this may provide the needed older hardware support.

It works both ways.
I have a very new computer.
Any older version Puppy using a series 4 kernel does not have support for the hardware. Plus it is missing needed firmware.
If I change to using a series 5 kernel and get the needed firmware.
The older Puppy version will work OK.

At what point does a specific piece of hardware get added or dropped in the kernel?
Depends on who is building the kernel and compiling it.
A little hit and miss to determine this.
for sure, kernel series 5 are more for newest hardware, than older hardware.

[bigpup]

You may want to try Precise Light
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=94

[amethyst]

You may want to try Precise Light
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=94

I did download Precise Light a long time ago. My own, customised version of Precise is better. Too many things missing from Precise Light in my view ( but some may like it as is). BTW - I've been doing the kernel switches for ages, nothing new. The fact is, new Puppy's offer very little over older Puppy's. If you can get the newest internet browser going (and maybe slot in a newer kernel) there is almost no reason to upgrade in my view. In the end, you have a operating system which is 3 times as small and can do everything that big, lumpy, spanking new Puppy brother can do. New Puppys are a waste of space mostly in my view and experience.

[fernan]

I've started to "update" my puppies versions basically pushed by the web browsers. At some point internet became the heaviest of the tasks in my computers. The older versions started to have probems to install newer browsers (used LUPU 5.25 for a while, I was very happy whit that, I still have my 5.25 and 5.28 pupsave files on the HD).

Tahrpup (which still runs on 2 PCs), have problems with Firefox, it crash time to time, sometimes very often , what was completely solved installing Bionicpup. No more crashes or incompatibilities to install newer browsers. I'd prefer to run an outdated version in my old computers, none of them is very powerful, but having a system that runs faster but the browser crashes all the time is not a pleasant "experience".

If I had a way to run a modern browser, have support for the wireless card, and run Wine in my trusty puppy 5.25, I'd move back, at least in my little netbook with 1gb of ram.

[darry19662018]

Have you considered a chroot option like here:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=760

[fernan]

Have you considered a chroot option like here:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=760

Thanks for the suggestion. Checked that thread... A lot of posts about "fixing" things... Also, it says

it's not really viable if you've only got 2GB of RAM or less

, so not the solution I was trying to find.