Puppy as Entertainment Center?

[CaptGeorge]

I'm sure somebody here is doing this and I'd like details.

I have an old 64 bit HP Pavilion DM4 laptop with HDMI. It works OK as TV entertainment center with Ubuntu 20.04 except for webcam(?). However, I think Puppy would be faster, and, besides, I like PUPPYS!

I tried installing 64 bit Bionic Puppy, but the windows didn't match the 55" TV screen size and couldn't be corrected with tools provided. I also couldn't get HDMI sound working. It appears this is a common problem, but a search on HDMI here didn't find any solutions.

[williams2]

Did you try the multiple sound card wizard?

What do you get if you type aplay -l in a text terminal (console)?

What is in the file /etc/asound.conf? This is mine:

Code: Select all

defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 3
defaults.ctl.card 0

[Clarity]

I have had success in using HDMI audio+video on both FossaPUP64 and Slacko64 v8+. You "may" want to consider those for the current WoofCE features that give HDMI support. IF you do and find success, post to their threads for other users who will be doing similar upgrades. Or, to here.

file /etc/asound.conf: This is mine on Slacko64 v8.2.1

Code: Select all

pcm.pulse {
			type pulse
		}

		ctl.pulse {
			type pulse
		}
		
		pcm.default pulse
                ctl.default pulse

BTW @CaptGeorge which motherboard video (Intel/AMD/nVidia) does you system have?

[mikewalsh]

@CaptGeorge :-

IMHO, I believe the main stumbling-block here will be the simple fact that TVs use totally non-standard resolutions.....or, at least, non-standard as compared to monitors.

Mike.

[CaptGeorge]

Thanks, Williams2, Clarity, and Mike.

I had a little time to work on it today and got the sound working just fine (Thks Williams). However, my mouse kept getting stuck on the TV or laptop screen and Palemoon froze after about 30 secs watching a youtube video. But, as mentioned maybe Bionic Puppy64 is not the best choice. I'll try FossaPUP64 and Slacko64 v8+ next. I won't have time to work on it again until weekend. So I may be slow in responding.

The laptop is a HP Pavilion dm4-3050us Notebook PC. I think it had Windoze 7 on it originally, which I wiped immediately in favor of Linux. Right now it has Ubuntu 20.04.2 lts and works reasonably well except for the webcam. I can't find any Linux distro that can find the webcam. From what I see on internet search this webcam is a real problem sometimes - even on Windoze. I tried terminal ls -ltr /dev/video* but nothing shows up. This is not a problem as an entertainment center but I would like to find a solution eventually. Hopefully one of the Puppys can find it!

HP Pavilion dm4-3050us Notebook PC Specs
Microprocessor: 2.50 GHz 2nd generation Intel Core i5-2450M Processor with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.10 GHz
Memory: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 DIMM)
Video Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Video Memory: Up to 1696MB total graphics memory
Display: 14.0-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit display (1366 x 768)
Sound: Beats Audio with 2 speakers and a subwoofer
Webcam: HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated digital microphone

[Clarity]

@CaptGeorge Your platform looks more than adequate for booting either Fossa/Slacko.

I am not a good reference from MY point of view because I do NOT have a laptop with a HDMI port. There is probably other PUP users who do and have used their HDMI port to drive a TV, which is a reasonable choice.

The PCs I have, each have a nVidia HDMI video card. I dont have a PC with an Intel/AMD HDMI video port. Thus, at the micro-level their would be some difference, while at the macro-level the utilities and tools should be exactly the same, IMHO.

I encourage you to post ANY experience you have with either issues you run into or success on the following threads:

• FossaPUP64

• Slacko64 v8.2.1

For camera assistance, you might appeal to @rockedge as he has demonstrated an extreme vast knowledge of both laptop cameras as well as ones you use via a USB port (or even those via the LAN). I am not aware of a mechanism that exist in the HDMI spec where a TV's USB devices can be seen by a PC technology...currently; thus I am not aware of a means to use the TVs USB port for anything other than the TV itself.

Hope this info is somehow useful.

[p310don]

For the webcam, often they're connected via internal USB and using the lsusb command in a terminal will tell you if it's there or not. Next try would be lspci

If nothing shows up in either, you may be out of luck

[CaptGeorge]

Sorry for the long delay, but Hurricane Ida got in the way! I tried Fossapup64 installed on 32G usb with Etcher (same as I did with Bionicpup64), but Fossapup stopped at Grub command line. I went back to Bionicpup64 and it worked just fine after setting up HMDI monitor as main monitor and changing sound to HDMI with Sound Wizard. Palemoon worked just fine. It even recognized my 55" TV screen size and resolution. So I guess I'm good to go! Thanks for all your help.

BTW Puppy still didn't find the onboard webcam. However, I need to find a way to keep puppy running when I close the lid. (I don't like any webcam looking into the room.) Yes I know, black tape will work if necessary. LOL

When I get time, I'll try to setup my Cyberghost VPN with openvpn like I did with my old Vostro 1400. I don't think it will be a problem. However, I don't have much time to work on it right now.

Thanks again for all the help.

[williams2]

I need to find a way to keep puppy running when I close the lid

Edit the file /etc/acpi/acpi.conf

Change this:

#DISABLE_SUSPEND='yes'

to this:

DISABLE_SUSPEND='yes'

That is, delete the hash character # at the beginning of the line.

[williams2]

Puppy still didn't find the onboard webcam

Does typing mpv /dev/video0 in a terminal show the video from the webcam?

[CaptGeorge]

Does typing mpv /dev/video0 in a terminal show the video from the webcam?

Thanks, Williams2. I had just a little time today, but mpv... reported error, no file found. So I guess this HP webcam only works with windoze, and even that's "iffy" at times from my internet searches.

It's no problem though - Bionic Puppy 64 works just fine as entertainment center. I plan on doing some internet speed testing later when I get vpn going. I've noticed my Bionic Puppy 32 on Dell Vostro 1400 was noticeable slower than expected without vpn. And, download speed actually increased with vpn on. Go figure?

[dancytron]

You can just get a cheap usb webcam.

In a way it's better, because you can just plug it in when you want to use it so it is less of a security risk.

[rockedge]

@CaptGeorge Can you actually find /dev/videoXX ? The camera may not necessarily be video0 and could be named differently, sometimes simple as /dev/video1
If there is no camera detected it may not be connected to the machine internally or the connector is loose.

Open /dev and scroll through and see if any video device is present. Another thing to try out or install guvcview and see if the program can wake up the device. Also VLC has it's own libraries and is worth giving a shot in Media->Capture Device->Video Camera and set the parameters and which device, VLC will present a selection if devices are found.

Does the camera work in Windows?