Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

bigpup wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:36 am

Abiword is not a bad program it is just limited on what it can do.
And it is suppose to have plug ins that can add features and support.
Have you read the help for it?

LibreOffice or OpenOffice are just better programs.
that is why they are much bigger and can do more stuff.

How do I associate document files with LibreOffice?

Default Application Chooser program.

How do I completely remove Abiword?

Remove builtin packages program, will delete it, so you do not see or can use it.

I can't follow your instructions. Can you be more specific, please?

You said Abiword does strange things and not to use it.

bigpup wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:11 am

Do not use Abiword.

That thing is constantly doing strange stuff.

I am not sure it can even work with .odt type files.

Install and use LibreOffice or OpenOffice and their writer programs.

I have already had problems with it so I want to get rid of it; I have lost files to corruption using it.
You then tell me it's not a bad program and ask if I read the program documentation. Huh?

I don't want to enter a long education just to use a simple GUI frontend for programs that are supposed to work, but apparently do not work properly anyway..
I'd like to associate all document types (except pdf) with LibreOffice portable. And remove Abiword completely.

Thanks!

You can remove inbuilt apps by choosing Remove Built-In Apps from the Setup menu.

Jasper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:12 pm

You can remove inbuilt apps by choosing Remove Built-In Apps from the Setup menu.

I see it now. I have removed Abiword. It was corrupting my document files. Great!

Do you know how I can associate document files with LibreOffice portable (except pdf)?

Thanks!

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:16 pm

Do you know how I can associate document files with LibreOffice portable (except pdf)?

Thanks!

should be set default apps (default application chooser) on the menu, replace abiword and gnumeric...

Default Applications Chooser program should be listed in the menu ->Setup or system

when it starts select for it to show all.

That will display all possible items you can choose what application is applied to them.

find the one you want to change.

From it's entry slot drop down selection list you select what program for that item.

If the program you want is not in the drop down list.
You can type the name of the program in the selected entry slot.

If you have a file that Abiword corrupted.

See if LibreOffice can maybe open and fix it.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:16 pm

[I see it now. I have removed Abiword. It was corrupting my document files. Great!
Thanks!

A little perspective on conflating issues. Awhile ago I mentioned things like: process of elimination, and tackling one thing at a time. This is a good example. You had a theory that fossapup was not able to write to fat32 due to the fact that abiword couldn't save an .odt file.

To test that theory, I would have opened geany and made a simple text file with a few characters and tried to save it to the fat32 partition. If it was succesful, that would eliminate the idea that the partition couldn't be written to with fossapup. Then a new theory for why abiword wasn't working could be pursued.

Not being on your computer, I tackled it another way, I tried to determine whether you had been writing data to that partition by looking back at your thread, and I came to the conclusion that 'yes, governor is able to write to it.'

Now that you have used Remove Builtin Packages

Warning
It will list everything that is in Puppy Linux
Removing some of the listed items will break Puppy.
Some programs are used by other programs and you will break them.
some listed items are the core programs that are needed for a Linux OS to operate.

Removing a program that has a main menu entry is usually OK.
Like you did with Abiword.
But again, some programs are also used by other programs.
So know for sure what you select for removal is not needed for the Puppy operating system to work.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:53 am

I have already had problems with it so I want to get rid of it; I have lost files to corruption using it.
You then tell me it's not a bad program and ask if I read the program documentation. Huh?

I don't want to enter a long education just to use a simple GUI frontend for programs that are supposed to work, but apparently do not work properly anyway..
Thanks!

This is another example of why doing basic work is proving exceedingly difficult for you. I would describe it as dogmatic and hasty decisions when confronted with dashed expectations.

Applications included in OS's have limitations and are available for different functions. In old windows you had notepad, some mid level document app that I can't remember the name of, and microsoft word. The one I can't remember the name of is like abiword. You could open and save some documents, but it had limitations. It's there mostly to view things quickly and edit basic word documents.

In other words, just because you may not ever use abiword, doesn't mean you have to immediately wipe it from your system. instead Just don't use it, set the default viewer to something else.

Abiword is not included in all pups, but it's been a mainstay in linux OS's for years. I don't use it myself. But LibreOffice is like Microsoft Office, it's a big program to launch if you just want to view a simple marked up text document.

So my advice, don't be so quick to make major changes and deletions system wide until you have the basics like managing the save folder mastered. It will spare you a lot of wasted energy.

Also you shared the idea that you shouldn't be reading documentation to figure out what an application can do, or what issues may be common to it. With that attitude you should be using a macOS, because open source and free software is going to have issues. It's in incumbent upon linux users to learn what's what in the application world.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:30 am

@geo_c @williwaw

This is what I have now on my NVME internal drive:

How do I create a save folder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

No, the partition isn't large enough. the thing I would do is format that very large fat32 partition to ext4 -- STOP

Don't do it yet, keep reading below:

If you go back to this post: viewtopic.php?p=76337#p76337 and read it carefully and then ask me specific questions about what I mean. Then will I walk you through what to do, but not before you think through it first and take the time to understand what I'm describing, how it's advantageous, and what the procedure will look like.

I would be totally convinced that you took the time to consider what I'm saying in that post if you described exactly the steps you would take to acheive what I described there.

your issue with Abiword was probably you tried to use it to edit a .odt file that was made by a program that put code in it newer than what the Abiword version was coded to use.
Probably a newer version of Abiword may have worked OK.

I guess you have never tried to open a .docx file (made in a very new version of Microsoft Word), in a very old or not so new version of Microsoft Word.
The older Word version could not handle the file.
Microsoft
Lets put something in the code of a document made by our newer or newest version of Word.
So it cannot be worked on by a much older version of Word.
Now you got to buy the newer version of Word to use the file.
But for sure the newer version of Word will have no problem working with files made in an older version of Word.

That is why I do not work on files in a program that was not used to make the file.

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:02 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:53 am

I have already had problems with it so I want to get rid of it; I have lost files to corruption using it.
You then tell me it's not a bad program and ask if I read the program documentation. Huh?

I don't want to enter a long education just to use a simple GUI frontend for programs that are supposed to work, but apparently do not work properly anyway..
Thanks!

Also you shared the idea that you shouldn't be reading documentation to figure out what an application can do, or what issues may be common to it. With that attitude you should be using a macOS, because open source and free software is going to have issues. It's in incumbent upon linux users to learn what's what in the application world.

I don't think you understood my meaning.

Light reading is fine, but is it wrong to expect a logical and intuitive GUI after so many years of development ?!?
I don't think so,

Whatever happened to trailblazing where some brave souls go first and prepare the trail for others to follow?
It seems to me like everyone who wants to use Linux has to learn everything from scratch and claw their way through it for years - except for those gifted few, apparently.
It is very hard for me to learn something when it is both unintuitive and illogical, and everyone can see the GUI is primitive compared with Windows.

I would like to be able to work as efficiently as I can in Windows, but I don't think it is possible. However, if I can decrease my wasted time from 93% to 50%, that would be a definite improvement and that is what I am trying to do.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:37 pm

and that is what I am trying to do.

How's that working for you so far?

EDIT: perhaps I should clarify. Tools are tools. They do what they do. If you don't like one, use another. Why can't you use windows anymore if it's efficient, logical, and more sophisticated?

@Governor
Read my last post above your last one.

did you ever try to use the messed up file in LibreOffice to se if it could fix it?

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:40 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:37 pm

and that is what I am trying to do.

How's that working for you so far?

Not very well, I'm afraid. But I do not see any alternatives.

You know, I remember when javascript first came out, I was very much against it. I thought it was a terrible idea. People began using js links instead of ordinary html links, not for any valid reason, but just because they could or they thought it was cool. JS began to infiltrate webpages all over the world. And of course, we all know js is used for spyware and malware. At some point, I gave in and used some small js code in the header of my rather extensive webpages which I handcoded in the MSDOS editor. Until then I had not used js.

I had webpages with frames which consisted of 3 different sections. I used the js to keep the 3 sections together so that one of the sections could not be viewed without the other 2 sections. I had both a header, and a menu on the left side which should always be visible. Naturally, it had no effect to those with js disabled, but by that time js was pretty much demanded by nearly every website and standard in nearly every browser. And browser makers made it a hassle to turn js off and on. Well, guess what happened? They (whomever they are) changed js. After that all my extensive webpages were now broken - UNLESS, a visitor had js disabled. Oh, the irony.

I met a guy who had coded extensively in VB, and then one day, all of his hundreds of programs were broken because MS decided to change VB.

But I digress. I have no alternative to Linux and I chose Puppy mainly because of this forum in the hope that I can get it at least somewhat working.

Thanks!

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:18 pm

I met a guy who had coded extensively in VB, and then one day, all of his hundreds of programs were broken because MS decided to change VB.

But I digress. I have no alternative to Linux and I chose Puppy mainly because of this forum in the hope that I can get it at least somewhat working.

Thanks!

Thanks, that provides some clarity. So the problem I see with a forum is context. A question or series of questions is posted in a topic, and then all kinds of responses are given with various levels of engagement. To get the most out of the forum format, what I've been stressing is paramount, that is eliminating variables and doing the backreading and thinking necessary to comprehend the overall progression of issues.

This thread has taken a huge off road journey on the limitations of abiword. But the question remains: Do you want to make a save folder instead of a save file which is limited in size and harder to work with? A save folder on an ext partition, which can then be copied and moved around to different installs and devices?

Once you can do that, you are free to mess things up to your hearts content and then revert back to your last good saved configuration. In fact, we do that all the time around here on purpose, just to see what breaks things when we're testing stuff.

bigpup wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:07 pm

did you ever try to use the messed up file in LibreOffice to se if it could fix it?

I did, but unfortunately the corruption was apparently written to disk, so the damage was permanent.

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:31 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:18 pm

I have no alternative to Linux and I chose Puppy mainly because of this forum in the hope that I can get it at least somewhat working.

Thanks!

Thanks, that provides some clarity. So the problem I see with a forum is context. A question or series of questions is posted in a topic, and then all kinds of responses are given with various levels of engagement. To get the most out of the forum format, what I've been stressing is paramount, that is eliminating variables and doing the backreading and thinking necessary to comprehend the overall progression of issues.

This thread has taken a huge off road journey on the limitations of abiword. But the question remains: Do you want to make a save folder instead of a save file which is limited in size and harder to work with? A save folder on an ext partition, which can then be copied and moved around to different installs and devices?

Once you can do that, you are free to mess things up to your hearts content and then revert back to your last good saved configuration. In fact, we do that all the time around here on purpose, just to see what breaks things when we're testing stuff.

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:45 pm

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

viewtopic.php?p=76420#p76420

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:45 pm

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:31 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:18 pm

I have no alternative to Linux and I chose Puppy mainly because of this forum in the hope that I can get it at least somewhat working.

Thanks!

Thanks, that provides some clarity. So the problem I see with a forum is context. A question or series of questions is posted in a topic, and then all kinds of responses are given with various levels of engagement. To get the most out of the forum format, what I've been stressing is paramount, that is eliminating variables and doing the backreading and thinking necessary to comprehend the overall progression of issues.

This thread has taken a huge off road journey on the limitations of abiword. But the question remains: Do you want to make a save folder instead of a save file which is limited in size and harder to work with? A save folder on an ext partition, which can then be copied and moved around to different installs and devices?

Once you can do that, you are free to mess things up to your hearts content and then revert back to your last good saved configuration. In fact, we do that all the time around here on purpose, just to see what breaks things when we're testing stuff.

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

If you boot Puppy without loading your current savefile (if its easier rename your savefile to something else so it doesn't load at boot) then at shutdown create a new savefolder and point it to save on your ext4 partition.

Puppy is about as easy to install as it gets.

To install Puppy I just copy the puppy.sfs file to my hard drive.
That's it Puppy is installed.

I add a couple of lines to my syslinux boot loader cfg file..Like this (these are the exact lines I just used to boot the Puppy I am now running)

label b8
kernel vmlinuzb8
append initrd=initrdb8.gz pfix=ram

That's it, Puppy will now boot.

I have not touched the partitions of my machine, at all.

I have slightly simplified the exact details.
Instead of copying 1 Puppy sfs file,
actually there were 3 files to copy:

adrv_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs
puppy_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs
zdrv_bionicpup64_8.0.sfs

And the vmlinuz and initrd file were copied to my usb drive.

It couldn't be much more simple than that.

@mikewalsh

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:49 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:45 pm

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

viewtopic.php?p=76420#p76420

I have had severe corruption problems with copying files from ext4--->fat32--->ext4.
I downloaded many portable apps from Mr. Walsh's NZ repository to my laptop's internal NVME ext4 partition. I copied them to an external fat32 USB drive when I decided to reformat the NVME. When I copied them back and tried to unzip them, every one had an extraction error. I figure it would be much safer to copy files from fat32 to --->fat32 and back to --->fat32.

How about I keep Puppy on my fat32 main partition which I have successfully booted from, and use the ext4 exclusively for the savefolder? AFAIK it is only the savefolder which must be ext 2, 3, or 4. Is that correct?

Tahrbaby wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:55 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:45 pm

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:31 pm

This thread has taken a huge off road journey on the limitations of abiword. But the question remains: Do you want to make a save folder instead of a save file which is limited in size and harder to work with? A save folder on an ext partition, which can then be copied and moved around to different installs and devices?

Once you can do that, you are free to mess things up to your hearts content and then revert back to your last good saved configuration. In fact, we do that all the time around here on purpose, just to see what breaks things when we're testing stuff.

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

If you boot Puppy without loading your current savefile (if its easier rename your savefile to something else so it doesn't load at boot) then at shutdown create a new savefolder and point it to save on your ext4 partition.

How do I create the savefolder and point to it exactly? And what about my saved settings from before, can I read them in afterwards?
I figure if I can configure settings in the GUI, it must be possible to do it with a batch file or bash script after boot. Well, if I only need to reconfigure settings one time and one time only, I am sure I can deal with it.

bigpup wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:32 pm

your issue with Abiword was probably you tried to use it to edit a .odt file that was made by a program that put code in it newer than what the Abiword version was coded to use.
Probably a newer version of Abiword may have worked OK.

I guess you have never tried to open a .docx file (made in a very new version of Microsoft Word), in a very old or not so new version of Microsoft Word.
The older Word version could not handle the file.
Microsoft
Lets put something in the code of a document made by our newer or newest version of Word.
So it cannot be worked on by a much older version of Word.
Now you got to buy the newer version of Word to use the file.
But for sure the newer version of Word will have no problem working with files made in an older version of Word.

That is why I do not work on files in a program that was not used to make the file.

That is why I do not work on files in a program that was not used to make the file.

Yes, but sometimes it cannot be helped. Someone gives you a file created with MS word and you have to open it with Apache OpenOffice, for example, because that is what you have.
My idea is to use the LibreOffice word processor exclusively. I was unable to dis-associate Abiword so it was easier to eliminate it.
I still don't know how to associate document files (except pdf) with LibreOffice and that is a major annoyance.

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:40 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:37 pm

and that is what I am trying to do.

How's that working for you so far?

EDIT: perhaps I should clarify. Tools are tools. They do what they do. If you don't like one, use another. Why can't you use windows anymore if it's efficient, logical, and more sophisticated?

When I right click on a file in Windows file manager, the file I am working on is not blocked by the popup menu.
in Windows file manager, I can press the letter P (for example) and go directly to filenames that begin with P.
in Windows I can use alt+tab to go through the open windows, and alt-shift-tab to reverse direction.
etc, etc.
It is my experience that there are many more features in the windows GUI, and Linux is much harder to use. However, I do not want to use Windows for other reasons.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:18 pm

Tahrbaby wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:55 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:45 pm

This is what I have to work with:
https://postimg.cc/564M7vzW
How do I create a savefolder on the ext4 partition, and is the partition large enough?

If you boot Puppy without loading your current savefile (if its easier rename your savefile to something else so it doesn't load at boot) then at shutdown create a new savefolder and point it to save on your ext4 partition.

How do I create the savefolder and point to it exactly?

At first shutdown you are asked where you want it saved.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:18 pm

How do I .............and point to it exactly?

viewtopic.php?p=75597#p75597

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:03 pm

How about I keep Puppy on my fat32 main partition which I have successfully booted from, and use the ext4 exclusively for the savefolder? AFAIK it is only the savefolder which must be ext 2, 3, or 4. Is that correct?

That's the HARD way. And I wouldn't be able to help you with it, especially since you're booting with limine. But I'm sure someone on the forum can point you in the right direction.

Just scanned the last page of posts. Haven't finished my first cup of coffee; so my mind isn't completely organized yet. But I wanted to make sure you were aware of a couple of Puppy's built in Applications; and one you can easily install.

There are two ways to associate file-types with applications. The first is Menu>Setup>Default Application Chooser. (In F-96, it's still there with a shortened name). A GUI will open on which you can select using a scroller the default application to associate with a file-type; e.g., with both abiword and LIbreOffice writer installed or SFS-Loaded, it will offer the choice of either as your default for all word-processing type files.

More complicated, but can come in handy, is using rox's Right-Click options. I always in stall masterpdfeditor. If I just want to read a pdf I just Left-click it and it will open in whatever PDF viewer the Puppy has builtin. But I add masterpdfeditor to the Right-Click menu so it will be available when I want to edit a pdf. To add it, I right-click a pdf file and select "Customize Menu". A GUI will open. I then drag the /usr/share/applications/masterpdfeditor.desktop file into it. This creates a symlink and masterpdfeditor.desktop will appear on the Right-Click menu for pdf files. [You can Right-Click the symlink and edit its name to just masterpdf.] Unfortunately, with applications which handle many file-types --e.g. doc, docx, rtf, odt-- you have to do that for each file-type.
You'll also notice that when you Right-Click a file, the pop-up menu, in addition to Customize Menu, offers OpenWith and Set Run Action. These can also be used especially when the Default Application Chooser does not offer a choice for a particular category or there is no desktop file. You'll have to experiment.

All Puppys have Menu>Setup>Pfind which will search for files and provide a list of all relevant with their location. Just type a name, or part. For example 'ex' will find 'example' and 'execute'. png will find all files ending with png. The longer the search criteria, the shorter the list. pfind's GUI offers choices for limiting or expanding the folders to be searched; and its Advance Menu will offer to read all files and return a list of those which have the search term in its contained text.

You can left-click a file on the list pfind displays and it will open in the default application for its file-type; e.g. with Libre-Writer as default, if pfind lists /mnt/home/my-files/CatchMe.odt, left-clicking it will open it in Libre-Writer. To find the CatchMe.odt file I could have had pfind Search 'All Files'. But that would take a long time as it will search all partitions. Rather, I keep all documents in named directories. So I can file browse into the 'my-files' folder, Right-Click an empty space and from the pop-up menu select Window>Shell Command. Typing pfind in the GUI will open it. Selecting 'Current Directory' will limit its search to that directory.
Selecting 'Current Directory' automatically also searches any subdirectories within the selected directory.

See this post about installing AppFinder, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=2528