Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello All

Is it possible to alter the countdown at Puppy start up screen before the auto-start of the high-lighted option kicks in?

I know I can hit return to by-pass the countdown but I want to alter the actual countdown itself.

If you can give me a direction to acheive this then please be aware that I have no knowledge of command line entry,

but can follow a walk through if it's a matter of GUI. Thanks

Best regards

Chelsea80

You need to find a file called menu.lst - it is at the top level of the partition you boot from. If you only have a single partition, just open Rox, then click on the 'up' arrow.
Open the file, then just edit the line that says 'timeout 10'.
Change the value to 0 and save.
That's it.

Hello Keef

Thank you for your quick reply. I followed your lead but after clicking on the up arrow, menu.lst was nowhere to be seen.

Did I give up on your starter for 10? - No. So I had a hunt around and this is what I did:

Applications > Filesystem > ROX-Filer file manager > Up Arrow > initrd > mnt > dev_sav > menu.lst

Opened as text in Geany. Found entry Timeout 10 and Default 0. Changed Timeout to 0 and left Default as is, then saved.

Backed out to shutdown (not reboot) and crossed my fingers, switched on, no countdown, straight in. Then again to prove it wasn't a fluke.

If I need to reset the countdown then I now know how.

Thank you so much for your lead in this, it is much appreciated.

Best regards

Chelsea80

You know, that time period is to give you time, to select one of the other entries, in the boot menu.
One day you will wish you had that boot delay active.

Drop it from 10 to 5, so you still have a little time to react.
Just do not look at computer while it is booting.

Hello bigpup

Thank you for your prompt.

The word 'hindsight' comes to mind.

Yes, I agree with your logic and have changed the countdown from 0 to 5 as suggested.

My next task is to try and find out how to change/delete that annoying startup sound.

If I do track it down it should be safe to do that at least.

I guess that and the Woof Woof sound are in a folder somewhere yet to be found, unless I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Best regards

Chelsea80

The startup sound is triggered by the script startup-sound in /root/Startup.

Open the File Manager (Rox) and click on the Startup folder.

Right click on the file startup-sound and Open As Text from the menu, then put a # in front of the following line.

mplayer /usr/share/audio/sys-login.mp3 &

to make it

# mplayer /usr/share/audio/sys-login.mp3 &

Then save and next boot the startup-sound should not be played.

Hello MagicZaurus

Thank you for your helpful reply.

Followed your lead and hey presto, no startup sound - music to my ears.

You, Keef and bigpup have ben very helpful.

The more I use this OS the more I like it from the GUI point - so,

I want to understand more in order to enjoy more and don't have to rely too much on helpful responses to my novice questions.

Perhaps there is a very basic guide, not too techy, to the workings (including command line) of BionicPup32 out there somewhere.

I have done numerous searches but to no avail, at least not to my level of understanding.

Thank you all.

Best regards

Chelsea80

All programs usually have a help you can look at.

There are some info files in /usr/share/doc

GUI look and visual settings are basically controlled from the programs in menu->Desktop->

@Chelsea80 It's perfectly alright to ask questions here on the forum....at any level. We work together and share the knowledge.

Hello bigpup

Took your lead, and finally got there by this route:

Applications > Filesystem > ROX-Filer file manager > puppy-reference > doc

Quite a lot of goodies there, so when I have a bit more time I will certainly see what I can learn.

Although I still think it would be a practical help to a new entrant level (me), if an (un)official basics / guide / handbook / first steps / precis, of the workings and command line usage all in one place could be made available. Perhaps users of BionicPup32 with their knowledge and experience could get together and at least discuss this.

I would hazzard a guess that others have been put off and moved away from this very impressive OS.

At the moment it really is a hit or miss for me as can be seen by my above posts. I have tried to climb the learnng curve by using this OS on my USB as the test bed whilst keeping the frugal install on the internal HDD as my work horse. When I'm happy all is ok on the USB I then do the same on the work horse. I'll now climb down from my soap box.

Everyday is a school day.

Hello rockedge - that makes me feel a litle less out of my depth.

Thanks both

Best regards

Chelsea80