Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Slacko 5.7.2CE was published in 2019. Most of the posts to its thread can be found by plugging "Slacko 5.7.2 CE" in https://rockedge.org/psearch/. But the OP didn't make it thru the transition of http://www.murga-linux.com/ to https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/. Below the heading "Supplemental" is some information not provided by that OP which you may want to read first before considering making use of this Puppy. I have, however, highlighted the reason it was built and published. So, without further ado, here's what I wrote in that OP [and at that time kept a copy of for no good reason ]

It’s identified as CE (community edition) Slacko as its contents are the efforts of many of Puppy’s Community. My part has primarily been that of packager. As I worked on it the refrain from Louis Armstrong’s rendition of the “Dummy Song”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2KgeBkFUcw often rattled around in my brain. Worth listening to before you consider my boring tale. 

You’ll find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/qs5aaidclm5im/.  See this post, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 076#p86076

What you get is a Slacko 5.7 (Slackware 14.0 compatible) which on a Quad-Core booted to desktop and opened PupSysInfo to reveal that only 68 Mbs of RAM had actually been used, although the entire 7,860 Mbs of RAM present were available for use. A Pentium-M Thinkpad T42 needed only 91 Mbs. [More about RAM, later]. 

I took Sailor Enceladus’ Slacko 5.7.1_r6231.iso, https://www.mediafire.com/folder/kwhxks ... .0#myfiles but substituted rockedge’s 4.14.63_full_rt (Real-time) kernel. http://rockedge.org/kernels/. The efficiency of a Real-Time kernel surprised me. Before testing, I had assumed it would require more, not less, RAM to perform a given task. I attribute most of the lowering of RAM needed to just to operate, mentioned above, to rockedge’s Real-Time kernel. 

My goal was to construct a Puppy for older computers owned by recent Windows emigres. The target box is one with 512 Mbs of RAM, or less, perhaps unable to handle sse2 encryption, but, if capable could run firefox quantum OOTB. Inspired by jemimah’s Salukis, and the Carolinas which followed it, I originally intended a Puppy with a minimum of “builtin” user-applications, but easily expandable if the user chose to have the adrv.sfs load on bootup. [I’ll explain later why this last goal was largely abandoned]. However, two other aspects of Saluki also played a role in its design. 

Saluki and the Carolina used a Control Panel to provide an easier-for-newbies-to-navigate method of customizing the Desktop and configuring settings than a ‘Stock’ Puppy’s maze of a menu system. And it’s Thunar Filemanager presented newbies less of a learning curve that rox. Desiring, however, to remain with the low-resource demands of JWM & rox, radky’s JWMDesk and PupControl were used, updated to their most recent versions, along with other enhancements by radky. While rox remains the default file-manager, the dual-pane xfe was installed to supplement it. Further newbie support was provided by AppFinder configured to use Puppy’s Categories definitions. One advantage of AppFinder is that when a Category is selected in its Left-Panel, not only are what may be to a newbie the strange names of applications displayed in the Right-Panel, but also a description of their use [read from the Comments argument of their respective desktop files]. 

“Utility” is just a noun for something which is useful. If it isn’t useful, why should it be present at all? Too many apps end up in such a ubiquitous category. And there’s a great deal of overlap between applications which show up under “Settings” and those which show up under “Setup”. I chose the following ‘dividing line’: if an application was entirely or primarily one which only provided INFORMATION, I assigned it to Settings. If it was primarily for changing settings it was assigned to Setup. 

Unfortunately, under the current Categories recognized by Puppies, no distinction is made between setting up the operating system you’ve booted into, and the operating system you want either by way of remastering or creating a vehicle for installing to another medium. I’ve tried to alleviate that condition somewhat by modifying the Category arguments of some application’s desktop files in order that they appear on the Menu adjacent to similar applications, or those which are often used in combination (e.g. grub4dos after gparted). Some of those changes may be considered ‘unorthodox’. So, if an application isn’t where you’re used to finding it, continue looking. And before you panic, open Menu>Setup>Menu Manager – Edit the Menu. 

If configuration of an application might not be needed except as part of one’s initial setup and not often thereafter, AND radky’s JWMDesk or PupControl provided a relatively easy way to find the configuration application, I used Menu>Setup>Menu Manager -- Edit the Menu to turn its display off. If you really want it on your Menu, reverse the process. Before doing so, consider the following: (1) Its /usr/share/applications/...desktop, used by JWM to generate Menu listings remains and can be clicked to start the application. And (2) ApplicationFinder --there’s a launcher next to the Start-Menu-- employs a different technique to generate its Menu listings. So the application will still appear on it. 

Very few Applications were actually removed. Those which were, obviously, can be reinstalled via Puppy Package Manager. The most obvious applications you won’t find are: 
Abiword -- replaced by focuswriter. See this thread for advice about it: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99763 
gmeasures -- replaced by don570’s Puppy Units 
geany -- by oscartalks’ version 
galculator by rufwoof’s version 

All remaining Applications, such as those by zigbert, shinobar and rcrsn51 have been updated to their latest version as of the end of January 2019. 

Seamonkey 2.35 was chosen for inclusion. I’ll discuss this along with alternatives later in this thread.

Supplemental. As noted above, the build included libraries necessary to run the then-current firefox-quantum. It should still be able to run any current mozilla-or-clone web-browser. But it won't run any Chromium-or-clones. The included web-browser is Seamonky 2.35, which at the time was serviceable while requiring the least amount of RAM. IIRC, however, if a computer lacked the SSE2 or greater instruction set a web-browser such as the SSE palemoon from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... p=170#p170 would be needed.

It would boot from almost all 'non-pae' computers if 'force-pae' was added to the kernel/linux line of its stanza in menu.lst or grub.cfg

To reduce its size and resource demands, additional applications were packaged in two 'alphabet' SFSes: an adrv.sfs and a ydrv.sfs. They are available for separate downloads from the same repo as Slacko 5.7.2CE, itself: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/qs5aaidclm5im/. The below screenshots show their contents. To have those applications as part of your operating system immediately upon boot-up, just place either or both of those 'alphabet' SFSes next to the puppy_ceslacko_5.7.2.sfs.

mikeslr wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 4:34 pm

Slacko 5.7.2CE was published in 2019. ....
It’s identified as CE (community edition) Slacko as its contents are the efforts of many of Puppy’s Community. My part has primarily been that of packager. ....
You’ll find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/qs5aaidclm5im/. 

I took Sailor Enceladus’ Slacko 5.7.1_r6231.iso, https://www.mediafire.com/folder/kwhxks ... .0#myfiles but substituted rockedge’s 4.14.63_full_rt (Real-time) kernel. http://rockedge.org/kernels/. The efficiency of a Real-Time kernel surprised me. Before testing, I had assumed it would require more, not less, RAM to perform a given task. I attribute most of the lowering of RAM needed to just to operate, mentioned above, to rockedge’s Real-Time kernel. 

I don't remember whether or not I tested this. But it sounds a tasty option for a couple of machines I am working on. Unfortunately the link appears dead.
Is this still available?
Cheers!

Hi greengeek,

I do not nor ever will use google-drive as I see no reason to assist google in its quest to know and control everything. I have a free account at mediafire. It provides a lot, but not an unlimited amount, of storage. Recently having reasons to upload some currently relevant material, I deleted a lot of stuff which few had downloaded after a couple years or so. Slacko 5.7.2CE was among the things deleted.

I still have its ISO in storage on my hard-drive. If you really want it I'll uploaded. But keep in mind that its very outdated. Very few current websites will allow access to It's builtin seamonkey 2.35. AFAIK, every 32-bit Puppy published after it and still available was as (or almost) as efficient in the use of RAM.

As the OP notes the adrv and ydrv was not within the ISO and had to be downloadable separately. Let me know if you want them instead of or in addition to the ISO. Or, better still, if they contained specific applications you are interested in --such as stegosaurus, artha or xnview-- I may still have them 'in storage' and can upload a package.

My own heavily-customized & re-built Slacko 560 tends to run all its browsers (and some of its apps) from a Xenialpup 7.5 chroot. Works for me, but it's not an option for everybody because you need a healthy dollop of RAM to basically run TWO Puppies at the same time.

But I agree with t'other Mike. 5-series Slackos, good as they were, are nowadays hopelessly out of date.

You're better off sticking with Tahrpup32 for now, OR move up one grade to Xenialpup32. You can do more with them, AND run far more stuff. And neither are exactly what you'd call "heavy" on resources.

You're basically taking a step backwards if you switch to 5.7.2.

Mike.

Hmmm, I will take all of those comments on board.

I quite liked the sound of testing a realtime kernel as some of my machines do not need internet access (audio and webcam servers come to mind...)

But I do wonder exactly why older Slackos cannot be modified to accept something like Vivaldi?

Do "PRELOAD" techniques not help with this?

What does chroot achieve that PRELOAD does not?

But I do wonder exactly why older Slackos cannot be modified to accept something like Vivaldi?

Not just Slacko, anything older than Stretch7.5/Xenial basically restricts you to Palemoon as a new, up to date browser. Running my updated version of Racy at the moment with a new Palemoon. Just cool using a Puppy with a base sfs packed size of 55MB.

amethyst wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 7:14 am

Not just Slacko, anything older than Stretch7.5/Xenial basically restricts you to Palemoon as a new, up to date browser. Running my updated version of Racy at the moment with a new Palemoon. Just cool using a Puppy with a base sfs packed size of 55MB.

55MB seems unobtainably skinny. What can it do? Is it available as an iso to test?

That could be a worthy successor to the "browserlinux" pup I saw a decade ago.

Can it access Google Docs or Zoho or other similar online email and document utilities? (I am assuming it has almost no offline functionality at all?)

greengeek wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 8:04 am

amethyst wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 7:14 am

Not just Slacko, anything older than Stretch7.5/Xenial basically restricts you to Palemoon as a new, up to date browser. Running my updated version of Racy at the moment with a new Palemoon. Just cool using a Puppy with a base sfs packed size of 55MB.

55MB seems unobtainably skinny. What can it do? Is it available as an iso to test?

That could be a worthy successor to the "browserlinux" pup I saw a decade ago.

Can it access Google Docs or Zoho or other similar online email and document utilities? (I am assuming it has almost no offline functionality at all?)

It can do everything but only one new browser (palemoon) will work. viewtopic.php?p=68497#p68497 Read the first post. Google Docs may be a restriction for Palemoon. Palemoon may or may nor work with all Google sites (my experience is that it is increasingly more difficult to use Palemoon with google sites).

I've got Slacko7.0-32bit working on an old ASUS eee Atom CPU. FF 78.15 esr runs fine on it. May have to make compromises to "newest/fastest/fattest" browser.

Regards
8Geee

@greengeek :-

Mm. Well, it looks like Nic may be right about Google apps. I've had a Google a/c almost since forever, but I very rarely use their office suite stuff. Mostly things like GDrive, Meet, Duo.....that kinda thing. Out of these last items, only the Drive works under Pale Moon.....and then it's a bit "iffy". And the search engine, of course.

I thought I'd just give the office apps a try with Pale Moon. No go; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms.....in every case, the page briefly loads, then greys out, and a wee pop-up says "Page temporarily unavailable - please try again later." Doesn't matter how many times you re-load it, either.....same result every time.

-----------------------------------------

You won't get Vivaldi working with older Slackos. Not directly. Yes, "LD_PRELOAD" works, but that's only for the libs. It also needs a newer glibc - 2.19, minimum. And while we've been successful in making watchdog's glibc "tweak" workaround function with 'zilla-based browsers, I have never yet been able to make it function with Chromium-based browsers...

Mike.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 11:32 am

@greengeek :-

Mm. Well, it looks like Nic may be right about Google apps. I've had a Google a/c almost since forever, but I very rarely use their office suite stuff. Mostly things like GDrive, Meet, Duo.....that kinda thing. Out of these last items, only the Drive works under Pale Moon.....and then it's a bit "iffy". And the search engine, of course.

I thought I'd just give the office apps a try with Pale Moon. No go; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms.....in every case, the page briefly loads, then greys out, and a wee pop-up says "Page temporarily unavailable - please try again later." Doesn't matter how many times you re-load it, either.....same result every time.

-----------------------------------------

You won't get Vivaldi working with older Slackos. Not directly. Yes, "LD_PRELOAD" works, but that's only for the libs. It also needs a newer glibc - 2.19, minimum. And while we've been successful in making watchdog's glibc "tweak" workaround function with 'zilla-based browsers, I have never yet been able to make it function with Chromium-based browsers...

Mike.

If you have a working new Firefox for Racy/Precise/Tahr, it could be very useful OR we (us) should maybe put in a huge effort to try and get a new Firefox to work..definitely a demand for it. Last time I tried, I lost patience. And as you say, I think Chromium might be a bridge too far.

@amethyst :-

That's a bit of a sore point, Nic! I have an up-to-date Firefox-portable running OK under Tahrpup.....but despite several attempts, I was never able to make it function under Racy or Precise. Too much of the underlying system is too far out-of-date, and the lib directory would end up with probably hundreds of additional items.

As things stand, for modern browsers (other than Pale Moon), Tahrpup is the very oldest you can risk using. And I can't see that lasting much longer. I have the last 32-bit 'legacy' release of Slimjet running happily under Tahrpup.....but the only up-to-date 32-bit 'clone' still available, peebee's Chromium package, has a laundry list of missing items as long as your arm. And it definitely wants a much newer glibc.

There's only so far you can push these workarounds with regards to continuing functionality. I've done what I can to keep usable browsers available for those with really old hardware, but I'm reaching the limits. You've said it yourself; Stretch/Xenial are around the bottom-end of the heap, insofar as being able to do everything without hassle.

Time moves on, and I'm afraid we have to move with it if we want to keep doing what we, as users, use our machines for. Any distro that won't run an up-to-date browser is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, as far as I'm concerned.

Mike.

FWIW, I just tried peebee's 64bit-compat-s15pup32-22.12.sfs, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 284#p78284 from Slacko_5.7.2CE. Well, almost. The procedure requires first swapping in a 64-bit kernel (including zdrv & fdrv if needed). Never got to SFS-load the 64-bit compat sfs. slacko's initrd didn't recognize the fdrv, It might not have been needed as internet connection wizard found my wireless network. But screen fonts were so messed up that I had to guess what text was being displayed.

Yesterday, I tried the 64-bit compat sfs under xenialpup32. That was much more successful. I was able to run both chromium and mozilla 64-bit web-browsers and apparently do everything except include an attachment to the post I published to the Browsers and Internet Section of the Forum. That post has disappeared. It reported that problem and also that after bootup and just opening a web-browser over 500 Mbs of RAM were being used.

I'm currently posting using palemoon64 under dPup-stretch32 employing the 64-bit compat sfs. PupSys-Info reports 634 Mbs are being used.

IIRC, that still is much less than running 64-browsers in a Chroot under 32-bit Puppys.

Edit: Had more success with tahrpup32 where, using MikeWalsh's palemoon64-portable (updated to the latest) I was able to post an attachment, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 524#p78524

I had withdrawn the CE_Slacko_5.7.2 ISO because (a) I doubted that anyone would still want a Puppy with a no-pae kernel, (b) my current computers don't properly boot into it, and (c) as the previous posts suggests it would no longer support reasonably current web-browsers.

But a post today indicates that there are still some people for whom it may be useful. So I've uploaded a slightly modified version. The modification is that I've substituted rockedge's no-pae realtime kernel, huge-4.14.63-upupbb.tar.bz2 from here, http://rockedge.org/kernels/ for the one I originally used*. Although rockedge compiled that kernel for upupbb, at the time of compiling the structures of 32-bit slackos and ubuntus were identical. So I have no reason to doubt it could be used.

Experience has shown, however, that reality isn't always reasonable. And as I said, I have no way to test this build. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. It can be obtained here, https://www.mediafire.com/file/7c57h5v1 ... 2.iso/file.

Packit was used to create the ISO. I don't know if that creates a ISO which can be burned to a CD or an ISO creating a bootable media. Best use would be to mount the ISO, copy its contents into a folder and run grub4dos.

Except for the above the posts you will find by plugging "Slacko 5.7.2 CE" in https://rockedge.org/psearch/ are relevant.

-=-=-=-=-
* It might actually be the same. But I don't remember the original one bearing the upupbb designation.