# Old PCs & low memory & Linux



## justo

I experiment with PCs and different Linux loads. I like some Linux versions better than others depending on what I install it on.Or try to install..I have an old NEC pc here I have tried several versions on.CPU is about 200 MHZ. The memory has maybe about 120 mbytes. Not 256. I tried SAM Linux ,It was real slow and bogged down .PC Linux.Both Minime and PC Linux 2007 was too slow and could not load.I made it with MEPIS Lite and loaded.But I do not like the looks of that one so much.Damn Small Linux runs right up to the desktop but it is a trick loader and I feel I am running blind because of the looks of the desktop..Xandros 2 drags along and it refused to load.Mint and Ubuntu is too busy for the hardware and are too slow to run live..I forget the others I tried but as of now the Kubuntu Linux seems to race right along up to the point of creating user.Just before the desktop arrives.Puppy Linux may run fairly fast but I like simple loaders as part of my live CD. .Well, It is dragging out the creating user process for some reason. Anyone know one that is not mentioned above that goes well on this old PC?


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## PureEvilDan

Gentoo http://www.gentoo.org

Bare in mind, this is not a point & click install, but follow the well written documentation and you will be fine. - oh and you may want to give up a few days to install it


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, actually Puppy Linux should perform quite well on that machine.
I really don't know any other system that will give you reasonable performance apart from it, on that kind of system.
Check out this site, there are tutorials and a lot of other stuff to help you.
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1

This is the file I suggest you download....
Puppy Linux 2.14, puppy-2.14-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso

It is approximately 80 megs.

I do suggest you read some of the tutorials and use the BurnCDCC program as mentioned in the tutorial to burn your CD from the ISO file, use the slowest burn speed to ensure the file has greatest integrity.

When you make your bootable CD as mentioned, you should be able to easily boot on it, it will load entirely to RAM (provided that you have 128 Megs of RAM)

Any way if you can load it and are happy with the desktop you might mention and I can elaborate on how to load it to your hard drive and a bit more of how to make it "dance"..
Do not save anything at this stage, it has the capability to make a file on your hard drive to save to or save back to the CD if your machine has a burner.

Are you considering a dual boot machine there or simply entirely Linux, dual booting is no problem, it just requires a little bit of partitioning for your hard drive.
I like to use three gigs minimum to install Puppy to, one gig swap space and two for the system, but less can be used if neccessary.
All the tools are included in Puppy.

See how you go.

Cheers, qldit.


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## K-B

Try Vector Linux.


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## justo

Thanks to all of you up there.I have Gentoo disk I made awhile back.I didn't know they could be adapted to an older PC with low memory,I tried to test it on a normal PC but loading Gentoo is a major operation for me. I came by and thought my post was missing but I had Puppy Linux.So I used a G Parted disk and made wild guesses on what kinds of partitions to make. Anyway.I got it loaded and I think it is the best for this kind of PC.The load that I came up with called for a floppy to be inserted to boot up with.It works fine though.It is fast on the old PC.The several live CDs I tried refused to work on low memory.About 126 mbytes.I have some more PC 100 cards but they are in storage and hard to dig out.I like Puppy for these old PCs.But it is not easy to load it. Thanks to all of you.<><> PS. Something registers my PC as Win 2000 over on the left below my name.I came to this post with PC linux then SAM linux.Maybe I was on Win 2000 when I signed up here.Oh Vector Linux.I tried that awhile back.It is another one I find confusing to load.But I liked it when I managed to get it on the HD.By luck,Not science.


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, I usually create (pinch) a partition of 3 gigs or so for Puppy at the end of the hard drive if there are any other systems installed, and then make 1 gig into a swap file using the Gparted program in puppy and the other 2 gigs needs to be EXT2FS. This EXT2FS is important, there are problems with EXT3FS.
(both suitable formatted from within Gparted)

When you have achieved that, reboot. When Puppy reboots it will use that swap file and then you can install to disk from that running system.
Use the install-to-IDE-drive wizard to do this.
When you reach the install Grub boot manager, allow it to follow the defaults until the last entry where install to MBR appears as a non-default area, this will install the boot manager and allow any other operating system you may have on the system to be picked up and placed in it's menu.
If you don't have another operating system you can partition as you wish, but Puppy does not need much disk space so it is a waste to make a main EXT2FS much bigger than several gigs. I usually put the swap space after the EXT2FS partition, but that is simply to make it easier to identify during the IDE load.
When all is well and the load is completed successfully you can shut down and reboot and the menu should give choices as to what you want to boot.

When using Puppy, if you make any large downloads, try to move them to another partition if you can, to maintain the fast operating speed without bloating the system.
Lean and Mean is the best way to go with this system. 

You should be online in a few minutes with the netwoking wizard, if you have ethernet or wireless use the auto DHCP path, it is usually easiest and simplest.

Only data drives and disks need to be mounted for access, normal CDA or movie Cd's or DVD's can be initiated from the menubar in GXine dropdown menu.
Streaming audio is also immediately available from it's Media dropdown list.

You may find the machine will hang at shutdown, and remain powered, if it is an ATX system, this can easily be addressed by placing a command in the Grub boot file.
If you have this problem let me know but it sounds like that system may be AT so will require manual switch-off anyway. 

Many more programs are available from the Puppy repository, but nothing much is really needed.

If you use a wheel mouse expect some program Roll-ups, this is where the program screen rolls-up into the title bar under certain circumstances. This is very useful at times but a trap if you don't know it happens.

Your onscreen available RAM indicator changes to colour red when there is diminished memory available but if you have a 1 gig swap space and a reasonable size drive partition it will all be additive to the RAM you have available so you will never see red.
So even if you only have 250 megs or whatever RAM it will show considerably more and this is an incredible benefit in memory challenged machines.
It uses the available RAM before using the swap space and the other areas.
It is very useful in very low memory machines, when you make massive file downloads.

Once you load the GRUB boot manager to the system it will boot as you wish without needing any floppy or other support.
Once the settings are initially made with a system running on a hard drive they are retained after the second boot.

It is worth using the firewall included in the wizard section, just follow the defaults.

I have been operating this system for several years now and never had any problems of malware troubles.

Any problems you may have just mention, I may be able to direct you to a fix.

The new Puppy Linux Ver. 2.16 will be released in a week or so, it will be able to be loaded over the existing system if desired.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

Thanks to all of you above.I will use only Puppy on the old NEC. But I think I will try the partition thing again later to get away from the floppy boot disk.Puppy and DSL are confusing to me when I try to load them.But Puppy looks like a regular desktop. I saw a Linux on Distrowatch yesterday so I burned the ISO. It is not a live CD so has to be loaded. Linux Baynihan 4 a 698 mbyte ISO. I will look for a hard drive to try it out on.Made in the Phillipeans by science teachers .I like to try the odd ones out.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, I must agree with you about seeing what is happening in different linux distros, I do the same thing here. 
It appears that the trend is currently toward live distros moreso with HD loadable ability.

I recently also tried SAM linux and was very impressed with it, I had never heard of it previously.

Give Knoppix 5.1.1 (or later) a spin if you get a chance, it is another "pearler".

And on the older machines just use those small hard drives, you can get them at swap meets for a couple of dollars each, (4 and 5 Gigs) They are great for playing with Linux especially if you fit a caddy removable hard drive cradle to your system.
It makes it easier to simply change drives and retain systems that are interesting.
So many linux systems need a mid P2 and 512 megs of Ram or better these days to operate reasonably.

From my point of view energy consumption will become a factor in computing before very long and there will be a different attitude when organisations realise all the power being consumed by some of these systems.
It is all doubled or trebled when you consider that energy release and the energy needed to retain temperature with aircon systems in large buildings.
Might be OK in winter but summer is a bit different. 

Best of luck,

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

My favorites are PC Linux 2007.SAM Linux.The latest version.I am on that now.I like Mint Bianca but an update knocks out my wireless.It is a kernel change that comes from Ubuntu.I could keep Mint without the update but I will just wait until the resolve the problem.The new MEPIS 6.5 BETA has a sleeping problem.It falls asleep and wont wake up.Knopix.I tried the older version.I liked it but there is a very complicated trick to load it to the hard drive. I wish Knopix would provide a Drake loader. I have not been to a swap meet. I pick up old PCs I find here and there but few have greater than 4 gig hard drives.Tens are good but hard to find real cheap.The old Bigfoot Quantums are really to big to use in some PCs. I have three wireless cards I use with Linux. Two old Netgear MA 311 ,They work with all linux loads.Belkin F5S7000 ( Broadcom chip) Will work with Ubuntu and Mint without any extra efforts.I have not tried it on PC Linux/SAM But several Linux failed to make it work.


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, yes it is exciting watching the progress with all the different distros, I also have many machines here on KVM switches and most are triple boots, but I came to the conclusion the Puppy Linux is the most versatile on most machines because of it's speed and ease of installation.

I really liked Kanotix and Mepis but SAM, Vector and Knoppix are also great for more update machines.

I have more than 100 distros here but many have fallen by the wayside, so I only follow the latest releases nowdays.

I have installed Puppy as dual boot on a lot of senior citizens machines and it has been very well received.

I prefer to advise them to do all internet operation using that system, it avoids malware problems and has no need of protection, or hasn't needed it so far.

By the way a lot of those odd hard drives with bad spots can be restored to operation with HDDRegenerator by DPSOFT, the trial version fixes one bad spot but it can be rerun. It doesn't affect any material on the drive and a restored drive is usually good for ages after it has been scanned.
I use it for testing drives frequently. 

It is good to see you have Puppy up and operating, the Puppy forum is extremely helpful and the system is extremely progressive with new versions sometimes monthly. As new ideas arrive they are usually immediately incorporated.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I enjoyed reading your post there.I have been downloading and burning ISOs .I got the latest Puppy and loaded it on the old NEC and GAIM sound works now. I am getting Knoppix now.It is 58 percent. I just do this out of habit and it is fun to see the new versions. I bet that repair program could have fixed hard drives I threw away.I am always short of those. It is 3 AM. I think I will sleep some.If you come by add more post.The other guys must be somewhere else.


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, I have just downloaded MINT and am going to give it a try, it looked very interesting and you mention of it sounded very enticing! LOL!!
I mentions some proprietry stuff is missing, did you fine that to be a problem or are those items obtainable for it?

Yes the Puppy crew are really active sorting out the latest wigits and getting them up to speed immediately in updated versions.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I saw that Mint Lite version on Distrowatch.I think you could have went to the Mint site and got Mint Bianca with all the extra drivers.But Lite may have enough to get you running.Just watch on the updates for one that changes the kernel.That is the one that puts my wireless out of commission.I think Bianca works fine without updates.I wish I could know when they fix that problem because I like Mint a lot.Wireless is my only way to get online.Last night a rain came and cut me off several hours.Messed up my Knopix download too.I will try again tonight. There was a guy up there who spoke of Gentoo.I looked at loading that before but it is confusing for me to make it load and work.Mutagenix is another like that.I double loaded with Win 2000 and lost my Windows.I took both out and loaded Win 2000/PC Linux.PC Linux and SAM are easy to load beside Windows.<> I made a CD of Bayanihan 4 so I'm loading it in the old NEC PC. It loads real slow because of the 126 memory.I wanted to see it working for the fun.I change a lot of loads.<> On the new Mepis 6.5 BETA goes to sleep and I think you have to hit the off button.I made a CD .Ran it live but not long enough to see it fall asleep.I read that on a review of 6.5. The new Kubuntu can not make my Netgear MA 311 work.It has on every Linux I tried . I have an older Kanotix .It seems like a good one but I lost the download ( of a later version)after a few minutes.


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## qldit

Good Afternoon justo, this Mint Bianca looks quite nice, I haven't had much chance to have a good play, but hopefully will have more in the next few days.
Thankyou for the update warning, I usually only run these distros for a few weeks and then load different systems over them.

I keep the major distros like SuSe.

The Puppy Linux Grub loader is very useful to pick up any odd systems that might get kind of lost on different drives, I am impressed with it. 

I am also running netgear cards but haven't had any problems with them, that ndiswrapper program was magic, it simple calls for the windows XP netgear CD and uses that driver. The later Puppies have it include with the drivers and it boots with it.

Doesn't it bug you when you are in the midst of a 3 hour D/L and lose it!!!
I am limited to 12 gigs a month and it is easy to reach when you D/L half a dozen Distros and a bit of other stuff. So most of my major D/L is toward the end of the month.

I tried a couple of Gentoo systems but wasn't all that impressed with them, I think the Debian based ones have cornered the current appetite for popular systems.

Yes that SAM is really "up there" it reminded me a lot of XandRos for some reason, that is another decent system.

I think Kanotix might be on the way out because one of there main chaps left, I think he went to Sidux but there was something wrong with the ISO file I D/Led, I wasn't happy about 700 meg waste of time.

I saw that Bayanihan there but thought I would leave it for another time. I will be interested to hear your comments on it.

I am not super impressed with the Ubuntu series, a lot of people rave over them but it didn't do anything for me. I may try another in a few months.

Freespire and Linspire were a couple of also rans, I loaded them for a few days but moved on.

I haven't tried Mutagenix.

Yes I found the hitting the "on" button momentarily woke up dozing systems, in some of those cantankerous machines.

Have you tried the "Linux System Rescue Disk" at first I thought it was a "donkey" but I tried it on a few machines and it has a lot of tools in it and can operate with a GUI or from a DOS kind of environment, I have spent a few hours playing with it and everytime I load and run it, I find new interesting things about it, so I am inclined to think it is worthy of having.

I also got the Mandriva 2007 live disk with the 3D desktop but have been keeping that to run on one of my son's gaming machines to see how good it really is.
I don't run any high-end video cards here.

On you older machine I can't imagine you will get much to operate anywhere near Puppy Linux, most other distros need more!!!

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

It is Sunday morning.I just woke up. I get about to the end of a Knopix download and loose it.It is very slow loading for some reason this was the third try.It took about an hour to load Bayanihan on the old NEC PC.It looks ok (it is not a live CD) But I have not been online.I had weak signals so I may try later but it may not work my wireless card.No doubt the Puppy is the best load for that one to get some speed because all the others are too slow. I have had the older versions of Suse but the new one is too much to download for me here on wireless. I think I will go get some coffee.I will check for you here later. By the way.I am on this computer with PC Linux now,Version 2007 TR 2.That and SAM Linux plus Mint Bianca (when the wireless fix arrives) are my favorites now.Oh ,and Puppy for the old ones.


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## justo

Came back by at noon.I am trying the Dreamlinux download.The non BETA version.It says 700 mbytes plus.But they are saying they are using CDs over on the forum.I hope it fits one CD. I also hope I get the download in before wireless quits.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, I had problems getting Dream, slow D/L, so I canx it.
I will be interested to see what your opinion is.

There was one disto that was 790 Megs, and it was available for D/L and I got it, but couldn't get any 800 meg CD blanks!! The system originator was adamant they were still available but most definitely I couldn't locate any here and there were a lot of posts on it's forum from people that couldn't find any 800 meg disks. 
I tried a DVD unsuccessfully and moved on.
What a way for a system to die!!!

I feel convinced that the idea of loading a hard drive from a running system is the way of the future, it at least shows the system is able to operate properly.
The live system disk has really taken off!!

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

After the third attempt I got Dreamlinux all in on the desktop,burned the ISO and tried it on my late model Microtel PC which is a 1.7 AMD CPU and 512 mbyte of RAM..It runs right up and looks good with a lot of programs and nice row of icons at the bottom.But it did not load a driver for my Netgear MA 311 when most other Linux versions do.Then offers to install a driver but no hint of where the drivers are hidden.So I remained off line.I used a program by ALSA to get a driver in my soundcard but I had no source to test it for sound off line. I am trying to run it on the old NEC pc now. It seems to boot to desktop fast enough so it may load.It is a live CD I think I like Dreamlinux .But the deal with wireless config is not a good point to recommend it. It has kopette installed but I noticed on the forum that GAIM will load easy from the package thing.I think it is called Aptget. I may try it again on this PC but I do not like the extra work of making the wireless go. ------------ I have heard of those larger capacity CDs awhile back on a Linux board.I have not saw any around here locally though.The stores drop things that don't move fast. I think a DVD can be used to hold that load if you get in to asking around about how to make it work..It is not a good idea to put a Linux out that is bigger than a CD.I bet the maker could cut out games and other programs a person could download later and get it al on CD.-------- The old NEC PC with odd monitor is hard to set up to make the picture correct.I open a page and it fills the screen so that I can not see the bottom of a page.I think the monitor is the problem.


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## justo

I am back.I tried the other loads on this old NEC PC. I put the latest Puppy Linux back in. 233 MHZ CPU is ok.But 126 mybtes of RAM is borderline.I have a couple of cards in storage I will put in here later.No doubt that Puppy Linux is best for this old PC.DSL is like running blind.Then it is more confusing to add programs to. So I will leave Puppy Linux in this one.


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## qldit

Good Afternoon justo, you could try seeing if the ndiswrapper program is in that odd system, if so type ndiswrapper on the command-line, I think that is enough to initiate it, then it will ask for your netgear CD and use the driver off it.

By the way, what is your old system, is it ATX or AT?
Puppy needs an extra ACPI=Force in the boot command in GRUB to be able to shut down most older ATX computers. Otherwise it unloads and sits there powered.

You can also alter the GRUB boot menu screen to make it look much better and remove all the garbage from it.

I might give Dream a try if you think it is worthwhile.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

It is 2-11 AM Monday morning.I have the old NEC with Puppy linux going good .Everything works good now.I didnt know what the ATX thing was.But you are right.It has to be shut off by the button when it goes down.I think you would like dreanlinux OK.I didnt know how to load the Windows driver from the CD.I may try that later for the training----.I may fall asleep.See you tomorrow pal.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, I always consider AT systems as needing to be mechanically switched off with a Push-Push switch, and the ATX series normally have a system where switching is done by a momentary contact in a switch which then generates a command for the machine to be powered, and in that case the power is latched electronically in the "on" condition. When it is desired to switch these systems off a command from an operating system or from a mechanical switch will allow the power to be unlatched and thus powered down.

This is a little deceiving because even though it would appear that these types of machines have no power on their boards and the fans and everything appear dead, they in fact still remain powered with a signal voltage from the power supply.
In a lot of the later ATX boards they have a LED on them to warn that power is available. Most of these kinds of systems can be remotely switched on using an input signal, so the idea is very clever.
Also if a power problem happens most have intelligence and will drop off line. 

This signal line power has caused a steep learning curve for a lot of newbies working on their machines without removing the power lead, they might be in the process of changing a card or memory or whatever and suddenly the thing would spring to life!!!
"One flash and your new card is ash" has meaning!!! LOL!! 
Often kills the motherboard as well!! 

With earlier ATX systems I have found that quite often Linux Distros will not switch the machine off when shutdown is selected, they simply unload and sit there with power still on.

Puppy Linux commonly shows this same symptom on earlier ATX machines, but it is usually easily overcome by an extra instuction in the boot list.

I just tried getting "PC Linux OS" but lost the D/L after 300 odd megs, I am not happy!!!

I did download "T2 Linux" and just burned the ISO but haven't had a chance to play with it yet.
It asked for a password as it boots and I neglected to read the destructions on the site!! LOL!! So I have a slight chore before I do more!! LOL!!

You shouldn't need to load netgear drivers to puppy versions 2.14 or later but earlier versions did need a bit of playing and using that "ndiswrapper" program. It did include it in the distro.
I notice a lot of other distros also include ndiswrapper, but not a great deal of drivers.

Over the last couple of years the accelleration of usable Linux systems has been really exciting, Puppy, SAM, and a lot of others are better than so many windows systems.
One chap did a few comparitive downloads and found that Puppy Linux actually downloaded internet files faster the WXP, this is actually interesting as to why, I have no idea apart from possible A/V system monitoring. 

I might put trying Dream on the back burner for now and conserve my limit, it is early in the month.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

Hello,Back.Puppy is easy to get my Netgear MA 311 running as it loads a driver going up.The WAG program gets the wireless going.I think you have to go through that everytime.Some just kick on automaticly.Oh yes.ATX is the type of motherboard.I built three PCs and used mini ATX boards. I have used those old PC with a manunal switch as I load Linux on those often. I have gotten in a hurry at times changing parts.I know better than unplug theDC connector on a hard drive now.It cuts the PC off and is bad for the power supply.Or changing PCI cards can do the same.I quit rushing PCs because it ends up costing more time and money<> <> On those ISO downloads.Eventhough I am in Texas ,Sometimes I try Switzerland for PC Linux and it comes in better.I think the problem is that the servers are overloaded rather than your connection.Those ISO downloads that run slow will cut off.I had several cut off at about 250 mbytes.I did get Knoppix this morning though.I think from Germany. I ran it live two times.No wireless connection either time.I may try tonight because it looks like it has a lot of extras.It looks good too.But all the extra programs are not helping on my sound or wireless.- puppy looks good after I got some nice wallpaper installed and moved the icons to the top of the screen.It is a good Linux.Too bad it will not partition and set up the HD.I do it with G Parted and am getting better somewhat.<> If you try more ISOs maybe pick a site in a country you have not tried.I learned that the ISOs with EN are English.I once got one in German.It was hard to know how to shut off. Glad you came by,I see the coffee is made.Do you drink coffee or tea?


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, with that Knoppix 5.1.1 I don't recall having had much problem getting it up with the Netgear card online.
With Puppy, just go into the networking wizard and use the auto DHCP path, it usually goes straight online.
When you use gparted in a running Puppy system and steal 3 gigs or so of the end of your drive then repartition that stolen space, the first two gigs and make it ext2FS and format it that way and then use the other remaning gig into swap space.
When the Puppy CD reboots it will find and use that swap space and ot will show in the available memory in the Puppy taskbar.

Having done this use the Puppy Universal Installer in Menu > setup and select the IDE hard drive area, follow the defaults and you will see the two gigs ext2FS showing, select it for the load and Puppy will load to that partition.
When that completes it will go into the Grub Boot Loader wizard, follow the defaults until the last section that mentions where to load the Grub file, it will mention the MBR as being possibly unsafe but select that item and it will load the MBR with the boot info.
If there are any other systems on that or other drives in your machine they will automatically be added to the Boot menu.

When you complete this activity, and everything is OK you can shutdown with "no save", and then when you reboot you will be presented with the boot menu with all it's items from which you can select what you want to boot.
When you boot into Puppy, set your desktop and the other necessities and these will then be automatically saved, use the networking wizard and select the AutoDHCP path and this should find your wireless card and save those settings.
Use the firewall wizard defaults and that will save those settings.
After shutdown any further boots will not ask any questions but simply boot straight to the desktop.
When shutting down you will not be asked to save any further stuff either.

If any hiccups occur and you switch off without following the standard shutdown process the GUI will not reappear but instructions on how to restore it should show.
Usually it will be to type "xorg wizard" or "xwin", this is normal.

If you have an ATX system and it is not shutting off, use the desktop "Edit" icon and "File Open" > File System > Boot > Grub > Menu.1st Open it.

You should be able to scroll down to something like this example..

Linux bootable partition config begins
title PUPPY LINUX V2-14
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 acpi=force ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Notice the added acpi=force command added to the kernel line and the altered title.
This normally fixes that shutdown problem with ATX boards on older machines.
When you add that extra command, save it and exit that program and when you reboot your machine that should now be fixed and the machine should shutdown completely when you select "shutdown" thereafter.

By the way, in that Menu.1st file, notice the "titles" in the items as you scroll down, these are the actual titles that appear in the Grub Menu, so you can alter them to suit, you might Like to type JUSTO'S PUPPY LINUX or something like that in the respective title area and then save and exit, when you reboot the applicable altered text will appear as you have written it at the next boot.
In triple booters this is quite handy to know because you can make it look much nicer, you can also delete unneccessary items like the Floppy boot item and alter it as you like, or alter the order of boot items simply by moving the entire item command in it's order. 
The order of the computer reading that file is from the top down.

I usually set Puppy as the first bootable system regardless of what other systems are on the drives because it is so useful and simple to use.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I like your instructions on Puppy Linux.I am saving them.I may redo the load because I didn't set it up just right.I will use your instructions and it will be better even though it works now.I just guessed on how to partition it.><>< Saboyan Linux.I downloaded the live CD 686 mbyte version.It fits a CD.It really looks great but does not reach the desktop.The last thing it says.Failed to load text.Then seems to want you to put in info. Well it happened twice and I gave up.I guess I will try it again and choose a different path from the list as you boot up. i may have gotten a bad load but it seemed to go to the end of the download.i will download another today and make another CD because Saboyan looks real neat.


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## justo

OK,Back,It did not like my Biostar MB with Intel CPU.I got it on an AMD PC now.


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## justo

Easy Linux. I am trying to download it now. Of all I have tried PC Linux 2007 is my favorite.Easy to work for me.SAM Linux is close to the next favorite.Puppy for old PCs.Mepis 6 if I have a third choice.Mint Bianca if they get it fixed for wireless..Those I tried recently may be fine but my wireless failed to go.Sabayon mini looks great but my wireless did not work. Easy is not the real name .> http://linux.go2linux.org/node/46


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, that is interesting, I tried Sabayon and it wouldn't load either, something wrong with the ISO file. But I didn't bother D/L it a second time, just threw it in the bin.
I D/L "T2 Linux" iso and tried to load it, it asks for a Password! I searched for info on it and was directed to a T2 password site, but when I tried the URL it came up with a blank screen. So it seems I need to register to get a password for it, but the registration process doesn't work, so that is another system in the bin!!

If I had known about that I wouldn't have bothered D/L the stupid thing, that is a bit sneaky as far as I am concerned.

I do agree with you about SAM and Mepis, I include Knoppix with them, Vector is also excellent, but for all round versitility I can't move from my Puppy, (probably because I have been using it for so long and gotten so used to it and it runs on virtually anything)

I may try getting PC Linux 2007 again later. Our internet activity here is often choked dependent on the time of day and activity in the U.S.
I can easily D/L files from the western U.S. but the eastern state URL's often time-out.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

Some really complicate the loading and operation so much that I quit trying and find another version.I like to find ones that a Windows user can get into fast.Most are afraid to try Linux because some are really difficult to get going.Even if they know little about Windows it is easy to find help locally. PC Linux 2007 and SAM Linux are easy to add to Windows because you just slide a bar to the left until you get the space you need for the Linux load.It has a number indicator to show how many GIGs you are taking for Linux.. This new one I am downloading is supposed to be easy.But your hardware may not be just right for one version or another. I tried Saboyan on the Intel CPU PC and it went half way and had to stop.The AMD machine went up to desktop. Those that does not allow me to use my wireless (WIFI) card are not much use too me because that is how i get online. Oh yes. They have PC places in large towns that you can rent a PC that is on cable but I have not tried an ISO download at one.I think the servers are when the speed drops because I have downloaded Windows programs fast. Anyway.I am going outside awhile.I will check by later.


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## justo

I am live on Ultero Alpha.I like it.It may not have a lot of programs installed .I have not looked.But it is easy like they said it was.There is always a blackout just before desktop comes in. It pays to be patient with computers when there is something that looks stalled.Anyway.It seems fast enough now.Neat icons.No trouble with making my wirelss work with Wireless Assistant program. This is based on Kubumtu but I like it better as the new Kubuntu failed to make my wireless card work.


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## qldit

Good Evening justo, well I threw that T2 linux as disk as far as I could, and then later I came across "Berry Linux", it is a Japanese distro, around 600 megs, supposed to be a live CD, well the md5 checked OK but when I tried to load it it just went to a grub info screen. I couldn't work out anything on how to make it work so that also got thrown in the bin, it was a complete waste of time and effort, probably an easter fool joke!! 

I just got Zenwalk 4.4 it looks pretty good in it's readout advertising but I haven't run it yet, it needs a hard drive to load, but it is supposed to run pretty well on older machines, we will see!!!

Yes I agree Sam Linux is definitely way up there!
Of course it is closely allied with PC Linux, so they should both be similar.

I suspect that Sabayon is a bad ISO, there is certainly something wrong with the copy I have.

I haven't heard of Ultero Linux, if you think it is worth trying I will give it a shot.

I have been running Mandriva for a short period here, but it doesn't really like the laptop I was using, it has a separate wireless switch that doesn't agree with Linux systems for some reason, I have no idea why!

Yes I have no idea how many ubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu or whatever buntu's there are, I tried a couple some time ago but wasn't overly impressed with them, I couldn't understand why so many people were so impressed with it, probably because they haven't tried too many others. 

I wasted 4 hours on that stupid Berry Linux, I thought it may well be something decent, but it was a complete waste of time and effort.
Even the readme's contained no text!
It even contained .exe files but they were alien to windows so don't go there!!. 

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

You should save those CDs.They may work good in another PC. I used to try two or three PCs with those odd versions and some just go right in.Sabayon didn't like my PC with a Biostar mother board and Intel CPU but went right up on the AMD CPU.Then often a monitor is something that is not just right for some versions.Rather than trying to reset those resolution things or some other input I just try another monitor that works better. Then later I may adjust for the monitor I started with. I tried Sabayon again on this PC last night and even the sound came on as it went to desktop..I would load that if I could make my wireless card work.I has a classy look to it.This is the mini version on CD.689 mbytes. If you lived in the US I could afford to send you several CDs I can make off the loaded ISOs.The postage would be inexpensive. I do contracts and had rainouts a lot lately or I could afford to mail them there.It is raining now.--------------- I wonder about doing this.This PC has PC Linux.I damaged Windows 2000 on the hard drive when I had loaded Mutagenix.I reloaded PC Linux but Win 2000 stops before it gets to desktop and has the blue screen saying it may have a virus. ( it guesses wrong) I wonder if I can load Sabayon in the Windows partition and still keep PC Linux on the second one?Then get both to boot up? I don't want to reload Win 2000 and have to do the boot record thing because Linux adds it. I have never loaded two Linux like that. I like Sabayon and think I can make wireless work by trying a known compatable card. I tried Dream Linux again too.It will not get my card to go.I think I heard that the higher kernel in newer versions are the cause.But to do all the input to make my card work is not something I want to do. I think you can recompile the kernel.But it is not something I want to try. I think you could find a local Linux geek and ask him for CDs of your choice of versions.They often offer to send me copies for free here in the USA.This way you wont have to try the long downloads. There are times they speed up though. I leave mine going while I sleep and check when I wake.I may pick any of several countries to see if the speed is better.-------------- I have to go look for some work I can do inside while it rains. I will check back by later. I enjoy talking to Austrailia.I used to have HAM radios with not license but I would sneek in and try to talk to people far away.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, I have a dozen different machines here specifically for seeing which systems give problems, I used to pass the info to a mag for their item selection info.
It was a bit of a fad to try to determine or predict which way the industry would go and which M/Bs and hardware were problematic.

Most are on different KVM switches and cover from P100's through to P4-2800 plus AMD and VIA/Cyrix including Durons and Athlons with a large variety of different M/Bs.
Also including a late model laptop.
So I usually gave cantankerous systems a pretty good run.

It became too expensive trying to keep up with the later hardware!! LOL!!

I am only using Netgear wireless stuff, it is all 108G including the router.

But systems like SAM are definitely streets ahead of a lot of other systems and Debian based distros are always also usually good.
Generally Intel chipped systems were the outstanding problem free machines.

Most are triple boots with a variety of different monitors.

Things have changed with the later series hardware and distros though, and quite obviously Linux is going to go through the roof.

I suspect the Live portable systems will be the thing for home users and business will adapt to the larger systems like SuSe.

We have had quite a few large organisations switch to Linux entirely in the past year and it is interesting to follow.

The ridiculous Vista requirements and Windows reliability has affected a lot of organisations "bottom line" financial aspects so "the worm has turned" incredibly it is in many cases simply cost efficiency related. But there have been a few problems with some situations of machine controls. 

Thanks for the offer of mailing, I do get quite a few systems passed to me from other similarly interested chaps, we pass a lot of information between each other.
Some of these fellows are industrial techs and have introduced Linux to their clients mainly in small business areas with good acceptance.
It certainly improves the bottom line, especially for reliability and less problems with malware.

I also used to operate HAM on 14250 Kcs with a 3D2 callsign using a Spider Quad.
It certainly polarises people of certain interests but I ceased that interest. TVI problems. 

Cheers, qldit


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## justo

It is 9-41 PM here.I cleaned the 80 gig hard drive on this one.It had damaged Win 2000 and a good PC Linux 2007 TR3.So I just ran G Parted and cleaned the slate then divided it in two 40 gig partitions ,ran Ultero live and loaded it.Then ran PC Linux tr3 and loaded it. I am wondering how I could add another Linux like Sabayon mini. I wonder if the boot record will show all three? I never loaded three.---------- Got everything working on both loads now..It took several hours.------- You do a lot of things I like to do. I have 8 PCs and a laptop.Most are stored as I may move soon to another place.Not sure I will move far as my friend wants to go to Kansas. But I try a lot of things with PCs. I never could pass the test for my HAM license.The code thing was not something I could do well.The electronics I knew well enough. So I did radio experiments but I bought two new ham radios in 76-77. A new Drake and a new Kenwood transmitter and reciever in two parts.The Drake was tubes.I like it best. I had a big antenna uptown .When I kick in the transmitter a pretty girl would knock on my door and say her TV was being interfered with.Sometimes I turned on the transmitter just to get her to come over for a chat.I had a lot of fun with the HAM radios and had a big TRAM CB.It is a collectors item now.I liked it and modified it a bit. I built a preamp to for receive. .Then I got into audio experiments and sold the radio things. I had a lot of fun experimenting. I move around a bit.I was far out in the country and started building long range rifles and spent a lot of time and money on that. I thought I hated computers because of the keyboard.I finally got to typing with one finger as fast as many are with all fingers.So now I do computers.A lot of hours and not a lot of money spent on this.Mainly because I don't make as much as before. I see you mentioned portable systems. I want to install a small PC in my truck.I use my laptop in it but I can add a mag based antenna with the cards that have connectors like my Netgear. I have a 750 watt inverter in the truck.-------- Anyway.It is bedtime.I got here late.I enjoy reading your post a lot .


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, It seems we have common interests, I had a TV repair shop fo a few years but it was too hard to meet all the wages and costs for the staff and rental, so I moved into aircraft systems.
I am retired now so have time to play with all kinds of stuff.
I still do occasional short term contract work but it usually involves power systems or desal kind of stuff, generally in the South-west Pacific islands. (usually involves old stuff that no one can fix, real headache stuff)

I introduced Linux systems to a lot of people in odd places, you would have to laugh at the viruses and malware in some of those machines in the islands, no one understood how to fix those kinds of problems or could afford the protection programs.

In a lot of these places Windows systems have become a bit of a liability, especially with overseas online banking and stuff like that.

In one case a hotel manager used online banking and had found account discrepancies, probably from some stolen information.


He was amazed at me showing him a live linux program (Puppy) and accessing overseas accounts and transferring stuff then shutting down and removing the CD with virtually safe integrity.
Even if that machine had been hacked, the information would not be accessable because there was nothing pertinent on it's hard drive.
These are incredibly useful aspects with live linux systems.
I have found dozens of keyloggers in windows systems over the years.

You must try a triple boot machine, I usually divide a large drive up with partitions and add swap spaces between them if needed, just by using Gparted and reaccessing and taking a bit of space of the end of the respective partition if needed.
I usually make the original dividing partitions as primaries.

I had 5 systems on one drive but it was only an experiment and one of the systems played up a bit so I formed the opinion that 3 systems on a single hard drive was easy to manage, but I do have machines with two drives and more systems on those. 
I got an add-in card to allow another 2 IDE hard drives to be added, but never got round to seeing how good it was.
The most hard drives I have had in a machine so far was 3 with multi-systems 
I got a box of obsolete 5400-8 gig hard drives (cheap) that was the reason for the idea.
These size drives are great for linux systems and rarely give problems.
I have sold nearly all of them now.

I was tempted to play with striping four identical drives as a Raid system but I feel that idea is going to be quickly extinct because of the problems that can happen if any one of the drives develops any problem.

So for a triple booter, an eighty gig drive might be divided into 3 partitions using Gparted and when you decide what systems you want to load say Windows ME or XP etc, then load those first, then load your other systems.
The beauty of using puppy at the end of a drive is that it presents no problems and the Grub Boot manager picks up the other systems and manages them easily. I don't bother using the XP boot manager.

If you have a second drive it sometimes presents problems when loading some linux systems to it, because if you just deselect the drive in BIOS, linux can still see the drive. 
But I have unplugged the first drive (primary) on occasions to load a second slave drive then replug the primary and use Puppy at the end to pick up the whole lot with a MBR alteration on the first drive to enable all to be seen and booted using Puppy's Grub.

I also use a few removable IDE drive caddies, usually set as masters, it is amazing to see the flexibility you can create using that idea, especially if you buy several same type caddies at one time.
Actually the cheapies seem better than the higher quality aluminium ones and they also have drive cooling in them.

They are useful even for testing, cleaning or setting up hard drives.

I have set clients machines (where they wanted independent systems) as dual caddy machines where the system wanted was determined by the caddy fitted to it's respective slot, having extra caddies facilitated easy backup strategies. I found this much more reliable than using external drves using USB or whatever.

By the way,that Linux PC System Rescue CD has some interesting programs on it, well worth a look. It initially boots to a command line and has a load of programs accassable from there and it also has a GUI whith a load more programs accessable from it. It includes a drive wiping program plus Gparted and a lot of other stuff, I originally thought it was just another "also ran" but I have used it a couple of times and found it pretty uesful.
I will have to read the destructions for it one of these days, there is probably a lot more stuff I don't know about on it.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I worked on Hueys awhile but as it was Army contracts the pay was not good.I could make twice as much on a dozer building highways. I bet that is fun to go around to those islands.I would think there would be a lot of WW2 stuff still around in the jungles that nobody has found. There is a lot about Linux that I do not know yet.Many of the terms they use are strange to me but often I get things to work mostly by doing it over several times so that I end up getting something to work. I found a lot old PCs and made them useful again with Linux.I think I will study loading Puppy some more because it is best on the old PCs. I wish there was a CD that just set up the hard drive for Puppy once you decided where you want it. I was on the Mint forum talking to Clem.He is the guy who makes Mint.He is a real nice guy and talked to me awhile.He is French but lives in Scotland.He said a few things about other Linux developers. He only said good things of the others which I thought was good that they have respect for a man doing another version of Linux. Some he only knew by reputation but wants to meet them if he ever has the chance. They tell me at PC Linux that five gigs is all I need for that version. I left a lot of room because I download a lot of ISOs. Two will use one gig of space.I guess that extra space will be available. I wonder if it sets its own boundaries at five gigs? I had luck of downloading Mint KDE version today.It just came out.But I need a DVD blank now.It is larger that the CD.He may add a cd size later. So I have Ultero on the first 40 gigs and PC Linux on the second forty.Clem said I can just run Mint KDE over the top of Ultero and it will all come out OK. You were doing well to have a large number of eight gig hard drives. I like to find ones to load Linux on so i can swap out . I found an old PC withe tray changer thing.It has some electronics on a board. I only had the one slide in container tray. But it seemed to me the hard drive had to be loaded with the tray hooked up or it would not boot if you later put it in the tray. Maybe it was another problem but I put it on the shelf .<> You always say good morning.When I find you here it is after 9 PM here.It is 11 PM now. I may fall asleep. I am glad you come by to talk. I hope to see you tomorrow night <>.....................................


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## justo

BACK.7-30 6 April. I made a DVD of Mint KDE ,The new one. I got DVD-r disk, They worked. This KDE Mint has a lot of extras.That is why Clem decided to make it DVD so he could get a lot of extras on it.My Netgear MA 311 wireless card worked without any big effort.There are two wireless programs you can use to kick it on. KWIFI is one.The other I forget but it helps to use it first.You can pick the signal you want with it as the hot ones come up on a list.Sound came on first thing.My on board AC 97 sound circuit. I really like this one.Oh I put it where Ultero was and it came up with PC Linux still working.It looks good and works good too.The KDE icons are improved for looks.I like that,I got Thunderbird mail connected with gmail.There is an easy way to grab packages,So I got GAIM ,Thunderbird and some more. >> http://www.linuxmint.com << I used a foreign download mirror .Maybe a Swiss one.The big ISO came in fairly fast.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, you were not involved with the paintbrush on a stick setting up rotor blades by any chance? I always thought that looked so funny!
I always wanted to learn to drive a dozer, I have driven most other things.
I was watching one operator here recently with a laser autolevelling device for his blade, all he did was just drive back and forth and made a perfectly level field, the laser was remote and the dozer had a sensor stick mounted on it. Very clever stuff!

Yes there is a lot of stuff remaining from the war in the islands, I was amazed at the explosive material the Japs used, it is like a bright green candle wax and was used in everything they had, not as powerful as TNT but entirely stable. I cut a rusty old Japanese mortar around it's periphery and pulled the two halves apart to leave a perfectly moulded wax shape.
If scrapings were lit with a match it just burned like ordinary wax, quite amazing stuff, needed a detonator to set it off, that idea in their shells allowed better balance and they could drop shells on targets much more accurately. Any US old ordnance is really dangerous and liable to go off if handled. People often still find old stuff rotting just below the ground.

It is not a god idea to go digging amid the old war ruins, there are a lot of surprises to be had!

Some of the stories from the elderly locals were amazing and some really pathetic.

There is an area on Nauru where a lot of killings were carried out that has a real gruesome feeling. The prisoners including one of your B25 surviving crews were marched out and beheaded and a lot of ours were killed there also.
That particular B25 squadron is an incredible story, they had a three inch quickfiring gun in them mounted in the fuselage, loading was done by the navigator and firing was controlled by the pilot, they really were thorn in the side of the Japs, there are pictures taken from the cockpit during attacks showing how effective they became, it is a shame all this history is not more widely known, some pieces of one of the shotdown B25s still are there, including one of these guns from the wreck.

A lot of these places in paradise are hot and remote, it needs a different outlook not to get injured and be careful with hygiene and that kind of stuff.
And getting spare parts can take weeks, it is a kind of parody where no one worries about time, "tomorrow maybe" is a common term.

That is interesting to see you met Mint, most of these people are humble and have no interest in fame, they are a different breed.

I found that when using Puppy to take downloaded files off the partition and place them on another, or onto other media was the best way to operate, as far as I understand when ever Puppy loads, it loads everything either 
to RAM or the swap space and letting it get bloated appears to slow it down, so I always place the extra stuff in another location or media.. 

I think I the only way to get experience with this stuff is to get in there and do it, I refer to it as "bumbling" and I bumble my way through everything. LOL
You certainly soon learn a bit about how a hard drive functions which is really needed to be able to set them up. 

I was looking at that Ultero last night, it seems interesting, but it is only an Alpha version, how does it go with wireless drivers?

You are a very interesting chap, it is my pleasure to chat with you, I only know a little of this stuff, but it is amazing how helpful other people are with tips to make things work, my memory is getting pretty slack, so I do have a few problems.

cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I was involved in helicopters in the army .Went to Vietnam in 61 and for a short time later.We had a long stick with a ribbon off the side to track rotorblades.We marked the tips of the two blades with two colors of chalk and held the ribbon close enough to touch then adjusted the blades to mark the ribbon at the same place.In the early days there ws a lot of junk left from the French/Indo china war that was we could go dig through.Even piles of torched Jap Army rifles the Brits collected after WW2.There was a B 26 the French left. These things just sit inside a fence for years.We jumped the fence. I would look for souveniors every chance I could because I thought I could find something really interesting.But found little .---- I ran heavy equipment because my brother taught me and it was easy to get a job quick and make good money ( for me) It takes awhile to get good on dozers and graders. After years of long hours of practice you go by feel rather than observation of cuts you make. I have never use the lazer controlled ones.I always wished for such equipment because some ground is hard to cut to grade.Or one dozer is not just the right machine.I used to dig lakes or clear large forest. 12 hours passes fast if you are busy.I always hoped to dig up a pot of gold but never did. There things that happened in wars and things yet lie in battlefields that never get in the news. Or old shipwrecks.I used to work out in the Gulf and hope to find something.We once found a big sunken shrimp boat. We had a big oilfield boat and was going to drag in to the shore and claim it but we alled the Coast Guard and they said cut it loose. The owner sank it because the engine room had a fire.--- Those Pacific islands. I always wanted to explore them .We passed some on a ship with our helicopters. I thought they looked like a real fun place to be. I read online about a people on an island near Australia call "cargo people". It was a great story.The people had old USA WW2 uniforms and radios and thought they could call them back because they brought so many gadgets to play with. I bet you enjoy trips to islands.I think Aussies are more adapted to those conditions than most Americans. I bet the people are happy you can get their PCs running. Puppy Linux is perfect for those old PCs. It seems like you could get the Austrailian military to help you get parts and things.Most military people can get a lot of hardware.. I have to go get some food from the fridge. I will check by in a few minutes.I bet you are gone though.<><> This new Mint KDE version has some bugs because it is BETA.But they are nothing that gives me trouble.But here is what they have on the list >> http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Bugs_in_Bianca_KDE_BETA_020


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## qldit

Good Afternoon justo, that idea for adjusting rotor blades is similar to ours, our chaps used coloured paint and just lifted the brush till it touched one blade then adjusted that blade, they kept playing until both blades were touched similarly, simple idea but it worked O.K.

I have an old celeron 400 here on a leadtek board that I just replaced all the electrolytic capacitors on but it has some odd problem loading windows, I have been using linux to confirm if it has problems also, it is a handy way to check whether boards have problems.

I feel some of the problem may have been the hard drive so am zero-writing it completely.
I have been caught before with odd stuff on drives affecting loads, although it shouldn't!

Yes that cargo cult stuff still happens in New Guinea, some of those people are quite dangerous, it was caused by airdrops in the past and relates to the "gods" supplying stuff that was stolen by the white fellas!
Some of our chaps have had a few bad experiences there.

And yes there is a lot of wartime stuff still around a lot of the islands and sunken vessels, many in shallow water, but I have never dived on them.
The Solomons have a lot of stuff.
Nauru was bypassed and all the fortifications are still there including some land mounted dual barrel naval 3 inch guns in turrets, the barrels have been blasted and some of the parts have been scavanged but examination of them is really interesting, the recoil was used to assist the hydraulic drive systems and they are really potent looking guns, they swivel 360 degs and were quick firing, they were imported to Nauru from Singapore to combat the B25 raids, these raids lasted nearly 12 months and usually began at around 0900, lasting for an hour or so. One of the old fellows there used to go out fishing and watch from the ocean, he mentioned one B25 flew over him at only 50 feet or so and the pilot waved, but he was to scared to wave back.
The locals were under terrible constraints, the Japs had numbered all the coconut trees and counted all the coconuts and any missing could cause their death or severe floggings. It is a sad story, the commandant was a cruel person and several thousand locals died under slavery and being taken to other islands.
Several flying boats were sunk by the B25's and some of their parts have also
been salvaged. The fortifications there are a work of art, everything is covered by heavy machine gun boxes all set in concrete right to the water's edge and every site is covered by others behind.
There is even a Zero fighter that crashed and all the broken parts recovered are in an old shed, but that is all it is, just a lot of small fragments.

Any landing there would have been a disaster, all the control areas have several areas of layered concrete and earth, virtually bomproof design.
But the man-made deep caves were destroyed before surrender, I wouldn't be game to try to dig into one, you would probably get a surprise if you tried.
Their would likely be ammo stored there somewhere and goodness knows what else!

That island is entirely phosphate, so even making concrete there must have meant importing all the sand!

There is a place called "Ironbottom sound" named because of all the sunken ships from a naval battle at night, I suspect the true story of that battle was distorted somewhat, because the Jap gunners were proficient at searchlight gunnery and crack shots, although the allies reckon it was an equal battle, I suspect the were hammered by the better and more accurate fire from the Japs. The allied warships were taking repeated direct hits before they knew what was happening and not used to close night fighting.

In some places there is a lot of left over stuff, and in the jungle rusted remains of small tanks and that kind of thing.

Yes most of the wrecks in these places have been scavenged pretty well, there are not many decent souvenirs to be had and some of the stuff can be a bit hairy.
I got an old VHF transceiver from a DC-3 wreck and pulled it apart and there was a thing like a large electrolytic capacitor in it. Luckily an old chap recognised it as a destructive device for the crew to press a button elsewhere in the aircraft and it would destroy all the equipment.
They had caused nasty problems for different technical people over the years, and I had no idea whatsoever!!!
So it put a nasty taste in my mouth about touching some of this stuff.

Some of the old Japanese aircraft engines are works of art the way they are made, beautiful cylinder finning, with a large super-charger in the back of them, they were beautiful designs. They must have given great performance.

One of my friends had a medium machine gun and it was also a work of art, simple, cooling fins and really nice sights.

I was very impressed with all the wartime stuff I saw, so far as I was concerned it all looked better designed than the allied stuff.

I have been to busy to do much with Linux in the past few days, I keep checking "distro watch" for anything really interesting, I tried to D/L Ultero but I got a insufficient bandwidth massage, try later!! LOL!!
Usually D/Ls from the US or Taiwan are better than going to Europe from here, some of those speeds are ridiculous like 10 K /sec. 
I like to see at least 50 K / sec otherwise they have a habit of failing.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I just came by on my way to doing a job. That was a most interesting story above.I really enjoyed reading it. I will come by later after my work.I have the same trouble with Mint KDE as I did with Mint Bea and Bianca.I went to the package manager and grabbed a bunch of extras.Everything went fine until I rebooted later.My wireless locked up.I am on PC Linux now.I think it got the kernel update that shut my wireless off.I don't know exactly which one though.I will get Clem to get me the answer so I can avoid the problem because it is a good system. I will check back by later.


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## justo

I came by after 5 PM. I reloaded the MINT KDE and the PC Linux again. This time I only picked up Thunderbird nail and GAIM at package manager. It works OK.I will be careful of things I get there.But I think the problem was a kernel change update that I can avoid now. I had to load both Linux because the Linux terms are confusing on the loader. Now I will work on PC Linux to get my addresses and programs back.


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## qldit

Good Afternoon justo, yes kernels can cause problems when changed, many have drivers compiled in them, it is over my head how to compile a kernel, I prefer to simply load different modules for add-ins.

Part of the difference between Puppy 2.13 and 2.14 was additional drivers in the kernel as far as I understand.

I only ever load systems with their own kernels, so you have learned more than me! LOL!!!

I have just spent hours with a cantankerous system and it suddenly went into a continuous reboot cycle without completing any boot, it was puzzling, I eventually ran spinrite hard disk regeneration program on it and found numerous clusters bad in the beginning of the drive, although they were repaired the system will need to be reloaded because a lot of files have been affected.
The complete hard drive scan is going to take 23 damned hours!!

I have just been to "church" (the computer market) and gotten some more PC133 memory for another machine and a decent mouse for this laptop, the stupid mouse pad was driving me crazy, it is a multi-function pad!

I had another cleints machine that was occasionally misbehaving and hanging at boot, I found the +5 volts was down to 4.2 and altered from time to time, so a nice new 400 W PSU appears to have fixed that, a nice healthy + 5.2V is showing now, so I have had a win at last!!! LOL!!! 

I spent a lot of time in Fiji, the Japs didn't reach there but there is a lot of history involved with US bases there during the war, the population there is mixed, the basic Fijians, Indians and a few other races. During the war the Indians were virtually pro AXIS and there were a lot of Catalinas based there.
Someone had been taking potshots at them from afar with a 303, and had been causing a few problems, so one of your chaps sat in a waist turret one evening and spotted the muzzle flashes on a near hill, you can imagine what he did with his 50 cal. There was no problem after that!!! LOL!!!

That place grows a lot of sugarcane, and there is an incredible network of rails with canetrains or trams (they call them trams there)
On one occasion the old steam locomotive was returning to the mill late in the evening, and there was a massive hill it "chuffed" up always just making it with about 60 fully laden carts.
For a lark one evening, your chaps greased the rails for twenty or thirty feet near the top then all retired to their nearby canteen, so they eventually heard the train approaching getting up as much speed on the flat before the hill, and then the gradual loading and slowing of the engine, chuff----Chuff suddenly became a rattling of chuffs, and the whole lot went back down the hill!!! Most of the loaded carts derailed and made one hell of a mess!!!
Guess who had to help pick it all up!! 
There were a couple of tons on each cart!!! 

Still it gets a great laugh when it is mentioned!!! LOL!!!

Almost caused an international inciddent!!!

I met your chap that did the greasing that was how I learned about it (and I also met an old local that confirmed it) I was very impressed with him, he was also a Ham operator. As he said, it was the funniest thing he had ever done, he would never forget it!!

So there was a bit of fivolity during the war in some of these areas.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I was laughing about the train. You tell better stories that books I have read.But the thing is ,most often, the book writers never see much more than a class room and a local park. I am here late tonight .I was doing other things .I have both loads fixed up with all programs. Oh.About my kernel change.Yes I did it but it was not by my skill. I understand the updates come from Ubuntu and they throwed out a kernel change and we get it on Mint updates.Mint is not prepared for the change.So this load I made sure I did not get updates.Do they have old jeeps on the islands that the people kept and restored to drive?In Saigon there were Vietnamese mechanics who could make any machine run. I found an old BSA that was run down and it was restored to look better than a new one with better paint and more chrome.It was cheap to get him to restore it.But it was not easy to get it sent home when I was leaving so I sold it to a guy at the embassy for about 800 bucks but the money was in Piastres ? Their money.Most were small bills so it almost filled up a foot locker.I could not go to town before I left so all who could came by my footlocker and gabbed a hand full.So I made a lot of friends that way. I used to listen to HAM radio and try to hear people on those islands.It is nice to know that communications advanced so much in fifty or sixty years.When I was young I never dreamed I would talk to Australia so easy. The world is smaller in some ways . But eventhough they explore space there are unexplored places on Earth still.Well.I am about asleep.Try to put more stories up as you get time.


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## justo

I spent several hours messing with Mutagenx Linux.I will not try it again.


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## qldit

Good Morning justo, I haven't tried Mutagenix, it takes a lot of time playing with all these different systems and most have a lot of good points but working with wireless cuts quite a few out of the running.

I have just made a networking cable to set up another machine from my router, most of these systems really work well if they have a direct connection.

I found using Intel networking cards makes a big difference with a lot of odd problem systems, I have only been using them lately, the 10-100s are only a few dollars at "church" LOL!!

The jeeps in the islands are rare these days, mainly completely rusted out, I shared an old one in Fiji in the seventies, we mainly used it for pulling our boats out of the water, and it was in very poor shape, it had been used in one of the hit movies, I think it was "South Pacific" but not sure, it had no brakes, the brake cylinders and all the lines were rusted out, so we normally only used it on the beach and nearby flat areas, you would understand how to handle a vehicle with no brakes and how to be careful, and it was easy to jump out and stop the thing because it was so light, so it was never a problem for us experienced people. It had a big block of wood in case of runaway.
One new chap, young "bulletproof" kind of chap borrowed it one day and drove it all over the place, not worrying about inclines, anyway he visited one of the hotel resort complexes with it, and it had a fair entry incline, it was early afternoon, there was a gathering at a garden party beside the pool, you know the kind of thing!!!
So he lost it on the entry incline and managed to avoid hitting anyone, he was probably doing 20 MPH when he managed to drive the thing straight into the pool, massive upset!!! Soaking people, tables and chairs wrecked, and of course really messed up the pool. Luckily no one was hurt.
It became a bit of and attraction for a week or two, because they couldn't get it out, there were no cranes or anything there!!
People actually came from other resorts to see the jeep in the pool!!
So this fellow earned the nickname "Brakes", as far as I know he never lost that name!! LOL!! 
I haven't seen any others still working in the islands, the saltiness kills them, but there are a lot of aluminium bodied "Land Rovers" in most places.

It is funny in the remote islands brining in vehicles by small inter-island ships is an incredible feat, they have to be winched onto small boats from the ships outside the perimeter reefs to be taken ashore, and there have been many "kerplunks" or the smaller vessels capsizing with the weight! 
Of course this has to be done usually at high tide and in all kinds of weather, otherwise the ships charge extra and can be very expensive!
It is amazing to watch how some of these chaps manage with doing things!!
You or I would not even consider trying some of these methods they use!
Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

As I see problems.Like the rust of vehicles on those islands I always try to think of a solution You never know when you may hit upon an inexpensive way to solve a big problem. Then if you do you can try to make some money with the idea. But often it is easier to find a fix for a problem that end up with selling them to make money.<> When I was young we had old cars that seldom had brakes or a working starter.We live out of town so we could go down backroads.Mt brother had a 49 Crosley convertible. There was no seat for it because it was a very small car.He put a five gallon bucket for the driver seat . It was not screwed down. So A pal and I snuck it off for a ride.I came down a hill with no brakes and made a fast right turn on a road. I went out the door and my friend just stayed in until it hit some pine trees. So I know how the guy in the jeep enjoyed his ride too.Fools often live past expectations.I know I have. You say good morning? I got a notice as you posted here.It is 8-12 PM. Do you own a Mickey Mouse watch? LOL! PS. I guess there was no Linux speak in this post. Here are some nice Linux wallpapers.I got it from another forum.>> http://fantasyartdesign.com/3dgallery/a-digital/08pictures-3d.htm


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## qldit

Good Morning or evening to you justo, it is 1130 hrs on Monday here, sunny and clear, we have a slightly different timezone. It is confusing isn't it!!
Yes, you don't realise how important a driver's seat is until you experience stuff like that!! I also did something like that, but got away with it!! LOL!!
Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

It has been cold and raining here around Houston.I thought summer was here until the other day. We had to turn the heater on.How you get to those islands? In a boat or a plane? I bet the people are always watching for typhoons in the season. I can guess that it would be something to worry about unless you had a concrete house.<><> OK. I gave up on the two late versions of Dreamlinux.Sabayon Mini and Mutagenix. My favorites are <> PC Linux 2007.SAM Linux. Mint KDE Bianca.I would use Mepis 6.5 if I didn't not have the others. <> I am nearly blind from loading and testing Linux versions. I have to check my spelling a lot.


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## justo

I am on MEPIS 6.5 I lost PC Linux on the boot record.I need to study that part.


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## justo

The guy that invented the telegraph said these first words. > What has God wrought? The guy who invented the telephone said > Come here Watson,I need you! But the guy who invented the computer said> IF IT AINT ONE THING IT'S ANOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!


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## qldit

Good Day to you justo, thanks for the backgroung URL, most of those images are a bit heavy for me, mine are usually all tropical paradise kinds of things.

Getting around the islands is interesting in itself, there are some small aircraft strips in some places which can be a real experience, some are up-hill strips as much as 30 degrees slope or so, some are quite narrow between coconut trees, very close clearance kinds of strips that don't have any missed approach safety, so weather can be very involved.
Airplane travel is very expensive and a lot of places only have one flight a week and getting on them can be a problem!
It can be very exciting going into some of those places especially when large birds frequent the sea side in the take-off and landing path.
There is nothing quite like hurtling down a slope in a "lighty" on take-off and watching the sea rapidly approaching and having to fly either under or over these massive wheeling birds! LOL!!

Most transport is by these small ships, usually old hand-me-downs from Europe, the are usually about 90 feet long and you can get passage on them quite cheaply, you can travel as a "deck passenger" or "saloon" but their itenerary is usually dependent on their cargo deliveries and pick-ups, it sometimes may take a week to travel a couple of hundred miles.
Deck passengers travel and sleep on deck, but it is never cold, food is pretty basic, most people have their own stuff but the onboard food is like rice and curried fish or whatever they can pick up along the way.
In the cyclone season it can be a bit "hairy"!
As you are aware there are a lot of reefs scattered in those waters.
If you want a real "experience" that is the way to travel!! LOL!!

Their main uplifts are "copra" that is the dried white meat of the coconut.
The smell of these ships is also a real experience if you like the aroma of coconut!
Some of the islands have massive loads all bagged, and it is usually bought from each producer by the captain by a bargaining process at each point.
It is an incredibly interesting operation, the ships also carry flour, onions, fuel and cloth and a lot of basic stuff like that for delivery to the various places.
This is a land where time has no meaning!
"Roughing it" is an understatment in a lot of these places, you are not allowed ashore at pick-up points, so you might enjoy staying on board while all this loading happens.

You do need a bit of local knowledge as to what to expect and where to go etc. The people are all terrific and friendly, it is like going back to a different world!

If you might be interested, I could suggest an interesting itinerary for you, you would have the experience of a lifetime doing this!! LOL!!

With many linux systems the MBR area of the drive is re-written and other systems on the drive may not boot.
If you originally make those partitions for extra systems as primaries they also include a similar MBR section at the beginning of those partitions with boot information.
If you use a live Linux like Puppy, and run it from the CD, it contains a GRUB boot loader wizard, this collects the other boot info and shows it in the boot manager menu, so it restores unbootable systems on the drives and can be useful to know.
Once Grub is successfully loaded this way and placed in a suitable position and use the MBR for the initial "kick-off" it allows those other systems to be included to the manager and then booted by selection.

The MBR has four slots to store info as to what bootable system might be included on the different partitions, but if the first slot doesn't include extra access info to a boot manager, they aren't seen.

So it isn't all that hard to recover bootable "tags" with that program.
Some windows programs easily overwrite the drive MBR first slot, so that can be a nuisance and is not all that hard to overcome by reloading Grub.

I usually try to partition a drive into basic partitions set as primaries before beginning a multi-load and installing the windows systems first.
The other partitions are easily re-partitioned to suit linux systems later on with swap partitions etc.

So Grub will pickup all the bootable partition tags at the end and show them in it's menu.

It can be a headache until you appreciate how this works, but once you get the idea it becomes pretty simple.

Having Puppy on a small partition at the end of the drive and keeping the Puppy CD in case of problems saves a lot of troubles. 

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

You have a very interesting life and i enjoy the stories of your experiences.I hope you continue with more of what you encounter in your travels.In former years I used to do more interesting things than I do now.I always wanted to do things like that. Now my dream is not so adventuresome.I just want a job in the top of a lighthouse making sure the wick has oil and burns while I tinker with eight computers.I figure that it being high that I could grab a distant wireless signal.If you sleep on deck is the mosquitoes bad as they are in SE Asia?I guess I dreaded those worse than anything else there.---------------------------- I have MEPIS 6.5 loaded.So I took PC Linux and slid off 20 gigs of space.After all the copying it showed only PC Linux on the grub list.So I quit.When it booted I saw only MEPIS as a choice so I am on that.I think PC Linux is there. So if I hacked off about 4 gigs and tried to set up for Puppy do you suppose I would get all three to show up? This is a 60 GIG hard drive. The loading is real confusing to me because of the terms for what is put in the partition. You would think a man could design a loader that reads and says ,You have Mepis loaded. Do you want to add PC Linux? YES? NO? Well.I may go off and see what the new boot record disk observes. Or I will try to set up for Puppy and see if it makes all three work.All this has made me tired. <> Come back with more stories. I enjoy them a lot.


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## qldit

G'day justo, I think giving that idea with Puppy on a partion at the end might well recover the other system. Certainly worth a try.

I still don't have PC Linux, only SAM.

I tried again and it timed out with only a small part D/L.

I think some of those other system Grub boot managers are not set to scan for other systems when they load, that is the reason I find Puppy so useful.

Mossies are no problem once you get away from land, but close to shore they are a nuisance.
I got dengue on one occasion and really "enjoyed" it, not reccomended believe me, but I managed to avoid malaria over the years, it think wearing white clothing helps enormously, but some of my friends got it!
There is no malaria in Fiji, but occasional cholera, and stuff like that sometimes appears. You need to be a bit careful, one place I went had a lot of Typhoid, but being extra careful is the key to avoidance, I taught a few teams on tropical survival, crutch-rot and all that kind of thing, but a lot of people are plain silly! I always carried a small bottle of alcohol, and never drank out of glasses, and washed my own eating gear.
The water can be a problem with "karachi gut" in a few places.
Shaking hands is another "no-no" in many places.

Actually drinking a reasonable amount of beer and wiping the bottle neck seems to help, teetotalers are like "bug" magnets!! LOL!
I met one of your doctors in one of these places, he only drank cocktails, I had a chat to try to warn him, but he thought I was ridiculous, he only lasted a week and had to be flown out. 
Ice and fresh leafy vegetables, watermelon and stuff like that is out!
Stirfry kinds of things are usually pretty safe, even if they are in dingy little places. (probably dog or cat stirfry!! LOL!!)
I got a bit of experience in India.
I didn't go to Vietnam, my service experience was different before that happened, but a lot of my mates ended up there and got "dusted".

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I made it through a year and a month ,Then later four months in Vietnam.We were suppose to eat food created by the natives but I was real picky about what I ate and though I lost a lot of weight I was never ill from bad food. My friend ended up a In DC at the big hospital after about 7 months and didn't recover soon.He ate anything he found that looked like food.I thought it would be better to take the hunger than the food that I suspected was unhealthy.I think you were right about the beer because I drink a lot of it back then.About the only other liquid I trusted was water with a lot of chlorine in it.It is amazing that the natives can eat anything and seem to survive.But maybe they are immune to things like that from birth. I think the guys that grew up outside of big U.S. cities had a better chance of remaining healthy. I guess westerners live in a sort of artificial world due to heath practices they learned in Europe from the plagues in the old days.I never saw a food inspector at the vegetable or fish markets in Saigon . Computers are changing the people all over the world I think. They are getting to be everywhere.One friend went back to Vietnam a year ago and used his laptop to get online there. I think few have access to a wire to connect up with though. I remember of growing up on stories of people in jungles who had HAM radios and was able to communicate to the world outside.Now we have computers but the talk is mostly about the instrument of communication rather than the situation of the operator. Linux is ideal for those far away countries.The old PCs will run OK with Linux.They need some kind of cheap satellite connections. It seems that a wireless signal would travel a long distance to something up in the sky.---------- I tried to load SUSE 9.1 on this PC and hit a snag. I guess it being old would not have some media players or other programs we need.I have had that disk several years.I have Corel 2 also. Anyway ,I am about to burn out on reloading PCs for awhile. I am about to fall asleep.It is 12-20 AM.Come back by when you get time to tell some more on the places you go.It would be good if you had a number of Linux CDs to hand out. You can get those free ones from Ubuntu.They even pay shipping. But the wait is long. Anyway.I will check by tomorrow for you.


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## qldit

G'day justo, yes there are some funny things happen in tropical places, especially with fellows that drink too much.
One place I was located for a while was a bit wild and one chap became too involved with the booze, he had a 45 pistol and we came home one day and he had been shooting the place up, his reasoning was the the flies were too bad and he was getting rid of some, didn't do the building much good!! 
He was gone the next day!!! (thankfully!)
But quite a few chaps go "troppo" like that in different ways.
You would probably have experienced that kind of thing also.
The constant heat gets to them.

Yes I felt sorry for a lot of your chaps, I don't feel they were properly trained in a lot of cases for these kinds of areas, but there was nothing much you could do about it except suggest a few ideas.

I was surprised to find your "peace corps" chaps in some really remote places, often involved as schoolteachers, but they always lived as if they were locals in the areas. I was very impressed at their tenacity and fortitude.
But I rarely ever spoke to them, it may have been embarrasing for them!!
I always wondered how they would re-adjust when they returned to their homes.

Some of the aftermath of cyclone (hurricanes) hits really made it interesting.
I had my HF quad destroyed twice, but I had a simple vertical that still allowed operation even though it was pretty useless.

As you are aware coriolysis effect north and south of the equator causes cyclones or hurricanes to rotate in reverse directions, but in a narrow band along the equator these kinds of storms just don't occur, so in a lot of places there is no worry with building construction, just the possibility of tidal waves every twenty years or so..
Nauru is one of these places.

A chap from a remote place here on sattelite internet bought his computer to me recently and it had been hijacked and was continuously burning up his limits and restricting his operation, it was less than dialup to begin with! These viral and malware things are a real nuisance in many cases for a lot of people like this, it virtually kills their communication ability. I made it a dual boot so that any online stuff could be strictly Linux, and he could use windows for ordinary stuff.

He had no further problems.

Many linux programs also include a "rootkit" detection file.
I have struck a couple running in windows but simply "zero wrote" the drives and reloaded the systems, they are a real pain!!
I don't think the "root kit" removal tools really work all that well. 

I would love to obtain one of these "one laptop per child" (OLPC) computers that are being presented in third world places, they run Linux and have beautiful design. 
And the new Chinese Godson 2 processors and Chinese computers also sound terrific, they also run Linux. (can't operate windows at all!)
I would love to get one of them, they are 64 bit!

I have several SuSe's here I think the latest one is 10.2 but a lot of small businesses are using it and don't appear to have any problems at all.
I feel SuSE is better accepted than Red Hat, but I haven't tried the new version of it, it is too expensive for an experiment.

Cheers qldit.


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## justo

You are early today.I understand about out people not adapting well over in that area.I think what they do if in large numbers ,They try to change everything to the way they are already used to. Yes I have heard of the laptop for children in third world countries.It is probably a simple made machine and that would be what I like.They keep adding complicated things to PCs and laptops that I can do without.I never use SCSI drives or RAID as I like things simple and reliable. I dindn't know of the new Chinese developed computer.I hope they become available here.I can do very well without Windows now.Many are afraid to try Linux because they are not informed enough about it.Some are pretty good on Windows and fear of being lost on a Linux machine.Then some think Linux is Mickey Mouse because they are told that.-------------- I notice that internet time seems to be limited to so many hours a month over there.Is that a common thing? Here ,Once we get the IP service we use it as much as we like. I think the English guys connect with their post office.Or maybe I am guessing. I made a pot of coffee.I been taking down a building for a man to avoid taxes on it.


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## qldit

G'day justo, yes most DSL systems are capped at a certain D/L limit then revert to dialup speed, some are limited by hours but they are usually dialups.
you can pay extra for better ISPs but it is expensive.

Mine is a 512 connection for I think 12 gigs D/L at $40 a month, that is cheap here, most similar deals are $60, but an unlimited accout at 1000 speed is in the order of $100 or more.
Dialups are usually $1 an hour minimum, but a lot of those deals become more expensive than cheaper DSLs.

I hope you have a cage over your seat!! LOL!!

I am busy with a couple of cars here, I do a few mechanical repairs, usually transmissions or engines. I have jut pulled the head off a Mitsubishi and have taken it for some weld repair and remachining, it was blowing into the cooling system. The water here is very corrosive and kills a lot of aluminium heads.
I pick it up late this afternoon.

My tension wrench is slightly out of whack from a diesel job I did, so I have to sort something out for this 3 step tensioning job.

Cheers, qldit.


Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I used to do a lot of mechanic work but did not want to learn foreign cars or computer controlled US made ones either. 55 to 74 Chevys is what I like.I used to have a small shop and only built Chevy V8 small blocks and street hotrod engines.I also worked on the dozers.graders,tractors and industrial engines.Oh and large trucks too but not the computer things. I wish i would have went to college on computers for construction machinery because there is a lot of money in that.I have two toolboxes attached in the back of my Mazda pickup.Plus one long one on the right side so I can have a lot of tools ready in case I do something.But not transmissions or complete engine jobs.Automatics I know nothing of.I do electrical now and then.I quit the jobs in the plants and just find jobs here and there to get by.The refineries get crowded with everyone trying to do everything at the same time and place.I Got a MESSAGE BRB.


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## justo

My lady friend came on IM to check on how I am doing.The time is not late.Mepis 6.5 seems to be a good one.I like the new looks a lot too.


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## qldit

G'day justo, yes I managed to get involved with a lot of stuff because sending it back to Australia or getting and expert sent up was either too time consuming or expensive, so I cut my teeth with the 71 series GM's and Borg-Warner 35 transmissions and all that kind of stuff.
Just having a few spares and getting bits sent up the next day kind of thing reduced downtime by 90%, so then I managed to get a few courses on the machines. 
There was rarely anything unrepairable after that.

So I got a few odd jobs with generator systems and it was good money.
I never worry about any different type diesels these days but it is dirty work on that stuff. 
Most of it is old dinosaur stuff that no one will touch these days, and some generator regulator systems are really prehistoric.

Some of the computer controlled vehicles can be a pain, the fault codes are usually unreliable.
I have one here where the coil is inside the distributor and it occasionally arcs internally under load, the owner had it to several places and they didn't pick it up. 
I am waiting for a coil for the stupid thing.
They are usually encapsulated and also contain some kind of oil, and the tell-tale is a black oily residue in the distributor.
So many of these things are back to basics, I often pull the computer controller out and inspect it, it is not uncommon to find printed circuit damage in them, small cooked areas where the tracks are damaged.

Half the problem is finding where the damned computer is in the vehicles, some are buried in the dash and others behind the side kick panels.
Many of these vehicles use a more or less conventional ignition system except that they are solid state and pointless.

I have struck quite a few machines where the drive belt had broken and the pistons and valves had made love, one had stripped all the rocker support bolts and had a lot of other damage, valves, pistons and a conrod! 

We have used spare half-life engines sent here from Japan so that resouce is often the best.
One diesel car I was presented with was something in the order of $2K just for engine parts and I got another complete motor for $600, so it pays to know this stuff is available.

I have a good hydraulic cylinder repair workshop not far away and they are good with repairs for those big cylinders on your type of equipment.
They get a bit heavy and can be a real pain to remove and refit.

I am going to have to give the Linux away for a while here also, I have several water tanks I need to make bases for and set up.
We currently have a terrible water shortage here, the worst for 150 years so it has caused a lot of problems. One drought after another!
Water is limited to 140 litres per person per day, so things are pretty tight.
No water usage outside at all.
People are using their used washing machine water for their gardens.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I came by and read but going to do a job.Be back at five.Oh ,I downloaded Goblin Linux.We have done a lot of things alike as far as work goes.I enjoyed reading that.Catch you this evening.


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## justo

I am here again.The Goblin mini is hard to connect up on wireless.i will not try it again for awhile.I fell asleep when I came in .I am trying to wake up. Oh yes.They try to make things harder to work on every year. Awhile back I worked on a CAT backhoe.It had a Perkins diesel engine that ran out of oil so needed a complete overhaul. When we pulled the engine apart two cam bearings was not where two journals were on the cam.My boss accused me of loosing them when we were going to put the engine back together.But he ended up calling Cat who said the engines came that way.We put a crank and reconditioned rods in and it is still going.I go off and do other things for a couple of years and things change fast.You have to keep up with several trades now or come back to find a whole lot has changed.


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## justo

OK, I am on the latest stable version of Puppy.Its live now.But it is late.Going to sleep.I wil load it tomorrow.It looks great and has more features than the older ones.


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## qldit

Good morning justo, yes I use Puppy usually all the time.
To get online use the networking wizard and follow the auto DHCP path, it is usually immediately on line.

I have several vehicles here with a lot of work, I will catch up later.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I tried Mutagenix again. it failed to finsh a boot up after i loaded it.Wiped it out and installing SAM Linux. I was working on a Brigs and Straton engine.Carb was clogged up.I tore down an old garage annd make a few bucks extra.I have more jobs waiting. I like that,Supposed to have a PC show up to get the Windows bugs out and add Linux.The lady paid 250 just recently to have it fixed.The left Norton and AOL in and it drags along.I will take those out and add better programs..I think I will add PC Linux as she is not up on Linux and it is an easy one for Windows people. I hear a ring.See you later.


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## qldit

G'day justo, with windows systems I normally only load the Avira A/V system, I think it is the best of them all.
I found 600 replicated viral things in one machine, it really dragged!
I also load Spybot S&D with the "teatimer" and all it's stuff scanned and set.
Comodo firewall makes a perfect addition for troublefree operation.

Just having those three usually stops other problems.

I always dump any Norton programs, I suspect they are a liability and are targetted by malware.

I have been loading Puppy Linux on a lot of clients machines as dual booters and rarely get any problems.

They can use Puppy for all their general surfing and emailing etc, without any need for anything else, but I have had problems with filesharing programs in windows, especially "Soulseek" still allowing operation straight through Linux even though the firewall was there and windows wasn't booted, accessing the non-booted windows system.

I have just spent almost half a day removing a Mitsubish Lancer 16 valve head, it was obviously not designed to be removed without removing the engine, what a pain of a job!! The oil gallery through the head gasket was leaking, that is going to be a $500 job simply for parts and a head overhaul.
I am dreading the re-assembly of the damned thing.
All the head bolts cannot be reused, so that is $45 alone!

We had a modified gauze filter for thos B&S engines, it has a coarser webbing, and doesn't clog up like a lot of the earlier ones did.
It includes the stem with the filter on it.

Cheers, best of luck with the windows machine! LOL!!

qldit.


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## justo

Went to a baseball game.My little nephew is a good ball player and I go to his games. I got the Windows PC working good.I charged the lady 20 bucks. Here is what I use in Windows PCs and they have done well for several years<>All free at www.download.com <> Zone Alarm firewall ----AVG anti virus - AVG anti spywear --Ad Aware SE anti spywear -- Spybot - Firefox browser --Belarc Advisor to see what is in the computer. ----------------- I think maybe below you are talking of an oil filter? I remember long ago when the cover was separate from the filter element in old cars.Some people put a roll of toilet paper in the cover.I never learned of how effective that was.--------------- The newer engines are difficult to work on.In about 65 Chevy had engines easy to work on and the parts were cheap. After you have worked on those and see how simple things can be you can get unhappy with the present designs..I wish you good luck with that engine.I know those are difficult to work on. The designers must not like mechanics.I am falling asleep. I might go lay down.Come back and talk again tomorrow.<> I tried a couple more Linux and went back to MEPIS 6.5 on this PC. Slax Killbill was in it awhile today.I covered it up.


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## justo

OK.I loaded Mint Bianca GNOME on this.I like it a lot. There is a red icon down by the clock that offers updates.One is a kernel change that comes from Ubuntu.So I will not click it because it crashes my wireless.But I can get programs from KDE package manager.I added KWIFI manager.GAIM and Thunderbird mail.I am getting good at hooking Thunderbird up to GMAIL.I have done it several times.---------- > I wish I could get Sabayon Mini to go with my wireless card. It shows to have the driver installed ( Prizm) But I can not find a program that connects up to the signal automaticly.> http://www.sabayonlinux.org/ http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13285&topic=1556


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## justo

The Sabayon regular size is a torrent file rather than ISO.I use ISO but I know nothing about torrent files or I would get the Sabayon regular size .


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## qldit

G'day justo, you have been having fun there, yes that Sabayon is part of the brainchild of one of Kanotix's major programmers as far as I understand, he appears to have been the major influence in it, and left to join Sabayon.
I have Kanotix on a couple of machines here and was really impressed with it, so I can imagine Sabayon will be a really decent program also.
I think Kanotix will probably wither away now, it is also based on Knoppix.

With those torrent files, you just download that small starter torrent file and (in Puppy) there is a "Transmission Bit Torrent Client" in the internet section, so open that and direct it to the torrent starter file downloaded location and that file should then show in the TBTC pane.
HiLight it and hit start and it will download from multiple sources simultaneously, it is pretty useless where I am because all the multiple sites are over where you are, but you should see a massive increase in D/L speed for these kinds of files.

You will have other torrent programs in the systems you have, as far as I know they all work similarly, very clever stuff! 
It seems that starter file conditions the search and arranges the multiple organising packet stuff. (how is that for a technical term!! LOL!!)
When the torrent D/L is complete you should have the ISO file showing.

Still waiting for this 16 valve head to be completed at the machine shop. 
Hands covered in bandaids!! LOL!!
I am dreading the rebuild job!

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I am on wireless and have low signal strength. I wondered where you went to. I can imagine you have had a problem with that head work. I could stick a 327 Chevy 8 in that frame faster than I could change the head. <> I am going to copy your instructions on the torrent file.I had the small one but deleted it.I will catch another when the fat lady gets away from the antenna over there.LOL! I have the latest versions of these. Sabayon Mini.Dreamlinux.Knopix and Goblin x . The last one has no program to get wireless going without adding info. But the others will show my Prism wireless installed but I still can not get online. Other Linux versions have good programs to get wireless on line. On this PC I loaded Mint GNOME.If I do not click on the update icon it all works fine.If I do then I have no wireless.It is a Ubuntu update and jams the wireless operation. But I like this load too.--------- Is it hot where you are working? PCs are easy compared to those cars.You can lift the PC easy and no grease is on them. Here is a thing I would like to do in the line of mechanical work.Do a certain modification to cars or trucks.You can learn the tricks easy. You have to know a lot to just repair one brand of vehicle today. Or do something new with computers. But if you can do the work there are people who will pay good money because they have to depend on a mechanic to get their vehicle going.I spend a lot of money on tools because I like to have a tool for every job.


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## qldit

G'Day justo, yes I am a tool freak as well, but I had to go and buy a special long 13 MM off-set ring spanner and a decent 10 MM multi-hex half inch socket for this darned machine.
The head bolts were all 10 MM multihex, but one I had a few weeks ago was all all hex keys, can you imagine that, it needed about 80 ft/lbs of strength to crack them all, and I didn't want to break anything. Flank drive sockets are useless.
Those head bolts are all "use once" stupid things!! 

I have a dozer working on building up a level nearby here, it really has "clanking" tracks! They have brought in a mountain of earth, must be 300 tons or so.
It also has a laser stalk, but odly enough this one is mounted on the blade, not on the cab! 
Goodness knows how it works!

I haven't been playing with the Linux stuff for the past few days, and probably won't be able to do much for the next few! 
I have a radiator that needs back-flushing here, so it will be interesting to see how much garbage is in it. 
I have a decent aircompressor but we have water restrictions so I will have to do it out of sight!! LOL!!

Read up on that ndiswrapper, it is an interesting program for wireless stuff and works really well.

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

I had thought a long time of how to put a small lazer on a dozer blade and make it cut to a target set up a distance in front.I never got the idea to work even in my mind.I even thought to link off the blade arm with a riflescope.Cutting grade for 12 hours a day can stress you out if it is inspected and has to be right on. If you get a chance to look at that dozer see what you can learn.Here now they often use bad operators (outside of the oil refineries) and pay off the inspectors for shoddy work to get it passed.--------- That Linux stuff really takes a lot of study when you run into those problems.Most often I get around the problems by substitution of hardware.Netgear MA 311 wireless cards work on most every Linux.But there are three or four that I have not gotten on line with as of yet, -------------- What is the deal on water restrictions? That sounds like along the southern border of Texas. We have plenty of water here. <> I hope the head is not cracked yet on that machine.


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## qldit

G'day justo, yes all my wireless stuff is Netgear and it never has any problems with any of the systems.

The head wasn't cracked but we have a lot of problems here with corrosion even with the best fluids.
The machine shop welded a bit more metal (aluminium) in a couple of the corroded areas and then machines it as if it were new, they are really clever at head repairs, that is all they do.

It must be my 40 th job for them, but I did have a problem where one caused over-compression and I had to take it off and make a spacer.
It was an old Toyota Crown, hopeless engineering, like a poor copy of a Mercedes, in the end I fitted a GM engine and complete drive train.

I envy you with all those Linux systems, you are drawing well ahead of me!! LOL!!

Cheers, qldit.


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## justo

it is 3-51 am.i just woke to see what is going on. i made coffee. i was thinking before that the machine shop must be really good at repairs because we seldom do that much for a head. it is often easy to find a used one that needs only minor machine work.there must be a lot of highly skilled people over where you are. i think you would do real well over here if you owned a business. there must be a lot of salt in the air and water over there to cause so much corrosion.you should think on something to make those parts last longer.something like anodes or a thing that interferes with the electrical energy. i remember something about electrical circuits on boats like fiberglass boats that you must run ground cables properly or the metal corrodes fast. all you need is to develop some device to solve a major problem like that and you could sit around testing Linux versions and sell the devices online. i always try to think of something i could build and live outside of the cities and make money with the computer .here it seems the best money is concentrated in the bigger cities.i guess politicians direct it to large cities. for a long time i have been trying to find a good way to make a desktop kind of pc for mobile uses.now they are building very small ones with small LCD monitors.but they are expensive. i like small but easy to replace parts like ordinary PCs. laptops are difficult to replace parts in .i have a 750 watt inverter in my truck that can run desktops but no room for one in the truck. i use my laptop with an antenna in it now. i think i tried enough Linux versions.unless a new one comes on the distrowatch site i may quit burning ISOs awhile.i wish a Linux programmer would make a Linux version that you could add things to you that you have ready made on a CD.That is a good thing about Windows. i keep a lot of drivers and programs on CDs and add them to a Windows PC when i reload one.If that problem is solved i think Windows would be less used than it is now.. well, i think i will sleep awhile. i hope your repair job goes well.


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## justo

i came by at 10 pm.had a long day of work.I made a CD.(200Mbytes) Arudius 0.5 .It is an odd one.But I worked until I got tired trying to get wireless going. i guess i will sleep.


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