'Puppy' Linux Corner.....

Hi, Dave.

You're in luck, my son. For some reason, I thought you were on 32-bit Tahr...

I maintain the 64-bit Chrome packages for the Puppy community. I have to rework them ,'cos otherwise the .deb packages will bugger up permissions throughout the system, y'see. They're designed for a multi-user system, where everybody is just a 'user'; Puppy, of course, as you must know by now, runs as root all the time. These are in SFS format, so if you're not familiar with using these, I can talk you through it. I'll give you the link for the thread on the Puppy Linux Forum, OK?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=107301&sid=36c6116b9f6f2233ae533ffb69c65805

From there, you can get the download link. Now then, photo editors..... You'll have to excuse me; I run around a dozen 'Pups' (they're a wee bit addictive!), and I'm in a 32-bit 'Slacko' derivative at the moment; graphic design's a long-standing hobby of mine, and I use both the GIMP, and Adobe's Photoshop CS2 ( an old version, but it's super stable under WINE). However, you want a basic photo-editor...

GTK is actually a method for decorating window managers ( or something similar); that's not what you want at all. I know; just what ya need. Look in the PPM, and search for 'fotoxx'. That'll do what you want!. It's got loads of unusual features, but it'll work nicely as a basic photo editor.

I'm not the person to ask about photo-editors, really. I do run one (it's called PhotoScape, and I used it for years in XP.....but it just happens to run perfectly under WINE). Only around 18 MB in size; but the snag is that you've got to install over 200 MB of WINE to run it...! Which is a wee bit OTT, I feel....but since I use several MyCrudSoft apps in Puppy, it balances out.  

I would say Shotwell, but that's more of a photo-organiser. It's got some basic editing features, but it's one big downside is it wants to organise your pictures into totally incomprehensible lists.....like you can't find anything afterwards..! And it does this by default, the first time you fire it up.....

Leave this one with me, please. I'll have a session in Tahr64 tomorrow (we're about 9-10 hours ahead of you, don't forget, so it won't be so long before I turn in), and I'll do some research. There's plenty to choose from, but the point is whether they'll run in Puppy....

BTW:- Out of sheer curiosity, why are you running two versions of exactly the same Pup?

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 04 December 2016 - 07:50 PM.

Hi again, Dave.

Yes; I'd go with Fotoxx. It's available through the PPM, and here's a couple of user-guides from the developers. One even has a video link to a YouTube demo:-

http://www.kornelix.net/fotoxx_topics/userguide-en.html

http://www.kornelix.net/fotoxx/fotoxx.html

See how you get on with it. I've dabbled with it in the past; it has all sorts of things you can play around with. The Warp/Transform Menu is particularly fun..!

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 04 December 2016 - 06:13 PM.

@Dave:-

Just for inspiration, here's my current 'Tahr64' desktop. That's the GKrellM system monitor over on the right-hand side (currently running the 'ShinyMetal2' theme).....with the weather module from Zigbert's pWidgets showing underneath it.

You can tell I've been playing around with this kinda thing for quite some time, can't you? The icons are my own very eclectic selection, built up over several years from hundreds of different Google image searches.....and the drive icons down the bottom are just one of several different sets I've knocked together for Puppy, a few months ago.

I got kinda fed up with looking at the same old icons since the original Tahrpup came out, over 2 years ago.....!

Mike.

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 04 December 2016 - 07:39 PM.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for all the info and links !!  I got both Shotwell and Fotoxx to try. I think Fotoxx will work better for me. It has a lot of interesting features.

Haven't had a chance to try them all yet ....

I'll check out the link to your 64 bit packages.  

I put on tahr64 6.0 CE first because I wasn't sure what it was like compared to Slacko

and Precise. I had run both Slacko and Precise from a USB stick because I didn't know about "Lick".

After trying 6.0 CE I wanted to try the upgrade without losing my saved changes to 6.0 CE so I put on tahr64 6.0.5 by itself.

If " Lick" will let me, I'll add other Puppy distros like Slacko and Precise.........

Nice looking desktop !!   I'm envious  ............

Is there a way to create a folder on the desktop to save my edited photos ?  Would I be better off creating a folder in the usr directory ?

Thanks for all your help !!!

Dave 

Hi again, Dave.

Hm. Okay. Well, what I would do in this case (if you've got the disk space, that is) is to create a separate 'Data' partition.....for keeping all your documents, pictures, personal stuff, etc. It's always a good idea (and, indeed, recommended practice from a safety point of view). It's also good practice, with Puppy, to get into the habit of doing regular back-ups of your save-file or save-folder (this is what holds all of Pup's configuration & settings, etc.) Simply copy'n'paste it once a week, once a month, however often you want to do it, to an external storage medium of some kind. I have an external Seagate USB hard drive I keep my back-ups on.

That way, if Puppy should go into 'melt-down' for any reason, you can quickly restore her.....and your personal data is untouched, too.

Once you've done this, all you need to do is open your data partition to a ROX window, then simply drag'n'drop your 'Pictures' folder onto the desktop. It then becomes a permanent link to that folder, and will open straight to it, whenever you click on it.

Now, I've done a short video clip, simply to show you what I mean. I don't know whether this will work, as I've never done this before..!

Well, I'll be hornswoggled..! Howzabout that? Yep, that seems to work OK. It appears that having had a Google a/c for an eternity means that I've also had a YouTube a/c.....and never even realised it. I just knew SimpleScreenRecorder would come in useful one day..!

No sound, I'm afraid.....but it's only a demo, after all. Now I need to find out how you embed the things into the web-page, here on BC...

'Sokay, guys; as you can see, I've sussed it. Yay!

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 06 December 2016 - 07:09 AM.

Hi again, Dave.

The other thing you can do, once you've created a data partition, is to use the same process to sym-link folders within that partition into /root. That's the folder that opens by default when you click on 'Files' on the desktop.

That way, you can access all your desired folders from one single location. Easy peasy.

Like this. I'll delete an existing sym-link, then re-establish it again by way of demonstration:-

Sorry stuff's a bit fuzzy to start with in these. I haven't figured out all of SimpleScreenRecorder's settings yet..!

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 05 December 2016 - 12:01 PM.

Hi Mike ,

You have outdone yourself with the videos !!  Thank you very much !!

I also use a Seagate external 500 GB drive as  a back up. I usually use Macrium Reflect to create an image of the disk.

I put my Linux distros on a separate partition of my 1 TB  storage drive. I use an SSD for my Windows OS and MS programs 

like Word.

I was happy to find " Lick "  , so now I can have several different Pups loaded on my HDD and choose at boot.

Thank you for the file management tips !!  I didn't realize I could drag folders from the file manager like that.

I noticed you used " absolute" during the move.  I have been using just Move.  How are they different ?

Take Care   

Dave

Hi, Dave.

Glad to hear the videos helped.

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

Yes, the file 'action' box is a wee bit misleading.....and it's one of the few things there isn't a tooltip for.

'Copy': self-explanatory.

'Move': again, self explanatory. (Though, if you've 'moved ' your Pictures directory to the 'desktop', fr'instance, essentially you've placed the entire thing within ROX's 'pinboard' - which is another confusing term for newbies; I'll try to explain that one in depth a bit later.)

'Link (relative)': this will link any file to any other file within the same 'main' directory. (/usr/, /lib, /opt/, /root, etc.)

'Link (absolute)': this will link any file to any other location, anywhere in your system (and connected drives).

Hope that clarifies matters somewhat. I know Puppy can be confusing to newcomers; she certainly confused the hell out of me when I first began to experiment with her..! (And before you ask, this is all to do with the cute little puppy image I add to most of my desktops. I can't help but think of her as a 'she'.....and she's so sweet!) 

All say 'Aaaah...' 

There are versions of Puppy that come with the LXDE, XFCE, and KDE desktop environments 'remastered-in' as standard.....and if you so wish, there's usually the facility to add these from the PPM. Many folks are more familiar with these, and their associated file managers; PCManFM with LXDE, Thunar with XFCE, and of course, Dolphin with KDE. That's one of the wonderful things about Linux as a whole.....the endless possibilities for customization. But I'm not going off on a tangent with that one; it's a subject for another post. And there's the 'Show us your Linux desktop' thread, too.....

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

On a finishing note, I've also got an SSD in the big ol' Compaq desktop. I bought one for ye ancient Dell (with the PATA/IDE interface), to replace the extremely tiny Hitachi drive that originally came with it. I soon realized I wanted a larger one.....so when the first one came out of the Dell, I made up a custom 'cage' for it, stuck it in the Compaq, and put a few more 'Pups onto it. Grub4DOS will happily create a boot menu across as many drives as you like.

(The Compaq was built at the time when SATA was just getting of the ground, so it has both IDE and SATA ports. The main drive is a 500 GB WD Caviar 'Blue SATA III.....connected to a SATA 1 port.)

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 05 December 2016 - 08:21 PM.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for all your help !!

I'll try to learn the ROX file manager for now, I think I'm beginning to understand it. If it gives me too much grief

I'll try loading one of the other desktops.  I added Slacko to my Lick offerings so I can learn that as well.

After using the SSD for a while I don't think I would ever go back to a regular drive as my primary. The SSDs are

lightning fast  

Take Care

Dave 

Hi, Dave.

No worries. Glad I've been able to help with a few things. Any time you need help with anything else Puppy-related, drop in.....and we'll see what we can do. That's the idea of this thread; it's intended to be 'on-going'..! 

ROX is a very powerful tool, once you get the hang of it; it's worth persevering with. I use it most of the time these days. On the odd occasions like today, when I'm using PCManFM in LXPup Tahr, I have to actually stop and think what I'm doing..!

'Familiarity breeds contempt', as the saying goes.

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 06 December 2016 - 08:04 PM.

I didn't realize they did blender for Linux till I saw your desk top. Its a good looking desktop. What do you make in Blender? sorry for going offtopic.

Hiya, HolyCowz.

'Its a good looking deskt...' Gawd, you must need specs worse than I do! (And I've only been wearing 'em for 50 years or so...) 

The compliment is appreciated.    (And nothing's 'off-topic here'.....so long as it's Puppy-related. Okay, so it's 'loosely-related'. Still... You asked me what I do with it in Puppy, so.....)

We-e-e-elll..... I'll let ya into a wee secret here. (Sh! *Don't tell anybody...*    )

(It's the usual story of having BIG plans.....and getting nowhere fast.)

I've had it installed for well over 18 months.....and so far I've only got the hang of moving things around, and a bit of 'texturising'... Straight up!

I spend so much time working on software packages for the Puppy Forum, and various other guff I've got going on here at home, that I just don't find the time to use it. One of these days, one of these days.... 

In all fairness, I don't think me system's got the 'grunt' to do it justice, like..! AFAIK, it's another one like the GIMP; it originated here in the Linux world.....and only got ported to Windows after folks saw what could be achieved with it. There's been quite a few animated 'shorts' made with it, of which this is one of the most well-known:-

Now if you wanna know what I do with Photoshop & the GIMP..... On second thoughts, don't. I'd be here for ever and a day..! 

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 06 December 2016 - 08:34 PM.

LOL it's a good looking screen when compared to mine. Not worn glasses for 58 years now lol

I used gimp and Blender with cry engine years ago to make the kids a safe non violent game took ages I had to learn on the fly but it turned out very well. Think Jurassic park meets aliens, medieval and bush craft adventure with all sorts of terrain and portals to get around while solving puzzles to get off the world and discover what happened to the occupants of the world lol.

Morning, HolyCowz.

Like I said, I seriously need a system rebuild before I decide to start using Blender in earnest. I don't think an elderly dual-core Athlon64 X2 and 3 GB RAM is really gonna cut it, you know? I need at least a decent quad-core, and either 8 or 16 GB RAM before that baby'll start to run properly.....but, unfortunately, it's not on the cards just yet. Too many other things need doing first, I'm afraid.

I know what I WANT to do with it.....

Mike. 

Come march I may be getting rid of a intel core2 quad cpu q6600 2.40ghz still pretty fast for its age lol I'll keep you in mind (free of course). 

Edited by HolyCowz, 07 December 2016 - 05:25 AM.