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Announcement and release notes for Precise Puppy 5.4.2

Precise Puppy is built from a "Puppy builder" system named Woof (http://bkhome.org/woof), which can build a Puppy Linux distribution from the binary packages of any other distro. There are many "puppies" built with Woof, including Lucid, Wary, Racy, FatDog, and Slacko.
Each "Puppy distro" built by Woof is a distinctive distribution in its own right, with unique features. You choose a puppy based on your particular needs, be it specific hardware, software, or access to and compatibility with the package repositories of a particular major distro.

Woof release notes

Woof is the substratum of all puppies built from Woof, so these notes are common to all. To see the complete history of Woof, go to my blog:
 http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewCat=Woof
Since the commencement of the Woof project in November 2008 there has been rapid development, too much to list on this summary page. However, here are highlights:

Since the release of Puppy 4.3.1 (2009-10-17) up to the release of Quirky 1.0 (2010-05-05), in no particular order:
  • Significant improvements in using the Aufs layered filesystem 1 2
  • Improved automatic detection & configuration of analog & 3G modems 1 2 3 4 5
  • Samba printing issues resolved 1
  • The Xorg Wizard has improved detection and configurability options 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  • Many improvements & bugfixes for bootup & shutdown scripts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Simple Network Setup (SNS), very simple wired and wireless setup 1 2 3 4 5
  • Recovery after improper shutdown (such as power failure) 1 2
  • Single location for GPL licenses 1
  • Integrated handling of all the network setup tools 1 2 3
  • New small GUI utilities 1 2
  • PET package creation tools, package management, improved 1 2
  • Some system utility scripts are improved 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
  • System services can now be enabled or disabled 1
  • Improved hardware detection and localisation in the initramfs 1 2 3 4
  • Woof hosted on Bones version management system 1 2
  • Major enhancements to the Woof build scripts, new GUI 1 2 3
  • New Woof logo 1
At the date of release of Quirky 1.1 (2010-05-15):
  • Puppy Package Manager can now list all packages in a repository 1
  • Simple Network Setup has improved surety of connection 1
  • CUPS printing with Samba now works properly 1
  • First-boot welcome page now starts quickly in low-resource PCs 1
At the release of Quirky 1.2 (2010-06-05):
  • Gtkdialog-splash is a great replacement for yaf-splash 1
  • Bug fixes 1 2 3 4
  • Database of files builtin to the SFS read-only filesystem 1
  • For the first time, now supports hardware clock set to localtime or UTC 1 
  • Improvements to detection and dialing, analog and 3G modems 1 
  • Widescreen support for Intel GMA3150 1
  • Tweaks to CPU frequency scaling, trying on-demand as default 1 
At the date of release of Quirky 1.3 (2010-09-22):
  • Extended help at bootup 1
  • Rationalised Puppy filenames and streamlined find at bootup 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Enhanced yaf-splash 1 2
  • Analog/3G modem detection/usage improvements 1 2 3 4 5
  • Utilities improved, bugs fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 
  • Xorg-related improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  • Pup Advert Blocker builtin to Woof 1
  • Network transfer monthly logging 1
  • Improved 'man' utility 1
  • Woof supports Slackware .txz packages 1
  • Clean unmount of 'savefile' 1
  • DejaVu fonts upgraded 1 
  • Samba CUPs printing, smbspool replacement 1 2
At the date of release of Quirky 1.4 (2010-11-27):
  • Analog/3G modem detection/usage improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  • New Video Upgrade Wizard 1 2 3
  • Many little bug fixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
  • DejaVu fonts improved 1
  • Improved file locating and handling at bootup and shutdown 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Ask before upgrading a save-file 1
  • Dialog to install Flash Player 1
  • /etc/modprobe.conf finally retired 1
  • The welcome-first-boot window starts fast, low resources 1
  • New GUI for the ALSA Wizard, bugs fixed 1
  • Accumulated monthly network transfers, improved 1 
  • The on-again/off-again UTF8 saga 1 2 
  • File downloading that works 1 
  • Proxy server setup 1 2 
At the date of release of Wary 5.0 (2010-12-29):
  • Scripts moved to new yaf-splash 1
  • Many little bug fixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  • New GUI tool to remove read-only packages (for remastering CD) 1
  • Improvements to Puppy Package Manager (PPM) 1 2 3 4
  • 'zzz' Woof branch:
    • Bug fixes and improvements 1 2
    • Wireless 3G modem detection and setup 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    • Modified usb-modeswitch and JimTcl 1 2 3
    • PupDial enhancements 1 2 3
At the date of release of Wary 5.1 (2011-02-19):
  • Many system & utility script tweaks and fixes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  • UTF-8 locale fixed for Xlib apps 1 
  • Many analog modem drivers for 2.6.32.28 kernel 1 
  • Zigbert's alternate PPM UI 1 
  • Netboot fix 1
  • 'zzz' Woof branch:
    • Improved SNS wireless scan 1 
    • Jimtcl extracted to a separate PET 1
At the date of release of Wary 5.1.1 (2011-02-25):
  • Minor bugfix of Puppy Package Manager 1 
  • Tweaks saving session to Flash drive 1
  • Remove duplicate listing of save-file choices at bootup 1 
  • nluug.nl repo removed from list (hopefully temporarily) 1
At the release date of Wary 5.1.2 (2011-05-25):
  • Woof now supports RPM packages, as does the Puppy Package Manager 1
  • Many bug fixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
  • 'pup_event' daemon major rewrite (based on 'zzz' PET) 1 2 3 4
  • 'fido' non-root operation introduced 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Sound Wizard frontend window 1
  • Unlimited dotted version numbers, have broken out from 3-digit limit 1 2
  • 'welcome1stboot' window rewritten in BaCon 1
  • UTF-8 locale names changed from .utf8 to .UTF-8 1
  • SFS downloader GUI 1
At the release date of Wary 5.1.3 (2011-08-15):
  • Bugs fixed, scripts improved, utilities updated 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Versioning support for dependencies 1 2
  • 'common' repository created 1 2
  • Enhanced desktop drive icons 1 2
  • New utilities: exploderpm 1 2 3 pngoverlay 1
At the release date of Wary 5.1.4 (2011-08-29):
  • Bugs fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  • New 'findpkgs' script to find pkgs to use in build 1 2 3 4
  • Woof improvements for Slacko (Slackware-based) build 1 2 3 4
  • Unique hostname on network 1
At the release date of Wary 5.2 (2011-10-15):
  • Bugs fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • 'pupdialog' drop-in replacement for 'dialog' when X running 1 2
  • PupCamera: automatic digital camera recognition 1 2
  • Woof general improvements/rationalizations 1 2 3 4
  • X GUI shutdown, even internationalized 1 2 3 
  • Support for JWM menu icon 1
At the release date of Wary 5.2.2 (2011-11-17):
  • Semi-automated Flashplayer download fixed 1
  • Saving session as an encrypted file was partly broken 1
  • Tweaks, improvements, fixes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  • X GUI Quick Setup, fast configuration at first boot 1 2 3 4 5 6 
At the release date of Wary 5.3 (2012-4-7):
  • There has been a massive restructuring to support internationalization. Puppy can now be very easily changed to operate in any language, right from early bootup. At the heart is an easy-to-use GUI named 'MoManager' that makes translation to any language very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 
  • Translation is achieved by a one-stop-shop 'langpack' for each language -- so far we have de, fr, pl, ru, es 1 2 3 4 5
  • A huge number of important bugfixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 
  • New 'pupmessage',  simple replacement for xmessage 1
  • The 'underdog' has made a comeback 1
  • Non-root user 'fido' still not ready for regular use, but some progress 1
  • Woof2 supports multi-architecture, and hosted online in a Fossil repository 1 2
At the release date of Precise 5.4 (2012-10-23):
At the release date of Precise 5.4.1 (2012-11-10):
  • Various system fixes and tweaks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
  • Saving to entire partition, shutdown/reboot failures 1
  • PET repository path problem 1 2
  • devx-only-installed-packages extracted from woof-installed-packages 1
At the release date of Precise 5.4.2 (2012-11-30):
  • Syncing local package database with online deb repos now fast 1 2 
  • Improved menu categorization 1 2 3
  • Various improvements and bug fixes 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • New 'cmptree' script 1
  • PPM: automatic online check for a Service Pack 1
  • Rewritten 'report-video' script 1
Please note that some puppies that are not built from the latest version of Woof, or remasters of an earlier release of Puppy, may not have all of the above features.

Precise Puppy 5.4

Precise Puppy is built from Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04.1+ binary DEB packages, hence has binary compatibility with Ubuntu and access to the vast Ubuntu package repository. Couple that with Puppy's tiny size, speed and ease-of-use, and this is one incredible pup!

This is the very first release of Precise Puppy. It is assigned version 5.4 to indicate it's position relative to the other puppies, such as Wary 5.3 and Slacko 5.3.3 (5.4 coming soon).

A lot of work has happened at the "Woof-level" since the release of Wary 5.3 in April 2012 -- of particular importance to Precise are the many enhancements to the Puppy Package Manager (PPM). The following are Release Notes at the "Precise-level".

Release Notes (in no particular order):
  • New audio/video and snapshot apps and capability 1 2 3
  • New and updated utilities and apps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14  15
  • New analog (dialup) modem drivers 1 2 3 4 5
  • System-level and management refinements 1 2 3 4
  • Commercial X.org video drivers 1 2
  • Internationalization improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  • 3.2.29 kernel, SMP, PAE, i686 1 
PAE Kernel
The 3.2.29 kernel in Precise Puppy is configured with PAE, which means that the CPU must be PAE-capable. Precise also requires a Intel i686 or later CPU. Some CPUs in the early days of the i686 architecture are none-PAE, a very small percentage of the overall number of i686+ computers currently in use.
If you happen to have one of those none-PAE CPUs, please use Wary Puppy, or monitor the Puppy Forum as it is likely the "Puppy community" will build a Precise Puppy with a none-PAE kernel (I will also announce it on my blog).
Note: "PAE" enables the kernel to support a computer with more than 4GB of RAM.

Theme
Precise 5.4 has been built with the 'stark-blueish' GTK theme, 'stark-blueish' JWM theme, 'Neon' desk icons and 'precise-futwerk-1b.jpg' wallpaper. I would like to thank vicmz for composing the Neon PET and futwerk for creating the nice wallpaper. Note, if you are curious how themes are created for Puppy, read the Themes Intro. page. Note 2, lots of themes are available for installation in the 'noarch' repository in the PPM.

PPM
I mentioned above that the Puppy Package Manager has undergone a lot of development. If you are new to Puppy and want to get a quick overview of the PPM, read the Puppy Package Manager page. That page was last updated in 2009, however the principles are still the same (I intend to update it soon). In the Woof Release Notes above, you can follow the links to find out about the myriad improvements made to the PPM. There is also an on-line Help page for the PPM. We are still refining the PPM to work flawlessly with the Ubuntu repositories -- updates on this will be posted to my blog.

Precise Puppy 5.4.1

This is a bug-fix release of 5.4. Yes, we did find some significant bugs and shortcomings, and fixed them! There is one significant fix at the "Woof-level", that broke shutdown and reboot when the session is saved to the entire partition. Quite a few fixes at the "Precise-level": Some of them are just annoying, such as ePDFview rendering wrong colours. Or, somewhat more than just annoying, such as missing firmware that caused some wireless drivers to fail. Precise-level Release Notes, in no particular order:
  • PDF Viewer (ePDFview) wrong colours fixed. 1
  • Samba share mounting/management improved 1 2
  • Wireless drivers and firmware 1 2 3
  • Application/utility updates 1 2 3 4 5  
  • Glib/gio module-loading bug 1
New blog
Note that my blog, at http://bkhome.org/blog, has been archived, now read-only. A new blog has commenced at http://bkhome.org/blog2.

PAE kernel
For those with Pentium-M CPUs that do not support PAE (see comment above), I did release a build of Precise 5.4 with a kernel configured for non-PAE-capable Pentium CPUs. I will shortly do the same for 5.4.1 -- please monitor my blog for the announcement.

Theme
Note that the theming is the same as 5.4, except that the GTK theme has been changed to 'flat grey rounded' -- due to text highlighting problems experienced by some users with the 'stark-blueish' theme.

Precise Puppy 5.4.2

This is a bug-fix-of-a-bug-fix release! Although, there are some significant advancements at the Woof-level, see above. At the Precise-level:
  • BaCon BASIC compiler upgraded (refer 1 2, note requires the devx sfs) 1
  • Ubuntu 'dvdauthor' pkg broken, using pkg from Slacko 1


Lots of puppies...

Spup (Slacko)

"Spup" is our generic name for puppies built with Slackware binary packages. The foremost right now is "Slacko", currently one of our official flagship puppies.

Upup (Precise)

"Upup" is our generic name for puppies built with Ubuntu packages. Our latest is Precise Puppy, built from Ubuntu Precise Pangolin binary packages. What you get is a very small distro (the live-CD is about 150MB) yet with just about every application you would need and the speed and ease-of-use that Puppy is famous for. All of the advantages of Puppy, plus binary compatibility with Ubuntu .deb packages -- Puppy's own Puppy Package Manager will install any packages from the vast Ubuntu repositories!

Wary

Wary is intended to be state-of-the-art, built with the latest Woof and recent packages, except for some rollbacks where newer packages are considered less than satisfactory. Currently, Wary uses Xorg 7.3 (as, quite frankly Xorg 7.4+ have a lot wrong with them). Wary may be your better choice for older video hardware. Wary is built with kernel 2.6.32.x, to suit older hardware. Also, we have a large collection of drivers for old analog modems (we are unable to compile many of these drivers with later kernels).  Wary intro. page: http://bkhome.org/wary/  Wary blog: http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewCat=Wary

So many more puppies!

It is so easy to create a custom Puppy, either by using Woof or remastering the live-CD (there is an super-easy remaster program in the Setup menu), and this has resulted in a huge choice of custom puppies. The main problem is finding out just what is available. A good starting point is the Community News page:
http://puppylinux.org/news/