Announcement and release notes for Slacko64 Puppy 6.3.0

Slacko64 Puppy is built from a "Puppy builder" system named Woof-CE (woof-CE at GitHub), which can build a Puppy Linux distribution from the binary packages of any other distro. There are many "puppies" built with Woof, including TahrPup, Precise^*, Wary^*, Racy^*, and Slacko.
Each "Puppy distro" built by Woof-CE 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.

Since November 2013 Puppies are built with woof-CE. There are no release notes for woof-CE at this stage however anyone is free to browse the commits and offer code in the form of a "pull request".
The following is left here for historical purposes and still has much relevance.

Woof-CE commit log

You can view the full commit log of woof-CE "Master" branch at the following link: Master Branch.

Of interest to developers is the full commit log of woof-CE "Testing" branch at the following link: Testing Branch.

The most significant recent changes in woof-CE include:

• A new kernel update mechanism that provides even greater hardware compatibility.
• Puppy package manager redesign with improved ease and functionality.
• New user interface and UI configuration tools
• Additions, updates and bugfixes in dozens of puppy-specific applications and tools
• Inclusion of base packages into the woof structure

Slacko64 Puppy 6.3.0 - released November 2015

Slacko64 Puppy 6.3.0

16th November, 2015

The debut release of Slacko64 Puppy Linux is out!

This is the first official release of a 64 bit Puppy!

Slacko64 Puppy is built from Slackware64-14.1 binary TXZ packages, hence has binary compatibility with Slackware and access to the Slackware and Salix repositories. It is a 64 bit operating system and requires a compatible Intel (IA64) or AMD (amd64) processor. More comprehensive release notes and documentation of known issues are available.

Features include:

• Updated "First Run" GUI with bugfixes and visual enhancements.
• New kernels following LTS branches of 3 series built with f2fs support and 4 series kernels. The shipped kernel is 4.1.11
• New "change_kernels" script to easily change kernels
• Many Icon and Graphical User Interface improvements throughout the system.
• Latest Ffmpeg and supporting programs including Pmusic and Mplayer.
• Updated Joe's Window Manager (JWM).
• Visual and bugfix improvements to the tools to configure JWM, including the new PTheme, a global theme manager for JWM and ROX desktop
• Updated Firefox and Abiword
• new graphical firewall program
• Samba, used to share files with Windows, is shipped by default
• replaced epdfview with evince pdf viewer
• Many other updated programs.

As mentioned above, Slacko64 6.3.0 is shipped with kernel 4.1.11 but 3.18.22 and 4.2.5 are available from the repository and easily changed using the change_kernels script. Find more information at the Slacko download page including a brief guide to which version is right for you.

Previous Woof-CE Releases

Tahr Pup 6.0.0 - released October 2014

Tahrpup 6.0 CE

9th March, 2014

Tahrpup is out!

Tahrpup is built from Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr packages, has binary compatibility with Ubuntu 14.04 and access to the Ubuntu package repositories.

Tahrpup is built from the woof-CE build system, forked from Barry Kauler's Woof late last year after he announced his reirement from Puppy development.

It is built from the latest testing branch and incorporates all the latest woof-CE features, and is released as a choice or PAE and noPAE isos, with the option to switch kernels.

These include:

• GUI bugfixes and visual enhancements.
• Save to folder.
• New kernels which are now easily swappable.
• Quickpet
• VLC as default media player.
• Updated Joe's Window Manager (JWM).
• Visual and bugfix improvements to the tools to configure JWM.
• Many other updated programs.

Please visit the Tahrpup forum page for more information Here

Slacko Pup 5.7.0 - released March 2014

Slacko Puppy 5.7

9th March, 2014

A new release of Slacko Puppy Linux is out!

Slacko Puppy is built from Slackware-14.0 binary TXZ packages, hence has binary compatibility with Slackware and access to the Slackware, Salix and Slacky package repositories. More comprehensive release notes and documentation of known issues are available.

Slacko 5.7 is the first Puppy built from the woof-CE build system, forked from Barry Kauler's Woof late last year after he announced his reirement from Puppy development.

It is the natural progression of Slacko 5.6 with the added features introduced to woof-CE.

These include:

• New "First Run" GUI with bugfixes and visual enhancements.
• Improvements to the "Welcome" screen.
• New kernels following LTS branches and either patched or already built with f2fs support. 3.4.82 is built as non PAE and 3.10.32 is built with PAE support.
• Many Icon and Graphical User Interface improvements throughout the system.
• Proprietary video driver upgrades available for Nvidia and AMD/ATI graphics for new and legacy cards.
• Ffmpeg-2.0 and supporting programs including Pmusic and Mplayer.
• Updated Joe's Window Manager (JWM).
• Visual and bugfix improvements to the tools to configure JWM.
• Many other updated programs.

As mentioned above, Slacko 5.7 is available with a choice of LTS kernels; 3.4.82 and 3.10.32. Find more information at the Slacko download page including a brief guide to which kernel is right for you.

Legacy woof releases

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):

• "Firmware tarballs" redesign 1 2 3 4 5 6
  
• Package management related improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
   15 16 17 18 19
  
• Internationalization improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  
• Various system fixes and hacks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
  
• Driver loading and event management 1 2 3
  
• Improved menu layout and management 1 2
  
• Woof online repository 1 2
  
• Full installation, f.s. check at bootup 1 2
  
• Support for ARM boards 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
  
• One-click editing of initrd.gz 1 
  

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
  

At the release of Precise 5.4.3 (2012-12-18):

• Various improvements and bug fixes 1 2
  

At the release date of Wary and Racy 5.5 (2013-03-03):

• A gadzillion fixes 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
  
• Improved Multiple Sound Card Wizard 1
  
• Trash applet fixed 1
  
• Puppy Universal dd (Pudd) improved 1
  
• Full support for udf filesystem 1 2
  
• New top-level /run directory 1
  
• Preliminary support for f2fs (Flash Friendly File System) 1 2 3 4 5
  
• Infrastructure to support Frisbee network manager 1 
• Major overhaul finding categories of packages 1
  

At the release date of Precise 5.6 (2013-05-21)

• More Woof scripts internationalized, new language translations 1 2 3 4 5
  
• Improved MoManager GUI translation manager (see here) 1 2
  
• Many Woof scripts/infrastructure improved/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
  15 16 17
  
• New Xorg Video Wizard and forced-reboot recovery 1 2 3 4 5 6
  
• New legacy-GRUB manager, replacing old Kent Robotti script 1
  
• Improvements for the Puppy Package Manager (PPM, see here) 1 2 3 4
  
• Woof infrastructure improved support for Frisbee (wireless manager) 1
  
• Support for kmod (replaces module-init-tools) 1
  
• Matching GTK2, GTK3 and Qt4 themes 1 2
  
• New default Xft.dpi is 96 (all earlier pups are 78) 1
  
• Faster conversion Debian/Ubuntu pkg db to Puppy db format 1
  

At the release date of Precise 5.7 (2013-07-29):

• A significant development has been to redesign the pup_event_frontend_d daemon from a single script, to a modular format with a small compiled daemon 1 2
  
• Support for running Internet applications as user 'spot'. The original LoginManager has now become the Login and Security Manager 1 2
  
• QuickSetup now displays extra network configuration options 1
  
• A new IPC (InterProcess Communication) system based on inotify 1 2
  
• A long-time problem we had with overlapping desktop drive icons fixed 1
  
• Many more bug fixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
  

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".

• 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
  

Precise Puppy 5.4.3

A few more bugs found and fixed. Minor improvements at the Woof-level, see above. At the Precise-level:

• Some needed libraries and utilities were missing. ROX-Filer, Pdvdrsab fixed 1 

Precise Puppy 5.5

The very first Precise Puppy was version 5.4, on 23 October 2012, built from Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04.1 binary DEBs. Since then we have had bug-fix and minor upgrades, versions 5.4.1, 5.4.2 and 5.4.3, the latter released 17 December 2012.
Well time marches on, and Ubuntu have released their second build of Precise Pangolin, 12.04.2. Precise Puppy 5.5 is built from 12.04.2+ DEBs, but of course it is extremely important to understand with Puppy Linux that our use of the binary packages of another distro is only a convenience for us, to obtain binary compatibility, hence compatibility with that distros package repositories -- in all other respects, from the lowest levels of the infrastructure upward, Puppy is unique.

There have been many bug-fixes and improvements at the Woof-level since Precise 5.4.3 was released, plus many package fixes and upgrades. Enough to warrant the number jump to 5.5. Please read the Woof release notes above, plus "Precise-level" release notes here (in no particular order):

• "In house" package fixes and upgrades 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
  17 18 19 20
  
• losetup encryption fixed 1
  
• Package dependencies bugs fixed 1
  
• New: Frisbee network manager 1 2 3 4 5 6
  
• Mixer GUI for Pmusic 1 
• Play with Ubuntu Phone Qt-XML in Precise Puppy 1
  

Theme
I have chosen a similar theme to the recently-released Wary and Racy 5.5. The PET packages used are 'desk_icon_theme_lagabluenight' (desktop icons), 'gtk_theme_flatbluecontrast' (gtk), 'jwm_theme_deepbluebold' (JWM window manager), and for the background wallpaper I used Puppy Forum member futwerk's excellent 'precise-darkblue-logoorange.jpg' (name changed from futwerk's original).

Upup Precise
The kernel remains at 3.2.29, although there are later in the 3.2.x series. I decided to stay at that version for now, due to the number of third-party kernel drivers compiled for it.
The kernel is PAE-enabled, which means that there are some early i686-class CPUs that will not boot -- this time I have not provided a non-PAE build of Precise Puppy -- instead, our Puppy enthusiast 'pemasu' has been building variants of Precise Puppy with recent kernels (3.7, 3.8) and non-PAE.

Pemasu has named his pups 'Upup Precise', to distinguish from my Precise Puppy. Please go to the Puppy Forum for announcements about Upup Precise. Here is one of the relevant Forum threads:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=83699
...though, I recommend monitoring the 'Puppy derivatives' section of the Forum for later announcements -- in fact you will find a lot of interesting announcements there, just one example is gray's 'Nearly Office Pup', based on Precise Puppy.

Precise Puppy 5.6

it is good to read the above Release Notes for earlier Precise puppies, to get an idea of the evolution. Relative to 5.5, this latest pup brings some exciting new features, including a new Xorg Video Wizard (with forced-reboot recovery mechanism), new non-PAE 3.2.44 kernel with lots of analog modem drivers (making this an excellent pup for those still on dialup Internet), many more applications internationalized, many applications upgraded, lots of bug fixes, and so on! Plus, a huge number of fixes and improvements at the infrastructure/system level (see last batch of Woof release-notes above). In all, a great new edition of the Precise series.

Release Notes, in no particular order:

• More apps internationalized 1 2 3 4
  
• Many system and small apps improved/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  
• New SFSs (app combo-packs, see here) 1
  
• BaCon BASIC compiler upgraded (see intro page here) 1
  
• Big apps compiled especially for Precise Puppy 1 2
  
• Improved Frisbee wireless manager 1
  
• New 3.2.44 kernel, non-PAE, i586, SMP 1 2 3 4 
  
• Improved support for f2fs (Flash Friendly File System) 1 2
  

Disregard earlier notes about PAE and non-PAE kernels. This time there is only the one kernel, configured as non-PAE. This means that the kernel cannot recognise if your PC has more than 4GB of RAM -- it will still work, just won't use that extra RAM.

Precise Puppy 5.6.1

This is a bug-fix release of Precise 5.6. Various little things fixed, nothing major. Rerwin added drivers for agrsm and hcf analog modems, rounding out Internet dialup (the old kind) modem support to be almost as good as Wary Puppy (our retro pup for old computers).

Precise Puppy 5.7

Another pup in the Precise series! This pup comes in two flavours, one for older hardware and/or those on dialup Internet, the other for those with relatively modern hardware.
The "retro flavour" is an upgrade path for those who have used our Wary Puppy, that targeted older PCs and analog modem dialup -- unlike most other Linux distributions, it continues to support a wide range of analog "winmodems". It also has two web browsers, SeaMonkey and Opera, the latter preferred for PCs with less than 256MB RAM.
The "modern flavour" only has one browser, SeaMonkey, and forgoes most of the analog modem and true-SCSI drivers, and is the choice that will suit most people (see below*). You also get the benefit of a much smaller download.

As usual, there have been lots of changes since Precise version 5.6.1 was released, bug-fixes, as well as improvements at the "Woof level" and "Precise level" -- read release notes for the former above, and the latter below:

• The "retro flavour" has analog modem drivers for agrsm, dgcmodem, ess, conexant hcf/hsf, Intel 536/537, lucent, pctel, smartlink, and more. Also drivers for true-SCSI hard-drives and cd-drives. The .sfs (squashfs) file inside the live-CD is gzipped (rather than xz'ed), which improves speed but does make the .iso file bigger 1
  
• Many libraries, utilities, and applications upgraded 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  
• PeasyGlue is a new application for joining images together 1
  
• Pidgin debuts as our multi-protocol chat client 1
  
• Retro flavour: Kernel 3.2.48 with many 3rd party drivers and f2fs patch 1  
• Modern flavour: Kernel 3.9.11, PAE, i686
  
• Miscellaneous fixes and tweaks 1 2 3
  

*Retro versus Modern
If you still connect to the Internet by analog modem dialup, you will need to use the Retro flavour if you have one of those winmodems (modems designed for MS Windows). However, there is support from some winmodems in the Modern flavour. Also, true-hardware modems will work in either flavour. If you have an ancient true-SCSI hard drive or CD drive, you will need the Retro flavour.
The Retro 3.2.48 kernel is configured for a minimum i486 CPU, no PAE support (so will not recognise more than 4GB RAM), supports the old ISA and EISA cards, and true-SCSI drives. The Modern-flavour 3.9.11 kernel requires a i686 CPU minimum (which is the vast majority), will recognise more than 4GB RAM, will not work with ISA/EISA.
Apart from the above considerations, a slow and/or RAM-limited PC will perform better with the Retro. Very roughly, if your PC has a i686 (or better) class of PC with at least 512MB RAM, choose the Modern flavour.

Theme
I put together a very interesting theme for this pup. The desktop icons are Haikupup, the wallpaper is precise-speckledblue-futwerk.jpg (created by futwerk), the JWM window manager theme is Bluesky (based on the original Bluesky by Tman), GTK theme is Glass_Sky (based on the original by Trio), and ROX-Filer is modified from the default by DejaVu Sans-11 text on the desktop, with white foreground.

Precise Puppy 5.7.1

This is a bug-fix for release for Precise 5.7. If you have 5.7 and any of these affect you, then please upgrade:

• The desktop drive icon for an external USB optical media did not appear.
• Non-US keyboard layout was not working properly (at bootup was US layout).
• Pidgin: could not login to Facebook and Gmail.
• Gnome-Mplayer: playing DVD videos needed fiddling with Preferences.
• A syntax error in /root/.Xdefaults.
  

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, which may be a 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/ 

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/

Download!

There are mirrors of Puppy, that you will find considerably faster than the ibiblio.org host site (which is very slow). Please go to my download page that has links to many mirrors:
http://puppylinux.com/download/

This page (c) copyright Barry Kauler, May 2013