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Announcement and release notes for Slacko Puppy 5.6
Slacko 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 Precise, Wary, Racy, 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
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.

Slacko Puppy 5.6

13th August, 2013


A new release of Slacko Puppy Linux is upon us!
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 are available.

This is an improved version of the successful Slacko 5.5 and most packages are fully compatible. The biggest enhancement in this version is the full support of the f2fs filesystem.

Slacko 5.6 has many improvements due to the heavy development of the woof build system and the many bugfixes to the Slacko base packages (independant from woof).
For more information on the improvements in Woof (build system) read the above Woof Release notes.

Lots of packages have been updated for the 5.6 series including but not limited to the following:
  • Improved SFS Manager
  • Improved Updates Manager - to get the latest Slackware security fixes
  • New kernels following LTS branches and either patched or already built with f2fs support
  • Improved graphics support, with KMS and Mesa
  • 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
  • Abiword-2.9.4 and geany-1.23.1
  • Sylpheed-3.3.0 for email
  • Many other updated programs.
Choices
As always, Slacko 5.6 is available with a choice of kernels, 3.4.52 compiled for processors that do not support PAE and 3.10.5 for processors that do. The included browser is the latest Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release). All major browsers are available from the Puppy Package Manager along with many other packages to enhance your puppy experience.

A comprehensive round up of features, known issues and work around information can be found here.

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