Puppy Precise 5.4.3 and VLC, TuneIn, Zarfy, ppstream Instal

Date: 01/26/2013
Author: markov2013
Subject: Step-By-Step Installation of Puppy Linux LiveCD (Precise 5.4.3) and Its applications: VLC, TuneIn, Zarfy, Opera, Simplified Chinese, xvkbd, pfind, ppstream.
Reference Forum Site: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php
Primary xxxx.pet Download Site: http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/

Introduction:
Due to my Hp laptop hard drive falure, I initially decided to use Puppy Linux LiveCD to recover files from the corrupted HD. However, I ended up to install many linux common vedio applications such as VLC, TuneIn etc. successfully. In the following, I recorded my experience.
1. Hardware: HP G70-460US 17.5", 2009 edition. Check its specification on http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&tmp_geoLoc=true&product=3979153
1.1 Hardware RAM size: 2.0G
2. Puppy Linux Version: precise-5.4.3.iso (Precise Puppy 5.4.3), Download from: http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/precise-5.4.3/precise-5.4.3.iso , Size 155MB, md5sum = 3a250ffc516d72d37f1644b7373047fe .
3. A USB flash: size 4.00G (used for USB boot-up later. Size larger the better, 500 MB at least).
4. An external Hard Disk: used for permanent storage depot. size: 1 TB.
5. An internal corrupted Hard Disk: after Puppy OS installed, it will be accessible.

Action: (bios boot order setup)
1. Computer bios set up : usually the PC bios' boot order is set to be the internal hard drive boot first or DVD/CD boot first to search for OS. The Bios needs to be set to DVD/CD boot first to search OS .
2. When the PC boots, press "ESC" key for some PC, or "DELETE" key for others to enter Bios setup screen; then change Bios booting order to make DVD/CD the first.

Action: (download LiveCD "precise-5.4.3.iso" and install it onto a 700MB CD as a bootable CD)
1. Downlad precise-5.4.3.iso from http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/precise-5.4.3/precise-5.4.3.iso
2. Write the "content" to a 700MD CD to make it a bootable disk. (Beware don't do "copy" the iso file to a disk which will not be bootable.)

Action: (use the bootable Precise 5.4.3 disk in DVD/CD drive to boot up the PC)
1. With the bootable Precise 5.4.3 disk in DVD/CD drive, start up the PC.
2. If all goes right, you will see the whole Precise OS is loaded into PC's RAM by "copy To RAM" message (assuming the ram is greater than 200 MB.)
3. Then the Puppy linux desktop (in English) appears. (screenshot 01 needed).
4. At this moment, just skip the "Quick Setup" dialog windows by press "OK".

Action: (make the USB flash a bootable Puppy linux USB)
1. Plug in the USB flash into a USB port in the PC.
2. On the desktop left-bottom, find an icon representing the USB flash drive to make sure that the USB flash is in place.
3. On the desktop left-bottom, choose "Menu" > "Setup" > "BF install Puppy to USB".
4. Follows the default dialog setting to install Puppy OS to the USB flash. This will make the USB flash bootable.
5. Shutdown PC by "power off" in "Menu".
6. With the USB flash in one of USB ports, power up the PC, and change the PC's bios to set boot order to set the USB flash the first bootable device.
7. Take out the CD. (you may have to power on/off PC twice.) Start up the PC, if all goes OK, the PC will pick up Puppy OS from USB flash and load it into RAM.

Action: (setup internet)
1. On desktop, choose "connect", it is a simple network setup utility made by Barry.
2. Choose "CONNECT" button, and it will work OK if you have wlan0 and see network name correctly identified in place.

Action: (save the current session to the USB flash when shutdown)
1. In "Menu" choose shutdown by "power off".
2. Before the PC completely powers off, The screen will show up a dialog window asking you to save the session to the USB flash.
3. Choose "yes" and follow the default settings, except the size setting: I set the size to be 2.00 GB. (depending on your USB maximum size, choose largest size if possible.)
4. In the process of saving to the USB flash, you are asked to set the saved file name be "precisesave-xxxx.2fs". where "xxxx" is what you assigned.
5. You may check the saved file "precisesave-xxxx.2fs" in the USB flash content next time you booting up the PC. It is located at "/mnt/home" directory.
6. Note that this asking-to-save-session-dialog window only appears for the "first time" you shutdown after installation. Once you choose "yes" during shutdown, it won't appear next time shutdown. (all subsequent sessions are saved automatically to that file.)

Action: (install Zarfy Change Monitor Resolution)
1. To setup multi-extended-monitors by connecting an external monitor. I use Zarfy to setup extented mutiple monitors (not an external duplicate monitor.)
2. Download zarfy-0.1.0-i486.pet from site http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=47603
3. The exact download link is http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?mode=attach&id=22769
4. A good practice is that after installing an xxx.pet package, one always checks it's dependency, by "Menu" > "Setup" >" Puppy Checking package Dependencies" .
5. Test it by "Menu" > "System" > " Zarfy Change Monitor Resolution" .
6. To find out how to operate Zarfy to set correctly of multi-extened monitors, check out the site http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=47603.

Action: (install the Opera Browser)
1. Download "Opera-11.00-Lucid.pet" from http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet-packages-lucid/ . You may choose other later versions. But this version works fine with my Precise 5,4,3 Puppy OS.
2. Install it by direct click on the pet package. Test run it.
3. Check its dependencies. (in my PC, there is no dependencies lacking).
4. Once it is installed, your default browser "seeMonkey" is replaced by the newly installed Opera.
5. The desktop icon "browse" is linked to the Opera executable.
6. The browser link script filename is "defaultbrowser" at "/usr/local/bin" directory.
7. You may edit this file to set the default browser back to "seamonkey" (replacing the word "opera" by "seamonkey".)

Action: (shutdown once in a while after you have install some pet packages successfully)
1. Shutdown frequently, so let the puppy OS save sessions automatically to the USB flash.
2. Power up to check if newly installed pet packages still appear in "Menu" > "..."
3. Also check "Menu" > "Setup" > "Puppy Software Package Manager" to see what pet packages you have installed so far.

Action: (install VLC)
1. The version I used is "vlc-1.1.7-full-lucid52.pet", because it is free of dependencies. Other version, such as "vlc-1.1.10-i686-lucid525.pet" I tried, cause me suffered some dependencies, and not work at all.
2. Download it from http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet-packages-lucid/ .
3. Direct click on it to install VLC.
4. Check its dependencies, and test run it.

Action: (optional -- Install Simplified Chinese plus Chinese input)
0: WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS INSTALLATION if you don't recoganize Chinese characters or cannot get someone who does to help you out.
1. This option is for whom used to Chinese interface for desktop and browsing chinese websites.
2. You need to download three pet packages. "precise-5.4.3-zhcn-sm-6.1.12.pet", "scim-1.4.7-i486.pet", and "scim-pinyin-0.5.91-i486.pet" .
3. The download site is https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=F042EC1C9DF3CFE7&id=F042EC1C9DF3CFE7!108#cid=F042EC1C9DF3CFE7&id=F042EC1C9DF3CFE7%21185 .
4. On that site, the subdirectory I downloaded all three files from "Simplified Chinese Language Pets" . Of course you may choose "Traditional Chinese Language Pets" directory to download traditional Chinese pet packages
5. By the way I picked up a better terminal program: Roxterm, "Roxterm-1.17.1-Lucid.pet" under "scim_terminal_fix" subdirectory.
6. Install them in the above listed in the of order (2.) sequentially.
7. Read the PDF file "scim_urxvt_fix_xxxx.12Dec12.pdf" comes with the package. to see how to toggle between English Keyboard input and Chinese Keyboard input (ctrl + space).
8. Check their dependencies, and most likely you will see your desktop changing to Chinese characters immediately after your installation.
Note: Packages are due courtesy to author "icake" at puppy forum site http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=680111&sid=aada843332399545e67c4a58e2008703

Action: (install TuneIn Radio Under VLC)
Note 1: TuneIn website under Linux Browsers (Opera, Firefox, Seamonkey, etc) does not have sound, however, through VLC (versin 1 or version 2) TuneIn sounds perfectly if installed correctly.
Note 2: Packages are due courtesy to author "diegofn" at VideoLan forum http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=103587
Note 3: Installation Confusion - The installation steps given by author "diegofn" most likely are for Linux VLC.2.xxx. However, VLC.2.xxx and VLC.1.xxx might have different directory tree structure once installed. That which TuneIn lua file should be copied to which VLC linux directory confuses people.
Noticing that after VLC.1.xxx is installed in Precise Puppy 5.4.3, there are two "vlc" directories. 1. "/usr/lib/vlc" and 2. "/usr/share/vlc" , and both directories have subdirectory "lua". All three tunein lua files SHOULD be copied to subdirectories "sd" and "playlist" of "/usr/lib/vlc/lua". DO NOT TOUCH "/usr/share/vlc" subdirectories.
1. Three "luc" files are needed; main file: "tunein.lua", playlist files: "radiotime.lua" and "streamtheworld.lua" .
2. Download tunein lua files from http://addons.videolan.org/content/show.php?content=152788. I downloaded the zipped file "TuneIn-Radio-VLC.zip" which includes all three files.
2.0. Edit "tunein.lua" file. In function main(), there are two lines :
local __username__ = "username"
local __password__ = "password"
Replace "username" and "password" by your own TuneIn username and password. Of course you need to go to http://www.tunein.com to register as a user in order to get your username and password. The username is most likely be one of your email address.
Save the "tunein.lua" file after edit.
3. Copy "tunein.lua" to "/usr/lib/vlc/lua/sd" directory (the "sd" directory is already existed).
4. Copy "radiotime.lua" and "streamtheworld.lua" to "/usr/lib/vlc/lua/playlist" directory (the "playlist" directory is already existed).
5. DO NOT TOUCH directory "/usr/lib/vlc/lua/extensions", DO NOT CHANGE these three file's extension from "lua" to "luac". In general I guess, "xxx.lua" script files are executed fine the same way as "xxx.luac" compiled files do under vlc.
6. Run VLC from "Menu" > "Multimedia" > "VLC Video Player" .
7. Choose vlc main menu "View" > "Playlist". A page show up on the left pane; there is an item "Internet", click the arrow precedes it, and a pull-down menu shows up; you will see an item "TuneIn Radio".
8. Click on "TuneIn Radio", and wait a moment; the right pane "playlist" will list many category directories: "My preset", "Local Radio", "Trending", "Music", "News", "Talk", "Sports", "By Location", "By Language", and "Potcast".
9. Try out one radio site in the list to see if it works.
10. Notice that when a clickable line of a particular radio site show up in the playlist pane, the line contains "mms://...", which is the mms url of that radio station. Alternatively you can copy url "mms://..." and paste it to "Media" > "Open Internet Streaming" page "URL" placeholder to listen to the radio.
11. Using (10) streaming method, you can try out radio-audio "mms://bcr.media.hinet.net/RA000014", Classic Music.
12. Using (10) streaming method, you can try out vedio "http://zb.v.qq.com:1863/?progid=1039787969", real-time Beijing TV.

Action: (optional, Installation of ppstream, a Chinese p2p video player)
1. WARNING: if you are using English Puppy Precise version, you may end up with unrecognizable characters on main "MENU" of ppstream, and leaves it useless.
1.1 "Ppstream.pet" is courtesy to "http://www.pps.tv", and pet file modification author "teasiu" in http://www.minilinux.net/node/1649 and original author "Sunny99" in http://bbs.startos.com/read.php?tid=1792940.
2. If you have already done Chinese character installation mentioned above, you may proceed the following steps. Provided that you are able to read Chinese characters.
3. Download "ppstream.pet" from http://115.com/file/agk2wxgj. There is a joggling to this download; you need to first register to http://115.com , then choose "off-line download", a clickable button (orange colored) on the right.
4. The download will end up in your personal space in http://115.com . Then you login to your own space in http://115.com , and from there download "ppstream.pet" to your local PC at home. This site is designed as a cloud programming site.
5. Install "ppstream.pet" (fully self-contained pet, no dependencies needed), and test it. There are other versions of "ppstream.xxx.xxx.pet". I tried many of them and NONE of them worked for Puppy Precise 5.4.3. Most of them are for Fedora Linux. This ppstream version is said only suitable for Puppy 5.2.0, which is untrue. It works for my Puppy 5.4.3 version perfectly.
6. Only imperfection of the ppstream player is its audio domination. Audio domination means that when ppstream plays, all other video players (vlc or GN mplayer) will be audio silent if plays simultaneously.
7. Ppstream can play local files, be them "rmvb, mp4, avi, ..." video formats. The local files listing by "open File". The menu may not list "mp4" extension files in directories. However, you may type in a particular mp4 extension file manually and press enter; then the mp4 file will play fine.

Action: (on-screen keyboard xvkbd)
1. Three files are needed, "libXaw3d.so.8.pet", "libXp.so.6.pet", and "xvkbd-3.1.pet".
2. They can be downloaded from http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=37194 .
3. Install them in the order of (1) - "libXaw3d.so.8.pet", "libXp.so.6.pet", then "xvkbd-3.1.pet".
4. The executable "xvkbd" is located in directory "/usr/X11R7/bin".
5. I made a symlink file of "xvkbd" named the same "xvkbd", and placed it in "/root/Startup" directory, so that when the PC starts up, the xvkbd virtual keyboard is automatically loaded.
6. Otherwise, open a Rox Terminal, then type in "xvkbd" (without the quotes ") at command line.

Action: (install pfind - a GUI-based file finder)
1. pfind is a gui-based file finder; I find it a quite useful tool to locate files and directories without resorting to the command line.
2. Two files are needed: "gtkdialog-0.8.2-i486-s.pet" and "pfind-5.10.pet". You can read the discussion forum at site http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15136 .
3. Download "gtkdialog-0.8.2-i486-s.pet" from site http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15136 .
4. Download "pfind-5.10.pet" from site http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet_packages-slacko14/ .
5. Install them in the order of "gtkdialog-0.8.2-i486-s.pet" first, then "pfind-5.10.pet".
6. Test pfind by "Menu" > "Document" > "Pfind file finder".

(PS. If anyone finds this post useful, please help me translate this post to Chinese.)