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Announcement and release notes for Wary Puppy 5.2
Wary 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 (2011-10-13):
  • 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

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.
wary Wary Puppy
Wary Puppy is intended to be our on-going commitment to older hardware. Puppies built with recent Linux kernel and X.org may not work properly on older computers. In particular, some analog dialup modem drivers cannot be compiled with recent kernels. Another major area is old video hardware not working with latest X.org drivers. Many of our leading-edge puppies are built with recent kernel and X.org, however Wary is built with an "old" kernel and X.org 7.3 so as to provide better drivers for the older hardware. However, Wary is in all other respects at the leading-edge like the other puppies, with recent applications, and support for all modern peripherals (printers, scanners, cameras, digital modems, etc.). Wary is also built with the latest Woof, so has the same infrastructure as other recent puppies.

The packages used to build Wary were originally compiled from source in T2, then binary PET packages created. Wary is now built with PET packages, with a small but growing repository. As Wary is intended to be a long-term-supported project, there will be no major upgrade, only incremental improvements such as application upgrades and bug fixes. Thus, the PET repository will remain viable for years ahead and will continue to grow as developers contribute packages.

To read more about the concept of Wary, here is an introduction page:
http://bkhome.org/wary/

To follow development of Wary, read my daily blog:
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewCat=Wary

To download Wary (including sources):
http://puppylinux.com/download/

Wary 5.0 release notes

Wary 5.0 was released on December 29, 2010. The version number "5.0" does not imply any relationship/synchronisation with other Puppy releases, such as Lucid Puppy (currently nearing 5.2). Wary 5.0 simply signifies this is the first release of another fifth-generation Puppy.

Here are highlights of Wary 5.0, in no particular order:
  • Built with latest Woof, December 29, 2010, plus 'zzz' branch (see above)
  • Many applications/utilities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
  • Recent user-contributions to 'puppy-wary5' repository 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Many bug fixes and improvements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
  • BaCon BASIC compiler in 'devx' 1 2 http://bkhome.org/bacon/
  • Older 2.6.31.14 kernel, with extra modem drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  • Older X.org 7.3, supports older video hardware 1 2 3 4
  • Video X.org upgrades for newer hardware  1 2 3 4 5
  • Fantastic support for multimedia 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
  • Suggested logo for Wary (also see logo above) 1
There are various known issues and/or things that need to be improved/fixed:
  • Booting from USB media 1 2
  • Wary is built without Dbus. If you need it, it is a PET package 1
Some general Puppy-related news items:
  • Online guide to getting started with programming 1
  • Wary works on Gecko Edubook 1 2

Wary 5.1 release notes

Wary 5.1, released on February 19, 2011, is a minor upgrade and bug-fix release of 5.0. I tried not to do anything that would introduce new bugs!

Here are highlights of Wary 5.1, in no particular order:
  • Many applications and utilities upgraded 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 
  •  application upgrades, continued: 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
  • Various infrastructure fixes & tweaks 1 2 3 4 5
  • Long-term kernel 2.6.32.28 now default 1 
  • Alternative "ide" kernel 2.6.31.14 1 2
  • New CPU frequency scaling tool 1
  • More PETs in repo created by Billtoo and ttuuxxx 1
  • More PETs in repo 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Grisbi now supports OFX import 1
  • Video Upgrade Wizard enhanced 1 2 

Wary 5.1.1

This is a very minor bugfix upgrade of Wary 5.1. The main problem in 5.1 is that the 'jimtcl' PET package was accidentally left out, which is needed for detection and setup of some USB 3G modems. You can install this PET without upgrading to 5.1.1:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_packages-quirky/jimtcl-0.63.pet
Other minor bugfixes are in the underlying Woof infrastructure (see notes above).

Wary 5.1.2

Once again, the focus has been on bugfixing, but also some packages are upgraded. Most of the bugfixing has taken place at the Woof level, see above. Additional notes specific to Wary 5.1.2:
  • Applications upgraded/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
  • Libraries upgraded for Firefox4 (see repo) and SeaMonkey 2.1 (PET coming) 1 2
  • Rsync was missing, restored (needed by Snap2) 1
  • New PET packages available in repo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
  • 2.6.32-40 kernel 1 2
  • An old version of SeaMonkey, 1.1.18 (small size), plus many addons 1

Wary 5.1.3

Mostly bugfixes and minor upgrades to 5.1.2. There have been some significant improvements at the Woof level, see above. Notes specific to Wary 5.1.3:
  • 2.6.32-44 kernel, with HID and USB drivers builtin 1 2
  • Applications/utilities updated/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • New applications: Default Applications Chooser 1  Urxvtset 1
  • New utilities: picscale 1 pngoverlay 1 yad 1
  • New PETs in 'wary5' repository 1 2
Note that I decided to stay with SeaMonkey 1.1.18, as 2.2 has a badly broken Composer module. Also, 1.1.18 is smaller and better suited to older hardware -- FlashBlock and AdBlock plugins are included to suit those on dialup and download-limited Internet connection.

A couple of projects that need special mention: BaCon and gtkdialog. BaCon is a superb BASIC compiler, and gtkdialog provides sophisticated GUIs for shell scripts. Both of these are extremely active projects, with very keen developers and users. BaCon 1 2 3 4 gtkdialog 1 2

Wary 5.1.4

More minor bugfixes and upgrades to 5.1.3. Some fixes also at the Woof level, see above. Notes specific to Wary 5.1.4 build:
  • Applications/utilities updated/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  • Kernel SMP/uniprocessor issues 1 2 3 4
  • New PET packages in 'wary5' and 'common' repos 1

Wary 5.2 release notes

This is a massive upgrade relative to the 5.1.x series. All of the base packages were recompiled in T2. Certain choices were made in T2 with the plan of seamless upgrading from Xorg 7.3 to 7.6 -- that is, the default Wary system has Xorg 7.3, but it is planned that Wary can be upgraded to Xorg 7.6 by installation of a single PET, and all applications will work before and after. This required some very careful configuration. The idea is to "have our cake and eat it too" -- Xorg 7.3 for old hardware, easy upgrade to 7.6 for newer video hardware. The plan actually seems to be working.
As usual, huge changes yet only a small version-number change. Many bug fixes, upgrades, new packages. Summary:
  • Recompile in T2 1 2 3
  • Easy upgrade from Xorg 7.3 to 7.6, by a single PET mega-package 1 2
  • Gtksourceview/Nicoedit removed, BaCon highlighting in Geany 1 2
  • Apps/utilities updated/fixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
  • Gtkam removed, replaced with PupCamera (see Woof notes above) 1
  • Lighthouse sys-info for easy reporting hardware when make bug report 1
  • PuppyPhone (Psip) upgraded, our "Skype killer" 1
  • Adobe Flash player no longer in Wary, semi-automatic download 1
  • New PET packages 1 2
  • Xfprot removed, broken 1 (see Avast PET 1)
  • New, gHasher checksum generator 1
  • GTK upgraded from 2.21.1 to 2.24.5
  • USB 3G modems: usb-modeswitch upgraded, bug fix 1
Introducing Racy Puppy. Wary 5.2 has the 2.6.32.45 kernel. As noted above, Wary can be updated to support modern video hardware by installation of a single mega-package. If we go the whole-way and also build with a very recent kernel, then Wary is no longer "wary" but targets the very latest hardware. This rebuild of Wary, effectively pulling Wary "up by its bootstraps" has even been given it's own name, Racy Puppy. Racy will be released soon. 1 2 3 4


Lots of puppies...

Spup (Slacko)

"Spup" is our generic name for puppies built with Slackware binary packages. The foremost right now is "Slacko", nearing release, and destined to be one of our official flagship puppies. 1 2

Upup (Lucid)

"Upup" is our generic name for puppies built with Ubuntu packages. Our latest is "Lucid Puppy", built with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx binary .deb packages. What you get is a very small distro (the live-CD is about 130MB) 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!
The official release of Lucid Puppy (also known as "Lupu") is 5.2.8. 1 2 3

FatDog64

FatDog64 is compiled from source using T2 and optimised for the Intel 64-bit x86 (and compatible) CPUs. This built tends to be leading-edge in terms of features and application versions. Fatdog64 forked from an older version of Woof, but has implemented many improvements. Another feature of Fatdog64 is browser and other Internet applications run as user 'spot'. 1 

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/