HOWTO fatten Puppy

Puppy can be easily extended. This page is just getting started.

Note that some links given here will only exist if the package is installed.

Note that it is easy to build a custom Puppy, with the packages you want. The way to do this is to either:

  1. Download Woof, which has build scripts to put together a new live-CD with packages of your choice. Or...
  2. Run the "Remaster CD" script, to be found in the menu at "Menu -> Setup -> Remaster Puppy live-CD".

Abiword Add spell-checking, Microsoft TrueType fonts, plugins.
Seamonkey
The Seamonkey suite is provided in the 'standard' edition Puppy live-CD, with a selection of extensions and the Macromedia Flash plugin, also the Gxine media-player plugin, so this is already fattened! However, you should be able to add Java and expand the streaming audio and video support -- some notes are below...

Mozilla SeaMonkey

Spellchecker

SeaMonkey Composer (the WYSIWYG HTML editor) has a spellchecker, but some builds of Puppy are without any dictionaries (or may only have the US English dictionary). This is very easy to remedy. The website that has dictionaries for all languages is http://dictionaries.mozdev.org/installation.html, and you can either use a browser to go straight there, or open the spellechecker in Composer, by "Edit -> Check spelling..." then click on  "Download more".  The instructions on the website state to left-click to download and install a dictionary, however for me that gave a download error. Instead, right-click and choose to download and save the file, for example "spell-en-AU.xpi". Then running Seamonkey, choose "File -> Open..." and open the ".xpi" file and it will automatically install.
You can find installed dictionaries in /usr/lib/seamonkey/components/myspell/.

Themes

Yeah, you can add themes to Seamonkey. need to write the howto here...

Flash

Puppy has the Adobe Flash player plugin, located at /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. SeaMonkey, Firefox and Opera are able to find it at that location.

To install a new Flash plugin, download it from Adobe, expand the file (just click on it), then copy 'libflashplayer.so' to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. Then exit from the browser and restart it.

Extensions

There are many "addons" for SeaMonkey, that can greatly enhance the user experience. Mostly these are available as a single file with ".xpi" on the end of the filename. Some websites allow you to insall them simply by clicking on the filename link, or you can right-click and download the .xpi file -- once downloaded, if you choose "File -> Open" in the menu and open the .xpi file, SeaMonkey will offer to install it.

You can find many addons for SeaMonkey here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/
Some Firefox addons are not compatible with SeaMonkey, but this site has modified some to work in SeaMonkey:
http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmisc.html

Note, your Puppy live-CD build may already have some installed addons. There's no menu entry that tells you what addons are installed, however there is a file that does: look for /usr/lib/seamonkey/install.log -- if it doesn't exist then you don't have any addons, if it does, open it in a text editor to find out what is installed.
IMPORTANT: 'install.log' may not list all installed addons. Check the announcement/release-notes of your version of Puppy for complete list of addons provided.

Nor does SeaMonkey have a menu entry for uninstalling addons. However, it can be done manually -- to be documented.

Video and audio codecs

XINE is the multimedia library used in Puppy and Gxine is the GUI player. Gxine also has a browser plugin, that works with SeaMonkey, Firefox and Opera.

Note, you will find the Gxine plugin at /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. SeaMonkey, Firefox and Opera are able to find it at that location.

Gxine also has a bit of a problem playing full-screen, but there is an easy solution. First, maximize the window (the middle icon at top-right of the window), then choose 'View -> Full-screen mode' from the menu.
NOTE: You will likely find this problem is fixed in the most recent versions of Puppy.

The XINE library in Puppy can play most video and audio files, however if you encounter one that does not play, there is a PET package with extra "codecs" (plugins to support more file formats).
The best place to find out more about this is in the HOWTO: multimedia page.