# Announcement and release notes for Wary (and Racy) Puppy 5.5

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. 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

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

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 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 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

#### Wary (and Racy) 5.2.2

Wary 5.2.2 is a bug-fix and minor upgrade of 5.2. Simultaneously, Racy puppy, our "Wary on steroids" is debuting, with the same version number. There were some Woof-level bugs in Wary 5.2, fixed, announced above. Here are release notes specific to the Wary and Racy builds:

- GTK 2.24.8, fixed slow drop-down lists & SM insert-key crash 1 2 3 4
- New app: Planner project manager 1
- Wary is built with 2.6.32.45 uniprocessor kernel. Racy is built with 3.0.7 SMP (multiprocessor) PAE kernel. Also, the former uses Aufs, the latter Unionfs. 1
- Apps upgraded 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
- Wary and Racy are both now built with the full Mesa package, Intel bug fix 1
- Printing from some apps was broken (ex: Abiword) 1
- New app: Peasyprint 1

Racy has Xorg 7.6 and the 3.0.7 kernel, Wary has Xorg 7.3 and the 2.6.32.45 kernel. Racy boots straight to X on first boot, and launches Quick Setup, whereas Wary runs the text-mode configuration dialogs, including the Xorg Wizard, before starting X. Otherwise, everything under-the-hood is the same, and PET packages from the 'wary5' repo should work on both. Note, the 'wary5' repo is still a bit light, but I hope to improve that. Though, the selection of SFS files has improved.
Basically, if you are asking whether to use Wary or Racy, the former is intended for older computers, especially uniprocessor CPUs and for those who still access the Internet by analog dialup modem. As to choosing between Racy, Slacko, Lucid, etc., that is up to you...

### Wary (and Racy) 5.3 release notes

Read about 5.2.x above, it all applies to 5.3, with only a small number of package upgrades. The real changes have occurred at the Woof level, in particular pervasive support for internationalization, plus a "multitude" of bugfixes. There are now 'langpacks' available for many languages, and these also include translations for most of the applications used in Wary and Racy. Brief release notes:

- One-stop-shop langpacks, for system-level and applications. Read Woof release notes above.
- Application upgrades and fixes 1 2 3 4 5
- New PETs and SFS files 1 2 3 4 5 6
- ...one of those PETs is extremely interesting, it is 'sylpheed_portable' 1 2
- Kernels in 5.2.2 use Unionfs, have changed to Aufs 1 2

### Wary (and Racy) 5.5 release notes

The last official release was 5.3, on 5 April 2012 (1), and there were two betas for the next version on 28 September 2012 (2), and 3 December 2012 (3), followed by a lull, then a series of Release Candidates in February (4, 5, 6).
Most of the system libraries and some major apps have not been upgraded since 5.3, but a lot of smaller apps and utilities have, notably those created "in house" by our very enthusiastic developers such as zigbert, rcrsn51 and 01micko (plus more guys!)
What really has progressed significantly since 5.3 is the Woof infrastructure, bringing a plethora of bug fixes and enhancements. These improvements have made it imperative to release a new Wary (and Racy).
Note that Wary 5.5 has the same old 2.6.32.59 kernel (configured for uniprocessor i486 CPU), as we have a heap of 3rd-party analog (dialup) modem drivers compiled for it, plus others. Note also, most of those modem drivers are included in the live-CD .iso file -- which is partly why Wary is so great for "retro" uses such as analog dialup and old hardware.
As already explained above, Wary targets old hardware, whereas Racy targets newer hardware. Racy has all the "innards" of Wary, except various things are upgraded to suit newer hardware -- especially Xorg and the kernel.
Racy does not have as many analog (dialup) modem drivers, nor true-SCSI drivers. For that, you need Wary.
Racy is intended for "more modern" hardware than Wary, but not necessarily the very latest. Think perhaps most hardware a year or more old.
Another way to separate them is that Wary is optimised for single-core CPUs, whereas Racy is optimised for multi-core CPUs.
Racy 5.5 has the 3.0.66 Linux kernel, configured without PAE support (so only accesses first 4GB of RAM), and for a i686 CPU. It has SMP (multi-core) support.
Brief release notes, in no particular order:

- Mplayer full-screen and screensaver fixes 1
- Lots of "in house" apps and utilities updated 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
- "Outside" apps and utilities updated 1 2 3
- Racy: Linux kernel 3.0.66, no-PAE, i686, SMP 1
- Pmusic with gui mixer 1

Kernel Mode Setting
A note about KMS, for those who know what that means. Wary does not use KMS at all. Racy has KMS enabled (by default) for the intel 'i915' kernel module and for the 'nouveau' kernel modules, but not for the 'radeon' kernel module. Wary doesn't even have the 'nouveau' driver, only the 'nv' driver (Racy has both, but the 'nv' driver is by default not used). if you have an nVidia video card and experience difficulty getting either the 'nv' or 'nouveau' driver to work on Racy, please go to the Puppy Forum -- this is an issue that we are currently targeting to try and make setup smooth.

## Lots of puppies...

### Spup (Slacko)

"Spup" is our generic name for puppies built with Slackware binary packages. The main reason behind Spup is binary compatibility with Slackware packages, and the Puppy Package Manager can install from any of the Slackware repositories. The foremost Spup right now is "Slacko", and is 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!

## 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/