Hi all, this is my first post, so bear with me. I'm new to linux, and have been checking out Ubuntu, DSL, Feather and of course, Puppy, among others. I installed Puppy on the hard drive and had it working fairly well until I began installing non "pet" applications. The last one being the Pan news reader. I noticed that these "pup" installations did not create icons either on the desktop or in the Start menu. (Sorry, long time window user) I thought that maybe I didn't install it correctly and reopened Petget to try again. That's when I noticed that both window panes were blank. They showed no installed packages at all. Nor does it show any available packages or programs. After some research I noticed two txt files in root/.packages, one called alienpackages, and the other called livepackages. I would assume that they list all of the available packages and the ones I have already downloaded. Both of these files are empty of any text. Any ideas on how to fix this? Can these lists be rebuilt? Is there another file that points to repositories? (Not sure if that is the right word for it) I'm using Puppy 2.14 on a dual boot, Ubuntu feisty being the other OS

det4100

Hi det4100
To replace your /root/.packages/livepackages.txt file the easiest way would be to boot from the cd with the pfix=ram option. Mount your puppy partition with pmount (you can use the command line if you like I just find pmount easier) and copy the file from the live cd desktop to the partition. If you have been running Puppy as a live cd you will need to mount partition the pup_save.2sf file is on with pmount then mount the pup_save.2sf file itself and then copy the file across.
If it is empty I would also copy /root/.packages/packages.txt file. Unfortunately the only way I know of to replace any entries in /root/.packages/alienpackages is to reinstall the packages. This file is empty in a fresh installation of puppy with no extra packages installed.
Any dotpups that have been installed may be in /root/my-roxapps. Dragging them to the desktop will create a symlink “shortcut” to the program.
Once you have installed a new package open a terminal and type “fixmenus” and restart the window manager. This will add the package to the memu.
An alternative to petget would be PSI (puppy software installer) ((>start>setup>setup puppy>puppy software installer) in 215CE.)

Good luck and welcome to the kennels
Bill

Thanks Bill, I will try this method today. Also thanks for the quick tutorial about the icons. I was wondering what happened to them