[Novalug] laptop power, puppy ram

Walt Smith waltechmail@yahoo.com
Tue Dec 23 23:36:03 EST 2014


Bonnie,

The brick needs
1. the right connector
2. the right power polarization
3 the right wattacge.

The physical fit will be obvious.

The earlier description of the polarity is
critical,  Most power bricks have the +
in the center ( if a round connector. )  
But check it.  NOTE: older laptops MAY have round male,
round female, some have thin center pins, and some 
are square.   

Most laptops will utilize a brick with a rated voltage.
Virtually all will be about 18.5V to as high as 20V.
Any at that V should work EXCEPT as noted prior:
the wattage; to clarify, the brick wattage SHOULD be
higher than the laptop requirement-- if the laptop requirement,
usually stated in wattage on a label somewhere.

ExampleS:
If the laptop says it needs 15 watts, you need a brick EQUAL or AT LEAST
15 watts.  if the current is easier to read on the label, and the laptop
says it needs 4 amps, the brick must be alt least 4 amps.  Again, V is
usually approx 19V.   ( not 15V, not 12V, not 24V ).


RUNNING OUT OF RAM:
The previous explanation is entriely correct.  But I think there was a 
difference in context, or I'll offer an alternative explanation:
I believe that when puppy "runs out of ram", it means the OS kernel
and all the code, processes etc will run entirely in the RAM in the
machine and no hard disk, or any other mass storage is necessary.
Whatever firmware there is, usually some SSD or ROM, or thumb drive,
contains the all the code needed, and is entrely loaded into the ram
at boot ......   the ram may also fill up with code and variables and stack information...
  --  the kernel and any EXECUTABLE code can be
deleted from the ram if it's not immedaitely used, and reloaded from
the firmware as necessary. IOW, the code part in files is read-only.
The firmware code/processes could be made to run directly from the 
chip storage, but it would run very slowly.  I do NOT KNOW puppy specifically
so maybe it does that.   But I think by now you get the idea.
To perform this amazing feat, a lot of utils are compiled with MANY
features missing to maintain a minimum code footprint.   And if puppy has
an X or desktop, again, significant code compile to minimize size.

----

I really like the questions you've asked lately.
And your followup.  And many answers.  As I've mentioned in prior
posts, there are always many new names given to software and 
systems without general explanation.  Some even work differently.  

Answers are often significant in that someone who REALLY knows 
what they are talking about can leave out a lot
of the details: not a bad idea in order to gauge the level of the OP.
But often followup is needed.  And the level of experise is apparent on this
list.

What we end up with though, is more confirmation that most docs 
available on the Net for installing, or configuring linux
are out of date, or worse, dangerous, and often for the wrong software.
Note that I don't believe I'm referring to "user" manuals.


However, in a nutshell, postings here end up containing most
of the necessary info in multiple mails, better than can generally
be found in the wild, and with a person editor, 
could be rewritten into some pretty good, complete documents.
Sorry, don't mean to make this a "make-work" thing, -- I'm making
an observation.  


regards,
Walt.........

----
The government is lawless, not the people.



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