Ah Ha!  

Found out how I managed to exist temporarily in the #future.
When #EasyOS 7.4 came out I downloaded BUT the developer Barry Kauler, immediately found a bug and withdrew 7.4.  

7.4 all going well, will be available in a few hours AND I will be able to 'upgrade' with a non critical bug fixed. Maybe a few more. OR I could roll back and then install again.

Phew. My sanity is now returned to just #normal #crazy. Don't even have to #upgrade apparently...

  ✅

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=172239#p172239

@lobster

... just downloaded 7.4 md5sum matched. It booted but I couldn't start or configure X, XWIN and XORGWIZARD. I suspect because of missing drivers ..