Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

yim · Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 165 Location: Blue Ridge Mtns

I had mentioned this in another thread but don't know if anyone really saw the post, I keep seeing here that people are trying to boot usb even if the bios doesn't have an option. I know I was looking for something like this for a long time and ran across this. I've tried it on a number of pc's and it works for me

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

hope this helps some folks

yim

Bernie_by_the_Sea · Joined: 09 Feb 2011 Posts: 329

I've used gag http://gag.sourceforge.net/ since 2005 primarily as an emergency boot loader. It looks like plop might be better overall. It doesn't do everything that gag can do yet but it does some things gag can't do.

Flash · Posted: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 11:35 Post_subject:

Yim, could you edit your post to describe how to use plop to boot Puppy? Thanks. Smile

yim · Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 165 Location: Blue Ridge Mtns

http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpbt-5.0.12.zip

download the zip above, extract there will be a plpbt-5.0.11-2 folder in that folder is an iso just burn that to cd and wa-la you have the option to boot usb after the plop iso boots very small . there are other folders and instructions to make a plop grub cd with all sort of options but the one that I've tried is the iso in the top level folder

r1tz · Posted: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 22:30 Post_subject:

Btw, plop cannot boot linux directly. ( the same way Grub do not boot windows directly)

You will still need a boot loader in your USB.

turf · Joined: 21 Mar 2011 Posts: 34

how do we exactly set this up?
i have a very old laptop that don't support usb and the cdrom don't work Very Happy

rcrsn51 · Posted: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 23:09 Post_subject:

turf · Joined: 21 Mar 2011 Posts: 34

it has a 128 of ram though so it might just work with full installation.

nooby · Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 9477 Location: SwedenEurope

shadower_sc · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 108 Location: Texas

I have used PLoP Boot Loader on an old Laptop that did not support booting from USB. I have used it on a CD and a Floppy Disk. It works great, if all you need is to have it point to your USB.

Download the latest version.
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#download
Unzip the file.
In the main folder there is Readme.txt, plpbt.img, plpbt.iso, and a bunch of other stuff.

Write the plpbt.img file to a Floppy Disk Using:
Windows:
Write the disk image with the program rawwritewin to the floppy disk
http://download.plop.at/files/rawwritewin.exe or The Internet somewhere. Smile

Linux:
Write the disk image using dd in linux. fd0 should always be your floppy disk drive. dd is a powerful program that could be used to wipe your entire Hard Drive. Know what you are doing before you do it.
dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0

You can also burn the CD Image to a CD and use a CD, if you want a CD.

puppyluvr · Posted: Wed 04 May 2011, 18:57 Post_subject:

Hello,

Tman · Joined: 22 Jan 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Toronto

All the info on the website might be a bit intimidating or confusing to newbies.
I have attached a compressed file that contains all that is needed to boot Plop installer from a Grub Legacy or Grub4Dos menu.

Caution: Just in case, it doesn't work, make sure you have a way to reset your Master Boot Record. For me, I have Puppy on a CD and whenever I have such problems, I just reinstall Grub4Dos from the CD. Plop worked for me on my desktop PC, but when I tried it on my Laptop which had Puppy and Windows7, it messed up.

To setup the Plop installer, you need to extract the folder to the partition where the mbr is located (hd0,0). Also you need to add a menu entry into the Grub Legacy or Grub4Dos menu.lst file. Here is a sample menu entry:

Pelo

See Toutou LINUX tutorial (in french) chapter CD de démarrage
make an empty file 'USBflash' on the stick. Run the CD which will boot your USB Stick.

8-bit · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 3033 Location: Oregon

I am surprised that no one had mentioned getting and making a SuperGrub floppy.
Of course, I have not read enough of their docs to tell if it supports USB drives.
But I have it in my collection and can use it if needed.
It is not a fix all though.
From MS Vista forward, MS has boot code that most likely would be overwritten by installation of grub on the same drive and one could no longer boot Windows.