Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[rayandrews]

Gentlemen,

I'm not sure how much, or even if, feedback on my install experience might be appreciated here. Not knowing, I'll risk a full report. I have this idea that a distro should treasure its virgins highly because once you become familiar, you forget the things that were problems on the first try.

First, congratulations! This is one of the most thoughtful and intelligent installs I've ever seen, on distros of any size, let alone a small one. (I don't imagine version matters much with this, but it's 'precise 5.4.3') In fact, I like this installer so much that I want it to be perfect.

A typo: in one screen the text reads "auto run" but the button referred to is "Autostart".

This is the only distro I've ever used that didn't autodetect the network. That's cool tho, given Puppy's size, maybe autodetection would be a problem. But the setup screen needs work I'd say. Actually if found my network automagically anyway, but it wasn't obvious that I really didn't need to do anything at all.

When selecting a partition to install to, I wish volume labels were shown. I refer to all my partitions by label and when I just see /dev/ entries, I don't know which is which. I noted that GParted was available at one point, perhaps it could be made 'more available'.

The installer seemed to detect my bootloader in the MBR and suggested that I leave it alone but should set the boot flag of the install partition. However I use LILO,which ignores boot flags, so Puppy did not boot on restart. I can of course fix that, but perhaps that could be handled better.

When the setup is finished, there's not much indication that you're done. And it seems to me that install should continue on to the 'install/boot method'. I found that on the desktop, but I think it should be the last step of the main setup/install script.

Thanks hugely for giving us an 'exit to prompt' !!

At the 'save to file' screen, none of the arrow keys worked (beeps if tried) so I pressed ENTER at which point I just got a '#' prompt. Typing 'reboot' I saw a msg: "session not saved" and then it went down.

Now I'll see if I can install LILO on the USB and boot her up.

[sunburnt]

Hi rayandrews; Puppy is kinda all about newcomers. LILO`s old, I suggest grub4dos or grub2.

It`s been a "work in progress" for the 6 years I`ve been here. Better in some ways for sure.

Puppy is supposed to setup the network at boot, something went wrong ( Duh...).

[Flash]

Keep in mind that Puppy started out as a run-from-CD only, with a save file. Installing to hard drive came later.

[01micko]

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80822

That tutorial for lilo has been downloaded 63 times in only a few months, so I guess lilo is still relevant to some.

[nooby]

"At the 'save to file' screen, none of the arrow keys worked (beeps if tried)

so I pressed ENTER at which point I just got a '#' prompt.
Typing 'reboot' I saw a msg: "session not saved" and then it went down. "

I should not give advice at all but something must have gone wrong there.

I trust you have to describe that better so the experts can help you.

Save to file most likely means you did a frugal install and
that is the recommended way to use Puppy.

I wild guess you have to boot in a way that initiate the creating
of a save file again so changes can be saved.

I will not follow the thread wish you good luck.
Remember Puppy is different because the devs
want it that way.