How to partition hdd and install puppy w/64 MB RAM?

[pikelaker]

Hi. I don't know what I'm doing, that's why I am here. I have a IBM thinkpad 600e, with only 64mb of ram. I wiped the hard drive. I downloaded puppy, and of course it won't fully load up to the ram.

I want only puppy installed on the hard drive, nothing else. How do I do this? (partitioning, formatting, etc). Thanks.

[jason.b.c]

Well if you only have 64 mb of ram, then that ain't enough. Sorry i can't help you any more than that. Can you put some more ram in that computer???

[jason.b.c]

Oh and also YES> partitioning and formatting..

Hope that at least helps you out.....!

[muggins]

i've only got 64M of ram, with 200M swap partition, and pup1.07 installed to hard disk(type 2), and it works fine.

i don't know how well you know linux, but have you created a swap partition?

[muggins]

i re-read your post and suspect you don't know about fdisk etc. well the way i go about doing a type 2 hard disk install is to first partition the disk into 2 primary drives, hda1 being the main partition & a second approximately 200M byte swap partition.

(because the pup cd usually wants to place a pupfile on hda1 and therefore you can't install there, i leave this partition as ext2 at first, and try and get the minimum size so that i can boot the cd & select it as the partition for the pupfile.
Then i can install puppy to hda1, install grub to mbr, then reboot, then fdisk again & change hda2 from ext2 to swap, then mkswap /dev/hda2).

i'm exhausted just putting this down!! anyway, if you're still with me , you boot your cdrom, presumably it will place pup001 on hda1, then open console window, then do something like this:



fdisk /dev/hda <enter>

p <enter> (to list what partitions you've got)

d <enter> (delete all partitions mentioned in previous step)

n <enter> (to create new primary partition, select 'p', then '1'. For the
size you have to guesstimate, or play around, so that you
have enough left for a swap of about 200Mbytes. Note
nothing is written to disk until you've finished and select
w for write. if you're in doubt control-c will exit the
program without doing anything.

n <enter> Hopefully you're still with me & last step left enuf room
for swap. repeat previous step choosing 'p', then '2', then
the remaining size should be about 200M.

p <enter> just to check everything is OK, then if you're satisfied,

w <enter> to write changes to disk & quit


Then to format hda1 & hda2 with ext2 file system,



mke2fs /dev/hda1 <enter>
mke2fs /dev/hda2 <enter>

reboot <enter>



then when cdrom reboots take the option where you select which partition to place pup001 on, number3 i think, then type 'hda2' <enter>, then 'pup001'
<enter>.

hopefully puppyCD will boot, then go Start-->Setup-->Install to hard drive,

and follow the dialogue that follows to install pup to hda1. (i think that you have to install a type 2 , as i don't think type 1 likes ext2 file system -- but someone might correct me on that as puppy's a fast evolving hounddog).

near the end it will ask if you want to install grub, i always say yes, then the simple install selection, then it asks if to install grub to mbr & i always say yes.

if you're still with me, (and you've got a bootable pup on hda1), then this is the last step. reboot hda1 from grub, open console window, then



fdisk /dev/hda <enter>

t <enter> (to toggle partition ID, select '2' for hda2)

l <enter> (to see the partition types, and you want '82' for linux swap

p <enter> to view & make sure partition 2 changed to swap

w <enter> to write changes & quit

then, back at bash shell prompt, type mkswap /dev/hda2 <enter>

then open rox-filer & go to directory /root/.etc/rc.d, then right click the file

rc.local & select "open as text", then append a line saying "swapon /dev/hda2"

then save & reboot. then, hopefully, everything works.

cheers

[Flash]

Swap memory is a way of making some of the memory on your hard drive look like RAM to the computer, thus effectively increasing the amount of RAM your computer has. It is also known as virtual memory. Swap memory is much slower to access than RAM, so your computer will be slow to respond when you open Mozilla for instance and won't run some programs as fast, but at least it will run them.

[Sage]

pikey : you haven't been doing your homework, have you?!
Set up Puppy on a borrowed state-of-the-art machine by physically swapping hard drives. Provided you use a swap partition of ~50Mb, you can run Puppy on a P60 with a 500Mb HD and 32(48 better)Mb memory.
Now use 'Search'!!

[richard.a]

Just a quick reply.

Admittedly not an install, but an install requires less resources in terms of memory and swap than does a Live CD.

I have run puppy 2.02 for a couple of days on a Pentium 100 ancient box with two 32Mb sticks of RAM. There wasn't enough HDD space for the pup_save file so I put a 135Mb syquest removeable EZ-drive platter in the removeable drive bay.

It also found a 100 or so megs of HDD space to write a swap file to.

It runs faster than the windows that is still installed on that 1993 box!

So your memory isn't stopping you. Be encouraged!

Best of luck

Richard in Australia