Running Puppy in <64MB RAM on Toshiba 4015cds (FIXED)

[paulh177]

I'm trying to run Puppy on a live cd on this machine:
Toshiba Satellite 4015CDS / PAS401U-S6xx
Processor Intel Mobile Pentium(R) II 266MHz
Memory(MAX) 32MB
HDD 4.1GB (win98 installed)
Display Color Bright Dual Scan 12.1 800x600
Display controller C&T 65555
Video RAM 2MB
Sound Yamaha OPL3-SA3
PC Card controller TypeIIx2 or TypeIIIx1

I've had a similar problem to the one described here, and have managed to get to a desktop using the procedure described therein.
However all that then seems to happen is that the cd drive thrashes and the system is running so slow I cant get to run any setup.
there's no possibility for increasing the ram sorry to say
I've run Puppy before and i seem to recall that it asked me if i wanted to create a swapfile, but i didn't get that on this occasion, maybe because I'm missing a step because of the display problem?
i'd like to install puppy on the hdd but can't seem to boot it into any useful state. this machine is just intended to be a little network filestore so can be really basic setup
I'm using puppy 2.02 but i can easily make a 2.11 or a meanpuppy if anyone thinks that will help ... which is what i need!
the basic questions are:
how do i create a swapfile so i have some virtual memory to play with and speed it all up?
can i repartition the existing drive to keep a tiny windows ptn and the rest for puppy and network filestore
thanks in advance
Paul

[ezeze5000]

I have Puppy running on on this machine:
Toshiba Satellite 4010CDS
Processor Intel Mobile Pentium(R) II 266MHz
Memory 320MB
HDD 6.2 GB (win98 installed)
Video RAM 2MB
Sound Yamaha OPL3-SA3
PC Card controller TypeIIx2 or TypeIIIx1
I shrank the partition down to make room for
puppy to exist on a second partition that I created
on the space I made. And I used GRUB for a dual boot.
NOTE: You do need to back up your data just to be safe.
A swap partition would really help your puppy run better.
I used a partitioner that I downloaded somewhere.......I'll have
to get back to you with the name of it. It's out in the shop somewhere and its late here.

I hope this helps.

[paulh177]

thanks.
the win98 ptn is not critical but is useful; i fdisked it so i have a 1gig windows boot ptn, a 1 gig extended dos, leaving 2 gig untouched for puppy to play with.
stll problematic as i can't get puppy into a running state where i can do anything useful
maybe the hw is a bust ...

[Dougal]

I've run Puppy before and i seem to recall that it asked me if i wanted to create a swapfile, but i didn't get that on this occasion, maybe because I'm missing a step because of the display problem?

when I experimented with deleting my swap partition, Puppy 2.10 created a swap file without me asking! It never got used, since I've got 192MB RAM, but it was still created...

I can't recall it being created anywhere in the init script, so maybe it is created at first shutdown, if you choose "save to file" (so it knows it's ok to create files on your computer)? Did you try shutting down and saving to a pup_save?

[paulh177]

By dint of a great deal of patience and moving the mouse veerrrrryyyyyyyy sloooooooowwwwwwlyy I managed to shut it down normally, which allowed me to create a swapfile, which allowed me to start it again and run GParted and finally install it to the hdd ... phew.
now a whole host of new problems as well xorg crashing with the dc: stack underflow problem ... ah the joys of penguin-fiddling ...

thanks for all help offered by the way

[ezeze5000]

You really need a swap partition (not a swap file)
128mb would be about the right size.
Puppy will run a lot better then.
Shrink your puppy partition down a little to make room
for the swap partition.

I tried " puppy-2.12beta2-seamonkey" and I like it a lot, you
might try it to see if it would run any better on your laptop.