How to boot with no CD, only HD and floppy?
Without specific error Msg - cannot advise - only thoughts - Was it an "error" - or merely a warning about writes to a mounted partition?
Any time (fdisk etal) a partiton table is altered - if mounted, no write back to MBR should be allowed until re-booted.
If re-sizing was not prime reason to use it - LInux fdisk will accomplish all needed.
Up to user - I prefer fdisk to cfdisk, or sfdisk or parted (also - Never trusted third -party tools) !
Linux for Linux, and Win.xx tools for Win.xx
Once Puppy is up/running - use it a few times before deciding
where to store the "save file"
Please read all info about options on that topic.
Did you back- up needed stuff yet - if not do so - why take any unnecessary risks ? .
IMO - Puppy will wait - but lost personal items are precious
Enjoy
Any time (fdisk etal) a partiton table is altered - if mounted, no write back to MBR should be allowed until re-booted.
If re-sizing was not prime reason to use it - LInux fdisk will accomplish all needed.
Up to user - I prefer fdisk to cfdisk, or sfdisk or parted (also - Never trusted third -party tools) !
Linux for Linux, and Win.xx tools for Win.xx
Once Puppy is up/running - use it a few times before deciding
where to store the "save file"
Please read all info about options on that topic.
Did you back- up needed stuff yet - if not do so - why take any unnecessary risks ? .
IMO - Puppy will wait - but lost personal items are precious
Enjoy
Thanks to Mark and GuestToo for the lengthy explanations regarding SBM and XP. This seems to be more useful than I thought, although I still prefer my method for a simple Puppy frugal install where there is no requirement to boot a CD.
However, as SBM can boot a CD that the BIOS can't, perhaps it can be used to boot a USB memory stick. If so, I am very interested because I have an XP machine that will not boot memory sticks.
ICPUG
However, as SBM can boot a CD that the BIOS can't, perhaps it can be used to boot a USB memory stick. If so, I am very interested because I have an XP machine that will not boot memory sticks.
ICPUG
The error looks like it is because of spinup time for the cd. If I wait I don't get it.
Now my next problem and maybe I should start a new thread on this one. My mouse doesn't work once puppy comes up. It could be the video wizzard also as I can't get past turning it off without the mouse.
A live DSL CD boots and the mouse works. And the messages when puppy is going through it's setup says it sees a ps2 mouse.
Any suggestions?
Now my next problem and maybe I should start a new thread on this one. My mouse doesn't work once puppy comes up. It could be the video wizzard also as I can't get past turning it off without the mouse.
A live DSL CD boots and the mouse works. And the messages when puppy is going through it's setup says it sees a ps2 mouse.
Any suggestions?
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Rickrandom
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Sat 21 Jan 2006, 05:35
- Location: Bedfordshire, UK
I looked at ICPUG's helpful guide,
http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/linnwi ... 4steps.htm
which I then used to get my XP laptop dual-booting after he pointed to it earlier in this thread. Previously (for a couple of months) I was popping the CD in and out depending what I wanted to boot. The guide was written with enough detail that I was confident I wasn't going to do any damage, whereas I was always a bit wary about doing things like changing the MBR.
As well as being easy to follow small step by small step, the guide's explanations gave me a better understanding of how the boot process works.
Obviously there's a lot more scope for a full explanation on several web pages than here on the forum. It worked for me as very much a newbie, and using what I learnt, I'm now also booting 2.12 beta.
I'll have a look at smart boot manager sometime as it seems very clever, but I'll leave what works well alone for a little longer.
http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/linnwi ... 4steps.htm
which I then used to get my XP laptop dual-booting after he pointed to it earlier in this thread. Previously (for a couple of months) I was popping the CD in and out depending what I wanted to boot. The guide was written with enough detail that I was confident I wasn't going to do any damage, whereas I was always a bit wary about doing things like changing the MBR.
As well as being easy to follow small step by small step, the guide's explanations gave me a better understanding of how the boot process works.
Obviously there's a lot more scope for a full explanation on several web pages than here on the forum. It worked for me as very much a newbie, and using what I learnt, I'm now also booting 2.12 beta.
I'll have a look at smart boot manager sometime as it seems very clever, but I'll leave what works well alone for a little longer.
related yet different question
Here's a related question I don't think I've quite seen answered anywhere as yet. (Although it's possible my search was not quite refined enough to uncover the information.)
I have an old laptop on which the CD-ROM has apparently died (at least the controller cable is apparently dead, as replacing the drive had no effect). The machine has an old version of Feather Linux on it (the machine is Linux-only), but I'd like to try something a bit more up-to-date on it. I'm worried that trying to upgrade would break everything, so I'm leaning toward trying from scratch.
I currently have a working floppy on the drive and a network connection. The hard drive (I believe) has two partitions I might also be able to get a USB stick working on it (it worked when I was able to boot Puppy from the CD-ROM on this machine), but the machine cannot boot from USB.
What is the best approach for upgrading/replacing the Linux distribution now on this machine and what distribution might be best for this? Much of the discussion I've seen here and elsewhere assumes a machine with Windows on it. That is not my situation.
Is trying a boot floppy and a USB stick the best way to go? If so, would I then be able to install to the hard drive from the USB stick? (The stick is 512 meg.) I don't want to permanently devote the stick to housing my distibution of choice, so a hard drive installation is preferred. Is an installation of a distibution over the internet on top of an existing installation even possible?
I have done some searching, but separating the wheat from the chaff has been a bit daunting. Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
I have an old laptop on which the CD-ROM has apparently died (at least the controller cable is apparently dead, as replacing the drive had no effect). The machine has an old version of Feather Linux on it (the machine is Linux-only), but I'd like to try something a bit more up-to-date on it. I'm worried that trying to upgrade would break everything, so I'm leaning toward trying from scratch.
I currently have a working floppy on the drive and a network connection. The hard drive (I believe) has two partitions I might also be able to get a USB stick working on it (it worked when I was able to boot Puppy from the CD-ROM on this machine), but the machine cannot boot from USB.
What is the best approach for upgrading/replacing the Linux distribution now on this machine and what distribution might be best for this? Much of the discussion I've seen here and elsewhere assumes a machine with Windows on it. That is not my situation.
Is trying a boot floppy and a USB stick the best way to go? If so, would I then be able to install to the hard drive from the USB stick? (The stick is 512 meg.) I don't want to permanently devote the stick to housing my distibution of choice, so a hard drive installation is preferred. Is an installation of a distibution over the internet on top of an existing installation even possible?
I have done some searching, but separating the wheat from the chaff has been a bit daunting. Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
Walt
Now that you point it out to me, the answer seems painfully obvious.
Now that you point it out to me, the answer seems painfully obvious.
debian, last time i looked, can be installed with 2 floppys, and an internet connection to download packages.
vectorlinux standard, at least 5.0 standard, had a vinstall script, so you could have the iso image on the usbkey, run the script, and this would install to hdisk from the iso image.
and of course there's our favourite, puppy! where you could mount the image, extract vmlinuz, initrd.gz & pup_212.sfs, copy to hdisk, then amend your featherlinux boot method to boot puppy.
vectorlinux standard, at least 5.0 standard, had a vinstall script, so you could have the iso image on the usbkey, run the script, and this would install to hdisk from the iso image.
and of course there's our favourite, puppy! where you could mount the image, extract vmlinuz, initrd.gz & pup_212.sfs, copy to hdisk, then amend your featherlinux boot method to boot puppy.