How to Boot from HD but load into RAM

[dvw86]

I would like to use Grub to boot Puppy off of a vfat partition and have it load into RAM, much like the "option 1 HD install" or the "install to USB" with CF modifications. Grub is already installed on the MBR. Here are the problems that I am having. The install to USB script works but kernel panics half way through booting as mentioned here. The option 1 HD install requires you to insert a floppy and I do not have a floppy drive. Does anybody have any ideas?

[Guest]

assuming the vfat partition is c (the first partition on the first drive)

copy vmlinuz and image.gz to, say, c:\puppy-1.0.4 (keeps it easy to keep track of things)

copy usr_cram.fs to the root of c:

now to your grub config

Code: Select all

title Puppy-1.0.4
root (hd0,0)
kernel=/puppy-1.0.4/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=16384 PFILE=pup001-none-262144
initrd=/puppy-1.0.4/image.gz

change your ramdisk_size to suit (eg what is in isolinux.cfg) and PFILE to suit as well

with grub
hd0 is the master drive on the first IDE channel
hd1 is the slave drive on the first IDE channel
hd2 is the master drive on the second IDE channel
hd3 is the slave drive on the second IDE channel

ie the harddirves are counted from 0

the partitions are counted from 0

/dev/hda = (hd0)
/dev/hda1=(hd0,0)

and so on

[dvw86]

That works! Thanks!! Puppy loads into RAM and is FAST. Since I do not have a CD drive on this computer it makes for a great way of installing and upgrading Puppy. Now I can store all my large files (pictures, MP3s, possibly large applications...) on the 115GB ext2 partition and still play with Puppy on the 3GB vfat partition. I think I prefer having Puppy load into RAM verses the option 2 HD install. Thanks again.

[Bancobusto]

Bladehunter, that's awesome

I've wondered if that was possible, but for some reason just assumed that it wasn't.

That's gonna be fun -

[raffy]

It's nice to know that booting with Grub works perfectly in VFAT/MSDOS (which I haven't tried yet).

And I fully agree with you that this is

a great way of installing and upgrading Puppy