Live CD vs hd Install: some testimony.

[davec51]

I installed Puppy to an ext2 partition a couple of months ago. Like all Puppy manifestations, it's amazingly fast, reliable, and powerful.
The trouble was that new versions wouldn't upgrade successfully, so I had to do clean installs. That was a pain, what with reconfiguring.
Then someone on this forum made me think a little harder: Puppy is made mainly for live cd use, it's fast on bootup (with pup_xx.sfs on the hd), leaves the cd player free, and can be upgraded with no trouble at all.
So now I'm booting from the cd in less than a minute, happier than ever.
One question: when I delete the now unneeded ext2 file, what happens to the GRUB arrangement? Will I still be able to boot into my old W98, if only for old times' sake?

[MU]

that depends on where you have your /bot/grub/menu.lst

On my system I created a small partition, ext2 with 100 MB.
There I have a folder /boot
And a folder /puppy108
and
/puppy212

The /puppyxxx folders have 2 files each, vmlinuz and initrd.gz (or image.gz for 108).

So my boot-files are on this small partition, and I can format all others however I like.

In short:
If you format your ext2 -partition, you would loose grub, so you had to create a new one.

Mark

[davec51]

Thanks again, John.
Could I just reduce the size of my present ext2 partition, keeping only the /boot/grub part, and then increase my vfat partition accordingly?

[MU]

in theory that might work.
You would boot from a LiveCD, and remove all folders except /boot (or whereever your menu.lst was installed to).
Then you must copy these files to the harddrive (you can use C:\ )
c:\puppylinux212\vmlinuz
c:\puppylinux212\initrd.gz
c:\pup_212.sfs
c:\zdrv_212.sfs

Then you must modify in menu.lst the Puppy-entry like this:

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux2.12
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        kernel (hd0,0)/puppylinux212/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
        initrd (hd0,0)/puppylinux212/initrd.gz

Then start gparted, and try to reduce the size of the ext2 partition, then increase the size of the vfat partition.
But this will not work, if the ext2 is right behind the vfat... I don't think you can "move" the ext2 to the "end" of the harddrive. Maybe you can add a second vfat behind the ext2.

Attention if you have important data on your disk:
manipulating partitions easily can result in a complete loss of ALL files!
This even happens to users with 15 years of experience
I was quite happythen, that I always store my projects in the web...

Mark

[WhoDo]

Thanks again, John.

Huh? John who? Mark Ulrich (MU) is just so nice that he'll answer to any name, I guess! But John? Nah! That's too common for someone so smart as he!

Cheers

[Lobster]

Then someone on this forum made me think a little harder: Puppy is made mainly for live cd use, it's fast on bootup (with pup_xx.sfs on the hd), leaves the cd player free, and can be upgraded with no trouble at all.
So now I'm booting from the cd in less than a minute, happier than ever.

stick a CD in the drive
open a console and type cdp

Music

An important point. Again and again I installed to HD (thinking this is what you did)
You do with most distributions
but with Puppy it is not a requirement

Have not installed to HD for about a year (only other distros)

[davec51]

Thanks again, John.

Huh? John who? Mark Ulrich (MU) is just so nice that he'll answer to any name, I guess! But John? Nah! That's too common for someone so smart as he!

Cheers

OK, then. Thanks and apologies, Mark. Help seems to come from all quarters here.