How to choose which Pup file is used when booting from USB?

[lordbiggington]

Well I'm brand new to Puppy, but have played with a number of linux distros over the years.

Have successfully got Puppy2.14 up and running off my USB stick, but have two problems I cant seem to fix.

I keep reading that at bootup there is a spot to type things like "puppy pfix=ram", which there was when booting from the downloaded iso but not from the install on my usb stick. Not a big deal, I just rename the pup_save file (change the extension) in windows first then load puppy if thats what I want. But onto the more annoying problem....

I have two ide hard drives in my machine. The first hda has two partitions, one NTFS and one FAT32. The second has one partition, NTFS. I can safely mount all partitions, but when first saving my pup_save file it does not give me the option to save to the hard drives, and defaults to the usb stick. Very annoying, i would rather keep a minimal pup_save on the usb stick for when I wish to boot up on a brand new pc (eg at work, friends) and a larger and more specific one on the hard drive for most of my use at home.

Is there a way to force the pup_save file at shutdown to go onto one of the other drives? I have just tried copying the file (it's saved as a 2fs extension by the way, not 3fs extension for some reason) and it copies, but is not seen at bootup.

Neither of these issues are deal breakers, but would make me more likely to stick with puppy.

Thanks for any help.
Daniel

[rarsa]

If you read the relevant parts from the How puppy works web page you will understand that at boot puppy searches for the pup_save file in order of priority. I don't remember the actual order but according to your post the USB may come first.

So, I have several responses to your post:
a) Try booting without the USB stick plugged in and then shutdown. Does it allow to sellect the HDD for your pup_save file?

b) There is a way for forcing Puppy to boot from the CD or USB. the boot parameter is PMEDIA=<media type>, e.g. PMEDIA=idehd or PMEDIA=satahd, there is also another parameter to identify the partition to search the Pup file on. Read all about it on section 8 of the How Puppy works link.

c) When you install to USB it uses a different bootloader than from the Live CD. Search for the bootloader configuration file. I don't remember the name but you can search for it on the USB. The name is kind of obvious.

[Pizzasgood]

sysconfig or something like that. It should have a line where you can add hard-coded parameters. I don't know if you can add an actual menu, and I wouldn't be surprised either way.

[Bruce B]

rasa,

I did some testing after your post, here's an outline of what i did:

booted v 2.14 with cd disc

used the puppy 'pfix=ram' as boot parameter

it stopped me in the boot process make some vesa or xorg settings and setup screen resolution and color depth preferences

on reboot it asked me if i wanted to save the pup file

i said affirmative

it gave me (apparently all) choices of locations along with free space on the various filesystems (i picked hda3)

-------------

on reboot it searched for the pup_file in this order

hdd
hdc
hdb
hda

(i don't have scsi or usb filesystems)

the order it searched the various hd partitions was 1,2, etc

as soon as it finds the first match, it uses that and goes with it as far as i can tell you

- hope this answers something

[Bruce B]

Daniel,

There are some things I can't tell by your request. I will presume two things.

(1) You are booting with a cd disc
(2) You want it to use the saved file on the usb

If it were me and I didn't have an initial save option to the usb, (am i reading right?), I'd save it to a linux or fat partition. Then copy it to the usb filesystem.

But after coping it I'd rename on the hard drive it so puppy doesn't use it.

Don't change the name of the pup_file and let be there only one file of that name on the root of the various filesystems. I suppose Puppy should find it where you put it and use it.

disclaim - I'm just reasoning through Puppy's behavior and I've not personally tested your scenerio. Hope my posts help.

- Bruce

[lordbiggington]

Thanks for the responses. What I am trying to do is boot from USB, but save the pup_save to the local hard drive, as hardware settings as specific to machine, no real need to carry them around on the usb.

I have now read How Puppy Works and it doesnt really solve my problems.

What I have discovered is that if I boot from CD I am prompted to save the pup_save to the local ntfs drive when closing down (sda now I'm at work). Rebooting finds this file ok too.

However after installing to a usb flash drive, then booting this usb drive, it doesnt even look in sda, only sdb (the flash drive). When closing down I am only given the option of sdb. Is there some setting that makes puppy only save to usb if it is a usb boot? Odd that it works fine for the cd boot but not the usb boot.

[Bruce B]

lordbiggington,

before making my posts, i read the info at the links Rasa gave. After reading I thought, things were not up to date maybe, and that the documentation may NOT there be what you need.

sorry my posts didn't answer the question, but at least now I understand the question better.

the answers to your question may (likely) exist on the forum. try searching the forum

in any event my making this post will top your request

- bruce