Hi guys, I'm a new entry feeling amazed by this community, and I'd like to share with you my desperate, although successful, puppy 5.2.2 installation (old and unskilled being talking).
These were the starting conditions (the reason of that "desperate"):
Toshiba satellite 2180cdt, AMD k6-2 @ 450 Mhz, 64 mb ram, 4gb hd (3 partitions 1-1-2 gb),
unworking CD,
unworking floppy]. Win98se + finesse23 (a little help for lacking processor's sse instructions)
Now that I'm finally close to change this poor laptop, yesterday I've decided to give a try to the other "half of the sky", linux, mostly beacuse each cent matters here (and to have kept for 13 years the same pc should be a valid witness).
So, here it goes: time ago I successfully tried, in the same conditions, a win2000 installation, removed few days later due to evident machine's troubles in handling such an OS, which left behind a dual boot (boot.ini) config.
Looking @ Wary Puppy 5.2.2 installation guides, I've felt quite lost due to the lack of working CD/floppy units, but I've decided to proceed step by step.
To start off, I've downloaded the Wary 5.2.2 ISO.
Then I've downloaded Virtual Clonedrive 5.4.5.
I've copied the ISO image from the HD to the virtual CD, then extracted all files from there to the HD (D: - 2nd partition)
Downloaded Grub4dos' grldr and menu.lst files to C:\ (just those 2)
Modified the menu.lst file as follows:
title Wary 5.2.2 frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz
and added to the boot.ini file (C:\)
C:\grldr="Wary 5.2.2 frugal"
What happened: at boot the Wary 5.2.2 frugal option was there, I've selected it, Grub's screen popped out giving me the only choice "Wary 5.2.2 frugal) and then..
Error 22: cannot find the partition (or something like that)
Using the "set root=(" + tab in Grub, the system told me that the only available partition was (Hd0,0) rd.
After many, and unsuccessful, attempts with the menu-lst file, I've decided to copy, not having the possibility to use even the flopy unit, all Wary files to C:\, setting the menu.lst path as (hd0,0).
Reboot and..
boot.ini option => Grub option => puppy 5.2.2 started
When, finally I had puppy desktop, I've seen that he had recognised the HD partitions, so I've decided to try to install Wary directly from the desktop ("install").
I've not allowed Grub instalaltion, preferring to manually change the menu.lst file according to the infos of the installation process (just copy paste)
title Puppy Linux 5.2.2 frugal in sda5 dir wary5.2.2frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /wary5.2.2frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=wary5.2.2frugal
initrd /wary5.2.2frugal/initrd.gz
and the boot.ini accordingly:
C:\grldr="Puppy Linux 5.2.2 frugal"
The reboot was successful: boot.ini => Grub => Puppy 5.2.2
I feel noobish while writing all this, but I think that if there is somebody in my same desperate conditions he might feel better.
You've done/are doing an amazing job guys, but the most important thing is that you give hope even to people like me with your efforts.
Thank you from your brand-new friend