How to frugal install from USB to SD card?

Booting, installing, newbie
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Marble42
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Joined: Sun 20 Jul 2014, 07:20

How to frugal install from USB to SD card?

#1 Post by Marble42 »

My laptop has an SD card reader. Is it possible to load Puppy via USB, but then do an install on the micro SD card that will continue to be in the laptop?

TeX Dog
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Joined: Wed 06 Jul 2016, 17:57

#2 Post by TeX Dog »

Yep I have a Acer that has a recessed sdcard slot, so easy to just have it there. most BIOS do skip the sdcard slot due to slow read speed (hardware doesn't SEE it in time) trick is to go into the boot screen F1/F2 whatever you have. then drop out without changes. That allows my Acer to pickup that the SDcard exists.
Somewhat of a clumsy way but I like that it skips sdcard if I boot normally, never have to eject it :wink: Its always there...

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drunkjedi
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#3 Post by drunkjedi »

Yes.

But does your laptop bios has ability to boot from that card reader slot?

I installed a usb3+multicard reader in my desktop's pci slot.
It won't boot any thing on it.

But if I use the card in a normal usb card reader and connect it to usb2 on my motherboard, it boots fine.

Check in bios if it detects and lets you boot from that card reader.

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nic007
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Location: Cradle of Humankind

#4 Post by nic007 »

Yes, HP does no problems. Boots from sd card (no need for usb card reader) with puppy installed on card. Some BIOS may have problems if the card is not FAT formatted.

Marble42
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#5 Post by Marble42 »

I have a Fujitsu laptop. Will check the BIOS and see what I can find.

And I suppose it is not possible to install Puppy in RAM itself (for those laptops with enough RAM)? That would be cool (and fast) (-:

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drunkjedi
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#6 Post by drunkjedi »

RAM clears out when power goes off.
So anything installed there will stay only till it shutsdown/powerfails.

So you will have to install it everytime.

I run my puppies in RAM always, which is like installing in RAM always.

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Mike Walsh
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#7 Post by Mike Walsh »

@drunkjedi:-
drunkjedi wrote:I installed a usb3+multicard reader in my desktop's pci slot.
It won't boot any thing on it.
Hardly surprising. I've got a USB 3.0 adapter card in my one and only PCI-e slot, since some contacts are damaged, and I don't use a graphics card anyway. The adapter 'misses' the damaged pins.

I use it for the external USB 3.0 Seagate drive I have. I can't boot anything off that, either. I found this explaining why, on the RMPrepUSB site:-

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

"Why can't I boot from the USB 3.0 ports on my PCI add-in card?

I was asked this question today via email from Guptila. I thought I would share my reply here too.

The short answer is - you cannot boot via the BIOS on any device that is an 'add-in' device, unless it is a PCI card that also contains an option ROM.

BIOS Code

Think about how the BIOS works...

The BIOS knows that it's mainboard contains a certain chipset (it was designed for that chipset).
The BIOS contains the code required to access the registers on that chipset.
The BIOS has to have code which allow the operator to boot from devices connected to the chipset.
If the board has an ABC chipset, then the BIOS will contain code to access an ABC chipset with ABC-type USB registers.

Now you connect a PCI card containing a different (e.g. Renesas) chip. The BIOS will see a XYZ chip connected to the PCI Bus when you switch on the system, but the BIOS does not contain any code to access this XYZ chip - it does not even 'know' that the chip has USB 3.0 ports connected to it. In fact, when the BIOS code was written by the manufacturer, USB 3.0 chips probably did not even exist!

It would be the same even if you connected a USB 2.0 Renesas add-in card - the BIOS only contains code to boot from the chipset on the mainboard, it does not contain code for the 1001 different cards that could possibly be connected to the PCI bus.

So you cannot expect your system to boot from an add-in card."


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

That is, I believe, the crux of the matter. Certainly, the explanation makes a good deal of sense. I think you'll only achieve boot from USB 3.0 ports where those ports are a built-in component of the motherboard when it's manufactured.

The same probably goes for your 'add-in' card reader. You might possibly be able to make it work by 'chain-linking' the machine's boot-loader to a bootloader contained in the add-on card's chipset.....but I really have no idea how that could be achieved.

If I plug my external Seagate into a USB 2.0 port it'll boot quite happily.


Mike. :wink:

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