How to choose drive for a frugal install?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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Abel
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How to choose drive for a frugal install?

#1 Post by Abel »

Hi,

I want to install wary puppy 5.5 in a certain partition (ext3 format), last time I tried a frugal install it didn't ask where to install.

I currently boot it by CD (wary 5.5) and then it loads to RAM, but when I use Gparted and try to unmount /dev/sda1 It says it is busy. And it is busy because puppy, for some reason, is using it.

Computer is fujitsu lifebook s4546
Pentium III
RAM: 128MB but not confirmed

Also if I leave the computer idle for some time, the screen goes off, if I touch any key it goes back on, but then the touchpad doesn't work anymore.

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Abel
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Re: Choose drive where to install puppy

#2 Post by Abel »

So far I've done a 715 MiB partition (ext2 format) but when I use the Universal installer and select internal IDE SATA it only shows me the bigger partition.
How do I install wary in another partition? Or at least not boot using the bigger partition?

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Flash
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#3 Post by Flash »

Hi Abel.

You should start a new thread for your touchpad problem. One problem per thread makes the forum more useful for everyone. :)

As to why Puppy might mount a drive when it boots from CD, my guess is there's a swap partition on that drive. Puppy looks for swap memory when it boots and uses it if it finds any. With only 128 MB of RAM, there must be swap memory somewhere. I'm sure there is a way to find out if Puppy is using swap, but I don't remember how.

In Wary Puppy, I think if you go to Menu -> System you'll find an app named something like sysinfo that will tell you how much RAM you have and much more besides about your computer.

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Abel
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#4 Post by Abel »

Hi Flash,

Agreed, touchpad problem stays for another thread.
Flash wrote: In Wary Puppy, I think if you go to Menu -> System you'll find an app named something like sysinfo that will tell you how much RAM you have and much more besides about your computer.
Yes, its name seems to be Hardinfo.
My computer seems to have 255MB of RAM(255164kB).

For now, I only know a "Boot and Nuke" software named DBAN that will erase the entire disk, and a "dd" code that will write 0 to every disk bit.

I'd rater use Wary anyways, those two seems somewhat dangerous.

By the way, the second partition I have has 715MiB, the swap partition you said Wary looks for may be any partition formated to the "linux-swap" format?

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mikeslr
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#5 Post by mikeslr »

Hi abel,

I'm not sure if you don't have a "Catch 22" situation. If, as flash suggested, gparted sees sda1 as mounted because that's where your swapfile is located, then you have to first turn swap off before running gparted. The command for that would be (open a terminal and type, code) "swapoff /dev/sda1" without the quotes. But if you turn off swap, you only have 255MB of RAM to work with. Hopefully that will be enough to accomplish what you want.

Although you boot from a CD, is wary's SaveFile on sda1? If so, the system will have mounted sda1. The work-around would be to boot wary without it using the SaveFile. As soon as wary starts to boot from the CD --you've got at most 4 seconds-- start typing "puppy pfix=ram" without the quotes.

But there's a easier way to do a frugal install since you already have a partition you want to locate it on. Boot your CD into wary. Mount and/or open a window to the partition where you want to locate wary by left-clicking the desktop drive icon. Right-click an empty space. Select New>Directory. Give it a unique name, e.g. wary2. Mount/open your CD. Left-Press, then drag the following files from the CD into the directory you just created: initrd.gz, puppy_wary_5.5.sfs and vmlinuz. Run grub4dos. It will overwrite your current bootloader, but will create a boot-menu for any operating system on your computer, including your new frugal install of wary.

If, however, your intention is to do a Full Install booting "pfix=ram" and or turning off a swapfile on sda1 will make it available. Note, however, that a Full Install to sda1 will overwrite anything presently located there, swapfile, SaveFile, whatever.

Actually, now that I've thought about it, I'm not sure what you're attempting to accomplish. But more importantly, I don't know how "gparted sees" your hard-drive. How many partitions? How are they formatted? What size and how much is used?

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bigpup
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#6 Post by bigpup »

So far I've done a 715 MiB partition (ext2 format) but when I use the Universal installer and select internal IDE SATA it only shows me the bigger partition.
The Universal Installer will not do frugal installs to ext 2 formats on hard drives. It is set to not show partitions formatted ext 2 on hard drives.
Ext 2 formats corrupt easily and do not auto correct.
Format ext 3 or 4 and it should work.

With that low amount of memory, you do need to make a swap partition.

Seems you may have a save for the Wary CD on the hard drive. That is what makes the drive mounted if the save is being used.
If you boot the Wary CD using boot option

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram
Gparted should see all on the hard drive as unmounted.

Just understand. If you start partitioning and changing formats. Good chance everything on the hard drive is going to get deleted.

If you want to start with a clean freshly partitioned/formatted hard drive.

Using Gparted.
Delete everything shown.
Now with all unallocated space.
Make whatever you want for partitions. (4 max primary)
Start making partitions from the beginning to the end of the unallocated space.
Strongly suggest at the end keep about 512MB to 1GB of unallocated space to make into a Linux swap partition.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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Abel
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#7 Post by Abel »

Thanks bigpup and mikeslr!
The

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram
code worked perfectly!

Noted, I won't use ext2! Thanks for that advice, it would be a problem to get corrupted files later on.

I have a +700MB partition with "Linux-swap" file system but I will also leave 6GB unallocated.

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Flash
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#8 Post by Flash »

Yes, I think Puppy automatically uses any partition labeled Linux-swap.

It probably doesn't make a measurable difference, but since a hard disk begins recording at its perimeter and continues in toward the center, I think reading from the first partition should be faster than from the last partition. Therefore, performance might be better if you make the first partition the swap partition. I don't think this would affect the boot sector.

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Abel
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#9 Post by Abel »

Flash, in that case, the "linux-swap" partition in my laptop is in the worst place, it's right in the last position of the HDD. But the "puppy pfix=ram" makes puppy use that partition so there is no problem.

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bigpup
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#10 Post by bigpup »

I have a +700MB partition with "Linux-swap" file system but I will also leave 6GB unallocated.
Why are you not using that 6GB of unallocated space?
Use it for something.
Another partition or add it to an already made partition.
Use it for something!

If RAM has to use swap.
Swap is going to access at about 200 times slower than RAM.
location on the hard drive is not going to matter that much.
Sure you could probably measure a small difference in access time, but it is going to be very, very small difference.
All modern drives have controllers that adjust for this stuff. They have a small amount of RAM built into the drive for buffering.

If you have the hard drive all setup the way you want it.
Stop using puppy pfix=ram.
You now want Puppy running and booting normally.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

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Abel
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#11 Post by Abel »

Yes I stopped using "puppy pfix=ram" since the frugal install was done.

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