(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I am new to Puppy (and really excited about it); however, I have a problem. I have a USB flash drive, which I loaded up with the 3 files needed for Puppy (as per the updated installation instructions) plus the 'pupxusb' file. On booting my computer with the floppy, the USB drive is found and tiny.exe attempts to load the vmlinuz kernel, but hangs instead. I don't get any error messages or anything else like that. Any help on this would be appreciated.

My personal opinion is that tiny.exe sometimes does that.

You can use grub for dos and boot with a floppy, but you need an ms-dos bootable floppy.

you can make the dos bootable floppy from a Win9x or DOS machine with this command:

sys c: a:

or

format a: /s

if you are interested in doing it with grub, make your bootable ms-dos floppy. I'll try and guide you through the rest.

So I need to use an OS before XP to make the ms-dos bootable floppy (I tried on XP, but the dos prompt doesn't recognize the /s parameter), right?

Thanks for your help.

That's right. You might be able to make a bootable 'rescue floppy' from XP, then delete from the floppy the files you don't want, keeping only the ones that you need. I'm not sure which ones to leave though.

Once I make the ms-dos bootable floppy, what files should I put on it?

Eugene wrote:Once I make the ms-dos bootable floppy, what files should I put on it?

grub.exe (search for grub for dos)
edit.com (comes with windows 9x)

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

then you will need to make 3 text files:

1) config.sys that does nothing or what ever you want it to do

2) autoexec.bat, with this line:

@grub --config-file=(fd0)/menu.lst

3) a menu.lst file for grub

something like this:

timeout 0
default 0

title Puppy Linux
rootnoverify (*)
kernel (*)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram PFILE=**-none-*** PHOME=**** (extra kernel parameters here as needed)
initrd (*)/image.gz

------------
where * = grub's path to device
where ** = name of pupfile
where *** = size of pupfile in kilobytes
where **** = path to location of pupfile, probably the same location as *, but use the linux device syntax, e. g. hda7 as opposed to (hd0,6)

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

PS EDIT

I hope you are familiar with how GRUB refers to devices.

Example:

fd0 = (fd0)
hda1 = (hd0,0)
hda5 = (hd0,4)

hdc3 = who knows? it depends on whether it is the second or third hd in the grub series

it could be:

(hd1,2)
(hd2,2)

whereas linux sees it as it is where it's located on the ide controller, grub doesn't see it the same.

my menu.lst file looks like this:

timeout 0
default 0

title Puppy Linux
rootnoverify (fd0)
kernel (fd0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram PFILE=usr_cram.fs-none-54068PHOME=fd0
initrd(fd0)/image.gz

Is this right?

So, once I've loaded these files on the floppy, how should I go about booting Puppy?

It's not right, mainly, because you've referenced everything to the floppy disk.

I've not installed Linux on a USB device and I can't tell you exactly how GRUB sees it. Hope someone who has can give you specifics. Do you know how Linux sees it, i.e. sda1?

Unfortunately, I know almost nothing when it comes to Linux. I will try various things and see if I get somewhere with them. Thanks for the help so far, though.

Eugene, I wish I could do more. I recommend booting Puppy with the CD disc and run two utilities from the rxvt prompt:

# probepart
# probedisk

I think this should tell you one of two things you need to know, namely how Linux identifies the USB device. This is information you will need.

Next you need to know how GRUB identifies the device. Search on the internet.

None of this is intitutive, you should need to guess all the combinations as it will drive you nuts.

Search the Internet for answers. Beware, some people tell how to install grub on the USB drive and boot from it. Not a bad idea, but that is not what you are trying at present to accomplish.

What you presently want to is boot Linux on the USB drive from GRUB (on the floppy) .

Later if things work out, you can install GRUB any number of places, but that is a little advanced for what you are doing now.

Let us know okay?

Have you tried running the Puppy live CD and using the Install wizard to install Puppy to a USB card.

Well, I downloaded the Live CD version of Puppy and it boots on my computer flawlessly. The USB drive is listed as "sda1" (that's how linux sees it). GRUB says that the USB drive is "hd1,4" (I think); I have one harddrive with 2 partions and that shows up as "hd0,0" and "hd0,1".
So far no luck in getting GRUB to find the files on the USB drive. Plus, the USB drive itself just went kaput (too many writes, I think), so I may not get back to you all for awhile.

Still, thanks for all the help and suggestions.