A Beginner's Guide to Installing Puppy

Booting, installing, newbie
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glene77is
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#106 Post by glene77is »

Ray,
In my experience re-installing Win_XP, the simplistic install will wipe the entire HD, therefore install XP first, then add your Linux partitions, etc.
glene77is
Puppy Linux is more fun than a barrel of M$ monkeys :P
www.geocities.WS/glene77is
glene77is --- {^,^} --- electricity is shocking, Memphis, TN, USA.

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RetroTechGuy
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#107 Post by RetroTechGuy »

glene77is wrote:Ray,
In my experience re-installing Win_XP, the simplistic install will wipe the entire HD, therefore install XP first, then add your Linux partitions, etc.
glene77is
And then when you get your Windows fully configured the way you want, back it up with Clonezilla (you can get back to this state easily, then). You could also use Partimage, but it requires more knowledge to operate.

http://clonezilla.org/

And once you get your Puppy added in, perhaps make another backup of the disk (you should have a decent size external backup drive in any event).

I would recommend that the Windows be installed on a small-ish partition, leaving the rest of the drive for user space (file storage). Then to perform a backup of the OS, is just that first partition (separate from the many GB of user files).

BTW, I installed a dual boot on my XP laptop using the Lin'N'Win method (which doesn't require mucking with the MBR -- just append your system onto the existing Windows bootloader).
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=58615]Add swapfile[/url]
[url=http://wellminded.net63.net/]WellMinded Search[/url]
[url=http://puppylinux.us/psearch.html]PuppyLinux.US Search[/url]

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glene77is
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#108 Post by glene77is »

Retro,
Similar to what I did. :)
Thanks for the confirmation.


###########################################
On my main computer with XP / Linux:

I reduced the XP partition, installed Ubuntu in Part#2, installed PartitionMagic in Part#3, Triple booting.
Used Clonezilla.
Have 3 USB ext HD.

I planted a Partition Magic folder (made by copying the Live-CD) in the XP partition. See his website for simple method.
Altered grub.cfg to capture it.
Did a reboot into the Triple-Boot menu
and Partition Magic was running
in RamDrive out of the XP NTFS partition.

################################
On my second "SandBox" computer,
I installed
(1) Ubuntu in the first partition,
(2) Lighthouse Puppy in the second partition,
(3) Knoppix 6.4 in a third partition,
(4) PartitionMagic in the fourth partition,
(5) then re-installed Ubuntu in the first partition,
and modified the grub.cfg to capture all four.
(6) There are several other partitions for storage of all created data.

Later I use Gparted to "copy" a Puppy partition to a new partition, then modified grub.cfg to also point to that one. It ran but with some apparent conflict with the 'first' puppy save.2fs file it found.
Some of the config changes would transfer from one Puppy to the other Puppy. The Puppy apparently starts at part#1 and searched for a save.2fs file, using the FIRST one it finds. Surprise!
So, I cleared that up, experiment finished.

Gparted copy/paste of a partition works OK.
Just don't plan on booting into either of two Puppy OS on the same HD, without some possible sharing of the save.2fs.

##################################################
We are so fortunate to have great software engineers in Linux!
I could not keep up with them, and I've been in this over 30 years.

Thanks for your comments, Retro.
Puppy Linux is more fun than a barrel of M$ monkeys :P
www.geocities.WS/glene77is
glene77is --- {^,^} --- electricity is shocking, Memphis, TN, USA.

rayberau
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Problems installing Puppy

#109 Post by rayberau »

Thanks Glen.. & Retro.. for your replies.

What should I do get out of where I am hung with the cursor frozen after I pressed ENTER at "Press ENTER key to continue, CTRL-C to abort: ^[OM ??

As I explained, when the same problem happened as I was trying to install Puppy on the USB flash stick a few days ago, I just switched off the computer to abort the installation. But then I found that the CD wouldn't boot my computer until I re-inserted the USB flash stick. So I guess maybe switching off the computer during the installation causes problems, and so I am asking how to get out of the present frozen cursor situation so that Puppy can demount the media and shut down properly, or to find some way of continuing the Puppy install on the USB. I think I would like to see Puppy installed on the USB before I try to install it on the HD. Is my only option to switch off the computer?

Ray

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glene77is
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#110 Post by glene77is »

Ray,
We did get off topic, sorry. Old men reminisce.

(1) Stopping Power during a write can write trash to the HD.
(2) Have someone else put the iso on the usb flash drive.
(3) Try rebooting from this new usb flash drive.

If that fails, then
(4) Try the F2/3 and change the BIOS settings,
to boot from the CD first, (just to be sure).

If that fails, then
(5) Try the F2/3 and change the BIOS settings,
to boot from the USB first, (just to be sure).

If that fails, then
(6) Try the live-CD from Partition Magic.
It boots directly to RAM (if your CD device will do a boot at all).

If it were me, I'd try the Partition Magic ISO live-CD first.
That way you can make certain you have a proper OS partition
and a proper SWAP partition.

In the end, you can look to re-mounting the HD
into a second computer, as a spare drive.
Then Boot Partition Magic CD and re-format.
Then Put the HD back in your original computer, and re-install OS.

HTH,
Stay in touch.
Puppy Linux is more fun than a barrel of M$ monkeys :P
www.geocities.WS/glene77is
glene77is --- {^,^} --- electricity is shocking, Memphis, TN, USA.

rayberau
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Problems installing Puppy

#111 Post by rayberau »

Thanks glen.., I rebooted.
Then I downloaded Partition_magic_8.05_bootable_iso.3283190.TPB.torrent to /root/my-downloads. I found Burniso2cd and burnt the iso 'open' (multisession). The burn was not verified (“You should start over

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glene77is
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#112 Post by glene77is »

Ray,
Doing great!
When Puppy Opens from the HD, it enables an auto-archive-extract mode (not the right words), and from there on, the Puppy subdir 'appear' to you. When it closes/shutsdown this mode is cleared, and from another OS you will see mainly the several .SFS files.

You are trying to load a bootable 8GB flash drive.
I have done this with Xubuntu and it worked. Need to check
it for a SWAP area. Did it via UBootIn. When I have checked it, I'll write back.

I downloaded the pmagic ISO and placed it, as is, into a /pmagic subdir in (1) Windows XP, and later moved it to be withing the Ubuntu partition, and later to its own partition. Each time it was in a /pmagic subdir, directly at what we usually call the root or base subdir. Pmagic docs say that during boot, as called by Grub.cfg, it will only search one level deep to find it's packages. As an example, when I placed /pmagic on the NTFS XP partition, it was C:/pmagic.
This is the base level as used by XP. All the pmagic.iso was placed inside of C:/pmagic. It is in the docs on the webside, and this is what it refers to. It also describes the Grub.cfg script used to call it, very simple really.
Enough of that.

You want to boot the live-CD to RAM ?
Burn the ISO to CD in single-session. Standard method for ISO.
Multi-session is for special compiles of your own data.
Burn the ISO to CD in single-session.
The .ISO extension is a flag-word for CD-burning programs.

When GpartEd runs on a medium, and you want to make/use it as a 'bootable' partition, remember that this beginning location will be pointed to by the MBR as it jumps to the 'bootable' partition and locks for the 'booting' script, etc. If you later move/resize and cause this 'boot' location to change, then MBR will not be able to find the 'bootable' partition. At that point, you have to load a live-CD and re-establish the link, which is a ball-of-wax for later experience.

In my experience, 4GB is much large enough for Puppy, and later you can (only if need be) resize to GpartEd's 'right' (not left) grahical sizing, which will leave the 'bootable' partition's beginning location intact. Using GpartEd GUI for all these maneuvers has a distanct advantage of common interface and language for folks, like me, who are not long-term Linux geeks.

Windows XP OS will only recognize NTFS and FAT-32, etc, and never Linux Ext2,3,4, etc.

Now, the SWAP format is a binary form used only by Linux OS, and nobody else can deal with it. Lay one big enough to make up for a lack of 1GB memory at the far right of the GpartEd GUI display, maybe even as a 'primary' partition of its own. However you do that, it is used to make up for lack of large RAM space, so you can figure that, and pad it out some. There is no magic to the SWAP. Windows has used a flexible Swap File for many years. Linux uses a fixed Swap Partition. Similar things.

On my sandbox computer, today, I have :
Primary partition hda0,1 Ubuntu, bootable, with grub.cfg.
Extended partition hda0,2 containing:
LightHouse Puppy (hda0,7)
Knoppix (hda0,6)
Pmagic (hda0,9)

I have used one 1GB with a RAM of .5GB (512MB).
I had 5GB left on my sandbox computer, the one with half-dozen OS, and killed off the old 2GB (which of course prevented me from booting to the installed OS !!!), then I booted PartitionMagic Live-CD, which requires only minimal RAM and no SWAP, and made a 'primary' partition of 1GB at the far right, and rebooted, into Ubuntu, which searched for and found the new SWAP.
From there, running GpartEd from Ubuntu, what I found is that I had to edit the Ubuntu Grub.cfg and re-number the partitions above 5 ( the old location of the 'other' OS) to be one number lower. That was because there was one less partition numbered (remember I killed off the SWAP partition which was inside the Extended Partition used for my 'other' Linux OS. So, Knoppix went from hda0,7 to hda0,6. Likewise for the remainder of my 'other' Linux OS. That is how I used GpartEd to manipulate the SWAP file and cause the necessary re-numbering of the various partitions, ending up with the table presented above. It is a neat and logical manipulation. It you move the leading edge of a 'bootable' partition, then the boot system may not be able to find the 'bootable' partition (same 'maybe' with the SWAP), and then you have to edit the boot system script (grub.cfg) to make it work. I have dozens of grub_backup_todays_date.cfg files to be able to restore my 'custome code' in 'MY' grub.cfg, just in case Ubuntu activates an update-grub routine.
That said, lets move on.

You asked "you suggested that I make a SWAP partition" and I replied to some of the SWAP concepts above.
(1) Windows will not recognize the SWAP, and never will need to.
(2) "You" do not store anything in the Linux SWAP, it is for system RAM overflow, just like Windows does, and is related to available RAM for Linux, moment by moment.
* Windows will only read/write against FAT-16/32 and NTFS. Store your created data in some partition which both Windows and Linux can see.
* I use Linux to read/write my OpenOffice and MS-Office files on both the Windows partition and the Linux partitions. I have run OpenOffice from both Windows and Linux against both Fat-32, NTFS, and EXT2 formated partitions. Seems to function all the time.
* I do not try to store any of my Puppy personal data in a system SFS. Seems too complicated to re-do an ISO file, and I don't know how.
* Puppy will usually drop your personal data into the save.2fs which Puppy provides for this very purpose. Puppy (vanilla) will drop your added programs (downloads via PuppyPackageMgr) into the save.2fs.
* Puppy (vanilla)
You can create additional subdir next to the Puppy OS sfs files, just like an ordinary subdir called "/Storage" created in the ordinary way, and use it as you see fit. Puppy can find it via ROX-filer or PCMan-filer, and (with some picking around, from the applications like OpenOffice, Gimp, Audacity, which usually want you to find /mnt and then find the base level of the current Puppy partition). But it works. Ubuntu is more like windows when it comes to pointing into your custom subdir, using the Nautilus-filer.

* On the subject of the save.sfs,
Under Lighthouse Puppy OS you can have established an addition subdir for 'programs' which are 'linked' to the LightHouse Puppy OS, thus not packing too much into the save.2sf.

* You wrote "Do I need a SWAP partition between Puppy and the second partition which will hold my Openoffice files made with Windows XP? I doubt it. "
You can not do it that way. Not a SWAP function, period.
You will need a SWAP partition, for the SWAP function.
I don't know if you can run a Linux OS without SWAP partition,
I have, to date, been focused on having one, getting my Ubuntu to find it, and understanding its function.
I use a 512MB SWAP on my fast computer, just to have one,
and only to make up for RAM requirements if I am running OpenOffice, FireFox, GIMP, Audacity, etc, all at the same time. If you have a GIG of computer RAM available, then
the SWAP function may never be activated by the OS.

* Your personal "Archive" partition can be anywhere,
using a format readable by every OS you install.
*** (Windows = NTFS, FAT-32, and Linux = Any-format).
*** I would choose NTFS if you are heavy into Windows.
*** I have chosen to ignore Windows, and focus on Linux Ext2.
*** I use Windows only for my AutoCAD 2000, and costing $3500 US dollars you can understand why I maintain Windows_XP thusly. Someday I may learn how to use zWINE to facilitate AutoCAD in a Linux OS.

I am wordy, verbose.
Hope I said it all in an organized format.
Read through it, then go back and pick out what you need.
Puppy Linux is more fun than a barrel of M$ monkeys :P
www.geocities.WS/glene77is
glene77is --- {^,^} --- electricity is shocking, Memphis, TN, USA.

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glene77is
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#113 Post by glene77is »

Ray,
Have just installed Puppy 4.2-ret to USB flash drive.
That was the only version available via this method.

# I ran the Ubuntu "unetbootin"
and installed Puppy 4.2-ret, from the Puppy website,
selecting the only version available "current",
into an 8GB USB flash drive.
# It required 103.4 MB, with 7.4 GB free.
# There was no mention of a SWAP, ane NO partitioning,
and I found no trace of such on the flash drive.

# The function of the SWAP is to provide for extended RAM,
to catch RAM overflow.
# This machine has 1 GB RAM,
and the Puppy 4.2 OS requires only 103.4 MB,
therefore I did not expect any RAM overflow.

Hope that info helps.
I suggest running unetbootin, selecting a website, & version,
then let me know.

# One thing crossed my mind.
My machine will only detect the USB flash drive
If it is the ONLY USB Device Attached !
and if there is at least a 10 second POST delay at bootup.

Buena Suerte !
Puppy Linux is more fun than a barrel of M$ monkeys :P
www.geocities.WS/glene77is
glene77is --- {^,^} --- electricity is shocking, Memphis, TN, USA.

batlinbob
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Themes

#114 Post by batlinbob »

I have spent a ton of time, hours non stop reading about how to install themes... i am new to puppy/linux but i am an MCSA
(win-blows)

i have downloaded, copied, unpacked, extracted all sorts of gtk themes packages .pet but can't figure out how to get the themes working... some say /root/.jtk but there is no directory etc... or broken links ... please please help me

nooby
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#115 Post by nooby »

please please help me

Sorry I don't trust that I can help but if you are that eager to try out themes.

then Floppy puppy and Puppeee most likely have built in themes at least 5 maybe 7 such and by looking at how Jemimah does it maybe hint at how to do it.

In case that doesn't suite you then try to start a question about it in the Beginners forum. I don't trust that every user that are fond of themes read here?

I am so naive that I even fail to get what themes are but I do remember that Fluppy???? had at least 5 maybe 7 such and one of them changed the shut down from most upper right to most upper left. I guess that made it a MAC theme? :)
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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rincon155
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How to Install Puppy with Floppy Diskettes

#116 Post by rincon155 »

Is it possible to install Puppy using several 1.44 MB Floppy Diskettes? If not, is it possible to install another Linux Distro small enough to use 1.44 MB Diskettes? I am looking for it in order to recover an old Pentium 1 PC. Thank you for your orientation.
Registered Linux User # 54726, LupuLibre and LupuSuper4 5.2.8.6, Precise 5.7.1, LightHouse Mariner 64-6.02-B2

superchook
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How to Install Puppy with Floppy Diskettes

#117 Post by superchook »

You might be able to do something with tomsrtbt. It is a single floppy, command line only, Linux distribution that fits on a specially formatted 11722kB floppy disk. All the floppy drives that I have tried were able to read a 1722kB floppy but you need to be able to do the initial formatting. It is many years since I last tried this and I would have to go searching to find how I did it. One limitation with this distribution is that it does not support ntfs file systems but your old PC probably uses a FAT file system.

Google tomsrtbt

cheers,
Ken

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rincon155
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#118 Post by rincon155 »

Thank you Ken, now I have a clue where to go!!!
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Deillos
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Trying to install on an HP Proliant DL380 G3 SCSI raid

#119 Post by Deillos »

I am looking for any help i can get for installing puppy Linux on my server as I haven't found 1 OS that I can easily install on it as of yet any help would be greatly appreciated. As I plan on having at Least a distro of linux as the base OS with windows 2000 server and/or windows 2003 server running in a virtual machine. I would really like some help with making it happen. Any help will be greatly appreciated. :?: :?: :!:

deliberatus
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What is javascript

#120 Post by deliberatus »

Skull Girl wrote:Question: What is Java Script? To be honest, I hardly know anything about computers, I'm a bookworm.
A programming language imbedded in webpages, JavaScript is interpreted by the browser at the receiving end. Often used in tiny snippets for small individual effects, it is in fact a moderately powerful language used to create dynamic webpages the visitor can interact with, and provide enhanced functionality in the page. Greeted with mixed emotions, it is none the less used by thousands of webmasters for a plethora of things.

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rincon155
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Updating Puppy 5.2.8 ver 002 to new 004 ISO

#121 Post by rincon155 »

If I have Puppy 5.2.8 ver 002 and I want to update to 004 ISO, should I simply boot with 004 new CD and accept default options? I don't want to loose customization done so far with my lupusave. Thank you.
Registered Linux User # 54726, LupuLibre and LupuSuper4 5.2.8.6, Precise 5.7.1, LightHouse Mariner 64-6.02-B2

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Amgine
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Re: Updating Puppy 5.2.8 ver 002 to new 004 ISO

#122 Post by Amgine »

rincon155 wrote:If I have Puppy 5.2.8 ver 002 and I want to update to 004 ISO, should I simply boot with 004 new CD and accept default options? I don't want to loose customization done so far with my lupusave. Thank you.
If anyone else reads this and has the same question.

You can download the .pet

See http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70855
Instant Update 004 for Lucid 5.2.8: If you have an earlier version of Lucid 5.2.8 you can download and install this Update to bring your version to the 004 specs. This is known as the Sylvander Update because of his great work in solving a prickly problem ->
Fast download -> http://diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/Insta ... 28-004.pet
Slow download -> ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pup ... 28-004.pet

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rincon155
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#123 Post by rincon155 »

Thank you Amgine!
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Semisonic
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#124 Post by Semisonic »

Hello guys!

It's my first day using Puppy, and i'm still very new to Linux, so i hope you'll forgive me my stupidity if there appears any =).

Anyway, i'm having trouble performing a full install of Slacko 5.3.1 on VirtualBox. The machine is dedicated to this installation, so no dualbooting or Live CD stuff is required - just the plain old off-the-hard-drive work.

I got the MAIN iso from the website, the md5 checksum matches OK. The booting in a Live CD mode also works fine. So i tried to perform the full install on the vurtual hard drive, created and formatted the partition in ext2, set the boot flags etc - everything's okay.
But! When i'm told to alter the 'menu.lst' file for the GRUB bootloader, i look into the /dev/sda/boot folder and see no file like that - just an empty grub folder and some vmlinuz file. And obviously, this stuff doesn't boot if i leave it this way.

What am i doing wrong? I've been following the installation instructions precisely, but still the setup somehow fails to make the hard drive bootable.
Should i have configured GRUB somehow before i start the installation? Because find / -name '*grub*' shows i have both grub and grub4dos packages within the system. I just don't know what to do with them to make it all work.

So, i'd be happy if anyone could help me with this issue. Thanks!

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Old puppy
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#125 Post by Old puppy »

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 :)

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