A Beginner's Guide to Installing Puppy

Booting, installing, newbie
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DanYHKim
Posts: 103
Joined: Mon 15 Sep 2008, 01:51

Install to a new, blank HDD

#16 Post by DanYHKim »

Your question implies a computer that had been running some form of Windows. It no longer boots, and you do not wish to continue using the previous Windows setup as the primary OS. I am assuming that you do not care to preserve the documents and other data on the hard drive, but are willing to re-initialize the drive and start 'fresh'.

Is this correct? It is possible that the previous OS and environment can be restored, and the computer used as before with Windows without switching to a whole new OS, which is an entirely different issue.

Because Puppy is very compact and efficient, it really can be fully functional while living in a rather small corner of your hard drive, unless the machine in question is rather old. If your hard drive is over a couple of gigabytes, you still have the option to create a NTFS or FAT32 partition for installing Windows.

- - -

The rest of your question implies that the computer will not boot from the hard drive. So, you need to see if it will boot from the CD-ROM drive or from a USB device. It may be necessary to adjust your BIOS settings to have the computer boot from the CD-ROM drive before the hard drive.

Once a Puppy Linux LiveCD had booted your computer, you can actually mount and access your previously-dead hard drive to see its files. You may even be able to install GRUB to the hard drive so it can initiate the boot-up and start Windows. Puppy Linux, or any other LiveCD boot-up does not need the hard drive at all, so it's good for rescuing non-booting hard drive data.

So, do you want to rescue your non-booting PC, or do you want to do a complete re-working of the computer with Puppy? That will determine what you do next.

I hope this is of some help.

DCFC79
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun 16 Nov 2008, 10:55

#17 Post by DCFC79 »

Do i need to do anything before i burn puppy to a cd for example use an error checker like when i downloaded ubuntu before

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Béèm
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Location: Brussels IBM Thinkpad R40, 256MB, 20GB, WiFi ipw2100. Frugal Lin'N'Win

#18 Post by Béèm »

DCFC79 wrote:Do i need to do anything before i burn puppy to a cd for example use an error checker like when i downloaded ubuntu before
Yes, run a md5sum check.
The md5sum is a downloadable item as well as well as the corresponding ISO.
Time savers:
Find packages in a snap and install using Puppy Package Manager (Menu).
[url=http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HomePage]Consult Wikka[/url]
Use peppyy's [url=http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html]puppysearch[/url]

DCFC79
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Joined: Sun 16 Nov 2008, 10:55

#19 Post by DCFC79 »

Béèm wrote:
DCFC79 wrote:Do i need to do anything before i burn puppy to a cd for example use an error checker like when i downloaded ubuntu before
Yes, run a md5sum check.
The md5sum is a downloadable item as well as well as the corresponding ISO.
cheers thankyou, ive used md5sum to do the checksum bit and i cant find the md5 so i can compare it using the checker, the program created a notepad file and im guessing i find the checksum in that right,

is what im asking detailed anywhere to save me asking

john.adam
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 13 Nov 2008, 06:35

#20 Post by john.adam »

Sage wrote:Just a couple of comments for someone to add.
If playing around with partitions/repartitioning - make a small swap partition at the same time.
If intending to adopt the FULL installation option, the new partition needs to be formatted before running the PUI.
Probably also mention somewhere about using pfix=ram boot parameter.
Maybe it isn't made entirely clear that a FULL install actually decompresses the files (only that the word 'compress' wasn't invoked - something that will be well understood by SuperStor/Doublespace refugees).
Possibly scope for a brief outline of the advantages and disadvantages of FULL & FRUGAL based on available resources and operator intentions?
Hi Sega

Thanks for this all info. I already have put it up.

John

MooDog
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun 13 Aug 2006, 11:35
Location: Red Dot

#21 Post by MooDog »

Hi, Lobster -

From the wikka:
Open the Live CD and look at the contents. You will see that the complete operating system is contained in just four compressed files. They are vmlinuz, initrd.gz, pupxxx.sfs and zdrvxxx.sfs. All you need to know for now is that the first two files contain the code that Puppy uses to get itself started. The third file contains the application software like word processors and web browsers. The fourth file contains hardware drivers.
I think it's time to update this section to highlight the fact that Puppy 4.XX series only has 3 compressed files, and zdrvxxx.sfs has been incorporated into pupxxx.sfs as well.

Don C.

psuliin
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Joined: Mon 01 Dec 2008, 15:11

#22 Post by psuliin »

I just thought I should mention that the link to the online doc seems to be broken.

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Béèm
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Location: Brussels IBM Thinkpad R40, 256MB, 20GB, WiFi ipw2100. Frugal Lin'N'Win

#23 Post by Béèm »

DCFC79 wrote:
Béèm wrote:
DCFC79 wrote:Do i need to do anything before i burn puppy to a cd for example use an error checker like when i downloaded ubuntu before
Yes, run a md5sum check.
The md5sum is a downloadable item as well as well as the corresponding ISO.
cheers thankyou, ive used md5sum to do the checksum bit and i cant find the md5 so i can compare it using the checker, the program created a notepad file and im guessing i find the checksum in that right,

is what im asking detailed anywhere to save me asking
When you download the ISO there is a corresponding text file containing the md5 sum. You have to download that as well.
Once you run the md2check compare the results obtained to the one you downloaded.
If it matches, your download is ok.
Time savers:
Find packages in a snap and install using Puppy Package Manager (Menu).
[url=http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HomePage]Consult Wikka[/url]
Use peppyy's [url=http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html]puppysearch[/url]

bunnybuster_jr
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 06 Jun 2008, 16:13

#24 Post by bunnybuster_jr »

Is there a link to installing Puppy 4.1 retro to the hard drive and completely boots from the hard drive on a machine that does not have Windows and never will on it?

How does one modify the MBR? Where do we get to the commands to work with the GRUB?

I used a Live CD and followed what seemed to be the process outlined after first shut down to establish a hard drive bootable install. With the CD out, I get an error at boot up. I get "Error 15".

The instructions linked in the first post of this topic does not give me ( a newbie ) enough step-by-step information on how to install it completely to the hard drive.

Thanks.

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rcrsn51
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Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#25 Post by rcrsn51 »

Your Error 15 suggests that GRUB was installed correctly but it cannot find the Puppy files.

1. What kind of installation method did you use - full or frugal? If you used frugal was it installed into a folder? To answer these questions, boot off the Live CD and look at your Puppy partition.

2. Go to the folder /boot/grub and locate the file menu.lst. Post it here. There is a mismatch between the actual location of the Puppy files and the paths that are stated in menu.lst.

If you want more information about setting up GRUB manually, go here and download the "grub-install" package.

bunnybuster_jr
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 06 Jun 2008, 16:13

#26 Post by bunnybuster_jr »

After doing some more homework on the Puppy WIKI site, I found enough information to try again. I was successful in getting it to install to the hard drive although it took a couple attempts. I realized I needed to go through Puppy Universal Installer (PUI) to do more work. Then, I was able to go through the Grub Installer from the menu and after trying a couple of options, it worked.

When my computer boots up, it stops at a screen that shows:

Dos
Linux on ...
Install Grub...
Install Grub...

and some other verbage. Is there some way to bypass and have it directly go to the Linux option to finish booting? I always have to arrow down and hit enter. Not a big deal, but just curious...

Thanks for your help!

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CatDude
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#27 Post by CatDude »

Hello bunnybuster_jr

In your /boot/grub/menu.lst
you will see a section like this:

Code: Select all

# Start GRUB global section
timeout 30
default 0
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
gfxmenu /boot/grub/yellow1
# End GRUB global section
Yours will not be exactly like this.
All you need to do is:
make sure the timeout line does not have a # at the start,
you could change the 30 to let's say 5 (that's the time in seconds, before it boots the default entry).

For the default, set that to 1 (that means the second item listed, in your case: Linux on ... ),
again make sure it is uncommented (remove the #, if there is one at the start of that line)

Remember to save your changes.
Next time you boot up, it should go to the Linux Desktop without any intervention from you.


CatDude
.
[img]http://www.smokey01.com/CatDude/.temp/sigs/acer-futile.gif[/img]

bunnybuster_jr
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 06 Jun 2008, 16:13

#28 Post by bunnybuster_jr »

CatDude

Thanks for the help. I found the section about the timeout, but nothing that says default. I copied my boot grub menu.lst information below.

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'. Mon May 19 06:32:54 2008
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hda' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hda.6152'. You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hda.6152 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Other bootable partition config begins
title DOS (on /dev/sda1)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,1)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0,1)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)

I see the area for the timeout and can modify that per your instructions, but do you know where to apply the default instructions?

Thanks!

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CatDude
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Location: UK

#29 Post by CatDude »

bunnybuster_jr wrote: I see the area for the timeout and can modify that per your instructions, but do you know where to apply the default instructions?

Thanks!
Just add it below the timeout line.
Like this:

Code: Select all

timeout 5
default 1
CatDude
.
[img]http://www.smokey01.com/CatDude/.temp/sigs/acer-futile.gif[/img]

bunnybuster_jr
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri 06 Jun 2008, 16:13

#30 Post by bunnybuster_jr »

CatDude-

Worked great! Thanks for your help. Now on to other problems...

Bunnybuster_Jr

bikerdad1969
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 16 Mar 2009, 03:14

puppy won't install

#31 Post by bikerdad1969 »

puppy won't install.... after it gets done loading kernel files , it goes on to "searching for puppy files on computer disk drives "and just hangs there....

what do I do now ?

the machine is a toshiba tecra 8100 laptop with a broken windows 200 install on it .

thane
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 19:14
Location: Waipahu, Hawaii USA

#32 Post by thane »

I posted this on the eeZos forum too but that doesn't seem to get much play.

In the last week I've downloaded both Puppy Linux 4.1.2 and the eeZos_0_6 puplet. The box I'm using has a read-only CD drive and an old version of Windows on the hard drive, so I'm booting off the CD [bios doesn't allow booting from USB] and using a USB flash memory stick for the system save. I mostly do web surfing so this is working out fine.

The 4.1.2 runs totally in RAM [with files on the USB] which is what I want. However when I tried running eeZos [separate CD and memory stick] it didn't (as far as I can recall) give me the option of copying any system files to the USB stick or to RAM. So it's constantly going back to the CD for those files. It does write the save file to the USB stick so it knows the stick is there.

Did I miss something at some point in the installation? I'd appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

thane
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 19:14
Location: Waipahu, Hawaii USA

#33 Post by thane »

OK, I looked at the 4.1.2 files on its USB stick, and copied over that 412 whatever file in eezos to its USB. Looks like eezos isn't hitting the CD anymore once it boots. I'm not 100% sure it's all running in RAM though either.

thane
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu 26 Mar 2009, 19:14
Location: Waipahu, Hawaii USA

#34 Post by thane »

So far 4.2 is working fine the way I initially set it up (booting from CD, with the save and 420 files stored on a USB stick). In fact that's what I'm using now. But, when I tried setting up the same type of USB stick as a boot device (took all the defaults in the Install process), and downloading the wakepup2 program and burning it to CD (since the bios for the Compaq Deskpro EN doesn't support booting from USB), I got a "target USB device not found" error.

I'm using an HP USB Flash Drive v125w. I left the default partitioning that was set when the files were copied over. Since Puppy Linux can find and use the device I'm wondering if I got the wrong version of wakepup or something. Not a big deal for now since what I have works fine.

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Tatty42
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#35 Post by Tatty42 »

I think I've managed to succesfully install puppy 4.0 to my laptop's HDD (no windows), and configured the GRUB properly, so I have (and can choose) the option to launch Puppy, however, it all goes OK, until it scans for serial peripherals and tells me I have a PS2 mouse and keyboard, then it seems to stop.

Does the next step take a long time? Do I need to give it more time, or does it sound as though something is going (gone) wrong :?:

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