Auto hardware detection after installing to HDD

Using applications, configuring, problems
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NothingBetterToDo

Auto hardware detection after installing to HDD

#1 Post by NothingBetterToDo »

I installed Puppy 1.0.6 onto a really old hard drive (261MB) on a Dell Optiplex with 512 MB RAM. I'd like to take the hard drive and put it into a Packard Bell Multimedia C115 (circa 1996) with 48 MB RAM to use Puppy as a thin client. Will Puppy auto-detect the changes in its hardware environment as it loads? I'd like to avoid blowing things up in the process.

kethd
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Joined: Thu 20 Oct 2005, 12:54
Location: Boston MA USA

#2 Post by kethd »

I've played with this kind of thing some... Puppy does not seem to have that many settings hidden anywhere, just the obvious ones you know about: keyboard type, mouse type, screen resolution. A lot of the basic essential-hardware stuff should auto-configure each time you boot.

(Actually, there may be issues with modems, ethernet etc -- I have not been using such with Puppy yet.)

So you only have to worry if you are changing keyboard/mouse/video, I think. So, before you take the hard drive out of the Dell, set the mouse and keyboard to what the PB uses, and set the video back to basic Vesa 640x480... What is the cpu in the PB? You may have a slow boot in the old machine, but there are some ways to speed it up some.

NothingBettertoDo

Thanks

#3 Post by NothingBettertoDo »

I've run Puppy on the PB before, but am taking the HDD from the PB to install as a 2nd HDD on another machine. Puppy runs nicely on it, but I figured I'd run into difficulties installing Puppy on the little 261 MB drive on a machine with only 48 MB ram (I'd have to load PUP001 onto the drive, and wouldn't be able to install Puppy to the same partition it was running from). It worked well to load Pup entirely into RAM on the Optiplex.

I haven't configured any of the networking hardware yet, so that shouldn't be an issue. Changing the keyboard, mouse and monitor settings is a great idea, though. Thanks!

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rarsa
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#4 Post by rarsa »

Puppy should not have a problem. Just make sure that you have a swap partition available.

Before shutting down the computer to transfer the HDD, exit X to the console and follow the instructions there to delete the /etc/mousedevice and the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

kethd
Posts: 451
Joined: Thu 20 Oct 2005, 12:54
Location: Boston MA USA

#5 Post by kethd »

In my experiments, HDoption-2 install uses about 150MB of a hard drive (and HDoption-1 could use as little as 70MB). PUPXXX can be as small as 5MB. 48MB is plenty to start full standard Puppy -- you don't actually need any swap space (though I would be glad to hear reports of actual experiments about situations where it helps/hurts to have it.)

* * * Related links:
LINLD vs. GUJIN bootloaders, 32MB, speed issues:
http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic ... 5&start=30

slowest Puppy computers:
http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic.php?t=4930

How to set up Swap Partition:
http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic.php?t=4978

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