There must be a better way! If this seems like a good idea, I hope someone will come up with a better set of instructions. In the meantime, maybe this is useful.
Here are the steps I followed:
1) Run Lucid and set up networking, firewall, password manager. Set browser to stealth mode & run as spot if desired. Add any other customizations such as printer/scanner drivers. Install pupsaveconfig.pet from http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=60678 Shut down w/save
2) Reboot with pmedia=ataflash
3) Pupsaveconfig: set save interval -0 (never)
Change /usr/sbin/countrywizard.qs by adding "exit" as line 2. --one way to skip startup wizard!
Rename /usr/sbin/save2flash to save2flashx. --avoid accidental saves & desktop save icon
Comment out entire VERSION UPDATE section of /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (lines 200-212) --boots faster
Save by typing save2flashx in console.
4) Reboot. Add script in /root/Startup: "umount /dev/sda3"
5) Remaster. During remaster, I copied my entire /root to /tmp/root when prompted and selected to customize /etc. I declined to make iso file.
6) Manual frugal install to directory /sda3/BANK. Grub kernel line has "psubdir=BANK pmedia=ataflash".
OK, this is pretty tedious, but it does boot up with no drives mounted and closes without saving.
Finally, for convenience, I extracted the custom lupu_528.sfs to a directory. To make changes, I edit files, then dir2sfs.
Related threads: Anything stupid I've said does not reflect on the authors!
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1&start=15
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 970#735040
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... &start=435
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 6&start=15
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=81911