Installing to/Booting from Harddisk with Ramdrive

[M_Tw]

Hi!
I 'm new to Puppy and - as it is really cool - wants to use it. As I have an old laptop with a real slow CD-Rom, I want to install Puppy to the harddisk and boot from the harddisk. And since the harddisk is not to fast either, I want to have Puppy loaded into the RAM.

So, is there a way to install Puppy on the harddisk, so that it behaves as it does, when I boot it from the Life-CD?

Kind regards, Manfred

[BarryK]

You really need 256M ram to get the speed advantage.
Or, if laptop has 128M ram, one of the slimmer puppies will run totally
in ram.

In theory, it can be forced, but would need hacking of the /initrd/sbin/init
script.

[Sage]

Barry, this strikes at the very nub of the problem! Old laptops often cannot muster 128Mb, sometimes 64Mb of memory. Older laptops often required 'proprietary' RAM, sold at outrageous prices and now unobtainable. [I am reliably advised that this stuff was always clone/generic stuff with some or all of the little solder pads in the lower left corner connected, but I never managed to avail myself of a copy of the highly secretive, closely guarded trade connection crib sheet (or even Glass' Guide, for that matter!)].
And now I am seeing a lot of surplus 128 SDRAM strips, nothing larger.
The guys with the big bucks will be fitting dual core, SLI, 1Gb+ DDR2, 64bit stuff, and, doubtless, Vista when it arrives. Dumb and dumber.
The way I read things is that Puppy appeal could be maximised by fixing on 128Mb SDRAM for perfect speed and performance, with 64Mb being adequate. Folks will always ask for more. The guys with the l.e.d. lights, go-faster stripes and pockets full of dosh will always demand more. I guess your dilemma will be whether to assuage their unending requests or wrestle with intractible issues associated with yesteryears' HW, already in the possession of the masses?!

[M_Tw]

In fact, I have 512 MB RAm, so that is not the problem. I just don't know how to install puppy on the harddisk, so that it boots from the harddisk and runs afterwards from ramdrive. I just want to get the speed advantage from using the ramdrive AND the speed - and loudness - advantage booting from harddrive instead of CD.

Any ideas?

[M_Tw]

In fact, I have 512 MB RAm, so that is not the problem. I just don't know how to install puppy on the harddisk, so that it boots from the harddisk and runs afterwards from ramdrive. I just want to get the speed advantage from using the ramdrive AND the speed - and loudness - advantage booting from harddrive instead of CD.

Any ideas?

[rarsa]

I'm just copying from another thread I just posted to:
=================
Here are detailed instructions for a frugal install that runs 100% in ram.

Please notice that being so detailed, you will have to addapt them to your needs.

For example

- You are installing to the first HDD, so in every spot you see hdb replace with hda

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=50643#50643