How to install Puppy as the only OS on hard disk?

[ITSMERSH]

Ok.

Click the drive icon of the USB flash drive to browse it.

You said there is the ISO on the usb flash drive. If you click the .iso it will open and you can browse its files.

Click the drive icon of the 36GB partition (sda1?) and create a folder on the 36GB partition and name it to: Xenial75 (or as you like). Copy all the files from the opened/mounted .iso into that directory. Click the .iso file again, so it's unmounted.

Return to here if done.

Btw. I'm a Hidden user, so as long as there's at least one Hidden shown on the forum's main page, I'm online.

[mwelbourne]

Probably a very dumb question - how do I copy the files? I can do Select All but I can't see Copy

[ITSMERSH]

Use Strg-A to select all and drag and drop them into the directory made on the 36GB partition.

[mwelbourne]

Great. They have copied over.

Not sure what you mean to click the .iso again to unmonut it

[mwelbourne]

A lost+found folder has appeared in my 36GB partition along with the Xenial75 folder

[ITSMERSH]

Not sure what you mean to click the .iso again to unmonut it

You said there's the ISO on the usb flash drive, so that means I assumed there must be a file xenialpup-7.5-uefi.iso on the usb flash drive.

Probably you have all the puppy files from the .iso on the usb flash drive and copied them over?

If so, GOOD!

Since the files are copied and the partition is ready made to boot from, we can go to install the boot loader.

Unmount the 36GB partition and run Grub4Dos-Config.

Choose the 36GB partition and tick the checkbox to search this drive/partition only. Click Ok and continue to click Ok until the bootloader is installed. Close Grub4Dos-Config.

Try reboot from the 36GB partition. Remove the usb flash drive after shutdown and before reboot starts.

Should boot now from internal HD.

Please, report.

Edit:

The lost+found folder is good to have! It is existing on all ext partitions.

[mwelbourne]

Right. I got an error message in Grub4Dos. It said to look at a log and in there it says

Error: More than one files specified.

[mwelbourne]

Had another go and it worked. This is the bit I didn't get last time. Have I got to edit the menu.lst before reboot?

It says:
Old 'menu.lst' found and renamed as follows:
/mnt/sda2/meu-2019-01-16-223248.lst

[ITSMERSH]

Ok.

I can't explain this.

Could you please post a screenshot of the content of the 36GB partition plus one screenshot of the content of the Xenial75 folder?

Need to have a look at these locations.

Edit.

Please post the content of the menu.lst also, before doing a reboot.

If you can't post the screenshots, I think we can skip this, since it now seems to have worked.

[mwelbourne]

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.2
color white/green yellow/blue white/black green/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy xenialpup 7.5 (sda2/Xenial75)
uuid 08ed6c75-9bc2-497b-bf31-641ab6f74209
kernel /Xenial75/vmlinuz psubdir=Xenial75 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /Xenial75/initrd.gz

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
errorcheck off
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /io.sys
chainloader /io.sys
errorcheck on

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
configfile /menu-advanced.lst
commandline

[mwelbourne]

Has this done a Frugal install then?

[ITSMERSH]

Ok, this looks good.

I want you to edit the menu.lst now.

Duplicate that entry:

title Puppy xenialpup 7.5 (sda2/Xenial75)
uuid 08ed6c75-9bc2-497b-bf31-641ab6f74209
kernel /Xenial75/vmlinuz psubdir=Xenial75 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /Xenial75/initrd.gz

In the duplicate make the bold marked change:

title Puppy xenialpup 7.5 RAM only (sda2/Xenial75)
uuid 08ed6c75-9bc2-497b-bf31-641ab6f74209
kernel /Xenial75/vmlinuz psubdir=Xenial75 pmedia=atahd pfix=ram
initrd /Xenial75/initrd.gz

Store the menu.lst.

Try rebooting.

I'll explain that change after you'd successfully rebooted.

Edit:

Yes, this is a frugal install.

[mwelbourne]

OK. Rebooting

[mwelbourne]

I powered off, took out the USB, powered back up and I'm back on. Yeay

So, I assume Puppy will now remember language, location, keyboard and wifi key every time now.

[ITSMERSH]

Ok, so you are running Xenial booted from internal HD?

Good.

Probably you had done this already on the usb flash drive...

When rebooting/shutdown you'll be asked to create a save file / save folder. I would recommend to choose save folder, so there's only the 36GB limit for savings.

The pfix=ram let's you boot without to use the save folder, just as if you would have made a new install. Then you could e.g. create a new save file / save folder at reboot, to have e.g. two different saves for two different users / purposes / what ever.

Try reboot and creating the save folder...

[mwelbourne]

OK, this is another bit of Puppy I wasn't clear about - this saving when you close. I've always said 'no' so far. I should be able to figure it out though.

This laptop is a Dell Inspiron from 2004 with a 1.3ghz Celeron M and 1GB of memory. Puppy has bought it back to life. I bought it for my parents to learn how to use the internet but they never really used it much.

I've also got an old Packard Bell with an AMD Athlon XP-M. That one didn't have an option in the BIOS to boot from a USB, but now I have the .iso on a CD I can give it a try on that one as well (not tonight though)

Thanks so much for all your help this evening, you are a very nice person and you time and patience has been greatly appreciated

[mwelbourne]

Hmmm. No, I don't get the save thing. Should a named version of Xenial appear in the Grub boot menu. It's asking for my country etc again

[ITSMERSH]

There's no option to choose to create a save file / save folder at reboot / shutdown?

That's weird.

Try reboot using the pfix=ram boot menu entry and then try to reboot again to see if the save option appears.

[ITSMERSH]

title Puppy xenialpup 7.5 (sda2/Xenial75)

Can you tell me what's on sda1?

[ITSMERSH]

I've also got an old Packard Bell with an AMD Athlon XP-M. That one didn't have an option in the BIOS to boot from a USB, but now I have the .iso on a CD I can give it a try on that one as well (not tonight though)

Ok, time to go to sleep. I will look at this topic tomorrow again.

I can offer a .iso file of Plop boot manager. With Plop boot manager one can boot from CD and then choose to boot either from HD, USB flash etc.pp. which is provided options of Plop boot manager.

But I'm sure, you will manage to install Puppy to its HD as well by now.

So, just a small additional info:

let's assume you want to try or to install another Puppy to the 36GB partition. Let's also assume it will be Tahr Puppy 6.0.6.

Just create again a folder e.g. Tahr606, click the downloaded .iso file so you will have a new opened window offering the content of the .iso.

Copy the files over into the Tahr606 directory.

Edit the menu.lst. Duplcate those entries from Xenial and change the Xenial75 to Tahr606 within the duplicated entries. Save the menu.lst.

Now you should be able to boot two different Puppies from this single HD.

That way I have six different Puppies to boot from internal HD plus 33 different Puppies from USB HD. Plus four USB flash drives with at least two different Puppies to boot from.

Just a mean additional info:

Now, that you are using Puppy, let me tell to you that you are now using the very best GNU/Linux Operating System available! Trust me, I'm a Puppy user since 2009, joined the forum 2011 (RSH, LazY Puppy) and am using Puppy exclusively on all my machines. I had a XP machine still available, though still using Puppy on this machine.

If you would click my signature you'll find my Youtube channel. All those videos presented on my channel are created in Puppy Linux. All the Music was composed/recorded in Puppy Linux.

Exception is the Helix Research Out house Live video. Its audio tracks was recorded 24 tracks using Ardour 5 under Windows and mixed down using Ardour 5 under BionicDog.

I won't miss my Puppies (published a few and using my own creations now) and I don't want to use any other operating system anymore. I'm addicted to Puppy as I'm totally convinced of it - or is it revers?

And besides you are now using the best OS ever, you are also a member of the best forum/community ever!