Tweaked Puppy on CF in Wyse Winterm--> Making copies?

[Moon River]

I am new to Linux but have been playing with computers since the Radio Shack TRS-80. I have been trying several distros for a project at work. I work for a non-profit that provides jobs to people with disabilities. I am setting up some basic workstations that take up minimal space to show product assembly instructions via a browser and PDF files. From a donation, I obtained a Wyse Winterm WT8440XL (Via C3 500, 256MB RAM, 44 pin IDE on-board connected to a CF-IDE adapter, and a 1GB Sandisk CF) and an X2Gen 15" LCD monitor. I also ran the same setup on a Wyse WT9650XE and it runs great too. (it has an EPIA Mini-itx inside and built in 15"LCD. I have internal pictures if it also anyone is interested)


Anyhow, I loaded Puppy to the CF using a different machine that had a CD-ROM and used a standard hard drive install after creating the proper partitions. With the CF back in the Wyse unit, it boots fine, configures easy, recognizes ETH0, and I have made changes to the desktop, JWM, etc.

Now that I have a CF install like I want, what's the easiest way to make duplicates of the CF card for additional stations? We have a CF card duplicator, but for some reason it doesn't copy the partitions correctly and it messed up my last master (stops at "GRUB Loading" and says error 15). Should I try PUDD? My main concern right now is messing up my new master which takes a bit to setup.

Also, as a side note.... Any comments on my choice of Linux install when all I need is an OS with network functions, a browser, and a PDF viewer? I have other questions, but will post separately according to their topics.

[Moon River]

Update: I booted from a Puppy CD and did a superfloppy install on a CF card in a USB-CF adapter. The CF works great when put into the target machine. I can see the files in XP when I put the CF card into my USB card reader, but I assume that copying the entire CF to another won't work since the MBR won't be copied?

[raffy]

CF formatted as FAT16 in a single partition should be useful as internal "hard disk" in that machine, and you can install and duplicate that Puppy in other CF. Please visit the link below for experiments similar to what you are doing. Cheers!

[Moon River]

Thanks, I actually found that yesterday as well and downloaded it to try. I tried to format a CF to Fat16 so that I could dump files onto the CF when plugged into a CF card reader on a XP machine. However, I have gotten wierd results. From various installs I get different results:

XP doesn't see the Fat16 (or Fat32) partition but rather sees the Linux partition as "unformatted" and asks if I want to format it.

PDF files dropped onto the CF as a superfloppy in XP cannot be seen in Puppy. (Maybe you can't view the contents of the root directory in a superfloppy install?)

XP doesn't recognize anything on the CF

What I really need is an install of puppy on a linux partition and an XP accessible partition for data. Basically the station's OS will remain static once setup, but I need to be able to update the PDFs via an XP machine and a card reader. I am trying to avoid networking these systems.

[raffy]

You can actually use a USB flash for booting the system then use Universal Installer to install Puppy to the IDE flash.

After booting from USB, use Gparted to partition/format the IDE flash to FAT16 (simply choosing FAT16 for the partition automatically formats it).

You can then transfer files to that IDE flash in XP, but note this: IMPORTANT: Puppy will mount that IDE-FAT16 following 8.3 filenames, so limit the names of files that you add to 8.3 characters (8 in the main name, 3 in the extension). This is not a limitaion of FAT16, it is the way Linux booting from flash works. I still have to check on this issue.

UPDATE: It seems the filename problem has been solved with a more recent version (the message listed version 2.14):
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 496#110496

[matt518000]

To find more 44 pin IDE-CF Adapter and 40pin , you can visit http://www.soarland.com , the manufactory has low price and good quality.