This is where i'm at.

[wolfpack]

Ok this is where I'm at with things with puppy. I can boot puppy off the cdrom and have puppy, i use to have 98 on the machince but due to me being inpatient i gparted the harddrive and no longer have it, due to the lack of skills on my part of not understanding how to partition a hard drive and that's a lesson learn which is ok because this machince was just for taking the linux leap anyway... No i guess my question is where do i go from here because i would like to install on my hard drive and try to get better with my pup... I have been reading as much as i can and just searching on this site to see what i did wrong besides everything...lol but you don't learn anything if there is no mistakes... but to have a mistake teach you something is a lesson learned.... just wanted some input on those who would tell me what they would do next?...thanks Bo

[jamesbond]

Ok i assume that:
1. You have enough RAM (that is, 256MB), and
2. have enough harddisk space (1 GB at least), and
3. your harddisk is IDE, and is the first harddisk in your system
4. You have already formatted your harddisk with either ext2 or ext3 partition
5. Using puppy 2.16.1
6. You're using a test laptop that you doesn't mind to screw up in case the setup fails.
Let me know if my assumption is unreasonable for you.

Based on that, I also assume that you want to install in frugal install mode.

Follow this:
1. Boot puppy in ram (use pfix=ram if you already have a save file) using live CD. Keep the live CD in tray after you finish booting.
2. Once in puppy, launch "Puppy Universal Installer" from "setup" menu
3. Choose "internal harddisk" (first option). then click ok.
4. Choose whatever your harddisk shown in the dialog box, "hda", click ok.
5. In the next dialog box, you should see your disk listed as hda1. Choose that (click the button on the right of the text)
6. You will be asked to confirm your selection.
7. Then you will be asked the location of where to copy from. Choose "CD"
8. Then you will be asked the install type. Choose co-exist (option 1)
9. Go for coffee while it copies puppy files to your harddisk
10. Next it will ask you to install grub. Choose yes - you want to install GRUB
11. Then it will ask whether you're simple or expert. Of course choose simple.
12. Then it will ask you which console type you wanat to install. Choose standard - this saves a lot of troubleshooting time.
13. next it will ask you which harddisk to install grub. It should have already provide you with the answer: /dev/hda1. Accept that.
14. wait while it's working
15. Next it will ask you where to install GRUB. Choose MBR (the last option in the list). It says, "possible unsafe" but if you don't do so, you have little chance of being able to boot from your harddisk. So do it !
16. wait while it's working.
17. Then it will say that it is done, and ask you to check menu.lst. Just click ok.
18. A new window pop-up with the content of the menu.lst. Change the kernel line, and add a initrd line, so that your menu.lst look like this (make sure you end the initrd line with a blank line afterwards):

Code: Select all

root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 vga=normal
initrd /initrd.gz

In other words, change the root=/dev/hda1 to root=dev/ram0, remove the "ro" and add the initrd line.

19. Click ok. You're done, and now just reboot your computer and take your CD out.
20. Upon booting, you will see GRUB menu. Choose Puppy 216 menu.
21. Your puppy should boot up happily.

If it doesn't work, mount your harddisk, and delete the entire "/boot" directory. Then re-do the whole thing from step 1.

Especially step 18 seems touchy and sometimes it fails (for no apparent reason). Note - you must install grub in MBR, and you must edit the menu.lst when given the chance. Otherwise, chances are, your system won't boot at all.

Good luck

[wolfpack]

everything is pretty much correct other than I'm using an old tower with a cdrw and a dvd, right now i'm at work and later I have a double header softball game but i will try what you said and see what happens, thank you for taking your time to put in simple lingo terms for me.. this is my first attempt at messing with linux and i've had some with apples os and alot of M$ but really don't like M$ just seems to me paying on a os that really doesn't care if you get or understand how to use it....Bo

[headfound]

and you must edit the menu.lst when given the chance. Otherwise, chances are, your system won't boot at all.

Good luck

Just curious why you say he should change the menu.lst?
I always leave it as default and it works fine for me.

[wolfpack]

ok my puppy is on the harddrive and being a good dog right now, so everything went well and now will see what i can do with some things here.... thanks everyone, heck of a support group..Bo

[d4p]

In case you need some tutorials
http://rhinoweb.us/

[jamesbond]

Just curious why you say he should change the menu.lst?
I always leave it as default and it works fine for me.

I tried in 2.16.1, if you use the default settings - it simply will not boot. The default setting offered in 2.16 is wrong:
1. root is pointing to /dev/hda1 instead of /dev/ram0
2. there is an "ro" parameter (=read only?) on the kernel line
3. the initrd line is missing (perhaps as part of barry's experiment with initram-fs initrd, in earlier 2.16expr - which did not need this line)?



wolfpack, enjoy your newly found freedom A good many people helped me when I started, I'm just giving it back