Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[tasmod]

Nooby,

Do a search for win32 installer or some such. I'm sorry my memory is not as good as it was.

I played with this for a while, it will allow you to do what you want.

Basically it converts Puppy or whatever, to an exe file for use by windows boot config. So I had Puppy as an exe that was offered during windows boot as a menu choice. Choosing it booted up Puppy, no MBR changes needed.

The package for creating was on here somewhere. Try hamsamben as a search, I posted one there too.

[nooby]

You mean this thread
Puppy-Win32-Installer
by seeker he has it on his site for download. But does that work in Vista?
(I sent a PM to him asking if he knows if it is possible to change it so it can do both winXP and older and the newer ones like Vista and Win7? )

My gut feeling get confirmed by this text in the first post.

"Your Puppy will be installable on Windows 98, 2000, and XP.
"
He says this in one entry.

"Sure, I would like to add Vista support. To even begin to do this I would need the active cooperation of someone with a Vista OS.
Any volunteers? "

Sadly little later he has concluded this

"Thanks for the support and input. After spending a good deal of time researching this my inclination is to pass on Vista. Too many hurdles and pitfalls for me. "

One should read here
MikeB give this link
http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Grub4dos_tutorial#Booting_GRUB_for_DOS_via_the_Windows_Vista_boot_manager

http://208.109.22.214/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=44098&sid=5bc53b0c39b27afecc8c5ecfe095148c

that text would work for a pro but not for a newbie.

Even Seeker gave up on it.

[tasmod]

OK, just a thought.

Hmm Vista wasn't one of MS's best ideas.

[JustGreg]

From the tutorial (I posted about on page 1 of this topic) on:
http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Grub4dos_tutorial#Booting_GRUB_for_DOS_via_the_Windows_Vista_boot_managerBooting GRUB for DOS via the Windows Vista boot manager

Here at the steps:

Use bcdedit to configure the startup menu:
bcdedit /create /d "Start GRUB4DOS" /application bootsector
bcdedit /set {id} device boot
bcdedit /set {id} path \grldr.mbr
bcdedit /displayorder {id} /addlast

Then copy grldr.mbr to C:\, grldr and menu.lst to the root directory of any FAT16/FAT32/NTFS/EXT2 partition.

Based on my limited knowledge of Vista since I have not used it, this should not affect the mbr or the partition. If Vista does not use ntfs file system then there may be a problem. Once again, I do not know much about Vista nor does Microsoft want me to have knowledge. Nooby, if you do not know how to check the file system used by Vista then DO NOT USE THIS!

It uses the Windows Boot Manager of Vista like Windows XP to start Grub4dos (grldr). This process is the equivalent of chainloading under either Grub or Grub4dos. Once Grub4dos is started then it will use the file menu.lst (should be C:\ directory like grldr). The files needed for Puppy 4.3.1 should also be in C:\ directory

Here is my menu.lst that I know works (using a similar process) in Windows XP with Puppy 4.3.1:

# This is a sample menu.lst file. You should make some changes to it.
#color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
color light-gray/blue yellow/light-gray
# timeout 30
# default /default

title Puppy Frugal 4.3.1
find --set-root /pup-431.sfs
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd nosmp
initrd /initrd.gz

title Commandline
#savedefault --wait=2
commandline

title reboot
#savedefault --wait=2
reboot

title halt for manual reboot, Crtl-ATL-Del
#savedefault --wait=2
halt

Not having a Vista system nor at this time do I want one, I can not be sure
this will work perfectly with Vista. I hopes this helps.

[nooby]

Yes thanks,

I have actually accomplish something now.

I write this from within Linux Mint and I have four modern versions of Puppy going in frugal install using EasyBCD and NeoGrub and I edit the menulist too using gedit or whatever.

Could you tell me what the
#savedefault
that you commentented out means? save default what? Why did you have to comment it out. what does it do?

What I have failed to do is the commands in menu.lst to tell Mint to save changes in frugal. Maybe the iso don't allow it. When I google I found one guy who told that the automatic log in is "live user" is preventing the saving of changes.

so I need to find somebody that can remaster the script or some cheat code that says Don't do the live user thing. Someone suggested one use single as a command. I tested this but corrupted the set up and had to start all over. But it has survived three reboots now and works real fast.

I certainly love puppy but there is something special about mint.

Why can not Mint use the Unionfs that puppy make use of doing puppy_save?

[JustGreg]

Nooby, #savedefault was in the sample menu.lst in the documentation. The documentation has the information. Please read it. The answer is in the documentation. I can not do it for you. Puppy is a community effort. No one is getting to paid to do this. If you have ideas on how it should be then do the research and try to implement them yourself.

If you like Mint Linux than use it. You need to ask the Mint Linux community why Mint does not use unionfs. No one in the Puppy community would know that answer.

Here is a question for you, By any chance, are your questions related to your employment or employer?

[nooby]

I am a retired TeleCom employee we had nothing to do with computers.
So my questioning is for my own personal instant usage to get my OS going on my new machines.

I learned enough 2008 to use it on winXP machines but unfortunately Vista and Win7 are different.

Yes I am member of Mint forum and do ask there but they are not interested in frugal install. They want very Mint user to do full install.

Puppy community are aware of that many have their puppy in frugal install and are not alien to thought of doing this with other distros.

Puppy users are sometimes also users of other distros.

Mint is third on the DW list and Puppy is at 8 or 9 dependent on whicj week one look. Hopefully Puppy goes up sooner or later.

I have great respect for what you guys want to achieve and I apology if I overload you with my questions.

My eagerness is due to me want to achieve this for Mint that Puppy already have. To be able to save changes in frugal install.

but I would be happy if Puppy could be as good as Linux Mint. then I would not ask for help with that one anymore.

[JustGreg]

I can not help you with the conversion of Mint Linux. But, here is a starting point. This is Barry's web page that explains Puppy's architecture and workings:
http://www.puppylinux.com/development/howpuppyworks.html

It is well written. It gives a good explaination. If you understand it, then you are the way to doing what you want.

[nooby]

Thanks Greg, I had very interesting reading for some 90 minutes.

As you know all this is way above my capacity but it was very interesting.
I even love Puppy more knowing how unique Puppy is.
Kudos to Barry for providing it.

[sasaqqdan]

[shinobar]

Update: 2 Nov 2010
grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.5.3.pet available from here.

CHANGES: (from 1.5.2)

• Bugfix: was improper boot entry for Ubuntu 10(Lucid).
  
• Bugfix; was multiple entry for one frugal in some case
  
• Add chinese(simple) translation

[big_bass]

Hey shinobar

thanks for the grub4dos I am one of those old world lilo users
* since I always have a slackware install)

but I wanted to test your package and you did a great job!
thanks I will repackage it in *.txz format

I thought to post two ways of how it worked on TXZ_pup
as an example for someone to use

what would be nice is to have a list of different versions using grub4dos
examples are great as a reference


the first example grub4 dos auto generated correctly everything *except that I changed the title from puppy450 to TXZ_pup for my own preference only

the second example I manually made a folder TXZ_450
and manually copied the needed files then edited the menu.lst
just to test out if the manual way was detected correctly or not also

both are working fine and your GUI did all the work correctly
very simple to use I recommend it
thanks again I will include it
BTW no problems dual booting XP (in Spanish) also
Joe

[piratesmack]

Just a suggestion.

There's a project called 'Wee' that can load Grub4dos grldr from an Ext4 partition (as well as vfat, ntfs, and ext2/3)
http://nufans.net/grub4dos/wee/

It can be used instead of Grub legacy to start Grub4dos from Ext4 (Wee is smaller and starts up faster)

Wee is a little difficult to install, so I wrote a script that makes it easier.
Just run 'wee-install /dev/sdX', replacing /dev/sdX with your drive:

EDIT: There seems to be problems when copy/pasting the script, so I'll just attach it

Also, thank you for your Grub4dosconfig tool. Very nice

[shinobar]

Thanks big_bass.
I am happy if any Puppy become easy to install.

See also if you are interested in:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61132
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61348
Graphical boot menu can be also achieved with other measures, but the grub4dos ca be a rescue of Windows even the MBR/PBR broken.

[shinobar]