Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

I have a viao pcg-c1f, (233 pentium/64Mb/4Gb HDD)

I have managed to get it to boot from the floppy but not been able to get it to see the PCICMA CDROM drive with puppy linux on it.

At the moment it is running Exclamation

Win98

but I want to completely wipe it and run linux on it.

Anybody able to give me some pointers on this one?

racepres · Posted: Sat 05 Feb 2011, 22:16 Post subject:

Hairybiker... Drop me a PM I can make it go...
RP

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

hairybiker,
I think you have one of those Sony PCMCIA CD drives which uses a non-standard PCMCIA interface, so that the Sony bios can access it as a boot device.
Back in 2005 I used one of these to boot Puppy (ver 1.04!) on a "Superslim" VAIO PCG-505TS.

The trick is to use extra boot parameters so the CD device will be recognised as an IDE interface, not PCMCIA.
At the boot prompt, type this

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

Oh, regarding 64MB RAM, that's quite a limiting factor. If you're keen on running Puppy in RAM, it will be essential to increase your RAM. You will require RAM that is unique to that model of VAIO, but it should still be available on eBay. If, like my PCG-505, the maximum RAM is 128MB, you can forget about using the latest Puppies. You should go back to Puppy 214X, and maybe even Puppy 2.01.

An easier option would be to do a full HD installation. Nuke your hard drive and format it with ext3. Then reboot and do a full HD install. Now the RAM requirements are really modest.

racepres · Posted: Sat 05 Feb 2011, 23:30 Post subject:

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

Thanks for the replies. The Ram is fixed not upgradeable.
I want to install to HD.

The cdrom is not a sony one but I will try that command line and see if it sees it.

sfeeley · Joined: 14 Feb 2010 Posts: 807

I've got a small-form sony laptop (a bit bigger than yours though). Ultimately I had to pull the hardrive manually, and stick it in another box to load puppy (I put on a bunch of different frugal installs so that I could test which ultimately worked, and then delete some later since manually getting the harddrive out was such a chore--small screws and patience!)

If you have win98 running on it, and a network connection, maybe somebody wiser than I can figure out a way to do a network install?

214x is nice. Also be sure to put in a swap partition.

Jim1911 · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 2353 Location: Texas, USA

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

I have a working cd drive it just isn't bootable on this system - it isn't a Sony one. Twisted Evil

I have created a floppy with WkPup2x v0.2 on it but it doesn't see the cdrom drive and I only have one usb port with the floppy in it. Embarassed

I have managed to get DSL booted by putting the KNOPPIX folder on the hdd, can I do the same with a puppy install?

I really want to re-format the hdd but not being able to get anything to reformat it with I am stuck at the moment.

Béèm · Posted: Sun 06 Feb 2011, 12:25 Post subject:

Maybe you could keep the Windows 98 and use the Lin'N'Win method.In any case you need More memory/a swap file

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

OK removed the drive and have repartitioned it on my main pc.
Now have a / (3.5Gb) and a 512Mb swap partition.

Now how do I get puppy on to the drive without it writing to any of my other drives? I will (?) need grub installed on it to get it to boot.?

sfeeley · Joined: 14 Feb 2010 Posts: 807

if you use the puppy universal installer, and are careful about which drive is which, you should be fine--there are lots of safety checks along the way.

Before hand, take a look at how the drives are labled on your desktop, and write down which is which (if your not familiar with how they are labeled in linux)

BUT: I always worry about such things, so I manually disconnect all the drives except the one I want to install to. (Overkill, I'm ususally the one guy who screws things up so I try to be extra careful).

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

OK well since the drive to be installed on to is only 4GB and the rest are all 500Gb+ then it should be easy to spot Wink

Just blowing puppy 2.12 on to usb drive to test before I install.

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

having a problem with the 2.14 image, it doesn't like my sata dvd drive. It boots then panics because it cant find an IDECD.
Is there any parameters I can pass to use usb/sata ?

hairybiker · Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Posts: 16

OK used the puppylite 4 cd instead.
Have installed it but when it boots it cant find the puppy_420 file and exits to a shell.

next? Shocked