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 Forum index » House Training » Beginners Help ( Start Here)
Puppy without a harddrive
Moderators: Flash, Ian, JohnMurga
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jweism1

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 21:37    Post subject:  Puppy without a harddrive  
So I've got an old Dell laptop and am considering my options with what to do with it. My ideal situation would be to remove the harddrive, turn that into an external harddrive and then run puppy linux off of a USB drive.

My question to you is this: is that possible? If I remove the harddrive from my laptop, will I still be able to use the computer running puppy linux off of a USB and if so are there any specifics I should be aware of before proceeding?
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p310don

Joined: 19 May 2009
Posts: 587
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 21:54    Post subject:  
Puppy does that wonderfully. The only consideration, is that you can boot from usb on ur particular laptop. Most machines newer than about 8 years can do this, and many older too.

If your machine won't boot from usb, there are still options, boot from CD/DVD and run multisession, saving your puppy back to the CD each time, or boot from CD, and save to usb.

Puppy has so many options for installation, that's one of the reasons that it is so great.

Have fun.

Paul
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starhawk

Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Posts: 1819
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 21:56    Post subject:  
p310don is right on. All you need to do is be able to boot from USB.

BTW, have you picked your Puppy yet?
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azstew

Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 59
Location: Apache Junction, Arizona
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 21:58    Post subject:  
No problem

If your Dell has a built in card reader, you may want to get an SDHC card and leave it in, to run Puppy. No, dongle hanging out that way.
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jweism1

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 23:28    Post subject:  
starhawk wrote:
p310don is right on. All you need to do is be able to boot from USB.

BTW, have you picked your Puppy yet?



Thanks for all your help.

When ya'll say "picked my puppy" what do you mean? Are there different versions and if so, which one do y'all suggest?
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starhawk

Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Posts: 1819
Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...
PostPosted: Sun 17 Apr 2011, 23:38    Post subject:  
I have copies of at least 25 distinct versions archived on my hard drive. Not an exact count, mind you...

If you post the specs of your laptop, as well as what you want to be able to do with it (the more specific the better) then I'll help you find a good Puppy to take home with you Wink

If you don't know the specs, that's OK, just post the model number instead, so that I can look up the specs online.
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Flash
Official Dog Handler


Joined: 04 May 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: Arizona USA
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 00:44    Post subject:  
Be advised that without a swap partition or file somewhere Puppy can find it at boot, Puppy requires at least 256 MB of RAM, and preferably 512 MB, to do useful work such as surf the internet.
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PupGeek

Joined: 06 Sep 2009
Posts: 388
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 16:36    Post subject:  
p310don wrote:

If your machine won't boot from usb, there are still options, boot from CD/DVD and run multisession, saving your puppy back to the CD each time, or boot from CD, and save to usb.


... Or do what I do frugal puppy to a usb drive (4GB total, 3GB formatted to ext3, and 1GB swap) and remaster a cd with isolinux.cfg edited to include the pmedia=usbflash cheatcode. Being that I also have the pup_421.sfs file on the cd too, I can boot the cd without my flash drive by entering the puppy pmedia=cd cheatcode. I even use it on a computer that will boot from usb, as its not my computer and a lot easier than messing with BIOS every time.
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Dewbie

Joined: 15 Apr 2010
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 16:52    Post subject:  
PupGeek wrote:
Quote:
... Or do what I do frugal puppy to a usb drive (4GB total, 3GB formatted to ext3, and 1GB swap)

If you're referring to USB flash drives, don't swap partitions wear them out rather quickly?
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Darkgame

Joined: 18 Mar 2011
Posts: 203
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 18:43    Post subject:  
jus boot from usb drives or cd
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gcmartin

Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 2632
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 19:25    Post subject: boot and run Puppy without any drive! If you want as well.  
@JWeism1 you should look at this. You don't need a HDD or a CD or a USB or anything. Your choice.

And, if you use Lighthouse, you can have your laptop hibernate and awake on or off LAN.

And, that Puppy document shows anyone, how you can
  • boot a single PUP if you choose.
  • boot a menu of all of your PUPs if you choose.
Very easy to do.

Hope this helps.
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yim


Joined: 01 Sep 2007
Posts: 165
Location: Blue Ridge Mtns
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 20:50    Post subject:  
thought I'd chime in here found a little utility that helps pc's with no usb boot option to boot from usb, it works very well.


http://www.plop.at/
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p310don

Joined: 19 May 2009
Posts: 587
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon 18 Apr 2011, 21:43    Post subject:  
jweism1

Have you picked your puppy yet?

This thread highlights the versatility of puppy, but, perhaps it also highlights the overwhelmingness of options available to the new user. So many options when starting new can be daunting.

if you have the download quota, I would recommend trying a few different versions for your laptop.

My recommendations would be the latest lupu available here:

http://diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/lupu-525.iso

That has all the latest and greatest.

Because your machine is a laptop, forum member Jemimah has created fluppy, made with laptops and netbooks in mind. It is available here:

http://www.smokey01.com/jemimah/fluppy13/Fluppy-013.iso

This is based on an older version of puppy, but updated with HEAPS of up to date stuff and cool little programs.

Thirdly I'd recommend trying Barry's Wary offering available here.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/quirky/wary-5.1/wary-510-k2.6.32.28.iso

This has an older kernel which offers some more compatibility with older pc's, perhaps as yours.

All three of these versions will boot from cd, from where you can run in any of the options mentioned in earlier posts in this thread.

Hope that helps

Paul
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PupGeek

Joined: 06 Sep 2009
Posts: 388
PostPosted: Tue 19 Apr 2011, 16:55    Post subject:  
Dewbie wrote:
PupGeek wrote:
Quote:
... Or do what I do frugal puppy to a usb drive (4GB total, 3GB formatted to ext3, and 1GB swap)

If you're referring to USB flash drives, don't swap partitions wear them out rather quickly?


I've heard that too, but I've been using mine for a good couple years now. Its a Transcend 4 GB flash drive, available at CompUsa, if anyone is interested. I probably do not use the swap very much, as I only use it on a computer at work and usually only for surfing and such. I am, however, always saving and removing stuff to and from it. I think earlier flash drives were much more susceptible to premature wear, much like the early cd and dvd players, and later, burners.
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PupGeek

Joined: 06 Sep 2009
Posts: 388
PostPosted: Sun 24 Apr 2011, 07:59    Post subject: Re: boot and run Puppy without any drive! If you want as wel  
gcmartin wrote:
you should look at this.


I looked at that and followed its instructions trying to boot Puppy Studio (based on Lupu 5.2) but the PDEV1=rootfs parameter does not help. The init script still searches the local drives for puppy files and errors out on me. I extracted the initrd and I saw no reference to any PDEV1 arguments within the script. This puppy uses a kernel compiled for realtime support. Does rootfs support have to be compiled in the kernel for this to work properly?
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