Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Norbert Dentressangle]

That said, I suppose I could do the obvious (which I kind of forgot) which is to create a partition and run both Windows and Linux, alternately from the same disk. Problem with that is, it's not an awfully up to date machine and I seem to be only JUST within the requirements for running XP as it. Maybe Pup won't take up too much space? You'd probably be the best person to advise on that. What would you say? I have a few other reservations, though.

[Semme]

Hey Chris, this has "GOT-TO-BE" the shortest reply I've ever seen you post. Short on breath tonight, are we?

[Moat]

[Ol'Duffer]

If you find J7, you can own the computer you paid for.
Documentation with a motherboard diagram, perhaps from Toshiba Support or their forums, might help. ............. Barring that, save time and hire help.

Some BIOS quirks include "recognizing" a USB flash drive as USB-HDD or USB-ZIP or USB-FDD or ... depending on how it's formatted - or partitioned, formatted, and flagged. Depending on quality and design, some sticks take a while to be detected. Have you ever been able to boot this computer from USB? The technique may require details about your particular model's specs. There's a lot of info at RMprepUSB.

You can test many ISOs "live" with just one USB flash stick; there are several tools available for this. Some provide for multiboot, avoiding destruction of an existing filesystem; others simplify life for developers by destroying the existing partition table. Either approach avoids "burning" plastic discs.

Whether you want to dual-boot may depend on how much hard drive space is available; selection will depend on what fits in available RAM.
For XP, there's a tool called grub2win that may be useful, since it avoids upsetting Windows, but it takes a little hacking.

Meanwhile, XP can be trained, and good backup-copy discipline can reduce agony to endurance; with a legit XP setup ISO, nLite and Xable can become your good friends.

[cthisbear]

Semme:

Got me mate.

Of course I was thinking of Professor BC....ahem!....

when i posted.

SometimesSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS it's just so hard for some.

Cheers...Chris.

[Les Kerf]

[Norbert Dentressangle]

Thanks.
What is 'Frugal Install'?

[Norbert Dentressangle]

[Puppus Dogfellow]

norbert, you don't need to be familiar with anything to do a frugal install from a burned CD. just follow the popups. it will explain the options you have when it is time to shut down.

that said, the frugal off a CD method works very well for me with precise 5.6, as it did with 5.5. and 5.4 of that series and slacko 5.3.

basically you are using the CD/DVD drive (and the hard drive if/when you agree to the "copy sfs to drive" popup after the initial setup and before the first shutdown) to load the operating system into the machine's RAM (very fast so don't be dissuaded by the use of a CD--it's for show after the system boots with this method) and making a compressed file on the machine to hold your stuff and changes (though you are not restricted to that space).

[Ol'Duffer]

(Looks like I'm not the only one helping - take what you need.)

1. Use simple wisdom. Make a list of what you need, and another list of what you want. Find backup method(s), make sure every restore procedure(s) actually works. First. Remember, like all material things, any system can fail.

2. Find out what you have - exact specifications, parts' model numbers. To save time, consider freeware that reveals it for you, like Piriform's Speccy.
If you can interrupt the start ("boot") process by pressing a key like F12, do it, and write down your basic options - one computer will "recognize" a USB flash drive as "Removable", another will claim it sees the same exact stick as some kind of ZIP or HDD drive. If you can start it from a USB flash stick or CD/DVD instead of your hard drive, several more diagnostic tools (hdt, hwinfo, PartEd_Magic) can help.
Toshiba is still in business. You can likely find documentation of your precise model at their website(s), perhaps even your specific unit, as well as see what others have found in their forum (which may mean scanning over unrelated confusion).

3. Jumpers are stiff little pins sticking up out of a circuit board. Connecting them in certain combinations is like flipping a switch (best done while power is OFF, with an insulated "jumper"), and changes the computer's settings. The name "J7" implies a group of (at least) seven, usually in one or two rows. IF you can get a diagram specific to your model, it would go a long way toward ownership.

4. If you decide to install a second OS on your hard drive, instead of always operating from USB/CD, you have options. It's not necessary to let the 2nd OS take over the MBR (Master_Boot_Record) of the entire hard drive; there's a way designed to work in harmony with XP using its own startup script, a "secret" "system" plain-text file named boot.ini - often called grub2win.

[English Invader]

There is some software called PLOP that enables non-USB-booting machines to boot from USB. It can be installed from Windows or you can run it from a CD or a floppy disk. The standard boot order in BIOS starts with floppy disk followed by CD so you shouldn't need to change anything.

http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux/index.html

Bear in mind that this software is trying to make a computer do something it wasn't designed to do so expect it to be a bit buggy (the force USB options in the settings menu sometimes helps).

[don570]

If you use Plop (either a CD install or HD install of PLOP) make sure you have only
one USB mass storage device attached at bootup .

So when I bootup from a USB stick I first make sure that it is the only stick
inserted.

________________________________________________________

[sheldonisaac]

Probably this is not enough to help Norbert..

On this Latitude D610,
I plugged in a USB thumbdrive from a few years ago.
Rebooted, pressed F12, chose USB drive from the list of what to boot from, and it booted.

[sheldonisaac]

[Shep]