Bootable USB stick - How do YOU do it?

[bigpup]

rockedge wrote:
run GRUB4DOS and select only the usb drive,then follow the steps and install the MBR
Most of my more recent puppy installs were made using Grub4dos - however I seem to run into a problem where Grub4dos tells me it cannot see any frugally installed puppy in my chosen partition, only a fully installed one - and it then creates a menu list which is wrong. I have to manually rewrite the menu.list to get it to boot the puppy.

Are you running Grub4dos config from a full install of Puppy?
If yes.
Grub4dos config has a bug when run in a Puppy full install.
It does not make a working menu.
It will work OK if you run it from a Puppy frugal install.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 269#890269

[Burn_IT]

As I have said on this forum many times:
USB booting is very hit and miss and is not just a Puppy problem since the boot code is OS independent.
Sticks that work in one machine often won't in another and vice versa.
I have always had to carry several makes with boot stubs on them just to make sure I can get at my utilities. It is only the BOOTING that is an issue.
I build my own utility sets based on Grub4DOS and a modified Hiren's boot CD that keeps things as legal as possible.

[Pelo]

Usb booting however is easier than burn a CD, and faster.
Depending on the computers, perhaps, My USB run as well Acer and Medion. Hiren boot CD : info noticed if grub4dos would fail.
Tuto video boot USB

[Burn_IT]

Hiren tools are available on USB from his site as is a comprehensive guide to building USB tool kits.

[Crash]

I use a varient of rockedge's to boot to a USB flash drive:

Boot to your favorite version of Puppy Linux on your main computer.

Mount the usb stick and use GParted to create a new partition spanning the entire drive and format to FAT2 then set the BOOT FLAG.

You can re-partition things later once everything is working.

Here is where I diverge:

Reboot the computer to a floppy disk that contains FreeDOS. I have a CD/DVD version if the computer
won't boot to floppy, and also have a USB external floppy drive that seems to work on about any computer.

The USB stick has to be plugged in BEFORE booting to FreeDOS. If successful, FreeDOS recognizes the USB
drive just fine. If there aren't any other mass storage devices enabled in the computer, the USB
drive appears as the C: drive.

SYS the USB thumb drive.

Then copy GRUB4DOS and FreeDOS's EDIT program to the USB drive.

Then re-boot and see if it works. Sometimes I need to go to the BIOS to get the computer to recognize
the USB drive.

If the FreeDOS sign-in appears, things are working well.

Then reboot and copy the three Puppy files (in my case, puppy_slacko_5.7.0.sfs, vmlinuz, and initrd.gz) to the root
or to a subdirectory on the flash drive. This can be done using either Puppy Linux or Windows.

Boot back to the USB thumb drive. Using MENU.LST of your choice, just type GRUB and the USB drive will
boot to Puppy Linux.

I have a stock MENU.LST that can be used, but since the USB drive has the EDIT utility, I can use it to
create a MENU.LST file from scratch.

I have used this method on at least a dozen USB thumb drives over the years. I keep a tiny thumb drive
on my key chain, and can boot to it using just about any computer that I happen to find.

This may seem like a roundabout way to create a Puppy Linux USB thumb drive, but I'm very used to it. The
nice thing to me is that any boot issues are pretty easy to isolate. I've booted thumb drives from
256 MB to 32GB using this method, with equal success.

I find that performance is really good no matter what computer I use as host. Since the frugal install
actually executes in RAM, it doesn't rely on the USB drive for performance.

Here is my typical MENU.LST:

Note with this version, I also have a don't care file called USBFLASH that GRUB looks for to set
the proper boot partition.

Code: Select all

timeout 5
default /default

title Slacko Puppy Linux 57 frugal install at /p57u
find --set-root /USBFLASH
kernel /p57u/vmlinuz psubdir=p57u pmedia=usbflash
initrd /p57u/initrd.gz

title Hard Drive hd1,0
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

title commandline
commandline

title reboot
reboot

title halt
halt

I am typing this post using a USB flash drive installation. The particular flash drive is a Sandisk
Extreme 32GB, but it works with many others.

[jeff757]

greengeek I suspect your "Studio 13.37" usb stick worked because you may have used ComboFlash.

sdb4 is first with the boot flag set because it is set up as a zipdrive for some machines that boot from a USB-ZIPDRIVE.

ldlinux.sys is on the stick because syslinux was used to prepare the stick to boot and syslinux.cfg is used to tell the computer what to do.

isolinux.cfg and isolinux.bin are there because the mounted iso appears to have been copied to the stick as evidenced by the presence of all other files in the iso.

[LazY Puppy]

Before I had learned how to install Puppy from within a running Puppy I was using an installer under windows (it had made bootable USB drive using a file called syslinux.cfg).

Edit: found it. It was the com! Boot-Stick Builder 1.08 which had included a USB flash drive formatting tool - the HPUSBFW.EXE (HP-USBStick-Format-Tool for Windows)

Until the day I discovered grub4dos being usable on ext partitions I used to use vfat (fat32) formatted USB flash drives and USB hd drives (just a single partition).

Since I discovered grub4dos being usable on ext partitions I'm using generally ext2 for the boot partition and ext3 for the data partitions (had some problems in newer Puppies when ext3 was used for the boot partition).

Nowadays I'm using usually 3 (4) primary partitions (ext2, ext3, ext3) plus a swap partition.

Bootloader = grub4dos !

Never had met a machine that couldn't boot from such a USB flash or USB hd drive.

[puppyluvr]

Hello,
My syslinux.cfg
TIMEOUT 200
PROMPT 1
DEFAULT distro1
SAY Type 1 for Lupen
SAY Type 2 for Emsee
SAY Type 3 for Paw
SAY Type 4 for Lighthouse
SAY Type 5 for Studio64
SAY Type 6 for Studio
SAY Type 7 for Debiandog
SAY Type 8 for Hirens
SAY Type 9 for Precision
SAY Type 10 for Tahr

LABEL 1
KERNEL /Lupen/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/Lupen/initrd.gz

LABEL 2
KERNEL /mc/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/mc/initrd.gz

LABEL 3
KERNEL /paw/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/paw/initrd.gz

LABEL 4
KERNEL /lighthouse/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/lighthouse/initrd.xz

LABEL 5
KERNEL /studio/vmlinuz64
APPEND initrd=/studio/initrd64.gz

LABEL 6
KERNEL /studio/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/studio/initrd.gz

LABEL 7
KERNEL /dog/vmlinuz1 boot=live config persistent swapon quickreboot noprompt showmounts
APPEND initrd=/dog/initrd1.img

LABEL 8
KERNEL /grub.exe

LABEL 9
KERNEL /Precision/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/Precision/initrd.gz

LABEL 10
KERNEL /tahr/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=/tahr/initrd.gz

[greengeek]

Are you running Grub4dos config from a full install of Puppy?
If yes.
Grub4dos config has a bug when run in a Puppy full install.
It does not make a working menu.

This is a difficult question to answer - my pup has two sfs files - the main puppy.sfs and also another personal.sfs which is layered above the main puppy.sfs (which would normally be top layer).

I don't know if it has any bearing on what Grub4dos does but maybe this unusual layering confuses grub4dos and it doesn't see it as a normal frugal install.

What actually defines "frugal" - is it simply that the files reside in a subdirectory?

[Crash]

greengeek,

This is somewhat off the subject, but there is a big distinction between frugal
and full install. The full install must reside on a Linux file system like ext2 or ext3.
The frugal install can reside on other files systems such as fat32 or NTFS. I prefer
the frugal install for compatibility purposes - I can plug the USB thumb drive into
just about any computer and it can read/write to it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you are running a frugal install, since you mention the two sfs files.
Basically, the only files that are used for a frugal install are vmlinuz, initrd.gz,
puppyXXX.sfs, and your save file (pupsave.2fs or such).

There are lots of links that show up if you Google "Puppy Frugal". Here are some that
are useful:

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Frugal

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/FrugalOrFullInstallation

http://www.linuxgoodies.com/puppyfrugal.html

http://barryk.org/puppylinux/hard-puppy.htm

[greengeek]

The full install must reside on a Linux file system like ext2 or ext3.

Thanks Crash - in that case it makes me wonder why Grub4dos keeps insisting that my frugal install (which is on a FAT partition) has been detected as a full install. Sounds like Grub4dos should realise that it can't be a full install because it is the wrong partition type.

Must be a bug with my version of Grub4dos I guess.

[bigpup]

Grub4dos version?
Running in what version of Puppy?

[greengeek]

Grub4dos version?
Running in what version of Puppy?

Grub4Dos 1.8.0 running in a Slacko 5.6 derivative.

[bigpup]

Try this update to Grub4dos. V1.9.2
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51697

To correct the running from a Puppy full install issue you may also need to install this patch to Grub4dosconfig.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 269#890269
Not needed if you run Grub4dosconfig from a Puppy frugal install.

[Pelo]

Yesterday all day long i tried to multiboot puppies with unbuntu, suse, and Mint..
Puppies are Ok, but Linux (the fat) search for the live cd..
I will try isobooter, but in fact the four Linux where on a DVD, and my goal was to separate them on my usb stick Voyager 16GB...
For Puppies only, it is really easy..
Français, English Spoken tutorial translated Here

[puppyluvr]

Hello,

For Puppies only, it is really easy..

Thank you for saying that..

[greengeek]

Updated first post of thread with my current most reliable method (which uses syslinux 3.73)

This seems to give me the best compatibility with a large range of hardware.

I have partition 1 as FAT32 (containing Puppy files and boot files), partition 2 as an EXT2 data storage partition that preserves linux permissions for compiling, pet building or whatever, and partition 3 as a very large swap partition which enables me to do major remastering etc on a machine that has no hard drive or other swap file, or is low on memory.

[sheldonisaac]

Updated first post of thread with my current most reliable method (which uses syslinux 3.73)

Thanks, greengeek.
I can't now recall my past, using loadlin or other bootloaders.
For the last several years, I've used only grub4dos, and almost always from a hard drive. I had occasionally used a USB stick, but am unsure what did or did not work.
I hope to try your method soon. Appreciate all your research, and do like the idea of a stick that reliably boots on a variety of computers.

This morning, (using Puppy from a hard drive), I removed everything but the 3 Puppy Linux files from a 16GB Emtec USB stick, and then used gparted to mark it as bootable.
The USB stick booted OK. Files are as below.
All this was done on this Dell E6410, a laptop from approx 2011.

Code: Select all

# ls -al /mnt/sdc1
total 236
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root   4096 2017-03-07 17:31 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root     80 2017-03-08 08:32 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 220049 2017-03-08 21:29 grldr
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   2649 2017-03-08 21:29 menu.lst
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      0 2017-03-07 17:31 pupdesk.flg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    512 2017-03-08 21:29 sdc_mbr.bak
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 2017-03-08 21:27 sulu

Code: Select all

# ls -al /mnt/sdc1/sulu/
total 169464
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 2017-03-08 21:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root      4096 2017-03-07 17:31 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3688506 2015-06-14 05:59 initrd.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 166846496 2015-06-14 05:59 sulu_002.sfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2802352 2015-06-14 05:59 vmlinuz

[watchdog]

I think the following how-to for uefi machines from fatdog64, which also works for slacko 6.3.2 and tahr 6.0.6, should be added to this thread:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... drive.html

[CyberPaddy66]

Here's my favourite method:
How to Make a Bootable Flash Drive using ISObooter

FINALLY, a simple and finger crossed successful method to make a bootable USB disk from within Puppy, I have just wasted 3 days of trying to make a usable USB drive that will allow me to boot up several different LIVE-ISO's so try out.