Step by Step: Installing Puppy Linux to Your Hard Drive

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Mechsus
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#16 Post by Mechsus »

Lobster wrote:Have placed the info here (but it needs cleaning up and formatting) volunteers welcome
How do you do that? Does the Wikka need special privileges to access the data?

There's a couple of points I forgot to include - and remembered on a later Puppy install.

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Bancobusto
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#17 Post by Bancobusto »

Mechsus, I think that this will explain it to you better then I could http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic ... light=wiki

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danleff
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#18 Post by danleff »

Mechsus, I edited (formatting) the page this am, but there is a little bit yet to go.

Let me know if I can assist in any way.

P.S. Looks like someone finished it. Looks pretty good.
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budden
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It works!

#19 Post by budden »

The step-by-step here works pretty much as advertised.


Nits. The canned script in the Puppy menu was not working -- somehow it wouldn't adapt to my particular situation. So I rooted around and found this.
- I used DR-DOS for the first partition rather than MS-DOS (because that's what I have on the dusty shelf). No particular diff, but seems that we ought to be able to garage-sale that stuff and do without entirely?
- the disk scrubbing is hygiene but not necessary to the install. I skipped because I didn't have the app.
- GRUB worked exactly as advertised. Read the edits to menu.lst to the mirror -- could use a slight editing for clarity (like what do you do with the 3 lines that are there already?). I cp'd a bak file first.



Hardware. I inherited a 1999-vintage Sony Vaio Picturebook PCG-C1X (the price was right). PCMCIA CDROM and USB floppy. And a 4G hda. The strange part about the hardware is that this is a dinky laptop, with a 1024x480 screen. It will work with 1024x762 but the bottom is chopped off...

Several other Linux installs hang because they boot the kernel but forget the PCMCIA interface somewhere in the boot process and can't get back to the CD to do any real installation. The one exception to that was Fedora Core 3 which did install to completion. But on reboot it promptly forgot about the PCMCIA CD interface ... (Core 4 hangs somewhere in bootup).

Puppy was one of the exceptions --it booted reliably from the CD, keep the PCMCIA interface intact and has low graphics overhead (GNOME, on the other hand, is very slow on older machines like this with comparatively low graphics RAM).
Rex Buddenberg

Bruce B

#20 Post by Bruce B »

Mechsus wrote: I attempted to install Puppy with only an MS-DOS partition and without installing MS-DOS 6.22 - but couldn't crack it - although there must be a method (?).
I tried to understand why you installed MS-DOS. I don't see any reason for it other than that you want to have a dual booting - Puppy/MS-DOS system. But this does not seem to be the reason you install MS-DOS.

Yesterday, I did some expermenting installing Puppy on a spare HD. The results of which indicate that it doesn't make any difference of you nuke the hd or install on a pre-partitioned HD, which I presume you know this. Except the nuking is as someone wrote, hygenic. But I've seen cases where nuking the drive is the only thing that gets it working right again.

If the HD is partioned you can delete the partitions by booting Puppy CD and using cfdisk or fdisk to delete the partitions.

Suppose we start off with a drive that has either been nuked or the partitions deleted with Linux fdisk or cfdisk.

The basic procedure is insert the Puppy CD and boot the computer.

Puppy won't install the pup001 file on this type of drive because there are no partitions.

After answering the keyboard, mouse and vide mode questions you will be running Puppy in RAM with no partitions mounted, because there are none.

You can then use fdisk or cfdisk to make a primary Linux partition (hex 83)

Then start the Puppy hard drive setup program. It will recognize hda1 and install on it if you tell it to install on /dev/hda1. The installation process will create the ext2 file system.

When it comes time to decide to install GRUB go ahead and do it. I usually install it to the MBR.

After the installation process is completed, mount hda1, and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to verify that it has the commands as you wish.

Then reboot.

-------------------

As for my own use, I prefer to have MS-DOS and Linux. I use the GRUB for DOS as my boot manager.

I also think Puppy's GRUB script needs work, because I've never been able to install GRUB to the MBR on hda, IF I have other drives attached. If hda is the only drive then it has installed on hda.

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edoc
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#21 Post by edoc »

I am trying to install Puppy on a laptop with no FDD.

It appears that something is amiss with the linux partitioning (no M$ product has every sullied that HDD) as Puppy keeps complaining that it cannot set up on hda1 or hda2.

How does one install without the use of a FDD?

I can boot Puppy from CD using the ISO but don't see an app in Puppy that will repartition my 40GB HDD.

Thanks! doc
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raffy
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WinXP?

#22 Post by raffy »

WinXP partitions can't be written on yet by Puppy, and if it isn't WinXP, you have to press 2 (v.1.03) or 3 (v.1.04) at boot time so Puppy will not use the existing partitions.

You can still install Puppy to WinXP, just explore the link below:

The repartitioning is "cfdisk" while in console (rxvt). If the hard disk is loaded with WinXP, your best bet is delete first the entire partition and create new ones, and hope Puppy will save the changes... Or hope that you wont lose data there...
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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Re: Step by Step: Installing Puppy Linux to Your Hard Drive

#23 Post by HernanL »

[quote="Mechsus"]Step by Step: Installing Puppy Linux to Your Hard Drive
2. Darik's Boot and Nuke(DBN) on a Floppy.

Where is it?

Thank you

Hern

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edoc
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Re: Step by Step: Installing Puppy Linux to Your Hard Drive

#24 Post by edoc »

[quote="HernanL"][quote="Mechsus"]Step by Step: Installing Puppy Linux to Your Hard Drive
2. Darik's Boot and Nuke(DBN) on a Floppy.
Where is it? Thank you Hern
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edoc
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Re: It works!

#25 Post by edoc »

budden wrote:The step-by-step here works pretty much as advertised.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: While still in terminal, format your swap partition by "mkswap /dev/hda6" and then turn on swapping by "swapon -a" (substitute the correct name of your swap partition to "/dev/hda6"). Rebooting is not necessary after partitioning (and before hard disk install). If you rebooted the system, press this number at boot time: 3 in version 1.04, and 2 in version 1.03 - this is to restrain Puppy from using any partition for storing data.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This, for 1.04 at least, should include a note that to complete the prevention of Puppy from using any partition ENTER should be the answer to the question. The text says so but the newbie may be confused by that text. We can never be too informative!

doc
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Re: It works!

#26 Post by edoc »

budden wrote:The step-by-step here works pretty much as advertised.
OK, not a happy Puppy guy here at the moment!

Just spent a good deal of time downloading a bunch of pupget and dotpup and other apps, loaded them, etc. and then rebooted (Radio3 didn't respond and Java said a reboot may be required).

Nothing that I downloaded was saved! ;-(

I have no idea where to even start looking for the problem as I followed the instructions to load to HDD carefully & Grub does boot from /dev/hda2 fine, though I have to manually select that at the start and don't remember how to tell it to just autoboot hda2 unless I make a different selection within x seconds.

Grub is in the MBR.

I did select the "fancy" boot display with the penguin vs the simple one.

Other than those items it was all pretty much plain vanilla -- same as the ibm 600X but on a newer laptop.

??? doc
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raffy
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Procedure Checks

#27 Post by raffy »

If you installed to hard disk, did you actually start Puppy from hard disk?

If you started from CD, did you actually allow Puppy to use the hard drive? (i.e., no pressing of 2 or 3 at boot time)

If the answer is "No" to either, that can happen (nothing saved to hard disk).

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edoc
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Re: Procedure Checks

#28 Post by edoc »

raffy wrote:If you installed to hard disk, did you actually start Puppy from hard disk?
If you started from CD, did you actually allow Puppy to use the hard drive? (i.e., no pressing of 2 or 3 at boot time)
If the answer is "No" to either, that can happen (nothing saved to hard disk).
Here is a critical addition to the Load to HDD instructions ...

Following this:

"And you're done! You can now use Puppy in hard disk. Don't forget to eject the Puppy CD from the drive."

BE SURE TO REBOOT BEFORE LOADING ANY APPS OR MAKING ANY CHANGES YOU WISH TO SAVE.

No changes made to apps or other settings are saved until the computer has been rebooted from the HDD.

doc
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Re: Procedure Checks

#29 Post by edoc »

raffy wrote:If you installed to hard disk, did you actually start Puppy from hard disk?
If you started from CD, did you actually allow Puppy to use the hard drive? (i.e., no pressing of 2 or 3 at boot time)
If the answer is "No" to either, that can happen (nothing saved to hard disk).
Tried Logout and it brought me to a Bash prompt.

Entered "halt" and it jammed up with "Kernel Panic: Tried to kill init! error."

Reboot from Start Reboot works fine.

The Ticker app I loaded prior to the reboots was saved fine.

doc
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raffy
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Thanks!

#30 Post by raffy »

Yes, a computer shutdown via the Start button does the shutdown better.

OK, congrats for your success, and thanks for the updates (we're all learning, aren't we :) ).

Guest

Re: It works!

#31 Post by Guest »

edoc wrote:
budden wrote:The step-by-step here works pretty much as advertised.

Rambling a bit ... again it works.

The instructions say 'at least 500M' for hda2. What they don't say is THIS IS THE PLACE TO USE THE WHOLE DRIVE! So I had Puppy nicely running in a fifth of the entire drive and the rest was not partitioned and not usable. So when I discovered that 1.0.5 was out (one release newer than what I'd installed), started over.

This time, having a successful install in the log, I skipped all the hda1 part since didn't intend any changes there. Echo some other comments, would be nice to dispense with MS-DOS/DR-DOS entirely, but that's somewhat of a nit since I have a copy.

fdisk: blew away hda2 and restored it ... this time with the whole drive (less hda1). NOW I have some serious working space.

Reinstallation worked fine, per instructions.

Grub does need to be reinstalled since it's config files, by default, live in /boot. Which I'd blown away and re-established. Again, per instructions.


Recommendations, to close this ramble: they pertain to the install script itself not the instructions (I know enough to pop the CD ... after all, I want the ethernet back and I can have one or the other (single PCMCIA slot), but not both). Y'oughtta be able to boot off the puppy CD and push the Setup-->Install HD menu button and be off. That script should make sure you're wholly on CD+RAM (with no hda mounted), should fork into fdisk to do surgery (with recommendations), ... There are several very good scripts in Puppy so this should be within scope.

</ramble>

1.0.5 looks nice. I like JWM -- it's a decent improvement. Still haven't found a good solution to the 1024x640 oddball screen size. The root of the problem is in xvesa with side effects shown up in JWM that I haven't found a workaround for yet (like relocating the task bar).

daklander

#32 Post by daklander »

I didn't see a note about this anywhere so if there is one, I apologize for asking here.
I'm trying to install Chubby Puppy on a drive with Windows 2K Professional. The install part seemed to go fine though there was an area where is said a window would open so I could edit a file. That window never opened. This is a 20gig drive with only one format. I did do the boot floppy. Anyway, when I went in to try have grub install in the MBR I get a notice that it can't be done because there is no Linux partition. I had the impression I could install to the windows partition and use dual boot to operate Puppy off the hard drive. Is that wrong?
FAT32, not NTFS....

Guest

#33 Post by Guest »

I an using a HP Laptop with windows xp Sp2 installed. tried to use liveCd, everything was working fine but hung at the point I was supposed to select the Keyboard Layout. Nothing was responding at all.
I followed the instruction on installlation to hard disk using GRUB and it stopped at the same place. Can some one please help me this is my first time with Linux.
I would however like you to know that I installed it with Qemu emulation.
I am using Puppy 1.0.5

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aahhaaa
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#34 Post by aahhaaa »

imho- this and some other HOWTO threads are getting confusing and dated. The info is getting mixed with unanswered Qs too.

Could the mods maybe lock these HOWTOs when complete & maybe cross-ref with the wiki or the Documentation project? And where useful add Puppy version to the header?

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edoc
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#35 Post by edoc »

aahhaaa wrote: And where useful add Puppy version to the header?
This is a pet peeve/nit of mine.

It would seem a valuable list rule that everyone label the version to which they refer so we may make a more valid judgment if it is relevant to us as readers.

On the rare occasion that the version is non-critical then perhaps we need an abbreviation that flags that.

With the growth of Puppy and Puppy Forum users these small things become increasingly important.

Oh, I wrote this on a laptop using 1.0.4 ... ;-)

IMHO, YMMV .... doc
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