If I run a Puppy 4.13 live CD and then run GParted within puppy 4.13 to erase existing partitions on the hard disc and setup an ext2 and a linux swap partition, and then use the universal install to frugal install puppy ......
Do I need to use any boot codes when I start the live CD or is the default boot OK for doing this ?
Thanks.
Any boot code needed for Gparted and Frugal install from CD
setecio,
I tried doing exactly what you're talking about using the default boot option last night, and that didn't work at all. Gparted refused to erase the existing partition on the hard drive.
The articles and forum threads I have read since then say you have to use option pfix=ram to make it load everything to RAM and not touch the hard drive. That way it won't auto-mount any hard drive partitions and you can delete them at will.
Of course, I discovered Puppy yesterday, so you should probably wait for someone to verify this, and not just take my word for it.
I tried doing exactly what you're talking about using the default boot option last night, and that didn't work at all. Gparted refused to erase the existing partition on the hard drive.
The articles and forum threads I have read since then say you have to use option pfix=ram to make it load everything to RAM and not touch the hard drive. That way it won't auto-mount any hard drive partitions and you can delete them at will.
Of course, I discovered Puppy yesterday, so you should probably wait for someone to verify this, and not just take my word for it.
[color=darkred]Not a dog person. :P [/color]
As paulh177 stated use pfix=ram. During bootup with the CD, there is a 5 sec delay, at which you should enter "puppy pfix=ram" (without quotes). Puppy then boots into ram without mounting any drives which will allow Gparted to perform operations on the drive.KittyCat wrote:I tried doing exactly what you're talking about using the default boot option last night, and that didn't work at all. Gparted refused to erase the existing partition on the hard drive.
That was KittyCat's problem, the drive could not be changed because it was mounted.
When testing earlier, I discovered that you can also press F2 to get a list of boot options, and pick your favorite there. So I did the pfix=ram, played with it, and then restarted and mounted the hard drive again, since running from RAM and ignoring my pupsave file meant I had to recreate the internet connection and I felt far too lazy to try and do that.Jim1911 wrote:As paulh177 stated use pfix=ram. During bootup with the CD, there is a 5 sec delay, at which you should enter "puppy pfix=ram" (without quotes). Puppy then boots into ram without mounting any drives which will allow Gparted to perform operations on the drive.
I will attempt an install to hard drive later tonight and hopefully not mess it up too badly. Cross your fingers!
[color=darkred]Not a dog person. :P [/color]
I've tried both ways on an old Sony laptop with only 64MB ram and noticed no difference. However, either way, it is important to set up a linux swap partition that is at least 2 times your ram size. Presently, I do have a full hd install of 4.3 on that computer which works great.
The choice between frugal and full hd install with 128Mb ram probably should be made based on your use of sfs files and of course the puppy distribution you are using. It's much easier to use sfs files with a frugal installation. Also a frugal installation is much easier to update, just delete and replace the old files with the new files.
The choice between frugal and full hd install with 128Mb ram probably should be made based on your use of sfs files and of course the puppy distribution you are using. It's much easier to use sfs files with a frugal installation. Also a frugal installation is much easier to update, just delete and replace the old files with the new files.
So, here's a question then.Jim1911 wrote:I've tried both ways on an old Sony laptop with only 64MB ram and noticed no difference. However, either way, it is important to set up a linux swap partition that is at least 2 times your ram size. Presently, I do have a full hd install of 4.3 on that computer which works great.
I attempted my full install to hard drive yesterday. Booted to puppy pfix=ram and deleted the NTFS partition with Gparted, created new ones, did the install, the whole shebang. Except I forgot to create a swap partition.
I know, I know... it was late and I was tired...!
It's still working though. If the swap partition is vital, why is it working without one?
[color=darkred]Not a dog person. :P [/color]
To answer both of you, the laptop has 768MB of RAM installed, and when running the installation there was around 490MB free. That's probably why then, thanks for clearing that up.
So my Puppy has enough RAM it doesn't need the swap file, but it will be faster if I make a swap file? Why is that, since accessing the HDD is slower than accessing RAM? Or did I just misunderstand everything again?
So my Puppy has enough RAM it doesn't need the swap file, but it will be faster if I make a swap file? Why is that, since accessing the HDD is slower than accessing RAM? Or did I just misunderstand everything again?
[color=darkred]Not a dog person. :P [/color]
It won't make it any faster in your case. The only reason for a swap file would be in case it runs out of RAM. Maybe someone more technical could answer if you, with 768 RAM, run a slight risk of it ever crashing without a swap, if your were to use it for a few hours intensely ?KittyCat wrote:but it will be faster if I make a swap file? Why is that, since accessing the HDD is slower than accessing RAM? Or did I just misunderstand everything again?
In that case I will leave things as they are.setecio wrote:It won't make it any faster in your case. The only reason for a swap file would be in case it runs out of RAM.
Off the top of my head I wouldn't expect there to be any risk of that as long as the RAM is reliable and not throwing errors. There is, I suppose, the risk of errors from over-heating in a laptop, and heat leads to RAM errors spectacular enough that it definitely would crash Puppy in a very dramatic fashion.setecio wrote:Maybe someone more technical could answer if you, with 768 RAM, run a slight risk of it ever crashing without a swap, if your were to use it for a few hours intensely ?
Of course, there is the risk that if I use Puppy for long enough it will eventually fill up the RAM, and without a swap file that could probably also cause it to crash from what Windows calls page fault errors. Wouldn't that be more likely with a frugal install than with a full install though? Fortunately, I have a whole weekend to use my laptop and play with it, and try to crash it, so I might test it and see what happens.
I don't know enough about how Puppy works to know if not having a swap file makes it grumpy, but RAM is something I'm familiar with.
[color=darkred]Not a dog person. :P [/color]