Puppy2 Installer and USB tests; a bit long
Posted: Sun 26 Feb 2006, 03:29
I have installed Puppy2 on several USB devices. Here is what I found. The first thing is USB-HDD is still work in progress and is not available. The installations were done using the USB Flash option.
The first device to be tried was a Kanguru Zipper 1 Gigabyte drive. I have previously installed Puppy 1.0.7 on it and made it bootable using Grub. I put the orginial master boot record on it and changed the single partion to MSDOS Fat16 (type 6). Use mkfs.msdos to create a clean file system. I used the Puppy2 universal installer to install the Puppy2. I used the option to make the device bootable, since with the orginial master boot record, the device would not boot. The
installation was finished with no errors. I mounted and check the device for the installation files. All the needed files (expect for Puppy-save.3fs, which is made on shutdown) were there including Syslinux needed for booting. I tried to boot the device. No joy, the boot sequence went directly to my hard drive install. I happen to know the orginial master boot record has all zeros in place of the "bootstrap loader" code. The installation did not install the syslinux "boot strap loader" code.
The master boot record contains two sections. The first 446 bytes of it has the "boot strap loader" code and the second section of 66 bytes has partition table. Using a known good device that booted up properly using Syslinux, I copied the "boot strap loader" section using the DD command to a
file called sys-nopart.mbr. I then copied the file using the DD command to the Kanguru Zipper device. This time the device booted up proper and I had Puppy2 runing. On shutdown, I save the settings to device. Puppy-save.3fs was created. I booted up the device and everything started correctly including the saved settings. I have attached the file sys-nopart.mbr in zipped format for other people's use.
I tried a second version with the Zipper to see if the installer could handle a multiple partition device. I re-partitioned the
Kanguru Zipper into two partions. The first was 73 Megabyte MSDos FAT16 partition and the second was the rest of the zipper device space as EXT3 file system. I created clean file systems for both partition using mkfs commands. I still had the Syslinux boot code present for boot purposes. I installed Puppy2 to first partition without a problem. It booted correctly. On shutdown, I selected the second partition (ext3 file system) for the Puppy-save.3fs location. I was hoping that Puppy2 would recognize the presence of ext3 file system and use it as is instead of the squashed
file system. I thought maybe Puppy2 would create a directory called Puppy-save. It used the squashed file system with the ext3 partition. On reboot, everything was restored properly. Clearly a success without any problems.
The second device that I checked was a SanDisk 512 Megabyte Mini. This device has been bootable since I found out one had to turn on "Legacy USB keyboard support" in my BIOS to get USB devices to boot. I did a Puppy2 install to the device. It was smooth sailing with the installer.
I also selected the option to make the device bootable with intstaller. The device booted up properly. I shutdown and selected the MSDOS FAT16 partition on device to save Puppy-save.3fs file. Upon reboot, Puppy2 came up with the correct settings. Puppy-save.3fs was 415 meagabytes in
size. If you want the 512 Megabyte size you need to used a device that is 1 Gigabyte in size.
The third device tried was a SanDisk 512 Megabyte Micro. It is the same chip set as Mini in a different package as far as I can tell. I brought this device recently to use with my SanDisk MP3 player. I have three other devices like it that all work fine. This one does not work properly with
the player, which made it "fair game" for experiments. The other devices have the "boot strap loader" code on them. This one does not! Did the Puppy2 install as usual and try to boot it. No joy. Copy sys-nopart.mbr using the DD command to it and tried to boot it. Puppy2 came up without
a problem. Puppy-save.3fs was created properly on shutdown. If you have a USB flash device that does not seem to boot. Use DD and hexedit to inspect the main boot record for the boot strap loader code. If the first 446 bytes are all zeroes, use DD command and sys-nopart.mbr to place the boot strap loader code there.
I want to see how small a device could be used. I have a old Micro Advantage 64 Megabyte device that is bootable with MSDos FAT16 partiton. I did a Puppy2 install to it. The install was completed without any problems or errors. After completing the install, I check to see how much free space was left using the DF command. It showed none.
I booted up the device and system. Puppy2 came up. On shutdown, I tried to save the setup. An error message reported the lack of space and shutdown. If you want to use an USB device and have a save file, then use a device with a minimum of 128 Megabytes size.
The last try was based on Puppy2 has syslinux 3.11. The version 3.11 has a loader for ext2 partitions called extlinux. I changed the partition and file system of the Zipper to Linux ext2. I tried to do an install of Puppy2 to it. I received an error message saying the installer only supports MSDOS partitions. Once again work in progress.
The extlinux loader does work. The Micro Advantage 64 Megabyte device has INSERT Linux (Insight Security Rescue Disk) on it now. It is formatted as ext2 and uses extlinux to boot.
I hope the above helps.
Enjoy life, Just Greg
The first device to be tried was a Kanguru Zipper 1 Gigabyte drive. I have previously installed Puppy 1.0.7 on it and made it bootable using Grub. I put the orginial master boot record on it and changed the single partion to MSDOS Fat16 (type 6). Use mkfs.msdos to create a clean file system. I used the Puppy2 universal installer to install the Puppy2. I used the option to make the device bootable, since with the orginial master boot record, the device would not boot. The
installation was finished with no errors. I mounted and check the device for the installation files. All the needed files (expect for Puppy-save.3fs, which is made on shutdown) were there including Syslinux needed for booting. I tried to boot the device. No joy, the boot sequence went directly to my hard drive install. I happen to know the orginial master boot record has all zeros in place of the "bootstrap loader" code. The installation did not install the syslinux "boot strap loader" code.
The master boot record contains two sections. The first 446 bytes of it has the "boot strap loader" code and the second section of 66 bytes has partition table. Using a known good device that booted up properly using Syslinux, I copied the "boot strap loader" section using the DD command to a
file called sys-nopart.mbr. I then copied the file using the DD command to the Kanguru Zipper device. This time the device booted up proper and I had Puppy2 runing. On shutdown, I save the settings to device. Puppy-save.3fs was created. I booted up the device and everything started correctly including the saved settings. I have attached the file sys-nopart.mbr in zipped format for other people's use.
I tried a second version with the Zipper to see if the installer could handle a multiple partition device. I re-partitioned the
Kanguru Zipper into two partions. The first was 73 Megabyte MSDos FAT16 partition and the second was the rest of the zipper device space as EXT3 file system. I created clean file systems for both partition using mkfs commands. I still had the Syslinux boot code present for boot purposes. I installed Puppy2 to first partition without a problem. It booted correctly. On shutdown, I selected the second partition (ext3 file system) for the Puppy-save.3fs location. I was hoping that Puppy2 would recognize the presence of ext3 file system and use it as is instead of the squashed
file system. I thought maybe Puppy2 would create a directory called Puppy-save. It used the squashed file system with the ext3 partition. On reboot, everything was restored properly. Clearly a success without any problems.
The second device that I checked was a SanDisk 512 Megabyte Mini. This device has been bootable since I found out one had to turn on "Legacy USB keyboard support" in my BIOS to get USB devices to boot. I did a Puppy2 install to the device. It was smooth sailing with the installer.
I also selected the option to make the device bootable with intstaller. The device booted up properly. I shutdown and selected the MSDOS FAT16 partition on device to save Puppy-save.3fs file. Upon reboot, Puppy2 came up with the correct settings. Puppy-save.3fs was 415 meagabytes in
size. If you want the 512 Megabyte size you need to used a device that is 1 Gigabyte in size.
The third device tried was a SanDisk 512 Megabyte Micro. It is the same chip set as Mini in a different package as far as I can tell. I brought this device recently to use with my SanDisk MP3 player. I have three other devices like it that all work fine. This one does not work properly with
the player, which made it "fair game" for experiments. The other devices have the "boot strap loader" code on them. This one does not! Did the Puppy2 install as usual and try to boot it. No joy. Copy sys-nopart.mbr using the DD command to it and tried to boot it. Puppy2 came up without
a problem. Puppy-save.3fs was created properly on shutdown. If you have a USB flash device that does not seem to boot. Use DD and hexedit to inspect the main boot record for the boot strap loader code. If the first 446 bytes are all zeroes, use DD command and sys-nopart.mbr to place the boot strap loader code there.
I want to see how small a device could be used. I have a old Micro Advantage 64 Megabyte device that is bootable with MSDos FAT16 partiton. I did a Puppy2 install to it. The install was completed without any problems or errors. After completing the install, I check to see how much free space was left using the DF command. It showed none.
I booted up the device and system. Puppy2 came up. On shutdown, I tried to save the setup. An error message reported the lack of space and shutdown. If you want to use an USB device and have a save file, then use a device with a minimum of 128 Megabytes size.
The last try was based on Puppy2 has syslinux 3.11. The version 3.11 has a loader for ext2 partitions called extlinux. I changed the partition and file system of the Zipper to Linux ext2. I tried to do an install of Puppy2 to it. I received an error message saying the installer only supports MSDOS partitions. Once again work in progress.
The extlinux loader does work. The Micro Advantage 64 Megabyte device has INSERT Linux (Insight Security Rescue Disk) on it now. It is formatted as ext2 and uses extlinux to boot.
I hope the above helps.
Enjoy life, Just Greg