Need help installing pup on old IBM laptop(solved)

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pelokwin
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Need help installing pup on old IBM laptop(solved)

#1 Post by pelokwin »

Hi I am new to the world of puppy and I am a computer dumb "a". I have a IBM Think running win.95. It has a pentium(r) with 79.0mb ram. The desktop I use is my wife and mine so I am not able to put pupy on it but it has internet and the laptop doesen't so I am working through it.
Now to my problem :cry: I wanted to put linux on my laptop and I found puppy to be the one I really want so I burned the iso, got wakepup and away I went . I got to the point when the "boot options" came up. I picked each op. and this is the next thing I saw.....rm_size is too big.. under that came"A:\> " anybody have any ideas?.......help
Pelokwin :twisted:
Last edited by pelokwin on Fri 28 Apr 2006, 06:33, edited 1 time in total.
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krumpli
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Need help installing pup on old IBM laptop

#2 Post by krumpli »

Hi,
I am just as much a beginner as you.
I did a search on the forum using your "rm_size" notice. It returned no hits. So that was no help.
What version of puppy did you download/burn?
Your laptop has win95 running? What I am asking is the computer working OK when you boot up using the win95 operating system that was previously installed?
I noted that you mentioned 79mb of memory on the laptop. That to my inexperienced eyes is an unusual amount.

Assuming 79mb is correct, here is a quote from "how puppy works "take 1":
But, what if your PC has only 64M, 48M, or even only 32M RAM? Well, usr_cram.fs is not going to fit in the ramdisk. Just ball-park figures, image.gz uncompressed is about 10M, usr_cram.fs is about 50M.

Puppy does have a card up his sleeve, so to speak -- if the PC has a Linux swap partition Puppy will automatically use that, which is used to increase the effective size of the ramdisk. If you have ever installed another Linux distro on the PC, chances are it created a swap partition, so it is already sitting there ready for Puppy to use. If your PC has 128M of RAM, Puppy 0.9.8 will allocate 62M of that to ramdisk (version 1.0.2+ allocates 70M), however if the PC also has a 250M (for example) swap partition, then the effective size of the ramdisk becomes 62+250 = 312M!
So I am wondering if you could be ram challenged, since puppy would like 128mb of ram and needs approximately 64-66 mb just to load the operating system into ram. That leaves 9-11 mb of ram free from your 79. At the above quote the article mentions the use of a swap file, which you most likely do not have since you have never previously installed a linux OS on the laptop.

My suggestion, strictly a thought, is to try puppy2 alpha version and see if it loads. according to "how puppy works take 2"
3. Works on PCs with very little RAM

Puppy2 will take advantage of more RAM, but if your PC is RAM-challenged, no problem.

The key point here is that the personal storage (I also refer to this as the persistent storage) partition or pup_save.3fs file is not loaded into RAM, only mounted read only, and only the "working files" are in RAM.

What you will have in a RAM-challenged PC is the kernel, initrd.gz (uncompressed) and the "working files" in RAM. Those "working files" are only new and changed files, so there will hardly be anything in RAM, meaning that we are going to find our Pup running on very minimal systems ....we have yet to find out how little RAM will work.

There is also a Puppy derivative "EmptyCrust" that I believe requires approximately 50mb of ram. That could be another option.

I may be leading you astray. So let's wait and see what the real experts at this site have to say on this matter. Below is the link for the complete "How Puppy Works" url:
http://www.puppyos.com/development/howpuppyworks.html

Paul M
Last edited by krumpli on Sat 01 Apr 2006, 23:57, edited 1 time in total.

Takilla
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#3 Post by Takilla »

We need the cpu and hard drive info on your laptop to be of more asisstance.

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pelokwin
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#4 Post by pelokwin »

Hi :P ,
Thanks for helping me out. To Takilla well on my regular desktop (xp) I can look in system info for cpu and hard drive info. All I could find out for the Think Pad ( it is a T.P. 385d) is the processeor is an Intel 82430mx pentium (r) to pci bridge and as far as the hard drive ??? what info do you need? Unfortiontly this process is a learning the basic for me but for all of you it is a lot of hand holding. To Krumpli Thanks for the link. I checked and as far as I can tell the 79mb is correct. the verzion of puppy is Puppy 1.0.8r1 mozilla (i am on dial up and it took me 5hrs) The comp. it self is for all my no know how is running fine. It was a pass-on from a co-worker who had it just sitting around for years and lost or got rid of most all the important stuff.
well I off to try more stuff
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toddyjoe
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#5 Post by toddyjoe »

Do not give up because you should be able to get Puppy Linux working on that Thinkpad. I have an older, lower-end 1997 Thinkpad 310ED which started life with a Pentium 133 MMX processor, 1.6GB hard drive, 10X CD-ROM, 16MB of memory, 1MB Chips & Technology 65550 video card, two PCMCIA card slots, and Windows 95. If you check the following link regarding your computer's information you will find your model has even better features:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:385D

I am currently dual booting Windows 98 SE and Puppy Linux 1.0.8r1 without even partitioning the hard drive. I downloaded the 1.0.8r1 iso file and also the PupWin98 zip file just to get "grub.exe" and "menu.lst" out of it. I minimally adjusted the text lines of the "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" files already on my computer and now can boot either Windows or Linux right after turning the computer on.

In fairness, I upgraded my computer's RAM to 128MB and the processor to an AMD K6-2 380 overclocked to 400 MHz earlier this year. However, the Puppy Linux still worked with 96MB of RAM when I tried it last week during some experiments. I will try it with 64MB tonight to see if that works. However, do not give up because that Thinkpad should work fine with Puppy! If you are anywhere close to Wisconsin, USA, I have a bunch of 16MB, 32MB, 64MB and 129MB EDO and SDRAM modules for those old Thinkpads that I have been trying to sell for cheap that could let you try out.

EDIT: By the way, I am a complete Linux newbie as well. I had never tried anything but Windows as of one month ago. Since that time, I have used both Puppy and Damn Small Linux on that Thinkpad and played with a few Puppy versions, Ubuntu, dyne|bolic, and DeMuDi on other computers by downloading iso files and burning Live CDs. Between this forum and the Internet, I have found there is a lot of information out there on things to try when you run into an obstacle. Linux is addictive!

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#6 Post by rarsa »

The desktop I use is my wife and mine so I am not able to put pupy on it
Good news, You can put puppy on that computer without loosing your existing setup.

Read the details in the FAQ under "NTFS Partition" http://puppylinux.com/faq.htm

I know this does not answer your questions but I thought I'd mention it.
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#7 Post by toddyjoe »

Just a follow-up to my earlier post, Puppy Linux 1.0.8r1 works fine on my Thinkpad 310ED with only 64MB EDO RAM. I tried it tonight and got no errors whatsoever, nor did it run any faster or slower than it does with 128MB of EDO RAM. I tried it both using the Live CD I burned from a downloaded iso file and also with the fake dual-boot setup I have on my hard drive.

I have never tried the Wakepup item you mentioned. Maybe there is something in Wakepup that is causing you problems?

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#8 Post by pelokwin »

Hi,
To rarsa I am sorry I was a bit misleading when I said I could not put puppy on my desk top.....My wife won't let me put puppy on it :D But it is no big deal because she can't touch my stereo :lol: To ToddyJoe,
I'm in New Jersey But the idea of tring to upgrade my T.P. sounds like something I would like to try after I get more comfortable with the world outside windows.(oh heck I used the "W" word now I owe Bill Gates $2.00)
Ok so my last post weren't so clear so this is my problem up to now...
First I tried booting puppy1.0.8r.1 mozilla with wakepup11c with pup001 on the hard drive and the BIOS set to start with the floppy drive...then to the H.D. Then CD-ROM I choose to boot puppy from internal CD-rom. The next msg. Is
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pakt
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#9 Post by pakt »

pelokwin, from the error messages you get it sounds like you either have a corrupted Puppy CD (perhaps a bad download? - check the iso file with the md5sum program) or you could have a hardware problem with your ThinkPad CDROM drive.

Does the drive work with other CDs you've burned?

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#10 Post by pelokwin »

pakt, I have not had a chance to check the iso file but I will try it tonight. Do you think the fact I am using dial-up to download the live cd could mean I am not getting the whole thing?
As far as the cd drive :?: it has played burnt (music) cds and large file transfers{spreadsheet and desktop enhansements whitch I have removed since then but worked fine}. I do know it will not play cd-rw, but this is the first time I have tried something like this.
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pakt
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#11 Post by pakt »

pelokwin wrote:Do you think the fact I am using dial-up to download the live cd could mean I am not getting the whole thing?
I have successfully downloaded Puppy myself using dial-up, but there have been occasional reports on the forum of bad downloads. The only way you can find out if the iso is good is by checking the "checksum" of the file. Do this by running in a rxvt terminal:

# md5sum puppy-1.0.8r1-mozilla.iso

and comparing the number you get with the contents of puppy-1.0.8r1-mozilla.iso.md5.txt

Note: There is a DOS version of md5sum available. Get it here: http://puppylinux.com/download/md5sum.exe

Good luck,
Paul

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#12 Post by toddyjoe »

I probably cannot help much based on that info except a couple of things caught my eye.

First, I know from experience with Windows XP that an "image checksum error" or "Bad Image Checksum" error can be due a damaged installation file or folder OR due to one or more RAM modules installed in your computer being faulty or incompatible with your computer. Perhaps this error message relates back to the odd 79MB of RAM you identified earlier? Are you able to access to the RAM module(s) on the underside compartment of the computer and identify what RAM types and values are in the system? Perhaps you are getting the odd 79MB of RAM and the image checksum error because of a damaged or incompatible RAM module.

Second, I notice your Thinkpad failed to boot after trying the LINLD program for booting. I also could not get the LINLD bootloader to work on my Thinkpad 310ED with Puppy. I got errors very similar to the ones your computer is reporting, although not identical error language. Two other common bootloader options, LOADLIN.EXE and TINY.EXE, also did not work perfectly with my 310ED and Puppy. The only bootloader program that works without flaws on my laptop with Puppy is GRUB.EXE which can be found inside the PupWin98.zip package. That is the one I am using now. There is probably a simple way to adapt the PupWin98 package to boot your computer from a floppy disk or even a CD-ROM but I have not tried it. That probably would not eliminate any checksum errors though.

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#13 Post by pelokwin »

toddyjoe,
I was not able to check the ram but I know where to get at it but thanks to your link I was able to get limited specs on my T.P.

Processor Intel Pentium 166 MHz with MMX
Level 1 Cache 16 kB
Level 2 Cache 256kB L2
RAM 16MB + expansion up to 80MB total max
RAM type 64-bit EDO SO-DIMM
Hard Drive type type= 3.0 GB, 13 ms
Hard Drive transfer speed untested (max)
CD-ROM internal, 8-20X
Screen 12.1 inch color, 65536 colors, active TFT, 100:1 contrast
Video Processor NeoMagic MagicGraph128ZV (NM2093), on PCI 2.1 bus
Video RAM 1.125 MB embedded
Video Resolution (LCD) 800x600 16-bit color
Video Resolution (CRT) 1024x768 256 color (max)
Ports Serial, Parallel, PCMCIA (2), PS/2, video, infrared
Mouse Trackpoint (eraserhead)
PCMCIA Slots 2 (two type II or one type III)
PCMCIA CardBus compatibility? No.
PCMCIA Controller CL-PD6729 (PCMCIA spec 2.1 compatible)
Sound Hardware Sound Blaster Pro TM
Battery Type Lithium Ion (non-intelligent)
Weight (PC) 7.0 pounds (3.2 kg) with battery
Weight (AC adaptor) ?
Thickness 2.4 inches (62 mm)
AC Adaptor Output ? V, ? A, 35 watts max
Modem None

Right off I notice the ram as 80 max so hey is something not right? To Pakt when I starte to find out about Linux I tried feather first and the cd ran and I got the msg. telling me how to boot it but never booted as for my puppy iso when I put it in my desktop and click on it , it starts installing I tried to do the check sum but I screwed something up. At this page ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/

do I download everything and place the iso on a disk and the rest on the laptop? I think my best bet is to start from scrach after I give the T.P. a look over.
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#14 Post by pakt »

pelokwin wrote:At this page ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/
do I download everything and place the iso on a disk and the rest on the laptop? I think my best bet is to start from scrach after I give the T.P. a look over.
You only need to download puppy-1.0.8r1-mozilla.iso - no other files are needed. This is the CD-ROM image that you burn to a CD to make a bootable Puppy CD.

I almost forgot, you also need to download puppy-1.0.8r1-mozilla.iso.md5.txt. This contains the md5sum checksum to compare with.

Then do the md5sum check as I mentioned, before burning the image to CD so you're sure the download went OK.

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#15 Post by pelokwin »

thanks I did not have the txt file..I thought it was in the iso file
even though it is a lot of work would it work if I placed puppy on the HD and got rid of the crappy win95? oh and a guy at my job said bill "monopaly" gates is trying to buy the "source code" of Linux...any truth?
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#16 Post by ezeze5000 »

You might try downloading puppy using Bittorrent.

You can get it from here:
http://www.bittorrent.com/

You can download puppy from here using bittorrent.
http://linuxtracker.org/

I have had real good luck downloading puppy this way.

I hope this helps.

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#17 Post by toddyjoe »

even though it is a lot of work would it work if I placed puppy on the HD and got rid of the crappy win95?
pelokwin, you could probably have both Windows 95 and Puppy Linux 1.0.8r1 on your hard drive without even partioning. I have mine set up that way with a crude dual-boot system. If you give me a couple of days, I can type up where to put certain files off the Puppy iso on your hard drive and how to set it up for a barebones dual-boot to either Windows or Puppy. It works fine on my Thinkpad 310ED with Windows 98 SE and Puppy 1.0.8r1. Puppy only takes up about 200MB on my hard drive, which includes a 128MB "pup001" file.

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#18 Post by pelokwin »

Toddyjoe,
I have all the time in the world. I would love to try it and see if I can make it work. It seems everything I try with the live cd way of puppy (and feather) hits a wall. As far as this old T.P. goes heck I cant even use the windows 95 it is just too out of date, and that is mostly word prossesing.
Thanks,
Pelokwin
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toddyjoe
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#19 Post by toddyjoe »

pelokwin, here is my promised explanation/tutorial. My Thinkpad 310ED had Windows 95 up until about three months ago so this explanation is geared toward someone like you with the same experience.

*****

HOW TO INSTALL PUPPY LINUX ON WINDOWS HARD-DRIVE AND DUAL BOOT WITH WINDOWS 95/98/98SE (WITHOUT HAVING TO PARTITION YOUR HARD DRIVE):

By: Todd J. Koback -- April 2006
_________________________________________________________________

NOTE: You need at least 137MB of free hard drive space for these files.
_________________________________________________________________

(1) Download a Puppy Linux ISO file and use it to burn a bootable Live CD.

(2) Create a new directory on your "C:" hard drive named "PUPPY". This should be located in the root directory on the hard drive so that the path is "C:\PUPPY".

(3) Download the "PupWin98.zip" file.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: "PupWin98.zip" is a large file -- just as big as the Puppy ISO file above. For this installation, you only need the "grub.exe" and "menu.lst" files which are zipped inside "PupWin98.zip" and are about 103KB and 173 bytes in size, respectively. If you can find "grub.exe" and "menu.lst" elsewhere on the Internet, feel free to skip downloading "PupWin98.zip" and download the small "grub.exe" and "menu.lst" files directly. If you private message me with your e-mail address, I will forward both files to you directly. A quick Internet search shows "grub.exe" is available for download here: http://www.freeveda.org/linux/puppy/GRUB.EXE ]

(4) Extract and save "grub.exe" and "menu.lst" within the new "C:\PUPPY" directory.

(5) Copy and save the "image.gz" and "vmlinuz" files from the bootable Live CD you created to the new "C:\PUPPY" directory.

(6) Right click on the "menu.lst" file and select "Open with..." and then select NOTEPAD from the list. Edit the contents to read as follows:

timeout 0
title Puppy Linux
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/puppy/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 acpi=off
PFILE=pup001-none-131072 PHOME=hda1
initrd (hd0,0)/puppy/image.gz

Save the "menu.lst" file after this edit and close NOTEPAD.

(7) Click on the START menu in Windows and select "Run" from the menu. Type "sysedit" at the prompt and then click "OK". This will run the System Configuration Editor.

(8) In the System Configuration Editor, select the "C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT" file window. At the very top of the file contents above the existing text, insert and add the following new text:

REM [Start additions for Linux]
GOTO %CONFIG%

:LINUX
ECHO Welcome to Puppy Linux!
PAUSE
C:\PUPPY\GRUB.EXE --config-file=(hd0,0)/puppy/menu.lst

:WIN
REM [End additions for Linux]

Do not change or delete the remaining contents of the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file. Click on the "File" menu in the System Configuration Editor window and then select "Save".

(9) While still in the System Configuration Editor, select the "C:\CONFIG.SYS" file window. At the very top of the file contents above the existing text, insert and add the following new text:

REM [Start of additions for Linux]
[menu]
menuitem=win, Windows
menuitem=linux, Puppy Linux ver. 1.0.8r1
menudefault=win, 15

[linux]

[win]
REM [End of additions for Linux]

Do not change or delete the remaining contents of the "CONFIG.SYS" file. Click on the "File" menu in the System Configuration Editor window and then select "Save". Then, click on the "File" menu in the System Configuration Editor window and then select "Exit".

(10) Restart or reboot the computer.
_________________________________________________________________

TO DUAL-BOOT WINDOWS AND LINUX:
After restarting or rebooting, the initial computer boot screen and the initial Windows logo start screen will load as before. However, after those two screens, you will be prompted to choose either "Windows" or "Puppy Linux ver. 1.0.8r1". If you choose Windows, your computer will continue to boot Windows as before.

If you choose Puppy Linux, you will get a message "Welcome to Puppy Linux!" and will be asked to press any key to continue. Press any key and the Puppy boot will start up just as if you were using a bootable Live CD. The first time you boot this way, you will need to select your keyboard, mouse and video/screen type just like with the boot CD. However, you will not need to select these options in the future as they will be saved in a file called "pup001" created by Puppy in the "C:" drive's root directory. The size of "pup001" is 128KB rather than 256KB as with the bootable Live CD. The total size of all of the new Puppy Linux files is a bit less than 137MB.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: When booting Linux, the "Welcome to Puppy Linux!" and requirement to press any key to continue is an excessive step I wanted to eliminate. Indeed, if those steps are taken out of the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file, Linux still boots. However, rather than listing all the steps and commands in plain text as Linux boots, the Windows logo start screen will reappear, pause and then distort and cause strange images, colors and lines/bars to appear on the screen. It gives an appearance like the computer is crashing or going haywire. It is not, but the appearance is enough to cause panic the first time you experience it, especially for a newbie. Unfortunately, I could fine no other easy way to prevent the Windows logo screen from reappearing and then going beserk except to add the additional "Welcome" message and "Press any key to continue..." prompt. Sorry!]

TO DELETE PUPPY:
If you decide to erase Puppy and return to single-booting Windows, use the System Configuration Editor as you did above to edit "C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "c:\CONFIG.SYS". Erase the text you added in both files, save each file in the System Configuration Editor and then exit the System Configuration Editor. Thereafter, erase the "PUPPY" directory on the "C:" hard drive and all of its contents. Last, erase the "pup001" file on the "C:" drive and you are back to your original Windows-only system.

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