(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I have a old pc with 256 mb ram . I put Lucid puppy 5.2.8 (for 256 mb ram ) with universal usb installer under windows xp under same pc. After BIOS option change I tried to boot from usb. After loading vmlinuz and initrd.gz pc reboots. I burned the same iso on a cd and pc booted normally. I tried the same usb on another newer pc and a laptop, it booted normally. My question is how to boot the pc from usb.

Please help.
pardon my english.

Goutam

Which option did you use for making the bootable USB?
You probably chose the first one: USB HDD.

It may be that your older machine doesn't like this format (although the fact it got as far as loading initrd is ... interesting.

I'd try re-installing to the USB stick choosing "USB-FDD - Superfloppy" option.

antiloquax wrote:Which option did you use for making the bootable USB?
You probably chose the first one: USB HDD.

It may be that your older machine doesn't like this format (although the fact it got as far as loading initrd is ... interesting.

I'd try re-installing to the USB stick choosing "USB-FDD - Superfloppy" option.

I made the live usb not from puppy but a windows program linuxlive usb creator. There is no option there USB-FDD Superfloppy.
But I will try to install to the usb choosing Superfloppy.
Thanks for response.

Goutam

I just tried but same result , pc reboots after loding inirrd. One more thing I should mention. vmlinuz and initrd loads slowly on usb booting than live cd booting.

Goutam

This may not be the answer you are looking for. But it might be useful to know. You can boot using the cd, and keep your savefile on the usb. So at boot, you would use both the CD and a USB.
This way, you are not hurting windows XP, or even touching your harddrive.

Hopefully somebody can give you a better answer to your specific question.

Sorry that didn't help!

Run from the live Lucid 528 CD.
Install to the USB flash drive using the program
menu->setup->Bootflash install Puppy to USB

bigpup wrote:Run from the live Lucid 528 CD.
Install to the USB flash drive using the program
menu->setup->Bootflash install Puppy to USB

I tried this method also but after loading initrd pc restarts. I continued 4/5 times, same result. I pressed crtl+alt+del for hot booting. But no result.

Goutam

This is starting to look like one of those early computers, when USB booting first appeared. It was an option, but it had a lot of problems at first.
A lot of bios updates, where needed, to finally get it working.
If the live CD boots OK. The USB install, of Puppy, is basically a copy of what is on the live CD.
When it reboots after the initrd.gz.
Do you see any error message?
In the bios.
What are the options you have for booting?

On first boot screen, do you get an option like:
F12 - for boot options
If yes. Have you tried that to select the USB drive?

There are some options, in Bootflash, for how to install, to work with older computers.

When it reboots after the initrd.gz.
Do you see any error message?

No error message. I see only "Loading initrd.gz .........ready"
Then reboots.

In the bios.
What are the options you have for booting?

On first boot screen, do you get an option like:
F12 - for boot options

I set option First Boot priority usb-zip.
No option like press F12 etc.. Though I press F12, F8, F6, F2,Esc. But no boot menu appears.

It may be your bios doesn't support USB flash - usb Zip is not right for the purpose
It maybe that your USB flashdrive is too new, and needs a USB 2.0 to boot, so try a different/earlier flashdrive

Without details of your PC make/model we cannot give better advice

Try a bios update, or use Smart Boot Manager or PLOP - both are on Ultimate boot CD, also

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/index.html

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Aitch

Without details of your PC make/model we cannot give better advice

My PC is Intel Celeron 1200 Mhz processor, Intel 810e Chipset, SDRAM 256MB, 40GB HDD, BIOS Version 6.00 PG, Mother Board Gigabyte , Model 6IWFE. It supports only USB 1.1. No USB 2.0 support.

Try a bios update, or use Smart Boot Manager or PLOP - both are on Ultimate boot CD, also

Thanks for suggestion.

Goutam.

goutam
I just read about a successful USB boot using a Chinese MP3 player....it's maybe worth a try, if you can get the puppy files onto the MP3 player, and the other methods aren't suitable?

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23631

Aitch

Is this thread any use?

Hi Aitch,
Thanks for the link.I tried that method but without success

Hi Flash,
Thanks. I will try the method and post results.

Goutam

Now I see only Boot Error when boot from usb. I tried that usb with PLOP it boots normally. It shows YAMI first menu options etc. I checked the usb drive in windows. All files are present. But Boot Error message appear. Please help me.

Goutam

Try checking to see if the flashdrive has a bootflag set in gparted
If not, set it and try again

PLOP should work IF the flashdrive is bootable
Test it in a different PC, with USB bootability to be sure...

Aitch

Try checking to see if the flashdrive has a bootflag set in gparted
If not, set it and try again

I checked with gparted, boot flag set.

PLOP should work IF the flashdrive is bootable
Test it in a different PC, with USB bootability to be sure...

I tried this usb with plop, on a different pc, laptop it worked. So the usb is bootable. Then I did everything from beginning i.e formatted with fat32, ext2, ext3, set boot flag. install puppy. But same Boot Error message appear.
In all the cases the USB worked fine on different pc. Now what to do?

Goutam.

goutam,

Look at this thread on how to configure the boot menu for Puppy: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy//viewt ... 1d0638f77c This should help you... If it doesn't, I'm thinking that the problem may be with your computer bios, that it won't recognize booting from a usb device, and if that is the case the only solution is a bios update that addresses this issue (if in fact there is such an update). Did you check about any bios updates for your computer like Aitch suggested? If there are none, then I suspect that booting Puppy in this manner is not an option for you... I did like the suggestion by sfeeley that you could load Puppy from a CD and save your data to the usb drive --that might be a good workaround even if it is not your preference.

cheers,
Monsie

generally the tools within puppy (which you've been trying) are preferable, but people have also had luck with unetbootin and the installer from pendrivelinux
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
(ironically, both seem to work better from within windows )

Personally, I've used unetbootin successfully, but I found that its slower to load the OS than with puppy's own installer-- maybe it will work better for you)

Where did you install plop, which base OS/location did you install into, and which file did you download?
I've never had it not work...?

Aitch

@Monsie
Please note that at first when I installed puppy on USB using YAMI from pendrivelinux , it booted. After loading initrd pc reboots. So bios is capable to boot from usb. You are right ,but bios needs an update. Now I see only boot error.

@sfeeley
I will try unetbootin.

Where did you install plop, which base OS/location did you install into, and which file did you download?
I've never had it not work...?

I burned plpbtin.iso to a cd.The file is from the zip. I get the zip file from here http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpbt-5.0.14.zip

Goutam.