Booting Puppy from USB messed up an HD install

[LNSmith]

G'day all.

Sunday afternoon. For months my desktop box has been running like a dream. Pentium P4. 2GiB RAM. Booting from a thumb-drive into uPupBB32. Life is good.

I have a number of laptops sitting around idle. I decided to organize them and create bootable thumb-drives and a table showing which thumb-drive to use with any laptop. In the past I tried to use different thumbs (and different versions of Puppy) with these. The result? Disaster. I made a rule. One thumb-drive and one OS per laptop.

But now - I'm organizing everything and so I break that rule. I began with a Dell 600M. A hand-written label on the front says 'boot with Slack Puppy'. I went to the desk-top P4 and created a bootable disk (with UEFI). I can't give the name of the installer - except to say it is 'standard' with uPupBB32 and the program is the first item on the menu - it is compatible with UEFI.

Created the bootable thumb. Inserted in the DELL 600M port.
The result: "This is not a bootable disk." Turn the power off.
Put the newly-made bootable thumb into the desktop with the intention of wiping the disk when suddenly - LIGHTNING STRIKES. It's a thought: "Don't erase this thumb drive. Try it with one of the other laptops! Oh - I'm very impressed to have an original thought - it's only 3PM.
So I shut down my desktop box and made a fatal mistake. I left the newly-created thumb drive in the USB port AND REBOOTED MY DESKTOP BOX!

Now - because of some thingy about boot-order my P4 desktop OS is - slack puppy. It booted from the newly installed Slack OS that put on the thumb-drive. (I conclude: the 600M probably does not support UEFI.) OK. Not to worry. Just shut down w/out making a save file.
And I did.

And I pulled out the thumb-drive with the newly installed Slack OS from my desktop box and I re-booted. Easy-peasy, yes? I will see my faithful, always reliable uPupBB32, right? Everything will be good, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Now (shock) I don't see uPupBB. I see Slack Puppy. Ummm ... but the thumb drive is sitting on my desk in front of my keyboard. It's not in the USB slot. WHERE IS MY DESKTOP GETTING SLACK PUPPY 6.3.2 FROM?

Running pup-sys-info I see this:

Distro: Slacko Puppy 6.3.2
Window Manager: JWM v2.3.2

I am writing this posting using the slack puppy!
There is only ONE thumb drive plugged into my P4 desktop box and this is the thumb-drive I have booted from for the past many months. I installed UPupBB on it. It is at the BACK of my desktop box. I have to lie down on the floor (etc) to plug/unplug anything into the rear-mounted USB ports and I can clearly see nothing in the front usb slots.

Now to my "Q". How and why did the Slack puppy decide to hijack the OS on my computer?

I repeat: When Slack puppy shut down I selected the RH box that said 'don't create a save-file'.
Having removed the thumb-drive containing the Slack-puppy I expected to re-boot uPupBB32 without drama.

What can I do to recover my previous system?
Why did this happen?
Is there a god?
I went to mass last Sunday and said my prayers.
Why should god desert me in this - my hour of crisis.

Helpful info welcome.

Leslie

In the image attached I show the content of drive sdd1. I have four drives attached to my desk-top box - sda, sdb, sdc (all conventional rotating drives) and sdd - the thumb drive with the OS uPupBB. This is the drive on the back of my P4-box. But now (horror of horrors) I see slack-puppy files in sdd. I formatted sde and installled Slack puppy on sde1.

Now, when I look at the files in sde1 - it is empty. So - this is why the DELL 600M would not boot.

The final piece of info: Last week I formatted thumb-drive sde (sde1 and sde2) I installed uPupBB64 - the bionic pup - on sde1 (a different thumb) and booted a Toshiba 840 laptop successfully. This is why I think I understand drive names and the process of burning (or installing) the OS to a thumb-drive. I have done this many times - successfully.

Over and out.

[bigpup]

Looking at that image you posted.
Looks like you have Slacko 6.3.2 and upupbb both installed in the same live USB install.

Notice you have sfs files for both.

I bet if you look at the contents of grub.cfg and menu.lst. It is going to have entries to boot Slacko or maybe both.

Looks like some how you installed Slacko over upupbb.

Open grub.cfg and menu.lst, in a text editor, and see what is in them.
Left clicking on them should do that.

Post what it shows.

[LNSmith]

Hello Bigpup.
I'm uncertain whether you want me to attach a file or post a file.
So - to begin I'll post.
I don't know anything about this, but you are right.
Somehow I installed the second OS (slack-puppy) on the same drive as my 'working' OS.

For the moment I have done the obvious. I switched my 'reserve' BU flash drive and the original (good) thumb drive. Booting from this (without pupsave from the boot menu) I run uPupBB32 (the busy beaver) but 'clean'.

When I shut down I do not make a pup-save. Thus my desk-top box files remain untouched. Everything is there - it's just not being used. (Must be like my brain.) Leslie
--------------------------------------------------------------------

#
# menu.lst
#

#color NORMAL HIGHLIGHT HELPTEXT HEADING
# f/b f/b f/b f/b
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black

timeout 15
default 0

title BionicPup32 19.03
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - Don't copy SFS files to RAM\nIf you want more RAM available
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck,nocopy
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - Check filesystem\ndo filesystem check on savefile (and host partition)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - Force xorgwizard (xorgwizard)\nForce xorgwizard (if you are having problems booting puppy)...
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=xorgwizard
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - No X\nTry 'xorgwizard' after bootup succeed to start graphic mode.
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=nox
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - No Kernel Mode Setting\nNo KMS
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash nomodeset
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - Safe mode, no X\nTry 'xorgwizard' after bootup succeed to start graphic mode.
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=ram,nox acpi=off apm=off nosmp noapic
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - RAM only - no pupsave\nBoot up Puppy without pupsave
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=ram
initrd /initrd.gz

title BionicPup32 19.03 - Ram Disk SHell\nExecute 'init' then dropout to prompt in initramfs
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash pfix=rdsh
initrd /initrd.gz

title
root

title Help - Boot Params
configfile /menu_phelp.lst

title
root

# Boot from Partition Boot Sector

title Boot first hard drive (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1 || chainloader /grldr || chainloader /bootmngr

title
root

# additionals

title Grub4Dos commandline\n(for experts only)
commandline

title Reboot computer
reboot

title Halt computer
halt


-------------------------------------------------
insmod png
background_image /splash.png
set timeout=10

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2" {
linux /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2 - RAM only" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=ram pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2 - No X" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=nox pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2 - check filesystem" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=fsck pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2 - No KMS" {
linux /vmlinuz nomodeset pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start slacko 6.3.2 - Ram Disk SHell" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=rdsh pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Shutdown" {
halt
}

menuentry "Reboot" {
reboot
}

[LNSmith]

I must check something.
I think I may have given you wrong info.
Pls wait.

Leslie

[LNSmith]

Hello Bigpup:
I removed the 'old' (previously working uPupBB32) drive from my desktop.
The file you see below is from the ONLY flash drive in my PC - in other words the file I used to boot my PC a few minutes ago.

I don't see any value in saving menu.lst from the drive that has the Slacko files on it.
What would happen if I copy menu.lst from my 'reserve' disk (the disk I booted from NOW) over the top of menu.lst in the drive with both versions of puppy? Then, if that rescues the boot process, I can delete the slack puppy files. It seems to me that if I don't boot from them they are 'dead wood'.

I don't want to lose my pup-save file.
Can I copy my pup-save file to 'something'.

Leslie

-------------- grub.cfg from the DISK I USED TO BOOT NOW -----

insmod png
background_image /splash.png
set timeout=10

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03" {
linux /vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03 - RAM only" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=ram pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03 - No X" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=nox pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03 - check filesystem" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=fsck pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03 - No KMS" {
linux /vmlinuz nomodeset pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Start upupbb 19.03 - Ram Disk SHell" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=rdsh pmedia=usbflash
initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Shutdown" {
halt
}

menuentry "Reboot" {
reboot
}

[Wiz57]

When you installed Slacko, it looks like it placed those files in the
same directory as your UpupBB files, this overwrites any files with
the same name (initrd.gz, vmlinuz, etc), SO, let's try extracting your
UpupBB iso into the directory to replace the Slacko files, then try
a reboot and see if Upup is back.
You can use the same thumb drive for multiple puppies IF you
always remember to place those puppy files into their own
separate directory.
Wiz

[bigpup]

I would do this booted with some other Puppy that is not on this messed up USB.

If the image you posted is the messed up USB.
Before doing the above.
Delete all the sfs files that are for Slacko.

I am not sure that messed up USB still has a upupbb save on it.
Your posted image does not show one.
If it does have a save, but is not showing in your posted image.
For sure make a backup copy of it and place it on some other drive.
If you have to do a completely fresh install of upupbb. You can still use this backup save with it.

You may be better off deleting everything on this messed up USB and starting over with a fresh new install.

I don't see any value in saving menu.lst from the drive that has the Slacko files on it.
What would happen if I copy menu.lst from my 'reserve' disk (the disk I booted from NOW) over the top of menu.lst in the drive with both versions of puppy? Then, if that rescues the boot process, I can delete the slack puppy files. It seems to me that if I don't boot from them they are 'dead wood'.

You could try this.
However, the menu.lst could have specific commands for a specific USB that only apply to that specific USB. Those commands would not work on another USB.

I am wondering why it even has a menu.lst
Did you install grub4dos boot loader to boot these USB's?

[enrique]

Please help LNSmith get its Puppy back.

But at the end, Please, can anyone explain to me how a new OS Installed over his original without consent? LNSmith claim only tested the USB. And never intentionally selected to install a new Puppy. Then how slacko files end up over the original uPupBB32 disk? I find this disturbing.

[bigpup]

The only way I know it could happen is doing an install and selecting the wrong drive to install on.

We are humans, with brains that do the wrong thing, sometimes

If humans never made mistakes, we would not need computers
Or is that the other way around

With USB drives.
Depending on how it is being used. Is it just a drive plugged in or are you booting from it.
The drive could be identified differently.
Usually internal hard drives are sda.
USB drives are sdb, sdc, sdd, etc....
But when the drive is seen by the boot process and how it actually is controlled by the computer drive controller.
Those identifiers may not always be the same for a specific USB drive.
Especially if you have several USB drives plugged in at one time.
On one boot the specific drive could be seen as sdb
On another boot a different USB drive is seen as sdb
Etc.....
With only one USB drive plugged in. The drive identifier should always be the same. Key word should!

This is one reason, Boot loaders using a specific identifying number, for a drive, will always find that drive. No mater what the computer wants to identify it as.

[LNSmith]

I am following the discussion above.
Bigpup suggested: Re-install the Bionic Pup on a clean drive.

I would do this booted with some other Puppy that is not on this messed up USB.

I did that. Now I want to restore my save file.
My plan. (Did not work).

ORIG CONFIG (worked for months).
1. boot-disk was sdd1. (Thumb drive)
2. save file went to sda3.

THE PROCEDURE
Copied the save file to sdc1
renamed the save file on sda3 (by adding a suffix). Now I have 2 copies of savepup. One copy - renamed. The other - orig. name on diff't drive.
Booted from a 'rescue' USB drive w/out the save file.
Installed the BionicPup32-8.0-UEFI to a new flash (I will call this blue-flash)
Shut down.
Removed 'rescue' thumb drive.
Inserted blue-flash. Saw 'blue screen of life'. Started Bionic Beaver w/out save file. Configured name, language etc. Shut down. Wanted to put my save file on sda3. (Same drive as original save file). Puppy to me: You can only use the thumb-drive, not the rotating drive. (OK - not those words - only option was sdd1 (the boot drive).

(An aside) Why did I want to use sda3? Ans: bec I put the save file on a thumb drive (in the distant past) and it was slowwwww. With the save file on the rotating drive - everything worked well.

So ... why is there no option to save to sda3? (It was mounted)

My plan: create a save file on sda3, then reboot (w/out a save file).
Delete the freshly made save file and re-name the original save file (to pupsave).

Then reboot, this time as per normal. (Top menu item on the blue screen of life.)
I thought: The old save file would be in place (the one I had yesterday) and I should have a working system - untouched.

I will deal with the question of what happened yesterday in another posting.
Bigpup says: Human error. Perhaps - but I have a disturbing thing to report.
Very disturbing. Tnx to all.
Over and out. AR KN

[LNSmith]

When I joined 'the forum' I had no idea about names & co.
And my full name is Leslie N. Smith, but on the web I call myself LNSmith - because it's a little formal. Easy to remember (for me).
So - my original name was a poor choice. I stuffed up!

Here, I think my name should be 'Leslie'.
That's a family name from the 1800s. I have a relative who died young from TB. I have cousins also named 'Leslie'.
Or (perhaps here) I need a doggy name.
Leslie

[enrique]

Leslie

Not all computers are the same. Some in fact behave weird. I give you an sample.

I have a few old PC. Most of them work as expected with different Puppys.

Now my main Laptop I guess was build 5-10 years ago. But was State of the Art when I purchased. So today I still consider it a powerful PC. It is a HP Pavilion DV7.

But it has this little problem. If I boot with certain external USB HDD it will Internally reconfigure the HDD line up. So I can not warranty that my SDA is always same SDA. And in fact in any occasions after booting the kernel will hang with "Probing EDD". And this wrong behavior is seen under win7 too.

So I have to add certain init at boot time like

Code: Select all

title LxPupBuster (sdb2/LxPupBuster)
  find --set-root uuid () 01D25BB9765C3F00
  kernel /LxPupBuster/live/vmlinuz1 video=HDMI-1:1600x900@60 edd=off root=UUID=01D25BB9765C3F00 noauto acpi_backlight=vendor from=/LxPupBuster/ changes=EXIT:/LxPupBuster/live/changes.dat
  initrd /LxPupBuster/live/initrd1.xz

***Please ignore the fact that is a BusterDog and not a real Puppy. Puppy will do same issue.
Notice How I ask to search and find my disk not by a label, SDA or (hd0,1). Instead I ask grub4dos to do it by UUID find --set-root uuid () 01D25BB9765C3F00. Then in the kernel I specifically tells edd=off root=UUID=01D25BB9765C3F00 I am force to tell it to forget about Enhanced_Disk_Drive and specifically use root=UUID just as Ubuntu does.

Note:
I should have mention that most of the weird happens on the USB3 Ports!! Maybe have something to do with that fact.

[LNSmith]

Hello enrique:

I read your posting with great interest. I am not surprised by the idea that some PC's play 'shuffle the deck' with drive IDs. Bigpup suggested the problem I described came from human error. That idea was my first idea too. I do not discount that possibility, but I do NOT consider this to be my problem here. The reason? Whoever wrote the installation program included gParted in the sequence of operations and so I had to select the drive (where puppy would be installed) and AFTER THAT gParted opened the drive so I saw the size of the partitions. So the process had an in-built check. The 'target' drive was 4GiB total and I partitioned it as FAT32 1.25Gib (part_#1) and the second as ext_4 (about 2.5GiB). And that was completely different from the boot drive - 8GiB. Bigpup is correct - consider first that the operator has stuffed up. Possible in this case but less than certain. I think some other factor put the Slack pup on the boot drive.

At the end (below my name) you can see note about another problem where Linux 'shuffled' disk ID. The point: it is a record of a specific 'strange' action involving disk access and file access.

I read the note. It does not have enough detail to identify the problem but I wrote the note because I felt the problem lay in the software, not the operator. Notice that it involved the slack pup. After this I made the rule: One PC one puppy. I notice some people carry around 'everything' on a single thumb drive. Perhaps this works when everything is on a single (thumb) drive. Certainly BionicPup32 has been very reliable for me on the desk-top. (Except 'Light' (at times) overloads the CPU (or something) and I have a few seconds to kill the process or my computer freezes for a LONG time.

How much experience do I have with software? In the past I coded in assembly language. This work included a low-level language, a text editor, device drivers (for a floppy drive) and (after that) programs in the low-level language. So - not a lot of experience, but enough to understand the general nature of software and typical problems between the physical and logical (software) environments. OK. I am writing about a distraction. I return to the main topic.

Now I have to find out why Puppy (at one time) allowed me to put the 'save' file on sda3 and now offers only sdd1' - the thumb drive as the place to write my save file. And yes! sda3 IS mounted.

I don't understand this problem.

All the best.

Leslie

---------- a personal note about files on a thumb-drive ---------
---------- i include this to illustrate the point that 'weird things happen ----

OK - I cannot believe this!

Yesterday I worked on text files (and more) on a thumb-drive.

I shut the system down for the evening.
Next morning (Wednesday) I booted my PC and "opened" Geany and (after that) clicked on the file of interest (Essay_5.txt). Nothing. OK. Drive is not mounted. We all do that sooner or later. Inserted the thumb-drive in a slot in the 4-slot USB extension and clicked on the drive icon.

Bingo! I see something like the ROX file manager (probably is the ROX file manager) but Essay_5.txt is not displayed. Bugger! I have lost everything. Bugger, bugger, bugger. (I only say that when things are very bad.)

Thinking, thinking, thinking .....

So - I closed everything then re-booted my (very old) laptop.
Joy of joys - and great alarm at the same time.
Every file I worked on yesterday is NOT THERRE.

Now Puppy (and Linux) are reliable systems.
I cannot believe the file appeared to be absent - and later it was found.

My system:
Laptop Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
Product Name: Inspiron 8600

Motherboard Vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
Product Name: 0D2465

BIOS Vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
Version: A14
Release Date: 06/30/2005

Distro: Slacko Puppy 6.3.2
Window Manager: JWM v2.3.2
Desktop Start: xwin jwm

Development:
Bash: 4.2.53
Geany: 1.25
Gtkdialog: 0.8.4
Perl: 5.18.1

Memory 2GB. External kbd, Mouse, 4-port USB drive.

[davids45]

G'day Leslie,

I have noticed that on my desktop, USB drives can change their lettering if more than one is used - my USB 1TB backup drive can be sdc or sdd or even sde if I've just used other thumb drives on a Pup for the same session.

But your fun&games sound like a failing hardware somewhere - as you say, Puppies are almost absurdly reliable once up and running, except for the savefile/folder.

Do you backup just before shutting down? Or even a few times during your session as a test record? I'd be curious to know if your save-folder is actually the same-ish each day of your ongoing problems.

Puppies generally have the (old) Hot-Pupsave-Backup (in the Utility menu) and there's a current re-write also you may find helpful or worth a try:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 24#1050224

I don't have much/any experience running via a USB so apologise if my comments are inappropriate to your situation.

Good luck anyway.

David S.

[LNSmith]

Hello David_S45, enrique, Big-pup (and others):

First - my main problem is solved. My desk-top is working as before - with the correct pup-save etc.

THE SOLUTION. (my solution - I think others may find a better solution)
First Big-pup said: Don't try to 'rescue' the drive with both the Bionic Pup and the Slack Pup on it. So I installed the Bionic Pup on a freshly formatted drive. Standard procedure - no hiccups. I ran this - several times - RAM only - no save-file. Using a belt and braces strategy I made one million copies of the save-file and scattered them around like the leaves of autumn.

THEN I closed down the Bionic Pup and created the 'save' file.
The problem: My earlier save file was on sda3 and now the puppy would only offer sdd as the destination for the save-file. In the end I accepted that - but I would prefer the rotating disk, sda. Sigh.

Then - boot (RAM only) and exchange the 'new' save-file and the 'real' save file and exit. Again - I did not disturb the 'real' save file by writing (creating) a new file. (I suspect this has been done many times). Then - boot normally and voila! The 'real' save file is there - working as before. Joy, happiness, contentment, smiles.

WHAT I OBSERVED.
Whilst in the process of installing the Bionic Pup to a new (fresh) thumb drive I saw sdd and sde swap designation. Literally. d <=> e. I won't say more than this and I won't describe what I saw. Except to say it involved the location of the OS files and where I was told they were going and where I found them.

THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM.
All this began (I will remind you) when I tried to install Slack-puppy from an ISO. I ended up with to OS files on a single drive - the original thumb.
I kept the original thumb - untouched. It has both Slack and Bionic Pups on it. If some-one has a serious interesting in chasing the problem - I'll help. I'll even donate the drive itself - but (to give my opinion) I don't think the problem can be solved away from the bios in this desk-top.

Finally - if this problem arose in Windows, I'd be snookered. With 'the Puppy' - I have a little pain and then JOY! This OS works well enough with a P4 and 2GiB of RAM. Puppy is great!

All the best - especially to those who helped with the problem.
Now I have a box of thumb-drives I must re-format and organize.
Wish me luck everybody.

Leslie

[bigpup]

NOTE:
I wrote this before I saw your last post.
If you make this pmedia= change.
You only want one correctly named save on any of the other drives on computer. If there are a bunch of the same named saves on different drives. Who knows which one it will select to use.

It will always look first on the drive you are booting from.
If no save, it will start searching other drives.
So, you will have to rename or remove the save on the USB, to get the boot process to check other drives for the save.

As my signature statement says.
What you do not tell us is the clue.

Now that I know you have the old save on a completely different drive and that old save is the one you really want to be using, with this new install.

I need to know for sure what boot loader is being used to boot the USB install of Bionicpup32.
Can you post an image of what is on the USB, so I can see what files are there.
I can probably figure out what config file to look into.
It could be one of these:
grub.cfg
menu.lst
isolinux.cfg
or maybe something else.

The config file, for the boot loader, is going to have the pmedia= command in the entry that boots the USB.

pmedia=usbflash tells the boot process to only look on the USB for Puppy save file/folder.
Also, that the USB is the only place to put the save when it is made.

pmedia=cd will tell the boot process to look on all drives for the save and should make it possible to make a save on some other drive.

So, you need to change the pmedia= to pmedia=cd.

You say you made a new save and it is on the USB. The old save is on sda3.
Both probably have the exact same name.
To keep the new save on the USB from being used.
Just add bak. to the beginning of it's name, by using rename option in Rox right click menu.

If the boot loader config file has pmedia=cd and the only correctly named save is on sda3.
The save on sda3 should now be used at boot up.

[bigpup]

WHAT I OBSERVED.
Whilst in the process of installing the Bionic Pup to a new (fresh) thumb drive I saw sdd and sde swap designation. Literally. d <=> e. I won't say more than this and I won't describe what I saw. Except to say it involved the location of the OS files and where I was told they were going and where I found them.

Are you using a USB installer program to do these installs?
If yes.
What program?

[LNSmith]

Hello Big-pup:

Your "Q" Are you using a USB installer program to do these installs?
If 'yes'. What program?

The answer is 'yes'. In the past I used bash/dd, but not here.
The program: Over the last two days I used uPupBB32 (the bionic beaver) and both 'bootflash installer' and 'puppy installer' from Applications > Setup > (and the application).

First: at times my attempt to create a boot-able disk fails because I choose an incompatible combination of hardware and hardware. To be specific: There is the PAE no-PAE conflict. I haven't figured this adequately yet. (I know the answer is on the forum. I only have to find it.)

Second: made the following note while installing Slack puppy. It may lack detail. Bootflash to USB. (- This is clearly the application "Bootflash Puppy to USB" from the "Applications" button (lwr LH corner of screen) -)
Then: UEFI + Slack (this will identify the iso used 6.3.2-UEFI
Another comment: "used first UEFI menu" Legacy bios" (This clearly indicates my mind did not understand the conflict between legacy and UEFI).
The hardware: swivel 4GiB USB thumb.
The target hardware: Dell 600M. (I think 600M lacks PAE)
The final comment: Result. Not a boot-able disk.

---- next ---
After that I have only a very cryptic note: Added legacy boot => failed.
On my paper, the words above are immediately below the procedure described above. This suggests I tried a minor variation of that procedure and whatever I did failed.
I will post the words above and make a second posting. In it I will describe (more accurately) another procedure I used. (I kept a fairly good record of my work)


Leslie
[/quote]

[LNSmith]

Hello Bigpup:

Your "Q": Are you using a USB installer program to do these installs? If 'yes'. What program?

In answer to your "Q": I provide a note I made while installing Linux/Puppy on a 2GiB swivel drive.

Date: 20-05/11. trial installation.
Formatted drive as 1 partition FAT32 (using) gParted. 1899MiB. flags > boot + lba.
Installed using: Puppy installer/universal installer.
Device = USB flash drive. Not USB hard drive. Not internal drive.
(- comment. Here I indicate the button used to select the drive. I am triple-checking my method. This is because the previous method put a SECOND puppy on my boot-drive. Yikes! The boot-drive was NOT intended as the destination! Sigh -)

This instance sde = 1GiB. (- here you can see I pay attention to the target drive.-)
I skipped use of gParted (- offered by the application - I used it at the beginning -)
(- However I remember checking the size of the partition to confirm I was not clobbering another drive.
I always check. You know why. -)
Then: "install Puppy to sde1" <click!> <confirm> (- tick next to confirm -)
then: select default - JUST KEEP GOING!
See: Absolute Sanity Check. <enter>
Drive was/is clean so: <enter> (- i.e. don't scrub files on the drive -)
Message displayed by bash/CLI "making sde1 bootable" + ....
See mnt sdd1 (- then my comment: what is going on? -)
So - what happened? (- comment in my hand-written note, clearly to myself. -)
(- then my answer - again to myself -) The Bionic Pup was copied from sdd1 - the boot drive - to sde1 - the target drive.
(- again, that's my observation - to myself.-)
Then the "Q": Does uPupBB32 boot? Ans: Not on Mobius. (- that's my desktop box; the box I used for the installation -)
Then: Missing OS. (- so ... I think the bootloader sector is missing.)
At that stage I switched the 'good' thumbdrive used during the installation process and the 'bad' (non-booting) thumbdrive.
I re-booted my desktop box and made a cup of "t". Great stuff, tea.

A few words of explantion: I have 5 lap-tops and two desktop towers. Mobius (P4 work-horse. Reliable. year 2005).
Forget the second desk-top. I use it when the sky falls in. One laptop: Toshiba P840 is a recent acquisition. I installed the 64 bit Bionic Pup on a USB thumb drive. Worked nicely. Toshiba #2. Broken. Will not discuss.
Laptops 2/3/5. All Dell machines. 8600/5150/600M. I want to get each machine going nicely and I will give these away.
That's why I'm running thru this exercise of installing Linux. (Oh, I have one other laptop at the Uni, but that is 'out of bounds' at the moment. It's the year of Covid19 - as we all know. This machine is a real wreck. Missing keys on the kdb (etc) but ... with Puppy and an external keyboard it boots and runs MUCH better than with Windows. Happiness is having your own Puppy ...)

OK. sorry for the profusion of words. As a teenager I spent hours practicing scales/argeggios/Bach. The result? I type quickly.

Some additional comment, again about installing puppy. Some-one on the forum wrote about USB drives that failed to 'take' puppy. I was interested in what he wrote. I bought a handful of 'rubbish' drives from eBay and experimented with the installation process. WARNING: Do not buy unbranded drives. Only buy USB drives from a recognizable shop. Here in Australia I buy from 'Australia Post'.
I down-loaded ALL the puppies (xenial, super-lucid, bionic ....) and used Windows + Nero_burning to make bootable CDs. I put the CDs in a box marked 'master disks'. Then I used the puppy installer (applications + setup + Puppy Installer) to install puppy on these flash drives. I did this for two (2) days. The process (the method) worked well - except some drives got so hot I couldn't hold them in the palm of my hand. Using a magic process called 'crushing' I put these little suckers in the vyce and turned the handle. After that they found (by a process called 'magic') the way to the trash. NOTE: What is stored on a flash-drive is many times more valuable than the initial cost of the drive. Buy ONLY trusted types of thumb-drives.

I found some drives that would not boot from a newly-installed Puppy - specifically Toshiba.

All the best.

Leslie

[Sky Aisling]

Good for you Leslie for sticking with the issue.

In regard to putting a Puppy on a flash drive, I find these two methods to work well.

You might want to take a look at them for the next time you are considering putting Puppy on a stick.

rcrsn51's 'How to Make a Bootable Flash Drive using ISObooter'

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67235

YAPI posted by Bigpup

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 7&t=107601

rcrsn51 gives clear and accurate instructions.
YAPI is simple to use.