How to add Puppy with Linux/GRUB already on hd? (Solved)

[okok]

I am not sure about how the Puppy universal installer works, and I want to install Puppy on a machine already running another OS which I use for work, so I want to be sure about what to do before I start.

The machine currently has another linux distribution + grub, and a free partition, into which I wish to install Puppy.

Will the installer add the necessary lines to the GRUB config file, or should I expect to edit it myself, and if so, how exactly?

[willhunt]

about how the installer works but maybe this thread on grub will help

[cplater]

I've not had much luck using the installer to put puppy on a linux system and have done it manually, a process I am comfortable with. First you need a place to put the boot files. On my system, I have a FAT32 partition on the linux drive to make it easier to transfer files to Windows and Puppy is quite happy there. My winfat32 directory looks like this from slackware:

Code: Select all

drwxr-xr-x  3 cplater users       8192 2005-12-16 11:56 Recycled/
drwxr-xr-x  3 cplater users       8192 2005-12-16 11:56 System Volume Information/
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users          0 2006-08-13 03:46 idehd*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users    1273954 2006-08-13 03:45 initrd.gz*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users 1609801728 2006-09-17 13:00 pagefile.sys*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users  185221120 2006-08-13 03:46 pup_202.sfs*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users  268435456 2006-09-16 00:16 pup_save.3fs*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 cplater users    1688197 2006-08-13 03:45 vmlinuz*

You will need to copy initrt.gz, pagefile.sys, pup_202.sfs and vmlinuz from the CD to your destination.

Next I tell grub where to look by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst. Mine looks like this:

Code: Select all

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'.  Fri Dec 16 18:33:01 2005
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hda' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hda.790'.  You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hda.790 of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
#
# Start GRUB global section
timeout 20
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
splashimage=(hd1,0)/boot/grub/grug.xpm.gz


# Linux bootable partition config begins

  title Slackware 10.2-2.6.13
  root (hd1,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.13 ro root=/dev/hdb1 vga=791
  initrd /boot/initrd.gz

  title Windows XP
  rootnoverify (hd0,0)
  makeactive
  chainloader +1

  title Slackware 10.2-2.4.31
  root (hd1,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 ro noinitrd vga=791

  title Puppy 2.02
  rootnoverify (hd1,4)
  kernel (hd1,4)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PFILE=pup_202.sfs PHOME=hdb5
  initrd /initrd.gz

I have 2 hard drives with the first set up for XP and the second for Linux so you will need to figure out your partitions and adjust accordingly.

[okok]

Thank you very much for the information. Now what I have to do it clear to me.

[rcrsn51]

What would the Puppy 2.10 version of these GRUB settings look like?

[cplater]

What would the Puppy 2.10 version of these GRUB settings look like?

pup_202.sfs becomes pup_210.sfs

You will still need to figure out your partitions but that is about it.

[GuestToo]

i don't think Puppy 2.x uses the PHOME and PFILE variables ... my menu.lst file looks something like this:

title = Puppy 2.10
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /initrd.gz

this is for a frugal install

if you want a "normal" option 2 install (copying all the files to a partition), menu.lst will be configured differently

[rcrsn51]

This is exactly what I needed. I wanted to dual boot my Win98 machine but keep using the ramdrive configuration. I put the four core Puppy files in a logical volume and got grub.exe from the Grub4DOS setup. I made a menu.lst file as described above and a small DOS menu in the autoexec.bat file. If I pick Puppy Linux, Grub launches it from the logical volume. Otherwise, Win98 starts as usual.

Now how would you do this on a WinXP machine? Would a line in boot.ini like c:\grub.exe="Puppy Linux" be enough?

[cplater]

i don't think Puppy 2.x uses the PHOME and PFILE variables ... my menu.lst file looks something like this:

title = Puppy 2.10
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /initrd.gz

this is for a frugal install

if you want a "normal" option 2 install (copying all the files to a partition), menu.lst will be configured differently

That makes sense. My original installation pre-dates 2.xx so I just changed what was there and as everything worked I quit while I was ahead.

Now how would you do this on a WinXP machine? Would a line in boot.ini like c:\grub.exe="Puppy Linux" be enough?

I don't use Grub4dos and just have grub installed on what would be my "C:" drive in Windows. No problem loading XP-pro with the above menu.lst section.

[jaxpilot]

if you want a "normal" option 2 install (copying all the files to a partition), menu.lst will be configured differently

what would the option 2 menu.lst look like?

Thanks,
Paul

[GuestToo]

i've never installed Puppy that way, but i think it should look something like this:

title = Puppy 2.10
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1

to boot Puppy installed on hda1, with vmlinuz in / ... if vmlinuz is in /boot, it would be

kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1

and you can add options like acpi=on noapic etc etc

i think this should try to boot a frugal install, but if it doesn't work (because there is no initrd.gz file) it will automatically try to boot the second way:

title = Puppy 2.10 option 1
fallback 1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /initrd.gz

title = Puppy 2.10 option 2
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1