Need help installing Puppy on a low-RAM laptop
Need help installing Puppy on a low-RAM laptop
Ok. I have a Pentium III Laptop currently Can but doesn't run Windows 98 So I decided hey why not install linux on it so I got the ISO and burned it and it started up well enough but it was SLOW and laggy and whenever I tried to put it on the hard disk it said "Error incompatable Partition" or something to that affect, As currently I do not have access to Windows 98 becuase something is strange with it I can't check which file system it uses/create a partition. Any advice? (I know it doesn't use the NFTS partition as it is win98) It also has REALLY low RAM so it in Ram can't help me much.
It will be helpfull if you list your specs: Pentium III speed?, Ram quantity, maybe laptop brand and model. If you dont know, boot it and look at the screen. If thats not possible, make an educated guess. "It also has REALLY low RAM so it in Ram can't help me much." Did u mean to say 'so running it in Ram..."? That is, did u try running puppy in ram only? "...and whenever I tried to put it on the hard disk..." When you say you tried to put in on the hard disk do you mean you tried to do a 'co-exist'/frugal instal or a full hard drive install? Do u wish to keep Win98? Im asking these questions now because it may help others solve your problem faster.
you may find some helpfull links here in the Index of Resources For Beginner's Forum: [ http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=597 ]
you may find some helpfull links here in the Index of Resources For Beginner's Forum: [ http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=597 ]
Sorry I don't know the speed. Its a Gateway Solo. Yes I mean Running it in RAM if I could just have an auto install into the Hard Drive. Yes I would like to wipe Windows Off of the system. I tried to whenever I turned off my PC it said to Save the settings I pressed enter for the Hard Disk then I got the Invalid Partition error. Im sorry but I don't know the Ram Quantaty however whenever I boot Puppy and it boots fully in the how much RAM is left it says 11.1 MB so Im assuming I don't have much RAM.
Hi Dark;
The model number of the machine would be helpful, it should be on the bottom or printed on inside the lid somewhere.
When you start up the machine, see if there's a message like "Press F2 to enter Setup"... If you don't see the message, just keep hitting F2 until it opens the setup screen. (DON'T screw around with settings unless you are sure what you are doing).
Once in the setup you can see all the specs you need, ie: how much memory, hard drive size, etc.
If you don't have enough ram, it's really going to be dissapointing running puppy on it. How much enough is, kind of depends on other things, like how fast the processor is, whether you put a swap partition on the hard drive, etc., so try to find out these details first.
From what you said, it already booted into ram, (since you mentioned having an option to save when you shut down). This is a good sign.
If you have no desire to have win98 on there anymore... do this.
Boot puppy again.
When you are in puppy desktop, go to control panel and open gparted.
Click on any partitions you find and delete them.
Apply the changes.
Click on the free space and then create two new partitions, the first one will be a swap partition, (you can make this the same amount as the amount of memory your machine has.
The second one will be an ext2 partition, this is where puppy will install to.
Apply changes.
Now go to setup (in puppy menu) and select puppy universal installer.
Install to internal hard drive. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
Near the end, it will ask if you want to install grub, Do it.
Install to MBR when it asks (it will say it might be unsafe... do it anyway)
Remove CD & Reboot.
Now you will have to select the keyboard, video, etc., choices once more.
Done.
Cheers
The model number of the machine would be helpful, it should be on the bottom or printed on inside the lid somewhere.
When you start up the machine, see if there's a message like "Press F2 to enter Setup"... If you don't see the message, just keep hitting F2 until it opens the setup screen. (DON'T screw around with settings unless you are sure what you are doing).
Once in the setup you can see all the specs you need, ie: how much memory, hard drive size, etc.
If you don't have enough ram, it's really going to be dissapointing running puppy on it. How much enough is, kind of depends on other things, like how fast the processor is, whether you put a swap partition on the hard drive, etc., so try to find out these details first.
From what you said, it already booted into ram, (since you mentioned having an option to save when you shut down). This is a good sign.
If you have no desire to have win98 on there anymore... do this.
Boot puppy again.
When you are in puppy desktop, go to control panel and open gparted.
Click on any partitions you find and delete them.
Apply the changes.
Click on the free space and then create two new partitions, the first one will be a swap partition, (you can make this the same amount as the amount of memory your machine has.
The second one will be an ext2 partition, this is where puppy will install to.
Apply changes.
Now go to setup (in puppy menu) and select puppy universal installer.
Install to internal hard drive. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
Near the end, it will ask if you want to install grub, Do it.
Install to MBR when it asks (it will say it might be unsafe... do it anyway)
Remove CD & Reboot.
Now you will have to select the keyboard, video, etc., choices once more.
Done.
Cheers
If you find my posts helpful and you want to say thanks, please consider clicking the www button under my posts to visit my website.
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purple_ghost
- Posts: 416
- Joined: Thu 10 Nov 2005, 02:18
Options.
You can obtain a free Windows 98 floppy boot disk at: http://www.bootdisk.com
Which might help you to look a the partitions that are there. Run Scandisk and thereby be a bit more certain that the hard drive is functioning correctly.
If you want to back up any personal files off of this thing. Now is a good time to think about it.
The problems you had running Windows 98 on this laptop might be the same ones you have in running Puppy. The hard drive partitions might be messed up in some way. Hopefully the hard drive is functional.
As the notes say if you have less than 128 MB of RAM, then to use Puppy one must generally create a swap partition. I am guessing Puppy is looking for a swap partitiion with the message you are getting about wrong kind of partition.
If the computer really has limited RAM I am not sure how you are going to use the Gparted inside of Puppy.
You can also get a copy of the "Universal Boot CD". Which is also free. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
UBCD has some tools to check the integrity of the hard drive. Although running programs from hard drive manufacturers is not the first thing I would worry about. Also has a Gparted of some kind.
If you really have limited memory. Then notes on Boards suggest you might have better luck with "Damned Small Linux" DSL. At least you could use their version of Gparted as the previous poster suggested. DSL may not be so newbie friendly as Puppy Linux. So after you can create a swap partition. You might want to again try Puppy Linux. You can find links to DSL and other versions of Linux at http://www.linux.org
If you can discover the exact specifications of your computer. We might be in a better situation to offer advice. I know Gateway used to have a support resource that where you know the model/serial number of a computer they would tell you the specifications of the computer as it was shipped.
If you remember the DOS commands, (I am trying to forget) you can create partitions on the hard drive with the boot floppy.
Let us know how it works out.
Which might help you to look a the partitions that are there. Run Scandisk and thereby be a bit more certain that the hard drive is functioning correctly.
If you want to back up any personal files off of this thing. Now is a good time to think about it.
The problems you had running Windows 98 on this laptop might be the same ones you have in running Puppy. The hard drive partitions might be messed up in some way. Hopefully the hard drive is functional.
As the notes say if you have less than 128 MB of RAM, then to use Puppy one must generally create a swap partition. I am guessing Puppy is looking for a swap partitiion with the message you are getting about wrong kind of partition.
If the computer really has limited RAM I am not sure how you are going to use the Gparted inside of Puppy.
You can also get a copy of the "Universal Boot CD". Which is also free. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
UBCD has some tools to check the integrity of the hard drive. Although running programs from hard drive manufacturers is not the first thing I would worry about. Also has a Gparted of some kind.
If you really have limited memory. Then notes on Boards suggest you might have better luck with "Damned Small Linux" DSL. At least you could use their version of Gparted as the previous poster suggested. DSL may not be so newbie friendly as Puppy Linux. So after you can create a swap partition. You might want to again try Puppy Linux. You can find links to DSL and other versions of Linux at http://www.linux.org
If you can discover the exact specifications of your computer. We might be in a better situation to offer advice. I know Gateway used to have a support resource that where you know the model/serial number of a computer they would tell you the specifications of the computer as it was shipped.
If you remember the DOS commands, (I am trying to forget) you can create partitions on the hard drive with the boot floppy.
Let us know how it works out.
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Puppynewbie
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 15:23
I too have a Gateway solo, mine is a 2100 that my dad use to have. As for specs, it has 48 mb of ram, 120 processor speed, and an 800mb HD.
I am trying to add 2.13 after having problems with installing 2.10.
I have some partitions I need to remove with Gparted.
The Windows partition is locked in Gparted, I would like to remove that as well and start anew.
Does Puppy want or need a swap partition?
My 2.13 has stalled at Creating unionfs on (/intrd)pup_new (to become '/')...
I posted similiar in a tread I started, but added here as to the old Gateway that purple_ghost mentioned.
I am trying to add 2.13 after having problems with installing 2.10.
I have some partitions I need to remove with Gparted.
The Windows partition is locked in Gparted, I would like to remove that as well and start anew.
Does Puppy want or need a swap partition?
My 2.13 has stalled at Creating unionfs on (/intrd)pup_new (to become '/')...
I posted similiar in a tread I started, but added here as to the old Gateway that purple_ghost mentioned.
Dark, I googled "Error incompatable Partition". 2 results were interesting.
[ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/95634 ]
[ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626 ]
They indicate the laptop may have 1) a certain brand of hard drive, 2) a problem with the Master Boot Record (MBR) which is data on a certain spot on the HD, or 3) the hard drive may be failing or failed. However, please dont give up yet. This may be wrong or fixable or able to be worked around. Puppy linux is very flexible in how it can be used. Even if your HD does prove to be damaged, AND you dont wish to replace the HD, then remember that Puppy doesn't need a HD to run. Many people run it without any hard drive.
The laptop's specs need to be known because they will determine what the next step will be, and how it is done.
Also, 1. does it have a CD BURNER/WRITER?
2. Does it have a USB port or ports?
3. Does it have a Floppy drive? (One of those 'old fashioned' 3.5 inch floppies that you can pop in and pop out).
4. What is the model number and serial number of the machine? (they should be on the bottom or printed on inside the lid somewhere.)(thanx SnowDog & Purple_Ghost)
5. You've stated you don't want the Windows 98 operating system (OS) on it. However, Do you want any of the personal data (letters, music, pictures,) that were on the hard drive?
[ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/95634 ]
[ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626 ]
They indicate the laptop may have 1) a certain brand of hard drive, 2) a problem with the Master Boot Record (MBR) which is data on a certain spot on the HD, or 3) the hard drive may be failing or failed. However, please dont give up yet. This may be wrong or fixable or able to be worked around. Puppy linux is very flexible in how it can be used. Even if your HD does prove to be damaged, AND you dont wish to replace the HD, then remember that Puppy doesn't need a HD to run. Many people run it without any hard drive.
The laptop's specs need to be known because they will determine what the next step will be, and how it is done.
Also, 1. does it have a CD BURNER/WRITER?
2. Does it have a USB port or ports?
3. Does it have a Floppy drive? (One of those 'old fashioned' 3.5 inch floppies that you can pop in and pop out).
4. What is the model number and serial number of the machine? (they should be on the bottom or printed on inside the lid somewhere.)(thanx SnowDog & Purple_Ghost)
5. You've stated you don't want the Windows 98 operating system (OS) on it. However, Do you want any of the personal data (letters, music, pictures,) that were on the hard drive?
Last edited by CatmanDru on Wed 31 Jan 2007, 19:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Puppynewbie
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 15:23
Puppy Newbie,
I'm Putting a link to your thread: [ http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15045 ]
so that others can find your topic, issues, and problems and help you there. Usually this forum allows some mixing of issues and threads. However in this case -- and this is just my opinion -- I think it would be best for both threads to keep them separate. The reasons are that you and Dark have very different levels of knowledge, and mostly different issues. Also I have a lot of difficulty clearly understanding Dark's sentences. That may be just me or because Dark is frustrated. I, personally would like to keep the level of frustration and confusion in this thread to a very low level. I hope you understand and are not hurt, offended or discouraged. I, and maybe others will see you in your thread.
I'm Putting a link to your thread: [ http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15045 ]
so that others can find your topic, issues, and problems and help you there. Usually this forum allows some mixing of issues and threads. However in this case -- and this is just my opinion -- I think it would be best for both threads to keep them separate. The reasons are that you and Dark have very different levels of knowledge, and mostly different issues. Also I have a lot of difficulty clearly understanding Dark's sentences. That may be just me or because Dark is frustrated. I, personally would like to keep the level of frustration and confusion in this thread to a very low level. I hope you understand and are not hurt, offended or discouraged. I, and maybe others will see you in your thread.
To run Puppy on a machine with less than 64Mb RAM it is essential that you have a swap partition on your hard drive. Puppy creates a ram disk of around 67Mb, so 48Mb falls well short. In your case a 128Mb swap should be ample, and leave you with just enough hdd space to be usable.Puppynewbie wrote:I too have a Gateway solo, mine is a 2100 that my dad use to have. As for specs, it has 48 mb of ram, 120 processor speed, and an 800mb HD....[snip]...
Does Puppy want or need a swap partition?
In order to create the swap partition, and delete/edit any other partitions, you need to boot from a GParted cd, rather than trying to use the copy on the Puppy cd. GParted is available from Distrowatch.com, and will boot without major problems on low RAM machines.
Hope that helps
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Puppynewbie
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 15:23
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Puppynewbie
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 15:23
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total moron
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 22:02
- Location: montana, usa
Hi. This is my first time here. I too, have a low ram laptop (specs below) and
can't seem to get far into the universal installer.
"Boot puppy again.
When you are in puppy desktop, go to control panel and open gparted.
Click on any partitions you find and delete them.
Apply the changes.
Click on the free space and then create two new partitions, the first one will be a swap partition, (you can make this the same amount as the amount of memory your machine has.
The second one will be an ext2 partition, this is where puppy will install to.
Apply changes.
Now go to setup (in puppy menu) and select puppy universal installer.
Install to internal hard drive. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
(i'm good to this point). then when it says "choose which drive to install to", it offers
only one "hda HITACHI_DK238A-43, SIZE 4.030 GIB" i click ok on that and
a window pops up offering me only "superfloppy"mode which it doesn't
recommend. no other options though, so i click on that. things go downhill
from there with it telling me there will be no MBR or partitions. i abort at that
point. i'm pretty sure i don't want super floppy mode.
any suggestions would be appreciated. thank you.
can't seem to get far into the universal installer.
"Boot puppy again.
When you are in puppy desktop, go to control panel and open gparted.
Click on any partitions you find and delete them.
Apply the changes.
Click on the free space and then create two new partitions, the first one will be a swap partition, (you can make this the same amount as the amount of memory your machine has.
The second one will be an ext2 partition, this is where puppy will install to.
Apply changes.
Now go to setup (in puppy menu) and select puppy universal installer.
Install to internal hard drive. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
(i'm good to this point). then when it says "choose which drive to install to", it offers
only one "hda HITACHI_DK238A-43, SIZE 4.030 GIB" i click ok on that and
a window pops up offering me only "superfloppy"mode which it doesn't
recommend. no other options though, so i click on that. things go downhill
from there with it telling me there will be no MBR or partitions. i abort at that
point. i'm pretty sure i don't want super floppy mode.
any suggestions would be appreciated. thank you.
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total moron
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 22:02
- Location: montana, usa
Did you "Apply" your partition changes in GParted? If you don't then no changes are written.total moron wrote:sorry, i guess the specs WEREN'T below.
It is a compaq presario 1260 laptop
AMD K6 3D 333MZ 4.3GB 96MB
Go back into GParted and make sure you have the two essential partitions ext2/3 for Puppy and Linux-swap. If they are there, just to be sure reboot your machine with the LiveCD. Then open MUT ("drives" icon on desktop) and check that the new partitions are present.
Finally, go back into your Puppy Universal Installer and try again. You have ample capacity to run Puppy with that spec. 96Mb RAM is heaps. I've run Puppy in 32Mb RAM with a swap partition!
When installing the Grub bootloader, make sure you accept all of the defaults EXCEPT to choose load from MBR instead of Root of the partition.
Hope that helps
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total moron
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 22:02
- Location: montana, usa
whodo....i did click on the apply. when i checked mutt they did NOT show
up my problem seems to be in using gparted. getting cross eyed now so
time for bed. I did run a complete format on this laptop as i intend to use
puppy only. can you tell me exactly what partitions should show up if
i finally do it right? just need the basic ones including swap.
also while reading thru the wiki and help files, i saw where i would need
dos disks. is that so? does puppy need dos in order to run?
both puppy and dsl run great on live cd, but i do prefer puppy.
thanks for the input.
old coot in montana usa
up my problem seems to be in using gparted. getting cross eyed now so
time for bed. I did run a complete format on this laptop as i intend to use
puppy only. can you tell me exactly what partitions should show up if
i finally do it right? just need the basic ones including swap.
also while reading thru the wiki and help files, i saw where i would need
dos disks. is that so? does puppy need dos in order to run?
both puppy and dsl run great on live cd, but i do prefer puppy.
thanks for the input.
old coot in montana usa
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total moron
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 22:02
- Location: montana, usa
Which version of Puppy are you running?total moron wrote:I did run a complete format on this laptop as i intend to use puppy only. can you tell me exactly what partitions should show up if i finally do it right? just need the basic ones including swap.
also while reading thru the wiki and help files, i saw where i would need dos disks. is that so? does puppy need dos in order to run?
both puppy and dsl run great on live cd, but i do prefer puppy.
When offering only Superfloppy mode, that tells me that Puppy only sees a FAT partition.
You should have the following partitions:
primary ext2: as big as you like but leave room for swap partition
primary linux-swap: 256Mb max. and not less than 192Mb in your case.
If installing to hard drive, I have found most success with Puppy 2.02CE and 2.13 rather than Puppy 1.09CE, which just doesn't like me!
Use the Puppy Universal Installer and choose NORMAL install, not COEXIST. Follow the prompts. It should show you /dev/hda1 by default in the partition to install to. It won't show you the swap partition because it "knows" it can't install to swap space.
Hope that helps.
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total moron
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 22:02
- Location: montana, usa