FrugalPup v41, very flexible Puppy frugal installer, supporting i18n

[Governor]

I followed the instructions below

Drive labels are going to depend on number of drives on the computer.
So, you do need to be careful to select the correct drive label, when offered to select.

8<------ snipped------
Instructions up to this point worked fine.

Select the boot button.
Select the location of the frugal install, on the USB stick.
Select the small 300MB partition on the USB stick, as location to install the boot loader. (may need to scroll the selection window)
Select the boot loader type.
UEFI
mbr ->legacy bios boot
both

You can install the UEFI for UEFI computers.
mbr for legacy bios computers.
both, to boot anything. (best option for USB drives installs)

8<------ snipped------
I was unable to install the bootloader to the FAT32 drive, because it does not show up in the dialog box of the Frugal installer.
Do I need an updated Frugal installer?
Would this work as an alternative:
https://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/ ... sk-stable/

Thanks.
PS. Sorry about the unreadable menu titles, but that is not me, they were designed that way.
.

[williwaw]

I was unable to install the bootloader to the FAT32 drive, because it does not show

something did not work fine

unplug all the drives except the one you booted with and the new drive
http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html
e3StickPup will do the formatting for you, just select the correct drive

you should end up with something like......
sdb1 fat32 for bootloader
sdb2 ext3 for fossapup folder

[Governor]

I was unable to install the bootloader to the FAT32 drive, because it does not show

something did not work fine

unplug all the drives except the one you booted with and the new drive
http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html
e3StickPup will do the formatting for you, just select the correct drive

you should end up with something like......
sde1 fat32 for bootloader
sde2 ext3 for fossapup folder

Ok, did that, but what about the boot parameters?

grub.cfg has these settings, but none of the usual boot parms.

Code: Select all

set menu_color_normal='yellow/blue'
set menu_color_highlight='black/cyan'

menu.1st has only this:

Code: Select all

timeout 0
default 0

title grub2
  kernel /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 99#p121699
1. unless specified KLV saves all persistence automatically in /upper_changes
2. RAM2 which allows the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown also written to /upper_changes
3. RAM0 which loads no persistence and does not save. So fresh system after each boot

I'd like to have a choice of the 3 boot methods on screen. How?
Thanks.

[Governor]

I was unable to install the bootloader to the FAT32 drive, because it does not show

something did not work fine

unplug all the drives except the one you booted with and the new drive
http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html
e3StickPup will do the formatting for you, just select the correct drive

you should end up with something like......
sde1 fat32 for bootloader
sde2 ext3 for fossapup folder

Ok, did that, but what about the boot parameters?

grub.cfg has these settings, but none of the usual boot parms.

Code: Select all

set menu_color_normal='yellow/blue'
set menu_color_highlight='black/cyan'

menu.1st has only this:

Code: Select all

timeout 0
default 0

title grub2
  kernel /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img

If it's running it's saving unless you have added a parameter in the kernel command line not too.

There are 3 modes of operation...
1. unless specified KLV saves all persistence automatically in /upper_changes
2. RAM2 which allows the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown also written to /upper_changes
3. RAM0 which loads no persistence and does not save. So fresh system after each boot

If you installed it and the boot stanza that starts it doesn't have a w_changes=RAM0 or the parameter w_changes=RAM2 on the kernel command line it should be saving everything as you go.

It is possible to use normal mode (#1) some of the time and then use RAM2 mode (#2) after that to select when to save a session again.
It is possible to use normal mode (#1) some of the time and then use RAM2 mode (#2) after that to select when to save a session again.

I'd like to have a choice of the 3 boot methods on screen. How?
I have not tried booting with it yet.
Thanks.

[williwaw]

Ok, did that, but what about the boot parameters?.............

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 99#p121699
1. unless specified KLV saves all persistence automatically in /upper_changes
2. RAM2 which allows the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown also written to /upper_changes
3. RAM0 which loads no persistence and does not save. So fresh system after each boot

I'd like to have a choice of the 3 boot methods on screen. How?
Thanks.

frugalpup will provide boot entrys for puppy,
if you want klv boot parameters ask in the klv section

[rockedge]

Lucky for us @wiak has written a script to write valid boot stanza's for KLV called wd_grubconfig.

Place wd_grubconfig in the KLV root file system and run it. The output is on the terminal or saved in grub_config.txt

[Governor]

Ok, did that, but what about the boot parameters?.............

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 99#p121699
1. unless specified KLV saves all persistence automatically in /upper_changes
2. RAM2 which allows the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown also written to /upper_changes
3. RAM0 which loads no persistence and does not save. So fresh system after each boot

I'd like to have a choice of the 3 boot methods on screen. How?
Thanks.

frugalpup will provide boot entrys for pppy,
if you want klv boot parameters ask in the klv section

I need this for fossapup. I tried the frugalpup install as instructed and, and it didn't work. I posted a screenshot here:
viewtopic.php?p=121744#p121744

I received new instructions and used e3StickPup instead. I have the boot stick, but have not yet tested it. I would like to get the boot menu straight before I boot it.

I want to boot from the thumb drive and load Puppy completely into RAM, and also be certain that nothing gets written to my internal drive or any external drive, at any time without my knowledge or consent (not during boot or at any time afterward).

This is what I would hope to see in a boot menu on my writable drive thumb drive or CD/DVD (not closed/locked media):

1) A choice of a clean boot, which boots from the boot media only without loading any saves, and allows the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown (saves only to the boot media).

2) List the choices of which saves to use (if any are found).
Instead of searching for boot files (saves) on every partition of the internal or external drive, search the current boot media only.

After the above is determined, then the following:
Load the chosen save, or none (for clean boot), and allow the user to save on demand or choose to save at system reboot or shutdown.

My computer has 10,145,308 KiB of memory. And I intend to use a swap file on the NVMe internal drive each time I boot, in case of overflow.

If I want to boot from the internal drive, I will point to it as #2 in the BIOS, and remove the thumb drive, so no need to do boot the internal drive from the thumb drive.

[williwaw]

have not yet tested it

test it and report back what happens (lots of pic please if something fails)
if it works, ask in the klv section if you still want to add the klv parameters (and how to back up your working configs before editing files in the boot partition)

If I want to boot from the internal drive, I will point to it as #2 in the BIOS, and remove the thumb drive, so no need to do boot the internal drive from the thumb drive.

this seems outside the scope of Frugalpup V41
please start a new topic in the approiate section once your frugalpup USB boots

[JusGellin]

I found there seems to be a problem for for a computer that has BookwormPup64_10.0.7 or 10.0.6.
If a USB stick also has BookwormPup64_10.0.7 and is connected to a computer which is booted,
the computer will only boot the USB and not the internal drive.
The following is similar to testing done from another topic to confirm this:
(viewtopic.php?p=129148#p129148)

I verified the results and eliminated the possibility of Ventoy causing the problem.

I'm using qemu that has BookwormPup64_10.0.7 installed directly from the iso.
From this I plugged in a USB stick to make a frugal install on it from BW menu > Setup > FrugalPup Installers > e4StickPup.
Then using this USB stick booted on the laptop, I re-partitioned the internal drive and installed BookwormPup64_10.0.7 by using menu > Setup > FrugalPup Installers > DiskPup

When either the internal drive or the USB is booted up, both show they have GRUB version 2.03 on them.

If I connect the USB to the laptop that has boot order set to internal drive first and USB second and leave it connected, it always boots to the USB.
If the internal drive is selected by the computer's boot menu using its function key on power up, it boots to the USB
If the computer has the feature in its bios to disable the USB boot - it boots to the USB
The only time you can again boot to the internal drive is if the USB is disconnected.
This means that even if the bios has disabled the USB boot, that this can be overridden by plugging in a USB like this. This is a physical security risk.

To make this work like it normally should, I ran the GRUB update patch on the internal drive (see viewtopic.php?t=10028).
This makes the GRUB version 2.06
Now it works properly whether the USB is plug in or not on boot like it should.

If the USB is connected to the computer when it is booted:
If the internal drive is selected, the internal drive boots
If the USB drive is selected, the USB drive is selected.
If the USB drive is disabled, only the internal drive boots.

This happens on all three of my different brand laptops. But I could only make the GRUB update on two of them.
The third one is a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY that has a peculiar 32 bit efi and 64 bit operating system.

[Governor]

I found there seems to be a problem for for a computer that has BookwormPup64_10.0.7 or 10.0.6.
If a USB stick also has BookwormPup64_10.0.7 and is connected to a computer which is booted,
the computer will only boot the USB and not the internal drive.
The following is similar to testing done from another topic to confirm this:
(viewtopic.php?p=129148#p129148)

8<-----snipped

I tried several times and the native Frugal installation did not work for me either.

I have an ext3 partition and I have successfully used e3StickPup. This program seems to work properly and consistently (so far).
http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html

Cheers!