OS Prober does not find PuppyLinux --SOLVED

[pgmer6809]

I have an old computer running Xubuntu, 64bit, 2GB RAM. I used the Puppy Bookworm 10.0.8 ISO to install Puppy to partition #3 on an MBR disk.
During the install I was asked for a directory name, which I gave as Puppy10.
When I was askied if I wanted to install a boot loader, I said no, as I did not want to break my current setup. I thought I could just run update-grub from within xubuntu and it would create a grub entry using os-prober.
But Os-prober, which finds the other OS's on the system, cannot find Puppy.

I tired manually creating a menu entry in my current grub.cfg file, but that did not work and I had to revert to the backup copy of grub.cfg, to get my ssytem to boot at all.

How should i proceed to create a menu entry in grub.cfg, that will boot Puppy?

Solved:
Using the example provided and the explanation of how 40_custom works I was able to create a menu entry and boot Puppy from my usual grub menu.
Thank you all.
pgmer6809

[williwaw]

welcome pgmer6809

if you search this section of the forum, you can find some puppy examples for adding to /etc/grub.d/40_custom in your Xubuntu install.
https://askubuntu.com/search?q=%2Fetc%2 ... F40_custom

placing it in /etc/grub.d/40_custom will make it persist when Xubuntu makes edits to grub.cfg

if you need help coming up with a menu entry. the best place to ask is in the user section, as you will get more views there, this being a tutorial section.

[wizard]

@pgmer6809

Here's an grub.cfg entry example for Puppy, you need to edit for your system.

Code: Select all

menuentry 'Dpup 10.0.3 (sdb2/bw64)'{
  search --no-floppy --set=root --fs-uuid ae0d9f5b-103d-48d8-83f5-167e59ec3cc0
  linux /bw64/vmlinuz    psubdir=/bw64 pmedia=usbflash pfix=nocopy,fsck
  initrd /bw64/initrd.gz
}

wizard

[mikewalsh]

@pgmer6809 :- Hallo.....and to the "kennels".

Oh, boy. If I had a quid for every time this has been asked over the years I'd be a rich man by now.... You're not the first to ask it, and I seriously doubt you'll be the last.

Because of the fact that Puppy does a lot of things in its own unique way, and doesn't fit the "stereotype" of every 'mainstream' distro out there, not one of them is EVER going to 'find' or even 'see' Puppy in the way that 'standard' Grub2 expects to do so. Grub2 is coded to expect to find a standard 'full' installation written to its own dedicated partition. If it doesn't, it doesn't freak out, it simply ignores it.....in very much the same way that Windows ignores any Linux-formatted partition because it's not written to 'see' it. Not without special 3rd-party tools, anyway.

Use the example provided by m'colleague @wizard , modifying it to suit your own use-case. He knows what he's talking about, that man; he's had many years of experience with such things! You'll not go far wrong.....and we can of course advise further if additional assistance is required.

Keep us posted, please. Over to you...

Mike.