HowTo Boot Puppy directly from ISO by using SuperGRUB2 (SG2D)

[Clarity]

No need to Frugal again. No need to write a CD/DVD again. Users do NOTHING except download their Puppy ISO files to a "BOOTISOS" folder that a user creates somewhere on his permanent or removable media. Just keep all your ISOs to that folder. There is no need to worry about contiguous files; thus your filesystem where your folder resides can be any MAC/MS/Linux filesystem!

Seems all new 64bit PUPs & PeeBee's PUPs boot via SuperGRUB2 directly. Again, Users do NOTHING.

There is ONLY 1 single requirement done ONLY once!

• You, only once, create the bootable SuperGRUB2 (SG2D) disc/disk from its 15MB ISO for CD/DVD or its IMG for USBs.

• Whenever you boot the SG2D USB/DVD/CD that you created, SG2D will list the ISOs it finds in /BOOTISOS for you. From that list, choose one. Your PC will boot the one you chose.

SuperGRUB2 (SG2D) is found here.

STEPs explaining Howto:
Your single requirement is to make EITHER a SG2D disc or make a SG2D USB:

1. Steps for CD/DVD disc

   1. Download a SuperGRUB2 ISO

   2. Burn the ISO to CD/DVD

   3. Create a folder, "/BOOTISOS", on any drive you have

   4. Put any modern PUP or DOG ISOs in that folder

   5. Shutdown your PC

   6. Boot the PC, selecting the DVD as the boot device

   7. Hit the Enter key when SuperGRUB2 opens

   8. Wait...wait...for the screen output’s menu with your ISOs listed

   9. Scroll to the bottom of the screen output’s menu

   10. Select an ISO

   11. Your selection will boot

   .

2. Steps for USB sticks

   1. Download a SuperGRUB2 IMG

   2. Burn the IMG to USB

   3. Open the 2nd partition of the USB created: Notice the /BOOTISOS folder

   4. Put any modern PUP or DOG ISOs in that folder. (See bottom of this post for an important "Note" on the USB 2nd partition's size)

   5. Shutdown your PC

   6. Boot the PC, selecting the USB as the boot device

   7. Hit the Enter key when SuperGRUB2 opens

   8. Wait...wait...for the screen output’s menu with your ISOs listedhttps://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?f=156&t=387

   9. Scroll to the bottom of the screen output’s menu

   10. Select an ISO

   11. Your selection will boot

More info was found from this Puppy Developer here.

FD810-desktop.png (129.48 KiB) Viewed 6982 times

Again, Users do NOTHING except download their ISOs to a BOOTISOS folder. SuperGRUB2 is open source with a developer who appears to respond. Users do NOTHING, SG2D does all the heavy lifting.

Happy booting! Boot your PUPs.

Edit1: When your PC boots SG2D you will arrive at a list of bootable ISOs it finds in your /BOOTISOS folder. My list looks like this:

My ISOs found.jpg (66.71 KiB) Viewed 5910 times

.

Edit2: There is an "elegant" guide by @ETP found here

Note:
The 2nd partition is not large enough for modern Puppy Linux ISOs. You will need to expand it. GParted, available in all Linux, is excellent for doing this. You can manipulate the 2nd partition in one of two ways:

1. Just resize it leaving the filesystem format as it is. Add your ISO files to the /BOOTISOS folder.

2. OR, resize it and change its filesystem by reformatting it.
   Changing its FAT32 format to a Linux format, ext2/ext3/ext4, when you exit your Puppy Linux session, Puppy will offer to save into a "Folder" vs only offering to save to a file. Reformatting will delete everything on this 2nd partition. So you must manually recreate a /BOOTISOS folder.

.

[Flash]

What about saving the setup? What happens when you shut down the .iso you booted, then choose it again at the next reboot? Does it return to the same state it was in when you shut down? If so, where does it save its configuration?

[Clarity]

All Puppy operations behave same as if you booted from DVD or Frugal. The booted PUP does everything PUPs have always done. This includes session-management (aka persistence) is the same. I was fascinated to find how simple this was.

Give it a run.

Enjoy

[mikewalsh]

[mention]Clarity[/mention] :-

Question....

Any specific instructions for "burning" SuperGRUB2 to a USB stick? I've tried it with UNetbootin, and this results in an "install" that just goes round and round in circles, restarting the timeout back to 10 every time it reaches 0.....

Wouldn't be so bad if I could actually try this thing, y'know..?


Mike.

[Clarity]

I used Barry's EasyDD. And I also used the Pburn to create both a CD & a DVD as well.

I think few weeks ago, I did use some tool in Fatdog 810, dont remember. (just looking, I have 2 small USB sticks, a DVD, and a mini-CD with this tiny bootable. Seems the DVD only does a 1-2 second rotation and the SG2D Menu in on the boot screen...fast.)

It is a single effort as the USB finds the BOOTISOS folder on my drive(s) with my WOOFCE PUPs and list them for boot. Thus booting either of them behave the same way; that is, it finds the BOOTISOS folder and list eligible ISOs for boot. And it also list any Windose it see, too. And it list ALL of the Ubuntu ISOs I have in the BOOTISOS folder.

P.S. Seems the author appears to help people who contact him on GIT. His projects. RESCUATUX and SuperGRUB2 are open source. And there is a video and there is the link posted earlier from some PUPPY member named @ETP who has tested this.

[mikewalsh]

[mention]Clarity[/mention] :-

Well, I did get it to boot, but.....

Even following all instructions to the letter, it doesn't see anything, doesn't find anything, so won't boot anything. Doesn't work for me.

Thanks, but, er.....no thanks.

(In retrospect, my issue goes deeper than that. The ISOs I want to boot in fact pre-date UEFI, since they're looking for "VESA BIOS extensions".....and with this box being pure UEFI, there is, of course, nothing for them to find.)

I reckon I'm stuck with VMs or emulation.....and that's not how I want to run them. However, to give this a fair trial, I'll see what it can do with some "mainstream" distros.....even though I have no interest in actually using them.


Mike.

[smokey01]

A little while ago I wrote a little scrip using gtkdialog to install Fatdog64 to a USB Flash drive. There are quite a few of these available but I wanted something that was fast, easy to use and non destructive. IOW I wanted to be able to install an OS to an existing flash drive without destroying the existing data on it. This is not designed for multiple distros but with some manual work it's easy to accomplish. It works very well but could do with a bit of tidying up.
The process is: select the ISO then the drive and click on go. It provides a drop down list of available USB drives and only USB drives. You still need to be careful when choosing the drive. By default it will not format a drive but I have included this option for versatility. You may want to use ext? format so you can have a save directory instead of a save file.
It will only work if the ISO is booting with isolinux so most puppies will work. ISO files where the boot files are not at top level and in a directory will not.
Happy to share if anyone is interested.

[Geek3579]

I tried SuperGrub2 but it did not satisfy my requirement for use with persons new to Linux/Puppy Linux. Stickpup/Frugal are VERY good, but it is not exactly what I am looking for.

So I am keen to try anything which is easy to use and safe. Thanks in advance, Smokey01.

[mikewalsh]

Well, now....

SuperGRUB2 appears to work fine.....so long as you're running a mainstream derivative from recent years.

I tried a selection of various "other" distros - I keep a directory of these other distros, in addition to my directory of Puppy releases - and it seems you need to be running mainly a 'buntu-based, or perhaps Slackware/RPM-based "modern" derivative.

It all appears to centre around the need for something called the "loopback.cfg" file; if this is not present, you're on a hiding to nothing. So despite Clarity's claims to the contrary, SuperGRUB2 will not boot older releases without some additional work on the user's part.

There are instructions for how to create one of these on the SuperGRUB site, although it takes a bit of "digging" to find it.....and even then, you need to be au fait with the convoluted, multi-file nature of GRUB2. Personally, I have always found GRUB2 to be overly-complex & bloated for what it does; to my mind, it's been coded by people who seem to love complexity for its own sake.

I was so glad to get away from it when I started with Puppy some 6 years ago; it's just one of the reasons why I've stuck with our favourite canine ever since.

That it works is not in question.....but it's not for me. Personally, I always found Bill's ISObooter a darned sight simpler & easier to use. But that's just me.....this may well work for other people's 'use-case'.


Mike.

[Clarity]

Yes! Correct!

ALL puppy Linux from PeeBee in 2020 boot from their ISOs without issues. FossaPUP64 & Fatdog & couple others PUP ISOs boot without issues. These new PUPs are built with modern PCs in mind; namely Since 2007, over a decade ago, PCs have a variety of changes in hardware and firmware which has occurred. And the Open source community along with the hardware manufacturers has worked together to be as consistent as possible. GRUB2 is one of those open source developments that has kept lock-step, thus a world-wide group benefiting all of us....including Puppy LInux.

It seems that WOOFCE is doing just that, too for all of us. Love it!!

YES! There is a loopback.cfg & grub.cfg consistency required for SG2D and all of the 2020 PUPs I have tested work OOTB. Same abherence is met for all of the Ubuntus I tested along with the PUPs mentioned.

Today, I purposely keep ALL of my ISOs in the BOOTISOS folder on root of one of the local drives.

I boot and all consistent ISOs are present. I load run and at shutdown I save the work in Puppy provided subsystems for saving the session. ALL PUPs, continue, to operate the same as before. ... everything. So now, I no longer copy any ISOs to media for booting the PUPPY as there is no longer any need; thus the ISOs just sit, pristine, in the BOOTISOS folder.

I did try your ISObooter in the BOOTISOS folder. It boots using G4DOS, but, sadly it doesn't work as it has a FAT AND a consecutive block-placement requirement. And there is action required when the BOOTISOS folder is updated with new ISOs. GRUB2 does NOT have a consecutive placement requirement and can operate no matter what format the partitions are. So I can use all of the linux formats as well as MS formats and Mac disk formats. So ISObooter is NOT for me because there is no need to meet that requirement for the PUPs that use GRUB2. Merely download your ISO to the folder and boot. It will be found users just select the PUP they want to boot.

My choice of GRUB2 is almost obvious. GRUB2 is the default bootloader for many public Linux distributions. GRUB2 reads  all current file systems formats. It can boot directly almost all OSs, while also chainloading other bootloaders to boot their OS.

GRUB2 is ALSO useful as its “command line” is BASH-like. This is extremely useful for some obvious reasons as it allows controlling boot steps individually to observe a distro boot behavior...before kernel invocation. You can see the drives connected, plus …. So for me, again, this can be useful.

ALL of my UEFI PCs are current PCs (oldest being 2008) and all, now, are using SG2D to present & boot my downloaded community PUPs I've identified. So, SG2D works to boot all of the PUPs I use.

I only present this thread on the forum as I found it useful for me. Others may also find ease of use, too, all thanks to the efforts of the Puppy developers.

P.S. This thread is NOT encouraging anyone to use current PUPs that I find from the WOOFCE developers. Everyone should exercise their choices. And, there are other boot manager options, I’ve found over last 2 days. But those options are a little more complex as they are much more flexible in liberties they take with UEFI and BIOS. Seems all POSTs starters; namely UEFI and BIOSes are buggy...often updated. BUT most every user does NOT do their PC firmware updates after buying their PCs, so bugs are everywhere. (this includes myself) So we are all trying to use good open-source software (GRUB2) on buggy POST firmware expecting the greatest of results with little understanding of config file needs. WOW! How's that for a combination! (smile )

Enjoy

[williams2]

Complex & bloated for what it does

Mostly, all that any bootloader does is to copy the contents of the vmlinuz file into ram
and to copy the contents of the initrd.gz file into ram.

The bootloader needs to find the files in a file system
and needs to be able to uncompress the vmlinuz file.
I'm not sure if the bootloader or the kernel uncompresses the initrd file, it doesn't really matter.

Then the bootloader starts executing the vmlinuz kernel in ram.
the bootloader is no longer executing at this point, it's job is done.

The kernel finds the raw initrd data and creates a tiny Linux file system in ram
with it's own busybox, and other files it needs. This tiny Puppy Linux finds the sfs files and the save file and mounts them, creating the Puppy file system.

All the bootloader does is copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to ram.
It can do other things, like hide partitions, but mostly all that any bootloader does, is to copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to ram and start vmlinuz executing.

[Overdrive5]

A little while ago I wrote a little scrip using gtkdialog to install Fatdog64 to a USB Flash drive. There are quite a few of these available but I wanted something that was fast, easy to use and non destructive. IOW I wanted to be able to install an OS to an existing flash drive without destroying the existing data on it. This is not designed for multiple distros but with some manual work it's easy to accomplish. It works very well but could do with a bit of tidying up.
The process is: select the ISO then the drive and click on go. It provides a drop down list of available USB drives and only USB drives. You still need to be careful when choosing the drive. By default it will not format a drive but I have included this option for versatility. You may want to use ext? format so you can have a save directory instead of a save file.
It will only work if the ISO is booting with isolinux so most puppies will work. ISO files where the boot files are not at top level and in a directory will not.
Happy to share if anyone is interested.

Hi Smokey, Sounds interesting! I would like to give it a whirl...

[Clarity]

Just found this from a Puppy forum member. Some may gleen a feel for successful use with PUPPY ISOs.

[michel804]

Well, now....

SuperGRUB2 appears to work fine.....so long as you're running a mainstream derivative from recent years.
...

It all appears to centre around the need for something called the "loopback.cfg" file; if this is not present, you're on a hiding to nothing. So despite Clarity's claims to the contrary, SuperGRUB2 will not boot older releases without some additional work on the user's part.

There are instructions for how to create one of these on the SuperGRUB site, although it takes a bit of "digging" to find it.....and even then, you need to be au fait with the convoluted, multi-file nature of GRUB2. Personally, I have always found GRUB2 to be overly-complex & bloated for what it does; to my mind, it's been coded by people who seem to love complexity for its own sake.

Mike.

Hello @mikewalsh and thank you for this clarification.
I am seeing this thread (and Idea) for the first time...
Does it mean that you need a UEFI machine to run SuperGrub2? It seems that is the case, based on what some have said here.

Yes I agree with mikewalsh that GRUB2 is kind of complicated and things get even more complicated when we deal with the UEFI situation. I really really enjoyed using Legacy Grub and the menu.lst, it was so straight forward to me...

In any case, thanks @Clarity for sharing this idea of SGD2, I will try it on my UEFI machine. Will it work on a non-UEFI machine? I have an HP G60 from 2009, I believe.

Thanks all

[Clarity]

Does it mean that you need a UEFI machine to run SuperGrub2?

NO! Look at the site provided above.

If you choose to download the ISO, its only 15MB. And if you create it on a CD/DVD, it boots in 6 seconds on a old BIOS PC.

If you have a folder on your system, preferably on the root of a drive that has a name /boot-isos and it has any 2020 WoofCE PUPs in that folder, when the CD-DVD boots and after you hit the Enter key, they will be found. Then you'll click to boot any ISOs that are there in that folder. All of @Peebee ISOs, for example, work fine. FossaPUP, too.

EVERYTHING you have come to expect in booted PUPs work as always.

SuperGRUB2 merely eliminates any need to create "ISO-generated-media" before Live use. Instead, you merely download the PUP to your /boot-isos folder and then boot any that you have there. Again, the need to generate a USB or DVD from a PUP in not needed anymore. SuperGRUB2 is a presenter of your ISOs for you to select to boot.

Lastly, GRUB2 has been ever-present in our LInux world for 16years. It boots all types of PCs which are crafted around the hardware's POST that every PC starts with. Thus it boots BIOS PCs, EFI PCs, UEFI PCs, etc. It is NOT difficult to either understand or use, since is grew up out of GRUB before that. EVERY major Linux distro uses it, EVERY disk manufacturer contributes to it, and it provides a world-wide wealth of people; namely users and developers, who can answer questions or help ... even here in Puppyland. Just about everyone, except Microsoft users, know of GRUB/GRUB2 and has some understanding of its use.

So merely look at this 15MB ISO as a boot helper. It has NO intent to convert the world. It does help in productivity for some ISOs, like those of modern WoofCE PUPs, FATDOG, Ubuntu, etc.

The author is on GIT, like the WoofCE team. I just happened to have found that post by Puppy member @ETP, tested it, and find it very useful for booting my PUPs.

Hope this is clear, userful and helpful
Here's my list of bootables found

My ISOs found.jpg (67 KiB) Viewed 3906 times

[bigpup]

From first post.

Steps for USB sticks

Download a SuperGRUB2 ISO
Burn the ISO to USB

Can you explain in more detail how to burn to USB.

I see posts saying use Easydd or use dd, but no details on how.
How did you get Easydd and use it.
I know dd is going to need a specific dd command line, so give example.

I did it using this dd command
( the actual iso is whatever one you want to use)

Code: Select all

sudo dd bs=1M if=super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s9.iso of=/dev/sdg
sudo sync

The /dev/sdg is the USB stick. Yours could be identified as sda, adb, sdc, sdd, etc......

Note:
I know sudo is not needed Running in Puppy , but it does not hurt to use it.
This is the dd command that was shown to use on the supergrub2 web site help quick install to USB.

Super grub2 boots OK, but the complete USB stick is formatted iso9660 a closed read only format.
Can not add any Puppy iso's to the USB stick to boot them off of the USB stick.

[bigpup]

Does it mean that you need a UEFI machine to run SuperGrub2?

If you get the hybrid iso of supergrub2.
It has what is needed to boot on a UEFI or a legacy bios computer.
So, it boots on any computer.

I noticed on my UEFI computer boot device selection screen.
It lists the USB stick twice.
One is UEFI boot device.
Other is legacy bios boot device.

[fredx181]

Super grub2 boots OK, but the complete USB stick is formatted iso9660 a closed read only format

.
To have a USB read/write:
I downloaded supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip (under "USB Bootable Images") here: https://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/ ... kdownload/
Direct link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/superg ... p/download
Unzip and write to USB with dd (Note: it must be unmounted) :

Code: Select all

dd bs=1M if=supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img of=/dev/sdx

(change sdx to what it is for you e.g. sdb or sdc)

The advantage of this is that it creates 2 partitions FAT32 read/write, the second has already the folder "BOOTISOS" but not large enough, so I used gparted to resize the partition to make full use of the available space (or you can also create a third partition with ext (Linux) filesystem)

Also it's possible to edit /boot/grub/sgd/main.cfg (as it's read/write), for example I have tpup folder (with the Tahrpup files) on the second partition and added entry for Tahrpup at the bottom of main.cfg:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Puppy Tahr in tpup" {
    set root=(hd0,2)
    linux /tpup/vmlinuz pmedia=usbflash psubdir=tpup pfix=fsck
    initrd /tpup/initrd.gz
}

So this way not only you can boot ISO's from "BOOTISOS" (the ISO should have "loopback.cfg" included (the modern Puppies and Fatdog have it, DebianDog not yet, will come)) but also use it to boot "normally", it's very flexible

Fred

[Clarity]

Although this thread is about a service to boot our 2020 PUPs, I must take a moment to THANK the WoofCE team who took it up for our benefit to create a compliant boot feature companion statement in their GRUB2-EFI support!

Without their efforts to make it easy for us, we would not be able to enjoy this enhancement to Puppy Linux use! They have enhanced our productivity with a simple addition in WoofCE.

I am sure they may even simplify this further in WoofCE as we continue our Linux march into new hardware and new approaches.

Thanks WoofCE team! And ALSO THANKS to the 2 DOG teams who, too, have contributed to make our lives simpler with their additions for booting DOGs.

[michel804]

Does it mean that you need a UEFI machine to run SuperGrub2?

NO! Look at the site provided above.

If you choose to download the ISO, its only 15MB. And if you create it on a CD/DVD, it boots in 6 seconds on a old BIOS PC.

If you have a folder on your system, preferably on the root of a drive that has a name /boot-isos and it has any 2020 WoofCE PUPs in that folder, when the CD-DVD boots and after you hit the Enter key, they will be found. Then you'll click to boot any ISOs that are there in that folder. All of @Peebee ISOs, for example, work fine. FossaPUP, too.

EVERYTHING you have come to expect in booted PUPs work as always.
....
Hope this is clear, userful and helpful
Here's my list of bootables foundMy ISOs found.jpg

Thanks @Clarity for this detailed explanation. I will look for a spare usb flash drive to test the SuperGrub2 and I will report later on my progress. I also need to do some reading as well.

[Clarity]

I also need to do some reading as well.

This is really pretty simple.
Download it, make a CD/DVD or USB (both of these boot in 3 seconds). That's it.
Add your 2020 PUP ISOs to your folder "/BOOTISOS" or use the enclosed one on the USB.

Whenever you 3 second boot to the start Menu, and hit the enterkey:

• Wait sometimes a minute, and all boot options found by SG2D will be presented for your selection.

I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Enjoy!
BTW: Here's a wiki that should shorten your research considerably. Worked for me.

[wiak]

All the bootloader does is copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to ram.
It can do other things, like hide partitions, but mostly all that any bootloader does, is to copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to ram and start vmlinuz executing.

Re-posted my comment (which became greatly expanded) here:

viewtopic.php?p=4033#p4033

[oui]

all that is good an interesting but as long each puppy start with tons of little windows disturbing the user will the direct start from iso not be really comfortable because of Puppy itself! Same thing with quitting windows...

it is absurd...

as I often change my actual Puppy finding fun to try what the developers present us, I will and can't use some save file.

I know that a lot of other puppyist also often change and test lot of Puppy's.

I found diabolic to install windows not erasing themself after 5 second delay for question or information having to be in a menu item under System / Setup or Utility

[dellus]

I have some puppies installed as frugals together with Windows XP on an older BIOS computer via Grub4dos. I have tested SuperGRUB2 and are quite enticed about the ability to test newer puppies directly from the iso without a lot of fuzz. To spare me to have to put in a cd or an usb stick to boot SuperGRUB2 I would like to be able to boot it just like the puppies. Can it be installed at the same place, how to do it, or can a Puppy be made of it?

[mikewalsh]

I was thinking of giving this a try to - yet again! - get HaikuOS running. Some of you may be aware, others not, that this is based on the abandoned BeOS operating system from the late 90s/early 'noughties'. Running from USB is the recommended method for trying it out.

I've never had any luck getting this to boot before. I eventually ended up using the "dd" command to write the ISO direct to a 16GB SanDisk Cruzer 'Fit'. At long last.....success!

Posting this from the HaikuOS 'WebPositive' browser, right now.

Mike.

[user1111]

I have some puppies installed as frugals together with Windows XP on an older BIOS computer via Grub4dos. I have tested SuperGRUB2 and are quite enticed about the ability to test newer puppies directly from the iso without a lot of fuzz. To spare me to have to put in a cd or an usb stick to boot SuperGRUB2 I would like to be able to boot it just like the puppies. Can it be installed at the same place, how to do it, or can a Puppy be made of it?

I use a different approach to booting iso's. I have a minimal 'puppy' (Fatdog cli based kernel/busybox, built specifically for my hardware, so very small (5MB)), that includes kvm/qemu options. So with that booted I can qemu boot whatever iso's I have stored - potentially multiple instances (Puppy's) running at the same time.

My qemu boot line is

Code: Select all

QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa qemu-system-x86_64 -soundhw ac97 \
-vnc :10 -monitor pty -k en-gb -smp 2 -boot d \
-net nic -net user,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
-machine type=pc,accel=kvm -cpu host -enable-kvm -m 2000 \
-usbdevice tablet \
-cdrom $ISO &

i.e. that ISO parameter is set to point the the .iso to be booted.

By default I'm using user-mode network qemu as that provides good separation/isolation albeit at some performance cost. Each of the family can run in separate 'guest wifi' areas (their own dedicated SSID) so by default firewalled/isolated from each other, excepting whatever sharing might be set up such as sshfs mounting of folders ...etc. Or log into the same SSID and share the same 'desktop' view/control (two laptops can for instance 'fight' over control of the mouse/keyboard ).

[dellus]

@rufwoof: I am not a coder, that qemu stuff is way beyond my horizon, but thanks anyway for your answer. I have managed to make a bootable usb of supergrub2 using easydd on Barry's Easypup and will leave it this way. I have made and used a cd before which was a familiar procedure for me. USB booting feels quicker.

[johnrpm]

This looks excellent for later puppies, but I wanted to try 4.3 on an old bit of kit, so without the loopback.cfg nothing was listed, found bill's isobooter and it works well, once the usb stick is prepared, for me its simply a matter of replacing the iso on the stick and rename it to linux.iso, now have puppy 4.3 frugal installed, which is a lot faster than wary, at least on my ancient compaq tablet.
Puppy is fantastic for keeping old hardware running, but still requires a fair amount of trial and error to match the hardware to the kernel to get a reasonably quick system, It would be wonderful if a script could interrogate and suggest a suitable kernel, maybe a big ask though.

[Clarity]

Hi @johnrpm

The PUP developers have put together an outstanding boot mechanism which has proven itself for over a year. The methods that ship with the 2020-2021 PUPs should work on either BIOS or UEFI PCs. The loopback.cfg they put there is a part of the GRUB2-EFI boot system and it works, either in standalone mode, frugal mode, or via SG2D.

This thread provides steps in its opening post that work. With it, you should see all of the PUP ISO in the /boot-isos folder that YOU created and added ISOs to it.

Question
Did you have problem with it not working for you? If so, would you post what happened, please.

Thanks in advance of your sharing what problem(s) you ran into. You should not need to modify any of the 2020-21 PUP's boot process to boot those ISOs found in your folder.

[johnrpm]

Here is a link to isobooter for those interested, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67235

I think my problem was due to the age of the hardware, 2005-2007 era, I do not have it with me at present so can not get specs, I took it out of the scrap bin many years ago but is well made and just keeps working, can not bring myself to throw it away.

I created the usb OK and the bootisos folders in various places but non of the iso files were found, this hardware predates uefi with bios only, I really wanted to try
4.31 as it has a good reputation, It is more than possible that I did not do things properly and may well be my fault that it did not work.