Questions about partitioning for a full install.

[peasthope]

Hi,

In a full installation, does the system use only one partition?
Does it use a swap part? A home part?

A google search found nothing helpful.

Thanks, ... Peter E.

[peasthope]

P.s. if partitioning is discussed somewhere, please give a link.

Thx, ... P.

[Phoenix]

A full installation only uses one partition, although depending on the system you may need to place some files in another partition. (UEFI requires booting via efi binaries and looks for a FAT partition with an esp flag). If puppy finds that your RAM is too little it will advise you to create a swap partition/file.

[bigpup]

Puppy only needs one partition to install on.

The computer, may need a separate boot partition, for the boot loader to use, to boot the computer.

Forget the idea of what is normally a full install in other Linux Operating Systems.

The best install of Puppy is a frugal install.
Frugal is what we call it, but it is still the complete Puppy OS, just installed in a special way.
Puppy is designed to work as a frugal install.
Some features only work in a frugal install.

Basically, all the files in the Puppy iso are placed in a directory(folder).
A boot loader is installed and boot menu entry is made, to boot it.

To really give you specific advice on how to do a frugal install.
It depends on exactly what is the computer setup and what you want to end up with.
What is the computer?
Make and model?
Is some other operating system on the computer?
If yes.
What OS?
Do you want, only Puppy Linux, on the computer, or duel boot, with Puppy, and some other OS, also on computer.

Have you already put some version of Puppy, on a boot-able CD or USB, that you can run the computer with.
If yes.
What specific Puppy version.
Best to use installer programs in Puppy to do installs.

[peasthope]

bigpup » Sat Jan 22, 2022 2:26 pm
> Puppy only needs one partition

Good. Thx.

> may need a separate boot partition, for the boot loader to use

OK, thanks.

> The best install of Puppy is a frugal install.

OK, thanks.

> What is the computer?

Sharp Mebius, PC-CB1-M1.
https://jp.sharp/support/mebius/spec/pc_cb1_m1.html

The Japanese keyboard has 85 keys. QWERY alphabet marked. Some
non-alphabetic characters in unfamiliar locations. A Japanese keymap
works except that I haven't found how to type "\".

352 MB memory.

> Is some other operating system on the computer? What OS?

Currently Debian 11.1. Not essential; can be removed.

> Do you want, only Puppy Linux, on the computer, or duel boot, with
> Puppy, and some other OS, also on computer.

Debian works. Puppy might be better. I don't know. Dual boot not
necessary. One system will suffice.

Definitely no duel. =8~) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/duel

> Have you already put some version of Puppy, on a boot-able CD or
> USB, that you can run the computer with.

No.

Thanks, ... P.

[bigpup]

Will the computer boot from an operating system on a USB flash drive?
If yes.
Putting the Puppy version, you want to use, on a USB, and booting the computer with it.
Everything you need to do, can be done from that Puppy, running from a USB drive.
Installers in Puppy Linux, know how to do the different ways of installing Puppy.

Plus, booting a Puppy version from a USB install, lets you see how you like it, before doing a install to the computer internal drive.

There are several versions of Puppy Linux.
All are slightly different.

[mikeslr]

peasthope: "352 MB memory" Emphasis supplied.

If the above is correct, you're in real trouble. Don't ditch your current system until you know you have a working version of Puppy.
AFAIK, all recent Puppys --frugally installed-- will require at least 512 Mb of RAM just to boot to desktop.
A Full Install was created just for that situation. But, AFAIK, you can't do a "Full Install" to a USB-Key, even if you could boot from it. So, you'll have to boot it from a CD/DVD; or make space for it on your hard-drive. There's no reason to get into the details of booting the Puppy on a hard-drive unless you decide to continue. If so, let us know.
I'm not sure how much RAM a Full Install will required. Never used one, in part because most of the infra-structure built into Puppys to conserve RAM don't apply.

You can ask for recommendations regarding older Puppys. Using older Puppys involves a trade-off. The older they are the less RAM they need. But the older they are the less likely is the ability to find a Web-browser which will provide access to today's graphic-rich Web-sites.
Web-pages are RAM-hogs. There's a special version of Palemoon (a firefox-fork) which can be used with 'old computers'. But even it will 'eat' 256 Mbs of RAM just to open the first web-page and about another 100 Mbs for each additional tab or window. And it will be slooooooow.
There are other web-browsers which don't display graphics. Or, if you intend to not use the Puppy for Web-browsing let us know it's intended use and well recommend some Puppys.

[bigpup]

I would agree, but it is stated that Debian 11.1 is running on this computer.

I am not so sure the stated amount of RAM is correct.

Only way to find out what Puppy would do is try it.

[wizard]

@peasthope

You have a single core 32bit cpu and not much ram. You are limited to using 32bit Puppys.

I have a Compaq Armada P3 500mhz w/448mb ram which is roughly equivalent to your machine. It is running Puppy Lupu 5.28.

As noted above, what kills these computers is the demands of the modern web. If you think this is an interesting project or you just want to experiment, then charge on. You will wind up with a machine that can write a letter, do a spreadsheet, play simple games, listen to local music files or play local video files (maybe in a window).

Your computer has usb ports, but most likely v1.1 so they are slooooooow.

Me doing it, I'd try a couple of things:

1. Install Puppy to a CD, after booting the CD make a savefile and 1gb swap file on the HD
2. If the CD works well use it to reformat or partition (ext3) the HD and install Puppy to it.

You may want to also consider MS Windows XP which runs very well on the Compaq

Good Luck
wizard

Here's the Compaq, Lupu 5.28, running VLC media player, Starwars, 480p mp4 from usb drive.

desktop.jpg (165.29 KiB) Viewed 2022 times

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr :-

peasthope: "352 MB memory" Emphasis supplied.

If the above is correct, you're in real trouble. Don't ditch your current system until you know you have a working version of Puppy.

Mm. Well, I dunno, Mike. That looks about right for the age of the thing.

We bought our ancient Dell Inspiron netbook in Autumn 2001. It too came with 128 MB RAM, a 20GB HDD and a 1024x768 display as standard. Where they differ is in three important details:-

• This has an AMD Duron. K7-architecture.....SSE-only. Ours came with a Northwood-gen Pentium 4; standard instruction set.....SSE2s.

• On ours, the 845 Intel chipset will, I later discovered, support up to 2 GB of DDR1 So-DIMMs. This thing has a god-awful VIA chipset; The ProSavage KN133.

  https://www.viatech.com/en/silicon/lega ... ets/kn133/

  Interestingly, it will support up to 1.5 GB RAM.....but the OP is stuffed, here; because the largest size PC-133 SDRAM SoDIMM you can obtain, anywhere, is only 256 MB (it's the largest size they were ever built in). And there's just ONE spare slot to play with, so.....128MB (fixed) + 256MB = 384MB, of course.....which is exactly what the OP's got.

  My guess is that at the time this chipset was on the market, mobo manufacturers were probably building boards with anything up to half-a-dozen slots, 'cos that's the only way you'd get 1536MB of RAM.....

• And, as wizard guessed, the VT8321 southbridge will only support up to 4 USBs.....at the 1.1 standard. The Intel 845 was the first chipset on the market to support the then brand-new USB 2.0 standard.

--------------------------------------------

In other words, peasthope does NOT have a lot of options to play with. This thing originally came with Windows ME installed.....

https://www.inversenet.co.jp/pclist/pro ... 52DM1.html

*Ouch*.

Mike.

[peasthope]

by wizard Sun Jan 23, 2022 4:37 pm
> You have a single core 32bit cpu and not much ram. You are limited
> to using 32bit Puppys.

Yes, burned a CD with bionicpup32-8.0-uefi.iso.

> As noted above, what kills these computers is the demands of the
> modern web.

A large part of that is JavaScript. With HTML5 many or most Web pages
using JavaScript don't really need need it. For example, a bus
schedule can be presented without JavaScript. Yes, the problem is Web
page design. Not computer design. Not operating system design.

> ... want to experiment, ...

No experimentation necessary. Email works beautifully on all the old
machines I have in working condition. With Debian 11.1 on the Mebius,
J also works well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_(programming_language)
With a bit of effort, email and J will even work on an old 486. =8~)

> 1. Install Puppy to a CD, after booting the CD make a savefile ...

Completed with frugal, according to instructions.

> ... and 1gb swap file on the HD

A swap partition exists already from Debian. Can puppy use it. If so,
please give a link to instructions.

> 2. If the CD works well use it to reformat or partition (ext3) the
> HD and install Puppy to it.

Yes, I'd prefer to install to the HDD and not always need the CD to
boot.

Also, I'd prefer debian/puppy dual boot. I read here.
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=985634

This installation has no /<puppy>/vmlinuz and no /<puppy>/initrd.gz
yet. Installation to the HDD might give those. (?) Please give a
link to instructions to complete a HDD installation. =8~)

Thx, ... P.

[wizard]

@peasthope

On modern pups like bionic32 a "full" install = a frugal install. Since you want to have a dual boot this is what I suggest:

Make a directory on the Debian partition, name it something like: bionic32
Copy these files from the cd to the new directory:
adrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs
fdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs
initrd.gz
vmlinuz
puppy_upupbb_19.03.sfs
zdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs

Edit the Debian grub.cfg file with an entry that points at the Puppy directory. Puppy should find and use your existing swap partition automatically. On first boot you should configure the hardware, then reboot and during shutdown create a save folder.

If you prefer you can put Puppy in its own partition (rec. ext3) but it's not necessary.

Glad to hear you've been able to get the computer to preform the task you want.

wizard

[bigpup]

About the swap question.
When Puppy Linux boots.
If there is a swap partition or swap file, it will be auto found and used by Puppy.
Nothing you need to do, but have one to find.

Enter in a terminal:

Code: Select all

free

This will show all parts of memory used.
If swap is listed. It is active, and will be used, as needed.