Boot without hdd, nor ssd from flash usb

[nestoribili]

This is a an old PC (Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000) whose sata disk went south. So there is no internal disk. I have antiX on a usb flash drive and also Mageia 8. Both work , but I like the idea of Puppy of using a frugal install and copy everything to memory (9Gb DDR23) and write a save file just once. I wont buy a new hdd!
I have used many of the recommended methods to burn the isos to the usb and just the 32b work and only when I have other usb drive inserted. If just the usb with the frugal install it does not work.
But that does not work with any 64b Puppy I have tried! I just get a Grub4dos prompt! Tab shows a lot of possible commands, but just now I have only tried halt and reboot.
But there should be a way to boot and use a 64b Puppy some way!
So I need the experts to show me what I should do!

[pp4mnklinux]

Hello:

I don't know if this can help you, but to solve this situacion, what I do is the following (consider to do it at your own risk)

You downloaded an ISO with puppy OS, and you are going to use a ISO recorder to burn the image into a USB PENDRIVE.

Now you boot your computer from your USB, and go to the installer and install PUPPY frugally.

When it finish, a grub4dos popup appears, what I do is.......

CLICK on "NO" and a pop up appears with some instructions like....

Code: Select all

 title Puppy Linux BLANCA_04 frugal in sda5 dir blnc19.0304frugal
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /blnc19.0304frugal/initrd.gz
  kernel /blnc19.0304frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=blnc19.0304frugal
  initrd /blnc19.0304frugal/initrd.gz

What you must do is coppy this code, and go to your MENU.LST file (usually is located at SDA1) and paste it there, so when you boot your system you can choose this OS.

Here I copy my menu.lst file... so you can see all the sistems I have installed.

Code: Select all

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 5
default 0

z

# Frugal installed Puppy

title mtn031010   Fossa_USB Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sda5/Fossa_usb)
  find --set-root uuid () 4F1517543D768A3F
  kernel /Fossa_usb/vmlinuz  pdrv=4F1517543D768A3F  psubdir=/Fossa_usb pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
  initrd /Fossa_usb/initrd.gz
  
  title Puppy Linux BLANCA_04 frugal in sda5 dir blnc19.0304frugal
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /blnc19.0304frugal/initrd.gz
  kernel /blnc19.0304frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=blnc19.0304frugal
  initrd /blnc19.0304frugal/initrd.gz
  
 

  title Vanilla Dpup    Puppy Linux - Vanilla Dpup 9.2.18 frugal in sda3 dir vanilladpup9.2.18frugal
#root (hd0,0) <-- GRUB legacy, ex: (hd1,0), etc..
find --set-root uuid () 29abcea7-6a35-473c-b2f3-d47cabbb047e
kernel /vanilladpup9.2.18frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=vanilladpup9.2.18frugal
initrd /vanilladpup9.2.18frugal/initrd.gz
  
  title Tahr Puppy 6.0.7 => Puppy Linux frugal in sda5 dir tahr646.0.7frugal
#root (hd0,0) <-- GRUB legacy, ex: hd1,0
uuid 4F1517543D768A3F
kernel /tahr646.0.7frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=tahr646.0.7frugal
initrd /tahr646.0.7frugal/initrd.gz
  
 title Puppy Linux Blanca 19.03 frugal in sda5 dir blnc19.03frugal
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /blnc19.03frugal/initrd.gz
  kernel /blnc19.03frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=blnc19.03frugal
  initrd /blnc19.03frugal/initrd.gz
  
  
# Full installed Linux

title XenialPup64 7.5 XXL  in sda3
#root (hd0,0) <-- GRUB legacy, ex: (hd1,0)
uuid 29abcea7-6a35-473c-b2f3-d47cabbb047e
kernel /boot/vmlinuz fullinstall root=/dev/sda3 pmedia=atahd 
  initrd /boot/initrd.gz
  
 



# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /bootmgr
  chainloader /bootmgr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /ntldr
  chainloader /ntldr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd   /io.sys
  chainloader /io.sys
  errorcheck on 


title Find Grub2\nBoot up grub2 if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img
  kernel /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/core.img
  kernel /boot/grub/core.img
  errorcheck on



# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
  configfile /menu-advanced.lst
  commandline

Hope it helps... is as much as I can help...sorry.

Have a nice day.

[mikewalsh]

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

Just as an aside, do be aware that most machines, if booting from USB, will get on FAR better if you only plug in one flash drive at a time (the one you wish to boot from). If you have several flash drives plugged-in at the same time, the BIOS tends to get confused and then the boot-loader gives up in a huff....

It's also possible you need to configure the BIOS to prioritise booting from USB, so it's at the top of the 'boot order' list..? Just makes things simpler, given the current mode of operation.

Mike.

[Clarity]

Hi @nestoribili This is simple and without fanfare or issues.

1. Go here

2. On that forum page, Look for this (shown in the attached screen, below) to make your USB

   

   PUPs on USB - OOTG.png (20.51 KiB) Viewed 206 times

3. Boot your PC

4. Afterwhich, you can add, remove, change the ISO files on it for additional forum distros of your choice

Let us know, here or on that forum thread.

This supports your need to boot forum distros on any PC whether it has a system drive or not.

[Clarity]

P.S. This, you said in your OP, is a little different from the norms.

... memory (9Gb DDR23) ...

How many types/sticks of RAM did you put into your PC?

Also, if you removed or uncabled your dead drive from the motherboard, your PC will only look to your removable devices to boot.