Can't get Puppy Linux to work on a hard drive

[progrockfrog]

I am impressed by the Puppy Linux distros. I tried to get Bookworm Pup on a computer hard drive, and was unsuccessful. I found this video (see below), and he also had problems in that area. But his video was on Fossa on a different page. With Fossa, I was able to gpart and clear the space, install the system, but the boot part didn't work. It was hard to see the light gray text and what he was doing. There was something about naming folders.

I didn't have the same thing he did. So I am at a loss as to what to do to get any distro on a hard drive. For a USB stick to just go from computer to computer, hands down I am Bookworm Pup fan (and Puppy Linux with any distro probably). I just would like to be able to put it on a hard drive. I had to go to Bodhi because it is idiot proof and works immediately.

If Puppy Linux had an easy installation like that where we could just click the play button (or is it the "bark" button?) I would use that instead. The Fossa version is an attempt to make it look "cool", but I rather prefer Bookworm Pup which looks functionally cool.

Anyways, Linux Mint Cinnamon for good computers, Bodhi for hard drives on old computers, and Bookworm Pup for USB, and I won't ever have to use Windows again.

[spotify][/spotify]

[williwaw]

@progrockfrog
have you got a working puppy USB?

if you already have an OS booting on the hardrive and wish to add puppy to the drive as a multiple boot, please tell details about the existing OS and how you boot it now.

yes, he was going about it all wrong.

[progrockfrog]

It is an Acer Aspire D257 from ~2010. I have a desktop from 2015, and it has no working OS at the moment, but I could leave one partition as is to just keep the files. I transferred all files to an external storage device and made another backup on a second desktop. This means I can simply erase the entire ~250gb hard drive. However, there is one lingering mystery. There is a 120+gb section labeled "unallocated". I assume that means nothing is on that? I am asking because I did at one point use one partition for saving files. I think I installed Linux Mint over it on accident, but if unallocated sections could have files how could I go about retrieving them? If I can't, then I might just install completely and put the files I could get back on. If I need to ask this elsewhere on this forum, please let me know where.

Second issue is, as much as I like the Bookworm Pup I am seeing many different versions listed. Is there a gallery I could go to with pictures showing the different flavors of Puppy Linux? Once I decide on which one to install, I'll give it a go and come back here if I can't get it installed.

Edit: I see some on Google, but I don't know if they are being updated. Is X-Slacko still actively getting updated?

[progrockfrog]

I tried a few distros, and now I am seeing this come up even when I make a new .iso installation.

[williwaw]

I f I understand correctly, you can currently boot bookwormpup on the 2015 desktop from a USB.

why not consider adding additional puppies to the USB for ongoing review and read up a bit on partitioning in order to formulate a plan for the internal drive somewhere down the road. There are tutorials in the general information section at the top of the forum home page.

how did you install bookwormpup to the USB? can you show us a screenshot of gparted for the USB and a screenshot of the filemanager window that comes up when you click on the icons in the lower left of the screen?

[progrockfrog]

I used Rufus, and the list given in Universal-USB-Installer-2.0.2.6 doesn't show all Puppy Linux distros. Is there a third tool I can use to make the USB? I tested Bodhi again, it worked, so the USB is not damaged.

[williwaw]

I would look at installing frugalpup
viewtopic.php?t=337

it has various methods for making usb installs and also has diskpup which would be useful for your internal disk.
disk pup does require you to partition the disk beforehand with something like gparted.

frugalpup will not only install a boot loader but can also recognize puppys for writing the correct boot entries (which other distro installers usually fail at doing correctly)
it may already be included in bookwormpup.
the fishprogs link at the forum page linked above explains the operation of the program.
reference the steps you followed from that tutorial if you have diffuculty or problems,
BTW, welcome to the forum

[progrockfrog]

I finally got it installed!! I checked another video on Youtube. "HD setup/install: BookwormPup64 puppylinux in UEFI PC"

He used Ventoy which apparently makes a big difference. I don't think I did anything drastically different.

It seemed like both guys manually created the puppy folder and boot folder in two distinct steps, but when I did it, it installed it together. I got this message after it finished successfully.

Thanks for helping.

[bigpup]

About Puppy versions in general.

They are all similar in the way they operate.

Most are using the same programs to give you all the functions.

But most do have differences in what programs they come with, already installed.
So, there are some differences in different Puppy versions.

The biggest issue, Puppy Linux versions are produced at a specific point in time.
Using the software that was available, at that time.
There is no real constant updating of a Puppy version.

The way to update is install a newer version of Puppy.

BookwormPup is the latest version and is using the newer or newest core Linux software.
So newer Linux software has best chance of working in it.

Older versions of Puppy are OK to use, but they will, may, have issues running newer versions of software.

Web browsers are constantly updating and this can be an issue, getting the latest browser version to run, on some older versions of Puppy.

On this forum, go to a topic for a specific Puppy version, and look at it's release date.
That will indicate how old it is.

If you are not hung up on always wanting the latest version of Linux software.

A lot of older Puppy versions are still very good to use.

With Puppy, all you can do is just try using some, and see what you like.

[bigpup]

If you used Ventoy to do the install to the internal drive.

There are a few different topics here, about using Ventoy, you may want to read:
viewforum.php?f=155

[robertstein]

Installing Puppy Linux on a hard drive can be tricky due to its unique bootloader setup. Make sure to use the Grub4Dos bootloader utility included in Puppy Linux, as it is designed for this purpose. Also, double-check the partition is set as bootable using **GParted**. If issues persist, consider manually editing the boot configuration files or trying a different Puppy Linux version. For a more straightforward installation process, tools like Rufus or Unetbootin might help, but they work best with USB installations.