Problems with Windows + Puppy6.3 Install
A bit off topic ... but I have a HP DV6700 laptop - came with Vista Home .... so toss that and put in Win7 Pro instead ... all goes fine. Works good. Next install Puppy 5.7 to ext3 and all works fine - except one prob ... connecting to net - it won't. So remove that and put in Puppy 6.3 and it works fine - for a bit.
Then I get another idea cause it all worked so nice .... put in an XP win beside the Win7 and also Puppy 6.3, that way I have old windows for email, newer win for all else and also Puppy for anything Win can't do ... then the problems start. HP made that device specifically for Vista... and made it with a locked bios, no ide selection plus a sata drive ... but not a normal one that you can remove and plug into a pc .... instead of flat connectors it has pins. And to install XP ... well XP has no sata drivers ... says no drive is present to install to. So read up and get drivers ... nLite is used to slipstream the sata drivers to XP disc... make an iso on usb and use to install .... except Windows has another trick - it only sees drivers from a floppy press F6 or on a cd disc. So make a cd and nLite has a lot of features - add serial, automatic install, set up win desktop and services or features wanted before install and so on .... all works good - except one tiny little problem .... dhcp refuses to work so no internet is possible and impossible to fix. Make a new disc then with nothing custom - just add serial and install. That one does work. So now one has Win7 and also XP on a dual boot system with Puppy Linux next .... and to make it work Win7 is boot drive using Easy BCD as a boot loader to select. Now to install two windows - each has to be a primary partition and only 4 are allowed on mbr drives ... to install XP one boots to puppy and uses gparted to partition, set the boot drive and also hide the Win 7 partition to install XP, then unhide it after and set Win7 as boot again because it runs the bootloader to select what to do.
Then it gets interesting ... install a full install of Puppy 6.3 and it claims to install grub to sda 3 that it has a frugal install ???? But no matter - it works ... and then comes the errors ... install wine ... and it has desktop with no menu or taskbar ??? Just a blank desktop. WTF ??? Try all versions of wine - nothing works at all properly. Next is firefox .... last version is 24 or 38 maybe ... and I see a listing for 78 - install it and it works fine ... then suddenly reverts back to 38 ??? Again WTF ! ??? So try install 78 - already installed it says ... ok ! Install again and it's back to 78. By then I am thinking ... just remove this dog and SO - start over with fresh install ... delete and install again .... go to install and the usb gets me a garbled screen with HP logo - boots up and has no mouse ... so put in a usb mouse and press tab ... then it works. Restart it and voila - normal touchpad mouse works again with no usb mouse attached .... no prob. Reboot again ... no mouse ... play catch the mouse I guess. Anyhow install it and it says frugal instead of full .... and a mistake ... it has Firefox 2 preinstalled .... and no listing for Firefox 78 at all, only a 38 version or 24 .... and neither will install - says that package is unavailable. So I delete the preinstalled 2 version and think update or add repos to get latest FF and guess what - none will install at all and all versions listed are unavailable.... so delete that Dog and SO again.... next is a new twist .... all installs show frugal to put in grub for dos .... and nothing will boot period. Finally at last it says I have both a frugal install and a full install ...and neither will boot anyhow - can't find it's vmlinuz anywhere - well the boot folder has all the files in it ... and I copied them to root also later ... can't find them there either ... and pmedia atahd or satahd does not work .... neither does specifying /dev/sda3 or /dev/hda3 as root either or using root =(hda0,3) or 0,2 or any combination thereof ... same old error - can't find files. And go figure 3 times in a row the same usb stick will boot and have no mouse and 4th time will boot and have perfectly good mouse.... or it will say slacko_puppy not found then next reboot finds it .... and it does that with two different usb sticks.
Interestingly enough .... puppy 5.7 boots fine always, install full, finds it's files ok and works good .... so does Puppy 7... no probs at all with those ones, the 6.3 version is a nightmare. But 5.7 don't like wireless it seems and 7.0 apparently has no wine option... go figure ! 6.3 has all one needs and don't work or install very good on sata it seems. Even if it does install if you can get it to full install at all and boot .... what good are packages that say unavailable ? Stuck on FF2 cause FF38 is in the repo but not available and 38 is pretty old now anyhow, latest versions are in the 70's ?
My thought now is puppy may be small and convenient - but really it has a lot of errors and overall is not incredibly speedy anyhow sometimes .... might as well go use red hat or some older well made linux instead where stuff does install easily and does work.
Anyhow - about 4 days later ... it's time to give up on this idea of using puppy ... what good is stuff slapped together that just does not easily install and work ? Or works one time,reboot and suddenly no mouse, reboot again and mouse works .... WTF! Or says can't load into ram and drops to a prompt - reboot same usb and it works again .... it's not the usb stick .... does same on several I tried - all same iso made the same way.
A person wants to click install and it does and when files are in the right places it should boot - not say file not found .... if you click full install it should do that not say it was frugal when done and one time install all files, next time be missing some or boot once and on second install be full of errors ... and the same usb stick boots fine 6 times and then suddenly refuses to work 5 times after .... the laptop itself works fine - reads all usb proper and boots windows proper each time .... only problem it has is with puppy 6.3 any other live cd works fine and any other puppy version. That version is just a nightmare.
Now a comparison ... cloned a CentOS6 from my desktop to laptop ... told it were vmlinuz is and instant boot fine - no probs at all in 10 minutes not 4 days.
And in that OS - wine installs and works properly ... and latest browsers do install also.
And that is the "Dog Review" - my bulldog was sort of upset at puppies Linux cause they made me kind of really short tempered for a bit .... Bulldog told me - those pups got to go .... get em out of the house now....Bulldog wants peace and quiet again ! No cursing allowed in the Doghouse !