Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello everybody.
I'm trying to install bionicpup 32 on a 32gb pendrive.
to do this I followed the procedure of partitioning the pendrive with gparted, making two partitions one ext4 of 27gb used as boot where the operating system will go and the other of 1 gb used as linux swap. so far everything ok, but when I proceed with the installation I get the following error.

"you need 'Extlinux version 4.x' for frugal instal on 'ext4' partitions."

as written in other posts, i own an asus eeepc 701 with 4gb ssd and 1gb ram.

I have already successfully installed the same operating system on the ssd by making the following partitions:

1) ext4 of 3gb
2) linuxswap 815 mb

why can't I install it on the pendrive?
thanks everyone for the help

What operating system can you boot to and do the install from?

I have already successfully installed the same operating system on the ssd

Can you boot the computer with this install and do the install from it?

Exactly how are you doing the install to the pendrive?
Using what installer program?

I normally use ext2 for pendrives (USB flash drives). I believe ext3 or ext4 are not wrong, but was told that the writes to the drive for journaling will mean that the life of the pendrive will be shorter than with ext2 which has no journaling, not sure if it is true, but never had any problems with ext2 anyway.

I think the Puppy Installers may be designed for installing to fat32 flash drives, but have not really checked in recent Puppies. I do my installations manually by copying the Puppy files into the right place (normally in a /boot sub-directory to keep things tidy and orderly).

The extlinux executable should be in Puppy. You can install extlinux (to the pendrive) with the command extlinux --install followed by the path to the sub-directory in the boot partition on the pendrive. EDIT:- No extlinux in BionicPup32 for some reason, so you may have to hunt it down. EDIT:- Extlinux is part of syslinux, but Ubuntu have split it off as a separate package named "extlinux" so you can install via Puppy Package Manager.
Just to be clear, first install extlinux into your running BionicPup32 via PPM and then install it to the pendrive using the command.

Extlinux installs a file ldlinux.sys which should be immutable (can't be modified or deleted)
You might also need to provide a extlinux.conf configuration file.
AND you might also need to load in the mbr from Puppy syslinux into the pendrive.

hello everyone and thanks for the replies.
unfortunately I am a beginner with linux in general and therefore many things you tell me unfortunately I do not understand.
I'll explain what I did so tell me where I went wrong.
i have a small asus eeepc with 4gb ssd hard drive and 1gb ram.
with another pc where windows xp is installed, using rufus I flashed the iso of bionic pup 32 on a 4gb pen drive.
after which I started the eeepc with the pendrive inserted and bionicpup32 started in live mode.
at this point I installed it on the internal 4gb ssd hard disk and so far everything is ok.
now I would like to install bionic pup 32 on a 32gb pendrive so that I can use it on another pc where there is xp. but not in live mode but definitely but on the pen drive in order to always have xp on the internal hard disk.
this point what should I do?

There are many different ways of installing Puppy to USB pendrive. I have my way which works for me but I am not an expert and since you say that you are a beginner it might be difficult for me to help with this, but I will say a couple of things and then maybe others can advise better than me.

If you use gparted to change the ext4 partition to fat32 (or "vfat") you may find that the Puppy Installer will complete the process without errors, but it is not something I have tried for a long time as I do not want to install into a fat32 file system, only a linux ext2 file system. EDIT:- See below

Doing a manual install of Puppy into a pendrive only involves copying a small number of files (6 in the case of BionicPup32) to the pendrive from the Puppy .iso or from a running frugal Puppy. In the case of a manual install, the Puppy Installer is not used.

After doing that, you still need to install a bootloader into the pendrive. One bootloader is syslinux, but if the filesystem is ext2 or ext3 or ext4 (and not fat32), then you have to use extlinux which is the special part within the syslinux suite which handles ext2 or ext3 or ext4 bootloading. If the filesystem is fat32, maybe the Puppy Installer will offer to install the main part of syslinux bootloader for you, but I am not sure about that. As an alternative, you may be able to use grub4dos, but I am not sure about that either.

EDIT:- I have been doing a bit of testing in BionicPup32 with the Puppy Installer and a pendrive. If you install extlinux via Puppy Package Manager first, the installation to the pendrive worked using ext2 without any errors. This is much better than using fat32 so ignore the suggestion of that above.

Hello kyou

Preamble:
As I understand from your two posts all you want to do is install BionicPup32 to a Bootable 32GB USB So here is a walk-through of how to achieve that. You also say you have access to Win XP (Home or Pro it doesn’t matter) which will be useful

Preparation:
Make sure the boot order, on the Win XP computer, in the BIOS is set to USB first
Create a new folder on Win XP and name it, let’s say Puppy.

BionicPup32 - Just click on this to take you there
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zestyp ... o/download
(Win XP is too vulnerable on the net so do not use it for your download)

UNetbootin - Just click on this to take you there
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities ... n-portable
(Win XP is too vulnerable on the net so do not use it for your download)

Copy these two downloads from your download location to the Win XP folder you named (Puppy)
On Win XP, format your 32GB USB as Fat32. This will destroy all data on the USB so backup first
When done do not remove your USB

Making BionicPup32 Bootable From USB
Open Unetbootin
Click on … button at bottom of Unetbootin window to open the selection window
Navigate to and open the folder you created earlier (Puppy)
Click on your BionicPup ISO then click on the Open button
This puts your BionicPup ISO in the box before the … box in UNetbootin
Space used to preserve…… box is set to 0 (zero) do NOT change this figure
You can usually leave everything to what is there BUT:
Make sure Type: = USB Drive
Make sure Drive: = the drive letter of the USB you are using (normally E:\)
Click on button OK

Unetbootin will now write all the BionicPup32 files to your USB and then make the USB bootable
When writing and it seems to hang at puppy_upupbb-19.03.sfs 195Mb, just be patient, it will get there
Time for this to complete will depend on system speed
When Unetbootin has finished it will tell you, then click on button Exit

Do not remove the USB

Shutdown down Win XP

Re-start the computer (remember you have not removed the USB)
The Puppy options screen will show (eventually) and the 1st option is highlighted
After a countdown default of 10 seconds Puppy will load
Or hit return to by-pass the countdown and choose the highlighted option
Or cursor down to stop the countdown and decide what option you want then press return

Notes:
Unetbootin Portable is used in order that no install is required so nothing is written to Win XP system files. Unetbootin wasn’t downloaded from its own site because, as I understand, their latest version doesn’t support Win XP any more. Portableapps is a trusted site by me
Sourceforge is a trusted site by me
This method will not create a swap file
I have used the above on my Integral 32GB USB 3.0 and it works

I hope the above makes sense, you achieve making your USB bootable with PuppyBionic32 and enjoy using this OS as I do

Best regards

Chelsea80

Thanks guys for these useful tips, now I'm away from home, I'll put them into practice as soon as possible and update you on how it went.
I wish you a good Sunday

@OscarTalks et al

Could somebody check if using the .pet of syslinux in common32 cures this problem:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... i686_1.pet

Thanks

Hello peebee,

I'm afraid my tests indicate that the 6.04-pre3 package of syslinux is NOT suitable. Not sure if it is too new or buggy (I read that they have made significant changes since the previous version) or if it is because it appears to have been compiled in Slackware 14.0

The installation process completes, but the USB flash fails to boot with the error ldlinux.c32 failed to load (the file is present)

I went back and tried the Ubuntu Bionic extlinux again (That is from syslinux version 6.03) and it completes installation and boots
I also tried a syslinux 6.03 .pet which I complied from source in Wheezy some time ago and that also completes installation and boots.

In each case I boot a fresh BionicPup32, install the syslinux/extlinux package to be tested, wipe the files from the test ext2 formatted USB flash drive, repeat the installation to USB flash using Puppy Installer > Universal Installer (NOT BootFlash Installer), then test to see if the USB flash drive boots.

Using a .pet compiled from source might be a good idea as perhaps the Puppy installer wants to find things in specific places (eg mbr.bin in /usr/share/syslinux), but I think it might be best to stick with version 6.03 and maybe compile in BionicPup32 just to be sure.

I stumbled upon your post here, viewtopic.php?p=25121#p25121 and see how you installed to the eepc's hard-drive. I assume you used the same method to try to install to the USB-Key. Would have been helpful if you had told us on this thread. Don't expect us to know what you know or spend the time searching.

I just tried and failed to setup a USB-key that way. My guess is that grub4dos just doesn't work well with an entirely Linux Ext4 formatted USB-Key, even when the Ext4 formatting is done by Puppy. And as others have pointed out, Linux Ext4 is not recommended for use with USB-Keys. So, don't; which means start from scratch to obtain a Puppy on a USB-Key. [Edit: Worse news, gparted no longer seems able to work with the USB-Key. Hopefully, you'll have better results].

As you have a swap file on your hard drive you don't need one on your USB-Key. A Puppy booted from your USB-Key will find and use the one on your hard-drive. But, if you want a Swap on your USB-Key you don't have to go out of your way to create one. The first time you shut Puppy down you'll be asked if you want to Save. If you say 'yes', the last questions you'll be asked is if you want to create a swap; then what size. Puppy will do the rest.

The easiest way to create a bootable Puppy on a USB-Key is to again use rufus. You already know how. But the installation will be on a Fat32 medium. You can't use a SaveFolder. You'll have to use a SaveFile to preserve settings and install additional programs. You won't have lost much, if any, capabilities. But if you want to use a SaveFolder, the 2nd easiest way is to install frugalpup-installer into the Puppy already on your eeepc 701; then run it. frugalpup-installer can be found here, viewtopic.php?p=24366#p24366.

But frugalpup-installer doesn't do any partition formatting. See bigpup post here, viewtopic.php?p=1887#p1887 on how to use it. To that I can only add the advice on this short post, viewtopic.php?p=6712#p6712.

Now to see if Windows can reformat the USB-Stick. Othewise, it's useless.

BionicPup32-8.0+27 has extlinux added to the build (as well as quite a few Ubuntu updates since +26).

Hi guys,
I haven't given up yet

At the moment I have removed everything from the memory dell'eeepc.

I only have a pen drive where there is the iso image of the bionic puppy 32.

If I insert the pen drive into the netbook and boot it, the live operating system will boot.

To install it on eeepc ssd I used "puppy installer", and I partitioned the ssd with gparted.
This operation is ok, i mean that if i shout down the eeepc and remove the pen drive the operating sistem work on ssd and no in live mode. I can save the file , download new applications and all remain on netbook.

The problem is to install it on a pen drive permanently and not live. I can't do this thing.

I downloaded the extlinux file, updated the database.

I do the installation procedure on usb (first item of the puppy installation menu), the procedure seems to be successful without errors, but if I turn off the neetbook and restart with the 32 gb pen drive where I tried to install the operating system , I start Boonic Pup always in live mode.it seems the copy of the pen drive where there is the iso immage.

I also partitioned the pen drive into a single fat32 partition, but it doesn't work the same way

At the moment the eeepc is without an operating system.

Guys, I'm making a thousand attempts, but they haven't been successful