Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello,
As some people may or may not be aware i am attempting to install many pups onto a usb flashdrive with little to no success in connecting.Now however another issue has cropped up notably with actually installing pups on to the usb it self..a message "gettext" in bold red keeps appearing and i have no idea what this is or what it means.

i have tried totally reformatting the usb but to no avail and this annoying message keeps appearing.
what could be the problem/?

Just an update.
Found a terrific pet called YAPI which has installed the grub loader and iso perfectly.
My current situation is thus far...i have created a primary partition on the usbdrive and formatted it to FAT32 with the grubloader installed on that partition.I have focalpup32 installed on that partition and it boots and opens just fine.

Now how would i go about adding other pups to the usb drive.?.I understand i need to create separate partitions but what filesystem should these extra partitions be formatted to.?.
Also should these extra partitons be extended partitions as i think only one primary partition should be on the usb.

thanks.

you might need only one partition alongside the FAT32 perhaps formatted to ext2 ot ext3 and place each additional Puppy Linux in separate directories. Then with a grub menu at boot you can select which one to boot. In effect these would all be frugal installs.

I assume you have seen the info on the Yapi topic:
viewtopic.php?f=105&t=502

If you are using YAPI to do the installs.

I assume the first Puppy installed you selected to do a frugal install.
You can have multiple frugal installs on the same partition.

All you need to do is run YAPI again, for the new install, making sure to select frugal as type install.
Select the same USB and partition to install on.
That will do another frugal install next to the one already there.
When it sets up the boot loader menu. It should make entry for each frugal install, it finds on drive.

Note:
Each time Grub4dos Config runs to update the boot loader menu file.
It will keep the old file as a fallback.
You can keep the old ones or delete them.

Example USB drive with two frugal installs of two different Puppy versions.

Now this is something to consider in the way you partition and format the USB.
One partition using all of the drive is OK.
Any format is OK.

But fat32 format has a file size limit of 4GB.
Puppy can only make save files on it.
So the save file max size can never be bigger than 4GB.

ntfs format save file can be any size.

If you use a Linux ext 2, 3 or 4 format.
You have option to make the save a file or a folder.

Ok,
I have successfully managed to get 5 pups installed on my usbdrive and they are up and running.Still have the connection issue with bionic and slacko but i am going to try mikesir's suggestion on swapping the pup files with a working version of fossapup which connects great.

Hi @xenial,
In your bionic-thread you wrote:

viewtopic.php?p=34308#p34308

"However my situation has just got a bit worse.The built in uefi installer is now refusing to flash my usb drive with a puppy iso and just displays a red message with the word "gettext" and i have absolutely no idea what this means.
I have reformatted the usb flash drive and tried about everything but the installer will not install an iso anymore.

I am under the assumption that now my usb flash drive is kaput."

So - how did you solve your problem with the "kaput" flash drive?

peace

Hello,
Upon perusal of this forum i discovered mikesir's post in regard to just using one FAT32 partition and simply copying iso files over to separate directories in the partition.Voila i now boot up the usb and have 5 pups to use.Installer was not even required.

Now fossapup64 connects and works so my plan is to copy and use fossa files in bionic and hopefully get connected.

Hope that clarifies the situ.

Just thought I would mention a remarkable programme called Ventoy which loads onto a USB stick and then you can add as many iso's as you have capacity for on it. As Ventoy boots it searches and presents the iso's for you to select one. If you get fed up with an iso then just delete it and add another. It works for Linux and Windows. It works for Puppies although I have not yet seriously searched and found a way of getting persistence. The way you set up the USB stick is very easy and can be done with either Linux or Windows. For Linux just download the programme, unpack it and run it although finding that process on the web site is not easy. Best to look at a YouTube Video or adapt the instructions here https://www.linuxuprising.com/2020/06/c ... imply.html
This is the Ventoy site. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

Another option is using frugalinstaller and grub2config. viewtopic.php?f=155&t=3360
fat32 format and set 'boot' flag.
Or, 1st partition fat32 and the 2nd ext3 format. Anyway 'boot' flag on the fat32 partition.

Another option is to use this which is consistent with features within modern, current release PUP/DOGS since 2019. That utility USB builder contains several PUP ISOs, OOTB.

Skip the headaches of the post-processing routines and Frugal needs. Merely boot directly from PUP-DOG ISO files and do everything as you have always when using your PUPs. This is NOT a post processor where YOU must do something with the downloaded ISO(s) or with your system before booting your PUPs-DOGs.

No needs for anything else beyond downloading the PUP ISOs and booting!

Its intent is to make getting to a PUP's desktop with little to no effort and to stay consistent with modern PUPs where it works within the modern PUP-DOG framework!

No effort ... makes this too easy!

P.S. Ventoy is also a 'well-repected' ISO file booter, as well: Yet, on a few occasions, Ventoy has problems booting current PUPs-DOGs. This thread's post shows 'one' file booter that works in all known and tested current PUP-DOG cases in BIOS/UEFI PCs.

Ventoy is a more universal ISO file booter for all OSes while this solution intends to be a service for all WoofCE PUP and forum DOGs.

Please post on that thread if you find any WoofCE PUP or modern DOG that you have any problem booting from their ISO file.