Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

This topic covers booting from either USB or CD.

The three common ways to do your first boot with Puppy are from USB, CD or dual boot with MS Windows. Here we will discuss making a bootable USB or CD.

Once you have made your bootable USB or CD you can simply run it from that or you can use one of the many installation programs in Menu>Setup to install Puppy to an internal drive or another external device.

Older computers will be limited to booting from a CD. If your computer is any of these you will most likely need a CD to boot.
*Made before 2005
*CPU is a single core ("Netbook" computers are one notable exception that are single core and USB bootable).

Searching your computer model on the internet can also help determine if it can boot from USB.

NOTE: Newer computers that have a CD/DVD drive can also use a CD to boot.

What you will need to make a bootable USB:
For F96-CE

• A blank USB, 2gb or larger
• A computer running MS Windows or some version of Linux.
• USB installing software, try one of the free programs listed below

MS Windows (MBR or UEFI) - Rufus, (tested v3.17) available here https://rufus.ie/en/
NOTE:Newer versions of Rufus may fail, use Rufus v3.17 portable from here https://www.fosshub.com/Rufus-old.html

Linux (MBR or UEFI) - Unetbootin, (tested v702) available here https://unetbootin.github.io/linux_download.html

Download the Puppy Linux ISO file, then use the USB installing software to make the bootable USB.

What you will need to make a bootable CD:

• A blank writable CD
• A computer running MS Windows or some version of Linux, with a CD Writer drive.
• CD burning software, if you don't already have this, try one of these free programs

MS Windows - BurnCDCC*, (tested) available here https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downl ... -software/
set speed slider to CD 4X

Linux - XFBurn, (tested) check your official repository

Puppy Linux - Pburn

Download the Puppy Linux ISO file, then use the burning software to make the bootable CD.

ALTERNATE PROGRAMS:
There are many other USB install and CD burning programs, however, you will probably find they require more knowledge and more settings to use. For CD's, be sure you are "burning the ISO" and not just coping it to the CD. Worse, some of the programs cannot produce a Puppy USB that can be booted on some computers. We highly recommend you use one of the tested programs for best results.

If you do choose a USB creation programs such as Balena Etcher or:
-USBimager
-Rosa ImageWriter
-Gnome MultiWriter
And others, that create a iso9660 formatted USB, the entire USB will be READ-ONLY and you cannot write any other files to it. Also, once the drive has been formatted as iso9660 it requires extra knowledge and extra steps to return it to a writable format.
F96 Puppy USB's created this way will only boot on Legacy/MBR systems, if you are using a UEFI boot system you must enable Legacy support in Setup/Bios.

Rufus or Unetbootin are much better for Puppy since the user can put a savefile, extra applications, or other files on the same USB used to boot.

Booting with your Puppy USB or CD
If the computer you will be booting is any of these it will probably be using the UEFI boot configuration.

• 2007 or newer
• came with MS Windows 8 or newer

During boot most computers will show a hotkey to press to enter the Bios/Setup. You can also check the internet for your make and model to find the hotkey.

• boot the computer
• when the hotkey screen is displayed start pressing the key repeatedly

The Bios/Setup should open, unfortunately, there is no "standard menu". You may have to use keyboard arrow keys, enter and any hotkeys shown on the screen to navigate and select items.

• disable Secure Boot

Newer computers will also show a "Boot Menu" hotkey during boot, you can use this to select the USB or CD during boot. Otherwise, look for an entry in Bios/Setup called "Boot options" and then "Boot order" or something similar. Set the USB or CD as first in the boot order.

• Save the settings and exit the Bios/Setup

If the computer is running MS Windows:

• boot Windows
• disable Fast Startup (this feature is only in versions 8+ and upwards)
• do normal shutdown
• do not use hibernation
• reboot using the USB or CD

NOTE: booting from a CD is slow, you'll need to be patient

wizard wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 8:45 pm

What you will need to make a bootable USB:
For F96-CE
* A blank USB, 2gb or larger
* A computer running MS Windows or some version of Linux.
* USB installing software, try one of the free programs listed below

Rufus or Unetbootin are much better for Puppy since the user can put a savefile, extra applications, or other files on the same USB used to boot.

Booting with your Puppy USB or CD
If the computer you will be booting is any of these it will probably be using the UEFI boot configuration.
* 2007 or newer
* came with MS Windows 8 or newer

problems on my UEFI F96-CE4 PC. Downloaded unetbootin.bin and chmod +x. When I clicked on the unetbootin.bin I get the error regarding arch. Then fails to recognize usb even after reseating and fat32 format. For some reason USB stick is recognized as sdb1 rather than sdb... and doesn't work.

That Arch Linux warning message you can just click OK and close it out.

Unetbootin will still work OK.

When you plugin the USB drive.

Mount the USB drive partition before running Unetbootin.

The USB drive is going to be recognized by the partition on it.

If it has one partition.

It will be identified as sdb1.

If it has more than one partition.

It will be identified as sdb1, sdb2, sdb3 etc.........one for each partition on the drive.

Stuff is written to and read from the partitions on the drive.

I installed mtools from PPM and able to use the unetbootin (so ignore my complaint above...) and now loads up F96-CE4 on boot!. Thanks.

@gychang

I get the error regarding arch

I get the same Arch message, mlabel displays the current volume label, if present. It is not required to create the USB. Unetbootin does not reformat the USB stick, so it must be blank and already correctly formatted. If it does not make a bootable USB, then something else is going on and you should try different stick.

Thanks
wizard