Puppy Linux Windows Installer - LICK v1.3.3 released

[adXok]

^ yes you are right, but...

Here are some concerns I've noticed when using 'Puppy Linux Windows Installer v1.1':

1. It installs Puppy right in the Windows partition (commonly known as C:\)
- I expected to ask me where to install, really

2. When a session is saved there is a problem loading it if it is not saved in the Puppy installation Folder (default in C:\<Puppy-Folder> made by the 'Puppy Linux Windows Installer v1.1')
- first I saved it in another folder in a second hard drive... didn't load after rebooting the system, loads (searches for, tries to finds) default lupu-528.sfs instead
- tried to edit the menu.lst file without success, by default installation it says:

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux 528
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /Puppy-Linux-528/initrd.gz
kernel /Puppy-Linux-528/vmlinuz psubdir="Puppy-Linux-528" pfix=fsck
initrd /Puppy-Linux-528/initrd.gz
boot

which I tried to edit entering: (h1,7) and subdir=xxx-xxx, here and there, leads to error loading the saved session in that drive in its proper folder: xxx-xxx

Finally I moved the saved session file in the default directory (in C:\), restored the default 'menu.lst' file and after reboot it loaded the correct new saved session.

Maybe that's the way the Installer was meant to work anyway, do not know! Whatever, now I test it and it works fine so far.

[noryb009]

1. It installs Puppy right in the Windows partition (commonly known as C:\)
- I expected to ask me where to install, really

I think I didn't give users an option to choose their sub directory because it has to be in the root directory and has to have no spaces.
Most people use C as their only hard drive partition, so I set that as the default.

I might add a directory option in the next version, which will be whenever I get some free time.

2. When a session is saved there is a problem loading it if it is not saved in the Puppy installation Folder (default in C:\<Puppy-Folder> made by the 'Puppy Linux Windows Installer v1.1')

This was done for simplicity, as Puppy lets users pick what save file they want to use. This narrows the save files down to the files in C:\<Puppy-Folder>, which should all be compatible with the puppy version. I also don't think puppy can use a save file on a different partition.

The installer is meant to get Puppy onto a windows system quickly and without asking the user many questions.

[adXok]

That is what I thought so also.

Another problem:
· seems like new downloaded .sfs packages from Qiuckpet go in C:\ and NOT in the Puppy directory (C:\<Puppy-directory>)

I move them into Puppy directory manually afterwards, yet I am afraid that way they will not load in Puppy startup...

[noryb009]

· seems like new downloaded .sfs packages from Qiuckpet go in C:\ and NOT in the Puppy directory (C:\<Puppy-directory>)

I'm pretty sure the correct directory for SFS files is /mnt/home, which is C:\.
This is so that multiple puppies (like C:\puppy123 and C:\puppy456) can use the same SFS file, saving space on your hard drive.

If you move them to the puppy folder, it will not load at start up (I'm pretty sure...).

[adXok]

We are both wrong.
After moving the .sfs to C:\Puppy-Lucid-528 everything loads perfect!

[ICPUG]

been on holiday so sorry about the late response to this:

Noryb009 said:

I think I didn't give users an option to choose their sub directory because it has to be in the root directory and has to have no spaces.

It used to be the case that puppy would only search 1 subfolder down from root and the above is true (if subdirectory means where the puppyfolder is stored).

More recent puppies based on recent woofs have this restriction removed, although I never bother to go lower than 1 folder for storing the puppy files myself.

The location of additional sfs files were also restricted to /mnt/home (or c:\) in the past. I think this may have changed in later woofs as well but I am beginning to lose track of all the changes in woof so cannot be certain.

[emil]

I made an exe installer for the Sage Live CD.
It is huge 680 MB.

Everything went smooth, I used Wine from inside the running Live CD.
To avoid clobbering up my save file I shifted the /root/.wine/drive_c to /mnt/home and symlinked it in /root/.wine.

Earlier I also built some versions on a 32 bit windows machine, which works fine too.

thanks noryb009 and all!

[emil]

I made an exe installer for the Sage Live CD.
It is huge 680 MB.

Everything went smooth, I used Wine from inside the running Live CD.
To avoid clobbering up my save file I shifted the /root/.wine/drive_c to /mnt/home and symlinked it in /root/.wine.

Earlier I also built some versions on a 32 bit windows machine, which works fine too.

thanks noryb009 and all!

[HiDeHo]

Hi is this a port of the lin4win project or the wubi installer. please define it here.

[jakfish]

I'm about to give this a whirl on an ancient IBM Thinkpad 570/Win98FE laptop.

A couple of questions about power savings:

1) With my 192MBs of RAM, can I assume that everything but the pupsave file will be loaded in RAM?

2) With plans to forgo the hard drive altogether once puppy is running (in console, I'll try to use "hdparm -y /dev/sda1"), is it possible to have a booting puppy look for the pupsave file on a compact flash on PCMCIA card?

The cf would probably be considered an sdb2 or something akin. I think that a booting puppy will recognize that drive and install its proper drivers. But will it do so in time to look on that drive for the working pupsave file?

Am I on the right track?

Thanks much,
Jake

[ICPUG]

I'm about to give this a whirl on an ancient IBM Thinkpad 570/Win98FE laptop.

A couple of questions about power savings:

1) With my 192MBs of RAM, can I assume that everything but the pupsave file will be loaded in RAM?

...

I can only answer point 1)

With 192MB of RAM recent puppies will not load anything into RAM. The SFS file will be accessed from wherever it is located. I'm not sure what RAM is now required for everything to load into RAM. 512MB is certainly enough but not sure if 256MB is OK.

[ICPUG]

Hi is this a port of the lin4win project or the wubi installer. please define it here.

As can be seen in the first post (by the thanks) Lin'N'Win was used as the start point for this project. It is essentially an automated version of that built into an exe file. Windows 7 support was added independently.

As far as I am aware wubi was not used in the process.

[jakfish]

Hi, ICPUG,

Thank you for your quick response. Too bad about the RAM, though. B/c if the *.sfs can only be installed on the hard drive, then it would continue to access the hard drive once puppy was fully booted (I've never heard of puppy unmounting its OS sfs, and remounting it on a different drive).

The ideal thing would be to do the IDE>HD>CF Adapter deal, but I can not get that to work with the IBM Thinkpad 570. Other computers, yes; not w/ this one, however.

Wait a minute. Would I be able to put the entire installation of puppy on the cf (PCMCIA) and merely have the loader on the c: hard drive? Does the loader itself determine and load available drives?

I doubt it, somehow. In DOS, to get the PCMCIA slot recognized, users need CardSoft or some other *.sys files and drivers.

Jake

[Aitch]

jakfish

I messed about with both a 560 and 570 IBM lappy

I seem to recall that different versions of puppy load the pcmcia driver at different times, and it needs loading very early in the boot process

I was trying 214R and 412/431 IIRC.....with help from either MU or tempestuous......too long ago for me to be certain

I believe the CF-pcmcia adapter did work with a 4gb microdrive [1" hard drive]....but there were other issues.....I was using a boot floppy in an IBM external floppy drive on its own port/cable, I think, which had a dos driver on it, as I didn't have a built-in CD, plus a usb CDRW....It booted OK that way
I succeeded in watching videos/youtube on it, though in the end I upgraded....it was easier.....though it remained in use as a hard drive swapper for quite a while.....so easy

The Windoze loader at the start of this thread didn't exist then....I had W98 on the 3.2gb hard drive.....later swapped for a 5400rpm 10gb, which improved it a bit too [didn't try 7200 drives as they run hotter, and use more power, I believe]

Aitch

[jakfish]

Hi, Aitch,

I was able to solve this dilemma by stumbling over an amazing piece of software:

[/url]http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#noinstall

Users burn an image of this boot manager onto a floppy (there are other ways of installation, too), then install it on the hard drive (comes w/ full uninstall), and upon reboot, a menu appears of boot devices, one of which is USB.

I almost fell over b/c IBM 570 BIOS never had this option, and I thought such a thing was hard-wired.

On another computer, I made a USB-install of Puppy 4.31 Retro (the Thinkpad 570 needs the Retro to see the hard drive). Then booted from PLOP/USB and off I went.

A bit of a warning: I was having great difficult with an erratic boot of linux until I realized that the physical slot of the 570 USB port is narrow and some USB drives won't fully seat. Since the problem is erratic, I kept thinking it was a bad kernel or wrong OS (I initially tried ttuuxx's 2.14).

Jake

[Aitch]

Hi Jake

Yes, I forgot to mention PLOP....used it later, and recommended a few times, too

Damn bios was next to useless....though it does offer network boot

I think I had a weird effect with usb ports, but because I tended to add pcmcia gadgets, [including usb2] on to make things work faster, I hadn't noticed the usb slot issue.....not worth digging it out now just to check, either....it's resting peacefully

They're good'n'tough though, those old IBMs - mine survived a flight of stairs fall, and worked faultlessly afterwards....but it's not recommended treatment

Aitch

[jakfish]

The thin form factor is lots of fun, but mine seems to fall apart a little bit more every time I use it. The little screen-blanking hole (upper left) caved in only b/c of age. And the head phone jack has to be inserted juuuust right. The screen went dark for one entire boot, for no real reason.

Tick, tick, tick But what can we whine about when the price is 50USD?

Jake

[Aitch]

$50....?!!

Wanna buy another one?

Aitch

[jakfish]

Actually, I am looking for one with with more durable innards. But UK to US shipping can be prohibitive.

Jake

[noryb009]

Uploaded 530 and 530 PAE - link