puppy linux, simple question

[fleamailman]

I have been on kubuntu linux which has run smoothly till now but the recent updates have made it buggy and dead again today so I would like for the time being to switch to puppy but unlike kubuntu I don't know how to install this system to my harddrive, I am writing this message off the puppy live CD, I notice an install button but it then seems to offer me an endless amount of programs, but I don't feel it to be the actual grub or is it, help please, thanks

[qldit]

Good Morning fleamailman, Puppy Linux is quite easy to install to your harddrive.

I find the easiest way is to boot the live CD, then open Gparted in it.
Your HD should be displayed in it's window.
You only need 3 or 4 gigs to give Puppy a good home, so if you have a previous windows or other systems installed it is easiest to use Gparted to "pinch" a bit of space off the end of the drive.
So just use Gparted to drag several gigs of space back from the end.
Having achieved that, select that new space, and drag a gig back from it's end this will be your swap partition. (I usually use the far end)
So now you should have have two extra partitions, select the 1 gig partition and make it a "swap" partition, (this need not be a primary partition) then select the other new partition and make it ext2FS. I prefer to make this a primary partition if available but it is not neccessary if no primary availabilty is left to use.(there are problems with some other FS with Puppy)
When you are happy with your modification hit "apply" and the drive changes will be completed.

Shut down the live Puppy using the "no save" path.

When you reboot the live CD the swap space you have just made will be used and when the boot is completed you will notice a significant increase in your Puppy taskbar memory readout.

Now when you go Start > Setup > Puppy Universal Installer, scroll down to the drive type you have partitioned, highlight it and then hit OK.

You will get a window showing your new ext2FS partition, (plus others) select it, and then the drive install will begin, it takes about 5 minutes to install, and you will then be presented a "Grub Boot Manager" install screen.
Normally you would follow the defaults, and don't bother with the make boot floppy if it is presented.

During this action you will be presented with a screen as to where the Boot Manager is to be located, it has several locations including the MBR with a not that it is "possibly unsafe". Select this option and proceed.
You should then receive a "Grub has been successfully to your MBR" message.

This completes the drive installation.

Remove the CD and reboot, select the relevant options as it boots, (usually the default) and select your screen size preference, hit exit and you should then get a "woof woof" sound and a welcoming message.

On all subsequent reboots the options initially selected will remain and you won't see those screens again.

To get your new system online select the wizard-wizard, select networking wizard, follow the Auto DHCP path and save the settings.

When everything is operating perfectly use the firewall wizard to set the firewall, follow the defaults is the normal path.

All these settings will be retained.

Confirm the machine shuts down when you use the normal Start > Shutdown System.
If any problem let me know, there is a small extra command that can be added to a boot line, this is needed on some older machines.

So this procedure should see you up and running, any previous installed systems on your hard drive/s will be shown in the boot menu on reboot, so you can easily run multiple systems without problem.
They will all be detected and booted by Grub.
I normally run several systems on one drive, but rarely use windows or the other systems, but they can be handy to have with some odd programs.

The boot menu options are easily edited to make it look a lot nicer with nicer names, I see no reason to retain the floppy boot stuff, because you have your bootable CD if it is needed.

I suggest Puppy Linux Ver 2.14 but Ver 2.15 CE (community effort) was recently released and Ver 2.16 is not far off, it will possibly contain Open Office and other programs.

The other Puppies contain Abiword which is a most excellent word processor for general use, I prefer it to using Open Office WP.
The "save as" PDF is extemely useful.

Se how you go..

Cheers, qldit.

[fleamailman]

thanks, I installed it and think it is really good, I intend to put it sole on a laptop which has a weak CDrom drive on a system which was running millenium, personally I prefer Kubuntu for its looks and ease but kubuntu doesn't have the ready-to-go-ness that puppy has so I am grateful for the imput you gave

[qldit]

Good Morning fleamailman, Puppy and ME together on a dual-boot laptop work excellently.
When a laptop has a weak CDROM or read device, some installs can be affected, if I strike that problem, I remove the laptop hard drive and connect it appropriately to a normal computer using an IDE adapter.
Puppy can be initially loaded to that hard drive using that method in that different machine and when that hard drive is returned to the laptop will then load to it without problem.

A flash-drive will also function in place of a hard drive but bootability is required.

By the way, once Puppy is loaded, any later version will load as an update, overwriting the previous version, but it does lose favourites and a lot of other saved stuff.

Cheers, qldit.

[fleamailman]

Any other distros you can recommend me please since I am looking for something else again, not that I dislike puppy just feeling like the fun and toil of a new adverture

[qldit]

Good Morning fleamailman, you could checkout SAM Linux and Vector Linux, these are two 700 meg systems that are pretty "up there".

Make sure you get the distro for your system, a lot are now special and different for 64 bit processors etc.

You will catch the bug where it becomes so interesting to keep trying all the new and different distros!

Keep an eye on the "distro watch" site.

Cheers, qldit.

[fleamailman]

yup, I have caught that bug, sam linux next. thanks