Puppy Linux Frugal Installation From Live CD

Note: This is my procedure for a frugal installation of Puppy Linux to a hard drive. This requires partitioning the hard drive, installing Puppy Linux, and setting up the Grub bootloader. My method isn't the only way, but it works for me on my computer.

PLEASE PROPERLY BACK UP ALL NECESSARY FILES TO ANOTHER STORAGE MEDIUM BEFORE MESSING AROUND WITH THE HARD DRIVE.

Prerequisites

  1. PLEASE PROPERLY BACK UP ALL NECESSARY FILES TO ANOTHER STORAGE MEDIUM BEFORE MESSING AROUND WITH THE HARD DRIVE.
  2. Have your Puppy Linux Live CD ready. In addition, you may also need an antiX Linux Live CD.

Recommended Hard Drive Partitions

This is the partitioning arrangement that I recommend for installing Puppy Linux. The partitioning arrangement is (from beginning to end):
Partition Filesystem Label Size Flags
/dev/sda2 OR /dev/hda2 ext2 puppy (most of the drive) boot
/dev/sda1 OR /dev/hda1 linux-swap swap (0 to 2 times your RAM) none

Partitioning the Hard Drive

  1. PLEASE PROPERLY BACK UP ALL NECESSARY FILES TO ANOTHER STORAGE MEDIUM BEFORE MESSING AROUND WITH THE HARD DRIVE PARTITIONS. The hard drive will be erased during this process.
  2. If the hard drive already contains a swap partition, boot up using your antiX Linux live CD. Otherwise, boot up using your Puppy Linux live CD. Changing, reformatting, or removing the swap partition requires unmounting it. For some reason, the Puppy Linux live CD does NOT allow you to unmount the partition. Booting up the antiX Linux live CD does allow you to do this and removes the partitions in MUCH less time than the Darik's Boot and Nuke CD does. Thus, I recommend using the antiX Linux live CD for partitioning the hard drive.
  3. Once your Linux live CD has booted up, go to the GParted partition manager. In Puppy Linux, go to Menu -> System -> GParted partition manager. In antiX Linux, go to Control Panel -> Disks tab -> Partition a Drive. The password for the antiX Linux live CD is "root".
  4. If you are in Puppy Linux, you will be prompted to select the appropriate drive and to create a partition table (which you can do by going to Device -> Create partition table).
  5. If there is a swap drive (a partition with the filesystem type "linux-swap" that is mounted (denoted by a check mark), select this drive, right-click, and select "swapoff". This unmounts the swap drive.
  6. If necessary, delete any and all existing partitions.
  7. Select each partition on the drive and hit the Delete key to remove it. Continue until the entire drive is unallocated. (There will be just one big unallocated partition when you are finished with this step.)
  8. To implement this change, click on the Apply button to wipe out the existing partitions.
  9. Create the swap partition: Select the unallocated partition and click on New. Set the size of the partition (in MiB) to 0 to 2 times your RAM (in MB). Set the free space following the partition to 0 MiB. Set the File system to linux-swap. Set the label as "swap". Leave the default values in place for all of the other settings. Click on "Add".
  10. Create the Puppy Linux partition: Select the unallocated partition and click on New. Set the label as "puppy". Leave the default values in place for all of the other settings. Click on "Add".
  11. GParted should now show the partitioning scheme shown in the table earlier on this page. If the partitioning scheme does not match that of the aforementioned table, you'll need to go back and make corrections.
  12. Once GParted shows the correct partitioning scheme, click on the Apply button. This implements the new partitions.
  13. Right-click on the Puppy Linux partition, select Manage Flags, and set the boot flag. This means that when the computer boots from the hard drive, it boots up from the Puppy Linux partition.
  14. The proper hard drive partitions are now in place. Exit GParted by going to GParted -> Quit.

Installing Puppy Linux

When the proper hard drive partition is in place, you are ready to install Puppy Linux.
  1. Boot up Puppy Linux from the live CD.
  2. Mount the same Puppy Linux CD that you used to boot up. (This is necessary, because the installation needs to obtain the files on the CD.)
  3. Click on the Install icon on the desktop.
  4. Select the Universal Installer.
  5. Select the appropriate drive for installing Puppy Linux.
  6. Select the appropriate partition for installing Puppy Linux.
  7. When you are asked for the location of the Puppy Linux files, make sure the CD is in the drive and mounted and select "CD".
  8. When prompted to choose between a frugal and full install, select the frugal option.
  9. When prompted for the name for the folder to contain the Puppy Linux files, use the default name. (For Puppy Linux 5.0.1, the name is "puppy501".)
  10. A text document /tmp/NEWGRUBTEXT will automatically open. KEEP THIS DOCUMENT OPEN, because you will need it. You have finished the installation but still need to install the GRUB bootloader that allows you to boot up Puppy Linux from the hard drive instead of the live CD.

Setting up the GRUB bootloader

After you have finished installing Puppy Linux to the hard drive, you still need to install the GRUB bootloader in order to boot up Puppy Linux without the live CD.
  1. On the desktop, go to Menu -> System -> GRUB bootloader config.
  2. Select the simple installation option (default option).
  3. Select a Linux frame buffer. Use the safe choice (standard console, default option).
  4. Select the Puppy Linux partition as the GRUB partition.
  5. When prompted, select the GRUB destination as root (default choice).
  6. When the GRUB bootloader configuration is completed, go to /mnt/sdax/boot/grub/menu.lst , where sdax is the Puppy Linux partition. Copy the text from the file /tmp/NEWGRUBTEXT to the end of the menu.lst file. This step is necessary to add the option of booting up to the frugal installation of Puppy Linux. If you skip this step, you won't be able to boot up Puppy Linux without the live CD.
  7. Remove the Puppy Linux CD from the CD drive. Puppy Linux can now boot up from the hard drive. When you reach the GRUB menu when booting up, select the Puppy Linux option that you added to the menu.lst file.

Starting your lupusave file

Once you have installed Puppy Linux and booted up from the hard drive, it's time to save your settings.
  1. When you exit Puppy Linux, save the lupusave.2fs file to save your settings.
  2. When powering down, you will be prompted to choose a partition for saving the lupusave.2fs file. Select "SAVE TO FILE" (default). Select sda2 (default). When prompted for the filesystem of the save file, select ext2 (default option). There will be other options to select and detailed explanations to help you decide. If you use OpenOffice, use a 1 GB lupusave.2fs file.