Installing pappy linux on a flash drive. An in-depth look at Puppy Linux
Out of hundreds of free Linux distributions, have you chosen yours?
Make a list of your needs. What will you be using your Linux for? What features are important to you? How would you prioritize them? What features do you not care about?
Once you've compiled your custom list of needs, compare it to various Linux implementations. The Linux OS is configurable and gives you complete control (as you would expect from open source software) over it. So, in theory, you can create almost any Linux distribution that suits your needs. But it probably makes more sense to choose the best Linux distribution out of the hundreds available.
Puppy Linux- one of the twenty most popular Linux distributions in the world (according to the disrowatch.com rating). Puppy is made for those who want from Linux:
- Includes all applications required for daily use
- Works out of the box
- Easy to use and suitable for newbies to Linux, as well as those who have recently switched from Windows to Linux
- Works great on limited hardware
- Works seamlessly on older computers, thin clients and diskless stations
- Installs and runs from any bootable device, including USB, hard drives, zip drives, LS 120/240 SuperDisks, CDs and DVDs as well as over the network
Unlike other distributions, Puppy is not based on any of them. It was created to meet the above goals.
Let's discuss the features and, summing up, consider how it differs from other Linux distributions.
Fast and easy.
Puppy has been specifically designed for limited hardware, including older computers, thin workstations, and diskless computers.
Puppy achieves this goal using several methods:
- The standard software included with Puppy covers all typical application needs while requiring minimal resources.
- The minimum size of the operating system itself
- The entire system is loaded completely into memory by default and executed there
- Puppy boots and runs from any available device - your computer does not need to have special devices such as a hard drive or CD drive
As a result, you can take your old Pentium III, install Puppy on it and enjoy its excellent performance. Memory access is much faster than disk access. Just make sure your computer has enough memory to run Puppy from RAM.
To see how it works, read my earlier post about my experience installing Putty on a Pentium III 550MHz with 448MB of RAM. Powered by Putty, this technology from a bygone century runs typical applications as quickly as it can handle equivalent Celeron 2.6 GHz applications with a gigabyte of RAM running WindowsXP!
Puppy allows old computers to breathe new life again and work on diskless computers and thin workstations.
Flexibility.
As with many distributions, you can try out Puppy using the "Live-CD" version and see how it will be compatible with your computer hardware. The live-CD is a bootable CD that you can burn Puppy to after you have downloaded it from the Internet. You must use the "Create Bootable Disc" item in the menu of your CD/DVD burning software. (Options such as "data CD", "music or audio CD" and "video CD" do not allow you to create a bootable disc). The LiveCD version of Puppy of course also includes CD and DVD burning software. If you're on Windows and need a CD burning program, you can download free program ImgBurn to create boot disk with Puppy.
If you don't want to install Puppy on your hard drive (or maybe your machine doesn't have hard drive), you will be able to run Puppy from the LiveCD. When you're done with Puppy, it gives you the option to save your personal preferences, settings, and any additional software you've added to the base system on any device that supports data logging. This again can be a USB key fob, a hard drive, and recordable CD/DVDs.
If you're running Puppy from a LiveCD, you'll quickly discover another benefit of running a system loaded into memory. You can eject the CD and Puppy will continue its work. So, after downloading, you can listen to the new audio CD you bought today, or burn the data to a CD or DVD. Other versions of Linux release the CD drive when applications terminate.
You can also use Puppy's unique support for multi-session CD/DVDs. Any type of CD or DVD (or -) is supported that you can use Puppy to write your data to in sessions so that you can continue burning the next time you use Puppy. Puppy includes a toolkit for burning multi-session discs.
When installing on hard drives, Puppy offers two alternatives: full (or traditional) or "frugal disk" installations.
Peaceful coexistence with Windows.
Windows usually comes with many computers, so many users begin their acquaintance with a computer through Windows. However, they soon discover that Windows has serious weaknesses despite its lightness and convenience. The only great step in this case is an additional installation of Linux as a second operating system. In this case, when you start your computer, you get a unique opportunity to choose which system to work on - in Linux or in Windows.
The advantages of Puppy are also obvious in that you can run it from a Live-CD or from a USB stick without replacing your existing hard drive system.
When you exit Puppy, it asks you if you would like to save your settings and intermediate session data by choosing "save file" and specifying the path to a USB stick or writable CD/DVD. You also you can write the configuration file to any Windows partition of the hard disk (Under windows file Puppy will look like a single large file in the root directory).
Another possibility to run Puppy is to run it from Windows. Just start Windows and unzip the Puppy file to install Puppy on Windows. Create a Puppy icon on your desktop, double-clicking on it will launch Puppy. Exit Puppy and you will be back in Windows again.
The GUI is launched using two graphical servers - Xorg and Xvesa. Their presence allows Puppy to provide GUI video support for the widest range of PCs.
Puppy's "helpers" appearing as interactive forms are another feature of Puppy's ease of use to facilitate all aspects of system installation and configuration.
What separates some of the most user-friendly Linux distributions from others is their level of support. Puppy Linux was written and developed primarily by one person - Barry Kauler. Support is provided by the Puppy community, which consists of several active forums providing technical assistance and distribution advice. Puppy contains 3 MB of documentation. You can also view ( and ) extensive system information. An active community maintains a Wiki, Wiki Community News, and IRC Chat. Puppy has tutorials written in Flash and a tutorial video. Also here you will find Puppy documentation in HTML and PDF formats. There is support for various languages (not only English).
Puppy's abundance of documentation makes it on par with many Linux distributions.
Adding Applications.
After booting the system, choosing the installation type and saving the settings, and coexisting with Windows, a key aspect of flexibility when using Puppy is how easy it is to access additional software and also install it.
Puppy also includes features that allow you to create a custom system. Select "Remaster" from the menu to create your own custom bootable CD. Or use Puppy Unleashed to create a Live-CD of your choice of programs from over 500 official packages.
What Puppy is not designed for.
I touted the charms of Puppy and described its capabilities. It's the Linux that users around the world love, and that's proven by the size of its community.
Still, sometimes you have to say that Puppy is not intended for something. This does not mean that Puppy cannot be used for any purpose. This says that they are not the main impetus in its development.
For starters, remember that Puppy Linux is a "little Linux". It doesn't have to include the vast amount of software libraries that "big Linuxes" like Fedora or RedHat do, but you can easily turn it into one like them using the PETget package manager.
Puppy uses special methods to offer users applications for daily use.
Puppy is being developed as a user system. Of course, you can install it on servers, as it has all the features for this, but the goal and main direction of the project is the PC user.
For example, Puppy users always log in using the "root" user ID. Comparing this to other Linux systems that, from a security and multi-user point of view, insist on using a different user ID. The Puppy community agrees that running the system as "root" does not pose any security risk. Test my own systems powered by Puppy and open to the world in the form of the ShieldsUp site! and, on the other hand, invisible to the outside world, thanks to a configured firewall.
Finally, keep in mind that Puppy Linux is evolving rapidly and each version has more and more significant improvements. You can choose for yourself any version of the releases currently available on the page.
The Puppy community is constantly moving towards releasing new versions. Typical applications and tools change with each release. This may not satisfy those who want a "frozen" system with minimal changes.
What is your verdict?
I have reviewed the features of Puppy Linux in this article to show its potential uses. But I missed one vital fact - Puppy Linux is just fun. With a friendly interface, easy-to-use "helpers" and built-in how-to information, it still has the ability, with your help, to turn into a complete system that can be used to solve serious problems. Puppy is a charming system that has all the features that make it eligible to participate in the growing user community.
You can download and test Puppy Linux using its Live-CD version, without making any changes to the existing partitions on your hard drive and without fear that the third-party system already on the disk will be corrupted. This way you can make sure that Puppy Linux is fully compatible with your hardware and make sure it has the ability to control video, system devices and have the interface you want.
Visit the main Puppy Linux sites located at and . Or download Puppy from here or here. Many people try to buy Puppy, but "buy" is not the right word, since Puppy is free and available. So let's just say that usually those who meet Puppy immediately want to take him home.
Screenshots of Puppy Linux:
4.1.1 Hard drives, partitions and file systems
A hard disk can be divided into several parts (partitions). In the operating system, each such partition looks like a separate hard drive. In Windows, each hard disk partition (as well as floppy drives and CD-ROM drives) has its own letter. Usually A: is the floppy drive, C: is the primary partition of the hard drive, D: is CD-ROM drive, E: - second hard disk partition, etc. Most often, Windows uses the NTFS or FAT32 file system.
On Linux, the primary partition is addressed as /dev/hda or /dev/sda . First letter ( h da) indicates the type of disk: "h" - idehd, "s" - satahd or flash, the second (h d a) the letter means: "d" - disk (disk), third (hd a) - disk number. For example, if your PC has a second hard drive, it is addressed as /dev/hdb or /dev/sdb . Sections are numbered sequentially, starting with one. The hard disk partition /dev/hda1 corresponds to the C drive in Windows, the /dev/hda2 partition corresponds to the E drive (if D is a CD-ROM), and so on. Linux can work with many different file systems, including ext2, ext3 or ReiserFS. These FS will not be read in Windows without special software, but Linux can freely work with Windows file systems. FAT32 is best supported in Linux, so for sharing information and sharing data in Linux and Windows, it is best to use this FS. The main thing to remember is that files cannot be placed on FAT32 if their volume exceeds 4 GB.
4.1.2 Defragmenting the hard drive
Download the program for defragmentation Defraggler. The program is good because it works faster than the built-in Windows defragmenter. Constantly updated and improved, unlike the last. Russian interface is present. So there will be no difficulty in using it. Install Defraggler on your computer, launch it and first of all select the interface language:
After localization, select the disk that you want to defragment (1), click the Analyze button (2) and check the disk for fragmented (divided) files. Such files are displayed in red. If there are many such places on the disk, and the disk size is large (40 GB or more), the defragmentation process may take a long time.
After reviewing the results of the analysis, click the Defragmentation button and wait for the operation to complete.
4.1.3 Creating partitions
Now you need to plan the number, size and type of partitions you will create. I recommend creating three more partitions in addition to the Windows partition. This example assumes that initially there is one partition with Windows (drive C:). After partitioning, the hard drive will look something like this:
Primary section: NTFS or FAT32 (Windows)
Second section: ext2 or ext3 (we will install Puppy on this partition)
Third section: Linux swap partition
Fourth section: FAT32 (for file sharing between Windows and Linux)
We will leave Windows on the primary partition. The second partition will have a Linux file system (ext2 or ext3), here we will install Puppy. The third partition needs to be made slightly larger than the size of your computer's RAM and formatted for the Linux swap file system. This is the section for swap files. The fourth FAT32 partition will be for file sharing between Linux and Windows, its recommended size is all the remaining free space.
You can familiarize yourself with the procedure for dividing a disk into partitions (preparing for installation) by watching a video. Video clip
Video size: 516 Kb
At the end of all procedures, you should get the following:
Close GParted. Now you can proceed to install PuppyRus on your hard drive.
4.2 Installation
4.2.1 Frugal installation using the "Universal PuppyRus(Puppy Universal Installer)"
Frugal Installation copies the Puppy image file from the CD to your hard drive. At system startup, Puppy reads into random access memory (RAM) in the same way as if you booted from a CD, but it is much faster. Thus, this method combines the advantages of booting from a CD (protection against unwanted spyware) and booting from a hard drive (speed). Moreover, it simplifies the process of switching to new version Puppy - all it takes is to replace some files. ()
To get acquainted with the installation process, you can watch the video. Video clip will start playing after full download. Depending on the size of the video, it may take a long time to load.
Video size: 4.8 Mb
Click here to download and view a screencast created with Wink!
You can also download the video for local viewing on your computer: Archive with the video (4.8 Mb)
To watch the video, unpack the archive into a folder and run the html file.
4.2.2 Manual Frugal installation / Update Puppy
To use this option, a bootloader must be installed on the computer. If the bootloader is not yet installed, we recommend using the "Grub bootloader configuration" ().
Boot from the CD using the puppy pfix=ram option. Copy the files PUP_301.SFS ZDRV_301.SFS INITRD.GZ VMLINUZ
to a Linux (ext2/ext3) or FAT32 partition.
If you are upgrading Puppy, overwrite existing files. Configure the GRUB bootloader by editing the menu.lst file. It is usually found on a Linux partition in the /boot/grub directory.
Add the following lines to the menu.lst file: title Puppy Linux 301 frugal (on / dev/ hda2) rootnoverify (hd0,1) kernel / vmlinuz pmedia =idehd initrd / initrd.gz
Note: (hd0,1) refers to the hard drive and partition where the GRUB files are installed. Depending on the device from which you are booting the system, you will need to set the value pmedia on the usb flash, usbhd, usbcd, ideflash, idehd, idecd, idezip, satahd, →
Puppy Linux is a small distribution created by Barry Kauler. Its main task is to be similar in use to Windows, to contain all the necessary programs, but to be extremely small and simple. The distribution works great on both new and old hardware and is very fast.
Its peculiarity is that you can get a full-fledged system simply by writing a small installation image to a USB flash drive and running it in LiveCD mode. If you think that other distributions can do this too, then no, there is a session saving feature that allows you to save all the data that you have worked with.
The distribution kit also contains a very large number of utilities and tools for configuring the system, with which you can configure anything you like and you don’t have to go into the configuration files very often. The last release in 2015 was Puppy Linux 6.3, codenamed Slacko, based on Slackware 14.1, but the distribution is still in development. In this tutorial, we will look at how to install Puppy Linux on your hard drive as a full operating system.
System requirements
The puppy linux hardware requirements are a little surprising. It looks like it can run on almost any hardware. To run the system requires 64 megabytes of RAM and a processor with a clock frequency of 333MHz.
Step 1: Download the image
First of all, we need to download the installation image. The most latest version available on the official website. But there are two versions available here 6.0.5 based on Ubuntu 14.04 and 6.3 based on Slackware. We will install the latest.
Select the desired system architecture and download the image. The image weighs about 200 megabytes, so the download will be fast. Over time, there may be more distributions of Puppy Linux. The fact is that this distribution can be created on the basis of other distributions, and be compatible with their package base. These distributions contain the same set of puppy utilities and are all considered official. For example, Puppy Linux is currently in development, based on Ubuntu Xenial Xerus.
Step 2. Burning the image to a USB flash drive
Developers advise using the dd utility to write to a USB flash drive. The terminal command in Linux will look like this:
dd if=~/slacko64.iso of=~/dev/sdb bs=5M
Here /dev/sdb is the device name of your flash drive, you don't need to add any numbers there. In the operating room Windows system You can use the Windows version of this utility. Here the command will look like this:
dd if=slacko64.iso of=\\.\f: bs=5M
Here f: is the drive letter of your flash drive. Don't forget to run command line You need administrator rights.
Step 3Setting up the BIOS
When the flash drive is written, restart the computer. During the BIOS splash screen, press F2, F8, Shift+F2 or del, to open the setting. There, go to the Boot tab and in the item 1st boot device select your flash drive:
Step 4Setting Up the Bootloader
At the first stage of loading the image, you can enter the kernel parameters, if there is nothing to change, just press Enter or wait:
Step 5: Booting the LiveCD
Wait for the download to finish:
Step 6 System Setup
Immediately after the start, such a system settings window will open, it makes no sense to configure anything now, because after installation the settings will still fail:
So just close this window.
Step 7Run the Installer
There is no installer shortcut, as we are used to, the installer is located in the main menu, in the Setup section. The menu item is called universal.
Step 8: Selecting an Installer
At this step, we can choose which installer to use, for a flash drive, for a flash drive with the f2fs file system or a universal one, we need a universal one:
Step 9. Selecting the device type
In this window, we have to select the type of device to install. When installing to a hard drive, select Internal (IDE or SATA):
Step 10: Choose a device
Select the device on which we will install the system:
Step 11. Prepare the section
The system is installed on one partition. If the selected device already has partitions, you can select one of them. Otherwise, click the button with the Gparted icon:
Step 12Create Partition Table
If your disk is not already partitioned, open the Deices menu and click Create Partition Table:
Step 13Creating a Partition
Create one new partition of sufficient size. One or several gigabytes is enough to install and fully use the entire system. The file system for the partition can be vfat, ntfs or ext4 and other Linux compatible ones.
In the first case, you will not be able to install a complete system. The installer will create an empty file, make the necessary file system there, and only then proceed to the installation. But this option does not suit us, so we will use ext4.
Step 14 Applying Changes
When finished, open the menu Edit and press Apply All Changes to save changes.
Step 15 Boot Flag
Here check the box next to Boot and press Ok. After that Gparted can be closed.
Step 16Device Selection #2
Once again, select the device:
Step 17 Selecting a Partition
In the upper right corner, select the newly created disk:
Step 18Confirm Partition
Confirm the installation on this particular partition:
Step 19Extra Disk
If you have an additional disk with puppy linux files, you can now mount it:
Step 20 Installation Method
You have two installation options. Installing puppy linux as a file, recommended when installing on ntfs or vfat, as well as a full installation (FULL). In this article, we will use the full installation:
Step 21 Final Confirmation
Confirm that the system definitely needs to be installed on this drive:
Step 22Install Puppy Linux
Wait until the files are copied to the disk partition:
Step 23Installing the Bootloader
Select Yes if you want to install the bootloader. Grub4dos will be used as bootloader:
Step 24Setting Up the Bootloader
Select the partition on which the bootloader will be installed, and also set additional parameters if necessary:
Step 25Kernel Options
Enter additional kernel parameters if necessary, also here you can choose the name of the menu item for windows:
Step 26: Confirm Boot Loader Installation
Confirm that the bootloader needs to be installed in the MBR. Now the installation of puppy linux is completed, it remains to restart the computer.
Step 27: Reboot
Reboot the system using the corresponding button on the panel:
Step 28. Starting the system
Select the first item in the bootloader menu and wait for the download to complete:
Step 29 Setup Menu
After starting the system, the initial setup menu will open again in front of us. Here you can set the language, time zone and many more system settings.
First select the language you want to use the system in:
Then, in the box below, select your time zone:
Step 29Localization
To localize the system, it is not enough just to select the language, you also need to install the package with translations through the package manager, so start Puppy Package Manager from the menu.
In the list of repositories, go to puppy-noarch, then search for langpack. When the packages are found, select the langpack_ru package and double click on it, then click Do It in the top corner to start the installation:
After the installation is complete, it remains to reboot the system. Then everything will be in Russian.
conclusions
That's all, now you know how to install puppy linux on your hard drive and are a little familiar with the features of this distribution. As you can see, this is not an ordinary linux distribution, it can be run both in normal mode and using a LiveCD, and in both cases you get a full-fledged operating system. If you have any questions, ask in the comments!
Video with puppy linux installation process:
Author Elena the beautiful asked a question in Other languages and technologies
how to install linux puppy along with windows, provided that windows is already installed (so that when you turn on you can choose the OS and get the best answer
Answer from Gnome-forever[guru]
you can put puppy on a flash drive 256 mb is enough. .
or grub in mbr install. .
gnome-forever
Enlightened
(25348)
Olga, in principle, the manipulations are simple, but without such experience, you can get problems ..
It is important to correctly write grub to the section with puppy, and then to the mbr of the disk, you will have to edit menu.lst (manually register puppy and Windows)
The slightest mistake and Windows or puppy won't boot, although everything can be fixed with LiveCD Puppy...
In other more well-known distributions - Ubuntu, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, etc.,
All this is done automatically..
There will be more time, let's chat in a personal, do nothing for now or try to stumble puppy on a flash drive, get a useful experience ..
In general, google and read more here
http://www.puppyrus.org/wiki/index.php?title=Установка_Puppy_Linux_на_flash-носитель
Answer from Silencer[guru]
Just allocate space on your hard drive for Linux and install it. The Linux bootloader will do everything by itself, it will prescribe Windu to boot.
The process of installing Linux Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 (Lupu-525) on a hard drive is not a super task, however, some features of this process can lead a beginner into difficulty. Below, the installation of Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 will be described step by step, including the installation of the bootloader (Grub bootloader), with playback of screen images issued by Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 during this action.
The operating system Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 has a CD size of 128 mb and is able to run directly from the CD. Its distribution, distributed as an iso-file (CD image), is written to a CD, inserted into the tray, and the computer is restarted. If the BIOS shows the CD-ROM as the first boot device, the computer will "pick up" the CD, load the files into RAM, and after about 2 minutes, the Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 operating system will be ready to work, even though it is present on the hard drive computer of a previously installed operating system.
Working with Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 in live-CD mode has such a significant advantage as reliable protection against viruses, since viruses are not able to get on the CD. However, in this case, one has to put up with a long start of the computer (copying files from a CD), which is a significant drawback. Installing Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 on your hard drive allows you to significantly speed up the boot, and use Puppy as a normal "stationary" operating system, while being very fast.
So, installation on the hard drive.
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The installer is ready to go, you can run it by pressing the "Install Puppy to sda1" button, but we will not rush. The hard drive was previously formatted in NTFS, moreover, it has only one partition. It is not good. Linux, including Lucid Puppy, has its own file system, in addition, it will be useful to reduce the living space for Puppy somewhat without giving it the entire hard drive (in order to be able to install another operating system on the same hard drive, if in the future we will need this). Thus, now our task is to create a Linux partition on disk sda1 with a volume of, say, 5 GB. (Creating a partition of less than 2 gigabytes for Puppy is not recommended - taking into account the installation of additional Puppy programs, there will not be enough space.) Accordingly, click on the "Filesystem in partition" button. |
Since the sda1 hard drive was formatted by us, it is clear that there is no Grab on it. How to put the Hornbeam - see the material "Grab Loader for Lucid Puppy 5.2.5" directly continuing this article.
