Installing Bionic Puppy Linux to hard drive

[VanillaCoffee]

I've been trying to install Bionic Puppy Linux to a netbook, I've followed the install instructions and I have watched youtube tutorials on how to install Bionic Puppy Linux but after installation once I re-boot I'm stuck at the grub screen.

All i see when i boot up the machine is:
wee 0> find --set-root /grldr
wee 15> /grldr
wee 17>

I've tried to install it on a different netbook with the same result.

Any ideas?

 

[Condobloke]

G'day VanillaCoffee, Welcome to Linux.org

I will give a 'call' to our resident Puppy expert. @MikeWalsh

Members are in different time zones, but he will be aware that I have mentioned his name when he comes online

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome to the forums
Lots of ideas, but not enough information,
what machine are you using [full make and model number]
what application did you use to burn/write your download to you installation medium [pen-dive/DVD-r]
are you trying to do a clean installation [wiping the current OS completely] or as a multi boot [keep current system and run Linux alongside]
Which OS was supplied originally with your machine?

 

[VanillaCoffee]

Welcome to the forums
Lots of ideas, but not enough information,
what machine are you using [full make and model number]
what application did you use to burn/write your download to you installation medium [pen-dive/DVD-r]
are you trying to do a clean installation [wiping the current OS completely] or as a multi boot [keep current system and run Linux alongside]
Which OS was supplied originally with your machine?

I used Ventoy to write the Puppy image ISO.

The netbooks I've tried to install it on are:
HP mini 100e "original OS Windows 7" Fresh 64GB SSD installed so no OS
Dell Latitude 2100 "original OS Windows Vista/7"

The installations are clean installs from USB flash drive.

 

[kc1di]

Hello @VanillaCoffee,
Welcome to Linux.org forum. Enjoy!
Mike our resident puppy guy should be along soon to give you help with it.

 

[Deleted member 108694]

The error is basically saying it could not find the grldr, because the boot flag was not set, to tell the boot process that the boot files are located on this partition.
Generally "wee" is the first part of Puppy Linux version of Grub4dos Boot loader
More info is here - https://sites.google.com/rmprepusb.com/www/tutorials/wee

 

[PuppyHome]

But still......Gotta say that just because one COULD install any Puppy to the hard disc doesn't mean one should as it is not intended to run as a fully installed distro like the "regular" distros.

I'd advice OP to set up a pupsave file and use that. It's the closest thing to a full install and after each session one could choose to save that particular session or not. I run several Puppys all with pupsave files and the only things in there are some basic browser settings and a few things more. Always closing every session without saving to benefit from the security advantages. (which you don't have using a full install).

 

[VanillaCoffee]

Thanks for the info... They made it so complicated. Its just too much for me I can't figure it out. As puppy isn't a full distro then its not worth the trouble. I do really like Puppy Linux its a shame. The earlier versions were easier to install.

I guess my next question is what Linux OS would be best for this netbook that has an installer.
HP mini 100e
2GB DDR3 RAM
Atom 455 1.6 GHz single core processor
120 GB Intel SSD

Slitaz Linux maybe?

It may be possible to up the RAM to 4GB as its DDR3 there is just the one RAM slot on this netbook however it says in the data sheets I found online that the HP mini 100e can only take a maximum of 2GB RAM. DDR3 RAM is pretty cheap so I may just buy a 4GB stick to try on it and see what happens otherwise it will be limited to just 2GB of RAM. Having 4GB RAM would really help tho.

Any suggestions on a light Linux OS?

 

[PuppyHome]

Thanks for the info... They made it so complicated. Its just much for me I can't figure it out. As puppy isn't a full distro then its not worth the trouble. I do really like Puppy Linux its a shame. The earlier versions were easier to install.

I guess my next question is what Linux OS would be best for this netbook that has an installer.
HP mini 100e
2GB DDR3 RAM
Atom 455 1.6 GHz single core processor
120 GB Intel SSD

Slitaz Linux maybe?

It may be possible to up the RAM to 4GB as its DDR3 however it says in the data sheets I found online that the HP mini 100e can only take a maximum of 2GB RAM. DDR3 RAM is pretty cheap so I may just buy a 4GB stick to try on it and see what happens otherwise it will be limited to just 2GB of RAM. Having 4GB RAM would really help tho.

Any suggestions on a light Linux OS?

Well, Puppy IS a full distro with everything you need (and then some). I am saying that Puppy is not meant ro run as a full installed (bare metal) OS. And given the specs you provided it will run VERY well from RAM and all you need is a pupsave file (somewhere on your boot device) to enjoy it and save your sessions which is the same experience as a full install. Add a 2GB SWAP file and you'll be set for life

 

[VanillaCoffee]

Awesome in that case I will try again with Puppy Linux hopefully I'll get there eventually... so the first thing I need to do is prepare the SSD. How many partitions would I need for installing Puppy Linux and what size partitions?

 

[Brickwizard]

The N455 Atom CPU is not the fastest in this world, and with only 2gb ram I personally would look at medium or lightweight builds, such as Linux-Lite, Antix, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, although it should run with something like, Mint LMDE, Peppermint Debian stable [with additional driver pack] and MX
even our Puppy Guru @MikeWalsh doesn't recommend puppy for less experienced users

 

[PuppyHome]

Awesome in that case I will try again with Puppy Linux hopefully I'll get there eventually... so the first thing I need to do is prepare the SSD. How many partitions would I need for installing Puppy Linux and what size partitions?

Here is what you do: Burn a USB stick with your puppy of choice. Boot into your Puppy set it up at your convenience, shutdown, choose from the prompt "save session", click ok and reboot. That's it.
No need to prepare your SSD as you are using your pup from the usb stick. You only will use your SSD when you specifically choose to do so, for example save downloads or files and stuff.

@MikeWalsh will probably correct me on some things (lol) but this method works for me.

 

[VanillaCoffee]

The N455 Atom CPU is not the fastest in this world, and with only 2gb ram I personally would look at medium or lightweight builds, such as Linux-Lite, Antix, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, although it should run with something like, Mint LMDE, Peppermint Debian stable [with additional driver pack] and MX
even our Puppy Guru @MikeWalsh doesn't recommend puppy for less experienced users

A lot of those Distros would be too heavy on the Atom processor, from my experience they are not that great on a dual core 2 so I couldn't imagine how slow they would be on a single core Atom CPU MINT, Linux LITE, Lubuntu and Kubuntu will definitely be way too heavy on such a netbook but the earlier versions would but not today's updated versions.

Linux MX would work ok although it does use 500MB of RAM when nothing is running. I installed this on another similar netbook.

I'm trying out a handful I've found listed below:
Bodhi Linux
DSL only 50MB not sure if its still supported
AlbatrOSx86
Slitaz
Slackware

 

[ML_113]

Did you set the boot flag ?
Did you run Grub4dos (in the menu) BEFORE rebooting the computer ?

 

[Brickwizard]

A lot of those Distros would be too heavy on the Atom processor,

I have an Acer ZG5 with a 32 bit atom 1,5gb ram running Debian 32 bit, a bit slow but usable

 

[guiverc]

I'm adding this comment here only as I noted bionic.. which I believe relates to Ubuntu's bionic release which is more or less end of standard support.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or bionic was released in 2018-April with 5 years of standard support, which could be extended via ESM/Pro for a further five years, alas for two architectures only (with ESM/Pro support not including all packages either, though it's a good portion of the repository).

You can use ubuntu-support-status to confirm your status if using a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or bionic based system, but you'll note rather quickly you've either run out of support, or have mere days left (all EOSS ends for bionic on 30 May 2023, with Pro/ESM starting 31 May 2023).

I don't know Puppy Linux well (though I've used it, and do have a ancient laptop here still with an older Puppy Wary on it! but I don't use that system online), but if it's used online; I'd avoid things based on an EOSS/EOL Ubuntu release (or any distribution/release actually).

I still have a intel atom n270 (1GB ram) device that is rarely used, but I'll grab & use it for specific tasks as it still has a good battery (alas I don't like its keyboard much; it's not full size), and whilst it ran equally well with Ubuntu 18.04 on it (using lighter DE & WMs), my preference now would be Debian (what I have running on mine in fact; given it gets security fixes etc).

 

[wizardfromoz]

A salient point above from my fellow Aussie and another Chris, above

@VanillaCoffee welcome to linux.org

If you wish to avail yourself of a Pup that has access to current Ubuntu repositories, there is one called

Puppy Fossa

which will access the repos for Ubuntu 20.04 'Focal Fossa'

It can be downloaded from the following

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-fossa/

Undoubtedly when @MikeWalsh is next online he can advise best.

HTH

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[VanillaCoffee]

I did try Fossa Puppy but it failed to load. I'm going to scrap Bionic Puppy and try Lupu Puppy Linux which is the more traditional flavor. I'm going to install it to SSD and I understand I need two partitions one for SWAP of 4GB and the other partition in exFAT for the OS.

I wonder if there is any reason why the developers of Puppy Linux have made it so difficult and complicated to install.

I remember installing Puppy to hard drive years ago and all's I did was partition the hard drive and installed the system and it was done. I can't remember exactly how I did it but it wasn't overly complicated. This was about 7 years ago. Things have changed since then.

 

[VanillaCoffee]

Here is what you do: Burn a USB stick with your puppy of choice. Boot into your Puppy set it up at your convenience, shutdown, choose from the prompt "save session", click ok and reboot. That's it.
No need to prepare your SSD as you are using your pup from the usb stick. You only will use your SSD when you specifically choose to do so, for example save downloads or files and stuff.

@MikeWalsh will probably correct me on some things (lol) but this method works for me.

I'm not sure I like the sound of that plus I really don't want a USB drive hanging off the side of the netbook every time I use it also USB flash drives can become corrupted when used to many times like this. I'd much prefer to have the Puppy OS on SSD.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@VanillaCoffee :-

Sorry to be a while getting to you! As mentioned earlier, it's the "time-zone" thing.

Lord Boltar is quite right. 'Wee', etc, indicates this is purely a Grub4DOS bootloader issue, nothing more. It's easily fixable, but not one I've encountered for some time, so I'll need to research this one in the Puppy archives. I'll ask you to bear with me on this one, and will get back to you as soon as I can.

Um; now then. Where did you get the idea that Puppy is not a "full" distro?

Lots of people get thrown by this. Because Puppy is installed in "frugal" mode - the recommended method, BTW - folks get the idea that it's some kind of stripped-back, 'poor-man's' version of Puppy, and not the "real deal". Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Frugal" refers to the fact that Puppy is - and always has been - 'frugal' (read 'careful') with the amount of space it consumes. The entire thing loads into a virtual RAMdisk at boot, from just three or four highly-compressed, 'read-only' files.....instead of having the entire file-system written-out in full, occupying a whole partition. (Puppy will run from a sub-directory within a partition, since our modified version of Grub4DOS searches TWO layers deep to find a 'bootable' kernel.)

At close of session, any changes made are written to what's called the 'save-folder'. At the next boot, these changes are layered back into the read-only stuff in RAM using Puppy's AUFS-layered file-system. As far as you, the user, are concerned, this all just shows as a normal file-system layout. You don't need to concern yourself with this stuff, but I just wanted to give a brief explanation.

-------------------------------------------

I currently run 14 Puppies, each running from a dedicated sub-directory, all situated on the same single partition. These are located on partition sda2 of a 1 TB Crucial MX-500 SSD.

Puppy was originally envisaged as always running from a flash-drive. Indeed, many Puppians use this method today, to 'rescue' older machines with knackered hard drives. But you have ALWAYS been able to run Puppy from ANY media you wish.....even within Windows itself!

Let me look into the 'wee' bootloader thing for you. I'll be back later on, hopefully with an explanation and a 'fix' for you.

(EDIT:- Don't, whatever you do, run Lupu. This was based on Ubuntu 10.04 'Lucid Lynx', and is so far out of date that even we don't offer support for it any longer...)


Mike.