Question I need help installing Puppy Linux on legacy machine (WinXP, IDE-adapted SATA) ?

[Anomaly_76]

So... For those not familiar, trying to do some minor updates on an old Dell Dimension B110 for a friend's kid. Nothing special, 325 Celeron with an 80GB HDD and an optical drive. I've advised that better can be had for less than maxing this one out, but suggested at least an SSD with Puppy Linux, to let it run as fast as it can while getting around the headache of trying to reactivate XP (yes, there is a key, but no discs, and I believe those servers have been shut down permanently).

For max performance, I'm using a 128GB Silicon Power SATA M.2 on a NGFF adapter, plugged into a StarTec SATA-IDE adapter.
Strangely, however, while the machine's BIOS can see it, the existing Windows XP installation cannot. Drive is on the secondary IDE interface, adapter set to cable select.

Just a guess, maybe this brand-new drive is formatted FAT32 or exFAT and must be formatted NTFS before XP or this machine can work with it?

I tried creating a bootable USB for Puppy Linux using the Lick Installer. As a failsafe, I copied the ISO and installer to the USB drive after using Lick to install the ISO. No go. Machine is trying to boot from the USB, because it says"No operating system found, please retry" until I remove the USB drive, then it boots into Win XP on the primary drive.
I can view the files in XP, but as I'm not familiar with Linux, I really don't know for sure what I'm looking at, or looking for.

So what am I doing wrong here?

 

[Grobe]

Have you checked what CPU that computer have? Maybe you need a 32bit OS.

 

[Anomaly_76]

Have you checked what CPU that computer have? Maybe you need a 32bit OS.

It is a PPGA478 Celeron 325... So, yes, it needs a 32-bit. The Puppy Linux I downloaded was listed as a 32-bit version, but maybe it isn't?

 

[rustigsmed]

maybe check you didn't grab the raspbian buster version.

 

[Priscus]

You say BIOS can see the SSD, but to install Puppy on this, that is not the device you are needing to boot from. Can BIOS also see the USB device that you want to run the install from, and allow you to designate it as a boot device?

XP is not aware of Linux, and will not read the formats the latter usually employs.

Linux will however recognise Windows systems. The default install normally disables Windows' 'BOOT' and Linux's boot (Likely to be GRUB), offers you the opportunity to boot either of the two.

It is possible to modify Windows boot to make it also give you the option of booting Linux, but this does not happen as the default.

 

[Anomaly_76]

You say BIOS can see the SSD, but to install Puppy on this, that is not the device you are needing to boot from. Can BIOS also see the USB device that you want to run the install from, and allow you to designate it as a boot device?

XP is not aware of Linux, and will not read the formats the latter usually employs.

Linux will however recognise Windows systems. The default install normally disables Windows' 'BOOT' and Linux's boot (Likely to be GRUB), offers you the opportunity to boot either of the two.

It is possible to modify Windows boot to make it also give you the option of booting Linux, but this does not happen as the default.

So, if I'm understanding correctly, I should be booting on Puppy to install it.

The system does support booting from USB, and there are options in the BIOS.

I did get Windows to see the SSD, was a jumper setting on the IDE to SATA adapter. However, I flashed a 32-bit NoblePup ISO to it, and it still won't boot.

After watching some videos on installing Puppy Linux, I downloaded Slacko Puppy 7.0 (x86 32-bit), at which point I got stuck, because the video mentioned downloading a Balena 'etcher' for the install. Nothing new, I used an etcher to try ZorinOS on what is now my NAS awhile back.

Unfortunately, the Puppy etcher is a different app image download, and now I can't seem to get Windows to run it. Indications are I need some sort of Windows add-on to make it work. I tried UNetBootin, but no luck so far.

However, I just read something that some systems will only see a FAT32 drive as a boot drive. Could that be my issue here? I've been using NTFS because I was unsure if this system supported FAT32.Formatting the USB for FAT32 now.

UPDATE: Got a USB boot! The FAT32 / NTFS thing was apparently an issue for this machine, and I used Rufus this time around.

I presume now that if I format the SSD for exFAT (no FAT32 option for this drive for some reason), I should be able to install Puppy Linux to it from the USB boot? But how do I do that from within a running installation?

 

[Grobe]

I presume now that if I format the SSD for exFAT (no FAT32 option for this drive for some reason), I should be able to install Puppy Linux to it from the USB boot? But how do I do that from within a running installation?

No, you don't want to have your ssd formatted as exFAT, use ext4 file system that is native supported by Linux.

 

[Anomaly_76]

No, you don't want to have your ssd formatted as exFAT, use ext4 file system that is native supported by Linux.

There may be a complication here I may have forgotten to mention. I am using a SATA M.2 in an NGFF adapter with an IDE to SATA adapter, as the machine has only IDE / PATA interface. After several failed attempts to make this SSD bootable, I can only assume the issue may have something to do with that.

I have yet to make a standard install directly from the bootable USB, perhaps the FAT32 vs ext4 thing is why), but it doesn't seem to be able to find a valid 'frugalPup' installation. What is it looking for? I tried copying the sfs and iso to the bootable USB, but it doesn't view those as valid. The installation tool on this bootable USB seems to be garbage.

However, in the absence of information, after a lot of fussing and cussing, I did manage to clone the bootable USB to this SSD arrangement, and it does work. However, because the bootable USB was a 16GB and formatted FAT32, the SSD, too, is FAT32. This meant allocating the remainder of the SSD as FAT32 partitions. Messy, but it works. CD drive works, recognizes all partitions and drives. I even had rips of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Contraband playing on it, and it seems to run quite well.

The question is, were I to wipe that out and set it up as ext4, what is this 'frugalPup' installation it's looking for, and why won't it accept a valid ISO or SFS? I am brand-new to Linux, so I'm sure there's a lot I don't understand about it yet.

If it matters, I am working with Slacko 7. I do have a NoblePup ISO as well (supposedly 32-bit), but I am not sure this 478-socket Celeron will like it.