I must be making a mistake as it seems this distro does not want to save the main sfs files from the optic disk to the hard drive (SDA1).
So if I remove the dvd, I cant boot.
There are so many options during the set up so I tried doing it again and get the same result. Somehow, I got a grub thing that defaults me to a window start message. No windows on this machine. Would start over if I could just figure out how. Pretty savvy with windows, but the linux concepts seem to require a lot more IT basics.

I am refurbishing a 2004 Gateway and after trying a number of different OS, Puppy32, (v19.03) seems to be the one that can make this old machine usable. Please assist if you can. Any advice is appreciated.

Frank

Did you install BionicPup32 to the hard drive? Or is it run from optical disk , a live dvd?

Look at the docs
http://wikka.puppylinux.com/InstallationIndex

Teckk
Folowed the onscreen instructions, step by step, two times for good measure. Still cant boot. It is as if there is some default to pulling the start file off the dvd even though it is stored on the hard drive as all my settings are intact after reboot.

Help if you can

Just about to give up on Puppy

Lot of learning

Did you install puppy in frugal or full
open a terminal and post the output of That is a lower case L

What does that mean. What bootloader does puppy install? Is it grub? Is grub giving an error, or is there a kernel panic or what? Does it hang, do you get an error message.

You installed puppy to the hard drive and didn't just copy it there? Did you install a bootloader? Did you configure the bootloader?

You are going to have to give some information instead of just "It won't boot".

Did you follow the docs?
http://wikka.puppylinux.com/InstallationFullHDD
http://wikka.puppylinux.com/InstallationFrugal
http://wikka.puppylinux.com/FrugalOrFullInstallation

@ teckk:-

The guy's been asking this same question over on the Puppy Forums at Murga-linux, under a different user-name. He won't give the necessary information over there, either.

One of these who seem to think we all use crystal balls, and can guess what's going on in his head.....

FWIW, Puppy uses a custom Grub4DOS for a bootloader - based on the old 'legacy' GRUB. But where the 'official' Grub4DOS hasn't been maintained for some time, Pup's is a highly-customized version that is regularly maintained & updated by the Woof-CE team at Github.

The last major update was around 7 months ago, to fix a long-standing problem Pup has had with booting from an EXT4 file-system, when it's been created by a 64-bit OS.....

'Puppians' almost exclusively use EXT3, y'see.


Mike.

Thanks all for trying to help me. The tech talk is beyond me. Still works. Just will leave the disc in the machine.