
Puppy Linux Tahr 5.0.6 fits into 1G of disk space and runs well on only 500mb of RAM on an old XP box.
Using GParted
The first thing to do is to boot up Puppy using the DVD and configure the network card for internet access. My disk was completely devoted to Win XP, so I had to repartition my disk. This means reducing the Win XP sized disk partition and adding partitions for Puppy. Here’s my partitioning. Friend Dave recommended that the windows and /dos partitions should be contiguous so that if you need more space you can shrink one and grow the other. Ditto for linux 1 and linux 2. I have 2 linux partitions because I may, in the future, add yet another linux distro. The linux swap partition is at the end of the disk for efficiency.
- dev/sda1/ Windows
- dev/sda3 /dos
- dev/sda4
- dev/sda5 /home
- dev/sda6 /linux 2
- dev/sda7 /linux 1
- dev/sda2 swap
Puppy Universal Installer
Choose “Internal (IDE or Sata hard drive)”. You will then need to choose your hard disk. I have 2 disks, sda and sdb. Windows boots off of sda, so that is the drive I used.
Installing Grub4Dos
Puppy will now install a program that allows you, upon initial boot, to choose between Windows XP or Puppy. The program used is called Grub4Dos. The Puppy Grub4Dos instructions are sparse. I had never heard of it, and googling did not reveal much. There were some options, I chose “display on a single page”. You also choose your disk, which for me is sda.
Finishing the Puppy Installation
Once Grub4Dos finishes there is no message to say that the Puppy install is complete. They just let you hang there, pretty abruptly. The process is very anti-climactic.
Post Installation
You will need to configure your network connection. After this, click on left side of the screen, QuickPet, with the black and white dog icon, and install a browser. None comes with Puppy. I installed Opera.
After this you are free to do as you wish. I have install Simplified Chinese, which I had also done with Puppy Slacko. I also installed Opera.
Hard Disk Usage
I have only installed TahrPup 6.0.5, fcitx and fcitx Sunpinyin, and Opera. Puppy has 2 indicators of disk usage and their numbers vary. The disk indicator on the bottom of the screen says I have used 872mb. The Partview tool says I have used 1.04G. Either way, you do need more than 1G of disk, preferably 1.5G. This is a fair cry from the 200mb initial install to memory.
Puppy is not particularly fast at loading from boot.
Puppy is not Intended to Install to Disk
It is clear that Puppy is meant to run from a USB key and into RAM memory. Yes, there are instructions to install to disk, and they work. Here are some indicators:
- When you boot up Puppy tries to load into memory, then remembers that it is already on disk and aborts.
- My internet connection on bootup is always disconnected. I need to actually use a connection program to get to the internet.
- You don’t log into Puppy. You’re always have root privileges, which is uncommon in Linux but common in Windows. This means you could inadvertently damage your install. While you don’t need a login for a USB loaded system, on a disk install it would be more secure.
- By default, Puppy only requires an install directory. I also had a separate /home directory that I would have liked Puppy to use, but it does not. If I reinstall Puppy all my setting are deleted.
As for security I tried to break into puppy with Metasploit and Armitage. All 100 common ports are closed and almost no vulnerabilities. Even an indepth NMap scan did not yield much.