# Installation

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`v-0.1 Last updated: 7th July, 2014`

## Contents

- ### Introduction

- ### Target Media

- ### Frugal Install

- ### Full Install

- ### Booting

- ### Installation Programs

## Introduction

Puppy can be installed in many different ways. Consequently, the installer has many different choices which may be confusing to the new Puppy user. This document will attempt to clear that confusion such that you, the Puppy User can confidently install Puppy Linux to your medium of choice in the desired manner.

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## Target Media

Puppy can be installed to all common media. Until recently, even floppy disk installation was supported, but that is so '80s! USB sticks, USB hard drives, Firewire2 hard drives, CF (Compact Flash), SD card, internal Solid State Disk (SSD) and normal old Hard Drives (HDD - either IDE or SATA).
Even CD, DVD and BlueRay™1 installation (as such) is supported but it is not acheived by using one of these installer programs. In the Puppy main Menu there is a program called "Remaster Puppy Live CD" where you build your own custom version of Puppy including as many packages and programs as you like.
Alternatively, if you boot with a CD-RW or DVD-RW8 you can save your session to the optical media and never worry about installing anything! No hard drive needed.

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## Frugal Install

By design, Puppy Linux runs in your systems Random Access Memory (RAM). Normally, a minimum of 512 MB (megabytes) of RAM is recommended to run Puppy but it will work with less. Don't worry, any machine built after 2003 is likely to have at least enough RAM. Due to this a Frugal installation is recommended. Really, it isn't installed per se´, rather the main files to get Puppy running (the kernel or "vmlinuz", an initial ram disk or "initrd.gz", a main puppy system file known as the "main sfs" usually named puppy_1.2.3.sfs or similar and perhaps a few others depending on puppy version) are copied to your disk then booted with a boot loader. It can be installed in almost any partition in almost any file system (eg: FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4). It can be installed inside an existing Installation of Windows, or other Linux such as Ubuntu or Fedora. A frugal install also works on all types of media3.
For technical information see How Puppy Works.

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## Full Install

A Full installation is just like a Windows™ installation or any other Linux Installation. It requires it's own partition and it must be of a Linux type filesystem; most commonly ext2, ext3 or ext4 but others are possible. These are mostly used for internal HDDs or SSDs but can be used on external USB or FireWire HDDs. This is a good option if you have an older machine that is low on RAM.

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## Booting

Booting, in simple terms, is just your computer finding the files to execute the Operating System (OS). All Operating Systems need some way to boot. Puppy supports various methods of booting. Some require the editing of the special boot code at the start of the disk (MBR) so that the special Linux files can be found (kernel - vmlinuz and initrd.gz).
Puppy can be made to dual boot with Windows or another Linux or multi boot with several operating systems. There are three main programs that Puppy supports out of the box for booting. Grub4dos, Grub (legacy) and Syslinux.
Grub4dos supports booting from vfat (FAT32 or FAT16) filesystems found in Windows™ 95, 98 and ME and the NTFS filesystem introduced in Windows™ NT and also the default filesystem of Windows™ 2000, XP, Vista , 7, 8, 8.1 and the Windows™ Server family. The program grub4dosconfig takes all the hard work out of installing a boot loader and automatically detects and configures loading of all your installed OS. If you're tentative about modifying the special boot sector on your hard drive you can install grub4dos to a USB key or a floppy disk.
Grub (legacy) supports booting from vfat (FAT32 or FAT16) filesystems found in Windows™ 95, 98 and ME but not NTFS. This makes it a good choice to install for ancient4 windows machines or pure Linux machines, with no windows. The program Legacy Grub config takes the hard work out of installing the grub boot loader. Again, if you're tentative about modifying the special boot sector on your hard drive or your partition's superblock you can install grub (legacy) to a USB key or a floppy disk.
Syslinux supports booting from vfat (FAT32 or FAT16) filesystems found in Windows™ 95, 98 and ME and the many Linux filesystems such as ext2, ext3 and ext4. This is used in frugal installs to USB keys in Puppy Linux. USB keys can be formatted to vfat or ext(2,3,4). Syslinux can boot hard disks and other media but that is beyond the scope of this manual.
There is also a new filesystem available in some new Puppy versions called the "Flash Friendly File System" (f2fs) which is not currently supported by the boot loaders in Puppy but can be used all the same with a small vfat or ext2 filesystem to boot the kernel with syslinux (or grub4dos) and then find the Puppy Linux files on the f2fs filesystem. If your Puppy supports f2fs you can install it to a USB flash drive or SD card and use a frugal5 or full6 type of install.
WakePup2 can also be used to boot Puppy. It is a floppy disk image that needs to be transferred to floppy disk. It can boot a CD from an ancient computer that can not boot from USB or CD in it's BIOS. Of course it can also boot the OS from the HDD. If WakePup2 is not in your Puppy then you can download it from the Puppy Package Manager (PPM).
NB: At the time of writing, Puppy's boot loaders do not support GPT partitioning found in new Windows™ 8 machines and some other operating systems. You can use Grub2 and this will be supported at a later date.

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## Installation Programs

You may be confused as to why there are so many options to install Puppy. Puppy is Open Source7 and people love to dive in and write code. It's difficult to say what works for everybody so we bundle together a few different programs for installation so that if one doesn't work the way you want then you can try a different approach. All of them may not be included in your Puppy install.

1. Puppy Universal Installer. (aka PUI) This program covers nearly every type of installation from full to frugal and anything in between. If you want to do a full install this is the program you want. It is always included in Puppy Linux.
2. Frugal Installer. This one, as the name suggests, is an excellent choice if you are after a frugal install.
3. BootFlash. An installer specifically targeted at USB stick installs. You may want to try this one. Quick and easy.
4. F2fs Usb Installer. A specialised program to help you format and install to a f2fs USB flash stick or SD card which supports frugal5 or full6 types of installs.

No matter what your situation, we think that we have got you covered. Enjoy installing or not installing, as the case may be ☻, Puppy Linux!

The Puppy Linux Team

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- BlueRay™ requires special proprietary libraries that are not shipped with Puppy but can be installed.
- FireWire™ requires that your Puppy has the kernel drivers for such a device.
- "ancient" Windows™ machines, for the purpose of Puppy Linux, are defined as those that run on FAT filesystems.
- "Open Source" software is software that is free to redistribute and free to modify under the terms of the appropriate licence.
- Some lap top optical drives can not save back to CD/DVD.

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