Puppy Linux & USB Sticks

To Users of Puppy Linux:

What has been your experience with installing Puppy Linux on USB Sticks? Will a PC only boot off of certain brands/models?

Thank you.

 

That depends on the computer's BIOS. If it lets you choose to boot from a USB drive, then there is no problem. If that setting isn't available, then it becomes more difficult, but not impossible.

My experience is that almost all computers built in the last couple of years will allow it and most built in the last five.

I have an old Acer Aspire 3000 that is at least five years old and it is the one that gives me the most trouble. It allows you to boot from a USB flash drive if you select that option in BIOS. But if there is no drive plugged in when you turn the computer on, it changes the BIOS setting back to the internal drive. So, you have to change the BIOS every time you want to boot from the USB device unless you leave it plugged in at all times.

Most computers, OTOH, will allow you to select the USB drive as the first boot device and if it isn't plugged in will then just boot the HD without changing the setting.

 

I have tried to make a bootable USB Flash Drive (Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4 GB) with Puppy Linux and it would not work on a PC with a BIOS that supports booting from a USB Flash Drive. The boot order in the BIOS was changed to USB Flash Drive first. When I made the Puppy Linux bootable USB Flash Drive, I received an error message near the end. I repeated the process and received the same error message. I thought that some time back I read that some makes/models of USB Flash Drives could not be made bootable. Any comments?

Thank you.

 

I have a 2gb Cruzer that work fine on all three of my computers. Without knowing what error you encountered, I have no way of knowing what caused your problem.

To find out if the problem is with the drive or with Puppy, you might want to try Slitaz and see if it will boot.