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Puppy Linux is one of my favorite distributions for multiple reasons. The main being that it is very easy to install to a USB flash drive, as well it’s also very easy to get acquainted with, especially for simple day-to-day use such as Internet surfing, document writing, CD/DVD burning, media viewing, etc… I personally carry my Linux USB drive for A.) repairing machines and B.) accessing secured information, such as banking, email, username/password protected sites, etc. from just about any computer with the ability to boot from USB.

The purpose for installing this OS to a flash drive is to have the ability to carry a read/write copy of an entire Operating System anywhere you travel.

To get started you will need a copy of Puppy Linux and a USB flash drive (512MB or larger). For the OS I prefer NOP (Nearly Office Pup) due to the replacement of JWM with the XFCE desktop and it’s stability. You can find our customized version(s) in the Downloads section.

There are a couple of ways to go about installing to a USB drive, but for this article we will focus on the easiest method. This method utilizes a two step process. 1.) Burning a Linux liveCD and 2.) Installing to a USB drive from a Linux liveCD. So to get started you can begin by following the post “How to burn an ISO file to CD from within Windows“.

Boot from the Linux liveCD you created from the steps above. You can select the defaults along the way. Once you reach the desktop you will want to plug in you USB flash drive (Note – Make sure your have backed up any contents you want to save as this method will format your drive and delete all existing files). You should see a new icon appear on your desktop.

Formatting the USB flash drive

We will begin the process by clicking on Menu -> Setup -> BootFlash install Puppy to USB. We will leave the defaults and click OK. Click OK again on the BootFlash window. In the next window make sure your on the correct drive (make sure the icon from the desktop reads the same as in the “BootFlash: choose drive” window (e.g. My icon from the desktop reads “sdb1″ and my “BootFlash choose drive” window reads “sdb   Flash memory…”). Click OK to continue. As long as everything is listed properly click OK in the confirmation window. After your drive is formatted the “BootFlash: install Puppy” window will appear, close this out by clicking on “Exit, finish” as we will want to pickup with the Universal installer.

Installing Linux to the USB flash drive

Click on Menu -> Setup -> Puppy universal installer. Click OK as USB flash drive should be highlighted by default. Make sure your icon and the drive match as before then click OK. In the new window that appears click the button next to “Install Puppy to sdb1″ (sdb1 is our USB drive in this case) at the top. Click OK to confirm and begin the installation wizard. Click on CD when asked “Where are the Puppy files?”. Click OK as we have booted from the CD we will be using to install from. Pick the defaults by clicking OK through the next two prompts. Press the Enter key when prompted to continue. To make sure we are creating a pristine copy type the letter “p” (any letter will work fine though) and press Enter to wipe all files. At the next prompt we will want to type the letter “p” again and press Enter to force the OS into memory running on any PC with 256MB or more of RAM. The last prompt will read “Finished, press ENTER key to continue:”, go ahead and press Enter and you should now have a Linux bootable USB flash drive. You should remove the CD from the tray that most likely opened automatically after the wizard completion and reboot by clicking Menu -> Log Out -> Restart. This time around you want to choose “DO NOT SAVE” at the prompt. If everything went well your now booted into Puppy Linux via your USB flash drive, if not you may have to adjust the machine’s BIOS to allow booting from USB. Take a look at Enabling BIOS Support for more information. If your sure it’s not as issue with BIOS you should repeat the process by starting back at Formatting the USB drive.

Reboot to initiate automatic saving to your USB flash drive

Click on Menu -> Log Out -> Restart

Upon the first Shutdown or Restart you will be asked if you would like to save your session to a file. Leave the default (SAVE is highlighted) and press Enter. You will next be asked if you would like to customize the file name. You can leave this blank,  unless you plan on running multiple customized sessions (we can touch on this later if need be), and press Enter. Next we will be asked about the encryption level, it is best to leave this option as default (<NORMAL (no encryp.)>) and press Enter. You will then be asked to choose a size for your personal save file. I generally choose the largest size available which at the time of this writing is 1.25GB and press Enter. The last prompt is the “FINAL SANITY CHECK:”, this is where you have the option to change the file location or stop the save process all together. Leave the default “YES, SAVE” and press Enter to begin the save process and ultimately begin the reboot process. Note – the save file creation process may take a while (up to 5 minutes or so) depending on your machine specifications.

Setup the Network connection

Once your back at the desktop we will want to setup the Internet connection.

Click on Menu (bottom left corner) -> Setup -> Network Wizard

Depending on your interfaces, you selection may vary. For most will select eth0 by clicking the button conveniently labeled eth0; click the Auto DHCP button to acquire an IP address. You will have the option to save the settings to automatically establish a connection on the next boot (so long as your on the same machine). Click Done and if all went well, you now have Internet access.

Download the word processor and spreadsheet SFS file (AbiWord and Gnumeric):

Click on Menu -> Utility -> Terminal

Then type the following on the command line:

cd /mnt/home; wget http://slighpcs.com/downloads/puppy/spc431/goffice-43.sfs

If everything went as planned you should see output at the bottom of the Terminal window stating “… ‘goffice-43.sfs’ saved…”. Next you will want to close the Terminal window by either typing “exit” and pressing Enter or by clicking the X in the top right hand corner of the Terminal window.

Add the SFS file to boot

Click on Menu -> Setup -> BootManager configure bootup

Then click on the icon to the right of “Choose which extra SFS files to load at bootup”. In the “BootManager: SFS files” window you should see “goffice-43.sfs” in the left hand pane. Click on it (it will highlight in dark blue once chosen), then on the “Add” button to move it to the right hand pane, and then the OK it, and finally QUIT from the bottom right corner.

Last we will reboot the OS to allow the gOffice applications to automatically load during the boot sequence. Click on Menu -> Log Out -> Restart.

1. tdurbin says:

   December 9, 2010 at 12:25 am

   Absolutely… feel free to link to anything here, and thank you for the honor.
2. Jamie Iomo says:

   December 8, 2010 at 10:28 pm

   Good evening

   Can I link to this post please?
3. tdurbin says:

   January 11, 2010 at 2:31 pm

   Thank you for the feedback. I will investigate and resolve this issue as soon as I possible can.
   Update – I have added the WP-Print plugin to rectify this issue.
4. Y2k says:

   January 11, 2010 at 2:26 pm

   Thanks for the article. I haven’t tried in Firefox but in IE7 when I print this article the area of the text is dark and unreadable. This was printing on a black and white laserjet.

   I just ended up cutting the text and pasting it into word and printing it there.