Using UNetbootin To Get Puppy On A Stick

PROMPTED by my recent experiences of installing and running Ubuntu Linux on a USB flash memory stick, I decided to search for a more lightweight portable alternative.

Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org/home) has always been on my radar and I have tried it on a couple of occasions, but have never really spent a long time getting to know this highly respected Linux/FOSS distribution.

The reason I was looking for a lighter flash-based alternative to Ubuntu is that I found 8.10 'Intrepid Ibex' to be quite slow when using it on my Dell Latitude X1 laptop (1.1GHz Intel Centrino, 512MB RAM, external USB CDRW/DVD, 30GB HDD).

Ubuntu 8.10 runs quicker from a flash drive than it does from the HDD, but still not quite quick enough.

The X1 has run a variety of Linux distributions over the last few years and has even dual-booted with Windows, but as of a few weeks ago I re-installed Windows XP on it, largely for work reasons.

However, Windows also runs like a tired old dog on the X1 and the 30GB HDD is just too small for serious dual booting, so I thought the USB stick-based distro option was worth exploring.

The X1 has an SD memory card slot and I just happened to have a shiny new 8GB SD card sitting doing nothing, which I figured would be perfect for storing data files from a live Linux distribution.

And that brought me to two things: Puppy Linux (get it from http://www.puppylinux.com/download/) and UNetbootin, the Universal Netboot Installer (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/).

UNetbootin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin) had passed me by until very recently, when it was mentioned in passing in an article on Linux/FOSS distributions suitable for installing on flash drives, so I thought I would check it out.
The program is available in Linux and Windows formats, so I downloaded both. Here is what the project's homepage says about it:

UNetbootin allows for the installation of various Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive, so it's no different from a standard install, only it doesn't need a CD. It can create a dual-boot install, or replace the existing OS entirely.
Requirements

* Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista, or Linux, or a USB Drive. If you are having trouble with the Linux version, try the Windows version, it usually works better.
* A broadband internet connection to download the distribution packages (unless installing from pre-downloaded media, see below)
* Spare hard drive space to install the OS in (varies depending on distribution)

Features

UNetbootin can install to your local hard disk or make a bootable liveUSB drive. It can also load floppy/hard disk images, or kernel/initrds, or (some) ISO (CD image) files, for installing other distributions.

As well as listing all those distributions it is known to work well with (UNetbootin actually downloads the ISOs for you, or you can 'point' it to them on your HDD), the UNetbootin wiki and website have really good guides on how to use both the Windows and Linux versions of the program, so feel free to check them out for a more detailed run-through.

I first tried the Linux (.deb) version in Linux Mint 5.0.
While the program seemed to run fine - it downloaded the latest ISO of Puppy Linux 4.1, installed it to my 1GB Crucial Gizmo USB stick, then ran the bootloader install - when it came to using the stick with my X1 laptop I got repeated boot errors.

There had been a forewarning of possible boot errors using the Linux version in the project's introduction, so I decided to try again, this time using the Windows XP version which I had installed on my X1. This worked beautifully.

I must say I am very impressed with UNetbootin and I shall be returning to it at a later date in more detail, but for now, on with my look at flash-based Puppy Linux.

I should point out first, however, that in order to run any USB flash drive distribution on your PC, you need to make sure your machine's BIOS is set to look for a bootable OS in its USB ports BEFORE it looks to the CD or HDD.

How you go about this will depend on your machine - boot up as normal and watch for the brief message which tells you how to access the BIOS or 'Setup' (on my laptop it is done by holding down F2 during the start up).

Once you have your PC booting from USB you are good to go.

The UNetbootin bootloader is a simple but functional affair - it won't win any design awards but it gets the job done perfectly well, auto-loading the default distro after a ten second timeout.

Puppy uses JWM (Joe's Window Manager - see http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/) and as the screenshot of the default desktop shows, it is a lovely looking distribution. JWM combines the speed and lightness of Fluxbox with the functionality of the bigger desktop environments like GNOME and KDE.

You get a right-click menu anywhere on the desktop, but you also get a panel with the same menu, plus toolbars and other useful utilities like a network monitor, volume control, power monitor and memory usage.

Personally, I find Puppy's default desktop a little too cluttered for my tastes, particularly as a number of the icons link to programs I know I will never use. Still, changing the look of the desktop is a very minor task which takes just a few minutes.

As I use the X1 around the house, I need a distribution that will work well with its Intel/PRO Wireless adaptor and my Sagem router (my ISP is Sky), and Puppy certainly proved to be up to the job - my network was detected, I entered my encryption key and connected, simple as that. Subsequent connections have been equally trouble-free.

As part of your initial Puppy boot you must set up a save file, the size of which is up to you and how much space you have free on your flash memory stick - in my case, I left a 512MB slice for all my configuration files and, after a week of use, that slice still has 340MB free.

This save file is at the heart of what makes Puppy work on a flash memory stick - all the changes you make, the plugins you load, the data you create is saved back to this file periodically, plus, there's a shortcut icon on the desktop should you be the nervous type who wishes to save more frequently.

Puppy comes in a remarkable sub-100MB ISO which seems unbelievable when you look through the applications it includes: Seamonkey browser, Gxine multimedia, Abiword, Gnumeric, gFTP, ePDFView and puppyPDF creator, Geany and Leafpad, mtPaint, Inklite and Xsane, ROX-filer and lots, lots more (the full list of available Puppy packages is here: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/pet_packages-4/).

It is not just the big-name packages included that impressed me, it is the 'little' stuff too, like the personal blogging platform PPLOG, the HomeBank personal finance manager and the personal organiser Osmo.

Puppy is very strong, too, in the multimedia department with YouTube flash-based videos playing out of the box, MP3 playback and Gxine handling all manner of browser-based multimedia. I have, however, not yet managed to get Apple movie trailers to play, despite having installed Mplayer and its Mozilla plugins from the Puppy repository.

I love the way that Puppy automatically detected my X1's NTFS partition but didn't automatically mount it until I clicked on it, at which point it is both read and write-enabled.. it is fantastic to have such easy, sensible access, and the same can be said of the way Puppy handles hot-plugged media like SD cards and other USB flash memory sticks.

As I had planned, I was able to save storage space on my Puppy drive by utilising that 8GB SD card for larger data files like images and music.

If you have burned a Puppy live CD you can create a flash-based install by using Puppy's Universal Installer option, which works just as well, those is not quite as simple, as UNetbootin. Another alternative is to create a multi-use Puppy live CD, where your data is saved back to the CD at the end of every session.

So, we know that Puppy is feature-packed, highly functional and fun to use - but is it fast, too? Oh yes, very fast indeed, in fact it is way faster than any other distribution or OS I currently have running on a variety of machines.

I am totally in love with my new Puppy flash installation. It does everything I need it to do, is fast and very stable and is tremendous fun to use. This is one Puppy that is definitely not just for Christmas - it is a faithful friend you will want to keep by your side all year round.

Further reading

There's a good guide to using Puppy's own Universal Installer via live CD to create a flash drive installation here: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2006/03/25/puppy-linux-on-usb/

There is a terrific review of Puppy Linux 4.1 with lots of nice screenshots here: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/puppy-revisited.html