Wouldn't LFS be a good candidate to teach how one does frugal install?

Yes I know that tradition say that to do Linux you do partition and
not do frugal install. Most Linux users don't know what frugal install
is. And if they know they most likely look down on it as immature and
not a real install.

But if one do something from scratch. Surely frugal install would be
among the first things one do cause to the newcomer that is so much
easier to do than to do resizing and partitioning and risk to destroy
the built in Windows OEM hidden partition that owns the HDD and get
screwed if one do resizing and partitioning.

That is how my Packard Bell Easy Note is set up. The warranty get lost
if one install Linux.

So to do a Linux install from scratch, that would be to keep the warranty of the computer and not destroy the warranty.

Yes I know that is not what the long time Linux user care about but
I think 90 percent of us who have bought a new computer care about
our warranty.

Hmmm ... Sweden has strange rules if you lose a warranty by installing Linux. I know Dell and others have tried that story in places (UK included) but in the UK and USA they're not allowed to do that (of course it doesn't stop them from lying to the customer hoping the customer would go away).

LFS is definitely not for a beginner. It is more the sort of thing that the early Linux hackers (who were mostly if not all programmers) would have been doing, although a modern system can be bloated compared to a system from, say, 1995. I had to build a system for an embedded project and it took me over 6 hours to configure Linux 2.6.21 - and that's only the kernel config. I wouldn't torture a beginner with such things. (And I'm not counting the time I spent identifying all the hardware so I could build only the drivers I needed.)

Besides, there is no need to install Linux on your HD if you don't mind bringing a USB stick with you all the time - boot the system from the USB stick and all you need is a partition on your HD to store '/home', '/etc', '/var' and '/tmp'. With the magic of symlinks and a little customization of the boot process, a single partition can hold all those directories; the usual process is to mount a partition for each.

Use puppy 4.0, the problem if you frugal save it will put a directory in your Windows enviroment. If you are wanting internet access it might be your solution.

Nooby.
I think you're a bit confused about what a frugal install is and what it entails. What you seem to be talking about is live distros. You still need to partition to do a frugal installation. You just limit the amount of software actually installed.

how does one build a driver?
is it as simple as editing a text file with parameters and saving it as .conf or do you need to have programming skills?

as for the internet, that is why i dual boot. LFS is a learning project for me (and a pain in the ars)

Hi Brian, confused I am but not as you think.
you could use frugal the way you say and it
does help if one mix different puppy linux.

I may still be very confused that is for sure but I have managed
by friendly help from those who know more to set up 7 Linux and
one Windows XP on same partition using frugal install and they work.

Important. They need to be "live" isos.

I have all my distros on one partition the one that windows are on.
sda1 or hda1 or root (hd0,0)

like in this menu.lst :

# GvR Sept 30th 2004 Grub Menu.lst from old WUBI install?
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout=20
default=0

title Puppy Linux 4.00 added applications
kernel (hd0,0)/puppy400/vmlinuz PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda1 psubdir=puppy400 keyb=se
initrd (hd0,0)/puppy400/initrd.gz

title Vector VL5.9-SOHO-preview.iso by Uelsk8s with 59SPinitrd.gz
root (hd0,0)
kernel /sohoboot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=7000 root=/dev/ram0 rw splash=verbose vga=791 max_loop=255 init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 changes=/dev/hda1
initrd /sohoboot/59SPinitrd.gz

title Nimblex 2008
root (hd0,0)/nimblex
kernel /nimblex/vmlinuz-nx08 from=/mnt/hda1/nimblex/NimbleX-2008.iso ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw vga=791 autoexec=telinit~4 changes=/nimblex.data
initrd /nimblex/initrd-nx08.gz

title Zenlive Linux 5.2 zenwalk-live-5.2.iso
root (hd0,0)
kernel /zenboot/vmlinuz keyb=se ramdisk_size=7000 root=/dev/ram0 rw splash=silent vga=791 max_loop=255 changes=/dev/sda1/zenlive/persist/save512
initrd /zenboot/initrd.gz

title GoblinX
root (hd0,0)/goblinx_nooby
kernel /goblinx_nooby/boot/vmlinuz init=linuxrc from=/mnt/hda1/goblinx_nooby/GoblinX-2.7.iso ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw load=user run.x vga=791 locale=english splash=silent changes=/mnt/hda1/goblinx_nooby/changes/
initrd /goblinx_nooby/boot/initrd.gz

title Muppy0083f
root (hd0,0)
kernel /muppy0083f/vmlinuz PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda1 psubdir=muppy0083f acpi=force layerfs=aufs
initrd /muppy0083f/initrd.gz
boot

title Puppy 301 PcPuppyOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /puppy301/vmlinuz PMEDIA=satahd PDEV1=sda1 psubdir=puppy301
vga=normal keyb=se
initrd /puppy301/initrd.gz
boot


title Windows XP SP2 Boot on HD 0
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot

notice that many most or all Slackware linuxes wants to see my hd as
hda1 while most Puppy Linux see it as sda1. It is a PATA and neither
SATA nor strict IDE. Uses SATA cables but are a kind of ide still.

PinnipedAs you see above your text there is no need to have a
USB it works without doing partitions.

iconicmoronic I think you have either to be very consistent and
good at logic or a very good programmer and you need to get info on
the hardware. Which the hardware companies don't always give out for free cause if that would be the case then Linux would have drivers to
all the hw it now miss drivers on. Or I am wrong.

To shut down seems to be a mystery. Despite having many many good
programmers Linuxes still fail to shut down my gear. While windows
have no such problem and many slackware have less problem with it too.
some have and some don't so it is unpredictable which work and which not.

Nope it is not about Sweden. Packard Bell has this world wide as I get it. It is there in their forum but I am too lazy to look it up now. Acer and many other has it too. It is when the Laptop has an
OEM install of Windows and they have a hidden partition then the
program has a kind of key??? that will get not confirmed when you
do resizing and partition. Windows owns the partition. You loose
ability to recover if you change the size of it.

Sure you could make a recover CD but you get only one chance doing it
and it cost a lot and take long time to get new such cd if you fail
the one chance you get and knowing me I don't trust me can do such
advanced thing and get it to work. I screw up everything I touch.

Manufacturers like to say that they have this, that and the other condition. In many jurisdictions, these conditions have been ruled not to be legitimate as there are consumer protection laws. Of course the manufacturers don't mind; they simply say that its not covered by our warranty and 90+% of the complaining customers go away. The others they deal with quietly, so as not to give the clueless 90+% an inkling of a clue.

So it is about your legal rights and if those are as you imply in Sweden - that is manufacturers can decide on any Warranty Terms that they like, irrespective of how consumer-unfriendly (which seems, to be honest, unlikely, but I am no expert on the Swedish legal system), then it is about Sweden.

By the time I got to the end of your post, this wasn't a surprise. But at least you are self-aware.