This problem seems like it could be solved with
some [virtual] application.

Im presently trying to LOG INTO my debian install,
which is on my main hard drive... do this from a
"puppy linux" session running on usb.

So, I'd like to run programs installed on the main
from the flash drive linux session, rather than having
to install these again... in fact, some programs just
dont want to install to the flash system, so this
remote solution would be useful.

Ive used an SSH/vnc setup to login to, and run linux
on a remote machine. Ive also used qemu and wine
emulators, but am unsure what similar kind of app
would let me run programs from my own hard drive,
remotely ?

Does this sound do-able ?

thanks

If you want to log in into Debian while running Puppy on the same machine, you must have both Debian and Puppy running on the same time. That means you should install a Virtual machine on debian, and run Puppy as guest.

If you want to share files from Debian while running Puppy, you can mount the hard drive in Puppy, so your Debian files are accessible. This works both a VM environment as with Puppy running and Debian just residing on disk.

Running Debian programs in Puppy is not a good idea. They are Debian installed and expect to use the Debian libraries, rather than the Puppy libraries. This would work if you run Debian at the same time as Puppy like outlined in option #1 above. Then you start programs remotely on a running Debian system and you run them in Debian. This even works for X-programs. You would run a Debian application on your Puppy desktop.

I hope it is a bit claer what I explained.

jlinkels

You could just mount the drive somewhere and chroot into it

This sounds good. I will try it, although, for me, as
the puppy seems faster, I had wanted the speed advantage
there for my debian/hard drive operations... sorry, didnt
explain that first.

Thank you for your solution !