Frugal Install of Lucid Puppy Hangs During Boot

[netfrog77]

Hi all,

I am a newbie to Puppy; but have been using another linux distro for awhile.
So, I am not familiar with Puppy's frugal install or with searching the Puppy forums for help. I apologize if this topic has already been covered, but I could not find this specific issue in any of the searches I tried.

Puppy 5.1.0 boots/runs just fine from the CD. The frugal install appeared to go just fine. However, when booting from the hard drive Puppy hangs at "Waiting for modules to complete loading ... usb". When booting from the CD I see "Waiting for modules to complete loading ... usb usb_storage" and then the boot process finishes normally.

I have not yet attempted a full hard drive install; but would prefer to try the frugal version since it is the recommended way to install Puppy to hard drive.

Can anyone point me to the already exiting solution or help me find one?
I am using a Gateway GT4020, 1 GB memory, onboard peripheral support, and usb mouse and keyboard.

Thanks, Bob

[rcrsn51]

These situations are always annoying, because a frugal install should work exactly the same as booting off the Live CD.

Do you already have a savefile on the hard drive? If so, boot off the Live CD and delete it. Then reboot off your hard drive.

To get the file deleted, you will need to boot the CD in "safe mode". At the short initial pause, type

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram

Then click on the drive icon that represents your Puppy partition and delete the lupusave.2fs file.

[netfrog77]

Hi rcrsn51,

Thanks for the quick response.
Tried it, but no change in boot hang problem.

Regards,
Bob

[rcrsn51]

Could you please post the menu.lst file you are using? Look for it in the Puppy partition in the folder /boot/grub.

[netfrog77]

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title PClinuxOS 2010 Zen-Mini in sda7
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=3bc9a770-1901-4ec1-8d64-39cc071635dd resume=UUID=6ab9d7f2-593d-49d3-8187-187036dbb840 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=3bc9a770-1901-4ec1-8d64-39cc071635dd resume=UUID=6ab9d7f2-593d-49d3-8187-187036dbb840
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=3bc9a770-1901-4ec1-8d64-39cc071635dd failsafe
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Puppy Linux 510 frugal in sda10 dir Puppy_510
rootnoverify (hd0,9)
kernel /Puppy_510/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=Puppy_510 nosmp
initrd /Puppy_510/initrd.gz

title PCLinuxOS 2009 GNOME 2009 in sda11
kernel (hd0,10)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_(GNOME)_hda11 root=UUID=4d3d5ae8-5110-4970-9c20-d588d7e3352d acpi=on resume=UUID=6ab9d7f2-593d-49d3-8187-187036dbb840
initrd (hd0,10)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows98 in sdb1
root (hd1,0)
map (0x81) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x81)
makeactive
chainloader +1

[rcrsn51]

title Puppy Linux 510 frugal in sda10

I seem to recall some reports of Puppy not working properly in double-digit partitions.

Try sticking your frugal install inside one of the lower partitions.

[tikbalang]

remove "pmedia=atahd". make sure there is only one "/Puppy_510" folder in all your partitions.

title Puppy Linux 510 frugal in sda10 dir Puppy_510
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /Puppy_510/vmlinuz
kernel /Puppy_510/vmlinuz psubdir=Puppy_510 nosmp
initrd /Puppy_510/initrd.gz

[rcrsn51]

find --set-root --ignore-floppies /Puppy_510/vmlinuz

That's a GRUB4DOS command. It's not part of legacy GRUB.

[James C]

For what its worth, I have 4 working frugal installs in sda15.......but YMMV.

If I recall correctly though, some Puppies had problems with anything more......wouldn't recognize sda16 or above.

[rcrsn51]

@netfrog77: Can you verify that the three core Lupu files on your hard drive are identical to those on the CD?

[netfrog77]

Hi All,

Tried a lower numbered partition (sda7). Still no joy!

Also recopied the puppy files from the CD iso to the hard drive directory and they all appear to be the same as before and still have the same boot hang.

Thanks to all responders for joining in on this.
I will try any new suggestions.

thanks,
Bob (netfrog77)

[rcrsn51]

The only other thing I might change in your menu.lst is to delete the "nosmp". But I doubt if that would affect anything.

[James C]

Here is my grub entry for a frugal install of Lucid Puppy 510........


title Puppy Lucid 510 frugal in sda5
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /puppy510/vmlinuz pfix=fsck pdev=sda5 pmedia=idehd psubdir=puppy510 nosmp acpi=force
initrd /puppy510/initrd.gz

And a screenie of the psubdir and contents.......The "pfix=fsck pdev=sda5" isn't really necessary....I do a fsck every boot.

HTH.

[netfrog77]

Tried another frugal install to sdb1 (second hard drive).
This one consistently hangs at "Loading kernel modules ...".

Just don't know what to make of this. Seems the puppy module loading process just doesn't like my computer when it runs from a hard drive.

Does this suggest any other ideas?

Thanks,
Bob

[Roy]

netfrog77,

I don't know anything about your Gateway GT4020 and have not had the opportunity to play with Puppy510 yet, so I am shooting in the dark here.

What I can tell you is that I have experienced identical symptoms with earlier Puppy versions (2.6.21.7 kernel) when attempting to boot with a SD/SDHC card installed in my external memory slot. Removing my extra memory card during the bootup sequence solved my immediate problem... reinstalling the card afterward worked normally.

Is it possible that you have an external memory device plugged in during your boot sequence that is hanging things up?

-Roy

[netfrog77]

Hi Roy,

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I don't have any cards plugged in.
The only external device plugged in is my usb backup hard drive.
Just to check out whether that may be causing the problem, I will try booting with it unplugged and post the results; although, I don't know why it would interfere with the frugal boot and not the boot from CD.

I have now done a full hard drive install of Puppy 510 and that boots just fine.
I wish someone could figure out why the frugal boot doesn't work!

Regards,
Bob

[rcrsn51]

The only external device plugged in is my usb backup hard drive. Just to check out whether that may be causing the problem, I will try booting with it unplugged and post the results

That didn't make any difference?