Puppy won't boot (redux)

[yangmusa]

I had a similar problem earlier which was fixed thanks to your help.

Sadly, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and now I can't boot Puppy any longer...

Puppy was creating a swap file on my compact flash card, and to stop the constant writing from destroying my CF card I had pretty much stopped using Puppy and gone over to DSL. But then I picked up a really cheap Microdrive to use as swap, and now I'd like to get Puppy working again.

My new setup (hda = 2GB Microdrive, hdb = 512 MB compact flash)

• hda1 = ext2, Wolvix frugal install (nice, incidentally, but my machine lacks the oomph to run it well)
  hda2 = ext2, Puppy NOP 2.17
  hda3 = ext2, empty so far.
  hda4 = linux swap 400mb

• hdb1 = ext2, DSL 3.4.2
  hdb2 = Puppy 2.17.1
  hdb3 = home directory

I left my existing GRUB install on hdb, should I ever move it back to the master position. When I did the Wolvix frugal install, that installed a new GRUB install to hda and also found and made entries for DSL and Puppy. Well, it had a go, but the entries were incomplete in both cases. This let me boot Wolvix, but nothing else. I edited the menu.lst file to make it as close as possible to my previously working menu.lst file (taking into account that hda_old had become hdb).

Now I can boot Wolvix and DSL, but I still can't boot Puppy. Whether I choose straight Puppy, or NOP, I get the same result:

GRUB finds the initrd and starts loading with the following output:

Now executing 'init' script in initial-ramdisk
Loads kernel modules... done
Looking for Puppy in hda1...hda2... etc etc ... done
pup_save.2fs found
Loading swap partition /dev/hda4... done

ERROR, cannot find Puppy on 'idehd' boot media.
PUPMODE=9 PDEV1=
Exited to inutual-ramdisk (initramfs) commandline...
(the Linux-guru can now debug, 'e3' editor is available)

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
#

Well, I'm certainly no guru, so I confess I'm stuck!

Here are the relevant menu.lst entries:

title Wolvix Cub 1.1.0
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 rw load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=6666 max_loop=255
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
savedefault
boot
# removed option vga=791

title DSL
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet vga=normal nodma noscsi frugal home=hdb3
initrd /boot/minirt24.gz
savedefault
boot

title Puppy
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /initrd.gz
#savedefault
#boot

title NOP Puppy
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0
initrd /initrd.gz
# removed boot option ro
#savedefault
#boot

Incidentally, even though I removed PMEDIA=idehd from the NOP entry as an experiment, I still get "cannot find Puppy on 'idehd' boot media".

Thanks in advance!

[expander2000]

Hi yangmusa,

It appears to me that entry # 3 Puppy is looking for root in /dev/ram0 but I think you forgot to tell it to load in ram drive.

Maybe you could add pfix=ram at the end of the line.

kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd pfix=ram

good luck.

[yangmusa]

Maybe you could add pfix=ram at the end of the line.

From the wiki, this does not appear to be the right option:

pfix=ram will run Puppy totally in RAM and ignore saved sessions/storage file(s)

I tried it anyway, out of desperation, but it gives exactly the same error as I got previously.

I entered everything the same as before - and it WORKED before. The only change is that the drive is now hdb instead of hda. And as far as I can tell, I've made the necessary changes - in GRUB-speak it's changed from (0,1) to (1,1).

Since that's the only apparent change, and it worked fine before, I just don't understand why it isn't' working.

Any further suggestions very much welcome!

[Bruce B]

{cut}

I entered everything the same as before - and it WORKED before. The only change is that the drive is now hdb instead of hda. And as far as I can tell, I've made the necessary changes - in GRUB-speak it's changed from (0,1) to (1,1).

Since that's the only apparent change, and it worked fine before, I just don't understand why it isn't' working.

Any further suggestions very much welcome!

If what you write is accurate, it should work. IMO

My suggestion is: Consider the possibility that none of this has anything to do with you or what you put in as commands. That maybe it just ain't gonna work.

Alternately, you can persist in trying as many logical command combinations as you can conceive of (with and without the help of others). If you ever get it to boot, I'd be most curious what you did.

[valpy]

It looks to me like you've commented out the boot instruction for Puppy

title Puppy
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd /initrd.gz
#savedefault
#boot

What happens if you remove the # in #boot?
i.e.

Code: Select all

title Puppy 
root (hd1,1) 
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd 
initrd /initrd.gz 
#savedefault 
boot 

instead?

[yangmusa]

It looks to me like you've commented out the boot instruction for Puppy
...
What happens if you remove the # in #boot?

Sadly, I get exactly the same error as before. I commented it out, since this wasn't part of the original grub entry that worked (ie. prior to me swapping hda -> hdb)

[kirk]

Don't know if it will help, here's my grub entry:

title Puppy 2.17 (on /dev/sda4)
rootnoverify(hd0,3)
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/217/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/217/initrd.gz


title Puppy 3.00 (on /dev/sda4)
rootnoverify(hd0,3)
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/300/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/300/initrd.gz

[yangmusa]

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I get the same error as before: "ERROR, cannot find Puppy on 'idehd' boot media" etc etc.

Odd.. I still get that also when I exclude PMEDIA=idehd

[yangmusa]

Well, I solved it. Sort of..

I downloaded Puppy 3.0, copied the new files over, rebooted - and it all worked.

I'm of course really happy to have Puppy working again, though I wish I knew why 2.17 never worked. Ah well..

The only changes I've made to 3.0 so far, is to edit .jwmrc and .jwmrc-tray to make window borders and the tray smaller so as to make the most of my 800x600 screen..