(OLD) (ARCHIVED) Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[napo7]

Hi

I'm trying to install puppy to the (almost) same hardware.
I've managed to install it to make a frugal install on emmc (mmcblk0), but on boot, I get an error because the sfs file is not found.
I had a look at /tmp for boot logs, but no partitions are found at this stage.
That's annoying, since while booted on USB, the internal MMC is correctly supported ?

What can I do to install on internal MMC ?

thanks !

[mikeslr]

Hi napo7, suggest you provide the full specs of your computer.

[Flash]

Also, exactly which version of Puppy you're using. It makes a difference.

[napo7]

Hi
Thanks for your attention.

I don't know which specs I can post, but here is the link to the product page I bought on amazon:
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07VTMKPPM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is an Atom X5-Z8350, it has 4GB Ram, 64 GB Flash (which is detected as /dev/mmcblk0 in puppy live usb and other distros).
It can't boot on legacy bios, only UEFI.
I managed to install debian directly on the flash, also MX Linux, without any tricks (just the "next-next-next" install...)

I tried puppy bionic 64, it works OK from USB, but I had trouble installing as frugal, so I tried the following :
- Directly flash the iso to mmc : dd if=puppy.iso of=/dev/mmcblk0.
- Tried FrugalPup, which had less issues installing, but same behavior at boot :
It did boot up to grub, then failed on searching the sfs file. having a look at log files in /tmp/ seems to show that no devices are found. dmesg | grep mmc doesn't show anything, and no devices in /dev/mmc*.
I tried to play with boot flags (pmedia and others...), but still nothing...
I can't tell what's exactly wrong, but it seems that the mmc driver is initialized too late ?
What's more crazy is that when in GRUB shell, I can see (hd0,gpt1) which is recognized as FAT partition, but that's not enough

[bigpup]

FrugalPup installer is being developed and bug fixed.
The FrugalPup v13 had some boot loader files that seemed to work better with UEFI.
So, uninstall the FrugalPup installer you used.
Download and install FrugalPup v13 from here:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rdyc5lgzpeij1/frugalpup/

When you use FrugalPup installer to install Bionicpup64 8.0.
After it installs and you are back at the selection window for FrugalPup.
Select the boot button.
Choose to use UEFI when it asks what type boot loader to use.

Any help?

[napo7]

I'll give it a try.

Thanks

[bigpup]

Not knowing how the internal drive is formatted or partitioned.

One other possible thing to try.

UEFI usually wants to see a small boot partition formatted fat32 with the boot loader files on it.
two partitions on the internal drive.
A first small fat32 formatted partition. (100mb) flagged boot.
The rest of drive is a large ext4 formatted partition.
Put the Bionicpup64 8.0 frugal install on the second partition and the boot loader on the small first partition.

FrugalPup installer should give you the option to select what partition gets what installed on it.

Do you know how to partition and format using Gparted program?

[napo7]

Hi
Yes, I know how to partition.
I've tried to make 2x fat32 partitions : one of 512MB to hold the bootloader + the sfs file, and the other of 2048 MB, fat32 also.
The rest of the drive was formatted on ext4, but none of them showed up in the logs while the bootloader tried to find the sfs file !

[bigpup]

See what the internal eMMC drive is using for the partition table.

Start Gparted with the eMMC as the device to look at.
Gparted->View->select device information.

What type partition table is being used?
If it shows as gpt.
That can be a problem for Puppy Linux. Software in Puppy is not setup for gpt partition table.

Gparted can change the partition table.
Gparted->Device->create partition table......
Make the partition table msdos

WARNING making a new partition table will delete everything on the drive.
It will have to be partitioned and formatted again.
So, you will have to start over again.
Sorry, it is what it is!

[napo7]

Thnaks for you reply
I didn't know that puppy need MBR partition table, and in facts, I thought that UEFI needed GPT table to work !
I'll give a try ASAP !

[bigpup]

The gpt only UEFI requirement is up to the computer manufacture and how they coded their UEFI.
If they have used the full normal UEFI. It is suppose to work with gpt or mbr.
I have no problem with mbr on my computer with UEFI.

[gcav]

Have you tried booting from the USB port first.
On the bios Boot options? what options are u shown?

booting from mmcblk0 is a challenge.

gc

[napo7]

Some follow-up :
I tried to format as MBR, but the puppy installer still tell me that "unkown is a wrong partition", even I'm sure it's correctly partitionned !

Yes, I can boot from USB first.
I also can boot on mmcblk0 from Debian, since I've installed debian 9 without any issues : it detected the drive, the fact that the system is UEFI and made partitions according....

[bigpup]

Did you try it using the FrugalPup installer?
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rdyc5lgzpeij1/frugalpup/
Boot using Puppy on a USB.
Download the FrugalPup.sfs get version 13.
Place it in /mnt/home
Use SFS-Load-on-the-fly program to load it.
Now there should be a menu entry for FrugalPup.
Run FrugalPup to do the install.

It worked for me on an internal eMMC.
Two partitions.
First partition a small fat32 format. (100MB) flagged boot.
2nd formatted ext 4. using rest of drive.
Boot loader on first partition.
Puppy installed to 2nd partition.

You will need to have the first partition as a fat32 formatted partition to install the boot loader on.
May need to click on the desktop icon for the internal eMMC, to mount it, before running FrugalPup.

Note:
FrugalPup starts with a window with several buttons.
First select Puppy. (This installs whatever Puppy version you choose).
Then back at that window.
Select boot, to install the boot loader.