lost sdb1

[drspastic]

i have no problems mounting any of my savefiles, i have not yet corrupted one that far.
besides 'corrupted' is a strong term suggesting to me a garbled data file. its good to remember that 2fs, 3 or 4fs are nothing but regular linux filesystems but created within a virtual partition.
would i be getting different responses if i had the issue mentioned within a full install?

[Béèm]

You ca only find out by trying.
Note that a FULL install doesn't use a save file.

[Sylvander]

1. I became aware...
Yesterday...
That If I boot a "live" Puppy CD...

(a) And tell it to make use of the pupsave file on an internal HDD [not the pupsave on the Flash Drive]...
That Puppy is then unable to see...
Either of the 2 partitions that reside on my 2 USB-connected HDD's.
[Doesn't matter which USB HDD I connect and power-up, it cannot see either]
And yet it can see [all 6 of (I think)] the partitions on the USB connected Flash Drive.
Some Puppies don't see/display sdc1, but do see/display sdc2,3,5,6,7.
1,2,3 are primary...
4 is extended...
5,6,7 are logical.

And yet...
(b) If I tell that same Puppy [BoxPup-431]...
To use the pupsave on [one of the 6 partitions on] the USB-connected Flash Drive...
It IS then able to see [and display] the partition on the USB-connected HDD.

2. Is there something significant going on here?
Might it relate to what you are seeing?
If only I understood what it is you are seeing.
I cannot keep track of the ups & downs, and ins and outs.

[Béèm]

I never had the problem Sylvander is describing in (a) on my regular puppies from 3.xx to 5.xx, wary, quirky included.
I have a USB HDD connected.
The same if I connect that USB HDD on another machine. No problem.
All partitions are seen.

[drspastic]

that is very interesting, and whilst i have not had that problem with booting live cd, both problems relate to the filestructure within the savefiles.

does anyone here have a very good understanding of the linux filesystem and its mounting policys?
lets forget lalala savefile and fix on the filesystem they contain when mounted.

in /dev i see a list of devices, or more exactly files that relate to devices. in /mnt the files shown relate to devices contained in /dev after mounting to the active filesystem. also in /mnt are any ?fs filesystems mounted.

i suspect there may be a problem with recursive mounting of filesystems within filesystems within filesystems. if a /dev ismounted within a filesystem already containing a /dev then what happens?+-

[Béèm]

i suspect there may be a problem with recursive mounting of filesystems within filesystems within filesystems. if a /dev ismounted within a filesystem already containing a /dev then what happens?+-

I don't understand that question.
Puppy layers are kinda 'glued' together in a way that you don't have double things.
Read following material.
This is how puppy works.

[Sylvander]

Further info:

1. Booted Boxpup-431 without the Flash Drive connected.
The Puppy automatically used the pupsave on the internal HDD.

2. Naturally, none of the [not connected] Flash Drive partitions were displayed.

3. Powered on my newer USB-connected SATA HDD, and its ext3 partition WAS seen.
Powered it off.

4. Powered on my older USB-connected PATA HDD, and its FAT32 partition WAS seen.
Powered it off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Now connected the 8GB Flash Drive, and all 6 ext3 partitions [sdc1,2,3,5,6,7] were displayed.

6. Powered on my newer USB-connected SATA HDD, and its partition was NOT seen.
Powered it off.

7. Powered on my older USB-connected PATA HDD, and its FAT32 partition was NOT seen.
Powered it off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Disconnected the 8GB Flash Drive, and all 6 partitions disappeared from screen as expected.

9. Powered on my newer USB-connected SATA HDD, and its ext3 partition WAS seen.
Powered it off.

10. Powered on my older USB-connected PATA HDD, and its FAT32 partition WAS seen.
Powered it off.

[Béèm]

Sylvander, do you have this also with a vanilla puppy 431?

[Sylvander]

1. Don't have a straight/plain [does plain = "Vanilla"?] Puppy-431 in use.

2. Do have:
(a) Dpup-010
(b) Teenpup mini 2010 beta
(c) Luci-237-SCSI
(d) Lupu-511
(e) Boxpup-431
(f) Lighthouse-5.00-F (build 500)

3. Would you like me to check if this happens with any/all of the others?
Only the following presently have a pupsave on the internal HDD:
2-c,d,e.
If necessary I can copy the pupsaves of the others to the internal HDD.

[Béèm]

Vanilla means unmodified.
In puppy terms, not a derivative, but the one brought out by Barry.
It is strange that boxpup reacts as it does.
So the closest vanilla's you have are lucid and lupu
If you find it interesting, you may do the test, but I doubt it will help the OP.

[Sylvander]

1. Lupu-511 behaves exactly the same as described above [regarding Boxpup-431].

2. Made a further discovery as follows:
(a) If I switch on a USB-connected external HDD [when no USB Flash Drive is connected]...
The HDD partition [sdc1] appears on the desktop.

(b) If I then plug in the USB Flash Drive...
With the exception of the 1st partition [sdd1]...
All other Flash Drive partitions [sdd2,3,5,6,7] appear on the desktop.

3. The above is surprising, because things don't work the other way around.
i.e. If the Flash Drive is connected first, [the Flash Drive partitions show, but] then the HDD partition doesn't show...

[Béèm]

I had this issue also of a first partition not showing.
It was sdb1 in my case, and I think, with the drive unplugged, I deleted /mnt/sdb1. After that the partition came on the desktop when plugged in.
Some weirdness in the event manager I suppose.

[shinobar]

sd card sdb1 is not seen.
it is seen if i boot without loading save file.

Try next step:

1. Remove the sd card.
2. Delete /dev/sdb and /dev/sdb1 using ROX-Filer.
3. Reboot.

[Béèm]

sd card sdb1 is not seen.
it is seen if i boot without loading save file.

Try next step:

1. Remove the sd card.
2. Delete /dev/sdb and /dev/sdb1 using ROX-Filer.
3. Reboot.

hmmmm, that comforts me having done the right thing, as posted 20 minutes before your post.

[RetroTechGuy]

sd card sdb1 is not seen.
it is seen if i boot without loading save file.

Try next step:

1. Remove the sd card.
2. Delete /dev/sdb and /dev/sdb1 using ROX-Filer.
3. Reboot.

hmmmm, that comforts me having done the right thing, as posted 20 minutes before your post.

I've occasionally had success getting Puppy to identify a new device by repeatedly clicking the refresh key...but not always.

I've also had cases where a device was "very determined" not to mount, until I did a manual mount from the command line (after Puppy mounter failed to mount the device).

To do this (assuming your device is sdb1 -- which you may not know, unless you check logs -- however, Puppy mounter usually shows you the device name and file system type):

Code: Select all

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1

You generally won't need to use a "-t" ("system type") to get a mount, but some systems can be stubborn (and NTFS will typically not default mount as Read-Write -- but at least you can read the files).

IIRC, for RW on NTFS, use "mount -t ntfs-3g ..."

BTW, if you don't need RW and need to force a mount, let it mount read-only -- it's possible that Puppy thinks that your NTFS volume is corrupted, and that's why it denied you.

[drspastic]

deleting /dev/sdb .... is the first thing i did.
it often worked with similar past problems and is damn good starting advice for anyone having mount issues in linux.
its just not that simple for some reason