Having trouble booting hard drive full installation of Wary

Booting, installing, newbie
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Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

Having trouble booting hard drive full installation of Wary

#1 Post by Marrea »

I am a Puppy Linux newbie and am having trouble booting a full hard disk installation of Wary.

I followed the instructions for a Full Installation at http://puppylinux.org/main/Manual-English.htm#Manual06 to the letter except for the location of the Grub bootloader. I have a multi-boot Windows XP/Linux computer and I always use the Windows ntldr/boot.ini as my primary bootloader, so I have placed Grub on /dev/sda7 (the Puppy root partition) and copied the Puppy bootsector file across to Windows C: with the appropriate line added to boot.ini. On reboot, the ntldr takes me to Puppy’s Grub OK but when I select the Puppy entry from the Grub menu all that happens is I get a screen which keeps repeating

can’t find /dev/1: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/2: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/3: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/4: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/5: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/6: no such file or directory

I have no idea how to escape from this (Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does nothing) so I have to use the computer’s power button to shut the machine down.

The Grub files are stored on /dev/sda7 and my menu.lst entry for Puppy is as follows:

title Puppy Linux (on /dev/sda7)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 ro vga=normal

Any clues as to what I am doing wrong?

Machine is an Asus Terminator TR-2
2 GB RAM
Pentium 4, 3.00GHz
A single 160GB IDE Hard Disk Drive, partitioned as follows:
  • 71 GB Windows XP
    10 GB Linux
    1 GB Linux swap
    10 GB Linux
    10 GB Linux
    10 GB Linux
    8 GB Linux
    2 GB fat 32 shared partition
    10 GB Linux
    17 GB Linux
Optical drive is an LG HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20
Keyboard and mouse are both USB

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rjbrewer
Posts: 4405
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2008, 21:41
Location: merriam, kansas

#2 Post by rjbrewer »

While I have always used Grub on mbr for multiboot;

the most popular method with puppy now is Grub4dos.

It's included in the Wary menu and doesn't destroy the
Win boot sector.

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
Posts: 328
Joined: Wed 09 Feb 2011, 18:14

Re: Having trouble booting hard drive full installation of Wary

#3 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

Marrea wrote: I followed the instructions for a Full Installation at http://puppylinux.org/main/Manual-English.htm#Manual06 to the letter except for the location of the Grub bootloader.
Those instructions are for an obsolete version of Puppy (431). Note in those instructions it says:
Frugal Installation is recommended if you have 256 MB RAM or more. If you have less than 256 MB RAM you should choose Full Installation.
With 2GB RAM you should have a frugal install, not a full install. It will be faster and work better.

I'm not familiar with grub. I use grub4dos now and before that I used lilo for years. When your grub screen comes up is there an option to run grub commands? If so, run find /boot/vmlinuz and report back. Did you try stopping the repeating screen with Ctrl-C, Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q?

Try this:

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux (on /dev/sda7)
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 ro vga=normal 
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.gz

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#4 Post by Marrea »

Many thanks indeed rjbrewer and Bernie_by_the_Sea for your suggestions. Prior to seeing Bernie's reply I had in fact already decided to try a frugal installation (I have to confess I missed the bit about frugal being recommended for 256 MB RAM or more - I should have read the instructions more carefully!)

You will be pleased to know that the frugal installation has worked perfectly and I am posting this from within Puppy. :)

In answer to your question about the repeating screen, I did try Ctrl-C, which also had no effect, but I did not try either Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Q.

It's a super little distro, isn't it. I'm more used to working with distros such as openSUSE, Debian and Ubuntu but I'm trying to find an easy lightweight distro to put on my husband's Sony VGC-V3M alongside Windows XP. I thought Puppy might be a good choice but I wanted to try it out on my own computer first to get a feel for it before attempting to install it on his.

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
Posts: 328
Joined: Wed 09 Feb 2011, 18:14

#5 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

Welcome to the Puppy forum, Marrea.

I'm a crotchety old geezer, age 83, and sometimes my posts here are a bit abrupt. I'm glad to hear that a frugal install worked for you. Puppy is a toy that's fun to play with.

I have a couple of fairly heavy weight distros on my computer but I use Puppy well over 90% of the time.
[color=green]Frugal[/color]: Knoppix 6.4.4 DVD
[color=blue]USB[/color]: DSL 4.4.10
[color=red]Full[/color]: WinXP Pro
Puppy (Feb. 4 - May 12, 2011) led me back to Linux.

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#6 Post by Marrea »

Bernie_by_the_Sea wrote:Welcome to the Puppy forum, Marrea.
Thank you for the welcome.
Bernie_by_the_Sea wrote: I'm a crotchety old geezer, age 83, and sometimes my posts here are a bit abrupt.
.
I certainly didn't detect any abruptness in your reply to me. I myself am hardly your conventional "geek", being a female in my sixties! :)

I just love experimenting with Linux. I firmly believe it helps to keep the old grey cells active. However, my husband thinks I am completely mad and refers to this hobby of mine as "playing with penguins". :D

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
Posts: 328
Joined: Wed 09 Feb 2011, 18:14

#7 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

Marrea wrote:I myself am hardly your conventional "geek", being a female in my sixties! :)

I just love experimenting with Linux. I firmly believe it helps to keep the old grey cells active. However, my husband thinks I am completely mad and refers to this hobby of mine as "playing with penguins". :D
The average age of a Puppy user is reportedly 56 so this isn't exactly a teenage hangout. My wife is an avid Windows promoter so she thinks I'm mad to put the penguins through their hoops. :)
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Bruce B

Re: Having trouble booting hard drive full installation of Wary

#8 Post by Bruce B »

Marrea wrote:I have a multi-boot Windows XP/Linux computer and I always use the Windows ntldr/boot.ini as my primary bootloader
Your statement implies more than one bootloader, please elaborate.
Marrea wrote:so I have placed Grub on /dev/sda7
Grub is likely to come in parts and located differently, for example, you
can install Grub to a boot sector, an MBR, and other places, with
support files located elsewhere.

Do you mean /dev/sda7/boot/grub, as shown below?

Code: Select all

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     15 2010-08-11 22:39 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9940 2008-05-03 11:07 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9380 2008-05-03 11:07 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8692 2008-05-03 11:07 ffs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1826 2010-08-11 22:39 grub.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8724 2008-05-03 11:07 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10176 2008-05-03 11:07 jfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2010-08-11 22:39 mbr.hda.1804
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   3093 2011-04-24 19:19 menu.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8884 2008-05-03 11:07 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11252 2008-05-03 11:07 ntfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11124 2008-05-03 11:07 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2008-05-03 11:07 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 136658 2008-05-03 11:07 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 136658 2008-05-03 11:07 stage2_eltorito
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8968 2008-05-03 11:07 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8308 2008-05-03 11:07 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11004 2008-05-03 11:07 xfs_stage1_5
Marrea wrote:and copied the Puppy bootsector file across to Windows C:
with the appropriate line added to boot.ini.
If you did that, I wonder what an appropriate line looks like. Please state.

Code: Select all

can’t find /dev/1: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/2: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/3: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/4: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/5: no such file or directory
can’t find /dev/6: no such file or directory
There is no such device as /dev/2
Marrea wrote:The Grub files are stored on /dev/sda7 and my menu.lst
entry for Puppy is as follows:

title Puppy Linux (on /dev/sda7)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 ro vga=normal

Any clues as to what I am doing wrong?
I'm not going to pull teeth to get answers & I would like answers to all
I requested. Which means if you want your teeth pulled, you have to help me
help you.

~

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
Posts: 328
Joined: Wed 09 Feb 2011, 18:14

Re: Having trouble booting hard drive full installation of Wary

#9 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

Marrea wrote:I have a multi-boot Windows XP/Linux computer and I always use the Windows ntldr/boot.ini as my primary bootloader
Bruce B wrote:Your statement implies more than one bootloader, please elaborate.
I use the same method. Windows boot.ini is my primary bootloader and grub4dos is my secondary bootloader.
Marrea wrote:and copied the Puppy bootsector file across to Windows C:
with the appropriate line added to boot.ini.
Bruce B wrote:If you did that, I wonder what an appropriate line looks like. Please state.
Mine looks like c:\grldr="Start Linux" although I suppose I should change that to c:\grldr="Select a Linux Version".

This is all academic now since Marrea eliminated the booting problem with a frugal install.

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#10 Post by Marrea »

Hi Bruce B

Many thanks for your input. As Bernie_by_the_Sea so rightly points out, this is all rather academic now as I have replaced the full installation of Puppy Linux with a frugal installation, which is working fine. However, I will attempt to answer your queries as best I can.

Yes, I have two bootloaders. Windows ntldr, with its controlling boot.ini file, is my primary loader and Grub is the secondary loader.

Much to my surprise, having just checked, my main Puppy Linux Grub files (listed below) are actually in /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc (on the partition /dev/sda7).
  • -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8288 2009-04-09 01:17 e2fs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7856 2009-04-09 01:17 fat_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8712 2009-04-09 01:17 jfs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7352 2009-04-09 01:17 minix_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9756 2009-04-09 01:17 reiserfs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2009-04-09 01:17 stage1
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121740 2009-04-09 01:17 stage2
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121740 2009-04-09 01:17 stage2_eltorito
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9556 2009-04-09 01:17 xfs_stage1_5
I have never come across Grub files being in /usr/lib/ before. I assume this is something peculiar to Puppy Linux and a frugal installation?

Here is my Windows XP boot.ini file, with the “appropriate line

106498
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Location: NZ
Contact:

#11 Post by 106498 »

Wow, that sounds like linux expert work to me! Since you say you are interested in learning, and not just "getting it to work", I would suggest scrapping the windows bootloader alltogether.

Why? Why not! It is more elegant that way. Every single linux bootloader is capable of booting Window.

Personally, I have grub4dos installed to the MBR, with the menu.lst file in my windows NTFS partition. This way I can edit it from within windows as well as within linux. The only downside is if windows hibernates, then it becomes a read only partition. I will re-install soon, and put the menu.lst in my fat32 data partition.

The directory you mention, I'm pretty sure, is where the files are always kept. On installing grub they are copied to their proper location in /boot somewhere usually. Find menu.lst, that's where they'll be.

-Thomas
[color=green]An expert is just a beginner with experience.[/color]
Shamelessly representing [url=http://www.tdem.co.nz]TdeM[/url]!

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#12 Post by Marrea »

Hi there 106498
106498 wrote:Wow, that sounds like linux expert work to me!
Not really. When written down it sounds rather long-winded but when you do it all the time as I do it is very quick. I've been using this method to boot my Linux distros on this particular Asus desktop since I bought it six years ago.
I would suggest scrapping the windows bootloader alltogether.
No way! I know that Windows can be booted quite easily from any Linux distro. So why do I persist in using the ntldr? Simply because Windows XP is the one constant on the Asus, whereas the Linux distros come and go as whim takes me! Therefore it is easier to use the bootloader belonging to the operating system which always endures, ie Win XP. I have nothing against Grub and in fact use it on my laptop. However, whereas I mastered legacy grub configuration fairly easily, most of the new distros are now using Grub 2, which as you no doubt know does not have a menu.lst but various fiddly files and is not quite so straight forward to customise.
Personally, I have grub4dos installed to the MBR, with the menu.lst file in my windows NTFS partition.
I have to confess I had never heard about grub4dos before using Puppy Linux. I need to find out more about it.
Find menu.lst, that's where they'll be.
I have had a job finding menu.lst. Puppy's file finder simply reports "No files found" when I enter menu.lst and hit Search. However, I knew that it must exist, otherwise I wouldn't have a grub menu at start-up. So I have manually searched through the file system and found that there are also Grub files in /mnt/home/boot/grub, as follows:
  • drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-04-30 22:12 .
    drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2011-03-25 00:55 ..
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2011-04-30 22:12 device.map
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 2010-03-15 23:52 device.map.backup
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 2010-10-22 18:46 device.map.old
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8288 2009-04-09 01:17 e2fs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7856 2009-04-09 01:17 fat_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7040 2010-11-18 23:12 ffs_stage1_5
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 117 2010-11-18 23:12 install.sh
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 115 2010-10-22 18:46 install.sh.old
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8576 2010-11-18 23:12 iso9660_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8712 2009-04-09 01:17 jfs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2730 2011-04-30 22:20 menu.lst
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 908 2010-11-18 23:12 menu.lst.old.15241
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2717 2011-04-30 16:51 menu.lst.old.4177
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7352 2009-04-09 01:17 minix_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9756 2009-04-09 01:17 reiserfs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3576 2010-02-17 01:15 splash.xpm.gz
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2009-04-09 01:17 stage1
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121740 2009-04-09 01:17 stage2
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 121740 2009-04-09 01:17 stage2_eltorito
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7392 2010-11-18 23:12 ufs2_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1833 2011-04-30 22:12 usage.txt
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6592 2010-11-18 23:12 vstafs_stage1_5
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9556 2009-04-09 01:17 xfs_stage1_5
Goodness, this Puppy Linux is confusing - Grub files in both /usr/lib and in /mnt/home. :roll:

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rcrsn51
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Location: Stratford, Ontario

#13 Post by rcrsn51 »

@Marrea: There is nothing wrong with your boot technique - it just isn't commonly used in the Puppy community.

Just to be clear - you now have it working, but with a frugal install? If so, the problem was with your original full installation, not with your boot procedure.

There is no need to switch to GRUB4DOS or scrap the Windows bootloader.

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#14 Post by Marrea »

rcrsn51 wrote:@Marrea: There is nothing wrong with your boot technique - it just isn't commonly used in the Puppy community.
Hi rcrsn51
It's not just the Puppy community where it isn't commonly used. I get a lot of flak from all the Linux forums I belong to for not using Grub as my main bootloader. But then the vast majority of Linux users hate anything to do with Microsoft and can't understand why anyone would choose to use its bootloader, whereas I am a computer user and happily switch between Windows, Linux and Mac. Operating systems are a hobby for me, not a matter of principle.
Just to be clear - you now have it working, but with a frugal install? If so, the problem was with your original full installation, not with your boot procedure.
Yes, that is quite correct. I have Puppy working with a frugal install. My original problem was nothing to do with my preferred boot procedure. The Windows bootloader handed me over to Puppy's Grub OK. It was after that that things went wrong. It was something to do with Grub/menu.lst not being configured properly I think. I'm inclined to have another go at a full Puppy install on another partition at some stage just to see if I can sort it out.
There is no need to switch to GRUB4DOS or scrap the Windows bootloader.
No, no reason to do this - other than to satisfy my own curiosity about grub4dos. :wink:

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
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#15 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

rcrsn51 wrote:There is no need to switch to GRUB4DOS or scrap the Windows bootloader.
Marrea wrote: No, no reason to do this - other than to satisfy my own curiosity about grub4dos. :wink:
It's easy to switch to grub4dos and retain the Windows bootloader.

When my computer boots up, ntldr/boot.ini gives only two choices, XP or Linux. If Linux is selected control passes to grub4dos where I make a Linux selection. I do it this way to write as little as possible to the Windows partition. I still don't trust Linux messing with ntfs formats and I don’t like messing with the MBR.

MBR > ntldr > boot.ini > grldr > menu.lst

This method needs only one file (grldr) copied from grub4dos to the Windows partition and adding one line to boot.ini (c:\grldr="Linux") then you have a grub4dos system.

Looking back and checking dates on files, it seems I switched from Lilo to this method in 2006 and that it’s simply LinNWin or a variation thereof. Even though it seems LinNWin was written for Puppy, I didn’t even look at Puppy back then and used this boot method for Knoppix, Debian and Mepis. It's very easy to add new systems. You just add an entry to menu.lst to point to the kernel and initrd of the new distro and you're done.
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Marrea
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#16 Post by Marrea »

Many thanks Bernie_by_the_Sea for the information regarding grub4dos. It sounds interesting. I may well give it a whirl sometime.

What I'm trying to sort out at the moment is how to install the proprietary nvidia driver for my FX 5200 card. I need the nvidia 173 version for that but Puppy's package manager shows only 195, 256, 260 and 71 versions. I assume I will have to download the 173 version from the nvidia site and install manually, but I have no idea where to get the correct kernel source/headers for Wary 5.0 from - and I imagine gcc as well.

The reason I want the nvidia driver rather than nv is because I am having to use 1024x768 at the moment, which doesn't look very good. I can set my monitor's correct resolution of 1440x900 but unfortunately I can't then use the middle mouse button to scroll in Sea Monkey (nor can I drag the slider bar at the right hand side) and after a short while things lock up. So I have had to revert to 1024x768. I think the correct nvidia driver might fix this problem.

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Bernie_by_the_Sea
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Joined: Wed 09 Feb 2011, 18:14

#17 Post by Bernie_by_the_Sea »

Marrea wrote: What I'm trying to sort out at the moment is how to install the proprietary nvidia driver for my FX 5200 card. I need the nvidia 173 version for that but Puppy's package manager shows only 195, 256, 260 and 71 versions. I assume I will have to download the 173 version from the nvidia site and install manually, but I have no idea where to get the correct kernel source/headers for Wary 5.0 from - and I imagine gcc as well.
NVIDIA-173.14.20-k2.6.30.5-1.pet that is specific for Wary 5.0 is available for download here:

http://puppylinuxstuff.meownplanet.net/catdude/nvidia/

The user name is puppy and the password is linux.

Marrea
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Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#18 Post by Marrea »

Many thanks for the link. I downloaded the file and installed it but unfortunately X wouldn't start. As Puppy recommended I ran xorgwizard but still no X, so I have simply reverted to the nv driver and 1024x768. (I even tried running nvidia-xconfig but that didn't work either.)

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CatDude
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Location: UK

#19 Post by CatDude »

Hi

@ Bernie_by_the_Sea
Bernie_by_the_Sea wrote:NVIDIA-173.14.20-k2.6.30.5-1.pet that is specific for Wary 5.0 is available for download here:
:shock: No no no,
sorry mate, but that is the wrong kernel version for Wary-500

@ Marrea
Please try this one: The usual Username/Password combo required.

I have just built that one in a frugal install of Wary-500 k2.6.31.14
and tested it myself (as you can see from my sig, i also have an FX5200),
it installed without any problem whatsoever.

Just install it, and accept the defaults (unless you want to have it setup for compiz),
when it has finished installing, simply restart the X server.

You will then find a menu entry here: System > NVIDIA X Server Settings

Hope this helps
CatDude

P.S
You can check what kernel version you have by opening a terminal/console
and entering the following command:

Code: Select all

uname -a
.
[img]http://www.smokey01.com/CatDude/.temp/sigs/acer-futile.gif[/img]

Marrea
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat 30 Apr 2011, 16:07

#20 Post by Marrea »

Hi CatDude

Many thanks for this. It's a bit late this evening to start on this but I will have a go tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Marrea

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