Puppy 4.2 "Deep Thought" - Bugs & Fixes

[trio]

Here's a tricky question for you:

I have an older Puppy 4.12 (which uses the old the hd? naming scheme for the drives) and 5 partitions on the hard drive: hda1,hda5,hda6,hda7 and hda8.
The first 4 are FAT32,and the last one (hda8) is EXT3.

I have GRUB installed on hda1 (FAT32) so I can select Puppy from the WinXP boot menu.

How should I set up the menu.lst in GRUB to boot frugally from hda8?

If I specify the partition as (hd0,4) or (hd0,7) ,I get an Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

you should state your current grub menu.lst in full first, so people can see and help

and since it is a 4.1.2 question, you should better post it somewhere else

[DaveS]

Using from a frugal install on a USB, I get a splash screen offering the chance to boot with options. Using a frugal install from my hard drive, this splash screen is absent and Puppy boots straight off. Is this correct, or have I installed something wrongly with the HD install please?

[trio]

Using from a frugal install on a USB, I get a splash screen offering the chance to boot with options. Using a frugal install from my hard drive, this splash screen is absent and Puppy boots straight off. Is this correct, or have I installed something wrongly with the HD install please?

Do you use Grub Boot Loader? If so, then it's a matter of configuring grub boot menu.lst ...can you post both? or you can compare them yourself. It is located in /grub/boot/menu.lst on the boot partition

[DaveS]

I use grub on the hd install, here are the relevant entries

Code: Select all

title           Puppy Linux 420 frugal SDA3
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy420/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy420 nosmp
initrd          /puppy420/initrd.gz

title           Puppy Linux 410 frugal
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy411/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy411 nosmp
initrd          /puppy411/initrd.gz

I have a 5 sec time-out set to allow me to choose which Pup to boot.
The USB install boots straight to the 4.2 splash screen, which is not present on the HD install. I dont have Grub on the USB.
The USB 'home' includes a little program called boot.msg, which is probably the splash screen, but this is missing from the HD 'home'

[trio]

I use grub on the hd install, here are the relevant entries

Code: Select all

title           Puppy Linux 420 frugal SDA3
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy420/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy420 nosmp
initrd          /puppy420/initrd.gz

title           Puppy Linux 410 frugal
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy411/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy411 nosmp
initrd          /puppy411/initrd.gz

I have a 5 sec time-out set to allow me to choose which Pup to boot.
The USB install boots straight to the 4.2 splash screen, which is not present on the HD install. I dont have Grub on the USB.
The USB 'home' includes a little program called boot.msg, which is probably the splash screen, but this is missing from the HD 'home'

aah, so you boot from usb with syslinux, and you're talking about the 4.2 splash screen, the gfx graphics....well, i'm not in puppy now, but I remembered that if you go to home/boot/grub directory, you'll see a menu.lst example...you then copy the line gfxmenu /boot/grub/deep_stage1 and off course copy the deep_stage1 to the right path also....

second thing, i think nosmp is needed for usb frugal only?

[panzerpuppy]

you should state your current grub menu.lst in full first, so people can see and help

Here's the menu.lst:

Code: Select all

default 0
timeout 0

title Puppy 4.12 custom
	rootnoverify (hd0,4)
	kernel (hd0,4)/Pupster/vmlinuz pmedia=idehd pdev1=hda8 psubok=TRUE
	initrd (hd0,4)/Pupster/initrd.gz

----------------------

[trio]

you should state your current grub menu.lst in full first, so people can see and help

Here's the menu.lst:

Code: Select all

default 0
timeout 0

title Puppy 4.12 custom
	rootnoverify (hd0,4)
	kernel (hd0,4)/Pupster/vmlinuz pmedia=idehd pdev1=hda8 psubok=TRUE
	initrd (hd0,4)/Pupster/initrd.gz

----------------------

try without pdev1=hda8

[Pizzasgood]

Is this crazy?
In Puppy 4.2RC4: I can use SCIM
In Puppy 4.2: SCIM is disable.
Anyone test this? Please give some instructions/comments? Thanks

We fixed it.
Copy "/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.1200.1" from RC4 to final.

We don't know why different RC4 and final.

RC4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2489012 2007-10-22 19:58 libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.1200.1
final -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3648240 2009-01-27 14:40 libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.1200.1

And

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 62276 2009-03-30 21:16 libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0.1200.1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 49652 2009-03-30 21:16 libgdk_pixbuf_xlib-2.0.so.0.1200.1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2489012 2009-03-30 21:15 libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.1200.1

are different.

WhoDo applied my workaround for the seamonkey-dies-on-insert bug, which involved installing a GTK that was compiled with debug enabled. Apparently there is a difference besides that between the version I supplied and the one in RC4. Was RC4 using the same GTK as 4.1.2 did, or had he changed GTK (perhaps to one with localization-related stuff enabled that wasn't enabled in 4.1.2?). If so, then to get a complete fix, that other version needs to be compiled with the debug option enabled (unless that version is immune to the insert bug (pressing the insert key in a textarea, like the one used to post in the forum. It doesn't happen in small one-line inputs, just the multiline textareas).

[_MegadetH_]

Hi there! why there isn't anymore window list with left click? It was very handy for me to kill apps. Can I set window list with right click as in previous puppy version? thanks

[panzerpuppy]

Annoyances in Puppy 4.2:

- How to prevent Puppy from scanning the optical drives when PMount is started and no CD is inserted into the drive(s)? (frugal install)

This thing gets really annoying: I have to wait 10 seconds or more before the PMount window shows up.It tries to scan each drive 2 to 3 times.

- Another major annoyance: GXine does the same when you drag a file to the window.It scans the optical drives before playing the file. Any way to disable this?

- And another one: ROX desktop uses up to 4% CPU (that's with a 2.6 GHz CPU) when you move the mouse. Is ROX desktop that inefficient?
Same problem even when you install videocard drivers with DRI/Mesa.
Windows XP does this with 0% CPU usage.

[panzerpuppy]

try without pdev1=hda8

Doesn't help. I still get the Error 17: Cannot mount partition

[DaveS]

I use grub on the hd install, here are the relevant entries

Code: Select all

title           Puppy Linux 420 frugal SDA3
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy420/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy420 nosmp
initrd          /puppy420/initrd.gz

title           Puppy Linux 410 frugal
rootnoverify    (hd0,2)
kernel          /puppy411/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy411 nosmp
initrd          /puppy411/initrd.gz

I have a 5 sec time-out set to allow me to choose which Pup to boot.
The USB install boots straight to the 4.2 splash screen, which is not present on the HD install. I dont have Grub on the USB.
The USB 'home' includes a little program called boot.msg, which is probably the splash screen, but this is missing from the HD 'home'

aah, so you boot from usb with syslinux, and you're talking about the 4.2 splash screen, the gfx graphics....well, i'm not in puppy now, but I remembered that if you go to home/boot/grub directory, you'll see a menu.lst example...you then copy the line gfxmenu /boot/grub/deep_stage1 and off course copy the deep_stage1 to the right path also....

second thing, i think nosmp is needed for usb frugal only?

Thanks Trio. I dont yet know what I need to do to fix it, but at least I now know it is the instruction I have put into Grub. I will figure it out now I hope.........

[WhoDo]

Thanks Trio. I dont yet know what I need to do to fix it, but at least I now know it is the instruction I have put into Grub. I will figure it out now I hope.........

Here is something "off the wall", but logically it could work. Try NOT using the psubdir= boot parameter. Why? Well psubdir= may start from the directory that the vmlinuz and initrd.gz files live in, and you have these all in the same directory. IOW, it may be looking for psubdir UNDER your /puppy420 directory instead of under / directory. Just a thought. No reason why it should work. It's just an idea.

Hope that helps.

[Ray MK]

Hi

Try changing "hda" to "sda" - usually needed with 4.xx

Hope that helps

Ray

[Ray MK]

Hi again

Another thought - if puppy files are in folders on sda3 - you might need to renumber drives

ie change (hd0,2) to (sd0,4) - grub numbering conventions etc.

Hope thats helpful

regards - Ray

[DaveS]

Thanks for all these replies guys, but I think I described the problem poorly. It is not that I cant boot from the HD, that is fine, and grub works just as it should with proper time out and selection of distro from the menu.
When I boot using grub on the frugal HD install, once I have selected the distro from the grub menu, it boots straight away. I DONT get the option page allowing me to select the way it boots, ex pfix=ram.
With my USB install, I get a time out and splash page at start of boot which gives me these options. Is it possible to also set this up on the frugal HD install using the grub bootloader?
The USB install boots using syslinux and does not touch the HD or grub.

[WhoDo]

When I boot using grub on the frugal HD install, once I have selected the distro from the grub menu, it boots straight away. I DONT get the option page allowing me to select the way it boots, ex pfix=ram.
With my USB install, I get a time out and splash page at start of boot which gives me these options. Is it possible to also set this up on the frugal HD install using the grub bootloader?
The USB install boots using syslinux and does not touch the HD or grub.

Aha! Now I get what you're after. Grub and syslinux are doing the same job, essentially. The difference is that it is very clear with the syslinux screen in the USB install exactly where you should put the pfix=ram option. You certainly CAN do the same with Grub, but you need to handle it slightly differently.

Add an entry to your Grub menu.lst file with all the same parameters as a normal boot EXCEPT also append the pfix=ram option to the kernel line.

Alternatively, when you boot with Grub there is an option to edit the boot string - can't remember exactly what key it is, but it offers to let you edit the boot string and can be found at the bottom of your Grub splash screen. Choose that option (C is it?) and then add the pfix=ram option to the boot string before pressing b to boot with the extra option.

Hope that helps.

[DaveS]

Thanks Whodo. From what you say, it seems that using grub, it is not possible to halt the boot process, display the Puppy boot options page, and supply input to continue the boot process. It sounds like I would effectively need to create a grub entry for each boot option I might need. I figured this might be the case as that is the way Ubuntu sets grub up to allow different boot options, but was not sure. Seems a bit archaic, but hey, if it works and is robust....................

[rhadon]

Hi DaveS,

another possible solution is to use a dummy_pupsave.2fs built e.g. by geany (only .2fs is important). Then you can choose to use your pupsave, the dummy (doesn't work ot course) or '0' for no pupsave file.

If you often use it, you can make a new entry in your menu.lst including pfix=ram.

~ Rolf

[WhoDo]

From what you say, it seems that using grub, it is not possible to halt the boot process, display the Puppy boot options page, and supply input to continue the boot process.

On the contrary:

1. It IS possible to halt the grub boot process

2. It is NOT possible to display the Puppy boot options page, at least not without some messing about

3. It IS possible to supply input to continue the boot process.

So you have to know which option you want to supply e.g. pfix=ram but you can still do it.

a. Highlight the grub boot entry for the Puppy version you want to boot

b. Press the key to edit the grub command line ('C' I think but it's on the bottom of your grub boot screen)

c. Add the pfix=ram or whatever to the backend of the grub command line

d. Press b to continue booting with that option appended.

Alternative, use Rolf's method of creating a dummy pup_save.2fs file - you won't get the ability to use other Puppy kernel boot options, but you will get to choose 0 to boot without a pup_save.2fs which is the same as pfix=ram.

Hope that helps.