xenial puppy 7.5 boots to some pcs but not others

[SuffolkPunch]

Hi,

Am new to puppy Linux but not to linux itself.

I've successfully got xenialpup-7.5-uefi.iso burnt to a CD which I then used to create Xenial Puppy in a USB3 stick. I think this version is 32-bit, if that matters.

From the stick I can boot into my Linux Mint desktop, and into a Windows 7 PC. Puppy works fine on them.

*But* when I try to boot my circa 2005 medion laptop into Puppy, I get a screenful of boot messages (see jpg) none of which seem to be errors, and then the screen goes blank, and stays blank, forever.

Just once - this morning - the laptop actually booted fully into Puppy, and seemed fine.

The laptop has a 32 bit cpu, 2GB ram, and a (LUKs-encrypted) 80GB HDD and happily runs Linux Mint 17.3 (Rosa) which is I believe derived from Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr).

Anyone else have this problem?

Are there any puppy boot-time options that might provide a bit more evidence on what the problem might be? Perhaps, being more verbose? Or not booting into X (graphical server)?

Any help would be most gratefully received!

[rockedge]

stops near the end of the boot sequence. strange.... can you try to use Puppy Linux Tahr 6.0.5 32bit and see if it will finish and boot on this machine?

[mikeslr]

Hi SuffolkPunch,

It would be particularly helpful if you could provide more details regarding the circa 2005 medion; particularly the graphic hardware it uses. Your screenshot seems to suggests it gets hung up on "optical input".

If the specifications of your computer are not otherwise already available, I think there's a program known as Sysinfo you could install in Linux Mint Rosa. It will provide details regarding all firmware used by your computer.

If you follow rockedge's suggestion and run Tahrpup, you'll find Menu>System>Pup-Sysinfo provides that facility.

mikesLr

[Mike Walsh]

@SuffolkPunch:-

I wouldn't be surprised if the problem's got summat to do with what you mentioned at the end of your second sentence. A USB3 stick.

I use 'em myself (for storage). But neither of my machines will boot from them. One's from 2004, the other from 2002. The USB 3.0 standard didn't appear until around 2008/9. My 2002 machine flat out won't have it; won't boot at all.

The 2004 machine, a big old Compaq desktop, has a USB 3.0 adapter card in the PCI-e slot, since I don't use it for a graphics card. Works brilliantly for fast file-transfer to an external 3TB Seagate drive.....but still won't boot from it. In this case, it's because the adapter card's chipset doesn't support BIOS ROM info, and therefore won't permit booting from it.

If I plug the external USB 3.0 drive into a USB 2.0 socket, it will boot. Sod's law, ain't it?


Mike.

[bigpup]

then the screen goes blank, and stays blank, forever.

All the newest Puppies, like Xenialpup 7.5, try to boot and use a specific graphic driver for a specific brand of hardware. Also, these newest Puppies are more for support of the newest hardware.
Your hardware is so old that the driver that is trying to be used, probably is for the brand of graphics hardware you have, but that driver does not support it.
The boot process starts using a very basic graphics driver and then turns control over to a better driver to run the desktop.
That last boot message is when that happens.
If driver is wrong for hardware screen goes black.

I will assume you made a live Xenialpup USB.

When it first boots to the Puppy boot screen.
Press and hold the F2 key.
When the boot option screen pops up.
Release the F2 key.
Add the command:

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=nox

Press enter.

This will get you to a prompt.
Type xorgwizard at the prompt.
Try this:
Using Xorgwizard.
Select the vesa driver.
(may be listed as nomodesetting driver or you may have to type in vesa)
set resolution to something you know should work.
run test to see if it works.
If test fails, try a different resolution setting.
finish xorgwizard.
back at prompt.
Type

Code: Select all

xwin

should see desktop.

The vesa driver is the generic graphics driver that has been around for ever.
Everything will run using that driver, but it is limited on what it can do.

Note:
Using the no-modesetting driver may help.

There are some other commands that can be used, but need to know for sure, what the graphics hardware is, to know what to use.

[bigpup]

In the future. Giving the make and model of the computer will make it easy to look up the specs and see what is in it.
If you do not know for sure.

[8Geee]

With all respect to others... one thing I noticed was the save-file is .4fs indicating ext4. This might cause problems.

I would recommend a save-file using ext3 (3fs).

Regards
8Geee

[bigpup]

I should look closer at that image.
If you make a save. It has settings for the computer it was made on. Those settings may or may not work on a different computer.

Try using the boot option

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=ram

That keeps the save from loading.

[SuffolkPunch]

Hi SuffolkPunch,

It would be particularly helpful if you could provide more details regarding the circa 2005 medion; particularly the graphic hardware it uses. Your screenshot seems to suggests it gets hung up on "optical input".

If the specifications of your computer are not otherwise already available, I think there's a program known as Sysinfo you could install in Linux Mint Rosa. It will provide details regarding all firmware used by your computer.

If you follow rockedge's suggestion and run Tahrpup, you'll find Menu>System>Pup-Sysinfo provides that facility.

mikesLr

Thanks (to everyone). First off, here's the output of inxi

Code: Select all

inxi -c 0 -b

System:    Host: medion-ufford Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic i686 (32 bit)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8  Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine:   System: MEDIONPC (portable) product: WIM 2070
           Mobo: MEDIONPC model: WIM 2070
           Bios: Phoenix v: R01-A0L date: 04/01/2005
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) speed: 1733 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 915GM x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.3
Network:   Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection
           driver: ipw2200
           Card-2: Realtek RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
           driver: 8139too
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (25.2% used)
Info:      Processes: 152 Uptime: 28 min Memory: 315.5/2006.8MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.28

Will now make a live Xenialpup USB2 ('2' in case USB3 is a problem).

I'll post back later.

[SuffolkPunch]

Progress!

I attach the video report made by xenialpup7.5 running on my old Medion laptop. Yes it booted into puppydom!

Code: Select all

VIDEO REPORT: xenialpup, version 7.5

Chip description:
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03) Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Requested by /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
  Modules requested to be loaded:       dbe 

Probing Xorg startup log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log):
  Driver loaded (and currently in use): intel
  Loaded modules: dbe dri2 fbdevhw glx kbd mouse present

Actual rendering on monitor:
  Resolution:  1024x768 pixels (270x203 millimeters)
  Depth:       24 planes

The laptop booted from a USB2 stick which I created from the live CD of xenialpup 7.5-uefi.iso (32-bit) on my desktop. I wasn't sure which MBR code to choose, so I tried the default.

Sooo the laptop booted once.

Will now try a reboot ... getting the usual boot-up messages on the screen ... which then goes blank...and after waiting couple minutes the screen is still blank. Grrr!

If is press the power button on the laptop, the speaker emits a woof-woof sound, and the wifi led is on, so it seems that someone's at home, but the curtains are drawn!

Oh dear!

[SuffolkPunch]

I will assume you made a live Xenialpup USB.

When it first boots to the Puppy boot screen.
Press and hold the F2 key.
When the boot option screen pops up.
Release the F2 key.
Add the command:

Code: Select all

puppy pfix=nox

Press enter.

This will get you to a prompt.

Unfortunately, pfix=nox also leads to a black screen!

Type xorgwizard at the prompt.

I don't see that. I'm out of ideas!

[bigpup]

You did type puppy pfix=nox?????

I attach the video report made by xenialpup7.5 running on my old Medion laptop. Yes it booted into puppydom!

However, you state this, so what exactly is the problem, now?
Is this the problem?
It will not reboot???????

It seems to indicate your problem was the USB3 issue not graphics driver.

[bigpup]

Will now try a reboot ... getting the usual boot-up messages on the screen ... which then goes blank...and after waiting couple minutes the screen is still blank. Grrr!

Sometimes reboots just do not work OK.

Try a complete power off/on boot up.

[rockedge]

can you reboot...and when the machine reaches the black screen state but appears there is life....try pressing CTL-ALT-Backspace... does the machine drop into the command line? And are you able to enter any commands at the prompt?

[SuffolkPunch]

Sorry about the confusion I seem to have created - here's my current state-of-play.

I have created a live xenialpup 7.5 boot USB2 stick, using the dd command, following instructions at https://it.toolbox.com/blogs/jeffhoogla ... and-030915.

Both my desktop pc and the laptop pc recognise and start to boot from it.

The desktop boots into X (graphical window) following the unmodified default boot command.

Code: Select all

linux vmlinuz pmedia=cd initrd=initrd.gz

When I boot the desktop with the following edited boot command:

Code: Select all

linux vmlinuz pfix=nox pmedia=cd initrd=initrd.gz 

it displays a pop-up allowing one to select keyboard layout. That pop-up is displayed on a higher resolution setting. And I think that switch to a higher resolution setting (despite pfix=nox) is where the boot process trips up on the laptop.

Specifically, i boot the laptop from the live USB stick and enter the same boot command

Code: Select all

linux vmlinuz pfix=nox pmedia=cd initrd=initrd.gz 

The laptop screen shows the 'select keyboard layout' for a fraction of a second, and then goes black and stays black!!

I'm ready to admit defeat, unless anyone has a way to stop that switch to higher resolution?

Thanks for everyone's time on this.

[SuffolkPunch]

can you reboot...and when the machine reaches the black screen state but appears there is life....try pressing CTL-ALT-Backspace... does the machine drop into the command line? And are you able to enter any commands at the prompt?

Thanks for that idea - unfortunately the screen just stays black - no command prompt appears.

I give up!

[matchpoint]

Heya SuffolkPunch, not saying your outcome would be any different going with this method, but it might.

I've got a fickle Intel card on one of my boxes and find it tends to be sensitive to how the stick's set up.

Hurts nothing to try as it doesn't take long.

A kernel swap's yet another possibility.

[bigpup]

When I boot the desktop with the following edited boot command:

Code: Select all

linux vmlinuz pfix=nox pmedia=cd initrd=initrd.gz

You have pfix=nox in the wrong place in the line of code.
Make it like this:

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linux vmlinuz  pmedia=cd initrd=initrd.gz pfix=nox

Also, changing pmedia= to pmedia=usbflash will tell the boot process to only look on the usb flash drive for stuff. Not do a system wide search.

[bigpup]

Tahrpup 6.0.5 may be a better version of Puppy for this computer.
Or
Slacko 5.7
Lucid Puppy 5.2.8.7 or 5.2.8.005
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index. ... order=DESC
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
Not all versions of Puppy work on all computers.
That is why there are several versions.

[SuffolkPunch]

Tahrpup 6.0.5 may be a better version of Puppy for this computer.
Or
Slacko 5.7

Good news - Slacko 5.7 just boots from the live USB without a problem. Tahrpup 6.0.5 on the other hand, dumps my laptop in the black unresponsive screen.

Is Palemoon available in Slacko 5.7? I've grown to quite like it?