Hello Everybody,
I have GOOD NEWS!
I finally have my CD drive "unlocked" on Puppy SeaMonkey Full Drivers 2.14 AND TEENpup 1.0.0!!! Now I can use my only CD-RW drive to boot Puppy, to eject Puppy disk and then, to put CDs with professional documents and photos, music (MP3 and Wav files), videos (AVI format) etc. More: I can run many applications to open files (including PPS and PPT), to navigate on Web and to download e-mails etc., all in the same machine, without more physical RAM or new swap file.
Miracle? No! (Well, almost...) What I did?
A) Background of my first post
I was in trouble because I did many tests with successive versions of Puppy Linux during the last two months, following this logical order:
1) Puppy Chubby 1.0.5 (my first Puppy, used on 2005 and reviewed on 2007). My intention was to check keyboard configuration to work with Portuguese language that include accentuation plus c-cedil (unsolved, because I don't know how to make changes in Xvesa files); to configure Internet connection with ADSL service; to run Gaim etc. Chubby works very well, in conformity with announcements: "Booting from CD, Puppy will load totally into RAM so that the CD drive is then free for other purposes." Source:
http://linux-man.co.uk/shop/product_inf ... 1619ea9...
Note: On 2005 Puppy Chubby stayed on second plan for me because it didn't have Dial-Up modem support I needed, and because my keyboard configuration was unsolved. But Chubby has good performance on auto setup Internet cable connection (tests with NetVirtua/Brazil).
2) PuppyBR 1.0.0 (Puppy 1.0.8 based) - Portuguese menus. Configured US keyboard to write in Portuguese language; CD drive free for other purposes and all that OK.
3) Puppy 2.0.0 with Opera Browser 9.0 Beta: US Keyboard (Portuguese language) and CD drive free etc.: all things OK.
4) TEENpup 1.0.0 (Puppy 2.10 based) - US Keyboard (Portuguese language) OK, but CD drive appears "locked". Well, TEENpup is "exciting!", wrote Raffy (here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=15956) and I agree!! I added some applications, like Opera browser 9.10, Skype; Puppy Search; LeafPad (like Notepad); TuxCards and Knowde (two lasts are Outlines). I did my configurations: Firewall, printer; Flash Player 7 (arrives with TEENpup), FTP and e-mails accounts. Screen background was changed. So I was ready to create my "personal" TEENpup. I did a clean-up of my /root folder and ran TEENpup Remaster CD script. I followed "PuppyLinuxWiki : RemasterThings" instructions (here:
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/RemasterThings) but I was confused and some mistake happened. My remaster becomes unsuccessful, but I saved files on "puppylivecdbuild" folder (my pup_210.sfs has 291Mb; the original file, on CD, has 233,1Mb), on other partition of my second hard drive.
Note: I posted tips about keyboard configuration (US model with accentuation + c-cedil) here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=16996
4.a) I ran TEENpup booting with the command "puppy pfix=ram" but the problem with CD drive was not solved.
5) Puppy SeaMonkey Full Drivers 2.14 - Normal boot (none command). This version has a good Xorg Wizard with many options. For Brazilian users with US keyboard this is a solution, but the problem with my CD drive was not solved at this stage. Other things were OK.
What happened? Well, if you run Puppy 2.14 from live-CD with normal boot, "Puppy will automatically perform any required upgrading of your personal storage file/partition (usually pup_save.3fs file)." (Source:
http://www.puppyos.com/download/release-2.14.htm).
I think that after the upgrade Puppy 2.14 was running the local file created by TEENpup, with my configurations and apps, but without my personal icons. The amount of free RAM memory was "insufficient" to "unlock" CD drive, in this case.
B) Solutions to my problem
Pence wrote:
256mb ram should be enough for Puppy 2.14 unless you have onboard video using some of the ram.
Compaq BIOS is "frugal" about system information. I'm not sure about amount of RAM memory that is reserved to onboard video (Intel 82810E Graphics Controller). I know that my machine has 256Mb of RAM and Windows reports 255Mb of RAM (System Information Tool). I conclude that there is no abnormal allocation of resources to video.
On TEENpup I followed Pence's good advice:
Click Menu->System->Top view running processes.
But the reports don't corroborate the hyphotesis about "low memory", with exactness... (I can attach the logs in future message, if someone requests.)
Pence's information was my guide. New tests became indispensable. What I did:
First, I ran Puppy 2.14 booting with the command "puppy pfix=ram". No upgrading now! So, Puppy 2.14 started and -- voilĂ -- CD drive was "unlocked"!!! Pence is right! Bingo!!
Well, but how can I solve the CD drive problem with TEENpup? I observed one "special" line when booting TEENpup (Dmesg not lists this in the boot log). All the times the reported command was "ls *.sfs... No such file or directory..." So, TEENpup loads pup_210.sfs (233,1Mb) from LiveCD. After loads file pup_save.3fs (805Mb) and pupswap.swp (104Mb) that are in /hdd7 (a Vfat32 partition/9Gb, called "Linux")
I tried this solution: From the folder "puppylivecdbuild" (/hdd6), I did a copy of my "personal" pup_210.sfs (291Mb) and I put it together with pup_save.3fs (805Mb) and pupswap.swp (104Mb) i.e., on /hdd7 (Vfat32).
Note: I did these tasks on Windows, because I'm newbie on Linux.
Second, I ran TEENpup booting with the command "puppy pfix=ram". When TEENpup started with original configuration, I found my CD drive "locked", like during my prior tests.
Finishing, I ran TEENpup with normal boot (without command). I observed that my pup_210.sfs (291Mb) on /hdd7 was searched, founded and loaded; after this pupswap.swp (104Mb), also on /hdd7, was loaded. When started with my personal configuration (keyboard, Internet connection, screen background, many apps etc.), my CD drive was finally "unlocked"!!!
I don't understand "how" TEENpup is working with these two files (pup_210.sfs + pup_save.3fs) on the same partition (hdd7). About pupswap.swp I understand something. I think that TEENpup "forgot" the original pup_210.sfs on LiveCD... After all, my only CD drive is "unlocked", and it's sufficient at this moment, because I have space on my second hard drive (not on my first HD!).
OK, the main problem is solved.
But there is another problem yet.
Audio CD don't run, I don't know why. MUT shows "Audio CD player" but apps doesn't work. I tried Gxine, RealPlayer, XMMS Music Player, XfreeCD Music Player, Ripper X and CD Song Ripper.
Here there is GXINE O.5.7 screen message:
Code: Select all
Autoplay input plugin CD Audio failed
Check engine output for further details.
The xine engine failed to start.
No input plugin was found.
Maybe the file does not exist or cannot be accessed, or there is an error in the URL.
Unknown host: unable to resolve icecast.freeteam.nl
Here there is Ripper X screen message:
Code: Select all
Error code 32
Make sure that you are a member of the "cdrom" group, or otherwise have appropriate permissions to access the CDROM device.
Only
PB Ripper is OK. CD Scan worked with no problem and two tracks were ripped (I killed the process after this). I heard these tracks, saved on .Wav format. They have good quality. After these tasks, I tried others Audio CD (originals CDAs, of course), but none app ran CDA file...
Well, how can I heard my Audio CDs on TEENpup is a
new question, for a new post, I think. And I think also about swap drive activation (I have a Swap partition, but Puppy must format it to recognize this special space).
At last and for everybody, I want to say
Many thanks!