Wakepup2 Aug 2008 - floppy image for booting from USB

[Jesse]

I don't know about the zcat insmod method, could you clarify?

Heres the exact lines that I was referring to:

Code: Select all

 zcat /lib/modules/${KERNVER}/pcmcia/rsrc_nonstatic.ko.gz | insmod -
 zcat /lib/modules/${KERNVER}/pcmcia/yenta_socket.ko.gz | insmod -

I think these are used as the modprobe call may not know how to unzip before loading.

I think you're right on all your points in your message.

I hadn't come across the gpccard program before, that seems to be an awfully handy tool to be able to determine if pcmcia disk boot drivers would be needed during the init script.

Does any of the more recent Puppy editions boot via the pcmcia? like 4.1rc1? If it does maybe we can copy the bits out of that initrd.gz and put them into your 3.01 initrd.gz. I know how to do that sort of thing, but figuring it all out from scratch would be very tricky as I don't have a computer with pcmcia.

Regards
Jesse

[erikson]

I think these (zcat | insmod) are used as the modprobe call may not know how to unzip before loading.

Ah, okay. Actually, in 3.01, the compressed modules from initrd.gz are decompressed in rc.modules (i.e. too "late" for booting off pcmcia).

Does any of the more recent Puppy editions boot via the pcmcia? like 4.1rc1?

I don't know.

If it does maybe we can copy the bits out of that initrd.gz and put them into your 3.01 initrd.gz. I know how to do that sort of thing, but figuring it all out from scratch would be very tricky as I don't have a computer with pcmcia.

I'm thinking along the same lines.

My laptop does have pcmcia but I'm not inclined to invest in pcmcia SD or CF cards myself; I'm running Puppy off my usb hdd and/or my usb pendrive. I might experiment if ever someone sends me some pcmcia stuff to play with

---

BTW are you the jesse credited for elspci in rc.modules? Barry has included this usb support code also in initrd.gz such that Puppy perfectly boots off my usb devices

[Jesse]

BTW are you the jesse credited for elspci in rc.modules? Barry has included this usb support code also in initrd.gz such that Puppy perfectly boots off my usb devices

Yeah I wrote that ages ago, a fun little util. The original lspci didn't (easilly) print out the subclass field, which is how to easilly distinguish between which usb host controller driver to load. I'm glad that its working out well
Regards
Jesse

[erikson]

GREAT NEWS

In the latest version of the init script (4.1-rc-409-k2.6.25.16), I find following code snippet:

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#v403 pcmcia drive support. i think this may need extra delay though...
[ "`elspci -l | grep '060700'`" != "" ] && modprobe yenta_socket
#...may have to add on a couple of seconds, need to test with a pcmcia drive.

So, otropogo et al, help Barry with alpha/beta testing. Please try booting frugal Puppy off pcmcia card with a Puppy version 4.03 or later, and report.

The bad news, for me, is that my external usb hdd doesn't boot with this version (the dreaded pup_409.sfs not found). I'm checking why.

[otropogo]

..
So, otropogo et al, help Barry with alpha/beta testing. Please try booting frugal Puppy off pcmcia card with a Puppy version 4.03 or later, and report....

I'd like to, but I'm not sure exactly how to boot it.

I guess I can download the ISO, open it up with Isomaster (although I've never tried this before), and copy the files to a flash card to insert in the laptop. But then what?

Right now, my only means of booting Puppy is via the dos script I mentioned previously. Can you tell me how to modify that to boot from the pcmcia slot, or is Wakepup2 now able to do that?

[Crash]

Otropogo-

I have recently had success booting both Puppy 4.1 Beta and 4.1 Release Candidate using a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter on my laptop computer test bed. These two successes are the first ever for me.

I used the following procedure: On my desktop computer, I downloaded the Puppy .iso file and burned it to a CD. Then I copied the contents of the CD (actually, just pup_409.sfs, initrd.gz, and vmlinuz) to the CF card. Then I transferred the CF card to the laptop computer and did a boot via floppy. The CF card is formatted FAT16 but FAT32 probably will work too.

For out-of-the-box PCMCIA support, I recommend either Puppy version 4.1 Beta or 4.1 RC. Hopefully the final release will also be as successful.

[otropogo]

... I downloaded the Puppy .iso file and burned it to a CD. Then I copied the contents of the CD (actually, just pup_409.sfs, initrd.gz, and vmlinuz) to the CF card. Then I transferred the CF card to the laptop computer and did a boot via floppy. The CF card is formatted FAT16 but FAT32 probably will work too.

For out-of-the-box PCMCIA support, I recommend either Puppy version 4.1 Beta or 4.1 RC. Hopefully the final release will also be as successful.

Thanks Crash. Will try it. But have lost track of your latest version of Wakepup2 (I assume that's the boot floppy you're citing). Where is it?

Also. Don't you need the USBFlash marker file on the CF card?

[John Doe]

...latest version of Wakepup2...

perhaps here?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=33551

looks like some really cool small nuances attended to in there.

[erikson]

The bad news, for me, is that my external usb hdd doesn't boot with this version (the dreaded pup_409.sfs not found). I'm checking why.

The reason is the change of drive designations: my internal ide hdd resp. external usb hdd are named 'hda' resp. 'sda' on Puppy 301, and 'sda' resp. 'sdb' on Puppy 409-k2.6.25.16.

So I just had to adapt the pdev1=sda6 boot hint to pdev1=sdb6 in my grub menu. Boots fine now.

I understand from crash that also booting from pcmcia indeed works with Barry's addition to init since 403.

[otropogo]

Otropogo-

I have recently had success booting both Puppy 4.1 Beta and 4.1 Release Candidate using a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter on my laptop computer test bed.

Just tried to load Pup4.1-rc4 from CF card in my 16-bit pcmcia slot, using your Sept. 27 Wakepup2.img.

There was no sign that the CF card was ever recognized. Certainly the Puppy files were not.

Maybe I'm using the wrong procedure with Wakepup2? Can you run me through the options you used in each menu?

Perhaps I should mention that I didn't bother burning a CD. I just opened the ISO in Isomaster after checking the md5sum, then extracted it to my CF card. I checked the md5sum for the floppy image before writing it too.

[otropogo]

@Crash

After my failed attempt to boot Pup4.1-rc4 from a CF card in my pcmcia slot using the latest (9/27/08_) Wakepup2 from

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=33551

I thought I'd better check it for pcmcia_scsi support.

And I found that, unlike previous Wakepup versions, it no longer recognizes the pcmcia_scsi host adapter and attached drive, even in Freedos.


We discussed this problem here:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 8&start=60

in mid-September, when I ran various successful test for you, and you revised Wakepup2 and posted it in the thread I cited first above on Sept. 16.

I don't recall whether I ever tried the Sept. 16 version, but the recommended version of Sept. 27 fails every one of the tests we ran successfully in mid-September....

Have now tried your Wakepup2 of Sept. 16, and it fails too. I then found the archive of the Sept. 8 version, and it also fails.

So that means the one working copy I tested so extensively on Sept 14 was created sometime after September 8. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy. I may have copied your Sept. 27 version over it.

I hope you kept copies of your transitional versions between Sept. 8 and Sept. 16, and some notes on what you changed...

[Crash]

Otropogo-

OK, we can still backtrack, but I have another method I've been playing with.

This only works for pup_409.sfs:

Make copies of all three disks. Start with disk 1 and follow the instructions. It loads the Kernel entirely from floppy - takes maybe three minutes, but eliminates a lot of unknowns. The only problem with this three-disk set is that it needs to be changed every time there is a Puppy version change.

cb9b1ce24c68d55abe68df1b032e110f disk1.img
f681c2bef18e37d1670922d9744ce6f8 disk2.img
151d15e87feddd17f3e3d27419bb528e disk3.img

[otropogo]

Otropogo-

OK, we can still backtrack,

I sure hope so.

but I have another method I've been playing with.

This only works for pup_409.sfs:

Ok. First, your floppy images don't work quite right on my system.

It took me four reboots before I had my first opportunity to insert Disk2.

The first two times, the screen showed "pause", but the program just kept going through both pauses without my touching the keyboard..

On the third try, it passed by disk two and paused to let me insert disk 3. As you can imagine, that didn't work either....

Secondly, there's something about "F8" that flashes by too fast for me to even hit the key before it's gone.

So it took a lot longer than expected to test this three disk set.

When I finally got the whole thing loaded, I had my scsi_pcmcia adapter in slot 1, hosting the CDROM drive with the Puppy 4.0 LiveCD, and the CF card with the specified Puppy 409 files in slot 0.

The system presented a choice of my two 301R save files on "sda1" and "sda2" (which I assume are my hard drive partitions), or "none" and when I chose "none", it reported:

pup_409.sfs not found

[...etc]

So apparently it was able to detect the 4.1-rc4 files on the CF card.

Which leaves us at the same stage we were at with Wakepup2 more than a month ago, trying to load Puppy from pcmcia_scsi and PPzip, only now we're using three boot disks instead of one, and can no longer detect pcmcia_scsi, idehd (or pp ZIP, I'm guessing).

How is that progress?

[Crash]

It took me four reboots before I had my first opportunity to insert Disk2.

Sounds like a nervous keyboard. If you want to make the program more stutter-proof, you can replace the tt.bat file on disk 1 with:

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@echo off
copy a:vmlinuzb r:
:disk2
echo Put in disk 2 (contains vmlinuza):
pause
if exist a:vmlinuza goto ok2
goto disk2
:ok2
copy a:vmlinuza r:
:disk3
echo Put in disk 3 (contains initrd.gz):
pause
if exist a:initrd.gz goto ok3
goto disk3
:ok3
copy a:initrd.gz r:
copy /b r:vmlinuza+r:vmlinuzb r:vmlinuz
LINLD.COM image=r:vmlinuz initrd=r:initrd.gz "cl=root=/dev/ram0"

Note: At any of the "pause"s, you can exit to the DOS prompt by hitting control-C, then "Y". You can look at things, hack autoexec.bat or tt.bat with the editor, etc., then reboot.

The system presented a choice of my two 301R save files on "sda1" and "sda2" (which I assume are my hard drive partitions), or "none" and when I chose "none"...

DEFINITELY choose "none" at this point to avoid getting into trouble.

So apparently it was able to detect the 4.1-rc4 files on the CF card.

No, I don't think it saw your CF card at all unfortunately. Can you put the CF card in slot 1 instead of slot 0?

It sees your hard drive, but doesn't see pup_409.sfs on it, which is exactly what should happen. You could copy pup_409.sfs to the hard drive, preferably to a subdirectory like "\pup41rc", and the Kernel WILL find it and boot to it. But there are a lot of other ways to accomplish the same thing, like making up another dos2pup script, but that is another exercise.

Well, it was certainly a step forward for my laptop computer, but apparently not for yours...

It may also be worthwhile to see if you can boot a live CD of Puppy 4.1 RC in your SCSI CD drive using this three-disk set. It worked for me OK on a USB CD drive.

///

Otropogo-

Getting back to Wakepup2, if you take the LATEST Wakepup2 disk, the one dated SEPTEMBER 27, 2008:

Save the original PCMCIA.BAT file on the floppy. Then replace PCMCIA.BAT with the following:

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rem pcmcia.bat test program - Oct 4, 2008 take 3
rem @echo off

driver\cardsoft\adapter
devload /q driver\cardsoft\ss365sl.exe

devload /q driver\cardsoft\cs.exe /POLL:1

devload /h /q driver\cardsoft\csalloc.exe driver\cardsoft\csalloc.ini
devload /q driver\cardsoft\atadrv.exe /S:2
devload /q driver\cardsoft\cardid.exe driver\cardsoft\cardid.ini
lh driver\cardsoft\cs_apm.exe

shsurdrv 1440k,r:
unzip driver\aspi.zip aspi2dos.sys -d r:
devload /q r:aspi2dos.sys
devload /q driver\aspicd.sys /d:USB-CD

autoexec

Does this code work with the PCMCIA SCSI CD?

[otropogo]

[

quote="Crash"]...

So apparently it was able to detect the 4.1-rc4 files on the CF card.

No, I don't think it saw your CF card at all unfortunately

Yes, I see that removing the CF card gives the same result. Your three disk boot set must be giving the system the name of the 409.sfs file.

Can you put the CF card in slot 1 instead of slot 0?

Done. Makes no difference.

You could copy pup_409.sfs to the hard drive, preferably to a subdirectory like "\pup41rc", and the Kernel WILL find it and boot to it...
It may also be worthwhile to see if you can boot a live CD of Puppy 4.1 RC in your SCSI CD drive using this three-disk set.

will try this later...

Getting back to Wakepup2, if you take the LATEST Wakepup2 disk, the one dated SEPTEMBER 27, 2008:

Save the original PCMCIA.BAT file on the floppy. Then replace PCMCIA.BAT with the following:
...

Does this code work with the PCMCIA SCSI CD?

I tried it with the Puppy 4.0 LiveCD only, and it does show the adapter information again, and takes matters up to the:

pup_400.sfs not found

message.

And since I don't see any reference to pup_400.sfs in your bat file, I assume that Freedos has actually read the filename from the LiveCD in this instance.

[otropogo]

It took me four reboots before I

had my first opportunity to insert Disk2.

Sounds like a nervous keyboard. ....

Strangely, after the first three boots, I never experienced this pause failure again. Although I'm using the same disks, unaltered...

.. You could copy pup_409.sfs to the hard drive, preferably to a subdirectory like "\pup41rc", and the Kernel WILL find it and boot to it.

Yes. That works. I notice that 4.09 has dropped gpccard. Would have been interesting to see what it had to say about the slot with my scsi adapter, which doesn't show up in Pmount.

But there are a lot of other ways to accomplish the same thing, like making up another dos2pup script, but that is another exercise.

It would sure beat the three-floppy boot method. Would you need a separate script individualized for each Pup, or can a single script give access to multiple frugals?

It may also be worthwhile to see if you can boot a live CD of Puppy 4.1 RC in your SCSI CD drive using this three-disk set. It worked for me OK on a USB CD drive.

Sorry, 4.1 rc-4 doesn't load off my pcmcia_scsi drive either. In fact, there's no indication the scsi adapter is ever recognized by the three-disk procedure.

[Crash]

Would have been interesting to see what it had to say about the slot with my scsi adapter, which doesn't show up in Pmount.

That's too bad, because if Puppy can't see the PCMCIA slot once it is booted, chances are it never had Kernel support. The laptop that I had success with used the rather common Intel compatible PCMCIA chipset. Yours may be more obscure, although the Cardsoft driver that works for it is likewise an Intel one.

Would you need a separate script individualized for each Pup, or can a single script give access to multiple frugals?

I use a separate script for each install. You could have a program that asks what version you want to load, but I find that the separate one-line scripts are easier to generate quickly. In the case of your installation, you can make a script similar to what you have, but include the subdirectory information:

Code: Select all

"LINLD.COM image=C:\pup41rc\vmlinuz C:\pup41rc\initrd.gz "cl=root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd  acpi=on psubdir=pup41rc"

This should boot Puppy 4.1 RC from the DOS prompt. (Assumes you put pup_409.sfs, vmlinuz, and initrd.gz in a "\pup41rc" subdirectory, and that the drive letter is "C:").

Once you've got Puppy 4.1 RC running OK on the hard drive, I'd be interested if it can recognize your CF card in the PCMCIA adapter.

[otropogo]

Would have been interesting to see what it had to say about the slot with my scsi adapter, which doesn't show up in Pmount.

That's too bad, because if Puppy can't see the PCMCIA slot once it is booted, chances are it never had Kernel support. The laptop that I had success with used the rather common Intel compatible PCMCIA chipset. Yours may be more obscure. That might make it much harder to find a solution for.

No. You misundertstood me. Pup409, once loaded and running, can access the supported adapters in the pcmcia slots.

I'm running 409 on the CF-25 right now. It's able to read and write to both my Sandisk CF card in its adapter, and to SD flash cards in my Nexxtech 7 in 1 card reader. I'm connected right now via a pcmcia ethernet adapter.

But since I don't have an aha152x_cs module for Kernel 2.6.25 (only the one for 2.6.18_), my pcmcia scsi adapter and the devices attached to it are not recognized. I haven't tried installing the earlier module, but have been told it wouldn't work unless recompiled.

Would you need a separate script individualized for each Pup, or can a single script give access to multiple frugals?

I use a separate script for each install. You could have a program that asks what version you want to load, but I find that the separate one-line scripts are easier to generate quickly. In the case of your installation, you can make a script similar to what you have, but include the subdirectory information:

Code: Select all

"LINLD.COM image=C:\pup41rc\vmlinuz C:\pup41rc\initrd.gz "cl=root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd  acpi=on psubdir=pup41rc"

This should boot Puppy 4.1 RC from the DOS prompt. (Assumes you put pup_409.sfs, vmlinuz, and initrd.gz in a "\pup41rc" subdirectory, and that the drive letter is "C:").

Thanks, I'll try it. But I'm really more interested in 4.1 retro. 409 is extremely sluggish on the CF-25. Seamonkey was so slow to load, I tried a dozen times to open it, and about three minutes later, a dozen instances appeared on the display all at once.

[Crash]

I'm running 409 on the CF-25 right now. It's able to read and write to both my Sandisk CF card in its adapter, and to SD flash cards in my Nexxtech 7 in 1 card reader. I'm connected right now via a pcmcia ethernet adapter.

OK, that's good, although it appears that the hardware support is provided after the Kernel passes control to the main Puppy program, in which case it wouldn't be possible to boot directly from CF. I guess as long as you have a hard drive intact and the ability to read the CF card, it is always possible to get Puppy running on the computer.

I'm really more interested in 4.1 retro.

I took a look at the files on the 4.1 RC regular and 4.1 RC retro, and find that the main Puppy file, pup_409.sfs, is the exact same for both versions. So to run retro, you only have to replace vmlinuz and initrd.gz with the retro versions. This saves some time. If you have a save file already present, you will probably want to backup/delete it or rename it to something like "pup_bak.2fs" before trying the retro version. Otherwise, the retro version may get very confused if it is there. I haven't tried the retro version, mainly because the regular version provides hardware support for my SATA DVD writer, and I would probably lose that capability in the retro version.

///

Getting back to the Sept 27 Wakepup2:

Quote:
Getting back to Wakepup2, if you take the LATEST Wakepup2 disk, the one dated SEPTEMBER 27, 2008:

Save the original PCMCIA.BAT file on the floppy. Then replace PCMCIA.BAT with the following:
...

Does this code work with the PCMCIA SCSI CD?


I tried it with the Puppy 4.0 LiveCD only, and it does show the adapter information again, and takes matters up to the:

Quote:
pup_400.sfs not found

message.

And since I don't see any reference to pup_400.sfs in your bat file, I assume that Freedos has actually read the filename from the LiveCD in this instance.

That makes me feel better about the Sept 27 version. I didn't know if I totally messed up something there. If you could restore the pcmcia.bat file that was on the floppy (or make a new Sept 27 version), and run through this option sequence again, maybe it will run. If not, there will be a clue as to what's wrong:

Code: Select all

7. PCMCIA, SCSI, and Zip Parallel Devices (Experimental)

1. PCMCIA

3. aspi2dos.sys

2. No, continue

6. aspicd.sys /d:USB-CD 

4. usbcd  (if needed)

1. Normal 

[otropogo]

...
Getting back to the Sept 27 Wakepup2:


If you could restore the pcmcia.bat file that was on the floppy (or make a new Sept 27 version), and run through this option sequence again, maybe it will run. If not, there will be a clue as to what's wrong:

Code: Select all

7. PCMCIA, SCSI, and Zip Parallel Devices (Experimental)

1. PCMCIA

3. aspi2dos.sys

2. No, continue

6. aspicd.sys /d:USB-CD 

4. usbcd  (if needed)

1. Normal 

Yes, it works. The host adapter and scsi CDROM are identified, and the process continues to:

.... Pup_400.sfs not found ...

when the 4.0 LiveCD is inserted,

or, if the 409 LiveCD is inserted, and after I select to load from "Z", Wakepup ignores my selection and loads 409 from the hard drive (just as it does with the 3.01 LiveCD).

(choosing 1. ALL at the third menu works too)

NB: I've just realized that I mistakenly used the "quick" method you suggested for booting the CD-ROM on my SCSI server. And this accounts for the failure to recognize the pcmcia adapter on my laptop (the directions were close together in the same post, and I neglected to zoom Seamonkey for easier reading).

I should have double checked my results by the main boot routine, or at least been specific about the menu sequence I used, in which case you'd have seen my error right away.

Please accept my sincere apologies.