Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[CatDude]

Hello All

Due to recent requests for help regarding my graphical grub package,
i went looking for a GRUB Legacy package that supported:
ext4 partitions and partitions that had an inode size of 256 byte
and obviously gfxmenu (the GRUB graphical boot menu).

I am happy to report that i have actually found one (thanks go out to Mepis once again ),
and it appears to work OK.

Test machine specs:
Compaq Presario 5176 (desktop)
CPU = AMD K6-2 400MHz
RAM = 384MB (maxed out)
HDD = 8GB


Using GParted from different Puppies to format the drive,
i made a few tests.

sda1 = small partition just for GRUB (approx 50MB), ext3, inode size = 128
also for test puposes i deleted and reformatted to: ext4, inode size = 128

sda2 = 1GB Puppy-4.31 ( Puppy-4.30 in a subdir) ext3
sda3 = 256MB SWAP
sda4 = Extended
sda5 = 1GB Puppy-214X-RC1, ext3, inode size = 256
sda6 = 1GB Puppy-4.31, ext4, inode size = 256
sda7 = 1GB Puppy-3.01, ext2, inode size = 256
sda8 = 1GB I later installed GRUB to this as a test (deleted that on sda1), ext4, inode size = 256
sda9 = 1GB Puppy-4.21, ext3, inode size = 128

In all cases i was able to boot into any of the installs,
whether i used GRUB on sda1 or sda8 irrespactive of inode size or format.

If you look at the attached image,
you can see the different partitions and formats.

You will also notice that none of the partitions are flagged as boot,
i don't normally do this, but i did purely for this test.
It had no adverse affect upon the booting ability of GRUB.

As to the gfxmenu side of things,
i tried a couple of my message files and thay all worked fine.
I tried using the biggest one i had available (794K) to see if it would be problematic,
it passed with flying colours (pun intended).

So if anybody fancies trying this new package out,
you can get it from the first post of my How to have a graphical GRUB thread.
It is called: grub-gfxboot-ext4-and-inode256-compatible.tar.gz
and contains the following:

grub-gfxboot_0.97-36mepis1.pet
pupsta1
pupsta1.jpg
README.txt

it is practically the same as the other package posted there grub-gfxboot-for-puppy-updated.tar.gz
the only difference being: grub-gfxboot_0.97-36mepis1.pet instead of: grub-gfxboot_0.97-18mepis1.pet

The usual warning stands: Use entirely at your own risk

Anyway i hope this helps someone.
CatDude
.

[Roger Hunter]

CatDude;

Now that's what I call help going above and beyond the call of duty!

Many thanks. If it works (and I assume it will) you've saved us hours of head scratching.

I'm off to try it.

Roger

[CatDude]

Hello Roger

[vellowax]

wow...AWESOME...
many thanks CatDude
i tried your package, and it all work like you said.
i'll keep that pupsta1 as the graphical menu.

Thanks again CatDude.

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[CatDude]

Hello vellowax