Puppy CD boot: keyboard does not respond

[dikgee]

I have an old Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop, 512MB ram, 20GB hd, 800khz.
My ms XP crashed, cann't get it back up. Now is the time to try linux. I burned the iso program onto a cd, placed it in my computer and it proceeded to boot. After the last download was done........

NOTHING

NO keys work. I assume its because this isn't a desktop (no ps2 keboard)
I have a synaptics keyboard with a touchpad.

Any software for that. If there is how do I get it into my computer. Can I burn it onto the cd with Puppy???????????

thanks in advance.....

[zapjb]

Did you get any Puppy screen at all upon booting?

If not, I suspect you did not burn the .ISO but just copied the data. Critical difference.

[dikgee]

No I did burn the iso file, I used "Free easy Burner". I was able to see the individual files on the cd after burning.

On booting there were about 10 lines showing progress, after each one "done" appeared, after the last one the curser (blinking underscore) was at the left side of the screen. Could not input any text from my keyboard.

dikgee

[rcrsn51]

NO keys work. I assume its because this isn't a desktop (no ps2 keboard)

Puppy can definitely work with laptop hardware. Seeing how this is an old computer, I would start with an old Puppy, like 4.3.1.

[davids45]

G'day,
Your computer may need special boot parameters - my desktop needs "acpi=off" or I get problems like your laptop.

So when the Puppy image appears at boot start, quickly type in at the bottom line on the screen:

puppy pfix=ram acpi=off

then press <Enter> to see if Puppy boots.

If still no booting, there are other things to try.

If you press F2 at the Puppy image, you will see the range of boot parameter options possible - if your live CD boots up another computer (= it is a good CD) then you may need to try some of the boot parameter options until you get what your laptop needs. If you want to install a Puppy then you will need to remember which boot parameter works and add this into your Grub menu.lst file

It would assist if you told everyone which Puppy you are trying as the Linux kernel can be OK for some computers but give difficulties with others.

Good luck.

David S.

[Bruce B]

I have an old Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop, 512MB ram, 20GB hd, 800khz.
My ms XP crashed, cann't get it back up.

That's easy, download the Genuine Microsoft Live Repair CD image. Burn to
optical disc. Boot and let the Wizards do the rest.

Actually don't because I'm just joking, I think MS would rather
you just buy a new machine, than provide you with tools to fix your old
one.

It is Linux time. I've made successful Puppy full installs on Dell Inspiron
older than yours.

I used version 4 but that doesn't mean 5 won't work. It only means I didn't try 5

~

[dikgee]

Gentlemen (or should i say fellow microsoft haters)

I orignally used version 5, but there was a suggestion to use V 4.3.1. The same hang up occurred. I bought my computer in nov of 2001 at a astonomical price (could buy at least 4 mabey 5 laptops with better features now for the same price).
I spent the last 20 years working with a pdp11, or a sun workstation using unix and c++. Unfortunetly not using pc's, I got weened on an apple II
Been thinking about linux for awhile. Just have to refresh my unix skills, i have been retired for 10 years.

I noticed the help file on the booting screen. I tried the "puppy acpi=off" (no change) and the "puppy acpi=on", One suggestion I saw was to type as soon as possible "puppy pfix=ram acpi=off". what is the "puppy pfix=ram" used for is that to load only to ram??? Because I may have a disk problem (see next par)

I noticed the troublshooting, I tried "puppy pfix=5" And now when booting I get the following errors......

after to ram........

Get.........
"end request I/O error dev sr0, sector 90860"
"buffer I/O error sr0 logical block 22715
22716
|
22724"
"end request I/O error sr0 sector 90064"

I ran ms chkdsk earlier and some errors were found, the sectors should have been marked. doesn't liux look at the bad sector marks??????

is that what the "puppy pfix=ram" is used for.

any other ideas or comments will be welcomed. I may be old but still in learning mode
I will be trying the pfix=ram some time tonight...

regards to all who replyed

[NE1]

It seems that it is having trouble reading the CD.
I would try burning a new CD at the slowest speed it will allow.

pfix=ram means it runs in memory (e.g. LiveCD).
However, it should make no difference in your case, since Puppy has never been installed.

[Karl Godt]

sd is the internal sata-drive driver of the kernel and sr is i guess for sata-removable or -rom .

So the IO-error related to sr0 is likely about the quality of the cd or the drive .

[Dewbie]

dikgee wrote:

there was a suggestion to use V 4.3.1. The same hang up occurred.

You might also want to try the two 4.3.1 "retro" versions:
pup-431-k2.6.21.7-scsi-intel_modems.iso
pup-431-k2.6.25.16-intel_modems.iso
They're built with different kernels than the regular 4.3.1.
You can get them here.
Edit: Try these as a last resort, if nothing else works.

[dikgee]

NE1 you almost got it.....

There aren't any I/O errors but hangs up. It looks like I need another file to download with puppy?????

I turned on loglevel=7

A process maestro3 made some requests which were completed.

The last one was......
maestro3 0000:02:03 firmware: requesting ess/maestro3-assp-minsrc.fw..... HANGS UP here

what's it asking for?????

Is there a way to step thru the boot process (advance on spacebar)?

thanks and regards

[bigpup]

Booting with a Puppy disc it will try to load everything into memory. The whole Puppy operating system and programs.

Are you sure you do not have a bad area of memory?
I had a bad stick that was bad about 3/4 into use, so it worked up to a point.
A Memtest86 boot CD could tell you. Easy download from the internet.

You could boot Puppy with the option puppy pfix=nocopy to make it run only from CD, but some of it will still load into memory.

Also try booting with puppy pfix=nox.
That should get you to a prompt without starting the x server.
Start xorgwizard
Maybe some special setting you need there.

[_Mark_]

I presume you have verified the md5 of the downloaded iso?

[NE1]

The last one was......
maestro3 0000:02:03 firmware: requesting ess/maestro3-assp-minsrc.fw..... HANGS UP here

what's it asking for?????

It looks like it is trying to load some firmware for your sound card... but I do not know if that is related to your problem.

If your BIOS allows you to disable onboard audio, I suppose that would be one way to test to see if the problem is related to that.

[dikgee]

Time to catch up on the suggestions you have made.....

NE1I looked at my BIOS, My audio is a "ESS MAESTRO 3" but no way to turn it off or disable. I do hear some beeps when I hold the F2 key down long.

Mark I'm a newbee. what is MD5????

Bigpup I ran memtest86 2 times, no errors... Also tried pfix = nocopy and nox. Still did no complete booting.

Dewbie Ran both versions, still got hang up. But version "pup-431-k2.6.21.7" had 23 line at the end, the last 4 were.....

[<c09c01d0>] snd_pcm_format_width+0x0/0x20
[<c0103f82>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb [snd_pcm]
[<c03500000>] xfrm_state_unregister_afiofo+0x10/0x50
=======================

Also when loglevel=4

BIOS age(2001) fails cutoff. acpi=force is requried to enable
intel_rng: FWM not detected

Tried acpi=force still hung up.
Not sure about the FWM

Gor some messages that were not repeatable....

right after
laoding kernel module BUG: soft lockup detected on cpu#0
happenen only once.

Tries the pfix for developers and got the following

Dropped to initranfs shell
type 'exec switch' to continue booting puppy
/bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off

However was able to type exec switch. still hung up

Is there a script file that contains the boot order. It might be easier if I knew what it doesn' like about my system.

Sometines I think I have a hardware problem. But everything seems to be working..

Once again thanks for any other ideas....


regards

[rjbrewer]

My Inspiron 4000 has basically identical specs.
Nothing special (cheat codes like acpi, etc) is needed to boot
Puppy cds; especially easy with 4.12 > 4.31.

Try booting with hard drive removed.
Remove and reinsert memory cards.

When it stops while trying to boot; how long do you wait?

[Karl Godt]

I've better experience with undamaged hardware ; i think even linux can not magically repair the surface of the rotating disks inside the harddrive , cables , mems , lenses .....

2001 I had a suse6x with kernel 2.2.x running on 810MB HD , 48MB RAM , 133 MHz .

But I think though this might a place to add the parameters that can be added before the 5sec timeout at boot : kernel params for 2.6.33 kernel ; not all might be recognized by other kernel versions .

[_Mark_]

The md5sum is a checksum generated when the iso is created and made available to check the integrity of the iso after download

Depending what version of puppy and where you downloaded there should be a text file with this info and you need to check this is the same as the iso you have downloaded.

In linux in a shell use

Code: Select all

md5sum nameofiso.iso

If in windows you will probably have to install something google should help

Is essential you check this before diving in deeper

[dikgee]

I wasn't getting anywere with 4.3.1 so I tried 5.2 again. theis time I added some parameters. I tried "puppy acpi=force pfix=nox,ram" and I got to a screen to select the keyboard language. But arrow keys do not respond and enter does nothing. Also I can not halt my laptop with the on/off button, I have to pull the plug.

once I got "login[9539]: root login on 'tty1'". But againg no keboard and I had to pull the plug.

looks like the cpu is hugup trying to get a response from something

Oh well one step closer.........