On very old, small HDs <500Mb, I get Grub Stage 1.5 , Loading please wait... , Error2.
Installation seem to be successful. All the necessary directories and files seem to be present, adequate memory, etc. Tried swapping //menu.lst from a 1.0.8 installation to no effect, but any such by me is likely to be uninformed, not to say ill-informed.
The warnings by the Universal Installer about GRUB modifications is interesting but insufficiently explicit for mere users like myself.
Maybe using such ancient kit is just a bridge too far?
Furthermore, as being presently reported by several other folk in multiple threads, I am now running into a range of sound issues on some older HW with P2 that weren't there in series 1.0.x and which are unresponsive to the usual expedients.
GRUB Error2 in P2?
Have you read this:
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/GrubPuppyBoot
it might help in understanding how Grub works.
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/GrubPuppyBoot
it might help in understanding how Grub works.
Well, I tried all those things plus a lot more, and fiddled with BIOS settings without any joy. Moving GRUB to /hda1/boot did change the error number to 17, that's all. These drives give the infamous 99 error with DSL under LILO (never did get GRUB to work with any DSL release).
I fear there may be some drive geometry/size/A.N.O. issue here so need some inspired suggestions from HW experts, please!
I fear there may be some drive geometry/size/A.N.O. issue here so need some inspired suggestions from HW experts, please!
How old is this hard drive. At 500M I would say that it is a few yrs old. There may be a problem with it if it has been worked hard. Then again it may be ok.
Try running the live cd entirely in RAM and then do a filesystem check on the hard drive.
Make sure that the hard drive is not mounted.
The command to use is
fsck -f /dev/hda1
This will examine the first partition on your hard drive, if you have more than one partition use /dev/hda2 for the second partition etc.
If the partition is formatted in the native Linux filesystem
fsck will run a check on it, if it is not Linux it will not examine it.
Ensure that the hard drive is not mounted before running fsck as it will damage a mounted filesystem.
If in doubt post a query.
Try running the live cd entirely in RAM and then do a filesystem check on the hard drive.
Make sure that the hard drive is not mounted.
The command to use is
fsck -f /dev/hda1
This will examine the first partition on your hard drive, if you have more than one partition use /dev/hda2 for the second partition etc.
If the partition is formatted in the native Linux filesystem
fsck will run a check on it, if it is not Linux it will not examine it.
Ensure that the hard drive is not mounted before running fsck as it will damage a mounted filesystem.
If in doubt post a query.
Many thanks for those suggestions, Ian. Unlikely that these are much short of their tenth birthdays. However, they are all sound and have been checked with a plethora of utilities. The others have been opened up (for curiosity, magnets, etc.), stripped or junked - and there have been a few! Like all devices, there is a spread of performances, lifetimes and these ones have been picked out for their endurance against the odds! Notwithstanding, there do seem to be rather a lot of survivors.
As a last resort, I did a type 1 install on one 425Mb specimen with P1.0.8. It complained in all the usual ways, wanted an e2fsck on a VFAT partition!, and all that stuff, but it did eventually run OK. Type 1 confers absolutely no advantage, so I never normally use it.
So, it looks as if it's mainly a size issue. One of the booting complaints it issues is a resizing of pup1 file from ~500K to ~300K. Furthermore, the DSL 99 issue tends to disappear if I raise the HD capacity to ~500Mb+.
Maybe there's something Barry and the clever guys like you can do, although it may be radical and of diminishing advantage?
As a last resort, I did a type 1 install on one 425Mb specimen with P1.0.8. It complained in all the usual ways, wanted an e2fsck on a VFAT partition!, and all that stuff, but it did eventually run OK. Type 1 confers absolutely no advantage, so I never normally use it.
So, it looks as if it's mainly a size issue. One of the booting complaints it issues is a resizing of pup1 file from ~500K to ~300K. Furthermore, the DSL 99 issue tends to disappear if I raise the HD capacity to ~500Mb+.
Maybe there's something Barry and the clever guys like you can do, although it may be radical and of diminishing advantage?
There is a way to fool OSs into believing that they have more space than they really have but in this age of large HDDs it is not really worth the effort.
If you are trying to use old small HDDs earlier versions of Puppy would probably work, if you wish to use the 2.6 kernel a custom built version may be the way to go.
If you are trying to use old small HDDs earlier versions of Puppy would probably work, if you wish to use the 2.6 kernel a custom built version may be the way to go.
Whilst fiddling with various HW/SW combinations, a few pennies began to drop! It wasn't the original aim, but these old HDs can be used for swap files, data storage and/or for limited pup_xxx.3fs saving, depending on expected usage & co. An old PII-400 board was used for trialling.
For example, with P2 in live CD mode, an 100Mb HD, set for swap alone, will permit the main memory to be dropped to 128Mb with virtually no apps time of loading penalty, ie most stuff loads in 3-5s, Seamonkey within 15s. At the other end of the scale, a swap partiton of only 50Mb and main memory of 32Mb will boot up successfully and can be used. MUT takes 90s to load, Seamonkey gives one time to make the tea! 16Mb elicits Colonel Panic. More realistically, an old 400Mb drive, split 300data/100swap enables one to use 64, or better, 128Mb of main memory. Several old HDs could be deployed for swap, save, backup & storage. Clearly, P2 could also be booted from USB, Zip/LS-120, w.h.y.
The question is whether there are any power penalties or other issues. Well, no. An old clone 300W PSU of bad parentage, that was known to give problems with modern hardware was deployed - perfect operation! I have also rewired several old 'Dell-specials' , more honestly rated at 200W, to conform to ATX convention. They also powered up these systems OK.
In all these investigations, the aim was to redeploy really old, but entirely satisfactory, hardware. Puppy offers a range of possibilities towards this end.
Just one request of Barry and the gurus. OneBone is most appreciated but CLI is well outside my realm. To maximise the resurrection of old kit, a fully functional Puppy version with the smallest possible apps would be appreciated. Customisation or any other SW manipulation is, unfortunately, not in my toolkit.
Am watching John's MeanPup very closely!
For example, with P2 in live CD mode, an 100Mb HD, set for swap alone, will permit the main memory to be dropped to 128Mb with virtually no apps time of loading penalty, ie most stuff loads in 3-5s, Seamonkey within 15s. At the other end of the scale, a swap partiton of only 50Mb and main memory of 32Mb will boot up successfully and can be used. MUT takes 90s to load, Seamonkey gives one time to make the tea! 16Mb elicits Colonel Panic. More realistically, an old 400Mb drive, split 300data/100swap enables one to use 64, or better, 128Mb of main memory. Several old HDs could be deployed for swap, save, backup & storage. Clearly, P2 could also be booted from USB, Zip/LS-120, w.h.y.
The question is whether there are any power penalties or other issues. Well, no. An old clone 300W PSU of bad parentage, that was known to give problems with modern hardware was deployed - perfect operation! I have also rewired several old 'Dell-specials' , more honestly rated at 200W, to conform to ATX convention. They also powered up these systems OK.
In all these investigations, the aim was to redeploy really old, but entirely satisfactory, hardware. Puppy offers a range of possibilities towards this end.
Just one request of Barry and the gurus. OneBone is most appreciated but CLI is well outside my realm. To maximise the resurrection of old kit, a fully functional Puppy version with the smallest possible apps would be appreciated. Customisation or any other SW manipulation is, unfortunately, not in my toolkit.
Am watching John's MeanPup very closely!
Do you have the facilities to use the unleashed versions, you could probably build a small version that would run on your machines.
I did this last year and ended up with a very small version that ran on a 200MMx machine with 64M RAM with no swap partition and it ran reasonably.
I think the swap partition would help a lot.
I did this last year and ended up with a very small version that ran on a 200MMx machine with 64M RAM with no swap partition and it ran reasonably.
I think the swap partition would help a lot.