X-Slacko-4.4 with Xfce

[Mike Walsh]

Thanks for the replies, every body.

@rg66:- Hm. I didn't know the Pups would work with FAT32! I've always used ext3 on my USB installs. As I said, I, too, used the Universal installer, but went about it the traditional way. I'll try FAT32, and Mikeslr's method, and see how I get on.

I'll have a look and see what pmedia is, and get back to you.

For now, I've done a 'frugal' in a small partition on the main hard drive.....and it's all working nicely from there. I do have one query, however; I don't know whether anybody else has found this. When I click on 'Home' for the first time in a session, Thunar seems to take about 30 seconds to respond. Then, 20 seconds later, up pops a second instance, which I didn't ask for (I have the desktop set for single-click operation, as I do Thunar itself).

Any ideas?

@gcm:- As you can see, I do have her 'up & running' now; I did use the LiveCD to install from, and I never have any problems that way. Carolina will run nicely from the LiveCD, but for some reason, I've never been able to get that one to install, either to USB or hard drive, so... I don't know quite what's going on, there. Could just be a 'duff' download, perhaps? I'll have to investigate further; re-download the .iso, and take it from there.


Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

@rg66:-

Pmedia=usbflash.

That's what it said, but.....it still wouldn't boot. So: I tried what you said you tried.....FAT32 & Puppy Universal installer. No soap.

The problem I've got here is that my big Compaq desktop (which WILL boot from USB, BTW), when confronted with a vfat-formatted 'stick' to boot from, doesn't even 'see' it. I have no problems using ext 2/3 for Linux USB installs; it's quite happy with that. But vfat; as far as the BIOS is concerned, there's nothing there. Odd. (And yes; before you ask, the 'boot' flag is set. I've done this too many times to forget that one. )

So; I'm going to give Mikeslr's method a go. His instructions are nice and clear.....with one exception; which format he uses. You say you use the same method yourself. What do you format the stick to, when using that way of doing things?

I've never had this much trouble before with a Puppy flash install, but.....we'll get there, one way or another! This same stick has hosted at least half-a-dozen Puppy installs before, with nary a murmur; can't be too much wrong wi' it!

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UPDATE (1:20 a.m): Have tried Mikeslr's method, formatting the stick to ext2 (which, I understand, is the preferred file system for flash drives, anyway). It'll boot; it starts looking for the Puppy files.....and, once again, it 'can't find' the xslacko-2.3.2.sfs file.

Code: Select all

Dropping out to initial ramdisk console....
#

Grrrr!!!

What is going on here?? I'm getting more than a wee bit 'cheesed-off' with things at the moment. I'm turning in for the night.....hopefully I can view things more objectively in the morning, and put my 'considering cap' on. Something odd is going on here.


Regards,

Mike.

[Geoffrey]

Have tried Mikeslr's method, formatting the stick to ext2 (which, I understand, is the preferred file system for flash drives, anyway). It'll boot; it starts looking for the Puppy files.....and, once again, it 'can't find' the xslacko-2.3.2.sfs file.

I have the same problem with a few thumb drives I have, the one's that don't work are only found as usbflash, the one's that do work as usbhd, I have a variety of usb thumb drives, Lexar, Verbatim and Sandisk, from 4gig> 32gig, these all work as usbhd, I have a 8gig Tevion branded drive as sold by Aldi stores, it's as slow as snail and found as a usbflash and also doesn't find the xslacko-2.3.2.sfs, I've tried switching the removable bit on the drive with "bootit" from within window to no avail, though I have had a few unbranded drives that have been able to switch the removable bit, thus making them usbhd and usable.

Bootit may work for you, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 582#491582

[rg66]

On my desktop I use frugal install to ext4 Hard drive partition, flash drives I use fat32 so I can also use them to transfer data in Windows. I manually copy the files to a dir and use grub4dos and have never really had many problems.

[Sage]

Could be the stick, could be the BIOS? Never liked Dell - used to be a part-time member of the WIntel cartel, past masters of cheapo/proprietarising fiddling. Tried F8, I suppose? Try finding which manufacturer made the m/b and flash the BIOS to one of that makers versions? (Save a copy of the installed!). Change the m/b? Plenty available for a song that need bad caps changing. Fraid the SW side isn't my bag, but the guys here are good at that.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, all.

@Geoffrey:-

Funny you should say that. I use SanDisk Cruzer Blades almost exclusively, though I do have a TDK somewhere. The silly thing with these is that I can do a half-dozen installs on the trot, over the course of a few days, then.....I'll get one, or maybe two, that just will not boot. So, I'll try some of the others. Then, I'll try something else.....and the first SanDisk will boot it again.

And they ALL seem to have this problem. I can chop & change around as much as I like; it really is pot luck as to whether I'll get a bootable stick straightaway, or after 3-4 attempts. Yah; I know at this stage some of you will be shaking your heads, and saying, "Chuck the lot, and buy something else..!"

I have well over £100-worth of these things. And, as purely storage media, they work fine; period. I've honestly come to the conclusion that booting from USB sticks in Linux is 'pot luck'.....regardless of what you're using. The only consistent thing about my SanDisks in that respect, is that they're.....inconsistent!

I'll have a look at 'Bootit'. Cheers for the link.

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@Sage:-

Hm. I wouldn't like to say whether it's the BIOS or anything else...

What I'm running here is a Compaq Presario desktop PC, model SR1619UK, circa 2005. One of these:-

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/Com ... l/1148517/

Originally came with a single-core Athlon 64, 1 GB RAM, a WD 160 GB HDD, and onboard ATI Radeon Xpress200G graphics....OK? Used to belong to my sister.....who bought a new machine when XP went EOL last year. I snagged it off her. I've increased the RAM to 4 GB (max the board will take with DDR1).

A couple of months ago, I did an upgrade on the CPU. She has a Socket-939 mobo, made by MSI under contract to HP; HP bought Compaq out around the time this old girl was built, so I can't say for definite whether this is Compaq's work, or HP's. It's an MS-7814.....one of these:-

http://www.ctechinfo.net/motherboards/msi/amethystm.php

I upgraded the Athlon 64 3200+ to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (single to dual). The BIOS had to be updated, too; there's a loooong ol' thread about it here, where Keisha 'baby-walked' me through it, having never done such a thing before:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=98295

Stupid thing is, with the old BIOS, selecting USB boot was a piece of cake (just tap 'ESC' repeatedly till the boot menu appears). With this one, there's a LOT more messing around to select them...need to go at least 4 pages deep into the BIOS settings; nightmare.

No, this seems to be completely random.....but the whole machine is over 10 yrs old ( although sis didn't use it that much). It's got good-quality caps on the mobo (still no signs of bulging or popping after all these years, so I'm inclined to think it's pre-HP manufacture); Compaq always specified the expensive ones, since their target market was the business community.....who wanted reliability. I'm getting occasional crashes, where the screen goes all funny patterns and colours, and the machine freezes; have to do a hard power off to recover. I suspect the onboard graphics.....but I can't put a video card in here, 'cos the single PCIe x 16 slot has some faulty connectors. My USB3 adapter card works happily in the top half of the slot though.....

I'm thinking it's time to replace the mobo, but I really don't want to have to replace CPU & RAM as well.....that starts to get pricey, and I have to watch my budget, I'm afraid!


Regards,

Mike.

[Sage]

MS-7814

Ah, yes. Several of these Microstar boards have passed my way. Troublesome beasts, but BIOS selection, not necessarily the latest/last, can often alleviate issues like this. Who made the caps? I ask because MS was another cheapskate and it sounds like this machine hails from the era when HP was having serious management/financial problems?
Furthermore, 939 machines are notoriously fickle, but fast. In short, this is not a preferred combo, like the old (Irish?) joke - don't start from here.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Sage.

"Fickle, but fast..." Mmm-hmm. Yep. Pretty well sums it up, actually...at least, under Linux it does. I ran it for about 2 months on XP, before it went EOL & I switched. XP was absolutely rock-solid (but I was glad to see the back of it; 11 years was quite long enough for me!)

Well, like I said, although I think it's getting near replacement time, I don't want to go mad.....the pennies are in seriously short supply round here these days!

If you read any of the thread, you'll see we used the Phoenix 3.9 'Award' BIOS that was actually intended for the MS-7093, because the two boards are, to all intents and purposes, identical.....apart from the number of SATA connectors. (Had to use the latest one, to gain support for the dual-core CPU). Everybody said 'Don't do it; you'll brick it!'.....but, aside from a few fun moments immediately after flashing it (fans running flat out, no clue why the BIOS was password locked, etc., etc.), it's running beautifully.

Keisha did do his research before we even began.....thoroughly.

I'd like to use the X2, if it's still possible to get hold of socket-939 boards. There must be a few kicking around out there somewhere..! I've also got a brand-new (been tried once) Asus 1GB GeForce GT610 fanless tucked away in a drawer. Bought it 6 months ago, then found out the solitary PCIex16 slot was faulty! I'm hanging onto it, 'cos it'll get used at some point; the board will have to be replaced sooner or later. Didn't go for high-spec; I don't do any gaming.....to me, it's just a freakin' waste of time. My hobby is graphic design, y'see. I'm 'old school'; in my 50's. Grew up with these things, and know just how much useful stuff you can do with them. This here's a working machine.....

(Answer me one thing. Why is it, as soon as 'graphics cards' are mentioned, that everybody automatically assumes that you want them for playing games...???)

The PSU was uprated just a couple of months ago, too. A CoolerMaster B500, with the new-spec single 12V rail; much better than the generic 250W silver box that was in here previously.

So; there's a lot of relatively new stuff that I'd like to re-use, if at all possible....much of it bought just this last coupla months. Any recommendations?

(BTW: No idea who made the caps, but, like I said, they all look to be in very good condition still. That's why I think this might be 'old-stock' Compaq, from round about the buy-out date. But if the RS482's on its way out......then it's 'crunch' time. I've done pretty much everything else; how hard can a mobo replacement be?)


Regards,

Mike.

[gcmartin]

Hello @Mike Walsh, et. al.

Of late, have we been witnessing a rash of "cant find SFS druing boot"? Are the PCs in question AMD "X2" CPU systems. If this is the case, would this relate to the kernel or relate to eudev or the distro build process or ???

I have reported for several months of this phenonmenon on the JLH thread.

This kind of problem DOES NOT AFFECT MY INTELs.

Clues, anyone

[starhawk]

Been having that issue myself, usually on odd hardware.

My conclusion long ago was that it was something in either initrd.gz or the init-script itself that didn't like the taste of whatever hardware it was trying to digest, and refusing to cooperate as a result.

Most (real dog) puppies don't like bitter pills. Puppy Linux is the same with its hardware.

Mind you I'm nowhere near the glorious brilliance required to understand the stuff inside the initrd.gz -- if that takes a 150w yard-type flood lamp... well, I'm a rather unenthusiastic birthday candle so this post is far, far more assumption than actual real knowledge, and should be treated as such...

[mikeslr]

Hi Mike Walsh,

with one exception; which format he uses. You say you use the same method yourself. What do you format the stick to, when using that way of doing things?

There was a discussion a month or so ago regarding what format to use on USB-sticks. Basically the concern was to reduce writing to the Stick as much as possible. That eliminated journalized formats such as Linux Ext3 & 4. No one took a pole, but my sense was a toss up between either use Fat32 or Linux Ext2, which doesn't journalize.

Previous to that discussion I had formatted to Linux Ext3 since some older Pups couldn't recognize Ext4.

Linux Ext2's advantage is that it will support symlinks and can be used for compiling and other hard-core Linux operations. I don't do the last two, but being able to symlink to folder's outside my SaveFile enables me to keep my SaveFile smaller: such as by moving firefox/Seamonkey's cache from /root to /mnt/home and symlinking it back. For example, per DaveS, create a folder on /mnt/home named "browser-cache". Open it. Open a second folder at /root. Show hidden files. Drag .mozilla from /root to browser-cache and select Move. Drag it back to /root and select Link (relative or absolute).

The advantage of Fat32 is that it can natively be read by Windows. Except, apparently on your MOBO.

Accordingly, try formatting your USB-Stick to Linux Ext2.

During that discussion, I did suggest that if a Key were large enough it could be partitioned to have a first bootable Linux Ext2 partition, and a second Fat32 partition. I label the second partition Transfer, and copy into it files I may want to use with Windows.

You might try that.

mikesLr

[Sage]

If you read any of the thread

- sorry, didn't do! Fatal trying to give answers from memory, been just too busy with family. The last 7093 conversion I did is still kicking around somewhere. Had to change the BIOS chip, soldered on, don't have the soldering iron conversion bit, dog's dinner - never recovered (me and the m/b). Mikeslr advice concords with my experiences and what I've read previously. Go ext2 on sticks/wave farewell to M$ forever.

You can read the caps 'maker' down the side, but it may be a cryptic transliteration such as 'MZX' - check on the badcaps.com Forum, think it's still around? You probably know about the 'stolen formula' fiasco and the cheapo HK garage operations, but the truth is much more complicated for electrolytic devices.

how hard can a mobo replacement be?

I've always recommended calling in a six-year-old from the street! There's a lot of timid S/W guys on this forum who underrate their technical skills. Experience helps, though - got to make mistakes to learn; still doing it this last 60+ years...

Video cards & gaming - agree. Did all that in 8bit along with assembler thirty years ago to amuse the kids...

[rg66]

I don't know whether anybody else has found this. When I click on 'Home' for the first time in a session, Thunar seems to take about 30 seconds to respond. Then, 20 seconds later, up pops a second instance, which I didn't ask for (I have the desktop set for single-click operation, as I do Thunar itself).

Any ideas?

Go to /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/network.mount and change AutoMount=true to AutoMount=false. Better yet, update to X-slacko-3.0

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, Sage.

MS-7814

Ah, yes. Several of these Microstar boards have passed my way. Troublesome beasts, but BIOS selection, not necessarily the latest/last, can often alleviate issues like this. Who made the caps? I ask because MS was another cheapskate and it sounds like this machine hails from the era when HP was having serious management/financial problems?

Well, now; I was feeling kinda curious this morning, so I opened the old girl up and had a look at the caps.:-

Rubycons & Nichicons, all the way through. According to badcaps.net (yes, they're still there!), these are definitely on the top tier, 'good quality' list:-

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=414

Which just confirms what I've suspected all along. No cheapskating there, at any rate. That's why I still maintain that this was manufactured pre- HP's buyout (even though the support stuff places it on HP's website, since they obviously took over responsibility for it.....including components previously manufactured to Compaq's specifications). Okay, so a few of them aren't quite as upright as they could be.....but I can tell you why that is. As part of my six-monthly 'spring-clean' routine, I have a very soft old artist's brush that I gently go round everything with, in order to dislodge the 'caked-on' dust, before blowing it all right out with a big can of compressed air. I've obviously 'nudged' a few of them with the brush in the past.....so I've gently straightened everything up this morning. Had a really good look round them, too; no bulges, no leaking electrolyte, no 'blowing' rubber seals at the base...externally, they're in extremely good condition for their age. Of course, that's not to say that one or two might not be on the way out.....but there's none of the obvious signs you'd expect. And with the addition of the new PSU, I don't think voltage instability is the suspect here.

It could be anything causing the occasional 'freeze-ups', but, as I said, I suspect it could be the graphics chip.....for the simple reason that it doesn't 'freeze' or 'crash' with a black screen (or white, or even blue).....it's always a streaky, multi-colored pattern, as though it's halted right in the middle of the screen 'refresh' process. Only time will tell on this one, I feel..

@Flash:- Sorry this thread's 'going south'! I seem to have a bad habit of hi-jacking them, don't I?


Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

I don't know whether anybody else has found this. When I click on 'Home' for the first time in a session, Thunar seems to take about 30 seconds to respond. Then, 20 seconds later, up pops a second instance, which I didn't ask for (I have the desktop set for single-click operation, as I do Thunar itself).

Any ideas?

Go to /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/network.mount and change AutoMount=true to AutoMount=false.

Thanks for that suggestion, rg66; that's fixed it! That's the 'icing on the cake', as it were; it was the the one & only 'niggly' thing spoiling my enjoyment of a very nice distro.

Perfection!

Much appreciated. Cheers!


Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

@Mikeslr:-

I did decide to go with ext2 in the finish; I also read the discussion thread about the flash filesytems (Tallboy, wasn't it?), and came to the conclusion that ext2 should be the best choice. Still won't have it, though.....

I can't help wondering if there's some kind of delay in the initialization process, which could be increased....merely to give the machine more time to find it. I've tried this same ext2 format on half-a-dozen of my SanDisks, and not one of them can 'find' the main .sfs file. These same sticks have all worked successfully with various distros before, so I can't believe that they've all packed up simultaneously...that's stretching the laws of coincidence a wee bit too far.

I suspect it could simply be down to the way that SanDisk have written their controller software for the sticks. I believe, as starhawk mentions, that there's something there that something else doesn't like.....whatever that may be.

(And no; my solitary TDK won't succeed with ext2 either.....still won't 'find' the sfs.)

I'm definitely one of your 'hardware' types....not a 'software' one!


Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Just tried rcrsn51's method for doing a manual version of UNetbootin:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 412#413412

Once again, no format was specified for the USB drive with gParted; I get the impression he was talking about a standard flash drive, as bought, with vfat (FAT32). Which brings me back to my problem I have, with my BIOS not even 'seeing' a vfat-formatted drive with the boot flag set....

So, I re-did it with ext2. No joy. Upon booting, the system appears to be looking for a CD. This, I guess, is because although isolinux.cfg has been renamed to syslinux.cfg, it still contains the isolinux files, for a CD boot. Make sense to anyone?

I can't help wondering if this has got anything to do with the fact that, when I upgraded to the X2 (and had to re-flash the BIOS to a newer version, to accomodate the 'new', dual-core layout), we did it from within Linux. Most folks, I get the impression, do this from within Windows (where of course FAT32, and indeed ntfs, are 'native' file-systems).

Does this make any sense to anybody? Because it still makes a mockery of the fact that I have a flash install of Tahrpup 6.03 which I've got set-up, just in case I ever need a standalone install, to perform some arcane, Linux-only 'repair job'(!).....and this boots perfectly, every time; and even loads its own savefile, from the stick, instead of the one from my sda1 install of Tahrpup.

I say that, 'cos I've just discovered that X-Slacko (this is 2.3.2, based on Slacko 5.7.0), instead of writing its save-folder to the same partition where it's installed (sda7), has, instead, gone and written it to sda2.....where my 'normal' install of Slacko 5.7.0 lives!

Why on earth has it gone and done that???

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Just had a thought. (Yah, the old grey cell is working overtime today..!) The re-named 'syslinux.cfg' still has pmedia=cd as the last item on its boot argument line. I'm going to change it to pmedia=usbflash, and see what happens.


Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Nope. No change. Still looking for a CD. Hmm... What to try next?


Regards,

Mike.

[rg66]

I've uploaded a Caja-1.10.1 file manager .pet to the repo, it requires libunique which is also there. A few things in the right click context menu don't work but otherwise a decent file manager.

http://smokey01.com/rg66/X-slacko/pet_p ... -X-slacko/

[gcmartin]

Is Caja a dual pane file manager? I think you know the need.