Puppy on HP laptop with 192 MB of RAM (Solved)

[frerom]

The computer has a fresh install of Windows ME and 192 MB of RAM
The puppy file is on a cd and it starts to boot. It runs into trouble after "Setting up the layered file system... Done"

After the following line the cursor appears and affter a minute or so the caps and scroll lock indicators flash together and the fan is running.
"Performing a "switch root" to the layered filesystem ... Kernel Panic - not syncin
g: attempted to kill init"

I would like to install this puppy as the only system but need some help. Are there some tests I should do to verify whether there will be resource problems?
Or should I go ahead and format the hard drive and try again?

[rcrsn51]

192 MB of RAM

The file loads OK on a desktop with Win XP

Which Puppy version are you using? With only 192 MB, you should try something old.

[cthisbear]

No help anywhere on the net.

As usual >> HP site = zip.

I only see it as Win95.

:::::::

I suggest Puppy 1 2 or 3 series.

Older Puppies here.

http://puppylinux.ca/vintage/

::::::::::


At just 50 megs >>> puppy-barebones-3.94-netsurf might work.

An early Puppy 4 by Barry Kauler....ran nicely.

http://puppylinux.ca/vintage/index.php? ... netsurf%2F

Chris

[Flash]

All of the above, or, if possible, add to the RAM. Puppy likes at least 256 MB of RAM. Alternatively you could try making a swap partition on the hard disk drive. At least 256 MB.

[cthisbear]

I should add.

With all Puppies after 2.02...I think

you could extract the main file onto the hard drive.

The boot cd starts....finds the main file...booting from that.

Unique to Puppy.

Like adding extra ram for free.

Netsurf Barebones file was named>> pup_394.sfs

Puppy 214X-top5.iso >> name is >> pup_214X.sfs

Get the picture.

Ttuxxxx had great releases....Try them.

Burn it slow.

If it was the original burner you had>> 8 speed is tops.

Extact files with 7zip.

If names are wrong...uppercase etc...

Puppy won't see the main file.

Hey! Report back please....Chris.

[frerom]

I will report back but it will be a while. I have mainly dealt with Win XP.

No help anywhere on the net.

As usual >> HP site = zip.

I only see it as Win95.

I did have Win XP installed but I had to give it up after I installed SP3. The drive is only 6 GB.

Alternatively you could try making a swap partition on the hard disk drive. At least 256 MB.

The drive has 3 GB available with Win ME installed. I'd like to install a swap partition. I beleve I can install a FAT16 partition with the HP recovery disk but it deletes all data. Is there a tool that I can use to load a swap partition on unused portion of the drive.

So right now I'm looking to install a FAT 16 Swap partition, put the main file in it (not sure which file is the main one and should I put it at the end) Then add 2 FAT 32 partitions to the rest of the drive (not sure how to divide the sizes)
Thanks
Fred

[Flash]

There is a bootable version of Gparted but I've never used it. It looks pretty straightforward.

[Bligh]

I have several versions of gparted, they have always worked well for me. I have 4.3.1 on low resource compaq desktops with win98.
Vista may be an issue, I have not run vista. I always boot from cd with a save file on the hd.
Cheers

[greengeek]

At just 50 megs >>> puppy-barebones-3.94-netsurf might work.
http://puppylinux.ca/vintage/index.php? ... netsurf%2F
Chris

Interesting recommendation. I had not heard of that one before. I just gave it a try on my 10 year old Toshiba laptop and it picked up both wired and wireless network interfaces. Ran fast too. Could be a worthy base to build on for some older machines...

Interesting wallpaper too - looked like a Quirky.

[dicamarques]

The computer has a fresh install of Windows ME and 192 MB of RAM
The puppy file is on a cd and it starts to boot. It runs into trouble after "Setting up the layered file system... Done"

After the following line the cursor appears and affter a minute or so the caps and scroll lock indicators flash together and the fan is running.
"Performing a "switch root" to the layered filesystem ... Kernel Panic - not syncin
g: attempted to kill init"

I would like to install this puppy as the only system but need some help. Are there some tests I should do to verify whether there will be resource problems?
Or should I go ahead and format the hard drive and try again?

(Depending on the CPU) You can run puppy with that much of ram, I also have a HP laptop with 128mb and 500mhz and it works just fine for having a quick look on the web (its a Omnibook XE2) and its running lucid. About the kernel panic what I usually do is reburn the CD, I use some rewritable CD's for these distributions and burn it directly from the windows built in burner (in case you also use windows of course). It was a good way to revive a old laptop.

[mikeb]

I did have Win XP installed but I had to give it up after I installed SP3. The drive is only 6 GB.

On this machine I have a 6GB ntfs partition which contains windows 2000 and 2 installs of XP (Am testing one) with sp3 and a pile of programs.

To keep windows tidy it does require some fiddling but the internet is a helpful resource. You may also be interested in nlite.

ME is horrible and dos based with all that entails and no one should feel forced to use it.

By the way I had XP running nicely on a pentium 2 333MHz , 64MHz FSB machine.

Just though I would jump in since you sound like you need to have windows in some fashion.

mike

[Fossil]

I'd suggest starting with the Murga 'Mean Pup' 2.02 using Opera. A wonderfully compact distro. http://www.puppylinux.ca/vintage/index.php?dir=2.02%2F
Then, when finished, click back on 'Home' to return to a wonderful Puppy-based smorgasbord of delights!

[mikeb]

doh...puppy only...I should read more slowly.

Machine like that I found the 4.12 era releases are a nice balance...recent enough software but lighter on the cpu though those drive icons spike it...replace if you can.

2.14x... a popular choice since ttuuxxx made a point of updating a lot of stuff but it still remains light.

Full install with swap should make best use of space...the older pups will try and load to ram which is too cramped.

mike

[nic007]

Windows XP Pro (SP3) runs reasonably well on a 128MB RAM machine (single core pentium 4) and well on a 256MB machine. Always a good operating system to have ( would actually say a must have) even if you want to experiment with something else.

[frerom]

I just tried puppy 214. It got stuck at boot_

"Unkown keyword in config file
Unkown keyword in config file
Could not find kernel image: puppy
Boot_"

Is it possible to check the files? I have trouble understaning the MB5sum process.

Re Mike's post

Just though I would jump in since you sound like you need to have windows in some fashion.

If I know I will be able to install Puppy I will reformat the whole drive and forget about windows on this computer. But at this time I'm worried that there may be some drivers or other stuff that I will need. There is a recovery partition on the drive with a ghost file of the system. Right now it's easy to recover. I do have the HP ME system recovery cd's.
I'm just a bit hesitant not knowing the issues i'm running into.

Re Dicamarques post

About the kernel panic what I usually do is reburn the CD, I use some rewritable CD's for these distributions and burn it directly from the windows built in burner (in case you also use windows of course).

I use CD-R80 cd's 2X-48X and I believe 8x speed. Also I created the files on a different computer but I guess that doesn't matter.

My next step will be to redo the Puppy 528 cd at the slowest possible speed. From what Dicamarques posted he has run into similiar problems. Once I know puppy will load I will reformat.
Thanks again

[mikeb]

Hmm slow burns can help... the data is very compressed so is more demanding than usual.

Sounds like for 2.14 the isolinux.cfg was corrupted which is a bit odd but I am never 100% with anything on plastic and aluminium.

Sensible to try with a cd first though to make sure all is ok.

You could install to hard drive frugally for a dual boot though I heard ME's boot mechanism makes this awkward.

Well help is at hand here..

mike

[dicamarques]

Give a go to a USB drive, and use plop boot manager in case your bios doesnt support it. I was having some issues earlier and through usb they where gone.

[frerom]

Just tried to determine whether the processor supports PAE and NX parameters with coreinfo. Coreinfo doesn't work with Win ME. Should I pursue this. Is there another way to find out whether this is a problem?

Re Demarques post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Give a go to a USB drive, and use plop boot manager in case your bios doesnt support it. I was having some issues earlier and through usb they where gone.

There is only 1 USB type 1! drive on this computer. I'm not sure which plop boot manager I could use. Probably doesn't work on Win ME.

I read somewhere that you could boot with a floppy and direct the rest of the puppy loading to a USB. I can't find it right now.

[mikeb]

mobile cpu and celerons of that era are 2 types that may not have PAE support so you are a possible candidate..play safe and choose the non PAE if you try something recent.

Yes the bootfloppy option...think it needs doing from a running puppy but I might be wrong

Mike

[bigpup]

frerom,

Must ask.
Are you sure the CD drive in this computer is working OK?