(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Posted: **Thu 10 Apr 2014, 09:45**

Hi ETP,
thanks for that nice tuto !

Success ! boot seems faster than using the USB stick !

ETP wrote:...
The syslinux.cfg on the Blue Pup stick then needs changing so that you can boot from that.

If the above is not working for you, please post any error messages.

All as been copied on sda9 logical ext4 partition, using Raring-3.9.9.2 (which seems to also being f2fs aware).
Here is my /mnt/sdb1/syslinux.cfg

Code: Select all

# Boot Blue Pup ETP March 2014
default /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda9 rootwait rw

Here just got this message at start time of the boot process; boot continues OK afterwards.

mounting /dev/root/ on / failed invalid argument

Cheers, Charlie

ps: about bios earlier posts about «BIOS struggles» on another PC than the Compaq one ... i found that i was ignorant about specificities of its bios (desktop PC Fujitsu Siemens ca. 12years old ...cpu 2,5GHz, 1.5GB Ram):
The USB stick can be seen in BIOS Diskette group; if left there, boot fails. It has to be moved in the HardDrive group instead, using the «TAB» key.
See screenshots hereunder.
So again, by digging deeper into it, i could learn something more ... thanks for that!
Charlie

Posted: **Thu 10 Apr 2014, 11:04**

Hi Charlie,

Good news all round. Thanks for posting the BIOS shots.

You do not need that "rootwait" with a fast HDD or SSD, so you can remove it. That would then give you:

Code: Select all

# Boot Blue Pup ETP March 2014 
default /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda9 rw

Posted: **Thu 10 Apr 2014, 13:00**

When I installed Blue Pup V2 to the usb 3.0 flashdrive that is running
on my lenovo desktop I installed to a second usb 3.0 flashdrive while I was at it.
I installed my usual applications from QPM to the lenovo flashdrive
then took a snapshot.
I copied the audit directory from my lenovo install to my spare usb
3.0 flashdrive which is now running on my 10 year old compaq desktop.
After booting up on the compaq I chose to restore the snapshot and
rebooted, after that was finished and another reboot all the
applications are installed.

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Thu 10 Apr 2014 on Quirky Tahr 6.0.5 Linux 3.12.6 i686
0.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV280 [Radeon 9200] (rev 01)
oem: ATI RADEON 9200
X Server: Xorg Driver: modesetting
X.Org version: 1.15.0
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (507x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Core 0: @2800 1: @2800 MHz

I find that a fast usb 3.0 flashdrive works well when it's plugged
into a usb 2.0 port, I don't have anything with usb 1.1 to test.

Still having fun

Posted: **Sat 12 Apr 2014, 04:11**

I found that I have my Blue USB stick connected to a USB 1.1 port on my PC with the USB 2.0 ports being on the back of the PC on an add-on card.
When I fired it up this time though, the fancy tile screen got stuck waiting to connect to some site. This seemed to bring the display of a full tile screen to a halt.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior and is there a work around other than me exiting full screen and selecting a site I had bookmarked?
Also though, I may have to do a full remake of that USB stick as I had a mouse problem with a button on the mouse that inadvertently selected Move when I went to copy the library directory to another device.
I bailed on the Move and selected Copy answering Yes to merging contents and also to a number of files.
Now the directory sizes do not match and being unsure of what might be missing, A remake of the USB stick may be the easiest way to recover.

Posted: **Sat 12 Apr 2014, 07:43**

Hi 8-bit,

The problem with the Metro extension started last night. It is not related to Blue and shows up in fresh installs of the extension in both Chrome and Chromium.

The problem is server related. It is not clear at present whether it is coding error, a redirection attack or someone forgot to feed the hamster.

It is a matter of waiting for normal service to be resumed.

Posted: **Sat 12 Apr 2014, 10:05**

ETP wrote: It is a matter of waiting for normal service to be resumed.

A temporary solution is to add the iStart extension, it's working okay.

Posted: **Sat 12 Apr 2014, 17:14**

Normal Service is Resumed.
(Hamster not dead - just sleeping!)

Posted: **Mon 14 Apr 2014, 10:57**

ETP wrote:What you attempted was right in principle. To achieve your aim:

...
Download the 16 Meg HDD/SSD boot image file (16MegBlueBoot.img) that I have now uploaded together with the Windows utility to flash that image on to the target boot device (win32diskimager-v0.7-binary.)
...

Engage warp drive!

Thank you ETP, your instructions and boot image file worked flawlessly. I have now engaged SSD warp drive and it _is_ fast! Just to mention, GParted didn't allow creating a fat32 partition on my USB1.1 30MB drive, so I created a fat16 one. It worked for win32diskimager, which then wrote the image file to the USB key.

In your "booting QT from USB" thread you describe an 8GB USB key partition layout that includes a swap partition. My blue pup has no swap partition currently. Do you recommend creating one? My laptop has the SSD drive only plus the USB1.1 boot key. I purchased an 8GB USB2 key and I could partition it the way you describe in that other thread.

Posted: **Mon 14 Apr 2014, 19:26**

Hi step,

Thanks for reporting your success with the 16Meg boot image.

In your "booting QT from USB" thread you describe an 8GB USB key partition layout that includes a swap partition. My blue pup has no swap partition currently. Do you recommend creating one? My laptop has the SSD drive only plus the USB1.1 boot key. I purchased an 8GB USB2 key and I could partition it the way you describe in that other thread.

I think you may mean this post in the QT thread.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 369#745369
I did make mention there of a Linux swap partition on my hard drive. (sda3-Samsung 830)
Creating one on a USB key is not a wise idea as if it sees heavy use it could wear out the key! The best place for one is on the fastest hard drive available. That begs two further questions:
Q1. Is one needed?
Q2. If so, what size should it be?

You are only likely to sometimes need one if you have < 1GB of memory or if you have more than 1GB memory, you multitask in such a way that you frequently hit 60% usage of the total memory installed. In all probability it may never get used but it acts as insurance.

There are various schools of thought on the size of swap partitions but given that it may only be insurance, I would recommend making it the same size as the amount of memory installed. On my XP box I have 2GB RAM and therefore have a 2 GB swap partition on sda3.

All Pups will automatically detect and if need be make use of a swap partition which can be created with Gparted. (There is a problem with detection of swap partitions on GPT discs in QT which I posted about later in that same thread.)

Finally, HTOP can be used to monitor the detection and usage of any swap partition.

Posted: **Mon 14 Apr 2014, 22:18**

I am using Blue version 3 from an 8gig flash drive on my desktop and the boot to the tile screen takes a long time. I determined that this is due to the flash drive being plugged into a USB port on the front of the PC.
Those ports show up as USB 1.1 ports.
This desktop also has an add-in USB card/interface at the back of the PC.
I checked it and it is shown as being USB 2.0.
But even though the flash drive is set up to be seen as a USB hard drive, it does not show up in my PC's boot menu when plugged into those USB ports!
It does show up on the desktop if I boot from the Grub menu to another version of Puppy on my main hard drives.
I would have thought that the change in version 3 would have allowed the flash drive to be seen as a USB hard drive by the PC irregardless of what USB port it is plugged into on the same PC it was made on.
So on this desktop PC, I guess I will have to settle with using USB 1.1 and the slow speed associated with it even though the PC has USB 2.0 ports on an add-in card.

Posted: **Tue 15 Apr 2014, 04:49**

8-bit,this might help by using 2 USB identical sticks, both created as described in this thread.
Place one USB stick in a slow 1.1 port. Modify that USB stick's boot config file to point to a 2nd stick's F2FS partition. Plug the 2nd USB stick in a 2.0 port. This may work for you allowing faster system boot and operation. The first stick merely, then, is only a boot kicker to the faster USB port.

Hope this helps

Posted: **Tue 15 Apr 2014, 09:42**

Hi 8-bit,

I am using Blue version 3 from an 8gig flash drive on my desktop and the boot to the tile screen takes a long time. I determined that this is due to the flash drive being plugged into a USB port on the front of the PC.
Those ports show up as USB 1.1 ports.
This desktop also has an add-in USB card/interface at the back of the PC.
I checked it and it is shown as being USB 2.0.
But even though the flash drive is set up to be seen as a USB hard drive, it does not show up in my PC's boot menu when plugged into those USB ports!
It does show up on the desktop if I boot from the Grub menu to another version of Puppy on my main hard drives.
I would have thought that the change in version 3 would have allowed the flash drive to be seen as a USB hard drive by the PC irregardless of what USB port it is plugged into on the same PC it was made on.
So on this desktop PC, I guess I will have to settle with using USB 1.1 and the slow speed associated with it even though the PC has USB 2.0 ports on an add-in card.

1. Before trying anything else you should establish beyond doubt that your PC BIOS will not boot from the USB 2 PCI interface card at the rear.
Start by removing all sticks then shutdown & remove all mains power to the box for a couple of minutes.

2. Insert your stick in a rear port then power up entering the BIOS as you do so.

3. Check all categories of devices. The stick may appear in any one of them and may be seen as a bootable FDD, ZIP drive, HDD or USB HDD. If it does you just need to put it at the top of your boot order.

4. If it does not appear in any category check your other BIOS’s settings. In particular look for an option to boot from internal (PCI) cards. If you have such an option it will need to be turned on before returning to step 1.

If this does not resolve the problem, a hard disc install to a dedicated f2fs partition is a better proposition than the two stick approach. That would work however and you need to stay in your comfort zone. If you opt for that you do not need “2 USB identical sticks

Posted: **Wed 16 Apr 2014, 09:51**

Optional Upgrade for Blue Pup V2 & V3.
(bluepup-sp1.pet)

The attached pet enhances the above versions by providing easier use in the form of four screen “hot sides

Posted: **Wed 16 Apr 2014, 21:57**

Thanks for this SP1. I agree, it enhances usability. Left and bottom triggers work as advertised. So does the top trigger, although your description somewhat misled me into thinking that it would be smart enough not to open a new tab each time it triggers. You did say "equivalent of Ctrl+T", to be fair, and that's exactly what it does. The right trigger does nothing on my netbook 1024x600. The right window key does work to minimize the metro interface and start the shortcut panel.

Posted: **Thu 17 Apr 2014, 06:47**

Oh well, today SP1 isn't working but in a different way. Right trigger works as advertised. Bottom trigger stopped working - does nothing. Left trigger works as advertised. Top trigger stopped working, I think; when chromium is full screen and my mouse kisses the top border chromium displays the "you've gone full screen" popup; if chromium isn't full screen moving the mouse to top trigger does nothing at all.

Note: same netbook as in previous post. Tested after restarting blue pup - so did for previous post too.

edit: No, the right trigger still isn't working. It appeared to work when there were no apps but chromium running. Now that multiple apps are running right trigger seems to switch to one of those apps instead of opening the shortcut panel.

edit 2: it keeps restoring the YASSM select-share pulldown dialog window regardless of which other apps are also running.

Posted: **Thu 17 Apr 2014, 12:09**

Hi step,

Thanks for your reports. Your testing has revealed previously unreported problems which have been shown up by SP1 but are in fact due to flaws in a couple of the original scripts. Basically I failed to cater for all possibilities and need to find alternate ways of doing some things.

SP1 itself is sound but I need to fix some of the scripts that it calls. I will look at them and hopefully will issue a fix in the form of a compulsory service pack in a few days time.
We are now getting down to the nitty-gritty.

Posted: **Thu 17 Apr 2014, 18:00**

My testing at your service, Sir! I'm looking forward to your next step. Lov the Blue Pup.

Posted: **Thu 17 Apr 2014, 19:35**

Hi @ETP. Awhile back, @BarryK developed a way for system service, like "bluepup-sp1", to be pushed to facilitate a system upgrade. (Of course, the user must exercise to allow it to continue installation)

Does QT/BLUE have that same mechanism builtin? Could that be a way to move service to BLUE users, while still offering service explanation for understanding in the thread?

Hope this helps

Posted: **Thu 17 Apr 2014, 21:08**

Hi gcmartin,

From the screen shot below you only use multi-session-CD/DVD and I personally do not even begin to understand your comment above.

Also, since multi-session is your principal interest; how is your promised multi-session-manual coming along?

My regards

Posted: **Fri 18 Apr 2014, 04:25**

Don't know if it will help anyone preparing a stick for Blue pup, but there is an interesting thread concerning Gparted and formatting here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93047

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Blue Pup V6 Released 11th Oct 2014 32-bit

Re: Install to hard disc or SSD:

Install to hard disc or SSD:

Blue Pup V1, V2 & V3 (Released 2nd April 2014)

Metro interface freezing

Re: Metro interface freezing

Normal Service is Resumed.

Re: Booting from HDD or SSD with another stick or card

Re: Booting from HDD or SSD with another stick or card

Optional Upgrade for Blue Pup V2 & V3.

sp1 right trigger not working

Re: sp1 right trigger not working

blue pup-sp1.pet

Moving service to running BLUE users not connected to forum