Blue Pup V6 Released 11th Oct 2014 32-bit

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ETP
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Test Release – V3 – (V3 Released 02nd April 2014)

#76 Post by ETP »

Test Release – V3 – (V3 Released 02nd April 2014 - 323MB)

This is only intended at present for anyone who has had problems producing a bootable stick.
The target device remains as an 8GB or greater USB2 or USB3 stick. I have however tested it with both cards and sticks.

I will edit this post with a detailed write-up of those changes should it give a better booting success rate. Blue Pup itself only has minor non-critical changes. If you are happy with V1 or V2 there is no vital need to change but you could test on another stick.

blue_pup_v3_4gb.img.xz [323 Meg]together with the MD5 can be found here:
MD5 2eceada3a5220d89bb5f84365db26f37
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
&
https://archive.org/details/Puppy_Linux_blue_pup
NOTES:

1. Unplug any other cards or sticks before attempting to boot V3.

2. Use a port rather than a USB hub if possible as there is an underlying problem with QT.

3. Linux install terminal commands for V3:
(The target stick should not be mounted. In the directory that you downloaded the .img.xz file to, right click then /window/terminal here/ to access the terminal)
Only issue the sync command when the first command has completed which may take up to 20 minutes. If you wish you can monitor it running in HTOP.

Code: Select all

# xz --decompress --stdout blue_pup_v3_4gb.img.xz > /dev/sdx 
# sync
(replace the x at the end with your target device letter)
4. Syslinux.cfg has changed in V3 and now reads as follows:

Code: Select all

# Boot Blue Pup ETP 25th March 2014 
default /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb2 rootwait rw
The assumption here is that there is only one hard drive in the PC and at boot time only one USB stick (V3) plugged in and no SD cards. If you have a second hard disc you will need to change the sdb2 reference to sdc2. If you have another USB device plugged in such as a wireless or BT dongle this may also apply.
In summary try the default sdb2 then move up to sdc2 then sdd2 until you boot successfully without seeing a kernel panic message.

If you first attempt to boot the stick on the same pc or laptop that you used to create it, make sure that before doing so, you shut down the device and remove all mains power from it for a couple of minutes.
This will ensure that your BIOS refreshes its view of the stick and sees it as bootable.


Edit: 31/03/14 A copy of my own rough build notes as below.
  • V3 Changes: (DPI left at 102)
    ************************
    1. Default apps - change HTML editor to geany (HTML viewer Chromium)

    2. Chromium:
    A - Clear P/Ws.
    B - Set allow local data to be set as the default. (Cookies)
    C - Update Metro to v 1.02 (supposed to update automatically but does not always do so)

    3. Line up GTK panel with extra space after QUIT but before :

    4. Change Metro & Panel to V3

    5. Program E-Mail button to launch T'bird (key 236) (For multimedia K/Bs)

    6. Eliminate typo from some scripts (usr instead of user!!!!)

    7. Zeroise build card with dd before starting build. (Compressed image then half the size of V2)

    8. Abandon QT stick layout to deal with difficult BIOSs.

    9. Use syslinux 4.04 instead of 4.05 and create 16 Meg Fat32 image instead of Fat16. Prepare with HP Utility before
    applying boot-loader.

    10. Start build by applying the above 16 Meg image to 4GB card then format rest as f2fs.
Last edited by ETP on Fri 04 Apr 2014, 17:40, edited 10 times in total.
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
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Volhout
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec 2008, 08:41

4Gb image

#77 Post by Volhout »

Thanks ETP,

Downloading now, and will try if this V3 works.
It is a 4 Gbyte image ? Right ?
Just from my earlier post: there is actually only 7.21Gbyte (x1024x1024x1024) = 7.74 Gbyte in FAT32 on the stick.
Kingston (and La Cie) must reserve 8/7.74 - 100% = 3% on the USB stick to replace bad sectors.

Will try this tomorrow... as per your description, running UPUP Raring with 3.992 kernel.

Volhout

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ETP
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4Gb image

#78 Post by ETP »

Hi Volhout,
It is a 4 Gbyte image ? Right ?
Yes. It will expand to just less than 4 GB but is intended to go on an 8GB stick.
This was a bit of lateral thinking to get around the fact that many 8GB sticks are “not the full shilling
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

gcmartin

Success with version 3 approach in latest BLUEPUP

#79 Post by gcmartin »

Chronology
  1. Download is BEST SPEED ever achieved! Good selection of the fastest free network in the world.
  2. Screen capture of USB stick before burn (see below)
  3. Burn accomplished in less than 20 minutes
    • No blanking USB stick (an unnecessary step)
    • Using the following command

      Code: Select all

      # xz --decompress --stdout /mnt/myNAS7/Downloads/Puppy/ETP/Blue/blue_pup_v3_4gb.img.xz  > /dev/sdd ; sync
  4. System booted on a touch laptop without boot failure this time. Desktop startup failed. xorgwizard & xwin to desktop.
  5. Also USB booted USB to a desktop without boot failure.
  6. Screen capture of USB stick after burn (see below)
Successful booting via 1 of my 8GB sticks.

Observation
In appearance, this V3 will find home on 4GB stick, as well.

Future
I will test the "touch" ability for you later and report for disability usage.

Hope this helps
Edited: Clarity and additional item
Attachments
1st 8GB drive before V3_2014-03-26.png
Drive picture before xz command use
(28.07 KiB) Downloaded 781 times
1st 8GB drive after V3_2014-03-26.png
Immediately after xz completion of downloaded file
(25.81 KiB) Downloaded 763 times
Last edited by gcmartin on Wed 26 Mar 2014, 17:50, edited 2 times in total.

gcmartin

#80 Post by gcmartin »

I pose a question to everyone who has followed the 8GB problem discussion in this thread. It is here. Respond if you have any info you feel would be helpful.

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Billtoo
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Blue Pup V1 & V2 (Released 13th March 2014)

#81 Post by Billtoo »

I tried the linux method with 2 more 8gb flash drives on my 8+ year
old hp desktop pc. installing the V2 image.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
8gb SanDisk cruzer U3 smart (some windows stuff on the drive shows up
as a cd drive on the desktop)
Gparted showed 7.65gb

This drive took about 15 minutes to install Blue Pup using the linux
method.

Booted to the prompt where I ran xorgwizard and chose the modesetting
driver then xwin to get to the desktop.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
8gb kingston DT101 G2
Gparted showed the drive as 7.27gb.
After about 50 minutes the error popped up.

# xz --decompress --stdout blue_pup_v2_8gb.img.xz > /dev/sdf
xz: (stdout): Write error: No space left on device
#

This drive booted up to the prompt where I ran xorgwizard and chose the
modesetting driver and then xwin to get to the desktop.

Posting from it now.

Images 1-3 are the kingston flashdrive in Gparted, images 4-5 are the
Sandisk Cruzer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 8gb V2 image works on these flashdrives.

gcmartin

#82 Post by gcmartin »

@Billtoo reports an error message received:

Code: Select all

# xz --decompress --stdout blue_pup_v2_8gb.img.xz > /dev/sdf
xz: (stdout): Write error: No space left on device
I, too, last week with BluePUP-V2 got similar messages on 8GB USB. But, unlike him, those Version 2 attempts would NOT boot; until I used a 16GB and 32GB USB sticks. For any user who witnesses this error message, I would advise that your system may be compromised as lacking something, someware.

Hope this is helpful

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ETP
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#83 Post by ETP »

Hi gcmartin,

Believe it or not that is not an error message but the normal message dd gives when it has finished and can do no more. It does not indicate success or failure. In Billtoo's case he went on to boot from the stick.

With Blue Pup V3 you are not likely to run out of space when targeting an 8GB stick with a 4GB image unless you encounter a fake stick.
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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8-bit
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#84 Post by 8-bit »

I downloaded version 3 of Blue and went to install it from Slacko 5.5.
When I opened a terminal and typed the command to install it, something strange happened. I had a window open up and proceed to display the data from the xz files progress along with PDF creator wanting to save the PDF.
I had to force a shutdown on that.
Next, I fired up Puppy Precise 5.7.1 and after editing my install script, I then use3d Gparted to restore the flash drive to one fat32 partition in preparation.
After that, I ran the install script with HTop also running so I would know for sure when the process was complete.
And... I did the install to a 4gig Sandisk flash drive!
When I went to boot it, it showed up in my computers boot menu. Good.
It loaded vmlinux, but I got a message of no init being found.
The install was to sdd. But that changed to sdc for some reason.
As to the missing init, I then mounted the fat32 partition and checked out /boot/syslinux/syslinx.cfg with gleany.
What I saw there suprised me in that what I saw was "default /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb2 rootwait rw".
And the sdb2 partition on my desktop is the windows 7 partition.
So I edited syslinux.cfg to point root to /dev/sdc2 which is the f3fs partition on the flash drive.
I saved the file and believe it or not, it still showed up in my computer's boot menu and I was able to boot all the way to the desktop!! And remember this was with a 4gig flash drive! And I had 9 megs unallocated at the end of the flash drive too. So the flash drive had enough room.
So you are on the right track other than I do not know why the wrong partition was specified in the syslinux.cfg file.
I still have to try the 4gig flash drive on my laptop to see if the flash drive is recognized as a bootable device and will boot.

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csipesz
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#85 Post by csipesz »

Man, I had 2 machines once: a good strong lenovo core 2 duo, and one 1GHz p3.
My lenovo he's dead, like this now only the p3 I can use it.
You would not know it the blue pup to do in the form of a CD?
Because he would interest me very much...
But a p3 can not booting from an USB- stick.

gcmartin

#86 Post by gcmartin »

ETP wrote: ... It does not indicate success or failure. In Billtoo's case he went on to boot from the stick ...
Thanks @ETP. I have been a user of utilities for years that use "dd" and had never encountered that message, except, on the one time when a disk dump's geometry did not match the target HDD's even though the size matched. After this, I always checked that issue before going to a new target drive of the same size.

I should mention that in all cases where I get bootable sticks, I do NOT get such messages. But, if this is a "normal" error message, it may not be the reason that V2 does not work with my 2 different manufacturer's USB where failures occurred..

I am glad, though, that the suggestion to reduce the target partition size addresses this boot problem shown by your providing V3 for our evaluation. Additionally, it "appears" that a 4GB stick should work. I don't have one, but the math suggest it should.

Hope this helps

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Billtoo
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Blue Pup V1 & V2 (Released 13th March 2014)

#87 Post by Billtoo »

I moved the Sandisk Cruzer flashdrive that I installed Blue Pup
version 2 on to my Acer laptop.

I needed to hit F2 to enter the bios then make the flashdrive the
default boot device, hit F10 to save the new setting and exit.

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Wed 26 Mar 2014 on Quirky Tahr 6.0.5 Linux 3.12.6 i686
0.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Park [Mobility Radeon HD 5430/5450/5470]
oem: ATI ATOMBIOS
product: PARK 01.00

X Server: Xorg Driver: synapticssynapticsmousevendor0x2product0x8
X.Org version: 1.15.0
dimensions: 1600x900 pixels (423x238 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 128 bits)
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.0.1

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 430 @ 2.27GHz
Core 0: @1199 1: @1199 2: @1199 3: @1199 MHz

Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

It's working well.
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nancy reagan
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Joined: Thu 22 Jan 2009, 14:20

usb booting from any computer

#88 Post by nancy reagan »

csipesz wrote:Man, I had 2 machines once: a good strong lenovo core 2 duo, and one 1GHz p3.
My lenovo he's dead, like this now only the p3 I can use it.
You would not know it the blue pup to do in the form of a CD?
Because he would interest me very much...
But a p3 can not booting from an USB- stick.

Strange it is not too well known that you can usb-boot -any pc- with PLOP.

You can copy it to diskette or CD.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=90683

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8-bit
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#89 Post by 8-bit »

gcmartin wrote: I am glad, though, that the suggestion to reduce the target partition size addresses this boot problem shown by your providing V3 for our evaluation. Additionally, it "appears" that a 4GB stick should work. I don't have one, but the math suggest it should.

Hope this helps
One can indeed create a 4gig bootable stick with version three. Evidently, the change you, ETP, made to get the flash stick to appear as a USB hard drive to the computer worked.
The only thing I am concerned with as per my earlier post is that the /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg file is showing an explicit drive address assigned to root. I do not know if this is hardwired into the writing of the file though and if one boots it on a computer that has a number of hard drives and partitions how the right one is chosen for the assignment of root.

I just fired up windows 7 on my laptop,edited the syslinux.cfg file to correspond to the number of drives on it making the root assignment to the next logical drive in line. I then used the laptop's boot menu to select the flash drive as my boot drive and after setting up my wireless network card, I am now editing this post from Blue version 3 booted from a 4gig flash drive!
And to me, the really fun part would be to have a Windows 8 user seeing the cromium desktop with the tiles.
The main thing here is that I am reporting some success with the arrangement!

Volhout
Posts: 547
Joined: Sun 28 Dec 2008, 08:41

#90 Post by Volhout »

8-bit wrote:
gcmartin wrote: I am glad, though, that the suggestion to reduce the target partition size addresses this boot problem shown by your providing V3 for our evaluation. Additionally, it "appears" that a 4GB stick should work. I don't have one, but the math suggest it should.

Hope this helps
One can indeed create a 4gig bootable stick with version three. Evidently, the change you, ETP, made to get the flash stick to appear as a USB hard drive to the computer worked.
The only thing I am concerned with as per my earlier post is that the /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg file is showing an explicit drive address assigned to root. I do not know if this is hardwired into the writing of the file though and if one boots it on a computer that has a number of hard drives and partitions how the right one is chosen for the assignment of root.
Harddrives and USB devices are numerated at power up (repower) or by any script that makes that call. When you install puppy to a pc with 2 USB stick plugged in, these can be enumerated as sdb and sdc. If you install to sdc, and reboot with the other stick removed, after reboot it is sdb. This is the reason I sometimes manually edit the "menu.lst" file from Grub4DOS.

The enumeration of USB devices is on devices it "recognizes" as USB. The algorythm has a fixed order in which is scans the USB ports.

So... you can probably avoid the issue you brought up by:
- keeping the devices plugged during the whole process.
- attach the USB stick you image to the last USB port. Keeping the chain prior to it intact. In that case your USB device will either be there (when recognized) or won't be there (when not). But a reboot will not re-rder the devices.

Good luck...

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ETP
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TESTING V3

#91 Post by ETP »

@ All
General Comment.


I have already made the point in relation to 8GB sticks that all such sticks are not equal and many are not the full shilling. The same applies to 4GB sticks.

The whole point in V3 of reducing the image to 4GB but continuing to target 8GB sticks or greater was to surmount that issue and so achieve the desirable 99% deployment reliability.

Will V3 fit on a 4GB stick? – Yes, if the stick is the full shilling. If it is not, the build will fail.

Is it advisable to put it on 4GB stick? – No. Not if you want some certainty that it will work. It would also invalidate testing which is intended to take place on larger sticks.

Can I try it anyway? – Of course you can but at your own risk of failure and not as part of any testing. It would run the risk of re-introducing one of the problems that V3
is intended to solve.


@ 8-bit,

Your news of success is most welcome. Syslinux.cfg has changed in V3 and now reads as follows:

Code: Select all

# Boot Blue Pup ETP 25th March 2014
default /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb2 rootwait rw
The assumption is that there is only one hard drive in the PC and at boot time only one USB stick (V3) plugged in and no SD cards. As you have a second hard disc you will, as you have realised, need to change the sdb2 reference to sdc2.

@ Volhout,

You are correct but for the purposes of testing lets keep it simple and just follow the instructions:


NOTES: (For testing V3 - The target is an 8GB or larger stick)
1. Unplug any other cards or sticks before attempting to boot V3.

2. Use a port rather than a USB hub if possible as there is an underlying problem with QT.

3. Linux install commands for V3:


Code:
# xz --decompress --stdout blue_pup_v3_4gb.img.xz > /dev/sdx
# sync
(replace the x at the end with your target device letter)
Last edited by ETP on Thu 03 Apr 2014, 06:39, edited 1 time in total.
Regards ETP
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[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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8-bit
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#92 Post by 8-bit »

I need to ask what changes were made to Blue v3 for it to be recognized as a USB hard drive. I know the image size betwwen Blue v2 and Blue v3 are different. But with the success I had with trying Blue v3, I would like to change Blue v2 with that USB hard drive change and try it again with my 8GB PNY stick. If it is a matter of a few small changes, I am eager to try it!

Also, I know that Blue v3 was basically for boot testing on an 8MB USB stick.
But I have a muted sound icon show up on the task bar and cannot get the mixer to start and the sound card installation software reports my intel sound card as not supported.

Also, I want to compliment you on what I would consider a major upgrade of Puppy. It definitely get away from the Windows 95-98 menu style bringing Puppy into the present!

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ETP
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Sound

#93 Post by ETP »

Hi 8-bit,

Changing V2 is not possible but before I suggest anything else I need to make certain that I fully understand your sound issue.

1. Are you saying that on the same PC sound worked with V2 but not with V3?

Alsa can be a pain but generally sorts itself out after a few re-boots. If you intervene in any way before allowing that to happen it can mean that you will never get it working and need to start again. Nothing sound related has changed across the three versions.
I am pleased to hear that you like the modern look. Some think that it is the invention of the devil! :lol:
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

gcmartin

#94 Post by gcmartin »

This may/may-not be a good request for understand, from anyone, but, GRUB4DOS is well known to me and syslinux is NOT. (I am hopeful that the community sometime in its future, can arrive at a single boot-manager which is used across the board and embraces removable media (USB/DVD/CD/Blu-ray) and HDD as well as pathways to booting ISOs without having to create removable media, first.

I think most know about GRUB4DOS, so using that as an "example", I can have it "tell" the bootmanager process which device to boot by something it looks for in bios or in symbolic (such as a filename on some attached device) to determine where the ROOT device is.

My Question to anyone
  • Does syslinux do such?
If there is a bootmanager that better meets requirements and provides guarantee in accurate boot device use, maybe a good view for this PUPs future to reduce the support concerns, already expressed.

For example, if each version delivered with a empty root file, say, BluePUP-V3.txt, a boot-manager like GRUB4DOS will "root" that device for booting teh device it find that it reside on, for the following boot statements in its menu.lst to use.

Code: Select all

# This is a sample idea of how GRUB4OS finds a root device for booting
timeout 10

title test-boot-Blue-V3 (Installed on USB stick)
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /boot/BluePUP-V3.txt
     o
     o
     o
Which tell the following statements where the root device is (assuming of course, the BluePUP-V3.txt file exists).

This is simply an idea.

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8-bit
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Re: Sound

#95 Post by 8-bit »

ETP wrote:Hi 8-bit,


1. Are you saying that on the same PC sound worked with V2 but not with V3?

Alsa can be a pain but generally sorts itself out after a few re-boots. If you intervene in any way before allowing that to happen it can mean that you will never get it working and need to start again. Nothing sound related has changed across the three versions.
I am pleased to hear that you like the modern look. Some think that it is the invention of the devil! :lol:
What I am saying is that On my desktop, the sound icon on the taskbar disappeared after showing for a very short time. When I ran the Alsa Wizard, it reported that my intel sound card was not suported even though it seems to work with all other versions of Puppy.
And on my laptop with a different sound card I had a muted speaker icon on the task bar. But I was unable to run the mixer to try to remedy the situation.
I am posting this from Blue ver 3 on my desktop by the way and it booted ok.
I suppose I should mention that the Computers boot menu showed the USB stick with name and a designation of FDD.
This is the first time I noticed that.

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