Puppy freezes after startup !!

[ayush]

My bionicpup32 8.0 running kernel 4.9.163-lxpup-32-pae is freezing after some time right after startup and even the cursor isn't working everything freezes and the only option is to force shut down the pc with the power button.

I don't know what went wrong(it maybe due to a sudden power cut off or maybe i installed some stupid pet file) is there any way to fix the issue without loosing apps & drivers as I did a lot of hard work to install the chromebrowser, wifi drivers, libreoffice etc..

Here the exact scenario
https://seupload.com/FKh/VID_20220721_145145_848.mp4

[bigpup]

Anything you specifically did just before this started to happen?
Program you installed?
Settings you changed?

You give us the Puppy version info, but provide the rest of this info.
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=218

Do you have a backup copy of the save, that you could use to replace the one that may be corrupted?

[ayush]

PC(lappy) specs:
RAM: 1gb
HDD: 120gb
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz
Architecture: 32/64bit
Installation: Installed with Unetbootin
Installation type: Full, installed on HDD, windows and puppy are on different partitions /sda1(system reserved/windows files) /sda2(windows 7 ultimate sp1 64bit) /sda3(puppy linux) /sda4(linux swap)

Well i don't think it's a problem with the softwares i installed like libreoffice, vlc, chromium etc. cuz everything was fine after installing them. It probably happened after i uninstalled some .pet files and tried to solve another issue.
I'm telling in brief (may become a short story):

I installed https://forum.puppylinux.com/download/file.php?id=452
(because i wanted to adjust the brightness according to my needs, but didn't work anyways) then i installed http://www.smokey01.com/tempestuous/blu ... eaming.pet (didn't work anyways) and https://forum.puppylinux.com/download/file.php?id=3477 (says needs bluez 5.x, didn't work) so i uninstalled these .pets from the puppy package manager i thought these applications would be removed after uninstalling but to my surprise they were still there in the system.
At this point everything was working fine.

After that all the creepy things started happening, I was doing a little bit of multitasking and my old pc got heated to a great extent, i remember the cpu temperature showed around 65°, so i shut down the pc. And then after shut down when i cooled down the laptop and turned it on it was stuck on the startup screen see here: https://telegra.ph/file/5ad5dbda3e7a82706156b.jpg not even going to the boot menu unless i press any button on my keyboard.
Update: Now this got fixed idk how

Then after startup i encounterd a weird bug all the desktop icons were opening up the geany editor with some codes.
I came across this forum: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=4397

I used command mv /usr/local/bin/xdg-open /usr/bin/xdg-open and deleted the geany editor with "builtin package remover"
And i also noticed several weird issues here and there like when i was using cursor keys in terminal it was giving me A,B,C,D for the 4 cursors keys in the terminal and also shift doesn't capitalize words, clicking scroll button doesn't paste etc.. etc..

And now after doing that and rebooting the system hangs just after some time at startup as i attached the small video clip above

I have a pupsave file in the /root directory and I don't have any previous rollbacks/copies of the pupsave file

This is so much creepy, i don't know what is this a bug, a virus/malware or hardware fault, any help would be appreciated !

[williams2]

I used command mv /usr/local/bin/xdg-open /usr/bin/xdg-open

from that thread

Ok problem [SOLVED!] : )
I just rename file form /usr/bin/xdg-open to ~xdg-open then copy orginal file from /initrd/pup_ro2/usr/local/bin/xdg-open to /usr/bin/ directory after reboot system all work normal again and i can delete broken backup file with ~in neme ~xdg-open deleted

That is not what you did.
You need to be careful with symlinks. It is possible to create 2 symlinks that point to each other, in an infinite loop.

A FULL install is more delicate and harder to fix than a frugal install.
You could try fixing it by running a Puppy with pfix=ram then mount the file system, then fix the 2 xdg-open files, which should be in the /initrd/ dir.

You could try deleting the 2 xdg-open files. Then try to copy them back.
Replacing them with a script like this named xdg-open would probably work:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
rox "$@"

Reboot, then replace the 2 xdg-open files with something like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#this script created by Jemimah. see: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=63400&start=150
#110115 xdg-open used to be a symlink to defaulthandler.

case "$1" in
        '') exit
                ;;
        file://*) exec /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/AppRun -U "$1"
                ;;
        magnet:*) exec transmission "$1"
                ;;
        *://*) exec rox -U "$1"
                ;;
        *@*.*) exec rox -U "mailto:${1}"
                ;;
        *) exec rox "$1"
                ;;
esac

Better still, just copy the files back.

In my Puppy,
/usr/bin/xdg-open is a symlink to -> ../local/bin/xdg-open
/usr/local/bin/xdg-open is a script

[mikewalsh]

@ayush :-

to the "kennels".

Mm. It doesn't help that you're running a laptop with just 1 GB RAM.....and then you're trying to run heavy applications like the Chromium browser, LibreOffice, etc.....each of which will use several hundred MB of your meager supply. Out of what remains Puppy itself is trying to run.

Bionic by itself needs an absolute minimum of 512 MB. 1 GB is recommended.....and that's just the OS itself, without any apps.

You need a lighter Puppy.....AND more lightweight apps. Either that, or you need to add more RAM to the system. Puppy is very good at running on low-powered hardware, but even Puppy can't work miracles with what doesn't exist.

We will help where we can, but you may not like some of the suggestions....

Mike.

[bigpup]

Something to consider.

You may want to just totally delete the Bionicpup32 install and do a fresh clean reinstall.

You can spend a lot of time trying to find and correct whatever is broken.

I have never used Unetbootin to do an install to an internal drive, but looking at Unetbootin documentation.
I think it actually did a frugal install of Bionic32.
Puppy Linux works best as a frugal install.
Some features only work in a frugal install.
Frugal is the name. It is still the complete OS.

If the first time you shutdown Bionicpup32.
If It asked about making a save file or folder.
You have a frugal install.

All changes, additions, settings, etc.... are in the save file/folder.
Easy recovery is to make a copy of a good working save file/folder.
If something really gets messed up.
Delete the bad save and replace with this backup copy.
Back to normal, when you boot using the the backup save.

WARNING:
Always shutdown Windows doing a complete shutdown.
DO NOT USE hibernate.
Hibernate does not fully release control of the internal drive.

[mikeslr]

Just a couple of thoughts beyond 2nding the recommendations for a frugal install.
(1) While you still have bionicpup32 sort of functional, if you have a USB-Key, use your current Puppy to burn a copy to the USB-Key. The Puppy on a USB-Key then can be used to replace your sort-of broken one on your hard drive. Puppys tools are better for deploying Puppys than Unetbootin.
(2) However you deploy Puppy there will be a boot-loader to boot into it. These use text files you can edit. The text files will either be named menu.lst or grub.cfg. menu.lst will have a line beginning with the word 'kernel'; grub.cfg's begings with 'linux'. On that line there may be an argument which reads pmedia=atahd. Add or edit the argument so that it reads pmedia=ataflash. For example with grub.cfg:
linux /bionic32/vmlinuz psubdir=/bionic32 pmedia=ataflash pfix=fsck

Blue coloring for emphasis only.

What that addition/change does is 'trick' Puppys into functioning as if it were from a USB-Key. Things you install are NOT immediately written to your SaveFile/Folder. You can test applications by opening Menu>Shutdown>Restart-x (AKA Graphical Server). This causes Puppys to re-catalog what applications are part of its system. The application, however, is only in RAM until you execute a Save. There'll be a Save Icon on your desktop and you'll be asked at shutdown/reboot*. If an application does not function correctly or otherwise causes problems you can shutdown without Saving. Whatever is in RAM will be cleared. You'll never have the problem of creating errors by removing/deleting/uninstalling/undoing changes and accidentally screwing things up. Until a Save, it's just not a permanent part of your system.

* One other thing is necessary to establish that system. After including the pmedia=ataflash argument and rebooting, open Menu>System>Puppy Event Manager, Click the Save Sessions Tab; change the Save Interval to zero/0 and put a check in the box next to 'Ask at Shutdown'. Otherwise it doesn't ask and just Saves.

Prefer portable then SFSes to installing pets. These need very little RAM unless and until you open them. An unloaded SFS and a portable without a menu entry none.

You might want to consider using dpup-stretch, viewtopic.php?p=1506#p1506. It's been reported to boot to desktop using only 68 Mbs of RAM. If I read this post correctly, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 0#p1031840, you may be able to get bluetooth to work. Don't hesitate to ask for help.

[bigpup]

I have a pupsave file in the /root directory

If this is true, the save is in the wrong location.

This could be causing some issues.

the save needs to be in the /mnt/home location or in the frugal install directory, in /mnt/home
This is the top layer of the partition.
Best way to see what is in /mnt/home
Click on the desktop drive icon for the partition the frugal install is on.

/root is actually a location in the save, if anything has been added or changed in /root

Uninstalling Geany is not a good idea.
Geany is used as the default program to use, in a lot of other Puppy specific programs.
Some are actually coded to run Geany, to do something in the program.

Some programs, removed by using the Puppy Package Manager)PPM) uninstall, will be removed from the file system.
But if they have parts that are always loaded in memory.
A reboot may be needed, to completely get them removed.
PPM uninstall, is only as good as the info, provided in the program package, as to location of everything it installed.

[ayush]

I used command mv /usr/local/bin/xdg-open /usr/bin/xdg-open

from that thread

Ok problem [SOLVED!] : )
I just rename file form /usr/bin/xdg-open to ~xdg-open then copy orginal file from /initrd/pup_ro2/usr/local/bin/xdg-open to /usr/bin/ directory after reboot system all work normal again and i can delete broken backup file with ~in neme ~xdg-open deleted

That is not what you did.
You need to be careful with symlinks. It is possible to create 2 symlinks that point to each other, in an infinite loop.

A FULL install is more delicate and harder to fix than a frugal install.
You could try fixing it by running a Puppy with pfix=ram then mount the file system, then fix the 2 xdg-open files, which should be in the /initrd/ dir.

You could try deleting the 2 xdg-open files. Then try to copy them back.
Replacing them with a script like this named xdg-open would probably work:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
rox "$@"

Reboot, then replace the 2 xdg-open files with something like this

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#this script created by Jemimah. see: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=63400&start=150
#110115 xdg-open used to be a symlink to defaulthandler.

case "$1" in
        '') exit
                ;;
        file://*) exec /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/AppRun -U "$1"
                ;;
        magnet:*) exec transmission "$1"
                ;;
        *://*) exec rox -U "$1"
                ;;
        *@*.*) exec rox -U "mailto:${1}"
                ;;
        *) exec rox "$1"
                ;;
esac

Better still, just copy the files back.

In my Puppy,
/usr/bin/xdg-open is a symlink to -> ../local/bin/xdg-open
/usr/local/bin/xdg-open is a script

Hi this seems to have fixed the issue.
This is what i did: https://telegra.ph/file/60333d531b593b87cc9eb.jpg

After that i copied the next chunk of code as pasted it to both the files /usr/bin/xdg-open & /usr/local/bin/xdg-open

[ayush]

IMG_20220725_021613_347.jpg (61.59 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

Something to consider.

You may want to just totally delete the Bionicpup32 install and do a fresh clean reinstall.

You can spend a lot of time trying to find and correct whatever is broken.

I have never used Unetbootin to do an install to an internal drive, but looking at Unetbootin documentation.
I think it actually did a frugal install of Bionic32.
Puppy Linux works best as a frugal install.
Some features only work in a frugal install.
Frugal is the name. It is still the complete OS.

If the first time you shutdown Bionicpup32.
If It asked about making a save file or folder.
You have a frugal install.

All changes, additions, settings, etc.... are in the save file/folder.
Easy recovery is to make a copy of a good working save file/folder.
If something really gets messed up.
Delete the bad save and replace with this backup copy.
Back to normal, when you boot using the the backup save.

WARNING:
Always shutdown Windows doing a complete shutdown.
DO NOT USE hibernate.
Hibernate does not fully release control of the internal drive.

Sorry i was wrong the savefile is in the /mnt/home directory
Idk what i saw in the root directory (my mistake)
I dont remember whether it asked me for the save location. Isn't there any other hacky way to know whether its a frugal or full install?

Now at this point i am considering to reinstall bcz things doesnt look normal here, looks like i have messed with the system files or something, there used to be icons in the bottom right corner and now there's nothing also the Wi-Fi icon does not show there after connecting.

Is there any way to reinstall puppy without loosing data or something like to fix the contents so that everything will be normal like before ?

[bigpup]

Isn't there any other hacky way to know whether its a frugal or full install?

If that image you posted is what is in /mnt/home
You have a full install.

A frugal install would only have the different SFS files installed in /mnt/home.
They could be just on the partition or in a directory in /mnt/home
A frugal install usually will have them all in a directory in /mnt/home

Example frugal install in a directory named bionicpup3280+29
.

Screenshot.png (43.79 KiB) Viewed 2812 times

Not sure why you have a save.
Full installs do not use them.

It is hard to track down problems in full installs.
Have to think on it, to maybe come up with something, that will help you.
Sorry!

[bigpup]

One thing to eliminate is file system corruption.

You will have to do this running some other version of Puppy that is not on the drive Bionicpup32 is on.
A puppy version booted from a CD or USB drive is best way.

The drive and partitions on it, must not be mounted to check it.

In a terminal
use e2fsck program to check the partition bionicpup32 is on.

Example:
partition sda1 is partition Bionicpup32 is on.

e2fsck -p /dev/sda1

If it finds any errors it will report them and fix them.

If errors are found.
Do this several times until it reports no errors.

Any help?

[mikeslr]

... is there any way to fix the issue without loosing apps & drivers as I did a lot of hard work to install the chromebrowser, wifi drivers, libreoffice etc..

The hard work you put into it is in the past. The past is the illusion of a memory. There is only this moment and guesses about what the future may hold. You can never undo the past; never recover the time and energy you expended.

That's a common bad gambler's mistake. Making bad bets to try to recover losses. What's lost is lost. You have only the resources at your disposal with which to better your future position.

You can only learn from the past. You can only move forward in time. When there appears to be more than one choice as to what that movement might be you can apply what you've learned to expend the least time and resources to accomplish your goal.

Having spent time on a system we form an emotional attachment to it. You'll find post by even us 'old-timers' where we mention maintaining old Puppys and booting into them 'for old time sake'. But Puppys are not real puppies. They have no existence other than some bytes on a drive. They have no feelings; neither mind nor emotional attachment to us.

More often than those posts about visiting 'old puppys' are posts (a) discouraging newbies from setting up 'full installs' unless absolutely necessary; and (b) trying out several Puppy before 'getting deep into the weeds' with one which might not be the best with your computer and for your objectives.

I recommend that you re-read my prior post. viewtopic.php?p=62576#p62576. I'll be back after breakfast with a recipe for quickly creating a functional Puppy.

[mikeslr]

The quick way to get from where you are to where you want to be.

As we know that bionicpup32 works with your computer, lets stick with that for now.

Boot into your bionicpup32. Just above the taskbar there are icons which provide short-cuts to the drives/partitions. One will have an 'x' on its top-right as soon as you've booted. The 'x' indicate that a partition is mounted/opened and Puppy automatically mounts the partition it's on.

Click that Icon to open the partition, Left-Click an empty space and from the pop-up menu select New>Directory and give it a meaningful name. You'll want one to distinguish it from your current bionicpup32. So perhaps bionic2. After you've created it, Left-Click to open it and leave it open.

A frugal Puppy consists of various files and file-systems. For bionicpup32 you need all those which are colored brown plus the one named vmlinuz in bigpup's post, viewtopic.php?p=62702#p62702. To obtain them as separate, manageable files you may have to again download the bionicpup32 ISO. Once you have that, Left-click it to mount it. From the window which opens, Left-Press, HOLD, then drag the required files into the 'bionic2' folder.
[AFAIK, the lxpupbionic32-4.9.163-pae kernel you mentioned is 'stock' for bionicpup32. If not, let us know and we'll explain how to use it in the Puppy you are building if you need clearer instructions than I've provided below with respect to testing dpup-stretch].

You've just created a frugal install. Now we have to get it on your boot-menu. As you have Windows 7 on the computer, I'm going to assume --for safety sake-- that it is a UEFI computer. While its possible to edit your current boot menu to ADD a listing for the 'frugal bionic' and IIRC bionicpup32 has 'frugalpup installer' on Menu>Setup, I think the easiest way to create a boot-loader would be:
download Grub2Config from here, viewtopic.php?t=3360, click the pet to install it; then Menu>Exit>Restart Graphical Server, to have Puppy recognize that it is now part of your system. Then run it: Menu>Setup>Grub2 bootloader config.
It will write a new boot-loader with stanzas giving you the choice to boot into Windows, your new Frugal Puppy and the 'old' Full bionicpup32.
Reboot into your new bionicpup32. Install the rtl8188fu-lxpupbionic32-4.9.163-pae.pet and again Restart-Graphical Server so that you can setup wifi before shutting down and creating a SAVEFOLDER.
After you reboot into your new Frugal bioncipup32, mount the partition (probably sda1) on which you'll find grub.cfg; then open grub.cfg in a text editor. Add or edit the argument in its 'linux' line to read pmedia=ataflash. Reboot and change the Save Sesssion to 0/zero, then execute a Save. See my post here. viewtopic.php?p=62576#p62576.

All your frugal Puppy files will be in the 'bionic2' folder. So you can delete everything on that partition not in that folder and then edit grub.cfg to delete the stanza for booting into the 'Full install'. But before you delete anything, if you have data files you want to save you can:

mount Puppys partition, Left-Click an empty space and create a folder to store stuff in, e.g., named 'my-stuff'. You can then examine folders in your Full install; then left-press, hold, then drag folders and files into 'my-stuff', select Copy. When your 'cleaning up' the partition, don't delete 'my-stuff'.

Look in the Additional Software Section, viewforum.php?f=7 for applications such as LibreOffice. But if all you need is a word-processor &/or Spreadsheet, perhaps MikeWalsh's portables of FreeOffice (all or parts) might suffice. viewtopic.php?p=39042#p39042. Similarly, there are various Web-browsers in SFS and portable format you'll find there.
You can, of course, still use Quickpet to obtain applications if you prefer. But SFSes and Portables use little to no RAM when not opened.

Later, if you want, you can explore other Puppys by downloading their ISO, copying their files into a folder as spelled out above and re-running grub2config. As you have a 'troublesome' wifi adapter, it's likely these will also need the rtl8188fu-lxpupbionic32-4.9.163-pae driver and firmware. That means you may have to 'swap' in Bionicpup32's 4.9.163-pae Kernel for the one included in a Puppys ISO.

That's a simple process taking less than 5 minutes as you already have the files you'll need. For example, if you wanted to try dpup-stretch, after copying its 'necessary' files into a folder (e.g. dpup), while still running bionicpup create a folder within dpup to store its original system files. Perhaps name it 'old kernel'. Drag the current vmlinuz and zdrv_stretch_7.5.sfs into the 'old kernel' folder and select move. Then drag the vmlinuz and zdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs into the dpup folder and select copy. Right-Click the zdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs, select rename, and rename it zdrv_stretch_7.5.sfs. [The initrd of a puppy has instructions as to what files to include on bootup. For dpup-stretch such files have to include 'stretch_7.5' in their names. For bionicpup32, such files have to include 'upupbb_19.03' in their names.]
Run Menu>Setup>Grub2 bootloader config. You can now reboot, booting into dpup-stretch which is ready to accept and use the rtl8188fu-lxpupbionic32-4.9.163-pae pet.

A frugal Puppy only needs its own folder. You can have as many as your partition can accommodate and you can tolerate and keep track of. Many can make use of the same SFSes and portables. With the exception of SaveFile/Folders, their system files are READ-Only, un-corruptable. You can backup a SaveFile/Folder so that if there's a problem you can switch to the backup. But by only Saving after something has been tested and you're satisfied, there's rarely a problem.

[ayush]

@mikeslr damn man I feel sad for it that you worked so hard to type that huge chunk of text but now I have shifted to fossapup64 for convenience as it has many added tweaks like the inbuilt pkg manager and much more and even my inbuilt mic and speakers are working on it smoothly

I will leave this thread as it is, as it might help others who are facing the same issue

[mikeslr]

@ ayush,

Don't feel sad. It's just the illusion of memories we share. You'll realize that the next time some newbie finds his/herself in a similar 'pickle' and we try to locate that post so as not to have to re-write it.

[phelix]

I was going to start a new thread about a "frozen boot." After reading most of this thread,
I'm not sure there is a solution to my problem.

I added BionicPup32 8.0 to VirtualBox as a new virtual machine.

The screenshot of the console window shows "Booting the kernel." It seems to be frozen
solid. I waited 8 minutes and nothing happened.

I have apps that show processor activity for each core. The processor cores were working
hard, apparently moving lots a data.

VirtualBox is very easy to use. I can delete or add a "guest host" with a few mouse clicks.
I deleted BionicPup from the list and tried again. I thought something might have gone
wrong on the first attempt. Nothing changed during bootup. It freezes solid at "Booting
the kernel."

Is there a fix?

[BologneChe]

Hi @phelix

Your specs for the hardware?
Your version of Virtualbox?
Have you tried downloading the ISO again?

I use Bionicpup32 extensively under Virtualbox 6.1.36 and macOS and have no problem booting.

[phelix]

Hello BologneChe.

I've been down this road countless times. If there is no simple fix, we start listing our
hardware or discussing software versions or conflicts.

It could take hours, days, or weeks to figure out why my copy of BionicPup is not booting.

There is a minuscule chance the ISO I downloaded is defective. I don't think downloading
the same ISO again is the solution.

The only logical option is to try another lightweight Linux distro.