Can't boot/install Puppy in Vaio PCG-GT1 (dual boot XP)

[lurching]

To setup a swap file with older Puppies, try Swap File Manager 4.6 from here
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=58615

As to Lick starting with a save file, not sure, I haven't used Lick (have it downloaded though JIC)
but if I remember correctly, this can be controlled via menu.lst, will investigate and let you know
unless someone with a bit of LICK experience jumps in.
I setup my pupswap.swp file using ScPup's builtin utility in PupControl...but not sure ScPup will
boot on your Vaio...my netbook is Acer Aspire One AO150, Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1.6gHz, 1 gig RAM,
120 gig HD, 1024 X 600 resolution, multiboots various Puppies and Windows XP Home, all 32 bit,
the CPU only supports 32 bit. Puppies installed to directories (folders) on the NTFS formatted HD
drive C: in frugal manner. No problems in years of usage (used Slackware based Slax this way as
well) My swapfile is located on C drive as C:\pupswap.swp, and is found with each Puppy at boot.
Each Puppy has its own save file, like scpup32save.2fs, in its own directory (folder) and is usually
loaded at boot time, though in menu.lst I have the option to not load savefile (for testing, etc.)
The file C:\menu.lst is created when the Grub is installed.
Wiz

Ok I have first modified my lickmenu.lst file to delete the iso's that were not booting because non pae. But I don't see where to add the save file, nor which syntax to use, as I save them on an ext2 partition that was there before.

For the pupswap, I will try when I can save a session otherwise I will have to perform it each time, and I can't restart with the settings! It's especially useful for Slacko5.6-4G and another puppy (fluppy0.13) who are unable to start with a swap partition enabled and are sluggish. The rest of the pups are fine. I'd like to stick with Slacko though, since it natively recognizes the ATI driver, in case fixing the swap issue gives it more performance, notably also because vlc is installed and can supply some solution to capturing the main camera's feed. I didn't notice a c:\pupswap.swp file on my root in windows.

Question: would I have to recuperate the save files and put them into the start directories of each pup in c:\[pupdir] ? Then I'll have to do that from a pup booted since it is in an ext2 partition.

After trying the modified lickmenu.lst works fine.

Edit: SwapFileManager 4.6 doesn't seem to do anything on my system on Slacko5.6 4G, there is no disk activity. I'll try the earlier version now.
Edit2: After installing gtimer2, I have no swap file (size 0) but state=on and swappiness=60. I tried to reduce size to 384Mb (double my ram) from 512Mb but no effect so far, swapfile size in info still equals 0
Edit3: SwapFileManager 1.2.1 doesn't install a menu entry so I suppose the install has not been successful.

[lurching]

Sorry for the double post (again) but...

found this! Searching for PCI drivers, I don't know yet how to use it, normally it is a similar driver on the GT1 than on the Vaio picturebook, and good news too, as:
"This driver supports the ‘second’ version of the MotionEye camera ( which is the one installed on the GT1!)

The first version was connected directly on the video bus of the Neomagic video card and is unsupported.

The second one, made by Kawasaki Steel is fully supported by this driver (PCI vendor/device is 0x136b/0xff01): https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.14/m ... /meye.html

[Wiz57]

"Question: would I have to recuperate the save files and put them into the start directories of each pup in c:\[pupdir] ? Th en I'll have to do that from a pup booted since it is in an ext2 partition. "

I have 6 (or 7??) Puppies frugally installed on my C drive, NTFS format, no Linux native partitions...
C:\ArchPup32, C:\ScPup32, C:\Slacko, etc..Each of those Pups have their own savefile stored in
the same directory. They all share the C:\pupswap.swp file (512 meg)...the way Puppies boot now
they will search for the swapfile on the top (root) directory of installation medium. You can
make adjustments via menu.lst (lickmenu.lst) using parameters. There are a number of these,
but the ones I utilize most often are psubdir (tells Puppy where to look for its files) and pfix
(tells Puppy to either load in RAM or perform file system checks, etc)...
You can "backup" your savefile by copying the file to another media, directory, partition etc...
example copy C:\Scpup32\scpup32save.2fs D:\Mysavefiles\scpup32save.2fs where C is my
hardrive and D is my USB thumb drive.

Wiz

[bigpup]

This topic is getting full of a bunch of unsolved problems and getting very hard to follow.
I can offer fixes for your problems, but which one and in what order.
Any fix is going to have to deal with one specific Puppy version.

Please help us all!!

Start a new topic about one specific problem. Only talk about that one problem until it is solved.
Than start a new topic about some other problem.

So, Start a new topic.
Pick one specific Puppy version to talk about.
This is info needed:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=218

THERE IS NO LIMIT ON NUMBER OF TOPICS YOU CAN MAKE!!

Very, very easy for all to follow trying to solve just one problem, answering one question, dealing with one specific Puppy version!!

Your very first problem seems to be booting a Puppy version installed by Lick installer and have it use it's save.
Make a topic and lets get that correctly working!!

[lurching]

Sure, sorry I got carried away. Let me prepare that. I need to prioritize the issues, but am also very busy on the side, so it may take a little while.
Thank you for the suggestion.

EDIT2: REDIRECT NOTICE: as suggested, new thread related to the GT1 camera operation: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=851&p=5719#p5719
Also for a simple walkthrough of the dual boot install, you can find it here, comments welcome! http://sonyvaio-gt1.blogspot.com/

I documented the advance of the troubleshooting on this machine, which could be useful due to the amount of not easily collectable info:

Edit: NEW ISSUES UPDATED: The following progress has been made, thank you for your assistance! After rehearsing, due to many solved issues wondering if a new thread is necessary. Feel free to tell me if yes. Thanks for everyone for leading this so far already

2 Main issues are now only focusing on the camera:
A/ checking if the WinXP/ME camera software can activate with Wine - some of it can be installed but the rest no. See point 4/
B/ finding a way to install the native linux camera driver that actually exist, wohoo but it requires a kernel I'm not sure can run on the GT-1. See 3/
There's also a small question in point 2/

I added the below just in case you want details on what has been done so far, and succeeded since some of the info was not easy to collect - thanks!

1/ SwapFileManager
Due to initial session being run without saving - in Slacko causes no swap file being created if no saved session. By successfully loading a saved session: issue SOLVED .

2/ User session. As of 1/ saved user session is confirmed loaded just by being copied in c:\[your_pup]
also if more than one file there's a prompt to choose between them, great! SOLVED

Just one question: how do you increase the user session size once saved? (I have a workaround but maybe there's a more orthodox way than moving the files around).

3/ Camera native linux driver
It seems there's an existing pci camera driver but the question is the kernel version
00:0b.0 Multimedia controller: Kawasaki Steel Corporation ELSA72002 Motion JPEG (rev 01) // (lspci result)
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/m ... module-use
However I can't find the driver itself, can someone help me to locate it & maybe check for non-pae puppy versions that would run on 192Mb Ram/Celeron hardware in terms of the kernel being compliant with the driver for the camera?
IN PROGRESS

More info:
Memory levels have been discussed on my XP lite version with and without capture software:
"Windows Task Manager says 130.880k/511176k 28 processes that's the basic Windows XP at startup; with the cam software1 (URecSight) enabled 148.772k/511176k capturing but not recording. And recording movie 156.xxxk thus well under the 192k of Ram alltogether. With the cam software 2 (Smart Capture) enabled 142.568k and recording 153.xxxk thus even better, more optimized (first one is full screen and uses japanese char, second is a floating window not fullscreen), since even lower than 192Mb Ram installed."
Under Slacko total 172k, used 169 with wifi on
Under Puppy total 173k, used 153 with wifi on

4/ Wine install on Slacko5.6-4G and Puppy4.31 for running camera software
Wine on Slacko5.6 wine1.3.28 confirmed compatible, to be tested for camera software
download: https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/p ... es-slacko/
Note: trying on Puppy4.31 requires Gecko package (wine gecko installer: exe error msg,hangs, but wine configuration opens - wonder which windows ME/XP? since ME era pc).
Note2: on Slacko5.6-4G Wine installation sluggish but works fine without error message.
Wine itself works fine SOLVED
After trying both ME/XP compatibility I don't seem to be able to start the camera software through Wine on Puppy4.31 - Wine itself seems to run entirely ok though.
Not sure what to do next. Have to find both capture software's install (1of2 is ok but in Slacko it doesn't recognize the machine as a GT1 and interrupts the install process in wine)
In Puppy it's the same problem, need to find a workaround to the setup.exe machine verification process, as it cannot recognize it as a Vaio pcg-GT1
IN PROGRESS

5/ Swap: Slacko looks for swap on my /dev/sda6, fails as puppy swapfiles are on sda5/sda7
however after loading the saved session, SwapFileManager displays a 200Mb swap is running, setting to twice my ram (384Mb) and now something happens ("Working" window appears while it did not before when no file was there, it needs one to start working), so everytings looks like it's going ok. There is a swap now in Slacko SOLVED
Extending it to 384Mb - it worked out! SOLVED But not much more fluid, Puppy4.3.1 still best there, especially if Wine has to be used.
ISSUE SOLVED

6/ Still have no solution to boot from external media - except have now received an usb fdd that may allow a steady install (I saw there's a procedure Edit3: tried booting with plopboot but no activation of the floppy on boot...) - but I need to make a series of verifications on what I have before I risk such an install; also waiting for a pcmcia cd-rom for vaio which I assume will be bootable as well. I found some 128Gb PATA SSDs would improve the solution by providing following advantages 1/ reduced noise 2/ shock resistant 3/ higher speeds (see here: http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/310 ... romLogin=1 ) but I need a solution to CloneZilla the whole thing to the new drive. Might wait that I can have a full install, and need to check the software inventory that I have everything by first.
Edit 4: After checking on hardware, it seems that the GT1 is part of machines suffering from maker's boot restrictions allowing it to boot only from optical drive (ATAPI) thus only pcmcia and firewire.
Anyway a frugal install allows me to test much more easily by not saving sessions. This 6/ is not necessarily required to be answered here as it's not the place for it. Just informing.
IN PROGRESS

[greengeek]

What does your ATAPI connector look like? Is it like the external CD connectors on old Toshiba's?

[lurching]

What does your ATAPI connector look like? Is it like the external CD connectors on old Toshiba's?

Sorry for the delyed reply, only saw your question now.

There are two working ways on the VAIO to connect and ATAPI CD-ROM/CD-RW:
1. PCMCIA Connector, I found an old drive on eBay and it arrived, I can now boot a Puppy Linux CD
2. Firewire connector (very small, metal squarish one), I had once a drive but I can't seem to be able to find it, it lies somewhere, impossible to find another one online.

Edit: So if you ask, the connectors on the Vaio GT-1 are non proprietary. To the exception the Memory Stick slot. Apart from the ATAPI CD-ROM there are no other options to boot from external media on this machine, locked at ancient BIOS level.

Though as of the purchased CD-ROM drive, I'm able to boot from CD. But for now I'm remaining on Lick frugal install because even with the help of the forum (see this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=851&start=40 ) we were yet unable so far to activate the camera with the available "meye" driver, maybe due to the specificity of the machine.