Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY won't boot a Puppy Install

[JusGellin]

I have a 2016 Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY that I want to put into use and thought a PuppyLinux installation would be great for it. I've been trying to do this but I just can't get it to boot up. When I use a USB thumbdrive with PuppyLinux installed on it, it boots fine into the operating system but the install on the Lenovo hard drive doesn't. I think that part of the problem is that this computer is a 64 bit processor with a 32 bit EFI. I've made sure I followed what this site mentioned for setting up the two partitions - one 300MB Fat32 efi with boot and esp flags and the other partition ext4 root.
After I try to boot, it fails at the Lenovo display which says "Linpus lite boot failed" (I've completely wiped the hard drive before and don't know what Linpus is) but it doesn't even get to the grub part. I've been successful for a PuppyLinux install on another computer with a 64 bit processor and a 64 bit efi, so I think I'm doing it correctly. Also I've tried installing Lubuntu Linux on it and it works ok on the Lenovo.
Is there any way to make this work and to troubleshoot what the problem is. I also just realized that its hard drive isn't an SSD, but is really a soldered-in SD card. I was wondering why it's designation was MMCBLK1 which I found was an SD card designation. But as I mentioned, I still was able to boot up Lubuntu on it.

Here's what I have:
Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY with Intel Atom Z3735F processor - 64bit processor with 32bit efi
2G ram
32G storage
Puppy version BookwormPup64_10.0.4
Used the USB install of this for installing to the so-called Lenovo hard drive
I've used gparted to wipe the drive clean and made two partitions as the Puppy site explained.
I used the BookwormPup64 frugal install. The Lenovo bios is very limited with only a couple of settings. I did disable secure boot which it has.
Thanks for your help. I'm looking forward to using and learning more about the Puppy Linux. It's amazing how something this small can be so powerful! Let me know what else you need to know and if this can be done.

[wizard]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad 11e Chromebook that is converted for Linux. The 11e is based on the Intel Baytrail platform just like your Ideapad. Both have a eMMC internal drive. My 11e boots Puppy and MX Linux fine from USB. MX Linux will also install and boots fine on the eMMC drive. Puppy Linux will not boot from the eMMC drive. I found this thread on the internet:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/775498/ ... -tablet-pc
, but have not tried it on my 11e. Hope this helps you, let us you know if you find a solution.

Thanks
wizard

[JusGellin]

Thanks for the suggestion.
I tried replacing bootia32_efi as the article indicated with about a half dozen that I had iso's for and some which would boot the Lenovo successfully. I was hoping to use Puppy Linux for the full install, but it looks like that won't work.
Thanks again.
JusGellin

[wizard]

@JusGellin

Thanks for the update, your post motivated me to try getting BookwormPup64 to boot from the eMMC internal drive again. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful again. Seems Puppy cannot find the drive and its main sfs file during boot, I'll update you if I get it to work. In the meantime I just use a Sandisk Ultrafit 32gb USB that only sticks out about 3/8" (9mm).

Thanks
wizard

[JusGellin]

Thanks, I'll look into that low profile usb.
I looked at what Void Linux is using to do this. They have two files called grub.efi and grubia32.efi. It seems they have figured how to compile theirs to work.
I hope you can figure it out.
JusGellin

[gyrog]

@JusGellin, I also have a Lenovo Ideapad 100S, and I run Puppy Linux booting from it's internal SD.
But I have not yet "wiped" Windows from it, so I have installed the Puppy Linux grub2 to the existing ESP partition, and done frugal Puppy Linux installs to the main ntfs partition on the internal SD.
I have also inserted a 128GiB micro SD card to provide a lot more storage including a Linux partition.

From a Puppy Linux point of view, I think of this as the "hardware from hell".
There are a number of issues, but you are already aware of the first hurdle, i.e. 32bit efi.

Are you doing a Puppy frugal install to the internal SD?
What software are you using to install Puppy Linux on the internal SD?

[JusGellin]

I installed BookwormPup64_10.0.4 iso onto a USB thumbdrive using Balena-Etcher to boot up the pc. I used the frugal install from the BookwormPup. Before that I made the two partitions on the hard drive with the first Fat32 partition hard drive having the boot and esp flags.
Thanks,
JusGellin

[wizard]

@JusGellin

using Balena-Etcher

Balena-Etcher is not recommended for Puppy, may fail to boot, plus it will not allow you to create a save file/folder on the USB. You should use Unetbootin or Rufus.

wizard

[wizard]

@gyrog

Did you use GPT or MBR (msdos) partition table on the eMMC internal drive?

Thanks
wizard

[JusGellin]

wizard
Thanks. I'll give Unetbootin a try. I appreciate the help.

[wizard]

@JusGellin

If you already have a bootable Puppy, you can use Gparted and partition your USB like you would a HDD/SSD.
-1st partition 200mb, fat32, ESP, bootable
-2nd partition rest of drive, ext3

Use FrugalPup to install Puppy to ext3 and grub2 to fat32. When you're done you have a bootable USB that can also hold a save FOLDER which is the best choice.

wizard

[JusGellin]

wizard,
That's what I had done. The hard drive had a 300M partition as a Fat32 with flag boot and esp. The other partition had ext3 with the drive set as GPT. I install Bookworm to the Lenovo. When I tried to boot it, the Lenovo wouldn't recognize it to boot; even though the Lenovo could boot from the USB drive.
I tried this on a Dell 64 bit laptop doing the same thing. The Dell hard drive would boot the Puppy Linux ok. So it seems like my method was valid.
The difference between the two laptops is that the Lenovo has a 64 bit Intel processor with a 32 bit EFI whereas the Dell is a 64 bit Intel processor with a 64 bit EFI. Also the Lenovo has a drive that is really an SD card instead of an SSD type.
Thanks,
JusGellin

[wizard]

@JusGellin

From your message above I'm not sure you interpreted my previous message correctly. My previous message was how to create a bootable USB flash drive that will allow it to have a save folder (instead of a save file).

wizard

[wizard]

@JusGellin

that is really an SD card

Actually not, the eMMC drive is said to have much faster r/w times and is more durable than plain SD card memory.

wizard

[JusGellin]

wizard,
I see. You were thinking the thumb drive would be at least as good as the eMMC drive.

[JusGellin]

Or rather you were indicating how I could use the thumb with persistence so saving settings and other things would be possible.

[wizard]

@JusGellin

I could use the thumb with persistence so saving settings and other things would be possible.

Yes

A bootable USB flash created with Rufus will be fat32, if created with Unetbootin (unchanged USB) it will be the same. Fat32 format will only allow Puppy to use a save FILE (fixed size) for persistence. The method I described above with Puppy on a ext3 format can use a save FOLDER (auto sizes) for persistence. The save folder is the best choice.

wizard

[wizard]

@JusGellin

You were thinking the thumb drive would be at least as good as the eMMC drive.

Nope, the eMMC would be faster and more durable. When I setup a USB I change the grub boot parameters to: pmedia=usbflash which reduces the number of writes to the memory and can extend its life. I also set pfix=nocopy that reduces boot time and increases available ram.

wizard

[gyrog]

Did you use GPT or MBR (msdos) partition table on the eMMC internal drive?

The internel eMMC drive has a GPT partition table.
That may be significant.

[gyrog]

That's what I had done. The hard drive had a 300M partition as a Fat32 with flag boot and esp. The other partition had ext3 with the drive set as GPT. I install Bookworm to the Lenovo. When I tried to boot it, the Lenovo wouldn't recognize it to boot; even though the Lenovo could boot from the USB drive.

The sad news is that that looks reasonable, assuming that you used "FrugalPup" to do the install.

When you boot from the internal eMMC drive, do you get a grub2 menu?

When you boot from a USB stick, can grub2 see the internal eMMC drive?

[ozsouth]

I had a similar model to the OP's (Lenovo 110s). To boot from eMMC, I had to unhide it via gparted (turn off hidden flag). Then, despite having an unusual partition name, it booted.

[JusGellin]

gyrog,
No, I never get the grub2 menu when I boot up. It is just the Lenovo menu with no selections.
Yes when I booted with the thumbdrive, I could see the eMMC drive - I used lsblk to see it. I could even mount it to see their files and directoryies

[gyrog]

@JusGellin, so the boot menu is empty.

On my Lenovo, I still have Windows, and hence an existing ESP (fat32 partition contianing "/EFI" directory).
I added Puppy grub2 as another boot to that ESP.

So here's a crazy idea:
Since you indicated that you could boot Lubuntu from the internal drive,
you could install Lubuntu so you have a bootable ESP on the internal drive.

Then boot Bookwork64 from a USB stick,
and run FrugalPup to install Bookwork64 into a sub-directory of the Lubuntu partition, e.g. '/pups/bw64'.

This should setup a multi-boot situation.

Note: "FrugalPup -> Boot" should do the right thing when it detects the existing directory in "/EFI".

If this worked, the 'efibootmgr' utility in Bookworm64 could be used to change the boot order so that Puppy becomes the default.
It would then be possible to remove the Lubuntu files, if you so desired.

Actually, instead of running "FrugalPup -> Boot", it may be possible to get the Lubuntu bootloader to multi-boot the Puppy in '/pups/bw64'.

[JusGellin]

gyrog,
I tried what you suggested (excellent suggestion), but it doesn't want to work.
I ran frugal install on the Puppy Bookworm stick to create a folder on the second partition for all the files and the efi boot part to the first folder. It indicated it recognized the Lubuntu install and would adjust for it. When I booted, the Lenovo menu came up saying "Puppy Linux - Grub2 boot failed" with an OK button below it. If I hit the OK, then it would go to Lubuntu.
Thanks for the suggestion.
JusGellin

[gyrog]

I ran frugal install on the Puppy Bookworm stick to create a folder on the second partition for all the files and the efi boot part to the first folder. It indicated it recognized the Lubuntu install and would adjust for it.

Ok, it looks like "FrugalPup -> Boot" is trying to do the right thing.

When I booted, the Lenovo menu came up saying "Puppy Linux - Grub2 boot failed" with an OK button below it. If I hit the OK, then it would go to Lubuntu.

So it did try to boot Puppy Linux, that's a start.

It may be possible to find out why it fails.
If you want to try, could you please boot Bookworm64 from the USB stick and run the following commands, and post the results here:

Code: Select all

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/data
ls -R /mnt/data
umount /mnt/data

Assuminng "/dev/mmcblk1p1" is the ESP on the internal drive.
This should list all the files in your ESP, so we can see it "FrugalPup -> Boot" has done the right thing.

Code: Select all

efibootmgr -v

Should show what the uefi/bios is trying to boot.

[JusGellin]

gyrog,
Wow! I looked at what happened as a failure. I didn't know how to look into this. You saw it as making progress and wanted data to look further.

Here's the results for what you asked for:

mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/data

ls -R /mnt/data

/mnt/data:
boot EFI grub.cfg puppy.cer

/mnt/data/boot:
grub

/mnt/data/boot/grub:
fonts grub.cfg grubenv

/mnt/data/boot/grub/fonts:
DejaVuSansMono18.pf2

/mnt/data/EFI:
boot Puppy ubuntu

/mnt/data/EFI/boot:
BOOTIA32.EFI

/mnt/data/EFI/Puppy:
bootia32.efi bootx64.efi grub.cfg grubia32.efi grubx64.efi mmia32.efi mmx64.efi

/mnt/data/EFI/ubuntu:
grub.efi grubia32.efi

efibootmgr -v

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0000,0001,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubia32.efi)
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grub.efi)RC
Boot0002* EFI USB Device (Memorex TD Classic 003C) PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(0,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,GPT,f4192448-a957-43e5-8553-71a1f1b6d5fd,0x800,0x64000)RC
Boot0003* Puppy Linux - Grub2 HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Puppy\bootx64.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network RC

I mistakenly didn't do the unmount, but it looks like it didn't affect the efibootmgr -v results

Thanks again for looking deeper into this.
JusGellin

[JusGellin]

gyrog,
Sorry about the format of my posting - I didn't know how to post properly.

[gyrog]

Boot0003* Puppy Linux - Grub2 HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Puppy\bootx64.efi)

And here is a problem, see the "File(\EFI\Puppy\bootx64.efi)" at the end of the line;
"FrugalPup -> Boot" hasn't quite done the right thing, it's configured the uefi/bios to boot the 64bit ".efi" file.
It needs to be "File(\EFI\Puppy\bootia32.efi)"

Could try re-installing Puppy grub2 with just "uefi32",
but that might create problems if the curent "Boot0003" is not removed via "efibootmgr" first.
It might be safer to do it all with "efibootmgr".
I'm currently on a 32bit Puppy that doesn't support "efibootmgr".
I'll see if I can workout a process using just "efibootmgr", and get back to you.

[gyrog]

@JusGellin, here's some commands that might work:

Code: Select all

efibootmgr -q -b 0003 -B
efibootmgr -q -c -d /dev/mmcblk1 -p 1 -l "\EFI\Puppy\bootia32.efi" -L "Puppy Linux - Grub2"
efibootmgr -v

And please post the output from the last command.
This should delete the boot entry that is wrong, and then add a new one that is correct.

[JusGellin]

Here is the results after the modification:

efibootmgr -v

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0000,0001,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubia32.efi)
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grub.efi)RC
Boot0002* EFI USB Device (Memorex TD Classic 003C) PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(0,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,GPT,f4192448-a957-43e5-8553-71a1f1b6d5fd,0x800,0x64000)RC
Boot0003* Puppy Linux - Grub2 HD(1,GPT,150145f9-7295-5041-a61c-733666a0818a,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Puppy\bootia32.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network RC

When I booted into the computer it now gives Puppy dpupbw64 selection in Grub menu.
The first time I selected that it gave errors. - see attached
But by rebooting again, all I get is a blank display.