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

[gyrog]

@ozsouth, Yes, that looks good.
Those kernels look like possibilities.

I'm still not sure which mmc module is the critical one, but i've seen "sdhci" amd "wbsd" mentioned in "dmesg" on my Lenovo.

[gyrog]

I've uploaded 'lenovo-kernel-6.1.38.tar' to https://www.mediafire.com/folder/j73n7spw7c72f/kernels.
It contains the kernel I have working in Bookworm64 in my Lenovo, as:
'kbuild-6.1.38.sfs', 'fdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs', 'zdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs', 'vmlinuz'

Download 'lenovo-kernel-6.1.38.tar', and extract the files with:

Code: Select all

tar xf ./lenovo-kernel-6.1.38.tar

then clobber the corresponding files in your Bookworm64 10.0.4 installation, with the extracted files.

[JusGellin]

How do I do this? Does this get done on my usb stick?
Thanks

[gyrog]

@JusGellin,
On a computer with working internet:
download the tar file
copy it to your USB stick.

On the Lenovo:
boot your USB stick
extract the downloaded tar file into some local directory on your USB stick
mount the internal mmcblk1p2 partition
copy the extracted files to the Puppy install directory on mmcblk1p2, overwriting the existing files
umount the internal mmcblk1p2 partition
shutdown
remove the USB stick
boot the internal drive

[gyrog]

I've uploaded 3 extra kernel files to https://www.mediafire.com/folder/j73n7spw7c72f/kernels.

'lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f.tar' is the same as 'lenovo-kernel-6.1.38.tar' but the fdrv...sfs has been replaced with a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY specific one.
This is much smaller that the release fdrv...sfs, and includes some firmware that is usually ommitted from Puppy fdrv...sfs files.

The 6.1.69 kernel from woof-ce on github, works for me.

'lenovo-kernel-6.1.69.tar' contains a kbuild, fdrv, zdrv, and vmlinuz extracted from this kernel build.
'lenovo-kernel-6.1.69f.tar' is the same as 'lenovo-kernel-6.1.69.tar' but the fdrv...sfs has been replaced with a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY specific one.

Might as well try the smaller "f" ones first.

Enjoy.

Note: The story is not finished yet.
Getting Puppy to boot is step1.
Getting Puppy to work with all the "unusual" hardware on this machine is step2.
Getting the firmware right is just the start of step2.

[wizard]

@gyrog
@JusGellin

Good news here. Put the lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f.tar files into my Lenovo Thinkpad 11e eMMC Bookworm64 and it boots and every thing works.. Yipee!

Thanks
wizard

[gyrog]

Good news here. Put the lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f.tar files into my Lenovo Thinkpad 11e eMMC Bookworm64 and it boots and every thing works.. Yipee!

Thankyou.
Great to hear that it works for you.

[JusGellin]

gyrog,
I wasn't successful.
I had been playing around before and thought maybe I did something with the installs. So I reinstalled Lubuntu and then Bookworm64 again and repeated. All still are getting that error of waiting for the [root] partition.

[JusGellin]

gyrog,

I now have success!!!

I decided to just install Bookworm64 only on the Lenovo. As usual it failed for the initial install. I then added the lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f -- and it worked.

Wow, that's great

[gyrog]

I decided to just install Bookworm64 only on the Lenovo. As usual it failed for the initial install. I then added the lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f -- and it worked.

That is great news!!!!
Enjoy BookwormPup64

Now, would you please document exactly what you did step by step?
What software you used, and what options you chose.
This could be a valuable resoure for others.
And then you could post it here.
Although eventually I would like to see it in the "Hardware" section on this forum, under "Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY".

Unfortunately, there may still be some minor issues, although they pale in comparison to not booting.
e.g. sound not working, no battery information...
I did say early on, for Puppy Linux this is the "hardware from hell".

[JusGellin]

gyrog,

I would be glad to document this. Now that it works, it is so easy to know what to do! I've really gotten a lot of practice.

Thanks for your great help for looking into this. It is so easy to make it work with that computer --- now. But it mainly took having the kernel that would work with it. There still is something going on that prevents it from dual booting with Lubuntu. It's good that you are able to do this with your original Windows install. I don't really care to have the dual boot part due to this computer having such small resources, but it should work as well. The other stuff for setting it up to work is the same for what works for other computers.

I'm now curious about the kernel part... Why are there 4 files that have to have the kernel version? How did you determine the 4 files to use? Will this become a problem in the future again when kernels are updated? Did you have to compile those files? Will the document for doing this require doing what we had to do with the kernel when newer versions of Puppy Linux comes out? - so many questions!! Also I remember you mentioning you have an SD card in yours. I too have a 128G card. Do you just use it for data? I take it that that SD card cannot have an operating system on it - or can it?

Thank you again. This laptop has sat on the shelf for so many years - it is practically new. I just didn't want to use it with Windows and wanted to have Linux to use on it from the very beginning some 6 or 7 years ago. I also wanted something small like Puppy Linux to use on it since it was limited to how much could be put on it. Plus that 64 bit Os with a 32 bit UEFI has been a pain for so many people, from what I have seen. I think now is the right time with such great breakthroughs that Linux is accomplishing. I especially am glad that it seems like Puppy Linux has a lot of activity still going on.

JusGellin

[gyrog]

Why are there 4 files that have to have the kernel version? How did you determine the 4 files to use?

Puppy Linux kernels often come with these 4 files, but some of them are optional.
'vmlinuz' is the kernel itself, not optional.
'zdrv...sfs' contains the kernel modules, not optional.
'fdrv...sfs' contains firmware that gets loaded into devices in your computer, usually you have one of these since the firmware has to be available, but it's not necessarily tied to the kernel.
'kbuild...sfs' contains a small subset of the kernel to enable the compiling of extra kernel modules, (drivers), optional and newish.

Will this become a problem in the future again when kernels are updated? Did you have to compile those files?
Will the document for doing this require doing what we had to do with the kernel when newer versions of Puppy Linux comes out?

I suspect that I compiled the 6.1.38 kernel some time ago, just for Boowkorm64 on my Lenovo.

But the 6.1.69 kernel is one that was compiled on Puppy Linux's github account, so it could be considered standard.
(These are compiled regularly on github.)
If it provides all we need, then there is no need to do kernel compiles just for this Lenovo.

On the other hand, the 'fdrv...sfs' file is Lenovo specific, and will need to be updated from time to time.

Also I remember you mentioning you have an SD card in yours. I too have a 128G card. Do you just use it for data? I take it that that SD card cannot have an operating system on it - or can it?

On my Lenovo, grub cannot "see" the SD card, so I can't install Puppy on it. But Puppy can "see" it.
So I have a Linux partition on it which is the "save location" for my Puppies, where my "savefolder" resides, so it is the default place for Puppy to write files.

[bigpup]

In general, booting from a Puppy version installed on a SD card will work on any computer that can boot from a USB.

All the computers I have used will boot from SD cards.

The SD card does need to have a boot loader on it, so the computers bios will see it as a boot-able device.
This should make it show as a device to select to boot the computer.
A live install that has the boot loader in it or a frugal install with a boot loader added to boot the frugal install.
The format of the first partition on the SD card seen by the UEFI bios, being formatted fat32, and the boot loader files on that partition is best.

It is sometimes hard to figure out, what name the bios sees the SD card as, in the list of devices to select, to boot from.
But it will be one of the listed devices.

In UEFI bios computers. Disabling secure boot and or enabling legacy boot is best, so the need to install the Puppy security key and the process for doing that is not required.
I have one computer, that has to have secure boot disabled, to boot from any device, other than the internal drive.

---

But maybe not your specific Lenovo computer.

The manual for the computer should provide some info about what devices it can boot from.

[JusGellin]

I probably shouldn't include this with this topic since the Lenovo now boots, other than any problems that it still may have from the kernels.

But in line with wondering if The Lenovo could boot to the sd card inserted in it, I did a quick test that I would like to relate. This computer is so limited to anything you can do to it. It's bios only indicates it does efi and that's it. There's no setting any drive order.

Anyway I wanted to really see if it could work on the SD card. I booted up the Lenovo and set up the two partitions (efi and main with the puppy folder) on the SD card like the boot up drive. Then I ran the frugal puppy install and boot from the puppy application. After that I shut down and rebooted using the puppy install on the usb stick. I then swapped only the grub.cfg from each efi partition with each other (the main and sd card). Then I rebooted the computer to see if it would recognize the sd card.

When it tried to boot, it gave the following error:
error: no such device 9034bee7-..... which was the SD card uuid
Loading vmlinuz
error: file '/SAV2/vmlinuz' not found
Loading initrd.gz

So I think this definitely shows the SD card can't be used for this computer.

[geo_c]

So I think this definitely shows the SD card can't be used for this computer.

I have 5 or 6 laptops from various makes and years, and only 1 of them is capable of booting from the sd card slot, and that computer always labels that drive as sdb1 once booted, as opposed to mmcblk0p1 or such.

So that leads me to believe it has to do with which motherboard bus the drive is connected internally.

[JusGellin]

My sd card is labeled mmcblk2 which is the same type designation for the main drive Emmc type which is mmcblk1
thanks for the information.

[gyrog]

So I think this definitely shows the SD card can't be used for this computer.

Well, not for booting.

[gyrog]

I've uploaded 'lenovo-kernel-6.1.75g.tar' to https://www.mediafire.com/folder/j73n7spw7c72f/kernels.

'lenovo-kernel-6.1.75g.tar' is a custom compile of kernel 6.1.75 specifically targeted for Bookworm64 on a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY.
It's config is based on the 6.1.69 kernel from woof-ce on github, but with a few signifiant additions.
It's part of my search for the changes needed to Puppy kernel config files, so a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY is supported out of the box.

The 6.1.69 kernel from woof-ce on github, boots fine for me, but some things don't work, e.g. the battery is not detected.

Please test this new kernel.

Note:
The following is my current set of kernel config parametes, (for those who might be interested).

Parameters to enablle booting:
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_ACPI=y
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_PLTFM=y
CONFIG_MMC_WBSD=y

Parameters to enable battery reporting:
CONFIG_AXP288_CHARGER=m
CONFIG_AXP288_FUEL_GAUGE=m
CONFIG_EXTCON_AXP288=m
CONFIG_AXP288_ADC=m

[gyrog]

It has been noted that the presenting problem for this topic has been answered, i.e. @JusGellin can now boot Bookworm64 on his Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY.

But there is still an ongoing issue of being able to config a kernel to support all the hardware in a Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY, and similar laptop's.
Maybe this discussion should be continued in a topic in the "Hardware" section, for Lenovo Ideapad 100S-11IBY, and Lenovo Thinkpad 11e eMMC?

[JusGellin]

I found that all four of the kernels you had me download worked for booting up the Lenovo:
Lenovo-kernel-6.1.38
Lenovo-kernel-6.1.38f
Lenovo-kernel-6.1.69
Lenovo-kernel-6.1.69f

It was only the kernel from the downloaded BookwormPup64_10.0.4.iso that didn't work. It used a kernel of 6.1.67

[gyrog]

@JusGellin, yes, they all boot but not all can display a "battrey status" icon in the "task bar".

Thanks for hanging in there.

[wizard]

@gyrog

See this post for an update on the Thinkpad 11e version: viewtopic.php?t=10467

Thanks
wizard

[JusGellin]

lenovo-kernel-6.1.75g works on my Lenovo. I see the battery on the taskbar.
Thanks

[JusGellin]

wizard,
That's great!! Finally your Thinkpad 11e will be more normal and powerful.
That doesn't apply to my Lenovo, does it?

Thanks

[wizard]

@JusGellin

That doesn't apply to my Lenovo, does it?

Which part?

Thanks
wizard

[JusGellin]

The firmware upgrade.

[wizard]

@JusGellin
Firmware change only applies to the Thinkpad 11e Chromebook model.

wizard

[bigpup]

Anyway I wanted to really see if it could work on the SD card. I booted up the Lenovo and set up the two partitions (efi and main with the puppy folder) on the SD card like the boot up drive. Then I ran the frugal puppy install and boot from the puppy application. After that I shut down and rebooted using the puppy install on the usb stick. I then swapped only the grub.cfg from each efi partition with each other (the main and sd card). Then I rebooted the computer to see if it would recognize the sd card.

If you are using the Frugalpup Installer program to do this install.

It should be able to install a frugal install of Puppy and a working boot loader.

You should not need to swap anything.

Do the frugal install to the 2nd partition.

Install the boot loader the Frugalpup installer program makes on the 1st partition.
I would select to let it install both boot loaders.

Make sure first partition is flagged boot and maybe also esp.

When you boot with the SD card.
Do not have any other USB drives plugged into the computer.

Are you still getting the same results?

Note:
Could make sure you are using the latest version of the Frugalpup Installer
viewtopic.php?t=337

[JusGellin]

@bigpup

Note:
Could make sure you are using the latest version of the Frugalpup Installer

I'm using FrugalPupv42

I'll try installing like you suggested.

On another point. I had left the Lenovo on for a while and came back to it having a screen saver on with a logon
root@puppypc30316. I don't know who that is. I had to force a shutdown to get out of it. Should I be concerned about it?

Thanks

[JusGellin]

@bigpup
I wasn't watching what I was typing.
I'm using FrugalPup 41