How to create a bootable SD card using Fossapup?

[jarnie]

Thanks again.
I certainly have learned that "oils ain't oils" to coin an advertising phrase.
Yes my laptop will not boot from my bootable SD card but it will boot from the same SD card when 'installed' in a usb reader. I had hoped that creating the bootable SD card selecting UEFI boot mode would allow me to. So the SD card can only be used in the laptop as a storage device.
Oh well I have learned heaps from this thread, thanks to you all, and will now set up a 'pen thumb' usb memory stick which I can leave in the laptop's usb socket. Unfortunately that leaves me with no spare usb ports on the laptop but that shouldn't be a problem.

Oops I have one last question.
Which is better. A bootable usb stick on one partition or a bootable usb sticck which has a fat32 and ext4 partition. Please also advise reasons.
Thanks

[williwaw]

Yes my laptop will not boot from my bootable SD card but it will boot from the same SD card when 'installed' in a usb reader. I had hoped that creating the bootable SD card selecting UEFI boot mode would allow me to.

Only if UEFI is configured on the SD card. You have determined that fossapup cannot be installed on any device utilizing a UEFI boot loader? If it can be installed on a USB, it can be installed on a SD. Just because you have not yet configured a successful boot from the SD card, does not mean you cannot use UFEI for a SD card, and for that matter, your USB also. Are you currently booting your USB in UEFI?

Does your fossa USB have an EFI directory at the top level of the Fat32 partition? Please post a screenshot

If you are dualbooting windows and the USB, both in UEFI mode, now is the time to consider using dd to duplicate the USD onto the SD card.

The fact that you do not see the SD card being offered as a choice when booting, could be because the SD card is not present in the boot order as you set it up in bios. If the SD card has the boot and ESP flag set on the fat32 partition, and it is plugged into the card reader slot when you boot, you should be able to go into the bios setup menu under boot order and see it. It may be hidden in a sub menu of inactive devices, but if you find it, then you can most likely boot from it, but it might need to be placed into the boot order further up.

Which is better. A bootable usb stick on one partition or a bootable usb sticck which has a fat32 and ext4 partition. Please also advise reasons.

UEFI requires a fat32 boot partition, so the fat32/ext4 combo would be reccomended if you are trying to go the UEFI route as an ext type partition is necessary if you wish to keep your changes in a savefolder. You will be limited to a save file if you go all fat32 and have no ext partition.

If you want to go all BIOs, then only a single ext type will work, but you said you wish to have a partition to share, so why not both. If you are now dual booting with W10, I think you are using UFEI for both windows and the USB

[jarnie]

Thanks williwaw
You sort of lost me with what you state.
Firstly not sure if I explained the situation correctly.
My laptop has both usb ports and a dedicated SD (only) reader slot. I can use a SD card reader plugged into a usb port and boot ok.

My laptop shows the following Boot priority order
1. Windows Boot Manager
2. EMMC: HGB4e 32G
3. USB FDD
4. Network boot
5. USB HDD
6. USB CDROM
7 Network Boot-IPV6:
Just for the exercise I changed the boot priority by swapping the first 2 options although I understood an EMMC dvice to be something other than an SD card - it did NOT work.

YES the SD card (partition 1) contains an EFI directory

When I boot with the SD card in a usb reader to the boot priority screen it displays as
UEFI: Generic USB3.0 CRW -SD1.00

I noticed that booting with UEFI to the fossapup menu screen appears noticable faster.

Screenshot.jpg (180.81 KiB) Viewed 2607 times

[williwaw]

I can use a SD card reader plugged into a usb port and boot ok.

no surprise, the laptop sees the usb port as a bootable device. This does not prove or disprove the viability of a SD card as a bootable device. What needs to be seen is the card slot as a bootable interface. The slot itself may not be seen in the bios setup without a SD card with a bootable partition on it.

1. review the sd card in Gparted to confirm or set the fat32 partition flags. Maximize the Gparted window, and look in the "flags" column. To set a flag, highlite the fat32 partition, choose manage flags from the partition dropdown at the top, and check the box next to boot and esp.

2. with the card in the slot, reboot and bring up your bios setup. you are looking for any setting related to SD cards. depending on your bios, and every machine is different, see if you can include the SD card in the boot order. It may need to be turned on or "included" in the boot order from a different menu.

3. without knowing the make and model of the laptop, it is hard offer more suggestions or confirm if your machine is capable of what you intend.

4. are you using the windows boot manager to make selections? Identify which boot manager you use to select boot disks please.

[bigpup]

When you boot up using the Fossapup USB.
If you have the SD card in the SD card slot.
Should be a drive icon on the desktop for it.
What does it identify as?

Just for the exercise I changed the boot priority by swapping the first 2 options although I understood an EMMC dvice to be something other than an SD card - it did NOT work.

It did not work is no useful information!!!!
What did it do????
You do what?
You see what?

[jarnie]

I can use a SD card reader plugged into a usb port and boot ok.

no surprise, the laptop sees the usb port as a bootable device. This does not prove or disprove the viability of a SD card as a bootable device. What needs to be seen is the card slot as a bootable interface. The slot itself may not be seen in the bios setup without a SD card with a bootable partition on it. The SD card was inserted into its slot when I checked the boot order AND after I set the flag on the first (FAT32) partition - see following

1. review the sd card in Gparted to confirm or set the fat32 partition flags. Maximize the Gparted window, and look in the "flags" column. To set a flag, highlite the fat32 partition, choose manage flags from the partition dropdown at the top, and check the box next to boot and esp.
When I checked all flags were blank. I note that puddlemoon mentioned setting the flag to boot on the first fat32 partition, That was nearly 2 weeks ago and before my PC went 'nuts' and I had forgotten about that. It is now set to boot and I still do not see the SD card in the 'boot manager' (pressing the F12 key during POST)
2. with the card in the slot, reboot and bring up your bios setup. you are looking for any setting related to SD cards. depending on your bios, and every machine is different, see if you can include the SD card in the boot order. It may need to be turned on or "included" in the boot order from a different menu.
I could not find any other BIOS setting related to SD. There is a setting to 'erase all secure boot setting' Could that make a difference.
Please remember that this laptop came with Windows 10 in a hidden partition which self installs when first used.

3. without knowing the make and model of the laptop, it is hard offer more suggestions or confirm if your machine is capable of what you intend.
Acer Inspire R3

4. are you using the windows boot manager to make selections? Identify which boot manager you use to select boot disks please.
The boot 'manager' is in the BIOS and activated by pressing the F12 key on POST

[williwaw]

I see

Aspire R3-131T
Aspire R3-431T
Aspire R3-471T
Aspire R3-471TG

either of those?

the boot flag needs to be set for a legacy bios boot

the boot flag and the esp flag need to be set for a UEFI boot

[jarnie]

When you boot up using the Fossapup USB.
If you have the SD card in the SD card slot.
Should be a drive icon on the desktop for it.
What does it identify as?
Even using a usb bootable stick I had to set boot 'type' to LEGACY instead of UEFI to boot from the usb stick
The SD card inserted into the SD slot then displayed as
SD mm1p1
SD mm1p2
SD mm1p3

Just for the exercise I changed the boot priority by swapping the first 2 options although I understood an EMMC dvice to be something other than an SD card - it did NOT work.

It did not work is no useful information!!!!
What did it do???? Nothing - would NOT boot I can't remember but I think it just booted to Windows instead
You do what?
You see what? Windows I think

[jarnie]

I see

Aspire R3-131T <<<<<<---- this one
Aspire R3-431T
Aspire R3-471T
Aspire R3-471TG

either of those?

the boot flag needs to be set for a legacy bios boot

the boot flag and the esp flag need to be set for a UEFI boot <<<<<--- Yes you just mentioned that earlier and it is set but won't display in the boot manager (bios) When I changed the bbot type to legacy it displays in the boot manager but when I selected it to boot from there was an error and also stated 'not a bootable device''

[williwaw]

Even using a usb bootable stick I had to set boot 'type' to LEGACY instead of UEFI to boot from the usb stick

if your boot selector allows you to both boot your usb from legacy, and boot windows when you want, its more functional than mine.

When I changed the bbot type to legacy it displays in the boot manager but when I selected it to boot from there was an error and also stated 'not a bootable device''

after you selected the SD card, it went to a black screen and said 'not a bootable device''? this could be the lack of a mbr, which is needed in addition to the boot flag if you want to boot legacy. Try running grub4dos on the sd card. choose "search only in this device" and take the defaults on the rest of the questions. select the sd card from the bios menu and try again.

looking briefly at some comments brought up by google, it may well be that legacy boot is the only way acer supported booting a sd card on the aspire r3, if they did. I have not found where booting directly from a sd is possible with UEFI, but that does not mean there are not some ways to skin that cat. Alternatives would involve chainloading from a different disk, most likely a usb, if one did not want to mess with the windows install. Of course, if a usb were to be involved, getting a nice low profile USB to keep all your pups on, and using the SD to supplement the windows would seem simpler to me.

There is a setting to 'erase all secure boot setting' Could that make a difference.

Not for installing puppys

[jarnie]

Thanks williwaw
I'm a bit 'over it' with this and think is it all worth the effort?

I did as you stated (run grub4dos on the sd card, (ensured I had chosen the correct device) chose 'search only in this device' (actually worded a little different but basically the same) did not enter anything else.
Rebooted after setting boot mode to legacy as the SD card was not listed as selectable when set to UEFI and selected from the list
EMMC: Generic SD MMC Storage

and amongst other things the following was displayed (I selected these as they seemed to me to be the most important to report)
Waiting for usb storage done
Finding puppy main sfs file failed
fossapup64_9.5.sfs not found
error is too critical, dropping out to console
I then typed debugsave (to save to a partition) and it reported that there were no partitions were detected and check the logs in /tmp
I think it has become all too hard and hardly worth the effort however I will wait for your response.

Later I tried selecting the 2 line in the boot menu which was displayed as
EMMC: HBG4e
after a few seconds a menu displayed as follows
fossapup64 9.5
Windows
Advanced - which resulted in a menu of all the different fossapup boot types eg No X etc
I then selected fossapup 9.5 which resulted in the same error as described above
I then tried Windows and that ended with error 61: refused to hook int13 because it is an empty drive press any key to continue.

[williwaw]

Thanks williwaw
I'm a bit 'over it' with this and think is it all worth the effort.
well it's up to you, you've bitten off quite a bit for a first time project coming from windows last week, but I think you are almost there!

I did as you stated (run grub4dos on the sd card, (ensured I had chosen the correct device) chose 'search only in this device' (actually worded a little different but basically the same) did not enter anything else.
Rebooted after setting boot mode to legacy as the SD card was not listed as selectable when set to UEFI and selected from the list
EMMC: Generic SD MMC Storage

and amongst other things the following was displayed (I selected these as they seemed to me to be the most important to report)
Waiting for usb storage done
Finding puppy main sfs file failed <this may be because you need to give the system more time to find the SD. An additional "wait" in the boot parameters may be necessary. Or fossapup64_9.5.sfs location on the SD may need to be specifically delineated. Can you locate the fossapup64_9.5.sfs in rox? (click on the SD icon in the lower left this time). Possibly provide another screenshot? If you post the entire contents of the menu.lst found at the top level of the SD card, someone can easily post an edit that should get you rolling. To facilitate the effective transmittal of the needed additional boot code , it would help to copy and paste menu.lst into the webpage editor, and then select the pasted text and click the code button in the edit toolbar. it looks like [</>]
fossapup64_9.5.sfs not found
error is too critical, dropping out to console
I then typed debugsave (to save to a partition) and it reported that there were no partitions were detected and check the logs in /tmp
I think it has become all too hard and hardly worth the effort however I will wait for your response.

Later I tried selecting the 2 line in the boot menu which was displayed as
EMMC: HBG4e < I think this is your windows drive
after a few seconds a menu displayed as follows
fossapup64 9.5
Windows
Advanced - which resulted in a menu of all the different fossapup boot types eg No X etc
I then selected fossapup 9.5 which resulted in the same error as described above
I then tried Windows and that ended with error 61: refused to hook int13 because it is an empty drive press any key to continue.

I am signing off for the evening, but someone should be along soon.

[mikewalsh]

@jarnie :-

There is, of course, an easy solution to all this.

Do as I did, several years ago; kick Windows into touch, and go all-Puppy!! (I accept that this may not be what you want to do, and you probably have certain Windows apps/programs that you "NEED" to use, so don't take this too seriously, ok? )

It would, however, definitely do away with the need to pacify & accommodate the "beast" of Redmond.

I've not been in the situation for many years - and when I last was, Windows XP was the 'culprit' ( ) ; very much simpler times, 'cos UEFI was barely even a gleam in some developer's eye at that point in time, and not then in mainstream use like it is now. However; if, as & when you're ever in a position to do so, keep a nice, new machine for Windows by all means (and let it have that machine exclusively to itself, too).....and run Linux (Puppy, or whatever) from a second machine......preferably, an older one not burdened with UEFI.

Every manufacturer builds UEFI in as standard these days, because they all come pre-installed with MyCrudSoft's nightmare of an OS.....andUEFI/SecureBoot is a Win 10 "requirement". It won't boot without it. And manufacturers ALL want to achieve "Windows certification", because that then entitles them to all sorts of behind-the-scenes 'backhanders' & 'kickbacks'.

Go figure.

As williwaw says, certain machines just will NOT 'play nice' with certain methods/combinations of 'booting'. It doesn't take long for such information to percolate around the community, with the result that some brands and/or models are very soon shunned/ignored by the community in general, because they're more trouble than they're worth.

In the Windows universe, you go out and buy whatever fancy, shiny "toy" catches your eye, confident in the knowledge that there will be drivers and firmware to support it. The situation is a little different on this side of the fence; support is steadily increasing as time goes by, but over here we tend to do our research first - to see what will actually work - then do our purchasing accordingly.

Where Linux is involved, this is is still a fact of life, unfortunately....!

Mike.

[williwaw]

.....andUEFI/SecureBoot is a Win 10 "requirement". It won't boot without it.
Mike. ;)

Mike, what about this way?

RE: Unable to Install Windows to MBR Disk on UEFI System

Problem:

On UEFI systems, when you try to install Windows 7/8.x/10 to a normal MBR partition, the Windows installer will not let you install to the selected disk.

Windows cannot be installed to Disk # Partition #. (Show details)

This message is displayed if you show the details:

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR
partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

Additionally, attempting to install to an unpartitioned MBR disk will not result in the desired configuration since the disk will be converted to GPT.

Cause:

The Windows installation media is being booted in UEFI mode.

Solution:

Boot the Windows installation media in non-UEFI (Legacy) mode. If the BIOS boot selection menu shows both UEFI and non-UEFI boot modes for the booting drive (CD/DVD, USB flash drive) choose to boot the non-UEFI item. Otherwise, enable Legacy booting in the BIOS. Depending on the BIOS this may require disabling UEFI booting.

over here we tend to do our research first - to see what will actually work - then do our purchasing accordingly.

so true, some manufactures are much better than others.

[tosim]

Mike-I go along with you, re"However; if, as & when you're ever in a position to do so, keep a nice, new machine for Windows by all means (and let it have that machine exclusively to itself, too).....and run Linux (Puppy, or whatever) from a second machine......preferably, an older one not burdened with UEFI." Would you recommend frugal or full when installing Puppy(or Dog), only, on a machine?

[jarnie]

Thanks again williwaw and Mike.
I won't reply directly to any of your statements but firstly thank you for hanging in there. Yes I am a bit over it but if indeed I am 'nearly there' I will battle on and thank you both again for your interest.
I have included a snapshot of the screen showing the first partition (sde1) and second partition (sde2) after selecting (left click) on the SD partition icons displayed at bottom of screen (not selecting the FILE /vox icon top left of screen).
I also show the contents of each after selecting the up arrow (please remind me again what 'level' each of these is as my head is in a spin, and that is not the song Dizzy by Tommy Roe - oh dear I am giving away my age).
Also is the entire contents of the menu.1st .

I have also included the text inline Sorry you lost me with the instructions using the 'webpage editor'. I am dealing with these replies using a Windows PC after moving the SD card mounted in the usb reader from the laptop.

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3
color blue/cyan yellow/blue white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sdj2/puppy9point5)
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /puppy9point5/initrd.gz
kernel /puppy9point5/vmlinuz psubdir=/puppy9point5 pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck
initrd /puppy9point5/initrd.gz

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map --hook
errorcheck off
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /io.sys
chainloader /io.sys
errorcheck on

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
configfile /menu-advanced.lst
commandline

Screenshot_1600.jpg (197.06 KiB) Viewed 2184 times

[bigpup]

This is a problem that is known to the people that are working on Woof-CE the Puppy builder.
It is a bug in Puppy, but not always a problem on all computers.

It is about the boot process having problems seeing some usb/sdcard/mmc drives before trying to access the needed Puppy stuff to continue booting.
It is not the same on all computers.
This is where they are using an experimental puppy release to test out some experimental init ideas.
viewtopic.php?f=118&t=1109

The problem is how the different drives are actually accessed by the computer controllers.

Example:
I have one laptop that has not been able to boot from a Puppy installed to the internal emmc.
Always get the error message not being able to find the Puppy files.

Installed eslacko64, using frugalpup installer, on the internal emmc.
eslacko64 can boot with no problem.
Boots to working desktop.
Posting this from it.

Fossapup64 9.5 on the internal emmc will not boot. Gives the error messages not finding files.

Understand that eslacko64 is just for testing this bug fixing effort.
It more or less is a working Puppy, but it will have a few bugs.

[jarnie]

Thanks bigpup.
Interesting but I'm not one to complain about anything which comes free especially when many hundreds of hours of one or more people have been given freely.
When you mentioned slacko64 I remembered that before I 'discovered' fossapup 9.5 I was started using linux (only a month ago) using v6.3.2 which I though was called slacko (might be wrong there as a friend showed 'slacko' to me) and I thought (once again thought) I was able to boot it on my laptop.
I like the gui in fossapup 9.5 a lot better.

Anyway I HAVE a few options (until there could be a fix to fossapup - how will I know if and when that happens?)
1) boot from a 'miniature' usb memory stick which can remain plugged in.
2) change the boot mode when I want to boot to a different o/s

My friend claims he can boot to W10 with mode set to legacy so I will find out more info about his setup but I suspect that it is the way the Acer have set up their laptops.

[williwaw]

Jarnie,

I am dealing with these replies using a Windows PC after moving the SD card mounted in the usb reader from the laptop.

Was your SD card in the usb card reader when you ran grub4dos? the menu.lst looks wrong.

to troubleshoot this, lets go back a step.
with the sd card in the sd slot in the laptop (not the usb card reader). boot the laptop from your fossa usb.
run grub4dos again, ticking the same box as before. The new menu.lst may be similar, but may need more info. There are more specific ways to direct the bootloader to find the fossapup.sfs, the specific info that may help can be had from running the command " blkid " (without the quotes), in a terminal. (you must have the SD card plugged into the slot on the laptop at the time).

copy and paste the terminal output "inline"
copy and paste the new menu.lst "inline"

select each block of text after pasting and click the button curcled in green to make a code display. this preserves the formatting helpful for edits.

capture29362.png (13.71 KiB) Viewed 2173 times

[jarnie]

Hi willawaw
Firstly what continent do you live? I would hate to keep you up too late.
I have done what you asked with the bootable SD card inserted into the SD slot of the laptop and booting with a usb memory stick.
Firstly running grub4dos did not list the SD card.
Here is the first screen and I had dragged the icons further up the screen as they were bunched up overlapping each other

Screenshot(2).jpg (166.4 KiB) Viewed 2169 times

the second screen shows the output from running blkid in terminal

Screenshot(3).jpg (165.04 KiB) Viewed 2169 times

And this is the contents of menu.1st

Code: Select all

#
# menu.lst
#

#color NORMAL            HIGHLIGHT       HELPTEXT       HEADING
#       f/b               f/b              f/b           f/b
color light-gray/black yellow/red cyan/black light-blue/black

timeout 10
default 0

# 0.4.6a
graphicsmode -1 800 600
splashimage /boot/splash.jpg

title fossapup64 9.5
  kernel /vmlinuz    pfix=fsck pmedia=usbflash
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - Copy SFS files to RAM\n
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck,copy
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - Don't copy SFS files to RAM\nIf you want more RAM available
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck,nocopy
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - Force xorgwizard (xorgwizard)\nForce xorgwizard (if you are having problems booting puppy)...
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=xorgwizard,fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - No X\nTry 'xorgwizard' after bootup succeed to start graphic mode.
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=nox,fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - No Kernel Mode Setting\nNo KMS
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash nomodeset pfix=fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - Safe mode, no X\nTry 'xorgwizard' after bootup succeed to start graphic mode.
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=ram,nox,fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz
  
title fossapup64 9.5 - RAM only - no pupsave\nBoot up Puppy without pupsave
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=ram,fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

title fossapup64 9.5 - Ram Disk SHell\nExecute 'init' then dropout to prompt in initramfs
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=usbflash pfix=rdsh
  initrd /initrd.gz

title
  root

title Help - Boot Params
  configfile /boot/grub/menu_phelp.lst

title
  root
  
# Boot from Partition Boot Sector

title Boot first hard drive (hd0,0)
  root (hd0,0)
  chainloader +1 || chainloader /grldr || chainloader /bootmngr

title
  root

# additionals

title Grub4Dos commandline\n(for experts only)
  commandline

title Reboot computer
  reboot

title Halt computer
  halt

[williwaw]

Jarnie,

In the grub4dos window to select devices. mmcblk1 seems to be the SD card, and the mmcblk0 is the windows drive. an inspection of the information returned from running blkid in the terminal should confirm.

run grub4dos on the SD, (do a final sanity check by running blkid again to make sure you are choosing the correct device. device numbering can change between boot ups.)
try booting from the SD without the USB plugged in.

[jarnie]

williwaw

I tried again and noted something quite strange (to me) -
When I remove BOTH the SD card (from the SD slot) and the usb stick (from the usb slot) those icons with the same SD 'picture' as for the SD and usb are displayed and have mm0p1, mm0p3 and mm0p4 REMAIN displayed. Why would they be displayed with those devices removed?

Anyway using pmount I found that mmcblk0p1, mmcblk0p3 and mmcblk04 appear to be for the usb stick and mmcblk1p1, mmcblk1p2 and mmcblk1p3 appear to be for the SD card.

Well I tried using grub4dos selecting mmcblk1 and it returns the error -
no supported file systems in /dev/mmcblkp1(vfat) /dev/mmcblkp2(ext4) /dev/mmcblkp3(vfat)
Have I not followed your instructions correctly?

[Jafadmin]

Ignore the icons. It's possible for them to be wrong. Run the command 'lsblk' (LSBLK but lowercase) from a command console. It will show what is properly connected.

[jarnie]

Thanks I also did run lsblk which listed the same 'device names' as listed in grub4dos where I selected mmcblk1 (the SD card) and it returns the error -
no supported file systems in /dev/mmcblkp1(vfat) /dev/mmcblkp2(ext4) /dev/mmcblkp3(vfat)
I would include a screen shot but when I try using Take a Shot it returns an error (in the log)
ffmpeg: error while loading shred libraries:usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libopencl.so.1:cannot read file data:input/output error
I used the same method to set the 'save directory' as the usb stick as used before with no problems

Added later. I have rebooted the laptop and now there is no problem getting screen shots so here there are.
The first one is when I run blkid
The second one showing what I selected in grub4dos
The third one showing the result of running grub4dos

screen shot showing output from blkid

Screenshot(5).jpg (187.73 KiB) Viewed 2149 times

screen shot showing selections in grub4dos before clicking on OK

Screenshot(6).jpg (173.58 KiB) Viewed 2149 times

screen shot showing result after clicking on OK (grub4dos)

Screenshot(7).jpg (176.18 KiB) Viewed 2149 times

[williwaw]

Hi jarnie,

your grub4dos error is the same as the one greengeek reported a while back on the old forum, fifth post down.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=85018

this is not to say your laptop has the same problem, (it is newer), but it may. perhaps the easiest advice I can offer at this point is to use the low profile usb. they are available with enough space to significantly increase the 32 gb you have on the main board.

It is an interesting and attractive project to utilize the SD slot, and if I were to persue further, I would look more to trying to set up an UEFI boot rather than a mbr boot. (UEFI can be smarter) frugalpup can install either UEFI or mbr type bootloaders.

frugalpup is installed on fossapup, and has it's own thread here, viewtopic.php?f=105&t=337 and the developer of frugalpup, gyrog can be contacted by PM. a bit more about frugalpup here. http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html

another avenue is posting at the fossapup forum viewforum.php?f=146 the fossapup developer or others would know more. I believe you have assembled most of the needed info most likely to be asked, already, here in this thread.

Ps. you may enjoy reading http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is, and http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[jarnie]

Thanks again williwaw
You have been great.
I AM ok with using a low profile usb memory stick to boot from but was willing to keep giving you feedback in case there was a way especially as you had 'invested' a lot of your time in attempting to solve the problem of not being able to boot from an SD card in an SD slot.
Maybe ACER set up UEFI the way they did to save memory and/or stage space since there is only 32GB to start with some of which is taken by the hidden partition which stores the Windows setup. I have no idea, I am just trying to think of possible reasons.
Thanks again
John

[jarnie]

Sorry to resurrect this now long thread but while on holiday last week and reading a post at another website about the problem booting to 'linux' using an SD card in an Acer laptop (but not the model I have) I wondered what would happen if I created a bootable SD card with a 'legacy' boot type in the boot partition.
I am now at home and so re_created my SD bootable card with a 'legacy' boot partition (I had been only creating with a UEFI foot partitition in the past for no apparent reason other than assuming that is what I should have been doing).
Well it now boots from the SD card (with the BIOS boot type set to legacy) gets to the 'puppy menu' where I select Fossapup64 9.5 and it continues but not for long and then I see the following displayed on screen -
*** fossapup64 9.5 - Linux 5.4.53 [x86_64] ***
Waiting for USB storage... done
Finding puppy main sfs file. failed
Dumping last lines of /tmp/bootinit.log...
1: PDRV= P_BP_ID=96d5abc1-4af0-43f096e0-180361c98c13 p_bp_fn=
2: ONE_PART= ONE_FN= ONE_MP=
Partition 96d5abc1-4af0-43f0-96e0-180361c13 ONE_TRY_FN= PDRV=
I won't include any more of what is displayed unless asked for BUT the error messages end with
*** Error is too critical, dropping out to console...
*** To save debug info to a partition, type 'debugsave' which I tried but could not find it later.

Please note that I have tried with an empty formatted usb memory stick plugged in and also with no usb memory stick with exactly the same result.

(ADDED LATER - NEXT DAY)
I wondered if I had correctly selected the location of where I installed the frugal files (which I had installed into a folder in the EXT4 partition) and so reformatted the boot partition and re created the boot files using the BOOT button in Frugalpup installer, selecting the folder and pressing the ENTER key followed by click the OK button to complete the boot partition HOWEVER the same problem as described above still occurs.

STRANGELY the first time I attempt to boot using the SD card I get an error message that no boot device was found and to 'press any key' which results in the same error. When I manually reboot (CTRL + ALT + DEL) the SD boot is found and it boots to the fossapup menu. Not sure if this is a clue to what is the problem.

Anyway if someone can advise if there is a solution or should I simply put the problem down to something in the Acer laptop.

Thanks

[bigpup]

Are you booting with no other external drives plugged into computer?
Only the SD card is plugged in?

[jarnie]

There are no other drives connected (my signature states booting via usb memory stick but that is not the case with the laptop with the SD card in it's slot). There is one usb socket with a wireless mouse 'dongle' in it.

I once tried with an empty usb memory stick in the spare usb socket to see if there was any change but there was not.

It appears that the boot cannot find the EXT4 partition containing the .sfs file. Strange but I feel that there could be a fix but have no idea what.

ADDED LATER
I just tried booting with the same SD card in a usb card reader and it gives the same problem in the Acer laptop.

HOWEVER I am able to boot successfully with the same SD card in the SAME usb card reader plugged into a desktop PC.

It's the Acer Laptop which is the problem. And so it's probably not worth thinking about? I will resort to booting that damned Acer laptop using a (low profile) usb memory stick.