Trouble installing friendly-fossa64-rc3 (solved)

[loldigox]

I’m installing friendly-fossa64-rc3 posted by @wizard Puppy (see viewtopic.php?t=4681) on a HP Pavilion X2 laptop/tablet convertible system. (I’m only using it as a laptop. The screen is cracked, so I don’t use it as a tablet.) I love the “friendliness” of this Puppy! I used Lucid Puppy several years ago on an even older laptop, and love the speed and Puppy’s ability to run on an old machine, but was frequently mystified by all the terminology and strange application names I was not familiar with, coming from the Windows world. Friendly Fossa is a great step forward, and I’m glad I found it in this forum.

However, I’m having a bit of trouble with the installation. I followed the UEFI-Install.doc instructions included in the distribution exactly. (In fact, I did it all twice, with the same results.) This is a frugal install to a freshly wiped and re-partitioned internal hard drive. (Yup, I took the plunge and wiped out Windows 10 - it had filled the 60 GB internal drive and continuing to run Win10 seemed hopeless on this machine.) When I boot, now I’m getting messages saying:

Adding module hid_sensor_custommodprobe: can't open 'modules.dep': No such file or directory
Dumping last lines of /tmp/boot init. log...
mount -o move /mnt/pdru /mnt/deu_save
Using /mnt/deu_save/fossa64/fossapup64initmodules.txt /lib/modules/5.53' -> '/pup_new/lib/modules/5.4.53'
'/lib/firmware' > /pup_new/lib/firmware'
Dumping last lines of kernel log...
input: ELAN Touchscreen as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.4/1-4.4:1.0/0003:04F3:0193.0004/input/input9 hid-generic 0003:04F3:0193.0004: input,hiddeu 98,hidrau3: USB HID v1.10 Device [ELAN Touchscreen] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.4/input0 aufs test_add:291:mount [462]: uid/gid/perm /pup_ro2 0/0/0777, 0/0/0755 aufs test_add:291:mount [493]: uid/gid/perm /pup_z 0/0/0777, 0/0/0755
Pausing for 60 seconds...

This continues for 4 or 5 times, for the following modules (maybe one or two more I might have missed), all complaining about ‘modules.dep’. Leaving out the dumps from the logs, here are the lines:

Adding module hid_rmimodprobe: can't open 'modules.dep': No such file or directory failed
Adding module hid_multitouchnodprobe: can't open 'modules.dep': No such file or directory failed
Adding module hid_sensor_hubmodprobe: can't open 'modules.dep' : No such file or directory failed

After all these messages, it finally boots up and seems to be working fine. It's inconvenient that it takes 5+ minutes to boot, though.

More details on my machine and installation:
Puppy Version: friendly-fossa64-rc3 (based on fossapup64 9.5)
System specs:
RAM - 4 GB
Processor - Intel Pentium CPU N3510 @ 1.99 GHz
Product name: HP Pavilion 11 x2 Notebook PC
Installation: Frugal, on sda2
An image showing GParted for my internal drive is shown below:

Screenshot.png (43.76 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

Thanks very much for any help anyone can give me on this.

[bigpup]

There is a chance this new release rc3 got a bug in it or something not correct about it's ISO package.

I am going to post a link to this topic in the friendly-fossa64 topic, so the developer will see it.
viewtopic.php?p=50547#p50547

The topic about Friendly-Fossa64, is the best place to post anything, about it.

One suggestion about deleting Windows 10 from the internal drive and doing a new setup on it.
Windows 10 uses some hidden stuff.
Best if you setup the drive by doing this:
1. Make a new partition table (msdos or gpt)
( that completely deletes everything from the drive)
2. Make partitions.
3. Format partitions.

[wizard]

@loldigox

Good job on documenting your problem.

can't open 'modules.dep': No such file or directory

I've checked the ISO and modules.dep is there. I've tested rc3 on half dozen computers (all old) but none with touch screens which seems related.
I'm guessing you booted from a USB flash drive to do the install, if so:
--did you get these errors when booting from USB?

If not the issue is with the install to the internal drive.

If it were me, I would disable UEFI (you don't need it) in bios/setup and use Legacy/MBR.
-boot from USB
-run gparted>Device>Create a partition table>MBR
-add New ext3 partition
-install using the MBR instructions

Thanks
wizard
-

[loldigox]

Thanks so much @bigpup and @wizard for your help. I have not been able to find how to disable UEFI in the BIOS. The only options I could find were to turn off Secure Boot, (which I had to do to boot from the live USB stick originally,) and to “Clear All Secure Boot Keys”, which also disables Secure Boot. I did both, and tried to use the MBR install instructions, but then it would not boot from the internal drive. So I rebooted (from USB with friendly-fossa64-rc3.iso,) and went back and re-did the UEFI install.

There is a (perhaps important) detail I missed in my original post. Here is the last bit of the UEFI install instructions:

Puppy is now on the internal drive sda2 you can shut down, (I did this without saving my session) remove your CD/USB and reboot.

After booting:
-click Menu>Exit>Restart graphical server
-click Menu>Exit>Reboot
-make the save file (see README-1ST.doc)

The first reboot described above did NOT complain about ‘modules.dep’ being missing. It was only AFTER making the save file that subsequent boots have this issue. Does this provide a clue?

Also, if it will help, I’ve taken photos of the screen messages each time when it pauses for 60 seconds. If helpful, I could attach those photos, or the text captured from them (imperfectly) by OCR.

Thanks so much again for your help.

[wizard]

@loldigox

Try this to enable MBR/legacy mode:
boot into bios/setup>System Configuration>Boot Options>Legacy Support>Enable

You can also try installing fossapup64 9.5, available in Mainline Distros section, to see if you get the same errors

Thanks
wizard

[loldigox]

Hi @wizard

My bios menu doesn’t have the Legacy Support option.

I tried your suggestion, though, and installed fossapup64 9.5, using your UEFI instructions. I had tried it before, and couldn’t get it to work, but this time with your instructions, it seems to have worked! I’ve booted and rebooted several times, just to be sure. My system is up and running with FossaPup. I’ll tinker with it a bit and see if I can get it to look more like Friendly FossaPup, which I really like. I’ll at least try to pull out the help documents you added in the ISO. I found them to be very helpful.

I’m attaching PDFs of your UEFI-Install and MBR-Install documents that I added some comments to in red text as I was using them. Hoping this is helpful/useful to you.

Thank you again for your help, and for making Friendly FossaPup. I agree wholeheartedly with your approach, and wish I could use it directly, but I’m very happy to have FossaPup up and running, too. Also, if you need help testing future releases of Friendly Fossa, I'd be happy to help.

[loldigox]

Hi again @wizard,

Guess what? I was reading more of the Friendly Fossa thread on the forum, and saw that @TerryH on Dec 10, 2021 had also encountered the same error, which he described as “an error regarding adding hid_sensors to probe.” He found a work-around by renaming the fossapup64initmodules.txt file in the pupsave folder so it’s not found during boot. So I re-installed friendly-fossa64-rc3, got the same errors, rebooted with the FF-rc3 USB drive, and renamed that file in the sda2/fossa64 folder, shut down, removed the USB drive, and booted. This time I didn’t get any errors, and have Friendly Fossa running. It seems fine, and the touchpad seems to still work OK. I’ll keep poking around in it and see if I run into any problems. I’ve installed either Friendly Fossa or FossaPup about 4 or 5 times today, so by now I’ve got it down! Only takes me a few minutes.

Thanks again for Friendly Fossa!

[wizard]

@loldigox

Hooray, glad it's working. Did not remember the TerryH post since I could not replicate it. Looking at the web on your HP, some others reported some bios/setup were missing the Legacy support setting. Have never seen that before, Hello HP, what a load of crap.

Will review your notes, thanks for sending them, good timing since I am just now editing for another project.

Only takes me a few minutes.

One of the true beauties of Puppy

I'll also take you up on your offer to test and review, need all the help I can get.

wizards rule #2 "You can't check your own work"

Thanks
wizard

[loldigox]

Another good rule for testing/reviewing your work: Find someone who knows next to nothing about the thing they're reviewing. (That's me.) They'll tell you about things that more experienced users breeze through without even noticing.

[wizard]

@loldigox

Used most of your comments on UEFI, however most of the MBR comments did not apply since your computer cannot enable MBR/legacy mode.

Find someone who knows next to nothing about the thing

wizard's rule #1 "You can't out guess the users"

Thanks
wizard

[bigpup]

General info that usually applies.
However, computer manufactures have option to make the UEFI setup offer whatever they want it to.

UEFI has had many changes and updates over the years.

Earlier versions of UEFI only had disable secure boot option in the UEFI setup.

A few years ago they added the option legacy mode.

Newer UEFI setup now has it called CSM mode.

Depending on the UEFI version.
All of these settings will make it work with mbr.

The UEFI setups that have legacy mode or CSM mode will also have disable secure boot.
But only disabling secure boot stops it looking for a security key.

[wizard]

@bigpup

Have a Dell e6420 laptop, 2012 vintage that has UEFI, Legacy, but no Secure Boot. There were lots of different configurations going on back then.

Thanks
wizard

[Clarity]

I've seen this problem with this distro before. Cant remember which PC is occurred nor can remember which direct boot ISO utility I was using. The reason I did not report is probably sleep deprivation that sometimes (too often) as I stay up late testing various scenarios.

Will try to find which of the USB used and try to guess which PC it surfaced that problem using the latest version, 'rc3'.

P.S. This behavior has been seen with a couple other forum PUPs, as well, which are USB booted from their ISO file. Most every case is specific to the PC firmware and the PUP "release/version" and often is fixed by falling back to an earlier version or waiting for the updated version.

One PUP developer, @mistfire has his boot INIT subsystem structured to capture logging that was instrumental in fixing one of his past distros. I noticed recently that @peebee's most recent distro provides the same INIT logic to log this kind of problem for developer resolution.

Just a note if anyone is interested.

[loldigox]

Hi Everyone,

Thought I'd provide an update to this issue. I've been trying FossaPup on a different computer, and I think the behavior regarding this issue might help someone diagnose what's going on. The new system is an Asus Zenbook UX360C Notebook, with 4 GB RAM, and an internal SSD. I used Lick to do a Frugal dual-boot install on my Windows partition. First I installed the full fossapup64-9.5 Puppy. I had trouble with Firefox on that, though. It was a very old version of FF, that tried to do some sort of automatic update, and then crashed, every time I used it after the initial install. So I came back to this Friendly Fossa and installed it, again using Lick to do a Frugal dual-boot install on my Windows partition (sda3). This has an up-to-date FireFox, which seems to be stable (so far, at least).

With the Friendly Fossa rc3 install, I got the same errors as I did on the other laptop, the HP Pavilion X2. (See the first post in this thread.) Renaming fossapup64initmodules.txt seems to work around the problem, and the trackpad works fine. (I promptly turn it off in Setup, though, because I can't type with the thing on. I use a wireless mouse.)

What was interesting, though, is with the full fossapup64 9.5 install, the list of modules in fossapup64initmodules.txt is identical, however, it only complains about one of them, intel_ishtp_hid. The error is different, too:

Code: Select all

Can't load module intel_ishtp_hid (kernel/drivers/hid/intel-ish-hid/intel-ishtp-hid.ko): No such device

If I removed the intel_ishtp_hid entry from the list in fossapup64initmodules.txt, the laptop boots FossaPup64 9.5 with no complaints.

Perhaps this info will help someone identify what's going on.

[wizard]

@loldigox

Hi loldi, thanks for giving the update, hopefully one of our experts can figure it out. Regarding Firefox in Friendly Fossa64, updates are blocked by default (no nags either). Check the help files for how to toggle that off so you can update if you wish.

Thanks
wizard

[loldigox]

I forgot to include the list of modules in fossapup64initmodules.txt, which again was the same list for either the full fossapup64 9.5 or friendly fossa rc3. That list is:

Code: Select all

hid_sensor_custom,hid_sensor_hub,intel_ishtp_hid,hid_multitouch,intel_ish_ipc,intel_ishtp,i2c_hid

[mikewalsh]

One suggestion about deleting Windows 10 from the internal drive and doing a new setup on it.
Windows 10 uses some hidden stuff.
Best if you setup the drive by doing this:
1. Make a new partition table (msdos or gpt)
( that completely deletes everything from the drive)
2. Make partitions.
3. Format partitions.

Heh. Oh, yes. Windows has an annoying habit of sticking .ini files everywhere it possibly can; every drive, every partition, every main 'system' folder/directory.

All to do with 'indexing' your system.....for its future use. (Plus a load of other odds'n'ends, all of which conform to Windows' idea of how a system should be setup for the ton of 'background services' it insists on running behind the scenes...)

Mike.