Error booting from USB flash drive - Fossapup64 [SOLVED]

[Jasper]

Hi all, I am a first time user of Puppy Linux and have downloaded the Fossapup64 ISO and initially use a CDR to load the OS.

The LiveCD did work well and I was impressed that it figure out all of the drivers for my PC which was my greatest fear.
I did want to try to use a USB flash drive (4GB) to install to using "Setup -- Puppy Installer -- Bootflash" which gave me 2 options. I did try both of them.
Unfortunately this did not work and I have attached a screenshot of the error message received using both options.

My PC specs are also included as an attachment.

Tips and advice would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks

[rockedge]

I think the problem is in the boot stanza! That is something like this:

Code: Select all

title Fossa64-9.0.5 (uuid/Fossa64-9.0.5)
  uuid 13ec514b-7e2d-43e1-b18e-ed4daceba563
  kernel /Fossa64-9.0.5/vmlinuz   psubdir=Fossa64-9.0.5 pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck net.ifnames=0 usbwait=3
  initrd /Fossa64-9.0.5/initrd.gz

or depending on the type of boot loader which might be grub2 the stanza could be different.

What is happening (I think) is the main Fossapup64 rootfs SFS file is not being found during the boot process.

This does not look like a major problem and with some guidance we should be able to get you up and running!!

[Jasper]

Hi Rockedge
Thanks for looking at my request and relieved that it should not be a difficult problem to solve
I have gone through all of the applications and they all to fully functional. There's a good selection of applications get started with.
I haven't installed any additional applications just yet....... but I am sure that once I familiarise myself with the names/descriptions then I will be happy.
It is so much faster than my MS OS, everything just 'pops' onscreen and is instantly usable.
The only additional query I do have is that I can seem to be able to control the volume I know it works through my monitor and did select the correct HDMI input/device. It does work. I was unsure of the Retrovol application and I got a little lost and was a bit over my head. It's a minor issue really.
Anyway, if you could assist and give me instructions, I can't wait to get started.
Thank you

[Jasper]

I have followed the instructions in the "Reading Guide" thread https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5192
which suggested using Rufus and creating a Persistent file. Unfortunately, it also failed.
Shame

[wiak]

I think the problem is in the boot stanza! That is something like this:

Looks like it to me too.

Since you can boot from CD, you should then be able to see what files you have on the usb stick. One of the (text) files there is used at boot to tell the boot loader where the linux kernel and usually the puppy sfs files are. We need to see its contents. The file I am referring to is likely going to be called either 'menu.lst' or 'grub.cfg' depending on which bootloader is being used. Just open that file in an editor and cut and paste its contents here.

[rockedge]

@Jasper

Are you starting to (planning to) boot completely from usb drive?
Is this a UEFI secure boot computer? If so some additional things will need to be done.
If YES then preparing the USB drive using the tools and utilities from the LiveCD Fossapup64 will be the recommended way.

If NO it would be possible to boot and run the LiveCD and store and recall a system persistence folder or file on the USB drive. This save folder/file (the choice here depends on the usb's partitioning and formatting) will be looked for and loaded by the Fossapup64 LiveCD. Puppy Linux will guide you and set up the persistence mechanism.

For a USB stick that one can plug in and the computer will boot from instead of the internal HDD, first let's try to use the utility called FrugalPup which should get the contents of the LiveCD ISO file and create what is known as a "frugal install". Which is the recommended method to install a Puppy Linux. The "frugal" installation will bring all of Fossapup64's special features into play. The program can be started from the Menu->Setup->FrugalPup. Once this is running you will see the options. You can use the Fossapup64 LiveCD ISO file for all of the needed base files for Fosspup64 when that option selection comes up.

I personally would boot up Fossapup64 LiveCD then plug in the USB drive. Use Menu->System->GParted to set up a small FAT32 partition with the boot flag set, and an ext4 using the rest of the usb's storage space. I would open the Fossapup ISO file in a Rox file manager window and make a directory called Fossapup64 in the ext4 partition and copy the entire contents of the ISO file into that directory.

Then run Menu->Setup->Grub4Dos select the USB drive and install the boot loader and boot menu system.

All of this sounds like a lot but once you see it all in action it's not that complicated. I probably missed a bunch of details but this is round about how it will go.

It's worth it.......once you work with and use a quick, responsive OS like Fossapup64 it quickly becomes apparent why you would.

[bigpup]

Do you have more than one USB drive plugged in?
If yes.
Only have the Fossapup64 USB plugged in.

If this is a computer with UEFI bios.
Go into the UEFI bios setup.
Disable fast boot.

If computer has Windows OS on it.
Make sure to do a normal full shutdown of Windows.
Do not use hibernate shutdown.

[Jasper]

Thank you all for kindly replying back to me.
I will try to answer the questions posed by all.

@Bigup
I only have a single USB drive attached to the PC.
I have attached the BIOS screens in the zip file. AFAIK there is no option for Fast Boot.
Yes, I do not use hibernation at all.

[Jasper]

@wiak

Here is the contents of my grub.cfg file.

Code: Select all

insmod part_acorn
insmod part_amiga
insmod part_apple
insmod part_bsd
insmod part_dfly
insmod part_dvh
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_plan
insmod part_sun
insmod part_sunpc

loadfont /boot/grub/font.pf2
set gfxmode=800x600
set gfxpayload=keep

insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga

insmod all_video
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
insmod gfxterm
insmod png
insmod jpeg
terminal_output gfxterm

insmod ext2
insmod f2fs
insmod ntfs
insmod exfat

insmod loopback
insmod iso9660
insmod udf

background_image /splash.png
set timeout=10

# https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Displays
color_normal=cyan/black
#menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
menu_color_highlight=yellow/red
menu_color_normal=light-gray/black

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - Copy SFS files to RAM" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=copy,fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - Don't copy SFS files to RAM" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=nocopy,fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - RAM only" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=ram,fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - No X" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=nox,fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - No KMS (Kernel modesetting)" {
    linux /vmlinuz nomodeset pfix=fsck pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - Ram Disk SHell" {
    linux /vmlinuz pfix=rdsh pmedia=usbflash
    initrd /initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Shutdown" {
	halt
}

menuentry "Reboot" {
	reboot
}

[Jasper]

@rockedge

I have followed your suggestion of creating the two partitions and then moving the contents of the ISO onto the second partition. All seem to be progressing well but then Grub4Dos failed to work for me and informed me it would "Kill" (?) the session.

Attached are some screenshots.

[Jasper]

@wiak

Here are both the updated Lst files:

Code: Select all

# 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 (sdc2/Fossapup64)
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz
  kernel /Fossapup64/vmlinuz    psubdir=/Fossapup64 pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck
  initrd /Fossapup64/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

and also

Code: Select all

[code]# /menu-advanced.lst  produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.3

title Back to the main menu
  configfile /menu.lst
  commandline

title Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sdc2/Fossapup64) Safe mode (without X)\nTry 'xorgwizard' after bootup succeed to start graphic mode.
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz
  kernel /Fossapup64/vmlinuz    psubdir=/Fossapup64 pfix=ram,nox nosmp noapic i915.modeset=0 radeon.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0
  initrd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz

title Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sdc2/Fossapup64) RAM mode\nBoot up Puppy without pupsave
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz
  kernel /Fossapup64/vmlinuz    psubdir=/Fossapup64 pfix=ram
  initrd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz

# Multiple Windows

# Boot from Partition Boot Sector

title Unknown (sdc1:PBS)
  find --set-root uuid () EE64-8664
  chainloader +1

title Boot from sda (ATA ST1000DM003-1SB1)
  map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
  map --hook
  chainloader (hd0)+1

# additionals
title Bootup from HDD\nBootup from the master boot record of the hard disk drive
  map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
  map --hook
  chainloader (hd0)+1

title Find Grub menu on HDD
  map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
  map --hook
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /menu.lst && configfile /menu.lst
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/menu.lst && configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /grub/menu.lst && configfile /grub/menu.lst
  errorcheck on
  commandline

title Find Grub2\nBoot up grub2 if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img
  kernel /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/core.img
  kernel /boot/grub/core.img
  errorcheck on

title Grub4Dos commandline\n(for experts only)
  commandline

title Reboot computer
  reboot

title Halt computer
  halt

[wiak]

@wiak
Here is the contents of my grub.cfg file.

I 'think' you might help to include a line like:

Code: Select all

search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 424d8f42-e835-4111-9053-dd086b3d38e8

on line of its own just before:

Code: Select all

linux /vmlinuz pfix=copy,fsck pmedia=usbflash

With the usb stick plugged in you can find the uuid with the terminal command:

Code: Select all

blkid

That search line basically tells grub what device your Puppy is installed on, since each device on your system (such as usb stick) has a unique uuid (identifier). From what you have already, I'm assuming vmlinuz and initrd.gz files are all stored on the / directory of your usb stick.

The path details given in your grub.cfg stanza would have to change if you instead had vmlinuz and the other Puppy files inside a subdirectory on the usb flash stick (which is what I usually do so as to install several frugal installed distros onto the one usb stick), but I'm imagining the Fossapup usb stick installer puts them all into / and not into a subdirectory.

I will leave further help on this up to the likes of bigpup and rockedge since I don't know Puppy boot stanzas very well myself.

[Jasper]

My intention of using the OS was to be able to boot from my USB flash drive and save the work onto the same device.

If this is not possible, should I just boot from the LiveCD and then create a Save File on my HDD?

Thanks

[wiak]

Sorry, I'm getting confused. Your earlier boot stanzas were for grub2, but now you are using grub4dos - different.

It is perfectly easy to boot and save file to same usb flash device, especially if device has Linux format so can use save folder, but save file can be used if not Linux format (e.g. vfat).

The only issue would be, is your grub (whichever one it is) working? Meaning, does it find, for example, vmlinuz and initrd? If it does then should still be simply a matter of getting the Puppy kernel options correct - some difference if grub2 than grub4dos, but not much. I'm assuming no secure boot being used.

As I said, I'll bow out of this one since about Puppy and I don't use that enough to be familiar with its boot options so others better to help here than me.

[Clarity]

SAving sessions to a USB flash is a BAD idea as found in my testing over the years. Performance is big factor. Most people who have/use flash do NOT use the expensive quality models where, even there, the performance is marginal for many.

Why not save your sessions on your system drive. Its all too easy to just carve out an area on it and save your linux data and sessions there for your PUPPY operations.

Booting from a flash is OK as it is ONLY done once to boot to desktop.

[rockedge]

@Jasper Your installation as pictured above is correct. I think the boot stanza should look like this ->

Code: Select all

title Fossapup64 (uuid/Fossapup64)
  uuid 8a8ea99d-a1b0-4c43-b1a0-d4ce5c9c7dfa
  kernel /Fossapup64/vmlinuz   psubdir=Fossapup64 pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck net.ifnames=0
  initrd /Fossapup64/initrd.gz

the second line uuid 8a8ea99d-a1b0-4c43-b1a0-d4ce5c9c7dfa must be your USB drive's uuid.
In a terminal use blkid and look through the output for the drive/partition that the Fossapup64 directory resides on.
Look for the line that looks like this example->

Code: Select all

/dev/sda1: UUID="13ec514b-7e2d-43e1-b18e-ed4daceba563" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="c3304a82-01"

Use just the UUID number 13ec514b-7e2d-43e1-b18e-ed4daceba563 in the boot stanza
On the kernel command line, the pmedia=atahd parameter is the one I use so the system "can see" the USB as a hard drive.

BUT there is an advantage having it set as pmedia=usbflash, which limits the writes the system makes to the USB drive, to extend the usb drive's lifespan.

the parameter net.ifnames=0 will ensure that the system names the Ethernet as eth0 and the wifi as wlan0

It is possible to boot the LiveCD and have the save folder/file (depending on usb formatting) be stored on the USB drive.
I think though you will prefer booting from and saving too the same USB drive.

[Geek3579]

Using the built-in installers in puppy is a bit hit and miss, especially the older ones. Bootflash used to work for me so I wonder if there is an issue with your boot setup, eg secure boot is not turned off.

Frugalpup is great, but I prefer Stickpup (a part of Frugalpup anyway) as it uses the ISO as it is and makes a SIMPLE install as a single Fat32 partition with persistence (savefile, not savefolder as I recall). But its enough to get started with Puppy and you don't need to edit/create a Grub script as its done automatically.

Again, if this approach does not work it increases the odds that the problem is in your setup for boot, IMHO. To test this theory you could try booting the USB on another computer.

[wizard]

Unless I missed it, one thing not considered is the integrity of the USB flash drive itself. We know that some drives just cannot produce a bootable install. @vtpup recently found that the off brand "Eastfun" is one of those. If possible try a different, preferably name brand USB.

wizard

[Jasper]

Woo Hoo!!

I have finally managed to get this working.

What I did was to burn the ISO as a mult-session disc using Windows (CDburner XP) and not finalize the disc.

Once I had completed the hardware setup I then shut down and it allowed me to create a PupSave file on the disc.

Booted back up and it loaded the Save file (dated) and I was back online.

The only setting it did not manage to save was my Audio hardware.

I also haven't managed to connect a bluetooth speaker. I am assuming that I do not have the correct drivers for the hardware.

** One thing I would like to be able to do is to write to my internal NTFS (Windows) hard drive. When I attempt to do so, I get an error message informing me it's Read-Only.

Is there an additional piece of software I need to install in order to carry out this action?

[Jasper]

Just an update....
The OS appears to be working well. As noted before the audio appears not to stick and the keyboard map is stuck on US. I did delete the localization files so only the UK was present but that appears to have made no difference.
Apart from this all is good.

[Clarity]

Try this for any partition which is "ro". (in a terminal, issue 'mount' with NO parms to see any mounts that are either "rw" or "ro")

Terminal command for "rw" mount of the desired partition:

• mount -o remount,rw /partition/identifier /mount/point

Example
mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3

Hope this helps

[Jasper]

Thanks for reading my message and offering me a solution.
I did not work for some reason. I have included a screenshot.

[Clarity]

It appears that sda3 is mounted 'rw'.

I am a little confused, though. From the original mount you show, there was no sda3. Yet you remounted a unit that was not previously mounted???

After you issued the remount, your sda3 does show up as 'rw', so it appears Linux has accomplished the action you desired.

If the behavior for file use is not what you expected, then there is some possibilty that the filesystem is corrupted OR the files you have on the partition's filesystem are individually flagged as 'ro' even thoug the filesystem is mounted rw

That is my current observation. Not sure if there is any accuracy to what I've just shared.

[one]

Hi @Jasper,

in one of your first posts in this thread you told us that you don't use hibernate in windows.

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 329#p66329

But in the screenshot of your windows partition (sda3) I can see hiberfil.sys - hibernation is active and therefore write is not permitted. If you want to write to this partition:

Start windows, open a command prompt <cmd> as administrator --> powercfg /h off

Then shutdown windows and try again.
(This will disable hibernation and will remove the hiberfil.sys file from your system)

peace

[Jasper]

@Clarity

In my first screenshot I typed in the mount command and it displayed the information. However, I could not see any of the physical HDD attached eg sda3. I guessed the information was the details of the DVDRW that I was using loaded in RAM. Does that make sense?

So I click on the sda3 drive to mount it and then typed both commands in again.

I tried to copy the text file over but it failed.

It did allow me to copy the file over to a USB flash drive (FAT32) and also an external SSD (NTFS).

@one

I definitely am not using the Hibernation mode on my PC. However I did run the command (Administrator privileges) you suggested and will try again.

Thank you both for your input, it is appreciated.

**UPDATE** It works perfectly now, thank you to all who assisted!!

[venn]

Hi Jasper,
I just wanted to check that I'm understanding the solution you found, since it appears I'm having the same issue you originally posted about, except with Tahrpup. It looks like you gave up the idea of booting from USB and moved to booting from the optical cd drive, correct?

[williams2]

It looks like you gave up the idea of booting from USB and moved to booting from the optical cd drive, correct?

It looks to me that he disabled hibernate in MS Windows.

If MS Windows shuts down using the hibernate mode,
and if other operating systems, like Puppy, or any Linux OS
writes to the file system that MS Windows uses,
then the file system can be corrupted,
and data can be destroyed.

The instructions were:

boot to MS Windows
open a command prompt window with administrator powers
type powercfg /h off

[venn]

Thanks williams2 for the attempt, although I don't know how that could be what he did since Jasper said hibernation wasn't used + I didn't see any1 give that answer above (but I AM new this, so possible I just didn't recognize it when I passed by ). I figured out the solution to my issue though: It must be something to do with using USBimager.exe to burn the USB, despite USBimager working perfectly fine to create a bootable Zorin Lite USB.

I finally remembered Puppy has an internal installer to create a bootable USB. That was what worked, although oddly only for my computers that need Plop to boot from a USB; the computer that doesn't need Plop gave me an error, saying I needed to replace the device + try again, when I hit some key it flipped over to boot ZorinLite. Oh well, I really only needed it to work on the computers that need Plop anyways, so it all worked out.

[williams2]

The previous post said:

@one

I definitely am not using the Hibernation mode on my PC. However I did run the command (Administrator privileges) you suggested and will try again.

Thank you both for your input, it is appreciated.

**UPDATE** It works perfectly now, thank you to all who assisted!!

Then a picture showing the powercfg /h off command in a MS Windows command window.
which seems to be an inference that what he did in the command window worked.

MS Windows uses hibernation for a normal default boot.
It does not refer to hibernation at all, it calls it FastBoot or something similar.
Whatever it is called, it is a form of hibernation and must be disabled.

MS Window also copies most of the ram to the hibernate.sys file when MS Windows suspends.
So when it suspends, if the computer then powers off, which it normally by default does after a period of time,
it is using the hibernate file and it is a form of hibernation and should be disabled.

Most of the MS Windows hibernate modes are not called hibernate. For example, FastBoot

The BIOS may also have a FastBoot setting. This is different and disabling it does not disable MS Windows FastBoot.

Puppy and other Linux distros does not use swap space to suspend.
Linux do not need or use a swap partition or file to suspend.

Linux does need and use swap space to hibernate.

[venn]

Ah, I see what you are talking about now + why I didn’t catch how that was a solution. My hunt for an answer to my problem ended on Pg. 2 of this thread when Jasper wrote the reply that started with “Woo Hoo!!” Everything after that I glossed over pretty quickly, b/c it was all in reference to his last wrap-up question in the same post:

** One thing I would like to be able to do is to write to my internal NTFS (Windows) hard drive. When I attempt to do so, I get an error message informing me it's Read-Only.

Is there an additional piece of software I need to install in order to carry out this action?

I was looking for the answer Jasper found to the original topic of this thread, “error booting from USB flash drive”, which it appeared to me Jasper simply moved to booting via the optical drive rather than the USB, mainly b/c nothing is mentioned about a USB + the pic in the secondary post shows the contents of a CDROM. I was just wondering if I somehow missed something.