Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Governor wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 4:48 am

williwaw wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 6:38 pm

please describe in more detail how you "totally wiped".....

I deleted all partitions and created and formatted new ones.

without any additional details, I would suggest you persue getting a USB working at this time. test your preferred persistence method and puppy/dogs.

when it comes time, start a new topic about setting up a disk.

some things to address when bringing the nvme back into service...........

the error reported in viewtopic.php?p=119409#p119409
calls for a plan that should remove all existing partition tables and remnants, before recreating your preferred partition table.

developing at least a 2 partition layout adequate for frugal installs,
you can always create additional partitions as you need them from unallocated space, rather than filling the disk now and reformatting or moving later

installing and testing a single bootloader with an eye towards maintaining your choice going foreward.

A thought that's just occurred to me.....

@Governor :-

You say this Nvme drive came with the laptop, yes? Well, if your screenshot on the previous page is correct, you have nearly 12,000 hours on the drive, yes?

Have you EVER run the trim command on the drive? This tidies-up the drive, gets rid of all the "junk", and re-organises the blocks/pages in the NAND flash modules so file-operations work more smoothly. It's like running the "Defrag" utility in Windows (for a traditional, spinning-rust hard drive), except T.R.I.M is specifically designed for SSDs.....and an Nvme drive is just a fancier, faster version of a SATA SSD.

IF the drive has that many hours on it, and has never had the "trim" command run on it, this might just explain why you're getting so many errors. Of course, I could be talking out of my arse here.....but it's something that you'll need to look into at some point anyway.

Mike.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:48 pm

A thought that's just occurred to me.....

@Governor :-

You say this Nvme drive came with the laptop, yes? Well, if your screenshot on the previous page is correct, you have nearly 12,000 hours on the drive, yes?

Have you EVER run the trim command on the drive? This tidies-up the drive, gets rid of all the "junk", and re-organises the blocks/pages in the NAND flash modules so file-operations work more smoothly. It's like running the "Defrag" utility in Windows (for a traditional, spinning-rust hard drive), except T.R.I.M is specifically designed for SSDs.....and an Nvme drive is just a fancier, faster version of a SATA SSD.

IF the drive has that many hours on it, and has never had the "trim" command run on it, this might just explain why you're getting so many errors. Of course, I could be talking out of my arse here.....but it's something that you'll need to look into at some point anyway.

Mike.

Ok. That is interesting. Where do I find the trim command, and is it safe to the files currently on the drive?
Thanks.

williwaw wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:24 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 4:48 am

williwaw wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 6:38 pm

please describe in more detail how you "totally wiped".....

I deleted all partitions and created and formatted new ones.

without any additional details, I would suggest you persue getting a USB working at this time. test your preferred persistence method and puppy/dogs.

when it comes time, start a new topic about setting up a disk.

some things to address when bringing the nvme back into service...........

the error reported in viewtopic.php?p=119409#p119409
calls for a plan that should remove all existing partition tables and remnants, before recreating your preferred partition table.

I have not seen those error messages again.

developing at least a 2 partition layout adequate for frugal installs,
you can always create additional partitions as you need them from unallocated space, rather than filling the disk now and reformatting or moving later

installing and testing a single bootloader with an eye towards maintaining your choice going foreward.

I got up this morning, went to my laptop (which I kept on because puppy is running in RAM-only mode) and discovered that none of the USB peripherals were functioning. This includes my satelite drives, keyboard, mouse and ethernet card. I always use a separate monitor, so I opened up the laptop to access the built-in keyboard and mouse. I did not know how to approach this problem so I tried [Ctrl+Alt+Backspace]. The screen went dark, and there was no keyboard or mouse access, and no visual cues. So, power button once again.

I had planned on having a bootable thumb drive with Airedale ready by now, but I was unable to reach that in time. Booting on the internal drive did not work because I had moved files to a different partition. another thumb drive that I thought would work, didn't. And the Puppy thumb drive that had worked before now has an incomplete Airedale installation on it.

So, I booted from my trusty CD, got the same Puppy menu as last time. I chose RAM-only mode because that one never fails.

I had to redo my settings and configuration again, such as screen, keyboard, firewall, hosts file, file associations, run actions, ALSA, etc.
I noticed that PeasyScale is gone again from the right-click menu in Rox, and the up key once again produces a screenshot.
Go figure.

Governor wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:59 am

I had planned on having a bootable thumb drive with Airedale ready by now, but I was unable to reach that in time. Booting on the internal drive did not work because I had moved files to a different partition. another thumb drive that I thought would work, didn't. And the Puppy thumb drive that had worked before now has an incomplete Airedale installation on it.

So, I booted from my trusty CD, got the same Puppy menu as last time. I chose RAM-only mode because that one never fails.
Puppy boot menu 2024-05-28.JPG

I would consider not spending too much time configuring Fossapup, and instead get those boot stanzas from your grub_config.txt into the Airedale stick gurb menu.lst and see if that will boot.

If it does, it has a working and current Firefox and will save your settings on the USB.

If possible to post while doing this, copy your entire menu.lst text and post in the forum in the

format so it's easy to check the character spacing etc.

That way we can check to see what it's attempting to boot.

@Governor :-

The reason PeasyScale is always missing might be related to the way functionality was split up between the 'puppy' SFS and the 'adrv' SFS. I'm wondering if your adrv is somehow being prevented from loading..?

As for the 'Up' arrow taking an mtPaint 'screenshot', curiously I have the same issue in an install of Xenialpup64 on the old Dell laptop......but the same install of Xenialpup64 on the big HP desktop rig doesn't have this problem. Every possible config file I've investigated gives no clue as to why it does this, and it's NOT set-up as a key-binding in /etc/xdg/templates/_root_jwmrc, either. It's something of a mystery for me, too.....but I can live with it.

(It wouldn't be so bad if I actually used mtPaint for its screenshot functionality, but.....I DON'T.)

Mike.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 2:35 pm

@Governor :-
As for the 'Up' arrow taking an mtPaint 'screenshot', curiously I have the same issue in an install of Xenialpup64 on the old Dell laptop......but the same install of Xenialpup64 on the big HP desktop rig doesn't have this problem.
Mike.

Now that's what I'd call a bug. I don't know how you live with that one actually.

Up' arrow taking an mtPaint 'screenshot'

type or paste in a terminal (console):

setxkbmap -rules evdev

or

setxkbmap -rules evdev -model evdev

If it helps, you can put it in /root/Startup/ or /root/.config/autostart/ to run every time X starts.

And pfix=ram prevents the savefile or save folder being used.
That is, any changes you made will be ignored.
When Puppy shuts down, it will ask if you want to save your changes.

pfix=ram has no other effect.
It does not affect whether Puppy runs in ram or not.
pfix=copy or pfix=nocopy sets that.

has disappeared from the right-click menu in Rox file manage

the menu is generated by JWM (Joe;s Window Manager)
The menu is not generated by rox.

Governor wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:59 am

So, I booted from my trusty CD, got the same Puppy menu as last time. I chose RAM-only mode because that one never fails.

(And from the other topic)

Governor wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 10:29 am

williwaw wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 7:42 pm

Gov

looks like you have a boot loader working (BTW, what is the bottom pic of? I do not recognize the app from the screenshot)

The screenshot is of the bootmenu after I used grub2config.

concerning this puppy menu.....
I am suprised the CD has a boot menu that is dynamic enough to detect MX installs, but perhaps others can confirm this is a fossapup CD boot feature?
and it does not look like my previous grub2config installs, but again, perhaps others can confirm?

and concerning the previously reported error...
just curious if you tried to duplicate the error or google its significance
BTW, how many times did you try rebooting with the same menu selection before reporting?

I have not seen those error messages again.

@Governor,
You mentioned that.....
"Another issue is my keyboard language setting keeps getting lost even though it shows correctly in the current settings. This happens whenever I plug anything in or out of my USB hub, even though the keyboard is plugged in continuously."
The emphasis is on the word 'Hub'. Do you boot the pen drive directly from the laptop's USB port? Second question: What else do you have attached to the external hub? Have you tried removing everything including the hub prior to booting from the pen drive? This may or may not be relevent to the overall conflict, but external hub's can sometimes create odd consequences.

Governor wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 5:48 pm

AFAIK, my EasyOS USB still works.

are you able to boot with the easyOS USB, make some changes and reboot with persistence working?
make this test with the easyOS USB the only device plugged into any of the laptop's USB ports.

Fossil wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 7:03 pm

@Governor,
You mentioned that.....
"Another issue is my keyboard language setting keeps getting lost even though it shows correctly in the current settings. This happens whenever I plug anything in or out of my USB hub, even though the keyboard is plugged in continuously."
The emphasis is on the word 'Hub'. Do you boot the pen drive directly from the laptop's USB port? Second question: What else do you have attached to the external hub? Have you tried removing everything including the hub prior to booting from the pen drive? This may or may not be relevent to the overall conflict, but external hub's can sometimes create odd consequences.

Hey, @Fossil !

I'll confirm this. I have a 7-port USB 2.0 self-powered hub (has its own power supply).......and Puppy sees it as TWO separate hubs. My guess is this; that the manufacturer created a 7-port hub by taking advantage of USB's ability to "daisy-chain". You connect a second 4-port 'hub' by plugging it into one of the 4 ports on an existing hub. This only leaves 3 usable ports on the first one, but all 4 are available on the second; hence, why it's a 7-port hub.

Which gives even MORE possibilities for "mount-point" mayhem!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's a simple way around all this. Jafadmin posted about it, and provided scripts to take the pain out of it:-

Udev-rules

As Jafa put it, udev-rules is the very same tool that sysadmins use in datacenters on the "big iron".....to ensure that drives will always have a unique "descriptor" (and hence, a permanent, unique mount-point), even if unplugged/re-plugged......because it's linked to the drive's UUID. The only time you would need to re-run udev-rules would be if you re-formatted the drive; the kernel then assigns a new UUID to the new file-system.

https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 945d449dfb

Jafa's scripts create a new directory directly under "/", with the mount-points for your uniquely-named drive inside that. You then use this new top-level directory as the location for any links - these can be left permanently in place - and preferably use an absolute $PATH to find it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jafadmin 'redesigned' it shortly after the first release (which relied on the user manually moving files into the correct locations). It's this re-design that I turned into a .pet.

I've attached this below, since it's no size at all, really.......just a handful of scripts. Install it, then follow the instructions in the "ReadMe" file under /root. Hope some of you find it useful.

Mike.

Fossil wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 7:03 pm

@Governor,
You mentioned that.....
"Another issue is my keyboard language setting keeps getting lost even though it shows correctly in the current settings. This happens whenever I plug anything in or out of my USB hub, even though the keyboard is plugged in continuously."
The emphasis is on the word 'Hub'. Do you boot the pen drive directly from the laptop's USB port? Second question: What else do you have attached to the external hub? Have you tried removing everything including the hub prior to booting from the pen drive? This may or may not be relevent to the overall conflict, but external hub's can sometimes create odd consequences.

I usually boot from a USB CD plugged directly into the laptop.
I sometimes boot a pen drive from the hub, and occasionally from the USB port on the laptop.
Hub #1) is a 7 port (+ 1 charge port) powered USB 3.2 hub plugged into the laptop.

Hub #2) is a 4 port non-powered USB 3.1 hub plugged into the the powered hub.

The keyboard and mouse won't function when connected to the #1 hub, and that is why I use the non-powered hub.
I usually have various USB hdd, or pen/thumb drives plugged into the powered hub, now I have this:

I don't know why the Verbatim pen drive has a lock symbol on it, my current boot iteration is RAM-only mode booted from a CD.
After booting, I noticed that PeasyScale is gone from the menu, and the up button takes a screen shot and opens it. I remapped keycode 111 to up in JWM keyboard shortcuts, so the up key works. Copy/paste won't work in terminal, and I suspect it is somehow related to the up key issue.
Thanks.

rockedge wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 1:56 pm

@Governor

The way to make a boot-able USB with KLV-Airedale using Fossapup64:

1. Start Fossapup64

2. mount the USB drive then with GParted create the partition table and format the drive to ext4 and set the boot flag

3. on the USB drive create a directory for the distro

4. using the running Fossapup64 open rox and click on the KLV ISO that you are installing.

5. copy the contents of the ISO into the USB directory.

6. now run Grub4Dos on the USB drive only. Let it install the boot loader onto the usb drive.

7. using Rox navigate to the KLV directory on the usb drive and run the script wd_grubconfig

8. open the menu.lst on the usb drive in geany

9. copy and paste the wd_grubconfig results (for grub4dos) into the menu.lst.

REBOOT into the USB drive and the Grub4Dos menu should appear

This is my menu.lst. Before I attempt to boot my thumb drive, could someone tell me if Is this bogus or legit??
Thanks.

set distname=KLV-Airedale
set revision=sr12
set savepart=Persistence
set savedir=Sessions
set bootlabel=QEMU

#
# 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

# FOR BOOTING FROM CDROM:

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM0 no persistence)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz
  
title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to %savepart%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz 

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to %savepart%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to sda1/%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to sda1/%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to %bootlabel%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz 

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to %bootlabel%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
# EXTRAS, for example, /mnt/sr0 w_copy2ram:

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM0 no persistence w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0 w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to %savepart%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to %savepart%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to sda1/%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to sda1/%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to %bootlabel%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to %bootlabel%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 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


Assuming names: kernel is vmlinuz and initrd is initrd.gz and booting is
from this build directory and needed modules and firmware are present:


#####menu.lst (note the LABEL or UUID options below):
title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /KLV-Airedale-sr12/grub_config.txt
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL==/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
#############################OR uuid method:
title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root uuid () 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz

#####grub.cfg (note the UUID or LABEL options below):
menuentry "KLV-Airedale-sr12" {
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --label  --set
  linux /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL==/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
}
#############################OR uuid method:
menuentry "KLV-Airedale-sr12" {
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  linux /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
}

Refer to /mnt/sdh1/KLV-Airedale-sr12/grub_config.txt for
copy of this information plus blkid info.
Note that you can remove w_changes=RAM2 if you don't want
save session on demand mode.

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 7:10 am

rockedge wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 1:56 pm

@Governor

The way to make a boot-able USB with KLV-Airedale using Fossapup64:

1. Start Fossapup64

2. mount the USB drive then with GParted create the partition table and format the drive to ext4 and set the boot flag

3. on the USB drive create a directory for the distro

4. using the running Fossapup64 open rox and click on the KLV ISO that you are installing.

5. copy the contents of the ISO into the USB directory.

6. now run Grub4Dos on the USB drive only. Let it install the boot loader onto the usb drive.

7. using Rox navigate to the KLV directory on the usb drive and run the script wd_grubconfig

8. open the menu.lst on the usb drive in geany

9. copy and paste the wd_grubconfig results (for grub4dos) into the menu.lst.

REBOOT into the USB drive and the Grub4Dos menu should appear

This is my menu.lst. Before I attempt to boot my thumb drive, could someone tell me if Is this bogus or legit??
Thanks.

Code: Select all

set distname=KLV-Airedale
set revision=sr12
set savepart=Persistence
set savedir=Sessions
set bootlabel=QEMU

#
# 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

# REMOVE ALL BOOTING FROM CDROM STANZAS:

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM0 no persistence)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz
  
title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to %savepart%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz 

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to %savepart%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to sda1/%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to sda1/%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, RAM2 save on demand to %bootlabel%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz 

title %distname%-%revision% (LABEL, direct saves to %bootlabel%_%savedir%)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL=%distname%=/ w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
# EXTRAS, for example, /mnt/sr0 w_copy2ram:

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM0 no persistence w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0 w_changes=RAM0 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to %savepart%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to %savepart%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%savepart%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to sda1/%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to sda1/%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=/mnt/sda1/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz
 
title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 RAM2 save on demand to %bootlabel%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% w_changes1=RAM2 net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 initrd /initrd.gz

title %distname%-%revision% (/mnt/sr0 direct saves to %bootlabel%_%savedir% w_copy2ram)
 kernel /vmlinuz w_bootfrom=/mnt/sr0  w_changes=LABEL=%bootlabel%=/%savedir%/%distname%-%revision% net.ifnames=0 w_copy2ram
 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


Assuming names: kernel is vmlinuz and initrd is initrd.gz and booting is
from this build directory and needed modules and firmware are present:


#####menu.lst (note the LABEL or UUID options below):
title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /KLV-Airedale-sr12/grub_config.txt
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL==/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
#############################OR uuid method:
title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root uuid () 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz

#####grub.cfg (note the UUID or LABEL options below):
menuentry "KLV-Airedale-sr12" {
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --label  --set
  linux /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=LABEL==/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
}
#############################OR uuid method:
menuentry "KLV-Airedale-sr12" {
  insmod ext2
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  linux /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/initrd.gz
}

Refer to /mnt/sdh1/KLV-Airedale-sr12/grub_config.txt for
copy of this information plus blkid info.
Note that you can remove w_changes=RAM2 if you don't want
save session on demand mode.

@Governor, it looks to me like the top sets of stanzas in this menu.lst are the ones designed to boot KLV-airedlale from a cdrom. I took them out, removed the comments and left only the one stanza you should need to boot Airedale from the USB pendrive, ASSUMING that the UUID in the stanza below is your pendrive.

Copy the below into menu.lst overwriting everything else (you can make a copy of the old for reference with a name like BKP_menu.lst_BKP so it doesn't get used.

Instead try this one below as your complete menu.lst.

If at all possible remove your USB hubs and every other drive, set you bios to boot from USB first, insert this pendrive with this menu.lst and try and boot Airedale.

set distname=KLV-Airedale
set revision=sr12
set savepart=Persistence
set savedir=Sessions
set bootlabel=QEMU

#
# 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

# KLV-Airedale-sr12 from USB pendrive

title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root uuid () 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/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

geo_c wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:46 am

@Governor, it looks to me like the top sets of stanzas in this menu.lst are the ones designed to boot KLV-airedlale from a cdrom. I took them out, removed the comments and left only the one stanza you should need to boot Airedale from the USB pendrive, ASSUMING that the UUID in the stanza below is your pendrive.

Copy the below into menu.lst overwriting everything else (you can make a copy of the old for reference with a name like BKP_menu.lst_BKP so it doesn't get used.

Instead try this one below as your complete menu.lst.

If at all possible remove your USB hubs and every other drive, set you bios to boot from USB first, insert this pendrive with this menu.lst and try and boot Airedlale.

Code: Select all

set distname=KLV-Airedale
set revision=sr12
set savepart=Persistence
set savedir=Sessions
set bootlabel=QEMU

#
# 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

# KLV-Airedale-sr12 from USB pendrive

title KLV-Airedale-sr12
  find --set-root uuid () 5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr12/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=5e465157-b8ac-4f2a-ad60-e5d89642aafa=/KLV-Airedale-sr12
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr12/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

Ok, great, I'll try it.

geo_c wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:46 am

@Governor, it looks to me like the top sets of stanzas in this menu.lst are the ones designed to boot KLV-airedlale from a cdrom. I took them out, removed the comments and left only the one stanza you should need to boot Airedale from the USB pendrive, ASSUMING that the UUID in the stanza below is your pendrive.

Copy the below into menu.lst overwriting everything else (you can make a copy of the old for reference with a name like BKP_menu.lst_BKP so it doesn't get used.

Instead try this one below as your complete menu.lst.

If at all possible remove your USB hubs and every other drive, set you bios to boot from USB first, insert this pendrive with this menu.lst and try and boot Airedale.

One question. How can I save my current settings and configuration in fossapup to the Airedale USB pendrive, so it can be used on boot?
Thanks.

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 11:37 am

geo_c wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:46 am

@Governor, it looks to me like the top sets of stanzas in this menu.lst are the ones designed to boot KLV-airedlale from a cdrom. I took them out, removed the comments and left only the one stanza you should need to boot Airedale from the USB pendrive, ASSUMING that the UUID in the stanza below is your pendrive.

Copy the below into menu.lst overwriting everything else (you can make a copy of the old for reference with a name like BKP_menu.lst_BKP so it doesn't get used.

Instead try this one below as your complete menu.lst.

If at all possible remove your USB hubs and every other drive, set you bios to boot from USB first, insert this pendrive with this menu.lst and try and boot Airedale.

One question. How can I save my current settings and configuration in fossapup to the Airedale USB pendrive, so it can be used on boot?
Thanks.

@Governor , that's out of the question.

You have only one goal here.

Boot Airedale and only Airedale from this pen drive.

from this post of mine, Point number 8 in particular:
viewtopic.php?p=121016#p121016

8) The only actions and decisions necessary at this time are:

• 1 Make a working USB of one nvme capable OS

• 2 Decide which tools to use for checking that nvme disk

addendum: and this is the process of careful elimination of variables. The reason I'm pushing you to boot Airedale is because it will save settings automatically for you, since I removed w_changes=RAM2 from the boot stanza, and then you will have a polished and highly capable OS that saves your settings. You may like it more than fossapup, but whether you choose to run it after reconfiguring your setup is irrelevant. Airedale is simply a stepping stone to tackle your hardware setup.

I'm banking on you never having to use fossapup64_9.5 again and having the ability to setup a more current OS and a sensible drive confiiguration so you can use the OS to do productive work and not have these persistent save issues.

@Governor :-

I don't know where you got the idea - or even, come to that, how - but you seem to be under the impression that you can "mix'n'match" Puppies and 'saves' any way you like.

It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid..!

Puppy "A" will create & use pupsave "A".
Puppy "B" will create & use pupsave "B".

Puppy "A" can NOT use pupsave "B". Conversely, Puppy "B" can NOT use pupsave "A". I cannot stress this strongly enough.

It's not just your settings & installed software. There's a lot of background stuff going on that you don't see, much of which is inextricably linked to processes that are unique to each specific Puppy. You may not see them, but it's all in the save somewhere.....and if you mix stuff that DOESN'T "match", you only have yourself to blame when things go wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know it may seem to you that many of us are using all kinds of "shortcuts" in setting-up our Pups/Dogs/whatever, but believe me.....in order for such things to work as well as they do, there's been an awful lot of hard slog previously invested in ensuring that they WILL work. For most of us, if we release any software for community consumption, you can guarantee that it's been thoroughly tested in just about every conceivable situation FIRST.

There's no "gain" without a certain amount of accompanying "pain", y'know? The best-guaranteed way to have a fuss-free Puppy experience is to set-up each Puppy from scratch; this way, everything should just "work".

If you take the time to set-up KLV 'Airedale' from scratch, everything should work correctly, and you'll have at least ONE reliable OS that can then be used to troubleshoot these hardware issues of yours.

And, just so's you know, the majority of the 'portables' work fine with 'Airedale'.......

Mike.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:36 pm

@Governor :-

I don't know where you got the idea - or even, come to that, how - but you seem to be under the impression that you can "mix'n'match" Puppies and 'saves' any way you like.

It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid..!

Puppy "A" will create & use pupsave "A".
Puppy "B" will create & use pupsave "B".

Puppy "A" can NOT use pupsave "B". Conversely, Puppy "B" can NOT use pupsave "A". I cannot stress this strongly enough.

It's not just your settings & installed software. There's a lot of background stuff going on that you don't see, much of which is inextricably linked to processes that are unique to each specific Puppy. You may not see them, but it's all in the save somewhere.....and if you mix stuff that DOESN'T "match", you only have yourself to blame when things go wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know it may seem to you that many of us are using all kinds of "shortcuts" in setting-up our Pups/Dogs/whatever, but believe me.....in order for such things to work as well as they do, there's been an awful lot of hard slog previously invested in ensuring that they WILL work. For most of us, if we release any software for community consumption, you can guarantee that it's been thoroughly tested in just about every conceivable situation FIRST.

There's no "gain" without a certain amount of accompanying "pain", y'know? The best-guaranteed way to have a fuss-free Puppy experience is to set-up each Puppy from scratch; this way, everything should just "work".

If you take the time to set-up KLV 'Airedale' from scratch, everything should work correctly, and you'll have at least ONE reliable OS that can then be used to troubleshoot these hardware issues of yours.

And, just so's you know, the majority of the 'portables' work fine with 'Airedale'.......

Mike.

That's fine. No harm in asking, right?

FYI, there has also been a lot of hard slog on my end trying to get puppy to work right since Nov. 2022.
nvme-cli report logs 438 unsafe shutdowns, most of which was me pressing the power button because it was the only option. The remainder of the shutdowns were the computer shutting down or rebooting by itself. Perhaps 5 or 6 were due to external or internal power failure. Some of these may be from when I had Windows on the laptop, but not many.

The last shutdown was like this:
"I got up this morning, went to my laptop (which I kept on because puppy is running in RAM-only mode) and discovered that none of the USB peripherals were functioning. This includes my satelite drives, keyboard, mouse and ethernet card. I always use a separate monitor, so I opened up the laptop to access the built-in keyboard and mouse. I did not know how to approach this problem so I tried [Ctrl+Alt+Backspace]. The screen went dark, and there was no keyboard or mouse access, and no visual cues. So, power button once again."

FYI, my current boot of fossapup64_9.5 is from a closed CD and I chose RAM-only mode. I have booted this way countless times now and never encountered these issues previously, but nonetheless: PeasyScale is gone form the right-click menu in Rox. And, the up key does a screenshot and opens the image. And, I can't copy or paste in terminal. I honestly don't see how this is user error.

I don't know, but my guess is that puppy is secretly reading some messed up or corrupted settings file (behind my back, you could say) while booting. I could be wrong (due to my lack of experience), but it is my guess because I can't think of another reason.

IMHO, instead of booting and automatically using the first settings file it finds, the boot strategy design could be as follows:
Give the user a multiple choice of which partitions to look for settings files on.
When the boot settings files are found, offer a multiple choice of which one to use. If it is done like this, I could use the process of elimination to find what works, if any. And the full path to each file should always be shown.

I hope I have better luck with Airedale.
Cheers!

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 2:59 pm

IMHO, instead of booting and automatically using the first settings file it finds, the boot strategy design could be as follows:
Give the user a multiple choice of which partitions to look for settings files on.
When the boot settings files are found, offer a multiple choice of which one to use. If it is done like this, I could use the process of elimination to find what works, if any. And the full path to each file should always be shown.

You can do this yourself, simply by copying the fossapup boot stanza multple times in your menu.lst and adding psubdir= and/or pupsave= to each one.
viewtopic.php?t=5484 (parameters listed at the bottom)

So you can have multiple boot stanzas for the same fossapup and each pointing to a different location where you store saves. In my opinion that would be a bad thing to explore currently.

Why don't you simply do what I told the first time I answered one your posts way back in the beginning. Boot one OS successfully with the save stored in the same directroy as the OS system files, you'll be glad you did. I promise.

Airedale with the boot stanzas I gave you should do that automatically. So you won't have to think at all about it.

EDIT: if you choose the option of trying to continually boot fossapup from what was intended as an Airedale ONLY boot drive, then I think from that point you're on your own.

geo_c wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 5:08 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 2:59 pm

IMHO, instead of booting and automatically using the first settings file it finds, the boot strategy design could be as follows:
Give the user a multiple choice of which partitions to look for settings files on.
When the boot settings files are found, offer a multiple choice of which one to use. If it is done like this, I could use the process of elimination to find what works, if any. And the full path to each file should always be shown.

You can do this yourself, simply by copying the fossapup boot stanza multple times in your menu.lst and adding psubdir= and/or pupsave= to each one.
viewtopic.php?t=5484 (parameters listed at the bottom)

So you can have multiple boot stanzas for the same fossapup and each pointing to a different location where you store saves. In my opinion that would be a bad thing to explore currently.

Why don't you simply do what I told the first time I answered one your posts way back in the beginning. Boot one OS successfully with the save stored in the same directroy as the OS system files, you'll be glad you did. I promise.

Airedale with the boot stanzas I gave you should do that automatically. So you won't have to think at all about it.

EDIT: if you choose the option of trying to continually boot fossapup from your what was intended as an Airedale ONLY boot drive, then I think from that point your on your own.

I am now online with Airedale. I will make a new thread.
I give thanks to you and a special thanks to @rockedge.

FYI, my current boot of fossapup64_9.5 is from a closed CD and I chose RAM-only mode. I have booted this way countless times now and never encountered these issues previously........

either your CD is has become damaged, or you are not actually booting from the CD

puppy is secretly reading

this points to the latter explanation

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:19 am

I don't know why the Verbatim pen drive has a lock symbol on it, my current boot iteration is RAM-only mode booted from a CD.

viewtopic.php?p=73445#p73445

geo_c wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 5:08 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 2:59 pm

IMHO, instead of booting and automatically using the first settings file it finds, the boot strategy design could be as follows:
Give the user a multiple choice of which partitions to look for settings files on.
When the boot settings files are found, offer a multiple choice of which one to use. If it is done like this, I could use the process of elimination to find what works, if any. And the full path to each file should always be shown.

You can do this yourself, simply by copying the fossapup boot stanza multple times in your menu.lst and adding psubdir= and/or pupsave= to each one.
viewtopic.php?t=5484 (parameters listed at the bottom)

The point is not that a seasoned OS user may have the ability to customize startup. The point is that a user booting the OS should have the available options to choose from. If a user is unable to boot, how can they create a workaround.

williwaw wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 9:01 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:19 am

I don't know why the Verbatim pen drive has a lock symbol on it, my current boot iteration is RAM-only mode booted from a CD.

viewtopic.php?p=73445#p73445

And I still don\t get it.

BTW, I am using Airedale now, and can\t find the keyboard settings, or the app that allows editing of the hosts file (also allows downloading of 3 different hosts blocks settings), or pMount. I found the hosts file, and have edited it. I just don\t know if it will return on the next boot in the edited version.
My thumb drive is locked. It has an orange color in the file manager and I can\t open it, which would mean I can\t change anything on that drive, including the boot stanzas.

Hey @geo_c, could you advise on these particulars in Airedale (can\t find the question mark or apostrophe).
Thanks!

Governor wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 8:41 am

williwaw wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 9:01 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:19 am

I don't know why the Verbatim pen drive has a lock symbol on it, my current boot iteration is RAM-only mode booted from a CD.

viewtopic.php?p=73445#p73445

And I still don\t get it.

BTW, I am using Airedale now, and can\t find the keyboard settings, or the app that allows editing of the hosts file (also allows downloading of 3 different hosts blocks settings), or pMount. I found the hosts file, and have edited it. I just don\t know if it will return on the next boot in the edited version.
My thumb drive is locked. It has an orange color in the file manager and I can\t open it, which would mean I can\t change anything on that drive, including the boot stanzas.

Hey @geo_c, could you advise on these particulars in Airedale (can\t find the question mark or apostrophe).
Thanks!

Go to the main menu. It's an icon on the corner of the tray. If you can't find that, just right click on the desktop, then go to Applications>Settings>Keyboard>Layout, hopefully the settings you are looking for are there. There is also Applications>Settings>Removeable Drives and Media where you can make hotplug settings.

I don't know about the hosts file, never used that, tell me where it is and I'll look at it.

There is no pmount in Airedale. You can mount drives by clicking the drive on the desktop icon, or in Thunar by going to 'Computer" and finding the drive there and clicking it. Thunar>menu>Edit>Preferences gives you lots of options.

The drive as displayed as a device that you are booted from is locked in Thunar, but you can access it from /mnt/[YOUR_DRIVE}

In KLV/xfce all external drives are mounted in /run/media/root as opposed to showing up in /mnt/[drive_letter]. They are displayed as partitions with LABELS. Takes some getting used to, but is a smart approach.

ADDED: in Thunar you can change the side panel view to 'tree' and see your drives from there, and they may be mounted automatically depending on the hotplug settings, but if not just click on the drive in the tree and it will mount. XFCE with Thunar is easy for mounting and unmounting from the File Manager.

Here's one of my drives showing in Thunar:

@Governor

While the system is working well you might want to go to Applications>Accessories or Applications>System and look for backup/restoresys, which is @fredx181's very handy backup script to back up your upper_changes which is now where your changes are saved. You won't be given a choice at boot to use the backup, but you will have a backup in case some changes go south.

Later I'll tell you how to restore and roll back if needed.