Can't boot from USB, partition not found

[fernan]

Hello. I'm having a problem trying to boot S15pup32 in a specific computer (problem is similar with Bionicpup 32 and Jammypup32).

The computer: a "COMMODORE" with a label telling it's a "SMP QB-BAT32"

The problem: During boot, the main sfs file is not found. (error messages and grub.cfg files attached)

I installed S15pup32 (but tried different puppies all with the same problem) to a USB pen drive using Stickup and Frugalup (with both, same problem), from my current Bionicpup64 computer. Both install utils ended with the same problem.

These are screenshots of the booting process:

IMG_20240609_113524092.jpg (73.58 KiB) Viewed 580 times

IMG_20240609_195320239.jpg (55.55 KiB) Viewed 580 times

IMG_20240609_195341349.jpg (48.97 KiB) Viewed 580 times

[fernan]

more picts (max is 3 at each post) and grub.cfg content

IMG_20240609_195403423.jpg (78.29 KiB) Viewed 578 times

IMG_20240609_115300068.jpg (112.88 KiB) Viewed 578 times

This last pict is from a previous boot try, perhaps some number doesn't match the other picts, but error is always the same, main SFS not found.

Grub.cfg content:

#
set default=0
set timeout=5

set menu_color_normal='yellow/blue'
set menu_color_highlight='black/cyan'

if [ $grub_platform = 'efi' ]; then
loadfont /boot/grub/fonts/DejaVuSansMono18.pf2
set gfxmode=auto
terminal_output gfxterm
fi

menuentry "Puppy s15pup32 22.12" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set D4A2-2C00
insmod fat
echo "Loading vmlinuz"
linux /S15Pup32/vmlinuz net.ifnames=0 pmedia=usbflash pdrv=D4A2-2C00 psubdir=/S15Pup32 pfix=fsck,fsckp TZ=XXX3
echo "Loading initrd.gz"
initrd /S15Pup32/initrd.gz
}
if [ $grub_platform = 'efi' ]; then
menuentry 'System BIOS setup' {
fwsetup
}
fi
menuentry "Shutdown computer" {
halt
}
menuentry "Reboot computer" {
reboot
}

[geo_c]

The uuid for that drive looks really short to me. Are you sure that's the correct uuid number? Do you have another linux OS to boot where you can open a terminal and type blkid which should list your mounted drives and their UUID numbers?

And just to let you know, S15 is a very limited puppy due to the fact that it's based on Slackware which provides very few applications to install.

There are several newer and fully featured puppies available like the latest BookwormPup64 found here: viewtopic.php?p=89020#p89020

edit: I also am now noticing you may be trying to boot off a vfat formatted partition? Is that an internal hard drive, or an attached hard drive, or an attached flash drive? The boot stanza says pmedia=usbflash, so I'm assuming it's a flash drive.

[fernan]

Hello. As mentioned, I've just installed a puppy linux to an USB stick, and tried to boot a second computer from that USB stick.

vmlinuz and initrd.gz are found inside the proper subfolder (created by the installer in the USB stick), but then the main SFS is not found.

I can try different puppy versions, but the problem is always the same. It's something related to the uuid assigned to the USB but I don't know how to fix that.

[fernan]

Out of curiosity, tried the same USB flash in a different computer, and it works fine, so it's something related to this specific hardware. Probably too old? it's running Windows XP

[geo_c]

Out of curiosity, tried the same USB flash in a different computer, and it works fine, so it's something related to this specific hardware. Probably too old? it's running Windows XP

Sorry for overlooking the USB in your original post. Yeah, that's odd. So you're saying s15 boots from a different computer from that same stick? If so, it's not the boot stanzas and you're right, must be hardware specific.

But just to check, the puppy.sfs system files are in this directory, correct? psubdir=/S15Pup32

[fernan]

Yes, just 1 minute ago, that same USB flash boots perfectly in another computer, so it's hardware related, something in this computer doesn't recognize that uuid thing.

[geo_c]

Yes, just 1 minute ago, that same USB flash boots perfectly in another computer, so it's hardware related, something in this computer doesn't recognize that uuid thing.

Well it should be possible to add another boot stanza in grub.cfg and try and boot it from LABEL or drive instead of UUID. Although I'm not great with grub.cfg bootstanzas, I mostly use menu.lst.

Or if you want to use this stick for that computer only for booting, you could try grub4dos.

[mikewalsh]

@geo_c :-

The uuid for that drive looks really short to me. Are you sure that's the correct uuid number? Do you have another linux OS to boot where you can open a terminal and type blkid which should list your mounted drives and their UUID numbers?

RE: the "short" UUID? It looks lke a FAT32 identifier to me......either 'vfat' OR 'exfat'. Take a look at 'blkid', run on my system just a few moments ago:-

Code: Select all

root# blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop1: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop5: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="0DC9-07A3" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="01184b85-01"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="PUPS" UUID="b142cd08-ce81-413e-b963-12b393d8eaa3" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="01184b85-02"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="DATA" UUID="a37ce545-9fb7-4189-bed2-3fd6f2e20cf2" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="01184b85-03"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="S.Desk-1" UUID="190eb203-07ac-490e-aa0f-d10419ca91bc" TYPE="ext3" PARTLABEL="Seagate-1" PARTUUID="531048e8-347b-4b54-9b1d-671dc5718241"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="S.Desk-2" UUID="6d394fd7-aad2-4e20-90a9-c3ddcf07cc3e" TYPE="ext3" PARTLABEL="Seagate-2" PARTUUID="68a52708-806b-4141-bf9f-03d878b80bd3"
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="Trfer" UUID="6326-557D" TYPE="exfat" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="a6e00074-a063-4f57-aee4-6306af209c58"
/dev/sdb4: UUID="766fc0e4-d993-4e75-bea2-deb5f8cd32f2" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="cfa4628a-8dff-43ff-bf1c-ac6dcec132d2"
root#

Sda1 is the obligatory FAT32 boot partition for a UEFI machine. Sdb3 is an exFAT "transfer" partition I set up a few weeks ago for the occasions when I play around with ChromeOS-Flex from its external USB SSD.......and want to transfer data into the rest of the system. ChromeOS-Flex can READ ext2, 3, 4, etc., but it apparently doesn't support writing to them. It's quite fussy about the filesystem(s) in use......and most of its tiny partitions aren't recognised by gParted at all, so I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how Google put the thing together!

Notice those very short UUIDs. Ntfs does exactly the same...

Mike.

[fernan]

So, is it possible to remove that kind of uuid identifier in grub.cfg and identify the USB partition in other way?

I didn't have this problem before, actually never was aware or paid attention to that line on grub.cfg

[geo_c]

So, is it possible to remove that kind of uuid identifier in grub.cfg and identify the USB partition in other way?

I didn't have this problem before, actually never was aware or paid attention to that line on grub.cfg

Yes, you can give the USB drive a LABEL, like "PupBoot" and rewrite the stanzas in grub.cfg, or better yet add another stanza written with the search for the drive by LABEL option. That way you can have to two choices at boot for which one to use depending on the machine you're using.

But like I said, I'm not good with grub.cfg, or certain on the syntax ,(so don't try this exactly, hopefully someone will jump in and give you the exact stanza)), but it should contain a line somethng like this one in the top:

Code: Select all

insmod fat
search --no-floppy --label  --set

and then somewhere a line containing something like bootfrom=PupBoot, I think!

Or I believe it's possible to find the boot location by drive letter assignement, if you're pretty certain it comes up the same way on boot everyttime, like /sda1 or /sdb1.

@mikewalsh can you clarfy? My grub.cfg skills are sketchy.

[mikewalsh]

@mikewalsh can you clarify? My grub.cfg skills are sketchy.

Heh. You're whistling in the wind there, mate; you're talking to a die-hard Grub4DOS user . It's always worked for me, and done what I ask of it, so.......I stick with it.

My own GRUB2 skills are very minimal, I'm afraid. One of the reasons I came to Puppy a decade ago was to get away from it....

Sorry an' all that. Folks like @rockedge and @rcrsn51 - maybe @fredx181 - would be better equipped to help with boot stanzas and grub.cfg. Folks keep telling me I should make the switch to grub2config, but frankly I don't see the point; I have a fully-functional, "working" system. Where's the sense in changing it just for the sake of doing so?

I'm not like many others on here, who love experimenting with new things all the time. I'm all for stability, and a predictable, versatile, solid functioning system. I'm afraid my "fooling-around" days are in the past; I'm more about 'polishing' & 'streamlining' an existing system so it suits my requirements ever better. That's not to say I won't add new stuff to an already-stable system, but I'll do so with a copy of the "good" system until I'm satisfied no adverse effects will come of it.

Mike.

[fernan]

I don't have any particular attachment to Grub2, or Grub4DOS, or any other boot loader. I'd be happy just booting puppy linux on this computer.

Do you know any other way to setup a bootable USB drive? As mentioned, it seems this computer doesn't "see" or "understand" those uuid numbers, at least at boot up. If I run the blkid command after the error, from the initial-ramdisk console, the uuid is shown. So, the computer is seeing the drive, but something doesn't work at boot.

[Federico]

Please check the USB ports of the PC. The maximum current which the ports can handle may give problems.
Refer to the following table:

USB 1.X --> max current is 100 mA = 0.1 A = 0.5 Watts @ 5 Volts

USB 2.x --> max current is 500 mA = 0.5 A = 2.5 Watts @ 5 Volts

USB 3.x --> max current is 900 mA = 0.9 A = 4.5 Watts @ 5 Volts

Please provide also make and model of the USB stick.

[fernan]

Thanks for your answer.

The USB drive works on that computer under windows. It's a Kingston DTI/512 Data Traveler.

The computer has USB and USB2 ports, same result at both ports. It works under windows on both ports.

I think the problem is related to that uuid identifier, not being recognized. But vmlinuz and inird.gz are found at boot. It must be something I need to modify in grub.cfg to locate the main sfs.

[geo_c]

Thanks for your answer.

The USB drive works on that computer under windows. It's a Kingston DTI/512 Data Traveler.

The computer has USB and USB2 ports, same result at both ports. It works under windows on both ports.

I think the problem is related to that uuid identifier, not being recognized. But vmlinuz and inird.gz are found at boot. It must be something I need to modify in grub.cfg to locate the main sfs.

try changing this in grub.cfg: search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set D4A2-2C00
to this: search --no-floppy --set=root --label [your-USB-stick-label]

and change: pdrv=D4A2-2C00
to: pdrv=[your-USB-stick-label]

That may be all you need to do.

[Federico]

It's quite annoying that the manufacturers don't publish complete data sheets. There's basically no way to know the maximum power draw of the stick.
The power draw is not constant. Exactly like for HDDs and SSDs, the fact that it "works" does not mean that it can work in every possible situation. For sure when the stick is writing it draws a lot more power. Even when reading, the reading speed results in different power draws.
The PSU of the PC may not be fit or simply not good enough to provide the port with enough power. Also make sure to use a port which is directly soldered to the motherboard (not the ones connected through an internal cable).
If you have a self-powered USB hub (with an own external power supply), you could try to connect it to one USB port of the PC and then connect the stick to the hub.
And, anyway, what you need to keep in mind is that when using 1 single USB 2.x port, you have no more than 2.5 Watts of power (500 mA) at your disposal.

[bigpup]

I installed S15pup32 (but tried different puppies all with the same problem) to a USB pen drive using Stickup and Frugalup (with both, same problem), from my current Bionicpup64 computer.

Try installing the latest version of Frugalpup Installer v41in your working Bionicpup64.
viewtopic.php?t=337

It provides the different stickpup installers and will update them from what is in Bionicpup64.

Try a fresh clean install using the newer version of Stickpup.

Any help?

[fernan]

Thanks for your answer.

The USB drive works on that computer under windows. It's a Kingston DTI/512 Data Traveler.

The computer has USB and USB2 ports, same result at both ports. It works under windows on both ports.

I think the problem is related to that uuid identifier, not being recognized. But vmlinuz and inird.gz are found at boot. It must be something I need to modify in grub.cfg to locate the main sfs.

try changing this in grub.cfg: search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set D4A2-2C00
to this: search --no-floppy --set=root --label [your-USB-stick-label]

and change: pdrv=D4A2-2C00
to: pdrv=[your-USB-stick-label]

That may be all you need to do.

How exactly should I label my usb partition?

[geo_c]

Thanks for your answer.

The USB drive works on that computer under windows. It's a Kingston DTI/512 Data Traveler.

The computer has USB and USB2 ports, same result at both ports. It works under windows on both ports.

I think the problem is related to that uuid identifier, not being recognized. But vmlinuz and inird.gz are found at boot. It must be something I need to modify in grub.cfg to locate the main sfs.

try changing this in grub.cfg: search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set D4A2-2C00
to this: search --no-floppy --set=root --label [your-USB-stick-label]

and change: pdrv=D4A2-2C00
to: pdrv=[your-USB-stick-label]

That may be all you need to do.

How exactly should I label my usb partition?

If it has no label already, that can be done using gparted. There might be another way to do it, but that's how I do it. In other words you need to use a partion management tool.

[geo_c]

If it has no label already, that can be done using gparted. There might be another way to do it, but that's how I do it. In other words you need to use a partion management tool.

I found this way to do it from command line on the Ubuntu forum, but I haven't tried them yet. You would use the fat/vfat:

Since the label is a property of the filesystem there are individual ways to set the label for different file systems.

for ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystems you use:
e2label /dev/XXX <label>

for btrfs:
btrfs filesystem label /dev/XXX <label>

for reiserfs:
reiserfstune -l <label> /dev/XXX

for jfs:
jfs_tune -L <label> /dev/XXX

for xfs:
xfs_admin -L <label> /dev/XXX

for fat/vfat (using dosfstools):
fatlabel /dev/XXX <label>

OR (using mtools):
mlabel -i /dev/XXX ::<label>

for exfat (you might need to install exfat-utils first):
exfatlabel /dev/XXX <label>

for ntfs:
ntfslabel /dev/XXX <label>

for swap (first you need to swapoff):
swaplabel -L <label> /dev/XXX

also here's a good reference: https://www.tecmint.com/change-modify-l ... bel-names/

[fernan]

I see my previous answer was not published.

I'll try those different ways.

In the meantime I've found a similar thread here at the puppy forum, the problem was solved adding a "usbwait=XX" boot parameter. (XX being wait seconds). I'll try that before investigating any further.

I've managed to boot puppy in this machine copying the puppy files to the hard drive and setting "root=(hd0,2)" in grub.cfg . That made the OS to boot, but that's not supposed the way it should work. I'll post back if I manage to boot from the USB drive.

[rcrsn51]

@fernan The BIOSes of some very old machines have trouble with the modern UEFI-compatible Puppy ISOs.

You might try making your USB drive with another tool like Rufus.

[bigpup]

setting "root=(hd0,2)" in grub.cfg .

Nothing wrong in doing this.

That is just another way to identify the drive and partition.

That was the way it was done, before the use of UUID.

UUID is used, because it is specific, and only that partition, can have that identifier. It never changes.

[fernan]

setting "root=(hd0,2)" in grub.cfg .

Nothing wrong in doing this.

That is just another way to identify the drive and partition.

That was the way it was done, before the use of UUID.

UUID is used, because it is specific, and only that partition, can have that identifier. It never changes.

Yes, nothing wrong, but I'm booting from the hard drive and the usb drive is still not booting. It works as a workaround, but only if I copy the puppy files previously to the HDD. Not really a portable OS. Anyway, it seems this computer and Puppy linux are not best friends, the touchpad is not working after booting, so I think I'll give up trying puppy on this machine. Tried many different puppy versions and all of them ended with that touchpad problem. My idea was to give it new life installing a lighter OS and an updated web browser, to do basic tasks, even running a music or file server, or run some games for my little children.

[rcrsn51]

@fernan I guess you ignored my suggestion above.

[fernan]

@fernan I guess you ignored my suggestion above.

I keep trying different things, and I see "Rufus" is not present in my Bionicpup64 install. I was trying to install puppy with the standard tools it has built in. I'll check Rufus for sure later (I'm searching for it right now, I didn't find it in the puppy package manager). But the fact that even when booting from the HDD, the OS has problems with my hardware has discouraged me a bit.

EDITED: I see Rufus is a Windows app.

[geo_c]

@fernan I guess you ignored my suggestion above.

I keep trying different things, and I see "Rufus" is not present in my Bionicpup64 install. I was trying to install puppy with the standard tools it has built in. I'll check Rufus for sure later (I'm searching for it right now, I didn't find it in the puppy package manager). But the fact that even when booting from the HDD, the OS has problems with my hardware has discouraged me a bit.

EDITED: I see Rufus is a Windows app.

The thing about puppies is that in order to keep the overall size of the OS down, the driver modules can be limited in the kernel package. Puppy developers provide what are known as 'huge kernels' with more complete sets of drivers and modules for hardware. So asking in a subsection of the forum designated for the particular pup you're using might give you some options there. It's usually a matter of replacing 4 or 5 files in the OS directory.

[rcrsn51]

The thing about puppies is that in order to keep the overall size of the OS down, the driver modules can be limited in the kernel package. Puppy developers provide what are known as 'huge kernels' with more complete sets of drivers and modules for hardware. So asking in a subsection of the forum designated for the particular pup you're using might give you some options there. It's usually a matter of replacing 4 or 5 files in the OS directory.

??????
This has nothing to do with kernels and driver modules. It's about the bootloader not being able to find some partitions, either because it is mis-configured or because the BIOS can't find them either, so it can't report them to the bootloader.

[geo_c]

The thing about puppies is that in order to keep the overall size of the OS down, the driver modules can be limited in the kernel package. Puppy developers provide what are known as 'huge kernels' with more complete sets of drivers and modules for hardware. So asking in a subsection of the forum designated for the particular pup you're using might give you some options there. It's usually a matter of replacing 4 or 5 files in the OS directory.

??????
This has nothing to do with kernels and driver modules. It's about the bootloader not being able to find some partitions, either because it is mis-configured or because the BIOS can't find them either, so it can't report them to the bootloader.

If I read the entirety of this thread correctly, he said he's booting from the hard drive, that he's booted many different puppy versions and that they all have trouble with his touchpad.

His USB boot doesn't get recognized by the bios on this particular machine. AFIK the hard drive boot is functioning normally except for the touchpad.

Couldn't that be the driver modules?