Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I am new to Puppy. I have a VERY old system and I was hoping that Puppy would run on it. Puppy starts trying to load from the CD Drive, but eventually ends with the error message below. Does anyone have an idea of what I should try next?

end Kernal Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block (0,0)

SYSTEM:
Pentium Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80 GHz (200x9)
1022M memory

PUPPY:
VoidPup64-22.02-241006
booting from CD-ROM
no remastered, just original iso

As a general rule, very old machines need older Puppies. I don't know if the newest Puppies still support CD booting.

I would look at BionicPup in the Mainline section.

How did you burn the ISO image to the CD?

Give specific details?

What operating system running what burning program?

Look at what is on the CD for files.

Should be a bunch of different files on the CD.

Are all the names in lower case letters?

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 8:40 pm

As a general rule, very old machines need older Puppies. I don't know if the newest Puppies still support CD booting.

I would look at BionicPup in the Mainline section.

I will have a look, thanks.
EDIT: bionicpup64-8.0-uefi didn't work.

bigpup wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 9:10 pm

How did you burn the ISO image to the CD?

Give specific details?

What operating system running what burning program?

Look at what is on the CD for files.

Should be a bunch of different files on the CD.

Are all the names in lower case letters?

I burned the iso to a CD using Windows 10 built-in Disc Image Tools.

Yes, there are a bunch of different files on the CD.

No, all the names are NOT in lower case letters
.

Will this CD boot the machine on which it was burned?

@maxthrottle :- Hallo.....and to the "kennels".

Whilst generally speaking I agree with @rcrsn51 about the need for older Puppies on older machines - there ARE limits, even for Puppy! - I've had success booting Fossapup64 9.5 (the original build) on an elderly Dell Inspiron 530s desktop, circa 2007/8.

I would hazard a guess this is a Vista-generation machine. My mate's 530s has almost identical specs to this; I think his Pentium Dual-core is the next model up (an E2180, I believe; the 2.00 GHz model), and he has 2 GB RAM.....but that had no problems with booting from CD.

I couldn't get it to boot from USB, due to the fact that the ancient BIOS in that machine doesn't recognise the way that modern USB flash drives now report themselves as a USB-HDD; newer BIOS implementations will now recognise this, and will work with it. Unfortunately, there are no further updates for that machine; it's already on the newest BIOS available for it.

I KNOW for a fact that I've had Xenialpup64 successfully installed AND booting on that machine. Worth a look, perhaps:-

https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-xenial/64/

However, @bigpup may be closer to home. Windows 'burner' software doesn't always create a bootable Puppy disk correctly; sometimes it's the software itself.....but more often than not, it's down to user error, and not understanding a few simple, basic rules when burning an optical disc.

Mike.

All the file names on the CD need to be in lower case letters.

The boot process is looking for names that are in lower case letters.

Us a different program in Windows to do the burn.
There are many free ones you can get on the internet.
Here is one that is reported to work:
BurnCDCC, (tested) available here https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downl ... -software/

Also in the computers UEFI bios settings.
Have secure boot disabled and also quick boot.

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 2:26 am

Will this CD boot the machine on which it was burned?

No. But it gets much further. It loads the files to ram (done), but then it goes to a black screen with an underscore in the top left corner, and stays that way.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 9:17 am

@maxthrottle :- Hallo.....and to the "kennels".

Whilst generally speaking I agree with @rcrsn51 about the need for older Puppies on older machines - there ARE limits, even for Puppy! - I've had success booting Fossapup64 9.5 (the original build) on an elderly Dell Inspiron 530s desktop, circa 2007/8.

I would hazard a guess this is a Vista-generation machine. My mate's 530s has almost identical specs to this; I think his Pentium Dual-core is the next model up (an E2180, I believe; the 2.00 GHz model), and he has 2 GB RAM.....but that had no problems with booting from CD.

I couldn't get it to boot from USB, due to the fact that the ancient BIOS in that machine doesn't recognise the way that modern USB flash drives now report themselves as a USB-HDD; newer BIOS implementations will now recognise this, and will work with it. Unfortunately, there are no further updates for that machine; it's already on the newest BIOS available for it.

I KNOW for a fact that I've had Xenialpup64 successfully installed AND booting on that machine. Worth a look, perhaps:-

https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-xenial/64/

However, @bigpup may be closer to home. Windows 'burner' software doesn't always create a bootable Puppy disk correctly; sometimes it's the software itself.....but more often than not, it's down to user error, and not understanding a few simple, basic rules when burning an optical disc.

Mike.

Hello, thank you.
Vista, I wish, it is Windows89.
I will give Xenialpup64 a try. Thank you.

bigpup wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 1:57 pm

All the file names on the CD need to be in lower case letters.

The boot process is looking for names that are in lower case letters.

Us a different program in Windows to do the burn.
There are many free ones you can get on the internet.
Here is one that is reported to work:
BurnCDCC, (tested) available here https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downl ... -software/

Also in the computers UEFI bios settings.
Have secure boot disabled and also quick boot.

I will give BurnCDCC a try. Thank you.
I will also try Brasero on my Ubuntu machine.

So for I have tried the following OSs:

BionicPUP 64-8.0
VoidPuppy 64 22.02
F96-CE_4
antiX 23.2
tinyCore
Ubuntu 11.10
Ubuntu 6.10
Ubuntu 4.10
Windows 89

The only ones that worked were tinyCore and Windows 89.

I had this issue earlier this year.

My screen-broken HP M$ windoz Laptop wouldn't boot from USB - and it couldn't run the Linux *.iso DVD's either (even Debian!!). The only USB options were to boot from an external CD drive or HDA. It wouldn't boot from thumb-drives no matter how you set the boot priorities - there was no option for just "USB device".

BUT it had an option in the Boot Manager in the BIOS to "Boot From EFI File". (hitting F9 during start)

in the File Explorer I selected the USB thumbdrive ---><EFI>---->-----> <boot. ----> bootx64.efi

I just ran it with the BionicPuppy USB i recently used (it way laying around on the desk) and it booted the machine. BionicPuppy iso here

you might want to see if your motherboard has that option. not sure which function key would trigger the Boot Manager.

My HP is probably a newer machine than yours (based on the CPU) - but this might get a USB stick to work....maybe....

Just tossing ideas out there....

@maxthrottle :-

Um. Something doesn't quite add up here.

Are you absolutely certain about that CPU? The Pentium Dual-Core didn't even come out until several years after Windows 98 had gone EOL. I find it very strange that I could get Puppy booting from a similar CPU - just a couple of steps up the ladder from yours, just a bit faster - but you're not able to.

Hell, I've had Puppy running from the even older Pentium 4 single-core. So have many others here.

I'm thinking it's NOT the CPU (or amount of RAM) that's the issue here. I'm beginning to wonder quite how your BIOS drive-handling routines are set up. You've also given us no information on the size of the internal drive, how it's partitioned OR the file format type(s). Windows 98 was notorious for not wanting to install if it thought there was more RAM than there should be, plus it was, apparently, expecting somewhat older drive designations.....and TinyCore is almost identical to Linux from the very early days, when the user was expected to set up absolutely everything manually (with very little documentation).

Don't ask me how you check this stuff; I was reading about it sometime early last year, though I'm not ENOUGH of a hardware guru to really understand it. Having never tried re-installing such an old version of Windows, naturally I have zero experience with anything similar...

Mike.

This sounds to me like a hardware problem with the old optical drive. Here is how Puppy works off a CD:
1. The BIOS must spin up the drive to locate and load the vmlinuz and initrd files.
2. The initrd must keep the drive spinning so it can load the main Puppy SFS files.
If Step 2 fails, Puppy won't boot. The same is true with other multi-file distros like Ubuntu.
But Tiny Core would work because it only needs Step 1.
Fatdog also only needs Step 1, but you might not have enough RAM for it.

clm1919 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:49 pm

I had this issue earlier this year.

My screen-broken HP M$ windoz Laptop wouldn't boot from USB - and it couldn't run the Linux *.iso DVD's either (even Debian!!). The only USB options were to boot from an external CD drive or HDA. It wouldn't boot from thumb-drives no matter how you set the boot priorities - there was no option for just "USB device".

BUT it had an option in the Boot Manager in the BIOS to "Boot From EFI File". (hitting F9 during start)

in the File Explorer I selected the USB thumbdrive ---><EFI>---->-----> <boot. ----> bootx64.efi

I just ran it with the BionicPuppy USB i recently used (it way laying around on the desk) and it booted the machine. BionicPuppy iso here

you might want to see if your motherboard has that option. not sure which function key would trigger the Boot Manager.

My HP is probably a newer machine than yours (based on the CPU) - but this might get a USB stick to work....maybe....

Just tossing ideas out there....

I may try a USB, but I figured a CD would be easier (the Gods Laugh). I may try a USB after I give up on CDs. Thanks for the suggestion.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:50 pm

@maxthrottle :-

Um. Something doesn't quite add up here.

Are you absolutely certain about that CPU? The Pentium Dual-Core didn't even come out until several years after Windows 98 had gone EOL. I find it very strange that I could get Puppy booting from a similar CPU - just a couple of steps up the ladder from yours, just a bit faster - but you're not able to.

Hell, I've had Puppy running from the even older Pentium 4 single-core. So have many others here.

I'm thinking it's NOT the CPU (or amount of RAM) that's the issue here. I'm beginning to wonder quite how your BIOS drive-handling routines are set up. You've also given us no information on the size of the internal drive, how it's partitioned OR the file format type(s). Windows 98 was notorious for not wanting to install if it thought there was more RAM than there should be, plus it was, apparently, expecting somewhat older drive designations.....and TinyCore is almost identical to Linux from the very early days, when the user was expected to set up absolutely everything manually (with very little documentation).

Don't ask me how you check this stuff; I was reading about it sometime early last year, though I'm not ENOUGH of a hardware guru to really understand it. Having never tried re-installing such an old version of Windows, naturally I have zero experience with anything similar...

Mike.

I am certain about the CPU, it's in the boot info and I still have the invoice! However, I built the machine myself and don't remember what OS I used with it originally. But I found a Windows98 disc in a box and stuck it in the CD Drive and it ran.

I suspect you are right that it is not the hardware, but BIOS or the disc somehow.

I am not sure why the HDD is an issue if the CD doesn't even run. Obviously, it will be an issue if it gets to install phase. When I am installing Ubuntu, the DVD starts in LIVE mode and asks "Try" or "Install". Is it not the same way with Puppy?

WD Caviar SE
Enhanced IDE Drive
160GB

rcrsn51 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 10:43 pm

This sounds to me like a hardware problem with the old optical drive. Here is how Puppy works off a CD:
1. The BIOS must spin up the drive to locate and load the vmlinuz and initrd files.
2. The initrd must keep the drive spinning so it can load the main Puppy SFS files.
If Step 2 fails, Puppy won't boot. The same is true with other multi-file distros like Ubuntu.
But Tiny Core would work because it only needs Step 1.
Fatdog also only needs Step 1, but you might not have enough RAM for it.

Interesting! And that would explain why it goes further on the new machine. Thanks.

And thank you to everyone who took their time to share their knowledge. It is greatly appreciated.
_

@maxthrottle

maxthrottle wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 2:17 pm

So for I have tried the following OSs:

BionicPUP 64-8.0
VoidPuppy 64 22.02
F96-CE_4
antiX 23.2
tinyCore
Ubuntu 11.10
Ubuntu 6.10
Ubuntu 4.10
Windows 89

The only ones that worked were tinyCore and Windows 89.

this is a CRAZY thought - (born from a failed project - RIP core2duo MacMini) - but some early 64-bit CPU's were actually put on motherboards that weren't exactly "64 bit clean". firmware upgrades were required. Some of the more tech-savvy people here can tell me I'm off my rocker...I'm just "banging rocks" together to try and spark someone else.....

What booted on your machine were (I'm guessing) 32 bit Operating Systems...
Windows 98 is a 32 bit OS - and I'm pretty sure the "main" linked iso's on the TinyCore homepage are also( Core, TinyCore and CorePlus)

- the 64 bit iso is called CorePure64-15.0.iso or TinyCorePure64-15.0.iso

Again, i'm just tossing Ideas out.

If it's stupid, but it works, it's not stupid

- my motto

-Although I'd still suggest trying the USB boot trick (because now I'm curious).