Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I am trying to install 32 bit debian voidpup onto my compaq evo n600c laptop. Burned onto a cd using brasero cd burning software from a manjaro distribution.

The laptop has Q4OS 32 bit Trinity on it, but runs slower than government.

Installation hangs after about 50 seconds where it says
performing a "switch root" to the aufs filesystem

What is happening? How do I fix it?

Thanks in advance.

@moderators, please move to an appropriate section of the forum. The OP is trying to deploy a 32 bit debian voidpup to a CD and was unsuccessful using brasero cd burning software from a manjaro distribution.

Tip to notbob. New posts will always be written to whatever section of the forum your web-browser currently has open.

Sorry notbob. I haven't burned a CD in over a decade. Likely problem is that brasero doesn't deploy the contents of a Puppy ISO properly, or having done so doesn't write the bootloader correctly.

But there are two other possibilities: Your computer was manufactured with as little as 128 Mbs of RAM. https://www.productindetail.com/pn/compaq-evo-n600c but can be upgraded to 1 Gb. https://www.memorystock.com/CompaqEvoN600c.html How much do you have? On bootup a Puppy will copy its entire operating system into RAM. You may not have enough. Take it from someone 'all thumbs': replacing RAM isn't all that difficult.

The above link also indicates that your CPU is an Intel Mobile Pentium III-M. IIRC, in order to boot Pentium III-Ms requires that the bootloader include the command 'forcepae'. Not easy to obtain when booting from a CD. I think (please confirm) the evo-n600c has two USB ports. If so, don't be concerned if you need them for other activities. Since Puppy will copy its entire operating system into RAM on boot up, when completed you can unplug the 'boot-usb', freeing the port for other uses.

Thanks for the quick response.

128 mb of ram is all I have. I will search through my piles of old parts and see if I have more of the same.

There are two USB ports, but the laptop will not boot from USB. It is not an option in the BIOS.

Does your device have an existing operating system installed?

If yes, which one?

Reading the hardware specifications, it states you have a floppy disk drive.

You can create a bootable floppy that will give to access to the USB ports.

Look for PLOP Boot Manager

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/plpbt.bin.html

What is your intended purpose for using this device?

Why not try the legacy version of Damn Small Linux?

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/old-index.html

Archive:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/archive/

or

ArchLinx32 provides ISO's for i686 cpu's:

https://archlinux32.org/

This thread will be of interest to you:

viewtopic.php?t=12935

The device has Q4OS installed, but it is incredibly slow.

There is no floppy drive, will only boot from hard disk or CD ROM, according to the BIOS.

The plan was to use it to teach my 6 year old granddaughter to use computers, with educational software.

Will investigate damn small linux.

There are two USB ports, but the laptop will not boot from USB. It is not an option in the BIOS.

Look into using PLOP boot manager to bypass the can't boot from USB problem! Works well.

Jasper wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2024 6:46 am

What is your intended purpose for using this device?

I was also thinking of keeping it out of the landfill.

PLOP boot manager is burned to a CD-ROM. Boot the disk and then a menu will present the choices which USB port the boot device is plugged into.

I resurrected and used a really old 32 bit only machine that had the same aged BIOS that provided no way to boot from the USB port. I ran Puppy Linux Lucid 5.28 then Tahr-6.0.5 (no PAE kernels) on it until it really died...after long long life of working.

Surprised that you say it has no floppy drive.

I saw this online, which is why I suggested using the Plop Boot Manager for floppies.