Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Sometimes, when I try to boot FossaPup from a USB stick, I get a fatal error message "such-and-such SFS file not found". If I shut down and try to boot again, it works (or at least always has so far). But then a few more boots into the future, I will get the error message again... any idea why? The only thing I can figure right now is that, possibly, if I try to boot from a USB following a re-boot from Windows rather than a shut-down and re-start, it may cause this issue...

Edit: okay, it just happened again. I saved the error log, but I don't know what to look for...

ChrisFH wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 1:59 pm

Sometimes, when I try to boot FossaPup from a USB stick, I get a fatal error message "such-and-such SFS file not found". If I shut down and try to boot again, it works (or at least always has so far). But then a few more boots into the future, I will get the error message again... any idea why? The only thing I can figure right now is that, possibly, if I try to boot from a USB following a re-boot from Windows rather than a shut-down and re-start, it may cause this issue...

Edit: okay, it just happened again. I saved the error log, but I don't know what to look for...

I'm guessing you may be right about windows, because Windows doesn't necessarily do a full shut-down, meaning it might put a flag on the drive, or lock the drive if not fully shutdown. There is a way to full shut down in windows, something like hold the shift key while clicking shutdown in the shutdown menu.

And this is the beauty of using puppy.

Find a decent used computer shop and buy yourself a $250 old laptop, maybe an i5 Dell or HP, and format the hard drive ext4 and install puppy. Let the fun begin.

If you copy the sfs files to the hard drive ( /mnt/home/ it should boot much faster and more reliably than if the sfs files are not copied to the hard drive.

Unless the save file is also on the usb flash drive.

it can be a hardware problem
bad usb flash drive.
bad usb jack

It can be a timing issue

If you have the save file/dir in the usbflash drive
booting with pmedia=usbflash might help.

if the save file/dir is on the hard drive,
then booting with pmedia=c or with no pmedia setting might help.

If you reboot MS Windows, it will not shut down using Fast Boot (hibernate) which is good.

@geo_c , @williams2 - Thanks. For now, I am going with the theory that is reboot vs complete shut down. I can't copy the files onto the hard drive because I'm borrowing the laptop with Windows right now. I ordered the same model laptop and am awaiting delivery and trying to get my puppy set up in the mean time. I remember seeing before on these forums disagreements about installing the files to the hard drive with some saying they do it and some saying it is not how Puppy is designed to be used. I am at a bit of a loss; I need to do more reading in these forums and on the wiki--initially, I was under the impression that Puppy is not able to run large programs and can only use stripped down browsers, etc, which is why some people used larger, slower distros like Ubuntu. However, I appear to have been wrong about that, and so I don't know why anyone would use a distro like Ubuntu when Puppy is clearly faster in many of its responses (I can see it myself).

By the way, in this forum, can a thread originator mark a thread as "solved"?

ChrisFH wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:14 am

I was under the impression that Puppy is not able to run large programs and can only use stripped down browsers, etc, which is why some people used larger, slower distros like Ubuntu. However, I appear to have been wrong about that, and so I don't know why anyone would use a distro like Ubuntu when Puppy is clearly faster in many of its responses (I can see it myself).

Yes, puppy being lean means it can run big stuff on less powerful machines. The remaster I use that is loaded with all the linux pro-audio software runs HUGE amounts of realtime processing, multi-track recording, video, the whole 9 yards.

What's difficult but not impossible to do are things like run the root system files from USB but mount the save folder/file across partitions to the hard drive. That works also, but the boot parameters have to be set up correctly. I always run my save folders on the same partition and in the same install directory as my fossapup.sfs system files. It's just easier.

And yes you can mark it solved, just edit the first post and add it to the title.