Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I am now on drive letter designation sdp1.

The drive letter keeps changing upwards
What happens when the drive letter reaches z?
Does it start over again with a?
Why does this happen?
Thanks!

Governor wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 7:40 am

I am now on drive letter designation sdp1.

The drive letter keeps changing upwards
What happens when the drive letter reaches z?
Does it start over again with a?
Why does this happen?
Thanks!

thats a lot of drives.
are you daisy chaining USB hubs?

Governor wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 7:40 am

What happens when the drive letter reaches z?
Does it start over again with a?

sdaa,sdab ...
What happens when Linux goes out of letters for drives?

Give us some info.

How many drives?

When are they changing identifier?

Are you plugging and unplugging drives?

bigpup wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2023 2:28 am

Give us some info.

How many drives?

When are they changing identifier?

Are you plugging and unplugging drives?

I normally have 2 external USB drives connected. Sometimes 3. Occasionally 4.
I have not been able to fathom why their designation changes so often. Just a guess, but I wonder if it could be because my USB sockets are not snug which may lead to momentary disconnects. My internet connection also goes out periodically, and I must run the network connection application to re-gain internet access.

In case there is a problem with my USB hub, since it does get faily warm sometimes, I ordered a new hub with 7 ports (my current hub has 4) which should arrive in a few days.

I semi-regularly change drives. The funny thing is the drive that was letter p before, is now b.

I do not understand why when a drive which is "a" is removed and put back later, it does not retain the letter "a".
Interestingly, I dubbed this drive "I" in Windows, and when I plug it into a windows computer, it shows up as "I".

I had a regular Puppy setup on my NVME drive which crashed very badly a few days ago, Not only can I NOT boot from the harddrive, I also can't boot from my Puppy USB. I can only boot from my Puppy CD at this point. I had problems when I just booted from the CD, so now I chose the copy all files to RAM option, but I have no sound at all (I will make a separate post on this).

I know what will happen if I turn off my computer: all of my settings will be gone when I re-boot: screen, language, time zone, keyboard, ROX, menu items, bookmarks, etc. So even though I hate doing it, I must leave the computer on for as long as possible. I know from experience that, eventually, the computer will get so slow that I will have to re-boot, just for practical reasons.

williwaw wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 7:50 am

Governor wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 7:40 am

I am now on drive letter designation sdp1.

The drive letter keeps changing upwards
What happens when the drive letter reaches z?
Does it start over again with a?
Why does this happen?
Thanks!

thats a lot of drives.
are you daisy chaining USB hubs?

No, not at all. I have one hub with 4 ports. Plus 3 ports on my laptop.

About loose USB ports.

If you take the metal casing around the port and slightly pry it in, so the opening is a little smaller and tighter.

That should make the USB drive plugin tighter.

Carefully look at the pins in the port and make sure none are bent.

If you are using a USB hub, switching USB drives plugged into it or not.
Those usually have a controller and it may be providing different info to Pmount each time a drive plugged in changes.

With a hub of 7 USB ports.
You for sure need it to be a powered one that has it's own power supply.

I had a regular Puppy setup on my NVME drive which crashed very badly a few days ago, Not only can I NOT boot from the harddrive, I also can't boot from my Puppy USB. I can only boot from my Puppy CD at this point. I had

I suggest you access the computers UEFI setup or Bios setup.

Set it to default settings.
Should be a selection someplace in the settings to do this.

Save change and reboot.

See if it now allows selecting different drives to boot from.

bigpup wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2023 10:59 am

I had a regular Puppy setup on my NVME drive which crashed very badly a few days ago, Not only can I NOT boot from the harddrive, I also can't boot from my Puppy USB. I can only boot from my Puppy CD at this point. I had

I suggest you access the computers UEFI setup or Bios setup.

Set it to default settings.
Should be a selection someplace in the settings to do this.

Save change and reboot.

See if it now allows selecting different drives to boot from.

I don't think the problem is in the BIOS or BIOS setup, because I have no problem choosing the boot drive. It seems to begin booting ok, but all I get is a blank screen. I have only had success booting from the CD, since the crash, even after I re-installed Puppy on the harddrive.

I have no problem accessing the NVMe partitions, or external USB drives when booting from the CD.

@Governor Personally I would follow bigpup's suggestion and also unplug and reconnect every connection and power plug you have on that computer. Something is either loose or failing that is why you are having all these problems

I normally have 2 external USB drives connected. Sometimes 3. Occasionally 4.
I have not been able to fathom why their designation changes so often. Just a guess, but I wonder if it could be because my USB sockets are not snug which may lead to momentary disconnects.

maybe the designations progress because you never reboot, but you unplug and replug?

On every computer manufactures support web site you will find this statement about boot issues.

Incorrect boot settings in the BIOS or UEFI of the computer can cause boot-related issues. Resetting the BIOS or UEFI settings to factory defaults can help resolve many boot-related issues.

The default settings are the ones the computer comes with setup, when it was built.

The manufacture is not going to make default settings that will not work.

But something could happen to change a bunch of settings, at anytime.
So setting to default setup, gets you back to good known condition, that should work.

The only time you use a setting other than the default ones.
Usually adding a specific piece of hardware, may require a small adjustment of specific settings.
Like you changing the boot device order, what device the computer first tries to boot from.

bigpup wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:31 am

On every computer manufactures support web site you will find this statement about boot issues.

Incorrect boot settings in the BIOS or UEFI of the computer can cause boot-related issues. Resetting the BIOS or UEFI settings to factory defaults can help resolve many boot-related issues.

The default settings are the ones the computer comes with setup, when it was built.

The manufacture is not going to make default settings that will not work.

But something could happen to change a bunch of settings, at anytime.
So setting to default setup, gets you back to good known condition, that should work.

The only time you use a setting other than the default ones.
Usually adding a specific piece of hardware, may require a small adjustment of specific settings.
Like you changing the boot device order, what device the computer first tries to boot from.

"But something could happen to change a bunch of settings, at anytime."

Wow, seriously? How can the BIOS settings be changed at anytime? I did not think that could happen.

I will try to keep my computer running as long as possible, since it is a serious inconvenience if I reboot, because AFAIK, there is no known method to same my configuration. So even if switching the BIOS to default will allow me to boot from the NVMe drive, I do not understand that how a BIOS reset could effect my lack of sound in Firefox embedded videos.

williwaw wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2023 9:18 pm

I normally have 2 external USB drives connected. Sometimes 3. Occasionally 4.
I have not been able to fathom why their designation changes so often. Just a guess, but I wonder if it could be because my USB sockets are not snug which may lead to momentary disconnects.

maybe the designations progress because you never reboot, but you unplug and replug?

I am trying not to reboot, here is why:
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 826#p97826