Installing Puppy - Which file system to use? Fat32 or ext2/3

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Sky Aisling · #81 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 06:45

Does it look like we have the right GRUB in there?
What do we do now?

looseSCREWorTWO · #82 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 06:47

Smaller JPGs and PNGs will show, while larger ones behave in this way. I've used MtPaint to "crop" my PNG, so it should display directly.

As you can see, my /boot/grub folder has a lot of files in it that are not in your /boot/grub.

I'm running 431 Retro , you have 431, so our /boot/grub should look the same. I think your Legacy Grub has not been created properly.

looseSCREWorTWO · #83 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 06:52

Fortunately this is not a big deal.

To install Legacy Grub:
1. click Menu > System > Grub bootloader config
2. choose Simple install
3. choose Standard console
4. /dev/sda1 (as the location for the Grub files to go into)
5. install Grub to the MBR

Then you should be able to boot from the HDD.

Sky Aisling · #84 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:00

Will do. I know I was scolded for not looking up what 'MBR' means earlier but would mind telling me what MBR stands for and where is it? I've got so many screens going here... Thank you...

Sky Aisling · #85 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:08

How's this look?

looseSCREWorTWO · #86 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:10

All screened out, huh ???

MBR is the Master Boot Record. When you install Windows or
Ubuntu, they put their own bootloader into the MBR (without even telling you - which I think is a bit rude).

What I like most about Puppy is that it tells you what it's doing, explains a few things, gives you options, then asks for your permission.

I've found Legacy Grub is as reliable as the Windows bootloader, as long as Grub is put into the MBR. There are other places to put Grub but in my experience they are unreliable.

Sky Aisling · #87 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:12

There is no MSOS or DOS on this machine. We cleaned them all off.

looseSCREWorTWO · #88 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:17

Looking good. We're almost there

Give us a look at the contents of /boot/grub

Then copy the contents of menu.lst (its a file located in /boot/grub) into your next Post

Is Puppy installed to partition sda1 ?

Sky Aisling · #89 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:43

Oppps! I 'borrow' wifi from an unknown neighbor who has an unsecured line. She/he may have cut it off for the night. I've been on for 13+ hours now. Either that or the cat is sleeping on the router.

If something happens and you don't hear from me that is why.

If I do get cut off, what should I do with the running machine with the broken drive that might not read the live CD again? worry, worry...

looseSCREWorTWO · #90 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 07:51

If you have a working Floppy Drive, I would create a WakePup2 Floppy. That will give you another way to Boot if the CD Drive decides to "down tools" and go on Strike. But first you'll need to download this Pet from the Web and install it to a PC with a working Floppy Drive:
http://www.filewatcher.com/m/wakepup2-2 ... 6.0.0.html

And you will need a blank Floppy Disk. And who uses those any more ?

I've just noticed something else. During the installation of Puppy a "marker" file should have been created in /mnt/home but it looks like it wasn't. So we'll have to create a couple of them manually.

1. Open a window to look inside /mnt/home.
2. Point the mouse at empty white space inside the /mnt/home window and right-click on it,
3. Select "new" and "blank file" from the drop-down list
4. In the shaded area, type in idehd as the file name.

Repeat the above, but use atahd as the file name.

In /mnt/home you should now have 2 extra files:
idehd
atahd

These are blank "marker" files needed to boot Puppy.

Sky Aisling · #91 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 08:01

I'm sorry LooseScreworTwo. The machine we are attempting to fix won't receive wifi anymore. I think it is over heating. I'm writing this on another machine.

Also,I have reached my limit. I can't do anymore complicated stuff.

Will I cause any damage to the system if I power down normally through the menu list? How can I salvage the work that we all did today? I can try again in the morning.

This has been a marathon. I can see why people duck working with Linux.

looseSCREWorTWO · #92 Post by **looseSCREWorTWO** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 08:10

I know the feeling. It's like your brain has been drained.

Without those "marker" files and a few tweaks to the menu.lst file, Puppy won't boot from the HDD.

Your CD worked today - you'll just have to hope it works tomorrow.

Your menu.lst file will need to be edited to look something like this:

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Puppy 431 (on /dev/sda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=idehd nosmp
initrd /initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)

rcrsn51 · #93 Post by **rcrsn51** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 12:20

You already had GRUB installed and working. Have you not rebooted yet?

rcrsn51 · #94 Post by **rcrsn51** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 12:28

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:Without those "marker" files and a few tweaks to the menu.lst file, Puppy won't boot from the HDD

Please read the whole thread. This machine had already booted to the GRUB menu. But it was missing the core Puppy files because off their non-standard location on her multi-OS CD.

rcrsn51 · #95 Post by **rcrsn51** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 13:52

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:These are blank "marker" files needed to boot Puppy.

Not true.

shinobar · #96 Post by **shinobar** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 14:07

rcrsn51 wrote:
looseSCREWorTWO wrote:These are blank "marker" files needed to boot Puppy.
Not true.

The blank marker is used by some version of WakePup, and fails to boot without the file if you use the WakePup, i remember.

But the problem seems not there as rcrsn51 says...
I hate the 'Universal Installer' and the 'Grub config'...they are the traps

Installing Puppy is so easy. But the combination of the 'Universal Installer' and the 'Grub config' makes it too complex.

RetroTechGuy · #97 Post by **RetroTechGuy** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 16:19

shinobar wrote:
rcrsn51 wrote:
looseSCREWorTWO wrote:These are blank "marker" files needed to boot Puppy.
Not true.
The blank marker is used by some version of WakePup, and fails to boot without the file if you use the WakePup, i remember.

But the problem seems not there as rcrsn51 says...
I hate the 'Universal Installer' and the 'Grub config'...they are the traps
Installing Puppy is so easy. But the combination of the 'Universal Installer' and the 'Grub config' makes it too complex.

I'm hate trying to configure grub, so when I installed my HDD bootable frugal (as opposed to my usual CD bootable "frugal" -- which required no MBR mucking), I used a copy of the Debian net-installer, which configured grub for Debian (and set it to dual boot the Windows, which I left). I then simply edited my menu.lst to add Puppy...

The next time I plan to use rcrsn51's script (I have some old, old, old laptops that I'm going to experiment with, installing a lightweight Puppy over the Win95, or perhaps 3.1 or whatever the slowest one had -- should be a fun experiment

)

RetroTechGuy · #98 Post by **RetroTechGuy** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 16:25

looseSCREWorTWO wrote:All screened out, huh ???

MBR is the Master Boot Record. When you install Windows or
Ubuntu, they put their own bootloader into the MBR (without even telling you - which I think is a bit rude).

Years ago, when I tried Ubuntu, it also made multiple, multiple partitions, and created it's own flavor of "ext2" (are you listening, Ubuntu??? If you're going to change the format, call it something else!!!), which other versions (e.g. my old Debian v1.3, Tom's Root Boot, etc.) couldn't read.

I didn't want that many partitions, and I didn't want incompatible partitions, but Ubuntu wouldn't leave my setup alone, so I dumped it immediately.

rcrsn51 · #99 Post by **rcrsn51** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 19:45

@Sky Aisling:

In the event that you ever return to complete this little adventure, here's what to do:

Download and unpack the attachment below. It contains the correct menu.lst file for your setup.

Click on your sda1 drive icon.

Locate the folder /boot/grub. It may already contain a menu.lst.

Copy the downloaded menu.lst into the folder to replace the old version.

Remove the CD.

Reboot off the hard drive.

Sky Aisling · #100 Post by **Sky Aisling** » Fri 03 Dec 2010, 21:10

Hello Everyone,
Yes, I am still here! I'm not ready to give up yet. I just need a little R&R.
This may be a duplicate post as I sent one out a little while ago but I don't see it posted here. I might have even sent to the different forum, I'm so bleary-eyed today.

As I said in my previous post,

You folks sure know how to break a beginner in!

So, here today's question:

Is there a way to start over and make this process simpler?
The sda1 format looks like it's ok. (The flags I need educating on. I know we were warned about how they were set early on.)
The machine is clean of MS.
The CD drive may still hang in there. (I've torn apart another Toshiba that does have a good cd drive. I'll see if I can fit it into the 2805.)
Basically, we have a machine running on a Live CD with what appears to be an ok formated HDD.
The Grub thing seems the issue.?

I'll take a little time today to get out and get some fresh air. Then I'll be back in the saddle tonight.

Thank you so much for all your hard work and attention. We'll have a Puppy frolicking in the box yet!

Sky

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Installing Puppy - Which file system to use? Fat32 or ext2/3

blank "marker"

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