Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Bruce B

Puppy can't find pup_420.sfs - there is nothing new in
that as far as behavior. It is just new for me.

I've been wanting to duplicate this problem for purpose of
troubleshooting it.

Until I found the right computer, it was all theory on my
part. No way to verify or do serious checking.

Two boots off hard disk and same problem.

For now I will bask in the glory of having the tools I need
in order to do something I've wanted to do for a long
time.

Later I can spend time debugging it. What if I succeed?
Then what?

WhoDo

mikeb · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 4378

pmedia=scsihd fixed it for me...some variation on this perhaps

mike

Burn_IT · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Posts: 649 Location: Tamworth UK

I still think you need to look at the case of the names - even if just to rule it out.
I had another occurrence of this last week when I copied the files from CD (in Windows) to create a frugal install on disk. (and I am still trying to find out what is doing it and why.)

I have to use Windows during the day as my work involves supporting it, but if I have a few minutes to spare I play with Puppy stuff - usually in Virtualbox.

Bruce B · Posted: Sun 17 May 2009, 02:00 Post subject:

I'm curious if anyone running 4.20 has a file or directory at
/proc/ide?

I don't think it is good to peruse /proc with ROX-Filer, a
simple ls /proc/ide will do swell.

WhoDo · Posted: Sun 17 May 2009, 02:04 Post subject:

Soulprayer · Joined: 17 May 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Cologne, Germany

I think it's the Mainboard-Controller-Shipset Intel ICH9R.
Having the problem throughout many linuxes, and puppy 4.1.2 too.
That trick with pmedia=scsihd won't do for me.

Bruce B · Posted: Sun 17 May 2009, 07:11 Post subject:

Kal · Posted: Sun 17 May 2009, 23:39 Post subject:

I lost my main computer about a year ago and have been using an old backup. Finally I could see repairing the main computer, which required a new motherbroad and processor. In reloading the hard drives, I think, I saw many error messages as, "cannot find pup_420.sfs file" for a frugal install and for the full install it was "kernel panic". Checked the menu.lst and found no mistakes, the live CD was unable to find any place to install a save file also.

So I finally loaded Windows XP Home (four hours, my goodness), which I never have used before now, then I loaded PCLinuxOS and it ran OK. So now, let's try Puppy again, loading with PCLinux's grub, same story again (Puppy not found and kernel panic). I did notice, that to get to the boot screen for grub was taking a long 10 seconds, normally it takes 3 to 5 seconds on a 2 gig machine.

Started playing with cables and the way the drives were hooked up on this AsRock board (K7VT4A PRO). Switching from master on the hard-drive to cable select is what got every thing running with this motherboard and its ami bios. Grub bootup menu time lowered to 1 second. Puppy loaded just fine, added another 80 gig hard drive, set to slave, leaving the main drive set as cable select.

In testing I went back to the main hard-drive again setting it to master and left the slave drive as slave. No Puppy again and even booting to a live CD of Puppy, gparted would not see the slave hard-drive until I switched the master drive to cable select. No other combo works correctly on this board and would load Puppy from a frugal or full install.

I had Puppy 412 and Slackware on the slave hard-drive and besides resetting for the different sound and network, all is well, using the same video card. This board only uses PCM for the volume control, so I had to change out absvolume for the tray volume control on Puppy.

This all shows that you may have to play with hardware and settings for compatibility with some software, in this case it may be the kernel. I would not give up on Puppy after using it since before Puppy one.

Good Luck, Kal

mikeb · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 4378

Good point Kal...had similar experience where cable position/select and jumpers don't agree like they should and either messes up performance or not run at all

mike

Soulprayer · Joined: 17 May 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Cologne, Germany

@Bruce B
Thanks.

Well, i am no pro, but i think more information and knowledge are good Wink

I have 3 S-ATA Drives and one IDE-DVD-Burner, i think chipset controller doesn't like this type of setup with some kernels.
Ubuntu and other ubuntu-based systems do function.

Béèm · Posted: Mon 18 May 2009, 17:14 Post subject:

Kal · Posted: Mon 18 May 2009, 23:52 Post subject:

Beem:
It is a hardware configuration problem on that board, which when made right, fixed all, not just Puppy. The slow grub loading was not even Puppy's at the time, but, was that of PCLinuxOS. We must remember that the bios and motherboards are made first to function with other OSes, rather than linux. Yes, Puppy was a little more picky, but, when corrected, all other operating systems including windows, which I know now was acting up a little, improved their performance too. When sorted out, Puppy runs great on this hardware now.

If it was truly just a Puppy problem, why would reconfiguring the hardware fix it? I assume other motherboards may have similar problems on occasion.

I don't think Puppy can be blamed for hardware configuration, when it is repairable at the hardware level.

Good Luck, Kal

Bruce B · Posted: Tue 19 May 2009, 07:03 Post subject:

Béèm · Posted: Tue 19 May 2009, 07:54 Post subject:

Kal,
I don't want to do a full fight on this, but it is still my opinion, that as the hw detection function of other OS platforms do correctly recognize this 'faulty setup', I think the hw detection function of puppy should do the same.
How many people will go into the detail you went through to solve the problem?
Probably most people with the same issue would say: puppy is crap and leave.