Installing Puppy to hard drive (multiboot)

Booting, installing, newbie
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nappy501
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 29 Sep 2012, 14:59

Installing Puppy to hard drive (multiboot)

#1 Post by nappy501 »

The make of your computer?
Built desktop PC

The amount of RAM (memory) installed?
1 gb

The CPU (processor) speed?
AMD Sempron 2800+

What Hard Drives, CD-ROMs and DVD drives are installed?
CD/DVD rw
2 hard drives

The Partitions, size and type, on any hard drives?
What type of Keyboard & Mouse i.e. Serial, PS/2, USB or other?
Ps/2 mouse.

Which version of Puppy you are working with?
Slacko 5.3.3-4

I have been using OpenSuse for many years. However I find there is a lot of it for what I need. I used to have 512 mb of ram, which made OpenSuse quite difficult. I would like to try Puppy on my machine to see how I get on.

I have multibooted my machine putting Puppy on the second hard drive. I have tried a full install and a frugal install with no success.

Code: Select all

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2ece0b7c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    20000924    10000431    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2   *    20000986   156296384    68147699+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5        20000988    20209769      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda6        20209833    22394609     1092388+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7        22394673    65513069    21559198+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8        65513133   131058269    32772568+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9       131058333   156296384    12619026   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 82.0 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf24ef24e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63     8000369     4000153+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2         8000370   160071659    76035645    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5         8000433    29896964    10948266   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6        29897028    50990309    10546641   83  Linux
/dev/sdb7        50990373    63424619     6217123+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb8        63424683   160071659    48323488+  83  Linux

This is my original menu.lst

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cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Aug 26 16:20:48 BST 2012
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 9
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.10-1.16
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-3.1.10-1.16-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part6 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317
    initrd /initrd-3.1.10-1.16-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.10-1.16
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-3.1.10-1.16-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part7 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x317
    initrd /initrd-3.1.10-1.16-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name:  linux (/dev/sda9)###
title Mandriva (/dev/sda9)
    rootnoverify (hd0,8)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Linux other 1 (/dev/sdb5)###
title Linux Mint (/dev/sdb5)
    rootnoverify (hd1,4)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title Puppy Linux (dev/sdb6)
    rootnoverify (hd1,5)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title Slitaz 4.0 (/dev/sdb7)
    rootnoverify (hd1,6)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title Windows XP
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title windows 2
    map (hd1) (hd0)
    map (hd0) (hd1)
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    makeactive
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
    rootnoverify (fd0)
    chainloader +1
/sda1 is windows xp
/sda5 is boot
/sda6 is swap
/sda7 is root
/sda8 is home
/sda9 is Mandriva

/sdb1 not sure why this is there
/sdb5 is Linux Mint
/sdb6 will be Puppylinux
/sdb7 will be Slitaz
/sdb8 partition for data storage

Although windows, OpenSuse, Mandriva Linux Mint work, Puppy and Slitaz don't.

I was receiving this message:

Code: Select all

rootnoverify (hd1,5)
chainloader +1
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format
When I look at sdb6, the partition contains these files:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/9f22eb211622175

When I carry out the frugal install with this menu.lst:

Code: Select all

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Aug 26 16:20:48 BST 2012
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 9
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.10-1.16
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-3.1.10-1.16-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part6 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317
    initrd /initrd-3.1.10-1.16-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.10-1.16
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel /vmlinuz-3.1.10-1.16-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SP0842N_S0WCJDPP800779-part7 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x317
    initrd /initrd-3.1.10-1.16-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name:  linux (/dev/sda9)###
title Mandriva (/dev/sda9)
    rootnoverify (hd0,8)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Linux other 1 (/dev/sdb5)###
title Linux Mint (/dev/sdb5)
    rootnoverify (hd1,4)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title Puppy Linux 5.3.3 frugal (dev/sdb6)
rootnoverify (hd1,5)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title Slitaz 4.0 (/dev/sdb7)
    rootnoverify (hd1,6)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title Windows XP
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title windows 2
    map (hd1) (hd0)
    map (hd0) (hd1)
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    makeactive
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
    rootnoverify (fd0)
    chainloader +1
I get this error message:

Code: Select all

Loading drivers needed to access disk drives - done
searching Puppy files................. puppy_slacko_5.3.3sfs not found
Dropping to initial -ramdisk console
As far as I can see the file is there.

Today I grabbed my daughter's laptop. A Packard Bell Easynote. 1gb ram memory.
Running windows xp.

I defragmented the C:\ drive and used GParted to make an approximate 10 gb partition with ext3. Initially, I put /dev/hda2 for boot, but when I rebooted it just went straight to windows. So I ran Grub and chose MBR next time. I get a linux boot screen from which I can boot windows, but when I try to boot Puppy i get error 15. File not found.

I thought the problems with my desktop were because I was trying to multiboot, but now I wonder. I would have thought that installation to a Windows machine would have been the easiest?

Please let me know if there is any further information you require. I hope that some is able to point me to the correct post or information.

Regards

User avatar
Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

#2 Post by Karl Godt »

Maybe look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing
then.
The boundaries are

* 8.4 Gbytes (7.8 GiB)
* 128 GiB (≈137.4 GB)

Since the last partitions don't boot i suspect that your BIOSes don't support to boot that far on some of your HDs .

*

Other than this it might be related to the filesystem setup made by Suse ( encryption, LVM2 ) . The graphical installer by Suse is very sophisticated and also confusing . There you might have chosen some partitioning options, that are not supported .

* Your other thread is here : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... 175427546/
There you were advised to install grub to the superblock of sdb6 to do a chainloader+1 .

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#3 Post by rcrsn51 »

Code: Select all

rootnoverify (hd1,5)
chainloader +1 
In order for this method to work, you must do a GRUB install into the partition boot sector of sdb6. Do this with the GRUB Legacy Bootloader Config.

Or use

Code: Select all

root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb6 ro vga=normal

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux 5.3.3 frugal (dev/sdb6)
rootnoverify (hd1,5)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz 

Loading drivers needed to access disk drives - done
searching Puppy files................. puppy_slacko_5.3.3sfs not found
Dropping to initial -ramdisk console
Puppy is usually pretty good at finding its sfs file, but it can get confused if there is both a full and frugal install present. You can help it by adding the following to the end of the kernel line.

Code: Select all

pdev1=sdb6 psubdir=/
error 15. File not found.
That means just one thing - either vmlinuz or initrd.gz are not where the GRUB menu expects them to be.

nappy501
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 29 Sep 2012, 14:59

#4 Post by nappy501 »

Thank you for your response.
Karl Godt wrote:Maybe look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing
then..
I had a look at this. Which bit was I supposed to be looking at in particular? Was it under 'Enhanced BIOS'? or 'OS dependencies'?
The boundaries are

* 8.4 Gbytes (7.8 GiB)
* 128 GiB (≈137.4 GB).
I am afraid I don't understand this. Unless you are saying the first drive is okay as Mandriva is in the last 12 gb, but the second drive isn't. I suppose the only way to check this out would be to put Puppy linux where Linux Mint is on the second drive? As the Linux Mint starts before 8.4 gb.
Since the last partitions don't boot i suspect that your BIOSes don't support to boot that far on some of your HDs ..
Or maybe I should stick Mandriva where puppy should be and see if it works?

*
Other than this it might be related to the filesystem setup made by Suse ( encryption, LVM2 ) . The graphical installer by Suse is very sophisticated and also confusing . There you might have chosen some partitioning options, that are not supported ..
I was very careful to ensure that all the partitioning details where the same for all the partitions when I installed OpenSuse. The only one I have changed since then is /hdb8 as I was unable mount it or write to it and I wanted to use it to store files.
* Your other thread is here : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... 175427546/
There you were advised to install grub to the superblock of sdb6 to do a chainloader+1 .
The original menu.lst was

Code: Select all

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title Puppy Linux (dev/sdb6)
    rootnoverify (hd1,5)
    chainloader +1 
Post #3 gives details of instructions I carried out as I understood them. However I am now beginning to wonder as I have had to go away and look up superblock. Did I not do what was requested? If I have not done as requested, please can you provide detailed instructions.

Regards

nappy501
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 29 Sep 2012, 14:59

#5 Post by nappy501 »

Thank you for your response.
rcrsn51 wrote:

Code: Select all

rootnoverify (hd1,5)
chainloader +1 
In order for this method to work, you must do a GRUB install into the partition boot sector of sdb6. Do this with the GRUB Legacy Bootloader Config.
I don't think I am being very clear. The first thing I did was the above, but then I worried because it did not work that I had not done that. So I went away and put in the live cd, went through the installation again. Then when it was finished, I went to grub and put it filled in sdb6 when asked.

Because it is an installation I have to write down everything I do. Maybe it would be better if I took a photograph of each screen then you could see what I am doing?
Or use

Code: Select all

root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb6 ro vga=normal

Code: Select all

title Puppy Linux 5.3.3 frugal (dev/sdb6)
rootnoverify (hd1,5)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz 

Loading drivers needed to access disk drives - done
searching Puppy files................. puppy_slacko_5.3.3sfs not found
Dropping to initial -ramdisk console
Puppy is usually pretty good at finding its sfs file, but it can get confused if there is both a full and frugal install present. You can help it by adding the following to the end of the kernel line.

Code: Select all

pdev1=sdb6 psubdir=/
error 15. File not found.
That means just one thing - either vmlinuz or initrd.gz are not where the GRUB menu expects them to be.
Okay, what I am going to do is start again. I will format the partition and do it over. I will return the menu.lst to its original state.

I will let you know how I get on.

nappy501
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 29 Sep 2012, 14:59

SOLVED.

#6 Post by nappy501 »

I am not sure what I did wrong, but Puppy is now installed.

I was able to install Mandriva 2010 on sdb7, when I clicked on slitaz it booted immediately to Mandriva on sdb7.

So knowing that, I reformatted sdb6 and carried out a frugal install. When it was finished it did not boot.

I then booted to OpenSuse and changed menu.lst to:

Code: Select all

rootnoverify (hd1,5)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz
And was able to boot to Puppy. I will give the laptop another go, to see if I can get that sorted.

As it is in the last 10 gb of the hard drive what do I do if it won't boot? I understand that after a certain point some disks won't boot?

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

Re: SOLVED.

#7 Post by rcrsn51 »

nappy501 wrote:kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
You could make this faster by adding

Code: Select all

kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pdev1=sdb6
Then Puppy wouldn't have to search for its sfs file.

nappy501
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat 29 Sep 2012, 14:59

Re: SOLVED.

#8 Post by nappy501 »

rcrsn51 wrote:
nappy501 wrote:kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
You could make this faster by adding

Code: Select all

kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pdev1=sdb6
Then Puppy wouldn't have to search for its sfs file.
Right, I shall give that a go. Thank you very much.

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