Carolina wont boot on _THIS_ computer (Solved)

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superchook
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon 13 Mar 2006, 07:39
Location: Sydney, Australia

Carolina wont boot on _THIS_ computer (Solved)

#1 Post by superchook »

I downloaded the ISO and checked the md5sum then burned to both a CD and DVD.
I found that I could boot another computer that I had access to using the DVD but booting fails on this computer because it can not find the puppy_lina_005.sfs file and drops me too a shell.

Any suggestions why this should happen ? This computer boots other puppys from CD or DVD with no trouble.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3 motherboard with 8GB RAM, Intel P4 CPU not sure the brand od DVD burner I guess I'll have to look in the BIOS next time I boot up :-(

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inoxidabile
Posts: 148
Joined: Sat 13 Sep 2008, 12:37

#2 Post by inoxidabile »

Hi superchook,
I've had recently a problem maybe similar to this.
If You want, You could have a look to my post:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 335#679335

Sometimes with certain conditions (hw+puppy > 5.x) it's possible to have trouble due to timing... in other word the boot doesn't "wait" in order to allow the search of sfs.
There are some attempts of workaraund but they aren't always a sure solution (at least for me...).
If Your problem is the same, then maybe it could be better than the guys more skilled than me will consider this as an important bug.

Hopilng the above could be a help :)

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Flash
Official Dog Handler
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Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#3 Post by Flash »

This is a baffler. :?
Since the computer boots other Puppy CDs and DVDs, perhaps the difference is in the brand of DVD you burned the latest one on. Do you have a different brand of DVD that you could try? Puppy will boot from rewritable CDs and DVDs just fine, so try one of those if you have one.

Also, did you use the same program to burn the latest DVD as was used to burn the ones that work?

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inoxidabile
Posts: 148
Joined: Sat 13 Sep 2008, 12:37

#4 Post by inoxidabile »

I agree, it's wise to check also different disk and/or different drive, in order to avoid problems due to compatibility or whatsoever.

By my side and in my case I can say that I did also these attempts and nothing changed.
Of course, it's not sure that it's the same issue but I would suggest to add also a check with a different (and older) Puppy version after a burning on similar support (CD-DVD) and using the same drive.
IMHO I suggest a 4.3.1 because I never had any problem in all the pc I checked with it :)

CLAM01
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat 22 May 2010, 04:05

#5 Post by CLAM01 »

I have the dropping-to-shell problem regularly on a Toshiba 305 laptop with a slow-spool-up SATA Super-Drive. The drive shuts down when puppies pause, then starts to spool when search-for-puppies begins. With most, but not all, puppies this optical drive is checked before it is on-line and the sfs is not found.
Two quick-and-easy solutions, if they work for you, are 1. if you have one and the computer allows boot from one, use an external USB optical drive, or 2. put the new puppy on a USB stick.
To use the Toshiba's slow starting internal drive I make two folders where I want to run the puppy (you need only one), giving each a slightly different name (e.g., "00" and "01"). I then copy the puppy sfs from the download into each. These are found, and (my reason for making two) a choice of 1 or 2 screen is offered. The choice permits me to leave one unmodified (without a save-file, or with an empty one) for a fall-back, since pfix=ram doesn't work on the machine, since it won't load from the optical. If preloading the sfs isn't enough I add empty pup-saves to the folders, renaming them to what the version looks for. The puppy will populate the save-file with files from the CD/DVD that it could not find to begin.

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inoxidabile
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#6 Post by inoxidabile »

Thank You CLAM01,
Your suggestions are very nice.
Maybe superchook could try to do these workaround, it would be an indirect way to define the problem.
The two points I would like to underline are:
- this problem are more wide than I thought;
- there are some Puppy versions with something like a "delay" or whatsoever, allowing a safer the sfs search.
I'm not skilled enough to say how to go on, but if someone did this IMHO it could be possible to add this feature in all Puppies.

superchook
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon 13 Mar 2006, 07:39
Location: Sydney, Australia

Carolina won't boot on _THIS_ computer

#7 Post by superchook »

I've been away and have only recently been able to have another look at the problem.
Thinking that a slow cdrom might be causing the problem I created two files in the top level of my Ubuntu install called /carolina and /precise. I copied all the files from my carolina dvd into /carolina and all the files from Pemasu's "Precise 5.4.X.7" into /precise. Next I edited /etc/grub.d/40_custom so that it now reads

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.

menuentry "Carolina Puppy" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /carolina/vmlinuz subdir=/carolina
initrd /carolina/initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Precise_5.4.X.7" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /precise/vmlinuz subdir=/precise
initrd /precise/initrd.gz
}

and ran sudo update-grub.

I now have two new boot options in addition to the Ubuntu ones already there.
If I select "Precise_5.4.X.7" it boots up OK but if I try to boot "Carolina Puppy" it stops with the message
puppy_lina_005.sfs not found dropping out to initial-ramdisk console
yet the puppy_lina_005.sfs fileis in the same directory as vmlinuz and initrd.gz!
I suspect that the problem could be a BIOS issue but can't see why Precise 5.4.X.7 is not similarly affected.

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inoxidabile
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Joined: Sat 13 Sep 2008, 12:37

#8 Post by inoxidabile »

In a similar case I remember I did something like Your trick but it was successful...in Your case it isn't so and then I must confess it's over my knowledge :(
If the start process "point at the same place" (Your HDD, I suppose) then there shouldn't be any problem.
I'm not able to say nothing more... maybe it could be possible to try different paramenters for "pmedia= ".

superchook
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon 13 Mar 2006, 07:39
Location: Sydney, Australia

Carolina won't boot on _THIS_ computer

#9 Post by superchook »

Immediately after my last posting I noticed an error. I used "subdir=carolina" where I should have tried "psubdir=carolina" however after correcting this mistake the problem was as before. That is the boot process terminates with

puppy_lina_005.sfs not found dropping out to initial-ramdisk console

next I edited my (Ubuntu) /etc/grub.d/40_custom script again to read:

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.

menuentry "Carolina Puppy" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /carolina/vmlinuz pupsfs=sda1:/carolina/puppy_lina_005.sfs psubdir=carolina
initrd /carolina/initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Saluki_023" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /luki/vmlinuz
initrd /luki/initrd.gz
}

menuentry "Precise_5.4.X.7" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /precise/vmlinuz psubdir=precise
initrd /precise/initrd.gz
}

and re ran update-grub

Now trying to boot Carolina from the grub menu produces a different failure. The last lines appearing on the screen are:

Loading drivers need to access disk drives. done
Searching for Puppy files ...... done
Loading the'puppy_lina_005.sfs' main file .... copying to ram done
Setting up the layered filesystem ... done
Performing a 'switch_root' to the layered filesystem ... [ 5.764570] kernel panic - nt syncing : Attempted to kill init!
[ 5.764852] Pid:1, comm: switch_root Not tainted 3.2.13-ski #1

and then some more lines that I can't recall.

BTW Saluki 023 boots fine so I think the problem lies with the kernel 3.2.13-ski for Carolina Vs 3.2.8-ski for Saluki or the init scripts.

Could the developers explain the differences between the init scripts and kernel compile options of the two distributions as I understand Carolina is a development of Saluki?

cheers,
Ken

elroy

#10 Post by elroy »

My best guess is that your hardware does't support the PAE kernel that Carolina uses (Saluki and 'lina-lite use non-PAE kernels). You could use Saluki's custom-builder to swap out the Carolina kernel for 'lina-lite's (or Saluki's) kernel.

ezl
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun 03 Mar 2013, 16:30

Carolina won't boot?

#11 Post by ezl »

Hi superchook,

that problem sounds like a hardware problem or a problem with
memory, bios too old. I've tested many of the Pups on another old
computer over here and once you see a Kernel Panic it probably is
associated with one of the above. My old machine has a 333 mhz.
AMD in it with 256 meg of ram. Fun to see what will run with on it. I
had good success running Pup 4.3.1, Wary 5.5. Slitaz, and even the
big one, Debian. Saluki doesn't like the macjine either. None of the
other Pups like the old machine and will give me the same error.

I tried just for the heck of it, to install Mint on a 1 gig, 512
meg machine, I had an idea it would do the same and it did.
Months ago I tried it on the same machine with just 256 meg and
the same. This machine is an old one too and I wanted to see how
far it would go before it did a panic. It got farther on the install
though. Memory, processor type, and 32/64 bit hardware is a big
thing on these systems especially when watching movies and
streaming video.

On the CD, I was wondering if you had tried to burn another disk?
I had a brandnew Sony DVD mess up burning it lastnight. I put
another new Sony DVD in the burner and got through the burn.
All I was doing at this time was backing up files on new DVDs using
a commercial Windows program. Burning ISO boot images have to
be done carefully and sometimes they will give you problems with
buffer over-run and the settings are critical especially making the
mistake of not closing the disk after the burn.

P.S.

Saluki is a great Pup and so is Wary 5.5!

--Dennis

superchook
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon 13 Mar 2006, 07:39
Location: Sydney, Australia

Carolina won't boot on _THIS_ computer

#12 Post by superchook »

After my last post on this subject I gave up on the problem for the time being.

I have had success with PHATSlacko which also uses an "Adrive". I may try Carolina 006 when it is released. For now PHATSlacko provides all the features and programs that I need.

cheers,
Ken

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