DebianDog - Wheezy

[mcewanw]

WOULD BE VERY USEFUL IF THESE INSTRUCTIONS WERE COPIED TO THE FIRST POST ????????

Or maybe post five, which is reserved for extra info? The earlier posts are already detailed and quite full of installation and debiandog description/explanation.

I've added links to the main Debian Reference guide, and to Debian Wiki, the latter providing good newcomers to Debian information.

[mcewanw]

Note that the following suggestion is really only concerned with really old computers (ten years old or so). It will not be necessary for most computers and may not work for you anyway (just did for me). I was having trouble booting from a usb flash stick after originally formatting it with a single ext4 format partition with Gparted (and disabling the ext4 journal to save flash from wear). My machine detects the single usb stick partition as /dev/sdb1:

If you have an older machine (ten year old or so) and are having trouble to get DebianDog to boot from grub4dos when the debiandog live folder is on usb, as a last resort you can try the following method of formatting a usb to ext4 first. If I instead use Gparted to format my usb stick, and install debiandog onto that, I find that the result boots fine on my newer computer, but can't find files on my older one.

By formatting the usb stick in the following manner instead, and then installing debiandog on that, I have no problem booting on either my older machine or my newer one. I don't guarantee this will work on any particular machine, but it is maybe worth a try if all else seems correct but you still can't boot from the usb. If that doesn't work, you might also like to try changing 16384 (which results on partition starting on 1MiB boundary) below to 2048 (which results on partition starting on 1MiB boundary instead) but 16384 worked fine on my old machine:

1. I partition and format my usb stick (on /dev/sdb) with the following two commands:

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echo "16384,,L,*" | sfdisk -f -H 16 -uS /dev/sdb

mkfs.ext4 -O ^has_journal /dev/sdb1

2. The above reduces the apparent heads to 16 (-H 16) (which presumably works around a BIOS limitations problem on my old machine) and formats /dev/sdb1 partition with ext4 fs. Then I simply run debdog-install, click on /dev/sdb1 partition, select debiandog install iso (or my /mnt/home/live folder), and press the install button (I avoid using gparted since that seems to muck up the heads bit; not that there is anything wrong with gparted - it is probably just using the kernel's representation of CHS values, which is fine for most modern computers).

The result boots on both my old and newer computer and the bootable (*) /dev/sdb1 Linux (L) partition starts on 8MiB boundary (16384 sectors).

I wrote more about the experiments that led up to the above here:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 156#770156

Note that my old machine actually has no BIOS option to directly boot from usb so as a workaround I have grub4dos bootloader itself on the harddrive for that machine (with grub4dos bootloader on harddrive MBR and grldr and menu.lst on the harddrive's first partition)

[saintless]

Thank you, William!
Your instructions for apt-get and usb old computer install added in post five.

Toni

[saintless]

Question
I am a LiveDVD user for all of my PUPs. I run persistence via save-sessions to my LiveDVD via the builtin subsystem for such. Is that ability present in this distro?

Hi, Gcmartin.

Unfortunately you can't save session on DVD with DebianDog.
What you can do is to boot from the DVD and save session on usb or hdd in save-file, save-folder or save-partition.
Maybe in time if there is interest from Puppy linux developers it will be possible to modify puppy save file options to work for DebianDog.

Toni

[saintless]

W: GPG error: ftp://ftp.deb-multimedia.org wheezy Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 07DC563D1F41B907

Thank you, Dancytron.
This error is harmless. It does not stop downloads from multimedia repository. Just ignore it or you can easy fix it this way:

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gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 07DC563D1F41B907

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gpg --armor --export 07DC563D1F41B907 | apt-key add -

Toni

[alphadog]

Thanks for the reply Toni, will give try this in the next week or so.
I (and others I suspect) thank you and all the other devs of other breeds of Puppy and software here in the kennels. You make this community what it is, helpful,sharing and thoroughly GRRRRRReat.

[emil]

Congratulation,
keep up the good work!
cheers
emil

[atv]

Friends; Let me first congratulate you all on the excellent work you all have done with this Distro. I simply love it
perhaps you might be able to help me with this problem;

>From Osamu Aoki's Debian Reference (http://www.debian.org/doc), chapter 3.3:

Make sure you have:
* "Input Core Support" and "Input Core Support/Mouse Support"
enabled in the kernel or as modules.
* "Support for USB", "Preliminary USB device filesystem", "UHCI or
OHCI", and "USB HID Support" enabled in the kernel or as modules.

For typical scroll _USB_ mice, configuration combinations should be:

| /etc/X11/X86Config-4
=========================+======================================
| Section "InputDevice"
| Identifier "Generic Mouse"
| Driver "mouse"
| Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
| Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
| Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
| Option "Buttons" "5"
| Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
| EndSection

could not find /etc/X11/X86Config-4
what did I do wrong? Thank you for any help you can give me.
regards, Andres

[saintless]

could not find /etc/X11/X86Config-4
what did I do wrong? Thank you for any help you can give me.
regards, Andres

Hi, Andres
You can't find /etc/X11/X86Config-4 file in Debian anymore. I think it is replaced by xorg.conf but I might be wrong.
I can suggest two things for the moment:

1. Download this firmware module in /live and reboot:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... s.squashfs
If the problem is still there then try;
2. Exit X from Shutdown menu:

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Xorg -configure

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mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

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startx

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and try changing this section:

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Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Toni

[saintless]

Thanks for the reply Toni, will give try this in the next week or so.

Hi, Alphadog.

I think thanks to Fred we will have Full install automated option in the future.
Till then here is how to make real full install manualy with DebianDog (on sda2 for example):

Extract 01-filesystem.squashfs on sda2.
Copy or move vmlinuz1 and initrd.img inside /media/sda2/boot
Add this in grub menu list:

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title DebianDog Full install on sda2
root (hd0,1)
 kernel /boot/vmlinuz1 root=/dev/sda2
 initrd /boot/initrd.img

initrd.img is needed for Debian full install unlike Puppy.

Toni

[dancytron]

Okay, I am using the xfce version with porteus boot with changes directory, save on exit only. When I get logged in, sda3 (the partition with my /live directory) is already mounted. When I open it, it takes me to /mnt/live/memory/images/changes-exit instead of sda3.

However, when I ran "create module from changes" (which worked great btw), it then changed and was mounted to sda3 like it should be. This is even if I cancel out of it before I let it create the squashfs file.

When I tried to unmount it, I got this error.

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Error umounting volume sda3: Script exited with exitcode 1
Output:
umount: /mnt/live/memory/images/changes-exit: device is busy.
        (In some cases useful info about processes that use
         the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))
umount: /mnt/live/mnt/sda3: device is busy.
        (In some cases useful info about processes that use
         the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1))

The menu.1st entry I am using is:

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title PorteusDog changes=EXIT:/live/
root (hd0,2)
kernel (hd0,2)/live/vmlinuz1 noauto from=/ changes=EXIT:/live/
initrd (hd0,2)/live/initrd1.xz

[saintless]

Hi, Dancytron.

When I tried to unmount it, I got this error

The error is because it is the boot partition. It can not be unmounted while using /live folder.

When I open it, it takes me to /mnt/live/memory/images/changes-exit instead of sda3.

I guess Fred will give better answer. It seems the same situation as using live-rw save file with live-boot-v2 which was solved with mnt-backing script. I think starting "create module from changes" (remastercow-porteus) restores the mount point to sda3.
I will test this situation tomorrow with both versions.

Toni

[dancytron]

okay, thanks.

Dan

[saintless]

Edit: Thank you for testing. Seems there is a problem with amd64 module. No more testing needed for now. I will open this subject again when I'm ready to continue.

Hi, all.

Test on AMD64 processor needed. Unfortunately I do not have one. If someone can do the test sometime it will be great.

Make DebianDog frugal install. Download this archive and extract it in /live:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... -amd64.zip
This is kernel 3.2.0-4-486-amd64 module.
Use this boot code (sda1 for example). Note vmlinuz6 and initrd6.img:

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title DebianDog Wheezy AMD64 live-boot-3x (sda1)
root=(hd0,0) 
kernel /live/vmlinuz6 boot=live config persistence swapon quickreboot noeject autologin showmounts
initrd /live/initrd6.img 

I need only test for now if DebianDog boots this way on AMD64 and if the installed programs start/work.
Thanks in advance!

Toni

Edit: Thank you for testing. Seems there is a problem with amd64 module. No more testing needed for now. I will open this subject again when I'm ready to continue.

[sunburnt]

Toni; I`ll do a test on my Athlon 64. It may take a little time, I`ll let you know...

# Update: Bad news...

1) deb-installer does not work for me, select /live & part., click [Install] and it does nothing.
"ps -A" shows that it appears to be stalled, I don`t know why.

2) After manually installing your setup my Athlon64 won`t recognize the USB drives.
All of the installs boot on my Pentium-D PC. So the Athlon must have BIOS issues.
The Athlon failed booting installs on several USB drives. I doubt it will work. Sorry...

# I`ll see if Olga`s HP laptop is an AMD 64 cpu ( it`s dual core ), when she gets home.
.

[mcewanw]

Okay, I am using the xfce version with porteus boot with changes directory, save on exit only. When I get logged in, sda3 (the partition with my /live directory) is already mounted. When I open it, it takes me to /mnt/live/memory/images/changes-exit instead of sda3.

Hi dancytron.

The result is actually the same using porteus boot method in the jwm version. But instead of clicking on boot device itself, I just always go to /mnt/home to open the filesystem on the boot device in xfe or rox.

[saintless]

Hi, Terry!

1) deb-installer does not work for me, select /live & part., click [Install] and it does nothing.
"ps -A" shows that it appears to be stalled, I don`t know why.

It works fine for me for iso and /live folder. Just tested again on ext4 and ext2 usb stick.
Does anyone else who tested the installer have similar as Terry's problem?

2) After manually installing your setup my Athlon64 won`t recognize the USB drives.
All of the installs boot on my Pentium-D PC. So the Athlon must have BIOS issues.
The Athlon failed booting installs on several USB drives. I doubt it will work. Sorry...

Thank you, Terry. At least it was worth trying. I guess it is possible some module for usb support also missing in the module and this could be the problem. But it is strange I can boot amd64 module till I get message my processor is not compatible. I will stop with amd64 trials till I get proper hardware for this.

Toni

[Wognath]

Thanks for a very interesting and impressive puppy.

Test on AMD64 processor needed.

On VIA Nano U2250 processor, with AMD 64 kernel, booted to desktop but no mouse or keyboard response. As far as I have tested, the porteus-boot version works except that the wireless card is not recognized.

[saintless]

Test on AMD64 processor needed.

On VIA Nano U2250 processor, with AMD 64 kernel, booted to desktop but no mouse or keyboard response. As far as I have tested, the porteus-boot version works except that the wireless card is not recognized.

Thank you, Wognath!
Can you just confirm you used vmlinuz6 and initrd6.img in your boot code similar to this one. None responding mouse and keyboard sounds like wrong initrd is in use:

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title DebianDog Wheezy live-boot-3x (sda1)
root=(hd0,0)
kernel /live/vmlinuz6 boot=live config persistence swapon quickreboot noeject autologin showmounts
initrd /live/initrd6.img

Anyway I will edit the message for testing amd64. I will continue with this when I get proper hardware to test it.

Toni

[giannis4]

I ve downloaded the DebianDog-Porteus-openbox_xfce-beta.iso,burned it to usb but when I am trying to boot from it I have an error about invalid kernel.Is this means that its not for my hardware?