Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

TeX Dog · Joined: 06 Jul 2016 Posts: 341

Never found the wood polish, but had time to attempt to install linux EFI boot into Win!0, not happening??? took away esp (???) and boot flags and it still <but with more spinning blobs of white dots, now> refuses to boot linux EFI when I know this worked when it was still win8 Mad

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5370 Location: GB

Afraid our archaeologist colleague and others are missing the point - both barrels, both feet. Regular folk ain't gonna jiggle with broken offerings, even if they understand the jargon.
Too many other more essential calls in this frenetic life.

mavrothal · Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 2964

Took a fast look on 8.1.5 iso
As mentioned it fails. I believe that this is because the kernel does not have AUFS, so the mounting of the layered filesystem fails and there is nothing to switch_root to.
I guess the kernel has overlayfs now, but the mount call in the init still has aufs.

prehistoric · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1726

@mavrothal,

Can that explain why the ISO fails, but installations to flash drives derived from the ISO file work? At this point I am confused.

If true this would narrow the search for a fix considerably.

prehistoric · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1726

@Tex Dog,

The scripts only work on Linux systems, and not all of them. We have determined that they work under Fatdog 710 with those added efi files, and under Quirky Werewolf 7.4, which already has them built in.

I have no idea what you are doing with W10.

@Sage,

This was obviously a release candidate rather than a true release. We are trying to fix this without waiting for BarryK, a limited commodity who is concentrating on ARM versions these days.

We now have two working ways to install this to flash drives, so I don't believe the system itself is broken, just one means of setting it up. Until we have the fix for the ISO file, we just need to warn people against using it.

BarryK · Posted: Wed 28 Dec 2016, 08:54 Post subject:

Oh dear. I didn't test the ISO, just assumed it would work.

I have removed the ISO from Ibiblio, the alternatives are still there.

Probably the easiest way to install is with the *.img.xz file, just "dd" it to a flash stick. Instructions are online.

Yeah, once you get it going, it seems to be working very well.

Right now, have limited time to work on it. I am working on a Slackware-based Quirky, following that line of thought right now.

mavrothal · Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 2964

prehistoric · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1726

@mavrothal,

I've confirmed your analysis by trying to reproduce the success reported above by dangerfirebob. I was able to use the universal installer in Quirky Werewolf 7.4 to install from the Xerus 8.1.5 ISO. My problem was that this approach got as far as the Quirky boot screen, but failed to find the vmlinuz kernel file.

Adding the kernel file from the ISO works, I'm using it now. Also confirmed that including the initrd.q causes failure. There is, of course, no need for the q.sfs file if the partition containing the same information is directly mounted.

I think this isolates the problem pretty clearly.

@BarryK, this is not an emergency. You've already taken action to stop use of the defective ISO. Those who want to experiment have means to use the system with the alternative setup.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5370 Location: GB

Billtoo · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 3422 Location: Ontario Canada

Hi Sage,

I have an older Acer Chomebook (3years I think) that I use quite a
lot.
It has an ethernet port and a 300+ GB hard drive, the newer Chromebooks
don't have ethernet ports or internal hard drives (they have 16 or 32
GB ssd).
Like any laptop they aren't droppable but if looked after they work
well.
I was given a bluetooth speaker this xmas and it works great with this
chromebook, much better than headphones or ear buds.

Anyhow, I love my Chromebook Smile

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5370 Location: GB

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=924021#924021
Yes, Chromebooks are interesting because they can be cheap! Doubtless you are aware of the above thread. I reckon there's a good future for hardware & SW conversions of that sort of kit. Only catch is avoiding the add-on costs if one needs to plug-in HW from previous incarnations or proprietary stuff. [Was caught out recently by a unit with a USB -C 3.1. Wasn't advertised as Apple. Genuine converter to regular USB was listed, by Apple, at ~fifty quid! ] Stories of folks spending fortunes on eg interseries connectors/ADC boards/&co for RPi s.

prehistoric · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1726

@Sage,

Hey! I'm the one claiming to be prehistoric. Even I use flash drives.

As for problems with SSDs, I built a system with a 64 GB SSD some years ago. I wasn't sure how long it would last, but I set it up as a cache for the hard drive, so it is read-mostly. User files constantly being modified generally go to the hard drive. I recently replaced that hard drive, but that SSD keeps on ticking.

The owner was wondering about getting a replacement for something this old, but I have 120 GB and 240 GB SSDs standing by. No need to pay more for obsolete components.

I have yet to hear a complaint from anyone whose laptop drive I've replaced with an SSD.

You need to compare new problems with older alternatives.

dangerfirebob · Joined: 13 Jun 2014 Posts: 21 Location: Sicily

Ah, sorry prehistoric I was not clear enough about the process I used to get to Xerus 8.1.5

prehistoric · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1726

@dangerfirebob,

Thanks to a misunderstanding we now have a third way to install Quirky Xerus 8.1.5.

I interpreted your post to mean you used Quirky Werewolf to install to a flash drive using the ISO image for Xerus 8.1.5, even though that was defective.

I then looked at the result, and decided the main problem was a missing vmlinuz file, which I added. Do not add the initrd.q file. This is not necessary if it is directly mounting the partition with the filesystem, and contains an error.

I've just tested the resulting flash drive installation on another machine which just happens to be an HP Elitebook 6930p.

The mini-touchpad works fine on this, and is reported as a Synaptics Touchpad by hwinfo.

dangerfirebob · Joined: 13 Jun 2014 Posts: 21 Location: Sicily

@prehistoric

I'm glad you got it working, I just reinstalled Quirky Xerus 8.0 after discovering that the Vlc player was not working and Xine wouldn't install codecs properly. As far as I can see my Xerus 8.1.5 was fatally corrupted.

With the Xerus 8.0 installation I had to manually add the vmlinuz file too, I also added the q.sfs file for luck, not sure whats in there! programs maybe.

The service pack upgrade to Xerus 8.1.5 is strange, there is a long wait time for it to complete, maybe I didn't wait long enough, I ended up with a lot of missing stuff. I'm not going to use that recommended upgrade again after my experience. Sounds like a fresh installation from the iso is better.

Quirky Xerus 8.0 with the Xine media player working fine again on this little HP mini.