Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

stemsee · Joined: 27 Jun 2013 Posts: 2363 Location: In The Way

So trying to boot frugal from various filesystems results in this error as vmlinuz tries to load initrd

jamesbond · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 3354 Location: The Blue Marble

fatdog · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 99

Updated information about firmware in the second post: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=977929#977929. Especially, we have uploaded an SFS that contains all the firmware known to the mainline Linux kernel.

ljward · Joined: 10 Apr 2016 Posts: 5

Hey guys, thanks for the new release! I just wanted to suggest adding the loading of the virtio kernel modules inside the init script. I got FatDog720 running on FreeBSD inside a Bhyve virtual machine booting with UEFI using the VirtioIO drivers for networking and storage. Initially I was able to save the save file/folder to a virtual disk such as /dev/vda2, but when I reboot it does not detect the virtual disk because the init script inside the initrd does not load the virtio kernel modules so it failed to find my savefile. I added loading the virtio modules to the init script and rebuilt the initrd and now everything works fine and I am able to use my save file/folder stored on a virtual disk.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5474 Location: GB

stemsee · Joined: 27 Jun 2013 Posts: 2363 Location: In The Way

I use a customised fatdog version of the rEFInd utility, which loads a grub.cfg and boots from there.
Worked with previous fatdog and everything else.

DD'ed the latest iso to a usb thumb drive. Booted from it to fatdog 'rEFInd', then same 'couldn't find suitable memory target' problem for every boot option except the last which nevertheless didn't get me to a desktop.

Tried various boot parameters to no avail!

Does it check ram size? Not expecting 16GBs ;-/ ??

Must be a bug in mergeinitrd.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5474 Location: GB

More about inaction of NIC drivers.
Tested a load of distros for NIC connection with interesting results:
Slacko 5.6 can see and wired-connect to my SiS900 and my ancient RTL8139C NICs. So can almost all other (non-Puppy) distros - even majors like Mint & Fedora.
Surprisingly, though, both of those NICs appear to be detected in Slacko 6.9.9.9, Pyro 0.6, XSlacko 4.4, using SNS and FD64 720 using ControlPanel/Network/Scanner.
None of the later will connect/wired however.
Why? What has changed? I am not doing anything differently this last decade, although my severely limited knowledge prevents knowing how to get these NICs to connect. The older NIC has been working with just about every installation since I stripped it from a turn-of-the-century discard - and still does, even on the latest SOTA kit!

kirk · Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: florida

Sage,

Didn't you mention there was firmware missing for you wired NIC or am I thinking of someone else? If you know the file name for the firmware we can possibly add it. You can open a terminal and type dmesg. It will usually log an error about missing firmware.

You could also go to Control Panel -> Utilities -> (then scroll down) -> Bug Report Info Collector. Then attach the report for us to look at. You might have to change the extension of the file name to something the forum is happy with.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5474 Location: GB

Many thanks, kirk. I might've said something like that but getting well out of my ambit! Did a bunch of tests recommended by jb. The whole thing is confusing. Thought I did a dmesg at one time and might've told jb? or not?
The conundrum is simple, though: a year ago or so, all the puppies worked on SiS900/RTL8139C - now they don't, although the HW seems to register them in the NICs setup procedures, maybe not elsewhere? Unfortunately for me, the problems seem to reside in the hinterlands between HW/FW&SW - too difficult for me. Plenty of other distros working, so I'll have to wait for one of you gurus to fathom it out with some dusty kit lost behind the sideboard...

jake29 · Joined: 24 Jul 2015 Posts: 209

Out of curiosity, I tried the 720 final live-cd on a gaming PC I was setting up over Christmas. I got the following error during initrd loading:

jamesbond · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 3354 Location: The Blue Marble

jake29 - your problem seems similar to stemsee.
New hardware, new firmware - most probably UEFI.
Something has changed, requiring grub2 update.

Sage - my apology I've been busy, so progress is slow.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year everyone. See you in 2018.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 5474 Location: GB

NIC issue resolved - advised to jb.

stemsee · Joined: 27 Jun 2013 Posts: 2363 Location: In The Way

Replaced grubx64.efi (2013 > 2016) and grub2.efi and booted ok.
ha ha!

Having enabled BC-wl wlan0 is in wired pane on wpagui with no way to connect. Used Wifi-Scanner-2 (Ad) script only and voila! problem solved... Wink

jake29 · Joined: 24 Jul 2015 Posts: 209

I would like to present some more perspective for those dismissive about the value of Vulkan Graphics Drivers. Some key features include:

rufwoof · Joined: 24 Feb 2014 Posts: 3253

SneekyLinux review : https://youtu.be/PmmEimUovmo