Fatdog64-720 and 721 Final [11 Jan 2018]

[jake29]

This dual core i3 is around 8 years old.

Core2Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz, even older and weaker - yet exhibits none of your FF / VLC issues.

[jamesbond]

I didn't do anything on the boot line so it's enabled.
I'm getting pauses in other things too, I opened Firefox and it wouldn't go fullscreen right away but it did after maybe 10 seconds.
Also opening VLC isn't immediate but opens and works fine after a pause, it's playing a movie dvd now.
Redrawing the screen isn't working properly at first, both firefox and vlc windows work fine now.
So I get random pauses.

This dual core i3 is around 8 years old.

Ok. Can you try to boot with "pti=off" in the boot parameter? Just want to see if that's what's changed, or is there something else.

[Billtoo]

Ok. Can you try to boot with "pti=off" in the boot parameter? Just want to see if that's what's changed, or is there something else.

I tried that but I think I'll do a new install, the checksum of the iso matched but gparted took a long time to format the flash drive,maybe a problem there.

I'll give it another try in the morning on a different flash drive.

Thanks.

[Billtoo]

I prepared a 32gb flash drive with gparted live then booted the 721 DVD
and installed to the flash drive.
Did the setup and rebooted creating a 5gb savefile.

video-info-glx 1.5.3 Fri 12 Jan 2018 on Fatdog64 721 Linux 4.14.12 x86_64
2.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
oem: Intel(R)Ironlake Desktop Graphics Chipset Accelerated VGA BIOS
product: Intel(R)Ironlake Desktop Graphics Controller Hardware Version 0.0

X Server: Xorg Driver: intel
X.Org version: 1.19.5
dimensions: 1920x1080 pixels (508x285 millimeters)
depth of root window: 24 planes

direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Desktop
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 17.2.8

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 540 @ 3.07GHz
Core 0: @1200 1: @1200 2: @1467 3: @1200 MHz


It's working fine, no delays.
Thanks.

[Billtoo]

I installed to a usb-3.0 SSD:

System: Host: fatdog64-e81 Kernel: 4.14.12 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Openbox 3.5.2 Distro: Fatdog64 Linux 721
Machine: Device: desktop System: LENOVO product: 7491B8U v: ThinkCentre M58e serial: MJ01509
Mobo: LENOVO model: N/A serial: INVALID BIOS: LENOVO v: 5HKT39AUS date: 06/17/2009
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo E8400 (-MCP-) speed/max: 2003/3003 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 430]
Display Server: X.Org 1.19.5 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 430/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.3.0 NVIDIA 384.111
Network: Card: Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: sky2
Drives: HDD Total Size: 508.8GB (9.0% used)
Weather: Conditions: 39 F (4 C) - light rain mist Time: January 12, 2:07 PM EST
Info: Processes: 142 Uptime: 1:03 Memory: 437.1/3949.1MB Client: Shell (sh) inxi: 2.3.53

Installed sfs files, proprietary nvidia driver.

It works well so far,
Thanks.

[Null_ID]

A Lenovo Thinkpad X201 with an issue here: No Wi-Fi. Can't connect to wireless. Wlan0 just... isn't there. I had to use ethernet to connect. This is disappointing after everything in the older Fatdogs, using the same machine, just worked. Series 6, and all of 7 up to ver. 7.10 was really smooth sailing, but now...
EDIT: PROBLEM SOLVED. Firmware was missing.

Also, screen light won't turn on, unless I Suspend the machine from the Menu, and then turn it back on.

What do?

Also, an additional question: How do those Intel microcode patches work exactly? Is it a runtime patch done in RAM, or do they actually modify the software on the system board? Not that it matters to my machine, since it's now too old to enjoy official Intel support, but still.

[foxpup]

A Lenovo Thinkpad X201 with an issue here: No Wi-Fi. Can't connect to wireless. Wlan0 just... isn't there.

You probably need the right version of your driver. Do you know what kind of driver you need or the type of wifi card you have? To find out the card use pupsysinfo: Devices>network>network controller. Or something similar in fatdog.
Then google for the right driver for your card. When you know the right kind of driver, type dmesg in console, and in the output look up the right version(s) fatdog needs/looks for. Download that version of the driver (google!) and put it in /lib/firmware/

[Null_ID]

@foxpup:

Right, so PupSysInfo in Tahrpup 606 gave me the following:

Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 [8086:4238] (rev 35)
• Kernel Driver: iwlwifi
• Memory Used: 62.51 KB
• Path: /lib/modules/3.14.79/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko
• Driver Version: in-tree:
• Description: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux

"iwlwifi.ko"? As I recall it, this driver did exist in Fatty721, when I looked for it, but for some reason it just can't be bothered to activate now.

Just in case I remembered wrong, and F721 doesn't have that driver, can I transplant it from Fatdog 7.10, where I know for a fact it still worked?

[foxpup]

can I transplant it from Fatdog 7.10, where I know for a fact it still worked?

It is not the .ko you need (that is kernel specific), but the file "iwlwifi-6000....ucode" in /lib/firmware. On the dots is the version. Look in the output of the command dmesg in console to find which version(s) you need. One of the listed versions you will find is enough.
It is possible you find a fitting version in Fatdog7.10, but it is not sure. Newer kernels want newer versions.
You can google the version you want; add ubuntu to your search, for it is surely already in a ubuntu package.
BTW, this page tells you what kernel is needed for your intel network card:https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... rking.html The version there will probably not be the right one.

[jamesbond]

@Billtoo, thanks for testing. Glad that the problem seems to the flash related.

@Null_ID: @foxpup is right, it's most likely missing firmware.

To be sure, please do this: Open Control Panel, click the "Utilities" tab, scroll down, double-click "Bug Report Info Collector". When the process is finished, upload it somewhere where we can look at it. It saves us from playing 20 questions.

@foxpup: thanks for helping.

[Null_ID]

Null_ID here again, Wi-Fi problem solved. I was indeed missing some firmware. Dmesg notified me about the following:

[ 4.240641] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-6000-6.ucode failed with error -2
[ 4.240696] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-6000-5.ucode failed with error -2
[ 4.240746] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode failed with error -2
[ 4.240749] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: no suitable firmware found!
[ 4.240751] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: minimum version required: iwlwifi-6000-4
[ 4.240752] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: maximum version supported: iwlwifi-6000-6
[ 4.240754] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: check git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

The solution: I pulled "iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode" from the firmwares SFS that is being offered on page 1, put it to /lib/firmware, and rmmod/modprobed iwldvm and iwlwifi back into action. Unhappy as I may be that such crucial piece of code was excised from this release, I nevertheless now have wireless again. Will edit my previous post to reflect this. Thanks to all who gave input, it put me trough the right steps.

[Anniekin]

Booting from windows unetbootin... Its asking me for a bulldog login... ?

[foxpup]

Unhappy as I may be that such crucial piece of code was excised from this release,

It is not easy to know which versions are needed for a specific kernel, and for new kernels the versions may not even exist on the moment of release. Besides, Fatdog provides it in fdrv.

I pulled "iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode" from the firmwares SFS

[jamesbond]

Booting from windows unetbootin... Its asking me for a bulldog login... ?

Did you boot initrd or nano-initrd? If you boot nano-initrd, you need to copy the boot parameters so that it can find the (huge initrd). You can find the correct parameters from either isolinux.cfg or from grub.cfg from the ISO file.

@foxpup - indeed, it is not easy. In the line up to 720, we changed our way to identify the firmware. We have been missing firmware in 720beta, 720 and we hope to fix it once and for all with 721. Obviously there are still work to do.

EDIT: in Null_ID's case, the iwlwifi module notifies that it requires iwlwifi-6000-6.ucode, which doesn't exist in the firmware collection. However, it can work with iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode which does exist in the firmware collection. However (and this is the most important part) - the fact that it can work with iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode - is not advertised anywhere, short of running the iwlwifi module itself, or actually reading the source code. There is no automated way to extract this knowledge from the module. Thus it is impossible for us to know unless someone like Null_ID reports the case.

[foxpup]

@foxpup - indeed, it is not easy. In the line up to 720, we changed our way to identify the firmware. We have been missing firmware in 720beta, 720 and we hope to fix it once and for all with 721. Obviously there are still work to do.

EDIT: in Null_ID's case, the iwlwifi module notifies that it requires iwlwifi-6000-6.ucode, which doesn't exist in the firmware collection. However, it can work with iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode which does exist in the firmware collection. However (and this is the most important part) - the fact that it can work with iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode - is not advertised anywhere, short of running the iwlwifi module itself, or actually reading the source code. There is no automated way to extract this knowledge from the module. Thus it is impossible for us to know unless someone like Null_ID reports the case.

I've had something similar, I don't remember the exact distro. When I installed a version that was in the messages' list, it did not work, I had to take another version from the list.

[stemsee]

I am really enjoying the 720 experience.

Having said that there is a really annoying thing ... that thing is whenever using control panel apps like remaster, savefile tool, uefi installer all ask for the savefile or initrd with file selector opening at '/root/' ... I am quite certain no one has there vmlinuz or savefile there! Anyway ...

uefi installer does not work with a remastered uefi iso image file, or even after burning to media 'sr0' it reports files missing ... even if I added the exact same files as a precaution, and reamed the iso image. It seems to me that an option to install a remastered.iso image in /tmp would be useful. Perhaps giving a choice for bios or uefi regardless of the format of the remaster iso!

Also after recompiling the kernel 4.14.6 and installing it I had to place the wl.ko module in /lib/modules/4.14.6/kernel/net/wireless/ and run depmod then

Code: Select all

rmmod -f wl
modprobe -f wl

as

Code: Select all

 rmmod wl
insmod wl

no longer worked with the BC-wl service. I know this is an unusual scenario which should not arise when sticking with your kernel packages.

Thanks
stemsee[/code]

[jamesbond]

I am really enjoying the 720 experience.

Glad to hear that.

Having said that there is a really annoying thing ... that thing is whenever using control panel apps like remaster, savefile tool, uefi installer all ask for the savefile or initrd with file selector opening at '/root/' ... I am quite certain no one has there vmlinuz or savefile there! Anyway ...

This is the default directory, which is $HOME. What other location would you propose?

uefi installer does not work with a remastered uefi iso image file, or even after burning to media 'sr0' it reports files missing ... even if I added the exact same files as a precaution, and reamed the iso image.

Can't reproduce.
1. Run the uefi installer from terminal (it's name is fatdog-uefi-installer.sh), and observe error messages, and report, please.
2. Are you sure your remastered does support UEFI? Does it really boot under uefi (did you test)? How did you create the remastered uefi iso? (You must tick "Enable EFI support" when creating the remaster).

It seems to me that an option to install a remastered.iso image in /tmp would be useful.

You can already do that now. Run UEFI installer and tell it to install from /tmp/remastered.iso. I just did that and it installs fine (as in, "the install boots to desktop").

Perhaps giving a choice for bios or uefi regardless of the format of the remaster iso!

You can't expect to perform UEFI installation if the source ISO does not support UEFI. The necessary files are just missing.

cheers!

[stemsee]

Having said that there is a really annoying thing ... that thing is whenever using control panel apps like remaster, savefile tool, uefi installer all ask for the savefile or initrd with file selector opening at '/root/' ... I am quite certain no one has there vmlinuz or savefile there! Anyway ...

This is the default directory, which is $HOME. What other location would you propose?

/aufs .. obviously! or /mnt/home if it binds with devbase or devsave or pup_save (just guessing!)

1. Run the uefi installer from terminal (it's name is fatdog-uefi-installer.sh), and observe error messages, and report, please.

will do

2. Are you sure your remastered does support UEFI? Does it really boot under uefi (did you test)? How did you create the remastered uefi iso? (You must tick "Enable EFI support" when creating the remaster).

yep

Perhaps giving a choice for bios or uefi regardless of the format of the remaster iso!

You can't expect to perform UEFI installation if the source ISO does not support UEFI. The necessary files are just missing.
at's what I tried.
cheers!

I will try again on a pristine FD install, targeting my remastered iso.

stemsee

[Anniekin]

Did you boot initrd or nano-initrd? If you boot nano-initrd, you need to copy the boot parameters so that it can find the (huge initrd).

Got it... Great job! Default puppy has lost its way, the Ubuntu packages are bloated, and many of them do not work. Although I'm not a fan of seamonkey and prefer palemoon. I have bluetooth and MTP here, screen brightness and volume keyboard shortcuts are working, savefile to dir... very impressed.

[jamesbond]

Glad to hear that, Anniekin.

Since you're running with nano-initrd, I'd like to point out to the bugs section in the third post of this thread - especially the part that says:

Microcode update when using initrd-nano.xz
[721 only] Microcode update is only applied if you use the standard initrd. If you use initrd-nano.xz, it won't be applied because the kernel doesn't support updating from a compressed initrd. If you use initrd-nano.xz and want to microcode to be applied, you will need to uncompress that initrd-nano first: just (double-)click on it, click yes when asked, and you will end-up with initrd-nano (without .xz extension). Adjust your boot entries to use initrd-nano instead of initrd-nano.xz. This has been fixed for future release. NOTE: Just renaming initrd-nano.xz to initrd-nano obviously DOESN'T WORK, you really need to uncompress it.

Hope that helps.