Booting from CD, data on USB, nothing on HD

[Hank]

Hi, I've been playing around with puppy on my laptop (WinXP with NTFS), mainly trying to get my wireless to work (Intel/PRO 220BG, but that's something else entirely ). I would try booting from USB, but that's not an option in my BIOS (compaq nc6000) and I don't really want to put anything on the hard drive (I've read of issues that others have had with this and don't want to risk crashing my XP install.)

The problem I'm running into is that I cannot get a multisession CD to work consistently (problems writing data back to CD). Therefore what I would like to do is to store my data on a USB drive (I have a crucial gizmo 512MB model) and remaster a cd to mount this drive and use/store the pupxxx file on the USB. When I try to remaster the CD, I get stopped at step two with a message saying that there is not permanent storage location and, therefore, the process can't continue, only allowing me to exit.

Maybe I'm close and just missing the correct sequence of steps, but I don't know.

I've been all over this forum and the puppy site and have found bits and pieces, but I guess I'm a little over head/missing something (basic?) at this point. I would appreciate any help provided.

Thanks.

[PeterSieg]

Hi, so assume, that booting live-CD works and it says ..`cant find suitable part..`
Plug in usb stick and give the device like 'sda1`...? Does this work?
That would give you what you want, with the exception, you must wait until this
message pop up..

Unfortunetly, the usb drivers (modules) have not been loaded be default.. only after
this message comes..

Also when you want to enter sda1 with option 3 doesn`t work because of usb storage
drivers not loaded than.. Maybe Barry can change that..?

So you probably have to modify rc.sysinit to relocate the usb storage stuff,..

PS

[Hank]

With the USB stick plugged in at boot, I've tried entering sda1 for the usb drive, but it can't be found. I'm assuming that the drivers aren't loaded/drive not mounted yet.

Also, modifying the rc.sysint leaves me in the same position as at the start because I can't get the multisession cd to write properly. Hence my desire to get the pup file on the USB drive and then to remaster the CD with the appropriate files modified to mount the USB drive and load the pup file on startup.

[Flash]

I believe USB flash drives are formatted FAT32; the pup001 file is for Linux ext2 (and possibly ext3) filesystem only.

Barry provides a special zip.pup.exe (or something like that, I can't find it anywhere) file for puppy to use on Windows-only machines, where the standard pup001 file won't work. You download it and install it on the (FAT32) hard drive. Internally it is an ext2 filesystem, but Windows sees it as just a file on the hard drive.

Perhaps if you could find that file and install it on your USB flash drive....?

[Guest]

You could try this method:
http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic.php?t=1538

Set your own value for the size of the pup100 file, it is KBytes, e.g. 131072 would make a pup100 file of 128MB.

It works for me. The changes to shutdown are included with 1.0.5 alpha 2, and presumably will be in 1.0.5. Without them, shutdown when using a USB stick for storage is rather slow.

BTW - Your Intel/PRO 220BG should be supported by bladehunter's wifi beta_2 dot pup, but first things first I guess.

[Hank]

Hi Flash, Guest
Thanks for the suggestions. I tried something a little different by creating a CD from 1.0.5alpha2, choosing no startup option and then when given the prompt to enter sda1 for creating my pup file on a the usb, it loads up the drivers and creates the file on my usb drive! I then looked at the wizard for remastering the disk and I know have the ability to do so if I would like to.

So at this point, I have a "stable" environment in which I can pursue getting my wireless to work. I've tried bladehunter's wifi-beta2.pup file and whenever I execute the modprobe ndiswrapper command my wireless transmitter light comes on and the capslock and numeric keypad lights start flashing in unison and my computer completely freezes. I would appreciate your thoughts on where to go from here on getting the wireless to work.

Thanks again.

[BlackAdder]

Looks as though you are getting a kernel panic with ndiswrapper.
I have not tried the wifi dot pup with 1.0.5 alpha 2. Will check it out today or tomorrow.
You are using the beta 2 version of the dot pup and not the original, right?

In the meantime, could you run lspci and post the result in this thread.
In case you don't know, you can just mark an area in the rxvt window and that copies it to the clipboard.

[Hank]

Thanks for looking into this, I look forward to what you have to say.

Kernel panic.... hmm... Learn something new everyday!!

I am indeed using the beta2 version of the wifi dot pup.

Here is the output from the lspci as you requested:

Code: Select all

# lspci
0:0.0 8086:3340 (rev 03)
0:1.0 8086:3341 (rev 03)
0:29.0 8086:24c2 (rev 03)
0:29.1 8086:24c4 (rev 03)
0:29.2 8086:24c7 (rev 03)
0:29.7 8086:24cd (rev 03)
0:30.0 8086:2448 (rev 83)
0:31.0 8086:24cc (rev 03)
0:31.1 8086:24ca (rev 03)
0:31.5 8086:24c5 (rev 03)
0:31.6 8086:24c6 (rev 03)
1:0.0 1002:4e50
2:4.0 8086:4220 (rev 05)
2:6.0 1217:7223
2:6.1 1217:7223
2:6.2 1217:7110
2:6.3 1217:7223
2:14.0 14e4:165e (rev 03)
#

- Henry

[Lobster]

I would appreciate your thoughts on where to go from here on getting the wireless to work.

Thanks again.

Maybe testing WAG (see wiki news for 4 Sep 05)
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/LatestNews

[Hank]

Thanks for the heads up! Downloading now and willing to check it out!!

[Flash]

I believe USB flash drives are formatted FAT32; the pup001 file is for Linux ext2 (and possibly ext3) filesystem only.

Barry provides a special zip.pup.exe (or something like that, I can't find it anywhere) file for puppy to use on Windows-only machines, where the standard pup001 file won't work. You download it and install it on the (FAT32) hard drive. Internally it is an ext2 filesystem, but Windows sees it as just a file on the hard drive.

Perhaps if you could find that file and install it on your USB flash drive....?

I seem to have mangled things - a common occurrence.

According the the Puppy FAQ (NTFS - third question down), Puppy can create a pup001 file on partitions formatted with practically any kind of file system except NTFS. You only need the special pup001.zip file for NTFS.

[Lobster]

This is a long shot. Didn't Puppy 1.0.2 have support for NTFS? Now some people reported problems saving and losing data (on NTFS) and that is why the 2.6 kernel was abandoned and we returned to the updated and still developing 2.4
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/VersionsPuppy

However did some people use Puppy 1.0.2 successfully with NTFS? Was John Murga's Opera build of Puppy 1.0.2 any more able to deal with NTFS?

One of the things Barry is attempting is making Puppy able to use 2.4 or 2.6 kernel (when 2.6 is more stable we will be able to move to the 2.6 Linux kernel with relative ease)

Has the 2.6 kernel been updated to include better support for NTFS (which it was meant to have)? How easy would it be to compile and run this with the old Puppy 1.0.2?

[BlackAdder]

The lspci listing you posted shows the vendor:product id for the Intel 220bg (8086:4220). There is a report of that adapter working with ndiswrapper, but with Debian using Linux kernel 2.6.8 (see the ndiswrapper wiki if you are interested).
The wifi beta 2 dot pup does work correctly with 1.0.5 alpha 2 and my adapter - the only one available for test at the moment.
It is possible that your adapter needs later drivers than those included with the wifi.pup. If that is the case, are you up for installing them etc.? We can pilot you through the process if you want. Do you have a CD with the Windows drivers for the adapter?

On a separate topic. The way you set up your USB flash drive obviously works, but there could be a snag. Barry has been careful to limit the writing to this type of drive because the drives have a finite life defined as the number writes to them. So Puppy supports only writing to the pupxxx file on shutdown. The PSLEEP parameter is used as a way to check if the device is USB-connected. If it is defined as though it is a normal hard disk, then writes will take place as required and the device may fail earlier than would be the case with a rewrite of pupxxx at shutdown. What difference does it make? Have no clear idea, but it is worthwhile being aware there is a difference.

[Flash]

....Barry has been careful to limit the writing to this type of drive because the drives have a finite life defined as the number writes to them....What difference does it make? Have no clear idea, but it is worthwhile being aware there is a difference.

From what I've been able to find, flash memory typically lasts for a million erase/write cycles. Reads do not affect its life.

[Bruce B]

After reading the posts in this thread, in this particular case I think I'd want to resize the NTFS filesystem to make enough freespace at the end of the drive to install Puppy on its own partition.

What is the problem in doing that?

[Hank]

Using the flash drive in this manner is really more of a temporary thing. Without making a change to the hard drive on my work computer, it was the only way that I could find to create a consistently bootable environment that would store my changes while trying to get my network card to function. And that problem has been resolved!

I had tried bladehunter's wifi beta 2 dot pup without success (kernel panic?) a number of times and WAG wouldn't find the card since it's not a pcmcia card. In parallel to trying this, I have been working offline with tempestuous on getting the ipw2200 drivers to work. Yesterday we (really tempestuous) came up with the magic combination!! I'm working with him to refine the setup afterwhich, I believe, he intends to create a dot pup file from his installation. Tempestuous really deserves kudos for the effort he's put in to get this working even though he doesn't have this card!

[Flash]

Hank, perhaps just as important as another dotpup, would be to expand your post into a general discussion of the various things to consider when trying to get wireless working in Puppy. You've already made a good start.