How to edit GRUB menu.lst to boot Puppy?

[sheine]

I have installed puppy 3.0 on my hard drive. I have used Mepis for my grub. What are the entries that I should add to menu.lst to boot puppy?

[Bruce B]

Your question could be answered if one of us would show you examples for different types of installations and variety of possible locations.

It would be easier, for your helpers, if you'd tell us what kind of installation you made, and where you made it.

[AMF]

Check out: http://www.puppylinux.com/hard-puppy.htm

Hope this helps

[sheine]

I used the text for a full installation and this is what I got:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (3,7)

[rcrsn51]

You need to provide more information. On what partition have you installed Puppy? Are you sure you did a full install and not a frugal install? What is the current entry in your menu.lst that is trying to boot Puppy?

[Bruce B]

@AMF - great link, didn't know it was there

@sheine - you can get generic help or specific help. At this point specific help seems in order.

It is a 'full' installation true?

How does GRUB see the partition? Example: (hd0,2)

How does Linux see the partition? Example: /dev/hda3

This is what you need to specify. If you don't know how to give the answers, state so.

[sheine]

@AMF - great link, didn't know it was there

@sheine - you can get generic help or specific help. At this point specific help seems in order.

It is a 'full' installation true?

It is a full installation.

How does GRUB see the partition? Example: (hd0,2)

(hd0,7)

How does Linux see the partition? Example: /dev/hda3

/dev/sda8

This is what you need to specify. If you don't know how to give the answers, state so.

[Bruce B]

Try this:

Code: Select all

title Linux Normal
  root (hd0,7)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro vga=normal

[sheine]

Try this:

Code: Select all

title Linux Normal
  root (hd0,7)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 ro vga=normal

That is exactly what I used except for the title and adding acpi=off.

[Wolf Pup]

try changing ro to rw if it wont boot.

[wingruntled]

Here is my menu.lst for Windose, puppy 2.17.1 and puppy 3,0
default=1
timeout 5

title Windows (on /dev/hda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins

title puppy Linux 2.217.1 (on /dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Puppy Linux 3.0 (on /dev/hda4)
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda4 ro vga=normal

All my puppy's are full HD installs. No Frugal for this old man.

Edited to add:
Frugal installs reminds me of the old STACKER days.
If you screwed up Stacker you can't read the data very easy.

[Sage]

If you screw(ed) up Stacker you can't read the data very eas(il)y.

Ah yes, the CVF - I remember it well. A curse indeed when the stepper motor in an MFM drive began to wear.

Folks need to appreciate that compression is a double-edged sword. Whilst all data is compressed, using a second algorithm adds geometric rather that arithmetic complexity. An .sfs file is just that - it needs the BK un-.sfs key to unlock it. However, .txt files, for example, can be unlocked by a plethora of OSes, apps, w.h.y. Frugality is a Catch22, FULL installs are more tangible for all but IT gurus.

[jonyo]

All my puppy's are full HD installs. No Frugal for this old man.

All live cd save file to HD for dis kindergarten nOOb..

[sheine]

Despite all the suggestions, nothing works. While I like Puppy and the philosophy behind it, there appears to be an incompatibility with my computer. I do not want to use the Puppy version of grub because I am afraid that it will wipe out my working linux distributions (I have had this experience before).

[8-bit]

Despite all the suggestions, nothing works. While I like Puppy and the philosophy behind it, there appears to be an incompatibility with my computer. I do not want to use the Puppy version of grub because I am afraid that it will wipe out my working linux distributions (I have had this experience before).

With more information, a solution might be reached. First, are we talking about a full hard drive install to another partition or a frugal install to the same one? Next, is the partition formated ext2 or ext 3? Also, can you show a copy of your menu.lst file which would help a lot also.
I tried for a frugal install to a directory on an empty partition once and I know I did something wrong because the directory structure was placed
on the partition even running with pfix=ram. I found this out after I had to reformat the partition because the original frugal install was to an ext3 partition with Open Suse on it. I still do not know how to set up menu.lst to have a frugal install to a linux formated partition leave any existing installed OSes alone.

[alienjeff]

It appears you may need to educate Puppy as to what type of HD you have, and tack something like this to the end of the "kernel" line in menu.lst:

PMEDIA=satahd OR PMEDIA=scsihd

Try those and see if that Puppy will boot! If not, you may have to specify the partition where the kernel is located, such as:

kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz ...

Cut-and-paste your entire menu.lst to your reply, please. That would help us.

[sheine]

Despite all the suggestions, nothing works. While I like Puppy and the philosophy behind it, there appears to be an incompatibility with my computer. I do not want to use the Puppy version of grub because I am afraid that it will wipe out my working linux distributions (I have had this experience before).

With more information, a solution might be reached. First, are we talking about a full hard drive install to another partition or a frugal install to the same one? Next, is the partition formated ext2 or ext 3? Also, can you show a copy of your menu.lst file which would help a lot also.
I tried for a frugal install to a directory on an empty partition once and I know I did something wrong because the directory structure was placed
on the partition even running with pfix=ram. I found this out after I had to reformat the partition because the original frugal install was to an ext3 partition with Open Suse on it. I still do not know how to set up menu.lst to have a frugal install to a linux formated partition leave any existing installed OSes alone.

I did a full installation. I first tried ext3, then ext.2 I always end up with kernel panic in grub.

[sheine]

It appears you may need to educate Puppy as to what type of HD you have, and tack something like this to the end of the "kernel" line in menu.lst:

PMEDIA=satahd OR PMEDIA=scsihd

Try those and see if that Puppy will boot! If not, you may have to specify the partition where the kernel is located, such as:

kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz ...

Cut-and-paste your entire menu.lst to your reply, please. That would help us.

My menu.lst entry is that of the previous post with the two suggestions added, putting (hd0,7) in the kernel line and PMEDIA=satahd. I still get the same kernel panic message previously described.

[Bruce B]

Q: In your BIOS setup have you got IDE Emulation enabled for SATA?

[rcrsn51]

Here are some suggestions:

1. Post the menu.lst entry for Mepis so we can see what actually is working.

2. Boot to the GRUB menu and press the C key. Type the command: root (hd0,7)
Are there any error messages?

3. Then type: find /boot/vmlinuz
What is the reply?

4. Boot to Mepis and have a look in sda8. Does it look like a full Linux install?
Can you see the file /boot/vmlinuz?

As a test, I set up a configuration similar to yours, except I used 2.17.1 and the drive was PATA. The full install worked properly. I know that versions prior to 3.00 do work with SATA drives. It would be interesting to know what happens if you also try an earlier version. When you run the Universal Installer, cancel out of any dialog windows that look like they want to overwrite your current GRUB.