Wary Release Candidate (104) feedback

[Billtoo]

I did a frugal install of Wary 104rc on an older pc which has an ati
9200 video card in it.

I installed the MESA DRI driver and it's working well.
I installed the Google Earth pet from lucid puppy and got it working by adding
some missing libraries that I found at http://packages.ubuntu.com.

OpenGL
Vendor Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
Renderer Mesa DRI R200 20060602 AGP 8x x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2 TCL
Version 1.3 Mesa 6.5.2
Direct Rendering Yes

edit: the missing libs for Google Earth were:

libaudio2_1.9.2-3_i386.deb
libaudio-dev_1.9.2-3_i386.deb
libc6_2.12.1-0ubuntu8_i386.deb

I'd attach them to this message but the last one is almost 4mb so it's
too big to attach.

[BarryK]

There has been a slight change in USB behaviour with Wary 104. In previous Puppies/Quirkies, it didn't matter if my printer-scanner was turned on or off at boot time. Either way, it was properly detected.

With Wary 104, I get varying effects when the scanner is already on at boot up. With my Canon unit, "Loading drivers" produces the line of red dots. But the scanner is detected.

With my HP unit, it is not detected at all and requires an off/on.

I believe that other people have reported odd USB behaviours.

I can't think what has changed that would cause any difference from Wary 102 or earlier.

I did some more testing and I don't think that the problem is 102 versus 104. But it's definitely different than Quirky.

If I boot Quirky with two printer/scanner units powered up, it starts quickly and always detects both units. Lupu is also fine.

With Wary, it starts more slowly and detects only one unit or neither. After the units are restarted, both are detected.

Maybe it's an issue with the 2.6.31.14 kernel. Perhaps when I release Wary, I should also build a less-wary Wary with a recent kernel, just as a plaything for comparison -- I was thinking of the 2.6.37 kernel.

[gerry]

Can't run 104 on my Acer Aspire One. I burnt the iso to a usb stick using Unetbootin on the XP machine. Plugged it into AA1, and it started to boot. It searched for Puppy files, even telling me that it was searching sub-sub partitions (? Could have been directories). Eventually it gave up, saying:

"Boot partition not found. Dropping out to initial-ramdisk console...
/bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off"

iso is ok, it is same one I used to make live cd for old computer.

Unetbootin has worked many times before.

Is Wary looking in the usb stick for boot partition? Checked boot flag is set.

Gerry

[smokey01]

gerry, try this

http://www.smokey01.com/grant/Puppy%20o ... Drive.mpeg

[rcrsn51]

Maybe it's an issue with the 2.6.31.14 kernel. Perhaps when I release Wary, I should also build a less-wary Wary with a recent kernel, just as a plaything for comparison -- I was thinking of the 2.6.37 kernel.

I did some more testing this morning with Wary 104 and the problem wasn't as pervasive. Sometimes it would properly detect all the USB devices.So maybe it's not a major issue.

I then tried Wary 090 for comparison and it worked consistently. Could it have anything to do with the additional USB detection going on in 104 because of 3G modems?

[rjbrewer]

I don't think it's a kernel issue.
With 098 it doesn't have any boot delay when usb or pcmcia are
inserted.
With 104 it does.
Same results with small or regular size 098 or 104.

[gerry]

I installed 104 onto a usb stick using the unversal installer, and plugged it into my Acer Aspire One. Hit two problems:

Could not get Xorg to run, so settled for Xvesa.

Once up and running, I tried to connect via wlan0, without success.

Both of these problems were reported as due to:

FATAL: could not load /lib/modules/2.6.31.14/modules.dep: no such file or directory.

Should it be there? Has something got lost along the way?
Or is Wary-104 not intended for netbooks?

Puppy 431 soldiers on.....

Gerry

[BarryK]

Can't run 104 on my Acer Aspire One. I burnt the iso to a usb stick using Unetbootin on the XP machine. Plugged it into AA1, and it started to boot. It searched for Puppy files, even telling me that it was searching sub-sub partitions (? Could have been directories). Eventually it gave up, saying:

"Boot partition not found. Dropping out to initial-ramdisk console...
/bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off"

iso is ok, it is same one I used to make live cd for old computer.

Unetbootin has worked many times before.

Is Wary looking in the usb stick for boot partition? Checked boot flag is set.

Gerry

Shinobar has reported this problem with Unetbootin to me, with a fix:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 545#470545

I am not sure what to do about this. As Unetbootin copies isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg unchanged, it has 'pmedia=cd' which is wrong, it must be 'pmedia=usbflash'

Puppy was really working incorrectly before, allowing boot from usb Flash device when have 'pmedia=cd'.
The whole point of the 'pmedia' parameter is it says what media booting from.

I could reduce the "correctness" of the init script to get Unetbootin working, but I would rather syslinux.cfg is edited to be correct.
You can do it manually, or even better get the Unetbootin developer to put in the fix.

Alternatively, remove the 'pmedia' parameter entirely, it should work then, as the init script will default to searching everywhere for Puppy files.

[BarryK]

I don't think it's a kernel issue.
With 098 it doesn't have any boot delay when usb or pcmcia are
inserted.
With 104 it does.
Same results with small or regular size 098 or 104.

The extra delay in 104 is deliberate, the init script waits a bit longer when usb drives are detected, to make sure all partitions are available. This actually should improve correct detection of all usb drives.

[gerry]

Barry- if Unetbootin is wrong, making a "wrong" in Puppy to match is not the answer (in my opinion).

Anyway, as I said above- Universal Installer worked, I think.

To install to a usb stick, I naturally went to "Bootflash- install Puppy to USB". But that told me that I should try Universal Installer first. I find that "intrigueing".

Gerry

[rjbrewer]

Barry- if Unetbootin is wrong, making a "wrong" in Puppy to match is not the answer (in my opinion).

Anyway, as I said above- Universal Installer worked, I think.

To install to a usb stick, I naturally went to "Bootflash- install Puppy to USB". But that told me that I should try Universal Installer first. I find that "intrigueing".

Gerry

Bootflash does not say that.
It gives you the option of installing immediately, or exiting and using
universal installer later.

Both methods work fine.

[rjbrewer]

I don't think it's a kernel issue.
With 098 it doesn't have any boot delay when usb or pcmcia are
inserted.
With 104 it does.
Same results with small or regular size 098 or 104.

The extra delay in 104 is deliberate, the init script waits a bit longer when usb drives are detected, to make sure all partitions are available. This actually should improve correct detection of all usb drives.

On my Dell 700m, both 098 and 104 will boot in 24 seconds
without any usb inserted.
I use a usb mouse; it slows 104 boot to 32 seconds while not
slowing 098 by more than a second.

Both versions show my 4 different flash drive devices without
problem.

[shinobar]

Puppy was really working incorrectly before, allowing boot from usb Flash device when have 'pmedia=cd'.
The whole point of the 'pmedia' parameter is it says what media booting from.

I could reduce the "correctness" of the init script to get Unetbootin working, but I would rather syslinux.cfg is edited to be correct.
You can do it manually, or even better get the Unetbootin developer to put in the fix.

Alternatively, remove the 'pmedia' parameter entirely, it should work then, as the init script will default to searching everywhere for Puppy files.

Thanks for understanding.
Right, UNetBootin is wrong. But i think it is wise to keep backward compatible with reducing the "correctness" because it doesn't harm anything.
The init script automatically works assuming 'flash' for removable media even with 'pmedia=cd' option.

BTW, 'pmedia=usbhd' option seems not take effect with current init script.
No matter 'pmedia=usbflash' or 'pmedia=usbhd' makes the PUPMODE=13, doesn't it?

[Q5sys]

Maybe it's an issue with the 2.6.31.14 kernel. Perhaps when I release Wary, I should also build a less-wary Wary with a recent kernel, just as a plaything for comparison -- I was thinking of the 2.6.37 kernel.

Should be released as final within a week or two. I've been considering compiling it myself to tinker around with it... but I dont think I have the time right now with the holidays.

[BarryK]

FATAL: could not load /lib/modules/2.6.31.14/modules.dep: no such file or directory.

That is just plain weird. The first time that Wary 104 boots, 'depmod' runs which creates that file. I don't know any reason why that has not happened, it has never happened to me.

Anyway, if you open a terminal window and run 'depmod', that should fix it.

[gerry]

#depmod
Bus error


Or, after abit of research,

#/sbin/depmod -a
Bus error


/sbin/depmod is present, and permissions ok.

Gerry

[gerry]

@rjbrewer-

"...it is normally recommended that you use the Puppy Universal Installer first."

Gerry

[BarryK]

#depmod
Bus error


Or, after abit of research,

#/sbin/depmod -a
Bus error


/sbin/depmod is present, and permissions ok.

Gerry

Try this:

# busybox depmod

[BarryK]

scsijon reported on my blog that if choose to download-only PET packages and not install, the .pet pkgs get converted to .tar.gz in /root.

Hmmm, yes. I only ever tested that with .deb pkgs before.

I have fixed it, script /usr/local/petget/verifypkg.sh, attached.

I had better tell playdayz about this too, so he can slip it into Luci before release.

[gerry]

@Barry:

# busybox depmod
depmod: read error from './kernel/drivers/hwmon/vt211.ko': Input/output error
Segmentation fault

(Recap: Computer is Acer Aspire One. Wary-104 is installed on a usb stick, which I'm booting from. Usb stick was formatted EXT2 using Gparted, and boot flag is set. Wary was installed to usb using Puppy Universal Installer, on my old computer, which runs Wary-104.)

Gerry