pdev vs pdev1 boot parameters - wot's the diffrnce? [SOLVED]

[luc0zade]

As you may have seen on my previous thread, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=77027, I've just spent a long time working out that I can only boot using sfs and f2s pup save files stored on an SD card if I use the boot parameter code pdev instead of pdev1.

What's the difference between these two parameters?

Pressing F3 to see the 'Advanced help' on the Racy Puppy 5.2.90 live CD, I found only pdev1 listed as a boot option.

However when I used pdev1, the boot process crashed every time. Only pdev is working for me; here is the boot command I use:-

Code: Select all

puppy pdev=mmcblk0

The only upside to this episode so far is that out of frustration I started looking for alternatives to Puppy, so now I'm going to try http://porteus.org.

[pemasu]

Boot time parameters by Barry Kauler:

The following are mostly in GRUB/Syslinux setup for installed Puppy. Puppy finds
files automatically at bootup but these can help the init script. Examples
pdev1=sdc1 The boot partition.
psubdir=puppies/wary501 Path in which Puppy is installed.
psavemark=2 Partition no. (in boot drive) to save session to.
pmedia=usbflash Type of media booting from. Choose one of these:
usbflash usbhd usbcd ataflash atahd atacd atazip scsihd scsicd cd
pupsfs=sdc1:/puppies/wary501/puppy.sfs Override auto search.
zdrv=sdc1:/puppies/wary501/zdrv.sfs Override auto search.

pdev seems to be undefined. So you have found new boot time parameter which is undocumented.

[luc0zade]

Yes, that's the documentation I was using as I tried to work out what was going wrong with the boot process on my SD card.

The credit for finding the pdev parameter should go to darkcity, who suggested trying this instead of pdev1.

[rcrsn51]

What happens if you use "pdev=luc0zade"?

The problem with SD cards is that they take a while to initialize. By sending Puppy an invalid argument, it may spend more time searching and eventually find the card.

[darkcity]

I got the pdev= from an old wiki page

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/GRUBforDOS

although in the example it looks like the parameter is probably unnecessary in most cases.

I guess pmedia would usually suffice?

[rcrsn51]

When I look inside the init, I can find no reference to the argument "pdev", only "pdev1".

I believe that the reference to "pdev" in the wiki is a typo.

Read here.

[darkcity]

Thanks for the update, I have corrected the following wiki pages-

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/BootParametersPuppy
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/GRUBforDOS
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Grub2

I guess the pdev1 wasn't really necessary, when these examples were tested.

[luc0zade]

What happens if you use "pdev=luc0zade"?

The problem with SD cards is that they take a while to initialize. By sending Puppy an invalid argument, it may spend more time searching and eventually find the card.

Interesting suggestion - and it worked!

In fact various other parameter values are working too. One of the more logical options is pmedia=atacd.

However I do need to type in something - the save file on the MMC SD card is only found if a boot command is supplied.

The other crucial requirement is that I have a USB flash drive plugged in during boot, even though both the SFS file and the f2s session save file are located on the SD card, not the USB flash.

This confirms what Barry has suggested in his blog post to which you linked above.

As you say, it seems the problems are caused by the slow initialising of the MMC SD card.

The good news is that I've just tested the latest release of Racy, 5.2.91 (5.3RC2) and the problem is FIXED - the live CD boot finds the f2s session save file on the MMC SD card WITHOUT needing to have a USB flash plugged in at the same time. Nice work, Barry!