How to install Puppy on a Harddrive(Solved)

[ValhallaSystems]

I'm trying to reproduce the CD boot process on a harddrive.

So all the files from the CD are in /boot on hda5 (ext3), there is nothing else on that partition, except pup001 on /. Its there from booting from the live CD.

Then I ran the GRUB install from the live puppy menu and can now dual boot to DOS (on hda1) and sort-of to puppy linux. The GRUB loader (menu.list etc are now all in /boot/grub) finds vmlinuz and starts the boot process, but quickly freezes with

Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

What do I have to add to the kernel line in menu.list to allow the boot to continue. I should add that I have root=/dev/hda5 on the kernal line. I've tried root=/dev/ram0 but the boot froze even faster.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

It seems that I am so close now.

Thanks

[billstclair]

I just installed a similar system today, but it's unhooked from monitor and keyboard right now, so I can't copy the grub commands exactly. It should be something like the following, though.

Code: Select all

title Puppy
  root (hd0,4)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
  initrd /boot/image.gz

/dev/ram0 should be exactly that

/boot/vmlinuz and /boot/image.gz should be paths to those files on the volume. You may have installed them without the "/boot" prefix.

(hd0,4) denotes hda5 (0-based for a,b,... before the comma and zero-based for 1,2,... after the comma).

See http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=8291#51720 for more on volume naming and http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=7406#45837 for the valid PMEDIA values.

[ValhallaSystems]

I did what you suggested, unfortunately all at once, so I don't know which actually did the trick. But I now have a dual boot old Laptop (circa 2000). Grub loads either DOS (yes remember DOS) or puppy linux (ver 1.0.8 - I think anyway its not ver2).

DOS is on hda1(vfat). All the files from the CD are in /boot on hda5 (ext3). pup001 is on / on the same drive - thats where live CD put it. GRUB was created with the GRUb wizard on the distro and installed in the MBR.

The GRUB files were installed by default in /boot/grub.
menu.list reads in part

title Puppy
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ro vga=771 PMEDIA=idehd PFILE=pup001-none-262144 PHOME=hda5
initrd /boot/image.gz


PFILE and PHOME were put there by the wizard. I've no idea what ro does, but I've seen in many other GRUB scripts that I looked at. vga=771 gives a very tidy display during boot with a penguin in the top left corner. They were also put there by the wizard. And yes, I was missing /boot in front of /image.gz.

Bottom line is that it worked. Many thanks for your suggestions.

[ValhallaSystems]

So that worked for Puppy 1. I decided to try it for Puppy 2.

Again, all the files from the live CD are on hda5 (ext3).
menu.list started the same as above, except it has initrd.gz instead of image.gz

It does not work. Nothing I tried worked.
PFILE and PMEDIA are apparently ignored by Puppy 2 so I tried without them - no effect.
PMEDIA is apparently needed - left in
vga= does not work at all, all you get is a blank screen - so I left it out in subsequent attempts.
ro I gather is read only - left in

Booting starts and initrd is found but it hangs up at:

ERROR, cannot find Puppy on idehd boot media
PUPMODE=9 PDEV=
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init

The first two of these lines are contained in the boot script
The third line is inserted by the Kernel (I assume)
I can only assume that the boot script has a bug (my definition) in it that will not allow booting from GRUB and the hard drive - only the live CD

It still works from the live CD, which is how I managed to edit and edit menu.list.

[tempestuous]

Make sure that pup_201.sfs is located at the top directory of hda5.
You need "vga=normal". vga=771 defines a framebuffer display at 800x600 resolution & 256 colours ... but the Puppy2 kernel does not have framebuffer support.