How to restart (or shutdown) Puppy if screen goes blank?

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James186282
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How to restart (or shutdown) Puppy if screen goes blank?

#1 Post by James186282 »

Hi everyone. I've tried to search for an answer to this but its a bit complex. Maybe I just have to put a terminal program in the start directory and type restart if my screen goes blank in the future? Hummmmm.

In short I'm wondering is there either a program available or some way that I can shutdown or restart my laptop without being able to see the screen? I've been fiddling with menu.lst and managed to get the system into a mode where it boots up fine right up to the point X comes up. *I've then ended up turning the power off and giving myself some disk errors to deal with. Does Puppy (Or linux in general) have some sort of "keyboard only" shutdown key combo like Alt F12 or whatever? I thought maybe it was some way to get back to text mode and be able to type reboot but control alt backspace doesn't seem to work for me.

BTW the no screen problem was me doing this
kernel /slacko5.4/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=slacko5.4 vga=791 pkeys=us loglevel=7

taking out the vga setting allowed the system to boot properly again. *I keep trying to find a setting that lets me see more of the messages as they zip by and this used to work. *And does up until X starts on my slacko5.4 machine (An IBM T60)

File errors - Which is another problem. I have a frugal setup. I've set it up as ext4 and have an encrypted ext4 save file. *The simple XOR encryption not AES. I found the sequence to be able to run e2fsck on my encrypted save file (loop) and it does a series of very quick fixes *And it seems to work ok. Is this a "fixed long enough for you to copy your most important files" or a really fixed filesystem so go ahead and use it normally thing?

Thanks for any ideas.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
[i]Donald Knuth [/i]

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

I don't know the answer to your question, but for what it's worth I think there is a key combination that will pause (then resume) the boot process, so you can keep up with the messages that Puppy puts up as it boots. I just can't remember what it is. :oops:

Also, the forum works better for everyone if you limit your questions to one per thread. Please do start a separate thread for each problem. :)

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Semme
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#3 Post by Semme »

Hi James- are you saying that when your screen blanks your first thought's to reboot, and that under this condition you're neither able to get back to X or reboot cause you can't feel your way around in the dark? I feel like I'm missing something here..

If it's your screen that occasionally knocks off, vbetool would be of benefit. I've been in the same boat for some time now!

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L18L
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Re: How to restart (or shutdown) Puppy if screen goes blank?

#4 Post by L18L »

James186282 wrote:... Does Puppy (Or linux in general) have some sort of "keyboard only" shutdown key combo like Alt F12 or whatever? I thought maybe it was some way to get back to text mode and be able to type reboot but control alt backspace doesn't seem to work for me. ...
CONTROL-ALT-DELETE when in text mode (switched from graphics mode by CONTROL-ALT-BACKSPACE)
tested successfully in slacko

What do you mean by "blank"

in text mode there is a prompt.
or really all blank and no reaction on key presses? --> I would call it "system freeze" -> power off and on

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James186282
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Re: How to restart (or shutdown) Puppy if screen goes blank?

#5 Post by James186282 »

L18L wrote:
James186282 wrote:... Does Puppy (Or linux in general) have some sort of "keyboard only" shutdown key combo like Alt F12 or whatever? I thought maybe it was some way to get back to text mode and be able to type reboot but control alt backspace doesn't seem to work for me. ...
CONTROL-ALT-DELETE when in text mode (switched from graphics mode by CONTROL-ALT-BACKSPACE)
tested successfully in slacko

What do you mean by "blank"

in text mode there is a prompt.
or really all blank and no reaction on key presses? --> I would call it "system freeze" -> power off and on
Its been happening when its finished in Text mode and goes into graphics mode. The screen goes dark and the machine seems to be running X, JWM etc its just not showing on my screen. I tried Cntl Alt Del and that doesn't do anything on my machine when its in this blacked out graphics mode.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
[i]Donald Knuth [/i]

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L18L
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Re: How to restart (or shutdown) Puppy if screen goes blank?

#6 Post by L18L »

James186282 wrote:...running X, JWM etc its just not showing on my screen. I tried Cntl Alt Del and that doesn't do anything on my machine when its in this blacked out graphics mode.
When X is running then Cntl Alt Del does NOT work, that is usual behavior.

When X is NOT running then Cntl Alt Del does work, that is usual behavior.

Another key,
try Cntl Alt F2 and you should get another text mode console.
If that does not work then the system is freezed.

Back to X by cntl alt F4

I am assuming you did not change the default behavior of slacko

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Karl Godt
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#7 Post by Karl Godt »

vga=791 does not work on regular Puppy kernels since some features are not compiled for the kernel . At boot time these vga features need to be inside the kernel, not compiled as drivers . I don't know about other forum member's kernels like the ones from pemasu or iguleder .
«Give me GUI or Death» -- I give you [[Xx]term[inal]] [[Cc]on[s][ole]] .
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James186282
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#8 Post by James186282 »

Thanks! I really didn't know about those keyboard combos so this is really great information. Hopefully some day I can answer a question rather then continue asking them.

I cobbled together a text mode window on startup but I wasn't certain what the proper way was to restart. I'm sure I can find this however. I didn't know about the problem with passing the kernel vga=. It does change the startup behaviour of the startup text but it seems to make it impossible to get into a working graphics mode. *Which seems odd.

I know all this stuff probably sounds hyper anal but when I'm not passing it VGA=791 and it all woks right there is this really screwed up screen mode for a few seconds. Maybe a video driver issue? I'll search around some more but if anyone knows right off what thats about?

I think I've got an oddnik graphics controller
ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X1400
The Laptop I have came in a variety of versions with different VGA chipsets and this one wasn't the Jet Screamer that was most coveted. Ok now I'm babbling.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
[i]Donald Knuth [/i]

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L18L
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#9 Post by L18L »

James186282 wrote:...I cobbled together a text mode window on startup but I wasn't certain what the proper way was to restart. I'm sure I can find this however.
Or do mean go to graphics mode?
Type or put it it in a script.

Code: Select all

xwin
James186282 wrote:Ok now I'm babbling.
Surely not. It is art :lol:

@Karl,
glad you write again.

jsl06
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#10 Post by jsl06 »

James,
Be cause of Windows 8 I decided to use a linux laptop. To my surprise, the slacko 5.3.1 that I had been using would not boot-up in the new computer. Slacko 5.3.3 and wary puppy would. I am now using slacko 5.3.3, but I have found that when I tried to go to the prompt by either the menu or alt-ctl-backspace, I got a blank screen. I could not enter anything. When I typed xwin, nothing happened. I have just accepted that I cannot go to the prompt.
another James

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James186282
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#11 Post by James186282 »

Just a quickie update. On my laptop in an urxvt terminal I typed in
reboot -h
which turns the display dark (off?) it seems to be stuck in some waiting for something else mode. I waited until I gave up waiting and... I press the power button thinking I'll hold it down until it HAS to shut down" The instant I pressed the on/off button I heard the puppy "Bark" sound (I Wet my pants) and the machine scratched around on the hard disc for a little while and shut itself down. When I powered back up I didn't get any errors (Expected if I had just held the power on/off button down until it shut down.)

Is this weird or is that happening with anyone else's machine?

btw I never mentioned what I was using. Its a T60 thinkpad and I'm using Slacko 5.4
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
[i]Donald Knuth [/i]

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Karl Godt
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#12 Post by Karl Godt »

Puppy's reboot is

Code: Select all

file `which reboot`
a
/sbin/reboot: Bourne shell script text executable

It is a smaller script, you likely should look into it .
«Give me GUI or Death» -- I give you [[Xx]term[inal]] [[Cc]on[s][ole]] .
Macpup user since 2010 on full installations.
People who want problems with Puppy boot frugal :P

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