[SOLVED] wont boot, can not find find the kernel/file

quickbreakfast · 01-09-2019, 06:29 PM

Yesterday while trying to install a distro on sda1, I wiped sdb1.

Easy fixed I'll just put the latest xenial puppy back on sdb1.

Alas it won't boot as the menu.lst isn't finding the file/kernel.

I'm running an MSI board, i3 with 4g ram, all bought last year.

the menu.list is in part

Code:

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.2
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 5
default 0

title woof
#root (hd0,0) <-- GRUB legacy, ex: (hd1,0)
uuid ca50481b-1e30-4756-9d3a-01fe8af807a0
kernel /boot/vmlinuz fullinstall root=UUID=ca50481b-1e30-4756-9d3a-01fe8af807a0 pmedia=atahd 
#                                root=/dev/sdb1
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

#Windows.......

I figure the problem is in there somewhere, but I do not know where.

Yet the boot folder hold only two files. config-4.9.58 and system.map-4.9.58

Any help is appreciated.

whansard · 01-10-2019, 03:32 AM

why would you guess that vmlinuz and initrd.gz don't exist in the boot folder? try putting a vmlinuz and initrd.gz in that folder.

quickbreakfast · 01-11-2019, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whansard

why would you guess that vmlinuz and initrd.gz don't exist in the boot folder? try putting a vmlinuz and initrd.gz in that folder.

Fixing the problem wasn't quite that easy, but youpointed me in the right direction. Thanks.

There was entire line missing from the menu.lst.

Problem now solved.

Mike_Walsh · 01-12-2019, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whansard

why would you guess that vmlinuz and initrd.gz don't exist in the boot folder? try putting a vmlinuz and initrd.gz in that folder.

Just for information, the way Puppy works is rather different to most Linux distros. Puppy doesn't use a 'boot directory'. At all. Vmlinuz and initrd.gz always sit at the root of the partition where Puppy is installed to.

I know it sounds peculiar, but that's just the way Puppy works.

(And before anybody else chirps up with 'Grub4DOS is deprecated and isn't safe'.....NO. The Puppy fork of the Grub4DOS bootloader is specifically 'tweaked' to work with Pup's unique way of doing things.....and is regularly maintained by the Woof-CE team over at GitHub. The most recent patched version was released just 4 months ago...)

Attached below is a fairly typical Puppy partition/sub-directory layout - a 'backup' copy, but it gives the idea (Pup can be installed to a directory within the partition, since the Grub4DOS bootloader searches 'two-deep' for the kernel and system SFS files)....

----------------------------

The initrd.gz is decompressed into RAM at boot (space permitting), creating the 'virtual RAM-disk' where Puppy lives for the duration of the session. Then, the main Puppy SFS file is decompressed and written to the RAM-disk. The 'save-file' (where personal changes/configurations are stored) is also decompressed, and, due to the union aufs file-system layering, is combined with the system files to present a homogeneous 'whole' OS to the user.

The system file SFS is 'read-only', and thus Puppy always boots with a 'clean' install. At shutdown, any personal changes are written back to the 'save-file', which is then re-compressed, and overwrites the existing version. The 'system' stuff disappears into thin air, and is replaced anew at the next boot.

Additional SFS program files can be loaded/unloaded 'on-the-fly', as & when required.

This is known as the 'frugal' install, and is the preferred method for running Puppy. The only time a traditional 'full' install is ever recommended is for seriously 'RAM-challenged' hardware, where there isn't sufficient room to load Puppy to RAM in its entirety.

The way Puppy is designed, the 'frugal' install has many advantages that the 'full' version simply doesn't have access to (chief among which is Puppy's blazing speed!).....since Puppy was always intended, right from the outset back in 2004, to be installed to a flash drive, not a HDD.

Mike.