[SOLVED] Read-only file system error

khunphet · 05-04-2019, 12:47 AM

Hello RSH !

Yes, it's been 8 days already. However, shortly after receiving your last post, I was alerted that a Hong Kong friend and former colleague was due to visit Chiangsaen. He's still here and while I have downloaded Xenial Pup 7.5, I've not had much free time to get to it.

Patience, please. Everything is running around in my head, but the colleague is in need of some touristy help and assistance, so I've given him priority and put myself on a bit of a hold. Rest assured that you (and others) have not been forgotten.

Cheers,
Khun Phet in Thailand

removed001 · 05-04-2019, 04:09 AM

Ok, I see.

I was just curious about...

No need to get in a hurry.

khunphet · 05-05-2019, 11:57 PM

I've downloaded 'xenialpup-7.5-uefi.iso', burned it to a CD-RW, but when inserted into my laptop for booting, the newly-burned iso file does not automatically boot as expected. The attachment shows ALL xenialpup possibilities. Did I choose the wrong one? What do the 4 letters 'uefi' signify in the file name?

removed001 · 05-06-2019, 03:06 PM

Hi.

How did you boot Lucid Puppy?

If you have bootable Lucid Puppy e.g. still on a usb flash drive, just move all those files to a temp directory (create one on the flash drive). If done, just copy the files from xenial .iso onto the usb flash drive (equal location as previously Lucid files).

The UEFI is for newer computers with EFI boot. This EFI boot will not allow to boot from other sources. The UEFI .iso is made for to boot on EFI boot computers without to disable EFI boot in the BIOS.

khunphet · 05-07-2019, 12:26 AM

Hello, RSH!

The Lucid Puppy_5.2.8 I have was burned onto a CD a very long time ago. This is what is on that bootable CD:

boot.cat
boot.msg
help2.msg
help.msg
initrd.gz
isolinux.bin
isolinux.cfg
logo.16
lupu_528.sfs
vmlinux

I rather doubt that I could find the original iso file that I used to burn the above to a CD in the first instance; but the Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 CD I have on hand autoboots quite well - no problem.

It would seem that I downloaded the wrong .iso file for xenialpup, right?

I have no Linux distros on thumb drives at all. But I do have several thumb drives on hand which can be erased if needs be. Given what I have in hand, and if possible, please guide me through the steps I need to make xenialpup bootable. Many thx...

Mike_Walsh · 05-07-2019, 06:22 PM

@ khunphet:-

If you really want a fresh download of the Lucid 5.2.8 ISO, you'll find it here:-

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-5.2.8/

.....though I doubt it'll be necessary. Since Puppy files are read-only, there's no way they can be corrupted. However, optical discs do suffer from wear & tear, and of course eventually become unreadable due to excessive scratching.

We can certainly help you get a thumb drive up-and-running, but.....will your machine handle a newer Puppy? Apart from which, will it boot from a thumb drive?

If the answer to both is yes, then it doesn't take long. It'll be quicker to do this in Lucid; I have nothing against XP (I used it for its entire lifetime myself), but like all versions of Windoze, it doesn't copy filenames correctly from Linux, converting lowercase to upper-case.....so Puppy won't be able to find its own files.

I'll be back online in around 9 hours time. It's time for me to climb the 'wooden hill'.....the Sandman's a-calling!

Mike.

removed001 · 05-10-2019, 05:30 PM

Hi.

Ok, I just don't know what Mike will recommend and I also don't know how familiar you are with Puppy especially and GNU/Linux and its programs in general etc.pp. So I will assume you are able to use gparted and to do a simple "copy and paste" (drag and drop) in Rox filer.

If Lucid is up and running plugin the USB flash drive - DON'T mount it.
Start gparted (Menu System or Setup?) and make sure to select the right device (partition, the flash drive).
Format it to ext3 (or fat32 if there's a need to use the flash drive in Windows also).
Set the boot flag under 'Manage Flags'.
Exit gparted.

The flash drive's icon should be refreshed. If not, just restart X.

Open the flash drive in Rox filer.
Create a folder 'Lucid' on the root directory of the flash drive.
Copy all files from CD (or mounted .iso) (except boot.cat) into that directory (not all are needed, though makes sure not to overseen any).
Start Grub4Dos Bootloader Config (Menu System or Setup?).
Choose the right device (partition, flash drive).
Choose to let it search the flash drive only.
Click 'Ok' or 'Install' and follow that 'Ok-click-path' until all is done.

Now you should be able to boot from that flash drive.
Remove the CD from CD-drive and reboot the computer from flash drive.

After successfully booting from flash drive just create a directory 'Xenial75' and repeat the instructions above.

Instead of installing grub4dos again you can just load the menu.lst files into a text editor, duplicating all sections with the 'Lucid' in it and replace the 'Lucid' with 'Xenial75' within the duplicated sections. Save the files.

Now you should be able to boot Xenial (or any other Puppy just by repeating the steps).

Keep that flash drive (or better make a 2nd one) to make sure to have at least one option to boot a Puppy on any or all computers you could have access to!

khunphet · 05-12-2019, 02:30 AM

Hello RSH,

On one of my thumbdrives, I have gone through the first part of your suggestions. The attached image-2.jpg file shows you where I am at right now.
I am at the 'Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter' window. What should I do next?

removed001 · 05-12-2019, 05:32 AM

What does it mean: "gone through the first part of your suggestions"?

Your screenshot shows content of directory Lucid, so you have made the flash drive bootable (bootflag activated under Manage Flags in GParted)?

Did you install Grub4dos?

I didn't say anything about the drive mounter, so why are you asking me what to do next with that drive mounter?

I told you what to do after successfully applied the steps I described.

If the flash drive was made bootable, there's no need now for the drive mounter.

Just reboot the computer trying to boot from that flash drive - remove the CD from its drive (in fact remove all bootable CD's from its drives).

If successfully booted from flash drive return to here and give us a screenshot from the root directory of the flash drive.

If booting from flash drive failed, also return to here and give us a screenshot from the root directory of the flash drive.

khunphet · 05-12-2019, 07:32 PM

To answer your first question:
I got as far down the list to "Click 'Ok' or 'Install' and follow that 'Ok-click-path' until all is done."

See the attachment for what gparted accomplished. To me, it looks like the whole thumb drive is "root". If that's not OK, please advise how it needs to be changed.

'Grub4Dos Bootloader Config' installed OK

This morning I reset my laptop to boot from -USB HDD, attached the new thumb drive which booted up and got me Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 from that thumb drive just fine. Yesterday, I was working from an external CD which had my Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 on it. So it would seem that the new thumb drive IS bootable.

Sorry to say that "I'm not sure how 'Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter' got to where it showed up." Maybe when I mounted sbd1 to show what was on it?

I have already downloaded "devx_xenialpup_7.5.sfs" to my laptop and it's ready to be used instead of the first version I downloaded, i.e. "xenialpup-7.5-uefi.iso" which did not make a bootable CD last week.

The "second part of your suggestions" starts with:
'After successfully booting from flash drive just create a directory "Xenial75" and repeat the instructions above.'

QUESTIONS:
1) Is the new 'Xenial75' directory just mentioned to be located in the same place where the 'Lucid' directory now is?
2) The remaining instructions are not 100% clear to me.
3) Please advise the next steps I am to do.

NOTE:
We seem to be moving in the right direction .... I hope!

removed001 · 05-12-2019, 08:55 PM

In short: everything seems to be fine now.

Except: I wanted to have and I needed the screenshot of the root directory of the flash drive - NOT of the Lucid directory!

The puppy drive mounter of course appeared after you were clicking the flash drive's icon. That means GParted did NOT refresh the icon automatically after exiting. That's why I wrote to restart X then. However, never mind.

Since you have successfully booted Lucid from the flash drive, you will be able now to add whatever Puppy you want to that flash drive.

Yes, the 'Xenial' directory goes exactly where the 'Lucid' directory is located - at the root directory of the flash drive (give us the screenshot after Xenial is installed to the flash drive). When the Xenial directory is existing just copy the content of Xenial's .iso file into that directory (except boot.cat). Since you did it once with Lucid, you should do fine without detailed assistance.

Before trying to reboot with Xenial Puppy (after copying is finished) load the file 'menu.lst' into Geany Text Editor. But first make a backup of menu.lst!

You will see multiple sections starting with a line: title and ending with a line: initrd.

Example from my menu.lst:

Code:

title Puppy Testing N.E.M.E.S.I.S. ON (RAM) \n Originalversion \n N.E.M.E.S.I.S. is ON \n Timezone is Berlin
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies /PupTest/initrd.gz
  kernel /PupTest/vmlinuz pconfig=Audio ptimezone=Berlin plang=de_DE.UTF-8 pkeys=de psubdir=PupTest pmedia=atahd pfix=ram
  initrd /PupTest/initrd.gz

Set the text cursor at the beginning of the first title line.
Hold Shift-key pressed while scrolling down to the next empty line after last line initrd. Use the cursor keys on the keyboard to scroll down.

A big selection of text should be marked now.

Press Strg-D on the keyboard - which will duplicate the whole selection.

Within that duplicated text section replace the 'Lucid' with 'Xenial' and change also the description of the boot menu entries (the text after title in the title line).

Store the file menu.lst back to the flash drive.

Reboot.

Have Fun!

Don't forget to check/test the USB HD in Xenial if it booted successfully!

khunphet · 05-12-2019, 11:58 PM

Hello RSH!

I've printed out your last post to guide me through the remaining steps to make the new thumb drive complete.

I've booted into Lucid Puppy (via the new thumb drive) and have 'PupSnapped' what I hope to be the root directory of the new thumb drive. It's attached. If that IS NOT what you want to see, please let me know.

Many thanks for your assistance so far...
Peter in Thailand

khunphet · 05-13-2019, 12:25 AM

Hello again!

Another set of pictures:
The top one shows a new 'Xenial' directory now in the same location and the 'Lucid' directory. 'Xenial' is still empty.

The bottom one shows all the Xenial files I have downloaded from the Internet.
Which ones are to be copied into the new 'Xenial' directory. I note that there is NOT a 'boot.cat' shown in the bottom set.

Getting there... step by step.

Peter in Thailand

khunphet · 05-13-2019, 12:37 AM

Hello again!

Please disregard my Today's 12:25 post; it's got the wrong picture!!

Here are the correct pictures:
The top one shows a new 'Xenial' directory now in the same location and the 'Lucid' directory. 'Xenial' is still empty.

The bottom one shows all the Xenial files I have downloaded from the Internet.
Which ones are to be copied into the new 'Xenial' directory. I note that there is NOT a 'boot.cat' shown in the bottom set.

Getting there... step by step.

Peter in Thailand

removed001 · 05-13-2019, 05:11 AM

Ok.

Remove the xenial-7.5-uefi.iso from flash drive, but make sure you have kept the original .iso. If NOT copy the xenial-7.5-uefi.iso to another location to keep it.

Left-click the xenial-7.5-uefi.iso and a rox filer window will open showing its content. Now you can see the files that needs to be copied into the 'Xenial' directory.

If done, just apply those steps that I described to the menu.lst in root directory of the flash drive.

Note: the root directory is where the 'Lucid' and the 'Xenial' directory is located.