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A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 02:41
by donald
F**k, my beloved old Box died.The power supply fan doesn't move anymore after being
noisy quite a while.
Now what?
Luckily I have a lot of PC-Parts, mostly older PCs given to me for free.
So I assembled one which uses the nvidia 7050PV/NF630a chipset and no HDD.
(I couldn't use the old one because IDE <=> SATA)

Well, all I had was my usb-flash with 2.0-xfce with nvidia 173.xx. on it.
pluged in > F9 for the boot menu (the thumbdrive was detected) > boot that one > nope.
....maybe plop...
I found a stock 2.0-xfce live-CD with plop.That worked and the usb-flash did boot flawlessly..all good...(with nvidia 173.)

after a while, I thought, why not install 3.1 onto another usb..OK..reboot.
Booted with the 2.0 live-CD...system running (now with nouveau) no problem.

unpacked an 3.1-xfce-iso, yes the 2.0-archive manager is able to do that, onto a
spare usb-flash > run the installer for linux, all good, no errors, > "you can reboot now"
> OK > aaand bang..."porteus *.sgn file not found"...wtf..

Solution:
run the live system again, manually create a mount-point, e.g. /mnt/sdXN, manually mount
the usb-flash at /mnt/sdXN, cd into /mnt/sdXN/boot/ and run the installer for linux.com inside this folder..reboot.
At my 1st attempt the flash was mounted at /run/media/somewhat, that's why it didn't worked.

now reboot...sgn file is found...modules loaded..and Bang..(2nd time)
"/sbin/udevadm trigger --action=add"...system frozen.

...after some Meditation...If the system freezes at this stage it is mostly because of the
GPU-driver....reboot,,

That's somehow crazy:
2.0 is running with nouveau (and also with nvidia 173)
3.1 was running with nouveau on my old box, but not on the new one.

booted the other usb-flash with 2.0 and 173, searching for a compatible driver..
uuups..no 173.xx available for 3.1...hmmm...the new legacy driver is 304.xx...downloaded
this one, placed it in the modules folder and fingers crossed that it will work with
that chipset.
reboot with the new usb-flash...and BINGO...all good 3,1 is coming up..

Now I can understand, (a bit better), how a newbie feels when porteus get stuck...

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 13:25
by Bogomips
Upgrade kernel and dispense with nvidia driver. :wink:

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 22:15
by francois
What lesson can we draw from donald's experience?

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 22:37
by donald
@ Bogomips

As much as I prefer FOSS,
the nouveau-driver is a lousy replacement for the nvidia-driver.

a) I have had (many) GPU lockups (nvidia FX5200)
b) Doubled CPU utilization
c) The chips were much hotter.you can hear the fan spinning like crazy.
d) lousy 3D performance, if any.
e) Many features of the graphics unit are not supported...and so on.

Therefore "forgo the nvidia driver"..No, Never.

@ francois
There is always a way to make it work.??..
Be friendly to newbies??
do your Homework??

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 22:57
by francois
In the same line I would answer:
The need for proficient porteus, slackware and linux forum members. And avid newcomers reading and applying their propositions. :wink:

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 11:16
by sedstar
francois wrote:In the same line I would answer:
The need for proficient porteus, slackware and linux forum members. And avid newcomers reading and applying their propositions. :wink:

ha ha...

i have learned to try to not attempt things "above my pay grade" until i understand whats going on...lol

i'm a LINUX newbie... that stuff will come later on i suppose...

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 11:32
by sunnysideofthesun
francois wrote:The need for proficient <skipped> linux forum members.
You should probably move to Red Hat forums. Or at least to Parted Magic. Both are distributed at pay basis.

Re: A small Porteus adventure

Posted: 31 Jul 2015, 20:54
by francois
Red hat was my fit linux distribution in the nineties. :)