Porteus

Greetings!

I was trying to take the knowledge I gleaned here to change my boot-up configuration so Porteus runs in RAM (Puppy mavens say you save wear and tear on flash drives that way), but now when it seems to fully boot-up and on the verge of displaying the log-in screen I get a black screen with a white box stating:

xterm: cannot load font "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-A20-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1

(BTW, when I run my Proteus CD and select Copy To RAM I get the same error message!)

I altered my config below but now can't back in to change it. I can use my Puppy flash to put in correct boot-up files in Porteus but don't know what to pick from the CD.

Any assist greatly appreciated!

Jim in NYC

PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 90
UI vesamenu.c32
DEFAULT xfce
MENU BACKGROUND porteus.png
MENU TITLE Porteus-v2.1 32bit

MENU WIDTH 30
MENU MARGIN 2
MENU ROWS 10
MENU HELPMSGROW 17
MENU TIMEOUTROW 28
MENU TABMSGROW 15
MENU CMDLINEROW 22
MENU HSHIFT 4
MENU VSHIFT 5


LABEL run in RAM and copy2ram
MENU LABEL Graphics mode (Xfce)
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=/porteus/ noauto load=xfce copy2ram
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the best way we can.
Try to autoconfigure graphics
card and use the maximum
allowed resolution
ENDTEXT

@jimwg:
Start computer with iso-disk, copy Porteus.cfg back from iso to usb and try again, until you find out what you are making wrong...hacking helps!

It works!

wread wrote:@jimwg:
Start computer with iso-disk, copy Porteus.cfg back from iso to usb and try again, until you find out what you are making wrong...hacking helps!

It works!

Thanks for swift response!

I'm hardly any hacker! I'm a strict tech newbie playing everything by ear to learn on the fly on advice from assorted forums! I did the replacement from CD before but still got same error message. I'd like to know what more might need fixing or replacement. Can't believe just changing a line caused all this!

Jim in NYC

@jimwg
you are using 'load=xfce' cheatcode and your desktop module is not being loaded. pleas make sure you have 003-xfce.xzm in /porteus/optional

fanthom wrote:@jimwg
you are using 'load=xfce' cheatcode and your desktop module is not being loaded. pleas make sure you have 003-xfce.xzm in /porteus/optional

Thanks for swift reply!!

Okay, I have. A Puppy maven helped me come back by replacing my boot folder with my backup.

By what you said, I'm wondering whether it's correct to have load=xfce on the same line as copy2ram below. Could that be the error?

LABEL run in RAM and copy2ram
MENU LABEL Graphics mode (Xfce)
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=/porteus/ noauto load=xfce copy2ram
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus the best way we can.
Try to autoconfigure graphics
card and use the maximum
allowed resolution
ENDTEXT

I'm just guessing, I'm just learning linux on the way!

Thanks!

Jim in NYC

@jimwg

load=module... Load optional modules from /optional/ directory on the booting media.

If your default desktop is XFCE, then you should have "/porteus/base/003-xfce.xzm"
and if so, you do not need the "load=xfce" cheatcode in your APPEND-line

I'm wondering whether it's correct to have load=xfce on the same line as copy2ram below. Could that be the error?

definitely not.

pleas make sure your xfce module is not corrupted:
boot to text mode -> login as root -> activate 003-xfce.xzm -> type 'init 4'
this should get you to the xfce desktop.

if that method works then please boot as before (copy2ram + 'load=xfce') and upload raport generated by 'xpsinfo' to pastebin.com.

Greetings:

I think I stumbled across a installation flaw:

Has anyone booted up the Porteus Razor 2.1 CD and selected copy2ram? As before. when it seems to fully boot-up and on the verge of displaying the log-in screen I get a black screen with a white box stating:

xterm: cannot load font "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-A20-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1

Even though I deleted the Razor model in my flash and replaced it with the XFCE one, I still get this error if I try to copy to ram. It seems the bug responsible is passed on from CD to flash. Has anyone confirmed this with an actual Porteus Razor 2.1 CD? Unless this problem is only peculiar to the Porteus 32bit version running on a Thinkpad 60e.

Jim in NYC

fanthom wrote:

I'm wondering whether it's correct to have load=xfce on the same line as copy2ram below. Could that be the error?

definitely not.

pleas make sure your xfce module is not corrupted:
boot to text mode -> login as root -> activate 003-xfce.xzm -> type 'init 4'
this should get you to the xfce desktop.

if that method works then please boot as before (copy2ram + 'load=xfce') and upload raport generated by 'xpsinfo' to pastebin.com.

My xfce module works a-okay. The problem seems to be as follows this post.

Jim in NYC

i need log file.
please boot as normal (till you get xterm window') -> switch to VT1 (ctrl+alt+F1) -> login as root -> run 'psinfo' command -> copy raport on usb stick -> switch to any other OS -> upload it to pastebin.com and link here.

thanks