Installation fails on Pentium MMX laptop

[Rich]

Hi rodders

... I tried that and got a lot more diagnostics but the same outcome. ...

The point of that was for you to share some of that new information
leading up to the failure.

[rodders]

I realise that but how do I capture it?

[Rich]

Hi rodders
The simplest way would be to slow down the display.

The following boot code will insert a delay between each message:

Code: [Select]

boot_delay=400
The delay time is in milliseconds. So 400 equals 0.4 seconds.
Since only you can see the screen, I'll leave it to you to decide
an appropriate delay time.

Maybe you can get a few clear pictures that way.

[rodders]

I didn't have much luck slowing things down but I have managed to grab a few screen shots.
One thing that occurred to me was that this machine has no USB ports so I added nousb.
It seemed to get a bit further but was complaining about tsb being unstable so I added notsb.
I've attached a screenshot of the final result of this which I don't understand but may give a clue.

[Rich]

Hi rodders

I didn't have much luck slowing things down ,,,

Are you saying  "it did not slow down enough"  or  "it did not slow down"?
If it did not slow it down enough, try 0.75 seconds:

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boot_delay=750or 1 second:

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boot_delay=1000Or whatever time you feel comfortable with.

If it did not slow down, make sure you insert it on the  "loglevel="  line
and do not add a carriage return. It must be one continuous line.
If you enter enough items, it will wrap around on the screen. That is
normal, but it is not a carriage return.

... this machine has no USB ports so I added nousb. ...

That is no longer a valid boot code. It was changed in kernel 4.5 to:

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usbcore.nousb

... It seemed to get a bit further but was complaining about tsb being unstable so I added notsb. ...

There is no  tsb.  Maybe you meant:

Code: [Select]

notsc

... I've attached a screenshot of the final result of this which I don't understand but may give a clue.

Based on those messages, here are a few more to try on the  "loglevel="  line:

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intel_pstate=disable nomce clocksource=pit dis_ucode_ldr
And remember:
Spelling counts.
Punctuation counts.
Capitalization counts.
Get any of those wrong, and the kernel assumes that code is for
some other process and simply ignores it.

    [Edit]: Corrected spelling. Changed  intel_ipstate  to  intel_pstate.  Rich

[CNK]

I've attached a screenshot of the final result of this which I don't understand but may give a clue.

This line looks important:

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/initrd.image: incomplete write (-28 != 1395228)

Error 28 corresponds to "ENOSPC" or "No space left on device". This probably means the kernel ran out of RAM when decompressing core.gz.

If you installed the boot files to the HDD from another PC you could try booting with just rootfs.gz or a remastered core.gz with some things removed. Alternatively you could do a HDD install (not officially supported) by unpacking the contents of core.gz to a partition on the HDD and booting to there with eg. "root=/dev/sda1" on the kernel command line.

That's all rather tricky though. Another option is to try booting a CD for an earlier Tiny Core Linux version, since core.gz gets slightly bigger for each release.

[Rich]

Hi rodders
That reminds me, definitely add this one:

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mem=nopentiumIt should help ease the memory requirements.

[rodders]

Are you saying  "it did not slow down enough"  or  "it did not slow down"?

It didn't seem to slow down at all, there were a couple of pauses but then it scrolled past just as quickly.

There is no  tsb.  Maybe you meant:

Code: [Select]

notsc

Indeed, slip of the finger...

Based on those messages, here are a few more to try on the  "loglevel="  line:

Code: [Select]

intel_ipstate=disable nomce clocksource=pit dis_ucode_ldr

I tried all those but sadly, no joy
(I assumed you meant intel_pstate.)

[rodders]

Hi rodders
That reminds me, definitely add this one:

Code: [Select]

mem=nopentiumIt should help ease the memory requirements.

Ah, I'll give that a go. Seems a bit un-intuitive since it is a Pentium machine.

[rodders]

I've attached a screenshot of the final result of this which I don't understand but may give a clue.

This line looks important:

Code: [Select]

/initrd.image: incomplete write (-28 != 1395228)

Error 28 corresponds to "ENOSPC" or "No space left on device". This probably means the kernel ran out of RAM when decompressing core.gz.

If you installed the boot files to the HDD from another PC you could try booting with just rootfs.gz or a remastered core.gz with some things removed. Alternatively you could do a HDD install (not officially supported) by unpacking the contents of core.gz to a partition on the HDD and booting to there with eg. "root=/dev/sda1" on the kernel command line.

That's all rather tricky though. Another option is to try booting a CD for an earlier Tiny Core Linux version, since core.gz gets slightly bigger for each release.

Yes, I thought it sounded like it was running out of RAM.
An HDD install sounds tricky as you say but maybe a way forward, but an earlier release sounds sensible - any particular version you would recommend?

[CNK]

Yes, I thought it sounded like it was running out of RAM.
An HDD install sounds tricky as you say but maybe a way forward, but an earlier release sounds sensible - any particular version you would recommend?

Not really, but core.gz in TC10 is significantly smaller, I expect it will work given that the current version works with 80MB RAM on my PC.

[Rich]

Hi rodders

... (I assumed you meant intel_pstate.)

Touche. Look at that. I broke one of the rules I was trying to emphasize:

... Spelling counts. ...

Nice catch. Spelling has been corrected.

[Rich]

Hi rodders

... Ah, I'll give that a go. Seems a bit un-intuitive since it is a Pentium machine.

Code: [Select]

mem=nopentium [BUGS=X86-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel memory.It forces the kernel to revert to 4KB pages instead.

You could also try telling the kernel how much RAM you
have in case it's not seeing all of it:

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mem=64M

[Rich]

Hi rodders
Give TC10 a try. See if it behaves any better.
Also, what is the make and model of the laptop?

[rodders]

Give TC10 a try. See if it behaves any better.

The mem options didn't work so I burned a CD with TC10 and hooray, it manages to boot but only to a TC@BB prompt.
Digging around a bit I can see that the CDROM drive is not recognised - I can't mount it manually either.
I think this has been the root of the problem all along. Once it gets to booting the kernel it loses access to the CD with obvious consequences.
The CD drive isn't supported by the BIOS (SiS) which is why I'm using Plop. Clearly Plop can see the drive but TC isn't.
I'm a bit stumped as to where to go from here though, a command line is OK but I either need to get the CD working or a network connection (PCMCIA card) to load any more software.

Also, what is the make and model of the laptop?

Its a pretty generic 'Notebook', probably Kapok or Clevo, Model 8200AT