*   http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=48596&start=30

I've had this experience too and I think I can clarify a few things that can be confusing.

For older Thinkpads you need the 2.6.21.7 kernel retro.

There are other (later) kernels that people are calling "retro" now so there's lots of confusion.

There are three 4.3.1 kernel versions. Two are called "retro". The oldest is the 2.6.21.7 that you need.

There is no dpup 2.6.21.7 kernel retro (to my knowledge) the "retro"
version there is actually a later kernel. Gposil, however says that once the latest dpup is finalized, an older 2.6.21.7 version will be made available.

The probable reason, in my opinion, that the earlier kernel works is that somewhere along the line in booting, drive designations become sda types (even for non serial drives) rather than hda types. The boot process seems to get confused by this switch on older machines. Therefore it can't find the puppy main file, even though it is present.

In a frugal install this can be seen if you inadvertently use the "hda" nomenclature in a newer kernel puppy's menu.lst. You will get the same "can't find" message on attempting to boot. However if you change this to sda, it will boot,

On the other hand kernel versions 2.6.21.7 and earlier need the "hda" designation in menu.lst.

To the OP and others having difficulty booting 4.3.1 liveCD and its "retro" versions on older Thinkpads, please try this version:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/special-puppies/pup-431-k2.6.21.7-scsi-intel_modems.iso

You will also find that the 4.1.2 retro version of Puppy works, because it, too was based on 2.6.21.7.

phew.....

ps. To add a little more spice to the confusion, sometimes you can get a hand-made frugal installed later kernel version to work, even though you couldn't get its LiveCD to boot. The same thing applies here. If you use the sda drive designation in the Grub menu.list, it may boot fine, even though the liveCD didn't work.


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