Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

paulsiu · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 187

The multisession DVD or CD sounded really cool. I burned a DVD and tried it on several machines:

Laptop 1 - Works great
Laptop 2 - works great
Desktop 1 - Can't boot
Desktop 2 - Can't boot
Desktop 3 - can't boot

In all cases, it would appear that all of the sessions can be seen, just not boot into. I decided to see if switching to a CD-R would work better.

Laptop 1 - Works great
Laptop 2 - works great
Desktop 1 - works great
Desktop 2 - Can't boot
Desktop 3 - can't boot

Basically, not much better. It's probably not puppy's fault, but perhaps there are incompatibility issues with multisession CD's. The DVD drives aren't really all that old either, one of the failure was on a NEC 3550A, which has dual layers.

The charm of mutlisession DVD is the ability to keep everything on a CD or DVD, so you can boot from any computers. The problem is that it doesn't work on every computer. I am going to look into a USB key instead. May be carry a floppy for those machines that cannot boot from USB.

Paul

Inuyasha · Joined: 21 Jul 2007 Posts: 118

It's probably because hardware devices are sensed by the OS during the first boot. After saving, all hardware configuration is saved. I suppose, however, that you could block out current sessions from loading and have a session-selection process for various computers. Or you could make a multi-boot DVD. Perhaps you could boot to a single section and save the sessions of that particular OS, pseudo-partition.

Dougal · Posted: Sat 28 Jul 2007, 14:43 Post_subject:

Scoticus · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 443 Location: Erskine, Scotland

I had a lot of difficulty in geting multisession to work. I tried the lot and finally ended up using DVD+RW which I found to be the best for me.

It looks like that Puppy is rather fussy about which disks are used so you may have to use a bit of trial and error. I ended up using the Philips brand. I also have plenty of coasters from all my attempts.

Hope you can get one size fits all.

Ian

Flash · Posted: Sat 28 Jul 2007, 16:40 Post_subject:

I'm sorry to hear multisession is not for you. What surprises me is that it works for you on laptops but not desktops. That's opposite of what most people report.

Inuyasha · Joined: 21 Jul 2007 Posts: 118

Flash · Posted: Sun 29 Jul 2007, 00:33 Post_subject:

Personally, I do not use a multisession DVD as a portable OS, though it may work in another computer in a pinch. I consider it as a replacement for a hard disk drive, where it can be used (a computer with a DVD burner and lots of RAM.) I ran Puppy from multisession DVDs for a year or so in a computer without a hard drive at all. It worked well for me. As the number of saved sessions on the DVD increases, it takes longer to boot. I've thought of a way around that, but implementing it is beyond me. I'd be happy to explain it if anyone is interested.