Multisession dvd?

Discuss anything specific to using Puppy on a multi-session disk
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Bligh
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Multisession dvd?

#1 Post by Bligh »

This may sound like a dumb question, and it may be. I understand a dvd burner is required to create the dvd, but, is a dvd burner required to run it? How does Puppy write to the dvd?
Cheers

disciple
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#2 Post by disciple »

Yes and no.

I haven't tried it myself, but if you burn Puppy as a multisession DVD you should be able to boot from it on a DVD-ROM drive. You would however need a DVD burner to save sessions back onto the DVD.
Likewise, you should be able to boot from a multisession CD using a CD-ROM drive, but you would need a CD burner to save sessions back onto the CD.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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Flash
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#3 Post by Flash »

I agree with disciple. I've been running Puppy from a multisession DVD for years. I don't have a DVD-ROM drive to try booting it from, but I'm pretty sure it would boot. The ability to save should remain dormant unless you tried to use it. As disciple says, you wouldn't be able to save anything on the DVD.

This could be useful in a classroom or business setting where you don't want the users to be able to modify the OS. It would be very useful to run a server from a multisession DVD or CD in a non-burner drive. There would be no possibility that malware could be added to the OS. Simply reboot on a schedule, and you're guaranteed to be in a pristine state.

Doglover

#4 Post by Doglover »

I've never had a bit of luck with multisession Dvds, even with two different burners and several different disk manufacturers, so yes the DVD will boot but no saving. Also on occasion having run out of blank CDs to burn an iso, I would just grab a DVD, they're cheap enough nowadays. I've booted up puppy on a DVD-ROM many times.

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Flash
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#5 Post by Flash »

Doglover wrote:I've never had a bit of luck with multisession Dvds, even with two different burners and several different disk manufacturers...
How did you burn the Puppy iso on the DVDs?

Doglover

#6 Post by Doglover »

I used the default iso burner in the menu and used DVD-R as recommended. I chose multi-session dvd, and all supposedly went well. But at the boot prompt the choices did not work, I suspect the bios may be the culprit, although, since I am trying to do this with an external burner, that my method is the problem.

burner is a TSST DVD-RAM drive.

Bligh
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#7 Post by Bligh »

Thanks, only two of my many computers have a dvd burner, but, the idea is great. I suppose I could store to a usb flash drive or an installed hdd.
I like the idea of running without a hdd.
Cheers

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Flash
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#8 Post by Flash »

Doglover wrote:I used the default iso burner in the menu and used DVD-R as recommended. I chose multi-session dvd, and all supposedly went well. But at the boot prompt the choices did not work, I suspect the bios may be the culprit, although, since I am trying to do this with an external burner, that my method is the problem.

burner is a TSST DVD-RAM drive.
Has any Puppy CD or DVD, multisession or not, ever booted in this external DVD drive?

disciple
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#9 Post by disciple »

Thanks, only two of my many computers have a dvd burner, but, the idea is great. I suppose I could store to a usb flash drive or an installed hdd.
I like the idea of running without a hdd.
Do the other computers have CD burners though? I imagine a multisession CD would last quite a while as long as things like browser caches are configured to be cleared on exit.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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disciple
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#10 Post by disciple »

Flash, I'd assumed that if you burned a disc to be multisession, but then used it in a ROM drive, you could have a normal save file on the hard drive, instead of saving back to the disc. Does it not ask to create a save file when you shut down with a multisession disc?
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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Flash
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#11 Post by Flash »

disciple wrote:Flash, I'd assumed that if you burned a disc to be multisession, but then used it in a ROM drive, you could have a normal save file on the hard drive, instead of saving back to the disc. Does it not ask to create a save file when you shut down with a multisession disc?
Yes, but only [if you haven't made it into a multisession disk by choosing to save to it] at the first shutdown. If the DVD has previously been saved to, then that's the only option you get when you shut down. There's probably a file somewhere you could easily modify (after booting, while running in RAM) to make it let you save to a hd when you shut down.

I only save on the multisession DVD my settings, SeaMonkey bookmarks and .pets I've installed. Non-OS stuff I save on a USB flash drive. Doing it this way, I can put a complete personalized Puppy on a 200 MB mini-CD. Such a setup takes longer to boot than if it were installed on a hd or flash stick, but if you want to experiment or try different Puppies then multisession is the way to go. If something I try doesn't work or borks Puppy, I don't save it.

By the way, to keep from saving SeaMonkey's cache and prevent the cache from growing until it fills your free memory, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cache and tell SeaMonkey to put its cache in /tmp, which is not saved.

disciple
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#12 Post by disciple »

Great, thanks for the info.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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Bligh
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#13 Post by Bligh »

@disciple, I normally run a kde 3.5.1 distro installed to the primary partition and write Puppy save2 files on a data partition. I like the idea of running Puppy from dvd with no hdd. I don't keep anything that doesn't have at least usb 1 and a cd burner. I have run a multisession cd, dvd is just larger. I could only use ms dvd on one box and one laptop. Each os is standalone with very little chance of cross contamination. I always have access to a box with one os or the other.
Cheers

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