How to have a multi-user Puppy..... sort of

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dewdrop
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How to have a multi-user Puppy..... sort of

#1 Post by dewdrop »

Hi Pups,

If you have a multi-partitioned hard disk, boot some version of Puppy from a CD onto the machine. After it is up and running, use MUT (Media Utility Tool) to mount the various partitions. Begin looking for where the pup001 file was installed when you booted up.

Once you find it ---- it will be located on a partition named hda1, had2, or something similiar. change it's name from pup001 to anything you want --- for example: pupdad or pupmom , etc.

Reboot the machine, and this time click on the 3 in the boot menu. Eventually, you will be asked to identify where the pup file is located.... if it ended up on hda3, just type that when asked where it's located. The next question is what is the file's name..... if you had renamed it pupdad, type that when asked.

After it finishes loading, you can then make any changes to pupdad that you like, reboot the machine, and start over again to create the other single user pups.

One of the other threads I reviewed said something to the effect that you wouldn't really have a multi-user machine in the sense that only one person could be on it at a time, true enough. But, you would be able to have more than one person using their own version of puppy whenever they wanted.

Even if you didn't have more than one person using the machine, you could use this idea to have different versions of puppy on the same machine. Just name the different versions pup004, pup005, etc., depending on which version you wanted to boot into.

dewdrop

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Lobster
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#2 Post by Lobster »

Interesting. In Puppy2 the filename can be anything. Is there script to change user? Thus allowing several people to save on the same computer?

:)
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dewdrop
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#3 Post by dewdrop »

Lobster wrote:Interesting. In Puppy2 the filename can be anything. Is there script to change user? Thus allowing several people to save on the same computer?

:)
Hi Lobster,

I have no idea if there is a script to change user.

I just put a copy of my normal pup001 file that I use for my puppy1.0.7 onto the hard disk at hda3 (one of the partitions on the disk....the one that I found the original pup001 file on. I erased that file, put my 1.0.7 pup001 file in the same place, renamed it pup007, and now all I have to do is select #3 when puppy loads from the CD, and eventually the loading process asks where the file is located...I type in hda3, then it asks for the name of the file and I type in pup007, and I'm using my normal puppy.

As far as I know, you could have any number of pup00x files on the hard disk at hda? and as long as you know where it is at, and what it is called, you should be able to load it.

I think I'll try and experiment with that idea....see if it finds a pup??? file on hda1 for example. I would expect that it will.

dewdrop

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Pizzasgood
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#4 Post by Pizzasgood »

I was actually planning to remaster Puppy to work this way, but slightly more smoothly. I never had the time to do it though. Fortunately, Barry is already building it into Puppy2 :)

Another thing you can do is run Puppy as a poor-man's install (option 1 hd install), and have multiple Lilo/Grub entries with different pupfiles (mine uses pup999 so it doesn't interfere when I burn a live-cd, which has pup001). I could have entries for Windows, Vector, my pupfile, and any other pupfiles. That way I can also set a default and a time-out, so if I'm away it will automatically boot one.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
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dewdrop
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How to have a multi-user Puppy..... sort of

#5 Post by dewdrop »


I think I'll try and experiment with that idea....see if it finds a pup??? file on hda1 for example. I would expect that it will.

dewdrop
I just tried my experiment noted above from a previous posting, and the screenshot below shows what I was trying to explain... :)

I was able to load and use/change each version of puppy that you see on the screendump. pup007, pup001, pup001test.

pup001 and pup007 are on hda3, pup001test is on hda1

Pizzasgood suggests the following:

"Another thing you can do is run Puppy as a poor-man's install (option 1 hd install), and have multiple Lilo/Grub entries with different pupfiles (mine uses pup999 so it doesn't interfere when I burn a live-cd, which has pup001). I could have entries for Windows, Vector, my pupfile, and any other pupfiles. That way I can also set a default and a time-out, so if I'm away it will automatically boot one."

I believe this idea would require a partition for each copy of Puppy....is that not correct Pizza?

dewdrop
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Pizzasgood
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#6 Post by Pizzasgood »

Pizzasgood suggests the following:

"Another thing you can do is run Puppy as a poor-man's install (option 1 hd install), and have multiple Lilo/Grub entries with different pupfiles (mine uses pup999 so it doesn't interfere when I burn a live-cd, which has pup001). I could have entries for Windows, Vector, my pupfile, and any other pupfiles. That way I can also set a default and a time-out, so if I'm away it will automatically boot one."

I believe this idea would require a partition for each copy of Puppy....is that not correct Pizza?
Nope. I know for a fact that it doesn't because I'm doing it now :)

An option 1 hd install (formerly known as the Poor-Man's Install) works just like the live cd, except from the same place as the pupfile. In otherwords, it has image.gz, vmlinuz, usr_cram.fs, and pup001 all in the same spot, which can be anywhere you'd normally put a pup001 file. You then use either Lilo/Grub or a boot disk to boot it. Unlike an option 2 hd install, it doesn't need a partition. It also runs in the ramdisk just like the live-cd. It just uses the harddrive instead of a cd or usb drive.

Now, when you configure the boot loader, you can set what it uses as the pupfile. That means you can have multiple pupfiles (named anything) on the partition. You just set which one Lilo or Grub uses. Since Lilo and Grub let you have multiple entries, you can have multiple pupfiles, along with other operating systems.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]

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