USB Lucid 5.2.8 stuck on 'saving session'

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stelladeli
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Joined: Tue 20 Aug 2013, 17:48
Location: Greece

USB Lucid 5.2.8 stuck on 'saving session'

#1 Post by stelladeli »

Hello everyone!

This is my very first post to this forum and I recently installed Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 to USB flash disk through the CD.
I've been dabbling with the system this whole day and trying to slowly figure everything out (note that I am only Ubuntu-familiar and a beginner to Linux).

Almost about 45 minutes ago, I attempted to power-off the system while I had the USB with my pupsave file(.3fs) MOUNTED (!).
Before doing that I click the "Save" to manually save my session because I had configured the Puppy Event Manager to "save interval=0" (meaning as I understand it that Puppy will not automatically save sessions to the USB every 30 minutes but it will give me the option to save or not my session at shut-down).

I clicked power-off (remember the USB was mounted) and waited for Puppy to shut down normally. Instead, it went to saving the session ON ITS OWN, without me choosing or allowing it (even though I had saved the session myself before shut-down).

Now the screen's been stuck at "Saving session to /lupusave.3fs (sdb1)" and it will not shut-down.

This is definitely not normal.
Was it because the USB was mounted when I attempted to power-off?

Most important question: What do I do? Do I unplug the USB or shut the desktop manually from the power button? Will I corrupt the system?

Please, any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance.

EDIT: It's still going on strong! I cannot leave it like this for all night! Should I press Ctrl+Alt+T to show me the terminal? Any suggestion would be a salvation.
Last edited by stelladeli on Wed 21 Aug 2013, 21:25, edited 1 time in total.

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Karl Godt
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Location: Kiel,Germany

#2 Post by Karl Godt »

I am not a supporter for this USB thingy .
USB easily disconnect/reconnect for milliseconds .
It appears that you have an internal HD as sda and the USB is sdb .
If the savefile is on the USB, the USB never should disconnect .

Puppy always saves session at shutdown by default .
The code might not check if another instance is already running .

You schould switch terminal by ALT+F2, login root , passwd : woofwoof
and type
ps | grep save
ps | grep snap
ps | grep pup

and try to post the output here .
«Give me GUI or Death» -- I give you [[Xx]term[inal]] [[Cc]on[s][ole]] .
Macpup user since 2010 on full installations.
People who want problems with Puppy boot frugal :P

stelladeli
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue 20 Aug 2013, 17:48
Location: Greece

#3 Post by stelladeli »

Karl, firstly thanks a million for replying!!

I will do exactly as you say, only I am facing a minor problem. Because many hours had passed with the screen frozen at "Saving session..." and there was no reply, I had to try to shut down the computer (I couldn't leave it running anymore).

So I did something that most probably I shouldn't have done and I'm sorry. I unplugged the USB!!!
The screen is still frozen at the same display.

I guess that I can run these commands without the USB (which has puppy and the savefile). Or should I plug it in again now?

Thanks for bearing with me. Best of wishes to you!

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Karl Godt
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Location: Kiel,Germany

#4 Post by Karl Godt »

You can crash your Mainboard !
Asus is quite robust, but I lost an Acer already !

Try it as it is now !

If you get no responses like everything is completely frozen, then hit the powerbutton of the machine for some seconds to force the machine to poweroff .
«Give me GUI or Death» -- I give you [[Xx]term[inal]] [[Cc]on[s][ole]] .
Macpup user since 2010 on full installations.
People who want problems with Puppy boot frugal :P

stelladeli
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue 20 Aug 2013, 17:48
Location: Greece

#5 Post by stelladeli »

Holy Unix, now I am scared!!!!

Alt+F2 does not bring up anything, screen is still frozen.

Maybe it's another combination of keys?

EDIT: I am preparing to push the power button to power-off the desktop (I am using an IBM Thinkcenter S51). I really hope that everything will go okay. I will post the outcome first thing in the morning tomorrow. I am thinking of trying to boot Puppy from the CD.

And you know Karl, the funny thing is that I wasn't even really planning on using the USB as the loader, just for some days until I got an external hard drive to back everything up from the internal HDD and then I was going to do a frugal installation on the internal HDD. It is extremely sad that I had to experience this misfortune from the very first day of essentially just trying Lucid to see if it would fit my parents' desires.
Last edited by stelladeli on Tue 20 Aug 2013, 21:18, edited 1 time in total.

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Karl Godt
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#6 Post by Karl Godt »

stelladeli wrote:Holy Unix, now I am scared!!!!

Alt+F2 does not bring up anything, screen is still frozen.

Maybe it's another combination of keys?
Not that I am aware of .
You can try to CNTRL+ALT+DELETE or CNTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to force the kernel to reboot .
But it seems that even keyboard input is not possible anymore ..?

R-S-H
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#7 Post by R-S-H »

Since you've already unplugged the USB flash drive, just switch off the computer. If you do have FAT32 partitions or drives run Windows first and do a scan disk.

What Lucid 528 are you using?

The early versions did have some problems with sound and shut down functions - but, they are gone at Lucid 528-004 and above (there is also 528-005, LupuPlus and some more...)
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stelladeli
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Joined: Tue 20 Aug 2013, 17:48
Location: Greece

#8 Post by stelladeli »

Alright Karl thank you for your insight.

R-S-H, Yes I will run Windows (I have XP) and do the scan ASAP tomorrow

It's very weird, I downloaded the latest 005 version of Lucid. I'm now considering the fact that it may be due to the low quality of the flash disk? It's a Generic USB Flash Disk of 2GB that was provided for free to my father by the bank in which he works.

And the only problem with the sound that I was experiencing and couldn't find a solution after researching for all day long, was that even though I had sound when playing .mp3s or youtube videos, I couldn't adjust the sound level/volume or mute from Lucid's speaker icon, only by the volume adjustments used by Gnome MPlayer or Youtube.

EDIT: Powered it off by the button, wish me luck, I'll be back tomorrow.
Thank you very very much Karl and R-S-H

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mikeb
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#9 Post by mikeb »

I'm now considering the fact that it may be due to the low quality of the flash disk? It's a Generic USB Flash Disk of 2GB that was provided for free to my father by the bank in which he works.
Yes one to consider... I have had failure / unreliability with unbranded usb . Brand names = better quality control / selection of the best yields from production.

I have a kingston which has been booting windows for a 3 years happily for example ... sanddisc equally reliable too.

I agree with karl that the pupmode 13 usb approach is lacking...I have removed it from all my puppies and use archive saving instead so once running the stick can be removed. There are those low profile sticks around or perhaps a SD card if you can use one simply better as less prone to being disturbed. Or have the save on the hard drive...why not...its faster and not exactly obtrusive.

In your case having made a manual save pulling the plug might have been ok .... corruption usually occurs if there is a write going on at the time.

regards

Mike

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Karl Godt
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#10 Post by Karl Godt »

In your case having made a manual save pulling the plug might have been ok .... corruption usually occurs if there is a write going on at the time.
If that is a non-journal fs on the drive . If it is ext3 , then writes will happen all the time . but ext3 is quite good from recovering of such .

My last corruption dated some month back and that happened on a SDcard with whatever fat 12-32 fs . One file in /found directory and still not being able to identify it's origin correctly :D

stelladeli
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue 20 Aug 2013, 17:48
Location: Greece

#11 Post by stelladeli »

Windows XP booted normally. I performed the Scan Disk and everything went okay. I also tested my USB port by inserting a random USB and seeing if everything was going as smoothly as in the past. All was well.

Surely, I haven't booted Puppy from the USB yet and I don't plan to. Next time I boot Puppy it will be from the CD and in order to perform a frugal installation on the HDD.

mikeb, I was discussing the event with my friend and we both stated that Kingstons are on of the best.
Although, I believe it's probably not entirely Pupmode13's fault. My friend, who studies Electrical and Computer Engineering, recalled that during one of her classes, the students were working on a project located in USB (everyone had their own) and some USBs' suddenly disconnected and froze, pretty much as mine did. The teacher explained the phenomenon and it was just like Karl said above.

Nevertheless, I will avoid running Pupmode13 from a USB in the future. It seems too unreliable for me. Thankfully, this time I got lucky (also because it's an IBM desktop!) and didn't fry any USB black boxes. Lesson learned the hard way!

Thanks to all who provided a helping hand!!!

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