New Life For Older Puppys

[saintless]

Hi, Mike.

Well i replace kernels by making an sfs of the new modules which gets loaded at boot and edit the initrd adding its new selection of modules...done.

Course it works...

Can you point me to a tutorial from you with example sfs-kernel + edited initrd to be tested on any puppy? can you point me to a tutorial from you what exactly needs to be edited in initrd file?
Do you think we all have your skills to build separate sfs kernel and edit initrd image to boot multiple sfs modules?

Still faster to build a driver though

Can you point me to a tutorial from you how new user can do it?
And it is not faster if you have ready for use separate kernel modules with all extra options it gives.

Glad my experience is once again of no use.... its fun here

Sorry to say this but seems you keep your experience in darkness. Otherwise when I type in google:

Code: Select all

puppy linux multiuser
separate kernel module puppy linux

I should see link pointing to your experience.
Just for example the second search string points to this thread on top of the first page.
I'm glad you have experience and you share it somewhere, but it is not easy to be found. You also did not point to anything made from you as a result to be tested in this thread.

This has also a good side - new methods can born from "reinventing the wheel" again.

Toni

[dejan555]

We all know how to replace vmlinuz itself, it's separate file outside of sfs
to add modules to sfs use unsquashsfs and dir2sfs commands to repack sfs (this is how I do all remastering btw), and here's a tutorial how to unpack/repack initrd
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=53019

Further, there's a dir2iso script on forum too to finalize it into iso

I can't write more detailed manual because I only did it once when I thought of upgrading dpup's kernel but I discarded it later

[mikeb]

well i described basic requirements for multi user.
I have puppy 2.12 and 4.12 as multiuser but of course you do have to reinvent the wheel for each puppy you do this on so only a template guide can be given...I do of course know of the pitfalls doing this in puppy....eg the limits of tiny login, su/sudo problems etc...

Same for loading ,multiple sfs .... i have that one 2.02, 2.12, 4.12 and lupu 5.15 doing this but you again have to work the changes into the version of puppy its wanted for.

the kernel change in initrd is to duplicate the /lib/modules folder using the same modules and layout from your new kernel including gzipping those modules basically. There may or may not be changes in the init script depending on the quirkiness of the new kernel...tend to be a suck it and see job.

I say is is quicker to make a driver than to edit the initrd, create a modules sfs and any other changes needed to accomodate the new kernel (firmware for example.) Sure if someone does it for you then its quick but installing a pet for a driver is pretty slick I believe.
Takes ~ 30 seconds to build a kernel module on a pentium 3 by the way.

If there is not much out there (i do have a site with isos and modules) then its because i am wary of puppy users generally, some are quite hostile, so prefer to remain pretty anonymous but have forwarded items to interested parties at times...and some not so nice characters unfortunately) This does not stop me giving a few pointers on here though. I didn't post on here for 2 years for similar reasons but continued to pm at times.

mike

[saintless]

Hi, Mike.

There is much documentation how to unpack and repack initrd and squashfs modules.
I have it working in this and this puppy does not help much.

What is missing as information for Puppy is the most important thing - what needs to be changed to get multiple load working and how to get rid of the need to specify exact puppy-linux module name? How can we make *.sfs multiple modules to be loaded on boot?
If you have this information and desire to share it, please, do it in some form: posting, PM etc.
This will make the initrd universal for all puppy versions and no need to make same kernel module all the time for every different puppy. One separate kernel module + initrd will work on all puppy versions like the debian one.

Several modules with different kernels working on any puppy will give a lot more to the system than building one more module on the same kernel.

Toni

[mikeb]

How can we make *.sfs multiple modules to be loaded on boot?

ok on that specific issue the answer is pretty easy...puppy 2

Its the one thing that I did not really have to modify..... what I did do is order the sfs with the main pup_sfs at the bottom but thats a separate issue.

In 2 it just did an ls with the pattern of _xxx.sfs at the end where xxx is the version number in the same place as the pup_xxx.sfs is located.... the result gives the list of sfs to load for later on.

The system nowadays uses find but the same approach should work ok..ie a name pattern match...I assume it only loads the names listed as it is now.

The only refinement was to add _uni.sfs for any that were more generic like open office that work on a range of puppies.

Sometimes life in pupland is more complicated than it needs to be.
As a noob I got a devx sfs and wine and renamed appropriately , stuck them on the hard drive and that was it...save file or no save file...I had no problem even though linux was mostly greek to me.
Now I am supposed to know there is a gui somewhere in the menu and make a frugal install before i can do any of this and certainly not from a ram only boot... I don't see that as progress and comes up too often as a new user question.

example line... initrd has the puppy partition mounted where main sfs is...
MORESFS="`ls -r /mnt/data/*_${PUPPYVERSION}.sfs | grep -v "pup_" | cut -c 11- | tr "\n" " "`"

i changed the clean up from sed to cut but its doing the same thing.
If you want subfolder just insert the variable in the /mnt/data.... path.


mike

[saintless]

example line... initrd has the puppy partition mounted where main sfs is...
MORESFS="`ls -r /mnt/data/*_${PUPPYVERSION}.sfs | grep -v "pup_" | cut -c 11- | tr "\n" " "`"

i changed the clean up from sed to cut but its doing the same thing.
If you want subfolder just insert the variable in the /mnt/data.... path.

Thank you, Mike.
Having this information gives me good starting point and saves me a lot of testing. I will try to make separate universal working puppy kernel module.

Toni

[mikeb]

No problem toni ... as I have done for others its a case of code snipets and techniques since more than likely they would be applied in different pups to the ones I experimented with ... I brought them to life using a lightning strike at midnight in the time honoured manner..

mike

[mcewanw]

Puppy is a modular system and it is disadvantage it can load only one module in /puppy folder on boot (or second module with drivers only if I do not mistake). I think Jemimah included option for second module loaded on boot in Saluki but in general puppy can load only one module on boot.

If puppy keeps the main system without kernel in one module and has second module with kernel only it will become much more flexible. Then the user can choose the kernel that works best for the hardware without changing the puppy version.

I'm not sure how relevant zdrv is to your discussion, but the following thread seemed at least partly related:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80766

[saintless]

Thank you, William. I know Jemimah also included option to load one more module in Saluki and Mavrothal worked in the same direction here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 5&start=15
I will see what I can do with Mike's tips and posts on this subject.

Toni