Frugal vs. Normal? Hard Disk Install Question

[redrum]

Yet Another Newbie Question :

Up to now all my Puppy installations were normal ones . However since I have 512 RAM in my PII I think it's a pitty not take full advantage of it. Many times I thought of frugal but few things that I was not sure kept me off. Here are two things I would like to know:

1st- Is frugal more sensitive as a filesystem or not ? I used DSL with frugal long time ago and after several power failures (cold shutdown/reboot) the filesystem became corrupted (this happened 3 times in 6 months) .

2nd- In frugal does the "write to file" happen on shutdown since it run on RAM ? What I mean is that , let's say I have a forum (LAMPP web server) running Puppy frugal hd install and some posts where done after Puppy started and suddenly computer restarts (cold boot) . Did those posts (meaning those edit files/databases) stayed in the RAM also or were saved to disk? This is very crucial question for me since I use Puppy as a server and many days pass by (or weeks) 'till I restart Puppy.

Hope somebody will survive the above text and give an answer .Sorry for my bad syntax (non native )

[MU]

1.) no, at least I did not experience it.
This is the case with using the ext3 filesystem for pup_save.3fs.
In Puppy 2.13 the new default will be ext2 again (but ext3 stays optional).
With ext2 I lost data in older Puppys (1.x), as ext2 has no journal to recover files after a crash.

2.) In theory you could loose some data.
Solution is simple.
Type "sync" in a consolewindow, to write them from Ram to the harddrive.

You also could do that automated with a shellscript:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

while [ 1 ]
do
  sleep 60
  sync
done

If you run this script at startup, every minute the cache is saved to disk.

Mark

[Pizzasgood]

Note: That only works in pupmode 12 (/etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE contains the mode you're in). In mode 12 the save-file is mounted directly, so a simple 'sync' command will do it. In mode 13 however, which can happen on a sata drive if you forget the 'pmedia=sata' boot parameter, it only saves every thirty minutes and on rebooting, because it thinks you're using a usb flash card.

[redrum]

Great info from both gurus ! Thank you very much for your posts ! I will install in frugal tomorrow first thing in the morning !

[alienjeff]

UPS

[amish]

ups doesn't do a lot of good when you're crashing a lot.
considering the difference in stability and speed, i'm about ready to go take iso master pup, puppybasic 2.5, and go back to 1.07. i'll keep 2.11 around for hardware that needs it. i thought T2 was going to make everything more standard, but i don't think it will. 2.11 is still good, but i've seen a better pup. of course, the new wizards are nice, and i'll still try 2.17.

[alienjeff]

Suggesting a UPS is appropriate in reference to item #1 of redrum's first posting; to wit: "... after several power failures (cold shutdown/reboot) the filesystem became corrupted (this happened 3 times in 6 months)."

Paranoid or not, I can't bring myself to believe running a web server from within a frugal install's *.sfs is safe; especially without UPS protection.

N.B. to Amish: In light of recent trends, version 2.17 should be in final release state later this afternoon or early Thursday morning at the latest ...

(sure wish 1.08r1 ran on my lappy)

[amish]

N.B. to Amish: In light of recent trends, version 2.17 should be in final release state later this afternoon or early Thursday morning at the latest ...

X)

(sure wish 1.08r1 ran on my lappy)

i have one that needs 2.11 or older, sounds like you do too. or before booting into 1.08, try:

Code: Select all

modprobe aj-laptop-ffs

right!

i hate to say that there are advantages to using the newer, less stable kernel, but some hardware just doesn't like "the good one" for instance: got a card reader that does great in puppy 2 but grafpup won't see it so far. eh, i may have to concede this one.

[Sit Heel Speak]

(sure wish 1.08r1 ran on my lappy)

Why doesn't it?

[alienjeff]

I don't know why it doesn't boot. Wish I did. Wish I were more l33t ...

The laptop in question is a Gateway Solo 5150, 233MHz P-II, MMX, with 188M of RAM. It runs flawlessly from one 2.xx series on up (sorry, can't remember which version started the "go" status). This leads me to believe there was a key kernel change that the laptop wants to see.

Here's what the screen display says when the lappy locks up:

Code: Select all

SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Linux Kernel Card Service 3.1.22
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found.
unloading Kernel Card Services
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/pcmcia/i82365.o.gz: init_module: No such device
insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
      You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/pcmcia/i82365.o.gz: insmod i82365 failed
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found.
unloading Kernel Card Services
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/pcmcia/i92365.o.gz: init_module: No such device
insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
      You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/pcmcia/i82365.o.gz: insmod i82365 failed
usb.c: registred new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: reistered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 10:58:54 Jun 17 2005
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI:Enabling device 00:07.2 (0000 -> 0001)

Any insights, suggestions, and/or prayers would most appreciated.

[Sit Heel Speak]

I see, at
http://developer.novell.com/yes/50143.htm
that it carries NeoMagic 256AV video, which there have been several issues with. Do a forum search on "NeoMagic" and perhaps you will find a solution.

[alienjeff]

Thanks, brother. I'll check out both! Appreciate the direction.