One Puppy - multiple savefiles?

[shadow of viper`]

Hello everyone!

I had this question on my mind for very long, but never did anything to find out


Hardware details:
1. An ancient AMD Athlon 64bit Desktop PC
2. An ancient 1GB Kingston USB flash drive

Current Setup:
1. A single ext2 partition on the flashdrive
2. Four subdirectories + extlinux (with boot parameters pmedia, pdev, psubdir to restrict puppy's search for savefiles at boot)


3. Subdirectory1 for remastered LucidPup 5.1.1
4. Subdirectory2 for CompizPup - savefile1
5. Subdirectory3 for CompizPup - savefile2 (This one is special, the main SFS, zdrv, vmlinuz, initrd are all symlinks to the previous subdirectory. savefile2 is a proper file)

6. Subdirectory4 for Slitaz 4.0 with its various options (IPXE boot included! You should check it out if you have not already!)

7. OpenOffice.org SFS on the root of the USB flash drive


Limitations:
A total size of 952MB on the flash drive


Aim:
Fit as many general purpose tiny distros as possible, with Puppy derivatives being the top choice because... well, do you really expect me to give reasons?


What works:
LucidPup 5.1.1, including OpenOffice.org SFS
CompizPup with savefile1, including OpenOffice.org SFS
Slitaz


What does not work:
CompizPup with savefile2

extlinux finds the kernel vmlinuz and the initial ramdisk initrd files, loads them successfully and then puppy fails to find the CompizPup main sfs - drops to console

As i mentioned earlier,
the main SFS, zdrv, vmlinuz, initrd are all symlinks to the previous subdirectory. savefile2 is a proper file


Other options i know of:
1. Maintain two copies of the necessary files in separate subdirectories

I wish to maximise the available disk space so that i can fit more distros or at least different profiles of the same distro, in. This option wastes precious space


2. Maintain the two savefiles in the same subdirectory, let puppy load the main SFS and then choose the savefile when prompted to

I want to avoid this step by choosing the savefile from the bootloader directly


3. Use RSH/LazY Puppy's TOPLESS or its variants

Honestly, i like this concept and have been intending to try it out but did not spend much time reading the documentation. I'll give it a go in the coming days.


Has anyone attempted anything like this?
Am i missing anything simpler?
Is there a way to specify the name of the savefile to load from the extlinux boot menu?

PS: Not on my puppy machine at the moment, will try to respond as soon as i can

Cheers!

[bigpup]

I assume you know that save files use names that are specific to a specific version of Puppy.
That way that Puppy version only tries to use saves that were made for it.

Example:
Tahrpup uses tahrsave for the save name.
You can add to that basic name, but the save name has to start with tahrsave.

Never tried this, but there is this boot option.
You could put it in the kernel line of extlinux menu entry for the Puppy version you want a specific save file used.

Code: Select all

pfix=<n> Number of save files to ignore

I guess the last numbered save file would need to be the one you want to use.

Example:
If you have 3 save files.
pfix=<2> would ignore first 2.
The third save file would be used.

[shadow of viper`]

Hi bigpup

I assume you know that save files use names that are specific to a specific version of Puppy.

That's right, i only used generic names (Ex: subdirectory1, savefile1 etc) here to make my point

Code: Select all

pfix=<n> Number of save files to ignore

I guess this is specific to multi-session cd/dvd

Never used one, so cant say with authority

[musher0]

Hi shadow and bigpup.

I can confirm from experience that

Code: Select all

pfix=n

applies only to Puppies ran from CD/DVD that save their sessions as
successively dated folders on the CD or DVD.

BFN.

[LazY Puppy]

3. Use RSH/LazY Puppy's TOPLESS or its variants

Honestly, i like this concept and have been intending to try it out but did not spend much time reading the documentation. I'll give it a go in the coming days.

No need to read the online documentation (the first 15 posts) of T.O.P.L.E.S.S. at all.

Just download LazY Puppy 5 based on tahr 6.0.2 for first testings and for to get a little familiar to it.

Then read just the first post of how to install and follow exactly that instructions.

Then read here about success.

Boot that T.O.P.L.E.S.S. LazY Puppy 5.

Just wait until the dash board is ready and read here the part of directories 'Modules' and 'Module'.

Now try to run Gimp Painter or Lightzone from its menu entry or from its desktop buttons (key: alt+5, right-click at desktop button, choose from context-menu).

Anything else just ask in the appropriate topic.

Edited the wrong keyboard shortcut.

[shadow of viper`]

Hi LazY Puppy

THanks for your response, i will try it out this weekend

Cheers!

[shadow of viper`]

Hi All,

I wonder why the puppy setup with symlinks failed to boot?
Any guesses anyone?

Since the kernel and initial ramdisk loaded successfully, i suspect that the code which looks for the main SFS file must have failed to resolve the symlink (is this code part of the initrd?)

I am just a user with slightly-better-than-beginner level of skill
Finding out the exact cause may be beyond my abilities, but it would be an interesting thing to attempt!

Cheers!

[musher0]

Hi shadow.

I had the problem too. I have only experience to back this up, but:
Avoid symlinks for any sfs's.

Maybe the cause is the extra millisecond the system needs to understand
which file the symlink is referring to; anyway, try to have the system load
the real sfs, not a symlink to it.

Someone more advanced can explain it fully.

IHTH.

[musher0]

Hello again, shadow.

As a partial answer to the question in your title:
I have never used it myself, but if you look at the"Puppy Cheat Codes"
in the Puppy "wikka", there is a setting called psave=abcsave_nnn.2fs.

You could try adding that cheat code on your boot line in grub's menu.lst.
Something like:

Code: Select all

title ChloePup-R27 by Moat
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/ChloePup-R27/lance/vmlinuz quiet pkeys=cf pmedia=satahd root=/dev/ram0 pdev1=sda1 psubdir="ChloePup-R27" psave="precisesave-arf.2fs" max_loop=14 ramdisk_size=196000 pfix=fsck
initrd (hd0,0)/ChloePup-R27/lance/initrd.gz
boot

Back to conclude this post after testing.
Result: I had no luck just now, but I know it should be possible, the
setting is there for a reason, and a Puppyist a few years back had his
entire family set up that way with each their own pupsave file loading
directly from grub. Maybe I don't have the syntax right.

Note -- Member Wognath says here:
"not recognized in all versions of Puppy." Shucks....

The advantage would have been that the psave setting apparently skips
the secondary pupsave file numbered choice menu if you have more than
one pupsave file for the Puppy.

IHTH

[shadow of viper`]

Hello musher0

Thanks for the information

As a partial answer to the question in your title:
I have never used it myself, but if you look at the"Puppy Cheat Codes"
in the Puppy "wikka", there is a setting called psave=abcsave_nnn.2fs.

Now, that is exactly what i am talking about!

I had the problem too. I have only experience to back this up, but:
Avoid symlinks for any sfs's.

Maybe the cause is the extra millisecond the system needs to understand
which file the symlink is referring to; anyway, try to have the system load
the real sfs, not a symlink to it.

Makes sense, thanks again
I'll tinker a bit when i get some spare time

Cheers!

[LazY Puppy]

I wonder why the puppy setup with symlinks failed to boot?
...
(is this code part of the initrd?)

Yes this is part of the init script in initrd.gz.

Probably it needs to get the real path of the main sfs where the symbolic link is pointing to.

To get a real path of a symbolic link there is a busybox function: realpath.

Though, at boot up there is just a basic setup of links to busybox (in /bin). This one has a size of appr. 400kb where the one inside the main sfs (which is used after the swich_root is finished) has appr. 700kb (checked this right now in tahr 602).

So realpath won't work before the switch_root is done. Though, there is readlink which is existing in both versions of busybox.