How add to bootloader screen#2 selection? (SOLVED)

[B.K. Johnson]

Hello All
I looked but couldn't find where to put this.

I have a flash drive that is set up using syslinux to multi-boot.
The default puppy is tahr-6.0.5, so it boots past the first screen without interruption.
However, as I have 2 tahr-6.0.5 pups (regular and experimental), there is a second screen giving me a choice:
1. pupsave-reg
2. pupsave-xpr
I want to use the same flash drive on my desktop as well as on a netbook with a dead keyboard. However, when booting on the netbook, I am stuck at the second screen for the virtual keyboard (xvkbd) is not yet active. How can I get past this point? I have a suspicion that grub4dos could provide a solution, but I have never used it as my bootloader and am not sufficiently familiar with it. Can anyone confirm that it could be a solution, and if so, provide a sample menu.lst?

Another solution if I want only one (e.g reg) of the pups is a separate flash drive with that puppy only, but I would rather not go that route.

Any other suggestions are welcomed.
TIA.

[drunkjedi]

With a dead keyboard you are in trouble.

Syslinux can show graphical boot menu with many entries to choose from, and even can have sub-menu too.
You can have 2 entries in syslinux pointing to 2 different savefile with "psave=" boot parameter.
But you still need keyboard to select between entries.
There are graphical bootloaders with mouse support, but don't know much about them.


Another option is make the savefile option you are gonna use on that laptop default.
So it will boot automatically on that laptop.
But you have to select option on other pc which has a good keyboard.

[B.K. Johnson]

drunkjedi wrote:

With a dead keyboard you are in trouble.

I know! Bad, bad trouble.

You can have 2 entries in syslinux pointing to 2 different savefile with "psave=" boot parameter.
But you still need keyboard to select between entries.

Anywhere you turn!!!

There are graphical bootloaders with mouse support, but don't know much about them.

That's why I hoped to hear from our grub4dos experts like shinobar.
Thanks for that tip anyway. I'll spend some time googling.

Another option is make the savefile option you are gonna use on that laptop default.
So it will boot automatically on that laptop.
But you have to select option on other pc which has a good keyboard.

That's a good idea. Many thanks! I wanted to be able to use either, but I'd just have to be content with having access to just one version on the netbook. Thanks.
____________________________________
Tentative plan:
Duplicate everything in /home/tahr602 except the tahrsave-exp.2fs and place the duplicates in /home/tahrnetb.
In syslinux.cfg, add a new label, tahrnetb, so syslinux.cfg would include:
default tahrnetb
label tahr602
kernel /tahr602/vmlinuz
append initrd=/tahr602/initrd.gz pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck

label tahrnetb
kernel /tahrnetb/vmlinuz
append initrd=/tahnetb/initrd.gz pmedia=usbflash pfix=fsck

At the first screen,
When using the desktop computer (or any computer with a functioning keyboard), I will enter tahr602. Eventually, I'll get to the second screen for the selection between tahrsave-602.2fs and tahrsave-xpr.2fs.
When using the netbook, because tahrnetb is now the default, the system will boot without interruption into the tahr desktop, with the virtual keyboard accessible.

You mentioned the use of "psave=" boot parameter. Do you see where it would be more beneficial than my choices here?

Ciao for now.

[B.K. Johnson]

Hi All
Update (2017-05-12) on the saga of the replacement of my dead keyboard with the virtual.

Being unable to choose from two versions of tahr-6.02/6.0.5 at boot, I opted to use a dedicated flash drive for the netbook boot and proceeded with a plan similar to that outlined
here.

The desktop icons were too large for the small screen of the netbook. I dragged them closer together but got a surprise at shutdown. I faced the SAVE or NOT SAVE option with only the dead keyboard (virtual unavailable). Luckily, the GUI times out after 60 secs and shut-down. I was able to change the location of the icons by booting the flash drive on my regular desktop, relocating the icons and saving. The flash booted up in its new environment without issue. I can make changes but they are not permanent.

A thought just hit me: idea: : If before shutting down I were to click the Save icon on the desktop, would that not solve the problem? I have never used the Save icon. so don't know exactly what it does. I'm not using the netbook right now, else I'd try it. If anyone has any thoughts, advice, insights on the Save option, please share.
TIA
.

[mikeslr]

I have never used the Save icon. so don't know exactly what it does. .

I always use the desktop Save Icon, rarely* the Save option offered during shutdown. The two do the same thing: Save whatever is then in RAM (with the exception of what is in /temp) to Storage. But I don't want whatever I may have picked up while surfing, or by the time I shutdown/reboot won't know or remember if whatever I've tried to do unsuccessfully has created a mess. So I shutdown without Saving and --if there is something I actually want to add/change-- reboot, make the change, Save using the desktop icon; then go about my business.

mikesLr

* The exception is when initially setting up a Puppy: its initial settings, and after creating a SaveFile/Folder -- and continuing on reboot into the newly created SaveFile/Folder, installing applications or loading SFSes which I know will work.

[B.K. Johnson]

mikeslr wrote about the Desktop Save and Shutdown Save:

...The two do the same thing: Save whatever is then in RAM (with the exception of what is in /temp) to Storage. But I don't want whatever I may have picked up while surfing, or by the time I shutdown/reboot won't know or remember if whatever I've tried to do unsuccessfully has created a mess. So I shut-down without Saving and --if there is something I actually want to add/change-- reboot, make the change, Save using the desktop icon; then go about my business.

The unanswered question for me is: What gets saved? Obvious things like pets and other program installations, version updates for programs like Firefox and Flash, changed program settings, browser add-ons, and bookmarks, I know are saved. I don't have to worry about Firefox: I clear the cache and history before shutting down and keep only the web page(s) I want. I don't save anything to /Downloads or /my-documents. Where I usually mess up is when I save something to /root, /dwhelper or /Forum threads and forget to move them to a safer place before shutting down with NOSAVE. Or when I forget that I have bookmarked a page and shut down with NOSAVE. So what else do I have to worry about being changed and saved?

[mikeslr]

Hi B.K. Johnson,

I don't worry at all. But the rest of my initial setup routine includes:

1. Move /my-documents to /mnt/home and symlink it back to /root. [Applications still offer to open-from and write-to /my-documents first].

2. Start each web-browser. Mozilla web-browsers create the Downloads folder in /root. All web-browsers create configuration files in either /root or /root/.config.

3. Long ago, under some Puppy, I moved /root/Downloads to /mnt/home and symlinked it back. Now I just delete /root/Downloads and symlink /mnt/home/Downloads to /root. Since I boot multiple Pups, within /mnt/home/Downloads are folders for the Puppies on the same partition, e.g. /mnt/home/Downloads/Tahrpup64. Alternatively, in first setting up a web-browser I set its preference to download to the already-existing folder in /mnt/home/Downloads. [Download preferences, however, are always set to "Ask"]. These are also the locations set in Puppy Package Managers' "Options" as download locations.

4. All my Puppies are run from folders, not from the top of partitions: e.g. /sda4/Tahrpup64. I create a folder, "browser-stuff", within each Puppy's folder. Within /browser-stuff I create another folder named "config". I then open a window to /root and "show hidden files". Depending on where a browser, when started, created its config files, I move them from /root or /root/.config to the corresponding location in /My-Pup/browser-stuff. Consequently, changes to settings and Bookmarks are preserved/written to /mnt/Home...

Step "4" enables me --when setting up a new Puppy-- to copy "browser-stuff" from an older Puppy into the new Puppy's folder, then symlink the settings to their expected locations in /root or /root/.config, preserving settings across Puppies. This actually takes less time than having to run thru and set the preferences on the new Puppy's web-browsers.

Set 5: Book-marks: Although moving config files to /mnt/home preserves bookmarks later created, employing a previously created config file does not (always?) carry over the bookmarks created in the older Puppy into the new Puppy. Don't know why. So, on /mnt/home I have a folder named "my-favs" into which I export bookmarks, and from which I import bookmarks into the new Puppy's web-browsers.

The foregoing may seem to be time consuming, but once you've established a routine it actually takes less time than always having to start from scratch. In fact, less time than it took to write this.

So, I never worry about what I forgot to Save by shutting down without Saving. Anything I routinely want to Save is being Saved by the way I setup Puppies.

mikesLr

[B.K. Johnson]

Thanks for that mikeslr.
It's going to take me some time to thoroughly digest it, but on the first read, I can already see some things I'm going to use in my own setup. OTOH, I'm unlikely to set up /home/Downloads/puppy-x because /home is a 8 Gb flash drive ATM, has the folders for the multiple pups plus related devxs, other SFS and drivers; it would fill up quite quickly.

Like you, I also have my browser download preference set to 'Ask', but this is to allow me to save all over according to my organization. For example, pets & sfs, scripts, isos, tips, howtos etc, It's better that I save to the right location first time rather than move the download later.

More later!

[mikeslr]

Hi B.K.Johnson,

While you're pondering things, maybe add this to the mix.

A couple of years ago, I screwed up the bootloader on my wife's Window 7 computer trying get her to again* run a Puppy by installing it and Grub4dos. The Puppy had run fine from a USB-Key. Not sure how/why, but ultimately I had to install Zorin/Ubuntu to enable her to boot into Windows using Zorin's bootloader. She still hasn't forgiven me.

Since I mostly run Puppies, when I was forced to acquire a "new-to-me" desktop, a Windows 7, and still not knowing why, I decided not to repeat the mistake. So I set up bios to give boot priority to the USB-port(s).

My Puppies (and debiandogs) are on a partition of the hard-drive. But I boot into them by plugging in a USB-Key before pressing the power-button. Or, rather, its always plugged in, but I take it out if I want to boot into Windows 7. It's the smallest USB-key I could find as it only contains Grub4dos, menu.lst, a few other files installed by Grub4dos, and a slash.xpm image.

Once a Puppy has booted to desktop, since grub4dos has passed control to the Puppy, I can take the USB-Key out of the port. The USB-Key is not even mounted after bootup. Puppy's /mnt/home is the hard-drive partition where its files are located.

Read/Writes to a hard-drive are about 10 times faster than to a series 2 USB-Key. And, of course, hard-drives don't pose the same size constrains as most reasonably inexpensive USB-Keys.


mikesLr

* She had previously run some Puppy before her XP computer died.

[B.K. Johnson]

There wasn't a solution to the question posed.
I am therefore marking the thread as SOLVED.

The happy ending to the story is that I bought and installed a replacement keyboard for the netbook at Amazon. It is working OK.