(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

wimpy wrote:Update: I installed the printer and it now shows up on the text editors.

Excellent. It's hard to know what caused the previous corruption. So as you add more packages into your install, you should check that the text editors still correctly list the printers.

Does this mean that I should abandon my frugal install completely? I'll do as you suggest - the packages I have added in the frugal install which are not in the "clean" one are Thunderbird, flashplayer 10.3, an Nvidia driver package and pwidgets. i'll add them one by one to the "clean" and see what difference they make. I did have wine in the frugal install but I uninstalled that today. along with debbi and the cups wrapper. It made no difference. Is there a way to uninstall CUPS and reinstall it in the frugal (if it is CUPS that is broken).

wimpy wrote:Does this mean that I should abandon my frugal install completely?.....Is there a way to uninstall CUPS and reinstall it in the frugal (if it is CUPS that is broken).

Trying to repair this situation is almost impossible. You would be better off deleting your current save file and starting again.

Are you still booting with "puppy pfix=ram"? If so, mount the partition that contains the save file and delete it.

Do a shut-down and create a new save file. If you are lucky, all the stuff you have installed in your temporary session should be saved into it.

I've now put all the additional packages in the frugal install on to the "clean" and the "clean" is still OK. The only difference, now that I remember, is that at some time during the frugal I was told that my personal storage was getting low and I opted to increase it.
I've not been using pfix=ram but I have been saving the "clean" sfs to a 16GB USB stick. I'm not sure how to continue if I want to keep to a frugal install. If I copied the "clean" sfs over the old frugal one on the HD would that be as good?

wimpy wrote: If I copied the "clean" sfs over the old frugal one on the HD would that be as good?

It should be, but it's risky to copy a save file while it's in use. Boot using "puppy pfix=ram" and do the copy.

BTW, "sfs" is the extension of the main Puppy file. Your save file will be "2fs" or "3fs".

Yes, I did mean 2fs not sfs I'll rename the one on the HD to something else. I'm still not sure whether the problem lies with the 2fs files or other files on the HD. If it's just the 2fs file then replacing it would be OK. Is it possible that the problem lies with other files on the HD?
I tried copying the "clean" 2fs to the HD after a pfix-ram but it made no difference. I'm not sure I copied it to the right location - puppy diidn't seem to have any 2fs on the HD and I copied it to /root. On boot it says that it is copying /puppy528/lupusave.2fs.

If something goes wrong with a frugal install, the problem must be in the save file. The core Puppy files never change.

I found the folder on the HD and using pfix=ram made the swap. I now have a frugal installation where the printing works off a WinXP controlled printer. I can't thank you enough for your patience, expertise and help. I really am most grateful. I'll mark this thread as "Solved"