(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Created attached draft-script for dynamic load/unload sfs-files.
Load up to 28 sfs-files to main-root branch (number can be changed in script). Works by appending mounted sfs-files to aufs /. Also sfs-files loaded at boot can be unloaded at runtime if not used by any programs.
Tested in Puppy 412 and pUPnGO. Do not work in P431 but could be modified to do so (different squashfs/aufs-version I think). Works only with aufs (but same functionality could be made with unionfs using unionctl).
sfs-files must be outside current aufs branch. Unpack to a place in your $PATH (/usr/sbin or so)...

I tested your OTF_SFS loader on pupppy 4.2

It loads up my goffice sfs (abiword, inkscape, sodipodi, gnumeric)

with no problems!!

and its so fast... this is truly an excellent little tool..

a couple of questions:

1. can i use it at bootup to reload the sfs files which were still loaded at shutdown?

2. what cli commands (if any) can we use with it?

sc0ttman: Thx for testing. For now the OFT is only a draft - it takes no arguments from CLI and do not remember settings at next boot. Should be "easy" to make a OTF-start-stop script in /etc/initrd using the commands needed to load/unload a list of sfs-files at boot/shutdown...
I am working on this as it will be a future part of pUPnGO to enable loading of sfs-files stored in boot CD at first boot and will replace the traditional sfs-manager.
My main goal is to make OTF-unionfs-manager to load/unload whatever you want: CD, networkdrives, other Linux, iso, sfs, tgz, etc. for pUPnGO as this expands the building block concept.

goingnuts wrote:sc0ttman: Thx for testing. For now the OFT is only a draft - it takes no arguments from CLI and do not remember settings at next boot. Should be "easy" to make a OTF-start-stop script in /etc/initrd using the commands needed to load/unload a list of sfs-files at boot/shutdown...
I am working on this as it will be a future part of pUPnGO to enable loading of sfs-files stored in boot CD at first boot and will replace the traditional sfs-manager.
My main goal is to make OTF-unionfs-manager to load/unload whatever you want: CD, networkdrives, other Linux, iso, sfs, tgz, etc. for pUPnGO as this expands the building block concept.

Thanks for the reply, it's a great tool as it is..
I might try hacking it (until I break it)

I will try to echo the list of mounted files to an rcfile, then read it again at boot, to mount them again..

I looked at how your script works, it should be simple enough, right?
You already echo the list of loaded sfs files to a tmp file, I think...

One problem I see - I will first need to mount the place on which the sfs are stored...

I may use the first half of the 'mount_all3' bash script by big_bass, to simply mount *everything* at boot..
This is not ideal at all, but it is an easy hack for myself...
(unless you can think of a better way...)

(I am not making feature requests, just thought I'd share my thoughts )

I like ur idea on where its going, sounds interesting...

Hi all here,

l just wanted to thank goingnuts for the great stuff he creates. I think the OFT could be base for some interesting improvements.

e.g. gyro had some ideas about Bootconfig
I could use the possibility to load one (or maybe more) additional sfs at first boot.

this is definitly on my watchlist!
emil

sc0ttman: Thanks for your input and positive feedback! Attached the first working rc.otf_sfs. I successfully loaded 9 sfs-files - rebooted - and they were mounted and ready to go after startup. Still just a draft...
Just place it in /etc/init.d.

emil: Thanks! Maybe you can make "fake" content of /etc/otfsfs and get those sfs loaded at first boot?

goingnuts wrote:sc0ttman: Thanks for your input and positive feedback! Attached the first working rc.otf_sfs. I successfully loaded 9 sfs-files - rebooted - and they were mounted and ready to go after startup. Still just a draft...
Just place it in /etc/init.d

Thanks I'll check it out soon as I can...

One more question, about something else you did that I am very interested in.. PMConky..

I am using a 4.2 system without a ROX pinboard and I am already using JWM to set the wallpaper in jwmrc..

However, I can only see PMConky when I have no wallpaper set, and no colour set for the desktop.
But I see in this thread you have a wallpaper, with PMConky on top..

How did you do this? I even downloaded your cli jwm wallpaper changer, and started using a jwmrc-desktop file, to see if that worked... But no!

I would love to get PMconky working on top of my wallpaper.....
Any ideas?

I'm not 100% sure what he did (if anything), but any time something like this happens you can add a group setting to change the layer (layer 1 or 2 should do it) for that program

http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/config.shtml#groups

it is also useful to have it force certain programs to always be on top so you don't miss a critical item (xmessage for instance)

technosaurus wrote:I'm not 100% sure what he did (if anything), but any time something like this happens you can add a group setting to change the layer (layer 1 or 2 should do it) for that program

http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/config.shtml#groups

it is also useful to have it force certain programs to always be on top so you don't miss a critical item (xmessage for instance)

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a go in a moment..

but won't that make it appear above the apps I load?

If you know, what layer are they set to by default?
( I guess I can go 1 lower...)

EDIT: OK, I guess it is '4', right click on a window title bar to see

RE-EDIT:

Nope, won't work for me...

sc0ttman: Can you start (and view) pmconky.sh after jwm has started via rxvt? If so jwm has the <StartupCommand></StartupCommand> where you might put 'exec pmconky.sh'

dbl post

goingnuts wrote:sc0ttman: Can you start (and view) pmconky.sh after jwm has started via rxvt? If so jwm has the <StartupCommand></StartupCommand> where you might put 'exec pmconky.sh'

I tried your suggestion, not sure I did it right, but what I did, didn't work!

Also, I noticed your automount.sh script from the jwm_drives thing, is stopping me from being able to successfully create a save file..

the whole process goes through, but the writing part doesnt actually work.
(just in case you wanted to know.. )
im gonna try some changes either way.. so specifically not asking for support...

EDIT:

goingnuts, in case you care, i stopped automount from running in pupmode 5, now I can create save files...
then i modded create_jwmrc_drives.sh so that when you click on a drive, it runs 'drives_mounter.sh $1' which mounts the drives, if not mounted...
(my script 'drives_mounter.sh' is a near copy of cd_mounter.sh, but it takes $1)

But when automount doesnt run, I must hack 'create_jwm_drives', so that it successfully mounts the drive on which the pup_*.sfs file is kept..
(I check for pupmode then use either /initrd/mnt/dev_ro2 (no save file) or `readlink /mnt/home` (with save file)

(Not checked cd_mounter.sh yet, might have to do the same)

did you have the same problem with create_jwm_drives if you dont automount?
(is that why you use automount?)

simple console calculator or change to dialog to Xdialog if you want

example:
calc '8+9*(8/2)+sqrt(144)-sin(1)'

As a response to sc0ttman´s findings using jwmrc-drives I reviewed the code:
Icons now dependent on file-system and using 9menu a small pop-up-window shows relevant choices (mount, umount/explore or cancel). Not really pretty as jwm insist to manage the window...
But 9menu (12K installed) has potential of being used for other purposes.

if anyone wants to make it "pretty" you could add a notitle noborder group to jwm
http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/config.shtml#groups

technosaurus: Just what was missing - thanks!
Just added:

Worked a little more with otf_sfs_loader. Added:
#autoconfig max loops and creation of loops
#check of disktype instead of relying on extension (now loads tcz)
#autoconvert squashfs 4 to 3 (and vice versa for future P431 comp.)
#check aufs version (for future P431 comp.)
#user setup (modify max number of squashfs-files that can be loaded)
#now takes arguments from command line (or drop a bunch of squashfs-files on the script and auto load)
#adapted ldconfig and fixmenus/restart jwm from gyros sfs_load-script for P431)

Included static builds of mksquashfs vers. 3 & 4 + unsquashfs vers. 3 & 4.
Also included rc.otf_sfs that will reload all the squashfs-files loaded at shutdown.

Still on the draft-level...

getgui is a nice little (actually quite extensive) replacement for *dialog and other *message tools (I modified the source to change the ugly yellow to a medium gray)
manpage - examples

• some screenshots

technosaurus: That is a nice finding! I might try to implement it in my dialogfunctions.sh. Total size (including dependencies) is around 1900K whereas total size for Xdialog is around 2700K (static gtk1-version) and around 8800K for the version from P412. And the dependencies are identical to the ones jwm needs...

the developer of getgui (Steve Grubb) has some other pretty nice/lite tools as well:
http://sourceforge.net/users/fufufini - getgui, lxlogo, midriff, ploticus, quisp, shsql ...
While I am promoting overlooked (Non-Puppy) devs, I should put a plug in for:
Angel Ortega http://triptico.com/software/
Michael Cardell Widerkrantz http://www.hack.org/mc/hacks/
Valery Reznic http://sourceforge.net/users/valery_reznic/
kornelix??? http://kornelix.squarespace.com/ ... the name escapes me, though I have communicated via email after submitting some UI patches (the only C++ programmer in my list)

We really should have a wiki page for these guys and some of the Puppy devs too.

Not so overlooked but worth looking at almost any code they (re)write:
Fabrice Bellard http://bellard.org/
Rob Landley http://landley.net/hg/