Swap partition & GK Dial gyrations.

[craftybytes]

I reported this problem once before..!

Had a problem with GK Dial dropping out randomly after dialing up & logging into my ISP - the longest period between dropouts was around 20 minutes - several shorter periods (less than 3 minutes & up to 8-10 minutes on average)..!!

Now last time I reported this problem - I eventually worked out that my 'swap' partition was somehow causing the problem as it had been used when I had to boot into my other Linux distro (MEPIS 3.4-3) prior to rebooting into Puppy..

NOTE: I have around 702MB's of RAM for puppy to load and run in and in 95% of the time the 'swap' partition is never used - so most times the 'swap' partition is just sitting there waiting to be used..

So with this in mind I 'wiped' the swap partition with a small utility script that I found - 'wipeswap' - but this does take a few minutes to do..

Now when I redialed & logged back into my ISP, the problem of dropouts in GK dial virtually disappeared - online time for dialup up to 4.5 hours or more..

What I would like to ask - why does the 'swap' partition affect GK Dial such that it "drops out" a lot whereas when 'swap' is wiped - GK Dial works flawlessly..?

Any ideas anybody..?

crafty.
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[BarryK]

...hmm, interesting, and disturbing. I was having dropout problems, which I thought got fixed when I upgraded the ppp package -- in the 2.17exp1 -- maybe you should try that. I hope my problem wasn't something to do with the swap partition also...

[Flash]

Just a thought: does it do the same thing if you boot the CD with the puppy pfix=ram option? That still mounts the swap partition.

[craftybytes]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner - but have finally managed to get back on line without GK Dial dropping out after every 2 minutes or so..

Flash:

After receiving an 'Unleashed' CD from Barry - I just boot up with it - then I offload the Puppy iso from it then burn the iso to a new CD - this then becomes my 'boot' CD - it doesn't have any of my modem drivers installed - so I cannot use it with the pfix=ram option AND then dial up to internet..

Somehow the problem seems to be linked to what extra pups/pets & tar.gz or .bz2 files I've installed to the 'pup_save.2fs' file for my Puppy..

To get around the problem I just copied the "backup" of my current 'pup_save.2fs' file ( which has all the base extras installed ) to where I keep the 'pup_save' files for boot location - and 'booted' up using this new one ..

EDIT: my 'base extras' are my modem drivers ( Conexant HSF 56k softmodem ), jre1.5.0_08 pup, PB-Debianinstaller pup, opera 9.10, undeb/unrpm pup, plus my Canon BJ-PIXMA printer drivers AND CUPS-install v0.3.pup.. NO OTHER 'extras' are included in "backups"..

As I have now been online ( 56k dialup ) with GK Dial for approx 1 hour 10 minutes WITHOUT ANY DROPOUTS - things seem to be fixed so far..

Anyway thanks for the responses..

crafty..
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