Test iso 14th October

[Ted Dog]

A single file that size will default to archive and not be reloaded into ram. the file will still exist on the DVD so keep it up only 4.55 G to go.. He Hee

[Flash]

Ted Dog,

Here's how I thought I'd do the test Barry wants done: boot the multisession Puppy DVD-R in a computer which has 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of mp3 books in (NTFS) HD partition, transfer ~4 GB of those mp3 books into /root/mp3_books, then shut down. If I understand correctly how ms Puppy works, the ~4 GB of mp3s should be saved to the DVD, filling it up so that the next time I boot and then try to save ~1GB of mp3 books, it will tell me I need to make a new disk.

Before I start, is there any reason this can't work? Will 512 MB be enough RAM to do the whole 4 GB in one go, or will I have to transfer it to the DVD in bites <450 MB or so?

[Ted Dog]

in my experience you will get an out of memory error less than 200M. for some reason half the RAM is not used. try the df command in a terminal window find the amount free in /usr.

growisofs -M /dev/dvd -D -J -R /your mp3 books directory

will fill up the DVD directly from hard drive thereby not using RAM.

it works safely in my experience.

[Flash]

Ted: thanks, I might have to use that.

Barry,

Here's what I've managed to do so far:

• 1.) Burn 14oct05 multisession Puppy to a DVD+RW with growisofs as per instructions here.
  2.) Boot the DVD I just burned, and use TkDVD to add 4.3 GB (approx) of mp3 files directly to the DVD as a session. I used TkDVD because there is no easy way to enter the locations of several hundred files in growisofs from the command line. TkDVD used the -M and -J options in growisofs (I think)

When I closed TkDVD and shut down the computer, Puppy gave the usual error message,

:-?Volume descriptor mismatch. Did you use same mkisofs options?

after the line: "Copying volume descriptors," but it seemed to have worked okay nevertheless. It rebooted and the mp3 files were there when I mounted the DVD. I added a few hundred MB more of mp3 files, this time dragging them to the /root/Archive folder -- which has mysteriously reappeared -- and when I went to shut down the computer it said I would need to start a new disk. I think I followed the directions correctly. The first step seemed to be to finalize the original disk. Everything seemed to be going well but at the end of that step the computer stuck in a loop, endlessly repeating:

47000372992/47000372992 (100.0%) @0.0x, remaining 0:00

with no apparent activity of the DVD burner.

[Flash]

(Continued)

Even though the computer stuck after burning the first session of the new DVD, the DVD booted and everything worked, so I went with it. I created a new folder, /root/mp3_books, copied 450 MB of mp3 books to it from the NTFS partition, then rebooted Puppy, saving the session. It took a long time to boot, apparently loading the 450 MB of mp3 books from the DVD back into RAM.

I added another 400 MB of mp3 books to the /root/mp3_books folder and rebooted, saving the session. Again it took a long time to boot, but this time when I mounted the DVD and looked inside I found that the folder from the 2nd session contained 850 MB! Apparently the entire 450 MB saved in the 1st session, plus the 400 MB of the 2nd session, were saved to the second session folder on the DVD. Also, I noticed that the /root/Archive folder disappeared.

The DVD booted, so I added ~400 MB more to mp3_books and rebooted, saving the session. It seemed to save the session ok but failed to boot, finding a lot of bad sectors on the disk. The DVD burner may be failing. It quit working in Windows but seemed to work in Puppy. I plan to try the same experiment again, with a DVD+RW, but with a different burner. Once I'm sure I have the procedure down I'll try it with a DVD+R and a DVD-R, when I can find the time.

[BarryK]

...hmm, I'm getting confused

I think it would be better to follow Ted Dog's suggestion:
growisofs -M /dev/dvd -D -J -R /your mp3 books directory
to fill up the DVD.

At shutdown, when it detects the DVD is full, it executes
growisofs -M /dev/dvd=/dev/zero
which is supposed to fill up the rest of the DVD with zeros then close it.
...from what I can understand of your description, it seems to be stuck
at this stage ...I don't know why.
I wonder if TkDVD has something to do with it? Or using a DVD+RW?
...DVD-R may work better.

Maybe I could change rc.reboot-cd so that it doesn't close the DVD.
...there's no essential reason why it has to be closed I think.
---well, except that it makes shutdown neater, as rc.reboot-cd will
detect if a DVD is closed and not ask if you want to save a session
-- at least, I think I put in code for that.

[Flash]

I realize that wasn't very helpful, but I indend to repeat the test, as a learning experience. Eventually, assuming I learn what I'm doing, I'll notice something that will be helpful. Burning and loading such large files takes a lot of time so it will go slowly. I intend to try Ted Dog's suggestion, but first I have to make the folders containing the mp3 files ready on the NTFS partition. It would take me forever to enter all the files on the command line, assuming I didn't make any mistakes.

Meanwhile, here are some more "screen shots"; two of the shutdown and one showing the error messages at last attempt to boot. This is the DVD which was created by the first DVD, which was the one I filled up using TkDVD. TkDVD was not used to put anything on this DVD. I can't remember for sure, but I think it may actually have booted all the way up, the bad sectors no doubt being in the saved mp3 section.

[Ted Dog]

The TkDVD lacks -D flag support which is used in every DVD supported version to handle directories over (from failing memory) 7 deep. It could cause this error

[Guest]

Ted,

TkDVD was not used at all to write any part of the DVD that was booting when these pictures were made. TkDVD was only used to write the second session of the first DVD. The first DVD then created this DVD automatically because it was too full to hold any more. Everything on this DVD was automatically formed up and written to it by the multisession scripts in Puppy.

[Ted_Dog]

the Nathans' new wine.gz was converted into a squash file <9M and works very well with the Oct14ms iso. I will upload the usr_more.sfs to my host and provide a link in an hour or so.

[Ted Dog]

here is a squash file version of Nathan F's wine compiled for puppy.

save target as....
http://www.petersieg.org/usr_more.sfs broken link
NEW LINK
http://www.puptrix.org/wine/usr_more.sfs
add to existing DVD iso with

in terminal change to directory used for download.

Code: Select all

growisofs -M /dev/dvd -D -R -J usr_more.sfs

reboot.
in terminal window type

Code: Select all

wine notepad

to test.
Edit: changed to Peters' host.

[BarryK]

I'll do it, but is there an intended place to save stuff so it isn't loaded into RAM when Puppy boots? I thought you had somehow solved that problem without the use of the Archive folder, but that was when I was trying out DVD+R, and the whole thing quit working before I could confirm it. I've switched to DVD-R, which so far seems to work OK, but there is no Archive folder and the stuff I save (in /root) is loaded into RAM every time Puppy boots. This would take forever if the DVD was full, even if I had that much RAM.

On a related subject, does ms Puppy look at the actual size of the DVD, and the actual amount of room remaining? I could use a mini-DVD to speed things up. It only holds 1.4 GB.

/root/archive/ folder is supposed to be there. I don't know where it has got to

Ah no, Puppy sees it is a DVD then decides size limit is 4G.
We will have to investigate how to determine if a mini-DVD is inserted.

[BarryK]

testing a no-name CD (burned with ms-14iso) The call to the command goes to error not out.

Code: Select all

DVDRWMEDIAINFO="`/usr/bin/dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd`"

non-DVD media mounted, exiting...

# DVDRWMEDIAINFO="`/usr/bin/dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd`"
non-DVD media mounted, exiting...
echo $DVDRWMEDIAINFO
INQUIRY: [AOPEN ][DUW1616/ARR ][1020] GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:

Sorry to miss this earlier.

Ah yes, I already corrected that. The code is now:

Code: Select all

DVDRWMEDIAINFO="`/usr/bin/dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd 2>&1`"

...I will have to upload a new ms-iso soon!

[BarryK]

I just don't have any idea how this thing works. I burned a DVD-R, booted, saved a 150 MB file to /root, then rebooted. It took so long to save to, then load from the DVD that I assumed it was reading the large file from the DVD back into RAM. But when I rebooted again, it didn't take long to save the little I had changed, and it didn't take long to load. What's going on, Barry?

I can understand why it was slow to save. growisofs seems to burn a only 1.x times even though we use the "-speed=4" option.
But, I have no idea why bootup was slow ...confused again!

[Flash]

I'm doing a lousy job of reporting. One thing I forgot to mention is the DVD burner I used for the testing. It is a Memorex dual format 8x/4x. Perhaps it ignores growisofs speed commands and burns at whatever speed its firmware determines to be best. From the first image in this post, it appears that, when shut down, multisession Puppy saved to the Cheap (2.4x) DVD+RW at an average of 2.1x.

[BarryK]

I've got an LG brand burner, model:
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B

It burns at around 1.4-1.8 times, despite the -speed=4 option.

[Ted Dog]

I read some where that the media has a track on one edge that gives the burn chariristics. I found the -burn speed to be a maxium setting not a minim. feeling ill today sorry for the misspellings. ah chooo