Puppy2's pup_save.3fs - some thoughts...

[pakt]

I'm trying to get Puppy2 away from needing any menu (and subsequent pause) at bootup. Puppy2 tackles the problem the other way round, by booting up in ramdisk-only the first time you boot on a PC, then at shutdown you are asked if you want to create a personal storage file. If you anser yes, it will get created and automatically used next time you boot Puppy.
Yeah, simple, and it's working. Right now I'm running Puppy2 booted from USB Flash, with a personal storage file, named "pup_save.3fs" that I chose to create at the first shutdown. The principle works regardless whether booting from CD, USB or whatever.

Some thoughts on this feature of Puppy2:

Say a pup_save.3fs file exists on the hard disk and is used when booting Puppy2. You decide on the next boot that you want to either a) backup pup_save.3fs or b) put pup_save.3fs on a USB flash drive (or another partition). From what I can tell, there is no possibility to do this.

Perhaps some kind of "pup_save wizard" or "Save configuration wizard" should be included in the menu that could:

1. Set a flag so that when Puppy2 boots the next time it only runs in RAM, allowing manipulation of the pup_save.3fs file (moving, backup, deleting, whatever).

2. Set a flag so that when Puppy2 shuts down, the original "create a personal storage file" menu shows again so that a different partition/device can be chosen. Maybe it could be made so smart that it actually moves or copies pup_save.3fs to the chosen partition/device...

But what happens if there are two or more pup_save.3fs files available when booting Puppy2? Perhaps one on the hard disk and another on a plugged-in USB flash drive. Shouldn't there be a way to choose which file to use?

Paul

[Flash]

I think a boot menu that always clearly offers the option to boot into ramdisk is a good thing. The ability to boot in ramdisk even when there is a pup file is very useful for experimenting/troubleshooting. I use it for every new version of Puppy. If Puppy won't boot because the pup file is corrupted you can boot in ramdisk and then mount the partition to delete or even try to save the pup file.

[BarryK]

Yeah, we may have to have a means of entering some choice at
bootup.

Note, puppy2 will look for the pup_save.3fs file in the boot partition. So, if you boot from /dev/sda1, puppy will look there.

The exception is the live-CD, as pup_save.3fs cannot be on the boot partition, so puppy has to search for it, and will rummage through the entire pc.

[justauser]

So, if for the CD, puppy can "rummage through the entire PC" to find the save file, why not have a boot option that tells any version (USB, etc) to do the same. You can then present a choice if multiple are found and one is up and running. Maybe a boor flag like "PSEARCHSAVE=true".

[stlchuck]

The increase in size on the pup_save.3fs file from the way the pup001 file was sized is a step in the right direction - would it be possible to add an option to allow the file to use a full partition or USB key drive at the time the file is set up? The default could stay as it is now at 500MB+/- but having the option to allow the file to take up an entire partition would save the trouble of periodically having to resize the file. For example - the USB key that I use is a 1GB PNY with a useable capacity of 977MB - I'd just as soon be able to set up the file to use the whole thing at the start and not have to resize later. This would allow a drive/partition to be dedicated to use with Puppy and allow some growing room for files and applications. Just a thought.