(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

No Linux distro seems to be able to mount another`s squash files.
But all of them use version 4 of Squash, must be the compression.
Is there a way to achieve Squash compatibility between distros?

I know Puppy has had problems when changing Squash versions.

Rephrased the Q...

I think you know the Puppy Squashfs converter for version 3 <-> version 4 .

mksquashfs can be configured in 4 different ways IIRC : Lzop, Lzma, Lzma2, Xz .

Dunno what each distro have configured their's mksquashfs .

Will have to look into my archives . I remember 7zip-9x was not so good for lzma , used 7z-465 i think .

Hello again Karl, how have you been?

When you say "configured" I assume you mean for compiling?

What does "IIRC" mean? ===> Google: "If I Recall Correctly"

I think you`re saying that 7zip will read them? HOW..?


# This comes close to the answer I need.

Compile 4 different versions of mksquashfs, one for each compression.
Then any distro. that`ll use the 4 mksquashfs will create any Squash type.

### But how to get a distro. to mount any of the 4 types?

The kernel can be built with all 4 compression types.
But that doesn`t mean that it was made with all of them.

I also have ran across that problem in trying to mount a squash file from another version of puppy.
If it is indeed a matter of the sub-type of squash file compression, it would be in puppy's interests to get a standard for compatibility in all squash version 4 files.

Sunburnt yes if i recall/remember corrcetly .

This 7z is needed for lzma : http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/lzma

And now i found that i have named these compiles :

mksquashfs-4.2-lzma
mksquashfs-4.2-lzma_xz
mksquashfs-4.2-lzma+xz
mksquashfs-4.2-xz

Look into the Makefile of the mksquash source : http://packages.debian.org/source/wheezy/squashfs-tools

*

For the kernel source it might be bugs there, the 2.6.38.X <X>-minor (sub-sub-minor) patches are huge .

I'm not sure if this fits in or how. I think I recall there being two 4.xx versions which were incompable with each other. As in they both needed different support to manage the .sfs file.

~

Karl; I`ll get a chance to look at it.

The main problem for portable apps. is the kernel only mounts one type.
Even if several types can be mounted, most distro`s. kernels won`t.
So the only solution is to pick the newest Squash compression type,
or make the portable apps. "loose files" ( not a good alternative ).


# Linux being what it is, "one app. fits all" just isn`t possible it seems.


Bruce B; Yes, that`s what I found, there`s 2 compressions for version 4.

This ambiguity makes for my current dilemma, to use XZ compression
would be the best as it`s the newest and most capable.
But Puppy and Tiny Core use LZMA ( I think...), probably for faster access.
This may be changed with time and newer versions of the O.S.s.


# Squash files don`t lend themselves to portability between kernels.
If the compression type was something that could be add on-the-fly...

Could it bee that one version of Puppy was built with woof and the other was built using T2 which Barry still uses sometimes.
If it is in the type of utility used to build a SFS file differing depending on the builder of a Puppy version, I would like to see the developers get on the same track and use the same version/type of SFS builder thus maintaining SFS4 compatibility across versions of Puppy.

If I try to edit sfs file from Slacko 5.3.3 with edit-sfs, I get an error. With Slacko 5.3.1 no problem. Converter doesn't help.
Apparently different structures.

Different linux kernel version numbers are compatible with different types of squash compression. For example, a debian wheezy squashfs file cant be mounted by a debian squeeze squashfs file as the wheezy kernel supports a newer type of compression.

there is confusion between cpio, zip, gzip, lzma and other types. One lzma isnt the same as another lzma as there are very many different types and versions of it.

As Flash is fond of saying:

Standards are great as there`s so many of them to choose from.

Especially in Linux.!

sunburnt wrote:As Flash is fond of saying:

Standards are great as there`s so many of them to choose from.

Especially in Linux.!

Zip is about the only thing that all modern OSes can compress/ decompress from, this is why i usually release packages for linux in Zip format.

it can be edited or whatever in windows or whatever and rezipped and it still works on linux.