I forgot to save Xenial after booting from a CD

[Hetejas]

Yesterday i booted from Xenial CD, did all the config stuff then went out.
Today, I booted from the hard disk and woops, all my stuff was gone.
After some thought I realized what I had done, and booted from the CD.
I found the .sfs file, clicked on it and said install.
But it would not let me. I think it has to do with the file being presently in use.

So, how do I install the presently executing Xenial so that the next time that I boot from the hard disk, it will be Xenial ?

thanks

[mostly_lurking]

So you have booted Xenial from the CD, done some configurations, and then shut down without saving? When Puppy boots from a CD, it runs entirely in RAM and does not write any data to the hard drive unless you save the session at the end, so in this case, all your changes are gone. It is possible to create a savefile on the HDD when you are running from the CD; if you boot from the CD again later, it will pick up the save. If you want to install the whole system to the hard disk rather than just keeping the savefile there, you can use the Puppy installer from the "Setup" menu.

[Hetejas]

i think that i must have done a save because when i boot from the CD, all my changes are still there.
So it looks like there is a save session on the HDD. In fact I found it, but when I click on it, nothing happens. I think it is named something like " Xenial....sfs "
in fact when I click on the Install desktop icon, also nothing happens.
My previous version on the HDD is Slacko.

[Hetejas]

deleted

[mostly_lurking]

You have a file called "xenialpupsave.2fs" or similar on the HDD, and during the boot sequence, the system tells you that it's loading that save? (You can also check the /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE file to see if the system is currently using a save.) Clicking on the file in ROX Filer should let you view its contents. Clicking the "install" icon on the desktop should open the Puppy installer. If none of that works, try booting without the save (also called RAM mode - there should be an option for this in the boot menu) - maybe the savefile is corrupted.

If you have already created a frugal install of Xenial on the hard drive, it will probably only find the savefile if it's placed in the same directory as the installed system's files.

[bigpup]

What exact version of Xenial are you using???????????

I am still a little unclear on what you want.

Do you want an install of Xenialpup on the hard drive?
If yes.
If you do a frugal install.
The save you made for the Xenialpup CD can be used with the frugal install.

The save should be named something like xenialsave.3fs or just xenialsave, but really need to know what you made for a save. The specific name????

when I click on the Install desktop icon, also nothing happens

.
Running from the Xenial CD
Try menu>Setup>Puppy Installer>Universal installer

You say you had Slacko installed on the hard drive before, so I assume you know how to do the install using the Universal installer.
Basically do a frugal install.
Install or update the boot loader, so it has entry to boot xenialpup.

[mikeslr]

A Frugal install runs in RAM and employs a "merge-file" system. That means that on bootup it copies into RAM the files you need to operate your system, including a GUI, with links to the location in storage where the rest of the files are located. The files being copied are those which were included in the Puppies ISO, and --if you created a SaveFile/Folder-- the files you installed into the SaveFile/Folder + the settings changes you made. That is the purpose of a SaveFile/Folder: to allow you to preserve settings and expand your system beyond the applications provided by the Puppy's creator. Since the files you installed to the SaveFile and the settings you made are already part of your system, there is no need to install them.

But there are two other possibilities. One is that you want to include the changes you've made in a CD. There are two methods of doing that. One is remaster. Just boot into Xenialpup and run Menu>Setup>Remaster LiveCD. Follow the directiron carefully. There's a point at which you'll have to copy your /root folder into the the Work Directory, overwriting the contents which were taken exclusively from the files in the ISO.

The Second method involves writing your changes back to the CD/DVD you booted from. I've never used that method. So if that is your desire please make that clear and someone else may be able to advise you on that procedure.

mikesLr

[Hetejas]

This is getting more weird. I gave up trying to get where I was yesterday and decided to do a fresh install. Nothing unusual, use the whole disk, no Grub.
And now when I take out the CD and reboot, I get a cryptic weird message:

wee a> find --set--root /grldr
wee 15> /grldr
wee 17>

What the h*** is going on ?
Do I have to say yes to grub ?

Thanks

[bigpup]

How did you do the install???????
What exactly did you do??????

An install on the hard drive has to have a boot loader installed to boot it.

Not knowing what you have actually on the hard drive.
This will usually work for anything installed on the hard drive.

Running xenial from the CD
Running Grub4dos Bootloader config will install a boot loader.
Just make sure to select the hard drive as the device to install on.

[Hetejas]

Let me ask a question.
Does Xenial need to have Grub installed in order to boot.
Say it's installed to a blank disk.
My disk had slacko, and xenial installed.
I don't need slacko and I don't need Grub.
I only want Xenial, so how hard is that ?
If grub boot loader needs to be I stalled then I should not be given the choice of turning it down.
There was a boot loader earlier today before I started doing these installs so how did they remove it, if at all.

This is a simple install. Only 1 operating system and can use the whole disk.
I'll bet if I could boot up and take a look at sda1 it would probably hold a proper Xenial, however something about a boot loader is amiss.

Gonna retry and say yes to grub. Grrrrr.

[Hetejas]

I didnt try the install again as this reboot looks like it used some of the prior settings. Time zone, network, etc.
It also got the xenial boot menu, but I don't know where it came from.
Had 4 or 5 options I think,
1 xenial
2 xenial, no save
3 file check
Others

I think it got them from a save file in sda1 since my CD is read only.
So, something on the CD is doing the booting, and now how do I get it copied to sda1 ?

[mostly_lurking]

Sounds like you are booting from the CD. Did you forget to remove it? As I mentioned before, you can get some information about the system (like the use of a savefile) from /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE.

Here is the PUPSTATE file from a Xenialpup I was running in a virtual machine; it states that it's running from a CD (PMEDIA='cd'), that the main .sfs and zdrv are loaded from the CD drive (device "sr0"), and that the savefile is located on partition "sda1". What does yours say?

Code: Select all

PUPMODE=12
PDEV1='sr0'
DEV1FS='iso9660'
PUPSFS='sr0,iso9660,/puppy_xenialpup_7.5.sfs'
PUPSAVE='sda1,ntfs,/xenialpupsave.2fs'
PMEDIA='cd'
#ATADRIVES is all internal ide/pata/sata drives, excluding optical, excluding usb...
ATADRIVES='sda '
#ATAOPTICALDRIVES is list of non-usb optical drives...
ATAOPTICALDRIVES='sr0 '
#these directories are unionfs/aufs layers in /initrd...
RW_LAYER='/pup_rw'
SAVE_LAYER='/pup_rw'
PUP_LAYER='/pup_ro2'
#The partition that has the xenialpupsave file is mounted here...
PUP_HOME='/mnt/dev_save'
#(in /initrd) ...note, /mnt/home is a link to it.
#this file has extra kernel drivers and firmware...
ZDRV='sr0,iso9660,/zdrv_xenialpup_7.5.sfs'
FDRV=''
ADRV=''
YDRV=''
#Partition no. override on boot drive to which session is (or will be) saved...
PSAVEMARK=''
PSAVEPART=''
PSAVEDIR=''
PSUBDIR=''
PUNIONFS='aufs'

If you have done a frugal install, the system's files (puppy_xenialpup_7.5.sfs, zdrv_xenialpup_7.5.sfs, vmlinuz, and initrd.gz) should be on the partition that you installed them to. If you installed Grub4Dos, that partition will also contain the "grldr" and "menu.lst" files.

Make sure the CD isn't there anymore when you reboot to test the frugal install.

[Hetejas]

here tis and if i remove the CD, that is when get that weird message and no boot.
Its possible that there is another letter to the left of the wee.

wee a> find --set--root /grldr
wee 15> /grldr
wee 17>

Code: Select all

PUPMODE=12
PDEV1='sda1'
DEV1FS='ext4'
PUPSFS='sda1,ext4,/puppy_xenialpup_7.5.sfs'
PUPSAVE='sda1,ext4,/xenialpupsave-1'
PMEDIA='cd'
#ATADRIVES is all internal ide/pata/sata drives, excluding optical, excluding usb...
ATADRIVES='sda '
#ATAOPTICALDRIVES is list of non-usb optical drives...
ATAOPTICALDRIVES=''
#these directories are unionfs/aufs layers in /initrd...
RW_LAYER='/pup_rw'
SAVE_LAYER='/pup_rw'
PUP_LAYER='/pup_ro2'
#The partition that has the xenialpupsave file is mounted here...
PUP_HOME='/mnt/dev_save'
#(in /initrd) ...note, /mnt/home is a link to it.
#this file has extra kernel drivers and firmware...
ZDRV='sda1,ext4,/zdrv_xenialpup_7.5.sfs'
FDRV=''
ADRV=''
YDRV=''
#Partition no. override on boot drive to which session is (or will be) saved...
PSAVEMARK=''
PSAVEPART=''
PSAVEDIR=''
PSUBDIR=''
PUNIONFS='aufs'

end

[Hetejas]

Well I repaired it by booting from the CD and installing grub for dos.

Should not have had to do that.

Thanks very much for your help, it got me looking in the right direvtion.

[Gordie]

You DO need a bootloader. No way around it