DebianDog HowTo thread

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rufwoof
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Joined: Mon 24 Feb 2014, 17:47

#61 Post by rufwoof »

To make certain that its nothing I did, I reverted to OpenBox DebianDog, opened up Synaptic and searched for e17, Marked that for installation and let it determine all of the dependencies, Installed, edited .xsession to start e17 ... restarted and ... still the same, no Open With applications to choose from, no file associations apparent, even for a simple .txt file.

I've tried all of the Menu Settings/Applications choices you mentioned, but no difference no matter which I choose.
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backi
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#62 Post by backi »

Hi ruwoof .
I created the same text file as you put it to desktop and did left mouse-click on this Textfile----menu opened ----
clicked open
(instead of open with ) ......a list of Application in alphabethical order appeared .....I scrolled down to Leafpad ..choosed it .......now every time i click that desktop file it opens with Leafpad .

If i make a left_mouseclick on that Textfile Menu appears
and go to ---open with
--- Submenue appears>
XFilewriter Leafpad X fileViewer
Other Application

appears

But it is not quite clear what you want to accomplish:
I encountered in the beginning the same problem with
empty menu list for application also with missing entrys in the main menu . Some how this has gone now ..but i cannot replicate how this was solved .
Maybe it is an issue from Openbox Desktop .
I myself using a JWM-ICEWM DebDog Pae version for me this thing in Setting Panel >Menu>Applications>Dog is present.

Maybe do a reset of your Profile Setting here :
Setting Panel >Settings>Profiles

I did a remastered JWM-ICEWM DebDog Pae version .
I put it to Google Drive .
I will give you link later i am now uploading .
Put it to a stick with Debian Dog installer.

I boot with :
title Debian-PorteusDog - changes to /live/ sysvinit
uuid 0460ed9c-cc19-4a69-8159-66882c4865bd
kernel /live/vmlinuz1 from=/ noauto changes=EXIT:/live/
initrd /live/initrd1.xz

Here is the link to the Iso
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Nazh ... sp=sharing
Last edited by backi on Mon 20 Jun 2016, 19:30, edited 1 time in total.

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rufwoof
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#63 Post by rufwoof »

Ah-ha

Just did another install from openbox of e17 ...etc but this time instead of selecting system default during the first install setup/run, I selected the US default choice ... and its OK, applications list and are associated etc. The default UK keyboard (my locale) was also picked up OK.
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backi
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Location: GERMANY

#64 Post by backi »

Glad you solved it.
E17 is quite complex but also fun and lots of discoveries. .... while looking for an answer to your Problem ...as a side-effect i discovered a new option for fine-tuning this fine desktop .
It is fun to do this kind of cyber-swarm intelligence increase and learning synergy .
Debian Dog is "The Killer" .The best of Puppy and Debian.
This dog " breed " ( and his sister Mintpup) are Champion Dogs .

Wish you a good night .

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rufwoof
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#65 Post by rufwoof »

How do you change (or stop) the pulsating icon animation when you mouse hover over icons in the tray ibar?
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backi
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#66 Post by backi »

I think there is no chance to stop it .

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rufwoof
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#67 Post by rufwoof »

Thanks Backi.

Nice Debian specific theme here https://exchange.enlightenment.org/theme/show/1544

Looks to me to be the same general theme, but with a rotating 3D-animated Debian swirl on the wallpaper
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backi
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e17 themes and more

#68 Post by backi »

hi ruf !

Cool Link .Didnt know.
Did not know that this animated icons exist .
If you like to change themes " on the fly " without saving them all into save-file ( to keep save-file slim ) .....i made an themes folder, stored it somewhere out of save-file then select(mark ) all the themes inside and symlinked them all into ~.e/e/themes ......or maybe /usr/share/enlightenment/data/themes .

If you now go to (Main)Menu >Settings>Themes ...the whole parade will be shown .
Select decorate and enjoy your new Disco .

But what i wanted to say ......there is a little sophisticated Gadged which i like very much..take a look at the Everything Starter
.. the so called run everything--the Everything Starter....
You can apply it either to shell or invoke it with key Alt-ESC . this will let you launch almost everything ....
type in some letters of the program you want to start ...
but ......do your own experiments .

One question what about the Exitx button on your Desktop ......is it away to stop system instantly without waiting like i did in Puppy Linux with ?

There was a small script i used to shutdown instantly .

#!/bin/sh
# skips rc.shutdown and powers off computer without saving the session.
Xdialog --title "script $0" --yesno "\n\nAre you sure to power-off computer WITHOUT saving?\n\n" 0 0
[ $? -eq 0 ] && rm /initrd/pup_ro1/etc/.XLOADED && rm /etc/.XLOADED
exec /bin/busybox poweroff .
I am looking for a way for faster shutdown .


http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Enlightenment-in-Linux
Maybe this link is useful for you .http://www.bodhilinux.com/w/enlightenme ... x-roadmap/

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rufwoof
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Re: e17 themes and more

#69 Post by rufwoof »

backi wrote:One question what about the Exitx button on your Desktop ......is it away to stop system instantly without waiting like i did in Puppy Linux with ?

There was a small script i used to shutdown instantly .

#!/bin/sh
# skips rc.shutdown and powers off computer without saving the session.
Xdialog --title "script $0" --yesno "\n\nAre you sure to power-off computer WITHOUT saving?\n\n" 0 0
[ $? -eq 0 ] && rm /initrd/pup_ro1/etc/.XLOADED && rm /etc/.XLOADED
exec /bin/busybox poweroff .
I am looking for a way for faster shutdown .
I just edited a copy of /usr/bin/wmpoweroff Backi (saved it into /root/bin), and commented out the save yes or no section so it defaults to not saving (along the lines of how Fred posted earlier). That's pretty quick as-is as it looks like what's left is just a simple "poweroff" command - similar to what you have already (I have no removal of /etc/.Xloaded as that's a puppy/jwm thing I believe).

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

E17 Desktop and more

#70 Post by backi »

Hi rufwoof 1
If you want to test different Desktop(setups)-profiles and save them ... have a look at Settings Panel> >Settings>Profiles.......do your own experiments .
Salute !

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#71 Post by backi »

How to stop your Hardisk from spinning when running Puppy or D-D from Usb-Stick in frugal mode .

One day i found it quite annoying when using Puppy from a Usb-Stick in frugal mode that hardisk on my machine keeps spinning without any purpose.

So i found something that could be useful for everyone .
Here is a little trick how it can be accomplished .

It is just a little script ....first :
install hdparm

Make a script ----
#!/bin/bash
hdparm -y /dev/sdx

make it executable
.....and click on it ...your Hardisk will stop spinning.
In case you get access to your Harddrive again after using it ....click again.
You can put this script into your Startup folder ..so it will prevent your Harddisk from spinning from beginning ....while not in use.
Probably saves your Accus some power .

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fredx181
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#72 Post by fredx181 »

Hi All,

How-to for a special way of installing DebianDog in a single 'persistence' labeled partition
(or better, a different label e.g. 'usbpersistence', see below (this unique label name to make it not conflict with a 'persistence' labeled partition e.g. on hard drive)).
See here for info about rufwoof's discovery (using Debian Live) to be able to boot read-write and read-only using live-boot's 'persistence' and 'persistence-read-only' options
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 639#915639
(and read further down the thread for more info)

I'd call it a frugal install with some benefits of a full install (e.g. possible to upgrade the kernel and generate new initrd)

An advantage of the RO option (persistence-read-only) is that the changes are written to RAM (tmpfs), so it's running very fast (e.g. when installing programs or running a program that creates new files, e.g. firefox cache).
However, by default the changes are lost after reboot, unless you run the 'snapmergepuppy' script to save 'on demand' (see also below).

Here's how I did it on a USB stick, containing one partition (ext4 filesystem) with grub4dos already installed on it (grldr and menu.lst on root of partition).

In this example I installed DebianDog64.

First: label the partition 'usbpersistence', in terminal:

Code: Select all

e2label /dev/sdb1 usbpersistence # <<<< change sdb1 according to your device
Make sure sdb1 is mounted before doing the following, mountpoint for me is /mnt/sdb1

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sdb1   # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
touch persistence.conf
echo "/ union" > persistence.conf
mkdir -p DD64-USB/live
cd DD64-USB/live
mkdir temp
mksquashfs temp filesystem.squashfs # will create empty filesystem.squashfs
rmdir temp
My frugal install of DebianDog64 is in /mnt/sda1/debdog64/live/ (where 01-filesystem.squashfs is located), in terminal:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sda1/debdog64/live/  # <<<< change this according to your path
unsquashfs -f -d /mnt/sdb1 01-filesystem.squashfs # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path 
cp -af vmlinuz1 /mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
cp -af initrd.img /mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
Add these entries to menu.lst:

Code: Select all

title DD64-USB Frugal RW
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 boot=live config persistence persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD64-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64

title DD64-USB Frugal RO
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 boot=live config persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD64-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
A few more steps are required to make possible upgrading the kernel to newer version:
Open /etc/apt/preferences with leafpad:

Code: Select all

leafpad /etc/apt/preferences
and remove these lines (this will disable the 'pinning' of the kernel version) :

Code: Select all

Package: linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
Pin: version 3.16.7-ckt11-1+deb8u6
Pin-Priority: 1001
And save the file

And the same for /var/lib/synaptic/preferences:

Code: Select all

leafpad /var/lib/synaptic/preferences
and remove the same lines as shown above and save.

Then, VERY important! : install the 'live-boot' package:

Code: Select all

apt-get update # if required
apt-get install live-boot
Now you can upgrade the kernel:

Code: Select all

apt-get install linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
And also new /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 will be generated.

Or do just 'apt-get upgrade' and it will update all including the kernel image.

When booting 'DD64 Frugal RO', there will be no changes saved by default.
To save changes 'on demand' you can run rufwoof's mod of the 'snapmergepuppy' script, download from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 639#915639
Extract and make executable:

Code: Select all

chmod +x snapmergepuppy
Copy it to /usr/local/bin :

Code: Select all

cp -a /path/to/snapmergepuppy /usr/local/bin

And run from terminal to save on demand:

Code: Select all

snapmergepuppy
EDIT:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instead of the previous, I'd prefer personally a slightly different setup, difference is that 'filesystem.squashfs' is not empty.
The advantage is that you can always start fresh by deleting the saved files in 'usbpersistence' (except the DD64-USB folder where filesystem.squashfs is located and the 'boot' folder)

Make sure sdb1 is mounted before doing the following, mountpoint for me is /mnt/sdb1

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sdb1   # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
touch persistence.conf
echo "/ union" > persistence.conf
mkdir -p DD64-USB/live
mkdir boot
My frugal install of DebianDog64 is in /mnt/sda1/debdog64/live/ (where 01-filesystem.squashfs is located), in terminal:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sda1/debdog64/live/  # <<<< change this according to your path
cp -af 01-filesystem.squashfs  /mnt/sdb1/DD64-USB/live/filesystem.squashfs # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
cp -af vmlinuz1 /mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
cp -af initrd.img /mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
Add these entries to menu.lst:

Code: Select all

title DD64-USB Frugal RW
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 boot=live config persistence persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD64-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64

title DD64-USB Frugal RO
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 boot=live config persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD64-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
A few more steps are required to make possible upgrading the kernel to newer version:
Open /etc/apt/preferences with leafpad:

Code: Select all

leafpad /etc/apt/preferences
and remove these lines (this will disable the 'pinning' of the kernel version) :

Code: Select all

Package: linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
Pin: version 3.16.7-ckt11-1+deb8u6
Pin-Priority: 1001
And save the file

And the same for /var/lib/synaptic/preferences:

Code: Select all

leafpad /var/lib/synaptic/preferences
and remove the same lines as shown above and save.

Then, VERY important! : install the 'live-boot' package:

Code: Select all

apt-get update # if required
apt-get install live-boot
Now you can upgrade the kernel:

Code: Select all

apt-get install linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64
And also new /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 will be generated.

Or do just 'apt-get upgrade' and it will update all including the kernel image.

When booting 'DD64 Frugal RO', there will be no changes saved by default.
To save changes 'on demand' you can run rufwoof's mod of the 'snapmergepuppy' script, download from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 639#915639
Extract and make executable:

Code: Select all

chmod +x snapmergepuppy
Copy it to /usr/local/bin :

Code: Select all

cp -a /path/to/snapmergepuppy /usr/local/bin

And run from terminal to save on demand:

Code: Select all

snapmergepuppy
Note: In case of 'starting fresh' by deleting the saved files (see also above):
If (only if) the kernel is updated (so /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 and /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 are new) then you need to copy the original vmlinuz and initrd files to /boot again:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sda1/debdog64/live/  # <<<< change this according to your path
cp -af vmlinuz1 /mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
cp -af initrd.img /mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64 # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fred
Last edited by fredx181 on Sun 07 Aug 2016, 22:21, edited 1 time in total.

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rufwoof
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Joined: Mon 24 Feb 2014, 17:47

#73 Post by rufwoof »

The same can equally be applied to any of the Debian liveCD current stable offerings https://www.debian.org/CD/live/. For instance I downloaded the Debian Jessie amd64 KDE ISO and extracted the /live/filesystem.squashfs from that.

I have menu.lst (grub4dos), the unsquashed Debian filesystem.squashfs and the 'persistence' partition label all in the same single partition (first primary ext3 sda1 in my case).

In that case, there's no /etc/apt/preferences nor /var/lib/synaptic/preferences editing involved (files don't exist anyway).

The 'persistence' boot parameter basically just writes all changes immediately to the disk partition with a 'persistence' label and persistence.conf file present (or a different partition label if you use the peristence-label=xxx boot parameter to point to a different partition/label). When you combine 'persistence persistence-read-only' together as boot parameters it reads the persistence (saves), but doesn't write changes to disk and instead overlays all changes in memory. That snapmergepuppy just flushes those memory changes to disk i.e. adds a 'save on demand' type function.

Using a HDD as I am I'm finding that it runs really well, and Debian's stable and extensive repository is fantastic.

After a initial setup of one of the Debian ISO's, I'd recommend first booting with no persistence-read-only parameter (just the persistence boot parameter alone), as that writes all changes instantly to disk. Why? Because likely there's loads of updates to bring that ISO filesystem version up to date and there can be too many for those to all be kept in memory (as they are when the persistence-read-only parameter is used).

The other thing I did was change /etc/apt/sources.list to look like

Code: Select all

deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

#Debian Multimedia
deb ftp://ftp.deb-multimedia.org jessie main non-free 
# keyring errors - run apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring
The default repository set (sources.list) is reduced in the liveCD versions and the above expands that out to being more like the full installs. From a terminal you can run

apt-get update
to update the local database

apt-get upgrade
which applies updates

Note that after changing sources.list to the above I ran that apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring command as commented in that example to get rid of annoying invalid key or suchlike messages. You can use apt-get install to install other programs such as apt-get install openshot (or whatever). Better still is to use the Synaptic gui.

Up until a few days ago I was still running a single core Celeron 2GB, but have since dusted off a quad core 2GB amd64, and since having installed KDE onto that as per the above ... its great. Compositing effects are fantastic. Whilst retaining some of the puppy like features of frugal (optional save or not), and having fast security fixes come through and access to a extensive repository of stable programs. KDE has some neat features such as you can resize icons (you need to right click the desktop and select the unlock widgets option first) individually, and even rotate them through any 0..360 degree angle. The KDE's desktop cube is neat, I have mine set to switch to that view upon moving the mouse into the top left corner .. which when activated you can then drag the 'cube' (mine is three sided as I've only set up three desktops). Not so keen on the wobbly window option myself, where windows wobble around as you move them, I just have mine set to normal moves (but that become semi transparent as you drag them).
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User avatar
rufwoof
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Joined: Mon 24 Feb 2014, 17:47

#74 Post by rufwoof »

If you apply the installation/setup as per the last couple of postings to other choices such as using Debian Jessie KDE liveCD, then rather than reconfiguring the system to automatically log in and run as root I'm finding that simply adding root versions of terminal and the filemanager (dolphin in KDE) launchers tends to be adequate. That leaves everything else running as 'user' and there's no risk of programs not running due to complaining about running as root (as some do), whilst terminal and filemanager provide root access/control.

In KDE you run either su to access super user in terminal mode, or kdesu in graphical mode. Creating copies of the filemanager desktop file in /usr/share/applications containing a "kdesu dolphin" type exec command (changed according to whichever filemanager you opt to use) enables those to be dropped onto the tray/panel ready to be launched as/when required (I used those to replace the existing 'user' terminal and filemanager icons in the tray). Or of course, do similar for desktop icons if you prefer icons on the desktop instead of in the tray.

Nice and simple, running as 'user', but a click of the terminal and/or filemanager icons has you straight into root mode to change/rearrange things as desired.
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fredx181
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Location: holland

#75 Post by fredx181 »

Hi All,

Very similar to what I posted here for DebianDog64:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 339#916339
But then for Debiandog Jessie 32 bit PAE.

How-to for a special way of installing DebianDog in a single 'persistence' labeled partition
(or better, a different label e.g. 'usbpersistence', see below (this unique label name to make it not conflict with a 'persistence' labeled partition e.g. on hard drive)).
See here for info about rufwoof's discovery (using Debian Live) to be able to boot read-write and read-only using live-boot's 'persistence' and 'persistence-read-only' options
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 639#915639
(and read further down the thread for more info)

I'd call it a frugal install with some benefits of a full install (e.g. possible to upgrade the kernel and generate new initrd)

An advantage of the RO option (persistence-read-only) is that the changes are written to RAM (tmpfs), so it's running very fast (e.g. when installing programs or running a program that creates new files, e.g. firefox cache).
However, by default the changes are lost after reboot, unless you run the 'snapmergepuppy' script to save 'on demand' (see also below).
EDIT: rufwoof called it later "flush2disk", download here newer version (attached):
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 882#928882

Here's how I did it on a USB stick, containing one partition (ext4 filesystem) with grub4dos already installed on it (grldr and menu.lst on root of partition).

In this example I installed DebianDog 32 bit.

First: label the partition 'usbpersistence', in terminal:

Code: Select all

e2label /dev/sdb1 usbpersistence # <<<< change sdb1 according to your device
Make sure sdb1 is mounted before doing the following, mountpoint for me is /mnt/sdb1

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sdb1   # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
touch persistence.conf
echo "/ union" > persistence.conf
mkdir -p DD32-USB/live
cd DD32-USB/live
mkdir temp
mksquashfs temp filesystem.squashfs # will create empty filesystem.squashfs
rmdir temp
My frugal install of DebianDog32 is in /mnt/sda1/debdog32/live/ (where 01-filesystem.squashfs is located), in terminal:

Code: Select all

cd /mnt/sda1/debdog32/live/  # <<<< change this according to your path
unsquashfs -f -d /mnt/sdb1 01-filesystem.squashfs # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path 
cp -af vmlinuz1 /mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-686-pae # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
cp -af initrd.img /mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae # <<<< change /mnt/sdb1 to your path
(or do similar from extracted or mounted ISO)

Add these entries to menu.lst:

Code: Select all

title DD32-USB Frugal RW
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-686-pae boot=live config persistence persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD32-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae

title DD32-USB Frugal RO
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-686-pae boot=live config persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=usbpersistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/DD32-USB/live/ config
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae
A few more steps are required to make possible upgrading the kernel to newer version:
Open /etc/apt/preferences with leafpad:

Code: Select all

leafpad /etc/apt/preferences
and remove these lines (this will disable the 'pinning' of the kernel version) :

Code: Select all

Package: linux-image-3.16.0-4-686-pae
Pin: version 3.16.7-ckt11-1+deb8u3
Pin-Priority: 1001
And save the file

And the same for /var/lib/synaptic/preferences:

Code: Select all

leafpad /var/lib/synaptic/preferences
and remove the same lines as shown above and save.

Then, VERY important! : install the 'live-boot' package:

Code: Select all

apt-get update # if required
apt-get install live-boot # might be already installed, depends on which DD version
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT:
I've overlooked something that has to done also first to make upgrading /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae possible:
In terminal:

Code: Select all

mv -f /usr/sbin/update-initramfs.orig.initramfs-tools /usr/sbin/update-initramfs
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And also new /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae will be generated.
Now you can upgrade the kernel:

Code: Select all

apt-get install linux-image-3.16.0-4-686-pae
Or do just 'apt-get upgrade' and it will update all including the kernel image.

Note:Doing a kernel upgrade when using DebianDog openbox_xfce version 2016-10-16 you'll lose LZ4 support (booting and mounting LZ4 compressed .squashfs modules).
(because the official Debian kernel doesn't have it built in)

When booting 'DD32 Frugal RO', there will be no changes saved by default.
To save changes 'on demand' you can run rufwoof's mod of the 'snapmergepuppy' script, download from here:
EDIT: rufwoof called it later "flush2disk", download here newer version (attached):
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 882#928882
EDIT2: rufwoof's latest-latest flush2disk attached here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 037#929037

Remove the fake .gz and make executable:

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chmod +x flush2disk
Copy it to /usr/local/bin :

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cp -a /path/to/flush2disk /usr/local/bin

And run from terminal to save on demand:

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flush2disk
Fred
Last edited by fredx181 on Sat 22 Oct 2016, 10:26, edited 2 times in total.

backi
Posts: 1922
Joined: Sun 27 Feb 2011, 22:00
Location: GERMANY

#76 Post by backi »

Cool compendium fred !

But just one question
Maybe my question is a bit naive .........

but could this also be accomplished by extracting a Debian Dog Iso (or any Debian live Iso ) ...
and just copying the live Folder to the " persistence " labeled partition (or into an Folder on it ) ?

If not ...what makes the difference--- what would be wrong with this idea ?

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fredx181
Posts: 4448
Joined: Wed 11 Dec 2013, 12:37
Location: holland

#77 Post by fredx181 »

backi wrote:Cool compendium fred !

But just one question
Maybe my question is a bit naive .........

but could this also be accomplished by extracting a Debian Dog Iso (or any Debian live Iso ) ...
and just copying the live Folder to the " persistence " labeled partition (or into an Folder on it ) ?

If not ...what makes the difference--- what would be wrong with this idea ?
Not sure I understand well, if you mean:
Instead using empty filesystem.squashfs, just use the original?
Yes that can be also, see at EDIT in DD64 howto about this subject:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 339#916339
(but still the vmlinuz and initrd files must be in /boot (to be found when upgrading kernel/initrd)

I'm sure if you'd like to try with it, rufwoof or I will help you.

Fred

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rufwoof
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Joined: Mon 24 Feb 2014, 17:47

#78 Post by rufwoof »

fredx181 wrote:Note:Doing a kernel upgrade when using DebianDog openbox_xfce version 2016-10-16 you'll lose LZ4 support (booting and mounting LZ4 compressed .squashfs modules).
(because the official Debian kernel doesn't have it built in)
Debian stable does include lzop (lzo) support. lzo level 1 compression is pretty close to lz4 in my experience for speed. You can use busybox version to compress files, see
busybox lzop --help. mksquashfs and unsquashfs supports lzo ... but don't cater for compression level setting (I think it uses level 6 or 7).

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rufwoof
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Joined: Mon 24 Feb 2014, 17:47

#79 Post by rufwoof »

backi wrote:could this also be accomplished by extracting a Debian Dog Iso (or any Debian live Iso ) ...
and just copying the live Folder to the " persistence " labeled partition (or into an Folder on it ) ?
That's the way I originally did it. Opened the ISO and copied the /live folder to the HDD 'persistence' labeled partition, I then extracted the filesystem squashfs content to the root / level. That involves two stages as you can't extract to a non empty folder, so I just
unsquashfs -d /t filesystem.squashfs
to extract all files to a folder /t
and then dragged/dropped (moved) all of that /t folder content up to the / level (and then deleted the then empty /t folder).

EDIT just noticed Fred used the -f unsquash switch/parameter to extract things directly to a non-empty / folder ... neat, avoids having to to the two stage extract and move operation that I was using.

Then with everything extracted from the main filesystem squashfs is in effect redundant so you can create a empty version of that
cd /live
rm filesystem.squashfs
mkdir t
mksquashfs t filesystem.squashfs

You also have to edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add additional repositories such as contrib and non-free, mine looks like

###### Debian Main Repos
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

###### Security
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

I later installed grub2 and either boot that by chaining from my grub4dos bootloader, or boot the frugal style directly i.e. my menu.lst looks something like

# menu.lst
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
timeout 2
default 1

title Debian FULL Install RW
find --set-root /debian-usb
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
commandline

title Debian Jessie Frugal RO only saves if run flush2disk
find --set-root /live/frugalboot
kernel /vmlinuz boot=live timezone=Europe/London xorg-resolution=1280x768 config nofastboot persistence persistence-read-only persistence-label=persistence quickreboot noprompt showmounts live-media-path=/live/ config rw
initrd /initrd.img

Note that I created empty content debian-usb and frugalboot files specifically for grub4dos to 'find'.

IIRC when I installed grub2 I believe I installed to the partition rather than the mbr, and it set it up as a legacy grub2 i.e. created another menu.lst in the /boot/grub folder rather than standard grub2 format. That boot menu offers standard boot, single user boot and memtest boot modes ... and boots as though a fully installed version (read write, all changes written to disk as they occur etc.).

Uses 4.7GB of disk space in total on my system, that has quite a few other things installed (Libre, skype ..etc). I originally allocated 16GB of space to the partition (8GB would perhaps have been more than enough, but I didn't know how much space was likely to be used beforehand).

More often you can install updates within the frugal booted session. Ensuring you run flush2disk (modified version of save2flash) afterwards. In some cases however updates might fail, such as kernel or main libc updates. If so just don't save after trying that failed update, and reboot into the full/read-write session and run the updates again. That's about the only time I boot the full read/write mode (mostly boot frugal and more usually don't bother saving). As part of that approach (tending to frugal boot and not save), I've sym linked a home folder to the persistent layer, so any changes in that folder are preserved no matter what i.e. sym linked a ~/documents-persistent link to /lib/live/mount/persistence/sda1/documents-persistent. I also sym linked .osmo folder in a similar manner, so all changes in the diary/calendar/notes persist across reboots.

IME it boots slower and initially runs slower than pure frugal where everything is in a squashfs (as its reading uncompressed data from disk instead). But once its been running for a while there's little apparent difference in speeds. i.e. once you've loaded say Libre Calc once, that tends to remain memory bound (cached) anyway, so second/subsequent loads are just as quick either way.

I don't bother with sfs's anymore. Find it just as easy if not easier to boot frugally and install anything I want from the repository using apt-get or synaptic and then not bother saving that session. I am on a relatively fast internet connection however, such that installing via the net is pretty quick (seconds). For things I use more often, I just boot, install and then save the session (flush2disk), so they become part of the core 'full install' (and frugal boot) for all subsequent reboots.

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rufwoof
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#80 Post by rufwoof »

fredx181 wrote: (but still the vmlinuz and initrd files must be in /boot (to be found when upgrading kernel/initrd)
I have initrd.img and vmlinuz files in the / folder, that are sym links to actual initrd and vmlinuz files in the /boot folder (that have longer file names that show the versions).

i.e.

/vmlinuz sym link to /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64
/initrd.img sym link to /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64

So menu.lst (grub4dos) can just point to those root level vmlinuz and initrd.img files

Seems to be updating ok i.e.

user@debian:~$ uname -a
Linux debian 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u1 (2016-09-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux

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