squash files in Pizza Pup

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Subito Piano
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squash files in Pizza Pup

#1 Post by Subito Piano »

Hi! I've been remastering Pizza Pup and am having a dickens of a time with a couple operations. :x At the moment, i am trying to install OpenOffice 2 without the big dotpup, a 300MB file. I tried both the OO22_215.sfs file and the openoffice-2.2.0.sfs file and neither would work. Of course i checked sums and put them in with my pza_save.2fs file, trying first the one file, then the other. I tried renaming the one file to OO22_301.sfs and OO22_300.sfs; nothing happened. The openoffice-2.2.0.sfs shouldn't need renaming according to a post i saw by Barry, but it didn't work, either. I only had one of these files in there at any time so that's not the problem. I HAVE gotten an sfs file to work with 2.17 but 2.17 is not what i need to build upon.

I saw something about a manual install of squash files but when it comes to command line i need verbatim, line-by-line instructions... :roll:

Any help is appreciated!

muggins
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#2 Post by muggins »

you should be able to mount the OO_xxx.sfs file with, (replace xxx with whatever the version is):

mkdir /oo
mount -o loop /OO_xxx.sfs /oo



then if you start rox-filer and look at /oo directory, there should be a sub-directory called program which contains the actual executable programs, e.g. soffice, swriter, scalc simpress spadmin, sdraw. you need to symlink these to /usr/bin, which you can do simply by opening another rox-filer, changing to /usr/bin, then dragging the relavent files from ../packages directory to /usr/bin, and selecting relative link from the pop-up.

then try typing swriter in a console window to see that swriter opens up, or if you get any error message.

you can easily also drag the relavent program "cogs" onto the desktop, and the directory /oo should contain icons you can use to add to the cogs, and also the relavent .desktop files to add the programs to the menu.

if your happy, and everything works OK, you can then add the line "mount -o loop /OO_xxx.sfs /oo" to the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local, so that it occurs whenever you reboot.

i hope all this makes sense to you.

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Pizzasgood
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#3 Post by Pizzasgood »

I tried renaming the one file to OO22_301.sfs and OO22_300.sfs; nothing happened. The openoffice-2.2.0.sfs shouldn't need renaming according to a post i saw by Barry, but it didn't work, either.
If you want the normal auto-mounting, you definitely need to rename them. Which name you need depends on whether you have Pizzapup 3.0 or 3.0.1. Check /etc/puppyversion.

Newer Puppies have an sfs loader program, so maybe they're different now, but the versions of Puppy I used for the last two Pizzapups (Puppy 2.12 and Puppy 2.14) don't. I don't know if it could be transplanted into Pizzapup.

If you have them named right, they should be detected and mounted. How well they merge with the rest of the system is another story. I haven't used either, but just guessing, I'd say the OO22_215.sfs version will work best, at least with Pizzapup 3.0.1. That's because the module is for 2.15, which is really just a prettied up version of 2.14. The web_215.sfs module works partly for that reason (and partly because I made it, so I made sure it was compatible...)

I don't know which version the other module is made for. If it's too new or old, it might have dependency issues. And there also might be problems if it uses LZMA compression, which afaik Pizzapup is incompatible with.


Now, when you say nothing happens, what do you mean? We didn't have the fancy auto-icon thing back in Puppy 2.14, so Pizzapup doesn't either. So you'll need to actually look through the filesystem to see if it loaded correctly (or try starting it from the commandline). If it did work, you should be able to run fixmenus from the commandline to add it to the IceWM menu (IceWM won't need to be restarted, 'cuz it's cool).

Even though the desktop icons won't be added automatically, the images they'd use will still be included, unless they were stock icons from Puppy 2.15. Probably either in /usr/share/pixmaps or wherever the OpenOffice folder gets created.

Since the module itself is configured for the auto-icon system, you could probably port the system itself from 2.15 into Pizzapup. I don't know how it worked though. I think it scanned a directory to see if there are any files, and if so it would process them then edit /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin to add them.


Of course, muggins' method will work too, but it's more post-install oriented, rather than built-in capability. It's good for testing that Pizzapup can actually load the modules though, and then you can explore them to see where they install things easier.
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Subito Piano
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#4 Post by Subito Piano »

Thanks, guys! Long post coming here....

I'm at a crossroads...i have spent an inordinate amount of time on this and lost sight of my original goal, which was to first have a firefox-only version of puppy with the Procon latte extension preinstalled as well as OpenOffice, hopefully version 2.x. Reason: i work in a school. We had, for instance, a precious young lady stumble onto some real nastiness on the web. It really shook her up -- me as well. 'Nuff said there. I wanted to make a puppy derivative that they could take home and use just as they did in school, with the content filtering and the same programs, particularly for working on computer class projects; that's why i was trying to make a remaster rather having them use pupgets or squash files, which would only be on the school computers, not on the CD they take home to use.

Several observations:

Muggins: your directions were VERY clear. I knew some of that stuff but you took no chances that i did, which i appreciate. I tried your solution but it didn't work for some reason. I couldn't even find the OO folder after i made it. I didn't restart, but IDK that it matters.

Pizzasgood: awesome remake, i still say! Yeah, i looked for the OO files, searched for swriter...no go. I finally just downloaded the OO 2.0.3 pupget and ended up with an ISO approaching 400MB!! IF i can get it burned and bootable, i'm still not sure how it will perform on the varied school pc's (like, how much RAM will it need??). Anyway, i am having MAJOR problems burning a bootable CD, even with two different computers and 4 OSs! Besides, if i can wait, ChurchPup is in the works and will hopefully have the content filtering in it already. Not sure if it will be available in a "Chubby" version, tho.

BUT -- and this is the killer! I asked myself WHAT am i doing? Teaching apps or teaching computer? Selling fish or teaching students TO fish!??!! Seems to me it might be a much better approach to give them PizzaPup (or whatever) AS IS, show them how to add extensions and DotPups and squash files, take them through the process of getting flash to work in Firefox, and they can do it at home again if they choose. Seems to me they'd be better off for the experience! After all, half the reason i teach Linux is to teach them thinking/logic/problem solving skills so they won't be helpless when the MS paradigm shifts.... :P

So -- thank you for your help! A lot of hours but i am learning. I apologize that i'm ending up taking a different tack. I don't mean to presume on your time! :-( But i CERTAINLY appreciate you moderating this forum!! :D

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#5 Post by Pizzasgood »

like, how much RAM will it need??
At least the size of initrd.gz plus the pup_xxx.sfs (or pza_xxx.sfs in this case), plus a little extra for working space. I don't know what criterion Puppy uses anymore, but it used to want something like fifty megabytes of leg room.

Otherwise, it will still boot and run, but pup_xxx.sfs won't be copied into ram. With a frugal install, that means it will run at roughly the same speed as a harddrive install (maybe a little slower due to compression, but it depends on ratios between harddrive access times and processor speed, so it could actually be faster). With LiveCD though, it would mean waiting for the disk to spin up and be accessed whenever you launch a new app. Think Knoppix.

Now, if they installed it separately, it would go into their save files (if they're big enough, that is). In that case, it wouldn't hurt the ram usage at all. You could actually include the OO petget on the cd by placing it in the isolinux-builds directory of the Unleashed tree before running the ./createpuppy script. I'm not sure how you'd do it with the simple remaster script. You could always just mount the iso, copy the contents into a directory, add it, and make a new iso out of that directory. Either way, once the petget itself is on the disk, it won't take any ram, and they can install it themselves by mounting the CD and clicking it (maybe put it and some other things in an "add-on" or "goodies" directory in the iso, but beware of name length limits!).

That way, the wouldn't have to use up bandwidth downloading it themselves. Especially if they have dialup, which could mean tying up the phone line and hogging the connection for hours.

So -- thank you for your help! A lot of hours but i am learning. I apologize that i'm ending up taking a different tack. I don't mean to presume on your time! :( But i CERTAINLY appreciate you moderating this forum!! :D
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Subito Piano
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#6 Post by Subito Piano »

Nice going! you just answered another question i had without even trying! ;-) I always wanted to know if a full HD install was faster than a frugal...so the answer is a definite "maybe."

I like this neighborhood....

muggins
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#7 Post by muggins »

Subito Piano,

just a couple of things. i'm not sure why the "mount -o loop etc" method didn't work for you, but now that you've outlined what you're after for your students, that idea can be discarded as more of a one-off hack.

what i was curious about is whether your students will need all of the functionality in OOffice? e.g. i've got in on my computer, but rarely ever use any of the apps. so besides using abiword instead of swriter, gnumeric instead of scalc etc, have you thought of looking at rhino's project to see how much of the functionality of OOffice can be obtained via online apps?

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#8 Post by Subito Piano »

Interesting you should ask! Just last night i saw an article regarding IBM's new entry into online apps. They include presentations, which is a major part of what we cover. Kind of nice for the kids when they run out of ink at home and expect to print up something at school - only to find they saved it in MS-Works format! Ha-ha...

I use OO because it does it all, including websites and image editing (StarOffce 5 was easier at that) and i am quite used to it. It is multi-platform and is found in most Linux distros or easily available. The portable app version is another selling point. I know i can find similar apps already in Puppy -- except presentations. As i recall, AbiWord is not as powerful and IDK how good Puppy's default graphics program is for photos, as i haven't tried it. Usually i just use OO for that, not even the Gimp b/c i don't need that much control. I do teach Gimp, however. Time is short with a half-dozen subjects to teach so i don't have much time to learn alternate programs. Maybe that needs a rethink, IDK...

Thanks for your thoughts and the lead on Rhino! I will look into that along with Thinkfree, etc.

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