Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[rcrsn51]

The forum often has requests for a method to lock down Puppy so nothing can be changed. Many of the replies involve remastering the Live CD. Here is another procedure that may be simpler to manage.

The basic idea is to create a pup_save file and make a backup copy of it. Whenever Puppy is booted, the backup version is copied onto the current version. The user always starts with a pristine pup_save and any changes that are made during a session will disappear on the next boot.

Because this will involve modifying the Puppy initrd.gz file, you may want to make a backup copy in case of problems. Or, if necessary, you can boot off the Live CD and copy the original version from the CD.

The attachment below contains MU's editinit script. Unpack it and save the script in /mnt/home in the the same folder as the initrd.gz file.

Note: Your /mnt/home folder must be formatted as ext for this procedure to work. If it is a FAT or NTFS partition, copy the initrd.gz file into /root. Make the changes and copy it back to its original location.

While still the Puppy folder, open a terminal and type the command:

[kayan]

thanks that was informative

[Ray MK]

Hi

Extremely useful info - must try

Best regards - Ray

[ComputerBob]

On a default frugal install, would the lock-down procedure prevent users from saving browser bookmarks, word processing documents, etc., or are those things saved by default to /mnt/home or somewhere else outside of the pup_save file?

[rcrsn51]

Most (all?) applications will save by default to /root, so any user data would be lost on a reboot. But there are ways around this.

In Firefox, you can move the hidden profile from /root/.mozilla to /mnt/home outside of the pup_save and replace it with a symlink.

You could do the same thing with any configuration folders like .gxine where the playlist is stored.

Similarly, the folder /root/my-documents could be symlinked to an external location. Users would just need to remember to save to that folder instead of directly into /root.

[ComputerBob]

That's what I suspected, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for confirming it!

[nooby]

rcrsn51 thanks indeed for sharing this way to do it.

I've not tested it yet but it sure looks very interesting.

[Indy'spup]

Thanks for the guide

Any help please with editing the initrd.gz file? using the script fails as it relies on having leafpad which was not installed.
so I installed leafpad with no change! Leafpad is unable to read the file. (some kind of language encoding error..)

edited the file on a windows machine using notepad++ however more issues copying the script into the file where described, anyhow linux panic crashed when loading the file after repacking with 7zip.

Am using macpup520

[nooby]

Could this inird.gz editor change the needed part and rebuild it in same way and using geany editior instead?
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67805

or can the original script change to geany or has it to do with Leafpad being able to do things that Geany fail to do. Export in a particular format or something?

[rcrsn51]

[Indy'spup]

Thanks,

Also changed the script to open geany which results in an open page, empty with only one line. noted the error message "encoding not supported"

Already tried unpacking the file manually and have attempted to open with every text editor available, with no luck.


Also tried opening the file with the appropriate devx loaded

am still trying though, perhaps an older live puppy cd? I'm not without some resources yet am new to Linux


Meanwhile am working on the above inird.gz editor script

[Indy'spup]

ok, watching the process I see the initrd.gz file unpacked, which creates a directory named "puppy-init" and a file named initrd the reason leaf or geany or any other text editor can not open the files is because neither file is a text file.

There are however text files buried within the directory "puppy-init" not of them are the correct file. I have previously seen the text entry we are looking for but so far have not been able to edit it..

It is my observation that the file "init" is not being unpacked correctly..


The only file which only remotely resembles the file described is one named "debug-init" ??


Both scripts unpack and repack (occasionally with some error..) however the file "init" can not be found..

[rcrsn51]

I just did a fresh frugal install of Macpup520 in an ext3 partition.

I copied the editinit script to the same location as the initrd.gz file and ran it.

The script ran correctly. However, it uses NicoEdit as a replacement for leafpad. This happens in most recent Puppies where leafpad has been replaced with NicoEdit.

So I have no idea why you are getting different results. Have you changed your locale to something other than the default? Are you working in an ext partition?

[Indy'spup]

WOW!! thanks for testing the script


this means I'm officially going out of my mind


yes ext3 partition and yes the default editor is NicoEdit however none of the text editors can find a file to open

used both scripts which unpack to directories named "puppy-init" or "initrd-editor" but no text editor can find any file to open

[Indy'spup]

As far as the local is concerned I am completely baffled and exhausted by the directory hierarchy structure despite much reading on the topic. I'm absolutely confused as to the need for so many hard links... While I fully understand symbolic linking am still trying to understand this structure.. but am going to save this for another day

Meanwhile when booted to a live cd I found the initrd.gz in /mnt/sda1/puppy520 within a fugal install, so I placed the scripts in this directory and ran them from there..