Install devx_xxx.sfs on multisession DVD? (solved/workaround

[HairyWill]

I am using Puppy2.01 and trying to install compile tools using devx_201.sfs.
I am running entirely in RAM 1024Mb.

I tried placing devx_201.sfs in /root as per Lobsters instructions in the wikki, saved the session and rebooted...no joy.
Saw a number of forum posts saying it shold be in / , after a struggle I managed to put it there but after saving session session and rebooting it still ended up in /root.

I have seen several posts talking about mounting .sfs as a loopback device not working properly.

I can't really tell from the forum if anyone has made it work. I don't really understand the loopback stuff as I am relatively inexperienced at linux.

thanks in advance for any help.

Will

[Flash]

Maybe if you remastered, putting it in /, then burned the remastered iso as a multisession?

[HairyWill]

Thanks for the reply Flash,
doing setup-remaster puppy CD then hitting the OK gets me a usage error for Xdialog. Can you point me in the direction of some instructions to do a manual remaster, maybe I'd be better off installing Meaty to get the dev tools

[Flash]

I haven't used Puppy's remastering tools, but I did recently add the highmem option to the kernel with a dotpup. To work, I had to replace the original vmlinuz in / with the highmem vmlinuz, then make an iso of it. I believe that's similar to what you need to do. I've already forgotten exactly how I did it, but I posted a detailed account to the forum about 2 (+/- 1) weeks ago. I don't have time right now to find it, but if you put "Flash" in the forum search author box you should find it.

[HairyWill]

for future reference I found the following in /tmp/savedlg

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
Xdialog --stdout --left --title "Puppy2 simple CD remaster" --menubox "A working area is required in which to create the new live-CD iso file.
Here are the available partitions. You must choose one that has at least
80M free space on it.

If the partition that you would like to use has less than 80M free space
on it, you will need to quit this script and delete some files.
Note 1: you can use the tmpfs ramdisk, which is in RAM, if it has enough space.
Note 2: you can use a usb drive, but it needs to have been plugged in before
        running this script, so that it will get detected.

Highlight desired choice then click OK button..." 0 0 5  "Filesystem:   Size: M  Free: 0
0M" \
ramdisk "Filesystem: tmpfs  Size: nnn  Free: 117M" \
 > /tmp/tag.txt

and here is a fragment of what was in /tmp/xerrs.txt

Code: Select all

/usr/sbin/remasterpup2: line 65:  4274 Terminated              Xdialog --title "Puppy2 simple CD remaster" --msgbox "Calculating needed working space.\nPlease wait, this may take awhile..." 0 0
SIZETOTALM=180
Xdialog: incorrect number of parameters in list !
Xdialog v2.1.1 by Thierry Godefroy <xdialog@free.fr> (v1.0 was
written by Alfred at Cyberone Internet <alfred@cyberone.com.au>).
Xdialog home page available at: http://xdialog.dyns.net/

might this be a bug in the remaster script?

[HairyWill]

I don't have time to follow them now but I think Flash is refering to his second post here: http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=56688#56688 using mkisofs

[Flash]

That's the one. I read it again and can't think of anything to add. I hope it makes clear what I did.

[HairyWill]

thanks Flash,
I successfully remastered my puppy but on boot it won't load devx_201.sfs saying there is no room because I haven't got a swap. I've got 1GB of RAM so there should be loads of space (maybe I need to give a boot option to use it all)
After booting, free gives:

Code: Select all

sh-3.00# free
              total         used         free       shared      buffers
  Mem:       905800       254528       651272            0        24668
 Swap:            0            0            0
Total:       905800       254528       651272
sh-3.00# 

I'm off on hols so will not be replying for another two weeks.

[raffy]

Using magic iso in Win, add the sfs then SAVE (not Save As) - that's the easiest way to add the sfs to the Puppy ISO.

Hey, when you return, maybe 2.03 is out, and this one should have the highmem kernel.

[Flash]

raffy, Barry compiled 4 GB highmem into Puppy 2.02 beta.

[HairyWill]

I see a number of posts detailing various ways to use devx.xxx.sfs. In case someone ends up here banging their head in frustration, this is what I did.

I made a custom pup_202.sfs and remastered a new puppy cd.
I used unionfs to combine pup_202.sfs with devx_202.sfs to make the new pup_202.sfs file.
This was all made more entertaining as I am running entirely in RAM without a swap partition, though I did end up using a USB stick to get a bit more memory.
<edit>
I've since realised that using the USB stick was crucial as it is not possible to mount -o loop on squash files that are held in ramdisk.
</edit>

The gory details:
mount both the sfs squash files as loopback devices
for example, assuming both squash files are in /mnt/sdb1

Code: Select all

cd /root
mkdir mountpoint1
mkdir mountpoint2
mount -o loop /mnt/sdb1/pup_202.sfs mountpoint1
mount -o loop /mnt/sdb1/devx_202.sfs mountpoint2

Now use unionfs to create a merged view of the two filesystems. The ordering of mountpoints 1 & 2 is important as files in 2 will take precedence when creating the union.

Code: Select all

mkdir mountpoint3
mkdir /mnt/sdb1/newcd
mount -t unionfs -o dirs=mountpoint2:mountpoint1 none mountpoint3

<edit date="26/11/06">Using puppy 2.11 the unionfs mount line above fails for me I think I just used cp -ax and really copied the files rather than creating a union</edit>
Now create the new pup_202.sfs

Code: Select all

mksquashfs mountpoint3 /mnt/sdb1/newcd/pup_202.sfs

copy the following files from your puppy 2.02 CD into /mnt/sdb1/newcd

• boot.cat
  initrd.gz
  isolinux.cfg
  vmlinuz
  boot.msg
  isolinux.bin

now do the following to create a CD iso image

Code: Select all

mkisofs -o /mnt/sdb1/puppy-202-dev.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /mnt/sdb1/newcd

Now use burniso2cd from the multimedia menu, its a good idea to move the iso file to somewhere in RAM or on a harddisk to avoid stuffing up the CD burning.

<edit>
When you have finished you need to unmount the unionfs and squashfiles in reverse order

Code: Select all

umount mountpoint3
umount mountpoint2
umount mountpoint1

</edit>