Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

zigbert · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 6570 Location: Valåmoen, Norway

Version 1.1.0
See main post

Changelog
- NLS is supported by gettext.
- Simplified edit/add gui.
- Improved scaling og gui.
- Code cleanup.
- Skip lines in crontab that starts with #. (thanks to miriam)
- gtkdialog is now only supported executable - no gtkdialog(x).

zigbert · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 6570 Location: Valåmoen, Norway

Version 1.1.1
See main post

Changelog
- Updated 'About' box.
- Bugfix: Minor syntax changes.

zigbert · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 6570 Location: Valåmoen, Norway

Version 1.1.2
See main post

Changelog
- new switch -n (set new task)

the -n switch is used by pMusic 3.1

don570 · Joined: 10 Mar 2010 Posts: 5225 Location: Ontario

When I installed version 1.1.1 in the distro Carolina
I got a strange warning that 'cron gtkdialog' was needed.

It seems to be working allright. I'll continue to test with version 1.1.2.

EDIT: other apps are showing the same warning when
I install in Carolina so it must be a bug in Carloina

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canbyte · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 266 Location: Hamilton, Canada

Hi. Is there any way to save events entered into pschedule other than during the shutdown save. These days I'm just turning off the pc instead of going through normal shutdown to maintain the pup_save file unchanged. (also turned off periodic save). Of course this means that any pschedule events entered during the session are lost. Is there a way to force saving without a full pup_save save?

Thanks in advance.

don570 · Joined: 10 Mar 2010 Posts: 5225 Location: Ontario

canbyte · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 266 Location: Hamilton, Canada

Thanks don570.
I pfound the usr/bin/crontab file but it had a gear icon and wouldn't open with geany as text so I kept looking. Another file found, var/spool/cron/crontabs/root, was happy to open with geany as text and showed my list of events. From there, I just used the normal drag/copy procedure to place a copy on my flash drive which can then be recopied back to the var/spool/cron/crontabs directory when needed.

I'm sort of wondering if the root file can be moved or linked to the flash drive I put my files on or if this will cause system confusion during startup - ie the period after startup but before the flash drive is mounted. Hmm. I'll probably just go with the simple solution but would appreciate any thoughts on the idea.

Thanks again

don570 · Joined: 10 Mar 2010 Posts: 5225 Location: Ontario

Writing a startup script is possible in Puppy. ie a script
that is launched every time you startup your computer.

It could automate the saving of the file 'root' every day (or hour)

Search in google under 'startup script + murga'
and see what is available

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miriam · Posted: Thu 17 Jan 2013, 22:56 Post subject:

I have quite a few small scripts that I've put in my /root/Startup/ folder. Just write a simple script to do whatever it is you want, then when you're happy with it copy it to the Startup folder. It will be run each time you run Puppy.

Remember to set the executable attribute/permission flag (right-click it and check its "Properties). Also make sure the first line of the script is

don570 · Joined: 10 Mar 2010 Posts: 5225 Location: Ontario

I think pschedule itself can be used to copy the file 'root'

to another partition like a USB stick on a scheduled basis.

I was able to do it but I'll need to check more.

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canbyte · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 266 Location: Hamilton, Canada

You folks are totally incredible. I asked for 'thoughts' and you responded with invention and research galore. Wow, what puppies! It will take me awhile to digest and try all these ideas as there's a lot on my plate at the moment but I wanted to say thanks, I'm still here.

BTW, it occurs to me that this conversation is equally applicable to the browser's bookmarks and history files, which also disappear if I turn off without saving. Hmm. Maybe like that script miriam suggested??? Attached to a save icon on the desktop so one just clicks it before shutting down??? And a similar one for just after bootup??? (I'm trying to think if there are times when one might not want an automated script in the startup directory as suggested)

Thanks again.

miriam · Posted: Sun 20 Jan 2013, 18:34 Post subject:

The sharing that people like to do if given a chance is one of the things that gives me great hope for humanity.

Some Puppy versions already use a save button to flush buffers and save settings in a flash-booted system. However, I think that if you do a controlled shutdown instead of simply switching off then that is effectively what the computer does -- it saves settings and unmounts flash drives after flushing buffers to them.

I find it annoying having to ask my computer to shut down, instead of just shutting it off, but these days it has its uses, especially when using blasted flash drives.

Flash drives are very convenient (compact, low power, high capacity, retain data without power), but are annoyingly fragile, requiring stuff to be written in large chunks instead of a byte at a time, which then means stuff is held back til enough is accumulated in a buffer to be written. As a result, pulling a flash drive out before a buffer is emptied to it leaves it, at worst corrupted, at best incomplete. I don't know why this is still a problem. Way back in the '80s when I used Amiga computers we had solved this. If a floppy disk was ejected in the middle of a write the Amiga put up a warning that the file hadn't been completely written and requested that you put the disk back in any drive, whereupon it resumed. We could have the same solution today, but all operating systems seem to have forgotten such old answers. [sigh]

Of course this is a problem for USB connections generally, not just flash drives. I'm currently repairing a large (1 terabyte) drive for a friend after it got corrupted when it was unplugged before a write completed. It was being used on MSWindows and formatted as NTFS (though Linux is not much safer). There is really no excuse for this kind of fragility. Maybe the next version of Linux's filesystem will be a partial solution.

Please excuse the rant. Smile

canbyte · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 266 Location: Hamilton, Canada

Hi Miriam. I enjoyed your rant - should be brought to the attention of puppy or linux designers. The reason I avoid the regular shutdown save is to avoid the gradual deterioration in performance that seems to go along with that. So Instead of saving everything into the _save file, perhaps a menu could be provided with options of what to save outside the _save file. I'll be trying to get my noobrain around your script idea to set something up as soon as the dust settles around here.

Another thing I've wondered is if this nice little scheduler can be set up for common committee schedules such as every other Wednesday, third Thursday of the month, reminder every other hour (instead of hourly), etc.?

Thanks

miriam · Posted: Tue 22 Jan 2013, 17:35 Post subject:

You could write a script containing a simple or not-so-simple list of what you want to do and invoke it on desired days using pschedule.

I think wed/2 in the day-of-week field will activate every second Wednesday. Best to read the documentation of cron (which is what pschedule is the front-end for). I'm not sure how you'd get cron (pschedule) to recognise the 3rd week of the month. I think there is a solution for the every-2nd-hour problem in the cron documentation.

Try