Frugal install question (Solved)

[PaulR]

I'd like to do a frugal instal so I don't have the annoying CD drive noise any more (!) and get a slightly quicker boot.

On the hard disk I have just puppy_slacko_5.5.sfs, my save file slackosave-paul.2fs, some assorted personal puppy-related data in it's own folder and an old install of Vector Linux.

The universal installer says the drive can't be unmounted (currently mounted RW) though it doesn't have a slackosave.3fs in it.

A couple of questions then...

1 Might this be because it's ext4 or because there's still an OS on it?

2 I don't mind reformatting if this will fix the problem, can formatting be done as part of the install process or does it need to be done before running the script?

Cheers

Paul

[rcrsn51]

On the hard disk I have ...., my save file slackosave-paul.2fs,...

The universal installer says the drive can't be unmounted (currently mounted RW) though it doesn't have a slackosave.3fs in it.

???

It doesn't matter what the name of the savefile is. The partition is still mounted.

1. Copy the other two core files onto the drive - vmlinuz and initrd.gz.

2. Run Grub4Dos Bootloader Config from the System menu.

[PaulR]

It's the 2fs rather than 3fs extension that was confusing me... my savefile is .2fs whereas the script mentions .3fs.

Paul

[PaulR]

Thanks once more, that worked a treat!

Paul

[PaulR]

Except that...

Puppy is now slower to boot and all programs are slower to load (eg Firefox 12 secs for first load as opposed to 2 or 3 before, Gnumeric maybe 2 secs as opposed to <1). I can't think of a logical reason for this....

Paul

EDIT maybe the fact that it's formatted ext4... googling brings up many pages where ext4 is said to be much slower.

[rcrsn51]

FInd your menu.lst file on the hard drive.

Add "pfix=copy" to the end of the kernel line.

If there is already a "pfix=fsck" entry, make it "pfix=fsck,copy"

[PaulR]

That doesn't seem to make any difference

The top of menu.lst now looks like this (I'd already edited the timeout) and eveything after #windows is commented out :

Code: Select all

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.8.0
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 5
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy slacko 5.5 (sda1)
  uuid 48cbcbaf-273b-4fad-92ba-f66d69a11f9f
  kernel /vmlinuz    pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck,copy
  initrd /initrd.gz

# Windows

The slowness is very apparent when loading JWM - the tray icons, application buttons etc are being drawn really slowly.

[PaulR]

Might it be my save file is .2fs and it's now residing on an ext4 partition?

Can revert the frugal install by copying off my save files etc, booting from CD formatting the partition ext2 and copying back my save? From what I've read ext2 or 3 would be a more sensible choice anyway.

TIA

Paul

[mill0001]

Hi Paul, try this:
Make a new folder on your hard drive, name it pupS55. Copy into the folder the 4 files initrd, vmlinus, puppy_slacko5.5.sf, and your save file.
Then use this menu list if you only have one hard drive and let me know what happens.

title Puppy Linux Slacko55
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /pupS55/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 pdev1=sda1 psubdir=pupS55 pmedia=satahd pfix=fsck,copy
initrd /pupS55/initrd.gz

edit: If your hd is not sata change pdev1=sda1 to pdev1=hdd1 and pmedia=satahd to pmedia=atahd.

[PaulR]

Hi mill0001 thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I decided to get my hands dirty and undo the frugal install - I just copied everything I needed to another PC, reformatted ext3 and then restored the necessary bits so I'm back to CD boot for now and all is well. I'll maybe try frugal again over the weekend and see what happens!

Cheers

Paul.