Macpup wont let me save session!

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
Post Reply
Message
Author
Faisal Jabbar
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed 04 Jul 2018, 19:13

Macpup wont let me save session!

#1 Post by Faisal Jabbar »

Hello Everyone..

Laptop i have: HP Elitebook 6930p (RAM 4GB)
Macpup Version: 550

Issue is, when i shutdown or reboot Macpup while live or installed in Hard Drive, i cant save my session. When i shutdown i see a blue screen where it ask me to save or wait for 240 seconds to shutdown. While there Enter doesn't work Tab doesn't work, Nothing really work for like 240 seconds till the system shutdown itself. While in the OS keyboard and mouse do work. So i dont know if this is happening now because its just been a week since i have started using this beautiful Distro. I have tried it on a Dell D610 but same issue there as well, i have tried it on a 4th generation laptop (CPU 4010U) same issue.

Please help i would really like my session and updates to be saved. :(

ITSMERSH

#2 Post by ITSMERSH »

Attached is a Save-File Builder.

Just extract the .tar.gz archive to a ext partition, open the extracted directory and click on sfb_front_end. It will offer a GUI where to set options to create a save file.

After a reboot choose to load the new created save file to load, customize MacPup and reboot or do a save manually.

I would recommend to create two different save files, as this will give option at boot which one to use...
Attachments
SaveFileBuilder.tar.gz
Should work in MacPup. If not, let me know...
(7.43 KiB) Downloaded 113 times

Faisal Jabbar
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed 04 Jul 2018, 19:13

#3 Post by Faisal Jabbar »

:) Thank You, it worked!
Here's what i did.
I fresh installed macpup again (frugal but on / level).
I created just one save file and rebooted. (on / level).
During reboot it automatically loaded the save file.

So a question here, how do i save the session in the folder to let it use the whole partition i created for macpup? I mean in the builder i see limited option to create a save file for only like 1024MB what if i have an 8GB partition for it?
How to save there to let it use the full partition?
I had that in xeniulpup 7.5.

THANK YOU A LOT.

ITSMERSH

#4 Post by ITSMERSH »

I can't say for sure, but I believe save session into a folder probably is not possible in MacPup versions available. Maybe asking this in the MacPup topic in Derivatives section of the forum.

However, there is a menu entry somewhere in Setup? or System? (Resize personal storage file or similar) that will give options to increase the size of the save file at next boot. If you are booting from vfat (FAT32) partition a maximum of 4GB is possible, so I would recommend to install to ext partition to have save files bigger than 4GB.

I think the newest version is MacPup 550?

Great that the SaveFileBuilder had worked for you - I wasn't sure about that. 8) :)

Faisal Jabbar
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed 04 Jul 2018, 19:13

#5 Post by Faisal Jabbar »

Well its okay for now, session file is working.

SaveFileBuilder has a drop down menu, instead of clicking on the little drop down arrow, i directly clicked the value box and wrote the value.

I just used 1GB for now as i think it will take a long time loading and saving that much huge file.

The option you are telling me is in menu entry > Utility > Resize personal storage file.

I have 8GB ext3 partition formatted only for puppy.

Yes as i mentioned in the first post latest version is MacPup 550 which was released on August 23, 2013 according to wikipedia. :( So long ago.

HUGE Thanks for the SaveFileBuilder. :)

Edit: Resize personal storage file utility is telling me that i can't save more than 1.8GB session file. Might help someone else avoid issues with bigger files.

As here: Note, it was reported on the Forum that macpupsave-<username>.3fs should not be
made bigger than 1.8GB, but I have yet to confirm this limitation.

Good Day!

User avatar
perdido
Posts: 1528
Joined: Mon 09 Dec 2013, 16:29
Location: ¿Altair IV , Just north of Eeyore Junction.?

#6 Post by perdido »

Be aware that you can still use the whole 8gb usb disk for that macpup even though the personal storage file is limited to 1.8gb

If you store additional data in /mnt/home/~your directories , the data is not stored in the personal storage file but is still available to puppy.

That can help keep puppy loading faster.

Addendum
As here: Note, it was reported on the Forum that macpupsave-<username>.3fs should not be
made bigger than 1.8GB, but I have yet to confirm this limitation.
I think it is a 2gb limit or you can get errors, that was suggested by Barry K for Puppy Precise (which is a Woof build (not WoofCE). I think Macpup is
Woofed like Precise.

Also due to it being Woofed and not WoofCE - Macpup is not able, even with suggested mods to enable directory personal save folders, to implement
directory personal save folders.

The following does not pretain to macpup but any puppy created with WoofCE can be made to use personal save folders, even if it was not an option
when the puppy was released.

.

User avatar
a_salty_dogg
Posts: 180
Joined: Sun 15 Dec 2013, 19:08

#7 Post by a_salty_dogg »

You can keep your personal storage file slim by doing one or both of the following;

1) Whenever possible, load large applications (typically browsers and media players) as .sfs files (which you can load from "home") rather than install them via PPM. (You may still find you need to install extra libraries via PPM to make them work!)

2) Large files (again typically browsers, media players, also browser .config files, which get huge, normally to be found as hidden folders in "root") can be symlinked to "home":

Open a ROX-filer window at "/mnt/home", click on your pupsave file which will expand its contents in a new window, navigate to the file or folder you want to symlink, hold your cursor on it and drag it to "home", release the cursor and select move from the list which opens.
Then drag the file/folder back to where you just moved it from, release the cursor, and select link (relative). Its icon will now display an arrow in the top LH corner.
When you're done, click again on your pupsave file to unmount it; the second window showing its contents will close.

Please note, from personal experience I've always found that if you're symlinking browser .config files in this way, it's better to do it when running in RAM rather than with your pupsave file loaded and working, to avoid any danger of the file starting to rebuild itself unwanted in root.

As ever, before making any major changes (such as above) it's always a very good idea to back up your pupsave file so if anything goes wrong, it's only a matter of seconds to restore your system to where it was before you started!

The largest save file (by far) I've ever needed was 1.4 GB, and that Puppy was running 5 browsers and several media players from save, though worth mentioning if you're running any WINE programs, all bets are off; they seem to get truly massive!

Remember you can only ever make personal save files larger, you can't reduce them!

ITSMERSH

#8 Post by ITSMERSH »

Before I had joined the Forum as RSH in September 2011, I had used Muppy 008 for appr. one year. Also I had a save file sized at 3.8 GB in use. I did not experience any problems, all worked well just like in the smaller 1 GB and 2 GB save files I'd used from time to time.

Just to mention it...

...though at these times I hadn't any knowledge about sym-linking files and directories... :lol:

User avatar
davids45
Posts: 1326
Joined: Sun 26 Nov 2006, 23:33
Location: Chatswood, NSW

sfs files of symlinks

#9 Post by davids45 »

G'day,

A bit off-topic as I no longer have any MacPups on this computer - they are now a bit 'old' as far as I know.

Anyhow........

If you want real complications :shock: , but a miniscule save-file :D , make/combine your applications into an sfs of symlinks from another partition (e.g. a boot-mounted data partition).

I'm finding this handy for my frugals partition (about 29GB, has about 30 different Pups in sub-directories) where I have my sym-link sfs of a few hundred kB in the root so it can be shared by all these Pups (mounted-at-boot by each boot-manager).

My typical frugal save-file is about 2-3MB. Each Pup still has LibreOffice, Gimp, Wine with several MS-based programs, about 10 browsers, and a collection of other apps I've collected.

Back at my >300GB data partition, these apps take up more than 4GB in their 'normal' form.

I also have my various linked-caches there, profiles or config files, plus photos, videos, documents, etc. And all Pups' save-file back-ups.

It is important that each Pup mounts this data partition during booting otherwise nothing much works :lol: . This applies to my Full Pups, that also share the data partition and the links, as well as the Frugals.

And I regularly (weekly when I can) back-up my data partition to an 'external drive' since everything important is here.

The Pups (their OS files) are in a sense unimportant since it is so quick to re-make a Pup from my iso archive sub-directory on my data partition.
Although it's usually my mucking around with the stuff in the save-file that stalls a Pup :oops: , so it's just deleting the dud save-file (booting a different Pup to quickly do this) and copying the expanded stored back-up save-file of the 'broken' Pup into its subdirectory.

David S.

Post Reply