(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I am booting an Acer netbook from USB (trying puppies Saluki, RacyNOP 5.2.2, Racy 5.3, Slacko "Fat" 5.3.3.x) and it seems to take a very long time to update the savefile at shutdown. Even if I just boot up, do nothing else, then shut down, it takes about 3 minutes to save the savefile.

Even a totally fresh install takes a long time for shutting down - no extra programmes loaded.

Does the system have to save so much data EVERY time? Will the savefile saving take the same length of time regardless of how much work I do?

Also, I wonder if it is possible that some setting may have changed on my USB ports to make the data rate slow. Do they have something like a DMA setting that would make the data slow to create the savefile? (I have tried several new usb sticks and all take the same time to save the savefile so I don't think a slow stick is the problem).

I have 1Gb of RAM, and a 512Mb savefile. Is that ok? If I reinstall with a smaller savefile (say 256Mb?) will that work ok, and if the savefile is half the size, should it take half the time to save? Or does the save time involve some processing/compression of a certain amount of data, so that the delay is due to cpu processing time, rather than "USB_Writing" time?

@greengeek disclaimer: I haven't done xfce4 recently, so 'wild guess'ing

xfce4, thunar, pcmanfm (among many processes) could possibly bottleneck/throttle events in a minimal test. They are meant to be loaded and used, so normally hardly noticed in a typical session (this is one of the reasons for the splash like in e17). I recall xfce4 logout to have some oddnesses as well in a normal setup but this may have been streamlined.

compare medium-weight wm startup with a light (miwm) or ultralight (mcwm), trim non-essentials like the rox pinboard (true, some wms use their own setup) and so on. All kinds of ways to shave seconds and still be comfy.

yah, check your transfer speed (there should be a tool for that, was anyhow) - 2 is quicker than 1 by a good bit and pretty sure it goes by the bus.

fresh installs are slower by nature - it takes a save or so to pick up the pace.

512 could be your sweet spot, I aim at a max of 128 (mileage varies for everyone) and start with 32 just to see how things bump up. For sure time is saved with a smaller savefile. Reading/checking may be involved if I recall correctly.

As a final note, some users go the full install route (and that's a different topic )

I have a 3.4GB save file (maybe it should be smaller?) Advice please.

I am using Openbox. When I look at the icon for my pupsave, it's orange instead of green with 1GB of free space. What is eating up the rest of the space? I went through the guide above, which excellent by the way, and did everything mentioned but still the icon is orange. What should I do? Create a new smaller save file? Options?

Thanks!!!!

Here is one that maybe a new user would like to tinker with.
This also works well in Lucid Puppy 5.2 uname -r k2.6.33.2

rmcellig wrote:What is eating up the rest of the space?

Use Gdmap or Large Files Finder. See the top post.

I tried those and could not see any large files that were eating up space. For the time being, I rebooted puppy using a 10GB save file that I have. This one works fine. I know it's a large save file but I just want to make sure I am not always having to continuously check what is the status of my save file.

What is the difference between using gdmap to search:

/initrd/pup_rw

As opposed to just searching my root directory?

Hi rmcellig,I would believe that whatever program you are using to view videos
or music is the reason your "savefile" keeps getting bigger.Yes this program (Gnome-Mplayer comes to mind ?) as it will not only allow you to view them,but
puts them in ram,then "saves" them in "Savefile" on shutdown.Just one of my
SWAG observations aka Scientific Wild Arse Guess . cheers

Thanks Bill!! Appreciate it!

rmcellig, once you've navigated to

/initrd/pup_rw

in gdmap, then you must click 'Open' - then you will see the difference. It's a great tool for the job. In the two lines below the map, the first is a subdirectory of the one you opened and the second is a subdirectory of that one.

If you want to see what will go in your save file in relation to FireFox, close FF first. This will get rid of the "Offline cache" which is temporary anyway, it seems.

(This worked for Firefox 12.0):
If you want MOVE THE FIREFOX CACHE DIRECTORY then first create a directory where you want it to be ( eg. /tmp/FF.cache ). Make a note of the current cache directory, found with gdmap. Then type

about:config

in the address bar of Firefox and hit enter. Right click in the main section where the big list of preferences are, and select New > String

Type

browser.cache.parent_directory

hit OK and a new dialog box opens. Type your path to the target directory which you created. hit OK. Restart Firefox.

I think you have to manually remove the old cache directory. Mine was at /root/.cache/ .... etc

Phew! I thought it would be in Edit > Preferences

Pupsaveconfig is very usefull. I use Puppy on USB sticks and my personal save files are kept on the stick. The choice at shutdown to save or not the session is a great plus.
Sometimes i wonder why pupsave has become so big, Gdmap explains a lot.
Browsers sometimes fullfill OPT directory, and are nore erased at shutdown.

When my pupsave is too big after several resizings, I create a new one, and i transfer from the old what's is pertinant.

Pelo

You open up your current save file and just drag wHat you need to your new save file? I didn't know you can do this. Pretty cool. What pup do you use? I am torn between 528 and the new precise 5.7.

All puppies save files can be opened. Even if there are from different distros. Lucid can open a slackosave and you can transfer pets, pictures, docs and bookmarks.
I open the distro with the new save file running, and i open the old one, not the contrary. But I think the contrary would work too.You transfer what you like.

So you can actually transfer files from savefiles? That's cool.

Video : pupsaveconfig how-to
saving on the USB stick : pay attention, you need to modify default status. Dont forget to click 'back' to modify it. In my case pupsaveconfig was saving on hard disk ext 3 (sda3). I wanted to correct it because my wish is to have my save file on my usb stick (sdb1). Look at that !

Pupsavconfig save everything or nothing ! Up to you to select what to trash among the works you have done during the session.
Remember that you save periods of time, computer does not know your wills.
pupsaveconfig

Much appreciated. I should look into it ASAP
but knowing me I doubt that I am savvy enough to get it.

but very good you share such knowledge so Thanks

Two of my savefiles, one for Lupu and the
other for Slacko, began filling up quickly
so I mounted and examined the files to look
for the problem.

I found a hidden folder [root/.mozilla] and within it
found root/.mozilla/firefox or root/.mozilla/seamonkey
which both contained another folder called Crash Reports.
Within that folder is another folder Pending, which in
my case was about 200MB of files.

I deleted the Pending folder with all of those
reports and recovered over 200MB of space.

I searched around the save files looking for other
bloat and unnecessary stuff but couldn't find any-
thing suspicious.

In order to mount the Lupu save file from Slacko
I first had to change its permissions to enable
opening and searching. The Slacko save file was
already enabled to be opened from Lupu.

If any others have found areas of the save files
which are using up precious space needlessly
please share your findings!

The biggest problem I am facing is, whatever is installed in /opt, takes space in savefile.

I try to install the things which I manually compile and install using "make" and "make install" to /opt. All of them sits in savefile.

Is there a way to keep /opt out of savefile?

Sincerely,
Srinivas Nayak

snayak wrote:The biggest problem I am facing is, whatever is installed in /opt, takes space in savefile.

I try to install the things which I manually compile and install using "make" and "make install" to /opt. All of them sits in savefile.

Is there a way to keep /opt out of savefile?

Sincerely,
Srinivas Nayak

I believe save files should be kept to the absolute minimum size (only use to save customized settings). Rather use SFS add-ons for new programmes or install and then remaster. My save file is hardly ever bigger than 32MB. Most of the time I don't even use one.