(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I don't remember how to start up (initialize?) the virtual file system so I can peer over onto my Windows drive that I've been saving everything to. Under aufs, I have pup_init, pup_multi, pup_ro, pup_rw, pup_save, but devsave isgone.

How can I either 1) view the files on that lost partition somehow
or 2) get the virutal file system going again.

And 3) How can I make sure the system understands my password. I never had to enter it,since perhaps it had been saved. I would be happy to reset it to no password.

One of the messages on boot was perhaps fatal, "cannot log in to xserver, giving up"

Thanks.

Each time it boots, it decompresses something.

Can I do away with this?

It seems I need that dev-save directory in there but how to get it? Or work around it somehow?

Perhaps I should involve a flashstick?

sda2 looks like my old windows files. I'll see iof they are only readonly.

I need to understand why I cannot see the .json files and/or .html backups of my bookmarks. I want to load them. FOr now, Perhaps I can copy them to a different drive,b ut I mean in general, how can I solve this problem?

ANy help appreciated.

I can open a file with the Geany editor and save it. But SeaMonkey doesn't see the contents of an html file from the mnt/sda2

Take a deep breath.
Don't panic.
And list out few things.
1) Your PC system specs. And what version of Windows is on it?
2) How and where is the Fatdog installed.
3) How long were you using Fatdog?
4) Did you create a savefile or savefolder? and where?
5) What did you do before the problem came?
6) What exactly is the problem?

So using that little "trick", I now have all my Internet links back in SeaMonkey.

Is it ok to leave that html file in usr or should I delete it?

drunkjedi wrote:Take a deep breath.
Don't panic.
And list out few things.
1) Your PC system specs. And what version of Windows is on it?
2) How and where is the Fatdog installed.
3) How long were you using Fatdog?
4) Did you create a savefile or savefolder? and where?
5) What did you do before the problem came?
6) What exactly is the problem?

2x Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU E7300 @ 2.66GHz

Linux 3.18.7 (x86_64) circa Nov 16, 16:01:58:11 WIIB 2015

It was a Windows 10 machine.
I boot off the Fatdog CD.
I have been using it for like 3 or 4 months or so.
At one time, I had a savefolder. I no longer want to do this. I would like to just save stuff either on Windows or Linux - no Virtual File system. Perhaps I can find a way to do this - perhaps not? we'll see.
I didn't do anything obvious to create the problem of occasional Abi Word Processor hangups or is it an OS hangup of the cursor? Then I rebooted but I don't yet have a log to show.
I just want to go forwards and not use a savefile if posssible. There's something not workign with the savefile idea.

I started using fatdog because I lost interest in troubleshooting the windows os on the machine. I don't mind using it as a fatdog machine. It's just the little cursor to crosshairs hangup bug. It just happens once in a while. It's not my fault. There's an OS bug in there somewhere.

Things like editors and Geany programming editors are only picky about LFLF or LF or whatever. Some of these tools are easier to use across OS's. I can just change line endings when I need to upload myfiles to a shared repository for some software devel. project I'm working on. I'm not a linux user for much time. It willt ake some learning.

Many, many years ago, I used profiles abd scripts on a Unix, a Next or Sun workstation but it's too long ago to remember much.

I might need some help in answering youru question about where the savefolder is. Idon't know.

You can certainly use Fatdog or any puppy without savefile or savefolder.
You just have to remaster or you loose all the changes you made.

I hope you didn't delete your old savefolder.
Boot fatdog with that savefolder loaded.
And remaster.
I have never done this, so someone more knowledgeable will come and help you.

Other way is to get all programs as sfs and load them when needed.

I'll need to know how to setup fatdog better - like boot off cd? hard-drive? savefile types? sfs eetc.. I need to leaqrn all this. I don't know how to create a savefile but I'll probably figure it out.

Reread his description... READ-ONLY! he needs to reboot in windows and run checkdisk to clear dirty bit on windows drive. Savefile on a read only filesystem. There has been WAY TOO many corrupt file issues with last year releases of FD64, I no longer trust its use.

Linux mount command mounts ntfs drive read only if hibernation file is present in that drive.
This is default behaviour of win10 and mount command.
Not a Fatdog bug.

And as he said he did have savefolder that means he did disable default behaviour of hibernation while shutting down win10 (fast boot).

What I suspect is win10 update may have enabled hibernation again as my win10 did change my settings after update too.

And yes he may need to reboot in Windows and disable hibernation fastboot while shutting down behavior.

I think M$ expects to own our hardware.

yes the dangers of using dual boot bites again. At least his savefile most likely is ok.

drunkjedi wrote:Linux mount command mounts ntfs drive read only if hibernation file is present in that drive.
This is default behaviour of win10 and mount command.
Not a Fatdog bug.

And as he said he did have savefolder that means he did disable default behaviour of hibernation while shutting down win10 (fast boot).

What I suspect is win10 update may have enabled hibernation again as my win10 did change my settings after update too.

I am not using Windows 10 anymore. I simply like having the files from it. They are now read-only - they were not read-only before because "the system" had installed the virtual file system. That system is now not running. Hence, I need to make decisions as to how to deal with the windows directories in a writable manner. I don't yet know how to do that. I never intend to run windows again on this machine. If I have to disable the hiberation files somehow, it would have to be from oustide windows. The Windows 10 OS does not work anymore. It will not boot windows anymore. I will keep the machine as a Linux machine unless I were to discover a process of repairing Windows 10 from within Linux (Fatdog64). I'm sure a process like that could be invented but it has details that I don't know of. I don't spend a lot of time administrating PCs. I normally just use them. This takes me a little bit far afield. I just use PCs to write and upload software. I don't yet know how to proceed but at least I can use the machine now that I don't use the savefile on boot. I keep reading fatdog's help file but it's not much help.

Reading Fatdog's help files won't help you.

I searched internet and found 2 solutions

Run following in terminal when your drives are not mounted, but replace the X in sdaX to the number corresponding to your drive number, 1, 2 or 3 etc..

Run Gparted in fatdog and see to be sure like in picture..

Then edit following command appropriately and run in terminal. Or
Another way I found is to run following (replace X with 1, 2 or 3 ect as per your drive)
But I have to see if ntfsfix is available in fatdog package manager. I am at work so can't check or make one. Edit: Fatdog does have this command.

I think M$ expects to own our hardware. :twisted:

yes the dangers of using dual boot bites again. At least his savefile most likely is ok.

Yes, indeed! Can't tell some folks. Now how many times have I pronounced on this? After last weeks' and countless previous weeks warnings about M$ flaws and promises of fixes at some future date, they still buy that cr*p. Get rid of it once and for all. Just because some clever IT professionals enjoy the intellectual pleasure of mixing two utterly incompatible file systems doesn't mean ordinary guys like me and PP can expect anything but disaster. Just how cheap do HDs have to get before the penny drops? If you must use SATA ports on a s-o-t-a machine, buy an IDE converter for a fiver and run Puppies on really old HDs that have survived from the previous HD generation. For most Puppies an e.g. 40Gb drive is B-I-G - that's the point. Lift them from your local skip/dumpster.

PappyPuppy,

Computers sold with Windows8/10 boot using UEFI. When the UEFI firmware starts to load an operating system, it first looks for a boot loader on a FAT32 partition, usually named ESP. Windows 8 uses "Fast Boot" by default which is really hibernation. The problem with this is when Windows hibernates, it doesn't flush it's cash for the FAT32 boot partition. If you boot another OS, mount that FAT32 boot partition and do anything at all with it, when Windows resumes and decides to flush the cache (sync) to that FAT32 partition, it will corrupt it. Now Windows won't boot. And if you put a savefile on that partiton it may not be accessible ether. I don't know that this has happen to your computer, but it's a possibility.

Highly recommend booting Fatdog64 from a USB drive on Windows 8/10 computers and putting your savefile/savefolder on that drive as well. Most Windows 8/10 computers have USB 3.0 ports, so using a USB 3.0 flash drive will make things much faster. See:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... drive.html

and

http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... rive2.html

If you want to install Fatdog64 along with Windows make sure you read and understand this:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... drive.html

Be aware that the quality of UEFI implementations varies a lot, for OK to really poor. It's not as easy as it was in BIOS days.

Fixing Windows will probably require an installation disk or flash drive from the manufacture. You may be able to sort it out, but an installation disk will be easy, of course the hard drive will be wiped.

If you're having problems with Fatdog64's savefile/folder the easiest thing to do is make a new one. You'll have to boot with the savefile=none option to make Fatdog64 boot without a savefile/folder. Then you can copy any data you need from your old savefile/folder, delete it and create a new savefile folder. Again, if you're going to place your savefile/folder on a drive with Windows 8/10 you have to be careful.

kirk wrote:PappyPuppy,

Computers sold with Windows8/10 boot using UEFI. When the UEFI firmware starts to load an operating system, it first looks for a boot loader on a FAT32 partition, usually named ESP. Windows 8 uses "Fast Boot" by default which is really hibernation. The problem with this is when Windows hibernates, it doesn't flush it's cash for the FAT32 boot partition. If you boot another OS, mount that FAT32 boot partition and do anything at all with it, when Windows resumes and decides to flush the cache (sync) to that FAT32 partition, it will corrupt it. Now Windows won't boot. And if you put a savefile on that partiton it may not be accessible ether. I don't know that this has happen to your computer, but it's a possibility.

Highly recommend booting Fatdog64 from a USB drive on Windows 8/10 computers and putting your savefile/savefolder on that drive as well. Most Windows 8/10 computers have USB 3.0 ports, so using a USB 3.0 flash drive will make things much faster. See:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... drive.html

and

http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... rive2.html

If you want to install Fatdog64 along with Windows make sure you read and understand this:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/fa ... drive.html

Be aware that the quality of UEFI implementations varies a lot, for OK to really poor. It's not as easy as it was in BIOS days.

Fixing Windows will probably require an installation disk or flash drive from the manufacture. You may be able to sort it out, but an installation disk will be easy, of course the hard drive will be wiped.

If you're having problems with Fatdog64's savefile/folder the easiest thing to do is make a new one. You'll have to boot with the savefile=none option to make Fatdog64 boot without a savefile/folder. Then you can copy any data you need from your old savefile/folder, delete it and create a new savefile folder. Again, if you're going to place your savefile/folder on a drive with Windows 8/10 you have to be careful.

1) How did Fatdog remember my password even though I don't really have any hard-drive space allocated to it? In other words, Fatdog is in RAM. Normally, the savefile would be on aufs/pup_save, but my virtual files were on a drive called dev_save. That's not there now since it was unable to load that file, and I am now running only out of RAM, and NOT with the virtual file system. There is a volume /mnt/sda2 which I've now backed up to a USB flashstick. If I were to want Windows, I would just reformat the hard-drive and reinstall all my apps, like compilers and such. I do that differently now anyway, than I did before. I don't install everything, just the compilers I need. It works better that way, I have another Windows machine I develop on. I only use this machine to browse the Internet and upload and download development stuff, and burn to cds/dvds.

2) I want to understand all the virtual filesystem stuff before I shutdown, as I would like to run it BEFORE shutting down. I want my savefile created while I'm running, not on shutdown, and does fatdog use ntfs to remember my password? Boot sector? How did it know that if I only have RAM. Fatdog is using some hard-drive space but where - in that .sfs file of some sort? I have a .sfs file that is dev 702 - probably some compiler stuff. Should I search for my savefile and any other .sfs's and try to mount them?

Anyway, I seek BASIC information. I need to understand the system because the system has bugs. The cursor sometimes crashes in Fatdog - I have no idea why but I have to reboot it often.

The fatdog helpfile has a well-organized article on the file system but it's not detailed enough.

I don't know where my .ext4 file (the savefile) was. I can't find it, yet I had one.

Perhaps I just need to create a new savefile?

I found a directory on sda2 (one of the ntfs volumes) called fd64save. Could this be where the file should be?
There is a file fd64-devx_702.sfs? I believe this is just compiler stuff, I remember getting it from some place.
It has Abi Word processor source and a lot of other stuff. Packages.

I am reading up on aufs - the unified file system, and trying to understand how it works, and how fatdog can go from ram to permanent storage. Right now I have no permanent storage and no unified file capability. To edit now, I have to copy to some place in RAM, and edit with Geany.

To summarize my position on this: I created a savefile before and used it, but the system failed. Therefore, there is a reliability issue. Therefore, I don't create that savefile again until I understand why it failed. I don't make the same mistake twice.
It was a mistake to create that savefile because it's gone now. The files are still there in read-only format, thank God!

My computer may have some issues that reduce the overall reliability.

It was bought used - perhaps it's just not up to it after it's original good days are gone.

So it's good that I'm backing things up.

Perhaps I'll shutdown some time and simply notice this time where the savefile is. Perhaps I'll know then?