Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

rossnixon · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 11

I am running Puppy 2.15 using PupWinQE, however when I shutdown I get "no suitable partitions to save to". I want to save my network and other settings.
How do I get my FAT32 partition mounted? A Qemu switch perhaps? Or inside Puppy?

Bruce B · Posted: Fri 18 May 2007, 22:27 Post subject:

rossnixon,

One of the problems of including your filesystem read-write is potential for corruption.

Another problem is how to get files in and out of your Puppy. The inability to do that makes the Puppy devalued.

One way to get files in and out is an FTP server.

But what I'd like to try is a RAM drive. If things did by chance get messed up in a RAM disk, it wouldn't corrupt your hard drive.

You might try making a ramdrive, then mounting using the syntax used for mounting a cdrom.

Suppose we want a 19 mb ramdrive

(1) locate ramdrive.sys

dir /b/s c:\ramdrive.sys

It's likely to be in c:\windows\command

(2) open config.sys with your editor

add this line to the file below himem.sys if the himem line exists
if not just put it in config.sys

device=c:\path\to\ramdrive.sys /e 18920

(3) reboot computer

verify the ramdrive exists, it should be the next available drive letter

(4) try the syntax used by qemu for a cdrom drive

if it works, it works, if not then we find another workaround

----------------------

Using the RAM drive (if it mounts properly)

If you want to add files to Puppy, copy those files to the RAM drive with Windows File Manager. Then copy them within Puppy using one of its managers.

If you want to copy files from Puppy to hard disk copy them to the RAM drive. Then outside qemu, copy the files to their permanent location.

The safety factor is if a RAM drive gets corrupted, its the last thing you need to worry about, because it only exists on a session by session basis.

UPDATE

I was searching around and found that the /.// syntax is NT only. Maybe something like -hdb e: where e: is the ramdrive

JaDy · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 156 Location: SE PA USA

What's your host OS for QEMU? Windows XP, NT, 98, etc.?

Bruce B · Posted: Sat 19 May 2007, 14:59 Post subject:

rossnixon · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 11

My host is Win98, but my HDD also has an ext3 partition for Ubuntu. Should Puppy be able to find it as it boots up?

Bruce B · Posted: Mon 21 May 2007, 02:19 Post subject:

rossnixon · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 11

I've tried two ramdrive programs.
1. Ramdrive.sys causes "VFAT device initialization failure" as Win98 tries to start up. The ramdrive is there, I can change to it in DOS. Googled for fix, but none of the suggestions applied to me.
2. XMSDSK causes computer to freeze before Windows starts.

I haven't checked if a USB drive is an option. Would that be easier than FTP?

Bruce B · Posted: Mon 21 May 2007, 17:31 Post subject:

Bruce B · Posted: Mon 21 May 2007, 17:37 Post subject:

PS if you had a remote FTP service that would be easy.

I don't know about USB and Windows 98 and Puppy as guest. You'll have to play on your own with that.

rossnixon · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 11