Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[MU]

Puppy allows to use huge programs like OpenOffice without "installation".
You just download openoffice_301.sfs to the "/" folder of your harddrive (that where your pup_save is located).
Then you choose this sfs in the bootmanager and reboot - now you can use OpenOffice.
Very simple.

You also add Acrobat_301.sfs.
And devx_301.sfs.
And KDE_301.sfs.

You do?
No.

Because Puppy supports to load only 3 of them.

The solution:
You build one new, big personal sfs from them.

Sounds complicated?
Well, this is what I wrote this utility for.

Lets start:
First, be shure the files you want to use, are not mounted yet.
If they are mounted, uncheck them first in the bootmanager, and reboot.

Now start SFS-Combiner, and your favourite filemanager, like Rox.
Drag the desired files on the file-list:

screenshot:


Then click on the button below.
Now it will check, if all files can be mounted, and if you have enough temporary diskspace.

If so, then it copies the files from your .sfs files to a temporary folder, and builds a new sfs.
Then the temporary files are deleted again.
Important: then remove or rename new_xxx.sfs, or it will be overwritten next time!
(Fixme: should add a warning).

Screenshot: SFS-Combiner copies files:



Screenshot: SFS-Combiner builds the new sfs::




IMPORTANT:
To store temporary files, you must have a drive with a LINUX filesystem.
Windows drives do not work.

If you do not want to create a Linux-partition, try to format a USB-Stick with a Linux filesystem.
Use gparted or the comandline to do that.

This will do it for sda1 (WARNING: all files on that drive are DELETED!)
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1


Download:
http://dotpups.de/puppy3/dotpups/System_Utilities/SFS-Combiner.pup
Mirror:
http://puppyfiles.ca/dotpupsde/puppy3/dotpups/System_Utilities/SFS-Combiner.pup

Requires Gtkbasic:
http://dotpups.de/puppy3/dotpups/Programming/GtkBasic003/Gtkbasic-003.pup
Mirror:
http://puppyfiles.ca/dotpupsde/puppy3/dotpups/Programming/GtkBasic003/Gtkbasic-003.pup

I just tested it in Muppy 008.2 (Puppy 301), but it should work in the "2" and "4" series, too.

UPDATE:
Here is a DotPET for Puppy 4 (Dingo).
It includes SFS-Combiner and GtkBasic003.
http://puppyfiles.ca/dotpupsde/puppy4/dotpups/System_Utilities/SFS-Combiner-plus-GtkBasic003.pet
mirror:
http://dotpups.de/puppy4/dotpups/System_Utilities/SFS-Combiner-plus-GtkBasic003.pet


Tip for advanced users:
To add files manually:
edit:
/usr/local/SFS-Combiner/resource/buildsfs

Add after "#!/bin/bash":

[Matu]

Thanks for this great tool. I will test it under 3.00 and give you a feedback here about its functionality.

Matu

[HairyWill]

cool, nice idea

because I always ask for more
how does it handle collisions, might want to make it clear whether the first or the last gets priority

How about a mysquash builder that converts your pup_save into a sfs. Sometimes I just merge my pup_save into the pup_xx.sfs. I'm not sure that many people would use this I'm just trying to establish as many software patents as I can . Maybe I'd better move out of the EU first.

[MU]

[HairyWill]

[Béèm]

Maybe he is on this picture.

[cb88]

Right on target MU keep up the good work ... Take care at carnaval... at least in Brazil a lot of people get hurt/killed during carnaval....

[Leachim]

Merging the base-file (squashfs) and the save-file (ext2) works really nice. I do this every few weeks and start again with the new (merged) base file and an empty save-file. To date my base-file has grown to 1.8 GB (compressed - without compression it would be 5GB) and my save-file is 2 GB.

I want to rewrite the save-script to create new sfs-files instead of updating a save file. This will lead to many sfs-files mounted one above the other. So the sfs-files will have to be merged occasionally.

The big advantage of this new approach will be the possibility to "backtrack" to any save-point if things went wrong.

[ICPUG]

MU - Brilliant Idea!!

Now we don't need all these versions of Puppy around - some with Opera, some with SeaMonkey, some with Firefox, ...

Just a base version of Puppy and lots of SFS files:

Pick one or more from each group:

Browser: SeaMonkey; Opera; Firefox
Office: OpenOffice ; AbiWord+Gnumeric
Media Player: Gxine; MPlayer; VNC
Developer Environment: TCL; Puppy BASIC; ...
Game Pack: ??; ??
...

Use your SFS Combiner and, voila, your own preference of Puppy!

Great - Great - Great

ICPUG

[MU]

Yes, the flexibility of sfs files is one of the advantages of Puppy.

You also could add an option/info to show how to add own files.
So you could use it to create highly-compressed archives of your Photo-collections or such.
Different to normal packagers, these archives need not to be extracted with an external program like Xarchive or winzip.
You just select your archive in the bootmanager, and can use all files in it.
Or you click on it in Rox to mount it (what would be ok for Photos, as they don't need to be merged in the unionfs-filesystemstructure).

There just was the limit of 3 files, which now is no more issue.
At least if you have a Linux-partition for the temporary files.
SFS-Combiner just lists Linux-drives, so that permissions and symlinks are preserved.
I should add an option to select Windows-drives.

I could then create a .2fs file there with own ext filesystem to store the temporary files (similar to pup_save.2fs, but just temporary).
It would be deleted again after the squashfs was built.

I will have a look at that in some days, I first want to finish the KDE-3.5.8.sfs.
Mark

Ps: Carniaval was kind of boring. And no, I was not painted. Just the people on the trucks/waggons had costumes and such.
I'd really like to see the ones in Venice and Rio somewhen, they are much different

[HairyWill]

[MU]

Yes HairyWill, that is important.
For Muppy, we have 2 versions.
One "standard", that has a 400 MB main.sfs and a Mini, where huge apps are put in an addon.sfs, so that main.sfs remains small (<200 MB).
The Mini is faster, as this solution is better concerning memory-management.
We just offer the "standard" version as "appetizer", because it can run directly from CD.
I encourage Muppy-users, to switch to the Mini, if they want a frugal installation.

So for personal files I would not merge with main.sfs, but use a personal.sfs.
This also should make it easier to upgrade later to newer versions of Puppy.

Mark

[NathanO]

MU,

I like the idea of the 'personal.sfs'. Could you present this to Barry for future Puppy's?

NathanO

[MU]

Barry certainly will have a look, once he is back from holiday.
Until then I'd like to add some refinements.

E.g. a tool could be added, that scans your pup_save.2fs for large folders like /root/Mail (if you use the sylpheed EMail client, that can be huge).
Then it could offer in a dialog, to store these folders in a personal.sfs and delete them in pup_save.2fs.

I just have re-combined my devx.sfs, and copied by hand /root/Mail/ to the tempfolder, before the final sfs was built.
I then renamed /root/Mail and deleted it after a reboot (I think you must not delete immedeatly, because then unionfs would mark it with .wh -files, but I must test that in detail).
Now my old Mails are together with the devx in this new personal.sfs and I even could access them with a fresh Puppy-setup.
I have gained 120 MB of free space in my pup_save.2fs like this.
If you installed a lot of huge dotpups, this might bring you back even more space.
It has to be tested carefully though, before I will add this as a grafical option to the SFS-Combiner.
Unionfs can be somewhat tricky, and I also want to keep the grafical interface simple.
I might add a "neewbee" and "advanced" option for this.

Mark

[big_bass]