Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[MU]

Errors like this were reported several times, but I'm too busy, to search the messages.
This is, how I could solve it (hopefully)

If you run Opera for some weeks, your Puppy might react very strange.
Programs don't start, and in the console you get errors like
"no space left on device", though the freememapplet shows a lot of free space.

The problem is:
Opera creates and deletes many files, that remain as .wh files in /initrd.
On the system here, it were more than 3600 of them.
This seems to break unionfs, or ext2 (?).

Solution:
add this line to
/root/.xinitrc
after the line "#!/bin/sh":

[MU]

instead of "rm -rf" I now use:

[Dingo]

Now I have looked into my pup_save file. I have seen that also gftp writes many .wh files (I have found about 3.000) in its hidden directory

[MU]

Ah yes, you're right, thanks.
I remember this from my own system, just forgot about that on the testsystem.

I now use these two lines:

[Dingo]

So I put these lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown and not in /root/.xinitrc ? I saw that, at least the first time, putting these lines in /root/.xinitrc, the server x started after a big delay

[MU]

You can put them in /root/.xinitrc AND /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown.

In general, it is not good, to modify something in /initrd.
But to avoid trouble, we must do it.
The best is, to delete the files at shutdown, then when Puppy restarts, it has nothing more to delete.
So usually the instructions in /root/.xinitrc then will delete nothing, only if you did not shut down properly.

The delay you encountered should appear only the first time, as then 3000 files or so are searched and deleted, the junk that remained from the last weeks.
After this initial cleanup, the following ones next time should be much faster.

On my own system, I encounter no further delays, after it ran the first time.

Mark

[floborg]

Wouldn't work for me. I used this instead:

[panzerpuppy]

Before I create a script and delete all this junk from my installation,I have a few important questions for you:

- Is it safe to remove everything,for example:

[MU]

no, do NOT delete all .wh files!

They mark files, that were deleted in a merged filesystem.
Puppy is using layers.
The bottom layer is the write-protected pup_301.sfs.
You cannot delete files in it.
So the unionfs-driver adds a .wh file, to mark it as deleted.
The driver then ensures, that outside /initrd/, that file becomes "invisible", so it looks like, that it was deleted.

With Opera and Gftp, it is different.
The folders /root/.opera/ and /root/.gftp/ are not in pup_301.sfs.
So if .wh files appear here, they make no sense.
You do not need to mark "deleted" files in these folders, as they can be deleted physically.
So here it is safe to delete .wh files, but not in other folders, that might be merged with write-protected folders.

These also should be safe, to delete all .wh files:
/initrd/pup_rw/root/.kde/share/config
/initrd/pup_rw/root/opera

Here I am not sure:
/initrd/pup_rw/usr/lib/oss/build
Please search in
/initrd/pup_ro1
to:
/initrd/pup_ro5
if that folder exists there.
If it exists, it is merged, and you should not delete .wh files.
If it does not exist, it should be safe, just as with the others.

Concerning .wh.directory and others:
there are not many, so I leave them untouched.
We would not gain much by deleting them, but would risk, to confuse unionfs.
Every access to /initrd/ is critical, and should be reduced to the absolute necessary minimum.

Another thing:
it seems, that aufs is more reliable than unionfs, see this message:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=27407&start=30

But I did not check yet, if with aufs, my solution here becomes obsolete.

Mark

[panzerpuppy]

Thanks for the detailed info,Mark.

usr/lib/oss/build doesn't exist in any of the pup_ro dirs,so I added the dir to the cleanup script.

/root/.wine is another directory that can be added to the 'universal crap cleaning script' (~600 fake files found)

[Dingo]

[mdisaster2]

While the unionfs issue is sorted out it is possible to disable the disk cache of Opera in order to cut down the number of generated files.

This is not a big deal as it seems, because Opera still mantains a memory cache which is much faster and hopefully doesn't give fits to unionfs. Besides, most Opera users set up the disk cache to be deleted on exit, which sorta negates the advantages of a persistent cache anyway.

To disable the disk cache in Opera:
Tools->Preferences->Advanced->History, open the Disk Cache Size dropdown and select "Off".
Untick the "Empty on exit" checkbox, just in case.

Or else I suppose that file-happy programs could have their caches routed to a ram disk or a tmpfs of sorts ? In Opera the cache directories can be set by typing Opera:config in the address bar and typing directory in the search box, or by editing opers6.ini (while Opera is not running!), so assuming there is a ram based file system available the relevant directories (for Opera Cache4 and Temp Downloads) could be made point at it...

[silverojo]

[MU]

.xinitrc is on the bottom picture.
"~" means "homefolder", what is /root in Puppy.

Mark

[silverojo]