Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Dromeno]

Is there a way to remove + re-insert the thumbdrive which is used to boot puppy from (without messing up the possibility to save changes to the 2fs on the thumbdrive)?

I would love to have the ability to free the USB port when puppy is booted, and then perhaps get a question on my screen to re-insert the thumbdrive when puppy needs some file on it. In this way one more USB port can be freed.

At the moment it looks as if the drive which contains the 2fs absolutely needs to stay attached to the computer in order to be able to shut down properly (or save changes to the 2fs).

[jafadmin]

I think your assumptions are right. My solution to the issue was to create a thumb that would boot and look for "save" files on all attached drives (like the LiveCD does), then copied the .sfs and .2fs files from the thumb to a 1st level directory (called "puppy") on the C drive.

This is done by editing the extlinux.conf file in the root of the thumb drive. Change the line that says "pmedia=usbflash" to "pmedia=cd".

When I boot, puppy finds the files on the C drive and gives me the option to load them. After loading them I can remove the thumb drive for the session. I can then later copy the files from the puppy directory on the C drive to the thumb drive if i want what was saved to be on it.

[Dromeno]

Jafadmin - your solution sounds plausible but if the 2fs is on the c drive and not on the thumb then the home directory refers to the computer instead of the thumb.

And more important, if you want to save some change to the 2fs and you happen to work on someone else's computer then the 2fs needs to be on the thumbdrive.

So... am i right in that when you use a 2fs puppy is no longer fully portable (or more to the point, it is portable but it still is similar to a not-ejectable live CD)?

I wonder if that can be remedied in a future version of puppy?

[Sylvander]

I'm a Puppy newbie.
However, in my travels on the Puppy Linux forum I remember reading that:

1. A Puppy being loaded from a Flash drive normally automatically saves the present state of the session back to the pup_save file every 30 min [this is the default setting].

2. But it is possible to make a configuration change so that the Puppy will only save at shut-down.
[Sorry, I don't have a link to those instructions, so you'll need to search for them]

3. That means that since the Puppy RAMdrive [in which it runs] is loaded totally into RAM [plus the swap partition if the RAMdrive overflows from RAM]...
And the session is only being saved back at shut-down...
Then it is possible to remove the Flash Drive...
And make use of the freed-up USB socket during the session...

4. But you MUST re-insert the Flash Drive prior to shutting down the Puppy.

5. How Puppy works.

[mikeb]

As it stands its not possible as the pup_save is mounted into the union and puppy does not have the ability to unmount and mount to it...(slax does but it's magic)

But what you propose is possible.
Manual saves and at shutdown is already available in puppy.

Possible system.......
1) at boot pup_save is mounted and the contents are copied to tmpfs .
2) pup_save unmounted and tmpfs gets mounted to the union at pup_rw (as it does in flash and pfix_ram and multisession ! anyway )
3) puppy runs in pfix_ram mode...everything in ram...obviously needs plenty of ram...flash stick can be removed as nothing is mounted in it.
4)at shutdown or manual save....stick is inserted , pup_save is mounted and the contents of tmpfs are copied to it.
5) puppy shuts down or unmounts pup_save/stick and carries on

If shutdown with no stick puppy will simply boot to the last saved session.

Something similar was proposed a while ago but the interest was running completely in ram for speed.
Indeed puppy is capable of all this , it just needs scripting.

mike

[sky king]

Maybe just a simple solution, like a USB hub? Or a 2 into one adapter?