Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Jim1911 · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 2353 Location: Texas, USA

This post will show how to unpack and repack initrd.gz in order to edit the init file. This technique has worked well for me with initrd.gz files in pup431, dpup, upup, Lighthouse, and Stardust. Thanks to Mikeb for sharing what he called Pizzasgood's technique, otherwise I would not have found it.

Unpack the initrd.gz file
1. Make a tempinit directory and place the initrd.gz file that you want to edit in this new directory.
2. Using a console execute this:

Iguleder · Posted: Mon 01 Mar 2010, 14:22 Post subject:

2 notes you should add:

- If you copy the directory with the extracted initrd, do it with "cp -pa" to preserve the permissions, as BusyBox needs SUID and 4755, and some files in /etc need specific permissions.
- it's possible to compress with other compression levels instead of 9, good for older hardware, might save 0.0000000000(...)1 seconds of wasted boot time. If you really insist on small size you can use AdvanceCOMP or some other gzip recompressor to recompress the gzipped CPIO archive, could save 100-200 KBs for an average initramfs.

Nice tutorial, keep up the good work Wink

Jim1911 · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 2353 Location: Texas, USA

Thanks, the credit goes to Mikeb for sharing what he called Pizzasgood's technique that I just edited. The code is above my skill level.

emil · Joined: 10 Nov 2009 Posts: 547 Location: Austria

nice Howto Jim!
I just needed exactly this.
I think this is the original post from pizzasgood ...
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24899

nooby · Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 9382 Location: SwedenEurope

very good thread. I guess this can be used to edit in European Keyboard stuff from scratch? And set the Firewall to be on from out of the box too.

Maybe add Firefox and Chrome or is that in the sfs?

Sit Heel Speak · Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 2595 Location: downwind

@iguleder:

cp -pa is good to know. Thanks!

@nooby:

Applications which start after the switchroot, such as Firefox and Chrome, are in the .sfs.

PaulBx1 · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2308 Location: Wyoming, USA

I found that if you make the tempinit directory in /mnt/home, then you get all sorts of "Operation not permitted" errors in the zcat step which makes the procedure fail. Putting it somewhere else, like in /root or /tmp, works fine.

rcrsn51 · Posted: Tue 19 Jul 2011, 04:35 Post subject:

With what file system is your /mnt/home formatted?

PaulBx1 · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2308 Location: Wyoming, USA

I'm sorry I didn't see this question earlier. Now I can't tell you for sure. I've recently gone from ext2 back to FAT32, and also may have edited initrd.gz on different flash drives, so I can't really say. If I had to bet though, I'd say FAT32.

RSH · Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 1564 Location: Germany

Hello!

Here is the GUI for that Stuff. Did it in /root and works.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=575255#575255
Nice work.

Thanks, RSH

emil · Joined: 10 Nov 2009 Posts: 547 Location: Austria

Sorry misspost - should have gone to
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=575255#575255

Super das es geklappt hat - ich habe das mit dem Abändern der Namen auch schon einmal probiert - habs allerdings nicht geschafft und dann darauf verzichtet.

Einen Kommentar habe ich noch zum Link - in einem Kommentar heisst es man müsste mit cp -pa kopieren, da busybox das SUID flag benötigen würde. Da bin ich mir überhaupt nicht sicher.

So gut kenne ich mich in Linux nicht aus, aber
SUID heisst das alle Busybox Befehle (/bin/busybox) immer mit root Berechtigung ausgeführt werden, egal welcher user (immerhin können auch unter puppy einige Server und daemons gestartet werden die jeweils unter ihrem eigenen user laufen.) Und busybox beinhaltet sehr viele shell Befehle.

Ich habe z.b. im slacko RC geschaut, hier ist das SUID nicht gesetzt.

RSH · Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 1564 Location: Germany

Hello,

SUID? I think that means Super User ID.

So, after I failed editing the initrd.gz, my Puppy Studio doesn't boot anymore. I've used Puppy 4.1 and edited the initrd.gz again. After repacking the initrd.gz copying the File with Mouseaction (Drag & Drop) did not work. Always getting an Error Message. Using the "cp -pa" did not work, because i did not know enough about the Syntax.

Please: could anyone post a Full-Syntax-Example, using "cp -pa"? and maybe one or two other examples to explain Terminalksyntaxes to me?

So, I've edited the initrd.gz again (outside of Puppy, sdb1) and it prints a long List of "no permissions"-Messages on my Screen. I quit Puppy 4.1 and reboot my PC with Puppy Studio from DVD. Edited the initrd.gz again, inserted the Line: DISTRO_FILE_PREFIX="cpup" after inserting the Line: DISTRO_PUPPYSFS="cpup_330.sfs" end repack the initrd.gz. It works. No "No-Permissions"-Messages on the Scrren and the initrd.gz has been copied by Drag & Drop.

The "New"-Puppy now searches for "cpup_330.sfs. The Savefile is now cpupsave-blablabla.2fs and it is loaded by the new Puppy as well.

NOW I WILL OVERCOME THE WORLD WITH NEW PUPPIES. (just kidding)

RSH

Any further Messages will be posted here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=575255#575255

Edit: and now, there is a english GUI right here:http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=575255#575255