How to Make a Flash Drive Install Work Like a Hard Drive

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Sylvander
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#16 Post by Sylvander »

1. "maybe you don't have HDD?"
(a) I have two 10GB PATA internal HDD's fitted.
The first has Windows 2000Pro installed to it.
The second has only one ext3 partition on it with six folders in the root folder, each for eventually holding the pupsave+SFS filepair [copied from the Flash Drive] for six different Puppies.
I also have a couple of 80GB PATA HDD's [one in an external enclosure, the other in my 2nd PC], and a 1TB SATA HDD in yet another external HDD.
Plus a number of spare 10GB HDD's in the loft. :D

(b) I have in the past installed a Puppy to a Flash Drive partition, and used a Wakepup2 bootable floppy [also have a special bootable CD] to load the Puppy.
But these days I choose to use pupsave files for multiple Puppies [6 right now], each in their own partition on an 8GB Flash Drive, and loaded by "live" Puppy CD-RW's.
Also have a 4 GB Flash Drive holding multiple pupsaves used for the 2nd PC.
And a couple of 1GB Flash Drives.

2. So far, on this newer PC, I've chosen not to make a Puppy full install.

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Bert
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#17 Post by Bert »

This thread is now almost 6 months old and I wonder if there have been any new discoveries ? What are the experiences of people who've been running Puppy from usb sticks in pupmode 12 , using the script made by rcrsn51?

I'm asking because I'm about to assemble a nice little nettop for my girlfriend and as it will be passively cooled, running from a memory stick seems like the best way to keep temperatures within limits (no heat from internal drives and inside of case really uncluttered)

I found this report from 2008, which sounds very reassuring about the longevity of flash drives.

I would really like to avoid running pupmode 13, to get rid of that save icon and the slow shutdown process.

If proven that running a usb stick in pupmode 12 is safe, what would it take to add this to the installation options?
Jeminah says "that would probably be easy to fix"

Thanks!
Bert
Last edited by Bert on Tue 11 Jan 2011, 22:13, edited 1 time in total.
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rcrsn51
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#18 Post by rcrsn51 »

The last time I checked with DaveS, his PUPMODE=12 flash drive was still running fine. Perhaps you could PM him and get a report.

Stripe
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#19 Post by Stripe »

Hi all

I have been running pupmode=12 for about 2 months now on a usb stick without any problem (but using ext4 file system)

I also have been running a 3 partition usb stick for about a month now, a frugal install running pup mode=12, the second partition for storage and the third partition as a swap file for non linux/no swap file, systems and have not killed the usb stick yet, the one thing I have noticed is that you cannot mount an iso stored on a usb, it has to be copied to either the desktop or a hd so it will mount, yet you can mount sfs files ok.

hope this helps

Stripe

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Bert
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#20 Post by Bert »

Thanks rcrsn51!
Stripe wrote:hope this helps
It certainly does! Thank you very much.

You even answered my two next questions: ext4 and partitioning 8) :lol:
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rcrsn51
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#21 Post by rcrsn51 »

Stripe wrote:the one thing I have noticed is that you cannot mount an iso stored on a usb,
I have a FAT32 flash drive with a bunch of ISOs. I can mount them successfully just by clicking on the file's icon.

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DaveS
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#22 Post by DaveS »

I ran pupmode 12 on the USB up till the release of Wary 5 at Christmas with no problems. That is about six months I think, but it is a good quality drive, Sandisk Contour.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

Stripe
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#23 Post by Stripe »

I have had problems mounting iso's stored on a few different usbs, I will have another look and see if I can work it out.

I am using kingston usbs

cheers

Stripe

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Bert
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#24 Post by Bert »

Thanks everyone and especially rcrsn51. This method worked perfectly! Only needed to do it once, which is exceptional given my personal failure track record :roll:

The only thing remaining was removing the "save" icon manually. That didn't take too long, I used the medium grit 120 sandpaper I always keep handy :lol:

I guess someone should ask Barry to consider adding this "usb/pupmode=12" install option by default? Or is it still too experimental?
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JaDy
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#25 Post by JaDy »

Slightly off topic, but may be a good option:

I run LUPU511 from USB memory stick with lupusave on the USB.
I turned off the periodic save; save on shutdown is good enough. But, ...

I'd like to have an option to have file changes stored on the hard disk, not in RAM.
And then, upon shutdown (and using the SAVE button),
save the changes to the USB in a manner similar to multi-session DVD.
Furthermore, a utility to combine all the session saves into a single file.
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nooby
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#26 Post by nooby »

Jady we get off topic maybe.

But look here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=60678
and ask in that thread or make a new thread with your question.

Here is a pet that allow for choices on shut down.



PupsaveConfig the GUI


so the Dev of that one knows much about such.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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DaveS
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#27 Post by DaveS »

OK, its Jan 16, 2011. Just set up a USB in Pupmode 12 with spup. It went well. I will run this as my default and see if I can break it. Sandisk hardware.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

Stripe
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#28 Post by Stripe »

hi all

11 months light usage and the flash drive is still alive, have just set another one up to run slacko 499.1

will keep you all informed

stripe

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DaveS
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#29 Post by DaveS »

Stopped using mine a couple of months back, but had had no problems. Will set it up again (same device) when current rate of Puppy devel slows again.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

nooby
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#30 Post by nooby »

Very good news. HDD that runs through spinning the disk not only whines and click them get hot too. And worse. many actually do give up after some two years of service so sometimes one wonder if it is not better to have external such spinning hdd and the internal shall be a USB flash memory and then the only fan needed would be in the CPU and the Graphic card? So if one are a low resources person one could do without any fan at all only passive cooling and a silent computing. One would only hear ones own heart and the noise of the blood flowing in the ears and the humming from earth itself :)

I love this thread. Promise to never take it away. I should set up such a computer one day when I get tired of the clicking on my Acer D250.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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DaveS
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#31 Post by DaveS »

Just set up my USB again with Spup1. All fine.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

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rcrsn51
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#32 Post by rcrsn51 »

In some new Puppies, the default behaviour is to NOT load the sfs file into memory when booting from a hard drive. So when you convert a flash drive to PUPMODE=12, you will get the same thing.

This means that the flash drive will boot faster but may run a little slower. You can fix this by adding "pfix=copy" to your syslnux.cfg file.

The original instructions state that you must format your flash drive as ext. This is because the editinit procedure cannot be done in a FAT32 environment. However, you can copy the initrd.gz into your home directory or another ext environment and modify it there. Then copy the file back to your FAT32 flash drive. It will work fine.

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DaveS
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#33 Post by DaveS »

rcrsn51 wrote:In some new Puppies, the default behaviour is to NOT load the sfs file into memory when booting from a hard drive. So when you convert a flash drive to PUPMODE=12, you will get the same thing.

This means that the flash drive will boot faster but may run a little slower. You can fix this by adding "pfix=copy" to your syslnux.cfg file.

The original instructions state that you must format your flash drive as ext. This is because the editinit procedure cannot be done in a FAT32 environment. However, you can copy the initrd.gz into your home directory or another ext environment and modify it there. Then copy the file back to your FAT32 flash drive. It will work fine.

Have it formatted to ext :). Will try pfix=copy, but it seems fast anyway. (actually extlinux.conf)
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

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rcrsn51
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#34 Post by rcrsn51 »

DaveS wrote:but it seems fast anyway.
It probably doesn't make a big difference. In the case of your web browser, all the content that is stored in your profile has to be read from the pupsave file regardless of how the actual program code has been loaded. The former may have a greater impact on speed than the latter.

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DaveS
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#35 Post by DaveS »

Question: does the desktop 'save' icon have any effect in PUPMODE 12?
FWIW, just set up a cheapo tiny tiny USB this way with slackobeta to see how it goes. All good so far.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

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