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

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DaveS
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#31 Post by DaveS »

Just set up my USB again with Spup1. All fine.
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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)
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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.
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rcrsn51
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#36 Post by rcrsn51 »

DaveS wrote:Question: does the desktop 'save' icon have any effect in PUPMODE 12?.
I just delete it. I don't even know what would happen if you clicked it.

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DaveS
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#37 Post by DaveS »

rcrsn51 wrote:
DaveS wrote:Question: does the desktop 'save' icon have any effect in PUPMODE 12?.
I just delete it. I don't even know what would happen if you clicked it.
LOL... Nothing!
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DaveS
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#38 Post by DaveS »

A funny thing happened on the way to the show: I set up a USB drive this way for Slacko, and when it booted, sound was missing. Running Alsa wizard returned no soundcards detected. Reverting to original initrd restored sound!
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rcrsn51
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#39 Post by rcrsn51 »

WFM. I created a standard PUPMODE=13 Slacko flash drive. The sound was working and I made a save file. I verified that sound was still working after a reboot, then switched to PUPMODE=12. I inserted the line after line 806. Sound still worked in the new setup.

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DaveS
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#40 Post by DaveS »

rcrsn51 wrote:WFM. I created a standard PUPMODE=13 Slacko flash drive. The sound was working and I made a save file. I verified that sound was still working after a reboot, then switched to PUPMODE=12. I inserted the line after line 806. Sound still worked in the new setup.
Haha.. moral of story... 'don't do this from within the Puppy you are modifying'. Booted from HD, modified initrd on USB from within a HD install, re-booted from USB, all fine. Off for a glass of wine now :)
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jakfish
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#41 Post by jakfish »

Forgive me for thread-dredging, but I have to give a shout-out to rcrsn51.

I frugally installed a puppeee to an ssd partition and could not get out of the pupmode=12 state until I found this thread and the great init editing tool.

Put a pupmode=13 in the init and now I have a true frugal install on an ssd partition with no need to boot off usb/sd card.

rcrsn51--many, many thanks,
Jake

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rcrsn51
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#42 Post by rcrsn51 »

There was a suggestion from jemimah that "pmedia=ataflash" would also get you a PUPMODE=13 environment. Did you try that?

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#43 Post by jakfish »

I did. And for my specs: working w/ puppeee installed to sd card, then once in puppeee on the sd card, using Universal Install to /sda7, I could not get pupmode=13 no matter which handle I jiggled in syslinux.cfg

Jake

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#44 Post by jakfish »

Oh, dear, this didn't work out as well as I thought.

While I am running in pupmode 13, I'm unable to save manually. The cpu goes to 100% and no changes are written to pupsave.sfs.

I thought of a corrupted save file, but even with starting fresh, I wasn't even offered a choice to make a save file at the end of the initial startup.

If I run this puppeee, fresh, with the original init file, then I am offered a chance to save at the end of the first session.

Changing the syslinux.cfg file to pmedia=ideflash, or ataflash, or usbflash does not help.

Jake

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

#45 Post by Monsie »

jakfish,

How about: pmedia=satahd

Have a look at this thread here.

Hope this helps,
Monsie
My [u]username[/u] is pronounced: "mun-see". Derived from my surname, it was my nickname throughout high school.

jakfish
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#46 Post by jakfish »

Hi, Monsie,

Thanks for weighing in. I had never heard of that command and immediately tried it. Unfortunately, I'm still in pupmode=12. (That would be with the original, unedited init)

Thanks again for the tip,
Jake

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rcrsn51
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#47 Post by rcrsn51 »

Jemimah made her suggestion here and it apparently worked for nooby in Quirky. Maybe puppeee doesn't recognize "pmedia=ataflash".

PUPMODE=13 is a much more complicated environment than 12. You may not be able to force it just by changing the init.

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#48 Post by jakfish »

Yes, when in pupmode 13 and it was trying to save, it appeared to be making a copy of everything, if only b/c all the folders in root and above were suddenly in bold text, puppy's signal that changes have been made.

But it never finished the save properly and remembered very little of what I had asked it to save.

Jake

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

#49 Post by dalebednell »

Hi
Thanks for this script works like a dream nice not to have the wait to shut down. :D

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DaveS
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#50 Post by DaveS »

Recently set this up using Slacko 5.5. Using ext3 could not get desktop to initialise. Ext2 is fine.
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