I just released a new version of QEMU-Puppy, based on Puppy
Linux 1.0.6.
"QEMU-Puppy is an OS and a set of applications on a USB memory
stick. This OS can be booted natively, or on top of an other,
already installed, OS. Just borrow a PC, boot your own
environment and return the PC unaffected."
"No installation, no garbage..."
http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/qemupuppy/index.html
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
----------------------------------------------------------------
Major changes:
* Updated to Puppy Linux 1.0.6.
* Added the possibility to use usr_devx.sfs.
* Added a section on the web site about file transfers to and
from QEMU-Puppy.
----------------------------------------------------------------
QEMU-Puppy, based on Puppy Linux 1.0.6
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
-
jviola
virtual QEMU puppy
Thanks for the work that you did.
Most things work, but I'm unable to find my thumb drive and mount it. I have files on there I'd like to be able to get to. When I use regular puppy and boot from a cd it find my thumbdrive. Is there a way to do it from this virtual one?
Thanks,
Jeff
Most things work, but I'm unable to find my thumb drive and mount it. I have files on there I'd like to be able to get to. When I use regular puppy and boot from a cd it find my thumbdrive. Is there a way to do it from this virtual one?
Thanks,
Jeff
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> Most things work, but I'm unable to find my thumb drive and
> mount it. I have files on there I'd like to be able to get
> to. When I use regular puppy and boot from a cd it find my
> thumbdrive. Is there a way to do it from this virtual one?
(I suppose you're running QEMU-Puppy in QPL mode.)
If you did NOT mount your thumb drive, you can start QEMU-Puppy
in QPL mode (from hard disk...) like this:
. ./puppy.sh -hda /dev/sda
Your thumb drive will show up as drive /dev/hda.
Don't do this on Windows. It won't work.
Don't do this when your thumb drive is already mounted. It'll
explode...
But it's not nice to do it like this: It doesn't work in QPW
mode and it doesn't work when you run in QPL mode from the
thumb drive itself. In fact, it's an ugly way to do it...
I'm looking for something that lets me share a directory on the
native machine with directory in the virtual machine, like I do
with my /scratch directory (explained on my site [1]).
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
[1] http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/qemupuppy/index.html#4.5.1
> mount it. I have files on there I'd like to be able to get
> to. When I use regular puppy and boot from a cd it find my
> thumbdrive. Is there a way to do it from this virtual one?
(I suppose you're running QEMU-Puppy in QPL mode.)
If you did NOT mount your thumb drive, you can start QEMU-Puppy
in QPL mode (from hard disk...) like this:
. ./puppy.sh -hda /dev/sda
Your thumb drive will show up as drive /dev/hda.
Don't do this on Windows. It won't work.
Don't do this when your thumb drive is already mounted. It'll
explode...
But it's not nice to do it like this: It doesn't work in QPW
mode and it doesn't work when you run in QPL mode from the
thumb drive itself. In fact, it's an ugly way to do it...
I'm looking for something that lets me share a directory on the
native machine with directory in the virtual machine, like I do
with my /scratch directory (explained on my site [1]).
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
[1] http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/qemupuppy/index.html#4.5.1
Thought I'd give this a try to see how it works. I'm currently logged in from Puppy running on my MP3 player on a WinXP 64 machine. Some questions and notes:
1. Syslinux won't work on a WinXP64 machine. No worries, I'll have to install the bootable portion from my normal Puppy pseudo-machine sometime.
2. Can we make a small modification? If pup001 exists on the current harddrive use that instead of pup100? That way I can use my own stuff from pup001 when at home, and use pup100 from the USB drive when not. I'm not terribly familiar with Puppy's booting script at this time so wouldn't know how to make this modification on my own.
Thanks.
1. Syslinux won't work on a WinXP64 machine. No worries, I'll have to install the bootable portion from my normal Puppy pseudo-machine sometime.
2. Can we make a small modification? If pup001 exists on the current harddrive use that instead of pup100? That way I can use my own stuff from pup001 when at home, and use pup100 from the USB drive when not. I'm not terribly familiar with Puppy's booting script at this time so wouldn't know how to make this modification on my own.
Thanks.
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> 2. Can we make a small modification? If pup001 exists on the
> current harddrive use that instead of pup100? That way I can
> use my own stuff from pup001 when at home, and use pup100
> from the USB drive when not. I'm not terribly familiar with
> Puppy's booting script at this time so wouldn't know how to
> make this modification on my own.
I'll consider it.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
> current harddrive use that instead of pup100? That way I can
> use my own stuff from pup001 when at home, and use pup100
> from the USB drive when not. I'm not terribly familiar with
> Puppy's booting script at this time so wouldn't know how to
> make this modification on my own.
I'll consider it.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
-
M.Gregg
Bootable QEMU and Bios boot.
Thanks for the wonderfull work you are all doing. I thought i would just add my experiance with this Qemu 1.0.6. I Downloaded the qem file and unzipped this to the USB stick this ran in windows a bit slow but it ran. I then had a problem with syslinux I could not get it to run with the terminal (that is probably because no one ever tells us newbies that you have to right click in the folder and open xterm)..lol. any way i then used puppy to create the usb stick puppy but did not remove the files first...I now have a bootable usb that boots from the bios and in Qem using the same pup 100..i just thought you might find this interesting. the SH file will not let me boot in linux is this because of the syslinux problem?
Kind regards
Michael
Kind regards
Michael
-
M.Gregg
QEMU 1.0.6
i remade the USB device using syslinux.. you do have to open the xterm in the folder..lol..any way it all works except i still cannot get it to run qem in linux..wonder why..
Thanks again
Michael
Thanks again
Michael
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> i still cannot get it to run qem in linux..wonder why..
Your USB drive contains a VFAT file system. These file systems
can't store as much information about a file as a EXT2 file
system does. On a EXT2 file system, you would mark a SH file as
executable. You can't do this on a VFAT file system. This means
that clicking on puppy.sh on your USB drive, in ROX, won't
work. ROX thinks that this file isn't executable.
Open a terminal, go to the USB drive ("cd /mnt/sda1" ?) and
"source" the script ("source ./puppy.sh" or ". ./puppy.sh").
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
Your USB drive contains a VFAT file system. These file systems
can't store as much information about a file as a EXT2 file
system does. On a EXT2 file system, you would mark a SH file as
executable. You can't do this on a VFAT file system. This means
that clicking on puppy.sh on your USB drive, in ROX, won't
work. ROX thinks that this file isn't executable.
Open a terminal, go to the USB drive ("cd /mnt/sda1" ?) and
"source" the script ("source ./puppy.sh" or ". ./puppy.sh").
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
QEMU first timer
It works, albeit very slow on my machine. Writing this using QemuPuppy through WIN98. USB is only 1.1, does that affect the speed of it? Going to try it on my USB watch next, just for fun.
Good work Erik
Good work Erik
Have you tried runnung
Have you tried running puppy as a screen saver I have not been able to get it
to work yet but I am new to linux and am sure i'm just doing something
wrong the howto link is here
I just think puppy as a screen saver would be a hoot
to work yet but I am new to linux and am sure i'm just doing something
wrong the howto link is here
I just think puppy as a screen saver would be a hoot
-
Guest
i see qemu 0.8 is out. i wonder what "initial usb support" means?
Dec 19, 2005
QEMU version 0.8.0 is out (Changelog).
* Support for ARM Integrator/CP board system emulation.
* Support for MIPS R4K system emulation.
* Initial SMP support on x86 (up to 255 CPUs !).
* Many new audio emulation features.
* Initial USB support.
* New networking options for VLAN support between several QEMU instances.
Dec 19, 2005
QEMU version 0.8.0 is out (Changelog).
* Support for ARM Integrator/CP board system emulation.
* Support for MIPS R4K system emulation.
* Initial SMP support on x86 (up to 255 CPUs !).
* Many new audio emulation features.
* Initial USB support.
* New networking options for VLAN support between several QEMU instances.
QEMU and Puppy 0.8.0
I have Puppy 0.8.0 running under QEMU. Not hard, just a few changes. Here is the command to launch Puppy 1.0.7 in QEMU with a Windows host:
I've tried USB support wiht this version but I am not sure it works at all under Windows. I can't figure out how to get the info needed to add a USB device. I posted to the forum and no one answered.
Note that I am using a verison of QEMU wiht KQEMU support. You have to go to the forums to find the download for this version, but you can use the standard 0.8.0 by changing the name of the exe and BIOS location.START qemu8-kqemu\bin\qemu.exe -L qemu8-kqemu\bios/ -usb -soundhw sb16 -net nic -net user -localtime -m 196 -boot d -cdrom puppy-1.0.7-mozilla.iso -hdb qemu/harddisk
I've tried USB support wiht this version but I am not sure it works at all under Windows. I can't figure out how to get the info needed to add a USB device. I posted to the forum and no one answered.
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> i see qemu 0.8 is out. i wonder what "initial usb support"
> means?
Reading the specs, there's no reason to update QEMU-Puppy to
include QEMU 0.8. The USB support is useless, in our case,
because:
a) Using it for accessing real USB devices is only available on
Linux (AFAIK).
b) The USB thumb drive was already mounted to boot QEMU Puppy
in the first place. "Reusing" an already mounted device is
not a good idea.
> I have Puppy 0.8.0 running under QEMU. Not hard, just a few
> changes.
Puppy 0.8.0?
> I've tried USB support wiht this version but I am not sure it
> works at all under Windows.
AFAIK, it's not possible.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
> means?
Reading the specs, there's no reason to update QEMU-Puppy to
include QEMU 0.8. The USB support is useless, in our case,
because:
a) Using it for accessing real USB devices is only available on
Linux (AFAIK).
b) The USB thumb drive was already mounted to boot QEMU Puppy
in the first place. "Reusing" an already mounted device is
not a good idea.
> I have Puppy 0.8.0 running under QEMU. Not hard, just a few
> changes.
Puppy 0.8.0?
> I've tried USB support wiht this version but I am not sure it
> works at all under Windows.
AFAIK, it's not possible.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
-
Sinphaltimus
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Tue 31 Jan 2006, 03:37
- Location: Pocono, PA
- Contact:
QEMUPuppy Issues
QEMU Puppy project appears to be such a great thing and I agree. The work is excellent and thanks to all here. I for one am a newbie to Linux and am just having fun trying all sorts of things. But, I have issues and was wondering if I could get some help.
First, I installed Puppy to USB, during the install I edited the boot up options to ask for a PW for the pup100 file. This option is supposed to encrypt the pup100 file. That's what I wanted in case I lost my USB drive, I didn't want all my personal info easy to get to.
However, I think it is making the rest of my attempts to try new things impossible.
For instance, I can't seem to mount pup100 from any other booted puppy.
I also get many errors when booting QEMU Puppy in windows.
I had this issue when I first followed the QEMU instructions to convert my USB thumb drive from it's native boot up (from the puppy install) to the QEMU USB boot instructions. I had to manually edit syslinux.cfg and change the "-none-" to "-ask-".
I think this is why I am having issues running my pup100 in QEMU under windows. I have to somehow gain access to the syslinux.cfg file within puphda, edit it the same way and save it back into the puphda file. However, I have no idea how to access the contents of puphda or change them and if that might mess things up.
Attached is an MS word document with screen shots of my entire QEMU boot up in windows. You can see where it fails...
First, I installed Puppy to USB, during the install I edited the boot up options to ask for a PW for the pup100 file. This option is supposed to encrypt the pup100 file. That's what I wanted in case I lost my USB drive, I didn't want all my personal info easy to get to.
However, I think it is making the rest of my attempts to try new things impossible.
For instance, I can't seem to mount pup100 from any other booted puppy.
I also get many errors when booting QEMU Puppy in windows.
I had this issue when I first followed the QEMU instructions to convert my USB thumb drive from it's native boot up (from the puppy install) to the QEMU USB boot instructions. I had to manually edit syslinux.cfg and change the "-none-" to "-ask-".
I think this is why I am having issues running my pup100 in QEMU under windows. I have to somehow gain access to the syslinux.cfg file within puphda, edit it the same way and save it back into the puphda file. However, I have no idea how to access the contents of puphda or change them and if that might mess things up.
Attached is an MS word document with screen shots of my entire QEMU boot up in windows. You can see where it fails...
Sinphaltimus Exmortus
"don't ask, just google"
"don't ask, just google"
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> I have to somehow gain access to the syslinux.cfg file within
> puphda, edit it the same way and save it back into the puphda
> file.
That's not going to work. The parts in the boot script that use
this parameter are skipped when running QEMU-Puppy in in-QEMU
mode. You have to patch this script as well.
I'll consider supporting password protected pup100 files in
QEMU-mode.
> Attached is an MS word document with screen shots of my
> entire QEMU boot up in windows. You can see where it fails...
Welcome in the Linux world! First of all: We don't do Word
documents...
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
> puphda, edit it the same way and save it back into the puphda
> file.
That's not going to work. The parts in the boot script that use
this parameter are skipped when running QEMU-Puppy in in-QEMU
mode. You have to patch this script as well.
I'll consider supporting password protected pup100 files in
QEMU-mode.
> Attached is an MS word document with screen shots of my
> entire QEMU boot up in windows. You can see where it fails...
Welcome in the Linux world! First of all: We don't do Word
documents...
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
-
Sinphaltimus (as Guest)
RE:Welcome to the linux world - we don't......
LOL! Yeah, I had my reservations however, being so new to Linux I could not think of any other way to get the boot sequence uploaded here.
An update on this issue after completely hosing my USB Boot install and my QEMU install -
In another post (I will update all my posts shortly) someone gave me the proper syntax for mounting an encrypted pup100 file which I did. In another response to that post, someone else told me how to mount multiple pup files so I could simultaniously mount a new pup100 file and the encrypted one in a single session. I did this by booting off a live CD (after copying the 2 pup100 file to seperate directories on an NTFS volume). I mounted both pup100 files, deleted the contents on the newpup file and copied over the contents of the encrypted pup file, I then dismounted but ran into a ton of issues trying. Eventually it wworked.
I had to re-install puppy USB to my usb drive (wiping out my qemu installation) reboot into windows and copy the new pup100 file over to the usb drive then reboot to the usb drive.
It all worked great. Now I have to re-do my QEMU install however, I have 2 questions...
From your website, there is a link to qemu-puppy.tar.gz but ir actually links to a file qemu-puppy-tar.tar which doesn't work for me for some reason.
Also, it is stated that this is a puppy 1.0.6 on QEMU, is there a 1.0.7 implimentation?
An update on this issue after completely hosing my USB Boot install and my QEMU install -
In another post (I will update all my posts shortly) someone gave me the proper syntax for mounting an encrypted pup100 file which I did. In another response to that post, someone else told me how to mount multiple pup files so I could simultaniously mount a new pup100 file and the encrypted one in a single session. I did this by booting off a live CD (after copying the 2 pup100 file to seperate directories on an NTFS volume). I mounted both pup100 files, deleted the contents on the newpup file and copied over the contents of the encrypted pup file, I then dismounted but ran into a ton of issues trying. Eventually it wworked.
I had to re-install puppy USB to my usb drive (wiping out my qemu installation) reboot into windows and copy the new pup100 file over to the usb drive then reboot to the usb drive.
It all worked great. Now I have to re-do my QEMU install however, I have 2 questions...
From your website, there is a link to qemu-puppy.tar.gz but ir actually links to a file qemu-puppy-tar.tar which doesn't work for me for some reason.
Also, it is stated that this is a puppy 1.0.6 on QEMU, is there a 1.0.7 implimentation?
-
Erik Veenstra
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wed 27 Jul 2005, 21:06
- Location: NL
- Contact:
> From your website, there is a link to qemu-puppy.tar.gz but
> ir actually links to a file qemu-puppy-tar.tar which doesn't
> work for me for some reason.
Depends on your browser. Some browsers rename abc.tar.gz to
abc.tar.tar, for whatever reason. Just changing the name might
do the trick. I don't know. If it really is a tar file, you
should rename it to abc.tar, not abc.tar.tar or abc.gz,
although, in that case, abc.tar.tar should work too. Confusing?
If you're Windows and if WinZip installed, just double click on
qemu-puppy.tar.tar. If WinZip opens the archive, that's fine.
If is doesn't, rename qemu-puppy.tar.tar to qemu-puppy.tar.gz
and try again.
> Also, it is stated that this is a puppy 1.0.6 on QEMU, is
> there a 1.0.7 implimentation?
AFAIK, it states that it uses Puppy Linux 1.0.7. Just a
minute... Yep, it does.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
> ir actually links to a file qemu-puppy-tar.tar which doesn't
> work for me for some reason.
Depends on your browser. Some browsers rename abc.tar.gz to
abc.tar.tar, for whatever reason. Just changing the name might
do the trick. I don't know. If it really is a tar file, you
should rename it to abc.tar, not abc.tar.tar or abc.gz,
although, in that case, abc.tar.tar should work too. Confusing?
If you're Windows and if WinZip installed, just double click on
qemu-puppy.tar.tar. If WinZip opens the archive, that's fine.
If is doesn't, rename qemu-puppy.tar.tar to qemu-puppy.tar.gz
and try again.
> Also, it is stated that this is a puppy 1.0.6 on QEMU, is
> there a 1.0.7 implimentation?
AFAIK, it states that it uses Puppy Linux 1.0.7. Just a
minute... Yep, it does.
gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
-
Sinpahltimus as guest
THANKS
Thanks a bunch, all is well, I'm back to using my original pup100 file, decrypted now (so to speak) on a boot USB and QEMU in windows (off the same USB) - Now to figure out a way to get this USB installed puppy installed on a HDD. That would complete the circle.
I want puppy installed at home on a powerful computer. I want that puppy installation and my USB instllation of puppy (which boots and runs QEMU under windows) to be able to be sync'ed.
Without learning any scripting just yet, I am going to try and figure this out with manual point and clicks.
I want puppy installed at home on a powerful computer. I want that puppy installation and my USB instllation of puppy (which boots and runs QEMU under windows) to be able to be sync'ed.
Without learning any scripting just yet, I am going to try and figure this out with manual point and clicks.
Re: THANKS
This sounds like an exciting project ... looking forward to your results!Sinpahltimus as guest wrote:Thanks a bunch, all is well, I'm back to using my original pup100 file, decrypted now (so to speak) on a boot USB and QEMU in windows (off the same USB) - Now to figure out a way to get this USB installed puppy installed on a HDD. That would complete the circle.
I want puppy installed at home on a powerful computer. I want that puppy installation and my USB instllation of puppy (which boots and runs QEMU under windows) to be able to be sync'ed.
Without learning any scripting just yet, I am going to try and figure this out with manual point and clicks.
doc
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
[i]Home page: [/i][url]http://nevils-station.com[/url]
[i]Don't google[/i] [b]Search![/b] [url]http://duckduckgo.com[/url]
TahrPup64 & Lighthouse64-b602 & JL64-603
[i]Home page: [/i][url]http://nevils-station.com[/url]
[i]Don't google[/i] [b]Search![/b] [url]http://duckduckgo.com[/url]
TahrPup64 & Lighthouse64-b602 & JL64-603
-
Sinphaltimus
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Tue 31 Jan 2006, 03:37
- Location: Pocono, PA
- Contact:
Final recommendation
Well - for the complete end to end solution - I have ran into many problems.
First, it's a lot of work copying files from a pup100 to an HDD install even if using a live CD to do the transition.
I have found many anomolies along the way. On my HDD install (where I copied the contents of the pup100 file to the correct locations on the HDD) I broke slyphead and my backgrounds.
On my USB boot drive, I broke QEMU Puppy - I keep getting errors "can't load xxx not enough space on drive" or something like that.
The only thing that works is booting off the USB - this hasn't changed.
I have completed my trials and have ended up with more questions than answers.
Like, how do I increase ramdrive size for the USB boot and the QEMU boot?
Anyway - I think the best way to go about this from scratch would be to do a frugal HDD install where nothing gets mounted to ram except the core linux kernal. The pup001 file should act as a p[artion as it does but stay on the HDD and be updated.
This is my idea and how I think it should work.
I install puppy frugally on an HDD - Only the core linux loads into ram so it needs an extremely small ammount of ram to run.
There should be another pup file for use as a swap partition (pupswap001).
Install puppy to usb from within the hdd frugal installation should create a usb install identical to the hdd install (not ask for live cd and take all settings from current install by default).
The QEMU update to the USB drive (to be able to still boot puppy from USB drive AND run under windows using QEMU) should not interfere with the current puppy install on the USB drive.
Since the USB and the QEMU use ram disks to load much more than the linux core, the ram disk creation should be dynamic to fit the contents of the files it needs to load. Or at the very least, the ramdisk size should be easy to change according to your needs for both your USB install and the QEMU installation.
This way, if I increase my pup001 file to a larger size on my HDD frugal installation, I should be able to copy it to USB, renamed it (over-writting the existing pup100 file) to pup100 so that my USB boot detects the pup100 file size and creates a ram disk of the appropriate size (given there is enough ram) in both a native USB boot and QEMU.
Unless I am misunderstanding somethin and puppy USB/QEMU both behave this way natively (do not mount large files to ram).
In the end, if I understand correctly, the HDD install option 1 uses a pup001 file and only loads native OS core functions in ram leaving everything else to br read and written via the pup001 file on the HDD regardless of its size.
That is how I would like the USB and USB/QEMU installation to work.
Yes, I know it would create a lot of wear and tear to the USB drive, but without being able to adjust the ramdisk size easily, I see no other way to have a competely portable solution.
It should be as simple as copying the pup001 (or pup100) file back and forth to and from an HDD install and a USB (boot and QEMU install). Even if a rename is needed (pup100topup001 or vise versa).
Or even to write a sync utility that one could run (either on HDD install, or USB boot install or USB QEMU under windows install) that could easily migrate pupxxx contents between the different installations of puppy. I am not a programmer and can only imagine this being an extremely difficult application to write. But if any open source puppy developers feel up to a huge beneficial leap in a unique solution, there lies your challenge.
Imagine being able to install puppy on your desktop computer, laptop computer and usb thumb drive, all with the exact same installations, customizations and settings. Then, no matter which one you use or update or change, being able to import the changes to pupxxx (and any other files used) into any one of your other instaalations to keep them all up to date and in sync.
Now that would be something else. And that is the reason for the start of these threads by me. Because that is my goal. And without programming knowledge, I can only try to do this manually. And since I am just learning linux, it is a great challenge for me and it will take me some time to find a way to do it. But I will stay the course - EW! DID I JUST SAY THAT?!?! "Stay the course", Uhm, sorry... I meant, I will do my best.
First, it's a lot of work copying files from a pup100 to an HDD install even if using a live CD to do the transition.
I have found many anomolies along the way. On my HDD install (where I copied the contents of the pup100 file to the correct locations on the HDD) I broke slyphead and my backgrounds.
On my USB boot drive, I broke QEMU Puppy - I keep getting errors "can't load xxx not enough space on drive" or something like that.
The only thing that works is booting off the USB - this hasn't changed.
I have completed my trials and have ended up with more questions than answers.
Like, how do I increase ramdrive size for the USB boot and the QEMU boot?
Anyway - I think the best way to go about this from scratch would be to do a frugal HDD install where nothing gets mounted to ram except the core linux kernal. The pup001 file should act as a p[artion as it does but stay on the HDD and be updated.
This is my idea and how I think it should work.
I install puppy frugally on an HDD - Only the core linux loads into ram so it needs an extremely small ammount of ram to run.
There should be another pup file for use as a swap partition (pupswap001).
Install puppy to usb from within the hdd frugal installation should create a usb install identical to the hdd install (not ask for live cd and take all settings from current install by default).
The QEMU update to the USB drive (to be able to still boot puppy from USB drive AND run under windows using QEMU) should not interfere with the current puppy install on the USB drive.
Since the USB and the QEMU use ram disks to load much more than the linux core, the ram disk creation should be dynamic to fit the contents of the files it needs to load. Or at the very least, the ramdisk size should be easy to change according to your needs for both your USB install and the QEMU installation.
This way, if I increase my pup001 file to a larger size on my HDD frugal installation, I should be able to copy it to USB, renamed it (over-writting the existing pup100 file) to pup100 so that my USB boot detects the pup100 file size and creates a ram disk of the appropriate size (given there is enough ram) in both a native USB boot and QEMU.
Unless I am misunderstanding somethin and puppy USB/QEMU both behave this way natively (do not mount large files to ram).
In the end, if I understand correctly, the HDD install option 1 uses a pup001 file and only loads native OS core functions in ram leaving everything else to br read and written via the pup001 file on the HDD regardless of its size.
That is how I would like the USB and USB/QEMU installation to work.
Yes, I know it would create a lot of wear and tear to the USB drive, but without being able to adjust the ramdisk size easily, I see no other way to have a competely portable solution.
It should be as simple as copying the pup001 (or pup100) file back and forth to and from an HDD install and a USB (boot and QEMU install). Even if a rename is needed (pup100topup001 or vise versa).
Or even to write a sync utility that one could run (either on HDD install, or USB boot install or USB QEMU under windows install) that could easily migrate pupxxx contents between the different installations of puppy. I am not a programmer and can only imagine this being an extremely difficult application to write. But if any open source puppy developers feel up to a huge beneficial leap in a unique solution, there lies your challenge.
Imagine being able to install puppy on your desktop computer, laptop computer and usb thumb drive, all with the exact same installations, customizations and settings. Then, no matter which one you use or update or change, being able to import the changes to pupxxx (and any other files used) into any one of your other instaalations to keep them all up to date and in sync.
Now that would be something else. And that is the reason for the start of these threads by me. Because that is my goal. And without programming knowledge, I can only try to do this manually. And since I am just learning linux, it is a great challenge for me and it will take me some time to find a way to do it. But I will stay the course - EW! DID I JUST SAY THAT?!?! "Stay the course", Uhm, sorry... I meant, I will do my best.
Sinphaltimus Exmortus
"don't ask, just google"
"don't ask, just google"