Keep your savefile slim and healthy

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Jasper

#136 Post by Jasper »

Wife to husband: "And what are you going to do today?"

Husband: "Nothing."

Wife: "But that's what you did yesterday."

Husband: "I know, but I didn't finish it."

Alternatively:
some so-called professionals are frequently regarded a waste of space and good for nothing.

Finally, G H Hardy, a truly great English mathematician, observed in his famous essay "most people can do nothing well" and that statement was not qualified by "we expect, but cannot prove".
--------------------
My save file is 73B and Hardy may have written "men" not "people".

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mikeslr
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Thanks rufwoof & Jasper

#137 Post by mikeslr »

Thanks, Jasper, for joining in the spirit of my "aside". During my youth, as my mind was developing, my slight astigmatism went unnoticed. It was only later that I put two and two* together and reached the conclusion that my view of the world, seen from the prospective of others, was somewhat askew.
Perhaps I am not alone.

Thanks, rufwoof, for the detailed explanations, and especially those regarding your method of utilizing Mikeb's techniques. Near the top of my "To Do" list is to carefully re-read ALL of your posts regarding how you've structured your Pups, and attempt to duplicate them: internalize the process rather than just store it away as interesting.

mikesLr

* There was a time when I had absolute faith in those parts of conclusions based on mathematical analysis. Math had been my strongest subject. When I was the eleventh grade a classmate, using algebra, demonstrate that Two plus Two equaled Two. It was only when I went thru each step he had taken, substituting real numbers for the algebraic symbols, that I realized concealed within his procedure was division by 0. After that I operated on the principle that if I could be fooled by a simple "slight of mind" trick, it could happen to the best of us.

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8Geee
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#138 Post by 8Geee »

Pupmode 13 is OK for most general purposes. The ability to configure the Puppy Event manager and inactivity shutdown make it near ideal. A journaled filesystem like ext3 for both format and SFS can occasionally shrink by itself. I've seen Slackos do this on a smallish scale (my savefile was 96MB free, increasing to 99MB free out of 124MB availible). I believe this is due variable compression techniques (squashFS?).

The situation presented here CAN get to the point of snow removal in Boston. At some point one has to ship it out, much akin to garbage.
Linux user #498913 "Some people need to reimagine their thinking."
"Zuckerberg: a large city inhabited by mentally challenged people."

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rufwoof
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Re: Thanks rufwoof & Jasper

#139 Post by rufwoof »

mikeslr wrote:Thanks, rufwoof ...
Your welcome.

I have a Google drive that gives you 15GB of free space that can be used as a web server (see http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 170#794170). Mine is very spartan at present, just with my vmlinuz and initrd stored/presented there http://tinyurl.com/qhfdjfd

If you have grub4dos or similar installed then you can drop those in as another entry in menu.lst

i.e. I store my vmlinuz and initrd files for various pup's in different sub directories on /mnt/sda3 which is the first drive (sda) and third partition - which when counted from zero as the first, one as the second ... etc makes my root being hd0,2 and accordingly my menu.lst looks something like

title Rufwoofs
root (hd0,2)
kernel /RW/vmlinuz
initrd /RW/initrd.gz

i.e vmlinuz and initrd stored in /mnt/sda3/RW sub-directory.

Provided you have something like

timeout 5

near the top of menu.lst then you'll have 5 seconds when booting the PC to arrow up or down to whichever pup you want to boot

The initrd is quite large at around 430MB as it includes the full Libre Office (writer, calc, presenter, draw, database etc) with UK and US dictionaries, Openshot video editor with the associated Blender (3D animation) and full inkscape (titles editing), xvidcap for screen capture and Audacity for sound editing. Skype is also in there. All remastered to my PC but I find that equally boots on two other household PC's as-is (just select Vesa and 1024x768 resolution options during booting).

The normal puppy menu is accessed via right clicking the desktop - I have a smaller/simple menu as the normal bottom left menu click.

Based on Slacko 5.3.3, but with a later PAE kernel (3.10) - so supports larger ram systems and later PC's

No save option, just ram boots the same each and every time. If I want to make a change I usually boot a fresh/clean version, immediately make the desired changes and then use the menu, config, remaster option - which after running creates a new initrd in /root (which I then move to /mnt/sda/RW so its used at the next reboot). A copy of vmlinuz is also produced in /root as part of the remaster process, but that's the same as the original one and can just be deleted. Both vmlinuz and initrd are created under /root after a remaster so that PXE server can be fired up (menu, PXE Server) and other PC's on the LAN PXE boot using those.

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rufwoof
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#140 Post by rufwoof »

8Geee wrote:Pupmode 13 is OK for most general purposes. The ability to configure the Puppy Event manager and inactivity shutdown make it near ideal.
I originally found the pupmodes to be somewhat confusing/opaque and ended up using and sticking with ram boot (pupmode 5) and do a automated rotation into pupmode 12 as part of shutdown (and have no prompts for creating a savefile). I've also added some code to /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown to spin down the drives as part of shutdown (based around hdparm -Y). Mine being rather old are a little noisy and you can quite clearly hear them spin down before a few seconds later the PC powering off. Parking the heads helps reduce the risk of corruption. Often I don't have drives mounted anyway - or manually umount them before I shutdown when they are mounted, so it wouldn't really matter if the power was just cut sharply.

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8Geee
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#141 Post by 8Geee »

Well pupmode 13 allows Puppy Event Manager to be zeroed in the first tab and set to say 30 (minutes) of inactivity in the last tab. You will get a SAVE Button on the desktop for manual saves. Personally its OK for me, YRMV.

Onto Slim savefiles... Make sure your internet is disconnected and eth0/wlan is off at shutdown. I notice a savefile creep if puppy shuts down with a browser open and internet connection available. This using FF browsers (27 here) and varies greatly by its configuration. Putting the browser in root and configuring all storages/caches is the acid test. Also FF browsers have a startup cache in root/.cache that does grow over time. Just delete, and it will come back at default size. HTH
Linux user #498913 "Some people need to reimagine their thinking."
"Zuckerberg: a large city inhabited by mentally challenged people."

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gychang
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#142 Post by gychang »

DaveS wrote:When you move /create a file or folder at /mnt/home (or anywhere else for that matter), you can drag it back to /root and from the pop-up menu select to make a symlink. This way, Puppy will THINK the file/directory is in /root when it is actually at /mnt/home.
I am not clear on this.

1. I have a large file (AFile.doc) in /root/my-documents folder
2. I drag it to /mnt/home and make an absolute link
3. AFile.doc will exist in /root/my-documents folder but can access thru /mnt/home/my-documents link folder, right?
4. save file will save the original large AFile, right?

it seems more economical to make the directory in /mnt/home/my-documents and link (absolute) to /root/my-documents, that way the save file will only save the link, again right?

thanks,

ebisu
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#143 Post by ebisu »

Right, but that is what DaveS proposed. You should read his statement again.

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gychang
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#144 Post by gychang »

gychang wrote:
DaveS wrote:When you move /create a file or folder at /mnt/home (or anywhere else for that matter), you can drag it back to /root and from the pop-up menu select to make a symlink. This way, Puppy will THINK the file/directory is in /root when it is actually at /mnt/home.
I am not clear on this.

1. I have a large file (AFile.doc) in /root/my-documents folder
2. I drag it to /mnt/home and make an absolute link
3. AFile.doc will exist in /root/my-documents folder but can access thru /mnt/home/my-documents link folder, right?
4. save file will save the original large AFile, right?

it seems more economical to make the directory in /mnt/home/my-documents and link (absolute) to /root/my-documents, that way the save file will only save the link, again right?

thanks,
should be a relative link....

TTW
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#145 Post by TTW »

greengeek wrote:
mikeb wrote: ( a save sfs for persistent changes loaded to ram)
Do you mean that you have an sfs which contains specific personal and/or configuration information, and that you just overlay that over the main sfs? Could that contain things like wifi password and connection scripts?
I am very interested in this and can't find a definitive how to.

If I understand correctly then I can do away with my constantly growing savefile and instead create an sfs file to contain my persistent personalised settings, E.g. how my desktop looks, wifi connection, email login, browser bookmarks.

Is that right? If so then how do I do that?

Do I just copy all those configuration files into one directory and make a squash file? If I do then how will puppy know to use those files on boot up?

Where do I then store the subsequent SQS file?

Sorry if this has been covered before.

TTW

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mikeb
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#146 Post by mikeb »

No definitive how tos around though I and others have made posts with some details.

In my case the save is an sfs which gets loaded and copied to pup_rw... so saves all changes like a pup_save does.

You might prefer making an sfs of default settings only...... using current puppies one of them might work using the adrv.sfs ....iirc thats th eonly one that layers on top of other sfs which is essential to be used for saved settings.

If you save file keeps growing its still worth taking steps to limit that regardless of the save method in use.....there are plenty of tips here and in the rest of the forum.

Alternative B is if you cannot keep yer save small then go for a save folder instead...then you get the whole partition to play with.....

mike

TTW
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#147 Post by TTW »

mikeb wrote:No definitive how tos around though I and others have made posts with some details.

In my case the save is an sfs which gets loaded and copied to pup_rw... so saves all changes like a pup_save does.

You might prefer making an sfs of default settings only...... using current puppies one of them might work using the adrv.sfs ....iirc thats th eonly one that layers on top of other sfs which is essential to be used for saved settings.

If you save file keeps growing its still worth taking steps to limit that regardless of the save method in use.....there are plenty of tips here and in the rest of the forum.

Alternative B is if you cannot keep yer save small then go for a save folder instead...then you get the whole partition to play with.....

mike
Thanks Mike
It's an interesting concept. My Saluki instal has an adrive so that may be worth investigating.
I think the savefile bloat is mainly due to Firefox and email. I know I should really have these as SFS files that just load on boot without any saving of previous sessions I just haven't got round to deinstalling FF and setting it up in that way.

I am also lazy and leave files on the desktop which then goes into the savefile instead of filing them nicely away to a hard drive somewhere.

Time for a clean up methinks.

TTW

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mikeb
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#148 Post by mikeb »

Well taming firefox is possible...zero cache, no urlclassifiers, no history etc etc.... or delete the profile each boot or stick it elsewhere but to me thats messy and I like bookmarks.

adrv...well doable though a bit fixed...I prefer a transparent save system as a no brainer....plus ram is there so why not use it :) You also get the choice not to save so can be used in a config only way.

sfs instead of pets does save space..the latest browsers are ridiculously big and of course that applies with every update.

The save sfs to ram i have been using since around 2008 so a bit past a concept :D

mike

TTW
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#149 Post by TTW »

mikeb wrote:
The save sfs to ram i have been using since around 2008 so a bit past a concept :D

mike
Sorry didn't mean to imply it was only a concept, just that it's a new one to me. I actually like the idea but not sure I have the technical skills to put it into practice, does it involve writing scripts to make it work? Not really sure where to start as I have never made an sfs file before, wouldn't know where to store it (presume the same directory as I boot from) and wouldn't know what to put in it either, although I guess this can be a work in progress over a period of time.

TTW

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mikeb
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#150 Post by mikeb »

Thats ok...actually concept referred to the adrv as apposed to my working sfs save.

Hmm well there was a thread or 2 on the adrv approach but this forum is not the easiest to research from...but perhaps the adrv term might be a good start.

mksquashfs /path/to/folder/ /path/to/file.sfs

is the basic syntax to make an sfs.

For example you could use that to make an sfs of /initrs/pup_rw which is where all the changes are.

You can exclude directories by adding -e proc initrd for example.

For my approach...yes some alterations to the init script and rc.shutdown...(I also use it for slax) you may not like to get into that but the adrv approach uses what puppy has...I believe you name the file appropriately though don't quote me I don't have this stuff as I can simply load any sfs present automatically for an easy life :) and have the save sfs method available so all this becomes mute.

But its all variations on a theme which might give you what you want.

I am sure someone IS using the adrv method and might pop in here.

mike

OverDrive
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I found this little Gem

#151 Post by OverDrive »

I searched a few times several years ago about the size of icon-themes.cache.

Mine was like 22 meg and taking up a lot of my savefile.

Never found anything back then but I decided to search again as it starting to really be the biggest file in my slim savefile.

Sure enough I hit paydirt when Geoffry posted this in a reply last year.

Here is the link: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=97944

Here is the paydirt snippet:
I now remember why I added
Code:
gtk-update-icon-cache -f -i /usr/share/icons/hicolor


petget updates the icon cache where the SFS loader didn't in early versions, this has been fixed so adding this will be of no benefit.

While on the subject of icon cache, I used the "-i" option,
Quote:
-i, --index-only Don't include image data in the cache

this keeps the size of the hicolor/icon-theme.cache from becoming bloated

icon-theme.cache with gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor 37.6 MB (37,607,348 Bytes)

icon-theme.cache with gtk-update-icon-cache -f -i /usr/share/icons/hicolor 97.7 kB (97,708 Bytes)

I thank vovchik for pointing this out to me.
WHAM !! Shrunk a 22meg file down to 8k! :D

Hope this helps others.

OverDrive
Instant Puppy Fan!!!

kuman

Saving the Puppy file in Lucid version 5.2.8

#152 Post by kuman »

There's a way to avoid saving it after every session w/o losing the new data from it?

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mikeslr
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Lupu 5.2.8 + PupSaveConfig

#153 Post by mikeslr »

Hi kuman

Your post is a little confusing. I think what you want to do is the following:

(1) move the my-documents folder out of /root and symlink it back. I suggest you move it to the same partition on which Lupu is located as that partition is automatically mounted on bootup. Puppy and the applications running under it will still "see" my-documents folder as being in /root and offer to save-to or open-from that folder without your having to browse to it. The data created by applications, however, will not be in your SaveFile. The data will have been written by your applications to the drive/partition on which /my-documents is now physically located.

(2) Install Shinobar's PupSaveConfig, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 081#457081. It functions slightly different than the similarly named one by Barry K, which was used in Lupu.

(3) Apply the first two instructions on this post: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 326#662326. Remember to Save on Shutdown/reboot. Try it a couple of times to see if its working. To test, put a file in /root -- any file, text or jpg-- shut down, don't Save and see if it's there when you boot up. If it didn't shutdown without Saving, apply jpep's third step. I have a dim recollection of having to use it in Lupu. I prefer not writing to Etc if I can avoid it. The test will show if its necessary,

Once you can shutdown without Saving, you'll only want to Save when you've (1) changed some setting; (2) installed a new application or (3) want an SFS to load at boot, or no longer want it to.

mikesLr

Sailor Enceladus
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Re: Saving the Puppy file in Lucid version 5.2.8

#154 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

kuman wrote:There's a way to avoid saving it after every session w/o losing the new data from it?
If you like the manual approach, I think /initrd/pup_rw is the folder what you want, but I don't have lucid.

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friendofjane
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#155 Post by friendofjane »

Hi,

I hope it is ok that I put my question here.

If it's not the right place, I apologize and please tell me where the question has to be.

My question is how to save the save folder so I can restore my stystem ist in the case of a problem?

For years I used Puppy Precise 5.7.1 on a usb stick and I handled a save file. More than once the copy of the save file saved my system when I had experimented something what destroyed the OS. I booted on the copy of the save file and I got my system back.

Can I do the same thing with the save folder?

As you can see, I have Ubuntu Tahr64 6.0.5 on usb stick and I like the save folder. The OS now boots more quickly and I don't have to bother any more about the size of the save file.

But on my first install, I did something wrong with the save folder (I don't remember now what), then the system was gone (it didn't boot any more). Perhaps I copied the save folder into another folder, but I'm not shure.

So is it possible to have a copy of the save folder which allows to restore a clean state of the system in the case of a problem, and if its possible, how I can do that?

Can I organize in a way that I have the choice to boot on one of multiple save folders?

Thank you.
Distro: Ubuntu Tahr 64 6.0.5 on usb stick

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