Questions about SFS and pupsave's speed

[Darkgame]

Hi all. Its my 3rd thread i think :S
But I still have questions

Im running using USB.
And shuting down the computer is slow.
I wanted to put all my stuffs except wine in SFS format (unless I can modify SFS on-the-fly,

So its something like...
I start my puppy and just load everything. No need to bother installing and saving stuffs into pupsave.

So maybe I can have something like...

ATI Driver.sfs
Nvidia Driver.sfs
Xorg High Driver.sfs

and I can choose to load them and use them without errors.

I am asking about this because at a time when I am in school, I used puppy linux to do the work. I installed alot of stuffs and when I am shuting down, my teacher is pushing me to quickly shutdown.
I cant wait to so I did a force shut.

Then the next time I logged in, the ATI Driver is gone. Wine is still there but the puppy install manager cannot see it.

So I want to load my files in an SFS.
If I can modify an SFS on-the-fly, I would want my files to be in SFS format.

[rcrsn51]

If you want your flash drive to shut down faster, you can make it work like a regular hard drive. Read here.

[Darkgame]

Thanks. I read it before, but it seemed very complicated for me. Im just a newbie totally new to linux. :S

Edit: I tried formatting as ext2 (i dont use live cd, boot from usb WITHOUT pupsave) and it just sits there like nothing happen. 5 minutes later when i cancel it, they say they are formatting my drive, or something like that.
I canceled it, and true enough, nothing happened.

I will try it again tomorrow though.

And i just read again. Things are getting clearer.

[rcrsn51]

If you are booting off the flash drive, this method isn't going to work. Once you re-format the drive, all your core Puppy files will be gone.

[Bruce B]

squashfs is a compressed read only file system

To modify it, one can copy all the files out of the mounted squashfs
filesystem to a directory. Then add, subtract or modify files inside the
directory, as you please. Then make a new compressed read only
squashfs filesystem from that directory(s).

This is exactly how I add programs.

Code: Select all

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop1            496M   71M  400M  16% /initrd/pup_rw
/dev/loop0            258M  258M     0 100% /initrd/pup_ro2
/dev/loop4             80M   80M     0 100% /initrd/pup_ro4

/initrd/pup_ro2 is lupu_520.sfs and well over 2x its orginal size
/initrd/pup_ro4 is extras.sfs and contains extra programs
/initrd/pup_rw is the pupsave file and has 80mb configuration and user files

This seems to me, along the lines of what you say you want along the
lines of the squashfs files.

~

[abushcrafter]

This is a post of mine from another thread.

My setup:

I have most of my apps in a "MustHave" SFS, "Bouns" SFS and "RegularlyUpdatedExtras" SFS. All pre-configured. So I have the "pup-***.sfs" with some stuff removed and a few things added which are most useful if they are in that SFS so if I am on a system where I can only load the main SFS. I have those bits. E.G SFS Linker.

I have a SFS ("RegularlyUpdatedExtras") which the few apps which are regularly updated go in. This is because I found it a pain to edit and build a large SFS each 2 weeks.

"MustHave" SFS is so I have important apps which don't go in the "pup-***.sfs" but the option have having them loaded into ram some how or to easily combine into the "pup-***.sfs" if I want too.

"Bouns" SFS is for every thing else.

With packages that have loads of libs and files in them. What I do is keep them separate from the SFS I plan to put them in. When I build a new version of the SFS I plan to put those separate packages in. I build that SFS and then use "SFS Combiner" to add those separate packages.

This means I don't have a hell of working out which libs need to be left behind because they are needed by some other app or which files I need need to leave or remove when I upgrade or remove that package.

[Darkgame]

just another question.
Lets say i load my home-made wine.sfs and i changed some settings. Will the sfs be updated about it?
Thanks for all yr efforts!

[nooby]

I love threads like this. thank indeed for creating it.

I should not wild guess the answer but seems not likely to me.

What I guess you need is to have a directory with all the changes and the all the other files that is needed for that sfs and then you make an sfs out of that directory.

Only then will the changes be incorporated.

I wish me could do what they have told you here too. Get at it and tell me later if you succeeded. So many could learn from what you want to accmplish so good that many share their individual ways to do it.

[Darkgame]

u mean like. . .
Lets say file A will be modified in this sfs since my programs will always use it.
Then i modify it, unmount sfs and mount it again.
Check if file A is modified
rite?

[nooby]

I could be wrong but the only way to save such would to incorparate it in the pupsave file

Hm I surely know too little.

Say you have a sfs on the hdd or on usb outside of pupsave.

If you make use of an sfs like Firefox or Chromium or Opera or whatever and yo uadd an addon or make bookmarks change settings etc.

Remember this is a sfs which means it is made into a Squash File System something by a program that take all the files from a directory and then make a loop mounted ext2 or ext3 jounaled file that linux can handle named .sfs. So when you get it on the OS then it gets extracted with a program that extract it again.

To get a persistent change on any file there then you need to extract the sfs to a directory with same name? and there do the changes replace one file with the changed version and then use the Dir2SFS program to squash it again then it is changed but only then?

Am I wrong

Re why is it so slow?

Well when we buy an USB Flash memory then some of us like myself buy by impulse them having a "bargain" price Sales or something. 4GB for 10USD or so. No big deal but them are way too slow compared to those that cost much much more but then you need to really know what you buy so you don't pay high price for something as slow as the cheap ones
So they are slow due to the way they are hardware built them inherently slow circuits Speed cost much money

[Darkgame]

im aware of speed.
Mine is a sandisk new cruzer 16gb. Read 20mb/s
not sure write
anyway, im gonna try and change the pupmode to 12 first.
Speed shuld not b a problem den.

[Bruce B]

Sorry, I submitted before I was finished.
~

[Bruce B]

If I can modify an SFS on-the-fly, I would want my files to be in SFS format.

You have probably noticed in Linux we rarely reboot just because we
installed an application. If you replace the kernel, that would be an
exception.

Remembering Windows, install an application. The dialog comes up for
you to reboot. Sometimes I've seen it reboot harshly with open
applications and not even saving changes or giving warning.

On the fly part is easy. I don't know how to avoid a reboot and a fast
harsh one at that.

I usually do it in two reboots in order to do it gently and safely.

~

[abushcrafter]

just another question.
Lets say i load my home-made wine.sfs and i changed some settings. Will the sfs be updated about it?
Thanks for all yr efforts!

Changes will be saved into your pupsave. Not into the SFS.

[Bruce B]

u mean like. . .
Lets say file A will be modified in this sfs since my programs will always use it.
Then i modify it, unmount sfs and mount it again.
Check if file A is modified
rite?

If you look at the files and directories as displayed by default, there is
know way to know what exists where. And there are thousands of files.

cd /initrd/pup_rw

From this directory, you are looking directly at the pupsave file. Or I think
you will. That's where I find it anyway.

It is much easier to figure out what is actually in the save file, when the
rest is filtered out.

~