Terminal command for resizing personal storage file?-(solved)

[rburkartjo]

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i want to resize to 1/2 a tera bite which is beyond the given option on the resize app. can this be done/tks

[mikewalsh]

@rburkartjo :-

Um.....can you clarify, please?

I want to resize to 1/2 a tera bite......beyond the option on the resize app....

What exactly is it you want to re-size? A partition? A save-file? And, um.....which "resize app" are we talking about? I assume you want to reduce something from 1 TB (terabyte) in size down to 512 GB in size; that sound about right?

Even if you don't want to supply details, others ARE going to be asking the same question..! Terse, brief descriptions of as few words as possible don't really help; I appreciate you're having issues typing ATM, but we DO need just a little bit more to go on, please.....

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Oops! In the title; "personal storage file". Good God; you've got a save-file of 1 TB in size??? I thought the one I had a few years ago of 14 GB was a record.....

Mike.

[rburkartjo]

ok long answer

i have mobility issues and spilled cup of tea on laptop. wiped out hard drive. bios still worked. so had to kill security lock on uefi which could not delete when installed ubuntu years ago.then . still could not use legacy only uefi , then had to install puppy on my properly reformated tera usb stick. everthing works fine except i want to keep extra large 512gig save file size. will buy new computer this fall or during the holidays when prices are the best. took awhile for this old
man to get most things i wanted reinstalled. used my answered questions on this form for guidance. and i have also have forgotten to resize my save file therefore some of my reinstall apps./tks

[bigpup]

What format is the partition the save file is on?

[rburkartjo]

big
vfat

[mikewalsh]

Mm. Okayyy.....and of course, that's why the save-file as opposed to a save-folder. Needs the internal Linux file format for Pup to run.

Right; here's the rub. Save-files can be made bigger, but there's no scripting or anything in Puppy for making them smaller. Bigpup, what would you recommend? My approach to this would be to create a new save-file; resize it upwards to the size I wanted, then wipe the contents. I would then copy across the contents of the old save-file. Only way I know of it can be done.....unless anyone knows an easier way.

Have you got more than one Puppy? This really wants to be done from another Pup, 'cos otherwise there's a good chance of an 'active' save-file getting corrupted.....and I've no idea if the resize utility will work with a file of this magnitude.

It'll take a long time to create, I know that much!

Mike.

[rburkartjo]

mike my save file is now 3.9gig with 2.3 gig avail i want to increase it to around 512gig

[bigpup]

Make a copy of the old Fossapup save file.
Store on some other drive than the 1TB USB
Hopefully, we can still use it with the new Fossapup install.

Going to use this to convert it into a save folder:
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 57&t=96472
The latest pet:
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/downloa ... p?id=89079

I would totally start over with this 1TB USB.
Set it up so it can use save folders, that auto adjust, and only limited by free space, on partition.

Have Fossapup on some other drive you can boot it from, so you can run programs from it.

Have the Fossapup64 9.5 iso to use for needed files.

Use Gparted program.

On the 1TB USB drive
Make new partition table (msdos)

Set it up and install Fossapup on it as shown here using Frugalpup Installer. menu->Setup->

Drive labels are going to depend on number of drives on the computer.
So, you do need to be careful to select the correct drive label, when offered to select.

This is what I do.

Use Gparted program.
Setup the USB stick with 2 partitions.
First one, small 300MB, fat32 format, flagged boot. (location for boot loader files, boot partition)
Rest of drive, whatever other partition(s), but one ext3 or 4 format. (location to put frugal installs)
(this is UEFI standard requirement, and some computers, look for a fat32 partition, for boot loader files)

Run Frugalpup Installer main program.
On the main window are selection buttons.
Select the Puppy button, to do the install.
Go through install process, selecting to install to the ext formatted partition.
Note:
When selecting the partition to install to.
A window pops up, giving option to make a directory, to put the frugal install in.
I make this directory and usually name it, the name of the Puppy version.
Carefully read that windows info.
Press enter, makes the directory, not the OK button.
complete the install.

When it gets back to the main Frugalpup window.
Select the boot button.
Select the location of the frugal install, on the USB stick.
Select the small 300MB partition on the USB stick, as location to install the boot loader. (may need to scroll the selection window)
Select the boot loader type.
UEFI
mbr ->legacy bios boot
both

You can install the UEFI for UEFI computers, mbr for legacy bios computers, or both, to boot anything.

The UEFI will also install the needed files, to support secure boot enabled in UEFI.

When you first boot the USB stick, on a UEFI computer, with secure boot enabled.
A process will start, to allow you to install the Puppy security key, to the computer.
It will add this Puppy key, to the other ones, loaded on the computer.

Note:
Not all UEFI computers are the same, for booting from a USB stick.
Some may require secure boot disabled, CSM enabled, or legacy boot enabled, to be able to boot from a USB stick.
So, for those computers.
The mbr boot loader will work, because the UEFI bios, is basically in, legacy bios operation.
Some computer bios setups have option to enable/disable USB booting. That would need to be enabled.

To put more frugal installs on the same USB stick.
Do the complete process again, for the new Puppy version.
When you run the boot loader install.
It will make entries, for all installs it finds, on the USB drive.

Note:
There is a newer version of Frugalpup Installer, but it is not really needed to do this simple install.
If you want to use it:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rdyc5l ... /frugalpup
Up to Version 29
Fossapup has version 20.

After you get the 1TB USB setup and a new install of Fossapup on it.
Add the old converted now save folder, to the location of the new Fossapup install.
Now when you boot with it, hopefully it will use the save folder made from the old save file.

If on first boot, it does not seem to use the now old save folder.
Probably need to make some save info files used for booting.
Do a shutdown making a save folder.
Now manually delete this new save folder and replace with the old save folder.
Make sure it is named the same as the new save folder.
Try booting again using the save.

Any problems.
You do what?
You see what?

[williams2]

Normally, a save file is on a mounted partition. The partition is usually mounted on /mnt/home/
(or at least, /mnt/home/ is a symlink the the partition that the file system is on.)

You should be able to put files in /mnt/home/
Fir example, movies (mp4, avi, ogv, mkv etc), audio (mp3, ogg, etc), pdfs, isos, zip, rar, 7z etc etc.

AFAIK, vfat (fat32) file systems have a maximum file size of 4GiB.
AFAIK, you can not create a 512GiB file on a vfat file system.

[mikewalsh]

Damn. Yes, I forgot about the maximum 4 GB file-size limit on FAT32... Thanks for the reminder, williams2! I never use it myself, so rarely - if EVER - run into that problem. And it also means I never think about it, either.

Go with bigpup's recommendation. Completely re-do the flash drive. Set it up with a Linux file-system instead of leaving it at factory-standard FAT32, and let it use save-folders instead; these are only limited by the amount of space in the partition, and will auto-adjust upwards & downwards depending on what's in them.

(A word of advice, though. Keep a copy of your old save-file. Once the save-folder is created, you can delete the contents and copy across the contents of the old save-file; fingers crossed, it should work, given that it's from the exact same Puppy.)

I know where bigpup's coming from. Given how quick & easy a Puppy install is to work with, it only makes sense to start from scratch, partition & format afresh, perform a brand-new install. I know it sounds like a lot of "messing-about", but believe you me, it's more than worth it in the long run.

Mike.

[rburkartjo]

tks mike and big

[rburkartjo]

and i was wondering why i couldnt increase my storage beyond 3.9gigs now i know

[mikeslr]

I assume you have Windows on your computer and that the hard-drive was formatted with 3 partitions: (1) a small (<500Mbs) boot partition; (2) a 10Gb +/- recovery partition; and the rest originally holding your Windows operating system, its programs and now Puppy and its associated files. Please confirm.
If so, you can resize the 'big' partition, creating a 516 Gb "unallocated" partition, later formatted to Linux Ext3 or 4. Don't hesitate to ask for instructions. Resizing is done under Windows. Formatting under Puppy.
But like william2 suggests, you don't have to use that new partition entirely as a SaveFile. Or even as a SaveFolder. You are better off keeping as much as possible outside of "Puppy Space". That makes it easy to backup your SaveFile or SaveFolder and recover from problems; easy to try out other Puppies; any easy to access the datafiles you create from any Puppy. The latter is especially important should something happen to prevent you from booting up a Puppy.
The only things which have to be within "Puppy Space" are configurations for each Puppy; sometimes for individual applications; and those applications you must install: that is they can't be used as SFSes, AppImages or portables.
Running 'as root' Puppys can access any file anywhere on your computer. And it only takes a couple of seconds to create bookmarks, and symbolic links so that anything is just a couple of clicks away.
Any folder on a mounted partition symlinked to /root will be treated by applications as if it were actually located in /root. For example, if you have a symbolic link in /root to /mnt/home/my-documents LibreOffice-writer will offer to open files from and save files to /root/my-documents. But the actual files saved or opened will be physically located on your hard-drive rather than in 'Puppy Space'.

[rburkartjo]

tks everyone for your input. at least now i know how to do

[mikewalsh]

tks everyone for your input. at least now i know how to do

Just a quick 'aside'; Puppy's sym-link function is very easy to use from the wee drag'n'drop 'box' that comes up when you do this in ROX. And Puppy's sym-link function is very powerful, too.....it'll let you do stuff most other distros don't really like you doing!

But it's how most of us keep personal stuff separate from Puppy itself. It's easy to sym-link back in, too, when you try out or change to a different Puppy.

Mike.

[bigpup]

Well, tell us what you end up doing.
This is like reading a book, getting to the last page, the page is missing!

[rburkartjo]

big i have decided to try at a later date. spent over a week just getting my no hard drive computer to recognize anything, once i get a new computer will do. however if i mess up i have no working computer.f it was up and running with ubuntu on a partition would try in a second. i have a usb stick with ubuntu install on it and plenty of extra 512gig usb sticks. but for some reason cant get a copy of any linux to install. thank goodness for puppy and all the members help'