Bookwormpup won't stop using my nvme internal drive (Solved)

[Crumbs crumbs]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and to bookwormpup. I currently use Debian 12 on 3 PCs, but I want to be able to use a portable distro for other purposes. So I tried a few on virtualbox (porteus with various desktop environments, parrot, also tried to create persistent partitions manually as suggested on lany debian wikis, always ending up with some issues, also used mkusb which seems to work) and bookwormpup seemed really nice and simple.
I'm running the distro on a t590.

The issue is that at closure, the system always tends to save changes to one of my partitions on the nvme drive. Whatever I do, I remain unable to umount the ext4 partition of the disk, the terminal says "not mounted" even if lsblk allows me to see it.
By default, fstab exists but is empty.
So i created an unused, fake mounting point to send the nvme on after editing fstab, the issue remains the same.
I want bookwormpup to save changes on the usb drive or whatever device I use to have it running but I currently end up in an infinite save loop in which the only ways out are:
- not saving changes
- saving changes about not using the nvme on the nvme

That doesn't make any sense.
For what it's worth, I'm using a Kingston data traveler usb drive whith which I've encountered all the issues stated above such as "no such device" at boot about disk after manually creating persistent partitions. Maybe the drive is faulty in some way... I'll try another one these days.

Could anyone know how to proceed to configure bookwormpup to save changes to the external drive ?

Thanks a lot

Mathieu

[williwaw]

Could anyone know how to proceed to configure bookwormpup to save changes to the external drive ?

Thanks a lot

Hi Mathieu, welcome to the forum.

You dont say if your boot loader offers you a chance to boot into ram or whether you are actually booting from the USB.
Booting into ram will give you choices as if it is your first boot. set up menus etc,
At shutdown, consider your choices carefully for creating a save folder or file.
Save folders are preferable but only available if you have a linux ext 2, 3 or 4 partition on the device you wish to save to.

[Crumbs crumbs]

Hello,

My bootloader indeed lets le boot either only into ram (or not), and offers other options such as load other files which I don't remember the extension (something like .szcp or so) to ram to improve system efficiency.
I reckon I don't think I have any ext4 partition on my device, that must be why the system wants to save on the only etx4 partition available, that is, on /dev/nvme0n1p2 for me.
To create such a partition, do I have to do it from debian or can I manually do it from bookwormpup ?
Last thing, I created the bootable device with etcher but haven't used the tuto stated here :
https://wikka.puppylinux.com/LiveUSB
I'll try that later if needed.

But first I'll follow your advice, thank you !

[williwaw]

if you have puppy bootable from a disk that is not the USB you wish to set up properly for saving, I can reccomend installing
https://www.mediafire.com/file/cwpe0iz1 ... 4.pet/file
and using e3stickpup or e4stickpup to reformat and install bookwormpup on your USB

balena etcher or some of USB tools mentioned in the link you cited for the tutorial above. or many that come with other distributions, are frontends for dd.
these methods will boot a "live" version but will not set up the correct filesystems for a puppy intended to use the better frugal install with a save folder configuration.

most here at the forum prefer a frugal install rather than a live install
https://wikka.puppylinux.com/InstallationFrugal describes a manual method for accomplishing what e3stickpup or e4stickpup will do if you do not have an other puppy to install frugalpup-44.pet on

[Crumbs crumbs]

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I hadn't really paid attention to the difference between live usb and frugal install. That second option seems to be what I'm looking for.
The usb I use is meant to be my dedicated device to run bookwormpup so no problem, I'll just go forward with the procedure described in your link.

[bigpup]

to Puppy Linux!

This is how I do Frugal installs to a USB, but you do need to run the programs from a running Puppy version and installing to a USB drive not being used.
viewtopic.php?t=11171

[bigpup]

Please read this about giving information on the Puppy Linux you are talking about:
viewtopic.php?t=11090

Bookwormpup is not telling us if it is the 32 or 64 bit one, what specific version of it.

[Crumbs crumbs]

Hi, sorry, I downloaded bookwormpup64_10.0.9 iso image.
I'm currently not at home for the weekend but I'll try frugal install in the next few days.

[Crumbs crumbs]

Hello,

I'm back. So I tried to attemp a frugal install using various approaches, but I can't seem to succeed.
I formatted an external drive (a SATA M2 with usb adapter) with a fat32 partition for boot and the rest of the drive formatted in ext4. I launched bookwormpup from another usb drive and proceeded with those changes from there.
It seemed very convenient since frugalpup comes preinstalled with bookwormpup.
I think I've been able to install the bootloader.
But the system always tells me that sda is not mounted. Sda, in my case, is the external sata m2 I want to use for bookwormpup.
Since I formatted a large part of that disk in ext4, now the system offers to save all changes on a folder on that partition, aside from the ext4 partition of my internal nvme, when I shut down from the usb stick I don't intend to use !
So I'm still stuck with live sessions for the moment.

The question is how to properly mount my external sata m2 so that I can install bookwormpup onto it ? Because I was able to partition and format it from bookwormpup running from my usb stick, so I don't understand why it seems unreachable for frugalpup.

Thanks

[williwaw]

@Crumbs crumbs

But the system always tells me that sda is not mounted. Sda, in my case, is the external sata m2 I want to use for bookwormpup.

can you take a screenshot or photo of the error? It is hard to tell from your explanation what application is producing the error message.

when booted to desktop, you can mount partitions by left clicking on the partition icon in the lower left of the screen or right clicking on any icon in the lower left and running pmount

[bigpup]

Boot with the BookwormPup64 USB stick you can boot with.

Have the drive you want to install on plugged in.

On the lower left of the desktop will be drive icons.

One for each partition that is on the different drives that are hooked to the computer.

You say the m2 drive is sda.

If it has two partitions should be a sda1 and sda2 drive icon.

Left click on sda1 and sda2 drive icons to mount those two partitions. (icon will change with a mount symbol top right of icon)

In Linux partitions need to first be mounted before you can read write to them.
(puppy does not auto-mount, so you have to select a partition and mount it, but it stays mounted until you select to un-mount)

Now try using Frugalpup Installer program to do a frugal install to sda2 and a boot loader install to sda1.
Again use this procedure:
viewtopic.php?t=11171

When you install the boot loader it gives option for type: UEFI or mbr ->legacy bios boot or both.
I have started to always install both.
Then the drive can be used on any computer and I do not need to worry if it is UEFI or Legacy boot type computer.

[esos]

I want bookwormpup to save changes on the usb drive or whatever device I use to have it running but I currently end up in an infinite save loop in which the only ways out are:
- not saving changes
- saving changes about not using the nvme on the nvme

Psave= boot parameter will do save-session anywhere you want in any internal/external/partition/folder.

[Crumbs crumbs]

Hello, in the meantime I've succeeded by booting from the usb stick and using Gparted and frugalpup to install onto my external ssd, thanks anyway !