Where did the frugal install put the .sfs files?

[paperboy1994]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520 11143AFU Laptop with 8GB Ram, 500 GB HDD and 2.40 GHZ processor
speed with Windows 7 Professional. WIFI is Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. Since
I live in a mountainous rural area, my internet is via a DSL modem.

When I recently tried BookwormPup64 I ran into problems and decided to go back to FossaPup64 which I had used before. When I booted the FossaPup64 CD I performed all the Setup stuff I needed including adding the Google Browser and when everything was workng as I wanted, I did a first save to a new directory. All went fine. Afterwards when I rebooted the CD my save files were used and all went well. The next time I loaded the CD, I decided to do a frugal install. This time when I told the system to do a frugal install, it installed the basic system that was on the CD. Since it didn't load all of my first save system. I need to replace the inital stuff with the saved stuff. Can someone tell me where the frugal install put the required .SFS files. I told the frugal install to install to the same ext4 partition where my save files are but I don't see anything else there.

[rockedge]

@paperboy1994 you are going to dual boot Windows 7 alongside a frugally installed Fossapup64? Windows is on a NTFS partition and there exists a partition formatted as ext4?

What utility are you using to perform the frugal install? Did the Fossapup64 file system SFS's land on the NTFS partition by accident?

I live in a mountainous rural area, my internet is via a DSL modem.

Good views?

I had DSL here in Connecticut until recently because it was cheap and we didn't stream much media content. One day our network provider made an offer we couldn't refuse and now have fiber optic. Down side is no more analog telephone which was replaced with VOIP which performs far less reliably.

[paperboy1994]

rockedge,

I used DiskPup to install and told it to use the same ext4 partition that contains mysave directory. I do not believe it put anything on the ntfs SysDrv boot partition.

[mikeslr]

I haven't used Diskpup in awhile, and even then seldom. If you neither created a folder before running diskpup, nor were asked to create one by it, Fossapup64's system files (initrd.gz, vmlinuz, puppy_fossapup64_9.5.sfs, etc. may be scattered all over the Top level of the sda4 partition. Folders, then files, are displayed alphabetically. If so, when you create a Save it will also just be another file/folder on the Top level of the sda4 partition.

You can run Fossapup that way. But it's messy: difficult to keep track if you need to make changes. You could create a specific folder --Right-Click an empty space, select New>Directory and give it a name, e.g. Fossa-- and move all the files into it but you'd have to edit your boot-loader's Menu.lst (if grub4dos) or grub.cfg (if grub) for the boot-loader to find the vmlinuz and intrd.gz; and after that change the boot-loader would expect all the system files (such as zdrv_fossapup64_9.5.sfs) to be in that folder.

Exactly what does your Menu.lst or grub.cfg read. They are likely on sda1. With that knowledge we should be able to suggest edits. Alternatively, create a named folder to hold Fossa's system files, then re-run Diskpup, selecting that folder. Later, delete any system files not in that folder and edit grub.cfg or Menu.lst to remove any listing not specifying that folder.

[paperboy1994]

mikeslr

On my system sda4 is the lenovo recovery partition.

[mikeslr]

Sorry, I meant to write 'whichever is your Ext4 partition'.

[paperboy1994]

mikeslr,

I looked at menu.lst It looked normal to me but when I tried to copy it to a
fat32 partition the cp didn't work. Then, following your advice I did a frugal
install and told it about my first save directory on partition sd6 which is the
ext4 partition it did the install, placed the dvd puppy files on the top of the
partition and changed the menu.list entry to reflect my save directory. It did
not present a choice of diskpup, stickpup or anything else. it just did it. So
now, the top level of sda6 has all the necessary files to do an initial boot.
Therefore, I thought all I had to was copy the corresponding files in my first
save directory, but when I tried to cp the puppy.sfs file from my first save
directory over the puppy.sfs on the top layer, I kept getting an error message
"cp cannot stat No such file or directory, every time I tried. I also tried it
with both cp -a -r. Example: cp -a -r /sda6/fossapupsave.first/puppy...sfs
/sda6/puppy...sfs, where the ... is the rest of those puppy file names.

[paperboy1994]

Stiil having problems

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E520 11143AFU Laptop with 8GB Ram, 500 GB HDD and
2.40 GHZ processor speed with Windows 7 Professional. WIFI is Intel Centrino
Wireless-N 1000 IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. Since I live in a mountainous rural area, my
internet is via a DSL modem. My sda directory is formatted NTFS and contains
the MBR, the Windows boot information and is the active boot partition.

Previuosly I booted a Fossapup64-9.5 cd and went through setup, including
installing the Google Chrome browser. Then I created a save directory on sda6
which is a 40 GB formatted ext4 partition. Whenever I boot the Fossapup64-9.5
cd the computer loads the contents of the cd along with the save directory
contents. However when I previously tried to do a frugal install, I found that
rather than taking the system that is in ram, the system saves the system that
is on the original cd and I can't find where it puts it. Also, the frugal
install disk mechanism says that grub wants to install to a Fat32 partition.
Currently my disk has a total of four NTFS partitions, one fat32 partition that
I use in Windows, one ext4 partition and unallocated space of 176 MB and 237 GB
where I could create another Fat 32 partition. Somehow I need to get the files
in my sda6 ext4 save directory to get used without having to reboot the cd. Any
advice would be appreciated.

[bigpup]

Are you trying to keep Windows OS installed or completely delete it and only have Puppy Linux installed on internal drive?

If you are trying to install Fossapup64 along side Windows OS install.

So both OS's are installed on the same drive.

Delete whatever got installed by whatever installer you used.

The save that was made for booting from the CD is OK to stay, but you may need to move it later to location of the working frugal install.

This installer program is for doing a frugal install to a drive that also has Windows OS on it.

Lick
https://github.com/noryb009/lick

BIG WARNING:
Make sure Windows is shutdown fully normal shutdown.
Do not shutdown in hibernate mode.
This will not release full control of the drive.

Lick is a windows execute file you download and use in Windows.
Left click on the Lick file to run it in Windows.

[paperboy1994]

bigpup,

I am trying to end up with a disk that contains Windows 7 in a NTFS partition
and Fossapup64 in my 40 GB ext4 partition, which is also where my first save
directory is located. I thought if I allocated a new Fat32 partition then grub
would be happy since the sda boot drive is formatted NTFS. I still will need to
find whatever gets frugal installed so that I replace it with the files in my
first save director. Right now the only things on the machine is Windows 7
stuff and my first save directory.

[d-pupp]

@paperboy1994 If your drive is formatted to ntfs you can only have a savefile. Save folders can only be on Linux file systems.
Try looking for your save file an the root of your C: drive or do a search of the C: drive for the name of the puppy you were running when you created the save file.
Save files are named puppyversionsave-xx. IE vanilladpupsave-xx. Where xx = whatever you typed here when you created the save file.

[paperboy1994]

d-pupp
my save folder is on sda6 which is an ext4 partition'

[d-pupp]

@paperboy1994 Can you can boot puppy the way it is now?
If you can open rox filer and try this path /mnt/home
You should see all the sfs files and your save folder inside one of the folders there.

[paperboy1994]

d-pupp,

Because I did things sort of backwards when I did a lot of setup
things, and installed the chrome browser, and then created a save folder
without doing a frugal install at that time, I am trying to get an
.iso level system load to use the information in my save folder
which I can see. I mistakenly thought that the four system sfs files
in the save folder contained all my saved changes as opposed to all
the other stuff that got placed in the folder containing that
information. Is there a way to make the system load from the save
folder itself?

[d-pupp]

@paperboy1994 Just to be clear. You say about it is a iso boot. However I thought from about posts is was a frugal install.

If it is a frugal install it should work like this
1 grub boots and reads it's config file menu.lst or grub.cfg
2 The menu choices point at the puppy to boot like this...

title Puppy fossapup64 9.5 (sda1/Games)
find --set-root uuid () b226b3de-6248-4c96-9404-ae8b77953d40
kernel /Games/vmlinuz pdrv=b226b3de-6248-4c96-9404-ae8b77953d40 psubdir=/Games pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /Games/initrd.gz

The uuid in this example is for my sda1
The kernel line tells grub where to find vmlinuz
The initrd line tells grub where to find initrd.gz
The /Games/ in the example above is the folder these files are in along with my save folder and all the .sfs files that are puppy

3 grub finds and loads the kernel vmlinuz and hands control to it
4 vmlinuz reads initrd.gz and uncompresses the .sfs files and loads what it needs into memory and brings the system to usable state.

That is a simple version of how puppy boot.
Do you see any of the above on your setup?
How are you booting puppy at the moment? ie. CD or usb or hard drive

[paperboy1994]

d-pup

Originally I was booting from CD. I made various setup changes, updated
the network connection wizard, added Google Chrome and did a first save
to sda6 a 40 GB ext4 partition. Each time I booted the CD the system
loaded with my first save changes. Then I booted the CD and told it to
do a frugal save and ended up with the CD contents without my fisrt
save, which I think is what is supposed to happen when booting from CD.
The result when I load the frugal install was very much like what you
wrote in the previous entry. Now remember, my problem was that I thought
the sfs files in my save folder had been updated but were not being
used. Therefore I was trying to find the baseline sfs files on my
system and couldn't find them but found things like pdrv=b226b3de-6248-4c96-9404-ae8b77953d40
instead. Previously bigpup suggested using a program called Lick so I
went back to a Windows 7 system with everything other than my save file
deleted. I then got Lick and ran it. It put something like a menu.lst
on the sda2 (Windows) NTFS drive called a lick.lst which gave the name
of the folder that it would boot from. The folder was called
fossapup64-9.5 and was found on my sda7 fat32 partition. When I boot
the laptop and click on Windows, I get a choice of Windows or the lick
menu. If I select lick, a frugal install boots (without my save file).
I was hoping that I could now copy my ext4 save folder to the fat32
folder that gets booted, believing that might give me the boot system I
am looking for. So far, without success. That's where I am right now.

[d-pupp]

@paperboy1994 I'm starting to understand.
You are using the lick boot loader and have a frugal install of puppy on your sda7 fat32 partitions
Here is the problem...
fat32 is a windows partition and knows nothing about linux. So to work around this is on window partitions like fat32 of ntfs save files are used. Windows treats it like a regular file.
However a save file is really an linux file system. Puppy see it as a Linux partition.
How big is you sda7 fat32 partition?
Can you confirm that the sfs files are on that partition?

[paperboy1994]

d-pup

My Windows 7 fat 32 partition is currently 32GB. At this point with all
the time I am not being able to use my linux system, I think I should
bite the bullet and restart from scratch and do all the setup like
stuff all over again, since I can't quickly find a way to get my ext4
save folder over to a fat32 partition. It probably took me one
afternoon to do all the stuff in the save file in the first place.
Thanks a lot for all your help.

[d-pupp]

@paperboy1994
I was going to suggest that.
I don't see an easy way to move it over as the 2 system don't play together well.
You have lots of room on your fat32 partition so make a big save file.
Good luck

[bigpup]

Before you do anything else go the the old save folder and rename it adding bak. to the beginning of the name.
(bak.fossapup64save)

This will make sure it does not get corrupted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try this before you start over.

When you first booted the Frugal install Lick did. (Using the Lick boot menu)

Did it boot with you having to do a complete new setup of settings?
If yes.

When you did the first shutdown,

Did it ask to make a save and you told it to make one?
If yes.

I assume it never gave you an option to choose where to place the save?
Maybe it did and you did not understand what to do?

I will guess it made the save and placed it on the fat32 format partition.

When it now boots this is the save it uses?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:
Do this from the Booted Fossapup64 so you can use programs in it.

If Lick boot menu has option to boot in ram mode or not using the save, do that.

Better to do things to the save, when not being used.

Read this topic on making a file that will provide info to the boot process on what save to use and it's location.
viewtopic.php?t=2622

Fossapup64 9.5 should use a SAVEMARK file.

So look in the frugal install folder where all the Fossapup64 files are and see if it has a SAVEMARK file.
If yes.

Click on it to open in a text editor.

If it just has a number 3.

Then do what it says to make this number 4.

I assume the ext4 partition is 4th partition on the drive.

On this ext4 partition make the needed directories the way it says in the topic and place the old save folder in them in correct location:

Remove the bak. from the name of the old save so it is usable.

example:
If Fossapup64 is in folder fossapup64 on 3rd partition.

On the 4th ext4 partition make a directory named fossapup64 and move the old save into it.

SAVEMARK

Create a text file called SAVEMARK (all upper case letters) in the install directory, that contains just a number.
This is the partition number for storing a savefolder, on the same drive as the install directory.
e.g. Puppy is installed on sda2 in '/pups/fossa64'. If the file '/pups/fossa64/SAVEMARK contains just the single character '4',
then Puppy will expect the savefolder to be on sda4 in '/pups/fossa64/fossapup64save'.
Note that the sub-directory is the same for both the install location and the save location.

The save that is on 3rd partition formatted fat32.
Delete it or rename placing bak. at the beginning of name so it will not be used. (bak.fossapup64save.xfs ->the x could be 2, 3, or 4)

Now reboot and see if the old save is now used.

Note:
If making the save gives you option to choose what partition to place it on.
The SAVEMARK file it made should provide this location info.