Building Sfs's with Puppy

[williwaw]

Its been a while since I used Puppy extensively, but have been recently in order to follow along with the recent backup and restore topics.

Some apps nowadays are bigger than Puppy, so I have been maintaining dedicated savefolders for using when using larger apps. Loading and unloading sfs's seems a better way to keep small saves tho.

Are there any puppy utilities for building sfs's?

[wizard]

@williwaw

Set up your files and directory structure for building the sfs, then in Rox , right click the directory and choose: dir2sfs. If you prefer XFE there's a way to use it too, let me know.

wizard

[geo_c]

I think if you boot a pristine system into ram. Install your applications then immediately save, you basically will have the sfs file structure, then you squash it. From that point I guess you load sfs on the fly, or name it as one of the alphabet drv.sfs's

I think I have done it that way in the past with things like Xfe.

[williwaw]

@williwaw

Set up your files and directory structure for building the sfs, then in Rox , right click the directory and choose: dir2sfs.

wizard

thanks wizard. vanilladpup doesnt have /usr/sbin/dir2sfs in the right click "context" menu, but it is easy to add using the "customize menu" feature found in that same menu.

[wiak]

I think if you boot a pristine system into ram. Install your applications then immediately save, you basically will have the sfs file structure, then you squash it. From that point I guess you load sfs on the fly, or name it as one of the alphabet drv.sfs's

I think I have done it that way in the past with things like Xfe.

Yes, I'd say it is that simple; basically the way we often do it in KL distros so should work with Puppy too since the save folder is just a new layer that can be squashed up into a sfs for load on the fly - no special procedure or utility otherwise required and no worries of something going wrong.

Prior to making into sfs, you can however remove (from the resultant save folder) any config files or details you don't want in the actual sfs, but for home use not much of that required.

[mikewalsh]

@williwaw :-

Some apps nowadays are bigger than Puppy...

Heh. Tell me about it. This WAS always the 'rationale' behind the portables, y'know; not only the app, but all its config stuff is located within the portable directory. IF you locate them within /mnt/home (or initrd/mnt/dev_save), and you choose to employ the MenuAdd script, all you really get is a symlink in /usr/bin, plus a .desktop file & icon copied into the 'save'.

You can also keep your portable apps on an external flash-drive, HDD or SSD, and run them entirely from there via their respective 'LAUNCH' scripts. Of course, you could always set-up a Menu-entry from an external drive, but you'll need to employ jafadmin's Udev-rules utility in order to make sure the system always "sees" that particular drive as being mounted at the exact same location. This lets the existing Menu-entry "re-activate" itself when the drive is plugged-in again.

Otherwise, you run the gauntlet of whether Puppy will mount your drive on the same 'mount-point' again. If you have more than one external drive in regular use, this becomes something of a lottery!

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You can build SFSs from the command-line, too. Copy your directory structure into a directory in a suitable 'work area' - call it MyApp - then open a terminal beside it in that directory, and simply run

Code: Select all

mksquashfs ./MyApp ./MyApp.sfs

Easy-peasy. I always build SFSs this way; for building .pets, I use trio's Pet-Maker v2.3 from the old Murga forum. An oldie, but a goodie.....works as well now as it did all those years ago. It's just a bunch of scripts, after all, making use of the existing functionality already present in the system.

https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=40457

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@williwaw
Set up your files and directory structure for building the sfs, then in Rox , right click the directory and choose: dir2sfs.

thanks wizard. vanilladpup doesnt have /usr/sbin/dir2sfs in the right click "context" menu, but it is easy to add using the "customize menu" feature found in that same menu.

Er....huh? Now, don't get me wrong when I say this! I love my GUIs, it's true, but.....what's wrong with using the command-line for 'basic' stuff like this? I'm beginning to think we've got a generation of Puppy users who have become afraid of the thing....

Mike.

[wizard]

@mikewalsh

Now, don't get me wrong when I say this! I love my GUIs, it's true, but.....what's wrong with using the command-line for 'basic' stuff like this? I'm beginning to think we've got a generation of Puppy users who have become afraid of the thing

Easy says you youngsters, ha. Use GUI's here to save time and avoid errors. Have the typing skills of a 4 year old.

wizard

[mikeslr]

Originally created for use with VanillaDpup, the pet attached to this post provides tools we've grown accustomed to having in Puppys, including dir2SFs. viewtopic.php?p=69513#p69513.
I've most recently used it under NoblePup64.
The worse case scenario is that it duplicates the functions of some Right-click applications which were included but doesn't interfere with them e.g. dir2pet and makepet.

The post which follows it, viewtopic.php?p=69514#p69514, provies links to other utilities which were commonly found in Puppys, but which may not have been builtin to recent Puppys. Caution, the post is now 2 years old. The links are to the then current versions of the referenced applications. New versions may be available.

[dimkr]

dir2sfs doesn't do anything special, it's just a wrapper around mksquashfs. It would be best to use mksquashfs directly (or mkfs.erofs if you're using a 11.0.x development build).