How to contribute?

[jfw01]

Minimum information we need:
What specific Puppy version?
Bionicpup32 8.0+28

Computer specs or make and model?
MacBookPro 8.1
8GB memory
I plan to attach a summary pup-sysinfo.

How is Puppy installed?
I think that the right answer is live, but see below to confirm this.

Hard drive, USB flash, emmc, SD Card, CD/DVD, etc.....?
Booting off dvd-r, with a remaster of the standard ISO image, with the pupSaves in an SD Card attached as a USB flash drive.

--- Context ----

On about the 4th of August, I booted Bionic Puppy, and followed the advice at line 490 in /usr/sbin/shutdownconfig, that "You are only allowed to save one-deep ...", so the savefile was /mnt/sdb1/puppyLinux/upupbbsave-v_pre_0.4fs

When I booted, it was not found, and it was unclear what my next steps should be.

Because I am unreasonable, I decided to start understanding and fixing things, rather than buy a new flash drive and store everything in the root.

At some stage, I hacked around pmedia= and became able to restore pupSaves (in PUPMODE=13), and discovered that my machine will not sleep without unmounting writeable drives, so I am partway through adding a PUPMODE.

--------- What I have -------

Attached /initrd/init and diff, which add three developability features, enable wildcards in psave=, and begin adding a PUPMODE where the pupSave lives in /initrd/mnt/tmpfs/ with the system .sfs, and the beginnings of a future /usr/sbin/save2removable to save content from it back onto the external media.

I also have projects to:
- extend the syntax of psave=, to enable the claim in shutdownconfig to be true
- ask whether ext4 is the optimal in-memory pupSave format on machines without swap, and possibly implement another one
- make something happen during a second boot where no save file is found, to help people toward usability

Of these, only the developability features are settled enough to submit.

The developability changes are:
pfix=trace
turn on set -x in the shell, without remastering a dvd

pfix=rdsh0
get into a ramdisk shell very early; in fact, early enough to load and run a different /initrd/init from removeable media

forked /initrd/init (always on)
most of the work done by init is ordinary execution that does not have to be in process 1. If it is, and fails badly, the only feedback is a kernel panic. If init is forked, the feedback is an error message, a shell and an intact initrd mounted on /

---------- What I am asking for --------

Please may I have advice, including links to the standard advice if there is one, about how to start contributing code to Puppy Linux?

If it is consistent with the usual process, then I am pre-emptively offering to make clean separations of the three features.

Regards,
James.

[jfw01]

Attempting to add the fourth attachment.

[jfw01]

I am currently running @peebee's fossa, with sfs savefiles, because the kernel has CONFIG_AUFS_SHWH=y, which enables the generations of read+write->read-only trick.

Here is a diff of the init that gives me options from the kernel command-line:

diff-fossa-00-to-28.txt

tracing, wildcard savefile, wildcard init without remaster, more survivable init script failure

(20.48 KiB) Downloaded 17 times

I think that pfix=trace is mature. I think that pfix=altInit and pfix=rdsh0 would benefit from being REPL loops, so that people could see the state of the shell, and that a better theory is needed, of what to do after people exit from them.

Please find attached the savefile saver that goes with that init and sfs savefiles.

save2sfs-09.sh.txt

save an sfs plus a tmpfs into a new sfs

(1.39 KiB) Downloaded 20 times

.
Please find attached (possibly over several posts) the set of scripts that I am mostly using to remaster. Booting on a MacBookPro 8,1 I have not yet succeeded in building an ISO that will not have a 'Windows' ~= CSM option.

fakePreviousRemaster.sh.txt

Gather content to avoid remastering

(582 Bytes) Downloaded 19 times

[jfw01]

add-init-to-init.sh.txt

Add the current version of init to the initrd.

(919 Bytes) Downloaded 39 times

nonHybridIso.sh.txt

Burn an iso without a graphical front-end.

(928 Bytes) Downloaded 42 times

[Flash]

Grab a root and growl.

[Phoenix]

You can get started by forking Woof-CE here: https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/woof-CE
You will need to sign up.
You can then make changes and PR it to the parent repository. It can be rejected though for a variety of reasons.

[jfw01]

Thanks. Is there an equivalent plan for sourceforge, from which peebee distributes?

[dimkr]

It can be rejected though for a variety of reasons.

It won't get rejected if you contribute a minimal and safe fix for an issue from https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/woof-CE/issues. https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... ssues/2837 looks like a good exercise.

[peebee]

Thanks. Is there an equivalent plan for sourceforge, from which peebee distributes?

FocalPup32 (UPupFF+D) is built from a version of GitHub Woof-CE (not necessarily the very latest - see /etc/DISTRO_SPECS) so changes that get into Woof-CE will (eventually) get into FocalPup32. (sooner if I'm made aware they're needed)

SourceForge is purely used as a storage area (with automatic mirroring) for the built items.

56c6d06acc810a9ca654a50737f783f7 UPupFF+D-20.12+11.iso
is
BUILD_FROM_WOOF='testing;3b6c7801c;2021-11-29 19:50:51 +0200'