Deleted apps from the sfs's back when firefox installed?

[Mike3]

So I deleted a buncha apps like libreoffice and palemoon from all the sfs's (the main puppy.sfs, the adrv.sfs, fdrv.sfs & zdrv.sfs) using unsquashfs and mksquashfs.

I deleted most if not all of the files with these names and that removed these apps from the meny and so on.

Everything works great.

Then I installed the firefox app with the PPM (Puppy Package Manager), but then that somehow installed palemoon webbrowser and libreoffice.

I did a search to find where tholes files had ended up and they were all in /initrd/...

And then there was a save (I had forgotten to turn off autosave) and now I'm stuck with these apps and their files.

How do I remove these files when I try to remove them from initrd it sais: read only on most files so that doesn't work.

And I didn't download these files with the PPM, how were they installed, were they saved somewhere?

Where they hidden in initrd and somehow turned on by the downloading of the firefox app? These apps are not listed when I press the uninstall button in the PPM app.

If they are in initrd, how can they be removed?

[williams2]

If they are in initrd, how can they be removed?

ALL of your files are in /initrd.
All of them.
Every single one.

They are the layers that make up the layered file system.

pup_ro2 are the original files in the iso.
pup_rw is the writable layer.
If you have it set to write directly to the save file, then this layer is you save file or folder.
If you have it set to write to ram, then pup_rw is a file system in ram,
and the save flle or folder is probably pup_ro1

You could read viewtopic.php?p=55827#p55827

[bigpup]

What specific Puppy version?

Boot not using the save.
Look to see if the stuff is in it.

[Mike3]

It seems that both all the palemoon and all the libreoffice files are in the pup_a folder.

@williams2

So are the original files from the iso stored in the sfs files? if not, where are they installed?

Firefox is in pup_ro2 and some icons for it is in pup_ro2.

But where are these files stored when the OS is not running in RAM? Why do they reapear when I download firefox? Are all these files stored in the initrd file in the home folder? I opened that folder and these files could not be found in the initrd file in the home folder. This was done by pressing the initrd folder that then made a new initrd-expanded file in the root folder. In this expanded initrd, the pup_a, pup_ro1 & pup_ro2 are empty. Why? So where are these files stored if one can't see em in the expanded initrd?

[mikewalsh]

@Mike3 :-

I seem to recall we've told you this before; the PPM isn't really the best place to get software from. Especially not browsers.....because everything here is designed to work with the mainstream distro that your Puppy has been "Woofed" from, not Puppy itself. As with everything else in Puppyland, obtaining software is also done in a rather different way to other distros.

It might seem daft using a package manager that won't install stuff you can just click to install, click to use.....but that would mean re-building every single one of the 30,000+ packages in the Ubuntu repositories. It's not going to happen! It does, however, provide a good source of usable binaries, etc, which often - with small modifications - WILL work. It's why we normally recommend that users look through the "Additional Software" section of the Forum; everything here is specifically built to work WITH Puppy.

This is where experience comes into the equation. Puppy IS Linux, yes.....but with enough minor differences in operation to throw most other Linux users out. It's not an issue once you understand those differences, and how to make allowances for them.

Mike.

[mikeslr]

So I deleted a buncha apps like libreoffice and palemoon from all the sfs's (the main puppy.sfs, the adrv.sfs, fdrv.sfs & zdrv.sfs) using unsquashfs and mksquashfs....

.

The way you're going about it is almost certain to create problems. As williams2 indicated your Puppy has a layered file-system.
Read How Puppy Works, viewtopic.php?p=55827#p55827
Layman's understanding, short-version: The file-systems Puppys will use are on storage. On boot-up Puppys copy some file-systems into RAM and cache/compress them; other file-system on storage are just mounted. When boot-up has completed, Puppys will have indexed files currently, potentially available. Those indexes are later used to call files into 'Available-for-work' RAM where they can actively perform their function, or be modified.

Know which of the files in storage provides each application[/b]: it could be the puppy.sfs, your SaveFile/Folder, an adrv.sfs, a yrdv.sfs or an application (extra) sfs.

Puppy has tools for removing applications. If the application is provided by the puppy.sfs, Menu>Setup>Remove Builtin will place a '.w=white-out' file next to files not to be used by your system. When you remaster, those files will not be included.

If you installed an application, it is only in your SaveFile or SaveFolder. Menu>Setup>Puppy Package Manger, Click the Uninstall button to select applications to be uninstalled.

If the application is in the form of an extra SFS, you load and unload it by Right-Clicking the SFS and selecting Sfs-load, it's a toggle; or by Menu>Setup>SFS load on the fly. Your SaveFile/Folder holds instructions as to what application.sfses on boot-up are to be part of your 'current-operating-system-in-RAM'. If an application is loaded when your execute a Save, it will continue to be loaded on boot-up until you unload it and again execute a Save. That's likely why libreoffice reappeared.

On boot-up Puppys will automatically copy into RAM the files of applications contained in an adrv.sfs or ydrv.sfs. Removing applications from them isn't straight forward. The easiest way is boot pfix=RAM so as not to have the applications in your SaveFile/Folder as part of your current system. After boot-up install nicOS-Utility-Suite, viewtopic.php?p=12983#p12983: extract the 'gz', run the pet, then run Menu>Exit>Restart-X (AKA Graphic Server) to have Puppy re-catalog what makes up its system.
If you're lucky, the primary folder containing the application files will be in /opt with just a couple of files elsewhere: a desktop file in /usr/share/applications, an icon maybe in /usr/share/pixmaps and maybe a script or symbolic link in /usr/bin. If you delete those files and run the Save2SFS module of nicOS-Suite, a new adrv.sfs or ydrv.sfs will be created without those files and, thus, that application. pfind can be used search for other files. But, before deleting anything, be certain its not required by some other application. Having a few 'orphaned' files is better than a broken application.
If you weren't lucky, if the bulk of the application wasn't in /opt, then you'll have to use pfind to locate where each of an applications files are. There might-or-might-not be a file in a hidden folder named packages in /root or /var which may tell you what files an application uses --but doesn't tell you that that file is used by some other application.
My recommendation in that case is to make a note of what applications you want which are provided by an adrv.sfs or ydrv.sfs. The move the adrv/ydrv.sfs away from your puppy.sfs and boot pfix=ram. Install those applications. Then run the Save2SFS module to create your own adrv/ydrv.sfs.

[bigpup]

What specific Puppy version?

[williams2]

It seems that both all the palemoon and all the libreoffice files are in the pup_a folder

I do not know which Puppy you are using. You need to tell us.

If you are using FossaPup64 the pup_a in /initrd/ is part of FossaPups virtual file system (VFS)
It is a readonly squash file system (SFS) that includes most of the FossaPup files.
You can rename or move pup_a so that FossaPup can't find it which will run a very small, limited version of FossaPup.

If you have remastered Puppy, pup_a might be changes you have made to the VFS.

Depends on which Pup you have and how you installed it, and how you run it.

[mikeslr]

In an effort to make obtaining a 'bare-bones' Fossapup64 easy many applications were placed in its adrv.sfs. If you delete/move that adrv.sfs, you'll boot into a bare-bones version. Unfortunately, the downside is --as I've suggested in my prior post-- it isn't easy to modify the contents of an adrv.sfs. And my experience was that without the accompanying adrv.sfs Fossapup64 was missing too much and hard to work with.

LibreOffice is not in the adrv.sfs nor any of other files-systems contained in the ISO. You either installed a pet (which would put it in a SaveFile/Folder removable via PPM Uninstall) or SFS-loaded a LibreOffice.SFS. As I previously noted, if you execute a Save with LibreOffice sfs-loaded, it will continue to load on boot-up until you sfs-UNLOAD it and execute a Save.

Palemoon is one of the applications in the adrv.sfs. Fortunately it's in the /opt folder. See my post above about how to remove that. However, if you updated Palemoon, the update was written to your SaveFile/Folder. To entirely remove it, after deleting it from the adrv.sfs, you also have to delete it from the SaveFile/Folder and execute a Save.