KL Linux: How to Achieve a Full Installation?

[josejp2424]

Hello everyone,

KL Linux is designed to run in Frugal mode, but I would like to make it possible to install it in Full mode, like a traditional distribution.
What is needed for a Full installation?

Currently, I use an installer that extracts the system into a partition and generates an initramfs-x86_64.img. However, this only works with the official kernels of the distro.

The problem arises with the Puppy Linux kernels, as I have not been able to generate a functional initramfs-x86_64.img for them.
Possible solutions

To enable Full installation for KL, I need to create a new initrd.gz that works with these kernels.

My idea is to:
Adapt an initrd.gz that allows KL to boot in Full mode.
Test different configurations to ensure the system boots correctly.
Ensure compatibility with both Puppy and official kernels.

If anyone has experience creating initrd.gz, I would greatly appreciate your help.

What do you think? Has anyone else tried installing KL in Full mode? Any input or suggestions are welcome.

KL needs to go further—it has great potential!

I made this post on this site: https://kennel-linux.rockedge.org/index.php, but I'm not sure if it's the official one.

[rockedge]

@josejp2424
Yes there is a way! We call it a Pseudo Full Install. Which means that when so arranged KL (KLV) will act just like a full install yet still be set up in Frugal install way.

I have a routine doctors appointment in 30 minutes so I must wait until I return to describe how to do it. Mostly it is putting the entire root file system into /upper_changes

[josejp2424]

@josejp2424
Yes there is a way! We call it a Pseudo Full Install. Which means that when so arranged KL (KLV) will act just like a full install yet still be set up in Frugal install way.

I have a routine doctors appointment in 30 minutes so I must wait until I return to describe how to do it. Mostly it is putting the entire root file system into /upper_changes

But the upper_changes has RAM space limitations. It's like the savefolder. Even though it's a folder, it has its limitations when loading the system into RAM. As RAM fills up, you need to save and restart. And with complex and large compilations, you run out of space.

[geo_c]

@josejp2424
Yes there is a way! We call it a Pseudo Full Install. Which means that when so arranged KL (KLV) will act just like a full install yet still be set up in Frugal install way.

I have a routine doctors appointment in 30 minutes so I must wait until I return to describe how to do it. Mostly it is putting the entire root file system into /upper_changes

But the upper_changes has RAM space limitations. It's like the savefolder. Even though it's a folder, it has its limitations when loading the system into RAM. As RAM fills up, you need to save and restart. And with complex and large compilations, you run out of space.

Am I correct in assuming that you are talking about running in w_changes=RAM2?

I run psuedo-full installs all the time and create very large upper_changes folders but that's not running in RAM2, but writing directly to the drive

[rockedge]

@geo_c is correct! When in a PFI (Pseudo Full Install) with the entire file system in the upper_changes directory everything is written directly to disk. The RAM2 mode does not work while operating in PFI mode so as RAM fills there is also writes directly to storage. Meaning any changes or updates are instantly in the file system. This is the same behavior as a system has that is in a full installation.

I also run very large compilations but not while booted in a RAM0 or RAM2 mod with no problems.

To achieve the PFI mode start off by creating the system as a frugal installation. Create manually an upper_changes directory then mount and open the 07KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs and copy it's entire contents to the upper_changes. Unmount the 07KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs and either rename in to KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs or simply delete it, Create an empty directory that will act as a dummy rootfs and for example name it 07Dummy_rootfs then also create an empty directory named work. All of the rest of the distro files remain the same.

It should look something like this example:

Screenshot_2025-02-19_10-19-00.jpg (29.07 KiB) Viewed 795 times

Set up the boot stanza's the same way but no RAM2 and attempt a boot.

Let us know how you make out.

[fredx181]

but no RAM2

Can't see why not TBH !
I did very simple. Copied all contents of mounted 07KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs to "upper-changes" folder, disabled 07KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs by renaming to 07KLV-airedale_rootfs.sfs.bak
Kept w_changes1=RAM2 on the boot cmdline (well, actually kept all exactly the same as for my frugal install) and it works perfectly (using save2flash works well too).
But to make it even more a pseudo full install, the contents of the other .sfs files should be also copied to upper_changes of course.

[rockedge]

Good point @fredx181 ! The complete PFI would be all of the compressed SFS files decompressed and included in the upper_changes and remove those SFS's from the frugal directory.

Now that I think about it, after fredx181 mentioned it, using the RAM2 mode is possible in a PFI. And works the same way as when a frugal installation using the compressed SFS's is in RAM2 mode.

Thanks to @fredx181 for clarifying out this important feature. This makes a KL system in a PFI a very interesting set up.

[TerryH]

I use RAM2 in my PFI without issue, but my usage these days is generally very light.

[josejp2424]

Thank you guys, now I understand what you were referring to.

[fredx181]

@josejp2424
Yes there is a way! We call it a Pseudo Full Install. Which means that when so arranged KL (KLV) will act just like a full install yet still be set up in Frugal install way.
...

But the upper_changes has RAM space limitations. It's like the savefolder. Even though it's a folder, it has its limitations when loading the system into RAM. As RAM fills up, you need to save and restart. And with complex and large compilations, you run out of space.

I use RAM2 in my PFI without issue, but my usage these days is generally very light.

It seems to me that some are a bit scary about the option w_changes1=RAM2 (save on demand), perhaps afraid of running out of space easily I think it's only a problem when you install many big applications or copy big files in the root system when you have very little RAM.
Taking as example my situation, I have 4GB RAM. At the start of KLV-Airedale looking at the size of /mnt/layers/RAM/ (loaded in RAM, only 3.9 MB, mostly cache and or config files):

Screenshot.gif (124.58 KiB) Viewed 544 times

So plenty of space left to add to the virtual root filesystem and save the changes at shutdown. But yes you need to keep an eye on the space used in /mnt/layers/RAM/ .

Looking at /mnt/layers/uc_ro/ (the "real" save storage) it's 2.6 GB 0n my Pseudo Full install setup, but note... it's NOT loaded in RAM.

Screenshot(1).gif (153.5 KiB) Viewed 544 times

BTW, no difference regarding this if you have a Frugal or a Pseudo Full install