Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Love the way bionicdog64 looks and feel but alas it's not usable as a live with persistence distro.

When booting the live usb and picking copy to ram and use savefile and shutting down after first run it asks if I want to create a savefile. I select yes and make the file size 1024mb (1gb) then use the default file location (/mnt/sda1/casper/changes.dat, then click ok it says it created the savefile but the first clue that it lied was the flash drive only lights up for about one second.

Sure enough when I look for that savefile it's not there. What is going on? I'm not a nooby. I've been using linux for years and also used puppy and porteus. This method works with porteus and ddog seems like it should work similarly. It has to be a flaw in the program right?

BTW I have tried putting the savefile in other locations on the flash drive and changing the boot cheat code but get the same result. No savefile is created

Hi Makarovnik,

Strange... I tested with (64-bit) BionicDog64_2018-06-04-firmware_all.iso and (32-bit) BionicDog32_2018-06-04-firmware_all.iso, and went fine for me.
I think I did the same as you, booting from FAT32 USB with copy2ram, at reboot choosing "Create savefile" (not savefolder) and changes.dat was created in /mnt/sdb1/casper/changes.dat
With this kernel line in my menu.lst the savefile is in use:

kernel /casper/vmlinuz  from=/ noauto copy2ram changes=/casper/changes.dat

So... no idea why it didn't work for you.
EDIT: Maybe your flashdrive is not "writable" ? (e.g. happens when using dd to install the ISO to USB)

Fred

Thanks I bet you're right as I've encountered that before. I ended up just doing a frugal install to usb flash which is prolly a more flexible method and allows me format ext and use save folder instead.

I have tried several iso image burning programs and the result is always the same. The USB drive is always read only and cant be changed so no savefile can be created. As a backup plan can I just format the drive fat32 turn on boot flag the extract the iso and copy contents to USB drive then boot that?

Makarovnik wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:21 am

can I just format the drive fat32 turn on boot flag the extract the iso and copy contents to USB drive then boot that?

Yes, extract the ISO, it's what I always do, perhaps formatting the USB to ext3 or ext4 is better, as you can use save-folder.
See here for easy way: viewtopic.php?p=2354#p2354
From your last post, I think you use FossaDog, then just create e.g. new directory "fossa_dog" on e.g. /mnt/sdb1, copy the "casper" folder inside it, then make menu.lst entry:

title Fossadog in fossa_dog - changes to fossa_dog/casper savefolder 
root (hd0,0)
 kernel /fossa_dog/casper/vmlinuz from=/fossa_dog noauto changes=/fossa_dog/casper
 initrd /fossa_dog/casper/initrd1.xz

EDIT: if you boot like above, nothing needs to be done further, the "fossa_dog" directory will be found at boot and changes saved at reboot

Fred

Hi Makarovnik !

perhaps formatting the USB to ext3 or ext4 is better,

Indeed.... It is .

Little Hint:

title Fossadog in fossa_dog - changes to fossa_dog/casper savefolder
root (hd0,0)
kernel /fossa_dog/casper/vmlinuz from=/fossa_dog noauto changes=/fossa_dog/casper
initrd /fossa_dog/casper/initrd1.xz

Above menu.lst Entry would cause direct/automatic saving to your Drive.

title Fossadog in fossa_dog - changes to fossa_dog/casper savefolder
root (hd0,0)
kernel /fossa_dog/casper/vmlinuz from=/fossa_dog noauto changes=EXIT:/fossa_dog/casper
initrd /fossa_dog/casper/initrd1.xz

Above (second) menu.lst Entry only save Changes on "Demand" with "save2flash " or you choose to save/or not when Shutdown.....(no automatic Save--)......sometimes quite useful-- if not even more useful---just depends on...

"changes=EXIT:/fossa_dog/casper" makes the Difference.

thanks backi,

changes=Exit:/fossa_dog/casper" makes the Difference

Small correction to avoid confusion, the Exit should be with capitals, EXIT, so:

changes=EXIT:/fossa_dog/casper

EDIT; And note that this way the changes are in memory (RAM), so if you have little RAM, you may run out of free space, e.g. when installing lots of programs.

Fred

Exit should be with capitals, EXIT

Of course .....

Thanks I got it working now. I also found that unetbootin works well but mintstick, mkusb and others I tried don't work. You guys are awesome

Would the menu.lst reside in / or fossa_dog/ or /fossu_dog/casper/

Also if this was on a USB flash rather than a hard drive would "root (hd0,0)" need to be substituted with "root (uuid=abc123whatever)" of the flash partition so it could be plugged into more than one pc (making it truly portable)?

Makarovnik wrote: Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:53 pm

Would the menu.lst reside in / or fossa_dog/ or /fossu_dog/casper/

On the / of the partition.

Also if this was on a USB flash rather than a hard drive would "root (hd0,0)" need to be substituted with "root (uuid=abc123whatever)" of the flash partition so it could be plugged into more than one pc (making it truly portable)?

Yes instead of "root (hd0,0)" you can use "uuid abc123whatever", e.g.

uuid 12e1e33f-47a6-4979-b13a-404e60f746b9

Also the "from=" parameter can accept UUID:, e.g.

from=UUID:12e1e33f-47a6-4979-b13a-404e60f746b9/fossa_dog

Fred

It would be awesome if I could have my ubuntudog on an ext partition and boot it uefi.