Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Been using tahrpup6 for several years.
Giving Fossapup64_9.5 a try-out.... but runs very slowly on an older laptop.
Can one copy the sfs files ( puppy_fossa64_9.5.sfs; adrv_fossapup64.9.5.sfs; zdrv_fossapup95.9.5.sfs; fdrv_fossapup64.9.5.sfs) to the harddrive (sda1) to freeup RAM...................... like in tahrpup6
How would one do this? What lines to add to the bootup file in grub????
something like: pmedia= ????????
A bit of help would be appreciated.... cant understand the short help in the GRUB4DOS 0.4.6a ????

Taa, chris.

I am not sure what boot loader you are using.
Probably Grub2 or Grub4dos.

The boot loader menu config file could be:
grub.cfg
menu.lst

To get what you want, sfs's not loading into RAM.
Open the config file in a text editor.
Add pfix=nocopy to the Linux or kernel line of the entry you use to boot with.
Note:
If there is a pfix=
Just add nocopy to it, with a (,) between other pfix= commands.

Example grub.cfg entry:

menuentry "fossapup64 9.5 - Don't copy SFS files to RAM" {
linux /vmlinuz pfix=nocopy,fsck pmedia=cd
initrd /initrd.gz

This will boot faster, but starting programs will be slower.
After the program loads into RAM, it will run normal.

What is the specs of the computer?
Fossapup64 9.5 may not be the best newer Puppy to use.
It is developed more for newer computers.

Aside from using the pfix=nocopy option, I presume your scenario is that you are booting vmlinuz and initrd.gz from a usb flashstick. My understanding of what you have asked is that you would like to leave vmlinuz, and initrd.gz there (i.e. boot to start from usb stick) but that you'd like to put all the sfs files on your hard disk to be accessed from there since hard disk access to files is much faster than usb stick access. I do exactly that sometimes with my system, but haven't tried it with Puppy so don't know the grub kernel lines that allow that to work with Puppy, assuming Puppy has that facility. You don't mention booting from usb, admittedly, so maybe just didn't want any sfs files loaded into RAM so the pfix=nocopy was all you needed? Still, would be interested to know if Puppy can store its sfs files in alternative location to that of vmlinuz and initrd.

would be interested to know if Puppy can store its sfs files in alternative location to that of vmlinuz and initrd

Yes. I boot Puppy that way.

vmlinuz and initrd boot as a tiny, independent Puppy Linux, with it's own busybox.
In part, what it does is to search the file systems on the drives and partitions, looking for the Puppy .sfs files and for any save files. it mounts the sfs files and savefile and creates an aufs layered file system.

If you don't tell it where to look for the sfs files, it will look on all the drives. If the sfs files are on a hard drive partition, it should find them and copy them to ram and mount them. If the sfs files are only on a usb flash drive, it should find them on the usb drive and copy and mount them.

FossaPup has many options to boot Puppy (added to the kernel boot options.) There is a very helpful help file in the FossaPup iso that explains the Puppy boot options, like pfix and psave and pmedia, etc.

vmlinuz and initrd behaves as one Linux, and the sfs files behaves as another completely different and independent Linux.

pfix=nocopy and pfix=copy should work whether the sfs files are on a hard drive or a usb drive or a cd disc or on a dvd disc.