Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi all

Hopefully this is something easy to answer.

I have noticed that my memory applet informs me that I have only 4mb available to me and constantly flickers as a reminder.

So, I thought I would offload some applications to increase the space.

I then save my session and reboot.

It still complains that it I only have the 4mb available to me.

Is this not dynamic and readjust itself each time you make changes?

I am using Fossapup64-9-5.

No, the size of your save FILE stays static (the same) until you manually change it. The available space in the file will change depending on the data being stored. So, you need to make your save file large enough to be able to accommodate future growth/usage. If you have an existing file and the space available is too small, you need to resize it.

Okay, got that and it is easily remedied.

Why I have flagged it up was that I have removed a number of applications thereby providing me with freed up space but this is not reflected and remains the same ie 4mb left to use.

Jasper wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:24 am

Hi all

Hopefully this is something easy to answer.

I have noticed that my memory applet informs me that I have only 4mb available to me and constantly flickers as a reminder.

So, I thought I would offload some applications to increase the space.

I then save my session and reboot.

It still complains that it I only have the 4mb available to me.

Is this not dynamic and readjust itself each time you make changes?

I am using Fossapup64-9-5.

to be clear, you are deleting stuff from your savefile to free up space?

Jasper wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:37 am

Okay, got that and it is easily remedied.

Why I have flagged it up was that I have removed a number of applications thereby providing me with freed up space but this is not reflected and remains the same ie 4mb left to use.

What applications did you remove, those installed via the package manager (like .pets)? if so, the available space in your save file should increase. However, with so little space left shown, there may be a good chance that that save file of yours may be corrupted by now (corruption can occur for example when you try to install something and there is not enough space left). Once corrupted, all sorts of strange behaviour can be expected.

does pet get remove unneeded dependencies? how much extra room in a save file do you recommend?

@williwaw

Yes, removed a MPV binary that was 35mb to an updated one that is only 3mb.

@amethyst

What I have realised painfully that when I compile applications and simply overwrite the existing ones that is not recorded in the PPM. So I cannot uninstall them via this method.
So, from now I will have to install the PET file even though it is already installed during the compiling.
Hope that last bit makes sense.

For information purposes: The applications shown in the PPM are only those you have installed yourself manually (like .pets). These are changes to the system recorded in the save file and can be uninstalled again via the PPM. Packagaes installed via the PPM does not affect the base sfs (which has the builtin packages of the distribution). The base sfs with the original builtin packages is read-only and those builtin applicaions can not be uninstalled via the PPM. To get rid of builtin packages in the base sfs permanently you must edit the base sfs and rebuild a new base sfs (like doing a remaster for example).

Thank you again for clearing this up for me

I think I know what might be causing the errors.
As I am aware that I limited space indicated. I am still installing applications and it allows me save the session. However, as there is no space available it is just in the RAM and not able to be transfer onto the USB flash drive.
Would that be correct?

Jasper wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 9:10 am

Thank you again for clearing this up for me

I think I know what might be causing the errors.
As I am aware that I limited space indicated. I am still installing applications and it allows me save the session. However, as there is no space available it is just in the RAM and not able to be transfer onto the USB flash drive.
Would that be correct?

Yes. Changes won't be recorded in the save file if there's no space left and will get lost when you reboot. However, as mentioned, your save file can also become corrupted in the process which could mess up the contents of the save file thus leading to all kinds of problems (like for instance not being able to uninstall a package you have installed before).

Thank you again for the pointers.

I recall that when I boot up e2fsck (?) is displayed onscreen.

I guess if I copy and move my PupSave file to another location whilst using it, I could check it using this utility (?)

**EDIT**

It worked

@Jasper :-

In all honesty, I would recommend a save-file of at least a couple of GB in size. I understand that many Puppians, either due to space constraints OR personal preference do try to keep their systems as tiny as possible.......but if you're getting into compiling & "installing" all sorts of additional stuff then it cannot hurt to give yourself room to "play with".

I also appreciate that I'm not the best person to be giving this kind of advice, because

• I have so much RAM (32 GB) to begin with

• I have around 5 TB of storage, and

• I don't tend to install much in the way of .pets apart from small utilities anyway; most of my working applications are either 'portable' or sym-linked in from external partitions ( or run from a Puppy 'chroot' on another external partition)

The original Puppy concept of "keep it as tiny as possible" isn't really as relevant these days, because so many of us have long since upgraded to far more capable & powerful systems than we originally started out with. Of course, there will always be those who ARE trying to keep old, low-resource systems functional (for whatever reason); for these, the wealth of original Puppy advice will always be there.

I gave up on save-files a while back & switched to save-folders instead, because having so much storage it no longer made sense to keep re-sizing save-files. I think my largest one reached somewhere around the 14GB mark; I remember amethyst was gobsmacked by this.......for want of a better term!

Mike.

@mikewalsh

LOL, you have a lot to play around with

I only came to Puppy Linux as I wanted a small OS that had a newsgroup reader. Using Windows my bandwidth was throttled. Also, I need to be able to use the maximum amount of RAM available to me as it is being cached during it's operations ie downloading, unpacking and deleting.

Once I had setup my application and it was working fine, I just looked at the core programs I use daily ie browser, audio/video playback and images. I then just updated the basic applications within the OS as I guessed that would be easier to do so then trying to compile (still hit and miss ) external programs. I just followed the instructions and with a lot of patience and head scratching it worked.

The reason I am using a USB flash drive is simply because that's how I started off and then move onto a USB-HDD. Unfortunately, I messed up the PupSave folder and had to reinstall again. For some reason, I couldn't follow the steps I had previously and decided to go back to the flash drive. As it has limited capacity I am trying to keep it small mainly so it stops me from being too adventurous. Also, small updates are fine and just incremental. Nothing like the kind of work that is being undertaken with the new releases.

On the USB-HDD I did have a folder as I had a EXT3/4 partition. On the USB flash drive it's FAT32, so it's a PupSave file.

I do have SSD drives and other external drives but not being able to replicate my initial steps has put me off. When I have a lazy afternoon, I will try it again.

@Jasper :-

Let me put it this way. I may have been using Puppy for nearly a decade, but however much I may think I've learned, there's an awful lot more that I still don't understand.

I'm the "eternal noob", mate. There's always summat new to learn/get your head round.......and I don't think I shall tire of learning till the day I pop my clogs.

That's just me, of course. I've always had an "enquiring mind".....

Mike.

Just to make sure you know:

Your posts left me with the impression that you don't have a lot of RAM, 'media space' and don't need to always have immediately available all the applications you compile.

I have no experience compiling. But I've built a lot of applications using PaDS, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 6355#p6355. With the exception of applications based on the python-framework*, any application you can install will also function as an SFS. There's also fredx181's application to create AppImages, viewtopic.php?p=3250&sid=4a7692f6e9071b ... a1ea#p3250. When not in use AppImages and SFSes require NO RAM.

Whether installed as a pet, or only available as an SFS or AppImage, the application will take up roughly the same amount of media space.

To obtain an SFS from a Pet, extract the pet, Right-Click the extracted folder and select 'dir2sfs'. To create an AppImage select the extracted folder in the Create-AppImage's GUI.

---
SFSes have lower priority in the 'merged in RAM' file-system than your SaveFile/Folder. An application will attempt to use the python in the latter and, if not identical, fail.

@mikeslr

Thank you for sharing the information and links to the applications.

The main applications I am updating are just the "core" binaries that are usually located in:

• /usr/bin
  /usr/sbin

Occasionally, I do update the in-built applications as I might need an additional feature/s that has been added.

I have only made a single SFS application and that was Doxygen which is used to generate Help files in applications. This seems to be the trend for developers. From memory, I believe I can load up to 5x SFS files.

Also I realised that Automake (automation tool for compiling) is already included in the DevX. So even though I made a PET file, I should really extract the DevX.SFS and manually insert my updated files and then squash it back to use.

If I was compiling a large application I would make it a SFS but these are tiny applications presently. An Office/Sound & Video toolkits and games (btw surprised no-one has made Assault Cube https://assault.cubers.net/ into a SFS.

As for compiling, it's only difficult when the applications need specific toolkits that are not available or having to update existing ones. Which is why I asked what the DevX file was and what it contained. Ideally, I would have liked to have known the specific applications and there build/release names. That way, slowly I could have updated this allowing more members to have the opportunity to build new/different applications.

Finally, I did have a stab at compiling GCC 12.2 (older version contained within DevX), that maxed out my cpu (i3 4xcores), filled up all my available RAM and ran for an hour before the whole PC just froze. Realised that to do this successfully would need much more RAM and possibly an i7 cpu.