Fatdog64 boot problem - SFS not found [SOLVED]

[don570]

Fatdog64 boot problem - SFS not found

Normally I store my SFS files on the same partition as my Save folder.
Here is my normal situation with a frugal install of Fatdog64 900
partition a2 is a windows 10 partition and partition a3 is ext4

frugal install ----> partition a2
Save folder -----> partition a3
various SFS files ----> partition a3

However I was running out of space on partition a3 so I tried something different

frugal install ----> partition a2
Save folder -----> partition a2
various SFS files ----> partition a3

I used the control panel -System SFS loader to recognize a folder on a3 to store my collection of SFS files
and then booted ..... but I noticed that my SFS files weren't being loaded but everything else went well including
recognizing my Save folder. There was a boot message on the screen so I checked the boot log in /tmp

The boot log said that the SFS file that I wanted loaded couldn't be found.

I was able to solve the problem by dragging my SFS file to partition a2 and using System SFS loader to recognize it.
My menu.lst wasn't changed. I rebooted and the SFS file was recognized.

Conclusion: Save folder and my various SFS files have to be on same partition whether this is a2 or a3
As long as they are on the same partition everything goes well during boot time.
Can one of the Fatdog64 guys check into this problem?
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[step]

I suspect this is your case. If your SFS file resides on a partition that isn't mounted when the system boots, then it can't be found, when the system boots. Tell us, immediately after boot is the green square emblem visible on sda3's desktop icon or do you need to click the icon to make the emblem appear? If you do then sda3 isn't mounted, which explains why SFS files in sda3 aren't loaded. There is no magic[1] for this case: you need to mount sda3 explicitly so system SFS loader can find it. A good place to do so is /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Add something like this at the end of the file:

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mkdir -p /mnt/sda3
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3

[1] Why didn't you need to do this before? Because your savefile was in sda3 therefore Fatdog64 auto-mounted it for you.

[jamesbond]

Alternatively (following step's example), add the following line to the /etc/fstab:

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/dev/sda3	/mnt/sda3	auto	defaults	0	0

[don570]

I tried jamesbond solution

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/dev/sda3	/mnt/sda3	auto	defaults	0	0

and this solved the problem. Now my SFS folder can be on sda3 and Save folder can be on different partition ---> sda2
The frugal install folder is sda2
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Just to recap...
Frugal install on partition sda2
menu.lst is

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## start section Fatdog64-900
title Fatdog64 900 save file 900 test
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /fatdog900/vmlinuz
kernel /fatdog900/vmlinuz pfix=fsck psubdir=fatdog900  savefile=direct:device:sda2:/fd64save900test

When I boot , sda3 is not mounted (see image)

xscreenshot-20231019T095410.png (21.15 KiB) Viewed 646 times

Add to fstab

Code: Select all

/dev/sda3	/mnt/sda3	auto	defaults	0	0

and boot again. The result is the mounting of /mnt/sda3
and SFS folder is recognized and SFS files will load.

xscreenshot-20231019T101923.png (22.72 KiB) Viewed 646 times

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[jamesbond]

@don570, thanks for the confirmation

[fatdoguser]

Fatdog is incredibly flexible, the main fd64.sfs and save areas can even be on different boxes/remote. See the cifs (samba/windows share) option within fatdog help.

Doesn't directly support sshfs (remote mounting of filesystem through ssh) at the boot level as it uses dropbear rather than full ssh within bulldog, but you can still scp (copy via ssh)

Add a bbshell net=wpa2:ssid:password:wlan0 ... type boot switch, and during boot you'll drop into a shell that's wifi net connected, use that to scp (or simply symbolic link) a fd64.sfs to the root folder of a partition and in the absence of a basesfs=... (or psubdir) boot switch fatdog will search for/find any fd64.sfs within a / folder on any fat/ext partition and use that, even if its a symbolic link.

All assuming you've clicked on initrd and dragged out fd64.sfs before clicking the repack-initrd icon.

As a alternative to bbshell interactive, there's a bbhook=path/to/file ... where you can script/automate such actions.

More specific to your case, and I believe fatdog will still follow symbolic links, that take up near zero space, so could be symbolic links on your a3 partition to actual files on your a2 partition, but will still need for both partitions to have been mounted.