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Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 24 Jul 2016, 03:17
by Ed_P
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guest@porteus:~$ df -h /mnt/live/memory/changes/
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
- 1.4G 38M 1.4G 3% /mnt/live/memory/changes
guest@porteus:~$ df -h /mnt/live/memory/images/changes/
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
- 508M 252M 256M 50% /mnt/live/memory/images/changes
guest@porteus:~$
If my 508MB save.dat file has used 252M how is it my /mnt/live/memory/changes/ folder is only 38M??
I thought the changes in the save.dat file got loaded into the /mnt/live/memory/changes/ folder when booting and was updated while Porteus was running.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 24 Jul 2016, 06:12
by ncmprhnsbl
/mnt/live/memory/changes/ holds the changes made in the current session, after any /changes folder/.dat/.xzm is loaded...
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 25 Jul 2016, 13:54
by Ed_P
Thanks ncmprhnsbl. I was beginning to suspect that. And some of the new changes replace some of the old changes so the 2 numbers added together are not the size of the save.dat used space after a reboot.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 06 Aug 2016, 15:27
by Jack
ED, First off I have never done this I have always use ext4. I was told that you could or might help me.
What I want is to boot up in Alway Fresh mode or Text mode. I have use Porteus save file manager and built a 512MB file. I want to setup Porteus Mate the way I want it and save it. When I setup the porteus.cfg I want both Alway Fresh mode or Text mode to be setup.
The USB is a 32GB and the partition are 4GB fat32 (porteus) and 28GB ext4 (save data).
If anything needs change please tell me and how it can be done.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 06 Aug 2016, 18:44
by Ed_P
Well Jack the term Always Fresh implies
no changes, save.dat or otherwise. So I don't think that's the option you're referring to.
I do indeed use a save.dat file. Two in fact kinda. One I use to save changes I make and the other is a backup copy that I use when the grandkids are here and I don't want them to change anything when they use the netbook. My current save.dat file is 512MB the same as yours and is approx 51% full. I do not store/save large files in my save.dat file, files that would go into the Downloads or Music or Video folders I save outside the /home/guest system on my hard drive or USB drive so 512MB is a lot of space for system type of changes. /home/guest/.config and alike and bookmarks and etc.
To save changes I boot with the changes=EXIT option, which supports saving changes as an option when I shutdown. This way if I screw up my system, and am aware of it, when I shutdown I can choose to not save my changes and reboot the way I was before I screwed up.
My changes= option is on my grub boot menu as such:
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kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=/ISOs/%ISO30% changes=EXIT:/porteus3.0/changes/porteussave.dat extramod=/porteus3.0/Modules volume=40 reboot=cold ramsize=80%
In that my save.dat file is on the same drive as I boot from I don't need to specify a mnt/sda* drive.
If your using the porteus.cfg file the changes= parameter would work the same way.
As I note earlier I have two save.dat files. The second one is named porteussave.dat.xzm and is created with this script:
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#!/bin/sh
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=2866&p=20331#p20292
BDEV=`grep -A1 "Booting" /var/log/porteus-livedbg|tail -n1|sed 's^//^/^g'`
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3801&start=30#p28472
VERSION=$(cat /etc/porteus-version)
FOLDER=porteus${VERSION:9:3}
MODULES="$BDEV/$FOLDER/Modules"
SAVEDAT="$BDEV/$FOLDER"
DIR () {
# echo "$1"
# ls -ghlst --full-time $1 | awk '{print $1 " " $2 " "$6 " " $7 " " $8 " " $9}' | more
ls -lght --time-style long-iso $1 | awk '{print $5,$6,$4,$7}'
# http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3965#p29205
}
DIR "$SAVEDAT/modsavedat/"
DIR "$SAVEDAT/changes/"
echo
echo -en "Press Enter to backup .dat to .xzm, Ctrl+C to end.\n"
read answer
echo Pls wait, copying in progress
cp -p $SAVEDAT/changes/porteussave.dat $SAVEDAT/modsavedat/porteussave.dat.xzm
DIR "$SAVEDAT/modsavedat/"
The key command being the cp one at the bottom which you could do manually in cli mode.
The xzm file is a copy if the dat file and in addition to being a backup it allows me to boot to a nochange safe mode with all my changes. That menu entry looks like this for me:
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kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz from=/ISOs/%ISO30% extramod=/porteus3.0/Modules;/porteus3.0/modsavedat volume=33 reboot=cold
The key being the extra directory added to the extramod= option, and no changes= option.
BTW The drive with my Porteus systems is configured as:
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porteus#.#
|
__ changes
|
__ porteussave.dat
|
__ modsavedat
|
__ porteussave.dat.xzm
|
__ Modules
|
__ firefox.xzm
__ etc
Hope this helps you Jack.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 06 Aug 2016, 20:32
by Jack
For me I want to just setup Porteus Mate, FireFox bookmark and some other stuff. This will be in Text mode. Take look at I did below and if it need's change post any change.
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LABEL text
MENU LABEL Text mode
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz 3 <- I think this the line I need to use.
TEXT HELP
TEXT HELP
Run Porteus in text mode and
start the command prompt only
ENDTEXT
Add this?
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APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=EXIT: /porteus/porteussave.dat 3
I'm going to use a 32GB USB 4GB fat32 or ext4 for Porteus and 28GB ext4 for downloads, document, picture, video and other stuff. Can I use fat32 or ext4 for the first partition too?
If it looks good I will do it.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 00:53
by Ed_P
Jack wrote:Add this?
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APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=EXIT: /porteus/porteussave.dat 3
No, add it this way:
Code: Select all
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=EXIT:/porteus/porteussave.dat 3
No space after EXIT:.
I'm going to use a 32GB USB 4GB fat32 or ext4 for Porteus and 28GB ext4 for downloads, document, picture, video and other stuff. Can I use fat32 or ext4 for the first partition too?
I don't think Porteus supports save.dat files on linus formated drives, I believe it is limited to FAT and NTFS drives. And other than my save.dat file everything is formatted as FAT or NTFS on my drives and Porteus has no problem accessing files on them.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 01:16
by Jack
Thanks for your help. I will format both partition NTFS and use it that way that way my Windows 7 will be able to write to it. If I have a problem I might be back.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 05:18
by Ed_P
For USB drives I recommend FAT & exFAT rather than NTFS. And with Windows it can only see the 1st partition on removable drives. Unless you are going to boot the flash drive on EFI systems I recommend a single FAT partition. If you plan on files larger than 4 GB than use exFAT.
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 12:09
by Jack
I learn a lot from you. Thanks
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 13:47
by Jack
I'm using a 4GB USB and going to use another one for save data.
When I try it here is the ERROR I received.
Code: Select all
couldn't find EXIT/porteus/porteussave.dat correct your cheatcode
I use this and it is what you told me. And porteussave.dat is in porteus
Code: Select all
APPEND initrd=initrd.xz changes=EXIT:/porteus/porteussave.dat 3
Here is a tree view of my sdb1.
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guest@porteus:~$ tree /mnt/sdb1
/mnt/sdb1
├── EFI
│ └── BOOT
│ ├── background.png
│ ├── bootx64.efi
│ ├── drivers_x64
│ │ ├── LICENSE.txt
│ │ ├── LICENSE_GPL.txt
│ │ ├── btrfs_x64.efi
│ │ ├── ext2_x64.efi
│ │ ├── ext4_x64.efi
│ │ ├── hfs_x64.efi
│ │ ├── iso9660_x64.efi
│ │ └── reiserfs_x64.efi
│ ├── icons
│ │ ├── func_about.png
│ │ ├── func_exit.png
│ │ ├── func_firmware.png
│ │ ├── func_reset.png
│ │ ├── func_shutdown.png
│ │ ├── os_arch.png
│ │ ├── os_debian.png
│ │ ├── os_elementary.png
│ │ ├── os_fedora.png
│ │ ├── os_freebsd.png
│ │ ├── os_gentoo.png
│ │ ├── os_linux.png
│ │ ├── os_linuxmint.png
│ │ ├── os_mac.png
│ │ ├── os_pclinuxos.png
│ │ ├── os_porteus.png
│ │ ├── os_slackware.png
│ │ ├── os_ubuntu.png
│ │ ├── os_unknown.png
│ │ ├── os_win.png
│ │ ├── tool_apple_rescue.png
│ │ ├── tool_memtest.png
│ │ ├── tool_mok_tool.png
│ │ ├── tool_part.png
│ │ ├── tool_shell.png
│ │ ├── tool_windows_rescue.png
│ │ ├── transparent.png
│ │ ├── vol_external.icns
│ │ ├── vol_external.png
│ │ ├── vol_internal.icns
│ │ ├── vol_internal.png
│ │ ├── vol_optical.icns
│ │ └── vol_optical.png
│ └── refind.conf
├── USB_INSTALLATION.txt
├── bookmarks-2016-07-24.json
├── boot
│ ├── Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com
│ ├── Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
│ ├── docs
│ │ ├── GNU_GPL
│ │ ├── License.txt
│ │ ├── cheatcodes.txt
│ │ ├── install.txt
│ │ └── requirements.txt
│ └── syslinux
│ ├── boot.cat
│ ├── chain.c32
│ ├── extlinux.conf
│ ├── initrd.xz
│ ├── isolinux.bin
│ ├── isolinux.boot
│ ├── isolinux.cfg
│ ├── ldlinux.sys
│ ├── lilo.conf
│ ├── plpbt
│ ├── porteus.cfg
│ ├── porteus.png
│ ├── syslinux.cfg
│ ├── vesamenu.c32
│ └── vmlinuz
└── porteus
├── base
│ ├── 000-kernel.xzm
│ ├── 001-core.xzm
│ ├── 002-xorg.xzm
│ ├── 003-mate.xzm
│ └── 009-caches.xzm
├── make_iso.sh
├── modules
│ ├── flashplayer-plugin-22.0.0.209-x86_64-1.xzm
│ ├── fprintd-0.4.1-x86_64-bundle.xzm
│ ├── glabels-3.4.0-x86_64-1_bundle.xzm
│ ├── guvcview-2.0.4-x86_64-1_bundle.xzm
│ ├── libreoffice-5.1.4.2-x86_64.xzm
│ ├── mozilla-firefox-47.0.1-x86_64-1.xzm
│ ├── tree-1.6.0-x86_64-1.xzm
│ └── youtube-dl-2016.06.23.1-x86_64-1_bundle.xzm
├── optional
├── porteus-v3.2-x86_64.sgn
├── porteussave.dat
└── rootcopy
└── etc
└── rc.d
└── rc.bluetooth
14 directories, 87 files
guest@porteus:~$
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 14:03
by Bogomips
Jack wrote:
When I try it here is the ERROR I received.
Code: Select all
couldn't find EXIT/porteus/porteussave.dat correct your cheatcode
Jack, it thinks it is looking for file
EXIT/porteus/porteussave.dat, which you don't have. Need to put this
EXIT:/porteus/porteussave.dat..
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 14:10
by Jack
Bogomips wrote:Jack wrote:
When I try it here is the ERROR I received.
Code: Select all
couldn't find EXIT/porteus/porteussave.dat correct your cheatcode
Jack, it thinks it is looking for file
EXIT/porteus/porteussave.dat, which you don't have. Need to put this
EXIT:/porteus/porteussave.dat..
I forgot the : I will fix it it and try again. Thanks Bogomips
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 14:47
by Jack
It now works. Thanks everyone that help me.
If I don't want to write when power down can I remove EXIT or EXIT: which one? And when I want to save again put it back in?
Re: Save.dat / changes confusion
Posted: 07 Aug 2016, 14:57
by Bogomips
Think you need:
Code: Select all
changes=/porteus/porteussave.dat changes-ro
This way you are starting with last changes and then no longer saving changes, if that is what you wish to do.