What use do you do of porteus OS?

[francois]

What use do you do of porteus OS?

This post is a different declination of an old post which in 2011 asked porteus forum member how compatible their linux boxex where with porteus:
Re: What is you computer model, does it work with the OS (Post by Ahau #441)
Clearly here at the porteus forum, we are elsewhere.

I am a hard core user of porteus, if I may declare. It is my main OS, I have as backup systems ubuntu which, or sometime Debian or Manjaro which provide easily the basic grub installation for porteus. Windows 10, I will resort once or twice a year to debug some friend intallation on my Asus gamer laptop.

USB porteus installations have always work well for me. But I resort to them only once and a while.

I have many linux boxes, all laptops, which still work after many years though they have expired in terms of Windows utility: Toshiba protege z930, ultraslim MSI 340X and a hp pavilion 2713ca. These two last laptops are more than 15 years old. Window XP is no longer maintained and linux is the only way to maintain their working life.

Some say that laptop are less robust than desktop. This is not my experience. I never buy extended hardware guaranties. All of my older linux boxes have had a battery change.

I became an assiduous linux user with slax around 2005, frustrated by windows as an OS.

All my actual needs are met by porteus thru hdd install thru the iso file.

Please share your experience!

Thanks.

[Rava]

I also use porteus as my main OS. For now I am also experimenting with Porteux but extra provided Nvidia driver needed for my older hardware is not working, so I am not really using porteux.

The main difference is me using a script that has hard-coded into itself the paths where the files and folder hierarchies are stored to create my 991-usr_local_bin_YYYY-MM-DD.xzm and 992-rootcopy_5.0_YYYY-MM-DD.xzm settings modules. (Sans the settings of my main browser Pale Moon, that has its own settings module since including these large files would take too long to create my settings module files and I less often update the browser's settings module)
And I use symlinks in my base/ folders to symlinks named 991-usr_local_bin_RECENT.xzm and 992-rootcopy_5.0-RECENT.xzm that link to the real files themselves.

I do so so that at boot I never have to update any of my base/ folders, be there 2 or 10 or 35 variants of Porteus installed, since they all point to the most recent versions of my settings modules by themselves.

The creation of the name part "YYYY-MM-DD" is done by my make-991-usr_local_bin.sh make-992-rootcopy.sh script (yes, it is only one script: it determines if it should act as "make-991-usr_local_bin.sh" or as "make-992-rootcopy.sh" depending on its name when executed.)
And my make-991-usr_local_bin.sh make-992-rootcopy.sh script also creates the symlink in the target folder of the e.g. 991-usr_local_bin_YYYY-MM-DD.xzm to the 991-usr_local_bin_RECENT.xzm so that at the next boot the newest version is loaded.

By doing so it also creates older backup versions of my two settings modules all by itself, and I can copy the most recent settings module onto any internal or external drive's base/ and get the very same experience.

Why do I separate these settings into two files you might ask?

Because 991-usr_local_bin_YYYY-MM-DD.xzm is meant to be globally used (it has mainly my /usr/local/bin own scripts and programs, but also some global settings DE independent like rc.FireWall or rc.local) while the 992-rootcopy* module is meant to be DE dependant.
I just do not name my main 992-rootcopy* module as "Xfce" since I know that Xfce is my main DE and I hardly ever use another, and would create new 992-rootcopy* module file when using a different DE and this time put the DE's name into that 992-rootcopy* module name.

[Karmi]

I use Porteus Cinnamon as my primary Linux OS. Three installations of it—all on USB. I use the fat32 partition + ext4 partition method.

Win11 Pro is my primary OS and is on main desktop, and on two testing desktops (mainly for testing Linux OSes). The two testing desktops mainly use Porteus and whatever other Distro I might be testing. The two testing desktops have Dual-Bay Internal Tray-less Rack for 2.5” SATA HDD or SSD – for hot swapping SSDs when testing, e.g., remove the Win11 Pro SSD and insert a test SSD for a Linux installation. Build all my own desktops.

Porteus is quick and easy to work with, so I mainly use it to reformat SSDs after testing, and to prep USBs or SSDs.

Have a Dell XPS 13 w/ Win11 Pro, and a converted Chromebook w/ Fedora 39 Cinnamon SPIN on it. Tried to get Porteus on the Chromebook instead of Fedora, but it wouldn’t install on the 32 GB eMMC drive. Fedora is my secondary Linux OS.

[SEMERENDO.cr]

I installed Porteus on my BIOStar 2006 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 computer, and could not log in... but when booting another installation on a USB device, with the copy of the folder "changes" and with the configuration of the file "monitors.xml" for my AMD A8-5500B APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics × 4
Started normally, just had to adjust the MATE desktop composition manager!

I also use porteus as my main OS. For now I am also experimenting with Porteux but extra provided Nvidia driver needed for my older hardware is not working, so I am not really using porteux.

[SEMERENDO.cr]

I’m in love with Porteus... I have it installed on a 2TB mechanical hard drive. When you start it without installing it is nothing impressive, but then it does not take 25 seconds, and that I have not yet checked on an SSD.
The only detail I find is the bluetooh, which does not work
It also proved to be 100% independent of the hardware, because on other computers it does not get stuck with the famous "kernel panic"!

I am a hard core user of porteus, if I may declare. It is my main OS, I have as backup systems ubuntu which, or sometime Debian or Manjaro which provide easily the basic grub installation for porteus. Windows 10, I will resort once or twice a year to debug some friend intallation on my Asus gamer laptop.

[seed_clapper]

The only detail I find is the bluetooh, which does not work

Try PorteuX https://github.com/porteux/porteux
It does not need bluetooth cheatcode and worked for me when porteus did not

[benjibasson]

Hi
Porteus is rhe main os for home computer
I make
999-change
999-setting ( password, keyword...)
999-network-setting
Use copy2ram to be able to spin down the disk

At work I use Porteus to compress movies to free network drive
Then I do lot of joke ( playing loop music when I leave open space) while loading rdesktop
Or I let xfce desktop with our windows screenshot as while paper, deleting xfpanel.

Cheers.

[Ed_P]

FYI benj modules are processed in alphanumeric sequence. So 999-setting could be named my-setting and still be loaded last.

[Rava]

^ & ^^

I would rename the modules on the order I want them loaded:

Code: Select all

997-whatever   # 1st of my settings module, loaded later than any other modules
998-whatever2  # 2nd of my settings module
999-whatever3  # last of my settings module

when all "whatever"'s are the descriptions. Just my 2 cents.

[benjibasson]

FYI benj modules are processed in alphanumeric sequence. So 999-setting could be named my-setting and still be loaded last.

I use 999 for current setting and change.

If save change fail I use previous version in grub edit, so '888' to debug
999 and 888 are in optional and I append 'load=999'
Or modify 'load=888' in case there was an erreur building the new '999-change'

[Ed_P]

We're doing the same thing benj only I change the last 3 characters of my existing module before I create the new one. .xzm -> .xyzm. That way I have a backup and don't have to change the grub menu. Should I need to go back I rename the .xzm module .xxx and the .xyzm module back to .xzm.

System modules I leave numbered, so they always load first, personal modules I name them mychanges, applications keep their name, like firefox, and pc specific modules have the pc name in front, Dell-wifi.

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~#  ls -l /mnt/live/memory/images
000-kernel.xzm : Sep 23 11:38
001-core.xzm : Sep 22 03:48
002-xorg.xzm : Oct 1 09:44
002-xtra.xzm : Sep 22 03:54
003-cinnamon.xzm : Aug 7 10:04
07-printing-x86_64-2023-02-04.xzm : Feb 4 2023
Dell6.4.10-wifi.xzm : Aug 18 19:09
Dellautonet.xzm : Dec 19 16:00
Dellsound.xzm : May 14 2022
firefox-119.0-x86_64-en-US.xzm : Oct 31 16:05
firewall_patch.xzm : Nov 19 01:27
keepassx-2.0.3-x86_64-bundle.xzm : Jan 7 2020
mychanges.xzm : Dec 21 15:47

Code: Select all

guest@porteus:/mnt/nvme0n1p7/porteus5.0/Modules$ ls -hon
total 690M
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000  84M Feb  4  2023 07-printing-x86_64-2023-02-04.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 512M Dec 12 15:47 501save.dat.xyzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 488K Aug 18 19:09 Dell6.4.10-wifi.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 4.0K Dec 19 16:02 Dellautonet.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 4.0K May 14  2022 Dellsound.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000  70M Oct 31 16:05 firefox-119.0-x86_64-en-US.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000 4.0K Nov 23 00:41 firewall_patch.xzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000  12M Dec 20 19:49 mychanges.xyzm*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 1000  12M Dec 21 15:47 mychanges.xzm*
guest@porteus:/mnt/nvme0n1p7/porteus5.0/Modules$ 

[SEMERENDO.cr]

Thousand thanks, I had taste, but can't I find the installer... What's wrong with Porteux?

The only detail I find is the bluetooh, which does not work

Try PorteuX https://github.com/porteux/porteux
It does not need bluetooth cheatcode and worked for me when porteus did not

[Ed_P]

can't I find the installer...

The installer for PorteuX? There are 2 in the ISO's /boot folder. One for Windows, one for Linux.

[SEMERENDO.cr]

Yeah ... but for now, I can live without the bluetooth. The official version of Porteus also has a control center, which I did not find anywhere in the "x" variant.

can't I find the installer...

The installer for PorteuX? There are 2 in the ISO's /boot folder. One for Windows, one for Linux.