Page 1 of 1

this is a nice distro...

Posted: 29 Jul 2015, 20:51
by sedstar
I'm new to linux, and i have been distro hopping off and on for a while now...

this is a nice little distro. (3.1 xfce)

runs nice on my old laptop, nice "clean" desktop and easy to navigate menus.

one click to wireless internet... i moved the "tray" to the bottom where i expect it in windoze... and i'm happy.

i put my complaints in the OTHER thread, lol... figured it was only fair to tell you how much i like it once i got the save file going, you know? fair is fair. make a easy GUI for the save file, and you got a winner here, to woo former windoze casual users to linux.

good show.

i would feel comfortable handing this out to my windows customers, as a "use this to browse so you dont crud up the windoze machine browsing" and a "use this if windows pukes on you till i GET there" thing, you know?

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 29 Jul 2015, 21:56
by Ed_P
sedstar wrote:the save file going, you know? fair is fair. make a easy GUI for the save file, and you got a winner here,
Image You didn't use the Porteus Savefile Manager?

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 10:42
by sedstar
well yeah...

nice little GUI... i selected a NAME and a LOCATION for the save file?

did not do a damn thing, lol.... i tried "run graphics" and "run RAM" but neither had save working.

==================================
FAQ and "tips and tricks" had me going into the file structure to locate and modify the BOOT .cfg text file, lol...

wasnt clear whether to use FULL path name, or "relative" path names... took me several hours to get it working, lol

=================================================

not trying to be rude, but... whats the POINT of having a pretty easy GUI set the save file? When i still have to go digging into the file structure and worry about modifying a text CFG scripting file, you know?

I mean, i can handle it as a LINUX newbie, cos i used to be a programmer? but, the average WIN user migrating to LINUX? i dont see them doing what i did.... most of my customers dont even KNOW where to FIND the file manager on WIN, let alone modify files, lol...

=============================================

I mean, i grasp the concept of modifying script text files... i used to be a programmer, it makes sense to me... but for the average new LIN user?? why cant there be a GUI that sets these cheat codes for them? it just takes some "logic" to have a program modify a text file, right?

that wouldnt "bloat" the OS that much would it? (i dont know the "overhead" in LINUX for what i am suggesting)

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 11:23
by francois
This has to be troubleshooted. Ed you are the fat savedat expert, would you look at it?

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 12:33
by sedstar
uhm... i think the "problem" that needed troubleshooting?

was that it was a "I.D. 10T" error... (I am an idiot? lol...)

===========================

i didnt realize that using YUMI in windoze, created a NTFS file structure that somehow makes the SAVE feature not work automatically like it should.

in the HATERS thread? someone pointed that out...

:sorry:

its a learning curve, getting used to LIN....

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 16:08
by Ed_P
sedstar wrote:uhm... i think the "problem" that needed troubleshooting?

was that it was a "I.D. 10T" error... (I am an idiot? lol...)
No, I agree the Porteus Savefile Manager could make the required .cfg file changes clearer and maybe even automate the process.
i didnt realize that using YUMI in windoze, created a NTFS file structure that somehow makes the SAVE feature not work automatically like it should.
I didn't realize that either but is certainly a good reason why I don't use YUMI. You should try Easy2Boot.
its a learning curve, getting used to LIN....
Yup. Other than a Live distro to partition a hdd over the years I've never been a big user or a fan of Linux. But I stumpled upon Porteus, probably for gparted, and the admins won me over with their support. I asked a lot of dumb questions and made a lot of dumb mistakes and they stuck with me and explained things, and yelled at me :D , and I've learned a few things and have became a fan.

As for the save.dat file it's designed to save system changes. But some people use it to save everything. I don't, as such my save.dat file is 328MB. If I change my bookmarks, my desktop, update USM those changes get saved in my save.dat file. If I download a file I will save it to my hdd or USB drive not in my save.dat file. While I primarily multiboot on my netbook's hdd, which is NTFS, I also multiboot a few flash/USB drives, which are all FAT32 formated. The USB drives are a mix of i486 & x86_64 systems and will boot on MBR or UEFI systems or both.

I've only installed Porteus on a single USB drive and that was the Windows 8 Recovery USB drive, all my other systems boot ISOs using grub4dos. But the Porteus boot parameters are basically the same. So my save.dat file is accessed by:

Code: Select all

title  | Graphics mode (LXQt)       |\n\n Run Porteus the best way we can. Try to\n autoconfigure graphics card and use the\n maximum allowed resolution.
find --set-root                       /ISOs/%ISOx%
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0   /ISOs/%ISOx% (0xff) 
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz    from=/ISOs/%ISOx% changes=/porteus3.1/changes/porteussave.dat timezone=US/Eastern extramod=/porteus3.1/Modules 
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

title  | Always Fresh               |  \n Normally Porteus saves all changes to the\n /porteus/changes/ directory on the boot media\n (if writable) and restores them next boot.\n Use this option to start a fresh system, changes are not read from or written to any device.
find --set-root                       /ISOs/%ISOx%
map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0   /ISOs/%ISOx% (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz    from=/ISOs/%ISOx% nomagic base_only norootcopy timezone=US/Eastern
initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

On my hdd I have several partitions and the Porteus systems are on my D: drive in a folder named /porteus3.1/changes/. In the kernel line I have the cheatcode changes= where I enter the path to the save.dat file. I do not have to specify the /mnt/sda5/ part.

Hope this helps.

(You may also notice I do not have to specify the name of the ISO in every parameter, with grub4dos I can set the name as a variable.)

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 17:47
by sedstar
YUMI is a nice easy program, and can load many distros on one USB like i like to do... this was the first problem i had with it only doing fat and ntfs

to solve this? i booted into Zorin... got "unetbootin" or whetever... and copied the ISO from my WIN hard drive folder to my Zorin desktop... ran unetbootin... all good.

just checked, and the "save" function works on the default graphics mode.

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 18:07
by Ed_P
sedstar wrote:a nice easy program, and can load many distros on one USB like i like to do...
Easy2Boot is also and the author is there to help if you have any problems. I also boot many ISOs. Don't need CDs, don't need multiple flash drives, don't need multiple partitions. Definitely the way to go IMHO

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 30 Jul 2015, 21:15
by Jack
I formatted my USB thumb drive ext4 Linux partition and installed Porteus 3.1 Mate. When it boots up I pick the first choice "Graphics mode (MATE)" and I do what I want to do and when I poweroff it save everything then when I boot up again it is all there. I don't have to use the "save.dat" file. My 0.02 cents

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 31 Jul 2015, 09:57
by sedstar
the easy to boot idea looks good...

gee whiz, even they "push" not using ext* file structures, lol.... so the bulk of the tutorials even on the LIN instructions is centered around FAT partitions...

i'll have to play around with easy2boot though... if i can get the multiple ISOs working on ext3, it would be convenient...

Re: this is a nice distro...

Posted: 19 Aug 2015, 14:17
by Rava
sedstar wrote:YUMI is a nice easy program, and can load many distros on one USB like i like to do... this was the first problem i had with it only doing fat and ntfs
I would recommend adding a ext3 or ext2 partition to you boot drive (ext3 when it's a hard disk, ext2 when it's a USB thumb drive)

You can then use the rootcopy folder to save changes as well. Oh, and when using an USM thumbdrive, Witless OS won't show you any partitions other than the 1st one. That was a bug, me thinks back in ol' XP times of SM-Witless-OS. They just did not get it that a USM thumbdrive can have more than only one partition, just like an external hard drive can have more than one.

And for some freaked up reasons they kept that error as it is. Which I appreciate, since I often use USM sticks to get data to other folks PCs, and I don't want any silly SM-Witless to mess with my Linux partitions anyway, so kinda win win here. :D
sedstar wrote:i'll have to play around with easy2boot though... if i can get the multiple ISOs working on ext3, it would be convenient...
If by that you mean, copy more than one ISO image file to an ext2 or ext3 partition, sure, no problem.

And unlike with FAT, there is no such thing as a 4GB barrier, you could put on an ext2 or ext3 partition a 6 GB DVD ISO and boot that. Sure, usually you won't find any DVD iso larger than 4,3 GB (aka '4,7 GB'), but that's beside the point here me thinks.