Mounting .xzm files. [ Solved ]

Post here if you are a new Porteus member and you're looking for some help.
SunBurnt
White ninja
White ninja
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Aug 2012, 20:24
Location: Arizona, U.S.A.

Mounting .xzm files. [ Solved ]

Post#1 by SunBurnt » 21 Aug 2012, 02:55

I`m finding that making truly portable apps. is nearly impossible.
No Linux distros can mount squash files made by another one.

I tried mounting 008-firefox.xzm in Porteus and it didn`t work.
Logged in as root I entered in the VT:

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/loop
mount -o loop /mnt/sda4/porteus-1.2/porteus/base/008-firefox.xzm /mnt/loop
"-o loop" doesn`t seem to matter to the mount command in Porteus.
It says it mounted the file read-only, but /mnt/loop is empty.
Mount shows the "file" mounted on /mnt/loop , but it should show the "loop device".
Porteus should be able to mount it`s own Squash files, right?

Puppy Linux won`t mount Porteus or Tiny Core Linux Squash files and vise versa.
Apparently they all use a different compression as they all use version 4 of Squash.
This potentially makes Squash files useless for portable apps. Solutions???
Last edited by SunBurnt on 25 Aug 2012, 20:39, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
fanthom
Moderator Team
Moderator Team
Posts: 5666
Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
Location: Poland
Contact:

Re: Mounting .xzm files.

Post#2 by fanthom » 21 Aug 2012, 08:46

hello SunBurnt,

i'm mounting xzm modules almost everyday so this feature works for sure.
please check md5sum of your ISO and boot in 'Always Fresh' mode then try again.
(you could use 'mloop' utility or just press enter on the xzm file while in mc)
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

SunBurnt
White ninja
White ninja
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Aug 2012, 20:24
Location: Arizona, U.S.A.

Re: Mounting .xzm files.

Post#3 by SunBurnt » 23 Aug 2012, 06:14

Thanks fanthom, don`t know why the normal mount command doesn`t work, odd...

mloop worked, and I have toroot for one of my boot choices for doing this stuff.

So far Porteus is the only distro. I`ve seen that uses xz for it`s Squash files.
I think most of the others use lzma, but I`m not sure about that.
It would sure be nice if the best compression was used by all distros.

User avatar
fanthom
Moderator Team
Moderator Team
Posts: 5666
Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
Location: Poland
Contact:

Re: Mounting .xzm files.

Post#4 by fanthom » 23 Aug 2012, 07:07

@SunBurnt
don`t know why the normal mount command doesn`t work, odd...
i'm sure that plain 'mount' command works as well as this utility is used by mloop script.
So far Porteus is the only distro. I`ve seen that uses xz for it`s Squash files.
I think most of the others use lzma, but I`m not sure about that.
i'm nearly 100% sure that all other distros with fairly recent kernel uses xz compression. the reason is simple: lzma for squashfs was never added to the mainline kernel tree.
squashfs jumped from gzip straight to xz (lzma2).

you can find about compression used for squashed archives by running following command:

Code: Select all

 unsquashfs -s squashed_file | grep Compression
btw: please add [Solved] to the thread title if your issue was resolved.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

SunBurnt
White ninja
White ninja
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Aug 2012, 20:24
Location: Arizona, U.S.A.

Re: Mounting .xzm files.

Post#5 by SunBurnt » 24 Aug 2012, 03:44

Now I`m really puzzled about Porteus`s mount command.
In the VT type: df and no loop mounts are shown!

What`s the deal with Porteus`s mount command?
It`s not because of BusyBox`s half commands as Porteus doesn`t use it.
This is good as it would be double compressed in a Squash based O.S.
And as most folks know, the BusyBox commands just don`t measure up.

##### Another Q:

Porteus is slow compared to Puppy, particularly the file browser.
I`m using my old backup PC, a Celeron 1.7ghz ( a real wimp...).

Is this due to all the union layers Porteus uses, or is it XFCE ?
I`ve never used LXDE, maybe it`s not so cpu intensive like XFCE ?

User avatar
fanthom
Moderator Team
Moderator Team
Posts: 5666
Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
Location: Poland
Contact:

Re: Mounting .xzm files.

Post#6 by fanthom » 24 Aug 2012, 08:03

Now I`m really puzzled about Porteus`s mount command.
In the VT type: df and no loop mounts are shown!
of course they are:

Code: Select all

root@porteus:/mnt/sda4/porteus/optional/pkg# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs            1.1G   10M  1.1G   1% /
/dev/sda1        20G  6.0G   13G  33% /mnt/sda1
/dev/sda3       3.1G  2.2G  773M  75% /mnt/sda3
/dev/sda4       268G   35G  220G  14% /mnt/sda4
/dev/loop12      45M   45M     0 100% /mnt/loop
root@porteus:/mnt/sda4/porteus/optional/pkg# cat /proc/mounts | grep loop12
/dev/loop12 /mnt/loop squashfs ro,relatime 0 0
root@porteus:/mnt/sda4/porteus/optional/pkg# losetup /dev/loop12
/dev/loop12: [0804]:13371625 (/mnt/sda4/porteus/optional/pkg/skype_static-4.0.0.8-x86_64-1ftm.xzm)
skype_static module is mounted with 'mloop' utility.
modules which are activated (injected into aufs) wont be shown by df command as they are merged with root (/).
Porteus is slow compared to Puppy, particularly the file browser.
this is the subject for another thread.

Cheers
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

SunBurnt
White ninja
White ninja
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Aug 2012, 20:24
Location: Arizona, U.S.A.

Re: Mounting .xzm files. [ Solved ]

Post#7 by SunBurnt » 25 Aug 2012, 20:41

I see, additional modules are shown, I expected to see the base modules as well.

Thanks fanthom...

Post Reply