crashed save.dat again

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Bob1414
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crashed save.dat again

Post#1 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 13:59

Honestly now, wiil this be a regular occurrence? The same as about a week ago, with the error being "the drive might not be writable". That's the same USB drive I've been using all along.

If it's not usual for everybody, could it be the Interlink email module? I only use FF and Interlink. I use the 5.11 kernel in Porteus 4 Cinnamon.

Bob1414
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crashed save.dat again

Post#2 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 14:38

The circumstances:
I have it set to save on EXIT. When shutting down, it hung up at the last line, something about "union". After 1-2 minutes, it finally shut down.

Since that was so suspicious, I immediately booted again and saw that everything was as if never saved.

The save.dat is 500MB, and is only half full.

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Ed_P
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crashed save.dat again

Post#3 by Ed_P » 16 Apr 2021, 14:41

It could be your 5.11 kernel in Porteus 4 Cinnamon. The kernel in the released version of Porteus 4 Cinnamon is 4.16.3. It could be your save.dat file is full. "might not be" is not the as "is not".

So, how big is your save.dat file? How full is it when you shutdown normally? When you reboot does the error reappear?

Added in 27 seconds:
:D We cross posted.

Added in 3 minutes 28 seconds:
Where does your interlink module save the emails? You should save them to a folder on the USB drive and not in Porteus. Emails can eat up space very quickly.
Ed

Bob1414
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crashed save.dat again

Post#4 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 14:57

Thanks, Ed.

I have to use that kernel for its drivers else I have no wifi nor graphics.

I've been rebooting several times today to test, and there is no problem. Yet.

I did restore from a copy of save.dat that I'd thankfully made 24 hours ago. I'm thinking that I can't use Porteus for everyday as planned, just for emergencies. So before every shutdown, it seems I have to copy save.dat to keep it from being destroyed , then run dump-session then copy save.dat again to avoid losing the day's changes, then finally shut down.


The emails get saved wherever the default is, presumably in save.dat. There were very few, since i was still reconstructing from the iast crash of save.dat.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#5 by Ed_P » 16 Apr 2021, 15:25

While changes=EXIT is a faster system on a flash drive running without the EXIT option may work better for you. And doing a backup of the save.dat file is an excellent idea for saving important files. :D

Something for you to try, make a backup of your save.dat file and name the backup porteussave.dat.xzm. Should you loose the save.dat file you can use the xzm backup as a module.

As for the emails, I would make sure the default file location is outside the Porteus file system. And same for large downloads and pictures.
Ed

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crashed save.dat again

Post#6 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 15:40

>> you can use the xzm backup as a module.

That sounds useful, ty.

I'll stop trying to customize the desktop nicely. I also can do without saving emails or browser cache&history and all that. I can save FF logins as a csv file. But can I somehow save logins in Interlink?

I'll leave this as unsolved, though, and maybe one day someone might come along to say why it crashes. Now I have to go back into Windows and try again to fix the slew of damage that was caused by a forced update weeks ago.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#7 by Ed_P » 16 Apr 2021, 16:58

As a side question for a system I am experimenting with, when you shutdown Porteus and it shuts down normlly do you see a message showing how full your save.dat file is and a prompt saying your changes will be saved in 3 seconds? :hmmm:
Ed

Bob1414
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crashed save.dat again

Post#8 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 18:55

Yep, Ed, that's where I saw that it is 50% full. I also see the "3 seconds".

I'm thinking of maybe ejecting the stick before shutdown. Only doing the manual dump-session and then the copying.

Here's an associated problem, though: when I do a copy, I don't know if any damage is in the copy. E.g, I just noticed that in my "good" save.dat which I'm using now, the root acct can't put anything on the desktop. Who knows what else might be wrong in that dat file.

Maybe /rootcopy is something to look into.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#9 by francois » 16 Apr 2021, 19:57

Hello Bob1414:
Why don't you simply work with linux file system. This way no need for save.dat container and the saved information will expand at will. :)
Prendre son temps, profiter de celui qui passe.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#10 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 20:18

francois wrote:
16 Apr 2021, 19:57
Hello Bob1414:
Why don't you simply work with linux file system. This way no need for save.dat container and the saved information will expand at will. :)
Thanks for the advice, francois. I have been transitioning away from Windows since a harmful forced update in March. I've wanted to have Porteus as a backup for now, to pay bills and get email etc. I also have passwords, the Porteus ISO, and so forth on the same stick, all Fat32. In case my HDD becomes unusable as I attempt to fix the Windows problems. It's convenient to pass things back and forth.

But you've made me wonder: would my Porteus be more reliable if it were on a Linux filesystem USB stick? If so, then I should probably do that. My "trial period" with Porteus is complete anyway :)

Would everything be more stable?

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crashed save.dat again

Post#11 by Ed_P » 16 Apr 2021, 20:45

Bob1414 wrote:
16 Apr 2021, 20:18
Would everything be more stable?
It depends who you talk to. I've used the save.dat file almost since I've started since I boot the ISOs on my hard drive. I've also done installs to FAT32 flash drives so I can access files from Windows and use the save.dat there also. The main concerns I've found is the save.dat file filling up which is why I check it's usage and do backups.

What Windows' update is causing you problems? I run Windows 10 and just did the April update with no problems.
Ed

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crashed save.dat again

Post#12 by Bob1414 » 16 Apr 2021, 22:11

Ed, it was the upgrade from 1909 to 2004, plus a bunch of others. I went 20+ yrs with Windows and never had trouble like this. Updates always had some risk to them, but I think Win10 is far far worse than anything before. I'll always make a System Image from now on, before any update and especially before any major upgrade. (Using free Macrium)

It's occurred to me that using a Linux file system on the USB stick would get it worn out sooner, right? Because it's always being written to, just like using save.dat without the EXIT switch.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#13 by Ed_P » 17 Apr 2021, 00:06

Some linux file systems journal, some don't. Same with Windows.

I'm running Windows 10 19041 version with an upgrade to 20H2 waiting.
Ed

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crashed save.dat again

Post#14 by Bob1414 » 17 Apr 2021, 00:37

19041.1 here.

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crashed save.dat again

Post#15 by Ed_P » 17 Apr 2021, 02:06

What did you upgrade from??
Ed

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