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Bugfixes in 'init' script

March 16, 2009 — BarryK
This is to support the different ways that BootFlash can format a USB drive.

The 'ISO9660' mode simply copies the live-CD ISO image file to the USB drive (after running the Syslinux 'isohybrid' utility on it) and it becomes partition-1 on the USB drive. BootFlash creates a FAT16 or FAT32 filesystem for partition-2, filling the rest of the drive.

The USB-ZIP and ComboFormat choices in BootFlash create partition-4 as a 128MB bootable FAT16 partition. Partition-1 is FAT16 or FAT32 and fills the rest of the drive.

In the case of 'ISO9660' choice, the 'init' script now accepts a ISO9660 filesystem in a USB drive.

In all three cases, the 'init' script will now correctly look for a 'pupsave' file in the other partition -- partition-2 in the case of ISO9660, partition-1 in the cases of USB-ZIP and ComboFormat.

Note, for USB-HDD choice in BootFlash, a single bootable FAT16 or FAT32 partition is created. USB-FDD does not have any partitions.

I'm going to do some more testing of these various modes. So, probably Woof-Puppy alpha3 will be available in a few days. Apart from the Woof tarball, I'll probably upload an Ubuntu "Intrepid Puppy" live-CD.
The main purpose of alpha3 will be to test the Puppy Package Manager and BootFlash.

Comments

Live-CD & GRUB USB Booting?
Username: GreatnessGuru
For the USB boot challenged boxes, may the Live-CDs feature a feature to boot from USB? So that a Live-CD can both install to USB and then boot from USB? Also, could GRUB come ready to boot from USB after we install to HDD? Thanks very much, Barry, Eddie Maddox Inwood IA USA

Boot Order
Username: PathFinder_Cate
"On older computers the options for booting were Floppy / Hard Drive ( If you even had a hard drive ) Then the options became Floppy / CD / Hard Drive Now they are [Floppy /] CD / USB / Hard Drive ( Many new computers no longer come with floppy drives ) Are we still covered for all the boot options, including starting from one media to finish the booting from another (like using a CD to boot from USB)? Kenneth Cate Hampton, VA USA

Regarding boot options, by PathFinder_Cate
Username: pakt
""Are we still covered for all the boot options, including starting from one media to finish the booting from another (like using a CD to boot from USB)?" I made the original WakePup boot floppy readonly (apart from reducing wear) so that the floppy image could be burned to CD. This CD could then boot many, but not all, USB devices on PCs without USB boot capability. However, IIRC, the current version of WakePup, modified by others, is no longer readonly and thus cannot be burned to CD.

Regarding boot options, by PathFinder_Cate
Username: pakt
""Are we still covered for all the boot options, including starting from one media to finish the booting from another (like using a CD to boot from USB)?" I made the original WakePup boot floppy readonly (apart from reducing wear) so that the floppy image could be burned to CD. This CD could then boot many, but not all, USB devices on PCs without USB boot capability. However, IIRC, the current version of WakePup, modified by others, is no longer readonly and thus cannot be burned to CD.

copy2ram size
Username: technosaurus
"Barry, With the dynamism of quirky you may want to take a look at the hard-coded 280000 size for copy2ram in case you want to make quirky much larger or smaller. I rambled out some test code for basing it on 2x the size of the sfs + 2000 in this thread. http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=394220#394220

Big puppies
Username: BarryK
"technosaurus, I have responded here: http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201002/bootmanager-frugal-bug-fix.html


Tags: woof