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Save session while running totally in RAM

August 25, 2020 — BarryK

There are two boot menu options, "Copy session to RAM & unmount all partitions" and "Copy session to RAM & disable all drives", lets call them lockdown modes #1 and #2.

I posted earlier, that the desktop now has an "update" icon, that you can click to perform automatic version update of your EasyOS installation:

img0

The menu now has a cascading structure, and I have changed the "Shutdown" layout:

img1

As I have posted about earlier, if we choose "Reboot, lockdown in RAM", we get a window:

img2

If we choose "Copy session to RAM & disable drives", and tick the "Permanent" checkbox, all future bootups will be in that mode.

In this totally-running-in-RAM mode, there are various restrictions. One restriction is no support for containers, as totally-running-in-RAM is to be considered as an alternative security strategy. After rebooting in this "lockdown #2" mode, there is an information popup:

img5

Lockdown has also removed the "update" icon, replaced it with a "save" icon. Here are the icons:

img4

So, you cannot update the version in this lockdown mode, instead there is an icon to save the session. Clicking on "save":

img6

...because, this is lockdown #2, drives disabled. You have to physically replug the drive to make it accessible, so doing that:

img7

...click "OK", and the session is saved!

It is not just the '.session' folder that gets saved. The working-partition has folders 'containers', 'home', 'releases', 'sfs' and '.session'. If you had taken screen snapshots, or downloaded via the the web browser, the default path is somewhere under the 'home' folder (which is '/home' in the file manager). Or, if you had downloaded a SFS file, it would be under the 'sfs' folder. Hence, those folders are also saved.

Yes, "sfsget" icon is still on the desktop, but as containers are not supported, you will only be offered to install an SFS as a layer on the main desktop.

No container support, but you still have good-old "spot", so you can run the browser, for example, as user "spot".

Note, you are not asked if you want to save the session when you shutdown. It is only done via the "save" icon. The lockdown modes are to be considered as defaulting to leaving no foot print on your computer. Only save if you want to, or, if there is just a file that you want to save, no need to save the entire session -- just replug the drive, mount the partition, copy the file to it, unmount the partition, and unplug the drive.   

Tags: easy