site
contact
newsEasyPup multisession-DVD in lockdown mode
Puppy multisession-DVD goes way back, circa 2008. The session is
saved to the DVD, cumulatively, each session as a track on the DVD, and
the tracks are loaded into RAM at bootup. The PC hard drives are not
used at all. It had a burst of popularity back then, but got mostly
forgotten, though there is still feedback from people continuing to use
it.
I have now rejuvenated multisession-DVD. Good to read the original document to see what it is all about:
https://bkhome.org/archive/puppylinux/multi-puppy.htm
And here are three "goodies" added to rejuvenated multisession-DVD:
https://bkhome.org/news/202011/disable-drives-for-multisession-easypup.html
https://bkhome.org/news/202011/easypup-zram-compression-in-ram.html
https://bkhome.org/news/202011/multisession-dvd-with-zisofs-compression.html
...but that zram compression in RAM is now being applied to all PUPMODEs, not just multisession-DVD.
Here is a snapshot, booted on my Mele mini-PC, with external USB DVD
drive, running in multisession-DVD mode, with "lockdown" enabled:
...the Mele has an old 800x600 monitor, good for taking a more compact snapshot.
The important point about lockdown mode, is only the optical drive is
accessible, though USB drives can be plugged in and used. It is just
the internal drives that are disabled.
Optical media is going the same way as the 5.25 inch floppy drive,
and will seem just as quaint to young people, if they see us "old
fogies" using it. Anyway, multisession-DVD is quite nice, and with
lockdown extremely secure, though you do have to put up with the clunky
slowness of optical media.
It took approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds for 'puppy.sfs' to
load from DVD into RAM (about 500MB), so you have to be extremely
patient during bootup. On top of that, multisession has to load the
session tracks, and that can grow to just as long again.
Just for comparison, on a reasonably fast USB stick, such as the
SanDisk Ultra, loading 'puppy.sfs' takes about 9 seconds. There are even
much faster USB Flash sticks available, such as the SanDisk Extreme.
I personally don't think it is a big deal waiting a few minutes for
bootup. You need to decide whether what multisession-DVD brings to the
table is worth the wait!
I noticed yesterday, did a quick look on eBay, USB optical drives are
very cheap, under AU$20 (about US$15) including delivery. For example:
EDIT 2020-12-03:
Oops, I posted a link to a USB optical drive, only AU$19, but it burns
to CD-R only, not DVD. Need to read the specs carefully! Had another
search on eBay, and can only find USB3 drives that will burn to DVD --
that is interesting, because I own a Samsung brand, that is USB2 and
does burn to DVD (-R and +R) -- mine also powers completely from the USB
cable -- the drives that specify USB3 should probably only be plugged
into USB3 sockets to ensure sufficient current capacity.
Anyway, here is one quite cheap, AU$21.99, USB3:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/203200505553
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/USB-3-0-Slim-External-DVD-RW-CD-Writer-Drive-Burner-Reader-Player-Optical-Drives/264773142657
After a bit of reading it looks like DVD+R is superior. Also, some early optical drives, the slim laptop-style, are unable to burn multisession tracks.
EasyOS already has lockdown!
I am appending this, as if you have read the
above and are thinking, oh wow, that looks good! -- then be aware that
running totally in RAM, and lockdown, including disabling of internal
drives, has already been implemented in EasyOS.
If you are asking whether you should choose
EasyPup or EasyOS, and don't have any compelling reason to go for
EasyPup, then please do choose EasyOS.
Here is a post about lockdown in EasyOS:
https://bkhome.org/news/202008/save-session-while-running-totally-in-ram.html
Right now, I have probably finished the burst
of activity working on EasyPup, and going back onto EasyOS -- the latter
is where the action is, ongoing.
Tags: easy