Post-3.1.13 tweaks

EasyOS 3.1.13 was released very early this morning:

https://bkhome.org/news/202112/easyos-version-3113-released.html

In that post, I mentioned some small issues. Now fixed.

Beyond that, have made a couple more refinements. I have changed a couple of folders under /files, now have 'data' and 'documents':

Previously, 'grisbi' was there, now moved under 'data'.

The paths for some of these are specified in file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs:

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="/files"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="/files/documents"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="/files/downloads"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="/files/media"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="/files/media"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="/files/shared"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="/files"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="/files/media"

These days, most applications will read these variables. Note however, some do not, and have to be configured especially to set default save path, etc.

Another refinement is for booting up running entirely in RAM. The 'init' script in the initrd, copies everything required to RAM. It also copies the entire contents of /files, which may be very bad, as could run out of RAM.

In my case, my Lenovo PC has 32GB RAM, and after booting in "lockdown in RAM" mode there is 45GB of RAM available under "/" -- that is due to use of zram compression.

However, others may not have PCs with so much RAM. The /files folder is for storing all your stuff, whatever that may be, such as downloaded videos, images, audio files, whatever. This could get big. So, I have modified the bootup, the 'init' script now only copies /files/shared to zram. The code in the 'init' script, line 1629:

 #20211208 problem is, files folder could get very large. only copy /files/shared...
 mkdir -p /xram/files
 chmod 770 /xram/files
 chgrp 122 /xram/files
 #cp -a /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${WKG_DIR}files/* /xram/files/
 cp -a /mnt/${WKG_DEV}/${WKG_DIR}files/shared /xram/files/

Simple enough, if you want a file to be available when booted up in lockdown-in-RAM mode, put it into /files/shared beforehand. On the otherhand, files downloaded anywhere under /files can be saved, via the "save" icon on the desktop.

Just a quick note about lockdown-in-RAM. Someone on the forum was running in lockdown-in-RAM-and disable-drives mode, from EasyOS installed on an internal drive partition. That person reported that there was no "save" button. That's right, because in that mode the internal drives are disabled. In that disabled-drives mode, you can only save if you have booted off a removable drive, by physically replugging it to make it available.   

Tags: easy