Wow! What a lot of good info. I'll post later when I sort it all out and
(hopefully) get something working.
Thanks, all!
-mj-
Dazed_75 wrote:
> Great info and references Joseph. But it looks to me like neither one
> does quite what he asked about. That could be my misread of the
> reference material (see below)
>
> On 11/14/06, * Joseph Sinclair* <plug-discussion@stcaz.net
> <mailto:plug-discussion@stcaz.net>> wrote:
>
> Actually, the install of DSL designed just for Flash drives
> currently allows you to store your settings (home dir) in a file on
> the same drive
> (
> http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_do_I_save_my_settings.3F)
>
>
> This one looks to me like DSL can save whatever you want but only by
> virtue of altering a backup configuration to save what you want saved
> and perhaps (it may be automagic) having to then do a restore after a
> reboot.
>
> Puppy Linux also is designed to work correctly entirely off the
> flash drive, including /home (/root actually, since it defaults to
> running as root). It uses UnionFS to unify the flash partition(s)
> (Puppy stores them in files for speed of boot, since it copies the
> whole system into RAM) along with a user partition stored in a
> special file on the same drive (all changes end up here). It's done
> that way to enable efficient copy-on-change for the whole system,
> still permit auto-detect to work, and work with a unified image for
> both flash and CD (the CD has the same support for a writable file
> for the user's changes).
> (http://puppylinux.org/wikka/FlashDetail)
>
>
> And this makes me think Puppy only saves new and changed contents of
> roots home directory (/root). Seems like this could include things like
> presentations and so on, but maybe not printer setups like he was
> looking for.
>
> In both cases, you get a functioning system that does exactly what
> was originally asked, that is that it runs well from USB flash (both
> systems have no swap partition, but will use one if available
> otherwise), and retains settings between sessions, like any normal
> install.
>
>
> Does seem very handy if one understands the limitations and perhaps
> gaining that understanding is the real issue. These references help a
> lot though. It does seem like one should be able to purposefully create
> data files directly on the Flash device so the issues would hopefully
> be mostly the kind of changes one might want to make to other parts of
> the file system (such as devices like printers). This is another of
> those projects I would like to play with but never seem to get to.
>
> It's not terribly obvious on the sites for both systems, but it does
> work this way. The way both systems store the data (in a file) is
> done for three reasons:
> 1) Both systems are designed to be EXTREMELY frugal about writes to
> flash, and the settings file is only updated on shutdown (it's all
> in memory the rest of the time).
> 2) Using a file like this works better with UnionFS and with loading
> the whole system into RAM (which really speeds up the system).
> 3) The file can often be stored on someone else's filesystem
> (Windows NTFS/FAT16/FAT32, Linux Ext3, etc...), enabling you to
> share a friend/roommate's computer without disturbing their OS,
> regardless of their choice of OS.
>
> ==Joseph++
>
>
>
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