How to upgrade Puppy 4.0 frugal without losing settings?

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Jackm · #1 Post by **Jackm** » Thu 11 Jun 2009, 21:33

I am running Puppy 4.0 as a frugal install and am considering an upgrade to the current build. But I also have considerable time and effort put into 4.0 in terms of icons, packages, etc. I don't want to lose all of that by installing a newer version. So my question is how to do this?

I have previously installed Firefox as my preferred browser and do not want to lose it or have to figure out how to install it all over again. I also have an .SFS file to run Open Office suite.
My entire installation is backed up with pmirror to an external media.

I assume the starting point is to download the current version and burn a live CD from the ISO file. What I do do after making the live CD to get the existing wine configuration and associated prograsm, Open Office, and Firefox into the new version?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm hoping there is a way to do this without building the add-ons all over again.

disciple · #2 Post by **disciple** » Fri 12 Jun 2009, 08:08

With a frugal install you can easily upgrade to a new puppy by either:
1. burning it to CD, booting from that CD and using the install wizard to replace your old installation, or
2. opening the .iso image (I think you can just click on it now) and copying the files (initrd.gz, vmlinuz and pup_xxx.sfs) over the top of the old ones on your hard drive. If I'm remembering the names of those files correctly that xxx for your puppy version is in there, so you'll presumably want to delete the old one and let the new one keep its correct version number. I can't remember if the grub entry refers to that file by name (I don't think so) but if it does you'll want to edit your menu.lst accordingly.

The new puppy will use the old save file, so you won't lose any settings or programs you installed, except any "official" files that come on the Puppy CD that you have edited or deleted will be restored to use the ones on the new CD. I'm afraid there isn't really a way around this, but if you did make changes to official files you can always get your versions again from your backup save file.

in terms of icons

Yes, you will probably lose that work

packages

but not that work

I have previously installed Firefox as my preferred browser

You will still have firefox. If you have edited the destop icon for the internet that points to seamonkey, or edited /usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser, you will probably have to do so again.

I also have an .SFS file to run Open Office suite.

That should still work, although I'm not sure if the startup settings thing that lets you choose which sfs files to load will run again.

bones01 · #3 Post by **bones01** » Fri 12 Jun 2009, 12:23

Jackm, thanks for asking the question.
Disciple, thanks for answering.

I'm also about to try upgrading from Dingo to Deep Thought. Will let you know how it goes.

Bones

bones01 · #4 Post by **bones01** » Sat 13 Jun 2009, 07:52

It's turned into an absolute dog's breakfast here. ended up with a hybrid of dingo and deep thought and in the process lost the extras we had with dingo and the goodies for deep thought!!!!!

Now reverting to a full install, but still struggling. Trying to update the existing GRUB installation, so I need to find the menu.lst and make some changes.

i think I'd do better looking for a needle in a haystack.

bones

disciple · #5 Post by **disciple** » Sat 13 Jun 2009, 22:33

It's turned into an absolute dog's breakfast here. ended up with a hybrid of dingo and deep thought and in the process lost the extras we had with dingo and the goodies for deep thought!!!!!

Now reverting to a full install, but still struggling. Trying to update the existing GRUB installation, so I need to find the menu.lst and make some changes.

That sounds ridiculous. You shouldn't be able to get a hybrid of the two. Did you upgrade a frugal install or what? What things did you "lose"?

so I need to find the menu.lst ... i think I'd do better looking for a needle in a haystack.

It should be somewhere like /mnt/sda1/Grub/Menu.lst

Jackm · #6 Post by **Jackm** » Mon 15 Jun 2009, 02:11

Well, I did the upgrade this weekend, and it didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. After all the updating the program did when I started the Live CD of 4.2.1, Puppy would not go into the desktop. Instead, it started X and then dropped out to the # command line.

Xwin would not restart so I could chose the video. Basically, I had to delete the personal save file from the hard drive and start as a new session. I had to do all the configurations for 4.2.1 and then add in the other SFS files on subsequent sessions.

Obviously, I also had to redo the desktop and reinstall the programs. As I am fairly handy at moving around inside Puppy Linux, all of this only took a few hours instead of a few days. But the upgrade process needs to be improved so users do not have to start from scratch every time they move into a newer version.

The bottom line, however, is that Puppy 4.2.1 is so much worth the effort. It is sooo much better than Puppy 4.0, which I really liked using.

disciple · #7 Post by **disciple** » Mon 15 Jun 2009, 06:45

It is sooo much better than Puppy 4.0

Out of curiosity, what about it do you prefer?

But the upgrade process needs to be improved so users do not have to start from scratch every time they move into a newer version.

It's unlikely to improve unless people that encounter problems actually report them. Did you try anything to troubleshoot, or just give up straight away?
Personally I haven't seen a failed upgrade, although I haven't used 4.2 yet.

Xwin would not restart so I could chose the video.

It's a pity you started afresh because of that, because it should have been quite trivial to troubleshoot.
Did you try running xorgwizard?
If you didn't know how, at least you should if it ever happens again...
Do you also know that you can boot with pfix=ram to ignore the old save file (and create another one at shutdown if you want)? That way you could probably have got a working X configuration to copy into the save file.

Jackm · #8 Post by **Jackm** » Mon 15 Jun 2009, 11:49

Thanks for the followup. I did try xorgwizard. All it did was give me an unresponsive screen with a white background. It wouldn't start unless I booted purely from the live CD without the save file loading. I did know to try booting with pfix=ram and several other combinations. That is how I eventually got the system jump started. But no matter what I did, the save file from Puppy 4.0 would not load. I even tried replacing that file with my backup copy from another USB source. When I did that, the conversion process started again and produced the same results. It sees the only way around the problem was to start anew and go from there.

Maybe it's a hardware specific issue. But now that all is up and running on Puppy 4.2.1, I'm chalking it up to a bad experience. Heck, this stuff happens in Windows and Ubuntu as well. I've been there and done that as well.

Thanks again.

bones01 · #9 Post by **bones01** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 12:19

SOrry, I should have replied sooner.

I gave up on the frugal and just went for a straight full setup and now it works like a charm. Took a while to get Open Office going, but now it's all good.

And I agree, it is sooo much better than Puppy 4.00

Bones

Jackm · #10 Post by **Jackm** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 15:02

The only problem I have with Writer in Puppy Linux is the drag and drop feature of text does not work. I have to copy and delete and paste. Otherwise, all works great! Do you have that same problem?

Jackm

disciple · #11 Post by **disciple** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 08:58

1. Unless I'm missing something that is a completely new question, in which case you should start a new thread for it (that way you are more likely to get an answer).
2. Please explain exactly what you mean by the "drag and drop feature of text ". FWIW I can drag and drop within OOo and between it and leafpad without any problems.

Jackm · #12 Post by **Jackm** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 14:38

I didn't intend to start a new question/topic. I was commenting on something in the last reply. But here goes: When I use OO Writer in Puppy, I do not have the word editing function that allows me to hilight a group of words and drag them to another part of the sentence3 or paragraph. Instead, I have to copy/delete/paste. I can, however, drag and drop text from other apps to Writer. BNy comparison, this ability to drag and drop text within the same document does work with Genie and Abiword. The drag and drop feature within the same document, though, does work when I use OO Writer in other OSes such as Windows and Ubuntu. And all the version numbers of Writer are the same.

Jackm

disciple · #13 Post by **disciple** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 21:41

OK, that's weird - it works fine for me.

smokey01 · #14 Post by **smokey01** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 21:46

Doesn't work here with ver 3.0 of OO.

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How to upgrade Puppy 4.0 frugal without losing settings?

How to upgrade Puppy 4.0 frugal without losing settings?