Saving the OS and files to a new flash drive

[Electrojim]

I've been running Lucid Puppy on an HP Mini directly from a flash drive; that is, no OS or files saved to the Mini's hard drive. I want to change to a more convenient, physically smaller flash drive and wonder how I go about that. I tried copying all the files from the old flash to the new one (under Windows, actually), but the Mini didn't recognize it. I also tried taking the old flash drive and saving it as an ISO, then transferring the ISO image to the new one, but probably messed that up too. Is there a simple procedure to do this? Thanks!

[Mike Walsh]

@ ElectroJim:-

Mm. Well, for most OSes, this involves backup programs, or 'cloning', or any number of long, complex procedures. Thankfully, for Puppy, this couldn't be simpler.

With Puppy, it's literally a copy/paste procedure. Assuming you have a second USB port, plug your new USB drive in while running Puppy. Use gParted to format the new drive to ext3 (preferably) & don't forget to add a 'swap' partition, then mount the drive so its window is showing.

Open up the existing drive's /mnt/home (I think that's right, it's ages since I've used a flash drive; mine are all on the hard drives), highlight everything, drag across to the new drive's window, drop, and click on the 'Copy' option. I've done this so many times the procedure's almost automatic by now.....but this will definitely do what you want.

There are Puppy tools to do this in the Utility section of the Menu; if you want to try one of these instead, I believe that Menu->Pudd copy drive/partition is the one you want. I think it uses the dreaded 'dd' command, so just be extra careful to get everything correct before hitting 'OK'.

Hope that helps.


Mike.

[nic007]

Do the copying when running a linux system. Windows could mess up some file names. If you are using a new flashdrive to boot from, you need to make it bootable first.

[Burn_IT]

If you are copying under Windows, you MUST turn the annoying default of using CAPITALS in the file names off. Windows treats filenames with different case letters as all the same whereas Linux treats them as different entities. This is a hangover from the very old tele-type machines that had limited mechanical characters available.

[foxpup]

If you are using a new flashdrive to boot from, you need to make it bootable first.

And possibly a little more: If it is a legacy boot, you will have to fill the mbr.
You can do that by runnig grub4dos install and let it install mbr on the flash.

[bigpup]

The format of the USB drive can be an issue.
Some computers will only recognize a fat32 format as a boot-able USB drive.

Very important, when using Gparted, you make sure the partition is flagged AS BOOT!

+1
Do any copy and paste from a running Puppy.
NOT WINDOWS

[RetroTechGuy]

Do the copying when running a linux system. Windows could mess up some file names.

...And doesn't understand symbolic links...

It's useful to make a duplicate copy of your running savefile anyway. Then you can load/run the backup copy, and use it to copy your main savefile copy.

If you copy a mounted savefile, it will corrupt the file...slightly. My observation is that booting with "pfix=fsck" will repair it before loading (I set this as my default boot parameter, and check the file on every boot). But better to copy it in a clean manner (unmounted).

[Burn_IT]

..And doesn't understand symbolic links

Yes it does. It just calls them a different name.

[Electrojim]

Wow, guys, thanks very much! That's a lot of information, especially for someone who is not familiar at all with Linux operation. I think I can do some 'nondestructive testing' and give this a try without corrupting my existing bootable flash drive; I'll post back with tales of my success (or of woe!). Thanks again, all!

[Mike Walsh]

If you copy a mounted savefile, it will corrupt the file...slightly. My observation is that booting with "pfix=fsck" will repair it before loading (I set this as my default boot parameter, and check the file on every boot). But better to copy it in a clean manner (unmounted).

^^^ +1!!

I intended to mention this earlier. Yes, it increases the time it takes to boot.....but it's worth it to make sure the file-system structure is still OK.

IMHO, this ought to be default behaviour whenever a save-file is created for the first time. Though that's simply a personal view-point.


Mike.

[6502coder]

More often than not, when I try to get "smart" and take a shortcut, I end up wasting my time. If it were me, I would have simply done a fresh install of Lupu onto the new flash drive using the Puppy Universal Installer, and then copied over the savefile from the original flash drive, plus any stuff that might be outside the savefile such as stuff in /mnt/home.

[RetroTechGuy]

If you copy a mounted savefile, it will corrupt the file...slightly. My observation is that booting with "pfix=fsck" will repair it before loading (I set this as my default boot parameter, and check the file on every boot). But better to copy it in a clean manner (unmounted).

^^^ +1!!

I intended to mention this earlier. Yes, it increases the time it takes to boot.....but it's worth it to make sure the file-system structure is still OK.

IMHO, this ought to be default behaviour whenever a save-file is created for the first time. Though that's simply a personal view-point.


Mike.

That's my opinion also... The default when booting from a CD should already have that (suppose you did, as I did when I first played with Puppy, booting a CD with a save file on a flash drive -- not installed, just there).

Also when you install, it should do that automagically.

The people who don't want that probably have the expertise to go in and remove that command -- newbies will be protected without understanding (and will have to perform a deliberate act to avoid that protection)...