How to reinstall puppy 2.16.1 and retain installed apps?

[mleschishin]

As the subject line says, I want to reinstall puppy 2.16.1 over my existing 2.16.1 install to fix problems I am having with xwin, etc. I have a numer of applications I have installed already (e.g. acrobat reader). Will Puppy preseve these programs, or should I be prepared to re-install all of them again as well?

Mark

[alienjeff]

In the words of Two from The Prisoner, we need IN-FOR-MATION!

Is this an existing frugal or full installation? If frugal, the process should be relatively painless. On the other hand, if full, you're in for some uphill sledding.

-aj

[el ginko]

Aj,

i have a full hd install, and i was wondering the same thing. i've been reading about the remastering app's, but i havent had much luck with them. my problems is, i get a good version of puppy going for a while, then i hit a bit of a brickwall, and end up reinstalling entirely.

[alienjeff]

I've done many reinstallations along with rebuilding personal modifications and enhancements, too. More often than not, the "need" to do so was caused by the sometimes dimwit sys admin around here (me) doing something stupid and b0rking the works.

<tangent>

With requisite apologies to Shakespeare, this leads to the much debated "To root, or not to root: that is the question" quagmire. Some of Puppy's simplicity is due to its root, single "user" design. A related message in the Xnmap GUI states: "You are root - All options granted." And along with all these options come great responsibility. Perhaps a more predominant warning, disclaimer, hint, heads up or whatever regarding the power of and pitfalls from being root could be added to Puppy info sites.

</tangent>

As for installing a newer version and transferring personal settings, mail, etc. from an existing older version, there's no quick and easy "import" feature that I know of ... at least not with a full installation. I have yet to delve into doing a remaster, so don't know whether or not that's an appropriate tool. So for the time being, I'm just going to monitor this thread and bone up on directory structure and such to determine what has to be moved. I sense a long session with MUT and ROX-Filer in my future ...

One thing is certain: my direction is to frugal, if for no other reason than to simplify switching versions.

-aj

[WhoDo]

As the subject line says, I want to reinstall puppy 2.16.1 over my existing 2.16.1 install to fix problems I am having with xwin, etc. I have a numer of applications I have installed already (e.g. acrobat reader). Will Puppy preseve these programs, or should I be prepared to re-install all of them again as well?

This should be "a walk in the park". In order to replace your existing installation files with the ones from your LiveCD, you need to edit /etc/puppyversion to read 215.

Then you run the LiveCD and use the Puppy Universal Installer to do a Normal install to your hard disk partition. The installer will recognise there is a version of Puppy already installed and offer to perform an Upgrade. Choose that option and you're done!

You could get away without editing the /etc/puppyversion file, but I'm not sure that all of the offending files would then be replaced. Check /tmp for anything you might want to retain before rebooting.

Hope that helps.

[alienjeff]

Pity going from a full install to frugal isn't that simple, eh?

[WhoDo]

Pity going from a full install to frugal isn't that simple, eh?

Not wrong. In fact, its also way harder to go from a frugal with the settings saved to a partition to a frugal with a pup_save.2fs file. If the machine can handle it, in terms of performance and RAM, I'd certainly recommend a frugal install with a pup_save.2fs as the first option for hard drive installs. Upgrading and backing up in that case is just a snack!

[el ginko]

WhoDo,

first off, thanks for all your contributions to puppy. the EZpup is a well needed fix for an eyesore.

secondly, this is what i was trying to do, and am not too sure if there is an easy/quick(definitely not opposed to a difficult way in the sake of learning) way to go about this...
I have puppy installed with Gimpshop, Audacity, Blender....blah blah blah, everything works fine on it, for now, as AJ was saying, not being a linux guru, but being a root user, sometimes things get sticky. so what I would like to do is;
make a livecd of my current installation, which is an hd install, to expedite any sticky situations i may run into in the future. I am running 216 upgraded from 215CE on a USBHD,
and I've tried using both of the remaster scripts. and it seems like everything burns ok. But when it gets to loading puppy, it says puppy cannot be found on the boot device. I've tried changing the Pmedia= tag to both idecd and hdc (where my cd drive is), both without success, it still hangs there, and drops down to the basic command line.

[WhoDo]

I've tried using both of the remaster scripts. and it seems like everything burns ok. But when it gets to loading puppy, it says puppy cannot be found on the boot device. I've tried changing the Pmedia= tag to both idecd and hdc (where my cd drive is), both without success, it still hangs there, and drops down to the basic command line.

I found a problem with the remasters when building 2.15CE ... it would leave the zdrv_215.sfs file out of the remastered ISO. I used Isomaster to add it manually and all was well. Don't know if that's your problem, but it should be easy enough to check. Open your ISO image with Isomaster and check that it contains zdrv_216.sfs file. I don't know if that's your problem, but it is possible that the ISO lacks the drivers to mount the partition and boot.

Another issue is that the remastered ISO boots from isolinux, and you have to have the isolinux files on the remastered CD for it to boot. I used to copy those files to a directory in / level and access them from there, rather than loading CD's in the middle of a remaster.

Hope that helps.

[el ginko]

I did notice that the zdrv_215.sfs file was missing, added that with iso master, still hanging at the same spot. what i did notice though, is that when I am trying to boot the remastered save i just made, at the boot menu, it says ....ver 216, but when im using the script to make the iso. its grabbing 215 files. So i'm wondering if i were to use isomaster to extract those from the iso, rename them *216 then replace them and try to burn that if its worth a shot?

[WhoDo]

So i'm wondering if i were to use isomaster to extract those from the iso, rename them *216 then replace them and try to burn that if its worth a shot?

Yep. The input that 2.16 is booting comes from the initrd.gz file that you upgraded, so renaming all the others should then match and let the system boot.

Curious thing is how you got files that have 2.15 in their name when you've already upgraded? The old 2.15CE files should have been overwritten by the upgrade process, or at least ignored by the remaster which checks versions ... I think. Anyway, give it a shot.

[el ginko]

When i check the drive in windows, i had both the 215 and the 216's on the partition. I'm not too sure what i should do here.

[WhoDo]

When i check the drive in windows, i had both the 215 and the 216's on the partition. I'm not too sure what i should do here.

Delete the 215's ... although they shouldn't interfere, they might.

Hope that helps.

[el ginko]

when I'm booting puppy, it actually looks like its grabbing the 215 files? I first installed 215CE, because i couldnt get EZpup to work for 216. But 215ce wouldn't install any drivers that worked for my ethernet card, and i couldnt autodhcp, so i made a 215ce pupsave, and install everything i want/need (mainly music/graphic apps) then i would put the 216 cd in, and it would upgrade, then i would do a full install to the hard drive, and use wakeppup2 to boot. but when it works, it looks like its loading the pupsave 215.sfs, so I'm thinking i should backup the 215's then delete em and see if puppyll boot.?