Usaved extensions on ramdisk on ShutDown

Forum: Apps
Topic: Usaved extensions on ramdisk on ShutDown
started by: Sparken

Posted by Sparken on Dec. 08 2006,06:07

K a little weirdness, here.

I created an alternate user on my frugal hd install. Also maybe worth mentioning, this user does not load X, so I typed "links" to start links. Oddly, it appeared to
download a links.uci extention and proceed to run links which was pretty cool.

Problem is that when I went to shutdown I was presented with a pop-up saying:
"Usaved extensions on ramdisk! Save them?"

I said no, but it won't stop popping up whenever I shut down. I did find the links.uci and moved it to my mydsl/optional folder. BUt I still get the pop-up.

Any idea on where this persistant file may be?

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 08 2006,13:27

I think it would be one or more files in whatever directory is specified in /opt/.mydsl_dir
If there are *.dsl, *.tar.gz, *.uci, or *.unc files in that directory, you will be prompted when you shut down with the fluxbox menu.
If you want to ignore this completely, use the command "sudo halt" or "sudo reboot" instead of the menu.

Posted by roberts on Dec. 08 2006,15:45

I suspect that this is a frugal install and that the extensions were downloaded into your home directory. That is not advisable except for a persistent /home setup. Normally, /home is on the ramdisk. The default setup is to backup all of /home/dsl. You do not want to have your extensions included in your backup. Extensions being large and static only slows down the backup and makes the backup require vastly more space. Write once read many is the recommended way to store extensions. Keep them separate from your daily working /home/dsl and therefore out of your backup.

Posted by Sparken on Dec. 09 2006,06:26

I figured it out... sorry for the long story to follow.

Yes, this is a frugal install. I do, however, use a persistant home. I created a normal
user and a console (no x startup) user along with the dsl user for a total of 3 users.
I only backup my /opt stuff and select /etc files. I got the idea from Mikshaw that it
would be wise to scour for stray .uni, unc and assoc type files and I rounded them
all up and placed them in my /home/mydsl/optional folder. BUt this did not prevent
the pop-up at shutdown.

I got desperate and remembered prior Roberts post mentioning how dsl will scan
for a mydsl folder at boot and even though all my extentions were in /home/mydsl/optional
which had been working well before the links.uci auto-install, I decided to rename
it to /home/xmydsl and voila I could shutdown without the pop-up.
I eventually found that somehow my /opt/.mydsl_dir file had changed.
It used to contain "/home/mydsl" but somehow it changed to "/home/mydsl/optional".
I manually editted it back and renamed my folder again and we are good to go.

I'm still learning in small bits about how the whole mydsl system works, is there
a guide to the nuts and bolts of mydsl?

Could DSL somehow have tracked my moving the links.uci file to the optional
directory and modified the /opt/.mydsl_dir file?

Posted by roberts on Dec. 09 2006,07:07

I am glad that you now have a more understanding of how things work.

That type of installation I call a hybrid install. It is the most confusing. It works very well when it is understood.

I do still run one of my systems like that. That is how I developed it and alpha test new releases. But I don't recommend it for new users and it does not play well with the nomadic goal of dsl. And seemingly contradicts the rule of storing extensions in home. That is the part that causes the most confusion and backup overflow issues for new users.

Part of the beauty of MyDSL is in its complexity and flexibility.
But it does make it difficult when a question is posted unless one fully describes how one is running the system.

I am currently in the process of trying to simplify the MyDSL directory structure and that will also result in a more automated mkmydsl for v3.2