Let's have some talk about SFS Modules...
 

Hi.

In addition to a very few programs I want to have installed (usually into a remaster) I prefer to use SFS Modules (.sfs) to use almost any other program (like GIMP, OpenOffice, Kdenlive etc.pp.).

Do you use SFS Modules?
How often?
How do you load (load at boot up, load with sfs_load, different ways)?
How many do you have?
Which ones do you have?

Please, let me and others know.

Thanks.

He he.

Probably I should re-name the topic to "Let's have some silence about SFS Modules..."

Which leads me to the question if there's any true/full Puppy users on this forum?

I know there are several puppy experts that are members here. I used to run puppy as a main distro. About the only sfs I relied on was the c/c++ development kit that included geany and glade as well as all the gcc stuff I needed. I still run this setup on my RaspberryPi for arm development.

My sfs files were always loaded at boot:D since that was the main reason to boot it. For portable and fast, it's hard to beat this platform.

Ok, 7 days now and 242 views so far.

Doesn't look like there's many people (Puppy people?) who ever heard of SFS Modules (or .sfs files, or squash file systems, also available via the .squashfs suffix). This single reply led me into that conclusion...

Ok, thanks for the reply.

For the devx (includes the gcc and stuff) I can see good reason to load it at boot via the Boot Manager configuration. But for all the others it just cuts the real benefit of .sfs modules apart: to load them just when there's a need to use its included program/s.

Ok, so instead of posting hundreds of lines of text to explain things I'm going to do a video in my 32bit LazY Puppy ArtStudio which will show pretty much about the true benefit of .sfs modules.

So, now I was able to finish the Video that I had recorded already on 11th of May 2019. It is uploaded to my Youtube Channel.

Besides doing the Video Benefit of SFS Modules I had created two wonderful time lapse Videos.

Birth and death of short-living, heavenly visitors from another space-time continuum - 1
Birth and death of short-living, heavenly visitors from another space-time continuum - 2

Enjoy, if you like...

Read your post re sfs modules, and watched the you tube. Thanks for your efforts. May I suggest, that as there are many puppy users unfamiliar to sfs, we should have a DETAILED intro to sfs modules, such as: where to locate them to download, how and where to install them, etc.?

I used to use Puppy a long time ago, if I want to use something similar I use Tiny Core Linux, on there, I might leave the less used programs to be loaded as & when I need them, I wouldn't load everything 'onboot'. :)

Here is a Sneeky Linux Video about SFS Modules (.sfs files): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5RB0twDJ3A.

Here is a topic about SFS Modules including different versions of my simple SFS P.L.U.S. RunScript developed for a special approach: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtop...82762&start=15. Using such RunScript one can achieve exactly what I'd presented in my Video Benefit of SFS Modules.

This is the latest officially released version: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtop...=669703#669703

My LazY Puppy Art Studio 64 is using an extended version of the above release to load its additional .sfs files like the KdenLive64.sfs etc.pp. It has evolved code to auto-unload the .sfs file after its program was quit.

***

The download location of .sfs files is depending on the developer/creator of such .sfs file, so there's no general repository etc.

A downloaded .sfs file should be placed to where the puppy_XXX_YYY.sfs is located or even at the root directory of the puppy's install drive.

I have a huge repository of .sfs files at http://www.smokey01.com/RSH/ which contains .sfs files that I'm using in Puppies from Lucid 5.2.8 to Tahr 6.0.5. Not all of them will work in all Puppies though. Direct Access: http://www.smokey01.com/RSH/LazY-Pup...s/single-apps/.

RSH-I've just finished viewing/reading each of your above links, and wish to say, THANK YOU. Also, here are a few sfs d/l url's that may come in handy:

https://archive.org/download/Puppy_L...mi_Driver_Repo

https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux_Forum_Pets

https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinu...ckages-upupbb/

https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinu...ages-bionic64/

You're Welcome, and thanks for the additional Links. Yes, there's a lot of Puppy stuff to find on archive org and ibiblio. Though, most is .pet install files!

However, this shouldn't cause any problems as far as one has ever heard of PaDS!

PaDS is a very useful tool to create .sfs files from multiple archive files like .pet, tar.gz, .deb, .sfs, .tazpkg and .txz being stored into a single directory.

E.g.: if the directory is named My-additional-progs it will create the My-additional-progs.sfs from all the archive files stored in that directory by right-click action in Rox Filer. Note: the directory must be named different to the names of the used archives.

This tool (plus a later extended private version) was used to create over 98% of all .sfs files I made in the past. And it is still in use in all my Puppies.

By today I have 1073 .sfs files locally available from a few KB up to several hundred MB. In complete they are currently at 27 GB.

***

Ok, a bit "Off-Topic" probably, but I've collected a few Links of my published Puppy Systems that are strictly following my .sfs approach of the use of RunScripts.

A collection of my several original LazY Puppy Systems.
A collection of my VSP (VarioMenu SFS P.L.U.S.) Puppies.
L.A.S.S.I.E.

I have a Samsung N150 Netbook which runs a remastered version of my LazY Puppy 2.0.2-005 pretty well.

I just looked through your collections links, and I must say, very impressive. Thanks again.

Hi, Lazy.

Well, you know I'm a 'regular', full-time user. Have been for what?....5, going on 6 years now.

I don't suppose I use that many SFSs, Despite running quite elderly hardware, unlike many 'Puppians' I have terabytes of storage space, so the whole business of needing to keep Pup 'lean' has never really been an issue for me.

I DO use some humungously large save-files. Average save-file size is around the 12 GB mark.....

Recently, however, and taking my cue from Fredx181, I've been building more AppImages and 'portable', self-extracting scripts.....think RoxApp, yes? I like these, 'cos they're completely self-contained and, if using statically-compiled binaries, truly are portable between multiple Pups of different generations.

The 'portable', Mozilla-based browsers spring to mind. Fred did FF-Quantum; I've so far done portables of Palemoon, Palemoon_SSE-only, FF-Esr, SeaMonkey.....and a couple of portable versions of Thunderbird, too.

We ALL have our favourite ways of running apps/progs. I happen to like 'portables'..!


Mike. ;)

Hi Mike.

I prefer to not to use save files or save folders.

Via my N.E.M.E.S.I.S. functions I can choose which settings I want to have made persistent. An I can easily revert this without to hassle with white-out files.

Even though I do prefer .sfs files, I do have some AppImages and also RoxApps. E.g: GravitDesigner and DarkTable (AppImages) as well as Blender (in 32bit & 64bit), AviDemux, Cinelerra, StarStax, ArtOfIllusion, SpiroJ (RoxApps) and many more. These RoxApps are either packaged with binaries or .jar files etc.

Some of my main developments (for private use only) are also packaged into a RoxApp. I like the concept of the RoxApps very much! I got one to control all my music creation applications like Qtractor, ZynAddSubFx, Hydrogen etc.pp. So I create or select a Project within that RoxApp Gui and it starts all necessary programs automated with all necessary files loaded. A small and basic version of this QTR Suite is published at the murga-forum. :)

Did you know that the original Rox RoxApps are usually containing a AppRun Python file?
Did you know that those .rox4fs files which are sometimes found inside a RoxApp being simply .sfs files renamed to rox4fs?