User Feedback :: Getting used to frugal



Hi all,

I'm a long-time Mepis user, brand-new DSL user. First I'm amazed and delighted that I'm writing this from my frugal install of DSL on my ancient Compaq desktop: 167 Mhz cpu with 28 MB's of RAM (!!). And it works *well* (not just as an emergency back-up but as a usable system). As I said, amazing.

I still need to figure out details on the frugal install. I basically understand the workings, but I'm not sure whether I can still get some procedures to "stick" without doing a remaster: (like getting system time to persist without having to do "gettime.lua" at each boot, or getting glinks properties to stick from session to session). But these are small things, easy to live with. Meantime, I need to get hold of the _Official DSL_ book to learn the details.

One question: Anyone have an idea of how long the book info will stay current?

The wiki has information about using the included tools to retain settings, backup, etc.:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Pay attention to the following subjects:
Starting Programs at Boot
Saving Your Settings

Well, the book is current for the 3.x series, and only partially after that.
The main difference between 3.x and 4.x is the icon manager.
3.x uses xtdesk and 4.x used dfm. Many of the core applications and concepts remain the same.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I'll slowly work through the details of the wiki and maybe pick up the book too. Meanwhile, I'm okay with feeling a little dopey.

dopiness #1: I don't think making system time persist at reboot will work since I'm not online when I boot. (But I'll check more into this).

dopiness #2: I think I've understood the wiki on "Saving Your Settings," but I still can't figure why the glinks options file gets overwritten at each boot. I've enabled the Grub boot entry that includes mydsl, restore, persistency, etc., and mydsl, restore, home, and opt directories are designated as hda3. Since the glink options file is in the home/dsl/.links directory (also ramdisk/home... and mnt/hda3/home...), I can't see why the glinks options file isn't preserved.  Also, adding the directory for that file to filetool.lst fails to prevent the options file from being overwritten.

I'm sure I'm missing something very simple. Not a huge problem, since dillo satisfies pretty much all my online needs (plaease keep dillo!).

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