DSL Embedded :: Booting from CF card slot



You can search the forums for a wealth of information on the whole Frugal concept.

In summary, a frugal installation is essentially the same as a livecd bootup in behavior.

The read-only filesystem is copied over from the livecd to the hard drive (or in this case, the CF card) and it is booted using the LILO or GRUB bootloader instead of the ISOLINUX bootloader that is used for the CD itself.

Because the filesysetm is still compressed and read-only, all writes are done to the /ramdisk and are not done to the CF device.

How do I save my settings and files then?

You use the DSL backup/restore utility.

This system is used to save selected files and directorys into a tarball and saved to a writable area like a hard drive, a flash drive or even a floppy disk.

Because the "backup" part of the process is only done on command or upon shutdown, the number of "writes" to your flash device is very small and there is virtually no risk of wearing out your flash drive.
Quote (cbagger01 @ Dec. 29 2005,16:14)
You can search the forums for a wealth of information on the whole Frugal concept.

In summary, a frugal installation is essentially the same as a livecd bootup in behavior.

The read-only filesystem is copied over from the livecd to the hard drive (or in this case, the CF card) and it is booted using the LILO or GRUB bootloader instead of the ISOLINUX bootloader that is used for the CD itself.

Because the filesysetm is still compressed and read-only, all writes are done to the /ramdisk and are not done to the CF device.

How do I save my settings and files then?

You use the DSL backup/restore utility.

This system is used to save selected files and directorys into a tarball and saved to a writable area like a hard drive, a flash drive or even a floppy disk.

Because the "backup" part of the process is only done on command or upon shutdown, the number of "writes" to your flash device is very small and there is virtually no risk of wearing out your flash drive.

Does that mean that upon shutdown it automatically does a backup?
Yes, a backup is done automatically upon shutdown.
That is if a backup device has been specified.

Most the the script installs in DSL preset a backup device.
Some not. You can use the DSL control panel and click backup/restore to see if such a device has been preset.

Or at the command prompt you can
cat /opt/.backup_device

original here.