DSL Tips and Tricks :: More advanced users converting from other OS



This is geared for people with experiences similar to mine.  please refer to other posts in other topics.  I have over 25 years computer experience, but sadly, new to linux except as a web-server.

It appears that edits do not send an updated e-mail.

I,and hopefully others, will be making edits.

There are concepts that may be unique to DSL or may be univerasal to linux, but they may be useful.

Many usefull concepts and standards are posted on this board and the support is above excelence, but by its nature, a search can be frustriating.

Please post, on this tread, only the final resolution and related search terms and phrases or more universal techniques.

Thanks

P.S. Please forgive misspelliings and gramerical errors.  Although I am fluent or conversational in almost a dozen computer programming languages, I have yet to  master my native language of USA-English (arguably, the most difficult language in the world).
First is somethiing that can be put at then end of /opt/bootlocal.sh to automaticly create a file called /diagdata.txt that contains information that may be helpful and may be copied and pasted to the board.  Please verify that you are not posting any confidential information or anything that may compramise your network!  This will be heavily edited.

Based on opinions, which i agree with,  this could bog down the boards with way too much irrelivant information and should only be used if and how requested.  There are other options, but I seem to revert to a simple text interface instead of a GUI for many things.

Code Sample

echo dsl version...
more /usr/share/doc/dsl/release.txt >/diagdata.txt
echo Copying DMESG....
dmesg >>/diagdata.txt
echo Copying modprobe configuration
modprobe -c >>/diagdata.txt
echo modprobe list...
modprobe -l >>/diagdata.txt
echo mounted stuff....
mount >>/diagdata.txt
mount -l >>/diagdata.txt
echo iwconfig list...
iwconfig -l >>/diagdata.txt
echo ndiswrapper list...
ndiswrapper -l >>/diagdata.txt
echo env variables...
env >>/diagdata.txt
echo free...
free >>/diagdata.txt
echo list modules
lsmod >>/diagdata.txt
echo list pci cards
lspci >>/diagdata.txt
echo list usb devices
lsusb >>/diagdata.txt
echo maybe were done...
echo returning you to your regularly scheduled programming...
echo already in progress.


There is a lot of useful infornation about your system found in /proc/  The file names are descriptive of what will be found in them.

Things are often Case Sensitive!  Get in the habit.
On command lines such as a shell or Exit to Prompt, prior commands can be accessed with the Up and Down Arrow Keys then edited.

Over and over the question is asked 'How do i get ..... to start everytime I start the computer.  Several ways, the 2 easiest are:

/opt/bootlocal.sh
especialy useful for loading drivers
Must be accesed as Root. Ether a root shell or sudo from runlevel 2.  sudo from a normal shell did not work for me.  Useful on slower systems is:
sleep x
where x is the number of seconds
sleep 2
will pause for 2 seconds before executing the next command.  start with a long sleep to diagnose a problem, then reduce untill a reliable but quick boot.

/home/dsl/.xinitrc
This is a hidden file. It must be accessed from root.
Documentation on the grammer is at:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....boot.3F

Tip:  If you are able to open a file when not root and make a lot of edits then find that you do not have privleges to save the edited file, all is not lost.  You may be able to save the file to another location then, as root, cp(copy) or mv(move) it.


Please take this with a grain of salt at this point.
...try >>diagdata.txt
It actually looks quite similar to nvidia-bug-report. It's a script they require you to run before complaining of bugs. Perhaps this could be adapted to DSL and then noobs can be told to post a certain file which will have all their system info.
curaga,

Perhaps we could bump discussions to another thread to prevent confusion. do you see where i'm going with this?  perhaps you could start it?

jpeters:

>> appends a file
> creates a new file or over rights an existing file with or without prompt depending on OS.  The leading / is more for clarity. more advanced  EU's (which this is targeted towards) would be able to place this file in any convenient location.  

Sparks
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original here.