Release Candidates :: DSL v4.0 alpha1



Ok, I have not thought about this.
I only thought, that this could be a quick and easy way for everybody to have a look at the DSL 4 live-CD :)

I will check the forum now for kernel compilation.
Maybe I will understand how to exchange the kernels.
At least I will inform myself how this could be done.
Key, if you don't see the sata_nv.o get loaded, then this won't help.  It depends on your SATA hard drives being recognized by DSL.

Our problem seems to be that 2.4.34.1 doesn't recognize an ATAPI CDROM on an SATA controller.

There are many ways around this.  Copying the KNOPPIX image to a hard drive, installing an IDE CDROM, booting from the network, booting from a USB drive, etc.  If anyone has other ideas, please post them.  And of course, add any corrections to this if there are any mistakes.

These are the steps to get the KNOPPIX directory copied from the DSL iso to the root directory of one of your SATA drives which has a filesystem that DSL understands.  This is similar to booting DSL with a "tohd=/dev/sdb1" cheatcode.  After these steps are preformed, when the DSL CD is booted with the "sata fromhd=/dev/sdb1" cheatcodes, it will read the KNOPPIX image in the KNOPPIX directory.  For this example, I'll use sdb1, the first partition on the second SATA drive, which already has an ext3 filesystem.  I couldn't use my sda1 partition because it has an NTFS filesystem.  If you need help creating a hard drive partition with a linux filesystem on it, ask and we can walk you thru that.  Since you mentioned that you had booted Knoppix, and that you have two SATA drives on a Nvidia SATA controller, then this should work for you.

Copy the dsl-4.0_alpha1.iso to the first partition on the second SATA drive somehow.  In this example, I'll use wget to perform a file transfer.  You may already have a copy of the iso somewhere else and can copy it to the partition faster than having to perform the file transfer.

boot Knoppix-5.1.1 CD or DVD

Click on the penguin at the bottom left of the screen next to the K button.  Choose the "Root Shell".

Code Sample

root@Knoppix:~# mount /media/sdb1
root@Knoppix:~# cd /media/sdb1
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# wget ftp://ftp.oss.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/release_candidate/dsl-4.0_alpha1.iso
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# mkdir dsl-4.0_alpha1
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# mount -o loop dsl-4.0_alpha1.iso dsl-4.0_alpha1
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# cp -R dsl-4.0_alpha1/KNOPPIX /media/sdb1
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# umount dsl-4.0_alpha1
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# rm dsl-4.0_alpha1.iso
root@Knoppix:/media/sdb1# cd
root@Knoppix:~# umount /media/sdb1


Then shutdown and boot the dsl-4.0_alpha1 CD with:

boot:  dsl dma sata fromhd=/dev/sdb1

Plus whatever other cheatcodes you need for your setup.  I like to add "secure" so you get a chance to read the messages on the screen before they get hidden.
I sympathize with Con's perspective.  Using those benchmarks for qualitative results is for server setups anyhow... that's why user desktop oriented setups and problems don't get "seen."  However, I have yet to actually use any bleeding-edge 2.6 kernel and no -ck patched kernels either, so I'll leave the arguments for those who have actually used both... (though it does present a pretty convincing case)

From my preliminary tests, _adding_ 2.6.22.1 to DSL 3.4 brought the size to  ~70mb.  This was by using Knoppix 5.1's (2.6.19?) .config and making everything new a module if possible (and adding things like KVM).  Most of the options I have no idea about, but the modules came to ~60mb (currently included is ~20mb).  Presumably, you could strip many modules out. The kernel itself is rather big and might not fit on a floppy, but this is just because of the Knoppix config being used.

Key: dsl-initrd just has all of the data.. i.e. KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX in the minirt so that it's all loaded to ram during boot.  Probably memory isn't a problem for you since you have that setup :)

EDIT: just saw the above post...
Quote
Key, if you don't see the sata_nv.o get loaded, then this won't help.  It depends on your SATA hard drives being recognized by DSL.
He showed that it was already loaded when he was manually insmod'ing the modules.

Unless it's a problem with his disk drive, putting the data on a sata-based hdd wouldn't really help either since it would go through the same southbridge chipset... but it might if it's some other problem?
Quote
Presumably, you could strip many modules out.

Definitely *can* strip many out. Just look at what's coming in 2.6.23. Does a live CD need Xen? Lguest? HBA/SAN? KVM? I doubt it.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39288166,00.htm
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8736773877.html
Thank you all for your answers.

Finally I have decided now to use my old computer in order to bring the DSL 4 alpha image to an USB memory stick.
I have choosen the USB-HDD installation and write-protected the USB memory stick after installation.

The results on my new computer are as follows:
USB memory stick has been recognized and the boot procedure did not stop.
There were some errors like I/O errors and SCSI diskerrors shown, but the boot procedure was done completely.

With the first mouse move, a drop-down menu has opened.
Same, but minor problem, as there was alreay in DSL 2.x and DSL 3.x.

Everything looks a bit different now.
I can not say yet, if it is better or if it is worse, as I did not do many tests.
What I have noticed at once, was the fantastic speed and the good access to the menus with the mouse in DSL 4 alpha.

Unfortunately I did not get access to the internet via my onboard network-card. So it seems that I have another problem there with the 2.4.x kernel. On my old computer, I have always got an access to the internet with DSL 2.x or DSL 3.x immediatly and automatically. Although I have tried many entries of the DSL 4 alpha network menu, I did not get access to the internet.

Really strange was, that only the very first boot-procedure of DSL 4 alpha on the USB memory stick was successfull.
After I have choosen "shutdown" I did not get the USB memory stick running again. Now it is always the same behaviour as I had with the live CD in the SATA drive.
Maybe there has been something stored to the harddisk which results to this problem or the USB memory stick became damaged? During shutdown there were a lot of errors (I think SCSI diskerrors) shown (repeating?) which I have interrupted with the CTRL-ALT-DELETE Keys.
I have tested this (remark: still write protected USB memory stick) also on my old computer atferwards, but there it even does not do the first boot steps. There is the message "boot error" from the bios shown at once. Unfortunately I do not know, if it would have been run on the old computer close after the installation, as I have not tested it there before.

Having main problems with SATA and network in DSL 4 alpha, there is probably no other way then using DSL-N. Maybe I will get the mouse working somehow as in DSL 4 alpha and maybe there will also be a newer version again sometimes.

Sometimes I hate waiting, but I think I have to wait now again :)

Other question:
There are so many users who have done already compilations with 2.6.x kernels in DSL 3.x oder DSL 4 alpha.  Is it possible to get them somewhere in the internet? I would like to test it.
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