HD Install :: feh not sticking around after reboot



Hi all,

I'm trying to use DSL on an old Thinkpad 390E that I'm turning into a photo frame.  I like the idea of DSL because I have this idea that I can cut out all the stuff I'm not going to need and make it DSerL (Damn Smaller Linux), leaving more room for photos.

Here's my issue though.

I can get it to boot off the CD.  I can Frugal install to the hdd no problem and get it to boot.  I can even get both my wireless and wired network connections to work.  So far so good.

I've created three partitions (hda1, hda2, hda3).  Frugal install goes on hda1.  Backup goes on hda2.  Photos, /home, /opt go on hda3 (configured it this way on install).

I can save things anywhere on hda3 and they're just happy to stick around after reboot.  

However, after I install apt-get and then get feh and unclutter, no matter what I do I can not get it to survive a reboot.  I've installed them, backed it up to hda2 (through the button on the DSL panel), but no dice.  Does backup really back everything up as I last left it, including installed programs, or am I misunderstanding something?

I know it's doing something because my network connections start right up after a reboot without reconfiguring them.

How do I do this?  I really want to stick with DSL because I like the idea of a read only OS install because it's going to be, well, a photo frame that will probably be turned off by unplugging it.

(yea, I know you're not supposed to, but this is the real world and that's how you should be able to turn things off.  Kinda like your TV.)

Bonus points: I want to figure out the best way to get photos over to this frame.  The best way I can think of is to set up a share on my Windows box (where ALL of my photos live) and have the frame look to the box and copy photos over (maybe with a cron job?) as I update them.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks
Oh yea, I also forgot to mention that I've added all the instances of feh, unclutter, apt*, etc. that I could find to .filetool.lst via emelfm.
The backup system is mainly for personal configs written to $HOME or /opt.  Writing to the base system will fail unless you've already linked it into ramdisk (/etc/init.d/mkwriteable).  I haven't tried restoring application files, but my guess is that if you boot with "dsl write" parameter you will get your application files restored.
If this doesn't work, you could always add some commands in /opt/bootlocal.sh to run mkwriteable and install feh from the deb package(s).
Another option is to create a mydsl package from the deb package(s).

Quote
this is the real world and that's how you should be able to turn things off.  Kinda like your TV

A personal computer is nothing like a tv, or a toaster, or a refrigerator...at least not yet, so saying that you should be able to properly turn it off in the same way is a bit of a stretch.  Maybe one day this will be possible, but for now pulling the plug to shut it off is equivalent to kicking a dog to get it to stop barking.  Sure it works, but each time you kick it you do some damage, and one of these days it's going to bite you in the ass.
Quote (mikshaw @ Feb. 12 2006,10:37)
The backup system is mainly for personal configs written to $HOME or /opt.  Writing to the base system will fail unless you've already linked it into ramdisk (/etc/init.d/mkwriteable).  I haven't tried restoring application files, but my guess is that if you boot with "dsl write" parameter you will get your application files restored.
If this doesn't work, you could always add some commands in /opt/bootlocal.sh to run mkwriteable and install feh from the deb package(s).
Another option is to create a mydsl package from the deb package(s).

Quote
this is the real world and that's how you should be able to turn things off.  Kinda like your TV

A personal computer is nothing like a tv, or a toaster, or a refrigerator...at least not yet, so saying that you should be able to properly turn it off in the same way is a bit of a stretch.  Maybe one day this will be possible, but for now pulling the plug to shut it off is equivalent to kicking a dog to get it to stop barking.  Sure it works, but each time you kick it you do some damage, and one of these days it's going to bite you in the ass.

True dat!

You can use mount command to have it automatically mount a "windows share" and tell it to just automatically start randomly displaying images...just update the images in the windows share and bam!

Brian
AwPhuch
OK, so I should then be able to make it writable, install or uninstall files (like get rid of Firefox and other apps a photo frame doesn't need), make it not writable again, and it should stick around?  

That would rock.  

My other option is remastering the CD if the two ideas suggested above do not work - and I'd like to avoid that for the moment as I don't have a burner on the machine I'm converting, and I don't have anywere on my box with the burner to store the image file temporarily (unless DSL writes nicely to NTFS, which I really doubt)

Being the noob that I am, is there any way to get apt to display all the packages installed and then I can go through and kill the stuff I don't need?  That would also rock.
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