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Topic: TORAM option with Knoppix Image on HD, Run DSL in RAM from Knoppix Image on HD

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vk2emq

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: Mar. 2004

Posted: Mar. 03 2004,07:22

I have successfully run DSL on a variety of "Attic Ware" and/or low powered platforms via boots from HD or Flashcard with FAT partition.

What I would like to do is run DSL using the TORAM option from a DSL image on FLASH / HD on machines having 64 MB RAM or more - eg low end 486/Pentium 1 with small harddisk to enhance the speed of operation, or on low powered machines eg 12 VDC battery powered VIA EPIA board with Flashcard and RAM to keep power usage to a minimum.

When using the toram option with the standard distribution install, the knoppix files are transfered to RAM but the filesystem is not recognised and the system jumps to a minimal linux .... The key to loading from HD/Flash to RAM would seem to be by appropriate modification of the linurc script in the miniroot.gz .By referring to the site which has a modified linuxrc script for booting from USB I have been able to load DSL, gunzip miniroot.gz, mount the miniroot.img file system, access and edit and save the linuxrc script, unmount the miniroot.img, gzip to miniroot.gz, reboot the system and see some minor textual changes I have incorporated into the script ..... however I am no bash script programmer and after several days of fiddling with the script and multiple crashing of systems I am no nearer to the goal ....

Could any programmer type out there provide any suggestions on what changes could be made to the linuxrc script for ideally implementing the following requirements

1. establish size of knoppix cloop file ( 49 MB for DSL) on Harddisk/Flash card and available RAM and if sufficient RAM is available suggest to user that TORAM option may be used ;

2. if TORAM option selected create RAMDISK of appropriate size and copy knoppix cloop file from HD/Flash to RAM and run DSL knoppix from RAM ;

3. invoke mkdosswapfile script to automatically generate swapfile on HD/( not Flash ) ;

4. invoke persistant home directory script to automatically generate home directory on harddisk/Flash ;

5. invoke save config script to automatically save DSL configuration to HD/Flash when rebooting

Any suggestions gratefully received,

vk2emq
John

Modrak

Group: Members
Posts: 189
Joined: Dec. 2003

Posted: Mar. 05 2004,14:33

If you have flashcard...it take's minimal power...almost ZERO
The HD-INSTALL makes DSL a real linux system with RW /root filesystem

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Mar. 06 2004,18:23

If you do a hard disk install to a flash drive (instead of a poor-mans or frugal install), be careful NOT to install a swap partition/swap file. Flash memory can only support a limited number of disk writes in a specific location of the drive before that memory location will fail (something like 10,000 writes or 100,000 writes. I forget the exact number).

Since swap files/partitions do constant writing over and over again to the same part of your flash "drive" you will quickly reach the point where your flash device will fail.

There is a specific filesystem that is designed to avoid multiple writes to the same location on a flash device. It is called JFFS or JFFS2. I believe that the name stands for Journaling Flash File System.

If you were going to use your flash drive like a "hard disk" instead of a writable CDROM-like device, I suggest that you install a version of Linux that supports the JFFS file system and then format the flash disk as JFFS. You may be able to add JFFS2 support to DSL by using apt-get on a real hard-disk installed DSL system.

But the poor-mans install or the frugal-install should work great on a flash drive with no special modifications. These installs do not create swap files/swap partitions and treat the compressed image as a read-only file system.

Good Luck.

2 replies since Mar. 03 2004,07:22

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