DSL FAQ Boot camp - Bring a helmet.

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: DSL FAQ Boot camp - Bring a helmet.
started by: SaidinUnleashed

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 31 2004,04:41

TEN, HUT!!!

Before I get too far into this, can I get a mod to Sticky this thread?

It may take a little while to piece all the stuff together for this FAQ, and it would be annoying to have to track down old threads to work. And this thread will be a great place to learn about DSL, as we will be posting a wealth of info here.

FIRST THING'S FIRST, SOLDIER!

This is the (un) Official DSL "Damn Large FAQ" Construction Thread.

This will be an "Pseudo" Open Project, meaning that anyone can submit a contribution, but I reserve the right to not use, edit, correct, shorten, expand upon, or otherwise modify things as I see fit. Most likely, this means nothing to you, but, if I decide to use just part of your piece, or rewrite it to make it clearer, etc, you can't get mad at me. ^_^ By making a submission to this FAQ, you are agreeing to this.

You will be given credit for any part of your piece I decide to use. I don't want to scare people off, I just want you to understand that, if you submit a piece, I may not use it, and even if i do use it, I may not use all of it. Whew.

A GOOD SOLDIER KNOWS HIS PLATOON!!

Alright, I know that Milkshaw and Alsdair Kelly have already volunteered to help with this project, but I would never turn down more volunteers!
BUT! Let me lay down a few ground rules for participating in this thread.

1. This is NOT the place to ask for help with DSL! We have work to do, and off-topic questions will go largely ignored. Post your problems in another thread!

2. This FAQ will cover DSL 0.8.0+. I would make it 0.7.3+, because a lot of people have problems booting 0.8, including myself, but enough is different under the hood between these two versions that what works in 0.7.3 might not work in 0.8.0 and vice-versa. So, if you want to help, find a comp that will boot 0.8.0.

3. If you are new to using DSL and/or Linux, DO NOT post your ideas here untill they have been tried, tested, and approved elsewhere in the forums. To put in in less polite terms NO NEWBS! Experience is required.

4. I use cut-and-paste A LOT. What can I say, I'm lazy. Please make your contribution friendly to cut-and-paste. Use tags like [faq] and [/faq] to mark where the actual contribution starts. Before the piece, you should have a short description of what it is, and afterwards, any other suggestions or comments or whatever.

5. If you know where a question has already been answered in the forums, and that answer still applies to 0.8, copy and paste the text into a post in this thread. In other words, DON'T LINK IT! Not only will it make it easier to find, but it will add to the Knowledge Stockpile®.

6. Hopefully, we will be done with this in a few weeks, but, THERE IS NO SOLID RELEASE DATE! It will be done when it's done. If and when a new version of DSL comes out, we will try to incorporate the new info into the FAQ. Perhaps an addendum or something.

7. Don't volunteer if you aren't going to do the work. If you do, we will consider you AWOL, and shoot you on sight. Okay, so not really, but don't say you are going to help if you aren't going to. It's annoying.

8. Scale back the Linux Geek Terminology©. Explain unusual terms so that a brand-new ex-M$Zombie™ can follow along. We want to help them, not confuse them.

SO, YOU THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO JOIN, EH, SCUMBAG?!?!

If you decide to help, make sure you have an email address listed in your profile, and preferably and AIM screen name (I chose AIM because DSL already has a compatible messenger app right out of the box) so that myself, whoever decides to help me edit and put together the final product, or perhaps John or Roberts (if they decide to get involved. They are not participating in the FAQ project at the moment, nor do I expect them to do anything except perhaps a comment every now and then) can get in touch directly with you if needed. You do NOT have to post your email address or AIM name in this thread, as a matter of fact, i would prefer if you didn't. I just want to be able to reach you.

GRAB YOUR GEAR, SOLDIER, IT'S TIME FOR YOUR MISSION.

Here is the current list off the top of my head of things that I know that I will need outside help with.

*-Monkey Web Server - How to configure, start and run a small site with MWS.

*-ssh server - How to configure, setup, and run the server, and how to log in from a client would be nice, too.

*-BashBurn - How to create data and music CDs, how to pull an ISO image from a CD, how to create a CD from an ISO, etc. If some of these are not available with DSL, just mention that it's not possible. (I haven't actually ever used BashBurn, I just use cdrecord ^_^)

*-Boot Commands - I want a list of every possible command from the

Code Sample

Boot:

command line and what they do.

*-BetaFTP Server - How to create, host, and access a small FTP site with BFTP.

I'm 100% sure that I will add to this list as I come across things that I don't know how to use.

Anyways, let's roll out the tanks and get this battle started.

Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!!! RAAAASK!!!

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by jerome5 on Aug. 31 2004,04:55

Q. I am from the UK and my keyboard is messed up how do I fix it?

A.
Quit X (ctrl-alt-backspace)
type "loadmaps uk.kmap.gz"
type "startx"

----

I didnt see this thread before I started my own, it seems you are a bit mor organised and stuff than I am so i guess you could delete mine

Posted by TyphoonMentat on Aug. 31 2004,07:05

You can also do the above on a HD install by adding "loadmaps uk.kmap.gz" to your /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc file.

Posted by jerome5 on Sep. 01 2004,09:03

so when is this thread going to be stickied?

Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Sep. 01 2004,13:29

Kaydet Kelly reporting in!
I think that this also pertains to using Bashburn (which required root also AFAIK)

Q: Why can't I burn a CD with Gcombust as a user?

A: Gcombust is set up for use by root only. So you have some options to explore.

1: To burn a CD when operating as a user, you can sudo su [Path]gcombust to bring up the GUI and make your burn. You may need to adjust this to fit your Path.
Example: in a terminal sudo /opt/gcombust/bin/gcombust brings up the GUI.

2.You can use the non-root solution offered in the Gcombust FAQ;
a) create a group for the user(s) who should be allowed to burn (“addgroup cdburn”)
b) sdd user(s) to this group (”adduser joedoe cdburn”)
c)Change the group owner of the device to cdbrun, and give the group read/write permissions.(“chgrp cdburn /dev/scd0; chmod g+rw”)
Note: check for the proper syntax for the chmod portion of this.

3)You could use a setuid solution by giving the group executable rights and make it suid root. But this is a security risk.
a) create a group and add user(s) as above
b) remove world executable from cdrecord (“Chmod o-x /usr/bin/cdrecord”)
c) make cdrecord setuid root (“chown root /usr/bin/cdrecord; chmod u+s /usr/bin/cdrecord”)
d) make the group of cdrecord the newly created group (“chgrp cdburn /usr/bin/cdrecord”) Now, in theory, only the user(s) in the cdburn group can execute cdrecord, and it will be executed with root priviligies.

Posted by jerome5 on Sep. 02 2004,03:05

All I did was change the gcombust.lnk file to
sudo gcombust

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Sep. 02 2004,18:43

waaait... that's cheating...

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

FAQ is coming along...

Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Sep. 02 2004,19:13

Quote (jerome5 @ Sep. 01 2004,23:05)

All I did was change the gcombust.lnk file to
sudo gcombust

Yes you can do that. Depending on how you have Gcombust installed (dsl.extension or a deb package or apt-get) you now have some options per the Gcombust FAQ and from some personal experiences.

What I've found with a hdd install of DSL 0.71 on my machine is that unless you are running as root, Gcombust and cdrecord both 'fuss' that you may be in a buffer underrun likely situation, and that the burn process takes a bit longer than if I do things as root.

The CD that I burned this morning and finalized is not readable on a WIndows machine, but is on this NixBox. Some of the data that I archived was intended for use on other boxen other than the DSL machines around here. Oh well, I'll just reboot and do it the old way from the CLI and be done with it.

Posted by clacker on Oct. 13 2004,01:27

SaidinUnleashed, I'm sorry I didn't post here sooner, but the whole military thing really turned me off. I searched the forums (which is what we tell everyone else to do, right?) for the terms search AND beginning and search AND beggining (because we're geeks not lit majors) and I found the following good candidates for FAQ questions:

1) How do I create the CD from the iso file (or I made a CD and it doesn't work)
Did you check the MD5 sum of the *.iso file?
Can you use Roxio or Nero to burn your file?

2) What are & how do I load these dsl files?
dsl files are collections of files that have been tarred &
gzipped (*.tar.gz) and then renamed *.dsl

to load them:
double click on the emelfm button, and navigate to the file.
Then click on the file and hit the mydsl button
or
type mydsl-load thedslname.dsl

3) How do I save files/settings/icons/mail/anything between live CD sessions?

4) How do I load/use apt-get/dpkg/synaptic?
a) download the dpkg.dsl file
double click on the emelfm button, and navigate to the file.
Then click on the file and hit the mydsl button
b) open a bash shell and type dpkg-restore

usage:
a) modify /etc/apt/sources.list if needed (stable to unstable)
type apt-get update
type apt-get install make <or whatever>
b) download the *.deb files and use dpkg -i make.deb <or whatever>

5) How do I create a dsl file
a) using the fantastic deb2dsl script.
< deb2dsl topic >
b) creating menus and sub menus
look here for < simple > or here for < submenus >
c) creating icons
look to < clivesay's post >
d) creating compressed *.ci files
look at < creating compressed iso files >

6) How can I remaster the CD to add what I want?
look to < meo's remastering > summary

7) Where is the kernel source?
you need to get the 3.4 knoppix kernel source (5/17/2004)

8) How do I change my keyboard to <Spanglish>
Ctr+Alt+Backspace
loadkeys pl <for Polish, es is Spanish, fr is french, spanglish is something else>
startx
< available keymaps are in in /usr/share/keymaps >

9) how do I set up my modem to use ppp?
I got a lot of help from < here >

I think if we get good answers to these, we can cut down substantially on the same question traffic and get on with the meat and potatoes questions

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 13 2004,01:47

massive update day!! woo-hoo!

anyways, lost several pages of the faq when my laptop crashed a few weeks ago, but here's what i ended up saving, quite by accident. I'm putting it in quote tags, because i'm too ing lazy to edit out all the legal crap and formatting.

Quote

Damn Small Linux Forum FAQ (Full-size!)

by J.P. Nimmo A.K.A. SaidinUnleashed

Damn Small Linux is © 2003 - 2004 John Andrews
Linux is a Trademark of Linus Torvalds
All other Licensed names used in this FAQ are the property of their respective owners.

The purpose of this FAQ is to answer the most common questions that people ask about, and the most common issues that poeple have with Damn Small Linux, which I will, from now on, refer to as DSL.

Q: What is DSL?

A: DSL is a 50 MB live-bootable distribution of Linux derived from Klaus Knopper's "Knoppix". Live-bootable means that you do not have to install it to try it out. Just pop it into your CD-ROM and turn on your PC. A few minutes later, you're using DSL!

Q: Okay, I get the Live-boot thing, but 50 MB just isn't that much! I mean, how functional can DSL possbly be?!

A: Incredibly functional! With DSL, you can everything that Windows can do, and even a few things that windows can't! DSL even has some things that the big distros are getting into. DSL has 3 web browsers, 2 chat clients, a fully functional office suite, cd burning capabilities, a remote desktop client, a terminal server client, 4 editors, a multimedia player, all sorts of system tools, and even games. DSL can do all this because it uses small, lightweight, but powerful applications.

Q: Okay, that really wasn't much of an answer. Can DSL do (insert job here)?

A: Here. I'll list the applications in DSL in groups and tell you what they do. All of these apps can be found in the menu by following the string above the apps name, except Fluxbox. It starts on its own. The strings look like this -

"Games>>TuxNES>>Sack of Flour"

To follow this string, right-click to open the menu, highlight "Games" and the Games submenu will open. Highlight "TuxNES", then "Sack of Flour". Click "Sack of Flour" to start the game!

Some of these apps have shortcuts on the desktop, but I'm listing them according to the Fluxbox menu.

Anyways, here are the apps, as well as a short description of each one.

Fluxbox - the graphical interface (GUI). Probably the first thing you'll encounter in DSL. Just remember, you have to right-click to open the menu.

Apps>>Editors>>Scite
Scite - Scite is an fully functional editor that uses a GTK interface. It has a lot of familiar buttons, and is very easy to use. Scite automatically recognizes commands for several programming languages, like C, C++, python, and several others. This is what you would use to edit configuration files, write programs, or whatever other "under the hood" tinkering you would want to do.

Apps>>Editors>>Vim
Vim - Vim is another editor, but instead of being GUI based like Scite, Vim is text-based. You can use it from the X-terminal. Vim is a lot like the more common editor Vi, but is much smaller and lighter. Personally, when I first started using Linux, I found Vim to be confusing, but it is quite useful, once you learn how to use it.

Apps>>Editors>>Zile
Zile - Zile is a clone of the extremely popular Emacs editor. By far, the most functional, terminal based editor (IMHO), Zile is also fairly easy to use. F10 shows you the mini-help. Just remember that in Zile's command list, "C" means Ctrl.

Apps>>Editors>>Nano
Nano - Nano is a clone of the popular terminal-based editor, Pico. Pico is extremely easy to use. All of the commands for Pico are listed at the bottom of the screen. "^" means Ctrl, so to exit Pico, you would press Ctrl+x. It's really easy. NOTE: some of the functions, like the Get Help and Spellcheck functions had to be removed due to space restrictions. But don't worry, it doesn't affect performance.

Apps>>Graphics>>xzgv Image Viewer
xzgv - Xzgv is an image viewer (duh). You can use it to view the most common types of pictures. However, .bmp isnt supported, because .bmp's are freaking huge.

Apps>>Graphics>>Xpaint
Xpaint - Xpaint is an image creation program, similar to MSpaint. Obviously, Xpaint has nowhere near the functionality of the GIMP, but for a 50 MB space restriction, Xpaint works like a charm.

Apps>>Office>>Ted
Ted - Ted is a lightweight wordprocessor. It was originally meant to be something like MSwordpad, but it grew into a fully functional WP capable of creating documents in Rich-text format (.rtf).

Apps>>Office>>Xpdf
Xpdf - Think Adobe Acrobat Reader. It lets you view and print PDF files.

Apps>>Office>>Xcalc
Xcalc - A neat little scientific calculator program. Very useful when the need arises.

Apps>>Office>>ABS Spreadsheet
ABS Spreadsheet - A cool GTK spreadsheet program. At the midpoint between size and functionality, ABS is a nice happy medium. Nice and small, but powerful enough for most things. Compatible with MS Excel, so that's good too.

Apps>>Office>>SQLite
SQLite - a very small variant of the SQL address book. This is actually a very good Address book!

yeah, i know, it's not a lot, but well windows sucks like that. So deal.

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 17 2004,20:28

The following is questions (or similar questions) that I have asked and other things that I have discovered in DSL.

Q) I downloaded *.uci and it worked great, but when I reboot my computer and click on the icons to launch them, nothing happens!

A) *.uci are compress images of the program and mounted, not installed. UCI applications run with much less RAM requierments than regular extensions. To fix this problem, all you have to do is:

From Emelfm:
1) Open up Emelfm
2) Navigate to /tmp (or where you have the .uci file located)
3) Click on the file (it should highlight it)
4) Right click on the file, a menu should pop up.
5) Move the mouse over the submenu 'Choose Action', a submenu should extend
6) Move your mouse over 'mydsl-load' and click.
7) In the the output box, it should say that it was succesfuly mounted.

From the prompt
1) Open up your favourite shell
2) Navigate to /tmp (or where ever you have the .uci file located)
3) Type: 'mydsl-load <filename>' replacing <filename> with the file with the .uci extension.
4) A message should come back informing you that it was succesfuly mounted.

You should now be able to launch you .uci applications. If you can still not, then try the other approach. If you still can not then try launching another uci applications. If it is returned that the device is busy, than that means that it is already mounted and that there is another problem with the program.

Q) I configured my local printer and succesfuly printed a test page, but I can't get it to print in other applications.

A) First, make sure that the printer is on, plugged in correctly, has enough ink,
and has paper. Then open up the DSLpanel. Make sure that the printer daemon is running.
It should show:

Printing/lpd ON {Start button] {Stop button]

In the Daemons table (Under the word Daemons). Daemons mean server.

Try printing now. If it doesn't work then try using another application to print. Are you selecting the correct printer to print to.
If it still doesn't print then go through these steps again. If things still don't work than try running the printer setup program again. Did you make sure to type I after setting it up. Typing 'I' actually installs the printer. If you remember naming your printer than you most likely hit I. It's always safe to try again though. Did you install the correct printer driver? If the print page succesfuly printed out the test page (it should have pictures and text) then you might want to consider asking for help on the bords. If the test page didn't print correctly then you have set the printer up wrong and that is a whole other question.

Q) I want them to add this feature and that feature! Where can my voice be heard?

A) Try the ideas and suggestion boards. Feel free to post your own thread or try adding to an already flourshing idea thread. It's up to you :)

Q) People won't answer my questions. What do I do?

A) Try searching the boards to see if the question was asked before. Try looking in the documentation. Make sure you are asking on the right board. Be descriptive when describing your problem / question. Try to attempt to correct the problem yourself but don't attempt anything you are unsure of. If worse comes to worse, try sending an IM or e-mail to some of the people on this form that are knowledgable and helpful. Also, you may just have to wait awhile intill someone that is knowledgable about your question comes around.

Q) Why do is there old applications and programs in DSL and MyDSL?

A) DSL is aimed to be run in ram and on old computers. The creators want DSL to work for a wide variety of users, not just a sub set. There is usualy a reason that the app hasn't been updated (ie. No one has thought of it, too big, too bugy, just won't work, etc.). Try asking on the board for someone to make you a MyDSL copy of it or trying downloading and setting it up yourself. People are very touchy about this topic and will usualy reply pretty quickly their feelings on the matter.
Also, sometimes there is updated application. It's just not been tested and so not put in the regular repository. Another option is to download it through apt-get but we are gettign passed the scope of this question now, so let's move on.

Q) I want to get a mud running on DSL. Will it work?

A) Yes, I have succesfuly compiled and ran MudOS with Tmi2 myself (with minor modification... well one actually :) Just had to change an include to the updated version). I am very mud fettish so please feel free to e-mail your questions and concerns on this topic and I'll see what I can do :) somerville32@hotmail.com

Q) I really really really love this distro. How can I help out?

A) You can help out by learning as much as you can about DSL and assisting by being active on the forums. If someone asks a question and you know an answer, feel free to answer (If you are wrong then someone will be sure to correct and you'll learn something new).
There are lots of chances to give input on descions on the board too. The board is your primary outlet :).

Q) How do I edit the start menu and desktop icons.

You can download whitebox.dsl from the GUI MyDSL. It is an excellent program to not only modify the start menu by the entire theme.

To edit the desktop icons, all you have to do is edit the files in .xtdesktop in your home directory. The *.lnk files are the actual links and the rest is most likely the icons. To remove a link on your desktop, just delete the *.lnk file. You can add your own desktop icons by creating your own .lnk file. The actual creation of the lnk is out of the scope of this question, but you can try to make one based off the other *.lnk files in that folder.

Q) What do I do if I screw it all up by downloading the wrong app or extension?

Booted from the cd:

1) Reboot. This should fix most problems.

From the HD:

1) Reboot. IF it doesn't work goto step 2
2) Reinstall and lose everything.

Try to use only applications and extensions that are tested and are known to work. Try to test applications out on the liveCD before trying them out on your HD install.

Q) <insert bad grammer and spelling here>

A) Sorry, please use proper english or I can't understand!

Q) Is windows internet connection sharing work with DSL?

A) Yes, I am using it right now while I write up this FAQ and listen to the music that I have stored on my windows box.

Q) Does windows suck?

A) *smiles warmly*

Q) My sound card did work but after running sndconfig, it doesn't! Will you help me?

A) ONLY RUN THE SOUND CARD CONFIGURATION UTILITY IF YOUR SOUND CARD ISN'T AUTOMATICALY DETECTED AND CONFIGUED BY DSL. I made the same mistake and I had to reinstall my HD install. If you are using the livecd, you are lucky and get to reboot :) The sound configuration utility is in need of major fixing up so use it with caution! Try running it with the liveCD before using it with your HD install

Q) Will DSL ISO that is downloadable from offical DSL homepage ever be larger than 50mb?

A) This is another touchy subject. The answer is currently (and supposably always will be) no. You can create your own DSL Cd's though, but that's out of the scope of this question.

Q) Documentation sucks!

A) I'am sorry but that's not a question.
But really... don't you think we know? That's why we are creating this FAQ. Don't worry... the problem will be errectified sooner or later.

Q) Your spelling and grammer sucks!

A) Hey... No one is perfect! Thats even more true when using Links :P I mean... I'am sorry but that's not a question!

Q) I can't find my driver in the driver configuration program.

A) There are alot more drivers there than you think. Select each option, most of time there is sub menus under them that offer hundreds and hundreds of drivers!

Q) How do I create my own MyDSL file?

A) Remember how I told you people get really really touchy when you ask questions that are already answered? Well this is one of those times!

Q) How do I make my boot time faster?

A) Someone has already answered this question on the boards. He appearently has got it down to under 30 seconds.

Q) DSL doesn't look good. It's all small and fuzy.

A) Most likely your problem is that you haven't configured X yet and you are using a resolution that your monitor / video card can't handle. Right click on the desktop, goto system and then click X setup. Follow the instructions then reboot the x system (by rebooting the computeror by going to WindowManager > exit and then typing startx at the prompt).
When going going through the setup, 800 x 600 is a safe bet :) If it is too small then try a higher resolution. IF after running this program x won't start. You can run the script from the shell. It is located in /usr/sbin/. IT is called xsetup.sh. You can run this script by typing ./xsetup.sh while in the relative directory (/usr/sbin). I hope this helps. If not then activate links and surf to the boards and ask for help.

Alrighty, I am going to hit add the reply now so that I don't accidently lose all this work :)

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 17 2004,21:19

Q) What does mounting mean?

A) This is what I got from dictionary.com

<file system> To make a file system available for access.

Unix does this by associating the file system with a
directory (the "mount point") within a currently mounted
file system. The "root" file system is mounted on the root
directory, "/" early in the boot sequence. "mount" is also
the Unix command to do this, "unmount" breaks the
association.

E.g., "mount attaches a named file system to the file system
hierarchy at the pathname location directory [...]" -- Unix
manual page mount(8).

File systems are usually mounted either at boot time under
control of /etc/rc (or one of its subfiles) or on demand by
an automounter daemon.

Other operating systems such as VMS and DOS mount file
systems as separate directory hierarchies without any common
ancestor or root directory.

Apparently derived from the physical sense of "mount" meaning
"attach", as in "head-mounted display", or "set up", as in
"always mount a scratch monkey, etc."

CONCLUSION: It just allows you to use it. When you boot your computer, linux mounts your hard drive for use. You can mount a network share for use. You can mount images for use. Mounting is an excellent feature

Q) Where can I get free streamed music and where I can a get a program to play it?

A) DSL comes with a program called xMMs that plays all sorts of media. DSL also comes with links to the streams of the Linux show and another stream of different musics. If don't like these choices you can go to shoutcast.com and select a station from there. Download the file and open it in xMMs. These files are small and just point to where the music is streamed from. If when you click on these *.pls files and they just open a page with a few lines of text. The URL contained in that file is the url that you can enter into xMMs and play the music. If there is more than one in the file then it means that, that file contains more than one stream. If you actually download the file and open it in xMMs, then you can surf between them. If you just open it in the browser, you will have to enter the url each time you want to switch. Downlading them is easier as it also means that you don't have to remember the URLs.

Q) What does the enhanced install mean when I run the install script to install to the hard drive?

A) It just means that it will download and install a MyDSL file with the install of DSL to the HD. If you don't select the enhanced option you can download the Mydsl from the Mydsl GUI. The name of the extension is dsl-dpgk.dsl

Q) I have issues with my family. They abuse me!

A) Talk to someone you trust.

Q) My friend showed me a picture of a devil killing the linux penguin... How do I contain my anger?

A) You don't, you lash back.... I mean... Talk to someone you trust.

Q) You mentioned an untested section of the repository that isn't avaible in the MyDSL Gui. Where can I find this?

A) < http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/mydsl_testing/ >

You've been warned!

More to be added later!

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 17 2004,21:51

great stuff!

Quote

Q) My friend showed me a picture of a devil killing the linux penguin... How do I contain my anger?

answer should be, "tell that person that BSD sucks, Linux is teh win"

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 17 2004,23:48

Q) Does DSL use a full version of X. If not how do I install it?

A)FIRST:

I DO NOT RECOMEND THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES:

DSL does not use a full version of X. To install a full version of X is outside the scope of this FAQ but I will offer what I know. Attempting this could cause major problems! I have attempted it and screwed up my HD install. Make sure you configure it correctly. The following is what I have gathered on doing it:

1) Log in as root
2) dpkg-restore
3) apt-get update
4) apt-get install x-window-system
5) Follow instructions
6) edit /etc/init.d/xdm
Put 'exit 0' on the very first line (without the quotes ofcourse)
7) edit $HOME/.xserverr
Remove everything in this file and replace it with:
exec /usr/bin/X11/X -auth $HOME/.Xauthority
Do the same for all users.
8) remove startx
rm /usr/bin/X11/startx
9) Replace startx, Google around for it. Ghost_runner offers a script at < http://www.geocities.com/ghost_runnner2003/startx.txt >
I assume you need to rename it after you download it and place it in the correct folder
10) You may have to modify some directories in /tmp using chmod. It may complain about a file having a weird mode and it not being 1777. Just chmod 1777 <dir>

I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO LINUX AND/OR X! MAY CLOSE ATTENTION WHEN YOU ARE CONFIGURING IT!! ATTEMPT THIS ON THE LIVECD BEFORE HD INSTALL. IF YOU DO ATTEMPT IT ON HD INSTALL AND SCREW IT UP (Ie. it won't start) THEN DO THE FOLLOWING:

1) cd /usr/sbin
2) ./configx.sh
3) startx

It should boot you into fluxbox with no icons and minimal selection in the start menu. Open up xterm from the start menu:

1) cd /usr/bin
2) links -g

This should start the links web browser and you'll be able to surf to the boards and ask for assitance

. They will most likely tell you that you need to reinstall. They may ask for logs and such. Please report your failure so that we can offer better help to other that attempt it.

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 18 2004,00:01

Q) How do I install Apt-get?

A) This is easy. There are several ways to do it and I'll cover the shell way for now.

Type: dpkg-restore
and then type: apt-get update
then just type: apt-get install <application>
to get and install the applications you want.
More on how to use apt-get and synaptics later.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 18 2004,03:56

Now stickied, courtesy of John!

And if I'm not mistaken, this is the first sticky we've ever had!

Keep the good stuff coming!

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 18 2004,17:20

[Q] I did a Hardrive install and I dont have a swap partition, How do I add a swap partition or file

[A]

Quote

Operation.........................................................................Command

Ensure you have sufficient ...............................................df -h
diskspace to create the disk

Check your existing swap space......................................swapon -s

Create a 32MB file for use as additional swap space......dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/swapfile count=32768 bs=1024 (for 32Meg file (count=65536 for 64Meg))

Confirm the new swapfile is actually 32Megs................................ls -l /dev/swapfile

Convert this new file to a swap file..................................mkswap /dev/swapfile

Add this new swap space (swapfile)................................swapon /dev/swapfile
to your existing swap space (swap partition)

Check your new swap space............................................swapon -s

To make permanent add:

Code Sample

swapon /dev/swapfile

to /etc/rc5.d/S99bootlocal

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 18 2004,22:02

Q) Installed DSL 0.7.3 to hdX# with <insert other operating system here> on hdZ#. I have set <insert other operating system here> to boot with lilo. When I edit
/ect/lilo.conf and run /sbin/lilo I get an error message which says it cannot recognize the boot
signature for hdX# (dsl). How I can modify /etc/lilo.conf to indentify the boot signature?

A)
By tjm4fun
Create a mount point for dsl on <insert OS here>. ex /mnt/dsl
then for lilo use something like:
boot = mnt/ds/boot
in the stanzas, any ref to dsl in the boot stanzas must be prefixed with the mount point. then
run lilo, it will now be able to find the correct blocks to build the loader for that distro.
you can make it a temp mount point til you run lilo and it build the loader for that distro.
you can make it a temp mount point til you run lilo and it builds itself, after that it's not needed
til the next lilo build. I put fstab entries in my other distros, so I can read the others, and if I
make any changes, don;t have to remember to remount 2or 3 other distro's temporarily to run
lilo.

Q) I have networked my two computers together. One has Windows XP and the other DSL. I have configured both Windows XP and DSL properly but I can't figure out how to access the shared files on Windows XP

A) You can download a MyDSL file calld 'samba.dsl'. It should create a desktop icon called LinNeighborhood. Open it by clicking on it. A window should pop up. There should be a tree. The top of the tree should be a penguin with the word 'box' besides it (if you haven't modified the name). If you expand 'box', a sub tree should extend out with the name of the workgroup (ie. MSHOME). Double click it and the computers in the work group should pop up.
(ie.

[] [Comment] [Mountpoint]
Box
|_MSHOME
|_CHRISTA1 Christa's Main

Right click the computer you want to access and select scan as users. A window should pop up, select OK. The tree should now extend and show the shared folders/files in that computer. Right click what you want to access, a menu should pop up. Select mount. A mount dialog should pop up. If you select ok without modification it should save it to $HOME/mnt/<computer name>/<file/dir name>
Feel free to modify the options as needed or wanted though usualy not required.

I hope that helps.

Q) What controls applications that start up at startup?

A) The file '$HOME/.xinitrc'. Make sure that 'fluxbox' is on the last line and that you put & at the end of each command.
& the just means that linux can continue after launching the application.

Q) What are basic file navigation commands?

A) Good Question!

ls: Lists the directory's (the file you are in) contents.
Tip: Files that start with a period are hidden. To display them type: ls -a
cd: Change working directory (Changes which folder you are currently in). Basic Syntax: cd <path>
more: Displays a file one page at a time. Basic Syntax: more <file>
pwd: Displays current working directory (Which file you are in currently).
rm: removes a file. Basic syntax: rm <file>
WARNING: There is no recycling bin in Linux. Once you delete a file it won't be easy getting it back, if not impossible.
cp: copies a file. Basic syntax: cp source destination

Note: Case-sensitive

Those should get you around. For more detailed explanation look at your man files / documentation.

Q) How do I compile something?

A) I'am sorry, but that quesion is out of the scope of this FAQ but I will give you some pointers. You need a MyDSL file from the testing repository (ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/mydsl_testing/date.html) called 'gcc1.dsl'. After installing it, you should have gcc, g++, and make. You may want to download bison from apt-get as well. Most programs that you download will include instructions on how to install them. If worse comes to worse, you can ask for specifc help on the boards.

Q) How I have flees in my home. How do I get rid of them?

A) You may have to fumigate your house. Try to find the source of the problem (ie. your pets). You can buy medications and collars to kill the flees on the animals so they don't reproduce. Clean daily (vacume, washing, ect.). Try talking to your local house cleaning company.

Q) Why is everyone mean to me when I ask a question?

A) This happens on every single foum. Questions get asked over and over again and people get annoyed. I recommend that you search the boards and documentation before asking questions. You may find that your question is already answered in great detail. Another tip is to make sure you put your post in the right forum and that you are clear, use proper english and grammer to the best of your ability (no one is perfect), and try to be optimistic.

Q) Can I start a fan site?

A) Sure, go ahead! Make sure that you offer up to date information and correctly convey DSL. Some tips on creating your fan site:

1) Make sure information is easy to find (I should be able to find what I am looking for in under 20 seconds!)
2) Create a community. Offer message boards and other communications.
3) Don't be a web-dramatic. Don't put a ton of large pictures on the page that look really neat and expect it to look good together in unity. The website should be simple and beautiful.

I hope that helps

Remember, DSL is a great Distro. Share it with the world!

Q) When will you get all this thread compiled in a text file?

A) When ever we feel that we have enough FAQ's to actually put that work in and make it worth while. That's why I try to add FAQ's everyday as I find more questions and ideas that people frequently bring up or that I think people might have trouble with. Feel free to add your own FAQ's and HOW-TO's under the guidelines that we have provided. Document things well so that you can be very descriptive here.

Q) I don't like linux becuase I can't run all my fancy Windows games like StarCraft, Warcraft, and Doom.

A) Actually... I think we clones of several of those games offered in the MyDSL page. What I mean by clones is that these games look and feel like the orginals but are defiently different (sometimes even improved). I find that they usualy have small, funny, little linux twists

. Remember, you can always dual boot between windows and DSL or just run DSL off the CD (The beauty of LiveCD's) but I personnaly use DSL as an OS replacement.

Q) What are some FAQ's you plan on adding in the upcoming future?

A)

1) How to make your own MyDSL ISO of DSL.
2) How to mount CD-ROMs and Floopies
3) A detailed explanation of the colour codes in MyDSL GUI.
4) How to register in the DSL forums (just incase

5) What is the best shampoo?
AND MUCH MUCH MORE...
See you next time on the screen sav...I mean... In the DSL FAQ's

Till Next Time,

~Kev... Somerville32@hotmail.com

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 18 2004,22:47

(o) (o)
/_
._ _ _ _ _
/######\
|######|
|##_._##|
.\_ _ _ _ _/
I bow to your incredible FAQ smithing shills.

Although I am working on more application descriptions that answering questions at the moment.

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 18 2004,22:57

Just make sure you read them over to make sure I am not giving incorrect information

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 18 2004,23:04

actually, the idea of a DSL fan site really scares me .O_o

other than that , looks great.

-J.P.

EDITUS:

Q) My computer won't boot from the cdrom/usb!! Is there a boot floppy?

A) Yes, the boot floppy for the current series of DSL can be forund on any of the download mirrors in the "Current" directory. boot-X.X.X.img is for booting from a cd, and boot-usb.X.X.X.img is for booting from a usb pendrive device.

In linux, you can create a boot floppy by typing

Code Sample

dd if=boot-X.X.X.img of=/dev/fd0

As far as windows, may I suggest < John Newbigin's RawWrite for Windows >. It's a lot easier to use than the original command-line based rawrite2.exe.

Q) Will DSL ever get bigger than 50mb?

A) NO! Now stop asking. John has said repeatedly that the 50mb ceiling will NEVER be broken. Sheesh.

Q) I did an HD install, and it runs slow, I have enough room for a swap partition, how do I make one?

A) Simple.
1. Open an root Xterm and type "cfdisk /dev/hdX" where "X" is the letter of your hard disk.
2. Select the free space and create a new primary partition. I recommend at least 32 mb, but if you have the room, 64 mb is better.
3. Next, select the "type" button and change the type to "82", which is Linux Swap.
4. Write the partition table to the disk, remember the partition name (I.E. hda1), and quit cfdisk.
5. Now type "mkswap /dev/hdXx" where "X" is the letter of the drive, and "x" is the number of the partition you just created.
6. Reboot.
7. Ta-da, you have a swap partition!
___

Thanks to ke4nt1 for kicking me about forgetting the mkswap part...

Posted by ke4nt1 on Oct. 19 2004,01:13

Note: addendum:

Having a "type 82" partition does not a useable swap partition make....
Running "mkswap /dev/hd??" will prepare the space for use ..

...and AwPhuch's post was detailing making a "swap FILE" ,
which is a different animal from a "swap PARTITION"

They accomplish the same thing , provide swap.
The swapfile can be made on an already existing formatted partition..

73
ke4nt

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 19 2004,02:17

Tomorrow I am going to start the task of creating the version of the FAQ that will maybe (hopefuly if we can trim somethings) to ship with DSL's next release...maybe we could make it a MyDSL file intill then.
What I plan on doing is making it an html file so that everything is neatly organized. We'll have the How-to's, the FAQ's, the documentation, ect. I'll try to keep the whole thing under 1mb but who knows! Feel free to share your ideas and comments.

~Me

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 19 2004,04:39

O_o Umm, it's really not anywhere near done yet.

Besides, this FAQ wasn't really intended to be for the CD.

Hold off on putting anything together for a bit, untill we get some more stuff added in.

ke4nt1: Didn't know there was such a thing as a swapfile. thats cool. And I just forgot the mkswap part. :P I'll edit it in real fast.

-J.P.

Posted by clivesay on Oct. 19 2004,12:14

If ke4nt doesn't mind, the mydsl idea might be good. It would allow everyone to view the documentation for comments and would also allow people to 'take it with them'. It could be a MyDSL living document (updated frequently).

Chris

Posted by ico2 on Oct. 19 2004,16:40

okay, this is less of an faq, more of a howto, but it's useful.

(Q) how do i get monkey web server working?

(A) here goes:

open the dslpanel from the desktop, click the button to start monkey webserver, in your favourite browser enter the url < http://localhost > this should display a page saying that the page was served by monkey running on dsl.
all good so far, now for your first page:
dsl is not perfect, as far as i know in the most recent versions this still applies: in emelfm navigate to /opt, click the little x button in the bottom right (not the exit button), this will open xterm, there are 2 ways to go about this, the way i do and the proper way, ,my way is sudo chmod -R 777 monkey-0.8.3 (check the name of the folder in emelfm as it might have changed). the proper way is to use chown, but i am not sure of the syntax. now open scite, type dsl is really, really, really, amazingly, mind blowingly, catastrophically cool, (or something to that effect) and save as /opt/monkey-0.8.2/htdocs/index.html. go to < http://localhost > again and ur page should be displayed. now php:
first to install php, go to the mydsl repository and grap php.tar.gz, put it wherever, in that dir type sudo tar -C / -zxvf php.tar.gz it should produce a list of files but no errors.
in scite type <?php phpinfo() ?> and save as /opt/monkey-0.8.2/htdocs/index.php
in dslpanel stop and then start again monkey web server.
in a browser goto < http://localhost/index.php >

wahay, it works :} (penguin smilie) (^\_/^) (happy badger smilie)

Posted by ico2 on Oct. 19 2004,17:01

(Q) how do i network my windows 95/98/98se/me/2k/xp to my linux box and share files?

(A) here goes:
get and install samba.dsl from the mydsl repository,
right-click and go system, net setup, net card config and for the ip, broadcast and subnet mask, leave it as the default, for the rest it is a good idea to delete the contents of the boxes.
go sudo smbd and sudo nmbd, now at a dos prompt on the windows machine go ping box (or sometimes \\box depending on version of windows) you should get replies :}
if you have an hdinstall then in emelfm goto bootlocal.sh and open-with sudo scite, and at the bottom of the file type :
ifup -a
sudo smbd
sudo nmbd
now when you reboot, it will still work.
now open /etc/samba/smb.conf the same way.
at the top change the workgroup to whatever your like
now, to share some files for xp and some other versions of windows u may need to uncomment the encrypt passwords option and make sure it is set to on,
scroll down to the subheading [homes] and set browsable = yes.
if you have windows 98 then typing \\box in explorer, but for most others you will first need to create an account with the same name as the user of the windows machine, to do this:
in xterm type sudo useradd -m -G users -c "name of user" "login name"
then sudo passwd "login name"
you will be asked to type a password twice, it must be the same as that of the account on the windows machine.
then type sudo smbpasswd -a "user name"
enter the password again and again.
now, you can put stuff you want to share in the home directory of the new user. or if you like: delete the folder and create a symlink of your own home directory.
you can share the whole file system by editing the [other] heading in smb.conf to share /

whew, finished.

Posted by clivesay on Oct. 20 2004,02:58

[Q] MyDSL is really cool! How the heck do I create my
own .dsl or .tar.gz file?

[A] Cbagger01 has given the community a great tool to do
this.

This script should convert simple *.deb packages into a *.dsl extension. By "simple" I mean:
Debian Packages that don't have post-extraction installation scripts
or Debian Packages that attempt to upgrade existing DSL base packages

The script will grab all *.deb files in your home directory AND all *.deb files in your apt archives directory and combine them into one *.dsl file with a myDSL menu entry.

Here are the usage instructions:

(1) Start with a clean boot-up from livecd or from frugal install when building packages.
(2) Use the Apps -> Tools -> Enable Apt menu to install apt-get/dpkg. If you try and install Synaptic the Synaptic-related packages will accidentally get sucked into your new *.dsl package unless you purge your cache. If you need synaptic, please use it to find the exact name of your package and write it down on paper. Then do a clean reboot and use the apt command line to install the package that you wrote down.
(3) Open a regular Xterminal and type "sudo su" to become the root user.
(4) Use 'apt-get install packagename' or 'dpkg -i packagename.deb' or both to install the needed packages. Do NOT delete the *.deb files yet.
(5) Open up scite and use the clipboard functions to copy and paste this script into scite. Save it as "deb2dsl".
(6) Type 'exit' in the Xterminal from step (3) so that you are no longer the root user. Then type 'chmod 755 deb2dsl' to make the script executable.
(7) Type './deb2dsl' to start up the script.
(8) Answer the prompts for package name, myDSL menu name, program executable name.
(9) Your new *.dsl package should be sitting in your home directory. Save it somewhere like a hard drive or a flash drive.
(10) Test out your new package in the following manner:
Try a bootup test with dsl in root directory or with "dsl mydsl=hda1" style boot parameter
If this works OK, then reboot and try a post-boot install using the "myDSL" button on the emelfm menu.

Good Luck.

Code Sample

#!/bin/bash
#
# deb2dsl - Converts one or more Debian packages (*.deb files) into
# a DSL extension (*.dsl file) with prompts to create a
# myDSL Menu item for the newly created package.
#
# Revision: 0
# Date: 07/05/04
# Original Author: cbagger01 from the DSL forums
#
# This script will grab all *.deb files located in your
# "Home" directory, IE: the /home/username directory
# It will also grab all *.deb files located in your apt
# cache, IE: /var/cache/apt/archives
#
# Before running this script, you need to actually install
# all of your Debian packages using 'dpkg -i' or
# 'apt-get install' or a package manager like Synaptic.
# Do NOT delete your leftover *.deb files or purge your
# apt-cache until after you have finished running this
# script.
#
# Disclaimer:
# This script is just a file repackaging program that
# can be used for simple Debian packages. It will not
# perform post-extraction configuration that is done
# by more sophisticated Debian packages. It also cannot
# be used to upgrade packages from older versions
# that are part of the DSL livecd base installation.

# This script will not work if it is run under the 'root' effective
# user ID which is 0
if [ "$EUID" -eq "0" ]; then
echo "Do not use 'root' access to run this script. Aborting..."
exit 1
fi

# Start things out from the home directory so we won't get confused
cd $HOME

# Clean up any leftover temp files if needed
rm -rf /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp
rm -rf /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp

# Find all Debian packages in your home directory and grab the list of
# files that are contained inside each package. Make sure that directory
# names are not grabbed. Only file names will be added to the list.
for i in $( ls $HOME/*.deb ); do
dpkg -c $i | awk '{ print $6 }' | grep -v "\/$" >> /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp
done

# Find all Debian packages in your apt cache directory and grab the list
# of files that are contained inside each package. Make sure that
# directory names are not grabbed. Only file names will be added to the
# list.
for i in $( ls /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb ); do
dpkg -c $i | awk '{ print $6 }' | grep -v "\/$" >> /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp
done

package_name=
whiptail --clear --nocancel \
--inputbox "Enter the full name for your DSL package Example: rox.dsl " \
20 74 2> /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp
package_name=`cat /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp`
rm -rf /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp

menu_name=
whiptail --clear --nocancel \
--inputbox "Enter the myDSL menu name for your program Example: Rox Filer " \
20 74 2> /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp
menu_name=`cat /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp`
rm -rf /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp

program_path=
whiptail --clear --nocancel \
--inputbox "Enter the executable name for your program Example: /usr/bin/rox " \
20 74 2> /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp
program_path=`cat /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp`
rm -rf /tmp/deb2dsl_prompt.tmp

# Create the mydsl menu directory
mkdir /tmp/mydsl.menu

# Create the new mydsl menu item file
echo "[exec] ("$menu_name") {"$program_path"}" > /tmp/mydsl.menu/$package_name

# Add the mydsl menu file to the list of files that will be
# included into the new new dsl package
echo "./tmp/mydsl.menu/"$package_name >> /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp

# Create the new DSL package
tar -zcvf $package_name -T /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp -C /
rm /tmp/deb2dsl_files.tmp
rm /tmp/mydsl.menu/$package_name
rm -r /tmp/mydsl.menu
exit 0

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 20 2004,03:05

O_O

Holy crap.

I'm gonna try that with Enlightenment!!

And if it works I'll submit it as a .dsl.

Enlightenment = the coolest WM evar!

-J.P.

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 21 2004,00:42

Welcome back to DSL Faq with Me!

Q) How do I use the auto-mounter to mount things?

A) Well bob, that's easy! You should see a docked app under the bandwidth, cpu, and memory / swap monitor. IT looks like something like this:

/floppy

[picture of floppy driver]
[border]
[screw] [<--][-->]

Use the arrows to select the device you want to mount and then click the screw. If you succesfuly mounted it, the screw will change directions and colour (to green). If it fails, a dialog box will pop up and give you an error message.

When mounting a CD-ROM, wait a few seconds after you pop it in before trying to mount it.

Next time I'll teach you how to use the shell command 'mount' that offers alot more features.

Q) What is the best kind of shampoo?

A) I am partial to Suave from Pears. Healthy Shine -- Shampoo & Conditioner with Pro-Vitamin for Normal Hair. It makes my heart silky, and beautiful ; )

Q) I have the take my kid to work day coming up. Where should I go?

A) Ughh.... Army -- Field Medic

Q) Is there any database programs that come with DSL?

A) YES! I just found it the other day and I think it is REALLY REALLY neat. Just right click the desktop to bring up the start menu and naviage to Apps>Office>PIM using Index

Q) Do you ever shut up!!? All you do is FAQ this and FAQ that!

A) Ahh!! Your in my Killfile!

Q) Are you running out of ideas?

A) Yes...

Q) When I use SSH and then telnet somewhere from there then the backspace doesn't work! How do I fix this?

A)
Type ^]
Type set erase <hit <-- BackSpace>
Hit <return/enter>

Should work now

Q) Where can I find some e-books?

A) Try using google. There are some you can get from synaptics (Ie. Hacker Culture)

Ok... I feel like I am going to start repeating myself anysecond so I am going to take a breath. Come on people! Start asking hard questions that have easy answers!

Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 21 2004,16:24

Q. How do I autostart "enter command/filename/service/whatever here"

A. Enter the commands such as a modprobe to start a device, command to start a service into the /etc/rc5.d/S99bootlocal file.

Here is an example:

Quote

#!/bin/bash
# put other system starutp command here
/sbin/syslogd
modprobe sb <-----start soundcard
/etc/init.d/rc.firewall <-----start firewall (must have ke4nt1 rcfirewall.dsl installed)
/etc/init.d/ssh start <----start ssh

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 22 2004,19:28

Here is a few quickes:

Q) Why does my wheel mouse not work? DSL says it detects it!

A) DSL's skimmed down version of X does NOT support the wheel function of the wheel mouses. You can however use it as a third button

Ok... Sorry to interupt but this is extreamly freaky!
I just clicked the middle button (The wheel) and it pasted this:

I control everything.
Where you live, where you work,
who you talk to, who talks to you,

I just booted my computer too so this is a bit odd...
I must have just copied it with out knowing but I don't understand where I could have. The only thing I have done was go to this website.... Let me try again:

Just a bunch of space.... I swear I am not pulling anyones leg here.... I am kinda freaked out!

....

Posted by ke4nt1 on Oct. 22 2004,20:48

Hmmm....

All of my wheelmice scroll with the wheel function just fine..

The "middle" button is how you "cut&paste" in DSL..
highlight a block of text with a left button "click/drag"
Release when your wanted text is all highlighted...
place your mouse cursor in a pasteable area DO NOT LEFT CLICK.
simply position the cursor where you want to paste...

Now click the MIDDLE button (scroll )
You just pasted..

And the text you saw "Where you live, where you work"
looks to be a part of SaidenUnleashed signature post..

73
ke4nt

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 22 2004,23:27

OH god... I am such an idiot

*smirks*
But what I ment was that the scroll function didn't work though it does work as a button (As you explained).

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 22 2004,23:53

heh, you cannot escape the epitaph of root.

-J.P.

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 23 2004,01:44

Heh, Ok... Let's just quietly delete that post and forget that I freaked out like a poopoo.

~Me

P.S. And yes... I said 'poo...poo...'. It's a beter word than some words that other people use.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Oct. 23 2004,02:14

Quote

But what I ment was that the scroll function didn't work though it does work as a button (As you explained).

Not meaning to harp on this, truly, ...but I must confess..

Your scroll "function" should be working as well..
I can scroll this page up and down.
I can place my cursor on the desktop background, and scroll between workspaces.
I can open the dillo "Getting Started" page , and scroll up and down thru the text.

If your NOT getting any scrolling action with either a ps2 or usb mouse,
try changing your mouse temporarily with another one.
I have had one mouse that refused to scroll,
out of about a dozen or so I have tested..

And you already know about the wheel working as your 3rd button

( ... and I prefer "turd" when communicating thru writings and texts... )

73
ke4nt

Posted by jerome5 on Oct. 23 2004,04:02

you people sure have been busy while I have been away, anyone compile all of this into a single file yet?

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 26 2004,00:19

Not yet...

To Ke4nt1:

I swear that I read somewhere that the wheel didn't work in DSL's version of X. I must be mistaken. Oh well

ADDED LATE-TORE:
The older versions of dsl didn't support it. .4.3+ supports wheel mouses

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 26 2004,03:37

Q) I don't have a cd burner, but i have a USB flashdrive. Is there any way I can get the iso onto the flashdrive and boot it?

A) 1) Download and install IsoBuster

2) Download and install WinImage

3) Use Winimage to Write the bootusb-x-x.img to your FAT formated USB thingy

4) Use IsoBuster to open and 'drag and drop' all the files in the dsl-.x.x.x.iso onto your USB Key

That should be it

(thanks to usul) (hail Atreides!!)

-J.P.

Posted by roberts on Oct. 26 2004,03:55

I have updated the system FAQ. < http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/faq.html >

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 26 2004,04:04

you might make a link to this thread there.

just an idea.

-J.P.

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 27 2004,00:28

It looks the same to me...

Posted by Aiku on Oct. 27 2004,17:51

I guess he needs an FAQ on how to refresh the browser page?

Posted by AwPhuch on Oct. 27 2004,18:51

Wow Im humbled and honored that my floppy install walkthru made it to the main page, even though it is a bit outdated and could use some updating (if you want me to I can fix for you john or roberts)...any thing else I can help with??

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by roberts on Oct. 27 2004,20:56

Brian, Sure send me an HTML of the latest walk-thru. The floppy install is a needed howto. I also need to "harvest" more from this thread. I need plain simple HTML and it needs to have wide appeal and take into consideration that DSL was designed primarily to run from liveCD and compressed type installs.

Posted by somerville32@hotmail.com on Oct. 27 2004,21:33

Actually, Aiku, Links just doesn't support cross through. I went on with firefox and see it perfectly. Once again, Thanks for the unhelpful post Aiku!

~Me

Posted by clivesay on Nov. 02 2004,22:30

Mark this one down.....

Q. How do I edit the text that appears at boot?

A.

Code Sample

cp /cdrom/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz .
gunzip minirt24.gz
sudo su
mount -o loop minirt24 /mnt/floppy
cd /mnt/floppy
scite linuxrc
#### make your changed to the text (it's after the echos)
umount /mnt/floppy
gzip minirt24
exit

Thanks Clacker!!

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 08 2004,00:24

I have been thinking. (This is dangerous.)

Perhaps the easiest way to keep this FAQ up to date, indexed and searchable, etc. would be to turn it into a wiki.

Is this a good idea?

-J.P.

Posted by Tux5 on Nov. 09 2004,12:52

A wiki would be a brilliant idea for the FAQ

Posted by AwPhuch on Nov. 09 2004,14:57

I agree!!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 12 2004,18:47

Q) DSL has the ipw2100 driver, but when I try to load it, it says "Firmware not found" or something to that effect. Why doesn't DSL include the firmware for ipw2100?

A) Easy! Intel says we can't. The driver itself is liscensed under the GPL, so we can use it in DSL, but the firmware is not. Under Intel's liscense, anyone can download and use the firmware for free, as long as they download it ONLY from their project site. So we would be in violation of that liscense if the firmware was included in DSL.

In fact, when Knoppix included the firmware in beta releases of 3.4, Intel threatened to sue them if the firmware was not removed, so the Knoppix team took it out. And we don't wanna get sued, so we don't include it in DSL.

Posted by subarus on Nov. 13 2004,10:48

Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Nov. 12 2004,13:47)

In fact, when Knoppix included the firmware in beta releases of 3.4, Intel threatened to sue them if the firmware was not removed, so the Knoppix team took it out. And we don't wanna get sued, so we don't include it in DSL.

ipw2100 is fully functional and rock solid stable on Knoppix V3.6. It was working on several of V3.4 releases too.

can load the controversial driver as mydsl. I run livecd on ram, let them come sue me..

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 14 2004,00:44

cool, i guess they worked something out.

Everything in DSL is either GPL or BSD liscensed, and I think John wants to keep it that way, but there is nothing stopping people from downloading and using it.

-J.P.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 20 2004,13:37

ok, i am bored so i am putting some faqs here, some might have been discussed already but i am too lazy to read the whole thread (how long 'til the wiki is set up?).

Q: how can i even further reduce hardware requirements?

A: here is a way:

on a reasonably fastish machine do an hdinstall to the drive of the slow machine. boot from it (still from the fast machine) and do the following:
edit /home/dsl/.xinitrc and delete it's contents and replace with:

bsetbg -solid yellow& //or the colour of your choice
xtdesk

note: the & is required.

now fluxbox will not load and you will simply have a desktop with just icons. open xterm or whatever and have fun.

you could also replace xtdesk with xterm&, this would give you no icons but a terminal window. however be warned that when you close the xterm window the xserver will exit.
or emelfm. but same issues apply.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 20 2004,13:45

heres another one:

Q: how do i make xscreensaver load on startup in my hdinstall.

A: here goes:

install the xscreensavergtk dsl, open scite and load up /home/dsl/.xinitrc, edit it and just above the "fluxbox" line add the line: "xscreensaver -nosplash&" (without the quotes but with the &).
ctrl-alt-del, startx and away you go.
you can use the menu item for xscreensaver in order to edit prefs.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 20 2004,13:50

and another:

Q: my desktop icons overlap/don't line up properly/go off the screen/need moving for some other reason.

A: this is a bit tricky but here goes:

in emelfm load the folder /home/dsl/.xtdesktop/, there are 2 files for each icon here: an image file. and the link file. edit the .lnk file for the icon in question in scite and change the X/Y coords to fit properly (refer to other .lnk files for an idea of where you want this icon to go). you can also create your own icons by this method.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 21 2004,04:25

Q) It freezes during boot at this part.

Quote

Xauth: creating new authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority
Xauth: creating new authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority

XIO: fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining

How can i fix this?

A) at the Boot: prompt type "dsl xsetup"

select your preferred resolution and color depth.

or if that fails try "fb800x600" or "fb1024x768" depending on your preferred resolution.

-J.P.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 21 2004,13:30

(Q) i have a naff old monitor and when i run dsl on it i get fuzzy, stuff that jumpts about everywhere, the text slides accross the screen for no reason, and some other nasty stuff happens. i cannot even run xsetup because things are so fuzzy.

(A) i had this prob myself, here's how to fix it.

if you are running from livecd, this is not hard to fix, simply type dsl vga=normal. this will make it work properly.

if you are running from hd, it becomes more difficult, but it is fixable.

first we need to be able to see what we are doing, so ctrl-alt-del and type xsetup.sh, this will bring up xsetup (which you cannot see properly.)
the following key presses will get most people going ok.
enter-down-enter-down-enter-enter.
you will still be able to see nothing from the command line, but if you type startx you should go back into x, you should be able to see, however, it would be usefull to be able to see stuff while booting and using the command line, so thats what we will fix next.
open up scite as super-user (in xterm type sudo scite) and open /etc/lilo.conf (or might be etc/lilo/lilo.conf, but i think it is the former. at the top you should see vga=somethingorother, replace it with vga=normal. (DO NOT STOP FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS HERE OR YOUR PC MAY NEVER BOOT AGAIN)
save, and exit scite back in xterm type lilo, it should show some stuff and then finish. now reboot and it should work.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 21 2004,13:38

(Q) i edited some config file wrong or for some tother reason my dsl hdinstall will no longer boot, if i could just get back in then i could fix it.

(A) this can be very simple or not quite so simple depeneding on what the prob was.

if it was just something that you mistyped, boot from the livecd, mount the partition that you have dsl installed on and look at it, it should look exactly like the fs you see as / when you boot from it, edit to your hearts content, unmount and reboot.
if it was an app you need to run to fix it, it becomes more difficult.
mount the drive you hdinstalled on and ctrl-alt-del, now type "chroot /mnt/hda1" (where hda1 is the correct partition). now anything you do will affect the hdinstall and run programs from the hdinstall (providing the chroot worked).
fix the problem.

ico2

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 21 2004,22:28

nice, i wouldn't have thought of chroot-ing onto a borked install to fix it.

Posted by Delboy on Nov. 23 2004,13:47

Ico2 - re: your post on 20th Nov.:
"Q: how do i make xscreensaver load on startup in my hdinstall.

A: here goes:

install the xscreensavergtk dsl, open scite and load up /home/dsl/.xinitrc, edit it and just above the "fluxbox" line add the line: "xscreensaver -nosplash&" (without the quotes but with the &).
ctrl-alt-del, startx and away you go.
you can use the menu item for xscreensaver in order to edit prefs.".......................
Worked first time. I tried replicating the method for the doc apps wmpinboard,wmmoonclock and wmclock which I would like to see appear at boot - but no go. Presumably WM itself needs to be installed for these three to work on boot? (They do load via the fluxbox menu without WM installed)

Posted by ke4nt1 on Nov. 23 2004,14:06

Hold up, folks...
I think he means ctrl-alt-BKSP there ,

, NOT ctrl-alt-DEL ..

and I do place my startups for dockapps in the .xinitrc..
Here's mine..

Quote

# put X windows programs that you want started here.
# Be sure to add at the end of each command the &
# grep noicons /proc/cmdline >/dev/null
# if [ $? != 0 ]; then
enhance &>/dev/null &
killall wmcpuload
wmcpuload -c 0 &
wmcpuload -c 1 &
wmclock &
wmdrawer &
xset s off s noblank
# fi
# dillo -f /usr/share/doc/dsl/getting_started.html &>/dev/null &
fluxbox

I didn't know about the -nosplash option in XScreensaver, Thanks !

...and sometimes you need the -w switch on the end for your
dockapps to "window" properly..

e.g. " wmrack -w & "

73
ke4nt

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 25 2004,16:51

a thing to remember is that the last application in the .xinitrc will kill the xserver when it closes, so it is sensible for it to be the wm rather than xterm or emelfm.

and ke4nt: ctrl-alt-del works fine for me

Posted by Delboy on Nov. 26 2004,13:50

I just spotted my deliberate mistake "-nosplash" after the WM apps added into the /home/dsl/.xinitrc file. Obvious really.
I went back in and left each of the WM dockapps named in one line each with a space then "&"
wmpinboard reboots to top left corner instead of bottom right,
wmmoonclock doesn't appear at all.
wmclock boots up to correct bottom right corner.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 26 2004,16:29

all the dock apps execpt wmpinboard will startin the right place with no args

Posted by Frank on Nov. 28 2004,18:49

Just interested in how the FAQ updating effort is progressing? I saw in an earlier posting that we're waiting till we get enough to make the effort worthwhile, and also one on a suggestion for a FAW wiki. If we need some help with this Pseudo project" would be happy to help, doing some editing/formatting/whatever. Just let me know

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 28 2004,19:10

yep, we want a wiki!

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 28 2004,19:44

main holdback on the wiki is hosting, and the fact that John hasn't replied to me yet...

i guess i gotta send another email...

-J.P.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 29 2004,14:57

LOL, resend resend, overflow his mailbox!!!!!

Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 29 2004,18:48

If a wiki is created, then somebody has to maintain the thing.

John is a busy guy with a day job.

Posted by Frank on Nov. 30 2004,01:55

Cbagger, I'd though of the same thing myself. My son is a monitor for a wiki and it takes a lot of time. Maybe the way to go is just a text file, or a series of web pages.

What ever we do, it would be great if we could have a way to get the set of FAQs as a text file (RFT format?) that folks could download and then use for reference. I know that it would help me as I've got 10 or so forum topics that I've use the print button and then use as reference guides as I "plow" through my DSL learnings!

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 30 2004,04:01

Patience, young one.

After finals, and my surgery, I'll put it all into a nice html document that will be easy to up update and everything.

Maybe another month (2 weeks of school, a week of recovery, and a week to put it together and make it perty).

-J.P.

Posted by ico2 on Nov. 30 2004,16:36

some sort of massive text file with a php script to access and display properly? i think that is the easiest way to go. i could write such a php script but i know there are better phpers here

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Dec. 09 2004,14:22

Q) I hae the new DSL Media Player/Minimum Profit/Siag Office/Whatever!! Put the old app back in!!!

A) All of the apps the wer removed and replaced to make room for Firefox are available in the extension area. If you want them, download 'em. The apps that were removed are a lot smaller to download than Firefox. Stop complaining. Go download!

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 09 2004,16:12

lol, there are things that could be replaced by the old apps, siag is ok, it is minimum profit and the media player i dislike.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Dec. 17 2004,05:24

Q) I have a computer that I want to install DSL on. It has no cdrom, no netcard and no chance of getting either, and I can't swap out the hard disk for some reason. Can I install DSL using just floppies? Can we make it happen? Is there any way?

A) Of course! Here is a 10 step process for doing it

*****WARNING*****

This process may cause excess stress and frustration.

Not recommended for people with high blood pressure, a history of heart problems or aneurysms, pregnant women, or anybody else who is unable to cope with high levels of stress.

The author takes NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damage, either mental or physical, caused by this process.

*****END WARNING*****

Estimated time to completion >3 hours.

You will need:
* Either a copy of Knoppix or an installed full disto of linux (not DSL)
* I recommend having at least 60 BRAND NEW floppys, so that you dont have to re-use the same floppy over and over and still have a few extras. You can do it with as few as 4, but I wouldn't recommend it.
* A copy of the latest DSL iso, md5summed and checked out. Gotta be perfect.
* A copy of < Tom's Root Boot > on a new, high quality floppy
* < This script > on a floppy.
* A DSL boot floppy for the version you are installing.
*** LOTS of patience

---Step 1---

Set up your work area.

It should be a relatively large table with ample room for 2 monitors, 2 computers, 2 keyboards, 2 mice and pads if needed, lots of elbow room.

You also need a comfortable chair.

The work area should be clean and free of clutter. That means put away your bills, Magic: the Gathering cards, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, or whatever.

Gotta be clean. As little to get in your was as humanly possible.

---Step 2---

Set up your computers to where you can use either one of them comfortably without adjusting anything. This is easier if you have a rolling chair.

Make sure you have power for everything and net access.

Wireless networks make this easier.

---Step 3---

Make some coffee, put some beer (soda, if you're underage, like me ^_^) on ice, order pizza, or wings, or Chinese, or something.

You're gonna need it before we're done.

Trust me.

Do it.

I'm serious.

You'll thank me later.

---Step 4---

Boot up the computer you want to install DSL onto with Tom's Root boot (I will call this the "target system" or just "target").

Fire up the other computer with Knoppix or whatever other distro of your choice (I will call this the "host box" or "work box") and download or access the DSL iso. Make sure its md5sum checks out.

---Step 5---

Copy the fsplit script onto your host box and do the following mode changes.

Code Sample

$ chmod +x fsplit
$ chmod 775 fsplit

This will make it executable, and act the way we want it to.

---Step 6---

Run fsplit on the iso and cut it into 1.4mb chunks.

Code Sample

fsplit dsl-x.x.x.iso 1400

This process may take a while, depending on the hardware of your work box.

Go get a drink or something if it takes more than just a few minutes.

You should get about 38 (more or less, depending on the exact size of the iso) files with names xx00, xx01, xx02 and so on. These are your single floppy images.

---Step 7---

On the target system, use fdisk to create a fat32 partiton of at least 110mb (for the reformed iso and all the image files) at /dev/hda1. Later, this should become your swap partition, so make it however big you want that to be.

If you don't know how to use fdisk, < here > is a short walk-through of using fdisk to create partitions. If you still don't get it, google is your friend.

Format the partition using this command

Code Sample

$ mkdosfs -v -F32 /dev/hda1

(Thanks to Tom Oehser, the guy behind tomsrtbt)

Reboot the target machine into Tom's again and mount hda1.

Now for the FUN part!

---Step 8---

Remember all those 1.4mb files we made earlier?

Start copying them onto floppys and then onto hda1of the target system. This will take a while.

By now, your beer (soda) should be cold and your pizza or whatever should have arrived. Grab a cold one and a slice of pie and settle in for the long run.

---Step 9---

Once all those files are on hda1 of the host system, run the following command.

Code Sample

$ cat xx* > <original name of the iso>

Make sure that the name is EXACTLY the same as the original iso.

Check the md5sum of the reformed iso.

Code Sample

$ md5sum dsl-x.x.x.iso

If the number checks out, move on to step 10, if not, reboot the target system, delete everything on hda1, and go back to step 8. ~_~

Most likely, it will work on the first try, unless you have a bad floppy, your floppy drive has a bad read, or whatever.

But, floppys are notoriously unreliable, remember?

---Step 10---

It's celebration time!! You did it! The hard part is over!!!

Delete the xx** files and do this.

Make a folder in /mnt called iso.

Code Sample

$ cd /mnt
$ mkdir iso

Mount the iso to /mnt/iso.

Code Sample

$ mount -o loop -t iso9660 dsl-x.x.x.iso /mnt/iso

Copy the contents of /mnt/iso to /mnt/hda1.

Code Sample

$ cp /mnt/iso/* /mnt/hda1/

Unmount everything on the target system and reboot it with the DSL boot disk in it.

At the boot prompt, type in "dsl fromhd=/dev/hda1". If everything worked right, it should fire right up, just as if it were running from CD!

You can do whatever you want from here. I'll leave that up to you. Doing a regular HDinstall or whatever and setting up the swap partition.

Give yourself a high five! YOU DID IT!!!!!!!

Posted by clivesay on Dec. 29 2004,23:54

Q: How do I have a persistent /home partition with a frugal install

A: Add the following to your bootlocal.sh. The code below sets a /home/dsl/MyDocuments folder as hda5.

Code Sample

mkdir /home/dsl/MyDocuments
sudo mount /dev/hda5 /home/dsl/MyDocuments
sudo chown -R dsl /home/dsl/MyDocuments
sudo chgrp -R staff /home/dsl/MyDocuments
sudo echo "/dev/hda5 /home/dsl/MyDocuments auto defaults 0 1" >> /etc/fstab

This appears to work well for me. I pieced this together from lots of reading and trial and error.

EDIT: I needed to add permission statements so that the directory has dsl staff ownership. If there is a better method, I am open to it.

Chris

Posted by Frank on Jan. 08 2005,12:02

The new documentation section looks really good, it must have taken a lot of work to get it organized and launched! So a big thanks for that effort!

One question = how do we handle "howtos" with this new setup?

Also a suggestion/offer = I'd be willing to wade through the forums past posting and extract a set of draft FAQs for our documentation. I could put all of the potential FAQs into a consistent format (like 1= person who posted the "answer", 2 = date of that posting, 3 = Question & 4 = Answer . . . .. or whatever format would be more appropriate, possibly the documentation section it should be incorporated into?).

I can put it into any of the windoze's office products or one of the DSL's app just as easily.

I started to do something like this offline for my own use, but haven't gotten very far due to the difficulty of opening a forum posting and then pasting it into my document master plus wanted to help and wasn't sure that what I was "producing" would be helpful to the DSL documentation effort.

So-o-o-o-o would this help? If so, how can I get a "text" file from the last "6" months of the forum as a starting point?

Someone would then have to review what I put together, and then put it into our DSL documents.

Let me know how I can help, Frank

Posted by Frank on Jan. 08 2005,12:03

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Jan. 08 2005,15:45

Quote (Frank @ Jan. 08 2005,06:03)

The new documentation section looks really good, it must have taken a lot of work to get it organized and launched! So a big thanks for that effort!

Thanks!

Tronik and I could never have done it without all the great people on these forums. They're the ones with the brains, I just had the time/motivation to start piecing something together.

Quote

One question = how do we handle "howtos" with this new setup?

Right now, post it in the forums, and send myself (SaidinUnleashed), or tronik, a Personal Message (PM) with a link to the topic you posted it in. We will look it over, edit it if needed, and post it into the Docs.

We hope to have a submission form eventually, but this will have to do for now.

Quote

Also a suggestion/offer = I'd be willing to wade through the forums past posting and extract a set of draft FAQs for our documentation. I could put all of the potential FAQs into a consistent format (like 1= person who posted the "answer", 2 = date of that posting, 3 = Question & 4 = Answer . . . .. or whatever format would be more appropriate, possibly the documentation section it should be incorporated into?).

I believe that this is already being done. A little birdie told me to watch for big changes to the "Getting Started with DSL" page (that comes up in Dillo when you start up DSL).

Quote

I can put it into any of the windoze's office products or one of the DSL's app just as easily.

I started to do something like this offline for my own use, but haven't gotten very far due to the difficulty of opening a forum posting and then pasting it into my document master plus wanted to help and wasn't sure that what I was "producing" would be helpful to the DSL documentation effort.I can put it into any of the windoze's office products or one of the DSL's app just as easily.

If you are asking me, make 2 versions. The first one should be a plain text file. The other one should be a PDF file. Xpdf is very nice for creating .pdf files, but I'll admit, I've never used the version in DSL to do so. I have however, used Pathetic Writer, and it does a passable job.

Quote

I started to do something like this offline for my own use, but haven't gotten very far due to the difficulty of opening a forum posting and then pasting it into my document master plus wanted to help and wasn't sure that what I was "producing" would be helpful to the DSL documentation effort.

So-o-o-o-o would this help? If so, how can I get a "text" file from the last "6" months of the forum as a starting point?

Not sure about this one. Ikonboard seems to be very different about handling posts compared to the board systems I am familiar with (Invision and UBB).

You would have to ask John or Robert about this. But be aware that John may say no. He has been very busy with his "real" job lately. Poor guy.

Quote

Someone would then have to review what I put together, and then put it into our DSL documents.

I, myself am more than willing to help with that, but classes start back up in a week, so I may soon become hard to find. X_x

What would be best, really, would be for you to use somewhere like < Filespace > or another hosting solution to host it, announce it on the forums, and link to it.

There are many people on the boards smarter than me, who will be more than willing to help you.

Good luck.

-J.P.

Posted by flying tuxman on Feb. 05 2005,06:40

hi everybody,
how about a "getting started" pdf document, with a step by step organized intro to the use of DSL and basic linux?
I downloaded the all redhat manuals even though I use debian and DSL just cos they are so clear and well done.
it saved me alot of trouble and would shorten the learning curve of newbies dramatically.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Feb. 06 2005,02:27

Heh, it's in Dillo, every time you fire it up.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Feb. 10 2005,16:09

Alright, to submit new entries for the Documentation, send it as an attatchment (plain text or rtf only, please) to dsldocumentation{AT}gmail{DOT}com

thanks.

-J.P.

Posted by gildasbayard on April 01 2005,08:41

Hi,

Question:
how can I grab windows modifiers (I mean the minimize, close, etc...)

Rational: The only resolution I'm capable of is too low for me to see the whole window (I can't directly click on the "close" button)
On fedora I do alt+space and the menu shows up. And I do ctrl+f4 to close a window.
I think this kind of basic info should find it's way in the dsl homepage ("getting started with dsl verison 1.0" html page). Along with what is the little tab-like flag on top left of the window is about.

Posted by mikshaw on April 01 2005,17:00

Everything you need to know about managing windows in Fluxbox can be found at < http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook.php >
note: Some things in the docs do not apply to fluxbox 0.1.x

It's not a bad idea to have at least a link under the fluxbox section of the documentation. I think the biggest problem is that this is a volunteer project, and creating/managing documentation is just plain tedious work.
I don't think it should be documented in the "getting started" page....DSL and its included applications are pretty much undocumented on the CD due to strict size limitation.

Anywho, to answer your question....
Alt+drag moves/resizes windows; left mouse moves, right mouse resizes.
You could also set these actions, as well as close, iconify, menu, maximize, etc., to hotkeys in /home/dsl/.fluxbox/keys

Posted by sega01 on May 27 2005,16:07

Q1:
I have DSL on my keydrive, however when I boot i get a text interface, how do I get a GUI?
A1:
type startx
Q2:
I got it to work, but since my moniter is old as crap I can only display 800X600. Is there any way I can change the resolution to that so i can use it?
A2:
while in bash, type xsetup.sh or on fluxbox right click on the desktop and goto system>xsetup

Posted by b1ackmai1er on June 18 2005,12:43

I'm a DSL newbie and inexperienced in linux.
After installing a DSL frugal install I wanted to change the lilo boot options
but couldn't find any documentation to describe the process.

I managed to work it out and thought it may be usefull if added to the FAQ.
Here is what I did. Please feel free to correct and improve.

Boot up frugal to the fluxbox desktop.
Open a shell window by right clicking and selecting Xshells>Root Access.

In the shell window, mount the HD partition with your DSL image.
ie SUDO MOUNT /dev/hda2 -w

now to edit the lilo.conf
i.e SUDO BEAVER /mnt/hda2/boot/lilo.conf
Use Edit>Toggle Readonly to be able to edit the file.
Make your changes then File>Save and then File> Exit

Now update the lilo boot loader
i.e. CHMOD 644 /mnt/hda2/boot/lilo.conf
LN -sf /mnt/hda2/boot /
SUDO LILO -C /mnt/hda2/boot/lilo.conf

Now exit the shell window by typing exit.
And then reboot.

Hope this help someone.

Regards b1m1

Posted by roberts on June 21 2005,18:38

I am not sure why you posted some commands in CAPS.
With Linux being case sensitive it would be confusing to the newer user.
Also since you opened a root shell no need for repeating the sudo command.

Here is what I use:
1. Open a root shell Xhells>Root Access
2. mount /mnt/hda2
3. Now using your editor of choice... edit the following file for your boot options:
/mnt/hda2/boot/lilo.conf
4. ln -sf /mnt/hda2/boot /
5. lilo -C /mnt/hda2/boot/lilo.conf
6. reboot

Posted by magicpio on July 04 2005,20:37

Q: How do I save passwords between reboots?

A: Valid for DSL 1.2.1, frugal install

If you have a persistent /opt directory:

1) Open an Xterminal.
2) Switch to root access:
sudo su
3) Create an additional directory /pwd in your /opt folder:
mkdir /opt/pwd
4) Copy all password files into this directory:
cd /opt/pwd
cp -f /etc/passwd passwd
cp -f /etc/passwd- passwd-
cp -f /etc/group group
cp -f /etc/group- group-
cp -f /etc/shadow shadow
cp -f /etc/shadow- shadow-
cp -f /etc/gshadow gshadow
cp -f /etc/gshadow- gshadow-
5) Open the file /home/dsl/bootlocal.sh with any editor and add
the following lines:
/etc/init.d/ssh_addusers
cp -f /opt/pwd/passwd /etc/passwd
cp -f /opt/pwd/passwd- /etc/passwd-
cp -f /opt/pwd/group /etc/group
cp -f /opt/pwd/group- /etc/group-
cp -f /opt/pwd/shadow /etc/shadow
cp -f /opt/pwd/shadow- /etc/shadow-
cp -f /opt/pwd/gshadow /etc/gshadow
cp -f /opt/pwd/gshadow- /etc/gshadow-

Now you should be ready to use SSH for example.

Remark 1: Other, older and newer releases, might use a
different set of files. Look into /etc/init.d/ssh_addusers
for at least some of those files.

Remark 2: It is not possible to just add the password files to filetool.lst,
because when DSL does the restore operation, the destination files
in /etc might still be write protected. To make them (over-)writable,
the command ssh_addusers has to be executed in advance.
To execute a command, it should be placed in bootlocal.sh ,
which is restored as well, but the script itself is only executed
after the restore (when the copy operation for the password files
failed already).

Pio

Posted by damianiw on July 13 2005,13:24

Can I insert and mount a usb pendrive once in X ?

I notice on boot DSL scans and adds the relevant info to the fstab, the problem is I have a pc with one usb socket and 2 pendrives - I hope I can avoid rebooting each time.

Dsl - the more I customise it to me the more I want to do more !

Posted by cbagger01 on July 13 2005,16:40

If both pendrives are set up the same way, it should work fine.

For example, if you have "normal" usb pendrives, they are both set up as a single FAT (msdos style) data partition.

When DSL boots up, it sees the first pendrive and assigns a mountpoint for "sda1" and detects that it is a vfat (msdos/windows) partition and enters it into your /etc/fstab

You can then mount your first pendrive by either using the little Mount.app dockapp in the lower right corner, or you can open up Emelfm and go to /mnt and then Right-Click on sda1 and choose "Mount" from the menu. Or you can even mount it from an xterminal by typing "mount /mnt/sda1"

When you are finished using the first pendrive, you should unmount it before physically unplugging the device. Either use the mount.app tool again, or go back into Emelfm and choose "Unmount" for /mnt/sda1 on the menu, or type "umount /mnt/sda1" inside an xterminal.

Then unplug your device and plug in your new one.

Then repeat these steps to use your second drive.

Posted by kuky01 on July 21 2005,07:44

version 1.3 dont works...

version 1.2 works in intel-aol avant with usb cdrom,(celeron 300 with 64 mg ram )when change to 1.3 and install begin to work but when pass the first configuration there is a text in red that says that not meet linux files..

i put 1.3(live cd ) ver in four diferents cpus and only works in two...

who are new in ver 1.3...

thanks

Posted by kuky on Aug. 24 2005,16:46

i think that the problem was the sys linux ver. the normal dsl .iso works