How do you run DSL ?
Forum: User Feedback
Topic: How do you run DSL ?
started by: green
Posted by green on Feb. 17 2005,02:27
Just wondering what people are doing these days, you know, how they are using DSL.
Posted by clivesay on Feb. 17 2005,02:53
No Option for Frugal on a HD. That is what I do.Chris
Posted by green on Feb. 17 2005,03:13
crap! i knew i'd forget something......
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Feb. 17 2005,05:51
HUWHAT?!No option for frugal on a Zip Drive?
Or SD?
or Poorman's on an OGG player (NO MP3S ALLOWED)
or Live-DVD?
or Frugal-netboot? (ask me more about this one in a few more weeks :P)
surely these don't get banished into the dreaded "other" catagory?
Posted by mikshaw on Feb. 17 2005,05:56
I mis-voted....clicked on liveCD before seeing liveCD with backup/restore. Still, i use it as liveCD without backup/restore quite often as well
Posted by ke4nt1 on Feb. 17 2005,06:25
Live DVD rocks BIG , BIG , BIG !!I like poormans... many, many poormans !!
5 way pendrive booting is also fun at parties and computer stores..
73
ke4nt
Posted by henk.1955 on Feb. 17 2005,09:23
| Code Sample |
| # boot menu configuration file timeout 10 default 1 fallback 0 splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Windows 98 #unhide (hd0,0) rootnoverify (hd0,0) chainloader +1 title DSL remix root (hd0,1) kernel (hd0,1)/dsl-remix/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi vga=791 nomce fromhd=/dev/hda2 knoppix_dir=dsl-remix dma frugal lpd restore=hda2 host=box13 alsa quiet initrd (hd0,1)/dsl-remix/minirt24.gz |
Posted by ke4nt1 on Feb. 17 2005,13:35
cool..I didn't know about he "host=" command.. tnx..
73
ke4nt
Posted by clivesay on Feb. 17 2005,14:16
Is the host a networking command? I am curious.Chris
Posted by henk.1955 on Feb. 17 2005,15:29
sorry about the host= command. its a /etc/int.d/knoppix-autoconfig patch< Set Hostname from ... >
Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Feb. 21 2005,08:25
Where's myDSL liveCD? I use liveCD with backup/restore BUT with a heap (well, 135MB) of extensions. CD-RW, so I update my backup on the iso when I change something (like adding my nvidia configs for xfree86)Badly need to update the HD-install on my laptop, which I haven't touched in months.
Posted by Dagnarille on Feb. 22 2005,23:03
I'm about to see how well VMware runs DSL hardware install wise.
Posted by neon.martini64 on Mar. 07 2005,20:19
I finally got time to play with the DSL 0.9.3 Live CD this weekend. Have been running Knoppix for a while now and read about DSL in the Knoppix Hacks book. After spending some time I found..This is one robust little distro! I am running on a (WinDoorStop) HP Pavillion 63XX with 432 Mhz Celeron, with 6 G H/D and 191 megs of RAM. I have dual boot Win2K and Knoppix 3.7 on the hard disc. I was impressed with the level of detail and engineering that goes into this distro, then discovered the MyDsl functionality. Uh Oh..I am loving it more then ever now! It seems to run fast enough for most of my needs off the CD. Very cool way to extend the life of older hardware! I can hardly wait to get my WiFi on with DSL.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Mar. 07 2005,21:57
neon.martini64 ,If your running from the liveCD, try booting
with the toram option, and the dma enabled
Type " dsl dma toram " at the boot: prompt ..
Also , If you have an ext2 or fat32 partition,
copy over the dirs/files ( specifically, KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX )
from the CD to your partition, then type at boot..
" dsl dma toram fromhd=/dev/hdXx " Xx = your partition
Much improved performance with these options.
With your box specs, DSL should scream..
73
ke4nt
Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 08 2005,03:40
Is this possible with DSL:Running off the .iso that has been placed on a hard drive partition, even /dev/hda1 in the case of Windows 98 computers.
When I want to burn a cd, and need the drive, I can with the small DSL just "toram" at the boot: prompt, then remove the cd from the drive, leaving it open for burning purposes.
Now, with my Knoppix remaster, 672MB, I have to use a knoppix cd to boot the stored .iso with the "bootfrom=" cheatcode to get it running off the .iso. Very soon in the boot process, usually before the "autoconfiguring devices" line, I can remove the cd from the drive, as I am running off the .iso. Compared to Windows 98 or XP, the OS runs very quiet, as far as working the hard drive is concerned, when I run it this way. I get a good laugh as to how noisy the computer is when running XP, for instance, with the hard drive banging around, etc.
This is compared to running off the CD with that little lag when an application is opened, or a new web page is viewed, etc, and the CDROM drive needs to spin a bit.
I often upgrade my Knoppix remaster, but for general use, I find that keeping the .iso around for a while and running off it, rather than the cd, has it's advantages, as far as reducing wear and tear on the hard drive and on the CDROM drive. I can still burn copies using k3b off the running .iso.
So, does anyone know if DSL responds to the "bootfrom" knoppix cheatcode, and if so, I recommend trying the above method out, to see if you get a little performance boost, etc. Here is my full "bootfrom" line that I use:
| Code Sample |
| knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hdb1/Knoppix_Remasters/RR_K34_Beta52.iso screen=800x600 vsync=60 |
Posted by neon.martini64 on Mar. 08 2005,17:51
| Quote (ke4nt1 @ Mar. 07 2005,16:57) |
| neon.martini64 , If your running from the liveCD, try booting with the toram option, and the dma enabled Type " dsl dma toram " at the boot: prompt .. Also , If you have an ext2 or fat32 partition, copy over the dirs/files ( specifically, KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX ) from the CD to your partition, then type at boot.. " dsl dma toram fromhd=/dev/hdXx " Xx = your partition Much improved performance with these options. With your box specs, DSL should scream.. 73 ke4nt |
ke4nt,
Thanks for the suggestion, I will give it a whirl and let ya know how it works.
73
NM
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 09 2005,22:54
Rapidweather,Yes, this command does work with DSL, and it also works from an NTFS partition.
However, you can only use it if you are booting from the DSL livecd boot prompt. You cannot use it when booting from a bootfloppy.
Why?
Because the boot floppy minirt does not contain the needed files like the NTFS driver and the bootup script needs to temporarily access the \KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX file on the livecd before it can start using the *.iso file on your C:\ drive.
Posted by noordinaryspider on April 24 2005,15:50
I can't remember if I posted on this thread before or not, but things are always changing. ;)I now have two HD installs; I love 'em but they're new, so I'm still experimenting. The first is on my very old, very faithful Gateway PII and the second is on my very cheap but fast Compaq; I partitioned the Compaq with a huge FAT32 partition for my stuff to make uninstalling and reinstalling the operating system a breeze so I don't have to worry about my "learning curve".
I frequently use the live CD on my Mandrake machine because I have a life and sometimes get tired of waiting for all that eye candy to load on a 400Mhz processor.
I'll also be running from CD on my NEW (as of last night) Slackware machine so that the hardware is still usable while I RTFM.
My thirteen year old son was initially quite resistant to the idea of losing windoze but the games section of the myDSL repository changed that. I still think he's better off running from CD right now and will probably graduate him to a frugal before I do a full HD install.
Posted by irkab1rka on June 20 2005,21:36
I just booted the live cd first time for real (QEMU doesn't count!!) 
and I'm blody surprised.I went to here to send a message: THIS IS GREAT.
My actual problem is that every character in the keyboard is IN POSITION (under other linux distros and windows i have problems with it due i'm Hungarian and I have to swithch between US/HU keyboard. Not anymore.
Dillo is FAST. And I mean it. I never meet so good distro (not even Knoppix can beat it) And it is small.
WOW
Now its time to expand my horizont
thank you.
oh I almost forgot: the mouse wheel is working without a glitch on my notebook. And I love it.
time for check the video driver section due i have a sis650 which never gets supported on linux, even if Thomas Winischofer finishes his code...
Posted by sasho on Sep. 11 2005,22:15
I run DSL primarily as a Mythtv frontend on my old K6-2 500Mhz box. BTW, how does one post a desktop screenshot? I got it working with lirc, Xfree, gcc in a dual monitor configuration.Great little distro, I plan on doing a remaster with Mythtv included.
Posted by clivesay on Sep. 11 2005,23:35
sasho, a howto on how you have mythtv working in DSL would be most excellent! Chris
Posted by sasho on Sep. 12 2005,01:40
More or less, it consisted of the following:1) Download and install the following extensions (there are howtos on how to install some of them, ex. alsa):
alsadebs, gnu-utils, codecpak, xfree86, nvidia (I have an nvidia-based card).
2) Enable apt-get and have (at least) these repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb < http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ > stable main non-free contrib
deb < ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ > stable main non-free contrib
deb < ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ > unstable main
deb < http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian > unstable mythtv
3) Update the list of available packages with:
apt-get update
4) Run "apt-get install mythfrontend" to install the frontend component for mythtv.
5) If you want to install lirc, install the kernel sources, then run "apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source".
6) Follow the prompts to install the appropriate lirc module according to the type of your remote control (serial, bttv card, etc).
This is a rough overview of how I did it. Note that this is only the frontend, for the backend "mythbackend" needs to be installed along with mysql, and a tv tuner card will need to be configured. The mythtv website has good documentation with good notes for debian.
During my install, lirc was the hardest element to install, mythfrontend itself was quite painless.
No screenshot section on the boards?
Posted by jedak88 on Oct. 06 2005,15:01
I use the liveCD since I don't really know my way 'round dsl yet. I boot toram with 2 usb thumb drives connected since I don't know how to umount and remount the usbs properly yet and wind up with dsl not seeing any thumb drive(s) again for the session. That way, I can free up the cd-rom to play my dvds.
Posted by Timeless Rogue Star on Oct. 09 2005,08:16
the way i installed DSL on my ancint laptop is i have one partition for a frugal install and another for the HD install. the reasoning being i have no CD drive so i figure a frugal would be good to have for recovering when i mess up the HD install.the install is kinda quirky. the way that the grub loaders conflict with each other is really weird. i had setup a partition i wanted to use as a boot partition, but the way gub installed it looks like it just points to the grub loader that frugal installed. to boot up the HD install i have to have the kernel point to the one on the frugal partition and the root on the HD partition. AFAICT it doesn't logically make sense, but the verbose an performance difference support that each are doing their own thing properly. i'm planning to eventually migrate grub to the boot partition and load each kernel off its own partition.
for my HD install i'm also experimenting with the initNG script, which is half-working and in many ways broken. i'm not sure how many of my problems with it are DSL specific and how many are related to my bizarre setup. in any case, i'm having fun learning more about linux, being mostly inept and all.
P.S. for those interested, the broken initNG script reduces the linux portion (from grub selection to the start of the DM) of my boot time from 100 seconds to just 26 seconds. mind you when it boots; the network, restart, and shutdown don't work and who knows what else.. so i expect it should really take ~50 seconds for DSL to boot properly, but it's hard to say since i don't know that much. it's just fun as a pet project trying to get DSL and initNG to work together. halving the boot time on a low-end machine just makes a lot of sense, even if it's early beta for the script
P.P.S. sorry if you actually bothered to read all that, i just wanted to reflect a bit on my DSL experience for myself
Posted by ruserious on Dec. 19 2005,10:22
I use frugal on HD.And frugal on HD in vmware. ;)
Posted by 300c_pilot on Dec. 30 2005,20:13
Look what I have done...I am sure it is little in comparision to what everyone else has done. I only wish I had time to do something like this.I have run accross DSL in the last week and have completely gone crasy with it. I am not new to Linux but new to mico versions of it. I have been running tests on the possibility of using it for remote offices to connect via noMachine client. Installed VmWare for an Insurance Management software, installed samba to get to a MSSQL server, made a functional CODUO server, and Next will be Java...
Once done with the the remote application access, I will be installing this on a 5 node Cluster as an experiment. It currently boots RedHat 9.0 via bootp so this will make startup a lot faster. Soon this OS will be loaded on flash cards for dumb terminals, if this works and the powers that be like it, I will be purchasing the flash from DSL.
Last but not least, this is coming from a Compaq 1275, 330mhz, 150 megs mem, approx. 7 years old. With Windows 2K on it you could turn it on and go eat diner, come back and maybe you could login...now you hit the power and you can barely scratch your butt before its ready to go with DSL... Works so well I formated the drive and ditched win2k. Thanks for your hard work...
Posted by doobit on Dec. 30 2005,20:38
I just noticed this poll doesn't have a choice for frugal on HD, unless you count "Other" but it should be it's own answer.
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 30 2005,21:38
It might not be a bad idea to redo the poll at some point in the near future, for that reason, as well as to see how its use is evolving.possible additions/modifications:
LiveCD with persistent home/opt
Frugal with persistent home/opt
Embedded on Windows
Embedded on Linux
VMware/player on Windows
VMware/player on Linux
Frugal on HD
Frugal on <other device>....XBox, PSP, IPod?
Maybe not for the poll, but i'd be interested to also know how many people use KNOPPIX Remastered CD/Frugal
Posted by green on Dec. 31 2005,02:44
Okay, it is clear that a "new and improved" poll should be done. This one is way out of date.Below is the list of poll questions so far, let's see if we can keep it short but to the point. DSL has limitless options of install/boot, etc., like my digital camera for example, but no need for that to be a poll question.
I will post a new poll if there is some feedback as to what should be asked. Post your suggestions for the new poll in this thread, then we'll narrow it down.
Poll choices
==========
LiveCD
LiveCD with backup/restore
LiveCD with persistent home/opt
Frugal on Compact Flash
Frugal on USB pendrive
Frugal on Hard Disk Drive
Frugal on <other device>...XBox, PSP, IPod, etc.
Frugal with persistent home/opt
Not frugal but on Compact Flash
Not frugal but on USB pendrive
Embedded on Windows
Embedded on Linux
VMware/player on Windows
VMware/player on Linux
HD install
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 31 2005,02:58
Something else to consider...some of those are likely to overlap. For example, someone might use frugal on pendrive, but also use a persistent directory or backup/restore.Maybe my suggestions were too specific, or maybe the poll needs to be more specific. I'm leaning toward less specific..but one thing the poll definitely needs is a separation of hd install and frugal...they are completely different beasts.
Posted by green on Dec. 31 2005,05:50
A small revision below.There are 14 poll questions below, so far.... (DSL is limitless)
Poll Questions
==============
LiveCD
LiveCD with backup/restore on Removable Media
LiveCD with persistent home/opt on Removable Media
LiveCD with backup/restore on Hard Disk Drive
LiveCD with persistent home/opt on Hard Disk Drive
Frugal on Removable Media
Frugal on Hard Disk Drive
Not frugal but on Removable/Bootable Media
Embedded (Qemu) on Windows
Embedded (Qemu) on Linux
VMware Player on Windows
VMware Player on Linux
Net Backup/Restore
Traditional Hard Disk Drive install
I would also like to know how many use a dual boot system with DSL. That should be a separate poll, but can be done if there is interest.
Also, it should be noted that some users (like me) use DSL in different ways depending on the situation/circumstances and more than one Poll Question could be answered. So, we should limit this to the Most Used configuration.
Posted by green on Dec. 31 2005,05:53
To add to my last post, once we decide on what are the appropriate Poll Questions, I will also make note of the comments in posts to come up with some kind of data as well.Does a mkmydsl version count? I like those.
Posted by bigred562 on Jan. 02 2006,12:15
I had been using it from a live CD. I just installed it onto a older computer to play with it more.
Posted by bugman on Jan. 13 2006,23:01
Sheesh, I thought I'd be a weirdo, voting for HD install of a Live-CD distro. Guess not...
Posted by subarus on Jan. 14 2006,19:00
Question to those who install dsl on hardisk; why DSL, why not Debian, ubuntu, mandriva? Obviously I am missing something.I use livecd with boot option: toram mydsl dma noeject
Posted by Linuturk on Jan. 14 2006,21:29
I use DSL 2.1 on the following:HD install on an old laptop.
Live CD to show off.
Embedded on a USB stick.
Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 16 2006,06:22
A DSL hd install is already minimalized for your pleasure.It is possible to get similar performance with a minimal Debian or Slackware install but you will need to do some customizing with respect to the list of stuff that will be automatically installed into your computer.
Even so, if you wanted to use the TinyX/Kdrive/Freedesktop.org Xserver you would probably need to install them manually.
Posted by brobers on Jan. 29 2006,19:46
I am in agreement with the last comment about having to strip down the stuff during installation.I am currently running Win95 on old PII 233Mhz machines. My companies information security people say remove the machine or upgrade it to W2K or XP. If we don't then they will turn off the network port to these systems. So we tell or management and their management what is going to happen. They don't want to spend the money on new systems (these computers were new somewhere around 1998). The machines are not useable once you load W2K, McAfee, and all the other required security software the browser is so slow it isn't worth using. All these things do is pull up a browser and run a small little Java applet. The operations folks that use them won't do without them and won't buy new computers either.
So I get the great idea, let's go to Linux. I started using Linux back in 1993. I have a blue million different distributions with my most favorite being Slackware and RedHat. The problem is that the last InfoMagic Developer's Resource set I have is from June of 1998. I have RedHat 7.3 and Fedora 4, etc. But they are either too old to be easy for others I work with to set up or they are too new and bloated to run effeciently on this old hardware. I tried loading Slackware 10.1 and choking it down plus several other minimalist distributions. Nothing worked well until I came across this distribution. It is lousy on documentation but that was fine. I got a simple distribution that loaded X, Firefox, and Java to display the applet. It boots fast and does the job I need. It seems pretty secure right out of the box. The guys I work with can install it and configure a system with little documentation. I highly recommend this distribution for the simple few things it does and does well.
Posted by Dorei on Feb. 22 2006,17:56
I got A hd Install that I use for my main OS because it is faster and more stable than any windows on this machine. I like it and the install takes 5 min as apposed to the 40-90 min for win XP
Posted by rickh57 on Feb. 23 2006,17:59
I have the embedded install on a thumb drive. Works great (although I wish that it supported wifi with WPA security [at least I couldn't figure out how to get that working]).
Posted by Stance on Feb. 23 2006,18:04
Just bought an old Dell Latitude laptop (for 50euros) and installed DSL on HD. No problems and it's fast as HE**!! I've been testing DSL on my work laptop with live cd for a year now. I bought this machine for home use, mainly internet browsing and DSL on HD is the way to go for me. Stance
Helsinki, Finland
Posted by kerry on May 18 2006,21:28
How come there's no toram in the selections above? I chose other. I load mine toram and just leave her running. I even delete the /boot folder for more space since you don't really need that in ram.
Posted by ggordon on May 27 2006,14:47
I do USB thumbdrive with backup/restore.....since my BIOS doesn't see it as a USB-HDD...but works great done the less....wish there was a larger repository of myDSL extensions to choose from, but one can't have everything I suppose __
ggordon
Posted by mikshaw on June 14 2006,14:43
Keep in mind that DSL has a very small number of available libraries and other support files. Many packages you'd find for other much larger distros would be a huge task to build for DSL, which would need to include a ridiculous number of extra files, or require a huge number of dependencies (something that is contrary to the load-and-run behaviour that mydsl is so good at). I'm not saying it can't be done, but it seems that many people who make mydsl packages, myself included, don't want to be bothered to create 30mb packages for 2mb applications, or have them depend on loading a series of other packges in sequence in order to run an application. As a result, the selection of applications are mostly smaller ones, which do not have all the glitter or perhaps even the features of many applications you'd find in *.deb or *.rpm format. Another result is unfortunately that some types of applications are not available, but i blame most of that on so many software developers who for some reason feel that their apps must use a pile of Qt libs or some other fat dependency.There are several apps that I would have built into myDSL packages if it were not for the fact that their size exploded due to dependencies I'd consider unnecessary. Until more developers build console apps that can use a variety of gui types (which will never happen), this might continue to be a problem for myDSL. In the meantime I have 2 other distros that i use when i want to run the fat apps.
Posted by KerowynM on June 14 2006,23:04
Wow thread was long I have so many things I'd like to say, but by the I get to the end I forget most of them.I just moved my desktop from a livecd persistant home to backup/restore. I figure this works very well (untill I lose power when backing up or something... oh well) I suppose I'll go back to persistant home if I get to where my data is too big to comfertably wait on to compress. I can always move my data out of /home too, just mount a partition and go.
DSL documentation is rather sparce. I often find information, but not usually where its intuitive to find it. Due to the name websearches are an excersize in futility. (What do you know.... yet another article about setting up PPPOE in Red Hat 9...) I think a concentrated effort to move information from the forums to the wiki might help things greatly, as well as an effort to more fully explain things which DSL guru's take for granted as common knowledge. Trust me, you guys are ahead of the curve. I'm no slouch myself but find myself sometimes feeling quite overwhelmed.
While I understand the POV of the developers regarding hd installs, I have a different view. While I fully embrace the developers vision off tiny ro systems with loadable extensions etc... I also see the value in a robust hd installation system. Sometimes its the better way. I see no reason why one would poo-poo on the ability to install the worlds smallest debian system off of a tiny 50MB CD or USB key. I myself would like to see a how-to describing the steps neccisary to convert DSL to Debian simply so I can install linux from my pocket, just to say I did. I have a hard time accepting any reasoning against the added versitility that brings. It sounds to me like people saying we shouldn't try to make red cars because they already come in black. To bring it back OT(ish) I don't see anything abnormal about the amount of HDinstallers. Not to mention HD reads faster then CD and your no longer dealing with compression (Not everybody can toram) and bottom feeders like myself with P1 16M atticware laptops and such.
Posted by u2musicmike on June 29 2006,18:07
Just wanted to add with the old hardware that I use the regular HD was fragile. The first time I broke it was when I mounted a uci. The system was real strange with aterm disappearing when opening. I gave up trying to fix it and re-installed. The second time it broke I was trying out a new DSL install on a USB drive and all of the settings in my home directory on the HD changed to the backup on the USB. Icons disappeared after that and it finally died. If you do the regular HD installs don't mount uci's or boot USB's that have a backup on them.This time I just installed frugal to the HD and it's just as fast and pretty stable. The PC I am using is a 200 MHz Pentium, 72M ram, 2G HD, DSL 2.2.
Posted by tp560e on Dec. 11 2006,19:32
I seen lots of praise for the frugal HD install, but I haven't seen anyone (else) mention booting straight from DOS by using loadlin.exe.The advantage here is that you don't have to change your master boot record in any way. I've set up my config.sys and autoexec.bat files to choose to boot into Windows95, DOS, of DSLinux. WHile I choose to use Linux 90 percent of the time, it's nice to still have the other options - and to retain those options without the risks involved in setting up Grub or Lilo.
Does anyone know of and disadvantages of using loadlin? To me, it seems the simplest way of booting linux on a multi-boot machine.
Posted by cmanb on Dec. 19 2006,15:55
| Quote (tp560e @ Dec. 11 2006,11:32) |
| I seen lots of praise for the frugal HD install, but I haven't seen anyone (else) mention booting straight from DOS by using loadlin.exe. The advantage here is that you don't have to change your master boot record in any way. I've set up my config.sys and autoexec.bat files to choose to boot into Windows95, DOS, of DSLinux. WHile I choose to use Linux 90 percent of the time, it's nice to still have the other options - and to retain those options without the risks involved in setting up Grub or Lilo. Does anyone know of and disadvantages of using loadlin? To me, it seems the simplest way of booting linux on a multi-boot machine. |
Windows95, eh? Neat.
I'd like to play around with Loadlin, but you can't really do it with XP for lack of DOS.
I guess I could go the route of downloading FreeDOS and then configuring Loadlin, and while I'd probably hacking around and trying to get it to work, I don't have the attention span right now.
Maybe after Christmas.
Posted by bpalone on Jan. 02 2008,03:49
Frugal HD install on Compaq Presario 1600 with a 466 MHZ Celeron and an old Belkin 54g wireless card. In fact it is an early 802.11b not g, but will operate at g speeds.The wireless card requires a funky start up, but I did get it to work. Will probably post what worked for this card here in a while. Just in case someone else is trying to get one like it to work.
Posted by humpty on Jan. 05 2008,03:42
| Quote (tp560e @ Dec. 11 2006,22:32) |
| Does anyone know of and disadvantages of using loadlin? To me, it seems the simplest way of booting linux on a multi-boot machine. |
freedos+loadlin is the only way to go for me.
flexibility goes way past anything else. with batch files i can choose
any image version with corresponding kernels from any partition.
if i run out of partitions, i just overwrite one with a new image.
typically the startup batch file waits 10 secs before auto-loading and
aborts if a key is pressed. transferring the system to a freedos bootable
usb-stick is a synch.
the only thing not yet possible is choosing which backup.tar.gz
(because the filename is too long to rename or copy).
Posted by WDef on Mar. 20 2008,05:11
Mmmm ... loadlin might fix an issue I have? (OT and not really a DSL topic, apologies - hope people can tolerate that).I have a laptop with XP and Fedora, which dual booted happily with Grub.
Then XP BSoD'd (surprise) after fooling around with gtk2 for Windows (though I don't know that was it) and I couldn't fix it. Without thinking, I reinstalled XP => broke Grub/MBR, then Fedora no boot. Then reinstalled Grub from a livecd => Fedora boot, but no XP. So that's where I left it. I run DSL most of the time anyway.
Googling suggested this to be a very common problem, with no obvious solution other than reinstalling XP and then reinstalling Fedora from scratch (the main reason I keep Fedora on there at all is because of the humongous amount of media stuff I've installed on it, which I'd prefer not to lose).
Maybe if I reinstall XP, add DOS, and use loadlin to start Fedora from within XP ...?
EDIT: I read loadlin cannot work with XP since the latter does not run on top of DOS.
EDIT2: Maybe Bootpart instead? < http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm >
Anyone have any experience with Bootpart?
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Mar. 20 2008,06:17
WDef: grub should boot windows fine. You'll probably just need to tweak the config a bit (i.e. chainloader, and maybe hide/reorder partitions to make ntldr happy?).Afaik you could also modify boot.ini instead...
EDIT: looks like bootpart does this
Posted by WDef on Mar. 22 2008,00:58
Seems a lot of people have wrecked their multiboot systems the same stupid way with brains switched off - by reinstalling Windows which breaks grub, then reinstalling grub which can't then find the critical info at the beginning of the drive and so breaks Windows, only booting the linux system. It's not fixable by any amount of fiddling with grub conf, I googled. Guess I'll try to get the energy up to tackle it, maybe with Bootpart, which sounds interesting anyway.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Mar. 22 2008,01:14
Hm, I've always installed an alternative bootloader after installing windows, so I was assuming the environment would be similar. I'm a bit curious about this problem since I'm not seeing what's different from what I usually do - mind pasting some links?
Posted by curaga on Mar. 22 2008,06:55
I have reinstalled grub after windoze numerous times, no problems. Might wanna see your links too.
Posted by WDef on Mar. 22 2008,18:53
Fixed! I ran testdisk and restored the boot sector with its backup. I must have borked that when I installed grub.
All now aok, apologies for the OT diversion.
EDIT: Just sent a quick testdisk uci to the repo. Haven't used it before, looks handy.