persistent /etc for xf86??

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: persistent /etc for xf86??
started by: matrulesok

Posted by matrulesok on Nov. 12 2005,16:25

Hi, I'm running a epia 800 with no cd drive. I copied KNOPPIX to a hdd and altered grub until it booted. My only problem is that the grapics are "messy" (i think i need to alter the refresh rate), so I thought I'd install XF86. I have a debian system on the same disc, so copied over the XF86Config-4 file to /etc/X11/, but of course, once i shutdown it dissapears leaving my XF86 to tell me all about its issues finding a config file.

So, how can I solve this? I tried adding /etc/x11 to the filetool.lst, but it doesnt work, and i tried copying /etc to hda4 and adding etc=/dev/hda4 in the cheatcodes, but this doesnt appear to work either...can i alter XF86 so it looks for the config file in my persistent home? or is there another way?

Thanks very much for any help!

Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 13 2005,07:14

If your XF86Config file works for you, then do not fear....you can back it up.

However, /etc cannot be made persistent with a boot parameter, and files in /etc cannot be restored through the backup/restore process (/etc is not writeable by user dsl).

You'll need to create a mydsl extension that includes /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
The simplest way I can think to do this:
1) sudo su
2) create a temp directory
3) extract the contents of XFree86.dsl into you temp directory
4) if there is no etc/X11 directory in the temp directory, create it
5) copy the XF86Config file into the temp/etc/X11 directory
6) enter the temp directory and use the command "find . > files.txt"
7) open the files.txt file and delete all lines that end in a directory, as well as the line "."
8) tar -czf xfree.dsl --no-recursion --numeric-owner -T files.txt
9) put the new xfree.dsl somewhere it will be loaded automatically.

Posted by matrulesok on Nov. 13 2005,19:10

Thanks Mikshaw - seemed to work great, but the next problem seems a little more serious - not enough ramdisk....I assumed 96mb of ram would be enough, but alas, no.

Ohh well! Thanks for your help, and I will return to it if I get more ram.

Posted by MrWhippy on Dec. 09 2005,19:47

Quote (mikshaw @ Nov. 13 2005,02:14)

3) extract the contents of XFree86.dsl into you temp directory

i bet this is going to be really obvious once you tell me, but how do i go about extracting the contents from a .dsl file?

cheers

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 09 2005,20:03

tar -xzf /path/to/XFree86.dsl
dsl files are merely tar.gz files with a dsl filename extension.

Another thing you can do rather than modifying the existing dsl file is to make a new one just for the XF86Config file and have both loaded when you start up.

Or you could put the config file somewhere where DSL can find it during boot, and add this command to /opt/bootlocal.sh:
cp /path/to/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/