A couple of questions
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: A couple of questions
started by: Hiro1000
Posted by Hiro1000 on Mar. 21 2006,02:12
Ok, I got DSL to work on my 256 meg USB stick. Boots in windows fine and fast. I have not able to get it too boot when the computer starts yet. I have a couple of questions.
A. How do I save settings like favorites in firefox? Like importing settings from another?
B. Can I run portable apps like portable thunderbird through DSL?
C. How can I browse pictures, text ect from other hard drives?
D. How can I remove programs I don't need and add some other programs.
I am sorry if this is answered in a FAQ. I am a total newbie to Linux. I am very computer savvy, I build computers, but Linux and the concept of linux is like learning chinese. Sorry for the newbie vibs emmiting from this post.
Posted by Cammo on Mar. 21 2006,03:33
I am a fair n00b too but I figure I want help the forum I might as well answer the questions that I can :PA) To save settings, you need to set a backup device, whether it be a USB stick (not sure if the same one you load from will work...), a harddrive, etc. Just go to the DSL control panel, click the button called backup/restore, and tell it what device you want to use (hda1, sda1, etc). It will automatically back up things like firefox history, anything in /home/dsl, etc. You can also tell it to back things up by going into emelfm, selecting the file you want to back up, and pusing "add2filetool" button (these are for things that don't backup automatically.) If the device is attached the next time you boot DSL, it will restore everything automatically.
B) You don't really need to run a portable app like in windows. Simply go to MYDSL (or the online version under the download->mirror>mydsl section and plop some .dsl files of the program you like onto your harddrive, or USB key. If they are in the root directory you can boot up dsl using the "dsl mydsl=sda1 (or hda1, etc) boot key and it will load all the programs in that directory to ram. Alternatively, you could just save them somewhere, and when you want to run one, find the .dsl in emelfm and hit the "mydsl" button. When you restart, the program is uninstalled automatically, but settings are saved.
C) To browse stuff from your harddrives, you simply have to mount them. Look at the tool in the bottom right corner; choose the harddrive you want to mount (ie hda1, hdb1, etc) and hit the mount button. Then browse to /mnt/hda or whatever in emelfm, and there is your harddrive!
D) This is the one field with which I'm not familiar. Anything you add is removed at restart, the stuff built into DSL I don't think you can remove easily.
Hope this helps! Any follow ups or further explanations, don't hesitate to ask.
Posted by doobit on Mar. 21 2006,13:53
D) The DSL distribution is constructed the way it is for a reason, so the developers don't intend for you to remove anything. That doesn't mean you can't, but it can be a complicated process that won't get you many advantages considering the distro is already only 50MB small. Adding stuff is easy, and Cammo described part of the process in "B" To make sure the apps you download are saved you need to copy them to a writeable directory on your storage media. The default writeabel directory is, or was, /cdrom. I see in the latest testing release that robert has added a mydsl directory to save them in. The latest version automatically scans for that directory and loads the apps. If you don't want them to be automatically loaded, then you should create a directory called /optional in your /home directory. Then copy the downloaded apps from the ramdisk to that. Then you can add them when after you boot using the mydsl button in emelfm or by double clicking on them in the file manager.The media or directory or partition needs to be mounted for you to see or write to it, by-the-way. To mount anything you can navigate to /mnt in Emelfm and right click on the media name you wish to mount and choose mount from the menu.