DSL working structure

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: DSL working structure
started by: sunburnt

Posted by sunburnt on Feb. 17 2005,20:16

I have system questions:

1) the boot floppy & iso each have a minirt24.gz, this is what
initially loads into ram drive? Inside both are cloop files?
The minirt24 has the bootup code & root file only?
boot changes would be in the minirt24 file?

2) the knoppix file has the complete system, Xwin & the apps.,
which are loaded to ram drive, but only running apps. are
loaded to ram & they`re removed upon closing the app.?
any changes to the op. system then are in the knoppix file?

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 18 2005,18:09

1) Yes, the minirt is what initially loads into your root directory, IE your "/" directory. The minirt24.gz is not a cloop file. It is an ordinary loop file, if i remember correctly.

2) The knoppix file contains the rest of the system (except bootloader, kernel and miniroot). This is a compressed loop filesystem. It is NOT loaded into the ram drive, but is read directly from the livecd unless you boot with the "toram" parameter. However, there are symlinks in the RAMdisk that point back to these files. Because the knoppix filesystem is read-only, it is not possible to change any of these files unless you remaster the livecd and rebuild the knoppix file. However, it is possible to insert new / different files into the ramdisk temporarily, which is what the *.dsl myDSL extensions provide.