boot options

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: boot options
started by: mikshaw

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 18 2005,15:14

Anyone have a complete list of boot options for DSL? The F2 file contains only a partial list.
minirt24 seems like the only other place to look, but so far i haven't had much luck. Is it something extracted from the KNOPPIX file?

EDIT: I think it may be minirt24 after all....gotta look more closely...

NEW QUESTION: Is it possible to edit minirt24 in a text editor without corrupting the file?

Posted by clivesay on Mar. 18 2005,16:00

I have used the minirt24 howto's in the forum for editing. For some reason the first time I did it, it worked but ever since then I corrupt it every time!

Chris

Posted by henk.1955 on Mar. 18 2005,16:14

minirt24.gz is THE root filesystem in ram.
if you want to edit it, you have to extract it, and then mount it like:
mount minirt24 /mnt/test -o loop
then when done editing, unmount it.
sync
sync
and zip it up again
btw. bootoptions are everyware over the system. places to look for are: linuxrc in minirt24, /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig, /etc/init.d/dsl-config, /home/dsl/.xinitrc and some bootoptions are from the kernel itself or the bootloader

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 18 2005,18:03

Thanks. I was looking through knoppix-autoconfig and found a few interesting things I didn't know about, although some seem to be unuseable knoppix leftovers. I didn't notice dsl-config...i'll have to check that out.

If boot options are used in several places, does that mean they are stored in root's environment? If so, one should be able to pass variables to bootlocal or other scripts through custom boot options. I can't think of any specific use at the moment, but it could be fun to mess around with it.

Posted by henk.1955 on Mar. 18 2005,18:28

if you do: cat /proc/cmdline
you will see the bootparams
in /etc/init.d/dsl-functions there are some usefull bash-script function to work with bootparams
look in /etc/init.d/dsl-config how they are used.
in a simular way you can use then in your own scripts, you can even "invent" new.

my cat /proc/cmdline

Code Sample

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 lp restore=hda2 host=box13 alsa quiet home=hda7 opt=hda7

i "invented" the host=

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 18 2005,21:46

Good stuff. I think i found everything i need....now to play around a bit....

Any idea what the myconf|floppyconf|custom|config option is? Is this a Knoppix leftover, or can it be used to run any old script at boot time without needing to backup/restore it?

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 19 2005,00:01

It works fine on knoppix.

I have a custom knoppix cd + (boot floppy with custom script) that I use for running the custom script automatically.

I have not tried it with DSL yet but if the code is still in the bootup scripts it should work fine.

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 19 2005,06:02

It seems to want to work in DSL, but then fails. I get prompted for a password of at least 20 (whaa?) characters, and when entering 20 random characters I'm then told I need to specify filesystem type. I'm guessing the myconf is happening before fstab is created....but that doesn't explain the password thing.

Posted by henk.1955 on Mar. 19 2005,15:36

i have tried the myconf option. i used it to set the hostname.
if i have the knoppix.sh in the SAME partition as the /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file, i get the same password question. but when in have the knoppix.sh in another partition it works.
i hope the option stays in. i can think of some very usefull tricks to do.

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 19 2005,17:01

Yeah...since i'm now using a backup containing only /opt/bootlocal.sh it seems like a waste of effort to backup every time i make a change to it. It would be more convenient simply to have it as a loose file read at boot...edit and forget it.

Posted by noclobber on Mar. 19 2005,17:55

Don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but FYI, here's a list of Knoppix bootup cheatcodes:

< Cheatcodes and Hints for Knoppix V3.7 >

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 19 2005,20:30

Good list, thank you.