Editing R/O files

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Editing R/O files
started by: Rhino

Posted by Rhino on May 24 2005,00:09

Hi again guys,

Got a new one for you, is it possible to make the frugal install R/W? if not is there a way to change the files I need to edit to R/W?
I keep getting that really annoying 'you have entered an incorrect mode number' comming up when I boot which is followed by having to enter my XVESA settings.... every....single....time...I boot. So Im thinking I need to change my lilo.conf file to do this but it is R/O so no go.

I have tried this:

sudo su
rm /etc/lilo.conf
cp {/KNOPPIX,}/etc/lilo.conf

but I get:

cp: '/KNOPPIX/etc/lilo.conf' and '/etc/lilo.conf' are the same file

This is getting really frustrating so any help to fix this will be greatly appreicated believe me.

Thank You in advance

Posted by mikshaw on May 24 2005,01:20

backup /home/dsl/.xserverrc after you get xvesa configured properly.

Editing /etc/lilo.conf would be useless for two reasons: 1) it has nothing to do with X, and 2) it wouldn't be restored until after its usefulness has expired.
I know i posted the other hint, but that was before i really thought about it =o)

Posted by Rhino on May 24 2005,04:14

Thanks for the fast reply,

Sorry to be such a pain about this but I have read through some many post on here that I've completely confused myself, can you boil it down and explain the quickest and easiest way of backing up that file (/home/dsl/.xserverrc). And will that work with any file because I also need to change the .xinitrc file as well plus are you able to install .debs on the ramdisk get them working then back them up so they will start up every time?
BTW the only reason I ask this is because all I have is the R/O frugle install and since I can't change any files on the drive it seems everything has to be done on the ramdisk then put on the drive, is this correct?

Thanks again

Posted by mikshaw on May 24 2005,05:14

Specify a partition on which to back up your files....you can do this through the control panel. (tools > control panel, i think).

Open up EmelFM and browse to the files/directories you want to save.
Select the file(s) and press the "Add2filetool" button.
Alternatively, you can manually add the paths to these files to filetool.lst.
These files should be backed up automatically when you shut down, provided the partition you specified is writeable.

You can do it with any files in /home/dsl and /opt

You probably won't have much success backing up deb-installed programs this way, but there is a script available called deb2dsl which should help you make an auto-loadable extension out of your deb application.

You might also look into the persistent home and opt, which allows you to keep home and opt on a harddrive while the rest of the system stays in the typical read-only state, or in ramdisk