Want to save "/static"/ backup on CD-R
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Want to save "/static"/ backup on CD-R
started by: jlieberman
Posted by jlieberman on Aug. 24 2004,13:31
Greetings -I am new to DSL and absolutely love it! I also understand the 50Mb limit for the distribution.
I am looking for a definitive answer as to whether it is possible to combine a backup tarball with an iso image of DSL. Obviously this will not fit on 50Mb media - but I do not want to change or re-master the original DSL distribution. I want to keep the distro absolutely clean.
I have used a tool (MagicISO) to open the distro iso image and simply add the backup tarball to the root directory of the cd. Saving the iso and burning it to media results in a working "live" cd of DSL, but the boot option "dsl restore=scd0" or permutations of this command do not work.
The error seems to be that the distro only looks for the backup tarball in the /mnt or /etc/fstab locations. When I inspect the /CDROM mount point, I see the expected contents, but I would like to know how to get the distro to look at this location - or something that chains to the actual boot cdrom media for its restore option. I would much prefer *not* to change the core distro itself.
I hope this explanation is understandable. I want a way to bundle the clean DSL distro and my custom configuration backup file on the same media.
My attempts at re-mastering have been a total failure. I would be happy with just a "/static"/ backup config on the boot CD.
Thanks in advance -
Joel Lieberman
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 24 2004,14:41
you'll need to unpack the iso with something like Gnomezip or WinRAR. then just drop your backup file in there and repackage the iso.or you can use the myDSL script, but I'm not sure how that would work.
-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed
Posted by jlieberman on Aug. 24 2004,15:09
J.P. -Thanks for responding. I have already added the backup tarball to the iso image (CD root directory) using WinISO.
The problem is that the DSL will not look for it since it only looks in /mnt for the mount points, and these do not include the CD at boot time. If I could get remastering to work, I would try to set up an additional mount point in /mnt that points to the CD, but I have not been successful with remastering.
If anyone knows how to get the boot process to look for the backup tarball on the CD, I would be grateful for the information.
Thanks again -
Joel
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 24 2004,15:47
if you have enough ram, you could do this at the boot command line.| Code Sample |
| dsl toram restore=/cdrom |
but once again, i haven't tried this so no guarantees it'll work.
-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed
Posted by jlieberman on Aug. 24 2004,15:53
J.P -I tried your suggestion but DSL complains that it cannot find /cdrom in the fstab or other default filesystem descriptor files.
I guess what is needed is an additional default (and mounted) entry in fstab and /mnt. Something like /mnt/scd0 or whatever is needed so that the "restore=/mnt/mountpoint" will be recognized as a legitimate backup location (read-only of course).
Thanks -
Joel
Posted by jlieberman on Aug. 24 2004,18:20
OK Folks - I figured it out.
In order to create a "/static"/ backup file that can be used to initially custom-configure DSL from the cd:
1. Use an iso managment tool such as WinISO to open the DSL iso image.
2. Put your backup.tar.gz in the root of the cd image.
3. Save the new iso and burn it onto a cd.
To get DSL to "see" the backup tarball:
1. At the DSL boot prompt type: dsl restore=auto/cdrom
This works because there is an entry in /mnt corresponding to "/mnt/auto/cdrom". DSL can mount this fs as read-only and grab the backup.
I realize that this will be static and that a really dynamic backup would need to be committed to a removable device (and recalled from that device).
I hope this helps other users.
Thanks again for a really great Linux distro. DSL is the best!
Cheers -
Joel
Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 25 2004,01:16
Nice find.Thanks for sharing this information with everyone else.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 25 2004,01:44
Is this the way 0.7.3 works now? I haven't tried the custom CD with this version yet, but with 0.7.2 all I needed to do was put the backup archive in the CD root and boot up...the system would automatically extract it without needing boot options.
Posted by jlieberman on Aug. 25 2004,13:40
I am new to DSL so I can't comment on the history of boot-time behavior changes for the different distros. I suspect that there are a number of different "tricks" that can be used to get DSL customizations to work.I hate to ask for anything "new" or "different" because I realize that the developers have already done so much for the community. If a few of us who have enough experience with Linux and DSL got together to create a really comprehensive tutorial on how to effect customizations, we could then give it to the developers as a template for inclusion of notes for new functionality. I would be willing to help with this effort, but I would need other's help too because I am new to DSL.
There seem to be a good number of hooks for DSL to use during boot - such as the .dsl files, etc. One thing that would be nice to have (if it already isn't available) is a list of boot initialization files that could be customized and put in the boot iso as alternatives to the hard-wired boot files.
For example, if no alternative was present, then the standard mount points would be created in fstab. If an alternative fstab or precursor init file was present, it would be used instead.
I have briefly tried a few of the other mini-live distros and DSL is the winner every time.
Cheers -
Joel