problem installing myDSL extensionForum: Apps Topic: problem installing myDSL extension started by: ospreyeagle Posted by ospreyeagle on Feb. 14 2006,02:24
I have a frugal install as described in install pdfhda2: holds the image hda3: holds /opt and /home I wanted to install ayttm for messaging. I downloaded the file with myDSL and saved it to /opt. I tried to install in terminal and emelFM and get the following message cp: cannot create symbolic link '/ramdisk/usr/share/mount.app/noperms.txt' to '/KNOPPIX/usr/share/mount/app/noperms.txt':no space left on device. get same error for different files notmountable.txt, online-help.txt etc cp: cannot create directory '/ramdisk/usr/share/xpdf and other directories xmms etc.. I get the same error if I save the .dsl file in /home/mk/ Once I attempt this computer pretty much freezes and I can not shut it down. I am sure this is a silly problem but any help would be really appreciated. Posted by antti on Feb. 22 2006,16:41
I was just planning to write the same post, because my problem is the same.My frugal install is quite similar, persistent /opt and /home. I also have a swap partition of 236 Mb. I cannot install any .dsl-extensions. The system basically freezes after the attempted installation. Applications won't start anymore. I can close open windows though. Looking through other users' posts, I was thinking that this was a memory and ramdisk issue because I only have 32 Mb of RAM on my old laptop. But then I tried to install parted, which is very small, and still the result was the same. What could be the issue? UCI extensions seem to install (or mount) very nicely, I'm currently typing this in Opera. I would be happy to get just Abiword working on this machine, and ALSA probably too. But they are only available as .dls extensions, aren't they? Any help much appreciated. Thanks. Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 22 2006,18:05
If you type:df -a How much free space do you have in your ramdisk? I think that your ramdisk is full and you need to either: 1) Do a full hd install 2) Cut back on the total number of *.dsl and *.tar.gz extensions being used. or 3) Create a Linux Swap partition and format it. sudo su cfdisk /dev/hda (Create a new Linux Swap paritition, say for example 128MB in size and located at partition number 4. Write and exit cfdisk) mkswap /dev/hda4 swapon And then reboot. Posted by antti on Feb. 23 2006,08:16
This is what df gives as an output for my file systems:Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/ram0 2.9M 598.0k 2.3M 20% / /dev/hda2 53.4M 49.2M 1.4M 97% /cdrom /dev/cloop 117.4M 117.4M 0 100% /KNOPPIX /ramdisk 205.3M 36.0k 205.3M 0% /ramdisk /dev/hda5 872.6M 37.9M 789.7M 5% /mnt/hda5 /mnt/hda5/home/dsl 872.6M 37.9M 789.7M 5% /home/dsl /mnt/hda5/opt 872.6M 37.9M 789.7M 5% /opt /mnt/hda5/opera850.uci 14.2M 4.2M 0 100% /opt/opera850.uci So it seems I should have plenty of space on my /ramdisk (205 M). That must be because of the randomly sized swap partition. Currently I have no .dsl-extensions installed, because they won't install. What seems suspicious to me is the size of the root / -- only 2,9 Mb! And what is /dev/ram0? When DSL tries to install .dsl-extensions, it attempts to write something on /, am I right? And there is almost no space at all available... Is it possible to enlarge root (/)? Or what is the problem? Should I have a bigger partition for the cd image (hda2), if the installer script tries to write something there? I have been studying DSL for a month or two now, and still its file systems are rather mysterious to me. I like the distro very much, but I'd love to have Abiword installed, so I could use it for some serious work too, not just computing fun... Going for a normal HD install is no option for me, because as I have understood it only supports US keyboard. Thanks again. Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 23 2006,18:13
When booting from livecd or frugal, "/" is an initial Ramdisk that is created at boot time.It is a very small ramdisk and any files and subdirectories that are contained inside the ramdisk will fill it up quickly. The biggest culprit of this is files that go into the /etc directory because /etc is part of "/" and is not a separate mountpoint, nor is it a symlikn to a ramdisk directory. Normally, when you install a *.dsl extension, DSL will create a writable file system for areas such as "/usr" for example. /usr is then symlinked to /ramdisk/usr , so any files inside /usr do not count towards the "/" filesystem size limit. So while the "/" size is interesting, I doubt that it would produce "No space left on device" messages because the link file is located at /ramdisk/usr/share/mount.app/noperms.txt HOWEVER, it is possible to get errors when you run out of "I Nodes" even if you do not run out of disk space. If this is true, your best bet is to do a traditional HD installation or buy more memory. If there was a way for the RAMdisk creation script to increase the "I Node" count, this would also help. But I am just speculating that your problem is "I Nodes". But in my opinion, a user with 32MB of RAM or less should use an HD install instead of a frugal/livecd. No matter how you slice it, an HD install is more memory efficient. Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 23 2006,18:17
FYI, if you were using the GNU "df" command, you could see your "I Node" usage by typing:df -i but the base DSL system comes with the BusyBox "df" command and the INode switch is not supported. This puts you into a Catch-22 situation because you can't use "df" without the GNU Utilities, but you can't install the GNU Utilities because it will fail. Doh! Posted by roberts on Feb. 23 2006,20:33
I can attest to the fact that a 32MB machine will nearly run out of inodes after running mkwriteable. This will happen when trying to install any .dsl extension. So with only 32MB your options are to only use UCI, get more memory, or do a hard drive install. Posted by antti on Feb. 24 2006,08:31
Okay, thank you very much for the comments!Actually I managed to get 16MB more memory just yesterday (now I have 48), but I have not yet tried to install any applications. I noticed that /ramdisk got a little bigger. I'm constantly looking for a 64MB module (which would make 80MB RAM total), but it is quite hard to find old EDO SO-DIMM modules bigger than 16 or 32 megabytes. This old laptop has become something of an obsession for me to tweak... Wish there was an UCI for Abiword, is that impossible? Posted by antti on Feb. 26 2006,10:19
With my massive memory upgrade (48 total) I tried to install abiword.dsl, and it actually installed, the ugly icon appeared on the desktop etc. But it didn't run. Splash screen blinked on the screen but then nothing.For some reason I decided to install gnu-utils as well, and with those two .dsl-extensions Abiword was launched - but without any dialog texts, window headers, button captions etc., nothing! Otherwise it seemed to work quite well. It even printed the vital accent characters without any porblem on top of certain vowels (something that doesn't happen in any other apps). The problem with the missing texts seems to have something to do with GTK, because when I run Abiword on EmelFM, it prints a lot of error messages that refer to a directory that doesn't exist (/etc/gtk-2.0 or something). And yes, the initial problem really was the number of inodes. When I have gnu-utils and abiword simultaneously installed, I have only 2 left on my /ramdisk! Posted by roberts on Feb. 26 2006,17:04
If you are getting an error about Gtk2, then you must have selected Abiword Gtk2 version. If you had read the info file then you would know that all Gtk2 apps in the Gtk2 Section require the Gtk2 Libraries to be loaded first.Even with 48MB you probably don't have enough memory to run Gtk2 apps You should use the Gtk1 version of Abiword from in the Apps section. Also with low memory I would avoid loading the gnu-utils.dsl over the years it too has gotten pretty big. Posted by antti on Feb. 26 2006,18:35
In fact, the version I installed (and was able to run with gnu-utils) was the standard one form the Apps section.I also desperately tried the other version from the GTK section, but of course it didn't work, and with GTK Libraries installed it didn't install. I don't know what's wrong but I'm getting a little fed up with this thing. The problem is I like the feel of DSL and the fact that it runs very smoothly on my 200 Mhz machine. Posted by roberts on Feb. 26 2006,19:24
No point in venting. From your earlier post if you only have 2 inodes left and you are trying to run programs that need to open files, it is going to break.Extensions are built by the community and are not an official part of DSL. Each extension should be verified that you got a good download, using the mydsl desktop icon automates this for you. But bottom line 2 inodes ain't gonna cut it! Try without gnu-utils loaded. You should stay with the standard DSL or use UCI type extensions. Small machines have real limitations and you have already been advised for such a small machine to install to hard drive and lessen the inode impact. Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 27 2006,06:23
I just tried the GTK1 version of Abiword and it launched fine, including tool tips for the toolbar buttons.I am assuming that Abiword is not completely loading due to the INode problem. The main binary file gets loaded but then errors prevent the rest of them from being loaded. You see "2" free inodes because the mydsl extension loader probably deletes a tmp file or symlink upon exit. I repeat my original advice: Please do a DSL HD installation to your hard drive. Also, please create and format a Linux Swap partition. Based on your ability to boot DSL and start the MyDSL process, it appears like your machine is more-or-less supported by DSL. So now is a good time to bite the bullet and install it. Good Luck. Posted by antti on Feb. 27 2006,08:51
This is true. I noticed that the installer was unable to create that /usr/lib/gtk-2.2 directory because there was "no space on device". So the program was not launchable, but somehow gnu-utils helped that and it was started (but then again, without the captions). I'd be happy to do a hard drive installation, but if it only supports US keyboard, it would be rather useless to me (I need fi-latin1 keyset). For now, it seems I have to start looking for something else for this lousy laptop. But I will certainly come back if ever I find that 64MB memory module... I hope that OpenOffice Writer 1.1 (UCI) will work fine with 80MB RAM. It is almost tolerable even now. Someone here reported that it worked well with 64M. Thank you anyway, DSL is an excellent piece of software! Posted by antti on Feb. 27 2006,08:52
The above post was sent twice, sorry! (Can't delete this.)
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 27 2006,18:03
Even with hd install, you should be able to "loadkeys" any supported keyboard map.Also, you can add boot-time cheatcodes to your boot loader (LILO or GRUB) when you have completed a hd installation. Posted by antti on Feb. 28 2006,23:22
Thank you, cbagger01, that was great news. Now I have a fully working system on my machine, with Abiword running perfectly. DSL seems to be a little faster too.I was being mislead by the help screen assertion that Debian type HD installation "supports US language only". I don't understand what that means, but I can now type all the symbols I need. So, now the real fun begins... or rather, the serious work. Thanks again! |