How to use DSL files with DSL Embedded?

Forum: myDSL Extensions (deprecated)
Topic: How to use DSL files with DSL Embedded?
started by: Hasbro35

Posted by Hasbro35 on Jan. 12 2005,23:03

Here is my conundrum.

I currently use the 5-way install of DSL 0.9.2. I want to have a fairly large distribution of DSL files to load. To do this I created a 500MB virtual harddisk in place of the default ~60MB harddisk file. I made sure to mount both and copy the backup.tar.gz and all works fine.

Where I am stumped now is that if I copy files to the virtual hard disk (mount /mnt/sdb1/qemu/harddisk and copy files to the mounted disk) these files do not appear when running DSL Embedded with dsl-windows.bat.

So now for the questions:
===================
Do the files have to be placed in backup.tar.gz in order for them to be visible (through the default extraction) and therefore be copied to the ramdisk to be accessible?

Or, is there a way to mount the virtual harddisk by default? I know I can mount it manually, so I'm looking for the proper config file to update (.bashrc, xinit, etc.) to place the "mount /dev/hdb /mnt/hdb -o loop" line. [Note: I think I just answered my question above but I'll leave it there just in case]

After the drive is mounted (currently using "mount /dev/hdb /mnt/hdb -o loop" command to mount drive) how do I use the DSL files?

I'd like the DSL files to install by default so I'm wondering how to do that using the virtual harddisk. Basically, I want my DSL files that are located on /mnt/hdb to be installed by default and to have an optional directory as well (just like the CD remastering method). The configuration files and directories will be added to the filetool.lst file so that they can be kept in backup.tar.gz. (I don't intend to change the settings often if at all, for those that are worried about me trashing my usb pen drive).

I'm hoping I can have a method to download DSL files to my virtual harddisk and load them by default when I run embedded. I will manually load the optional DSL files from /mnt/hdb/optional using emelfm or the with a script. I think my solution of using the virtual hard disk will be a lot easier than having to remaster the knoppix CD file (of which I know nothing about)

Posted by roberts on Jan. 13 2005,00:53

If you are using dsl-embedded-0.9.2 then all this is already done for you.

The mount.app utility will display hdb, the pseudo harddisk.
There you can download using the mydsl-gui just like with the liveCD version. Then copy from the /tmp directory to /mnt/hdb for autoloading upon boot.
Or you can make the optional directory on /mnt/hdb and store your selected extensions in /mnt/hdb/optional

Finally edit the dsl-windows.bat and/or dsl-linux.sh and add the boot option inside the append options, i.e., mydsl=hdb

This procedure is exactly the same as with the liveCD.

The only difference is the name of the extension store, hdb
and passing the boot time option via the append options in the startup scripts.

Posted by Hasbro35 on Jan. 13 2005,01:36

Thanks!

Adding the mydsl=hdb to the "-append" options in the qemu line for the .bat and .sh files was the piece of the puzzle that I was missing.

Hasbro

Posted by ed_davis2 on Feb. 14 2005,23:31

I'm running DSL-embedded v0.9.3 using QEMU, running it via the
dsl-windows.bat file.

I'm trying to make the gcc1.dsl extension permanent.

I tried copying gcc1.dsl to mnt/hdb (per the above post) but I
get "permission denied".

So, per the above, I try to create optional in mnt/hdb (to copy
gcc1.dsl there) but I still get permission denied.

So, how do I get my files there?

Thanks!

Posted by neon on April 22 2005,13:17

You probably don't have permission to copy files there as a normal user. You can try 'sudo cp mycurrentfile /mnt/hdb/mynewfile'
or 'sudo mkdir /mnt/hdb/optional' but I believe you need to have the *.dsl files outside of any sub-folders in the root of /mnt/hdb for restore to work. Not that I've gotten restore to work yet, but I think I'm close.

Posted by sonny73044 on April 22 2005,16:41

@ed_davis2
I open a terminal and use "sudo emelfm" (corrected spelling) to open a file browser with root privaleges, you should then be able to create directories or copy files to the hdb drive (mount it first)
It shouldn't matter were these are being copied from

@neon
To get the backup to work from hdb (instead of another drive) you can add "restore=hdb" to the .bat or .sh file (or "restore=harddisk" to the syslinux.cfg for bios boot from usb)

here is my dsl.bat (I rename them)

Code Sample

REM Start qemu on windows.
@ECHO OFF
START qemu\qemu.exe -L qemu/ -localtime -kernel linux24 -initrd minirt24.gz -hda KNOPPIX/knoppix -hdb qemu/harddisk -append "qemu sb=0x220,5,1,1 frugal quiet mydsl=hdb restore=hdb"
CLS
EXIT

and my dsl.sh

Code Sample

#!/bin/sh
qemu/qemu -L qemu/ -kernel linux24 -initrd minirt24.gz -hda knoppix/knoppix -hdb qemu/harddisk -append "qemu frugal quiet mydsl=hdb restore=hdb"

and first section of my syslinux.cfg

Code Sample

DEFAULT linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=794 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic qemu quiet mydsl=harddisk restore=harddisk BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal

These load the backup and extinsions from hdb in all boot possibilities

Posted by cbagger01 on April 22 2005,16:50

He meant

sudeo emelfm

Posted by meo on April 25 2005,11:44

Just a quick question!

How do I go about changing the size of the virtual hd in DSL-embedded? Greatful for any answer.

Have fun,
meo

Posted by Caspar_s on April 25 2005,16:28

That has Roberts explaining how to make one any size you need, with copying over your backup.tar.gz as well.

< Fixed Link >

Ooops - that's what you get for not checking your posts!

Posted by meo on April 26 2005,10:38

Thanks Caspar_s!

Unfortunately I can't find the reference you are referring to. I guess I need the full url.

Have fun,
meo