Extensions + toram option

Forum: myDSL Extensions (deprecated)
Topic: Extensions + toram option
started by: stoo

Posted by stoo on Feb. 07 2005,12:09

What happens with all the .dsl extensions on the CD when I boot with the 'toram' option? Are they loaded to RAM as well, or the medium where the extensions reside cannot be removed?

Thanks.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Feb. 07 2005,13:46

Some quick history..

Originally, the 'toram' option was used for people who had a minimum
of 128MB's of ram or more, to be able to remove the DSL CD,
to play audioCDs, burn CDRs, and access other cdrom discs.
( this was before "extensions" came into existence.. )

When the myDSL extension system was first designed,
you had the option of choosing where you had them located,
by the boottime option " mydsl=hdXx " .

Soon, folks were using multisession or remastering techniques
to place the extensions on the remaining space of a 120mm CDR,
so an option was added to look for extensions on CD at boottime.
Soon after, the mkmydsl script was included to make the process of
adding extensions to your custom .iso build e a s y ..

But, the toram option still expects for you to remove the CD at
some point, which caused other issues if your extension list was
looking at your cdrom drive for extensions, which were no longer
there after removing or replacing the CD.

So, "toram" drops the CD from being one of the choices for an
extension location. It was the lesser evil of the two options.

But, for folks who still want to access a cd for extensions,
the myDSL GUI gives you the option to list your CD as the
extension source. Place any CD containing extensions in your drive,
open myDSL GUI, and enter /cdrom as your source location.
This gives you a 'manual override" when using the toram option.

If you still like having your extensions load into your mydsl menu,
you can place them on a HD partition, your usb drive, zip, whatever,
and use the "mydsl=hdXx" option to have both toram and mydsl menu.
This issue only effects the CD as a possible location for autoloading
extensions into the menu, when using the toram option at boottime.

73
ke4nt