Saving Files in DSL Embeded on Pen Drive

Forum: DSL Embedded
Topic: Saving Files in DSL Embeded on Pen Drive
started by: brwyatt

Posted by brwyatt on May 11 2006,22:00

I currently use DSL Embeded on my pen drive. This way i can load it from there without having to reboot the computer.

I know that hdb is /qemu/harddisk (as stated in the command-line parameters), but how can I save my files back to it?

I am new to this and can't understand how to save files in a way that it is possible to retrieve tham at a later time.

If I install extentions, and i attempt a shut down/reboot, it asks me to save the ramdisk (or something along those lines), but i can't find the correct location and dont know if this is even possible.

thanx for your help!

Posted by desnotes on May 11 2006,23:29

Look for the DSL Control Panel (workspace icon or System - Control Panel). There is also an icon for Backup/Restore. Click it and put in 'hdb' without the quotes and click on backup. When you download extensions (or files) save them to the hdb disk. This is the summary version. I would also suggest checking out the DSL wiki.

desNotes

Posted by brwyatt on May 12 2006,00:04

what is the full location of hdb? I have found it in SEVERAL locations.

Posted by brwyatt on May 12 2006,00:30

ive looked on the wiki... cant find anything. The backup doesnt seem to do much. and i dont think it is writing to the USB drive

Posted by desnotes on May 12 2006,06:36

just enter 'hdb' at the backup/restore promprt. Here is an excerp from the FAQ in the wiki:

How do I save my settings?

When booting from the CD or a frugal install your application settings, bookmarks, etc can be saved to separate file on a hard drive partition/usb key/floppy called backup.tar.gz. To create this file choose on System, Backup/Restore in the desktop menu, type in the name of the device to save to (e.g. hda1/sda1/floppy) and hit backup. Then when you reboot your settings can be restored using the cheatcode restore={hda1/sda1/floppy}. To change which files are saved edit /home/dsl/.filetool.lst (list of files to backup) and /home/dsl/.xfiletool.lst (list of files to exclude from the backup process). Adding files to .filetool.lst can be easily done by choosing the file/dir in emelfm and clicking the 'Add2Filetool" button.

The default files/dir saved at backup are:

opt/ppp
opt/bootlocal.sh
opt/powerdown.sh
opt/.dslrc
opt/.mydsl_dir
home/dsl/

If you decide you only want to save certain files in home/dsl/ and not the entire directory, you would want to remove home/dsl/ from .filetool.lst but add .filetool.lst and .xfiletool.lst to the .filetool.lst file.

Here is how it might look in this situation adding just the /home/dsl/.fluxbox directory

opt/ppp
opt/bootlocal.sh
opt/powerdown.sh
opt/.dslrc
opt/.mydsl_dir
home/dsl/.fluxbox
home/dsl/.filetool.lst
home/dsl/.xfiletool.lst

Posted by brwyatt on May 13 2006,02:24

will the hdb automaticaly expand to fit all the files?

also, i tryed to do this, but there was no activity on the flash drive (no blinking light). :-\

I did remove "nousb" from the commandline params.

Posted by desnotes on May 13 2006,03:01

hdb is 60 MB but won't get any larger. The data will be written to the usb drive when you shut down. Until then it is kept in RAM which will keep he writng to the USB at a minimum and prolong its life.

You an keep 'nousb' in the command line parameters. NoUSB refers to when DSL is booting from the CDROM and accessing additional USB drives, mouse, keyboards, etc.

Posted by brwyatt on May 13 2006,04:44

then i guess i shall make a second "drive" (i found how in the wiki). and backup to that. then have it load backups from there...

i will do it later and get back on how it goes.

thanks for your help. I have limited Linux experience and NO DSL experience. Thanks for helping!