Saving changes in DSL Embedded

Forum: DSL Embedded
Topic: Saving changes in DSL Embedded
started by: will103

Posted by will103 on Sep. 27 2005,08:03

Hi, I like to use DSL Embedded at work, because my work pc will not allow booting from either a CD or USB drive (no access to the bios). However, I have had trouble saving some of my changes made during a work session. I can save cosmetic changes such as the desktop themes, but when I install apt-get and some other binaries, these changes are not preserved. Also, my work pc is rather slow, so I would like to change the default run level to 3 (rather than 5). I tried modifying the entry in /etc/inittab, but again the changes are not preserved.

Would it be possible to save these changes to the hard drive image included with DSL Embedded (around 60MB), and if so how?

Many thanks

will103

Posted by mstrhelix on Oct. 13 2005,02:57

to save my changes i do a cntrl-alt-2 , and at qemu prompt i type
savevm mydslname <-- save virtual machine state
loadvm mydslname <-- loads it

you can even modify your .bat file to auto load this saved state at each boot

Posted by Metaspor on Nov. 06 2005,05:21

I wanted to do something similar and edit the inittab file.....
id:5:initdefault: ----> id:3:initdefault:
and then save it to the filesystem, so when it boots it simply go's to the command line.

Is this possible

Posted by n6hgg on Nov. 07 2005,04:53

I'm trying to figure out how to boot to run level 2 also. Sometimes it's my favorite way to use linux. I think this embedded version would be able to operate in some of the older slower machines that way too. I can do almost everything I want to do using the Links browser. If anyone knows how to boot to run level 2 with the embedded usb pendrive installation, I'd like to know.

Bob

Posted by n6hgg on Nov. 07 2005,06:20

I figured out how to boot to run level 2 permanently if desired. Open the dsl-linux.sh file in a text browser like notepad or kwrite. In the dsl-linux.sh file, change this part of the string:
-append "qemu frugal quiet"
add dsl 2 after the quotes so it reads:
-append "dsl 2 qemu frugal quiet"
then save the file, reboot using the dsl-linux.sh script and it will boot to run level 2.

Same thing in the dsl-windows.bat file for a windows boot:
change the following:
-append "qemu sb=0x220,5,1,1 frugal quiet"
add dsl 2 after the quotes so it reads:
-append "dsl 2 qemu sb=0x220,5,1,1 frugal quiet"
save the file, then boot dsl by double clicking the dsl-windows.bat file.

If all you want is a text only browser, this is a good way to have it. Type (without quotes) "links www.damnsmalllinux.org" and the links text browser jumps to life. Pretty nice without having to wait for the xserver to come up on slower machines.

Bob

Posted by fly on Dec. 03 2005,05:10

I'm not sure if this will help any your questions... but... I was poking around today and I noticed that if you have a frugal install you DO have r/w access to the grub configuration files... I just mounted hda1 and /mnt/hda1/boot/grub/menu.lst(remember to use root console for this) and I was able to add all of my boot parameters here so I could avoid being tied to qemu.... in fact I added 4 different boot scenarios... Still tryin to figure out how to use "restore" to benefit me though.

Posted by random guy on Dec. 05 2005,04:14

oh my god that links thing is so cool. how much faster does that bowser load than regular ones?

by the way can you log onto email sites like yahoo mail with links, i was having some trouble.

oh by the way i have notcied that if you start in run level 2 by editing the dsl-windows.bat and click anwhere on the screen your window freezes. anyway to fix this?

Posted by devilock76 on Dec. 08 2005,18:52

Quote (mstrhelix @ Oct. 12 2005,22:57)

What do you need to add to the .bat file to make qemu loadvm the virtual machine state you saved?

Ken

Posted by neverend on Dec. 15 2005,11:55

yeah...that saving and loading vm works .. but please tell us how to make it load automaticaly on startup...its my first day using linux...:P

Posted by neverend on Dec. 17 2005,11:22

I DID IT
i've put the lodvm line right before the "-append.."
"
....qemu/harddisk -loadvm nem0 -append "qemu sb=0x220,5,1,1 frugal quiet"
"
it works..anyway I'm still a noob..maybe it will blow up your computer..so dont blame me - it was trial and error