DSL v4.0rc1
Forum: Release Candidates
Topic: DSL v4.0rc1
started by: roberts
Posted by roberts on Aug. 14 2007,04:09
Change Log for DSL v4.0 Release Candidate 1* New pendrive usbhdd installation script now uses grub with DSL on 2nd small partition.
* Removed pendrive usbzip install script, syslinux and mtools.
* Changed default root menu from dfm to chosen WM menu.
* Updated "Getting Started" to reflect changed defaults.
* Changed kernel from 2.4.34.1 to 2.4.31 to gain user contributed modules, e.g., ipw2* and nvidia.
* Created new support modules: cloop, unionfs, ndiswrapper, fuse, and madwifi in support of kernel change.
* Updated nano-tiny to v2.0.6.
* Fixed non-critical bug in dsl-config concerning hard drive installations.
* Added dsl 3 runlevel for multiple user dsl consoles.
* Fixed bug in iwconfig-setup
* Updated functions5.lua
* Updated fluxbox menus to use system default (helvetica).
* Added vim link
* Patched knoppix-autoconfig to correct language issues.
Posted by andrewb on Aug. 14 2007,07:55
Now that emelfm has gone & I have gone back to MC.......how is the window size of MC changed? the WM window containing MC can be resized, but MC remains the same size within the window.
Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 14 2007,12:44
I'll submit an emelfm extension shortly (along with a ton of other stuff). As far as resizing/redrawing, did you do a ctrl-l (small L) after you size the window? If that doesn't work, you might try setting up a separate script or menu entry with aterm -geometry [whatever size] and execute mc in it.Edit: Hmm, ctrl-l didn't work for me. What I was able to do is resize the terminal to the size I want and then start emelfm.bin.
Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 14 2007,13:44
| Quote |
| Changed kernel from 2.4.34.1 to 2.4.31 to gain user contributed modules |
Is this the same kernel configuration you used for 2.1b so its bootfloppy will work with 4.0?
Posted by roberts on Aug. 14 2007,14:50
| Quote (lucky13 @ Aug. 14 2007,06:44) | ||
Is this the same kernel configuration you used for 2.1b so its bootfloppy will work with 4.0? |
Yes. I have copied the bootfloppy for 2.1 to the release candidate area.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 14 2007,16:10
| Quote |
| Changed kernel from 2.4.34.1 to 2.4.31 to gain user contributed modules, e.g., ipw2* and nvidia. |
In any case, I feel this is a step back, as I was led to believe 2.4.34 was tested so that keeping a relatively recent kernel could help those with newer hardware. And then users of older systems could use 2.4.26
Note: if that certain subsystem hasn't changed, users could try "forcing" the module, i.e. with insmod -f
Posted by roberts on Aug. 14 2007,16:57
2.4.31 is the high water mark for backported, patched, and hacked modules that are not officially contained with the kernel build process. Many are very popular, e.g., ipw2x00. This was discussed in several threads. Using 2.4.34.1 was actually a negative in that many users who are still using 2.1b were still not able to move forward and enjoy the many feature enhancements since the releases of 2.1b.It would appear that there is little to no interest from third party vendors to supply or continue to update backports to the 2.4.x series. All have moved on to 2.6 series. While that is unfortunate,
should it change, doubtful, I would re-consider and re-evaluate at such time.
Using 2.4.31 will hopefully allow 2.1b users to join with the rest of us who are staying current with DSL development.
Posted by Key on Aug. 14 2007,18:33
Great! It is moving forward ..But although I have burned the CD this time on 2 different computers with 2 different programs ( and I think also a different (this time rewritable) CD ), there were again a lot of I/O errors shown during boot as there were already with the first alpha release.
Nevertheless I have got to the desktop screen and everything ( mouse, keyboard, .. ) was working so far.
Then I wanted to do a USB pen installation in order to test it on my new computer.
After aprroximately 1, 2 or 3 seconds and the words partitioning / formating, the installation stopped. I think there was also an I/O or read error shown.
I have tried 3 different USB pens. Always the same problem.
Does the USB pen installation routine work without any problem?
Unfortunately all the error messages have only been shown for some milli-seconds.
Is there a way to log them to a text-file?
Posted by roberts on Aug. 14 2007,19:11
If you are getting I/O errors during boot from CD, I would not proceed to use anything.The new pendrive grub script, was written while I was waiting in airports during my travel to Linux World. It has been tested on 128, 256, 512 and 1 GB pendrives. It was demo'ed at the Linux World booth. Since returning, I used and booted from it here on a couple of machines. It tries to address the issue of Windows not allowing one to see multiple partitions. So the script tries to calculate and create the small partition as the second one. This allows the remainng larger vfat one to be seen by windows.
Still, it is new and this is still a testing cycle, so proceed with caution.
*CAUTION*
If you are using SATA drives, I would not use this or any automatic script as your main drive is likely called sda1.
Posted by bokaroseani on Aug. 14 2007,19:37
The new pendrive grub script - does this allow me to install DSL on a pendrive and use it even if my BIOS does not support USB booting? Sorry if this is too dumb a question to ask...I am a old time DSL user but have not kept myself up to date in last several months.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 14 2007,20:08
BIOS needs to support booting from USB-HDD.If you bios does not support booting from USB, then try the bootfloppy-usb
Posted by bokaroseani on Aug. 14 2007,20:39
Hi Robert, I do not have a floppy drive in my Sony Vaio PCG-SR33 laptop. And my BIOS does not allow booting from USB drive. What do you mean by bootfloppy-usb? Can you please explain a bit? Is it same thing as bootfloppy, just that the contents are written on a USB pendrive instead of a floppy?
Posted by Key on Aug. 14 2007,21:12
| Quote (roberts @ Aug. 14 2007,15:11) |
| If you are getting I/O errors during boot from CD, I would not proceed to use anything. |
Now I know, that this is no special DSL 4 issue.
For comparison, I have tried DSL 3.4.1 on a quite new non-writable CD.
2 installed ordinary IDE drives ( DVD and CD burner ) have been tried to boot and read from the CD.
Both times, there were also a lot of I/O errors ( dev 08:00 ) when booting from this live CD.
What could be the reason for these I/O erros ( dev 08:00 ) ?
Although there were these errors shown, it looked like a working system with the desktop after boot.
Strange why this new USB pendrive installation doesn't work on my computer. I don't think that this is an issue with the I/O errors. As far as I remember, I have had this issue with the I/O erros already with DSL 3.2, but as there was no problem, I didn't care about and continued with the pendrive installation.
Posted by Key on Aug. 14 2007,21:20
| Quote (bokaroseani @ Aug. 14 2007,16:39) |
| I do not have a floppy drive in my Sony Vaio PCG-SR33 laptop. And my BIOS does not allow booting from USB drive. What do you mean by bootfloppy-usb? Can you please explain a bit? Is it same thing as bootfloppy, just that the contents are written on a USB pendrive instead of a floppy? |
If your BIOS doesn't support booting from an USB pendrive, you can use a floppy to do this first boot step. Afterwards the USB pendrive will be used for booting.
Both in a row, first floppy, second USB pendrive.
Instead of a floppy, you maybe also can use a CD to do this first boot step (?)
My IBM Thinkpad 390E notebook is not able to boot directly from the USB pendrive, therefore it requires the bootfloppy in advance. This bootfloppy does the first boot-steps and switches afterwards to the USB pendrive booting.
Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 14 2007,23:30
| Quote |
| What could be the reason for these I/O erros ( dev 08:00 ) ? |
Could be a variety of issues related to your drive, to the drivers, CD quality, etc. It would've been helpful to see full dmesg related to that to see exactly what's happening.
Posted by curaga on Aug. 15 2007,14:59
DSL booting is flexible. You can have the kernel and the initrd on your hard drive and boot them straight from your bootloader (even XP's one could be used...) while the usb-stick with KNOPPIX is plugged in. Then it will just search all drives for KNOPPIX, and use the one it finds first (ie, the usb stick)
Posted by kuky on Aug. 15 2007,15:39
1º great work with ver 4.0 is more friendly to newbes..2º when i load a uci program (in hd instal ) with mydsl the pc said with a window that" please mount media containing optional dir and try again" also when works in live cd. Previus i write *.uci file in hd..
If i write in bootlocal.sh mydsl-load /temp/mydsl/*.uci the pc answer "/dev/cloop1 :no such device or address"
thanks
p.d is the first time that i can write direct with dsl bacause i have now a adsl wired conection who works direct with a netcard and is not necesary a winmodem that no works in linux..
Posted by roberts on Aug. 15 2007,18:17
| Quote (kuky @ Aug. 15 2007,08:39) |
| 1º great work with ver 4.0 is more friendly to newbes.. 2º when i load a uci program (in hd instal ) with mydsl the pc said with a window that" please mount media containing optional dir and try again" also when works in live cd. Previus i write *.uci file in hd.. If i write in bootlocal.sh mydsl-load /temp/mydsl/*.uci the pc answer "/dev/cloop1 :no such device or address" thanks p.d is the first time that i can write direct with dsl bacause i have now a adsl wired conection who works direct with a netcard and is not necesary a winmodem that no works in linux.. |
Thanks for testing and feedback.
I see the problem with cloop for hard drive installs and will fix it.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 16 2007,02:59
There will be much to look forward to in 4.0 RC2, as I am working to further improve useability:xtar.lua - to handle the tar file formats in several ways, both drag-n-drop and double click, view, install, or process as an extension.
add2filetool.lua, add2Xfiletool.lua, add2bootlocal.lua - drag-n-drop or double click to ease these tasks.
an intelligent printer icon depending on context, double click will setup the printer or, start/stop the printer or drag-n-drop will print an output file to the system printer.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 16 2007,16:37
| Quote |
| ... dfm as it opens far too many windows (can it be made to reuse the same window ... |
This is a segment of a post by andrewb in the 3.4.1 topic.
Since it only applies to v4.x, I will answer it here.
Try
shift-double-click
Posted by Key on Aug. 16 2007,19:30
It's good to have 3 computers 
On my Sony Vaio Notebook, the version 3.4.1 and version 4 RC 1 Live-CDs were booting fine without these previously described error messages.
I was also able to install both versions to USB pens.
As you know already, I can't boot DSL from my SATA-DVD-ROM-drive. Always the dropping to the very limited shell.
Therefore I'm forced to boot from USB pen, but that doesn't matter.
Unfortunately, it sometimes also happens with USB pen booting, that the system stopps and dropps to the very limited shell.
Two Things ...
1) The complete screen should be moved some millimeters to the right side. I'm using screen resolution 1280 x 1024. Is it possible to do this within DSL? My Samsung SyncMaster 971p doesn't have any knobs for adjusting.
2) Still problems with the network card. It won't be found, not with DSL 3.4.1 and not with DSL 4 alpha 1 and not with DSL 4 RC 1. What can I do? Can I install it by myself? How to do? The network card should be an NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller NLAN 0011.
Hopefully there is a solution, either for DSL 3.4.1 or DSL 4 RC 1.
Thank you
Posted by roberts on Aug. 16 2007,20:55
| Quote |
| 2) Still problems with the network card. It won't be found, not with DSL 3.4.1 and not with DSL 4 alpha 1 and not with DSL 4 RC 1. What can I do? Can I install it by myself? How to do? The network card should be an NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller NLAN 0011. Hopefully there is a solution, either for DSL 3.4.1 or DSL 4 RC 1. |
For v4.x. Look at this post:
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....16;st=0 >
Posted by curaga on Aug. 17 2007,11:00
With full X I think you can move the screen area, if your screen doesn't have buttons..
Posted by stupid_idiot on Aug. 17 2007,17:18
| Quote (Key @ Aug. 16 2007,23:30) |
| 1) The complete screen should be moved some millimeters to the right side. I'm using screen resolution 1280 x 1024. Is it possible to do this within DSL? My Samsung SyncMaster 971p doesn't have any knobs for adjusting. |
Suggestions:
- Try to use the DVI input instead of the VGA input if possible.
- If not, this software might help:
< http://ddccontrol.sourceforge.net/ >
I've compiled it and posted it to rapidshare; could you test it and see if it works?
ddccontrol needs libxml2, so here's 'libxml2.dsl':
Link: < http://rapidshare.com/files/49583753/libxml2.dsl.html > [360K]
Here's ddccontrol itself:
Link: < http://rapidshare.com/files/49584003/ddccontrol.dsl.html > [40K]
You have to load the library first:
| Code Sample |
| mydsl-load libxml2.dsl |
After that, please run "sudo ldconfig" to get the library detected:
| Code Sample |
| sudo ldconfig |
Then load the package:
| Code Sample |
| mydsl-load ddccontrol.tar.gz |
Instructions are here:
< http://ddccontrol.sourceforge.net/doc/latest/ >
The program:
| Code Sample |
| ddccontrol |
Posted by Key on Aug. 17 2007,21:12
| Quote (roberts @ Aug. 16 2007,16:55) | ||
For v4.x. Look at this post: < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....16;st=0 > |
Thanks Robert. Thank you all.
Have tried with " insmod " now in DSL 4 RC 1.
But " insmod forcedeth.o " gives an error message > no such device.
Maybe the " NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller NLAN 0011 " is a newer one.
Seems there is no other possibility for me than to wait for kernel 2.6.x.
Posted by imhennessy on Aug. 19 2007,22:45
Hello all,I did a quick search on my problem and found nothing, so I think it must either be just me and my setup (both DSL 4RC1 LiveCD and GRUB USB pendrive on a Dell Inspiron 700m 40GB hdd with a WinXP partition, a Dell partition, an Ubuntu partition, swap, DSL 3.4 on one, and a little playground on the final partition.)
it seems that only with 4RC1, the auto mount tool tells me that the Ubuntu and playground partitions, both ext3 are of unknown type: ext3
apologies for not having a dmesg sample or even a direct quote. I'm only on wireless right now, and that wireless is ipw2200, and the .dsl is on an ext3 partition.
if this is clearly just a problem I'm having, more apologies.
ivan
Posted by roberts on Aug. 20 2007,01:34
| Quote |
| it seems that only with 4RC1, the auto mount tool tells me that the Ubuntu and playground partitions, both ext3 are of unknown type: ext3 |
Found the problem and fixed it. It will be in 4RC2.
Thanks for testing and reporting this!
Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 22 2007,21:23
There's an issue with the alt/meta key in this newer version of jwm in DSL 4 (rc1). I'm testing some new extensions (console-based) and every time I hit the alt key for a command in one of the apps (for example, M-x in emacs) jwm freezes the current terminal window. I double checked keybindings and tried reassigning to no avail -- jwm totally hogs that key and freezes the current window no matter what I try.I didn't recall this happening with earlier versions so I'm back on DSL 3.4 and it's not a problem here.
I also noticed that exec and root commands added to .jwmrc only work when num lock is engaged.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 22 2007,21:41
jwm used in v4 is a stock jwm 2.0 whereas the jwm in 3.x is a very old v0.24 and hacked version of jwm, the hack had only to do with providing a root menu, before such became an option.jwm is not the only window manger in 4.0, there is fluxbox and swm
Posted by jls legalize on Aug. 23 2007,01:36
Cause dsl is intended to be used mostly on old machines I think is better to remove the -zoom
option from the mplayer command associated to .avi files in the file manager (dfm).
legalize cannabis, etc.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 23 2007,03:10
emelfm.dsl Which is emelfm v 0.9.2 as in dsl v3.x is now available in the mydsl repository apps section. Adding this to v4.x will enable 2 panel file manager functions as was previously in DSL v3.x.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 23 2007,03:11
| Quote (jls legalize @ Aug. 22 2007,18:36) |
| Cause dsl is intended to be used mostly on old machines I think is better to remove the -zoom option from the mplayer command associated to .avi files in the file manager (dfm). legalize cannabis, etc. |
Good idea. Will do.
Posted by gammelmarakuja on Aug. 23 2007,09:46
I tryed the rc1 out and... =/ I don't like it that much: The Mount tool was great in the left corner and the thing with movable icons ic cool but...the look very ugly yeah...but okee...it's a step in to the right direction ;)
Posted by kuky on Aug. 23 2007,11:51
the dslpanel ndiswrapper need a box with pciidd or usbidd ?...XXXX:XXXXi think is not updated to ndiswrapper ver 1.4...
sorry if i wrong
Posted by roberts on Aug. 23 2007,14:54
| Quote |
| The Mount tool was great in the left corner |
You can mount anywhere with a right click.
Posted by gammelmarakuja on Aug. 23 2007,21:21
and i think the circles look strange ;) but anyway thx, it's an awfull distribution i love dsl ;)
Posted by jls legalize on Aug. 25 2007,20:40
post removed
Posted by jls legalize on Aug. 26 2007,02:35
I would like a gui for managing dfm file types, instead of having to edit /home/dsl/.dfmext.In beaver when u save a file the deafult dir is /proc, it would be better ~/
legalize cannabis, etc.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 26 2007,03:18
| Quote |
| are u sure the bootfloppy in the RC area is for 2.4.31? |
Didn't do much testing other than booting from floppy and then finding and accessing a DSL v4 cdrom.
Anyway, more details, please. Otherwise, I will test more later. I want to get RC2 out soon. I can work more on the floppy later.
| Quote |
| I would like a gui for managing dfm file types, instead of having to edit /home/dsl/.dfmext. |
Sure, sounds like a great idea, will do. Likey not in time for RC2 but before final 4.0. There are several new GUIs in RC2 as well as a lot of fixes.
| Quote |
| In beaver when u save a file the deafult dir is /proc, it would be better ~/ |
Really? I don't experience that. Just tested by booting liveCD, base norestore and beaver's default is ~/
Checked my frugal grub HD install, no problem there either.
Checked my frugal Grub Pendrive, no problem.
Maybe it doesn't exist in RC2. Which I am testing now.
What kind of install so I can check that too.
Thanks for testing and feedback.
Posted by jls legalize on Aug. 26 2007,04:25
tryied again the bootfloppy and seems ok, sorry maybe my fault.Also the .filetool thing seem quite complex and hidden in the system, some gui for this could be user friendly.
legalize cannabis, etc.
Posted by roberts on Aug. 26 2007,06:24
| Quote |
| Also the .filetool thing seem quite complex and hidden in the system, some gui for this could be user friendly. |
Got that and several others done, double-click or drag-n-drop. You will see them in RC2.
Posted by andrewb on Aug. 28 2007,01:33
Apologies if this is already in DSL somewhere, or unrealistic:Would it be possible to have the 'ramdisk' exist on a physical drive, rather than using ram? I ask as DSL is superb on the Toshiba Libretto, but these machines can't be expanded beyond 64Mb. As the unionfs system uses the ramdisk directory to permit alterations to RO files in the KNOPPIX directory there can be quite a bit of space taken up by files that could readily reside on a RW disk (hard drive or usb). The latest & best example I have is using ndiswrapper for my wireless card which loaded around 2Mb of files into ramdisk. I haven't dug into the scripts that set up ramdisk, but will do so if I get the time. I was wondering if this could be a simple option to have at startup that the ramdisk directory be created on a physical drive rather than in ram ( erased on shutdown, or when restarting). I appreciate this is slightly off the main development direction DSL, but it would permit it's use on systems where ram is severely limited, yet there is space on a physical drive. I realise a hard-drive install could get round the problem of files being stored in ramdisk, but I prefer the frugal installation for ease of upgrading (and also recovery from experimentation!).
Posted by roberts on Aug. 28 2007,04:00
Hmm, somthing to think about. Another type of frugal hybrid installation.