Frugal vs. Debian

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Frugal vs. Debian
started by: Josiah

Posted by Josiah on Aug. 07 2006,09:44

Hey, I installed DSL frugal from the live CD to my HD about a week ago. I found the initial configuration frustrating: everything vanishes on reboot unless you specify otherwise. I've started to understand backup/restore well enough that I think I will be able to make frugal work for me if I put some effort in.

The trouble is, I don't want to have to hunt down a new directory to add to filetool.lst everytime I change a setting. I would like to have all settings (passwords, apps, hardware profiles, etc) store to HD by default. That is to say, I don't want to be left worrying on every restart "did I get everything??"

My question is: If I do a debian type install, will all conceivable settings persist as they might in Windows, OS X, or UNIX?

Alternatively, if this is not the case, is there a way to accomplish this within the Frugal install?

Alternatively still, if this is not the case, can someone recommend a distro that will run on 96 megs of RAM and AND write all settings to HD automatically?

Posted by u2musicmike on Aug. 07 2006,13:28

If you have at least 128M then a frugal install works best. You can have persistant /home /opt directories and not have to worry about settings disappearing. The only thing is if you use alot of .dsl packages your ram is filled fast. Now they have .uci and .unc that solve some of those problems.

I run a HD install on my old PC that has on 64M and it works faster. HD installs are fragile and I broke mine two times mounting a .uci and leaving a usb drive in on boot that had a different backup. If you do a HD install use only .dsl packages or apt-get. Luckly DSL is easy to install if you read the wiki on HD installs

Posted by Josiah on Aug. 07 2006,17:51

Thank you for your reply u2musicmike, but I'm not sure I understand what you are recommending. When you say:

Quote

I run a HD install on my old PC that has on 64M and it works faster. HD installs are fragile and I broke mine two times mounting a .uci and leaving a usb drive in on boot that had a different backup. If you do a HD install use only .dsl packages or apt-get. Luckly DSL is easy to install if you read the wiki on HD installs

Are you reffering to a debian type install?

Posted by brianw on Aug. 07 2006,22:47

I use a debian install on my armada laptop and things work fine. I use synaptic and mydsl quite often to add software. The only thing to remember is that when you install a dsl package the change is permanent (you can't just unload the mydsl extension like with a frugal). Everytime you make a change it is permanent. Also if you upgrade to a new version of DSL you need to redo all your changes (I keep the dsl extensions and .deb files on cd and install from CD if I upgrade or reinstall).

As u2musicmike said though you can break your install if you make changes that cause problems (reinstalling doesn't take that long though so I find it an acceptable risk). I have a partition for /home so I can keep all my personal stuff if I reinstall anyway and only need to reinstall apps.

One thing you would want to do for an HD install is to put nofstab as part of the boot line, otherwise your fstab file will be over written at each boot (not a problem unless you make changes to your fstab file for mounting).

Posted by u2musicmike on Aug. 08 2006,20:31

Josiah,

I have the debian type HD install on an older machine that has a 200 MHz CPU and only 64M. I tried frugal on it and it was really slow. I like the HD install using DSL 2.3.

I also have a compac laptop that I run from the CD and I used the backup up tool to save my setting to the HD. I restore my settings by typing dsl restore=hda1 at the boot prompt with the CD and if you have frugal you can change lilo or grub to restore a backup or write your /home /opt directories. I use this laptop for surfing on wifi.

My recommendation is both but it depends on how much ram you have.

Posted by Josiah on Aug. 08 2006,21:14

OK, let me backup a little. I have an oldish machine with 96megs of RAM and a 300ish Mhz pentium 3. I chose DSL for this reason.

My question is not really about speed or efficiency but features. One feature in particular: file persistence.

Posted by yaen on Aug. 15 2006,17:55

hi everyone.

I'm new to DSL and seeing your skill in makes me ask this.
I have a Compaq Armada 1700 PII 233 Mhz / 96 Mo / 3 Go HD / 8139 RTL eth1 / 8180L RTL eth0
I don't know what DSL version dl for, and what install choose ?
In the future I would like to have permanent install of softs I add. How is it possible ?

Sorry if my questions are badly formed, I'm frenchy (newbie) too.

Posted by yaen on Aug. 15 2006,17:57

Posted by u2musicmike on Aug. 15 2006,20:29

Here is how I did my HD debian type install:

booted the cd in dsl 2 mode
run cfdisk to make partitions:
hda1: 150M for swap
hda2: rest of the hard drive space

mkswap /dev/hda1
swapon
mke2fs /dev/hda2

reboot in dsl 2 mode

sorry I am on a different pc and forgot the name of the script but do:

ls -a /usr/sbin/*.sh

I think it might be grub_install.sh

I installed to /dev/hda2 and the install script makes persistant directories for everything and all of the settings stay on the hard drive usually in the home/dsl directory. On first boot after install dsl prompts for setting passwords and then mouse and video settings for starting X.

Posted by brianw on Aug. 16 2006,00:50

I have a compaq armada pII266 96M and a debian install works great.

after the hd is partitioned (don't think you need to reboot with linux, that is only required with dos) run the command

sudo dslinstall

and this will give all the install options. Alternatively run

sudo dsl-hdinstall

choose whichever boot loader you would like (lilo or grub) and eveerything should go OK.

After you restart all changes are permanent so if you load a dsl using mydsl the changes will stay and you won't need to reload it again (also you can't uninstall it unless you go through and undo the changes manually). Make sure your swap partition is created with cfdisk or fdisk before you install or you will have to do it again (can do the mkswap any time but the partition needs to be there).

Having the hd install (debian type install) frees up your ram which, like me with limited ram, you will want during normal operations.

Posted by brianw on Aug. 16 2006,00:57

Quote (yaen @ Aug. 15 2006,13:57)

download the current ISO, burn a CD and boot from the CD, right click on the desktop to get the menu. Click on the Tools and in the submenu there will be install options. If you want to try it first use the liveCD or do a frugal install. For your system, which is similar to mine, I recomend an HD install because you will want that ram free when you start doing things. Make sure to create a swap partition (can use a swap file if you install as frugal).

I am using the 3.0RC2 iso at this time and it works good on my system so the current 3.0.1 should be fine on yours. I have also used other versions with pretty good luck.