myDSL Placement

Forum: HD Install
Topic: myDSL Placement
started by: SuperLou

Posted by SuperLou on May 16 2005,17:45

I've been using myDSL on a usb stick by placing myDSL apps into the root of the stick in windows. Now that I've done a HD install, where do I put the myDSL packages so they are installed when I boot up?

Thanks,
Louis

Posted by mikshaw on May 16 2005,18:55

Full harddrive install, or frugal?

If it's a hdinstall, there is no reason to add myDSL apps during boot. Once they are installed they stay in the system permanently.

For frugal, it should work the same as usb...add the myDSL apps to the same drive that contains boot and KNOPPIX. If this doesn't work, try adding mydsl=hd?? to your boot options (in /etc/lilo.conf if you use Lilo), replacing hd?? with the partition on which the apps are stored.

Posted by SuperLou on May 16 2005,19:38

Its a full harddrive install. Once I've installed them, is there a way to uninstall the myDSL app?

Posted by mikshaw on May 16 2005,21:33

You will need to remove the files manually.

For .tar.gz extensions, just delete the "/opt/name_of_package" directory. That will remove everything but menu item, desktop icon, and any user configs you might have in /home/dsl

For .dsl extensions, you'll have to look in the archive to see what's there (tar ztf packagename.dsl), and remove those files. You should be careful with this, though, since there is a possibility that some of these files are in use by other programs.

For .uci extensions, there is no install or uninstall. Since you just mount them, they are simply unmounted to remove them.

Posted by SuperLou on May 16 2005,21:53

What is are .uci/.dsl/.tar.gz the extensions. I think tar and gz have to deal with tars and compression. What exactly is a tarball? I guess these are kinda off topic.

Thanks,
Louis

Posted by mikshaw on May 17 2005,03:07

It's your thread, so nothing you say is off-topic =o)

A tarball is a tar file. A tar is a collection of files glued together as a single file. A tar.gz is a tar file which has been compressed with gzip. Generally tar.gz files are source code, but in DSL they can also be myDSL extensions.

A dsl file is a tar.gz renamed...just for the sake of being associated with DSL. The difference in the filenames reflects their contents. tar.gz extensions are installed to /opt, and dsl extensions are installed into the main system.

A uci file is a compressed filesystem which is mounted like a floppy or CD. This allows a DSL user to mount a large application into /opt, run it as if it were installed, and then unmount it when finished. It's a breakthrough in software packaging as far as i'm concerned. I used to think it was silly that a program needed to be installed on a harddrive to run, particularly in Windows where so many apps write to the system's registry, whether or not it's actually necessary. My thought was that programs should be easily run straight from removable media, such as a CD. The uci proves it can be done.

Posted by SuperLou on May 17 2005,17:49

So uci with mount can run with all of the same system capabilities as a program that is installed onto a hard drive? Is there something magical about installing a program or is it just copying the necessary files to the right directories?

Posted by mikshaw on May 17 2005,22:22

In Linux there's usually nothing magical about it, as long as you have all the libs needed to run the program, and as long as the program is told where to find them. There's no registry to be concerned about, usually no authorization keys, and no checks to make sure you're running the program from authorized media. People don't care about pirates when you're dealing with open source, so there's none of that extra security crap added, which usually just makes it harder on the licensed user anyway.

Generally any application can be built into a self-contained, portable package.