Frugal Install

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Frugal Install
started by: cjnodell

Posted by cjnodell on Sep. 08 2005,06:09

Hi. I am not sure if this is the appropriat place for this post, but i hope so.

I just did a frugal install using the grub bootloader. Now that i have it on my computer, i want to customize it, but dont know where to start.

I have the cdimage on hda2, and my backup-restore file (backup.tar.gz) on hda2.

I have read that it is possible to make a persistant opt and home directory. I would like to do so, but dont know how. do i simply creat the directoris?

I have also read that i muss pass the commands home=hda2 and mydsl=hda2 when booting for dsl to load these directories, but i do not have the option of typing in any commands from the grub boot menu. Speaking of the grub boot menu, how can i edit the menu.lst?

Once i have created the persistand home and opt dirctories, and know how to use them, i ned to know yet another thing. I have read that a dsl frugal install is best used when certian things are stored in the backup, and certian things are stored in the prsistant directories. What stuff should go where? (For example i have heard that dsl extensions should be kept in the opt dir and not in the backup)

I am guessing that configuration sttings should be backed up, extensions should go into the opt folder and data files should go into the home folder, am i anywhere close?

Lastley, for this post at least, once i have firefox and slyphed, what do i ned to att to the .filetool.lst to save the settings?

Thanks in advance,
Charles

Posted by Your Fuzzy God on Sep. 08 2005,14:44

To change boot settings in grub (frugal):

1. Mount hda2 (where grub was installed)
2. Use a text editor (as a super user) to edit the file /mnt/hda2/boot/grub/menu.lst
(i.e. "sudo nano /mnt/hda2/boot/grub/menu.lst")
3. Your boot options go after the "kernel /boot/isolinux/linux24" line.
Adding mydsl=hda3 will install any dsl files found in the root directory of hda3 on boot. Adding home=hda3 and opt=hda3 will use the home and opt directory off of hda3. The first time you use this option, the default opt and home directories will be made on hda3 for you. (My boot line looks like so:
kernel /boot/isolinux/linux24 dsl frugal toram mydsl=hda3 home=hda3 opt=hda3 host=Shemp noscsi)

I notice that you have everything on hda2. I don't know for sure, but I think that you have to have a separate partition for persistant home and opt directories. This may not be true, maybe someone more knowledgable can enlighten us both. If you can, in fact, save a persistant directory on the same partition as your install then just change the above code from hda3 to hda2.

Since Firefox and Slyphed both save their settings to the home directory you will not need to add anything to .filetool.list.

Posted by green on Sep. 08 2005,14:49

I have everything on the same partition since i had limited space and options. It works just fine.
I have everything on a 512Mb CF card, and another one frugal on a USB thingy.

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 08 2005,14:52

Haven't tried the frugal grub script yet. Where is menu.lst located in DSL...in /boot? If so, you can try passing the boot parameter "frugal", which should give you write access to the root of the boot drive. When you start up, you should get a list of possible setups to boot. Select one and press "e" to edit, "e" again to edit the kernel line, Edit, and press "Enter" to accept changes, and then "b" to boot the selected line. This will not change the menu.lst file, but allows you to specify boot options for that one session. It's very handy for testing out boot options...if you don't like it, or if it doesn't work, a reboot will return grub to its prior state.

EDIT:
<----- slowww typ....er.

Posted by cjnodell on Sep. 08 2005,14:59

thanks for the info. How can i save mydsl extnsions into the root directory od hda3 (Thats where i have my new persistant directories). so far it says that i cant save to that location. Is this because i am not running the mydsl extension brwser as root? if so, how can i run the extension browser as root? i also read that it is better to use a certian extension type (somthing like .aci) when possible instead of .dsl xtensions, is this true? why? where can i find such extensions? are there other extnsions available asside from those listed in the extension browser?

Posted by Your Fuzzy God on Sep. 08 2005,15:26

What I do is go ahead and save them to /tmp. Then make sure hda3 is mounted and open midnight commander as a super user ("sudo mc"). I then use midnight commander to copy the .dsl file from the /tmp directory to /mnt/hda3.

Posted by cjnodell on Sep. 08 2005,19:22

thanks, works grat

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2005,22:09

There are a number of ways to do this in a shell or file tool.

Here's the way I use EMELFM..

Mount the partition in need..
( NOT your booting partition, but most any other one )
(For this example - frugal on hda2, storage on hda3)

Open up emelfm as super user..
Open /mnt , and highlight the /hda3 line ( single left click )
Then right click to properties>permissions, and make all the
"write" boxes active.. click "OK"

Then double click the /hda3 line to go inside /mnt/hda3
And right click and make active all properties>permissions>write boxes - same as above.

Exit super user emelfm.

Your hda3 should be writable now from any user.
Put whatever you want in it..

73
ke4nt

Posted by New2Linux on Sep. 12 2005,01:46

Question from a new user. Does cfdisk work on a NTFS partition? I want to do a frugal install of DSL but can't or don't know how to partition hda to load frugal. I don't see anything in cfdisk that will let me create a new partition. Thanks for any assistance!

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 12 2005,01:50

cfdisk is all about creating partitions.
It won't create an ntfs partition, though...ntfs is a closed format. The best you can do is clear that crap out completely and replace it with a real filesystem.

Posted by New2Linux on Sep. 12 2005,02:42

Quote (mikshaw @ Sep. 11 2005,21:50)

Thanks for your quick response. I'm trying to partition my hda ( C drive ) which now has Win2000 loaded on. I want to create 3 new partitions for a frugal install of DSL. Is this possible?

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 12 2005,03:00

I think you can resize an existing partition, but i'm just guessing...the last time i resized a widows partition was with partition magic.

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 12 2005,17:27

Partition magic works fine, but it is a commercial program that costs money.

qtparted works fine for either resizing partitions or creating new ones.

I believe that there is a qtparted extension in the repository but I have not personally used it.

Instead, I used KNOPPIX that comes with qtparted plus all required dependencies already included inside the livecd. Its a big download, but it's free and easy to use.

You may need to DEFRAG your partition from within Windows before you can resize it from qtparted

Posted by New2Linux on Sep. 13 2005,02:04

Quote (cbagger01 @ Sep. 12 2005,13:27)

Thanks for the advise. I may try that to see how it works.

I do have another hard drive I could put in this box. Right now I have a 10g h/d which is hooked up on IDE1 and is loaded up with Win2k. Can I move this drive to IDE2 ? Will W2k complain? Will I still be able to boot W2k? If this is possible I could hook up a 40g h/d to IDE1 and install DSL after setting up partitions ? Will work ?

Thanks for your help....