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Topic: How do I create a .dsl from source/binaries?

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lucky13

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Posted: Mar. 05 2007,04:29

Quote (curaga @ Mar. 04 2007,11:32)

lucky13, you are a bit wrong about that. The extension won't touch your MBR if you don't tell it to.

Your script would re-write GRUB to MBR for those who've installed it to MBR. That's "affecting" MBR. That's something which could create a wide range of issues regardless of your intentions.

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The pic has nothing to do with MBR, nor does it require any script. The modified grub puts the same thing into MBR as an unmodified.

Which contradicts what you wrote above. Figure out how to do it without touching any MBR. You're also contradicting what you wrote earlier:

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I thought I'd make an install script which would backup the current grub say to grub.old.tar.gz and then extract the new files...

What exactly would this "script" -- or whatever you want to call it now -- do? Would it replace, rewrite, or otherwise affect anything any user has written to MBR or not?

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The pic is shown with a line in menu.lst:

Fine, edit it and leave MBRs alone.

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And my grub is shown for 7s, but it is quite cool to have something else than a black screen with text

I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. How long do you sit there rebooting your computer just to see GRUB for seven seconds? I seldom go less than two or three weeks between rebooting any of my computers. Usually, it's a matter of months. My complacency:

$ uptime
22:22:31 up 9 days, 20 min...

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curaga

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Posted: Mar. 05 2007,06:36

Quote

Your script would re-write GRUB to MBR for those who've installed it to MBR. That's "affecting" MBR. That's something which could create a wide range of issues regardless of your intentions.

If you read the whole thread, you would've seen that I only thought about a script 'cause mikshaw told to avoid overwriting. And you would've also noticed all the script was for was backing up the previous grub, not for anything else!

I won't even do any script now, since mikshaw told it's ok to upgrade an app..

And though all my comps have Linux, I don't keep them running all the time, since I use them like couple of hours a day, that would mean a huge electric bill!

If you want the splash image, grub does have to be installed again, but if you have a problem with that then don't. If someone gets the extension and wants to get the pic, he will surely install it like it's supposed to. The pic doesn't take any of the functionality away

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mikshaw

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Posted: Mar. 05 2007,15:16

Please don't take anything I say as official rules or permissions. I'm just a user like you, and what I post is merely help and suggestions (note most of my posts include terms like "probably" and "i think"). Most of my suggestions are based on my own experience, on what I've read from other users, or simply on what seems rational to me.

The *suggestion* about upgrading grub concerned only the installation of the program files, which in itself is not enough to make a useable grub system. The user would still need to install the bootloader into the desired location.

Now that I've thought again about it, it seems to me that grub is probably among the least appropriate apps for a mydsl extension. The existing extension itself is not a click-and-run package, but merely gives the user access to the grub program without the need to compile it himself. You still need to create a config for it, and that will need to be available somewhere before the system begins init (meaning before a mydsl extension can be installed). This means that the only way it will be truly useable (as far as I can tell) is if you are using it in a remaster, a boot disk, or a debian-style system.

I agree that users should have the option to install whatever bootloader they want, but just keep in mind that the typical DSL system is not a typical Linux system. The user should be made aware that grub is not a click-and-run app in DSL, and provided with documentation on how to make it work in DSL and how to make it persistent (namely a remaster, a floppy, or a debian-style system). I agree with lucky13 that Grub should not be automatically installed as most mydsl extensions are. It probably also should not be installed over existing grub files, since this might cause the system to fail to boot if the user does not complete the manual installation of the bootloader and configuration. I might be completely wrong on this last point, however.

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curaga

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Posted: Mar. 05 2007,15:51

This is going ty be my first extension. I'll need an answer to a couple of things (asked before) still before I can do it:

1. The different set of stage1_5 files. Some filesystem file that was with grub 0.91 is not on 0.97. Do I need to remove them somehow?

2. How is frugal with grub done? Grub files have to be somewhere persistent.. This is for writing some doc for frugal users..

For your last point: unless menu.lst (and if stage2 hasn't changed too much between 0.91 and 0.97) is overwritten, the system will boot using the previous config

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Windows is not a virus. A virus does something!

lucky13

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Posted: Mar. 05 2007,16:34

Quote (curaga @ Mar. 05 2007,01:36)

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Your script would re-write GRUB to MBR for those who've installed it to MBR. That's "affecting" MBR. That's something which could create a wide range of issues regardless of your intentions.

If you read the whole thread

I did, which is why I pasted back what you'd previously written. :-)

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I won't even do any script now

Excellent!

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If you want the splash image, grub does have to be installed again

I realize very well that it doesn't add any function whatsoever, which is why I don't understand why anyone would touch something as important/delicate/tricky as the MBR to do it. Still curious why anyone needs an image like that to figure out which OS to boot or to look at and go "ahh" while waiting a few seconds for a default to load. Is that really worth fiddling with MBRs, even if you reboot daily or hourly?

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"It felt kind of like having a pitbull terrier on my rear end."
-- meo (copyright(c)2008, all rights reserved)

21 replies since Mar. 02 2007,14:51

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