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Topic: Extensions problem after frugal install

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mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Mar. 05 2006,05:58

I think you might be right about changes in persistent home since that document was created. As I remember, DSL at one time simply used the home directory specified if it was already mounted, but now mounts it with a --bind parameter. I might be wrong, of course.

If you're using a persistent home, you could put your mydsl extensions into /home/dsl/something and use mydsl=hda3/home/dsl/something. This is what I do, and it works well. However, it's a bad idea if you also use the backup/restore feature. I don't use /cdrom anymore because I haven't had much good fortune with ext2 as dynamic data storage.

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lesliek

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Posts: 91
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: Mar. 06 2006,21:49

This is a response to the latest post by roberts.

As things stand at present, I can, with the file manager, manually get the Opera .uci file running after the boot-up process is complete and then use Opera successfully when dialled-up, so that, to all appearances, everything is fine with my system except for a tiny inconvenience re Opera.

However, I now know from you that everything's NOT fine with my system.

In those circumstances, my preferred course of action is to re-do my frugal install in a way that you don't consider unsatisfactory.

Here are my scattered thoughts about re-doing the install. I'd very much appreciate your comments on them.

I have 64MB of RAM and a 4GB hard drive to work with.

I know I need a boot partition of at least 50MB and I believe I need a swap partition, which I have read should be 128MB, given that I have 64MB of RAM. If I were to create two partitions of those sizes (178MB in total), that'd leave me pretty much the whole of the 4GB for other things.

I want to have: (1) mydsl extensions such as Opera; (2) persistent /home and /opt directories; and (3) a backup.tar.gz file.

I've read through your frugal install bash script. I found a bit about whether I want to specify a different partition for myDSL. If I say yes at that stage, I'm then asked to enter the partition to be used. It seems to me as though if I just press enter without entering a partition to be used, the automatic /cdrom will be used.

I'm assuming that /cdrom is a directory in the boot partition. If that's right, instead of that partition's being 50MB, it should be much bigger, say, 1GB, to hold any future extensions.

Since I'm not supposed to have extensions in the same partition as the /opt and /home directories, I could create a third partition, which would house those directories, and would be the balance of the drive, about 3GB.

Then, there's the backup.tar.gz file. Could that be put either in the boot partition or the third partition? If not, should I create a fourth partition just for it?

I know you said that you don't dictate how users might wish to use the system and I can understand that. However, all I want to do is to set things up in a way you don't positively disapprove of as inconsistent with your scheme.

Thanks very much for your earlier reply.

Leslie

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Mar. 06 2006,22:30

Wait a sec. I don't disapprove of any users use of DSL.

What I am suggesting is consistency. As the designer of the mydsl system I try to promote the use of the system in a manner that will be consistent in setup whether you are running liveCD w/backup or liveCD+mkmydl-extns w/backup or frugally installed. This system has grown from only a liveCD to be many things to many users.

Many users here are very technical and setup their systems to their lickiing. But to a new user comming from Windows or even a traditional *nix hard drive installed system. It can and does become very confusing. Especially when conflicting advice is given, or advice is given with dependencies. You can do it this way, but then don't try doing that. Hence my mantra of consistency, I personally keep extensions in a separate partition not mixed in with /home or /opt period. Given that it is your choice to place them in the frugal writeable /cdrom for autoloading or in a partition which you would specify with a mydsl=xxxxx option. As far as the backup goes, keep it out of the directories you are backing up and prefeably on an external device. If it is on the same device and that device fails so too is your backup. That said the backup should always be quite small. Since by being consistent our large static extensions are excluded as well as the main compressed OS image. Only our working files of /home, /opt and possible a few other files are included in the backup.

For backup, I use a pendrive and also web backup to my home network.

BTW, I have Opera in my /cdrom frgual setup and it works without specifying anything.

Edited by roberts on Mar. 06 2006,23:08

7 replies since Mar. 05 2006,03:44

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