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Topic: Frugal? Needs more documentation!, Pros and Cons, but no HowTos!

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clivesay

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Posts: 935
Joined: Dec. 2003

Posted: May 05 2006,00:49

Thanks for the feedback.

Doing a howto without the screenshots would definitely be simplier for me. Keep in mind, that howto is pretty old and was done before many people were trying frugal installs. Ke4nt and myself were making a real effort to communicate the advantages of this type of install to reinforce all of Robert's hard work in that area. I think that howto was created before grub became a part of the DSL base so, again, it's showing some age. I'm happy that people are using it and it appears all my harping on frugal has paid off since many more people are utilizing it now. I'll look at it and see if I can do a rewrite in text only format and see what everyone thinks.

Chris

muskrat

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Posts: 54
Joined: Jan. 2006

Posted: May 05 2006,01:10

You say the Howto is dated, but really the frugal_install.sh seems to be dated also. Or it's become the frugall_lilo install.

By the way I found the means to install frugal with grub, but not from the CL, the new version 2.4cr2 has a GUI menu function of doing so.
But the script doesn't give you the oportunity to setup /opt /home backup and mydsl, like the lilo script.

So in that respect your PDF is really dated. I just wish I understood more about this system, this community seems to be young enough maybe I could help writing some Howtos. I just got to get a little better grasp on this liveCD enviorment.

--------------
Who needs windows when we have no walls?

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: May 05 2006,04:54

There is no option for persistent /home and or /opt in either frugal install script.

Doing a persistent home and/or opt is not really a frugal install but instead a hybrid install.
This is achieved by boot options that can added to either lilo.conf or menu.lst or even the boot prompt.

These options are not defaulted because DSL by default favors being nomadic and not tried down to a particular machine.

With DSL comes many choices. And with each new release I am usually compounding the number choices.

Choices means reading and exploring. DSL is like tinker toys for the mind.
Tyring to document eveything that one can build with tinker toys is not easy, so only some examples are given.

When DSL had a testing group, we once tried to make a testing grid of all possible combinations and permutations to test.
I don't think it was ever completed.

More choices comming soon...

All documentation will be obsolete again...

But aint it fun!

The development that I added to DSL favors, frugal, favors nomadic, but the bottom line... DSL is about choices.

xxooss

Group: Members
Posts: 20
Joined: Jan. 2006

Posted: May 05 2006,13:38

Well I will chime in here.

I have been playing with DSL for a good while now and I must say I love it. What I do not love is the holier than thou attitude that always seem to permiate from some linux users. I have been trying now for over 2 weeks to get my frugal install to save all the setings i want it to. I have read and reread evey post i could find on the matter and i am only just a little dumber now after having read them.

I am certain all my frustration is from my own lack of knowledge of the linux OS but I am an expert in computers for the most part with 25+ years fooling around with them.

I think the main issue for me is in trying to understand the exact sequence of events that happen when DSL boots in frugal mode. Below is my menu.lst entry I use...

title DSL fb1280x1024
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda1 quiet vga=794 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal mydsl=hda1 restore=hda1 home=hda1 opt=hda1
initrd /boot/minirt24.gz [B]

I have dsl loaded as frugal install on a 1gb CF card running on the EPIA mini-itx board with the Samual 800mhz proc, 256 mb pc133 sdram. The install was done from a 256mb pendrive. No issues except for saving and restoring my settings.

I have tried and tried but to no avail. The /KNOPPIX dir being write protected was a nightmare, I couldn't even get emelfm to open in superuser but after finding this post I was able to get menu.lst edited.

I then proceded to AGAIN load up the apps I wanted from "my dsl" and then did a back up. In the back up text box i put "hda1" without the quotes.

Here is my .filetool.lst and .xfiletool.lst contents...
.filetool.lst.
##################################
opt/ppp
opt/bootlocal.sh
opt/powerdown.sh
opt/.dslrc
opt/.mydsl_dir
##################################

here is .xfiletool/lst.
##################################
Cache
XUL.mfasl
home/dsl/mnt
home/dsl/.jwmrc
home/dsl/.opera/cache4
home/dsl/.opera/images
##################################

I took out the line in .xfiletool.lst that said something about mydsl menu since I was tring to get my OS to be the same everytime I booted.

My main mission is to get this system set up so that it backs up and saves all my settings. I tried to do a backup to hda1 after getting all my files installed and when i come back and do a restore it has reverted back to the same way it was after the initial install except that the /opt directory seemed to show back up under /mnt/hda1. I am sure I am doing something wrong. What is the process you would recomend?

back up to hda1
then next boot do a restore,

when I did that i get nothing, nothing comes back on my desktop or in my menus.

I know that John and others are so sick and tired of answering the same questions over and over but to me that seems to indicate a need for better documentation, which takes time and money. I would highly recomend everyone either donating what you can or purchase from the dsl store. I bought my motherboard and power supply from them and prices are very much in line with other internet resellers.

What I am working towards is a noobs guide to dsl, and by noob i mean N00b!

Soooooooooooooo, any ideas on how to get my system saving my dsl aps etc?

Thanks

clivesay

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Posts: 935
Joined: Dec. 2003

Posted: May 05 2006,15:51

I'm not sure where the 'holier than thou' comment is directed?

As far as your setup, give some more detail please. What all are you trying to backup? I notice that /home/dsl is NOT in your .filetool.lst so nothing is being backed up from that directory. You actually shouldn't need to backup /home and /opt if they are persistent. It looks like you're showing persistent /home and /opt on the same partition as the image. I'm not sure that will work correctly. If you have those dirs on a HD I would definitely recommend putting them on a seperate partition than hda1. Post some more detail and we'll get you setup.

BTW - I am starting to work on a text-only DSL Frugal install document that will have much more detail than the previous howto. Be patient

Chris

16 replies since April 22 2006,05:05

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