-------------------------- rapidweather.com presents: -------------------------- Booting and Restoring Damn Small Linux from Hard Drive (Without doing a "hard drive install") ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Location on the web: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/general_howto ----------------------------------------------------------------------- New, see below: Restoring Opera 6.12 Also New, see below: Luit Linux, a remaster of Damn Small Linux! New, remastering Damn Small Linux, an untested mini-howto. ------------------------------------------------------ Go to http://www.damnsmalllinux.org to order your own CD of DSL. This howto is based on DSL 0.5.3.1 --------------------------------------------------------------- This document is designed to outline the various steps required to run your Damn Small Linux distribution from the hard drive, and restore all your files and directories from a file called backup.tar.gz, located on your hard drive. ---------- Most of this imformation concerns users of older computers, without USB ports where a memory stick can be used. These computers may also have a slower CDROM drive, and running DSL directly off the hard drive may be faster. Even on fast computers, P4's etc. DSL will open applications faster when run off the hard drive, rather than running off the CD. ---------- If you have more than one partition on your hard drive, or a second hard drive, then you can easily run DSL from a /knoppix folder in the root directory of an operating system in a primary partition on your hard drive, and restore all your files from another partition or from a second hard drive. To begin, boot your computer into Windows, which will probably be /dev/hda1 on your hard drive. Place your Damn Small Linux CD in the CDROM, and open it, by right clicking on the CD drives icon in Windows. There you will find the /knoppix folder. Copy this folder to your root directory in Windows, so it will be at C:\knoppix. ------ An aside note here: None of your personal information is contained in the /knoppix directory! You have to restore to have any of that returned to the computer. ----- Now you have to make a boot floppy to use with your computer's /knoppix directory. If you can get DSL to run off the CDROM drive, then you can: #cd /cdrom/knoppix #ls You should now see the file boot.img. Put a new floppy in the drive, and: #dd if=/cdrom/knoppix/boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k (The dd program is a linux program called "direct dump" and you need to be booted into Damn Small Linux to use it to make a boot floppy.) After a while, your boot floppy is made. Put a label on it: DSL Boot ------- If you cannot change a computers setup so you can boot off the cdrom drive first, then you can use the boot floppy to boot DSL. It is slower, but after it boots, it will look for a /knoppix directory on your hard drive, or the cdrom. Once it finds it, your DSL system will begin to boot. If you have the DSL CD in the tray, the boot floppy should find it. ------- If you do not place the DSL cdrom in the tray, then the disk will look for the /knoppix directory on your hard drive. It may or may not find it. Best bet is to place the /knoppix folder in your Windows installation as mentioned above. ------- Restoration is another matter. By default, the restore/backup menu item in DSL will look for a USB memory stick, or if no memory stick is found, the floppy. When you select restore from the default DSL menu,you will need to remove the boot floppy, if you used one, and put either a memory stick in a USB port, or a floppy in the drive, and allow DSL to restore to that. ------- If you have downloaded and have run MozillaFirebird, then you have a /MozillaFirebird folder in /opt. You can backup that folder to a USB drive when you do a default backup. First you need to mount the USB drive: #mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive (always sudo su to be root when you do these things.) Then you need to copy a filetool.lst to the drive. That file gives the backup/restore script the instructions it needs to backup/restore. Here is my current one: ---------------- .fluxbox .xtdesktop .xinitrc /opt/xsetup /opt/ppp /opt/wvdial.conf .blackboxrc .dillo .links /opt/MozillaFirebird .phoenix web.html web_files upload kreon --------------- Everything after .phoenix is my own files and etc. Here are the details on that: I have a /home/damnsmall/upload directory, where web page html files are placed so they can be edited, and then uploaded to the server. The /home/damnsmall/kreon directory is where my background image goes and other files that are not part of any other group, but I want to save them when I backup DSL. web.html and web_files are for MozillaFirebird's use as a start page. ---------------- Now, back to MozillaFirebird. That's a big folder, and can only be saved on a USB memory stick, or the hard drive, not a floppy. When you put /opt/MozillaFirebird and .phoenix in your filetool.lst file, then the filetool.sh script will save them, and place them in the backup.tar.gz file on your USB memory stick. You can use the default DSL menu to backup and then restore, but I suggest that you put a filetool.lst on the USB stick first, that will guide the backup script in making the backup.tar.gz file. Otherwise, you will only get the default filetool.lst as found in your /home/damnsmall directory. It will look like this: ---------- .fluxbox .xtdesktop .xinitrc /opt/xsetup /opt/ppp /opt/wvdial.conf -------------- At least it will save your wvdial.conf file! That will work if you only have a floppy for your backup/restore. -------------------------- A side note here: You start out fresh each time you boot up DSL, either from the CD, or from a /knoppix folder using a boot floppy to get going. You have to restore to get your own files back, and of course MozillaFirebird! -------------------------- You will want to save your backup file to your hard drive if you can, if you do not have a USB stick to use. Perhaps you are going to stay on one computer for a while, so that is what you can do. There are situations where the USB port is in the back of the machine, and it is very hard to get to. I have found that running DSL off the hard drive is very fast, and easy on the machine. Your hard drive will hardly be active at all, except during backup/restore. Compared to Windows, there is practically no hard drive activity to speak of when running DSL. It will run very well on 128 MB ram, and with a 200 MMX processor. ----------- Another partition is required to place the backup file backup.tar.gz and it's instruction file, filetool.lst (see mine above). -------- You will want to have the filetool.lst file in the root directory of the OS that you have installed on the other partition. I say "other", since you cannot have your /knoppix folder there. Once your DSL boots, the partition with /knoppix in it becomes the /cdrom folder in the DSL filesystem, and you cannot write to it, so your backup will not be able to go there. DSL thinks the /cdrom directory is in fact, the CDROM. -------- So, your backup files need to go in /dev/hda2, for instance, if you dual boot Windows and another Linux distribution. This is strange, because DSL does not in itself have a partition of it's own. The 50 MB /knoppix folder is inside of Windows (can be inside of another Linux, in a primary partition) and the backup "extras" are in another partition. The backup.tar.gz can be around 10 MB in size, if you have MozillaFirebird included. -------- Another solution is to add a small second hard drive, and store your backup.tar.gz and filetool.lst there. It would be /dev/hdb1. You'd have to do this if you cannot partition your hard drive. Some Dell computers with Windows XP have two partitions, /dev/hde1 and /dev/hde2, and the DSL/knoppix cd or boot floppy cannot find these partitions, so you cannot put your /knoppix folder there, although you could put your backup files there, and modify your filetool.sh script to find them. ---------- Here is my filetool.sh script to look for backup.tar.gz on a hard drive partition, rather than the USB memory stick or floppy, as the default DSL filetool.sh does. Go here: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/filetool_Storage ---------- Of course, that is not the name of the file, you will want to save it as filetool.sh on your Windows partition. Yes, you need to place filetool.sh in the root filesystem of Windows. In most cases, that will be /dev/hda1, and that is where you will have a /knoppix folder, copied from the original DSL cdrom disk. Once DSL boots, you can restore by going to the /cdrom directory in DSL, and running filetool.sh like this: #./filetool.sh restore You can backup first if you do not have a backup.tar.gz #.filetool.sh backup You have to open a terminal, and sudo su to root to get that to work. ------------------ Floppy Only Setup: ------------------ You could have the filetool.sh file on a floppy, by itself, and run it from there. Just be sure and have a filetool.lst file in the partition where you are going to have the backup, according to the custom made filetool.sh script. That script is on the floppy, and it'll know what to do when you: #./filetool.sh backup or #./filetool.sh restore Open a terminal, cd to /mnt/floppy (you already mounted it) and run it from there. To mount the floppy: #mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy The floppy drive should run, indicating that the floppy is now active. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of a custom made filetool.sh script is to prevent backups to a floppy, (there won't be enough room for a 10 MB backup.tar.gz file), and to point the script to the partition where you want your backup to be kept for backup/restore purposes. --- The default DSL backup/restore menu items will not point to the custom made script, so you need to use this menu: (copy and paste it to Scite, and save it as /home/damnsmall/.fluxbox/menu) Tip: In a terminal, sudo su to root, then #scite to open a Scite editor as root. -------------------------------------------- Debian MENU [begin] (Damn Small Linux) [submenu] (Dialer) {} [exec] (Dial) {rxvt -rv -T "Dial" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/wvdial } [exec] (Hangup) {rxvt -rv -T "Hangup" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/killall wvdial } [end] [submenu] (MozillaFirebird) {} [exec] (MozillaFirebird) {/opt/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird} [end] [submenu] (Floppy Drive) {} [exec] (Mount) {rxvt -rv -T "Mount Floppy" -e sudo -H mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy } [exec] (Unmount) {rxvt -rv -T "Unmount Floppy" -e sudo -H umount /mnt/floppy } [end] [submenu] (Apps) {} [submenu] (Editors) {} [exec] (Scite) {scite} [exec] (nVi) {rxvt -rv -e nvi} [exec] (Ted) {ted-gtk} [exec] (Zile EMACS-clone) {rxvt -rv -T "Zile" -e zile} [exec] (Nano) {rxvt -rv -T "Nano" -e nano-tiny} [end] [submenu] (Graphics) {} [exec] (Xpaint) {/usr/bin/X11/xpaint} [end] [submenu] (Math) {} [exec] (Xcalc) {xcalc} [exec] (ABS spreadsheet) {abs} [end] [submenu] (Sound/MPEG) {} [exec] (Xmms Audio/MPEG) { xmms} [exec] (Xmms Play CD) {xmms /dev/cdrom} [end] [submenu] (Net) {} [exec] (Microcom) { rxvt -rv -T "Microcom" -e /usr/bin/microcom} [submenu] (nAIM/nIRC/nICQ) {} [exec] (nAIM) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "nAIM" -e /usr/bin/naim} [exec] (nIRC) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "nIRC" -e /usr/bin/nirc damnsmall irc.freenode.org} [exec] (nICQ) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "nICQ" -e /usr/bin/nicq} [end] [submenu] (VoIP) {} [exec] (gPhone) {gphone} [end] [exec] (gLinks hacked) {links -g } [exec] (Dillo patched) {dillo} [exec] (Sylpheed mail client) {sylpheed} [exec] (AxY FTP (GTK+\)) {/usr/X11R6/bin/axyftp-gtk} [exec] (VNCviewer) {/usr/bin/vncviewer} [submenu] (got the bandwidth?) {} [exec] (FireBird) {/opt/.fbird_grab.sh } [end] [end] [submenu] (Shells) {} [exec] (Bash) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "Bash" -e /bin/bash} [exec] (Sh) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "Sh" -e /bin/sh -login} [exec] (Csh) { rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "Csh" -e /bin/csh -l} [end] [submenu] (System) {} [exec] (netcardconfig) {rxvt -fn fixed -rv -cr yellow -T "Net Card Config" -e sudo -H /usr/sbin/netcardconfig } [submenu] (PPP/wvdial) {} [exec] (modemconfig) {rxvt -rv -T "modemconfig" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/modemconfig } [exec] (pppconfig) {rxvt -rv -T "pppconfig" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/pppconfig } [exec] (floppyconfig) {rxvt -rv -T "floppyconfig" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/floppyconfig } [exec] (wvdial) {rxvt -rv -T "wvdial" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/wvdial } [end] [submenu] (DSL/PPPoE) [exec] (PPPoEconf) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "PPPoEconf" -e sudo -H /usr/sbin/pppoeconf } [exec] (Pon) {sudo -H /usr/bin/pon } [exec] (Poff) {sudo -H /usr/bin/poff } [end] [exec] (iwconfig) {rxvt -rv -T "iwconfig" -e sudo -H /sbin/iwconfig } [submenu] (Admin) {} [exec] (Lilo-config) { rxvt -T "Lilo-config" -e /usr/sbin/su-to-root -p root -c /usr/sbin/liloconfig} [exec] (Orphaner (all\)) { rxvt -T "Orphaner (all\)" -e /usr/sbin/su-to-root -c "/usr/sbin/orphaner -a"} [exec] (Orphaner (libs\)) { rxvt -T "Orphaner (libs\)" -e /usr/sbin/su-to-root -c /usr/sbin/orphaner} [exec] (Orphaner - editkeep) { rxvt -T "Orphaner - editkeep" -e /usr/sbin/su-to-root -c "/usr/sbin/editkeep "} [end] [exec] (X setup) {rxvt -fn fixed -rv -cr yellow -T "X Setup" -e /usr/sbin/xsetup.sh } [exec] (Top) { rxvt -T "Top" -e /usr/bin/top} [exec] (pstree) {/etc/alternatives/rxvt -e /usr/bin/pstree.x11} [end] [submenu] (Tools) {} [exec] (CD Burn App) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "BashBurn" -e bashburn} [exec] (emelFM) {emelfm} [submenu] (Midnight Commander) {} [exec] (Midnight Commander) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "Midnight Commander" -e mc} [exec] (MC as super-user) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -T "MC as super-user" -e sudo mc} [end] [exec] (Editres) {editres} [exec] (X Window Snapshot) {xwd | xwud} [exec] (Xkill) {xkill} [exec] (bbpager) {/usr/bin/bbpager} [exec] (wmnet) {wmnet -w} [exec] (asmem) {asmem -withdrawn -bg black -fg white } [exec] (wmcpuload) {wmcpuload} [exec] (mount.app) {mount.app} [end] [submenu] (Viewers) {} [exec] (Xpdf) {/usr/bin/xpdf -geometry 640x480} [exec] (xzgv Image Viewer) {/usr/bin/xzgv} [end] [end] [submenu] (Games) {} [exec] (XPacMan) {/usr/games/xpacman -upkey e -downkey d -leftkey x -rightkey c} [exec] (tetrinet server ) {/usr/games/tetrinet -server } [exec] (tetrinet client) {rxvt -g 80x50 -rv -fn fixed -T "tetrinet client" -e /usr/games/tetrinet DamnSmall localhost } [submenu] (TuxNES) {} [exec] (gTuxNES) {/usr/games/gtuxnes} [exec] (Sack of Flour) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/sflower.nes} [exec] (BoxBoy) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/boxboy.nes} [exec] (GalaxyPatrol) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/galaxy.nes} [exec] (bombsweeper) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/bombsweeper.nes} [exec] (JOUST) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/bt.nes} [exec] (SoKoBan) {tuxnes -s -E /usr/games/nes_games/sokoban.nes} [exec] (JetFighter) {tuxnes -E /usr/games/nes_games/stars.nes} [exec] (SolarWars) {tuxnes -E /usr/games/nes_games/solarwars.nes} [end] [submenu] (Toys) {} [exec] (oneko/cat) {/usr/X11R6/bin/oneko -fg black -bg white} [exec] (oneko/dog) {/usr/X11R6/bin/oneko -dog -fg black -bg white} [exec] (oneko/stop) {killall -TERM oneko} [end] [end] [submenu] (FluxBox) {} [config] (Configuration) [submenu] (Styles) {} [stylesdir] (/usr/share/fluxbox/styles) [stylesdir] (~/.fluxbox/styles) [end] [end] [submenu] (WindowManagers) {} [exit] (Exit) [restart] (FluxBox) {/usr/bin/fluxbox} [reconfig] (Reconfigure) [restart] (Restart) [end] [submenu] (XShells) {} [exec] (Rxvt) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -cr yellow -T "Bash" -e /bin/bash} [end] [submenu] (Printing/lpd) {} [exec] (start) {sudo /usr/sbin/lpd} [exec] (stop) {sudo killall -9 lpd} [exec] (reload) {sudo /usr/sbin/lpc reread} [exec] (configure printer) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -cr yellow -T "apsfilter" -e sudo /usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP} [end] [submenu] (Daemons) {} [submenu] (ssh) {} [exec] (start) {sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start} [exec] (stop) {sudo /etc/init.d/ssh stop} [exec] (restart) {sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart} [exec] (reload) {sudo /etc/init.d/ssh reload} [exec] (force-reload) {sudo /etc/init.d/ssh force-reload} [end] [submenu] (nfs-common) {} [exec] (start) {sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-common start} [exec] (stop) {sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-common stop} [exec] (restart) {sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-common restart} [end] [submenu] (Monkey Web Server) {} [exec] (monkey start) {sudo /opt/monkey-0.6.3/bin/banana start} [exec] (monkey stop) {sudo /opt/monkey-0.6.3/bin/banana stop} [exec] (monkey restart) {sudo /opt/monkey-0.6.3/bin/banana restart} [end] [end] [submenu] (Power Down) {} [exec] (Shutdown){ sudo /sbin/halt} [exec] (Reboot){ sudo /sbin/reboot} [end] [submenu] (File Backup) {} [exec] (Backup){rxvt -rv -fn fixed -cr yellow -T "Filetool Save Utility" -e sudo /cdrom/filetool.sh backup} [exec] (How To){scite /home/damnsmall/kreon/general_howto} [end] [submenu] (Enhance) {} [exec] (Enhance?) {enhance} [exec] (Icons) {xtdesk} [exec] (No Icons) {killall -9 xtdesk} [end] [submenu] (Pager) {} [workspaces] (Workspaces) [end] [end] Debian END --------------------------------------------- The above menu is on the web at: ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/fluxbox_menu_4 ------------------------------------------------------ While you are at it, save this general_howto to /home/damnsmall/kreon/general_howto so that menu item will work, and you can get this document back when you need it. --------------- In review, you have: l. Placed your own filetool.lst in the partition where you will save your files as a backup.tar.gz file. 2. You are able to boot DSL from another partition, usually your Windows partition, using a boot floppy. 3. You have the menu, above, so you can backup your system from the menu. --------------- ========================================================================================== Now, we have the entire post on the subject from the Damn Small Linux forum, dated February 3, 2003: (again, it's long and detailed) This has a lot of the above material rehashed, and some additions, etc. so you will probably need this as an additional howto to get you going with this kind of Damn Small Linux installation: ========================================================================================== Partitions: How about three? ------ I have run DSL so hard on a 200MMX processor machine, with only 128 MB ram that eventually, the swap will be used. Usually takes several hours of use, and a lot of applications open to cause the swap to be used, then it's not a lot. If you have a really old machine, with say, 32 MB ram, then you will see heavy swap usage right off. ------ Why three partitions? One for swap, one for the /knoppix folder, and one for your restore/backup files. What's this about a /knoppix folder? Well, you can copy the /knoppix folder from the CDROM directly to the hard drive, and run Damn Small Linux there rather than from the cdrom drive. It's much faster. Once you get your partitions made and formatted, then you can probably use DSL running off a CD to do that, using emelfm. You can copy the entire /knoppix folder (50 MB) using DSL's Emelfm. You'll have to make a directory for that partition in DSL, and mount it: #mkdir myname #mount /dev/hda1 /myname That partition will become the /cdrom folder in the DSL filesystem, once you reboot into the new DSL setup you are doing with all this. Because that partition will be /cdrom, you will need another partition to put your backup files, which are: l. backup.tar.gz 2. filetool.lst as you cannot backup to /cdrom in DSL. And, of course, the third partition, a linux swap. ----- What do I put in the partition with the /knoppix folder? Anything else? Yes, your backup script, filetool.sh Look at this howto to get all the details: ------ http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/filetool_Storage ------ How do I boot such a system? With a boot floppy. See the howto for more information on that. How big a hard drive will I need? I'm thinking 500 MB will be plenty, as you will be only keeping about 60 MB of files there, mainly the 50 MB /knoppix folder, and your 10 MB restore/backup file. DSL runs in ram, so you don't need a lot of hard drive space. ------ How can I partition the drive? You can use fdisk in DSL if you are running off the CDROM drive. Nothing in the hard drive is needed, you are going to set the entire little drive for DSL. In a terminal, sudo su to root, and #fdisk /dev/hda Make the partitions, and then change to type of the last one to "linux swap" Now, you will want to set up the filesystems on the two partitions where you will put /knoppix and your backup files. In a terminal, sudo su to root, and cd to /sbin There are some choices there, as to which program to use to create the filesystem. I use: #mkfs /dev/hda1 (for the first partition) Get that done, the go on the the second partition: #mkfs /dev/hda2 Finally, set up the swap partition with: #mkswap /dev/hda3 You can also use a slave hard drive, /dev/hdb ------------ Whoa! What if I have Windows 98 on one partition, and two more partitions for my backup files, and swap? Yes, you can keep your Windows 98. Just copy your /knoppix folder there, and your filetool.sh there. Copy your filetool.lst to the second partition, and leave the Swap alone for now, ready for use. Now, the Windows 98 partition will boot ok when you do not use a boot floppy to boot DSL. So, it's still a Windows machine when you want it to be. When you boot DSL with the boot floppy, the Windows partition will become your /cdrom directory in the DSL filesystem. You'll backup to the second partition, that has the filetool.lst waiting. All that is controlled by the script, filetool.sh that you have placed in the root directory of the Windows 98 partition. Again, look at the howto linked above. Yes, it's complicated, but works well. I place, via a cd, a copy of my latest backup.tar.gz in my backup partition, with the filetool.lst, so I can restore /MozillaFirebird and all my files and settings, already made on another computer. That way, I don't have to download MozillaFirebird for each machine. ---- Once restored, you will want to edit the /etc/wvdial.conf file to match your new computer. Your hardware modem will most likely be on another /dev/ttyS_ from the one you used on the machine that made the backup tarball. ---- You can run wvdialconf like this to set up that: #wvdialconf wvdial.conf Your username and password and ISP's phone number will be kept from your working wvdial.conf, but the /dev/ttyS_ will change to match the machine you have. You might want to invest in Partition Magic to create partitions on a hard drive with a working Windows 98 that you want to keep. ----- What if I have Mandrake or SuSE there instead? That's ok, too. Just place your /knoppix folder in the root "/" directory of that distro's installation, and also a copy of filetool.sh. filetool.sh needs to be modified in Scite, to reflect the partition location where you will place your backup tarball. I believe it's line 40 on mine shown here: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/filetool_Storage (You have to change the name from mine to filetool.sh if you download it.) It's only a text file, and you run it like this: #./filetool.sh restore (or backup) You can keep filetool.sh on a floppy by itself, and run it from that. ----- (end of area on installation of DSL) ================================================================================= Opera 6.12 Installation and restore section: (8 Steps) ============================================= Step l: +++++++++ You may download and use the .install_opera script posted by Rapidweather at: ---- http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/install_opera ---- That script seems to work, with this .start_opera script: --------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh # # .start_opera - Checks to see if the Opera Web Browser is already installed # and starts it up. Otherwise, run the install script. # Rev 0 11/22/03 # Check to see if Opera is already installed if test -f '/usr/bin/opera' then /usr/bin/opera & exit fi # Otherwise, run the insall script as root cd /home/damnsmall rxvt -rv -T "installing Opera..." -e sudo -u root ./.install_opera /usr/bin/opera exit ---------------------------------------------------------- Both of these scripts need to be downloaded and placed in your /home/damnsmall directory. Once you get them there, do this on each script: #chmod 755 .install_opera (then, Enter) #chmod 755 .start_opera (then, Enter) ---------------------------------------------------------- Step 2: +++++++++++ Connect to the internet, and as root, run the .install_opera script: #cd /home/damnsmall #sudo su (now you are root) #./.install_opera (Enter) --------------------------- This will take some time, depending on the speed of your internet connection, to download Opera 6.12, and the Open Motif libraries needed to run opera. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 3: ++++++++++++ Edit your filetool.lst to show these additions: ---- /home/damnsmall/.opera /ramdisk/usr/bin/opera /ramdisk/usr/lib/opera /ramdisk/usr/share/opera /home/damnsmall/.start_opera /home/damnsmall/.install_opera /home/damnsmall/.boot_opera ---- In my setup, I have my backup.tar.gz in another partition, /dev/hda2, and mount it as /storage. I have my filetool.lst there. I can back up MozillaFirebird and Opera, as I have plenty of room on that partition. You are doing this so when you backup to the tarball, backup.tar.gz today after you download Opera, you can get all this back when you boot the machine up again. The filetool.lst will take care of that. ------------------------------------------ Step 4: I'm sure you want to see if you can run Opera, now that you have downloaded it, and will want to set it up like you want, and use your registration number, if you have one, to remove the ads. Once you run opera, there will be a .opera directory in /home/damnsmall, and that is why that is the first item in the additions to the filetool.lst shown in Step 3. You'll want it back each time you restore, so you don't have to set Opera up again. ----- also, to save time with backing up a big Opera web cache, I just go in preferences > history and cache, and check the box: Empty on Exit. ---- To start Opera, run: #./.start_opera in a terminal, and see if it'll boot. Should go OK. Now, set it up like you want. ------------------------------------------ Step 5: +++++++++ Edit your fluxbox menu to have an Opera entry, so when you restore, you can just use the restored menu to start Opera 6.12. ---- Here is the first section of my menu, for you to use as a guide: ------ Debian MENU [begin] (Damn Small Linux) [exec] (Rxvt) {rxvt -rv -fn fixed -cr yellow -T "Bash" -e /bin/bash} [submenu] (Dialer) {} [exec] (Dial) {rxvt -rv -T "Dial" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/wvdial } [exec] (Hangup) {rxvt -rv -T "Hangup" -e sudo -H /usr/bin/killall wvdial } [end] [submenu] (Web Browsers) {} [exec] (MozillaFirebird) {/opt/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird} [exec] (Opera 6.12) {/home/damnsmall/.boot_opera} [end] [submenu] (Floppy Drive) {} [exec] (Mount) {rxvt -rv -T "Mount Floppy" -e sudo -H mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy } [exec] (Unmount) {rxvt -rv -T "Unmount Floppy" -e sudo -H umount /mnt/floppy } [end] [submenu] (Apps) {} ------ To edit your menu, cd to /home/damnsmall/.fluxbox and as root: (sudo su) #scite menu Your current menu should come up in the Scite editor, for you to work with. ------------ Step 6: ++++++++ You may have noticed the .boot_opera script. You need it to get Opera going, as I had problems with the .start_opera script the second time around. It worked the first time, then on a reboot and restore, I found that I needed the .boot_opera script: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/boot_opera ------ You need to download it, and install it in the /home/damnsmall directory like the other two scripts, and be sure and rename it to .boot_opera like this: #cp boot_opera .boot_opera and: #chmod 755 .boot_opera ----------------------- You can run the .boot_opera script from a terminal, like this: #./.boot_opera and your Opera 6.12 web browser should start! Also, you can run it from your menu. ----------------- Step 7: +++++++++++ Let's backup everything to the backup.tar.gz tarball! I keep my filetool.sh script in my /dev/hda1 partition, so in the DSL filesystem, that partition is /cdrom. To backup I just: #cd /cdrom #./filetool.sh backup and a new tarball is made and placed in my /dev/hda2 partition, according to the instructions in my filetool.sh, and according to the list of files/directories to be placed there, in my filetool.lst. ----- The details of my 3-partition setup is explained above, in the hard drive setup section. ----------------------------------- Step 8: +++++++++++++ Power down, and at some later time, reboot your DSL system. Once rebooted, you want to restore all your files from the tarball, and get Opera 6.12 back up and running. Here's how I do it on my machine: l. Open a terminal, sudo su (to root) 2. cd to /cdrom 3. #./filetool.sh restore 4. After a short while, all your files are restored. 5. I usually go to the menu and: Windowmanagers > restart 6. If you changed the fluxbox menu, it is now available, and the Opera 6.12 choice is ready to try. 7. Click on it. Opera should appear, full screen, exactly like you closed it, with all of your settings, and your registration number removing the ads. Opera should start much faster than MozillaFirebird. --------------------------------------------------------------- Step 9: ++++++++++++++++++ Making an Icon for Opera on your DSL Desktop! Go here for the script: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/icon_opera ----- To use this script, download it into /home/damnsmall then #cp icon_opera .icon_opera next, #chmod 755 .icon_opera Now, you need to check your path to the icon on your system. Look at cbagger01's post just prior for the script that he uses and use that path in your script if mine is not pointing to your icon. ---- This script can make an icon for any application, if you have an icon somewhere to use. Perhaps you can find one on the internet, download it, and use that. Who knows? ---- I tested the script, and found it to work, as long as I have Opera installed on my DSL system (through a restore from backup.tar.gz, of course) ---- For those using the .boot_opera script here: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/boot_opera You will want to change this line to point to the .boot_opera script instead of the .start_opera script: -- echo ' Command: sh /home/damnsmall/.boot_opera' >> /home/damnsmall/.xtdesktop/opera.lnk -- Otherwise, when you double click on your new Opera desktop icon, you will start the .start_opera script, rather than the .boot_opera script to start Opera 6.12. -- ========= That ought to do it! ============================================================================================ (end of Opera 6.12 installation and restore section.) ============================================================================================ LUIT LINUX ========== Now we want to get into Luit Linux! This is a remaster of Damn Small Linux, and I have recapped here my posts on the subject of setting up Luit Linux. The Luit Linux website is here: http://luitlinux.sarovar.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: Mar. 13 2004,15:35 luit linux will restore ok, from a Damnsmall 0.6.1 tarball. --- Have to put a filetool.sh in with the backup.tar.gz and filetool.lst in the same partition on your hard drive, and mount that partition, and then run the filetool.sh that you have there. I customize mine to point to that partition. Mainly, I have added /home/damnsmall/.xfce4 to the filetool.lst to get those settings back. I find that the .xfce4/menu.xml file has to be edited with vi. Scite won't work. I have not figured out how to get the window manager to restart, without running into my .xinitrc file, which is for fluxbox. --- Have had a ball working with Gimp, however. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Posted: Mar. 13 2004,20:17 Here are some tips on using luit linux: Most of you are going to use a restore tarball with this, to get Foxfire, and your other items, like your wallpaper. A good Damnsmall 0.6.1 backup.tar.gz will do just fine. l. Boot from the cd, and once up and running, copy the ~/.xfce4/xinitrc file to /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc. 2. Once you restore (more on this below), I have to ctrl-alt-backspace to get out of the xfce window manager, and to a text prompt. 3. Then "startx". That will use the .xinitrc file in item No. 1 above, to bring xfce back up, and all of your restored settings, etc. will be there! Now for my restore/backup: l. Boot from the cd, sudo su in an rxvt, and: cd /mnt 2. I keep my backup.tar.gz, filetool.sh and filetool.lst in another hard drive partition, at /dev/hdb1. 3. cd hdb1 > this gets you to the backup directory. 4. ./filetool.sh restore 5. Also, you need to modify your filetool.lst to include the .xfce4 directory, so all the settings will be saved. (get this fixed up before the restore) --- Here is my filetool.lst: --- /home/damnsmall/.xfce4 /home/damnsmall/Desktop/Autostart /home/damnsmall/.fluxbox /home/damnsmall/.xtdesktop < you don' t need this /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc /home/damnsmall/.blackboxrc /home/damnsmall/.dillo /home/damnsmall/.links /opt/firefox /home/damnsmall/.phoenix /home/damnsmall/web.html /home/damnsmall/web_files /home/damnsmall/upload /home/damnsmall/kreon /home/damnsmall/.start_synaptic /etc/wvdial.conf /ramdisk/usr/bin/wvdialconf /ramdisk/usr/bin/wvdial /ramdisk/usr/bin/wvdial.conf --- The xtdesk stuff is not needed in luit linux, and since it has wvdial, most of that is not needed, but let /etc/wvdial.conf stay. --- Here is my menu, that has the restoration changes to point to the /dev/hdb1 shown in my example: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/xfce4_menu_xml Of course, you need rename it to menu.xml when you use it in /home/damnsmall/.xfce4/menu.xml --- Also, here is my filetool.sh to go with this: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/xfce4_filetool_sh That file needs to go in the partition with your backup.tar.gz, your filetool.lst, and can be named as filetool.sh or left as is. It is easier to restore in an rxvt to have the shorter name of filetool.sh. --- In review, once you have adjusted all the settings in xfce, you can backup, and this includes getting a nice wallpaper, too, and placing that image file in a directory that will be saved in the tarball. I have the /home/damnsmall/kreon directory for that in my filetool.lst. (You need to make the directory first, of course, and place all your to-keep files in /kreon. ( I made that name up, look it up on google). --- I'll get back in here if I have more! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: Mar. 14 2004,17:59 Adding Opera 6.12 to Luit Linux: Use the scripts for adding Opera to Damn Small Linux here: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/general_howto --- Then add these lines to your filetool.lst: ---------- /home/damnsmall/.opera /ramdisk/usr/bin/opera /ramdisk/usr/lib/opera /ramdisk/usr/share/opera /home/damnsmall/.start_opera /home/damnsmall/.install_opera /home/damnsmall/.boot_opera ---------- Now, use this menu in xfce: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/xfce4_menu_xml Of course you are going to need to rename it to menu.xml and place it in /home/damnsmall/.xfce4/menu.xml ---- Here is a trick to allow you to use Scite to edit the file menu.xml Just rename it to xfce4_menu_xml like I have, and open it in Scite for editing. Then, in an rxvt, (as root) # cp xfce4_menu_xml menu.xml and you can use your new menu right away. Be sure and save your new Opera setup and the menu, etc. in your backup tarball, so you will have it all back when you reboot. ---- I had trouble getting Opera to work in Damn Small 0.6.1, and had to give up on it. Now, with Luit Linux, I have Firefox and Opera. My tarball, with all my various wallpapers, etc. is 18 MB. I run Luit Linux off the cd, so I can boot into Damnsmall using a boot floppy, and restore from another tarball in another partition. So, I can dual boot both forms of Damn Small on this machine. ----- Once I have the tarball fixed up like I want it, I can copy it to a cdrw disk, and place it on other computers, boot from the cd, and have the same setup of Luit Linux (with minor adjustments to wvdial and restore locations) on another machine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Posted: Mar. 14 2004,20:19 My Luit Linux Screenshots! -------------------------------- (these are about 450K each) http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux2.png --- http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux1.png --- http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux.png --------- Now for some explanation: The toolbar at the bottom can autohide, there are Quick-Launch buttons for Foxfire and Opera, and the two little monitors are for Wvdial "dial" and "hangup". This is a custom toolbar, and is not the original one. ---- One shot shows Gimp in action, another shows Scite and Foxfire, another shows Opera 6.12. ---- The shot of Scite, shows how to edit your /home/damnsmall/.xfce4/menu.xml as you can see, it has been renamed for use in Scite, per the previous post on the subject. --- All of this is restored from a 17.26 MB tarball, stored on another partition. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the text of the post concerning restoration and restarting xfce4 in Luit Linux: --- March 17, 2004: --- One of the primary differences between Damn Small and Luit Linux is the window manager. Damn Small uses fluxbox, which is easily restarted by the built-in menu, in 0.6.1. This is an important function, as once you have restored backup.tar.gz into the DSL filesystem with filetool.sh restore, then you have to restart and have DSL re-read the .xinitrc file. Once that is done, your restoration is complete, and ready to go. X has restarted. --- Now, in Luit Linux, a remaster of Damn Small, with the xfce4 window manager, there is a problem restarting X. First of all, there is no menu item for that in Luit Linux 0.2. I have found that one has to do two things to work around this. l. Add these lines to your filetool.sh --- gzip -dc $BACKUP_DEVICE/backup.tar.gz | sudo tar -xvf - -C / sudo umount $BACKUP_DEVICE echo "This is the Foxfire Luit Linux Restoration on /dev/hdb1." echo "I have restored your files. Now, X has to be restarted." echo -n "Press the ENTER key to finish the restoration process." ; read ans startx exit 0 --- Lines 3-6 are to be added, I have included 1, 2 and 7 as a reference. You may customize the text to suit your installation, of course. The important thing to remember is that filetool.sh restores, and needs a minute or more to finish doing that. So I have you press the ENTER key to allow the script to proceed on to "startx" which will actually restart X, and re-read ~/.xinitrc so you get your restoration completed. It's a two step process. Here is my copy of filetool.sh that I am using: --- http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/xfce4_filetool_sh --- There you can see where the additional lines are being placed. In Scite, they are at lines 107-110. There are plenty of comment lines, that make for interesting reading. --- 2. copy /home/damnsmall/.xfce4/xinitrc to /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc If you don't do this, the system will try and load fluxbox instead of xfce4, and although this is ok on Damn Small, Luit Linux does not have all it needs installed to run fluxbox. After all, if you take away xfce4 and Gimp, Luit Linux becomes DSL 0.5.3.1., more or less. That's why a Damn Small tarball from 0.6.1, or 0.5.3.1 will work in Luit Linux with very little modification to filetool.lst, other than to add this line: /home/damnsmall/.xfce4 --- Why would all this be important to Damn Small Linux? If another window manager is selected, then some way to restart X might be necessary, if it cannot be easily done via the menu, as it is now, with fluxbox. I have used FVWM in various forms and it always had a way to restart itself, as most of these window managers do. xfce4, however, is made up of several components, and a restart was not provided in the remaster Luit Linux 0.2. --- Why would Damn Small want another window manager? Perhaps to appear more like Windows XP. xfce4, with the Panel, as I have configured it, has all the quick-launch buttons any XP user would need to feel at home with it. --- Screenshot: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux2.png --- It can be done, but I do not know if xfce4 will fit, Luit Linux 0.2 wound up at 65 MB, which is over the 50 MB DSL limit. No web browser, other than Dillo is included, either. Your own tarball, with (in my case) Foxfire and Opera 6.12, is the only way to go. Those are not going to fit in a remaster that is anywhere near 65 MB or for that matter, 50 MB. Those who can remaster might want to try to get xfce4 in there, and make recommendations to this thread based on their findings. I have seen some posts where folks have tried other window managers, and attempt to include them in their backup.tar.gz. I tried one, asclassic downloaded with synaptic. Not as good as fluxbox. --- If anyone has a remaster that is available for download, let us know here, so we can give it a try. --- Can't wait until Damnsmall comes out with a new version, or for that matter, Luit Linux. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New post March 19, 2004, concerning the /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc file and the use of the restoration tarball in both DSL and Luit Linux: ----- Posted: Mar. 19 2004,21:42 Using the same backup.tar.gz (backup tarball) with Damn Small Linux 0.6.1 and Luit Linux 0.2. --------------------------- You have two cd's, one DSL, one Luit Linux. Only one tarball, that you put together using Damn Small Linux 0.6.1. You can boot either one, and as long as you do not have /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc in your filetool.lst, the tarball will allow either window manager to work, depending on which cd you boot with. Luit Linux has it's own .xinitrc, needed to bring up xfce4, and so does Damnsmall, needed to bring up fluxbox. --- The only line needed in your filetool.lst to make a DSL tarball work with Luit Linux is the /home/damnsmall/.xfce4 line. Once you boot into Luit, and customize the Panel, and backup to the tarball, that information will only be needed if you boot into Luit, and is ignored by Damn Small. --- Applications? Opera 6.12 works in DSL 0.5.3.1 and Luit, but not in DSL 0.6.1, and that part of the restore is ignored when you boot into DSL 0.6.1. You do not have a menu item for Opera, so it's not a problem. Foxfire, however, works for both DSL and Luit. --- You might have the tarball on a hard drive partition, or on a usb drive, and it complicates things to have two different tarballs, (another partition needed), so just use the same one. --- What about triple-booting DSL 0.6.1, DSL 0.5.3 and Luit Linux? Going to have some problems using a DSL 0.6.1/Luit tarball with 0.5.3, so I do not recommend it. --- Tarballs that have been added to and customized are valuable, I keep backups on CD, and install them on various machines to get up and running quickly. Future releases of Damn Small Linux will probably retain the file structure of 0.6.1, so your tarball will be the first thing to try on a new release. --- As this thread is entitled "New distro based on DSL", I am doing some research/investigation of Luit Linux, for the benefit of the main thread, "DSL Ideas and Suggestions". I doubt that I will discover anything really new about Luit (as it relates to DSL) after this point, so I may move on to something more mainstream DSL. --- I am most impressed with xfce4 window manager in Luit, and would want the DSL developers to at least consider using it one day, as it is more like what Windows XP users work with (more or less). ======================================================================================= End of Section on Luit Linux. ========================================= Now, what follows is a mini-howto on remastering Damn Small Linux. I have tested some of the procedure, but have not yet remastered dsl, so this is mainly informational, for those who want to try it: ----- This is credited to Bryce Nesbitt, posting on the dsl forum: Posted: Mar. 25 2004,03:43 I found the error in the instructions lead to the tty not opening (you need to unmount /dev). A complete set of instructions to remaster Damn Small Linux (DSL) is: ----------------------------------------------------------------- For the remainder of this howto it will be assumed you have a dedicated partition for remastering DSL located at /dev/hda1 (the first partition of the first hard disk). You must be root to accomplish this project, 'sudo su' at a command prompt will suffice. You may need a lot of ram and/or hard disk space to make this work. #mount /mnt/hda1 #cp -Rp /KNOPPIX /mnt/hda1/ #mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX/dev #chroot /mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX #mount -t proc /proc proc (do whatever it is you did to get your internet connection up and running on the LiveCD) #dpkg-restore #vi /etc/apt/sources.list (change to testing branch) -- add/remove packages, etc... -- #apt-get install mozilla-browser #dpkg --purge emelfn #dkpg --purge gimp1.2-print #umount /proc #ctrl-d (press Ctrl and 'D' together, to un-chroot) #umount /mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX/dev Make a new directory on /dev/hda1 called NewCD. Copy everything from the DSL CD to this directory, _except_ for the KNOPPIX compressed image (since this is the file we'll be replacing with the custom DSL remaster). Create the compressed image file (your own custom KNOPPIX) #mkisofs -R /mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /mnt/hda1/NewCD/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX Now it's time to create the CD image #cd /mnt/hda1 #mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o my_custom_DSL.iso NewCd That's it! You've just whipped up your own custom Linux distribution, with a little (okay, a lot of) help from other people You can now burn this .iso image to a CD and have a bootable LiveCD of your very own. --- Here are the boot floppy instructions from Dell, who posted the original howto on the users board: ----------------------------------- Of course, if you want to test your image first (that's probably a good idea) read on... For testing, you must have a floppy drive for your computer to boot from. Make a boot floppy from the boot.img you just used in your .iso. #dd if=/mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0 This boot floppy will look for a KNOPPIX file in a /KNOPPIX partition on any partition when booting up. Since we created a KNOPPIX compressed image in /dev/hda1/KNOPPIX/, that will do just fine. Stick the floppy in the drive, and reboot the PC, taking care to remove the Damn Small CD from the cdrom (so it'll boot from the floppy, not the cd). If it boots up to your customized version of DSL, well, then things worked. --------- (End of remastering mini howto) ------------------------------------------ Here is an update on the remastering of Damn Small Linux. The Getting Started Guide that I use in my remaster is here: http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/getting_started.html ===============================================================================================