To make your DSL settings permanent. There are at least 2 ways to do this.
Backup and Restore
Persistent home and opt directories
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Local_Startup_Documentation
To make your DSL system more fully GNU compatible, from the system menu select Apps->Tools->Upgrade to GNU Utils. This will replace the busybox used in the base system to the full power of the GNU versions, by installing a special system extension named gnu-utils.dsl. Then for a Debian compatible system, select Apps->Tools->Enable Apt. This option will then allow full use the Debian Package Management System and Synaptic, by installing the dsl-dpkg.dsl system extension.
liveCD users can easily extend DSL without the complicated re-mastering process. myDSL currently offers two ways to extend DSL.
The first method is to separate out the static parts of your .filetool.lst. A good example is your custom settings of printer, modem, wireless, etc. These entries can easily be separated out into its own myconf.tar.gz. In fact any application that runs on the unmodified liveCD can now be separated out in this fashion.
Your second choice is to download from our selection of pre-configured DSL applications. These are designated with the .dsl, .uci, or .tar.gz extension.
All of these types of "modules" or "plugins" can easily be saved onto external media, such as, a hard drive partition, a usb pendrive, or even on the root directory of the cdrom.
For extensions that are copied onto external media, there is a new boot time option. For example:
a usb pendrive would use mydsl=sda1
a hard drive partition would use mydsl=hda2
The best news is that when a new version of DSL comes out, you don't have to do anything to keep your mydsl apps.
For those extensions that are copied onto the cdrom. The boot process seamlessly restores your favorite apps. The size of your myDSL is your choice, you can have a 64MB, 128MB, 210MB, or even all the way up to 700MB myDSL cdrom. DSL is the keystone to myDSL. When a new version of DSL comes out, just copy your additional applications to the root directory of the cdrom. There is no more need to redo a custom remaster to get your favorite applications on the live CD — no more time consuming uncompressing, chroot'ing process, or accidentally making "coasters". There is even a mkmydsl script to help you make your "mydsl" cdrom.
New starting with 0.7.1 is the optional directory. Create this directory on the root directory of the cdrom or external media. Place your .dsl and .tar.gz into the optional directory for those applications that you do not wish to have automatically loaded. These would be the resource intense applications. myDSL will still generate an installation menu for easy installation.
Also new is .uci compressed iso files. These provide much savings of your ramdisk and "load up" very quickly. Now run OpenOffice on lower resource machines than the ramdisk based .dsl.
Also available is the gnu-utils.dsl module that will allow liveCD users to have access to the full standard GNU Utilities.
For Debian packages, copy them into the optional directory. Also add the dsl-dpkg.dsl to have the Debian Package Management files restored. Then use the dpkg -i /path_to_deb_package to install under your control. Note: Using deb files will use substantially more of your ramdisk.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Category:MyDSL
loaded into RAM. They may write their files anywhere. Any part of the filesystem that these extensions write their files to must also be unpacked to RAM, and so these extensions can eat a lot of RAM.
safer to use on low ram systems, because they only write to /home and /opt, which are already writable anyway.
Note that if you load DSL toram, a .dsl uses no more than an equivalent .tar.gz, unless you use Persistent home or opt directories, in which case a .tar.gz will write its files to a physical drive, and use less RAM that way.
compressed cloop files that are mounted rather than unpacked. These extensions are mounted into a directory under opt. These are the safest extensions to use on low ram systems. If a .uci is stored on the hard drive, it will use almost no RAM.
similar to .uci. They are also compressed cloop files that are mounted. However, whereas .uci files can only mount into /opt, .unc can mount into anywhere. This is accomplished via the magic of unionfs. .unc extensions require unionfs be enabled, using the bootcode: unionfs.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/MyDSL:_Loading_Extensions_at_Boot
MyDSL extensions can be made to install automatically during the boot process.
The default location for all DSL versions back to 0.7 is the top level of your DSL installation. This top level, whether it be a mkmyDSL cd or on a fixed disk, is the place where the "KNOPPIX" and "boot" directories were installed.
In DSL versions 2.3 and newer, the system will also scan for a directory named "mydsl" in the top level of each available device.
As an alternative, you can store your myDSL extensions in the location of your choice, and tell DSL where to look for them with a boot option. For example, you can put your extensions in a directory called /mnt/hda1/home/dsl/mydsl and use the boot option mydsl=hda1/home/dsl/mydsl.
You can also create a directory called "optional" in the same location as your myDSL extensions. Extensions that are stored under this directory will not be automatically loaded, but instead will be added to the "MyDSL" desktop menu under the category "Install Optional Extensions". This will give you quick access to installing these extensions at any time during your session.
This page was last modified 30 August 2006
documented on: 2007.01.21
From http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Mkmydsl excerpted, not full version.
"Try before you burn" You can download extensions and try them out before you commit to makeing an iso and burning.
"Construction Set" by downloading in parts, you truly have a construction set method. This makes it easier for a slow modem users to be able to take advantage by not having to download a large single mydsl.iso
"No double down" You already have the base iso and have proved that it works on your system, so you don't have to download it again only this time MUCH bigger. Also, you already have your local "proven" collection of extensions
Lets say that you have downloaded and have a nice proven collection of extensions on your harddrive say hda3
booting
boot: dsl 2 toram
mounting your extensions library
mount /mnt/hda3
Start the script
mkmydsl
You will be prompted to enter the location of your extension library
Enter the directory to hold the image and modules: /mnt/hda3
You will be prompted to enter the location to write the mydsl.iso
Enter the directory to hold the new iso:
You can enter additional boot time options
Enter optional boot time options:
Optional additional setup of extension library
You will be prompted to copy any "last minute" extensions. This step is not needed if the extension library is already setup with "root" and "optional". This step is useful if you have large ram and are using ramdisk directories, then you will need to copy over the extension library into the ramdisk. But normally the step is not needed.
Final approval
When you are ready to begin creating the ISO enter OK (literally means capital OK). The script creates a mydsl.iso
Optional buring step
You will be prompted to once again enter capitals OK to begin the burn. If you don't have a burner then press enter and your mydsl.iso is made. After entering OK you will be prompted to enter the burn speed and device number for the burner. That's it.
The myconf.tar.gz is for your configs that you will not be changing. Thus filetool list remains for backup.tar.gz. My myconf.tar.gz has firefox FLASH plugin, Sylpheed email settings, my network printer configs, and several PPP settings and providers. mkmydsl script also allows for the boot time options to be passed, so I use toram, but you could also set your keyboard, start various daemons, e.g., ssh, lpd, etc.
I made the script to work on the most minimal of systems, e.g., a machine that is capable of booting DSL toram and a working cdrom burner is optional. It does not need multi-session.
By answering a few simple questions you can have your mydsl.iso created and ready to burn. If you have a burner, you can continue the script to burn to cdrom.
When I write scripts for DSL, I try to write to maximize the amount of machine that will be able to use the script. The script does not require the latest "super blasto" computer. Although it will run from within X via xterms, I usually run it from runlevel 2. By simplying answering a couple questions. Your done!
This page was last modified 18 December 2006
documented on: 2007.01.21
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=15231;hl=mkmydsl
changed several lines of mkmydsl that I lifted from the frugal lite script…
documented on: Sep. 08 2006, u2musicmike
If you want to remaster DSL, but asked your question at wrong place, a typical answer is "as stated we already have a remastering thread." So, basically the only options you have is to "read through this lengthy thread, which has been kept updated over the last couple of years". As of 2007.01.21, the thread is nearly 3 years old, and already has 68 pages.
If you want a bare-bone version of the 68 pages, read on…
> I'm trying to figure out a few things surrounding 'remastering'. > What can you do with 'mkmydsl' that can't be done with Meo's 'remastering > how-to's'? And visa-versa?
I'm sure this has been answered somewhere in this thread… but here's some info:
mkmydsl just remakes the .iso including any mydsl extensions you want to be autoloaded upon cd boot.
remastering takes the whole KNOPPIX image and recreates it - essentially the base dsl image.
documented on: Jan. 01 2007, thehatsrule
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=2;t=16501;hl=mkmydsl
mkmydsl allows to include extensions in a custom iso but you can't use it to remove apps in DSL base. Such a feature will:
make DSL easily fully customizable
prevent topics like: why this app in DSL base? How about replace this app by this one, etc…
allow to remove unused apps (Who uses 2 windows managers, 3 web browsers and 2 files managers at the same time?)
save space on HDD and in RAM (Usefull for old hardware)
documented on: Dec. 12 2006, Selim
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=23;t=16023
This is a preliminary, pre-beta, not-for-serious-use script! I haven't tested it at all, except to check the command syntax.
This script will be used for traditional harddrive installs and for remastering, to remove unwanted applications.
documented on: Nov. 10 2006, mikshaw
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=12;t=7177;hl=new;st=0
First of all I want to make clear that I'm not taking any credit for these remastering HOWTOS. I have just kind of "translated" posts from nucpc and Del so that even a newbie or a selflearned DSL-enthusiast (as myself) might understand HOWTO get into the wonders of remastering DSL. As you can se of the instructions below my "playaround partition" is hda3 (if you have another just replace hda3 with your own).
Start by running from the live DSL-cdrom
Become root and mount the right partition
$sudo su #mount -rw /dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3
Make the directories needed
#mkdir /mnt/hda3/source #mkdir /mnt/hda3/newcd #mkdir /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX
Copy necessary files to directory /newcd
#cp -Rp /cdrom/autorun.bat /mnt/hda3/newcd #cp -Rp /cdrom/autorun.inf /mnt/hda3/newcd #cp -Rp /cdrom/index.html /mnt/hda3/newcd
Copy files to directory /newcd/KNOPPIX
#cp -Rp /cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.cat /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX #cp -Rp /cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX
Copy the sources to the right directory
#cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/* /mnt/hda3/source #cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/.bash_profile /mnt/hda3/source
Go through and copy wanted things to /mnt/hda3/source
I usually keep scripts, studyprojects and whatever I want to have handy in a directory on a usb-drive. That makes it easy to copy it to what will be the home directory on the live cd. In that way all I have to take along is the live cd, knowing it's all right there (and perhaps some favorite mp3's on the usb-drive):
(Don't forget to mount your usb-drive first with mount.app if you try this)
#cp -Rp /mnt/sda1/Docs/* /mnt/hda3/source/home/damnsmall
Create the custom compressed image file:
#mkisofs -R /mnt/hda3/source | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
Create the iso-file as follows:
#cd /mnt/hda3 #mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o myknoppix.iso newcd
Copying your new iso-file to another partition to be able to burn it First be sure that you have mounted the target partition (You can use the mount.app)
#cp /mnt/hda3/myknoppix.iso /mnt/hda1
Now just burn the iso with whatever software you have installed in the target partition.
It can surely be done in many ways, but this is the way I do it
Mount, copy and chroot
$sudo su #mount /mnt/hda3 #cp -Rp /KNOPPIX /mnt/hda3 #mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX/dev #chroot /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX #mount -t proc /proc proc
(Connect to internet)
#dpkg-restore #nano /etc/apt/sources.list (Change to the testing branch)
Add and remove packages to your liking
#umount /proc #ctrl+D #mkdir /dev/hda3/newcd (Copy everything from cd except the KNOPPIX image to this directory )
(See the previous HOWTO if you are uncertain)
Create the custom compressed image file
#mkisofs -R /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
Create the iso-image
#cd /mnt/hda3 #mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o my_custom_DSL.iso newcd
Testing the new KNOPPIX-image
Make a boot-floppy
#dd if=/mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0
Boot with this floppy to try if your new KNOPPIX-image works (Then burn it if you like)
I must point out that I have not done it this way myself yet, so I can't tell if I got it wrong. If I have got it wrong please post a correction in this forum. This HOWTO is derived from a post by Del and I might have missed out in the "translation". If so keep me posted!
I hope this post will be useful for some that would like to get into the wonders of remastering DSL (this wonderful little distribution of linux) and making their own personalized copy of it.
Have a lot of fun (as I have had),
documented on: April 14 2004, meo
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=12;t=7177;st=305
With the newer versions of DSL there also has come new possibilities to make remasters. Personally I made the following type of remaster from an usb pendrive. I unzipped DSL-Embedded 3.1 directly to the drive. Then I created a mydsl directory containing gnu-utils.unc and gcc1-with-libs.unc and booted the drive with the following cheatcodes: norestore and xsetup. Once up and running it is possible to compile source code.
#mkdir source newcd newcd/KNOPPIX #cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/* source #cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/.bash_profile source
Now it's possible to add or remove things from the source directory
The following step is to make the compressed KNOPPIX file
#mkisofs -R source | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
Now you have the both unc-files and bcrypt inside the KNOPPIX file. So just by removing the old KNOPPIX file from your usb pendrive and replacing it with the new you will have the capabilities of compiling source code and encrypting files with bcrypt. So the principle is that unc-files that are mounted will get transferred to the source dir when you do the:
#cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/* source
This is the way I've done it but it can probably be done in other ways but it really is an easy way to make a remaster. This works with unc-files but not with uci-files because the uci-files are selfcontained and doesn't get transferred to the source directory.
As always have fun remastering DSL,
documented on: Dec. 06 2006, meo
Hi all remaster fans!
I just made a remaster of DSL 3.2 RC3 and it seems to work just fine. I used the principles of the HOWTO on page 62 doing this remaster.
documented on: Jan. 09 2007, meo
First off - thanks for all the work.
Now could a linux dummy ask you to help cut the extreme confusion that's grown through reading the last 62 pages and ask you to condense one point.
My remaster worked, but gnu-utils did not get loaded on the remaster. can you summarized the steps I'd have to take prior to doing the remaster to make sure gnu-utils load?
> how you did the remaster
Here goes (sorry for the length of the post, but wanted to give you all the details): http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=12;t=7177;st=310
documented on: Dec. 20 2006, SCOEIT
Check it out, extremely detailed step by step DSL ReMastering!
The right answer to the problem is at http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=12;t=7177;st=320
I'm kind of puzzled that it doesn't work as you want because gnu-utils.dsl should be there in the remaster according to your description. But if it has to be reloaded in order to work there is a very easy way to do that.
If you want to reload it directly from the cd just put a directory called mydsl containing gnu-utils.dsl (or gnu-utils.unc witch is a low-ram variant of gnu-utils) on the cd. Just copy it to the newcd directory before making the iso file and it will end up in the root of the cd and load at boot.
Another way of doing it is to copy the mydsl directory with gnu-utils.dsl in it onto an usb pendrive because DSL will look for a mydsl directory on at least any removable media. So give it a try and tell me how it works out!
documented on: Dec. 21 2006, meo
If you are just missing gnu-utils, you can load the .unc version before remastering,
or extract the .dsl to /mnt/hda3/source
Follow this procedure with all the modules so they all end up in /mnt/hda3/source/home/dsl
#chroot source #cd home/dsl
OBS! Make sure there are two hyphens "-" before —same in same-owner. I doesn't look so in the standard firefox browser.
#tar -zxvf gnu-utils.dsl --same-owner -C / #rm gnu-utils.dsl #exit
documented on: Dec. 21 2006, ^thehatsrule^
the entire /var/lib/dpkg/ was delete from the iso to make room. It is available as a separate download (dpkg.tar.gz).
ii ash-knoppix 0.2-3 A smaller version of the Bourne shell enhanc ii asmem 1.9-2 This is an AfterStep look & feel memory util ii autofs 3.9.99-4.0.0pr A kernel-based automounter for Linux hc automount-knop 0.5-3 Auto-generate autofs(5) lines on demand ii csh 20020413-1 Shell with C-like syntax, standard login she ii gphone 0.5.2-5 X/GTK-based internet telephone.
ii icewm 1.0.9.2-7 A wonderful Win95-OS/2-Motif-like window man ii icewm-common 1.0.9.2-7 A wonderful Win95-OS/2-Motif-like window man ii xpaint 2.6.2-2 reasonably versatile X-based image editing t
ii mpg321 0.2.10.1 A Free command-line mp3 player, compatible w ii vorbis-tools 1.0rc3-1 Several Ogg Vorbis Tools ii xmms-cdread 0.14a-9.2 Input plugin for XMMS that reads audio data
ii ppp 2.4.1.uus-4 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon. ii ppp-scripts-kn 0.5-1 PPP connection scripts for various providers ii pppconfig 2.1 A text menu based utility for configuring pp ii wvdial 1.53.0.1 PPP dialer with built-in intelligence.
ii deborphan 1.3-1 Find orphaned libraries.
Here you will find many applications to easily add to your DSL System
Word Document Converter 0.32-2 92K antiword.dsl DOSbox DOS emulator 0.63 1.7M dosbox.dsl The GNU image manipulation program 1.2 9.0M gimp-1.2.dsl GQview Image Viewer 1.0.2 264K gqview.dsl Postscript and PDF viewer for X. 1 348K gv.dsl image toolbox 6.2.2-0 2.8M imagemagick.tar.gz Partition Mgmt. App 1.6.21 204K parted.dsl Ted RTF Word Processor 2.14 4.2M ted.dsl Cron automating tasks 3.0pl1.72 56K cron30.dsl the GRand Unified Bootloader 0.95 144K grub.dsl RAR utilities for linux. 3.41 CLI 296K rar.dsl Rsync - file sync program 2.5.5-0.6 80K rsync.dsl
GNU Core Utilities - Busybox Replacement 5.2 9.3M gnu-utils.unc