DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: squashFS



Sounds like an idea worth exploring, for sure.

Do you know if squashfs images can be located on an ntfs partition?

Fordi, let us know how your experiments go -- combining squashFS extensions with a cloop iso sounds very interesting.
Ok, here's the news:

squashfs.o works with an unmodified liveCD system.

I'm in the midst of debugging a pair of scripts that will be packaged with "squashfs.dsl" (along with mksquashfs and squashfs.o) that will automatically load converted .dsl packages as "sdm" packages (Squashfs DSL module).

dsl->sdm conversion occurs as follows:
-the dsl is extracted to a temp dir.
-home, opt, var and tmp are bound within user.tar (.gz isn't necessary; the filesystem gets compressed anyway)  these folders are then removed
-an empty "sdmrc" is created. (for later package-scripting support)
the temp dir is made into a squashfs.

sdm installation is performed as follows:
-if squashfs.o isn't loaded, load it
-if /etc/init.d/mkwriteable hasn't been run, run it
-the sdm is mounted in /opt/packname
-the user.tar is extracted into the filesystem ( tar -mUkxvf user.tar -C / )
-the mounted sdm is symlinked, file-by-file, into the filesystem
-sdmrc is executed (If you think this is a security issue, think what would happen if you had a dsl file that replaced your .xinitrc.  Trust me, you can root any machine with a well-designed package.)
-code grabbed from mydsl-load does the work in putting together the MyDSL menu and refreshing xtdesktop. (this is what's being debugged)

If you have the squashfs.dsl module on a liveCD, it inserts a script into the init-process that scans the CD for sdm packages much like the way DSL does for its original packages.  This is currently being debugged, as is the MyDSL menu code.  The rest appears to be working fine (it's all being tested with three dsl-converts: gift, gaim and the Gimp 2.0.)

Quote (cbagger01 @ Jan. 02 2005,00:41)
Sounds like an idea worth exploring, for sure.

Do you know if squashfs images can be located on an ntfs partition?

Well, squashfs is inherently read-only, so I don't see why not.  As long as you have ntfs.o and squashfs.o (as well as any special hardware drivers you need to access the ntfs drive, ie scsi drivers or usb drivers), you could do it.  You're thinking maybe a method of install using grubw32 on an NTFS partition?
I never mentioned why I suggest to keep DSL's core image as cloop!

1) I poked around in linuxrc once already.  That's quite enough.
2) It'd be real cool to make squashfs packages an upgrade that doesn't require getting a new iso of DSL
3) QEMU supports cloop images.  All the work I did making the split live/embedded mods would have been for nought. (this is a cop out and can be worked around - just not right now, damnit)
4) It's easier to distribute betas of a 128k package than a 50M liveCD.

Yes.  It can be done.  Yes, it probably should be done.  I'd just rather not work on it right now.  Maybe once I'm done with building a working squashfs.dsl and rewriting the MyDSL maker for local use.

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