DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: dsl nogui



Maybe the option exists, but I don't see it.  'dsl 2' boots into text mode, but as root.  Is it possible to avoid all the X-related actions....creating .xinitrc, startx in .bash_profile and all that...while still logging into the dsl account?  Even when doing 'dsl 2' it seems like startx is added to /home/dsl/.bash_profile, which I think is kinda rude.  Personally i don't like being forced into a graphical environment, particularly when I specifically chose to boot into text.

Just an idea....I can deal with it either way.
I just press Ctrl-C after logging in, when the white text appears.

I assume it simply breaks out of the login batch script.
cool!  I'll try that, thanks.
Although "breaks out of the login batch script" doesn't sound good to me.  .bash_profile is a very useful file.  I'm thinking I might make a basic backup.tar.gz just for .bash_profile and .xinitrc for those times when I want a vanilla DSL but don't want startx in my face.
I haven't tried this, but ..

Couldn't you make a backup.tar.gz which contained an edited /etc/inittab file in it
that has the runlevel set to 3 , instead of 5 ?

Then , at boottime, use the command restore=hdXx
( hdXx = partition containing your alternate backup.tar.gz )

Normally, this would boot you to a shell prompt.
Again, I have not attempted this myself..
I used to dislike Redhat loading into X automatically, especially
if you had a bad file or did some incorrect editing for X ( NVidia-XF86-etc.. )

This was my workaround..

After further browsing on this topic, roberts suggests differently.
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....;t=1511

73
ke4nt
In DSL runlevel 5 is text mode, as far as I know.  The difference here is that user dsl is automatically logged in, and then since the startx line is in .bash_profile you get automatically sent into X.  I assume this was done as a way to mimic the xdm behavior without the additional software.  You might notice this difference between DSL and systems using a graphical session manager such as xdm....when you exit Fluxbox in DSL you're  sent to tty, but with xdm you remain in X with a graphical login screen (i HATE that).

As I said, making a backup of .bash_profile with no startx command will prevent X from loading automatically, but I was just hoping I wouldn't need to shuffle around too many backup.tar.gz files...I already have 4 different ones with varying degrees of graphic configurations and that's rather annoying to begin with.

What about the possibility of specifying a tar.gz backup file at boot time?  This way you could have as many different backup files as you want in the same partition without having to move them around every time you want to boot with a different configuration.  One possibility is using multiple directories containing various backups.  This way you could say 'dsl restore=hda4:<dirname>' or something like that.  The 'optional' directory would hopefully still be read the same way(or maybe it could be symlinked), but backup.tar.gz and any auto-loaded extensions would be found in that directory.  Or the autoloaded extensions could be kept in optional and loaded via bootlocal.
In this way you could also keep multiple backups on a single CD.  Take it with you to another machine and test it...whoops...this machine can use Xfree86, but not nvidia, so I just reboot the same CD using a different configuration....no manual copying of files and loading of extensions.
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