DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Learning  from Feather



Not to leave out those who live by debian packages heres how to do it right now with the current DSL 0.7 using myDSL:

Step 1. Run the following script to repackage the deb file infastructure to make a .dsl for the liveCD
Quote
#!/bin/sh
mkdir work
cd work
wget http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dpkg-install.tar
tar -xvf dpkg-install.tar
bunzip2 dpkg.tar.bz2
gzip dpkg.tar
mv dpkg.tar.gz dsl-dpkg.dsl


Step 2: Copy the dsl-dpkg.dsl to where you normally put your other .dsl files

Step 3: Copy your favorite debs to the same place as your other .dsl files

Step 4: Edit /opt/bootlocal.sh  adding lines such as the following to load only the SELECTED debs that you want loaded

  dpkg -i /path_to_your_debs/deb_package_name_to_load

Repeat such lines for the debs you want loaded at boot time. Be sure to add /opt/bootlocal.sh to your filetool.lst and backup it up. Also be aware that this approach will most definately use more of your ramdisk.

If you read the concept of myDSL it is meant to create a custom CD. Not a cd that will boot anywhere. A totally hands free, no user intervention, boot up system.

Already completed is DSL 0.7.1. Which has additional options for optional extensions. If you don't want anything automatically loaded then you can do that. You will be able to have a cd that can boot anywhere. You will still have an auto generated "installation" menu to make it easy for new users to then pick and choose what they want to install. Also included in 0.7.1 are other extenstion types which use considerable less ram.

I don't honestly don't have to time to follow what the others are doing. The design copcepts here are solely the ideas from user posings and with much discussion and thought of how to best integrate into our system. This is only the point zero release for this new concept.

I don't think I have flamed anyone on these posts. I have only tried to let you know how the decisions were made to present what we have and to make DSL as felixible as possible.

We are always open to suggestions for improvement.

Duh!  I finally get it!

You DON'T want to load deb or anything else automatically at boot time. This design goal is to use the cdrom as an extra storage of "maybe I want to load" things.  No problem. Just don't store the dsl,  debs or tar.gz or tgz in the root. Make a directory called optional and store them there. They won't be loaded at boot time.

You will still need the dsl-dpkg.dsl in the root to boot up with the capability to load these other things. No, you don't even need to do that. If you want a manual system to selectively load things from "optional" storage then put that dsl-dpkg.dsl into the optional directory too,

Then you feel you have the resources and desire to load one of them just use dpkg -i or with the one that need a writeable directory structure be sure to call /etc/init.d/mkwriteable and then use the tar command with the -C /  to install at the / directory.

Am I missing somethings here.  These are very different design goals.

But we can achieve the "only when I want to load something" "I only want to use the cdrom as extra storage for my files" with the existing infastructure of the current DSL 0.7

I was thinking more along the lines I don't want to have to remaster to make a "custom" DSL version for my particular setup.

Hey Roberts,

     I think you misunderstood me. I wasn't saying that you were throwing flames. Well, you can remember that whenever a post about luit arises in this forum, it just creates a storm. I think this has made many a veteran DSL poster to go totally mum now after posting about luit. Even I don't have the guts to post under my registered name.

   And ya, I know you are busy to look into others. And I have also found that the new distro is based on the discussions made in this forum. But then postings on this forum by users also reflects their openions while testing other distros. Here I think I remember someone had said how to use winiso to add additional packages to a cd and it was axactly how it was said in luit help files.

   Well anyway, I was just trying to bring forward my views about RAM problems while making a custom CD.

  But then I don't share your point about myDSL to create to custom CD to boot only a particular PC in mind. We should then better go for a HDD install if we arn't going to carry the myDSL cd along.

  I hope you try to understand my point of view.

FYI,

When the discussions about custom DSL / DEB configurations started popping up around here, roberts was already well along with developing the mdDSL concept.

It just happened to be a coincidence that the subject of *.deb restoration was brought up right around the time that 0.7 was being OK'ed for release.

But enough about who should get credit for what.  The myDSL concept fills a need and gives people the ability to download nicely prebuilt applications that seamlessly integrate with the distribution and require little interaction to get up and running.

I see the *.deb thing as a different situation entirely:  Somebody wants to pop their favorite *.debs + dependencies on to a CD and then restore on bootup, but they don't want to turn it into a customized package that is fit for public consumption.  Some people are already doing this today.

However, for programs that are useful to a large audience the proper thing to do is to build a *.dsl and then submit it for publishing so that others can easily use this *.dsl program in the future.

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