DSL v3.1 RC3

Forum: Release Candidates
Topic: DSL v3.1 RC3
started by: roberts

Posted by roberts on Nov. 07 2006,04:19

DSL v3.1 RC3 is now ready for testing. Cumulative Change Log:

* Improved frugal_grub.sh to support Poormans via Bootfloppy installs.
* Improved frugal_lilo.sh to support Poormans via Bootfloppy installs.
* Improved dsl-hdinstall & dsl-installboot to support Poormans via Bootfloppy installs
* Updated mkdosswapfile to support Poormans via Bootfloppy
* New boot option 'dosswapfile' to autoscan or specify dosswapfile
* dpkg-restore made consistent with other extensions to use /opt/.mydsl_dir.
* gnu-utils-restore made consistent to use /opt/.mydsl_dir.
* Changed mydslPanel to use /opt/.mydsl_dir
* Fixed bug in mydslInfo to parse for new UNC area of repository
* Fixed bug in DSLpanel for Xvesa
* Fixed typo bug in icontool.lua
* Dropped pts from mount.lua
* Changed mkmydsl script -boot-load-size 4 for beter hardware compatibility.
* Improved root's PATH, changes .fluxbox/menu .xtdesktop/Aterm.lnk, and /root/.bachrc
* New boot option 'fuse' to load upon boot the fuse system.
* Converted 54 Lua and Lua/Fltk programs to Lua 5.1.1 Fltk 1.1 via MurgaLua interface
* Added right-click to MyDSL Icon for easy UCItool access
* Improved Antiword fonts
* Changed color escape codes to echo commands
* Added TMPDIR environment variable
* Dropped Original Lua/Fltk - flua
* Edited .fluxbox menu. Configuration s/b Fluxbox Configuration
* Added License section to "Getting Started" document
* Cleanup code regarding DESKTOP & ICONS
* Update stats.lua to read version from text file.
* Added firefox adjustments for unionfs
* Made unionfs the default boot. Use "legacy" option to skip.
* Cleanup more /var/tmp to /tmp
* Updated sqlite to 3.3.6
* Made mydsl boot option consistent with restore boot option.
* Enhanced exitcheck to warn if no backup device when requested to save special settings.
* Added murgaLua Lua/Fltk development toolkit
* Enhanced .torsmorc for ACPI battery indicator

Download < here. >

Posted by sankarv on Nov. 07 2006,08:32

Thats really a lot of progress. Good work. keep going.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 07 2006,14:07

Thanks. This will be the last RC for 3.1. Consider it a feature freeze and only bugs will be fixed so we can officially get 3.1 released.

Posted by bokaroseani on Nov. 07 2006,14:27

What is "fuse system"? What is the new cheat code "fuse" for?

Posted by Key on Nov. 07 2006,18:15

What exactly is improved for Bootfloppy installs ?
What does this mean ?

I still hope, that I will be able someday to boot from a floppy disk first and second from a write-protected USB-pen without that the system brings an error code. I think you remember my topic for this some weeks/months ago.

Due to this, I didn't do further tests/usages with DSL.

But hopefully, it will work someday.
I always check the change logs.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 07 2006,19:21

Quote (bokaroseani @ Nov. 07 2006,06:27)

What is "fuse system"? What is the new cheat code "fuse" for?

Fuse, Filesysem in User Space. DSL provides sshfs which is a very easy alternative to NFS. sshfs requires fuse before it will function. Therefore it is desireable to have fuse ready to go upon bootup. I reguarly use sshfs from DSL machine to DSL machine. On some DSL thin clients I "mount" network drives this way.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 07 2006,19:35

Quote (Key @ Nov. 07 2006,10:15)

As I stated Poormans via Bootfloppy. This typically means only the knoppix folder resides on Windows C:\ and the standard DSL boot floppy boots up to access this folder and run DSL. Now from this environment you can perform several DSL installs. That is the improvement stated in the change log. I added this capability after a very recent thread in which several users were attempting this type of thing. Normally, I do not do much with Windows.

You can use the standard DSL boot floppy WRITE-PROTECTED and boot to the cdrom which by nature is WRITE-PROTECTED.

If you have a custom pendrive with hidden and/or proprietary partitions then DSL may not work given those non-standard setups.

Posted by JB4x4 on Nov. 08 2006,10:33

The mount tool counts partitions hda1, hda10, hda2, hda3 etc. As you click through the local partitions. It used to count hda1, hda2, .... hda10, etc. Previous versions did count numerically.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 08 2006,16:25

Thanks for reporting. I will be sure to pass this on.

Posted by Key on Nov. 08 2006,19:21

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 07 2006,14:35)

Quote (Key @ Nov. 07 2006,10:15)

I still hope, that I will be able someday to boot from a floppy disk first and second from a write-protected USB-pen without that the system brings an error code. I think you remember my topic for this some weeks/months ago.

Due to this, I didn't do further tests/usages with DSL.

But hopefully, it will work someday.
I always check the change logs.

You can use the standard DSL boot floppy WRITE-PROTECTED and boot to the cdrom which by nature is WRITE-PROTECTED.

If you have a custom pendrive with hidden and/or proprietary partitions then DSL may not work given those non-standard setups.

Unfortunately, I can't use a CD on my old IBM Thinkpad Notebook, as the CD-Rom drive doesn't work anymore. From USB-pen, I can only boot when I use a flopy-disk before.
Furthermore, I would like to have an easy modifiable data medium that can be write protected (= write-protectable usb-pen).

I found my old topic again:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....9;st=25 >

The first entry on page 6 ( from humpty ) is interesting.

It seems like there is something missing for WRITE-PROTECTED usb-pens on the bootfloppy. Probably due to too less space.

It works fine when the switch is set to write-enabled.

Nevertheless, is there a possibility that there will be a reworked floppy-disk boot-image file in the future, which will work with write-protected usb-pens as well ?

Posted by jls legalize on Nov. 08 2006,20:27

Due to errors I've changed dslMIrrorSel.lua :
line 30 form
fname = tmpname()
to
fname = os.tmpname()

line 45 from
w = fltk:Fl_Window(400,200,"Full Mirror List"; box=Boxtype.none)
to
w = fltk:Fl_Window(400,200, "Full Mirror List")

line 52 from
selector = fltk:Fl_Select_Browser(0,0,400,200, type=Browsertype.single)
to
selector = fltk:Fl_Select_Browser(0,0,400,200)

legalize cannabis, etc.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 08 2006,21:49

Thanks, jls. Looks like my final dslMirrorSel.lua did not make it into the master copy, as my local copy was converted and works. Updating master now.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 08 2006,22:35

Key, I finally got my hands on a write protectable pendrive. It is a Kingston drive, with a write protect switch on the side. Installed DSL frugal_hdd to the pendrive, write enabled, of course! Then shutdown system. Placed the write protected standard boot floppy in foppy drive, and moved the switch on the pendrive to write protect. Plugged in the write protected pendrive and booted DSL. No problems.

The only way I can cause an error code to display, is when I add the boot option frugal. But of course, that would! Boot code frugal is not appropriate on a read only device.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 10 2006,07:11

I too am still testing this RC. Found more unconverted lines in icontool.lua, around 196 and again around 205. Easy to fix. But still the conversion of 50+ programs has been an arduous undertaking. It was worth doing. Still hoping to get everything fully tested and working before a final release. Appreciate those who have the patience to help me in testing everything.

Posted by Ramik on Nov. 10 2006,07:34

Pls add an option in hdinstall to skip the format and\or the partition creation, so a user can chose a pre-formated partition and so on...

This will cut down on clean reinstall time greatly...

something like:

B4:

Code Sample

echo -n "${CYAN}Use journalized ext3 filesystem (not recommended on slower systems) (y/n)?${NORMAL} "
read FSTYPECHOICE
if [ "$FSTYPECHOICE" != "y" ]; then
FSTYPE=ext2
else
FSTYPE=ext3
fi

echo "${CYAN}Last chance to exit before destroying any data on ${MAGENTA}$TARGET!!${NORMAL}"
echo -n "Continue (y/..)? ${NORMAL}"
read answer
if [ "$answer" != "y" ]; then
echo "Aborted.."
exit 0
fi
echo "${BLUE}Creating filesystem $FSTYPE on $TARGET...${NORMAL}"
sleep 2
dd if=/dev/zero of=$TARGET bs=1k count=16 >/dev/null 2>&1
sync
if [ "$FSTYPE" != "ext3" ]; then
mke2fs $TARGET 2> $TMP
else
mke2fs -j $TARGET 2> $TMP
fi

x=$?
if [ $x != 0 ]; then
echo "${RED}An error occurred while creating the filesystem.${NORMAL}"
echo "Some messages from mkfs:"
tail -8 $TMP
rm -f $TMP
exit 0
fi

After:

Code Sample

echo -n "${CYAN}Use journalized ext3 filesystem (not recommended on slower systems) (y/n)?${NORMAL} "
read FSTYPECHOICE
if [ "$FSTYPECHOICE" != "y" ]; then
FSTYPE=ext2
else
FSTYPE=ext3
fi

echo -n "${CYAN} Skip the partitioning and format and go directly to File copy (y/n)?${NORMAL} "
read SKIPCOPY
if [ "$SKIPCOPY" != "y" ]; then
echo "Skipped..."
else

echo "${CYAN}Last chance to exit before destroying any data on ${MAGENTA}$TARGET!!${NORMAL}"
echo -n "Continue (y/..)? ${NORMAL}"
read answer
if [ "$answer" != "y" ]; then
echo "Aborted.."
exit 0
fi
echo "${BLUE}Creating filesystem $FSTYPE on $TARGET...${NORMAL}"
sleep 2
dd if=/dev/zero of=$TARGET bs=1k count=16 >/dev/null 2>&1
sync
if [ "$FSTYPE" != "ext3" ]; then
mke2fs $TARGET 2> $TMP
else
mke2fs -j $TARGET 2> $TMP
fi

x=$?
if [ $x != 0 ]; then
echo "${RED}An error occurred while creating the filesystem.${NORMAL}"
echo "Some messages from mkfs:"
tail -8 $TMP
rm -f $TMP
exit 0
fi
fi

Posted by gentlemanRT on Nov. 10 2006,09:39

I have some problems running Rc3 on a IBM Thinkpad 240. Which has an NeoMagic graphic chip. The screen is unreadable with yellow lines all over the desktop. This seams to be a x-server bug or implemantation failure....

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 10 2006,15:05

gentlemanRT: I don't think that's specific to this RC... you could check out other forum sections on other user's experiences with thinkpads/neomagic.

Posted by Key on Nov. 10 2006,16:59

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 08 2006,17:35)

Thanks for this Information, roberts.

Unfortunately, I haven't had success with the USB-HDD installation. Either there where problems during installation or during boot-process afterwards. I don't remember exactly.
Probably USB-HDD isn't fully supported on my old computer.
USB-ZIP works fine on all computers, I have tested.

But, with boot-floppy first and write-protected usb-pen (usb-zip installation) second, I have got the following errors during boot process:

"{CRE}looking for DSL image in ....
Setting paths: .. not found
.. not found .. not found ..
directory nonexistent
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 1:03"

Keyboard LEDs blink and I had to power of the computer.

There is no problem when the usb-pen is write enabled.
With the write-enabled switch, it works fine.
Doesn't matter, if boot-floppy is used before or not.

If the usb-pen is write-protected, it boots fine WITHOUT the boot-floppy. As soon as a boot-floppy is used before in conntection with the write-protected usb-pen, the boot fails as written above.

Where is the problem with this usb-pen-zip installation?
Is it possible to make this working?

Posted by roberts on Nov. 10 2006,18:42

Key, This is not really an RC issue. But nevertheless, I did try with USB-ZIP write protected and write protected boot floppy. Worked just fine. I know my write protect switch is functioning, as USB-ZIP creates two partitions. When I try to mount the second partition, it gives the warning about a write-protected device. I use the standard boot floppy with the fromusb boot option. Also was able to boot directly from write protected USB-ZIP. It's too bad that there are not better standards in usb booting from the actual pendrives, geometry and sometimes hidden drives, to the computer bios and their ability to find and boot based on the myriad of these drive parameters. Reminds me of the early days of cdrom drives and each needed their own dos drivers.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 10 2006,18:44

gentlemanRT, your issue is not an RC issue. However, because the TP240 is a machine I use everyday, I can tell you to boot with fb800x600 and it works great. At the very first boot prompt use...

boot: fb800x600

Do not use
boot: dsl fb800x600

Posted by Key on Nov. 10 2006,20:26

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 10 2006,13:42)

Thank you for your investigations in this case, roberts, although this is of course no RC issue.

But now I know, that it must work in some way.

I will buy another write-protectable usb-pen, get the latest DSL version and use the fromusb boot option with a standard boot floppy. Hope it will work then.

Thanks again

Posted by bokaroseani on Nov. 13 2006,19:09

Quote (roberts @ Nov. 07 2006,14:21)

Quote (bokaroseani @ Nov. 07 2006,06:27)

What is "fuse system"? What is the new cheat code "fuse" for?

I wish and hope some description of FUSE cheatcode and what it does will be added in the wiki too.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 13 2006,19:34

Perhaps this thread will get you going on using < sshfs >

Posted by evilbstrd666 on Nov. 13 2006,20:55

Not sure if this is an RC issue, but I finally got my regular notebook back up and running after replacing it's damaged power socket. Using the same drivers for my Linksys Wireless card (WPC54G ver3) that was working back with RC1, ndiswrapper won't connect. I know I am on the fringe of the network, but Windoze will connect, and RC1 was working better than Windoze did as far as connecting to this network. I'll grab my RC1 disk and test if that one still works, but I can't think of any other reasons why it shouldn't work. I even used the cheatcode "legacy" to disable unionfs, and it still doesn't like it.

Thanks again guys!

Posted by Juanito on Nov. 15 2006,09:36

I've been looking everywhere for the Knoppix 3.4 iso download in order to get some modules to use with RC3 - the Knoppix mirrors stop at version 3.6 and Google does not turn up anything except version 3.4 md5 files.

I've sent Knoppix an e-mail but no reply as yet.

Does anyone have an idea where I could find a download?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 15 2006,14:58

This might work... haven't verified the download though < http://www.pctips.pl/ftp/linux_342/Knoppix%203.4.html >

I'm pretty sure theres a couple mirrors that are still working - didn't bother checking though.

Posted by alexandr on Nov. 15 2006,22:12

hi i�m new here you can try search the iso here: < http://linuxtracker.org/browse.php?cat=34 >

Posted by Juanito on Nov. 16 2006,04:10

Thanks ^thehatsrule^, that seemed to work (download still in progress) - though it took a while to figure out the Polish/Czech/Whatever for download

Posted by Key on Nov. 18 2006,07:59

Unfortunately no news since a few days.
What is the status ?
Will the final release of DSL 3.1 be there soon ?

I don't want to push, but I hope that it will be there soon

Posted by roberts on Nov. 18 2006,16:02

Looks like an RC4 real soon now.
I have fixed several issues as reported in the forums, especially with the mount tool. I have also added one new feature to that program as well. Stay tuned.

Posted by Unknown User on Nov. 20 2006,17:09

Firefox 2.0 could be nice extension to the next version. And Gimp maybe? But anyway, Firefox 2.0 would be nice.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 20 2006,17:40

Some version of those programs are already available as extensions in mydsl.

Posted by Shadow00Caster on Nov. 20 2006,21:26

Hey there, im new around here. My system drive at work crashed and I needed to code badly, had my 2G pen drive and I recalled DSL from years ago so I went and got it :o. I was amazed that it was still going and how far along its gone.

Ive searched around on these forums, havent found much .. but a VPN client would be nice bundled in, if there is already something in it forgive me :-p.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 21 2006,04:12

Moving on to RC4. Thanks to all for help in testing and reporting issues.