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Topic: DSL 1.3 Pre-announcement, A heads up!

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roberts

Group: Members
Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 11 2005,20:53

Hi everybody,

I am breaking with tradition here. But there has been so much new and changed in the soon to be release of DSL 1.3 that I wanted to give evryone a heads up.

Here is the not quite yet official change log for 1.3:

1. Created an Icon layout manager for xtdesk.
I wrote a layout manager. Icons will snap into place upon loading.
Everything is in alphabetical order.
Base icons will be followed by extension icons.
This will have a big impact for those who have these currently backuped.

2. Improved icon and menu persistence with extensions.
I removed .xtdesktop and .fluxbox/menu from xfiletool.lst
You can now backup and restore these.

3. Created a GUI date/time tool. System>Set Date Time
Another lua gui gives more polish to DSL.

4. Created a frugal grub install script.
I made this after seeing the renewed interest in frugal.
frugal_grub is much more friendly for hard drives with multiple OS
and easier to change boot options.

5. Replaced rxvt with aterm and added transparency xshell options.
I had to make many changes throughout the system for this.
You would think it would have been easier.
If you see an extension with a "blank" or unreadable shell window
Please let Ke4nt know so that it can be corrected.

6. Updated naim. John updated this popular program.

7. Replaced BashBurn with cdw. Another tiny marvel that John found.

8. Changed filetool.lst, xfiletool.lst, and webdata.lst to be hidden files.
After some discussion, I changed these system files to be hidden.
Some users would accidentially delete them.
Again big impacts when you move to 1.3.

9. Reduced iso by stripping libraries of debug symbols
As other distros get bigger, we got smaller.
Again this affects so many files, mainly libraries, as I had
most of the regular ELF files done. Hard to have tested everything.

10. Many typo's have been fixed
I will acknowledge thanks later after official release.

I also fixed many bugs as reported in the forums.
Thanks will follow official release.

11. Fixed 2button mouse bug.

12. Adding users capability is now defaulted.

13. Fixed xvesa "leftovers" bug when choosing lower resolutions.

14. Fixed eth0 disable upon use of pon.

15. Fixed the null menu bug upon loading certain menuless extensions.

16. Deprecated the "ci" extension type.

17. Added persistenance to embedded user.tar.gz for uci types.

18. Internet man page lookup bug fixed.

19. New default theme.

Warning...

These changes have gone through alot of testing by ke4nt, chris, and SaidenUnleashed. I created some 14 pre-releases to get this into testing ASAP.

Since the the filetool.lst and such have changed, you may lose your backup. Your backup would be restored, but then be overwritten using the .filetool.lst thereby you may lose data.

Before booting the new version, using your existing system make a backup of your backup.tar.gz file. This is a MUST.
You should then boot this release with the "norestore" option. Experience the new features first. As there are changes throughout, even .emelfm is affected. If you "restore" your backup you may very likely break something.

I will now ask Ke4nt, Chris, and SaidenUnleashed to please post their experiences and recommendations for moving to DSL 1.3

Robert

[

clivesay

Group: Guests
Posts: 935
Joined: Dec. 2003

Posted: July 11 2005,22:00

Alot of Shingledecker magic in this next release.

I have a couple of comments/suggestions

Icon management is a really cool addition to DSL. Everything snaps to a grid nice and clean. Ke4nt has been going through the extensions cleaning up the existing icons. Mainly we want the icons to have transparent backgrounds and be 48x48 in size. Please keep this in mind when submitting new extensions to the community.

Backup/restore MUST be addressed by everyone. Please say it with me:
"I WILL BACK UP MY BACKUP.TAR.GZ"
"I WILL BACKUP MY BACKUP.TAR.GZ"
Good! Now we can move on.

Here is what I did.

1. made a copy of my backup.tar.gz (See above

)
2. renamed the copy to 'myconfig.tar.gz'
3. Boot up to DSL 1.3
4. Load your myconfig.tar.gz with mydsl-load
5. Go into /home/dsl and delete the hidden .filetool.lst file.
6. Rename the filetool.lst file from your backup to the hidden one '.filetool.lst'
7. Repeat steps 6 & 7 for xfiletool.lst and webdata.lst if you have these in your
backup
8. Go into the, now hidden, .filetool.lst file and rename any references to
filetool.lst, xfiletool.lst and webdata.lst putting the '.' in front of each of the
three filenames since they are now hidden.
9. Run a new backup and check to make sure everything is there.

Hope this helps.

Also, recently I have put together more pdf howto's for different DSL features. Check them out in the Downloads section in the 'current' folder.

Chris

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 12 2005,03:41

Wow!

Looks like someone's been pretty busy lately

I just looked at a screenshot of cdw and it looks like a nice console burn app.

ke4nt1

Group: Members
Posts: 2329
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 12 2005,03:48

I was a bit more conservative migratng my old backup into DSL version 1.3.

For HDInstalls,

I suggest you backup your /boot, /etc, /home, and /opt
directories onto another partition or CD.
After the new install, you can copy over personal files
and selections back into your filesystem.

For all others ( Frugal, LiveCD, Poorman's, Embedded )

First-off .. BACKUP YOUR BACKUP !!
Put it SOMEWHERE SAFE !

a pendrive
a CDR
an FTP site
another computer

RENAME YOUR EXISTING BACKUP TO ' backup.tar.gz.old '

If you have ANY issues, you'll sleep better knowing that
your personal data is safely tucked away..

I used a similar technique as I listed for HDinstalls for
recreating my backup to include my personal favorites
and files into the new DSL - 1.3 version.

Boot into the new live DSL-1.3 environment using the norestore option ..
" dsl dma toram norestore " was my choice of boot options ..

Robert's suggestion to preview the pristine environment is wise..
Explore around in the filesystem , noting differences you observe..
Compare with this pre-checklog forum thread to find the new features.

From the desktop , I used emelfm *as userdsl* to open up
my backup.tar.gz.old file, and migrated things into the */home/dsl*
portion of the filesystem, like .xchat/ , .bluefish/ , .nethackrc, etc.
Things that ARE NOT included in the default /home/dsl directory.

Then I copy/pasted the lines I needed from filetool.lst to .filetool.lst .
Repeat with xfiletool.lst/.xfiletool.lst and webdata.lst/.webdata.lst .
Similar to the method clivesay listed above..
Remember to NOT migrate the .xtdesktop and .fluxbox/menu lines
from xfiletool.lst to .xfiletool.lst, as they are not needed anymore..

I also needed to copy over other files from my backup that aren't
owned by dsl.staff ( user dsl ) , such as /etc/X11/XF86Config-4,
or /etc/apt/sources.list. These are owned by root.root ..
To preserve ownership, it's best to use a *root owned*
emelfm session to accomplish this.
Double check that these files are also listed in your .filetool.lst.

After I was satisfied with my migration, I manually created a new backup.
Check and verify it by using emelfm to open up the backup.tar.gz,
and peek around in it, verifying that the files you want to backup are in there.
Remember to answer *NO* to repacking the backup.tar.gz

Close all open emelfm sessions and reboot to test.
Leave off the 'norestore' option on bootup, add back in any
mydsl=hdXx extensions and restore=hdXx options you normally use,
and see what you get when you reach the desktop..

I still needed to make a few tweaks.. but I was up and running,
with minimal replacement to any " .iso included data " ..

Once your happy with the changeover, you've got your custom FS ready to
begin creating custom mkMyDSL CD's , pendrive installs, frugal installs, etc.

Post any challenges you find in the forums or IRC..

Upgrading to 1.3 is highly recommended..
Also check the repository for updated/tweaked extensions ..

73
ke4nt

noclobber

Group: Members
Posts: 75
Joined: Sep. 2004

Posted: July 12 2005,18:27

Quote (roberts @ July 11 2005,16:53)

14. Fixed eth0 disable upon use of pon.

Woohoo!

This one has been a persistent annoyance for me ever since I discovered DSL.

Your hard work is much appreciated.

--------------
Don't say "No" to Digital Restrictions Management, say "HELL, NO!!!".

20 replies since July 11 2005,20:53

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