Local Startup Documentation
From DSL Wiki
This is the local documentation that pops up every time you run DSL or open Dillo.
DSL comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Where is the Start Button?
The Start Button is just a way to bring up a contextual menu. In DSL, just right click anywhere on the desktop. Then navigate the menus as usual. If you decide not to select anything and want the menu to go away, then left click on the desktop away from the menu. Enjoy exploring your new system.
Где кнопка "Старт"?
Кнопка "Старт" - это всего лишь способ открыть контекстное меню. В ДСЛ, просто нажмите правой кнопкой мыши в любом месте экрана. Навигация по меню обычная. Если вы решите покинуть меню, прочто щелкните левой клавишей мыши в любом месте рабочего стола, кроме меню. Наслаждайтесь исследованием вашей новой системы!
Connecting To The Net
If you have broadband and a router that assigns your IP adress via dhcp, then you may already be on the net without having to configure anything. If you have a dialup modem, or your ISP requires a login, PPPoE, then read on. For dialup, select System->Net Setup->dial-up PPP->config. Follow the on-screen prompts and give a name to your configuration. Then to dial in select System->Net Setup->dial-up PPP->dial. Enter the name you gave to the setup before, and the system will dial in. Select hangup when finished. If you have PPPoE, select the DSL/PPPoE menu section. Use pon and connect and poff to disconnect.
How to Print
First, configure your printer by selecting System->Printing/lpd->configure a printer. Follow the on-screen prompts to test and install the printer driver. Once installed, you then must start the printing services. Select System->Printing/lpd->start
Как печатать Во-первых, настройте свой принтер с помощью System->Printing/lpd->configure. Следуйте инструкциям на экране, для того чтобы найти и установить драйвер принтера. После установки, вы должны перезапустить службу печати. Выберите System->Printing/lpd->start
What's A Daemon?
A daemon is a process that provides services in the background; DSL provides several. Navigate to System->Daemons to see the list. There is an SSH server which provides a secure way to login and/or copy files to and from your DSL machine. NFS, network file system allows you to mount directories that may be provided to you from an NFS server. DSL also provides a complete web server (The Monkey Web Server). All the web server files are located in /opt/monkey directory. You need to access it as the super user root.
What About Windows?
DSL includes smbtree and smbclient programs. Smbclient works similar to an FTP program. The Windows share name must be specified with the forward slash character "/" even though one usually uses the backslash "\" character.
Use smbtree to display which computer names are available. Then to connect use:
smbclient //computername/sharename -U username
At the smb: prompt type help. The usual dir, get, put, mget, mput and exit commands work like an ftp program.
Cut and Paste
To cut and paste in Linux one simply highlights the text with the left mouse button and then press the middle button to paste. If you have a two button mouse you would paste by pressing the left and right button together. Cutting and pasting takes a little practice, but is very efficient after one gets used to it.
Saving Your Configuration
After setting up your new system, you will want to save all of your settings. There is a file called /opt/.filetool.lst. It is a simple text file containing files and directories listed one per line using a full path that the user wants to save/restore. Use any of the DSL editors to change/update (e.g., select Beaver, then open .filetool.lst).
The default is to backup the entire home/dsl directory. However, one can choose to selectively backup only certain files. However it is important to note that the entry /home/dsl/.filetool.lst must NOT be removed from the .filetool.lst as this provides for persistence of the .filetool.lst which the user can keep updated as desired.
Also note that the capability now exists to exclude files from the backup with the file /home/dsl/.xfiletool.lst. Adding entries to this file will leave them aside from the backup. Cache and other files are included in the default .xfiletool.lst.
Your backup will be automatically searched for and restored during the boot up process. You can override this feature by specifying the device which holds your backup file.
boot: dsl restore=hda2
These options together with a local .xinitrc provide the user with much more control of their preferred environment. For example, by editing the .xinitrc you can start up your favorite X-Windows programs. You can start non-Window programs by editing the .bash_profile and then adding it to your .filetool.lst. You can even load additional modules and system-specific required files by editing the /opt/bootlocal.sh file and then adding it to your filetoool.lst.
Optionally, you can choose the backup device. If you desire to backup to a hard drive, then select Specify Device, e.g. hda2. This will override the automatic detection for users with no usb pen drives or the desire not to use such. Using this option would require the boot up option of boot: dsl restore=hda2
Administrator / SuperUser / Root
Each system requires some command to be run as the administrator. In DSL, such user is called root. To get root privileges to run a specific command, just precede the command with the word sudo (e.g., sudo dsl-hdinstall). To become the super user, then use the command sudo su. You should not run your system habitually as root.
Installing to Hard Drive
Although DSL was designed to be the best LiveCD, especially when run with the "toram" option, many users will still want to install to their hard drives. Be aware that DSL is a work-in-progress and that there are currently no plans to have updates to be applied to debian-type hard drive-installed systems. Each new version would require reinstallation. This is not the case with the frugal-type hard drive installs, as they are easily upgradable from version to version.
If you are planning to install and co-exist with Microsoft Windows, then note that these versions will want to write the Master Boot Record (MBR). This may not work well with newer versions of Microsoft Windows.
Frugal Type HD Install
A "frugal" type install mirrors the operation of the LiveCD. It installs the compressed filesystem and associated boot files onto a pre-prepared partition of your choice on your hard drive.
The frugal install offers you a choice of two bootloaders, lilo or grub.
This method offers many benefits to you over the typical linux hard drive install:
- Use of the extension repository for adding applications, which are designed to run in the frugal/liveCD environment.
- Much easier upgrade path, without needing to reinstall from scratch.
- Use of the 'toram' option, while still operating from a hard drive type device. This offers you the maximum performance in DSL, by running your entire OS in ramspace, but getting the load performance and speed the hard drive offers (requires 128MB RAM).
- Most of all other boottime options are available to you, like persistent home and opt directories, autoloading of applications, setting fresh passwords, encrypting/decrypting your backups, unique hostname, and autorestore/backup of your personal files and settings at boottime and shutdown.
- You can easily revert back to a pristine install condition, this feature is also applicable to uninstall any extension.
Steps needed:
- Create a 50MB Linux partition with cfdisk (ex. hda2)
- Right-click on the desktop, navigate to Apps->Tools->Frugal Install and select your choice of Frugal-Grub or Frugal-Lilo. This will make a ext2 file system and copies the necessary portions of the CD to it.
- You can also bootup the DSL CD with the bootcode option "install" , and you will be presented with all the install options in a menu format.
Debian Type HD Install
The version supports US-english language only; it is based on knx-hdinstall. A lot of improvements are waiting to be back-imported from knx-hdinstall when time comes....
The hd installation boots with your choice of grub or lilo and feels similiar to the cd version. Meaning, hardware auto detection still runs and also "pick_your_resolution_in_here" pops up...
Steps needed:
- Create a 250-300MB Linux partition with cfdisk (ex. hda2)
- Right-click on the desktop, navigate to Apps->Tools->Install to Hard Drive.
- You can also bootup the LiveCD, with the bootcode option "install" , and you will be presented with an option for creating the hard drive install.
- Select a premade linux partition (ex. hda2). This will make a linux file system and copies the CD to it. You can choose from an ext2 or ext3 type format. A couple of specific changes are made after that (see end of script).
- You will be prompted to choose either the lilo or grub bootloader.
- You will be prompted to choose to reboot the computer.
After reboot, the system comes up automatically as booted from cd. You will be prompted to enter a password for root. You must pick a password of at least 5 characters. Then enter it again to verify that it is what you want. Then you will be prompted to do the same procedure for user "dsl". Pick another password and enter it, then re-enter it. The system will then proceed to a regular login.
This is a minimal install, using "busybox" for most base utilities. To 'enhance' your install to more closely mirror a true debian system, read below for how-to install the real gnu-utilities and debian apt package management (recommended).
The hard drive installation scripts should be used at your own risk.
GNU/Linux & Debian Compatibility
To make your DSL system more fully GNU compatible, from the system menu select Apps->Tools->Upgrade to GNU Utils. This will replace the "busybox" used in the base system to the full power of the GNU versions, by installing a special system extension named "gnu-utils.dsl". Then for a Debian compatible system, select Apps->Tools->Enable Apt. This option will then allow full use of the Debian Package Management System and Synaptic, by installing the "dsl-dpkg.dsl" system extension.
myDSL - Seamless Extensions for DSL
Now liveCD users can easily extend DSL without the complicated re-mastering process. myDSL currently offers two ways to extend DSL.
The first method is to separate out the static parts of your ".filetool.lst". A good example is your custom settings of printer, modem, wireless connections, etc. These entries can easily be sorted out into your own myconf.tar.gz. In fact any application that runs on the unmodified liveCD can now be handled in this fashion.
Your second choice is to download some from our selection of pre-configured DSL applications. These are designated with the .dsl, .uci, or .tar.gz file extensions.
All of these types of "modules" or "plugins" can easily be saved onto external media, such as a hard drive partition, a USB pendrive, or even on the root directory of the CD-ROM.
For extensions that are copied onto external media, there is a new boot time option. For example:
- a USB pendrive would use mydsl=sda1
- a hard drive partition would use mydsl=hda2
The best news is that when a new version of DSL comes out, you don't have to do anything to keep your myDSL apps.
For those extensions that are copied onto the CD-ROM, the boot process seamlessly restores your favorite apps. The size of your myDSL is your choice, you can have a 64MB, 128MB, 210MB, or even all the way up to 700MB myDSL CD-ROM. DSL is the keystone to myDSL. When a new version of DSL comes out, just copy your additional applications to the root directory of the CD-ROM. There is no more need to redo a custom remaster to get your favorite applications on the live CD -- no more time consuming uncompressing, chroot'ing process, or accidentally making "coasters". There is even a mkmydsl script to help you make your "myDSL" CD-ROM.
New starting with 0.7.1 is the optional directory. Create this directory on the root directory of the cdrom or external media. Place your .dsl and .tar.gz files into the optional directory for those applications that you do not wish to have automatically loaded. These would be the resource intense applications. myDSL will still generate an installation menu for easy installation.
Also new are .uci compressed iso files. These provide much savings of your RAM disk and "load up" very quickly. Now run OpenOffice on lower resource machines than with the RAM disk based .dsl format.
Also available is the gnu-utils.dsl module that will allow liveCD users to have access to the full standard GNU Utilites.
For Debian packages, copy them into the optional directory. Also add the "dsl-dpkg.dsl" to have the Debian Package Management files restored. Then use the dpkg -i /path_to_deb_package to install under your control. Note: Using .deb files will use substantially more of your RAM disk.
The Store
If you are a fan of DSL and want to support our efforts consider buying items at our store. All proceeds go back into supporting this project and its developers.
Congratulations, if you reach this, then you have read the very basics of DSL use. Now if you so desire to remove this help page from initially starting each time you boot DSL, then simply comment out the dillo line in the file ".xinitrc". This means using any editor in DSL, edit the file ".xinitrc" and place a "#" (hash or number sign) at the beginning of the line starting with the word "dillo".
