User Feedback :: indestructible DSL from DOS (loadlin, restoreConf)



PREFACE  

Often I encounter people with DEAD or (virus-) crippled windows 98 machines who have broadband.. (in germany 1mbit flat rate costs 50euro, 2mbit 60euro, 3mbit 70euro).

In order NOT to spend hours on helping them recovering them from their Windows monstrocity, just to be able to write a text-file and surf the internet for their favourite soccer-chat-room,
I WISH I could just install some linux system that runs from a DOS prompt and remembers their adsl-login settings, and saves their files onto their HDD, accessable by Win98 lateron.
It should stay FOOL PROOF for ever, i.e. everything is read-only, power failures or children pulling the power-plug must not kill the system.

Right now I am successfully running DSL from a DOS prompt, I extracted the bootimages from the ISO using WinISO and started linux with LOADLIN, via a batch file.

I find the desktop of DSL un-usable for windows users who barely learned to use the clipboard.  (why doesn't CTRL-C Ctrl-V not work.. arrrgh), so I presume I will try MORPHIX, which featuers a desktop windows-users can handle.

I presume the LOADLIN would work the same.

Questions:

When starting with LOADLIN from hda1, I cannot access it (i.e. save something to HD). I solved it for myself by using PQMAGIC and putting DSL/LOADLIN onto hda5.

How would we stop loading Win2k or XP, in order to get a DOS prompt in order to start  DSL/Morphix?

Will LOADLIN work on NTFS?

How about  NTFS-writing  then, to save user-files?  (myDSL?)

Finally...  a big ZIP file, and instructions.txt

Why not use a booting-CD?  too slow and not all machines boot from CD, and CD break or get scratched or get lost or the kids get hold of it or are left in the sun or the cd-drive is broken. Nearly everyone has 50-250 megs on the HDD.

Please do not suggest to HD-install. We want a system that can take a power failure, i.e. never needs fsck, i.e. readOnly, thanks.

I also think the above system would be a great SERVER/UNATTENDED machine, if started via win98 CONFIG.SYS MENU (menuitem,menudefault,batch-stuff).  It could never NOT recover from a power failure, right?
If you want it "fool proof forever", you might consider using a proper linux filesystem rather than dos.  Using a bootloader such as LILO or Grub also does away with the need for first booting another operating system.
what a USELESS reply.  I tried to exclude this possibility, but today comprehending others is not an activity to engage in. #$%^& ...  I am on my own.

Tried to hd-install  morphix-lite yesterday...  xserver fails to start.  It has a beautiful desktop.  I wish DSL would have a usable desktop for beginners option.

How will linux ever become poopular if everything is soooo cumbersome.  

problem:  

I extracted

vmlinuz  921572bytes
knoppix  48209893bytes
loadlin.exe 32225
miniroot.gz 490891

into d:\knoppix

added

d:\knoppix\KNOPPIX.SH

but knoppix.sh does not execute properly...

start with  go.bat
loadlin vmlinuz initrd=miniroot.gz

DSL WORKS.

but the KNOPPIX.SH  does not.

(I am setting the network card with
 ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2
  and
 route add default gw 192.168.1.1
   and
 echo nameserver 62.26.26.62 > /etc/resolv.conf
)

all of which works fine when executed from a shell

It goes through the lines, I can because I have added  

 echo NOW DOING THIS AND THAT

and I can see them ECHO LINES display during boot-up...

but the executing commands do NOT work.

I added a
  ls -al
and it give AT LEAST a funny error msg, something like

--   illegal syntax

but I didn't use a double hyphen...

is it a problem with using DOS edit.com?
or do I have to add a special line so it knows what shell
to use?

harrrgnnn.
You're welcome ???

I just think you're making a lot of unnecessary work for yourself in order to save  a little effort elsewhere.  Live CDs are ideal for this sort of thing.

There are a few things that could be causing trouble in a script.  It could be the DOS edit thing you mentioned (which changes the end-of-line character).
It could be that no interpreter was put as the first line of the script, such as: #!/bin/sh
It could be a permissions/mode issue, but it's unlikely since Windows makes everything executable.
FYI,

I could be wrong, but I think that the 'knoppix.sh' file is supposed to be in the root directory instead of the subdirectory. So it would be in D:\ instead of in D:\KNOPPIX\

I know that this is true for the floppy-based knoppix.sh file.

Also, if you wish to use DSL with a "Windows-like" interface, try adding the "icewm.dsl" extension to your installation.

Icewm navigation is very similar to MS Windows ™ since there is a "Start" button-like menu launcher in the lower left hand corner and a task bar at the bottom of the screen.  There are some downloadable IceWM themes out there that create a Windows-like graphical appearance, including imitations of Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows XP styles.

Good Luck.
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