User Feedback :: new extensions in 0.7



Is there a way to make my own DSL extensions (packages)?
Saffo, the way I'm making mine is rather clumsy, it goes like this;

(This won't be too helpful if you haven't done too much with linux before)
basically you go to the Debian site and get the file list of your desired package. Then I'm either opening
a .deb in a temporary directory or manually copying the files (with full directory path names) in following
a `synaptic grab' of them. Then the tricky bit is trying to find out what libraries it needs. If you've got
synaptic working it's easy to grab things and then check everything that's new in /usr/lib (i.e. everything
that's not a symbolic link). Then if you think you've got everything go to the top of your temporary
directory and

tar cvf file.tar usr etc home

where the last three things are just examples of the directories you will have created.

Then gzip and rename as file.dsl.

So perhaps not too helpful a reply but I can't think of a quicker way.......
Sure. I am hoping that people will. The whole point is to be able to make these and share with others. Note: there is no code in them!
The whole idea is based on the orginal filetool.lst. I was seeing what people were doing with it. Also, when I implemented cbagger's Synaptic script, the rest came to me.
Some had suggested to use the debian pkgs. The problem with that approach is:
1. No icons
2. No fluxbox menus
3. Difficult to share with others because of 1 & 2
4. Wastes memory for docs, man pages, menus and other files nor really needed.
5. Dependencies requiring other pkgs not needed or wanted
6. Possibly breaking exisiting programs or infastructure

So, to finally answer your question. I usually test load a desired applicaton to a hard drive installed system. If it came from a tar.gz then no problem as I can see the files that it loaded by using the tar -t command. If I load from a deb file. I can use the dpkg -L to see the files. Actually, I redirect to a file. Then I edit the file, removing the docs, man pages, menus, and other such stuff. Then I repackage it. If you look at the filetool.sh program it created it tar file from a list, the filetool.lst. So I just use a variation of this to create the tar and then gzip it. If it requires a writeable structure on the liveCD it is renamed with a dsl extenstion.

There is actually several variations to this. If you are more advanced and feel that the source of this application may break current libraries then we have a procedure to separate out the applicatons unique libraries and make a small shell script wrapper for the particular application and its unique libaries.

If the application does not need a writable structure then please do  not make it a dsl. Leave it as a tar.gz.  Some people with low memory can still use some tar.gz and may not be able to "afford" the i-node hit from having to have a writeable structure when not needed.

Now, lets see: We need an Mplayer.dsl and a ....
OK, any ideas on how to have the live-cd NOT automatically load certain .dsl or .tar.gz files?  For example, if you have open office on the CD, but the machine you want to use doesn't have 384MB of RAM?
Maybe have these files in a sub-dir and have scripts to install them when wanted?  I'd like to make a mini-CD with a whole host of packages for certain situations, but not have every one of them load each time you boot?

One minor suggestion for the next release, in the mkmyDSL script, how about an option to only create the iso, not go ahead and burn it?  I'm fairly sure I understand what the script's doing and how to edit it for myself, but might be an idea for the general distro?
Rogue_Streak, those are some good suggestions. I personally do not like to have to have alot of user intervention. I like to make a system that boots up without answering alot of questions. MyDSL concept was to create a system targeted for a particular hardware without any user intervention. Also I didn't  want to promote downloading extensions everytime one boots a liveCD.  That is a bandwidth killer. However, your suggestion has already been discussed on how to best implement. There are already more options developed and working for 7.1
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