Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Sindi Keesan wrote:
> >
> > I might also remove the network card modules to make 
> > a smaller file.
> 
> It probably won't give you a smaller file.  The entire
> ramdisk (4096kb) is being copied to that file (garbage
> bytes included).

When I removed the network card modules and gzipped, it must have zipped 
the 'garbage bytes' to smaller than the network modules because the new 
baslinux.gz was about 20K smaller.

I might also remove pmail since I don't use it.  And the games, and I 
think the setup directory is just for installation to hard drive.

I was looking at the other files in /bin/ and /usr/bin and found rdev and 
it appears to be usable to set video mode somehow during bootup, but is 
there some way to also set video mode after bootup, like DOS 'mode mono' 
or at least change the number of columns and lines?  

> 
> > links-ssl appears to use this same file 
> > (but not hotlist.html - why?)
> 
> Do the following and look for links:
> -----
> alias
> -----

alias links='links-09.3 /root/hotlist.html'

Links does not have a 'start file' like lynx, apparently.

> > I still don't know how to mount baslinux to /mnt, 
> 
> Mount your DOS partition (*not* on /mnt) and cd to where 
> baslinux.gz is.  Insmod loop.  Then do this:
> ---------------------------
> gunzip baslinux.gz
> mount -o loop baslinux /mnt
> ---------------------------
> 
> > make changes (presumably to the files located in /mnt), 
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > umount /mnt, and then gzip baslinux.  Perhaps the last two 
> > steps should be reversed? 
> 
> Nope.  First you exit and umount baslinux (i.e. /mnt).  Then
> you gzip it (so loadlin.exe can use it).

I get it now.  You made the changes to baslinux without actually copying 
it to ramdisk (just mounting it after unzipping), umounted /mnt but left 
the DOS partition mounted, and then gzipped baslinux in the DOS partition.

Is there some advantage to your method or the cat /dev/ram0>ramdisk 
method?  The latter method requires renaming ramdisk.gz to baslinux.gz, 
but I find it a bit less complicated since no modules are needed.

I left baslinux.gz unchanged, and made two new versions baslin2.gz and 
baslin3.gz with different changes (3 uses mdacon).

> Cheers,
> Steven

Sindi Keesan