Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

I have compiled a BL2-type version of BL3 with bl3.gz on a floppy disk, 
which file I copied to the baslin directory on another computer and I am 
using it to dial, telnet, and type this mail at a shell account.

1.  Stuck in disk1 of BL3 2-floppy version and booted.
2.  Deleted anything to do with X, games (there was one), pcmcia, also 
e3vi which is 12K and is not a link to e3pi.  I left setleds.

umount /usr/X11R6 - I probably should have left it for use as a /tmp and 
just deleted files from it later.

I tried doing dd if=/dev/ram1 and got a lot of garbage and did a reset.
What is this supposed to accomplish?

I started with 2060 bytes used in ram0 and 1945 free.

I then inserted disk2, mounted it to /fd, and pkg disk2.tgz.
Since there was no ram1 after it ran out of space, but I had already 
installed the modules.  I deleted X again.

I copied disk2.tgz to hard drive and unpackaged it there and noticed that 
it contains modules and X and links and another game.

I now had links and the modules in ram0.  I deleted the pcmcia and 
ethernet modules to make a Bl3 suitable for a very old laptop with 4-bit 
greyscale that won't be very useful with X anyway and can't do X in 8MB 
in RAMdisk.

I then stuck in an empty 1.44MB DOS floppy disk and mounted it.
cat /dev/ram0|gzip > /fd/bl3.gz

After a few minutes I ended up with bl3.gz on floppy disk, which I copied
to the baslin directory on another computer.  I looked at the boot.bat 
from Bl2 and typed while in baslin

loadlin zimage root=/dev/ram initrd=bl3.gz rw

This is rw, whereas BL2 requires ro, otherwise this is the same as the bl2 
boot.bat

It booted, told me to insert disk2, I typed Ctrl-C, then Enter, and then 
remembered I had forgotten to run pppsetup before making bl3.gz.

I did not bother to delete ram1 on this computer since there is enough 
RAM leftover (16M total).

I have 2435 MB of files in ram0.  There should be space for links2 but I 
don't know if I will have enough RAM for it since links-0.90 cannot list 
the contents of disk2.tgz on that laptop right now.

I could have left the second 2.5MB ramdisk and made bl3.gz on that, but it 
did fit into 1.13MB on the floppy disk and this way I had more RAM to work 
in.  I don't know which way would have been faster - gzip to floppy after 
copying to ram1 (2435 bytes should have just barely fit, but won't if I 
add links2).

If links2 does not fit on the second floppy disk in bl3.tgz I can put it, 
with a library file or two from svgalib and seejpeg and the correct config 
file to utilize them, on another floppy disk, such as the DOS boot disk 
onto which I will put loadlin and zimage. I will then have a BL3 2-floppy 
set which boots with loadlin (except on three of my computers which don't 
boot with loadlin) and functions pretty much like BL2 2-floppy except for 
having a smaller kernel, smaller libraries, and hopefully links2 (which I 
needed today to order glasses online because of javascript).

Links runs out of memory on the laptop when I go to the /fd and type d and 
right arrow at disk2.tgz.  I probably won't get very far trying to run it 
in 4MB RAM.  How would I go about adding swap-space to a BL3 that is 
running in RAMdisk?  I could copy over the loop-version swap file to the 
hard drive of a computer (from floppy disk containing the zip file and 
pkunzip), but how do I instruct Bl3 to use it?  swapon?

This 2-floppy set could be used on a friend's computer while visiting. 
Just add a non-winmodem.  Modem plus 2 floppies is much more portable than 
laptop plus external keyboard plus modem.

I know the regular BL3 2-floppy set would also work but it is not easily 
modified and does not have links2, and BL2 2-floppy set is easily modified 
but the links2 for BL2 is enormous (from delilinux).  I might also add 
minicom since Kermit is too large and microcom does not like my bbs, and 
even photopc (if we get seejpeg going) which we currently have on a DOS 
bootdisk (for downloading from a digital camera with serial cable). I can 
delete more manpages if I need space, and store them on floppy disk.

Joel ought to be able to do something similar with BL3 in order to use his 
(laptop?) computer without a hard drive but with pcmcia wireless, just 
change to the correct modules for his kernel, add the wireless module, 
remove anything he is sure not to use so that it will fit on a floppy 
disk2 and put loadlin and the 2.2.26 kernel on disk1.  You could even 
do this with 1.2MB floppy disks.

Why not just use the laptop with its wireless networking to connect to 
a desktop computer that has a browser already on it instead of running 
links from the laptop?

More details when I get seejpeg and links2 into the package or into a 
second package.  I could just put Steven's links2 package on the first 
disk.

Magic.