[TriLUG] Re: was: Hamfest thanks --> now: Knoppix

[Aaron S. Joyner]

If your simulation software runs in X, things are a bit trickier that I 
am going to describe.  You'll of course have to modify the X startup 
scripts, which I haven't tinkered with much in Knoppix.  Creating a 
symbolic link to outside the compressed image, that gets included, will 
simplify life a great deal.  More details about why are included below.

If on the other hand you're running from a console, I'd definitely 
suggest exploring the simplest and quickest way to get your simulation 
up and running is through the knoppix.sh feature.  You can add a file 
called knoppix.sh to the root directory of the iso filesystem, and if 
that file exists it will be executed by the startup scripts.  You can 
place your simulation in the iso portion of the cdrom (not inside the 
compressed image) by referencing /cdrom/.  If you make the first command 
in knoppix.sh "telinit 3" it will stop the loading of the GUI (a cheap 
but effective way to keep the GUI from stomping on your console 
session).  If you need to store something on a ramdisk, there is one 
setup by default at /ramdisk once Knoppix is loaded.

# Over-simplified steps to do what I've described:
mount /dev/knoppixcdlocation /mnt/cdrom
cp -a /mnt/cdrom ~/newcd
echo "telninit 3 && cp /cdrom/yourprogram /ramdisk && 
/ramdisk/Yourprogram.here" > ~/newcd/knoppix.sh
cp /path/to/yourprogram ~/newcd/yourprogram
cd ~ && mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o 
newcd.iso newcd

This all assumes that your program will fit in the space not taken up by 
the Knoppix compressed image.  :)  If it does not (as it likely won't) 
then stick to the FAQ you linked below, and use the knoppix utilities to 
start removing bits that aren't important to your setup.  There was good 
information that FAQ so I'll refrain from duplicating it here.  The 
above steps are primarily intended for when you have a small little task 
you want to have be ultimately portable.  If your project grows beyond 
those abilities (as mine did) then you can easily make more space by 
pulling out bits of Knoppix that don't suit your needs, and sticking to 
the same basic methods.  Learning from past experience, the first time I 
wrote it all as an init script in /etc/rc3.d/S01foobar - and not only 
was testing a nightmare, as it required rebuilding the compressed 
filesystem every time I wanted to test the audio output (w/ Knoppix's 
environment), but as we discovered little bugs later, each of those 
required recompressing again.  Moving the core functionality out into 
the knoppix.sh saved me a world of pain and headache once the initial 
tuning of the Knoppix internals were done.  :)

Let us know how your project turns out - best of luck with it!
Aaron S. Joyner


Ed Hill wrote:

>On Tue, 2004-04-06 at 09:14, Aaron S. Joyner wrote:
>  
>
>>Very cool things are possible with Knoppix as a base, and some creative 
>>thinking.  We could easily make up a TriLUG branded disc with all the 
>>power of a Knoppix disc, and some good links to local support, etc.  
>>That would probably sell well at a Hamfest or any where else.  :)
>>    
>>
>
>
>Hi Aaron,
>
>Your post is inspiring!
>
>I'd very much like to figure out how to create a custom Knoppix disk
>that will run some demos of our simulation software.  Other than the
>existing Knoppix-remastering FAQ (which looks mighty helpful):
>
>  http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/KnoppixRemasteringHowto
>
>do you have any recommendations or notes for beginners?
>
>thanks,
>Ed
>
>  
>