A couple of newbie questions

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A couple of newbie questions

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Started 11 years ago by murrayheck
Latest reply from Ceel
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murrayheck

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Hello

For non-English speakers, I'm trying to find a live distro totally in French (ie. keyboard + system + interface), and Slitaz appears to be one of the very few available.

I did read the docs + FAQ, but still have a few questions after successfully booting off a USB keydrive:

1. Is it possible to create a live ISO that boots in French right from the start, instead of displaying the "SliTaz Live, SliTaz core Live, etc." boot menu and requiring the user to change their language?

2. I'd like to remove several groups of applications from the menu: What is the right way to do this?
Install on the hard drive, customize, and save to ISO file? Boot off the USB keydrive, load ISO file, modify, save? Use TazLito?

3. I need the USB keydrive to be persistant so that any change made while in live mode is available the next time: Can SliTaz do this?

Thank you.

Posted 11 years ago #
aniguenni

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hello murrayheck,

first of all, congratulations for your choice to try SliTaz GNU/Linux.
i started myself just few months ago and i'm very amused about this lovely tiny distro.

about your questions above:
=> 1. just boot the live-iso, create your own style, make the changes you want to and when you'r finished, type "tazlito writeiso lzma" into a terminal (x-term or sakura). this will create your own liveiso with all your actual own changes you already did.

for your other questions - sorry i'm too newbie to help you in this specific themes. i think to add and/or remove some packages you can use the slitaz package manager.

good luck 8-)

Posted 11 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator
Hi murrayheck,

SliTaz 4.0 I suppose.

1. Just edit your /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf (you must be root)
This should work :
```
DEFAULT auto<br />
LABEL auto<br />
	MENU LABEL auto-boot FR<br />
	KERNEL /boot/bzImage<br />
	append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz,/boot/rootfs2.gz,/boot/rootfs1.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin home=
```
don't-change-the-ID-of-your-stick

2. TazPanel doesn't work when french language is selected. To suppress applications, open a terminal as root and type:
tazpkg remove package's-name
ie: tazpkg remove web-applications

3. what change do you want to save exactly ?
- files you've created or downloaded ? they should be saved in /home/tux
- packages you've installed/suppressed ? open a terminal; as root type tazusb writefs gzip
The first time you'll use this command, edit your /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf as this before reboot:
append initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin home=don't-change-the-ID-of-your-stick
And you must know each time you use tazusb writefs gzip, the previous compressed files system is saved on the stick.
Don't forget to erase older rootfs.gz from time to time: tazusb clean
Posted 11 years ago #
murrayheck

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Hello

Thanks for the help.

1. How can I edit /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf after booting off the USB keydrive?

What do you mean by "home=don't-change-the-ID-of-your-stick"?

2. I want to remove entire sections of the menu, not just single applications, such as the "????". How can I do this?

3. It was a general question. I guess the user will need to save files into their home directory and possibly add a few apps from the repository.

Do you mean that...
- files saved in /home/tux will be saved on the stick and still be there the next time the user reboots with the stick?
- adding/removing apps requires editing /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf (only the first time), run "tazusb writefs gzip" to write the new file system from RAM to the stick, and finally run "tazusb clean" to get rid of the previous file system
?

What about using "tazlito writeiso lzma" to write the current live system into an ISO file that I can use to generate additional sticks with the modified system?

Posted 11 years ago #
murrayheck

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Member

Sorry, forgot to change the "???" to eg. "Bureautique", "Documentation", etc.

Posted 11 years ago #
christophe

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the menu is automatically created by lxde; you should google lxde menu and read a little bit about it.
Basically, it uses the .desktop file which are under /usr/share/application, if i remember correctly.

the best way is to just remove the applications that show in the menus, then the menus should disappear
you can also manuallly remove the desktop files, that would remove the menu entries and leave them accessible through command lines

Never did either of those you should experiment a bit

Posted 11 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator

@ murrayheck

1. How can I edit /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf after booting off the USB keydrive?

Open the file manager and become root (Outil > Ouvrir le dossier courant en tant que root).
Go to /home/boot/extlinux; right click on extlinux.conf and Copier.
Right click in the right part of the window and Coller; save the file with a new name as extlinux.conf.save
Right click again on extlinux.conf and select Ouvrir avec "Editeur de texte Leafpad" and modify the file.

2. I want to remove entire sections of the menu, not just single applications, such as the "Bureautique", "Documentation", etc... How can I do this?

As Christophe told you, the menu is automatically updated when installing/removing packages.

Do you mean that...
- files saved in /home/tux will be saved on the stick and still be there the next time the user reboots with the stick?

Yes. How did you make your LiveUSB?

- adding/removing apps requires editing /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf (only the first time), run "tazusb writefs gzip" to write the new file system from RAM to the stick, and finally run "tazusb clean" to get rid of the previous file system?

Yes. See http://hg.slitaz.org/tazusb/raw-file/tip/doc/tazusb.fr.html

What about using "tazlito writeiso lzma" to write the current live system into an ISO file that I can use to generate additional sticks with the modified system?

Well, this is another way. You can generate your own iso and create a new liveUSB with it. So you'll always have the original version.

Posted 11 years ago #
murrayheck

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Member

Thanks for the help. On Windows I used Rufus (http://rufus.akeo.ie/) to install Slitaz 4.0 on a USB stick.

1. To customize the boot options so that it would include FR automatically for locale + keyboard, while still in a running Slitaz after booting from a USB stick, I mounted the USB stick again in /mnt, edited /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg, and rebooted:

http://www.pastebin.com/raw.php?i=t7MFFsXD

I'm shown two options ("SliTaz Live" and "Languages"), and after choosing the former: "Could not find kernel image: core".

Are the boot options wrong? If they're OK, what is the right way to edit /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg?

2. After booting from a USB stick, I created a file in /home/tux, and rebooted: File is gone.

What is the right way to make a bootable USB key persistent?

3. I have no use for the "Games" and the "Multimedia" groups: So, the way to remove the apps and the GUI menu is to run "tazpkg remove" for each and every application?

Thank you.

Posted 11 years ago #
mojo

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Key Master
Hi murrayheck,

In order to have persistence you will have to re-install slitaz to the flash drive with tazusb after formating it to ext3.
After the re-install /home will be auto-mounted when you boot into slitaz.
LiveUSB Guide

Slitaz presents the orange boot menu when /etc/keymap.conf and /etc/locale.conf are blank.
After booting into slitaz your settings are written.
When you reboot any files in the rootfs folder will be written in the root filesystem.
If a file exists it will be overwritten.
# mkdir -p /home/boot/rootfs/etc
# cp /etc/keymap.conf /home/boot/rootfs/etc
# cp /etc/locale.conf /home/boot/rootfs/etc
On reboot,you should boot straight to the slim login screen or desktop if you have autologin set.
This same method is used with tazlito to add custom files and configurations when you build an iso.

Another method which restores a limited list of configurations:
tazpkg list-config => list of system configuration files which will be packed in config-1.0.tazpkg
tazpkg repack-config => packs configuration files in the list into config-1.0.tazpkg
mkdir /home/boot/tazpkgs
Any tazpkgs placed in /home/boot/packages are auto-installed on boot.
# cp config-1.0.tazpkg /home/boot/packages
The custom configurations in the config-1.0.tazpkg are installed on boot.
Software tazpkgs and their depends placed in the folder are auto-installed on boot.
Loading tazpkgs on boot doesn't slows things down too much.
It's like your running a clean install every boot.
- tazusb writefs gzip writes and compresses the current root filesystem running in ram.
  I've found even with 4 gig's of memory eventually the rootfs.gz get corrupted and the system kernel panics and refuses to boot.
- tazlito writeiso gzip does the same as above,adds the kernel and boot files from either a live cd or mounted iso then creates an iso. Programs won't start or they don't work right,weird configuration problems likely due to file corruption.
  Similar to problems experienced with an upgrade of an operating system instead of a clean install.
Posted 11 years ago #
Ceel

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Administrator

@ murrayheck

Are the boot options wrong?

Yes. There is only one section in your syslinux.cfg.
If your computer has more than 192 MB RAM and you want to use the full version of SliTaz then modify the lines
kernel /boot/isolinux/ifmem.c32 append 192M core 160M gtkonly 100M justx 48M base noram lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1
like this
KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz,/boot/rootfs2.gz,/boot/rootfs1.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin

If you have less than 192 MB or want to choose among the different possibilities, modify your syslinux.cfg like this
# Labels LABEL slitaz MENU LABEL SliTaz Live kernel /boot/extlinux/ifmem.c32 append 192M core 160M gtkonly 100M justx 48M base noram
LABEL auto MENU LABEL auto-boot FR KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz,/boot/rootfs2.gz,/boot/rootfs1.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin label noram MENU HIDE config noram.cfg LABEL core MENU LABEL SliTaz core Live KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz,/boot/rootfs2.gz,/boot/rootfs1.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin LABEL gtkonly MENU LABEL SliTaz gtkonly Live KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz,/boot/rootfs2.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin LABEL justx MENU LABEL SliTaz justx Live KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz,/boot/rootfs3.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin LABEL base MENU LABEL SliTaz base Live KERNEL /boot/bzImage append initrd=/boot/rootfs4.gz lang=fr_FR kmap=fr-latin1 rw root=/dev/null vga=normal autologin LABEL help MENU LABEL Help & Options MENU HELP help.en INCLUDE i18n.cfg LABEL md5sum MENU LABEL Check media COM32 md5sum.c32 append /md5sum LABEL cmdline MENU LABEL Command Line MENU QUIT LABEL web zeb MENU LABEL Web Boot KERNEL /boot/gpxe LABEL reboot MENU LABEL Reboot System COM32 reboot.c32
# Help files F1 help.en F2 opts.en F3 help.fr F4 opts.fr

After booting from a USB stick, I created a file in /home/tux, and rebooted: File is gone.

syslinux => your stick is formated FAT 16 or 32; no persistence. Follow mojo's advices.

Posted 11 years ago #

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