Re: Scripts for modifying LNX-BBC 2.1

On Thu, Aug 14, 2003 at 07:16:33PM -0700, Jeff Mock wrote:
> 
> I'm a big fan of LNX-BBC.  For me it's a fantastic rescue disc.
>  
> I wanted a simple way to make small modifications lnx-bbc to suit
> my own local needs.  Here is a set of scripts for version 2.1 of the
> lnx-bbc for unfolding the directories of a lnx-bbc disc image, making
> modifications, and folding it back into an ISO image.
>  
> For small casual changes I found building the entire disc from
> lnx-bbc source a bit unwieldy, these scripts make it easy for me
> to tweak a disc for a special purpose.
>  
> I was looking to solve a few problems in particular:
>  
>     I would like change the kernel on a lnx-bbc disk.  For my laptop
>     I want the orinoco_pci kernel driver for the mini-pci
>     802.11b card, I would like to have kernel modules
>     for a special disk controller in a server machine, and I would 
>     like to run a particularly non-mainstream kernel on my 
>     desktop machine with native serial ATA support.

The cleanest way by far to change this out, is to fetch the GAR sources,
then edit the file in (sourcetree)/kernel/linux/files/ which is the 
config, go into ()/kernel/linux/ and run make makesums, then rebuild
a local lnx-bbc disc.  

We cannot fit much more into the initrd at present though we have
someone working on this.  Since you know exactly the hardware you 
are prepping for though, you do not have to be generic, so you can
tell a lot of modules to begone.  You will also want to look at
()/meta/root.bin to make sure it's not trying to include cruft you won't
be needing.  

An interesting solution you have come up with, though.

>     I have a server machine with a BIOS bug that won't boot using
>     syslinux.  It boots fine with isolinux, so I would like to build
>     a lnx-bbx that uses isolinux for booting rather than syslinux.

Add a branch to your local copy of the meta/ directory, and give it
a shot.  We haven't tried this yet though it's on the roadmap to be
looked at.  

>     I would like to be able to build a ram resident lnx-bbc.  That is,
>     I would like the lnx-bbx disc to boot, copy everything it needs
>     (50MB) into a ram disk, unmount the cdrom and run out of ram.
>     I wanted this primarily for my laptop so I can travel with a
>     lnx-bbc disc, a couple of backup DVD-Rs, and restore my system
>     using just the DVD drive in the laptop.

Hmm, could only work for machines that have a lot of RAM to burn.
I'd enjoy seeing it, myself, but having it be smart enough to tell if
that wasn't really a safe option would be ideal.   I think making 
the user have to tell it to try that is kinda nifty as a starting point.

> Hopefully this will be useful to other people and are a kind of
> proof-of-concept of a wishlist for future lnx-bbc releases.  here's
> the stuff:
> 
>     http://www.mock.com/bbcmods
> 
> Documentation in the README
> jeff

Thanks for jumping in 8)

I don't see a license flavor mentioned in the readme for your scripts?

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         [email protected]
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