mirror of https://github.com/fspc/gbootroot.git
You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
418 lines
14 KiB
418 lines
14 KiB
<html>
|
|
<head><title>gBootRoot</title></head>
|
|
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EF" vlink="#51188E"
|
|
alink="#FF0000">
|
|
|
|
|
|
<H1 align="center">gBootRoot</h1>
|
|
<H3 align="center">at</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p align="center"><A href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gbootroot">
|
|
<IMG src="http://sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=9513&type=1"
|
|
width="88" height="31" border="0"
|
|
alt="SourceForge Logo"> </A></p>
|
|
<p></p>
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<b>bOOTrOOT</b> makes the development, construction, and
|
|
testing of distributions fun and simple.</P>
|
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<b>Download gBootRoot<b></P>
|
|
<P align="center">Stable version</P>
|
|
<p align="center"><A href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gbootroot/">
|
|
Old versions</A></P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<IMG ALT="" SRC="images/gbootroot.xpm">
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<b>How to Use gBootRoot</b></P>
|
|
<P><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/gBS.jpg" align="right">The most important button to
|
|
familiarize yourself with is the Submit button which starts the whole process;
|
|
dialogs are presented as the process continues asking you if you want to
|
|
continue "OK" or stop "Cancel".</P>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <u>first row</u> presently has only one Boot Method choice:
|
|
"2 disk compression."  
|
|
Clicking on the menu on the right selects the Boot Method.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>The <u>second row</u> allows you to select the kernel for the Boot/Root set. You
|
|
may either use the file selector button on the right hand side, or you may
|
|
type in the location on the left hand side.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
The <u>third row</u> allows you to select the compressed filesystem you are
|
|
providing, using either of the two ways mentioned before. You may use a
|
|
pre-made root filesystem or you may create one using one of the Methods
|
|
provided in the Advanced Root Section.
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P>The <u>fourth row</u> allows you to select the device you want to use. The default
|
|
device is the first floppy disk - /dev/fd0.</P>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <u>fifth row</u> allows you to choose the size of the device being used.
|
|
The default size of 1440 assumes you are using a floppy drive (Note: You may
|
|
want to experiment with 1722 which works fine with many floppy drives.), but
|
|
can be used with other sized devices like tape drives. Click on the
|
|
appropriate radio button to choose either gzip or bzip2 compression if the
|
|
program doesn't automatically detect it.</p>
|
|
|
|
<P align="center"><b>Verbosity Box</b></p>
|
|
<IMG ALT="" SRC="images/verbosity_box.jpg" align="right">
|
|
|
|
The <u>slider bar</u> on the right allows the output of the verbosity box
|
|
to be
|
|
changed from the highest (2) to the lowest setting (1) or to be turned off (0)
|
|
or on again.
|
|
At times it may be advantageous to turn off the verbosity box
|
|
since large quantities of output to this box may cause gbootroot to use too
|
|
much cpu power; however, output may still be found in the text file "verbose"
|
|
in /tmp/gbootroot_tmp'time-date'.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><P align="center"><b>
|
|
Using the Advanced Boot Section</b></p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/ABS.jpg" align="right">
|
|
|
|
"Stripping" On by default for libraries and binaries. The stripping
|
|
behavior for libraries may be changed by clicking on the right mouse button
|
|
to change from --strip-debug to --strip-all.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Devel Device" If the device used for development is different than the
|
|
actual boot device, use this field to indicate that device. You will have to
|
|
run lilo -v -C brlilo.conf -r "device mount point" manually at a later time
|
|
on the actual boot device.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Opt. Device" Add devices to the boot disk which are necessary for the
|
|
kernel to function properly. Put a space between each device. For instance,
|
|
/dev/fb0 for frame buffer devices.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"append =" Add append options to brlilo.conf. If you are using a frame
|
|
buffer device you could add something like video=matrox:vesa:402,depth:16.</p>
|
|
|
|
<br><br><br><br><br>
|
|
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<b>Using the Advanced Root Section</b></P>
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/ARS.jpg" align="right">
|
|
|
|
"Root Device"
|
|
This is the device used for the root filesystem when
|
|
constructing the Boot/Root set.
|
|
You may choose a device which is different
|
|
than the Boot device, but presently only floppy devices are supported.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Root Device Size" The size of the actual media used for the Root Device.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Root Filename"
|
|
The name give to the root filesystem when initially made
|
|
in the temporary creation location.
|
|
The save button allows the creation to
|
|
be saved in the permanent default location when the
|
|
Accept button is pressed.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Filesystem Size"
|
|
Root Methods make the filesystem the size which is
|
|
specified here.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Compression"
|
|
Off by default to allow user-mode-linux testing. Turn on
|
|
compression when you are ready to use a Boot Method
|
|
which requires compression.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Method" The root filesystem creation method.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Template" The template associated with a Root Method.
|
|
Not all Root Methods
|
|
have templates.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Generate" This puts the chosen Root Method in action.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"UML" Abbreviation for user-mode-linux.
|
|
This is a linux kernel which runs on
|
|
top of the host system's linux kernel and allows a you run a live root
|
|
filesystem.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Accept"
|
|
This accepts the created root filesystem if it is found in the
|
|
temporary creation directory.
|
|
The UML box and the main section will now
|
|
reflect the path to this root filesystem.
|
|
You can now test with the UML
|
|
button or a put together a complete Boot/Root set with the Submit button.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><P align="center"><b>User Mode Linux Box</b></p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/uml_box.jpg" align="right">
|
|
|
|
"Xterm" Choose an xterm with its executable options switch.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Options" Enter uml command-line options like: mem=64,
|
|
devfs=nomount.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Root_Fs" Choose an uncompressed root filesystem.
|
|
Append with ubd?=.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
"Abort" Abort user-mode-linux kernel processes. </p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><P align="center"><b>
|
|
About the Yard Box</b></p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/yard_box.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
The Yard Box is a Root Method which is "Generated" from the Advanced Root
|
|
Section after a Template is chosen. It has several interesting features.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
The check boxes at the bottom represent the different stages involved in
|
|
creating a root filesystem. The behavior of these stages may be altered in
|
|
three ways: Edit->Stages->one-by-one (default) will perform each stage
|
|
sequentially, stopping between each stage, the user may continue the process
|
|
by pressing the Continue button. Edit->Stages->continuous proceeds non-stop
|
|
through all the stages. Edit->Stages->'user defined' allows the user to
|
|
choose any stages the user wants, and will then proceed through all the
|
|
chosen stages. Choosing only 'Check', 'Links & Deps', 'Create" is a good
|
|
example.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/tests.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
The behavior of some of the stages may be altered. For instance Alt-T allows
|
|
you to choose which tests to run on the newly created
|
|
root filesystem.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/template_search.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Press Alt-S to enable template text searching in either
|
|
direction. Find exact matches or ignore case with the case sensitive check
|
|
box.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/file.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Use Ctl-S to save the changes to an open template, and Alt-A to save the
|
|
template with a new name.
|
|
bOOTrOOT will not allow read-only templates or template links to be saved
|
|
with their own name. A few of these example files are included. You may make
|
|
changes to them or clear their buffers. Then you may save the template with a
|
|
different name.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/stripping.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Edit->Settings->Stripping allows you to turn off/on stripping for
|
|
Libraries, Binaries, and Modules. --strip-all is the default stripping
|
|
behavior, but Libraries may have this behavior changed to --strip-debug.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/paths.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Edit->Setting->Paths allows you to prepend a new search path to your
|
|
environments $PATH variable.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/filesystem.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Edit->'File System" may alter the type of filesystem used to make the root
|
|
filesystem. Because the filesystem is created on a loop device, some
|
|
filesystem types may complain or not be created at all.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/replacements.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Edit->Replacements in your $HOME/.gbootroot/Replacements directory using
|
|
an editor of your choice.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/create.jpg" align="center"></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Create->Replacements creates special replacement files. Presently it creates
|
|
an fstab configuration file as Replacements/etc/fstab.new in
|
|
$HOME/.gbootroot/yard/.</p>
|
|
|
|
<P>Little things you may want to know:</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>* gBootRoot requires ash for initrd. Ash is a feather weight version of Bash.</P>
|
|
<br>
|
|
|
|
<P><IMG ALT="" SRC="images/gBSicon.jpg" align="center"> <b>FAQ</b></P>
|
|
<P><b>What does the 2 disk compression method do?</b></P>
|
|
<P>This Boot Method creates a boot disk with lilo, a kernel and an initrd
|
|
image. The
|
|
initrd script mounts another root disk with a compressed (gzip or bzip2)
|
|
filesystem.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P><b>What's the advantage of using this program?</b></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>You can use a bzip2 compressed filesystem, this program is easy to use, and it provides a framework showing a simple initrd method which you can freely
|
|
modify. I wrote this program as an extension to BootRoot which was written
|
|
as a solution to help oster at EE (www.experts-exchange.com) create separate
|
|
boot and root floppies for an emergency system for his customers.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P><A href="./bootroot.html">BootRoot</A>
|
|
was the original program, but it was decided that a GUI approach
|
|
provided the user much more versatility and power in creating distributions.
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>If you make a cool change to this program, or if this program helps you I'd love to know, that's better than receiving pizza. :)</P>
|
|
|
|
<P><b>How can I test gBootRoot?</b></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>Get SETUP.GZ as the filesystem from <a href="http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/index.html">looplinux</a> or get it from my <a href="/bootroot/setup.gz">site</a>.
|
|
This filesystem works with 2.2 kernels.</P>
|
|
<p>
|
|
[Ctrl] ([Tab] to see available images)
|
|
<br> boot: bootdisk single [Enter]
|
|
<br> ( now filesystem is single user mode)
|
|
<br> exit [Enter]
|
|
<br> (now you are in multi user mode)
|
|
<p>
|
|
Better yet, do [Ctrl]
|
|
<br> boot: bootdisk 2 [Enter]
|
|
|
|
<P>You can make your own compressed filesystem with
|
|
<a href="http://www.croftj.net/~fawcett/yard/">Yard</a>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P><b>Why doesn't looplinux work as "bootdisk 1?"</b></P>
|
|
<P>There is a difference between "1" and "single." Looplinux was written in a
|
|
way that runlevel 1 doesn't work properly in relation to gBootRoot unless
|
|
single is used. And you thought they were the same thing? gBootRoot
|
|
proves otherwise. </P>
|
|
|
|
<P><b>gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?</b></P>
|
|
<p>This program requires Gtk-Perl available from <a href="http://www.perl.com/CPAN">CPAN</a>, <a href="http://freshmeat.net/projects/gtk-perl">Freshmeat</a> or most GNU/Linux distributions.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><b>There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root
|
|
disk. Is there any way to free up more space apart from reducing
|
|
the size of the kernel?</b></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Move the device size to 1722. This is a trick that <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a> uses on his famous rescue disk.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><b>If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back
|
|
up towards 1440 and 1722, you get very funny figures.</b></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
This is because of the way Gtk works. There are two adjustments,
|
|
step and page increments. When you press your first mouse button the step
|
|
has been set to 282 so that a person can easily switch between 1440 and 1722.
|
|
When you use your second mouse button the page is set at 360. You can go
|
|
down to zero by pressing your third mouse button on the down arrow. Now
|
|
page up with the second button to 1440 and step with the first button to
|
|
1722. Pretty cool, eh?</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Why we are on this subject please check out these keyboard shortcuts for Gtk.</p>
|
|
|
|
<P>Motion Shortcuts
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-A Beginning of line </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-E End of line </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-N Next Line </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-P Previous Line </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-B Backward one character </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-F Forward one character </LI>
|
|
<LI> Alt-B Backward one word </LI>
|
|
<LI> Alt-F Forward one word </LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<P> Editing Shortcuts
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-H Delete Backward Character (Backspace) </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-D Delete Forward Character (Delete) </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-W Delete Backward Word </LI>
|
|
<LI> Alt-D Delete Forward Word </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-K Delete to end of line </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-U Delete line </LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<P>Selection Shortcuts
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-X Cut to clipboard </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-C Copy to clipboard </LI>
|
|
<LI> Ctrl-V Paste from clipboard </LI>
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<IMG ALT="Larry Ewing's Penguin celebrates in gBootRoot." SRC="images/peng-movie.4.gif">
|
|
|
|
<br><br><br>
|
|
Contact me: Jonathan Rosenbaum <<a href="freesource@users.sourceforge.net">freesource@users.sourceforge.net</a>>
|
|
<br>
|
|
Submit a Bug: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9513">gBootRoot Bug System</a>
|
|
<br>
|
|
Join or browse the mailing lists: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=9513">gbootroot-{devel,user} mailing lists</a>
|
|
<br>
|
|
Ask a question: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=29639">Help Forum</a>
|
|
<br>
|
|
Start a discussion: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=29638">Open Discussion Forum</a>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
</body></html>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|