jetman

I'm shocked and amazed ! I've never had a single whisper of trouble from any Belkin offering. Guess there's a 1st time for everything. If at 1st you don't succeed and all that. The biggest prob and obstacle is what you pointed out: being disconnected. Nowadays, that's like taking drugs from the addict. At least when you're hooked on the 'Net, you're in the comfort of your own home and not hanging out w/ dirtbags in abndoned buildings. Should have something really interesting going by next Thurs. Hope so anyway. Later....Jet

Does GParted Live have Partimage (a clone of Ghost) ? I haven't tried it yet, but the System Rescue CD has Partimage, GParted, Testdisk, and some other stuf I forget now. Partimage has its own server, so it can clone across a network all by itself....

Hmmm. Not sure what you mean by generic Broadcom driver WRT to NDISWrapper. See, the generic Broadcom driver I know is the kernel module that comes w/ Ubuntu/Kubuntu. I think that's bcm43xx, at least that's what I know it to be under ZenWalk Live (Slax done better) and Knoppix 5.1. Isn't used with NDISWrapper. Now, referring back to my mini-HOWTO, check your kernel log for details about why the driver didn't like your card. OTOH, using the NDISWrapper and the Belkin files is more troubling. Just to see what success others have had w/ your gear, one can try LinuxQuestions HCL. WPA ? Absolutely better than WEP. As I've been reading and hearing lately, WEP can be cracked so easily my grandmother could probably figure it out ! WPA isn't even hard to setup w/ Linux. Just another program to add to the mix. I can't call myself an expert on all of these subjects, but my PCs earn their keep daily under Windows and Linux. I'm even typing this from my mini-WiFi router via IceWeasel (what a lousy name !) Anyway, TTYL....Jet

Not true. You simply haven't relinquished "ready-to-wear" WiFi Windows drivers yet. When I did my 1st Unix (actually FreeBSD) WiFi project about four years ago, I had Orinoco/Agere cards and they worked almost instantly. I think they're the only company that has completely OSS driver support for Linux/BSD/Unix. I was spoiled too, but I got over that, as you will. But by your remarks, I probably would've found last nite's scene entertaining, as did your spouse. Go ahead and wire up a little Ethernet "security blanket", then when you've got your patience back, you'll see it wasn't that tough after all. I can share a couple more pointers: 1) The sequence of iwconfig cmds to setup WiFi seems to be sensitive to the order of each element (AP/SSID/WEP key/channel) is sent to the card. This was esp true, in order to enable WPA. 2) Since you can specifically choose an AP by MAC address, you should have no trouble disabling SSID again. I gave up on that bec Windows simply wouldn't cooperate. 3) Did you look the system or kernel logs for more init details about your WiFi cards ? My WPCI810G is detected (under Knoppix), but the bcm43xx driver doesn't know that to do w/ it, for lack of firmware. Which reqs human intervention. Anyway, scarf a Guinness or something and relax....Jet

The Q-n-D WiFi/NDISWrapper Mini-HOWTO: Look, once you have the .inf+.sys file for your WiFi card it's pretty much: #### Let's say you have a Broadcom 43xx based Wi-Fi card like I do, just copy the bcmwl5.inf+bcmwl5.sys #### into /root and run the following.... /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf #### The following displays whether the Windows driver installed correctly /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l #### You should see something like the following: #### bcmwl5 : driver installed #### device (14E4:4320) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx) #### If not, try ndiswrapper -r bcmwl5 to remove the driver, then go back to the top for one more go #### #### If you try a 'do over', do yourself a favor and remove ndiswrapper w/ 'modprobe -r ndiswrapper' after #### removing the driver. If a do over doesn't boot WiFi, reboot and start at the top.... #### #### No one seems to recommend this exc the ndiswrapper people.... /sbin/depmod -a /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper #### The following shows what the new device name is.... /sbin/iwconfig /sbin/iwconfig eth1 channel 11 /sbin/iwconfig eth1 mode Managed /sbin/iwconfig eth1 ap ap-mac-address /sbin/iwconfig eth1 key restricted <wep-string-in-hex> #### /sbin/iwconfig eth1 commit /sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid "your-ap-name" /sbin/ifconfig eth1 inet 192.168.3.100 broadcast 192.168.3.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 /sbin/ifconfig eth1 up /sbin/route add default gw 192.168.3.1 #### or you could use dhcpcd -d -t 30 wlan0 for an automatic IP and skip the #### 1st ifconfig and the route stmts Above is an extract from the 2nd-gen script I use to fire up my WiFi-Wired router, so it's perfected. Actually, it's almost a verbatim rip from the NDISWrapper wiki. I literally got my Moto WPCI810G going in under an hour. It took about another day or so til I found the formula for turning the box into a WiFi-Wired router (basically a high-perf ICS PC), which talks to a Netgear wireless router, then out to the Net via the landlord's cable modem. Under (my) Knoppix, the WiFi device is always eth1, but under Slax it's always wlan0, as it's supposed to be. What's happening is: 1) Install the Windows driver 2) Display the driver's installation status 3) Load the NDISWrapper kernel module 4) Display the newly installed wireless device's name and params 5) Configure the wireless device 6) Setup the IP settings (via ifconfig) for a new network device 7) Turn it on 8) Manually setup the default gateway for Internetworking, altho dhcpcd does all of the IP stuf, if you use an auto IP from the AP/router. I manually set the IP and default route bec I use port forwarding (from the Netgear) for P2P/RDP/VNC apps. Just to get started, one can skip those commands and simply bring up the device and prime it via dhcpcd. I wanted to go w/ disabled SSID broadcasts too, but I had to get the router working very quickly and simply couldn't coax Windows into dealing w/o a SSID. But I was able to get WPA-PSK going under Windows+Knoppix+Slax, which is much more robust than WEP, so I could live w/ the SSID broadcasts. Where do the .inf/.sys files come from ? From the driver disc for the device, of course. You do have the driver disc ? Well, assuming you don't, you can obviously go back to the card's vendor and d/l a driver kit or you can resort to digging into the bowels of the beast and extract them from Windows itself. The Windows Device Manager entry for the device has a Device tab w/ a Device Details button, which should give you the location of the .sys and .inf files. If the .inf isn't indicated, it's somewhere under \WINDOWS\INF. For completeness sake, there are some built-in kernel modules that do WiFi directly. My bcm4306 is almost supported w/ the bcm43xx kernel module under Knoppix. Almost, as it requires a slightly illegal util which extracts (cuts) downloadable firmware from the .sys file of the Windows driver and loads it via the bcm43xx kernel module. It was great until the great WPA migration weekend, at which time the bcm43xx kernel module decided it didn't grok WPA. WPA means wpa_supplicant, which is a matter for another post. Truth is, unless you have one of a handful of wireless cards (don't ask, as I don't know other than the Orinoco cards), no distro does universal turnkey WiFi. More WiFi drivers are coming out w/ every kernel update but NDISWrapper really is our friend....Jet B) PS: Kof, this wasn't exclusively for your benefit, but once I started typing, I figured I go ahead and make this into a mini-HOWTO for everyone else.... PPS: The Code box w/ the script uses full paths for the programs as installed on Knoppix. Your mileage will vary, in order to use it on another distro. As always, copy+paste w/ brain engaged.

I just did the heavy lifting of putting the pieces together. Smart guys over in the UK did the real work on NTFS-3g. FUSE is a module that permits filesystem drivers to exist in userspace, as opposed to kernelspace. Bottom line is that a sophisticated driver like NTFS-3g can be developed+debugged like a regular program, no hassles w/ complicated schemes to test code inside the kernel itself. Much faster turnaround time in the development cycles and lots more mechanisms can be used as filesystems. NTFS-3g has had several revs in the last five months alone. Most wireless cards can be made to work using NDISWrapper, a cool hack to make Windows networking drivers work w/ Linux. As always, read the instruction carefully and you should be connected in a less than an hour. I don't think you have to add modules for that, exc if you need WPA encryption (wpa_supplicant.) WRT BartPE, I'm putting less an less into that one, since discovering Slax. In fact, there are a couple of Linux AV pgms in the module section which are really viable bec of NTFS-3g. I haven't done a complete regen/rebuild of my BartPE config (just AV/spyware def updates) in almost a year. I periodically run CHKDSK just to be safe, but I haven't had a failure since I started using it on New Year's Eve. In fact, I run a swap file from a NTFS partition. A custom Slax KillBill/Server is way smaller than BartPE, but has a full computing env including multimedia and a full-function office suite. Modules are way easier to put together than Bart plugins. All portable and extensible using multi-session CDs ! Experiment w/ diff modules using CD-Rs+Track-At-Once, multisession writes. Then, once you've got a system tweaked the way you want it, use those files to integrate into your DVD-R. Those are the words of a stingy guy who hates wasting media on one-off experiments ! A dbl-click should work to display the contents of your boot (DVD) drive, but there should also be a Mount cmd on the context menu as well. BTW, when you mount it, you still have to open it, but a dbl-click does both. Other than having to explicitly mount partitions/drives, KDE is reasonably Windows-like. As least for folks like us....

In the past, I've been guilty of some of the things I deride. About a year ago, when I was putting my 1st disc together, just DSL/TRK/BartPE using BCDW, I sputtered, fumed, and was a mess. I didn't want to do the things I now present. With careful reflection, one has a change of heart. Those comments weren't aimed at you, but to let future participants know that no self-justifying crap is welcome. If you want to learn or offer your own constructive insights, go for it. Anyway, how did you make out w/ your 1st Slax disc ? I'm esp interested in knowing whether KDE is working well for you. If not, then try this. KDE, or rather X, could be a little more helpful and the XCONF2 module is something I hacked together which has been very helpful, making X/KDE behave. Later....Jet

Kof: I don't care if Peter (user hpa) decides to enhance MEMDISK to read/boot large ISOs. If he provided said enhancement, I'd use it myself as it would be a real labor-saver. Having said that, I won't add my voice requesting this enhancement bec it really only benefits those who want to make multi-boot CDs/DVDs, when there are viable alternatives. Ultimately, he (and other OSS developers) enhance their offerings bec (1) it helps a significant portion of the user community at large or (2) it helps them on a paying job or (3) they like the challenge of implementing a particular capability. The principal user of SYSLINUX is the system builder, either the author of a distro or someone who needs a boot menu for a PC. SYSLINUX works very well in this role, as it is. As a developer, I'm sympathetic to guys like Peter and dismissive of these characters who offer these long-winded, self-serving rationalizations of why someone else should invest their labor to make their lives a little easier (present company excluded.) SYSLINUX is a labor of love that he's chosen to share w/ the rest of us. There are many non-coders who have no clue about the complexity of developing and enhancing something like MEMDISK and think what they want is widely desirable. Yet they feel qualified to wax at length about what someone else's obligations are. I find these diatribes esp annoying after one points out that the requester can realize comparable results w/ a some effort on their part. Yes, the developer should invest his/her labor (for free) to accommodate someone who's loathe to invest their own labor, to satisfy their own desires. Why ? Bec I don't know a shell script from a head of cabbage and don't want to learn about any of that. I just want what I want ! In summation, if you want to use Linux (or some other OSS offering), one should understand and respect the underlying do-it-yourself (DIY) philosophy behind this movement. BTW, have you noticed several topics posted in the last few weeks, that ask for help w/ issues covered (to some degree) right here in this thread ? Diatribe-mode-off.....Jet

Jaclaz: As always, your contributions are welcome and interesting. Thanx and expect to see you post more stuf RSN....Jet

You have it rite on all counts, exc the stupid part. If you have any probs, bring them rite here. My idea on this whole Super-Disc thing is to do more than simply illustrate how to make a multi-boot CD/DVD, but to get into customization (as you're doing), so it really is a Super disc. Quick digression: last nite, on the Syslinux mail list, there was an inquiry about MEMDISK loading ISOs. I commented that an ISO-compatible MEMDISK isn't nec, if one knows a bit about hacking and invests some of one's own time to find a custom solution. Needless to say, I got a long-winded rationalization rite back, rife w/ talk about 'what avg users need', 'what avg users don't know', blah-blah-blah. I could've mentioned Super-Disc, but he/she didn't sound like the type that's interested in working for this stuf. Bottom line: If someone GOOGLEs for info about ISOLINUX, multi-boot CDs, whatever, they'll get a lot more than they bargained for. I have some ideas for future Super-Disc extensions, including stuf involving Slax, Knoppix, maybe even Kubuntu (that's a def maybe.) That is, if you're interested in working for it. That is, if one reads thoroughly and follows instructions carefully. Oh yes, in advance, PLEASE spare us all the long-winded explanations about what other folks/the market/Linux-in-general needs or wants ! Speak for yourself !! Good luck. TTYL....Jet

Grok roughly means 'to understand', from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Anyway, what you seek is straight-fwd. Regarding NTFS-3g support, that's the easy part. You mite recognize a similar writing style in this thread. Not a coincidence. Now, what do you want to add to KillBill to make it more like the Server Ed ? Most additions require zero scripting. And since we've established that you know how to make a bootable CD/DVD, you know almost everything you need to know. About the link, two words: sleep deprivation. Thanx for the heads-up....Jet

I changed the name of the topic bec it's gone beyond what I originally intended. I have a bunch of new ideas that will show up here, all in good time. Anyone can add new things, but I encourage contributors to do so using a directory layout consistent w/ the layout illustrated in the opening msg. Of course, explain, explain, explain. Finally, the 1st msg will also serve as an index to the milestones and significant additions to the thread. Time to get some sleep....Jet

Here are some Python eBooks. The Python tutorial that comes w/ the Python pkg (@ python.org) is pretty good and you can get Dive Into Python from the 1st site. Finally, ActiveState has an all-in-one Python pkg w/ lotsa docs and a nice little IDE for creating/testing Python code. I like it bec you can make a module, then switch to a code (the Intermediate) window and try what you just typed instantly. Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python will let you look at Python w/o downloading or installing anything. I grok Slax. What do you want to do ? Jet

Hardly. The word Python keeps coming up, bec it's platform-independent and syntactically it's no more complicated than InnoScript. You should give a look one of these days. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to regen my BartPE disc, that's when Python really goes to work. More news soon ....Jet

Understood. Short of using something like Python (a better scripting lang) to interrogate registry entries, I guess everyone goes the brute-force way (yours truly incl) for XP scripts....Jet

No, I don't want ot use it because it's obviously too bloated, i will create my own, i just use it for testing purposes. There are easier ways to do all of this. You can explicitly set the drive letter of the ramdrive, if one uses the corr ramdrive driver. And the same is true of MSCDEX, for optical drives. Then set the LASTDRIVE letter (in CONFIG.SYS) to Z, use R for the ramdrive, and X for the starting letter of the opticals. (X bec an IDE-based PC has a max of four drives, where at least one is a hdrive.) I use the higher drive letters for all of this, to avoid collision w/ hdrive partitions if a PC has a lot of drive partitions. So, if you need to go searching for files on an optical drive, you have fewer drives to search Anyway, that's a generic solution which has always served me well....Jet

What about DSKEMU as an alternative to MEMDISK ? On my Todo list for a quick trial. I looked at it (the web page that is) after Sir Kof mentioned it and it appeared to be a definite maybe....Jet

Read this again. There are reasons for problems booting ISOs. If necessary, get a fresh copy of ISOLINUX.BIN from the ZIP you downloaded, but that's it. All that ISOLINUX.BIN does (after being patched into the ISO image by MKISOFS, whatever) is to read ISOLINUX.CFG and subsequently load whatever files from the CD/DVD as selected via its menu. That's it. That all GRUB does, that's all that BCDW does, that's all CDSHELL does. They only differ in the syntax of the config file "language" and how they configure extended memory (RAM > 640KB.) So, one loader mite load one util, where another can't, like Doc Mem that Kof and I have been trying to use from ISOLINUX. I personally bailed on the others bec I didn't want to learn another language (CDSHELL) and I didn't want to deal w/ a poorly documented program that's been abandoned by its author (BCDW.) GRUB has been nothing but a PITA. Others swear by those systems and that's just fine. Pick one (for a particular proj) and accept the consequences....Jet PS: No loader really boots ISOs, certainly not large ones. Certain distros (eg. Slax, Knoppix, et al) will boot their own customized ISOs (from the hdrive.) Maybe you'd be better off sticking w/ BCDW....

Actually that's no less arcane than MKISOFS. Having said that, one thing I like about the live Linux CDs is K3B. Granted it's a lot to boot an entire OS just to burn CDs/DVDs, but K3B is a front-end for MKISOFS/GROWISOFS and then some. Maybe that is a reason for booting an OS....Jet

My SuperDisc conitnues to evolve, but when demonstrating the current incarnation, something jumped and bit me in the arse, so I thought I'd share: Never ever forget the boot-info-table option when building your CD/DVD. The image above is a DVD I made a week ago and works fine under VMWare and my two home PCs. When I tried to demo it at my old job, no image, no boot, just a message I hadn't seen in months: ISOLINUX Image checksum error. Sorry. I use exactly the same layout as illustrated at the top of the thread. But I don't use MKISOFS, I prefer ULTRAISO, so that the files can be stored all over my hdrive. Unfortunately, this is a flaw of the GUI approach. Using a cmd-line ISO maker, it's hard to overlook something like that, esp if you're making ISOs via a script w/ everything spelled out. But with a GUI program, you mite miss a single menu option. So in overlooking something, it's possible that the disc will pass okay thru a couple of test PCs, and fail when you need it. Don't assume, verify....Jet

What's the problem with using the explicit full path of the files ? As in: LABEL memtest86 MENU LABEL ^Memtest86 (RAM Diagnostic) KERNEL /boot/isolinux/memtest86 LABEL pmagic MENU LABEL Partition Ma^gic 8 KERNEL /boot/isolinux/memdisk APPEND initrd=/FLPYS/PQPM8.IMA LABEL chntpw MENU LABEL ^Change NT/2K/XP/2K3 Passwords KERNEL /boot/isolinux/memdisk APPEND initrd=/FLPYS/chntpw.bin Costs nothing and eliminates ambiguity. The fact that VESAMENU works and the text menu system doesn't suggests that they mite have been written by different people and therefore behave ever so differently. That one would use a different directory layout is clearly discretionary, but using partial pathnames is not....Jet

NO ! Incorrect. ISOLINUX is just a loader, a facilitator to get your CD-based systems started. It's just like GURB, BCDW, or CDSHELL. I've been using BartPE for years and no way would I ever do an ISOLINUX plugin. ISOLINUX+GRUB+CDSHELL+whatever start bef any CD-based app/system and exist solely for that purpose. Do as you will with your computer, but you've missed the point of the exercise....Jet

Sir Kof: I gave up after a while. Change one thing, then it moves in an unexpected direction or amount. Bah ! Let it be a little off-center ! Real men don't need centered menus anyway ! @google44: Seriously, I think the positioning code is a bit buggy. I'd get a later version of SYSLINUX than the one my buddy Kof94 mentioned. I'm using 3.50-pre4. He's (ie. SYSLINUX' author) is a wee slow in releasing code. The Freshmeat page for the proj hasn't been updated in months, but the latest-greatest module is available at the Kernel.org link found on the SYSLINUX Downloads page....Jet

No, I've only ever used ERD and UBCD4Win. What's Python about? <snip> I'm surprised you haven't already heard of it. It's one of the Ps in the LAMP (ie. Perl, PHP, or Python) stack. Totally free, avail on all major platforms, used for big and small programming. GOOGLE and Yahoo even use it as part of the internal infrastructure of their web app systems. Named for the UK comedy tropue....

I'm lost? I forget the names, but there were a couple of utils for unattended Windows configuring and scripting I looked at and dismissed a long time ago, prob here on MSFN. But they went the XML route for simple config files (as opposed to INI files) or cooked their own wimpy scripting lang. No thanx. I've already got Python in BartPE. I just need to spend a weekend and write the code ! Will look into the UBCD4WIN forum for that driver pack. BTW, have you looked into WinBuilder at all ? Jet