Re: [debian-knoppix] Some thoughts&questions about knoppix...
Hello Stephan,
On Tue, May 21, 2002 at 08:04:17PM +0200, Stephan Walter wrote:
> Hi every1
>
> I have been working on my BBC (bootable business card), which will be a
> mini-CD (50mb) for rescue/forensic/analysis purposes. I doesn't have
> neither a name nor a home on the web, but I may be releasing it on SF
> (if they give me enough webspace, does anyone knows anything about it? I
> would need 200mb. Anyway, I only have ISDN and so maybe I won't release
> it at all...)
>
> I modified the KNOPPIX linuxrc script for my purposes and I also used
> parts from the knoppix.mkcompressed and knoppix-autoconfig scripts.
>
> I've come across several things in KNOPPIX which I'd like to comment:
>
> -------------
> 1. IMHO the miniroot.gz filesystem could be made smaller (or more SCSI
> modules can be included):
>
> a) Use the GCC options "-Os -s" in the kernel Makefile (line 20 & 91).
> Gain: ~130kB (not compressed) for the modules, and some kBs for the
> bzImage (I didn't count them...)
Hmm, I don't think so. Did you do a real measurement? Remember that
also the modules on the miniroot.gz are compressed.
> b) remove unused /dev/ nodes: *random loop* ram[2-9] ram?? psaux
> sndstat , maybe "ttyp*" and "ttyS*" as well.
They COULD be needed on a rescue system. And ram* is definitely
needed at boot time.
> c) Maybe: use busybox + uClibc and asmutils instead of ash-knoppix.
This is probably way bigger. ash-knoppix is already linked against
dietlibc and has insmod compiled in (which is needed for loading the
cloop module). No other binaries on the bootfloppy should be necessary.
> don't know if this would really make it smaller as I don't have the same
> binaries for my CD. That's what I have in /static:
>
> total 168
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root 7 1. Mai 20:28 [ -> busybox
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root 7 1. Mai 20:28 ash -> busybox
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 131584 5. Mai 11:29 busybox
> KNOPPIX has:
>
> total 160
> -r-xr-xr-x 1 root 150612 8. Apr 00:02 ash
Would save about 5k space after compression, and ash can probably
be optimized some more of some printf/vsprintf are removed to get below
the 131584 bytes of the main busybox binary.
> -------------
> 2. The floppy
> I saw a TODO-list somewhere were it said: "use 2.88 el torito image and
> boot/root floppies". Another possible way: use 2.88 el torito image and
> only one 1722kb floppy. advantage: only one floppy is needed, disadv.:
> cd-rom space wasted, maybe incompatible with some floppy drives
The floppy drives should do fine, but I am still not fond of the idea of
maintaining different images for floppy and CD-Rom boot. And are you sure
that all bioses support the 2.88 eltorito boot option? I try to stick to
the 1.44MB image as long as possible. ;-)
But maybe some of the older SCSI modules can be removed or put on another
module disk?
> -------------
> 3. Timezone
> It would be nice if some startup script would point /etc/localtime to
> the right file in /usr/share/zoneinfo.
> eg: "lang=ch" on the kernel cmdline -> /etc/localtime points to
> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich. The status quo is: /etc/localtime is
> just the /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC file.
Interesting thought. But what about people in french speaking parts of
canada? Besides, most people use localtime in their bios settings
(probably because Windows does not know better...), so the timezone
would not be set correct in most cases.
And there are lots of people who are booting with lang=us in europe, and
who don't want the US time settings. So, I think the idea is good in
general, but would give wrong results in more cases than success.
A boot option timezone= would probably be the best solution.
> -------------
> 4. mkisofs.sort
> Where can I get this file? (it is needed by knoppix.mkcompressed) I
> didn't find it on the CD. And are there other scripts/tools necessary or
> recommended for building the KNOPPIX CD?
I use the atime timestamp from the files on the master system to
generate the sortlist, but there are probably better ways. The results
may vary, so you may just leave out the -sort option at all and get
an even faster CD.
Sorry in case that most my comments may sound kind of disencouraging for
your proposals, but I already tried most of them before, or at least
consulted some benchmarks. You may surprise me with results of your own
experiments though. ;-)
Regards
-Klaus
--
Klaus Knopper LinuxTag 2002 - Europes largest Linux Expo
Technical Solutions Where .com meets .org
knopper@linuxtag.de http://www.linuxtag.de/
Phone +49-(0)180-5-546898 Fax +49-(0)180-5-546893
_______________________________________________
debian-knoppix mailing list
debian-knoppix@linuxtag.org
http://mailman.linuxtag.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-knoppix
Reply to: