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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Morphix Manual</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.68.1"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="article" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h1 class="title"><a name="id2404097"></a>Morphix Manual</h1></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">Brendan</span> <span class="othername">M</span> <span class="surname">Sleight</span></h3></div></div><div><div class="revhistory"><table border="1" width="100%" summary="Revision history"><tr><th align="left" valign="top" colspan="3"><b>Revision History</b></th></tr><tr><td align="left">Revision 0.1</td><td align="left">Sep 2005</td><td align="left">BMS</td></tr></table></div></div></div><hr></div><div class="toc"><p><b>Table of Contents</b></p><dl><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2451501">Dedication</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2451512">Preface</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2451536">A look at Morphix: The Hack-friendly Live CD</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2449856">Appendix FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions FAQ</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="#id2449913">Appendix About: This Document</a></span></dt><dt><span class="bibliography"><a href="#id2449929">Bibliography</a></span></dt><dt><span class="glossary"><a href="#id2450722">Glossary</a></span></dt><dt><span class="index"><a href="#id2450774">Index</a></span></dt></dl></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2451501"></a>Dedication</h2></div></div></div><p>To our benevolent leader Alextreme, debian and everyone at #morphix</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2451512"></a>Preface</h2></div></div></div><p>This is an attempt to document some of way to use Morphix. In particular to support a new Morphix LiveCD - MorphingMorphix.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2451525"></a> |
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The following is an extract from Knoppix Hacks - 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools describing Morphix.</p><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2451536"></a>A look at Morphix: The Hack-friendly Live CD</h3></div></div></div><p>Given the popularity of Knoppix and the vast amount of people |
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working on derivative versions of Knoppix, it doesn't come as a |
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surprise that people have been working to make Knoppix easier to |
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modify and more flexible to use. In early 2003, Morphix was born out |
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of a number of Knoppix remasters' wishes to have a version of Knoppix |
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that was good at what they used Knoppix for: a base upon which to |
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build their own versions using Debian GNU/Linux.</p><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2451555"></a>What makes Morphix so special compared to other Live CDs</h4></div></div></div><p>As you have seen in this book, there are a number of ways to change Knoppix to |
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your liking. However, these possibilities have always been, and probably always |
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will be, fairly limited. Knoppix was made for different goals: to detect your |
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hardware as fast and correct as possible, to be a good demonstration of Linux |
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and to include as much common-use Linux software as |
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possible. Morphix's goals however are different: Ease of |
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customization, ease of use, ease of installing. We are a lazy bunch, |
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but thanks to Klaus Knopper we had a solid place from which to work from.</p><p>Knoppix, and most Knoppix' derivatives, are fairly monolithic in |
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nature: They are essentially complete ready-made filesystems all |
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compressed into one file. Morphix on the other hand is built up around |
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the idea of modules: you have one module that boots your live CD and |
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detects your hardware, another that contains your live CD filesystem |
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and zero or more extra modules that can contain minor or major changes |
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and additions to the system. This way, Morphix promotes the reusing of |
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smaller, existing modules instead of one large /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX |
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file. Complicated? Well, a look at a typical Morphix live CD might |
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help. This is the structure of Morphix 0.4-1 LightGUI, one of the |
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Morphix flavours:</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em><pre></em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>/base/boot.img</em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>/base/morphix</em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>/mainmod/MorphixMain-Light.mod</em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em></pre></em></span></p><p>While it seems quite empty, this is how we release typical versions |
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of Morphix. They are quite bare but offer users (or 'morphers', as we |
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call ourselves, as you will notice we have a strange lingo for the |
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uninitiated) more possibilities to change the resulting live CD. We |
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will take a closer look at these and other tricks in the hack \"Morphing |
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Morphix\" later on.</p><p>Morphix currently has four ready-to-burn \"combined ISOs\" available for |
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download and a list of extra modules available for whomever needs |
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them. All combined ISOs contain the Morphix installer, a graphical |
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tool for installing Morphix onto your harddisk, and a number of |
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other graphical and command line Morphix tools for various |
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purposes. Each of these live CDs has their own targeted audience—our |
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opinion has always been that we should offer (limited) choice to users |
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and as much choice as possible for developers:</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2488180"></a>Morphix LightGUI</h4></div></div></div><p>Aimed at lower-end PCs, LightGUI features the XFCE4 desktop and |
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contains a reasonable amount of lighter tools. It was the initial |
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version of Morphix, and the aim has been to keep LightGUI small enough to |
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have it fit on 210MB CDR(W). LightGUI includes Abiword, Gnumeric, Dillo and |
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Firefox. For communication, Gaim and Xchat are included, and for |
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photo processing the GIMP has been added.</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2450063"></a>Morphix Gnome</h4></div></div></div><p>Formerly named Morphix HeavyGUI, this flavour was for some time the |
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only conterpart of LightGUI. Including Gnome, OpenOffice.org, |
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Mozilla, and the kitchen sink, Morphix Gnome was aimed at office users |
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with more recent machines. Even so, a normal Morphix Gnome ISO still |
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doesn't fill up the whole (650MB) CD-ROM, and recent versions weigh in at |
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around 500MB.</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2450084"></a>Morphix KDE</h4></div></div></div><p>Although primarily focused on GTK/Gnome, the Morphix crew acknowledges |
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that users might prefer KDE instead (and looking at the number of |
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derivatives, a lot of users do!). Morphix KDE contains the whole KDE suite of |
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programs, as well as Mozilla and other applications. Morphix KDE |
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sits inbetween LightGUI and Gnome when it comes to size, and fills up |
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approximately 400MB of space on your CD-ROM.</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2450106"></a>Morphix Game</h4></div></div></div><p>An odd-ball in Morphix, this flavour contains the very light IceWM and |
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a very large number of Open Source games. BZflag, Frozen Bubble, Freecraft |
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and many, many others are sure to entertain the kids (or entertain the |
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kid in you) for quite a few hours. Normally Morphix Game also includes |
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one or more demo versions or free full versions of commercial Linux |
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games, adding to the fun. Gaming on Linux a rarity? This hasn't been |
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the case for many years, no matter what kind of games you enjoy!</p><p>All the official Morphix live CDs contain the Morphix installer, as |
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stated above. This tool allows users to easily install their Morphix |
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(or derivative) live CD onto a hard disk. Often overlooked, the |
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difference between a live CD and a hard disk install is very small |
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indeed. The Morphix installer is also built in a flexible manner so |
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that derivatives can even rebrand the Morphix installer, although the |
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source itself is licensed under the GNU GPL. A graphical partitioner |
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and series of configuration tools have been under development and are |
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likely to be part of Morphix by the time this book comes off the press.</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="id2450143"></a>Derivatives</h4></div></div></div><p>A lot has been said about the number of Linux distributions recently. What |
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others see as a complicated mess, we see as a healthy, messy |
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eco-system. Morphix has quite a few offspring |
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and a lot of them are specially focussed at a single group of people |
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(ranging from Brazilian engineers, non-profit organizations or |
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self-proclaimed Hackers) or are providing a localized non-English |
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Linux distribution (ie. Chinese, Galicia/Spanish, Hindi, Arabic), the list |
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goes on and on. So, if the default Morphix Live CDs aren't to your |
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liking take a look on www.morphix.org for a list of related |
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projects. Even if you start 'morphing' from one of these derivatives, |
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you can be sure of a base to fall back to and a design that will get |
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your project 'live' and updated ASAP.</p><p>Happy Morphing!</p></div></div></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2450184"></a>Morphix ISO README</h2></div></div></div><p>If you're wondering what the directories on the cdrom do, this is the right |
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document. If not, take a look on morphix.org! (don't miss the FAQ or wiki)</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2450199"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /boot</em></span> |
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contains the init ramdisk, grub menu and kernel</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2450215"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /base</em></span> |
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contains morphix, the module that detects/configures your hardware and |
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contains your standard kernel modules.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2450232"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /mainmod</em></span> |
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contains mainmodules, these are also cloop images, comparable to |
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the /base/morphix file, but using a different structure |
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see README.mainmod for info about the internal structure of these files |
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In short: mainmodules contain your filesystem, except for your kernel, |
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loadable kernel modules, and hardware detection scripts.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2450258"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /minimod </em></span> |
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contains minimodules, again these are cloop images. |
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You don't need them, but you can add extra functionality by including |
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extra mainmodules. See README.minimod.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2450276"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /exec </em></span> |
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If you place files in this directory, they will be executed at |
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boottime. Note that this does not mean that programs using X |
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will be executed, the proper way would be to add a line to .xinitrc |
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for this. Place the following in /exec/script.sh for example: |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>echo \"program\" >> /home/morph/.xinitrc</em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>echo \"program\" >> /home/morph/.xsession</em></span> |
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(Does Debian still use .xsession? not 100% sure, xinitrc should |
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be enough…) |
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Again, try this out. Exit from X, execute the script, and |
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'sh /morphix/init.sh'</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449665"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>o /copy</em></span> |
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If you place files in this directory, they will be copied over to the |
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root of your filesystem. Use directories to place files in a certain |
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directory instead. For example, have: |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>/copy/home/morph/.xfce4/xfcerc</em></span> |
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to copy the xfcerc file to /home/morph/.xfce4/xfcerc at boottime.</p><pre class="literallayout">Interesting things can be done with adding files to locations like: + |
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'/copy/morphix/init.sh' |
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or |
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'/copy/morphix/loadmod.sh'</pre><pre class="literallayout">as these files are executed after being swapped. Great fun ;)</pre></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2449709"></a>Morphing Morphix tools</h2></div></div></div><p>A number of commandline tools and scripts are provided in order to help |
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you morph. You can find all of these in the Morphix repository, |
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see http://www.morphix.org/debian for details.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449724"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- module-builder (morphix-modulebuilder)</em></span> |
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Constructs a module from a directory</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449739"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- module-extractor (morphix-moduleextractor)</em></span> |
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Extracts files from a module to a directory</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449756"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- make-iso (morphix-make-iso)</em></span> |
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Creates a bootable ISO from a directory, detects multiple base versions.</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>- isomorph (morphix-isomorph)</em></span> |
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Lists modules on an ISO, adds or removes modules from an ISO, and more!</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449779"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- mmaker (morphix-mmaker)</em></span> |
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Creates a base or main module, using template files. Examples are in /usr/share/mmaker/templates. |
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See http://www.alextreme.org/phpwiki/index.php/ModuleMaker |
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and documentation in /usr/share/doc/mmaker for details.</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>- isomaker (morphix-mmaker)</em></span> |
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Creates an iso, using one or more mmaker template files. |
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See documentation in /usr/share/doc/mmaker for details.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449810"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- make-mini (morphix-mmaker)</em></span> |
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Commandline tool for building homedir and language minimodules.</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>- install2mainmod (morphix-install2mainmod)</em></span> |
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Converts a running hdd install into a mainmodule.</p><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449832"></a> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>- minimod-gen (morphix-minimodgen)</em></span> |
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Provides a commandline interface for building simple minimodules.</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>- addtoiso (morphix-addtoiso)</em></span> |
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Add file to an iso, without having to copy the file all within the image</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2449856"></a>Appendix FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions FAQ</h2></div></div></div><p><a class="indexterm" name="id2449864"></a></p><p>How do I get root, I need to be super user ? |
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<a class="indexterm" name="id2449877"></a></p><p>Open up a termina and type : -</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>sudo sh</em></span></p><p>To set the root password : -</p><p><span class="emphasis"><em>sudo sh</em></span> |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>passwd</em></span></p><p>Other FAQs to follow.</p></div><div class="section" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2449913"></a>Appendix About: This Document</h2></div></div></div><p>Written by Brendan Sleight, aka bmsleight. Using documents from many sources and help from many people.</p><p>Using asciidoc - txt files to DocBooks.</p></div><div class="bibliography"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="id2449929"></a>Bibliography</h2></div></div></div><p>The bibliography list is an example of an AsciiDoc SimpleList, the |
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AsciiDoc source list items are bulleted with a <code class="literal">+</code> character. The |
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first entry in this example has an anchor.</p><div class="bibliomixed"><p class="bibliomixed"> |
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<span class="bibliomisc"> |
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<a name="taoup"></a>[taoup] Eric Steven Raymond. <span class="emphasis"><em>The Art of Unix Programming</em></span>. |
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Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-13-142901-9. |
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</span> |
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</p></div><div class="bibliomixed"><p class="bibliomixed"> |
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<span class="bibliomisc"> |
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<a name="walsh-muellner"></a>[walsh-muellner] Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner. |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>DocBook - The Definative Guide</em></span>. O'Reilly & Associates. 199. |
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ISBN 1-56592-580-7. |
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</span> |
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</p></div><div class="bibliomixed"><p class="bibliomixed"> |
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<span class="bibliomisc"> |
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<a name="oreilly"></a>[oreilly] Kyle Rankin. |
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<span class="emphasis"><em>Knoppix Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools</em></span> |
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ISBN: 0-596-00787-6 |
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</span> |
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</p></div></div><div class="glossary"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="id2450722"></a>Glossary</h2></div></div></div><p>Glossaries are optional. Glossaries are an example of an AsciiDoc |
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VariableList, the AsciiDoc glossary entry terms are terminated |
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by the <code class="literal">:-</code> characters.</p><dl><dt> |
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A glossary term |
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</dt><dd><p> |
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The corresponding (indented) definition. |
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</p></dd><dt> |
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A second glossary term |
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</dt><dd><p> |
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The corresponding (indented) definition. |
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</p></dd></dl></div><div class="index"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="id2450774"></a>Index</h2></div></div></div><div class="index"><div class="indexdiv"><h3>B</h3><dl><dt>base, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt><dt>boot, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>C</h3><dl><dt>copy, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>E</h3><dl><dt>exec, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>F</h3><dl><dt>Frequently Asked Questions, <a href="#id2449856">Appendix FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions FAQ</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>K</h3><dl><dt>Knoppix Hacks, <a href="#id2451512">Preface</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>M</h3><dl><dt>mainmod, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt><dt>make-iso, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt><dt>make-mini, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt><dt>minimod, <a href="#id2450184">Morphix ISO README</a></dt><dt>minimodgen, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt><dt>mmaker, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt><dt>module-builder, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt><dt>module-extractor, <a href="#id2449709">Morphing Morphix tools</a></dt></dl></div><div class="indexdiv"><h3>R</h3><dl><dt>Root - Super User, <a href="#id2449856">Appendix FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions FAQ</a></dt></dl></div></div></div></div></body></html> |
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