LiveCD usage and options
- Boot from a cdrom.
- Options to pass at boot.
- Linux Kernel Parameters.
- Option : home=usb - Use USB media as /home partition.
- Options : lang=XX and kmap=XX - Specify language and keyboard.
- Option : config=<device>,<path> - Execute a script at boot time.
- Option : screen=<type> - Specify screen resolution.
- Option : sound=* - Disable sound support.
- Option : modprobe=modules - Load needed Kernel modules.
- Option : laptop - Load ac and battery modules.
- Option : previous - Rollback to previous filesystem.
- Sessions - Logins, passwords and X.
Boot from a cdrom
To boot SliTaz from a cdrom, just burn the ISO image onto a blank disc, then
reboot your computer with the disc in your cdrom drive. The first splash image
is powered by isolinux bootloader, you can then just press ENTER
with or without any options to start system initialization. Note that pressing
F1-F4
will display help and information. SliTaz runs entirely
in memory and will not damage the installed host system. When the boot
process is finished, you can login without any password as user
hacker
. To become root administrator, you can use the command
su
with the password root
in a XTerm window or
the Linux console. In LiveCD mode the root password is root
.
Options and parameters to pass at boot
The SliTaz LiveCD can pass various boot options via the command prompt powered by syslinux.
There are two types of options: those of SliTaz and those of the Linux Kernel.
The options for SliTaz are used by various startup scripts and the parameters
such as the VGA mode are managed directly by the Kernel (kernel boot parameters).
To pass options at startup, just precede your commands with slitaz
slitaz vga=791 no387
Note that the Linux Kernel keeps data passed to boot in the text file /proc/cmdline
.
On a GNU/Linux system, you can view this information by running the command:
$ cat /proc/cmdline
Parameters of the Linux Kernel
On GNU/Linux systems, parameters specific to the Kernel vary greatly depending on
the configuration used in compiling it. The kernel used by SliTaz
is constructed with a minimum of modules and offers very
few modifiable parameters at startup. However, you can disable the
emulation of a math coprocessor via option: no387
and/or activate
irqpoll
in the case of problems with interrupts (CD/DVD). The SliTaz
Kernel also provides a video output mode for the VGA Vesa framebuffer
- this is what displays the tux logo and manages the display of the Linux terminal.
Once the system has started you have access to six pseudo terminals via the key combinations
Ctrl+alt+F1
, Ctrl+alt+F2
, and so on.
vga=XXX - VGA Kernel modes
Colors | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200 ------------------------------------------------------- 256 | 769 771 773 775 796 32768 | 784 787 790 793 797 65536 | 785 788 791 794 798 16,8M | 786 789 792 795 799
Option : home=usb
To store your data permanently (bookmarks, downloads, Firefox Add-ons, etc),
you need USB media with a partition formatted in ext3
and it must
specify home=usb
for sda1
(most cases) or
home=devname
at boot time. Note that you can also specify the
device using the partition UUID or label by using home=*
. Example:
slitaz home=sda1
Prepare USB media
All USB media can formatted in the native Linux ext3
filesystem.
Ext3 is a journaled, stable filesystem, it allows you to keep permissions
on all files and is much more secure than the default Windows FAT32 filesystem.
To format USB media you have a few options: the command line with
mkfs.ext3
, the tazusb
utility or graphically with Gparted.
To get a full list of available partitions including the USB drive you can use the command
fdisk -l
and then format. Example:
# fdisk -l # tazusb format /dev/sda1
Options : lang=XX and kmap=XX
When you use the LiveCD you have two options to directly configure the system
language and keyboard mapping. These options can be set by simply navigating to
your country code and reloading the bootloader configuration with ENTER
.
To skip the language and keyboard configuration you can simply type options on the command
line, for English/UK:
slitaz lang=en kmap=en
Option : config=<device>,<path>
The config=
option lets you execute a script at SliTaz boot time,
the script can be located on external media or a HD partition. For example, the
script can mount an ISO image on /usr
to save memory and boot the
LiveCD on computers with only 32 Mb of RAM. An example with a script named
slitaz.sh
located on the first disk and partition:
slitaz config=/dev/hda1,slitaz.sh
Option : screen=<type>
The screen=
option lets you specify your screen resolution at boot.
Note that the screen=text
option disables the Slim login manager. Example:
slitaz screen=1024x768x24
Option : sound=*
The option sound=no
or sound=noconf
lets you respectively disable all
of the modules and applications relating to sound to save memory (ram) or skip the automatic setup
of the sound card, but still allow you to manually configure if needed:
slitaz sound=no
Option : modprobe=modules
To load Kernel modules at boot time use the following example:
slitaz modprobe=module1,module2
Option : laptop
The option laptop
will automatically load ac and battery Kernel
modules - useful for laptop computers:
slitaz laptop
Option : previous
Used by the Tazusb utility to rollback to a previous filesystem:
slitaz previous
Sessions - Login, passwords and X
When the system has finished it's initialization, the screen is cleared and the
login prompt or the session manager Slim is displayed. Now you can choose to login
as hacker
(without password) or as root
administrator (password root
).
Once logged into a session, you can use the many commands available in Busybox,
the GNU text editor Nano or the Clex file manager. You can initiate a graphical server
(X) via startx
or connect to a remote machine via SSH or X.
The startx
command will launch Xvesa and start the window manager.
The desktop is powered by JWM (Joe's Window Manager), you can get the menu by clicking on the screen with one of the mouse buttons. Applications are classified by category and are available in English. Menu, theme and wallpaper can all be changed to your needs/preferences by editing one single file - personal settings and data can be stored on USB media (Flash key, SD card, etc).
To launch a X session from the Linux console, for example if you have passed the
screen=text
option or if Slim is not configured to run at startup:
$ startx