# $Id: FAQ,v 1.18 2004/01/05 05:45:40 jaco Exp $

Q: How do I create a tiny (truly minimal) bootable Mandrake
   LiveCD?
A: Here is a step by step process of creating your own Mandrake
   installation and creating a LiveCD image from it. (You can
   customise the process by adding additional packages, but the
   underlying concepts should stay the same)

   1. Login as root, using "su -c"
   2. Create a base directory to hold the minimal installation:
      "mkdir -p /tmp/minimal"
   3. Install the Mandrake base system:
      "urpmi basesystem devfsd harddrake --root /tmp/minimal"
   4. Enable shadow passwords in the image by issuing:
      "chroot /tmp/minimal /usr/sbin/pwconv"
   5. Set your root password ('root') within the image:
      "chroot /tmp/minimal"
      "echo 'root' | passwd --stdin root"
      "exit"
   6. Create a LiveCD image from the minimal installation:
      "mklivecd --root /tmp/minimal minimal.iso"
   7. Burn the resulting minimal.iso to CD-R and enjoy :)


Q: I have created a LiveCD and I'm seeing weird hangs. This either
   happens in my XFree86 or sometimes as part of the bootup
   process. Any ideas?
A: The most common cause for these hangs is an outdated cloop
   module as shipped in the MDK 9.2 kernel. Install an updated
   kernel >= 2.4.22.21mdk (providing cloop 1.02) or
   kernel-tmb >= 2.4.22.21{tmb,mm} from contrib, and use this
   one as the kernel for your LiveCD.


Q: How much does the default compression algorithm compress the
   actual LiveCD root?
A: Exact figures differ from installation to installation, but as
   a thumb-suck, you can work on a compression ratio of 40%, i.e.
   a 1GB initial filesystem _should_ compress to 400MB.


Q: Can I adjust the compression parameters for either a faster
   LiveCD or a smaller one?
A: Indeed. The LiveCD creation script has two options, --blocksize
   and --looptype that allows you to adjust the behaviour of the
   compression algorithm (--blocksize, default 64K) and the type
   of compression used (--looptype, default cloop).

   Some testes have beed done of the effect of these options on
   both and speed, use your own judgement to see what is best for
   your particular application. (All tests were done with an
   uncompressed Knoppix v3.3 image.)

   The following table lists the descriptions of the images that
   were used in these tests. 'Compression' is the type of
   compression (none = uncompressed, cloop = cloop.o, bzloop =
   bzloop.o) and 'Block' is the blocksize passed to the various
   create compressed fs commands:

   Compression,   Block, Name:
   ------------------------------------------
          none,    none, knoppix.iso
         cloop,     64K, knoppix.iso.clp-64
         cloop,    224K, knoppix.iso.clp-224
        bzloop,     64K, knoppix.iso.bzlp-64
        bzloop,    224K, knoppix.iso.bzlp-224

   This table lists the sizes of the files on disk. 'Size' is
   the actual size as reported by the "du -k" command. 'Ratio'
   is calculated with size/uncompressed_size*100:

          Size,   Ratio, Name:
   ------------------------------------------
    1,871,360K, 100.00%, knoppix.iso
      708,656K,  37.87%, knoppix.iso.clp-64
      698,124K,  37.31%, knoppix.iso.clp-224
      684,404K,  36.57%, knoppix.iso.bzlp-64
      655,068K,  35.00%, knoppix.iso.bzlp-224

   This following table lists some timings for performing a
   (hopefully) expensive I/O operation on the mounted image.
   'Time' is the time taken for the "insmod, mount, ls -alR,
   tar -cf, umount, rmmod" and 'Ratio' is calculated with
   time/uncompressed_time*100.

          Time,   Ratio, Name:
   ------------------------------------------
           31s, 100.00%, knoppix.iso
           38s, 122.58%, knoppix.iso.clp-64
           43s, 138.71%, knoppix.iso.clp-224
           49s, 158.06%, knoppix.iso.bzlp-64
           73s, 235.48%, knoppix.iso.bzlp-224


Q: How do I change my keyboard layout?
A: By default the script installs a keyboard layout for a 'us'
   layout. You can change this behaviour on the LiveCD in two
   ways:

   1. On bootup, specify "livecd keyb=<mapping>" at the isolinux
      prompt. For instance, "livecd keyb=us_intl" will select the
      international US keyboard layout.
   2. If you are building a specific CD which should cater for a
      specific keyboard layout, specify '--keyboard=<mapping>' on
      the mklivecd command-line to automatically add a default
      option to the isolinux configuration.


Q: Ok, I know how to change the mapping, but what values are valid
   for the 'mapping'?
A: Here is a full list of the available keyboard mappings along
   with their respective descriptions:

   al              Albanian
   am              Armenian (typewriter)
   am_old          Armenian (old)
   am_phonetic     Armenian (phonetic)
   ar              Arabic
   az              Azerbaidjani (latin)
   be              Belgian
   ben             Bengali
   bg              Bulgarian (BDS)
   bg_phonetic     Bulgarian (phonetic)
   br              Brazilian (ABNT-2)
   bs              Bosnian
   by              Belarusian
   ch_de           Swiss (German layout)
   ch_fr           Swiss (French layout)
   cz              Czech (QWERTZ)
   cz_qwerty       Czech (QWERTY)
   de              German
   de_nodeadkeys   German (no dead keys)
   dev             Devanagari
   dk              Danish
   dvorak          Dvorak (US)
   dvorak_no       Dvorak (Norwegian)
   dvorak_se       Dvorak (Swedish)
   ee              Estonian
   es              Spanish
   fi              Finnish
   fr              French
   ge_la           Georgian ("Latin" layout)
   ge_ru           Georgian ("Russian" layout)
   gr              Greek
   gr_pl           Greek (polytonic)
   guj             Gujarati
   gur             Gurmukhi
   hr              Croatian
   hu              Hungarian
   ie              Irish
   il              Israeli
   il_phonetic     Israeli (Phonetic)
   ir              Iranian
   is              Icelandic
   it              Italian
   iu              Inuktitut
   jp              Japanese 106 keys
   kan             Kannada
   kr              Korean keyboard
   la              Latin American
   lao             Laotian
   lt_b            Lithuanian "number row" QWERTY
   lt              Lithuanian AZERTY (old)
   lt_new          Lithuanian AZERTY (new)
   lt_p            Lithuanian "phonetic" QWERTY
   lv              Latvian
   mal             Malayalam
   mk              Macedonian
   mm              Myanmar (Burmese)
   mng             Mongolian (cyrillic)
   mt              Maltese (UK)
   mt_us           Maltese (US)
   nl              Dutch
   no              Norwegian
   ori             Oriya
   pl2             Polish (qwertz layout)
   pl              Polish (qwerty layout)
   pt              Portuguese
   qc              Canadian (Quebec)
   ro2             Romanian (qwertz)
   ro              Romanian (qwerty)
   ru              Russian
   ru_yawerty      Russian (Phonetic)
   sapmi           Saami (norwegian)
   sapmi_sefi      Saami (swedish/finnish)
   se              Swedish
   si              Slovenian
   sk_qwerty       Slovakian (QWERTY)
   sk              Slovakian (QWERTZ)
   sr              Serbian (cyrillic)
   syr_p           Syriac (phonetic)
   syr             Syriac
   tel             Telugu
   th              Thai keyboard
   tj              Tajik keyboard
   tml             Tamil (ISCII-layout)
   tr_f            Turkish (traditional "F" model)
   tr_q            Turkish (modern "Q" model)
   tscii           Tamil (Typewriter-layout)
   ua              Ukrainian
   uk              UK keyboard
   us_intl         US keyboard (international)
   us              US keyboard
   uz              Uzbek (cyrillic)
   vn              Vietnamese "numeric row" QWERTY
   yu              Yugoslavian (latin)


Q: What are these lss images that isolinux can display? How do I
   generate them?
A: Ahhh, you found the '--bootimg' option. The LSS image
   format is a run-length encoded format, chosen by the syslinux
   author as a fast/easy way of displaying boot images. Here is
   how you create them:

   1. Create a 16 colour (indexed palette) BMP file with a
      resolution of
   2. Convert the BMP to PPM format, using the "bmptoppm" utility.
      (Part of the netpbm package.) An example of the usage is:
      "bmptoppm -verbose mycd.bmp >mycd.ppm"
   3. Convert the PPM format to LSS, using the "ppmtolss16"
      utility. (Part of the syslinux package.) An example of the
      usage is:
      "ppmtolss16 \#3a3e6e=0 \#d0d0d0=7 <mycd.ppm >mycd.lss" (*)

   Some users on the mklivecd lists have reportedly had success
   with the gif2lss program, allowing you to skip the extra steps
   of converting and re-converting. The program can be downloaded
   from Freshmeat:

   http://freshmeat.net/projects/gif2lss/?topic_id=105%2C139

   (*) The command show the use of palette remapping, which might
       be needed, depending on your original BMP image. ISOLinux
       uses colour index 0 for the background and index 7 for the
       foreground text. In the above example the remapping (using
       the colour value) is done to get the correct effect. (The
       utility expects colours to be indicated by #, in the above
       example these are escaped as to not be identified as a
       comment by the bash shell.)


Q: Why are the isolinux images so limited? I know that Mandrake
   uses more than 16 colours on their installation disks!
A: Mandrake has made a modification to the isolinux program that
   allows for the display of images up to 128 colours. To utilise
   this option, follow the instructions (and script) in
   /usr/share/doc/syslinux-1.76/README.graphic. In addition to
   specifying the created boot message (as per the README) with
   the '--bootmsg' flag, you would need to specify '--mdkboot'
   on the mklivecd command-line to enable the use of the correct
   (Mandrake-enhanced) isolinux boot image binary.


Q: I don't like the fact that my CD ejects at shutdown - how do I
   disable this?
A: Pass the "noeject" parameter on the iso boot prompt, i.e
   "livecd noeject"


Q: How do I override some of the installation/creation parameters
   on install? For instance, I want all my created CDs to default
   to a different keyboard layout without specifying the --keyboard
   parameter on CD creation.
A: The Rules.mk makefile defines several parameters that can be
   overridden on the "make" comman-line when installing mklivecd.
   For instance, a "make DEF_KEYBOARD=dvorak ; make install" will
   change your installation to always use the dvorak keyboard
   layout. Other parameters that can be overridden includes:
   DEF_RESOLUTION, DEF_VGAMODE and MAX_SPLASH.