PDA

View Full Version : DSL and DIMES for VMWare Player: a how-to


Bloody_Sorcerer
12-10-2005, 08:51 AM
(NOTE: this assumes you have VMWare Player installed. if you do not, download it and install it from www.vmware.com)
Firstly, we need VMXWizard; a freeware application to help us make VMWare images for VMWare Player. You can get it here (http://rhysgoodwin.orcon.net.nz/vmxwizard/). The installer is apperently a silent one by default, so you'll have to go into the start menu and stuff to load it up.
Second, grab the DSL 2.0 iso here (ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/dsl-2.0.iso).
If you do this with VMWare workstation, DSL does not detect the vmware emulated scsi hard drive so it is best when creating a new virtual machine to select as the Guest operating system "Other" and "FreeBSD" from the drop down box. (thanks Fitz Goran)

How to create the image in VMXWizard:
At the splash screen, press next.
Choose linux and leave it on kernel 2.4. pick an amount of RAM (I use 96 because it's happiest with that for me; feel free to experiment with less). Hit next.
Leave New Disk checked, and set it to 256 megabytes (nice and small :) ) and hit next.
For CD-ROM, use iso image and browse to the DSL iso that we downloaded previously and hit next.
Ethernet settings are fine by default (ethernet 0 checked and set to bridged)
type in a machine name (I'm using "DIMES" for a name because it makes sense) and browse to wherever you keep your VMWare images. Hit next.
It'll display all the choices you've made now; click next.
Leave "launch created machine" checked and hit OK.

Our base system should now be created and booting.

the DSL splashscreen will now be displayed. at the "boot:" prompt, type in
install
and hit enter. some random words will fly by, and they don't really matter.
A menu will now be displayed with some choices. we want 0.
Now for a list of commands to enter to do some magic (we're setting up a partition to install to)

cd /dev (change directory to the /dev folder)
fdisk hda (launch fdisk for drive hda)
n (new partition)
p (primary partition)
1 (partition 1)
(enter) (lowest sector)
(enter) (highest sector)
a (set bootable partition)
1 (partition 1)
w (write and exit)
(wait for it to save to the partition table and stuff)
dslinstall (go back to the dsl install options menu)

that menu should be back now. We want option 3
Target partition: hda1
y
y
y
for those first 4 options.
now we get to install a boot loader; say y
i use grub because... i have no good reason, but just hit g and move on :)
now hit y and it'll reboot the VM
it'll tell you to remove the CD, but since our CD is an iso, just hit enter.
GRUB will do its thing, select DSL from the list (other ones probably don't matter for you).
Pretty colors and words will now flash by.
Now we'll get prompted for passwords for root and the default user (dsl; we'll never be using the root login). I'm using "dimes" for root and dsl passwords. ignore its warnings about weak passwords and stuff... :)
DSL is now installed! lets log in and get stuff set up!

box login: dsl
Password: dimes (or whatever you used)
just hit enter at the first menu (Xvesa)
no, we don't have a USB mouse (whatever your real mouse is doesn't matter); we have an IMPS/2 mouse.
Select preferred resolution (I'm using 800x600).
Color depth (32).
skip the dpi setting.
Choose a keyboard layout (i'm using us, the default)
DSL will load and the little welcome page will display. close it out :)

Now to install java and DIMES!
load firefox (it's on your desktop and SINGLE CLICK!) and go to java.sun.com. find your way to the download page for J2SE 1.5.0 JRE 5.0 update 6 yadda yadda. make sure you accept the license agreement :)
download the linux self-extracting file (not the rpm!!!) and save it to its default location.
Now go to www.netdimes.org/download.html, scroll down, and download the DIMES agent for linux and save it to the default place. We're done with firefox now :)

Now to install all this stuff and make things happy
load "ATerminal" in the upper left of your desktop. Commands are as follows (descriptions in parentheses) <other actions in these little arrow thingys>

chmod +x jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin (change access properties or something)
sudo ./jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin (start extracting the JRE)
<scroll past the license agreement, approximately 2 page-downs and then say yes. text will now fly by as the jre extracts itself>
nano .bash_profile
<after the line "export IRCNICK=DSL", hit enter and put in "export JAVA_HOME="/home/dsl/jre1.5.0_06".> (sets an environment variable every time the VM loads)
ctrl+X
y
[enter]
tar -xzvf DIMES-0-4-2.tar.gz (extract DIMES)
export JAVA_HOME="/home/dsl/jre1.5.0_06" (we have to do this just this once, because .bash_profile is only loaded at boot so our changes haven't taken effect yet)
rm -rf JRE-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin (remove the jre installer; its wasting loads of our preciuos 256 meg HD)
rm -rf DIMES-0-4-2.tar.gz (we're done with it too)
cd DIMES (get into the DIMES directory)
chmod +x Makefile
sudo ./Makefile

There, we just installed and set up the JRE and installed and launched DIMES. enter your info for DIMES as you normally would. (note: the textboxes to type in are black and the font is black, so even though you can't see what you type, it's there. highlight it to check)

TIPS from moddolicious:
Just a couple of tips I want to add to this: if you want DSL to automatically load into the OS without you typing dsl + password, when it asks to install multi users, select no, and when it asks for a boot loader, choose lilo. After you install dimes & java, right click on the background, go to style and choose minimal. Also, choose no icons. Those little things should use ~10mbs less.

You're now done! to start the agent next time you boot, just go into ATerminal and cd DIMES and sudo ./agent.sh and DIMES will launch!

InSanCen
12-10-2005, 10:18 AM
Nicely Done. I'll check it out this weekend if I can get some stable hardare running.

Fitz Goran
12-10-2005, 12:05 PM
You can have the DIMES client start automattically.

Open a terminal window

nano startdimes
cd /home/dsl/DIMES
sudo ./agent.sh &>/dev/null
ctrl+X
y
[enter]

chmod +x startdimes

nano .xinitrc

replace dillo /usr/share/doc/dsl/getting_started.html &>/dev/null &

with /home/dsl/startdimes &>/dev/null &

ctrl+X
y
[enter]

The DIMES agent should now start automattically.

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-10-2005, 12:49 PM
oooh, thanks fitz, i was tryin to think of a way to do that but didn't want to get off my lazy arse and try :)

[XC] moddolicous
12-10-2005, 06:54 PM
Nice find bloody sorceror and fitz goren. I'm gonna be giving this a shot soon. I'm gonna try to make one with zipslack, although it wont be as small as yours. Maybe 50mb bigger, unless I can make it guiless. Hmmmmm

[XC]thewildblue
12-11-2005, 12:52 AM
Nice Thread. Do we vote sticky ?

InSanCen
12-11-2005, 07:12 AM
Stickier than a sticky thing that got hit with a stick!!!

[XC]thewildblue
12-11-2005, 08:12 AM
So thats a negative from you then insancen ! hehe

[XC] moddolicous
12-11-2005, 11:01 AM
Definetly a sticky. 3 quick questions though: How much ram can it use (just 64mb), can I choose an old name thing (like a client name), and can I hide it in the toolbar in the bottom right (vmware player)?

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-11-2005, 11:58 AM
RAM usage is highish at startup (usually ~90 megs) but after running for a bit it plummets; my VMs are currently sitting in the 37-45 megs of ram used (all are set to 96 megs maximum); as for using it to revive dead agents (i have 2), i'm not sure whether or not you can (dunno why you shouldn't be able to though), and there does not appear to be a way to get them to minimize to the taskbar, but if you run enough of them they do the little auto-grouping thing.

[XC] moddolicous
12-11-2005, 12:23 PM
Thanks Bloody_Sorcerer. Theonly reason I asked about hiding it in the toolbar was that my dad used to always ask what it was (vmware workstation). Guess its worth a shot.

[XC]thewildblue
12-11-2005, 12:25 PM
Any idea why I get this when I try and fdisk the hda ? Ive followed all the instructions. Its fun trying this linux cmd line stuff.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41019&d=1134336314

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-11-2005, 12:27 PM
hm... did you make the VM with an IDE drive? if its a SCSI drive you'd have to do fdisk sda. if it is an IDE drive, do ls and hd* and take a screenshot please :)

[XC]thewildblue
12-11-2005, 12:40 PM
Screenshot attached as requested. I did do SCSI as thats default.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41020&d=1134337210

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-11-2005, 12:41 PM
ah... its a scsi drive, so you'll have to replace any occurences of hda (with or without numbers after it) with sda (with the same numbering).

[XC]thewildblue
12-11-2005, 12:43 PM
Here is ls sd*

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41021&d=1134337390

Still cant get fdisk to launch so I can create a partition.

[XC] moddolicous
12-11-2005, 01:13 PM
try it with the slash in front. Like /sda. In gentoo its fdisk /dev/sda

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-11-2005, 02:27 PM
hmm... what has me confused is that the names are purple, which usually means that the device doesn't exist. when the machine is booting, it probes some stuff and lists hard drives/CD drives. any idea what yours says at boot? like for mine its some stuff like ATAPI IDE hda and ATAPI IDE hdc

Fitz Goran
12-11-2005, 10:29 PM
DSL does not detect the vmware emulated scsi hard drive so it is best when creating a new virtual machine to select as the Guest operating system "Other" and "FreeBSD" from the drop down box.

This created an emulated ide hard drive which DSL has no problems detecting.

[XC]thewildblue
12-12-2005, 12:17 AM
The freebsd trick works a treat. Was able to create a new partition perfectly.

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-12-2005, 12:39 PM
DSL does not detect the vmware emulated scsi hard drive so it is best when creating a new virtual machine to select as the Guest operating system "Other" and "FreeBSD" from the drop down box.

This created an emulated ide hard drive which DSL has no problems detecting.
thanks fitz, added to the main guide.

[XC] moddolicous
12-23-2005, 10:29 AM
Quick question: When it asks are you sure you want to use ext3, is that the best choice?? I mean, everyone (well, ALOT) say that reiserfs is way better with smaller files and is quicker. The only downside is if you use it everyday as a rig, it becomes fragmented. Since we wont use it for daily use, maybe reiserfs would be better? I'll set up one rig with ext3 and one with reiserfs and see which is better.

[XC] moddolicous
12-23-2005, 07:35 PM
Alright, did some research: DSL uses kernal 2.4 (didnt know) and I think reiserfs was implemented in kernal 2.6, so reiserfs is a no go. Choosing a previous agent name only works with the same OS (linux with linux, windows with windows). I got 2 agents up and running with 60mb ram, and there is no visible slow down on my dad's comp, so maybe I can keep them. Hopefully I can catch TWB's daily, but we'll see. I'm experimenting with freedos (its like impossible to install) and zipslack to get another linux thing up. No luck so far.

[XC] DragonOrta
12-24-2005, 09:13 PM
I went through everything, and keep getting an error.

Error: JAVA_HOME Environment variable is not defined. Please install JDK or define it manually.

Could someone tell me how to get by this? Thanks

[XC] moddolicous
12-27-2005, 02:47 PM
Just a couple of tips I want to add to this: if you want DSL to automatically load into the OS without you typing dsl + password, when it asks to install multi users, select no, and when it asks for a boot loader, choose lilo. After you install dimes & java, right click on the background, go to style and choose minimal. Also, choose no icons. Those little things should use ~10mbs less.

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-27-2005, 07:56 PM
I went through everything, and keep getting an error.

Error: JAVA_HOME Environment variable is not defined. Please install JDK or define it manually.

Could someone tell me how to get by this? Thanks
did you do the export JAVA_HOME="..." part as well as modifying the .bash_profile? the problem is that the JAVA_HOME variable isn't defined and these are the 2 steps that define it. I'd say double-check in .bash_profile and, when in doubt, reboot.

Jeff
12-28-2005, 09:30 AM
Just a couple of tips I want to add to this: if you want DSL to automatically load into the OS without you typing dsl + password, when it asks to install multi users, select no, and when it asks for a boot loader, choose lilo. After you install dimes & java, right click on the background, go to style and choose minimal. Also, choose no icons. Those little things should use ~10mbs less.

Any idea if you can change the login parameters after you have already installed DSL? I have around 50-60 clients running and if I can change something instead of re-installing I'd like to go that route. ;)

I used the .ISO that Bloody_Sorcerer created btw... in case that matters.

[XC] moddolicous
12-28-2005, 09:32 AM
I'm not sure. I'll try to figure it out. BTW, never press the stop button to automatically turn the vmware off. For windows it works, but when your running Dimes, it doesnt unmount the drive and a bunch of other stuff.

Jeff
12-28-2005, 09:40 AM
Yeah, I noticed that. The first time you try to re-start a "power off"ed client it has to check the disk and then it won't let you enter your username/password. You have to reset the VM to get it to boot then.

[XC] moddolicous
12-28-2005, 06:45 PM
Alright, just an update for everyone, the Java install link doesnt work. i went to set up another dsl setup, and I downloaded the install, and when I went to download dimes, it was done. I was like: "woo, I have a pretty fast connection". It then wouldnt install. I went back on windows and downloaded it, and realized it was only 15kb. ??? So, I guess its down for now.

Bloody_Sorcerer
12-28-2005, 07:00 PM
the DIMES link? yeah, it appears to go down as much as a drunk cheerleader as a frat party. it plagued me as i set up VMs.

Acrazar
01-03-2006, 06:37 PM
i keep getting an error saying that JRE is the wrong version, the it has to be 1.4.xx? what gives i typed everything exacly as it says here, so i know i got the same version files?


EDIT:fixed by downloading the 1.4.2_10 version of java

[XC] moddolicous
01-04-2006, 03:14 AM
I got that message alot also, but I fixed it by reinstalling DSL and being very careful.

Haltech
01-06-2006, 08:51 PM
Ok, whats the difference between setting the broadcast ip and the regular ip of an adapter in DSL? Do i set them both to the same thing or what?

Haltech
01-06-2006, 10:24 PM
Oik, i figured out the above problem.. but ugh, now both UDP and IMCP ports are blocked and nothing can get out! I dont know anything about this DSL stuff but how come it became blocked after i rebooted to add to my team?

gpcola
02-08-2006, 05:35 PM
I'm having some trouble getting Dimes to communicate with the outside world here...

Using VMware my install of DSL, Java and Dimes appeared to go without a hitch but in the Dimes messages tab all I get is this error being repeated again and again:

Send trial no.X failed (dimes,comm2server.ConnectionException: Could not connect. underlying exception: java.io.FileNotFound Exception: /home/dsl/DIMES/Classes/Base/conf/properties.xml (Permission denied))

Where did I go wrong...the file is there and I can open it using nano :confused:

Bloody_Sorcerer
02-08-2006, 05:38 PM
instead of launching with './agent.sh' launch with 'sudo ./agent.sh'. i get this problem on about half of my VMs and that clears it up. *shrug*

gpcola
02-08-2006, 07:20 PM
Thanks mate, that seems to have solved the problem!

It's still acting a little strange though - both UDP and ICMP are showing as blocked when checked and the graph isn't displaying any work, but when I check my stats I see that node is apparantly getting credit anyway.

Bloody_Sorcerer
02-08-2006, 07:23 PM
yeah, ignore the graph and the program lies to you half the time. if its making stats, don't ask questions in my book :)

WesM63
02-10-2006, 07:59 AM
Sweet guide Bloody Sorcerer!! Worked great.

Now for the Million dollar question. Can i use the "Clone" command in VMware to create multiple instances of DSL or does this only work with windows?

gpcola
02-10-2006, 09:34 AM
Yeah I cloned my VMs Wes. I had a few problems to begin with though...

I started off by installing everything; DSL, Java and Dimes, then cloned the VM and expected that I would be able to change the agent name once I'd brought the clone online. It didn't seem to work for me that way though - I'm not sure if you can just change the agent name on the fly in Dimes and expect it to work or not :confused: Maybe I just screwed up that install, but in the end I started again, this time installing only DSL and Java and just downloading and extracting Dimes without actually installing it. It meant having to install Dimes for each clone but at least it worked ;)

WesM63
02-10-2006, 12:55 PM
I'll give it a shot on my other machine. I borked something on this one. I'm using a program called "trayit" to minimize vmware to the tray and my dimes vm was locked up. Rebooted and tried running dimes and now it says no Java. I'll mess with it more tomorrow.

Bloody_Sorcerer
02-10-2006, 01:35 PM
Yeah I cloned my VMs Wes. I had a few problems to begin with though...

I started off by installing everything; DSL, Java and Dimes, then cloned the VM and expected that I would be able to change the agent name once I'd brought the clone online. It didn't seem to work for me that way though - I'm not sure if you can just change the agent name on the fly in Dimes and expect it to work or not :confused: Maybe I just screwed up that install, but in the end I started again, this time installing only DSL and Java and just downloading and extracting Dimes without actually installing it. It meant having to install Dimes for each clone but at least it worked ;)
you could download, but not extract/install DIMES before cloning. I've found that once you set the agent name in linux, it sticks forever, hence the reason that the zipped up image floating around somewheres doesn't have DIMES fully installed.

[XC] moddolicous
02-10-2006, 02:38 PM
I'll give it a shot on my other machine. I borked something on this one. I'm using a program called "trayit" to minimize vmware to the tray and my dimes vm was locked up. Rebooted and tried running dimes and now it says no Java. I'll mess with it more tomorrow.
Got a link to this "trayit" program??

WesM63
02-10-2006, 05:55 PM
Got a link to this "trayit" program??


http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm

[XC] moddolicous
02-10-2006, 06:12 PM
Thank you Mr. Wes. Now, to hide a DSL install on my dad's computer.

WesM63
02-11-2006, 04:00 PM
Moddo,
LMK how that goes. I got 4DSL clients going on my other computer at work. I checked the other computer that I was using trayit on and it was locked up again. I'll fix it monday and see if tray it was causing it to lockup.. if it was thats gonna suck.

[XC] moddolicous
02-11-2006, 04:31 PM
Well, it seems to be working fine. I have to wait to see if it updates and sends results. Keep an eye on Linux w/ ext3 (under my account).

Rinsewand
03-17-2006, 08:42 AM
hey, so far ive followed this and got everythign running, including starting dimes, however after ive 'started' dimes - nothign happens. no windows appear/error messages etc. if i then try to start it again, it comes up with the DIMES style window and the message that another instance of dimes is already running. any ideas?

my linux knowledge extends to well, this guide, so be gentle!

cheers!

RwD

gpcola
03-17-2006, 01:34 PM
Sounds like it's minimised to me. Try clicking on 'Workspace 1>icons>DIMES agent 0.4.3b' in the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop ;)

Rinsewand
03-20-2006, 02:25 AM
cheers mate! sorted and running!

RwD

SaFrOuT
07-28-2007, 06:38 AM
sorry for bumping an old thread, but why would i need to follow this guide ?

[XC]melymel
07-28-2007, 07:17 AM
sorry for bumping an old thread, but why would i need to follow this guide ?

because some of us have no idea how to use linux let alone dsl :p: .

SaFrOuT
07-28-2007, 07:26 AM
sorry i meant why will i need to use vmware for this project, but i got the answer in another thread, which is to run multipile clients to increase the output of the machine