DSL and DIMES for VMWare Player: a how-to
(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. 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.
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!
