Plugscript:a new and easy modular config. system f.KNOPPIX

[holzhey]

I recently putted my newest version of Plugscript- my modular extension system
for KNOPPIX on the website:

rcswww.tu-dresden.de/~holzhey/plugscript/

(For Details about the installation see end of this document.)

It's free software under the terms of GPL.

It seems to be a really easy and fast way to tweak the KNOPPIX CD-ROM: no
uncompression of the loop device is required and no deeper knowledge too.

It is intended, to give an easy way to tweak KNOPPIX even to real beginners, and to
make tweaks modular, reusable, portable and easily downloadable (~200kB).


Main Concept:
=============================


1. knoppix.sh
-------------
I wrote a knoppix.sh script, which is for initialisation. It will be launched by KNOPPIX at boot time,
if it is on CDROM, and also if it is on floppy and you entered 'knoppix floppyconfig' at
the bootprompt.
It checks whether it is on the floppy or on CR-ROM, starts logging, looks for the
plugscript script (see below) and the first tree of configuration files and executes
them.

2. modules
--------------------
Modules here are simple ordinary shell scripts. Usually all modules in a given directory will be
executed by plugscript (see below).
There are many modules for different tasks. And you can create own modules, this is
just simple shell scripting. Furthermore there are 'switch modules' which might switch
on other directories containing modules to be executed. Especially the 'generic switch
modules' provide an easy way to create complex and general configurations which fit
for a huge amount of computers and sitouations - and all this without further
programming or editing configuration files.


3. plugscript
-------------------
plugscript is a general module handler. Give it a directory (ore more) and it will execute
the scripts inside (via the shells 'source' command). But it can more: You may nest configuration
directories without limit, and you are not sticked to script directories, you take archives, even
directly from an http server. Plugscript provides a constant interface for these modules, so
they can work in the same way if you put them to a floppy, a cdrom, an archive or a web server.
It cares for infinite loops and protects required variables from being overwritten accidentally.


Just create directories, drop the modules inside and:

Have fun.




Why a modular configuration system?
------------------------------------
You may extend knoppix easily by writing a knoppix.sh script.
- This might be useful, if you want automatically login into a network at boot time.
- It is also good for activating some hardware, which is not handled by the original
knoppix properly.
- It also may be used for saving and restoring the ramdisk data to a permanent place as a
harddisk.

What, if you want todo all these things together?
OK, you may write a big knoppix.sh shell script with all these features included.

What, if you cannot write shell scripts, or at least 'big' shellscripts?
Then, take the plugscript configuration system!

It works with these modules. Every task is a module (a small shell script in a module
folder).
You can put as much modules into such a directory as you want. Suddenly it is active, no
configuration files must be edited.

And you can use multiple module folders, which might be switched conditionally or
unconditionally on or off by 'switch modules' .
You even can access modules anywhere in the web directly.

Now, different people can develop modules for tasks they know best. And people with fewer
knowledge about that can use modules, which they heard about 'to be good for this task',
maybe they just can download it.

Furthermore, if you stick to modules, configurations might be created and even checked
automatically, e.g. from frontends. (This is not possible, if you just have a single
knoppix.sh script: you cannot find out its contents without executing it in all possible
cases)





What's inside?
====================================
The plugscript system comes now with different editions. All contain the same modules but
are preconfigured in a different way. So you can use most of them immediately.

The package contains the configuration system itself as well as an easy to use wizard to
put this system to your CD-ROM (or to floppy.)


Feature list of the configuration System
====================================
- MODULES FOR AUTOMATIC save and restore of ramdisk data
- support for ataraid controllers
- different networking modules
- logging
- modules, which make difficult hardware- and network- depending configurations
very easy. Thus a large amount of different systems might be configured with a single
configuration. You just have to create new folders to make the configuration fit to
your system
- Multiboot solutions (booting in dependance of the bootprompt) may be created without
programming.
- Space safe (handles filenames containing strange characters correctly. Exception: newline character.)
- Unlimited nesting of modules and module directories
- Protection from infinite loops.

Feature List CD creation wizard
----------------------------------
- Easy to use wizard interface.
- On the fly-writing but also iso-file creation and iso-file based recording.
- Runs under X but also on a ascii terminal
- mounts downloaded imagefiles automatically (for use as source)
- finds the KNOPPIX related directories
- Assists while selecting a boot image.
- Supports multiple boot images.
- Supports compression of the configuration system.
- Assists while mounting a filesystem for the iso file.
- Space safe (handles filenames containing strange characters correctly. Exception: newline character.)
- Might be extended by Modules (all KNOPPIX and plugscript specific parts are stored
in separate module files.)


How to start. (First steps
----------------------------------
(see also 'first_steps.html' in the 'help'-section of the plugscript homepage. )


- Download the plugscript configuration system - either classic edition or
the edition which uses knoppix_persistent_home - (both contain currently the same modules
but at different places, the unused modules might be found in the 'unused'-subfolder.
- If you want, move the modules in the folders or write own modules.
- run mkfloppy or mmkcdrom to put the tree on a floppy or on a CD-ROM. When using mmkcdrom:
Just accept the defaults. In most cases, they are correct and should bring you easily to
your first plugscript enhanced knoppix cdrom.

(Again: See the file 'first-steps.html' in the doc folder.)

[probono]

The correct URL is:
http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~holzhey/plugscript/
Sounds really phantastic, I'll give it a try soon!

[probono]

What I dreamed of: take the Knoppix CD. Create your own /home and /etc directories and -subdirectories and burn them on the CD. Have a script that "overlays" them over the standard Knoppix filesystem. Can plugscript do that?

[holzhey]

What I dreamed of: take the Knoppix CD. Create your own /home and /etc directories and -subdirectories and burn them on the CD. Have a script that "overlays" them over the standard Knoppix filesystem. Can plugscript do that?

This should not be a big problem, as long as everything fits on the CD-ROM.
The modules ' currently handle loading and saving the ramdisk to a harddisk and 'autosave_restore_etc' does the same with /etc.
If you put these tar-archives on the CD-ROM, together with plugscript and a modified '...loadramdisk' - module (in the module a variable points to the archive, it must now point to a file on CD-ROM.)
It should not be a problem to write a module for mmkcdrom (the cdrom-wizard) which automatically places the correct modules and archives on the CDROM. Until that, you also may use 'saveconfig' on your KNOPPIX CDROM and copy the created files from floppy to the /KNOPPIX directory on the CDROM.

If you already have a script, it may be used possibly as a module for plugscript. You can send it to me, if you want me to have a look on it.


Andre'