Damn Small Linux for the Topfield- 4 Sept 2007

 

 ***UPDATE May 2008***
DSL 4.x is now supported with the following backup.tar.gz, kindly re-worked by markydoodles
You need to download the updated backup.tar.gz from this link:
http://ozi4ums.homedns.org/downloads/dsl/4.x/backup.tar.gz

This is the last update I will make to this static page – future updates will be available via the links on the main home page.

The new version of this page is under the Downloads section here
************************* 

 

Current Forum Topic:

http://www.topfield-australia.com.au/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=9218&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

Lastest Update

http://www.topfield-australia.com.au/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=10126

 

 

Introduction

This is a collection of information about turning an old PC / notebook into a gateway or access machine to your Topfield. It is designed to work with the DSL Live CD, so can safely be used on a PC with an existing operating system you don’t want to destroy. It offers the same functionality as a slug (hacked NSLU2). There are lots of people to thank for making all this possible. Steve Bennett who developed ftpd-topfield, Peter Urbanec who developed the original concept with puppy, and I believe later worked on improving ftpd-topfield (please correct me if I’m wrong). Sanecyclist for his help on how to compile ftpd-topfield for the Linux 2.4 kernel, Rgyle for doing lots of R&D as well as testing everything and Livy for helping with the solution for packaging it all. Lastly ocdsvr for adding Toppy-Web to the solution.

 

Currently you can boot the DSL Live CD, install the ftpd-topfield package and then access your Topfield via ftp. I believe this will also work on the original Xbox, but you will need to use X-DSL and use this backup.tar.gz instead. The ftpd-topfield binary will work the same on PC or Xbox. The default port for ftpd-topfield is 21, on the x-DSL version is it 2021. By using the backup option, you can save your settings so that you don’t have to go through all of this if you need to reboot.

 

Getting Started

You’ll need a PC or notebook that has USB and preferably a network interface. How you connect it up to other PCs is not outlined in this howto (rgyle has expanded on this here), but we’ll assume you have a router connecting you to the internet that issues IP Addresses ie it is a DHCP server.

 

1.     Download the latest DSL Live CD and burn it using your favourite burning application.

2.     Connect your PC / notebook to your network and also to the Toppy via USB.

  1. Configure your PC / notebook to boot from the CD drive. You should see DSL booting up



 

The Nitty Gritty

This part takes us through putting the backup.tar.gz file on either the hard drive or USB stick. The backup.tar.gz file contains all the packages we need to use DSL to access the toppy and manage both, saving you the trouble of building it all yourself (which can take hours…believe me!!!)

 

  1. It’s important to make sure it boots ok, handles all the hardware and will work with your network card. Test it out by opening FireFox and browsing to a well known web page. If all is good, let’s get on with the next step.




  2. What we want to do now is download the backup.tar.gz, place it on your hard drive, then reboot for it to configure everything. This file needs to be placed in the root directory of the hard drive in the PC/notebook.

    If you don’t have either of those, then we can use a     USB stick.

    If the PC/notebook can boot its original OS and you can easily get the backup.tar.gz file on it, do so and reboot the PC with the     DSL CD in it and you’re done, go to step 11. If not, we need to make sure we can see the hard drive or USB stick from DSL and follow the steps below.

    Note:
    http://ozi4ums.homedns.org/downloads/dsl/backup.tar.gz is where the backup is for DSL 3.x.
    http://ozi4ums.homedns.org/downloads/dsl/4.x/backup.tar.gz is where the backup is for DSL 4.x
    http://ozi4ums.homedns.org/downloads/dsl/release1/backup.tar.gz if you want the 3.x version without Toppy-Web.



  3. Open Emelfm by left-clicking on it on the desktop. It should open up with the window shown.




  4. Double left-click on the mnt/ and you should see a list of devices that can be mounted. If you are going to use the hard drive, it will be listed as hda1/ or hda2/ USB sticks show up as something like sda1/
    Right-click on the device and select ‘mount’ from the menu

  5. Now we should be able to download the backup.tar.gz file to the hard drive. Right-click on the desktop, select Xshells-Root Access-Dark (see below)

  6. Type the following:
    cd /mnt/hda1 [enter] (if you mounted the hard drive)

    or

    cd /mnt/sda1 [enter] (if you mounted a usb drive)

  7. You can now type the following to download the backup.tar.gz file
    note: choose the path to suit the version of DSL you're using

    wget     http://ozi4ums.homedns.org/downloads/dsl/backup.tar.gz [enter]

    chmod 777 backup.tar.gz[enter]

  8. Now you need to reboot the PC for the backup.tar.gz file to be read into the system.
    Right-click on the desktop, select Power-Reboot.

    Once it has rebooted, it should be running the following:
    - ftpd-topfield (the whole point of this exercise)
    - SSH Server (for access remotely using putty.exe)
    - VNC Server (so you can still manage it remotely with a GUI)
    - Toppy-Web (so you can use a browser to manage your Toppy)

    This tutorial doesn’t go into how to use VNC Viewer or Putty with an SSH connection and Toppy-Web, as those topics are covered extremely well on-line. If you want to know more about using ftpd-topfield, the Topfield forums are excellent. What I will say is you need to know the IP Address of the     DSL box to use those services.

    Oh…one last thing, passwords to access via ssh:
    root toppy5k
    dsl toppy5k
    I suggest you change them, which can be done in the xshell (step 8) by typing:

    passwd root [enter]
    then enter the password you want (it will prompt you twice and probably complain, but still work)

    passwd dsl [enter]
    then enter the password you want (it will prompt you twice and probably complain, but still work)