[Thinstation-developer] TS2.0 and storage...

[Paolo S. <pao...@xv...>]

Hi Miles,

Troubles with storage... :o(

I'm trying to prepare the prebuilt CD, but I've found that things
reguarding persistent storage have been thought differently from what I
need for CD prebuilt.

I know that this is my fault, as in the last times I've had too little
time to follow developments...

Now, profile_setup do a

    ls -s $STORAGE_PATH/thinstation.$PREFIX /tmp/profile

This isn't nice for prebult-cd, because:
- the floppy can't be write-protected
- the floppy is filled with tens of files the user doesn't expect
- the floppy is accessed a lot of time, often for write-access, probably
leading to a short life-time

What I need is simply something that COPY my single conf file in
/tmp/profile and stop.

I also need more than one path to be checked for a thinstation.conf.user
file... as the file could be in the floppy, in the usbkey or in the
cdrom... so I can for example distribute one simgle ISO that can read
his conf from floppy (useful for testing purposes) or from cdrom (when a
sysadmin want to use the prebuilt ISO in a production environment, it
would probably like to be able to edit the ISO with Nero, and to include
the thinstation.conf.user file directly inside the CD...so the floppy
isn't needed anymore)

So I concluded that the right solution isn't to force "permanent
storage" to work in the way I want, but simply to add a simple,
additional system, that would use some params like:

CONF_SRC0=/mnt/floppy/thinstation.conf.user
CONF_SRC1=/mnt/cdrom/thinstation.conf.user
CONF_SRC2=/mnt/usbdevice/lun0/part0/thinstation.conf.user
CONF_SRC3=/mnt/disc0/part1/thinstation.conf.user

this is how I patched local_storage to get it done:

------------------------------------------------------------------
#! /bin/sh

. $TS_GLOBAL

case "$1" in  
init)
  if ! pkg_initialized $PACKAGE; then
    if [ ! -z "$STORAGE_PATH" ] ; then
	if [ -e $STORAGE_PATH ] ; then
	    if [ ! -e $STORAGE_PATH/thinstation.$PREFIX ] ; then
	      if ! mkdir $STORAGE_PATH/thinstation.$PREFIX ; then
	        echo "Error setting up profile!" >> $CONSOLE
		echo "Make sure the path to your profile directory" >> $CONSOLE
		echo "$STORAGE_PATH/thinstation.$PREFIX folder is writable and
exists." >> $CONSOLE
	        echo "Aborting Bootup and starting shell." >> $CONSOLE
	        ash
	      fi
	    fi
	    ln -s $STORAGE_PATH/thinstation.$PREFIX /tmp/profile
	 fi
    else
        mkdir /tmp/profile
    fi
    
    # --- Start of the patch ------------------------------
    if [ -e "$CONF_SRC0" ] ; then
        cat $CONF_SRC0 >> $TS_USER 2> /dev/null
        echo >> $TS_USER
        cleanup
    fi    
    if [ -e "$CONF_SRC1" ] ; then
        cat $CONF_SRC1 >> $TS_USER 2> /dev/null
        echo >> $TS_USER
        cleanup
    fi    
    if [ -e "$CONF_SRC2" ] ; then
        cat $CONF_SRC2 >> $TS_USER 2> /dev/null
        echo >> $TS_USER
        cleanup
    fi    
    if [ -e "$CONF_SRC3" ] ; then
        cat $CONF_SRC3 >> $TS_USER 2> /dev/null
        echo >> $TS_USER
        cleanup
    fi    
    # --- End of the patch ------------------------------
    
    pkg_set_init_flag $PACKAGE
  fi
  ;;
help)
    echo "Usage: $0 init"
    ;;
*)
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

exit 0
------------------------------------------------------------------

You should also add, in thinstation.conf.buildtime, after the STORAGE
section, another section:


------------------------------------------------------------------

# --- Load configuration from premnent storage
#
# CONF_SRC[0-3]      Pathname where a thinstation conf file is loaded
from

#CONF_SRC0=/mnt/floppy/thinstation.conf.user
#CONF_SRC1=/mnt/cdrom/thinstation.conf.user
#CONF_SRC2=/mnt/disc1/part1/thinstation.profile/thinstation.conf.user
#CONF_SRC3=/mnt/usbdevice/lun0/part1/thinstation.profile/thinstation.conf.user
------------------------------------------------------------------

I've tested it, and it seems to work well.... anyway, if someone doesn't
use it, it won't do any damage (an important thing, when adding a
feature in a nearly-ready-to-be-officially-released version)



...Another problem:

On a PC of mine, the USB-key partition is mounted on this path:
  /mnt/usbdevice/IntelligentStickIntelligentStick.0.part1
This seems a very strange path to me...
A note: this PC already have two IDE HD, mapped as /mnt/disk0 and as
/mnt/disk1

on an eBox, a thinclient that have only a single 64Mb flashdisk, the
usb-key is mounted on a more reasonable path:
  /mnt/disc1/part1
BTW, a different path from the /mnt/usbdevice/lunX/partX I expected...

I've attached the configuration file I'm using

Let me know, and bye!

Paolo