i dont really consider this remixing DSL, not yet at least, but ultimitely i want a clean looking build of DSL, so i have been rummaging thru various scripts in its base to tweak and change and clean up its appearence.

i have forever been bothered with the fact that DSL leaves the installation options (native, loopback, etc) in the click menu even after you install the system to your hard drive. i found out which script is respnsible for this, and tested it by removing the options from it which cause the install options to be listed under the "tools" menu.

the script to control the click menu: .jwmrc

open the script and you will see all the code that makes up the click menu. simply remove the options you A= never use, or B= are generally tired of looking at.

this can make it easier to navigate your click menu.

what i want to tackle next is find the script which displays the window managers installed so it can be tweaked to offer KDE, Gnome, ICE, etc.

also coming along quite nicely is JWM themes. want to change the color scheme of your JWM? run setTheme.lua in terminal and go from there.

some of this may or may not be common sense, but as someone who takes DSL seriously, and uses it every day, i think this is good stuff for anyone who wants to improve their overall DSL experience.

script to change WM: switcher.lua

work continues...

Interesting project!

Hey, I wanted to ask you something since you seem to know your way around linux. I just bought a HD TV the other day and now when I try to run DSL linux my TV just says, "Input Invalid". Do you know how to fix that? or if there is a fix? I tried to search the forums for this topic but the search doesn't work for me, it just goes to a error page.

hmm, thats an interesting error.

for whatever reason your TV is not picking up your video signal, is what it sounds like. are you using the stock RCA video output into the proper RCA video input on your TV? does the xbox function at all for dashboard or games work on this new tv?

lets start there and see what we can figure out.

thanks for the support on the remixing, btw!

Glad you have took the time to figure these things out. This is useful stuff to know to update the look of dsl to customize it with a modern feel. I have not thought about this approach but the idea is on spot. If a new build gets released then this will really come in handy to customize dsl into a brand new xbox specific distro.

pulsemasta did dsl work on your old tv?

Does it still work on your old tv?

Were you implying that the xbox itself plays on the new tv but when you load up dsl the tv freaks?


Is this already a native or loopback install?

If it is a loopback or native install when you load linux from a cd does it boot?

If so it is where your desktop is already set for your old tv and your new tv can't match the resolutions. Fix by making a new build for your new tv's resolutions.

Thanks to both of you for the reply!

The Xbox plays games/emulators, video, music, exc all fine. But when I load Linux up it goes to the linux boot screen, where you pick CD Rom or Load From HD. It is on the HD so that is the only option it lets me have. It starts to boot, but then when linux should boot it just says "invalid signal" on my TV.

I am not using the standard RCA cables. I use component cables, that's the only main difference between my old set up and new one.

It did work fine on my old TV.

and the build of it im using is from the DSL source forge page. I didn't change anything.

Also "Mugen" no longer works.... I'm guessing because it is at heart a linux distro.

Then a new build will fix your problem. You can run in 480p or 720p since you are using hd cables. You can still keep your old build for when you use the xbox on the other tv. You can just rename the old builds file system name and make your cfg file reflect the changes. This way you will be presented with a grub like boot menu you find on normal pc dual boot setups allowing you to choose which kernel you want to launch. This is easy if your old file system exist on a different partition than the one the new build is on. If this is the case no renaming is necessary. You would just need to alter the cfg file at best if cromwell didn't notice the older file system.

You might also be able to load from a live cd and make the changes on your system with it. I however am not sure what changes would have to be made not to mention how many more changes it would require because of different packages and configurations you have made to the system since base install that could have an impact on the end result.

I would reinstall or make a 2nd build before tracking down those configuration issues if it were me with the problem.

You could also look at the cfg file and look for something like "800x600" or whatever it is already set to and change it to "480p" or "720p" and see if that will get around the problem. I dont know whether it will work or not it is worth a try though. Just remember or copy the old settings so you can change it back if it doesn't work.

Sorry, I don't really know what you mean when you say a new build will solve the problem. Could you elaborate on that? I'm new to all this Linux stuff

I tried to change the cfg file and it did go a bit further, to the linux start up but then crashed :-( No input errors on the TV though! at least I am progress

UPDATE. It says it can't find file system and it is dropping me to a very limited shell, press restart to quit..
any ideas?

reinstall it, then before you start it up add 480p/720p to the cfg file

That's what I tried, it didn't work.

I get this error

not an expert on the matter in hand but i would say your linuxboot.cfg is wrong (i.e its pointing to the wrong place for the filesystem)

can you post the cfg file.

This is my config file,



that is in the E: partition, that is also where the KNOPPIX file is located. Here are the contents of my Linux folder,

KNOPPIX>



KNOPPIX>KNOPPIX



any obvious errors??

linux42 and minirt24 belong in the KNOPPIX folder

E:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX
E:\KNOPPIX\linux24
E:\KNOPPIX\minirt24.gz

That is where they are

the main folder is "KNOPPIX"
then inside of KNOPPIX are 3 files
linux24
minirt24
and another KNOPPIX folder with a KNOPPIX file inside

take the knoppix file out of the folder so its KNOPPIX\KNOPPiX

ohhhhhh, that did it, its all working now! Thanks for the help!

right. being a fan of DSL since i started using it, it bummed me out, personally that the DSL project is for all intents and purposes dead in the water. its such a good version of linux to work with, all reviews of it as used on computers have always gave it high marks, and for the xbox its great. it allows us to do almost anything we could on a standard basic computer.

emelfm is a fine management option, but ultimitely id like to see it with a built in file manager which would appeal to newbs a little more. the stock theme is nice enough on first boot, but after a while it becomes stale. i have been compiling a list of things i would like to see updated or changed/gotten rid of entirely in the xDSL release, and have been working at figuring out where these things lay in the system so they can be tweaked removed as necessary.

first thing i want to tackle is the look. JWM is a great window manager which offers a few color schemes for it. i think that if most people have a more easy on the eyes color schme for JWM by default, they will feel more comfortable trying to learn how to use it all. right now, JWM by default looks like a cold steel wall. i dont like fluxbox, so personally i wont be working on tweaking it, but JWM is fast, its slick looking, it works. its lightweight for users who do not have the 128Mb RAM upgrade.

i would like to have a more attractive look to JWM, and have built in the option to switch to KDE or GNOME on the SWITCHER menu. while KDE & GNOME are not built in by default, eventually i would like to have DSL shipped with the improved sarge repos built in, where KDE/GNOME can be downloaded for the user.

i broke the system trying to run ICEWm the other day, so i have to work on that, still. it was something in the way i defined it to start, so i didnt really break it, but i wasnt able to open the text file from the prompt to remove or annotate what i added. i have to go back and re-read how to define startx properties to get it to start normally. once i get that, i want to ultimately edit the switcher menu so that ICEWM will be an optional WM so users will have that option.

i figure starting there is easier than setting up the whole system ready for KDE/GNOME and having it break during testing. and really, KDE or GNOME can be omitted entirly if there are other attractive and acceptable WM's available that other users would like (which there )

so, its a long project to work on, but personally ill be tackling this much over here. i think as well, that having an updated GUI will help development on some of the bugs that exist in the system, either by fixing them, or figuring work arounds for them entirely.

So have you gotten any of your goals done as of now? or are you just thinking of things that you want to address?

One thing I wish is that when you boot off the HD, I wish that DSL would just start without making you pick HD... and if you boot of CD, same thing.

well, in terms of getting any of my goals done, yes and no. its going to be a lot of work, and as it progresses it will branch out further. keep in mind that as of yet, the idea is to simply change the appearence of xDSL. actual linux changes like the kernal and bug fixing will come later as i progress.

as for your complaint about the boot structure - you should realize that if you simply wait, DSL will default to boot from your HD. this is the basic bootloader much like what GRUB presents when you boot a linux distro on a computer. there may be a method to shorten your time needed to wait before it defaults, but i havent had a big problem with it myself. if anything it always gives me time to make sure my controller is plugged in, as i also have a pelican that gets a lot more use than my s-controller.

also, it will not ask if you want to boot from CD if you do not boot the xbox with a linux cd in the drive, the only options you will have are FATx, etherboot or advanced options.

once things get going, eventually i would like a collaborative effort to bring xDSL up to age, here. it was a great port of the DSL enviornment, but it really was just that - a port of the OS. it was never really tweaked for full xbox use. there are a lot of things that can be changed in the ISO alone to make it so that the casual newbie will be able to load it from a liveCD and be more at ease with its appearence and functionality. basically, with a few simple tweaks, an ISO can be released which will make it more user friendly, because as it stands currently, the DSL os is not very user friendly.

it will be easy enough to "build in" full mounting of the available partitions on the xbox drive, something alll newbs have problems with because they dont want to mess with fstab, we can also build-in cleaner, brighter and more modern schemes, possibly build in at least ICEwm alongside the other 2 windows managers, we can lose most options that dont get used in the click menu, we can remove most of the desktop icons that dont get used on the default desktop options - theres a lot of work that is simple enough to do to allow DSL to be a more accessible operating system on the xbox.

also, building in a more accurate or smaller screen setting will help many 1.6 users. i think that underscanning as opposed to the defaulted overscanning, with the proper documentation and images alongside of it will help users tweak their screen settings for optimal use.

as it stands, the current documentation is OK, but it leaves alot to be desired in terms of newb speek. a simple script could even be compiled to do it or the newb. newb simply enters x, y, a and b corordinates, the script does the rest.

well that's cool. When you get anything together let us all know! I'm anxious to see what you come up with.