Ok, so I've finally gotten around to playing with preinit and various posts, and decided to hone my shell scripting in the process. Attached is a script that will format /dev/hda2 and set up a mount entry (/programs0) for it. It will also create 'rwp' and 'rop' entries for manipulating it in a similar way to rw and ro. If you have a second drive then it will also create /programs1 on /dev/hdc1. The script also goes on and populates /etc/preinit.d with a few shell scripts for starting apps, although I'm sure there's a few more that will need to be added.

Note: You will still need to install the preinit binary and the apps themselves. I have defaulted telnetd to live in /bin, but everything else under /programs0, but you can modify these to suit your needs.

#!/bin/sh





#This script sets stuff up for preinit and 3rd party apps.


#It formats and  sets up /dev/hda2 (and /dev/hdc2 if present) for use, and is


#reasonably intelligent - if it can mount a partition then it wont reformat it 


#It also provides a couple of utilities for mounting the partitions.


#It then creates /etc/preinit.d and populates it with some useful start scripts - again, if /etc/preinit.d


#already exists, then it will skip this stage.





#CMA Warning: Do not leave this script with executable permissions on your home linux boxes. chmod it to 600.





# copyright: Ian Danby. 2002.


# GPL Version 2 or later. See www.fsf.org for legalese.





#Put root into rw mode. 


rw || exit





#Create mountpoints


mkdir /programs0


mkdir /programs1


chmod 755 /programs0


chmod 755 /programs1





#Format partitions. We'll try mounting the partitions first.


#If we can grep them in /proc/mounts then we alread have a valid fs and should skip.





mount -n -r -t ext2 /dev/hda2 /programs0


[ -e /proc/ide/hdb ] && mount -n -r -t ext2 /dev/hdc2 /programs1





grep /dev/hda2 /proc/mounts > /tmpfile


if [ -s /tmpfile ]; then


	echo "/dev/hda2 already formatted. Skipping."


else 


	mke2fs /dev/hda2


fi


rm /tmpfile





if [ -e /proc/ide/hdb ]; then


	grep /dev/hdc2 /proc/mounts > /tmpfile


	if [ -s /tmpfile ]; then


		echo "/dev/hdc2 already formatted. Skipping."


	else


		mke2fs /dev/hdc2


	fi


	rm /tmpfile


fi





#Modify /etc/fstab





grep /dev/hda2 /etc/fstab > /tmpfile


if [ -s /tmpfile ]; then


	echo "/etc/fstab already contains an entry for /dev/hda2. Skipping."


else


	echo "/dev/hda2       /programs0      ext2          defaults,ro    1      1" >> /etc/fstab


	echo "Entry for /dev/hda2 appended to /etc/fstab"


fi


rm /tmpfile





if [ -e /proc/ide/hdb ]; then


	grep /dev/hdc2 /etc/fstab > /tmpfile


	if [ -s /tmpfile ]; then


		echo "/etc/fstab already contains an entry for /dev/hdc2. Skipping."


	else


		echo "/dev/hdc2       /programs1      ext2          defaults,ro    1      1" >> /etc/fstab


		echo "Entry for /dev/hdc2 appended to /etc/fstab"


	fi


	rm /tmpfile


fi








#Create a couple of useful 'binaries', /bin/rwp and /bin/rop. Guess what they do.


cat <<-END > /bin/rwp


	#!/bin/sh


	mount -n -o remount,rw /programs0


	[ -e /proc/ide/hdb ] && mount -n -o remount,rw /programs1


END


chmod 755 /bin/rwp





cat <<-END > /bin/rop


	#!/bin/sh


	mount -n -o remount,ro /programs0


	[ -e /proc/ide/hdb ] && mount -n -o remount,ro /programs1


END


chmod 755 /bin/rop











#Create /etc/preinit.d and populate it. Skip and exit if it already exists.


if [ -e /etc/preinit.d ]; then


	echo "/etc/preinit.d already exists!. Skipping."


	ro


	exit


else 


	mkdir /etc/preinit.d


fi





#It shouldn't matter if we try to preinit stuff that doesn't exist. The shell deals with missing binaries 


####





#telnetd.  Best put in the /bin partition so that we can access it immediately. Lets do this first just in case.


#Note that the 'N' prefix tells preinit to do this before config.ini is read (ie drives aren't mounted yet)


cat <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/N10telnetd


	#!/bin/bash


	/bin/telnetd


END


chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/N10telnetd





#mount the new drives. Also done before config.ini is read.


cat  <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/N20mount


	#!/bin/bash


	mount -n /programs0


	[ /proc/ide/hdb ] && mount -n /programs1


END


chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/N20mount








#Everything else that follows should probably live in the new parition(s), so need the 'M' prefix.


#For now, let's stuff everything in /programs0...Edit to suit 


#Let me know what I've missed.


####





#empacman. The reason I finally got around to doing this...Great stuff.


cat <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/M10empacman


	#!/bin/bash


	/programs0/empacman


END


chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/M10empacman








#emptris


cat <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/M20emptris


	#!/bin/bash


	/programs0/emptris


END


chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/M20emptris





#emptriv. Note that this is a subdir.


cat <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/M30emptriv


	#!/bin/bash


	/programs0/emptriv/emptriv


END


chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/M30emptriv





#empan. AFAIK, there is is command line only at the moment, hence the commenting out.


#Maybe some nice soul will hijackify it, and give a means of menu-selecting a file from a named directory 


#cat <<-END > /etc/preinit.d/M40empan


#	#!/bin/bash


#	/programs0/empan


#END


#chmod 755 /etc/preinit.d/M40empan








#Lets be paranoid before exiting.


ro


rop





exit

This version has the mke2fs commands run with "-N 50000" so that there are enough inodes for emptriv

Ok, so how to use this - you obviously need hijack installed before you start.

Assuming that you don't have telnetd set up yet, you'll need a serial connection.

Download empeg-preinit.v3.tar.gz, emptelnetd.tar etc from riocar.org and save somewhere convenient. Download the second attachment above and save to the same place as mkprgpt

Get your serial connection, and press "q" to get a shell. Type "rw" to make the root drive writeable. Leave the connection open..

On your PC, ftp mkprgpt and emptelnetd.tar, and empeg-preinit (extract it from the tar first) to the empeg:

ftp empeg
put mkprgpt
put emptelnetd.tar
put empeg-preinit
bye


Back on the serial connection:

mv empeg-preinit /bin/hijack
chmod 755 /bin/hijack

tar xf emptelnetd
chmod 755 devs
mv telnetd /bin
chmod 755 /bin/telnetd
./devs
rm ./devs

chmod 755 mkprgpt
./mkprgpt


mkprgpt should have left all the drives read-only, so you should now be able to safely reboot..
After rebooting, you should be able to telnet into the empeg, and you'll find a new partition at /programs0 ready for your apps. (and also /programs1 if you have 2 drives). To make these new paritions writeable, run "rwp". Remember to run "rop" before rebooting to make them read-only again, although at 32MB, they shouldn't take long to fsck if you forget.

If you put the empacman in /programs0 and chmod it to 755, then after a reboot, it will automagically appear in the hijack menu.
Put the emptriv distribution into a subdir /programs0/emptriv, and that should also appear.


I think it's time for an empeg LSB.

Hrmm.. i cant seem to get emtriv to run, any ideas?. Also, can empgps be ran from here (preferably with the -s- switch on the player so it doesnt get messed up from my gps segnals).

Thanks!,
Greg

Yeah, just found that one myself - I needed to edit the /etc/preinit.d/M30emptriv so that it looked like:

#!/bin/bash
cd /programs0/emptriv
/programs0/emptriv/emptriv


This will start emptriv from it's own directory so that it can find it's font file. I've made the change to my script - attached. If you remove the /etc/preinit.d directory, it'll get recreated correctly when you rerun the script.

I haven't looked at empgps yet. Does it bind to the hijack menu? It it does, then you should be able to. Let me look into it.

Now with empgps support. And yes, it appears to work

AHHHHH.. still cant get it to work... even if i cd to the dir in telnet and try to run it with ./emptriv i get the same error.

by the way... how did you get empgps to run.. you just posted empgps file not the script ; ) (edit: i got it to run.. just want to make sure i did it correctly)
-Greg

Oops. My mistake, I was rushing out to see MIB2... ([censored] hilarious BTW)..

What error are you getting with emptriv? Check the permissions on all the files in emptriv. In fact, just blast them all to 755 to be sure... chmod 755 *

Here's the latest version of my script. This time I promise that it's not empgps!

Thanks.. i got it to work... now the only problem is that emptriv and empgps dont play well together... when i try to use emptriv, empgps popsup in front of it... if i move the knob i can see emptriv popup but then go immediatly to the background. ; /

-Greg

Hrmm.. now that i try empgps it doesnt run very well at all... it start up about a minute after the player and once you run it you cant get back to the player.. and now it doesnt even read my gp... heh.. this is odd.

-Greg

this rocks.. a well spent 2 hours!

but when i invoke emptriv, i see--
hijack: removed menu entry: "empacman".

empacman then disappears from hijack. if i invoke empacman, i see the same message, but the menu does not disappear!

hmmmm...?

-ted

Yeah, some of the apps still don't play nicely together - these are either application or hijack problems - I suspect application problems as it isn't consistent, and should be addressed in a thread specific to the app. The emptriv/empacman menu thing has been noted before, and hopefully should be addressed soon.

The empgps/emptriv thing I haven't heard of before.. Can you mention it in a relevant thread?

Ok i think I figured out why empgps gets all weird... the guy who wrote it said to load the player using the -s- switch... right now you have empgps loaded with the -s- switch..... i think it has to be the player part wich is loaded with it. Is there any way to do this?

-Greg

/me goes scurrying to check this out.

Yep you're right. I'll find a fix.

Cool.. Thanks for all the help.

-Greg

Ahh, not so easy to do - the command line that starts the player is embedded into the /bin/init binary that we don't have the source to. It may be that turning serial off can be achieved through a config.ini parameter - I'll ask you to check that out (and report back!).

If not, the only real solution that I see is to move the player binary to /empeg/bin/player.bin and create a shell script that calls it with the -s- option. But that would have ramifications for things like upgrades and stuff Certainly not something I really want to put on *everyone's* empeg. Let me look at that.

Great stuff!
Boy, you don't follow this BBS for a couple weeks and look what happens!

I got dnetc to work this way, keeping /programs0 always in rw mode so dnetc can store it's files there. Any concerns about doing this?

Also, while I was toying around in the shell, something kept spitting numbers at me that looked like this:
F404a
F404c
F404e
F4050
F4052
F4054
F4056
F4058

what gives?

Armin

Those numbers are the FIDs it's playing. That's what you get when you enable the "notify=1" flag in the config.ini.

Oh, and I thought that should only happen while the player is running...

Armin

I got dnetc to work this way, keeping /programs0 always in rw mode so dnetc can store it's files there. Any concerns about doing this?

No major concerns - the worst you could do is trash that one 32MB partition, but in practice ext2fs and fsck are pretty resilient. Worst case scenario is having to rebuild that one parition - but at least your music paritions would be fine. In the long run I'm hoping that the excellent ext3 work being done can be included into hijack, and this issue disappears.

I've been asking about this for a while as I'm writing my own GPS display, complete with compass and pointer! I'll try and post a piccy.
I've tried the renaming of player and putting a script in it's place, this causes Hijack to have a fit and stop reading it's config file. If someone could help, that would be great.

The way I did that was to make the last N script that preinit executes run the player with the -s- option. Since it won't return, it will never get around to running the real init.

It will return, though, if you exit the player (does this happen when syncing?), so you might want to put it in a loop emulating the stock init, if you care.

Yeah, this is the only solution that I can see at the moment. Just another observation - running the player with the -s- option also means that you wont be able to get to a serial prompt. So either install telnetd (but not if you use your empeg on a public/work network - or remember that you can use ftp to obliterate that preinit script should you ever need to get to the shell prompt.

There is another option - *Don't* put the command in a loop, and ensure that you have quit=1 in your config.ini (can't remember which section - check the FAQ). That way you can use the Quit menu item when it's necessary to get a shell prompt. This will cause the -s-'d incarnation of the player to exit and then the real init will then run, starting the player in stock form, hence making the serial port available for shell access.

I don't really think that losing your empgps-capable player when syncing is really an issue - I'm guessing that you only sync at home, and only use empgps in the car...

Do people want a proper login for the telnet daemon? I never bothered with it since by default the HTTP, FTP and emplode interfaces were wide open. But I guess some people disable those when at work.

- Trevor

I got dnetc to work this way, keeping /programs0 always in rw mode so dnetc can store it's files there

If you want to reduce the risk, run the buffers out of a ramdrive. I did this with no problem back on my Mark 1, so there should be plenty of room for a RAM drive capable of holding a few thousand blocks. I ran a script that copied the buffers back to disk from time to time, remounting the drive each time. Only issue I had whas when it played with the mounts in the middle of an emplode session, but using the 32meg partition should resolve that as well.

Yes!

The ftp has a password mechanism for those who choose to use it, and httpd is fairly limited in the damage it could cause, but telnet is just too powerful to run without a password. Ok, so telnet in general should be banned because of the inherent sniffibility of the protocol, but at least a password would mean that someone would have to sniff or guess it first before wreaking havoc on your empeg - at the moment they just have to be curious enough to try connecting.

I'm trying to cross-compile sshd at the moment. I have no idea how feasible that is...but I'm trying

I was trying to do it, too, but I was too lazy to actually get started. One thing that occurred to me is that utilizing only RSA/DSA keys for authentication would be a good idea.

In reply to:

---

The way I did that was to make the last N script that preinit executes run the player with the -s- option. Since it won't return, it will never get around to running the real init.

It will return, though, if you exit the player (does this happen when syncing?), so you might want to put it in a loop emulating the stock init, if you care.

---

Perhaps preinit should come with a file to run the player (N99player, I guess), rather than having it compiled-in. Then people could easily play with the script, remove it, or override it (using their own N90player that doesn't return, for instance).