|
This article is a brief introduction to Damn Small Linux (DSL)
Current Version: 3.2 Introduction Damn Small Linux (DSL) is my favorite Linux LiveCD. DSL is based on Knoppix2.78, another popular Linux Live CD, which is based on Debian. DSL uses the fluxbox for its desktop GUI. DSL was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews, but has grown into a large community project with many contributors, most notably Robert Shingledecker for the creation of the MyDSL system, DSL Control Panel, and much more. DSL can run on a 486 with 16mb of ram. Some of the things I found impresive - DSL will find and use swap space on your hdd.
- Will boot from a USB drive.
- You can remaster a cd with mydsl extentions
- Runs on a 233
- Only 50mb
Where to Start I started my DSL adventure by downloading the .torrent file of version 1.4 using azureus. The .iso file was 48.4Mb in size and took about 8 minutes to download. I burnt the iso to a 180mb mini cd which took about 25 seconds. From research I have conducted through IRC I found DSL would run on even an old Pentium 233. Luckly I had an old 233 that I was using as a night stand, which I installed DSL on. Once you have the .iso burnt you can place the cd in the cdrom drive and boot from cd. The first screen you get is a boot screen you can press F2 or F3 for options, or just hit enter. I wanted a specific resolution and colour depth so I entered 'dsl xsetup' in the prompt. Next you are asked if you want to see the available video modes, skip this step by pressing the space bar. After DSL scans for your computer's hardware it loads the fluxbox GUI and you are ready to go. The first thing you will notice is the Dillo web browser with the "Getting Started with DSL Version 1.4" file displayed. This is a great source of information when using DSL. To install to the harddrive you need a partition of atleast 200mb. Partition your drives in DSL: Use the command 'sudo cfdisk /dev/hda' and follow the instructions. Once you have your partitions setup the way you want them you are ready to install. Some things I couldn't get working DSL couldn't find my usb or pcmcia drives on my laptop. Installing DSL to Harddrive Create your partitions using cfdisk. sudo cfdisk Choose: Apps > Tools > Install to Hard Drive. This will bring up a prompt asking which partition DSL should be installed. I wanted to install to hda2. After three easy questions DSL starts to install onto the hard drive. After DSL has completed the install it will ask if it should install lilo. Then it will ask if you want to reboot. First HDD Boot DSL will request a root password. Then a password for the dsl user. Now you can Log in. Installing Additional software On the desktop you will see a "MyDSL" icon. This is the Download Extension Panel, it's organized into 9 catagories. For this tutorial I will install the Gimp. I clicked on apps, then gimp-1.2.dsl.info. A window popped up with further information about the gimp, and I choose to download to the /tmp directory. A little more detail .dsl files: are really .tgz files. If you are remastering you can extract these files and move then into the correct directories yourself. This allows you to set your own config files the way you want them. .uci files: Firefox 1.5 Download from the firefox site http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ Unpack it, you can use emelfm, just go to where you downloaded it and click on it to highlight than right click >actions> unpack Now right click the emelfm icon and launch super user. Make your way to /usr/local/ you should see firefox, rename it to firefox.old. Now just copy or move the firefox you unpacked there. Make sure you install the gtk2-0705.dsl with the MyDSL extension browser or the new firefox won't work. Removing Unwanted software One easy command to remove unwanted apps: rm -rf 'whereis app';
Remove Dillo Popup navigate to your home directory and comment out the line in .xintrc If you want to install programs other than the ones avalible through DSL you can read the documentation "Getting Started with DSL Version 1.4" Remastering DSL Damn Small Linux Remaster References: Damn Small Linux Website: http://damnsmalllinux.org/ MyDSL: http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Mkmydsl Links of Interest: Damn Small Linux Download: http://damnsmalllinux.org/download.html Damn Small Linux Torrent: http://www.tlm-project.org/public/distributions/damnsmall/ Damn Small Linux IRC Channel: #damnsmalllinux on irc.freenode.net IBM DSL Notes: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-dsl.html?ca=dgr-lnxwDSLLinux |
