New Forum

This forum is for the disccusion of DamnSmallLinux. Have fun.

--jeremy

Welcome aboard DamnSmallLinux!

So what is DamnSmallLinux and what does it do? Eplain a little about it. Or what is it website?

It's damn small....

Ummm.... that's all I know. :P

www.damnsmalllinux.org

Linux distro that fits in 50 MB so that you can throw it onto one of the mini CDs.
Nifty, huh?

slight

Cool idea!

I had fun playing with it!

Basically, Damn Small Linux (DSL for short) is a quest to squeeze as much usable desktop oriented GNU/Linux into a bootable 50MB CD as possible. It is based on Knoppix, but is very much a hack job.

This is some of what it has:
XMMS (MP3, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, links-hacked web browser, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (Ted-GTK), five editors (SciTe, nVi, Zile [emacs clone], and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf, emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox window manager, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, and wireless support.

If I can find some business card CD blanks I would VERY much like to have a copy of DSL to keep in my wallett. I mean, how cool would that be.

DSL - the pocket distro.

slight

You can keep your bootable mini cd for your wallet.

at 50mb in size, I'd say 256mb USB storage keychain is where its at if the computer has the option to boot from usb storage.

thats my twobits. DSL sounds pretty sweet. I heard that Mandrake just created a product called MandrakeMove which is similar, and thus gave me the idea for the USB key.

I'll second wh33t's comments. I don't know anybody who uses a 50 Mg CD, but my GF bought me a 256 USB stick for Christmas and that thing is bitchin cool. If you buy one, and can have a Linux distro you can fire up OFF YOUR KEYCHAIN, dude, that rocks even harder than booting off a lame pseudo credit card. Maybe DSL should concentrate on 2 things: absolute bare minimum under 50 Mg, and maximum utility within the boundaries of a 256 USB stick. Suggestions: option #1 becomes "FSL" and option #2 stays as "DSL". -- J.W.

I like the idea of booting from USB drive, but some BIOS are too old for that, but its still a cool option because then you could boot your customised setup due to the USB drive having r/w memory.

I've got DSL running on a Compaq Armada PIII-600~Mhz, 320Mb RAM, from the CD sand it rocks (v.quick), playing MP3's with XMMs from the mounted HD, and I was copying files from the USB drive which it loaded with no issues.

Links and Dillo are nice browsers, but don't support enough stuff, for a test I downloaded Mozilla Firebird 0.7, installed it in the ram disk and it’s really, really fast

Well done to DSL_John and his Comrades at DSL. Good luck with this project - you've got an excellent base to work from I look forward to the upcoming versions.

Seasons Greetings to all.

LG

Hi all,
I was going to post about getting my CD-R working in Debian as my debut post to LinuxQuestions. However, I came across DSL & have just looked at the website & I think it is a *very* cool idea. I've been eyeing up my partner's old MS-DOS machine in the cupboard for a while, maybe it might live again with DSL on it...

Best wishes,
Gavin.

I don't get it.
Kill me but I don't!

What's the point?
Lets say that you got it on one of them USB thingys, and walk around it like a big shot.

That's ok, but how much are you really going to use it?

I mean, how much times do you install linux really?

I have one computer, so I don't see the point.
But even if I had a hundred, I still wouldn't see the point, I'd install a full distro on them or use knoppix.

The only thing that I can imagine this to be good for is to show off linux to people.

It is after all kewl that you can walk around with a distro.

Just my .02 cents...

Eugene, the point is being able to use linux _without_having_ to install it! I keep a tomsrtbt floppy with me whenever I look at (read: work on...) someone's computer -- it's nice to have a familiar working environment with me whenever, say, grandpa messes his computer up and I have to fix it . I don't think I have a need for the vast amount of packages on a KNOPPIX CD, so DSL seems like a good choice for me if I want to upgrade my "rescue" disk. Plus it _does_ look cool to have a credit-card disk OS...

As for storage media, a 64MB USB drive isn't as expensive as it used to be. True, most older PC's won't be able to boot from the USB device... I wonder if loadlin would be able to do the trick on a windows box?

Actually, other than the 'cool' factor there are many valid reason's for having DSL sitting in my wallett. Maybe I'm want to show a friend what Linux looks like so that he can decide if he would want to try it. Maybe I need to work fix a busted Windows install that won't boot. Maybe I just want to test out an old system to see if a piece of hardware works. There are many, many reasons.

slight

Well a big reason for this distro is somethign that goes hand-in-hand with its size. Simplicity. I mean if something goes wrong... there is a lot less things that can cause it. I mean... look at those DOS freaks... yeah I know... They just can't grab new technology, but I mean there is something to say for that... Like these guys said... if you are fixing someone else's rig and you don't want to worry about incompatabilities with the 8000 processess they have running and the 93 peices of software/spyware they installed in the last 42 minutes. You have your nice little disk that will ALWAYS run unless there is somethign wrong with the hardware.